Physiology of Sports

Besides mathematics and training one thing that interests me is physiology of sport and exercise. I am especially interested in the physiology and training theory of running, cycling and other endurance sports. If you train at a competitive level you (hopefully) wonder about what training method produces the best results. When planning their training some athletes rely heavily on experience and seem unaware of the fact that science and research have a lot to offer. I my opinion there are considerable improvements to be made if one really understands and uses the training methods and the results on nutrition and optimal recovery produced by scientists in physiology and sports medicine.

Unfortunately it is often very difficult for athletes to read scientific articles because of the technical language used by the scientists. There are ways to be updated on the developments in physiology and sports medicine even though one does not have a background in medicine or sports physiology. Motion Online is a web page made and maintained by two researchers at the Copenhagen Muscle Research Center. They communicate the latest developments in physiology and sports medicine in a precise but non-technical language. The page is recommendable but is not updated often enough. Another great source of low-tech articles is the research newsletter Peak Performance. The magazine is only available on subscription (call: (UK) 020 7251 3258). There is a lot to be learned from the articles and if one wants to know more about a specific topic precise references to original articles in scientific journals are given. After some time the articles published in the magazine will be available on their web page, Peak Performance. The articles are very well written and both the magazine and the web page are highly recommendable.

I should be obvious to most athletes that a training diary is essential for planning and keeping track of your training. Instead of buying these in a shop, I have made my own. If there is a need for it, I will make an English or German version too.
You can freely download it here ps, pdf.
Here is one with my name on it ps.