Periodised carbohydrate training has become the latest buzzword among endurance athletes. Essentially it means matching your diet to your workload and new research suggests it may improve endurance performance and make you a more efficient fat burner. The idea behind training with low glycogen stores (‘training low’) is that it forces the muscles to burn more…
Think a vegetarian diet can’t give you the right nutrition for your training? Well think again – there are plenty of examples of world-class athletes who have shunned meat. David Haye, Lizzie Armistead, and Serena and Venus Williams, Brendan Brazier and Martina Navratilova to name a few. Whether you’re a veggie sceptic, a committed vegetarian, a part-time veggie…
Despite the rising popularity and well-documented health benefits of vegetarian diets, relatively little research has been done on the impact on athletic performance. In the first study of its kind, researchers at Arizona State University have shown that a vegetarian diet can support strength and cardiorespiratory fitness development, and that some vegetarian athletes may even…
8th June 2016 For years, we’ve been told that saturated fat is bad for the heart. The dogma was that this particular type of fat raises levels of cholesterol, promotes atherosclerosis and causes heart disease. But a new report and rash of media headlines (‘Eat Fat to get thin’) has claimed that saturated fat doesn’t…
8th June 2016 I’m not in the business of commercial endorsement but when an opportunity comes along to help bring a bit of balance back into the healthy eating debate, then I’m all for it! This week I was delighted to get behind the new ‘Powered by Bread’ campaign that aims to encourage young active…
19th May 2016 Many sports supplements make bold claims about boosting performance but only a few are backed up by credible research. In the third article of this 5-part series on supplements, I look at the evidence for caffeine. What is it? Caffeine is a stimulant that’s legal, relatively safe and found in many everyday foods…
18th April 2016 Many sports supplements make bold claims about boosting performance but only a few are backed up by credible research. In the second article of this 5-part series on supplements, I look at the evidence for beetroot juice. What is it? Beetroot juice (and beetroot) is a rich source of nitrate. It’s worth…
Many sports supplements make bold claims about boosting performance but only a few are backed up by credible research. In the first article of a new 5-part series on supplements, I look at the evidence for whey protein. What is it? When it comes to building muscle, whey protein is by far the most researched…
17th February 2016 One of the most frequent questions I get asked by runners after a talk is how to prevent or cope with gastro-intestinal (GI) problems and transit troubles during training and races. It’s not an issue many like to talk about openly but it’s one that’s surprisingly common among endurance athletes. It is…
