Men’s Health: Built For Life

James Hunt is the father of two autistic, non-speaking sons, Jude and Tommy, the man behind Stories About Autism and the author of Love Needs No Words. In this episode of the Men’s Health Built For Life podcast, James joins Andrew Tracey and Ben Shephard for an honest conversation about autism, fatherhood and learning to communicate beyond spoken language. He shares the fear and grief that followed his sons’ diagnoses, the heartbreaking decision to have the brothers live separately and the daily realities of raising children with high support needs. James also explains how celebrating the smaller ‘inch stones’ has transformed the way he sees parenthood – and recalls the extraordinary moment a message from his son appeared on his phone for the first time: “Hi Dad.” It’s a moving conversation about resilience, connection and finding joy in a life that may look very different from the one you originally imagined. Men's Health UK: Built For Life Podcast Hosted by Fitness Director Andrew Tracey and Ben Shephard. Produced by Ruth Holroyd Trusted guidance for men passionate about their health, fitness and mental wellbeing. With muscle-building advice, style hacks, nutrition tips and workouts to try, we’ve got all areas covered. Want more from Men’s Health? Join the Men’s Health SQUAD for exclusive training plans, expert advice and tools to help you get stronger, faster – we’re with you every rep of the way. Click here: https://bit.ly/4eQkqIH Men’s Health UK: https://www.menshealth.com/uk/ Men’s Health UK on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/menshealthuk/ Men’s Health UK on Twitter: https://twitter.com/menshealthuk Men’s Health UK on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/menshealthuk/ Men’s Health on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/menshealthuk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Men’s Health Built for Life podcast, Andrew Tracey is joined by researcher, speaker, author and leadership expert Nick Petrie, whose work has taken him inside organisations including Google and NASA to study resilience, burnout and sustainable high performance. Nick explains why the behaviours that make you successful early in your career – working harder, saying yes to everything and pushing through exhaustion – can eventually become the very things that hold you back. We discuss why simply taking time off often fails to solve burnout, how a small group of people manage to combine high performance with surprisingly low levels of stress, and why learning to ‘pulse’ between different modes of work and recovery may be one of the most important skills you can develop. We also explore the idea of finding your ‘opposite world’, why scrolling on your phone isn’t really recovery, the dangers of building your entire identity around your career, and how to keep evolving your definition of success as your life changes. Nick’s new book, Burn Bright, brings together the research, stories and practical habits he’s uncovered while studying people who have learned how to perform at a high level without burning themselves out. This is a conversation about staying ambitious, working better and building a version of success you can actually sustain. Men's Health UK: Built For Life Podcast Hosted by Fitness Director Andrew Tracey and Ben Shephard. Produced by Ruth Holroyd Trusted guidance for men passionate about their health, fitness and mental wellbeing. With muscle-building advice, style hacks, nutrition tips and workouts to try, we’ve got all areas covered. Want more from Men’s Health? Join the Men’s Health SQUAD for exclusive training plans, expert advice and tools to help you get stronger, faster – we’re with you every rep of the way. Click here: https://bit.ly/4eQkqIH Men’s Health UK: https://www.menshealth.com/uk/ Men’s Health UK on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/menshealthuk/ Men’s Health UK on Twitter: https://twitter.com/menshealthuk Men’s Health UK on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/menshealthuk/ Men’s Health on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/menshealthuk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Men’s Health Built for Life podcast, Andrew Tracey sits down with exercise scientist, bodybuilder and one of the internet’s most recognisable fitness experts, Dr Mike Israetel, to cut through the noise surrounding training, nutrition and body composition. Dr Mike explains why most men spend far too much time searching for the perfect exercise, diet or scientific ‘hack’ – and not enough time consistently applying the fundamentals that actually drive results. They discuss genetics, progressive overload, training intensity, high-volume versus high-intensity workouts, the importance of tracking your lifts and why ‘optimal’ is irrelevant when you’re struggling to make it to the gym. They also break down