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89 Articles

EDITOR’S LETTER

WAIT TRAINING ★ They say good things come to those who wait. But in 2021, you have to ask yourself if this is still the case? We can get food delivered to our door in minutes, watch any movie or TV show on demand and order a new wardrobe while scrolling through social media. Surely, it’s widely accepted that good things come to those who own a smartphone. Patience, these days, is rarely required. It’s no wonder, then, that when it comes to our health, relationships and careers, we often become overwhelmed and frustrated with slow progress. In this world of instant gratification, we wonder why our larger goals can’t also be achieved overnight? Where’s ‘Netflex’ when I need it? ‘Insta-family?’ ‘Amazon Promotion?’ Patience is something we’ve all been forced to become reacquainted…

EDITOR’S LETTER

EDITOR’S LETTER

WAIT TRAINING ★ They say good things come to those who wait. But in 2021, you have to ask yourself if this is still the case? We can get food delivered to our door in minutes, watch any movie or TV show on demand and order a new wardrobe while scrolling through social media. Surely, it’s widely accepted that good things come to those who own a smartphone. Patience, these days, is rarely required. It’s no wonder, then, that when it comes to our health, relationships and careers, we often become overwhelmed and frustrated with slow progress. In this world of instant gratification, we wonder why our larger goals can’t also be achieved overnight? Where’s ‘Netflex’ when I need it? ‘Insta-family?’ ‘Amazon Promotion?’ Patience is something we’ve all been forced…

EDITOR’S LETTER

THE BIG QUESTION

So, Seriously, What’s the Best Breakfast?- AK ★ Show of hands if you’ve inhaled an all-butter croissant on the way to work and called it “breakfast”? While science has posited that our first meal of the day is the most important, a mouthful of pastry isn’t what those researchers had in mind. The good news is that assembling the true, perfect breakfast is a cakewalk. To make the most of your morning meal, fill a third of your plate with high-quality protein. According to Sarah Coe, nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation, two large poached eggs should do the trick – delivering 14g of muscle-building amino acids, plus essential micronutrients such as vitamin B12, selenium, iodine and omega-3 fatty acids. By prioritising satiating protein over nutritionally flaky baked goods, you’ll also end…

THE BIG QUESTION

THE BIG QUESTION

So, Seriously, What’s the Best Breakfast?- AK ★ Show of hands if you’ve inhaled an all-butter croissant on the way to work and called it “breakfast”? While science has posited that our first meal of the day is the most important, a mouthful of pastry isn’t what those researchers had in mind. The good news is that assembling the true, perfect breakfast is a cakewalk. To make the most of your morning meal, fill a third of your plate with high-quality protein. According to Sarah Coe, nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation, two large poached eggs should do the trick – delivering 14g of muscle-building amino acids, plus essential micronutrients such as vitamin B12, selenium, iodine and omega-3 fatty acids. By prioritising satiating protein over nutritionally flaky baked goods, you’ll…

THE BIG QUESTION

MY MUSCLES ARE STILL SORE FROM YESTERDAY. SHOULD I TRAIN? – WB Yesterday, I went so hard at the gym I couldn’t get dressed this morning. But I don’t want to miss a session. What should I do? What type of pain are we talking? DOMS will cause a tight feeling in your muscles, whereas an injury will feel like a sharp, stabbing pain. It’s definitely DOMS. So, is it safe to work out? Only if you warm up and cool down properly and lower the intensity. More stress triggers degeneration – muscle disappears and is replaced by fat and connective tissue. Hmm, okay. I might as well stay at home and watch Netflix. Not necessarily. Light activity will ease the pain. Whole-body exercise, like swimming or yoga, will even the load and keep you at…

ASK THE GIRLS IN THE OFFICE

What age difference is okay and when does a guy become a creep just by talking to you? Harriet For me, it’s an age gap of up to 10 years older or one year younger. Having said that, you could be one year older than me and still be creepy. It all depends how you make the approach. Lucy When we were 23, one of my girlfriends was dating a dude who said he was 27. After a couple of months, it came out he was 37. I feel that if you have to lie about your age, it’s no deal. Harriet It’s not even necessarily about the age. It’s more about life stage – being on the same page in terms of where you are. Lizza So wise. I remember when I was…

ASK THE GIRLS IN THE OFFICE

MY MUSCLES ARE STILL SORE FROM YESTERDAY. SHOULD I TRAIN? – WB Yesterday, I went so hard at the gym I couldn’t get dressed this morning. But I don’t want to miss a session. What should I do? What type of pain are we talking? DOMS will cause a tight feeling in your muscles, whereas an injury will feel like a sharp, stabbing pain. It’s definitely DOMS. So, is it safe to work out? Only if you warm up and cool down properly and lower the intensity. More stress triggers degeneration – muscle disappears and is replaced by fat and connective tissue. Hmm, okay. I might as well stay at home and watch Netflix. Not necessarily. Light activity will ease the pain. Whole-body exercise, like swimming or yoga, will even…

ASK THE GIRLS IN THE OFFICE

What age difference is okay and when does a guy become a creep just by talking to you? Harriet For me, it’s an age gap of up to 10 years older or one year younger. Having said that, you could be one year older than me and still be creepy. It all depends how you make the approach. Lucy When we were 23, one of my girlfriends was dating a dude who said he was 27. After a couple of months, it came out he was 37. I feel that if you have to lie about your age, it’s no deal. Harriet It’s not even necessarily about the age. It’s more about life stage – being on the same page in terms of where you are. Lizza So wise. I…

ASK THE GIRLS IN THE OFFICE

BREW UP AN EXTRA SHOT OF STAMINA You don’t need to train on a mountain top to build game-changing endurance. Push your limits by combining your cup of coffee with an L-carnitine supp PUT THE KETTLE ON, fill your mug and settle in for some good news: researchers at Chonbuk National University have found a foolproof method for hacking your cardio endurance, one that will help you hit a PB without the need for newfangled breath trainers or a flight (eventually) to an Ethiopian training camp. It’s already well known that a shot of espresso will give your performance a jolt. Caffeine not only counteracts the metabolism-slowing effects of adenosine – an organic compound that naturally builds up in your body to create feelings of tiredness – but it also makes your cells…

BREW UP AN EXTRA SHOT OF STAMINA You don’t need to train on a mountain top to build game-changing endurance. Push your limits by combining your cup of coffee with an L-carnitine supp PUT THE KETTLE ON, fill your mug and settle in for some good news: researchers at Chonbuk National University have found a foolproof method for hacking your cardio endurance, one that will help you hit a PB without the need for newfangled breath trainers or a flight (eventually) to an Ethiopian training camp. It’s already well known that a shot of espresso will give your performance a jolt. Caffeine not only counteracts the metabolism-slowing effects of adenosine – an organic compound that naturally builds up in your body to create feelings of tiredness – but it also…

TRACK YOUR RESULTS

RUN WITH THE WOLVES The Prodigy Deploy this high-tempo dance track to keep you movin’ when you start to flag. GO YOUR OWN WAY Fleetwood Mac Research shows that simple lyrics are best at giving you extra motivation – and few songs get to the point like this one. TILL I COLLAPSE EMINEM Spotify’s most popular workout-related tune for four years in a row, and with good reason.…

TRACK YOUR RESULTS

IRONCLAD YOUR MIND

07:00 QUIET TIME Meditating regularly reduces levels of inflammatory chemicals called cytokines, warding off low moods. NIPER 07:15 CHASE THE BUZZ Two to four cups of coffee each day cuts your suicide risk by half. Caffeine appears to act as a mild antidepressant. Harvard University 07:30 PEEL SESSION Vitamin B6 in bananas helps your brain to make the mood-boosting neurotransmitter serotonin. Northumbria University 07:45 POUND THE PAVEMENT Ditch the car and hotfoot it to the gym. Just 15 minutes of steady-state running can keep the blues at bay. JAMA Psychiatry 08:45 COLD COMFORT Cool down in the shower. Two to three minutes at 20°C can relieve depression symptoms. Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine WORDS: LOUEE DESSENT-JACKSON; PHOTOGRAPHY: JOBE LAWRENSON…

