MARQUETTE -- A highlight of every Olympic Games is the gold medal finishes and emotional victories.

The spotlight also shines behind the scenes on the dedicated training of athletes. Images of their workouts might be intimidating, or even look impossible, but many athletes are following similar routines.

Strength and speed is the focus of summer workouts for Ross Michaels. The Hancock football player lived in Marquette for the past six weeks, working out at Advantedge Sports Training.
Michaels would spend an hour with his trainer four or five days each week.

"It's a good atmosphere; he just really pushes you, makes you better...just really to get ready for the season," said Michaels.

The senior running back is following a plan that includes many of the "strongman" exercises that have made some Olympic athletes thrive, like Ryan Lochte. The swimmer switched to this training routine after a disappointing finish in Beijing, and the change brought him more success four years later.

"He does a lot of dry land stuff; he's on land, flipping tires, pulling chains, and we do a lot of that here," Michaels added. "We're flipping tires, running sprints...pushing us right to the edge."

Olympians are on a different time frame than the athletes that trainer Dustin Brancheau works with.

"They get years to build upon their stuff, so they can build bases, like one year they can build upon their hypertrophy, their muscle growth, they can build upon their power, explosion," said Brancheau. "We get athletes where we can only do six to eight weeks, so we want to do what we can as soon as possible."

No matter the schedule, Brancheau says the physical and mental challenges of this type of training have made it more mainstream.

"Especially with the warehouse vibe, so they just come and hear loud music, people pushing heavy weight," Brancheau added. "That's the kind of atmosphere that we're going for, and it's definitely been around, just not around here."

It's an environment that pushes limits in a way that could pay off for Michaels on the gridiron this fall.

"He's already put all the work in you need to with strength and conditioning, explosiveness," Brancheau concluded.