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 ’PUBLISHER’S NOTE
Advisory Board
SOMETIMES, EVEN WE NEED ADVICE. HERE’S WHO WE ASK.

STRENGTH TRAINING FOOD M O T I VAT I O N

CJ Murphy, M.F.S. Danny Boome Celebrity Martin E. Ford, Ph.D.

Owner, Total Performance chef, currently on Good Professor of education,
Sports, Everett, MA Food America for Veria Living George Mason University
Jim Smith, C.P.P.S. Candice Kumai Author,
Owner, Diesel Strength & Clean Green Drinks, R E L AT I O N S H I P S

Conditioning candicekumai.com Tammy Nelson, Ph.D.

Zach Even-Esh
Owner, Underground
Strength Gym, Edison, NJ
WEIGHT LOSS
Bob Harper Fitness expert;
trainer, NBC’s The Biggest
Loser
Chris Powell, C.S.C.S.
Trainer; author; transfor-
mation specialist, ABC’s
Extreme Weight Loss
Frank G. Bottone Jr.,
Ph.D., R.D. Author, The
Diet Denominator: Fill Your
Tank for Less
FINANCE
Roy Cohen Career coun-
selor; author, The Wall Street
Professional’s Survival
Guide; careercoachny.com
Devin Alexander Celebrity
chef; host, PBS’s America’s
Chefs on Tour; New York
Times best-selling author
SPORTS PERFORMANCE
Jason Ferruggia,
Fitness expert; owner,
jasonferruggia.com
Dan Trink, C.S.C.S.
Owner, Trink Fitness
Jon Hinds Owner, Monkey
Bar Gym, Madison, WI
Kevin Lilly Former D1
football player; trainer of
actors and athletes
ENDURANCE
Pete Jacobs 2012 Ironman
world champion, Sydney,
Australia
Certified sex therapist,
New Haven, CT
Michael Aaron, Ph.D.
Certified sex therapist
and couples counselor,
drmichaelaaronnyc.com
Moushumi Ghose, M.F.T.
Licensed psychotherapist
and sex therapist,
New York City
W I L D E R N E S S S U RV I VA L
Thomas Coyne, E.M.T.
President, Survival Training
School of California,
Tehachapi, CA
M A L E H E A LT H
Steven Lamm, M.D., Direc-
tor, Men’s Health Center,
New York University Medical
Center

Chris Bart, Ph.D. Business FAS H I O N

consultant; author, A Tale of
Two Employees
D E R M AT O LO GY
Tina West, M.D. Board-cer-
tified dermatologist; founder
of the West Institute,
westskinlaser.com
Annet King, Director
of global education, the
International Dermal Institute
and Dermalogica
PHYSICAL THERAPY
SPORTS NUTRITION
Jorge Valls Men’s fashion
Shelby Starnes IFBB director, Nordstrom
bodybuilder; owner,
Michael Gordon
shelbystarnes.com
Store director, Tourneau
Nate Miyaki, C.S.S.N. TimeMachine, NYC
Author, The Samurai Diet;
owner natemiyaki.com
GROOMING
Anthony Sosnick Founder,
NUTRITION
Anthony grooming brand
Angela Lemond, R.D.N.
Owner, Lemond Nutrition; Israel Leon Master barber,
spokesperson, American The Art of Shaving, NYC
Academy of Nutrition and
Dietetics P SYC H I AT RY

Jay Dicharry, M.P.T., Elizabeth M. Ward, M.S., Michael A. Grandner,

C.S.C.S. Director of R.D.N. Award-winning Ph.D., Instructor, Penn
biomechanics, Rebound writer, nutrition consultant, Center for Sleep and
Physical Therapy spokesperson Circadian Neurobiology

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 Edited by Nina Combs
The sushi
secret
Japanese
people are
some of the
healthiest on
the planet. They have the
highest life expectancy
for men (76) and women
(86), and, at 3%, the
lowest obesity rate.
(The US sits at a flabby
32%.) They also have the
lowest risk of death from
all causes, along with
reduced odds of dying
from cardiovascular
disease and stroke.
So what the hell are
they doing so right?
Eating sushi. Or, to
be more specific, eating
salmon, tuna, cod,
mackerel, octopus, eel, a
little beef, some chicken,
and a whole lot of rice,
buckwheat noodles,
carrots, cucumbers,
mushrooms, pickles
Jonathan Kambouris/ Gallery Stock
— well, basically what
you’d see on the menu at
your local sushi spot.
Yes, according to a
new study published in
the journal BMJ, it’s the
typical Japanese diet —
defined by the country’s
dietary guidelines as five
to seven daily servings
of grains, five to six
Hard-hitting news from the cutting edge of modern research
There’s
something
fishy going on
in Japan—and
it’s keeping
people alive.
servings of vegetables,
three to five servings of
fish and meat, and two
servings of dairy and
fruits — that’s keeping
this country’s citizens so
extraordinarily healthy,
In addition to eating
mostly energy-dense,
whole foods in the
right proportions, the
Japanese also serve
smaller portions, so
their daily calorie intake
is about 25% less than
that of Americans — a
boon in itself, as studies
have shown that even
just an 8% reduction in
calories could lead to
longer life.
To implement these
guidelines in your own
life, up your intake
of fish, veggies, and
grains; and the next time
you hit a sushi joint,
skip the overstuffed
Americanized rolls and
stick to more traditional
Japanese fare by
choosing sashimi (strips
of raw fish), nigiri (raw
fish on top of a bit of
rice), and temaki (the
cone-shaped, seaweed-
wrapped rolls).
Kanpai! — A D A M B I B L E
 Health Breakthroughs

Tough Guys
Need Female
Docs
Q Although men are
more likely to go to
a male doctor than
a female, they’re
less likely to be
honest with him
about symptoms
- especially if they
feel the need to be
a tough guy (read:
not show weakness
to another man),
two new Rutgers
University studies
have discovered.
But with a female
doc, they’re more
open. (Hey, they’re
just chicks — no loss EJACULATING
of mojo there, right?) AT LEAST 13
If you hold back with
Dr Dude, switch to a
female doc. You’ll be
TIMES A MONTH
LOWERS
YOUR CANCER
Your prostate
more comfortable
dropping trou — and
defences.
RISK. READY,
SET… GO! wants you to
have more sex
therapy like The more often you ejaculate,
Butt out—fast! the lower your risk of prostate
To Lose Weight,
patches and T
Wheel Your Way QDon’t try to
nicotine gum. cancer will be, US-based Harvard
to Work At the end of six University is reporting — and it
stop smoking by
months, 22% of doesn’t matter if you’re making sweet love
Q Getting and stay- tapering off — just
ing trim could be as
the cold turkeys
pick a date and quit to your honey bunch, banging a bridesmaid
easy as making your were still ciggie-
cold turkey.
free, compared with in a cab, or choking the chicken in your
job commute a little
Oxford University mom’s guest bathroom. The recent 10-year
more active. 15.5% of the gradual
Adults who bicycle researchers split follow-up to a 2004 study confirmed that
quitters.
to work weigh about almost 700 subjects
Why? Struggling men who ejaculated more than 21 times
five kilograms less into two groups:
to cut down gave a month had a 20% lower risk of prostate
than those who drive One who would try
the gradual group cancer than those who got off only 4 to 7
cars, and have less to kick the habit
an extra thing to
(heart-damaging) gradually, and one times a month. “Even 13 or more ejaculations F r o m t o p : A r t h u r B e l e b e a u / Tr u n k A r c h i v e ; J o n a t h a n K a n t o r / G e t t y
body fat, according do, which may
who quit all in one
have put them off
per month led to significant reductions
to UK researchers
shot. Both groups in prostate cancer risk”, says study head
who analysed data quitting altogether,
from a huge obser-
had access to Jennifer Rider, PhD. She and her colleagues
Oxford’s Nicola
vational study of tobacco cessation
Lindson-Hawley, speculate that getting rid of all of that baby
subjects aged 40–69, programmes,
including advice,
PhD, speculates. batter releases a citrate that nourishes
The Lancet Diabe-
So, go ahead, just sperm and keeps nearby cells healthy,
tes & Endocrinology support, and free
reports.
rip off the band- or that regularly flushing out all that
replacement
Even if cycling to aid — you’ll have
mouldy old baby batter purges potentially
work isn’t practi- clean lungs and
cal for you, keep this something to brag cancerous cells. And, in related penis news:
principle in mind: about with all those Two to three cups of coffee (85–170mg
Every single thing still-puffing wimps. caffeine) a day can make you 42% less
you can do to get likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction,
your butt out of the
car is a step towards Ashes to ashes…
according to a University of Texas study.
staying slimmer and Quitting smoking in Docs think the caffeine relaxes the
healthier. one fell swoop is more arteries and muscles that lead to the penis,
successful than trying
to do it gradually. allowing for more, and better, chubbies.

10 MEN’S FITNESS NOV/DEC 2023

 Fitness Breakthroughs

Knockout
belly fat!
Put your beer boep down for
the count by finding your inner
P Ali. That’s the word from Down
Under, where for 16 weeks
researchers at the University of Western
Sydney, Australia, put 12 overweight but
fairly healthy people into two test groups:
One that walked briskly four times a week
for 50 minutes per session, and one that
BOXING hit a heavy bag for the same amount
MELTS
CENTIMETRES of time, and did five boxing-related
OFF YOUR GUT. interval exercises — heavy bag, focus
IT DOESN’T HURT mitts, circular body bag, footwork drills,
YOUR STREET and skipping — in 3-minute intervals (2
CRED, EITHER.
minutes on, 1 minute rest). Four months
later, the boxers had clearly won the bout:
Their waist size was down almost seven
centimetres, they’d dropped an average
of 5 kilograms, and their body fat was
or moderately active, power our cells by to defend against
Is High-Intensity 13% lower; even their heart rate and blood
healthy men in their up to 45% post- free radicals”, says
Interval Training the study’s Robert pressure were vastly improved. And
HIIT-ing the wall? 20s did HIIT arm/ training — and that,
leg exercises (30 sec researchers say, Boushel, PhD. the walkers? They’d lost just over half a
Q To the intense work, 4 min could invite disease “Still, even centimetre from their waists, just over
consternation of HIIT rest, 4–6 sets) on 7 caused by free rad- the well-trained 200 grams, and only 5% of their body
junkies everywhere, out of 15 days. icals, like cancer or shouldn’t do HIIT fat. And though their heart rate was a bit
new research has Afterwards, accelerated ageing. more than a few better, their bp was inexplicably worse.
dumped a bucket of muscle tissue But all’s not lost, times a week.”
cold sweat on this Despite the study’s small size, it’s obvious
showed that HIIT fans: “If you And newbies?
red-hot craze. “Start slow and
that for getting lean, sleek, and shredded,
oxidative stress have a solid fitness
In a University of caused by HIIT foundation, you gradually increase putting on some gloves and whacking a
British Columbia weakened the have more enzymes the intensity over heavy bag beats the shit out of taking a
study, 12 untrained mitochondria that in your muscle several weeks.” brisk walk.

QHard-training guys and boost your muscle group’s one-rep max

F r o m t o p : B e n Wa t t s / Tr u n k A r c h i v e ; J o r g B a d u r a

Creatine can benefit from adding strength. on back squats jumped

proven supplements Well, add another 5 kilograms, while the
maxes like fish oil, whey pro- study to the pile: As non-creatine group had
strength tein, and extra amino the journal on Nutri- no significant gain.
acids to their diets. ents reports, research The study also tested
Creatine is another by scientists in Taiwan explosive performance
safe, effective sup- found that giving ath- — movements that
plement with a whole letes 5g of creatine four would come into play
weight room’s worth of times a day for six days during soccer or base-
studies behind it show- produced significant ball games — but found
That’s intense: HIIT
ing it can get you to the strength gains com- the supplement gave
stresses muscles for next level in lean-mus- pared with a placebo the athletes no gains in
better (and for worse?). cle gains, aid recovery, group. The creatine performance.
 MKI

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 Nutrition Breakthroughs

Bowled over
Instead of eating off a
plate (how common!), the
I hot new restaurant trend
is plopping everything
into — wait for it — a bowl. What, not
revolutionary enough for you? Well,
it’s actually a pretty mind-blowing,
fit-body-building idea. No longer are
you forced to limit yourself to just
an entrée and two sides stuck on a
dreary plate, looking like they’re doing
time on the same cell block. Now you
can pile on just about anything your
heart desires — proteins, whole grains,
vegetables, sauces — to make up an
exciting, balanced meal with layers
of complementary tastes. Bowl meals
are especially popular at American
healthy fast-food joints like Sweetfin
Poké, Sweetgreen, and Chopt, which
are spreading across the USA. (For
other hearty meals they’ve inspired,
see “Dude, Where’s My Salad?” on
page 70). They let customers choose
from the entire menu to fill their
IF YOU WANT MORE bowl — to boost flimsy greens with
HEALTHY VARIETY chunks of lean steak and plantains,
IN YOUR MEALS, for example, or turn a boring “one
START BOWLING.
fish, one veg, one potato” plate into
a gratifying hotchpotch of salmon,
creates a high- take down the sweet potatoes, rice, cucumbers,
Matcha Beats Green quality tea powder scroll, and replace avocado, and a splash of vinaigrette.
Tea to a Pulp that can lower it with a flower To make your own bowl, says Rocket
Your
memory is your risk of heart arrangement.” Fuel author Matt Kadey, RD, “start
QHey, it’s not the disease and even Or, yeah, you could
sweet on 90s anymore, so with grains or a roasted sweet potato,
maple syrup cancer. just pick up a cup at
ditch the plain old To brew matcha, Starbucks or have add slightly smaller amounts of
QMaple syrup —
green tea and switch try this quick-and- some delivered from protein and vegetables, and end with
the real stuff, not the
to matcha, a green dirty formula: Sift Just Matcha some sort of spicy sauce — that’s the
high-fructose tea that’s packed 2 tsp matcha into (justmatcha.co.za) key to better-tasting bowl food”.
synthetic slop — may with loads more a bowl. Set a pot
play a big part in pre- phytonutrients and of water to boil,
venting brain dis- even comes with but remove it just Great bowl combos to whip (or order) up:
eases like Alzheimer’s its own traditional before it does. Pour
Green with envy.
and other dementias, Zen Buddhist 60 millilitres of Pictured: Steak Salmon (heart-healthy
Matcha tea
brewing ceremony
F r o m t o p : H a l f B a k e d H a r v e s t ; K h a n h Tr a n g / i S t o c k

a new U. of Toronto, hot water into the has a lot more (protein; energy-boosting omega-3 fats), brown rice,
Canada study shows. (participation bowl, and whisk till cardio-boosting iron), quinoa, black beans sweet potatoes (energis-
optional). antioxidants than (extra protein; fibre), corn, ing grain-free carbs),
Compounds frothy. regular green tea. tomatoes, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, avocados,
in the syrup can Unlike regular As for the age-
green tea, matcha is jalapeños (metabolism- soy-wasabi vinaigrette.
prevent proteins in old preparation boosting capsaicin),
our neurones from produced by taking ritual, it involves Chicken (clean, lean
plantains, coconut-tomato
clumping to form the—well, let’s just kimonos, bells, protein), lentils (filling
sauce.
dangerous say that, between fibre), kale, spinach
barefoot bowing,
plaque linked to the tea bush and Lamb (protein), (vitamin K), feta cheese
and, at one point,
brain disorders, your kitchen, there’s whole-grain couscous (bone-strengthening
sayeth Wikipedia, (slow-burning carbs), calcium), olives, green
researchers say. some very picky a nakadachi - grape tomatoes, romaine, beans, sliced almonds
The data echo leaf-picking, air- a break so the banana peppers, yoghurt- (cholesterol-fighting
other recent findings drying, and stem- host can “sweep based tzatziki (more pro- monounsaturated fats),
on the subject. plucking, which the tea room, tein/probiotics), sriracha. honey-tahini vinaigrette.

14 MEN’S FITNESS NOV/DEC 2023

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Success Breakthroughs HOW MUCH
YOU SPEND
ON GIFTS
DOESN’T
EQUAL HOW
MUCH
YOU CARE.

The wrong (and right) places to open up. Manspread-

ing: Good in a dating selfie, bad on a Gautrain Bus.

two UC Berkeley
Women like it when experiments have
you go wide shown.
In one, speed
QManspreading daters watched
your fellow train videos of potential
passengers out matches in various
of their seats is postures and
downright rude. voted yes or no to
But manspreading a meeting. In the
in your Tinder pic? other, online daters
Downright smart. each posted two
As it turns profiles, one with a
out, “expansive” pic of closed posture
postures (legs and one an open
spread, arms open)
are more attractive
to the opposite sex —
especially women —
pose.
In all cases, the
open posture won
— possibly because
Can love
than “constructive”
poses (legs crossed,
arms folded) and
get more interest
it signals open-
ness and domi-
nance, says study
co-author Tanya
put you in the
on dating sites,

Wha?! Pot worse than

Vacharkulksemsuk.

poorhouse?
booze? No way.
You may think you’re frugal, but chances are that
frugality goes right out the window when you
Q I dunno, man. I just But they also say
Y shop for someone you love. In a study in Judgment
read on the Internet that “regular” weed and Decision Making, subjects shopped for one of
that weed poses a smokers, the ones
greater risk to midlife who light up four–
three items: A wedding ring, a storage container for either a F r o m l e f t : C o u r t e s y o f M TA ; F e l i c i t y I n g r a m / t h e l i c e n s i n g p r o j e c t . c o m

success than alcohol. plus times a week (I’d grandfather clock or a cremated grandfather (ha!), or birthday
These scientists, think more like four- cupcakes for a loved one. Results: When buying for someone
they followed 947 plus times a day, but they loved, most subjects felt it was inappropriate to question
New Zealanders from hey, I’m no scientist. a price, look for a cheaper option, or haggle — even when
when they were 0 in At least, I don’t think I
1972–73 till they were am…), had even worse
prices were negotiable. For example, 91% of wedding-ring
38 and kept track of cash problems and job shoppers chose high-priced rings that weren’t necessarily
how much weed they prospects than alkies. high quality, and most buyers of crematory containers and
smoked, how much Well, I think it’s all b’day sweets said okay to any price quoted. But buyers of
booze they drank, and bullshit, man. Because the “clock box”, a much less personal item, did look for ways
how messed up their I’ve been sitting here
lives were compared in my underwear in
to save money. The study authors call these “sacred” vs
to their folks at 38. front of my computer “secular” purchases, meaning: No one wants to look like a
They found out that all day and all night for cheapskate in the eyes of a loved one — or society. But words
pot and booze both 15 years now, stoned to the wise: Be discriminating about how many people merit
cause downward to the bejesus, and FOR MORE big cash outlays — life’s long; you’ll want to make it to the end
mobility, anti-social I swear, it has not LIFE-HACKING

behaviour, and affected me at all.

