Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2022 i Men's Fitness UK

WEEKLY UPDATES INCLUDE: WORKOUTS Build muscle, burn fat and boost strength TRAINING TIPS Expert advice for hitting your goals NUTRITION Recipes, food hacks and meal plans MENTAL HEALTH Support and strategies for improved wellbeing INTERVIEWS Exclusive insights from the big names in fitness PRODUCTS Tried and tested tech, equipment and apparel *You will be emailed a link, so you can download your free digital copy of our Complete Training Guide SIGN UP AT MENSFITNESS.CO.UK/NEWSLETTER You can unsubscribe any time TRY A SUBSCRIPTION TO MEN’S FITNESS AND PAY £5 FOR 3 ISSUES–SAVING 62%! GREAT REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE TODAY: • Pay just £5 for your first 3 issues – saving 62%.• Continue to save 24% after your trial.• Every issue delivered to your door at no extra cost, before it hits the…

When former special forces operative Ollie Ollerton first decided to join the forces aged 14, he imagined a utopia that never materialised. And only in his 40s did he realise the image he was chasing had been a projection of society’s expectation. Ollerton’s journey into the forces was unlike any other. As a curious ten-year-old, he and his brother stumbled upon a travelling circus in Burton-upon-Trent. He ventured into a tent, where a 50kg chimpanzee lurking in the shadows almost tore his arm clean off. “That attack changed the direction of my life,” he tells Men’s Fitness. “I was always looking to be on that pointy end of danger.” For Ollerton, that ‘pointy end’ became war. Escape and evasion At 23, Ollerton found himself facing the final phase of special…

Billing itself as the ‘World Series of Fitness’, HYROX is the new run-lift-HIIT event designed to be doable in commercial gyms with conventional equipment. There aren’t any advanced Olympic lifts or gymnastics – just moves that everyday fitness lovers perform day in, day out in the gym. The focus in HYROX-style training is to combine large, compound movements (squat, lunge, press, pull) – which utilise all muscle groups across different motor patterns – with high-output cardiovascular work. This combination of muscular activation and cardiovascular output elicits an optimal response from the body, challenging V02 max and blood lactate, while building strength and endurance. It’s a potent blend that leads to a wide range of structural, endocrine and central nervous system benefits, all of which can help to improve both performance…

1 Rest assured Optimise your time between sets, to suit your body and performance goals (p12). 2 Warm up well Prepare your muscles and joints for intense effort with this dynamic routine (p16). 3 Maximise gym time Thirty minutes is all you need for an effective workout – if you use it wisely (p82). 4 Train for HYROX Prepare for this new functional fitness competition with our guide to the main movements (p85). 5 Unveil your abs Tone your stomach with celebrity PT Bradley Simmonds’ bodyweight circuit (p92). SUBSCRIPTIONS Men’s Fitness is published every month. UK annual subscription price: £50.40 Europe annual subscription: £62 USA & Canada annual subscription: £62 Rest of world annual subscription: £68 CONTACT US UK subscription and back issue order line: 01959 543747 Overseas subscription order…

MF: Rugby is a physical sport – is pain just seen as part of the job? UM: “It’s a land of giants, isn’t it? In training you have to be physically robust. You have to put yourself through a bit of pain. But I almost don’t like using that word, ‘pain’, because of some of the negative association with it. “There’s some really good, positive pain, and that’s how you get growth. But then there’s the negative side of it: injuries and collisions, which rugby totally wraps up.” MF: You spoke on the recent episode of Boots’ Taboo Talk about chronic pain. Why do you think pain is a taboo topic, especially in the sporting world? UM: “I think often sports men and women have a warped relationship with pain…

One of the most important aspects of any run takes place before you even step outside the house or onto the treadmill: the warm-up. Failing to warm up properly will mean your muscles aren’t properly prepared for the exercise ahead. That can affect your performance or, worse, lead to injury. The running training experts at therunbuddy.co.uk have pulled together the following dynamic routine to do just before your run. Complete 30 seconds of each exercise, resting as needed, and do 2-3 rounds in total. 1a. STRAIGHT-LEG SWING Benefits: Leg swings create a pumping mechanism, helping move fluid in and out of your joints, while stimulating blood flow in the surrounding tissue. This improves not just flexibility of the joint capsule, but also of the tissue that you're going to be…

You have an overgrown man-child, a 6ft 7” Australian DJ, and a bearded university dropout from Leeds. We’re unorganised, horribly inexperienced and far too old to be starting a YouTube channel. What could possibly go wrong?” That’s the mission statement from three documentary makers aiming to make their name in travel and adventure sport. Working as a collective called Jamalon, they are two Brits, James Norbury and Jake Usman, and an Australian, Paul Lojszczyk. So far, they have made four series, much of the material broadcast on their YouTube channel, The Jamalon Series. Globe trotting The first was in December 2018: a moped trip through the remote northern regions of Vietnam. As well as an obligatory boat cruise across Ha Long Bay, they found themselves exploring a vast network of…

Researchers already know that the gut microbiome is closely linked to mood disorders, and now they’ve linked the microorganism ‘mycobacterium vaccae’, naturally found in soil, to happiness. M. vaccae has been found to mirror the effect on neurons that drugs like Prozac provide, and could stimulate serotine production. But the benefits of digging the dirt don’t end there. Of course, there’s the long-confirmed link between time spent outside and mental wellbeing. And more specifically, a recent study reported that children who grow up on farms are 30-50% less likely than other children to suffer from asthma – presumably because of exposure to a high diversity of bacteria from a young age.1 Research is ongoing, but doing some planting or weeding as the spring sun rears its head could work wonders…

