A new AIS report has debunked the long-held myth that athletes training on Christmas Day gives them an advantage over their opponents. The report, which included an exhaustive analysis of every sports biography released in the last 20 years, reveals that with 87% of sportspeople claiming to train on Christmas Day it can’t be deemed a unique training method.
Whilst the report did allow a 10-15% buffer for pathological liars, it still indicates that as the majority of athletes are squeezing an extra session into their festive day, it’s hardly a sure-fire way of getting one up on the other guys. The report’s head researcher, Adam Jones, said “perhaps in the past, before the advent of full-blown professionalism in Australian sport, going for a jog on Christmas Day may have been a genuine athletic advantage. However, once this gained popularity amongst the athletic community, it has lost its exclusivity.”
Despite the findings, Jones recommended some form of exercise on Christmas Day for the rest of the general public. “Before you start attempting to consume your body weight in ham, turkey, Christmas pudding and custard, it wouldn’t hurt you to go for a walk or run to kick start the metabolism”.
The Watsonia Bugle 