The Ultimate Performance Enhancer: Training

What distinguishes a good athlete from a mediocre athlete? According to New York Times fitness writer and runnner Gina Kolata, good athletes love to train, and mediocre athletes love to do other things more than they love to train. The good news, Kolata says, is if we do train, those of us who will see the greatest improvement are the previously untrained. Serious competitive athletes have already honed their performance close to the max. Of course, Kolata reminds us that “Truly talented athletes can be better without training than many average people can be with training.” Ouch.
What exactly can training do? Kolata tells us that training affects both the ability of the heart to pump blood and the ability of the body to properly use the blood it gets. We can cross-train — do other sports that get your heart rate up — to regulate how your heart pumps, but to improve your muscles’
ability to use that blood, we have to train by doing that sport.
Read more from Gina Kolata.