IRONCLAD YOUR MIND

SUPP YOUR CHANCES

NIGHT CAPS Taking L-citrulline just before going to sleep helps you to hold onto hard-won muscle mass. Université Paris Descartes RAY OF HOPE Taking vitamin D in summer as well as in winter has been shown to inhibit the growth of fat cells. Tehran University MICRO MACHINES Can’t manage six meals a day? Take BCAAs before and after training to maintain strength. College of Charleston…

SUPP YOUR CHANCES

NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOE

SUCCESS EXACTS A PRICE. For Joe Wicks, that price is pain. “Today I’m getting some treatment because I’m just so sore,” he says on a breakfast call from his London home. “I train so much that I just don’t get enough recovery.” Shortly, he’s expecting a knock on the door from a guy trained in acupuncture and osteopathy. “Because, yeah, I’m smashing my body six or seven days a week, you know?” Well, we could have guessed. Wicks isn’t so much an obsessive trainer as an overworked one. Though he was already thriving prepandemic as The Body Coach – an online fitness and nutrition expert whose 90 Day Plan had gone gangbusters alongside eight bestselling cookbooks – it was a masterstroke born of a late-night epiphany that sent his celebrity (and…

NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOE

WHY WE OVERCOMPLICATE JOY

SO HERE WE ARE, slowly emerging from a world-stopping pandemic. It’s a time of joy, right? Except you’re just not feeling it. And you know what? That’s okay. It might not feel okay right now – living without joy makes it seem like you’re merely going through the motions. Everything is fine, but nothing truly lifts your heart. My patient Jim (whose name has been changed for this story) described the feeling well. The first time I saw him, he made it clear that he didn’t have any of the classic signs of depression – a combination of feeling worthless, having trouble sleeping, avoiding things you like, and experiencing suicidal thoughts. He felt good about his life and his marriage, and he found his career as a trader to be fulfilling.…

WHY WE OVERCOMPLICATE JOY

IRONCLAD YOUR MIND

07:00 QUIET TIME Meditating regularly reduces levels of inflammatory chemicals called cytokines, warding off low moods. NIPER 07:15 CHASE THE BUZZ Two to four cups of coffee each day cuts your suicide risk by half. Caffeine appears to act as a mild antidepressant. Harvard University 07:30 PEEL SESSION Vitamin B6 in bananas helps your brain to make the mood-boosting neurotransmitter serotonin. Northumbria University 07:45 POUND THE PAVEMENT Ditch the car and hotfoot it to the gym. Just 15 minutes of steady-state running can keep the blues at bay. JAMA Psychiatry 08:45 COLD COMFORT Cool down in the shower. Two to three minutes at 20°C can relieve depression symptoms. Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine…

IRONCLAD YOUR MIND

3 WAYS I RECOVER JOY

GET OUT OF THE HOUSE EVERY DAY Spending less time on the road and not going to my office or hanging out at my favourite spots is a joy drain for me. So even as it gets colder, I continue to go outside for walks or runs. Being outdoors has allowed me to find excitement in the novelty of things that had been around me all along and that I’d been too busy to notice before, including parks and hiking trails, as well as a lake that I didn’t know was so close to my house. PRACTISE YOGA WITH MY WIFE We stream classes online or do a community session on Zoom. Yoga can increase levels of the brain chemical GABA, which can help you relax. (It’s almost impossible to feel joy when…

3 WAYS I RECOVER JOY

NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOE

SUCCESS EXACTS A PRICE. For Joe Wicks, that price is pain. “Today I’m getting some treatment because I’m just so sore,” he says on a breakfast call from his London home. “I train so much that I just don’t get enough recovery.” Shortly, he’s expecting a knock on the door from a guy trained in acupuncture and osteopathy. “Because, yeah, I’m smashing my body six or seven days a week, you know?” Well, we could have guessed. Wicks isn’t so much an obsessive trainer as an overworked one. Though he was already thriving prepandemic as The Body Coach – an online fitness and nutrition expert whose 90 Day Plan had gone gangbusters alongside eight bestselling cookbooks – it was a masterstroke born of a late-night epiphany that sent his celebrity…

NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOE

HEALTHY FOOD, HEALTHIER BRAIN?

IN MY TRAINING as a psychiatrist, I’d never been taught to ask my patients what they were eating. When I did finally start, the results were startling, to say the least. People who made even a few small dietary tweaks began feeling better and sometimes were able to decrease the dosage of their medication. It may seem as if making a couple adjustments to your diet as an intervention for depression is too good to be true, but think of it this way: the brain is an expensive machine to run. Despite weighing only about five kilograms, it consumes nearly 20 per cent of the kilojoules you eat each day. Its optimal functioning depends upon key nutrients that give it the building blocks required to back its cells and neurotransmitters. That’s…

HEALTHY FOOD, HEALTHIER BRAIN?

HOW TO FEED YOUR MENTAL HEALTH

NUTS, BEANS AND SEEDS These are rich in brain nutrients, including fibre; zinc, which helps regulate brain signalling and adaptation; and iron, important in building a protein in red blood cells that helps transport oxygen from the lungs to the brain. They offer a nice mix of healthy fats and protein. AIM FOR: At least a small handful every day. GET MORE: Add walnuts into a morning smoothie. SEAFOOD Seafood helps you get the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids that your brain so desperately needs to stimulate nerve-growth factors and dampen inflammation. It also delivers minerals like zinc, iodine and selenium. Check out bivalves for ample B12. AIM FOR: Two or three seafood meals each and every week. GET MORE: Turn mild-tasting fish into tacos; serve mussels over pasta. RAINBOW FRUITS & VEGETABLES Eating fruits and vegetables of many colours…

HALF THE REPS FOR TWICE THE MUSCLE

THE DEADLIFT MAY BE the king of lifts, but single-leg variations are stepping up to the plate. Training each leg individually fires up your stabilising muscles and addresses strength imbalances, helping you build new power in your quads, glutes and hamstrings. But what the single-leg deadlift giveth, poor form taketh away. Balancing on one leg is tricky, and adding weight stresses your lower back. This move takes care of all that. Grounding your back foot boosts your balance, says strength coach Luka Hocevar, while the trap bar brings the weight closer to your centre of gravity. The band adds tension only at the top of the rep, where you’re least susceptible to injury, Hocevar continues. Aim for eight reps per leg, controlling your descent for three seconds, before exploding back up. Tackle…

HALF THE REPS FOR TWICE THE MUSCLE

WHY WE OVERCOMPLICATE JOY

SO HERE WE ARE, slowly emerging from a world-stopping pandemic. It’s a time of joy, right? Except you’re just not feeling it. And you know what? That’s okay. It might not feel okay right now – living without joy makes it seem like you’re merely going through the motions. Everything is fine, but nothing truly lifts your heart. My patient Jim (whose name has been changed for this story) described the feeling well. The first time I saw him, he made it clear that he didn’t have any of the classic signs of depression – a combination of feeling worthless, having trouble sleeping, avoiding things you like, and experiencing suicidal thoughts. He felt good about his life and his marriage, and he found his career as a trader to be…

WHY WE OVERCOMPLICATE JOY

3 WAYS I RECOVER JOY

GET OUT OF THE HOUSE EVERY DAY Spending less time on the road and not going to my office or hanging out at my favourite spots is a joy drain for me. So even as it gets colder, I continue to go outside for walks or runs. Being outdoors has allowed me to find excitement in the novelty of things that had been around me all along and that I’d been too busy to notice before, including parks and hiking trails, as well as a lake that I didn’t know was so close to my house. PRACTISE YOGA WITH MY WIFE We stream classes online or do a community session on Zoom. Yoga can increase levels of the brain chemical GABA, which can help you relax. (It’s almost impossible to…

3 WAYS I RECOVER JOY

IT’S TIME TO HAVE SEX AGAIN!

