8 articles
Loud music in earbuds made a 20-minute run feel easier β and at the same time pushed breathing towards rapid and shallow, increased vertical oscillation by 30% and raised energy expenditure by 1.1%. We look at an Italian study from October 2026, what it means for easy runs and races, and why it is no reason to throw away your playlist.
Without a press release, Garmin bought Moxy β the longest-standing maker of muscle oxygen saturation (SmOβ) sensors β and back in February filed an application for the Muscle Battery trademark. We explain what SmOβ shows, why the absolute number is noisy by 14β18 points, and how the threshold from the trend reproduces from test to test within a few watts.
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.
Researchers in Texas built the same running shoe with a 0, 10, 20 and 30 mm drop and had 20 runners test them. The lower the drop, the more economical the running. We look at the mechanism, why βzero drop for everyoneβ is premature and what a randomised trial in 553 recreational runners showed.
In the pool a wetsuit makes you about 6% faster on average, but strong swimmers may gain nothing at all, while triathletes with sinking legs gain up to 19 seconds per 400 m. We go through the research and explain why the gain seems to βdisappearβ in open water.
The same long run: you have 32 km, your partner has 29. A look at validation studies of sport watches: up to 9% under-reading in the city and the forest, systematic over-reading on the track, a 12.1% error for the worst model over 4,000 m, and where the extra three kilometres come from when there are no satellites.
The popular theory says super shoes stop helping over the final kilometres, once the calves give out. It was tested head-on β the ankle was fatigued by 6.5% of its power and economy was measured again. The advantage was unchanged.
adidas claims the Techfit Endurance Suit improves running economy by βmore than 1%β β around 48 seconds over a two-hour marathon. The interesting part: the manufacturer does not say this is about airflow. Polyurethane tapes stabilise the pelvis.