Strength & Mobility

Icy Paths and Trail Miles: Balance Training and Ankle Sprains

Winter trails, icy pavements and dark mornings make ankle sprains more likely. Balance training has good evidence for preventing repeat sprains, mostly from team sports. What it does, who benefits most and how a triathlete can use it.

Hips and Runner's Knee: Does Glute Strength Prevent or Fix Knee Pain?

Hip and knee exercise is one of the best-supported treatments for runner's knee. But weak hips don't seem to predict who gets it. What the trials show about fixing it, preventing it, and what that means for your winter run build.

Nordic Hamstring Curls: The Best-Evidenced Injury Exercise You're Not Doing

A meta-analysis said Nordic curls halve hamstring injuries, and a reappraisal called the effect inconclusive. What the football trials show, what transfers to triathletes, and how little you need to do.

Lifting to Failure? Reps in Reserve for Endurance Athletes

Meta-analyses find training to failure isn't needed for strength gains, and failure sets take longer to recover from. Why stopping a rep or two short suits triathletes who have to run or ride the next day.

Lifting and Endurance in the Same Week: Does the Interference Effect Matter?

Endurance training is said to blunt strength gains. A 2022 meta-analysis of 43 studies found it didn't blunt maximal strength or muscle growth, but did blunt explosive strength. What that means for a triathlete's week.

Does a Strong Core Make You Faster?

Core training reliably improves plank times and core tests. Whether it makes you swim, bike or run faster is far less clear. What the reviews and the small trials in runners, cyclists and swimmers actually show.

The Ten-Minute Morning Mobility Routine: Does a Daily Habit Change Anything?

Daily mobility routines are everywhere. Stretching meta-analyses show regular practice does increase range of motion, but frequency matters less than claimed, and the performance and injury promises are weak.

Gym or Home? What You Actually Lose Lifting With Bands, Dumbbells and Bodyweight

Elastic bands matched machines and free weights for strength gains in a meta-analysis of 7 small trials. What home kit genuinely can't do is load your legs heavily, and that matters for the strength work that helps endurance.

Heavy Lifting for Bike Power: What Gym Strength Does (and Doesn't Do) for Your FTP

A 2025 meta-analysis of 17 studies found heavy lifting gave cyclists moderate gains in time-trial performance and efficiency but no change in VO2max. What that means for your FTP, and where the evidence stops.

Does Hyrox Make You a Better Triathlete?

Hyrox is mostly running, done hard, with strength stations in between. What the one lab study of 11 athletes shows, why no one has tested whether it transfers to triathlon, and how to fit it in without losing your season.

Skipping for Speed: What Jump Rope Can and Can't Do for Your Run

One trial in 96 amateur runners found 10 to 20 minutes of jump rope a week in the warm-up improved 3 km time over 10 weeks. What else the evidence shows, why it's thin, and how to add skipping safely.

Mobility After 50: What Actually Declines and What's Worth Your Ten Minutes

Shoulder, trunk and hip mobility fade faster with age than knees and elbows. What a 6,000-person dataset, stretching meta-analyses and falls trials show, and where ten minutes is best spent after 50.

Mobility for the Aero Position: Hips, Hamstrings and Holding It for 180 km

Hamstring and hip mobility are linked to how low cyclists set their bars, and stretching reliably adds range. Whether mobility work lets a triathlete hold a lower aero position for 180 km has never been tested.

The Off-Season Strength Block: How Much You Can Build Now, and How Little Keeps It

Winter is the best time to build strength, and the evidence suggests one heavy session a week can hold it through the season. What building and maintenance trials in cyclists and other adults show, and how to plan both phases.

The Rowing Machine: Useful Cross-Training or Just Another Hour?

Fitness gained on a rowing machine transfers only partly to swimming, cycling and running. Where the erg genuinely helps a triathlete, where it steals time from specific training, and how to avoid the back pain it can cause.

Strength Training After 50: Why Power Matters More Than Strength

Muscle power fades earlier and faster with age than strength, even in lifelong lifters. What studies of 1,305 adults and master weightlifters show, and how a triathlete over 50 can train speed into their lifting.

Same Lifts, Different Plan? Strength Training for Women and Men

Do women need different exercises, lighter weights or a different plan? What three meta-analyses of men and women on the same programme found, why absolute and relative gains tell different stories, and what that means for triathletes.

Foam Rollers and Massage Guns: Recovery Tool or Ritual?

Foam rolling gives a small, short-lived boost to flexibility and can ease soreness a little. Massage guns have even thinner evidence. What the meta-analyses show, when rolling is worth it, and who should be careful.

