Hshshhs by Primaveradea3

11/2020 MASTER THE NEW NORMAL

P16 GO INTO BEAST MODE

P15 A WALK IN THE PARK

P18 SQUASH HUNGER

Claw through excess calories with Chris Hemsworth’s animalistic dumbbell move

Doubling your step count is the smartest way to halve your risk of a heart attack

Dig into these healthy carbs and they’ll repay you with extra micros in spades

P26 SOUPED-UP FAT BURN

P30 LIVING-ROOM CARDIO

P37 BRIGHT IDEAS

A seasonal bowl of stinging nettle soup can bring your metabolism to the boil

Pick up your dumbbells to build long-distance stamina at home

P42 CHEMICAL ADVANTAGE

P45 GO THE DISTANCE

Get your fix of the sunshine vitamin as the days grow shorter, without the need for expensive suppements

Hacking your hormones can give you an edge in your battle against the bulge. Arm yourself with these biological weapons

Forget the marathon: elite runners are battling it out for bragging rights over a mile. This is how to hit top speed

MUSCLE

MIND

P106 MORE THAN AN OEUF Fuel your path to a strong, lean physique with our chorizo and egg breakfast

HEALTH

P24 FIGHT AS A FEATHER

P29 TOGETHER WE STAND

P21 STRAIGHT TALK

Learn to punch above your weight with UFC champion Alexander Volkanivski

Our columnist explores how to be an ally in these politically combustible times

Back pain will affect more than 80% of us. Take these spinal tips for quick relief

P114 RAISE THE BAR

P86 FIND INNER STRENGTH

P34 DREAM GAINS

Power through your return to the bench press with our specialist form tweaks

Learn to out-train stress and anxiety with our feel-good workouts for your brain

Sleep your way to top condition with our edit of lab-tested mattresses

P117 WE HAVE LIFT OFF

P121 TOTAL HEAD TRIP

P130 CYCLE OF LIFE

Finish your workouts stronger with our barbell ladder, designed to build muscle and boost fitness in 110 brutal reps

Craving escape after spending far too long at home? Our guide to Lake Bled, Latvia, will restore a healthy wanderlust

Swap the Petri dish of public transport for two wheels and take the surest path to superior heart health

8 MEN’S HEALTH

IN THIS ISSUE EASY WAYS TO UNLOCK YOUR FULL POTENTIAL

BACK TO THE GYM!

Your plan to regain lost strength and hit new goals in a hurry p105

GET READY TO MAKE A HUGE COMEBACK

ON THE COVER P48 ZACK GEORGE

P86 FEEL-GOOD HIITS

P62 BLACK MINDS MATTER

The UK CrossFit champion explains how to train both mind and body for maximal gains

Find the perfect workout to give you a mental boost in the little time you have

Black British men are 400% more likely to suffer poor mental health. We ask: why?

P56 HEART OF THE MATTER

P80 FAST FITNESS FUEL

P108 PRE-COVID FIT

Workouts, foods, tech and tips that will turn your ticker into a well-oiled piece of machinery

Forgo the Buddha bowls and tuck into six upper-crust sandwiches that squeeze bonus nutritional benefits between sliced bread

Your four-week training plan to get back to your best before the year is over

COVER CREDITS PHOTOGRAPHY DAVID VENNI MODEL ZACK GEORGE STYLING HAYLEY LAWRENCE GROOMING SUSANNA MOTA @ WIZZO AND CO

MENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HEALTH 9

THE EXPERT PANEL

EDITOR IN CHIEF

TOBY WISEMAN

TRAIN BOTH MIND AND BODY WITH OUR AUTHORITIES’ ADVICE DEPUTY EDITOR

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

DAVID MORTON

WILLIAM JACK

SCARLETT WRENCH

ART EDITOR

PICTURE EDITOR

COMMISSIONING EDITOR (PRINT AND DIGITAL)

SARAH ANDERSON

CHIEF SUBEDITOR

Black British men are disproportionately hospitalised for mental ill-health. Documentary maker Harewood explores why p62

The UK’s fittest man on how perseverance and self-belief turned him from an overweight Leicester boy into a CrossFit icon p48

FILM-MAKER AND ACTOR

UK CROSSFIT CHAMPION

FITNESS EDITOR

DIGITAL EDITOR

ANDREW TRACEY

DEPUTY DIGITAL EDITOR

SOCIAL MEDIA AND CONTENT MANAGER

ROBERT HICKS DIGITAL WRITER

JOY EJARIA

DANIEL DAVIES

EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES: CONTACT@MENSHEALTH.CO.UK CHIEF INTERNATIONAL BRAND OFFICER MATT HAYES

PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE Your fat hormones are decisive in how you lose or gain weight. Friedman gives you the skinny on the science p42

TED LANE

YO ZUSHI

ED COOPER

THEODORE FRIEDMAN

FEATURES EDITOR

VICI CAVE

JESSICA WEBB

ZACK GEORGE

RACHAEL CLARK

ART DIRECTOR

PHOTO DIRECTOR

DAVID HAREWOOD

EDITORIAL BUSINESS MANAGER

DECLAN FAHY

GROUP BRAND DIRECTOR STEVEN MILES

HEARST SOLUTIONS CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER JANE WOLFSON

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HEAD OF CLIENTS OLLIE LLOYD BRANDED CONTENT DIRECTOR ALI GRAY

CLIENT DIRECTOR, WELLNESS NATASHA BAILEY

CLIENT DIRECTOR, BEAUTY LEE BAILEY

CLIENT DIRECTOR, FASHION EMMA BARNES

CLIENT DIRECTOR, MOTORS JIM CHAUDRY

CLIENT DIRECTOR, FINANCE PETE CAMMIDGE

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ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES: 020 3640 2220 CONSUMER SALES AND MARKETING HEAD OF SUBSCRIPTIONS, MARKETING AND CIRCULATION JUSTINE BOUCHER

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DIGITAL MARKETING AND CRM DIRECTOR SEEMA KUMARI COMMUNICATIONS

HENDRICK FAMUTIMI

CHAMPION POWERLIFTER Out-muscle anxiety and give both brain and brawn a workout with the advice of PT and athlete Famutimi p86

ALEXANDER VOLKANOVSKI UFC FIGHTER

The UFC featherweight champion on how he overcame back pain and shed 30kg on his rise to the top p24

MAX HALLEY RESTAURATEUR

Don’t settle for a meal deal. Allow sandwich pioneer Halley to help you retool the lunchtime staple for maximum flavour and satiety p80

DIRECTOR OF PR AND COMMUNICATIONS EFFIE KANYUA INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS AND PR EXECUTIVE OLIVIA BONNER SHOWS AND EVENTS HEAD OF EVENTS AND CLIENT SERVICE, HEARST LIVE NIKKI CLARE

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SPONSORSHIP EXECUTIVE, HEARST LIVE ALICE MATTHEWS

EVENT ENQUIRIES: 07749 387715 PRODUCTION

THIS ISSUE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY… 8 ELITE TRAINERS

1 ENDOCRINOLOGIST

5 NUTRITION ADVISORS

1 UFC FEATHERWEIGHT CHAMPION

5 RACIAL EQUALITY CAMPAIGNERS

1 GROOMING CONSULTANT

4 UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS

1 HOROLOGIST

2 CARDIOLOGISTS

1 RUNNING COACH

2 LEADING RESTAURATEURS

1 PHYSICAL THERAPIST

3 PSYCHOLOGISTS

AND 1 FITTEST MAN IN BRITAIN

TOTAL

36 EXPERTS

10 MEN’S HEALTH

SENIOR AD PRODUCTION CONTROLLER PAUL LOCKETT

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HEARST MAGAZINES UK CEO, HEARST UK | PRESIDENT, HEARST EUROPE

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GENERAL ENQUIRIES: 020 7439 5000 MEN’S HEALTH IS PUBLISHED IN THE UK BY HEARST UK, A WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF THE HEARST CORPORATION. HOUSE OF HEARST AT LSQ, 30 PANTON STREET, LONDON SW1Y 4AJ, TEL: 020 7312 3800. FAX: 020 7339 4444. COPYRIGHT © 2020. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ISSN 1356-7438. MEN’S HEALTH IS PRINTED AND BOUND BY WALSTEAD ROCHE, VICTORIA BUSINESS PARK, ROCHE, ST AUSTELL, CORNWALL PL26 8LX. DISTRIBUTION BY COMAG. PUBLISHED 11 TIMES A YEAR. CONDITIONS APPLY. CONTACT OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM AT HEARSTMAGAZINES.CO.UK/CONTACT-US OR CALL US ON 01858 438851. LINES OPEN WEEKDAYS, 8AM9.30PM; SATURDAYS, 8AM-4PM. OR YOU CAN POST YOUR QUERIES TO: MEN’S HEALTH, HEARST MAGAZINES UK, TOWER HOUSE, SOVEREIGN PARK, LATHKILL STREET, MARKET HARBOROUGH, LEICS LE16 9EF

EDITOR’S LETTER ALWAYS RISE ABOVE THE EXPECTATIONS OF OTHERS

No one likes being pigeon-holed. No one wants to be defined by another man’s gaze. But like the actor forever destined to play the pantomime villain or the endearing goofball, it’s an inevitability of life. For most of my time at Men’s Health, we have endeavoured to present a holistic, multifaceted image of health and fitness. We have catered for a broad range of readers, from the young and gains-hungry gym rat to the middle-aged executive whose ego and appetite write cheques his body can no longer cash. We’ve gone to great lengths to prove that a salubrious lifestyle needn’t be one devoid of good food, high stakes or occasional bad behaviour. We embraced – hell, we pioneered – the conversation around male mental health. And yet, to many, we will always be that six-pack mag. We’ve probably brought it on ourselves – at least, to an extent. Six-packs sell. I’ve commissioned some pretty outré features in my time. There was the investigation into ecstasy use involving a hotel room booked under a pseudonym, an off-duty doctor and some pure-assnow class-As. The lawyers loved that one. I also once sent Will Self in search of the meaning of life by traversing London on foot (he’s still looking). But none of these stories ever made the cover. Not when there was an abs workout to promote. We had copies to sell and numbers to protect. Thence came the typecasting. So, as we tie up the loose ends of another issue, it’s gratifying to realise that much of its content comes close to that holistic ideal I have always espoused. More than that, we’re very happy to shout about it. Those abs are still present and correct, of course. Our comprehensive, 28-day, back-to-gym strength workout on page 108 will help ease you into the six-pack saddle again after months of living-room HIIT sessions and listless runs. But there is also plenty here that reflects the true interconnectedness of physical and mental health, not to mention the way they now so often reflect the times in which we live. When four-fifths of UK adults struggle with workrelated stress – a statistic complicated further as we

all cope differently with the fallout from lockdown, furlough and/or remote working – and heart disease accounts for more than a quarter of all UK deaths, the link between body and soul becomes harder to ignore. Moreover, it means that staying young at heart is no longer just a romantic cliché – it’s a doctor’s order. You can learn how to keep your finger on the pulse with our tips on page 56. Meanwhile, reinforcing the cerebralarterial nexus is our “Feel-Good HIITs” feature on page 86, which outlines the principle behind exercise as mental medicine and offers the best physical fixes for mounting anxiety. Elsewhere, we continue our commitment to raising awareness of male mental health issues in various sectors of society. This time round, it’s not just a sector but a demographic. “Black Minds Matter” (page 62), Dan Davies’s inquiry into a broken system that allows black British men to be four times more likely than white men to be hospitalised for poor mental health, is as powerfully argued as it is shocking. One of the many uncomfortable questions it poses is how it has taken us until now to become cognizant of the situation. Then, of course, we have our cover star, Zack George (page 48). Here is a man in impeccable shape – we’ve featured many physiques like his over the years. But George is of interest to us for all the stuff that makes him different, and therefore human. He’s the overweight kid from Leicester who became UK CrossFit champion; he’s a rare person of colour at the pinnacle of his sport who has had to contend with its founder and CEO, Greg Glassman, being ousted following accusations of racism. But more than any of that, he has an attitude to life that strikes a chord. “I’ve got a book I’m excited about called Start When Others Stop,” he tells David Morton. “It’s a mantra that can have so many meanings – like starting on a fitness journey in middle age, when others think, ‘What’s the point?’ What you learn from training can transfer over to every area of your life.” That’s true Men’s Health in a nutshell. TOBY WISEMAN, EDITOR IN CHIEF MEN’S HEALTH 11

MENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HEALTH 13

STEP CHANGE

BOOSTING YOUR HEART HEALTH IS A WALK IN THE PARK

NUMBER GAINS

FITNESS NEWSFEED 11/20

Don’t dismiss step targets as wellness dogma. Marching double-time could halve your risk of a heart attack

ALWAYS HIT YOUR TARGET Here are some other scientifically approved daily goals to aim for

WORDS: LOUEE DESSENT-JACKSON I ARTWORK: PETER CROWTHER AT DEBUT ART I ILLUSTRATIONS: ANDREA MANZATI

he idea of taking 10,000 steps per day gets a lot of stick. Is it essential for good health, or is it just an arbitrary goal? The truth is that it depends. If you’re working out three or four times per week, the extra steps are a bonus but far from game-changing. The problem is that many struggle to hit even moderate levels of consistent physical activity. If that’s you, giving yourself a manageable step target can be a lifesaver. Researchers in the US followed the exercise habits of a group of over-40s for a decade and found that cardiovascular disease was the leading cause of death among the participants. For those walking an average number of steps per day (about 4,000, both in the US and UK), heart problems posed a signiﬁcant risk. But those who had a daily step count of 8,000 (walking roughly 6km) reduced their chances of death from a cardiovascular disease by 51%. That’s a huge boost to your heart’s defences and, best of all, it involves being on your feet for less than an extra hour each day. According to the study, published in JAMA, it didn’t matter whether the goal was achieved at a leisurely or brisk pace. That means an extra dog walk will do. So, take heart if you can’t make it to the gym this week. Simply go for an extra stroll around your local park to step up your cardiovascular prospects.

25G OF PROTEIN PER MEAL Consume less and muscle tears from exercise will persist, so gains will go to waste, according to the University of Texas.

15 MINUTES OF MEDITATION Using a meditation app for 15 minutes per day confers similar mental benefits to a day off work, says the Journal of Positive Psychology.

EIGHT HOURS’ SLEEP

STEP UP YOUR WALKING TO KEEP YOUR HEART HEALTH ON TRACK

Regularly skipping a good night’s sleep can double your mortality risk from all causes, according to a study by University College London.

MEN’S HEALTH 15

MIGHT CRAWLER

SLIDE INTO BEAST MODE

Build an A-list action hero physique while maximising your calorie burn with the DUMBBELL BEAST CRAWL. Unleash your full potential

nlike many members of the Hollywood elite, Chris Hemsworth isn’t into training fads. On Instagram, you’ll see him pushing himself to the limit, armed with just dumbbells – and the results speak for themselves. The key is picking the right movement. His dumbbell beast crawl may look funny – it earned a parody from Jack Black – but the benefits are no laughing matter. “It’s a complex move but not a heavy load, so you can maintain a higher heart rate for longer,” says Andrew Tracey, PT and MH’s fitness editor. “You’ll be burning more calories than a heavy lifting move like a bench press.” In addition to a solid calorie burn, it hits the rotational muscles in your core as you fight to stabilise yourself while moving the weights forward. The separated dumbbells will also reveal any muscular imbalances. Do lengths of your workout space, crawling one way and then pushing the dumbbells back along the floor, as you would with a sled push. Repeat until failure at the end of each session for a month. This beast of a move will claw away at your fat stores in no time.

16 MEN’S HEALTH

01 TABLE THE MOTION Assume a tabletop position on your hands and knees, hands below your shoulders, holding two dumbbells. Lift your knees an inch.

03 MIRROR MUSCLE Repeat on the other side. Lift and lower the weights under control as you crawl, taking short, measured steps forward.

02 LIFT OFF Row your right hand up to your stomach. Contract your core to stop twisting, and walk your right hand and right leg forward.

THE BEST EXERCISE YOU’RE NOT DOING

WHAT YOU’LL GAIN

HOLLYWOOD MUSCLE

HIGH METABOLISM

04 BACK TO IT Do a quick 180° and grab the weights. Holding them with straight arms, squat low and extend your legs to push them back to the start.

PRIMAL MOBILITY

WORDS: MATT EVANS I PHOTOGRAPHY: PHILIP HAYNES I MODEL: ALEX BEATTIE AT W MODEL I STYLING: ABENA OFEI GROOMING: NAT SCHMITT USING CLARINS SKINCARE I SHORTS REEBOK ATSPORTSDIDECT.COM, TRAINERS VEJA-STORE.COM

THE HEALTH SNOB’S GUIDE TO

SQUASH Dig into these under-rated fruits and they’ll repay you with energy, ﬂavour and nutrients in spades. Use these tips to plug into a healthier power source

01 SLIMMER PICKINGS Carbs can be a wonderful thing. But if you want to tighten up your nutrition plan in your quest for healthy weight loss, endless servings of sweet potatoes and brown rice can be dispiriting. Squash are your seasonal saviour. They’re a nutritious, invariably low-calorie source of energy that will fuel workouts and better health, bulking up meals to banish hunger. Jackson Boxer, chef patron of Vauxhall’s Brunswick House Café, is on hand to help you add a little colour to your cooking.

A COURGETTE If you’ve ever tried your hand at “courgetti”, you’ll know that courgettes are a trusty, low-calorie carb alternative. Their high water content helps to boost satiety, and they’re packed with musclesoothing potassium to defeat DOMS.

B BUTTERNUT A hefty butternut squash looks like you could sub it in for a kettlebell during home workouts – don’t drop it on your toes. It’s heavy where it really counts, too: the nutrients. One serving boasts nearly half your RDA of vitamin C, feeding your immune system after a tough session.

C PUMPKIN These are good for more than just carving faces into before Halloween. Pumpkins rival carrots when it comes to helping you see in the dark. They are rich in carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, both associated with keeping your eyes healthy as you age.

D PATTYPAN Yellow squash is another useful weapon for your fat-loss arsenal. Not only is it low in carbs, fat and cholesterol, but it’s also packed with beta-carotene, which makes it a veritable antioxidant powerhouse, protecting your heart-health in the long-term. And it has a fun name.

18 MEN’S HEALTH

MORE THAN A PEELING If you want to get the full flavour from your ingredients, it’s well worth looking into how they’re grown. “The quality of the flesh is determined by the quality of the soil,” says Boxer. “Vegetables grown slowly in rich soil will be complex. Those grown for speed and size often taste of little more than water.” Next, Boxer says the key to handling squash in the kitchen is cutting them properly. Inadequately sharp instruments will leave a lot of flesh on the skin, which will go to waste. “A serrated bread knife (£95 victorinox.com) will come in handy,” he says. You can even use an axe (£15 viking-direct.co.uk) when chopping larger varieties. Finally, a courgette masterclass wouldn’t be complete without a spiraliser (£80 ukjuicers.com).

SQUASH HUNGER

POWER PLATES

A SQUASH FOR ALL SEASONS Though squash are seasonal fruits, the wide range of varieties means it’s never hard to track them down. “Courgettes arrive from Italy in spring. Then, in summer, there’s an explosion of pattypan. Autumn brings pumpkin and winter butternut,” says Boxer. For year-round ﬂavour and health beneﬁts, these simple recipes from Brunswick House have got you covered.

WORDS: BOBBY PALMER I PHOTOGRAPHY: LOUISA PARRY I FOOD STYLING: TAMARA VOS I PLATES AND BOWLS FALCONENAMELWARE.COM

FALL GUYS

Tuck into three more seasonal foods that can work wonders for your healthy eating plan

A SERVES TWO Romano courgettes, 5 Olive oil, 2tbsp Sea salt, to taste Garlic, a clove, thinly sliced Anchovy fillets, 2-3 Chilli flakes, to taste Lemon zest Parmesan, 100g

B IMMUNE-BOOSTING BUTTERNUT SOUP METHOD Cut three courgettes into 3cm chunks. Sauté three-quarters of this in a lidded pan with the oil, salt and garlic, plus the protein-packed anchovy and metabolism-boosting chilli. Steam for 20 minutes, then add the rest of the chunks. With the lid off, turn up the heat and cook out the moisture. Mix in the zest and more chilli. Spiralise the remaining courgettes and boil for 20 seconds. Serve with the Parmesan.

SERVES ONE A butternut squash Sea salt, 20g Butter, 100g, diced Chicken stock, 100ml Pumpkin seed oil, 1tbsp Garlic breadcrumbs, 1-2tbsp Rosemary, to taste Sour cream, 1-2tbsp

METHOD Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Fill each half with 10g of salt and 50g of butter. Put in a deep casserole dish with the hollow side facing up, then pour in 5cm of stock. Bake with a lid for 45 minutes. Scoop out the flesh and purée it with the broth. Sieve the mixture, garnish with pumpkin seed oil, garlic breadcrumbs, inflammation-reducing rosemary and gut-friendly sour cream.

VENISON Because it’s usually wild and grass-fed, venison is much leaner than most beef – and as rich in protein and iron as it is in flavour.

TURNIPS While they’ve got a bad rep among fancy foodies, the humble turnip is packed with fibre and an alphabetticking mix of A, B, C, E and K vitamins.

APPLES It’s easy to overlook the British seasonal stalwart, but apples have been linked to a lower risk of diabetes and heart disease. Cider doesn’t count.

C EYE-CATCHING PUMPKIN AND BURRATA SALAD SERVES TWO A pumpkin Olive oil, 1-2tbsp Sea salt, to taste Burrata, whole Pickled chilli, to garnish

METHOD Cut your pumpkin into wedges, shave off the skin and put aside the seeds. Dress with olive oil, rich in healthy monounsaturated fats. Add salt, wrap in foil and bake at 180°C for around 25 minutes, so that the flesh is firm but a skewer meets no resistance. Cool, refrigerate, dress with more oil, then grill on a griddle pan until it’s coloured. Serve around a burrata, topped with pickled chilli and the toasted seeds.

D LONGER-LIFE COD AND RAW PATTYPAN SALAD SERVES ONE A pattypan A shallot, peeled Sea salt, to taste Black pepper, to taste Olive oil, 1-2tbsp Mature sherry vinegar, a splash Redcurrants, a small handful A cod fillet

METHOD Tear out this recipe and keep it for next summer, when pattypan is in season. Slice into 2mm rounds, then slice your shallot likewise. Keep it thin, as you’re not cooking this one. Season with salt, pepper, olive oil and a splash of cholesterol-reducing sherry vinegar. Fold through your redcurrants and leave for five minutes. Finish with strips of squash flowers. Bake the cod for eight minutes and serve.

MEN’S HEALTH 19

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN…

SPINAL TIPS

...I GET A BAD BACK?

It aﬀects 80% of us at some point, but what’s behind you is rarely the sole culprit. Straighten out these problem areas for instant relief

YOUR NECK

“If your neck isn’t moving well, it imposes increased demands on the rest of your spine,” says Vikash Sharma, founder of Perfect Stride Physical Therapy. This overloads your back’s capacity and eventually leads to pain. To safely loosen up your neck, slowly rotate your head in a full circle to highlight the spots of tension, then perform three stretches of those areas every few hours.

WORDS: TOM WARD I ILLUSTRATIONS: PETER GRUNDY

YOUR CHEST Pain begets more pain. It stimulates your sympathetic nervous system and stress response, causing your breathing to go haywire. You stop inhaling deep into your belly, which creates more tension in your back. Sharma suggests placing one hand on your stomach and one on your chest. Focus on slow, deep breaths through your nose, and look to check that the hand on your stomach is rising first.

YOUR HIPS

YOUR CORE “Your core gives you stability,” says Sharma, and this protects you from tweaks. To test it, assume the plank position. If you can’t hit 60 seconds, it’s likely that you have an imbalance. Sharma recommends working up to a minute of solid planking to build your core strength. Ease into it by dropping your knees to the ground, or resting your forearms on a bench.

Sitting causes your hip mobility to seize up, and your back ends up having to compensate. As these compensations become stronger, your hips lose even more function. Eventually, the pressure becomes too much and your back gives way – ouch. To avoid this, get up every 30 minutes and sink into a deep squat, holding onto a table or door frame for support.

YOUR HAMSTRINGS

PUT YOUR BACK INTO THESE SMART AND PAINLESS STRATEGIES

The sensation of tight hamstrings often accompanies back pain. But it’s weakness, not tightness, that you feel. To address this, add slider hamstring curls to your legs day. Lie on your back, raise your hips and dig your heels into the sliders. Extend your legs and contract your hamstrings to drag your heels back. “Repeat three times and your back will ease up,” says Sharma.

MEN’S HEALTH 21

MORNING GLORY

LATE BLOOMER

MH VERSUS AM VS PM

YOUR FINEST HOURS Early birds and night owls both clock in impressive advantages. But who win the day? We present the peak time to shine

27%

More than a quarter of people in the UK identify as “deﬁnite morning types”.

Surprisingly, there are far fewer conﬁrmed evening people. NUTRITION

A big breakfast helps you burn through extra calories during the day by charging up your metabolism, according to the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Your post-gym portion of protein is better absorbed in the evening, reports the Journal of Nutrition. Making time to cook a proper dinner will fuel your gains.

GOOD TIMES

More alert

Dieting is easier

Improved mood

Deeper sleep

A dawn sweat sesh could double your fatburning potential, claim researchers at Bath University. A separate study suggests that you’ll eat 100kcal less throughout the day.

More creative

TRAINING

Extra strength

Faster reactions

Comfy lie-ins

Your muscles are more ﬂexible and your anaerobic capacity (essential for big lifts) is 7% higher later in the day, according to the University of North Texas.

BAD TIMES

WORDS: THOMAS LING I PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY

Stress hormones Higher blood sugar Antisocial hours

The University of Birmingham found that your brain focuses better before lunch. Your short-term memory is also stronger in the AM, says Applied Cognitive Psychology.

Higher injury risk

Depression risk Lower sperm count

BRAIN SMART

Shorter life

Addiction risk

The London School of Economics found that later sleep and waking times are linked to higher IQ scores, which sounds impressive. However, it didn’t suggest causality.

THE MH VERDICT: AM WINS! Boasting an optimal fat-burning and cognitive proﬁle, early risers can call time on the debate. Lifting sessions are welcome afternoon delights, but they’re too little, too late – especially when science says that, even with lie-ins, night owls have worse sleep. Heed the rooster’s call. MEN’S HEALTH 23

HOW I BUILT MY BODY

PUNCH ABOVE YOUR WEIGHT Shedding 30kg, Alexander Volkanovski rebuilt his body to seize the UFC’s world featherweight crown. Learn how to hit fat where it hurts

24 MEN’S HEALTH

5’11” HEIGHT

a certain age. But Volkanovski was determined to regain control of his life. Convinced that fighting at featherweight would give him the optimal chances of success, he overhauled his diet to stabilise his yo-yoing weight in the low-70kg range. There was no quick-fix formula, Volkanovski explains, just a strategic regimen of clean eating and a shed-load of cardio, with strict adherance. Cutting out all processed food, he steadily dropped through the weight classes. Fixing his back was far trickier – one specialist even told him to give up MMA for good. But Volkanovski kept researching alternatives until, in 2018, he found Jaffrey and the team at the BaiMed Performance Centre. There,

the trainers worked to improve his hip mobility and build up his leg strength to take the load off his back when wrestling. The results were immediate. Suddenly, Volkanovski was able to train with far greater consistency. No longer fighting with the handbrake on, he could finally hit the accelerator. Since then he has sped past José Aldo who is, in Volkanovski’s words, “the greatest featherweight of all time”. That and subsequent back-to-back title-winning victories over Max Holloway prove that Volkanovski’s epic body rebuild really was worth its weight in gold.

WORDS: LUKE BENEDICTUS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY GILES PARK | ILLUSTRATIONS +ISM

t’s 8am and Alexander Volkanovski is already soaked in sweat. He punches out trap-bar deadlifts and launches into explosive squat jumps with a medicine ball clutched to his chest. He grimaces with effort. As he rattles through a set of barbell hip thrusts, it’s clear that Volkanovski doesn’t have the wiry physique of your standard featherweight. While he may fight at 67kg, his build is undeniably stocky. Prior to UFC, when Aussie Volkanovski played semi-pro rugby league for the Warilla Gorillas as a rampaging prop, he weighed up to 97kg. And while he’s now conspicuously leaner, much of that front-row power remains coiled within his 1.68m frame. “Alex is super-strong,” says THE MOTIVATOR strength coach Chris Alexander “The Jaffrey. “There’s Great” Volkanovski no one stronger won the UFC featherweight title in his division.” in December 2019. Back then, he @alexvolkanovski wasn’t just 30kg heavier: he was also hobbled by chronic back issues. Bulging discs and sciatica restricted his training and could sideline him for weeks at a time. As the flare-ups intensified, he even feared the problems might eventually leave him in a wheelchair. Weight gain, a bad back – these are familiar problems for many men of

FIGHT AS A FEATHER

67kg WEIGHT

GO THE DISTANCE

UPPER-BODY STAYING POWER Deploy this tri-set from Jaffrey for extra strength in the later rounds B

01/ SINGLE-ARM DB ROW 3 sets of 6 reps per side With your back flat and a dumbbell in your right hand, hinge at the hips and support your weight with your left hand on a bench (A). Row the weight up to your stomach (B), then lower slowly. Switch sides.

02/ POWER PRESS 3 sets of 8 reps per side Stack some plates on a landmine and face it. Lean into the weight slightly and hold the end at your collarbone (A). Press the bar above you explosively (B). Lower under control. Repeat on the other side.

03/ CABLE FACE PULL 3 sets of 10 reps Set the pulley on a cable machine to eye height. Stand tall and hold the rope with arms extended (A). Drive your elbows back to bring the rope to your face (B). Return slowly.

MEN’S HEALTH 25

SLIM PICKINGS

LEAN HARVEST

WEIGHT-LOSS NEWSFEED 11/20

TO BURN FAT FAST, GRASP THE NETTLE Your garden-variety stingers are an unsung superfood that can spike your weight-loss potential, and they’re ripe for the picking. Here’s how to handle them with care

he stinging nettle was the scourge of everyone’s childhood adventures, but the bad boy of garden weeds has long been misunderstood. This nutrient-rich mainstay of the UK countryside has been linked to reductions in blood pressure and inﬂammation, higher testosterone and, in a recent study, even fat loss. Researchers at the University of Maryland found that mice fed on a high-fat diet for 12 weeks gained less weight if they consumed nettle extract, too. Nettles activate a hormone in cells known as FIAF (fasting-induced adipocyte factor, in case you were wondering), which not only accelerates the

conversion of fats into energy, but seems to protect your vital organs from absorbing too many fatty acids. The amount of nettles you’d need to consume to see these beneﬁcial eﬀects equates to around 100g per day in humans – which, conveniently, is about as much as you’d use in a bowl of nettle soup. To prepare the soup, gather some nettles growing in a spot away from the road or other polluted areas. Put on some gloves and a long-sleeved top and collect 400g of the leaves

(about as many as you can ﬁt in a supermarket salad bag). Wash them before adding them to your soup stock, boiling away the plant’s stinging hairs. The leaves will wilt just like spinach (they taste similar, too). Alternatively, you can put the plant through a juicer and add an antioxidant-packed shot to your morning smoothie. Either way, you’ll move the needle on your weight-loss progress.

SEASON’S EATINGS A few timely additions to your menu this month will help you harvest new health benefits 26 MEN’S HEALTH

OYSTER MUSHROOMS Stir-fried caps will lower cholesterol.

DAMSONS

HAZELNUTS

DANDELIONS

MUSSELS

Use these in jams to aid digestion.

Crush and sprinkle on ice cream for a hit of protein.

The roots make a coffee alternative full of antioxidants.

Steamed, these give your brain function a boost.

WORDS: LOUEE DESSENT-JACKSON I PHOTOGRAPHY: ROWAN FEE I STYLING: LOÏC PARISOT AT SALT & SPOON I ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: DAN MATTHEWS, GETTY, STUDIO 33

WEED OUT EXCESS WEIGHT IN THE KITCHEN

CALL TO ACTION

AN ALLY IS AS AN ALLY DOES In the wake of the Black Lives

MAN OF THE MOMENT SOLIDARITY

A SPEAK UP WHEN IT’S HARD, NOT JUST WHEN IT’S EASY

Matter protests, Stuart Heritage doesn’t want to take the easy way out. Mere virtue signalling isn’t enough

PHOTOGRAPHY: ROWAN FEE

didn’t put a black square up on Instagram. Back in June, when anger over George Floyd’s murder spilled over and caught ﬁre worldwide, people responded by pausing their social media output, save for a single black square posted on their account. This act was a fair reﬂection of the public mood. A New York Times study revealed that support for Black Lives Matter rocketed across all demographics after Floyd’s death on 25 May. Nevertheless, I didn’t join in. I’ve been around the social media block, and I’ve lost count of how many times I have seen a movement like this peter out because the majority of people only did the bare minimum. They’ll tweet a supportive hashtag for Kony 2012, or sling a rainbow-coloured Twibbon across their avatar for a week, then move on to a newer, sexier outrage. It’s exhausting, and it always STUART HERITAGE feels like it happens because Columnist and author straight, white people of Don’t Be a Dick, want to stop feeling guilty Pete, a memoir about sons, fatherhood and about everything. Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw sibling relationships. Productions tweeted a Get Out meme on the day of the blackout. It showed Bradley Whitford’s overly

performative character in the middle of his “I would have voted for Obama for a third term” speech, only this time he was saying “I would’ve posted two black squares if I could.” (As an aside, one white person I follow on Instagram posted nine black squares in a row, so that it would look nicer on their grid. Nine.) The Monkeypaw tweet hit right in the middle of where I live, because I identify with the Bradley Whitford character far too readily. He’s too self-consciously liberal, too eager to show every black person on Earth that he isn’t one of the bad ones. If I’m not careful, I can fall into that trap with remarkable ease. “I’m not like the other white people,” I think. “I married a mixed-race woman. I’ve got mixedrace kids.” Forget the fact that they’re only mixed-race on paper and that my eldest could feasibly pass as Swedish. The smug little dopamine hit I get from the thought more than makes up for it. Not posting a black square was my way of grappling against my own awful instincts. Of course, I wanted to join in. Of course, I wanted my handful of

followers to see that I’m one of the good guys. But by not doing it, I was denying myself the easy way out. Now, I have to confront it head-on. In my whole life, I have only been the recipient of racial prejudice once. It happened in 2004, when I lived in South Korea, right as anti-American sentiment there was reaching record levels (a popular song at the time was Yoon Min-Suk’s “Fucking USA”). I was travelling home on the subway late one night, when a drunk Korean man mistook me for an American and got in my face, screaming at me in broken English about how I was responsible for the Iraq war. It was terrifying. But it soon stopped, because another Korean man on the train shouted at him to shut up, before mouthing, “It’s OK,” at me. And that’s it. That’s the closest I’ve ever got to experiencing racial hatred. It happened once, and it was over in seconds. But I do know that, in the moment, I felt enormous gratitude to the man who stepped in. He didn’t need to, but he did. So, perhaps that’s what we should all try to aim for in the coming months and years. Fewer meaningless black squares on social media, more stepping in and calling out.

“People move on to a newer, sexier outrage. It’s exhausting”

MEN’S HEALTH 29

GET FRONT-ROOM FIT IN 20 MINUTES

Building stamina doesn’t have to mean another 5K around the block. Our ﬁtness ﬁx will take you from couch potato to living-room dynamo

10 REPS, REST AS NECESSARY

Standing with your feet at shoulder width, hold a dumbbell in each hand at your sides (A). Sit your hips back and squat until your glutes are below your knees (B), then contract your glutes to stand up. If you’re struggling, try widening your stance.

“Once you can handle that, progress to 30 minutes.” Start with 10kg dumbbells and then work up to 20kg. This is how to keep it simple, while ensuring that you’re always moving forward towards the body you deserve.

REVERSE LUNGE

10 REPS, REST AS NECESSARY Still holding the weights, bring your feet together (A). Step back with your right leg and slowly lower your knee until it’s about an inch above the floor (B). Maintaining your balance, push through your left heel to step back to the start. Repeat on the opposite side.

SHOULDER PRESS

10 REPS, REST AS NECESSARY Take a deep breath and curl the weights up to your shoulders, turning your palms to face forward (A). Tense your core and extend your elbows to press the bells overhead (B). Lower the weights down under control and go again.

30 MEN’S HEALTH

f you’re bored of endlessly pounding the pavement, help is at hand in the form of this heartpumping workout from PT and inﬂuencer Bradley Simmonds. “The goal is to complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes,” says Simmonds.

WORDS: TED LANE I PHOTOGRAPHY (STILL LIFE): ROWAN FEE I PROP STYLIST: MANDY MAKER | PHOTOGRAPHY (WORKOUT): PHILIP HAYNES I MODEL: ALEX BEATTIE AT W MODEL

DEEP SQUAT

HOME WORK

FITNESS FIX WFH CARDIO YOUR TRAINER Whatever your goal, elite PT and influencer Bradley Simmonds will help you get it done. @bradleysimmonds

DUMBBELL GRIP PRESS-UP

STYLING: ABENA OFEI I GROOMING: NAT SCHMITT USING CLARINS SKINCARE I SHORTS PUMA AT SPORTSDIRECT.COM, LEGGINGS CALVINKLEIN.CO.UK, SHOES VEJA-STORE.COM

10 REPS, REST AS NECESSARY

A WEATHER-PROOF WAY TO LIFT YOUR FITNESS LEVELS

Time to drop and finish strong. Set up in a high plank position, with your hands on the weights beneath your shoulders (A). Lower towards the floor (B). Contract your chest and triceps to push up. Finish your reps for one round. Go all-out for more.

BENT-OVER ROW

HAMMER CURL

10 REPS, REST AS NECESSARY

Hinge forward at the hips, maintaining a straight back. Let the weights hang below you (A). Set your shoulder blades and pull the weights up to your thighs (B). Focus on contracting the middle of your back. Lower slowly and repeat.

Tired yet? Rest your lungs and focus on an arm pump. Start by standing with the dumbbells at your sides (A). Maintaining this neutral grip, flex your biceps to lift the weights to your shoulders (B). Now, squeeze! Lower under control and keep pumping for the full 10 reps.

MEN’S HEALTH 31

MH GAME CHANGERS ADIDAS GMR INSOLES

PITCH PERFECT

VIDEO GAINS

KICK-START THE NEW SEASON Gamify your pursuit of superior Sunday league performance with Adidas’s GMR smart tracker. League promotion is a cert

WORDS: KIERAN ALGER I PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOBE LAWRENSON I BOOTS ADIDAS X GHOSTED+ FIRM GROUND ADIDAS.CO.UK

amers in the UK spend an average of 7.1 hours every week twiddling their thumbs. With that in mind, Adidas, Google and EA Sports are shifting the goalposts to get you moving – and it’s good news for your cardio engine. This partnership has created GMR, the world’s first football wearable that merges real-world pitch performance with the virtual world of Fifa Mobile. Its smart EVA insoles fit any boot and feature a tiny Google Jacquard tracker that not only monitors your vital stats, such as kicks, shot power, distance and speed, but also deploys machine learning to clock your playing style. GMR converts your effort and technique into digital rewards in Fifa Mobile. You compete in weekly challenges; the more work you put in, the more rewards and coins you unlock to buy players and improve your Ultimate Team. Here, Men’s Health runs the numbers.

iii_

The number of microchips in the Tag tracking unit, including a gyroscope, an accelerometer and a small processor.

ADIDAS GMR £30 ADIDAS.CO.UK/GMR

ii_

37.5 kmph

iv_

139 million

The top speed you’ll need to hit to match the Premier League’s fastest player in 2020, Leicester City’s Çağlar Söyüncü.

The number of downloads of EA’s Fifa Mobile. That’s more than half of the 265 million people around the world who play the beautiful game IRL.

The percentage of GMR players registering shots that are faster than 100kmph. The fastest recorded shot in top-flight football is a 211kmph thunderbastard from Brazilian Ronny Heberson.

180min

A single charge on the GMR trackers lasts three hours, equivalent to two full-length matches. That’s the total game time you’ll get to work on your skills, drills, top speeds and power – if you’ve got the engine, that is.

UP YOUR GAME Four more hi-tech gadgets that will transform your training sessions into play time

STEALTH PLANKSTER Addictive abs-scorching games where minor core movements clock points. £112 stealthbodyfitness.com

DRIBBLEUP SMART MEDICINE BALL Connects to your device to guide you through drills. £90 dribbleup.com

ACTIV5

RUN AN EMPIRE

Pressure-powered workout pebble for strength sessions. £130 activ5.com

A cross between a civilisation-builder game and Strava segments. Free runanempire.com

MEN’S HEALTH 33

TRIED AND TESTED NEW SMART MATTRESSES

your ﬁtness goals. Rest assured – these hi-tech mattresses will help

he link between sleep and performance still tends to be slept on. In a world of looming deadlines, hectic home workout routines and late-night socialmedia scrolling sprees, it’s hard to prioritise a good night’s rest. Yet, in a study published in Med Hypotheses, researchers found those who slept for 8.5 hours per night gained 40% more muscle mass over the course of the trial, while those who slept for 5.5 hours lost mass. Add to this a Sports Medicine review that found that poor sleepers were more likely to cut workouts short or even skip training entirely, and it’s hard to close your eyes on the potential for poor sleep to seriously compromise your gym goals. The bad news is that an earlier bedtime isn’t enough. Sleep quality is just as important as quantity, and that mattress you’ve been meaning to replace for years may be slowing you down. Which is where our testers come in. Fresh from days of tough workouts, we upgraded their recovery with the best mattresses on the market and tasked them with reviewing their sleep quality. We present our pick of the best to provide you with a restful performance boost so easy that you can do it with your eyes closed. Call it “tired and tested”, if you like.

34 MEN’S HEALTH

01 FOAM IMPROVEMENT (84/100)

Emma Original Mattress £429 emma-mattress.co.uk Performance Design Ease of Use ONE FOR ALL Emma’s versatile mattress is designed for every type of sleeper, in any season. It’s composed of foam layers, which promote better air circulation and help to regulate your temperature. EXPERT REVIEW Impressively sturdy and comfortable, the mattress provided good support for common problem areas, such as the shoulders and hips, and regulated body temperature well (though sometimes it got a little too warm). It provided a solid night’s sleep, though it may feel too firm for some.

02 SUPPORT CENTRE (96/100)

Eve Original Hybrid Mattress from £349 evesleep.co.uk Performance Design Ease of Use LAYER DOWN With three layers of breathable foam that boast unique “contour zones” designed to offer support and relieve pressure, this will soothe sore muscles before an early morning workout. EXPERT REVIEW This offered the perfect balance between contouring the body and providing a firm foundation for a solid night’s sleep. Testers especially liked the “Evecomfort layer”, designed to give the mattress bounce.

03 LIE-IN KING (97/100)

Simba Hybrid Mattress from £411.80 simbasleep.com Performance Design Ease of Use BIG DATA One for the nerds, Simba’s hybrid offering was designed using information from 10 million sleepers, then constructed with a combination of 2,500 conical pocket springs and responsive memory foam. The result is a mattress that is precision-crafted to help you sleep better, no matter your lifestyle.

EXPERT REVIEW Simba’s attention to detail evidently paid off: this mattress was a hit across the board with our testers. Its flexibility responded well to each sleeper’s body type. It didn’t budge when partners rolled over, and it was great in terms of regulating body temperature. In other words, a dream to sleep on, while one went as far as saying it had transformed their slumber.

REST ON TEST Here’s how our testers decided which mattresses delivered on their promises

WORDS: BOBBY PALMER

WAKE UP TO YOUR BEST SELF Sound sleep is integral to

POWER NAPS

SLUMBER CRUNCHING

04 MUSCLE MEMORY (97/100)

Rem-Fit 400 Hybrid Zoned Mattress from £439 rem-fit.co.uk Performance Design Ease of Use SLEEP TIGHT One layer is infused with a cooling gel combined with a wicking memory foam to prevent overheating. EXPERT REVIEW The Rem-Fit offered superior comfort, with good support and no visible dips. Some testers found it slightly warmer than their usual mattress, but most reported perfect temperature control.

05 CLIMATE CONTROL (89/100)

Otty Hybrid Mattress from £325 otty.com

ARTWORK: PETER CROWTHER AT DEBUT ART ILLUSTRATION: HARVEY SYMONS

TURN IN TO TURN YOUR TRAINING PLAN INTO AN OVERNIGHT SUCCESS

01 EASE It’s not all about sleep. Testers were asked to grade everything from delivery and unboxing to ease of unrolling and the way sheets fitted.

02 COMFORT Needless to say, our sleepers slept on the mattresses to see how they worked. They focused on general comfort, both during the night and the day after.

03 EXTRAS Many promised temperature regulation, so testers were asked to monitor this, plus how much the mattresses moved with them or their partner.

