Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2025 i Men's Health

WHAT YOUR LIVER DOES THINK OF THE organ as a refinery. Everything you consume—from your breakfast burrito to any medication you take—your liver filters, processes, stores, and/or turns into something new (it even makes cholesterol). The organ also puts in the hard work of regulating glucose, which involves holding on to that sugar and then deploying it when your body needs energy. And your liver helps handle the dirty work of sending whatever you don’t need out into the toilet. WHAT KEEPS IT FROM WORKING ALL OF THE FACTORS below get in the way of your liver doing all of its jobs—and eventually prevent it from doing any of them. These drive the first stage of liver disease, which is inflammation. The second stage is called fibrosis, which occurs when…

OFF THE GRID Citizen Promaster Navihawk Batteries? This watch has Eco-Drive, which keeps it running by collecting energy from any light source and storing it in a power cell. Throw in water resistance and a triple-link stainless steel bracelet and it’ll survive almost anything. $595 INTO THE DARK Luminox Navy SEAL Foundation 3250 “Back to the Blue” When night falls, the glow-in-the-dark function illuminates the face with blue and gold accents—a nod to the Navy SEALs it was built to honor. The 45mm case is made of stainless steel for added strength and protects the innards from water damage on missions (or at pool parties). $775 Victorinox Swiss Army Chrono The watch face details shine yellow at night, and the black case and ISOcertified shock resistance are ready for whatever…

JALEN HURTS isn’t at Disney World. On a gray March afternoon in Philadelphia, I find him at the Fitler Club, a sleek, members-only lifestyle hub hidden in a Center City alley overlooking the Schuylkill River. Hurts is seated in an industrial-style conference room against a backdrop of steel, locker-style cages. He has the relaxed look of an offseason athlete: all-black Jordan sweat-suit over a white tee, paired with Air Force Ones. When I enter the room, his large hands are casually tapping an iPad that has a case covered in motivational quotes. On the back, a black-and-white sticker reads, in all caps, “if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” Beside it: two crumpled, handwritten Post-it notes—one on expectations,…

IF YOUR BODY is a machine, the size of its engine is your VO2 max, a measure of how quickly you can pump oxygen from your lungs through your bloodstream and into your leg muscles. A higher VO2 max translates to better capacity for endurance, and may influence longevity. The best way to increase your VO2 max is with hard interval workouts. Specifically, repeated intervals lasting three to five minutes, with equal or shorter recovery. A good place to start is to alternate 4:00 hard, 4:00 recovery, and repeat four times. Begin with an easy warm-up run of at least five minutes. The hard sections should be as hard as you can sustain for the entire workout—not an all-out sprint from the start. It will take some trial and error…

I AM NOT a particularly adventurous person. I have a gluten allergy. I can’t go outside without slathering my many high-risk moles with SPF 1,000. I once brought my own sponge to the office kitchen because I felt my coworkers weren’t properly caring for the communal one. Anyway, I’m a lot of fun. I am also, however, a dad. One who doesn’t want his children to inherit his limp personality. So, on rare occasions, I allow my kids to talk me into doing something way outside my comfort zone. A few years ago, that actually involved committing a crime. This was several months into a pandemic (the COVID one…remember that?). I wanted to get my then-6-year-old daughter out of the house, so I took her to the most open-air place…

I’D LOVE TO say that I’m a cool dad who has enjoyed all kinds of insane adventures across the world with my kids. I’d love to say that the most fun I ever had with my two girls was when we did yoga while learning a new language as we trapezed our way across the Andes. The reality is that my wife, Melissa, is the real adventurer of the family. And though we have traveled all over the world with the girls, at heart I’m not a super adventurous, devil-may-care kind of father. In fact, the girls tell me all the time: In the deepest recesses of my soul, there lives an Italian grandmother. She just wants everyone to eat well and stay safe and be happy. My kids…

IN ONE CORNER of the convention center, a 63-year-old man grinds out a 340-pound bench press. Just a two-minute walk away, a group of hulking firemen raise 250-pound fire hydrants onto a four-foot-high scaffold, battling for the title of World’s Strongest Firefighter. Step into a side room and men with meaty hands wrap their sausage-like fingers around a steel tube loaded with 165 pounds of weight, grimacing as they lift using only the strength of their forearms. They’re competing in armlifting, an extreme test of grip. Around the corner, in a room guarded by more than 10 security personnel, members of Arnold’s Pump Club, a virtual training group, are meeting up IRL to attempt personal records in the trap bar deadlift after getting a hype speech from Arnold Schwarzenegger himself.…

