"I could go into a gym by myself and lift heavier, but I wouldn’t feel it the way I am now". Images via Adam Flipp

MATT SHIRVINGTON, 35

- Sprinter

- 100m Olympic semi-finalist; PB of 10:03 sec
- Part of the FOX SPORTS Rugby League team hosting FOX SPORTS’ Matchday Saturday Rugby League coverage which includes up to three live games every full round of the regular season.

Got cover-model cut by teaming pumping iron and sprinting with strict attention to diet

Day Zero
Former athletes leave behind the exhilaration of extreme fitness. But if you’re Matt Shirvington, you want it back. “I miss the by-products of the training,” he says. “I miss feeling strong and lean.”

Sipping on a coffee at Fox Sports’ Sydney HQ, Shirvington seems to be filling out his shirt in the right places. Don’t be fooled, he counters, likening his body to a sausage: the outline is fine but the filling is dubious. “I’m the fattest I’ve ever been,” he says, before reflecting on his heyday when he competed at just over 80kg and single-digit body fat.

His training these days is haphazard. One week he might run, surf, lift weights and go mountain biking, but the next he might do nothing. Likewise, his diet gets a bare pass. It has decent quantities of lean meat and veg, but also white bread, milky coffees, schnitzels, pizza, cake and cola.

“I’m not afraid of the training. I’m maybe a little afraid of the diet.”

Listening to Shirvington, you know he’s going to smash this challenge. A more determined, competitive and meticulous guy you wouldn’t meet in an Olympic village. “I’m not afraid of the work,” he says. “I’m not afraid of the training. I’m maybe a little afraid of the diet.”

Training the house down
The task of returning Shirvington to peak fitness falls to Greg Joujon-Roche, the boss at One Body One Life gym in Sydney’s Fox Studios. Known to regular MH readers as the trainer who chiseled Brad Pitt into a work of art for Troy, Joujon-Roche specialises in taking guys’ physiques from good to holy crap! And while deadlines seldom faze him, in this case there’s not a minute to waste.

“Take your shirt off,” he tells Shirvington when they meet at Joujon-Roche’s gym. Sheepishly, Shirvington sheds his tee.

“OK,” says the trainer after an up-and-down. “We need to put some separation into your upper chest, deactivate those [overdeveloped] traps and get rid of that mud [fat] around your middle.”

Sprinting may be the best activity known to man for shredding up

The pair devise a schedule that would scare children. Monday through Friday, Shirvington will train twice a day, starting with a dawn session of interval sprints. He is reverting to what he does best, and with good reason: sprinting may be the best activity known to man for shredding up.

Later in the morning he will hit the weights – and hit them hard. Shifting moderate-to-heavy loads, he’ll bomb his muscles from all angles, often going close – or all the way – to failure.

MORE: Catch up with Shirvo's complete program here

Shirvington earmarks Saturdays for “rest and regeneration” and Sundays for “active rest”, which could mean an hour or two of mountain biking or surfing.

A chest session in Week 2 sees Shirvington and Joujon-Roche training together in you-go-I-go style. “Go slow and squeeze,” instructs the trainer as Shirvington powers through a set of bench press. “Pace is everything!”

These two are a good fit. In Shirvington, Joujon-Roche sees a guy in tune with his body: “I mean, he can zero in on one ab!” From Joujon-Roche, Shirvington is learning tricks that will take his body to new heights. “I could go into a gym by myself and lift heavier, but I wouldn’t feel it the way I am now . . . Fuck, that’s good!” he exclaims.

Eating for effect
Shirvington settles on a daily nutrition plan from which he barely deviates during the 42 days. Here it is:For a guy working out twice daily, this is a diet low in kilojoules and especially carbs. Shirvington reassures his team that he’s feeling okay. The fact his fat stores begin melting away within days spurs him on.

“I get hungry sometimes but it’s nothing a sunflower seed won’t fix,” he quips.

At the end of Week 2 he allows himself a cheat meal of pizza, which he reckons revs up his metabolism and makes him look more ripped the next day. “That might be ‘bro science’, but that’s how it seems.”

At the midway point he considers adding more carbs to fuel his sessions and sharpen his thinking, but decides to stick with the program.

“In terms of aesthetics, this is the best I’ve ever been”

Judgment Day
“The training was different to anything I’d done before, with the emphasis on targeting specific muscles and getting blood pumping through them,” says Shirvington. “As a result, in terms of aesthetics, this is the best I’ve ever been.

“I’m a little disappointed that I lost some muscle during the six weeks. I’m sure that happened in the last week or so when I was struggling for energy and equilibrium. In hindsight, I should have upped my carb intake towards the end.

“I should say, though, that I had another DEXA scan three days later and over the course of a weekend of eating and drinking normally I put back on all the muscle I’d lost. Clearly, my muscles were dehydrated and crying out for glycogen.

“This wasn’t easy. I had to be very focused on myself during the six weeks and it brought out a side of me – the introverted, competitive, single-minded side – that my wife Jess thought I’d left behind for good when I retired from athletics.

“What I’ve proved to myself is that you don’t have to accept that your best is in the past. You tend to think you can’t achieve what you did in your previous decade, whether that’s your teens or your 20s or your 30s, but you can. All you need is a good plan and the motivation and discipline to stick to it.”

MATT SHIRVINGTON WOULD LIKE TO THANK
His trainers Greg Joujon-Roche, Cam Mercer and Anthony “Chief” Ippindo (onebodyonelife.com)
The team at MeasureUp (measureup.com.au)

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