SUCCESS with a few bucks still in your pocket. And the highest price
TIPS, GO TO
relationship disorders. —J A M E S R O S E N T H A L
MENSFITNESS isn’t always the best value, so refusing to shop around isn’t
.C0.ZA
respectful, it’s stupid — even Grandpa understood that.
 Nutrition Breakthroughs

The best whey

to lose weight
A new study from Israel’s
Tel Aviv University has dis-
A covered that adding whey
protein to a sensible break-
fast can help you lose serious kilo-
grams. Researchers gave one group
of subjects a breakfast of toast, light
cream cheese, milk, a granola bar,
an apple, and a whey-protein shake;
another group got a similar breakfast,
ADD A WHEY
PROTEIN SHAKE with eggs, soy, or tuna standing in for
TO BREAKFAST the protein powder; a third group got
AND WATCH THE a low-protein, high-carb/starch meal.
FAT DISAPPEAR. After 12 weeks, the group on whey pro-
tein had lost almost eight kilograms;
the eggs/soy/tuna protein group was
down more than six kilograms; but the
carb/starch group had dropped just
three kilograms. The study authors
also report that the whey protein
group felt fuller throughout the day,
which made overeating less com-
mon. And their bodies showed sig-
nificant suppression of ghrelin, also
known as the hunger hormone that
controls appetite and energy. To pump
split pea, lentil, and up the whey in your breakfast, sim-
Drop kilograms peanut — pulses are ply make a whey protein shake with
by eating “pulses” legumes harvested
milk or add whole-food sources like
Sugary drinks only for the dry seed,
QAt first, we unlike green peas or
ricotta (it has the highest whey con-
can strangle thought the UN had soybeans, which are tent of any food), other soft cheeses
your innards gone a little buggy vegetable crops. such as Neufchâtel, or Greek yoghurt.
QSimply cutting naming 2016 “The And apparently
sugary drinks from Year of the Pulse” — they can help
your daily diet could like, in which year you lose weight:
keep deadly visceral would you not want According to an additives, also
fat from putting a to have a pulse? analysis of 21 clinical Processed foods: accounts for almost
stranglehold on your Then we realised: trials, 940 subjects They’re taking over! 90% of all the added
internal organs, says Oh, not that kind of ate just a ¾-cup Check your pulse. QA poll on what sugar in American
a new study in the pulse. These pulses serving of pulses Beans and other pulses more than 9000 diets.
journal Circulation. are foods that keep daily — but didn’t can halt cravings.
Americans ate in With 35% of
From top: Lucas Zarebinski; Rob Lawson/ Get t y

Too much visceral cravings at bay and change anything a 24-hour period American adults
fat, the deep fat can even help you else to their diet - or showed — astonish- obese and 68%
that wraps around whittle your waist — activity wise—yet ingly — that ultra- overweight or obese
vital organs like your so, yeah, definitely in six weeks, they processed items like (as the non-profit
heart, liver, and worth checking out. still lost about 300 cereal, instant soup, State of Obesity
kidneys, can lead to Previously known grams, the American soft drinks, and fro- project estimates),
metabolic syndrome, by their maiden Journal of Clinical zen dinners make up aren’t you glad
whose symptoms names — kidney Nutrition reports. more than 50% of the you’re eating
can include high bean, navy bean,
cholesterol, high
Bonus: Pulses also US diet. healthy, not turning
pinto bean, garbanzo help you feel fuller; into one of those
blood pressure, Processed fare,
bean, dried French supply fibre and non- Our protein pick. Opti- guys who sweats
and raised insulin mum Nutrition Whey,
laden with artifi-
green bean (flageo- animal protein; and gravy when he tries
levels. USN Blue Lab Whey and cial colourings, fla-
lets), black-eyed and even cut cholesterol. to get off the couch?
Biogen Iso-Whey . vourings, and other

18 MEN’S FITNESS NOV/DEC 2023

 NEW

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 Everything you need to make life work for you

EAT THIS NOT THAT

The healthy
braai master
Take a break from Having a braai usually
burgers and boeries involve seeking out
long enough to H the fattiest, most cel-
master leaner meat
ebratory cuts of meat
and veggies and
you’ll discover that we can find, then lathering on
every day can be sugar-packed sauces and going
grill day for broke. But braai days don’t
By Shawn Donnelly have to be cheat days. “Grilling
Photographs by is actually inherently healthy
Christopher Testani because you’re taking away the
fat and adding flavour with an
open flame”, says Project Smoke
author Steven Raichlen. We asked
Raichlen and Jamie Purviance,
author of Weber’s New American
Barbecue, to show us the easiest
ways to grill what’s good for us.

Tricks of the trade.

Things like cedar planks
and skewers take the
guesswork out of grilling
fish and asparagus.

MOAVR/ D
N CEHC2 2001273 MMEENN’ ’SS FFII TT N
NEES
SSS 2
2 15
A juicier grill meat constantly.
chicken breast That prevents good
caramelisation.”
Q “A chicken breast Instead, leave it on
is so lean it dries out the grill for about four
quickly”, explains minutes before flipping
Jamie Purviance. “And it, then grill for an
its uneven thickness additional four minutes
makes it even harder to on the other side.
cook.” But when done Don’t guestimate
right, it’s far tastier when it’s done—use
than when baked. His a meat thermometer,
chicken-grilling tips: which should read 74°C.
Buy quality “Cutting into it to check
boneless, skinless is total amateur hour.”
breasts that come from Also: “Make sure it’s
an organic, free-range opaque in the centre, not
chicken. “It makes a pink or fleshy.” And don’t
huge difference.” let your mind wander:
“There’s a short window
Add moisture of time to take it off.”
before grilling with a
marinade. (See recipe Always let chicken
below.) “You solve the rest for a few minutes
dryness problem by after you take it off the
starting the process grill. This will relax the
with a bit of extra meat and make it juicier. No more dry fillets. Grilling traps moisture and adds smoky flavour.
moisture.” The key to
freestyling your own
marinade? Mixing a little
acid (eg, lemon juice), Lemon Chicken
Marinade
oil, and your favourite Expert’s

seasonings.
Use medium heat.
“Guys often blast
chicken with too much
heat — this dries the
outside and leaves the
inside uncooked.”
Leave the braai
lid down so the heat
bounces off the lid and
back onto the meat. “It
speeds up the overall
cooking, which helps
maintain moisture and
captures the smokiness.
Also, the grate will be
hotter — that will create
more caramelisation,
which will add to the
taste.”
Only turn the
chicken breasts
once. “A lot of guys
tend to fiddle with
F o o d s t y l i n g b y S u z a n n e L e n z e r ; P r o p s t y l i n g b y K a i t l y n D u R o s s Wa l k e r / H o n e y A r t i s t s
INGREDIENTS
guide to
2 tsp finely grated braai heat
lemon zest
¼ cup fresh
lemon juice Q A simple
1 tbsp Dijon Mississippi count
mustard is the best way
½ tsp dried oregano to determine the
2 garlic cloves, temperature of
minced your fire, says
2 tbsp extra-virgin Raichlen. Hold your
olive oil hand, palm-side
1½ tsp freshly ground down, about 10
black pepper centimetres above
1 tsp kosher salt the grill grate. If you
DIRECTIONS can only hold your
hand there for two
Whisk together all
ingredients. Place to three Mississippis
chicken breasts in a before you have to
large, resealable move it away, you’ve
plastic bag with reached “high heat”
marinade. Press the WHEN DONE (roughly 260°C).
air out and seal tightly. RIGHT, GRILLED A medium-high
Place in a bowl and Do the hand test
refrigerate for 1 to 4
CHICKEN fire is four to five
to gauge braai
hours, turning the bag BREASTS TASTE Mississippis, and temps like the
occasionally. FAR BETTER medium heat is six experts.
THAN BAKED. to eight.
 Grilled Corn
Corn is low-maintenance,
filling but not fattening, and
goes with just about any
meat you throw on the grill
INGREDIENTS

4 ears sweet corn in

their husks
Foolproof fish 6 tbsp (¾ stick) butter,
room temp
Q Fish can be 2 tbsp minced fresh
intimidating to master flat-leaf parsley
on the grill — its 1 glove garlic, minced
delicacy and tendency Coarse salt and black
to stick to the grate pepper
mean a lot can go DIRECTIONS
wrong. But not if you
1) Buy fresh corn in the
do it cedar-plank style
husk (in the store, strip
— you never have to back a portion of the
turn the fish over, and husk and look for ears
it gets infused with a with plump, juicy, fully
nice smoky flavour. formed kernels).
Salmon is a good fish 2) Preheat the grill to
to start with to get the high. Fold husks back,
but leave attached at
hang of it. the stem, and tie string
around them to form
Cook only the
a handle.
freshest fish — and
3) Place butter, parsley,
with salmon, make
and garlic in a mixing
sure it’s wild, not farm- bowl and whisk until
raised. “It tastes better, smooth. Lightly brush
the texture is better, on each ear. (Use only
and it’s much healthier”, salt and pepper for a
lighter option.)
says Purviance. Leave
the skin on to retain 4) Position corn on the
grill so the husks are
moisture. away from the fire.
Use an untreated, Grill until kernels are
browned all over,
cooking-specific 8—12 minutes. “The
cedar plank about 30 grill heat caramelises
by 15 centimetres, and the natural plant
soak it in water for an sugars,” notes
hour before you start Raichlen. “So you’ll
notice a smoky
grilling. sweetness. It’s a
Superfood side dish. Swap chips and salsa for nutrient-packed veggies. good, natural,
Cook over direct
healthy flavour.”
medium heat. “Most
people think you should DIRECTIONS
use less heat with fish Greens for Fill ’em up. Corn is a
because it’s delicate”, the grill 1) Preheat grill to high filling alternative to
heat. Take several mayo’d up potato salad.
says Purviance. He
stalks of asparagus,
suggests medium heat Q Surprise people by break off the woody
with a plank; and high throwing a little colour part at the base, and
heat without. onto the grill and infusing discard. Place stalks
hearty vegetables with next to one another,
Brush the salmon the flavour of fire leaving a tiny bit of
with extra-virgin olive space between them.
oil, and season with salt Sesame-Grilled (This will allow
Asparagus Rafts asparagus to cook on
and black pepper. all sides.) Skewer them
Few vegetables taste as crosswise at the top
Place the wet plank good grilled as fresh and bottom with
over the fire and close asparagus. But how do you toothpicks or slender
the lid. When it begins prevent the thin stalks bamboo sticks.
to smoke, turn it over. from falling through the
grate? Raichlen suggests 2) For the marinade,
Place salmon, skin- combine sesame oil,
this trick picked up from
side down, on the plank, Japanese chefs. soy sauce, and garlic
close lid, and leave for and mix. Brush on both
INGREDIENTS sides of the “raft.”
10 to 12 minutes.
Season with a little salt
• 450 grams asparagus and lots of pepper.
Once the fillet’s
cooked, carefully 2 tbsp Asian (dark) 3) Place rafts on the hot
sesame oil grate and grill until
slide a metal spatula
1 tbsp soy sauce nicely browned,
between the skin and
1 clove garlic, minced 2–4 minutes per side. FOR MORE
flesh. Lift fillet away to Sprinkle with sesame HEALTHY
plate. “The smoke adds Coarse kosher salt seeds as they cook. GRILLING TIPS,
and freshly ground “It’s a great, healthy GO TO
great flavour, so you MENSFITNESS
black pepper side dish,” says
never really need a rich .CO.ZA
2 tbsp sesame seeds Raichlen.
sauce”, says Purviance.
Game Changers Training

The Hardgainer’s
Put away the excuses and start putting on size

Guide to Muscle By Sean Hyson, CSCS

Photographs by James Michelfelder

Q It’s the ultimate and hormones cause

fallback for any gains to come more
guy who has trouble slowly than a natural
adding muscle: “I’m athlete’s would. But
a hard gainer! Guys this isn’t a medically
like me just can’t get identified condition,
big and strong — it’s and it’s certainly not
not in our DNA”, they a sentence to a life of
say. And sure, there smallness — in fact, it’s
are certain genetic often just an excuse,
advantages one according to Charles
person will always Staley, a strength
have over another coach with 30 years
— height, being able training experience
to touch his tongue (targetfocusfitness.
to the tip of his nose, com). What’s the
etc. But there’s no solution? Stay the
reason any guy can’t course with the same
make awesome gains approach to training
(even you, beanpole). that any smart lifter
The so-called hard would use, but pay
gainer is typically particular attention to
a lanky guy whose the three rules on the
long arms and legs following page, which
make for poor levers can turn hard gainers Freedom of the press.
to lift with; his muscle into hard bodies once Benching through a
full range of motion
fibre composition and for all. may not be appropri-
ate for a scrawny guy.

b y M a t t h e w Tu o z z o l i /A t e l i e r M a n a g e m e n t u s i n g D i o r H o m m e
St yling by Christina Simonet ti and Angel Macias; Grooming
 should begin with
RULE NO. 1
a variation of the
Don’t Think “More squat, bench press,
Is Better”
or deadlift, and then
Q If hard gainers, follow with dumbbell
or anyone urgently and machine
seeking muscle exercises. For
gains, make one instance, you could
mistake, it’s thinking start with squats, and
more is always then hit a dumbbell
better. In 2011, the bench press and
Journal of Strength cable row.
and Conditioning
RULE NO. 2
Research found that
Alternate High
subjects who trained and Low Reps
the whole body each
session thrice weekly Q Hardgainers
got the same results believe that
as those who did an conventional training
upper-lower split over doesn’t work for
four training days, them, so they love
with both groups to experiment with
completing the same advanced methods,
total sets. So as long like drop sets and
as you do the work, it forced reps.
would seem it doesn’t “I don’t like bringing
matter how often you in the heavy artillery
go to the gym to do it. until you’ve already
Still, Staley made some good
recommends sticking gains”, says Staley.
with the three-day, “But novelty alone
full-body model, is a big stimulus for
which forces you to muscle growth.” You
limit the work you can change up your
do for each muscle workouts and shock 6 to 12 range”, says Squatter’s rights. this contrast provides complete the lift, and
group in a single your muscles more Staley — that targets Classic barbell lifts like big gains over time. that can risk injury to
session. This prevents simply and safely by pure muscle growth the squat should always
“Try to increase the the lower back as well
overzealous trainees switching back and best. Then spend the kick off your workouts
and be followed with weight and sets each as short change the
(including hard forth between periods same amount of time dumbbell, machine , and workout”, Staley says. quads stimulus.
gainers) from doing of higher-rep training doing sets of three body-weight training for
So you might start In this case,
more work than they and heavy lifting. “For to five reps, which balanced gains.
with two sets per lift Staley recommends
can handle. three to six weeks, builds strength more and increase it to five including more leg
Every workout train with reps in the optimally. Repeating sets over four weeks. presses and hack
“Pile up the sets squats in your

HARD “I’m going vegan.

Are plant-based
found that young
lifters drinking pea-
until you don’t get
sore anymore, then
programme to target
the thighs more

FACTS
protein supple-
ments any good?”
SAM D., WYCKOFF, NJ
OUR TRAINING
DIRECTOR, SEAN Q Decades of
HYSON, SOLVES rumours that an all-
YOUR WORKOUT plant diet will shrivel
CONUNDRUMS up your muscles and
turn you into a sissy,
all those who go vegan
and lift weights prove
otherwise. You can
get complete, muscle-
building protein
from combinations
of foods and seeds
like quinoa and hemp.
Soy protein, the
most popular vegan
muscle supplement,
has been shown to
offer benefits on par .
with whey, and so has
pea protein. In 2015,
the Journal of the
International Society
of Sports Nutrition
based protein shakes start a new phase directly.
made the same gains with new exercises.” By the same token,
in biceps thickness
and strength as
Soreness isn’t the if you have long arms,
their whey-drinking
best indicator of touching the bar to
counterparts.
progress, but if you’re your chest on a bench
One caveat though: never sore from a lift, press isn’t necessary.
it probably means Instead, says Staley,
I was vegan for two
years, and while that your body has “do floor presses so the
I actually got my gotten too efficient at range of motion isn’t
absolute biggest with performing it to spur so big”, which allows
that approach (113 new growth. you to use heavier
kilograms), I also put
weights more safely.
on a lot of fat. Eating RULE NO. 3
A 2012 study found
vegan means eating Choose the Best
Lifts for You that lifters who used
lots of carbs and fats
a partial range gained
by default, so you may
Q “If you can’t grow the same biceps
experience unwanted
quads because you thickness as those
weight gain if you don’t
watch your calories.
have long femurs”, who used a full range.
That’s why I stopped.
HEAVY AND says Staley, “maybe Dumbbell and
LIGHT LIFTING back squats aren’t the machine pressing,
Sean Hyson, CSCS,
DONE IN best thing for you”.
SEPARATE which you can do
is the Men’s Fitness Long-legged lifters
PHASES KEEP with a full range, are
training director,
THE MUSCLES often find they have good options as well
101bestworkouts.com.
GROWING to bend their torsos to keep your strength
LONG-TERM. forward more to balanced.
 Home is Backcountry essentials

where you
pitch it
Forays into the backcountry call for
a kit that’s light and fast, whereas
car camping is more about fun than
function. Whichever you prefer, the
gear you bring makes or breaks it.
By Peter Koch
Photographs by Jonathon Kambouris
 BACKED BY SCIENCE. PERFECTED BY YOU.

