Questions Answered

Q. What attracted you to mixed martial arts, have you always been a fighter at heart? A. Yes I’ve always been into very forms of combat from a young age including Taekwondo, Judo and Boxing. My mum always encouraged it as it helped to channel my energy. As soon as I saw the UFC on television I knew that was what I wanted to do. The Ultimate Fighter was a great way for me to become a UFC fighter and I really seized that opportunity.

Q. You’ve trained all over the world but where do feel you’ve learnt the most and why? A. To be honest there’s nowhere I’d rather the train than with Team Rough House in Nottingham. MMA in UK is still young but we’re now producing some really great fighters and I think Rough House is really leading the way. Training with the best always keeps the intensity high. If you’re the fittest or strongest in your gym, then it’s time to start looking for somewhere else to train.

Q. Training everyday at such a high intensity must take its toll, how do you keep fresh and ready for the next day of training? A. When I’m not training I’m resting. Sleep and relaxing when I’m not training are a priority, but supplements are crucial and without them I wouldn’t be able to keep up this intensity. The proteins such as Impact Whey, Impact Blend and Total Protein XS are great for my recovery and taking Beta Alanine allows me to push harder in training.

Q. Everyone knows your fitness can mean the difference between winning and losing, what kind of training do you do to ensure you’re fit enough to step inside the Octagon? A. My training is very sports specific most of the time. Wrestling and sparring are great all over workouts and they replicate what happens in the Octagon. I’ll also do light weights and love to get out in a field to do some power work. This involves throwing tyres, going at it with a sledge hammer, really explosive movements that also work my cardiovascular system. Intensity is the key with everything though.

Q. MMA and the UFC are growing rapidly, but there are still doubters who think the sport is too dangerous, what do you say to those people? A. I often find people that want to slate the sport know very little about it. The reputation of MMA is changing for the better all the time. Fighters are now seen as athletes rather than bar room brawlers. Our dedication and level of technical ability deserves respect. Dana White has taken the UFC a long way from its questionable origins and the sport now has a very professional feel.

Q. If you could fight anyone in the world who would it be? A. Whoever the UFC lightweight champion is. That’s where I want to be.

Q. You keep a very lean and muscular physique all year round and obviously have to make weight for your fights, any tips for our customers? A. Watching your diet is essential, if you don’t you might as well throw your training out of the window. Supplements like Thermopure can help, but keeping a high protein diet also works. I always find tuna and pineapple work well when I’m trying to cut weight.

Q. The lightweight UFC title is obviously in your sights and would be a phenomenal achievement, but what’s been the highlight of your career so far? A. Winning The Ultimate Fighter in Las Vegas was amazing but fighting in front of 20,000 people in Manchester was a huge thrill. To be honest I’m a young fighter with a lot to learn and a long way to go, but I’m hoping for a lot more career highlights in the next few years.

Q. And finally, if you could only use one Myprotein product, what would it be? A. I’ve always used the BCAA plus tablets and that’s the one I’d stick with, they have a proven ratio of amino acids that go straight to your muscles.

Questions Answered

Q. Aerobic endurance is essential in football, what are your favourite drills during pre season to get the players match fit? A. We do constant tests to assess the aerobic endurance of the players’ pre season and mid season to ensure they’re all at the right standard. To build up this endurance we keep everything game specific and use the ball as much as possible. The best way to do this is with small sided games, so we’ll start with 3 Vs 3 or 4 Vs 4 and build upwards to 11. This puts the players through their paces and involves a lot of running, but its game specific.

Q. And if you need to put some extra pace on a player, what tactics would you employ? A. I’d start with profiling the player in terms of power and strength to assess where the weakness is. This means employing tests such as the vertical jump and a series of strength tests in the gym. From that I can build a program that builds on the player’s strengths and addresses where the weakness lie, so it might be more power based work as opposed to strength conditioning.

Q. What’s been the biggest obstacle you’ve faced as a football conditioner? A. The number of games in the modern day game is so high that the opportunities for development training during the season are very limited. Recovery is crucial when you’re playing two and sometimes three games a week. My main focus is therefore on maintenance and ensuring the squad players’ maintain match fitness.

