Here is a visit to Ilya Ilyin‘s home.
If any of you Russian speakers find that Ilya says something interesting, please help translating in the comments (maybe the stretching part at 20:10).
Update: Thanks to wolfheart, Derrick and Alexander
- First few minutes are about his personal life and a bit of nutrition, which is basically that he doesn’t each much for breakfast and doesn’t follow a strict diet (his wife cooks him something different every day). His wife is very high level handball player playing for Kazakhstan national team and Ilya met her long before he became “Ilya”.
- Eats Oats, Buckwheat, Rice, Dried Fruit, nothing fried. Light breakfast big lunch.
- He started training at around 7 years because his parents left him with his brother to babysit who was taking him to the gym where he just played around at first. He also stated that he doesn’t think that you can make an Olympic athlete, they just “appear” (when asked if he wants to train his daughter to do something)
- He was also presented with a lot of options like martial arts but he chose weightlifting by himself.
- He also doesn’t have the attitude to become/be the champion, because everyone has weaknesses and strengths and is good at something. Noone is an “angel” who would be “the best” at something. Instead he just visualizes the movements of the competition months in advance in every detail (including the crowds and so on) and plays it over and over in his head. When he goes on the stage he basically already lifted the weight.
- “You also have to be mentally ready for the victory” and after London he started preparing himself mentally for the world championship
- In general he talks a bit about being humble and not too self-confident, which is important, but only in moderation.
- During the last month of a big event he trains very intense (10:30 – 12:30, 17:00 – 19:30 and 21:30-22:30 each day, only eating, reading books and sleeping in between). The whole preparation period is usually 9 months and he moves to a training center in the mountains. BTW, the books he reads at the moment of the interview are on physics and quantum mechanics.
- The stretching bit is when the journalist asked if he can recommend something to the average person to stay healthy/fit. He said walking and stretching is good :D. drills. He shows some things he does in order to take care of his legs, he calls his legs the most precious part of his body and said that he is stretching them constantly. Squats and push-ups are his recommendation for “general population” since the question was what he can recommend to regular people. Not much info for lifters.
- At the end he said that he is taking english lessons, os maybe next interview will be in English 😉
damn klokov and ilya have some beautiful wives. .. i feel like creep but for real. being an ex-soviet territory weightlifter has it’s perks.
Looks like Ilya’s an overachiever in every sense of the word.
amazing the standard of living over there compared to north american standards. if someone wins a gold medal in any sport in canada or u.s. they live a very wealthy life. hate see how joe six pack lives in kazakhistan
How is the situation in the states? Does the athlete gets more funding by the government in case he or she wins gold or are you talking about contracts for commercials?
In Germany you might get the latter, but you certainly won’t get rich or very wealthy.
You get prize money for a medal, but other than that there’s pretty much no gov funding for athletes. A few might get stipends from USAW. Several more get stipends from private Companies. Werksan and MDUSA come to mind. Other athletes like phelps though get millions from speedo, nike etc
That might be the case for certain Olympic sports. Swimming, track or gymnastics perhaps. Weightlifting? If a north American lifer were to win gold they might get enough money to pay their own rent without having to borrow from their parents or some other benevolent soul.
It’s all media unfortunately.
Damn, it’s so painful to listen him talking about his nutrition. A cup of coffee instead of breakfast? Just look at all that akne… Now him being numba one is even more amazing than before…
Why is a cup of coffee for breakfast so bad?
Let me know what you are interested in I would transate it for you. BTW his beautiful wife is very high level handball player playing for Khazahstan national team and Ilya met her long before he became “Ilya”.
About his training he said that training cycle to prepare for major competition is about 9 months. He moves to the training centre somwhere in mountains(high altitude?). Training 3 times a day about 2 hours each session. At about 20:00 he shows some mibility drills he actually does in order to take care of his legs, he calls his legs the most precious part of his body and said that he is stretching them constantly. Squats and push-ups are his recommendation for “general population” since the question was what he can recommend to regular people. Not much info for lifters.
At the end he said that he is taking english lessons, os maybe next interview will be in english 😉
Thanks for the infos and the offer Alexander. I will add it to the things already translated above.
np! Forgot to add Ilya also mentioned that he spends a lot of time on mental training using same mythology that was created during soviet era for weight lifters and how important it is to have self-confidence. And how different it is from arrogance. Before every lift he would do it successfully few times in his head, once he has done it in his mind body just have to follow.
His wife is disproportionately more attractive than he is,so it seems Women are just as self serving and parasitic in Russia as in the West.I notice being short and having a receding hairline doesnt seem to prevent him from getting a top notch looking girl.
I wonder what sort of Women he’d get if he worked for whatever was the minimum wage is in his country?
Never mind,its all about personality isnt it?,as i’m sure his girl couldnt really care less about weightlifting,only the fact it affords her the fairytale lifestyle she gets through it.
Are you coming out of a break up or even a divorce or why the positive mindset?
Neither Leon,i’m just articulating what i see.You cannot blame any Woman for acting this way,its just self interest isnt it?,however,its a bit nauseating when they always claim that its the ‘personality’ of the individual,not what they offer materialistically.Ive certainly never heard any of them ever tell the truth about it,thats for sure! lol
Anyhow,i’ll sod off and not infect this good site with anymore cold,hard reality.
He’s hench and he’s strong. What more could you want! lol
Yes,and i’m sure theres lots of other “hench and strong” Men out there who don’t have the financial clout or the social standing of Ilin and have rather LESS attractive Women on their arms…..although you will no doubt put that down to coincidence.Also,although he’s undoubtedly strong,he’s not in great shape compared to many other unknown bodybuilders
To be fair, even in the western world you’ll find a lot of not-so-good-looking guys with smoking hot wives, and hordes of young-ish guys who are “lookers” (jacked ‘n’ tanned, six-pack, etc.), but can’t hang onto a woman for the life of them.
I think part of it is that the lookers tend to be self-centred, and that’s not going to fly for most women (who tend to want to be the centre of attention in the relationship).
On the other hand, you might not be a Brad-Pitt-lookalike, but if you can find a good woman and show her that you’re willing and able to give her what she needs and wants, then chances are she’ll stick with you.
He met her before he was a world champion. Just because you are a failure with women and treat them as nothing but objects to obtain doesn’t mean everyone does. You post comes off as a giant misogynistic neckbeard honestly.
Physics and quantum mechanics? What is there not to like about this guy?!?
Is Mrs Ilya Hripsime Khurshudyan’s sister by any chance?
The video no longer exists ;(