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POWERREPORTS
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The information given here is designed to help you make informed decisionsabout your health. It is not intended as a substitute for any treatment thatmay have been prescribed by your doctor. If you suspect that you have amedical problem, we urge you to seek competent medical help.
Creative director: Lori MagiltonProject editor: Kerry K. Callahan
Copy editor: Jean L. SkillmanInterior layout designer: Maureen Logan
BY THE EDITORS OF mRevised © 2004 by Rodale Inc.
ContentsPOWER FOODS FOR MEN 4
THE SECRETS OF AWESOME ABS 9
INSTANT PHYSICAL FIXES 16
THE SECRETS OF SIZZLING SEX 22
THE BEST SHAPE OF YOUR LIFE 28
THE LAWS OF LEANNESS 35
99 HEALTH SECRETS YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT 43
CUT YOUR CHOLESTEROL LEVEL BY 100 POINTS IN JUST 21 DAYS 50
BULLET-PROOF YOUR PROSTATE 55
DEFLATE YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE 59
M uscle isn’t actually built in the
gym—it’s made later, when you’re
collapsed on the sofa, watching
reruns of Seinfeld. As you’re resting, your
body is busy repairing and rebuilding the
muscle tissue you flexed all afternoon. You
can maximize the process by taking in the
right mix of protein and carbohydrates
within 3 hours of your workout. Your body
builds muscle faster during this time, and
that optimum nutri-
ent combination
stimulates the
hormones needed
to make it happen.
There’s no
simpler or more
m e n s h e a l t h . co m 5
Drink This to Make MuscleBUILD MUSCLE AFTER YOUR WORKOUT
TAKE THIS:1 c ice cubes 1 c frozen strawberries
3⁄4 c egg substitute, 1⁄2 bananasuch as EggBeaters 1⁄2 c cranberry juice
3⁄4 c vanilla soy milk
And then: Put it all in a blender with a tight lid. Blend on high for 30 seconds. Drink.
The Top of the Food ChainOUNCE FOR OUNCE, THE MOST POWER-PACKED FOODS ON EARTH
PROTEIN Daily requirement: 75 g You know you need protein to build muscle tissue, but all protein isn’t the same. “The
more amino acids a protein contains, the higher its quality, and the better your body can
utilize it to build muscle,” says Cyndi Thomson, Ph.D., R.D., clinical nutritionist at the
University of Arizona. The following foods deliver high amounts of all nine essential
amino acids.
Food (3-ounce servings) Protein (g) Fat (g) Calories Chicken breast 27 (9/oz) 3.0 142 Turkey breast 25 (8/oz) 0.8 113 Beef (eye round) 25 (8/oz) 4.9 149 Salmon 23 (8/oz) 6.4 156 Canned tuna 20 (7/oz) 2.5 220
convenient muscle-building mix than a
shake made with a pasteurized egg substi-
tute, flavored soy milk, and fruit. Throw
this stuff into a blender and you’ll produce
a 370-calorie shake with 25 grams of high-
quality egg and soy protein, only 5 grams
of fat, and plenty of healthy stuff like fiber,
vitamin C, and other antioxidants. Plus, it
tastes good, and it’s festively pink.
SpecialPOWER REPORT
PowerFoodsFOR MEN
POTASSIUM Daily requirement: 3,500 mgPotassium fights high blood pressure and keeps you from collapsing in the gym, as it’s
critical for muscle contraction and fluid balance. The banana might be the potassium
poster child, but for potency, molasses and dried figs humiliate the phallic fruit. An
8-ounce glass of orange juice also provides 420 mg of potassium.
Food Potassium (mg) Fat (g) Calories 2 Tbsp molasses (1 oz) 410 (410/oz) 0 106 4 dried figs (3 oz) 540 (180/oz) 0.9 196 1 sliced avocado (3 oz) 503 (168/oz) 12.6 135 1 baked potato (6 oz) 702 (117/oz) 0 183 1 medium banana (5 oz) 539 (108/oz) 0.7 125
FIBER Daily requirement: 38 gA high-fiber diet will lower your cholesterol level and help keep you thin. If you’re like
most men, though, you probably eat less than half of the daily fiber you need. Work up
to 35 grams (g) gradually; that’ll give you the same fiber intake as eating 18 slices of whole
wheat toast every day. Start with a bowl of bran cereal and a couple of big handfuls of
popcorn.
Food Fiber (g) Fat (g) Calories 1⁄2 cup Kellogg’s All-Bran (1 oz) 10 (10/oz) 0.9 79 1 cup raisin bran (2 oz) 8 (4/oz) 1.4 186 6 cups air-popped popcorn (2 oz) 6 (3/oz) 1.8 186 4 dried figs (3 oz) 8 (3/oz) 0.9 196 2 slices whole grain bread (2 oz) 4 (2/oz) 2.0 130
VITAMIN E Daily requirement: 15 mg (30 IU)Toss a handful of sunflower seeds on your salad, and your daily vitamin E quota is ful-
filled. Want to ward off heart attacks, strokes, prostate cancer, and even Alzheimer’s dis-
ease? Take 100–400 IU of vitamin E supplement (labeled “d-alpha tocopherol”), but talk
to your doctor first if you take blood-thinning medication, aspirin, or a statin drug.
Food (1-ounce servings) Vitamin E (mg/oz) Fat (g) Calories Sunflower seeds 14 14.1 165 2 Tbsp safflower oil 9 27.2 240 22 almonds 7 15.0 169 2 Tbsp canola oil 6 28.0 248 2 Tbsp wheat germ 6 2.1 104
SELENIUM Daily requirement: 70 mcgWant to cut your risk of prostate cancer? Eat two Brazil nuts every day. A study at the
University of Arizona found that men who took in 200 micrograms (mcg) of selenium
daily cut their risk of developing prostate cancer by nearly two-thirds.
Food Selenium (mcg) Fat (g) Calories 6 to 8 Brazil nuts (1 oz) 839 (839/oz) 18.8 186 Handful of sunflower seeds (1 oz) 23 (23/oz) 14.1 165 Canned tuna (6 oz) 113 (19/oz) 5.1 220 1 hard-boiled egg (1.75 oz) 15 (9/oz) 5.3 78 Boneless chicken breast (3 oz) 24 (8/oz) 3.0 142
CALCIUM Daily requirement: 1,000 mgWhile keeping your bones from crumbling, calcium also helps you stay lean. Researchers
at the University of Tennessee found that the more dietary calcium a group of 11 men ate,
the less body fat they produced. Your body produces a hormone called calcitriol when
you’re short on calcium, which may encourage you to store more fat, says Michael Zemel,
Ph.D., coauthor of the study. Nonfat milk has 38 mg of calcium per ounce, so drinking a
few glasses is still one of the best ways to get your daily shot of calcium.
Food Calcium (mg) Fat (g) Calories 1 slice Swiss cheese (1 oz) 272 (272/oz) 7.8 107 1 slice part-skim mozzarella (1 oz) 207 (207/oz) 4.9 79 Canned sardines with bones (1 oz) 91 (91/oz) 4.6 68 Handful of almonds (1 oz) 75 (75/oz) 15 169 1 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt (8 oz) 389 (49/oz) 2.9 194
VITAMIN C Daily requirement: 60 mgOrange juice is tasty, but with 16 mg of vitamin C per ounce, it doesn’t pack nearly the
payload of red bell peppers. Chop a few red-pepper chunks into your pasta and you’ll have
your daily allotment of C—and a lowered risk of developing heart disease and cataracts. If
you are a smoker, up your RDA to 120 mg.
Food Vitamin C (mg) Fat (g) Calories 1 large red bell pepper (5 oz) 283 (57/oz) 0 40 1 large kiwifruit (3 oz) 89 (30/oz) 0 55 1 cup raw broccoli (3 oz) 82 (27/oz) 0 25 1 cup papaya (5 oz) 87 (17/oz) 0 55 1 large orange (7 oz) 98 (14/oz) 0 86
ZINC Daily requirement: 15 mg Your body needs zinc to produce sperm, utilize testosterone, and keep your immune sys-
tem functioning. That’s why you’d better double the 7 mg the average man eats every day.
Rely on lean beef and sunflower seeds for your daily 15 mg.
Food Zinc (mg) Fat (g) Calories 5 steamed oysters (3 oz) 154 (51/oz) 4.2 117 1 cup Total cereal (1.5 oz) 20 (13/oz) 0.9 140 Lean ground beef (3 oz) 6 (2/oz) 13.4 225 Sirloin steak (3 oz) 5 (2/oz) 11.2 204 Handful of sunflower seeds (1 oz) 2 (2/oz) 14.1 165
6 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS m e n s h e a l t h . co m 7
P O W E R F O O D S F O R M E N
Strong Meals for Strong Guys
Wondering how you’ll stuff down all these superfoods? Easy—throw them all inthe same pan. Chef Vince Steinman designed three power meals that contain
ample portions of all the nutrients listed on the previous pages. Together, they’re aperfect day’s menu to prevent heart disease, lower your risk of prostate cancer, andhelp you grow muscle after a workout.
8 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS
BREAKFAST: ATOMIC SMOOTHIE1 c fat-free milk 1 banana, cut into small pieces
1⁄2 c orange juice 1 small kiwi, cut into small pieces 1⁄2 c vanilla nonfat yogurt 1 Tbsp toasted wheat germ1 Tbsp peanut butter 2 Tbsp sunflower seeds
And then: Mix it all in a blender. Drink. 2 servings PER SERVING:
303 calories, 13 g protein, 9.6 g fat (29% of calories), 3 mg cholesterol, 4 g fiber, 140 mg sodium
LUNCH: OPEN-FACED SALMON OMELETTE4 egg whites 1⁄3 c shredded part-skim 1⁄2 c 1% milk mozzarella 2 Tbsp tomato paste 4 slices whole wheat toast2 oz salmon, diced 2 Tbsp horseradish1⁄3 c small broccoli florets
And then: In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, and tomato pasteuntil foamy, then add salmon and broccoli. Coat a 10-inch skillet with nonstick spray and heat it over medium heat for 30 seconds. Pour the eggmixture into the skillet. Cover; let cook 8 to 10 minutes, until the eggs arefirm. Remove the lid and sprinkle the omelette with cheese. Cut theomelette into four pieces and place each on a slice of toast. Top each with1⁄2 teaspoon horseradish. 4 servings PER SERVING: 139 calories, 12 g protein,3.6 g fat (23% of calories), 10 mg cholesterol, 3 g fiber, 473 mg sodium
DINNER: CIDER CHICKEN WITH FIGS AND RED PEPPERS
4 boneless, skinless chicken 1⁄2 c apple cider breasts (about 1 lb) 1 c cinnamon apple butter
1⁄2 c chopped dried figs 1⁄2 tsp allspice 1⁄3 c diced red peppers 2 Tbsp slivered almonds
And then: Preheat oven to 350°F. Place chicken breasts in a bakingdish coated with cooking spray. In a bowl, mix together the figs, peppers,cider, apple butter, and allspice. Pour mixture over the chicken, sprinklewith almonds, and bake for 40 minutes. Serve over rice or egg noodles. 4 servings PER SERVING: 372 calories, 28 g protein, 4.4 g fat (11% of calories), 66 mg cholesterol, 3 g fiber, 77 mg sodium
THESECRETSOFAwesomeAbs
SpecialPOWER REPORT
N ot all weight-training systems
burn fat, but the one you’ll use
in this program burns fat by the
pound. Here’s why: Since the classic
1990 study in The Journal of Applied
Physiology, exercise scientists have
known that doing hard, 10-repetition
sets and following them with short rest
periods produces dramatic increases
in growth hormone. Growth hormone
plays a huge role in muscle building. In
fact, another study found that growth-
hormone increases accounted for 50 per-
cent of the muscle growth in trained
weight lifters during a 20-week program.
But growth hormone doesn’t just
build up muscles. It also obliterates flab
by making your fat cells smaller, accord-
ing to exercise physiologist William J.
Kraemer, Ph.D., who worked on the stud-
ies mentioned above. This is what hap-
pens: During exercise, growth hormone
takes fat out of your fat cells and makes
your body use it for energy. Thus, the fat
cells in your belly shrink because you’re
treating them like propane to fuel your
workout.
Our diet plan, designed by Susan M.
Kleiner, Ph.D., author of Power Eating,
helps you eat the right foods at the right
times to capitalize on the exercise program.
Put the plans together, and you could
lose up to 1 percentage point of body fat
each week and see results just 9 days
into the program. After 4 weeks you
should be much trimmer. After that, take
a week off. Then do it all over again for
another 4 weeks.
10 1 0 P O W E R R E P O R T S m e n s h e a l t h . co m 11
T H E S E C R E T S O F AW E S O M E A B S
4 Weeks to a Flat FrontTHE NO-BRAINER PLAN TO LOSE YOUR GUT—FAST
Ab Tips from a Top Model
Robert Goold, Men’s Health cover model
Asurfer, beach-volleyball player, andtriathlete, Goold works hard in the
gym three times a week. But he prefersthe fresh air. “My favorite part is thateuphoric feeling”—the endorphinrelease that follows a long run, swim,or bike ride, he says.
In the gym, Goold looks for exer-cises and routines that help him maintain his athleticism. He usuallysupersets upper-body exercises foropposing muscle groups—a chest exercise followed immediately by aback exercise, for example.
He tries to maintain tension on themuscle throughout each exercise. If hehas a weight in his hands, he wants his muscles to feel as if they’re flexing.“I think you get results a lot quicker ifyou maintain that resistance,” he says.
THE WORKOUTSTHE WEIGHT-LIFTING PROGRAMThe two total-body weight workouts you’ll
do are adapted from the program used in a
Penn State study on growth hormone. Here
are a few particulars.
■ SETS AND REPETITIONS: Do three
sets of 10 repetitions of each exercise.
■ EXERCISE GROUPS: The exercises are
grouped in pairs. You’ll alternate between
those exercises, doing one set of one exer-
cise, then one set of the other, until you’ve
done three sets of each. Then you’ll move
on to the next group.
■ REST: Your goal is to rest 60 seconds
after every set of every exercise. (In an
exercise pair, you rest between exercises,
rather than going straight from one to the
other as you would in a superset.) You may
need up to 90 seconds of rest at first, but
try to whittle that down each time you
work out.
■ WEIGHTS: For the first set of each exer-
cise, choose the heaviest weight you think
you can use for 10 repetitions with perfect
form. Decrease the weight on subsequent
sets if you need to.
■ PROGRESS: Try to work with more
weight on your first set of each exercise
each week. Aim for a 5 percent increase
each week.
THE CARDIOVASCULAR/SPRINT PROGRAMYou’ll do two types of aerobic exercise—
steady-state and interval workouts—and
G oold’s favorite abdominal workout is with Ab-OrigiOnals elbow-supportingstraps, which hang from a pullup bar [1].
He starts with hanging oblique crunches [2, 3], and after 10 repetitions to eachside, switches to hanging knee raises [4].
(Check out www.aborigionals.com for hanging knee exercise gear.)
