Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2016 i Men's Fitness South Africa

Here’s one trend we hope to see hop-the-pond. The UK’s never been known for terrifically healthy (or, for that matter, tasty) cuisine. What with all those dishes of girdle sponges (fried sponge cake), spotted dicks (suet pudding), and fit-less cocks (oatmeal with chopped onion) clogging the Isles. But there’s one area where the Brits may really be on to something: They’ve developed a serious crush on red cabbage. Last year, red cabbage sales went up 50% in Great Britain; a fairly shocking increase. But then, why not? Prepared properly, the versatile, nutrient-dense veggie isn’t just good-tasting (again, not necessarily a pre-requisite) but also great for you; with ten times the vitamin A of regular cabbage and twice the iron. (Granted, red cabbage was also used as a treatment for trench…

It’s one of the most popular assumptions in all of gymdom: To get big muscles, you need to lift big weights. The fitness culture is rife with terms like “Max out” and “Go hard or go home” (although, thankfully, “No pain, no gain” seems to have been retired). But despite the conventional wisdom in strength and conditioning circles, heaving massive loads isn’t the only way to build muscle. In fact, it may not be necessary at all, as science is beginning to prove. So if you fear heavy weights, or have injuries that prevent you from using them, lighter training can still lead to the gains you seek. Just what constitutes “heavy” lifting is open to debate. Exercise science generally defines it as weights that are 80% (or more) of…

We all know that antioxidants are important to include in any eating plan. And that the best way to add them to our diet is to get enough of the whole, natural foods found mainly in the produce section. But did you know that one type of these free-radical-neutralising compounds is called polyphenols? These micro-nutrients help protect plants, and may help boost your health too. ANTIOXIDANTS VS. FREE RADICALS Polyphenols are a type of antioxidant that’s been shown to confer health benefits. In plants, they’re often found in the skin or rind. When circulating throughout our bodies, antioxidants like polyphenols, may help or delay cell damage from free radicals (unstable molecules that damage our cells and DNA). Though the human body does a good job of handling normal levels of…

BEST FOR BALLERS 1) EvoShield EvoScopes R1 400, evoshield.com BEST FOR BIKERS 2) Zeal Optics Rival Team Edition R2 350, zappos.com BEST FOR RUNNERS 3) Nike Skylon Ace XV RR 1900, nike.com Flame-tinted lenses Aside from being eye-catching on a hot summer’s day, orange-tinted lenses have a distinct advantage, especially in low light. “They provide increased contrast in low to medium light (amplifying light), so the wearer can perceive shadows and highlights better”, says Steve Tripi, Nike Vision’s Marchon Eyewear Marketing Director. So next time you hope to smash a ball out of the park, wear orange-tinted lenses; you’ll actually see it better. Vented frames With their lack of breathability and sweat-inducing design, normal frames on sunglasses can heat-up your face, causing your lenses to fog. Not vented frames. “Vented…

To the extent that you can’t actually remember anything about it. Think back to the last bachelor party you went to. Look around the room. Okay, peel your brain away from the stripper, and what do you see? Bourbon? Cigarettes? A bunch of guys losing their shirts at a blackjack table? There’s a good chance you and your buddies dropped a lot of cash in a short period of time. Here’s your chance to win it back. Your loss, of course, is someone else’s gain. So if only you could invest in, say, bourbon, cigarettes, and blackjack, it’d be a good move, right? ¶A recent academic study suggests the answer is yes. We never endorse the use of products that destroy your body, especially cigarettes, perhaps the most odious consumer…

Just stepping into a sauna could lower your risk of ticker trauma. A recent Finnish study published in JAMA Internal Medicine reported that, among 2 315 male subjects (followed for more than 20 years), men who visited a dry sauna (80 to 100°C with only 10 to 20% humidity) four to seven times a week, lowered their chances of dying of heart problems by 48% - compared with men who went only once a week. Men who went two to three times a week lowered their risk by 23%. Also, those who sauna’d for 19-plus minutes per session had a 52% lower chance of sudden cardiac deaths than those who steamed for less than 11 minutes. “The changes in heart rate during a sauna mimic the effect of exercise”, says…

