How I became

a cover model
MHs Dan Rookwood can do it. And so can you. Heres how

The vital statistics

Before
Age
26
Weight
79.1kg
Waist
34in
Body fat
15.9%

After
27
72kg
30in
8.1%

hen I quit my last

job to join Mens
Health, a few
comments in my
leaving card stood out. Eff off
then, you were rubbish anyway,
wrote my friend Barry. Are you
going to be on the cover?
asked the bosss sexy PA. Ive
never been sure if that was
a sarcastic comment or not.
Part of me would like to think
not. But thats the same part of
me I used to suck in and tense
as an unconscious vanity reex
whenever I saw my reection.
Or went for a job interview at
MH. I managed to convince

AFTER
Im far too vain for that. I was
just a normal twenty-something:
gradually watching more football
than I played, getting more out
of shape as I got busier, older
and better at justifying excuses.
Sound familiar to you?
Every so often an unfortunate
holiday snap or passing
comment would spur me into
frenzied action. I got coughing
t but that was about it. Mine
was an expansively waisted,
expensively wasted gym
membership: gaining pounds in
weight, losing them in money.
And I was injured so often,
my football team cruelly used
a picture of Darren Anderton
under my name in the end-ofseason pen notes.
So I decided to do something
drastic about it. Not run a
marathon, give up booze for a

Every so often an unfortunate photo

or passing comment would spur
me into frenzied tness action
both myself and the editor of
this magazine that I still had
the same underdeveloped yet
ne six-pack I started with at
university; not the beer barrel
with which Id graduated.
Dont get me wrong Ive
never been a complete bloater.
34

MENS HEALTH MARCH 2006

bit or even complete 90

minutes on the pitch. I aimed
a little higher: the cover of this
magazine. This training regime
explains how, by following the
advice we give you every month
in this august organ, I became
its unlikeliest covermodel.

David Marshall, aka

The Bodydoctor,
prescribes double
chin-ups

Six-pack
in six weeks
To be honest, while I loved the
contents of MH, I used to have
a problem with the cover.
I thought the beefcake look was
off-putting and the surrounding
promises unachievable,
particularly given the shape of
people like me on staff who
made them. In my arrogance
and naivety, I told the editor
it should change. He responded
by challenging me to change
myself by living out one of those
so-called unrealistic cover lines:
Get a six-pack in six weeks!
The huge reader response from
the resultant feature brought a
told you so smirk to the
editors face.
After just six weeks of living
by the MH book under the
instruction of our Bodydoctor
columnist, David Marshall,
I completely changed from the
before shot weve reproduced
here, to my embarrassment.
Keep training and you could

make the cover, said the editor.

Sarcastic or not, I went for it.
To see if it could be done, we
asked the Bodydoctor to design
a healthy, achievable cover
model programme using our
own advice. Many programmes
aimed at getting extreme
results arent actually all that
good for you, he says. We
designed one that puts
wellness rst. With 25 years
experience, David has trained
numerous A-listers, like Sophie
Dahl and Frank Lampard, as
well as advising the government
on health in state schools and
hospitals. His mail-order tness
programmes are the only ones
endorsed by private healthcare
company PPP.
What better way to prove that
what we preach really works
than for a staff writer a
normal, un-photogenic, busy
man just like most of our
readers to appear on the
cover? Or at least thats what
I told people when they rumbled
www.menshealth.co.uk

PHOTOGRAPHY CHRIS ANDERSON, CHARLIE HOLDING, DAVID VENNI. HAIR BY LOUISE MCINTOSH AT THE REFINERY (020 7409 2001)

E
BEFOR

3/06
Alpha Male

Fitness

www.menshealth.co.uk

Swiss-ball Russian twist

Sounds like a painful

testicle check, but its actually
great for your core muscles and if

Lie face up on the ground

with your knees bent and feet
at on the oor, stabilising them
if necessary by having some
lummox stand on your toes. Hold
a medicine ball against your chest
and lift your upper body by using
your abs to ex your entire spine.
This will bring your chest towards
your knees. Do not arch your neck
forward to assist you. Roll back
down, slowly and with control.
Finally, clean your smalls on that
washboard stomach.

