Charlie Metcalfe, Author at MensFitness https://mensfitness.co.uk/author/charlie/ Just another WordPress site Wed, 26 Apr 2023 10:29:56 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.3 https://mensfitness.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/MF-desktop_favicon_32-1.png?w=32 Charlie Metcalfe, Author at MensFitness https://mensfitness.co.uk/author/charlie/ 32 32 Best Protein Cereal Brands UK https://mensfitness.co.uk/nutrition/best-protein-cereals/ Wed, 26 Apr 2023 10:25:35 +0000 https://mensfitness.co.uk/?p=8769 Give breakfast time a boost with this new breed of high-protein cereals

The post Best Protein Cereal Brands UK appeared first on MensFitness.

]]>
Give breakfast time a fitness boost with our pick of the best protein cereal brands, which contain a higher amount of protein than your regular supermarket picks…

Breakfast cereals have long been cast aside as an unhealthy option for ‘the most important meal of the day.’ Traditional brands are carb-heavy, contain high amounts of sugar, and offer only a small protein pay-off.

RELATED CONTENT:

Oats – topped with banana and a dollop of peanut butter – have become the functional athlete’s favourite.

But since 81% of Brits still want cereal for breakfast, more cereal brands are producing special ‘protein’ options to knock the oat from its throne.

Some of these breakfast cereal options offer a higher protein content than even chicken breasts, and several throw it back to some favourite flavours of old. We’ve rounded up the best protein cereal options available on the market to help you get more out of the most important meal of the day…

Related: Men’s Fitness & Women’s Fitness Nutrition Awards 2022

Best protein cereal brands UK

  1. Surreal (£24 for 4 x 240g boxes)
  2. ELEAT Chocolate Triumph (£26 for 4 x 250g pouches)
  3. Myprotein Protein Granola (£14.99 for 750g pack)
  4. Weetabix Protein (£3.25 for 24-pack)
  5. Grandma Crunch (from £26.99 for 4 x 248g boxes)

Surreal: Best Protein Cereal

Men’s Fitness Best Buy:

Surreal

BUY IT NOW:

£24 (4 x x 240g boxes) / eatsurreal.co.uk

Taste: 4.5/5
Protein: 4.5/5   
Texture: 5/5
OVERALL: 4.5/5

Surreal’s bright packaging catches the eye, and what’s inside the box is every bit as appealing. Its creators sell it as ‘the cereal you loved growing up, made nutritionally relevant to the adult you’ve become.’

And based on its nutritional merits, it lives up to the billing. With 42g of protein in every 100g, Surreal has the second-highest protein content of all the cereals we tried, and the O-shaped pieces have a nice crunch and flavour to them.

Related: Healthy protein powders – 9 best clean alternatives

Best protein cereal brands UK: ELEAT chocolate cereal in bowl, with packaging in background

ELEAT Chocolate Triumph

BUY IT NOW:

£26 (4 x 250g pouches) / eleatcereal.com

Taste: 3/5
Protein: 4/5   
Texture: 4.5/5
OVERALL: 4/5

If you enjoy your post-workout shake, and you like a bowl of cereal, then vegan-friendly ELEAT is going to be right up your street. It tastes exactly as you might imagine cereal infused with protein would – with a good amount of crunch preceding a distinct soy aftertaste. That’s obviously good news if you’re a fan of both, but if you’d like the protein content of your cereal to be a happy coincidence, you might struggle with the flavour being so front and centre.
That said, taste is subjective, and hopefully one of ELEAT’s four flavours (Chocolate Triumph, Cinnamon Sensation, Strawberry Blitz, and Vanilla Flavour) will whet your appetite.
What can’t be disputed is the nutritional profile. Each serving contains a hearty 12.5g dose of soy and sunflower protein, 10g of fibre, and even 7g of gut-friendly probiotics. And continuing the eco-conscious credentials, the cereals are available in two fully recyclable packages: 250g resealable pouches, and 50g single-serve packs.

A tub of Myprotein granola

Myprotein Protein Granola

BUY IT NOW:

£14.99 (750g pack) / myprotein.com

Taste: 4/5
Protein:4/5   
Texture: 5/5
OVERALL: 4/5

Cereal purists may argue granola shouldn’t make the list, but we’re happy to face their wrath if it means featuring this impressive protein-packed option.

