A few years back, I went mountain biking in the Julian Alps in Slovenia (which is where I took the picture at the top of this post). Before booking the trip, I read through this big list of requirements I was supposed to meet, which included “considerable experience” of riding on a wide variety of […]
The Maximum Heart Rate Myth
Not long ago, my sister-in-law threw down the gauntlet and issued a “lockdown challenge” to see who could run 5 kilometers (3 miles) the fastest. I ended up doing it in a little over 25 minutes, which I was reasonably happy with given that I’m not much of a runner. What’s interesting (to me, anyway) […]
Why I’d Rather Lick the Foot of a Medieval Peasant than Go Swimming
I once declared that the idea of going for a swim is about as appealing as licking the foot of a medieval peasant. And there were plenty of reasons why. I didn’t like the idea of swimming through all the chemicals and gunk that ends up in a swimming pool… busy swimming pools are like […]
Training to Failure: Does It Help or Hurt Muscle Growth?
How does training to failure affect your ability to build muscle? Does it speed it up, slow it down, or make no difference at all? One of the latest studies to ask that question comes from researchers based at Brazil’s University of São Paolo. They rounded up a group of men, and got them to […]
Ex-SAS Commander Reveals the Hidden Weakness That All Men Have
“Some psychologists say that men are particularly prone to this tendency of being attracted to the new, unusual, noisy and shiny over the less showy, perhaps more routine matters. It can catch us out, for novelty and glitter are no true measures of importance, actual or relative.”– Cedric Delves, Across an Angry Sea: The SAS […]
This Is How Often You Should Train to Maximize Muscle Growth
In the past few years, there’s been a lot of interest in high frequency training programs, which involve working each muscle group 4, 5 or even 6 days a week. The idea is that exposing your muscles to a stimulus more often will cause them to adapt more quickly, leading to better, faster results. This […]