Champion's Mojo for Masters Swimmers
The award-winning podcast for Masters swimmers, adult athletes, and fitness enthusiasts who strive for peak performance and personal excellence. Hosted by world-record-setting Masters swimmer and Health and Performance Coach Kelly Palace, each episode offers inspiring stories, expert insights, and proven strategies to help you unlock your champion mindset—in the pool and in life. With nearly 300 episodes and a track record as one of the top-ranked swimming podcasts, Champion’s Mojo is your go-to resource for motivation, success, and well-being. Ready to dive in? We’re here to champion you!
Champion's Mojo for Masters Swimmers
Sage Insights from Surgeon and Swimmer Dr. Peter Yu, EP 257
Could a pediatric surgeon's sage advice revolutionize your swimming performance? Join us for a captivating episode of Champion's Mojo, where we sit poolside with Dr. Peter Yu at the US Masters Long Course Nationals in Mission Viejo, CA. As both a skilled surgeon and masters swimmer for Novaquatics Masters (NOVA), Dr. Yu offers a treasure trove of insights into the latest trends he sees in Olympic and master swimming.
Discover the critical role of dry land training, the surprising benefits of engaging in other sports, and how personalized nutrition strategies, including creatine and salt supplementation, has enhanced Pete's performance in the water. Hear firsthand how Dr. Yu draws fascinating parallels between the mental preparation needed in surgery and swimming, providing a balanced approach to training and mental resilience.
Wrapping up the episode, hosts Kelly Palace and Maria Parker give their key takeaways on the profound wisdom shared by Dr. Yu. Don't miss this opportunity to elevate your swimming game and be inspired by leaders in the sport!
We kindly ask you to leave a five-star review on iTunes to help others discover the Champion's Mojo Podcast. Stay connected with us on social media or visit championsmojo.com for more inspiring content and updates.
Email us at HELLO@ChampionsMojo.com. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.
Welcome to the award-winning Champions Mojo hosted by two world record-holding athletes. Be inspired as you listen to conversations with champions and now your hosts, kelly Pallas and Maria Parker.
Speaker 2:Hello friends, Welcome to the Champions Mojo podcast. I am your host, Kelly Pallas, and, as usual, I am with my co-host, Maria Parker. Hey Maria, hey Kelly, it's great to be with you here today. Yes, and Maria, this is a special edition of Champions Mojo from the Pool Deck and we have a great interview for you today. It's brief, it's short, but it's powerful.
Speaker 3:Yeah, interview for you today. It's brief, it's short, but it's powerful. Yeah, I wasn't there, but I was able to listen to the interview and some great takeaways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we hope you'll stick around and catch the takeaways. And here we go. I'm doing an on-deck interview at US Masters Long Course Nationals in Michimiejo and I am with Dr Peter Yu, who is a pediatric surgeon and a very, very serious master swimmer and fitness and just a kind of an overall general wellness expert. Pete, welcome to Champions Mojo.
Speaker 4:Oh, thanks for having me. Kelly Glad to be here.
Speaker 2:So we are friends just from master swimming and champions mojo and a lot of things that we share the love of this passion of the sport of swimming, and we love talking about Olympic swimming and master swimming. So one of the things that you tend to do a lot of research and you study the sport. What do you think right now is going on with swimming in general?
Speaker 4:I mean, that question can be answered so many ways. I just really really enjoyed watching the Olympics this year. I know there's a lot of chatter about how maybe we could have won more golds or not, and the pool depth and all that stuff, but I will say, as a master swimmer, it was just such an exciting nine days of swimming with a lot of great swims. I'm thinking about Bobby Fink, I'm thinking about Pan Zhan Li in his 100 free. I'm thinking about Kate Douglas and her 200 breast. It was an amazing period.
Speaker 2:Yes. So what have you learned? Because I know you personally and you've experimented with a lot of great techniques. We've talked offline about some things that we, as master swimmers, can do to get better. What are some of those things you think we can do?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's a complex question to answer. I think several principles. Number one they interviewed Coach David Marsh a while back and he gets a question a lot about you know what is the thing that it takes to put you over the top, and his response was really good. It was. It's not one thing, it's a combination of nutrition and eating healthy and it's a combination of mindset, and I'm happy to expand on that a little bit.
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's start with dry land, because I know that's something we were just talking about.
Speaker 4:Swimming now, much more than when we were growing up, is about being a good athlete, and so I think it's really important to incorporate lifting, and I think that the lifting has to be appropriate for swimming, which is not just lightweight, not just heavy squats, but something in between, with variations that kind of match your training. I think it's also important to play other sports, because they provide a reflex mobility component that you don't always get in swimming. So for me that's basketball, for other people it might be tennis or golf or pickleball, but I think playing other sports is really important too.
Speaker 2:I love that and I think sometimes, as master swimmers, we get so comfortable in the water that we don't think about another sport. But I love that, so what about?
