{"id":196652,"date":"2019-11-22T09:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T09:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/formnutrition.com\/us\/?p=196652"},"modified":"2019-11-22T09:42:30","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T09:42:30","slug":"michael-maisey-workout-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/formnutrition.com\/us\/inform\/michael-maisey-workout-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Workout With Form | Michael Maisey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Maisey is picking me up from his local train station in Taunton, where he relocated some 18 months ago with his wife and two daughters. Bar a familial link on his partner’s side, above all else, he was keen to provide his children with the opportunities he found lacking in his own West London upbringing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to give these girls a better life than I\u2019ve had,\u201d he\u2019d go on to tell me, checking boxes such as schools, crime and other quality of life markers. But a life better than his own goes deeper than simply geography. Maisey’s childhood was tough, to say the least.<\/p>\n

The son of addict parents, he spent the first years of his life on the run from his father. Abused by his uncle and bullied at school, he sought safety with a West London gang aged 12, and shoplifting soon became armed robbery. When he was 16 he served his first of three stints in Feltham Young Offenders Institute, a period in which drink and drug dependencies would take over and eventually lead to the failed suicide attempt which began his redemption arc.<\/p>\n

When he pulls up in a swish black Land Rover, he\u2019s wrapping up a phone call. I\u2019ve overheard this very same conversation countless times in the last couple of months, the subject being James Cameron\u2019s plant-based performance documentary The Game Changers<\/em>. Not surprisingly, its influence hasn’t gone unnoticed in the southwest as he and his friend share anecdotes of how much better they feel having reduced their meat and dairy consumption. \u201cI bet you\u2019re farting like a champion,\u201d Maisey jokes on hearing his friend currently has \u201cchickpeas coming out of his ears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Incidentally, flatulence is one of the first things we get to chatting about once his phone call is finished \u2013 thankfully not due to any awkward stench filling the vehicle. Maisey tells me that he\u2019s long struggled to find a protein supplement which 1\/ doesn\u2019t make him feel sluggish afterwards and 2\/ doesn\u2019t give him the farts. \u201cMy wife and I moved onto this vegan brand which had an offer on. We bought loads, but it just didn\u2019t agree with us,\u201d he recounts. \u201cWhen we googled the ingredients on the back we discovered a lot of it people struggle to break down efficiently \u2013 there were whole forums dedicated to these particular ingredients and terrible farts.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he picked up a sample sachet of Form Performance Protein at an event, low-and-behold, it seemed to agree with him. Weeks later, his scented candle bill had begun to drop. \u201cIt\u2019s just a great thing to have in the kitchen to go to mid-morning if I get hungry after training,\u201d he gushes. \u201cI mix it with half water, half coconut milk, and I\u2019m good until lunchtime.\u201d<\/p>\n

“When I got sober, I had to learn how to live my life without the use of drugs and alcohol to take the edge off. Exercise was key to finding happiness without these things”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Right now, training is largely comprised of several sessions a week at the gym we\u2019re en route to. He\u2019s been recovering from a knee injury, which a marathon, obstacle course races and extensive training for Channel 4\u2019s SAS: Who Dares Wins<\/em> are all in part to blame. Now that he\u2019s more or less back in fighting shape, Maisey promises our workout today won\u2019t take any prisoners. Exercise has served as a displacement for alcohol and drugs since rehabilitating, and he tells me it’s only becoming more intense with every year of sobriety. Next month marks 12 years.<\/p>\n

Feeding the Beast<\/h4>\n

We arrive at Spartan Chamber<\/a> \u2013 a functional training gym sitting within an industrial estate in Chelston \u2013 and are greeted by its owner, former Royal Marines commando Ryan Atkins. On a whiteboard inside the two-story facility he\u2019s devised a short circuit which we\u2019ll complete three times, comprised of weighted sled pushes and farmers walks, tyre sledgehammers and time on the ski erg, watt bike and battle ropes.<\/p>\n

Maisey is in good shape. He recently graced Richmond Magazine’s cover topless, a town he was known to get up to a lot of mischief in his youth. But he’s quick to assure me that his physique is far from the reason he keeps coming back to where we are today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s all in the endorphin hit,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I got sober, I had to learn how to live my life without the use of drugs and alcohol to take the edge off. Exercise was key to finding happiness without these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

We do our first circuit at a leisurely pace, walking the sled from one side of the room to another. Maisey continues: \u201cI used to be able to go to the gym and get that endorphin hit with a few squats and bench presses. But sooner or later it stopped working for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"michael<\/p>\n

