Month: April 2017

Changing the record

Anyone who works in an office knows the temptations of the 4pm biscuit run, the Friday doughnut round and the swift post-work half. As it turns out, things aren’t much different in a radio booth: except that the volume gets turned up.

“There’s always some kind of ‘week’ on,” says Jamie Theakston, Heart FM’s man in the morning. “Curry week, pie week, pizza week – we’d get sent that stuff, and so we wouldn’t feel bad about eating it first thing in the morning.”

At the other end of the schedule, late-night shifts for TalkSPORT’s Andy Goldstein meant frequent runs at the station’s (now-defunct) vending machine. “It wouldn’t be unheard of for me to have four packets of crisps in a shift,” says the Andy Goldstein’s Sports Bar presenter. “I was slowly getting obese.” Neither man knew much about weight training or nutrition – and the pair had never met before MF and London’s Embody Fitness gym challenged them to recapture their former glory. So were they ready for the real HIIT parade?

In years gone by, the one-time presenter of C4’s The Games was quite the sportsman – fencing for Sussex, playing club cricket, winning a Man of the Match trophy in Soccer Aid 2010 – but injuries and life got in the way. “When I was active it was easy for me to drink and eat what I wanted, and I would never get any heavier than about 15 stone [95kg],” says Theakston. “When you’re 6ft 4in [1.93m] your height can hide a multitude of sins, but at the end of last year I was struggling to fit into anything I could buy off the peg. I had a 38in waist: I remember thinking, ‘That’s quite big’.”

Theakston had barely looked at a weight before, so early training – with Embody’s Chris Walton – was a struggle. “I said to Chris that parts of my body that I didn’t know existed were hurting, and I thought I was physically unable to do the things he wanted me to do,” says Theakston. “He said it’d get easier and I didn’t believe him. But he was right.”

The real education for Theakston, though, came with his new diet. “I didn’t know the difference between protein and carbohydrate,” he says. “I’ve never taken much notice. I’d be in the studio at 5am, then I’d have a breakfast at 6.30 and maybe another one at 8.30, and it was sausage or bacon sandwiches, tonnes of coffee… looking back it’s kind of shocking.” He discovered it was about changing bad habits.

“People persuade themselves that they ‘need’ a big breakfast to start the day, but it’s just what they’ve always had. Now I have two eggs with porridge and that’s it.”

Now he’s in his best shape for over a decade. “You see it in the little things, like running upstairs: a year ago, I was carrying an extra three stone up. I feel brighter, my complexion’s better, all of those things.”

To anyone thinking of changing their own lifestyle, his advice is simple: “Don’t be afraid of the challenge. The hardest bit is the first couple of weeks. Then it keeps getting better.”

Back on track

Heart FM’s Jamie Theakston got his diet right – and the fat dropped off

Pumping up the volume

“The first goal for both Jamie and Andy was to start stripping some body fat and develop good movement patterns, as both guys had been pretty sedentary for a while,” says Chris Walton, director of training at Embody Fitness. “Jamie had also had a shoulder reconstruction a few weeks earlier so we had to go light on a lot of the upper-body work and also include quite a lot of rehab for his scapula, rotator cuffs and so on.” This targeted session does just that, before Theakston moved on to the tougher moves pictured.

1 Standing anti-rotation hold

Sets
2Reps
20Rest
30sec

Stand perpendicular to a cable machine and hold the cable at shoulder height, resisting the weight of the machine without moving. Do 30 seconds on each side for one set.

2 Step-up with single-arm press

Sets
2Reps
10Rest
60sec

Step up onto a box or bench, and press a dumbbell overhead with the opposite arm to your lead leg.

3A Dumbbell split squat

Sets
3Reps
10Rest
30sec

Holding a dumbbell in each hand, step forward into a lunge, bending your front knee until your rear knee brushes the ground. Straighten your leg, then lower again.

3B Isolateral row

Sets
3Reps
10Rest
60sec

You’ll need the machine for this one. Sit in the saddle and pull the handle down with one arm. Control it on the way up.

