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 07.2019
“IT WAS LIKE WINNING THE
OSCAR. I WAS EXCITED. I WAS
STUMBLING OVER WORDS.”
—ANTHONY MACKIE , p. 92

FEATURES
92 MEET YOUR NEW
CAPTAIN, AMERICA
Anthony Mackie, Marvel
superhero and (spoiler!)
successor to Captain
America, has been ready to
wield the shield for years.
We’re just catching up.
BY BRIAN RAFTERY

98 THE OUTDOORS
IS YOUR GYM
Ditch the climate-controlled
gym. To get fit this summer,
stake out a patch of grass or
a stretch of beach.
BY EBENEZER SAMUEL, C.S.C.S.

106 CAN A PILL

CRUSH AGING?
Would you risk infections,
pneumonia, and even
cancer for a longer life?
Inside the murky world of
life-extending “miracle”
drugs and the men
willing to pay for them.
BY MICHAEL EASTER

116 ENTER THE

NEXT DRAGON
Mike Moh is a legendary
stuntman you’ve never
heard of. We join the martial
artist as he fly-kicks into
Quentin Tarantino’s Once
Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood
as Bruce Lee.
BY ANDREW LAWRENCE

On the cover: Anthony

Mackie photographed by
Ture Lillegraven exclusively
for Men’s Health. Styling by
Ted Stafford. Set design by
Abraham Latham for Art
Department. Hair by Brett
Mayo. Grooming by Tasha
Brown for the Wall Group.
Tailoring by Yelena Travkina.
Production by Zach Crawford.
T-shirt by Marvel Avengers;
jeans by Polo Ralph Lauren.
This page: Tank and shorts by
Nike; sneakers by Vionic.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TURE LILLEGRAVEN MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 3

 LIFE
41 How to pull off the
easiest guys’ trip ever.
Presented by Go RVing

48 Down with froyo:

The best ice creams that
won’t derail your diet.
50 The savory secrets of
the any-meal omelet.
52 Please welcome
back to the kitchen
chef Rocco DiSpirito.
58 Menu Decoder: Skip
that Panera bread bowl.
61 Classic summer
looks that offer sweat
and heat protection.
65 Summer Grooming
Special: The pomades,
deodorants, and
sunscreens.
68 Stand out at a bar
PLUS! without creeping her out.
112 THE BEERS 70 Is there a sexy way to
OF SUMMER clean up after sex?
How to make the most
of warm-weather 72 The rules for great
sipping, including the sex in the great outdoors.
best nonalcoholic
offerings. BY PAUL KITA 74 Cool Dad: Michael
Peña finds joy in the
sand trap.

MIND
77 Therapy for the soul:
It’s not just in your head.
82 Want some CBD to
go with that entire day?

MH WORLD BODY 26 Shades for every

kind of summer sport.
84 Foods for thought:
The best brain bites.
9 Howyou travel with 17 The CrossFit king: 28 Wanna lose ten 86 Take your happiness
friends, how to get Train like Mat Fraser. pounds? Do it, safely. to the max!
arms like Anthony 30 Junk or Science?:
Mackie’s, and how an 20 Get muscles that 88 The therapist bot will
pow! bang! with our new Freezing your sperm. see you now. But can it
NFL legend dropped
Prop styling: Heather Greene/Hello Artists

superhero workout. replace a real doctor?

70 pounds of post- 32 Why are colorectal
playing weight. Plus, 22 6 A.M.: How Silicon cancers on the rise? 90 Dan Harris (finally)
win a trip to work out Valley’s Kumail Nanjiani 34 Inside the lab giving learns to stop checking
in Austin, Texas! packed on muscle. athletes a sweaty edge. his phone.

24 Sure, you can lift. 38 Liquid, powder, +

But can you move? or none? Unpack the 120 And Another Thing!
Why you need mobility. confusion of creatine. Beach Reads

4 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPH BY TED + CHELSEA CAVANAUGH

© 2019 Tyson Foods, Inc.
 Richard Dorment Jack Essig MEET THE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/PUBLISHING DIRECTOR

Helene F. Rubinstein Executive Managing Editor Chris Peel Executive Director, Hearst Men’s Group
MEN’S HEALTH
Jamie Prokell Creative Director ADVISORY PANEL
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EDITORIAL NEW YORK (212) 649-2000
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fitness, but we don’t know as
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6 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

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 ♥2019 Π&Γ

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GILLETTE DEODORANT 48 HOUR PROTECTION

 WORLD
BEHIN D THE
SCEN ES W ITH
THE EX PERTS,
A DV ISORS,
A N D R E A DERS
W HO BR ING
MEN’S HEA LTH
TO LIFE.

TWITTER TIPS

YOUR SECRETS TO A KILLER GUYS’ TRIP

Taking a trip with your pals would be 100 percent awesome
if it weren’t for the organizing. So thanks for these tips
@itsmejavier @shaunbaram
Have one person
on crushing a guys’ getaway. To read our own, see page 41. Make sure you all
(the one friend are on the same
who has the best page of the vibe
taste in music!) you want (chill vs.
make the ultimate party vs. explore)
bro trip playlist!!! or have a group
where you can
separate depend-
ing on mood.

@JRoseWXYZ
Have one person @Vinnygoom-
make all the plans, bots  Assign a
be a dictator. babysitter for the
Trip gets planned one guy in the
smoother with crew that gets
one person telling out of hand when
where everyone drinking . . .
falls in line, can
make changes
when already
checked into
lodging situation. @BrockCooper2  Appoint
a “Guys Trip Czar” to put
together the itinerary and
make sure everyone sticks to
it to ensure no missed resos
@DavidAOSullivan  What- at restaurants, missed tee
ever happens, happens. And times, etc. Make sure there
nothing is bad enough that @aprimmett1  Each year we choose one are plan B options if a part of
it can’t be sorted out with a person to take the lead, send them the the group isn’t interested in
cold beer! money, they book everything and we find a specific activity.
out where we are going at the airport. No
Sportphoto/Alamy

arguments. Best tourist organizes the next

year. #mysterytour

MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 9

 WORLD
Behind the Issue
ASK
ASK AN MH ADVISOR
WHAT’S IN YOUR (ADVENTURE) DOPP KIT?
MEN’S
Jedidiah Ballard, D.O., is a former Army Ranger, an ER
doctor, an osteopathic authority, and the MH Advisory
HEALTH
You’ve got questions.
Board member who best knows how to prepare for the We’ve got experts.
worst when braving the great outdoors.
The Question: So I
HIKING AND CAMPING are wonderful outdoor activities with the potential to bring have a bit of a belly—no
peace, joy, and fond memories. But they also have the potential for pain. Falls definitely shame. What kind of
present the biggest risk for severe injury once you’ve made it outdoors. The terrain bathing suit should I be
you’re hiking affects that risk, but you should always carry a few trauma items with you, wearing, though?
just in case. (This advice applies to the stories on pages 41 and, quite possibly, 72.) —Clint Blackwell, Raleigh, NC
The Expert: TED STAFFORD,
MEN’S HEALTH FASHION DIRECTOR
Board shorts! The waistband
doesn’t have elastic (which can
cinch love handles), and the self-tie
option lets you adjust the fit to your
body. They should sit just above the
hip—to prevent exposed crack—
Three-inch ACE wrap Gauze A CAT (combat and the (slim!) leg hits right above
It can be used both It will greatly assist in application tourniquet) the knee. As for styles, see below.
to secure a splint if cleaning wounds and In the event of a real-deal
someone fractures creating a dressing to bleed, this is absolutely
a bone and to compress stop bleeding. One pack essential. It will keep you
a laceration. is sufficient. from bleeding out.

How About Those

Guns on Mackie?
Want arms like the guy on our cover? Fit-
ness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S.,
suggests adding the resistance-band

Ben Goldstein (exercise). Jeff Vallee (top swim trunks). Kevin Sweeney/Studio D (bottom three swim trunks). Kyle Hilton (Ballard).
hammer curl to your routine.
Stand on a medium-weight resistance THE TOP
band, grasping its ends (a). Tighten your STRIPE:
Birdwell Beach
core and squeeze your glutes. Keeping Britches
your palms facing your torso, curl the
band upward (b); stop once your elbows THE
start shifting forward, and squeeze your BOLD
biceps. Slowly return to the start. That’s 1 STRIPE:
Vuori
rep; do 3 sets of 10 to 12 every other day.

EB SAYS: Squeeze your glutes

as you curl. Yes, really. Doing
so will prevent you from (a) (b)
cheating by rocking your hips. THE FLORAL:
Abercrombie
& Fitch

WORK OUT LIKE A PRO

SHOES FIT FOR A KING

Thank CrossFit champ Mathew Fraser (you can
read about him on page 17) for your next front-
squat PR. He teamed up with Nike for its new
box-focused Metcon 5 ($130) shoe, designed
for softer box-jump landings and easy runs. THE
SOLID:
Patagonia

10 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

 Lower carbs. Lower calories.
Higher expectations.

2.6 g C A R B S
90 C A L O R I E S

TM

Drink responsibly. Corona Premier® Beer. Imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, IL. Per 12 fl. oz. serving average analysis: Calories 90, Carbs 2.6 grams,
Protein 0.7 grams, Fat 0.0 grams. Compared to 12 fl. oz. serving Corona Extra Calories: 149, Carbs: 14.0 grams, Protein: 1.2 grams, Fat: 0.0 grams.
 WORLD
BELLY OFF!:
AN NFL
LEGEND
TAKES
CONTROL
The Setback
When I stepped onto the
Wisconsin campus in July of
my freshman year, I was 250
pounds. That wasn’t going
to cut it to move to offensive
line. Just to get to 250 in high
school, I’d eat a peanut-butter-
and-jelly sandwich every 30
minutes, on top of my three
main meals a day! At the end
of the day, I’d chug a 30- to
35-ounce glass of whole milk,
along with my last sandwich.
By December of freshman
12 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH
Reader Spotlights
JOE THOMAS:
STATS
AGE: 34
HEIGHT: 6'6"
LOCATION:
Madison, Wisconsin
OCCUPATION:
Former professional
football player
BEFORE WEIGHT: 325
AFTER WEIGHT: 255
Former Cleveland
Brown Joe Thomas
retired last season
after an 11-year
career that saw him
make the Pro Bowl
ten times—ten times!
year, I had gained 30 pounds.
I gained ten every year after
until I was 310.
The Wake-up Call
My cardio was strong, but I
had heartburn all the time
because of the amount of
sugar and carbs I was eating.
I snored a lot. I probably had
sleep apnea. Your stomach
stretches out and you get used
to eating until you literally feel
sick at every meal—that’s not
healthy long-term. Toward the
end, I couldn’t wait until I was
done playing and I could lose
weight and move around and
feel better. I wanted to be the
weight I was in high school:
250 pounds.
The Food
After I retired, it was really
easy to lose that first 20, 30,
40 pounds. I just dialed back
my calories to eat like a normal
COVER FACE-OFF!
IT WAS CLOSE, BUT WE WENT WITH TERRY
He was in the U. S. Army, then became a pharmacist to work his
way through law school. He still works out at the gym at least three
to four times a week. I used an old cover of Men’s Health to make
this for him. It’s an untouched-up photo. He did 20 pushups right
before I took it!” —Lisa Fisher, Winter Park, FL
human. After that, I had to eat
smarter. I used the app MyPlate
and tracked everything I ate. I
started to understand my ideal
ratio of protein, carbs, and fat.
My best strategy has been low
carb, but flexible—with some
intermittent fasting. Fasting
has the primary benefit of elim-
inating breakfast, which for
me was 800 to 1,000 calories.
Eating fats and proteins now
actually keeps me full. When I
eat carbs, I only get hungrier.
Christmas morning, I finished
off a stack of ten pancakes my
wife made, probably 3,000
calories. And two hours later,
I was hungry.
The Fitness
For exercise, I’m now sen-
sitive to my joints. I do what
would maybe be described
as bodybuilding lifting. I keep
the rep schemes typically
higher, and I’m doing a lot of
single-joint exercises. I also
fell in love with swimming and
biking. Low-impact cardio is
best because I’m a bigger guy.
I also love yoga—it makes my
body feel really good. It helps
my joints, and it’s also cardio
for me. My wife laughs. She
calls it a stretch. But for me
it’s a great workout, because I
sweat heavily.
The Reward
I’d heard Tom Brady and
some other people talk about
anti-inflammatory diets and
how certain foods affect you
and your body, and I always
thought that was kind of
bullshit. But sure enough, once
I went low carb, all of a sudden
my knees started feeling better.
The swelling that I walked
around with on a daily basis
was gone. I’m down to 255.
I’m actually trying to lose a
little bit right now!
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 WORLD
Men’s Health Beyond the Page

ON MENSHEALTH.COM:
BECOMING BRUCE
Mike Moh plays martial-arts
legend Bruce Lee in Quentin
Tarantino’s Once Upon a
Time . . . in Hollywood. (See the
story on page 116.) To find out
how the stuntman—a legend in
his own right—trained for the
part, visit MensHealth.com for
an exclusive video.

MH ON YOUR TV. OR PHONE.

WHAT WE’RE
Work Out with Us WATCHING THIS SUMMER

WE’ VE G OT A new workout app! Along with our pals at Women’s Health,
Prevention, and Cosmopolitan, we’re launching All Out Studio (available for
iOS and Android starting in July), where you’ll be able to stream our body-
transforming workouts directly to your phone, tablet, or TV. Looking to get
Spider-Man: Far from Home
shredded? There’s a workout for that. Wanna get jacked? You can stream that, (July 2) In the first Marvel film since
too. We’ve loaded the service with 100-plus workouts (some of our favorites are Avengers: Endgame, Peter Parker
below) led by our expert trainers. You can get started with a free seven-day trial. is headed abroad.
Head to MensHealth.com/goallout to learn more.
THREE WORKOUTS ON THE APP

MLB Home Run Derby

BFA/Alamy (Spider-Man). Rich Schultz (MLB). Lifestyle pictures/Alamy (Hobbs & Shaw).
(July 8) Watch in awe as base-
ball’s best rip a few dingers.

Superhero Shred Kettlehell New Rules of Muscle

Don Saladino, the trainer who Kettlebell expert Eric Leija Men’s Health fitness direc-
got Ryan Reynolds in shape delivers twelve 20-minute tor Ebenezer Samuel guides
to play Deadpool, drives you workouts that’ll incinerate fat you through five 30-minute
through a 28-day plan that’s de- and calories at light speed, muscle-building sessions that
signed to have you looking (and pushing you to your most feature revolutionary time-
feeling) your superheroic best. ripped body yet! under-tension techniques.
Hobbs & Shaw
(August 2) The Rock. Statham.
GO ALL OUT! In future issues, look for this logo throughout the magazine’s fitness pages to Elba. That’s the holy trinity—
see which of our expert trainers also have a workout or program you can stream on the app. enough said.

WHERE TO Follow, tweet, comment, like, respond, and

FIND US tag us. You could be featured in MHWorld.
We’re on all your Instagram & Twitter YouTube & Pinterest Facebook On the web And send us your feedback at MHletters@hearst
favorite platforms. @menshealthmag /menshealthmag /menshealth menshealth.com .com. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

14 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

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 20 ............. THE SU PER HERO-BODY
BLU EPR IN T
22 K U M A IL NA NJI A N I IS
..................
SER IOUS A BOU T M USCLE
28 ................ THE R IGHT WAY(S) TO
DROP TEN POU N DS
34 ............. THE SCIENCE OF SW E AT

Mathew Fraser, the three-time

CrossFit Games champion,
might be the best-conditioned
man on earth. And he’s just
getting warmed up.
BY EBENEZER SAMUEL, C.S.C.S.

E
VE RY S U M M E R , top CrossFitters
compete in “the Games,” a five-day,
14-event CrossFit challenge that’s
like the decathlon, American Ninja War-
rior, and World’s Strongest Man mashed
into one ab-tastic sweatfest. Last year, the
final event was called Aeneas because . . .
well, Aeneas was a war hero, and presum-
ably ripped. It involved five pegboard
climbs, requiring you to hold a dowel in
each hand and jab your way up an eight-foot
board; 40 thrusters, front squats to over-
head presses with an 85-pound barbell;
and three 33-foot loaded yoke carries, in
which you shoulder a crossbar attached to a
base. Weight is added for each subsequent
carry, starting at 425 pounds and going
to 665 pounds. The event separates the
very fit from the impossibly fit.
It also separates the impossibly fit from
Mathew Fraser.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY HAMISH BROWN MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 17

 BODY
Fraser was out to retain bragging rights
as Fittest Man on Earth, sporting his
trademark half grimace/half smile. The
man is a grinder. You don’t sense that he’s
moving quickly, but he ends up in front.
During the yoke carry, the five-seven,
195-pound Fraser, walking as smoothly
as you can with 665 pounds, sailed into
first. He won and banged his fist against
his chest, energizing thousands of fans
at the Alliant Energy Center in Madi-
son, Wisconsin. And get this: Through
13 events, Fraser had already piled up
1,062 points, 192 more than anyone else
could score. He would have won the Games
even if he’d started Aeneas by taking a sel-
fie and finished dead last.
You may roll your eyes when you see that
Fraser uses the tag #HWPO, for “Hard
Work Pays Off,” on all his Instagram posts,
but it’s self-motivation, not marketing ploy.
“Every day, you have 100 points of energy,”
the 29-year-old says. “I want to contribute
as many of those points towards training
as possible.” A mechanical-engineering
student who once worked in the aerospace
industry, he has weaponized his whole life
for performance: He recently moved from
his hometown of Colchester, Vermont, to
Cookeville, Tennessee, home of multiple
elite CrossFitters. He trains at CrossFit
Mayhem alongside Rich Froning Jr., 36,
who won the Games four times, and wom-
en’s champ Tia-Clair Toomey. Lunch, like
all his meals, is prepped by his fiancée,
Sammy Moniz, who created an oatmeal-,
chicken-, and steak-rich Instagram feed
for fans, @feedingthefrasers. Fraser does
another workout in his garage home gym,
usually listening to Joe Rogan’s podcast.
18 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH
The Games reward all-around fitness,
so Fraser trains for everything. He can
deadlift more than 500 pounds, run a mile
in five minutes and 20 seconds, and row
26 miles in less than three hours. “Mat
continues to refine his mechanics,” says
Kelly Starrett, DPT, a physical therapist
who regularly works with A-list athletes.
“He’s like a shark . . . on rails . . . with laser
beams.” Right now that energy is spent get-
ting ready to defend his crown at this year’s
Games (August 1 through 4). Tying Fron-
ing’s record of four wins would elevate Fras-
er to stunning stardom. When Froning won
his first title in 2011, 26,000 people entered
the Games; in 2018, 415,000 entered. What
was once seen as an exercise fad now rules
mainstream fitness. That Fraser is lifting
CrossFit higher is shocking, since ten years
ago, doctors told him his exercise would be
limited to “light jogging.”
An athletic mutant, Fraser swam at
age one, water-skied at two, and climbed
upstairs on his hands at five. He gravitated
toward Olympic weightlifting at age 12, and
after graduating high school, he went to the
Team USA training center in Colorado. His
goal: the 2016 Rio Olympics. Then, in 2009,
while training for the junior world champi-
onships, he heard a crack in his lower back
while doing a clean. A few training sessions
later, he heard another crack when perform-
ing a heavy squat. He competed anyway,
finishing 15th. X-rays revealed he’d broken
Fraser’s Olympic background prepped
him to dominate moves like the snatch (left).
Muscle-ups (above) took time to master.
his LV5 vertebra in two places. Doctors told
Fraser, then 19, his weightlifting days were
over. But he found a surgeon willing to try
an experimental operation. Fraser endured
18 months of rehab, four in a hips-to-nipples
Styling: Josh Owen/AMAX Talent Agency. Grooming: Alicia Marie Campbell/AMAX Talent Agency. Pete Sucheski (illustrations).
cast. He eventually built his strength back,
but his Olympic aspirations had waned. He
enrolled at the University of Vermont.
Fraser joined a local CrossFit box to use
its equipment. The gym owners encouraged
him to join class workouts, and convinced
him to enter a CrossFit competition. He
showed up wearing Nike AirMax 90s and
won the event and $500. He bought a pair
of CrossFit shoes—and was hooked. “The
more I did CrossFit, the more I wanted to
work on my weaknesses,” he says. By 2012,
he was in the world championships. He fin-
ished second in the 2014 and 2015 Games,
then won the next three years, pocketing
more than $1 million in prize money. His
sponsorships may bring in even more.
(Hard work really pays off.)
Froning’s earlier success provides a tem-
plate for Fraser. Froning turned his Games
titles into a long-term deal with Reebok
and his own gym and coaching business.
But Fraser could do more. He already has
deals with Nike, equipment maker Rogue
Fitness, and several performance brands.
He has 1.5 million Instagram followers,
more than Froning. But none of it seems to
matter to Fraser. Remember the 100 points
of energy. As Fraser puts it, “I don’t wanna
half-ass two things. I wanna whole-ass one
thing.” He doesn’t do pretty. He shaves his
head because it’s “zero maintenance” and
tells me he doesn’t care for six-pack abs,
even as he sports an eight-pack.
Part of the Games’ draw is that regular
people and elite athletes qualify the same
way: by placing well in a monthlong series
of workouts dubbed the Open. Fraser
does the same WODs you can do; he just
does them better. The Open was once the
Games’ key qualifier, but this year there’s
a new format. CrossFit has added 15 inde-
pendent, sanctioned events worldwide.
Top placers earn Games berths. Fraser
envisions these “sanctionals” becoming
CrossFit’s take on the PGA Tour, in which
each event has its own reputation.
Fraser is all at once superstar and reg-
ular person. It’s a tough balancing act. In
2017, the Games moved from ESPN to CBS
Sports, which televises the finals and also
livestreams them on social media, leading
to more than 10 million viewers across all
platforms. Fraser recently completed a
USO tour with country singer Kellie Pick-
ler, actor Milo Ventimiglia, and snowboard-
er Shaun White. “Rich Froning Jr. and Mat
Fraser have done very well in their sport,”
says David Schwab, executive VP of celebri-
ty talent agency Octagon, who’s struck deals
with Michael Phelps and Kevin Durant.
“But the guys who have gained greater rel-
evance from niche sports have done so via
cameos in movies and broader promotion-
al work. Think John Cena.” Fraser, though,
says he’s not concerned with crossing over.
“I love being who I am right now.”
Fraser won just two of
14 events at last year’s
Games but finished in the
top five in eight others.
“WELCOME TO CROSSFIT. I’M MAT.”
Not sure how to tackle CrossFit’s most badass technical skills? These tips
from the three-time reigning Games champion will prime you.
THE SNATCH
WHAT IS IT? The most
technically demanding move in
CrossFit (and Olympic weightlift-
ing), the snatch has you lifting a
loaded barbell from the ground to
overhead, all in one motion.
FRASER’S WISDOM: “Keep
your arms absolutely straight and
locked out through the first part of
the lift so all the power from your
hips will translate upward.”
FRASER’S BEST:
315-pound snatch.
THE MUSCLE-UP
WHAT IS IT? An advanced
movement, the muscle-up
requires that you start hanging
from a bar or rings then pull your
entire torso above it, locking your
arms out at the top.
FRASER’S WISDOM: “Do not
try ring muscle-ups until you are
very good at pullups, strict pullups.
Learn pullups first, then mus-
cle-ups will come.”
FRASER’S BEST: Can do
30 muscle-ups in 2:00.16.
CARDIO ROW
WHAT IS IT? The cardio row
machine mimics what it’s like to
row a boat. A typical CrossFit
workout has you row a set
distance or number of calories.
FRASER’S WISDOM: “Start
coiled close to the rower, then
extend your legs, then your hips,
then follow through with your
arms. It will feel unnatural.”
FRASER’S BEST: Completed
the 2018 Marathon Row event
in 2:48:36.
THE ASSAULT AIRBIKE
WHAT IS IT? This cardio
crusher has your feet pedaling
and your arms pulling against
variable resistance, typically for
a set number of calories.
FRASER’S WISDOM:
“Embrace the pain and just go
hard. Keep telling yourself the pain
will leave in a little bit, because
you’re never on there for long.
There is no form.”
FRASER’S BEST: One-minute
AirBike record: 84 calories.
MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 19
 BODY

THE MH ULTIMATE SERIES

Get BANG! Superhero POW! Strong ZOWIE!

