Gold Medalist's Work Ethic Sabotages His Efforts

This past week I and the Phase IV performance staff were enlisted to assist Scott Jorgensen in preparation for his mixed martial arts competition at UFC 177 in Sacramento, California. After months of adherence to a regimented and scientific training plan and weeks of strict dieting to get down below the 125 pound weight limit, this very popular 32-year-old MMA veteran was denied the chance to compete. His would-be opponent, Olympic gold medalist wrestler, Henry Cejudo, failed to make weight.

How can this happen? Here is an athlete who has practiced cutting weight since middle school wrestling and throughout his international career en route to the 2008 Olympic gold medal. He has had decades of developing the personality traits that make champions: an overzealous work ethic, self-reliance, and self-sacrifice. He is well practiced at denying himself food and water and being self-motivated to train week after week with the single-minded focus of becoming the best in the world - and he has achieved it! How can he fail to make weight? Something has changed, but his attitudes may have not.

 Undoubtedly, Cejudo's body has matured, but his well-rehearsed approach to gaining peak fitness and losing weight has not. As an athlete matures, their training needs change, and their body's reaction to training also shifts. After many years of the repetitive training necessary to reach the top ranks of any sport, a seasoned veteran doesn't need to train as many hours as a young, up-and-coming athlete because he has already honed the hardwire connection between his brain and his body to create expert sport-specific movements. Secondly, the more mature athlete doesn't recover as well from the grueling workouts, so he needs to train less and provide more time to recover between training sessions.

However, Cejudo didn't become an Olympic gold medalist at age 21 by skipping workouts and training less. The difference now at 27 years old is that his body can no longer keep up with all the hard work. He easily becomes over-trained and this elevates levels of a stress hormone called cortisol. Cortisol directs the body to hold on to fat and store more water, and is completely counter-productive to cutting weight and achieving peak performance. Now, instead of peaking his fitness, all of that overzealous training sabotages his weight cut and his performance. And he is very likely to ignore the scientific advice and continue to rely on his cherished self-reliance and overeager drive to train.

The very traits that were once prerequisites for success - an overzealous work ethic and fierce independence - become counterproductive when matured, seasoned athletes fail to take advice to change their approach and stifle their work ethic to reflect the changes in their biology. Instead of working hard all the time as they did before, with no regard for recovery, they need to work hard at recovery. This is a complete paradigm shift and one that doesn't have an audience in this sport of hardened, self-disciplined men and women who got to the top by continuously pushing themselves to the limit day after day. Phase IV's 32-year-old competitor trained reasonably for his age, focused on recovery, and ate three meals a day right up to weigh-ins on Friday. It was all for nothing because his opponent hadn't made the attitude shift he needs for continued success in the elder class of fighters.

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