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18 WAYS TO BOOST MUSCLE RECOVERY OCTOBER 2021

INCORPORATING

BURN FAT BUILD MUSCLE The total-body plan for lean gains

STRETCH YOUR WAY TO BETTER HEALTH WHY YOU NEED TO TRAIN BAREFOOT p38

7 BEST SKIPPING ROPES

CLUB TRAINING z BEST YOGA POSES z PRESS-UP CIRCUIT

F I T N E S S

&

A D V E N T U R E

STRONGER THAN EVER! Build your balance for serious strength p32

IMPROVE PACE AND POWER Train like rugby sevens legend Dan Norton

MENTAL HEALTH

How to cope if you’re struggling to conceive

FULL-BODY BACKPACK WORKOUT

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WITH HELP FROM…

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ISSUE 258 OCTOBER 2021

t’s been said that getting in shape is 20 per exercise and 80 per cent nutrition: you can’t, the adage goes, out-train a bad diet. There is, however, one glaring omission to this fitness formula, because while exercise and nutrition are fundamental, they’re nothing without proper recovery.

Which is why we’re dedicating a large chunk of our October issue to exactly that: kicking things off with no less than 18 science-backed, expert-approved strategies – from percussive therapy to cold-water immersion – for giving your body every chance to start each workout fresher and stronger than before.

And when those training sessions do come around, we’re shining a light on some less-heralded protocols that can make all the difference in your pursuit of physique and performance goals. First up, a look at why dedicated balance work can help you unlock a higher level of strength and all-round resilience – and why it becomes increasingly important as you get older. Then we turn our attention to barefoot beliefs, with extreme adventurer/strongman swimmer Ross Edgley explaining why he does a large amount of his training with either ultra-minimalist footwear or no shoes at all.

Elsewhere, comedian Ian Stone extols the virtues of Pilates – particularly for men in their forties and beyond – and we take a look at why working out regularly can work wonders for your wellbeing, as well as your ability to chuck weights around.

SIMON SHARMAN is a health and fitness journalist.

This issue he explores the benefits of regular balance training (p32).

DOMINIC BLISS is a journalist who runs, hikes and swims. This issue he looks at why you might want to do it all barefoot (p38).

© Simon Best

EDITORIAL Editor Isaac Williams Art Director Xavier Robleda Editorial postal address: Kelsey Publishing Ltd, The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent, ME18 6AL

EDITOR’S LETTER

IAN STONE

LYDIA SMITH

is a comedian and veteran of his local five-a-side. He puts his longevity in the latter down to regular Pilates (p44).

specialises in health and psychology.

This issue she explores the link between weights and wellbeing (p64).

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OCTOBER 2021

3

CONTENTS 35 “THERE IS GROWING EVIDENCE THAT GOOD BALANCE IS A PREDICTOR OF LONGER LIFE AND CAN LEAD TO INCREASED COGNITION”

09 UPDATES

IN FOCUS

09 15 Mins With…

26 Recovery Blueprint

Rugby sevens legend Dan Norton

Eighteen science-backed strategies for improving muscle recovery

10 News Flat-bench benefits and…ejaculation targets

14 Quick Fix

32 Balance Training

Reduce imbalances with this alignment circuit

Why stability work is crucial for strength, resilience and even brain health

16 Cover Star

38 Barefoot Beliefs

Meet this issue’s frontman, Marvin Brooks

PERFECT FIT 22 Sunglasses

If you want to move as nature intended, minimalist shoes may be the answer

44 Pilates for Men Comedian Ian Stone says stretching and strengthening has transformed his health

Sports shades for keeping your goals in focus

24 Skipping Ropes Our favourites for CrossFit and cardio

4

OCTOBER 2021

50 Trent Alexander-Arnold The Liverpool footballer has been undergoing groundbreaking ‘vision training’

ISSUE 258 OCTOBER 2021

MENTAL HEALTH 56 Mental Health News Standout stories and recent research around matters of the mind

58 Male Infertility Breaking the stigma and how to seek support

64 Weights for Wellbeing How resistance training can bolster your mind as well as your body

FUEL 71 Loaded Lunch Rustle up these healthy high-protein burgers

72 Nutrition News Facts and findings from the world of food

74 Promotion: PhD Life The nutrition brand’s new range is designed to optimise your life

42

TRAINER

“NINETY-FIVE PER CENT OF THE TIME I TRAIN BAREFOOT OR IN MINIMALIST SHOES”

79 Press-Up Circuit Pump up your pecs in double-quick time

80 Total-Body Exercises Bang-for-buck movements to torch fat and build fullbody muscle

79

84 Backpack Workout Tackle this weighted-bag blast from serving soldier Farren Morgan

88 Yoga Moves Limber up and calm down with these effective yoga poses

94 Power Clubs

71

84

The best bit of kit you didn’t know existed

“LOAD UP YOUR BACKPACK AND PREPARE FOR A FULL-BODY ASSAULT”

How to bounce back from every workout

96 Ask the Expert 98 Final Thought Build muscle with the latest findings from the lab

OCTOBER 2021

5

NEED-TO-KNOW FITNESS NEWS

FRESH BREATH

Training your breathing skills can pump up your general health and inflate your athletic performance

P

just six weeks of breath training, subjects enjoyed a drop in systolic blood pressure of nine points – similar to what you’d achieve by walking five days a week for 30 minutes per day. They also experienced a 45 per cent improvement in vascular endothelial function, which is the ability of the arteries to expand upon stimulation and a sign of good physical health.

BREATHE EASY “We found that not only is it more time-efficient than traditional exercise programmes, but the benefits may be longer lasting,” explained Professor Daniel

Craighead, an assistant research professor at the University. “And IMST can be done in five minutes in your own home while you watch TV.” All the evidence suggests breath training could be a useful tool for endurance athletes, too.

“If you’re running a marathon, your respiratory muscles get tired and begin to steal blood from your skeletal muscles,” says Professor Craighead, who uses IMST for his own marathon training. “The idea is that if you build up endurance of those respiratory muscles, that won’t happen and your legs won’t get as fatigued.”

TRY THIS:

POWERBREATHE PLUS £49.99, powerbreathe.com Training with a POWERbreathe Plus device has been shown under lab conditions to improve rowing time trial performance by 2.2 per cent, cycling time trial performance by 4.6 per cent, and yo-yo running test performance by 19.5 per cent.

6

OCTOBER 2021

Words: Words: Mark Mark Bailey Bailey | | Photography: Photography:Getty GettyImages Images

ractising ‘strength training’ drills for your breathing muscles, for just five minutes per day, can lower your blood pressure, improve the efficiency of your heart and lungs, and boost your sports performance, according to a new study by the University of Colorado.

The research, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found that high-resistance inspiratory muscle strength training (IMST) – inhaling vigorously through a hand-held breath trainer, which provides air resistance – delivers extraordinary benefits. After

UPDATES●

15 MINUTES WITH…

RUGBY SEVENS STAR

DAN NORTON

Words: Gershon Portnoi | Photography: Getty Images

Legend is a term vastly overused in sport, but for England and GB rugby sevens player Dan Norton, there’s no argument that his stellar career warrants legendary status – and then some. Since his introduction to the England side more than a decade ago, Norton has sprinted, side-stepped and swerved his way into the record books, becoming the all-time leading try-scorer in international sevens history.

Speed is everything in sevens. In our team, there’s always the out-and-out quick guys, but generally people have a good turn of pace about them, and the ability to use their angles and decisionmaking to chase people down. Fitness is a big part of it as well. Being able to repeat those sprints, changes of direction, and the pure endurance element.

Generally, we do speed work once a week. It consists of running drills to prime the body and correct any technical flaws you might have, and to make sure all

your energy is moving in the right direction. From there, we do different change-ofdirection drills, along with accelerations and races over 20 or 40 metres.

Leg strength and power is fundamental. So we do things like squats, weighted step-ups, and Olympic lifts like hang cleans, power cleans and split jerks. It’s seasonal, so what we do would depend on where we are in the season, and where we are in our programme.

We do exercises where you’re forced to exert your energy and speed in a very quick, switched-on manner, because

that resembles the first couple of steps of an acceleration phase when you’re sprinting.

The hardest thing about being a sevens player is the jetlag. We once went to New Zealand, which is 12 hours ahead of the UK, and the following Monday we flew to Las Vegas, which is eight hours behind the UK, so there are massive swings in the time differences. It can be tough to get enough sleep.

But to be able to fly around the world and play a sport in different countries, with the sun on your back, is pretty special.

GYM STAPLES Dan Norton’s favourite strength exercises SQUATS If I’m lifting heavy and well in my squat, then I’m able to run fast. Normally we’ll do anywhere between 3 and 6 reps – it varies during the season.

BANDED PLYOMETRIC HURDLES This is a fast, highoutput kind of exercise, and you do it nice and quick in repetitive, bounding movements.

WEIGHTED STEP-UPS Step-ups are a good way of building control for the knees and glutes. Although you can do dumbbells for step-ups, we use barbells because they work the core more.

OCTOBER 2021

9

●UPDATES

PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER Gold medal-winning swimmer Adam Peaty – whose ‘Superman press-up’ technique went viral when he posted it on Instagram (@adam_peaty) – was Team GB’s most popular athlete at the Tokyo Olympics, according to analysis of Twitter data.

The 100m breaststroke and 4 x 100m mixed medley champ experienced the highest influx of positive tweets over the competition, according to the ‘Self-Made Celebs’ research study.

• To do a Superman press-up, start in the top of a press-up position.

• Lower your body until your chest is a few inches from the floor.

• Press back up as explosively as possible, building up enough momentum to jump your hands and feet off the floor.

• As you do so, clap your hands together.

• As your hands and feet return to the floor, cushion the force by bending your elbows and dropping into the next press-up.

CHALK IT OFF

Research by Bristol University, published in the journal Science Advances, has revealed that job success may trigger raised testosterone levels.

Following a study of 300,000 subjects, researchers found that men who had genetic variants which predisposed them to high testosterone levels were no more successful than others. But successful men were found to have higher levels of testosterone.

That suggests high testosterone levels may be a consequence of men’s success, rather than a driver of it.

T UP

Liquid chalk will improve your grip in the gym, but it may also work as an antiseptic against highly infectious human viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19) and influenza A, according to tests by the University of Melbourne. The researchers, who published their work in mSphere, the journal of the American Society for Microbiology, believe it’s likely to be a result of the chalk's high alcohol content. “Our study has shown that the implementation and application of liquid chalk in communal social gym settings is effective in reducing the infectivity of respiratory viruses,” concluded the researchers.

Hyrox, Europe’s largest hybrid fitness and strength racing series, is coming to the UK for the first time, with events in London on 25 September, Birmingham on 30 October, and Manchester on 29 January. The race series, backed by big-name sponsors including Puma and Red Bull, has been hugely popular all over Europe and America. The events combine endurance and functional fitness in a single race, with contestants completing a series of one-kilometre runs divided between eight bouts of functional exercises: 1,000m on the ski erg, a 50m sled push, a 50m sled pull, 80m of burpee broad jumps, 1,000m of indoor rowing, 2,000m of kettlebell farmer’s carries, 100m of sandbag lunges and 75-100 wall ball throws.

Find out more at hyrox.com

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OCTOBER 2021

Photography: Getty Images

TEST YOUR METTLE

TAKE YOUR RIDE TO THE NEXT LEVEL

AFFORDABLE FITNESS EQUIPMENT

●UPDATES Researchers at Harvard University found that men who ejaculate at least 21 times a month cut their chances of prostate cancer by a third. The study, published in the journal European Urology, involved analysis of 31,925 men. It seems that ejaculation may protect the prostate by flushing out harmful chemicals that build up in semen, but the exact reasoning remains unclear. Separate research has shown that regular ejaculation also helps men to combat stress and anxiety, due to the accompanying surge in endorphins – so keep up the good work.

ENHANCED ODDS

It’s tempting to think you need to complicate things to accelerate progress and break through plateaus, but more often than not basic exercises are the best. The same can be said for chest work, because when it comes to adding strength and size, nothing beats the trusty flat bench press. According to a report in the European Journal of Sports Science, when researchers asked subjects to perform sets of six reps at 65 per cent of their one-rep max, they found that muscle stimulation was greater when the bench was flat than when it was placed at a 15-degree, 30-degree or 45-degree angle. The moral of the story? Make the flat bench the cornerstone of your chest-building strategy.

IN THE

Good news for cyclists, runners and triathletes who are planning an active getaway this autumn: a recent study published in Preventive Medicine found that exercising outside in the sunshine does not increase your risk of skin cancer, as long as prevention strategies are put in place. The experts are not certain why people who train outdoors are no more at risk than those who don’t, but physical activity in general has been shown to reduce cancer rates and boost the body’s cancer-fighting immune cells. Athletes may also be more conscientious about staying protected, in the same way they prioritise other elements of their health. So long as you apply sunscreen before going outdoors and reapply regularly if you’re sweating, exercising outside in the sun is nothing to fear.

CLEAR

Words: Mark Bailey | Photography: Getty Images

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have discovered that endurance exercise can help to ward off serious disease.

The experts found that six weeks of slow-and-steady fitness pursuits can help to rewire sections of DNA in the body known as ‘enhancers’, which regulate which genes are switched on or off, when, and in which tissue. Some of the particular enhancers rewired by endurance exercise are those known to be associated with higher risks of developing diseases, and they affect areas as diverse as the brain, liver and adipose tissue. That may explain why endurance exercise has previously been shown to prevent neurological conditions, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

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OCTOBER 2021

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Whether you’re a gym regular or a fitness first-timer, this circuit – designed by strength coach Dan John – will fix imbalances and reinforce proper movement patterns HOW TO: Do each exercise back-to-back, with minimal rest.

Once one round is complete, rest as needed then repeat the whole thing one or two more times.

Aim to do the workout once or twice a week to maintain proper alignment.

1a. FRONT-LEANING REST TIME: 30 secs REST: Straight into 1b Instead of the traditional elbows-tothe-floor plank, use this variation to build scapular stability.

From a press-up position, ‘grip’ the floor, squeeze your arms as if you’re holding tennis balls in your armpits, clench your glutes and hold.

1b. KETTLEBELL BATWING REPS: 6 REST: Straight into 1c Lie face down on a bench, holding a kettlebell or dumbbell in each hand.

Pull the weights up as high as you can, hold for ten seconds and lower.

No kit? Lean back against a wall and push your elbows back for the entry-level version.

1c. GLUTE BRIDGE REPS: 20 REST: Straight into 1d Lie on the floor with your heels close to your glutes.

Keeping your heels and shoulders down, raise your hips as high as possible.

Lower back to the start.

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OCTOBER 2021

1d. HEARTBEAT SQUAT REPS: 10 REST: Straight into 1e Holding a kettlebell or rucksack, squat down, keeping your weight on your heels, with your elbows touching your knees.

Push the kettlebell out, bring it back in and stand up.

1e. SUITCASE CARRY DISTANCE: 20m REST: Straight into 1f Hold a heavy kettlebell, dumbbell or bag in one hand and walk, keeping your shoulders back and chest up.

After 20m, switch hands, turn and walk back.

1f. ROLLING 45 REPS: 5 each side REST: As needed, then repeat 1a SETS: 2-3 Lie with one arm and leg out on the floor at a 45-degree angle, with the other arm in the air and the other leg bent.

Roll onto your forearm, looking up at your raised hand, then return to the start.

Repeat on the other side.

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●UPDATES COVER STAR

MEET THE FRONTMAN:

Marvin

Brooks This issue’s cover star is former Royal Navy officer turned personal trainer Marvin Brooks, who also plays semi-pro football for Salisbury F.C. Brooks’ fitness philosophy – perhaps shaped by his time in the military – centres on the fact that we only have one body (“no exchanges or returns”) and should therefore use it.

“To me, all the success or money in the world wouldn’t compare to living a long, healthy lifestyle,” Brooks tells Men’s Fitness.

“That motivates me to make the most of the body I’ve got.”

The 31-year-old works out five or six days a week – “a mix of strength training and either football training or matches” – and credits a newly adopted plant-based diet with helping him stay both lean and healthy all year round.

Photography: Eddie Macdonald

Sick of long-and-slow cardio? Be like Brooks and play sport instead

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OCTOBER 2021

Rapid Responses FAVOURITE FITNESS KIT? TRX

BEST CHEAT MEAL? Homemade pizza

*2ŝ72 WORKOUT MUSIC? Hip hop

BEST TIME TO TRAIN? First thing (pre-excuses)

FITNESS PET HATE? Fad diets

FAVOURITE EXERCISE? TRX Atomic Press-Up

HARDEST EXERCISE? Deadlift

You don’t need big weights to build an impressive physique

Photography: Daniele Venturelli / Getty Images

MIX AND MATCH Despite his disciplined approach, Brooks acknowledges you can have too much of a good thing.

“Training the same way for longer than eight to 12 weeks will most likely leave you in the same place until you change up your routine,” he says. “You may be looking to build muscle, but understanding periodisation training will be a game changer.”

And when it comes to the content of that training, Brooks is on the same page as MF – prioritise the big movements; save the ‘accessory’ work for afters: “The big mistake I see in the gym on a daily basis is men training upper body through isolating exercises – bicep curls, for example.

The first thing I would recommend is to make lower-body dominant, compound movements – your squats and deadlifts – a staple part of your routine. Not only do these develop all-round muscle in a more rounded fashion, but they also burn a lot more calories.”

Finally, Brooks recommends playing the long game: “When I started, I went to the gym twice a week and made it part of my routine.

After a few weeks, maybe a month, I added a third session in – but only when the two-a-week felt an ingrained part of my lifestyle.

Learning and feeling the benefit of something will mean you will want to go even on your worst days.”