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 Game Changers Adventure

Calling all rock jocks

“Via ferrata” climbing
is the perfect mix of
scary and safe. Do
something bold (and
smart) this summer
and book a trip to the
vertical world.
BY BLANE
BACHELOR

During World War

I, Italian soldiers
created a vast
network of cables
and ladders, called
a ”via ferrata” (also Africanyon
known as “iron Adventures
path”) high in the THE CRAGS,
Dolomites as a way WESTERN CAPE
to outmanoeuvre Q The via ferrata
Austrian troops. climbing route is
Now similar suitable for both
novices and those
systems of with more experience:
handrails and AfriCanyon’s abseil
rungs are being is reached by via
built around the ferrata at AfriAbseil,
in The Crags between
world to create the Tsitsikamma and
an exciting new Plettenberg Bay. At base
way to explore camp get harnessed
up, connected and take
mountain peaks — the via ferrata route out
one that requires no to the abseil point with
complicated knot your guide; well-known
tying or advanced in Europe it makes rock
climbing accessiblefor
rock climbing beginners by providing
know-how. (Most a ladder-like pathway
routes can be done on this super exposed
in sneakers and rocky outcrop. It’s more
than just a 50-metre
require minimal cliff abseil. This heart
equipment.) Here, thumping activity is
are some of the sure to challenge.
You will descend to
most breath-taking an ancient riverbed.
via ferrate routes Build confidence and
in South Africa challenge your comfort
and beyond, where zone add the views
and it all makes for a
even novices can great outdoor micro-
discover the thrill of adventure.
the climb. africanyon.com
Hardcore hangout. B.C.’s
Kicking Horse via ferrata
is North America’s most
challenging.

Shelter Rock
MAGALIESBURG,
GAUTENG

Q The via ferrata on

Shelter Rock is the only
one in Africa. With it’s
close close proximity
to the city, Shelter
Rock provides an easy History in the high country. Italy’s Lake Garda region is home to hundreds of World War I–era via ferrata routes.
escape to experience
the tranquillity of the
ancient Magaliesberg. Canadian cliffhanger The original iron way
We are a small owner KICKING HORSE MOUN- V I A F E R R ATA FA U S T O
run establishment and TA I N R E S O R T; B R I T I S H S U S AT T I ; L A K E G A R D A ,
can only accommodate COLUMBIA, CANADA I T A LY
a limited number of Q With arm-pumping Q Dozens of original via
guests on a given day. overhangs and ferrata routes remain
The name Shelter Rock a 90-metre-high throughout the Dolomite
is the name given to a suspension bridge, this mountain range in the
massive boulder which may be the toughest via Lake Garda region of
was dislodged from ferrata in North America. northern Italy, most
the Magaliesberg cliff After a gondola delivers dotted with war-era
face about 10 000 years you to the start, there’s bunkers, tunnels,
ago. It can be seen from a vertical of more than and the original iron
many kilometres away. 300 metres to overcome. cables and anchors.
Start early and climb First, you ease in with One classic choice
the only via ferrata in a narrow rock edge, is the Fausto Susatti
Africa to the summit which gives way to that route, also known as
of the Magaliesberg wobbly 90-metre-long, Cima Capi for the peak
where you can enjoy a aptly named “Guts it tops out on. It’s an
magnificent 360-degree Bridge”. If that scares all-day adventure and
view before hiking down you, you should probably a fun mixture of via
to Shelter Rock base turn around. After ferrata climbing and
camp. After completing Guts Bridge, comes steep hiking. The VF
the via ferrata, you can the ascension, which climbing isn’t especially
double the excitement involves a 460-metre technical, but the entire
by abseiling down the vertical grind, with outing is a big physical
Magaliesberg cliff frightening exposure challenge that includes
face on our 100-metre as you teeter along a a 900-metre summit
double pitch abseil. narrow cable above you can brag about
Booking ahead is 270 metres of open air. later over pizza and
advised as Shelter Once you top out, toast cold Moretti. You’ll get
Rock only allows a set your accomplishment views clear across the
number of hikers on the with a frosty Kokanee surrounding Dolomites
trail per day in order Lager at the Eagle’s Eye and aquamarine lake,
to keep the experience Restaurant, Canada’s but it’s the history that
uncrowded and idyllic.. highest at 2.3 kilometres. leaves a real impression. High, but not so dry. Utah’s purpose-built Waterfall Canyon via ferrata offers a
shelterrock.co.za kickinghorseresort.com friendsofarco.it unique view of the cascading 350-foot falls at the heart of the private ranch.

NOV/DEC 2023 MEN’S FITNESS 29

Game Changers Crush

Fitness
Bombshell
We chat to Lariza about the link
between modelling and fitness.
By Ghia Ten Doeschate

“THERE IS ALSO NO
BETTER FEELING
THAN TO FEEL
COMFORTABLE IN
YOUR OWN SKIN”.

Photography by Amorie Ar ts
 Tell us a bit about yourself Lariza. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Glenharvie.
T It’s a very small mining town in Westonaria, Gauteng, where everybody pretty
much knows everybody. You are a well-known model and fitness enthusiast. Tell us
about how you first got into modelling, as well as fitness? I started modelling at the age of five.
I did a lot of beauty pageants, but realised as I got older my real passion lies with photographic
modelling. I was blessed enough to have been signed with some of the best agencies our
country has to offer, and that gave me confidence. Modelling and fitness go hand-in-hand,
you have to look the part. There is also no better feeling than being comfortable in your own
skin. In line with health and fitness, you are an ambassador for Biogen. What is it like to be a
brand ambassador for such a well-known brand? I love Biogen. It is an absolute privilege to be
associated with them. With the WIDE variety of products and the excellent service they offer, it
makes my goals that much easier to achieve. Do you have a personal favourite supplement, and
if so, tell us a bit more about it? Biogen’s Pre & Probiotic multivitamins keep me away from the
doctor, while their Peptan Collagen keeps my skin feeling and looking great. Besides modelling
and fitness, what else do you get up to? I enjoy supporting my husband, Gordon Gilbert, who is
also a Biogen ambassador, in most of his mountain bike races all over South Africa. The Absa
Cape Epic is the next big one. I also love travelling and spending time in the bush. With regard
to modelling and fitness, what has been the most difficult part in accomplishing everything
that you have achieved. And how did you get passed it? With modelling, you have to deal with
a lot of rejection, and you are judged on your physical appearance almost every day. I have
learnt that: 1) Judgement is only perception and it doesn’t define you. 2) Completion is healthy.
3) To overcome the insecurities that you have, you have to accept yourself for who you are and
what you have to offer, and that is good enough. What is your most unusual training secret?
My training is not unusual but unconventional. My exercises depend on the day. I have to
have fun whilst working out! I enjoy mountain biking, dancing, boxing or training to fitness
videos of Jillian Michaels (she is amazing). Also, I have Gordon. He is the secret ingredient; he
pushes me a lot which is a good thing although it’s not always fun. What advice do you have for
young girls who would like to follow in your footsteps? Only take constructive criticism. Always
believe in yourself, accept yourself and above all LOVE yourself.

NOV/DEC 2023 MEN’S FITNESS 31

 Game Changers Mix it up

A Moscow tail
So, a vodka It may
tastiest, most vital a Moscow Mule —
salesman, a ginger- seem like
beer seller, and
I Russia’s
drinks of summer. especially on a hot
The name itself day.
a copper peddler greatest Despite
is said to be a play “A good Moscow
export (after Maria its name,
walk into a bar… on vodka’s origin Mule is ideally ginger beer is
Sharapova and
And decades later, – Moscow — and served over crushed non-alcoholic,
Anna Kournikova),
the Moscow Mule is ginger beer’s kick ice, making it like root beer.
but the Moscow
the hottest drink of (like a mule some wonderfully cold
Mule actually
say). True or not, and refreshing”,
summer ’17. has nothing to do
there’s no denying says Robyn Gray,
BY BRIAN GOOD
with the former
the deliciousness of head bartender at
USSR. Instead, it’s
Prohibition, the
a California native,
trendy underground
created on LA’s
cocktail bar at
Sunset Boulevard, The Prohibition
Moscow Mule the Rosewood
to be exact — at the
Hotel Georgia in
famed Cock ’n Bull
Q “The original Vancouver, BC, one
Saloon.
recipe calls for of the definitive
Legend has it that
45ml vodka, 90ml locales on the planet
a vodka salesman, a
ginger beer (like to get your Mule on.
ginger beer producer,
one from Grace The drink itself,
and a guy peddling
Island Sodas), and Gray says, is
copper mugs were
a squeeze of lime,” deceptively easy to
all sitting next to
says Gray. “Then, make (see recipe,
one another at the
to give it our signa- left). As for the
rail, plotting not a
ture taste, we add copper mug, why
get-rich scheme but
15ml lime juice.” pick it over a regular
a concoction worthy
To amp up the glass?
of a bender.
Caribbean feel, add Easy, he says:
Make And it worked! By a splash of simple It’s all about the
Some combining vodka syrup, a dash of condensation that
and ginger beer in
Bucks a copper cup, they
bitters, and a sprig collects on the
of mint; serve over outside of the cold
invented a super crushed ice in a
Q “Any spirit metal: “It makes the
cocktail that’s copper cup.
mixed with drink even more
become one of the
ginger beer is thirst-quenching.”
traditionally
known as a Combining lime
buck”, says and ginger amps
Robyn Gray. up the spiciness.
For example:
1) Swap the
vodka in your
Mule for gin and
you’ve got a Gin-
Gin Mule.
2) Switch over to
rum and it’s now a
Dark and Stormy.
3) Add tequila
and a dash of
crème de cassis
Prop st yling by Sarah Guido -Laakso/Halley Resources

(made from
black currants
and famed for its
deep red colour)
and you’re
drinking El Diablo.
“All the
variations are
good”, says
Gray. “Whatever
you choose
usually just
depends on your
mood, or what’s
left in the liquor
cabinet.”
 Fitness trackers
While sometimes all you need is a heart rate monitor or a step counter, next

of the future level fitness and performance call for something a little more high-tech.

These cutting-edge next-to-skin gadgets will make you a better athlete.

Among the newest By Michael Frank

entry-level wearables, Photographs by Jarren Vink
we’re now seeing
a generation of
hardware that uses
complex algorithms
to capture such
nuanced data that the
analysis rivals that
of a personal coach.
These breakthrough
trackers can analyse
form, give mid-
workout feedback,
and even read
personal biometrics
in a way that makes it
impossible to fake it.

THE RUNNER’S
COACH

Sensoria Fitness
Smart Socks
Q While plenty of
foot pods measure
running “smooth-
ness”, the Sensoria
socks’ sensors (two
sets at the forefoot,
one at the rear) and
ankle bracelet track
cadence, ground
contact time, and
heel versus forefoot
strike. The info is
then relayed to an
app, which highlights
the imbalances. A
metronome function
mimics a coach,
feeding an audible
stride rhythm to your
headphones and
letting you rewire
your footfalls to a
more efficient pace.
The anklet is a little
cumbersome — but
indispensable during
key training periods.
R2 700,
sensoriafitness.com
The smart way to
hit your stride. Three
sensors in the Sensoria
Fitness Smart Socks
evaluate your running
form and efficiency.

3348 MEENN’ ’SS FFI ITTNNEES S

M SS NM
O VA/RDC
EHC 2
2 0021 37
 Game Changers Drive

Unbreakable
Only the fittest cars survive Dakar.
Meet the Toyota Hilux
By John Page

He limped raid in fifth. Unlike in Even for Men’s to move hundreds of the bivouac in the
his Hilux previous years, there Fitness, the travel kilometres each day late hours of every
H
home would be no podium demands to watch while leaving nothing night, with none of
on three wheels, an for the crowd favourite these fragments of behind, often in the luxuries of a top-
arduous 90 kilometres Toyota Hilux Yet, the Dakar as it flashed torrential downpours sponsored competitor.
to cross the finish ironically, the latest across view can’t be or exhausting First, they’ll need to
line, haemorrhaging evolution of Hilux had taken lightly. In the humidity, is a case track down their duffel
time but summoning clearly showed itself first seven days, we study on efficiency. bag - which includes
a stoic act of never to be on the pace. Plus, had amassed nine Caught up in the swell a tent, a change of
give up attitude. A encouragingly, its flights and racked up of excitement, small clothes and a few
boulder strapped over bulletproof toughness our own junior Dakar villages scattered spares. Digging deep
the engine provided was again beyond mileage in either a bus along non-timed within their own
enough weight to pivot reproach. or car, and climbed the liaison stretches see willpower, repair work
the car just enough Considering that Andes into thin air. people drag out lawn will eat into precious
to keep the shattered less than half of Check-in was chairs to the edge of sleep, before the next
remains of a right rear the 400 hopeful around 11pm most the road, daring to stage unfolds with
wheel off the ground. competitors that nights, to be back be within touching even bleaker prospects.
Seconds before lined up on day one on the road by first distance of these Back at Hallspeed,
running wide at a would make it across light, just so that you colossal machines. work on next year’s
crooked bend on stage Paraguay, Bolivia could arrive at the The energy this Hilux is already
2, Nasser Al-Attiyah and to the finish first vantage point spectacle creates underway. Not only
was leading the Dakar line in Argentina, before the first bikes is raw - man and with the mission to
in his South African- that wasn’t a lost punctured the silence. machine battling the grab that first win at
built Toyota Hilux marketing exercise There is no elements. Dakar, but as favourites
– a feat that would for the best-selling motorsport event like But for me, the to retain its crown
be broadcast to 190 bakkie in the country. it… The scale of the heroes of Dakar are in the local off-road
countries as the Little wonder, a small support crews, the the riders and drivers championship. Don’t
world’s second biggest but world-renowned logistics that allow it who arrive last at mess with Hilux.
motorsport event. Yet, Hallspeed Motorsport
in the blink of an eye on the outskirts of
he was out, his efforts Kyalami, is regularly
to get back to the pits commissioned to
in vain. transform these
Former Dakar into Dakar fitness.
winner, South African This includes a
driver Giniel de Villiers’ healthy diet, space
ultra-consistent to stow a few spare
approach kept the wheels, extra travel
Hilux in the hunt on the suspension
over the next 12 days and of course a V8
that would cover engine that thunders
another 8000km to between challenging
eventually finish the navigation pointers
Open her up. Often just a precautionary check and service before the
world’s toughest rally without respite. next day’s action
Game Changers Ride

The starship
enterprise
We take a look at the Triumph
Rocket X, something so
exclusive that only five ever
reached South Africa
By Gavin Perry

Photography by Nicole Louw


he original and first Triumph Rocket was launched
in 2004. It had ongoing development and changes
T over the years to the current Rocket III, and now
the Limited Edition Rocket X that was launch in
2015 - which is the biggest, meanest and baddest version they
have made to date. With only 500 made worldwide, each unit
is individually numbered on a billeted aluminium side panel
name badge - giving the owner that ultimate status and ride
exclusivity that you just don’t get often anymore.
Somehow, though, with this bike it didn’t get the exposure and
limelight it could have, and that might be due to the limited nature
of its production. I am sure without lifting a finger, Triumph had
all 500 accounted for as they made the announcement. And so,
the need to advertise and make a spectacle in the media and
publications just didn’t happen. It’s one of those bikes that was
known to those that needed to know, and they moved fast and
secured their 1 of 500. Five of the Rocket Xs made their way to
South Africa, and because I wasn’t a part of the hype in 2015, I
missed out. I am fortunate enough to know Rob Milne, the lucky
owner of one, and here in the present of 2017 I got my hands on
his 451 of 500 for some studio time and a much-anticipated ride.
When the Rocket X arrived at the studio, the first thought that
went through my mind was “Wow, it’s massive!”. And at 367kg
for a bike, massive is as accurate a description as you will get.
With its 2294cc, three-cylinder engine sitting in line with the
chassis, the Rocket X is home to the world’s largest production
motorcycle engine. Delivering a 221Nm sledgehammer of
torque at just 2750rpm, the Rocket X delivers meaty low
down torque and acceleration like you have never felt before.
But before I get into the ride, I want to just run through how
awesome the styling and look is. Even though it’s a big bike,
it looks good. The way that it’s been put together - paintwork
and blacked out parts all over, just works so well in creating
an overall badass-looking machine. There were, however, a
few small cosmetic details that could have been done better,
like the lights and indicators. A lot of bikes today have clear
unwilling it was to turn around slow and or tight bends. When
the Sun finally came up, I prepared to set off. Before I test a bike,
I like to start them up and let them idle for a while, listen to their
sounds and then sit on them to get a feel for their build and seat
placement. When I first sat on the bike, I had a slight urge to start
my ride with ‘captains log, star date 2035…’ The Rocket X is vastly
different from anything I have ridden before, and as long and
massive as the wheelbase was, it also just felt so planted and
comfortable. As I started riding, I noticed instantly the insane
levels of torque, the pull at even one RPM was just mind-blowing.
I haven’t felt low down power like that before, I think the bike has
more chance of falling over at low speed than it does stalling. It
finds torque right from the start and takes the cruising pleasure
off the charts. I didn’t battle as much in traffic circles and tight
bends as I thought I was going to, and honestly, it isn’t as hard to
manoeuvre as one might think from its visual size and apparent
weight. That said, it isn’t a supermotard and you are not going
to bob and weave through tight traffic. By build and nature, this
bike was made to tour and cruise and it does that in comfort and
ease. A long road trip on this bike would be a comfy ride of scenic
pleasures. I did find it took some time for me to get used to the
size of the bike through traffic, and so, if you happen to own one
of these there would be some adjusting to be made if you were
going to use it day to day to commute on. However, I even had the
same feeling on the X Diavel S.
So, is it practical and conventional? Definitely not. Is it desirable
because everything about it is so different and limited? Well yes,
and that’s why it is what it is and was made to be so special and
sought after.
The side profile. Totally lets you understand the sheer size of this machine and the
length of its wheel base.

or frosted out coverings, and only when the light is on or

indicators are active do you see orange or red. On a full blacked
out bike, the effort they went through to get that overall look
and feel, I feel that the indicators and brake light didn’t get the
memo. That said, those aren’t massive issues and can be easily
fixed with some Rizoma or Litech aftermarket parts.
The time in studio though was great, and offered a lot of time to
take in the visual beauty of the bike and just awe at how massive
and planted it looks from all angles. The Rocket X had some very
cool asymmetrical features that were catching my eye, features
caused by the placement of the three-cylinder engine and what
that placement did to the tank as well as the side views of the
bike. It was just so interesting to marvel at the build and design,
and the more you looked at it, the more you appreciated how
unique and beastly it was.
So, in preparation for the days of road tests, I was met with
day after day of rain. I put off going out just because I had been The limited edition. The badge lets the world know what number bike you own,
told a thing or two about how heavy the Rocket was, and how and simultaneously boasts of the ridiculous engine size.
 Learn It!

