We Built the HIIT Science Taxonomy on Logic. Now We Have the Data. With Dr Martin Buchheit and Prof Paul Laursen

What separates a good coach from a great one? Sometimes, it comes down to the words they use, the systems they build, and their ability to connect with athletes. In this episode, Dr Nick Winkelman joins us to reflect on his journey from helping develop EXOS into a globally recognized coaching education platform to leading athletic performance within Irish Rugby. Nick shares how the EXOS training philosophy helped reshape approaches to movement preparation, why effective performance systems ...

What does it actually take to become a faster HYROX athlete? Dr Charlie Davids joins us to explore the physiological demands of HYROX, combining his research in muscle physiology and strength training with his own experience competing in the sport. The conversation examines why aerobic capacity provides the foundation for HYROX performance, how lactate threshold and critical speed influence race pacing, and why muscular endurance may become more important than maximal strength once athletes r...

Developing a footballer is about more than preparing them for the next match. It means understanding what that individual player needs to keep training, developing, and ultimately reach their potential. Mattia Modonutti joins us to share his approach to player development and performance within elite football. Rather than treating performance as a collection of separate disciplines and datasets, Mattia explains why the real value comes from getting coaches, strength and conditioning staff, n...

For decades, VO2 max, movement economy, and fractional utilization of VO2max have been widely presented as three key determinants of endurance performance. But how strong is the evidence for that third piece? Yannick Sondermann and Dr Lars Schwalm join us this week to challenge some long standing assumptions around fractional utilization and explore whether it truly deserves the weight it has been given in traditional endurance performance models. Drawing on their recently published work, the...

We have more athlete tracking data than ever before. But are we actually measuring what matters? Dr Ted Polglaze joins the podcast to reflect on more than three decades in sports science, from manually tracking athletes on VHS tapes to the arrival of GPS and today's increasingly sophisticated approaches to measuring movement and load. His career has spanned multiple Olympic campaigns, elite field hockey, water polo, rowing, and other high performance environments. The conversation dives int...