George Russell Reveals “Pretty Damn Brutal” Workout Routine as Prep for 2024 Success Gets Underway

It’s no secret that Formula 1 drivers are a different breed. From handling a car going over 200 miles an hour to battling G-forces akin to a fighter jet, there’s a lot of training involved behind the scenes. After all, what more can explain Romain Grosjean’s survival after a 67G crash better than an F1 driver’s intense workout regime?

While Daniel Ricciardo spends a lot of his training time on high-intensity interval training and cardio, Lewis Hamilton prefers to go the weight-lifting route. Adding to the list of insiders busting the myth that racers are not athletes, George Russell revealed just how far the Mercedes driver pushes himself when he trains, in Puma Motorsport’s latest Instagram video.

“Every day is neck day” for George Russell

When asked about his favorite exercises, the young Brit shared that he wasn’t fond of his training sessions in that sense. Russell added, “I wouldn’t say I have a favourite exercise, my trainer is always pushing me to my limit so it always feels like pretty damn brutal by the time we’ve finished the workout. I always find if somebody is enjoying their exercise, they’re not pushing hard enough.”

The usual workout regiment of F1 drivers lays a heavy emphasis on the core and the neck. For core workouts, the sets usually consist of a variety of bodyweight exercises that allow for the core to also be engaged such as pull-ups, sit-ups, and bench presses which require a string core as much as it does the chest. But there’s one muscle that George Russel never skips training, and that’s the neck.

Russell shared, “The exercise we never skip is neck day. Everyday is neck day! So whether that’s just stretching the neck or whether thats doing high load or whether that’s longer duration exercise.” It goes without saying how essential neck training is for a motorsport driver. In the past, many fatalities in NASCAR have come from basilar skull fractures, in which the joint that attaches the neck to the skull gets severed.

Such injuries proved to be the cause of Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001, and finally, the burden on one’s neck was reduced by the introduction of the HANS device on all forms of motorsport, if not already implemented. Even with the HANS device in place, the neck must still be able to support itself throughout the race, and for most, that means engaging in exercises that look downright awkward to other gymgoers.

The Mercedes driver was quick to point out just how intense things can get in the gym, “We do some pretty weird looking things in the gym and we always have people watching us while we’re training the neck, with my trainer sort of pulling the harness or when I’m wearing a heavy helmet, which is about six times the weight of my normal race helmet, sort of move in side to side or exercise with it. So, neck day is one!”

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And it isn’t just George Russell who stresses on the importance of training and never skipping neck day. His teammate had also revealed his experience as a rookie in F1 and how unprepared his neck was for the incoming G-Forces.

Hamilton reveals how the G-forces got the best of him as a rookie

It’s no secret that Lewis Hamilton has always been an advocate for fitness and better health. Whether it’s through his vegan diet or the various activities he gets up to such as skiing and surfing, one thing’s for sure, the 38-year-old shows no signs of slowing down. But that wasn’t the case when he arrived on the scene.

Speaking to Graham Bensinger on his show in 2016, the Mercedes star shared “When I first got to Formula 1, jeez, I did three days of driving and I couldn’t hold my head up halfway through the first day, so what you do is, I had a helmet and I put 22 pounds on top, and you lay off a table or a bench, and you do multiples reps just to build your neck up, so my neck grew like an inch and a half when I first got to Formula 1”

Showcasing the importance of having a strong neck, Hamilton also added that such an amount of neck training was only required for F1’s g-forces. It’s safe to say if anyone reading this has any aspirations of making it to the Pinnacle of Motorsport, they better not skip neck day!

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