IT WOULD BE an understatement to say the past year was not sexy. Not to blame everything on COVID-19, but if your bedroom has lacked fireworks since social distancing became a thing, you’re not alone. Nearly half of adults reported a decline in their sex lives over the first few months of the pandemic, according to a recent Kinsey Institute study, and experts suspect that the trend has since continued. “People are masturbating less, [and] they’re having less sex,” says lead author Justin Lehmiller, a research fellow at the Kinsey Institute. “Part of the reason is people are more stressed and more anxious, and that has the effect of lowering sexual desire.” Treating those mind issues by talking to a mental-health professional can help your body get back on track, says…

IT’S TIME TO HAVE SEX AGAIN!

HEALTHY FOOD, HEALTHIER BRAIN?

IN MY TRAINING as a psychiatrist, I’d never been taught to ask my patients what they were eating. When I did finally start, the results were startling, to say the least. People who made even a few small dietary tweaks began feeling better and sometimes were able to decrease the dosage of their medication. It may seem as if making a couple adjustments to your diet as an intervention for depression is too good to be true, but think of it this way: the brain is an expensive machine to run. Despite weighing only about five kilograms, it consumes nearly 20 per cent of the kilojoules you eat each day. Its optimal functioning depends upon key nutrients that give it the building blocks required to back its cells and neurotransmitters.…

HEALTHY FOOD, HEALTHIER BRAIN?

SERENA WILLIAMS

“I try not to have routines because I don’t want to be dependent on anything” HER RECORD SPEAKS for itself. Twenty-three grand slam singles titles and counting, accumulated over two decades. She needs one more to equal the record tally of Australia’s Margaret Court. That 24th major is proving elusive. But even as Serena Williams approaches her 40th birthday and balances motherhood with the demands of the circuit, only a fool would say that achievement is beyond her. Power. Poise. Intensity. Determination. Resilience. Williams, icon and Berlel ambassador, has it all. She turned pro way back in 1995, making her longevity nothing short of astounding. Other champions of the game, former rivals to Williams such as Hingis, Capriati, Henin, Sharapova, have come and gone. Williams has been immovable and, for the most…

SERENA WILLIAMS

I OVERDO CAFFEINE

01 GET A DRIP A mug of instant coffee was once enough to power you through the morning. Now, your second triple-shot latte barely registers. What gives? Caffeine mainly works by plugging the adenosine receptors in your brain – four and a half cups of coffee can block up to 50 per cent of them – allowing highly stimulating neurochemicals such as dopamine to flood your system. When your body catches on, it responds by churning out more receptors in an attempt to restore equilibrium. 02 WIRED BUT FRIED The obvious solution is, well, even more coffee. But as well as blocking sleep-promoting adenosine, caffeine also triggers the release of adrenaline, the so-called fight-or-flight hormone. It rushes through your body, giving you extra energy to unleash on an AirBike. But at higher doses,…

I OVERDO CAFFEINE

HOW TO FEED YOUR MENTAL HEALTH

NUTS, BEANS AND SEEDS These are rich in brain nutrients, including fibre; zinc, which helps regulate brain signalling and adaptation; and iron, important in building a protein in red blood cells that helps transport oxygen from the lungs to the brain. They offer a nice mix of healthy fats and protein. AIM FOR: At least a small handful every day. GET MORE: Add walnuts into a morning smoothie. SEAFOOD Seafood helps you get the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids that your brain so desperately needs to stimulate nerve-growth factors and dampen inflammation. It also delivers minerals like zinc, iodine and selenium. Check out bivalves for ample B12. AIM FOR: Two or three seafood meals each and every week. GET MORE: Turn mild-tasting fish into tacos; serve mussels over pasta. RAINBOW FRUITS…

HOW TO FEED YOUR MENTAL HEALTH

HALF THE REPS FOR TWICE THE MUSCLE

THE DEADLIFT MAY BE the king of lifts, but single-leg variations are stepping up to the plate. Training each leg individually fires up your stabilising muscles and addresses strength imbalances, helping you build new power in your quads, glutes and hamstrings. But what the single-leg deadlift giveth, poor form taketh away. Balancing on one leg is tricky, and adding weight stresses your lower back. This move takes care of all that. Grounding your back foot boosts your balance, says strength coach Luka Hocevar, while the trap bar brings the weight closer to your centre of gravity. The band adds tension only at the top of the rep, where you’re least susceptible to injury, Hocevar continues. Aim for eight reps per leg, controlling your descent for three seconds, before exploding back…

HALF THE REPS FOR TWICE THE MUSCLE

DELICIOUS TERROR

NOW LOOK, obviously it had been a long, long time since I’d been allowed out of the house, so I was pretty excited already. It had also been far too many months since I’d driven anything on a race track. Or even seen one. So the chances that I was going to be blown away by hurling the new BMW M3 Competition around the insanely fast and exciting Phillip Island circuit were stratospheric. Then there’s the fact that the M3 – perhaps the best-ever example of a super sports car that can do double duty as a four-door family hauler – has long been one of my dream cars. Best of all, this new one has an M Drift Analyser, and we were encouraged to try it out by being sent out on…

DELICIOUS TERROR

HOW RUSSELL BRAND ESCAPED HIS MIDLIFE CRISIS

WHEN RUSSELL BRAND turned 40 five years ago, he found himself facing a crisis. He felt totally adrift. He thought, simply enough, I don’t want to live how I’m living. The manic English comedian first broke out stateside in 2008, playing a ramped-up version of his lascivious self in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The next few years were a blur of tabloid and talk-show omnipresence. There were also brief, high-profile nuptials with Katy Perry. Then, for reasons both voluntary and otherwise, that all went away. Brand is Zooming from the kitchen of his pastoral home in England, where he lives with his wife, Laura, and their two daughters. There are thick grey streaks in his beard; his hair, still long, stays hidden in his hoodie. When he was in the spotlight, Brand says,…

IT’S TIME TO HAVE SEX AGAIN!

IT WOULD BE an understatement to say the past year was not sexy. Not to blame everything on COVID-19, but if your bedroom has lacked fireworks since social distancing became a thing, you’re not alone. Nearly half of adults reported a decline in their sex lives over the first few months of the pandemic, according to a recent Kinsey Institute study, and experts suspect that the trend has since continued. “People are masturbating less, [and] they’re having less sex,” says lead author Justin Lehmiller, a research fellow at the Kinsey Institute. “Part of the reason is people are more stressed and more anxious, and that has the effect of lowering sexual desire.” Treating those mind issues by talking to a mental-health professional can help your body get back on track,…

IT’S TIME TO HAVE SEX AGAIN!

FOCUS ON YOUR EXTREMITIES During moments of internal panic, Brand recommends bringing attention to your breath, looking at your feet or the palm of your hand, and thinking something like, I’m aware that this is my hand and there is life in it. It’s “very important,” he says,“to return to base”. LAY FOUNDATIONS, THEN REACH OUT Brand relies on his recovery community and suggests building one of your own, with friends or people in your industry. “If I’m unable to regulate my own thinking, I reach out to someone who is not in the miasma of my own thought. I’m not so hubristic to think I can deal with darkness without help. Create a life that can withstand the inevitability of demons.” CHASE DOWN YOUR CORE FEAR “I was taught this by the 12 steps:…

SERENA WILLIAMS

“I try not to have routines because I don’t want to be dependent on anything” HER RECORD SPEAKS for itself. Twenty-three grand slam singles titles and counting, accumulated over two decades. She needs one more to equal the record tally of Australia’s Margaret Court. That 24th major is proving elusive. But even as Serena Williams approaches her 40th birthday and balances motherhood with the demands of the circuit, only a fool would say that achievement is beyond her. Power. Poise. Intensity. Determination. Resilience. Williams, icon and Berlel ambassador, has it all. She turned pro way back in 1995, making her longevity nothing short of astounding. Other champions of the game, former rivals to Williams such as Hingis, Capriati, Henin, Sharapova, have come and gone. Williams has been immovable and, for…

