Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2021 i Men's Health

TRAVEL IS ESCAPE— from the indoors or the ping of your in-box—and on page 33, we found nine destinations to help you get away. So we asked you: Where in the world are you planning to escape to next? The gym! @vegetarier.pfleger.paolo I think I’ll blindly pick a spot on a map. @danhdz75 I’m going to Disneyland! @theninja909 Somewhere with a beach, hopefully. @edward.baidoo Hong Kong. I’ve wanted to go there for nearly 30 years now. @bennie.woodell The Kennedy Space Center. I am such a science nerd. @wendy.y.lawrence Lake Tahoe, if I still remember how to drive more than 20 minutes at a time. @bob.hunnicutt1…

Men’s Health MVP members have access to the best health and fitness articles out there. Each month, we survey our MVPs and choose one whose story catches our eye. Sign up at join.menshealth.com and you could see yourself here one day. MY FITNESS GOALS I got Covid-19 in August 2020 and was one of the unlucky ones to become a long hauler. I was in bed for a month and unable to work out for five months. I lost about 25 pounds. My goal is just to feel like myself again. WHY SHAZAM IS MY FITNESS HERO Zachary Levi is ripped, but not Mark Wahlberg ripped. He’s not waking up at 2:30 a.m. for a six-hour gym session. I STAY MOTIVATED BY … Talking to colleagues. We have a Peloton…

CHRIS BRIDGES IS still doing pushups. A few minutes ago, he was doing classic reps, and then he was gritting out T pushups: pressing upward, then shifting into a side plank. Now he’s doing one more variation, a snake pushup, meant to stretch his spine as it builds his chest and triceps. Sweat forms a sheen on Bridges’s forehead, but the man you know better as rapper-actor Ludacris doesn’t stop. “No matter how many pushups I do,” he says, “even when I don’t want to do them anymore, that’s like the only exercise I don’t mind doing.” His voice rises to the frenetic, staccato 11 you remember from bangers like “Rollout (My Business)” and “Southern Hospitality.” “Until I cannot. Fucking. Do. Them. Anymore.” On this morning in Atlanta, Bridges will spend…

WANDER THROUGH the aisles of Walgreens or CVS, with the walls of moisturizers, serums, scrubs, soaps, exfoliators, and more, and you would probably conclude that it’s super, super complicated to keep your skin healthy and looking good. However, it’s really about only two things, says 46-year-old dermatologist COREY L. HARTMAN, M.D.: Keep your routine simple and always use products with scientifically proven ingredients. Here’s how he takes his own advice. SWIPE THIS BEFORE BED I apply a product with retinol at night—no skin-care ingredient has more science behind it. It’s an exfoliant, so you don’t get acne or dull skin, and it stimulates collagen, which helps keep fine lines and wrinkles away. I wash my face with an exfoliating cleanser (SkinCeuti-cals LHA Cleanser Gel), then use prescription retinol (Arazlo) and…

HEART PALPITATIONS/DIZZINESS You feel fine sitting, but as soon as you stand, your heart starts racing as if you’d just sprinted around the block, and you feel a little woozy. When you sit down again, those symptoms go away. INABILITY TO HANDLE EXERCISE More than just wishing your workout was over after the first five minutes, you have to stop what you’re doing so you can catch your breath—and you weren’t even working that hard. Or maybe you push yourself and finish your workout, but then you feel drained for days afterward. BRAIN FOG You start to write an email and just can’t focus on what you’re typing, or you’re constantly walking into rooms and then wondering what you were going to do there. While many people have experienced this…

PRESENTED BY DOUBLE TIME A sturdy vs. cushy sofa works as a makeshift weight bench, perfect for tricep kickbacks…or just kicking back. FIND YOUR CENTER From colorful abstracts to nature-based prints, artwork can be as inspiring as any motivational poster. GOOD FORM Jute rugs are durable, low maintenance, and stylish.…