Killer
intelligence
YOU WORK HARD, lift hard, eat healthy,
and generally lead a well-rounded lifestyle.
Y Good for you. But, if pressed, could you
articulate your opinion on the privacy war
between Apple and the FBI? What was your reaction to
the Panama Papers? Do you think the North American
P r o p s t y l i n g b y M e g u m i E m o t o /A n d e r s o n H o p k i n s

Keeping up with current Pacific Northwest needs a better earthquake pre-detection system? If these current-event questions
events doesn’t just make didn’t stump you, I’ve got some great news: Aside from helping you responsibly fulfil your most basic
you an ace citizen — it civic duties (how can you vote wisely if you’re not up on the issues?), knowing what’s going on in the
world can also enrich your life in other crucial ways. Like: Helping you on the job. “Guys who excel
can also help your career, at work generally have an excellent grasp of current events”, says Executive Coach Bruce Tulgan,
boost your love life, and of RainmakerThinking — ie, a smart company will promote an informed, intellectually curious
make you a popular employee over a clueless dullard any day. The principle applies with the ladies too. “If a dude doesn’t
dinner-party know what’s happening in the world, he probably doesn’t have opinions — and not caring is not sexy”,
companion. Here, four says Kate, 26, who works in TV. Even a guy’s social life gets a bump if he stays au courant — after all,
smart, easy ways to stay what dinner party doesn’t put a premium on sparkling conversation? So for the best, most efficient
ways to gather — and retain — the info you need to keep you in the loop, try these four expert tricks.
in the know.
We guarantee, you’ll never get caught with your news briefs down again.

LESSON 1
Set a news browser as
your home page
“The big thing I find is that it’s so much
easier to stay fairly informed if you’re at
least minimally informed on a regular
basis”, says Samantha Rollins, News
Editor at The Week. “This gives you a
pretty good baseline, and from that you
can dive deeper on the things that inter-
est you.”
Then, of course, if something really
catches your attention and prompts you
to want a deeper understanding, you
can head off for a longer read via an app
like Pocket or Instapaper, from which
you can save longer articles for later.
LESSON 2
Have “get-informed” time every
day (no multitasking!)
Many of us are guilty of trying to do too
much at one time. This is particularly
true in the mornings, when we’re fresh,
caffeinated, upbeat, and hopeful, so we
put all that good energy into trying to
multitask — and accomplish very little.
Because, as it turns out, our brains
aren’t wired to manage workflow while
paying bills and scrolling Twitter. In
fact, multitasking is incredibly inef-
ficient. When you inundate your brain
with too much information, it doesn’t
know what’s important enough to
remember. The same goes for absorb-
ing current events. “We think we can
read the news while we’re doing other
things, and of course we can — but we
won’t be able to retain the information”,
says Emma Rodero, PhD, a cognitive
psychologist who specialises in media.
Instead, dedicate a block of time —
even if it’s just five minutes — to reading
only the news.
LESSON 3
Both read and listen to a story to
become an instant expert
“Prosody” is defined as the melody
of speech. “If I write, ‘Oh, what a great
party’, but you don’t actually hear me
say it, you have no way of knowing if I’m
being sarcastic”, says Daniel Willing-
ham, PhD, a professor of cognitive
psychology at the University of Virginia,
USA. “The extra audio cues — the
prosody — can help your brain.”
In other words, listening is a tremen-
dous force for retaining information,
which is good news in 2017, when
podcasts are all the rage. But it gets
even better: If you listen to a story on
a subject, then also read about it, that
By Jeff Wilser
audio/visual combo — called “dual-cod-
ing” — attacks the brain with a one-two
punch that can practically turn you into
a tenured professor on a subject. “Stud-
ies show that the combination of audio
plus visual is the best way to learn”, says
Rodero.
Her advice: Scan a story on News24,
for example, then listen to a radio pre-
sentation — like a 702 discussion — on
the same subject, and you’ll learn more
quickly and in a more consolidated way.
LESSON 4
Make the most of Twitter “lists”
For everyone I interviewed for this
article, Twitter is the backbone of the
process flow for consuming news. And
taking full advantage of the “list” func-
tion is crucial.
“I rely heavily on lists”, says Daniel
Victor, a Writer and Editor at The New
York Times. “I have a second moni-
tor dedicated mostly to six columns of
TweetDeck. I have a list of just news
sources, one of journalists, one of politi-
cians, etc.”
Why bother with this? If you’re on
Twitter and follow more than, say, 10
people, you quickly find that it’s like
trying to drink news from the fire hose.
Scanning your entire feed, you will
either A) waste time that could be used
more productively; or B) miss real,
actual news, which is buried in the
weeds. So here’s your plan of attack: In
one list, put no more than three to five
of your most trusted news sources. That
will be the feed you can scan in quick,
30-second gulps. Bookmark the list.
Check it every day. Then make other
lists for your friends, the sports teams
you follow, and your less important
indulgences, such as The Onion.
Bookmark each of these. Install either
Tweetdeck or Tweetbot on your phone
and on your laptop. Q
 Earn It! by Jack Otter

WHAT
TO DO
ABOUT A
BAD
BOSS
You’re working for the bastard
child of Idi Amin and Anna
Wintour, with a little Michael
Scott DNA thrown in. Here’s
how to succeed anyway.

NOT LONG AGO I attended a business conference in He then detailed some stomach-turning
Scottsdale, Arizona — the type of corporate gathering findings: That employee engagement in the
any road warrior knows will invariably end with a corporate environment is horrible, and job
motivational speech culminating in some over-the- satisfaction is in the tank with businesses
top, life changing conclusion: “Everything you’ve suffering as a result. Companies are
been told is wrong!” “Diet and exercise don’t work!” “Micromanaging is good!” This time, loaded with loathsome Lumberghs whose
however, the keynote speaker, a deeply respected professor at the Stanford Graduate School inertia, fear, and refusal to share power are
of Business named Jeffrey Pfeffer, shocked 800 of America’s top financial pros with some sucking the life out of their workers. It got
news that was as revolutionary as it was (refreshingly) boring: That decades of real-world me thinking: If your company is run by an
research had proven that everything they knew about good management practices — that, incompetent corporate cabal, does that
to get the best out of employees, you need to promote from within, invest in training, reward mean you have to pay the price? Hardly. So
good performance with bonus pay, and decentralise decision-making — was basically I took Pfeffer’s best management practices
correct. Happy employees, he went on, make for kick-ass companies, which is what and flipped them to write the “best employee
bosses everywhere have been told... well, forever. So how come your boss overlooks you for commandments”. Use them and you can
N B C /A l a m y

promotions, keeps you toiling in the dark, and reneges on every yearly bonus? The problem, bypass an awful boss and excel even in a
Pfeffer said, is that few managers actually follow these wisdoms, as conventional as they are. workplace designed to quash success.
 (IGNORED) MANAGEMENT RULE NO. 1
“Don’t select new employees on the basis
of skills that can be learned relatively
quickly; use qualities that are important and
more permanent in your hiring decisions.”
B E S T E M P LOY E E TA C T I C
Always Look at the Bigger Picture
The last person I hired was without
question the least-qualified of all the
applicants I interviewed. On paper. But
what really makes a great employee isn’t
the ability to handle the day-to-day rote.
I needed someone who could get his
head around exactly how we’re different;
who could understand the bigger goal,
and then learn what was necessary to
nail it. And guess what? He does exactly
that. Routinely.
Yes, you need to complete all the tasks
your job requires. But that’s just the
beginning. Every day, you have to think
about the bigger problems facing your
unit, your boss, your company, your
industry. And come up with ways to
solve those problems.
I’m not suggesting you pester your
boss’s boss with ideas for changing pro-
cedures. No one likes that guy. Instead,
when roadblocks get in the way of
business, come up with a solution before
your boss even knows there’s an issue,
and give him that solution when you
alert him to the problem.
(IGNORED) MANAGEMENT RULE NO. 2
“Decentralise decision-making and assign it
to self-managing teams.”
B E S T E M P LOY E E TA C T I C
Make Every Decision You
Can Yourself
This is the classic business practice that
everyone with a BBA knows and no one
ever follows. The logic is obvious: Small,
nimble teams understand their niches
better than far-removed managers and
can react more quickly to a changing
marketplace. Companies often even
invest in training programmes to equip
their teams to make such calls.
But the guys at the top of the corporate
20 th C entur y Fox
pecking order didn’t get there by letting
other people make decisions, and they’re
sure as hell not going to let go now.
So what can you do about it? First, you
have to become the guy who manages
that team. Don’t have seniority? Fine,
just choose one small project and offer
to take it off the bigger dog’s plate. Be
aware that when you ace it, he’ll prob-
ably take credit. But look on the bright
side: By making him look good, you
just became a valuable ally. Keep it up
and eventually you’ll get the credit you
deserve.
Meanwhile, keep track of exactly what
you do and describe each win for your
boss in your next review.
When you do get charge of the team,
what if it turns out to be not much of a
“team” at all? According to my favourite
management guru, Tribal Leadership
author David Logan, groups are often
made up of well-educated, competitive
alpha males. Here’s his simple approach
for turning these “me first” types into
team players.
“First, be curious about people’s
motivations — ask lots of questions,
and really listen”, he says. Once you find
shared motivations, let the other team
members know what you have in com-
mon and use the word “we”.
To close the deal, wait for a day when
there’s some cheer in the air and call a
few members of your team into a confer-
ence room. Logan writes the script for
you: “If we actually stopped competing
with one another and started working
together, we could land [this goal] in
five minutes. Wouldn’t that be cool? In
fact, if we land it for anything, no matter
how small, drinks are on me.”
Notice what happened there. You just
became the leader. Congrats.
(IGNORED) MANAGEMENT RULE NO. 3
“Share information: Engage in open-book
management, because employees need
data to make decisions.”
B E S T E M P LOY E E TA C T I C
Take Advantage of Areas Where
You’re Smarter Than Your Boss
If you’re 30 or under, you’re basically a
digital native. There’s a good chance you
speak “internet” better than the grey-
beards running your company.
Lumbergh nation. Research has shown that corpo-
rate America has a serious bad-manager problem.
So even if you hit a dead-end trying to
get your managers to share information,
you have access to data your boss’s boss
probably doesn’t even know is out there.
Learn how to use that data to make
decisions. It’ll make your boss look
smart when he includes your spread-
sheet in his next PowerPoint deck and
give him a feeling of safety when he
executes ideas based on that data.
It’ll also shield you if you’re wrong —
you’re better off showing that a failure
was based on good data than admitting
you pulled an idea out of your ass.
(IGNORED) MANAGEMENT
RULE NO. 4
“Don’t answer ‘Why?’ with: ‘Because that’s
the way it’s always been done.’”
B E S T E M P LOY E E TA C T I C
Always Be Ready to
Do Things Differently
If you remember only one thing from
this article, let it be this: Never, ever,
explain anything by saying, “That’s the
way we’ve always done it.”
On the contrary, be vigilant for stale
practices and never pass up the chance
to change them. You’ll be amazed at how
many colleagues will say they hated the
old way but never got around to chang-
ing it.
Prove that Millennials can improve
things rather than just drive their older
peers crazy, and the promotions will
start flowing. Q
Jack Otter is the author of
Worth It…Not Worth It? Simple
& Profitable Answers to Life’s Tough
Financial Questions.
 ADVERTISEMENT

Available on iPhone , iPad , and all Android tablets and phones.

 Sleek in
the city
With movement in all directions, shady
characters and the random lurker to
consider when jostling through the city
streets, comfort over style is bound
to be the order of the day. Avoid the
compromise by styling up your easy wear
city wardrobe with textures and prints,
designer shirts, shoes and the odd pop of
colour. scents.
By Charelle Johnson
Photography by Nicole Louw

+ T- sh ir t : Z A RA MA N, R26 9; Pant s : C A RD UCC I

R 1 199 ; S ho es : TOM MY HI LF IG ER R 1 899 .

MOAVR/ D
N CEHC2 2001273 MMEENN’ ’SS FFII TT N
NEES
SSS 4551
 LOOK GRE AT TRENDS

+ J ac k et : Z A RA MA N R1 0 99;
T- sh ir t : TOP MA N R149 ; Pan ts :
Z A RA MA N R89 9; Sh oe s:
P O LO R59 9.
+
MOAVR/ D
N CEHC2 2001273 MMEENN’ ’SS FFII TT N
NEES
SSS 5
4 95
 DIFFERENT BREED

THE REVOLUTIONARY
COACHING PLATFORM BY

Photographer Jason Ellis | @JasonEllisPhoto

TRANSFORMING FITNESS
WITH INNOVATION AND
DETERMINATION
In a world where fitness trends come and go
Josh Cohn’s “Different Breed” stands out as
a beacon of long-term sustainable change.
This unique, fast, and simple weight train-
ing system, born from Josh’s extensive 28
years experience and deep convictions, is
not just a workout routine; it’s a philosophy
for life. A philosophy that has now helped
thousands of people worldwide shed fat,
build muscle and sustainably change their
lives forever!

50 MEN’S FITNESS NOV/DEC 2023

 THE ESSENCE OF
DIFFERENT BREED
At its core, Different Breed is more than just
a weight training program; it’s a testament
to the power of simplicity and effectiveness.
Josh Cohn, an IFBB Classic Physique Pro
and the co-founder of BSF Fitness, has har-
nessed his expertise to create a system that
shuns complex, unsustainable methods for
straightforward, fast, and easy techniques.
His approach has resonated globally, with
countless success stories attesting to its ef-
ficacy.

52 MEN’S FITNESS NOV/DEC 2023

NOV/DEC 2023 MEN’S FITNESS 53
JOSH COHN A MAN
GUIDED BY FAITH AND
DETERMINATION
Josh’s journey in the fitness industry has
been centered around his faith in God
and one marked by an unwavering com-
mitment to excellence. Powered by his
profound belief in divine guidance. As a
member of Team ZeroGravity and a proud
advocate of the #IAM1STPHORM move-
ment, his philosophy extends far beyond
physical training. He sees fitness as a path
to controlling one’s destiny, urging indi-
viduals to focus on what they want and to
pursue it with irresistible passion.
WISDOM
THROUGH
QUOTES
Josh’s insights into success and personal
growth are as compelling as his fitness ad-
vice. One of his notable quotes, “There’s a
reason why I always believe in doing the
WORK,” reflects his belief in the irreplace-
able value of hard work and the perils of
seeking shortcuts. He emphasizes that
enduring the struggles and challenges is
crucial for developing the skills needed
for sustained success. In another power-
ful statement, Josh encourages embracing
adversity: “When everybody else quits…
be the one who gets closer to the uncom-
fortable” He advocates for seeking discom-
fort and facing stress head-on as a means
to forge greatness. Moreover, Josh’s per-
spective on self-reliance is strikingly clear
in his words “If you’re waiting around for
someone to come along and give you per-
mission to be great, you’ll be waiting your
entire lifetime…” He urges individuals to
take charge of their lives, underscoring the
importance of self-accountability in the
pursuit of a fulfilling life.

NOV/DEC 2023 MEN’S FITNESS 55

 A DIFFERENT BREED
OF TRAINING
Different Breed is not just a fitness program it’s a holistic approach to life, em-
phasizing mental toughness, self-reliance, and the relentless pursuit of goals.
Josh Cohn’s life and teachings embody the essence of this philosophy, making
Different Breed a standout choice for any serious busy professional looking to
transform their body and life.

In a world of fleeting fitness fads, Different Breed and Josh Cohn offer something
enduring: a pathway to real success through hard work, self-belief, and the cour-
age to face challenges head-on.

56 MEN’S FITNESS NOV/DEC 2023

 L O O K G R E A T WA T C H E S

On the clock
Meet the watches we think can be worn
no matter what your attire.
By Charelle Johnson
Photography by Nicole Louw

FOR
The Subtle Guy
O An essential to
absolutely every
serious watch
aficionado’s
collection, the Panerai
Radiomir Black Seal
Ceramic PAM 292
with its clear dial has
excellent readability
and an above average
power reserve of 56
hours. With its full
matte black finish
and straight cut high
quality calf hand sewn
leather strap, this
timepiece makes for
the perfect every day
accessory.

+ Jacket: SUPERDRY
R3 100; Shirt: TOPSHOP,
R749; T-shirt: TOPMAN,
R149; Watch: PANERAI,
R127 400.

5586 MEENN’ ’SS FFI ITTNNEES S

M SS NM
O VA/RDC
EHC 2
2 0021 37
FOR
The Preppy Guy
O Combining the ultra
sporty with high-level
performance, the
Breitling Superocean
42 on Ocean Racer
Rubber strap is
water resistant at up
to 500m. Its clearly
visible numerals, black
dial and matching
strap make this watch
a statement piece.

