The cricket star talks fitness, family and the secrets to his success
ENGLAND CRICKET’S STAR MAN BEN STOKES REVEALS HOW A RENEWED RESPECT FOR FITNESS TOOK HIM TO THE PINNACLE OF HIS SPORT
Ben Stokes has revolutionised the game of cricket with strength, stamina and a handy ability to play legacy-defining innings in the biggest games of all. A crowd-pleasing star in all formats of the game, at time of writing the 30-year-old has already knocked up 4,631 runs and 163 wickets in Test cricket, 2,817 runs and 74 wickets in one-day internationals, and 442 runs and 19 wickets in Twenty20. His most iconic performances came in the space of a few halcyon months in the summer of 2019, when he hit a stunning 84 not out to help England clinch the Cricket World Cup, before his four wickets and 135 not out helped England salvage the fourth Ashes Test at Headingley. Having already became the highest-paid overseas player in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL), and being crowned the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World in both 2020 and 2021, Stokes is now set for his next big challenge: representing Northern Superchargers in The Hundred, an exciting new 100-ball competition starting this summer.
Men’s Fitness: What’s the secret to your incredible success in recent years?
Ben Stokes: Fitness is so important for me, especially with the amount of cricket that we play nowadays. It just seems to be a constant wheel that’s turning, especially being an all-formats player. So improving my tness levels has really helped, not just for my performances, but also for making sure I’m available for as many games as possible. e physical aspect of cricket has changed a lot over the last 20 years, which is why the tness levels around the game have had to improve so much. MF: How has your view of fitness changed? BS: When I do tness or physical preparation before a game, I now put that in the same category as going in and bowling, or going out and having a bat. If I go to a game without having a bat or a bowl, I won’t feel like I’m properly prepared. And it’s now the same with the physical side of things: if I haven’t worked on the physical aspect of my game, I don’t feel ready.
MF: How has your personal fitness regime evolved with age?
BS: e secret is about identifying what needs to be done. Your body changes a lot with how much cricket we play, because there’s a lot of stress placed upon it. So I always adapt and change what I do. For example, to help my back I do Romanian deadlifts, leg presses and a short, sharp core circuit, which I do three times over. I also do shoulder work, because my shoulder got quite bad. I couldn’t really throw at one point, but managed to get that strength back.
MF: How important is good nutrition to fuel your performances?
BS: Nutrition is a massive part of what we do on the eld. If we don’t put the right fuel into our tanks, we’re not going to get the results we require. We need carbs and everything like that, which is so well managed by the team who are in charge, like the nutritionist and the strength and conditioning coach. On the morning of a match I tend to have eggs and bacon, with a big bowl of porridge.
MF: Any cricket grounds stand out on the food front?
BS: Lords is always the best! Sundays, in particular, are always good. On our travels, the Caribbean is especially good, too – the
avours out there are amazing. And South Africa is great for food choices. We are pretty spoilt wherever we go.
MF: What kind of cardio do you focus on?
BS: I only do short sprints. Going out and running 10k isn’t going to do me any favours whatsoever on a cricket eld, so what I do is more comparable to what we do in the
eld. I try to make sure everything I do has relatable reasons.
MF: Do you train together as a group?
BS: No, it’s very individual the way we do our tness training. We don’t get together as a full squad and go, “Right, lads, let’s have a tness session.” We responded a lot better to being given the responsibility to look after our own tness, as opposed to just getting together and getting beasted by the strength coach. If you spend a week or two around the dressing room, you would see everyone go o and do tness whenever they can. It is very individual. Some guys do swimming and pilates and things like that.
MF: Are there any players you look up to?
BS: Jimmy Anderson is the one who springs to mind. If you’re 38 years old, and you are still doing what he is doing, you know a lot of o - eld stu has contributed to that. What he does tness-wise and nutritionally, he does very, very well. And that’s why he is still able to do what he does.
MF: How do you relax away from the pressures of the game?
BS: I now appreciate the time I have away from cricket a lot more – especially with how the world is at the moment. So when I’m at home, I’m at home. Before this, when I was at home I was constantly thinking about cricket. But now, because I don’t get to spend that much time at home, I use that opportunity to just get away from it all and live. I now appreciate the normal things in life, like being a dad and taking the kids to school. I never used to be like that.