what a realistic muscle-building diet looks like, why protein solves a surprising number of nutrition problems and how to stay on track when work, travel and real life inevitably disrupt your plans. Expect brutally honest advice, questionable analogies and a simple message that many of us still don’t want to hear: slow, consistent effort works – but you have to keep doing it. Dr Mike’s new book, The Aesthetic Revolution, is out now – a science-backed guide to building a leaner, more muscular body and embracing the fact that there’s nothing wrong with wanting to look your best. Men's Health UK: Built For Life Podcast Hosted by Fitness Director Andrew Tracey and Ben Shephard. Produced by Ruth Holroyd Trusted guidance for men passionate about their health, fitness and mental wellbeing. With muscle-building advice, style hacks, nutrition tips and workouts to try, we’ve got all areas covered. Want more from Men’s Health? Join the Men’s Health SQUAD for exclusive training plans, expert advice and tools to help you get stronger, faster – we’re with you every rep of the way. Click here: https://bit.ly/4eQkqIH Men’s Health UK: https://www.menshealth.com/uk/ Men’s Health UK on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/menshealthuk/ Men’s Health UK on Twitter: https://twitter.com/menshealthuk Men’s Health UK on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/menshealthuk/ Men’s Health on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/menshealthuk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Men’s Health Fitness Director Andrew Tracey sits down with coach, endurance athlete and content creator Kori Sampson to discuss the journey from bodybuilding and partying to sobriety, marathon running and 100-mile challenges. Kori explains how he balances high-volume endurance training with building and maintaining muscle, why protein still matters for runners, how he fuels long races and what most people get wrong when trying to lose fat while improving performance. The pair also discuss the pressure to appear ‘balanced’, why moderation simply doesn’t work for everyone, and how discipline can sometimes offer more freedom than constantly negotiating with yourself. Plus, Kori reveals the gym movements he keeps in year-round, why runners should train more like bodybuilders, and how his approach to training, food and recovery has evolved as the challenges have become bigger. Men's Health UK: Built For Life Podcast Hosted by Fitness Director Andrew Tracey and Ben Shephard. Produced by Ruth Holroyd Trusted guidance for men passionate about their health, fitness and mental wellbeing. With muscle-building advice, style hacks, nutrition tips and workouts to try, we’ve got all areas covered. Want more from Men’s Health? Join the Men’s Health SQUAD for exclusive training plans, expert advice and tools to help you get stronger, faster – we’re with you every rep of the way. Click here: https://bit.ly/4eQkqIH Men’s Health UK: https://www.menshealth.com/uk/ Men’s Health UK on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/menshealthuk/ Men’s Health UK on Twitter: https://twitter.com/menshealthuk Men’s Health UK on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/menshealthuk/ Men’s Health on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/menshealthuk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paddy Pimblett is back on the Men’s Health Built for Life podcast. After suffering the first real loss of his UFC career, Paddy sits down with Andrew Tracey to talk about coming back, growing up, fatherhood, fighting for something bigger than yourself, and why he knows he’ll return ‘bigger and better and stronger’. He also breaks down the brutal reality of UFC weight cutting, from 1,850-calorie fight camp days to losing 15lb overnight, why he believes the cut can be ‘more dangerous than the fight’, and what really happens between the weigh-in and walking into the cage. Plus, Paddy reveals the training he wishes he’d started years earlier, why lifting weights changed his career, the running mileage that helps him make weight, the problem with influencer boxing, why he thinks boxing is losing real fighters, and what it means to be fighting on the same card as Conor McGregor. And, yes, he explains why he’s absolutely not a HYROX guy. Want more from Men’s Health? Join the Men’s Health SQUAD for exclusive training plans, expert advice and tools to help you get stronger, faster – we’re with you every rep of the way. Visit www.menshealth.com/uk/mh-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paralympic gold medallist, marathon world record holder and disability inclusion advocate Richard Whitehead MBE joins Ben Shephard and Andrew Tracey on the Built For Life podcast. Born with a double through-knee congenital amputation, Richard has spent his life refusing to be limited by other people’s expectations. In this episode, he