Myprotein’s chocolate caramel flavour granola is perhaps a little too sweet for breakfast – but with 37g protein per 100g we think we can forgive them.

Weetabix Protein: Best Protein Cereal

Weetabix Protein

BUY IT NOW:

£3.25 (24-pack) / groceries.asda.com

Taste: 4/5
Protein: 3.5/5   
Texture: 3.5/5
OVERALL: 3.5/5

A perfect example of a household brand’s successful attempt to create a more balanced breakfast option, these loaded bix provide 19g of protein per 100g.

Like regular Weetabix, their taste all depends on what you decide to put on top – we threw on sliced banana and a drizzle of honey.

Grandma Crunch: Best Protein Cereal

Grandma Crunch

BUY IT NOW:

From £26.99 (4 x 248g boxes) / grandmacrunch.co.uk

Taste: 3/5
Protein: 5/5   
Texture: 3/5
OVERALL: 3.5/5

High-protein, low-carb and plant-based, Grandma Crunch tastes OK and the namesake crunch is evident, but the numbers are the really impressive factors.

Per serving there’s 15g protein, just 111kcals and a mere 0.4g sugar.

Related: Exercise nutrition tips: 55 ways to eat better

RELATED CONTENT:

  1. 5 Protein Powder Recipes To Feed Your Muscles
  2. Easy High-Protein Oat Bar Recipe
  3. 4 Protein-Rich Egg Recipes to Power Your Recovery

The post Best Protein Cereal Brands UK appeared first on MensFitness.

]]>
MF Meets Ex-Special Forces Veteran Ollie Ollerton https://mensfitness.co.uk/fitness/ollie-ollerton/ Thu, 14 Apr 2022 08:30:13 +0000 https://mensfitness.co.uk/?p=8764 Former special forces operative and directing staff on 'SAS: Who Dares Wins' Ollie Ollerton on chasing a feeling, not an image

The post MF Meets Ex-Special Forces Veteran Ollie Ollerton appeared first on MensFitness.

]]>
When former special forces operative Ollie Ollerton first decided to join the forces aged 14, he imagined a utopia that never materialised. And only in his 40s did he realise the image he was chasing had been a projection of society’s expectation. 

Ollerton’s journey into the forces was unlike any other. As a curious ten-year-old, he and his brother stumbled upon a travelling circus in Burton-upon-Trent. He ventured into a tent, where a 50kg chimpanzee lurking in the shadows almost tore his arm clean off.

“That attack changed the direction of my life,” he tells MF. “I was always looking to be on that pointy end of danger.” For Ollerton, that ‘pointy end’ became war. 

Escape and evasion 

At 23, Ollerton found himself facing the final phase of special forces selection: escape and evasion across the Welsh Brecon Beacons. The phase is known for being one of the toughest parts of military selection in the world. Twenty soldiers have died doing it since 1984. Ollerton completed it twice. 

He explains the three rules: no civilians, no vehicles, no buildings. “Now, everyone cheats,” he says. “It’s just the case of, don’t get caught doing it. But unfortunately for us, there was a bit of an altercation with a Welsh farmer.”

Ollerton and his group had hitched a lift with a farmer early in the night who, somehow or other, ended up in hospital. The farmer claimed a group of soldiers had done it. Ollerton insisted there was no truth in that. Altercation or not, Ollerton’s group had been discovered and dismissed from selection. Only two returned for another go. Ollerton was one of them.

A 36-hour continuous professional interrogation presented the most brutal part of selection, where a single word can result in dismissal. ‘Emotional awareness’ is the trick to passing, according to Ollerton. Pretending to be the tough alpha male without weakness is only counterproductive.

“I admit to everyone that I have doubt,” he says – although a ‘just suck it up’ attitude is also useful. That’s the message his corporate leadership training business, Break-Point, propagates, as well as being the tenet of his self-development book of the same name.

Enduring short-term discomfort propels development. And according to Ollerton, people can learn to adopt this endurance by contradicting negative thoughts with positive ones.

After leaving the forces, Ollerton jumped between jobs, before finding his way to Thailand. There, he supported a charity combating child trafficking abuses, run by a former Australian commando.

The team spent time busting brothels and sweatshops, and intercepting children prepared for collection by Thai cartels. Such work, funded out of Ollerton’s own pocket, gave him something he had long desired: a purpose.

