Category: Features

Tucking away a few summer ice-creams won’t just have a negative impact on your waistline –it can also weaken your bones, according to the Institute for Ageing Research in the US. When scientists tested the effect that consuming various dairy products had on subjects’ bone mineral density they found that cream had a negative impact. Other products fared better, with both milk and yogurt having a positive effect on bone health. If you really can’t go without a treat in the sun, make sure you offset the damage by hitting the gym. A study in a recent issue of Current Sports Medicine Reports concluded that regular resistance training can promote bone development with likely increases in bone mineral density of 1-3%.

IN the summer of 2010, Rory McIlroy was the most promising young talent in world golf. The weight of expectation on his then slender shoulders was immense. The sport was in search of a new hero after Tiger Woods’s fall from grace and the 21-year-old from County Down looked as if he had the raw ability to take his place. Talent doesn’t, however, automatically ensure success and after McIlroy narrowly missed out on both the Open and the US PGA Championships, he went in search of the missing ingredient that could propel him from prodigy to master. In autumn 2010 he started working with the exercise physiologist Dr Steve McGregor. A few months later, after shooting a record-breaking 16 under par, McIlroy won the US Open by an impressive eight-stroke margin.

“I sometimes get questioned about the amount of stuff I do in the gym by golfers who wouldn’t know any better,” says McIlroy when he sits down with MF at The Third Space gym in London. “I just have to say, look at who I was and where I was as a golfer in 2010. I started training in September 2010 and look at me now. Since I started training I’ve won four majors and got to world number one. So it can only help.”

We’re chomping our way through a post-workout mini-feast of protein pancakes and superfood juices, after McGregor has coached McIlroy and MF through a sample of the sessions they do together (see “Train Like McIlroy”, p74). McIlroy – looking lean and muscular – sailed through the circuits of pull-ups, deadlift variations and squat jumps. Of course, no amount of clever training is going to turn a hacker into a world champ – but if you adopt the training tactics he used to get to the top of his game, it might just keep you out of the sand a little bit longer next time you’re on the golf course.

What are you focusing on at the moment in training?

I have certain periods during the year where I focus on different things. At the start of the year it’s strength endurance. In the middle of the year it’s more power-based. I don’t really change my training depending on the tournament I’m playing, it’s more about the time of the year.

At the minute I’m at a time of the year where I’m working on power. Ask me this in February and it’s a different answer. If I play well I can focus on golf from April through to September, so I get the bulk of my training and my base done from January to March. I’m in the gym a lot at that time of year.

What does each workout look like?

If you’re doing a power phase you’re doing three sets of five reps or three reps, depending on the exercise. Right now I’m doing an upper-body and a lower-body split. The lower-body workout is explosive so there are a couple of box jump variations in there. There are reverse lunges but with a weight overhead to work on shoulder stability. Maybe a 6-8kg weight just to stabilise the shoulder. Then there might be a barbell lateral lunge. Most of the time I’ll finish with a core circuit which is four exercises back to back. I’m in and out of the gym in an hour in the middle of the season. That’s when you want to minimise the time you’re in the gym to make sure you’re getting enough time on the golf course.

Do you like being in the gym?

I do. I think I’ve learned to love it. You start off and you hate it, you’re like, “Do I have to do this?” but once you start to see results and you start to get stronger… I think that’s where the enjoyment comes from. It’s the challenge of getting better and when you notice that you are getting better, that’s when you start to enjoy it a bit more.

Performance is obviously the main thing that matters to you, but have you noticed physical changes too?

Yeah, it’s a bonus. It was never something that was a main objective. I don’t need to look like Anthony Joshua but if you do spend time in the gym and you do the right things and you eat well, it’s a by-product of it. It’s not like I’m trying to look good but it’s a nice bonus. If you compare the way I look now with how I looked in 2010, there’s a big difference.

Do you feel different?

Yeah, I do feel different. My posture is better. I’m more stable in my core. I’m stronger in my legs. I can hold positions in the swing better. I wouldn’t say I went into the gym to try to find distance or length, but it has made my body movement much more consistent. And because I’m more consistent in my movements I’m less likely to get into bad habits.

Do you find you have more energy towards the end of a tournament?

I think I recover faster and that’s a big thing. I might feel a bit tired or my legs might get a bit heavy, particularly, say, at the Ryder Cup where you play 36 holes and walk 12 miles[in a day]. It’s more about education – so if I feel tired then it’s, “OK, what do I need to do?” I know I need to refuel, I need to get something into my body or wear compression socks… there are loads of things you can do. That’s why working with Steve has been such a benefit because he has educated me. And all this stuff I’ve picked up along the way means that he’s comfortable with leaving me alone for a couple of weeks and saying, “You know what you need to do”.

Do you give him feedback about how you’re feeling?

Definitely. I got into this because my back was bad so that’s something we’ve had to manage since we started. And there are a lot of things that are specific to me – I always want to be in [back] extension. Being in a hunched position, for me, is not good so I make sure I have good posture to engage my lower back. With the box jumps that I’m doing at the minute, I need to make sure I keep my chest up in the jump because if I hunch over at all, it just doesn’t feel very good. So I’m always giving him feedback about how I feel – we’re in constant contact. We both know my body so well now that we can modify things if we need to, or design programmes around things that might limit me in some way.

Do you do much cardio training?

I like running. I can go and run a 5K in 20 minutes. I used to like the bike but because it puts you in a hunched-over position, I can’t do it any more – and running is better for me because it’s good for your posture. If I was going to do any sort of cardio at all, it would be a run. I could push myself to run a 10K but I don’t really need to – I’ve no ambition to run a marathon at any stage. But I enjoy going out and running a 5K, trying to set a decent time and pace. It’s a nice way to clear the head as well.

You recently announced that you wouldn’t be taking part in the Rio Olympics. Was that a tough decision to make?

I feel like I have four Olympic games a year, which are the majors. They’re the things that are most important to me. I weighed up the risk and the reward, and I felt like the reward for me – and it is different for everyone – wasn’t worth it. So I said, you know what, I’m happy with my four Olympics a year.

PRO TACTICS

Record your progress

“I encourage everyone to take some initial baseline information, which could be taking some pictures of yourself or looking at your range of motion,” says McGregor. “You could get some measurements of your body composition and also make some notes on how you feel when you exercise. Having some markers of progression will help you with motivation.”

The man behind the master

Dr Steve McGregor helped McIlroy win majors and top the world rankings. Here’s how he did it

The project

When you work with a global sports star such as Rory McIlroy, you’re required to slot into a select team of people at the top of their game and help your athlete dominate the competition. “My overall job is to provide the scientific support to the coaching process,” says McGregor. “I bring the objective view, whether that’s analysing the golf swing or looking at some performance analysis statistics. And then I’m the physio, I advise on nutrition and I work on strength and conditioning. Since I came in to work with Rory in 2010, I’ve extended the objective analysis by taking him into a laboratory and quantifying some things that maybe you can’t see on a video: putting numbers to the range of motion, identifying power information and analysing blood profiles.”

The breakthrough

When McGregor joined the team, McIlroy wasn’t in super-athlete shape and there was some fundamental work to be done.“When we started working in 2010, Rory had a back issue and we did various assessments and measures,” says McGregor. “One thing I highlighted was that Rory was particularly weak in his legs. That was leading to a lot of over-rotation in his lower body and more force being put into his spine. So we worked on his leg strength to give him more robustness around his hamstrings, glutes and quads. That gave him more stability and support when hitting the ball.”

The long-term plan

“The main outcome is to allow Rory to practise as often as he can,” says McGregor. “That was what was restricted initially and once we addressed that it allowed him to do more technical practice. That’s what should allow him to become a better player and also give him longevity. As his training continued we focused on injury-proofing and increases in strength and power. That translates into other aspects that are important to him, which is greater shot distance and greater control of the club head.”

TRAIN LIKE McILROY

Do this session, created by McIlroy’s coach Steve McGregor, to perform better than ever

“The focus of this workout is strength endurance,” says McGregor. “It’s important to mention that the work that Rory does is a progression. Initially we work on stability and flexibility. Then you work through phases of training such as range of motion, endurance, strength endurance, strength, power. This workout is a strength endurance component including upper- and lower-body exercise to develop a general base. You’ll get a reduction in tiredness, improved concentration and more stability, and you should find that you’ll feel more comfortable on the golf course over 18 holes. If it’s done effectively that translates into greater power development but also, outside of golf, you’ll feel better. Men’s Fitness readers will know the positive impact on physical health and psychological wellbeing, and this is a good general workout.”

How to do it

First complete the mobility drills. Then do one set of exercises 1A, 1B and 1C in order without any rest to complete one circuit. Rest for one minute, then complete another circuit. Do three circuits in total. Then do one set of exercises 2A, 2B and 2C in order without any rest to complete one circuit. Rest for one minute and go again, completing three rounds of the second circuit in total.

Phase 1 Mobility

Mobility work is the most frequently overlooked element of training. It’s easy to think that it’s just a boring waste of time but spending ten minutes at the beginning of every session doing the following movements will help you get better results. “You always see training images of Rory when he posts a big deadlift but the mobility exercises he does at the start of the session are equally important,” says McGregor. “They’re important for a few reasons. You have to warm the tissue up before you become explosive. If you want to get stronger and lift more, raising the muscle temperature will help you do that.”

How to do it

Do the following drills in order for 30 seconds each without resting between moves.

1 Hamstring sweep

Stand upright, then take a short stride forwards. Keep your leading leg straight with the heel on the ground and bend forwards towards your leg to feel a stretch in your hamstring. As you move forwards, sweep your arms past your front leg and take a step forwards with the opposite leg to continue the drill.

2 Quad grab

Stand upright, then take a step forwards while bringing your back heel up to your backside to feel a strong stretch in your quads by holding your ankle with your opposite hand. Release that leg, take another step forwards and repeat the move on the other side. Keep walking forwards, alternating sides and moving fluidly.

3 Lunge tilt

From standing, take a step forwards then lower until both knees are bent at 90°, simultaneously raising both arms overhead. When you are in the lunge position, tilt your torso over to one side and then the other, using controlled movements. Push back to the start and repeat with the other leg.

4 Dynamic side lunge

Stand upright and take a big stride sideways. Bend your leading knee to sink into a side lunge then, in the bottom position, shift your weight across to move horizontally over to a side lunge on the other leg without moving your feet. Return to the start, pivot on one foot to face the opposite direction and repeat on the other side.

Phase 2 Strength endurance workout

1A Romanian deadlift (below)

Why “This is a great lower-body move,” says McGregor. “You need stability as you move but it works the quads, hams, glute control and core stability. To do it effectively you need to have good impingement of your shoulders and good posture, so it’s a really good all-round exercise.”

