![]() Perhaps preempting objections, he clarifies what’s at stake. “It’s committing six to seven hours per week of your life to doing the right activities…It’s not that big an ask. “It’s not a case of going to the gym twice a week,” he says. So how much should the average midlifer be doing? Roberts recommends 200 to 250 minutes per week of moderate activity such as fast walking or slow running 60 minutes per week of vigorous cardiovascular exercise and two or three weekly sessions of resistance loading. Only his cholesterol has changed: it is actually slightly lower now. His body fat percentage, weight, measurements, testosterone level – all are the same as 30 years ago. His personal health and fitness data is the same today as it was when he was 20. That’s the ambition and goal.”Ī slim and toned 50-year-old (“I’d like to view it as being halfway”), Roberts is a walking advert for his approach. “It’s about having the ability to play tennis when you’re 80, to be able to walk up a hill when you’re 90. “ live better for longer,” is the essence of this message. His aim: to communicate a science-based message in a simple way. He’s authored 12 books along the way, founding Evolution in 2019 to focus on optimising health-span and longevity. Personal training is now big business – it was Roberts who opened Europe’s first exclusively personal training gym in 1996. “Even at 16, I was fascinated by what makes a body tick,” he says.įast forward to 2023, and he is among the best-known names in fitness, and quite possibly the most successful personal trainer in the world. Like his father, John, who played for Arsenal, he was a talented sportsman and athlete, but his interest lay in the performance side the science. “It always surprised me, years later, that people didn’t do that.” “It was the most normal thing in the world to be active,” he says. Growing up in Cheshire, the son of a professional footballer, his life was already steeped in sport and fitness. “Gyms tended to be large, box-type things – slightly sweaty and not very nice,” Roberts recalls.Īt 22-years-old, he was about to change all that. Yes, the concept of athletic performance was at least as old as the Ancient Greeks but the gyms of the mid-Nineties were a far cry from today’s proliferation of sleek, high-tech venues, and personal training was not a career path yet. ![]() When Roberts began his career, the idea of personal trainers was not the familiar one it is now. The programmes.we do see are so basic they’re laughable.” It’s image heavy, not content heavy: it’s not really designed to give you anything other than ‘they look great’. “There’s a whole load of people out there who are summed up as being some form of fitness influencer – a ridiculous title – and most don’t really know a huge amount,” he says. “Getting her ready for concerts post-baby and so on, there’s challenges that are there.”Īs someone who built up his fitness empire in the pre-social media era, he’s fairly dismissive of the new breed of online fitness influencers. “Ellie Goulding is a good example,” he says. Other famous clients need preparing for different challenges. “He’s a tremendous guy,” says Roberts, who trained him during his time in Number 10. Lord Cameron’s challenge was to keep fit and healthy for the role of prime minister. They’re a body, and that body is looked after in the exact same way as anyone else.Everyone has the same challenges.” ![]() ![]() But he won’t be drawn, except to say, “fundamentally, they’re human. ![]() There are “lots more besides that I wish I could tell you about,” he smiles, when we meet at his Evolution gym in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, a swanky corner building with a glass front emblazoned with the “MR” logo (there’s another one in South Kensington). Famous names he has trained include now foreign secretary David Cameron, fashion designer Tom Ford, television star Amanda Holden, and singers Melanie Chisholm and Ellie Goulding. Matt Roberts is the original celebrity fitness trainer. ![]()
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