DREAM TRAINING PARTNER? Michael B. Jordan

OCTOBER 2021

17

Photography: Red Bull

Liverpool and England footballer Trent Alexander-Arnold – who missed out on this summer’s Euros due to a last-minute injury – has PICTURE PREVIEW turned to tech to help him level up his performances for the season ahead. With a game based on speed of thought and eagleeyed vision, Alexander-Arnold has teamed up with Red Bull’s sports ophthalmologist, Dr Daniel Laby, to hone those attributes even further. Over the course of a few months earlier in the year, the footballer and the eye expert used groundbreaking ‘Sports Vision’ training – used in Major League Baseball for decades – to fine-tune focus when the pressure is on.

Read our interview with Alexander-Arnold on page 50

KIT BAG ESSENTIALS

li Jawad is on a mission. The British Para powerlifter is moving mountains within grassroots sport for people living with physical impairments.

Jawad is the brainchild behind the launch of a new mobile app dedicated to disability sport and fitness, which he believes will “revolutionise accessibility to gyms and exercise facilities for people of all abilities.”

Initially made available in the UK, the Accessercise app will also be rolled out in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and will become the first of its kind worldwide to plug what Jawad describes as a “gaping hole” in the disability fitness market.

A

Words: Steven Impey | Photography: Getty Images / @alijawadpowerlifter

GYM ACCESS FOR ALL “We want to change the way disability is perceived by local government and community sport,” explains Jawad.

“Ultimately, to provide greater access to community gyms for people living with impairments, but also to shift Para sport away from an afterthought and into the mainstream health and fitness market.

“I have to say that I have been very impressed with the improvements that have been made in recent years to the accessibility and opportunity available to people living with an impairment, especially here in the UK. “However, that isn’t widely publicised, and our hope is to

ACCESSERCISE

The mobile app that its founder says will revolutionise fitness access for people with disabilities provide a mobile app which puts disability sport on the map, encourages exercise facilities to showcase and enhance the resources available to their community, and makes sport truly inclusive for people of all abilities.”

Launched just beforeTokyo 2020, the Accessercise app provides a raft of unique features, including a verified directory of accessible gyms situated in the user’s location, an ability to rate the accessibility of local sports and exercise facilities, and dedicated podcasts, blogs and user-generated content.

“We’ve launched the Accessercise app to help build a legacy for major Para sporting

events,” says Jawad, “and to provide both up-to-date information on access to local sport across multiple territories, and also a digital platform for unique content dedicated to disability sport and exercise – including top tips and user-generated videos.”

LONG OVERDUE Only four in ten people living with impairments believe they have sufficient opportunity to be active, according to data gathered by disability sport charity, Activity Alliance.

Meanwhile, nine in ten people with an impairment feel underserved in the app market.

Jawad adds that many people who identify as disabled

face barriers when it comes to finding accessible and welcoming places to exercise.

“For too long,” he says, “people with impairments have not been catered for in this space. This is an area where we should be expecting much more from local governments to implement accessibility to gyms and fitness groups.

“We aim to revolutionise access to sports and fitness facilities, and we hope it will become an inclusive, social hub for people living with an impairment to connect with their local fitness community like never before.”

VISIT JOIN.ACCESSERCISE.COM TO FIND OUT MORE.

OCTOBER 2021

21

●PERFECT FIT SUNGLASSES

Sporty, stylish, high-spec sunglasses to help you keep your head in the game Whether you’re pushing big watts in search of mountain summits or chasing Strava segments at your local parkrun, it pays to protect your eyes from flies, wind, debris and the sun’s glare. A good set of sports shades should fit comfortably and stay put under pressure. Here’s our pick of the best to keep your goals in focus.

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OCTOBER 2021

OAKLEY KATO £231, oakley.com These face-wrappers change the shape of ocular protection for downhill pursuits. A wide-vision, singlepiece lens with a high-wrap frame keeps insects and rays off your eyeballs and extends your field of vision so you can see more of the road ahead. Patented High Definition Optics focus incoming light into one spot, so your brain and eyes compute a single image – that means less mental work, picking out potential dangers. The 30g Kato’s lenses filter out 100 per cent of troublesome UVA and UVB rays up to 400nm, and a repellent coating sees off water, fingerprints and sweat. (Though we’re not sure about blood and tears.)

Fit

+ + + + +

Vision

+ + + + +

OVERALL

+ + + + +

Words: Kieran Alger

THROW SOME SHADE

ROKA FALCON TITANIUM £260, uk.roka.com Roka’s impeccable design proves Aviators aren’t just for beachbar swagger. At 19g shades don’t get much lighter, while the impressive anti-scratch, glare, fog and reflection skills of the Polarised lenses keep roads and trails in sharp focus. The real mind-blower, though, is the patented nose and temple pads that give these unshakeable grip.

Fit + ++ + + Vision + ++ + + OVERALL + ++ + +

KARÜN KONA

BOSE FRAMES TEMPO

CIMALP VISION ONE SPORT

€179, karuneyewear.com

£239.95, bose.com

£89.90, cimalp.co.uk Designed for hiking, cycling, running and generally moving fast up and down hills, these close-fitting wraparounds stop sunlight sneaking in the sides, while an anti-glare lens with UV 400 blocks 100 per cent of bad UV rays to keep your vision sharp – and eyes protected.

Adjustable temple ends and nose bridge make it easy to find a secure fit.

Fit

+ ++ ++

Vision

+ ++ +

OVERALL

+ ++ +

OAKLEY ENCODER £204, oakley.com Built for the rigours of a range of sports spanning golf to cycling, the versatile Encoder pack wide vision Prizm™ lenses that deliver excellent contrast and colour, leaving you free to focus on the task at hand. Chuck in impact protection, great staying power and hat-friendly temple arms, and you’ve got excellent all-rounders.

Ideal for soundtracking sunny runs, rides and fitness pursuits, these sportfriendly, glasses/ headphones mash-up kick out high-quality audio from two speakers, leaving your ears open so you can hear cars, dogs and other stuff sneaking up. The lenses are interchangeable to suit the conditions, and they’re waterresistant.

Fit

+ ++ +

Vision

+ ++ +

OVERALL

+ ++ ++

SUNGOD RENEGADES 8KO £110, sungod.co The adventurefriendly Renegades bring a bit of classic style to your outdoor escapades with lightweight frames that can bend, twist and take the knocks.

The crystal sharp – and interchangeable – polarised lenses come in ten different tints and pack full UV protection. The fit is comfortable, but better suited to more leisurely pursuits.

Fit

+ ++ +

Fit

+ ++ +

Vision

+ ++ +

Vision

+ ++ ++

OVERALL

+ ++ +

OVERALL

+ ++ +

Designed in Patagonia, made in Italy and with a focus fixed equally on performance and the planet, these specs are made from regenerated ocean plastics. Rubber nose grips ensure a reliable fit while the polarised lenses provide pinsharp viewing and 100 per cent UVA/UVB protection.

Fit

+ ++ +

Vision

+ ++ ++

OVERALL

+ ++ ++

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●PERFECT FIT SKIPPING ROPES

LET’S BOUNCE Portable, affordable and brilliant for fat-fighting cardio, these are the best ropes for skipping yourself into shape Studies show a ten-minute skipping session can be as effective as half an hour of running. Fast-foot rope workouts are also lower impact and brilliant for improving coordination and balance, which are the foundations for extending your fitness well into your grandpa years. Lucky, then, that when it comes to gym kit, the humble rope is about as lightweight, affordable and convenient as it comes. Here’s our tried and tested pick of the latest hot-steppers

MIRAFIT BATTLE JUMP ROPE £15.95, mirafit.co.uk

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Grip

+ + + + +

Durability

+ + + + +

OVERALL

+ + + + +

Words: Kieran Alger

If skipping over skinny, lightweight loops isn’t challenging enough, this hard-wearing, battle rope/ jump rope hybrid adds some upper-body conditioning to your endurance workouts. At one to two inches thick, with a hefty weight that ranges from 1.1kg to 3.9kg, it’s excellent for everything for fat-stripping HIIT, to building grip, shoulder and arm strength. Despite that extra bulk, the Mirafit Rope packs comfortably in a gym bag, while the rubber reinforced handles make it easy to grip and brilliantly durable.

CROSSROPE JUMP BUNDLE £218, crossrope.com With one rope weighted for strength, another for getting lean, and a fast-clip system, this bundle lets you switch up the work rate easily mid-session. The slimline handles are nicely ergonomic and the ropes are designed for any surface. There’s also a partner app with over 500 goal-orientated workouts.

Grip + ++ + + Durability + ++ + + OVERALL + ++ + +

ADIDAS SKIPPING ROPE SET £34.99, amazon.co.uk If you want flexibility, adidas’ unique rope set has 50g and 100g interchangeable weighted cores that slot inside the handles, plus two 2.75m ropes – one weighted, one lighter for speedwork – so you change gears to suit your goals. It also comes in a portable case ideal for travel.

Grip + ++ + + Durability + ++ + + OVERALL + ++ + +

RDX DIGITAL CALORIE BURN AND WORKOUT COUNTER £18.99, rdxsports.co.uk RDX’s connected rope uses embedded sensors to accurately count your jumps and estimate calorie burn, with all your stats appearing alongside a countdown timer on an LED display in the handles.

The 3.1m rope is adjustable and the non-slip handles ensure maximum grip.

Grip + ++ + + Durability + ++ + + OVERALL + ++ +

SUNDRIED SKIPPING ROPE £10, sundried.com This lightweight, super-slim speed rope copes well smashing out rapid-fire boxing drills and general gym sessions. The 12cm rubber grip handles are fatter than some, but ergonomic thumb grooves make for a comfortable grip. The 3m cable is lengthadjustable and the set comes with a spare.

Grip + ++ + + Durability + ++ + OVERALL + ++ + +

PRIMAL STRENGTH STEEL SKIPPING ROPE £9.99, primalstrength.com If you’re looking for a speed rope, this has brilliantly smooth swivel bearings to ensure a reliably rapid spin. It also packs textured, lightweight steel handles for better grip, and it’s adjustable.

Grip + ++ + Durability + ++ + + OVERALL + ++ +

VENUM THUNDER EVO GOLD £19.98, uk.venum.com Blinged up and ready to bring the thunder, Venum’s ultralight 216g rope is designed for indoor use. Its 3m cable adjusts easily and spins with a smooth and fast action that’s excellent for all-round crosstraining, speedwork and warming up for combat sports.

Grip + ++ + Durability + ++ + OVERALL + ++ +

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IN FOCUS RECOVERY

P

reparing meticulously and emptying the tank in your workouts is all well good, but are you forgetting the most important part of the fitness puzzle? By that we mean, doing absolutely nothing.

Rest and recovery are the most crucial aspects of any exercise programme. Without recovery, your body cannot heal, rebuild muscle and get stronger ahead of the next training load. You might be good at putting your body through stress, risking injury, inflicting micro-tears on your muscles and diminishing your energy stores. But when it comes to getting really good nutrition in, plus a good night’s sleep? For most of us, not so much.

Laziness plays a part, but mostly it’s because figuring out the best methods can be a minefield – one littered with brightly coloured adverts promising miracle cures. But while research into many recovery gadgets, strategies and techniques is still in its infancy, there is still much that sports science can tell us about what can help the process, from foam rolling, via protein shakes, to the most miraculous cure of all: plenty of sleep.

2. GET TO WORK It might sound counter-productive for recovery, but not doing enough high-intensity strength work could dampen your body’s regenerative powers. Athletes who do endurance sports – especially as they get older – will usually see a drop in testosterone and human growth hormone levels. That means you can’t train as hard, or recover as well. Studies show that the relationship between workload and hormone release is linear: more reps and more sets equals higher levels. By contrast, heavy weights, low reps and long recovery doesn’t seem to elicit the same hormone response.

3. KNOW YOUR NUTRIENTS

1. COOL OFF Wellness trends may come and go, but cold-water therapy is a constant. The Romans plunged into frigidariums after their hot-water bathing; in 1702, John Locke wrote of ‘miracles done by cold baths on decay’d and weak constitutions’; and the Victorians flocked to spa towns to douse themselves in icy showers. Yet despite millenia of use, there’s still much to learn – not least the perfect temperature and duration of the exposure. Generally, around 11 degrees and for about 11 to 15 minutes seems to be the recommended dose. Cryotherapy – at much lower temperatures, but for a shorter time – doesn’t seem to offer much extra benefit, beyond being more time-efficient.

Magnesium is crucial for virtually every process in the human body, from heart to brain to muscles, and it plays a vital role in energy production. So a deficiency – and some estimates suggest 50 per cent of adults are deficient – can hamper recovery, and cause fatigue and muscles cramps. There’s also evidence that very physically active people need higher levels. As with any nutrient, getting magnesium through your diet is preferable to supplementation – leafy greens, nuts, seeds and whole grains are all good sources. That said, a quality supplement can be used to help top up levels.

“I also recommend Epsom bath salts,” says physiologist Eddie Fletcher. “One of the ways magnesium is best absorbed is through the skin, so a bath is ideal. It can also promote TRY sleep, which in turn benefits recovery.”

THIS:

WILD EARTH GENTLE MAGNESIUM £9.99, wildearth-nutrition.com Contains magnesium citrate, a form of magnesium that’s gentle on the stomach, as well as vitamin B6 to aid absorption. The packaging is biodegradable and recyclable.

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IN FOCUS RECOVERY

5. KEEP WARM Sport and exercise physiologist Eddie Fletcher, who we heard from earlier, has worked with top athletes across many disciplines, and his number-one tip for recovery is to make sure you start and finish the right way.

“The warm-up and cool-down are really important parts of the session, which can help with both the quality of performance and recovery. Warming up and cooling down on a Wattbike is a good discipline, and the Wattbike Hub App has routines based on solid science. The essence of a cool-down is reducing the heart rate down to near normal/resting heart rate levels.”

6. PICK CHERRIES 4. PAUSE THE PINTS It’s not what anyone wants to hear, but booze doesn’t just dehydrate you, it also interferes with the way your body synthesises protein, which means that it can’t even repair as well while you sleep. Not that you will do that as well after alcohol, anyway: even a moderate amount decreases your sleep quality by 24 per cent, and more than two servings by 39.2 per cent.1

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It can be hard to separate the facts from the wild marketing claims, but there is some good evidence that certain superfoods really can aid recovery. Studies in athletes found

that tart cherry juice reduced inflammation and DOMS after both endurance and strength-based exercise – and even led to improvements in sleep. There’s no definitive answer yet as to why, but it’s thought to be because the sour cherries are packed with anthocyanins, which have antioxidant and antiinflammatory properties.

7. ROLL WITH IT You can’t walk through a gym or scroll through Instagram these days without tripping over a foam roller. But do they really work? A big meta-analysis in 2019 of all the evidence suggests that the answer is a helpful ‘yes and no’.2 On the one hand, the actual measurable effects on performance and recovery are minor, but on the other, a small improvement is not nothing.

Then there’s the psychological aspect, which can be just as important. If you feel less pain after using one, then crack on. If there’s one thing all the studies so far agree on, it’s that there is absolutely no negative side: it’s cheap and convenient, and it can’t hurt (much).

8. FEED YOUR MUSCLES Your muscles and body tissue depend on protein and the amino acids it contains to stay strong and durable.

Without sufficient protein, the body will break down under the demands of training.

Individual needs depend on a range of factors, but for anyone who works out regularly, a high protein intake of 1.5g to 2.2g per kg of bodyweight is recommended.

Aim for 20-30g every three to four hours to maintain muscle protein synthesis (the process by which the body uses protein to repair damaged muscles caused by intense exercise). If you’re maintaining a calorie deficit to lose weight, that muscle protein synthesis (MPS) is especially important, because your body is going to be searching for fuel and, unless you’re taking on enough protein to trigger MPS, muscle protein breakdown will occur.

How you get your protein – be it from plant or animal sources – doesn’t really matter, so long as you’re utilising combinations that provide complete proteins with all nine essential amino acids. Animal sources are rich in these amino acids – the so-called ‘building blocks’ of muscle – but many plant sources are incomplete proteins when taken on their own.

However, emerging research suggests getting complete protein sources in one go isn’t as important as once thought. So long as your diet is varied – and you’re getting regular doses of those aminos – you should be fine.

9. STAY BALANCED Bars and shakes can be useful, but nothing beats a good diet. “Eating for recovery and ensuring quality food intake can help with reaching the correct micro-nutrient intake – in particular an intake of eight portions of fruit and vegetables per day,” says Eddie Fletcher. “Try, too, to eat oily fish at least twice a week, or take omega-3 supplements.”

Oily fish is doubly beneficial, because it contains heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids (not to mention protein), which aid your body’s ability to control inflammation. Good fats also help with the absorption of vitamins A,K,D and E, all of which support recovery, boost energy and protect your immune system.

10. DRINK UP There’s a reason humans can go weeks without food, but only a few days without water. Every single cell in your body depends on good hydration to function effectively, and research out of the California University of Pennsylvania has shown that even a one per cent decline in fluids (per cent of bodyweight) can negatively impair performance. Any intense exercise leads to minor muscle tears, and to build them up stronger again the body needs to synthesise protein. To do that, your cells need water. H2O also helps to remove the metabolic waste a hard workout produces, and studies have shown dehydration can actually increase DOMs – so not drinking enough is a literal pain.

WATER WORKS Research in the journal Nutrition advises drinking 200ml to 285ml of water for every ten to 20 minutes of moderate exercise. If it’s a particularly tough session, or the mercury has risen, you will need more (plus electrolytes).

