No one likes being pigeon-holed.
No one wants to be defined by another man’s gaze. But like the actor forever destined to play the pantomime villain or the endearing goofball, it’s an inevitability of life.
For most of my time at Men’s Health, we have endeavoured to present a holistic, multifaceted image of health and fitness. We have catered for a broad range of readers, from the young and gains-hungry gym rat to the middle-aged executive whose ego and appetite write cheques his body can no longer cash. We’ve gone to great lengths to prove that a salubrious lifestyle needn’t be one devoid of good food, high stakes or occasional bad behaviour. We embraced – hell, we pioneered – the conversation around male mental health. And yet, to many, we will always be that six-pack mag.
We’ve probably brought it on ourselves – at least, to an extent. Six-packs sell. I’ve commissioned some pretty outré features in my time. There was the investigation into ecstasy use involving a hotel room booked under a pseudonym, an off-duty doctor and some pure-assnow class-As. The lawyers loved that one. I also once sent Will Self in search of the meaning of life by traversing London on foot (he’s still looking). But none of these stories ever made the cover. Not when there was an abs workout to promote. We had copies to sell and numbers to protect. Thence came the typecasting.
So, as we tie up the loose ends of another issue, it’s gratifying to realise that much of its content comes close to that holistic ideal I have always espoused. More than that, we’re very happy to shout about it. Those abs are still present and correct, of course. Our comprehensive, 28-day, back-to-gym strength workout on page 108 will help ease you into the six-pack saddle again after months of living-room HIIT sessions and listless runs. But there is also plenty here that reflects the true interconnectedness of physical and mental health, not to mention the way they now so often reflect the times in which we live.
When four-fifths of UK adults struggle with workrelated stress – a statistic complicated further as we all cope differently with the fallout from lockdown, furlough and/or remote working – and heart disease accounts for more than a quarter of all UK deaths, the link between body and soul becomes harder to ignore. Moreover, it means that staying young at heart is no longer just a romantic cliché – it’s a doctor’s order. You can learn how to keep your finger on the pulse with our tips on page 56. Meanwhile, reinforcing the cerebralarterial nexus is our “Feel-Good HIITs” feature on page 86, which outlines the principle behind exercise as mental medicine and offers the best physical fixes for mounting anxiety.
Elsewhere, we continue our commitment to raising awareness of male mental health issues in various sectors of society. This time round, it’s not just a sector but a demographic. “Black Minds Matter” (page 62), Dan Davies’s inquiry into a broken system that allows black British men to be four times more likely than white men to be hospitalised for poor mental health, is as powerfully argued as it is shocking. One of the many uncomfortable questions it poses is how it has taken us until now to become cognizant of the situation.
Then, of course, we have our cover star, Zack George (page 48). Here is a man in impeccable shape – we’ve featured many physiques like his over the years. But George is of interest to us for all the stuff that makes him different, and therefore human. He’s the overweight kid from Leicester who became UK CrossFit champion; he’s a rare person of colour at the pinnacle of his sport who has had to contend with its founder and CEO, Greg Glassman, being ousted following accusations of racism. But more than any of that, he has an attitude to life that strikes a chord. “I’ve got a book I’m excited about called Start When Others Stop,” he tells David Morton. “It’s a mantra that can have so many meanings – like starting on a fitness journey in middle age, when others think, ‘What’s the point?’ What you learn from training can transfer over to every area of your life.” That’s true Men’s Health in a nutshell.
TOBY WISEMAN, EDITOR IN CHIEF