Men's Health Australia January 2022

IMAGINE FOR A moment that you are a great archer, standing in an empty field, tasked with firing an arrow at a distant target. That target is an apple resting on the head of your beloved. Your fletcher reaches into the quiver and hands you the finest arrow he’s ever crafted. It feels light in your hand, almost fragile, deserving of being handled, you feel, with the utmost care. As you place it in your bow, carefully balancing the strength required to draw back the string yet keeping your body still, you notice a slight breeze against your cheek. You make a mental note to account for this intrusion and ever so slightly adjust your aim. You gaze down the shaft of the arrow one last time. You will not…

THE BIG QUESTION Q I’m not into cardio, but I do walk to work. Does that count? – EW IT’S A MYTH that cardio is a “no pain, no gain” endeavour. Naturally, you’ll get fitter if you’re charging through four-minute kays in a weighted vest. But if your goal is more general health than elite-level endurance, schlepping to the supermarket and back can offer multiple benefits, too. To be specific, “improved cardiorespiratory fitness, blood glucose, improved lipid profiles and insulin sensitivity,” says Dr Clara Russell, a GP and founder of brain health specialists Noggin. A study in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine found that walking for 3-4 hours per week reduced cardiovascular mortality by half. A separate study showed that moderate exercise might be more efficient for clearing harmful fat…

YOUR MONTHLY DOWNLOAD OF THE LATEST LIFE ENHANCING RESEARCH WHEN, BACK IN EARLY 2021, we did our annual audit of the wellness trends predicted to take off this year, two keywords emerged: slow down. Our fitness-industry futurists pointed to a new appreciation of breathwork, low-intensity training and mental health-focused movement. Punishing yourself with a 5am HIIT class seven days a week? Very 2019. Plus, as a new study shows, easy doesn’t mean ineffective. According to a paper published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the slow, focused, mindful movements that make up traditional tai chi practice can match aerobic exercise for health benefits. Researchers studied 543 participants – all of whom were 50 or older and carrying extra weight around their middles – for over 12 weeks and found that…

THE ELITE MARATHON runner Eliud Kipchoge famously grins as he runs. This is not, contrary to what you might think, a sign of smugness due to his incredible abilities. Instead, it’s a science-backed strategy to help him relax and stay positive during discomfort. Now, scientists have gone one better. Okay, perhaps not in terms of marathon records. But there is a trick that could help you better your own personal bests. Researchers at Georgia State University found incorporating bouts of laughter into an exercise program had a significant improvement on aerobic endurance. The study group performed two 45-minute training sessions a week, with a laughter exercise incorporated intermittently. Not only was giggling and snickering proven to relax the muscles, helping them recover from previous sets while preparing them for the…

KEEPING YOUR SLACK status set to active outside of working hours may be the new staying late at the office, but for the sake of your mental health you should be putting in that extra time at the beginning of the day, not the end. New research has found that shifting your sleep and wake-up times earlier by just one hour may reduce the risk of developing depression by almost a quarter. The study, carried out at University of Colorado Boulder and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, involving more than 840,000 people, found a link between earlier sleep patterns and a lower risk of depressive symptoms. Researchers found those who tended to stay up late could benefit by switching up their schedules, even if the actual amount of…

BEFORE YOU CAN understand Nazeem Hussain, you must first appreciate the force of nature that is his mother. A single mum who brought up three kids at a time when divorce was frowned upon in Melbourne’s Sri Lankan community, Mumtaz Hamid worked around the clock as a bookkeeper, a kitchen hand and a leaflet deliverer, among other things, to make sure her kids grew up with opportunities to do whatever they wanted, even if that included walking away from a secure career in tax law to become a stand-up comedian. Something she never did, though? Back down from a fight. “My mum, if you try to put her in her place, she’ll put you in your place,” says Hussain, who’s talking to me from the kitchen of his home in…