Sports Science

Almost everyone has experienced a situation where they have to step away from their workout routine for one reason or another. Perhaps it’s due to an injury or illness or a life circumstance like a new job, relocation, or new baby, making it impossible to get to the gym with your usual consistency or intensity. … Read more

During any type of cardio workout, your heart rate increases above resting levels. Indeed, the whole purpose of aerobic exercise is to elevate your heart rate in order to strengthen your heart and lungs and improve the efficiency of the cardiovascular system. But, how long should you have an elevated heart rate after exercise? What … Read more

There are many concepts of training that endurance athletes have to become familiar with. A common example is VO2 max. Another important physiological metric for runners, cyclists, triathletes, and other endurance athletes is the anaerobic threshold.  So, what is anaerobic threshold? How do you increase your anaerobic threshold, and why does it matter? In this … Read more

Depending on your familiarity with anatomy, you probably are well-versed in your knowledge of bones, joints, muscles, tendons, and ligaments, all of which are important components of the musculoskeletal system. However, there are other types of tissue that surround your muscles and joints, such as cartilage and fascia. Although most athletes have a vague understanding … Read more

Most people have experienced a muscle knot at one time or another. Muscle knots can occur in virtually any muscle or fascia tissue in the body but are particularly common in the calves, the trapezius in the upper back, lower back muscles, and shoulders. But what is a muscle knot? What causes muscle knots? And … Read more

Many runners are familiar with endorphins, which are the feel-good, pain-relieving natural compounds thought to be chiefly responsible for the elusive runner’s high. Other athletic or thrilling events are said to elicit an endorphin rush.  For example, you might experience an endorphin rush re-racking your loaded barbell after smashing your previous 1RM weight, or you … Read more

Every single function and movement of the body requires energy. The energy currency of the body (and all living organisms) is an energy-carrying molecule known as adenosine triphosphate or ATP for short. Although some people may recall hearing about ATP from their days in high school biology class, the specifics of how ATP functions and … Read more

Monitoring your heart rate during exercise can help you gauge the intensity of your workouts, and checking your resting heart rate can provide insight into your state of recovery and overall cardiovascular efficiency, but what about your heart rate recovery? What is heart rate recovery (HRR), and what does HRR tell you about your cardiovascular … Read more

Runners or other athletes often feel like one or more joints are unduly tight or that they have limited mobility in a certain joint. But what is range of motion, and how is range of motion measured? What is the normal range of motion for a hip? The normal ankle ROM? Or the normal range … Read more

Although most people don’t spend nearly as much time or attention strengthening the muscles responsible for shoulder and hip adduction and abduction, these movements are still important for functional movement.  In this article, we will discuss abduction vs adduction and how to strengthen the muscles that abduct vs adduct the shoulder and hip. We will … Read more

If you have ever finished a set of heavy squats and found your legs trembling after you re-rack the weights, you’re not alone. Shaking after a workout and muscle shaking during workouts are fairly common phenomena that are typically not a cause for concern. But you are probably asking yourself, why do I shake when I … Read more

The three planes of motion describe movements that occur in three anatomical planes. You can visualize the planes as flat surfaces of slices of space that divide the body or movements of the body as occurring in the front and back direction, side-to-side direction, and rotational direction. Even if you are just an average gym … Read more