Tweets can predict heart health Twitter posts can predict a region’s risk of heart disease, a study in Psychological Science reports. Emotionally negative tweets signal that a county’s citizens are at high risk of cardiac problems, while happier tweets link to a lower risk. “The people tweeting aren’t necessarily) the ones dying from heart disease”, says lead author Johannes C Eichstaedt, who matched tweets with health data from about 1 300 counties. “Rather, they’re ‘canaries’ for the community. They tell us what it’s like to live in a place”. Even after you take income and education into account, areas where people show anger and hostility have higher rates of heart disease. So if you rage-tweet a lot, maybe it’s time to chill. NEWS F LASH: SMOKING STILL SUCKS Cigarettes will…

Diet fads come and go, but we’ve already learnt what works; partly from a study that begun in the 1950s, which shed light on what kinds of lifestyles may be good for you. Dubbed the Seven Countries Study, it included 12 763 men from four regions across the world and found that the diets of people residing near the Mediterranean Sea, plus healthful living, were linked with increased well-being. The “Mediterranean Diet” is not a set of restrictions on foods and methods of creating meals, but more a fitness lifestyle plan. The diet consists of lots of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole-wheat grains. It encourages more olive oil, less butter, the elimination of red meat, limits sweets, some wine, and low trans and saturated fats. Today, the Med Diet…

THE GUY Peter Facinelli Though he’s a Twilight vampire, a Nurse Jackie regular, and star of the new TV thriller American Odyssey, Peter Facinelli’s not beyond getting stage-nerves. “I remember doing a scene with Matthew Broderick (in Finding Amanda),” he says, “and I was like ‘I’m working with Ferris Bueller!’. Then all of a sudden there was this long pause, and I realised, ‘Oh, God, it’s my turn to talk’”. It’s not Broderick’s iconic film but another classic he’d use to describe his childhood in Queens, NY, USA though. “It was like West Side Story”, says the 41-year-old, whose parents emigrated from Italy. “My best friends were Cuban, and I was good pals with Italians, and they beat the crap out of each other all the time. I never got…

Laura, how did you first get involved in the fitness industry? After having had a lot of experience with modelling and pageants, as most young women do who enter the industry, I went to watch a fitness show in 2010, and was extremely impressed with the healthy appearance and gorgeous physiques of the bikini girls on stage. I decided to enter my first bikini competition in 2010 and I was fortunate enough to have a coach to support me with my eating plan and training. It was then that I realised I had a passion for this sport, and I also benefitted by looking good while maintaining my healthy lifestyle by eating correctly and training hard. We have just come out of winter, and while it’s relatively easy to keep…

I ’LL JUST COME RIGHT out and say it: I hate the EVA English channel. This isn’t just because I’m South African, which I am, or because I hold anything against those who love contemporary telenovelas from Latin America - quite the opposite. I don’t like it simply because I’ve never watched it. It is one of the many channels that my DSTV bundle (at roughly R759 a month) provides, yet I pay for it. By now you’ve no-doubt heard of “cord-cutting”, the term for ditching traditional cable television for some form of Web-only streaming. But if you’re like me, going rogue with your home entertainment has always been just a little too daunting. “Most people out there don’t realise how low-risk this is”, says Greg Scott of cordcutterguide.com. “It’s…

Imagine being able to cut your grocery shopping time in half and still eat like a king. You can, and it’s easier than you think. You see, complicated meals don’t necessarily taste any better than simple ones. And even though buying the same 12 ingredients every time you shop may sound boring, what you cook with them doesn’t need to taste that way. Take it from two of the best chefs in America, Quinn Hatfield and Daniel Humm, who are leading the way in the kind-of-fresh, simple cooking that will transform your kitchen repertoire. “To eat well, you need to cook for yourself”, Humm says. “The more complicated you make it, the less likely you’ll do it”. He and Hatfield are just like the rest of us: short on time…

It’s a pretty safe bet that Baywatch will be next summer’s movie blockbuster. But what isn’t so clear is who the audience will be ogling most; the buxom, bikini-clad beach bunnies or the pumped-up, hard-bodied musclemen in the cast. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s physique already has legions of fans, but the transformation of co-star Zac Efron (who shot to fame in the teen-film hit High School Musical) has shocked the world. According to Efron’s trainer, Patrick Murphy, the actor reached 5% body fat after just 12 weeks of training. How’d you like to do something similar? Turn the page and you can. How It Works Efron’s training was constantly evolving, but for us, Murphy condensed the best of it into a three-day split, working back and biceps one day, legs…

