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Running form is one of those topics where everyone has an opinion and almost nobody agrees. Coaches tell you to run tall. Physios tell you to stop heel striking. Instagram tells you to forefoot strike. Podcasts tell you not to overthink it. The noise is substantial enough that many runners tune it out entirely and decide their form is probably fine.Sometimes it is. Often it is not. And the cost of poor form is not always obvious, because it tends to show up as accumulated inj

Plyometrics is one of those categories that gets treated as a single thing when it is actually several distinct things with meaningfully different mechanisms and outcomes. Box jumps, depth jumps, bounding, pogo hops - these are not interchangeable variations of the same stimulus. They sit at different points on a spectrum defined by ground contact time, and that single variable determines whether you are training explosive power, reactive strength, or something in between.

For trail runners trying to use isometric work deliberately rather than just adding holds to a programme because they sound useful, the distinction between yielding and overcoming isometrics is worth understanding properly.

Tendons do not respond to training the way muscles do, and most runners' strength programmes don't account for this. Muscles adapt readily to a wide range of stimuli - heavy lifting, bodyweight work, plyometrics, even running itself. Tendons are slower, more particular tissue, and the type of loading that builds tendon resilience most effectively is one that almost nobody programmes deliberately: the isometric hold.For mountain runners, whose sport places extreme and repeated

Sports science produces a lot of useful findings, and we cite them regularly. But there is a limitation built into almost every study in the exercise physiology literature that rarely gets acknowledged when the findings get distilled into training advice: the results describe what happened to the average participant across the sample, and you are not the average participant. You are one specific person with a specific training history, specific genetics, specific sleep patter

Most trail runners treat rest after a race or a training block as a binary: either they're training or they're not, and the "not" part is something to get through as quickly as possible before returning to normal and getting back to training.

Continuous glucose monitors were not designed for trail runners. They were designed for people with diabetes, for whom real-time glucose data is a clinical necessity rather than a performance curiosity. But over the last several years, CGMs have migrated aggressively into the endurance sports market, propelled by a wave of commercial interest, athlete testimonials, and a genuinely appealing idea: what if you could see your glucose in real time and use it to make better fuelli

Ask most runners what "aerobic training" means and they'll tell you it means running at a comfortable pace. That's not wrong, but it's incomplete enough to cause real problems in how people structure their training. The aerobic system doesn't operate as a single switch that's either on or off. It operates across a spectrum and as a system, and different points on that spectrum produce different physiological adaptations, recruit different fuel sources, and serve very differen

What happens if you replace one or more of your weekly runs with strength training sessions? Does your aerobic fitness suffer? Does your running performance hold, improve, or decline? And is there an optimal way to structure a week that includes both without one undermining the other? Or the quintessential question - can I get race-ready just by getting under the barbell?

The Romanian deadlift is the cleanest, most direct way to train the hinge pattern, which is arguably more important for the specific demands of trail running, where eccentric control on descents and hip extension power on climbs are both posterior-chain dominant qualities.

Three tests that together paint a meaningfully complete picture of where one actually stands as an endurance athlete, and that generate specific, actionable data that no general health panel or 'feel' provides.

The question of whether to lift barefoot, in minimalist shoes, or in standard training shoes is worth examining carefully – particularly for trail runners, who have both specific foot mechanics and specific training goals that make the answer more nuanced than it might appear.

A closer look into what running economy is, what it's beneficial for, and how to train for it.

There is no shortage of opinions on what kind of strength training trail runners should do. Some coaches prescribe heavy barbell work, while others advocate for dumbbell-based programmes. Many runners default to bodyweight because it's accessible and familiar, and a fair number cycle between all three without a clear rationale for why. The bodyweight vs dumbbell vs barbell debate, or the question of which modality is best, however, isn't quite the right question. Each modalit

In this article, we present tips on how to smartly strategise low heart rate training and ease the stress around endurance training.