British triple jump world record holder Jonathan Edwards is a hero of mine.

And the more I learn about him, the more intrigued I am with his story. Here are some highlights:

When Edwards was just getting started at 19, a UK national orthopedic specialist advised him to quit training for the triple jump, believing he lacked the genetic profile to ever succeed in track and field.

Edwards ignored this advice and kept training anyway.

10 years later at 29, he set a world record in the triple jump of 18.29 meters at the 1995 World Championship—a record that STILL stands today after almost 30 years.

No one has come close to breaking it yet.

Five years after that (now 15 YEARS after being told that he lacked the musculoskeletal structure to even compete!) a gray-haired, 34 year-old Jonathan Edwards won a gold medal at his 4th Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

I wanted to find out as much as I could about how Edwards defied his country’s medical experts to set a jumping record that some believe will NEVER be broken.

How Did He Do It?

Unfortunately not much information on Edwards' training is out there other than this 1996 article written by his coach Carl Johnson, and a few quotes and interviews from Edwards himself.

But we do know a few things:

1. According to Johnson, Edwards performed the bodyweight circuit shown below once per week for 10 years before the WR.

Of particular interest to me is exercise #11 in Edwards’ bodyweight circuit—the nordic hamstring curl.

This is now one of my favorites, but I had never seen it until Ben Patrick https://x.com/kneesovertoesg popularized it as part of the ATG system several years ago.

But success leave clues—Jonathan Edwards was patiently training nordics (among many other exercises) in the 1980s and 90s once per week for over 15 YEARS before eventually winning his first gold medal at 34!

2. To be fair, Edwards didn't only do nordic curls and bodyweight exercises.

He also used weights—primarily focusing on the olympic lifts (clean, snatch, jerk) to drive up his relative strength.

And he was EXTREMELY strong pound-for-pound.

In one old interview I found, Edwards shared that he could clean twice his bodyweight, 150 kg (330 lbs!) at a weight of 75 kg.

3. Edwards apparently did not use full-range barbell squats.

BUT the sport of triple jump includes a huge eccentric deep-squat landing on the finish, so—maybe without realizing it—triple jumpers like Edwards actually get plenty of full knee bend stimulus from practicing the sport itself.

4. Another key detail is that Jonathan Edwards only trained with weights a maximum of twice per week.

He believed that any more than that was counterproductive in such an elastic sport and could have led to overtraining and injury.

He was actually forced to take 6 months completely off from training altogether in 1994 (the year before he set the WR) after contracting Epstein-Barr disease, and his coach believed in retrospect that this was a critical factor.

What’s My Takeaway?

“Long term training produces physical states (good or bad) that are not easily eroded.” — Carl Johnson

This is my favorite quote from Jonathan Edwards’ coach.

Perhaps we can’t all train ourselves into becoming athletic legends like Jonathan Edwards.

But with a patient and smart long-term approach, maybe we CAN do a lot more with our bodies than conventional wisdom predict!

15 YEARS(!!) after being told that he did not have the genetic makeup to be a triple jumper, Jonathan Edwards won an Olympic gold medal with gray in his hair!

I hope you find that fact as remarkable and inspiring as I do.

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