Thank You 👏
A big thank you to everyone who read our first edition and shared such positive feedback. The response exceeded our expectations and our commitment to delivering more valuable content has only strengthened.
For now, we’ll be delivering a new edition every fortnight.
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What We’re Seeing Right Now
Across different sports, athletes who are subject to drug testing are using supplements that aren’t third-party tested.
This poses a significant risk - not just to health, but to careers. Research suggests that up to one-third of supplements purchased online may be contaminated.
Testing programs offer an added layer of protection by testing individual batches for banned substances, something that non-certified products don’t guarantee.
It raises the question: is this down to lack of awareness, convenience, or misplaced trust in brands?
Key observations:
Assumption that “popular” or well-marketed supplements are automatically safe
Increased sponsorship opportunities from brands are creating financial incentives, and a sense of loyalty, to use unverified products
A willingness to prioritise possible performance gains over potential risks to health or eligibility
What can be done about this?
Think twice about using supplements: does the benefit outweigh the potential risk?
If the answer is yes, then reduce the risk as much as possible, by using high-quality, certified products (such as those listed on Informed Sport)
👉 Read Dr Asker Jeukendrup’s article covering this more.
The Fuelling Gap
In endurance performance, how much carbohydrate you eat isn’t the same as how much your body actually uses for fuel — and that difference can make or break race day results. Whether you hit the wall too soon or suffer gut issues, it often comes down to absorption and utilisation, not just total intake.
Understanding this distinction helps you tailor fuelling strategies that work for you.
Key takeaways:
Carbohydrate consumed must be absorbed, transported, and oxidised (burned) to benefit performance.
Exogenous carbohydrate utilisation can vary by as much as 50% between individuals, (i.e. two athletes might eat the same amount of carbs but use them very differently during exercise), so one-size-fits-all guidelines may not be effective.
Matching intake to your own carb utilisation capacity can reduce bonking and GI discomfort.
Hear from Dr Daniel Owens (PhD, SENr)
Running participation is booming and that’s a good thing! More people are engaging with endurance training, setting ambitious goals, and pushing performance.
But alongside this, we’re seeing a rise in bone stress injuries — stress reactions, stress fractures, sacral and femoral neck injuries
Why?
Training has become visible, and more rigid. Mileage, long runs, and progression are now shared publicly. Training becomes part of identity, making people feel that it’s harder to deload, reduce volume, or adjust based on fatigue.
Large increases in training volume are the key risk factor. A 2025 paper in the British Journal of Sports Medicine highlights that rapid spikes in load are the primary driver of bone stress injuries.
Physiology hasn’t changed, but timelines have
Cardiovascular fitness improves quickly. Bone adapts slowly. Fitness can outpace structural adaptation.
Energy availability and life stress matter
Low energy availability and high allostatic load impair bone remodelling. This is often not intentional, but the result of under-fuelling alongside busy lives.
The takeaway
Most stress fractures are not bad luck. They are typically a mismatch between: training load, recovery, physiology, and expectations.
Ambition is not the problem, but it needs structure.
This Week’s Edge
We believe small, targeted changes can unlock big results. Each newsletter, we’ll deliver one simple, actionable tip relating to nutrition, physiology or training, adapted from the strategies we use with our clients every day.
Struggling to sleep? Certain protein sources can help. For example, turkey, eggs, nuts and oily fish contain the amino acid tryptophan, which can help you drift off to sleep. Including more of these foods in your evening meal is a good tactic if you often struggle to nod off.
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