4A Cable pull-through

Sets
4Reps
8Rest
30sec

Set up a cable rope attachment at just above knee height, and grip the cable between your legs. Pull it forward by straightening your hips, as if you were doing a deadlift.

4B Bench press

Sets
4Reps
8Rest
30sec

Grip the barbell, brace your core and lower slowly, keeping your feet flat on the floor. However much you want to up the weight, don’t bounce it – aim to make each rep brush your T-shirt.

5 Rowing intervals

Distance
100mSets
6Rest
40sec

Your goal for 100m: get it under 20 seconds.

Kettlebell swings get your heart rate high to torch fat fast

The leg press will add size and strength to your quads and hams

Overhead presses help sculpt a wider upper body

Sled pulls are an ideal session “finisher” to increase energy expenditure

Session artist

TalkSPORT’s Andy Goldstein ditched the all-dayers and the treadmill for the real wheels of steel

“I was slowly getting obese,” says Goldstein, about the moment he decided to make some changes. “For me the turning point was around Christmas when I went to the darts. I had about ten pints and a hot dog, and on the way home I had six nuggets, two hamburgers and a large fries, and didn’t think anything of it.”

Goldstein’s no stranger to training, with a handful of half and full marathons under his belt, but he’d always avoided the weights room. “Like a lot of people, I was scared to lift heavy weights,” he admits. “I’d be on the treadmill for an hour.” To put on functional muscle and burn fat, Embody’s Chris Walton gave him a programme of compound exercises with low rest. “I don’t believe in bodybuilding splits for new clients,” Walton explains. “If you only train one body part once a week, you’re resting it for too long. We’d superset upper and lower body moves, never going below about six reps. We pushed both guys hard.”

Goldstein had also tried diets before – “the 5:2 fast, the smoothies” – but this transformation required lasting changes. “The first three days were tough because I couldn’t eat any of the crap I normally have, but after that it was a breeze,” he says. “For breakfast I’d have chicken or steak or salmon. People pull a face when I say that, but then I wouldn’t get hungry for hours. It’s not like it would take me an hour to make – there’s no excuse for not eating healthy.” Binges were replaced by new habits. “I’ve got into black coffee now,” he says. “I’ll still have a curry, but with a healthy sauce. I have 95% chocolate for a treat – I don’t need to indulge myself all the time.”

For Andy, the work outside the gym made bigger changes than the lifting inside it. “When I met Chris he said, ‘There’s 168 hours in a week and I’ve got you for three of them, so the rest is up to you’. Other people can help keep you on the road, but you’ve got to want it. Everyone’s got it in them. Don’t think of it as an end – think of it as a new way of life.”

Fine tuning

“The training sessions towards the end were much more focused on trying to add some lean muscle,” says Walton.

“As neither guy had done much weight training, we were still able to keep reps fairly high because they would still respond positively – from a lean mass perspective – to relatively high reps. They trained three times a week with me, and supplemented that with some high-intensity interval work on their own.” Here’s one of Goldstein’s typical lean mass sessions.

1A Side step-up

Sets
4Reps
6 each sideRest
30sec Stand holding heavy dumbbells with a box to one side of you, and step up onto it. After you’ve done all your reps on one side, turn around and do it again leading with the other leg.

1B Semi-supinated lat pull-down

Sets
4Reps
10Rest
30sec

Hold the pull-down handle with your palms facing in – this targets your biceps, and it’s easier on the elbows. Pull the weight down strongly, and control it on the way up.

Wide-grip pull-ups are one of the best moves for adding upper-body muscle

2A 1¼ goblet squat

Sets
3Reps
8Rest
30sec

Holding a kettlebell by the “horns”, drop into a squat so your elbows touch your knees. Come a quarter of the way up, drop down again and then stand up. That’s one rep.

High-intensity drills such as sled pulls increase the fat burn

2B Bench press

Sets
3Reps
10Rest
30sec

For a power boost, squeeze the bar: it’ll fire up the surrounding muscles, letting you squeeze out an extra rep or two.