THE LONELINESS OF the long-distance runner. Forrest Gump’s slog across America. Hitting the wall. For years, when we thought about running, it was a solo pursuit, often involving suffering, sometimes pain, and occasionally glory. Of course people ran for the health benefits, and recent research confirms cardio fitness is critical to longevity, but often, striving for those benefits felt like an uphill struggle. Recently, there’s been a vibe shift. And running—jogging with a buddy or two, joining a club, training for a half, gunning for your marathon PR—has started to feel a lot more fun. And it all starts with getting out there. “Consistency trumps all else,” says coach Steve Magness, author of Win the Inside Game. “More than half the battle is just showing up and doing the thing.…

FOR OFF-ROAD HOKA SPEEDGOAT 6 GTX Take your run into the wild with one of the most reliable trail shoes I’ve tested. This extra-tough edition has a Gore-Tex waterproof upper and a Vibram sole, so I don’t think twice before plowing through mud, streams, or any other terrain. $170, HOKA.COM FOR SHORTER SESSIONS PUMA VELOCITY NITRO 3 From shakeout runs to speed sessions (and even Hyrox intervals!), the combination of cushioning with just enough bounce makes them a pair I wear more than any other. $135, US.PUMA.COM FOR MINIMALISTS TOPO ST-5 Zero-drop shoes are flat from heel to toe and allow for a more natural movement through your stride. This pair is light and responsive and still gives me just enough cushioning foam (14 mm) that I feel supported…

THREE YEARS AGO, there were 36 Christmas trees in my home. My husband, Lance, and I put them everywhere. Full-size real trees in our living room and entertaining space. Smaller versions in our bedroom and in our son Robbie’s room. Artifcial trees of various statures greeted guests at entryways, sat atop mantels, and even hung upside down above our dining room table. In other years, I’ve adorned doorways with elaborate wreath displays using a shower rod and patience. (Thank you, TikTok #christmashack.) I’ve staple-gunned 1,000 mini-LED lights to the ceiling only to realize that they were bright white—not warm white—and then I hand-dipped each bulb in orange paint that I had squeezed into a shot glass. Lance and I have flled our front yard with animatronic Santas and reindeer, blow-up…

WHEN I WAS in third grade, I watched a movie called Space Camp. The plot involves a group of kids at (you guessed it) space camp who accidentally get shot into space and have to figure out how to steer their space shuttle back to Earth. Even though its logic doesn’t hold up, Space Camp unlocked something in my brain. The movie was my first real introduction to aviation and space—and I became fascinated by flying. I don’t remember all the details, but I know that at some point the following summer, a brochure for a real space camp, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, entered the house. I begged my mom, every day, for two weeks straight, just to open it. Just to look at…

IN MARCH, I traveled to the Arnold Sports Festival, a four-day event named after Schwarzenegger himself. The festival drew 16,000 athletes, as well as 105,000 fans, to Columbus, Ohio. I saw outlandishly strong people trying to lift outlandishly heavy things. It’s intense: Muscles rip, blood vessels burst, urine squirts out. I talked to the top competitors—the strongest men and women on the planet—for the Fit Tribes story on page 44. And I connected with Arnie, who told me what he finds most inspiring: “It’s thousands of people pumping each other up and pushing beyond what they think are their limits.” That’s what fascinated me most—pushing beyond your limits. Some people seemed to be able to mentally activate more muscle. They were even stronger than they believed. It makes you curious about…

PHASE 1 GET LOOSE. THE BIG INITIAL question: Can you rotate without pain? If you haven’t done it in years, this may be harder than you think. “Let’s say you’re a 39-year-old guy,” says trainer John Rusin, DPT. “Your shoulder’s shot, your back hurts. The time to play with rotation is in warm-ups and cooldowns.” To that end, start and finish your workout with three sets of these moves. That hip work is key, says Otey. If one side of your hips is tight, you may set yourself up for back pain. 1a. LYING TWIST Lie on your back with your arms out to your sides, knees bent, and feet flat. Without sliding your feet left or right, slowly lower your knees to the left and your head to the…

IN AN ICE BATH on the roof of Whoop’s Kenmore Square headquarters on a frigid spring day in Boston, Will Ahmed is slowly and deliberately inhaling and exhaling, box breathing his way through three excruciating minutes. He inhales on a five count, holds it for five, exhales on five, holds it for five, and repeats. Ahmed began cold plunging two years ago to help reduce inflammation and found it helped him go harder on the squash court and in the gym—the two places he’s already worked up a sweat this morning. “I also just loved the way I felt mentally—not just immediately after, but for the next 12 hours,” he says. “If I can do a hard workout first thing, followed by a cold plunge, it’ll clear my mind and…

