27 Best Podcasts in Health & Fitness 2021
The last 18 months have set off a podcast boom, with more than two million shows now vying for your aural attention – that’s a lot of lockdown mic sales. But if anyone knows how to pinpoint the truly useful audio inspo, it’s you. We asked for your go-to playlists. Listen and learn
01 30 for 30 Podcasts
The awardwinning audio offshoot of ESPN’s trophy-laden documentary series (originally 30 films to celebrate the network’s big 3-0 in 2009) explores ‘how sports, competition, athleticism and adventure affect our lives’. Series seven, ‘Heavy Medals’, dives into the decorated but abusive regimes of former US gymnastics coaches Béla and Márta Károlyi, while ‘March 11’ is about the day coronavirus shut down the NBA and changed normality.
02 The Food Chain
Serving up 30-minute digests on ‘the business, science and cultural significance of food’, this BBC World Service podcast gets its teeth into a range of subjects that can only be described as a smorgasbord: how to feed footballers and extreme endurance athletes, the debates around ultraprocessed and gene-edited food, supersized-up portion distortion and America’s ‘food apartheid’. Plus famous chefs Raymond Blanc, Nigella Lawson, and Yotam Ottolenghi tell their life stories in five dishes.
03 The Runner’s World Podcast
Like running? Like podcasts? Then MH prescribes our speedy sister magazine’s ‘indispensable weekly dose of all things running’. Senior editor Rick Pearson and digital editor Ben Hobson share news and interviews, from Run Dem Crew founder Charlie Dark to Elliot Giles, who recovered from a motorbike accident to break Sir Seb Coe’s 800m British indoor record. Catch up.
04 The Joe Wicks Podcast
Season one of the Body Coach’s BBC Radio 4 podcast featured Ironman chef Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and national treasure Louis Theroux, who revealed that during lockdowns, PE with Joe was his ‘safe space’. In season two, Wicks asks yet more of his ‘favourite people’ – Sirs Mo Farah and Tom Jones, plus-size ultra runner Mirna Valerio and Sporty Spice Mel C – what makes them feel physically and mentally strong.
05 Trained
Hosted by Nike senior director of performance Ryan Flaherty, season eight of the podcast ticks off CrossFit athlete Chandler Smith, who came sixth at the 2020 Games while still in the US Army, and celebrity trainer Ben Bruno, PT to JT (Justin Timberlake). Psychotherapist Nicole
Sachs uncovers the link between physical and emotional pain, while Nike president and CEO John Donahoe divulges how he meditates, practises gratitude and asks for support like a boss.
06 Finding Mastery
‘Is there a common thread connecting how the greatest performers in the world use their minds to pursue the boundaries of human potential?’ asks psychologist Dr Michael Gervais. And the answer is: yes, they all talk about it on his podcast, unpacking the art of high performance in high-stakes environments. Atomic Habits author James Clear and behaviour change scientist Dr Katy Milkman are among the guests.
07 Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat
Despite the name, this Apple business podcast is about making the daily grind less crushing, with host Bruce Daisley interviewing psychologists, neuroscientists and other workplace experts. The one-time Twitter VP of EMEA and author of books The Joy of Work and, er, Eat, Sleep,
Work, Repeat also publishes a ‘Make Work Better’ newsletter and has released
No Office Required on Audible, about making working from home work.
08 Huberman Lab
You could take a course in biohacking from unqualified quacks. Or you could learn from Andrew Huberman, a Stanford University School of Medicine professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology – see, your neural retinas are actually squeezed-out parts of your brain… His lab studies include brain states, from focus to stress and fear. The podcast teaches how your brain and its connections with other organs control muscle growth, endurance and learning itself.
09 Hidden Brain
MH can’t hide that we’re big fans. Formerly the ‘Department of Human Behaviour’ columnist for The
Washington Post, host and journalist Shankar Vedantam created the term ‘hidden brain’ – and wrote a 2010 book of the same name – as a metaphor for ‘the mental activities we are not aware of’. Become conscious of noisy minds, useful delusions and how ads you saw as a child unknowingly nudge you as an adult.
10 Giant
‘Head, shoulders and the hand of Maradona above the others’ in the Sports category of this year’s British Podcast Awards, Giant is the big idea of the team behind cult football magazine Mundial and hits different to all the other footie podcasts. The second series of ‘football stories that matter’ has shifted tactically to 26 half-hour episodes, including ‘The Ballad of Alan Shearer’ and ‘A Love Letter to Ian Wright’.
11 Death at the Wing
Host Adam McKay, the director of The
Big Short and Vice, tackles the untimely demise of several rising basketball talents in the 1980s. But Death at the Wing is really ‘the story of how basketball reflected a moment when Reagan’s America doubled down on violence and racism – and the players who paid the price.’
12 Grounded with Louis Theroux
In between doing PE with Joe, Theroux spent lockdown rectifying the glaring omission that he didn’t have an interview podcast by tracking down some high-profile people he’s been longing to talk to – from all walks of life and both sides of the Atlantic. It’s less focused than his documentaries but no less fascinating, and includes director Oliver Stone, comedian and mental health campaigner Ruby Wax, and actor – and Louis’ cousin – Justin Theroux.
13 Revisionist History
If pop social science author Malcolm Gladwell is involved then expect to be surprised and delighted, challenged and informed. Revisionist History is a typically Gladwellian ‘journey through the overlooked and misunderstood’, going back over everything from the science of viruses to the decline of McDonald’s french fries.
