MB

Maxim Belyaev

24 articles

sciencerunningnutritiontraininghealthcycling

Author's articles

Which intervals build VOβ‚‚max best: a meta-analysis of 239 protocols

Which intervals build VOβ‚‚max best: a meta-analysis of 239 protocols

VOβ‚‚max intervals come up in every running chat, but which repeats actually keep you at your ceiling the longest? A 2026 meta-analysis pooled 86 studies and 239 protocols: work bouts of 2 minutes or more give about 1.7 times as much time above 90% VOβ‚‚max as short ones, and a β€œvariable” pace within each repeat adds even more. We look at what this means for training and where the metric falls short.

trainingrunningcycling
Maxim Belyaevβ€’
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L-carnitine: 18 randomised trials, endurance edges up slightly β€” and not one of them found any β€œfat burning”

L-carnitine: 18 randomised trials, endurance edges up slightly β€” and not one of them found any β€œfat burning”

In Russia, L-carnitine is searched for about 100 thousand times a month on Yandex, almost always as a fat burner. A systematic review from October 2026 gathered 18 placebo-controlled studies: some of them do show an endurance gain, but fat oxidation during exercise did not change after a single dose or after weeks of supplementation. We look at why, and at the one condition under which carnitine actually gets into muscle.

nutritionsupplementsscience
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Heart rate in your earbuds: AirPods Pro 3 vs a chest strap β€” a 2-beat average error and Β±10 at high intensity

Heart rate in your earbuds: AirPods Pro 3 vs a chest strap β€” a 2-beat average error and Β±10 at high intensity

Irish researchers compared the heart rate sensor in AirPods Pro 3 with a Polar H10 chest strap in 40 participants and 16 735 paired readings. The average error was about 2 beats with no systematic bias, but at high intensity individual readings drift by Β±10. We look at which workouts the earbuds are good enough for.

runninggearheart-rate
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SARMs in recreational athletes: a five-year ban for three substances, and only 52% of products that contain what the label says

SARMs in recreational athletes: a five-year ban for three substances, and only 52% of products that contain what the label says

On 11 September 2026 USADA handed a five-year ban to a 49-year-old recreational triathlete: a sample taken at an ordinary city race contained ostarine, ligandrol and exogenous testosterone. A good moment to work out what SARMs are, why nobody has ever shown an effect of theirs on endurance, and how they end up inside people who never deliberately took anything.

supplementshealthscience
Maxim Belyaevβ€’
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Meniscus after a marathon: +38% extrusion on ultrasound in 100 runners and a return to normal by day four

Meniscus after a marathon: +38% extrusion on ultrasound in 100 runners and a return to normal by day four

Orthopaedic surgeons from Hokkaido University scanned the knees of 100 amateur runners before the start, right after the finish and on each of the next five days. The medial meniscus shifted outwards by an average of 0.44 mm, stayed there for three days and was back in place on the fourth. The shift was larger in runners who were heavier, ran more and loaded the inner side of the knee harder.

runningmarathoninjury-prevention
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