+ Jacket: ZARA MAN R899;

T-shirt: TOPMAN R149;
Jersey: TOPMAN, R1 099;
Divers Watch: BREITLING
R50 800.

M
NOA VR/C
DHE C2 0
2 01 7
2 3 MM
E ENN’ S
’ S FFI ITTNNEESS S
S 55 79
 FOR
The Weekender
O A multi-purpose
sports watch with
its crisp white dial
and orange accents,
the Rolex Explorer
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Easylink extension on
its clasp for those hot
days, this timepiece
can be worn all
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ounce of discomfort.

+ Jacket: ZARA MAN

R1 099; T-shirt: TOPMAN
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6508 MEENN’ ’SS FFI ITTNNEES S

M SS NM
O VA/RDC
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FOR
The Sports Guy
O The U-boat 45mm
Classico Chronograph
is an oversized and
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in its look and not
worn by every guy, this
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is the perfect fit for
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make a statement.

+ Jersey: SUPERDRY,
R2 299; Watch: U-Boat
R36 415.
 LOOK GRE AT GROOMING

Hit “Refresh”
I S S E Y M I YA K E C A LV I N K L E I N
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N O T E S : Grapefruit, sage, NOTES: Cilantro,
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 LOOK GRE AT GROOMING

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Well-shredded.
If getting lean is your goal, one of the
simplest and most effective diet hacks
you can do is to sub out your regular
dinner for a salad. Good news, though:
They can actually be tasty!

So long, Dad’s Waldorfs, Cobbs, and
Caesars. Come on in, meat-crowned
“hot-tops,” hearty grain bowls, and wildly
nutritious beet combos. We’ve been
searching for a way to eat light and healthy
yet still feel 100% satisfied — and you’re
just the ticket.
BY NILS BERNSTEIN
PHOTOGR APHS BY
C H R I S T O P H E R T E S TA N I
DUDE,
WHERE’S
MY
Salad’s history has been less than
glorious: At best, it’s been called a
sad excuse for a side dish; at worst,
a horrifying deception. (Really?
Bacon, cheese chunks, and creamy
Roquefort? Next time we’ll just order the damn
burger.) But one thing it has rarely been called is
a decent, delicious guy’s meal in itself. Finally,
that’s all changing. Innovative American salad
slingers at places like Chopt Salad, Sweetgreen,
et al, are transforming the culinary afterthought
into a bonafide leading man of a meal, filled with
essential muscle-building proteins, nutrition-
ally muscular veggies and grains, and even hot
braised meats that fill you up, get you strong,
keep you lean (science says it works!), and make
you feel better all over. On these pages we pres-
ent the six most satisfying, best tasting, beasts
in-a-bowl. Men, go wild!
The Feel-Better
Steakhouse Salad
SERVES 2
The best cut of meat,
an d best cuts of INGREDIENTS
greens, adapted from
Adam Cole, chef at • 230g coulotte steak
(sirloin cap)
Maple Block Meat
Salt and pepper
Company, based in
California, USA 2 cups arugula, roughly
torn
Cue the Coulotte 2 cups rainbow chard,
thinly sliced
Q The secret to ¼ cup toasted pumpkin
perfecting this seeds (pepitas)
manly dish is to ¼ cup pomegranate
complement the juicy seeds
steak with a crunchy
DRESSING
component — here, in
the form of pepitas, 1 tbsp honey
otherwise known 1½ tbsp fresh-squeezed
as pumpkin seeds — lemon juice
and something tart, ¼ cup olive oil
chiefly pomegranate. Whisk ingredients
Of course, you also together until emulsified.
need the right cut
of meat. “Coulotte INSTRUCTIONS

is a great cut for Season steak liberally

grilling and for with salt and pepper. On a
salads; it’s popular medium-hot grill (or a grill
in Argentina, where pan over medium heat),
it’s called picanha”, grill steak, fat side down,
says Cole. “Because about 8 minutes or until
it’s part of the sirloin rare. Flip steak and cook
and next to a lot of another few minutes,
working muscles, it’s until medium-rare. Let
rest 10-15 minutes before
especially flavourful,
slicing.
it goes great with
arugula, and it isn’t Meanwhile, toss greens
too expensive.” with dressing and add
salt and pepper to taste.
What’s Superhealthy Sprinkle pepitas and
About It pomegranate seeds over
greens, then slice steak
Q Iron and zinc and arrange over the top.
deficiencies have
been linked to
depression — good Chef Tip!
thing this salad’s
beef and pumpkin For perfectly even
seeds pack in both cooking, take meat out
nutrients, as well of the fridge and let it
as tryptophan, sit at room temperature
which boosts sero- for 30–60 minutes
tonin levels (and, before you plop it over
consequently, mood). the flames, says Cole.
After grilling, let it rest 5
Pomegranate seeds
minutes before slicing,
also contain powerful
to minimise juice loss.
antioxidants and
anti-inflammatory
qualities.
 The Zesty, Crunchy Who said salads
Quinoa Bowl are dishes best
served cold?
Call it what you want SERVES 2
The new hot-tops
— “quinoa bowl,” “grain
INGREDIENTS feature piping-
bowl,” “salad that
looks disturbingly ½ tsp salt hot meat laid over
like a bowl of cereal.” 1 cup quinoa tasty, cool greens.
But it’s powerfully 1½ tsp turmeric
healthy — and, when 1 tbsp fresh-squeezed
done right, absolutely lemon juice
delicious. ½ cup diced celery
Fluffy Goodness ¼ cup chopped walnuts
¼ cup ricotta (preferably
Q The new “grain fresh)
bowls” are a welcome
INSTRUCTIONS
entry into the salad
pantheon: Filling, Bring 1½ cups water and
nutritious, versatile, ½ teaspoon salt to a boil in
and easy to jazz up a medium saucepan over
with your protein of high heat. Stir in quinoa
choice. Quinoa, one of and turmeric, return to a
the few grains that’s boil, then reduce heat to
low, cover, and simmer
a complete protein
20 minutes. Fluff quinoa
(meaning it contains
with a fork and turn onto a
all nine essential
platter to cool. Mix in
amino acids), has a lemon juice, then celery
light, fluffy texture and walnuts; adjust salt.
that won’t weigh you Top with dollops of ricotta
down. before serving.

What’s Superhealthy
About It
Q Turmeric is high in
curcumin, shown in
studies to help alle-
viate joint pain. The
exercise-induced
inflammation that
results when you
train hard can make
your joints feel old
and creaky, but add-
ing more curcumin
to your diet may help
banish the aches and
increase mobility.
F o o d s t y l i n g b y S u z a n n e L e n z e r ; P r o p s t y l i n g b y K a i t l y n D u R o s s Wa l k e r / H o n e y A r t i s t s
Health Tip!
Ricotta cheese is a
great source of vitamin
D, which isn’t just for
bones: One study in the
journal Neurology linked
a moderate vitamin
D deficiency with a
53% rise in the risk of The Hearty Salmon
dementia of any kind,
and a severe deficiency Hot-Top
with a 125% rise. (If
Mastering the newest omega-3s can lower SERVES 2
you’re looking to slim
down, opt for low-fat salad innovation risk of abnormal INGREDIENTS
ricotta.) means layering heartbeats, drop
steaming-hot meat triglyceride levels, 2 tbsp adobo sauce
(from canned
over citrusy greens. retard the growth chipotle chiles)
of plaque on your
The salad that eats like ½ cup orange juice
arteries, and lower (preferably fresh
a sandwich blood pressure. squeezed)
The American
Q The American • large boneless salmon
Heart Association fillet (about 230g,
health food chain
recommends eating preferably Alaskan
Chopt Salad recently
fatty fish like salmon wild), cut in half

introduced the hot-

and sardines at least 4 cups spinach,
top to the world,
twice a week; you washed, dried,
which is a hearty and roughly
can also supplement
combination of torn
with about 1000g of
braised meat and
high-quality fish oil INSTRUCTIONS
grains ladled
every day to make up
steaming hot over In a sauté pan with a lid,
the slack.
greens for a filling bring adobo and orange
meal. In our simple juice to a boil over high
but richly flavoured heat. Add salmon, reduce
version, the chipotle- heat to low, and cover
orange sauce acts Fun Fact! pan. Cook until salmon is
as a warm dressing opaque throughout and
Spinach is high in flakes easily with a fork,
to gently wilt the
vitamins K and A, about 10 minutes. Divide
spinach, and we
manganese, and folate. spinach among plates and
subbed out the But one thing it isn’t high
chicken for just-as- top each with a salmon
in is iron, contrary to fillet. If sauce is thin,
hearty lean salmon. anything Popeye had to bring to a boil and reduce
say about it. In truth, in until it reaches the
What’s Superhealthy
1870, a German chemist consistency of ranch
About It
misplaced a decimal dressing. Drizzle sauce
point, attributing 100g over salmon and greens
Q Salmon’s omega-3s
of spinach with 35mg of and serve hot.
help your heart
iron instead of 3.5; that
function at top levels.
myth still persists.
Studies show that
Pork need not apply
Collard greens, the comfort food staple,
are one of the most overlooked vegeta-
bles, says chef Wolfgang Puck. You can
almost invariably sub them in for kale in
any recipe.

The World-Best
Nutty, Luscious
Collard Green
Salad
The ultimate trendy,
terrific salad, adapted
from world-famous
celebrity chef
Wolfgang Puck.
Behold the “new kale”!
Q Yes, collards are
delicious when
cooked Southern-
style with salty pork,
but they’re also great
when eaten raw; Puck
says you can elevate
any traditional kale
salad by subbing in
collard greens. (In
fact, both are from
the same species,
Brassica Oleracea.)
What’s Superhealthy
About It
Q Collards are among
the greens highest
in vitamin K, crucial
for strengthening
your bones. Strong
evidence from
multiple studies
shows that getting
adequate vitamin K
prevents fractures
and bone loss.
SERVES 2
INGREDIENTS
½ bunch of raw collard
greens (about 115g)
• Salt
3 tbsp golden raisins
3 tbsp toasted pine nuts
½ avocado, peeled and
diced
• Shaved Parmesan, for
garnish (optional)
DRESSING
• Zest and juice from half
a lemon
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
Whisk lemon, mustard, and
sugar till sugar is dissolved.
Slowly drizzle olive oil while
whisking to emulsify.
INSTRUCTIONS
Roll collard greens
lengthwise and cut into
strips . In a large bowl,
combine greens with
a sprinkle of salt and
“massage” the leaves with
your hands for 60 seconds
to tenderise. Add the raisins,
pine nuts, and avocado, and
toss lightly with dressing.
Garnish with Parmesan.
The Fantastically Filling
Blueberry-Grape Salad
Meet the only super-
healthy meal that can
also pass for dessert.
Fruit Power
Q It’s a simple fruit
salad with a big secret
weapon: matcha
(green tea powder; see
“Health Tip,” below),
which adds a flavour-
ful complexity and a
big shot of nutrition.
What’s Superhealthy
About It
Q In addition to being
crazy high in antioxi-
dants, the blueberry’s
prowess in combating
brain ageing has led
researchers to call it
the “brain berry”. One
US-based Tufts Uni-
versity study showed
that the equivalent of
a half cup a day dra-
matically improved
neuromotor skills.
And the anti-inflam-
matory properties of
both blueberries and
red grapes (which
have the polyphenol
resveratrol, the rea-
son docs often recom-
mend a daily glass of
red wine) can protect
against seizures.
Super bowl
Research has shown that blueberries
dramatically improve neuromotor skills
and may even prevent brain ageing.
SERVES 2
INGREDIENTS
1 cup blueberries
1 cup red grapes, halved
½ cup Greek yoghurt
1 tsp matcha (green tea
powder)
Honey, maple syrup,
or powdered sugar
to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
Combine blueberries
and grapes in a large
bowl. In another bowl,
mix yoghurt, matcha, and
sweetener until smooth
and of uniform colour. Add
matcha cream to fruit,
mix gently, and serve.
Health tip!
Matcha powder,
a quick-dissolving
Japanese green tea,
has loads of benefits
courtesy of its high
concentration of the
antioxidant catechin, a
powerful antimicrobial
and neuroprotectant
(for the lowdown on
matcha, see page 16).
The Muscle-Building
But if nothing else, Roasted Beet Salad
the gentle caffeine hit
improves alertness, A delicious twist on SERVES 2
mental clarity, and today’s fine-dining INGREDIENTS
motor function. staple, adapted from
• 450g beets , scrubbed
chef John Fraser, of
clean
New York’s NIX.
• Extra-virgin olive oil
The right way to go red • Salt
6 tbsp roasted, shelled
Q This easy salad pistachios, roughly
includes all the fla- chopped
vours that beets go 1 tbsp za’atar, or toasted
best with: toasted sesame seeds
nuts, creamy dairy, ½ cup plain yoghurt,
and tender greens. whisked with a pinch of
salt
What’s Superhealthy
1 cup mâche greens , for
About It plating
Q Beets’ nitrates may DRESSING
help shuttle more 2 tbsp sherry vinegar
oxygenated blood
1 tsp Dijon mustard
to the muscles and
1 tsp honey
heart; a 2015 study
found that drinking ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
beet juice upped mus- Whisk vinegar, mustard,
cle power about 13%. and honey in a bowl. Slowly
drizzle oil while whisking to
emulsify, then salt to taste.
Chef tip! INSTRUCTIONS
Roast the beets! Chef Preheat oven to 180°C.
Fraser roasts beets Toss beets with a little olive
overnight in a traditional oil and salt, and place in a
Indian tandoori oven, baking pan. Cover with foil
but any roasting method and bake about 90 minutes.
works. “Roasted beets Rub off skin with a kitchen
develop a distinct towel while still warm. Cut
textural contrast larger beets into halves or
between the dense quarters, toss with dressing,
crust and pulpy interior and divide between plates.
of the vegetable, giving Combine pistachios and
added dimension,” says za’atar over beets. Spoon
Fraser. yoghurt around the beets.
Top with mâche.
 Why do I sometimes

feel I’m about

to absolutely f*%&ing

Today’s world is one pissed off place. Thankfully, we’ve located the world’s top rage-
fighting therapist — a 108-kilogram former athlete who specialises in treating American
NFL stars and death row inmates — for the ultimate crash course on how to keep your cool.
(So put down that voodoo doll of your favourite enemy.)

BY JOSH DEAN
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARIUS BUGGE
STILL LIFE BY JARREN VINK

Allow me to confess something horrible. On somewhat regular
occasions — way more often than I’d like to admit — I feel the
sudden and overwhelming urge to pummel complete strangers.
Just a few weeks back, I was waiting in line to board a plane when
a guy in a suit — it’s always some entitled prick in a suit — nudged
past, certain that because he’s an important businessman, it
must be rightfully his turn to board. His blithe disregard for my
patiently earned place in line, or anyone else’s, had me debating
internally whether I should stick a foot out and trip him there, in
full view of everyone, or wait and push him out of the baggage door
on the boarding bridge. Then there was the Audi 4x4 driver who
appeared in my rearview mirror on the highway, pulling within
centimetres of my bumper, and flashing his lights like an ambu-
lance. Forget the fact that we were both already doing 120km/h
and I had two kids in the back — hey, Jason Statham here had
places to go! For a split second I actually fantasised about running
him off the road. Then there’s DStv customer service — well, let’s
just stop there for now.
But here’s the thing: I’m not an especially angry person. I’ve
never actually pummelled a complete stranger — or anyone
else, for that matter. I hate fighting and avoid conflict whenever
possible. Had I played rugby, I probably would’ve been a wing. Yet
even I can’t help it when certain objectively trivial events cause my
senses to heighten, my muscles to tense, my vision to tunnel, and
my sweat glands to churn. And before I know what’s happening
I’ve gone from a mild-mannered father, to a rage monster on the
verge of seeing red.
And if you believe the media, I’m hardly alone. In 2016 everyone
seems overworked, overstressed, and overcharged by an onslaught
of bad news that runs the gamut from terrorism and droughts,
to incidents of racism and constant rhetoric from politicians who
can’t stop yelling. Anger globally is so pervasive that when NBC
conducted an American poll on the matter in November 2016,
nearly half of all US adults surveyed described themselves as
angrier than they were a year ago.
And all this rage isn’t harmless. A recent study by the Australian
University of Sydney found that, for as long as two hours after an
episode of uncontrolled anger, your risk of a heart attack is nine
times higher.
So when I heard talk of a supposed “rage specialist” named Mitch
Abrams, PsyD, I had to give him a call.
Abrams, a 43-year-old psychologist, has made treating anger his
life’s work. His primary job is running the psychology programme
in five New Jersey prisons, but he’s even better known in psych
circles as the guy who teaches elite athletes — both professionals
and amateurs — how to harness their most primal feelings. These
are men and women (but mostly men) who thrive in a realm where
aggression is encouraged. And if this guy can talk to NFL defensive
backs (or, God forbid, serial killers) about harnessing their rage,
surely he can handle a father of two from Brooklyn who gets riled
up at airports.
“Mitch really stands out as the person in our field who can talk
about anger”, says Alison Rhodius, PhD, chair of the sport psychology
program at John F. Kennedy University in San Francisco. “He’s the
one person who’s taken this issue and just run with it.”
Abrams begins our first conversation by assuring me that anger
is normal. It’s a core human emotion and one of the body’s natural
physiological responses to danger. Dealing with anger is, simply
put, a choice. It’s how you choose to respond to anger — how
you hone your ability to recognise and deal with the impulses —
that ultimately determines whether you’re a healthy and happy
human being.
“Think about it this way”, Abrams says, settling into one of his
favourite analogies. “You can’t make a good steak without fire,
right? If you can control the flame, you can make wonderful things
happen. But if you can’t, you’re going to burn the steak. Anger is like
that fire. If you learn how to harness it, there are all kinds of things
you can do. If you can’t control it, you’re going to burn yourself.”
To Banish Anger, Should You Imagine a Warm Beach or
Hammer a Heavy Bag?
Whether he’s talking to a regular guy like me
W
or an NBA power forward, Abrams’ first lesson
is this: You can’t control anything until you
acknowledge that there’s a problem in the first
place. To illustrate, he brings up American foot-
ball. “Did you watch the Steelers-Bengals game?” Abrams asks one
afternoon, taking off his grey pinstripe suit jacket and pulling a
rolling chair out from behind his desk at the main branch of his
private practice in New Jersey. Abrams is a large man — 1.8-metres,
108kg he says — and he sits in his chair in an athletic posture, his
 Know Your Boiling Point
> The key to controlling your anger and preventing destructive behaviour—even violence—is recognising

that you’re becoming progressively more agitated until you reach what anger-management guru

Mitch Abrams, Psy.D., calls the “explosion threshold.” And believe it or not, it’s rarely a “sudden” occurrence.

