7 Strange Methods Sportsmen Used to Win

Athletes at the pinnacle of their careers are not only world-famous, they are fabulously rich. In some sports, the salaries are so high that an athlete's income could feed the population of a multimillion-dollar African country for a month. And those who have reached the pinnacle of sports don't want to fall back to their "poor" colleagues and go to any lengths to continue winning, receiving people's love, and making millions of users create their 22Bet login for betting on them. Sometimes these methods are just bizarre and sometimes illegal. These 7 are used by well-known athletes.

Manny Pacquiao: Stick Punches

Manny Pacquiao is a Filipino professional boxer who has become the only man in the sport to win the title in eight weight classes. How did he achieve such fantastic success?

First, he was using grueling training, and second, even more grueling training with stick kicks. Manny has trainers who simply beat the boxer with sticks and sometimes batons to mimic the punches of his opponents, to prepare his body for them, as well as to increase his concentration.

Indeed, if several people hit you with sticks and you can concentrate on your fighting stance and repulse the attack, you can handle one opponent for sure.

Michael Phelps: High Altitude Camera

Michael Phelps is one of the most famous swimmers, a 23-time Olympic champion and the all-time record holder for the most gold medals and awards combined. He has won 23 gold medals at the Olympics during his career. To keep winning, Michael Phelps slept in an altitude chamber that simulated being at high altitude. This caused his body to produce more red blood cells, increasing his endurance. Given the accomplishments described above, it really does work. What's more, Michael Phelps followed a diet of 10,000 kcal. For comparison, the average man consumes about 3,000 kcal per day.

Rickson Gracie: Head Pulling

Rickson Gracie is a Brazilian MMA fighter. In the 80s and 90s, he was the best fighter of the Gracie clan and one of the strongest in the world. In order to reach his maximum capabilities and to fight effectively in the octagon, Gracie had quite unusual training routines, such as tying a rubber band to a stationary object, and putting the other end over his head and stretching forward.

Jerry Rice: The Pick-catcher

Jerry Rice is considered the best player in league history and has won the Super Bowl three times. American soccer is dangerous enough in its own right, but Jerry Rice wasn't enough. In his own words, it was training to catch bricks that helped him reach such enormous heights. To do this, his brother would throw a brick, broken in half, in Jerry's direction, and Jerry would have to catch both pieces in the air.

Think of the pain of catching a regular soccer ball at high speed, and multiply that by several times. We're afraid to imagine what happened when Jerry didn't catch one of the pieces. Apparently, the motivation of not catching a brick in the face is what made him a top player.

LeBron James: Cryotherapy

LeBron James is a four-time NBA champion and arguably the most valuable player in this basketball league. He also played for Team USA in three Olympic Games, where he won two gold medals and one bronze medal. In addition to his usual workouts, LeBron James practiced a somewhat unusual way of hardening and resting - cryotherapy in a special chamber. This, some doctors claim, accelerates the production of anti-inflammatory proteins that promote rapid body regeneration. And if you look at the achievements of LeBron James in sports, you can't help but think that this unusual method really works.

Chelsea: Unconventional Training

A whole team practices unconventional training. For example, the players of the famous football team practice head kicks while sitting on a Pilates ball, hang from ropes with an incline and lean on a vertical surface with their feet, and do other strange things that you hardly see at other clubs' training sessions. Maybe that's why Chelsea consistently rank high in the English Premier League.

Frank Shamrock: Pilates Ball Wrestling

Frank Shamrock is familiar to MMA fans. The first UFC featherweight champion who was never defeated, recognized as the best fighter, participated in various organizations, where he invariably put on a beautiful show and caused fear even to the hardened MMA veterans, he trained as if the fate of mankind depended on winning.

One unusual exercise was wrestling with a Pilates ball. Just try to pile on it and stay in balance while trying to grab the ball with your hands, and you'll find that it's hard enough. Apparently, so did Frank's opponents, who later regretted in the ring that they agreed to fight the legend.