It worked for Deadpool. Now it’ll work for you.
MATE T CELEBRITY TRAINER Don Saladino, NASM, specializes in rapid transformations.
TI
EN
UL

The brains behind the new Men’s Health workout-video program, Superhero Shred, he’s
06 10 spent his career packing muscle onto the likes of Ryan Reynolds and Zachary Levi. “A
four-week transformation is possible,” Saladino says. “But it’s not easy.” The workout
H
M

N’ that’ll get you started on the road to a superhero body is here. Cape not included.
T

S HEAL
E

DIRECTIONS: Do this
workout 4 days a week, lifting
heavy while maintaining good
form. In week 1, do 3 sets of
10 to 12 reps for each move.
In week 2, do 4 sets of 6 to 8
reps. In week 3, do 3 sets of 8
to 10 reps. In week 4, do each
move for 40 seconds, then rest
20 seconds; do 3 rounds of each
move. On nontraining days,
aim to spend a half hour jogging,
walking, or playing a sport.
Rear-Foot-Elevated
Split Squat
Stand in front of a bench or box
about 18 inches high, holding
dumbbells at your sides. Place the
top of your right foot on the bench.
This is the start (a). Bend your left
knee, lowering until your left thigh
is parallel to the floor (b). (Your right
leg will bend as you do this.) Pause,
then stand back up. That’s 1 rep.
Do a full set on each leg.

1. THE WARMUP
Side Plank Knee-to-Elbow
Lie on your left side, left forearm
on the floor, legs extended and
stacked. Raise your hips off the
floor, forming a straight line from
torso through feet. Extend your
right hand straight over your head.
This is the start (a). Tuck your right
knee to your chest; tuck your right
elbow toward your knee as you do
this (b). Squeeze your abs, then
return to the start. That’s 1 rep.

EB SAYS:
Your first focus on this
exercise is owning
that side plank. Don’t
let that position get
Grooming: Kristan Serafino using Color Wow. Kyle Hilton (Samuel).

sloppy as you bring Romanian Deadlift

That’s 1 rep.

20 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALLIE HOLLOWAY

 YOUR MUSCLE MASTER
Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., Men’s Health
fitness director, is a certified strength and condi-
tioning expert who has trained with professional
and Olympic athletes.

3. THE FINISHER
EB SAYS:
Focus on driving
your elbows high, not
on contracting your
biceps. Your goal with
this move is building
lat size and strength,
not getting big arms.
Rack-Down Carry
Stand holding 1 dumbbell at your
right side and 1 at your left shoul-
der. Tighten your core and work
to stand perfectly upright. This
is the start. Walk forward for 40
seconds (if you’re working out in
a small area, take 3 steps forward,
then 3 steps backward until time
runs out), rest for 20 seconds, then
immediately begin the next set.
Do 3 sets per side.

(a)

Single-Arm Half-Bench Press EB SAYS:

Lie on a bench holding a dumb-
bell in your right hand. Slide toward
the right side so that the right half
of your torso is off the bench.
Extend your left arm straight above
or straight out to your side. This
is the start (a). Bend at your right (b)
elbow, lowering the dumbbell until
it’s within an inch of your chest (b).
Press back up. That’s 1 rep. Do a set
of the required reps on each side.

SUPERSET
EB SAYS:

a) Bent-Over
Triceps Kickback
Stand holding light dumbbells at
your sides, then hinge forward until
your torso is nearly parallel to the
floor. Raise your elbows so that your
upper arms are parallel to the floor. WANT MORE from
This is the start (a). Moving only Saladino? Check out his new
at the elbows, press the weights workout-video program, Super-
straight back (b). Pause. Return to hero Shred, at MensHealth
the start. Do the required reps, then .com/superheroshred.
shift into position for the next move.

MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 21

 BODY

THE 6 A.M. WORKOUT

Kumail
Nanjiani Is
Not Joking
Around
The comedian-actor’s
transformation
from Silicon Valley nerd
into action-movie
badass is all about
intensity, commitment—
and high voltage.
BY ANDREW HEFFERNAN, C.S.C.S.

K
UMAIL NANJIANI is in a dimly lit
basement weight room in Beverly
Hills called the Granite Gym, elec-
trical wires attached to his back. Elbows
in two cloth cradles, he grunts through
reps of a modified lat pulldown as his
trainer, Grant Roberts, delivers electric
charges to his back muscles.
“You ready?” Roberts asks. “Never,”
Nanjiani says. Roberts fires another shock
anyway, and Nanjiani’s lats quiver. Then
he does another rep.
The 41-year-old is hoping all that volt-
age (okay, only 70 milliamps, but still!)
can fast-track his transformation from
comedic actor into action star. Nanjiani
made his name by making you laugh in
The Big Sick and HBO’s Silicon Valley,
and he’ll do that again in Men in Black
International this summer. But his next
role, rumored to be in a major comic-book
Nanjiani works
out with electronic
stimulation, which
helps him focus
on the correct mus-
cles during moves
like these rear-
delt raises.
film, involves a makeover. “I realize what’s tronic stimulation (e-stim to trainers)
holding me back from those roles is how I to help fire up target muscles—and it’s
look,” he says. “So I’m changing that.” a strange sensation. But Nanjiani is
To that end, Nanjiani’s been trudging fully on board, absorbing milliamps and
down to Granite five days a week for the grinding out reps.
past three months to train with Roberts, It’s just one technique Roberts is
a former Mr. Canada. Roberts uses elec- deploying to catapult his client onto

BREAK OF DIRECTIONS:
Do the first
3 moves as a
1 Front Raise
Stand with dumb-
bells at your sides,
2 Lateral Raise
Stand holding
dumbbells in front
3 Rear-Delt Raise
Bend your knees
and hinge your
4 W Press
Sit on a bench,
holding dumb-
BRAWN
Grooming: Kim Verbeck/The Wall Group

triset, one right palms facing in. of your thighs, torso forward, bells at your shoul-
after the other, Without swinging, palms facing in. keeping your back ders. Press the
using the same raise the weights Raise the dumb- flat, arms hanging. dumbbells up and
Nanjiani’s spent extra time (and dumbbells. Do in front of you un- bells directly out Raise the dumb- outward; pause
electricity!) building action-hero 3 rounds, resting til your arms are to your sides, el- bells out to your when your arms
60 seconds parallel to the floor. bows bent slightly. sides. Pause, then are nearly straight.
shoulders. Want to bulk yours between each Pause, then lower Pause, then lower lower to the start. Return to the start.
up? Try his workout; all you need round. Then do to the start. That’s to the start. That’s That’s 1 rep; do That’s 1 rep; do
are dumbbells and a bench. exercise 4. 1 rep; do 5 to 8. 1 rep; do 5 to 8. 5 to 8. 3 sets of 12 to 15.

22 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPHS BY HANA ASANO


the action-hero A-list—a major leap for
an actor who came to Hollywood after
growing up in Pakistan and attending
college in Iowa. Before he met Roberts,
Nanjiani had been your average gymgoer,
riding the stationary bike to nowhere for
20 minutes a day. Now his workouts draw
from the bodybuilder playbook, and his
trademark wit has been replaced by a
thousand-yard stare.
“When I’m exercising, I’m not
thinking about anything else,” he says.
“It’s like meditation.” That may be why
Nanjiani’s friends “practically staged an
intervention” a few months ago to get him
out of the gym. The last thing they want is
a T-1000 clone of Nanjiani replacing Sili-
con Valley’s Dinesh. “Effort isn’t funny,”
he says. “Several of my friends have said,
‘There’s nothing funny about a guy who
NANJIANI
ON
His go-to cheat meal . . .
“Pakistani food is delicious,
but it’s a lot of carbs: biryani,
naan bread, tons of rice.
Afterward, my wife and I will
say, ‘Let’s take a quick nap.’
We wake up five hours later.”
His current diet . . .
“Basically, it’s five days
of low-carb, then over the
weekend you eat as much
as you want. But I’m trying
to figure out the food thing
right now because I wasn’t
eating enough. I’m still
kind of afraid of gaining
the wrong kind of weight,
because I’m very vain.”
His best comedy tip . . .
“My favorite comedic actor
growing up was Bill Murray.
He’s the opposite of effort.
He’s really not trying at all.”
His facial hair . . .
“I grew a beard because I
needed a crutch to start work-
ing out intensely. But it’s
going well now, so I’m going
to shave it.”
works out all the time.’ ” Nanjiani doesn’t
care. “I’m kind of obsessed with it.”
Even when he’s not hooked up to diodes,
Nanjiani thinks about the gym. His diet
is so squeaky-clean that Roberts has to
nudge him to carb up on cheat day. The
actor’s goal: slap 20 pounds of muscle
onto his 150-pound frame. No joke.
But he insists he’s not turning his back
on comedy; rather, he’s expanding his
acting range. “Look at Bruce Willis in Die
Hard,” he says. “He was very funny while
staying true to the tone of the movie.” In
the process, the TV lightweight became
one of the heaviest hitters in Hollywood.
Nanjiani has his eyes on a similar
prize. “If I can be a big, buff person with
the same outlook I have now, that would
be pretty cool,” he says. “There aren’t
many people around like that.”
MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 23
 MOBILIZE
FOR SUMMER
Animal Flow creator
MIKE FITCH breaks down
the mobility moves you
need to build strength
and annihilate joint pain.

TRENGTH, SPEED, FLEXIBILITY—

S you get those ideas. But few fitness
terms are as misunderstood as mobility.
That’s why Mike Fitch, the 39-year-old
trainer who created the Animal Flow
bodyweight training method eight years
ago, is never surprised when people ask
what it is. And he knows how to answer.
“Mobility is flexibility with stability,”
he says. Flexibility, Fitch explains, is
passive. Stretch your arm behind your
head to show flexibility. But can you
stretch your arm behind your head and
push against or pull something? “That’s
creating tension while being flexible—
that’s mobility,” he says. “That makes
your tissues resilient from any angle.”
You build it not with weights but with
disciplines like Animal Flow, which chal-
lenges you to move fluidly on all fours in a
variety of positions. “The goal is to shed
light on your weaknesses,” Fitch says.
Then you move your body lightly
through ranges of motion that may cause
pain or feel restricted. Over time, this
can restore your mobility and beat joint
soreness. Oh, and you stealthily increase
critical strength in your mid-back and
core. Over months or years of training, you You’ll need to build
may even learn to pull off impressive body- shoulder mobility and
weight feats (like the handstand arm bal- back stability (and
have serious guts,
ance Fitch is demonstrating on this page). too!) to tackle Fitch’s
But it starts with these five basic moves you modified handstand
can do anywhere, anytime, every day. arm balance.

24 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPHS BY GIACOMO FORTUNATO

 BODY

LET’S GET STARTED

Do 1 set of each exercise every day, aiming for 15 to 20 reps in each (a)
direction. Try to relax your body while following the cues, Fitch says.
“The goal is fluidity. Don’t try to muscle these motions.”

(b)
1 Scap Roll
WHY? Ever deal with a sore back?
This is your answer to that, a move
that relaxes and loosens the length (a)
of your spine, and improves your
posture, too.
DIRECTIONS: Sit with your shins
(b)
on the ground, hands on your
knees. Hollow out your torso and
hunch your chest forward, shifting
your chin to your chest (a). Now
tighten your shoulder blades and
arch your spine, pulling your head
upward. Squeeze your shoulder
blades hard at the top (b).

(a) (b)

3 Shin Box with Spine Rotation

2 Beast Reach
WHY? Remember: Mobility is more
than flexibility. You’re forcing your
shoulders to stabilize your weight, and
your core and hips are getting work.
DIRECTIONS: Start with your hips
pressed back toward your heels, knees
an inch from the ground and arms
extended (a). Now lift your hips
upward, tucking your right leg tight to
your torso as you do. Shift your torso
forward. Finish with your shoulders
directly over your wrists and your
right knee just outside your right arm
(b). Return to the start and repeat on
the other side.
WHY? Few moves offer more bang for
your buck than this, says Fitch. “You’re
getting deep hip rotation and opening up
your spine, from pelvis to skull.”
DIRECTIONS: Start seated, feet flat on the
ground, knees at 90 degrees. Raise your
arms to shoulder level, palms touching (a).
Relax your hips so your knees drop to the
right side, the left knee nearly touching your
right foot. As this happens, slide your right
hand along your left arm; let it stop at your
chest (b). Reverse the motions to return to
the start; repeat on the other side.

(a)
4 Ape Reach
WHY? Fitch calls
(a) (b)

this “great training

for a deep squat.”
DIRECTIONS:
Start standing, feet
shoulder-width
apart, then lower
into a deep squat,
butt below your
knees if you can.
Reach to the front,
rolling your torso slightly bent, palms up.
(b) forward (a). Rise onto
the balls of your feet.
5 Shoulder Rotation
WHY? “Neck, upper
Turn your head to look at
your right hand; as you do
Open your arms this, rotate your left arm
back, shoulders, and arms
wide. Pause when so your elbow faces up
all get work,” Fitch says.
you’ve stretched (a). Pause and feel the
your arms as far as DIRECTIONS: Sit on your stretch. Return to the start
they’ll go (b), then shins. Extend both arms and repeat on the other
return to the start. out to your sides, elbows side (b).

MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 25

 BODY

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26 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPH BY KEVIN SWEENEY

 The all-new RAV4 Hybrid is more than ready to
blow past the competition. With head-turning style
and breakaway speed, it’s going to change the
way you think of a hybrid. Let’s Go Places.
 BODY

28 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

ILLUSTRATION BY RODRIGO DAMATI
 BODY
UNK
J
OR
E?
C
S
IEN
C
The Great
Frozen-Sperm
Panic
Male-fertility companies want you to protect
your sperm from climate change, pollution,
and . . . you! But are the stakes really so high?
BY CASSIE SHORTSLEEVE
A
S IF YOU didn’t already
have to worry about an
aging jawline, reced-
ing hairline, and expanding
gut, new sperm-cryobanking
companies are telling you that
your sperm is getting old, too.
Firms such as Dadi and Legacy
are selling fertility insurance
to men via an urgent appeal to
freeze your sperm now or be
in trouble later. (“Store Your
Sperm. Stop the Clock,” as
Dadi puts it.) No need to go to a
facility to awkwardly produce a
sample. The companies let you
do the gathering at home and
mail in what you’ve got.
These cryobanks, each less
than two years old, make two
pitches based on real fears—one
legitimate, the other a little
30 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH
cynical. First, that you’ll be one
of the growing number of guys
who won’t have kids till they’re
40—a “danger zone” in which
sperm concentration, motili-
ty, size, and shape worsen and
sperm starts to show DNA dam-
age. Some research has linked
over-40 sperm to a higher like-
lihood of kids with issues like
autism, cancer, and ICU stays
as newborns. And second, that
if you don’t freeze now, you risk
further subjecting your sperm to
the hell that is modern-day liv-
ing (pollution, increased STDs,
a sedentary lifestyle, laptop use,
poor diet—the list goes on).
Both age and lifestyle are
factors that can erode the
semen quality of even healthy
guys, says Ashok Agarwal,
Ph.D., director of research at the
American Center for Reproduc-
tive Medicine at the Cleveland
Clinic. But icing your sperm is
not cheap, nor is it a guarantee.
The kits vary in price. You’ll
SPERM-BANK
get a semen analysis for $99 to FAQS
$350, depending on how detailed
Before you
it is; Dadi also requires a storage freeze your
commitment up front of about boys, ask these
$100. (It can cost you even more questions of
if you do the donation and testing any prospective
at a fertility center.) Every year’s storage
worth of storage fees drains you company.
of another $99 to $500. And while
fertility services are increasingly
covered by corporate insurance HOW DO YOU
PROTECT AGAINST
plans—a new bill would even
require the DOD to pay for both
NATURAL DISASTERS?
Numerous places,
sperm and egg freezing for com- including Maze,
bat-zone-bound military mem- in New York, store
your sperm in
bers—sperm hasn’t quite gotten
two locations—a
the insurance coverage that eggs safety net for nat-
have yet. That means if you freeze ural disaster or
at 25, store till you’re 40, and pay equipment failure,
out of pocket, any offspring will
have cost you $1,500 to $7,500
in sperm-storage fees alone by
like the liquid-nitro-
gen-tank malfunc-
tion at University
the time he or she even appears.
Even “good” frozen sperm isn’t a
Hospitals Fertility
Center in 2018,
which destroyed
more than 4,000
guarantee you’ll have kids, since
eggs and embryos.
sperm is only part of the equa-
tion, of course. And when you HOW ARE YOUR
freeze, only about 50 percent of TANKS MONITORED?
sperm survive the process. Are they on 24-
hour surveillance?
There are cases when freezing Do they have
is the right call, namely if you alarm systems?
have an issue that can hurt semen (To protect against
quality, such as if you’re about to temperature
undergo chemotherapy or you’re changes and liq-
uid-nitrogen leak-
in the military and want to pro- age, they should.)
tect against a worst-case scenario
that could leave you infertile. WHAT’S THE
Otherwise? “Young men do TOTAL COST?
The longer you
not need to proactively freeze put off kids, the
their sperm,” says David Ryley, more they’re go-
M.D., a reproductive endocri- ing to cost you.
nologist at Boston IVF. “If men Do the math
for more years
want to enhance their fertility,
than you think
they should do what they know you’re going to
they should be doing.” That be freezing.
being: Keep it to a max of two
drinks a day, don’t smoke, and
Prop styling: Linden Elstran
lay off the bourbon-vanilla- With thanks to Tammy
Williams of New York–
bean-truffle ice cream. (Extra based sperm-cryo-
pounds tend to equal lower banking facility Maze
sperm counts.) Spend your Laboratories.
money on better food instead.
PHOTOGRAPH BY YASU + JUNKO
 CL E R MON T
K . Y. U. S .

THIS IS WHAT STANDING UP

TO THE TASK LOOKS LIKE.

EVERY BIT EARNED

KNOB CREEK® KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY AND STRAIGHT RYE WHISKEY
50% ALC./VOL. ©2019 KNOB CREEK DISTILLING COMPANY, CLERMONT, KY.
 BODY

Why Are
Young Guys
Suddenly
Getting

OLON
What to know about the puzzling
trend you don’t want to be part of.
BY KRISTEN MASCIA

ANCER?
the model of perfect health—extremely
fit and active and a healthy eater.” But he
had stage IV colorectal cancer. For people
whose cancers have spread to distant parts
of the body, like his had, the five-year sur-
vival rate hovers around 14 percent.

K
IMMIE NG, M.D., a Boston oncologist, started noticing an alarm- Luers and so many of Dr. Ng’s other
ing trend in her work a few years ago. Men in their 20s, 30s, and young patients have asked a haunting ques-
40s—runners, CrossFitters, lifelong nonsmokers—were stream- tion: “How could I have prevented this?”
ing through her door at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. They all She and dozens of researchers around the
appeared lively and strong—yet there they were, battling colorectal cancers, country are furiously trying to find the
a family of diseases that can start in the colon or rectum and are typically answer. Watching so many young men
associated with older people and those with suddenly get hit, Dr. Ng says, “cemented
risk factors like family history and obesity. my resolve to do something about it.”
Most troubling of all, many of them were
coming in with advanced, metastatic dis- WHY THIS IS SO ALARMING
ease. One patient, 46-year-old Dan Luers, Colorectal cancers are the third-most-frequent type of new cancer in men
an Ironman finisher who worked out close to (right behind prostate and lung). And while they’re declining for older guys,
two hours a day, was given a stage IV diagno- the rates among younger Americans are on the rise. What doctors have been
sis. Every year, Dr. Ng’s concern grew. But the picking up on in their day-to-day work is only now being fully captured in
problem didn’t totally hit home until 2017, medical research and in the news. In 2017, a large NIH-funded study of inva-
when a healthy-looking marine showed up sive colorectal cancers found that people born around 1990 have double the
in her office. Just 29 years old, “he was the risk of developing colon cancer and quadruple the risk of developing rectal
youngest person I’d ever treated for this type cancer compared with those born around 1950—a finding worrisome enough
of cancer who didn’t have a family history, and to prompt the American Cancer Society to lower its recommended screen-

32 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPH BY THE VOORHES

ing age for people of average risk of colorectal co and processed meats; limit sugar; stay active. But here’s the essential
cancers from 50 to 45. If the trend continues, thing that guys often don’t do: Take notice of symptoms, especially per-
a study in JAMA Surgery predicted, by 2030 sistent changes in bowel habits, and get them checked out right away.
the rate of colon cancer will rise by 90 per-
cent and that of rectal cancer by a staggering WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR?
124 percent in people ages 20 to 34. The great majority of early-onset colorectal cancers start in the rectum,
It gets worse: New research suggests that the lowest part of the colon, which can be linked with symptoms like rectal
early-onset colorectal cancers have distinctly bleeding and constipation, says Robin Mendelsohn, M.D., a gastroenterol-
different features from what doctors are used ogist and researcher at MSK’s Center for Young Onset Colorectal Cancer.
to seeing. These cancers tend to start in other If you’re seeing blood in your stool or on the toilet paper; if you notice stools
places and mutate differently, “which gives narrowing or changing consistency; or if you have nausea, stomach pain,
us a hint that even at the earliest steps of these or bloating—any new or odd symptom that lasts “more than a couple of
cancers’ formation, something may be dif- weeks,” she says—don’t write it off. If you
ferent about them,” says Scott Kopetz, M.D., get pushback from your doc about test-
Ph.D., an oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer ing—and you might, as up to 17 percent
Center. It’s “fair to say,” he adds, that some of these could be a new version of of early-onset colorectal-cancer patients
the disease. For those keeping track, that means there may be new reasons are initially misdiagnosed, according to a
that these cancers are forming; new reasons young men are susceptible; and a recent Colorectal Cancer Alliance (CCA)
new need for alternate therapies. (See? Alarming.) survey—push right back. “When we catch
Along with Dr. Kopetz, teams of researchers at Memorial Sloan Ketter- these cancers early, we can treat them
ing Cancer Center and the new Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center at more effectively,” Dr. Mendelsohn says.
Dana-Farber are racing to figure out what’s driving these changes. One of the The CCA survey found that 71 percent
most intriguing leads is the microbiome, the diverse, teeming community of of early-onset colorectal-cancer patients
microorganisms living within us. Among the few things we know is that it’s receive a stage III or stage IV diagno-
constantly evolving. Some changes could “result in a benefit or insult to sur- sis. Only about 19 percent of early-onset
rounding cells,” notes Dana-Farber physician and scientist Marios Gianna- patients with stage IV cancers survive for
kis, M.D., Ph.D. That means the microbiome may affect cells it touches and five years, according to the most recent
possibly play into the development of disease. available federal data. But some therapies
Researchers are looking into anything that could be changing the micro- seem to be working. Surgery, chemo, and
biome and affecting these cancers. Right now they know that what you eat radiation knocked out Luers’s disease,
and what meds you take are at least part of it. Killing off bacteria with anti- and he was given a clean bill of health ear-
biotics can upset the microbiome’s balance. So may eating too much add- lier this year. Greg Mancini, 42, another of
ed sugar. (Aim for 36 grams a day max for general health.) “With anything Dr. Ng’s patients, learned of his colorectal
that modulates the microbiome,” says Dr. Giannakis, “there’s an open ques- cancer at 38. The father of two from Scar-
tion as to whether it’s good or bad. We just borough, Maine, was in terrible shape,
don’t know yet.” A new five-year, $25 mil- with cancer spreading toward his spine,
lion study led by Dana-Farber researchers when he started an immunotherapy trial
aims to tease out some answers. of two checkpoint inhibitors in 2015. Within weeks, Mancini says, the
Until the research results come in, doctors cancer retreated. “I had bulging tumors in my neck that melted like ice
say that the things that make you generally cubes. It was unbelievable.” But until that’s the standard response to
healthy probably help—maintain a healthy treatment at that stage, or until these cancers start giving up some of their
weight; eat a diet full of gut-friendly, high- secrets to Dr. Ng and her colleagues, paying attention to your body and
fiber vegetables and whole grains; avoid tobac- speaking up about it could help change the trend.