YOU CAN’T MISS the saguaros at Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona. They’re majestic sentinels for this OG wellness destination that’s been celebrating healthy food, exercise, and nature for more than 45 years. These cacti endure all kinds of stress, have postures that would make yogis envious, can live for up to 200 years, and don’t even start growing secondary limbs until 100. Talk about #gainsatanyage. The resort’s new Longevity8 program takes the idea of a wellness vacation and, well, 8x’s it. The itinerary includes sessions on flexibility, strength, endurance, emotional health, spiritual wellness, nutrition, sleep, and (because we’re in Arizona) connection to nature. While I’ve enjoyed dipping my toes in self-care on other trips, L8 offers everything—top doctors, trainers, dietitians, therapists, even a spiritual guru—all in one place. If it…

FRANK BONIELLO Based at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Boniello, 31, beat out hundreds of firemen and - women to win the 2025 title of World’s Strongest Firefighter. That included pressing a 275-pound ambulance axle overhead nine times, deadlifting 915 pounds, and lifting and placing five fire hydrants—200, 225, 250, 275, and 300 pounds—in 26 seconds. “Strongman training translates well to my job,” says Boniello. “The movement patterns, lifting different objects, not letting stress cloud your vision.” But it’s not all about competition. “I love to see others in my fire family do well.“ ANDREI SHARKEVICH The Shark (above, left), 37, claimed the 220-pound left-handed arm wrestling title. It’s a crown he’d been chasing for 10 years, since he left bodybuilding to take up arm wrestling.…

FOR CORE AND SCAPULARSTABILIT Y THREAD THE NEEDLE PLANK 20 REPS PER SIDE Set up in a high plank position, feet wider than shoulders. Get perpendicular to a cable machine or a resistance band anchored a few inches off the floor. Reach under your body to grasp the handle with your outside hand. Your upper body will twist; keep your lower body still. Untwist back to the plank position. Then extend your working arm to the side until it’s parallel to the floor. FOR HIP PROP UL SION SINGLE-LEG DEADLIFT 20 REPS PER SIDE Stand with one leg forward, holding dumbbells or kettle-bells. Keep your weight on the front foot; use your rear foot only as a counterbalance. Push your butt back, then hinge forward and lower the weights until…

AT FIRST, the interview looks like any you’d find on network TV: two men, both in sport coats, set off in boxes beside each other, speaking directly to the camera. The chyron beneath them has “Ask Dr. Drew” on the left and the name of his guest on the right: Warner Mendenhall. Mendenhall comes into the interview hot, talking about how the COVID vaccine was “completely ineffective” and that it’s caused “tremendous damage.” Then he says, “I believe about half a million people have died from taking the shot.” If you’re not familiar, Mendenhall is a lawyer who claims that some of his clients have become ill and suffered injuries due to the vaccine. You’re probably already familiar with Dr. Drew. Drew Pinsky, MD, is 66 now, and he’s been…

MULTI-TOOL Scissors, screwdrivers, can opener, serrated knives—something that has everything you need for an overnight hike (or an hour at the playground). SNACKS A child’s metabolism incinerates energy bars. Kids (and you) need snacks that sustain. Grylls likes nuts and dates. Boring? Maybe. Satisfying? Absolutely. FIRST AID KIT “Most basic first aid kits are rubbish,” Grylls says. “Make your own and include adhesive bandages, antiseptic wipes, antibacterial ointment, ibuprofen, eye drops, and tweezers.” A LENGTH OF ROPE Yes, rope. “There’s so much you can do with it,” he says, “from games, learning skills, climbing, river adventures, raft building, exercise….” A BOOK How about You Decide Your Adventure? It’s Grylls’s brand-new, kid-focused book, which teaches survival skills—with fun quizzes!…

“I’VE BROKEN ABOUT 34 OR 35 BONES. MY WRIST TENDS TO HURT ME VERY BADLY.” IEvel Knievel, the legendary daredevil, is gazing directly into the camera. It’s 1994, and the man best known for wild stunts like attempting to jump a motorcycle over a canyon is starring in an infomercial titled “Saying No to Pain.” “When I put the [Stimulator] on and I click it and use it, say, half a dozen or a dozen times on different parts of my wrist, my wrist begins to feel good. I also use it on my knees. It does help me feel a lot better. I use it on my ankles. I’ve broken both my ankles.” Knievel is holding a syringe-shaped gadget—the Stimulator—which promises natural, safe, and effective pain relief by delivering…