11. THINK ZINC

COMPLETE PLANT PROTEINS The following vegan foods contain the full range of essential amino acids: • • • • • •

Quinoa Tofu Buckwheat Chia seeds Spirulina Pitta bread and hummus • Wholegrain peanut butter sandwich

ZINC SOURCES • • • • • • •

Meat Milk Fish Eggs Spinach Oatmeal Wholemeal foods

Another essential micronutrient for anyone who exercises regularly, zinc bolsters the immune system and can speed up recovery between workouts. However, zinc is a mineral lost through sweat, which means athletes in high-intensity sports need to up their intake. Research by the University of Otago found that athletes have lower levels of zinc than non-athletes, so the scientists recommended a low-dose zinc supplement in addition to a balanced diet.

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IN FOCUS RECOVERY

14. PLAY PERCUSSION

12. GO ELECTRIC If you’ve ever found yourself on a physio’s bed with a torn or injured muscle, you might have been hooked up to an Neuromuscular Electronic Stimulation (NMES) machine.

A mild current, applied via small patches on your skin, helps stimulate the muscle or manipulate the nerves to reduce pain and promote healing.

The Powerdot is essentially a home bluetooth-enabled, app-controlled gadget that does the same thing.

You simply place the device on your body, sync with the companion app and identify which muscles you wish to stimulate. The pads do the rest, with more than ten programmes to boost blood flow, work out knots and soothe aching tissues for rapid relief. There’s a single pod, or a pricier two-pod option for doubling down on your recovery. Check it out at therabody.com.

13. CALL THE EXPERTS Sports massages feel good, but do they really do anything? Professor Tim Chico and Dr Holly Davis at Sheffield University published a paper in the BMJ last year, looking at the evidence.

“A key finding is how hard it is to judge the effects of sports massage on things that can be measured directly,” explains Professor Chico. “We found no clear evidence of a positive effect on measures of sports

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Theraguns and other similar gadgets are now a staple of any self-respecting pro athlete’s recovery kit. And proponents say that percussive therapy – using both vibration and pressure – is more effective than simple self-massage.

The science seems to back this up, at least so far: the first major study in 2014 found that vibration massage led to less muscle soreness and an increased range of motion.

Dr Jason Wersland founded Therabody after being involved in a serious motorcycle accident and suffering intense back pain. Everyone, he says, can benefit from using one, but he’s also realistic: “I always encourage people to think about their body holistically as well. It’s important to move your body, prioritise ergonomics, eat right and always stretch.”

If you do invest in a Theragun, it’s worth following the accompanying app and routines to get the most out of it (theragun.com/uk).

15. COMPRESS TO PROGRESS A 2020 review of evidence found that wearing compression garments did improve recovery time post-exercise. Professional triathlete Kimberley Morrison is a firm believer: “The most common form of compression comes in compression socks, which offer graduated pressure in the lower limb to improve venous return. I use CEP’s socks, as the pressure that is exerted on certain muscle groups helps to reduce the diameter of major veins and therefore increases blood flow. And I always put them on as soon as possible after a workout, to maximise the benefits.” performance, such as strength or jump height. And although massage did improve flexibility and muscle soreness, that didn’t translate into better performance (though that doesn’t rule it out in some sports).

But massage is undeniably pleasant – if sometimes uncomfortably so – and as long as people don’t assume it will definitely improve their race times, then it’s up to them how they spend their money. Do you feel better after a massage, and if so is the benefit worth the cost? If yes, then it’s worthwhile.”

TRY CEP SOCKS THIS: FOR RECOVERY £34.95, cepsports.co.uk Medi compression and Smart Infrared technology combine for improved blood flow and quicker recovery between workouts.

17. STRETCH OFF

16. TAKE A NAP Nothing is as important as quality sleep at night, but a nap can be hugely beneficial, restore alertness and even enhance performance. The rules are: short and sweet, and not too late.

A quick power nap of ten to 20 minutes in the middle of the day doesn’t just make you feel fresher, it helps you recover, too. During sleep, hormones such as testosterone and growth hormones are released, which help repair those muscles. One study showed that men who got seven or more hours of sleep each night had greater hand-grip strength than those who got less than six hours. And if there’s one thing worth investing in, it’s a really good mattress and bedding.

SIMBA HYBRID MATTRESS

Stretching is a bit like homework: there’s a nagging feeling you should do it, but it’s easy to make excuses. And does it really do anything? Well, evidence from multiple studies suggests that static stretching post-workout doesn’t have any effect on DOMs. However, it does improve both flexibility and – importantly for that crucial rest and sleep recovery – relaxation.

TRY THIS:

Words: Kate Carter | Photography: Getty Images | 1. sleepfoundation.org 2. Frontiers in Physiology 3. SpringerPlus

£749.25, simbasleep.com The only mattress with Simba’s unique, patented titanium Aerocoil® spring-comfort layer, for a dreamy night’s sleep.

Comes with a risk-free 200-night trial, so you can sleep on your decision.

18. LET OFF STEAM Saunas are no longer the reserve of gyms and hotels. The MiHigh home infrared sauna blanket can be used on your own bed, and the benefits are pretty persuasive. Saunas reduce stress, can improve your sleep, lower your blood pressure and – most importantly for recovery – a small study has shown they also decrease muscle soreness and enhance recovery from strength training sessions.3 The MiHigh is essentially a giant sleeping bag of warmth, with a waterproof liner that stops your sweat soaking through. You climb in, fully clothed, and turn it on – then relax and let the aching muscles unwind. The sensation takes a while to get used to, but it does get the sweat flowing (uk.mihigh.com).

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IN FOCUS BALANCE TRAINING

32 OCTOBER 2021

A B N LA CING

T C A

NE LEG, GOOD O N O D N A T S O T LY BEING ABLE CE, INJURY N A M R O MORE THAN SIMP F R E P IC T RAL TO ATHLE HY STABILITY W ’S E R E H BALANCE IS CENT .

N IO T C COGNITIVE FUN N E V E D N A N PROGRAMME IO T G IN IN A R PREVEN T ’S N A M SPOT IN ANY WORK IS WORTH A

OCTOBER 2021

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IN FOCUS BALANCE TRAINING

I

n a classic moment from the 1980s, Mr Miyagi tells his student, Daniel, to stand on the bow of his fishing boat before delivering a life lesson.

“Better learn balance.

Balance is key. If balance good, karate good.

Everything good. If balance bad, better pack up. Go home. Understand?”

But is balance really that important to anyone not under the tutelage of a kindly old neighbourhood karate master? Look around the gym and you’re unlikely to see many high beams – even more conventional bits of kit like BOSU balls (more on those later) often sit gathering dust in a forgotten corner. So, why bother with balance?

KEY TO PERFORMANCE Well, several reasons, but most notably because stamina, speed and strength are only going to be fully utilised if your balance is good.

Look outside the four walls of the gym and you’ll see balance being demonstrated by elite athletes all the time. It’s in the ability of Raheem Sterling to send a defender one way while he swivels in the opposite direction.

It’s in the exhilarating play of Antoine Dupont as he changes direction, breaks tackles and accelerates away to score a try. And it’s in the devastating movement of LeBron James powering towards the paint, receiving

34 OCTOBER 2021

a pass then dropping back to create space to shoot a threepointer. Without supreme balance, not one of these athletes makes it anywhere close to the top.

Dr Sharif Tabbah, known widely as Dr Reef (@Doctor_Reef ), is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, a strength and conditioning coach, and co-founder of Athletix Rehab and Recovery in Florida – which has become a go-to facility for top-level US athletes. Videos of his balance training with Alvin Kamara, the New Orlean Saints’ linebacker, went viral. Dr Reef is a pioneer of using balance training in top-level athletic conditioning programmes.

“It’s the very foundation of what we do at Athletix Rehab and Recovery,” he says. “I cannot stress

“University of Hamburg volunteers were placed on a 12-week balance training programme, the results of which showed increased brain cell growth and improved memory”

enough the importance of good balance.”

However, the unsettling truth is that our ability to balance begins to reduce as early as our mid-thirties. Do nothing about that decline and your performance levels will dip. Worse still, you will become susceptible to injury, regardless of other measures of your fitness.

The good news is that when it comes to balance, we can hold back Father Time a lot more easily than other exercise modalities, such as cardiovascular health and strength.

“Balance is one of the fastest things to improve,” says Dr Reef. “Within two weeks you can see significant improvements – in fact, by

PILLARS OF BALANCE Balance is a complicated process, which is dependent on the following four systems the end of just one session you’ll see balance improve.”

In balance training, the aim is to fire up the muscles of the entire kinetic chain, which is what packs a major punch for functional strength and stability.

Words: Simon Sharman | Photography: Getty Images

BALANCE FOR STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING Core control When you think ‘core’, your mind might jump to the best set of abs you just scrolled past on Instagram.

But the reality of core strength is way deeper than that. The core is actually made up of 29 different muscles, all of which make up the trunk of the body, with the primary aim of stabilising and protecting the spine. The core muscles also control movement and form the foundation of overall strength.

The main core muscles used in balance training are the inner core muscles, which attach to the spine: transverse abdominus, multifidus, diaphragm, the obliques and pelvic floor muscles.

Legs, glutes and feet Once you place yourself on an unstable surface, your leg muscles are going to be working like crazy to keep you upright. This type of training is going to get your quads and hamstrings firing, but we’re also here for the difficult-to-train muscles, which play a key role in stabilising your hip and ankle joints.

For the hip joint, you’ll be working the gluteus medius – a smaller and deeper set than the gluteus maximus. Then you should think about your ankle joint as the foundation of your body, so you will be

PROPRIOCEPTION

VESTIBULAR SYSTEM

VISUAL SYSTEM

This is the sensory system of your body, which tells you where your body and parts of it are in space. It’s why you don’t need to look where your arm is when you go to catch a ball or where your foot is when you go to kick one. Sensory information is being continually pinged back and forth to your brain regarding postural balance.

Located in your inner ear, this acts as your internal spirit level. It helps to keep your head and neck centred, steady and upright, as well as ensuring that you remain balanced and avoid falling.

Your visual system works in partnership with your vestibular system, sending signals about the position and velocity of your movement.

That’s why your ability to balance is significantly challenged when you close your eyes (stand on one leg with your eyes closed if you don’t believe us).

working the peroneals and the tibiallis, which run on the inside and outside of the calves respectively, and over the ankle joint.

BALANCE FOR INJURY PREVENTION If you love what you do, then you also know how frustrating it can be when you’re injured. Not only are you losing time to rest and recovery, but in some cases, you can create longer-term susceptibility to recurring injury.

Studies at the University of Wisconsin Sports Medicine Centre show that ankle sprains are the most

common musculoskeletal injury among athletes.

An intervention balance programme, however, which focused on young basketball and soccer players, showed a 38 per cent reduction in the risk of an ankle injury.

BALANCE FOR BRAIN HEALTH AND LONGEVITY In addition to the physical benefits of balance training, there is growing evidence that good balance is a predictor of longer life and can lead to increased cognition. A study by the Medical Research Council showed that participants with poor balance at the age of 53 were three times more likely to be dead by 65 than those with good balance. In

MUSCLES AND JOINTS OF THE TRUNK AND LOWER BODY You also need strong muscles in your lower body to create stability around your joints, as well as a strong core to act as the central point of a stable body chain, which allows you to crank up the power to your legs and arms.

a separate investigation at the University of Hamburg, volunteers were placed on a 12-week balance training programme, the results of which showed increased brain cell growth and improved memory.

In the same way that the Karate Kid’s hours spent balancing on boats and logs eventually enabled him to deliver his knockout, one-legged crane kick at the end of the film, you can use regular balance training to ensure your continual progress in the gym, on the pitch and in life at large.

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IN FOCUS BALANCE TRAINING

STRONG STABLE

Dr Sharif Tabbah works with some of the highest-profile elite athletes in US sport. While we could consider these as the

Incorporate the following balance exercises into your weekly routine

X-Men of the fitness world, he recommends the following exercises – using a BOSU Balance Trainer – for everyday

gym-goers. Tag one or two onto the end of your regular workout, or combine the lot for a full-body balance session.

1. BOSU HEEL TAPS REPS: 10 each leg REST: 90 secs (complete reps on both legs before resting) SETS: 3 Stand to the side of the BOSU ball.

Step onto the BOSU ball with your right leg.

Extend your left leg out in front, with heel raised.

Slowly lower yourself into a single-leg squat, descending as low as you can manage and tapping your left heel on the floor.

Drive through your right quad to return to standing.

REPS: 5 each leg REST: 60-90 secs SETS: 2-3 Stand on one leg on the BOSU ball.

Use the foot of the opposite leg to guide a ball clockwise around the BOSU ball.

Once you’ve completed one full rotation, repeat the movement in an anti-clockwise direction.

That’s 1 rep.

For a sterner challenge, and to strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the feet, try doing it without shoes on.

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Illustrations: Peter Liddiard

2. BOSU AROUND THE WORLDS

3. BOSU ECCENTRIC FORWARD LUNGE REPS: 10 each leg REST: 60-90 secs SETS: 3 Stand behind the BOSU ball.

Now perform a forward lunge, landing your lead foot on the centre of the ball. This will create an unstable surface on which you must decelerate your bodyweight while creating stability.

Lunge all the way down, then drive through your front heel to return to the starting position.

Complete all reps on one leg, then switch.

4. BOSU SINGLE-LEG JUMP (ON/OFF) REPS: 10 each leg REST: 60-90 secs SETS: 3 Stand behind the BOSU ball.

Now perform a single-leg hop, landing on the centre of the ball, and pause for two to three seconds.

Hop off, so you land behind the ball once more.

You can start by jumping off of one leg and landing on the other.

Once this becomes comfortable, progress to jumping and landing on the same leg.

5. BOSU PRESS-UP REPS: To failure REST: 60 secs SETS: 3 Place the BOSU ball dome-side down.

Assume a press-up position, with hands on the flat underside of the ball.

Perform regular press-ups, ensuring that your shoulders are above your hands and keeping your elbows close to the body.

The instability of your hands will force your core to work extra hard.

To progress, place your feet on another ball to increase the instability.

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IN FOCUS BAREFOOT TRAINING

feet first THESE DAYS, MOST TRAINERS COME IN

TWO STYLES: CUSHIONED AND HEAVILY SO. BUT IF YOU WANT TO RUN, TRAIN AND MOVE AS NATURE INTENDED – WITH THE CHANCE TO IMPROVE BIOMECHANICS AND PHYSICAL RESILIENCE – IT’S TIME TO BARE YOUR SOLES

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IN FOCUS BAREFOOT TRAINING

oss Edgley – the ‘extreme adventurer’ best known for swimming around the UK, and the man pictured here – once spent two months living and training with Namibian bushmen. In 2008, he abandoned all home comforts to join the San people in the Kalahari Desert. There, he “hunted for miles every day wearing nothing but a loincloth, sandals and a smile.”

Often covering more than a marathon distance each day, like his hosts he chose to eschew shoes altogether, running in bare feet instead.

“Essentially, barefoot biomechanics was improving my running technique and efficiency to such an extent I was evolving into something that resembled a semi-good endurance athlete in as little as 30 days,” he says. He describes how his hosts “would glide Ross Edgley once ran 1,000 miles barefoot – with a 50kg rucksack. If it’s good enough for a man with guns like that, it’s good enough for us

40 OCTOBER 2021

across the sand with impeccable forefoot striking, leaning forward and without wasting any energy.”

At the beginning of his stay, Edgley found himself lagging behind the bushmen.

“Quite possibly the worst San bushman in history,” he says. “My 5ft 9in, 100kg, hobbit-sized frame was left to drag itself around Namibia, displaying the worst running form ever to grace the African plains.

But after a month of blisters and a bruised ego, things got better. Much better. I began to forefoot strike. I began leaning into each stride. My footprints no longer resembled that of a baby elephant and for a brief moment I looked like a

semi-competent San bushman. Why? Because barefoot running had given me a heightened sense of what my feet and legs were doing. I could feel every grain of sand between my toes.”

Edgley says that ever since his time in Namibia, he has been an exponent of barefoot training and minimalist shoes. It’s a choice that has helped him clock up some amazing athletic records, all without the comfort of cushioned sports trainers. In 2016, for example, he pulled a 1,400kg car for a marathon distance around the Silverstone race track. The same year, he completed consecutive rope climbs that

equalled the height of Mount Everest. He once ran 1,000 miles barefoot, with a 50kg rucksack on his back.

Another time, he completed an Olympic-distance triathlon while carrying an enormous tree trunk. Not to mention his most audacious feat to date when, in 2018, he swam 1,792 miles around the coast of Britain – without touching land.

AS NATURE INTENDED Of course, barefoot training is nothing new. For the vast majority of human existence, we have been running around in bare feet.

Estimates are that it wasn’t until between 40,000 and 26,000 years ago that we first started covering our feet

RULE OF THREE Transition from barefoot beginner to minimalist maestro by easing in gradually 1. WALK BEFORE YOU RUN Vivobarefoot’s running and foot specialist Ben Le Vesconte suggests that, before you start training or running in minimalist shoes, you should simply walk in them for a couple of months first. He stresses that it might take six weeks before you start running, and then another six weeks to build up to a 5k run.

“Even if your technique is spot on, you still have to build it up nice and slow,” he adds.

2. MAINTAIN MOVEMENT At the same time, you should do foot exercises and squats to improve the range of movement in your ankles.

“You can also practise jumping, landing with the forefoot and a heel kiss,” he adds. “As long as you’re listening to your feet, your Achilles and your calves. Be sure to build it up slowly.”

3. BE PATIENT Extreme adventurer Ross Edgley agrees.

He says newcomers to barefoot running should build up the distance and speed slowly and systematically.