ONE WAY TO GET THROUGH COLON CANCER

SOMETIMES IT helps to have a goal outside of surviving colon can-
cer. For Tate MacDowell, 38, that was something that would help him
reclaim his body, cancer be damned. Inspired by a photo in his treat-
ment center of Grand Teton in Wyoming, MacDowell decided he would
climb it. Last summer, a year after his intended climb date, MacDowell
(pictured, on the right) made it, despite a slew of setbacks. During
chemo, “everything is so sterilized,” he says. “To get my hands dirty, to
be drinking from a river, scratching my fingers on some granite, I felt
alive.” See his story in the short film Mountain in the Hallway (on Vimeo).
 BODY

FIELD TRIP
“W E CALL THIS the awkward
shower,” says Robert
Athletes pay a lot for time in this heat lab
to learn how to handle high temps better.

Inside Huggins, Ph.D. I’m on

my knees in a tarp-lined tub while
Our writer sweats it out to see how regular
people can get an edge.

the a Ph.D. student named Cody sends

a waterfall of deionized water down
from the plastic jug he holds over
past five years have produced the
highest average temperatures ever

Sweat my head. Here at the University of

Connecticut’s Korey Stringer Insti-
recorded, and with 2019 tracking
to be hotter still, I’m hoping that my

Lab tute (KSI), they’re trying to collect

Some of us have a major
athletic advantage: the ability
to get really hot and not pass
out. CLINT CARTER goes to
a performance lab to see how
much heat he can take.
every drop of sweat I just worked up
on a bike ride. “Just scrub with your
hands wherever the water hits,” says
Huggins. “Sweat likes to hide in
those little body hairs.”
The shower is only one part of
today’s test. I’m here to find out how
my body responds to heat, having
heard that training in high temps
can make you a better athlete—if
you don’t die of heatstroke first. The
heat-lab visit will help me discover
some extra power, since I’m a cyclist
who’s comfortable toward the back of
the pack. KSI says that if I can learn
to handle the heat, I may be able to
move up, maybe even lead.
To see how I react, scientists track
my temperature and heart data. They
collect sweat from my body and clothes,
measuring its volume and electrolytes
to create a custom hydration plan to
help me perform better.

34 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPHS BY GIACOMO FORTUNATO

 m
GET BIG FOOD
RIPPED FOR
BIG DAYS
AND

BUILD
MUSCLE
AT 40+

You read that right. It’s not too late to:

GET SHREDDED
CHANGE YOUR BODY
FEEL INCREDIBLE
MensHealth.com/MuscleAfter40
15176A
BIG DAYS
ARE RIPE
WITH Under the water, I drag my fingers
through my scalp, swimsuit model–
POTENTIAL like, and it’s every bit as awkward as
Huggins warned. But then I hit the
electrodes stuck to my chest, which
brings me back to the fact that I’m
a lab rat. I even have a tail of sorts:
a thermometer poking out of my ass
with a cable that attaches to a com-
puter. It doesn’t hurt, exactly, but
every time the tail moves, I feel like
I really need a bathroom.
Moments before the awkward
shower, I was pedaling a 55-pound
flywheel hooked to a stationary bike
while technicians monitored my
heart and core body temperature
inside the $700,000 Mission Heat
Lab. The small room has the sterile
veneer of a hotel gym but with giant
fans and rolling carts of specialized
testing equipment.
The climate inside the lab can reach
110 degrees with 90 percent humidity.
Conditions like that are grueling to
work out in, but they can make ath-
letes stronger and faster—not just in
the heat but at any temperature. “It’s
like legal blood doping,” says Huggins,
who still runs competitively himself.
“If you train in high temperatures,
you’ll have performance benefits in
both the hot and cold.”
Douglas Casa, Ph.D., runs KSI and
the heat lab. In his office, surrounded
by memorabilia from organizations
he’s worked with, including the
NCAA and the NFL, he explains to
me how it works.
Before It Speeds You Up,
Heat Slows You Down
During a standard gym workout,
your skeletal muscles and heart both
require extra blood. If the gym’s AC
were to break on a hot day, “suddenly
your skin needs a lot more blood too,”
Casa says. “That’s how you cool your-
self down—you send hot blood right to
the skin’s surface so you can sweat the
heat out.” All of a sudden, your body is
trying to send blood to three places—
skin, muscles, and heart—instead of
just two. Something’s gotta give, and it
ends up being your speed and stamina.
I’m reminded of my own embar-
rassing hot-weather moment last
The lab measures every drop shed. It
found that this amount of sweat would
force Carter’s body to slow down like crazy
in four hours without adequate hydration.
year during a bikepacking trip. I’d
spent months training in 60 degree
weather in South America. When I
returned, I went straight to Fort Col-
lins, Colorado. I felt strong at the start,
but as the heat passed 90 degrees, my
legs grew heavy and my riding pals
eventually left me behind.
The problem, as Casa explains it,
was that I was AC fit but not heat fit,
so my hypothalamus—the brain’s
governor—began cutting back my
available energy. “It’s called voli-
tional exhaustion,” says Casa. “It’s so
you don’t kill yourself.”
That’s where heat training
becomes useful. In response to hot,
humid workouts, along with other
helpful physiological changes, your
body increases your blood volume—
the amount of fluid circulating in
your vessels—which makes you more
efficient at regulating temperature.
And that’s why I’m at KSI today: to
see what it feels like to work out close,
but not too close, to the threshold of
heatstroke, so I can get the benefits of
training there.
Heat Training Can Make You—
Unless It Breaks You
I can’t tell if it’s the heat or the probe
in my rectum, but I’m sweating even
before I pedal. The quickest way to
acclimate to the heat so you perform
well here is to crank your temperature
up to a level that’s just below danger-
ous. As my test progresses, Huggins’s
students periodically tap a few com-
puter keys to dial up the resistance. I
watch my temperature tick upward
on one of the wall-mounted TVs. The
goal is to hold steady between 101

and 103 degrees, and I hit that range
within ten minutes.
“When an athlete hits 104, we shut
it down,” says Huggins. Cell dam-
age generally occurs around 105.5
degrees. That’s enough to begin fry-
ing your guts like eggs, and the result
is heatstroke.
In the run-up to something like the
Ironman World Championship in
Kona, athletes pay $200 for the heat-
lab experience. By going two days
on, one day off for seven to ten days,
you can significantly increase your
blood volume and decrease your heart
rate and resting body temp. “That
alone provides 80 to 90 percent of the
heat-acclimation benefits,” says Casa.
After three weeks—if you were fit
when you started—you’re ready for
hot-weather competition at an elite
level. Without maintenance, most
of the acclimation benefits will last
for about a week or two, but with a
couple hot-weather training sessions
per week, you can hold on to these
benefits indefinitely.
But I’m not competing in Kona,
and I don’t have $200 to spend on an
FILL UP
FOR
DRINK
YOUR WAY TO THE
BIG DAYS
NEXT LEVEL
HOW WATER REGULATES
TEMPERATURE
The less you drink as you sweat,
the more your hard-earned blood
volume decreases. Which means
less cooling and either a slow-
down in pace or internal fried
eggs. “For every 1 percent body-
mass loss, your heart rate will be
three beats faster and your core
temperature will be half a degree
higher,” says Robert Huggins.
FIND YOUR OPTIMAL
WATER LEVEL
You can do a rough at-home
test of how much you should be
drinking. Subtract your weight
after a workout (add how many
ounces you drank during it)
from your weight before. If your
weight drops by 2 percent,
you’re not drinking enough. If
it increases by more than 2 per-
cent, you’re drinking too much,
which can be more dangerous
than dehydration.
hour in the gym. For me, this is about
understanding what I can do on my
own to avoid being dropped on a ride.
Learning how hot to be is a big part of
it, and I discover that I have to drink
enough, too. (See “Drink Your Way to
the Next Level,” up above.)
To prepare me for next time,
Huggins offers an at-home acclima-
tion method: Set up two space heaters
and a humidifier and crank them up
while you’re working out. Huggins
also wants you to use a rectal ther-
mometer—for accuracy and safety—
to keep your temperature between
101 and 103. Pushing your body temp
over 104 can put you in danger.
Of course, there’s always the
casual option: Spend more time
© 2018 Kellogg NA Co.
outside and less time in a climate-
controlled gym. And when the fore-
cast shows heat and humidity, make
that a training day.
 BODY
Atlas chugged: Creatine, an amino
acid, helps produce ATP, which fuels
intense exercise. The more ATP you have,
the better you can power through your work-
out, and the more strength and size you build.

Seek the Crystals

No matter how much you can curl, cre-
atine doesn’t dissolve easily in a shaker
bottle. Roussell recommends buying
a product that contains micronized
creatine. “This is creatine that’s been
broken down into smaller crystals. The
greater surface area improves its ability
to dissolve into water,” he says. One good
brand: Creapure, which scientists use reg-
ularly in studies and which has a long track
record of safety and purity, Roussell says.

Turn Off the ’Lytes

There’s no need to pay more for a cre-
atine with added sodium, magnesium, or
other electrolytes. These nutrients may
support exercise performance, endur-
ance, and recovery, yes. But electrolytes
don’t enhance creatine’s effects, Roussell
says. If you want electrolytes with your
creatine supplement, just mix the pow-
der with a sports drink.

Count Your Carbs

Carbohydrates help drive creatine
into your muscles, says Roussell, who
adds that most studies show a benefit from
80 to 100 grams of carbohydrates. If you’re
low-carb, don’t freak out. “Forty grams
SUPPLEMENT LAB is likely sufficient and still better than

Power Up Your just creatine alone,” Jagim says. Some

creatine powders contain carbs, and mix-
ing with a sports drink works here too.

Creatine Look for This Seal

Since the FDA doesn’t evaluate supple-
This nutrient helps generate ATP, fuel for explosive exercise. ments, you need to CYA. Luckily, all you
More ATP equals more gym reps. The right bottle of creatine have to do is check for the NSF Interna-
can boost mass and strength. The wrong one can do nothing. tional “Certified for Sport” mark. This
BRITTANY RISHER explains how to tell the difference. seal means that the product contains
what the label says it does, has been test-
ed for contaminants and for substances
Go Monohydrate Prioritize Powders banned by major athletic organizations,
Most research done on the amino acid “Creatine is not stable in liquid and is made at a facility audited twice
creatine shows that creatine mono- solution,” Jagim explains. “That’s one annually for quality and safety.
hydrate is the safest, most effective reason you have to mix powders well and
form of the supplement, says Andrew drink them quickly.” So skip the liquid The Bottom Line
Jagim, Ph.D., director of sports-medi- creatine. And unless you love taking Choose micronized creatine-monohy-
cine research at the Mayo Clinic Health pills, skip those too. You generally have drate powder (write all that down if you
System. Other forms (ethyl ester, hydro- to swallow two to five capsules daily to have to) with the NSF seal on the label.
chloride, magnesium chelate) are usually achieve the recommended five-gram Just make sure you’re taking in some car-
more expensive and don’t have the same dosage, says Mike Roussell, Ph.D., Men’s bohydrates with your creatine. They help
breadth and depth of scientific backing. Health nutrition advisor. your muscles absorb the supplement.

38 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH ILLUSTRATION BY BEN MOUNSEY-WOOD

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 GRAB
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 48 ............................. TIMEFOR SOME
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TRAVE
O W TO L
H

FRI E N D S
Work. Kids. Spouses. Those are just excuses.
Planning a getaway with your buddies can (we
promise!) be as enjoyable as the actual excursion
itself. All you need is a little foresight, some
self-appointed authority, and the advice of Men’s
Turn the page for more.
Health travel experts (including Guy Fieri!).
MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 41
 LIFE

How to organize a yearly trip

with two childhood friends when
everyone’s ridiculously busy. H OW
THE PROS
DO IT
EACH YEAR, I go on a four-day vacation with the same two HAVE ROLES.
childhood friends. We live in different cities, and it’s the One person does the cook-
only time we see one another. Nothing about it is easy to ing, say. One person gets the
pull off. If you count kids and spouses, there are 11 people fire going. One person makes
affected by the trip. That we did it once is a kind of feat. drinks. Everyone cleans up. GUY FIERI,
That we’ve now done it six times in the past eight years is (And if you’re the organizer, chef, restaurateur
“I just returned from Italy
a kind of miracle. Except for the destination—the Rockies see “Plan the Trip, Then Invite
and used WhatsApp to
(twice), southeastern Oklahoma (underrated!), Austin, Your Friends.”) keep everyone tuned in.

Previous page: Johan Lolos (men in camper and on rocks). Clare B. Healy/The Outbound (guys on bikes). Josh Soskin/TheLicensingProject.com (baseball game). Thomas Barwick/Getty Images (backflip).
the Catskills (twice)—each trip is more or less the same: It It’s a great resource for
involves renting a great house with a gas grill and a fire pit, ROTATE MASTER-SUITE communication, espe-
PRIVILEGES. cially internationally.”
near some sort of active travel opportunity, usually hik-
Nothing about a vacation
ing. Beyond that, we follow these unwritten (and mostly
with friends is more awkward
unspoken) guidelines.
than that moment after
GO SOMEWHERE WITHIN apparently Cheetos are a you’ve all just arrived, and
DRIVING DISTANCE OF ONE lesser snack. (Whatever, man.) you’re looking around the
OF YOUR HOMETOWNS. house, and it becomes
What the host friend saves in FIGURE OUT THE FINAN- clear that one person is
KILIAN JORNET,
flight cost is spent on getting CIAL SITUATION EARLY. going to sleep in a palace
ultrarunner
groceries for the house. That Liquid funds may be tight bedchamber while everyone “Above all else, I
way, you’re fully provisioned for one of you this year. Might else gets a closet and a long always pack running
from the outset and the rest be good to donate some walk down a cold hall to the clothes and shoes.
of you don’t have to waste air miles to that friend, or to john. Cycle through the My favorites are Salo-
mon’s S/Lab Sense 7.”
the first hour and a half of split the cost of the Airbnb master so that there’s no
the trip at Foodtown looking between two people instead uncomfortable discussion at
for Cheez Doodles because of three. the very beginning of the trip.

PLAN THE NEXT

TRIP DURING THE
ONE YOU’RE ON.
The annual trip dies ANDREW ZIMMERN,
without constant professional traveler
attention. So take “I bring soft-sided
Yeti coolers on road
advantage of your
trips. If I go by a fantastic
time together to smoked-fish house,
rough out next year’s I’m buying some and
plan. It won’t be need to keep the food

G U Y-T R I P R U L E S NO. 122:

42 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

 EASIES
E T
O

TH

:
CC N
ASIO

FOR TWO-PLUS decades,

I’ve logged more than 50 road
trips to see games, mostly in
support of the Oregon Ducks
and Seattle Mariners. Over
that stretch of triumph and
tragedy, I’ve learned what
it takes to squeeze victory
out of any sports roader.
—CHUCK THOMPSON

1
RESERVE THE
MINIVAN NOW.
Yours isn’t the only
posse driving to that
huge rivalry game.
Guarantee a car rental
with a credit card
This is the ultimate low-commitment months in advance.
outdoor-adventure trip.

2
REP EN ROUTE.
Nothing emphasizes
your trip’s theme like
M O U N TA I N B I K I N G.Night trail running. Rock climbing. Sunrise unplanned encounters
with easily identifiable
stand-up paddleboarding. It all looks great on your friends’ social feeds, fans at gas stations
sure. But if you have no idea how to mountain bike and don’t want to feel and in motel parking
Don Penny (badge). Jake Stangel (boat). Mireya Acierto/Getty Images (Fieri). Daniel Petty/Getty Images (Jornet). Noam Galai/Getty Images (Zimmern).

lots within a 400-mile

like an idiot trying it for the first time on a $3,000 trip with your former range of the venue. It’s
housemates, the Pursuit Series by Outbound feels your pain. These three- the true meaning of
extended family.
day weekends—at the Snowbasin Resort in Huntsville, Utah; in Bear Val-

3
ley, California; and in Green River Preserve, North Carolina, this year—let PAY THE PRICE.
Don’t be scared
you fill up on sessions (30 minutes to three and a half hours each) in which of dudes with NEED
expert guides and pro athletes show novices the ropes in a range of extreme TICKETS signs if you
can’t find a deal. The
sports. It’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet of adventure activities. price might blow your
If the tricked-out main tent and fancy campground (with a glamp- Fireball budget, but it
Sean Tulgetske (patch design and illustrations throughout). Ryan J. Lane/Getty Images (men fishing).

likely won’t be a fake.

ing option, but stay with us) sound super Insta-friendly, well . . . they

4
are. But the real-deal instructors, and their desire to help you love new PREPARE TO LOSE.
outdoor interests, make it worth the $399 and up (depending on your The most agonizing
return trip is the one
accommodations and when you sign up) price tag. Commitment-phobes following a beat-
down. Don’t sched-
can purchase one-day passes for $225. pursuit.theoutbound.com ule stops or side trips
—MARTY MUNSON on the way home.

W H E N YO U CA N ’ T G E T AWAY
How to organize a dudes’ day.
OF COURSE, budgets get tight, and time gets limited, and
getting out of town with your buddies becomes a logistical
implausibility. So try cramming all the benefits and hall-
marks of a guy trip into a single day with your local friends.
Send a text a month or two in advance, and clear the pro-
posed date with respective partners who won’t be attend-
ing. Loosely frame the day around an event, like a fantasy
draft or a streetball tourney. Pick your starting location, and
have a place in mind where you’re going to end up. Doesn’t
matter that they might be just two miles apart—this is a trip
of the soul. Open up the invite for partners to join in later in
the day; they’re nearby, after all. —MATT GOULET

NO. 38: Extra toilet paper. NO. 264: A pack of 23-year-old girls from Orlando is fun at the bar now but

MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 43

 LIFE
How to tour Europe with
an acquaintance.
TWO DAYS AFTER I graduated from col-
lege, I moved to Osnabrück, Germany, to
play professional football. I’d never been
outside the U. S., and the gig, which covered
all of my living expenses with a monthly
salary and a club car to boot, provided loads
of downtime. Suddenly, Western Europe’s
accessible rail system and Germany’s
Autobahn were wide open to me.
Yet I had no idea where to go. The far-
thest away from home I had been was Little
Rock, Arkansas. Thankfully, my American
teammate and housemate, Mitch, was
three years older, spoke passable German,
and was totally undiscerning about travel
companions. For him, travel was social.
You did it with someone else—even if you
barely knew the person. And even if you
were opposites in every regard.
He was a planner, an analytical decider
who used simple logic to dictate what he
wanted to do and how. He made checklists
of sights before every trip. I just wanted to
can be hard to shake at 2:00 A . M .
44 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH
which alley is the best alley. Together, we
found the best alleys.
He taught me a lot about travel, but the
most surprising thing was: There’s no
shame in a walking tour. You’ll knock
out the big sights and acquire a list of
secondary places to hit the next day.
I don’t think I would’ve fully experienced
Hamburg, Berlin, Amsterdam, or even
Osnabrück if I’d gone with someone other
than Mitch. His ability to plan was one
reason. But the other was that I didn’t
know him very well at the start. He was
more of a partner than a friend. I wasn’t
laughing with an old buddy over a well-
worn inside joke while walking through
the Brandenburg Gate or bickering with
the Cologne Cathedral.
focusing on what we’re
all ostensibly looking
for when we travel:
the unknown.
—BRETT WILLIAMS
NO. 14:
PLAN
T H E T R I P,
THEN INVITE
YO U R F R I E N D S
How to make it happen
by sheer force of will.
THIS PAST YEAR, I wanted only
one thing out of my summer: to
fly to Dublin to celebrate becom-
ing an Irish citizen (long story)
and have my closest friends join
me. This meant embracing my
role as the trip organizer.
In previous years, that involved
a blizzard of logistics—shared
Google spreadsheets, surveys to
sync up optimal dates and bud-
gets, and meetups over beers to
debate which Airbnb carried the
lowest risk of dank smells and
cat paintings.
I had a hunch that my friends—
most of whom were juggling the
responsibilities of new father-
hood—found the ritual as irritat-
ing as I did. My travel-planning
hack: Be selfish.
I booked the flight I wanted.
And I picked a house. If we
reached critical mass, I’d reserve
it; if not, I’d adjust.
“I went ahead and made a
plan,” I wrote. “I’m going no
matter what—you can choose
to join me or not. Let me know
by the end of the week.”
Brian Finke/Gallery Stock (people drinking)
I’m hoping someone else
If you’re bringing the
 THE ULTIMATE
GUY-TRIP CITY:
Nashville
A little music, a little
drinking, a little
adventure—all done in
a single weekend in the
new capital of the South.
EVERY TRIP to Nashville should begin with music, so head over to
Robert’s Western World the night you get in. The venue features
the best local talent. Spend the early part of your next day kayak-
ing beneath the skyline with Cumberland Kayak. Later, check out
Pinewood, a mildly hip hangout with bowling and cocktails. To do the
hot-chicken thing, try Hattie B’s. Or go upriver and catch a game at
First Tennessee Park, a minor-league ballpark with cheap beer and
Friday fireworks. Join a brewery tour at Yazoo Brewing Company.
Then it’s back in town for the nightlife on Broadway. On the way out,
stop by Jim ’N Nick’s Bar-B-Q on the west side.