Since leaving the forces, Ollerton had been struggling to kick a bad alcohol and drug habit. Addiction led him down a path flanked by anxiety and self-destruction. 

“I wanted to numb the stuff that was going on inside my head,” he says. “I grew my hair really long, and didn’t do anything apart from drink and party.”

But the suicidal thoughts shocked him into change after returning from Thailand. Aged 43, he was living off his mother’s borrowed credit card and staying in someone else’s house rent-free.

“I knew there was something more for me out there,” he says, “but I also knew that if I kept on drinking, my life was going absolutely nowhere. And the worst thing that would happen in that event was suicide.”

Ollerton began questioning the role of different aspects of his life and created a ‘purpose pyramid’ to evaluate them. Each corner of the pyramid signified a question:

Do I enjoy it? Does it add value or growth? Does it help others? Ollerton had to be able to answer ‘yes’ to at least two of those questions to continue the behaviour in question.

Drinking was ‘no’ times three.

Isolating himself for three months, one of the other methods Ollerton used to discover his purpose was ‘visualisation’. He described his goals in a diary and imagined achieving those dreams, all the while considering how they made him feel.

One of the more peculiar visions involved he and his best mate, Jason Fox (‘Foxy’), appearing on a stage together, using their experiences to help people improve their lives.

Screen time 

Three months later, he received a call. It was Foxy, wanting to know if Ollerton would co-present a new Channel 4 show, later called SAS: Who Dares Wins.

At first, Ollerton saw the show as a platform to build his company from. But after the first season, he realised its alignment with his purpose.

“It wasn’t focused on being a celebrity,” he says. “I still struggle with that word, but I understood how it was helping other people, which would fit into my ethos.”

Ollerton went on to write two self-development books, Break Point and Battle Ready, as well as two action-thriller novels, with another on the way to complete the trilogy.

Other former special forces operatives have also used fictional writing to share their experiences. Andy McNab and Chris Ryan are the first who come to mind. And Ollerton said that may be in part because storytelling provides a powerful canvas to communicate a message.

But his protagonist, Alex Abbott, is different. Unlike other typical ‘heroes’, his character makes mistakes.

“So many people think the special forces are these superhumans created on another planet,” he says. “That’s not the case. We bleed and breathe just like everyone else, and we have the same negativity, the same lack of motivation. It was really important for me to show that.”

While Ollerton, 50, confesses to his own faults, he has no hesitation chasing the most difficult challenges. In June, he’ll attempt a record-breaking crossing of the Channel in a gig boat – an oared wooden vessel sometimes used by treasure hunters to travel from the shore out to a ship run aground at sea.

And in November, he’ll attempt to climb Mount Ama Dablam (6,812m) alongside legendary climber and multiple world record holder Nims Purja (star of Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible).

To maintain a good routine, Ollerton stresses the importance of his mornings. On an ideal day he wakes up at 5am. His phone and emails remain off, and he’ll go straight from bed into a 20-25-minute guided meditation session.

On his best days, he’ll run in the morning – often 7k, though sometimes more. From the run it’s a dash to his desk where he bangs out an hour of work, keeping his phone switched off to protect productivity. He then heads to his office, where a gym on an upstairs floor awaits him for an afternoon strength session.

Intense exercise on weekends is avoided, but Ollerton often finds time to kayak or mountain bike as a form of active recovery. “As a husband and father, [exercise] helps me perform,” he says. “The older I get, the more important I feel it is.”

Nutrition holds just as high a value, too. In the forces, he only cared about fitness. But now a healthy lifestyle is a more important focus, and he’s tried every type of diet – keto, paleo, vegetarian and more – to find the right balance.

The best approach he’s discovered is ‘conscious eating’, which requires a raised awareness to the provenance of his food and a sensitivity to his body’s needs.

“A lot of people are throwing so much shit into their bodies, and then they wonder why they’re having mood slumps,” he says. “It’s a shocking state of affairs. You’ve only got to look around. People are not looking great.”

He’s founded his own supplement company, Battle Ready Fuel. When time is tight, a protein shake can step up as a meal alternative. He also loves a pre-workout and often uses it as ‘leverage’ to get himself into the gym – once it’s down his throat, there’s no way he can sit still at his desk.

