Men's Health Australia December 2021

editor’s letter

SUN’S OUT, GUMS OUT While in the early stages of pulling together our final issue for 2021, I had a dream. Not, unfortunately, in the Martin Luther King Jnr sense – this was a night-time vision that struck with such realism that it left me fretting for hours after awakening. In said dream, my teeth fell out. I could feel my lips wrap around my bare gums, settling into the little grooves where my ivories should have been. It was like being a toddler again, tonguing the gap where a baby tooth fell out, yet on a much grander (and more horrifying) scale. Following a moment of dreamy relief at being released from the shackles of eternal brushing and flossing, a panic set in, strong enough to wake me from my slumber. What…

ask mh

THE BIG QUESTION I’m getting crypto FOMO. Should I be investing or is it too late? – LA ★From chancers to financiers and tech figureheads, a scroll through your social feeds can make it seem like everyone’s cashing in on crypto. The number of users is estimated at anywhere up to 5.8 million. But before we get to your question, let’s address a common query: what is cryptocurrency, anyway? Simply put, it’s a digital currency that has no physical form and isn’t regulated by traditional institutions, such as your bank. “Cryptocurrencies do not have intrinsic value, which is among the reasons for their incredible volatility,” says Mohammad Uz-Zaman, a cryptocurrency expert at ADL Estate Planning. “Because of this, they are not recognised as legal tender.” Explain, then, Elon Musk saying Tesla is “most likely”…

ask the girls in the office

★ Ask the MH girls the questions you can’t ask anyone else. They’re three women who speak their mind, so don’t expect sugar-coated answers My girlfriend doesn’t think much of my mum and dad. I see theirfaults but, hell, they’re my parents and decent people.Isthisadeal-breaker? – Lk Becky:My first question would be, have your parents acted in a certain towards your GF for her to feel the way she does? Jess:Agreed. Why don’t they get along? And is there something you could do to help facilitate a better relationship? I feel like everyone in these situations leans on the line that “you’re dating the person, not their family”, but I’d be wary of taking that line of advice. Nik: Yeah, surely her opinion of your mum and dad could change... Becky: If not, then bad…

leap into new muscle

YOUR MONTHLY DOWNLOAD OF THE LATEST LIFE ENHANCING RESEARCH WHENEVER MANY OF US got to train in a gym this year, we tended to have one core aim: to lift big. After all, cardio and conditioning are easy enough to replicate at home, but few of us have the set-up for a grunt-inducing 100-kg bench press in our backyards. Admittedly, there’s no sound more satisfying than the clatter of a barbell on the floor as you push for a new personal best, but there are some elements of your WFH workout plan that are well worth sticking with. Plyometric training – the squat jumps, burpees and double-unders that you (perhaps begrudgingly) perform in your garden and living room – is an indispensable weapon in your body-transformation arsenal. Though its primary purpose is to…

a sweet idea for better memory

BACK IN THE EARLY 2010s, a highly inadvisable internet dare game called ‘The Cinnamon Challenge’ tasked participants with swallowing a tablespoon of the dry spice. (Spoiler: they couldn’t.) With a number of embarrassing videos still circulating, we’d imagine most wish that they could just forget it ever happened. Which, according to the latest science, is kind of ironic... A study by researchers in Taiwan and China found that supplementing your diet with cinnamon could have impressive benefits to your working memory. When people with high blood glucose levels – a common, memory-impairing issue in men over the age of 40 – were surveyed on their diets, those who reported consuming cinnamon regularly were shown to have sharper powers of recall in tests. Cinnamon contains compounds that improve insulin sensitivity, which inhibits the…

chip away to carve the body you want

IT’S A FAMILIAR COMPLAINT, echoed in gyms across the country every Monday morning. You spend all week diligently prepping vegetables and shaking whey, only for your resolve to crumble like a potato chip come Saturday night. If that sounds familiar, you need to switch up your thinking. Not only is an all-work-and-no-play ethos mentally draining, attempting to stick to your meal plan seven days a week might not even be the most effective strategy for building a lean, muscular physique. In a recent study in the Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, healthy gym-goers were split into two groups. Those in the first group were instructed to reduce their kilojoule intake by a quarter for a whole week; those in the second cut back by a more demanding 35 per cent from…