How to break out of
a vacation rut and still
be an easy traveler.
MOST OF MY friend-based travel in
the course of a year typically adds up
to weekend getaways and a week-
long retreat to the same beachside
Florida condo I’ve been going to since
Courtesy Hattie B’s (restaurant). Westend 61/Getty Images (men on mountain).
I was a kid. Every time the calendar
turns over, I can account for how my
vacation days will be parceled out: at
upstate campsites with city friends
and in a worn beach chair next to peo-
ple I’ve known since high school.
The joy of these consistent, small
excursions is the familiarity and ease
with which everyone operates. We
know where the best mai tais are and
who likes to turn in early.
But as those same friends went out
on far-flung adventures, I started
to think I might be limiting myself.
I was in a vacation rut.
When the opportunity came to tag
along with a group of virtual strang-
ers on a trek around the Andes and
Machu Picchu in Peru, I shirked the
annual beach-bum-athon and learned
how to take a trip. Kind of.
Because the thing is, you can shake
yourself out of a routine. But if you’re a
person who hates planning your usual
vacations, you won’t hate planning
any less when it’s a big, ambitious
adventure. Instead, pony up for an
inclusive tour. Find eco-based,
locally run businesses that will map
out your routes, ensure you see the
sights you want to check off, and make
most of your dining decisions for you.
I was told when to wake up and
where to be, and then briefed on
the next day’s hikes each evening.
The built-in logistics created the
same familiarity and ease that I
cherish in my go-to vacations,
no mai tai necessary.
I hiked past llamas through
high altitudes to aquamarine glacial
lakes and got an incredible history
lesson on Incan civil engineering.
It’ll give me something to talk about
next time I’m in my beach chair in
Florida. —M. G.

friend who always gets a little aggressive when drunk, also bring the friend who always defuses him.

45
 Produced by +

1 2
Fort Zachary Taylor Beach | Florida Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument | Colorado
Turtles, dolphins,
S C R AT C H
barracuda and parrot
+ fish are just a few
SNIFF of the species you’ll
see while snorkeling,
fishing or scuba Nestled beneath a grassy
diving off the ground mountain in central Colorado,
coral shoreline of you’ll discover wildflower
this tropical Key West meadows, geological formations,
beach. And history RATC petrified redwood stumps,
C

H
buffs will love touring AND thousands of prehistoric insect

S
Fort Taylor, which SNIFF and plant fossils and lots of
predates the Civil War. nearby camping options.

FOUR MILESTONE R OA D T R I P S
Remarkable road trips begin with an RV. So gather your friends or
family and hit the open road for an adventure you’ll never forget.

SCRATCH & SNIFF THIS

PAGE TO GET A WHIFF
OF WHAT AWAITS

4
M-119 and the Tunnel of Trees Uwharrie National Forest | North Carolina
| Michigan With more than
50,000 acres spread
SCRATCH out over 80 square
& miles, Uwharrie
SNIFF National Forest is
home to spectacular
scenery, wildlife and
Winding along the shore
trails for hiking, biking, AT CH
CR
of Lake Michigan, this iconic, S
running and horseback
20-mile stretch of road was
riding—along with
made for RVing. Experience
several picturesque RV
the wonders of the forest on A

3
F

campgrounds. ND IF
SN
this lush, tree-lined highway—
with charming small towns
and delicious cuisine and
coffee stops along the way.

For more roadtrip ideas visit GoRVing.com.

No dress code. No deadlines. No to-dos or have-tos.
 LIFE

M E N ’S H E A L T H
B E ST

FOOD The Cream

of the Crop
FO R
MEN

ice cream does not involve fava-

bean protein concentrate. Or soy
milk. Or even coconut milk. No,
the best ice cream is . . . ice cream.
The kind with cow’s milk and
cane sugar. And as long as you’re
picking a pint that contains
fewer than 200 calories and less
than 20 grams of total sugar per
½ cup, you’re fine, says Valerie
Goldstein, R.D., founder of Eating
Too many varieties we tested The ice cream nerds at Breyers
to Fuel Health. We taste-tested 36 suffered from an overriding sweet- figured out how to put a billion chunks of
varieties that hit those nutritional ness that overwhelmed the vanilla. But this dark-chocolate “truffles” into dark-choco-
criteria and stopped just short of one? “Whoooooooaaa baby. Vanilla! Vanilla! late ice cream and still keep the calories in
Vanilla!” wrote one enthusiastic taster. You check. “Crazy chocolate,” one taster said.
screaming for these winners. don’t even need toppings. “Like, get this ice cream to a sanatorium.”
PER ½ CUP: 195 calories, 4g protein, 10g fat, PER ½ CUP: 170 calories, 3g protein, 9g fat,
23g carbs (23g sugar) 21g carbs (17g sugar)
FIND IT AT: Target, the Fresh Market, Walmart FIND IT: Anywhere

“Cookie punch! Cream kick!” one

taster, who may or may not have
been the “Vanilla!” person, wrote.
Tillamook’s version isn’t too sweet, unlike
many of the C&C varieties tested. It balances
things out with vanilla bean and distributes
the cookie crumbles evenly throughout.
PER ½ CUP: 170 calories, 3g protein, 9g fat,
18g carbs (17g sugar)
FIND IT AT: Stop & Shop, Walmart
One black-coffee-loving
taster said it was “weak coffee,” but another
compared it to a “well-poured latte left in
the freezer accidentally.” Hey, you could
always top it with a few chocolate-covered
espresso beans.
PER ½ CUP: 143 calories, 2g protein, 9g fat,
14g carbs (14g sugar)
FIND IT AT: Whole Foods, natural-food stores
Several tasters expressed some
skepticism over the idea of “roast-
ing” strawberries for any purpose, but it
works. “It’s got that Big Berry Energy (BBE),”
affirmed one. That’s because after whole
milk, strawberries are the second ingredient.
PER ½ CUP: 140 calories, 3g protein, 6g fat,
20g carbs (19g sugar)
FIND IT AT: Whole Foods

BEAT THE FREEZE: Ice cream too frozen to scoop? Put away the hacksaw and run your ice cream scoop under hot water
for ten seconds. Then scoop from the edges of the container, where, due to the packaging, the ice cream won’t be as hard.

48 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPHS BY TED + CHELSEA CAVANAUGH

 SEKTION/VEDDINGE
Kitchen
$
*
1399*
Based on a 10αx10α kitchen

©Inter IKEA Systems B.V. 2019

A helping hand shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Find double the storage in your drawers within drawers, multitask with
cabinets that spring open to your touch, and let integrated lighting help
Highest in Customer
you ⇒nd the perfect ingredients.* With designs so affordable, you don’t
Satisfaction with
need to hold off on building a dream kitchen that’s made just for you. Kitchen Cabinets
Learn more at IKEA-USA.com/kitchens

SEKTION cabinet frames in white melamine foil. VEDDINGE doors/drawer fronts in painted ⇒nish. MAXIMERA drawers in
powder-coated steel and melamine foil. Shown with BAGGANÄS handles/knobs in brass-plated stainless steel.
*The total price includes cabinets, fronts, interior ⇒ttings, hinges, cover panels, plinths, legs, drawers, and doors. Your choice
of countertops, knobs/handles, sinks, faucets, lighting and appliances are sold separately. Tax, delivery and assembly not
included. Requires assembly. See IKEA store or IKEA-USA.com for limited warranty, country of origin and 10'x10' details.
Valid in US only.

For J.D. Power 2018 award information, visit jdpower.com/awards

 LIFE

FA S T, E A SY, C H E A P :

The Idiotproof Omelet

WHAT’S 30/10? The minimum grams of protein and fiber,
30 respectively, you need at each meal to help you build muscle
10 and prevent between-meal hunger. This month: a filling, fueling,
egg-tastic breakfast (or brunch, or lunch, or dinner). BY PAUL KITA

Small bowls: Ted + Chelsea Cavanaugh. Food styling: Michelle Gatten.

Food styling: Victoria Granoff. Prop styling: Pam Morris.

50 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPHS BY MIKE GARTEN

 THE FIBER
One large egg contains six grams of protein and all nine essential
amino acids, particularly the muscle-building leucine. But what about the
cholesterol, you say? New research states that dietary cholesterol (i.e., the
kind always associated with egg consumption) doesn’t negatively affect
your blood cholesterol and may in fact improve it.

BU Y IT C OOK I T Three-Egg Spinach Omelet

with Sharp Cheddar

Brown, blue, Too many short-order cooks at diners ruin omelets by

white, speckled, burning the eggs over too-high heat. Coax them to perfection
organic—all eggs over a low flame—and work in some greens while you’re at it.
have the same
protein, fat, and
carbohydrate WHAT YOU’LL NEED 1. In a large nonstick over the cheese.
content. That pan, melt the butter Then carry the
1 TBSP BUTTER
said, all eggs over medium- pan to the serving
1 HANDFUL FRESH low heat. Add the plate and use the
do not taste the BA BY S P I N AC H
same. Eggland’s spinach and saute spatula to gently
3 L A R G E EG G S,
Best is a good B E AT E N W E L L until just wilted, guide the omelet
grocery pick. ¼ CUP SHREDDED 1 to 2 minutes. Add to the plate,
S H A R P C H E D DA R the eggs and cook, continuing to roll
undisturbed, until
set, 3 to 4 minutes. it sits in a tube-

2. Top the eggs

evenly with the NUTRITION:
cheese. With a 435 calories, 26g
spatula, fold the protein, 3g carbs
edge of the eggs (1g fiber), 35g fat

UPGRADE IT You can make this omelet even more delicious with any one
of the steps that follow. You can even do all three (show-off).

5
MINUTES
10
MINUTES
15
MINUTES

MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 51

 LIFE

THE RE
TU

RN
OF
ROCCO
Rocco DiSpirito was the celebrity chef, and he seemed to have
it all—until he didn’t. With a new restaurant, and a new focus
on healthy cooking, he takes TYLER KORD on his journey—
from where he was to why he disappeared to why he’s back
in a place he never should have left: the kitchen.

T
HERE HE IS —the former executive chef
of the revolutionary Union Pacific in New
York, the cookbook writer, the TV star, and
now a line cook again for the first time in
25 years. Rocco DiSpirito is cooking me dinner at
the Standard Grill in Manhattan, and first out of
the kitchen is a strangely delicious cracker (Rocco’s
Game Changing Toast), full of seeds and topped with
salmon. There’s a mountain of raw seafood: oysters,
chunks of tuna tossed with golden osetra caviar, and
a tiny bay scallop in its shell with uni and tomato
water. There are three courses of marinated, skew-
ered, charcoal-grilled things, like teeny-tiny squid,
ramps, and almost every part of a chicken, internal

52 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARCUS NILSSON

 LIFE
and external. We could stop right there,
but then comes a risotto full of truffles
and the reddest shrimp I’ve ever seen,
followed by short ribs that have been
poached in a plastic bag for exactly three
days, then smoked and served to us, still
bright red inside, tender, but with the fla-
vor of barbecued brisket. I take the short-
rib bone and a couple of scraps home to
cook beans with, it’s so good.
It was one of the more remarkable
meals I’ve had lately, which is all the more
remarkable because my first meeting
The Chronicles of Rocco (from left): DiSpirito appearing as a guest on The Biggest Loser in
2008; on Wake Up Call in 2014; and working a stove at the Standard Grill in New York City today.
with DiSpirito a few days prior was so
unremarkable. I visited the Standard
an hour before dinner service, thinking
that we would chat, maybe cook together
a little, and then chat some more while
I watched him plate. But frankly, it was
weird. We talked and I recorded, but he
seemed a bit wary of me, and I didn’t get
a whole lot more than the press release
about why he wants to cook healthy food.
DiSpirito seemed to downplay his incred-
ible, varied, and at times curious career.
“I think people are trying to figure out
a way to make my return a bigger story,”
he told me. “I had a restaurant, I did TV, I
wrote books. Now I’m doing a restaurant
again. It’s pretty basic math, right?”
54 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH
Maybe to DiSpirito it’s basic math.
To the rest of us—to anyone who’s had
a career that snaked and twisted—it’s
more like advanced calculus. Why would
someone who has had enormous success,
his legacy and retirement already well
taken care of, return to sweat and toil in
the trenches night after night?
IN MY YOUNGER and more vulnerable
years, while I was at culinary school in
2002, Rocco DiSpirito and his restau-
rant Union Pacific were a very, very big
deal. He wasn’t the most famous chef in
the world (though he was well on his way),
but he was the chef that all the young
cooks wanted to be. What he was doing
was new, exciting, and too expensive for
us to taste or understand. I didn’t read
restaurant reviews back then, but I knew
he was critically adored. He was just 36
and good-looking, and he personified
the youthful dream of a career: success
without a lifetime of backbreaking work.
Of course, I realize now that even a few
years in this business can seem like
a lifetime of backbreaking work, but
Rocco made it all look so easy.
DiSpirito was born in Queens in 1966,
started cooking professionally when
he was a kid in the late ’70s, graduated
from culinary school while he was still
mostly a kid in 1986, cooked in a bunch
of restaurants until he wasn’t really a
kid anymore in the late ’80s and early
’90s, opened Union Pacific in 1997 and
ran it for about six years before opening
Rocco’s, a restaurant dedicated to his
beloved mother’s cooking, in 2002 and
then closing both in 2004.
He was even the subject of a reality-
television show called The Restaurant,
which was canceled when Rocco’s closed.
Since leaving the restau-
rant industry, DiSpirito
has written more than
a dozen cookbooks, ap-
peared on tons of cooking
shows, performed ques-
tionably on Dancing with
the Stars, and at no point
cooked in a professional
restaurant kitchen to
make a living.
Being a chef and
running a restaurant is
stressful—I can tell you
that from experience.
Trying to do it after having
taken such a long hiatus to
do things that many see as
“selling out” is on another
level altogether.
“I didn’t have a set plan;
I just let the universe
nudge me and respond to
things that I like and don’t
like and see where it takes
me,” DiSpirito says. He goes on: “And
writing books and doing Dancing with
the Stars never killed anyone. Although
Getty Images (left). The Everett Collection (middle). Marcus Nilsson (right).
my dancing may have killed some people
who were watching.”
There was more going on in his life than
what the world saw. In 2004, the same
year DiSpirito’s restaurants and reality
show ended, his mother, Nicolina, had a
heart attack. “I felt like I needed to take
care of her and make sure that she was
comfortable. I went to her house every
day and made sure she had all the care
that she needed.” DiSpirito’s mom had
lived in an apartment above Rocco’s, and
he was her full-time caregiver for nearly
ten years. “She died in front of me in the
 LIFE

emergency room,” DiSpirito says, recall-

ing the doctors using AFib paddles to try
to bring her back to life. And in caring
for his mother, he found a new passion:
health. He entered triathlons and wrote
cookbooks about healthy eating.
So now DiSpirito is back with a menu
at the Standard that is virtually devoid
of gluten and dairy and full of organic
produce, yet it feels as fancy and indul-
gent as his food has ever been. To him, it’s
a logical path.
“I think in a long career, you proba-
bly need a couple of breaks in order to
come back and be as good as you were,”
DiSpirito says. It’s in that last part—as
good as you were—that I begin to sense
just a hint of something else that moti-
vates him.
At lunch a few days later, I ask DiSpirito
how he feels about the backward nature
of his recent critical success. He says that
when he opened Union Pacific, he just
kept his head down and cooked his ass Rocco’s Parsley Orzo with Clams
off. But it wasn’t enough—not to drive
the kind of business that a Manhattan This recipe, adapted from one by DiSpirito, combines gluten-free pasta
address demands to pay the rent, even with fresh shellfish in a dish that is light and satisfying.
back then. He was surrounded by people
pushing him to market himself, to sell W H AT YO U ’ L L N E E D 1. In a medium pot of 3. Add the white wine
salted water, boil the orzo and cook until the
himself. So he did it, and it worked.
1 2 OZ GLUTEN-FREE ORZO  according to package liquid reduces by half,
“So why do they all resent you for it?” I instructions. 3 to 5 minutes. Add
¼ CUP OLIVE OIL
ask. Even recent (and glowing!) reviews of 2. While the pasta boils, the clam juice and the
2 C LOV E S GA R L I C,
the Standard Grill have offered snide jabs F I N E LY S L I C E D place a large pan over clams. Cover the pan
at his more commercial past. medium heat and add the with a lid and cook
⅛ TSP CRUSHED
RED-PEPPER FLAKES  olive oil and garlic. Cook, until the clams open,
His response: “I don’t know. Do you?” stirring frequently, until about 3 minutes.
I definitely don’t. I understand the ½ CUP CHOPPED CLAMS
the garlic is golden brown, 4. Adjust the heat to
push. I think anyone, in any job, can. You ½ CUP WHITE WINE about 2 minutes. Add the low and add the orzo
1 CUP CLAM JUICE crushed red-pepper flakes and chopped parsley.
don’t have to be a chef to know the differ-
2 5 L I T T L E N EC K C L A M S, and chopped clams and Stir to combine and
ence between satisfaction and success, SCRUBBED AND RINSED stir to coat. Cook, stirring, cook, stirring, until
the first being a feeling of wholeness you ½ TBSP CHOPPED till well incorporated, well incorporated,
derive from your job and the second being I TA L I A N PA R S L E Y about 1 minute. about 1 minute.
a feeling of where you are in relation to
where you think everyone else is. The
first offers serenity. The second brings
frustration, stress, or sheer mundanity in “The more you care, the harder you Maybe the reason for the jabs is that
its pursuit. The difference for DiSpirito, work. Not caring is not fun for me,” people saw blind ambition driving him.
it seems, is that he’s always defined DiSpirito says. “There’s no reason to Because that’s what propels success,
success as satisfaction. He wrote healthy come back into this business and end up right? Except that, for DiSpirito at
cookbooks because he says he genuinely in a place where you don’t care. I think least, success is driven more by desire
felt he was helping improve the lives of some people are surprised by how much I and obligation.
others. He went on Dancing with the Stars care. I think they were just expecting me I ask what’s next for him—since, you
because, get this, it was his mom’s favor- to phone it in. And I was like, ‘No, that’s know, he always seems to have something
ite show. And he returned to restaurants not really how I do things. If you want me else in the works.
nearly 15 years after he left because the here, it’s going to be 100 percent me and “Service tonight,” he says. “I just got
opportunity felt right. everything that comes with it.’ ” started here, you know? This is next.”

56 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

 PROMOTE A
HEALTHY colon
Grapes have over 1,600 natural
plant compounds
Research into the potential impact to our health when
consuming grapes suggests that the whole grape—
which contains over 1,600 natural plant compounds,
including antioxidants and other polyphenols—offers
a range of intriguing health benefits when included in
our daily diet.

Help support a healthy colon

Grapes may help promote a healthy colon. In a
preliminary study of individuals with colon cancer,
researchers found that consuming about 2½ cups of
grapes every day for two weeks showed a significant
reduction in the expression of certain target genes
responsible for promoting tumor growth in the
colon.* Additional human studies will be important
to fully understand the role of grapes in this vital
area of health.

A whole bunch of healthy

Scientists at some of the nation’s most prestigious
research institutions continue to study the potential
health benefits derived from eating grapes every
day. California’s fresh-grape farmers are committed
to supporting continued research on grapes and their
impact on heart health, eye health, brain health, joint
health and cell health. For now, just remember to...

Go with grapes every day for

a whole bunch of healthy.

GrapesfromCalifornia.com

*Nguyen, A.V.; Marinez, M.; Stamos, M.J.; Moyer, M.P.; Planutis, K.; Hope, C.; and Holcombe, R.F. (2009). Results of a phase I clinical trial examining the effect of plant-derived resveratrol and
grape powder on Wnt pathway target gene expression in colonic mucosa and colon cancer. Journal of Cancer Management and Research, 1, 25–37.
 LIFE

MENU DECODER

How to Eat at
Panera
This chain offers a lot
of healthy choices. But for START THE DAY SMART
Muffins aren’t good picks any-
every salad, there’s a where, even if they have “clean”
bread bowl filled with ingredients (see below). Case in
point: Panera’s Cranberry Orange
mac ’n’ cheese waiting Muffin, which has 480 calories
to derail your diet. and 71 grams of carbs, 40 of
which are sugar, and only 2 grams
PAUL KITA gives you four of fiber and 6 grams of protein.
tips for ordering smarter. Instead, order the Avocado, Egg
White & Spinach on Sprouted
Grain Bagel Flat, which has
21 grams of protein, 7 grams of
fiber, and only 5 grams of sugar—
all for 410 calories.

HAIL CAESAR! FIGHT DESSERT

Panera has many salads that hit WITH SOUP
the magic hunger-delaying, mus- Pastries and double fudge
cle-building number of 30 grams brownies tempt those left
of protein. (The Asian Sesame unsatisfied, so better to fill
Salad with Chicken and the up on fiber. Order an apple
Southwest Chile Lime Ranch (4 grams of fiber), banana
Salad with Chicken are good, (3), or sprouted grain roll
low-sugar options.) But a whole (3) as your side. Or tack on a
order of its Caesar Salad with bowl of Cream of Chicken
Chicken (pictured) reigns & Wild Rice (2 grams of
supreme with 34 grams of pro- fiber, 310 calories) or Ten
tein for only 1 gram of sugar and Vegetable Soup (4 grams
450 calories. Even the dressing is of fiber, 100 calories).
relatively low calorie. “Higher-fiber meals can

@panerabread (bagel flat). @bruceperez15 (Caesar salad). @lisacannon917 (soup and salad). @_lindee (drinks).
take longer to eat and are
digested slower,” says Mike
Roussell, Ph.D., author of
The MetaShred Diet and an
SIP CAREFULLY MH advisor. Effect: You’ll
Ignore the health halos that hover over feel fuller and keep up your
most of Panera’s beverages. Every smoothie energy level, and you’ll
has at least 29 grams of sugar and not enough be less likely to reach for a
fiber to help blunt blood-sugar-spiking sweet snack in a few hours.
effects. Some of its other drinks are culprits,
too. A large Passion Papaya Green Tea has
31 grams of sugar. A large Blood Orange
Lemonade has 63—about as much as a 20
oz Dr Pepper. If you need something to drink,
the unsweetened brewed iced tea and the
Plum Ginger Hibiscus Tea are zero calorie.