HOLY SH!T COCKTAIL TRICK! No cocktail shaker? No problem. Grab a mason jar and two lids, one with a few ¼-inch holes punched into it. (Just use a hammer and a nail.) Add your ice and ingredients, shake with the no-hole lid secured tight, switch to the lid with holes, and strain. 1 GO TOP-SHELF You want a bright, crisp tequila blanco that’s 100 percent agave—not cut with corn syrup or sugar. Try Siembra Valles, which has an earthy flavor, or Astral, which is a little more floral but works really well with lime juice. And for your triple sec, opt for Cointreau, which hits all the right orange notes. 2 SALT THE GLASS Salt intensifies the flavors of the other ingredients. Plus, it’s delicious in and of itself. Take…

1 CAN YOU GET PHYSICALLY STRONGER WITHOUT LEAVING YOUR MENTAL COMFORT ZONE? “The body can only adapt if it faces something new, and new challenges won’t always be comfortable,” says MH fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. So basically, no. Your mind will adapt to the discomfort, too, and you’ll boost both your mental and physical strength. The secret: Start small. “Every week, add one to whatever goal you’re chasing,” says Samuel, “whether that means doing one more pushup rep every set, adding one more minute to your morning run, or holding a plank for one more second.” 2 I HATE FAILING. IS THERE ANY WAY TO STOP OBSESSING ABOUT WHAT WENT WRONG? Start thinking like Michael Jordan. He’s considered himself a failure: By his count, he’s missed more than 9,000…

SPIN FOR STAMINA Heimana Reynolds, 22, 5'9", 155 LBS SKATEBOARDING Skaters have a slacker image, but the fast-paced, highflying 45-second runs that Heimana Reynolds performs require serious cardio and leg stamina. That’s why the Hawaiian skater and 2019 world champion hits the Assault bike for sprint intervals. He does 5 sets of 45-second intervals, with 5 seconds of sprinting all out. Another favorite is the dumbbell snatch with a box jump: Start by squatting in front of a 12-inch box holding a light dumbbell in one hand on the floor between your legs. Pull the dumbbell up and over your shoulder as you jump onto the box. Do 3 sets of 10 per side. Focus on speed. GRIP FOR GREATNESS CJ Cummings, 21, 5'7", 161 LBS WEIGHTLIFTING Despite his young…

MDMA: Methylenedioxymethamphetamine Yes, Ecstasy. Researchers are enhancing psychotherapies with controlled, monitored dosages to help people break through walls they’re hitting in therapy. A recently completed phase 3 clinical trial showed that MDMA-assisted therapy eliminated PTSD diagnoses in 67 percent of people after four and a half months of treatment. EMDR: Eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing You discuss memories of trauma while moving your eyes in certain patterns. The technique was developed in 1987, and though it’s recommended by the American Psychological Association and the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs, scientists still don’t know how it works. EMDR treatments have been shown to reduce PTSD symptoms or eliminate the diagnosis altogether. TXT: Texting Text-messaging with a therapist could turn out to be an effective alternative to in-person therapy, but more research…

As an ER doctor and a U. S. Air Force veteran who completed a tour of duty in Iraq, John Torres, M.D., has seen people survive unlikely situations. The senior medical correspondent for NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and the author of the new book Dr. Disaster’s Guide to Surviving Everything says there are actions you can take in challenging circumstances. PACE // “In the military, this stands for Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency,” he explains. So with your family, plan your primary way to communicate and meet, then the alternate, and go down the list from there. “When there’s an emergency and you have a plan, it takes one thing out of the equation of things you have to think about,” he says. Take a breath // When…

When you spend 157 days at sea as the first person to swim around the coastline of mainland Great Britain, you learn a thing or two about resilience. Such as: Truth #1: “Sucking it up” won’t make you resilient. “In fact, it’ll break you. If you have a stone in your shoe during the first mile of a marathon, bearing it doesn’t do anything for you except make you miserable. So often, when I see athletes and military recruits grimacing during training, I ask them, ‘How is this helping you?’” Truth #2: You can’t lie to yourself. “As I was swimming, I knew that if I put one arm in front of the other, I would circumnavigate Britain. But in the reality of the moment, I had a jellyfish tentacle…

