This week on the Athletes Compass Podcast, we tackle a common and painful issue faced by many athletes: muscle cramps. We challenge the widely held belief that they are primarily due to electrolyte imbalances. Instead, @Prof presents compelling evidence that cramps are largely a neuromuscular issue, triggered by unfamiliar tasks and neuromuscular fatigue.
Key Takeaways:
Cramps are more often due to neuromuscular fatigue rather than dehydration or lack of electrolytes.
Proper, context-specific training is essential to prevent cramps.
Stretching can provide immediate relief during a cramp by resetting neuromuscular communication.
Tune in for a deep dive into the science behind muscle cramps and get practical tips on how to train smarter and prevent these painful episodes. Let’s rethink our approach to training and hydration!
This week on The Athlete’s Compass podcast, @Prof, @SimpleEnduranceCoach and @Marjaana meet Athletica athlete Bart Buczek (@Bart ) and hear his heartwarming story of how he went from no athletic background to a sub-9 hour Ironman after experiencing a life changing diagnosis.
Bart’s journey underscores the importance of consistency and training smart, rather than just high volume. His story is a powerful reminder that everyone has the potential for greatness within them. Whether you’re an everyday athlete or aspiring to be one, Bart’s insights and experiences offer valuable lessons in resilience and dedication.
Tune in to hear Bart’s full story and get inspired to achieve your own fitness goals. Listen now on Athletes Compass podcast!
This week we dive into a fascinating listener question about the benefits of heat and altitude training.
Discover how heat acclimation can lower your heart rate, increase plasma volume, and make exercising in hot conditions easier. We explore whether heat training can serve as a substitute for altitude training, and offer practical tips on how to incorporate it into your routine.
Nutritional strategies also come into play—did you know ketone supplements might enhance your performance at altitude? Learn about respiratory muscle training and how it can strengthen your performance in high-intensity, low-oxygen environments.
We need your help! We absolutely LOVE talking to our athletes, and answering your questions, so please keep them coming!
Next episode planning is in full swing: We will explore how to optimize your performance by managing arousal and anxiety levels!
We will discuss the theory of arousal and its impact on athletic performance. Whether you’re struggling with pre-race jitters or feeling too relaxed during competitions, we’ve got practical tips to help you find your optimal zone for peak performance.
Got questions about managing your arousal or anxiety? We want to hear from you! Drop your questions in the comments or fill out this form: https://forms.gle/VoPhwCV6bkznsFz88
OR drop your questions about training, fitness and health, or any topic we’ve discussed in the past episodes and you’d like to ask us a follow-up question! The floor is YOURS!
Hey I’m bringing this up again for our new athletes!
Did you know we have a podcast focusing on everyday athletes and we love to answer your questions! We have interviewed some of our athletes and would love to have more of you in the podcast. In exchange of your time - we offer you a platform to ask us your burning questions about YOUR training. Send me a message here to get started!
Hey Athletica Team!
Do you want to be part of our podcast?
We are planning a special Holiday episode of the Athlete’s Compass podcast and would LOVE to hear and see you talk about your New Year’s Resolutions/Goals/Aspirations.
Would you please record yourself talking about Resolutions and send it to me?
30-60s long video format
Send it to marjaana@athletica.ai
Need it by December 3rd please
Questions? Hit Reply!
Hey ! We would love it if you’d send us a short, 30-60s video of you talking about your goals for 2025!
We will use these in our Holiday Special Episode coming up!
So if you are ready to truly commit to your goals for the upcoming year, THIS is THE PERFECT WAY to make yourself accountable. Nothing works quite as effectively as a very public announcement.
Thank you everyone for listening, sending questions, commenting and being willing to be interviewed. We always welcome more questions, and would love to hear more of your stories.
As @Prof mentions in the podcast, YOU drive the show!
Can’t wait to see what 2025 has in store for us all.
Happy Holidays from me, MJ, our amazing radio voice Paul @SimpleEnduranceCoach and the @Prof who can always back up everything with a scientific article or two!
Great episode @Prof@SimpleEnduranceCoach@Marjaana and congratulations on an amazing year of creating interesting, relevant and useful podcast episodes.
I’m in the process of catching up on the early podcasts and really enjoy them. Fun to see the evolution too from newbies to getting comfortable, subtle changes to the intro and tone, slowly getting better microphones and sound systems, nice work everyone!
First off I would like to send a genuine note of gratitude for what you do for this specific community, but also for the broader Athletic community; I feel that the messaging you provide speaks to a deeper innate logic that many have, but due to historic emanate positions we surrender our thoughts and feelings for those we feel are better positioned to provide insight into our individual athletic journey.
Thank you for helping us re/connect to our best selves.
I have two questions both about HRV.
I will also try and provide some context to my questions because context is key
Should an Athlete strive to maintain their HRV towards the top half or bottom half of their “Normal range” while training?