“If you’ve been wearing conventional sports shoes for years, it’s likely you have atrophied the tiny muscles in your feet,” he adds. “Therefore, embarking on a barefoot marathon is not only ambitious, it could also be dangerous. So be patient and start small.

in the most basic footwear.

And even then it wasn’t until the 1960s that we started wearing sports trainers, when Bill Bowerman, co-founder of Nike, persuaded us all that we needed to wrap our feet in expensive, cushioned shoes.

Nowadays, we are sold all sorts of specialist, cushioned footwear for all sorts of different sports. But do we really need it? Or is it in fact damaging our feet rather than protecting them?

That’s what minimalist shoe brands, such as Vivobarefoot, believe.

Ben Le Vesconte is a running and foot specialist at the company’s central London store. He recommends minimalist shoes for all manner of sports and exercises, ranging from running, hiking, squash, golf and tennis, to gym workouts, circuit training, weight lifting and swimrunning.

Le Vesconte says there are two key benefits to training in minimalist shoes.

The first is a heightened sense of what’s known in sports science as proprioception: a sense of self-movement and body position. He points out how there are thousands of nerve endings in the human foot.

“They are there to give our brains information about our balance,” he tells Men’s Fitness. “They are, in effect, a pressure plate built into our feet. If you take that away from your feet [by wearing cushioned shoes], you have to work harder to find your balance. With heightened proprioception, your balance is better.”

Cushioned sports shoes, he adds, increase the length of time your feet are in contact with the floor. “Imagine jumping up and down on

a thick mattress compared to jumping up and down on a hard floor. You can jump on the hard floor more easily. The cushioning is tricking your body into thinking you’re moving around on a big fat mattress.”

The second benefit, Le Vesconte says, is that minimalist shoes offer the feet greater flexibility: “Your feet will move more, get stronger and build up the muscles.”

Ross Edgley agrees: “Imagine if you put your leg in a cast for six months and didn’t use it. What do you think would happen? Yes, the muscles would shrink and shrivel and, with it, so would your strength and functionality. That is all because of something called muscular atrophy. Our feet come loaded with tiny muscles, tendons and a natural arch that acts like a spring when we run. When they’re firing and functioning, they quite literally put a spring in our step.

But what do you think happens when we wrap our feet in big, clumsy shoes? Your feet experience this same form of atrophy.”

MINIMAL MAGIC Although some podiatrists and sports coaches have been sceptical about highly cushioned sports shoes for decades, the revolution in minimalist shoes didn’t attract mainstream attention until 2009, when a book called Born To Run was published. Penned by amateur American runner Christopher McDougall, it told the story of Mexico’s Tarahumara Indians, who are able to run for hundreds of miles without rest, wearing just traditional leather sandals, called huaraches, on their feet. McDougall himself had been plagued by running injuries, but eventually overcame them after modelling his running style on the barefoot technique of the Tarahumara.

The book also presents the theories of many scientific experts who worry that cushioned sports shoes can cause damage to athletes’ bodies. Dr Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at

Harvard University, for example, writes in the book: ‘A lot of foot and knee injuries that are currently plaguing us are actually caused by people running with shoes that make our feet weak, cause us to over-pronate, [and] give us knee problems.’

Vin Lananna is president of the American sports governing body USA Track & Field. ‘People went thousands of years without shoes,’ he writes. ‘I think you try to do all these corrective things with shoes and you over-compensate. You fix things that don’t need fixing.

If you strengthen the foot by going barefoot, I think you reduce the risk of Achilles and knee and plantar fascia problems.’

And Dr Barry Bates, former biomechanist at the University of Oregon, suggests that worn-down running shoes are safer than newer ones, because they help runners gain foot control.

As McDougall, who is a large man compared to most distance runners, writes: ‘All that cushioning does nothing to reduce impact. Logically, that should be obvious – the impact on your legs from running can be up to twelve times your bodyweight, so it’s preposterous to believe a half inch of rubber is going to make a bit of difference

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IN FOCUS BAREFOOT TRAINING

CUSHIONED COMFORT Despite all these benefits, minimalist shoes are not for everyone. If your running trail features sharp stones or thorns, for example, then more cushioned soles will of course help protect your feet.

Le Vesconte also warns newcomers to this kind of footwear to “build up slowly and listen to your body.”

And he advises people with hyper-extended knees, or very severe bunions, or those with a plantar nerve condition called Moreton’s neuroma, not to run in minimalist shoes.

However, the appetite for this kind of footwear seems to be growing more than ever. Brands such as Vivobarefoot, Vibram, Xero and Luna all manufacture sports shoes in this style.

Even established mainstream brands, such as Nike, adidas, Champion and Merrell, have jumped on the minimalist bandwagon.

Ross Edgley claims he’d never train in anything other than minimalist shoes or bare feet. “Ninety-five per cent of the time I’m barefoot or in barefoot minimalist shoes,” he tells us. “I will walk, run, climb, train in mixed martial arts and weight lift in minimalist shoes.”

It may have taken two months with the bushmen in the Kalahari desert to convince him – plus “blisters and a bruised ego” – but now there’s no turning back.

42 OCTOBER 2021

Words: Dominic Bliss | Photography: Vivobarefoot | Illustrations: Peter Liddiard

against, in my case, 2,760lb [1,250kg] of earthbound beef. You can cover an egg with an oven mitt before rapping it with a hammer, but that egg ain’t coming out alive.”

FEET OF ENDURANCE These foot-strengthening exercises from Vivobarefoot take no time at all, but can massively improve your running efficiency and reduce your risk of injury

4. HANDS ON HEELS, EXTEND HIPS Strengthens your plantar fascia (the thick connective tissue running along the arch of your foot).

Kneel on the floor, with your torso upright.

Place your hands on your heels.

Extend your hips as you straighten your arms.

When your arms are extended, pulse your big toes and gently rock your body back and forth.

TOE TIP: focus on pulsing your big toes only, leaving your other toes as relaxed as possible.

1. ROOTING THE BIG TOE Improves the stabilising strength of your big toe, which can prevent overpronation.

Push your big toe down into the floor and raise your other toes.

Build up until you can hold the position for 30 seconds – until then, pulse your toes up and down.

TOE TIP: make sure you don’t roll your foot inwards in order to lift your toes.

2. BIG TOE UNDER

5. SIT ON HEELS, BIG TOE PULSES

Improves the mobility in your first metatarsal.

Strengthens your plantar fascia.

Stand on an exercise mat or soft surface.

Bend your big toe underneath your foot.

Keep your other toes out straight.

TOE TIP: when viewed from above, it should look as though your big toe has disappeared.

Kneel on the floor, with your torso upright.

Sit back on your heels.

Feel the stretch in your toes.

From that position, pulse your big toes (push them down into the floor repeatedly) to rock your body gently back and forth.

TOE TIP: to begin, don’t rest your whole weight on your heels.

3. BIG TOE OUT Improves mobility in your metatarsals.

Leaving your big toe out straight, bend your other toes underneath your foot.

Push your big toe into the floor.

TOE TIP: use your hand to bend your toes under your foot if you can’t do so naturally.

OCTOBER 2021

43

IN FOCUS PILATES FOR MEN

YOURSELF COMEDIAN AND FIVE-A-SIDE VETERAN IAN STONE EXTOLS THE VIRTUES OF PILATES FOR THE OLDER MAN

44 OCTOBER 2021

ilates is a bit of a mystery for most men. Many still think it’s something only women do. I know that because when I asked a random sample of male friends (mostly comedians) what came into their heads when Pilates was mentioned, I got a range of responses. I heard references to ‘Pontius Pilates’, the ‘Pilates of Penzance’ and other witticisms even worse than those. Quite a few mentioned farting, including the fear of doing it in public. Lycra came up a lot, as did back and shoulder pain, machines and “big blue balls”. A number of responders brought up yoga or yoga mats, or “yoga in an S and M dungeon”.

The most detailed answer I received was “a rehabilitative practice originally designed to work with dance-related injuries, in which a bespoke programme of exercise is constructed to strengthen the area around the injury.” Which I liked the

P

sound of, even though it’s not entirely correct.

Not a single one of them had considered trying it.

And these are not men who are unaware of, or don’t think about, their bodies.

One of them plays football with me, some exercise quite a bit and one is a marathon runner. Pilates seems to have almost totally passed them by, and even if they had some idea of what it is, they felt, like I used to, that it was a women’s thing. Which is all a little odd, considering it was invented by a German man who was a boxer, gymnast and bodybuilder – while in an internment camp in England during World War I. A THINKING MAN’S GAME Why are men like this? My theory is that you have to engage with Pilates – explore it. It requires attention and focus, and when it comes to men and physical exercise, we don’t like to think about it too much. We don’t want a lot of instruction. It’s why most men don’t go to ‘matwork’ classes in gyms.

We don’t like to feel vulnerable, or to be confronted with our inability to make a movement that even the most superficially unfit person two rows down seems to be making with no effort at all. We want to turn up, get changed, do our chosen activity, shower, get changed again and forget about it. It’s essentially a reset. We go in with all this pent-up male energy and aggression, and we come out calmer and less angry. It’s like masturbation, but with a competitive element.

I am one of those men.

I’m 58 and I still play five-a-side football. I have a running machine at home

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45

Hold the V-Up for five seconds, relax, then complete 9 more reps

IN FOCUS PILATES FOR MEN

which is not just used for drying clothes on, and I also play tennis with my 19-year-old son (who’s a tennis coach). Believe me when I tell you that is not easy. And like everyone who’s active and who regularly gets off the sofa for more than just shuffling to the fridge for a snack, I’ve had muscle injuries, some of them quite serious. I once tore my calf muscle so badly during five-a-side that, the next morning, I fainted near the bottom of the stairs and woke up surrounded by my concerned looking family.

But what happens when you’re that sort of man and you hit your fifties and beyond? When injuries take longer to heal, when the body doesn’t respond in the

46 OCTOBER 2021

way it used to, when you can no longer make that lung-busting run into the opposition penalty area.

When the simple act of a quick game of football takes, with warm-up, warm-down and recovery, the best part of three hours and you’re still feeling it four days later. What then?

CURING THE CREAKS Three years ago, I injured my hip getting out of the car.

Not trying to escape from a burning car, or jumping out of a car before it had come to a complete halt. No, just plain old getting out of the car. My partner, Rosie, dropped me off at the station and as I opened the door and swung my leg out, I felt a pain in my hip. Which didn’t go away for a year and stopped me playing sport (I took up swimming – it’s the only exercise that didn’t hurt too much, but it’s SO DULL). To sort it, I tried all the things I’d done in the past – massages and physio and gels and the like – but nothing worked. It was

starting to get to me.

Was this the beginning of the end? Had I started down the long, slow road to decrepitude?

And then I got lucky. I’d known Hana Jones since 2005.

She’s one of the founders of the Pilates Foundation and an extraordinarily gifted Pilates teacher of 40 years standing, who’d mentored Rosie (who’s also now a Pilates teacher). They were observing me from a distance

and agreed that my body needed some serious postural realignment, so Hana suggested to Rosie that I should go and do some Pilates with her. I jumped at the chance, and it was the best decision of my life.

WHAT'S IN A NAME? So, what is Pilates? It’s almost easier to say what it’s not. It’s not sport and there are no points. You can’t win at Pilates, at least not against anyone else. If you’re in a Pilates class, you can’t beat the person (metaphorically or indeed literally) on the mat next to you into submission. It doesn’t involve massive amounts of effort and, unless it’s a very hot day, it’s unlikely you’ll be dripping with sweat when you’re done. Although Hana counters that with, “In actual fact, once you get to a certain level of awareness, physical capacity and technical understanding, it

is possible to drip with sweat on a Pilates mat or apparatus class, but it’s a way down the road for you.”

Joseph Pilates never really described it in one sentence. His most famous quote is, “A man is as young as his spinal column,” which is succinct, but doesn’t really help in this regard. Hana takes a more philosophical view: “My objective has been to support you to be fully ‘in’ your body, so that it can be a true physical expression of the totality of who you are…” Which I completely get, but it isn’t helpful when you’re in a lift and someone asks what it is.

I would describe it as controlled and focused movement and breathing, to encourage flexibility and a more efficient use of my body. Not a description to get the blood pumping, but as I get older, flexibility and a more efficient use of my body are things that I definitely need, so I can keep doing the things that do get the blood pumping.

ALL CHANGE I’ve been practising Pilates for two years. I do two studio sessions a month with Hana on the apparatus (in the ‘S and M dungeon’, as my comedian friends would have it) and three to four hours of self-practice each week.

And there have been some notable and noticeable changes. I feel great, particularly right after a session, but also in general.

I’m much more aware of my body than I’ve ever been, I feel stronger, more powerful, possibly even a bit funnier (I may not be the best judge of that). I’m taller, not by much, but just the simple fact of having my head

sitting further up and back on my spine seems to have increased my height. I’m no longer slump-shouldered, my body feels more open, more confident. People who haven’t seen me for a while tell me how well I look, although they can’t quite put

their finger on what it is that’s changed. Someone said “more youthful”. I’m enjoying the compliments. Most importantly, I’m still playing five-a-side football and it doesn’t take the best part of a week to recover. Who knew that was possible?

IAN STONE IS A STAND-UP COMEDIAN, WRITER AND BROADCASTER. HIS BOOK TO BE SOMEONE IS AVAILABLE IN ALL GOOD BOOKSHOPS AND ONLINE. IT'S ABOUT GROWING UP IN LONDON IN THE 1970s – PART AUTOBIOGRAPHY, PART SOCIAL HISTORY, PART LOVE LETTER TO PAUL WELLER AND THE JAM. FOLLOW STONE ON TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM @IANDSTONE

10-MINUTE PILATES THIS WORKOUT IS DESIGNED TO WORK AS MANY MUSCLES AND JOINTS AS POSSIBLE IN JUST TEN MINUTES. ONCE YOU’VE COMPLETED EXERCISE 1D, RETURN TO THE START AND KEEP GOING UNTIL TIME IS UP.

1a. ROLL-DOWN TO PRESS-UP BENEFITS: mobilises your spine, stretches the entire back of your body, and strengthens your shoulders, arms and core.

Stand with your feet and knees hip-width apart.

Inhale to prepare.

Exhale to roll down one vertebra at a time, until your hands are by your toes or shins according to your flexibility.

Inhale to walk your hands out to plank position in three hand ‘steps’.

Keep your weight in the centre of your feet as you roll down and your abs drawn in.

For the press-up, make sure you keep your abs drawn in, your shoulders away from your ears and your spine in neutral. Exhale as you push up and imagine you’re blowing yourself off the floor.

Keep your knees ‘soft’ and bend them a little more if you have any tightness in your back.

In full press-up position, inhale and lower your chest between your hands.

Exhale navel to spine, press up and repeat three times.

Now reverse the steps to roll back up one vertebra at a time to standing, using your abdominal muscles to rebuild your spine.

Repeat the entire process three times.

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IN FOCUS PILATES FOR MEN

1b. SIDE BEND BENEFITS: strengthens and tightens your core, particularly the obliques.

It also strengthens the muscles of your shoulders, inner thighs and hips.

Sit on your right hip, with your right knee bent and your top leg opened, foot flat on the floor slightly in front of your sitting bones.

Your bottom leg rests on

the floor with that foot just behind your top foot. Your body is supported on your right arm – hand in line with your hip and a little away from your body.

Your top hand rests on your top knee.

Inhale and lengthen your supporting arm, drawing your torso away from the floor and your shoulder away from your ear.

Exhale to lift your pelvis upwards, squeezing your inner thighs together and reaching your top arm overhead.

Inhale to bend your

knees, and return your hip back to the floor and your hand back to your knee.

Repeat 5 to 8 times on each side.

To increase the intensity, you could hold a light dumbbell in your top hand.

1c. 100 BENEFITS: this is perhaps the best known Pilates exercise, which strengthens your entire core.

1d. DOUBLE LEG LIFT BENEFITS: strengthens your core, particularly the obliques, and tones your legs.

Lie on your side with your head on your outstretched arm, with legs together and toes just in front of your hips.

Your top hand is on the floor

48 OCTOBER 2021

in front of your chest, and your underneath hand has its palm facing upwards.

Inhale to prepare.

Exhale, engage navel to spine and squeeze your legs together as you lift them both from the floor.

Inhale and gently lower

your legs back to the floor.

Continue in time with your breath 8 times.

Now hold your legs in the ‘up’ position and lift and lower the top leg 8 times.

If you want more resistance, use a flex band.

Squeeze your inner

thighs together tightly for a greater effect.

Keep your hips stacked one on top of the other and your stomach drawn in.

Illustrations: Peter Liddiard | Photography: Getty Images

Lie on your back with your knees bent, and feet and knees hip-width apart.

Exhale to contract your abs and bring both knees up to a table-top position.

Low exhale to lift your head, shoulders and arms off the floor.

Begin to beat your arms as if pressing up and down on heavy springs.

Inhale for 5 arm beats and exhale for 5 arm beats, building up to 100 beats.

Beginners should start with 50 beats, building up to 100.

Keep your navel to spine throughout and your shoulders away from your ears, shoulder blades drawn down.

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INTERVIEW TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD

50 OCTOBER 2021

EYES PRIZE ON THE

Interview: Rob Kemp | Photography: Red Bull

F O OT B A L L E R T R E N T A L E X A N D E R - A R N O L D HAS SET HIS SIGHTS ON A SEASON OF SUCCESS BY UNDERGOING GROUNDBREAKING ‘VISION TRAINING’ WITH RED BULL

Despite being one of the Premier League’s most exciting talents, Trent Alexander-Arnold was robbed of his chance to shine with England this summer by an injury he sustained in the build-up to the Euros. Undeterred, and eager to constantly improve his impact upon the pitch, he used his recovery time to help pioneer a trailblazing new training technique designed to develop and improve an athlete’s vision and reaction times.

MF caught up with the Liverpool man over a video call just before the Premier League kicked off in August. Here, in his own words, he talks vision training, football fitness and aspirations for the season ahead.

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INTERVIEW TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD

I’ve been doing Sports Vision training with Red Bull’s sports ophthalmologist, Dr Daniel Laby. It’s something that hasn’t really been tapped into in football to any depth, but this guy works with US sports teams to improve vision and judgement, so that your decision-making on the pitch is sharper.

In football, it’s so important to be two steps ahead of your competition. The training I’ve been doing has made me value that even more.

Working with Red Bull on this experiment has shown me that vision is such an important part of the game, and that your eyes can be trained and improved on as much as anything else.

It involves a lot of reactiontime work, tracking of your vision and work on peripheral vision. The clearer I can see, and the more I can see – judging things like the position of opposition players quicker – the better the decision I can make on the pitch.

Obviously missing out on the Euros was massively disappointing. But after a few days of feeling sorry for myself I decided to reevaluate the situation and see it as an opportunity for me to improve on things that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to improve upon. So, there’s always always a silver lining.

I got the ‘It’s Coming Home’ fever like the rest of the country. It was also

52 OCTOBER 2021

interesting seeing it all from outside the team bubble.

In Russia (World Cup 2018) we knew about the celebrations and support going on at home, but you never really understand the extent of it. This time I was seeing English people congregate in the pubs and bars, with the support coming from everywhere – it was incredible.

A typical training week looks like this: we’ll have a training session on Sunday, followed by two sessions on Monday – football in the morning, then a 6k run in the afternoon. Tuesday will be one workout session in the morning. Wednesday will be a session in the morning, session in the afternoon – both football – then Thursday we’ll have a 60-minute game. Friday is recovery, then a game on the weekend.

I need to start the season well, because the competition for places at England is, well, overpopulated you might say! For the club I want to win as many trophies as I can. Just as long as I’ve got one or two medals around my neck come the end of the season I’ll be made up.

WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY TRENT’S VISION – AS TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD USES VISION TRAINING TO TAKES HIS GAME TO A NEW LEVEL – AT REDBULL.COM

SIGHTS SET

Back in the day, pre-season was about coming back from holiday unfit and getting yourself back to full fitness. Whereas at this level, these days, you really can’t come back out of shape any more. There isn’t much time between tournaments and seasons any more, and the gap between being unfit and being Premier League match-level ready is world’s apart – you just don’t have that privilege now.

The impressive results from Alexander-Arnold’s Sports Vision training programme

Even with pre-season friendlies it’s still difficult to prepare yourself for a first game in the Premier League. It’s so hectic. It’s so, so intense. You can’t really prepare for it.

241% increase in multiple object tracking

44%

increase in AVTS (small targets, low contrast and short viewing time)

36% increase in brain-processing speed 27%

improvement in visual sharpness

and visual concentration

15% increase in pure decision-making 36%

improvement in pure visual attention speed

Sport’s Vision training involves the use of stateof-the-art eye-tracking equipment

“In football, it’s so important to be two steps ahead of your competition”

Alexander-Arnold with Red Bull’s sports ophthalmologist, Dr Daniel Laby

OCTOBER 2021

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SUPPORT, AWARENESS, UNDERSTANDING

BEST-LAID PLANS Can the NHS’s new emergency mental health plan bring us back from the brink of crisis?

oes ‘parity of esteem’ sound like a slick term dreamed up by politicians and civil servants? That’s because it is. But behind this seemingly nebulous phrase, first mentioned in a government mental health report in 2011, is a vital concept: the idea that mental and physical health should be valued equally.

There’s no getting away from the fact that mental health provision in the UK falls well short of this standard, despite platitudes from ministers and the very best efforts of overstretched health workers. For those in

D

crisis, services remain dangerously lacking.

That’s why the NHS has outlined a new set of targets to try to address the issue. These include anyone presenting at A&E with a severe mental health condition – such as severe anxiety and depression, psychosis, a schizophrenic episode or suicidal ideation – being seen within an hour.

Elsewhere, communitybased teams will need to see urgent referrals within 24 hours, while a four-week

target has been set for those who go directly to community services for help, whether they’re adults, carers or children.

For Simon Gunning, CEO of suicide prevention charity the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), this new approach is welcomed, but needs to be backed up by serious money and training if it’s going to work.

“This is a small step in the right direction,” he says, “but more must be

done if we are to tackle chronic shortages in mental health provision head on.

“A huge number of people have developed new mental health problems since the start of the pandemic, or had existing problems worsen. Some groups have been hit particularly hard, including young people.

“However, government cuts to mental health services, mirrored by a 25 per cent reduction in mental health beds since 2010, show that unless we increase funding for front line mental health services, meeting waiting time targets will be difficult to implement.”

It’s a view that’s echoed by therapist Ruth Allen: “Unless it is backed up with people who can actually provide ongoing support, and that they are trained and paid like normal providers of healthcare, then I suspect it will be hollow promises, which we’ve heard before.”

CRISIS POINT

Words: Joe Minihane | Photography: Getty Images

Where to get help in a mental health emergency: • CALM (thecalmzone.net) Daily phone line, open 5pm to midnight – 0800 585858 – plus online chat tools.

• Samaritans (samaritans.org) 24-hour phone line: 116123.

Email jo@samaritans.org (responses within 24 hours) and Samaritans self-help app.

OCTOBER 2021

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●MENTAL HEALTH NEWS

ALTERED REALITY Pe o p l e l i v i n g w i t h m e n t a l i l l n e s s p e r c e i ve p h y s i c a l i s s u e s s u c h a s h u n g e r, thirst and pain differently from others, because of activity in a particular area of the brain, according to a study carried out b y n e u r o s c i e n t i s t s f r o m t h e Un i ve r s i t y o f C a m b r i d g e . T h e p r o c e s s o f ‘ i n t e r o c e p t i o n’ – t h e w a y t h a t w e k n o w w h a t ’s g o i n g o n i n o u r bodies – is affected by a range of conditions, including eating disorders, depression and s u b s t a n c e u s e d i s o r d e r s . No w r e s e a r c h e r s h a ve d i s c o ve r e d t h i s i s d u e t o a c t i v i t y i n t h e ‘d o r s a l m i d - i n s u l a’ , g i v i n g h o p e t h a t ta rget ed tre atme nt s c an b e develope d to address some of the physical problems experienced by those living with mental illness.

UNHAPPY EVER AFTER

STAY MINDFUL Struggling with an addiction? Committing to regular mindfulness practise may help you, according to an article published in the journal Current Addiction Reports.

Mindfulness is the process of bringing ‘non-critical’ attention to the way you’re feeling and thinking at any one time, and experts have found that mindfulness-based interventions seem to help lessen the grip of addiction, giving the individual more control over their actions.

56

OCTOBER 2021

Words: Simon Cross | Photography: Getty Images

Divorce can be a heartbreaking, life-changing decision, but a miserable married life may well be worse for general health. According to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine – which followed 10,000 men for over 30 years – those who claimed to be in an unhappy marriage had a 69 per cent higher risk of a stroke compared to happier husbands. The experts found that even perceiving your marriage to be unhappy is a significant predictor of premature death among men, comparable to well-known risk factors, such as smoking and lack of exercise.

ACTI O N ON This is the number of pe op l e wh o have called dedicated mental health crisis lines set up by the NHS d u ri ng th e p a n de mic .

The 24/7 pho ne numbers were set up to ease the b urd en on h o sp ital A& E departments and to m ake su re t h at p eo ple i n cr isis could get immediate help. The c ri s i s lin es were due to be rolled ou t in 20 23, but were fast-tracked to ensure s up po rt coul d b e provided d u ri ng th e p a n de mic .

Support services need to be prioritised and re-designed to m eet th e ne ed s of t he many people struggling with addiction.

S a d l y, m a ny d ru g a nd a l c oh o l s e r v i c e s h a ve b e e n c u t , a n d drugs deaths are on the rise.

Pet e r M it ch e l l , c hi ef exe c ut i ve o f N ewc a st l e ’s R o a d to R ec over y Tr u st , is himself in recove r y from a l c oh ol i sm . T he Tr ust r u ns a recover y café, George Street Social, which has been designed as a s a fe s pa ce fo r t h o s e i n re c over y, a s we ll a s the w i d er c om m un i t y.

“Al c o ho l is m a n d d r ug a d di cti o n are both isolating diseases that in many cases are linked to the s h o ck i ng n um b e r of you n g pe op le e nd in g t h e ir ow n l ives in t h e U K ,” s a ys M i t c he ll . “ I t ha s t o b e remembered that stigma is probably the biggest barrier to recover y from addiction.

“Recove r y communities are key in this respect, to provide support a n d fr i e n ds h ip t o th e m a ny p eo pl e who are feeling ashamed and isolated. And embedding services w it h in t h i s k i n d o f s oc i a l community, as we do at George Street Social, provides a holistic approach in terms of social, peer a n d p ro fe ssi o na l s u pp or t opportunities all under one roof.

“Presently, addiction is more often treated as a social issue through local authorities and their rapidly decreasing budgets, as opposed to being seen as a health is su e a l ong s id e ot h er men t a l health problems. This creates a c ha ll e n g e , a s p e o pl e wi t h addictions are often experiencing other mental health problems s i m ul ta n e ou s ly, a nd yet t h ey fi nd themselves being pushed from pillar to post, rather than being treated as a human being with a range of complex problems.

“Pe op l e s hou l dn ’t feel a sh am ed .

In my opinion, recover y is a tremendous achievement wo r t hy o f i n cl us i on o n a ny CV. ”

CHRIS’ STORY

Chris, a PR director based in London, has nearly ten years of recovery from alcoholism under his belt My addiction centred around alcohol. The unhealthy relationship with it started when I was old enough to drink and could never manage my intake, and continued throughout my twenties – especially in environments where drinking is ‘cultural’ and embedded (running record shops, working in pubs, being at university).

Life events, such as an unexpected bereavement a fortnight prior to my 21st birthday, also fuelled the problem.

The lowest point was while working for a music festival which went bust, leaving me thousands of pounds out of pocket, living off cash only, and using drink as the means to sleep.

Naturally, that led to some major mental health problems.

Self-esteem issues, plus unaddressed personal and psychological issues, made my drinking a constant, to the extent I developed alcohol-induced epilepsy

HOW TO GET HELP

aged 28 – a development that didn’t stop me drinking, despite being a warning sign of the highest magnitude.

Addiction stigma undoubtedly stopped me asking for help, as I thought I was stupid, bad, unable to cope with life. If I’d known it was OK to be ill (and that is what alcoholism is), I’d have recognised it sooner and addressed it.

I worried I’d be seen as a failure by confronting it. I also worried about the reaction I’d receive. Would I lose my job? And who would date an alcoholic?

Even in recovery, it’s still an issue – although in recent years I’ve seen an increase in the number of people who say, “Wow, well done. That’s amazing.”

But people still sometimes don’t know how to react. It can be awkward – which is frustrating for my recovery, as it’s something I am incredibly proud of, each and every day.

12-step recovery programmes, such as Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous, are free and take place across the country. To find out more, visit the Road to Recovery Trust’s 12-step contact page at roadtorecoverytrust.org.uk The Talk to Frank service provides information about drugs, and advice for drug users, parents and carers.

Visit talktofrank.com Join a supportive online community, like the Secret Drug Addict’s Facebook page: facebook.com/ScrtDrugAddict

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Words: Lucy Nichol

MILLION

AD DI CT I ON

●MENTAL HEALTH INFERTILITY

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STRUGGLING TO CONCEIVE CAN HAVE AN ENORMOUS EFFECT ON MEN’S MENTAL HEALTH – PARTICUL ARLY IF THEIR OWN INFERTILITY IS THE ISSUE.

HERE WE SPEAK TO SOME OF THOSE AFFECTED AND LOOK AT THE LIFESTYLE FACTORS THAT CAN HAMPER YOUR CHANCES OCTOBER 2021

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●MENTAL HEALTH INFERTILITY

There’s never any discussion about infertility when you’re younger,” says Toby Trice. “It’s kind of automatic. You just assume you’re going to have children.”

Trice is one of thousands of men in the UK who struggle with their infertility and the punishing fallout of not being able to conceive. A semi-professional racing driver, he has made it his mission to raise awareness about the issue of male infertility and the impact it

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can have on mental health.

Thankfully, he’s not alone. In the wake of comedian Rhod Gilbert’s ‘Himfertility’ campaign, in which he revealed issues with his own fertility, a growing number of men are forming their own support groups and revealing their pain. And with a chronic lack of support from IVF clinics when it comes to mental health, it’s needed more than ever.

DOWN FOR THE COUNT According to a 2019 Biology of Reproduction paper for Oxford University, sperm counts have halved worldwide in

the past 40 years. One in 20 men are now suffering with low sperm count, with damaging lifestyle factors such as obesity and alcohol dependency partly to blame.

A 2017 survey for Fertility Network UK revealed that 93 per cent of men who go through fertility treatment with their partners found the experience to have a negative impact on their wellbeing. Respondents said their mental health suffered, while self-esteem was shattered by the

realisation that their sperm may be the cause of their inability to conceive. A staggering 39 per cent said they had not sought or been offered support, with men saying nearly all support on offer was aimed at women.

“Fertility is far too often viewed as solely a women’s issue,” says Professor Geeta Nargund, Medical Director at Create Fertility. “But in actual fact, male infertility contributes to approximately half of couples’ difficulties in conceiving.”

“Our survey showed just how emasculated men

feel about experiencing fertility problems,” explains Dr Catherine Hill from Fertility Network UK. “They really did feel less of a man because of having fertility problems.

It impacted on their mental health, it impacted on their work, it impacted on their friendships. It’s not talked about often enough.”

BREAKING THE TABOO “A lot of people don’t realise the impact it has on your mental health,” agrees Kevin Button. “Some guys just suck it up and carry on, but you don’t get anywhere like that.”

Button has suffered greatly due to infertility.

Told after a series of tests and a painful sperm retrieval process that he was infertile, he suffered a relationship breakdown and openly

admits to sabotaging new relationships in the fear that his diagnosis would cause a breakup further down the line.

Button set up The Man Cave, a mental health support group for men, in the wake of his cousin’s suicide. He says those who take part often present with fertility issues. He also makes use of Facebook and Instagram to reveal his struggles and break open the conversation, and has written an ebook highlighting the issue.

“When I got my diagnosis, I was handed a letter saying there was nothing they could do for

me: it was either sperm donor or adoption. I didn’t realise the shitstorm I was going into, to be honest.

There’s no support network, nowhere to turn to.”

Alexi Christopolous also found support lacking in the wake of three failed rounds of IVF, two on the NHS in Hove and one paid for privately in London.

Both he and his partner had issues with their fertility, but Christopolous says he felt clinic staff had become almost desensitised to the pain patients were going through.

“There was nothing like any aftercare, from either clinic, for either of us, after the rounds had failed. It was more, ‘Sorry you’ve not been successful, do you want to do another round?’” He says staff seemed more focused on making money.

BUILDING A NETWORK Toby Trice says he was in denial about the idea that he might not ever be a parent. It was, he says, “a typical male thing”.

Trice and his partner went through two failed rounds of IVF before his own fertility was even questioned. He says the process was extremely challenging: “I had a breakdown, a complete meltdown and a massive loss of self-esteem. I had no ‘get up and go’.

I just didn’t feel like I was worthy of being a man.”

He says that seeing the pain his partner was going through not being

FERTILITY FACTORS “Lifestyle is the biggest influence on fertility in men,” says Dr Jeff Foster, a GP who specialises in men’s health.

Here’s what you need to know OBESITY

ALCOHOL

STEROIDS

AGE

“The biggest cause of low sperm count in the UK is obesity. If you are significantly overweight, that leads to more insulin resistance, which in turn causes more oestrogen to appear in your sperm and your testosterone levels drop.”

“We know that patients with chronic alcohol use can have suppressed sperm count – and I don’t mean the guy sitting in the town centre drinking special brew. I’m talking about the relatively well-off guy who might be having three glasses of wine a night. That doesn’t seem excessive, but it is still enough to reduce testosterone over time.”

“Anabolic steroids, especially in the younger age groups, are proving to be a big issue. There’s a higher prevalence in steroid use in men than I’ve ever known.”

“Men’s fertility does go down with age. And not only fertility, but the quality of sperm as well. You can't keep putting things off assuming that it’s going to be OK. There’s a cultural and societal suggestion that somehow everything just keeps going and everything is going to be fine – that it [infertility] is a women-only problem.”

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●MENTAL HEALTH INFERTILITY able to conceive, while also finding a way to deal with his own fertility, meant he went down a destructive path, keeping his feelings bottled up.

“I was very, very depressed, very anxious,” he says. “I became a racing driver to turn a negative into a positive. I turned to sport, which helped me deal with the frustration and anger and all the worries I had in dealing with infertility.”

Trice now works with Fertility Network UK, running a private space for men to speak online once a month.

more needs to be done to raise awareness of male infertility. Natalie Silverman, who presents The Fertility Podcast and whose own partner, a personal trainer, has suffered with infertility, advocates for andrologists, male fertility experts, to be based in fertility clinics.

She also believes that more needs to be done to educate men and boys about their own fertility.

“It comes down to what

steroids, obesity and drinking alcohol,” says Catherine Hill. “It’s really important that men are aware of just how much lifestyle and their age can impact on their fertility.

Most men aren’t aware that there’s a biological clock for them, too. Although it doesn’t tick in the same way as it does for women, it certainly does from the age of 40.”

Professor Nargund agrees: “Introducing a comprehensive fertility education module on the UK’s national curriculum could empower young men with knowledge of the role

“Finally, we have now got something for guys to come to and have a chat, a safe space to help them feel supported. I didn’t have that and I wanted to force some change.”

That approach is something Catherine Hill feels needs to be promoted more widely: “Men have expressed that they would like to be talking to other men who are going through this. Quite often they don’t want to burden their partner with their own emotions.”

Medically, it is also apparent that

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we’re taught at school,” she says. “Girls are taught not to get pregnant and as a guy you’re taught not to get a girl pregnant. So you’re pretty much taught that having sex will get somebody pregnant.”

LIFESTYLE LIMITS Fertility Network UK has started running outreach programmes during university freshers’ weeks, with the aim of raising awareness that men, as well as women, can struggle and that lifestyle factors can play a major part, too.

“Not enough young men are aware of what can impact their future fertility, like STIs, taking

lifestyle factors and age can play when it comes to male fertility. Not only could educating young people about fertility help them understand what they can do to protect their natural fertility, but it will also be key in breaking down the stigma that many men experience when dealing with fertility issues.”

COPING WITH GRIEF For now, that stigma continues to have a major impact on an untold number of men.

“Hundreds of men go through these clinics on

a daily basis,” says Kevin Button. “And they are shown the door without any support. Where are these guys going?”

One who has struggled greatly is Gavin Phillis.

After the pain of two failed IVF rounds, having spent five years trying to conceive naturally, he and his wife had a daughter with their third attempt, using his sperm. Sadly, baby Esme passed away shortly after being born.

The pain of her loss, coupled with the fact Phillis was told his sperm could not be used for further rounds of IVF, meaning that a donor would be required, left him

Words: Joe Minihane | Photography: Getty Images

“Most men aren’t aware that there’s a biological clock for them, too. Although it doesn’t tick in the same way as it does for women, it certainly does from the age of 40”

SEEKING SUPPORT FERTILITY NETWORK UK Fertility Network UK has access to support groups across the UK, where men get together to discuss their issues surrounding fertility in a private and non-judgmental way. Head to fertilitynetworkuk.org and follow the ‘access support’ links.

THE FERTILITY PODCAST Natalie Silverman’s excellent podcast is a mine of information for those looking to get to grips with terminology and understand the process of fertility treatment.

Her men’s-focused shows also do a great job in revealing the stories behind infertility. Visit thefertilitypodcast.co.uk

depressed and isolated.

“The clinic said they wouldn’t work with me any more, essentially, and although they did offer us a couple of counselling sessions, it was all very raw. It felt like a tick-box exercise for them. We loved our clinic, but I just thought, ‘You’re doing this because you’ve got to tick a box to say you’ve done it.’”

Phillis says he felt grief at the fact that his sperm would not be used.

“I call it grief because you’re grieving for something that you can’t have. When people say

things like, ‘How can you really grieve, you haven’t lost anything?’ Actually, you’ve lost the one thing that we’re here to do.”

Sadly, this is a recurrent theme when it comes to male infertility.

“The grief I felt was the pain that I could see my wife in,” says Christopolous. “That really broke me, I could see how hurt she was and there was nothing I could do to make it better.”

LIGHT IN THE DARK Christopolous now has a daughter through adoption, while Phillis has twin boys and a younger son, born using a donor.

“I just wish somebody had been able to be open and honest,” says Phillis, “and had that conversation with me: that it really doesn’t matter [if you use a donor].”

While clinics still have work to do, a small army of men are getting to work in building support networks. For those struggling with the process of IVF, and the mental health implications of their own infertility, the groups and social feeds run by Trice and Button are likely to prove invaluable.

THE MAN CAVE Run by Kevin Button, this excellent support service highlights first-person stories. Follow on Instagram @them-ancave to see Button host a different guest live on the last Friday of every month. You can also visit them-ancave.co.uk

THE EASY BIT This documentary highlights the struggles men face with their fertility and proves those suffering do not need to be alone.

Search for it on Vimeo.

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IN FOCUS WEIGHTS AND WELLBEING

YOUR STRENGTH TRAINING IS THE SUREST WAY TO BUILD YOUR BEST B O DY, B U T A G R OW I N G COLLECTION OF RESEARCH SUGGESTS IT’S ALSO ONE OF THE MOST EFFECTIVE METHODS FOR MAINTAINING SOUND M E N TA L H E A LT H

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IN FOCUS WEIGHTS AND WELLBEING

L

ike many others, Russ Polson struggled during the depths of lockdown. The 31-year-old was used to being active, heading to the gym most days and playing in an American football team. But with everything shuttered, and no escape from the grinding reality of the pandemic, his mental health took a dive.While other people started pounding the pavements, Polson began to lift weights and do squats at home. And when restrictions started to ease, he headed back to his local gym.

“The difference in my mood when I could get into the gym for an hour was immense,” he says. “I was happier, had more patience with my small child, and began to look more positively towards the end of the pandemic and getting back to normal.”

Not only did the gym give him a change of scenery, but working on his strength also honed his focus and helped him feel motivated: “Even though it seemed like I couldn’t go about my life as normal, I could push myself and see improvements. I like the feeling after lifting: the blood flowing and all the good chemicals in my brain.”

The link between exercise and good mental health has long been established.

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MAXIMUM BENEFIT Three ways to maximise the mental health rewards of your workout routine

ENTER THE COMPOUND “Although bicep curls and abdominal crunches will always be popular for building self-confidence, the best exercises for maximum endorphin release are compound exercises,” says Peter Hopson, a personal trainer from Leeds. “These are exercises which use multiple muscle groups, such as deadlifts, squats and the bench press.”

However, you don’t have to run a 10k to experience a rush of endorphins; training your muscles and pushing yourself to become stronger can deliver a similar high.

MUSCLE UP Until recently, much of the research into exercise and mental health has centred on the benefits of cardio activities like running and cycling – and less so on the impact of strength training.

Last year, however, a study of 150,000 participants found a connection between lower muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness, and a greater risk of mental health problems.1 In fact, those classified as having low combined fitness and muscle strength had 98 per cent

higher odds of experiencing depression.

Other factors may be at play, including that people with better mental health may be more likely to stay physically active.

Yet evidence is gradually emerging of a link between strength training and psychological wellbeing.

In 2018, Dr Brett R. Gordon, now a postdoctoral scholar at the Penn State College of Medicine with the Oncology, Nutrition, and Exercise group, analysed the results of 33 experiments on weight training and depression with colleagues at the University of Limerick.

He discovered strength training was linked to improvements in depressive

symptoms, such as low mood, a loss of interest in activities and feelings of worthlessness. And although lifting weights isn’t a cure, the exercise appeared to reduce the symptoms of depression – no matter the number of weekly workouts.

“There are several potential biological and psychological factors suggested to influence or help explain how and why strength training may improve mental health,” he explains. “Psychological mechanisms include social interaction during exercise, feelings of mastery following progressive improvements in strength made through training, or expectations of improved mental health following strength training.”

DISTRACTION AND EMPOWERMENT Strength training involves focus and concentration to do each movement or repetition while avoiding injury. While running allows your mind to wander, training specific muscles can distract from ruminating or focusing on worrisome, negative thoughts. That may explain why resistance training has been shown to help people manage symptoms of anxiety.

In one study, for example, scientists from the University of Georgia took a group of women with generalised anxiety disorder and assigned them to one of three groups: resistance training, aerobic exercise, and a control group. Both

UP THE INTENSITY While slow and steady cardio has its place in anyone’s routine, some studies have suggested HIIT does a better job of releasing those feelgood chemicals, which can reduce stress and anxiety, while boosting mood.

However, it’s important to find a type of exercise that suits you. “If you hate pull-ups but love rock climbing, then go do what you love,” says sport and performance psychologist Hugh Gilmore. “Don’t treat yourself like a machine that needs an input of exercise, but as a human with a body that can do what it wants and likes to do.”

UTILISE YOUR BODYWEIGHT It’s important to find activities that you enjoy and are therefore more likely to stick to long-term.

“Strength training does not have to include lifting weights,” adds Gordon. “There are many bodyweight exercises – press-ups, sit-ups, squats, and lunges – that can be done without any equipment at all.”

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types of exercise led to a significant drop in symptoms of worry, with subjects in the resistance training group seeing the best results.

The physical impact of resistance training on the body can have a positive effect on your confidence, too. Lifting more, or managing more reps, is a clear sign of physical progress – and that invariably feels good.

“After exercise, the individual will likely feel the cognitive benefits of a sense of achievement for engaging in a training session,” explains Dr Amy Izycky, a clinical psychologist specialising in sport and neuropsychology and author of Skewed to the Right: Sport, Mental Health and Vulnerability.

“The likely physical impact of resistance training on the body could also indirectly improve someone’s self-confidence and support development of more positive relationships to one’s body.”

“With regard to the impact of exercise and resistance training, we are interested in the impact of endorphins and other neurotransmitters including serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine,” explains Dr Izycky. “Endorphins have become popularised as one of the ‘happy hormones’ but they are actually an inhibitory neurotransmitter that can inhibit pain signals.”

Regular exercise also helps balance your body’s level of stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones

“They concluded that physical activity may provide a protective effect against stress-related disorders.”

To better understand the link between exercise and mood, scientists have also begun to explore another class of brain chemicals: endocannabinoids. Your endocannabinoid system is made up of the body’s own cannabis-like substances and their receptors. Although we don’t know exactly how the system works or all of its potential functions, it has been linked to the immune system, mood, memory and learning.

Areas of the brain that regulate the stress response, including the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, are rich in receptors for endocannabinoids.

In 2019, researchers at Iowa State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison found the activation of these receptors appeared to strengthen connections in the brain and may influence pain and depression. Specifically, they found a significant boost in the number of endocannabinoids and improvements in mood following prescribed moderate-intensity exercise.

“Lifting more is a clear sign of physical progress – and that invariably feels good”

CHEMICAL MESSENGERS Our chemical make-up also plays a key role in why exercise is so good for our brains. When you physically exert yourself, you experience a release of endorphins: a type of neurotransmitter or chemical messenger that can help relieve pain and stress. Physical activity also stimulates the release of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin: brain chemicals that play an important part in regulating your mood.

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act as an alarm system in our bodies and play a crucial role in our ‘fight-or-flight’ response, alerting us to avoid potential threats. This biological trigger helps keep us safe from danger, but it can easily go into overdrive when we are faced with the stresses of modern life.

Luckily, research suggests strength exercise can play a role in relieving us of these hormones when necessary.

In a 2007 paper, University of Zurich researcher Ulrike Rimmele and her team assessed the impact of physical stressors on trained men compared to untrained men. “Cortisol was found to be significantly lower in trained men when they were exposed to stressors,” says Dr Izycky.

FLEXIBLE BRAINS When you do resistance training, your muscles, heart and lungs become stronger. However, research suggests your brain also has the capacity to change in response to internal and external influences, in a phenomenon called neuroplasticity.

Words: Lydia Smith | Photography: Getty Images | 1. BMC Medicine

IN FOCUS WEIGHTS AND WELLBEING

Neuroplasticity refers to the physiological changes in the brain that happen as a result of your environment.

It was once believed that the creation of new neurons – the building blocks of the brain and nervous system – all but stopped after birth.

Now, we know that the brain can change, adapt and grow throughout our lives and in some cases, even create new neurons. Scientists have suggested exercise can

help boost neuroplasticity, which has the potential to prevent conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.

But why?

When we exercise, hormones and other chemicals cross from the blood into the brain, triggering changes in its structure and function. New brain cells are formed, new blood vessels are established and stronger connections develop between cells,

providing the brain with oxygen and other nutrients.

Resistance training has also been shown to increase the size of certain regions of the brain – a change that has been linked to improvement in mental function.

Recently, scientists have begun to explore whether ‘corrective neuroplasticity’ could be a new treatment avenue for depression and anxiety. However, we’ve only just begun to delve into this

complex theory and more research is needed.

“Human and animal studies have shown that exercise can elicit changes in many of the same brain regions affected by those with depression and anxiety,” explains Dr Gordon. “But research in this area is limited due to several factors, including the diverse symptom profiles of anxiety and depression, and the difficulty of measuring

changes in the brain.”

With research ongoing, we may well know more about how neuroplasticity can impact mental health in the future. But what we know for sure is that strength and resistance exercises are good for both the body and the mind. Although physical activity isn’t a cure, it can help us manage conditions like depression and anxiety – and have a lasting, positive effect on our brains.

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GET FIT IN THE KITCHEN

LOADED LUNCH Trade fast food for muscle fuel with these sticky chicken burgers

Few things can be more satisfying than tucking into a burger at your desk – especially while your colleagues nibble on sad supermarket sandwiches. That’s not to say you should have a Big Mac every day, of course, but if you rustle up your own burgers at home they can be low-fat, gluten-free and packed with protein.

STICKY CHICKEN BURGERS PREP TIME: 5 MINS COOKING TIME: 20 MINS

Photography: Getty Images

INGREDIENTS (makes 3 burgers): - 2 chicken breast fillets (260g) - 1 small onion - ½ red pepper - ½ green pepper - 1tbsp olive oil - 30g clear honey - 2tsp cinnamon - Salt and pepper, to taste

PER BURGER Kcals: 211, Protein: 26.3g, Fats: 7.9g, Carbs: 10.5g

METHOD Finely chop the onion, add it to a frying pan with half the oil and soften for five minutes over medium heat.

Chop the peppers and place them in a mixing bowl.

Cut the chicken breasts into chunks, then add to a food processor and blend to a paste. Transfer the paste to the bowl with the peppers, add 1tsp cinnamon and half the honey, and mix it all together.

Reduce the heat to low, add the rest of the honey and 1tsp cinnamon to the onions and mix together.

Let this cook for 15 minutes, resisting the temptation to stir too often.

Remove the onions from the heat and stir them into the burger mixture. Use your hands to form three even burgers.

Add the rest of the oil to the pan and turn the heat up to medium. Cook your burgers for a minute on each side to seal them, then reduce the heat to low and cook for ten minutes or so, flipping occasionally.

Eat one immediately, and save the others for lunch.

Serve with the veg of your choice.

FUEL UP

Caught unprepared? Don’t fret – even the 24-hour garage has the raw ingredients to keep you going

Muscle Builder Beef jerky and orange A 50g bag of beef jerky contains 20g of protein, while the vitamin C in the orange helps absorption of the iron in the beef. Winner.

Performance Enhancer Greek yogurt and banana It’s the perfect parfait: Greek yogurt has twice the protein of standard yogurt, and the banana adds complex carbs.

Pick-Me-Up Peanut butter and apple At a low ebb? PB contains fibre and protein, while the apple helps regulate blood sugar.

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●FUEL NUTRITION NEWS

KEEP IT UP

Spinach worked for Popeye, and it could be useful for you, too. The dark green leaves are rich in folate, which is a known blood-flow booster, and may help improve your sexual health and function. In fact, a study has linked low blood folate levels with erectile dysfunction.1 As well as folate, spinach packs a decent amount of magnesium, which can also help stimulate blood flow and maintain healthy testosterone levels.

DON’T GET BURNED

When meat is cooked at high temperatures, such as sizzling sausages on the barbecue, a complex chain of reactions is set off, ending in the production of compounds known as heterocyclic amines (HCAs). These have been shown to damage DNA, and a large review of 39 individual studies has confirmed a relationship between HCAs and risk of colorectal cancer.2 Every now and then is fine, but try not to overdo it.

CHAM DOWN Getting good sleep is quickly being recognised as one of the simplest things you can do to dramatically improve your health and performance. Regular exercise, healthy diet and limiting caffeine intake are all recognised ways to improve sleep quality, but a large review study has found that chamomile can also be a useful tool.3 Within just two weeks, daily chamomile intake FDQ VLJQLŷ FDQWO\ LPSURYH VOHHS TXDOLW\ DQG generalised anxiety disorders. It’s thought to be thanks to a compound called apigenin, D QDWXUDOO\ RFFXUULQJ Ÿ DYRQRLG ZLWK SRWHQW DQWLR[LGDQW DQG DQWL LQŸ DPPDWRU\ HIIHFWV

FAT LOT OF GOOD An increase of just one per cent in blood levels of omega-3 fats is associated with an increase in life expectancy of almost five years.4 To put that into perspective, being a regular smoker takes on average 4.7 years off your life expectancy, so the benefits of upping your omega-3 intake could be about on par with quitting smoking. Nuts, seeds, oily fish or algae oils are all excellent sources.

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OCTOBER 2021

TAKE YOUR TIME A new study published in Nature Human Behaviour showed that when choosing food, the brain processes taste perception first, taking about twice as long to factor in health information. No surprise then, that when researchers gave participants more time to choose, they tended to opt for more healthy options.

Words: TJ Waterfall | Photography: Getty Images | 1. Andrologia 2. Nutrients 3. Phytotherapy Research 4. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 5. Cell Reports 6. BMJ Open 7. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

GOOD START FERMENTED FOODS enhance the diversity of gut microbes and decrease molecular signs of inflammation, according to researchers at Stanford University. Foods such as yogurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut and kombucha tea were included in the study – incorporating more of these to reduce inflammation could be a useful way to in turn improve your immune system, overall health and exercise recovery.

Having a high-protein breakfast (which for many tends to be the lowest-protein meal of the day) could make a big difference to your gains. Researchers have recently shown that a protein-packed meal to start the day increases muscle size and function more effectively than a high-protein meal at dinner time.5 The body’s circadian rhythm, also known as the internal body clock, influences how protein is digested and absorbed, which appears to be more efficient in the mornings.