ROBERT’S HANGING KNEE RAISES
1 2 3 4
MEALS MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY
BREAKFAST Bagel with butter Eggs Cottage cheese Bran cereal with fat-free Bagel with cream cheese Pancakes with butter Low-fat frozen waffles Glass of fat-free milk Toast with butter English muffin with butter milk Orange and syrup with butter Banana Banana Grapes Banana Orange Banana
SNACK 1 Fruit juice Fruit juice Fruit juice Fruit juice Fruit juice Fruit juice Fruit juicePretzels Graham crackers Low-fat pudding or gelatin Low-fat brownie Fat-free chips with salsa Hard-boiled egg Low-fat chips with salsa
SNACK 2 Grapes Dried apricots Apple Pear Apple Pear Cantaloupe
LUNCH Spaghetti and meatballs Roast-beef sandwich Turkey sandwich with Tuna sandwich Cheese-and-vegetable Grilled cheese sandwich Homemade cheese-and-Italian bread Carrot sticks lettuce and tomato Tomato-cucumber salad pizza with tomatoes mushroom pizza on
Cucumber salad Boboli bread
SNACKS AND Preworkout snack: Preworkout snack: Preworkout snack: Cashews Preworkout snack: Preworkout snack: Blueberries (fresh or SHAKES Fat-free milk and Low-fat flavored yogurt Fat-free milk, crackers, Fat-free milk, cashews Low-fat flavored yogurt frozen) with low-fat
low-fat cookies peanut butter ice cream
Postworkout shake Postworkout shake Postworkout shake Postworkout shake Postworkout shake
DINNER Grilled or broiled Cheese quesadillas Fish sticks Steak and baked potato Shrimp over pasta Grilled sirloin burger Grilled swordfish on chicken breast Mixed-green salad Potato salad with fat-free sour cream with tomato sauce Grilled zucchini and corn skewers with grapes
Mixed-green salad with fat-free dressing Low-fat ice cream Tossed salad with fat-free Mixed-green salad Fruit salad and bell peppers with fat-free dressing dressing with fat-free dressing Rice
Low-fat ice cream Low-fat ice cream Sherbet Italian ice
WORKOUTS MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY
WEEK 1 Weight workout A: Interval training: Weight workout B: No exercise Weight workout A, Sprints: No exercise Bench press, squat. 7 or 8 1-minute intervals, Lat pulldown, lying leg followed by 15–20 8 at 10 seconds each Cable row, leg extension. each followed by curl. Dip, leg press. minutes of steady-state Military press, bent-knee 2 minutes of recovery Lateral raise, back cardiovascular exerciseincline situp. Biceps curl, extension. Dumbbell standing calf raise. shrug, reverse crunch.
WEEK 2 Weight workout B, Interval training: Weight workout A No exercise Weight workout B, Sprints: No exercise followed by 15–20 9 or 10 1-minute followed by 15–20 10 at 10 seconds each minutes of steady-state intervals, each followed minutes of steady-state cardiovascular exercise by 2 minutes of recovery cardiovascular exercise
WEEK 3 Weight workout A, Interval training: Weight workout B No exercise Weight workout A, Sprints: No exercisefollowed by 20–25 6 or 7 1 1⁄2-minute followed by 20–25 12 at 10 seconds eachminutes of steady-state intervals, each followed minutes of steady-state cardiovascular exercise by 3 minutes of recovery cardiovascular exercise
WEEK 4 Weight workout B, Interval training: Weight workout A, No exercise Weight workout B, Sprints: No exercise followed by 20–25 8 or 9 11⁄2-minute followed by 20–25 followed by 20–25 14 at 10 seconds eachminutes of steady-state intervals, followed by minutes of steady-state minutes of steady-state cardiovascular exercise 3 minutes of recovery cardiovascular exercise cardiovascular exercise
12 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS m e n s h e a l t h . co m 13
T H E S E C R E T S O F AW E S O M E A B S
you’ll also do sprints, an anaerobic exer-
cise. The intensity of the aerobic work-
outs is dictated by your maximum heart
rate (MHR), which is approximately 220
minus your age. You can do any type of
aerobic exercise—running, swimming,
cycling, rowing, stairclimbing, inline
skating. For the sprints, stick to running.
■ For steady-state exercise, work at
75 percent of your MHR.
■ In the first 2 weeks of interval work-
outs, warm up for 5 minutes at an easy
pace, then do 1 minute of exercise at 85 to
90 percent of your MHR, followed by
2 minutes of recovery at 60 percent. Dur-
ing the second 2 weeks, you’ll warm up,
then do intervals of 11⁄2 minutes at 85 to
90 percent, followed by 3 minutes of
recovery at 60 percent of your MHR. The
workout calendar will tell you how many
Your Workout Calendar
Your Meal Plan
INCLINE LEG RAISE WITH A PULSE-UPLie on a slant board with your hands gripping the handles behind your head [A].Slowly raise your legs until they form a 90-degree angle with your torso [B]. Next,lift your legs toward the ceiling in a controlled pulsing motion; your tailboneshould rise an inch or two off the board [C]. Finish by lowering your legs slowly.Do three sets of 10 to 12 repetitions.
To make your abs look like speed bumps, it takes more than crunches. You needto do exercises that incorporate added resistance or that extend your abdomi-
nals’ range of motion, says Michael Mejia, C.S.C.S., a strength and conditioningspecialist in New York City. Here are two exercises that do both at the same time.
intervals to do. Always finish with a
5-minute cooldown at an easy pace.
■ Your sprints will last 10 seconds each,
followed by 50 seconds of rest. Always
start and finish your sprint workouts with
5 minutes of easy jogging.
THE FOODThe meal plan on pages 12 and 13 gives you
a week’s worth of simple meals. Each week-
day is equivalent to any other weekday, so
if Monday’s meals turn your crank better
than Wednesday’s, you can eat Monday’s
twice a week for the 4 weeks. But note that
the weekend meals have more calories, so
don’t give yourself a week of Sundays.
■ SERVING SIZES: The bigger you are, the
more food you’re going to need. So eat
enough at each meal to feel full, and let the
exercise plan do the rest.
■ SNACKS: Eat snacks 1 and 2 whenever
you like during the day. Eat the preworkout
snack 2 hours before exercise, and have
Kleiner’s postworkout muscle-building
shake as soon as possible afterward. To
make the postworkout shake, throw the
following items into a blender and whip
until smooth: 8 oz fat-free milk, 1 packet
Carnation Instant Breakfast, 1 banana,
and 1 Tbsp peanut butter.
■ WATER: Water will help you work out
longer and harder, wash away the bad stuff
that accumulates in your muscles after
exercise, and even help your liver take your
stored fat and put it to use for energy.
Drink it all day, every day. Include at least
one glass with every meal and snack.
14 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS m e n s h e a l t h . co m 15
T H E S E C R E T S O F AW E S O M E A B S
ANGLED REVERSE CRUNCH Lie on a slant board with your head near the top ofthe board. Place a medicine ball between your knees[A]. Lift your legs and bring your knees toward yourchest [B]. Return to the starting position. Do threesets of 10 to 12 repetitions. At home, you can do thesame exercise on the floor; try using a phone book.
WEIGHTED EXERCISE-BALL CRUNCHLie with your back on an exercise ball and your feetplanted in front of you. Rest a dumbbell (start with10 pounds) on your upper chest, right under yourchin [A]. Crunch your abdominals as you lift yourshoulder blades as high off the ball as you can [B].Hold for a second, then return to the starting posi-tion. Do three sets of 10 to 12 crunches. If you can’tdo that many with a dumbbell, start without weights,holding your hands behind your ears. No ball? Put arolled-up towel under the small of your back.
I f you really want to etch an impressive midsection, think of your abs as havingtwo distinct sections. Crunches are fine for the top half, but to define what’s
below the waistband, you need exercises that focus on the hip flexors and thelower half of the rectus abdominis. Add these moves to your workout routine todevelop an even tighter, stronger middle.
SEATED JACKKNIFESit on the edge of a sturdy chair or bench, holding theseat behind you for support. Extend your legs in frontof you, knees slightly bent [A]. Now simultaneouslyraise your legs toward your chest and bring your chesttoward your knees [B]. Do three sets of as many repeti-tions as you can manage. A couple of caveats: Do thisexercise at the end of your workout, when your mus-cles are thoroughly warm, and be sure to stretch yourhamstrings between sets. The more limber these mus-cles are, the harder you’ll be able to work your abs.
The Secret of 6-Pack Abs
A
B
A
B
A
B
A B C
For the most part, you’re a perfect guy.
Just the right amount of blood, all the
fingers and toes arranged in multiples
of five. You’ve got that bilateral-symmetry
thing nailed: one eye on each side of your
nose, an arm in each sleeve, thighbones and
hipbones perfectly paired.
Yet, when you look in the mirror,
imperfection glares back. Wouldn’t life be
wonderful if you had wider shoulders, a
powerful chest, and buttocks that made
women want to bear your children, or at
least babysit them on Saturday nights?
Here’s how to fix the body problems
you can fix, hide the ones that can be hid-
den, work around the unsightly ones, and
stand proudly behind what just can’t be
ignored.
■ ARMS (skinny) Ben Velazquez, a trainer in
New York City, recommends these moves
for your biceps and triceps:
For biceps, place an incline bench so
the back is at a 60-degree angle to the
floor. Grab a pair of light dumbbells, and
sit with your back against the bench. Let
your arms hang down, palms facing for-
ward, your elbows in line with your hips.
Now slowly curl the weights as high as you
can without moving your elbows forward.
Return to the starting position and repeat.
Do three sets of six to eight repetitions,
with each repetition lasting 6 seconds
(3 seconds up, 3 seconds down). For the
second set, raise the bench to a 75-degree
angle; do the last set with the bench at
90 degrees. Rest 2 minutes between sets.
For triceps, set the bench at a 45-
degree angle. Grab a pair of light dumb-
bells, and lie with your back on the bench.
Your Body Problems SolvedFLABBY BUTT? CHICKEN LEGS? WE HAVETHE ANSWERS YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR
Hold your arms straight up toward the ceil-
ing. Bend at the elbows, and slowly lower
the weights behind your head. Slowly
straighten your arms and repeat. Do the
same number of sets and repetitions as in
the biceps exercises, and take the same
amount of rest. For the second set, use a
flat bench. For the third, lie on a decline
bench at a 30-degree angle.
Changing the angle of each exercise
allows you to go from the angle at which
your muscles are weakest (the first angle)
to the position at which they’re strongest
(the last). Thus, you’ll be able to do pro-
ductive sets even when your muscles are
exhausted.
■ BELLY (made possible by beer) Wearing your
pants at your natural waist, and not tucked
under the gut? Good. But a proper fit will only
help so much. To further de-emphasize your
gut, draw attention away from it. Wear a
V-neck sweater or a shirt with a contrasting
(preferably lighter) collar.
■ BUTT (flabby) If you’ve been carrying
around a little extra heft in your Hilfigers, it
should come as no surprise—and certainly
no comfort—to know that lower-body flab
is much harder to lose than abdominal fat,
according to Steve Farrell, Ph.D., director of
curriculum of the Cooper Institute for Aer-
obics Research. Your body stores fat around
your waist for easy access; the butt flab is
for long-term emergencies.
The best way to burn away lower-body
fat is to raise your resting metabolic rate,
or the speed at which your body burns
calories. Regular bouts of intense exer-
cise—whether you lift hard, run hard, ride
hard, or do almost any fitness activity that
INSTANTPhysicalFixes
SpecialPOWER REPORT
m e n s h e a l t h . co m 17
leaves you gasping for breath—can help
increase your metabolism for several hours
afterward.
Timothy J. Moore, Ph.D., a fitness con-
sultant, suggests this 4-week program: Two
days a week, do circuit weight workouts in
your gym. Do each exercise for 30 seconds,
rest for 30 seconds, do the next exercise for
30 seconds, and so on. Try for two or three
circuits of 10 to 12 exercises.
On two other days, run or cycle using
the same 30-30 intervals. Or do a somewhat
easier routine: After a thorough warmup,
run hard for 1 minute, jog for 3 minutes,
and so on. Try for 20 to 25 minutes of this,
excluding your warmup and cooldown.
“You can’t stay at this level of intensity
forever,” Moore says, which is why he rec-
ommends just 4 weeks on this program.
“But it’s a quick fix. It really stokes the
metabolic fires.”
If you’re really aggressive and have a lot
of exercise experience, you can do work/rest
intervals of up to 3 minutes each. On the
other hand, if you have a history of heart
disease, this isn’t a good way to exercise.
Stick to longer workouts at a lower intensity.
■ CHEST (scrawny) If your chest muscles
stubbornly refuse to grow, you need to try
something more drastic than your normal
sets of presses and flies. Jerry Telle, C.S.C.S.,
a strength coach in Denver, suggests dumb-
bell bench-press flyaways, a sequence of
exercises designed to keep your chest mus-
cles under greater tension for a longer time.
“The average set takes 20 to 40 seconds
and uses the same resistance for the entire
set,” says Telle. That’s about the longest a
guy can lift if he’s working with heavy
weights. But by performing three slightly
different exercises in a row, all with the
same heavy weight and very little rest in
between, you’ll achieve two things you nor-
mally can’t. First, you’ll fatigue more of the
individual muscle fibers normally used in
chest exercises. Second, you’ll recruit and
exhaust more of the muscle fibers not nor-
mally stimulated in typical exercise rou-
tines (those you’d use to lift the Buick off
your mom, for instance). Both sets of mus-
cle fibers will adapt to the exercises by
growing bigger and stronger.
See the chart at right to perform the
dumbbell bench-press flyaway sequence.
You’ll use the same weight on each exercise.
■ CHIN (multiple) If you have multiple chins,
let’s face it, you have multiple everything.
You’re fat. So check out the info stored under
“Handles (love)” and “Butt (flabby).”
Here’s one more tip to speed up your
weight loss: About 10 percent of your
metabolism is devoted to digesting the food
you eat. That is, your body uses up calories
processing the calories you’ve just eaten.
The more frequently you eat, the higher
you can crank up this part of your metabo-
lism. That’s why it’s important, if you’re
trying to lose weight, to eat many small
meals each day. “Eat something every
3 hours or so, even if you’re not totally
hungry,” says Jacqueline R. Berning, Ph.D.,
R.D., of the University of Colorado. Skip-
ping meals has the opposite effect—it
shuts off this calorie-burning mechanism.
And you’re more likely to splurge at
Wendy’s if you skip a waistline-friendly
turkey sandwich and an apple.
■ FACE (baby) If no one is taking you seri-
ously, whether it’s when you propose an
idea at work or when you hand the bouncer
your ID, you need a more grown-up look.
Wear tonal or monochromatic colors, says
Lenny Marcus, the costume supervisor for
General Hospital. A blue suit and white
shirt, if you have a baby face, screams,
“I’m just out of school, and this is what
I’m supposed to wear.” When you’re dress-
ing for a night out, wear dark colors and
make sure your clothes fit properly—no
baggy hip-hop styles.
■ FACE (pale) You’ve probably noticed that
some colors look fine on you, while others
make you look as if you’re on your deathbed.
It all depends on which kind of pale you are.
If you have fair skin and dark hair, contrast-
ing colors—like black and red—will look
best on you. If both your skin and your hair
are light, use muted color combinations.
A blue suit and medium-blue shirt, for
instance, will complement your complexion
without overpowering it, says Alan Flusser,
designer and author of Style and the Man.
■ FACE (thin) Judith Rasband, founder and
director of the Conselle Institute for Image
Management in Provo, UT, recommends a
fuller hairstyle (if you have hair), along with
thicker shirts—flannel, if you can get away
with it at the office—and houndstooth or
tweed jackets. These draw attention away
from your face, creating the illusion that
your face is wider. And don’t slick your
hair back, says Rasband. You’ll look like
a conehead.
■ HAIR (gray) To flatter the salt-and-
pepper look, wear dark blue, charcoal gray,
black, or white. Avoid pastels—they’ll make
you look washed out. If you wear eye-
glasses, choose black or silver frames.
