The Best Sports Science Books of All Time

“Up to Speed is a roadmap and toolbox for athletes of all ages. Every coach should read it and discuss it with their athletes. I wish I had been able to read this book while I was competing.” —Kara Goucher, Olympic long-distance runner and author of The Longest Race. How the latest science can help women achieve their athletic potential. Over the last fifty years, women have made extraordinary advances in athletics. More women than ever are playing sports and staying active longer.

Whether they’re elite athletes looking for an edge or enthusiastic amateurs, women deserve a culture of sports that helps them thrive: training programs and equipment designed to work with their bodies, as well as guidelines for nutrition and injury prevention that are based in science and tailored to their lived experience. Yet too often the guidance women receive is based on research that fails to consider their experiences or their bodies. So much of what we take as gospel about exercise and sports science is based solely on studies of men. The good news is, this is finally changing. Researchers are creating more inclusive studies to close the gender data gap. They’re examining the ways women can boost athletic performance, reduce injury, and stay healthy. Sports and health journalist Christine Yu disentangles myth and gender bias from real science, making the case for new approaches that can help women athletes excel at every stage of life, from adolescence to adulthood, through pregnancy, menopause, and beyond. She explains the latest research and celebrates the researchers, athletes, and advocates pushing back against the status quo and proposing better solutions to improve the active and athletic lives of women and girls.

An integrated and personalized approach to health, nutrition, training, recovery, and mindset. Perfect for personal trainers, sports science students, fans of high level fitness (crossfit, marathon training, iron man, team sports) and gym heads! There is a new revolution happening in sports as more and more athletes are basing their success on this game-changing combination: health, nutrition, training, recovery, and mindset. Unfortunately, the evidence-based techniques that the expert PhDs, academic institutions, and professional performance staffs follow can be in stark contrast to what many athletes actually practice.

When combined with the noise of social media, old-school traditions, and bro-science, it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction. Peak is a groundbreaking book exploring the fundamentals of high performance (not the fads), the importance of consistency (not extreme effort), and the value of patience (not rapid transformation). Dr. Marc Bubbs makes deep science easy to understand, and with information from leading experts who are influencing the top performers in sports on how to achieve world-class success, he lays out the record-breaking feats of athleticism and strategies that are rooted in this personalized approach. Dr. Bubbs’s performance protocol is for the elite athlete, active individual, strength coach, nutritionist, or practitioner who wants to expand their potential by:. Connecting the importance of sleep, digestion, the athlete microbiome, and blood glucose control metricsCreating personalized deep nutrition strategies for building muscle, burning fat, or “making weight” for competitionRethinking nutrition specifically for team sportsLearning how elite endurance athletes fuel, including training techniques to boost performanceApplying the new science of recovery that enhances performanceEmphasizing the tremendous role of emotional intelligence and mindset in overcoming roadblocks and achieving athletic success (the next frontier in performance)Analyzing the qualities of elite leaders and how to develop them authenticallyDr. Bubbs expertly brings together the worlds of health, nutrition, and exercise and synthesizes the salient science into actionable guidance. Regardless if you’re trying to improve your physique, propel your endurance, or improve your team’s record, looking at performance through this lens is absolutely critical for lasting success.

With the help of medical experts, leading coaches, ex-professionals, and pro-team doctors, cycling biomechanics pioneer Phil Cavell produces a practical guide for mature cyclists who want to stay healthy, avoid injury, and maximize their achievement levels. Midlife Cyclist offers a gold standard road-map for the mature cyclist who aims to train, perform and even race at the highest possible level. Cycling has seen a participation uplift unprecedented in any sport, especially in the 40, 50 and 60-year-old age groups.

These athletes are the first statistically significant cohort to maintain, or even begin, genuine athletic performance beyond middle-age. But, just because we can continue to tune the engine into old age, does that mean that we should? And, what do these training efforts do to the aging human chassis? This book answers those questions and offers a guide to those elongating their performance window. Using case studies and expert contributions from all aspects of the sport, Midlife Cyclist looks at cycling as an aging person's exercise of choice, the physical implications of hard training, and the use of sport medication and specific training in combating them. It also considers the age-specific questions raised, including what happens to performance as we mature? Will the bike specifications alter as our bodies change? Should we refine our riding technique and how do we best deploy the psychological advantages of being older riders?