My favourite fitness podcasts

I really enjoy putting a new podcast on my iPhone, plugging my earphones in and taking the dog for a long fast walk. Here are some of the podcasts I listen to (I download them all via iTunes). Whilst some may be old favourites, I’m hoping some will be new to you. If you give them a try, come back and tell me what you thought. 🙂

Competitor Radio is a series of interviews with endurance athletes from the world of triathlon, cycling and running. Both hosts (Bob Babbitt and Paul Huddle) race long-distance triathlon themselves and have been in the sport for decades. They have fantastic interviewees (everyone from Chrissie Wellington to Craig Alexander). The hosts really know their stuff and seem well-respected by the athletes they interview. As a result, you get great information and some good banter. I love listening to these podcasts when I do my own long cardio. Really inspiring.

The Fit Cast is a long-running fitness and nutrition podcast with a heavy (no pun intended) strength and conditioning focus. The hosts are S&C specialists and definitely know their stuff. They do Q&A with listeners, round up industry news, talk about hot topics and delve into debates. I really love this podcast. One thing I don’t love about it is the “off-topic” section where the hosts go off on tangents and generally have a laugh (they’re good friends and there’s a lot of banter), but The Fit Cast has recognised that not everyone wants to listen to the off-topic section and makes it clear when the podcast ends and the off-topic begins, so it’s quite easy to just skip it.

Leigh Peele is actually one of the hosts of The Fit Cast podcast, but also has her own podcast, Ask Leigh. It covers a lot of the same areas as The Fit Cast but is just Leigh, commenting on industry developments, giving her opinion on training and nutrition topics and answering reader/listener questions. She’s no-nonsense, has a great sense of humour and is devoted to rigorously researching things before passing comment. She also has a blog which I highly recommend. She’s known as the “fat loss troubleshooter” and knows her stuff when it comes to body recomposition through diet, nutrition, training and hormone balance.

The Strength Coach podcast, as the name suggests, brings together leading S&C coaches to talk about everything that’s cutting edge in the world of strength and conditioning: not just training, but business development and marketing for fitpros too. Each episode has a “Coach’s Corner” section, a quick look at a particular bit of equipment, a section about business, an in-depth look at the art of coaching and a Q&A section. All the guest coaches are fantastic. I only recently discovered this podcast and am enthusiastically working my way through the back catalogue.

And then the fantastic (although not fitness-related) TED talks which I would recommend to anyone. TED is devoted to “ideas worth spreading” and started life as a conference bringing together exciting thinkers from technology, entertainment and design. There are now two annual conferences, a TED prize and all sorts. The podcasts are recordings of speakers at the conferences: each speaker is challenged to give the talk of their lives – in just 18 minutes. This not only makes the TED podcasts very handy to listen to in short pockets of time but makes them truly fascinating. It’s impossible to try and describe the topics the talks cover. You have to try them for yourself.

Which podcasts do you recommend? Have you ever been on a podcast – or do you have your own?

My favourite fitness podcasts is a post from The Fit Writer blog.