If you’re a fan of smoothies, but had heard blending fruit and veg removed many of the key nutrients, you’ll be pleased to hear that the act of drinking, rather than eating, actually makes many of the nutrients easier to absorb. When researchers whizzed up spinach, they found it increased blood folate levels twice as much as eating whole spinach leaves.1 Similar effects have been seen with other B vitamins, as well as beta-carotene from carrots. WATERMELON AND TOFU SMOOTHIE Mix watermelon with seeds, berries and tofu for a balanced, refreshing, protein-rich power shake. The watermelon provides a healthy dose of lycopene, which helps to destroy free radicals: unstable atoms that can be damaging by-products of exercise. INGREDIENTS (serves 2) - 50g watermelon- 2 tbsp mixed sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds…

Breakfast cereals have long been cast aside as an unhealthy option for ‘the most important meal of the day.’ Traditional brands are carb-heavy, contain high amounts of sugar, and offer only a small protein pay-off. Oats – topped with banana and a dollop of peanut butter – have become the functional athlete’s favourite. But since 81% of Brits still want cereal for breakfast,1 more brands are producing special ‘protein’ options to knock the oat from its throne. Some of these offer a higher protein content than even chicken breasts, and several throw it back to some favourite flavours of old. Surreal £24 (4 boxes), eatsurreal.co.uk Surreal’s bright packaging catches the eye, and what’s inside the box is every bit as appealing. Its creators sell it as ‘the cereal you loved…

FROSTURE Free / iOS Posture correctors like the Upright Go stick to your back and get all buzzy when you slouch. Frosture reckons you can have a similar experience with just your iPhone. Run the app and slip your phone into your front pocket: it will use the device’s accelerometer to detect when you’re not sitting up straight – and nag accordingly. TOWNSCAPER £4.49 / Android, iOS About as non-gamey as a game can be. Townscaper has you place foundations in an endless sea, atop which you build structures. What they look like is determined by an underlying grid – and rules that you’ll need to discover yourself. From the first splash you hear on tapping the screen, this is joyful, soothing fare. SOOSEE Free / Android, iOS For many people, diet is…

Land Rover Polartec Half Zip Micro Fleece £70, musto.com Made from recycled materials, this fleece includes hydrophobic yarns to repel water, and thermal air pockets to retain warmth. Musto X Land Rover PT Glove £30, musto.com Made from fast-drying, breathable Polartec fleece material, these gloves feature conductive fingers that will operate any touchscreen when you’re outside and on the move. Land Rover Lite Rain Jacket £140, musto.com Constructed from lightweight stretch shell fabric, this jacket has fully taped seams for total waterproof protection. The Griphood stays put in strong winds, and rotates with your head for uncompromised peripheral vision. Musto Land Rover Welded Thermo Jacket £350, musto.com Lightweight and warm, this jacket includes a RECCO antenna to help rescue teams locate you in emergencies, and features an insulated pocket (designed…

“I think when you hear the term ‘PTSD’, you immediately think of people who have been in Iraq or Afghanistan and the horrific things they have dealt with,” says Arun Gray. “But everyone’s tolerance to trauma is different.” Gray, a sports therapist, was 21 when one of his closest friends collapsed while they were playing football. A trained first aider, he performed CPR on his friend for 40 minutes before an ambulance arrived. “It all happened so quickly, so it wasn’t until afterwards when it all sunk in,” he says. “A few hours later, I found out that Craig had passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was just 18 years old at the time. I was 21. “A condition once believed to affect only those who had fought…

Some days life gets in the way, and the best-laid gym plans go up in smoke. On these occasions, you need some quick (don’t mistake that for ‘easy’) sessions in your back pocket to give you a rewarding workout in double-quick time. This two-move ladder is exactly that. Position a kettlebell between your feet, then take one big step forward and put two light dumbbells on the floor. Now set your stopwatch and get ready to sweat. Starting with the kettlebell, you’re going to do a single goblet squat. Then you’re going to put the kettlebell back between your feet, place your hands on the floor, and ‘walk’ your upper body out to place your hands on the dumbbells – you should now be in a press-up position. Complete a…

Any ‘adventure’ – let’s define it, for the purposes of this article, as a physical activity that pushes you out of your comfort zone – is going to be easier to enjoy if your endurance and stamina are at a high level. Conversely, the fastest way to remove enjoyment is by getting injured. The term ‘functional fitness’ gets bandied about a lot, though that function is will be different for everyone. However, for most people it means being resilient enough to take on new challenges and not get hurt. To help boost the former and reduce risk of the latter, the following functional exercises will develop the necessary resilience, muscular endurance and coordination – not to mention core, grip and lower-body strength – to take on any challenge. CHAIN AROUND…

Older people with absolutely no lifting experience have the same ability to build muscle as those of a similar age with a long history of strength training. That’s according to research conducted by the University of Birmingham, which found ‘master athletes’ – people over 70, who had lifted weights all their life – and healthy people of the same age, who had never followed a structured training plan, were able to build muscle at similar rates. “Our study clearly shows that it doesn’t matter if you haven’t been a regular exerciser throughout your life; you can still derive benefit from exercise whenever you start,” says Dr Leigh Breen, one of the chief scientists involved. Clearly, a long-term commitment to fitness and a healthy lifestyle remains the preferable choice, but even…