Hi guys. Welcome back to On the go with EF. I’m super excited because I’m here to meet
the three-time Olympic medalist, two-time Olympic champion, DeeDee Trotter.
I’m very excited to meet her. Let’s go!
Hi! Oh my gosh!
Nice to meet you! Nice to meet you, too!
How are you? Come on in. I’m great. Thank you.
How are you? How was it getting over here? Good!
Awesome. Have a seat.
In 2016, after the Olympic trials, I retired from the sport after 13 long years.
Yes, I’ve been running in circles - literally - for a very long time.
EF came to me. They were looking for an Olympics ambassador.
EF has a very long-standing sponsorship relationship with the Olympics,
so we’re also going to be doing the Korea Olympics coming up,
for the winter games, and Tokyo 2020.
We teach everyone the English language, so when the world comes, everyone’s ready!
When you have sports,
even if you don’t speak a language, the sport becomes the universal language.
I’ve run with girls from all over the world who may not speak my language, English,
but we can still communicate.
And you still manage to create a relationship. We know exactly what we’re saying.
Tell me: how many medals do you have?
I have lots of medals, but of Olympic medals, I have three.
I have two from 2012, and I have one from 2004.
It was my very first Olympics and I also won a gold medal that time, so … yay!
They’re really heavy! Yeah.
Here’s my very first gold medal I won in 2004 at the Athens Olympics,
where the Olympics very first began. That must have been quite a historic moment.
It was.
What was your one favorite thing from all of those memories?
Let’s see. That’s challenging!
I think the first thing my mind goes back to is the last 100 metres of the women’s 400m.
In 2012, I got my first individual bronze medal and it was a super race.
I was running so hard. In the last 100 metres,
I took off down the home stretch. I got into the lead, the gold medal position.
We fought for it all the way to the finish line and we met at the line.
Sanya Richards-Ross got first place for the U.S., Christine Ohuruogu from Great Britain got second
and I got third, and it was all by a hair. It was just an amazing race.
Oh my gosh. It was so spectacular.
It was more the journey that made that race more exceptional to me.
I literally had many people telling me over the course of four years that I should retire.
I had a knee injury that caused me to have surgery
and that surgery devastated my career for three years.
It wasn’t until the 4th year, in 2012, that I was able to make that comeback.
And when I did, people didn’t believe it.
They were like, “man, for three years she lost every single race
that she stepped on the tracks to run and she should have retired years ago.”
Now you have the medals to prove all of them wrong.
There you go! Two medals, when nobody thought I would be there.
I’m very excited to meet you and I would love to hear more about the Olympic Games.
To me, it’s just a completely different experience.
It’s a really worldly experience. When you get to the Olympic Games,
you see and have an experience with people who you maybe never thought you would ever meet.
So many people from different cultures, different walks of life and different languages
all come together in this one area.
For the most part, we communicate during dining time.
We get ready to eat and then everyone comes to the dining hall from everywhere.
I mean, I’ve had dinner and lunch with Brazil and Puerto Rico.
We’re all in the same place, yet I’m in different places. It’s so amazing!
I have lunch with Jamaica and dinner with Peru. It’s just such an amazing experience.
When I’m in the Olympic Games, the stadium is one thing I think of.
There are so many people there screaming and yelling.
If you close your eyes can you take yourself back to that, can you feel it?
When I was in that time, it wasn’t so emotional. It was action, adrenalin, intensity.
But once I’m out of that experience and I relive it through my story and my motivational sharing,
I always cry. Every speech. I haven’t made it through one single speech and I’ve given over 50.
It’s something that’s very dear to you. That’s natural.
That’s very true.
I’ve been traveling. I’ve been everywhere! Yes, I’ve heard! It must be very hectic for you.
It is. It’s been quite a whirlwind. No kidding, right?
I’ve been everywhere from Shanghai to Bilbao in Spain,
to just about almost every place I can think of. Except for Sydney. I need to get out there.
Okay. That’s the next thing.
Have you slept for more than one night in the same place?
Um. Sometimes, I think!
The Olympic Games, and the preparation for that, must have also been very challenging,
and taken a lot of time and energy out of you,
so you’re probably used to these kind of stress levels!
I am. The Olympic Games is definitely something that you have to prepare for mentally.
And you do go through a lot. We even travel a lot.
We travel from city to city and country to country competing, to get prepared for the Olympic Games.
You must train now,
but with your crazy traveling schedule, when do you have time to go to the gym?
You’ve just got to squeeze it in when you can.
I mean, your hotel room is a great place to do some stuff,
if you can get out of bed and turn off the T.V.
I can show you a few things. Are you interested in learning something today?