Q. Players need to be strong but how do you build strength without the players gaining too much weight? A. By training smart; all of the work we do in the gym is power based which won’t necessarily put unwanted weight on a player. For example, a session might consist of 3x3 on the squats followed by some jump training but it’s always explosive with a rep range of two to six. In pre season I’ll do some hypertrophy work with the younger players as they’ll often need to put on some extra muscle.

Q. What made you choose Myprotein over other supplement brands? A. The range is huge and covers everything we need, you can’t find that anywhere else and as a customer the value for money is exceptional. Recovery XS is a great product for after training & matches and also the ready to drinks such as Promilk and ONE Isotonic are perfect for during and after training.

Q. Which products do you feel have had the most benefit? A. As I mentioned, the Recovery XS is the king of post workout formulas. For me it’s the best product on the market as it has the perfect blend of nutrients at the correct ratios. Tricarb has also been a winner for us and it’s definitely made a difference on the training ground.

Q. What’s the typical mentality of footballers towards nutrition? A. We have a range of personalities, you get the guys who are very clued up on nutrition and physiology and of course there are some that need a bit more education. I’m really lucky as we have a good squad at Southampton FC, and they’re all keen to look after their nutrition. It’s all about attitude really and the lads understand that nutrition is one of the things that will give them the edge, so they embrace it. Due to the busy schedule nutrition sometimes gets pushed down the priority list but this is when the Promilk comes into its own. Its hassle free and most importantly it goes down a storm with the players because they love the taste, so it’s easy for me to ensure they’re getting the correct nutrition after training.

Questions Answered

Q. What first got you interested in Powerlifting? A. I have always been interested in strength training, but first started training specifically for strength in 2007.

Q. Who do you most admire in Powerlifting and why? A. The people I admire most in Powerlifting are the ones who continuously push for more and break through boundaries that allow others to aim higher. People like Andy Bolton, for being the first man ever to deadlift 1000 lbs, but also Louie Simmons, who has taken power lifting to a new level through his revolutionary training methods within the sport.

Q. What does a typical weeks training consist of? A. A typical weeks training will have four main training days - split into upper and lower body. One workout for each half is based on maximum strength, where volume is kept low and intensity very high, and one is for speed and recovery work, where volume will increase slightly and intensity drops. I use a lot of variations of the three competition lifts - squat, bench press and deadlift, and also do a lot of abdominal, lower back and very heavy core training. Sometimes I will increase my training to 5-6 times a week for conditioning and fitness purposes, depending upon where I am in the training cycle.

Q. What supplements do you use and how do you find they help? A. I find, with the amount of heavy training I perform each week, that I need a high protein intake. I use MP Max True Whey to keep my overall protein intake high throughout the day. Due to the very intense max effort training sessions my pre and post workout supplementation is very important. Before training I will use some Vitargo Pure, BCAA, Leucine, Beta Alanine, Creatine Monohydrate, Citrulline Malate and some Caffeine. Immediately after training I drink around 80-100g Vitargo Pure, mixed with 15g BCAA , 10g Leucine and a shot of Berry Blast flavouring. Around 20-30 minutes later I will have some MP Max true Whey, Creatine Monohydrate and another serving of Vitargo Pure.

Q. What are your overall goals in Powerlifting? A. Overall I aim to continue to improve and progress my strength in the three big lifts. One of my main goals is to squat over 1000lbs and deadlift over 800lbs.

Q. What has been the highlight of your career so far? A. The highlight of my career in power lifting so far has to be winning my class in the BPC British Championships in 2009 and representing Great Britain in the WPC World Championships.

Q. What advice would you give to someone starting off in Powerlifting? A. My main piece of advice is to find someone who has some experience! It is a very technical sport and as a beginner you really need to master the basic lifts. Then you need to go and put the time and effort in inside the gym! The standard of British powerlifting is growing rapidly so don't be too disheartened if your lifts seem a mile away from the best!