Performance Design Ease of Use COOL CUSTOMER If you tend to burn up under a duvet, this mattress is for you. Otty’s hybrid offering is designed to keep you at the optimum temperature through the night. EXPERT REVIEW Comfort, delivery and ease of use impressed our testers, as well as the way in which the memory foam moulded to the body. Sleepers said that their aching joints felt well supported. MEN’S HEALTH 35

BRIGHT IDEAS

SHINE BRIGHTER ON DARKER DAYS

THE TARGET VITAMIN D

A 03_

WHAT WE RECOMMEND Aim to take in 1,000 IU (international units) each day. While 600 IU is enough to avoid deficiency, a little more may help you build up your blood level of vitamin D, so you can unlock its full disease-preventing potential, says Dr Giovannucci.

With summer now a distant memory, the sunshine vitamin is increasingly hard to come by. Here’s how to keep hitting the goal of 1,000 IU of the panacea

04_

SO HOW DO YOU HIT YOUR TARGET?

01_

WORDS: JULIE STEWART I PHOTOGRAPHY: ROWAN FEE I FOOD STYLING: LOÏC PARISOT AT SALT & SPOON

WHY VITAMIN D MATTERS It’s the workhorse vitamin, reinforcing your bones, bolstering your immune system and easing harmful inﬂammation. “The latest evidence suggests that vitamin D may reduce respiratory infections, autoimmune diseases and even your risk of dying from cancer,” says Edward Giovannucci, professor of nutrition at Harvard. 02_

WHAT IF YOU DON’T GET ENOUGH? The NHS suggests that between March and September, you’re probably getting plenty from the sun – but after that, you’re at risk of deficiency. If this is severe, you could develop symptoms such as muscle weakness, fragile bones and bone pain. (Your doctor can check your level with a simple blood test.)

STACK UP YOUR ODDS OF GETTING THE DOSE YOU NEED

Enzymes in your skin can convert UV rays into vitamin D, but the amount generated depends on your skin colour, where you live and the time of year. So, seek it out in food. Canned salmon (716 IU in a serving) and cooked trout (648 IU) will push you towards the goal. A portobello mushroom contains 316 IU, a glass of milk has 100 and an egg has about 40.

05_

SHOULD YOU SUPPLEMENT? If the ﬁsh and shrooms lose their allure, sure. But prioritise foods rich in vitamin D, as they carry other disease-preventing beneﬁts that a supp won’t. If you’re still short of the goal, then pop a pill, such as Ultra Vitamin D from Vitabiotics (£6 for 96 tablets vitabiotics.com).

MEN’S HEALTH 37

THE BIG QUESTION

SHORTS SEASON IS OVER. CAN I SKIP LEGS DAY? Andrew, Glasgow

DON’T BURY YOUR HEAD. LEGS DAY HAS BENEFITS ALL YEAR ROUND

ASK MEN’S HEALTH 11/20

hough it’s always tempting to swap deadlifts for biceps curls, drop the bro science in favour of, well, actual science and you’ll quickly realise that it’s a bad idea. A true stacksman knows that, even when their ironclad quads are confined to long trousers, total fitness hinges on hard work below the belt. “Fat loss, cardio fitness, lean mass – whatever your aim, you won’t achieve it without lower-body strength,” says personal trainer Mun Dhariwal. “For starters, legs days not only provide a chance to exercise while your upper body recovers, but they also

38 MEN’S HEALTH

strengthen the injurypreventing stabilising muscles in your midriff and below.” Research confirms this: the University of Central Florida found that your risk of serious injury increases fivefold if you’re unable to leg press 1.7 times your bodyweight. Even if your sole goal is to maximise mirror muscles up top, lower-body workouts are still essential. Working below your waist spikes testosterone and growth hormone levels that benefit your whole body. According to Danish research, deploying a legs day within an upper-body programme boosts biceps strength by 10%. And if a six-pack is next on your wish list, you’d better fire up your pistons to

ignite your body’s metabolism. “The route to washboard abs is from the ground up,” explains Dhariwal. “To incinerate calories and strip abs fat, you need to work your body’s largest muscle groups, and the biggest single muscle of them all is your glutes.” But there’s more to it than squats. Introduce step-ups to your routine – they activate your glutes twice as effectively as deadlifts, according to a recent Journal of Sports Science & Medicine study. For an added kick, carry half of your bodyweight in dumbbells, reaching at least 20 steps on each side. To finish strong and hit your 2020 body goals, you need a leg up.

DO THE LEG WORK

HAND IN HAND

GROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

THE GYM IS TEARING UP MY HANDS. HOW DO I MAKE THEM PRESENTABLE? Tom, Stansted

Undo the damage of blisters and calluses after heavy lifting in three steps

TEXT A THERAPIST

THE SUNDAY FEAR IS KICKING IN. GOT A CHILL PILL, DOC?

Julian, Stockwell

Today 5.01pm Your starter for Zen: send calming signals to the brain by taking five big breaths that expand your belly. Hmm. It’s a good start, but deep breaths won’t help me sleep before tomorrow’s Zoom... OK, write a list of your worries in two columns: one for things you can’t control and one for things you can.

PHOTOGRAPHY: STUDIO 33, JOBE LAWRENSON, SUN LEE I ILLUSTRATIONS: NICK HARDCASTLE

EXFOLIATE

GET A GRIP

To give chapped hands relief, apply a glycerine-rich cream, such as Neutrogena Norwegian Formula (£4 superdrug.com). “It draws moisture from under the skin to the surface,” says grooming expert Carl Thompson. “Special forces soldiers swear by it.”

If your calluses are getting out of hand, don’t pick them off. Soak your hands in warm, soapy water for five minutes and use a wet pumice stone (£5 ecovibe.co.uk). “Rub it gently on stubborn spots in a circular motion. This will remove any dead skin,” advises fitness model and PT Alex Crockford.

“Most gym-goers are gripping dumbbells and barbells in the wrong position, causing skin to fold in on itself and rub against the metal,” says Crockford. “You need to grip the bar slightly higher up your hand towards your wrist, in the middle of your palm.”

WHAT SUPP?

Spend 30 minutes thinking through them all. “Free roam worrying” helps you identify what is worth your mental energy. Hint: other people’s reactions aren’t one of them!

Today 7.45pm I’m still a bit stressed. Any more ways to achieve calm before bed?

I DON’T HAVE THE LEGS FOR RUNNING. CAN SUPPS HELP? Mark, Uttoxeter

While some pills can spur extra stamina, others deserve to jog on. Here’s our rundown

The simplest tricks are often the best. Switch off your phone and leave it out of reach. Then just do something you enjoy, preferably with a caffeine-free hot drink. Match of the Day and a camomile tea it is. Cheers, doc!

Dr Peter Meades, cardiffpsychotherapy.com

MOISTURISE

RHODIOLA ROSEA

SIBERIAN GINSENG

£12 for 90 tablets naturesbest.co.uk

£16 for 100 tablets hollandandbarrett.com

Best for: Warrior stamina Consumed by the Vikings before raiding parties, this will take an axe to fatigue. A 3mg daily dose won’t just allow you to work 8% harder during workouts, it can make exercise up to six times more enjoyable.

Best for: Not much, really Though some claim that it boosts endurance, the devil’s shrub trips up on the science. The International Journal of Sport Nutrition found that old studies promoting the herb contain major flaws. Avoid.

BETAALANINE

CORDYCEPS

£6 for 100g bulkpowders.com

£15.40 for 120 capsules pipingrock.com

Best for: Pre-run shakes Tight calves and cramps after 20 minutes? Just 5g of this acts as a lactic buffer, fortifying muscles against exhaustioncausing acid and shaving four minutes off your 10K, according to the University São Judas Tadeu, Brazil.

Best for: Optimal oxygen intake These fungi-filled capsules ramp up your levels of adenosine triphosphate, a chemical that aids fuel delivery to your muscles. Taking 3g a day can increase your oxygen uptake (VO2 max) by 7%.

MEN’S HEALTH 39

MIND NEWSFEED 11/20

GET YOUR MENTAL HEALTH BACK ON A ROLL If the wheels have come oﬀ your search for calm, chase an old-school high on Rollerblades.

f you’ve not been on TikTok recently (or, well, ever), we’ve got some news for you: Rollerblading is cool again. Both quad skates (four wheels arranged two by two) and inline skates (four wheels in a straight line) have made a comeback. And the trend isn’t just being driven by Generation Z: older people are also lacing up for the ﬁrst time since the heyday of roller discos. Indeed, sales of Rollerblades rocketed to a ﬁve-year high back in May.

WHEELS OF PROGRESS

It’s not too surprising when you consider the science. As well as providing a great excuse to spend time outdoors and exercise – both of which are proven mood-boosters – skates are a way to sharpen your focus and achieve true mindfulness. As with rock-climbing, Rollerblading switches on your proprioception (your sense of selfmovement), forcing you to concentrate on your body and its surroundings. Attempt the moonwalk without giving it your full attention and you’ll see what we mean. This has the beneﬁcial eﬀect of shifting your

RETRO HIITS

thoughts away from negative patterns and anxieties –the risk of face-planting on the tarmac is all the incentive your mind needs to forget work stress and – oh, yeah – that global pandemic thing. That’s not the only reason to be cheerful. Rollerskating can burn up to 600kcal an hour and is recognised as an aerobic ﬁtness sport by the American Heart Association. The shock impact on your knees is also 50% less than you experience when running, according to a study by the University of Massachusetts. It’s worth being up to speed with this latest wellness trend. Get your skates on.

WORDS: LOUEE DESSENT-JACKSON I PHOTOGRAPHY: JOBE LAWRENSON

HEAD IN A SPIN? LET SKATING PUT A SMILE ON YOUR FACE

FITNESS IS CHILD’S PLAY The following retro pursuits can build you a better body. We’re not kidding

01/ Pogo stick

02/ Trampolining

03/ Skateboarding

04/ Monkey bars

Bouncing on one of these is hard work for your quads and glutes. You’ll burn around 600kcal in an hour, if you can stick it that long.

According to Nasa, the added G-force you feel when rebounding strengthens bone mass and prevents osteoporosis.

This can improve your mental health and resilience, according to a University of Southern California study.

The climbing classic not only builds your delts, biceps and lats, it develops your motor skills and handto-eye co-ordination.

MEN’S HEALTH 41

CHEMICAL ADVANTAGE ENDOCRINOLOGY

HACK YOUR FAT HORMONES

The chemical messengers in your blood will help you smash your weight-loss goals. Here’s the skinny on the science

n the weight-loss conversation, almost everyone obsesses over diet and exercise. However, the latest science shows that not only are your hormones a deﬁning factor in how you age, they also play a crucial role in the way you put on (or lose) fat. Calories, of course, remain king. But armed with our crash course on hormones, you can expect to burn oﬀ a princely sum in your pursuit of a lean physique.

42 MEN’S HEALTH

LEPTIN AND GHRELIN Blame these two if your gut grumbles an hour after you’ve eaten. Leptin, released by your fat tissues, alters your appetite in the long term by telling your brain when you have stored enough fat. Ghrelin, produced in the gut, signals to your brain that you’re hungry. If either is out of whack, cravings will strike. HACK IT Protein, protein, protein. Eating 30g at each meal reduces ghrelin – it’s why you feel so full after a sirloin. Regularly eating protein may also lead to increased leptin sensitivity in the brain. Brian St Pierre, director of performance nutrition at Precision Nutrition, says that 30g is about a palm-sized amount.

CRUSH MORE CALORIES BY WEAPONISING YOUR HORMONES

BATTLE THE BULGE

CORTISOL

IRISIN The latest weight-loss hero on the block, this “exercise hormone” was only discovered in the past decade. Scientists believe that irisin has the superpower of converting white fat, linked with an unhealthy metabolism, to brown fat, which is linked with effective calorie burn. HACK IT To make the most of this hormone, mix up your workouts. If you’re not throwing some high-intensity work into your routine, it’s time you started. It doesn’t even have to be a set plan: just spend 30 seconds with a skipping rope (or performing jumping jacks) between weight sets. Alternatively, introduce a few sprints to your usual run, or between lifting sets.

SLOW DOWN WEIGHT GAIN

INSULIN

This hormone keeps your blood sugar in check and helps your body to store fat and build muscle. Weight gain can lead to insulin resistance, which means your cells don’t respond well to it. As a result, your pancreas compensates by producing more. Over time, the combination of high insulin levels and insulin resistance can make it harder to lose weight.

HACK IT Instead of “low carb”, go for “slow carb”, advises St Pierre. Your digestive system requires more time to process nutrient-dense carbohydrates. These foods slow down digestion and help you stabilise blood sugar and insulin levels. It’s the right season for it right now: parsnips, swede and celeriac are all at their autumn peak.

WORDS: CASSIE SHORTSLEEVE I PHOTOGRAPHY: CLAIRE BENOIST/THE LICENSING PROJECT ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: JOBE LAWRENSON, DAN MATTHEWS, STUDIO 33

T3 AND T4 Your thyroid is a small but mighty gland that sits beneath your Adam’s apple. Its main job is to regulate T3 and T4, two chemicals that manage your metabolic rate. (That’s how many calories you burn at rest.) HACK IT Go nuts, or go fish. Your thyroid produces T3 and T4 with the help of selenium, a mineral found in large amounts in Brazil nuts, tuna and halibut. “About 200mcg per day could optimise your levels of thyroid hormones, as long as your thyroid is working well,” says Theodore Friedman, a professor of medicine at UCLA. Just three Brazil nuts or 200g of cooked tuna will deliver well over that amount.

Exposure to high amounts of stress produces the hormone cortisol, which can cause muscle breakdown and a redistribution of fat to your gut. “High levels at night are one of the biggest causes of weight gain, especially belly fat,” says Friedman. HACK IT Install a “phone bowl” in your bedroom – and keep it far away from your bed. That means no mindless scrolling in bed, and therefore no more sleep lost to the smartphone abyss. Another perk: a solid night of sleep is a natural stress-reliever.

07 05

TESTOSTERONE You know T as the musclebuilding hormone, but it pulls double duty. Men with low testosterone tend to gain fat more easily, says Men’s Health nutrition adviser Mike Roussell. HACK IT Give it a rest. Even a single week of poor sleep can significantly lower your testosterone level, warns Roussell. One saboteur, sleep apnea, has also been linked to low T, says Friedman. If you sleep seven to nine hours but still feel tired throughout the day, talk to your doctor, who may refer you to a sleep clinic.

HGH AND IGF-1 Your pituitary gland produces HGH, which stimulates the production and secretion of IGF-1 by your liver. Both are growth hormones that break down fat and use the energy to strengthen your muscles. HACK IT Set a snack curfew. Don’t eat anything for two hours before you go to bed. Food will reduce the natural surge in growth hormones during the early hours of the night. (No, staying up later will not reduce this effect.) As an incentive, know that losing 5kg can raise your IGF-1 level, says Friedman. MEN’S HEALTH 43

GO-FASTER STRIPES

DRILLING FOR GOLD

FAST TRACK FOCUSED RUNNING

A MILE IS THE NEW MARATHON The cardio elite are scaling

AIM FOR QUALITY OVER QUANTITY TO GIVE YOUR CARDIO NEW LEGS

down their distance for faster stamina wins. Try to keep up

WORDS: MARISSA STEPHENSON I PHOTOGRAPHY: JEFF VALLEE /GALLERY STOCK

ver the past few years, Ironpeople and cardiovores have been trying to one-up each other by performing epic feats, competing on the number of miles they can run or ultras they’ve completed. Yet one of the most eﬀective ways to train is the simplest: mastering the mile. And it’s having a revival. “The one-mile run combines speed and endurance, and it’s a good indicator of your overall cardiovascular health,” says Danny Mackey, head coach of pro track team Brooks Beasts. “As it doesn’t take you long to recover, you can run it again soon to see how much you’ve improved. You can’t say that about a marathon.” Even better, you’ll notice yourself getting faster in just three weeks. While a typical runner can accomplish a mile in 10 minutes, completing one in six and a half minutes is where the bragging rights really lie. (The world record is three minutes and 43 seconds.) Here are three ways to train for it.

01/

02/

03/

200M REPEATS

UPHILL ENDURANCE

TEMPO RUN

Run 200m, rest, then repeat 10 times

Run up a hill for 60-90sec. Walk down. Repeat 8 times

Run 3 miles

HOW Run this shorter distance at a pace that’s two to four seconds faster than your mile pace. However long it takes you, rest for three times that time before the next repeat. (If you do it in 45 seconds, rest for two minutes and 15 seconds.) On the 10th effort, run as fast as the first.

HOW Find a tall hill outdoors or set a treadmill to an incline. The hill should be steep enough to make running up it feel like a nine out of 10 in terms of effort.

HOW Start at a pace that feels like a six out of 10 in terms of effort and gradually increase to a seven, Mackey says. This should be about 45 seconds to a minute slower than your mile pace and feel consistently challenging.

WHY Getting used to uphill running will increase your stamina and prepare you psychologically to go all out in the home stretch. “It will be painful in the final 400m, and this gets you familiar with that feeling,” Mackey says.

WHY A tempo run pushes you out of your comfort zone with a pace that feels just a touch faster than you want to be running. This constant effort builds endurance for race day.

WHY Sprints build the strength and power you need to maintain speed over the mile, and repeating them will help tighten your form.

MEN’S HEALTH 45

JOIN THE MARINES

WRIST ASSESSMENT DIVE WATCHES

Even if you’re unlikely to brave the depths, a stylish and robust dive watch will help you withstand the pressure when faced with sharks in the boardroom. Horology expert Chris Hall shows you how to take the plunge

46 MEN’S HEALTH

crown that pulls out to set or wind it – can tick along at depths unpenetrated by light is a true engineering accomplishment. But that’s not the whole story. The magic of a dive watch is that it does its job and looks the part at the same time. Imagine the stylistic compromises that would be necessary if you were to equip your car for life underwater. It’s possible to look at submersibles and be impressed by what you see, but rarely are they held up as icons of beauty. Yet, right from the get-go, the Blancpains, Rolexes and Omegas that first conquered the deep did so in considerable style. Meanwhile, the submarine capabilities of dive watches give you the confidence that they can handle workaday scenarios with ease. I own more dive watches than any other, but have never ventured deeper than the bottom of a pool. Still, it’s one less thing to worry about – and in 2020, who isn’t looking for ways to worry less? Here are five of the year’s most striking models, all equally comfortable swimming with marine life as they are being paired with your boardroom-tobar wardrobe. Dive in. Chris Hall is Mr Porter’s senior watch editor

PHOTOGRAPHY: DAN MCALISTER STYLING: HAYLEY LAWRENCE

ooking back at the 150-odd years of wristwatch history, from billion-euro luxury powerhouses to budding contemporary micro-brands, it’s arguable that no factor has had such a disproportionate inﬂuence on watch design as the world of diving. Some of us are partial to a scuba session from time to time. But dive watches, or models that have a close genetic link to them, are ever-present in the line-ups of watch brands and sell in their hundreds of thousands each year. Military watches – particularly the “ﬁeld” and “pilot” watches of the Second World War – are perhaps more widespread, but they cater to a far greater demand. Far fewer people have ever needed a watch that can comfortably descend to 100m below sea level, yet they surround us as though we are a nation of submariners. Their popularity is partly down to our knowledge that making a watch impermeable to water is quite a feat. Just one drop can ruin the movement, discolour the dial, or fog up the inside of the crystal. So, the technical tolerances necessary to ensure this tiny engine – with its hundreds of moving parts, plus a

MAKE A SPLASH

01 Tudor Black Bay 58 Blue £2,520

The Black Bay 58 pays homage to Tudor’s first 200m-rated dive watch, issued 62 years ago. This new navy-blue version harks back to the Marine Nationales produced for the French navy from 1969. It’s a better size than the regular Black Bay and, thanks to this singlestripe strap, more suave, too. TUDORWATCH.COM

02 Breitling Heritage Superocean £3,400

Breitling’s latest addition to its vintage-inspired dive watch range is the product of a partnership with surfer Kelly Slater’s sustainable fashion label, Outerknown. Rated to 200m, the Superocean Heritage comes with a strap woven from Econyl, a fabric made out of reclaimed nylon. BREITLING.COM

03 Seiko Prospex Urban Safari £510 Though the Urban Safari is being marketed as a city watch, Seiko has a solid pedigree in divers, with a history of pioneering inventions dating back to 1965. This addition to the Prospex range takes the knockabout, legible qualities of a 200m diver and pairs them with a surprisingly on-trend grey. SEIKOWATCHES.COM

04 Alpina Seastrong 27 Gyre £1,262 The name “Gyre” might evoke Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”, but Alpina’s 300m diver is nonsensefree. Instead, it concerns itself with the crisis of plastic waste on the seas: its case is made from a fibreglass that incorporates recycled fishing nets, and the Nato strap is spun out of plastic bottles. ALPINAWATCHES.COM

05 Longines Hydroconquest £1,230

Water Maintenance After every swim, whether in the sea or the pool, rinse your watch in fresh water to avoid corrosion

The Hydroconquest is unusual for a dive watch in that it cleaves faithfully to all the textbook tropes without actually being based on a model from the 1960s. Rated to 300m, it boasts a ceramic bezel and a 64-hour power reserve – conspicuously above-average specs at this price. LONGINES.COM

MEN’S HEALTH 47

Cover Model Muscle

Zack George

The Fittest Man in Britain

Zack George reached the zenith of his sport, only to see his dream dissolve. Then he found himself ﬁnancially and emotionally tied to a brand that became toxic in an instant. It has been an intense and busy year for the UK’s ﬁnest CrossFitter, but he’s still smiling. This is how he found triumph in adversity to become stronger than ever – and why you need to get with the programming Words by David Morton – Photography by David Venni

A POSITIVE MINDSET HAS MADE GEORGE FIT FOR ANY PURPOSE

ack George has reached peak fitness, but he is determined to go further still. In the autumn of 2019, he finished first in the UK region in the 2020 CrossFit Open – an online competition consisting of five vile workouts. Out of the 126,461 male athletes listed on the global leader board, he came 26th. His victory had been six years in the making. An ordinary lad from Leicester, George had poured in thousands of hours of hard work and, aged 29, had finally made it. Winning in the UK qualified him for the 2020 CrossFit Games – the marquee event of the “sport of fitness”, incorporating strength, gymnastics, stamina and mental grit. Softly spoken and quick to laugh, George looks like a walking fridge-freezer of functional muscle. He is 6ft and 100kg: huge for a CrossFitter. His back squat sits at 210kg and he has a 127.5kg snatch, but he can run 5K in 19 minutes and 20 seconds. His mile PB is a lung-busting five minutes and 25 seconds. Supported by his family, friends and girlfriend, and backed by big sponsors such as Myprotein, Hyperice and G-Shock, 2020 was shaping up to be his year: the year in which he’d go head to head with Mat Fraser, Noah Ohlsen and friends, competing on the biggest stage in their sport. Then everything changed.