■ HANDLES (love) When you exercise
strenuously, most of the calories you burn
come from glycogen, a carbohydrate-based
fuel stored in your muscles. Here are two
18 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS m e n s h e a l t h . co m 19
I N S TA N T P H Y S I C A L F I X E S
1 Wide-angle fly: Grasp a pair of dumbbells, and lie on your back on a flatbench. (Use a weight you could normally lift six to eight times in this exer-
cise.) Hold the weights together over your chest, with your arms straight andyour palms facing each other. As you slowly lower the weights straight out toyour sides, bend each elbow until it forms an angle of 135 degrees (halfwaybetween 90 degrees and straight). Pause for a second,then lift the weights back to the starting position. Per-form as many repetitions as you can, carefully bendingto the same elbow angle each time. Sit up and rest theweights on your thighs for 10 seconds, then lie downagain and begin the next exercise.
2 90-degree fly: Hold the dumbbells over your chest,keeping your arms straight. Do the exercise the
same way as before, but this time bend each elbow toa 90-degree angle as you lower the weight. Perform asmany repetitions as you can. Sit up again, rest theweights on your thighs for 10 seconds, then lie downand begin the last exercise.
3 Bench press: Hold the dumbbells at the sides of yourchest, your palms turned toward your feet. Press
the weights up over your chest, lower them, and repeatas many times as you can. Put down the weights, restfor 3 to 4 minutes, and repeat the entire sequencetwice more.
ways to trick your body into using more
energy from fat.
Start early. If you do aerobic exercise
before breakfast, says Moore, your body is
more likely to be low in glycogen and burn
fat instead.
Go long—really, really long. According
to an article in the journal Frontiers of
Bioscience, the longer you exercise at
moderate intensity—55 to 75 percent of
your maximum effort—the more your body
uses fat.
■ NECK (skinny) Most muscle-heads in the
gym will tell you that doing specific exer-
cises for your neck is futile, that only lift-
ing consistently heavy weights for a long
time will make your neck bigger. But a
study published in the European Journal of
Applied Physiology compared a group of men
who did neck-targeting exercises with a
group who didn’t. All else was equal—both
groups did heavy weight routines over the
same period of time, and both groups grew
considerably bigger and stronger. But only
the men who performed neck exercises
increased their necks’ muscle mass; the
other men’s neck girth stayed the same.
Here’s a neck-building move recom-
mended by Jeff Watters, a Detroit-area
trainer who uses this exercise with boxers,
for whom thicker necks are an occupational
necessity. You’ll need a training partner,
preferably a woman with cleanly shaven
legs. Get down on all fours, with your head
flexed toward your left shoulder and your
right ear and temple against your partner’s
leg. Push your head to the right for 5 sec-
onds, relax, then push again. Your partner
shouldn’t move when you do this, since it’s
an isometric exercise. Do 10 repetitions,
then repeat on the other side.
If you can’t find a woman willing to let
you push against her thigh, you can do the
modest manhood.
The legs-over-shoulders position (hers
over yours, Gumby) allows you to get clos-
est to the back of her vaginal wall. It also
allows for some serious pelvis mashing,
producing more clitoral stimulation. The
closer her thighs come to her chest, the
more she’ll like it.
■ SHOULDERS (narrow) The only way to
make your shoulders appear wider is to
build the muscles that surround your
shoulder bones, particularly the meaty out-
side portion of the deltoid muscle. “But it’s
very difficult to isolate that muscle,” says
Juan Carlos Santana, C.S.C.S., director and
CEO of the Institute of Human Perfor-
mance in Boca Raton, FL. “You need to take
a shotgun approach, hitting the entire
shoulder area: front (anterior), middle, and
rear (posterior) delts.”
Santana recommends that you perform
the following three shoulder exercises as
one long set—one right after the other,
using the same weights and taking no rest
in between the exercises. This will stress
your shoulder muscles to the maximum
and produce the biggest gains. Take
7 seconds to perform each repetition:
4 seconds down, a 1-second pause,
2 seconds up. Do three sets once or
twice a week. Rest for 2 minutes between
sets.
20 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS m e n s h e a l t h . co m 21
I N S TA N T P H Y S I C A L F I X E S
same exercise against a heavy punching
bag. Have your partner steady the bag; if
you’re alone, the bag will move, so the
exercise won’t be strictly isometric any-
more. Still, try to make each repetition last
5 seconds, and do 10 on each side.
■ NOSE (big) A rhinoplasty, or nose job,
can cost up to $5,000. The immediate
repercussions will probably include black
eyes and other swelling, and your recovery
could prevent you from exercising for up to
a month. What’s more, it can take as long
as 6 months for all the swelling to go down
so you can see the results, according to
Randall B. Weil, M.D., chief of plastic sur-
gery at St. Mary’s Hospital and Medical
Center in San Francisco.
Far easier and cheaper is minimizing
the effect that an oversized olfactory organ
has on your appearance. “In order to make
the nose appear somewhat smaller, you
need to make everything around the face
appear somewhat larger,” says Rasband.
That means fuller hair around the sides of
your face, wider shoulders in your suits
and sport coats, layered clothing (T-shirt,
open-collared shirt, jacket, or sport coat).
“You want to draw someone’s visual atten-
tion downward and outward,” Rasband says.
■ PENIS (smallish) Don’t even consider
penis-enlargement surgery unless you’re
less than half the average length. (Average,
according to researchers at the University
of California, is 5.03 inches from base to
tip, erect.) The risk of complications is just
too great. If you’re caught short, add these
sexual techniques to your bedroom reper-
toire. They favor the less-endowed man.
The female-on-top position gives your
partner the chance for more clitoral stimu-
lation and leaves you free to use your
hands on her breasts, clitoris, or any other
place that might distract her from your
1 Standing lateral raise (works the middle deltoids): Stand holding a pair of dumb-bells at your sides, with your palms facing in. Slowly extend your arms out to
the sides, raising the dumbbells until your upper arms are parallel to the floor.Pause for a second, then return to the starting position. Do four to six repetitions.
2 Alternating dumbbell upright row (works the rear deltoids and trapezius): Stand hold-ing the dumbbells in front of your thighs, palms toward your body. Lean for-
ward slightly. Slowly raise one dumbbell along the front of your body until itreaches the side of your chest. Keep your wrist relaxed. Hold for a second, thenslowly lower the dumbbell. Raise the other dumbbell the same way. Do four tosix repetitions.
3 90-90 dumbbell press (works the front deltoids and triceps): Hold the dumbbells soyour upper arms are parallel to the floor and your lower arms point straight
up toward the ceiling. In other words, your shoulders and elbows should both bebent 90 degrees. Face your palms forward. Slowly press the weights up until yourarms are straight. Pause for a second, then lower them to the 90-90 position. Dofour to six repetitions.
■ THIGHS (chicken) Squats are the greatest
thigh builder known to man. But the way
many guys do them, the emphasis goes to
their gluteus and lower-back muscles, and the
thighs don’t get as much work as they need.
The next time you do squats, watch where
your elbows go. If they point behind you
during the exercise, you’re leaning over too
far and your back and butt are lifting the
weight. Try to keep your elbows roughly in
line with the bar and pointed down at the
floor. This forces you to keep your torso
upright throughout the exercise, making
your thigh muscles do more of the work.
Awise man never stops learning. He’s
always curious about the latest trend,
the newest technology, the Next Big
Thing...even in bed. After all, a thousand
tips and tactics have been developed since
you and your girlfriend first did the mystery
dance in the back of your Subaru.
Problem is, unlike in high school, you
and your buddies probably aren’t compar-
ing notes and sharing insider secrets any-
more. That’s too bad, because there’s much
more to learn. So take a look at our entic-
ing curriculum. Study hard and we guaran-
tee that, in her eyes, the Next Big Thing
that comes along will be...you.
SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHICAL STUDIES
CONQUERING MOUNTAINS,EXPLORING VALLEYS, PRESERVING WETLANDS
101: Find the secret of her twin peaks.Austrian researchers have found that an
oft-neglected region of the breast, the
northern part from roughly 10 o’clock to
2 o’clock, provides even more arousal than
her nipples. Investigate with light kissing
and a gentle massage using the heel of your
hand, not the fingers. The palm gives even
sensation without causing pain.
201: Point your compass toward her truenorth. Even if you find yourself upside
down and disoriented during sex (happens
to us all the time), you can always stay on
course by trying to point the tip of your
penis toward the inside of her belly button.
The way her vagina is positioned, if you do
that you’ll be close to her G-spot—the
Graduate from Sex SchoolTHE BEST CLASSES YOU’LL EVER HAVE
THE SECRETS OF
SizzlingSex
SpecialPOWER REPORT
bundle of nerves that serves as a catalystfor orgasms.
SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION
FOR THOSE WHO WANT TOWORK UP A GOOD SWEAT
101: Exercise your right to more sex.We didnêt like gym class any more than youdid. The good news: Your çspontaneouséerections in the shower will get a betterresponse now than they did then. Butbefore you lather up, work out. A Univer-sity of California study shows that menwho exercise 3 days a week have threetimes more sexÑand bet ter sexÑthanthose who donêt.
201: To extend your manhood, drop theChalupa. You know extra weight is bad foryour heart, but it also shortens yourpenisÑy ou lose a half inch for every 15pounds you gain. Hereês why: The fat padthat protects your pubic area creeps overthe shaftês base as you get fatter, obscuringperfectly good penis. A better diet and moreexercise means more where it counts, too.
SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY
EXPLORE HER DEEPLY HIDDEN DESIRES. COUCH OPTIONAL
101: Master her mind games. In one sur-vey, women admitted fantasizing about sexup to twice as often as men do. So howcome sheês not constantly jumping yourbones? Because unlike your fantasies, hersare lengthy, interactive scenarios, says
m e n s h e a l t h . co m 23
Karen Donahey, Ph.D., associate professor
in the psychology and behavioral sciences
department at Northwestern University.
You can get more action simply by giving
her a scenario to spin. Toss her a line like
this at lunch: “If anybody would look amaz-
ing in a French maid’s outfit, it’s you,” and
you up your chances of her breaking out
the feather duster after dinner.
201: Hypnotize her with your eyes. Want to
drive her wild with desire? Look her straight
in the eye during sex. Add in a little play-
by-play of the action and solicit her opin-
ion, too. The combination of eye contact
and dialogue—that direct connection during
sex—is an incredible turn-on for women.
SCHOOL OF NATURALSCIENCES
BETTER LIVING THROUGHSEXUAL CHEMISTRY ANDQUANTUM PHYSICALS
101: Tantalize her with chemistry. You love
it when she gives you oral sex with a breath
mint in her mouth. Here’s why: The
mucous membranes that line your penis let
mint pass through, giving you a cool thrill.
But did you know that popping a curiously
strong mint while you’re giving her oral sex
can lead to a curiously strong orgasm? Note
to the wise: Peppermint oil can sting her.
Stick to the original wintergreen flavor.
201: Defy gravity with your genitals. Just
before ejaculation, your testicles ascend like
an aircraft’s landing gear to provide more
power to your takeoff. To give your equip-
ment an even bigger boost, have your part-
ner gently press upward on your testicles
with the palm of her hand just before you
ejaculate. This will heighten your arousal
and add intensity to your orgasm, according
to Bob Schwartz, Ph.D., author of
The One-Hour Orgasm.
301: Make her adore a vacuum. Next time
you’re, you know, yodeling in the gully,
don’t just lick, the way most guys do.
“Sucking on her clitoris and labia creates
a unique feeling, and when contrasted with
the usual friction can lead to more and
better orgasms,” says Schwartz. This
technique is better for you, too—you’ll
get fewer tongue cramps.
SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS
CALCULATING MOVES FORIMPRESSIVE FIGURES
101: Count on yourself to last longer. To
increase your control—and keep your
climax at bay—use a technique called
“peaking.” As you’re thrusting, rate your
arousal on a scale of 1 to 10. When it builds
to 3 or 4, slow down and take deep breaths
until it diminishes. Then let your arousal
build to 5 or 6, and back off again. Do this
until you can reach 8 or 9 before climaxing.
201: Multiply your satisfaction. The usual
Saturday-night equation is You + Her = 1
(orgasm). For better sex, try multiplying
your orgasms. You can train yourself to be
multiorgasmic, but it involves practicing
through masturbation. (Hey, math can be
fun!) Build yourself up to the brink of
orgasm, then throttle back. Do this three
times before climaxing. A little practice and
you’ll be able to feel the orgasm—racing
pulse, waves of euphoria, and relaxation—
without ejaculating. Not only does it reduce
the messy cleanup, but you’ll remain erect
and ready for more action. Good luck.
Please resist the urge to write us and tell us
how it’s going.
FLAT REAR ENTRY How to do it: She lies facedown on the
bed with her pelvis slightly raised. She can
use a pillow for support. You enter her
vagina from behind.
Difficulty (on a scale of 1 to 10): 4
Payoff: 8
You’ve heard about the G-spot? This is
one of the best ways to go after it, says
Mark L. Elliott, Ph.D., of the Institute for
Psychological and Sexual Health. The down-
ward angle of entry will target the elusive
but highly sensitive dime-size spot inside
the front wall of her vagina. And because the
padding on her butt is blocking at least part
of your access, you’ll have shallow penetra-
tion, so you won’t pass the G-spot by. (Tell
your partner not to be discouraged if this
doesn’t feel great at first. Elliott says the
friction on the G-spot may cause discomfort
24 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS m e n s h e a l t h . co m 25
T H E S E C R E T S O F S I Z Z L I N G S E X
Rock Star Sex Positions
She’ll forget you’re just a banker when you rock her world with these moves—guaranteed
to stimulate her in all the right places. Some may seem familiar at first glance, but pay
close attention to the details. These are variations we bet you’ve never seen before.
BUILD STRONGER ERECTIONS!
Men might think they only need one thing in order to have an erection:a penis. In fact, one Italian study shows that the strength of the mus-
cles surrounding your penis may also play a part. When researchers stud-ied the strength of two pelvic-area muscles in 390 men, they found thatpotent guys were 17 percent stronger than the guys who had trouble witherections. “These muscles squeeze the two blood-filled erection tubes inthe penis. The stronger these muscles are, the more pressure they’ll createin the erection,” says Gregory A. Broderick, M.D., a Mayo Clinic urologist.By simply squeezing and releasing the muscles you use to stop urination,you can train these muscles to get stronger. So do it often, and for bestresults, ask her to give you a hand.
before it turns to pleasure.) This is also a
tight position, which creates extra pressure
on the clitoris, and it’s one of the few rear-
entry positions that puts your heads
together, allowing snuggling and kissing.
What’s in it for you: If she keeps her legs
together, she’ll have a tight grip on your
penis, which should more than make up for
the lack of depth.
THE “X” POSITION How to do it: You sit on the bed with
your legs in front of you; she straddles your
torso.
Difficulty: 3
Payoff: 7
This position allows more gentle rock-
ing than in-and-out thrusting—a change
she’ll love. “Guys don’t like to hear this,
but a lot of women find powerful thrusting
distracting and simply prefer to be ‘filled up’
while they concentrate on stimulating the
clitoris,” says Louanne Cole Weston, Ph.D., a
sex therapist in Fair Oaks, CA.
To make this position really rock, hold
hands with each other and lean back so
you’re connected only at the hands and geni-
tals. Concentrate on wriggling the base of
your penis against the upper part of her vagi-
nal opening, grinding against her clitoris.
What’s in it for you: Since there’s little
steady motion to wear you out and only
moderate stimulation to the head of your
penis, you should be able to last longer
than usual. Once she’s had her fun, switch
to a position that hits you in the right
spots.
