60 MEN’S HEALTH
for six months of the year, they get 100%
of me, rather than 50% for 12 months.”
The idea of going all in on each aspect
of your life is an attractive one, with clear
benefits to the average man. Predictably,
though, Middleton’s “challenges and
adventures” tend to be more challenging
and adventurous than a long Sunday bike
ride, or a 10K every now and then.
For last year’s Channel 4 programme
Ant Middleton: Extreme Everest, he led
a small team in an attempt to summit the
highest mountain on Earth – a six-week
expedition in which he, cameraman Ed
Wardle and a Sherpa successfully reached
the top. Once there, however, treacherous
weather made the already difficult
descent from the “death zone” a perilous
one. Middleton was the last person in the
queue to descend, with oxygen dwindling
and other mountaineers and even
Sherpas struggling in front of him.
“I was stood at the summit for three
hours,” he recounts. “There was a climber
hanging off the side of the mountain and
he’d been there for 45 minutes. They were
going to cut him away. Two other climbers
we do that? Why don’t we write the shit
out of our own appraisal? Ultimately, what
we do is define ourselves. We say: ‘I can’t
do that,’ or ‘I’m not fit enough to do that.’
It all starts with believing in yourself. And
when you believe, you’ll try something.
And when you try, you learn. And whenCover Model Muscle
Ant Middletontwice, then say, ‘Oh, I’m just not meant
for this.’ That’s bollocks. Resilience is that
repetition. Failure is an everyday part
of our lives. We’re petrified of that word- failure. It’s a dirty word.
“I’ve failed up to this point in my life
and I’m going to fail until the day I die.
It doesn’t matter how big or small that
failure is: I’m going to fail. And I embrace
that. That is part of my make-up – failure.
Resilience is dealing with knock-backs
and knowing that it’s going to fucking
happen your whole life. Get used it.”
Master and Commander
In 2016, Middleton was approached by a
production company about a show called
Mutiny. In it, he would captain a team
of eight men in the manner of Captain
Bligh’s survival odyssey following the
famous uprising on the Bounty. They
would be using a replica of Bligh’s ship,
stocked with the same rations and
following the same route, starting near
Tonga and traversing the South Pacific,
across the top of Australia, and landing
at Timor in the former Dutch East Indies.
He accepted, with a crucial caveat.
“I said I didn’t want to see the safety
boat. Of course, there has to be one, but I
didn’t want to see it. It would have to be
out of earshot and out of sight at all times.
Otherwise, it would burst our bubble.
“I wanted to train the men’s mindset.
Tell them we put ourselves in that situation
and we were the only people who could
get ourselves out of it. That if we stuck
together, we would get through this.”
Among his crew were a chef, a banker
and a carpenter. Only one, Conrad“Leadership is
taking charge of
yourself before
taking charge
of other people”
MIDDLETON HAS TRAINED HIMSELF
TO THRIVE UNDER ANY CONDITIONShad already fallen off
the mountain.
“The situation
told me that I was in
trouble. I remember
this state of sheer
panic – ‘Ant, you’re
not getting off this
mountain.’ It took
over for 10 seconds.
I sat down and thought: ‘I’m dead.’ Then I
looked at myself and thought, ‘You’re not
fucking dead. Practise what you preach.’
And I snapped out of it.”
Middleton eventually made it back to
camp, after Wardle and the programme
producers had begun to entertain the
thought that he had perished. His eyesight
was worst affected, and it took months
to return to normal. The lesson he learned
on top of the world was that your internal
monologue can make the difference
when it really matters. He leans forward
again, even further somehow, to make
sure this point hits its mark.
“If a situation can’t define who you are,
and you’re courageous enough to ensure
that people can’t either, you’re left with
one thing – yourself. If you wrote your own
appraisal for your boss or your partner,
you’d write that you’re the best fucking
work colleague or boyfriend or husband
in the world, wouldn’t you? So, why don’t
you learn, you grow.”
Personal growth is
a leitmotif for Middleton.
He is single-minded
in his desire to better
himself, as well as
provide the mental
tools for others to do the
same. It’s a mission that
strongly echoes the Men’s
Health credo, though his messages are
delivered with a percussive force and in
rapid fire. In person, the volleys give you
the irrepressible feeling that he’s onto
something. About everything.
“People say that you shouldn’t make
the same mistake twice. Fuck that. Go at
something 30 times if you believe in it.
Most people try something once, maybeMIDDLETON STRADDLES THE DIVIDE BETWEEN WORK
AND FAMILY BY GOING ALL IN ON BOTH, ONE AT A TIMEPHOT
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