Q. Do you take part in any other sports other than Powerlifting? A. I currently train alongside some of the UK's best amateur bodybuilders, who I admire for their dedication. I also have a keen interest in Strongman competitions, but I'm a little short for that! I don't really get much time for anything else, but other sports I admire include MMA and American football, simply due to the overall strength and conditioning levels of the top athletes.

Q. How does your training vary throughout the year? A. My training is run in cycles, normally working backwards from my next competition. I tend to have a week or two rest before a major competition, following an intense 4 week peaking cycle before a competition. The rest of the year I follow a conjugate training plan, working on overall fitness capacity, strength and speed throughout the year.

Questions Answered

Q. What lift is your favourite and why? A. It has to be the deadlift, there’s nothing else that tests raw power like the deadlift, and it’s a great test of overall body strength.

Q. Trying to lift heavier means you must constantly be pushing what you lift, how do you avoid getting injured? A. I avoid injury by resting, eating and supplementing correctly; if you can get those three things spot on then you can focus on training. Also, using correct technique is vital to staying injury free. I would never sacrifice my technique just to lift heavier.

Q. In terms of diet, what sort of food do you eat when you’re training heavily? A. The main thing I change in a heavy lifting phase is the amount of protein shakes I have. When I’m nearing a competition I can use up to 4 MP Max True Whey and instant oats shakes a day. If you’re pushing your body to the limits then it won’t thank you for doing it on an empty tank.

Q. Becoming the junior world champion is obviously a great achievement, what other goals do you have for your career? A. My next goal is to become the senior British champion and then eventually maybe even world champion. That’s a pretty long term goal though, for now I will be chasing the deadlift record of 343kg that has stood for about 20 years. For me it’s a very personal goal, to master the exercise I respect and enjoy the most.

Q. Everyone likes to lift heavy in the gym but what’s your advice to customers that are looking to lift more in the gym? A. Eat, sleep and supplement well, I can’t stress enough how important those three elements are – the holy trinity of power lifting. You should also never push too hard and always leave something in the tank for next time. To keep your training on track and avoid a plateau, set yourself achievable short, medium and long term goals and work hard to smash them all!!

Questions Answered

Q. Emphasis is often placed on the weight someone bench presses but what do you feel the best test of a player’s strength is? A. Bench press is just one, and for me strength involves the whole body, squats, deadlifts and chin up are also good markers for assessing strength. Personally, I feel the best way to asses a player’s strength is to look at how they perform against their opposite number on the field. How do they handle themselves? Do they dominate other players? That’s what strength is for in rugby.

Q. Power is also essential in rugby but what are your three favourite exercises for achieving power? A. We’ll focus on three main areas to achieve power and in turn speed. In the gym the players will do Olympic lifts such as cleans, power cleans and derivatives of these exercises. We’ll then do plyometric movements such as jumping, bounding and even netball throws. Anything that involves explosive movements. The third type of exercise is sled pulls, where the players will sprint whilst pulling a weighted sled.

Q. When players turn up for pre season what’s your favourite drill to shock their bodies back into conditioning? A. Contrary to popular belief we don’t jump in head first and flog the players when they return from the off season break. Some clubs might, but we believe a more gradual approach yields better results and lessens the chance of injury. When the players return we’ll focus on building strength and they’ll spend most of the time in the gym. We’ll slowly build in light skills session which will start off very light and build gradually over the weeks. Once the players are back into the swing of things we’ll introduce tougher tests, a favourite at London Irish is called Runways. The players will do a series of shuttles runs over a period of 17 to 20 minutes. The shuttle runs are done on a whistle command and have varying lengths and recovery times. The total distance the player runs during a runway session gives us a good indication of how fit they are.

Q. What’s been the biggest change in the way you train since the dawn of the professional era? A. Apart from the obvious, I think the growth of sport science within the game has made a huge difference to the way clubs do things, particularly in the arena of supplementation and strength training. Conditioners are now much better educated which in turn is producing much better results for the players. We’re also keeping abreast of the latest studies and applying it to how we train the players. For example, the addition of L-Leucine post training has been shown to have a huge effect on increasing muscle mass, so we’ve started adding it into the post workout shakes of certain players.