Meal Deals Change is not new to George, who was born in Evington, on the outskirts of Leicester. “I was very diﬀerent as a kid,” he says. “I was overweight and ate sweets constantly. I’d have fast food six times a week. I was quite sporty and had good co-ordination, but I’d get tired and out of

MEN’S HEALTH 49

Cover Model Muscle

Zack George

breath easily. If my mum parked too far away in the supermarket car park, I’d complain, because I was too lazy to walk. “The biggest thing, for me, was how conscious I was of my own body. My school had swimming lessons on Thursdays. I used to pretend to be ill, so I wouldn’t have to take my top off.” It’s hard to imagine the man in these pictures being insecure about his body. George recognises the irony that he now has the CrossFitter’s allergy to T-shirts when working up even the slightest sweat. The catalyst for his weight loss came in the unlikely form of a PlayStation 2. When he was 13, he asked his dad to buy him the console, and they struck a deal: eat more healthily for a month and he’d get one. “I stopped eating McDonald’s six times a week and went twice instead. And I’d have a bag of Haribo every other day, rather than every day. Just that decrease meant I lost weight. “Dad bought me the PS2 and I loved it!” George remembers. “Instead of being active, I was stuck in front of a screen. But I carried on looking after my diet. By the time I was 15, I started wanting to lose weight and didn’t need an external reward.” The benefits of a healthier lifestyle began to bear fruit. Between the ages of 15 and 18, he represented Leicestershire at rugby and became a sport captain at school. His visits to McDonald’s dropped to once a month, then he cut out junk food altogether. The child who had once complained about walking too far across a car park became known locally as the “fitness kid”.

TRANSFORMING HIMSELF AS A CHILD TAUGHT GEORGE THE POWER OF PERSEVERANCE went to college and became a qualified personal trainer. For five years, he taught six kettlebell group sessions a week, while running his own fitness classes out of his parents’ house. Again, his father provided a new stimulus for growth. “He knew how competitive I was and always thought I’d become a professional athlete,” says George. “He’d seen this video of a 2013 Games event with swimming and bar muscle-ups. There was this shot of [CrossFit icons] Rich Froning, Jason Khalipa and Matt Chan standing at the side of the pool, and they looked as jacked as hell! I didn’t know what they were doing, or why they were doing it. But it looked cool.” After finding a CrossFit box 45 minutes away in Northampton, he started doing one-onone training sessions and entered a local competition, Battle for Midlands, after only two months. It wasn’t the debut he’d been hoping for. “There was an event with a lot of toes-to-ring. Everyone was doing them unbroken, so I figured I should, too. But I couldn’t get my feet to the rings. I had no experience. My strength, my basic movements and fitness were fine. Anything technical was not.” He continued to train hard, on a schedule of 14-hour days, six days a week, running fitness classes and squeezing in two workouts of his own at the gym he then owned with his sister. His body and mind were being crushed under the weight of his ambition. Then Harmeet Singh, a CrossFit athlete and coach who had just moved to Leicester from Dubai, walked in during one of George’s CrossFit sessions.

“I realised that I could make it to the Games, if I just sorted out my one weakeness”

Around this time, George started going to the gym. “I didn’t know what I was doing,” he recalls. “I’d try to go as heavy as I could every day: stick as much weight on the bar as possible and curl it as many times as I can. Whoever curls it the most wins. It was just me and my mates having a laugh. Weirdly, now, I pretty much do that for a living.” When ankle injuries forced him to hang up his rugby boots at 18, George

50 MEN’S HEALTH

“He saw me strict-pressing 100kg and said, ‘I’ll coach you and we’ll train together.’ I told him my goal was to get to the Games. He said, ‘If we sort your technique and get your capacity up on the gymnastics side , we’ll get there.’”

The Dividing Line George and Singh opened a gym, CrossFit BFG, in 2017, and with the classes covered by a growing team of coaches, George could focus on his own development as an athlete. He’d come in for his morning session, stretch, head home for some food and repeat that process in the afternoon. Progress came quickly: he qualiﬁed through the Open for the 2018 European Regional, at that

STYLING: HAYLEY LAWRENCE I GROOMING: SUSANNA MOTA @ WIZZO & CO I ILLUSTRATION: HARVEY SYMONS

Learning Curve

THOUGH STALLED BY THE PANDEMIC, HE REMAINS AS FOCUSED AS EVER

SHORTS AND TRACKSUIT BOTTOMS MYPROTEIN.COM, SOCKS HEXXEE.COM, WATCHES GSHOCK.COM, TRAINERS FROM SKETCHERS.COM

point the second and final hurdle en route to the CrossFit Games. “I was super-happy to have qualified. I didn’t care if I came fifth or last. I was celebrating the whole time. After the first day, I was with a few friends chatting until midnight. Suddenly, I said, ‘Lads! I’ve got to be up in six hours!’ That was my mentality. But I wouldn’t change that experience for the world.” The CrossFit season was overhauled in 2019, with the Regionals scrapped for a system with three routes to the Games. The most direct was to become a national champion, the athlete ranked first in the Open in any country with at least one affiliated CrossFit gym. For George, buoyed by his success the

previous year, winning in the UK was the golden ticket he’d been waiting for. The 2019 Open started well. George won the first workout and finished as runner-up in the second. The third test was announced: 200ft dumbbell overhead lunges, 50 dumbbell box step-ups, 50 strict handstand press-ups and a 200ft handstand walk. There was a stumbling block in the middle, one that George had not foreseen. He tripped. “I didn’t know strict handstand pressups were my weakness,” he says. “I hadn’t prepared properly. I didn’t even get to the handstand walk before the 10-minute time limit was up. I did that workout six times, because I knew it would be the difference between getting to the Games or not. But every time, I got worse.”

George’s scores on the UK leader board in 2019 were two ﬁrsts, a second, a fourth and a 168th. He texted Elliot Simmonds, that year’s UK winner, to congratulate him. Simmonds replied, “Thank God you can’t do handstand press-ups!” That failure would have been enough to derail most of us. But for George, it was an opportunity: he saw his weakness as a chance to reach for new strength. “Last year was a huge separator for me. I had to realise I was good enough to win the Open that year. One movement cost me the win. I knew I could make it to the Games if I sorted out this one weakness. You have to be obsessed with getting better. My training partners would ask,

MEN’S HEALTH 51

‘What are we doing next?’ and I’d tell them handstand press-ups. They would roll their eyes and say, ‘Zack, you did them two days ago!’ But I didn’t care. I did them again.” For the 2020 Open, he dropped to 96kg. He’d become a lot better at handstand push-ups, too, but the UK championship was a three-horse race, with Simmonds and David Shorunke in close competition. When the third test was announced, it had handstand press-ups right in the middle of the workout. George didn’t blink. His time of seven minutes and 36 seconds was almost 20 seconds faster than Simmonds’s. He had a full minute on Shorunke. “I didn’t know this but Elliot thought he’d won when that workout was announced. Winning it in the UK was my proudest moment so far. Not only did I do well, I got the fastest score.” George won the UK Open by a single point. Now, he could start COMPLETE COMMITMENT training for the CrossFit TO HIS SPORT EARNED HIM Games, to compete against THE CONFIDENCE TO WIN the best in the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin. He was excited. He was ready.

Winds of Change George didn’t go to the Games. Because of the pandemic, the event in Madison couldn’t take place. In 2019, there were 500 competitors across all the divisions and 80,000 spectators. Reductions to those numbers had to be made to ensure that everyone was safe. Spectators were banned and the masters, teenage and team competitions were dropped. The national champions were next, cut to further limit numbers. But George’s reaction wasn’t to rage on what might have been. Instead, he took the positives and used them as motivation to go into the 2021 season even stronger. “I’d worked so hard to get there. I achieved that goal and nothing can take that away. Not being able to perform made me even more up for next year’s Games. People have asked me if I’m devastated. I think, ‘It is what it is.’ I’m not going to get upset about it or angry.” Anger in the CrossFit community was directed elsewhere. Following the death of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter’s calls for justice, a racially insensitive

52 MEN’S HEALTH

IN UNCERTAIN TIMES, GEORGE IS PREPARED FOR ANY CHALLENGE

Cover Model Muscle

Zack George

GET STACKED LIKE ZACK George’s half-hour “every minute on the minute” conditioning session will push you to your mental and physical limits. That you’ll smash through calories and build lean muscle should provide all the motivation you need “What I love about EMOM-style workouts is that they are such a mentally challenging protocol,” says George. “If you do 20kcal on the rower in 50 seconds, you’re forced to go in 10 seconds when the next minute hits, instead of resting longer.” Start each drive with all the power going through your legs (A), with only a final pull with the arms (B). The balance of effort should be 70% legs and 30% arms. Keep the stroke rate consistent. Make each pull a strong one, and go for it. Squat and place your hands on the floor between your feet. Jump your feet back into the top of a press-up; lower your chest (A). Straighten your arms and hop your feet forward before jumping with your hands on your head (B).

GUTTER CREDIT

Keep your arms close to your body (A). Now use a fast “flick-flick” of your wrists to spin the rope twice (B). Time it with the first upward motion of your jump to allow plenty of time for both rotations. Too tricky? Skip normally for 45 seconds.

The following are rep counts he has worked up to over a five-year period, so choose a scheme that you feel you can complete for the whole 30 minutes. Once you have found the right level, you can then slowly nudge those reps to higher

numbers over the coming weeks. “The satisfaction of completing this EMOM is something special. The real magic happens 20 minutes in, when you feel like you can’t carry on. Grit your teeth and get through it.”

Minute 1 20kcal Row B

Minute 2 16 Burpees B

Minute 3 70 Double-Unders

Repeat For 30min

tweet by then CEO and owner Greg Glassman resulted in everyone from CrossFit employees to CrossFit Games champions and partners such as Reebok distancing themselves from the brand. “When I saw Glassman’s comments, it made me sad, as it doesn’t represent our community. It was one man’s view. There aren’t many black guys in CrossFit at the top of the sport. But I’ve never come across any racial abuse, either to myself or to other athletes. The community is what made me fall in love with CrossFit. It’s what makes most people fall in love with it. Every gym is a family. That’s what separates us from other sorts of gyms.” Big-name athletes who were still due to compete in the Games boycotted the competition, as the CrossFit community called for change and the removal of Glassman as leader of the brand. It worked. Glassman sold 100% of the company to new CEO Eric Roza, who has been lauded for the positive steps that CrossFit is now taking. George, meanwhile, hasn’t just taken positive steps towards the 2021 season: he is running down the road at full tilt. He is still smiling. Preparation for the Open in February has been under way since he found out he wasn’t competing this year. His family and girlfriend, his sponsors and training partners are still behind him. You are, too. It’s impossible not to support a man who gets knocked down, laughs and relishes the process of getting back up and reaching ever higher. “My goals are to win the UK Open again and finish in the top 10 worldwide. I want to be the highest-ranking British male athlete there has ever been. “And I’ve got a book deal I’m excited about. It’s called Start When Others Stop. It’s a mantra that can have so many meanings – like starting on a fitness journey in middle age, when others think, ‘What’s the point?’ What you learn [from training] can transfer over to every area of your life – from your job to your family, friendships and relationships. Take a simple running workout: you’ve got 10 sprint intervals to do and, even if you really want to, you don’t sack it off after the seventh or eighth. The more you do what you set out to do, the easier it becomes. It snowballs. And you begin to love it.”

MEN’S HEALTH 53

31Ways To

Take Advantage Of

New Science And

New Thinking To

KeepYour Motor Running Almost 80% of UK adults struggle with work-related stress, while heart diseases account for more than a quarter of British deaths. That means staying young at heart isn’t just a romantic cliché – it’s a doctor’s order. Fortunately, our experts have their ﬁngers on the pulse PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAN FORBES

56 MEN’S HEALTH

UNDER PRESSURE

02-06 Remodel Your Heart This gym-free HIIT workout is designed to reshape your heart for optimum efficiency, while giving the muscles you can see a boost, too

01 Flex Your y HardestBody’s Working Muscle

A. Vertical Jump Stand with your feet at shoulder width and your hands behind your head. Keeping your back straight, brace your core and sit into a half-squat. Jump, lower into a half-squat, and jump again. Jump high or quickly, but always land softly.

B. Inchworm Stand with your feet at hip width. Place your hands on the floor, then walk them as far past the plank position as you can without arching your back. Hold for a second. Walk your feet towards your hands, stand up and repeat.

C. Walrus Pull Lie face down with your torso on a towel, your arms overhead and your palms flat. Press into the floor with your hands. Keeping your forearms and elbows close to the floor, pull until your chin is level with your hands. Reverse and repeat.

“As we age, our hearts become stiffer and smaller,” says cardiologist Aaron Baggish. “Potentially, this starts as early as in our twenties or thirties.” A smart training programme doesn’t just slow down that process – it improves the structure of your heart. Specifically, it increases the size and efficiency of your left ventricle, which receives oxygen-rich blood from your lungs and pumps it around your body. New research has found that those who engage in sustained aerobic exercise, such as runners, tend to have spacious, elastic hearts. This reduces the risk of a heart attack. So far, so obvious. But not all people we consider fit have hearts of this kind. For example, Baggish’s team found that some powerlifters have stiffer hearts, closer to those of sedentary people. Explosive training is all

58 MEN’S HEALTH

about withstanding pressure: producing sudden, intense muscle contractions that make blood pressure surge. To stop you from passing out, your heart grows thicker. Cardio is therefore king, but that doesn’t have to mean a steady plod around the park. In a seminal study of older adults in cardiac rehab, those who did a HIIT session three times per week (four minutes at 90-95% effort, paired with three minutes’ recovery, four times over) increased their VO2 max three times as much as those who power-walked for 45 minutes. Crucially, the HIIT rehabbers also remodelled their hearts. Their stiff, ineffective left ventricles became stronger and springier. There was no such improvement among the “easy” exercisers. In short? It’s not just whether you exercise that matters, but how you choose to do it. Stuck for inspiration? See above right.

D. Lateral Step Press-Up Get in a high plank position, with your feet just wider than your shoulders. Place one hand on the edge of a step and the other on the floor. Perform a press-up, keeping your body straight. As you come up, place the other hand on the platform and repeat. Alternate from side to side.

Beginner 8 rounds, 3 times a week In weeks 1 and 2 15sec on, 20sec off

In weeks 3 and 4 20sec on, 15sec off

After week 4 30sec on, 15sec off

E. Reverse Lunge Hold Stand and step back into a lunge, your front knee bent less than 90° and your back knee hovering over the floor. Hold for the time specified below. Push back to the start. Switch sides in each new round.

Advanced 8-10 rounds, 3 times a week In weeks 1, 2 and 3 30sec on, 15sec off

After week 3 40sec on, 10sec off

THE JUSTIFIABLE EXPENSE

07 RISE AND GRIND A review of 95 studies confirmed that drinking up to five black coffees per day reduces the risk of heart disease. A separate study also found that hot coffee contains more antioxidants than trendier cold brews. Pick up a portable espresso-maker for an instant health kick. Wacaco Nanopresso £80 amazon.co.uk

WORDS: BILL BRADLEY, BEN COURT, PAUL KITA, CASSIE SHORTSLEEVE, SELENE YEAGER I PHOTOGRAPHY: TED + CHELSEA CAVANAUGH, ROMAS FOORD, STUDIO 33, GETTY I DIGITAL MANIPULATION: SCRATCHINPOST.CO.UK I ILLUSTRATIONS: KYLE HILTON, ANDREA MANZATI, NICHOLAS THACKRAY

You can’t tense your heart at will but, just as with your biceps, the right workout will improve its strength, shape and function. This is the smart way to chase the pump

08-12 Get to the Meat of the Matter

UNDERSTAND YOUR RDA AND RED MEAT CHECKS OUT

The biggest controversy in cardio health is whether meat is truly the enemy. Dietitian Drew Price is here to clear the air – and your arteries

I’ve read that vegans live longer. Do I need to steer clear of Nando’s? If veganism serves up more benefits than the average diet, it’s because of the increase in vegetables and legumes you’re consuming, along with the associated phytonutrients. But an unhealthy vegan diet is still an unhealthy diet. Some studies suggest

that a largely plant-based diet with some animal proteins is healthier, providing a far broader range of nutrients, including vitamins D and B12. But red meat is still worth avoiding, right? It’s not a lone gunman. Three big risk factors for heart disease are high blood pressure, high blood sugar and cholesterol. Eating too much red meat (more than

500g a week) might aggravate these factors, but other dietary variables do, too. So, focus on eating more fibre (30g a day) and more plant proteins, and don’t worry about your one Five Guys per week. So burgers are still OK? Yes, but in moderation. It’s worth drawing a line between red meat and processed meat – the

latter correlates more closely with cardiovascular disease. Grass-fed beef mince is better than anything you’ll find on a meat-feast pizza. What about saturated fats, then? It’s the same deal. Frying every meal in sat-fat-rich coconut oil won’t do your heart any favours, but a dash here and there won’t hurt.

Will egg yolks raise my cholesterol? Two to three a day is often touted as the upper limit, but research shows minimal impact in healthy volunteers. There’s no robust evidence to suggest that eggs affect cardiovascular disease risk in men who are otherwise healthy.

MEN’S HEALTH 59

13-19 Take Your Morning Medicine If your dietary habits have been less than salubrious in recent weeks, consider this rehab in a glass. This pump-preserving smoothie from sports nutritionist Chris Mohr is packed with phytochemicals. Throw everything in a blender and blitz until smooth

Milk, 200ml People who average two portions of dairy per day appear to have a lower risk of heart disease than those who avoid it, the Lancet reports. If you’re plant-based, look for a blend fortified with vitamin D, which most Brits tend to fall short on.

Banana, ½ Your heart needs potassium to trigger the contractions that move blood. Boosting your potassium intake could be as important for blood pressure management as limiting salt. Protein powder, a scoop Protein helps you avoid the crash by slowing the absorption of sugar. Soy and whey also contain leucine, which supports muscle – in turn reducing your heart attack risk.

Spinach, a handful Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden linked markers of heart disease with low levels of the antioxidant lutein. Raw greens are a top source. Spinach is also rich in vitamin K, which may inhibit artery calcium deposits.

Walnuts, 4, crushed These provide more plant-based omega-3 fats than any other nut, curbing blood-vesseldamaging inflammation. A Journal of Nutrition study found that swapping saturated fats for walnuts improved blood pressure.

Blueberries, 80g High levels of anthocyanin, the pigment that gives the berries their colour, are linked with more robust heart health. Blueberries also contain pterostilbene, a compound that may help to reduce blood pressure.

Ground flaxseed, 1tbsp As well as offering a pinch of protein, flaxseed is rich in soluble fibre. This reduces LDL cholesterol (the “bad” kind) by binding to it in the small intestine and ushering them away from your bloodstream.

21-26 Steel Against Stress “Stress inflames your arteries, increases blood pressure and can change the shape of your heart muscle,” says cardiologist Sandeep Jauhar. Our 24-hour plan will help you dial it down 7am Train Your Brain A study by Brown University found that men, more so than women, struggle with meditation. Try running without headphones, focusing on your breath.

8am Be a Do-Gooder As pious as it might sound, acts of kindness directly cut stress by signalling to your nervous system that life is in equilibrium. So, give up your seat on the train.

11am Get a Round In Make everyone at your meeting a coffee. A University of Bristol study found that caffeinating in a social setting eases stress, while drinking alone triggers the jitters.

1pm Send a WhatsApp In a study by UCL Irvine, those who shared a photo they believed would make the recipient smile felt calmer and less anxious throughout the working day.

5pm Clock Off

THE JUSTIFIABLE EXPENSE

20 PUT LIFE ON MUTE Environmental noise is more than just an irritation. People frequently exposed to loud noises have higher markers of heart disease, reports the Journal of the American College of

60 MEN’S HEALTH

Cardiology. Not to mention the fact that regular distractions are a leading cause of workplace stress. Fortunately, noise-cancelling technology has finally caught up with its promises, letting you Zen out, whether you are working from home or living at work. Sony WH-1000XM4 £350 sony.co.uk

Cutting weekly hours from 55 to 45 can reduce your heart disease risk by 16%. But go for a quick pint: PLoS Medicine says a social life predicts longevity better than exercise.

10pm Make Notes Noting down tomorrow’s to-do list is one of the most effective cures for insomnia, according to the Sleep Council. It will also improve your state of mind in the morning.

UNDER PRESSURE

28-31 Decode Your Smart Watch Data Your wearable tracker is a deep well of knowledge: you just need to know how to read it. Here’s Dr Baggish with your handy cheat sheet Resting Heart Rate What it means: How many times your heart beats per minute. The very fit have RHRs as low as 40, but 60-100 is normal. Use it: Regular cardio will improve the score. If it’s 15-20 beats higher in the morning, that may mean you’re not recovering fully from workouts.

27 Swot Up on HRV Training

Heart Rate Recovery What it means: How quickly your heart rate drops after you engage in exercise. The more consistently you exercise, the faster your HRR will be. Use it: It’s a useful indicator of cardio fitness. A drop of 20 beats in the first two minutes is normal.

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Once a tool reserved for the sporting elite, heart-rate variability monitors are now accessible to recreational athletes of all levels. Tap in Your heartbeat is not supposed to be completely consistent. For example, it’s normal to have a 0.9-second pause between two beats, and a 1.15-second pause between two more. This is your heart-rate variability, and some newer trackers,

such as Whoop, and apps like HRV4Training measure this. It’s only when your body is stressed that those beats become more regular. This has an impact on your fitness: when your HRV is high, you’ll enjoy greater gains from high-intensity sessions. When it’s low,

IF YOUR HRV READOUT IS…

you’ll find it harder to recover, as your body struggles to spare the energy to improve your cardiovascular system. Intrigued? We’ve plotted how a morning HRV check can inform your weekly training plan.

IT COULD BE DUE TO…

SO WE RECOMMEND…

MON AM

Bad sleep.

Do a low-intensity cardio recovery workout and go to bed early.

TUE AM

All going well.

Take this as your cue to opt for a brutal strength-training session.

WED AM

Hard training yesterday.

Take it easy all day.

THURS AM

Good sleep, but there’s a looming work deadline.

Do a recovery strength workout, but keep it to medium intensity.

