Martin Buchheit

Martin Buchheit, PhD, is a sport performance scientist, a strength and conditioning coach, and the Head of Performance for Lille OSC (First French Soccer Ligue), as well as the Head of Performance Research at Kitman Labs, in charge of the Performance Intelligence Research Initiative. He is also an adjunct associate professor of exercise science for Victoria University in Australia. He previously worked as the Head of Performance for the Paris Saint-Germain Football (Soccer) Club and as an exercise physiologist for ASPIRE Academy in Qatar. Overall, he has served as a lecturer, consultant, and strength and conditioning coach for various organizations.

Buchheit received his doctorate in physiology from the University of Strasbourg in France. His main research focuses on assessing, improving and monitoring the physiological determinants of team sport performance, with a greater emphasis on soccer and handball. Based on his field and research experiences, Buchheit developed the 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test (used to program high-intensity training; go to https://30-15ift.com for details) to improve high-intensity training prescription, and the 4’+3’ running test to track changes in training status using heart rate (variability) and GPS/accelerometer data. He has also performed some research on the acute and chronic responses to hypoxic and/or heat exposure, and their possible ergogenic effects on team sports physical performance.

Buchheit has published more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals, with more than 150 as a first author. His overall scientific work has been cited more than 10,000 times, with the 2-part review on high-intensity interval training co-authored with Paul Laursen being the most cited of all. Buchheit has been invited around the globe to share his experience in the fields of strength & conditioning and sport sciences, as well as to discuss his overall training approach in the elite setting. Further, he has been working on bridging the gap between science and practice and was involved in the launch of a new, open-access, reviewing-free web-platform aimed at improving research dissemination, Sports Performance & Science Reports (https://sportperfsci.com).

Buchheit is a former semi-pro handball player and now an endurance athlete who has a personal best time of 2:54 in the marathon.