CONSISTENCY BEATS INTENSITY, EVERY TIME

Nobody gets in trouble for training too sensibly. They get in trouble for going too hard, too early, then stopping.

There's a version of getting fit that involves throwing yourself at it — six days a week, 1,400 calories, no drink, up at five. It works brilliantly for about eleven days.

Then something normal happens. A work trip, a cold, a weekend away. The plan has no room in it for normal, so it breaks, and because you went all in you now feel like you've failed at the whole thing rather than missed a session.

The men who change shape and stay that way are almost always the boring ones. They train three or four times a week, most weeks, for years. They eat well enough, most days. They don't do anything you'd put on Instagram.

Aim for a week you could repeat when you're tired, busy and a bit fed up. That's your actual programme. Anything above it is a bonus, not the baseline.

Progress after 40 is mostly an attendance problem, not a knowledge problem.