The fastest way to lose fat is to adjust your diet, not do more cardio. And that doesn’t mean cutting carbs and calories to the bone. You can let your food burn fat for you while enjoying delicious, gourmet meals with these recipes made from ingredients that offer potent, and science-backed, fat-burning benefits. We’ve got one to cover every meal of the day, from breakfast through to dessert, so you can melt blubber over a 24-hour period (and wake up a little leaner the next morning). Now, doesn’t that beat another spin on the treadmill? 1) OVERNIGHT OATMEAL WITH BLUEBERRY SAUCE Why it’s a fat beater: Blueberries contain pterostilbene, an antioxidant that a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found may prevent fat storage. MAKES: 1 SERVING…

Runners like to scoff at weightlifters’ “cardio poor” routines. But as it turns out, lifters who use kettlebells are actually getting a great cardio workout. A study of university soccer players showed that adding a simple; dynamic, high-intensity kettlebell snatch routine (15-seconds on, 15-seconds off for 20 minutes) to their workouts increased their VO2 max by about 6%. This was an improvement over a control group doing the same free-weight and body-weight circuit exercises, but without kettlebells, the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research reports. “Kettlebells are an awesome conditioning tool”, says study head J. Asher Falatic, MS. “Basic swings with moderate to heavy weight would be a great way to ease kettlebell training into your workout”. RUNNING YOURSELF INTO THE GROUND? Jogging may be better for you if you…

We get it. You’re not into this whole “mindfulness” thing. But know this: The mental wellness discipline; loosely defined as actively practicing “acute awareness of the present moment” (whether you’re stuck in your cubicle, chilling at the beach, or plowing through a complex project), isn’t just good for your brain, it’s also great for your muscles. A study in the Journal of Health Psychology recently found that athletes who practiced mindful-meditation techniques are far more motivated to exercise regularly, and more satisfied with their workouts than less-mindful dudes. They also sleep better, says a new JAMA study. With all this in mind we sought out Michael Gervais PhD, a mindful-meditation expert and director of High Performance Psychology at DISC Sports & Spine Center. He’s advised athletes from the U.S. Olympic…

If the dating-app Tinder created our swipe-left, swipe-right world, a new generation of competitors is piling-on to perfect it: There’s Hinge, which offers a heightened level of curation (and less of the creepy randomness of Tinder) by linking you to your Facebook friends’ friends. There’s Happn, which tracks your daily wanderings using GPS to see where you overlap with nearby girls; and Tastebuds, which raids your music collection to find women with similar musical tastes. (Those are just a few of the options out there). These apps aren’t just for hooking up: A whopping third of new marriages start out online or via apps; a number that’s expected to rise, according to a recent USA University of Chicago study. With so much dating firepower at your fingertips, why aren’t you…

All-wheel drive, a raised body and four doors still hasn’t prevented Porsche from turning the Macan Turbo into a performance weapon. Fitted with the optional Performance Package (now available in SA) the Macan Turbo becomes more versatile and faster than some of the brand’s founding models; quite sensibly it’s the only Porsche you need to own. Porsche’s 3.6 litre V6 has seen a number of revisions for its 324kW and 600Nm. On tar Porsche’s smallest SUV will sprint from 0 to 100km/h in 4.4 seconds with a top speed of 272km/h. Even on gravel or sandy tracks, Macan stirs up dust clouds with supernatural force. Bigger brakes, a lowered chassis (which can be optioned with self-levelling air suspension) and 21-inch wheels gives Porsche’s sportiest SUV the right attitude; cemented by…

The NFL-formulated Combine is a punishing standardised test of raw speed, strength, and skills; in which an eye-popping performance means the difference between an early-round contract, and a spot on someone’s practice squad. So it only makes sense that when top prospects want to boost their scores, they go to the specialist: Nick Winkelman is USA’s foremost Combine guru and director of movement, on the Performance Innovation Team at the human performance training company, EXOS. He has whipped into shape seven No. 1 picks since 2001, including NFL’s Andrew Luck and Matthew Stafford. We tracked him down to share his secrets on speed, explosiveness, and keeping yourself healthy. How do you actually train someone to run faster? I’ll give you the secret for anyone wanting to improve their 35 metre…

