Healthy Intelligent Training Review

Healthy Intelligent Training was written by Keith Livingstone, an Australian Distance running coach who has extensive knowledge of Arthur Lydiard's training theory. Lydiard coached some of the best runners in the early sixties and is renowned for his contributions to the sport. Livingstone's book Healthy Intelligent Training examines Lydiard's principles and explains their modern application. One of the problems with Lydiard's own books is that he does not convey his ideas in a way that is easliy understood. In addition to being easy to follow, the main thing Livingstone's book brings to the table is a scientific explanation for why Lydiard's system works. I believe that Livingstone has really done a great job incorporating information from a variety of sources including many diffrent applications of the system. He shows how the system can work for everyone from young club runners to masters. One of my main criticisms of the book is that at times it seems a little random, especially the section on Sausages (Fartlek). This partly comes from the fact that there are so many references to diffrent coaches and athletes using the lydiard system succesfully. The section on strength training is unconventional in that it proposes a system of low reps and heavy weight. Lydiard did not incorparate such a system with his runners but the fact that they grew up in a diffrent era, when kids were much more active and jobs revolved much more around manual labor makes up for the lack of weight training. Yet, this is one of the reason's why I enjoyed this book, Livingstone looks at a lot of the scientific data and is not afraid to support an unconventional approach. Indeed, while the principles of Lydiard might be fundamental to distance running today many people do not have a solid understanding of where these training ideas originated from. Healthy intelligent training offfers a very thorough review of the Lydiard system for the modern reader, and gives them a solid understanding of training theory.