3A Dumbbell push press

Sets
3Reps
10Rest
30sec

Holding a pair of dumbbells at shoulder height, bend your knees slightly and then use the momentum to drive them overhead.

Roll-outs place tension on your entire core to sculpt a six-pack

3B Lateral step-over

Sets
3Reps
12 each sideRest
30sec Set up a low bench and hop over it, touching it with each foot at the top.

3C Renegade row

Sets
3Reps
12Rest
30sec

Gripping a pair of (preferably hexagonal) dumbbells, do a press-up, then row each dumbbell up to your armpit. That’s one rep.

Monitoring progress is a key to staying motivated and on track

Gym style is a state of mind

When, in 2015, US-based fitness and fashion enthusiast Stan Cheung was looking for gym wear that would both perform well and look stylish, he wasn’t happy with the options. “I was on the search for comfortable essentials that could be worn for a workout, going out for coffee, attending meetings or even going out to lunch. I ended up taking my existing gym clothes to the tailor to have them re-engineered. I couldn’t find what I was looking for so I decided to make it myself.”

The result was EYSOM (which stands for Exercise Your State Of Mind), a new athleisure label that specialises in, as Cheung says, “taking true performance gym wear and making it versatile enough to wear anywhere while looking elegant and stylish.” The new collection – an extension of last season’s core gym wear – moves the brand further into the lifestyle arena, with a broader range of clothes including jackets, cardigans, hoodies and sweatshirts. Our pick is the on-trend bomber (above).

The shoe that’s ready for anything

Designing shoes for CrossFit athletes isn’t the easiest footwear gig in the world. The whole point of the all-round fitness movement is that one minute you could be doing an Olympic lift and the next you could be sprinting. Reebok’s new Nano 6.0 accounts for that

Reebok Nano 6.0 £89.95

Sunday league superstar

1 Increase stability

Unless you are actually a hindrance to your team, your first job is to make sure you spend less time sidelined through injury. “Everyone always tries to get athletes to be faster and stronger but they’re always breaking down because there’s a fundamental disconnect in how their body is moving,” says Winsper. “We get every athlete to work on mobility at the start of a session. Get down on one knee and then use your hands to push your front knee over your big toe to stretch the back of the ankle. Stay in that position, then tilt your pelvis forwards to stretch your hip. From that position, place your hands behind your head and tilt from one side to the other and then rotate from one side to the other to work the thoracic spine.” Repeat the drill with the other foot forward.

2 Build speed

If you want to do something impressive with the ball, first you need to get hold of it. To do that, work on your short sprint speed – the ability to spot and make an interception is preferable to tackling, which risks both conceding a foul and injury. It’s rare that you’ll have to go full pelt for 60m so keep sprints short. “It’s important to do speed work at the start of a training session when a player is fresh,” says Winsper. “It could be something as simple as half a dozen short, sharp sprints. You don’t have to do a full speed session but you do need to do it at the start when your nervous system is fresh. You also need to know that all great speed is underpinned by strength and stability. You don’t want athletes sprinting flat-out if they don’t have the strength to back it up.”

3 Master deceleration

Your first touch is likely to improve if you can control how you arrive at the ball – and that means mastering deceleration. “We do a lot of work, from the academy systems right through to the highest level, teaching athletes to decelerate,” says Winsper. “The more force a player produces, the more they have to reduce to stop. You want to drive your heel into the ground to decelerate if you’re running really fast. We take them through a programme to ‘own the movement’ first, making sure the underpinning strength is there to decelerate properly -which means that the glutes fire, the hamstrings are working with the glutes and they’re using the correct part of the foot to decelerate. It’s also about being in control of your hip position. The hips dictate how you control your movement.”

4 Develop agility

To intercept the ball or create space so you’re in a good position to receive it, you’ll need to work on your ability to change direction. All you need are a few cones and a couple of teammates to race against. “A simple but effective sequence is to do a short sprint, a little back-pedal and then a sprint off at a different angle,” says Winsper. “Once you can control that, you can start to work on agility, which is change of direction in response to a stimulus. That’s when we add in a competition: you have two players in the centre and you’ve got different coloured markers at 12m, 10m, 8m, 6m and 4m. The coach might shout ‘blue’ and they race to the blue cone, and then maybe the coach shouts ‘red’ when the athletes are halfway, so they’ve got to execute the skill under pressure.”