CHEW FIX

A lot of men are guilty of e a t i n g e v e r y m e a l a s i f i t ’s their last, but slowing things down is the far healthier o p t i o n . T h a t ’s b e c a u s e e a t i n g too fast can significantly increase risk of weight gain, while eating slowly slashes that risk. On top of that, researchers in Japan have shown that fast eaters were twice as likely to develop risk factors such as high blood p r e s s u r e , h i g h e r b l o o d s u g a r, and bad cholesterol levels, which are associated with conditions including heart disease and diabetes.6

MUSH IT UP Rather than aiming for a set number of chews with each mouthful, aim instead to simply turn whatever food is in your mouth to a mushy paste. That’s a much better way to ensure the food you’re eating is ready for its journey to your gut.

WHOLESOME CONTENT Multivitamin and mineral supplements can be beneficial additions to already healthy diets, but a large review study assessing over 90,000 adults showed that taking them has no effect on all-cause mortality, i.e. they don’t affect life expectancy.7 While vitamins and minerals are vital for survival, getting them from whole foods and a balanced diet should be your first port of call.

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PROMOTION

PROMOTION

BE AT YOUR Welcome to the new Life range from PhD Nutrition, expertly formulated to optimise your life

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hether it’s a hard day in the office or a big session at the gym, the new PhD Life range has you covered: from the highprotein, low-sugar, plant-based COMPLETE meal solution; and RESET, the night-time formula; to MIND, made to support optimal mental performance, PhD has created a range of premium, expertly formulated health optimisation products.

As the global wellness

community increasingly recognises the need to focus on mental health as a key component for optimal physical fitness, the range marks a significant expansion for PhD. The brief?

To create a premium range that promote both physical and mental wellbeing.

HOLISTIC APPROACH Designed with a holistic approach in mind, PhD Life includes a number of products that can be taken in a variety of ways and at

mutiple points throughout the day. At home, at work, at the gym or somewhere in-between, the range is available in a number of different formats, including powders, capsules, sugar-free gummies, tablets and juices – so you never need to miss out on good gut health, improved sleep quality, pin-sharp mental performance or metabolic wellness. Alongside a core gym lifestyle audience, PhD is designed for those interested in broader wellbeing, too.

PROMOTION

COMPLETE

THE PHD LIFE RANGE The results-driven PhD Life range includes products across seven key need states plus a meal solution.

The range includes RESET, DIGEST, MIND, VITAL, MOVE, BOOST, RELAX, and COMPLETE, which are all carefully formulated to optimise your health.

SCIENTIFIC FORMULAS FOR TOP PERFORMERS PhD Life is the latest innovation from PhD Nutrition – part of Science in Sport Group – the London-based nutrition business trusted by professional athletes, sports and fitness enthusiasts, and the active lifestyle community.

PhD’s many fans include leading fitness influencers Ross Edgley and Obi Vincent, and participants in the Tough Mudder Challenge and Race Series – of which it is an official partner.

According to Stephen Moon, the CEO of Science in Sport, “We have used the latest scientific research to formulate products that promote physical and mental wellness throughout the day, and help to achieve peak performance.”

A new-generation, plantbased, meal-replacement product, COMPLETE contains 23 key vitamins and minerals and is available in powder form in a range of flavours. Mix it with water or almond milk to create a shake, add it to foods or smoothies, or use it in cooking.

DIGEST Including research-driven gut-friendly cultures to support healthy gut function, DIGEST is available in capsules, as a powder and as sugar-free gummies.

RESET A night-time formula of amino acids and minerals to promote quality sleep, RESET is available in capsule form, as a hot chocolate drink, and a juice.

MIND A blend of key nootropics, adaptogens and amino acids to support optimal mental performance and help reduce fatigue, MIND is available in capsules, powder and juice.

PROMOTION

VITAL A research-driven blend of vitamins, minerals and active ingredients that supports optimal health and metabolic wellness, VITAL comes in capsules, powder form and as sugar-free gummies.

RELAX A research-driven blend of adaptogens, nootropics and botanicals to support mental wellbeing, RELAX is available in capsules.

BOOST A research-driven blend of Vitamin C, Zinc and beta glucans to boost your immune system, BOOST comes in capsule and effervescent tablet form.

MOVE Made to keep joints and bones strong and healthy, MOVE includes a unique combination of collagen, vitamins and minerals. It is available in capsules and powder.

YOU CAN FIND PHD LIFE ONLINE AT WWW.PHD.COM/LIFE

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YOUR BEST-BODY BLUEPRINT

PRESSED FOR TIME No gym, no kit, no problem. This press-up complex will pump up your pecs in double-quick time

ere’s the good news: you don’t have to queue up for a bench to build an athletic upper body. In fact, bench pressing isn’t even the best way to do it. This zero-kit workout, designed by strength and conditioning expert JC Santana, hits the muscle fibres in your chest and arms from every direction for optimal growth. Better yet, you can do it at home in no time at all.

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1a. ROTATIONAL PRESS-UP REPS: 20 REST: Straight into 1b This hits your shoulder muscles from an odd angle, building strength and stability.

Start in a press-up position and lower yourself to one side, twisting as you do so most of your weight is on one shoulder.

Press up, then do the same on the other side. That’s 2 reps.

HOW TO: Do this workout once or twice a week.

Leave 48 hours between this workout and your regular chest or upper-body workouts.

Do all the reps of each move back-to-back, with minimal rest.

Rest for two minutes once one round is complete, then repeat two more times.

1d. GORILLA PRESS-UP REPS: 10 REST: Straight into 1e This variation on the clapping press-up forces you to get more height, taxing your fast-twitch fibres.

Start in a standard press-up position.

Lower your torso to the floor, then press up quickly, launching your upper body into the air.

Slap your chest quickly, before returning your hands to the start.

1b. SHUFFLE PRESS-UP REPS: 20 REST: Straight into 1c Get in a press-up position with one hand ahead of your shoulder and one behind.

Lower yourself to the floor, then press up. That’s 1 rep.

At the top of the move, jump or walk your hands into the opposite position, then do the next rep.

Continue alternating.

Photography: Tom Miles

1c. DIAMOND PRESS-UP

1e. SINGLE-LEG PRESS-UP REPS: 10 REST: 2 mins, then repeat 1a This is easier than the one-arm variation but still taxes your core.

Raise one leg, keeping your glutes tight, and do a press-up.

Switch legs and repeat. That’s 2 reps.

REPS: 10 REST: Straight into 1d For this triceps blaster, position your hands together under your chest so your index fingers and thumbs form a diamond.

Lower your torso until your chest touches your hands.

Press back up to the start.

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●TRAINER TOTAL-BODY MOVES

GRAND TOTAL Build muscle, burn fat and get bigger, stronger and leaner with these total-body moves

Total-body moves should feature in your training plan, whatever your goal, for several important reasons. Because they recruit multiple muscles, and release a ton of growth hormones, they’re one of the best ways to build muscle and burn fat. And the fact you’re targeting the whole body at once means they’re the perfect option for the busy man. If you only train three times a week, for example, incorporating some total-body training will give you maximum bang for your workout buck. Finally, they teach your different muscles to work together as a single, efficient unit, which has huge crossover benefit to sports performance and even everyday life. Getting good at the following moves will make you stronger and leaner, and help you build a robust, injury-repellant physique.

1. SINGLE-ARM DUMBBELL CLEAN Holding a dumbbell in one hand works that side of the body for balanced development, and is a great option ahead of advancing to the barbell version.

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Squat and pick up the dumbbell.

Keeping your core braced, your chest up and a natural arch in your back, lift the weight off the ground by driving up through your heels.

Once the dumbbell reaches your hips, rise up on tiptoes, shrug your shoulders and pull it higher, leading with your elbow.

As the weight reaches shoulder height, squat under it and rotate your elbow so you catch it on the front of your shoulder.

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2. TUCK-JUMP BURPEE One of the most intense bodyweight moves, this will work all your major muscle groups and get your heart rate soaring.

Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart.

Squat, place your hands on the floor and kick your legs back until you’re in a press-up position.

Bring your legs back underneath you and jump up, grabbing your knees at the end of the move will send your heart rate through the roof while also building explosive power.

3. DB LUNGE TO PRESS Combine a lunge with a shoulder press to work many major muscle groups at once.

Hold a pair of dumbbells at shoulder height, with palms facing forward.

Stand with feet hip-width apart, back straight and core engaged.

Step forward into a lunge – your front knee and front foot should be in line.

Sink your back knee down, while pressing the weights directly overhead.

Step back to standing and repeat on the other leg.

4. KETTLEBELL SLINGSHOT Improve shoulder stability, grip and core strength with this excellent warm-up drill.

Start to swing the kettlebell around your body, passing it from hand to hand as you go.

Try to keep the movement fluid, while keeping your core braced and back straight.

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●TRAINER TOTAL-BODY MOVES 5. KB WINDMILL Build stability and strength in your shoulders and obliques.

Press the kettlebell above your head into the start position.

Keeping the leg under the bell straight and the other one slightly bent, lean your torso forward and to one side, so the other hand travels down your leg.

Keep both arms straight throughout.

Turn to face the kettlebell, now push out your hips in the same direction and fold forward until you can touch your foot (or as far as your flexibility will allow).

Reverse the movement to return to the start.

6. DB SQUAT TO CURL TO PRESS This works your legs, core, biceps and shoulders in one full-body movement.

Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and dumbbells in hands.

Lower into a squat, keeping the weights by your sides.

Once your thighs are parallel to the floor, squeeze your glutes to return to standing.

As you do so, curl the weights up to shoulder height and squeeze your biceps.

Lower the dumbbells back to your sides, then drop into the next squat.

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7. DB PRESS-UP TO RENEGADE ROW

8. CROCODILE WALK

This is the ultimate upper-body complex, working your core, shoulders, back and even a bit of biceps.

A deceptively difficult movement to set your abs, arms and quads alight.

Assume a press-up position with your feet hip- to shoulder-width apart and a dumbbell in each hand, directly below your shoulders.

Keeping your core engaged and elbows tucked, lower your chest until it’s almost in line with your hands, then push back up to the starting position.

Row the right dumbbell towards your ribs.

Lower the dumbbell back to the starting position, press-up, then row the left dumbbell.

Raise the tempo for cardio; slow things down to focus on strength.

Start in a press-up position, with your legs and arms shoulder-width apart.

Lower yourself down until your torso is as low as it would get during a press-up. Keep your upper body as low as possible throughout the exercise, bracing your core and glutes to ensure your posture is correct.

Begin walking by bringing one knee up towards the elbow, simultaneously moving the opposite arm forward. Then repeat on the other side.

9. WOOD CHOP This rotational lift builds the connection between your upper and lower body, and helps build a strong core.

Photography: Eddie Macdonald | Model: Marvin Brooks (W Models)

Stand with feet shoulder-width apart.

Hold one dumbbell in both hands and twist your torso to one side to position the weight on the outside of one thigh.

Keep your back flat and core engaged throughout.

Lift the dumbbell up and across your body with straight arms, rising up onto your toes as you lift.

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●TRAINER BACKPACK WORKOUT

BAG WORK

Load up your backpack or bergen and prepare for a full-body assault with this two-week ‘tactical training’ programme from serving soldier Farren Morgan This plan is taken from Farren Morgan’s ‘Tactical Athlete’ series. Morgan is a serving soldier in the British Military, passionate about helping people reach a state of physical and mental “robustness” through a considered approach to fitness.

During this two-week programme, as similar movement patterns show up and repetitions decrease, the load should increase.

As a general rule, if you’re well-conditioned and used to strength training, 12kg should be your starting pack weight, while less experienced lifters should start with 5kg.

How much load you can increase will vary from person to person, but the goal with weekly progressions of similar patterns is to allow you a chance to progress in load and movement quality.

Finally, remember that even with bodyweight or a small load, keeping to a strict tempo and activating the correct muscles will provide a fantastic stimulus with a good amount of time under tension – it’s better to be conservative and prioritise quality of movement rather than overload and have your form suffer.

WEEK 1: MONDAY Backpack Floor Press

4 SETS / REST 60 SECS: 1a. Backpack Floor Press x 8-12 1b. Press-Up x 25

Backpack Overhead Hold

“These serve the purpose of pre-fatiguing the muscles before the workout proper,” says Morgan. “You will realise when you go on to complete the subsequent muscle contractions in the workout, you will get an even deeper and more focused stimulus. And with a little pre-fatigue under your belt, you will be less likely to ramp up your speed, thereby allowing you to stay in control of your movements and execute better reps.”

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3 SETS / REST 60 SECS: 2a. Backpack Shoulder Press x 8-12 2b. Backpack Pendlay Row x 8-12 3 SETS / REST 60 SECS: 3a. Backpack Plank x 30 secs 3b. Backpack Overhead Hold x 30 secs 3c. Plank x 30 secs FINISHER: 5-min AMRAP 4a. Burpee x 5 4b. Air Squat x 5 4c. Feet-Weighted Sit-Up x5

Backpack Pendlay Row

Backpack Plank TACTICAL STARTS

TACTICAL START: 12-min EMOM (every minute on the minute) Min 1: Run x 150m (moderate pace) Min 2: Press-up x 6-8 Min 3: Burpee x 8-12 Min 4: Backpack Swing x 12

WEEK 1: TACTICAL THURSDAY

WEEK 1: TUESDAY TACTICAL START: 5 ROUNDS FOR TIME 1a. Backpack Swing x 8 1b. Backpack Bear Hug Lunge x 6 1c. Backpack Squat x 4 1d. Burpee x 2

Backpack Bent-Over Row

4 SETS / REST 60 SECS: 2a. Feet-Weighted Sit-Up x 20 2b. Plank x 45 secs 4 SETS / REST 60 SECS 3a. Backpack Back Squat x 8-12 3b. Bodyweight Speed Squat (fast as possible) x 25 3 SETS / REST 60 SECS: 4a. Backpack Romanian Deadlift x 8 4b. Backpack Bent-Over Row x 10 4c. Backpack Back Lunge x 12

Backpack Press-Up

Backpack Floor Press x 25 Run x 100m Backpack Bent-Over Row x 25 Run x 100m Backpack Floor Press x 20 Run x 100m Backpack Bent-Over Row x 6 Run x 100m Backpack Floor Press x 15 Run x 100m Backpack Bent-Over Row x 8 Run x 100m Backpack Floor Press x 10 Run x 100m Backpack Bent-Over Row x 12 Run x 100m Backpack Floor Press x 5 Run x 100m Backpack Bent-Over Row x 16 Run x 100m Backpack Romanian Deadlift

FINISHER: 5a. Bodyweight Lunge x 200 5b. Every 20 reps do 5 Burpees Feet-Weighted Sit-Up

Plank

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●TRAINER BACKPACK WORKOUT WEEK 1: FRIDAY TACTICAL START: 9-min EMOM 1a. Burpee x 6-8 1b. Incline Press-Up x 8-10 1c. Backpack Bent-Over Row x 12

WEEK 2: MONDAY Backpack Back Squat

5 SETS / REST 45 SECS: 2a. Backpack Floor Press x 6-8 2b. Press-Up x 25

4 SETS / REST 60 SECS: 2a. Backpack Sumo Deadlift x 8-12 2b. Burpee (without jump) x 8 4 SETS / REST 60 SECS: 3a. Backpack Floor Press x 10 3b. Backpack Bent-Over Row x 10 3c. Backpack Swing x 10

Backpack Suitcase Carry (right)

FINISHER (2 ROUNDS FOR TIME): 5a. Backpack Suitcase Carry (right) x 30 secs 5b. Backpack Suitcase Carry (left) x 30 secs 5c. Backpack Overhead Carry x 60 secs

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FINISHER: 5a. Backpack Floor Press x 100 5b. Every time you break complete 10 Burpees Press-Up

Backpack Sumo Deadlift

Incline Press-Up

4 SETS / REST 45 SECS: 3a. Backpack Shoulder Press x 6-8 3b. Backpack Pendlay Row x 6-8 4 SETS / REST 60 SECS: 4a. Backpack Suitcase Carry (right) x 30m 4b. Backpack Suitcase Carry (left) x 30m 4c. Backpack Overhead Hold x 60 secs 4d. Plank x 30 secs

3 SETS / REST 60 SECS: 4a. Backpack Biceps Curl x 20 4b. Diamond Press-Up x 10

Backpack Overhead Carry

TACTICAL START: 9-min EMOM 1a. Front and Back Lunge x 40 secs 1b. Press-Up x 30 secs 1c. Backpack Plank x 20 secs

Backpack Shoulder Press

WEEK 2: TUESDAY Backpack Bear Hug Lunge

WEEK 2: FRIDAY

TACTICAL START: 10-min AMRAP (add 2 reps after each round) 1a. Backpack Bear Hug Lunge x 2,4,6…

1b. Backpack Back Squat x 4,6,8…

1c. Burpee x 6,8,10…

4 SETS / REST 45 SECS: 2a. Weighted Backpack Sit-Up x 20 2b. Plank x 60 secs 2c. Backpack Overhead Hold x 60 secs

Backpack Swing

4 SETS / REST 60 SECS: 3a. Backpack Squat x 6-8 3b. Bodyweight Speed Squat x 25 + 30-sec iso hold on last rep 3 SETS / REST 60 SECS: 4a. Backpack Romanian Deadlift x 6-8 4b. Backpack Bent-Over Row x 6-8 4c. Backpack Bear Hug Lunge x 6-8 FINISHER: 10-min EMOM 5a. Backpack Swing x 12-15 (aim to be working for 30-40 secs each minute)

WEEK 2: TACTICAL THURSDAY PART 1: 10-min alternating EMOM Odds: Run x 100-150m Evens: Burpee x 7-10 PART 2: 10-min alternating EMOM Odds: Run x 150-200m Evens: Burpee x 5-7 PART 3: 10-min alternating EMOM Odds: Run x 150-200m Evens: Air Squat x 20

Air Squat

Decline Press-Up TACTICAL START: 12-min EMOM 1a. Incline Press-Up x 6 1b. Decline Press-Up x 8 1c. Backpack Romanian Deadlift x 10 1d. Burpee (without jump) x 12 4 SETS / REST 60 SECS: 2a. Backpack Sumo Deadlift x 6-8 2b. Explosive Burpee (jump high) x 8 4 SETS / REST 60 SECS: 3a. Backpack Floor Press x 6-8 3b. Backpack Bent-Over Row x 6-8 3b. Backpack Swing x 6-8 9-min EMOM: 4a. Backpack Biceps Curl x 15-20 4b. Diamond Press-Up x 7-10 FINISHER: 12-min AMRAP 5a. Backpack Press-Up x 4 5b. Backpack Bear Hug Squat x 8 5c. Feet-Weighted Sit-Up x 12 Backpack Biceps Curl

Photography: Redi Berisha

Burpee

VISIT FARRENMORGANCOACHING.CO.UK FOR THE FULL PROGRAMME AND FOLLOW @FARRENMORGAN_COACHING

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●TRAINER YOGA MOVES

STRIKE A POSE

Relieve physical and mental strain with these highly effective yoga poses For many men the mere thought of getting into a downward dog is enough to leave them running to the comfort of the weights room. But if you can brave the yoga mat, the benefits for both body and mind will improve all areas of your health and fitness. Beyond feeling greater strength and flexibility, regular yoga will also affords valuable headspace – and anyone can do it.

