This week on Spotlight, we dive DEEP into the world of physiology, pacing, fatigue and the brain. Using some enthralling races from Kona and Chicago at the weekend, and your Discourse questions and comments, we explore how pacing ‘errors’ happens, and the physiological consequences of those mistakes
Latest podcast: The Science of Cramps
💥 Ever cramped mid-race?
Pickle juice might help…but it’s not the sodium 🧂🥒
We unpack the real science of muscle cramps, and how a fatigue induced malfunction, not electrolytes, may be to blame
🎧 Listen now: podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/t...
Our latest @sportsscipod podcast:
Why are elite athletes aiming for + 120g of carbs/hour?
Is it necessary & why does it work? And what happened to fat adaptation?
We explore the paradigm shift in the fuelling of performance with Dr Jamie Whitfield
🎧 podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/t...
🚨 New Spotlight has landed!
🌍 Non-African distance dominance - ripple or revolution?
❌ Weak science behind trans athlete's no advantage claim
✅ Muscle cramp myths & reality
📉 Trust in sports science: what's gone wrong?
🎧 Listen now: podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/s... @scienceofsportpod.bsky.social
🎙️New podcast: The Replication Crisis Hits Sports Science.
72% of sports science studies could NOT be replicated.
Effect sizes dropped 75%.
Nearly 90% of researchers wouldn’t even share data. We explore bad incentives, a crisis of trust & how to fix it
🎧 podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/m...
🎙️ New Spotlight episode:
🔬 Do elite #ComradesMarathon runners really race on fat alone? (Spoiler: no)
📊 What science says about carbs, fats and endurance
🎾 Sinner's loss, tennis' win?
🏃♂️ Best practices for retraining after injury layoff
Listen now: podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/s...
Train → Recover → Adapt → Perform.
Recovery is the key.
Ice baths, compression boots, cherry juice—they all promise miracles. But which ones deliver? Which are just hype?
Our latest podcast breaks down the science:
podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/t...
Thank you, that may be very welcome, we are looking at making some changes! I'll get back to you - Loved your piece on Ozempic, by the way, let's be in touch about that too, if you'd like! email maybe: ross@sportsscientists.com
The Real Science of Recovery:
Training doesn’t make you better—recovery does, by unlocking adaptation to drive performance.
But most recovery methods are BS, so what actually works?
Our latest Feature Podcast explores and cuts through the recovery hype
🎙️ podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/t...
🎙️ New Spotlight is out now. We cover:
🚴 Yates’ Giro raid, power insights, and tactical bewilderment
💉 Enhanced Games' PED grift
🥊 Sex screening in women’s boxing
🏃♂️ Ultra cheating & warm-up science
Sport, seen through the X-ray of sports science.
🎧 podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/s...
🚴♂️💥 We’re talking training intensity and physiological bankruptcy
🏉🟥 We’re talking 20 min red cards and risk reduction
📰🧪 We’re talking NFL tush push decisions, record runs, & Enhanced Games grifters
Your latest @sportsscipod Spotlight has landed:
podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/t...
A new podcast, where we interview Stephen Seiler about polarized training, his journey to understand what elite athletes & coaches have done to solve the performance problems they face, and how it may apply to you. Great insight from one of the greats.
Latest Podcast - Can You Trust Your Sports Watch?
Dr Joe Warne has spent hours both testing and working with modern tech devices with a key interest in finding out how reliable and trustworthy the data is. Which metrics can you trust, how to interpret them and what the future of tech holds.
In this emergency Spotlight, Gareth and Ross discuss the agreement between Sinner and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), and explain why both parties would have been incentivized to reach a settlement rather than go to arbitration at CAS in mid-April.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
Polarised🆚Pyramidal🆚Threshold
Which training model is best?🏆
It might matter how trained you are🤔
Our new meta-analysis tries to answer which training intervention produces the greatest improvements in endurance performance in trained athletes
Thread🧵 & 🔗links below👇
#SportScience #EnduranceSport
New podcast is out - A Cricket Special with Gary Kirsten: Is test cricket under threat? / The dying skill of fast bowling / Coaching the best from school to elite
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...
New podcast is out - The Role of the Modern Physio: Lessons from the Royal Marines with Rich Hales
Discover the role of a physiotherapist in both prevention & recovery. How data drives much of the research, why old-school physio techniques are questionable & whether biomechanics make a difference
New year, new social media and first new podcast of 2025.
Chief Sports Writer of The Guardian, Sean Ingle joins Mike Finch and Ross Tucker @thescienceofsport.bsky.social to discuss how predictions for the last 25 years panned out and what the next 25 might hold
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/w...
This is fun to think about, impossible to get right. I can't see the 'brains in chips' & injury prediction one being close to delivery, though. Unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately) the brain is little more complicated than that! We will discuss more with @seaningle.bsky.social on a podcast soon!
Spoke to several very smart people (including @LewisWiltshire, @Scienceofsport, Alan Pascoe and a few others off the record) for today's Guardian column:
A vision of sport in 2050: robot leagues, chips in brains and players in their 50s
www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/j...
Hey Dave sorry to hear that. What’s the message or error you are seeing? Because it appears to be working for me and Gareth? Let me know we will look into it. Maybe an access issue we can fix!
Our latest podcast - Insider Insights in an Exclusive Interview with Sprint Prodigy Gout Gout's Manager. We discuss talent trajectories, Gout's potential, how he'll cope with the hype, his 25/26 goals, and plans to turn his teen records into adult success: podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/e...
First post here may as well be to a podcast. Our latest show was a Spotlight episode in which we talk about Iga Swiatek and doping’s big “no fault” challenge podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/t...