5 Improve strength

“Once we’ve made sure the player’s joint is stable, we start to add the muscle architecture – the ability of the muscle tissue to produce force,” says Winsper. “We develop pushing and pulling movements, both horizontally and vertically, rotating, hingeing from the hips and squatting. I wouldn’t start with a soccer-specific programme – I’d start with an athlete-building programme. Once you’ve done that you can be more sport-specific, such as doing single-leg Romanian deadlifts or lateral hops into explosive sprints.” Do single-leg Romanian deadlifts by holding a pair of dumbbells at the top of your thighs while standing on one leg. Hinge at the hips to move the weights down the front of your standing leg until you feel a strong stretch in your hamstrings, then straighten up again.

6 Boost recovery

This is one area where you can mimic the pros’ habits – as long as that means having a leisurely Fifa session on the sofa rather than rolling out of a nightclub at 4am. “Go for the basics first,” says Winsper. “Make sure you’re refuelling, rehydrating and resting. Those are the nonnegotiable elements.” Sadly, that means swerving a post-match pint. Your post-match meal, meanwhile, should contain a healthy portion of protein to assist muscle recovery and some complex carbohydrates to top up your glycogen (energy) stores. “If you’re an amateur athlete, you might not have access to an ice bath but you can have a cold shower on the legs and try to get to a swimming pool the day after the game.” Paul Winsper is an Under Armour ambassador. Visitunderarmour.co.uk.

Play it cool

Unless you’re some sort of untamable grooming maverick, the chances are that if you shave, you shave in the morning. And unless you are one of those rare and irritating people who leap out of bed, full of joy and vigour, there’s an equally good chance that you are still half-asleep during the whole facial de-fuzz process. If that is the case, reach for Gillette’s updated Fusion razor. It has strategically placed cooling technology on its lubricating strips to give you a fresh feeling while you shave. The strips are positioned on both sides of the blade to ensure that the skin is prepared before the blade arrives and after to protect on re-strokes. The total surface area is twice as large as on other cartridges and shaped to maximise the surface area contact with the skin. It almost makes you want to leap out of bed and head for the bathroom. Almost.

70% of shaving strokes are re-strokes over an already shaved area of skin, according to Gillette research, which also found that the average man exerts 1.5kg of pressure per stroke

Maro Itoje Born winner

What a season you’ve just had: 26 starts, 26 wins. A Six Nations Grand Slam. A Premiership. A European Champions Cup. A historic 3-0 series whitewash over Australia. And European Player of the Year, aged 21. How do you follow that up?

Ha! That record [number of starts and wins] changes each time. I don’t know the actual number. Last year was good – it was enjoyable to be involved with Saracens and England. I feel very fortunate to be involved with those teams but the exciting thing is we’re not anywhere near our potential yet. There’s room to grow. We’re hungry and we’re looking to improve. I think the future is going to be brighter than our past.

Itoje in action for England in the 44-40 win over Australia which sealed a 3-0 series victory

What do your team-mates make of your record?

I’ve got a little bit of stick for it but all the guys I play with have been a huge part of all of those games – especially all the guys at Saracens. It’s as much their record as it is mine.

You’re doing a politics degree at SOAS in London too – is that going just as well?

I’m in my final year. Things are looking all right… I have a feeling I might have to be at uni a bit more this year which might be quite challenging. With all these things it’s about time management and discipline to know when it’s time to study, when it’s time to train and when it’s time to relax.

“This off-season I went a couple of weeks without training and I felt like my body was getting withdrawal symptoms,” says Itoje

We heard you escaped to California to recover over the summer. Did you sneak in a session at the iconic training Mecca of Gold’s Gym near Venice Beach?