Yeah, for sure, I’d love to know some things for when I travel.
Give me these. I don’t want to!
Give me these. Thank you, lady!
Okay, let me change and I’ll be back in a few seconds.
Okay, sure.
Looking good! I like this outfit.
Thank you! I’m going to show you a few things
that you can easily do while you’re on the road or in your hotel room.
No big deal. First we’ll just do an easy squat. The first one, squats, are very simple.
You can do them standing. You put your arms in the air.
This increases the challenge, so it’s nice and tight. There you go. Good job!
You’ve got to be here. You’ve got to just sit and then you’re going to stand up.
Sit and stand up. Yeah, that’s great. Nice!
Now more challenging, okay? This time, you’re going to be on one leg.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, yeah. Alright. There you go! You’re going to sit back and stand back up.
Okay! Alright. I’m going to help you with this one.
Sit back! There you go! Can I stay here?
Now, because you’re just practicing this for the first time, you can use the bed next time.
It’s a little higher. It gives you a less depth to go back on but, again, increase the challenge.
So, after you get this one, you’re good. After you get that one, you’re good.
And the next time, you say “Hey! I’m going to keep it going!”
Now for this one, we’re just going to do some push-ups, okay?
We’ll call these elevated push-ups.
Alright. Just do regular push-ups. Push down, push up.
Good job!
How do we increase it and make it a little more challenging?
We bring our hands in. Bring them in tight. Even tighter?
Yeah. Then, you push down. Push up. Oh! That’s a whole new feeling!
I’ve never been trained by an Olympic champion before!
That’s okay. Welcome to my world, okay?
Do you want to increase the challenge of this push-up?
We’re going to do a Trotter push-up, okay?
You reverse it. You put your feet up on the chair. Okay ….
Same thing. Push up! Push up!
Yeah. I’ve got you. Keep it up! You can do it. I’ve got you. One more!
One more! Yeah!
You usually have plenty of space on the ground. In most hotel rooms, you can just spread out.
At least you’ll be by yourself, okay?
Don’t invite any friends over because you won’t have room for all of that.
So, one of the things you can do that’s very easy, is work on your abs.
You eat all those things on the road. You eat french fries, candy, airport food.
You’ve got to put your legs right in the air. You’ve got to put your arms straight up.
You’re going to reach up to touch your toes and come back down.
Touch your toes and come back down. There you go! It’s called a reach-up!
This one is called a bicycle. It’s lots of fun.
You’re going to put your knees up and change direction of one of your legs.
You’re just going to switch it, switch it.
The bicycle is pretty awesome.
“Russian twist” is one of my favorites. You cross your feet here.
Russian twist? Yes! Russian twist.
You’ve got to put one hand here, then you’ve got to switch sides.
Touch the other side, switch sides. And go back and forth. Yeah! There you go!
For added intensity for this workout, I want you to hold this book bag.
Here you go. Hold it like this, on your chest.
I thought you liked me. I do! You’re my friend!
I’m going to use this pillow because I’ve been in shape for a long time.
You don’t want to switch? I use the pillow and you use the backpack?
Now for the last ab, okay? It’s one of my favorites for sure.
It’s actually more of a core exercise. It’s the plank hold.
Uh-huh, the plank.
Hold it. Does it look good?
It looks good! Okay!
I travel with one of these. It’s a little flexi-band. It’s super light.
There are so many different variations of it. You just need something that creates resistance.
It’s an easy thing to keep in your bag.
Yes, there you go! Work these little arms. See, they’re nice and tight.
There you go. Then you pull it to the back. Same thing.
Uh oh! I’m a little stronger than that.
Thank you! You did awesome!
I didn’t break you, did I? Almost!
You are the honorary Olympian for the day.
Not only do you get to wear one, you get to wear two.
Awesome! What the heck!
You might as well try on all three. It’s not every day you get to train with Trotter.
Those look great on you!
Guys. I have a question for you now. When you travel, do you work out or exercise?
What do you do? Or do you just sit on the couch all day?
If you do train, comment below on how and what it is you do.
The winner with the best comment is going to get this awesome prize.
Just so you guys will be even more inspired: autographed by DeeDee Trotter.
Thank you so much for watching. This was really awesome. I really enjoyed it!
You’re welcome!
Wow. This was a great workout.
I really enjoyed it. I hope you did as well,
and that you’re going to take some of these exercises and try them at home or when traveling.
This was actually our last episode before we take a break from On the go with EF for the summer.
We’re going to use this time to plan some more new, exciting travels,
and also to take a vacation.
Do come back in September and join us again. I really hope to see all of you. Bye!
Have a nice summer! See you in September.