Steve Magness

Thrilled to announce my new book: Step Into the Arena!

It's for anyone who takes the risk to explore what they're capable of. It's about learning to compete, to handle the pressure, fear, doubts, and that voice in our head telling us to stop.

I can't wait for you to read it!

Mindless hard work is easy.

Anyone can bash their head against the wall with more and more work.

What's difficult:

Being able to work hard AND know when to step back, take a break, and recharge.

It's the balance that matters.

We settled the Zone 2 vs. HIIT debate in the 1950s.

I wrote a long piece on the history and science of training easy and with intensity, and why we keep screaming at each other online: stevemagness.org/p/we-settled-t…

HIIT isn't a cure-all.

If you are doing HIIT every day, you are basically training like a miler in the 1930s

Please come to the 21st century, where we mix all intensities

The magic of exercise is utilizing all the intensities to prepare for the demands you face in your events!

Which runner will do better?

Runner A- Bases training on the best research intervention training studies.
Runner B- Bases training on the best practices established by current coaching knowledge.

Easy answer: B. Yet, everyone wants a peer reviewed study to prove a training idea works...

This isn't to discount science. I'm an exercise scientist. It's great. But when it comes to training studies, because of the limitations and constraints, they often fall short of the real world. Research helps to explaiN WHY something works, the mechanisms. That's important, it helps coaches refine.

But when it comes to training knowledge/theory, real world coaching tends to find what works much quicker and better. Why? Because in running, the clock doesn't lie. We have a natural selection of training theories, where a large number of people try different approaches, and the ones that have a large enough signal to show improvement, stick around. It's a kind of survival of the fittest ideas.

Again, we need both, science and coaching practice. The best utilize both.

But, increasingly I've noticed when I suggest a workout style, someone asks for a peer reviewed study to back it up. That's the wrong question.