Scott Johnston on What Athletes and Coaches Get Wrong About Muscular Endurance
Since the 2025 UTMB, everyone is talking about muscular endurance. But despite all the available information, there’s massive confusion. In fact, a major coaching organisation in the ultra space recently stated this approach “does not work.”
In this debut episode of Born on the Trail: Going Longer, I sit down with renowned coach Scott Johnston tackle this controversy head-on. We dive deep into what muscular endurance is and why it works, what coaches and athletes misunderstand about this training method and how the everyday athlete can approach this training intervention and get it right.
Tune in to learn and understand the way I have.
Looking for coaching or guidance? Learn more here: https://bornonthetrail.substack.com/p...
USEFUL LINKS
Muscular Endurance Revisited: What Actually Works (The source of criticism): https://ultrarunning.com/featured/mus...
Muscular Endurance: All You Need to Know: https://evokeendurance.com/resources/...
Book Club: Training For The Uphill Athlete: https://evokeendurance.com/resources/...
Evoke Endurance (Scott’s coaching company): https://evokeendurance.com/
Scott Johnston on Instagram: / coach_scott_johnston
FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Instagram: / bornonthetrail
YouTube: / @bornonthetrail
Facebook: / bornonthetrail
CHAPTERS
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00:00 Introducing Scott Johnston
09:07 All about Muscular Endurance
15:08 Global vs Local Fatigue
22:45 Periodising Muscular Endurance
30:18 Critique Against Muscular Endurance
39:02 Ultra Running: More Mountaineering or Road Running?
42:42 Ultra Marathon Training Lacks Innovation?
46:25 Is Muscular Endurance also for Amateurs?
53:50 How To Use Poles
59:55 Have Ultra Running Performances Plateaued?