FIRST IT WAS INSOMNIA. The patients streaming into the office of Pieter Cohen, M.D., all complained of sleepless nights. One woman also had headaches, chest pain, nausea, and fatigue. Another was depressed, sweating, trembling. Then a trucker showed up with yet another concern: He couldn’t figure out why he’d just tested positive for amphetamines. It was 2006, and Dr. Cohen, working at a community health clinic in Somerville, Massachusetts, realized he had a medical mystery on his hands. Many of his patients are Brazilian immigrants, so Dr. Cohen, who speaks some Portuguese, began to ask more questions. Nothing about anyone’s diet or exercise habits seemed surprising. But when their lab tests started coming back, he was shocked. A number of the patients had amphetamines in their system, though none said…

IT’S JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME CALLING. He asks, “How are you?” and before he can hear an answer, there’s a commotion on his end—phone-fumbling sounds; a tiny Chihuahua freaking out; Van Damme’s wife, Gladys Portugues, laughing; his own low chuckle. “Ah la la,” sighs Van Damme, back on the line. It sounds like French for What can you do? “I’ve got my dog next to me on the table,” he explains, “and we just got back from the Caribbean”—again the dog yaps, and Van Damme says, “Lola, stop it” in a firm, don’t-test-me tone—“and she is so jealous of my wife, it’s unbelievable.” Lately Van Damme and Lola have also been in France, Belgium, Italy, and Monaco. “So Mademoiselle Lola is now spoiled, because she’s been going from hotel to hotel.”…

WITH THE pandemic (sort of, maybe) under control, vaccinated life has left us with a sense of What planetary threats can we tackle next? The good news is that some U.S. cities already have a head start on earth-killing, buzz-killing climate change. Our researchers assessed 100 of the most populous cities for air quality, green space, LEED-certified public buildings, and chemical usage (which included toxic-release totals, drinking-water violations, number of Superfund sites, and resident proximity to the sites). These are the U.S. cities where it’s easiest to be green. GREENEST 1. Burlington, VT 2. Virginia Beach, VA 3. Buffalo, NY 4. Honolulu, HI 5. Greensboro, NC 6. Portland, ME 7. Boston, MA 8. Anchorage, AK 9. Madison, WI 10. Fargo, ND NOT-SO-GREENEST 91. Salt Lake City, UT 92. Wilmington, DE…

PICTURE YOURSELF at the top of a staircase with steel railings. Next to it is a five-inch-wide, seven-foot-high wall. How would you get down? If you’re like most people, you might stroll down the stairs. But if you’re Gabriel Nunez (above), the 37-year-old CEO of the Tempest Freerunning Academy in Chatsworth, California, all you see is possibility. You might sprint and jump into the wall, plant your feet, and then leap and flip off it, landing on the stairs below. Or you might grab the lip of the wall, lower yourself halfway, push your feet off, and flip onto the ground. Then maybe you’d hop up to the railing, run down it, and side-flip to the landing at the bottom. “Usually you start by climbing onto something,” says Nunez. “Then…

IT’S AN ATHLETE’S WORST MOMENT: A hammy seizes like an old engine down the homestretch to Olympic glory or in the middle of your rec hoops game. Suddenly, instead of chasing gold or bragging rights, you’re crumpled on the ground praying for deliverance. And it’s not uncommon: Research reveals exercise-associated muscle cramps affect up to 70 percent of endurance runners and cyclists. Who hasn’t experienced a cramp at some point while exercising hard? You’d think science would have discovered a cure. After all, researchers have been studying cramps in industrial laborers ever since the early 1900s. In 1932, researchers from Harvard’s “fatigue laboratory” traveled to the construction site of the Hoover Dam to take samples from workers who developed cramps in the heat. They noticed that cramp sufferers had lower concentrations…

THE CLAIM: “Pre-workout” supplements are a class of premixed herbal and chemical ingredient blends designed to spike your energy, enhance your alertness, reduce your fatigue, and boost blood flow to your muscles. They’ll help you work out longer and harder, with better results. WHAT’S ACTUALLY TRUE: They can fire you up. Pre-workout supplements often contain caffeine, taurine, and B vitamins, all of which may help you feel motivated. That doesn’t mean it’s crash-proof energy, but the chemical compounds in a pre-workout may offer enough oomph to help you push through your session, says exercise-science researcher Jordan Moon, Ph.D., C.S.C.S.*D, a professor at Concordia University. WHAT’S BOGUS: There’s not much science to the more esoteric ingredients in some of these supplements, such as Panax ginseng and deer-antler velvet. Worse yet, in…