FRI AM

Overdoing it slightly on Burn some calories with LISS, that recovery session. then take a nice walk.

Active Hours What it means: When you’re not moving, blood pressure goes up and inflammation starts to increase. Use it: If you have a desk job, get these numbers up. Stand up every 45 minutes and do something: squat, climb some stairs, or walk down a corridor and back.

Sleep Duration What it means: The heart never fully rests, but sleep is the closest we can get. Use it: People who regularly sleep less than six hours are 27% more likely to have plaque-laden arteries than those who sleep seven to eight. It’s worth keeping tabs.

MEN’S HEALTH 61

Black British men are four times more likely than white men to be hospitalised for poor mental health, and are less likely to seek help before they reach crisis point. The system in place to support them is broken, yet few in power have acknowledged the problem until now. So, how do we ﬁx it? MH’s Daniel Davies spoke to men who have fallen foul of a dysfunctional service, and those campaigning for change Photography by Dan Kennedy

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DAVID HAREWOOD Actor, Playwright, Documentary Maker

SADIKI HARRIS Communications Lead, Black Thrive

Equality of Mind

MENTAL HEALTH CARE SHOULD BE BETTER TAILORED TO THE NEEDS OF BLACK COMMUNITIES, ARGUE HAREWOOD AND HARRIS

he year is 2010, and Steve Gilbert is behaving erratically outside a police station. A friend is trying to calm him down when two officers ask if they can have a word inside the station, away from prying eyes. The friend explains the situation: Gilbert has a history of mental ill-health and, in the past few days, his behaviour has become disturbing. He has been going around the pawnshops in Birmingham city centre, selling all the camera equipment he uses as part of his fledgling photography business. He has also moved out of his friend’s house and is currently sleeping in the basement of the restaurant he tried to launch, without success, a few years earlier. The officers tell Gilbert that he is being detained for an assessment under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act. “I had my assessment in a police station,” recalls Gilbert today. “I was held in a cell, and this woman came to the door and said, ‘Mr Gilbert, we’ve concluded the assessment and we’re detaining you under the Mental Health Act.’ I thought it was a joke. I was looking around for cameras. I thought I was being punked. I just couldn’t get my head around the fact that, only that morning, I was a free man – and now I was being told I was going to be taken to hospital. “It was the oddest experience. It’s proper confirmation that you’re crazy, and nothing will be the same again, because you’ll always be that person who was so mentally unwell that you had to be locked up. That has a significant impact on your life, in terms of stuff like your ability to get insurance, but also the way that people view you as being dangerous.” The year is 1989, and David Harewood – an actor, then in his mid-twenties – is asleep at his home in Islington. He wakes up when he hears his friends throwing stones at his window. Harewood has been missing for the past 24 hours and they’re concerned. His recent behaviour has been erratic: he has vivid dreams during the few hours he is able to sleep and, during the day, he hears voices. He is experiencing a manic episode but doesn’t yet have the knowledge or vocabulary to verbalise this.

GROOMING: NAT SCHMITT USING CLARINS SKINCARE

“You’ll always be the person who was so mentally unwell that you had to be locked up”

HIGHER RISK Black men are 17 times more likely than their white peers to be diagnosed with a serious mental health condition.

David Harewood

Sadiki Harris

In 2019, Homeland star Harewood made a BBC documentary called Psychosis and Me, in which he explored the events that led to him being sectioned 30 years earlier. “Nobody at any point sat me down and said, ‘This is what happened to you, this is why it happened to you, and this is your prognosis.’ Nobody said anything. No one told me what the drugs did. I learned all that through making the documentary, and that’s why I think the documentary hit me so hard. It was the first time I really looked at that period of my life and gained some understanding of it. Until then, I had no idea that it was psychosis. Somebody had mentioned that it was a psychotic episode, but that was as much as I was told. “Now, I know that there are certain signs to look for. When I shared my documentary in Streatham, just before it aired on the BBC, I held a Q&A. Five black lads came up to me afterwards who I could see were clearly having a manic episode. I said to each of them that they needed to get help right now: stop smoking weed and seek help. All of them agreed. “I think, had somebody said that to me, I probably would have stopped smoking and sought some kind of help, but there was nobody that I either trusted or who took me seriously enough to be able to do that.”

Having originally signed up as a volunteer, Harris now works as communications lead for Black Thrive, a charity working to reform mental health services and address structural inequalities. He has personal experience: in 2011, Harris had a breakdown. “I was messed up for a good couple of weeks, and I was doing some silly things. I started going underneath the dining table: that felt like the safest place for me. I’d be there for hours, this big, grown man. “Poor mental health is not something that’s synonymous with being black. But we live in a society that’s very oppressive: all the statistics [point to this]. You’re 40 times more likely to be stopped and searched; there are disproportionate numbers of us in prisons. “As we speak, Black Thrive is running a Crowdfunder. We’re hoping to raise £250,000, so we can deliver more culturally appropriate community healing. “One of the ambitions of the fund is setting up safe spaces, but it’s also about creating a buffet of treatments and activities. I believe that we just need to offer as many activities [as we can] and present them in the best way possible.” For information or support, see blackthrive.org.uk

MEN’S HEALTH 65

Equality of Mind

MWAKATUMA IS WORKING TO CONNECT BLACK PEOPLE WITH THE RIGHT KIND OF EXPERTISE

Harewood’s friends decide that it would be best to take him to see his parents but, on the way, he passes out in the car. His friends turn the vehicle around and head to the nearby Whittington Hospital; he comes to before they get there. “Apparently, I jumped out of the car and ran into the Whittington. I started screaming at the top of my voice,” says Harewood. “I don’t remember any of this, but my friends tell me that security was called. They came down, took one look at me – this big black man – and said, ‘No way.’ They called the police, and then several officers turned up with riot shields and rushed me. “[They] sat on me for hours. Doctors pumped me full of sedatives and, at one point, they asked, ‘Has he taken any drugs? Because we’ve given him enough sedatives to knock out a horse and he’s not going down.’ I was fucking terrified. The thoughts in my head were telling me that the demons had caught me, so I thought I was fighting for my life. Physically, what was happening to me was that six policemen were sitting on me. But in my mind, the devils had caught me, so I was resisting. I mean, thank fuck it was here, because I’d be dead if I’d been in America, no doubt about it. I then spent five days in the Whittington, which I have very little memory of, because I was highly sedated. I’ve got all my records, but I haven’t read them because they’re quite upsetting. I will do some day.” Like Gilbert, Harewood had been sectioned – an experience that is more familiar to black men than white men. In 2016, the Mental Health Taskforce, chaired by Paul Farmer, the CEO of Mind, found that men of African and Caribbean heritage were up to 6.6 times more likely to be admitted as inpatients or detained under the Mental Health Act. It concluded that this indicated “a systemic failure to provide effective crisis care for these groups”. Two years earlier, the Lankelly Chase Foundation, a group that works to tackle hidden

“Given that 80% of NHS staﬀ are white, the chances of being assessed by a black GP are low”

PERMANENT LOCKDOWN Detention rates under the Mental Health Act in 2018-2019 were four times higher for black people than white.

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Agnes Mwakatuma In response to the murder of George Floyd, Mwakatuma, with co-founder Annie Nash, created Black Minds Matter, an organisation that connects black people with black therapists and pays for their treatment. They’ve since funded more than 750 courses of therapy. “People have been trying to access mental health resources but felt that therapy was too expensive – or maybe they’d gone down that route, but felt like they’d not been matched with the right therapists. Things like cultural differences and language barriers can stop people from seeking therapy. We thought, ‘How incredible would it be if we could improve the access that black people have to mental health resources in the UK?’ “We’re vetting about 80 therapists, so people will click on a therapist profile and then be assessed. We’re still in the process of raising funds so that we can reach more people; we already have a waiting list of about 800. “I hope that Black Minds Matter can change the mental health resources that are available for black people through the NHS. I hope this can inspire the government to care more about black people, and to fund mental health better as a whole.” To donate to Black Minds Matter or seek support, see blackmindsmatteruk.com

social disadvantages, claimed in its Ethnic Inequalities in Mental Health report: “The most egregious inequalities in mental health care continue to be the over-representation of black men at the hard end of services at point of arrest, in prison and within secure treatment.” For black men, it seems that the pathway to care – which should begin with a GP consultation and end with recovery – is fundamentally broken. But there are men and women in the UK striving to ﬁx it.

Unequal Opportunities “It would be foolhardy to believe that, one day, black men just wake up and are instantly ‘sectionable’,” says Chanelle Myrie, a clinical psychologist at South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Trust. “What happens before that point? The standard route to care is that, when you start to experience difficulties in your mental health, you go to your GP. You talk about your experiences, and your GP recommends a course of action. You then engage with that. It helps, and that’s the end of the story.” SLaM wanted to find out why black men were “presenting late” – a term that refers to those who don’t receive treatment for their mental ill-health until it’s at crisis point. So, it decided to ask them. During a series of focus groups, Myrie, together with Sadiki Harris of the Lambeth-based mental health charity Black Thrive, asked black men why the existing mental health services didn’t appear to be accessible to them. These conversations took place everywhere from barbershops to college classrooms. And in these comfortable and familiar settings, they gradually managed to gather insights. Some men said that it was well known that doctors were quick to treat black men’s mental health with medicine, rather than support and therapy, and that didn’t suit them. “They thought, ‘You know what, if I’m unwell, I ain’t going to no GP, because they’ll just try to make me take something I don’t want to take,’” says Harris. (The Race Equality Foundation has previously reported that black and minority ethnic people are more likely to be medicated than their white counterparts.) Other men simply stated that their GP surgery is somewhere they go when they have a physical health problem, not a place in which they want to open up about their feelings and vulnerabilities. Some told Myrie that if their mental ill-health was intrinsically linked to their experience of being a black man in Britain, and their doctor was white, they saw no reason to tell them in the first place.

AGNES MWAKATUMA Co-founder, Black Minds Matter

STEVE GILBERT Vice-Chair, Mental Health Act Review

Equality of Mind

GILBERT HELPED TO CREATE THE PATIENT AND CARE RACE EQUALITY FRAMEWORK

Steve Gilbert In 2010, Gilbert was sectioned for 21 days: a relatively short time, but “absolutely long enough to know the impact”. He served as a vice-chair for the independent Mental Health Act review, and argues that we already have the research we need to make positive changes – we just need to act on it. “I don’t have a victim mindset. With all the people I’ve met over the past six years, since I’ve been involved in the mental health and racism discussions, I’ve never met a victim. I’ve met people who have been victims, in the true sense of that word, but I’ve never met somebody with a victim mentality. I’ve met people who are trying their hardest to try to fix a problem that ultimately isn’t ours to fix. We’re just on the end of it. “Even though that’s the case, we are still saying, ‘We will walk with you, and we will work with you.’ Now it’s up to you. We’ve got recommendations, such as those in the Mental Health Act review, the Lammy review around black communities and criminal justice, the Windrush review, the Working on Race review – there are in excess of 200 recommendations across all the reviews. If everybody who has a responsibility for those recommendations did what they were meant to do, we would be in a very different position. That’s all we’re asking for.”

“That was the barrier,” explains Myrie. Given that almost 80% of NHS staﬀ are white, the chances of being assessed by a black GP are low. Almost invariably, the answer to the question of what could improve the support they received was that they needed spaces in which they could talk through their issues with like-minded people, without feeling like they were being judged. “Some of the guys said that they wanted an actual physical place you could go to, where you step through the door and everybody knows exactly why you’re there. But for others, that safe space could be an online chat room,” says Harris. “What was very clear was that black men wanted black men – and in certain cases, black women – to be running the thing. Whatever it was, it was unanimously felt that they didn’t want white men in these spaces. Or, if there were white men involved, they didn’t want them holding senior positions. [They wanted to see that] it was being run by black people who understood black people.” These spaces didn’t necessarily have to be provided by statutory services; they just needed to be accessible. “Lots of people were saying third-sector organisations such as Black Thrive were far more accessible, because they know that they’re geared up for supporting people who look like them – people who have had the same experiences,” says Myrie. “So, they were thinking, ‘Why can’t I go there instead of going to my GP?’”

SILENT KILLER While white men report higher incidences of suicidal thoughts, suicide rates are higher among young black men. some sort of connection with other people who would get what was going on.” Harrison sent a WhatsApp message to 23 fathers and friends in his contacts list, telling them that he was having a tough time, but that he was thankful they were in his life and that their success at work and home inspired him. “Everybody was just like, ‘Thank you so much. I really needed that today. I wasn’t feeling great, either,’” says Harrison. “To hear that, out of 23 men, the majority of them weren’t feeling good was a massive eye-opener. You look on social media and you think that everyone’s having the time of their lives. It’s really hard to measure the inauthenticity. We had [the group chat] for maybe a week, and nobody left, which is a really good sign that someone cares about what it is you’re doing.” Two years on, that WhatsApp group has become Dope Black Dads, a space for black fathers to connect, both online and in person. The group now has a presence in the UK, the US and South Africa – all territories in which, historically, black men and their experiences have been “othered”. In these spaces, men challenge each other to grow and are introduced to therapies and conversations that may be beneﬁcial. With Dope Black Dads and its podcast, men who may not have engaged with the more traditional pathway to care – of which Harrison is one – ﬁnd support and a space to share their feelings with others who know where they’re coming from and what they’re experiencing. “When you go through these events together, it creates a ‘stickiness’,” says Harrison. “I care if one of our guys is going through a divorce, or having suicidal thoughts, or feels incomplete as a father, or is lonely, or just needs to travel to a new part of town by himself to save his relationship. All of those things matter.” Through his work with Dope Black Dads, Harrison has conversations with a number of mental health professionals who speak to him about why black men are presenting late. He also has his own thoughts about why this might be the case. “For us, trying to [seek help from] an institution that employs a lot of people who have never had proximity to blackness, who then diagnose us by applying European-based

“What was very clear was that black men wanted black men or women to be running the process” Strength in Numbers In January 2018, Marvyn Harrison’s wife gave birth to a baby girl. He couldn’t have been happier, but the new addition to his family also called into question his role within his home. When his baby daughter cried, she was crying for Mum, not Dad. His infant son wanted Mum, too, while his wife just wanted help with two kids who both craved her attention. To deal with the feelings of rejection and resentment that were inﬁltrating his home, Harrison went to a few private therapy sessions, which appeared to help: he was starting to unpick why he was feeling the way he did. Then, Father’s Day happened. “My wife, who is one of those amazing, positive people, came upstairs with gifts and breakfast, but I just didn’t feel joyful,” says Harrison. “My family were adoring me, and I couldn’t feel it. I needed to speak to somebody, not professionally, but I needed

MEN’S HEALTH 69

Equality of Mind

HARRISON CURATES AN ONLINE SPACE FOR BLACK MEN TO DISCUSS FATHERHOOD AND THEIR LIVES

psychotherapy understandings to black people who have been brought to a country, or invited to a country, or have arrived in a country, and have continually experienced ‘othering’ and dismissal… they just don’t get it,” he says. “And if you try to have those conversations, the escalation from treating a mental concern to being sectioned is too rapid.”

Rebuilding the System Gilbert was sectioned a decade ago, but he says the experience has left him “fundamentally broken”. Maybe, he speculates, if he’d sought and received the support he needed at an earlier point, his condition wouldn’t have developed into bipolar disorder, and he wouldn’t need to take medication every day. But in other ways, Gilbert can see that he’s one of the lucky ones. Since being discharged, he has been able to find effective treatments for his condition and is now in a position, as vice-chair of the Mental Health Act Review, to help ensure that other black men get the support they need. In October 2017, the then prime minister, Theresa May, called for an independent review of the Mental Health Act 1983. Part of its remit was to investigate the disparity in experiences of people who fall under the awkward term BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic), and in particular the disparity in outcomes for black African and Caribbean people. “We found that unconscious bias plays a role, but so does institutional racism,” says Gilbert. “Due to the way in which our core services are set up, even if you didn’t have anybody who was racist working in those services, you would still get different outcomes based on someone’s ethnicity and race, because of the way in which policies are written.” Gilbert and the review’s other chairs made suggestions that they hoped could positively impact black men in the area of mental health. Their “landmark recommendation”, as Gilbert refers to it, is something called the Patient and Care Race Equality Framework. The framework would help organisations such as mental health trusts and the police force improve services delivered to black men by encouraging them to follow a three-stage process. They would, for example, be asked to identify areas in need of improvement – that, say, detention rates in their area are too high. They would then need to devise strategies to improve those numbers. Ultimately, the focus

POOR COMPREHENSION Doctors report greater uncertainty when diagnosing depression in ethnic minority patients, according to the BMJ.

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Marvyn Harrison Harrison is the founder of Dope Black Dads, a digital and real-world safe space where men can discuss what it means to be black, a father and a man in the modern world. He hosts a podcast of the same name. “There have been occasions when I’ve had to leave the [Dope Black Dads] space. There have been times when I’ve been at a loss, and all my skills have been used and depleted, trying to get the best for this group of men, with whom I now have a deep affinity. I definitely have days when I’m challenged, but I have tools in place to catch those things. “When my son mirrors me now, he mirrors the parts of me that I desperately wanted him to take: the parts I can see in him, like the strength, the kindness, the ability to rebound. I wish I’d been that kind at four. “The other day, we had a wedding and he got a suit. He loves this suit; he wears it all the time. [Later] he took the jacket off, placed it on a coathanger and just started washing up. I was looking at this little boy being an adult, because that’s what he sees me do. That’s what I want for my kids. “Hopefully, one day, we won’t need a group focused on black fatherhood, or the intersections of being black and a male parent. We can just have a dope dads’ space. But, based on the last [few months], we’re not there yet.”

would be on monitoring how those new strategies are affecting things on the ground, while keeping relevant stakeholders informed of their progress. “We’re going to [tell service providers] that, actually, there are comparable organisations that have invested in this process, and they’ve done it really well, and they have the results to prove it,” says Gilbert. “So, if you haven’t done that, we’re going to hold you to account.” At the time of writing, Gilbert is waiting for the publication of the government’s white paper, its official response to the review. It was scheduled to take place before the end of 2019, but since the review was released at the end of 2018, the country has been through a change in prime minister, a general election, a formal EU exit and a global pandemic, all of which have delayed its arrival. Gilbert is adamant that two-thirds of the review’s 154 recommendations do not require legislative change, so relevant organisations should be free to make a start as soon as they wish. But regardless of whether change requires the goodwill of authorities, the goal of the review is simple: to produce a mental health-care system that is not just equal but equitable. “This isn’t about treating everybody the same,” says Gilbert. “To ensure that everybody can achieve the same outcomes, we might need to do things slightly differently for different groups of people. It’s a bit like having a wheelchair access ramp, so people can get into a building. That costs additional money, but we do it because it’s the right thing to do. It’s also a legal obligation to make sure that the building is accessible, to make sure that any individual can come and go from that public space without help.” Creating mental health services that are equitable might make them radically different to what we have now, but we have reached the point where something has to change. We know the statistics, we’ve heard the stories and we’ve seen the outcomes for black men suffering from mental ill-health. The next step is to implement solutions. Conducting research, making recommendations and having difficult conversations create a foundation for change, but that alone is not enough. Now’s the time to build on it.

“The escalation from treating a mental concern to being sectioned is too rapid”

MARVYN HARRISON Founder, Dope Black Dads

The Best Eco Toys In Health & Fitness

Green Book Minimising your environmental footprint neednâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean trading in your Nike Zooms for hemp slippers or counting your own steps. Brands at the sharp end of performance are investing time and energy into crafting sustainable, durable products that are as good for your goals as they are for the planet. This kit will make the right kind of impact

WORDS BY MIRANDA LARBI - PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHARLIE SURBEY

he fitness industry and environmentalism may seem like strange bedfellows. The former concerns itself with progression – quicker times, bigger lifts, newer kit, smarter metrics – while the latter is about conservation. We wear out our trainers and bin them; we switch our smartwatches for newer models. Races leave behind discarded water bottles. But things are changing. Today, cutting-edge brands are working to ensure that high performance and a competitive mindset are no longer at odds with eco-friendliness. “It’s evolved far beyond an afterthought to satisfy a tick box,” says Roxy Rocks-Engelman, a sustainability consultant working with the food and clothing industries. “There are exciting innovations at play that incorporate sustainability right from conception through to final design. What’s more, consumers are increasingly critical of brands that are unable to share information about provenance and company values.” Eco-aware companies are furiously funnelling money and resources into improving their offerings, crafting products that are built for life – not the landfill – while ensuring that packaging is less of a faff to recycle. “The result is a betterquality product,” says Rocks-Engelman. She uses the example of outdoorwear brand Patagonia, which not only sources Fairtrade materials for its jackets but will fix them for free should something snag – not that it’s likely to, mind. Spending your money on brands whose values align with yours pays back: if they’re unwilling to exploit the people working within their supply chain, they’re unlikely to flog you a sub-par product that will fall to bits two months into your fitness programme. Because if you can keep up with your workouts, the gear you’re using should certainly be able to keep pace. Unsure where to start? We’ve compiled a kit list that’s as good for the planet as it is for your gains.