SERENA WILLIAMS

MAKE YOUR MUSCLE PLAN ROCK SOLID

DANIEL MURAKAMI, 33, spent years dominating deadlifts, bench presses and squats. Then, five years ago, he walked up to a boulder field near his home in Murrieta, California, braced his core and tried to lift a huge rock. Nothing happened... except a seismic shift in Murakami’s training philosophy. If he couldn’t lift anything outside of the gym, was gym training even working? “I wanted farm-boy strength,” he says, “and I found that was best achieved through unconventional means.” Murakami, a certified trainer who had worked in gyms for more than a decade, began to rethink his methods. He had already mastered bodybuilding, powerlifting, bodyweight training and Olympic lifts. He shifted gears, first exploring the origins of strongman training in the late 1800s, then going even further back in history to study…

MAKE YOUR MUSCLE PLAN ROCK SOLID

I OVERDO CAFFEINE

01 GET A DRIP A mug of instant coffee was once enough to power you through the morning. Now, your second triple-shot latte barely registers. What gives? Caffeine mainly works by plugging the adenosine receptors in your brain – four and a half cups of coffee can block up to 50 per cent of them – allowing highly stimulating neurochemicals such as dopamine to flood your system. When your body catches on, it responds by churning out more receptors in an attempt to restore equilibrium. 02 WIRED BUT FRIED The obvious solution is, well, even more coffee. But as well as blocking sleep-promoting adenosine, caffeine also triggers the release of adrenaline, the so-called fight-or-flight hormone. It rushes through your body, giving you extra energy to unleash on an AirBike. But…

I OVERDO CAFFEINE

STEPPING STONES

1/ GROUND -TO-OVERHEAD ROCK LIFT (3 sets of 5 reps) Deadlift a heavy rock to your thighs, squat and let the rock settle on them. Roll it up to your shoulder, shift your hands beneath it and press overhead. 2/ ROCK AND ROW (5 sets of 10 reps) Fire up your lats and forearms. Tighten your core. Pull the rock towards your chest, squeezing your shoulder blades. Lower it slowly back to the ground. 3/ LOG ZERCHER SQUAT (3 sets of 8 reps) Hold a medium-sized log in the crooks of your elbows. Keeping them and your chest up, squat until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Stand back up. 4/ STUMP FLIP (10 sets of 3 reps) Squat and get your hands under a tree stump. Push it up and away from your body, using…

STEPPING STONES

DRINK AND THRIVE

“Mindful drinking can be a middle path to sustained change” ASIDE FROM LAST YEAR, when two-thirds of Australians admitted to stress-drinking to help deal with pandemic anxiety, research suggests that, as a nation, we’re actually trending towards drinking less, with per capita consumption at its lowest level since the mid 1960s. Young men especially are opting to drink in moderation, with recent research suggesting that Generation Z (aged 18 to 24), and millennials (aged 25 to 40) are the ones working the hardest to change their relationship with alcohol. But less alcohol doesn’t mean we’re being less social. Bottle shops are stocked with interesting (and pretty delicious) low-alcohol or alcohol-free drinks. Global brands like Bacardi are offering low-sugar recipes. Feb Fast and Dry July are a national sport and organisations like Hello Sunday…

DRINK AND THRIVE

LOW-ALCOHOL TRENDS WE FROTH

BOOZELESS 6-PACK Want the taste of a cold one without the fuzzy head? Non-alcoholic beers like Heineken 0.0 are fermented from natural ingredients with gentle alcohol removal to achieve a fruity flavour and slight malty notes – just like the real deal. HEALTHIER SPIRITS It’s not only the mixes that are getting a healthy makeover. No-alcohol spirits, like Seedlip and “no hangover”, low alcohol spirits, such as the antioxidant-infused Oppil tipple, are becoming a mindful drinking staple, too. LOW-SUGAR MIXERS Choosing a low-sugar/ low-kJ tonic water can make all the difference when it comes to your G & T. We love Aussie brand Nexba, which makes no-sugar, naturally flavoured mixes for your favourite drinks.…

LOW-ALCOHOL TRENDS WE FROTH

DELICIOUS TERROR

NOW LOOK, obviously it had been a long, long time since I’d been allowed out of the house, so I was pretty excited already. It had also been far too many months since I’d driven anything on a race track. Or even seen one. So the chances that I was going to be blown away by hurling the new BMW M3 Competition around the insanely fast and exciting Phillip Island circuit were stratospheric. Then there’s the fact that the M3 – perhaps the best-ever example of a super sports car that can do double duty as a four-door family hauler – has long been one of my dream cars. Best of all, this new one has an M Drift Analyser, and we were encouraged to try it out by being…

DELICIOUS TERROR

BY SEA, BY LAND

ONE IMPOSSIBLE CHALLENGE. FOUR WEEKS TO TRAIN. GO SUCH IS MY LOVE of physical activity that it’s rare that I feel like a total novice. But that’s exactly how I feel when I sign up to my first Swimrun, with a mere four weeks to train. “Surely it’s just a bit of swimming and running,” my wife says. “A triathlon minus the cycling?” That may have been what my month of warm-up training involved but, by the time I’m standing at the start line, I know that the simplest answer is: “Not in the slightest!” Though it was established in Sweden more than 15 years ago, many still consider Swimrun to be a new discipline. Made up of – you guessed it – swimming and running, it now has a curious rep for…

BY SEA, BY LAND

HOW RUSSELL BRAND ESCAPED HIS MIDLIFE CRISIS

WHEN RUSSELL BRAND turned 40 five years ago, he found himself facing a crisis. He felt totally adrift. He thought, simply enough, I don’t want to live how I’m living. The manic English comedian first broke out stateside in 2008, playing a ramped-up version of his lascivious self in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The next few years were a blur of tabloid and talk-show omnipresence. There were also brief, high-profile nuptials with Katy Perry. Then, for reasons both voluntary and otherwise, that all went away. Brand is Zooming from the kitchen of his pastoral home in England, where he lives with his wife, Laura, and their two daughters. There are thick grey streaks in his beard; his hair, still long, stays hidden in his hoodie. When he was in the spotlight,…

A LEAGUE OF YOUR OWN

A LEAGUE OF YOUR OWN

FOCUS ON YOUR EXTREMITIES During moments of internal panic, Brand recommends bringing attention to your breath, looking at your feet or the palm of your hand, and thinking something like, I’m aware that this is my hand and there is life in it. It’s “very important,” he says,“to return to base”. LAY FOUNDATIONS, THEN REACH OUT Brand relies on his recovery community and suggests building one of your own, with friends or people in your industry. “If I’m unable to regulate my own thinking, I reach out to someone who is not in the miasma of my own thought. I’m not so hubristic to think I can deal with darkness without help. Create a life that can withstand the inevitability of demons.” CHASE DOWN YOUR CORE FEAR “I was taught…

BRISTLING WITH PASSION

IT’S WEIRD, RIGHT? Half a beard. But you know what’s weirder? The state of the environment. Well, half of it, at least. Back in 2017, when I learned that half of the world’s forests had been destroyed, I was dumbstruck. I noticed a lot of other ‘halves’ going on as well: half the Great Barrier Reef was dead; half the world’s plant species are at risk of extinction; we’ve lost 50 per cent of Arctic ice in the last half century; and in the same period, average wildlife population sizes have dipped by 68 per cent worldwide. Faced with a seemingly glass-half-empty scenario, I realised humankind had only half a chance to get the climate crisis sorted out in time to avoid total catastrophe. I had a large, lush beard at the…

BRISTLING WITH PASSION

MAKE YOUR MUSCLE PLAN ROCK SOLID

DANIEL MURAKAMI, 33, spent years dominating deadlifts, bench presses and squats. Then, five years ago, he walked up to a boulder field near his home in Murrieta, California, braced his core and tried to lift a huge rock. Nothing happened... except a seismic shift in Murakami’s training philosophy. If he couldn’t lift anything outside of the gym, was gym training even working? “I wanted farm-boy strength,” he says, “and I found that was best achieved through unconventional means.” Murakami, a certified trainer who had worked in gyms for more than a decade, began to rethink his methods. He had already mastered bodybuilding, powerlifting, bodyweight training and Olympic lifts. He shifted gears, first exploring the origins of strongman training in the late 1800s, then going even further back in history to…

