We’ve all hit the gym, given it our all, and then been almost completely bed-bound the next day. It’s tough to remain motivated enduring aches and pains, without an already iron will. I’ve started the gym countless times, and I always end up quitting after a week or so.

I know what my problem is, I push myself too hard and my body aches for days afterwards. After doing some research though, I figured how to reduce those aches and pains as much as possible. Here are my Top Tips to Speed up Recovery after a Workout.
Stay hydrated
Drinking plenty of water helps to keep both your brain and muscles operating at peak efficiency. The majority of people are dehydrated and don’t even know it. I used to be one of them, only drinking when I’m thirsty and that’s it.

Drinking water only when you’re thirsty is like waiting for your phone battery to completely run out before you charge it. You simply shouldn’t do it. Instead, it’s best to have a bottle of water with you throughout the day and...

A personal take by A Rocha UK’s CEO, Andy Atkins, who spent his childhood in far north Queensland and returned at the height of last year’s bushfires.

I woke feeling refreshed. From the pleasant smoky smell my first thought was that my wife was cooking bacon and eggs for our breakfast. Then I realised she was sound asleep beside me, it was pitch black outside and, according to my phone, 2 am in the morning. It was November 19. We had arrived in Sydney from the UK about 18 hours earlier and my body clock was upside down. But what on earth was that smell?

I stood on the roof terrace of our AirBnB apartment and looked about; but instead of lights twinkling around the iconic harbour, I could see – nothing. We seemed to be enveloped in a thick fog reminiscent of a wet British winter; yet this was summer in Australia – not at all how I remembered it from childhood. Then the penny dropped. It wasn’t fog but smoke. The smell was not wood-smoked bacon but the actual forests of Australia g...

David Robinson is a prolific playwright and actor, and has performed around the country for over thirty years. Locked out of the theatre like every other performer by the virus, he has been revising, creating and writing, and is currently working on a play based on the life of famous comedian, Ken Dodd.

Q: How has the epidemic hit people like you?

I have never in my thirty years of performing experienced the uncertainty and fear that the creative arts are feeling right now. My last performance was in The Screwtape Letters on Saturday 14 March. My next performance is unknown. So, though it is encouraging and refreshing to see pubs and restaurants opening their doors, it remains frustrating not be able to do what I have always enjoyed doing the most: telling stories through live theatre.

Q: But you have not been idle?

I have been running a series of Facebook interviews via the ever-present Zoom called Tea for Two for Ten: ten-minute interviews over a lovely cup of tea and cus...

As an officer in the British Army, Eric Warren served in Afghanistan, the Balkans and the Middle East, before retiring as a major after a career spanning 16 years. He now works in the City, and serves as chair of a network which helps veterans transition to civilian life. Here, Eric shares his own experience of establishing a new career outside the military, along with his insight into making the transition as seamless and successful as possible.

Q: Why did you join the Army?

When I was at school, I played a lot of rugby and swam for the county. I was super active, so when the careers people lined me up for office jobs, I was a bit dismayed. I’d done an internship at an accountancy firm, and it was so boring – I knew I didn’t want to do that. Then a careers officer, who was ex-military, said: ‘Have you thought about joining the military, because they’re active and outside all the time?’ So I went to an open day and I met other people who were just like me, who enjoyed the outside...

Ewan McGregor talks to Sorted about his belief system, his approach to playing the dual roles of Jesus and Satan, and how his work as a UNICEF ambassador is helping children to survive.

Let’s begin with a sweeping generalisation: successful actors, more so than most other professions, are blessed with broadened minds. They travel the world, inhabiting characters for weeks, months and in some cases years, gaining new perspectives as they invest themselves into foreign cultures, tackling issues and playing out scenarios so we can bear witness to their experiences for our entertainment.

Effectively these people are not just financially privileged but are enriched with experience – and, dare we say, wisdom – most of us can only dream of. They give us glimpses into worlds beyond; they are, perhaps, the world’s best ambassadors for adventure.

Ewan the humanitarian

And none more so than Scottish actor and humanitarian Ewan McGregor OBE. His adventurous, ambitious spirit is infecti...

Somehow it seemed appropriate for Jesse Lingard to score the last goal of Manchester United’s 2019-20 season and for it to be the goal that confirmed their win over Leicester City, the achievement of a third place finish – the best since the days of Sir Alex Ferguson – and also confirmed their place in this season’s UEFA Champions League. It was a happy ending for a frustrating season for Lingard. The arrival of Bruno Fernandes in January and the emergence of Mason Greenwood as a first team starter had seen him slip down the pecking order.

While Jesse has been a Manchester United player since he was in school, it was not until he was 23 that he made his league debut, having had loan spells at Leicester City, Birmingham City, Brighton and Hove Albion and Derby County. In 2010-11, he was part of the Manchester United team which won the FA Youth Cup, playing alongside Paul Pogba, in his first spell with the club. Lingard then made 11 appearances for England at under 21 level. Despite t...

With our news bulletins so often being dominated by street violence, one person you often hear being interviewed as an expert is Leroy Logan, who now runs his own security consultancy. But for thirty years, he was a policeman at the heart of the Met – described at the Macpherson Inquiry as ‘institutionally racist’ – an inquiry that he took part in. A committed Christian, he was also one of the founders of the Black Police Association, and his book about his life, Closing Ranks – my life as a Cop, is out now. His story is also the focus of an episode of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series on the BBC, and film star John Boyega plays him. His career was distinguished, and he worked long and hard to change race relations on the streets of London, being made an MBE in 2000. But it was never plain sailing, not even from the beginning…

Early days

When Leroy Logan joined the Met in the early 1980s, he did so despite the misgivings of his own family and indeed his own heart. As a black man l...

Phil Vickery played rugby for England more than seventy times yet the reason for this feature and for most of the interviews he does is that he played in one particular game – the 2003 World Cup Final. He is one of that select group of England rugby players who are the only ones who can call themselves World Cup winners. Vickery has lived a full and successful life but people still want to take him back to one day 17 years ago.

Building a team

In June 1998 England were defeated 76-0 by Australia in Brisbane, 64-22 and 40-10 by New Zealand and 18-0 by South Africa. The idea that five years later England would win the World Cup seemed laughable. How on earth did the transition occur? ‘It’s a combination of a lot of things’ suggests Vickery. ‘1998 was Clive Woodward’s first tour as England coach. It was a very short tour: one test against Australia, two in New Zealand and finally South Africa. It was called the tour for from hell for a reason. It was blooming tough. It was my first ...

Former Welsh Guard Simon Weston is a veteran of the Falklands War. He suffered serious burns to almost 50% of his body when his ship was bombed. Incredibly, he has since become friends with Carlos Cachon, the Argentine pilot responsible for the bombing. This is the second half of a two-part interview in which Simon speaks exclusively to Sorted magazine.

Q: You seem like you’re in a really good place now, but you have had a lot of operations, you suffered from PTSD and there was a time when you were drinking heavily and feeling suicidal. How did you get through that?

There were lots of different things – it was little and big things combined. For instance, people always come into my life at the right time, just when I need it. I’m a very positive person, I always have been, and I’ve always found that the more positive you are, the more people with positivity gravitate to you – and the more receptive they are to your thought processes, desires, and what you’re trying to achieve.

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