Train like an Olympian: Alicia Sacramone, gymnastics

This year will mark Alicia Sacramone's first Olympic games, but she's planning to come home with the gold. In fact, the gymnast often spends seven hours or so a day working on her sport to ensure she's ready for the biggest competition of her life, and while most of us wouldn't want to try many of the exercises Alicia does on the beam or the bars, she still has some great strength training suggestions for us mere mortals.

Her workout consists of hanging leg lifts, lunge walks holding a bar, pikes on an exercise ball, and standing side jumps onto a box or step. These moves help her gain the power to do the amazing flips and jumps required for her sport, but will help the rest of us to sculpt fabulous butt and thigh muscles and work our abs. Most of Alicia's cardio comes from her gymnastics work, but she spends about three hours a week focusing on cardio.

As far as diet goes, Alicia is careful to eat healthfully, but doesn't follow any strict diet and doesn't leave out any food groups. To relax, she relies on her iPod (she says it's her best friend), which is filled with R&B, hip hop, and energetic dance music.