This show is focused primarily on nutrition for athletic performance, but this week I go into my roots a little more, discussing the physiology side of sport in a little more depth. A big goal of mine through this podcast is education, and I’m a strong believer in evidence-informed understanding of the fundamentals of physiology and biochemistry to really grasp the essentials of performance and nutrition as athletes.
So, in this episode, I talk about the 3 primary physiological determinants of endurance performance: aerobic VO2, anaerobic VO2, and exercise economy. I define them as well as endurance at large, and some of the nerdy sciencey stuff behind them. Of course, I weave in some nutrition discussion and also why we must zoom out and see the big picture beyond the reductionist focus on these metrics to thrive as athletes and as humans. I thought it was a good conversation, so I hope you enjoy!
The Physiology of Champions paper
image courtesy of Joyner et al.