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Get ready to move.
Along with leading the University of Colorado Buffaloes football team, Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders has an informal role with UCHealth: Chief Motivation Officer for the Ready. Set. CO challenge.
As the public face of UCHealth’s wideranging effort to reclaim Colorado’s rightful place as the healthiest state in the nation, the football and baseball legend is encouraging Coloradans to improve their health.
UCHealth launched Ready. Set. CO after Colorado slipped in various health metrics over the past several years. The Centennial State ranks 12th in America’s Health Rankings—a combined effort of the United Health Foundation and the American Public Health Association—and 16th in the latest U.S. News & World Report Best State Rankings. Sanders, 57, is the perfect
Coach Prime takes the lead on Ready. Set. CO.
person to lead a Colorado turnaround. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a two-time Super Bowl champion and an eight-time Pro Bowler.
While Sanders has always dazzled fans on and off the field, great athletes have no mandate to stay in shape once they hang up their cleats. Sanders has stayed active and fit.
He watches what he eats, stays hydrated and works out four times a week. If it’s a priority— and what’s a higher priority than your health—you’ve got to make time for it, Coach Prime will tell you.
“I do dumbbells and other types of weights, leg presses, leg extensions,” Sanders said. He mixes in cardiovascular work on the elliptical, and he rides his bikes.
Behind the brash-andflash “Prime Time” persona is an earlyto-bed, early-to-rise, highly disciplined athlete who knows that, even given
his prodigious athletic gifts, dedication and hard work are what really matter.
“There’s no way you can be healthy in mind, body, spirit and so on, if you’re not, first of all, eating smart and doing the right things—tough physically and mentally, emotionally, psychologically,” Sanders said. “You’ve got to be disciplined to accomplish anything in life, and then have a good character. If you say you’re going to do something, do it.”
In coaching and broadcasting, Sanders has spent his career influencing lives.
“We want to win in every facet of life, not just on the football field,” Sanders said. “We want everyone to be and remain healthy. Not just physically healthy, but spiritually, mentally, socially and economically as well.”
Coach Prime views his team as much larger than the CU Buffs roster. With Ready. Set. CO, he has a vehicle to help us all get healthier.
