The his-and-hers midlife fitness plan
Matt Roberts has created an exercise regime for men and women to fight the effects of ageing.
‘Unless you actually work on it, a man of 45 will be at a fraction of where he was a decade earlier’
‘For menopausal women exercise can be very uncomfortable, it’s about finding a right balance’
Matt Roberts is a highly competitive person. A former teenage athlete, he opened his first gym at the age of just 22, the first in Europe to offer one-to-one training. It grew into a fitness empire that includes an ever-expanding number of studios, and clients from David Cameron to Tom Ford and Naomi Campbell. Roberts has written bestselling books, and in his spare time he has run marathons and triathlons, and played competitive tennis.
So five years ago, aged 41, when he took a routine blood test that measured his testosterone levels for the first time, he naturally expected the very best. “The standard range is roughly between 13 and 30,” he says. “Mine was 22/23. Middle of the bend. That’s not good. It should be higher up. It should be top of the range!” How did he feel? “Mortified!”
At the same time, Roberts had noticed other small but sure signs that all was not quite optimum. “Irrespective of how fit you are, everyone gets older and there’s less response to the training you’ve always done,” he says. “If you carry on as normal, there’s a diminishing return. I couldn’t measure a significant drop in how much I was lifting, how far I was running, but I knew I was feeling a bit more stiffness in my hips in particular and lower back. You don’t recover so quickly, there’s more selfcare needed, more stretching.”
For Roberts, it was the start of a new preoccupation with the ageing process, the beginning of a steep learning curve that took in the latest research on what happens to our hormones, muscle mass, bones and tendons when we hit middle age. Roberts was particularly alarmed by our hormonal changes. Past the age of 30, men lose testosterone at a rate of 1.5 to 2 per cent a year and the body’s growthhormone (HGH) production also starts to fall. “Women also lose testosterone – which is why some menopausal women have testosterone replacement therapy – but for guys, the drop-off is pretty horrific,” says Roberts. “Unless you actually work on it, a man of 45 will be at a fraction of where he was a decade earlier.”
Why does it matter? Low
testosterone has been linked to all sorts of horrors – exhaustion and low libido for women and hair loss and “shrinkage” (that’s penis and testicles) for men. In terms of health and fitness, both testosterone and HGH are crucial for regulating muscle and bone growth, fat levels and metabolism. As they freefall, it becomes harder to build muscle, burn calories and absorb nutrients. The “middle-aged spread” or “creeping obesity” slowly makes its home around our middle. Men grow moobs; we all say goodbye to our glutes as our bums slide straight downward. It’s hello to love handles.
At the same time, middle age usually brings its share of difficult life events. In his forties, Roberts lost his father to cancer and got divorced and he is the father to two teenage children. Raised levels of the so-called “stress hormone” cortisol can decrease testosterone further, and also impact sleep – and that lack of sleep further reduces testosterone. “If you can’t get enough rest and your brain’s on overload, you don’t exercise well or recover well – it’s all totally intermeshed,” says Roberts.
The good news is that it’s possible – with hard work – to halt the decline and offset the effects, so Roberts has spent five years fine-tuning an exercise and dietary programme to do just this. It’s similar to the regime he follows himself and the one he takes his clients through. He now prefers all clients to have hormone levels measured in order to create perfectly targeted programmes. (His new gym, just opened in Mayfair, has doctors and nurses on site.)
The eight-week regime is set out in his book Younger Fitter Stronger (Bloomsbury £16.99). The exercise is largely resistance training, including weights – there are deadlifts, lat pull-downs, bench presses, usually in high numbers, 10 or 12 repeats to maximise muscle and nerve development. “Strength training is essential to induce HGH and testosterone,” says Roberts. “There’s realms of evidence to show the hormone spike after a strength session. This programme is about testing you, overloading you, then stepping right off the gas for a minute, could be two, could be three, then going hard again. For women at menopause, exercise can be very uncomfortable, they can get too hot too quickly, so it’s about finding the right balance.” There are also pages of stretches and pre-workout mobility drills to get through, because we need a whole lot more maintenance in middle age. Exercise days are always followed by rest days to allow recovery and replenishment.
Although there is a dietary component to Roberts’s regime, it actually involves a lot of eating – for example, three-egg omelettes for breakfast, crab for lunch, steak for dinner with snacks such as protein smoothies thrown in. Roberts also advocates 10 portions of fruit and veg a day. Each week includes two “fasting days” where 800 calories are eaten within an 8 to 11-hour window. “Having 18 hours of eating effectively nothing, then breaking that fast next morning before exercising creates the biggest spike in HGH,” says Roberts. “It goes against what you expect but the body responds in strange ways.”
The programme doesn’t involve a huge amount of cardio because Roberts believes this is where many midlifers go wrong. He points to the stereotypical Mamil (middle-aged man in Lycra). “People get into running or cycling and do what they love which is great for a sense of achievement – but without the strength training, they’re placing more demands on ligaments and tendons that are becoming less and less strong.” The result can be high levels of cortisol and lowered testosterone, less stability, less support, less elasticity and a lot more injuries. Interestingly, Roberts recently measured the testosterone levels of broadcaster Chris Evans, 53 – a midlife convert to running – live on radio. They were very low – only just in range. Roberts concludes that Evans is running on empty, owing to his job, early-morning work, and baby twins. They’re working together to bring them back up.
As for himself, Roberts feels pretty happy with his own progress. His testosterone level has soared to 32 – above normal range. “I don’t want to brag about it, but its way up,” he laughs, “even though I’m five years older.” His performance is also right on target. “When I turned 40, I was in the same shape I’d been at 30,” he says, “which I thought was better shape than I’d been at 20. I’m now in as good a shape as I was ten years ago, if not better. My body fat is at the same level, my weight is the same. Nothing has changed. It takes hard work – but it’s possible.”
Matt Roberts Evolution is Roberts’s newest gym, now open to the public in Mayfair. Alongside the signature personal training facilities, it offers Pilates, yoga, skincare treatments and physiotherapy. Find out more at mattroberts.co.uk