Ben Shephard, the co-host of This Morning, has opened up about the 'catastrophic' injuries he has sustained as a result of his intense fitness regime. At 50, he claims to be in the best shape of his life, but his extraordinary fitness has come at a significant cost.
Ben's Fitness Journey
Speaking to his friend Kate Thornton on the White Wine Question Time podcast, Shephard explained that since appearing on the cover of Men's Health magazine, he has received an incredibly positive response. However, he admits that his enviable physique has come at a price.
'Life has moved on,' he said. 'And lots of my friends who are my age and a bit older have been through struggles for various reasons. They are changing their careers or their lives in a certain position, and they are struggling with how they are feeling physically and emotionally, mentally.'
Shephard decided to set out to prove to himself that he could be as fit at 50 as he was when he first appeared on the Men's Health cover in 2012. He said, 'It was very much for me, it wasn't about how it was going to appear, it wasn't about how people were going to envisage it, it was very much about could I prove to myself that I could be as fit at 50 as I was when I did that Men's Health cover back in 2012.'
The Cost of Fitness
His first appearance on the magazine's cover came at a very different time in his life. At the age of 37, he explained, he hadn't a care in the world: 'You can go out all night, you can wake up in the morning and you've got no issues.'
'Now, as you get older, my back's in a bad way, I've had catastrophic knee injuries, you know, I need more sleep, I understand the value of that,' he added.
Shephard said he wanted to prove that he could be the fittest he had ever been: 'I could prove that I had more lean muscle, I had lower body fat, I could run a 10K … those are quite easily measurable factors.'
He expressed particular pride in having appeared not only on the cover of the magazine's UK edition, but also on its Spanish and German editions – something he regarded as an even greater achievement because he had no public profile in either country.
Relatable TV Personality
Shephard added that he and Kate Thornton were hired for their roles on The Xtra Factor because they were relatable: 'We weren't super sexy, super cool, super trendy. We were just people on the telly that you'd want to go in the pub and hang out with and stuff.'
Yet now, he says, he can hold his own alongside some genuine modern sex symbols: 'David Beckham, Jason Statham, Stormzy – they had all been on the covers. My cover outsold them,' he said.
He added: 'One of the reasons was because I was just that bloke off the telly. I wasn't a superstar footballer or a movie star or an amazing rock star, performer or musician.'
Pushing Himself Hard
He said that despite sustaining a number of training injuries, he still believes in pushing himself hard: 'It's about putting yourself through that journey and proving to yourself what you can do, and striving for that personal best. It's something that I still try to achieve every day, and you don't do it every day, right? Some days you fail miserably, but on balance, over the course of the year, hopefully there are more positives than negatives.'