THE HOT SEATHow to do it: You sit on the bed with
your back against the headboard. She slides
on top of your erection, with her feet by
your ears and her hands on either your legs
or the bed behind her.
Difficulty: 5
Payoff: 6
Since you’re supporting her entire
weight on your lap, it’ll be up to her to pro-
vide the motion by using her arms to push
up off of you. That can be a little tricky,
but once she’s used to it, the result is deep
penetration that not only feels great but
looks great. “Both of us had a terrific view
of the action,” one tester reported. It also
leaves your hands free to help out with
additional clitoral stimulation, should she
want it. Try using the palm of your hand to
rub in circular motions along her mons
pubis, the soft, hair-covered mound just
above her vagina. That’ll create indirect
stimulation along her clitoris.
What’s in it for you: She’ll be doing all the
real work, so you can lie back and enjoy.
THE COWGIRL How to do it: You lean back with your
shoulders against the foot of the bed and
your feet on the floor, supporting the bulk
of your weight. She straddles your midsec-
tion and uses her legs to thrust.
Difficulty: 6
Payoff: 10
Even if she’s never been the jockey
type, she’ll have a hard time resisting this
invitation to ride. Not only does she control
the angle, speed, depth, and rhythm of the
thrusts, but because she supports her own
weight, she also has complete freedom of
movement. “This is as close as you can get
to having sex in a swing set without having
to install hardware in your bedroom,” says
Weston. Your mate doesn’t have to rely on
your figuring out where she likes to be
touched—she can stimulate whatever needs
it on her own. One caution: Some women
tend to get weak in the knees during
orgasm, so brace yourself for a little extra
weight once she peaks.
What’s in it for you: You can’t beat the
view.
26 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS m e n s h e a l t h . co m 27
T H E S E C R E T S O F S I Z Z L I N G S E X
SEX TRICKS FROM SKIN FLICKS
W e’re not huge fans of adult movies, unless of course you can learnsomething from them. Then we’re all for them! That’s why we sent
a sex writer home with 40 X-rated videos. When he emerged 3 dayslater broken and empty, he was still conscious enough to bring us theselessons for the bedroom.
■ Don’t finish where you started. Three minutes is about as long as you’llsee any two (or more) actors in the same sexual position; they’ll recon-figure several times during a scene to keep things interesting. Youshould, too. It can keep you from ejaculating too soon.
■ Thrust one at a time. Penetrate slowly, then withdraw completely; waita second and start over, 10 times. “Insertion is everyone’s favorite partof intercourse,” says Mark Elliott, Ph.D., a sex therapist. (Maybe secondfavorite.) Repeating the initial insertion will help you savor the feeling.Be careful; you could like it so much that you finish before you’re ready.
■ Bounce. If she’s on top, have her sit still so you can do the bounc-ing—and control the speed of the friction. Bend your knees and useyour thigh muscles. When you move up and down, you’ll slide in andout. Stay in control so she doesn’t slide all the way off.
■ Touch and tease. For a different sensation, use two fingers to stroke up and down to stimulate both sides of her clitoris without actuallytouching it.
■ Use her legs. Have her lie on her back with one leg straight; the otherleg should be pulled in toward her chest. Straddle her straight leg andsupport yourself with an arm hooked into the crook of her bent knee.“This allows good access, but because her legs are still together, she’llget lots of clitoral stimulation,” says Elliott. That’s a good thing.
and diabetes—major risk factors for heart
disease—than those who are very fit.
Sound hard? It’s not. Do the five things
in the box below, and, if you’re a typical
180-pound guy, you’ll burn 1,000 calories.
Hit something. Here’s the best stress-
busting exercise we know: boxing. “Hitting
a heavy bag has a cathartic effect,” says
Tom Seabourne, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., a sports
psychologist in Mount Pleasant, TX.
Try this: Pull on the gloves and hit a
heavy bag for 3 minutes, rest a minute, and
continue like that for 20 minutes. “It’s so
vigorous, you don’t have time to think
about your problems,” says Seabourne.
Plus, it builds power, endurance, and even
some muscle mass in your upper body.
Instructions below are for right-handers;
lefties, please consult the first Rocky
movie. On all punches, rotate your fist so
your palm faces down at impact.
Stance: Set your feet shoulder-width
apart and diagonal to the bag, left foot for-
ward, elbows in, right fist alongside your
chin, left fist beside your left eye. Float like
a butterfly, sting like Ali.
We all have to get older. It’s nature’s
way of ensuring that babies have
babysitters.
But getting older doesn’t necessarily
mean getting old, at least not in the tradi-
tional sense. You just have to start training
for your later years now. Here’s how to pull
off the ultimate retirement plan.
THE 30S GUY You’re beginning to wonder why you were
in such a hurry to grow up. The promotion
at work, the new baby, the house in the
’burbs—you have good excuses to miss
every workout, but every workout you miss
seems like another
concession to your
inner fat guy. A
couple of years
ago, you could
scarf bacon
cheeseburgers
with impunity.
Now the most
innocent-looking
chicken burrito
takes your belt out a notch. You haven’t
done any irreversible damage yet, but you
sure don’t want to see the end of this
disaster movie.
Work outside the gym. If you can’t work
out, find some other way to burn off extra
calories—and stress. According to the
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute,
young men who are only low or moderately
fit have twice the risk of high blood pressure
m e n s h e a l t h . co m 29
“Grampa! Show Us Your Abs!”YOU HAVE AN INVESTMENT PLAN FOR YOUR MONEY—HERE’S ONE FOR YOUR BODY
Lift weights intensely for 20 minutes 164 calories
Play tennis for 30 minutes 287 calories
Chop wood for 15 minutes 123 calories
Move furniture for 20 minutes 164 calories
Ride a bike at 13 mph for 25 minutes 273 calories
TOTAL: 1,011 calories
The BestShapeOFYOURLIFE
SpecialPOWER REPORT
Punches: Hint: Aim as though you’re
trying to punch through the bag, not at it.
Jab: Shoot your left arm straight out and
back. Cross: Pivot on your right foot as you
strike with your right hand and pull it back.
Hook: Pivot on your left foot as you bring
your left arm around to strike the side of
the lousy, stinking bastar...uh, the bag.
Feed your muscles. If you’re lifting
weights—and trying to watch your
weight—you might be shorting yourself on
protein. The average 180-pound iron worker
needs a lot of protein—between 110 and
140 g a day to build and repair muscle. To
get 100 g, you could have two large eggs,
two glasses of milk, 4 ounces of chicken
breast (about the size of your palm), and an
8-ounce steak. Eat another 8-ounce steak,
and you’re up to 150.
Since you’d be insane to eat like that,
we recommend adding a daily protein
shake. A study found that people who con-
sumed a protein-shake diet lost more
weight and body fat than those who ate
the same amount of calories in food with
60 percent less protein. See page 5 for a
quick, delicious recipe.
Take the anti-soreness vitamin. Antioxi-
dants like vitamin E reduce muscle soreness
caused by lifting weights, according to
research from Ball State University. In the
study, 11 college-age men took either a
placebo or 1,200 international units of vita-
min E and went on a weight-lifting regimen
for 3 weeks. “The vitamin E users showed
statistically lower levels of free radicals
after working out, which translated to less
soreness after lifting,” says Bruce Craig,
Ph.D., the physiologist who conducted the
research.
THE 40S GUY They throw you that great surprise party on
your 40th birthday, and all your friends
make “over the hill” jokes that you pretend
to find hilarious. And if you have enough to
drink, maybe you really do find them hilari-
ous. But when you wake up in the morning,
you can’t help but acknowledge that the
sell-by date on your youth has officially
expired. The few remaining pro athletes
your age are shadows of their former selves,
and your kids’ friends call you “Mister.”
But look on the bright side: If your life
were a football game, it would be halftime
now. Here’s how to kick some butt in the
next two quarters.
Get plenty of calcium. Your wife’s doctor
will tell her to get enough calcium to head
off osteoporosis, but no one will extend
that courtesy to you. Here’s why they
should: Researchers at the University of
Tennessee have found that calcium appears
to decrease fat storage and increase the use
of fat for energy.
Your goal is to get at least 1,000
milligrams of calcium a day. That’s two
8-ounce glasses of milk, a bowl of cereal,
and a cup of yogurt.
Bend over backward. Four out of five
Americans experience back pain at some
point in their lives, according to the Ameri-
can Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. “Back
pain can be caused by weight problems, old
athletic injuries, poor flexibility, and poor
musculature,” says Bruce McMillan, a phys-
ical therapist in Ronan, MT. But research
has shown that if you bend backward, you’ll
reduce compressive stress on your spinal
disks by up to 40 percent.
Try this: Get into a modified pushup
position, with hands, knees, and feet resting
on the floor. Push your hips toward the floor,
arch your back, and hold for 15 to 20 seconds.
If your back pain extends down through
your legs, however, don’t stretch—see a doctor.
Tea it up. Coffee is our friend—
particularly on mornings when beer
was our friend the night before.
Besides the nice buzz, caffeine also
helps mobilize fat cells to be used for
energy. But green tea does the same
thing, only better, according to a Swiss
study. On top of its flab- and cobweb-
fighters, green tea contains flavonoids
—as much in 2 cups as in one serving
of vegetables, says Jeffrey Blumberg,
Ph.D., who researches antioxidants at
Tufts University. Don’t buy the pre-
bottled green tea—it doesn’t provide
the same benefits. Instead buy tea
bags and brew 2 cups a day with hot
water, says Blumberg.
Take some time off. As you age, your
ability to recuperate after a weight-
lifting session decreases. So to give
your body more time to repair itself, do
three workouts a week instead of four.
“But the intensity of your workouts
can be the same,” says Dave Pearson,
Ph.D., C.S.C.S., director of Ball State
University's Strength Research Laboratory.
Hit each body part only once a week, and
make sure to take a day of rest between
workouts. Try one of these workouts
(exercise descriptions can be found at
www.menshealth.com)—do three or four
sets of 8 to 12 repetitions of each exercise.
Rest a minute between sets.
Take it slow. Lifting weights s-l-o-w-l-y
puts your muscles under stress, which can
boost the strength and size of the muscles.
Try incorporating these five strategies dur-
ing your next workout.
Take your time. Do slow repetitions;
research suggests that 8-second repeti-
tions—4 up, 4 down—are slow enough to
spur an increase in strength.
Smooth your moves. If you jerk like a
spawning salmon on every lift, you’re not
getting the most out of your workouts. Try
moving the weight smoothly, with only a
slight hesitation at the end of the contrac-
tion. This will put more stress on the mus-
cles you’re working and decrease your
chances of injury.
Stop chatting. Move quickly from one
exercise to the next, with no time for ban-
ter. This fires up your metabolism and bet-
ter conditions your cardiovascular system.
Use weight machines instead of free
weights. Weight-training machines force
you to focus more on form and less on how
much weight you’re using—a good thing—
while protecting you from injury. “For
example, with free weights your forearms
and gripping muscles will give out before
the biceps you’re working do,” says Wayne
30 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS m e n s h e a l t h . c o m 31
T H E B E S T S H A P E O F YO U R L I F E
Monday Bench press Incline dumbbell pressPullup or lat pulldownBent-over row Swiss-ball crunch
WednesdaySquat Stiff-legged deadliftCalf raiseTwisting crunch
Friday Dumbbell shoulder press Upright rowTriceps extensionIncline dumbbell curl Incline reverse crunch
32 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS m e n s h e a l t h . c o m 33
T H E B E S T S H A P E O F YO U R L I F E
ANGLED DROP SETS
A
A
B
C
B
A Better Body in Minutes
CONCENTRATION DUMBBELL CURL Sit on a bench, and push yourelbow into your inner thigh. Curl up and down, keeping yourelbow still and shoulders back.
LOW-PULLEY BICEPS CURL Hold the low pulley so it’s in line with your arm and shoulder.Keep your wrist straight andyour upper arm by your side.
SINGLE-ARM ZOTTMAN CURL ON PREACHER BENCH Curl the dumbbell with your palm facing up [A]. At the top of the move,rotate your palm so it’s almost facing down, then lower the dumbbell [B].Rotate your palm up before you raise the dumbbell again. To avoidinjury, make sure your entire upper arm is on the bench, so the bench is tucked into your armpit.
BIG BICEPS IN NO TIME FLAT
B ig biceps are built by doing multiple sets of curls with one arm at a time. The reason? Your biceps will fatigue faster, so they’ll grow more, says Ian King,
C.S.C.S., an Australian strength coach who works with Olympic and professionalathletes. Try doing these three exercises with the same arm, with only 10 secondsof rest between sets. Do 10 to 12 repetitions of each, then switch arms.
G eometry studentsand pool hustlers
aren’t the only ones whobenefit from under-standing sharp angles.You can, too, by workingyour chest at differentangles—with virtually norest between sets, saysMichael Mejia, C.S.C.S.,a trainer in New YorkCity. The benefit ofdoing these “angleddrop sets” is that byworking from the hard-est to the easiest presspositions, you’ll stimu-late more muscle fibersin your chest in abouthalf the time. To start,do a set of inclinepresses with a weightthat will fatigue youafter 8 to 10 repetitions[A]. Rest for 10 seconds,drop the angle of thebench, and do a flatpress with the sameweight. Do as many repetitions as possible—usually three to fivemore than on the incline[B]. Rest for 10 seconds,then do as many declinepresses as you can [C].Rest for 2 minutes, andrepeat.
A BIGGER CHEST IN HALF THE TIME
Westcott, Ph.D., senior fitness and research
director of the South Shore YMCA near
Boston.
Take time to recover. Make sure your
muscles have 48 hours between strenuous
workouts. And if you reach a plateau, try
doing less work, not more.
THE 50S GUYIt’s been a good five decades. You have a
solid career, and no one in your family has
ever appeared on Jerry Springer. Best of all,
you actually have time to exercise again. If
you start now, you can turn back the clock
by increasing your metabolism, testos-
terone, growth hormone, muscle mass, flex-
ibility, and bone mass.
Grease your hinges. The average guy
begins to have trouble with his knees in his
50s. Exercise—particularly resistance train-
ing—is good medicine for osteoarthritis,
says Miriam Nelson, Ph.D., an exercise
scientist at Tufts University.
The split squat helps strengthen all
your lower-body muscles and improve
flexibility. Stand with your left foot about
3 feet in front of your right. Lower your
body until your left knee is bent 90 degrees
and your left thigh is parallel to the floor.
Your right knee should almost touch the
floor behind you. Now push back up to the
original position, keeping your back
straight and upright throughout the exer-
cise. Do 10 to 15 repetitions, then repeat
with your right foot forward. When that’s
easy, add weights—you can either hold
dumbbells at your hips or hold a barbell
across your shoulders. Work up to three
sets once or twice a week.
Become an alpha male. Researchers in
California found that a zinc-magnesium
supplement called ZMA increases testos-
terone levels. (You can find it in several
brands at any health-food store.) It works
while you sleep, so if you take the recom-
mended dosage—30 milligrams of zinc,
450 milligrams of magnesium, and 11 mil-
ligrams of B6—before bed, you might wake
up with a whole new attitude.
Set a record. Another way to raise
testosterone is to feel like a winner. Unless
you were an elite-level athlete in your
youth, you can set a personal record in
almost any physical endeavor you choose,
says Seabourne.
Here’s something you can set a record in
today: the strict curl. This is a barbell biceps
curl performed while you lean your back and
arms against a wall. The beauty of it is that
almost nobody knows how much weight
they can curl once, so whatever you lift
today will be a personal record.
Try this: Pick a weight you think is
the most you can curl—100 pounds, say.