Just what the Bodydoctor ordered

Diet: A typical low carb day

Breakfast Best meal
of the day. I could eat
carbs (granary toast,
cereal, porridge),
knowing that Id burn
them off.
Protein shakes
I couldnt constantly
gorge on meat, so
I tried to have three
Maximuscle Promax

shakes a day at work,

especially after gym.
Lunch A high-protein
salad and a fruit juice,
bought locally. No bad
carbs. No fun.
Snacks Lots of nuts
and dried fruit as
biscuit substitutes,
which I grazed on to
keep the metabolism

WEALTH

Weights and measures

Using a Tanita monitor, I began
to concentrate on my body-fat
percentage more than my
weight. Getting the requisite
sub-10% proved really difcult
and meant I had to step up the
CV work and increase the
strictness of the diet. I also
took a Polaroid every couple of
weeks to see the physical
change. Im not the sort of

Now its your turn

If you think being an MH cover
model is an unachievable pipe
dream, this proves its not.
I promise you I didnt let this
programme ruin my life. In fact,
it made me feel healthier, less
grumpy and a better sleeper.
I am extremely busy and
hopelessly disorganised not
a good combo when trying to
nd an extra hour in an already
hectic day to exercise. But
training made me more
productive, so I made up the
hour in increased efciency. And
I purposely didnt stop going
out, I just didnt do it all the
time and made sure I atoned
for it the next day. Im also less
frequently injured these days,
though my goal tally has sadly
not increased at all.
We are always looking for
new cover models. Well soon
be running our cover model of
the year competition again. So
get training now. If someone as
out of shape, overly busy,
harrassed, disorganised and
downright lazy as me can do it,
so can you. DR

Medicine ball sit-up

SPACE

Rather than turn me into some

kind of obsessed tness
fundamentalist without a social
life, the programme was
designed to slot in with my
normal routine and keep me
motivated. Allowances were
made for the odd Sunday roast
or drunken birthday with a carb
rotation diet that permitted one
carb blow-out a week to shock
the metabolism. Having this
carb reward made the diet
easier to keep to.

LOOKS

Lapses are
good for you

person who builds muscle or

loses body fat with ease. In the
end, it took me six months of
pretty hard work to get in shape.

Hang from a pull-up bar with

your legs bent at a 30-degree
angle. Raise your feet until thighs
are parallel to the oor. Tense abs
and slowly raise your legs until
feet are almost as high as your
head, Cantona style. Lower your
legs to the middle position and
rotate them to the right (feet point
2 oclock), then to the left (feet at
10 oclock). Bring your legs back
to the centre and lower; repeat
the entire cycle 3 or 4 times.

GEAR

me for undertaking the Icarus

of all vanity projects. In fact, I
let very few people know, not
out of humility so much as
humiliation: people laughed
when I told them. I got sick of
saying, No, really.

Hanging oblique curls

WEIGHT LOSS

Tips Train every work day. Its

easier than going three times a
week as you cant put it off. Train
in the morning so as not to ruin
your social life. Make diary dates
with people to force yourself to
train to a planned regime.

theyre in check, most others will

follow. Lie with your back on a
Swiss-ball with your feet shoulderwidth apart. Hold a weight plate
with both hands at arms length.
Rotate your arms and trunk from
your left side to your right side
while keeping your legs still. Your
head and spine should stay in
the same position while your core
rotates around them. This one is
good for the obliques. And bad
for the person who had a curry
the night before.

HEALTH

As a normal bloke Dan found it tough to get a true six-pack, despite

giving it his all, says the Bodydoctor. So we devised a mean ab circuit
incorporating these three key exercises. You can see the results for
yourself. Once you have a strong core, perform 3 sets of 6-8 reps on
each exercise, resting for 45 secs between sets. Make sure you have
at least 48 hrs rest between each session.

FITNESS

Monday 1pm-2pm: low rep/high

weight training at gym. Train
stomach and shoulders.
Tuesday 8am: run to Bodydoctor;
8.15-9am: high rep/medium
weight all-body workout; 9am: run
to work (20 mins).
Wednesday 1pm-2pm: train
chest and arms.
Thursday 8am: run; 8.15am:
abs workout with Bodydoctor;
9am: run to work.
Friday 1pm-2pm: train back
and legs in gym.
Saturday Complete rest day,
occasional light run.
Sunday Complete rest day (ie:
on bench for Dynamo Camford,
my Sunday league team).

FOOD

The Bodydoctors ab workout:

SEX

Bodydoctor or witch
doctor? Marshall
works his magic

Weekly plan

fast. At home I ate

cold meats/antipasto
selections. Crazy.
Dinner Tried not to
eat after 8pm and
stayed off alcohol. If
at home, I would just
cook meat or sh with
steamed vegetables.
No bad carbs. Lots of
cravings. DR

To book the training course Dan undertook or to order the MHapproved cover model training programme (DVD, book and step-bystep instructions to train with in the gym), email MHcovermodel@
bodydoctor.com, call 020 7586 6222 or visit www.bodydoctor.com.
To nd out more details about this years MH cover model
competition, visit www.menshealth.co.uk/covermodel.
MARCH 2006 MENS HEALTH

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