Q. Putting on lean muscle must be priority during off season, how do you alter the player’s diets to achieve this? A. A lot will depend on the individual player and the position they play, but diet is so important and protein intake becomes a critical factor. As everyone reacts differently we’ll constantly monitor results and body fat percentages to ensure we’re getting it right. The last thing we want to do is put body fat on a player so we have to ensure that the energy intake is just right.

Q. How do you incorporate Myprotein supplements into the daily diet of your players? A. We provide a base level of supplementation for all our players to take everyday which includes Omega 3 oil, Alpha Men, Green Tea and ZMA. These supplements assist a number of things including weight management, a strong immune system and an anabolic environment but that’s the core nutrition that all the squad use. The whole squad will then use True Whey pre and post a weights session and Recovery XS after training or a game to get the perfect blend of nutrients for recovery and growth. We’ll also add supplements to achieve individual goals, for example our front rowers will use Thermopure to help them drop excess weight. As they’re usually carrying more weight and taking a lot of the big impacts in a match, we need to look after their joints, so they’ll also use MSM Glucosamine Chondroitin. For the smaller guys needing to add muscle we’ll include Creatine Monohydrate, HMB and BCAA’s to help them put on extra size.

Questions Answered

Q. You’ve had a great career so far but what’s been the highlight? A. Winning the Premiership twice with Tigers in 2007 and 2009 and playing in the World cup final in 2007 would all be on a par.

Q. Playing for England must involve extreme pressure, how do ensure it doesn’t affect your performance? A. I try to develop a routine on match day and stick to it. If you have familiar things that you do for every game that you know work such as eating certain meal, doing a fire up weights session in the morning, listening to music or getting a massage pre game, you are likely to feel comfortable. The biggest thing I have learnt recently is that you cannot affect anyone else’s performance and you should completely focus on your own performance. If things do not go well in a game, do not panic and just adapt to what you are doing badly.

Q. Muscle soreness the day after a game is a big problem for rugby players at all levels, what do you do to prevent it and treat it? A. Immediately after a heavy training session I try to have a recovery shake with good protein, some simple carbohydrate and glutamine. I think roughly 1 part protein to 2 or 3 parts carbohydrate is a good ratio to work with. Recovery XS is a great product for this. Wearing skins and ice baths can also help, but replacing energy is the most vital.

Q. You’re known for your ability to break a line with power and speed, what specific exercises do you do to work on this? A. I work a lot on ankle stiffening drills, posterior chain and hip extension exercises. One easy way to develop power is using a heavy medicine ball standing with your back 5 meters or so away from a wall sinking your hips and throwing the ball as quickly as possible over your head. Making sure the release point is high will force your hips to extend.

Q. Diet is very important, especially when you’re trying to maintain a powerful muscular frame while keeping body fat low, do you have any tips on this for our customers? A. Protein is key for building and maintaining muscle. It is also important to supply the body with energy. I try to eat most of my carbohydrate after training, immediately after is best. If you are trying to stay lean stay away from starch in the evenings and eat regular small portions. A great snack is Biltong which is a dried meat, it is lean and high in protein and I also love Myprotein’s beef jerky.

Q. You like to cook your own meals but what’s your dish after a heavy training session? A. If I could break my diet after a big session, fish and chips or toad in the hole would be a good way to go. If I had to be good I would look for some lean protein, some greens such as broccoli. Some berries mixed with manuka honey, yoghurt and oats is a good way to boost your immune system and give your good carbohydrate intake. If you really struggle to gain weight, a bed time snack can be made of cottage cheese, manuka honey, cinnamon and ground almonds. This will release protein slowly into your system over night. Be careful if you gain fat easily as an extra calorie intake before bed may cause you to store fat.

Q. You’re not quite coming to the end of your career but have you had any thoughts on what you might do when you retire from playing rugby? A. I would be interested in Fitness and conditioning potentially within Rugby. I have a friend who runs a clothing company called Lions Rampant which does some great things so in time it would be fun to work with them.

Questions Answered

Q. Playing rugby is in your blood but who’s been the biggest inspiration in your life? A. My mum, she’s a very strong woman and doesn’t let stuff affect her, she just gets on with things.

Q. You’ve had a lot of praise from the media, how do you keep your feet on the ground? A. I don’t read too much into it and rarely read a newspaper, that’s the same for good and bad games. My family will always keep me grounded and things can change very quickly for you in rugby league.

Q. Your footwork has been dazzling defences, is it all natural or do you work on it? A. A bit of both, I think you always have to work on things, I don’t know anyone that doesn’t.

Q. Your speed off the mark has left defenders grabbing at thin air, what drills do you to keep so sharp? A. I do a lot of bounding and hopping over hurdles along with agility slaloms but going up against a defender and trying to beat him is the best thing you can do.

Q. In the gym how do you structure your workouts? A. We keep reps quite low so about 3 sets of 4 to 6 reps on each exercise during a gym session. If we’re working power we’ll lift at 60% and push out three really fast explosive reps. These sessions will usually only last 20-25 minutes but we’ll focus on snatches and power cleans.

Q. What are the toughest parts of your training? A. Conditioning is the toughest part of training but it’s possibly the most necessary for a rugby league player. It’s what sees you through in the last minutes of the toughest games. We do a lot of our conditioning on the field with conditioned games and that keeps things specific to a match.

Q. Does your training differ from the forwards? A. A little, they’ll obviously lift heavier but these days everyone on the pitch has to have excellent conditioning and the forwards have to get through a lot of hit ups and tackling so they still need to be quite light and mobile.

Q. Do you get muscle soreness after a game and how do you recover? A. Yeah, I get really sore after a game but that’s part and parcel of it. I up my protein and carbohydrate intake after a game and use Recovery XS to help me recover. At Saints we also have active recovery at the club the day after a game. We’ll do some bike work and pool work along with ice baths, just to keep our blood flowing.

Q. What do you ultimately want to achieve in rugby league? A. I’ve never really thought about it, but winning things is what matters. I won’t become a great player if I don’t win things.

Questions Answered

Q. You take a very calculated approach to training, how do you split each week up? A. My typical training week follows the pattern of track, weights, track, weights, hurdles, track, rest day. I follow this pattern because after a hard track session it would be too demanding to perform another high quality track workout the next day. My gym sessions involve various power building exercises which are a good compliment to my track sessions which often result in high lactic acid build up.

Q. Injury prevention is key in your sport, what steps do you take? A. I warm up for at least an hour before beginning my workout, sometimes seeing a physio at track side for extra stretching and muscle release work. I will also stretch at the end of a session and will sometimes use an ice bath if I have any areas of real concern. Once my main workout is complete I will have my recovery shake and rest up for a bit before performing specific strengthening exercises to help develop my weaknesses. The exercises I do will not be too fatiguing and will change each day in order to work different parts of the body.

Q. Are you hopeful for a place in the London 2012 team? A. I am well inside the qualifying standard for the 2012 Olympic Games, so naturally I will be expecting myself to be there. The real challenge will be trying to get a medal. I narrowly missed out on the Olympics in 2008 and will be hoping to make amends next time round.

Q. A hurdler’s worst nightmare is obviously getting taken down by the hurdle, has this ever happened to you? A. I have hit quite a few hurdles in my time, some harder than others, but fortunately I have never fallen. If you hit them at the start of the race then you can get away with it and recover easier as you are fresh. If people are going to fall over then its most likely going to be in the home straight when you are most fatigued.

Q. How do you prepare for a race, both mentally and in terms of nutrition? A. Before a race I like to eat a meal with carbs (rice or pasta), small amount of veg and a small protein (chicken or turkey) at 4 hours before I’m due to race. I do this so that I don’t feel too full when I’m competing. I also take sodium citrate and beta alanine as buffering agents to help me cope with the lactic acid build up.In the 400m hurdles, athletes take a set number of strides between each hurdle. I will mentally prepare by planning my race out a couple of hours before hand, checking weather conditions and wind direction to see which stride pattern would be best to use. After deciding on this I will play out the race in my head, going through the stride pattern I plan to use.