Warm up by doing eight repetitions with
50 pounds, four with 75, two with 90,
and then one with 100. A week later, add
5 pounds to each of your sets and do it
again. Keep going for 4 to 6 weeks, or until
you stop breaking your own record each
week. Take a break for 5 months, then start
in again. You can shatter your own records
twice a year. And feel like the baddest m.f. in
your immediate vicinity.
Eat breakfast. Researchers at the Okla-
homa State University found that 40 per-
cent of older men failed to take in the
recommended daily amount of folic acid, a
vitamin that helps prevent heart disease.
The reason? They weren’t eating breakfast.
Try spending the morning with a cereal
that’s rich in B12, a vitamin that helps the
body absorb folic acid and is high in fiber
and low in sugar, too. Here are five that
measure up: Wheat Chex, Cheerios, Whole
Grain Total, Wheaties, and All-Bran.
34 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS
THE LAWS OFLeanness
SpecialPOWER REPORT
36 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS m e n s h e a l t h . co m 37
T H E L AW S O F L E A N N E S S
I f you want to control your waistline and
eat your way to better health, here are 10
things you need to do—starting today.
1 PRETEND YOU’RE A TAILOR. Measure
everything—your neck, chest, waist,
arms, thighs, calves. Write it all down, and
put it someplace where you’ll have to look
at it every day. Record your weight, too,
although that’s less important.
Your goal: Maintain or reduce the size
of your waist while increasing the size of
everything else. Repeat your measurements
every 4 weeks.
2 TO CHANGE YOUR WEIGHT, FOLLOW THE15/500 RULE. Making radical changes to
your diet—starving yourself to lose weight
or stuffing yourself to gain—is futile. If
you’re trying to lose weight, you’ll slow
your metabolism to a crawl. If you’re trying
to gain, the excess calories will include a
lot of fat. Here’s a more sensible strategy.
To lose weight: Cut your daily food
intake by a maximum of 15 percent or
500 calories, whichever is less.
To gain weight: Increase your daily
intake—and we mean every day—by 15 per-
cent or 500 calories, whichever is less.
3 YOU MUST EAT FAT. Fat still occupies
that tiny prison cell at the tip of the
Food Guide Pyramid, but its health benefits
are hugely underrated.
A diet with 21 percent of its calories
from monounsaturated fat reduces your
risk of cardiovascular disease by 25 percent,
according to a Penn State University study.
And research has shown that men eating a
diet with high fat have higher testosterone
than those eating less fat. So chomp on
The 10 Laws of LeannessTHESE ARE THE COMMANDMENTS THAT REALLY MATTER
those macadamia nuts and drench your
salad with olive oil. Not only will you enjoy
your food more, you’ll live longer and have
more sex.
4 REMEMBER: MEAT IS MUSCLE. The best
muscle-building diet includes beef,
pork, poultry, and fish, according to a study
published in the American Journal of Clini-
cal Nutrition. The reason is simple: Animal
protein builds muscle better than soy or
vegetable protein does.
How much protein you need is always
debated, but the most reliable research
shows that you need 0.6 to 0.82 grams of
protein per pound of body weight per day
to build muscle during a strength-training
program. If you weigh 200 pounds, that
means taking in 120 to 164 grams of protein
each day. Say you choose 150 grams as your
daily goal. Split it up so you eat 25 grams in
each of six small meals. Breakfast might be
two eggs, milk, and oatmeal. Lunch could
be tuna on whole wheat. Grilled-chicken
salad would be a good dinner.
5 YOU NEED CARBOHYDRATES (BUT NOT THE FUN KIND). Consumption of high-
fructose corn syrup and other sugary
sweeteners has possibly done more to
expand America’s waistlines than anything
else. In fact, Americans consume twice as
much sugar a day as they should. But the
carbohydrates in fruits, vegetables, and
whole grains are crucial to your health,
give you energy, and help you build and
repair muscle after workouts.
How much is enough: If your main goal
is to be lean, try for about 30 to 50 percent
carbohydrate in your diet.
6 EAT BEFORE YOU LIFT. You increase mus-
cle mass in two ways: by building up
muscles and by preventing them from
breaking down. If you eat some protein an
hour or two before your workout, you’ll
have more amino acids available to your
muscles during exercise. This prevents the
muscle tissue from breaking down as much
as it otherwise would.
You also need pre-exercise carbohy-
drates to ensure you’ll have enough energy
during your workout. Without this type of
fuel, your muscles could break down the
amino acids in your muscles for energy.
The perfect preworkout meal: Make a
small shake with juice or fruit, milk,
yogurt, and/or a scoop of protein powder.
Fat and fiber slow digestion, so limit them
before a workout.
7 AND EAT AFTER YOU LIFT. After a work-
out, you want to wolf down some mus-
cle chow containing both carbohydrates and
protein. This is the one time of day when
you benefit from eating fast-acting, easily
digestible carbohydrates, such as white
bread, instant rice, and baked potatoes.
Here’s why: After exercise, your muscles
are more sensitive to insulin. Insulin is the
rapid-transit system for the protein and
carbohydrates your muscles need for
growth, repair, and fuel. And the faster you
digest the carbohydrates you eat, the faster
your body can put them to use.
The best postexercise meal: Try a shake
made with a meal-replacement powder con-
taining protein and a fast-moving carbohy-
drate like maltodextrin. Or try the shake
described in tip 6; it works after exercise,
too.
8 BE A NUTRITIONAL BOY SCOUT. You’re
going to get hungry every 2 to 3 hours,
guaranteed. So be prepared. If you know
you’re going to be away from decent food,
take some healthy snacks with you. Nuts
and dried fruit are clean and compact, and
require no special preparation or refrigera-
tion. If you need to pack something more
meal-like, try a peanut-butter-and-jelly
sandwich on whole grain bread. Drop
apples in hand’s reach everywhere you go;
if you make it through one a day, the pectin
will keep you too full to crave anything
really awful.
9 EAT BEFORE BED. If you’re trying to
build muscle while losing weight, you
may need some food right before sleep to
keep your body from breaking down muscle
tissue as you snooze. Planning this snack
will help you resist the temptation to
inhale chocolate fudge cake at midnight.
If you’re trying to gain weight, your
bedtime snack will help you maximize
muscle growth.
In either case, limit this snack to about
500 calories. A half cup of ice cream with
some nuts and fruit is a nice way to end
the day. Don’t make this snack too high in
protein, though; that can kick your brain
into overdrive, creating intense dreams and
waking you up.
10 TAKE NOTES. We’ve hit you with a
lot of math here—500 calories of
this, 0.82 grams of that. All of which is
meaningless unless you know how much
you actually consume.
For 1 day, try this: Measure everything
you eat. That’s right, pull out a measuring
cup and see how much cereal you actually
eat, count the slices or weigh the turkey
breast you put on your sandwich, add up
the bananas and dried apricots and Kit Kat
bars.
Now write it all down, and calculate the
total. We all know what we eat, but most of
us have no idea how much.
m e n s h e a l t h . co m 39
T H E L AW S O F L E A N N E S S
38 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS
Drop Pounds Fast...andKeep Them OffTHE TRICK TO WEIGHT LOSS IS KEEPING ITOFF. HERE’S HOW TO MASTER THAT TRICK
The following program will help make
you a big loser in the only place
where you want to be one: your
waistline. And when you’ve dropped so
much weight that you’re finally satisfied,
you’ll be able to keep it off, because there’s
nothing here you can’t keep doing for the
rest of your life.
THE BEST WAY TO MEASURE YOUR FAT-BURNING SUCCESS
Muscle vs. fat. As you’ve noticed by now,
a scale is a lousy way to measure your
progress if it’s the only tool you use. This
is because it can’t distinguish between fat
and muscle. To fix that problem, science
has invented almost as many ways to meas-
ure body composition—the amount of fat
on your body in relation to muscle, bone,
and vital organs—as humans have invented
to become fat. Here’s the simplest method
to determine weight loss progress:
1. Measure your waist.
2. Measure your neck.
3. Subtract your neck size from your
waist size.
Repeat this calculation every 4 weeks.
If the number is going down—if your waist
is getting smaller relative to your neck—
you’re losing fat. If it’s going in the oppo-
site direction, you need to beef up your
workouts and slow down your fork.
HOW MUCH FOOD YOU NEED
1. Your weight in pounds: _______
2. Basic calorie needs. Multiply line 1 by 11: ________ x 11 = ______
3. Physical activity. Multiply line 2 by 20% if you currently getno exercise, 30% for light exercise (2 hours a day on yourfeet), 40% for moderate exercise every day, or 50% for intenseexercise 3 or 4 days a week: _________ x ________% = _______
4. Your daily calorie needs. Add line 2 and line 3: ________ +________ = ____
5. Subtract 500 (so you can lose 1 pound a week). The result isyour ideal daily calorie intake: _______ - 500 = ________
Caloriessaved
INSTEAD OF EATING DRY... EAT WET...
Breakfast Quantity ED Quantity ED
Bacon 5 slices 5.0 Ham 1 oz 1.8 131
Bagel w/straw- 1 bagel 2.8 Low-fat yogurt 6 oz 1.0 189berry jam w/strawberries
Lunch Quantity ED Quantity ED
Beef bologna 3 oz bologna 3.1 Tuna fish 3 oz tuna 1.1 175 w/light mayo (packed in water) on whole w/light mayo on wheat bread whole wheat
bread
Double 1 sandwich 2.9 Steak wrap 1 wrap 2.1 264 cheeseburger w/vegetables
Dinner Quantity ED Quantity EDCheese ravioli 2 1⁄2 c 3.2 Lasagna w/meat 1 serving 1.6 334
(3 1⁄2"x 4")
Hamburger 1 medium-size 2.7 Meat loaf 3 oz 1.9 78
Hot dogs 2 dogs 3.2 Pork chop 3 oz 2.0 111
Desserts Quantity ED Quantity EDCheesecake 1 slice 3.2 Vanilla ice cream 6 oz (3⁄4 c) 2.0 58
Chocolate cake 4 oz 3.7 Chocolate 4 oz 1.1 265 pudding
Chocolate-fudge 3 3.5 Frozen fudge bar 1 bar 1.4 128 cookies
Snacks Quantity ED Quantity EDPotato chips 3 oz 5.4 Potato salad 3 oz 1.3 340
Raisins 1⁄4 c 3.0 Grapes 1⁄2 c 0.7 81
Salami, beef 3 slices 2.6 Shrimp 12 1.0 115
There's a secret ingredient in food. In the right amounts, it possesses the power to help you lose weight asyou eat—water! According to Barbara Rolls, Ph.D., author of Volumetrics, no matter what you eat, you
take in roughly the same amount day in and day out. So while equal amounts of any food will fill you up, “wetfood”—food with a high water content—will do it with fewer calories. The more water in a food, the less roomthere is for calories, and the lower the energy density (ED)
This doesn't mean you should go on a diet of watermelon, watercress, and water chestnuts. It means eatingthe right real food, the same food that Adam Drewnowski, Ph.D., director of the nutrition sciences program atthe University of Washington, picked for the substitutions below. Eat enough to save 500 calories a day, andyou'll lose a pound a week.
You can also use the method of dividing calories by weight in grams to determine ED. An ED of 0 to 2.5 is good(eat as much as you want); an ED of 2.6 to 6.0 means the food is “dry” (eat sparingly.)
GIVE YOUR FOOD THE “WET TEST”
really no forbidden foods.
Still, you don’t want a dietary indiscre-
tion to end in a love handle. The secret:
Plan your indulgences. You’ve already cal-
culated how many calories and how much
fat you should eat in a day, so if you know
you’re going to crave a candy bar at 4 p.m.
each workday, calculate it into your daily
fat budget. Can’t go a week without pizza?
Plan on it, and simply eat fewer calories in
your other meals that day.
Fiber is your friend. Fiber plays an impor-
tant role in weight management. Here are
three reasons to eat fiber-rich foods:
■ They generally take longer to chew,
meaning you’ll eat more slowly and proba-
bly eat less.
■ They take longer to digest, which
means more time will pass before you feel
hungry.
■ They soak up surrounding water like
a sponge, making you feel fuller.
Try taking in 25 to 35 grams of fiber a
day, which you can easily do with a few sim-
ple tweaks to your meal choices. Let’s say
your normal lunch fare is a turkey sandwich
on a roll and a few pretzels on the side.
Change that to a turkey sandwich on whole
grain or rye bread, and trade the pretzels for
an apple, and you’ve increased your fiber
intake from 3 grams to 7.
Another easy fix is to keep frozen or
canned vegetables around the house and
add them as side dishes to whatever you’re
having for dinner. For example, frozen broc-
coli has 2.3 grams of fiber in a half-cup
serving; 1⁄2 cup of red kidney beans has
8 grams.
Many of us believe only fresh vegeta-
bles are good for us, but that’s a myth. The
bottom line is that fresh, canned and frozen
foods are fairly comparable, and the latter
two are certainly much more convenient
and are easier to store than fresh vegeta-
bles. Sauté frozen or canned varieties in a
teaspoon of olive oil (don’t forget to count
the 4.5 grams of fat in your daily budget),
and they’ll even taste good.
A few other ways to eat more fiber:
■ Have soup for lunch. A bowl of lentil
or split-pea soup contains 5 to 6 grams of
fiber.
■ Snack on peanuts or sunflower
seeds. A quarter-cup of either contains
between 2 and 3 grams of fiber.
■ Eat Raisin Bran (8 grams per cup),
Bran Flakes (about 6 grams), or All-Bran (an
intestine-scrubbing 9.7 grams per half-cup)
for breakfast.
■ Finish lunch or dinner with a pear
(4 grams of fiber), an orange (3 grams), or a
kiwi (21⁄2 grams).
EXERCISING BETTER Integrate circuits. To most men, circuit
training—moving quickly from one exercise
to the next with very little rest in
between—is the misbegotten offspring of
weight lifting and aerobic exercise. It’s not
as good as either of those forms of exercise
for building muscle or strengthening your
heart, so why bother?
Because for weight loss, circuits are
hot. You’ll incinerate calories, add some
muscle, gain strength, and do all this faster
than with traditional weight lifting or car-
diovascular exercise alone. One more bene-
fit: “Because of the intensity and then the
volume of repetitions, you’ll improve mus-
cular definition. In essence, you’re going to
get cut,” says Vern Gambetta, a condition-
ing coach in Sarasota, FL, who often trains
Olympic and pro athletes using circuits 3
days a week and interval runs 3 days a
week.
Train in stages. Most of us find a
m e n s h e a l t h . co m 41
T H E L AW S O F L E A N N E S S
THE EASIEST WAY TOLOSE A POUND A WEEK
Let’s say you’re a 200-pound guy who
walks for a half-hour a day at a moderate
pace. You do the preceding calculations and
realize you can eat 3,080 calories a day and
not get any fatter. If you cut 500 calories
daily, you can still eat 2,580 calories a day—
a decent amount of food for a regular
guy—and lose a pound a week.
Calculating every calorie you take in
isn’t easy, but it is useful. Make a list of all
the foods you eat in a day, then figure out
40 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS
YOUR FAT BUDGET
1. Your ideal daily calorie intake (from line 5 in the box “How Much Food You Need,” on pg. 38): _______
2. Multiply line 1 by your desired percentage of fat calories(.2 for 20 percent, .3 for 30 percent): _______ x ______ =_______
3. Divide by 9 (the number of calories in a fat gram). This isyour daily fat budget, in grams: _______ ÷ 9 = _________
EATING SMARTEREat when you want. If you’re trying to lose
weight, you’re usually told to eat five or six
small meals a day instead of three big ones.