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01 WaterRower Natural This is the official machine of British rowing, so you know it’s good. The body is handcrafted from ash and solid oak. The wood is harvested from sustainably managed forests (where growth exceeds removal by 229%), then shipped by sea rather than airfreight for a lower carbon footprint. There are other imperatives to trade up from plastic: wood also absorbs sound and vibrations, resulting in a smoother, quieter cardio session – and it will look considerably slicker in your living room. Stored upright, the rower is not much bigger than a diningroom chair, so you can live with it easily instead of stashing it in the garage. £999 waterrower.co.uk

The Best Eco Toys In Health & Fitness 02 Vivobarefoot Primus Lite II Bio A literal interpretation of “reducing your footprint”, Vivobarefoot’s minimalist shoes allow your feet to mimic the way they move without shoes, making your muscles work harder. The Primus Lite II Bio is the brand’s new, plantbased performance shoe. It’s made with more than 30% natural materials, including corn, rubber and algae foam, as a step towards using 100% sustainable materials in 2021. It’s also the brand’s lightest shoe and has impressive ventilation. Vivo is so confident in its kicks that it offers a full refund within the first 100 days. £120 vivobarefoot.com

03 Finisterre Nieuwland Yulex Wetsuit If you want to soak up the benefits of cold-water immersion but aren’t sold on the “cold water” bit, here’s your workaround. Finisterre’s wetsuit is geared for water temperatures of 14-18°C – making it suitable for Britain’s south coast in October – and is flexible around the upper body for easy paddling. It’s made from Yulex natural rubber, whose performance matches neoprene, and the lining is fused from recycled polyester. The suit is “double-needle blind-stitched” – which means less wear and tear, a longer lifespan and better value. £295 finisterre.com

04 Dashel Cycle Helmet Returning to work, many have traded public transport for an open-air commute. But just because you’re not pressed against strangers on a train, that doesn’t mean your safety is covered. Dashel’s stylish helmets are hand-made from sturdy, recylable ABS. They’re well ventilated and lightweight, so you’ll have one less distraction, and can be tailored to your head shape with a range of fit pads. If yours takes a knock, you can return it to the company in exchange for a discount. £185 dashel.co.uk

The The Little Little Green Book Green Book

Cleaner Grooming Brands i. Waken The brand’s vegan mouthwash comes bottled in recyclable aluminium and is free from abrasive alcohol – which means it’s gentle but effective. It’s made with mint, eucalyptus and other natural botanical extracts. We like the taste.

ii. Disco Targeted at men, Disco’s line is vegan and free from gluten, aluminum, parabens, sulfates and pretty much everything else you didn’t know was in your bathroom. The roll-on eye stick will instantly reduce puffiness and dark circles.

iii. Doers Doers is all about premium performance from natural ingredients. With no synthetics, silicones or parabens, the range is organic and low on waste. Start with the irritationreducing cucumber, green tea and lemon face cleanser.

iv. Haeckles Focusing on combating ocean pollution, Haeckles is a master of sustainable resources, from eco hand balms made from seaweed extract and wrapped in 100% compostable packaging to algae serums and neroli-based beard oils.

v. One Unity Founded by footballers Mathieu Flamini and Mesut Özil, this 11 product range aims to restore maximum freshness post-workout using natural ingredients. What’s more, 1% of all revenues goes towards eco-friendly charities.

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The Little Green Book 05

Headphones have a habit of disappearing when you need them. But when you don’t, those non-recyclable wires and pods, mostly made from virgin plastic, can linger for hundreds of years. These wireless phones are made from Rewind, a fabric that uses 99% post-consumer plastic waste, while the wooden in-ear pieces are FSC certified. They’re also perfect for workouts – Bluetooth, sweatproof, quick-charge and comfortable – so they’ll keep you jamming through the toughest session. £30 thehouseofmarley.co.uk

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06 Norse Lifestyle Razor We’ll spare you the speech about disposable razors, but we’ll point you towards a sharper alternative. Despite the brand name, these double-edged safety razors are made in the UK, with the handle crafted from recycled plastic and the steel sourced from Sheffield. Multi-blade razors might deliver a close shave, but they can also lead to painful ingrown hairs – a problem that using this ultra-sharp single blade eliminates. Plus, replacement blades average at just 10p each: a good deal, whichever way you cut it. £45 norselifestyle.com

07 Puma x First Mile LQDCELL Part of Puma’s collaboration with First Mile, this range of trainers is made from recycled plastic. First Mile’s network sources plastic bottles from communities in Haiti, Honduras and Taiwan, where they are traded in at local collection centres. Once ground down, the plastic pellets are then transformed into a soft fibre that is then woven into each pair of high-performance kicks. Though they’re gentle on the environment, they’re not soft on tech: the patented Liquid Cell cushioning will keep you light on your feet throughout the toughest workouts. £43 eu.puma.com

08 Che Baller Swim Shorts These swimming shorts, inspired by 1970s basketball kits, have zip flies, three pockets and a soft mesh lining. But Che has substance as well as style: the main body has been developed using Econyl, regenerated nylon yarn made from waste (such as fishing nets, scrap textiles and carpets) that has been dumped in oceans and landfills, while the mesh inside is made from 97% recycled polyester. All good talking points at the pool bar. They’re also quick-drying and resistant to chlorine, salt and UV, so they won’t look washed-out after a few wears. £110 chestudios.co.uk

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: SCARLETT WRENCH I STYLIST: MAYA LINHARES-MARX

05 House of Marley Smile Jamaica Wireless 2

The Best Green Workouts i. Rumble Gym This new fitness hangout offsets its carbon footprint by planting trees. Rumble has even partnered with other environmentally friendly brands to offer cruelty-free grooming (Cowshed) and vegan protein (Form).

ii. Ashtead 10K A small race with a big claim: to be Britain’s greenest. This 10K takes place in Surrey’s Ashtead Common and hooks runners up with recyclable numbers, wooden medals, biodegradable cups and locally sourced prizes. All waste is sorted and recycled.

09 Sequent AG Sports Watch The green face of horology, Sequent has created what has been dubbed “the world’s most sustainable hybrid smartwatch”. By turning kinetic energy into electrical power, it charges as you move, negating the need to plug it in every few days, while also giving you the option to control how much data you receive. But this is not a compromise of flashy tech for worthy ethics: the Sport model has connected GPS and activity/sleep tracking; plus, it’s waterproof to 50m. Its Swiss design means it won’t look out of place with a suit, either. £359 sequentworld.com

11 Cork Space Pro Yoga Mat

10 Ocean Bottle Made from ocean-bound plastic, this bottle carries 500ml of hot or cold liquid. It’s insulated, which means your oat-milk flat white won’t go cold on the train, and anti-leak, so your BCAA blend won’t drip onto your gym shorts – which is probably why it won this year’s Green Product Award. Every sale funds the collection of 11.4kg of plastic, picked up by locals in coastal communities, who can then exchange it for money, health care or tuition. By 2025, the company hopes to have spared the ocean seven billion plastic bottles. £40 oceanbottle.co

Good for more than plugging wine bottles, cork is one of the world’s most sustainable materials, because you don’t have to cut down cork trees to harvest it – you simply strip the bark, letting the rest of the tree grow. But that’s not the only reason to buy this mat: it’s also naturally antimicrobial (eliminating germs and odours), hard-wearing and non-sticky, which is why it’s perfectly suited to yoga. The wetter cork gets, the grippier it becomes, so you won’t end up going glutes-over-pecs when practising your new callisthenics moves. £65 corkspace.co.uk

iii. Terra Hale London’s first eco-friendly gym, all three Terra Hale locations are single-use plastic-free, built from recycled materials and offer organic cleansing products. And they’re powered by green energy: spin classes run on human kinetic energy.

The Best Eco Toys In Health & Fitness

iv. Good Gym Good Gym operates community-based sweat sessions, including planting trees, gardening and sorting cans food for food banks, which it incorporates into outdoor exercise and group runs. The true meaning of energy efficiency.

v. Steel Warriors Steel Warriors is a UK-based charity that melts down knives that have been taken off the streets and uses the metal to build free, outdoor community gyms. It also happens to be an ideal spot to sharpen your callisthenics skills.

12 Patagonia Nano Puﬀ Founded by all-round outdoorsman Yvon Chouinard, this unapologetically rugged brand crafts clothes that are both indestructible and Fairtrade-certified. The windproof, waterrepellent Nano is made from ultra-lightweight and compressible materials, so it’ll take up minimal space in your rucksack, and its polyester shell is 100% recycled. Patagonia cared about the planet before it was cool (or too warm, rather), and its proceeds help to fund climate initiatives to ensure you’ll actually have a winter to wear this in. £180 eu.patagonia.com

14 Seaweed Fibre Tank Top

13 A/Wear Eco Tracksuit This new “conscious clothing” line from the Myprotein supplements brand makes its kit entirely from renewable materials. The name is a play on words, highlighting the need for brands to be “aware” of the perils of fast fashion. This tracksuit is made from unbleached, organic cotton, using a process that requires 50% less water, while the packaging it arrives in is made from recycled plastic. Compared to synthetic materials, cotton is naturally breathable and moisture-wicking, so you can throw it on for the walk home from the gym. Joggers £36 myprotein.com

Regardless of your feelings about exposed chest hair or showy disco muscles, there is one point on which there’s no debate: Pangaia makes excellent tank tops. And for every product bought, Pangaia plants a mangrove tree, which will then go on to absorb one tonne of CO2 – the

equivalent of a flight from London to New York. These tops are made from seaweed, which grows abundantly in the Icelandic fjords, while the colour comes from environmentally friendly dyes, created using a recycled water system. It’ll give your gun show some hefty green credentials. £55 thepangaia.com

15 Adidas Training Gloves This year, Adidas set a new PB by increasing its use of recycled polyester; in 2024, it plans to smash this target by eliminating virgin plastics altogether. The brand is currently working on a fully recyclable running shoe,

the Futurecraft Loop. But while you wait, its Primegreen collection spins recycled ingredients into high performance materials: these ecofriendly gloves provide a solid grip for lifting, dragging and pulling, while the stretchy, ventilated backhand will ensure you barely know you’re wearing them. Call it impact minimisation. £35 adidas.co.uk

The Best Eco Toys In Health & Fitness

16 Breitling Endurance Pro Not content with being surfing’s GOAT, Kelly Slater partnered with eco-minded engineering company Aquafil to champion Econyl, a nylon made from reclaimed fishing nets. Breitling’s sporty Endurance Pro can be paired with a colourful Econyl strap from Slater’s

17 Osprey Arcane Duﬀel Outerknown brand – but in terms of features, that’s just a drop in the ocean. The 100% Swiss-made sports watch is cased in Breitlight, a non-magnetic, scratchresistant material that’s almost six times lighter than stainless steel. It’s tough, too. Watch £2,450, strap £140 breitling.com

Though a duffel by name, this 20L bag has zip-away backpack straps, so you can lug your kit around comfortably, along with an AirScape ventilated back panel to reduce sweating. Plus, there are secure pockets for your laptop and phone or sunglasses,

so they don’t risk getting scratched (or coming into contact with sweaty gym clothes). Impressively, it is also made with 100% recycled fabrics, while its weather-resistant coating is free from PFC: an ecologically harmful chemical. It’s also small enough to fit into a plane’s overhead storage compartment, if you plan to take your training regimen overseas. £100 ospreyeurope.com

The The Little Little Green Book Green Book

The Best Eco Sports Supps i. Amazing Grass For three generations, a family farm in Kansas has harvested cereal grasses to turn into super-powders – all of which are certified organic and non-GMO. The range goes from proteins and immunity powders to smoothie boosters.

ii. Motion Nutrition Motion is 100% organic, ethically sourced and soya/ gluten/nonsense-free. Its proteins come in recycled packaging and delicious flavours (creamy cacao, please), with formulas targeted at both morning and evening consumption.

iii. Vega Protein-maker Vega aims to achieve a net carbon footprint of zero, so everything from its ingredients to its office is weighed up for sustainability credentials. Ironman and professional triathlete Cody Beals is a fan. 17

iv. Vivo Life Winner of last year’s Vegfest Awards, Vivo Life is carbonneutral, thanks to its vegan recipes and commitment to planting one tree per order. The UK brand is also committed to carbonneutral delivery and home compostable packaging.

v. Form Nutrition Form’s Performance Protein is an MH Award-Winner, with 30g of vegan protein, a complete amino acid profile, 5g of BCAAs and a load of digestive enzymes. It comes in compostable packaging, with no plastic scoop. You own a spoon, right?

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HAM HOCK

This cured meat is taken from the leg knuckle, which is rich in collagen. It tops you up with amino acids and supports joint health, sleep and recovery

PICCALILLI

Max Halley of Max’s Sandwich Shop throws in natural prebiotics, such as cauliﬂower, carrot and fennel. Buy or make fermented versions for better gut health

Daily Bread

Blame bowl food for the demise of the humble sandwich. Thankfully, London’s upper crust is making your staple lunch great again – in flavour and nutritious goodness. Make a meal of it PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS BROOKS

ust a few months ago, social media was a smorgasbord of home-fermented kombucha shots and the hard-earned fruits of experimental baking. But with lockdown’s cooking fervour long since cooled, our return to (a new) normality has spelled a comeback for

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the humdrum al desko lunch. The workingfrom-home crowd is falling back on its old habits, reaching for the cheese and Branston pickle, while many of those who have returned to their workplaces are once again faced with the uninspiring choice between supermarket

PRAWNS

Along with being one of the lowestcalorie sources of protein, prawns are a good source of copper. High levels improve your ability to burn body fat

GINGER

Traditionally used in Japan as a mid-meal palate cleanser, ginger is also a potent anti-inﬂammatory, improving immunity, as well as easing muscle aches

01 Ham, Egg’n’Chips Served on home-made focaccia baked at Max’s Sandwich Shop in north London, this blends crispy carbohydrates with a generous serving of protein. It’s the ideal refuel after a long session – of both the dumbbell and Excel sheet varieties. maxssandwichshop.com

INGREDIENTS • SLOW-COOKED HAM HOCK FRIED EGG • • SHOESTRING FRIES • PICCALILLI • MALT VINEGAR • MAYONNAISE

02 Prawn S+dwich This prawn sandwich from Sam Herlihy and James Ramsden of Sons + Daughters – the duo behind Hackney’s Pidgin – comes with added bite. The jalapeño, ginger and fibre-rich cabbage will keep hunger at bay all afternoon. sonsanddaughterslondon.com

INGREDIENTS • CORNISH PRAWNS • PRAWN CRACKERS • NAPA CABBAGE • PICKLED GINGER • JALAPEÑO VINAIGRETTE • S+D MAYONNAISE

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03 SAMBAL

This vitamin C-rich paste is made with chillies, vinegar and a variety of aromatics. The tart tamarind fruit in this version adds extra antioxidants

WATERMELON

Far from a sarnie staple, this merits inclusion for more than ﬂavour. It’s a source of L-citrulline, which supports muscle maintenance and fat loss

meal deals and whatever’s left in/of Pret. Yet there’s no need to settle for a dispiriting gap filler, as the six eminently portable feasts on these pages attest. In recent years, the humble sandwich may have fallen out of favour, usurped by the more 82 MEN’S HEALTH

Instagram-friendly lunch bowl. Done well, however, it can be an equally spectacular culinary event – a versatile, practical delivery system for all of the micronutrients and proteins that your body needs to function at its peak. You just need to be a little bold

THE SANDWICH REDUX

04 RASPBERRY JAM

Aim for 50% fruit or more. Raspberries are a great source of vitamin C, which reduces the production of stress hormone cortisol

CABBAGE

STYLING: CRESSIDA O’MAHONY

This leafy green contains nearly 20 ﬂavonoids and 15 phenols, all of which are antioxidants. Cabbage can also lower oestrogen, boosting your T levels

03 Babi Guling and Pickled Watermelon Balinese babi guling is a whole-roasted pig. Dalston’s Snackbar offers a healthy-ish homage: pork belly cooked with nutrient-dense ginger, lemongrass, lime and brain-boosting turmeric. snackbarlondon.com

INGREDIENTS • BALINESE SPICED PORCHETTA • PICKLED WATERMELON TAMARIND SAMBAL • • FERMENTED CHILLI • MAYONNAISE

04 Iberian Katsu Sando London’s most hyped sandwich – or “sando” – and for good reason. Tōu is an outlet in Oxford Street’s Arcade food market. It breads its pork in panko, then adds tangy jam and shallot sauce in a cakey brioche: an indulgent courier service for macros. arcade-london.com

INGREDIENTS • IBERICO PORK KATSU • CABBAGE • SHALLOT SAUCE • RASPBERRY JAM

MEN’S HEALTH 83

THE SANDWICH REDUX

PEANUT BUTTER

Good brands roast the nuts in their skins, grind to a paste and add salt. The roasting process actually increases the nuts’ antioxidant content

MUSHROOMS

As well as lending dishes a savoury, meaty ﬂavour, mushrooms naturally boost immunity, plus provide plenty of energy-releasing B vitamins

with it. According to Max Halley, owner of Max’s Sandwich Shop in north London, a sandwich’s ingredients should tick all of the following boxes: “Hot, cold, sweet, sour, crunchy, soft.” That means less in the way of tuna and sweetcorn, and a lot more spiced porchetta and pickled watermelon. 84 MEN’S HEALTH

There is, of course, still a time and a place for a pretty, plant-based Buddha bowl. But equally, there’s room for heavenly bread and getting your teeth into something more satisfying. For a hassle-free, nutrient-packed lunch, they’re the best things since… well, you know.

06 CRACKLING

Contrary to what you might think, pork rind typically contains more protein than fat – and the fat it does contain is a source of beneﬁcial oleic acid

SCALLOPS Prawns aren’t the only seafood worth slapping between your slices. Scallops are rich in selenium to keep your metabolism healthy, and are 80-85% protein

05 The King Bánh Mì Vegan sandwiches are wont to default to houmous, but they needn’t. In this Vietnamese bánh mì from Bodega Rita’s in King’s Cross, meat is replaced with umami-rich mushrooms, along with herbs and pickles for energy-lifting vitamins. ritasdining.com

INGREDIENTS • OYSTER MUSHROOMS • PEANUT BUTTER • CARROT AND DAIKON PICKLE • CORIANDER • PEANUTS • MINT CHILLI

06 The Sub Marine Surf and turf in a brioche roll: each American-style sub is packed with a meaty 40g of protein, enough to keep afloat the City boys lucky enough to have Sub Cult in St Paul’s on their doorstep. If work has taken a bite out of you, this will put it back. subcult.com

INGREDIENTS • SLOW-COOKED PORK • TORCHED SCALLOPS • MARINATED CALAMARI • SALSA VERDE • MAYONNAISE • CRACKLING

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HIITs Stressed out? Then the body part you need to target in your next workout is the one between your ears. With a little neurological know-how, your training sessions can expel anxiety and add muscle to ﬂagging motivation. If life is weighing heavy, try these mood boosters for a lift Words by Scarlett Wrench – Artwork by Peter Crowther

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MIND AND MATTER: FIRE UP BOTH YOUR BRAIN AND YOUR BRAWN

Ten years ago, if you asked someone why they trained, they would have given you a range of answers. Some would have told you about their aesthetic goals; others would have been focused on improving their performance, or spoken of more holistic ambitions, such as longevity. But mental health? Unlikely. We’ve always known that exercise makes us feel good, but a tendency to see the mind and body as separate meant that it was strictly considered the domain of body transformations, not psychological ﬁx-ups. Today, most of us know that, just as your heart, lungs, muscles and bones can be strengthened by exercise, so, too, can your brain. Regular exercise is a proven strategy for enhancing your mental well-being, second only to connecting with other people – which you can do in your gym class, anyway. In one analysis, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, those who trained for just two and a half hours each week had a risk

of depression 31% lower than those who didn’t. It has been shown to rival antidepressant medications in its eﬃcacy. And, according to one Bristol University study, people score higher for both focus and motivation on days when they exercise. The pandemic might not have kick-started this awakening, but it accelerated it. Research by University College London found that more than half of us exercised daily during lockdown, up from just a third beforehand. Our main motivations? Assuaging anxiety, lifting our energy levels and clearing our minds. “Exercise is overlooked as a medicine for mental health, largely because we put so much focus on its aesthetic eﬀects,” says Hendrick Famutimi (@supermanhf), a two-time British powerlifting champion and instructor at gyms Rowbots and Equinox. “It helped me beat a decade-long gambling addiction and manage my low self-esteem. If more of us promoted the

mental health benefits of exercise, more people would place it higher on their priorities list.” Dan Hancock is a personal trainer based in Forth Valley, Scotland. He offers free “Body & Mind” fitness classes to people needing to improve their mental well-being. “I started it when I realised that many of the clients who came to me to change their bodies were, deep down, struggling with their mental health,” he says. “Most people put fat loss first, but I prefer to focus on mental stability, mental stamina and mental strength.” To give you a booster shot when your reserves run low, we asked Famutimi and Hancock to share their favourite feel-good workouts. On these pages, you won’t find targets for calories burned or muscles worked – though these exercises will, incidentally, tick both boxes. Instead, we’ve spelled out exactly how each can help you feel your best, as well as look it.

01 Chase a High in Double Time When your body starts to fatigue, your brain synthesises more of the mood-lifting neurotransmitter serotonin – an effect that is amplified by any activity that fires up your competitive instincts.

This partner workout hits the sweet spot: both tough enough to challenge you and eminently doable. It’s a guaranteed buzz for all but the most committed lone wolves.

THE FORMAT Complete 100 burpees (well, we said it would be effective, not easy). You can split those reps 50/50, or opt for closer to 60/40 if you’re ﬁtter than your partner. While one of you performs the burpees, the other holds a forearm plank. “The added pressure of watching your team mate struggle will push you to ﬁnish your reps faster,” says Hancock.

01/ Burpee Deep breath, now. From standing, squat down and place your hands on the floor in front of you. Lift your hips and kick your legs back, then touch your chest to the floor. Reverse the movement and jump up, landing gently before dropping smoothly into the next rep. Try to relax your body and find a natural flow, so you’re more energy efficient. You’ll tire quickly, so don’t be a hero. Break your reps up into sets of 10, 20 or even five at a time.

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02/ Plank Stack your elbows beneath your shoulders, or lock out your arms – whichever works for you. Your body should form a straight line. Squeeze your glutes if you’re struggling – your biggest muscles will help to steady you and prevent your hips from sagging. Ask your partner to tap you on the shoulder when they’re done, so you’re not craning your neck to watch.

03/ The Challenge Record the time it took you to reach 100 reps. Rest for three minutes, then go again. Try to match (or better still, beat) your previous score. The downside: your legs, shoulders and core will be fatigued. The upside: you should have the technique and pacing down pat. “If you learn to persevere during a tough workout, it’ll help you do the same in life,” says Hancock.

PHOTOGRAPHY: (STICKMEN) PHILIP HAYNES | MODEL: LEE MCLAUGHLIN AT W MODELS | STYLING: ABENA OFEI | GROOMING: NAT SCHMITT USING CLARINS SKINCARE I TRACKPANTS TRACKSMITH.COM, TRAINERS NEWBALANCE.CO.UK

Mind Gains

02 Wake Up onthe Right Side You don’t need to stumble straight from bed to the squat rack, but getting a sweat on before work boosts alertness. Plus, it’ll keep your sleep cycle in sync. According to the British Medical

Journal, a moderate-intensity session such as this will release the chemical BDNF, which improves working memory and decision-making. It’ll last longer than an espresso, too.

SHORTS SOARRUNNING.COM, TRAINERS ATHLETICPROPULSIONLABS.COM

THE FORMAT Set up your timer. Perform the exercises in turn for 30 seconds each with no rest. Once you’ve done all eight, take a break for 60 seconds and repeat for three rounds in total. “Remember, you always have one more rep inside you than you think you do,” says Famutimi. If you’re not currently commuting, this is the ideal use of that extra hour.

01/ Skater Jump Dip at the knees and lean forward. Bound to the right, landing on your right foot, with your left leg bent behind you. Now bound to the left. This will challenge your balance and agility, too.

