question. He's the director of Stanford University's Prevention Research Center and a man who's been at the epicentre of important health-fitness debates for 30 years. "Those first studies failed to eliminate some people who were thin because they smoked

."I can't afford new running shoes." A pair of light, good-fitting trainers or walking shoes works fine. "You don't want to wear old trainers that don't even fit," says coach Budd Coates, who has been teaching running for 20 years. "But you don't need

Amby Burfoot is Executive Editor of Runner's World USA, and the 1968 Boston Marathon winner Imagine that there was an exercise programme that could guarantee to get you in shape with only three identical 30-minute exercise sessions per week. I

This extract is from The Runner's World Complete Book of Running by RW USA Editor Amby Burfoot. You can now preview it, free, for two weeks without risk or obligation. All running programmes for beginners are the same: they move you from walking

- aerobic fitness, biomechanics, lactic acid, and energy supply - but also less familiar things such as power output and gravitational force. Most important, there's the je ne sais quoi that separates the champs from the chaff.The best runners are incredible

- aerobic fitness, biomechanics, lactic acid, and energy supply - but also less familiar things such as power output and gravitational force. Most important, there's the je ne sais quoi that separates the champs from the chaff.The best runners are incredible

working towards the progress ahead."Find a fitness friend Beginners' running coaches agree that one of the best ways to stick with your exercise programme is to get a training partner. When someone is counting on you as much as you're counting on them, it

Politics, pollution, taxes, the NHS: these are typical "mad as hell" topics. But for me, it's something different. I'm ticked off about health and fitness magazines, even this one, haranguing us about exercise, free-radical production and disease

recently, have come up empty-handed. In her personal and scientific journey, Ultimate Fitness: The Quest for Truth about Exercise and Health, science writer Gina Kolata devotes more than 20 pages to the quest for runner’s high. In the end, she concludes it

performance laboratory.Ask yourself the following question: at what pace or paces should I train to maximise my fitness and my running performance? If you can answer this question, you have the key to a successful training programme.Over the past 25 years