But hell, you aren’t a blue jay. A study in
the Journal of the American Dietetic Associa-
tion reported that people had the most
trouble sticking with a diet plan when they
were told to increase or decrease meal fre-
quency. Just see what works best for you.
Try three squares one day, six little bites
the next. Whatever makes you feel fuller
is the one to follow. It’s possible to lose
weight no matter how often you eat or
when you eat. What matters is how much
you eat.
Practice safe snacking. Everybody slips
up. Pick the leanest guy you know, and one
thing is 99.99 percent certain: He eats
something that’s “bad” for him. The truth is
that nobody is on full calorie alert every day
of his life, and nobody should be. There are
the number of calories they contain using
these resources:
■ Food labels. If you eat at home most
of the time, you can find most of your
information here.
■ Restaurant Web sites. Many chains
have nutrition information on the Internet
(www.mcdonalds.com, for example).
■ The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s(USDA) Web site. Almost any food you
can think of will be listed here. Go to:
www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp
workout that works for a month and stick
with it for the next 17 years. But a muscle
that’s asked to do the same thing over and
over again will eventually use fewer fibers
to do the job, according to a study in the
Journal of Applied Physiology. So let’s say
you bench-press every time you train, and
you always use 135 pounds, and you always
do three sets of 10 repetitions. At first,
your muscles will respond the way you
want them to—by getting bigger and
stronger. But eventually they’ll get used to
the routine and start using less and less
muscle mass to do the same thing.
That’s why serious athletes constantly
change their workouts over the course of a
year. To become faster and stronger, they
change the exercises they do, the amount of
weight they lift, how many sets and repeti-
tions they perform, and how much rest
they take between sets. They change every-
thing they can to make sure that their mus-
cles never grow so accustomed to exercise
that they stop responding to it.
If you look at weight loss as an athletic
event—you are, after all, trying to change
the way your body looks and performs—it
follows that you should frequently change
the way you exercise, focusing on one goal
for a while (building muscle, say), then
another (burning fat), until your body does
what you want it to.
42 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS
EAT MORE, LOSE MORE
Here’s the typical weight-loss formula: Eat less. It works for awhile—2.4 days, to be exact. The key to weight loss isn’t
depriving yourself all the time; it’s eating the foods that’ll keep you full. Start here:
■ ADD FAT. Just make sure it’s the monounsaturated type; it mayhelp keep you from overdoing it at the taco bar later. Penn StateUniversity researchers have found that men who ate mashed potatoes prepared with oil high in monounsaturated fat (like oliveoil) felt fuller longer than when they ate potatoes made with oilsrich in polyunsaturates (like vegetable oil). Use olive oil as saladdressing, or have a peanut-butter sandwich at lunch.
■ ADD SNACKS. But they should be foods with a low glycemic index, meaning they won’t cause your insulin levels to spike andyour hunger to follow. Try low-fat chocolate milk, peanuts, or low-fat yogurt.
■ ADD CARBOHYDRATES. If you eat a lunch that’s rich in carbohy-drates, your body will release serotonin, a feel-good chemical. Butin a couple of hours, those levels will drop—and you’ll be morelikely to binge. Try light popcorn to keep your serotonin levels even.
99HealthSecretsYOU CAN’TLIVEWITHOUT
SpecialPOWER REPORT
I f you want to make something last,
you’ve got to act now. We talked to
dozens of experts and found the simplest
ways to prolong the life of some irreplace-
able items, like your lungs, your surging
libido, and most important, your memory—
so you can remember these tips. Here are
the best ways to get the most out of...
Your hair. From rap groups to aging
businessmen, more guys are dyeing and
highlighting their hair. But this can lead to
a shiny bald head, says Zoe Draelos, M.D.,
a clinical associate professor of dermatol-
ogy at Wake Forest University School of
Medicine. The key to dyeing your hair
safely? “Stay away from products that
lighten more than three shades.” This
weakens hair shafts. Most important, never
dye and perm your hair on the same day,
and always leave at least 10 days between
these procedures, Dr. Draelos says.
Your muscle. Men naturally lose muscle as
they age. But, surprisingly, the key to hang-
ing on to what you have is doing less, not
more. Taking adequate time for recovery is
more important as you reach 40 and beyond,
experts say. Instead of taking 1 day off
between gym sessions, you may need 2. That
will help your muscles repair themselves and
stay strong. Too much work, and you’ll just
continue to tear down muscle fibers.
Your sex life. If you tend to shoot first
and ask questions later—like “Why does
this always happen to me?”—a 2003 study
at the University of Barcelona may have the
answer. Researchers looked at 80 men with
a history of premature ejaculation and found
that when the participants took 90 mg of
University in Boston found that a diet rich in
these foods improved short-term memory.
Your hearing. Your chronically sore back
may be responsible for your poor hearing.
There’s evidence that taking too many anti-
inflammatory drugs can cause hearing loss,
especially for those with existing problems.
“Some of the drugs that can cause hearing
loss or tinnitus are the most common
headache medications, such as ibuprofen
and aspirin,” says Thomas J. Balkany, M.D.,
chairman of the department of otolaryngol-
ogy at the University of Miami Ear Insti-
tute. Take acetaminophen instead, but eat
something with it so it won’t bother your
stomach.
Your lungs. Take up the harmonica.
Therapists use it for people with lung dis-
ease and breathing problems. The gentle
inhaling and exhaling required to make
music works the chest muscles and may
help keep air passageways clear of debris.
Your shoulder. There’s a reason you don’t
see many fastball pitchers or star quarter-
backs over the age of 40. The rotator cuff,
the small band of muscles in your shoulder
that allows you to rotate your shoulder to
throw, is easily injured. While a young,
healthy cuff is highly resistant to tears and
degeneration, age and disuse turn it brittle.
Worse, if you tear just one muscle fiber
there, it can act like a pulled thread in a
sweater, leading to damage in the rest of the
cuff. Our advice: Strengthen your rotator
cuff so you can play catch with your grand-
kids. Here’s a good exercise to do just that:
Lie facedown on a bed. Put your left arm out
at shoulder level with your elbow bent to
90 degrees and your lower arm dangling over
the side of the bed. Keep your elbow bent,
and slowly raise your left hand to shoulder
level. Lower the hand slowly. Repeat until
your arm is tired. Then switch arms.
A morning erection. Because its purpose
is to nourish your penis with oxygen-rich
blood, a morning erection isn’t there to
help you have sex. So it tends to wilt once
you get going. To give your pal a fighting
chance, engage in foreplay for at least
10 minutes before pressing it into action,
says Laurence Levine, M.D., director of
male sexual function and fertility services
at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical
Center in Chicago.
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9 9 H E A LT H S E C R E T S YO U C A N ’ T L I V E W I T H O U T
Make It All LastALL GOOD STUFF MUST COME TO AN END?NOT IF WE HAVE A SAY
8 Signs You’re a Healthy GuyONLY 1 MAN IN 100 CAN PASS THIS TEST. ARE YOU ONE OF THEM?
specimen possessing rare genetic gifts. We
may have you stuffed for posterity.
You have extremely high cholesterol.About 432,000 men die of heart disease
every year—nearly one and a half times the
tally killed by cancer. “But if you have an
HDL (high-density lipoprotein—the good
stuff) count of 90 mg/dl or more, you have
very little worry of developing heart
Ask a man if he’s healthy, and he’ll
say, “Sure.” And he’ll say it even if
there’s blood coming out of both
ears. But ask a dozen physicians to define
exactly what it means to be in “excellent
health” (like we did), and they’ll give you
this important checklist. If you can check
off all eight of these qualities, then you’re
more than a good guy—you’re a physical
Prozac weekly, their problems were either
cured or improved. Ask your doctor about it.
Your arteries. Load up on grapefruit,
carrots, apples, oranges, and other foods
containing the fiber pectin. It’s even better
at lowering cholesterol and keeping your
arteries free of fatty plaque than the
roughage you get from breakfast cereal.
Your back. Make sure your shoes and
orthotics have enough stability. Stand in
them with your toes pointing forward. Now
bend your knees 30 degrees, and imagine a
line from the center of each kneecap
straight down to the floor. (If you have
trouble eyeing it, make a plumb line by
tying a bolt to a piece of string and dan-
gling it.) If your shoes offer the proper
motion control, the line should land
between your big toe and second toe on
each foot. That means you’ll be properly
centered when your feet hit the ground,
and your feet will be less likely to roll to
the inside or outside, causing injury. If you
don’t pass the test, you’ll need new shoes
or orthotics, says Lewis Maharam, M.D., a
sports-medicine specialist in New York.
Your waistline. Shorten your rests
between sets in the weight room to 60 sec-
onds. Lifting faster stimulates the produc-
tion of growth hormone, which, in addition
to building muscle, siphons lard from your
fat cells, says William J. Kraemer, Ph.D.,
director of the human performance labora-
tory at Ball State University. So you get a big
chest and a slim waist from the same work-
out. (That’s what your boss calls “synergy.”)
Your memory. Eat blueberries, strawber-
ries, and spinach. An animal study at Tufts
disease or arteriosclerosis,” says E. Randy
Eckert, M.D., a pathologist and medical
director at North Austin Medical Center in
Texas. “You have an ample supply of HDL
to keep your arteries clean, so you should
never develop significant blockages.”
Research bears this out: A study that fol-
lowed 8,586 Israeli men for 21 years found
that those with the highest HDL cholesterol
levels were least likely to die of strokes.
To increase your HDL cholesterol lev-
els, you need to exercise at a moderate
intensity for about 20 minutes at least four
times a week, and drop at least 5 pounds
from your gut. A normal HDL score is
about 40 mg/dl; your goal is to at least
double that.
You have an athlete’s heart. Your heart
will beat a fixed number of times before it
shuts down. So you don’t blow your quota
by age 50, you need to keep your resting
heart rate below 60 beats per minute, says
Thomas Graboys, M.D., a cardiologist at the
Harvard medical school. Find your resting
rate by taking your pulse in the morning
while you’re still in bed; multiply the beats
in 15 seconds by four.
“Exercising at moderate intensities for
long periods will lower your resting heart
rate over time,” explains the appropriately
named Dale Huff, R.D., C.S.C.S., of the
American College of Exercise. The weekly
prescription: at least four 40-minute aero-
bic workouts. To maintain an effective
workout pace, use a heart-rate monitor or
keep varying your intensity. For example,
run, bike, or row slowly for 3 minutes, then
go all out for 1 minute.
You can answer “yes” to two careerquestions: 1. Do you look forward to going
to work? 2. Do you look forward to going
home in the afternoon? “After being in
practice for 30 years, I’ve learned that if you
can answer ‘yes’ to both of these questions,
you have a very low risk of dying of a heart
attack or any other heart-related problem,”
says Dr. Graboys.
You have a PSA score less than 2.5nanograms per milliliter. That number indi-
cates not only a very low risk of prostate
cancer, but also a low risk of the PSA pro-
gressing above 4 ng/ml (the danger level)
within the next 4 years, says William
Catalona, M.D., a prostate-cancer specialist
and professor of urology at the Washington
University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Eating key nutrients can help lower
your PSA count, says Dr. Catalona. He
spikes his daily diet with the following
four nutrients: 10 milligrams of lycopene,
500 milligrams of vitamin C, 200 micro-
grams of selenium, and 200 international
units of vitamin E.
You have two close male friends. Those
two people can’t be current coworkers,
neighbors, hitchhikers, or anyone who you
know only as “the guy who’s always at the
end of the bar.” If you pass this test and
you’re over 35, it means you have far
healthier social ties—and a better chance at
living longer—than two-thirds of all men,
says Dru Sherrod, Ph.D., a Los Angeles psy-
chologist who studies the impact of male
friendship. Passing this test means you
don’t base all your friendships on the foam
pillars of convenience, geography, or a job—
the mistakes that lead most men to be
friendless by their 40s. Instead, you work to
maintain friendships based on common
interests and compatibility.
You can ejaculate a teaspoon of semen (5 milliliters) or up to a tablespoon on a particu-larly good day. That’s the quota you nailed at
age 20. If your prostate is healthy, you
should still be able to hit it at age 50,
according to Dr. Catalona.
You can walk 2 miles in 28 minutes.Anybody can run a mile in 10 or 12 minutes;
the more out of shape you are, the more
hours you’ll spend wheezing afterward.
Maintaining a vigorous walking pace for a
longer period of time is actually a better
measure of your fitness. According to
Swedish researchers, a fit 40-year-old
man should be able to walk 2 miles in under
30 minutes, says Dr. Graboys. If you can
cover that ground in under 28 minutes,
you’re in excellent shape.
You have balanced strength. Most men
overdo pushing exercises like bench presses
and squats, so it’s rare to find a man with
balanced muscular strength. To have good
muscle harmony, you should have a 1:1
strength ratio for your biceps and triceps.
That means if you can curl a 50-pound bar-
bell 10 times, you should be able to do tri-
ceps pushdowns with 50 pounds for 10
reps—no fewer or more. As for your legs,
your quadriceps and hamstrings should
have a 3:2 strength ratio. If you can do 10
leg curls with 65 pounds, you should be
able to do exactly 10 leg presses with 100
pounds. If this quick test shows that you
have uneven strength, change your workout.
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9 9 H E A LT H S E C R E T S YO U C A N ’ T L I V E W I T H O U T
Add Years to Your LifeNO MATTER WHAT YOUR AGE, YOU CAN CHEAT DEATH BY DAYS,MONTHS...EVEN YEARS
Biologists estimate that the human
body has the potential to last 120
years, and how you live determines
75 percent of how far you go.
To help you bank an extra decade or
two, we’ve rounded up research on dozens
of ways to live longer, along with how many
years each fix might carry. The more of
these steps you take, the greater the chance
that you’ll be alive and well at the turn of
the twenty-second century.
TAKE IN 300 MILLIGRAMS OF VITAMIN CEVERY DAY Add: 5.5 years Research from the
UCLA school of public health indicates that
men with high vitamin C intakes live longer
than men with low intakes. A 35-year-old
man who takes in 300 milligrams (mg) or
more of C a day has a life expectancy 5.5
years longer than a man whose daily intake
is less than 50 mg. Vitamin C may not get
all the credit—high intake is often a sign of
healthy habits—but getting enough C from
fruits, vegetables, and supplements is defi-
nitely a smart move.
KEEP YOUR CHOLESTEROL BELOW 200Add: 4 years Whatever it takes—diet, exer-
cise, drugs—drop your total cholesterol
below two bills. Bringing down moderately
high cholesterol (up to 239) will buy you an
extra 6 months, according to research. And
if your level is in the 300-plus range, drop-
ping down to 200 can extend your life by
more than 4 years.
BURN 300 EXTRA CALORIES A DAY Add: 2
or 3 years An impressive number of animal
studies show that decreasing calorie intake
by one-third can lower cholesterol levels
and increase life spans by a third or more.
Though researchers aren’t sure whether
two-thirds the food translates into 20 or 30
more years in humans, there’s an easy way
to buy yourself at least a few more healthy,
active years, says Elizabeth Somer, R.D.,
author of Age-Proof Your Body. “If a man
usually consumes 3,000 calories a day, he can
either cut back to 2,700 or increase his exer-
cise by 300 calories a day. He’ll get the same
calorie deficit, but actually see more health
benefits with the exercise,” Somer says.
HAVE YOUR COLON CHECKED Add: 2 to 3
years The male tendency to avoid doctors
may be one reason women live longer.
Keeping that doctor’s appointment can be
the key to preventing death from a variety
of causes, including colon cancer. A study
tabulated that getting screened for the
disease can help you live 2 to 3 years longer.