talks about being told he was ‘too old’ to make it as a sprinter, switching from marathon running to the 200m for London 2012, breaking a blade on the way to qualification, and the gold medal race that became one of the defining moments of the Paralympic Games. Richard also opens up on the marathon that changed his life, the worst blisters he’s ever had, the power of sport to break down barriers, why medals aren’t the real legacy, and how – at nearly 50 – he’s still getting faster and stronger. This is a conversation about resilience, inclusion, identity, purpose and why, in Richard’s words, we’re all ‘better together’. Want more from Men’s Health? Join the Men’s Health SQUAD for exclusive training plans, expert advice and tools to help you get stronger, faster – we’re with you every rep of the way. Visit www.menshealth.com/uk/mh-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jet Li is one of the greatest martial arts stars of all time – a former wushu champion, global action icon and star of films including Lethal Weapon 4, Romeo Must Die and The Expendables. But in this conversation, he opens up about the fight that changed him most: the one with his own mind. Speaking to Men’s Health, Jet Li reflects on fame, fear, success, Buddhism, meditation and the near-death experience during the 2004 tsunami that transformed his view of life. He explains why chasing more – more money, more recognition, more success – can become its own prison, and why true freedom comes from looking beyond the identity we spend our lives trying to protect. This is a rare and deeply personal conversation with a martial arts legend on death, ego, training the mind, and what it really means to be healthy and happy. Jet Li's new book 'Beyond Life and Death: The Way to True Freedom' is available now Want more from Men’s Health? Join the Men’s Health SQUAD for exclusive training plans, expert advice and tools to help you get stronger, faster – we’re with you every rep of the way. Visit www.menshealth.com/uk/mh-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fresh from his Men’s Health cover shoot, this week on Men’s Health: Built For Life, we sit down with Emmy-winning actor, director and playwright Colman Doming to talk confidence, ageing, movement and what it really means to take care of yourself. Colman opens up on the mindset shift that changed his relationship with fitness in his 50s – moving from chasing aesthetics to prioritising health, mobility, confidence and feeling good in his own skin. We get into intermittent fasting, losing 20lbs, reconnecting with movement, morning walks, building routines that actually last and why kindness, spirituality and time in nature matter just as much as training. Plus: why squats are his nemesis, the one movement he’d keep forever, the actor he’d most want to train with, and the simple daily habits helping him feel strong at 56. Want more from Men’s Health? Join the Men’s Health SQUAD for exclusive training plans, expert advice and tools to help you get stronger, faster – we’re with you every rep of the way. Visit www.menshealth.com/uk/mh-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of the Built For Life podcast, Richard Gadd joins Andrew Tracey to break down the reality behind his extreme body transformation for Half Man. After dropping to 68kg for Baby Reindeer, Gadd pushed his body to over 100kg, training six days a week, eating relentlessly and even dehydrating himself for scenes. But despite the scale of the change, he admits he ‘never felt as big as I wanted to be.’ They unpack the psychology of bulking, why progress is so hard to see even when it’s obvious to everyone else, and how quickly training can become addictive. The conversation also digs into the pressure of physique transformations and the link between exercise and mental health. Alongside the physical side, Gadd talks about masculinity, identity and the thinking behind his new show Half Man – and why the most interesting stories are the ones that don’t give you a clean answer. Want more from Men’s Health? Join the Men’s Health SQUAD for exclusive training plans, expert advice and tools to help you get stronger, faster – we’re with you every rep of the way. Visit www.menshealth.com/uk/mh-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week's Men’s Health: Built For Life podcast Ben Shephard and Andrew Tracey sit down on the with GP, broadcaster and author Dr Jack Mosley to unpack two of the most talked-about ideas in modern nutrition: ‘food noise’ and fat-loss jabs. Why do some people constantly think about food, while others barely give it a second thought? Is it really a willpower issue – or something deeper? They dive into the rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Tirzepatide, how they act like ‘noise-cancelling headphones’ for your appetite, and why for many people, the noise comes roaring back once they