Men's Health Australia May 2020

resilience

The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. Months ago when we began working on this, our second annual Earth Issue, we lived in a state of relative pre-COVID-19 bliss – though I use the term ‘bliss’ loosely. Australia was still in the grip of a catastrophic bushfire season, the world had just lost Kobe, and while we were shooting our cover feature the nation’s east coast was battered by violent storms. On a personal level, I began this issue experiencing something of an existential crisis. I found myself hating the body I was in. According to my thinking, my arms weren’t big enough for me to be taken seriously as the editor of Men’s Health. My abs weren’t defined enough to justify my position in signing off on advice on how…

ask mh

THE BIG QUESTION Coffee always makes me work out harder, but I know it dehydrates me, too. What do I do? – MW Your belief that coffee makes you work out more intensely is not illusory. Caffeine, in fact, is one of the very few substances for which there’s a bedrock of evidence pointing to an ergogenic (or work-enhancing) effect. A recent review of 300 studies found a caffeine-induced performance boost ranging from 2-16 per cent – and that kicked in whether the activity was endurance-based or all about strength and power. As for drawbacks, the potential for dehydration shouldn’t concern you unduly, says Eric Helms, a physique coach and nutrition adviser. Studies show that you’d have to slam down about four cups of coffee to put yourself at risk of dehydration –…

how to grow old gainfully

PARDON OUR FRENCH, but ageing is a bâtard. Hair loss, crow’s feet, that involuntary groan as you climb off the sofa: all of these combine to make growing old feel like an inescapable downward slope. But new research suggests a body that moves, feels and looks better in your forties and beyond is within your grasp. In a study in Frontiers in Physiology, scientists compared the muscle-building ability of two groups of older men. The researchers pitted “master athletes” (men older than 60 who had exercised for at least 20 years) against those who had never exercised in earnest. Each was given an isotope tracer to drink, then set up on a leg extension machine. Researchers took biopsies before and after each workout, looking at how participants’ muscles responded with the…

make it a big week

MONDAY: BenchPress (5 sets of 5 reps, 120sec rest) Lie on a bench and grip the bar just past shoulder width. Lower until it’s above the middle of your chest, pause, then press back up until your arms are straight. WEDNESDAY: BackSquat (5 sets of 5 reps, 120sec rest) Stand with your feet just wider than your shoulders. Rest the bar on your upper back. Sit into a squat until your hips are in line with your knees. Push up through your heels until standing. FRIDAY: Deadlift (5 sets of 5 reps, 120sec rest) Start standing with your feet beneath the bar. Squat to grip it. Keeping your weight on your heels, lift the bar to your thighs, pause, then slowly return to the start.…

horoscope out extra brain power

IN THIS HIGH-PRESSURE, always-on era, people are increasingly finding consolation in the constellations. A US study released by the National Science Foundation found that half of all Americans incorrectly believe astrology has some basis in science, while Google Trends, the search engine’s web analysis tool, shows Australia ranks sixth in the world for interest in astrology. Which you could argue is good news: though there’s no measurable evidence for the idea that your star sign correlates to your personality, research suggests that checking your horoscope can have a quantifiably positive impact on your mind. While only a minority of Australians are true believers, most of us know our star sign and are exposed to horoscopes routinely in magazines and online. According to a study in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, consulting the…

slice out your risk of infertility

FOR MANY OF US, pizza is an unrivalled cheat meal. Gratifyingly, research suggests that it could help you cheat the generation game, too. Male infertility has been found to be the cause of a couple’s failure to conceive in around 50 per cent of cases. As men wait longer to start a family, the problem is growing worse: after you hit 30, the rate at which your fertility declines accelerates. Yet these statistics needn’t leave a bitter taste. Eat more pizza and your odds may improve, science suggests. In a study published in the European Journal of Nutrition, men who consumed two tablespoons per day of concentrated tomato purée (which forms the base of your pizza topping) had improved sperm motility – the cells’ ability to move independently – and overall…