Fruit juices and smoothies have come in for a lot of criticism of late – and rightly so. The mass-produced ready-to-drink kind are typically high in sugar and low in nutrients, despite being billed by slick marketing campaigns (and promoted by Instagram fitness gurus) as the ultimate and trendy breakfast alternative or post-workout recovery drink.
But although shop-bought juices should be off your menu if you’re serious about shedding fat, if you follow these simple tips– and always make your own – then juices can genuinely improve your diet and move you closer towards your fitness goal.
1 Don’t replace meals
It might be fashionable to replace regular meals with juice, but the results are likely to wreck your blood sugar levels, encourage fat storage and leave you feeling tired and hungry. “Drinking juice in lieu of eating is not healthy or sustainable, no matter how nutrient-packed,” says dietician Marjorie Nolan Cohn (mncnutrition.com). Instead, think of juice like you would a protein shake – an excellent option for supplementing, rather than replacing, real food.
2 Add in veggies
Adding veg to your blender makes drinks far more beneficial because of the added vitamins and reduced sugar levels. There’s nothing you can’t add –although we don’t receommend potatoes – but start with green leafy veg. “Kale works really well in juices, and also provides a big hit of calcium, a mineral that plays a key role in regulating body-fat levels,” says sports nutritionist Scott Baptie (foodforfitness.co.uk). Then you can experiment with some more options, like vitamin A-rich carrots.
3 Spice it up
Adding veg can improve a drink’s vitamin value, but sometimes the taste leaves a little bit to be desired. If you want to reinvigorate your juice, consider adding some spices (see box, opposite) for both improved flavour and health-helping compounds. “Cinnamon, for example, adds a natural sweetness, and will also help to regulate your blood sugar levels so you don’t suffer energy spikes and crashes that can increase temptations for junk food,” says Baptie.
4 Improve absorption
Vitamins B and C are water-soluble, whereas vitamins A, D and E are fat-soluble, so ideally they need to be consumed with a good-quality fat to enhance the absorption process. Adding a small amount of coconut oil or half an avocado will do the job.
This element is promoted as a big T-booster – yet it’s only effective in people with a deficiency. But because zinc is lost through sweat, if you train intensively – especially in humid conditions – you risk low levels. Supplementing with zinc could bring levels back into the normal range, boosting testosterone in the process. However, high doses can irritate your gastrointestinal tract, especially if taken on an empty stomach, and deplete copper levels over time. Natural sources include oysters and red meat.
❷ Magnesium
Magnesium is involved in more than 300 biological actions throughout your body, including playing a role in maintaining normal testosterone levels. And like zinc, it’s lost through sweat so supplementation can restore levels to a more healthy range to support testosterone levels. Taking too much magnesium can cause stomach upsets and nausea. Eat more brazil nuts, seeds and green leafy veg if you want to increase your levels naturally.
❸ Vitamin D
The chances you are deficient in vitamin D are quite high – living in the UK means we don’t get enough direct sunshine year-round for our bodies to make it. And because vitamin D receptors are located in sperm cells, it’s thought to play a key role in T production. Multiple studies have shown that men with a vitamin D deficiency experience a T increase after supplementation. If you want to supplement with vitamin D, and you probably should, then take it with a meal containing fat to help your body absorb it better.
❹ Creatine
Creatine is a small organic acid that replenishes ATP levels in a cell faster than glucose or fatty acids, and is most well known for its ability to increase the rate of muscle growth and improvements in strength during training. Studies have shown that in men aged 18 to 35, creatine supplementation causes a 20-25% increase in testosterone concentrations. Small doses of creatine are found in red meat, but the best option is to supplement with between 5g and 10g a day, taken with plenty of water.
If you’re low in testosterone, you’ll know about it. It’s not just the physical problems -the struggle to maintain and build muscle, and tendency to store more fat – there’s the mental signs too, including fatigue, irritability and low libido. So if you think you’re low in this vital male sex hormone, try these scientifically proven supplement solutions (recommended by independent research firm Examine) to look good and feel even better.