FOR THE CLIMBER: TELLURIDE, COLORADO The adventure: Conquer the Via Ferrata You know the town for its skiing and film festival, but the hiking trails. You’ll find dozens of them, covering more than 60 miles in total, close to town. The must-do is the Via Ferrata, aka the Iron Path, a two-mile trek that includes (but is not limited to) carved steps, rope ladders, suspension bridges, and caves, with a peak summit of 500 vertical feet. On dangerous sections, you can clip your harness onto a steel cable so you’re protected if you fall. Drive this: A Kia Telluride. The name tracks. But you can fit eight people in the SUV. Those are minivan numbers—and this beast drives like anything but a minivan. Stay here: A 500-foot summit not enough?…

THE SALVAGED SWEATER It can take 2,700 liters of water to make a single cotton tee. You can save all the water that goes into producing a new cotton hoodie by wearing this one by Toad&Co, made from recycled cotton scraps and postconsumer plastic. It’s built with breathability in mind and has two side pockets for all our gadgets. And if the hoodie suffers wear and tear, the brand will replace it … for free. Hoodie ($100) by Toad&Co; shorts ($68) by Vuori; sandals ($30) by Reef. THE SUSTAINABLE SHORTS Think of joggers as performance-built sweatpants. They have all the comfort of sweats with the added benefit of stretch for running (or pre-pool pushups). Even better, this pair of jogger shorts (made with recycled polyester) by American Eagle houses a…

And always (always) crop out your face before sharing any nudes. For security’s sake.…

LAST FALL, like seemingly every other person you know, I adopted a pandemic pet—Kai, a rambunctious ten-month-old Lab-golden mix. After a year of watching cats’ tails meandering by patients’ screens or hearing puppies barking in the background, I realized I wanted a pet, too. Perhaps I needed one. Any mental-health professional will tell you that part of our job involves appreciating the therapeutic benefit of pets. In fact, I’m asked to write letters all the time to authorize emotional-support animals for patients who have been diagnosed with illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Having a pet can reduce stress and help you feel a sense of connectedness. Part of what’s happening likely involves the bonding hormone oxytocin, which is associated with intimacy. When you pet your dog, for example,…

Tom Hanks, already the winner of two Oscars at this point in his career, is soaked. This particular sequence includes one of the few times he’ll ever say fuck on film—fucking, to be precise. Steven Spielberg is directing the death scene of Private Caparzo, a brash soldier with a heart who just tried to save a little French girl whose house had been bombed to ruins. Spielberg has won one Oscar for directing. He’ll win his second for this film, Saving Private Ryan. Caparzo is being played by a young actor, barely 30 years old, named Vin Diesel. He used to be Mark Sinclair, but a few years back he renamed himself Vin Diesel. For the movies. And right now Vin Diesel is lying on his back in a puddle…

I’M FROM a very small town in Michigan. After high school, I played football at a community college, but I realized I was only there to play football. I wasn’t doing well in class. I moved back home and realized I didn’t want to be back home, either. I went to talk with a recruiting station, and within two weeks I was shipped out to basic training. I deployed to Afghanistan in 2007 with the 82nd Airborne Division. I deployed again in 2009. When I returned home after my second deployment, my wife, Kelsey, and I bought a house, and we found out we were going to have a baby. My daughter, Chloe, was born in September 2011. I deployed for my third time to Afghanistan early the next year.…

ALEXANDER DWORET was in English class at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, when a bullet grazed the back of his head. Among the 17 killed on February 14, 2018, was his older brother, Nick. Therapy is something that I cherish now. Right after the shooting, I started to see a therapist and do EMDR. [See “The ABCs of PTSD Recovery” on page 83.] Three years ago, I was secluded; I stuck to myself. I see her weekly now and I can tell her anything I want. I have my brother’s thumbprint tattooed on my wrist with the words “brothers forever” in his handwriting. My family went to Hawaii recently and we all got matching tattoos of the Mokulua islands in honor of Nick’s dream to go there.…

