Do Sweat The Big Stuff

Chapeau to Sweat Science columnist Alex Hutchinson, who revealed last week that this column would be his last such one for Runner’s World. The lessons he’s learned over the past five years of debunking fitness myths, digging into training truths, and uncovering other surprising discoveries from the science of running are valuable and worth revisiting time and time again. If you haven’t followed Hutchinson’s work at RW over the years, lucky for you he’s compiled a CliffsNotes version of the seven things that matter most when it comes to running wisdom. Do yourself a favor and check it out. It’s full of golden nuggets like this one:

“But ultimately, you’ll be doing yourself a favor if you attribute incipient pains to training errors—and respond appropriately by backing off—rather than assuming you can keep training if you do a few extra warm-up exercises or stretch more,” Hutchinson writes. “That, I believe, is why a recent study found that even very obvious advice, delivered by a machine, can reduce running injures. We know the culprit here; sometimes we just need a reminder.”

…

A version of this post first appeared in the morning shakeout, my weekly email newsletter covering running, writing, media and other topics that interest me. If you’d like for it to land in your inbox first thing on Tuesday mornings, subscribe here.