02/ Air Jack Perform a jumping jack but, as you jump, kick your legs out to the sides so your body forms an X-shape in mid-air. Land softly with your knees slightly bent and go straight into the next rep.

03/ High Knees You can do this on the spot or, if you’re outdoors, run back and forth. Pump your arms and lift your knees as high as they’ll go to open up your hips and get your heart pumping.

04/ Squat to Kick Perform a bodyweight squat, keeping your chest up and ensuring your knees track over your feet, rather than turning inward. Move smoothly into a high kick when you reach the top of the rep.

05/ Beast to Press-Up Place your hands on the ground with your arms stretched, knees bent and weight on your toes. Push forward into a press-up, sinking until your chest brushes the floor. Push back to the start.

06/ Reverse Lunge to Twist Step back into a lunge so both legs are bent at right angles. Twist towards the front leg, then push back to standing and switch sides. These feel easy at first, but the burn sets in quickly.

07/ Plank to Side Raise Begin in a forearm plank. Lift one arm to twist up into a side plank. Pause, return, switch sides. By strengthening your core, this will also improve your posture – a proven mood enhancer.

08/ Bodyweight Dip Finish with a triceps burner. Place your hands on the edge of box or chair, facing away from it with your legs straight. Bend your elbows to lower until you feel a stretch, then push back up.

The Quick Lift Caﬀeine doesn’t just boost energy; it gives our mood and motivation a bump, as well as blocking adenosine receptors to reduce the perception of fatigue. In other words? It’s the clo osest thing you’’ll get to bottled endorphins. Myprotein’s Pre-Workout+ (£40 myprotein.com) uses a dual-phase release system to give you both an immediate hit and a steady stream of get-up-and-go-for-it. MEN’S HEALTH 89

03 An Express Energy Boost Exercise may be an energiser, but when you’re feeling burned out, overtaxing your body can be counterproductive. This 20-minute, full-body workout activates multiple muscle groups to boost

bloodflow to your brain and kick your motivation up a gear. The steady pace moderates cortisol release, so you won’t feel depleted afterwards. In other words, it’s tailored for your WFH lunchbreaks.

THE FORMAT Start with 12 reps of each exercise back to back, then do 11, 10, and so on, down to one rep of each. “It’s a short, sharp blast that’s perfect if you’re low on time and inspiration,” says Hancock. “The descending format means there’s no chance you won’t ﬁnish; your competitive streak will kick in.” If it’s too easy, dial it up with our suggested progressions.

02/ Squat This is an essential movement pattern, but it’s not always easy to do well. Keep your chest up and knees pointing in the same direction as your feet. When your thighs are just past parallel, push back up to the top. Ramp it up: Sub in pistol squats. Balance on one leg, with the other extended in front of you. Squat slowly, as low as possible, then push back up.

03/ Press-Up With your hands slightly wider than your shoulders and your arms and body straight, lower by bending your elbows. When your chest touches the ground, exhale as you push up. Ramp it up: As you lower your body, lift your right foot, swing your leg out and try to touch your knee to your elbow. Swap sides with each rep.

The Quick Lift Taking a rest day? It’s still worth including some mobility and abs und to work. In a University of California study, low-impact stretching was fou red duce corttisol levelss, while stronger core muscles improve deep, diaphragmatic breathing. Try 10 minutes of cat cows, thoracic rotations and hip circles, or controlled breathing while standing against a wall with your arms overhead. 90 MEN’S HEALTH

SHORTS LULULEMON.CO.UK, TRAINERS VEJA-STORE.COM I MODEL (CAT COW): MARK THOMSON AT W MODEL

01/ Walkout From standing, place your hands on the floor, then walk them out into a straight-arm plank position. Hold for a beat, keeping your hips up and core and glutes tensed. Walk back to standing. Ramp it up: When you reach the plank position, lift one hand at a time to tap each shoulder. Keep your hips square throughout, so you’re not wobbling.

Mind Gains

04Pump Up Those Endorphins Arnie once claimed that “the pump” was better than sex. We don’t know about that, but studies show that old-school weightlifting has a potent antidepressant effect, regardless

of your ability level. (Good news for cardioheads.) This ultimate Friday guns sesh delivers a flood of pain-killing endorphins, as well as a temporary spike in adrenalin. Arm yourself.

SHORTS CASTORE.COM, TRAINERS VEJA-STORE.COM

THE FORMAT Perform three sets of 12-15 reps for each of the supersets below. For the supersets, perform each pair of exercises back to back without resting. Break as needed between supersets – but try to keep your heart rate up. “Finish with ﬁve interval sprints: 30 seconds moderate speed, 30 seconds fast,” says Famutimi. “That’ll sort your endorphin rush.”

01A/ Chest Press Lie on a bench with two dumbbells above your chest and your arms extended. Lower the weights to your sides until you feel a slight stretch across your chest, then exhale as you press back up to the top again.

01B/ Single-Arm Row Stand up and rest one hand and a knee on a bench. Pull the dumbbell to the bottom of your ribs, squeezing your shoulder blade. Lower to the start. Do half of your reps, then switch arms.

02A/ Incline Chest Fly Hold the dumbbells above your chest with your arms slightly bent. Lower them outward in an arch, until you feel a stretch across your chest, maintaining a bend in your elbows. Now, bring them back in.

02B/ Reverse Fly Turn around to rest your chest on the bench, with the dumbbells hanging at your sides. Squeeze your shoulder blades together to bring them out to your sides, then return to the start.

03A/ Zottman Curl Hold the weights at your thighs with your palms facing forward and core braced. Curl towards your shoulders, rotate your wrists and lower with your palms facing down.

03B/ Skull Crusher Get back on the bench and lie down. Start with the weights positioned overhead, then lower until your elbows are bent by the sides of your head. Tense your triceps to return to the top.

04A/ Hammer Curl Stand with the weights hanging at your sides. Keeping your elbows tucked to your sides, raise one dumbbell until your thumb brushes your shoulder. Lower to the start and switch arms.

04B/ Triceps Extension Drop one dumbbell and stand holding the other overhead with both hands. Bracing your core, bend your elbows to lower the weight behind your head. Push up until your arms are straight.

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Mind Gains

05Slam Down Stress Levels For some, yoga is an effective salve for the frustrations of modern life. For others, slamming and sprinting are more productive ways to burn through daily anxieties and restore serenity. Working in

short, powerful bursts is ideal for relieving muscle tension, while a University of Georgia study found that stressed people feel calmer after hard exercise. The gym won’t know what hit it.

01/ Ball Slam Stand with your feet at shoulder-width, then lift the slam ball above your head, while fully extending your body. Throw it to the ground in front of you, dipping your knees to catch it on the bounce and propelling it back up for the next rep.

02/ Battle Rope Slam Next, grab a rope end in each hand and bend your knees. In one explosive movement, lift the ropes to shoulder height, rising up onto your toes, then slam the ropes down. Move straight into the next rep, making sure that you maintain a rhythm.

03/ Shuttle Run Now, drop the ropes and run back and forth between two markers, tapping the ground between your feet as you turn. If you don’t have the space to run in your gym, you can sub in jumping jacks or bunny hops over a bench.

04/ Farmer’s Walk Grab two heavy kettlebells. Retract your shoulder blades, tighten your abs and carry the weights back and forth. This will allow your heart rate to come down before you start swinging…

05/ Kettlebell Swing Grab a lighter weight if necessary. Bend at your hips, keeping your back straight, then drive your hips forward to swing the weight up until your arms are parallel to the floor, allowing momentum to carry it back.

06/ Kettlebell Thruster Holding two kettlebells in a rack position, drop into a squat, keeping your chest up. Accelerate as you reach the top of the squat and drive the weights overhead until your arms are extended. Drop back into a squat.

92 MEN’S HEALTH

TRACKPANTS LULULEMON.CO.UK, TRAINERS VEJA-STORE.COM

THE FORMAT “With this workout, you don’t need to worry about rep counts or which weights you want to use,” says Hancock. “Just set a timer and get to it.” Perform these six moves for 40 seconds each and complete four rounds in total, resting for 60 seconds at the end of each. Make sure you have all of your kit set up, so you’re not tripping over the ropes mid-shuttle.

06 RechargeYour Resilience Tough workouts forge tough mindsets: exposure to adrenalin through exercise increases your tolerance to it, so you’ll be better able to regulate your arousal response when it’s a staff meeting

that has your heart pounding, rather than a final set of box jumps. Complete this bite-sized session and know that whatever the day throws at you, you’ll take it in your stride.

THE FORMAT Set a time cap of ﬁve, 10 or 15 minutes. “Pick your time limit according to how energised you are, or how you want to feel,” says Famutimi. You’re going to be moving between two simple exercises: sandbag lifts and box jumps. “You may feel fatigued physically, but your mind will no longer be running at 100 miles an hour.” Consider it meditation in action.

SHORTS CASTORE.COM, TIGHTS 2XU.COM, TRAINERS ATHLETICPROPULSIONLABS.COM I ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID NEWTON, GETTY I ILLUSTRATION: BEN MOUNSEY-WOOD

01/ Sandbag Lift Set up a box in front of you, with the sandbag or D-ball on the floor. Straddle the sandbag, squat and get your hand underneath it. Keeping your back straight, lift the sandbag up until it’s resting on your thighs, with your arms hugging it and hands gripped together. Push it onto the top of the box. Don’t go too heavy: that’s just one rep, remember.

02/ Box Jump Push the sandbag off the box, then dip your knees. Swing your arms behind you for momentum as you drop into a shallow squat, then swing them forward as you jump up onto the platform, landing with both feet together. Hop back down, pick up the sandbag and go again.

03/ The Challenge “Your final rep count is your score,” says Famutimi. “Try again in a week or so and aim to beat it.” This one will push you into your pain cave, so be careful not to rush those lifts. The more tired you get, the clumsier you’ll become. Strong and steady wins the race.

The Quick Lift High-intensity workouts might feel pretty taxing in the moment, but according to the British Journal of Sports Medicine, they activate the brain’s cannabinoid receptors – the ones that get switched on by, you guessed it, cannabis. This contributes to deep post-workout relaxation. Maximise the eﬀect witth a recovery aylist of slow-p paced traccks (about 70bpm), which lowers cortisol. pla MEN’S HEALTH 93

Style / Grooming / Tech / Miscellanea

01 7 Moncler Fragment Hiroshi Fujiwara Quilted Jacket Â£1,450

Quilted Jackets

01.

02.

03.

04.

05.

06.

07.

01. The North Face £250 02. Louis Vuitton £6,800 03. Parajumpers £410 04. Gucci £2,050 05. Boss £320 06. Gant £250 07. Reiss £150

MEN’S HEALTH 95

Wireless Earbuds

01. 02.

03.

06.

04.

05.

07.

08.

01. Master & Dynamic MW07 £280 02. RHA Trueconnect £150 03. Powerbeats Pro Totally Wireless £220 04. Bang & Olufsen Beoplay E8 2.0 £300 05. Sony WF-1000XM £220 06. Cleer Ally Plus £190 07. Apple Airpods 2 £200 08. JBL Reflect Flow £130

96 MEN’S HEALTH

Winter Boots

02.

01.

03.

04.

05.

07.

PHOTOGRAPHY: DAN MCALISTER

06.

01. Bottega Veneta £1,050 02. Prada £650 03. Crockett & Jones £485 04. Church’s £495 05. Russell & Bromley £265 06. Grenson £270 07. Louis Vuitton £800

MEN’S HEALTH 97

Dress Watches

02.

01.

03.

04.

01. Cartier Santos-Dumont 43.5mm x 31.4mm £4,850 02. Piaget Altiplano 40mm £24,300 03. Rolex Cellini Moonphase 39mm £20,600 04. Richard Mille RM 67-01 Automatic Winding Extra Flat 38.7mm £110,000

98 MEN’S HEALTH

05.

07.

06.

08.

09.

05. Breguet 5177BB/2Y/9V6 38mm £18,700 06. Montblanc Heritage Perpetual Calendar Limited Edition 40mm £22,100 07. Longines Dolcevita 27.7mm x 43.8mm £1,240 08. Glashütte Original Senator Chronometer 42mm £10,450 09. Nomos Glashütte Tangente Neomatik 41 Update 40mm £3,200

MEN’S HEALTH 99

Rings

01.

02.

03.

04.

05.

08.

07.

06.

01. The Great Frog £POA 02. Thomas Sabo £120 03. Bottega Veneta £255 04. Alexander McQueen £350 05. Gucci £275 06. Alighieri £210 07. Tom Wood £340 08. Versace £250

100 MEN’S HEALTH

Beanie Hats 01.

02.

03.

04.

05.

06.

07.

01. Oliver Spencer £50 02. Gant £30 03. Connolly £120 04. Giorgio Armani £360 05. Acne Studios £100 06. Parajumpers £70 07. William & Son £95

MEN’S HEALTH 101

Jeans 02. 01.

04.

05.

03.

07. 08.

06.

01. Thom Sweeney £395 02. Ullac £120 03. Paul Smith £125 04. Levi’s Vintage Clothing £200 05. Mother £215 06. The Row £575 07. The Workers Club £265 08. Margaret Howell £245

102 MEN’S HEALTH

Mustards

01.

02.

03.

04. 05.

06.

07.

01. Truffle Hunter Black Truffle £11 for 180g 02. Tiptree Chilli £2.30 for 180g 03. Stokes Dijon £3.10 for 230g 04. Tracklements Punchy Balsamic £2.30 for 140g 05. Daylesford Strong English £3.50 for 170g 06. Fortnum & Mason Piccadilly Wholegrain Pantry Jar £11 for 550g 07. Colman’s English £1.40 for 170g

MEN’S HEALTH 103

RECLAIM YOUR GAINS

PT - 11/20

PHOTOGRAPHY: ROWAN FEE I LOCKERS MUSTARDMADE.CO.UK

BACK TO THE GYM! Living-room HIIT and costly kettlebells are no more. This is how to claim back your gym gains – from a 28-day strength plan, to form tweaks to nail your bench, plus a kit refresh that will help you look and feel ﬁtter instantly. See you at the squat rack

MEN’S HEALTH 105

PT - 11/20

30/10

CRACK ON TO A STRONGER DAY

To hit the ground running each morning, you need the right fuel. But daily meal prep can be a chore. Instead, batch cook this egg and snag bake for 30g of musclebuilding protein and 10g of satiating ﬁbre

WHAT IS 30/10? THESE ARE THE TARGET GRAMS OF PROTEIN AND FIBRE THAT YOU NEED AT EACH MEAL TO BOOST MUSCLE GROWTH AND BANISH HUNGER

106 MEN’S HEALTH

THE PROTEIN For this meal, go for Mexican, not Spanish, chorizo: ground-pork sausage that’s heavily seasoned, with garlic, paprika and chilli peppers. Mexican chorizo contains about 17g of protein in a 120g serving.

BUY IT Head to a well-stocked deli and you’ll ﬁnd fresh Mexican chorizo, often packaged in a tube. (You can also try online butchers such as primalcut.co.uk.) It’s also sold as sausage links, but make sure you remove the casing before cooking.

MORE THAN AN OEUF

THE FIBRE

COOK IT

CHORIZO AND PEPPER JACK EGG BAKE

Simple side dishes to help you hit your 10g of ﬁbre at mealtime

Give a simple egg bake a Mexican feel by adding chorizo and black beans, boosting your protein as well as ﬁring up your taste buds

WORDS: PAUL KITA I PHOTOGRAPHY: CHELSEA KYLE I FOOD STYLING: DREW AICHELE I PROP STYLING: ASTRID CHASTKA I ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: LOUISA PARRY, MICHAEL HEDGE, LUCKY IF SHARP, STUDIO 33, GETTY

INGREDIENTS SERVES 6

35g

Protein

• Rapeseed oil, 1tsp • Chorizo, 450g • Medium russet potatoes, 2, diced • Black beans, 200g, rinsed and drained • Baby spinach, 120g • Eggs, 10, whisked • Pepper jack cheese, 100g, shredded • Coriander, 4g

35g Fat

24g

Carbs

541 Kcal

Fibre

Step 1 Preheat the oven to 190ºC. In a casserole dish or high-walled pan, heat the oil over medium. Add the chorizo and cook for a couple of minutes, letting it release its fat. Add the potatoes and cook for 10 minutes, stirring, until they begin to brown. Add the black beans and spinach. Cook, stirring, until the spinach wilts. Remove from the heat and season to taste with salt and pepper. Step 2 Add the eggs to the mixture. Top with the cheese, and then bake in the oven, uncovered, until the eggs are set – this should take 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the egg bake to cool slightly before slicing and serving, topped with coriander and plenty of hot sauce.

01/ NOT-AS-MUCH-WORK GUACAMOLE Dress half a heart-healthy avocado with a squeeze of lime, a big pinch of sea salt and a shake or two of Tajín seasoning. (If you can’t find it in a supermarket, it’s available online.) Feeds one. Per serving: 164kcal, 2g of protein, 10g of carbs (7g of fibre), 15g of fat

UPGRADE IT Spare time on your hands? Here are three easy ways to load this recipe with even more ﬂavour and nutritional beneﬁts IF YOU HAVE...

05 MIN

Pick up some dried Mexican oregano (you can buy it from specialist stockists such as souschef.co.uk). This immunity booster has a bolder flavour than Italian oregano and suits this dish perfectly. Add a pinch when you season with salt and pepper.

10 MIN

As the egg bake cooks in the oven, heat a little oil in a small pan over medium high. Slice some cancer-fighting cherry tomatoes in half and throw them in. Cook for around three minutes until slightly blistered. Scatter atop the finished egg bake.

30 MIN

Toss up some salsa verde cruda. Put six antioxidant-rich tomatillos, a whole metabolismspiking jalapeño (roughly chopped), a garlic clove and 16g of fresh coriander in a blender and blitz. Season and spoon liberally onto the egg bake.

02/ TROPICAL ANTIOXIDANT FRUIT SALAD Add two mangoes, two guavas, two papayas and 320g of watermelon to a large bowl, all cubed, for a potent vitamin cocktail. Toss in a sprinkling of chopped mint and a pinch of salt. Feeds four. Per serving: 213kcal, 3g of protein, 54g of carbs (7g of fibre), 1g of fat

MEN’S HEALTH 107

PT - 11/20 WORKOUT #01

PRESS TO IMPRESS

YOUR 4-WEEK STRATEGY TO GET GYM FIT

Itching to pick up where you left oﬀ pre-lockdown? We don’t blame you. But only fools rush in: crush your strength goals, not your body, with our 28-day plan

“

on’t call it a comeback,” LL Cool J once protested. But with gyms closed for so long and many of us feeling unable to reach our full potential with home-HIIT and socially distanced 5Ks, it’s hard to see our return to the club as anything else. As psyched as you may be, charging back in with all guns blazing is a sure path to disaster, especially if heavy weights are involved. It doesn’t take long for a sedentary lifestyle to dig its claws in and deconditioning to start. Don’t assume you’ll achieve new PBs on your ﬁrst day back. But we’ve all taken time oﬀ from the gym at some point (if not

108 MEN’S HEALTH

quite so long), and we know that regaining strength is a faster process than gaining it. So, don’t panic. Keeping your cool and starting conservatively could be your ticket to continued progress. This four-week plan, split over three sessions, focuses on building strength and power by progressing through compound lifts, before adding slabs of conditioned muscle and burning fat with circuits. Have a notebook at the ready to keep score and ensure that your progress is on the up and up, session after session, tracking every kilo and each rep to maintain that plateau-busting acceleration.

Start with some Monday motivation, working your chest, shoulders and triceps. Begin by loading a barbell to a weight you could perform for a max of 10 reps pre-lockdown. Every two minutes for 10 minutes (or five sets), do five reps. Then set a timer for 20 minutes and work through the remaining circuit as many times as you can.

02A

01A

01B

01 BENCH PRESS 5 X 5 (WORKING EVERY 2MIN) Lift the bar with an overhand grip at shoulder-width. Position it above your chest, arms extended (A). Drive your feet into the floor, creating tension through your body. Breathe and lower the bar slowly until it touches your chest (B); pause, then explosively press back to lockout.

WORDS: ANDREW TRACEY I PHOTOGRAPHY: PHILIP HAYNES I MODEL: ALEX BEATTIE AT W MODEL STYLING: ABENA OFEI I GROOMING: NAT SCHMITT USING CLARINS SKINCARE

THE BIG WORKOUT

BACK-TO-GYM PLAN

02B 03B 03A

04A

TRACKPANTS CASTORE.COM, TRAINERS NIKE AT SPORTSDIDECT.COM PARALLETTES GRAVITY FITNESS AT AMAZON.CO.UK

02 DUMBBELL

SHOULDER PRESS 10 REPS Clean a pair of dumbbells onto your shoulders, with your palms facing inward (A). Dip at the knees and use your legs to help press both dumbbells overhead (B). Slowly lower under control and then repeat. Minimise your leg drive initially, but as the going gets tough, dip and drive.

03 TRICEPS DIP 15 REPS Big triceps don’t just fill out your sleeves; they also help you lift much more when tackling pressing movements. Jump onto a set of bars, locking out your arms (A). Bend at your elbows and lower your biceps towards the bar slowly (B). Now, press back up explosively. Break the reps up if necessary.

04B

04 DUMBBELL PRESS-UP 20 REPS Grab your dumbbells again and form a strong plank position above them, with your hands on the bells (A). Lower your chest to the ground (B) and explode up. If 20 of these in a row is too hard, split them up, but complete all 20 before repeating the circuit. It’s going to get pumpy.

MEN’S HEALTH 109

PT - 11/20

01B

01A

02A

01 WEIGHTED PULL-UP

03 INVERTED ROW

5 X 5 (WORKING EVERY 2MIN) Strict pull-ups are the foundation of functional strength. Strap weight plates or dumbbells around your waist (or stick with bodyweight) and hang below a bar (A). Squeeze your shoulder blades together to initiate the pull, bringing your chest up to touch the bar (B). Lower under control. Don’t rush. Five perfect reps, please.

110 MEN’S HEALTH

02 BARBELL ROW 10 REPS Start the circuit with a back-building classic. With a barbell across your thighs, hinge at your hips and straighten your arms, so the barbell hangs above the ground (A). Row the weight up to your navel, pulling your shoulders back (B). Lower under control to a hang and repeat.

15 REPS Rack your barbell and switch to bodyweight, increasing the reps to scorch every last fibre. Hang under the bar with straight arms (A). Pull yourself up until your chest grazes the bar (B). Slowly lower under control and repeat, making sure to squeeze those shoulder blades together.

