Men's Health Australia June 2021

UNLTD ★ From a young age, I’ve been fascinated by fitness and the body’s response to training. As a teenager I loved manipulating my workouts in pursuit of different goals, chasing down endorphin highs and test-driving new methodologies. My head was constantly buried in research papers and books; it often still is. It’s perhaps this thirst for knowledge and understanding that led me to the editor’s chair here at Men’s Health. My problem back then was my short attention span, which saw my fitness quest became akin to a puppy chasing every stick in the park. I pursued strength training but couldn’t resist the allure of a three-day adventure race in the wild. I craved hypertrophy, but equally, couldn’t allow myself to lose hard-won cardio capacity. I was simply too excitable, too…

I’m back in the gym after five years. When will I see results? – RW ★ First of all, take a moment to congratulate yourself. The hardest part is now over. But it’s not all Easy Street from here – the road from rookie to ripped is paved with DOMS and blisters. But one silver lining should provide you with the requisite motivation. Not only will you see results quickly, but they’ ll be more impressive than those of the seasoned gym-goers sweating alongside you. Deep within the diminished biceps of a lapsed lifter like you lies a dormant physiological mechanism that, once activated, turns you into a muscle-building powerhouse. Newbie gains are a phenomenon unique to beginners. Building muscle in a kilojoule deficit – as most are, when supersetting new gym…

WHY DO I KEEP GETTING HEARTBURN AFTER I LIFT WEIGHTS? – CC I always feel the burn after a heavy weights sesh, and not in a good way. WTF is going on? It’s probably gastroesophageal reflux disease, which is pretty common. It’s caused by an increase in intra-abdominal pressure when you perform big lifts. This makes the contents of your stomach – including the acid – head north, forcing the valve at the bottom of your oesophagus open and irritating it. I can’t train without eating breakfast first, but it seems to make it worse. Any tips? Timing matters: don’t hit the gym on a full stomach. Opt for something small, easily digestible and low in fat, like a banana or a protein shake. Eating slowly is wise, too. If heartburn kicks in before the end…

How can I convince my girlfriend not to be worried about my female best friend? -EC Lizza: This is a hard one. Harriet: It depends on what the problem is from her point of view. Is it that the female bestie is taking up a lot of his time? Or is she just jealous of her? If this friend is always around, that’s going to be annoying, because as a girlfriend you want to spend a lot of one-on-one time with your boyfriend. Lizza: Yeah, because for me, I feel that my husband is also my best friend. So, if he had another woman as his best friend, I’d be like, Why? Aren’t we supposed to be best friends? Lucy: Relationships need to evolve. With the bestie, it can’t be that relationship anymore where…

YOUR MONTHLY DOWNLOAD OF THE LATEST LIFE ENHANCING RESEARCH ABOUT 60 PER CENT of Australian men have trouble sleeping, according to the Sleep Health Foundation. That’s a nightmarish scenario for your weight-loss ambitions. Insufficient sleep won’t just short-circuit your hormones and increase your junk food cravings; it’ll push your body into an anaerobic state more quickly when you exercise – that’s the burnout point at which your oxygen demands exceed the supply. By forcing you to train anaerobically, poor sleep prevents you from running as far in your cardio sessions, or pushing as hard in the weights room. Your kilojoule-burning potential is dampened. Thankfully, sleep scientists have found an eye-opening solution. In a study published in the Japanese Circulation Journal, they demonstrated that a simple magnesium supplement can negate the effects of…

IF YOU WANT TO squeeze more years out of life, start the day with a retro breakfast of pink grapefruit. As well as being a potent source of fibre, vitamins and antioxidants, this citrus is packed with organic pigments called carotenoids, which are responsible for the red, yellow and orange hues of many fruits and vegetables (and, incidentally, flamingos). New research has shown that getting enough of these compounds in your diet can slow ageing at a molecular level. Scientists at Seoul University analysed blood sample data from thousands of adults in the US and discovered a correlation between carotenoid intake and the length of your telomeres. These are the caps at the end of each strand of DNA that guard your chromosomes, acting like the plastic tips at the end…