The Proven Principles of Arthur Lydiard
Healthy Intelligent Training
proven principles of arthur lydiard
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Arthur Lydiard
Arthur died in Houston in 2004, aged 87, while touring North America on a speaking tour. From humble beginnings fostered initially only by a desire to get himself fit for playing club rugby in the late 1940s, he gradually put together an endurance training system that he tested on himself. This resulted in him becoming a New Zealand marathon champion and Commonwealth/Empire Games representative at an age when most men of the era assumed they were ‘past it’ for such pursuits.
Over time, he acquired several enthusiastic pupils from his local neighbourhood, and by the mid-1950’s he had his system “ready to go”. So successful was Arthur with his training of ‘ordinary’ local kids, that he coined the phrase “Champions are Everywhere- they just have to be trained correctly!” Arthur’s system was the first organised, periodised training method of modern times, and is totally based on proven exercise physiology principles that were largely unknown when Lydiard first started training himself in the 1940s.
In the New Zealand running culture of the 1970s, it was accepted routinely that large volumes of steady running mileage could turn pack-runners into championship contenders.

Arthur Lydiard
New Zealand’s late, legendary athletics coach, Arthur Lydiard, was named ‘Coach of the Twentieth Century’ by Runners World, and was named to the Coaching Hall of Fame late in 2019 by the IAAF (now re-named ‘World Athletics’).
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LYDIARD EXPLAINED
Lydiard explained in Modern Physiology terms.
Health first
Fitness Second. Performance Third.
Queenstown Endurance Seminar 2019
A great day was had by all who attended the Healthy Intelligent Training Endurance Seminar in Queenstown, NZ.
Dr Keith with Lorraine Moller, Dr Mark Cucuzzella and Rod Dixon
Rod Dixon with Neville Britton and a 1948 London Olympiad Flag.