Below, Abrams, who works with both pro athletes and death row inmates, walks us through a

hypothetical escalation. At each point, he recommends visualisation exercises to bring you back down to your

“baseline”—the resting emotional state when you’re calm, content, and happy.

BOILING POINT

6 AM 7 AM 8 AM 9 AM 10 AM 11 AM 12 PM 1 PM 2 PM 3 PM 4 PM 5 PM 6 PM

5) You completely
2) You’re 3) You’re pretty 4) You’re lose your s#*t
1) You’re unaware clearly annoyed damn steamed seriously angry
you’re irritated “At the afternoon
“At breakfast, “As you leave, you “Driving to work, meeting, your boss
“You wake up with your wife nags you spill coffee on your a person cuts you criticises a job you
a headache and about a bill you shirt. It’s a small off in traffic. Now did, and instead
Illustrations by Oliver Munday

some flu symp- forgot to pay, and annoyance, but you’re mad. You of apologizing
toms,” Abrams you argue, which all of a sudden it scream and swear or letting it go,
says. “You’re in a raises your overall seems huge. You and consider you argue. You
negative mindset irritation. Now feel your muscles chasing him. You yell. Now you’ve
but don’t even you’re definitely tighten. Now you’re feel hot, and your crossed the line
notice it.” annoyed.” definitely on edge.” heart is racing.” and hurt yourself.”
 He’s referring to the AFC Wild Card game, when the Steelers edged day, exacerbated by a crowded security checkpoint at the airport, then
the Bengals in one of the ugliest and most violent football games in compounded even further by a testy e-mail from your boss. “There are
recent memory. By the second half, the game had completely devolved many things that annoy us, but we don’t consciously process them”,
into a battle of dirty plays and cheap shots — the NFL later handed he says. “But our body keeps a tally of them even when our conscious
out nearly R2 million in fines to seven players — and no single player mind doesn’t.”
bore more responsibility for the mayhem than the Bengals’ volatile There are other factors that can also send you spiralling towards
linebacker Vontaze Burfict. The 25-year-old committed three nasty the explosion threshold before you know it — “things that have even
personal fouls, the final of which knocked Steelers All-Pro receiver bigger meaning and might result in a more hysterical response”,
Antonio Brown out of the playoffs with a headshot in overtime. Abrams explains. Maybe you’ve experienced a recent personal
Burfict personally rang up about R950 000 in fines and a suspension tragedy or you’re very sensitive about a political issue. Drugs and
for the first three games of the next season. alcohol qualify too. “They numb the parts of the brain that might
“I have no doubt in my mind I could help that guy”, says Abrams. notice warning signs and say, ‘Hey, maybe it’s a bad idea to call that
The main problem with police officer prick’”, Abrams
Burfict, he says, isn’t that he was says. “Alcohol doesn’t make you
born angry or is constitutionally an asshole — alcohol makes it
angrier than any of the rest of impossible to hide the fact that
us, but that his environment has you are an asshole.”
nurtured his rage rather than Recognising anger cues is
forced him to manage it. In fact, harder for athletes because
the linebacker has been known they’re already in a heightened
for his notorious temper since state of arousal and may not
he was in college, at Arizona notice the subtler cues, so
State. Abrams teaches them to look
Treating hot-headed athletes for other warning signs.
is challenging at first, Abrams
You should never “What I’ll often tell athletes,
says, because they’re often especially NFL players, is to
forced into therapy against their pay attention to when their
will when they do something mindset is shifting — when it’s
wrong, like hurting someone, use “striking exercises” moving from executing the call
so they’re resistant to change. to executing someone”, Abrams
Abrams’ first order of business, says. “That’s when anger’s
then, is to show the player why taking over. And when anger
he wants to be there. He’ll ask, to fight rage. takes over, it interferes with
“Do you want to lose your job, performance.”
your wife, your life? Okay, then In short, the key to control is
— you want to be here”. awareness: Once you identify
“I seduce the humanity out the changes in your body, you’re
of them”, he explains, which is in a position to calm yourself.
easier if the patient’s a parent. And the most common and
“That’s an in: Is this what you effective approach to doing
want your daughter to know that? Visualisation, says
you’re about?” Abrams. He tells patients to get
That’s when Abrams gets to lesson No. 1: When we snap, it’s almost comfortable and conjure an image that makes them feel relaxed. The
never random and sudden. Reaching that point is a process of go-to image is a therapy-world cliché: A quiet beach, where waves roll
escalation in which the body’s mental and physical processes slowly in, one after another.
ramp up until we reach what Abrams calls the “explosion threshold” “Whatever problems you have, when you breathe in, exhale those
— the point at which our anger boils over and we lose control. problems into the ocean”, he says, choosing nature as the context
Prop st yling by Megumi Emoto/ Anderson Hopkins

Abrams opens a book and shows me a graph illustrating the process. because whatever tiny thing has set you off is easily put in its place
(See “Know Your Boiling Point”, page 79.) by the enormity of the natural world. “Recognise that, in the grand
As we become agitated, we experience a series of subtle physiological scheme of things, your problems are small.”
changes from what Abrams calls the “baseline” — our calm and There are other ways to reel yourself in, including muscle relaxation
content state. Breathing and pulse begin to increase. The hairs on our techniques, in which you tense and release certain muscle groups,
arms stand up. We start to feel physically hot. We begin to think angry meditation, and music. “Music can be very powerful to amp you up or
thoughts. The more stress we’re under, the further up that line we go, calm you down”, Abrams says.
usually without even realising it. One thing he discourages at all costs: Yelling. “I hear people say, ‘If
“We experience a lot of stressors subliminally”, Abrams says. A you’re angry, yell into a pillow’. No — then you’re reinforcing yelling.
stubbed toe in the morning may set in motion a particularly angry And in an argument, once you start yelling, people stop listening.”
Exercise is another very effective way to burn up your anger, but the
type matters. A particularly bad outlet: Punching a bag to “work
it out”. In fact, Abrams actively discourages patients from using
“striking exercises” to fight rage. “Let’s say that whenever I’m angry,
I go hit the heavy bag”, he says. “I’m going to feel better, sure. But if
that’s the go-to when I’m angry, what’s happens the next time, when
I have not my punching bag but my wife in front of me? Bam!”
Even Nuns Lose It at the DMV
AAbrams grew up in Brooklyn, in Starrett City,
conditions for which anger is merely a symptom.
It’s not just athletes and cons who rely on Abrams for help. In recent
years, he’s become popular with yet another group — one that often
struggles not to cross the line between having just enough anger
and having too much: Corporate executives. “The truth is, you can’t
be successful in life by being passive”, Abrams says. Though there’s
always risk of “spillage” — crossing the explosion threshold — the
right amount of anger can make you stronger.
It’s the same in football, he says. When you consider what they’re
asked to do on the field, “football players on the whole have really good
anger management skills.” In fact, players often worry that seeing

A
a small, working-class neighbourhood in the Abrams is going to make them “too soft”. Not a chance, he says. “I
borough’s want them to be tenacious,
south-east hungry, focused. I want
corner. He them to be aggressive. But
claims his life’s calling was I don’t want them to be so
revealed to him at 15 during consumed by emotion that
a frightening tantrum in they lose their focus.” Guys
his bedroom. There was like Burfict, he says — or
music blaring — “because even ex-Ravens running
no good temper tantrum back Ray Rice and former
exists without background Cowboy Greg Hardy,
music” — and in the midst of who both abused their
his outburst he took his rage significant others in fits of
out on a folding metal chair. rage — are the exception,
“I ripped it in half like it was not the rule, because they
paper”, he recalls. haven’t learned to harness
He was so amped that he their anger.
hadn’t noticed his mom was The more I talked to
in the room. Abrams, the more I realised
“It was the first and only that most of us — the raging
time I ever saw her afraid”, he masses — are looking at
says. “She looked at me and anger in a fundamentally
said very clearly, ‘You need wrong way. As Pixar’s
to get a hold of that because Inside Out made adorably
if you don’t, you’re going clear, anger isn’t a condition
to ruin your life and you’re but a natural emotion
never going to get to where universally shared, no
you want to go’. That was the different from sadness or
first time I became cognisant joy. Abrams once used the
of anger as a real emotion in word “fix” to describe the
real-time that, if it was left process of treatment, but
untethered, could take me to that’s not really what he’s
all kinds of bad places. That’s when it all started for me.” doing; the truth is, a man’s anger will never go away.
Abrams’ first job in the field was as the Senior Psychologist at When I tell Abrams about my own irrational episodes, he
Coney Island Hospital; he also began doing sports consulting on the assures me that it’s all perfectly normal. “It may seem unimportant
side. It was just after he’d finished a talk on the subject of athletes being cut-off in line, but it’s an ego and a pride thing. That’s rooted
and anger — based on his PhD dissertation — at a psychological in insecurity.” Most angry feelings, he says, can be traced back to
conference in 2000 that a man approached and asked him if he’d feelings of insecurity — physical, financial, or otherwise. For this
consider bringing his work to a New Jersey prison. He said yes. reason, old-fashioned psychotherapy is, without a doubt, your best
Today Abrams oversees the psychology programme in five prisons tool for defeating them.
in the state, with 100 people reporting to him. And despite the fact Abrams himself gets pissed when someone cuts him off in traffic
that his private practice is booming — it’s now a second full-time — he’s just trained himself to deal with it: “I may mutter ‘asshole’,
job — he’s still staring down murderers. but I also think, ‘Yep, you’re gonna die — probably soon. You can
And for the record: Criminals really aren’t angrier than the rest beat me there’. It’s just better to let most things go.”
of us, Abrams says. As with out-of-control NFL players, their Most people who know how to deal with anger have found the
behaviour is rooted in their environments and other psychological right amount of heat without burning the steak. They employ men
 what’s technically called “instrumental aggression” — using their
angry thoughts to accomplish an actual goal. This comes across
as tenacity, as passion, as spirit, whereas “reactive aggression” — a
cricket player breaking his bat over his knee after he’s out, or me
throwing a guy of a boarding bridge — manifests as a loss of control.
Michael Jordan used “instrumental aggression” in every game.
Learning the skills needed to master anger, such as
understanding your body’s signals better, isn’t easy, Abrams says;
but truly motivated patients can do it in roughly 8 to 12 therapy
sessions. The process can take much longer if you’re resistant.
“Getting to the underlying triggers takes time”, he says. “I find that
76 MEN’S FITNESS NOV/DEC 2023
men are especially hesitant to look at themselves, but once they
start, it pays off.”
Toward the end of our last conversation, I ask if anyone has truly
mastered anger. A Buddhist monk, perhaps?
“I think there are some people who are physiologically much less
reactive to anger”, Abrams says. “They still get angry, but not as often
and not as intensely. I think there are also people who are accepting
and patient, so they get pissed off by fewer things. But I don’t think
there’s anybody who doesn’t get angry. You send Mother Teresa to the
Licensing Department, I’m sure she would get pissed.”
And that makes me very happy. Q
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 The fitness
world has come
a long way
Since the late 1980s, when Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons dominated the brace. He tried to fight back from his inju-
popular home video market and StairMasters and all-in-one exercise machines ries with immobilisation and bed rest. (Both
were new-fangled attractions in burgeoning gym chains. Fat was irredeemably bad ideas, as we now know.) Before Bird’s
evil, the US Public Health Service had only recently issued a report on the dangers final season, surgeons extracted a disk from
of second-hand smoke, and a certain guy named Tabata was still a decade away his spinal column to relieve the pain but the
from inventing HIIT. In 1988, personal training was such a wildly new concept operation didn’t help much. In 1992, at the
that The New York Times actually launched an investigation into the curious rise age of 35, he announced his retirement at the
of “highly disciplined, one-on-one workouts, not just for professional athletes and Boston Garden.
celebrities but for ordinary people who can afford them”. Meanwhile, the undis- “My back problems cost me at least three or
puted king of professional sports was Larry Bird, a pasty basketball player from four years [of my career]”, Bird told reporters
Indiana who had a blond mullet, chewed tobacco, crushed cans of Bud — and, by in 2012. “After I hurt it, I always played with
1986, had never seriously lifted a free weight in his life. At the time it didn’t matter. spasms. I kept playing because I always
He not only led his Boston Celtics to the NBA championship that June but also wanted to play for one more championship.
capped the season by winning his third consecutive MVP award. Then, the last That was just me.”
month of 86, something ominous occurred that affected his life and his career: To be sure, Bird wasn’t an outlier in his
era. Michael Jordan retired — for the second
(though not final) time — at age 35. Troy
He turned 30. Aikman left the NFL at 34. Baseball star Don Mattingly bowed out at
It’s an age that feels so inconsequential today. LeBron James that age too. The reality is that their retirements didn’t seem unusual
is over 30. So are soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo and NFL quar- — they were “old”. Yet if those guys were playing today, the timing of
terback Aaron Rodgers. Remember when the New England their exits would no doubt feel premature.
Patriots’ 38-year-old quarterback Tom Brady turned 30? Neither So what, specifically, has changed?
does he. Since then he’s won two league MVP awards and a Super Any dedicated Men’s Fitness reader can give at least a partial
Bowl, having thrown 281 touchdown passes, which is more than answer: Today’s athletes are eating better, resting better, and training
Hall of Famer Joe Montana threw in his entire career. 40-year- smarter than ever before. But that hardly explains why Vince Carter,
old San Antonio Spurs big man Tim Duncan turned 30 seven just shy of 40, can dunk over guys 20 years younger than he is, or how
All-Star Game appearances and two NBA championships ago. Jagr keeps the team’s strength and conditioning coach at the gym past
And since the season after Florida Panthers 44-year-old (not midnight.
a typo) winger Jaromir Jagr celebrated his 30th birthday, he’s So what are the specific training techniques that athletes have
played for seven NHL teams, scored 279 goals, and logged 14 774 adopted that have prolonged so many careers?
minutes of ice time. (And that doesn’t even include the 4 seasons With that question and more in mind, we launched a formal inves-
he spent playing in Russia and the Czech Republic.) tigation into longevity training, reaching out to team doctors and
But not long after Bird turned 30, he started missing games. sports scientists, academic physiologists and elite strength coaches
His Achilles tendons became painfully tender. His back acted up. — and, of course, the age-defying athletes themselves. Some of these
His body began to fall apart in front of sports fans’ eyes. On the experts, like Marcus Elliott, MD, Director of the “applied sports
court he grimaced with every twist and twinge; on the sideline science” firm Peak Performance Project, are at the bleeding-edge
he lay on his stomach to relieve the pain. In the locker room, he of forward-looking fitness technology. Others, like legendary NFL
crammed his torso into a six-millimetre-thick fibreglass body strength coach Johnny Parker — who, in the 80s, tracked down Soviet
 coaches so he could pick their brains about plyometrics
and periodisation — are decidedly more old-school, but no less inquisitive.
New-school, old-school — they still agreed on the fundamentals. So we compiled their
wisdom into six lessons, crucial techniques, and habits that have helped prolong the careers
of ageing stars.
Best of all, the lessons apply to you too. Whether you’re a lifter, a runner, or an all-around
sports nut, you’ll find something here to keep you performing at the very highest level. Because
age, science and real-world results are now telling us, is just another number.
“JAGR’S INTO THE
SPIRITUAL
ASPECTS OF
TRAINING, LIKE
ACTIVATING
CHAKRAS,”
SAYS TRAINER
TOMMY POWERS.
So Jagr is getting
Training a
pretty famous for his
unorthodox drills…
“Freight T O M M Y P O W E R S : A lot
of the stuff we do is
Train” definitely a little out
there.
He shoots a 3-kilo-
gram med-ball against
Florida Panthers strength
a wall. He wears a
coachTommy Powers talks
O p e n e r i m a g e : S t e v e M i t c h e l l / U S A To d a y S p o r t s : T h i s p a g e f r o m l e f t :
20-kilogram vest and
about working with the NHL’s ankle weights, and
ageless wonder, Jaromir Jagr he’ll just wear them all
day until he gets on the
ice. Then sometimes
when he’s on the ice
he’ll skate with the
weights on. There
was one practice
Chris Crisman; Cour tesy of Reebok
where one of our star
defencemen lifted up
Jagr’s stick and took
his puck away, and
after that Jagr came
in and said, “I’ll never
get a puck taken away
from me again!”
We also found a
way to strap a stick
The fighter. Forty-four-year-old Florida Panther
Jaromir Jagr swears by speed and resistance work—
and doesn’t engage in big lifts.
power aspect, but he’s metres max. That gets
44, and he’s probably his legs going and gets
never really trained his glutes firing. He’ll
that way in his career. do those for 10 min-
I’m not going to come utes after every game,
in and say, “Hey, you and he’ll grab me on
should be doing this”, the road and we’ll do it
and totally change up in the hallways of the
his routine. hotel. We try to main-
tain as much of that
What did you expect lower-body power and
training him would speed as we can that
be like? way.
When Jagr got traded
to us he was 43, and Can other athletes
everybody told me he learn from him?
was the kind of guy I think anybody can
who has his own key learn from him. He
to the rink, who wants doesn’t like taking any
to skate at late hours days off. If he takes
— all these nightmare a day off, he feels
stories for a strength terrible. And he finds
and conditioning ways to make himself
to a cable on a Keiser stronger with his
coach.
Functional Trainer, and But it really wasn’t mindset and his mental
he applies pressure that bad. He’ll call me preparation too.
downwards on the
stick to activate his
up and we’ll skate at
10:30 at night, and
He’s also very into
the spiritual aspect of
core. then we’ll work out in things. He’s really into
the gym until 12, 12:30 activating chakras and
And any traditional doing sprints and all that stuff.
weight training? pushes and all that
Not really. He’ll do stuff. He just wants to Activating chakras?
some dumbbell train when his body Yeah, he’s been doing
shoulder raises, feels ready, not be told it for years. There are
but he’s not doing when to do it. seven chakras; he’s
bench presses or able to open them up
hang cleans or power What does he focus on to help him feel strong
cleans or deadlifts or in his training? and create energy
any of that stuff. When Right now it’s being through his body.
he sees other players strong and stable and Before games,
doing those, he’ll be able to protect the he listens to chakra
like, “You shouldn’t be puck. He’s evolved opening music on
doing that, you should into a guy who’s going YouTube, and he kind
be doing this!” It’s to create pressure in of meditates. Then
pretty funny to see. the offensive zone and he’ll say to me, “How
Some guys will start use his body and have are my chakras?” I’ll
going over to the stuff short bursts of speed. push him and he won’t
that he’s doing. Sprints are his budge at all, and I’ll
I do think something go-to. I’ll resist him say, “Yeah, they’re
like hang cleans could with a rope, and he’ll really good. They’re
benefit Jagr with the go 10, 15, maybe 20 open”.
THE WA R AG A INS T RE TIREMEN T 1
IN THE WEIGHT ROOM, FOCUS ON
BAR SPEED — NOT WEIGHT
The sobering truth of ageing: No matter
who you are, it slows you down. (Even Usain
Bolt’s fastest times are all from his early and
mid-20s). And if you play a sport that demands
speed and explosiveness, you’re not going to
have a job for very long if you’re slow. That’s
why, as athletes get older, strength coaches
have the same mantra: Forget maxing out in
the weight room and focus on “the rate of force
development”.
In other words: Bar speed.
“When I’d see a guy squatting incredible
weight, I’d tell him, ‘Lighten up and move
the bar faster’”, says Johnny Parker, a courtly
Mississippian who was an NFL strength and
conditioning coach from 1984 to 2007 and
won Super Bowls with both Bill Parcells’ New
York Giants and Jon Gruden’s Tampa Bay
Buccaneers. “I’d stop a player at or before he
was squatting double his own bodyweight.
You don’t need to squat anymore. And if you
train ballistically — which is going down under
control and then up as quickly as possible,
really rattling the plates — you’ll maximise the
rate of force produced. That’s the best way to
preserve your speed.”
The problem with explosive movements —
whether it’s ballistic lifting or, especially, plyo-
metric exercises — is that they can strain your
joints, particularly if you’re an older athlete
with mobility issues. As Jeremy Holsopple,