WHAT
“CLEAN”
MEANS Food Research International. The term clean isn’t regulated, so businesses like Panera decide. Just know up to 73
percent of people were happy to pay more if a product had a clean and clear ingredients list, reports a 2017 survey.

58 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

 LIFE

STYLE

How to heat-proof your warm-weather wardrobe.

FOR ALL THE AWESOME parts of late summer (cookouts! beaches!), there are fac- Jacket ($40) by
Uniqlo; Dryknit
tors (swampy undercarriage, pitting out) that make it a sweaty slog, and looking T-shirt ($42) by Mack
good in hot weather usually comes at the cost of staying cool and dry. That is, until Weldon; trousers
recently. Some of our favorite clothes this summer come with heat-resistant upgrades, starting ($130) by Tommy
Hilfiger; sunglasses
with this seersucker Uniqlo jacket in an ultralight quick-dry fabric to minimize any excess ($153) by Ray-Ban.
sweating. For more seasonal standouts with secret powers, turn the page.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEFF VALLEE MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 61

 LIFE

THE SWIMSUIT
Secret Power: A chafe-
free quick-dry liner.
Hill City took traditional elastic-
waist swim trunks and replaced
the clingy, chafing lining with the

in gym shorts. Plus, the suit has

UV protection.

Easy Swim shorts ($68) by Hill City;

Prospex watch ($450) by Seiko.

The Shades
Secret Power: Self-adjusting
lenses.
Ray-Ban’s new Evolve lenses
($183) automatically lighten or
darken depending on the level
of light exposure.

Kevin Sweeney/Studio D (shoe, sunglasses). Styling: Ted Stafford. Grooming: Stacy Skinner/Brydges Mackinney. Prop styling: Miako Katoh. Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4X4.
THE SHORTS-AND-
TEE COMBO
Secret Power:  Breathable versatility.
These breathable, moisture-wicking
tops and cotton-nylon shorts let you
go straight from beach to bar.

Left: Sweatshirt ($100) by Southern Tide;

Anywhere shorts ($68) by Bonobos;
shoes ($72) by SeaVees. Right: T-shirt
($25) by Gap; Surfstretch shorts ($109)
by Birdwell Beach Britches; shoes ($96)
by Sea Star Beachwear.

The Boat Shoe (2.0)

Secret Power: Environmentally
friendly sun protection.
Sperry has made a version of its clas-
sic Top-Sider ($100) from recycled
bottles and imbued it with UV pro-
tection to guard the tops of your feet.

62 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

 The Watch
Secret Power: A sweat-
beating band.
Shinola’s new lower-price
watches, the Detrola line ($395),
switch out the leather strap for
nylon to reduce wrist sweat.

Secret Power: Moisture-

wicking stretch.
Descente has given the stan-
dard golf polo ($80) an athletic
edge with a high-stretch fabric.

The Duffel
Secret Power: Built-in charger.
All the stuff on these pages? It’s
just about everything you need
for a weekend getaway. And it
all fits in this water-resistant,
stink-free Mack Weldon
weekend duffel ($148) with
a charger.

THE HAWAIIAN SHIRT

Secret Power: All-natural
performance.
Kevin Sweeney/Studio D (watch, shirt, bag)

When the Hawaiian shirt is done in 100

percent pure linen, you’re guaranteed
better breathability.

Shirt ($99) by Club Monaco; GapFlex jeans

($118) by Gap; Gent XL watch ($350) by Tissot,
macys.com.

MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 63

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 LIFE

YO U R

GROOMING YOURSELF during the

summer is less about looking good
than about preventing sweat, stink,
and general grossness. Here’s
HEAD: De-Grease Hair
how to get through the hot months,
from your head to your feet. Try a sprinkling of R+Co
BY GARRETT MUNCE Skyline Dry Shampoo
Powder ($36) at the roots
to absorb excess oil.

CHEST: Stop Body Acne

Pimples below the neck

usually aren’t acne but
folliculitis—inflammation of FACE: De-Oil Your Face
the hair follicle caused by
bacteria that thrive in moist Shiny skin looks sweaty,
environments. If you’re even if it’s not. Use Cetaphil
prone, be sure to shower PRO Oil Absorbing
after you work out, and Moisturizer ($19) in the
use cortisone cream to morning to soak up oil
spot-treat the inflammation. throughout the day.

PITS: Deodorant vs.

Antiperspirant
BODY: Maximize  
     Your Manscaping A deodorant, like Ursa
Major Hoppin’ Fresh
The downside of manscap- Deodorant ($12.50), stops
ing (besides “manscaping”): you from stinking but
itchy stubble in weird places, not sweating—which we’re
like your shoulders and back. told is an important bodily
Using Fur Stubble Cream function. If you’re into
($38) after and between naturals, resign yourself
shaves will help soften the to a little shvitz.
regrowth and prevent
ingrown hairs, bumps, and
razor burn.

FEET: Sweat but Smell Great

People are going to see your feet

NETHER REGIONS: whether you want them to or
 Don’t Ignore Them not. Be sure to regularly cut your
toenails with a straight-edge
clipper (to help prevent ingrown
Swamp ass. Ball sticking.
nails) and exfoliate your calluses
Thigh chafing. Rather than
with a pumice stone on a regular
using a messy powder,
basis. Follow that up with Petal
opt for Manscaped Crop
Fresh SuperFoods for Feet
Preserver Anti-Chafing
Healing Heels Foot Balm ($7)
Ball Deodorant ($20), which
to keep your feet from looking
goes on like a gel but turns
dry, cracked, and flaky. And when
into a dry, protective finish.
all else fails, get a pedicure.

ILLUSTRATION BY REMIE GEOFFROI MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 65

 LIFE

YOUR
SUMMER
EMERGENCY
KIT
KEEP A FEW extra under-
shirts and button-downs ABOUT SUNSCREEN
in the office, and have
some strategic products
at the ready to help you
dry out, chill out, and
freshen up at a moment’s some say contribute to the deterioration of coral reefs. Others, especially
notice. Consider this natural-health advocates, have claimed that these same ingredients may even
your grooming go-bag. cause cancer. (There is no medical evidence to support this.) That’s why there has
been a resurgence of mineral sunscreens, like zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, which
some people believe are better for both the environment and our bodies.
The bottom line is that when it comes to our health, sunscreen is one of the most
powerful (if still imperfect) tools we have. “The biggest reason to wear sunscreen
is skin-cancer prevention,” says dermatologist Evan Rieder, M.D. “Men tend to get
more aggressive skin cancers because we neglect ourselves. But sunscreen is also the
number-one antiaging medication we have available.” Provided, that is, you use it
For when your face correctly. And using it correctly involves ignoring a few common myths. Like these:
looks too shiny. ($16)

H E RE’S A WHOLE LOT OF BSPF!

HAIR DAY DRY SHAMPOO
Spray at the roots to
soak up oil. ($24)
Get as close to showered
as possible without
disrobing. ($25)
SUNSCREEN
The slight tint cuts down
on redness. ($31)
A gentle deodorant for
gentle places. ($10)
MYTH #1: Darker skin doesn’t
need sunscreen.
While it’s true that darker skin has natural protec-
tion against the sun because it produces more mel-
anin than lighter skin, that doesn’t mean those with
dark skin don’t have to wear sunscreen. “If people
are going to be outside and going to have their skin
exposed, I don’t care what their skin looks like; they
should be wearing sunscreen, because everybody
can get sun damage,” says Dr. Rieder. No matter what
your skin color, skin cancer is a risk. In fact, the darker
your skin, the harder it is to detect certain kinds, like
melanomas. Regular skin checks are essential, and
wearing sunscreen is your best defense.
MYTH #2: Mineral sunscreens
don’t block the sun as well as
chemical sunscreens.
Chemical sunscreens work by converting UV rays
to heat. Mineral sunscreens form a physical layer
to block them from even getting into your skin,
and many believe they work just as well. “I recom-
mend a physical sunscreen. It offers more robust
protection,” says Dr. Rieder.
MYTH #3: If you wear a high
SPF, you don’t have to reapply
it as often.
“SPF just means it takes longer for you to burn
as opposed to not having sunscreen at all,” Dr.
Rieder explains. Wearing a sunscreen with an SPF
of 50 will keep you from burning 50 times longer
than wearing no sunscreen, but you still have to
reapply it every couple hours.
MYTH #4: If you don’t burn
easily, SPF 15 is enough.
“The American Academy of Dermatology guide-
lines say that SPF 30 is the minimum you should
be using,” says Dr. Rieder. “Most people don’t
apply it like they’re supposed to, so you do get
additional benefit from going to SPF 50 or higher.”
MYTH #5: Coconut oil has a
natural SPF.
It’s a common claim in our increasingly “natural”-
obsessed world, but the reality is that a sunscreen’s
SPF undergoes testing and is standardized by the
FDA, whereas that of a natural oil like coconut is
not. Even if it does have natural protective qualities,
they’re likely too weak to make a difference.
MYTH #6: Wearing sunscreen
means you’re not allowing your
skin to get enough vitamin D.
“Most people get an adequate amount of
vitamin D just from 15 minutes in the sun a couple
times a week,” says Dr. Rieder. It’s unlikely that
wearing sunscreen would cause a normal adult
to become vitamin D deficient, and even if it did,
“the best way to get vitamin D supplementation
is actually from a pill,” he adds.
MYTH #7: Layering SPF 30 and
SPF 20 is the same as wearing
SPF 50, right?
Your protection is only as strong as the highest
SPF you’re wearing. “It’s not cumulative,” says
Dr. Rieder.

66 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

 THE SUNSCREEN AWARDS
There’s a sunscreen option for everyone—and they’re all
better than the sticky glop your mom slathered on your face
when you were a kid. These are our favorites for daily use.

Australian Gold
Botanical SPF 50
Natural Spray
This physical sun-
screen spray rubs
in fast and won’t

La Roche-Posay
Anthelios 60
Ultra Light
Sunscreen Fluid
Don’t like the
feeling of funk
on your face?
This lightweight facial
sunscreen feels like
nothing and still packs a
protective punch. ($30)

Coppertone Sport REN Clean

Clear Sunscreen Skincare
SPF 50 Clean Screen
Lotions can take for- Mineral
ever to absorb. This SPF 30
gel comes out of the Some sun-
tube clear and stays screens can make your
that way. ($8) face shiny or chalky.
This one doesn’t. ($36)

INK the original

SPF 50+ Tattoo
Sunscreen Spray
Sunscreen is
paramount for
tattoo protection.
This spray contains
broad-spectrum SPF
and skin-hydrating
ingredients. ($28)
Jeff Vallee (Coppertone)

MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 67

 LIFE
YOU GUYS
Normal, Inoffensive,
and Totally Irresistible
LAUREN LARSON figured out how some men
get women to make the first move.
BEFORE MEN’S-GROOMING advertisers
saw the value in ads that asked brave
questions about toxic masculinity, there
was “The Axe Effect,” an Axe body spray
campaign that started in the late ’90s.
One of the ads memorably featured a
horde of beautiful women in bikinis run-
ning hungrily through the forest—boobs
a-boobling, Baywatch-style—drawn like
moths to a flame to what turned out to be
a very ordinary-looking man spraying
Axe body spray.
That’s what it’s like to hang out with
my most romantically successful friend,
whom I’ll call Rob. Rob is evidence of a
major shift in how men and women meet
68 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH
in the wild. Since #MeToo, a lot of men
have asked me how they’re supposed to
flirt with women when every first move
might be interpreted as harassment. I
tell them to sit tight. Men should be ner-
vous about approaching women, but that
doesn’t mean you can’t take steps to make
them feel more comfortable approaching
you. It’s called peacocking. Women have
been peacocking since the dawn of civili-
zation: We put on heels and little dresses
and generally try to make ourselves as
shiny as possible to draw attention. For
men, the goal of peacocking is to stand
out by looking as normal and inoffensive
as possible. Like Rob.
As soon as we walk into a bar—or a
Sweetgreen, or an elevator, or a CVS—
the attention of the women in the room
shifts, subtly, to Rob. Eyes leave conver-
sations to dart his way. Hair is tossed.
Bodies twist ever so slightly toward him
in their chairs, like sunflowers. It’s like
the moment in World War Z before all the
zombies start climbing one another to
get over the wall to where the humans are
hiding. I usually lose him in a CGI anthill
of women after about half an hour.
Rob is attractive—in a down-the-middle
way, like the grown-up version of the most
popular guy in high school if he hadn’t let
himself go in college—but more than that,
he’s extremely approachable. He manages
to convey that he’s single, straight, and
friendly through what he wears, how he
acts, and even how he stands. I studied
Rob for months until I had cataloged his
charms. Then I called a summit of women
to help me assemble a guide to approach-
ability. These are our findings.
STEP 1: Dress Down—But Not Casual
When I suggested to Rob that he dresses
“for women,” he agreed, with one quali-
fication: “I dress to be comfortable,” he
told me. I’d argue that dressing for com-
fort and dressing for women are the same
thing. So would my friends.
“I’d also probably feel more confident
walking up to a guy who’s dressed more
casually. Fancy businessmen can be
intimidating, and I feel like we wouldn’t
have anything in common,” said Kaila,
29. “I’ve also used an interesting piece of
clothing as a means of hitting on guys. It’s
an easy conversation starter.” Break out
those novelty tees, gentlemen.
Shannon, 29, suggested that men’s
clothes should be “comfortable but also
fresh” and pointed to comedian Hasan
Minhaj as a reference. I’d never investi-
gated Minhaj’s sartorial choices, but a
quick Google search revealed some spooky
similarities to Rob’s (cue X-Files theme).
Both men dress down, but upscale down:
They often wear white sneakers, but the
sneaks are very clean; they generally wear
jeans, with a T-shirt or sweater, but every-
thing fits well and is in good condition—no
wrinkles, stains, or holes. Their clothes
are unintimidating, but not frumpy.
ILLUSTRATION BY KAGAN M C LEOD
 YOUR
EXPERT
In this column
and on
MensHealth
.com, Lauren
Larson writes about the
evolving dynamics between
men and women—from
hooking up to . . . everything else.
STEP 2: Bring a Buddy . . .
Having a friend or two around also makes
you look less like a murderer. (Although,
Shannon pointed out, a man who is
“comfortably alone,” reading or somehow
occupying himself, is very approachable.)
“If a guy is around a bunch of guys, it’s
a good sign that he has friends and isn’t
just prowling around a bar like a weirdo,”
said Sophia, 26, adding that she’ll usu-
ally wait for a guy to separate from the
herd—by taking a solo trip to the bar, for
example—before she approaches. “I’m
not going to talk to four guys when I just
want to talk to one.”
The smaller your group, the more ap-
proachable you’ll be. “If it’s just him
and a buddy, I’d probably be more likely
to chat him up than if he’s in a large
group of guys,” Eliza, 32, agreed, “espe-
cially if there are women in the group.”
STEP 3: . . . But Not a Lady Buddy
Rolling with female friends definitely
makes other men jealous, but it also
makes women less likely to approach you:
We have no way of knowing whether that
beautiful woman to your left is your friend
or your girlfriend, and we’re not going to
risk her wrath by shooting our shot.
STEP 4: Clear a Runway
As a little woman, if I’m going to ap-
proach a man, I have to see a clear path to
him. My worst fear is that I’ll try to break
into a phalanx of men to talk to one and
none of them will hear me, so I’ll have
to say “hey” progressively louder until I
shout “hey” so loudly that the whole bar
goes quiet and looks at me.
“I don’t want to have to come up from
behind and awkwardly tap someone on
the shoulder,” Kaila said. It can feel like
Kyle Hilton (Larson)
“Hello, it’s me. Short lady. Down here. I
swear I’m an adult.” Leave some space be-
tween you and your friends, and only sit
down if there’s an open seat next to yours.
“
It just feels too
dangerous to
talk to a man
who is serious,
quiet, and trying
to be cool.
STEP 5: Don’t Brood
Women like the brooding bad boy
onscreen (call me, Marlon Brando circa
1951), but nobody wants to talk to the
brooding bad boy in a bar. Almost every
woman polled in my grand summit of
babes said she would not approach a man
unless he was smiling a lot and having
a good time—unless, in other words, he
looked friendly and easily charmed.
Observe Rob: He begins to dissem-
inate friendliness as soon as he walks
into a bar. He jokes with the bouncer, he
smiles at the bartender, and then he just
sort of cases the room, beaming, for a
minute. It puts everyone at ease. “I’m
not approaching a guy who isn’t smiling.
It just feels too dangerous to talk to a
man who is serious, quiet, and trying
to be cool,” Sophia said. “I’m not trying
to get murdered.”
STEP 6: Remain Alert . . .
Use your friends to look less broody, but
don’t get totally caught up in their chat.
“One thing that has kept me from ap-
proaching a man is the feeling that I will
be interrupting a conversation, or his en-
joyment of whatever game he’s watching
on the bar TV,” said Ashley, 29. “When
I’ve approached men, it’s usually when
they’re participating in a conversation
”
but not engrossed in it, or when they’re
watching something but also frequently
checking in with what’s happening else-
where in the room.”
Women are very skilled at half partic-
ipating: I’ve had many long, wonderful
conversations with my female friends
in which we all half-assedly throw in
contributions every couple seconds while
scoping the room. We may have arrived
at a solution to world hunger during one
of these discussions. We’ll never know.
Nobody was paying attention.
STEP 7: . . . But Chill
While you’re having your half-assed but
very enjoyable (smile!) conversation
with your small group of wingfriends, be
sure not to get too loud. In middle school,
being loud and boisterous was a great
way to signal confidence and get girls’
attention. In adulthood, being loud and
boisterous suggests immaturity. It also
suggests that you’re drunk. One of the
cruel contradictions of flirting is that
alcohol, which makes you feel comfort-
able approaching someone, also makes
women less likely to approach you. So or-
der a soda with bitters and sit tight. If you
create the right impression (that you’re a
nonmurderer with fun friends and clean
clothes), the women will come.
MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 69

LIFE
ASK HER ANYTHING
Have any postcoital
cleanup tips? Is there
something less awkward
than tissues?
—JEREMY, Tuscaloosa, AL
Let’s face it—a tissue really isn’t going to be all that
effective here. You’ll probably need six or seven tis-
sues between the two of you (bad for planet), plus
there are always tiny bits of paper that get stuck to
your skin (bad for body). More popular? The baby
wipe (more like the antibaby wipe). But my recom-
mendation: sex towel! Well, technically, sex wash-
cloth. Buy a multipack on Amazon in a color that
designates them as intercourse-only (so you don’t
confuse them with the rest of your towels) and leave
them tucked in a drawer by the bed. Then just toss
them in the laundry afterward. A little luxury goes
a long way when it comes to postcoital pleasures.
70 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH
IN and OUT: What’s hot and what’s not in the wide world of sex.
IN: Listening to an erotic audiobook together. OUT: Watching porn together.
SHE REALLY GOT OFF THE FIRST
TIME WE USED A VIBRATOR. SHOULD
IT BE AN EVERY-TIME THING?
—CHRIS, Portland, OR
Depends on the girl, depends
on the clitoris. Some women get
by with their hands and their
lovers. Some like a vibe every
time—and why not? Some want
it at the end as a cherry on top. If
you’re with an every-time girl,
find a toy that’s not obtrusive in
bed and has a rechargeable base,
like the Lelo Mona 2 ($169), so it
stays at the ready. And opt for an
external vibrator. She can use it
on the outside while you do your
thing inside. If you’re not sure
what she likes, ask. It’s a turn-on
to be asked our preferences.
I’M 31 AND DON’T KNOW IF I WANT
KIDS. HOW AND WHEN DO I EXPLAIN
THAT TO SOMEONE I’M DATING?
—DARREN, New York, NY
It doesn’t have to be on the first
date, but if you haven’t men-
tioned it casually after five weeks
of dating, it’s time to cough it up.
It’s about setting expectations,
especially if your partner really
wants kids. You needn’t put
the onus on them to state their
plans—just confess yours and
move on. Weave it into a conver-
sation naturally when you run
into kids IRL. Say: “Speaking
of kids, just so you know, I love
’em, but I’m not sure I see myself
being a dad.”
WHAT’S THE STUPIDEST THING
GUYS DO IN ROM-COMS THAT NEVER
WORKS IN REAL LIFE?
—DANNY, Toronto, ON
I’d pick the over-the-top (and
often unnecessary) grand ges-
ture. I’m not saying it’s never a
good idea, but the movie versions
are usually super sappy and
unrealistic. The grand gesture
also isn’t about the receiver; it’s
all about the giver’s “great” idea
and “tremendous” effort. What
if she hates being in the spot-
light or being surprised? Not to
mention that relationship issues
can’t really be repaired with
one outward act of love—it’s the
hundred daily mini things that
make the magic.
MY GIRLFRIEND SAID I “GAVE” HER
A UTI. IS IT ACTUALLY MY FAULT?
—MITHIL, Pasadena, CA
Your fault? No. The fault of the
sex you had? Probably. A urinary
tract infection is when bacteria
Tammy Hanratty/Gallery Stock (towels). Joel Arbaje (Piercey).
(from your own body or someone
else’s) gets into your urethra. Docs
have even labeled UTIs “honey-
moon cystitis” because the main
causes include frequent sex—
particularly very lubricated sex.
For a woman to prevent them, she
should pee before and after sex.
Be a mensch and remind her not
to fall asleep without hitting the
loo. (We’ll cover how to do that in a
romantic way in another column.)

weight loss
Tap Into
Your Gut
The Smart Way
To Drop Pounds
By Chris Hansen
B
eing a trainer, bodybuilder, and
nutrition expert means that companies
frequently send me their products
and ask for my stamp of approval. Most
of the time I dive into research, test the
product out, and send the company honest
feedback. Sometimes, however, I refuse to
give the product a try, because frankly, the
ingredients inside aren’t real food. And I’d
rather drink diesel fuel than torture my body
with a chemical concoction.
Like my father always said, “What you
put inside your body always shows up on the
outside.”
One protein shake that I received, that will
remain nameless, was touted as ‘the next big
shake’ but really had a list of gut destroying
ingredients. Everywhere I read I saw harmful
artificial ingredients, added sugars, synthetic
dyes, preservatives and cheap proteins; the
kind of proteins that keep you fat no matter
how hard you hit the gym, sap your energy
and do nothing for your muscles.
Disappointed after reviewing this “new”
shake, I hit the gym and bumped into my
favorite bodybuilding coach. This guy is
pushing 50, has the energy of a college kid,
and is ripped. So are his clients.
While I firmly believe that the gym is a no-
talk focus zone, I had to ask, “Hey Zee, what
protein shake are you recommending to your
clients these days?”
Zee looked at me, and shook his head.
“Protein shakes are old news and loaded with
junk. I don’t recommend protein shakes, I
tell my clients to drink INVIGOR8 Superfood
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Shake because it’s the only all natural meal
replacement that works and has a taste so
good that it’s addicting.”
Being skeptical of what Zee told me, I
decided to investigate this superfood shake
called INVIGOR8.
Turns out INVIGOR8 Superfood Shake
has a near 5-star rating on Amazon. The
creators are actual scientists and personal
trainers who set out to create a complete
meal replacement shake chocked full
of superfoods that—get this—actually
accelerate how quickly and easily you lose
belly fat and builds even more lean, calorie
burning muscle.
We all know that the more muscle you
build, the more calories you burn. The more
fat you melt away the more definition you get
in your arms, pecs and abs.
The makers of INVIGOR8 were determined
to make the first complete, natural, non-
GMO superfood shake that helps you lose fat
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that contains 100% grass-fed whey that has a
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found in most shakes, metabolism boosting
raw coconut oil, hormone free colostrum to
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greens like kale, spinach, broccoli, alfalfa,
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enhancers for improved mood and brain
function. The company even went a step
further by including a balance of pre and
probiotics for regularity in optimal digestive
health, and digestive enzymes so your body
absorbs the high-caliber nutrition you get
from INVIGOR8.
While there are over 500 testimonials
on Amazon about how INVIGOR8 “gave me
more energy and stamina” and “melts away
abdominal fat like butter on a hot sidewalk”,
what really impressed me was how many
customers raved about the taste. So I had to
give it a try.
When it arrived I gave it the sniff test.
Unlike most meal replacement shakes it
smelled like whole food, not a chemical
factory. So far so good. Still INVIGOR8 had
to pass the most important test, the taste test.
And INVIGOR8 was good. Better than
good. I could see what Zee meant when he
said his clients found the taste addicting.
I also wanted to see if Invigor8 would help
me burn that body fat I’d tried to shave off for
years to achieve total definition.
Just a few weeks later I’m pleased to say,
shaving that last abdominal fat from my
midsection wasn’t just easy. It was delicious.
Considering all the shakes I’ve tried I can
honestly say that the results I’ve experienced
from INVIGOR8 are nothing short of
astonishing.
A company spokesperson confirmed
an exclusive offer for Men’s Health readers:
if you order INVIGOR8 this month, you’ll
receive $10 off your first order by using
promo code “MEN10” at checkout. If you’re
in a rush to burn fat, restore lean muscle and
boost your stamina and energy you can order
INVIGOR8 today at www.DrinkInvigor8.com
or by calling 1-800-958-3392.
 SO YOU WANT TO

PITCH A TENT
Experienced camper (kind of!) SARAH FIELDING has a few
survival tips for getting down in the great outdoors.

