Millions all set for Murray
Radhika Sanghani straps in for a ‘gyro’ session, which has transformed the fitness of Britain’s Wimbledon star
A RECORD 18 million people are expected to tune in today to watch the Wimbledon men’s final as Andy Murray takes on Canadian Milos Raonic.
Viewer totals are set to be Wimbledon’s biggest ever and Britain’s biggest television audience for three years.
A peak audience of 17.29 million watched Murray’s 2013 Wimbledon final win. The Championship’s all-time record is 17.3 million for Bjorn Borg versus John McEnroe in the 1980 final.
The 16.9 million peak ITV audience for England’s defeat to Iceland in Euro 2016 last month was Britain’s biggest since the 20.3 million who saw England play Uruguay in the 2014 World Cup.
Murray mania is also expected to give pubs a £70 million boost when tennis fans head to their locals to watch the match.
Sales of beer and wine are predicted to be up 20 per cent, with supermarkets also forecasting increases in sales of strawberries and Pimm’s. Sport: Pages 2-3
EVER since he first picked up a racket, Andy Murray has dedicated his life to pursuing his dream of winning Grand Slam tournaments.
But even as he bids today to win his second Wimbledon title, Murray has revealed that tennis is no longer his top priority. It is Sophia, his five-month-old daughter, who is foremost in his thoughts and Murray has said she is the reason he is motivated to keep winning.
The Scot, who is setting a new record for the most Grand Slam final appearances by a British player, told the BBC that for the first time in his career he is more focused on his wife and child than anything else.
He revealed he was experiencing this Wimbledon fortnight in a “different” way to previous years because he now has a family “to get home to”.
He said: “Beforehand, in the buildup to a slam final, I’d always just be thinking about the match. I don’t feel like that just now – I’m just looking forward to the next time I see Sophia and [wife] Kim.
“Sophia’s already watched a bit of tennis with Kim at home over these last couple of weeks and maybe when she’s older she’ll want to come and see me play. I would like that; it would be nice for me in a selfish way.
“I’m sure she won’t be interested but it gives me a little bit of extra motivation to keep going.”
Last week, Sophia came to her first Grand Slam tournament but the toddler was deemed too much of a “distraction” to be court-side.
Ahead of his final showdown against Canadian Milos Raonic, Murray has admitted his team of trainers, coaches and physiotherapists are crucial in helping him to prepare. He said his game plan is to be “ruthless” against Raonic and said his coach, Ivan Lendl, had been instrumental in helping him.
Murray super-fan Graeme Durno, 54, only left hospital on Tuesday after recovering from a bleed on the brain and a cracked pelvis from being hit by a van. But on Wednesday morning, in a wheelchair, he was first in the queue for a ground pass today. “I will definitely get a place on Henman Hill,” he said. “I’m confident Murray will win as he’s fresh and I think he’ll have too much experience and class for Raonic.”
I’m lying on a wooden bench with my legs strapped up above me. They’re hanging from two surprisingly sturdy pulleys that are attached to a wooden contraption complete with ropes, weights and rotational discs. A woman is standing over me telling me to “feel the energy” as she gently prises my legs apart.
This is not a re-enactment of a scene from 50 Shades of Grey – it’s one of the factors (along with eating canteloupe melon) that Andy Murray attributes to making it to his third Wimbledon final.
The British number one has revealed that his winning secret is to use a dominatrix-style machine to keep his back fit and healthy. Or, to use its official name, a “Gyrotonic expansion system” – the Heath Robinson I’m currently strapped into.
“Gyro”, as aficionados call it, originated in the Eighties, when Hungarian ballet dancer Juliu Horvath began developing a system to help him recover from debilitating injuries. The result is a complexlooking piece of gym equipment that is designed to help users perform controlled spiralling movements to keep their joints flexible and loose.
The exercise is particularly beneficial for people with bad backs or those who suffer physical injuries owing to intense pressures on their bodies, such as dancers or sports people like Murray. Gyrotonic master trainer Elaine Puren explains: “The movements actually mimic the tennis swerves, so it would really help Murray to increase his core strength and flexibility.”
Murray began practising gyro after undergoing back surgery in 2013, and recently admitted: “I don’t think I looked after my body as well as I should have done.
“Now that I have been looking after it, doing way more different types of stretching, sort of injury prevention work, my back is no issue whatsoever.”
But it’s not just tennis stars who are turning to gyro for workouts. The trend is popular in the United States – I’m told that in California, it’s now bigger than hot yoga – although in the UK only a handful of centres offer it.
I head to London’s Triyoga Centre in Camden to try out a one-on-one session for £65 an hour. Practitioner Aud Aasbo takes one look at me and immediately tells me everything that’s wrong with my body: a lack of strength in the soles of my feet, too much tightness in my quads and not enough in my glutes. Oh, and my upper back lacks strength.
She explains that gyro can help improve the way I stand and sit. Unlike similar exercises such as yoga or Pilates, gyro helps the body move in actions that are in tune with everyday life – the sweeping movements mimic reaching up to high shelves, picking something up or carrying shopping.
“It improves functional movements because they’re three-dimensional,” adds Puren. “We look at the body as a whole. You can lose weight through gyro, as you tone the body through lengthening the muscles, but it’s not a primary objective – it’s more to improve core strength, open up joints, rebalance the body and generally improve health and fitness.”
To help strengthen my upper back muscles, we start with basic “spirals”, which involves sitting astride the bench with my hands on two handles, which I have to move in circular motions while breathing in and out. I look ridiculous, but that’s nothing compared to how I feel when asked to put my legs up in the air and make bicycle motions while lifting several pounds of weights via a pulley.
But after a while, I start to feel my body responding naturally to the actions. The exercise is not the strenuous workout to which I would have expected Murray to credit his success; instead, it’s more a series of elegant stretches and graceful swoops.
I barely break a sweat as I “narrow” (use my abs) to raise my legs up and down while they rest in a weight pulley, or “spiral” my body so it twists around. Instead, it feels therapeutic to stretch my back out in ways I could never do alone on a Pilates mat. Aasbo explains it can become increasingly dynamic as you improve, but I still leave the session feeling more like I’ve had a massage, rather than completed a workout.
No wonder Murray loves Gyrotonics – with its languid swoops and yogic breathing, it must be the most relaxing part of
his Wimbledon training.