Men's Health UK

What does age mean to you? Is it simply a number to signify your laps around the sun – something you give little consideration as it has no real bearing on how you feel, physically or mentally? Or are the years ticking by at what feels like lightning speed, with each birthday marked by a sense of foreboding? This month’s cover star is most certainly in the former camp. At 57, Gordon Ramsay is in the shape of his life. A fitness devotee, he trains daily, keeping himself accountable by competing in at least two endurance events a year. ‘An Ironman, a marathon, just something,’ he tells Men’s Health. He’s also about to launch his most ambitious business project yet: a £25m multiple restaurant experience – and all with a five-year-old and…

David Beckham is evidently a man of many talents, but did you know that he’s also a keen gardener? Becks has recently been sharing his green-fingered habits with his 6 million-strong TikTok audience, and if it’s good enough for him… Research on the benefits of gardening to mental, physical and emotional wellbeing is plentiful, but just like Becks’ first love, it needn’t be a solo sport. When researcher Lauriane Suyin Chalmin-Pui added ornamental plants – think junipers, azaleas and daffodil bulbs – to 38 previously bare front gardens in an economically deprived area of Salford in Manchester, study participants reported spending more time chatting to their neighbours, some of whom they’d lived alongside for 10 years but rarely spoken to before. They also experienced a drop in stress levels. Wondering how long…

26% A walk can support your mental health as much as a workout, according to a report published in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. It concluded that higher levels of physical activity could reduce the risk of depression by 23% and anxiety by 26%. And you barely need to break a sweat: low- to moderate-intensity exercise – including golf, walking and gardening – proved the most effective in reducing symptoms. Squat or not? If you’re not big on barbells or don’t have easy access to heavy weights, we have some welcome news. Single-leg body-weight exercises could be just as good for your gains, according to research in Scientific Reports. Participants in a six-week study were tasked with either barbell back squat training or lunges, Bulgarian split squats and skater squats. Volume was matched between…

Check the comments section on any video of an adolescent lifting weights and you’ll likely see a lot of myths and misinformation. Unfortunately, you’ll also see people buying into what’s being said, too. So, let’s start by dispelling the biggest myth: lifting weights stunts children’s growth. Research published in the Clinical Journal Of Sport Medicine looked at 22 different studies involving youths training with machines and free weights and found that ‘resistance training programmes did not influence growth in height and weight of pre- and early-adolescent youth’. In all of those 22 studies, there were only three reported injuries, which equates to less than one injury for every 100 hours of lifting. You don’t need me to tell you that this is an incredibly low rate versus adult populations. Another study* commented…

Pilates is just glorified stretching, right? German Joseph Pilates came up with the practice when he was held at a British internment camp during the First World War, devising it as a form of physical training for his fellow inmates. He rigged springs to hospital beds – the blueprint for the design of the reformer machine – and helped incapacitated patients build strength using the same controlled, ultra-precise movements that are still used today. So no, it’s not a glorified stretch session. So, it’s a good workout for men? Absolutely. Workouts targeted towards men are traditionally strength-based. But most Pilates exercises challenge you to use a muscle ‘eccentrically’, ie, lengthening the muscle. By diversifying your workout with regular flexibility work, you’ll lay the foundation for stronger movement patterns and iron out any weaknesses…

No one has made the act of survival a bigger part of their identity than Bear Grylls. ‘The line between life and death is determined by what we are willing to do,’ said the man who has eaten deer droppings and drunk urine – both on camera – during the course of his many adventures. Today, however, the 50-year-old’s diet isn’t quite as peculiar, but he did court controversy last year when he revealed that despite writing a vegan cookbook, he had swapped plant-based living for a predominantly meat-based diet. Grylls now admits to being ‘embarrassed’ that he ever lived without meat and eggs and, while he isn’t fully a carnivore, he doesn’t have much time for vegetables these days. Thankfully, he did have time to speak with us about what’s currently…