how was Michael Phelps so damn good?

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I know he trained like hell, but was there something about him that made him overpowered?

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6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I have heard that his body makes half the amount of lactic acid as his competitors, which means he recovers quicker and can train harder.

Also, he has a long torso and “short” legs which create less drag. He has a long wingspan which means he can reach further. He has double-jointed ankles and enormous feet which act like flippers.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Genetics. Short, powerful legs, long arms and a long torso with big lungs. The man is straight-up built for swimming.

Anonymous 0 Comments

1. Very long arms for his already-tall height. He’s 6’4, his wingspan is 6’7 (80″)
2. Freakishly large lung capacity
3. He can hyperextend his elbows, knees, and ankles allowing strokes with extra range of motion most can’t do.
4. Extra long torso, extra short legs (more power, less drag)
5. Size 14 feet = basically flippers (even for his height avg shoe size is 12)
6. Above average hand size = basically more flippers
7. Genetic anomaly where his muscles produce less lactic acid from the same exertion

Check out some graphics here to see it:

Business Insider: [Michael Phelps has the perfect body for swimming](https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-phelps-rio-olympics-body-swimming-2016-8)

AboutSwim: [How Michael Phelps’s body Is Suitable For Swimming](https://aboutswim.com/michael-phelpss-body-made-swimming/)

Combine happening to have all the ideal physical traits with his INSANE training schedule and you get one of the most dominant athletes ever.

Anonymous 0 Comments

He was almost genetically born to be a swimmer. Hes double jointed, so his feet and arms have a much larger range of motion than most people. His hands and feet are massive even for someone of his size so they basically could act like flippers. His body is also perfectly proportioned in the exact way that is desired(and advantageous) for swimmers. And if I’m remembering a certain story correctly, it’s said that his body doesn’t build lactic acid up like most people which prevents his body from getting tired like most people and means he can recover faster.

Anonymous 0 Comments

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Anonymous 0 Comments

As others state, it is because of genetics.

It’s the same with everything. You can’t be a basketball player (not counting outliers) if you are not super tall. It’s not like you can practice growing to 7 foot tall. You either are, or are not.

It’s the same with how the body is put together. There is natural variation INSIDE the body, too. For example, [muscles attach to the bone by way of tendons.](https://gmb.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/tendon-chart.png) One person’s tendons might attach 1/8 inch to the left or right of another person’s tendons. Because of that, one person might have a mechanical advantage over the other person – by the extra leverage gained by having the tendon attach to the bone in a more advantageous way. So, you can’t just move over your tendon, so one person will ALWAYS be able to do things better than the other person, even if the two people are exactly identical to each other in all ways.

I know for myself, I have very long tendons, so if you look at my biceps, you will see that I have a VERY long string before it actually turns into muscle. About 2 inches. That tendon length will never change. My brother, on the other hand, has tendons that are 1/4 inch long. So, he is able to pack more muscle on his body, and his muscles are bigger. He has more. We both started lifting weights in our mid teens, and he just exploded way more than I did. We ate the same exact food at night, went to the same school, same parents – about as close to keeping variables the same as you can get. He put on slabs of muscle, but I stayed at 165 pounds, could never get bigger, although my muscles got a lot stronger and well-defined, of course. So while we started out the same, I when I reached benching 350 pounds, he was north of 425.

Genetics.