“For some, there is a stigma that yoga is just for women,” says Adriene Mishler of Yoga With Adriene fame. “Simply put, it’s not and never has been.”

Mishler’s popular YouTube channel has 10.2 million subscribers. Her mantra is ‘a little goes a long way’, making her videos the ideal introduction for men unsure about attending a studio-based class.

“In my experience, practising for

five to 20 minutes regularly is going to yield more benefits than just hitting a 90-minute power class every once in a while. Regular yoga practice offers you the time and space to connect to your breath and body in a way that keeps the systems of the body happy and healthy. Especially in a world of fast-paced screen time, we need daily practices that calm the nervous system and connect us back to ourselves.”

1. CHILD’S POSE Hold for up to 5 mins Calms the mind, stretches the lower back and upper body, and opens the hips.

Kneel with your bum resting on your heels and the tops of your feet on the floor.

Exhale and bend forward so your torso folds over your thighs and your forehead rests on the floor.

Either rest your arms by the sides of your legs, stretch them out in front of you, or cross them on the floor in front of you and rest your forehead on them.

Relax your head and neck, and feel your body sink down to the floor.

TIP: If your forehead doesn’t reach the ground, rest it on a book or block.

2. CAT COW Do 5-10 reps

Warms up and stretches the spine and upper body.

Begin on your hands and knees in table pose, with a neutral spine.

As you inhale and move into cow pose, lift your sit bones upward, press your chest forward and allow your stomach to sink.

Lift your head, relax your shoulders away from your ears, and gaze straight ahead.

As you exhale, come into cat pose while rounding your spine outward, tucking in your tailbone, and drawing your pubic bone forward.

Release your head toward the floor — just don’t force your chin to your chest.

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3. THREAD THE NEEDLE Do 5 reps each side Stretches the sides of the body, and stimulates breath and digestion.

Start on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips.

Inhale and lift your left arm up to the ceiling, rotating your torso as you do, so you end up looking at your left hand.

Exhale, and bring your left arm down and under your right shoulder.

Bend your left elbow in a right angle, lower your hips a little and lower your head to the floor.

4. TABLE Hold for 3-5 breaths Improves balance and strengthens the core.

Begin by sitting on the floor with your legs extended in front of you and your arms by your sides.

Bend your knees and place your feet flat on the floor.

Place your hands several inches behind your hips, shoulder-width apart.

Press your palms flat on the floor and turn your fingertips inwards so they’re facing towards your toes.

Inhale, press firmly into your hands and feet, straighten your elbows and lift your hips up towards the ceiling.

Exhale, draw your shoulder blades into your back and lift your chest.

Stretch your tailbone towards the back of your mat and your head towards the front to lengthen your spine.

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●TRAINER YOGA MOVES

5. DEEP SQUAT Hold for 5-10 deep breaths Builds focus and relieves tension, while strengthening the quads and stretching the Achilles.

Stand with feet hip-distance apart and slightly turned out.

Inhale, and place your hands in a prayer position.

Exhale, and lower, bending your knees as if trying to sit on a chair.

Keeping your chest and shoulders open and your knees apart, lower your hips down further until your torso is between your knees.

Separate your feet as much as you need to keep your ankles on the floor (you might need to turn them out a little more) and sink your heels into the floor.

Press your elbows against your inner thighs and your hands together in prayer position.

6. GATE

Kneel on the floor.

Stretch your left leg out to the side and press your left foot flat onto the floor.

Keep your right knee below your right hip and align your left heel with your right knee.

Rotate your pelvis to the left and your upper back to the right.

Take your arms out to the sides, so they’re parallel to the floor.

Place your left hand on your left shin and reach to your right.

Bring your right arm up and over to your right ear and turn your upper torso away from the floor.

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Photography: Eddie Macdonald | Model: Marvin Brooks (W Models)

Hold for 1 min each side Stretches the sides of the body and stimulates digestion.

7. PRONE PEC STRETCH Hold for 10 breaths each side Gives a deep stretch to the pectoral muscles and improves circulation.

Lie on your stomach with your legs extended, ankles together and toes pointed.

Place your arms on the floor at right angles to your torso.

Turn your head to the right and place your right fingertips on the floor in line with your shoulder.

Keep your right elbow bent and feel the stretch in your pec.

Take 5 deep breaths.

Keeping your arms and head in the same position, lift your right leg, bend your knee and bring your right toes to the floor behind your left buttock to deepen the chest stretch.

Take 5 more breaths, then repeat on the other side.

TRY THIS:

Warrior Addict’s founder Judith Emanuel is passionate about introducing as many men as possible to yoga. “A big part of our mission is to get as many guys on the mat as possible,” she says, “so we offer free, online yoga classes specifically geared towards men." Find out more at warrioraddict.com, where you can also buy yoga mats, props and activewear.

8. HALF LORD OF THE FISHES Hold for at least 30 secs each side Stretches the spine and strengthens the core.

Sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you.

Bend your knees and put your feet on the floor.

Step your right foot over your left leg and stand it on the floor outside your left hip, so your right knee is pointing up at the ceiling.

Bring your left foot round to the outside of your right hip.

Lay your left leg outside your right thigh.

Exhale and twist your torso towards the inside of your right thigh.

Press your right hand onto the floor behind your right buttock, and set your left upper arm on the outside of your right thigh.

Pull your torso and right thigh together and lengthen your body, pushing your right foot into the ground.

Turn your head to the right.

Breathe, and with every inhalation deepen the twist, remembering to lift up through your sternum.

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●TRAINER GIVE ME STRENGTH

JOIN THE CLUB MF’s strength columnist and Wild Training founder James Griffiths explains why Indian clubs are a gateway to improved strength, mobility and injury prevention f all the equipment-based training systems I’ve ever used, power clubs are without doubt the most universally valuable tool I’ve found. That’s for me, my personal training clients, in group exercise classes, with elite athletes, people working through pain and injuries, old people, young people, guys, girls. Everyone!

For shoulder mobility and health, nothing comes close to club training. As a single piece of equipment to develop grip strength I also don’t think it can be beaten.

For all my gushing, why do so few people know about club training, and even less regularly train with clubs? Are they too new for people to get behind?

No. They are old. Like, really old. The oldest legitimate literature showing clubs being used specifically for fitness and strength is around 2,500 years ago, with Persian warriors using them for

O

sword-fighting conditioning. Indian clubs then became popular in England and Europe during the Victorian period. Athletes, military men, royals – they were all swinging clubs.

FLUID DYNAMICS Fundamentally, clubs give you two things: leverage and swing-based loading. That’s like a kettlebell, but the shape of the club lends to much more fluid, circular shapes, which result in the muscles being worked through much larger ranges of movement. That is why clubs are such good tools for improving shoulder mobility. (Olympic swimmers have seen amazing results from warming up with basic club swings.)

Anytime you use leverage as a progressive tool in strength training, you start to target a lot more synergistic muscle, so that means core strength and stability improve. Clubs are also much lighter than most other bits of kit (so you get zero

bragging rights for using them). I’ve trained some of the strongest people in the world to become even stronger with just a 2kg Indian club.

For ego lifters, clubs will have zero appeal. They require a bit of skill, too, so if you don’t have the patience needed to learn how to use them properly, you’ll never get to train at an intensity to see the impact club training can have on your physique.

Clubs range in weight from 0.5kg up to 90kg, which is the heaviest I’ve seen (but that’s obscene). The heaviest one I own is 20kg and I don’t know many people that can lift it properly. Nearly everyone I know has gone too heavy, with fit guys thinking they’d start at 12-14kg. How wrong they were.

I always suggest a 4-6kg club to learn with, and then if you can build up to an 8kg that would be great for single-arm work. If you can make 50-rep sets with an 8kg feel OK, then go up.

1. SWIPE

FIVE BEST CLUB EXERCISES

With feet hip-width, hinge at your hips and swing the club behind you.

As the club swings forward to 45 degrees, pull it so the head flips over your wrist.

Pull the club so the head travels passed your ear, not over your head.

Finish with your elbow high enough so the club can’t hit you in the back.

‘Throw’ the club forward and repeat (don’t actually throw the club).

2. REVERSE CIRCLE

1

2

Start with the club in the ‘catch’ position from the swipe, behind your back.

Lift the club out to the side, extending the arm as the club comes to hip height.

Let the weight of the club swing

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2

the club down and behind your body until it is vertical, up your back with your thumb pointing up.

Make sure the club is travelling left and right (frontal plane) and not forward, or you will hit yourself.

3

The Indian club pictured is a prototype developed by James Griffiths and Rebel Strength, with adjustable loads from 2kg to 20kg. It will be on sale soon at rebelstrength.co.uk

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3. WRIST CIRCLE Hold a light club (1kg) up with your elbow out to the side of your body, with 90 degrees in the elbow.

You upper arm should be parallel to the floor and your forearm vertical.

Take a tight grip on the club. Do not let your hand open.

Slowly rotate the club in a full circle without moving your elbow forward or backward, or up and down.

Practise this with circles in both directions.

4. MILL

5. LATERAL TORCH LIFT

Stand square with your feet shoulder-width apart and the club behind your shoulder (‘swipe catch’ position) Turn your torso to throw the club sideways, with an overhand throw grip.

The club travels left and right, in line with your stance.

As the club swings through a full circle, pull it back behind your shoulder to the start position.

Use your pull that recovered the club to your shoulder to initiate the next throw, by turning your body early.

Start with the club in the catch position from the swipe, behind your back.

Lift the club out to the side, and end with the club vertical and your hand in line with your hip.

After controlling the club, lift it back up and behind your shoulder to the start position.

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Photography: JMelissa Cassar

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OCTOBER 2021

95

●TRAINER ASK THE EXPERT

WELL HEALED A tough workout stresses your body, but with the right recovery protocols you can turn muscle damage into muscle gains

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OCTOBER 2021

THE EXPERT Alex Parren is a personal trainer, coach and nutritionist who blogs for sustainable British activewear brand Sundried (sundried.com)

f you want to sculpt a stronger, more powerful physique, you’re going to have to push yourself.

And if you’re going to push your body hard, you need to learn how to recover quickly and efficiently.

Heavy gym sessions stress your body, leading to microscopic muscle damage, inflammation and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). None of that’s a problem, of course – in fact it’s the damage that leads to stronger regrowth – unless the repair process isn’t optimised.

“What you do immediately after your workout will have just as much effect on your results as what you do in the session itself,” says Alex Parren, an experienced trainer, coach and nutritionist with a background in powerlifting and Olympic lifting. Yet mastering the art of recovery remains one of the most commonly neglected gym skills. So here is Parren’s guide to resting, recovering and raising your game.

Words: Mark Bailey | Photography: Getty Images

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PLAY IT COOL After finishing a heavy lifting session, don’t just head straight to the showers. Cool down with a light bit of cardio, instead – nothing strenuous, but enough to get your blood flowing.

“A proper cool-down can help prevent ‘blood pooling’,” explains Parren. “Thankfully, that is nowhere near as gruesome as it sounds.

‘Blood pooling’ is just another term for chronic venous insufficiency (CVI). That occurs after strenuous leg workouts when blood vessels expand, making it harder for the blood to return to the heart. By cooling down gradually and thoroughly, you will be less likely to feel

light-headed after your workout, and it will prevent blood pooling in your legs.”

ROLL WITH IT A muscle-relaxing regime after training can enhance your recovery, but try to avoid any challenging stretches.

“Directly after a strength session, the muscles are torn, meaning that is the time to avoid static stretching as you will only tear the muscles further and potentially injure yourself,” warns Parren.

“Instead,” she says, “try foam rolling. It is proven to improve blood flow and flush out lactic acid, reducing the effects of DOMS.” GO ALL GUNS BLAZING Some form of massage will aid your physical recovery after a brutal weights session – and the quicker, the better.

“If you’re going to utilise post-workout massage, that is best done as soon as your session is over,” explains Parren. “Studies have found that massage can reduce inflammation, which in turn will improve recovery and reduce DOMS.” If you can’t afford a professional massage, buy

a massage gun – a hand-held deep muscle-relaxer – instead.

“Massage guns are a great way to administer self-massage without the need for a physio appointment,” says Parren.

SQUEEZE IT OUT Compression garments are now popular among elite athletes for their ability to aid recovery after training. “Studies have conclusively found that compression clothing improves blood flow and can reduce DOMS after a workout,” says Parren. “That means that by wearing compression leggings or a compression top during your session, you could recover faster and be ready for your next workout sooner.”

BLOW HOT AND COLD Experts still debate whether hot baths or ice baths are the best way to aid muscle recovery, but combining the two could be a smart option.

“Both hot and cold water have benefits for recovery, so combining the two in one shower is optimal,” suggests Parren. “Hot water helps to improve blood flow, flush out lactic acid and relax tense muscles; cold water reduces inflammation and can numb muscle soreness.”

Try alternating 30 seconds of hot and cold water during your shower for a healthy burst of contrast therapy.

PROTEIN POWER Three ways to optimise your protein intake for peak recovery LITTLE AND OFTEN Guzzling a protein shake is a good way to absorb protein immediately after your workout, but don’t kid yourself into thinking that’s all you need.

“It doesn’t make sense to take on too much protein in one go if most of it is going to be expelled as waste,” says Parren.

Aim to drip-feed protein into your body at intervals, with a handful of nuts, a glass of milk or a yogurt.

REAL MEALS Supplements are a convenient way to get protein into your body, but real food will deliver all the extra nutrients your aching body needs.

“A small, protein-rich meal straight after your workout, followed by another protein-rich meal later that day, is best,” says Parren.

A bowl of tuna and rice is a good post-workout snack, while chicken or tofu and wholegrain pasta makes for a protein-dense post-gym dinner.

SLOW RELEASE

Recent meta-analyses on compression garments have reported faster muscle recovery, particularly after intense eccentric power or resistance exercise

SLEEP IT OFF Unless you get a good night’s sleep, you will never achieve the muscle growth you crave.

“Peak human growth hormone (HGH) release is achieved during deep sleep,” says Parren, “which means you need to make sure you’re not waking up often throughout the night or being disturbed by noises and light. Prioritise quality sleep by making sure your bedroom is properly dark and devoid of as much noise and light as possible.”

What kind of protein you take on is also important.

“Although some studies have found 20-30g protein per meal is the most you can efficiently absorb,” says Parren, “consumption of slower-acting protein sources – particularly in combination with other macronutrients – can delay absorption and enhance the utilisation of amino acids.”

Turkey, salmon, Greek yogurt and nut butters are all excellent sources of slow-release protein.

OCTOBER 2021

97

●TRAINER FINAL THOUGHT

SAVED BY SCIENCE 1 LOAD YOUR LEGS

3 TEAM UP

5 BREAK FREE

Performing leg exercises at the beginning of a workout increases levels of both testosterone and growth hormone, according to Norwegian research published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.

It’s also smart to perform big multi-joint compound moves, such as squats and deadlifts, near the start of your session so your muscles are fresh and you can execute the lifts to maximum effect.

Want to accelerate fat loss? You need to find a friend with a similar goal. People who trained with a partner lost more weight than those who went it alone, in a two-year University of Pennsylvania study.

An Oxford University study also showed exercising in a group helps you tolerate more pain, helping you train harder for longer.

Exercising with free weights rather than fixed machines produces greater muscle activation, according to – among many other studies – research published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. That doesn’t mean you need to ditch machines entirely, though. They can be useful for isolating a muscle for targeted growth, and when you’re fatigued they reduce the risk of injury resulting from poor technique.

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2 MAX OUT Using weights close to your one-rep max for those same compound lifts that load the spine (e.g. squats and deadlifts) builds bone-mineral density and prevents osteoporosis in later life. That’s according to a study published in the Journal Of Strength and Conditioning Research, which also found it will work wonders for your posture.

4 GET LOOSE Yoga provides far more benefits than just helping you find peace of mind. A study from the University of Maryland showed that yoga outperformed aerobic exercise when it came to improving flexibility and muscle strength. The research also found it could reduce levels of cortisol, a hormone that contributes to overeating and impairs muscle growth.

Photography: Getty Images

Use these findings from the lab to see better strength, muscle-building and fat-loss results when you’re on the gym floor

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