Recovery is notoriously difficult to measure and estimate. Some people need hours, others days. Fortunately we have a proxy measure called EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). EPOC is the elevation …
Misunderstanding about Warm-Ups. We have spent decades thinking warming up is literally about warming up the body and muscles. Specifically increasing muscle temperature, initiating metabolic and circulatory adjustments, as well …
There is some evidence from 6x small studies involving a tiny total of 93 cyclists that strength training (in the gym) slightly helps cycling performance (see footer below). However, on …
It is incredibly easy to mess up your race day nutrition. The typical advice you read online (eg 120g/hr-144g/hr carbs) is very unrealistic for most people and often influenced by …
Cardiac drift refers to increasing heart rate despite constant intensity over prolonged exercise. What causes it? In a nutshell HR rises in order to maintain cardiac output despite a decline …
I am sure you have seen some worrying headlines that too much exercise is bad for you. Authors of the Copenhagen City Heart Study (Schnohr 2015) were first to propose …
What is Time Restricted Eating? Time-restricted eating is a form of “Intermittent fasting” which could be called daily intermittent fasting. It is pretty simple, just stop eating for at least …
This is an old story, but one with confusing data. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ current physical activity guidelines recommend as little as 150 minutes of moderate …
I have a number of athletes who combine running with cycling or swimming eg duathlon and triathlon. Yes you are right, the crazy ones! I have previously offered them training …
We all struggle in hot temperatures. Cycling and running in the heat is much harder than running in cooler temperatures. In this blog I will consider why; and in part …
Today we are launching a huge list of searchable health / fitness / diet tips on pretty much every conceivable topic. This means whenever you have a health or fitness …
First let me say these apps don’t pay out a huge amount. No, it’s more like a trickle or nothing at all. However, if you are exercising anyway and if …
Everyone has seen the pretty images of power zones; you may have even created one as they are based on simple percentages. A “zone” simply means a band of power …
Science says everything you believe about warm ups is probably incorrect 🙈 Why do cyclists love warm-ups so much? Well let’s start with some non-specific claims about physiology….Warm ups are …
In January I caught covid19 for the 2nd time and needed a week’s break from training. This was relatively short compared with the 4 weeks off first time around. But …
During WWI and WWII rationing was compulsory in many countries and consisted of a balanced and calorie restricted diet of around 2300 calories (the average teen in the US eats …
Previously I wrote about why HIT or HIIT training beats threshold and tempo work on a like-for-like basis. You can read that blog here. I also explained why HIT has …
What is the Optimal Team Timetrial Strategy? If you are riding in a team online or IRL how do you pick a team? How do you decide who rides first? …
In the last blog I looked at the magnitude of the effect of aging on athletic performance, today I examine *why* fitness declines with age. In the next blog, I …
What is the story of wearing face masks during exercise and in particular the physiological effects upon breathing? During Covid millions of people have been wearing masks and arguing about …
Consider this list, what do you see? Eamon Coughlan ran the mile in 3:58:15 at 41 years Dara Torres won three Silver medals at Olympics at the age of 41 Yekaterina …
Lipid disorders (dyslipidemia) refer to abnormal levels of cholesterol and/or fats in the blood. Lipids are an energy source that constantly circulate from gut to liver and muscle. Fat and …
BACKGROUND Your blood is vital to your health, it is the lifeline to every organ in the body and it is a goldmine in terms of health monitoring. Any significant …
Today we look at the physiology underlying HIIT training with the aim of finding out the secret of why HIIT appears superior to many other training distributions. Background HIT stands …
old_but_not_dead_yet asked me about an interesting observation that the power-curve is more highly variable at short durations (eg 10s) than at longer durations (eg 10min) when it looks more concentrated. …
How hard do you find the famous 60m FTP test? Have you ever tried it? Popular opinion is it is horribly difficult. So much so most people are scared to …
I have been wondering for a long time, does fasted training work for endurance sports? I need a really strong reason to stop eating carbs before, during and after exercise, …
This is probably at the top of the FAQs. I was asked again today by Jake a beginner: “How do I improve my FTP via training?” Rather than go deep …
Swen wrote to me on ICU and said “I am a big fan of you and your experience and research in cycling. I have been riding structured training with polarised …
There are a lot of reasons to add gym work to your cycling. And if you do, it’s nice….actually essential…..to have a simple gym app which can help you log …
