Perimenopause and menopause can change how training feels, but they do not mean your goals need to shrink. This article looks at how athletes can monitor changes in recovery, fatigue and training tolerance, while continuing to develop the strength, speed, power and endurance their sport requires.

Has training become easier as I’ve got older—or simply more precise? This article explores why effective Masters training is not about removing challenge, but about applying the right stimulus while managing fatigue, recovery and injury risk more carefully.

After 35 years of coaching Masters athletes across multiple sports, I've become less interested in finding the perfect exercise and far more interested in understanding what an athlete actually needs. Eighteen years coaching the same athlete reinforced that lesson. The exercises changed. The thinking behind the program barely did.

Why increasing strength doesn't always translate into faster sprint times, and why power, coordination and stiffness often become more important as athletes mature.

Many masters athletes assume frequent injuries are simply part of getting older. But is age really the problem? This article explores why some athletes remain remarkably resilient into their 50s and 60s, why intelligently managed intensity may be part of the solution, and how adapting your training—not avoiding challenge—can help keep you healthy and performing at your best.

Many masters athletes assume losing explosiveness is simply part of getting older. While ageing certainly plays a role, training habits often have a bigger influence than people realise. In this article, we explore why speed and power tend to decline, the mistakes many athletes make, and what you can do to maintain explosiveness well into your later years.

Generic training programs often appear fantastic - espcially in the age of AI. But generic progams are based on averages and assumptions - they certainly do not reflect the diverse individuals who are Masters athletes.

Many masters athletes still have the capacity for quality speed work — they just need to tweak the structure of the session and improve the way they recover both for it and from it.

Your calves are responsible for absorbing force, producing force, and helping the body move efficiently. Every stride, jump, acceleration, and change of direction relies heavily on the lower leg. If the calves are weak or poorly conditioned, the rest of the body often pays the price.

The goblet squat looks simple but is one of the most valuable strength exercises for athletes. Holding a weight at the chest naturally encourages good posture and exposes flaws like knee collapse or poor trunk control. It builds squat mechanics, core stability, and mobility simultaneously. For runners, swimmers, and field athletes, it bridges bodyweight and barbell work. Control, depth, and alignment matter more than load, making it a powerful assessment and development tool.

Both Personal Trainers and Strength & Conditioning coaches play important roles within the fitness industry. The key difference lies in the outcome they are targeting

For masters athletes, especially those balancing life, work, and injuries, that kind of support can be the difference between a season that sputters and one that actually delivers.

Masters sprinters don’t slow down because of age — they slow down when training stops matching their needs. From strength and consistency to smart programming and recovery, small decisions drive long-term speed. These are the six most common reasons performance stalls — and how to avoid them.

Squat depth isn’t about right or wrong — it’s about purpose. Deep squats build strength, resilience, and joint capacity, especially important for runners over 30. Quarter squats develop power and speed by training the body at running-specific joint angles. The best programs use both, sequencing them intelligently to support performance now and durability long term.

Curved treadmills are becoming a key tool for athletes because they improve mechanics, increase work quality, and reduce impact. These qualities make them especially useful for Masters athletes who want to train hard while protecting their bodies.

Great throws start from the ground up. For Masters athletes especially, developing strong, explosive legs is one of the highest-leverage ways to boost performance, stay resilient, and keep training enjoyable.

The push press is how it bridges strength and speed. By using the legs to initiate movement, then transferring that force through the core into the arms, the lift mimics the way athletes generate power in almost every sport—whether sprinting, jumping, or throwing. This makes it an exceptional tool for improving rate of force development.

True sport-specific training means improving the underlying physical qualities that transfer to performance — things like strength, power, rate of force development, mobility, stability, and energy system efficiency - not copying the movement of your sport

There’s one muscle group sitting quietly on the inside of your thighs that plays a far bigger role than most realise — the adductors. These muscles don’t get much attention because they don’t “show up” in the mirror, and you rarely feel them burn like your quads after a hard session. Yet, they influence almost every major movement pattern in both running and swimming. Ignore them, and you’re building strength on a shaky foundation.

For masters sprinters, the winning formula isn’t more training. It’s better training. Sprinting in your 30s, 40s, and beyond presents a unique challenge. You’ve got the competitive drive, the experience, and often the discipline you lacked when you were younger — but your body doesn’t bounce back quite the same way. The trick isn’t trying to train like you used to. It’s learning to train smarter.