Michael Phelps exercise regime now includes cycling, which he did 30 days in a row
Most decorated Olympian of all time talks about his love of spinning in NBC Sports interview
Having collected 28 Olympic medals in swimming, Michael Phelps has been attracted to a different form of exercise in retirement. The 32-year-old American has started spinning, a lot. In a recent interview with NBC Sports, Phelps talked about his love, or perhaps addiction, to cycling indoors and how it’s a competitive outlet for the retired world-class athlete.
“It’s all I do. I pound it. I went 30 straight days on the bike,” Phelps told NBC proceeding to pull out his phone to check his statistics. “500 miles in 30 days, 1,100 minutes and 28,000 calories. I was just basically at the point I just was like, I’m just going to grind for a month and see what happens.”
After a month of riding, Phelps doesn’t think he is done adding he likes having the competition on the bike. Phelps rides in classes under an alias on a Peloton spin bike. The class rides together digitally and a leaderboard shows where each rider is positioned. While Phelps was at the top of his class in swimming he’s not quite there in cycling. He says he is usually top five or 10 percent of the class.
“The biggest thing for me now being retired, I know how important it is for me to get that energy out, to be the best version of myself,” Phelps says about the roll spinning plays in his life. “So I make sure I have to get a workout in six or seven days a week”
Phelps has leaned down since officially retiring but when asked about the possibility of entering a competition he doesn’t see a bike race in his future.
“I would get my [butt] kicked on the bike. Some of those guys are ridiculous on the road. I wanted to start riding on the road, but I’m not going to get the kind of resistance that I get on my stationary bike,” he said about the effectiveness of the workouts he’s been doing.
“I love what I do, to be able to sit and take 45 minutes to 90 minutes to be able to get a workout in, get a bike in, to stretch, do some abs outside and call it a day, I’m good,” he added about his routine he’s currently using to stay in shape.