HAVE YOU EVER noticed that when you enable Photo Stream on your iPhone, all your pictures (including the ones you don’t want your girl-friend to see) are easily available for anyone to view on that iPad that lives on your coffee table? Have you ever uploaded something to cloud storage, realised it was too sensitive, then deleted it later? Do you know that there’s a strong possibility a backup copy of that file is still being stored; so anyone with access to your account can still get it? If not, you’ve never heard of Jennifer Lawrence. When you store files on a cloud (a network of remote servers hosted on the web by various businesses - used to store data) the chief benefit is easy access to your files; from…

If you want to see Zac Efron with his shirt off, you needn’t look further than his slate of recent and upcoming films: Neighbors 2 - Sorority Rising, in which he’s often shirtless: Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, which has him basically shirtless on the movie poster; and next year’s big-screen adaptation of 1990s hit TV series Baywatch, in which he’s routinely running on the beach (no surprise here) shirtless. A Google Images search for Efron yields hundreds of photographs that will make you feel terrible about your own fitness. As will looking him up on Instagram; where he’s lately contributed plenty of beefcake photos from the Baywatch set, where he and co-star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson spend their off-hours engaged in bare-chested, truck-tire-flipping contests. Though Efron, now 28,…

Beer cocktails may have been all the rage last year, but “this summer’s going to be about gin”, according to Prairie Rose; a USA New York City-based cocktail and spirits blogger, and expert. Why? For starters, everyone’s favourite gin cocktail, the G&T, is undergoing a renaissance. We now have “good-quality gin and artisanal small-batch tonics; that aren’t filled with high-fructose corn syrup, and synthetic flavours that taste like garbage”, Rose says. She prefers brands like Jacky Rudy Cocktail Co, Tomr’s Tonics, and Strong Tonic. To tackle this summer’s big drink trend, try a combo with Rose’s Pear & Sage Gin and Tonic: 2 shots (60ml) of Tanqueray Gin 1 shot (30ml) Tonic 3 shots (90ml) soda 3 thin pear slices 1 bunch fresh sage Add gin, tonic, and soda in…

Zac Efron dieted for his Baywatch role with pizza and cheeseburgers; just kidding (you wish!). In reality, he ate ultra-healthy for a transformation that took only 12 weeks. “I implemented an all-organic whole-food diet”, says his trainer, Patrick Murphy. Below are all the food categories Efron was permitted to choose from to put together his meals: Efron also supplemented with whey protein (unflavored),adds Murphy, who also stipulated it could contain no other ingredients (NOW Whey Protein Isolate is a good example). “He also hit a minimum of 3 litres of water daily”. Murphy won’t disclose specifics but says he had Efron change his caloric intake about every two weeks, along with his breakdown of protein, carbs, and fat. “My tweaks worked like a charm”, he says. No kidding. Lean Proteins…

We love the barbell bench press as much as you do; but just because you’ve been doing it every Monday night since high school doesn’t mean you can’t change it up every once in a while. Pressing with dumbbells is safer for your shoulders. It activates more pectoral muscle, which means more focused training directly on your chest. Plus, at times when a home or hotel gym is all you have access to, dumbbells are the best weapon you’ve got. Follow this routine for four weeks and we bet you’ll add as much as 1cm to your chest. How It Works Dumbbells don’t let you go as heavy as barbells, so don’t fight it. Instead; follow this workout, which focuses on higher reps and keeping the muscles under constant tension…

For as long as man has wanted a better body he has been looking for a wonder-drug that’ll give it to him. Of course, there’s no substitute for hard work and consistency when it comes to building muscle and losing fat. But the idea of a potent elixir that can help speed the process isn’t just a pipe dream either. The human growth hormone, or HGH, has the potential to pave the way for a younger, stronger, and healthier body. And best of all, your body’s already making it. Learn to boost your levels naturally and safely, and you can defy the aging process indefinitely. HOW HGH WORKS HGH is made from amino acids and secreted by the pituitary gland; the control centre for most hormone production which lies at…