Don’t think race car drivers are elite athletes? Give their workouts a try

First came the mounting tension in the shoulders and the weakening grip while carrying 25-pound weights.

Then the labored breathing while ripping through the rowing and skiing simulators, and the pain in the thighs on the box jumps.

Topping it off: The strain on the neck simulating what it feels like to hit the brakes while racing at speeds of up to 200 mph and the G-forces felt though sweeping turns.

Welcome to the workout routine for two-time IndyCar series champion Josef Newgarden, a cross-training session designed to fine-tune his body for strength and endurance in racing.

Newgarden, 34, recently invited members of the public at the South by Southwest conference and festival in Austin, Texas, to experience a bite-sized version of his workout to judge just how fit race car drivers have to be and perhaps make it clear that they are indeed athletes.

“You’re taxing every part of the body, which is what happens in an IndyCar,” Newgarden says. “There’s no power steering, you’re pulling high G-forces, it’s hot and your heart rate is elevated. Everything is being stressed.”

The workout

The first of three workout sessions drew about a dozen people, including a local fitness coach, a biotech entrepreneur, a television and movie actor and a journalist.

Newgarden’s trainer Jeff Richter pushed the group through a 35-minute version of the routine he designs for the driver. It’s a nonstop circuit of weightlifting, rowing and ski machines, core stretches and balance exercises, burpees and broad jumping, with only a few seconds of rest between each exercise.

The muscular Newgarden demonstrated each exercise station before the group started.

“Push! Get your heart rates up,” Richter yelled over blaring music before getting the group into a plank position to stress their core. “Breathe! Hold your position!”

“We can’t put them in the car,” Richter explains later. “But they can get to elevated heart rates, and put their body in bracing situations to simulate G-forces and heat stress. And their eyes open up.”

Driver athletes

Picking the most fit athlete is a topic that tends to be a conversation starter. Wrestlers? Endurance runners? Water polo players? Boxers, swimmers, cross-country skiers?

Race car drivers don’t tend to end up high on any of those lists; they just sit and drive … right?

Not so fast.

Drivers across every elite series do some kind of physical training, from Newgarden’s cross training to the endurance training and reaction-time exercises of Formula One drivers. Seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson is a fitness buff who has run the Boston Marathon.

Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano questions why anyone might not consider top-level drivers to be elite athletes.

The fitness challenges are different from basketball or football but still real, he says.

“I run a fair amount. I lift some. We don’t want to be big and bulky inside a race car. But you have to be able to do something for a long time, so endurance is a huge thing,” Logano says.

Race fans are becoming more aware of the physical demands drivers face behind the wheel, Newgarden says.

“People aren’t as in the dark,” he says. “Twenty years ago, people might say, ‘I have a car. I drive to the grocery store every day. It can’t be that difficult.’ The physical demand is extremely high. It’s not whoever is the fittest is going to win the race, but it plays a factor. The appreciation is gaining ground.”

Power steering

One of the most notable challenges for IndyCar drivers, and perhaps the most unknown element of the series for the casual fan, is that Indy cars do not have power steering, something most people take for granted.

Newgarden and other drivers train to handle the strain on their shoulders, neck and grip needed to muscle a 1,700-pound car through a race, whether navigating a street course such as St. Petersburg, Florida, or ripping around the high-speed oval at the Indianapolis 500.

Actor Austin Nichols, best known for recurring roles in “The Walking Dead” and “Walker,” says he was impressed by the workout that left him breathing hard. He was among those who tried the special halo designed to test neck strength in simulated braking and turns.

“It was harsh,” Nichols says. “That’s why I came, to feel that thing that racers feel.”

Vienna Sparks, of Boston, signed up for the workout as a break between sessions pitching her biotech startup to potential investors. She considers herself an IndyCar fan and wanted an inside look at Newgarden’s routine.

“It was pretty comparable to one of my boxing class workouts that I do,” Sparks says. “It was more like CrossFit training than I anticipated. You think driving might not have a CrossFit component, but it does make sense in the long run, overall.”

Austin fitness coach Eric Bumpus was impressed by the workout with Newgarden.

“Those G-forces, I’m sure they kill you when you’re heart rate is through the roof,” Bumpus says. “I can’t fathom doing that for a long period of time. It really is sensational.”