For decades lactate was one of the most misunderstood molecules in exercise physiology. It became the villain of high-intensity exercise. Coaches blamed it for fatigue. Athletes blamed it for the burning sensation in their legs. Textbooks described it as a waste product that accumulated when oxygen delivery could no longer meet demand. That narrative was outdated 30 years ago but it still persists in places and is still passionately pursued by some coaches today. Now we hear

A new BMJ Open paper highlights an important problem: fluent answers are not always accurate answers. People are turning to chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini to get health advice, athletes and practitioners use it to get nutrition advice or updates… or performance advice. But how reliable are these chatbots when the topic is health, nutrition or performance? I was fortunate to be part of a group of established researchers that aimed to address exactly that question. In a stud

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in sport has not only transformed workflows; it has triggered an emotional response. Excitement, curiosity, scepticism and fear coexist in equal measure. Among nutritionists, coaches, sport scientists and performance staff, one question has come to dominate the discussion: " Will AI replace sports practitioners?". The question is understandable. When software can automatically generate fuelling plans, detect performance trends o

Over the past decade, sports nutrition has quietly become one of the most technologically driven areas of performance support. Sports nutritionists, sports dietitians and athletes now interact with artificial intelligence (AI) every day, often without realising it: readiness scores pushed to their phones upon waking, automated messages interpreting training data after a ride or run, and wearable-generated summaries telling athletes whether they recovered “well” or “poorly.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly become one of the most frequently referenced concepts in high-performance sport. It is discussed in recruitment, in training planning, in tactical decision-making, and increasingly in sports nutrition. Yet although the term is used widely, the understanding of what AI is, how it works and what the underlying mechanisms are, is often limited. To practitioners sitting in the applied performance space (coaches, sport scientists, nutrition

“Does REDs exist?” is the title of a paper we recently published (1). After many years assuming REDs was based on a solid evidence base,...

The fourth edition of the textbook Sport Nutrition by Professor Michael Gleeson and myself was published on 5th June 2024. For the last 2 years we have been working closely with the publishers Human Kinetics to get this 700-page book published. A lot has happened in the world of sports nutrition since the last edition in 2018 and the new textbook reflects this! Here we will briefly discuss what is new in this textbook and why it should be adopted for college, university and

In a series of previous blogs on mysportscience, the role of blood glucose was discussed and we highlighted what insights Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) can provide athletes now and possibly in the future. In this blog, Dr Nicola Guess highlights the multifactorial nature of glucose metabolism, challenging the notion of straightforward causal links between food intake and glycemic responses. In previous blogs Dr Mike Riddell and I discussed opportunities and also some li

Glycogen is essential for high intensity exercise performance. A review concluded that elevated glycogen concentration can improve performance by 2-3% and endurance capacity by 15-25%. Muscle glycogen concentrations can be increased by eating a diet that is rich in carbohydrate. However, studies in the 70s suggested that extreme glycogen loading protocols resulted in very high muscle glycogen concentrations. These protocols employed combinations of high carbohydrate days, low

The question of whether mild dehydration (~2-3% body mass loss) really affects athletic performance is crucial. While several studies...

Oxygenated water has been a topic of interest for many years. Products appear on the market with impressive claims about health and...

5 years ago we started to organise a Leaders in Performance Conference (LPC) at the National Training Center in Papendal. It was a...

Sugar is often labelled as being “bad” for health. Some headlines claim sugar causes obesity, as well as cancer, cardiovascular disease or premature death. In contrast, sugars are labelled as “good” for athletes during exercise. Various sports nutrition products are marketed based on their high sugar content to fuel performance. In the first blog in this series, we discussed what sugar is. In the second blog we discussed the importance of sugar in metabolism. Now we will tu

Misinformation is everywhere. It affects how we think, how we behave, and the decisions we make. Nowhere is this truer than in the global...

Pseudoscience is almost the opposite of science, even though it dresses up in science’s clothes.

It is tempting to think that all foods labelled “natural”, “all natural”, or “100% natural” are healthier. But what does natural actually...

In one of the early blogs on mysportscience, we discussed how many athletes start building a pyramid from the top without a solid...

Good nutrition choices can support the health and performance of footballers, whereby the intake, type, quantity and timing of foods,...

Sodium bicarbonate is a household product commonly known as baking soda that many may be familiar with. What some may not know is that...

Below are the 5 most popular blogs on mysportscience.com in 2022! Click the title to read... 1. Kevin Tipton will never be forgotten At...