The male body is on average 69% water, so you’re more water than anything else. While you can go longer for a month without food, you won’t survive more than a few days without water. The reasons include its role in protecting and cushioning the brain, spinal column and other tissues, regulating body temperature, lubricating joints, and removing toxins and waste products through perspiration and excretion, among many others. Most water leaves your body through perspiration and excretion (sweat and urine), but significant quantities are also lost through breathing as water vapour. Adequate water intake is required daily to prevent dehydration, which can lead to a rapid decline in mental and physical performance. It’s very easy to lose a lot of body water when training intensively, especially in hot conditions.
➋ WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I GET DEHYDRATED?
The less water in your body, the thicker your blood. This forces your heart to pump harder to deliver oxygen to your brain, organs, muscles and every cell in your body. If you’re dehydrated your body will be going haywire trying to fix the problem and as dehydration gets worse you’ll feel thirsty, dizzy, irritable and have a headache. Without water at this point your condition will worsen into fatigue and exhaustion, with poor motor function so you’ll be clumsy and uncoordinated. From here, your condition will worsen with nausea, dizziness and vomiting all common before your eyesight fails and other functions begin to shut down as you fall into a coma. Without remedy, death soon follows.
➌ HOW DOES DEHYDRATION AFFECT HOW I PERFORM?
Even a 1% decline in fluids as a percentage of total bodyweight can negatively impair performance, according to research from the California University of Pennsylvania, while a decline of 3% and higher significantly increases the risk of heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Dehydration of 2% impairs mental performance in tasks that require attention, psychomotor and immediate memory skills, according to the American Journal of College Nutrition, which is no surprise because your brain is predominantly water. The more activity you do and the higher the temperature, the more your daily fluid intake must increase to avoid dehydration. Research in the journal Nutrition advises drinking 200ml to 285ml of water for every ten to 20 minutes of moderate exercise. If it’s hot and you’re working out intensively then you will need more, and you may need electrolytes too (see box, opposite).
➍ HOW DO I KNOW IF I AM DEHYDRATED?
The first and most obvious sign is that you feel thirsty. At the onset of thirst you should drink water, whether you’re at work, the gym or outdoors. During intensive exercise, or when training in hot and humid conditions, it can be very difficult, to consume as much water as you are losing through sweating and breathing. This is why it’s so important to start any activity in a fully hydrated state, and prioritise replacing lost fluids as soon as you’re finished. The colour of your urine is also a good indicator of hydration levels: a light yellow or straw colour means you’re adequately hydrated, but the darker the shade of yellow then the more water you need. If it’s any other colour, by the way, you should call your doctor.
➎ HOW MUCH WATER DO I NEED PER DAY?
The NHS recommends drinking eight medium-sized glasses of water a day, but this is obviously only a generic guide and how much you need exactly will depend on body size, activity level, temperature, humidity, diet and myriad other factors. Most of your daily fluid intake doesn’t actually come from drinking plain water but instead from the food you eat and other beverages. For example, a medium banana contains 90ml of water, as does 100g of tomatoes. The United States National Research Council advises a total daily water intake, which includes water from food and all other sources, of 3.7 litres for men and 2.7 litres for women. Drinking more water can help you lose weight: numerous studies have shown that drinking 500ml of water at mealtimes is conducive to weight loss, possibly because it makes you feel full sooner so you don’t overeat.
➏ WHY MIGHT I NEED ELECTROLYTES?
When we sweat we lose important minerals such as sodium and potassium, which are found in your blood and – among other things – regulate body water levels. If you’re training for less than an hour in average temperature and humidity you’ll be fine to rehydrate with plain H20, but when training is longer, more intensive or in hotter conditions, taking on around 1.7g to 2.9g of electrolytes per litre of water helps your body absorb fluids more quickly, according to research in the journal Sports Medicine. Another study, published in the Journal Of The International Society Of Sports Nutrition, found that pure coconut water and coconut drinks made from concentrate were as effective as sugar-based sports drinks at aiding rehydration.