Lifting for Bone: Why Swim-Bike Athletes Need Impact and Load

Swimming and cycling do little for bone, and road cyclists often have low bone density. What heavy lifting and jumping trials show, who they studied, and how a triathlete can build impact and load safely.

Dryland Strength That Transfers to the Water

Strength training improves sprint swimming in competitive swimmers, mainly by raising stroke rate. Whether it speeds up a triathlete's 1,500 m is far less clear. What's worth doing, and why.

Swimmer's Shoulder in Triathletes: Load, Not Just Technique

Shoulder pain in swimmers is mostly a load problem. Volume, sudden increases and paddle use show up repeatedly in the evidence. How triathletes can build swim training without paying for it in the shoulder.

Two Sessions a Week: The Best-Evidenced Way to Train Durability

One randomised, performance-matched trial found strength and plyometric training twice a week lifted post-fatigue time to exhaustion by 35% in runners — with an honest caveat about transfer to cycling.

Calf and Achilles Capacity: Progressive Tendon Loading for Triathletes

Rest, ice, and new shoes aren't what the evidence supports for building Achilles capacity. Progressive tendon loading is the cornerstone — here's what's proven, what's still unresolved, and when to see a professional.

Jumps or Iron? What Plyometric Training Really Does for Triathlon Run Speed

Plyometrics are pitched as a shortcut to a faster run split. The evidence says heavy strength training helps more on average, jumps work best at easy paces, and the one triathlon-specific trial improved movement, not economy.

The Minimum Effective Dose: How Little Strength Training a Time-Crunched Triathlete Actually Needs

Most triathletes skip strength training because there's no time. Here's what the research says about the smallest dose that still counts, and where the evidence gets extrapolated.

Should You Stretch Before You Run? What the Research Actually Shows

Pre-run static stretching is a near-universal habit, but multiple systematic reviews suggest it's performance-neutral to mildly negative and doesn't reliably prevent injury. Here's what to do instead.

Balance Training Works Best After Your First Sprain

Myth: A rolled ankle is a one-off that heals by itself.

You Don't Need to Lift to Failure to Get Stronger

Myth: The last grinding rep is the one that makes you stronger.

Weak Glutes Don't Predict Runner's Knee

Myth: Weak glutes cause runner's knee, so clamshells prevent it.

Nordic Curls Don't Reliably Halve Hamstring Injuries

Myth: Nordic curls halve your hamstring injury risk.

A daily mobility routine builds range, not injury protection

Myth: a daily mobility routine prevents injuries.

Tight hamstrings aren't proven to limit your aero position

Myth: tight hamstrings stop you getting low.

Balance and strength, not stretching alone, keep older athletes steady

Myth: stretching is the key to ageing well.

After 50, Staying Strong Isn't Enough: Power Fades Faster

Myth: Staying strong is enough as you age.

Do Women Need a Different Strength Plan From Men?

Myth: Women need lighter weights and different exercises.

A stronger core improves core tests more than race speed

Myth: A strong core is the key to going faster.

Keeping winter strength takes less than you think

Myth: You have to keep lifting twice a week or lose it all.

Endurance training doesn't kill your strength gains

Myth: Running and cycling kill your gains in the gym.

Heavy lifting helps bike power, but not by raising VO2max

Myth: Lifting heavy won't help an endurance cyclist.

Will Jump Rope Make You a Faster Runner?

Myth: Skipping is a running speed hack.

Can the Rowing Machine Replace Triathlon Training?

Myth: Erg fitness is triathlon fitness.

Is Hyrox Really a Strength Race?

Myth: Hyrox is a strength event.

Can You Get Strong Training at Home?

Myth: You can't get strong without a gym.

Swimming and cycling don't build bone

Myth: all that swimming and cycling keeps your bones strong.

Foam rolling is a warm-up aid, not essential recovery

Myth: foam rolling is essential recovery.

Swimmer's shoulder is a load problem, not a flexibility one

Myth: swimmer's shoulder is about flexibility — too loose, or too tight.

Strength training probably won't fix your swim split

Myth: get stronger in the gym, get faster in the water — same as the bike and run.

Two strength sessions a week beat more running

Myth: running volume is what actually builds durability.

Rest isn't fixing your Achilles

Myth: rest and stretch your Achilles until the pain goes away.

Plyometrics won't save your knees

Myth: add jumps and get a faster run, guaranteed.

'More gym time = better' is mostly false

Myth: more gym time always means better results.

Stop static stretching before you run

Myth: stretching before you run prevents injury.