mbg Beauty Director
mbg Beauty Director
Alexandra Engler is the sweetness director at mindbodygreen and host of the sweetness podcast Clean Beauty School. Previously, she’s held magnificence roles at Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, SELF, and Cosmopolitan; her byline has appeared in Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and Allure.com.
Image by Rich Polk / Stringer x mbg Creative / Getty Images
April 19, 2024
We love celebrating girls on prime of their recreation. In our new sequence, Game On, we’re interviewing prime athletes about their well-being routines—masking every part from vitamin that makes them really feel sturdy to the moments that carry them pleasure.
Like many individuals, I used to be first launched to Gabby Douglas over a decade in the past, in the course of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. That summer season, the nation turned enamored with the “Fierce Five” who took house the group gold in girls’s gymnastics for the USA.
Douglas’ star-making performances and gravity-defying energy earned her one other gold within the particular person all-around. And in doing so, she made historical past: Douglas is the primary African American lady to develop into the Olympic particular person all-around champion and the primary U.S. gymnast to win gold in each the person all-around and group competitions on the similar Olympics.
I used to be an intern at Sports Illustrated that summer season and was assigned to analysis all issues girls’s gymnastics. Meticulously following Douglas’ meteoric rise to gold endeared me to her—and I’ve adopted her profession since.
“I’m blushing,” she mentioned, as she laughed once I advised her about our small, largely one-sided connection. I advised her it was in all probability simply her pure glow.
I used to be thrilled to have the ability to test in along with her all these years later, find out about how she’s presently caring for herself and her physique, how she mentally prepares for large competitions, and what recommendation she has for younger athletes with large desires.
mindbodygreen: You’re somebody who’s been competing on the worldwide scale for a very long time—in a famously intense sport at that. How do you mentally put together for a giant competitors?
Gabby Douglas: Honestly, I preserve my routines fairly easy. That’s been my routine for a very long time now—I do not do loads. I need not as a result of we achieve this a lot preparation within the gymnasium main as much as [competitions]. For instance, we do stress units, which is when everybody comes over to look at you do your set. That manner, by the point you get to a contest, it feels second nature.
So, on the day of a contest, I stand up, eat breakfast, take heed to music on the way in which, and get within the mindset of “OK—let’s do that.”
mbg: What meals make it easier to really feel strongest and nourish your physique?
Douglas: My favourite is baked salmon, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. Good protein — you gotta have it!
mbg: How do you go to sleep—particularly earlier than a giant competitors? I imply I am unable to think about attempting to go to sleep earlier than one thing as large because the Olympics!
Douglas: To be sincere, on the finish of the day, my physique is simply so drained. Gymnastics may be very arduous. For instance, lately we went like 30 days straight of observe within the morning and at night time. So I simply really feel like our our bodies are naturally drained as a result of we’re waking up early within the morning for observe, then coming again later within the day for one more.
So our our bodies are drained—we actually do want the remainder.
mbg POV
mbg: Gymnastics is notoriously arduous on the physique. How do you take care of it after?
Douglas: I do plenty of icing. I additionally do loads with my toes. I actually grind and pound my toes a lot. I really like utilizing Dr. Scholl’s Callus Remover Electronic Foot File, which removes all of the hardness and dryness. I really like having my toes very, very clean on the beam. The chalk will dry pores and skin out, so I really like utilizing a extremely hydrating foot cream, like Dr. Scholl’s Dry Cracked Foot Repair Ultra-Hydrating Foot Cream as a result of it offers moisture again into the pores and skin and again into my toes. You see a lot of our toes in gymnastics, so truthfully foot care is so necessary.
mbg: Being an expert gymnast comes with a lot stress. How do you discover that childlike pleasure that made you fall in love with the game to start with?
Douglas: It’s so true—so usually dad and mom will say to me, “Hey, how can I get my daughter to be at your stage?” I’m like, “No—let her get pleasure from it first. She’s a child.”
Sometimes we [professional gymnasts] want we may return and begin that journey once more, when it’s joyous and glad. When you grow old is once you begin considering, Oh that is one thing else.
But we do attempt to preserve it enjoyable within the gymnasium with me and my teammates. We like to seek out alternative ways to snicker and be joyful and have banter right here and there. Because if not, the game is simply that a lot more durable—and gymnastics is already actually arduous. It’s necessary to seek out alternative ways to maintain it enjoyable.
So usually dad and mom will say to me, “Hey, how can I get my daughter to be at your stage?” I’m like, “No — let her get pleasure from it first. She’s a child.”
mbg: That’s a extremely nice perception. You have to seek out the enjoyment first! What about for younger girls who wish to take their sport extra severely—what recommendation do you may have for them, as somebody who turned an expert athlete?
Douglas: Don’t quit. No matter if it is gymnastics or basketball, simply don’t quit.
And you do not have to take it to the skilled stage, however I do encourage women to remain in some sort of sport. There are so many advantages of being concerned in one thing. Gymnastics has taught me time administration, self-discipline, perseverance, and teamwork.
mbg: Speaking of teammates—what qualities make a fantastic teammate? How do you present up to your teammates?
Douglas: I simply attempt to meet everybody the place they’re. Some instances which means not pushing somebody too arduous—and as a substitute, simply actually being there for them. If they want a shoulder to cry on, right here you go. If they want somebody to encourage them, I’m right here for you. So simply assembly people the place they’re.
I used to be all the time taught to by no means finish on a nasty day.
mbg: What qualities about your self are you most happy with and why?
Douglas: My perseverance and drive. I used to be all the time taught to by no means finish on a nasty day. So I all the time attempt to preserve going and ensure I depart every part on a excessive word.
Like, even should you did not make it—however you gave it your all—on the finish of the day, you will be happy with the outcome as a result of you realize you set your all into one thing. For me, I wish to be sure that I put my all into one thing and by no means have regrets on the finish of the day.