Men's Health UK May 2021

TOM COWAN PHYSIOLOGIST Fitness is a numbers game, but which truly count? Cowan and others interrogate the most commonly cited benchmarks p54 ZACK GEORGE CROSSFIT ATHLETE The UK’s fittest man joins our elite line-up to dispense the advice you need to make this your biggest, most gainful year ever p110 JOE MARLER PRO RUGBY PLAYER World Cup star Marler opens up about how talking about his mental health struggles has helped him – and others – find new strength p88 WILLIE STEWART NEUROPATHOLOGIST An expert in concussion management, Stewart warns of a coming wave of sports-related brain damage. How can we stop head injuries? p60 MARION NESTLE FOOD RESEARCHER Is saturated fat a healthy part of your diet, or a heart attack waiting to happen? Nestle and other scientists serve up the final word p80 WILL SELF NOVELIST Death awaits us all, but nobody wants to talk…

As I sit down to write this, spring has sprung. The daffodils and hyacinths are out in force, the tulips about to bloom. New shoots are emerging from dormant clematis stems. Outside, the mercury nudges optimistically above 20°C. Earlier today, for the first time this year, I took my lunchtime run cross-country, now that the slurry of the surrounding paths and fields has been slowly baked by sun and breeze. To romantics, these hallmarks of seasonal change are associated with a sanguine disposition – for Shakespeare, a bleeding-heart softie when the mood took him, spring “put a spirit of youth in everything”. Indeed, my own temperament has always been enhanced by blue sky and hot rays. Throw in a cold beer and I’m the veritable life and soul. Yet, to my…

The superfoods aisle at a health shop might seem like your safest bet if you’re hoping to eat your way to a longer life. Yet you’ll find the most effective life extender at your local corner shop. According to epidemiologists working for the World Health Organisation, bean intake is the best predictor of longevity, beating fruit, veg and wholegrain cereals. For every 20g of beans that the subjects in their study ate per day, their chances of dying from any cause fell by 8%. The study focused on four countries well known for having long-lived inhabitants: Japan, Sweden, Greece and Australia. The first three of these are committed bean-eating cultures. Legumes are present in Japanese cuisine in soya, tofu, natto and miso; they also feature heavily in the Scandi and Mediterranean…

It’s a move that’s reminiscent of climbing trees. If you could do it as a five-year-old, how hard can it be? Well, as your inability to deep-squat like a toddler will attest, very – that is, unless you have the right technique. “Your form will make or break each rep,” says PT Chris Jillard. “This rope climb will challenge your coordination, strength, endurance and grip.” Your goal is to make each rep as efficient as possible. “When you start, it’ll feel like a strength exercise,” says Jillard. “But once you get more comfortable, you can use it as a conditioning tool within workouts.” The key to this variation is using your feet on the way up, but then switching to an L-sit for the descent. Calling in the support of your powerful…

01 EASTERN PROMISES Thai cuisine has a rep for being esoteric and best outsourced to Deliveroo, but it needn’t do your noodle. “It’s very easy to cook,” says Saiphin Moore, founder of Rosa’s Thai Café (rosasthaicafe.com). “It’s about balancing the flavours of sweet, salty, spicy and sour.” Restock your cupboard with these essentials and you can tuck into home-made fitness fuel that delivers flavour and health benefits by the wokful. A RICE NOODLES Far more than just a portion of performance-boosting carbs, rice noodles also boast a hefty mineral payload. They contain selenium, a compound that works to combat the oxidative stress linked to mental decline and even Alzheimer’s. B LIME JUICE Though best known for bolstering your immunity, vitamin C also happens to be essential for retaining muscle mass as you age. The juice…

01 ADDED VALUE Some may associate creatine with bodybuilding and other, less salubrious, anabolic supps. But this compound occurs naturally in our livers and contains the amino acids arginine, glycine and methionine. Its main dietary source is red meat but, as more people turn to plant-based diets, supplementation is becoming increasingly common. Deficiency causes lethargy and brain fog and can slow down your gym progress. 02 SLOW BUILD Avoid short cuts. The over-zealous bodybuilder’s habit of loading up on four 7g doses per day could leave you bloated and lumbered with the sudden weight gain endemic among the über-muscled. Your body simply can’t store that much creatine, so build up over time. Research suggests that taking 3g per day over four weeks results in maximum phosphocreatine saturation, with minimum unwanted water retention. 03 MIND…