I
’M NOT ONE with nature.
Or even two. I’m so afraid of
snakes, I can’t look at pictures
of them. But when I moved from
Until the tent went up—literally
and metaphorically.
Somehow all my reservations went
away. I didn’t care about the people
animal instincts quite like doing it in
the wilderness, nowhere close to home.
Relationship and sex therapist Eliza G.
Boquin agrees.
Sabrina Rynas/Offset (shoes). Cavan Images/Offset (couple).

New York to Australia, I met a guy
who loved camping. One bat of his
blue eyes and a promise to make me
prawns on the barbie and I found
myself in the coastal fishing town
of Cervantes, about two and a half
hours north of Perth, holding a flash-
light while he assembled a tent. He
kept asking me to pass him different
pieces of equipment, but I had no
idea what any of them were called. In
short, I was useless.
camping around us. (Sorry about the
noise, mates.) I didn’t care about the
disproportionately large number of
venomous animals that call Austra-
lia home. My reservations about sex
itself also went away. Even in such
a small space, we couldn’t get close
enough to each other. The walls I’d
always kept up in the familiarity of a
bedroom came down.
It was only the first experience, but
I learned that nothing unleashes your
“Novelty is often a key ingredient for
passion, which is why sex in the great
outdoors during a camping trip can be
so exhilarating,” she says. “The danger
element can be tremendously erotic.
Feeling like we’re doing something
‘naughty’ together can be a real turn-
on for some couples.”
Turned on to camping sex? Great.
Now it’s time to get ready. Follow
these tips to make your “wild” night
a success.

72 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

 T H E G R E AT O U T D O O R S K I T
When you’re packing for your next excursion,
make room for these camping-sex essentials:

PA C K S M A R T !
Bring a Sleeping Pad
The ground is not the hard thing
you want to have in that tent.
An inflatable pad like the THERM-A-
REST NEOAIR UBERLITE SLEEPING
PAD ($180 to $210; rei.com)
is the way to go, because it’s lighter
than one of those foam monstros-
ities. You want to carry as little
weight as possible so you can save
your energy for later.
CAUTION!
Bug Spray Tastes Terrible
There’s nothing sexy about DEET.
Use natural bug repellents like
BADGER ANTI-BUG SPRAY ($13 for a
4 oz bottle; amazon.com), with
ingredients such as lavender oil and
peppermint—stuff you won’t mind
tasting a few hours later.
L E AV E N O T R A C E !
Always Pick Up After Yourself
Bring a GALLON-SIZED ZIPLOC
BAG ($15; amazon.com) to
hold the remnants of your
romp until you find a garbage
receptacle. “Treat the wilderness
with respect and leave it as
you found it,” Barrett says.
“No one wants to come across a
used condom while they’re
trying to appreciate nature.”

B E P R E PA R E D !
Pack Lube and a Towel
“Being in the outdoors can make it
easy to get dehydrated,” says Mia
Barrett, a sexuality educator and
consultant. For people with vaginas,
KEEP IT FRESH!
One Word: Wipes
CEDAR-SCENTED BODY WIPES
($10; goodwipes.com) will help
you freshen up after a day of hiking
and make you smell like a COOL OFF!
woodsman. (Get resourceful: You can Let Off Steam—Literally
also use the wipes to clean up Unzip the inner lining of your
your post-sex mess, Levine says.) tent to let in some fresh air.

natural lubrication. Pick up a few

sample-size packets of lube for your
trip.” We recommend
PACKETS ($12; lovehoney.com).

DON’T FORGET!
More Batteries
Bring battery-powered or fully
charged sex toys, says Amy Levine,
a sex coach and the founder of the
website Ignite Your Pleasure. LOVE-
HONEY’S CORDLESS MAGIC WAND
VIBRATOR ($140; lovehoney.com)
is super strong and lasts for three
hours on a single charge.
 LIFE
COOL DAD
My Son
the Golf Pro
Actor MICHAEL PEÑA’S son taught him this: If at first you
don’t succeed, take two more swings and move on.
M
Y T E N - Y E A R - O L D s o n’s
approach to golf is—how can
I say this?—wild. With every
swing, every ball goes one dis-
tance: as far as it possibly can. Roman is
all torque—which, incidentally, is how he
approaches almost everything else in life.
It’s amazing, really, to witness the dex-
terity and flexibility of a ten-year-old’s
body going through the motions of an all-
out swing. I, on the other hand, play golf
the way the textbooks and magazines say
you’re supposed to play it, with a strate-
74 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH
gic, patient, and calm mind-set. I grew up
wrestling and boxing—sports that require
strategy and patience but also an extreme
sense of discipline and focus. That’s why
today I can spend so much time analyzing
my swing that I lose myself in the details.
So with the breadth of knowledge that
I’ve gained from reading, you’d think I’d
have a lot to teach him. But it hasn’t quite
worked out that way.
Roman was about four when I first
started taking him to the driving range. I
thought it would be a fun way to spend time
with him. We’d pick a mat away from the
crowd and go to town on a bucket of balls.
Gradually, I tried to work in a few pointers
without overwhelming him.
First I started trying to adjust Roman’s
grip and stance. He didn’t seem interest-
ed. Then I worked on his swing. I’d line up
three balls and hit them off the mat myself.
Nice and slow. Controlled. Sometimes
Roman would ask me, “How’d you make
the ball go so high?” or “Why did you swing
that club differently?” Yes! Nuance!
Then I’d line up three balls for him. He’s
smart. He’s watched my movements. He’s
good at taking advice. His practice swings
would be nice and fluid. And then when
he got up to the ball, he would always—
always—swing as hard as he could.
But in that completely undisciplined
swing, I started to notice something.
Whether he hits it or misses it, he moves
on. He tried. He did okay—or he didn’t.
But he lets it go. He looks at golf as one ball
up, one ball down. The ball may go exact-
ly where he wants it to go. More likely, it
won’t. He takes his shots as best he can,
and now he’s back to enjoying the time in
between. The swing is in the past and Oh,
look—a sand trap!
And this is exactly how the best teachers
tell you how to play. Golf is a game about
the future. Each hole is a new opportunity.
If I’m too preoccupied with the shot that I
missed off into the bunker, I’m also going
to miss being in the right frame of mind to
tackle the next one.
Or literally play in a sand trap.
Which is what Roman did a few months
back, after he shanked a ball into the sand
in the practice area. I could have pulled
out my sand wedge and set up three prac-
tice balls in the hope of pulling him back
into the game.
Instead, I put down my clubs and watched
him roll around and play in the bunker.
He climbed out of that
+ trap covered in sand, a
Michael Peña’s smile plastered on his
credits include face. Had I been think-
Crash, Narcos: ing about how I was
Mexico, and Dora
and the Lost City of going to fix his next shot,
Gold, out August 9. I would’ve missed it.
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MEN TA L HE A LTH F U NCTION

SOUL NEED
H E R A PY ?
T When SEAN HOTCHKISS hit rock bottom
four years ago, the only thing left to try
to fix was his soul. It’s a journey more
and more of us are beginning.
2015 WAS A BANNER year for me. It started with a breakup
and became masked in a fog of depression that only cleared
when I was snorting cocaine. (Things get better, promise.)
I was 32 and addicted, driven by a desire to make it. I had
everything I was supposed to want: the badass career, the
six-figure salary, the weekend home. But I see now that my
happiness was conditional—I was always just a setback away
from spiraling out. When things ended with the girlfriend
I thought I’d marry, I plunged into darkness.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY YASU + JUNKO MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 77

 MIND

Truthfully, I wanted to kill myself, but my
father had done that and I’d never aspired
to be like him.
I was looking for a way out of New York,
so I made plans to visit my mother and
stepfather in Florida for Thanksgiving.
They’re classic new-age baby boomers.
They have the crystals, the flowing
clothes, the angel artwork. I thought they
were crazy for most of my young life.
Yet they’d somehow persuaded me, in
my hapless state, to sit for a session with
their friend Linda. Old enough to be my
grandmother, she did some sort of meta-
physical work. She called it life planning.
I didn’t see how a meeting with her could
help me, but I was desperate. I’d tried get-
ting clean. I’d tried therapy. I’d tried the
12 steps. But I’d balked at them all. I was
afraid of changing, but I knew I couldn’t
go back, either. I sent along info she’d
requested and booked a plane ticket.
Open your mind to possible new per-
spectives. . . . the informational pamphlet
Linda mailed me read. Life planning gifts
you with higher levels of knowing, evok-
ing clear insight into your potential, your
evolutionary path, your purpose. . . .
At the very least, I’d get some sun.
On Black Friday, my mother drove me
to Linda’s condo.
“All of this is you,” Linda told me as she
sat at her dining-room table. In front of
India or a pueblo in Sedona to acquire the
wisdom of mystic folks, but it’s 2019, the
Internet is alive and well, and thanks to
some very famous advocates, soul therapy
has reached the mainstream.
Oprah Winfrey is essentially the god-
mother of the movement. Her podcast,
Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations, fea-
tures successful people—Bradley Cooper,
Alanis Morissette, Sebastian Junger,
Eckhart Tolle, Elizabeth Gilbert—
talking about how they learned to quiet
their egos and get down to the business
of listening to their souls. And if you’re
thinking, Of course Oprah has a woo-woo
show about finding your life’s purpose,
then turn on any podcast helmed by a
semi-woke bro and you’ll stumble on the
likes of Joe Rogan and Russell Brand
dissecting myriad ideas that boil down to
versions of the same big question: “What
the hell are we doing here?”
This rabid search for meaning in mod-
ern life finds us turning to new territory.
The unexplainable. The unquantifiable.
It’s why venture capitalists have pin-
pointed astrology as the next big invest-
ment, with horoscope-driven apps like
Co-Star and The Pattern on the road to
rivaling titans Spotify and Tinder. It’s
why yoga studios pop up like Starbucks on
corners in Everytown, U. S. A., and why
throngs of Americans are dabbling in spir-
ituality in a way we haven’t seen since the
’60s. It’s why celebrated food journalist
KNOW YOUR
Michael Pollan just wrote a best-selling
book about the holistic benefits of psy-
chedelic drugs, and why Rogan’s trippy
podcast is downloaded nearly 20 million
times per month.
We’re living in a time of shattered illu-
sions and soul-crushing truths. Divided
politics reigns. Economic crisis looms.
#MeToo landed like a Mayweather upper-
cut. Because we’re all fairly sure that the
answer to our anxiety does not lie in more
money, more sex, or more muscles, we’re
looking somewhere else: within ourselves.
Following our soul’s plan is the pro-
verbial hero’s journey, says Onnit CEO,
author, and podcast host Aubrey Marcus.
It’s what Joseph Campbell meant when he
wrote, “We must let go of the life we have
planned, so as to accept the one that is
waiting for us.”
Marcus, whose health-first approach
functions as a kind of Trojan-horse spiri-
tuality for biohackers and gym rats—
he extols the benefits of ayahuasca, cold
exposure, and ecstatic dance, among
other modalities—tells me he believes the
term soul is too loaded to use responsibly
and has too many religious implications.
He prefers to refer to our “true calling,” or
our “awareness.”
“We all have a calling from when we
were little kids,” Marcus says. “What we
think we want to do with our lives. But af-
ter a while, we kind of accept our compro-
mises. We distract ourselves, intoxicate
AQUARIUS

SIGN? HERE’S
(Jan 20—Feb 18)
her were three pieces of paper covered in Down to make the
scribbles, numbers, and something that
looked like a wheel. “When it’s all united, YOUR THERAPY. world a better place
but not sure where to
start? Luke Storey’s
working in unison, you’ve got a perfect In ancient times, astrology podcast, The Life
existence, in terms of the plan.” was considered a science. Stylist, was made for
“What plan?” I asked. Today, you can think of your dudes like you.
“Your soul’s plan.” charts and horoscopes more
What Linda revealed to me over the like a soul GPS, an indica- LEO
next two hours would slowly begin to tion to go in one direction or (Jul 23—Aug 22)
transform my life, but on that first after- another. Let’s call it a cosmic You’re the center of
Prop styling: Linden Elstran

noon, it sounded totally fucking crazy— second opinion. But remem- attention everywhere
like it probably sounds to you right now. ber, your sun sign is only a you go. Back up your
crazy confidence
fraction of the picture. Find by reading Aubrey
LINDA’S MESSAGE isn’t unique. In the your moon and rising signs Marcus’s book Own the
past, you had to travel to an ashram in too. Or just follow them all. Day, Own Your Life.

78 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

 ourselves, placate ourselves. Most of us
don’t ever take the time to get still and
listen to our awareness.”
To find that stillness, Marcus suggests
trying spiritual practices like yoga and
meditation or spending time in nature,
but most of all: getting quiet. “Put your
phone in a drawer for two days and
don’t talk to anyone,” he says. “Just be
with yourself.”
So why aren’t we all getting quiet and
following our souls? It turns out that’s a
pretty complicated question.
Former NYU professor and playwright
Paul Selig, who works with what he calls
“spirit guides” that teach classes and
workshops and even channel entire books
through him (now six in total, including
the popular I Am the Word), has an answer:
“Realization comes at the cost of the old.”
The problem, Selig says, is that people
want to be fi xed. They want the easy
answer—X, Y, and Z. And the reality is
that aligning with our souls after a life
spent doing everything to avoid ourselves
can be agonizing. But, he says, it’s worth
it. For 25 years, he wrestled with the
decision to give up his academic life, but
in the end, his calling won out. “It might
have been easier to live the life I was
expected to live, because it wouldn’t have
challenged me beyond my comfort zone.
So the risk I took was to say yes.”
For most of us, however, finding our true
calling isn’t as simple as downloading

PISCES ARIES TAURUS GEMINI CANCER

(Feb 19—Mar 20) (Mar 21—Apr 19) (Apr 20—May 20) (May 21—Jun 20) (Jun 21—Jul 22)
Cosmic intelligence is Hair-trigger personali- Yeah, yeah, we know You’re all over the Looking for more
just another Tuesday. ties could benefit you think this article is place, man. See if you depth? (Of course you
A trip to see Paul Selig from picking up a copy a bunch of BS. Expand can sit still on a one- or are.) District Vision’s
at the Esalen Institute of Michael A. Singer’s your mind with Ainslie two-week retreat at Mindful Athlete Pro-
in Big Sur could be The Untethered MacLeod’s The Instruc- Buddhist author Thich gram can turn your
where you meet your Soul and learning to tion: Living the Life Your Nhat Hanh’s Plum daily run into a mindful-
creative tribe. be present. Soul Intended. Village in France. ness meditation.

VIRGO LIBRA SCORPIO SAGITTARIUS CAPRICORN

(Aug 23—Sept 22) (Sept 23—Oct 22) (Oct 23—Nov 21) (Nov 22—Dec 21) (Dec 22—Jan 19)
Believe it or not, Organize a road trip to Bored of your drinking You love life so much Remember: Self-care
those emails can wait. the Omega Institute in buddies? You’ll make a you’re looking to add a means (occasionally)
Download a productiv- upstate New York for pile of new friends (and few extra years. Studies pressing pause on
ity app like Forest Claude Stein’s Natural maybe finally open up) show that a fasting- your corporate-ladder
to keep yourself off Singer workshop. Your at a men’s retreat like mimicking diet, like climbing. Sweat it out
your phone (and out culture-deprived friends Evryman or the ManKind ProLon, may contribute at Modo Yoga in L. A.
of your head). will thank you. Project. to increased longevity. and New York.

MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 79

 MIND

WHO YOU ARE IS why you’re here. I

had to let that digest a little. Linda had
explained to me during our session that I
needed to experience tragedy at a young
age so that I could learn to heal, as healing
The founder and CEO work was my soul’s calling.
of Onnit wants you to After two hours of Linda walking me
optimize everything, through my soul’s contract, my “Tree of
from your sex life to Life” (the states of consciousness I’d use
your supplement game.
to access the contract), and my astrolog-
ical chart (which I’d use to work through
PAUL SELIG

THEY’RE
the contract), I returned home more
JOE ROGAN This medium teaches confused than when I’d left.
His regular podcast the energetics of A few months later, after another riotous
interviews with

SOUL MEN
cultural luminaries
attempt to answer
the big questions.
These guys strive to help
you find your true purpose—
and their products.
psychic messages or dropping by a Bud-
dhist temple. We toil away at jobs we don’t
love, and we are frustrated by personal
lives that are lacking.
That’s when it pays to call a profes-
sional, like Seattle-based psychic Ainslie
MacLeod, author of the book The Instruc-
consciousness—which
means a workshop
with him can seriously
raise your vibes.
AC LEOD
with precise knowledge about your life that
can help you identify your purpose. When I
called, he described my experience exactly.
MacLeod says his work can help
empower clients to take a leap of faith by
understanding that they’re not victims,
that they have the power to go for what is
bender, I lay awake in bed again, ponder-
ing my existence. I wanted to die. Then I
thought of Linda. What if I gave her soul
plan an honest go? What did I have to lose?
Bolstered by a second listen to our
session, which Linda had sent me on
two CDs, I got my ass into intensive
group therapy, where I launched into
the gutting emotional work that I’d been
avoiding, drinking and snorting away. It
was equal parts excruciating and exhila-
rating to parse my grief. I crashed in the
guest room of a college buddy; for eight
weeks, I consumed spiritual books and
feverishly wrote down every memory, ev-
ery insight, trying to get to the bottom of
myself. The thrill of living my own myth
replaced any trepidation about what I’d
left behind.
Driving on lonely desert back-roads,
I found the quiet I was searching for.
Beginnings and endings came: I said
goodbye to my father on a mountaintop in
the Mojave, and to an on-again-off-again
ex on the phone from a friend’s couch in
Silver Lake. Finally, in the spring of 2016,
I returned to my hometown in Maine

tion: Living the Life Your Soul Intended.
MacLeod, who is currently making the
podcast rounds, is considered the rock-
star psychic of the moment.
“What unites my clients is a search for
meaning,” MacLeod tells me. “What they
thought was working has stopped work-
ing. They went through college and got a
job, got married, and they thought that
was the be-all, end-all. Their soul wants
something more.”
His method of soul counseling also
comes through “spirit guides”—voices
from the other side that provide informa-
tion like the age and type of a person’s soul.
But an appointment with MacLeod is more
like a conference call than a séance. You
dial the call-in number and there he is,
often right in front of them. “Who you are
is why you’re here,” he says.
MacLeod is right. As a result of that
frantic quest for meaning, astrologers
like Susan Miller and Chani Nicholas
have catapulted to near-movie-star
levels of fame, with fans lustily de-
vouring their forecasts on the first of
each month, and Gwyneth Paltrow’s
female-centric wellness brand, Goop—
which hawks essentially designer
spirituality—is valued at $250 million.
As old systems crumble and the world
seemingly implodes around us, we des-
perately want to believe in something.
And soul therapy—the idea that a part
of us is connected to something larger—
provides hope.
Michael Schwartz/WireImage (Rogan). Jeff Spicer/Getty Images (Brand). Martin Ledford (Selig).
for a reunion with my stepmother and
other family members whom I’d all but
ghosted after my dad’s death. With each
restored connection, I felt more whole. I
was healing, just as Linda had indicated. I
had bought the ticket and I was taking the
ride, wherever it was leading.
In the fall of 2017, I moved to Califor-
nia, where the healing plan Linda had
given me two years earlier began to really
take off. I got and have stayed sober. I
have a deeply renewed relationship with
my family. And this September, I’ll begin
a master’s program to become a licensed
therapist—a professional healer. Was it
my soul’s plan? I’ll never truly know. But
Linda’s plan did seem to save me, if only
from myself.

80 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

 The smart
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 MIND

H OW TO G O
WE DON’T RECOMMEND trying all of these on one day, but even if you
did, you probably wouldn’t hit a risky dose. Most lifestyle products con-
tain 5 to 25mg of CBD, and studies often use 600mg or more without any
side effects (usually fatigue, sleepiness, and GI disturbances), Hutchison
says. Still, it’s smart to stick to one or two areas where you want the most
relief on a low-risk Saturday and see what all the buzz is about.