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02B

BACK-TO-GYM PLAN WORKOUT #02

CALL FOR BACK UP

03B

03A

Next up, the muscles you can’t see in the mirror. Again, start with a big move – strap on a weight that you could perform for a max of 10 reps pre-lockdown. Every 120 seconds for 10 minutes (or 5 sets), perform five reps. Then, set a timer for 20 minutes and work your way through the circuit as many times as you can.

BUILDING BLOCKS

PULL YOUR WEIGHT The pull-up is among the most functional exercises in your arsenal. Master these steps to do it right

INVERTED ROW 5 SETS OF 10 REPS (90SEC REST) Hang under a bar with straight arms. Pull yourself up until your chest grazes the bar. Slowly lower under control and repeat, making sure that you squeeze those shoulder blades together.

04B

JUMPING PULL-UP 5 SETS OF 6 REPS (90SEC REST)

ILLUSTRATIONS: ANDREA MANZATI I DIP BELT MYPROTEIN.COM

04A

Stand below a bar and grasp it overhand. Jump up, flexing at your elbows while pinching your shoulder blades, until your chin passes the bar. Hold, then lower to a straight arm position. Repeat.

04 BICEPS CURL 20 REPS You knew it was coming, and you’re very welcome. Standing tall, hold an unloaded bar at your waist with an underhand grip (A). With minimal momentum, curl the bar upward until your thumbs are near your shoulders (B). Squeeze here and lower the weights under control.

HIGH-FREQUENCY SUB-MAXIMAL PULL 1 SET OF 1-5 REPS Between all upper-body sets, do a set of pull-ups, staying below 50% of your max achievable reps. Hang below a bar and pull up. When your chin passes the bar, pause and lower to the start.

MEN’S HEALTH 111

PT - 11/20 WORKOUT #03

BUILD A STRONG BASE Now, for legs day. To begin, warm up before loading a barbell to a weight that you could squat for a max of 10 reps pre-lockdown. Every two minutes for 10 minutes (or five sets), perform five reps. Then go all-out and set a timer for 20 minutes, and do the circuit as many times as you can.

02B 01A

02A

03B

01B

03A

01 BACK SQUAT 5 X 5 (WORKING EVERY 2MIN) Here it comes: the king of legs day. Set a barbell at chest height and position yourself under the bar, resting it high on the back of your shoulders. Stand upright (A). Pushing your hips back and letting your knees bend, decend until your thighs are just past parallel to floor (B). Pause and repeat for as many rounds as possible.

112 MENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HEALTH

02 DEADLIFT

03 LYING LEG RAISE

10 REPS

15 REPS

Now, onto the king of all lifts. With your barbell onÂ the floor just above your shoelaces, hinge down and grip it with a straight back and neutral spine (A). Engage your lats and push the floor away to stand upright, squeezing your glutes at the top (B). Your arms should hang straight throughout.

Hit the deck to build your core. Lie flat on your back with your heels just off the ground and the barbell behind your head. Grip it with both hands (A). Keeping your feet together, lift your legs towards the ceiling, until your hips peel from the floor (B). Pause here before slowly lowering to just above the ground.

BACK-TO-GYM PLAN

PROGRAMMING GRID

THE “28 DAYS LATER” PLAN

Use this table as a template to help you put together your own four-week plan. No matter how you choose to conﬁgure your programme, it’s important to follow the sessions in sequence, aiming to beat your times around each circuit on each attempt

04A

WEEK 1 - W01 WEEK 2 - W03 WEEK 3 - W02 WEEK 4 - W01

WEEK 1 - W01 WEEK 2 - W01 WEEK 3 - W01 WEEK 4 - W01

WEEK 1 - W01 WEEK 2 - W02 WEEK 3 - W03 WEEK 4 - W01

WEEK 1 - W01 WEEK 2 - W03 WEEK 3 - W03 WEEK 4 - W01

WEEK 1 - W01 WEEK 2 - W01 WEEK 3 - W01 WEEK 4 - W01

REST

WEEK 1 - W02 WEEK 2 - W03 WEEK 3 - W01 WEEK 4 - W02

WEEK 1 - W02 WEEK 2 - W01 WEEK 3 - W03 WEEK 4 - W02

WEEK 1 - W02 WEEK 2 - W02 WEEK 3 - W02 WEEK 4 - W02

WED

REST

WEEK 1 - W02 WEEK 2 - W02 WEEK 3 - W02 WEEK 4 - W02

REST

WEEK 1 - W03 WEEK 2 - W02 WEEK 3 - W01 WEEK 4 - W03

WEEK 1 - W03 WEEK 2 - W03 WEEK 3 - W03 WEEK 4 - W03

WEEK 1 - W02 WEEK 2 - W01 WEEK 3 - W03 WEEK 4 - W02

REST

WEEK 1 - W03 WEEK 2 - W01 WEEK 3 - W02 WEEK 4 - W03

WEEK 1 - W01 WEEK 2 - W03 WEEK 3 - W02 WEEK 4 - W01

WEEK 1 - W01 WEEK 2 - W01 WEEK 3 - W01 WEEK 4 - W01

REST

W01 WEEK 1 - W03 WEEK 2 - W03 W02 WEEK 3 - W03 W01 WEEK 4 - W03

WEEK 1 - W01 WEEK 2 - W02 WEEK 3 - W03 WEEK 4 - W01

WEEK 1 - W02 WEEK 2 - W01 WEEK 3 - W03 WEEK 4 - W02

WEEK 1 - W02 WEEK 2 - W02 WEEK 3 - W02 WEEK 4 - W02

SAT

04 ALTERNATING LUNGE

REST

WEEK 1 - W03 WEEK 2 - W03 WEEK 3 - W03 WEEK 4 - W03

SUN

SHORTS LULULEMON AT MRPORTER.COM, TRAINERS ATHLETICPROPULSIONLABS.COM BACKGROUND PHOTOGRAPHY: MATTHEW LLOYD I LOCATION MCP MANOR MYMANOR.LONDON

FRI

04B

TUE

MON

THU

WORKOUTS PER WEEK

REST

20 REPS Strip some deadlift weight from the bar and finish each round with a high-rep rapture. Take your empty bar, press it over your head and rest on your shoulders (A). Step forward with your left leg, bending at the knee until your back knee hits the ground (B); push up, repeat with the other leg. Alternate sides for 20 reps.

MEN’S HEALTH 113

PT - 11/20 GEEK TWEAKS #14

PREPARE TO RAISE THE BAR

LIE DOWN ON THE JOB FOR THE ULTIMATE UPPER-BODY BLAST

After months of dips and press-ups, we expect that you’re longing to get back under the bar. Make a triumphant return to the bench press with these tips

POWER YOUR PECS

The bench press is a gym staple for good reason: no exercise can match its ability to build a strong, powerful chest. But getting the form right to make sure that you’re targeting your pecs properly is crucial. Follow these techniques and tweaks to build a chest you’ll treasure. UNILATERAL ACTION Lie flat on a bench with a slight arch in your back but your hips pressed down, holding dumbbells at chest height. Drive your feet into the floor to create tension and push the weights to full lockout. Lower one dumbbell to your chest, while holding the other up above. Press the lowered dumbbell up to meet it, before repeating with the other arm. Alternate until you’ve completed eight reps with each arm.

Deep, controlled dips will help you learn to control your own bodyweight through space. Jump onto a set of bars, 2ft apart, locking out your arms and supporting your weight. Bend at your elbows and lower yourself for a count of four seconds, aiming to get your chest as close to your hands as possible. Pause at the bottom before pressing back up explosively. Aim for five sets of 10.

HEAD TO THE BAR Now, it’s time to pump it up. Lie on the bench with a slight arch in your back, your hips pressed down. Lift the bar using an overhand grip and position it above your chest with your arms extended. Drive your feet into the floor, creating tension. Lower the bar until it touches your chest. Pause before explosively pressing back to lockout. Repeat until peak swoleness is achieved.

114 MEN’S HEALTH

Though ostensibly simple, it’s easy to get wrong. Avoid the common mistakes of the bench-press blasphemers

HUMAN TRAMPOLINE

HALF-REP HENRY

He let’s the bar drop with reckless abandon from the top of each rep, bouncing it off of his chest. Lower the bar under control and pause lightly on your chest with each rep for maximum gains (and minimum bruising).

He begins pressing the bar back up again before it’s even within 15cm of his chest, and refuses to lock out at the top. Remember that the muscle that is stretched the most grows the most. Use a full range of motion to ensure maximum gains.

MAD MAX-OUT He works to a heavy single every session and usually requires a spot for the majority of his sets. Unless you’re a competitive powerlifter, you may never need to test your one-rep max. For optimum growth, keep it above five reps.

WORDS: ANDREW TRACEY I ILLUSTRATION: HARVEY SYMONS I PHOTOGRAPHY: JOBE LAWRENSON

THE BIG DIPPER

BARRED FOR LIFE

HIT THE GYM FLOOR RUNNING GEAR CHANGE

07/ RETURN OF THE JACKED Don’t rush back into the gym with a drink that has you smelling colours and seeing noises. This offers pump-eliciting goodness without the caffeine. MyProtein THE Pump Pre-Workout £27 myprotein.com

01/ HOLD ALL THE ACES First, upgrade your bag. Nike’s roomy backpack has plenty of smart compartments and unzips totally, so you’ll spend less time rooting for your straps. Utility Elite Backpack £70 nike.com

TIME TO KIT REFRESH

Invest in the best new gear to guarantee a smooth return to full-spec workouts. You’ve saved enough on frozen memberships, after all

02/ STRAP IN With a supportively sturdy build and a quick-release Velcro strap, this belt ensures you won’t get caught with your pants down. Bulldog Gear Weight Lifting Belt 2.0 £37 bulldoggear.eu

03/ X MARKS THE SPOT Go fast, go heavy, then go home in style with the fashion-forward Nano X from Reebok, the undisputed king of crosstraining footwear. Reebok Nano X £110 wit-fitness.com

09/ GRIP IT TO RIP IT

04/ TOO HARD TO HANDLE

08/ A FRESH START

Avoid ripped palms and calluses with a good hand-care routine. Made from natural ingredients, this has a stick applicator to keep it low maintenance. W.O.D. Welder Solid Salve £15 9for9.co.uk

This 500ml digital water purification bottle uses UV-C LED light to kill germs. It’s 10,000 times more hygienic than a regular water bottle. Larq Self-Cleaning Water Bottle £99 cosstores.com

05/ BEAT YOUR BEST Created by functional athletes for functional athletes, these wireless earbuds are designed to stay put through hundreds of burpees. ESC Sounds Wireless Earbuds £90 escsounds.com

06/ MEAN SLEEVES Let your guns breathe with a subtle sleeveless number, featuring quick drying, ultra-soft fibres and a longer cut for a confident return to the iron jungle. 2XU XCTRL Tank £35 2xu.com

Having a vice-like grip is an enviable goal. These figure-of-eight straps blend man and barbell, so you can concentrate on the task at hand. Bear Grip Weightlifting Straps £10 amazon.co.uk

10/ NOT SHORT ON UTILITY The phone pocket of these lightweight shorts is sewn into the compression lining to avoid, um, thigh slapping. Essential. Lululemon T.H.E. Nulux Shorts £44 lululemon.co.uk

MEN’S HEALTH 115

BARS & BURPS

PT - 11/20

01 CLUSTER BOMB PT FINISHER #21

GIVE YOUR FITNESS A FINAL LIFT

Load up your barbell and leave no stone unturned with this strength and conditioning blowout that complements each session in your new training plan

Load a barbell to a weight that you can press overhead for a max of 15-20 reps. Hinge down and grasp it with an overhand grip. Stand back up with a slight jump, using the momentum to pull the barbell up onto your shoulders. As soon as the bar is secure, push your hips back and drop into a front squat, pause as your thighs break parallel to the floor, then stand up and drive the bar into the air. Lower to your shoulders under control, then return it to the floor. That’s one cluster. Sorry.

WORDS: ANDREW TRACEY I PHOTOGRAPHY: PHILIP HAYNES I MODEL: ALEX BEATTIE AT W MODEL I STYLING: ABENA OFEI GROOMING: NAT SCHMITT USING CLARINS SKINCARE | SHORTS ADIDAS AT SPORTSDIRECT.COM, LEGGINGS CALVINKLEIN.CO.UK, TRAINERS ATHLETICPROPULSIONLABS.COM

THE FORMAT For this total-body blast, you’ll be employing a reverse ladder format. Perform 10 reps of your cluster barbell complex, followed by 10 burpees, with a lateral jump over the bar in each rep. Then return to the barbell for another round, this time hitting nine reps, followed by nine burpees over the bar. Continue steadily in this fashion, removing a rep from both movements, until you reach one rep for each and have completed a total of 110 unforgiving reps.

02 UP AND OVER After your final rep, take a breather to gather your resolve. Squat down and place your hands on the floor. Jump both of your legs directly behind you, finishing at the top of a press-up position. Lower your chest to the ground, before pressing back up explosively. Jump your feet towards your chest and leap into the air, moving laterally over the bar and landing on the other side.

03 THE DESCENT Once you have completed 10 reps of each movement, start a new round – this time performing nine clusters, followed by nine burpees over the bar. Remove a rep from each movement with every new round until you hit a single rep. The gradual drop may make it look as though the workout gets easier, but you’ll have to muster all of your might to keep up the pace. Good luck.

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DEPARTURES YO U R PAS S P O R T TO W E LLN E S S /

EDITED BY TED LANE

11/20

POWER TRIP

Capital Gains

There’s more to the European city break than yet another amble around Paris. Seek out adventure in Slovenia’s Ljubljana and nearby Lake Bled MEN’S HEALTH 121

Three Bridges, and listen to your guide’s stories about Slovenian culture, plus tips about the best bars and restaurants. Prefer a packed lunch? Turn around and paddle away from the city to find yourself in pristine nature in just five minutes. To the north of the city centre is the social and cultural centre Metelkova. In the early 1990s, the artistic community took over former military barracks there and has stayed put since. For something a little different, head to its bars on Friday or Saturday evening for a beer and some people-watching. For a five-star experience in the best location, look no further than the InterContinental Hotel Ljubljana (ihg.com). The rooms are as well appointed as you’d expect, and it has another key advantage: the 18th-floor Saruna Wellness and Spa Centre, where you can swim before a majestic view of

“Whether you seek adventure or sheer luxury, Slovenia has Different Strokes plenty to oﬀer” Your ﬁrst port of call should be the capital, Ljubljana. In 2007, the city underwent “the great pedestrianisation” (our name for it), which saved its old town from pollution and led to it being named Europe’s Green Capital in 2016. Make the most of this by taking the greenest tour in Ljubljana. Meet on the banks of the River Ljubljanica and join a stand-up-paddleboard tour (bananaway.eu). Power your way through the city centre, past the historic

122 MEN’S HEALTH

SINK YOUR ANXIETIES ON A PADDLEBOARD

WORDS: ESQUIRE EDITORS I PHOTOGRAPHY: TOM SCHIFANELLA/UNSPLASH, KYLE HINKSON/UNSPLASH, MARKO BALAŽIC/UNSPLASH

f he is lucky, a man will have reached his thirties with the great cities of Europe conquered. He’ll have stood in the Colosseum of Rome, pretending to be an emperor. He’ll have wandered the streets of Paris, fancying himself a poet. He’ll have drunk his fill in Dublin. And with all of that done, he might consider himself more or less finished with the continent. And, as with so many other things in life, he’d be wrong. Over the past 10 years, Europe’s smaller powers have increasingly staked their claim as essential tourist destinations. Today, cities in Croatia, Portugal and the Czech Republic are rightly recognised for being as culturally rich, historically fascinating and full of action and adventure as those in France, Germany or Italy. The latest country to attract the attention of Britain’s hippest fitness tourists is Slovenia, whose azure lakes and mountains have begun to pop up on Instagram with the regularity of Alpine resorts in France or Balearic wellness retreats. The Balkan country, nestled in the elbow of the Adriatic Sea, has plenty to offer, whether you’re seeking adventure, a luxurious escape or, in our case, both.

CHASE AN ADRENALIN HIGH BY RAFTING ON THE SAVA

DEPARTURES

When to go Right away. Autumn is beautiful and still warm(ish). That’s a wetsuit, not board shorts, on the stand-up paddleboard, then.

How to get there Wizz Air flies to Ljubljana from Luton Airport throughout the week. Fares start at £21 one way. wizzair.com

What to pack Whipping out your phone for a snap on the rapids won’t cut it. Pack a GoPro for a camera that can keep pace. £329 gopro.com

TOP OF THE WORLD: THE VIEW FROM THE SARUNA SPA

the mountains, wash away residual workrelated stress and drink in some much-needed dopamine. And we suggest a strong beer.

Go with the Flow Head for the mountains and you’ll ﬁnd Lake Bled, a 2km stretch of perfect turquoise waters that you can swim in, row on or admire from its many beaches and tree-lined vantage points. If you prefer your power trip with a healthy shot of testosterone and adrenalin, a 9km rafting trip on the River Sava (whatsupbled.com) will take you crashing through rapids on a ride that’ll have your attention switching between

Chemical Advantage Harness your hormones to turn any holiday into a power trip

SUP TOURING = DOPAMINE

SPA SWIMMING = LOWERS CORTISOL

GORGE JUMPING = ADRENALIN

epic scenery and survival. The afternoon’s canyoning will leave you breathless. Unwind by exploring the beautiful gorges near Bled, or take things up a notch with cliff jumping. Back on dry land, the Hotel Park – the largest in Bled – is a grand affair with rooms overlooking the lake (sava-hotels-resorts.com). Bled has no shortage of places to stay, but if you want a little luxury, this cyclist- and hiker-friendly hotel is the only game in town – not least for its pool, which boasts a stunning panoramic view. The restaurant is excellent, while the real plus is the spa park, which offers a range of saunas, from Finnish and infrared to the Turkish steam bath. Slovenia’s natural beauty, ripe for adventure, and its burgeoning luxury scene make it the perfect destination for a complete weekend break in Europe. While everyone else is booking their return to Paris, we’ll save you a paddleboard on the Ljubljanica.

RAFT RIDING = TESTOSTERONE MEN’S HEALTH 123

DEPARTURES _06

_05

MANCHESTER

_01

53.4808° N 2.2426° W

_04 HOLIDAY REPS

ILLUSTRATION: ANDREA MANZATI

Score More From Your City Break Though better known for its football and rave culture, Manchester is quickly establishing a rep as a wellness hot spot to rival London. Let local personal trainer Mark Ross show you around

_02 YOUR REP PT and transformation specialist Mark Ross will work you hard as a Barry’s Bootcamp master trainer. @markross_fitness

The Iron Paradise

If you take lifting seriously, Frontline Fit is your ultimate playground. The training here is truly world class. frontlinefit.co.uk

02 The Gold Standard Sweat Manchester boasts the first Barry’s Bootcamp in the north. Its treadmills and floor work are instant classics. barrys.com

The Elite Cardio

06 The Dietary Deviation

Based in a huge old church, Manchester Climbing Centre is amazing both to look at and to climb. manchesterclimbing centre.com

Do cheat day right at Almost Famous with the PHOENIX V2.0: double cheeseburger, bacon, onions, Frazzles, red chillies and bacon mayo. almostfamousburgers.com

04 The Proper Pre-Workout

07 The Well-Earned Recovery Spot

Coffee has taken off in Manchester. Pot Kettle Black’s long black helps you hit a session at full pelt. potkettleblackltd.co.uk

Where else to stay but Hotel Football? Any sports fan can’t help but be impressed by the private five-a-side pitch on the roof, overlooking the mighty Old Trafford. hotelfootball.com

The Clean Eats

Meal-prep delivery service Kettlebell Kitchen has a bricks-and-mortar spot for all your refeed needs. More than just chicken and broccoli. kbk.co.uk MEN’S HEALTH 125

MH CLASSIFIED

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MH CLASSIFIED

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MH CLASSIFIED

THE MH DIRECTORY Look good and feel great with this selection of life-enhancing products

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MADE TO ORDER, MADE IN ENGLAND

MYL BERLIN Maske 1 - A stylish mouth and nose protection scarf. The layered fabric membranes are lightweight and ergonomically fitting, making it comfortable to wear and easy to use anywhere you go. Maske 1 protects your nose and mouth securely while still being a beautiful fashion accessory. The soft filter-pocket allows you to insert different kinds of disposable protective filters (two disposable filters included). www.myl-berlin.com @myl.berlin

Crown Northampton, a fifth generation family-owned business has been producing quality handmade footwear in England since 1908. Specialising in luxury sneakers, crepe-soled desert boots and leather-soled slippers; all collections are available in unisex sizes ranging from UK 3-13. All footwear is made to order, allowing the customer to choose from a variety of colours, materials, and a wider G fitting if required. Made from hand-picked premium leathers from world-class tanneries – Horween (USA) and Charles F Stead (UK). Crown Northampton pride themselves on their craftsmanship and hand-finishing, with all product fully made in their Northampton, England factory. Visit www.crownnorthampton. com and add code MHCROWN in cart notes to receive a complimentary Saphir Medaille D’or cleaning pack with all footwear purchases.

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MH CLASSIFIED

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QUESTION What’s the most enjoyable way to swerve the virus and stay alert?

p with the sun, the breeze arose – and left us all wheezing. The British air, which Robert Louis Stevenson once celebrated as “nimble, gay and gracious”, is now closer to the silent killer in John Carpenter’s The Fog than the divine gusts of a Romantic poem. More than 80% of the UK’s air quality zones exceed the legal limits for pollution, swirling with toxic fumes that inflame our lungs and shorten our lives. So, avoid contributing to the problem by cycling. As well as being a proven weight-loss strategy that blasts away at your intra-abdominal adipose tissue, saddling up confers myriad benefits, from enhancing your digestion to making you smarter. (A University of Illinois study found that the boost to your

cardio-respiratory ﬁtness can result in a 15% spike in mental test scores.) Commuters who pedal to work also have a far lower risk of heart disease and early death than even pedestrians. And, yes, we’ve all heard the urban myth that the cardio benefits of cycling are negated by the fumes you inhale, but a Leeds University study showed that peddlers are the commuters least exposed to pollution in a city centre. With the COVID-19 crisis far from over, now is the time to hit the road on two wheels – there’s no better way to swerve the risks of contracting and spreading the virus. Among councils’ emergency measures are new cycle lanes and low traffic zones, making your journey easier than ever. We’ll see you at the bike shed.

ANSWER

Cycling

WORDS: YO ZUSHI I PHOTOGRAPHY: SUN LEE I DIGITAL MANIPULATION: SCRATCHINPOST.CO.UK

ONE WORD ANSWER #70