Environmental training

Treadmill running and natural running differences Q. I was very interested to read Owen Anderson’s recent piece about treadmill training (PP164, May 2002). Clearly there are differences between treadmill running and natural running, the biggest being the effect of wind resistance: running at 5m/sec on a treadmill is equivalent to running in a 5m/sec following […]

In related work carried out by researchers at the University of Copenhagen, competitive rowers who trained at sea level achieved significantly greater gains in fitness, compared to rowers who trained at altitude. Nine rowers who trained at sea level for three weeks raised their maximal aerobic capacity (V02max) by an average of 4 per cent […]

Different running surfaces have different effects on performance and vary in the likelihood of causing an injury The surfaces on which athletes run on can play a large role in determining how well they perform – and how likely they are to get injured. To understand why this is so, it’s important to realize that […]

Training in the cold As the nights continue to draw in and the cold to deepen, those late evening or early morning training sessions you once completed in nothing but a pair of shorts and vest seem but a distant memory. Now dragging yourself from a warm bed or cosy armchair is a battle in […]

Cold weather training: what your mother forgot to tell you Why does getting chilled to the bone or soaking wet during a winter workout seem to increase your risk of catching a cold, even though you know logically that colds result from exposure to viruses, not cold, damp air? Why does exercising in the cold […]

Follow this eating plan to stop high altitude getting you down. Altitude training has been a popular (if controversial) option ever since the 1968 Olympics held in Mexico (at 2,300 metres). While it seems clear that training at altitude will be beneficial for competing at that same altitude, some studies have found that athletes have […]

How temperature affects performance – Why Heat’s Not Such a Bad Thing According to popular wisdom, heat exposure damages exercise performance, while lowering body temperature improves it. But this theory has been cast into doubt by a new study which showed no difference in maximal exercise performance in healthy subjects exposed alternately to hot (35ºC) […]

Cool weather heat stroke risk Most athletes, particularly those doing running exercise, only worry about heat stroke in hot conditions. But a case report of a near-fatal incident during a cool-weather marathon in the US suggests they may need to think again. A well-trained male runner in his late 30s collapsed 10m before the finish of […]

Pre-cooling techniques increase performance in the heat As winter begins to take hold, you’re probably more concerned with staying warm over the coming months than with devising strategies to cool your body even further. It is true that research has tended to focus on how body cooling can aid the performance of endurance athletes competing […]

The effects of face-cooling during hyperthermic exercise There’s no doubt that effective face-cooling strategies can help improve sport performance in very hot conditions. However (as Matt Lancaster has indicated elsewhere in this issue), effective cooling protocols are not always convenient or possible during match or race conditions. Face-cooling (applying cold packs to the forehead) as […]