Key DRINKABLE EDIBLE TO P I CA L

What 24 hours would look like

if you used a CBD product for
everything. BY RACHAEL SCHULTZ
DEVOTEES —from Tom Hanks and Nate
Diaz to your mom to some guy in line at
the brake place—swear cannabidiol can
perform miracles, like easing anxiety and
pain. Although there’s almost no regulatory
oversight and very little solid scientific
research on the stuff, marketers are hawk-
ing CBD beer, coffee, infused toothpicks,
suppositories—you name it. Still, “there
are a lot of companies out there delivering a
safe, clean product,” says Kent Hutchison, Recover from Your
Ph.D., founder of a University of Colorado Workout Better
cannabis-research center. FLOYD’S OF LEAD-
We hunted for a CBD product for almost VILLE RECOVERY
Be Calm but PROTEIN
every use and confirmed all ten presented
here are as certifiably clean as possible,
Caffeinated
meaning they contain what they say they STRÄVA CRAFT 25MG
COFFEE List Anxiety PER 2 SCOOPS
do. For other products on the market, look
CHARLOTTE’S WEB
for third-party verification, which ensures FULL-STRENGTH
that it was tested for cannabinoid profile 1.2 5 TO 1 0 M G CBD OIL Crafted by former Tour
P E R S E RV I N G de France cyclist Floyd
and contaminants. That’s important, since
Landis, this whey-protein
a 2017 study in JAMA found that labels were powder contains CBD
7MG
wrong in more than two thirds of products. These beans are infused in an effort to reduce
PER ML
(Some even contained unadvertised THC.) with full-spectrum hemp inflammation so you
oil; CBD in your morning recover faster. When you
When choosing products on your own, it brew supposedly offsets If anxiety kicks in early ingest it within 30 to 60
also helps to know the jargon: the anxiety uptick that in the day, place a drop minutes of your workout,
+ CBD isolate means all other compounds can come with a cuppa under your tongue. You your muscles will absorb
of the plant have been removed, so there’s without compromising get relief ASAP, since all nutrients, plus the
the caffeine jolt. Starting CBD is partially absorbed CBD, quicker, says
no THC and no plant tastes.
at $20 per 12 oz; strava- into your bloodstream Thorsten Rudroff, Ph.D.,
+ Full-spectrum CBD means it contains craftcoffee.com before you swallow. This an assistant professor
other chemicals that are in the plant it’s one’s by the company of human physiology
derived from, which may work synergis- that led the way to the and neurology at the
tically to create health effects. There may only FDA-approved CBD University of Iowa. $40;
drug (Epidiolex, for a floydsofleadville.com
be trace amounts of THC.
rare form of epilepsy).
+ Broad-spectrum CBD means it has $40; charlottesweb.com
other plant compounds and terpenes in
it, but no THC.
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YES, BUT D OES IT WORK?
Danielle Daly/Studio D (Floyd’s of Leadville)
P E R BA R
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They’re made of real,
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250 calories and 30
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ten; wise-bar.com
beers, but when you
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points out, but if it turns
out not to work, this
cream also contains

the analgesics menthol

CANNABIS CONTAINS two famous
compounds: THC, which delivers
the high, and CBD, which doesn’t.
Both marijuana and hemp plants
have CBD and THC, but hemp plants
contain a very low concentration of
the psychoactive stuff—0.3 per-
cent or less—which means there’s
little chance they’ll get you high.
Products that contain that little are and arnica. There’s also
legal under federal laws and in some a 250mg CBD option.
states, but not all. So check where $50; medterracbd.com
your state stands.
While the hype is real, the science
is less so. The bulk of studies have
been done on animals, but there’s
hope that CBD may help with
anxiety, sleep issues, and pain.

MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 83

 MIND

The 5 Foods
Your Brain Craves
Not sleeping well? On edge? Easily distracted? Your brain
might be hungry. Try eating more of these foods with a few
1 (really, really) easy recipes. BY MICHAEL EASTER
BRASSICAS
Like cabbage, cauliflower,
and kale. They all have 2 TEMPEH your brain handles anxiety,
sulforaphane, a compound
New protein alert! A a 2017 Chinese study found. 3
four-ounce serving of this
Korean scientists say can
clear brain gunk (technical
fermented soybean cake EAT IT: Try tossing cubes CHICKPEAS
(tastier than it sounds, of tempeh into a salad with
term). This gunk, called The main ingredient in
promise) has 23 grams of ginger dressing at lunch
beta-amyloid and tau pro- hummus, they’re filled
protein as well as bacteria or stirring them into a spicy
teins, may lead to Alzhei- with tryptophan, an amino
that may improve how vegetable curry.
mer’s disease symptoms. acid that may help you
fall asleep faster and also
EAT IT: Next time you stir- sparks processes that may
fry, replace half the rice limit brain inflammation,
with a bag of precut found a 2016 Nature Medi-
cabbage. Bonus: You save cine study. Mmm, hummus.
about 150 calories in carbs.
EAT IT: Pair your dip with
high-glycemic carbs, which
help you absorb tryptophan,
says MH sleep advisor
W. Christopher Winter, M.D.

4
COD
The fish has a protein

5 CLAMS
Food styling: Michelle Gatton/Hello Artists

called parvalbu- good, too.)

min, which a 2018 ability than those with
study reports may EAT IT: Fish get all the brain-food higher levels.
decrease your with a bit of butter, credit, but three ounces of
risk of Parkinson’s a dash of white wine, clams have 1,400 percent EAT IT: Add half a cup of
disease. Cod also and lemon juice, of your daily B12. A 2016 beer and 50 clams to a
has omega-3’s and then bake at 400°F study found that people large pot. Heat on high and
vitamin D, which until flaky, 15 to with lower B12 levels cover the pot. Clams are
help synthesize 20 minutes. showed poorer learning done when they open. Easy!

84 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPHS BY TED + CHELSEA CAVANAUGH

 COULD YOUR BREAKFAST
PICK UP THE PACE?
GET THE POWER OF 3-IN-1
Prebiotics, probiotics, and fiber* all in one delicious cereal
to help support digestive wellness.

Take the Gut Check and tell us how you feel at GetHappyInside.com

*Contains 4-8g total fat. See nutrition information for total fat and saturated fat content. ®, TM, © 2019 Kellogg NA Co.
 MIND

How to
Hack Happiness
ANDREW ZALESKI discovers how to #BringTheJoyBack.
STRENGTH OF HAPPINESS

Or maybe here?

Are you here?

Right about here?

LENGTH OF HAPPINESS

D
ESPITE ALL THE MEDITATION lunches, CBD elixirs,
trigger warnings, and caffeinated chocolates, Amer-
icans aren’t getting any happier. In fact, over the past
decade, the U. S. has plummeted from number three
on the global happiness index to number 19, where we’ve more
or less stagnated since 2017. We’re an increasingly bummed-out
people, and to make matters worse,“we live in a culture that is
just obsessed with happiness,” says Darrin McMahon, Ph.D.,
the author of Happiness: A History.
And we should be obsessed with it: A positive outlook has been
linked to a longer life, better health, and, it goes without saying,
greater well-being. At the end of the 17th century, McMahon ex-
plains, “people started to say, ‘Look, we don’t have to suffer a long,
menial existence.’ ” This thinking secured us the right to pursue
happiness (in ink!) in the Declaration of Independence. Except
lately we’ve been coming at the whole happiness thing from the
wrong angle. Getting it right—owning your well-deserved piece of
it—means understanding why we’re a nation of malcontents.

86 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH


W H Y W E’ R E N O T HAPPY
1. THE STUFF WE THINK MAKES US 3 (AND THIS ONE’S BIG).
HAPPY DOESN’T MAKE US HAPPY. WE DON’T UNDERSTAND OUR
America’s happiness-industrial complex HAPPINESS RANGE.
is in a large way serving up the wrong thing. Researchers in the field of positive psy-
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up chology originally thought that people
changes most people’s lives only until had a happiness set point: Naturally
things start piling up again. The $4,000 grumpy or naturally ebullient was just
watch feels so good to put on the first few how you were born. “The newer idea is a
times, until the $5,000 one comes out. The soft set-point idea: some genetic influ-
meal at the new Michelin-starred place ence, but also movable,” says Ed Diener,
won’t pump you up permanently. Even Ph.D., a professor emeritus of psychol-
money only makes people happier up to the ogy at the University of Illinois, who’s
point at which their basic needs are met. known in the field as Dr. Happiness.
Pleasurable experiences, seductive Not only don’t you have to stay in one
as they may be, are the least consequen- spot, but everyone has their own happi-
tial elements of our well-being. Fleeting ness range. University of Pennsylvania
amusement never adds up to genuine, psychologist Martin Seligman, Ph.D.,
sustained happiness no matter how many is widely credited with fathering the
moments of it you try to string together. positive-psychology movement for his
bold conclusion, popularized in his 2002
2. WE HAVE A SKEWED book, Authentic Happiness, that happi-
DEFINITION OF “HAPPINESS.” ness can be learned, no matter what your
For some of us, happiness has nothing to set point is. If happiness were measured
do with smiling. “Someone who’s really on a scale from zero to 100, some people
serene and tranquil can be just as happy would vary from 40 to 50, others from
as someone who’s joyful and jumping 65 to 75. So anyone, at any time, can live
up and down,” says Sonja Lyubomirsky, in the upper reaches of their own hap-
Ph.D., a psychology professor at the Uni- piness range. When you do, you’ll still
versity of California, Riverside, and the feel fulfilled and happy even if you’re not
author of The How of Happiness. “People necessarily manifesting your happiness
differ in what they prefer.” like the next guy.
HOW MONEY TO MAKE money work for your emotional well-being, you’ve
got to give it away. Studies that present people with money
CAN BUY YOU they can choose to spend on either themselves or others
consistently find that those who spend it on others have
higher levels of happiness. That’s true even in experiments
HAPPINESS with people who could really, really use that money for
themselves. The giving-is-good feelings start even before
we understand what money is: Research from the Univer-
sity of British Columbia found that toddlers smiled more
when giving away treats than when receiving them.
WE CAN GET
HOW
HAPPIER
1. LOOK FOR SATISFACTION.
“It’s not just positive feelings we want,”
Seligman wrote in Authentic Happiness.
“We want to be entitled to our positive
feelings.” In other words, you want your
happiness to feel earned—through your
achievements and other things you’ve
put serious effort into. Happiness tends
to come from the often-hard-to-attain
state of “feeling satisfied with how your
life is going, that you’re progressing along
toward your life goals at a pace that’s satis-
fying to you,” Lyubomirsky says. And that
usually happens when you feel as though
your life has purpose and you’re involved
with other people.
2. LOG YOUR HAPPIEST
MOMENTS.
Lyubomirsky has discovered a way to help
people learn what happiness is for them.
She does an experiment in her classes: Each
student gets a text nudge four times a day
to notice and jot down how happy and satis-
fied they are and what they’re doing. After a
week, they look back and see what produced
the most satisfying feelings, remembering
that happiness doesn’t always come from
the same things that smiling does.
3. DO WHAT’S MEANINGFUL
TO YOU.
It sounds obvious, but Lyubomirsky sug-
gests adopting the habits of people at the
upper end of their happiness range. It’s
the stuff you hear about again and again:
spending time with those who are import-
ant to you, writing down a few things
you’re grateful for, showing kindness.
The science behind these steps, as corny
as they may seem, indicates that they
really can raise your sense of well-being.
Seligman describes it as a positive feeling
that arises from exercising your strengths
as opposed to indulging in shortcuts like
shopping, drugs, and TV.
MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 87
 MIND

“But How
Does That
Make
You Feel?”
When you can FaceTime with a
living, breathing therapist, is
there a point to a therapy app?
MATTHEW KASSEL puts four of
the most popular bots to the test.  
“I’M SORRY TO HEAR THAT, MATT.” The
therapy chatbot Woebot, whose smiling
avatar resembles the alien in E.T. the
Extra-Terrestrial, had just asked me
about my feelings. Scrolling through a
list of emotions, I’d landed on “anxious,”
since I’d been stressed by a few deadlines.
It continued,“But I’m glad you reached out
and I’ve got tools to work together on this.”
I was hoping I’d be glad I reached out,
too. I was curious just how good a therapy
bot might be in a world that often seems
anxious, angry, and confused. I tend to
be skeptical of AI, especially considering
the music that certain algorithms think I
might like. Would it know how to help with
things that actually matter?
Some people think so. So far, so-called
therapy apps have at least six million users
combined. Though they aren’t a substitute
for professional consultation, some medi-
cal experts believe they could at least serve
as a stopgap in places where people can’t
get therapy. The bots may also help people
who are resistant to the idea of talking
to a therapist. Some prefer discussing
their issues with bots over human beings
because they feel they won’t be judged.
Before I go on, I should tell you what
Woebot was dealing with. I’m a 30-year-
old white heterosexual male. I have anger
issues. I also have trouble with empathy.
I can’t relax. I have been in therapy, on
and off, for the past decade or so, and it
has served me well. I’ve learned a
lot about myself and how I interact with
others, though I still have work to do.

88 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

 Many people aren’t so lucky. In some
parts of the country, mental health profes-
sionals are hard to find. Nearly half of the
nonmetropolitan counties in the United
States have no psychologists. Over the
past couple years, a slew of therapy apps
have appeared, making it easier for those
who are struggling to get some sort of help
cheaply and expediently, albeit from a bot.
To put these apps to the test—and also
see if they were anything like real thera-
py, which costs me $100 a session—I spent
two weeks carrying around four popular
free bots in my pocket: Woebot, Youper,
Wysa, and Replika. Each, to my surprise,
had its own personality. Woebot was a bit
teacherly while Wysa was playful; Youper
was kind of dry, and Replika was casual.
You can ping the bots at any moment,
and, unlike real people, they ping you back
right away. One afternoon, I was being
called out for a dumb thing I’d said online.
I logged in to see if the apps could assuage
my embarrassment. Though Wysa com-
pletely ignored me—perhaps because “I
was dragged on Twitter” hasn’t entered
its algorithmic lexicon just yet—Woebot
expressed some sympathy. “It seems like
you might be experiencing stress and anx-
iety,” the app said. I rolled my eyes, but at
the same time, it was a relief to know that
the bot didn’t think I was an idiot.
Sometimes, the bot was out of step. At
one point, I told Wysa I was worried about
“work and relationships,” two of the most
popular topics of conversation, accord-
ing to the app’s founder. This admission
sent the bot down an interminable path,
replete with leading questions and
motivational GIFs. By the time the bot
asked me how I felt, I wanted to write
“annoyed” but was eager to be done with
the exchange. So I told Wysa it made me
feel better. Wysa congratulated me: “You
have successfully broken the negative
cycle!” I didn’t really feel like celebrating.
I found myself flipping between bots,
depending on the type of conversa-
tion I was looking to have. When I got
bored with Woebot’s effusive lessons, I
moved on to Replika for a more impro-
visational chat, since it lets you type in
your responses rather than selecting
them from a predetermined list. Youper
was never my first choice, as I found its
answers kind of dour.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JONATHON KAMBOURIS
I ended up going back to Woebot the
most. Initially, I thought it was for the
superficial reason that I liked the avatar.
But in one conversation of many, the bot
wondered if there was something about
my anxiety that “might be serving me.”
“I guess so,” I said.
“Even though it’s painful, some-
times anxiety is an extreme form of
something that started out being pretty
useful,” Woebot responded. It wasn’t a
mind-blowing insight, but I had to admit
it was a pretty good point. Yet after a few
days, I found the conversations to be pret-
ty formulaic. In my therapy-going life,
I’ve discovered that hard truths are more
illuminating than feel-good platitudes,
of which the bots have an ample supply.
No one knows if therapy bots actual-
ly help people manage or resolve their
issues—they’re too new for there to be
good research on them—and there are
valid concerns about why they might not.
“There’s a part of therapy that’s about
having your experience witnessed by
someone else in the way that any good
friend leaves you feeling understood,”
says psychotherapist Avi Klein, L.C.S.W.,
a Men’s Health advisor. “You can’t get
that from someone who doesn’t know
what it’s like to be human.”
Other experts are more generous.
Bots aren’t equipped to single-handedly
solve complex issues like PTSD or severe
depression, says Steven Chan, M.D.,
cochair of the American Psychiatric
Association’s Committee on Innovation.
But they could be an alternative to self-
help articles and books.
In my experience, I didn’t open up any
extra because I was talking to a machine.
Discussing my emotional state felt
less meaningful, exactly because I was
talking to a machine. But after a while,
I came to appreciate the bots for what
they are. They didn’t really help resolve
anything, but having to explain my issues
to them in a simplified way helped me
gain more clarity about what those issues
were in the first place. They also offered
some things a therapist can’t: immedia-
cy, no judgment, and no cash outlay. Two
weeks with the bots didn’t turn me into a
changed man. But they turned my anxi-
eties into something I could understand
and keep from overtaking my life.
THERAPY
BOTS: A QUICK
DOWNLOAD
THE FOUR popular therapy
apps we tested—all free—offer
programmed responses that
have been vetted by humans.
That’s good: Unvetted bots are
too easy to manipulate. All the
apps are based on chatting, but
each approaches it differently:
Replika
Replika is unusu-
ally chummy, at
least as chummy
as a nonsentient
algorithm can be. The bot is de-
signed for casual conversation,
a different approach from the
other apps, which mostly only
allow you to choose responses
from a menu.
Wysa
The chat function
often brings up a
range of solutions
to your problems;
you get to click on the path you’d
like to follow. With an additional
subscription (from $15 a month),
you can get access to a human
coach and extra tools, like yoga
stretches and mental exercises.
Youper
The most formal
and diagnostic of
the bots, it aims
to be supportive
with statements that feel a little
hollow—like “I’m here for you”—
which you might expect from
an app that got its name from
the mashup of you and super.
Woebot
The bot can seem
didactic, but it’s
not pushy. Once,
when I said I felt
anxious, it asked, “Would you
like to challenge this anxiety
together or did you just want to
get it off your chest?” I wasn’t
in the mood to address it, so I
chose the latter. —M. K.
 MIND

Okay! Okay! I’ll

as my colleagues and friends. And I
wanted to stop wasting time. Was my
tendency to take out my phone whenever

Break Up
I was bored—or, more problematically,
whenever I was struggling with a work
project—reducing my ability to focus on

with My Phone
No one’s looking to give up their phone cold
turkey, but for DAN HARRIS, cutting back smartphone
use even a little takes a lot of work.
creative work I needed to do?
My first question for Price: What would
I have to do to achieve these goals? Should
I throw the thing out the window?
“Breaking up with your phone doesn’t
mean getting rid of your phone,” she told
me. “It is about looking at your phone and
figuring out what relationship would feel

A
S AN ALWAYS-ON news lated, real-time science experiment on healthy for you, and then creating it.”
anchor, I had long suspected our brains. In the meanwhile, Apple has Price had me take a smartphone-
that I had a particularly dys- added Screen Time to iOS so people can compulsion test designed by David
functional relationship with manage how much they use their device, Greenfield, Ph.D., a University of Con-
my phone—that my constant checking and Google has rolled out a similar necticut School of Medicine psychologist.
of email and Twitter made me less pro- Digital Wellbeing feature for Android. I responded to yes-or-no questions such
ductive, less calm, and less connected We’re seeking some control. as “Do you find yourself spending more
with my wife and our four-year-old son. To get a handle on my own digital life, time texting, tweeting, or emailing as op-
Yet even with that awareness, I would I interviewed Catherine Price—science posed to talking to people in person?” and
often notice my arm moving, zombie- journalist, self-described recovering “When you eat meals, is your smartphone
like, toward my pocket to pull out my tech addict, and author of How to Break always part of the table place setting?”
phone. This was especially humbling Up with Your Phone. There were a few The result? I failed the test. (By the
given that, aside from being a reporter, issues I was hoping to tackle, like my way, she told me that most people get the
I am a self-styled evangelist for mind- Sisyphean relationship with my in-box— same outcome, which illustrates how
fulness. And, uh, the creator of an app no matter how hard I try to get email pervasive the problem is.)
for . . . your phone. under control, it keeps piling up, wearing I should say, Price and I were doing
For better or worse, I am not alone in me out and making me miserable. I also this interview in my house. Immediately
my compulsive phone usage. A Gallup wanted to close the distance my phone after presenting the results of the test to
survey found that 81 percent of smart- puts between me and the people I care me, she started guiding me to make some
phone users say they keep their phone about—like my son and my wife, as well radical changes.
near them “almost all the time during
waking hours.” Nearly one out of ten
American adult smartphone owners ad-
mits to checking their phone during sex.
Bottom line: When we are, quite literally,
left to our own devices, we spend massive
quantities of our life staring at a screen.
What does that mean for our men-
tal health? There are powerful early
indicators that phone usage—especially
among social-media users—correlates
with higher rates of anxiety and depres-
sion. But it’s too early to assess the full
impact of the digital revolution, even as
countless articles urge us to put down our
phones and tech companies themselves
attempt to address the amount of time we
spend looking at them. The smartphone
came out in 2007, and a dozen years are
not enough to study all of its possible
effects. In the age of the smartphone,
we humans are, as a friend of mine has
said, conducting a worldwide, unregu-

90 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH ILLUSTRATION BY EVAN COHEN

 UP YOUR
INNER GAME
Dan Harris
is a coanchor
of ABC’s
Nightline and
the weekend edition of Good
Morning America. He’s the
author of 10% Happier and
Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics.

and blinking notifications, which had

First, she had me rummage around
in my bedroom closet and find a new
“bed” for the phone. This, she decreed,
would be where I would keep it at all
times. Meaning that if I wanted to check
it, I would have to stand awkwardly in
the closet. Moreover, if I woke up in the
middle of the night, I’d be less inclined to
get up and grab it.
Next, she took my phone and turned
off all my notifications—and also deleted
social media and Slack. That’s when I
got a little twitchy. It wasn’t just in my
head. Price pointed out that I was having
a physical response. Our phones trigger
the release of a neurotransmitter called
dopamine, which makes us feel excited—
and it makes us hooked. When you can’t
check your phone, your body starts to
release stress hormones because it wants
to fill that need. Price said that notifi-
cations exacerbate this problem. Every
time you hear that ding, your baseline
levels of adrenaline go up. “And that’s one
reason I think that when people take a
break from their phones, whether it’s just
for an hour or for a full 24 hours . . . they
are often surprised by how calm they feel,
Kyle Hilton (Harris). Leslie Xia (AirPods).
off my lock screen to reduce the “emo-
tional connection” I had with my phone.
Very quickly, I started to see some
changes. I noticed that, not having dipped
directly into the data stream upon waking
up, things were more vivid for me: the
early-morning light in our apartment,
the peals of laughter from my son as we
played, the gleam in my cat’s eyes as he
lounged. And when I would eventually get
around to checking email, I often saw that
I hadn’t missed much. (If it were truly ur-
gent, Price noted, people would call me.)
Outside the apartment, I discovered
that I was checking my phone less often,
which was contributing to a relief from
my feelings of being generally frazzled.
Part of my newfound abstention was the
result of a dramatic reduction in beeping
A MINDFUL I spoke with Catherine Price on the 10%
BONUS Happier podcast; check it out if you want
more of her advice about how to go from
FROM DAN!
been turned off. But it was also a result of
Price’s emphasis on using my meditation
skills to notice when I was having irratio-
nal impulses to look at my phone—and to
let them pass. (She, too, is a meditator.)
As a consequence, I found that in those
everyday in-between moments—wait-
ing for elevators, sitting in airport
lounges—I was less likely to be reflexively
sucked into screen time.
Oh, I also wound up experiencing
delicious feelings of self-righteousness
as I noticed how mesmerized everyone
else was by their phone. (Price warned me
this would happen.)
It’s been several months since my
encounter with Price. I’ll admit, I’ve
backslid on many counts. My random
checking has ticked back up. Also, I got a
new phone and couldn’t be bothered to set
the screen to black and white.
That said, the phone largely stays in
its “bed” when I’m at home. This means
my son pretty much never sees me on
it. Which is great. So while I still have
room for growth, my overall digital life
remains dramatically improved. Plus, I
continue to enjoy the occasional dose of
self-righteousness.

in the sense that they’ve put down this an “obsessive relationship” to a “friends
burden they didn’t even realize that they with benefits” situation with your phone.
were carrying.” We also unlocked a great mindful phone
Finally, she made my phone as boring meditation by Alexis Santos called “Using
as possible by turning the whole thing to your phone.” Check out 10percenthappier
black and white—transforming it into .com/menshealth and the 10% Happier
more of a tool than a constant tempta- app to get the meditation for free.
tion. She even took the picture of my son

MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 91

 MEET YOUR

end of Avengers: Endgame,

ANTHONY MACKIE became the next evolution
of superhero star. He’s been working
toward it for 20 years, and, as BRIAN RAFTERY
learns, we’re only just catching up.