How Stand up straight holding a pair of dumbbells. With your shoulders back and without locking your knees, hinge at the hips to lower the dumbbells down the front of your thighs. Lower the weights for a count of three until they are just below your knees then return to the start, squeezing your glutes at the top of the move. The aim here is to load your hamstrings rather than bend your knees and work your quads. Your weight should also be on your heels and mid-foot but not on your toes.

How many8-10 reps, then move on to the next exercise without resting.

1B Pull-up (below)

Why “This is a fantastic upper-body exercise but you also need good core control to get into the right position in the first place,” says McGregor. “The involvement of the lats and the lower back is ideal for golfers because most of them will be in a flexed position when they’re swinging or practising so we want to work their posterior chain.”

How Grip a bar with your palms facing away from you and hang straight down. Squeeze your glutes, then pull yourself up without swinging so that your chin is over the bar. Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the top of the move, then lower under control to the start.

How many5-10 reps, then move on to the next exercise without resting.

1C Plank with leg raise

Why “Raising the leg makes it a stability challenge,” says McGregor. “And it’s specific to golf because you have that left versus right rotation. When you rotate to the backswing you’re focusing on your right glutes, and when your fire across to your left you focus on the left.”

How Get into a plank position with your elbows directly below your shoulders and your body in a straight line from head to heels. Without rotating your hips, lift one straight leg off the floor by using your glutes. Lower that leg and lift your other leg off the floor. Alternate sides.

How many8 reps each side. Rest for a minute, then complete another circuit.

2A Reverse lunge (right)

Why “The reason I like the reverse lunge is it works more on eccentric control [the lowering phase of the move],” says McGregor. “You get a lengthening of the muscle tissue which is good for golf because you want to maintain lower-back extension where your back is upright. Forward lunges put people into forward flexion and that’s what we’re trying to avoid.”

How Stand upright holding a dumbbell in each hand. Take a big step backwards with one leg then bend both knees until they are bent at 90°, making sure your front foot is flat on the floor. Push back up to the start and repeat the move on the opposite side.

How many6-8 reps each side, then move on to the next exercise without resting.

2B Renegade row (right)

Why “This combines upper-body control and shoulder blade stabilisation,” says McGregor. “The lats are responsible for pulling the weights up and thanks to the left versus right component, you can see if there’s a weakness in either side.”

How Start in the top of a press-up position, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Keeping your hips still, row one dumbbell up to your armpit, then return it to the floor. Focus on pulling the elbow back to properly engage your latissimus or lat muscles – the big ones in your back. Repeat the move on the other side and alternate reps for the duration of the set. To make the move more challenging, bring your feet together. To make it easier, move them apart.

How many6-8 reps each side, then move on to the next exercise without resting.

2C Jump squat

Why “When you explode upwards that’s triple extension,” says McGregor. “And in a golf swing we extend from the hip, knee and ankle, so it’s a really good exercise for getting that triple extension, which will help you hit the ball more powerfully.”

How Stand with a box in front of you. Lower into a quarter squat, moving your arms back as you sink down, then explode upwards to jump onto the box, swinging your arms forwards to give yourself extra momentum. The box doesn’t need to be high but each jump should be an all-out effort. If you feel that your performance is beginning to suffer, stop the exercise. This is about quality, not quantity, of reps.

How many5 reps. Rest for a minute, then complete another circuit.

PRO TACTICS

Stay in control

“Focus on controlling the movement and feeling stable,” says McGregor. “We’ve all seen people lift more than they should. Their joints come out of line and that increases the pressure and stress on your tendons and ligaments. So control and good form are vital – only then can you start to increase the resistance or increase the repetitions.”

Never stop improving

To access more McIlroyinspired workouts, download the new Nike Training Club app from the App Store. Once you input your details you get personalised plans designed to help you achieve your workout goals.

So: you’re economising in an attempt to reduce the personal impact of the post-Brexit financial meltdown. Or maybe you’ve got a lovely park near you and spend most of your time at a desk so you wouldn’t mind getting an occasional glimpse of that big ball of fire in the sky. Or you’re allergic to mirrors. All entirely valid reasons to shift your workout away from the gym – but if that isn’t enough, consider that one recent investigation saw 800 people report reduced levels of stress and anger from training outside, while another study linked it with increased energy.

And apart from fresh air and oxygen prompting the release of feelgood hormone serotonin, there are other benefits. Five to 30 minutes of sun exposure at least twice a week will improve your body’s vitamin D levels, helping you build stronger bones and a more robust immune system. Of course, dumbbells and squat racks can be hard to find outdoors, but that’s no obstacle. “With a bit of improvisation, you can mimic any workout you’d do in the gym outside,” says trainer David Jackson of the School of Calisthenics. “So if you don’t like the gym, there’s really no excuse.”

Even if you do like the gym, it’s still worth popping your shades on and your shirt off and hitting the grass for a workout now and then. See you in the park.

➊ MOVE SLOWER, MOVE BETTER

Mobility training: it’s the new stretching. And the good news is using a select handful of dynamic movements won’t just improve your range of motion – it’ll get your circulation going and challenge your coordination. Forget doing an hour of yoga, just borrow a variation on the classic sun salutation.

“Think of this as a slow-motion burpee,” says trainer Rannoch Donald. “It engages almost every muscle while providing a fantastic stretch.”

The Aim A fullbody warm-up that increases flexibility, sharpens mental focus and sets you up for a successful training session.

Why “Do this three or four times a week, and you’ll see your hip, ankle and knee range of motion improve,” says Donald. “Even if you don’t want to squat or do Olympic lifts, that’s certain to improve your quality of life.”

How

● Start with your feet just wider than shoulder-width apart, toes pointing forwards.

● Squat down by bending at the knees and hips and place your hands between your feet.

● Move your left foot backwards so you’re in a lunge position.

● Move your right foot back to assume a press-up position with your body in a straight line.

● From here, drop your hips to the floor while keeping your arms straight. This position is the traditional yoga “cobra”.

●Hold the cobra position for a second, then raise your hips, do one press-up, and reverse the whole move until you’re standing up.

● Do one rep, take one breath, then repeat for two, three and four reps and breaths. Rest for a minute, then repeat. You’re ready to start your workout.

➋ PUT IN TIME AT THE BAR

Fancy hitting the jungle gym, but worried that everyone else there will be doing shirtless human flags? Don’t be. “Everyone’s talking about calisthenics at the moment, but a lot of the conversation is directed at advanced movements,” says Tim Stevenson of the School of Calisthenics.

“Everything is built on the basics. Week-to-week calisthenics programmes largely focus on building strength, muscle and skill by using variations of a few staple exercises – ideal for those who want to start but feel intimidated by the perceived ‘impossibility’ of some of the harder exercises.” Do these workouts once a week each for a month, and you’ll be ready to graduate to the hard stuff.

Pulling power

The Aim Build back strength and improve posture with just a pull-up bar.

How Do the active hangs to warm up your shoulders, then do three to five sets of each pulling exercise, with 90 seconds of rest in between. As you improve, you can add an extra rep to each session, or reduce the amount of time you rest by ten seconds.

Why “Most people do some vertical pulling in their workout, but horizontal pulls are important for hitting the muscles from other angles, and are slightly less high-intensity,” says Stevenson. “This workout improves the strength and stability of the muscles that retract and depress the shoulder blade. All that means healthier, more robust shoulders.”

Active hang

“Hanging is pretty simple but the real key is knowing the difference between a ‘dead’ hang and an ‘active’ hang,” says Stevenson. “In the dead hang you would be holding the bar but not creating any tension – you’re basically hanging on slack muscle and connective tissue. The active hang occurs when you pull the shoulder blades down and together as if you were squeezing a coin between them.” Do three sets of eight.

Rock climber pull-up

Start by hanging from a bar with your hands shoulder-width apart, palms facing away. Pull up, but pull slightly harder with one hand, so that your chin ends up close to one hand.

“This is a great progression towards the full ‘typewriter’ pull-up,” says Stevenson.

Row

On a low bar, position your hands shoulder-width apart and walk your feet underneath so your body is in a straight line with your heels on the ground, at about 45°. Keeping your elbows close to your body, pull your chest to the bar, then lower under control. To make it easier move your feet backwards to change the body angle in the start position. Do ten reps.

Leg strength

The Aim Lower-body strength

How Do the below circuit two to four times, going for five to ten reps of each move, then finish with the sprints. Can’t manage that? Do one or two reps and work your way up.

Pistol squat

Stand on one leg and start the squat by sitting back and down as if going into a chair. Get stable at the bottom, then drive the foot hard into the ground and try to crack an imaginary walnut between your glutes on the way up.

Shrimp squat

Grab your right foot with your right hand and hold it against your glutes. Put your left arm out in front of you to help with balance and weight distribution. Squat down with your left leg until your right knee touches the ground. Keep your bodyweight forwards over the left foot. Push hard into the ground to stand back up.

Sprint

“Set out markers at ten, 20, 40 and 50 metres or try to train at a sports pitch where lines are marked out already,” says Stevenson. “Sprint to each line, recover by walking back, then sprint again to the next marker.” Do three sets.

➌ THE BIG PUSH

What do you bench, bro? It barely matters. The flat bench press isn’t the chest-builder you’ve been led to believe. The path to improved pecs actually starts with the press-up – and with a handful of bodyweight moves to complement it, you can build T-shirtfilling muscle without ever touching a dumbbell. Do this circuit once or twice a week, but make sure you’re balancing it with an equal amount of pulling work – you don’t want that nine-to-five slouch you’ve been cultivating getting any worse, after all.

The big push

The Aim A bigger chest and triceps

How Do two to three sets of the pike press-ups, going to near-failure on each set – try to add more reps each week. Add eight to ten reps of straight bar dips for three sets with a 60-second rest in between, then finish with 50 press-ups in as few sets as possible. Focus on diamond press-ups for your triceps, pec press-ups for chest or handstand press-ups to work your shoulders.

Pike press-up

Start in a press-up position and walk your feet forwards to push your hips up so your body makes a V-shape with the hands on the floor. Keeping your hips high, bend your arms to lower your head straight down, and push back up. ress-up Diamond press-up

From a standard press-up position move your hands together to create a diamond with your thumbs and fingers. Lower your chest to the floor, and press up.

Pec press-up

Think of these like an isometric version of the dumbbell flye: no weight required. Get into a press-up position with your hands directly below your shoulders, do one rep – chest to the floor, please -then, at the top, “pull” your hands towards each other for three or four seconds, with the aim of activating your pecs. Repeat four times.

Handstand press-up

“You can progress these by working through whatever range of movement you can manage,” says Stevenson. “But the end goal is to get your face to the floor.” Get into a handstand with your feet resting on a wall or tree. “Screw” your hands into the floor by twisting your elbows so they point behind you. Keeping your elbows close to your body, lower down as far as you can, then push up.