Your screening should include an annual
fecal occult blood test starting at age
50 (earlier if you have a family history of
colon cancer), a flexible sigmoidoscopy
every 5 years, and a colonoscopy every 10.
TREAT YOUR ULCER Add: 2.3 years If you
have stomach pain, having it checked could
be a life-extending strategy. According to a
study published in the American Journal of
Gastoenterology, curing your ulcer adds 2.3
years to your life. Antibiotics (which kill
the H. pylori bacteria that cause many
ulcers) and acid-blockers can handle the
problem.
KEEP THE BOTTOM NUMBER OF YOURBLOOD-PRESSURE READING BELOW 80Add: 2.4 years Taking steps to lower your
blood pressure can add years to your life. If
your diastolic (bottom number) reading is
90 to 95, reducing it to 80 can gain you up
to 2.4 years.
GO TO CHURCH TWICE A WEEK Add: 7 to 14
years A study reported in Demography found
that whites who attended religious services
more than once a week lived an average of 7
years longer than whites who didn’t attend
services at all; among blacks, the figure was
14 years. The churchgoers’ lower rates of
smoking and drinking certainly account for
some of this gain, but their strong social
ties and other behavioral factors may also
play a role, says Robert A. Hummer, Ph.D.,
a sociologist at the University of Texas at
Austin.
EAT MEAT NO MORE THAN THREE TIMES AWEEK Add: up to 9 years Replacing some of
the meat in your diet with soy, other
legumes, and beans can increase your life
expectancy by up to 13 percent. “You don’t
necessarily have to give up meat entirely to
see a benefit,” says Somer. “Just increase
your intake of beans and legumes, then
limit your meat intake to 3 or 4 ounces, two
or three times a week.”
HAVE SEX AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE Add:
Uh, does it really matter? There seems to be
a “dose-response” relationship between
orgasms and heart problems—the more sex
you have, the less heart disease you’ll suf-
fer. Researchers who studied sexual activity
and mortality in a group of 918 men found
that those who had the most sex had half
the risk of death from heart disease of their
less stimulated counterparts.
STOP BEING SO HARD ON YOURSELF Add:
2 years Hey, Mr. Negative! Lighten up! Men
who think the worst of themselves may be
headed for early graves, according to a Uni-
versity of Michigan study. Researchers
found that men who saw every personal
setback as a catastrophe had a 25 percent
greater risk of death and died an average of
2 years earlier than men who addressed
their failures more positively.
GET YOUR OLD BODY BACK Add: up to
1.7 years According to a study published
in the New England Journal of Medicine, a
35-year-old who’s up to 30 percent heavier
than his healthy weight can live 8 months
longer simply by slimming down to normal
proportions. If you’re more than 30 percent
heavier than you should be, you could gain
an additional 20 months. Extra weight
increases your risk of heart attack, cancer,
and diabetes, just to name a few.
NEVER WEAR PANTS Add: 5 to 10 years A
Scottish neuropsychologist who has studied
more than 1,000 eccentrics (subjects include
a man who rappels from buildings while
dressed as a pink elephant, and a fellow
who built a lectern on his rooftop so he
could sermonize to his sheep) found they
live 5 to 10 years longer than more-normal
people. One reason: They’re unencumbered
by the usual stupid worries that so-called
normal people obsess over.
STOP WHINING ABOUT YOUR DESK JOBAdd: 2.6 years That springwater delivery
dude may be turning female heads in the
office, but don’t envy him if you’re a white-
collar guy. According to one analysis, pro-
fessional men live up to 2.6 years longer
than average, while unskilled laborers live
4.6 years less than average. Of course, there
are some exceptions...
GIVE UP YOUR DREAMS OF ATTENDINGDENTAL SCHOOL IN JAPAN Add: 1.3 years An
analysis of 560 death certificates of Tokyo
dentists found that, on average, their lives
were 1.3 years shorter than the general
population’s.
CUT BACK TO A SIX-PACK A WEEK Add:
2 to 3 years Government researchers have
estimated that a moderate level of drinking
(one to two drinks per day) could increase
an individual’s life expectancy by 3 percent.
(For most guys, that’s 2 to 3 years.)
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9 9 H E A LT H S E C R E T S YO U C A N ’ T L I V E W I T H O U T
PIG-OUT PROTECTION
Did you know that eating a single fatty meal may temporarilyboost your risk of having a heart attack or stroke? In a Danish
study, researchers found that 18 healthy men produced about 60 percent more blood-clotting agents after they ate meals withabout 55 grams of fat. However, a study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine suggests that taking 1,000 milligrams(mg) of vitamin C and 800 mg of vitamin E before you eat a high-fatmeal—like a cheese omelette, burger, or steak—may reduce yourchances of having a heart attack.
Men who took these powerful antioxidants before they splurged on McDonald’s chow (they ate an Egg McMuffin, a Sausage McMuffin,and two hash browns—for a total of 800 calories and 43 g fat) main-tained normal blood-vessel function compared with the men whoskipped the supplements. If you’d rather not carry pills, eat foods rich in vitamins C (strawberries, melon) and E (nuts, oils) beforehand.“The lower dosages of the vitamins found in food may still have a protective effect,” says study author Gary D. Plotnick, M.D.
Today your doctor handed you a
brochure titled “So You Have High
Cholesterol.” While it’s not the best
news that you’ve ever gotten, there’s no
need to panic. In fact, you possess three
powerful weapons that can turn that news
around: your knife, your fork, and your
feet. Get ready to take action!
YOUR GAME PLAN“There’s compelling evidence that diet and
exercise have the potential to significantly
lower cholesterol levels—and, consequently,
lower heart disease rates,” confirms John C.
LaRosa, M.D., president of SUNY Down-
state Medical Center in Brooklyn.
Here’s how to start on the road to lower
cholesterol: Begin by studying the choles-
terol-busting eating plans listed below.
These low-fat, plant-based diets can lower
your cholesterol 10 to 40 percent in just
3 weeks—studies prove it. Based on an
average total cholesterol of 250, that can
work out to between 25 and 100 points!
1. THE VEGETARIAN DIET LOWER YOUR CHOLESTEROL BY ASMUCH AS 40 PERCENT IN 21 DAYS
The Science: Vegetarians have lower
cholesterol levels and lower rates of heart
disease than meat eaters. What’s more,
meat eaters who go low-fat vegetarian often
see their blood cholesterol levels plummet
dramatically.
Part of the vegetarian diet’s choles-
terol-shrinking power comes from fiber.
The average vegetarian gets 50 to 100%
more fiber and up to 50% less dietary cho-
lesterol than meat eaters. A vegetarian diet
is also brimming with vitamins C and E and
beta-carotene, and phytochemicals such as
flavonoids, all of which help keep choles-
terol from stopping up your arteries, says
Dean Ornish, M.D., president and director
of the Preventive Medicine Research Insti-
tute in Sausalito, CA.
The Plan: Aim for six or more servings
of whole grains; three or more servings of
dark, leafy greens; two to four servings of
dark yellow and citrus fruits; two to four
servings of beans, peas, or egg whites; and
one or two servings of nonfat milk, cheese,
or yogurt each day, advises Dr. Ornish.
He also advocates reducing dietary fat to
10% of total calories—a recommendation
that’s a bit harsh for a lot of guys. Shoot
for 25%, then see how you respond. If your
cholesterol comes down sufficiently, that
may be all you need to do. Keep in mind,
though, that to get your cholesterol down
100 points, you’ll probably need to hit that
10% mark, not just come close. Dr. Ornish’s
program is so effective that even by coming
close, you’ll still lower your cholesterol—
just not as much.
Most people are surprised to learn that
vegetarians consume as much or more iron
than meat eaters. The catch is that the iron
in plants is less well absorbed than that in
meat. To make sure that you get enough,
eat high-iron foods such as legumes along
with vitamin C, which helps the body
absorb iron. Vegan diets—no meat, eggs, or
dairy—are low in vitamin B12 however, so
Cut Your CholesterolLOWER YOUR LEVELS AND IMPROVE YOUR LIFE
CUT YOURCholesterolLEVELBY 100 PTS. INJUST 21 DAYS
SpecialPOWER REPORT
m e n s h e a l t h . co m 51
professor of nutritional biochemistry at
Cornell University and an expert on the
links between diet and cancer who has done
extensive studies on the Asian diet.
The Plan: Load your plate with rice,
whole grains, noodles, and flatbreads. Top
them with vegetables—bok choy, bean
sprouts, black beans, bamboo shoots—and
fish. Milk and milk products aren’t part of
the traditional Asian diet; use low-fat vari-
eties sparingly. You can also have 4 ounces
of lean meat once a week. Since you’ll have
little milk in this diet, take a supplement
with calcium and vitamin D.
The Food: Fill your kitchen with brown
rice, whole grains, noodles, vegetables, and
fish. Stock up on standard Asian condi-
ments such as low-sodium soy sauce,
ginger, and chiles. More exotic Asian fla-
vorings include lemongrass, tamarind, and
turmeric, available in upscale grocery stores
or Asian food stores. They’ll add flavor
without fat or calories.
3. THE LOW-GLYCEMIC DIET
RAISE YOUR GOOD CHOLESTEROL BY ASMUCH AS 20 PERCENT IN 21 DAYS
The Science: Although we need more
research to confirm this, a study has found
that people who eat the most foods with a
low glycemic index—that is, foods that
promote a slow, steady rise in blood sugar
after a meal, rather than a rapid spike—
have much higher levels of HDL, the good
cholesterol. In another study, women who
ate the most low-glycemic foods had high
enough HDL levels to lower their risk of
heart disease by 29 percent. Another bonus:
These demonstrate that such diets also
lower total cholesterol and blood fats called
triglycerides, another risk factor for heart
disease.
The Plan: Highly refined foods have a
high glycemic index, while fiber-rich foods
such as fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole
grains tend to have lower values. So ditch
the refined foods, and load your plate with
natural grains and produce.
The Food: Start with the basics: coarse
whole grain wheat, sprouted wheat, or
whole grain rye bread; high-bran cereals
such as All-Bran or Fiber One; whole grains
such as bulgur and barley (not usually
available as a whole grain but still chock-
full of fiber); and fruits and vegetables.
Avoid products made with refined grains,
such as white bread or bagels, sugary
desserts (even low-fat selections), rice
cakes, and puffed or flaked cereals—all of
which are rapidly converted to glucose. A
few fruits and vegetables—pineapple,
raisins and other dried fruits, watermelon,
carrots, baked potatoes, and winter
squash—are high-glycemic foods. We don’t
recommend cutting them completely out of
your diet, however. With this eating plan,
no fruit or vegetable is off-limits unless
you eat too much of it.
m e n s h e a l t h . co m 53
C H O L E S T E R O L : C U T YO U R L E V E L
talk to your doctor about whether you need
to take a daily supplement or eat a bowl of
Total cereal (which contains 100% of your
Daily Value [DV] for B12).
The Food: Think of the produce section
as home plate. Along with everyday
favorites such as tomatoes, broccoli, car-
rots, and potatoes, treat yourself to jicama,
mango, mustard and other greens, and
portobello and shiitake mushrooms. Stock
up on canned and dried beans, from adzukis
to white; condiments such as flavored
vinegars, mustards, curry pastes, and
chutneys; and hearty whole grains such
as quinoa, bulgur, cracked wheat, and
buckwheat (kasha).
52 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS
2. THE ASIAN DIET LOWER YOUR CHOLESTEROL BY AS MUCH AS 40 PERCENT IN 21 DAYS
The Science: The Asian diet—shorthand
for the traditional diets of China, Japan,
and neighboring South Korea, India, Thai-
land, and other Pacific Rim countries—has
been called the healthiest in the world.
And no wonder: Research on 6,500 people
in rural mainland China shows that they
consume half as much fat and three times
as much fiber, and that their meat con-
sumption is 1⁄10 that of the U.S.
Not surprisingly, their mean choles-
terol level is 127 milligrams per deciliter
(mg/dl), compared to our 203 mg/dl. The
kicker: Compared to the U.S., their rates of
death from heart disease are almost 17
times less for men and 6 times less for
women.
“If all Americans ate like this, we could
prevent 80 to 90 percent of all chronic
degenerative diseases, including heart
disease,” says T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D.,
DOUBLE YOUR DROP
It’s long been known that exercise helps boost levels of the goodHDL cholesterol, while chasing the bad LDL out of your blood-
stream. But here’s a new reason to work out regularly: Teaming exercise with a low-fat diet can double LDL reduction.
Researchers at Stanford University randomly assigned 370 peopleto four groups. The first group exercised, the second consumed alow-fat diet, the third consumed a low-fat diet and exercised, and the fourth did nothing at all. After 1 year, the diet/exercise group hadlowered their LDL cholesterol about twice as much as the group whoonly cut fat—15 points compared to 7 for women, and 20 pointscompared to 11 for men.
Aim for 30 minutes of moderate exercise at least three times aweek, which is the same amount as the people in the study, saysJohn C. LaRosa, M.D., president of SUNY Downstate Medical Centerin Brooklyn. Or walk 2 miles a day.
54 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS
Natural Cholesterol Busters That Work
We live in the age of statins, choles-terol-lowering drugs such as
lovastatin (Mevacor) and simvastatin(Zocor) that are proven to reduce cho-lesterol by 25 to 40 percent. But beforeyou ask for a prescription, talk to yourdoctor about whether the followingproducts could do just as well for you:
■ MARGARINE. Lowering your choles-terol may now be as easy as eatingyour morning toast, when you use mar-garine spreads that can drop your badblood fats. One, Benecol, lowered totalcholesterol by 10 percent and bad LDLcholesterol by 14 percent in clinicalstudies. Participants ate just 1 1⁄2 tea-spoons three times a day. Another cho-lesterol-busting spread, Take Control,was found to help lower LDL levels byan average of 7 to 10 percent.
■ PHYTOSTEROL SUPPLEMENTS.Phytosterols, the magic ingredient inBenecol and Take Control, are nowavailable in supplements. According toDavid Kritchevsky, Ph.D., an expert onphytosterols at the Wistar Institute inPhiladelphia, there’s every reason tobelieve that these products should bejust as effective as the spreads. Phytos-terol studies show that 1.5 to 3.3 g aday is the most effective dosage. Dividethe total dose among all your meals.It’s generally recommended that youtake supplements 30 minutes before ameal to allow time for tablets to dis-solve. Because phytosterols may lowerlevels of fat-soluble nutrients such asbeta-carotene, eat lots of fruit and veg-gies to compensate. Two phytosterol
products are Natrol Beta Sitosterol andKholesterol Blocker.
■ LIPOGUARD. In a month-long studyof LipoGuard, 40 men and women withcholesterol or triglycerides higher than200 saw their cholesterol levels dropan average of 11 percent, their LDL lev-els drop 10 percent, and their triglyc-erides drop a sharp 34 percent. If youhave a bleeding disorder such as hemo-philia or are taking other medicationssuch as aspirin or even lots of vitaminE (800 IU or greater daily), consultyour doctor before using this product.
■ NIACIN. Also known as nicotinicacid or vitamin B3, niacin has beenshown to reduce LDL cholesterol by 10to 20 percent, reduce triglycerides by20 to 50 percent, and raise beneficialHDL cholesterol by 15 to 35 percent.Take niacin only under a doctor’ssupervision. The recommended dose of2 to 3 g can have serious, though rare,side effects.