The further he moved into sobriety, the more intense his activity became. He moved from 10ks to half marathons to marathons, but the endorphin rush of running alone soon mellowed, too. Military fitness in the lead up to SAS came next, and ultimately led him on the hunt to \u201cget beasted\u201d \u2013 seeking workouts that take him to the very edge of his mental and physical capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal has never been a six-pack,\u201d he assures me as he lugs a sledgehammer overhead and slams it down on a tractor tyre. \u201cI don\u2019t believe that\u2019s where happiness lies. I look for what effect it has on my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this degree, Maisey\u2019s training stretches far further than beast mode. He credits meditation, eating well, a daily gratitude list, Wim Hof breathing and cold water immersion as other activities that help him function. \u201cYou\u2019d think it would become easier twelve years on. In reality, it takes more now. Your life gets bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

We rest for a minute once we’ve put down the battle ropes and completed our first circuit. Atkins won\u2019t allow the next two rounds to be quite so leisurely. Two minutes at every station, no rest. 20 minutes later, I am truly beasted.<\/p>\n

Young Offender<\/h4>\n

\u201cWhen I was younger, fitness for me was all about becoming the biggest, strongest, meanest motherfucker out there,\u201d says Maisey once we\u2019ve caught our breath enough to resume conversation. \u201cIt was about survival: \u2018How do I make myself look like a tough guy so no-one will mess with me on the streets?\u2019 I grew up on a rough council estate where people\u2019s main source of income was from drugs. If people think \u2018I can just go and rob Michael for his stuff,\u2019 you\u2019re a shit drug dealer. People need to fear you.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why, he tells me, in those circles, going to prison is glamorised. \u201cYou earn your stripes, which sounds crazy, but it\u2019s how you and the people around you see it.\u201d Sadly for Maisey, the model passed down to him from the men in his life backed up this worldview, his father a heroin addict who fled when he was young and his uncle a source of both physical and sexual abuse. \u201cWhat I learned from men was to be violent, angry and irresponsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitting on a sofa in the upstairs weights room at Spartan Chamber, it’s difficult to imagine a hardened teenager worthy of three young offenders sentences. Aged 15, he was first convicted, serving his sentence at Feltham young offenders institution.<\/p>\n

“A byproduct of doing the work on yourself is that material success comes. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I worked hard, but it felt a lot like the universe was sending good things my way”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But it was arguably here where he began to see exercise as a route to self-betterment outside of a tough-guy persona, passing time in his cell with bodyweight workouts comprised of sit-ups, push-ups and dips from the bars on his cell. As for any institutional rehabilitation, in Maisey\u2019s eyes, the extent was \u201cessentially, not very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, on his third and final run-in with the law, he entered Feltham addicted to heroine and underwent a controversial detox program now banned in prisons. A few days in, he found himself hallucinating, wrapped his bedsheets around a ceiling fixture and attempted to hang himself.<\/p>\n

An on-duty prison guard performing a random check that night found him, cut him down and resuscitated him. It was around this time Maisey also learned that his mother \u2013 who had been alcohol dependent his entire life \u2013 was now sober. The third time he left prison, he was determined to change course.<\/p>\n

Inside Job<\/h4>\n

The beginning wasn\u2019t easy. With no job or income, Maisey started out by educating himself on goal setting, the law of attraction and other such philosophies. But in the initial stages, any progress was stunted by the need to go out and binge drink. It wasn’t until he turned 25 when he vowed to cut out drugs and alcohol completely.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a case of realising that my biggest competition was the man looking back at me in the mirror,\u201d says Maisey. \u201cThe biggest downfall of the prison system is that our solution for young men is to give them a PT or chef qualification, or a maths GCSE, and think the work has been done. We fix the external perception without paying attention to the internal stuff. In reality, he\u2019s now just an angry young man with a PT qualification – what\u2019s going to happen when he goes back to his neighbourhood and someone calls him a pussy?\u201d<\/p>\n

A natural part of overcoming addiction \u2013 Maisey informs me once we’ve left the gym and make our way back to the train station \u2013 is restructuring. \u201cFor me, that meant seeing exactly how much I could change. I wanted to break the cycle of my family history and I didn\u2019t want my kids to carry this shit into the world,\u201d he says. \u201cA byproduct of doing the work on yourself is that material success comes. Don\u2019t get mhttps:\/\/formnutrition.com\/us\/wp-admin\/upload.phpe wrong, I worked hard, but it felt a lot like the universe was sending good things my way.\u201d<\/p>\n