Straight bar dip

Grip a straight bar with hands shoulder-width apart, and jump up so you’re holding yourself on straight arms, above the bar with your feet off the ground. Try to “bend the bar” by twisting your thumbs forwards – then, with your elbows close to your body, lower yourself as far as possible. Then press back up.

➍ GET TO THE CORE ISSUES

There’s no need for a huge array of core moves – just a few well selected exercises will hit your abs from every angle, in minimal time.

“Bolt the below circuit onto one of your existing sessions, or just throw it in while you watch TV,” says Ninja Warrior course tester Aslan Steel. Bonus: you don’t even have to move your head much. Do three circuits twice a week.

Hollow dish hold

The Aim Build gymnastlevel core strength

Why The great thing about this is the carry-over it gives you for other moves. “It’s what gymnasts use as a starting point for learning tougher moves – so it’ll make you better at pullups and other moves like hanging leg raises,” says Steel. Do the following drill for a few weeks and you’ll not only notice that your midsection is firmer, you’ll feel stronger when you do pull-up bar exercises too.

How

Lie flat on your back and squeeze your abdominal muscles tight while pushing your lower back into the ground. Raise your arms, shoulders and legs off the ground, keeping your arms above your head and in line with your body. Aim for a tensecond hold, increasing the time as you improve.

Super-plank

The Aim Cultivate a rock-solid core

Why The plank record is eight hours one minute but you haven’t got time for that. Instead, do this plank progression that alleviates the boredom induced by the conventional static hold while simultaneously developing shoulder stability. “This packs all the benefits of one of the best core moves into minimal time,” says Steel.

How

Assume the standard plank position – like a press-up, but with your forearms on the floor – then shift your elbows ahead of your forehead, bring them together, and squeeze your knees, heels and glutes together. Brace your abs as hard as possible.

If you can manage it for more than ten seconds, you’re doing it wrong.

Dragon flag

The Aim Get Bruce Lee-level show-off credentials

Why You may want to practise this one when there’s no-one around. Then, when you master it, you can bring it out on a busy Saturday when the sun’s shining. “It challenges every muscle in your core, and teaches you to hold tension in your abs – important for everything from throwing a punch to doing a squat,” says Steel.

How

Lie on your back, holding on to a pole, sofa, or similarly immovable object just behind your head. Raise your legs and torso into the air, keeping them in line, then lower as slowly as possible. You’ll probably need to keep one leg bent at first, but you can progress to the two-straight-legs version. Aim for three reps.

➎ RUN TO THE HILLS

Jogging? Off. Increasing the speed and dropping the distance will burn fat, keep your body’s levels of the stress hormone cortisol in check and rev up your metabolism for the rest of the day. “You can fit near-flat-out sprints into a 20-minute window two or three times a week,” says outdoor training specialist Andrew Tracey.

“Give it a week, increase the workload slightly each time, and watch your body change.” Mix up these four workouts for high-speed results.

Beach muscle

How

Every minute on the minute, run 100m at a near-flat-out sprint – 50m out-and-back is fine if you haven’t got a 100m space. Follow up with five pull-ups and five press-ups, and start your next 100m when the next minute starts. Repeat for 16 minutes, giving you a total of one mile a day.

Why “It’ll strip back the fat and add muscle up top,” says Tracey. For extra man-points, do the pull-ups on a tree.

Speed How

Mark out roughly 50m up a hill. Sprint up at max effort. Walk back down. Repeat this for five efforts. Rest for three minutes and go again, completing three “blocks” of training in total.

Why A decent rest between sets will let you build top-end velocity.

“The walk should ideally take four to five times as long as the sprint,” says trainer Tom Eastham. “If you’re using a stopwatch, attempt to keep each effort to a similar time – if you can’t, take longer to do the recovery walk.”

Endurance

How

“You’ll need an incline, a decline and a flat section for this one,” says Eastham. “A triangular course would be ideal.” Run up the hill at an effort level similar to your one-mile pace. Descend at a recovery pace then speed up on the flat part. Complete three laps without resting, then rest for the same time as you worked. Repeat for five blocks, trying to keep your pace the same for each block.

Why You’ll build better endurance through the process of accumulated fatigue, where you push hard, recover briefly, then push on again.

Fat loss

How

Find a short hill with a steep incline. Run up at max effort, run down at a recovery pace and do ten burpees (chest to floor). Run up and down again, then do nine burpees, then eight, then seven, all the way to one.

Why “It’s a swift kick in the metabolism that’ll also build mental strength,” says Eastham. “After the last set, ask yourself if you could have gone any harder. If the answer is yes, do another sprint and a final set of ten burpees. You’ll do better next time.”

➏ CHALLENGE YOURSELF

Without the hustle and clanging of a well-attended gym, it’s occasionally difficult to get motivated for a “traditional” sets/reps/ rest workout. The solution? Pick a short, sharp all-out challenge, get it done as fast as possible and go home. The three here, assembled by strength coach and bodyweight specialist Andy McKenzie, will keep you going even if your only audience is a confused pensioner and a dog.

Chasing your tail

The aim High-speed fat loss

How

● Do 20 press-ups and one straight-arm burpee (no need to drop into a press-up for this bit)

●Next, do 19 press-ups and two burpees. You can see where this is going, right?

Why “This will teach you to keep your arms straight and your core strong on the burpee element,” says McKenzie. So once you’ve stripped off the fat, you’ll have a six-pack to be proud of underneath. If you can’t do 20 press-ups in the first round, or you find that you’re fatigued after just a couple of rounds, start by doing ten or 15 press-ups in the first round. Then add an extra rep each time you do the workout until you get to 20 reps. Try to beat your total time each time you do it.

Nasty 45s

The aim Mental strength

How

Do the below in order and repeat for 15 minutes

●Squat thrust 15sec

● Bear crawl 15sec

● Flat-out sprint 15sec

● Rest 45sec

Why “Those short rests get harder and harder to stick to,” says McKenzie. “But if you can manage it, you’ll build do-anything resilience that’ll serve you anywhere.” To provide extra motivation, make a mental note of how many reps you complete in each 15-second period and log them in the rest periods. You may be feeling shattered but you’ll get a boost from knowing that you beat your previous best score.

5-4-3-2-1 knock-off

The aim Full-body power endurance

How

First, do these moves in order

● 50 squats

● 40 alternate jump lunges

● 30 press-ups

● 20 squat thrusts

● 10 burpees

● 150m run

Then knock off the 50 reps and repeat the rest (40, 30, 20, 10, run), then knock off the 40 reps and continue until you’re done.

Why “You might hit the first round fast, but this one will cook you,” says McKenzie. “It’s a lot of volume, done in quite a sneaky way.”

Hi – my name is Joel, and I’m a carnivore.

I was brought up as a vegetarian, but I’ve loved meat ever since my first bacon sandwich (at university), and I’ve been making up for lost time ever since. I’ve tried most types you could name (alligator is a favourite), experimented with eating it for every meal (steak for breakfast is the best) and spent hours working out how to grill, fry, smoke, braise or roast it better. I eat eggs every single day, I sprinkle cheese on everything possible, and I put butter in my coffee. And recently, I’ve been thinking about going vegan.

There are lots of good reasons not to go vegan, especially if you like being strong. It’s difficult to get enough protein, obviously, and there are few non-animal kinds that contain the complete range of amino acids. It’s also hard to get creatine and vitamin B12, alongside lesser-known nutrients like carnosine and DHA. Ido Portal – UFC star Conor McGregor’s “movement coach” – refuses to train with vegans because they’re “too low-energy”. And, of course, you can’t have proper milk in your tea.

On the other hand, there are lots of good reasons to eat less meat and more plants. Even if you ignore the ethical side of things (and the egg and dairy industries are arguably even worse than the meat industry from a strictly animal welfare perspective; nothing good is happening to all those unneeded male chicks and calves), eating meat isn’t sustainable in the long term on a planet-wide level. In 2014, the Chatham House thinktank published a report identifying animal agriculture as one of the leading causes of climate change, responsible for more emissions than all global transport combined, and talks in Paris concluded that reducing the world’s meat consumption will be critical to keeping global warming below“danger level”. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger is in on the act, suggesting that people have a couple of meat-free days a week for the good of the planet. It’s tough to argue with the Terminator.

Also, let’s be honest: none of us is eating enough vegetables. Five a day, the UK government-endorsed minimum, is hard enough to manage, and that’s still not really enough. For a lot of people (me included), part of the issue is not knowing how to get more greens in: what you’re supposed to do with celeriac, for instance, or how to make cauliflower taste nice. One good reason to at least try veganism is to promote what food writer and chef J Kenji Lopez-Alt calls “diversity through restriction” – forcing yourself to try new foodstuffs because you’re not allowed your old standbys.

To a man who exists on steak, turkey burgers and slow-cooker chicken most weeks, it’s a compelling (if intimidating) sales pitch. So I decided to try it. For a week. Strict. And – spoilers – it isn’t that hard.

Greeneyed monster

“Where’s the protein? This is usually what people fear,” says John Berardi, founder of Precision Nutrition and advocate of what he prefers to call “plant-based eating” – a mostly vegetarian diet that doesn’t exclude meat entirely or have the moral implications of labelling yourself a full veggie. “If you’re eating, say, 90% of your diet as plants, but still regularly eating eggs, dairy, fish, meat or protein powder, you should be just fine unless you have some special need for extra protein.”

And if you’re going all the way? “Include at least one cup of beans each day,” Berardi says (a cup is around 250ml by volume). “Beans are an important source of the amino acid lysine for people who don’t eat animal products. They contain protein, minerals and antioxidants, and they’re cheap.”

You might have heard that beans have a high concentration of “anti-nutrients” that render them nutritionally worthless – but, says Berardi, this is an oversimplification. “In isolation, yes, they may block the absorption of other nutrients in the diet. This can be a problem for people who eat large quantities of single foods like rice, corn, wheat and beans, such as people in poorer regions who often subsist on very limited diets. But when beans are part of a diverse diet, their anti-nutrients – some of which also go by the name of phytonutrients – factor into what makes them so healthy.”

Then, of course, there’s soy, the vegan staple that’s been linked to everything from thyroid disease to excess oestrogen in the media. As a source of protein, it ranks highly: soybeans contain up to 48% protein, with a PDCAA score (a measure of protein quality) just below 1.0 – in comparison, beef is ranked at 0.92. On the other hand, it’s high in phytoestrogens (present in everything from oats to berries), a defence mechanism for the plant that can have negative hormonal effects on humans.

