A NEED FOR SPEED

Oct 13, 2009

Email this article | Printer friendly page | Bookmark this article | Discuss this on the ProSource Fitness Forum

A NEED image

Team Supreme athlete Rodney Martin, one of the best sprinters in the world today, fuels his dreams of Olympic gold with Supreme Protein and Raptor bars.

You've heard stories before about athletes who, in some happenstance of fate,"discovered" their innate gifts for a particular sport, and instantly became a sensation. Those guys who walked on a football field and started catching touchdowns with ease, or picked up a baseball and without a second thought hurled it at 95 mph as a shocked coach stared incredulously at the radar gun.

Rodney Martin, a new member of Team Supreme, isn't that story. Sure, the Las Vegas native competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics (he ran the first leg of the ill-fated 4x100 meter relay team, where a fumbled handoff between Darvis Patton and Tyson Gay cost them a shot at gold). He also is a stalwart among the U.S. sprinters, with a third in the 200-meter finals at the 2007 AT&T USA Outdoor Championships and a fourth in the 200 at the 2007 World Outdoor Championships in Japan to his credit. And he owns a personal best of 9.95 seconds in the 100 meters and a 19.99 second finish in the 200 meters, his two signature events.

But in high school, he struggled so much that he was on the verge of calling it quits. "In 10th grade, I wasn't very good," Martin admits. "But my coach, Freddie Morrison, saw me run, and he told me I could be good. I said, 'Nah, I think I'll just continue to play football and wrestle,'but he told me to give him one year, and if he couldn't make me a state champion, I could stop running track."

Fast-forward one year, and Martin made it to state out of Western High School in Vegas. A year later, he won the state title. As you can guess, he stuck with it, going on to Kansas City Community College before landing at South Carolina, where he earned a degree in criminal justice alongside friend and fellow elite sprinter Leroy Dixon.

"I use the Raptor bars before and during training for the precise blend of carbs for immediate and extended sources of energy. Throughout the day I eat Supreme Protein bars for the high dose of quality protein. This also helps to speed my recovery between workouts and gives my muscles what they need to grow."

Although he wasn't particularly successful when he started out in his track endeavors, it wasn't for a lack of passion. Growing up the middle child of six brothers and sisters, he remembers being faster than his older brother at the age of eight, a motivational accomplishment. "I love to compete, and it was an individual sport," he says of sprinting. "In football, your teammates can make you lose ...I didn't like that too much."

These days, the 26-year-old Los Angeles resident is gearing up for the IAAF Indoor World Championships to be held in Qatar on March 12-14, 2010, and also has an eye on a more distant but yet ever-present target: The 2012 Summer Olympics in London. When we talked to the 26-year-old in October, he was hard at work in the weight room, where he spends time each day. "Right now I'm doing free weight exercises, lighter weights with a lot of reps," he says. "As the season gets closer I'll start picking up heavier weights. For example, right now I'm benching 185, 5 sets of 10 reps. By the time the season starts I'll be at 225.

"When I start training (specifically for the Worlds) I'll do long runs, hill runs, beach runs and plyometric exercises," he continues. "As the event gets closer I'll move onto the track and do a combination of long and short runs. In November, I'll start sprinting."

Nutritionally, Martin's workouts are fueled by a clean diet and a strategic blend of ProSource supplements. "I use Supreme Protein bars and Raptor bars. They're both really good bars. I use the Raptor bars before and during training for the precise blend of carbs for immediate and extended sources of energy. It's also loaded with antioxidants, electrolytes, and other essential nutrients so I don't hit the wall while training and also recover faster. Throughout the day I eat Supreme Protein bars for the high dose of quality protein. This also helps to speed my recovery between workouts and gives my muscles what they need to grow." he says. "I'll put a few Supreme Protein and Raptor bars in my bag so I have them when I need them."

Martin doesn't stop there, knowing that nutrition is key to performance. "I use all kinds of supplements from ProSource, including NytroWhey protein powder, vitamin C, glutamine, creatine, a multivitamin - everything you need to compete on this level."

As for how long he intends to "compete on this level," Martin doesn't seem to want to stop anytime soon. "I have about seven more years left," he says. "I'd maybe like to get to the Olympics in Rio in 2016, depending on how I feel." That certainly wouldn't be a bad career-capper for someone who almost walked away from running at an early age. And it just goes to show that achieving greatness sometimes requires tenacity in the face of failure and an eye on the finish line- no matter how far away it may seem.