C l o c k w i s e f r o m t o p l e f t : Wa l t e r I o o s s J r. / G e t t y ; J a y n e K u m i n - O n c e a / U S A To d a y S p o r t s ; D a n H a m i l t o n / U S A
Athletic Performance Director for the NBA’s
Dallas Mavericks, says, “It’s hard to do explo-

To d a y S p o r t s ; S t e w M i n e / U S A To d a y S p o r t s : M a n n y R u b i o / U S A To d a y S p o r t s : U S A To d a y S p o r t s
sive things on an ankle that has zero degrees of
dorsal flexion… or a knee or hip that has some
arthritic changes”.
Holsopple was hired by Mavericks owner
Mark Cuban specifically for his sports science
expertise, and when he works with his team’s
ageing star, 37-year-old Dirk Nowitzki, he puts
his knowledge into practice. “We do high-force
outputs with Dirk, but we keep fast-twitch
muscles firing in a way that’s not breaking
down the joints”, he tells me.
Nowitzki and Holsopple still do plyometric
drills, but they lessen the load with a new high-
speed isokinetic squat machine, a specialised
piece of equipment that maintains a consistent
resistance throughout the concentric (raising)
phase of the lift, and applies virtually no resis-
tance during the eccentric (lowering) phase.
This means that on an isokinetic machine,
Nowitzki has to push just as hard at the top
 of his lift as he does at the bottom (a normal
squat gets easier as you get more leverage on
the bar), and once he starts moving down-
wards he has to deal with only his own body-
weight.
“The whole movement’s very aggressive,
but it doesn’t feel that way on his ankles,
knees, or lower back”, Holsopple says. “It lets
us do something that’s high force without the
wear and tear.”
2 nothing you can substitute for that.”
MAXIMISE YOUR USE OF
FREE WEIGHTS
Isokinetic squat machines can be great for
targeted explosive exercises, but when it
comes to building up the entire body, exer-
cise science still has no replacement for
traditional free weights.
“I’ll tell you one thing that’s definitely
helped players”, Parker tells me. “The age of
the fitness machine is fading into history.”
That’s because machines target only
limited groups of large muscles, whereas
Olympic-style lifts train the body’s kinetic
chains, which include the easily ignored but
crucial muscles that stabilise and assist.
“The reason traditional methods like free
weights are tried and true is they prepare
those support structures”, says LA Lakers
strength coach Tim DiFrancesco. “There’s
A lot of athletes have been told incorrectly
to avoid beneficial exercises like the deadlift,
and there’s a reason for that: Deadlifting
with bad form is a tried-and-true way to evis-
cerate your lower back. (There are different
types of deadlifts. If you’re struggling with
the classic deadlift, try an option like the
hex-bar.)
But lifting weights with good form incor-
porates critical support muscles like the
erector spinae, rotator cuff, and smaller hip
muscles, which sitting isolating on a machine
won’t always do as effectively. Strengthening
these muscles can mean fewer lower-back,
shoulder, and knee injuries, and a career
with fewer of those injuries is almost always
longer.
To ensure you’re giving your body a solidly
built base, DiFrancesco recommends
sticking to the basics: Squat, deadlift; lunges
for the lower body; and bench presses, push-
ups, rows, and pull-up variations for the
upper body.
3
HIT YOUR HIPS HORIZONTALLY
Of course, when it comes to bullet proofing
the body’s support structures over time,
Olympic lifts aren’t the whole story. Bill Foran,

Eat to Play Forever!

Hint: Get More Vitamin C
And fats like pasture-raised bacon. But, if you’re Tom Brady,
that means no more tomatoes or mushrooms.

“Everybody supporting structures because they don’t have

E has always
looked at
food as fuel”,
says Tim DiFrancesco,
the LA Lakers’ strength
and conditioning coach.
“But now we’re realising
that food is also poten-
tially medicine — or the
opposite.”
DiFrancesco, widely
known as “Grass-fed
Tim” (a title bestowed
on him by 36-year-old
Metta World Peace),
is evangelical about
the benefits of certain
foods not only for over-
all health but also for
the recovery process of
ageing athletes.
One of his biggest
battles is against
inflammation. But he
doesn’t fight it with
heaps of anti-inflam-
matory pills — he fights
S a m K a p l a n / Tr u n k A r c h i v e
more fragile and brittle
on a cellular level”, he
says — and healthy fats,
anti-inflammatory prop-
erties. In Dallas, Dirk
Nowitzki bulletproofs
particularly avocado his joints with a dif-
and coconut oil, are in. ferent approach: 1g of
“They’re not going to vitamin C mixed with 5g
add to inflammation, gelatine per day. (Stud-
and they’re going to ies have shown that
give you a lot of good high doses of vitamin C
energy.” And for a full can reduce the produc-
out assault on inflam- tion of pro-inflamma-
mation, DiFrancesco tory cytokines.) And in
has his players scarf up LA, the recently retired
the leafy greens of their Kobe Bryant, 37, has
choice. become a devotee of
This whole-foods bone broth soup.
approach (which, for “When Kobe had the
the Lakers, is actually Achilles tear [in 2013],
catered by Whole he said, ‘I’m not going
Foods) will sound to hang it up’, so we
familiar to anyone needed to do everything
who’s heard of Paleo; we could to get him
but the best ageing back”, DiFrancesco
pro athletes take it to says. “There’s evidence
another level. that a cup of bone broth
Patriots quarterback contains basically the
Tom Brady reportedly building blocks of the

it with diet. eats a diet carefully body’s support struc-

DIRK NOWITZKI For example: Sugars calibrated to be 80% tures. Did it alone help
PROTECTS HIS and hydrogenated oils alkaline and 20% him get back? Probably
JOINTS WITH 1G are very much out — acidic; he also steers not. But I’d say it could
OF VITAMIN C “They cannot only cre- clear of nightshades very well have been
MIXED WITH 5G ate inflammation, they — tomatoes, peppers, part of the overall map
GELATIN. can also make your potatoes, eggplants — to recovery.”
the Miami Heat’s strength coach since 1988 —
the franchise’s debut season — has seen a major
evolution in approaches to training the core and
hips in the decades since he came on board.
“Back in the day, if you squatted deep and you
did lunges deep, you were doing enough hip
work”, Foran remembers. “But that’s vertical
hip work. We’re finding athletes need to do hori-
zontal hip work as well.”
Foran has his Heat players perform bridges,
lateral shuffles with resistance bands, and hip
raises with a sandbag or a barbell placed across
the waist for resistance.
“When you develop the hips, they correct
above and below”, he explains. “When you have
strong, mobile hips, you have stable knees and a
stable back. When your hips are weak and stiff,
your back and knees become mobile, and that’s
when injuries happen.”
4 terone levels drop. Your maximum heart
TRAIN YOUR TENDON FIBRES AS
HARD AS POSSIBLE
Not too long ago, the conventional wisdom
was that tendons couldn’t be trained. They
were considered “hypovascular”, meaning they
didn’t have sufficient blood flow to recover
from micro tears like muscles.
Now we know better. Recent studies have
consistently found that tendons can, in fact,
be trained, and that — with the right training
interventions — they can increase in rigidity
and explosive potential.
“It’s been a big paradigm shift”, says the
Mavericks’ Holsopple. He has his players
train their tendons with high-load isometrics,
holding positions while supporting 1.5 to 2
times their body weight. This approach not
only strengthens the tendon, researchers
believe, but also actually reconstitutes the
material of the tendon. Holsopple’s ultrasound
scans of his players’ tendons have revealed the
same thing.
“It will actually change the fibre combina-
tion we see”, he says. “It’s been tremendously
helpful. It helps us with both strength and
durability.”
For the injured Achilles tendon, Holsopple
puts his players on a leg press machine and
has them hold a single-leg calf extension at
the midway point (neither flat-footed nor fully
contracted) for five seconds. It’s a simple high-
load isometric exercise that when repeated
pays real dividends.
“Everyone should do it”, he says. “When it’s
possible to load the tendon structures three
times a week, that’s an ideal scenario.”
5 forward Vince Carter. He’s not the kind of
CONSIDER YOUR LEGS WAY MORE
IMPORTANT THAN YOUR ARMS
Here’s what happens when you age: Your
tendons and ligaments get creakier. Your
muscles become less supple. Your testos-
rate and oxygen consumption drop. You
become slower, less explosive, and have less
endurance.
And while you can’t change these biological
facts, you can delay and soften their harmful
effects by not easing up on your training.
For years, ageing athletes did less work
— particularly less power work — than their
younger counterparts. Instead of explo-
sive movements, they focused on static
stretching. After all, why would older athletes
risk injuries by going all out? Wouldn’t it
make sense to slowly drift from the squat
rack to the elliptical machine?
Short answer: Hell no.
Talk to age-defying pro athletes today,
and they all praise high-intensity workouts,
putting a massive emphasis on maintaining
the power in their legs.
Hockey legend Jaromir Jagr is famous for
his lung and leg-busting fitness routine. He
sprint-skates wearing a 20-kilogram weight
vest, with light weights taped to his ankles.
On the road, he runs resistance sprints in
hotel hallways, dragging the team’s strength
coach, Tommy Powers (for more on him,
read “Training a ‘Freight Train ‘”, page 89),
behind him for short, 10 to 20-metre bursts.
He also utilises a medicine ball to work on his
core and resistance cables to build and main-
tain upper-body strength.
And if he stopped the rigorous training?
He’d pay the consequences, he says.
“It’s like a truck, a heavy truck”, Jagr told
The Wall Street Journal. “When you’re going,
you kind of go — and fast. But once you stop,
BUST YOUR ASS — BUT
ALSO KNOW YOUR MAX
HEART RATE, AND DON’T
EXCEED IT FOR TOO LONG.
Show some heart. You might not have access to
pro-level trackers, gyroscopes, and accelerometers,
but a simple heart-rate monitor can help keep you
from overtraining.
it’s tough to start again.”
And take 39-year-old Memphis Grizzlies
athlete you’d predict would have an extra-long
career. When he first entered the league in
1998, he was more show pony than workhorse,
becoming known more for his above-the-rim,
acrobatic exploits than his hustle or determina-
tion. He was “Vinsanity!” Slam-dunk champ! A
pure athletic talent!
But as he’s gotten older, he tells me, he’s
increased his output in the weight room,
particularly with his lower-body routine.
“I’m not as fast today, I don’t jump as high, but
I just do more work now”, he says. “I lift more, I
lift heavier. I was never a big squatter, but now
I’m doing box squats, lunges, leg presses. You’re
going to lose your lower body first. Everything
I do is to make sure my lower body can sustain
the season. I didn’t have to do that before.”
Bottom line: If you’re not 22 years old
anymore, get used to squats, lunges, thrusters,
and sprints.
6
DON’T BELIEVE THE NAYSAYERS:
GET YOURSELF A TRACKER
Now for the tricky part. To stay at the top of
their games, ageing athletes need to “train hard
and train often”, as Hirofumi Tanaka, associate
professor, Department of Kinesiology and
Health Education at the University of Texas,
This page: Cour tesy of Fitbit. Opposite page: James Michelfelder
says. But they also need to be very careful about
overtraining. For every player who lazed his way
out of pro sports by taking it too easy as an older
athlete, there’s another who was such a beast
in training that one day his ageing body yelled,
“Basta!” Ever wonder what caused Tiger Woods’
catastrophic downfall? His former swing coach
has speculated that it was the golfer’s love of
powerlifting and urban warfare–inspired
training methods that led to his cascading series
of injuries.
As long time Denver Nuggets strength and
conditioning coach Steve Hess puts it: “It’s a lot
harder to come back from overtraining than it is to get back
into shape from undertraining.”
But how can you tell what’s training hard and what’s
training too hard?
Increasingly, data-tracking wearables are coming to the
rescue. NBA, NHL, and pro soccer teams, in particular,
have a fetish for them, hooking players up to GPS trackers,
accelerometers, and gyroscopes, many from the Australian
company Catapult Sports.
“You get to see metabolic output, exertion, oxygen
consumption, distance covered, peak heart rate”, says Riley
Williams, MD, a sports medicine surgeon at Hospital for
Special Surgery and the Medical Director and head time
physician for the Brooklyn Nets and New York Red Bulls.
“It helps you assess their real exertion. Instead of just the Kettlebell
old ‘No pain, no gain’, we have normative data that tells us, Swing
Keep your back
say, when a 30-year-old midfielder might get a hamstring flat and bend
your hips back;
strain, or a [35-year-old] player will reach his fatigue limit, bend knees as
necessary.
so we know we have to rest him.”
However, if you’re an amateur athlete with no medical
or training staff at your beck and call to interpret the
reams of complicated data a tracker collects, you may
decide not to use one at all, but that would be a mistake.
Sure, counting how many steps you take in a day isn’t
an extremely useful athletic performance booster, but
staying at your maximum aerobic capacity is — and that’s The Longevity
Workout
something pro teams use heart rate monitors to measure.
Just remember: The rule of thumb is that your maximum
heart rate is 220 minus your age, and your maximum
Stay healthy and strong for the long haul with this sample routine
aerobic threshold is that number multiplied by 0.85, or
B Y SE AN H YS ON, C S C S
85% of your max heart rate. In other words, if you’re an
average 35-year-old with a max heart rate of 185 (220 - 35
into your 30s, 40s, and
M A I N TA I N I N G ST RE N GT H A N D AT H L E T I C I S M
= 185) beats per minute, and you want to bust your ass to
beyond means doing all you can to prevent injury—and that
improve while staying healthy and safe, make sure you
means checking your ego at the gym door. Loading up a bar as
don’t get too far above your max aerobic threshold of 157 heavy as you can and going for broke on each set is no longer
(185 x 0.85 = 157) bpm for very long. “In general”, says an option; working muscles you’ve long neglected is your new
renowned pro cycling instructor Neal Henderson, “80% priority. This routine is perfect to build your future training on,
of your training should be relatively easy to moderate, as it covers all the bases for keeping you healthy and athletic.
and only 20% should be intense”. In particular, it focuses on boosting explosive strength,
Mavericks strength and conditioning coach Holsopple improving conditioning, and fortifying the stabiliser muscles
conditions his athletes with long-striding, court-length in your core and hips that protect your back and knees.
runs that emphasise explosiveness but never push
beyond the aerobic threshold. That’s a low-impact, Directions 1) Lateral Band Walk
Sets: 2 Reps: 10 (each direction) Rest: 30 sec.
cardio-building approach you can mimic with just a little
Perform the
data input. 2) Trap-bar Deadlift
workout once per Sets: 3–5 Reps: 3 Rest: 60 sec.
Once you know your limits — and you’ve got strong week. Exercises
marked “A,” “B,” Use 60-70%
hips, tendons, and legs — it’s finally time to actually have and “C” are done in
sequence, so you’ll 3A) Neutral-grip Dumbbell Bench Press
some fun. Sets: 3 Reps: 8–12 Rest: 60 sec.
do one set of A,
“Some guys stop because they don’t want to play rest, then B, rest, 3B) Suspension Trainer Row
anymore”, says Carter. “When I first started we didn’t and then C. Repeat Sets: 3 Reps: 10–15 Rest: 60 sec.
until all sets are
have all the things you do now, but we did have cold tubs completed. 4) Calf Extension on Leg Press
Sets: 3 Reps: 8 (each leg) Rest: 90 sec.
and weights and a lot of the same preparation, and some
5A) Kettlebell Swing
guys chose not to put in the work, and others were willing Sets: 3 Reps: 20 Rest: 45 sec.
to do it because they enjoyed it.” 5B) Alligator Crawl
“You know, every year I think, I could sit back and rest Sets: 3 Reps: 20 feet Rest: 45 sec.