Speaker 4:nutrition. It just kind of depends on your body type. I don't think there's one prescription for everybody, but I do know that there are formulas for if you're happy with your body weight, if you're trying to lose weight, if you're trying to gain weight in terms of macros and carbs and things. That's a whole other conversation. But I think the nutrition part is really important and it takes trial and error For me. I take two supplements that I think are critical. One is creatine and the other is salt replacement. That has really really helped me. You can buy prepackaged stuff like LMNT, which is very salty. Since I've been taking it, I have less cramps. My body feels better, everything feels better. If the LMNT is too expensive, you can make your own at home for pennies. But I do think that that salt supplementation, since I started it, has been game-changing.
Speaker 2:I love that. So one thing I want to touch on it's my own thought that you being a pediatric surgeon carries a lot of mental preparation and a lot of stress, a lot of mental toughness to stand and do hours of surgery and to know the importance of what you're doing. How do you match that up with swimming mental performance, or is there a match?
Speaker 4:There very much is a match.
Speaker 4:I mean, I think, first of all, no matter what you do, work generally provides stress, and that's just a part of being a master swimmer, and you just have to understand that there's going to be seasons where work is more stressful and seasons where it's less, and seasons where your swimming is on fire and seasons where it has to take a backseat, and that's okay, because we get, hopefully, 50 years of master swimming, so it shouldn't matter.
Speaker 4:One thing that also has been game changing for me is understanding that lifting and basketball and swim practice there's really two components to it. Oftentimes we focus on the physical, which is just training our body Basketball and swim practice there's really two components to it. Oftentimes we focus on the physical, which is just training our body, but it's a huge opportunity to train, to build confidence. If you walk out of practice, every practice, thinking I did not do enough and something was not good enough, that's one mindset that I think is maybe not conducive to lightning fast swimming. But if you walk out of every practice with a mindset of I improved today, I did this, I've got this, if you build that confidence which is something that I learned in my work environment to do. The synergy between doing the physical work and then training the brain is absolutely essential.
Speaker 2:That is gold. That is really gold. So how do you, with the busy surgery schedule, fit swimming?
Speaker 4:in. You know, for me and for everybody listening, most of us have our schedules somewhat figured out in life, although obviously there are weeks where everything goes crazy and you just have to kind of be flexible. Crazy and you just have to kind of be flexible. I'm always trying to get six of something physical in the week. For me that typically is maybe two to three swims, two lifts in a basketball or a sport in, and that doesn't mean that all six have to be the hardest workout I've ever done. Of my swims, one or two will be hard and one might be a recovery swim and one of the lifts might be moderate and one might be a mobility recovery lift. But I'm always trying to get six per week in. That number seems to work for me. It doesn't mean it'll work for everybody, and so I kind of navigate the week that way. I will say that recovery is every bit as important as working out, and the addition of that LMNT salt has helped me to recover so much faster than I was before.
Speaker 2:That is great. So in the interest of just a quick interview here, is there anything that I have not asked you that you think might be fun to share with the Masters listeners?
Speaker 4:No, I'm just so grateful to be part of this amazing community. I just really think that you know, the number one paradigm in swimming today whether it's a sprint revolution concept or what have you is that it's okay to think outside the box and to do what works right for you no-transcript.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me. Stay tuned for the takeaways. Want to succeed like a champion? Five-time Olympic coach Bob Bowman, coach of Olympic legend Michael Phelps, says Kelly's book Take your Mark Lead is a powerful addition to your personal improvement library, and learners from all walks of life will gain key insights and enjoy this inspiring book. Take your Mark Lead debuted as an Amazon number one bestseller in five categories and is available online. And now the takeaways five categories. And is available online and now the takeaways.
Speaker 2:All right. So Peter Yu MD, pediatric surgeon. He just has so much wisdom and, like we said, he's so articulate. We love to listen to Pete talk. So what was your first takeaway, maria?
Speaker 3:Everything he said was a gem. But one of the things that I loved was his it's not one thing, it's everything, and I think this is another common theme we're seeing in champions You're not just focused on one aspect, especially the older champions master's champions. So he said I swim three days a week, I do dry land and weight room stuff and I also play basketball. That just seems like an entirely doable way to live my life as a master's athlete and I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's fun, you have more fun. So Pete seems like he's having fun. So we're just doing one takeaway on each. My takeaway is Pete is a student of the sport of swimming, his passion for swimming, talking about his favorite Olympic races that I know he follows. You know great swimmers in all levels of the sport, from USA to NCAA to Olympics, to master swimmers. He's studying the sport and I think if we all can take away that you know we may not be those Olympic swimmers, but we can certainly learn from them and think about the sport and watch the sport and enjoy the sport. So I love that so much about Pete and I think that it really helps reflect in his own swimming, where he's doing amazing dolphin kicks off the wall and he's really emulating the things that he's watching. And the more that we study a sport, the better we're going to get at it. So there we have it, our quick on-deck interview with Pete and Maria. Thanks, another great one in the books. Thank you, kelly.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Champions Mojo podcast. Did you enjoy the show? We'd be grateful if you would leave us a five-star review on iTunes to help others find us, and we'd also love to hear from you. We're on all social media platforms or you can reach us at championsmojocom.