MAKE YOUR MUSCLE PLAN ROCK SOLID

NO HALF MEASURES

FOR THE BEARD If you’re going to rock half a beard, then you may as well appeal to the other senses … like smell. Melbourne Beard Oil is a local brand dedicated to beards both full and partial. Its oils will keep your bushier bits dandruff-free, glossy, manageable and smelling a treat. There are numerous varieties but our pick is ‘Apple Crumble’, which contains a blend of macadamia, almond, coconut and emu oils. (melbournebeardoil.com.au $23.95) FOR THE SHAVE Since you’re goal is to save the planet, make sure you use a razor that fits the brief. The Bulldog Bamboo Razor lowers its environmental impact by featuring a natural bamboo handle and unchromed metal components. Heck, even the packaging is made from fully recycled stock. It’s a razor for all skin types with five…

STEPPING STONES

1/ GROUND -TO-OVERHEAD ROCK LIFT (3 sets of 5 reps) Deadlift a heavy rock to your thighs, squat and let the rock settle on them. Roll it up to your shoulder, shift your hands beneath it and press overhead. 2/ ROCK AND ROW (5 sets of 10 reps) Fire up your lats and forearms. Tighten your core. Pull the rock towards your chest, squeezing your shoulder blades. Lower it slowly back to the ground. 3/ LOG ZERCHER SQUAT (3 sets of 8 reps) Hold a medium-sized log in the crooks of your elbows. Keeping them and your chest up, squat until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Stand back up. 4/ STUMP FLIP (10 sets of 3 reps) Squat and get your hands under a tree stump. Push it up and away from…

STEPPING STONES

DRINK AND THRIVE

“Mindful drinking can be a middle path to sustained change” ASIDE FROM LAST YEAR, when two-thirds of Australians admitted to stress-drinking to help deal with pandemic anxiety, research suggests that, as a nation, we’re actually trending towards drinking less, with per capita consumption at its lowest level since the mid 1960s. Young men especially are opting to drink in moderation, with recent research suggesting that Generation Z (aged 18 to 24), and millennials (aged 25 to 40) are the ones working the hardest to change their relationship with alcohol. But less alcohol doesn’t mean we’re being less social. Bottle shops are stocked with interesting (and pretty delicious) low-alcohol or alcohol-free drinks. Global brands like Bacardi are offering low-sugar recipes. Feb Fast and Dry July are a national sport and organisations…

DRINK AND THRIVE

IF YOU’VE GOT itchy feet right now, that’s hardly surprising. According to a 2019 study, Australians are the second most well-travelled population on Earth. The study, commissioned by travel site agoda.com, found the average Aussie had travelled to 10 different countries, while one in 25 had visited more than 31. That’s pretty impressive globetrotting given our geographic location. But it also makes our current predicament harder to stomach. Over the last year, COVID-19 has forcibly clipped our wings, with most of us writing off any chance of international travel in 2021. One consequence of such limitations is that the idea of hopping on a plane to jet off to some far-flung destination suddenly feels more exciting than ever. It also increases the desirability of a GMT watch. The GMT watch was born…

LOW-ALCOHOL TRENDS WE FROTH

BOOZELESS 6-PACK Want the taste of a cold one without the fuzzy head? Non-alcoholic beers like Heineken 0.0 are fermented from natural ingredients with gentle alcohol removal to achieve a fruity flavour and slight malty notes – just like the real deal. HEALTHIER SPIRITS It’s not only the mixes that are getting a healthy makeover. No-alcohol spirits, like Seedlip and “no hangover”, low alcohol spirits, such as the antioxidant-infused Oppil tipple, are becoming a mindful drinking staple, too. LOW-SUGAR MIXERS Choosing a low-sugar/ low-kJ tonic water can make all the difference when it comes to your G & T. We love Aussie brand Nexba, which makes no-sugar, naturally flavoured mixes for your favourite drinks.…

LOW-ALCOHOL TRENDS WE FROTH

The Future of Health

TO MARK THE RETURN of both Men’s Health and Women’s Health (Australia), a selection of Sydney’s key health-focused opinion leaders descended on Porsche Centre Sydney South’s new space, The Hub. Guests enjoyed a bespoke breakfast while listening to a panel discussion on “The Future of Health”. MH editor Scott Henderson and WH editor Jacqui Mooney were joined by former cover stars Madison de Rozario (Australian Paralympian) and psychiatrist Dr Kieran Kennedy. Guests left inspired by the panellists’ insights into topics that included representation, mental health and the mind-body connection. The event was an opportunity to celebrate the magazines’ revival with many of the brands’ close friends. As travel retrictions ease, we look forward to reconnecting with the rest of Australia shortly.…

The Future of Health

IN A DIFFERENT LIFE, KJ Apa might have been an All Black. It’s every young Kiwi boy’s dream, right? But while it was mostly schoolboy, pie-in-the-sky musing, Apa was perhaps a little more equipped than most to imagine himself in a vein-bulging lather, bellowing out the haka before a Test at Eden Park. He had pedigree – his uncle was an All Black. And thanks to his dad, a fitness nut, he’d been taught the discipline and dedication he would require if he was to make it in elite sport. Most importantly, Apa had the confidence to believe he could do anything. Which is a good thing, because that’s exactly what he proceeded to do. “That was the first goal, to play rugby,” says Apa, who instead of rampaging toward the…

BY SEA, BY LAND

ONE IMPOSSIBLE CHALLENGE. FOUR WEEKS TO TRAIN. GO SUCH IS MY LOVE of physical activity that it’s rare that I feel like a total novice. But that’s exactly how I feel when I sign up to my first Swimrun, with a mere four weeks to train. “Surely it’s just a bit of swimming and running,” my wife says. “A triathlon minus the cycling?” That may have been what my month of warm-up training involved but, by the time I’m standing at the start line, I know that the simplest answer is: “Not in the slightest!” Though it was established in Sweden more than 15 years ago, many still consider Swimrun to be a new discipline. Made up of – you guessed it – swimming and running, it now has a…

BY SEA, BY LAND

ABS, PECS, ARMS

DIRECTIONS Do seven rounds for time. “Usually, I crack it out in 22 minutes, but on a good day, if you can crack it in 20 minutes, I feel like you’re ripping,” says Apa. “I do it with Charles. He starts on the exercise ahead of me so that I’m always on his back. As far as rest, you can kind of pace it out as you go. I just walk really slowly over to where the next exercise is, take a few breaths and then keep going.”…

ABS, PECS, ARMS

Stronger, Higher, Further

Here at Men’s Health we encourage our readers to strive to be the best you can be. To take on challenges and leave your comfort zone, even if there’s a chance you might fall flat on your face. Well, in a case of what’s good for the goose… we, the MH team, felt it was time we pushed our own limits. On this occasion our challenges are physical. Each MH staffer identified an athletic feat he wanted to achieve. These ran the gamut from CrossFit to ocean swimming. Some chose exercises they’ve previously struggled with. Others opted to try and enhance a strength they already possessed. And some tried to recapture former glory. As always, we sought expert advice, with top-level coaches guiding us through intensive five-week training programs. Did we succeed?…

Stronger, Higher, Further

25 WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR HEART NOW

BODY 1 TRAIN LIKE YOU’VE ALREADY HAD A HEART ATTACK A new cardiac-rehab protocol reveals a smart strategy for anyone who wants a stronger ticker DOCTORS USED TO treat guys who had heart trouble with kid gloves, as if their hearts were extremely fragile and intense exercise could cause another blowout. “We had the ‘Take it slow, let’s not push too hard’ view of recovery,” says Dr Andrew Keech, an exercise physiologist at the University of New South Wales. It was safe and reasonably effective for strengthening the heart and avoiding future problems like another heart attack. It was also so boring that guys in rehab didn’t show up for their cardio workouts. (Sound familiar?) Norwegian cardiology researcher Dr Ulrik Wisløff had the notion to turn things up a notch. The maximum amount of oxygen…