“My life started to change positively when I began to do what I wanted, not what I thought was expected,” he says.

According to Ollerton, focusing on ‘feeling’, not ‘image’, is the sure-fire route to fulfilment.

Words: Charlie Metcalfe

The post MF Meets Ex-Special Forces Veteran Ollie Ollerton appeared first on MensFitness.

]]>
MF Meets Strongman Turned Boxer Hafþór ‘Thor’ Björnsson https://mensfitness.co.uk/fitness/interview-hafthor-bjornsson/ Mon, 28 Mar 2022 14:47:04 +0000 https://mensfitness.co.uk/?p=8597 Prior to his recent boxing win over Eddie Hall, Icelandic giant Hafþór ‘Thor’ Björnsson sat down with Charlie Metcalfe to talk training, fighting and transforming his physique

The post MF Meets Strongman Turned Boxer Hafþór ‘Thor’ Björnsson appeared first on MensFitness.

]]>
Prior to his recent boxing victory over another former World’s Strongest Man, Eddie Hall, Icelandic giant Hafþór ‘Thor’ Björnsson sat down with MF to talk training, fighting and transforming his physique…

Hafþór ‘Thor’ Björnsson never trained any strongman movements before his first competition in 2009. As a 6ft 7”, lanky teenager, he had always been focused on his dream of becoming a pro basketball player. But when a recurring ankle injury knocked his career off course, he turned to bodybuilding as a way to improve his physique. Ronnie Coleman and Dorian Yates became two of Björnsson’s biggest role models. They trained heavy, which resonated with him.

“Those guys were my inspiration,” he says. “I watched more bodybuilders, to be honest with you, than strongman guys.”

And although ‘looking good’ was his main motivation, the heavy weights soon led Hafþór ‘Thor’ Björnsson to powerlifting. It was this pursuit that brought him to former deadlift world-record holder Benedikt Magnússon’s Super Gym in Iceland.

How Hafþór ‘Thor’ Björnsson began powerlifting

One day, while Björnsson was performing deadlifts in the gym, Magnússon saw him training for the first time. He approached him to suggest competing in a strongman competition – Westfjord Viking – taking place the following day. Björnsson questioned whether he was strong enough, but Magnússon encouraged him, so he called the event’s organiser, Magnús ver Magnússon, at 10pm that night.

Magnússon told him a bus transporting all the participants to the competition ground would be leaving at 4:30am the following morning. If there was a spare seat, he could have it. “I showed up the next morning and there was space, so I went with him,” Björnsson said. “And I never turned away.”

That competition is, to this day, Björnsson’s first memory of strongman. A year later he returned to the Westfjord Viking event to set an Icelandic record that, according to Björnsson, still stands. In the same year, he won Strongest Man in Iceland and Iceland’s Strongest Viking. And those experiences gave him the belief he could make a name for himself in the sport – although he never thought he could one day become the World’s Strongest Man.

“That meant a lot to me, because it was my first ever competition,” he says. “I was the new guy. I was just trying the sport out, giving it a try. And to make that statement, and to break that record, gave me that inspiration to keep going.”

Hafþór ‘Thor’ Björnsson on strongmen nutrition

While the physicality came naturally to him, Björnsson struggled to eat the six meals per-day strongmen need to stay, well, strong. It takes a lot of food to reach the 205kg size he once grew to, and the strongman diet allows no days off.

“You don’t become like that by eating three meals a day,” he said. “You have to force feed yourself, grow into a monster and become strong enough to lift those weights. It was tough, man.”

Anyone who watched the HBO series Game of Thrones will know Björnsson is familiar with monster transformations, after winning a role on the show as ‘The Mountain’ in 2013. His contract even stipulated the producers had to provide him with meals every two to three hours on set, and someone would feed him fork-to-mouth between scenes.

Being an actor as well as a strongman was exhausting work. Some fight scenes would take hours to shoot, and Björnsson would have to find local gyms to train in when travelling to Belfast or Spain. At times, he doubted whether it was worth it. His wife since 2018, Kelsey Henson, struggled with his lifestyle, too. He took almost no holidays. But Björnsson recognises this as the price paid to become the best.