So how do you get the good without the bad? Follow the example of Asian cuisine, where it’s mainly eaten in whole food form (think edamame) or fermented (as in miso, tofu and soy sauce), and not in large amounts – it’s usually not the central ingredient in meals. That way you won’t get enough phytoestrogens to cause any issues. Also, avoid processed foods that strip out the plant’s natural fibre, carbohydrate and other compounds, leaving pure soy protein. “I’d say one to two servings a day – say 230ml of soy milk and 100g of tofu, tempeh or soybeans – seems to be a safe and potentially healthy intake,” says Berardi. “Frequently exceeding three servings a day may not be a good idea.”

So: loads of beans and not too many over-processed “vegan-friendly” products – not a problem, since in my experience they’re awful. Armed with this advice, I was ready to cook.

The missing links

What you’ll run short of if you’re only eating plants – and how to fix it

Creatine

Th e big one. Your body creates it naturally, but meat is a key source – and it’s tricky to get elsewhere. Synthetic supplements are available, and in studies, they’ve led to increases in lean muscle mass for vegetarian athletes.

BCAAs

Vital for protein synthesis, and a key energy source during exercise. It’s possible to get them from nuts, beans and grains, but you’ll need a wide variety to get a “complete” array of amino acids.

Beta-alanine

It increases exercise capacity, boosts strength and can increase muscle mass – but it’s based on carnosine, which is hard to get without meat. Take a vegan supplement.

Omega 3

Present in eggs and fish (and, of course, fish oil) and it can be tough to keep your ratios up with plants alone. Flaxseed is one option, but an algae-based DHA supplement might be more convenient.

48% Soybeans can be up to 48% protein. Eat them unprocessed for the full benefit

Cooking with plants

“M ake sure your pantry’s stocked properly,” says Lopez-Alt, who’s been doing an annual “vegan month” for the past five years, when I ask for his advice on going meat-free.

“Bingeing on potato chips, rice, bread and other easy vegan carbs is a sure way to burn out fast. Vegetables, beans and well-prepared protein sources like tofu are a great place to start. Take a walk through the produce section – going vegan is the perfect excuse to load up on all kinds of vegetables that you never ate regularly before. And give yourself extra time to cook, particularly at the beginning. For most people, designing meals around vegetables is going to be a completely foreign concept, and one that requires planning and extra time in the kitchen.”

This last part, at least, was true for me. As a mainly carnivorous man, most of my expertise lay in cooking meat properly, which is pretty simple: get a cast-iron pan really hot, chuck it in, and flip once. With vegan recipes, prep is the thing.

I had to do a lot of pre-baking aubergines (for purée) and dicing mushrooms (they add bulk and texture to practically anything). It’s not a problem when you’re organised and have a lot of time, but if you want a quick meal in the evening, bulk-cooking is the answer. My first recipe was a giant pot of chickpea and spinach stew that had to keep me going when there was nothing else in the cupboard. And, yes, achieving the combination of flavour and texture you expect from meaty recipes takes time and patience. My first attempt at vegan burgers, done to Lopez-Alt’s recipe, took 16 ingredients and over half an hour of prep. And, yes, they were delicious – crunchy, tender, structurally sound – but they’d have been even better with cheese.

In fact, what I missed most in my vegan week wasn’t big slabs of meat, but easy convenience: butter on toast, milk in tea, a couple of eggs scrambled for breakfast. The alternatives I came up with (avocado, green tea, oats with almond milk) were solid, but the absolute nadir of the experience was eating out. It worked when I could steer social engagements to vegan-friendly places with huge “superfood” salads, but elsewhere it was miserable. If you’ve never been that guy who causes the waitress to yell, “Hey, are these brownies vegan?” across the coffee shop, I don’t recommend it.

200g Amount of chickpeas that provides the same protein as two eggs (14g)

Vegan for good?

You can get a decent hit of protein from beans and vegetables, but for the man aiming to get 2g per kilo of bodyweight per day (a recommended muscle-building minimum), supplements might help. “Your first consideration should be soy – if it contains soy, don’t even bother,” says Monkey Nutrition founder Chris Simon, who helped me out with some of his Herbivore blend. “The main protein source of any good-quality vegan blend will always be pea protein. Always choose a blend – this will have a much superior amino acid profile than a single-source powder.”

“Taste can be problematic – vegan protein sources are harder to flavour than dairy,” says Bulk Powders product director Simon Jurkiw, whose strawberry protein is made up of pea protein isolate and brown rice protein. “We had to work especially hard to create a vegan protein powder with a complete amino acid profile that tasted good using natural flavourings and sweeteners.”

So what about the long term? Full-time veganism seems to agree with Serena and Venus Williams, ultradistance superstar Scott Jurek and UFC fighter Nick Diaz, suggesting that it’s at least possible to reach the highest levels of sport eating nothing but plants. But is it preferable? While the science still isn’t clear, people paying serious attention to what they eat will usually eat better, whether that means grass-fed steak or high-quality greens.

“Research shows that vegan diets tend to be healthier and include more health-protective foods than omnivorous diets,” says Veronika Powell, a campaigner and researcher at Viva! Health and the author of a recent report on the benefits of eating vegan. “People who choose vegan diets often learn more about nutrition. As a result, they can make better food choices and tend to be more health-conscious.”

That, for me, is the key. One week of full veganism (see opposite) isn’t enough for me to comment on how it would affect my energy levels, gym gains or overall health over six months, a year or the rest of my life. It’s not really even enough to see whether eliminating or cutting down, say, dairy products would reduce inflammation and give me a six-pack. But to me, that barely matters. I love meat, butter and milk, and I’m not giving any of them up.

What I learned is that you can eat meals that are entirely plant-based but still taste good – and order the vegetarian option in a restaurant without it feeling like a defeat. I learned some new cooking techniques, and tried some new foods. I’ll definitely eat more plants in the future, and rely less on the boring carbs I usually use to round out meals. I’ll combine the benefits of a diet with more vitamins and phytonutrients with one that includes the easy protein and calorie hits of meat and eggs. And, yes, I will make that insanely complicated veggie burger recipe again. With cheese and bacon on top.

9 Number of Grand Slam singles titles Serena Williams has won since going vegan

Green for a week

The day-by-day breakdown of how Joel ate, performed and felt

Day 1

Make porridge with almond milk: it isn’t that bad, especially with nut butter and banana mixed in. Start to miss milk by the time I have my third cup of green tea. Text my wife “I just want an egg” and immediately get one back saying “I want a steak”.

Do an all-out version of classic CrossFit workout Murph, then cook chickpea stew for dinner. It’s unexpectedly delicious.

Day 2

Make pancakes with “aquafaba” – the fancy name for the juice canned chickpeas come in -whipped up to make them fluffy. Look forlornly at the empty butter dish. Later, make a gigantic bowl of vegan burger mix. It’s amazing! Stock up on chickpeas, and discover that the proprietor of my local corner shop (a) sells a massive selection of canned organic beans and pulses and (b) is really into organic food. I’m learning new things!

Day 3

Meet a gym owner for lunch: I have a giant superfood salad while he has the same, but with chicken. He tells me he went vegan for six months:

“I felt like shit for two weeks, then amazing for six months, then shit again.” Feel great, until I can’t have a brownie for pudding, then want to cry.

Day 4

It’s incredibly sunny, and I want an ice cream more than I have ever wanted anything. Make an enormous bolognese full of chopped shiitake and button mushrooms. It’s lovely, but…

“Could do with some cheese, even just parmesan,” notes my wife.

Day 5

Finally remember that avocado on toast tastes almost as good as butter. Have stopped missing milky tea: it occurs to me that I probably haven’t gone this long without dairy products ever in my life. Make coconut curry for dinner, and resolve to find a replacement for ghee that isn’t vegetable oil.

Day 6

Go out for dinner, and really enjoy it. Realise that wine is mostly not-vegan, and wish I’d investigated the whole “vegan booze” thing before I wanted a drink.

Day 7

Make a massive bean-only chilli, and hoover up the entire thing. Actually kind of sad that the experiment’s coming to an end, but excited about eating butter again. “We should do this more often,” says my wife. Success!

9 Quinoa, chia and buckwheat contain all nine amino acids, making them “complete” proteins

If you’ve seen The Bourne Supremacy, the sequel to Matt Damon’s first turn as an all-out action-man, there’s one scene you probably remember. While his girlfriend rifles through his diaries looking for clues about his CIA-wetwork past, Jason Bourne, still battling flashbacks, is working out his frustrations with a run along the beach that quickly turns into an all-out sprint. It’s a dash that would shame Tom Cruise – a sweat-soaked, arm-flexing reminder that Bourne is twice as fast as James Bond and several times the ass-kicker.

“Yeah, Matt could probably do that in real life,” says Jason Walsh, Damon’s long-time trainer and no stranger to cardio himself.“When we were in Tenerife, training for the new Bourne, we did a lot of running up some pretty damn steep hills – a lot of the cyclists train for mountain climbing around there, and we were running up the same hills they cycle. Matt is… a surprisingly good runner.”

True grit

And now he’s back. This summer sees the release of Jason Bourne, which sees the amnesiac assassin still searching for answers about his past, and hunted again by the government agents. It’s easy to forget how the first Bourne movies fundamentally reinvented the spy flick, ramping the grittiness up to 11 (and forcing Bond and Mission: Impossible to do the same or look cartoonish by comparison) – especially since this is Damon’s first appearance in the franchise in nearly a decade after he sat out 2012’s The Bourne Legacy, which featured Jeremy Renner as rogue agent Aaron Cross. For a while, it looked like Damon was out for good – but fans of the franchise didn’t see it that way.

“Every airport I’m in, or every time I’m walking down the street and somebody stops me, that’s the first question –‘When are you going to do another one of those Bourne movies?’” says Damon.“I don’t mind being followed around by Jason Bourne. I like Jason Bourne.”

Besides, he can handle it. After adding more action roles to his Bourne movies, he’s looking enviably unlike a man in his mid-40s. A large part of that, of course, is down to Walsh.

Space race

“Matt and I have trained together for a while,” says Walsh, who’s also trained aspiring American footballers for the NFL Combine, a week-long test of their physical attributes. “In The Martian he was a scientist but he was also an astronaut, and they have rigorous training, so he had to look like he was ready to withstand the pressures of space travel. He was in great shape for that movie – we got him super-strong.”

When Damon was ready to return to Bourne shape, time was short. “Matt worked on two movies [before Jason Bourne], so we had one or two weeks, tops, between the movies,” Walsh says. “It was difficult to make sure it didn’t detract from his other roles. My main goal was just to keep him healthy, because those roles were pretty physical, and… well, I don’t know a lot of actors who work as hard as Matt does. So my primary focus was to make sure he was resilient and strong, to make it through them without getting injured, so we could get to Bourne and really ramp things up.”