25 WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR HEART NOW

BRISTLING WITH PASSION

IT’S WEIRD, RIGHT? Half a beard. But you know what’s weirder? The state of the environment. Well, half of it, at least. Back in 2017, when I learned that half of the world’s forests had been destroyed, I was dumbstruck. I noticed a lot of other ‘halves’ going on as well: half the Great Barrier Reef was dead; half the world’s plant species are at risk of extinction; we’ve lost 50 per cent of Arctic ice in the last half century; and in the same period, average wildlife population sizes have dipped by 68 per cent worldwide. Faced with a seemingly glass-half-empty scenario, I realised humankind had only half a chance to get the climate crisis sorted out in time to avoid total catastrophe. I had a large, lush beard…

BRISTLING WITH PASSION

NO HALF MEASURES

FOR THE BEARD If you’re going to rock half a beard, then you may as well appeal to the other senses … like smell. Melbourne Beard Oil is a local brand dedicated to beards both full and partial. Its oils will keep your bushier bits dandruff-free, glossy, manageable and smelling a treat. There are numerous varieties but our pick is ‘Apple Crumble’, which contains a blend of macadamia, almond, coconut and emu oils. (melbournebeardoil.com.au $23.95) FOR THE SHAVE Since you’re goal is to save the planet, make sure you use a razor that fits the brief. The Bulldog Bamboo Razor lowers its environmental impact by featuring a natural bamboo handle and unchromed metal components. Heck, even the packaging is made from fully recycled stock. It’s a razor for all skin…

NO HALF MEASURES

Can the World Stop the Next Pandemic?

On 11 February 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) gave a name to an illness that had emerged only two or three months earlier: Coronavirus disease 2019, more commonly referred to as COVID-19. That day, few would have believed that, a year later, the odd-sounding disease would still be the defining issue for men’s – and everyone’s – health. But it hasn’t just been a period of mounting death tolls, baffling symptoms and economic mayhem. The last year has also seen an unprecedented outpouring of science, the invention of effective vaccines and a deeper understanding of how pandemics happen. So, it’s time to ask ourselves a few things. Could we have stopped the pandemic? Can outbreaks such as this happen again? If so, has COVID-19 taught us how to prevent the next…

Can the World Stop the Next Pandemic?

In An Idle World

DANIEL LIEBERMAN A paleoanthropologist at Harvard, Lieberman’s book Exercised: The Science of Physical Activity, Rest and Health challenges common beliefs. If exercise is integral to our health and longevity, why do many of us find it so uncomfortable? If this thought has ever crossed your mind, Daniel Lieberman’s Exercised is the eye-opening, mind-expanding and potentially body-reshaping book for you. Lieberman is a professor at Harvard and a keen marathoner – sometimes barefoot. His life’s work in evolutionary biology makes him your ideal companion for a journey through the history of exercise, rest and health. And he can explain why a desk job might not be as bad for you as you think. A theme of your book is that there’s too much conflicting information about what constitutes “good” exercise. Why are we so…

In An Idle World

IF YOU’VE GOT itchy feet right now, that’s hardly surprising. According to a 2019 study, Australians are the second most well-travelled population on Earth. The study, commissioned by travel site agoda.com, found the average Aussie had travelled to 10 different countries, while one in 25 had visited more than 31. That’s pretty impressive globetrotting given our geographic location. But it also makes our current predicament harder to stomach. Over the last year, COVID-19 has forcibly clipped our wings, with most of us writing off any chance of international travel in 2021. One consequence of such limitations is that the idea of hopping on a plane to jet off to some far-flung destination suddenly feels more exciting than ever. It also increases the desirability of a GMT watch. The GMT watch…

MYTH 01 We evolved to exercise Lieberman’s Law We evolved to rest, so it takes work to make exercise fun and appealing. Staying active requires finding your own motivation. MYTH 02 Sitting all day is dangerous Lieberman’s Law Sitting for up to 10 hours a day is entirely normal and natural, so long as we remember to get up and move periodically. MYTH 03 You need eight hours’ sleep Lieberman’s Law If you clock more than six hours, sleep between 2am-4am and don’t nod off during the day, rest assured. MYTH 04 Men should be big and strong Lieberman’s Law Bodybuilding is a pastime, not a prescription. Power and agility are more useful than strength. MYTH 05 Laziness will kill you Lieberman’s Law While staying active has many benefits, you can lead a reasonably healthy life without ever going to the gym.…

The Future of Health

TO MARK THE RETURN of both Men’s Health and Women’s Health (Australia), a selection of Sydney’s key health-focused opinion leaders descended on Porsche Centre Sydney South’s new space, The Hub. Guests enjoyed a bespoke breakfast while listening to a panel discussion on “The Future of Health”. MH editor Scott Henderson and WH editor Jacqui Mooney were joined by former cover stars Madison de Rozario (Australian Paralympian) and psychiatrist Dr Kieran Kennedy. Guests left inspired by the panellists’ insights into topics that included representation, mental health and the mind-body connection. The event was an opportunity to celebrate the magazines’ revival with many of the brands’ close friends. As travel retrictions ease, we look forward to reconnecting with the rest of Australia shortly.…

The Future of Health

“ALEX DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD?” VAL KILMER

Some years ago, Val Kilmer began selling his original artwork on the Internet. Kilmer has been making art for a long time. He takes photographs and creates scrapbook-style media collages with atmospheric abstract paintings resembling blooms of underwater lava. His neon sculpture of a dyspeptic-looking Mahatma Gandhi hung for a while in the restaurant of a fancy hotel in South Beach, and he once cast a tumbleweed in 22-karat gold. But the project he’s become most famous for is an ongoing series of quasi-self-portraits – Warholian pop-art images of Kilmer in character as Batman or Doc Holliday or Jim Morrison, rendered using stencils and brightly coloured enamel paint on 30cm-by-30cm squares of reclaimed steel. Sometimes he’ll superimpose a stenciled word like ‘love’ on the image, or a variation of a quote…

“ALEX DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD?” VAL KILMER

IN A DIFFERENT LIFE, KJ Apa might have been an All Black. It’s every young Kiwi boy’s dream, right? But while it was mostly schoolboy, pie-in-the-sky musing, Apa was perhaps a little more equipped than most to imagine himself in a vein-bulging lather, bellowing out the haka before a Test at Eden Park. He had pedigree – his uncle was an All Black. And thanks to his dad, a fitness nut, he’d been taught the discipline and dedication he would require if he was to make it in elite sport. Most importantly, Apa had the confidence to believe he could do anything. Which is a good thing, because that’s exactly what he proceeded to do. “That was the first goal, to play rugby,” says Apa, who instead of rampaging toward…

DUMBBELL VS KETTLEBELL

IT’S THE GYM equivalent of hot sauce versus tomato sauce and a question that trainers have argued about since the dawn of strength-training time. Which hunk of muscle-building, fat-blasting iron is better: the dumbbell or the kettlebell? Both weights share DNA from the same ancient training tool, Greek halteres, a pair of crescent-shaped stones with handles. Ripped Olympians first lifted them more than 2500 years ago, swinging them to enhance performance in the long jump. To MH writer Ebenezer Samuel, (at right), halteres are proof that the dumbbell is your perfect training tool. “There’s a reason dumbbells are in every single big-box gym,” he says. “If you want targeted muscle – and that’s what all guys want – then you want dumbbells.” Not so fast. Kettlebells are having a moment. They first garnered…

DUMBBELL VS KETTLEBELL

ABS, PECS, ARMS

DIRECTIONS Do seven rounds for time. “Usually, I crack it out in 22 minutes, but on a good day, if you can crack it in 20 minutes, I feel like you’re ripping,” says Apa. “I do it with Charles. He starts on the exercise ahead of me so that I’m always on his back. As far as rest, you can kind of pace it out as you go. I just walk really slowly over to where the next exercise is, take a few breaths and then keep going.”…