Winning ‘the big three’

In 2018, he received a full return on investment by becoming the first person to have won the Arnold Strongman Classic, Europe’s Strongest Man, and World’s Strongest Man in one year. The last Icelander to win the World’s Strongest Man title had been Ver Magnússon, the man who gave him his first opportunity in the sport. (For good measure, Björnsson also broke an elephant-bar deadlift WR at 472kg in the same year.)

Consuming enough calories to fuel this streak of feats required innovation: he threw dextrose (simple sugar) on his rice before swamping it in chicken stock, ground all his Ribeye steaks to ease digestion, and took between-meal walks to increase his appetite.

But Björnsson had more to give after winning ‘the big three’ in 2018. He raised his Elephant Bar deadlift record to 474kg the following year and defended his title at the Arnold Strongman Classic. But there remained a challenge Björnsson was unable to resist.

Beating the deadlift world record

British strongman Eddie Hall had broken the deadlift world record in 2016 by pulling half a tonne from the ground. And in 2020, Björnsson decided to go one better. On 2 May 2020 he pulled 501kg, initiating a rivalry that continues to this day.

“For anyone wanting to break that record, it’s going to take them years. That’s just how it is. But first and foremost, you have to believe in yourself,” he says.

Hard work needs to be combined with genetic luck and avoiding injuries, too. And for transparency, the big man confirmed in 2017 that certain performance-enhancing substances had been involved. “When you want to be the best,” he said in the ESPN interview, “you do whatever it takes.” (Björnsson never failed a test during competition.)

Hafþór ‘Thor’ Björnsson on his boxing debut

After winning every single major title and pulling the deadlift WR, he started looking for a new challenge beyond strongman. He also felt a desire to lead a healthier lifestyle, and to have enough energy to run around with his children – difficult at 205kg.

“I just got to the point where I felt there was nothing more for me to do,” he says. “And in strongman I had won everything there is to win.”

In 2021, he won his debut boxing bout against an arm wrestler called Devon Laratt, having lost over 50kg in preparation for the fight. And on Saturday 19 March this year, Björnsson entered the ring in Dubai with his old strongman rival, Eddie Hall. The long-awaited fight – billed as the ‘heaviest boxing match in history’ went the six-round distance, but the Icelander emerged clear winner, knocking Hall down twice and making full use of his considerable reach advantage.

Boxing training, unsurprisingly, looks very different to his strongman days. Björnsson switched the Atlas stone lifts for burpees, and log presses for press-ups, transitioning to a metabolic conditioning approach. He worked out more, too, and with fewer breaks. Between a set of 5 deadlifts, for instance, he used to rest up to eight minutes. Now he’s only taking one minute of rest between 12-minute circuits.

“A you can see, I’m training a lot differently these days,” he says. “With this method of training, you’re going to burn a lot more calories and you’re going to increase your endurance.”

He now weighs a barely-there 144kg…

Train Like Hafþór ‘Thor’ Björnsson

These days, a typical circuit for Björnsson will consist of 12 exercises – ball slams, burpees, box jumps, and other functional movements – completed back-to-back.

  • Pick your 12 movements (a mix of high-intensity and power-focused moves).
  • Cycle through them, working for 1 min at a time.
  • Once you’ve completed the twelfth exercise, rest for 1 min.
  • Now dive back in, spending 45 secs on each move.
  • Rest for 1 min at the end of this second round.
  • For the final round, do 30 secs for each exercise

Words: Charlie Metcalfe  |  Photography: Rúnar Geirmundsson

RELATED CONTENT:

  1. Strength Tips From Record Breaking Power Lifter John Haack
  2. How To Get Stronger Without Lifting Heavy Weights
  3. WWE Champ Drew McIntyre Workout: Build Bigger Arms

The post MF Meets Strongman Turned Boxer Hafþór ‘Thor’ Björnsson appeared first on MensFitness.

]]>
Interview with Rugby Player Turned Pundit Ugo Monye https://mensfitness.co.uk/fitness/15-minutes-with-rugby-player-turned-pundit-ugo-monye/ Thu, 03 Feb 2022 14:26:12 +0000 https://mensfitness.co.uk/?p=7923 BT Sport presenter Ugo Monye talks to Men's Fitness about pushing through pain and his approach to fitness post-rugby retirement

The post Interview with Rugby Player Turned Pundit Ugo Monye appeared first on MensFitness.

]]>
The post Interview with Rugby Player Turned Pundit Ugo Monye appeared first on MensFitness.

]]>