Unfiltered Extra

It’s now more than 20 years since the BALCO scandal shook the world of professional sport to its foundations, but the aftershocks are still being felt with public trust in elite performance yet to recover. It was and will forever be the most shocking and sensational sports exposé: a conspiracy to create and deliver undetectable performance-enhancing drugs to some of the most high-profile athletes...

Baz Moffat is on a mission. To put women’s health and fitness front and centre of the wellbeing conversation. Because for far too long women have been treated as little more than “small men”. This huge lack of knowledge and empathy around female health, fitness and fertility has left women in the dark ages on knowing how their bodies work and then understanding how their bodies change as they age....

It took ten countries ten years and $3 billion to sequence the human genome but since that seismic breakthrough the time, cost and effort to repeat the feat has plummeted. Dr Euan Ashley, Associate Dean in the School of Medicine at Stanford University, is known for helping establish the field of medical genomics and led the team that conducted the first medical interpretation of the human genome....

Ever wondered what would happen if you were just 10% braver? Everything. That’s the motivational message Jaz Ampaw-Farr, Speaker of the Year winner and leadership, resilience, wellbeing and diversity coach, believes is your key to not only being happier, but also the mantra to remember to give yourself the courage you need to be the person you really are, and to live the full, rich and rewarding l...

Ben Mudge is known around the world for his inspirational journey with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that primarily affects the lungs. As an advocate for raising awareness about CF, sharing his story and fitness journey on social media where he has amassed a significant following, Ben has inspired hundreds of thousands of people lead healthy and active lives, and his positive attitude, resil...

TV star. Celebrity boyfriend. Fitness cover model. Joel Corry has been known for a number of different things in the decade since he burst onto our screens in MTV's reality television programme "Geordie Shore". But since his breakout summer in 2019 Joel Corry has been known around the world as a chart-topping, globe-trotting DJ whose poised to assume his place in the pantheon of global legends, al...

Despite a traditional academic grounding in Dietetics from Baylor University and a successful career in physique competition and fitness modelling, things were not as they seemed for Rachel Scheer. While appearing from the outside to be - quite literally - a model of health, the disconnect between image and reality couldn’t have been starker. Things became so bad Scheer remembers lying on her kitc...

For most people, one hugely successful international career would be more than enough. But James Haskell isn’t most people. After more than a decade of playing rugby union for England and some of the biggest club sides in the world, James hung up his boots only to pick up his headphones and begin a second career as an international DJ. While James is the first to admit he was never the most talent...

Scroll through social media over the past couple of years and it’s impossible to avoid superstar scientists. But how can you tell the difference between an influencer whose advice should be taken with a pinch of salt and those who should be avoided at all cost? Through posts and podcasts these health, fitness, nutrition and performance optimisation experts have grown seven-figure audiences with a...

Professor Michael Levitt, the 2013 Chemistry Nobel Laureate, has attracted widespread praise and devastating criticism in equal measure for using his high-profile position to air his controversial views, and signal-boost those of others, on many issues relating to the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent epidemic. Three years on, does he regret some of his initial predictions about the damage the pand...

Children who are obese are as much a victim of neglect and child abuse as underweight and underfed children. That's the shocking view Dr Max Pemberton, a medical doctor and psychiatrist who spent more than a decade running National Health Service clinics treating patients with severe eating disorders and addictions, shares with Unfiltered editor-in-chief Joe Warner. While many people would have no...

Thermal treatments are all the rage. While saunas have always been a popular post-workout hang-out in all health clubs that have them, exposing yourself to short spells of extreme temperatures at the other end of the Celsius spectrum have only recently grown in popularity. This is thanks almost entirely to the practice’s warm embrace by the “bio-hacking” movement and because filming yourself subme...

Good things come to those who wait. And when it finally arrives, it’s all the sweeter - for everyone - when the good thing happens to a good guy. Ryan Terry is one of the most popular and respected British bodybuilders and physique athletes, loved and supported not just in his home country but around the world. His down-to-earth personality and relentless work ethic has made him a role model and i...

You get to choose how you respond. That's the incredibly simple yet life-changing advice Mike Weeks wants you to hear. The climber, coach, organic farmer and author - his latest book "Resilience by Design" is out now - is one of the most interesting and thought-provoking experts in the world on the subject of stress and resilience, and how you can regain the power to choose to be exactly who you w...

To be labelled as the UK's "most outrageous" doctor takes some doing. But for Dr Asher Larmie - the self-styled “Fat Doctor” and a transmasculine weight-inclusive GP - his decision to actively court criticism and controversy is all part of his plan to raise awareness and ignite debate to combat weight stigma and promote weight-inclusive care. Indeed, if you follow him on Instagram you’ll be fully...

Dr Layne Norton first made a name for himself in the global health, fitness and nutrition industry by advocating a purely research-backed approach to information and advice, sticking to the science and never wavering from what we know works. He then found even greater fame with his relentless approach of calling out charlatans, scammers and pseudo-scientists who pray upon the desperation, naivety...

Joe Wicks is the biggest health and fitness social media personality in the world. Others influencers may have more followers. Others may have made more money. But no one has crossed over in mainstream consciousness like The Body Coach. After all, name another social media star who’s been able to get your parents and your kids moving more and eating better. With his friendly, engaging and approach...

In the social media age, some subjects are so incendiary it’s much easier to stay quiet than speak out. Take, for example, sex and gender, transgender sport, and toxic masculinity. But some conversations are so important they shouldn’t take place in private, even if the repercussions can cost you your friends, your job or your career. Indeed, for society to move forward, and the rights of everyone...

Dr Stacy Sims has a very simple but effective message: “Women are not small men.” But there’s the problem. The New Zealand-based exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist aims to revolutionise exercise, nutrition and performance for women and to that end has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers. Yet the biggest obstacle to overcome to better understand female performance physiology is t...

Just how grave a threat to the future health and happiness - and even the survival - of humanity is the intensification of social media-driven culture wars and the intractable rise of artificial intelligence into every area of our lives? Liv Boeree, the Win-Win podcast host, science broadcaster, World Series of Poker and European Poker Tour champion, and co-founder of Raising for Effective Giving,...

American tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson had it all. Money, success, respect. The cars, the clothes, the Silicon Valley superstar lifestyle. But it had come at a cost. To both his body and mind. He realised that what he really wanted more than anything else – his health and his youth – were gone. Because it doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank, nothing can stop the relentless march o...

Dr Shawn Baker is used to criticism and controversy. That’s because the former orthopaedic surgeon actively courts it. It’s hard not to have a target on your back when you spend a significant part of your waking life preaching the life-extending qualities of eating nothing but red meat - or the so-called Carnivore Diet, which is the title of his globally best-selling book on the subject. He posts...

Since opening his first gym in the City of London in 2008, UltimatePerformance founder and CEO Nick Mitchell has built the world’s first - and only - global personal training gym business, with more than 20 facilities and 550 staff across four continents. From the outside, success can seem to come easy. But in that time those close to him have witnessed his relentless determination and seen the ex...