ABS, PECS, ARMS

THE STRENGTH DIET

DIETING IS FOR LOSERS. Keto, Paleo, Atkins: everyone loves a fad diet, and some of them may even help you lose weight. Except that weight loss is only one of many reasons to eat a healthy diet. The other reasons include fighting disease-stoking inflammation, keeping your cholesterol in check, fortifying your immunity, nourishing your brain, elevating your energy and building strength. For people who are serious about getting in shape and building muscle, that last word is critical. “Diet is a key piece of building strength,” says Brian St. Pierre, director of nutrition at Precision Nutrition, a company whose clients include the San Antonio Spurs. “Without adequate calories, macronutrients and micronutrients, you will not be able to maximise strength, adequately recover or perform at your peak.” And that kind of strength doesn’t…

THE STRENGTH DIET

Stronger, Higher, Further

Here at Men’s Health we encourage our readers to strive to be the best you can be. To take on challenges and leave your comfort zone, even if there’s a chance you might fall flat on your face. Well, in a case of what’s good for the goose… we, the MH team, felt it was time we pushed our own limits. On this occasion our challenges are physical. Each MH staffer identified an athletic feat he wanted to achieve. These ran the gamut from CrossFit to ocean swimming. Some chose exercises they’ve previously struggled with. Others opted to try and enhance a strength they already possessed. And some tried to recapture former glory. As always, we sought expert advice, with top-level coaches guiding us through intensive five-week training programs. Did…

Stronger, Higher, Further

BECAUSE FIT IS THE NEW RICH SOMETIMES YOU JUST WANNA PUNCH SOMEONE When the pandemic closed my martial-arts gym, I was left with a growing sense of aggression. My search for an outlet led me to find out a few things I didn’t expect THE SECOND WEEK of March 2020 was the last time I had a chance to hit someone. I remember agonising over what I then thought was a tough choice: go to Elements Athletics, my Brooklyn mixed-martial-arts gym, for my weekly Muay Thai training session – the one socially acceptable activity that allows me to act on my aggressive streak – or take the evening off. I was burned out at work, my right hand was recovering from a sprain I’d suffered in my first exhibition fight months before, and I…

25 WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR HEART NOW

BODY 1 TRAIN LIKE YOU’VE ALREADY HAD A HEART ATTACK A new cardiac-rehab protocol reveals a smart strategy for anyone who wants a stronger ticker DOCTORS USED TO treat guys who had heart trouble with kid gloves, as if their hearts were extremely fragile and intense exercise could cause another blowout. “We had the ‘Take it slow, let’s not push too hard’ view of recovery,” says Dr Andrew Keech, an exercise physiologist at the University of New South Wales. It was safe and reasonably effective for strengthening the heart and avoiding future problems like another heart attack. It was also so boring that guys in rehab didn’t show up for their cardio workouts. (Sound familiar?) Norwegian cardiology researcher Dr Ulrik Wisløff had the notion to turn things up a notch.…

25 WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR HEART NOW

4 WAYS TO CHANNEL PENT-UP AGGRESSION

TRY THE TRI Triathlons require long hours of solo effort (and solo virtual racing, these days), but the mixture of sports can offer a sense of “newness” that your brain craves, says Jonathan Fader, a sports and performance psychologist. NARROW YOUR FOCUS If you’ve always wanted to run a sub-25min 5K or bench your bodyweight, now’s the time. Setting a numerical goal, and then working towards it, can help scratch the competitive itch, even if the competition is with yourself. CHASE A THRILL Contact sports often deliver an adrenaline rush. Try to replicate it with social-distance-friendly alternatives like surfing, rock climbing and trail running – all activities that trigger what Fader calls the “fight, flight or freeze” response. FIND SOMEONE TO LEAN ON Athletes who are benched often get strength from other areas of their lives, says…

4 WAYS TO CHANNEL PENT-UP AGGRESSION

Can the World Stop the Next Pandemic?

On 11 February 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) gave a name to an illness that had emerged only two or three months earlier: Coronavirus disease 2019, more commonly referred to as COVID-19. That day, few would have believed that, a year later, the odd-sounding disease would still be the defining issue for men’s – and everyone’s – health. But it hasn’t just been a period of mounting death tolls, baffling symptoms and economic mayhem. The last year has also seen an unprecedented outpouring of science, the invention of effective vaccines and a deeper understanding of how pandemics happen. So, it’s time to ask ourselves a few things. Could we have stopped the pandemic? Can outbreaks such as this happen again? If so, has COVID-19 taught us how to prevent…

Can the World Stop the Next Pandemic?

In An Idle World

DANIEL LIEBERMAN A paleoanthropologist at Harvard, Lieberman’s book Exercised: The Science of Physical Activity, Rest and Health challenges common beliefs. If exercise is integral to our health and longevity, why do many of us find it so uncomfortable? If this thought has ever crossed your mind, Daniel Lieberman’s Exercised is the eye-opening, mind-expanding and potentially body-reshaping book for you. Lieberman is a professor at Harvard and a keen marathoner – sometimes barefoot. His life’s work in evolutionary biology makes him your ideal companion for a journey through the history of exercise, rest and health. And he can explain why a desk job might not be as bad for you as you think. A theme of your book is that there’s too much conflicting information about what constitutes “good” exercise. Why…

In An Idle World

YOUR HARDCORE TRAINING PLAN FOR MAXIMUM MUSCLE GAIN

YOUR FITNESS GOALS are nobody’s business but your own, and chasing a six-pack is as legitimate an aim as any. Yet if it only takes a T-shirt to hide any visible evidence of your hard work, perhaps a smarter approach to training is necessary. After all, as we have addressed in these pages before, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to show off your gym-based accomplishments. You’ve earned them, right? A divide in the fitness industry has created the illusion that a sleeve-stretching set of arms is to be found only in the realm of bodybuilding. There’s an assumption that if your goal is to stay strong and fit all year round by prioritising functional fitness, the only thing you should strive to show for your efforts are Strava screenshots, or Instagram…

YOUR HARDCORE TRAINING PLAN FOR MAXIMUM MUSCLE GAIN

FITNESS SECRETS OF THE GOATS

1 GENERATE SERIOUS BOUNCE LEBRON JAMES turns 37 this year, but he’s still crushing it because of his focus on muscle elasticity and explosiveness. Maintain yours with these moves from basketball trainer Paul Fabritz. ELASTICITY Muscle elasticity – which helps you accelerate and brake – deteriorates as you get older. A go-to for ageing athletes should be low-impact jump-rope drills. Jump rope from side to side, and add rotational hops. Focus not on leaping high but on feeling “bouncy and rhythmic,” Fabritz says. Jump for 1 minute, then rest for 1 minute, for 3-4 sets daily. EXPLOSIVENESS Instead of heavy, joint-pounding power moves, do full-body med-ball throws. Start standing, holding a 10kg med ball at your chest, then squat down, lowering the ball to the floor. Explode upward, throwing the ball as high as possible.…

FITNESS SECRETS OF THE GOATS

MYTH 01 We evolved to exercise Lieberman’s Law We evolved to rest, so it takes work to make exercise fun and appealing. Staying active requires finding your own motivation. MYTH 02 Sitting all day is dangerous Lieberman’s Law Sitting for up to 10 hours a day is entirely normal and natural, so long as we remember to get up and move periodically. MYTH 03 You need eight hours’ sleep Lieberman’s Law If you clock more than six hours, sleep between 2am-4am and don’t nod off during the day, rest assured. MYTH 04 Men should be big and strong Lieberman’s Law Bodybuilding is a pastime, not a prescription. Power and agility are more useful than strength. MYTH 05 Laziness will kill you Lieberman’s Law While staying active has many benefits, you…