■ SOLUBLE FIBER. About 15 g of solu-ble fiber a day lowers LDL cholesterol 5 to 10 percent by binding cholesterol-containing bile acids in the intestineand excreting them. Can’t stomach thatmuch fiber? Take soluble fiber supple-ments with meals—along with plenty ofliquid. Three rounded tablespoons ofMetamucil provides 7 g of soluble fibera day. Three 10-oz drinks of Fiber Plan(by Shaklee) taken daily provide 15 g ofsoluble fiber. In a study, those 15 gramsa day lowered LDL levels by 10.5 per-cent in 6 months.
BULLET-PROOFYourProstate
SpecialPOWER REPORT
rich in vegetables and fruits has been linked
to lower cancer risk in many studies. But
did you know that eating the right kinds of
fats may be just as important as avoiding
the wrong kinds?
“People whose diets are rich in omega-3
fatty acids have a lower risk of prostate
cancer,” says Dr. Gaynor. Omega-3s belong
in a category called polyunsaturated fats,
which seem to protect the prostate. You can
find omega-3s in cold-water fish such as
salmon, mackerel, halibut, and tuna.
Load up on lycopene. Soy and green tea
may not be found in the typical American
kitchen, but the cancer-fighter lycopene
comes in one of the most familiar vegetables
of all: tomatoes. “Lycopene is the pigment
that gives tomatoes their color,” says Dr.
Gaynor, “and we think it’s the main factor in
studies that show reduced cancer risk.”
One such study found that men who
ate 10 or more servings of tomato products
a week had a 45 percent lower chance of
developing prostate cancer.
Take your vitamins. The impact of vitamin
E on prostate cancer risk was illustrated by
a study published in 1998. Researchers from
the National Cancer Institute studied
29,000 men in Finland and found that those
who took vitamin E (about 50 international
units [IU] per day) reduced their prostate
cancer risk by one-third. The mineral sele-
nium gained attention as a prostate-cancer
fighter when researchers found that the rate
of prostate cancer was reduced by more
than half in men who took 200 micrograms
(mcg) per day. Both nutrients can be diffi-
cult to get in a healthy diet, but supple-
ments are easy to find. (Note: It’s best not
to exceed 200 mcg per day of selenium.)
2. GET YOUR EXERCISE Experts aren’t sure why exercising seems to
help prevent cancer. At least part of the
reason may be because it prevents obesity,
which is a risk factor for prostate cancer
(possibly because it’s associated with hor-
mone changes thought to play a role in
cancer development). A number of stud-
ies—though not all—have found that more
active men have a lower rate of prostate
cancer than sedentary ones. One reason,
suggests Dr. Gaynor, is that “aerobic exer-
cise has been linked to changes in the
immune system that we know suppress
cancer.”
How much should you exercise? “We
know that men who exercise regularly, at
least three or four times a week, do have
lower rates of prostate cancer,” says Dr.
Gaynor. Try to accumulate 30 minutes of
moderate-intensity activity a day at least
5 days a week.
3. CONSIDER GETTING TESTED
There are two tests for prostate cancer.
One is the well-known digital rectal exam
(DRE), in which the doctor inserts his fin-
ger into the rectum to feel the prostate for
abnormalities. Sounds terrible, but other
than being a little embarrassing and
uncomfortable, it isn’t. The other is the
prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, a
blood test that detects abnormal levels of
an enzyme produced by the prostate gland.
The PSA test detects most cancer cases
about 5 to 10 years before DRE. However, a
2002 study at the University of Texas found
that the DRE can sometimes detect prostate
cancer earlier than PSA, because PSA read-
ings can "miss" physical detectable cancers;
so the current wisdom is that men must
have both.
The rationale behind screening for
prostate cancer is the same as it is for other
I f you’re like most guys, you think of
prostate cancer as that proverbial
snake in the grass. You know it’s lying
in wait for you. And if you live long
enough, it’ll get you. So you shrug and say,
“Well, whaddya gonna do?”
There’s plenty you can do. Prostate
cancer isn’t an inevitable consequence of
aging. And a fatalistic attitude could just
turn out to be fatal. Here’s what you need
to know—and do—to keep prostate cancer
out of your future.
KNOW YOUR ENEMY One in six men will hear the words “you
have prostate cancer” in his lifetime. It’s
the most common cancer diagnosed in men
and the second most common cause of can-
cer death in men (after lung cancer).
The prostate gland is the walnut-size
male sex gland that surrounds the urethra
(the tube that carries urine to the bladder)
and produces the liquid portion of semen.
What makes it so vulnerable to cancer is
that it’s a very active organ. Your prostate
cells divide frequently, and every time a cell
divides, there’s a chance something will go
wrong—that a mutation will occur, starting
a process that turns normal cells cancerous.
Experts believe that cells must be
exposed to at least five mutations—a
process that deregulates normal cell
growth—to trigger full-blown cancer.
Unfortunately, the older you get, the greater
the odds are that you’ve taken your five
“hits.” The average age at diagnosis is 70, and
the disease is very unusual in anyone under
50. You’re at increased risk if you have a
father or brother who’s had the disease—
perhaps because you’ve inherited one or two
mutations already. You’re also at an increased
risk if you are an African-American.
Though you can’t stop aging, and you
can’t change your race or your relatives,
research suggests that you can take steps to
interrupt the deadly sequence of events
that leads to prostate cancer. And you have
time on your side: Prostate cancer doesn’t
suddenly appear when you’re 50—it’s the
result of a multistep, decades-long process.
What if you’re too late to stop prostate
cancer from developing? Chances are,
you’re not too late to stop it from killing
you. “Preventive measures have been found
to improve survival and decrease your
chance of dying from prostate cancer,” says
Mitchell Gaynor, M.D., director of medical
oncology at Strang Cancer Prevention Cen-
ter in New York City and a coauthor of Dr.
Gaynor’s Cancer Prevention Program.
You have three basic lines of defense:
nutrition, exercise, and testing.
1. EAT THE RIGHT STUFF “Nutrition is the most overlooked aspect of
preventing prostate cancer,” says Dr.
Gaynor. And it may also be the most versa-
tile. Any man who’s willing to improve his
eating habits has a whole array of anticancer
weapons at his disposal. Here’s what to do.
Get some good fat. You probably already
know that a diet low in saturated fat and
56 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS m e n s h e a l t h . co m 57
B U L L E T- P R O O F YO U R P R O S TAT E
Guard against Every Guy’s Secret Fear CLOBBER YOUR RISK OF PROSTATE CANCER WITH THESE THREE LIFESAVING STRATEGIES
cancers: to catch it early so it can be treated
before it does too much damage. While that
makes intuitive sense, with prostate cancer,
it may not work that way.
Ongoing studies have not yet been
completed to determine if detecting
prostate cancer early actually translates to
saved lives. Because of the average age at
diagnosis and the slow-growing nature of
prostate cancer, it’s often called the cancer
you “die with, not of.” “Older men with
low-grade prostate cancer, particularly,
may die of natural causes before the cancer
gets them,” explains William Catalona,
M.D., a prostate-cancer specialist at the
Washington University School of Medicine
in St. Louis.
Most major medical organizations cur-
rently don’t recommend routine screening
largely because of the worry that it could
lead to treatment of prostate cancers that,
left alone, wouldn’t be dangerous.
58 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS
4 SYMPTOMS YOU SHOULDN’T IGNORE
Prostate cancer’s symptoms are mostly caused by the gland’sproximity to urinary plumbing. See your doctor if you experience
one or more of the following problems: ■ Difficult or frequent urination ■ Getting up frequently at night to urinate ■ Urgent urination during the day ■ Dribbling for several minutes after you finish urinating
Note that these warning signals can also be caused by a less seri-ous condition called benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Likeprostate cancer, BPH can also raise blood levels of PSA and becomesmore common with age. But unlike cancer, BPH is not life threaten-ing. “We don’t really know why BPH occurs. It’s probably someimbalance of growth factors, but we’re not sure,” says William Catalona, M.D., a prostate-cancer specialist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Whatever its cause, BPH doesn’t seem to be a precursor of, or riskfactor for, prostate cancer. “It’s an independent condition,” heexplains. But since the symptoms are so similar, your doctor maywant to rule out cancer before he diagnoses BPH.
SpecialPOWER REPORT
DEFLATE YOURBloodPressure
mood, for better or worse, or have other
nondescript symptoms, it may be a clue as
to how well you’re controlling your blood
pressure.
Tape-record yourself sleeping. If you’ve
ever been accused of snoring, you may have
more than just an annoying sleep habit. You
may have a dangerous one. Many people,
especially men, have a disorder called sleep
apnea. It happens when the muscles in the
nose and throat relax to the point where
your air supply is cut off. Your night
becomes a long series of brief awakenings
during which you gasp for breath. When
you do, your blood pressure spikes, perhaps
because of the effect of frequent sleep
interruptions on the nervous system.
Studies suggest that this condition can
drive your blood pressure up 5 to 10 points,
says James Skatrud, M.D., professor and
section head of pulmonary and critical care
at the University of Wisconsin School of
Medicine. To tell if you have it, listen to a
tape of yourself snoring or have your part-
ner monitor your sleep. If the sound is a
steady snore-snore-snore, you’re probably
fine. But if it’s more like a series of gasps
(as you struggle for breath) followed by
periods of silence (as you fall back to
sleep), you need to address the problem.
Sleeping on your back may be one reason
for the apnea—this position allows the
relaxed tissues of the nose and throat to
close your upper airway. Alcohol (which
over-relaxes the muscles) and too much
extra weight are two other potential
reasons.
Try meditation. Recent studies have
shown that practicing transcendental medi-
tation for 15 minutes at a time can lower
blood pressure three or four points in
African-American teens whose readings
were high-normal (slightly above normal).
Transcendental meditation (TM) is a
technique for calming the body and mind.
Unlike some other forms of meditation, it
does not require concentration on some-
thing in particular; instead, practitioners sit
quietly, eyes closed, for about 15 minutes,
allowing the mind and body to naturally
settle.
Beware of hidden salt. Salt contains
sodium, a mineral that naturally draws fluid
out of your cells and into the bloodstream.
If you’re consistently eating too much salt,
you’re chronically flooding your blood-
stream with fluids. In some men, this can
push up the pressure.
Start reading the labels of your favorite
foods. Each teaspoon of salt you can elimi-
nate daily can yield a five-point drop in
your systolic reading. And just so you
know, a level teaspoon contains 2,400 mil-
ligrams of sodium—the maximum intake
suggested by the National Academy of
Sciences.
Buy a heart-rate monitor. Drop some
weight, and you’ll drop the points. It’s that
simple. And one of the best ways to do it is
through aerobic exercise: running, cycling,
stairclimbing, and the like. You can expect
to see your pressure drop as much as five
points for every 10 pounds you lose, doc-
tors estimate.
And aerobics help to do more than just
cut your weight. They also buff your heart
muscle. Like any muscle, the heart grows
bigger and stronger through exercise. This
allows it to pump more blood with each
beat, which means it needs to beat less
often and with less effort. And this means
less stress on your circulatory system.
To get the most benefit from an aerobic
workout, get yourself a heart-rate monitor.
The more time you spend with your heart
rate between 60 and 75 percent of your
L et’s say you’ve just been told your
blood pressure is “a little high.”
Maybe the word your doctor used to
describe your condition was “hyperten-
sion.” It sounds scary. It worries you.
You’ve got a couple of questions, not the
least of which is: What the hell does that
actually mean?
“Having hypertension doesn’t mean
you’re hypertense,” says Charles Tifft,
60 1 0 P O W E R R E P O R T S m e n s h e a l t h . co m 61
D E F L AT E YO U R B L O O D P R E S S U R E
How Low Can You Go?UNDERSTAND AND CONTROL YOUR NUMBERS
M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of medi-
cine at the Boston University School of
Medicine. The “tension” actually refers to
the state of your arteries, which naturally
constrict and relax to accommodate the
flow of blood from your heart. Having high
blood pressure means your arteries can’t
fully relax, so your heart is pumping the
same amount of blood through a smaller
space. The resulting wear on your arteries
puts you at greater risk for heart disease
and stroke.
Monitor your mood. The medical commu-
nity calls hypertension “the silent killer”
because it’s frequently considered a symp-
tomless disease. But findings from a 4-year
study at the University of Minnesota sug-
gest that mildly elevated blood pressure
may send some signals. Researchers with
the Treatment of Mild Hypertension Study
put 900 people on one of five antihyper-
tensive drugs or a placebo and also pre-
scribed lifestyle changes. Those on drug
therapy showed steeper drops in pressure,
but even more interesting, those given the
placebo reported more of some symptoms
and side effects, including headaches, nau-
sea, muscle pain, trouble falling asleep, and
even mood changes.
“So, although we used to say that
hypertension was asymptomatic in most
people,” states Dr. Tifft, “there may be
subtle quality-of-life side effects that the
mild hypertensive has that physicians in
the past have pooh-poohed.” In other
words, if you notice a change in your
FIGURING OUT THE NUMBERS
Your blood-pressure reading consist of two numbers: The top one isthe systolic pressure; it measures how forcefully your heart pumps
blood. When it’s too high, your heart is working harder than it should.The bottom number is the diastolic pressure; it gauges the force ofblood flowing through your fully relaxed arteries between heartbeats.
Doctors regard both numbers in the reading with equal importance.A reading below 120 over 80 (depending on how old and how fit youare) is good. If you’re consistently coming in at or above 140 over 90,that qualifies you as being hypertensive.
m e n s h e a l t h . co m 63
P U T YO U R H E A RT I N T O A L L YO U D O
maximum (roughly 220 minus your age), the
more fat you’ll burn and the more powerful
your heart will grow. Spend 30 minutes in
your target zone three times a week and
you’ll escape the pressure in no time.
Almost instantly, in fact: After a bout of
intense exercise, your pressure may drop
and stay lower for a few hours. (Check with
your doctor before beginning any exercise
program if you have high blood pressure.)
Skip the pub crawls. Alcohol may make
you feel relaxed, but it gets your arteries
pretty uppity. Exactly how this happens
isn’t known, but drinking may stimulate
the kidneys to keep more salt and water in
the blood, or it may constrict your blood
vessels. “If you drink more than two drinks
a day, you raise your blood pressure,” says
Norman Kaplan, M.D., professor of internal
medicine in the hypertension division at
the University of Texas Southwestern Med-
ical School in Dallas. “And the more you
drink, the worse it gets.”
Donate your canned goods. And try stick-
ing to fresh foods, recommends Dr. Kaplan.
Canned and processed foods are often lack-
ing in important minerals such as potas-
sium (prevalent in fruits and vegetables
such as bananas, dried apricots, potatoes,
and beans), magnesium (available in bran),
and calcium (yogurt and other dairy prod-
ucts), all of which play a role in regulating
blood pressure. And while there’s no evi-
dence that taking mineral supplements will
lower high blood pressure, a deficiency in
any of these can cause a spike in some men.
Beware of saboteurs. Certain things can
sabotage the accuracy of your blood pres-
sure readings:
■ The drugstore machine you stick
your arm into may be off as much as
60 points, according to one study.
■ Exercise can make your pressure dip
temporarily, and that can give you a false
picture of your normal level. To get a more
accurate pressure reading, take it before,
not after, your morning run.
■ A single cup of coffee can lift your
blood pressure as much as five points, says
Thomas Pickering, M.D., a cardiologist at
the New York Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Make sure you lay off the stuff for at least
2 hours before having your pressure
checked.
■ Eating too much natural licorice can
raise your numbers by 10 to 20 points.
■ “If you’re talking while you’re taking
your readings, your blood pressure could
go up a good 5 or 10 points,” says Dr.
Pickering.
62 1 0 P OW E R R E P O RTS
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