If you are dealing with pain below your kneecap, you know how frustrating patellar tendinopathy can be. The patellar tendon connects your kneecap to your shinbone. It handles an incredible amount of load during daily activities and sports. Rest alone rarely fixes a tendon issue. The tissue needs progressive loading to heal and build capacity. Guessing which exercises to do can often make things worse. A recent biomechanical study measured exactly how much load different exerc

I'm just a curious little rhino... We are right in the thick of it now. The Niagara humidity is at its peak, and those midday runs feel heavy. Last year, I shared a summer training guide along with a custom pace calculator. A year later, that calculator is still one of our most popular tools. But data only works if you actually use it. Right now, in the deep mid-summer heat, staying safe and consistent comes down to discipline. Here is how to manage your training while we nav

A recent study of over 17,000 people looked at how much exercise is required to meaningfully protect your heart. The findings bring some much-needed clarity to the standard fitness guidelines. For years, the baseline recommendation from health organizations has been 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per week. The study confirmed this is a solid starting point. Hitting that 150-minute mark reduces your cardiovascular risk by about 8 to 9 percent. But if you want to

Every few years, a new training intensity gets declared the absolute answer to running performance. For a while, it was high mileage at low effort. Then polarized training, with its strict 80/20 split between easy and hard, took over the running internet. After that, Zone 2 became the thing everyone was talking about, complete with lactate testing and lengthy debates about whether a conversation pace truly counts. Right now, threshold blocks are having their moment. Each of t

Dont start with the "Leap of Faith" If you follow women’s longevity experts online, you have likely heard the latest advice for midlife health. To combat the natural drop in bone density that happens during perimenopause and menopause, you need to create impact. They often tell you to start jumping rope, doing jumping jacks, or even dropping off boxes to bash your bones into growing stronger. The medical science behind this is completely accurate. Mechanical stress signals yo

We have all been there. You cross the finish line of a great race, celebrate the effort, and head home. But a day or two later, your legs feel completely heavy, flat, and unresponsive. When athletes ask me why their legs feel like concrete after a hard effort, they are often looking for a simple answer. As a kinesiologist, I look at this through the lens of muscle physiology and neurology. Here is what is actually happening beneath the surface, and how to fix it. Understandin

You too can have glutes like this. Hamstring strains are a constant frustration for runners and active adults. They are slow to heal, easy to re-injure, and highly disruptive to your consistency. When people look for solutions, the fitness industry tends to offer "magic bullets." For years, the Nordic hamstring exercise has been treated as the ultimate cure-all. If you just do your Nordics, the theory goes, your hamstrings will be bulletproof. As a kinesiologist, my approach

Summer is finally here, bringing long days that are perfect for building running volume. But as the thermometer climbs, your running performance can face a serious bottleneck. Running in high heat and humidity can quickly turn an easy session into an exhausting slog if you do not adjust your approach. As a kinesiologist, I look at heat not just as an obstacle, but as a specific physiological stressor. When you understand how your body reacts to the warmth, you can use targete

When I first wrote about "The Starting Monday Project" back in January, it began as a confession. I had let a lighthearted joke at track meets become a shield for drifting away from my own standards. My starting point in mid-November was 195.3 pounds. Six months have passed since that initial weigh-in. Today, I want to share a direct look at the progress, what actually worked, and how a background goal completely changed the experience. The numbers, six months later I am a bi

If you have ever been told to suck in your stomach or hollow out your belly during a workout, you might actually be turning off your body’s best protective mechanism. Many people view the core as just a flat panel of muscles on the front of the body. In reality, your torso is a 360-degree structure. To move safely under a load, reduce unnecessary strain, and transfer power efficiently, you need a strategy that protects the entire system. The science of the brace Dr. Stuart Mc

In endurance sports, we often default to 'more miles' as the solution to every performance plateau. This approach focuses almost entirely on your metabolic engine, the aerobic and anaerobic biochemical pathways that produce energy. But performance is equally dependent on your mechanical machine. This is your structural 'chassis' the muscles, tendons, and nervous system that act like a spring to translate that energy into forward motion. As a Kinesiologist, my goal is to troub

If you train with me, you’ve likely noticed that medicine ball walks, slams and throws are a frequent staple in our sessions. As a Registered Kinesiologist, my goal is to bridge the gap between clinical expertise and real-world coaching. We don't just throw things to break a sweat (its easy to make someone tired.) every single exercise we do has a specific purpose. Whether you are managing an injury, returning to activity, building strength, or chasing a performance goal, med

The impossible just happened. Sebastian Sawe shattered the legendary two-hour marathon barrier with a mind-bending time of 1:59:30. Even crazier? The top three finishers all broke the previous world record in the exact same race. How did we get here? In a recent breakdown, running coach and sports scientist Steve Magness highlighted the exact mechanisms driving this massive leap in human performance. It isn't just about training harder. It’s a perfect storm of advanced testin

Kinplus was built to fill a gap. Not to add noise to an already crowded industry, but to offer something more clear, more honest, and more useful. That's still the goal. I've always believed that the best coaches never stop learning. I apply that to myself the same way I apply it to the people I work with. The programming I'm putting out now is sharper than it was a year ago. Not because what I was doing was wrong, but because I kept asking better questions. That process of l

There is a version of the perfect workout that lives in every runner's head. The one where the conditions are ideal, the legs feel fresh, every split clicks, and you finish knowing something shifted. You felt it. That was a good one. And then there is every other day. The run that felt like dragging yourself through wet cement. The tempo that fell apart at kilometre 3. The long run you cut short because life intervened. Most runners spend a lot of energy chasing the first kin

Let's get the fear out of the way first. If you're a runner who has avoided the weight room because you're worried about gaining muscle mass that will slow you down, you're not alone. It's one of the most common concerns I hear from distance runners, and it's almost entirely unfounded. Here's why. When you run significant volume, your body releases signals that strongly favour endurance adaptations over muscle growth. The two pathways compete, and in a runner who is training

Can you spot Kevin? Front row, hand on watch, ready to go. The Chilly Half Marathon kicks off the winter/spring race season today, with Around the Bay and the spring marathons right around the corner. If you've been putting in the work, your fitness is built. What's left is making sure your mind shows up too. Setting the Stage Performance starts before the gun goes off. The goal isn't to psych yourself up, it's to create the conditions where your body and mind can do what the

We just wrapped up the OUA Championships, a natural point of reflection as we plan for the future. The season as a whole was massive: we rewrote the Brock record books in the 600m, 1000m, 1500m, 3000m, and the 4x800m relay. Seeing 11 personal bests at the final meet was the perfect capstone to a year where our distance squad effectively moved the bar for what’s possible at this school. Looking through my notes this week, I realized that while training plans are complex, the p

I have a confession: I’ve always been a geek. And I'm talking about the kind of geekiness that was around before gaming went mainstream, countless hours lost in the detailed worlds of Runescape and the strategic layers of World of Warcraft . That same fascination with complex systems and how things work didn't stay confined to virtual realms. It gradually shifted into something much more tangible: understanding the human body, Be purposeful A few years back, my obsession

Do you do a long run each and every week, no matter what time of the year or phase of training you are in? This topic has been on my mind recently, especially after reading a great piece in Canadian Running Magazine titled "Why You Don’t Need to Do a Long Run Every Weekend." It echoed something I wrote about a while back in my own post, "Church of the Long Run: What Are You Scared Of?" The weekly long run is basically running culture at this point. But performance coach Stev