Appreciating that as an athlete trains there is natural downward pressure in their HRV due to the stress of the training. It is a balancing act of not too much training, but also not too little which can leave an athlete in a spot where illness or other stress can tip the balance. With that thought, I also recall a statement regarding training when out of balance can have a negative impact on the level of adaptations achieved from sessions while out of normal HRV ranges (it is often better to take the rest than push through). Everything is often a spectrum range and context when it comes to biology and data; is there a sweet spot within each of our HRV ranges that maximizes training response, and shields against overtraining and sickness?
1b. *Bonus Question * Is it better to run the “razor edge” at the bottom of the athletes’ normal range, possibly risking a small disruption (sleep, light illness etc) to tip into unbalanced territory or wait to see a recovery/increase in HRV before engaging in another session? Personally, I typically remain near the bottom of balanced when training daily as per Athletica, but if I train every other day I see more swings in my daily HRV, for context I am a late afternoon/early evening trainee.
Is it best to exercise in the morning Vs late afternoon/evening in relation to HRV?
Morning training allows for more time before the following morning resting measurement. This question was triggered by one of Fast Talk recent podcasts regarding HRV and the reference to time zones impacting measurements and timing among a myriad of other factors that could impact readings.
This may be covered in an area of the forums that I have not yet caught up on as it has been a very long time since checking in here.
Thanks again for all the hard work here and behind the scenes to make all this come together.
Hello and thank you so much for the your kind words.
Prof is more of an expert on HRV, but here’s how I use it both for me and for my athletes:
I look at trend lines. Is my HRV steadily going up with training? Is there an improvement over time? That means my body is adapting to the training.
I use HRV4Training and it informs my daily training readiness. It’s not the final word on my training readiness but if I get some yellows in a row or a red, it’s a signal that my body has some extra stress for some reason, and I need to respond to it with either an easy day on the bike or an off day.
HRV is already measured within a certain range, and my thought is that it’s too fine a hair to split about running it low. Do a lot of consistent endurance training, and your body will slowly build up aerobic capacity and be able to handle more training. You will see your HRV increase gradually.
I hope that helps! Thanks again for the kind words.
Enjoying listening my way through the back-episodes of the show. Thank you for taking the effort to produce them.
With the recent look at the high carb trend, would it be possible to have a zoomed in look at the other race day consideration of sodium/electrolytes.
There is also a push for high sodium intake (1000mg+ per hour) without consideration for the ‘trace’ electrolytes and I’m wondering if the science backs this up vs the generally conservative traditional approach of low sodium to guard against gut issues and a focus on a wide range of electrolytes.
Also a look at other electrolyte trends:
-isotonic
-hydrogel compounds
-sugar replacement inclusions to stimulate similar responses to carb intake in the brain.
Sorry if I have missed these in previous shows, I haven’t listened to most yet and the titles didn’t hint at this being covered in depth!
Thank you so much for your incredibly kind words. I think that’s the nicest thing anyone has said about the podcast and it highlights my personal motivation to be part of the podcast. Re-connecting with ourselves is a beautiful journey and am happy to hear our little podcast is helping you do that. Proud to be part of that journey with you
I’ll add your questions to our listener questions list as I think these are excellent questions to talk about…
Did you catch the latest episode of the Athlete’s Compass podcast where we answered listener questions from Workout Order to fueling your sessions…
Thank you for the questions, and keep them coming!
I did, and I watched it on my brand new TV by Airplaying it across from my iPad. Isn’t modern tech great? My previous TV was 18 years old. Technology lasts a long time with me, then when I upgrade, I do it properly
It’s interesting that nutrition came up again.
Here’s some nutrition from the middle (day 4) of my 2,126km cycling ultra last summer.
Distance covered 280km
Full Irish breakfast (5:30am)
330mL of Coke (mid morning)
2 x sausage baguette (one for lunch and one for late afternoon)
1 x Ice Cream (early afternoon)
Water only in water bottles.
The above covered the cycling needs.
Sweet and Sour Chicken balls and rice before bed. Would normally serve two people!
The above reset me for the next day after sleep.
Calorie burn that day was 6,284 Kcal according to Garmin. Similar burn rate for 8 days in a row.
I can go a long way between food at this level of effort. But I’m a bit of a diesel and almost certainly slow twitch dominant.
Key Takeaways:
Learn about respiratory muscle training and how it can strengthen your performance in high-intensity, low-oxygen environments.
Got questions about managing your arousal or anxiety? We want to hear from you! Drop your questions in the comments or fill out this form: 
Nothing works quite as effectively as a very public announcement.
* Is it better to run the “razor edge” at the bottom of the athletes’ normal range, possibly risking a small disruption (sleep, light illness etc) to tip into unbalanced territory or wait to see a recovery/increase in HRV before engaging in another session? Personally, I typically remain near the bottom of balanced when training daily as per Athletica, but if I train every other day I see more swings in my daily HRV, for context I am a late afternoon/early evening trainee.