I even got the T-shirt [he points to his black Gold’s Gym top]. I had four weeks off and stayed in Bel Air for a bit. It was cool, I had a lot of fun out there – it’s a cool place to train. To be fair I was very small in that gym. There were some big units walking about.

Do you enjoy the physical demands of your sport?

I do like training. This off-season I went a couple of weeks without training and I felt like my body was getting withdrawal symptoms. I needed to do something. I struggle to switch off. We train for most of the year so going to the gym is normal, it’s a part of our lives. When you don’t do something that’s normal it tends to feel weird. I missed the routine.

What workouts do you do when the strength and conditioning coaches aren’t watching?

If it was up to me and I’m lifting for fun, it’s beach weights all the way. Biceps curls, abs exercises. For that reason, I fitted in well at Gold’s Gym.

Have you always been big or have you had to work hard to bulk up?

When I was younger I struggled to put weight on. Now I’m finding it much easier. I need to manage my weight to make sure I don’t put it on too quickly. My metabolism has slowed down. I don’t feel the need to deny myself anything because I’m normally quite good. I just don’t buy them. If it’s not in your house you’re not going to eat it.

What about if you’re eating on the go? [MFreminds Maro he grabbed a bacon sandwich and peach iced tea before we sat down for the interview.]

Nah, it was a grilled chicken sandwich. Honest. And iced tea is good for you, right? That’s what I tell myself anyway.

Itoje says he struggled to put weight on in the past. Not now

In 2015 you were part of the pre-World Cup training squad under Stuart Lancaster, and this

year you worked with Eddie Jones in the Six Nations. What has been the biggest change?

I’m not the best person to ask… I was there for three weeks before the World Cup and in that three weeks we did very little rugby. It was basically just fitness and strength and conditioning. You can’t compare that with when I joined the team with Eddie Jones because we were going straight into a match. But what I would say is he’s come in and made these players even more motivated than they already were, and he’s got that fight and belief back in the team.

Does he put his arm around you or does he challenge you?

He does whatever he thinks is necessary at the time. He’s a very intelligent guy and he knows how to motivate the team and his players. He does what he believes is necessary.

Does he congratulate you?

Of course he does! Every sensible coach will congratulate you when you do well but we’re not where we want to be and until we get there we’ll continue to work hard.

When Jones came in he said he wanted to make training “uncomfortable”. Was he true to his word?

Yeah, training’s tough. Sessions don’t last too long, normally just over an hour, but within that hour it’s intense. It’s very physical and he and the rest of the training staff expect very high standards from everyone. And it’s all rugby relevant – it’s not just fitness. The most important thing is we all know what we’re training for. You can’t just train in the gym and not train on the pitch, because at the end of the day you’re training to be a rugby player. All the stuff you do in the gym has to be transferable to what you want to do on the pitch.

What’s the greatest lesson you’ve learned in your sport?

I’d say it’s that the process creates the result. If your process is to train really well, eat really well, mentally prepare well and have that holistic approach, more often than not you’d expect to have a good performance – if those things are all in place. If you take one of those things for granted, that’s when the performance tends to suffer.

You were England captain for the Under-20 World Cup win in 2014 and are already being talked about as a future senior team captain. So what would you say makes a good leader?

People always ask me this question and I find it’s better to ask people who have captained at the top level. I just try to be myself. I try to add a bit of energy and intensity to the team. I try to lead by example and hopefully say the right thing at the right time and do the right thing at the right time.

Apart from a World Cup, a Lions tour is the only thing missing from your CV. The tour of New Zealand is less than 12 months away… Is it your Everest?

Honestly, I haven’t started thinking about it. I’ve just got back from the off-season and I’ve started pre-season now, so my goal is to get in the best shape possible for the start of the season and hopefully start the season with a bang with Saracens. Hopefully my performances will be at the level I expect them to be and we’ll go from there.

What do you want to work on over the next year to get yourself on that tour?

I want to improve every part of my game. I want to improve my strength, my fitness, my tactical understanding, my collisions. I don’t think I need to be any bigger but if I can work on those things I’ll be the best player I can be.