stop. The conversation explores the real benefits, the hidden downsides – including muscle loss and nutrient deficiencies – and what happens when you rely on appetite suppression without fixing the fundamentals. They also get into the ‘wild west’ of online pharmacies and black-market peptides, the surprising impact these drugs can have on alcohol and addictive behaviours, and why strength training might be the most overlooked piece of the puzzle. This is a nuanced, no-nonsense look at one of the biggest shifts in health and fat loss right now – separating hype from reality, and giving you practical takeaways you can actually use. Want more from Men’s Health? Join the Men’s Health SQUAD for exclusive training plans, expert advice and tools to help you get stronger, faster – we’re with you every rep of the way. Visit www.menshealth.com/uk/mh-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor James Norton joins Men’s Health and Runner’s World for a special crossover episode. Ahead of his first London Marathon, Norton breaks down what training actually looks like when you’re not a “natural runner” - and what changes when you’re managing Type 1 diabetes. From carb strategy and glucose monitoring to injuries, data overload and mental fatigue, this is a candid look at the reality of preparing for 42.2km. We also get into cold exposure, mindset, and why, for this race, finishing matters more than hitting a time. Plus, Norton explains how new diabetes tech is transforming endurance sport and why he’s running for a cause bigger than himself. Want more from Men’s Health? Join the Men’s Health SQUAD for exclusive training plans, expert advice and tools to help you get stronger, faster – we’re with you every rep of the way. Visit www.menshealth.com/uk/mh-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former British Army soldier and Military Cross recipient Brian Wood joins Ben Shephard and Andrew Tracey to talk about masculinity, vulnerability and what real toughness actually looks like – starting with the war crimes allegations that turned his life upside down. After being accused of serious offences following his actions in Iraq – claims he always denied and was ultimately cleared of – Brian opens up about the toll of years under investigation, the impact on his mental health, and the reality of fighting a very different kind of battle back home. Drawing on his experiences in combat – and the aftermath that followed – Brian explains why strength isn’t about shutting down, but opening up. We discuss trauma, the pressure men put on themselves to ‘hold it together’, and why learning to talk might be one of the hardest – and most important – skills a man can develop. We also get into leadership under fire, the role of movement and endurance in rebuilding resilience, and why ‘movement is medicine’ has become a cornerstone of Brian’s life beyond the military. If you’ve ever questioned what it really means to be strong, this one will stay with you. Want more from Men’s Health? Join the Men’s Health SQUAD for exclusive training plans, expert advice and tools to help you get stronger, faster – we’re with you every rep of the way. Visit www.menshealth.com/uk/mh-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian, broadcaster and newly minted Men’s Health cover star Paddy McGuinness joins Ben Shephard and Andrew Tracey to talk discipline, routines and what he learned from taking on the 75 Hard challenge in his fifties. After years of dipping in and out of training, Paddy explains why the simple structure of the challenge finally made things click – and how focusing on the basics helped him build momentum. He shares how committing to daily movement, reading and consistency reshaped his approach to fitness, while also sharpening his mindset and bringing a new level of discipline to his day. Along the way we get into why routines matter, how accountability can make or break a goal, and what it’s like preparing for a Men’s Health cover shoot. Paddy also reflects on learning new habits later in life, why it’s never too late to start taking your health seriously, and the surprising mental benefits that came from sticking to a simple plan. If you’ve ever struggled to stay consistent with training – or wondered whether a structured challenge might be the push you need – this conversation is packed with relatable insights. Want to try the plan that got Paddy McGuinness into the best shape of his life at 52? We’re sharing 14-days free access to try the Men’s Health guide to how best to do 75 Hard – sign up here: https://link.menshealth.co.uk/join/signup-mens-health-podcast-paddy Want more from Men’s Health? Join the Men’s Health SQUAD for exclusive training plans, expert advice and tools to help you get stronger, faster – we’re with you every rep of the way. Visit www.menshealth.com/uk/mh-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices