| PLUS: why you need kettlebells |
| | |
|  |
 | | | LEVEL UP YOUR BARBECUE GAME | | | You're better than the disposable B&Q one-shot. Jon Finch and Ben Merrington, creators of BBQ festival Grillstock, want to get up in your grill | |
| | MASTER TWO-ZONE COOKING
"You should cook pretty much everything this way," says Finch. "Set up so you have one zone directly over the coals for searing, and another cooler zone, away from the coals, to allow the meat to cook through directly." For steaks and burgers, you'll want to get a good sear going first, then cook them through slowly, to avoid the charred/raw double-whammy that brands you a barbecue noob.
PLAY WITH SMOKE
It's a seasoning, which you can use to add subtle flavours to your food. "You'll get a background smoke flavour from using natural lumpwood charcoal," says Merrington. "Add wood on top: chunks between the size of a tennis and golf ball work best. Throw them straight onto the coals." Beech works with everything, cherry gives a richer flavour, and hickory is the nutty choice for the sophisticated griller.
CREATE YOUR OWN RUB
"It ties the flavours of the meat, smoke and sauce together," says Finch. Start with a base of sea salt, sugar and paprika, then add herbs, spices and seasonings: dried chilli, garlic and onion powder are all good starting points, with mustard powder, lime, oregano and celery salt handy standbys as you get more confident.
DON'T FIDDLE AND POKE
And definitely don't squeeze. "Once you've put the meat on the grill, just leave it," says Merrington. "You should only turn the meat once or twice throughout grilling. Squashing burgers and steaks down just squeezes out all the lovely juices and causes flare-ups." And remember: the man with the spatula's word is law. Back-seat grillers may be safely assigned paper-plate duty. | |
|
| |
| | | 
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
| THIS MANIAC IS CLIMBING HIS OWN EVEREST…BY ROPE | | | AND HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM HIM | |
How do you follow run/walk/crawling 26.2 miles while pulling a car, AKA the #WorldsStrongestMarathon? If you said "by lying on the couch, and never doing anything so stupid again", you are not athlete-adventurer Ross Edgley. His answer: the #WorldsStrongestRopeClimb, or hauling himself up a rope for 24 hours continuously until he's scaled 8,848 metres – the height of Everest. He's doing it to raise money for the Teen Cancer Trust, and his training has been… interesting.
"I bought a rope. Found a tree. Then completely and utterly adopted the SAID principle, which is Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands," says Edgley. "Basically, because climbing a rope is a novel movement you need to become really well adapted to it in terms of your biomechanics, bioenergetics and physiology – fuelling 24 hours of activity, essentially. An under-used conditioning trick I've been doing is focusing solely on the concentric phase of the movement (climbing up), while limiting the eccentric (climbing down) in order to induce morphological adaptations and increase strength whilst limiting the higher stress and tension caused during the eccentric phase." In English? "Basically, I'm making sure I can climb for ten hours a day." Yes, he's getting through a lot of gloves.
The World's Longest Rope Climb begins at Pippingford Park on 22 April ahead of the Toughest Obstacle Race. The Protein Works has created a limited edition White Chocolate Gold Protein Truffle with £1 of every one sold going to the Teenage Cancer Trust. |
|
|
|
|
 | | | CAN VIRTUAL REALITY MAKE YOU STRONGER? | | | SHORT ANSWER: NOT YET | |
| | If you're paying attention to the worlds of gaming, technology, or, ah, erotic entertainment, it can't have escaped your notice that VR is a thing again. The Oculus Rift system is finally shipping in the UK – albeit slowly – and, yes, fitness applications for it are already appearing. The current frontrunner is Widerun, a cycling application that hooks up to a traditional turbo-trainer, and it's… well, it's quite good. The killer app is "steering-oriented environment" 4Seasons, which actually lets you wobble your two-wheeler through a variety of environments (including ancient China for some reason), twisting your head to take in the scenery while not getting too sick. We're probably a while away from blazing through the Peloton in a pixel-perfect reaction of the Tour de France, but there's also RunTastic's 7-Minute workout to consider – or, for those in search of a more full-body experience, the frankly terrifying Icaros, which has you flying through the sky while wrenching a machine around with your limbs. Programmes aren't finalised yet, but we're lobbying hard for the inclusion of Superman, Zeus and that dog thing from The Neverending Story. | |
|
|
 | | | NEEDS MORE KETTLEBELL | | | THE CAUSE OF, AND SOLUTION TO, ALL LIFE'S PROBLEMS | | If you're going to invest in some home gym kit, you could do worse than a brace of kettlebells: not only are they easier to store than a full-size Olympic bar (and cheaper), but they're more versatile when it comes to building strength. In the June issue of Men's Fitness (out next Wednesday), we talk you through the double kettlebell rack squat, but you needn't be limited by that: the double overhead press, double clean, and even the double swing will add weight and instability to their single-arm versions, forcing your body to adapt. |  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Men's Fitness is published by Dennis Publishing Ltd, . Company registered in England number
This email has been sent to you by Dennis Publishing (UK) Ltd because you have signed up for the Men's Fitness newsletter.
If you do not wish to receive such emails in the future you can unsubscribe by clicking here.
|
|
|
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