and enjoy the summer. But I know that if I did, I probably 5C) Farmer’s Walk
Sets: 3 Reps: Walk for 30 sec. Rest: 45 sec.
wouldn’t have a job when I came back.” Q
 S en d you r qu es ti o n s t o ask@mensfitness.co.za Wis e up

Ask Men’s Fitness

“Some buddies and I are going on a

canoeing trip to the Upstate New
York Adirondacks Mountains, on a
river they say has some pretty cool
rapids. But another pal of ours
called canoeing “wimpy” because
“you just sit all day and only use
your arms”. Is that true, or is it
really a good workout?” A L J , O H I O U S A

It’s definitely
not wimpy:
I “On full-paddle
days, you
could burn 4000 to 6000
calories a day!” says
Courtenay Schurman,
CSCS, co-author of The
Outdoor Athlete.
For comparison,
Schurman says, if you’re
an 80-kilogram guy and
you jog 9km/h for an hour,
you’ll burn roughly 612
calories; but if you canoe
6km/h for an hour, you’ll
burn 728 calories — even
more if there’s a headwind,
“Canoeing taxes the body
like interval training”,
Schurman says. And that’s
not counting the time
you’ll spend humping a
five-metre canoe and all
your gear over land (aka
“portaging”).
To make sure you’re
physically in shape for
several days of paddling,
Schurman advises
working on 1) upper-body
strength (shoulders, lats,
arms, and forearms); 2) a
strong core (abs, obliques,
and lower back); and 3) leg
endurance (calves, quads,
hamstrings, and hips), for
portaging.
NO WORKOUT Finally, if the river has
FOR WIMPS, rapids, be sure you’re
CANOEING a strong swimmer,
R i c h a r d P h i b b s / Tr u n k A r c h i v e

CAN BURN Schurman says, and that

UP TO 6,000 someone with you is a
CALORIES skilled boat handler. But
A DAY. all in all, it’s an experience
you won’t forget.
“The adrenaline rush of
going through rough water
is a thrill in itself.”
Ask Men’s Fitness
SKIN CREAMS
CONTAINING
RETINOL,
WHICH
STIMULATES
COLLAGEN
AND
EXFOLIATES
SKIN.

and apply it with a

SHORTY The straight razor’s badger hair brush to

pull the hair away
becoming trendy—

THE
from the face.
does it give a better Next, brush on the

BARBER shave? And will I kill shaving cream — I

like the tube kind to minimise wrin-
myself using it? I spent 10 years as a
ENLIGHTENED R YA N S , J O H A N N E S B U R G
— and start on the kles, Kim says, like
lifeguard, and it really
ADVICE FROM QStraight razors cheeks, going with using skin creams
GROOMING EXPERT are great. The the grain. If your weathered my skin, containing retinol,
SHORTY MANIACE shave’s not neces- skin’s tough, make
so now I have frown which stimulates
Keep a straight
sarily closer, but it’s a second pass with face. Shaving with a collagen and exfoli-
or against the grain; straight razor won’t lines like an old man.
smoother and lasts ates skin; scrubbing
I go against, but see kill you (but the Jack What can I do?
longer. Don’t do it Daniels might). with cleansing
more than every what works for you. grains to spur skin
MACK R, CAPE TOWN
two days, though, When that’s done, regeneration; and
Q“Chronic expo-
and never in a rush. put the piping-hot using home peels
sure to the sun’s
You want to take towel on your face, (just don’t combine
UV rays takes a
some time — pour splash on after- them with retinol).
toll on the skin”,
yourself a whiskey, shave, then spin the But if you need the
thinning it faster by
put on some cool towel to get it cold big guns, the best
robbing it of elastic-
F r o m t o p : P r e s t o n M a c k / G e t t y ; j v p h o t o /A l a m y

jazz, and pamper and slap it on your way to soften frown

ity and collagen,
yourself. face. Apply moistur- lines is with injec-
says Karen H Kim,
Get a good razor — iser afterwards. tions of a botulinum
MD, of SkinCare
anything less than And don’t be a toxin like Xeomin,
Physicians in
R1 300, you may as scaredy-cat, have which immobilises
Chestnut Hill, MA.
well scrub your face fun with it. You may muscles for up to
And that causes
off with steel wool. cut yourself up a several months,
— you guessed it —
Shave at the sink, bit, but you won’t relaxing the lines
wrinkles like those
not in the shower, kill yourself — well, so they’re not as
between the eyes,
and keep a hot towel unless you’re an FOR MORE ON visible.
called frown lines.
ready. asshole, get drunk ANTI-WRINKLE SKIN-
Now, stay the hell
CARE PRODUCTS, There are several
Start with a pre- on the whisky, and GO TO MENSFITNESS out of the sun!
.CO.ZA/FACETIME.
non-medical ways
shave oil or cream, fillet your neck.
 Is it really that big a I let some veggies rot
expert Diane Gotts-
deal to send a thank- man: “A handwrit- in my refrigerator,
you note after a job ten note conveys and now there’s a
a sincerity e-mail
interview? And can I really foul smell. How
can’t.”
e-mail it, or do I really (One MF editor do I get rid of it?
MIKE S, CAPE TOWN
have to handwrite the even messengers
a handwritten note QFunny you should
damn thing? ask: A neighbour
the same day. And,
SAMUEL M, JOHANNESBURG once gave us a fridge
well, we hired him, she’d left unplugged
QWant the job?
didn’t we?) with rotting meat
Then yes, yes — and
Some expert tips: inside — so we know
yes.
Before the inter- whereof we speak.
“What you do after
view, buy some First: You’ve tossed
the interview is as the veg cadavers
quality, neutral-
important as what and used a spray
hued note cards
you do before it”, cleaner, right? If not,
and a book of valid
says Manners That for God’s sake, man,
postage stamps. go do it now. If the
Sell author Lydia Write your own ticket. Sending a handwritten note after an
You can also stench stays, “use a
Ramsey, so send an interview will really set you apart from the crowd.
invest in a pricey baking soda/water
e-mail thank-you
pen, though we’d paste to scrub the
immediately, then a you can send it your excitement
get an erasable Pilot plastic parts”, says
handwritten one the right away”, says about the job and cleanmyspace.com’s
FriXion Clicker gel
same day. “A hand- Ramsey. why you’d be great Melissa Maker.
pen, our new obses-
written note makes For the note: “It at it. Also, try to FOR FIVE WAYS TO Still no good? Wipe
sion: It’s permanent GET A GREAT JOB, GO
the best impres- doesn’t matter if mention something TO MENSFITNESS
shelves with lemon
but erases cleanly if juice, Mayer says,
sion”, says Ramsey. you print or use you learned that
.CO.ZA/JOB.
you botch the job. then put a bowl of
“Few people send cursive”, says Gotts- day or look forward
Before the big day, one of these odour-
one, so you’ll stand man, “so do what’s to doing if you’re
stamp and address killers (listed weak-
out.” most legible”. Be hired.
the envelope. “That est to strongest) on a
Adds etiquette brief — five or six Finally, proofread shelf: vanilla extract;
way, when it’s over
lines — and include the shit out of that white vinegar; coffee
muther. The last grounds (what flight
thing you want is attendants use to de-
stink vomit); baking
a would-be boss’s
soda; or activated
CHALKING final memory of you charcoal from a pet
YOUR HANDS to be: “Thank you store or aquarium.
LETS YOU FEEL again for meating If all else fails, you
THE WEIGHTS with me today…” could fill the whole
BETTER thing with balled-
up newspapers, but
(AND LOOKS really, it’d be easier
BADASS, TOO). to just buy a whole
new fridge. (Trust us
Which is better—wearing on this one.)
lifting gloves or chalking Then get a Berry-
Breeze (berrybreeze.
your hands? BRAD D, PRETORIA com), an ionic air
filter that eats fridge
The main reason to chalk your odours and keeps
T hands or wear gloves is to produce fresh for
C l o c k w i s e f r o m t o p : J a r r e n V i n k ; P r o p s t y l i n g b y M e g u m i E m o t o /A n d e r s o n

prevent sweat from screw- weeks — a boon for

ing up your grip, so chalk and both nose and wallet.
gloves both work — but chalk is tough to
top, says Nick Tumminello, owner of Fort
Lauderdale’s Performance University.
Hopkins; Creative Crop/Get t y Images; Andrew Cutraro

Chalk helps absorb sweat and lessens the

chances you’ll get blisters, he explains.
“Gloves are less messy, but they don’t
stop sweat from getting on your fingers”,
which could make you lose your grip.
Also, not having direct contact with the
bar may give you less sensory awareness
of what you’re doing. In other words, “It’s
just not the same feeling”. Not to mention
chalk looks badass, this can earn you
your man-card in the eyes of some lifters.
So it’s up to you as to what’s most impor-
tant, he says. “But lifting hard and heavy
is lifting hard and heavy, regardless of Just add lemon . Wiping
what you do with your hands.” a refrigerator down with
lemon kills bad odours.
 Ask Men’s Fitness

THERE’S MORE
THAN ONE
STEAMY - HOT
WAY TO “NETFLIX
AND CHILL.”
My girlfriend and I like to have sex
while we’re on the couch watching
TV or a movie. Any suggestions for
how to mix it up with other positions
besides “missionary”?
B R A N D O N F, B LO E M F O N T E I N

What the arm. This gives you

better time lots of control, not to
W to try new mention a great view
things than of both her backside
while you “Netflix and and your penis going in
chill”? Breaking away and out, which is super
from traditional mis- empowering. All in all, a
sionary not only keeps hot position for both of
things hot, it shows her you! (This position can
you’ve got some cre- get a little uncomfort-
ativity — every girl loves able for her neck, so
an ingenious, confident be sure to check in
What’s an actual, things like “No, stop”, probably still do. guy. I’d recommend with her.) For other
credible amount “Go ahead, come”, or So if your fiancée’s the Couch Surfer, a creative positions, like
THE of time to have sex
before I come? And
“I’m ready for you
to be done” — a lot of
expecting you to be rear-entry position
with you standing fac-
the Frisk and the Flying
Circus, pick up my new
SEX
faithful, you don’t
how can I tell if she’s us are pretty direct book, Classic Sex Posi-
need me to tell you ing the end (arm) of the
ready for me to stop?
FILES JOSEPH S, UMHLANGA

DR. AARON:
when we want sex to
be over. If she’s not,
that you messed up.
But you do need to
couch and her in front
of you, also facing the
tions Reinvented, on
amazon.com.
watch for nonverbal decide: If she wants couch, bending over MOUSHUMI GHOSE
Depending on the
cues, like yawning. more in terms of
study, the average
OUR EXPERTS length of actual
Now go get her fidelity, can you give
ANSWER YOUR intercourse is just
(consensually), that to her?
MOST INTIMATE 4 to 5 minutes. That
Tiger!
tells me you’re transmitted) — from
QUESTIONS— MOUSHUMI: People
NO HOLDS BARRED said, I think guys put much more likely to the stripper, who
I just had sex with the who get shit-faced
too much pressure stripper at a bachelor do it again. I’d say, ends up having a
usually know on
on themselves party. Not so bad, have this difficult Zika baby that she
T H I S M O N T H ’ S PA N E L: some level they
about how long they right? Thing is, it was conversation with leaves with you
WRITER/STAND-UP COMIC won’t be able
JENA FRIEDMAN last in the sack, my bachelor party. I her. to raise, which is
to make sound
PSYCHOTHERAPIST/ particularly with so feel awful about it and even harder than
SEX COUNSELLOR
decisions. But J E N A : Oh, geez. Did
many ways to please I’ll never do it again (I confessing.
MICHAEL AARON, PHD alcohol doesn’t make you at least wear a
a partner besides was superdrunk). But Then one day you
PSYCHOTHERAPIST/ an act less harmful condom? You know,
SEX THERAPIST intercourse. the wedding’s soon— call your ex and say
what should I do? — it just lets you feel it doesn’t matter,
MOUSHUMI GHOSE, PHD Just enjoy what you want only her,
P I E T E R V, P R E T O R I A less accountable. the scenario sucks.
you’re doing and and she calls you
DR. AARON: Sure, If you said you’d Then again, maybe
you’ll have a much “sweet” (meaning
people lose their be monogamous, your banging a
better experience — she doesn’t even
judgement when you’ve broken a hooker right before
and so will she. care enough about
they get drunk, and serious promise. If the wedding is your you to be bitter) and
no doubt the stripper you don’t tell her and fiancée’s secret
J E N A : Any time says she’s moved on.
added temptation. you get caught, it fetish? You should
I’ve had great sex, You’re crushed,
But, come on — if could really damage find out.
I’ve never been till you look down
you’re really honest, the relationship. If you think she’ll
cognisant of how and see Iggy (I
you wanted to have But if you don’t tell be pissed, though,
long it’s lasted. named him Iggy, I
sex with another her and you don’t get ask yourself: Do you
There are obvious hope that’s okay)
C a r l o s N u n e z / P i c d e s k ; j e n n i f e r L i v i n g s t o n / Tr u n k A r c h i v e

woman, right? You caught, experience want a fun wedding?

parameters, like smiling up at you
don’t splooge right If so, shut up, be with his tiny little
away (the five- Rule of dumb. Don’t the best groom you head, and realise
bang the stripper at can, and never do he’s made your life
second rule isn’t just
your own bachelor
for food), but rather party.
anything like this whole in a way no
than fixate on time, again. one ever could, and
focus on who you’re But if you want everything happens
with. Sometimes to build a strong, for a reason.
really quick sex is honest marriage, Now is that so bad?
great, especially if come clean. Worst-
you’ve gotten her off case scenario, she
during foreplay. calls things off,
GOT A SEX
As for signs she’s you get herpes — or QUESTION?
worse, Zika (also, E-MAIL US AT
ready for you to ASK@MENS
be done, listen for weirdly, sexually FITNESS.CO.ZA
GET TO GO!
Your better-body blueprint Ed i t e d by S e a n H ys o n , C S C S

Build your
own Greek
physique
Use the workout that is
recommended by professional
athlete Tom Coleman, to create your
own killer physique.
By Ghia ten Doeschate

Q
 We all know that becoming
competition ready is no joke, and
takes loads of hard work, sacrifice and
dedication. And even then, without the
correct workout plan, you efforts will go
unnoticed. But never fear, we have a step-
by-step guide on how to achieve a chiselled
Greek God physique that will have you
looking ripped in no time.
2A 2B
CLEAN PULL POWER
Sets: 4 Reps: 1
CLEAN
Stand with feet hip- Sets: 4 Reps: 1
width apart and bend Begin as you did the
down to grasp the bar clean pull, but when you
at shoulder width. Keep come to the explosive
your lower back flat, shrug and hip exten-
chest up, and eyes sion, continue pulling
looking forward. Begin the bar up to shoulder
extending your hips level as described in
to pull the bar off the the hang clean and jerk
floor—keep your weight above. Catch the bar
on your heels and your at your shoulders and
shoulders directly over immediately begin the
the bar as it rises. front squat.
When the bar reaches
the top of your thighs,
explosively extend your
2C
hips, shrug the bar, and FRONT
come up onto your toes. SQUAT
Control the bar back to Sets: 4 Reps: 1
the floor.
From the top of the
power clean, bend your
hips back and lower
your body into a squat,
keeping your lower back
in its natural arch and
your elbows raised so
your upper arms are
parallel to the floor.
Extend your hips to
come out of the squat.

2D
PUSH PRESS
Sets: 4 Reps: 1
PERFORM
Standing tall again, dip THE ENTIRE
your knees and quickly CIRCUIT
extend them, using the
momentum to press the
FLUIDLY. LET
bar straight overhead. ONE LIFT SET
Return the bar to your UP THE NEXT
shoulders. SMOOTHLY.
O Body Book Get jacked like Tom

2E 3
SPLIT JERK FRONT
Sets: 4 Reps: 1
SQUAT
With the bar held at your Sets: As many as needed
shoulders, dip your Reps: Work up to one
heavy rep
knees and press the bar
up again while splitting Perform the front squat
your stance, just as as described on the
you did for the hang previous page, taking
clean and jerk. Lock as many warmup sets
the weight out as your as needed to reach a
feet land. load that allows you only
one rep with good form.
Make sure you take only
10 total reps or fewer
to reach your max. This
will conserve energy. So
you might do two reps
DON’T MUSCLE each at about 50% and
70% of your max, and
THE WEIGHT then several single-rep
OVERHEAD. sets as you close in on
LET YOUR HIPS the right load.
POWER IT UP.

4
FRONT-
SQUAT/
BACK-SQUAT
COMBO
Sets: 3 Reps: 7 for front
squat, 13 for back squat

Now that you’ve

determined your max
front squat above,
use 70–75% of it and
alternate sets of front
and back squats. So if
you worked up to a front
squat of 100 kilograms,
you could use 70 kilo-
grams. Perform seven
reps of the front squat
and then rack the bar.
As soon as possible,
set up for a back squat
(described below), and
do 13 reps with the same
load. That’s one set.
Back squat: Squeeze
your shoulder blades
together and nudge the
bar out of the rack. Step
back and stand with
your feet shoulder-
width apart and your
toes turned slightly
outward. Take a deep
breath, bend your hips
back, then bend your
knees to lower your
body as far as you can
without losing the arch
in your lower back.