Questions Answered

Q. When did you first realise that sprinting might be your sport? A. I always knew I was quick, as I tended to win on sports day by quite a long way. When I started secondary school in 1999, I won on sports day in a school record, so my PE teacher sent me onto an athletics club. I won my first race there, and a year later I was national under-15 champion over 100m, so from there I had a pretty god idea. In 2003 I came 3rd at the World under-18 championships, so that provided a big boost to me, and was the first time I thought I could make a career out of it.

Q. A lot of people say that being a good sprinter is down to genetics, do you agree with that? A. It is down to genetics, but it will only get you so far. Certainly, I consistently beat people who have much better genetics than me, because I work hard, and am highly dedicated. I analyse every part of my training and general training regime, including nutrition, psychology, and biomechanics, to make sure I get the most out of myself on a daily basis. If you want to do well in sprinting, you cant be lazy and rely on genetics – you have got to put in the hard work.

Q. A great deal of preparation goes into such a small amount of time, do you have a pre race routine? A. I like to keep thinks fairly similar pre-race, as a routine is good to get you into a consistent state of mind for each race. I always do the same warm-up, and listen to the same playlist on my ipod for every race.

Q. What’s your favourite post training meal? A. Ideally, something like a big chocolate bar, or a burger, but I cant eat those on a regular basis! Its probably going to be chicken and (low-fat) bacon with a big salad. Pretty boring I know.

Q. You use a lot of Myprotein products, any personal favourites? A. Im a huge fan of the MP Elite True Whey, either in cookies and cream, or Strawberry flavour. I find that they are incredibly tasty for a protein shake, and I actually look forwards to finishing training just so I can have it! The smooth chocolate instant milk protein is also another favourite of mine. In terms of effectiveness, Im a big user of Creapure, Beta Alanine, and Argine, which all make up part of my pre- and post-training drink.

Q. Who’s been the biggest inspiration in your life? A. Without any doubt, Lance Armstrong. Watching him race is pretty amazing, as he seems to have a hunger that his competitors don’t. When you have been that close to death, and that ill, suddenly riding up a mountain doesn’t seem as bad. Watching him compete gives me goosebumps.

Q. Do you think breaking the nine second barrier is possible? A. I wouldn’t think so, but then again 50 years ago we had just broken the 10-second barrier, and now we are at 9.58, so who knows? I guess it depends on how far technology, in the spikes and track surfaces, advances.

Q. You do a lot of work with other professional athletes to help them with their speed, what kind of work does that involve? A. Just basically tightening up their running technique. Everyone can run fast, but most people try too hard. The key to running fast is to try to be as relaxed as possible. Thats the first thing I try to teach. Second to that is basic technique training, so that they can become more efficient. You would be surprised how just changing a few small things can make such a big difference, especially in sport, where speed is a huge advantage.

Questions Answered

Q. Your sport involves a delicate balance of speed and power, how do you tailor your gym workouts to achieve this? A. It’s important to keep training specific to your sport but at the same time I’ll leave no stone unturned. Everything I do in the gym is geared towards improving my performance so it involves lots of cleans and squats. In the winter I’ll do more strength work which sometimes results in hypertrophy, however, I’ll soon lean down once I’m back on the track.

Q. Your sports science background means you’re well educated when it comes to supplements but if you could only pick three what would they be? A. That’s easy, for me it has to be Creatine, Caffeine and Beta Alanine, as they’ve all been proven to work through extensive testing. Creatine is vital for athletes but similarly caffeine is important to get your nerve impulses firing. Beta Alanine is great as a training tool and helps combat fatigue which is perfect for the harder training sessions and allows me to focus on technique.

Q. In terms of nutrition, how do you eat the week leading up to a race? A. I’ve always carb loaded in the past but everyone’s different and recently I’ve found it more useful to stick to my regular diet the week leading up to a competition. I’m on the zone diet so it’s just a good balance of protein, carbs and vegetables. The night before a race I find you can’t go wrong with chicken and pasta.