“ALEX DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD?” VAL KILMER

Some years ago, Val Kilmer began selling his original artwork on the Internet. Kilmer has been making art for a long time. He takes photographs and creates scrapbook-style media collages with atmospheric abstract paintings resembling blooms of underwater lava. His neon sculpture of a dyspeptic-looking Mahatma Gandhi hung for a while in the restaurant of a fancy hotel in South Beach, and he once cast a tumbleweed in 22-karat gold. But the project he’s become most famous for is an ongoing series of quasi-self-portraits – Warholian pop-art images of Kilmer in character as Batman or Doc Holliday or Jim Morrison, rendered using stencils and brightly coloured enamel paint on 30cm-by-30cm squares of reclaimed steel. Sometimes he’ll superimpose a stenciled word like ‘love’ on the image, or a variation of a…

“ALEX DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD?” VAL KILMER

PREPARE TO RAISE THE BAR

POWER YOUR PECS The bench press is a gym staple for good reason: no exercise can match its ability to build a strong, powerful chest. But getting the form right to make sure that you’re targeting your pecs properly is crucial. Follow these techniques and tweaks to build a chest you’ll treasure. UNILATERAL ACTION Lie flat on a bench with a slight arch in your back but your hips pressed down, holding dumbbells at chest height. Drive your feet into the floor to create tension and push the weights to full lockout. Lower one dumbbell to your chest, while holding the other up above. Press the lowered dumbbell up to meet it, before repeating with the other arm. Alternate until you’ve completed eight reps with each arm. THE BIG DIPPER Deep, controlled dips will help…

PREPARE TO RAISE THE BAR

DUMBBELL VS KETTLEBELL

IT’S THE GYM equivalent of hot sauce versus tomato sauce and a question that trainers have argued about since the dawn of strength-training time. Which hunk of muscle-building, fat-blasting iron is better: the dumbbell or the kettlebell? Both weights share DNA from the same ancient training tool, Greek halteres, a pair of crescent-shaped stones with handles. Ripped Olympians first lifted them more than 2500 years ago, swinging them to enhance performance in the long jump. To MH writer Ebenezer Samuel, (at right), halteres are proof that the dumbbell is your perfect training tool. “There’s a reason dumbbells are in every single big-box gym,” he says. “If you want targeted muscle – and that’s what all guys want – then you want dumbbells.” Not so fast. Kettlebells are having a moment.…

DUMBBELL VS KETTLEBELL

DATE: 3:58pm, October 24, 2000 NAME: ANDY LEE FEAT: A random conversation after a university tutorial derails Andy Lee’s career as an accountant. THERE’S A BACKSTORY to all this. I was at Melbourne University studying Arts/ Commerce and I was really bad at Quantitative Methods. Unfortunately, if I failed it, I’d have to repeat the subject so I couldn’t just ignore it. My other problem was that I hadn’t been to any of my lectures for the entire semester. Nor had I been to a single tutorial, of which there are 10, and you got one per cent of your total mark for each of the tutorials that you attended. So I thought, well, I better go to the final class then. During the roll call, the tutor just glossed over my name and marked it as…

THE STRENGTH DIET

DIETING IS FOR LOSERS. Keto, Paleo, Atkins: everyone loves a fad diet, and some of them may even help you lose weight. Except that weight loss is only one of many reasons to eat a healthy diet. The other reasons include fighting disease-stoking inflammation, keeping your cholesterol in check, fortifying your immunity, nourishing your brain, elevating your energy and building strength. For people who are serious about getting in shape and building muscle, that last word is critical. “Diet is a key piece of building strength,” says Brian St. Pierre, director of nutrition at Precision Nutrition, a company whose clients include the San Antonio Spurs. “Without adequate calories, macronutrients and micronutrients, you will not be able to maximise strength, adequately recover or perform at your peak.” And that kind of…

THE STRENGTH DIET

BECAUSE FIT IS THE NEW RICH SOMETIMES YOU JUST WANNA PUNCH SOMEONE When the pandemic closed my martial-arts gym, I was left with a growing sense of aggression. My search for an outlet led me to find out a few things I didn’t expect THE SECOND WEEK of March 2020 was the last time I had a chance to hit someone. I remember agonising over what I then thought was a tough choice: go to Elements Athletics, my Brooklyn mixed-martial-arts gym, for my weekly Muay Thai training session – the one socially acceptable activity that allows me to act on my aggressive streak – or take the evening off. I was burned out at work, my right hand was recovering from a sprain I’d suffered in my first exhibition fight…

4 WAYS TO CHANNEL PENT-UP AGGRESSION

TRY THE TRI Triathlons require long hours of solo effort (and solo virtual racing, these days), but the mixture of sports can offer a sense of “newness” that your brain craves, says Jonathan Fader, a sports and performance psychologist. NARROW YOUR FOCUS If you’ve always wanted to run a sub-25min 5K or bench your bodyweight, now’s the time. Setting a numerical goal, and then working towards it, can help scratch the competitive itch, even if the competition is with yourself. CHASE A THRILL Contact sports often deliver an adrenaline rush. Try to replicate it with social-distance-friendly alternatives like surfing, rock climbing and trail running – all activities that trigger what Fader calls the “fight, flight or freeze” response. FIND SOMEONE TO LEAN ON Athletes who are benched often get strength…

4 WAYS TO CHANNEL PENT-UP AGGRESSION

YOUR HARDCORE TRAINING PLAN FOR MAXIMUM MUSCLE GAIN

YOUR FITNESS GOALS are nobody’s business but your own, and chasing a six-pack is as legitimate an aim as any. Yet if it only takes a T-shirt to hide any visible evidence of your hard work, perhaps a smarter approach to training is necessary. After all, as we have addressed in these pages before, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to show off your gym-based accomplishments. You’ve earned them, right? A divide in the fitness industry has created the illusion that a sleeve-stretching set of arms is to be found only in the realm of bodybuilding. There’s an assumption that if your goal is to stay strong and fit all year round by prioritising functional fitness, the only thing you should strive to show for your efforts are Strava screenshots, or…

YOUR HARDCORE TRAINING PLAN FOR MAXIMUM MUSCLE GAIN

FITNESS SECRETS OF THE GOATS

1 GENERATE SERIOUS BOUNCE LEBRON JAMES turns 37 this year, but he’s still crushing it because of his focus on muscle elasticity and explosiveness. Maintain yours with these moves from basketball trainer Paul Fabritz. ELASTICITY Muscle elasticity – which helps you accelerate and brake – deteriorates as you get older. A go-to for ageing athletes should be low-impact jump-rope drills. Jump rope from side to side, and add rotational hops. Focus not on leaping high but on feeling “bouncy and rhythmic,” Fabritz says. Jump for 1 minute, then rest for 1 minute, for 3-4 sets daily. EXPLOSIVENESS Instead of heavy, joint-pounding power moves, do full-body med-ball throws. Start standing, holding a 10kg med ball at your chest, then squat down, lowering the ball to the floor. Explode upward, throwing the…

FITNESS SECRETS OF THE GOATS

PREPARE TO RAISE THE BAR

POWER YOUR PECS The bench press is a gym staple for good reason: no exercise can match its ability to build a strong, powerful chest. But getting the form right to make sure that you’re targeting your pecs properly is crucial. Follow these techniques and tweaks to build a chest you’ll treasure. UNILATERAL ACTION Lie flat on a bench with a slight arch in your back but your hips pressed down, holding dumbbells at chest height. Drive your feet into the floor to create tension and push the weights to full lockout. Lower one dumbbell to your chest, while holding the other up above. Press the lowered dumbbell up to meet it, before repeating with the other arm. Alternate until you’ve completed eight reps with each arm. THE BIG DIPPER…

PREPARE TO RAISE THE BAR

DATE: 3:58pm, October 24, 2000 NAME: ANDY LEE FEAT: A random conversation after a university tutorial derails Andy Lee’s career as an accountant. THERE’S A BACKSTORY to all this. I was at Melbourne University studying Arts/ Commerce and I was really bad at Quantitative Methods. Unfortunately, if I failed it, I’d have to repeat the subject so I couldn’t just ignore it. My other problem was that I hadn’t been to any of my lectures for the entire semester. Nor had I been to a single tutorial, of which there are 10, and you got one per cent of your total mark for each of the tutorials that you attended. So I thought, well, I better go to the final class then. During the roll call, the tutor just glossed…

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