Men's Health - UK (2019-07)

58 MEN’S HEALTH

hen Ant Middleton talks to you, you
listen. Not because he’s screaming in your
face, or probing you for psychological
weaknesses. And not because he’s dealing
out the physical “beastings” for which he
has become notorious on Channel 4’s SAS:
Who Dares Wins. It’s because he wants
you to be a better version of yourself. He
wills it, even. And it’s hard to ignore.
At the age of 38, he has lived more lives
than most. He signed up for the army at 16,
serving in the Royal Engineers in Northern
Ireland and Macedonia, then joined
the navy and the Royal Marines before
entering the Special Boat Service (SBS),
in a military career spanning 15 years. He
has climbed Everest and captained a team
of average men across 4,000 miles of the
Pacific Ocean in a rudimentary rowing
boat. He’s a Sunday Times bestselling
author of two books and father to five
children. He has been in prison.
Today, though, he is with Men’s Health
at Farm Fitness in Essex, an outdoor
training facility not too far from his family
home in Chelmsford. It’s a rare break in
his diary from the commitments of his
current speaking tour, Mind Over Muscle,
a bustling schedule of back-to-back live
shows across the UK, from Glasgow to
Brighton. His book First Man In was
behind only Michelle Obama’s memoir
in the hardback bestsellers list for 2018,
and he is primed to launch a series of
day camps, which promise to help you
“reach your full potential” through testing
experiences and workshops.
He has spent a long morning with MH,
grafting in the soggy cold of early spring,
repping out rope climbs, pull-ups, dips
and deadlifts without complaint, chatting
easily with the crew between shots before
snapping into focus for every effort.
Now, in a garage away from the bustle
of the training areas, Middleton reclines
on an old garden chair dragged out from
behind some half-fixed cars, dressed in
tracksuit bottoms and a gilet thrown on
after the photo shoot, tattooed arms bare.
His focus and energy are palpable, despite
his increasingly hectic media career and
home life. How can an ordinary person

apply his extreme experiences to normal

life? Can they gain his self-possession?

Before he answers, he leans forward –

right forward – and looks at me.

“Most people don’t think about their

emotions,” he says. “When an emotion

surfaces, nine times out of 10, people let it

take over. Fear is the main one: fear of the

unknown, fear of conflict, fear of failure.

We don’t see the emotion for what it is.

“My best example is Afghanistan.

‘Why am I stuck at this door? Why can’t

I get through this door?’ It’s because

I’m scared. It’s that acknowledgement

that people don’t do. Don’t sugar-coat

once or twice. But that happened to me

20 fucking times in the first few months:

60, maybe 100 times in total.

“You see everything and can plan it

out. You know the enemy hasn’t been

in that situation, so you go in feeling

like you have the remote and can pause

and play as you go. It’s hyper-confidence,

approaching arrogance: ‘You can shoot

as many rounds through that door as

you like, mate, but I know the right time

to smash through!’

He holds up both hands, fingers cocked

in an imaginary rifle, and strafes across in

slow motion. “You just go into bullet time:

boom-boom-boom-boom...”

Sitting back again, Middleton smiles, his

hands safely holstered in his lap. “I used to

say to my mates, ‘I can dodge bullets,’ and

they’d think I was mad. Looking back now,

I probably had gone a bit mad. I genuinely

Cover Model Muscle

Ant Middleton

“I’ve failed a lot

in my life and

I am going to

keep failing. I

embrace that”

TO USE HIS TIME

MOST EFFECTIVELY,

MIDDLETON FOCUSES

ON HYPER-EFFICIENT

BODYWEIGHT MOVES

MIDDLETON ENJOYS A RARE MOMENT

OF CALM DURING HIS ARMY DAYS

it, don’t try to bat

it off, because it

will come back

and bite you on

the arse. Just

acknowledge it for

what it is. Then,

you can carry on.

Acknowledge,

process, execute.

A lot of people

don’t do that.”

It’s fair to say

that Middleton is

a staunch advocate

of the beneficial

power of a positive

mindset. In his

books, on his

television shows

and in his talks, he

effortlessly fires off

examples from his past to illustrate how

his mentality has been forged.

Breaking Down Doors

Middleton says it wasn’t until he left

the military that he refined his psyche,

but the Afghan compounds he found

himself outside as an SBS operative

were where it started to take shape.

“You’re at this door and there are bad

guys on the other side. Bullets are flying

through, and you’ve got to get through

that door,” Middleton says, leaning

forward further for emphasis. “It’s the

purest form of life, because it’s so simple.

If you roll odds, you die. Evens, you live.

When you deal with that on a daily basis,

you learn to harness it. You have to.

“You take charge of your mind, and

everything slows down, like in a film.

People say that they’ve experienced it

thought I could pre-empt

someone shooting and move

the right way to avoid it. It

wasn’t until I said it out loud

that it seemed crazy.

“But that was the norm.

And I went from this code-red

lifestyle to regular life. Now,

having scaled things down,

I can reflect on it in a positive

way. It’s only when I’m

uncomfortable that I feel

truly comfortable.”

After leaving the military,

Middleton soon found himself

on the wrong side of another

door. After a brawl outside

a nightclub in Chelmsford,

during which he played the

peacekeeper by separating his

friends from the antagonists,

he was approached by two

police officers with whom he lost his

temper. After a foot chase, he hid by

submerging himself in a nearby river

under a bridge, but he was found, arrested

and spent the night in a cell.

In court, Middleton was convicted of

the unlawful wounding of a police officer

and common assault on another. He was

handed 14 months in prison and sent

down. To him, it was a blessing.

“When that hammer went down,

I felt this wave of relief wash over me.

I knew exactly where I was going,

exactly what I was doing and exactly

what I needed to do. I needed to get out

of there. How do I do that? By being the

best prisoner. Acknowledge: I’m going

to prison. Process: I need to be a role-

model prisoner. Execute: stay out of