And ramp it up they did. “For the first Bourne movie I was 29 and I thought that was hard work getting into shape,” Damon told the BBC in an interview. “Now I’m 45 and it’s just brutal. We shot this bare-knuckle fighting scene on my 45th birthday and it was a lot of work to get there. I was on a very strict diet and spent a lot of time in the gym just making myself miserable.”

The new Bourne is an older, wiser man, certainly, but he hasn’t lost a step on the new generation of secret agents – the 21st-century Bond included. While Daniel Craig’s first shirt-off scene as Bond was a beachfront homage to Ursula Andress in Dr No, Damon’s, as a bare-knuckle brawler, owes more to Tyler Durden by way of Rambo III. “We’ve worked a lot on keeping his flexibility and mobility – the last thing you want to do is lose them when you’re doing strength training, because you’ll get injured a lot faster,” says Walsh. “Matt’s a multimillion-dollar actor, and if he gets hurt because of training… it’s a lot of pressure. People don’t think about that, they think, ‘Oh, you get to train Matt Damon!’ but these things have to be carefully thought out and implemented.”

Strong safety

It isn’t just about size or strength, saysWalsh. “We do a lot of strength training, butI want people to move well, and then I want them to get strong. So we reinforce those movement patterns, and then solidify that with strength training. And then we can exploit the body to do things and make it look the way we want it to look. If you’re strong, you can do anything you want and you don’t have to worry about getting injured.”

With Damon’s safety in mind, Walsh doesn’t do all the classic strength-builders. “I probably wouldn’t pick doing deadlifts from the floor, for instance – because even though you can do them for years without a problem, you can get the same results without the risk through other moves. Pull-ups, for instance, will make your back look great with less risk – I’ve seen Matt do them with 70lb [32kg] of added weight around his waist.” And the results are no less impressive. “At one point, he got so damn strong and lean and light he could do 30 full-length pull-ups. We’re talking about a guy who probably couldn’t do one real pull-up when I first met him.”

Man on the run

Not surprisingly for a film about a man on the run, there’s also a lot of legwork. “Yeah, much to [Matt’s] dismay he had to do lots of single-leg stuff, lots of pushing heavy sleds and Bulgarian split squats,” says Walsh. They also used the Versaclimber, Walsh’s preferred conditioning equipment. The climbing simulator with the sliding hand-and-foot pegs isn’t as fashionable as a ski-erg or curved treadmill but it provides a full-body workout that – according to rehab therapists – mimics natural human movement with almost no risk of injury.

“It works all the major muscle groups at once, and burns a lot of calories compared with the bike or running,” says Walsh, whose spinning-style Versaclimber class, Rise Nation, is already popular in the US and likely to hit the UK this year. “It puts a lot more demand on the metabolic systems – I use them for full-body sprints, racing 100 feet [30.5m] for time, which you’ll always feel. But it’s also the only cardio equipment I’ll use for rehab, because it has zero joint impact. Even when I wasn’t working with him, Matt would do Rise Nation classes.”

Although Damon’s upcoming roles take him away from action – The Great Wall, a historical mystery, will be followed by comedy-dramas from the Coen brothers and Alexander Payne – both series director Paul Greengrass and Damon himself have already dropped hints about more Bournes. “Maybe for the next one Jason Bourne will be fat and happy and old,” Damon told the BBC – but don’t bet on it. Whatever happens, the combo of Damon, Greengrass and Bourne’s all-new body means the 2016 instalment will be one to remember.

Jason Bourne is in cinemas nationwide now

ON SET

To play Jason Bourne, Matt Damon is guided by both director Paul Greengrass (pictured, with long grey hair) and trainer Jason Walsh. “I’ve seen Matt do pull-ups with 70lb of added weight around his waist,” says Walsh

The Outside View

“Olympic lifting is very technical and to be good requires a lot of practice,” says powerlifter Tom Hamilton (see p68). “If you get bored easily, it isn’t for you. The benefits are clear though – it builds strong, powerful physiques, requires a good level of flexibility, gives you clear targets to work on and can be fun.”

Olympic weightlifting

It’s a sport in itself, but you don’t need a singlet or gold-medal aspirations to benefit from increased power, mobility and speed

What is it?

Training and competing in the two Olympic lifts: the snatch (where the bar goes from the floor to overhead in one move) and the clean and jerk (where you “clean” the bar to your shoulders, then push-press it overhead and drop underneath it). Competitive lifters get three attempts at each to post a combined total for both.

What’s it best for?

“Although I compete, I first learned the lifts for developing power for other sports,” says strength and conditioning coach Alex Adams. “It’s essentially jumping with weights, so it improves not only strength but speed and rate of force development.”

What are its limitations?

It’s not exactly entry-level. “To do the full lifts safely requires very good mobility, flexibility and balance,” says Adams. “This shouldn’t put people off – practising the positions is a great way to improve knee and hip flexibility.” But forget the cardio until you’re experienced. “Fatigue reduces rep quality, so Oly lifts aren’t great for metabolic work until you’ve learned your technical limits.”

Instant expertise

Learn the hook grip

Tuck your thumb under your first two fingers. It hurts but it works. “It secures the bar much better and leads to higher loads lifted in the long term,” says Adams. “Anyone who lifts should use it.” It’ll also help you improve your deadlift.

Know your power hangs

“The terminology is fairly simple: power variations are lifts caught in a half squat or higher,” says Adams. “Cleans and snatches can be done from the ‘hang’, meaning that you don’t start from the floor – but you could start anywhere from knee to mid-thigh, depending on what you’re working on.”

Don’t say “squat clean”

“That’s a CrossFit thing,” says Adams. “In reality, every full squat or clean should be caught at full squat depth – otherwise it’s an indication that you could be lifting more.”

You’ve made it when…

You can clean and jerk your own bodyweight. “That’s my initial benchmark, but you’re doing well if you can then progress to snatching bodyweight,” says Adams. Want to compete? Standards are high: to qualify for a English national competition you’d need to total 239kg as an 85kg lifter.

Build power

“Most sessions will begin with snatch or a snatch variant,” says Adams. “It takes the most speed to execute so it comes when you’re freshest. I usually do both lifts on the same day but vary the exact exercise to limit the crossover and fatigue. Most sessions will have a heavy squat or pull but rarely both. Assistance work like pressing, rowing and back and abs comes last.”

1 Snatch pullSets 5 Reps 2

It’s easier than the full snatch, but still a great power generator. Set up with the bar on the floor and your hands fairly wide. Drive up, and bump the bar off your hips as you shrug it slightly upwards. Drop, reset and go again.

2 High hang clean Sets 4 Reps 2

Start with the bar in your hands, with a shoulder-width grip. Bend your knees slightly, then do a small jump as you explosively bring the bar to your shoulders.

3 Front squatSets 4 Reps 3

Take the bar out of a rack with it resting across the front of your shoulders, supporting it slightly with your fingertips. Squat down with your weight on your heels, and drive back up.

4 Bent-over rowSets 3 Reps 8

Bend forward at the hips, and pull the barbell to your sternum. Pause, then lower.

5 Hanging leg raiseSets 3 Reps 10

Hang from a bar with your legs straight. Bring them until they’re at 90° from your torso, pause and lower.

CrossFit

Functional movements, ultra-high intensity… and injuries? Not if you do it right

What is it?

A fitness company, exercise style and competitive sport, incorporating elements from high-intensity interval training, Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics, calisthenics and strongman. Strict CrossFitters might follow the crossfit.com “mainsite” workouts of the day (also known as WODs), following a three-days-on, one-day-off format, but most CrossFit gyms will run their own programming, incorporating strength and skill work.

What’s it good for?

“Developing an all-round base of fitness that includes metabolic conditioning and strength and skill and mobility,” says CrossFit London coach Andrew Stemler. “I think there’s a lot of truth in the idea that we fail at the edges of our competence – so the further we can push those edges out the better. If two runners who have done the same endurance regime line up on the starting line, the one who can do snatches or handstands or pull-ups seems to have an edge over the one who can’t.”

What are its limitations?

“As a fitness regime – if you do it twice a week for fun – it can suffer from a lack of specialism,” says Stemler. “If you’re practising snatches, handstands, pull-ups, rowing, running and deadlifting, the gains won’t be as great in any one area than if you specialise – but, of course, if you specialise, you neglect another area.”

Instant expertise

Know your WODs

The best-known workouts are named after girls – Elizabeth, Diane and Cindy are some of the best-known – or deceased soldiers, known as “The Hero Workouts”. The latter are usually vicious, and a solid time on Murph – 100 pull-ups, 200 press-ups and 300 squats, bookended by one-mile runs – is essential.

Do the penguin

If you can’t do a double-under – the skipping trick where you twirl the rope twice per jump – you’ll get nowhere in CrossFit competition. Master it fast with the penguin hop: jump in the air, slap your hands to your thighs twice before you land, and repeat at speed. You’ll get calf work and co-ordination.

Talk EMOMs

Newbies do the mainsite WODs, but all the cool CrossFitters use “every minute on the minute” (EMOM) training to pack in work without compromising form. Pick two or three moves, set a clock going, and do your reps at the top of the minute. The quicker you move, the more you get to recover. Try it with front squats and dips.

You’ve made it when…

The “kipping” pull-up and the ring muscle-up are the first things to master: both take skill and co-ordination. “After that, the aim is to do a classic WOD such as Fran – 21, 15 and nine reps each of pull-ups and thrusters (a front squat into a press) with 42kg – in a reasonable time,” says Stemler. Aim for under ten minutes.

Get go-anywhere conditioning

The WOD Kalsu, named after ex-NFL player Bob Kalsu, who died in the Vietnam war, is CrossFit’s most deceptively brutal workout. Hardcore CrossFitters do it with a 60kg barbell, but you should start light. Start with five burpees and continue (for the rest of the minute) doing thrusters. On the next minute start over again with five burpees and keep going until you’ve done, yes, 100 thrusters. Rest, and cry.

1 Burpee

Drop into a press-up position and let your chest hit the floor, then hop back to your feet, jump and clap your hands over your head.

2 Thruster

Holding dumbbells at your shoulders, squat and then stand up, using the momentum to help drive the dumbbells overhead.

The Outside View

All that intensity doesn’t come without issues. “The problem I have with CrossFit’s gymnastic elements is that the sole focus seems to be on the volume of repetition with little regard for control, body alignment or required strength,” says calisthenics specialist Darren Onyejekwe (see p64). “Kipping pull-ups and muscle-ups, handstand walking with massively extended spines and wall-assisted handstand press-ups where the legs are thrown up into the air to generate momentum to make the movement easier… Once you combine these movements with fatigue and a competitive environment it’s a recipe for disaster.” The lesson? Build up to them properly.

The Outside View

“I’ve got a huge amount of time for calisthenics,” says physique coach Jonny Jacobs (see p66). “If you need proof of how calisthenics can change your body composition for the better, just look at male gymnasts. These guys are solid muscle from head to toe, mobile and flexible with low body fat.”

Calisthenics

Build functional strength with no kit – in the gym or in the great outdoors

What is it?

Technically, it’s almost any form of bodyweight training – but recently it’s come to mean the ultra-modern “sport” of urban calisthenics or street workout, consisting of moves done on pull-up bars or playground equipment, focusing on advanced variations that include bar spins and muscle-ups.

What’s it good for?

“Calisthenics is a great training method to build lean muscle mass, gain strength and master control of your own body,” says Darren Onyejekwe, a calisthenics specialist otherwise known as Bodyweight D. The last part is one of the most important: by learning to build tension throughout your body, you’ll be in better control when it’s time to lift. And, of course, it’s great Instagram-fodder.

What are its limitations?

“If you’re trying to pack on loads of muscle mass, calisthenics isn’t the most efficient option,” says Onyejekwe. “Combined with a sensible diet, it’ll create a lean, defined body, like a gymnast’s.” Without added weight, you’ll also have to think creatively to train your legs. Pistol squats are an option, but they take mobility and balance.

Instant expertise

Know your scapula

“Your shoulder blades can sit in four positions: protraction, retraction, elevation and depression,” says Onyejekwe. “Even people who can do the advanced skills often don’t have a clue which position they’re using.” The scapula pull-up will help with retraction and depression: hang from a bar, and keep your elbows straight back as you pull your shoulder blades together, aiming to get your shoulders away from your ears.

Unleash L

Make the L-sit your new favourite abs move. “This static position should be one of the first skills you learn,” says Onyejekwe. “But most people will need to work on their core strength and hip flexors.” If you can’t do the full thing – hands on the floor, legs out – start between two chairs, holding your thighs horizontal with knees bent. Do 60 seconds of this in as few sets as possible, twice a week.

Fly the flag

The human flag is the side-on move you’ve seen in endless Instagram pictures. “It’s a ‘semi-opposed’ skill, meaning that it requires you to push with one arm and pull with the other,” says Onyejekwe.

You’ve made it when…

“Calisthenics is all about the quality of movement over the quantity,” says Onyejekwe. “A lot of people are attracted to it by the highlight-reel moves, but I’d say make sure you can perform clean, full-range reps of press-ups, dips, pull ups, squats and hanging knee raises. I respect anyone who’s striving for clean movements and is in full control throughout the entire range of movement.”

Build bodyweight strength

“This workout is focused on strength, so the reps are kept low and there’s a decent amount of rest between sets,” says Onyejekwe. “Focus on quality movement.” Do it twice a week, supersetting the moves marked A and B, resting for as long as you need to get through the reps.

1 L-sit hold

Sets 3 Time 20-30sec Rest 1-3min

Do it on bars, or the edge of a sofa/chair. If you can’t manage the full version, tuck your legs.

2A Pull-up

Sets 5 Reps 5

Aim to pull your elbows behind you, and touch your collarbone to the bar on each rep.

2B Dip

Sets
5 Reps5
Rest 1-3min

Lower until your upper arms are parallel to the floor, pause, and push back up.

3A Press-up

Sets 5 Reps 10

Keep your hands under your shoulders, tuck your elbows to your sides, and touch your chest to the floor on each rep.

3B Inverted row

Sets
5 Reps 10 Rest1-3min

Lie under a bar/Smith machine with your feet flat and body straight. Pull up until your chest touches the bar, pause and lower.

4 Hollow body hold

Sets 5
Time 60sec Rest 1-2min

Lie on the floor, then bring your hands above your head, arms straight, and feet off the floor. Hold it.

5 Superman hold

Sets 5
Time 60sec Rest 1-2min From the hollow hold, roll onto your front and do the reverse, Man of Steel-style. It’ll build near-bulletproof abs.

6A Bodyweight squatSets 5 Reps 20

With your feet shoulder-width apart, squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor, pause, and stand up.

6B Half bridge

Sets
5 Reps 12 Rest1-2min

Lie on the floor with your feet close to your glutes. Drive your hips up in the air, pause and lower.

Physique training

Just want to look good? No problem – but “chest and triceps Monday” is so three decades ago, bro

What is it?

Assuming you aren’t planning to step onstage and bust out a double-biceps spread, physique training is simply training with aesthetics, not performance, at the forefront of your mind. It uses drop sets, forced reps and other techniques to cause maximum muscular damage in the pursuit of gains. You can also use it in tandem with other training to hit your weak spots and bust through plateaus.

What’s it best for?

“In essence training to improve body composition is about increasing lean muscle while reducing body fat,” says coach (and PhD in male body image) Jonny Jacobs. “For optimal results, combine strength training with anaerobic conditioning.”

What are its limitations?

Training to failure – or for tempo – isn’t always transferable to sporting disciplines, so if you’re looking for success on the five-a-side pitch or for a 5K PB, you’d be better of focusing elsewhere.

Instant expertise

Know your hypertrophy

There are two kinds: sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar. In sarcoplasmic, the volume of muscle cell fluid sarcoplasm increases – making your muscles bigger, but not necessarily stronger. Myofibrils, on the other hand, are what contract and generate power, and increasing their density will help you do it better. To build the latter, make your lifts explosive.

Invest in RMR

“Your resting metabolic rate dictates how much energy you’ll burn when you’re not in the gym,” says Jacobs. “Build more lean muscle, and it’ll improve.” Translation: by lifting weights, you’ll transform your body into a 24-hour fat-furnace.

Get on HIIT

“It wasn’t invented by Instagrammers,” Jacobs says of the increasingly popular interval training method. “It’s what we used to call a finisher.” What most people are missing is the high intensity part. For best results, use it twice a week at most – and leave it all on the floor.

You’ve made it when…

You see your body fat percentage start to drop. As a general rule, you’ll be able to see the outline of your abs at 10-12%; less means shredded. “Single-digit body fat is incredibly impressive and for most people takes a lot of dedication,” says Jacobs. “Very few people can maintain it, and it’s more about food than what you’re lifting.”

Put on size

“Three sets of eight to 12 reps is old-school for a reason – it works,” says Jacobs. “For any physique programme, aim to do large compound lifts first, then add in accessory exercises such as biceps curls, lateral raises or triceps push-downs. To improve body composition keep rest periods to around 60 seconds.” Here’s a classic chest-builder.

1 Bench pressSets 4 Reps 12

Keep the reps to a 4010 tempo: lower for four seconds, and press up for one.

2 Incline dumbbell press

Sets 3 Reps 10

This time, you’re going to hit a 3111 tempo. Pause at the bottom and top of the move, giving your pecs a chance to stretch.

3A Incline dip

Sets 3 Reps 10

Lean forward as you perform the dip – it’ll target your chest more.

3B Dumbbell flyeSets 3 Reps 10

Do this move with slightly bent arms, and pause at the bottom of each rep to feel the stretch across your chest.

The Outside View

“Bodybuilding can be great fun, but old-school training like having an ‘arms only’ day where you do a ton of volume just doesn’t make sense to me and isn’t necessary,” says powerlifter Tom Hamilton (see p68). “My view is that there should be an element of powerlifting within your training programme whereby you have some objective progress, monitoring lifts instead of just basing your opinion on if your training is working by what you see in the mirror – which is very subjective.”

Photography Glen Burrows Model Tom Eastham

The Outside View

It’s a pretty niche sport – and rife with infighting – but fun. “Powerlifting seems fairly misunderstood but can be a great entry into weight training generally,” says Olympic lifting coach Alex Adams (see p60). “As long as powerlifting programmes have enough variety they don’t do you any harm. Problems arise when you become too specialist and only do the competitive lifts.”

Powerlifting

Getting strong in the Big Three lifts isn’t just for huge guys – weight category competitions mean anyone can impress

What is it?

Technically, it actually means competing in the Big Three lifts (bench, deadlift and squat) – it isn’t considered good form to call yourself a powerlifter if you just train in them. The sport comes in “raw” (just T-shirt and shorts) and “equipped” varieties, the latter allowing knee and elbow wrapping, alongside spring-loaded suits that provide a hefty degree of assistance.

What is it best for?

Raw strength. “While it can have some carryover to building muscle, powerlifting’s main focus is one-rep strength in the big three,” says powerlifter and coach Tom Hamilton. That means lots of low-rep training, watching your figure (it’s a weight-categoryobsessed sport) – and, of course, focusing on the finer technical points of the big lifts.

What are its limitations?

“Its strength may also be its weakness,” says Hamilton. “A heavy focus on maximal strength and particular lifts during a programme may cause overuse injuries – and, of course, there’s the danger of neglecting qualities like conditioning or mobility.”

Instant expertise

Go sumo

Most comps allow either regular or sumo-style deadlifting – you should experiment with both. For the latter, keep your feet double shoulder-width apart and your hands inside your knees – it’s an ideal option for a tall man.

Mention Westside

Westside Barbell, founded by Louis Simmons, turns out the strongest lifters ever, thanks to an ultra-competitive atmosphere and Simmons’s combining of speed-lifting “dynamic” days with all-out max effort sessions. Also worth noting: they rarely do the Big Three outside competition, building strength with endless variations like the box squat and close-grip bench press.

Know your programmes

At some point, somebody’s going to ask you what you’re “running”. Lifter and coach Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 is the safe option, but for extra points mention the Cube (a popular new method based on Simmons’s ideas), Coan-Phillipi (a deadlift programme used by the man regarded as the best lifter ever, Ed Coan) or Smolov (four times a week squat plan – for maniacs only).

You’ve made it when…

It’s not as simple as dividing your total by your bodyweight: limb length, muscle size and overall stress make a difference – put your numbers into wilkscalculator.com for a readout powerlifters will respect. “To be a competitive high-level powerlifter you’d need to aim for a Wilks of 400-plus,” says Hamilton. “If you have no desire to compete but enjoy the three powerlifts, a 300-plus Wilks would make you one of the stronger guys in your gym.”

Get triple-threat strength

“One way to train is a daily undulating periodisation, or DUP, approach,” says Hamilton. “This means you use a variety of reps and sets throughout the week for the same movement, allowing you to spread the volume over the course of the week.” So you might go heavy on one day, do light reps for speed on another, and have a moderate high-rep day on the third. Here’s a typical workout.

1 Squat

Sets 4 Reps 3

“Do your first set off your rate of perceived exertion, or RPE,” says Hamilton. “They should feel like a 9, or very, very hard – but how heavy that is will vary from week to week. Do your other sets at 85% of your max.”

2 Bench press

Sets 3 Reps 6

Do these at 75% of your max. In powerlifting, it’s all about the set-up: keep your grip wide enough that your forearms are vertical under the bar, and press into the floor with your feet to help the lift.

3 Pull-up

Sets 3 Reps 6

These should be hard but doable. Add a weight vest if you need to.

4 Dip

Sets 3 Reps 10

Add a weight belt, a dumbbell between your ankle or – if your gym’s really cool – chains around your neck.

There’s a reason you don’t take five aspirin for a headache: two will get the job done, and more might trigger unwanted side effects. That’s the concept of the Minimum Effective Dose applied to medicine, but it also works with training – if your aim is to lose fat, add lean muscle or simply get healthier, training until your testosterone levels drop and your cortisol cranks up can actually be counter-productive. Sure, if you’re planning to run the Marathon des Sables or ride the Tour de France then you’ll need more hours on the road or in the saddle, but the game’s the same: do the minimum you need to get the results you want, and not more. So how do you identify your MED? That’s where the team of expertsMF
has assembled come in. Read on to find out just want you need to do in the five categories below.

NUTRITION

Why upping your protein intake won’t automatically help you to add more muscle mass

SUPPS

Which supplements will give you the biggest bang for your sports nutrition buck?

TRAINING

Good news: spending hours at the gym isn’t necessary and may even be unhelpful

MOBILITY

Discover the five-minute mobility fix you can do at home that can help you stay injury-free

SLEEP

Quality not quantity is key when it comes to kip and our expert advice will help you sleep soundly

Eating essentials

Forget calorie counting and nutrient timing – the biggest results come from the most basic changes

GO UNPROCESSED

“There’s a lot more to health than just your macronutrients – protein, carbs and fat,” says Brian St Pierre, director of performance nutrition at Precision Nutrition. “You depend on appropriate amounts of vitamins and minerals to live, and especially to thrive. Technically, you don’t need phytonutrients from vegetables, fruits, wholegrains, nuts and legumes, but they do wonders for your health, recovery and overall vitality.” As a basic rule, aim for six to eight fist-sized portions of veg daily – but if you’re not even getting close, bear in mind that a UCL study found that anything above one portion a day reduces the risk of cancer and heart disease. The more the better, but some is enough.

GET ENOUGH PROTEIN

According to research published in the Journal Of The American Medical Association, the bare minimum you need to avoid losing muscle is 0.36g per kilo of bodyweight – but to build, you’ll need more. Forget grams, and think hands.

“For most men, we recommend six to eight palm-sized portions of protein-rich foods a day,” says St Pierre. “That’s items like poultry, beef, pork, fish, eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt and protein powders. A mix of lean sources and less lean – think eggs, pork chops, steak – is sensible. That provides all the protein you need to build muscle, lose fat, improve recovery, and keep your immune system strong.”

FIND YOUR VITAMIN BALANCE

Not all vitamins are created equal. The fat-soluble kind (A, D, E and K) can be stored in your liver and fatty tissues, and that means you don’t need them all every day. However, their water-soluble brethren (C, the B vitamins and folic acid) will come out in your urine if you’ve got more than you need. Our suggestion? Get both kinds daily by rethinking your breakfast: chop up half a bell pepper, fry it in coconut oil, then toss in two eggs and scramble the lot.

…AND DO IT MOST OF THE TIME

“How consistently you should stick to this, and particularly how much of your intake should be from minimally processed whole foods, depends on your goals,” says St Pierre. “To be reasonably fit, healthy and lean I’d recommend shooting for around 80% of the time. Want to get really lean? Shoot for 90% or more. If you’re OK with being a little softer, and have more flexibility, 70% should do it.”

The stripped-down supplement stash

Don’t be the guy inhaling a handful of pills before breakfast. Sports nutritionist Aaron Deere selects the supplements you absolutely need to take – anything else is a bonus

PROBIOTICS: 1-10 BILLION CFU

Not familiar with CFU? It stands for ‘colony forming units’ – and that isn’t as much as it sounds. “If I had to choose one supplement to take, this would be it,” says Deere. “Probiotics are bacteria that live in our gastrointestinal tracts, helping us metabolise food, strengthening our immune systems and helping in the synthesis of some vitamins. The most recent research into probiotics has also linked them with influence on mood and cognitive function. There’s no government-recommended daily dose of probiotics, but research suggests aiming for one billion to ten billion live bacteria cultures.” Tablets can easily give you this, as can a daily serving of Greek yogurt or kefir.

EPA/DHA: 500MG

Let’s face it: you aren’t eating enough fish. “These omega 3 fatty acids have strong anti-inflammatory properties which can help neutralise the damage caused by training. Fish is the only real source of EPA and DHA in the diet – vegetarian sources of omega 3 are poorly converted to EPA and DHA,” Deere says. “The Scientific Advisory Council on Nutrition currently recommends two servings of oily fish a week to obtain the necessary amount of them, but only approximately 10% of the UK population currently manage that.” Take capsules or oil daily, aiming for 500mg.

VITAMIN D: 800IU

Just because the sun is shining doesn’t mean you’re getting enough. “Here in the UK, due to the angle of the sun’s UVB rays, we are only able to synthesise vitamin D from the sun from approximately April to October, leaving us unable to get enough vitamin D for more than half the year,” says Deere. “And even in the summer, the angle of the sun plays a key role – the general guide is that if your shadow is taller than you, your body won’t be making vitamin D. So in the UK, supplementing is the best option. Current recommendations are 400IU per day, but it’s a topic under review, with new research indicating that in the UK we may in fact need twice this amount, especially in the winter months.”

Train on time

Think short and hard or long and ultra-easy – your days of treadmill slogging are over

GO FOR THE TRIPLE

“For normal men, three gym sessions a week is likely to be enough – and will probably be more effective in the long run, as it’s more sustainable, more enjoyable, more flexible, and allows you to participate in other activities,” says St Pierre. “For most people, 45-60 minutes is enough. Foam roll for five minutes, warm up for five minutes, lift for 30-40 minutes, and finish with conditioning work – HIIT, rowing, loaded carries, sled pushes or kettlebell circuits – for five to 15 minutes.”

SET A MINIMUM EXECUTION

“Ever walk in the gym and get fed up and leave?” asks S&C coach Joseph Lightfoot, founder of Results Inc. “It happens to us all, but deciding on a minimum level of execution means you can salvage that day and make something of it. If you’re really pushed for time, pick one exercise and do it to the best of your ability.”

…AND A TIME LIMIT

“At Results Inc we find that when people are short on time their workouts can actually be better, even though they’re shorter,” says Lightfoot. “The easiest time to cut out is the dead time. You can waste more time than you think doing nothing. If you’re tight for time, be smart with your supersets: pair walking lunges with chin-ups, rear foot elevated split squats with landmine presses, or farmer’s walks with press-ups.”

STAY ACTIVE

Low-intensity activity is your secret weapon: it’ll burn a bit of extra fat with minimal stress on your body, keeping cortisol and overtraining in check. “Try and remain active on most days of the week – take the dog for walks, play with your kids, do a yoga session with your partner,” says St Pierre. “You can’t and shouldn’t go ‘beast mode’ all the time, especially once you’re over 35. A nice mix of intensities produces the best overall results.”

Minimalist mobility

No time for the foam roller? Do your mobility work between other exercises. Coach Joseph Lightfoot has the prescription

After pull-ups…the Spider-Man reach

Take a big lunge forward to stretch your hips. Plant both hands inside your lead foot, then twist towards the ceiling and reach up with one arm. On the next step, switch to the other side.

After press-ups… the wall slide

Stand with your back against a wall with your hands up, elbows and forearms against the brickwork. Slide your arms up, then down, maintaining contact with the wall without arching your back.

After squats… the “no money” drill Stand up straight with your arms out in front of you, palms up. Then rotate your arms out to your sides – the “no money” gesture – to stretch your pecs and strengthen your external rotators.

Don’t lose any sleep

It’s crucial for recovery and energy, but lots of us don’t get enough. Here’s how to optimise your shut-eye

Burning the candle at both ends? You probably know someone who claims to get by on five hours a night – or you’ve heard that Margaret Thatcher ran the country on four. Here’s the truth: the Iron Lady might have been part of what scientists call the “sleep elite”, but your office show-off’s probably just chronically slumber-deprived. According to a 2009 research project, roughly 1-3% of the population have a gene variation that lets them sleep much less than ordinary people, while keeping their metabolism (and pain tolerance) high. If you barely sleep even when the opportunity’s there, that could be you –but if you struggle by with caffeine and weekend lie-ins, you’re out of luck. Here’s the fix.

REFRAME IT

“Change starts with your perception,” says Shawn Stevenson, author of Sleep Smarter. “Instead of seeing sleep an obstacle to work around, look at it as an indulgence.” Instead of mindlessly clicking around on Netflix for an extra half-hour, treat yourself to an early night.

GET MORE SUN

It keeps your circadian rhythms online, which means your body releases serotonin at the right time to aid sleep. Aim to cash in on your way to work. “The body clock is most responsive between 6am and 8.30am,” says Stevenson. Your optical receptors trigger the hormones you need, so there’s no need to go shirtless.

EAT YOUR GREENS

According to a study from the Human Nutrition Research Center in North Dakota, a diet high in magnesium and low in aluminium is associated with deep, uninterrupted sleep. Go for green leafy vegetables, pumpkin seeds and brazil nuts.

TURN OFF THE CUES

If you don’t want to get off your screens before bed, switch your phone to airplane mode. “Automatic notifications trigger the release of dopamine, the ‘seeking’ hormone, which is tied to being alert and awake,” says Stevenson. “So every ‘Like’ and Tweet is keeping you up, seeking more validation.”

You’ve heard of the Sirt Diet one way or another, even if you don’t recognise the name. In news reports, it’s presented as the plan that lets you eat chocolate and drink red wine, drop kilos in days, look like a supermodel and feel like a superhero. On Instagram, it’s the thing UFC featherweight champ Conor McGregor does – the Irishman took a selfie while reading up on it (caption: “I’m eating like a king these days”) a few days before the first of his two big 2016 fights against Nate Diaz and scooped an above-average 116,000 likes. To Cosmo readers it’s what Jodie Kidd and Adele do – and, of course, to naysayers it’s just the latest fad, another calorie-restriction-and-juice scam that’s making promises it can’t possibly keep.

But the fact is, there’s a lot more scientific clout behind Sirt than the typical drop-fat-fast plan. It’s based on a class of compounds that have been discovered only in the past decade, and experimental evidence suggests that they’re far more important than previously thought. And if the people behind it are right, we need to adjust our focus when we’re thinking about what to eat. So what’s the truth? What’s the evidence? And what’s the science behind it all?

First, the science. Sirtuins – from which Sirt gets its name – are a group of Silent Information Regulator (SIR) proteins that ramp up our metabolism, increase muscle efficiency, switch on fat-burning processes, reduce inflammation and repair damage in cells. In summary, sirtuins make us fitter, leaner and healthier (there’s also evidence that they might help combat serious diseases such as Alzheimer’s and diabetes – more on that later).

Mild forms of stress – including exercise and calorie restriction – trigger the body’s production of sirtuins, but it’s recently been discovered that chemical compounds known as sirtuin activators, found naturally in fruit and vegetables, can do the same thing. Certain foods – Sirtfoods, as they’ve been dubbed by diet creators Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten – are especially high in these sirtuin activators and so, the theory goes, if you eat a diet mostly composed of these foods you’ll lose fat and improve your health.

To test this idea, Goggins and Matten created the Sirt Diet, the seven-day eating plan that’s caused all the fuss. It’s simple enough: during the first three days, daily calorie intake is limited to 1,000 and consists of three green juices, plus a Sirtfood-rich meal. On days four to seven, calorie intake is increased to 1,500 and consists of two juices and two meals. After that all-out first week, the recommendation is to eat a balanced diet rich in Sirtfoods, along with more green juices. On the face of it, this sounds awful: even most fasting diets allow more calories. But is it?

“I didn’t feel hard done by at all,” says Rannoch Donald, a trainer and coach who tried the diet. “The juice is key: it’s like rocket fuel. After the initial week, following the diet was plain sailing, and after three weeks I was 5kg lighter. But, crucially, I also felt the best I have in a couple of years. I lost body fat, I was sleeping better, I had no gut issues, I was feeling energised… I was teaching and training half a dozen classes a week with fantastic recovery, even from the most gruelling Brazilian jiu jitsu session.”

To test the diet on a wider scale, Goggins and Matten recruited 37 members of KX Gym in London, 15 of whom were overweight. All had been doing a moderate amount of exercise; none increased it and some even began doing less. And the results in just one week, even considering the calorie restriction, were astounding: the test subjects lost an average of 3kg of fat but put on around 0.8kg of muscle. With a standard diet that cut calories by the same amount in a week, you’d expect to lose a maximum of 1kg.

Why are there no Sirt supps?

The diet’s
creators reveal why no-oneelse is cashing in on the Sirt craze – yet

It’s the obvious question: if sirtuins are so game-changing, why aren’t pharmaceutical and supplement companies scrambling to distill them into pill form? Short answer: because the mechanism by which they operate still isn’t fully understood, meaning that supps won’t necessarily be as well absorbed by the body as the natural forms. Goggins and Matten point to the example of resveratrol. “In supplement form it’s poorly absorbed by the body, but in its natural food matrix of red wine, its bioavailability (how much the body can use) is at least sixfold higher. We believe it’s better to consume a wide range of these nutrients in the form of natural wholefoods, where they co-exist alongside the hundreds of other natural bioactive plant chemicals which act synergistically to boost our health.” In other words: eat better, rather than just popping a pill.

Fast and furious?

Of course, this is the aspect of the Sirt Diet that has critics howling. Most point to the fact that, at least in the initial stages, the plan focuses on calorie restriction and that, according to previous experience, weight loss over 1kg a week is unhealthy or unsustainable. It’s a valid concern: in most calorie-restriction diets, early weight loss tends to come from calorie depletion and reduced water-bloating, and – as recent research on contestants in TV’s The Biggest Loser shows – simply rationing yourself every day can slow your metabolism to a near-permanent crawl, as well as messing with your body’s levels of “hunger hormone” ghrelin, making you permanently hungry.

But, Goggins and Matten counter, this isn’t what Sirt does. Yes, the diet mimics some aspects of fasting, and in the first seven days of the full diet Sirtfoods appear to turbocharge the effects of calorie restriction. But it’s a bit more complicated than just starving yourself for short-term changes.

So how does it work? Well, firstly, it’s vital to understand the “stress” part of the equation. “Everyone needs some amount of stress in their lives,” says Goggins. “Every time we train we create a stress on the body, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. There’s a temptation to always train harder, to try harder, but that carries a risk of building up chronic stress, which carries the risk of burnout and a weakened immune system.” The flipside: by exposing your body to low-grade sources of stress, you’ll increase your body’s ability to cope.

“Plant stress responses are actually more sophisticated than our own,” explains Goggins. “Think about it: if we are hungry and thirsty we can go in search of food and drink; too hot – we find shade; under attack – we can flee. In contrast, plants are stationary and must endure all the extremes of these physiological stresses and threats. In consequence, over the past billion years they have developed a highly sophisticated stress-response system that humbles [humans’] by producing a vast collection of natural plant chemicals – called polyphenols – that allow them to successfully adapt to their environment and survive. When we consume these plants, we also consume these polyphenol nutrients, which activate our own innate stress-response pathways. We’re talking here about exactly the same pathways that fasting and exercise switch on – the sirtuins.”

Polyphenols, according to Goggins, are the one thing the typical American diet has enough of, and when stripped of them the much-lauded Mediterranean diet loses almost all its effectiveness. Via Sirtfoods, polyphenols have a host of weight-management effects, including encouraging white adipose tissue (traditionally the bad stuff ) to mimic brown adipose tissue (the “good” fat that helps to generate body heat). They also help fullness issues, by improving your body’s sensitivity to the satiety hormone leptin.

“These natural plant compounds are now referred to as ‘calorie restriction mimetics’ due to their ability to turn on the same positive changes in our cells as would be seen during fasting, such as fat burning,” says Goggins. “The implications are game-changing. When we’re provided with more advanced signalling compounds than we produce ourselves, the outcomes are superior to anything we can achieve alone.”

The real health foods

There’s also more to Sirt than body composition. Outside Goggins and Matten’s tests, more scientifically controlled trials on single Sirtfoods have shown promising results. In October 2015, for instance, researchers at Columbia University in New York found that drinking water with a gram of cocoa – especially rich in the sirtuin activator epicatechin – dissolved in it led to improved memory in 19 middleaged subjects. In November the same year, researchers at Monash University in Melbourne reported that when patients in the early stages of type 2 diabetes added a gram of turmeric a day to their diets, it improved their working memory.

For diabetics, there’s some evidence that sirtuin activation increases the amount of insulin that can be secreted and helps it work more effectively. In the skeleton, sirtuins promote the production and survival of osteoblasts, a type of cell responsible for building new bone.

The next big thing for Sirt, when more research is performed, will be in its relationship to leucine, the main muscle-builder among the branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs). Leucine is a key regulator of protein synthesis and activates a protein known as mTOR (although you don’t need to worry about that to understand the next bit). “Leucine is a double-edged sword,” explains Goggins. “It’s an accelerator for muscle growth, but if you don’t have the internal machinery to deal with it, the engine explodes.” In theory, having a more Sirtfoodheavy diet could increase the amount of protein your body can successfully assimilate, consigning the old “20-30g a sitting” recommendation firmly to the past.

Of course, all of this needs more research. Thirty-seven people in one gym isn’t much of a sample size, and other studies on the effects of sirtuins have been done on animals or human cells – neither guaranteed to accurately reflect what goes on inside the body. But for all the criticism of the diet’s more radical claims, it’s hard to see what you stand to lose by following some version of the Sirt Diet. Even if you put aside the calorie-restricted version of the plan and jump straight to “maintenance” mode, you’d be eating a huge variety of the foods identified as key in the so-called Blue Zones, areas of the world like Sardinia and Okinawa where people live longer, healthier lives.

“I don’t like the word diet, but this is diet as in lifestyle as opposed to some quick-fix intervention,” says Donald. “It’s essentially about eating well. And despite the appearance of green juice drinks, the overall philosophy is about the inclusion of healthy whole natural ingredients rather than the deification of ‘superfoods’.” Or, to put it another way: you’re unlikely to get less healthy by getting more kale, berries, walnuts and red wine into your diet. Even if you aren’t a supermodel or a UFC fighter.

Sirtfood essentials

These are the highest-rated 20 foods for a Sirtfood-rich diet. Here’s how to incorporate them into your daily meals

Bird’s eye chilli

Also sold as Thai chillies, they’re more potent than regular chilis, and also more packed with nutrients. Use them to set off sweet or sour recipes.

Buckwheat

Technically a pseudo-grain: it’s actually a fruit seed related to rhubarb. Also available in noodle form (as soba), but make sure you’re getting the wheat-free version.

Capers

In case you’re wondering, they’re pickled flower buds. Sprinkle them over salad or roasted cauliflower.

Celery

The hearts and leaves are the most nutritious part, so don’t throw them away if you’re blending up a shake.

Cocoa

The flavonol-rich kind improves blood pressure, blood sugar control and cholesterol. Look for a high percentage of cacao.

Coffee

Drink it black – there’s some evidence that milk can reduce the absorption of sirtuinactivating nutrients.

Extra virgin olive oil

The extra virgin type has more Sirt benefits, and a more satisfying, peppery taste.

Green tea or matcha

Add a slice of lemon to increase absorption of sirtuin-producing nutrients. Matcha is even better, but go Japanese, not Chinese, to avoid potential lead contamination.

Kale

Includes huge amounts of sirtuin-activating nutrients quercetin and kaempferol. Massage it with olive oil and lemon juice to serve it as a salad.

Lovage

It’s a herb. Grow your own on a windowsill, and throw it into stir-fries.

Medjool dates

They’re a hefty 66% sugar, but – in moderation – don’t raise blood sugar levels, and have actually been linked to lowered rates of diabetes and heart disease.

Parsley

More than just a garnish – it’s high in apigenin. Throw it into a smoothie or juice for the full benefit.

Chicory

Red is best, but yellow works fine. Throw it in a salad.

Red onion

The red variety’s better for you, and sweet enough to eat raw. Chop it and add to a salad, or eat it with a burger.

Red wine

You’ve heard of resveratrol: the good news is, it’s heat stable, so you can get benefits from cooking with it (as well as glugging it straight). Pinot noir has the highest content.

Rocket

One of the least interfered-with salad greens available. Drizzle it with olive oil.

Soy

Soybeans and miso are high in sirtuin activators. Include it in stir-fries.

Strawberries

Though they’re sweet, they only contain 1tsp of sugar per 100g – and research suggests they improve your body’s ability to handle sugary carbs.

Turmeric

Evidence suggests the curcumin in it has anti-cancer properities. It’s difficult for the body to assimilate alone, but cooking it in liquid and adding fat and black pepper increases absorption.

Walnuts

High in fat and calories, but well established in reducing metabolic disease. Smash them up with parsley for sirt-flavoured pesto.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.