Maro Itoje was speaking at the launch of Maximuscle’s new raw ingredient powders. Pre-order now at maximuscle.com

More power to you

Being fast, explosive and powerful won’t just allow you to lord it over your team-mates on the sports pitch – it can also help you stave off the musclewasting effects of ageing. Swedish research shows fast-twitch muscle (type II fibres that help you move with power) depletes far more rapidly than slow-twitch muscle (type I fibres used for endurance). Here, coach Jack Lovett (spartanperformance.co.uk) explains how to boost your proportion of type II tissue and hang on to your hardearned muscle.

1 Get to grips with a heavy barbell

Why ”Strength equals power,” says Lovett. “Compound lifts, especially the big four – squat, deadlift, bench press and overhead press – develop maximum strength that will provide an instant boost to your power output.”

How ”Every session in the gym should begin with at least one compound lift done for maximum strength,” says Lovett.

How many Five sets of three to five reps, with two minutes’ rest between sets.

2 Bound up the staircase

Why “Plyometric moves like jumps, bounds and hops are less stressful on the body than sprinting but allow you to generate a high rate of force and learn total-body movements for full power,” says Lovett.

How Find an obstruction-free staircase (or sub in box jumps). From stationary, explode up and forward and land softly, using your arms for momentum.

How many Before lower-body lifts, do five sets of five reps, recovering fully between sets.

3 Stay strong in the middle

Why “Your ability to absorb impact, balance, accumulate forces and transfer power all rely on your core strength,” says Lovett. “The stronger it is, the greater your foundation for power.”

How Start with planks in the top of a press-up position and progress to doing them with hands in gymnastic rings and feet elevated. Once you can hold it for 90 seconds easy, add extra weight.

How many Four sets of 30-90 seconds.

4 Throw with force

Why “Throwing movements are ideal for developing power because, unlike lifts with bars or kettlebells, they allow for uninhibited triple extension,” says Lovett. In other words, you can launch them with all your might so you don’t need to decelerate.

How Use overhead med ball throws in an open space. From a crouch, explode up and chuck the ball behind you as far as you can.

How many Five sets of five reps, recovering fully between sets.

5 Lift like an Olympian

Why “When done with good technique, cleans and snatches allow you to dynamically lift serious weight with every muscle,” says Lovett.

How Make sure you get one-on-one coaching to learn good technique but above all, focus on lifting as fast as you can, rather than as heavy as you can.

How many Five sets of three to five reps, with 30-85% of your one-rep maximum, resting for 90 seconds to two minutes between sets.

Veg out with ease

1 Order in fresh

Veg always going off in your fridge? “Use a food delivery service that ships the exact ingredients you need along with simple recipe cards to your door,” says Giles Humphries, co-founder of mindfulchef.com.

2 Play with your veg

“Invest in a spiraliser,” says Humphries. “These cheap gadgets transform your dinners.” Think carrot ribbons and sweet potato noodles. “You won’t get the same blood sugar spike as with white starchy pasta.”

3 Blitz in a smoothie

Fill your juicer with nutrient-dense veg in place of just sugary fruit. “Start your day with a kale, spinach, banana and almond milk mix for an iron-rich, fibrous boost,” says Humphries. Add spirulina for extra vitamins and protein.

4 Convert into rice

“Swap carbheavy rice for innovative – and more flavoursome – cauliflower or broccoli rice,” says Humphries. Mix it up in a food processor (or buy it ready-riced) for a creative, low-GI option.

A beautiful mind

Pay attention – it could just get you a second date. That’s according to new Australian research investigating how mindfulness and visual attractiveness influence male and female choices during a speed-dating experiment. In the study, men were (somewhat unsurprisingly) more concerned with looks while, instead, women were drawn to men showing traits of “high dispositional mindfulness”. In other words, someone who’s aware and attentive to what they are thinking and feeling in the moment.

