A Candid Conversation With Lane Johnson on What People Often Overlook With Elite Athletes

2 min readReady to get into the best shape of your life? Get free weekly workouts and no-nonsense training insights delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up here and let the gains begin.TWO-TIME SUPER BOWL CHAMPION Lane Johnson recently announced the 2026 NFL season could potentially be his final year on the field. The offensive tackle is considered to be one of the strongest men in football, and helped the Philadelphia Eagles bring home titles in 2017 and 2024. Johnson’s success is partially owed to his openness to learn from other athletes, including those outside of football. Earlier this summer, Johnson invited the World’s Strongest Man Mitchell Hooper to train with him.But his strength isn’t only physical. Johnson started to have performance anxiety in college, and this only worsened throughout his NFL career. The issue, he describes, is that most football players are perfectionists. The anxiety has often taken Johnson out of being present in the moment—and has sometimes even manifested into physical sickness.“A lot of us would dry heave before games. We would wake up early, and it was like a mini panic attack for us,” Johnson tells Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S, in the latest Strong Talk. “It could be an 8 o’clock game at night and we’d wake up at 5:30 and puke.” Johnson mentions initially not understanding what his body was experiencing, but he was able to find common ground with MMA fighters who shared similar experiences before a match.Knowing other athletes were going through it made Johnson feel like he wasn’t alone. Instead, he started to see the anxiety as part of being human. “A lot of people are scared to have the conversation. At the same time, I know a lot of my teammates may be struggling with this,” he says.In the episode, the duo also touches on Johnson’s 6,000-calorie diet on training days, bouncing back from injuries, and his future plans after football. Want more deep-dive fitness wisdom from Samuel and other celebs and experts who've been on our Strong Talk podcast? Check out all our episodes here.Watch the Latest EpisodesGetty ImagesGetty ImagesGillian MacLeod/MH IllustrationGillian MacLeod/MH IllustrationGillian MacLeod/MH IllustrationCourtesy of Subject/MH IllustrationGetty ImagesMen's HealthGillian MacLeod/MH IllustrationCourtesy of Sadik HadzovicGillian MacLeod/MH IllustrationGillian MacLeod/MH IllustrationJocelyn Solis-Moreira, MS is the associate health & fitness for Men's Health and has previously written for CNN, Scientific American, Popular Science, and National Geographic before joining the brand. When she's not working, she's doing circus arts or working towards the perfect pull-up.