Men's Health UK July/August 2021

STEVE BUCKNALL BASKETBALL COACH In south-east London, the NBA’s first English player is training up the next generation of champions. He gives MH a court-side seat p96 JACINTA JIMÉNEZ LEADERSHIP COACH The pandemic has upended our life-work balance, sending our stress levels spiralling. Jiménez offers tips to reboot your year p49 JOE WICKS PT, AUTHOR AND MBE After keeping the nation fit in the lockdown year, the Body Coach has a new mission: to make us happier. It’s hard to bet against him p40 JACK GREALISH ENGLAND FOOTBALLER At 25, Villa’s star winger is establishing himself as a legend on the pitch. He takes MH behind the headlines to reveal what truly drives him p78 PATRICK MAHOMES NFL QUARTERBACK The Kansas City Chiefs playmaker is the NFL’s single most valuable asset. He shares how a focused mind took him straight to the top p110 JUSTIN…

When I spoke to Joe Wicks over Zoom around 15 months ago, things were rather different. For a start, it was over Zoom, which was still in and of itself a novelty (oh, the virtual pub quizzes we would have long into, um, May 2020). Meanwhile, the prevailing mood was one of dissonance – as the pandemic grew in intensity, accompanied by the narrative of dismal daily TV bulletins, outside a glorious British summer blazed in counterpoint. I was interviewing from my office-cum-man-cave and still secretly quite enjoying this working-from-home lark, before it gradually and insidiously morphed into living-from-work. Down the line, Joe was lying on the same bed on which he’d experienced the epiphany that had launched PE with Joe a few weeks earlier – a phenomenon that saw…

Staying at the top of your game can be an exhausting business. Just ask Cristiano Ronaldo: to perform at his peak, the Portuguese footballer (and proud possessor of eight-pack abs) reportedly takes up to five naps per day. It’s less a case of “eat, sleep, train, repeat” than “eat, sleep, train, sleep, eat, sleep…” Well, you get the idea. Ronaldo’s routine might be extreme, but he’s not the only pro-nodder in sport. In recent years, the “power nap” has proved to be just that and has risen in popularity among athletes, thanks to its ability to accelerate muscle repair and sharpen focus ahead of training. Now, new research suggests that it could elevate your game in the office, too. In a recent study, published in the journal General Psychiatry, 2,214 healthy older…

Swerve over-the-counter sleeping aids with these unlikely focus boosters CREATINE Promotes the restoration of brain energy, reducing the need for sleep. £5 for 250g myprotein.com MAGNESIUM This can help to soothe muscle cramps and ease restless legs syndrome. £8 for 1.36kg boots.com GLYCINE Taking 3g before sleep has been linked to feeling more rested the next day. £7.50 for 500g bulk.com/uk WORDS: SCARLETT WRENCH I ARTWORK: PETER CROWTHER AT DEBUT ART I PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY I ILLUSTRATIONS: ANDREA MANZATI AT SYNERGY ART…

Building a bigger back can be tricky. “Many people have trouble with the posterior chain in general,” says MH fitness editor Andrew Tracey. “It’s a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’.” Yet neglecting the muscles you can’t see will only result in bad form. “We’re so mid-back dominant,” says Tracey. “The first thing we do when we pull something towards us is shrug up and shrink our bodies. It can be difficult to know how to switch on our lats.” Working a band into this gym staple will set you straight. “When you’re performing a dumbbell row, the angle of resistance is up and down,” says Tracey. “The band distraction adds horizontal resistance. This creates a cue to switch on our lats and use them to move the weight.” Perform…

01 GOT MILK? While supermarket beef is generally sourced from three-year-old cows, dairy cattle aren’t put to pasture until later in life. Too often they end up as mince, but the meat is high-quality: rich in omega-3, vitamins, iron, zinc and selenium. “It also carries a deeper flavour, a result of slow growth and maturity,” says James George of butchers Turner and George. He and partner Richard Turner are here to beef up your repertoire. A FILLET The meat of any cow is broken down into “primal” and “subprimal” cuts. Fillet is a subprimal cut of the loin – a rarely used muscle in the middle of the back that yields more tender (and therefore more expensive) meat. B RUMP One of the more common cuts, rump comes from the “round” and is typically lean…