Q. How do you train for dynamic flexibility and static flexibility and which would you say is more important to hurdling? A. Flexibility is very important for injury prevention and performance so I’ll do a lot of static stretching at night to improve my flexibility. I won’t do any static stretching before a race or training as this when I’ll use dynamic stretching to loosen my muscles.

Q. How does your training differ from a sprinter? A. In some ways it’s very similar as I’m aiming to be as fast as a sprinter, but I also need the endurance of an 800m runner, so I’ll go for runs of up to 1 hour to ensure I have the aerobic endurance required for the final 100m.

Q. What’s made the biggest difference to your performance? A. To be honest, staying injury free makes the biggest difference as it allows you to train consistently. There are no miracle cures and consistency in your training is the key to improving performance. That said supplementation will give you the edge. They allow you to train for longer without fatigue and improve recovery and repair to your muscles during rest periods. My training would certainly suffer without them.

Q. You’ve had some reoccurring injury trouble which must’ve been frustrating. Do you have any advice for people going through a similar problem? A. The best advice is to avoid injury altogether. To do this it’s important that you’re not afraid to rest. When you’re pushing hard towards a goal you can sometimes get carried away and stop listening to your body. The small tweaks, the little niggles are all signs that you’re overtraining and need to rest. There’s nothing wrong with resting, it’s when your body grows and recovers, ready for the next session. Using the correct supplements for recovery only enhance and shorten this period so it’s vital that you get your nutrition right. You’ll also get more out of your training if you’re not tired from the previous day. Athletes that train everyday have built up to that level over a number of years.

Q. So rest and recovery are important, but how do you like to relax? A. On my days off I’ll always have a lie in and then I’ll just go for a walk and get some fresh air or see my girlfriend. All normal things really but anything that takes my mind of athletics is great for a rest day, your life can’t all be about training so you need to get the right balance for the level you’re at.

Questions Answered

Q. How did you get started in strong man? A. I have always been very strong and enjoyed going to the gym. In 2006 I decided to enter a strength competition - the Southern qualifier to England's Strongest Man. I came fourth and qualified to take part in England's Strongest Man, which I went on to win that year. The same year I came 3rd in the UK's Strongest Man competition.

Q. What major titles and competitions have you achieved to date? A. The competitions I have won include; 2006 England's Strongest Man (1st), 2007 England's Strongest Man (1st), 2008 England's Strongest Man (1st), 2008 Britain's Strongest Man (1st). In 2007 and 2008 I came third in my group at the World's Strongest Man - just missing out on qualification for the final. In the UK’s Strongest Man competition I achieved 3rd place in 2006 and 2008 and 2nd place in 2007.

Q. What have been the highlights of your career so far? A. My greatest achievement was winning Britain's strongest man in 2008. On a personal note I was extremely proud to beat Mariusz Pudzianowski at WSM 2007 in the squats - with the fastest time recorded at WSM.

Q. What is your favourite event in strong man? A. I like anything that involves pressing, squatting or dead-lift.

Q. Can you give us a brief outline of your training routine including volume, intensity and exercise selection? A. I train at the gym 5 times a week. My workout involves lots of cardio and lots of reps. I only train at about 60% of capacity in terms of weights lifted to build strength and move slowly to build up to the heavier weights. I like to go swimming as well and generally like most fitness activities.

Q. Do you have a nutritional plan and what supplements does it involve? A. One of the key supplements in my diet is the True Whey protein shake which I find really good for keeping up calories and protein levels in-between meals. MP have just designed a program of supplements specific to me which I am really excited about starting and I will update you as to how I get on with that after a few months on the program.

Q. What do you do to keep fit out of season and do you enjoy any other sports? A. I usually try to go to hot springs in Albania (or anywhere else in the world) out of season which I find really recharges my strength and helps me avoid injuries and colds for the rest of the year. I still go to the gym 5 times a week when I am home (usually with Saturday and Sunday off). My training changes all year round, on a weekly basis, depending on which body part I feel needs improvement.