14 The High Performance Podcast
Hosted by broadcaster Jake Humphrey and organisational psychologist Professor Damian Hughes, it features successful individuals offering a glimpse into their lives. They include Gymshark CEO Ben Francis and astronaut Tim Peake, and come from arenas as diverse as business, entertainment and, er, hostage negotiation.
15 The Growth Equation
The Growth Equation hosts, performance coaches and authors Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness, are ‘dedicated to bringing you pragmatic, no-nonsense information, tools and practices to help you cultivate a more enduring and fulfilling kind of success’. That includes building and breaking routines, load management and why growth equals stress plus rest.
16 The Happiness Lab
Science with a smile: host Dr Laurie Santos’s class Psychology and the Good Life at Yale University became the most popular in the Ivy League institution’s 300-plus years, while the version she made available online for no tuition fee has had over 3m enrolments. Her podcast spans the latest research and wisdom of the ancients to ‘forever alter how you think about happiness’. You’ll be glad you listened.
17 How Do You Cope?
BBC Radio 5 live hosts Elis James and John Robins talk to people in the public eye about the challenges and hurdles they’ve faced in their own lives: musician George Ezra on anxiety and OCD, comic Alex Brooker on living with a disability and ex-footballer Fabrice Muamba on dying for 78 minutes on the pitch. The award-winning podcast proves you have to laugh.
18 A Winning Mindset: Lessons from the Paralympics
Proving its credentials by bagging a 2021 Webby Award,
A Winning Mindset sees inspirational Paralympic athletes ‘share experiences that can benefit your own personal and professional life’. British sprinter Jonnie Peacock on true inclusion, French wheelchair basketballer and arson victim Grace Wembolua on body confidence, and autistic Australian shot-putter Todd ‘The Hulk’ Hodgetts on managing emotions.
20 Radio Headspace
Would you cut your lawn with scissors? That’s not a metaphor: Headspace meditation app founder Andy Puddicombe was instructed to do that while a monk (the monastery had a lawnmower too), which taught him about bringing mindfulness to all the hours of the day when you’re not in lotus position.
Radio Headspace will help for at least five minutes, as every weekday morning Puddicombe invites you to ‘take a few moments to step out of the internal chatter and external noise’. Just be mindful of other commuters and traffic.
19 Under The Skin with Russell Brand
Older, wiser, sober, Brand now expands his mind via his podcast in which, as he recently explained to MH, he scrutinises a ‘transpolitical and spiritual interpretation of life’, ‘whether there are genuine alternative models to how we organise society’ and the ‘decentralisation of transnational corporations’. We’re still not sure we understand, but we feel smarter for listening to him and his guests, from Wall Street wolf Jordan Belfort to radical-thinking addiction specialist Dr Gabor Maté.
21 Deep Questions with Cal Newport
How will you ever get anything done beyond listen to podcasts about productivity? Cal Newport, a professor of computer science at Georgetown University, Washington, more widely known as the author of books Deep Work, Digital Minimalism and A World Without Email, has the in-depth answers, many in response to questions from his audience, some with input from occasional guests such as Essentialist Greg McKeown and Undercover Economist Tim Harford.
22 The Bulldog Gear Podcast
All the (Bulldog) gear and no idea what to do with it? Then the host of the training equipment manufacturer’s podcast – and MH’s very own fitness editor – Andrew Tracey will furnish you with all the information and inspiration you need. AT discusses ‘the practical habits, ethos and philosophies’ of his pedigree guests: Team GB track cyclist Joe Truman, Olympic snowboarder Jamie Nicholls and London 2012 triple jump hopeful turned YouTube influencer Matt ‘DoesFitness’ Morsia. It’s the mutt’s.
23 How’s Work?
‘We talk about remote work as if we are working from home but we all know that we have been working with home.’ So says couples therapist Esther Perel at the start of season two, which takes place against the backdrop of, you know, the whole pandemic thing. Real colleagues – some couples – talk about things they were otherwise afraid to, such as professional jealousy, competition and the fear of being replaced.
24 The Tim Ferriss Show
If you like Tim Ferriss then… you’ll still like
Tim Ferriss more than 500 episodes later.
The author of bestsellers The Four-Hour Work Week,
Body and Chef plus Tools of
Titans, talks mental health, deconstructing world-class performers’ coping mechanisms and opening up about his own bipolar disorder and childhood sex abuse. (He’s also funding research into the possible benefits of psychedelics.)
25 Against The Rules by Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis always weaves a compelling narrative to his writing (The Blind Side, Moneyball, The Big Short)
– usually one that makes something complex comprehensible. This podcast is ‘a searing look at what’s happened to fairness’ in sport, finance and beyond. The theme of season one is referees; season two, coaches.
26 The WHOOP Podcast
‘What does it take to optimise performance for athletes, for executives, for anyone?’
Apart from a WHOOP strap, that is. Other wearables are available, but none boast a user base of sportspeople, businesspeople and
Jackass’s Steve-O, now a stuntman and meditation devotee. WHOOP CEO Will Ahmed chews the healthy fat with golf legend Gary Player, surfer John John Florence and British rower Tom George.
27 Autonomy by GMB Fitness
As in physical freedom; doing things you want without limitation or pain and not doing the things you don’t want, like revolving your life around exercise. Hosts and GMB Fitness co-founders
Ryan Hurst, Andy Fossett and Jarlo Ilano have backgrounds in martial arts, gymnastics and physical therapy, and are full of good advice. ‘If you hate formulaic fitness podcasts, you just might be in the right place.’