“Mindfulness is being the master of your emotions,” explains mindfulness teacher and author Suryacitta Malcolm Smith (mindfulnesscic.co.uk). “If you have high mindfulness, you’re more present and alive in the moment, you listen and empathise better and are more self-assured.” So pay attention to yourself before the big night – using the beginner’s tips above – and you’ll pay better attention to your date, which should bring its own rewards.

Mindfulness for beginners

FEEL YOURSELF BREATHING

“Get to a meeting early and sit quietly for five minutes,” says Suryacitta. “Feel your contact with the chair. Observe your breath into your body as your chest rises and falls. Think only of your breathing and feel present in the moment.”

TUNE IN TO YOUR TRAINING

“Build mindful muscle,” says Suryacitta. “When exercising, start without music and listen to your body instead. If running, be aware of the movement of your hips. If lifting weights, feel every muscle involved in the movement.”

LISTEN TO YOUR EMOTIONS

“Use the power of pauses,” says Suryacitta. “A few times a day, stop and allow your emotions to flow. Learn to know your feelings. After a minute, switch to focus on your breath for another 60 seconds. Then get on with your day.”

Boost your brain power

1 Read more Shakespeare

A study from the University of California found reading can lower levels of a brain protein linked to Alzheimer’s. Lower levels of amyloid proteins were identified in the brains of those who read throughout their lives. Load your bookcase with challenging texts to give your mind a workout and push it out of its comfort zone, just like with your muscles -Liverpool University research found classic literature activated more of the brain than easier, modern adaptations.

2 Take a 60-minute power nap

Just one night of poor sleep can damage your short- and long-term memory but a hour’s nap can help redress the damage, according to a study in the journal NeurobiologyOf Learning And Memory. Can’t catch 40 winks at work? Go for a stroll instead. Just 30 minutes of daily walking can boost the size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain that processes new information and aids long-term memory, another study in Physiology And Behaviour suggests.

3 Time your study right

Revising for exams or got a big pitch in the morning? Cramming or rehearsing before bed and immediately after you wake can improve retention, according to Brazilian research. The study also found those who received training in the afternoon performed better on tests than those who trained in the morning. And for a last-minute fix, research in Nature Neuroscience found a cup of coffee can boost cognitive function and memory too.

4 Fatten up on snack food

Our brains are composed of 60% fat and use 20% of the body’s metabolic energy, so keeping them well fed is essential. The brain diet: polyunsaturated fats, the omega 3 fatty acid DHA and even saturated fat. A study in the journal Neurologica found healthy fats reduced the risk of dementia by 36%. Cook with coconut oil, eat oily fish and load up on nuts – especially almonds, pecans and walnuts – and you should get enough healthy fats to keep your mind whirring happily.

Use dumbbells for balanced gains

43% The increase in electromyographic (EMG) activity measured in the leg and core muscles of subjects doing free weight squats over using a Smith machine, according to Canadian research

Real-world strength

If you’ve ever tried to drag a heavy bag through a packed airport or lug a TV up to a second-floor flat, you know the real-life requirements of functional strength. And you can only train for it with dumbbells, barbells and kettlebells. “You might be able to build size that makes you look the part with resistance machines, but you won’t have the strength in your tendons, ligaments and stabilising muscles for the real world,” says PT Alex Gildea (gildeafitness.com).

Fix your weaknesses

Body symmetry is important for more than just aesthetic reasons. “An imbalanced body can be especially vulnerable to injury when one side compensates for the other,” says Gildea. It can be hard to target individual limbs or muscles using machines alone but also when using barbells for overhead lifts and bench presses, so swap in dumbbell variations. “You might find you lift less at first but once you’ve exposed and addressed weaknesses you’ll be able to lift bigger in the long run.”

Six-pack perks

Dumbbells come in matching pairs but that doesn’t mean you have to use them together. “Doing unilateral – one-sided – lifts with free weights activates your anti-rotational core muscles to target your abs muscles, which usually get an easy ride with machines,” says Gildea. Try single-arm dumbbell chest presses and suitcase carries (like farmer’s walks but on just one side) to strengthen your core and forge more robust foundations for your lifts.