Every guide, one place
One long guide per lane so far. We'd rather publish four articles you can trust than forty you'd have to fact-check yourself.
Zone 2 Training: The Slow Work That Makes You Fast
Why elite endurance athletes spend most of their time going slow, how to find your Zone 2 heart rate and how to fit it into a busy week.
What to Eat Before, During and After Exercise
How to fuel training properly: what to eat and when, how much carbohydrate and protein you need, hydration, and easy meal ideas.
Shin Splints: Why They Happen and How to Get Back to Running
What causes shin splints, how to treat them, the exercises that help and a step-by-step plan to return to running pain-free.
Pre-Game Nerves: How to Turn Anxiety Into Performance
Why trying to calm down often backfires, and practical techniques to make pre-competition nerves work for you.
Choose where to start
Not sure which guide fits? Pick the lane that matches your biggest question right now.
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1
Training
Endurance, strength and how to plan a week. Getting fitter month after month without burning out or breaking down.Now reading: Zone 2 training explained
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2
Nutrition
What to eat, when and how much. Fuelling training, competition and recovery without the fads.Now reading: Workout nutrition timing
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3
Recovery
Injury prevention, rehab and the recovery habits that keep you training. Sleep, load management and common sports injuries.Now reading: Shin splints recovery guide
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4
Mindset
Sport psychology made practical. Nerves, focus, motivation and confidence for match day and every day.Now reading: Beating pre-game nerves
Read in any order
Every guide on Sports Health Guide is written to stand on its own. You don't need to read them in order, and you don't need any background in sports science.
If you're new to structured training, start with Zone 2 training. It introduces ideas, like training load and easy versus hard effort, that come up across the site.
If something hurts, go straight to the Recovery lane. Our shin splints guide includes a step-by-step return-to-running plan that also works as a template for other overuse injuries.
If you have a big event coming up, read the fuelling guide and the pre-game nerves guide together. Between them they cover most of what goes wrong on race day.
Each guide opens with a short summary, so you can get the main points in a minute and come back for the detail later. The contents list on the left (or at the top on a phone) lets you jump straight to the section you need.
Quick corrections
A few of the most common bits of bad advice we see, with links to the guides that go deeper.
MythEvery session should leave you exhausted.
What the evidence saysMost endurance athletes improve faster when the majority of sessions are easy. Exhaustion every day usually means stalled progress and higher injury risk. Why easy training works.
MythYou have to eat protein within 30 minutes of training.
What the evidence saysYour daily total matters far more. A normal meal within a couple of hours is fine for most people. Our fuelling guide.
MythRest completely until the pain is gone.
What the evidence saysFor most overuse injuries, reduced activity that doesn't aggravate symptoms works better than complete rest. The shin splints guide shows how.
MythIf you're nervous, just calm down.
What the evidence saysTrying to force calm often backfires. Reframing nerves as excitement tends to help more. The pre-game nerves guide.
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New guides as they come out, plus one practical training idea. Sunday mornings, and short enough to read over coffee.