Products that promise bigger muscles, increased energy, and weight loss are among the most commonly spiked. Even if you’re just buying vitamins, here are three tips from Dr. Cohen to make sure you’re getting what should be in the bottle. Stick to well-studied ingredients like protein, amino acids, and creatine. When in doubt, check the USADA’s high-risk list and the DOD’s supplement-safety program. Avoid bold claims. Go for “protein powder,” not a “muscle builder,” or “ginkgo,” not a “memory enhancer.” Look for third-party certifications of independent testing from places like USP, ConsumerLab.com, and NSF International.…

Q. Can grilling meats really cause cancer? —LEWIS, SEATTLE, WA A. Yes and no! Throwing meat on the grill does produce chemicals (HCAs and PAHs) that may increase your risk for cancer—but the increase appears to be small. The hotter and/or longer you grill meat, the more likely these chemicals are to develop, so limit well-done steaks. Using a low-sugar marinade (such as vinegar, yogurt, lemon or lime juice, or dark beer) with herbs and spices (such as rosemary, onion powder, fresh garlic) can lower HCA and PAH formation, and including lots of fresh fruits and vegetables can diminish their cancer-causing activity. —BRIAN ST. PIERRE, R.D., C.S.C.S.…

↓ DIRECTIONS: Do this workout as a circuit. Do each move for 40 seconds, rest 40 seconds, then go on to the next move. Do 3 rounds of the circuit. Enjoy the sweat. WARMUP WORLD’S GREATEST STRETCH Start in pushup position, hands directly below shoulders. Shift your right leg to just outside your right hand and tighten your left glute. Pause. Reach your right hand toward the sky, following it with your gaze (a). Return your right hand to the floor, straighten your right leg, and rock backward, stretching your hamstrings (b). Return to the start. That’s 1 rep. Alternate reps between sides for 60 seconds, then rest 30 seconds. Do 3 sets. WORKOUT 1 LATERAL BEAR CRAWL Get on all fours, hands directly below your shoulders, knees about shoulder-width apart.…

LATE LAST SPRING, Brian Block, M.D., noticed that some of the people coming into his clinic at the University of California, San Francisco—the one he and his colleagues created to help people recover from severe Covid—weren’t who he’d anticipated. Alongside those who had been hospitalized with Covid, which was the population he and his colleagues had expected to care for, about a quarter of the patients were people who had never been hospitalized for the disease. They’d had “mild” acute Covid—a fever, a cough that they’d recovered from quickly. But months after thinking they’d beaten the illness, they didn’t feel like themselves—heart palpitations, brain fog, an inability to exercise even close to how they used to. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Monica Lypson, M.D., was seeing the…

Sooo… Do you want to reduce how much you sweat? Antiperspirant it is! Do you tend to sweat through shirts quickly? YES, PLEASE. I’m sweating just thinking about sweating NOT REALLY. It’s more about the smell. So you want a deodorant. All natural, or just the regular pharmacy kind? How concerned are you about plastic waste? Do you have to apply the product more than once a day? Do you have sensitive skin? Do you prefer solid or creamy sticks? Old Spice Swagger Refillable Antiperspirant ($10.50). The fresh lime-and-cedarwood scent you like. Pop a plastic-free refill into the reusable case and you’ll help the planet. Gillette Invisible Solid Antiperspirant & Deodorant ($5.50). With an herb-and-lavender scent, this gentle formula will keep you smelling fresh all day long. Art of Sport…

WHEN CHASE STOKES, 28, flew out to Charleston, South Carolina, for an audition, he packed just two pairs of shorts, underwear, and three T-shirts. Having faced career rejection before, he assumed he wouldn’t stay long. “My bank account had just overdrafted and I couldn’t even afford an Uber from the airport,” Stokes says. “I had to ask someone in production to spot me some cash.” Fortunately, this audition turned out to be for a part on Netflix’s murder mystery Outer Banks, a cultural phenomenon among the Gen Zcrowd. And he snagged the lead role of John B only 20 minutes after his audition. “I never went back to L.A. after that, and all I had were the clothes I’d brought. I couldn’t even buy anything until I got my first…