Rule No. 3: Gain weight (on purpose) You may be thinking, “well
that’ll happen anyway,” but intentionally putting on 8–12 per
cent of your body weight can be a huge performance enhancer,
says nutrition and performance coach Krista Austin, Ph.D., who
has worked with Olympic-level athletes such as Laura Bennett and
Meb Keflezighi. If gaining then losing weight sounds easier said
than done, don’t worry—using a weighted vest can have the same
hypergravity training benefits. “Triathletes like to sit around
at a certain weight and body composition all the time,” Austin
says. “But research shows you can in fact put extra weight on
and get training adaptations. And you can get that adaptation
while not working so hard on your food, which I think
psychologically gives people a break.” Say your racing weight is
65kg. During the winter you get up to 70kg. By training at a
heavier weight you’re teaching your body to recruit more motor
neurons and muscle fibres, kind of like recruiting more people
to work on the assembly