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Cover Model Muscle Anthony Joshua The Greatest Of Our Time Powerful but dexterous, explosive yet graceful, Anthony Joshua is the embodiment of the modern boxer. At a time when the heavyweight division is arguably more exciting than it has been in decades, he talks to MH about the qualities that set him apart Interview by Dan Masoliver Photography by David Venni HEAVYWEIGHT THINKING: JOSHUA TRAINS BODY AND MIND WITH EQUAL FOCUS GUTTER CREDIT GUTTER CREDIT GUTTER 52 MEN’S HEALTH MEN’S HEALTH 53 Cover Model Muscle Anthony Joshua of the same rep ranges. And during his extended warm-up and recovery sessions, that the climb is too steep to get back up,” he releases his knotted muscles with the he says. “When you’re not training and same torturous foam rollers. you’re eating badly, it’s like you’re already conditioning coach Jamie Reynolds, “People see the Rocky or Creed movies at the bottom of the mountain, but now who has been in Joshua’s corner for all and think that every day [Joshua] is going you’re digging yourself a hole as well. of his world championship-winning at 100 miles per hour, chopping wood and If I’m not training, at least I’m still eating bouts. “Anthony is probably the most beating tyres with sledgehammers,” says nthony Joshua right, staying hydrated, recovering dedicated athlete I’ve ever worked with,” Reynolds. “But it’s not like that. Anthony’s is tired. Not just tired but exhausted. properly. That’s the way.” says Reynolds. “Take the opponent he’s very much the modern athlete, which isn’t ACream crackered. Normally so animated, Thanks to this attitude, Joshua is at the fighting in June [Miller]. You’ll start to something that’s too common in boxing. so ebullient, so playful, even, the vanguard of a new breed of heavyweight: see [his team] saying he’s training So, with how he recovers, how he eats, heavyweight champ of the world is not the freakishly oversized mammoths harder, he’s taking it seriously for this how he prepares mentally, everything, now temporarily subdued. His speech of old, but athletes of the most complete one, he’s going to come in lighter, he’s he’s totally on his game. It comes back to is slow, his syllables long. But then, you and elite variety. Enormous, yet agile. doing this, he’s doing that. But the doing the basics really, really well.” can’t blame him. The man has had a tough Powerful, yet dexterous. Explosive, yet biggest compliment I can give Anthony These basics include the often hugely week at work. You know how it is. graceful. And with the mental fortitude is that whether he’s fighting [Wladimir] underestimated art of listening to his On second thoughts, you probably and discipline to match. Klitschko, or whether he’s fighting for a own body. As Joshua has matured, he has don’t. Slouched in the back of his Range “It’s not like, ‘I’m training for a fight, world title, or whether it was back when stopped trying to contort himself into the Rover and chatting to MH, Joshua is on then I’ll go and eat kebabs,’” he says. “I I started working with him, he’s always mould of what a heavyweight champion his way home to north London in search take more of a holistic view. It’s not just had the same approach, that level of should look like, or how he is meant to train. of a much-needed rest. He has spent the about the combat. It’s the lifestyle. It’s not professionalism, wanting to stay in the “I’ve learned [to say], ‘Hang on, I know past week in Sheffield, where a team of just about the fight. It’s gym and stay fit in the trainer thinks this is good, but let me coaches, trainers and sparring partners about living right. You between fights. He’s ask him why,’ and I use my has battered his body and pummelled his might have little cheat “I take a more always been focused THE CHAMP LEARNS FROM own instincts to guide him,” OTHER SPORTS TO MAKE mind. All, supposedly, for his own good. meals now and again – holistic view. on the bigger picture: HIMSELF A BETTER BOXER Joshua explains. “Because Joshua is in training camp, the 12-week everyone’s got a sweet training for his career, there’s no better nutritionist period directly before a fight in which he tooth – but it’s nice to It’s not just for that longevity, to than yourself. There’s no better trainer prepares physically and psychologically spend the majority of be the best that he can than yourself. It’s like [having] an interior for the task at hand – in this case, to beat the time eating natural the combat, it’s be. So, when the big designer: tell them what you want the the 143kg American challenger Jarrell foods, even if I’m not the lifestyle” fights come, he’s not house to look like – you’ve got to live there, Miller when they meet on 1 June at New fighting. It’s important to like, ‘Right, let’s take after all – then they’ll guide you.” York’s Madison Square Garden. All four treat yourself right.” it seriously now.’ He’s ready.” of Joshua’s world championship belts – There are lessons here for the casual Outside the Ring IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO – are on the line, The Long Game gym-goer, especially those who take on Pugilism is an ancient art. So perhaps it the purse is rumoured to be in the region So accustomed are we to this flavour the kinds of physical transformations you shouldn’t be surprising that, despite the of £19m, and it will be his first pro fight of wholesome #wellness messaging see on these pages. Attaining your desired eye-watering amounts of cash surrounding night on foreign soil. The stakes have from Instagram influencers, it’s easy results is only part of the challenge. The it, professional boxing has been slow on never been higher. The good news for to forget how unusual it is at the peak real test lies in trying to maintain your the uptake of the latest sports science. Joshua fans (and very bad news for fans of professional boxing. Especially newly honed physique over the long haul. “Boxing can be a little bit behind the of Miller) is that when he enters camp, in a weight category where size is In Joshua’s case, he does this by times,” says Reynolds. He points out that there is very little catching up to do. everything and mass means might. spending six hours a day, five days a while football, basketball and American The standard model for an elite boxer’s Look no further than Tyson Fury, a week, in one form of training or another: football have pumped huge amounts calendar is boom and bust. Training like gifted boxer who, like Joshua, remains strength, speed, stamina, stability, skills. of resources into athlete advancement, an animal in the build-up to a fight; eating undefeated in his professional career, Though if you’re picturing the kind of boxing falls short by comparison. But like one in the aftermath. We all remember but unlike Joshua, hides his abs behind egg-white-chugging, timber-lugging Joshua, he says, has turned this potential those inter-fight images of Ricky Hatton a shock-absorbing shield of blubber. montages of Rocky films, you’re wide drawback to his advantage. in his pomp, so bloated that it looked like Someone who is intimately acquainted of the mark. During a typical hour-long “Anthony is a smart guy, a very smart he had swallowed, well, another Ricky with Joshua’s disciplined and complete strength session, Joshua does many of athlete. He’s someone who will look Hatton. But while some training camps approach to training is his strength and the same exercises as you do. He uses the outside of boxing at other sports. He’ll involve turning MOT-failing bangers same barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, connect with other athletes and be able to into fine-tuned racers, in Joshua’s case resistance bands and TRX gear, in many see how they’re preparing. He’ll look, for it’s more like taking a Formula 1 car and instance, at recovery strategies and ask, precision-engineering it into something ‘How are some of the world’s top athletes that Elon Musk might use to travel into recovering? Not just who’s recovering space. With a precipitous topography the best within boxing, but what are the of abdominals and biceps broader than JOSHUA PUSHES HIS best recovery strategies available to me? your skull, Joshua radiates year-round LIMITS USING THE SAME How is a basketball player of a similar readiness, permanently in the kind of KIT WE ALL HAVE ACCESS TO build – 6ft 7in and athletic – able to move shape to instil fear in his opponents. and train and be fast and powerful? What This is not a coincidence, a given, or are they doing, and is there anything I can the result of some genetic quirk. It is incorporate into what I’m doing?’” an integral part of Joshua’s approach Questioning the spit-and-sawdust to his sport. “I don’t want to walk so far traditions of his sport has not always back down the mountain [after a fight] gone down well. Many have pointed to GUTTER CREDIT GUTTER CREDIT GUTTER 54 MEN’S HEALTH MEN’S HEALTH 55 Cover Model Muscle Anthony Joshua The Gathering Storm anything of the sort.

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