![]() "I think this is the most important aspect of sports training in general, as balance is the most important characteristic of any discipline. If you want to stay on board a MotoGP bike you need strength and balance throughout your body. It's not like car racing where the only real part of your leg you use is your foot. If your legs are not strong enough then other parts of your body have to compensate and they get exhausted twice as quickly. I don't work on any specific parts of my body because bike racing is a sport where you need to be powerful all over and have good distribution of strength. It's a great way to stay fit, keep your legs strong and get an all-over aerobic workout. ''I love being out in the countryside or up in the mountains. ![]() ''My favourite exercise is still jogging,'' confided the Brazilian. Barros likes nothing better than a good old fashioned run to relax the mind and tone the muscles. However in this new world some things never change. I need Rodolfo there to make me relax, find those solutions and be in the right state of mind for the race.'' ''If you have problems and your mind can't relax, then you get so stressed thinking about the problem that you don't have enough mental capacity to find a solution. ''Things can get very hectic and sometimes the pressure is just so much it makes you feel stiff that you can hardly ride the bike,'' revealed the West Honda Pons star. The stress of a grand prix weekend can get to even the strongest rider and Barros in convinced you have to learnt to relax if you are going to be successful. It's not programming his brain with anything from outside, simply bringing out the positive things that Alex has inside and making sure he has them with him at the time he most needs them.'' NLP helps your mind to click yes even if you are doubtful or lack confidence, and helps you remain positive and focussed on what you are doing. ''If you want to close a programme down or save some work, your computer will ask you to confirm yes or no. ''It's extremely complicated but the best way I can describe it is comparing it to the way a computer works,'' he explained. I feel confident about my ability and with us studying each circuit and adapting my training to the race I feel a lot safer, better prepared and can race to 100 per cent of my potential.'' When I feel strong inside I feel like I can do anything. ![]() ''The physical side has obviously made big changes but it's the mental strength he gives me that really makes me feel so strong. ''Rodolfo has helped me out so much,'' explained Barros, who followed his success in Holland by winning the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring. That was were Hernandez came into his own. So the physical and nutritional side of things were taken care of but so much of grand prix success depends on mental strength and confidence. He lost 4kg in weight but has put on 2kg in muscle.'' When I met Alex his body was 13 per cent fat, now it's 6.3 per cent. If you don't balance it out with the right proteins it can have a fattening effect, so that was the first thing to go. He was eating a lot of pasta for example, which all athletes think is a good thing but it's just a myth. ''I completely changed Alex's body composition through his diet. Two weeks later the Barcelona disappointment was forgotten when Barros won the rain affected Dutch Grand Prix at Assen to give the new partnership their first success. He followed that with a second pole two weeks later in Barcelona and was so unlucky not to win the race when he was sidelined with an electrical fault. He took his very first pole position, after 168 grand prix starts, at Mugello in Italy. Within two months Barros had lost four kilos of fat and had considerably increased his strength and the results were clear to see out on the track. ''We identified the demands of different tracks and worked out the power he would need for each race by studying times, speed, corner angles and things like that.'' ''I came up with a training schedule and new diet which quite shocked Alex but he wanted to make improvements and decided he had nothing to lose,'' explained Hernandez.
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