Taken from Cooking, Blokes & Artichokes by Brendan Collins (£20, Kyle Books)
WHY
Skirt steak is the ideal sandwich cut. It’s cheap, fast and easy to cook, tender enough that you won’t put your jaw out trying to bite through it and it has a rich, intense beefy flavour. It’s also a naturally slim piece of meat, no more than half an inch (1¼cm) thick and about ten centimetres wide, which makes it the perfect dimensions for laying a slab between two slices of bread. Adding the heat of horseradish, creamy mayo and peppery rocket rounds out the flavours perfectly. If you think you like sandwiches made with grey deli roast beef, you’ll go nuts for this.
WHAT
350g skirt steak
Steak is high in protein (with around 25g per 100g) and B vitamins.
2x10cm slices ciabatta
It’s higher in good fats than other bread because it’s made with olive oil.
30g unsalted butter
Unlike other spreads, butter contains a healthy hit of vitamins A and D.
2 handfuls of rocket
The dark leaves are packed with potassium and vitamins A and C.
1½ tbsp horseradish
Horseradish is surprisingly high in the antioxidant vitamin C.
75g mayonnaise
Let’s be honest: there’s nothing healthy about mayo… but it tastes good.
HOW
1 Trim any excess fat off the steak, rub it with the marinade (see below), and place it in a sealed food bag or covered container in the refrigerator for at least two, but no more than eight hours – more than that and the meat will turn mushy when you cook it.
2 Heat up the barbecue or place a grill pan or cast-iron pan over a high heat for five minutes. Remove the steak from the marinade, scrape off any excess herbs and garlic, season it with salt, then grill the meat to your liking. Mediumrare will take about one minute per side.
3 Toast the bread if you want, or simply butter it. In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise and horseradish.
4 Spread the horseradish mayo on the bottom slice of bread, then put down a bed of rocket, followed by your meat, a seasoning of black pepper and the top slice of bread.
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.”
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
Thanks to the dominance of British road riders such as Tour de France winner Chris Froome, Olympic legend Bradley Wiggins and speed demon Mark Cavendish, more people than ever are taking to two wheels and rediscovering their competitive streak. But it doesn’t matter how much cash you spend on the latest and best bike or essential high-tech gadgets and kit, because you’ll only ever go as fast as your training and diet plan allows. Here are some tips from the professional riders of the Ford EcoBoost cycling team – put their advice into action and increase your saddle speed and stamina.
EAT LIKE A CHAMPION
WHY Your body is just like a car: fill it with premium fuel and it will blast through the kilometres smoothly. But feed it with poor-quality rough stuff and your engine will suffer. For pro cyclists like Ford EcoBoost rider Nikki Juniper, fuelling up for training and racing, and ensuring they give their bodies the nutrients they need to recover faster, is vital to their success.
HOW “It’s not uncommon for us to ride up to 1,000km per week, so things like porridge, protein pancakes or scrambled eggs on toast are perfect, especially to get you through the first part of any journey,” says Juniper. She suggests a breakfast containing both carbs and protein to maximise your muscles’ energy stores.
PUSH IT WITH YOUR PALS
WHY We all know how hard it can be at times to stick to your training schedule, especially when the session planned is a long and hard road ride and the British summer time is living up to its grey, wet and windy traditions. That’s why cycling with a group of mates can help motivate you all to push yourselves harder, thanks to a bit of friendly rivalry – no-one will want to be the slowcoach of the group.
HOW “You gain a lot from training with others, especially on the road,” says Juniper’s Team EcoBoost team-mate Sophie Fennell. “It allows you to watch and understand how other riders ride, and you can pick up new techniques and skills.”
BE SMARTER IN THE SADDLE
WHY Unless you’re riding exclusively in the Netherlands, sooner or later you’re going to face riding up a dauntingly steep hill or a stretch of seemingly endless incline. The good news is once it’s conquered the downhill bit is easy. Until then you need to nail your approach so you can actually get to the top in the first place.
HOW The key is never start too hard, hoping that will get it over and done with quicker. “Keep a good cadence [speed of pedal turnover], rather than grinding out the higher gears,’ says Juniper. A controlled and consistent approach is the best way to make steep climbs as easy as possible, then all you have to do is enjoy the view – and the descent.