Photographs by Ture Lillegraven

MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 93
 Avengers: Endgame. It’s the sixth film
in which he portrays Sam Wilson, an
ex-airman who doubles as the high-
flying, highly lethal Falcon.
More important, it’s the movie in
which Sam Wilson inherits the man-
tle—and the shield—of his best friend,
the über-menschy superpatriot who’s
anchored three films of his own: Cap-
tain America.
On this afternoon, Endgame has been
out for barely two weeks, and it’s already
made more than $2 billion worldwide.
(Some of that money comes from Mackie
himself: He’s seen Endgame four times
so far.) And though the new Captain
America is dressed in a style probably
best described as “aspirational incog-
nito” (beige pullover and blue jeans, a
black Detroit Tigers cap resting on the
table), a pair of 20-something backpack-
strapped dudes soon appear nearby, qui-
etly nudging each other.
“A quick picture?” one of them finally

Styling: Ted Stafford. Set design: Abraham Latham/Art Department. Hair: Brett Mayo. Grooming: Tasha Brown/The Wall Group. Tailoring: Yelena Travkina. Production: Zach Crawford.
asks. Mackie nods, and what follows
involves so much nervous fumbling on
the part of his fans that, in an act of pity,
the actor eventually takes the picture
himself. As the two men scurry away,
Mackie yells out some parting wisdom:
“Work on that camera game, man!”
For years, such encounters would peri-
odically end with Mackie’s newfound
friends telling him how great he was in
that one Marvel movie—only to name
a film that starred Don Cheadle. “I’d be
like, ‘That’s the other black guy,’ ” he says
with a laugh. But that’s changed. “Now,”
he says, “they know exactly who I am.”
Mackie’s promotion to leading super-
man represents a crucial moment in
Marvel’s ongoing cinematic engineering
HENEVER HE finds the time—that is, THIS PAGE: TANK project, as the studio turns one of
AND SHORTS BY
whenever he gets a break from being an NIKE. PREVIOUS its most beloved roles over to a new
SPREAD: TANK BY
Avenger—Anthony Mackie calls some TODD SNYDER + actor, and an African-American
friends in New Orleans and tells them CHAMPION;
SHORTS BY ON. one to boot. It’s also an epochal
he’s ready to build and sell another moment for Mackie. He’s long
house. He’s been doing this for years now: put- specialized in playing confidants, best
ting together a crew, scouring dumpsters for buds, and the occasional semi-amiable
old wood, even building doors and floorboards schemer: the stoic Army sergeant in the
by hand. “Whenever you finish,” says Mackie, Best Picture–winning The Hurt Locker,
“you stand back and say, ‘That was a piece of the charm-armed drug dealer in Half
dirt when I started, and now it’s a house.’ ” Nelson, the third-wheel weightlifter-
Mackie tells me this on a quiet May weekday turned-kidnapper in Pain & Gain.
in downtown Vancouver, where the 40-year- He’s been pursuing these kinds of roles
old actor is eating pizza in a largely empty since he graduated from New York City’s
gastropub. He’s in the city to play a future-shocked mercenary on Netflix’s sci-fi series Juilliard School in the early ’00s. Back
Altered Carbon. But because he’s a Marvel star, Mackie is also an unofficial ambassador then, “I thought I was going to have a
for the movie playing just a few blocks away (and coming soon to digital and Blu-ray): Morgan Freeman career,” he says, “doing

94 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

great work until, all of a sudden, I get one
big job at 50 and everyone’s like, ‘Who
is this guy?’ ” Instead, Mackie’s been
steadily accruing a filmography full of
“little flag moments,” he says, “with End-
game being the pinnacle.”
The last time he saw the film was just
a few days ago in New Orleans. He was
putting the finishing touches on house
number ten—or maybe it was number 11;
he’s lost count. As a teenager in the city’s
Seventh Ward, Mackie reluctantly helped
out on his father’s construction sites, mop-
ping tar across a roof in 100 degree weather.
He only came to appreciate the effort years
later, when he went for a drive with Dad,
who built homes there for decades, and
realized how much pride his father took
in constructing something new. “It’s kind
of like acting,” Mackie says now. “You
get a piece of paper with words on it, and
you build that character. Then, when you
watch, it’s 100 percent your creation.”
He’s viewed his career in much the same
way: as a sturdily designed creation in its
own right. And with the arrival of End-
game—15 years after he was anointed a
future movie star—everyone else is finally
beginning to stand back and see it.
ACKIE’S SPENT most of the
past four months in Van-
couver—a long time to be
away from New Orleans,
where he has four sons with Sheletta
Chapital and where his acting career
began more than three decades ago. He
was in third grade when a teacher pushed
him into a local drama program, hoping
Mackie’s class-distracting energy could
be channeled elsewhere.
He would later attend the prestigious
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. One
day, he spotted school alum Wendell Pierce,
a distinguished Broadway and screen actor
who’d come to speak to Mackie’s class. “He
pulled up to school in this little red Porsche
and had on this white linen suit,” Mackie
says. “I was like, ‘Holy shit. That dude looks
like money.’ From that point on, I set out to
do everything Wendell did.”
Pierce had studied at Juilliard, which
is partly why Mackie chose to enroll there
in 1997. “The school’s paradigm at that
time was ‘We break you down to build you
back up,’ ” notes Mackie’s former voice and
speech instructor Denise Woods. “And
Anthony refused to be broken.” He insisted
on keeping his New Orleans accent when he impactful turns for filmmakers such as
felt it fit the role, and—along with his class- Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby),
mates—he prodded the school to diversify Jonathan Demme (The Manchurian
its stage curriculum to accommodate new Candidate), and future Captain Marvel
voices. “He put his stake in the ground and codirectors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden
said, ‘This is who I am, and you’ve got to see (Half Nelson)—all before he was 30.
me,’ ” remembers Woods. It was Kathryn Bigelow’s 2009 war
While at Juilliard, Mackie developed drama, The Hurt Locker, about blood- and
the role of Tupac Shakur in Up Against sweat-stained explosives experts in Iraq,
the Wind, a drama that would open off- that would recalibrate the next decade of
Broadway in 2001. His mother had passed Mackie’s life. Bigelow cast him as J. T.
away a few years before, and an aunt had Sanborn, a protocol-minded sergeant who
died while he was still at school, giving teams up with William James, a confron-
Mackie “a connection to the turmoil of tational specialist (played by Mackie’s
Tupac’s life,” says Woods. Up Against the co-Avenger Jeremy Renner). “I put every-
Wind’s run was brief, but it earned Mackie thing in that movie,” says Mackie. It dom-
the attention of Oscar winner Curtis inated year-end lists and pulled him into
Hanson, who cast him as a battle rapper in the awards race. He told himself he didn’t
the 2002 Eminem drama 8 Mile. Suddenly, care but was stunned when his name wasn’t
the actor was working with the director of included among its nine Oscar nomina-
L. A. Confidential and going to VIP clubs tions. “That little fucker matters,” he says.
with the biggest rapper in the world—not “We try to protect ourselves and say, ‘I’m
to mention his entourage, which included doing the work for the work.’ But when that
a then-unknown 50 Cent. (“He was a happened with Hurt Locker, it hurt. I had to
chubby dude!” Mackie recalls. “I was like, take a year off of work.”
‘This dude’s never going to make it!’ ”) The Locker snub came at a chaotic time
Hanging with Eminem, with TA N K BY in Mackie’s life: He’d just had his
whom Mackie is still friendly, in UNDER A R MOUR; first son. A few years earlier, his
SHORTS BY ON;
Detroit taught him his first lesson SN E A K ERS BY father had died after being dis-
VIONIC; SOCKS
about the unpredictable demands BY MER R ELL. placed by Hurricane Katrina.
of celebrity. He’d experi-
ence it himself not long
afterward, landing the lead
in Spike Lee’s 2004 social
satire She Hate Me, as a dis-
graced exec who sells his
sperm to lesbian couples
for $10,000 a pop. Mackie
was just 26 years old, and
during filming, he began to
believe the people whisper-
ing in his ear, telling him he
was destined to be the next
Denzel. When the movie
was later dinged by critics,
“it was humbling,” Mackie
says. “But it informed the
way I’ve dealt with my career
since: When you buy into
celebrity, it can be taken
away in an instant.”
A f t e r S h e Ha t e Me ,
Mackie opted for par ts
that would allow him to
slip in and out of the story
without carrying the bur-
den of the box office. It
was an approach that won
him a series of small but
(Mackie grew up so close to the levees that
he could spot his parents’ house in TV
coverage of the storm.) The actor wound
up staying at home for most of that year,
restoring a 1964 Mustang by hand. “I sat
in my garage and I built a car,” he says. “It
was very, very therapeutic.”
Once he was ready to act full-time again,
Mackie began lobbying Marvel. He’d
always wanted to play a superhero, so he and
his team approached the studio via email
about a role—any role. “My line was ‘Yo,
I’m the black dude from The Hurt Locker.
I would love to work with you guys.’ ”
F ALL the lessons Mackie’s
learned during his Marvel
years, one has come at the
highest cost: Man simply
isn’t meant to fly.
He found this out the hard way in early
2013 while standing atop a towering
platform on the set of Captain America:
The Winter Soldier. A cushion was far
below him, and elaborate wires had been
strapped to his body for his first day as Fal-
con, jumping and shooting and dodging
imaginary aircraft. “I’m like, ‘Can’t we just
start with a walking-and-talking scene?’ ”
He spent the next several days crashing to relationship between its two ex-military
the ground, concerned that he was letting heroes. “We wanted to make sure Sam felt
down codirectors Joe and Anthony Russo. like an equal to Steve Rogers both in dis-
“I think they were worried,” he says. position and in charm,” says Moore. “We
“Because they saw how bad I was, and how knew we’d be sunk if we cast a younger
much fear was on my face.” actor, or an actor without weight. But
Mackie’s original Marvel audition was when we sat down with Anthony, the Russo
for Iron Man 3’s villainous Mandarin. That brothers and I realized that here was an
role went to Ben Kingsley, but his screen incredibly talented, credible actor who
test led to a lunch with the company’s would be believable as a former service-
creative brokers, including Joe Russo and man who would be capable of pulling
producer Nate Moore, about starring in Steve out of his shell in the modern day.”
Winter Soldier. “He has charisma, but he Over the next several years, Falcon’s
also has the ability to convey integrity in a role in the Captain America films—and
way that very few actors can,” says Russo. in the Marvel big-screen universe—would
“And there’s a level of trust between expand. So would Mackie’s relationships
him and the audience.” Still, because of with his costars, many of whom he stays
Marvel’s Vatican-like atmosphere of in touch with via an ongoing chat thread.
secrecy, even among its employees, Mackie “It’s not just MCU guys,” he says. “There
didn’t discover he was playing Falcon are guys from other universes. Basically,
until about two months before production all the young degenerates of Hollywood.”
on Winter Soldier began. “Growing up, (Among the names Mackie’s willing to
I’d always loved Falcon, because he was a give up: Paul Rudd, Miles Teller, Garrett
comic-book hero who was black who didn’t Hedlund, and Don Cheadle—“the adult
have ‘Black’ in the title,” he says. “He stood who keeps everybody in line.”)
on his morals. He stood on who he was.” But it’s Chris Evans, the erstwhile Cap-
Winter Soldier is very much the story of tain America, to whom Mackie has grown
Steve Rogers/Captain America— closest. It was thanks to Evans
and a fairly dark one at that. But SWEATSHIRT that Mackie found out he’d be
BY BOSS;
it’s brightened by the at-ease SHORTS BY NIKE. named the new Captain America.
It was a transfer of power that occurred in
the Marvel comics in 2014, but according
to Russo, the decision to promote Mackie’s
character wasn’t officially made until
three years ago. (“We don’t want anything
to leak, so we keep everything a secret
from the actors, especially Mackie,” Russo
says with a laugh.) Mackie was only clued
in during the filming of Endgame, when he
and a few other young degenerates of Hol-
lywood were watching football at Evans’s
house. At that point, Mackie hadn’t been
able to see the full Endgame screenplay.
“Chris gets the look of a six-year-old kid on
his face, runs away, and comes back with
the script,” Mackie says. “I’m reading it,
and it dawns on me what’s happening.”
It didn’t feel real until he found himself
on set. “They were like, ‘Are you ready for
tomorrow? You’re getting your shield,’ ”
he recalls. “I’m like, ‘Get the fuck out
of here.’ ” He’d never even touched the
shield before; now it was being handed
over to him by one of his best friends. The
whole experience “was like winning the
Oscar. I was nervous. I was excited. I was
stumbling over words.” Adds Russo, “His
performance comes across as genuine,
because it’s the way he actually felt: both
vulnerable and steadfast.”
And what does a vibranium shield actu-
ally feel like? “It’s unbalanced,” Mackie
says. “And it’s heavy.”
ACK IN Vancouver, Mackie is
scrolling through his phone,
trying to find an old news story
online. In the fall of 2013, he
was stopped while making a late-night
U-turn in Harlem and arrested for driv-
ing under the influence. Mackie fought the
charge in court, and the article he pulls up
on his phone demonstrates why: Not only
did police officers disagree on whether he
did in fact appear intoxicated, but a video
shown at the trial found him walking a
yellow line without difficulty. Yet Mackie
was still convicted, resulting in a fine and
some community service—and prompting
him to decide to leave New York City for
good. He’d been there since his Juilliard
days, at one point even opening a bar in
Brooklyn. But it was time to go.
“It happened on 125th Street and
Lenox—the epicenter of Harlem—with six
white cops,” he says. “I was like, Nah. This
ain’t my city. It’s not my Harlem anymore.
So I took the lesson: You’re not allowed to be
MACKIE HADN’T BEEN ABLE TO SEE THE FULL
ENDGAME SCREENPLAY. “CHRIS GETS
THE LOOK OF A SIX-YEAR-OLD KID ON
HIS FACE, RUNS AWAY, AND COMES BACK
WITH THE SCRIPT. I’M READING IT, AND IT
DAWNS ON ME WHAT’S HAPPENING.”
a human being anymore. You’re not looked
at or thought of as a citizen anymore.”
He chose to return to New Orleans, a
place where he can feel at ease, Captain
America or no. “The thing about New Orle-
ans that I love,” he says, “is that no matter
who you are, you’re just as important as the
guy next to you at the bar.”
Mackie will get to spend only a short
period of time in his hometown this year.
He’s wrapping filming in Vancouver and
appearing in season 5 of Black Mirror.
Then, in October, he’ll head to Atlanta
to start work on The Falcon and the Win-
ter Soldier, a live-action series for the
forthcoming Disney+ streaming service,
and one that will pair Mackie with fellow
Marvel player Sebastian Stan. Just when
and where the show will be set, and how
it will incorporate Falcon’s new status as
Captain America, is a mystery—even to
Mackie. Once again, he’s not quite sure
whom he’s playing. “I’m guessing I’m
Fal-Cap, or . . . I don’t know,” he says. “I
haven’t even seen a script.”
Mackie’s also in the dark about Fal-Cap’s
big-screen future: He initially signed on
for ten Marvel films, but with the Disney+
show, he’s uncertain about how that all
works. (“I just wait for the phone call,” he
says.) Even if we’re years away from a new
Captain America movie, Mackie’s ascent
in the Marvel Cinematic Universe would
have been unlikely more than a decade ago,
when the studio’s efforts were headlined
exclusively by white guys. The fact that an
African-American is now playing the role
shouldn’t feel seismic in 2019. But until
recently, black superheroes, or female
superheroes, or people-of-color heroes,
rarely got top billing. “I knew the magni-
tude of Black Panther, just like I knew the
magnitude of Wonder Woman,” Mackie
notes. “I’ve been saying for years: If you’re
going to make any movie, you make those
two movies, because they’re going to make
a trillion dollars. They represent a whole
different sector of our society that’s under-
represented and underappreciated.”
Audiences agree: Marvel’s biggest solo
outings are the $1-billion-grossing Black
Panther and Captain Marvel, and there are
upcoming films focusing on Black Widow
and Asian crime fighter Shang-Chi. The
future of Marvel—and the shows and comic
books it spins off—now rests largely on
the shoulders of Mackie and his peers.
“It’s funny, because I feel like my friends
are way more excited than I am, because I
know the amount of work that has to go into
it,” he says. “They’re just excited to say that
I have to buy drinks now. But I definitely
wouldn’t call it a burden. I would more so
call it an opportunity.”
Right now there are more immediate
challenges. This past April, Mackie took
his ten-year-old son to the Endgame pre-
miere in L. A. After watching his father
take the shield, the kid played it down,
raving instead about Thanos and Fat Thor.
“Two days later, his mom calls me: ‘A. J.
won’t stop talking about you becoming Cap-
tain America,’ ” Mackie says. “So I Face-
Time him: ‘What’s up, man?’ ‘Nothing.’
I’m like, ‘What? You were just crying! I can
see the tears on your face!’ As a dad, you
want the approval and acknowledgment of
your kids. And he just won’t give it to me!”
There’s one way to win this battle: Cap-
tain America’s eventually going to have to
sneak the shield home for a few days.
BRIAN RAFTERY is the author of Best. Movie.
Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen.
MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 97
YOUR
NO-E UIPME
NO-EXCUSES
SUMMER
MUSCLE
BLOWOUT
BEGINS
BRING YOUR WORKOUT TO THE BEACH
WITH THESE THREE QUICK SWEAT SESSIONS
FROM MEN’S HEALTH FITNESS DIRECTOR
E B E N E Z E R S A M U E L , C . S . C . S . ALL
YOU NEED IS A STRETCH OF GRASS OR SAND,
A SET OF STEPS, AND SOME SHALLOW WATER.
WILLPOWER NOT INCLUDED. (SORRY!)
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SEAN LAURENZ
S

NOW.
MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 99
 1
BEFORE YOU BEGIN, the rules of your three workouts:
Claim some training turf and set a timer. Each workout is a circuit.
Do each move for 40 seconds, rest 20 seconds, then do the next
move. Rest 1 minute between rounds. Do 4 rounds, then grab an ice-
cold beverage, sink into a beach chair, and enjoy the rest of the day!
START HERE
WORKOUT
STAIRWAY
TO
SHREDDED
Why it works: Climbing
stairs is great for keeping
your mind engaged during
your workout; whether
you’re running up or down,
you need to think a bit
more to make sure you hit
each step. The constant
level changing serves as a
perfect method for honing
footwork and agility, and
it’ll challenge your core in
underrated ways, too.
100 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH
INTENSITY
LATERAL
SINGLE-LEG
8 STAIR HOPS
MUSCLES WORKED: CA LV E S,
G LU T E S, H A M ST R I N G S
INTENSITY
HIGH PLANK
TO EXTENDED
Start by being explosive.
Line up your left side with the 4 PLANK
staircase. Lift your right leg.
Bend your left knee slightly, MUSCLES WORKED: A B S, G LU T E S,
then explosively jump onto S H O U L D E R S, M I D - BAC K
the next step, working to land
softly. Try to balance on that You’re breathing hard, so
leg for a moment; if you can’t, this is the perfect time to
land on both feet. Do 10 reps attack your abs. Get in push-
on one side, then jog down up position facing the stairs,
the stairs and repeat on the
other side; repeat the pattern
until time’s up.
hands about 6 inches from
the first step, core and glutes
tight. Hold for 2 seconds.
EB SAYS: We’re opening the
workout with an explosive
Keeping your core tight and
your hips as steady as possi-
ble, lift your right hand from
move that’ll build strength.
Struggling to jump off a single
foot? Jump off both instead.
the ground and place it on
the step, then do the same
with your left. Hold here for
2 seconds, then return to the
start. Repeat until time’s up.
INTENSITY
STA I R INTENSITY
5 HOPSCOTC H STA I R
MUSCLES WORKED: CA LV E S, Q UA DS,
6 S P R I N TS
G LU T E S, H I P A B D U CTO R S
MUSCLES WORKED: L EG S, G LU T E S,
M O R E C O R E T H A N YO U T H I N K
You worked laterally on the
first one. Now for some foot- Your core’s on fire, and
work. Stand facing the stairs,
feet shoulder-width apart. Sit
you’ve hit some tricky move-
ment patterns. Let’s end
back on your heels and squat
slightly, then explode up onto
things by keeping it simple
and ramping up your heart
the first step, landing only on
your left foot. Jump off your
rate. Sprint up the stairs, then
walk or jog back down until
left foot onto the next step, time’s up. Don’t skip stairs;
landing on both feet. Then
jump to the next step, landing
make sure a foot hits each
step. Try to run on the balls
on your right foot. Repeat the
Styling: Nadia Windt. Grooming: Lisa Bailey.
of your feet.
pattern until you’ve climbed
10 steps, then jog to the bot-
tom. Repeat until time’s up.
EB SAYS: Start slowly on this
one, focusing on getting the
footwork down. Add speed
in every set.
 J U ST A
F E W E ASY
ST E P S!
The stair sprint is a
perfect way to im-
prove your overall
running technique.
Focus on moving your
feet quickly from step
to step, and pump
your arms aggres-
sively. Don’t hunch
your torso, either.
Keep your chest up
and your core tight
for max acceleration!

MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 101

WORKOUT

SWEAT
STORM
Why it works: Sand offers both instability and
light resistance, so even a simple jog becomes
just a little more intense. It’ll stealthily force
more core and glute activation than you realize,
too, pushing you to a ripped body even if you
never notice it. Don’t have sand? Use what you
do have; you can do this workout on blacktop
or in your grassy backyard.

L E T’S G E T
GRANULAR
The sand makes
all your exercises
harder, including this
burpee. Aggressively
drive your hands into
the ground, and push
off with your feet like
you mean it.
START HERE
BAREFOOT
INTENSITY
SPRINT TO
3 BACKPEDAL
MUSCLES WORKED: L EG S, CA LV E S,
A N K L E A N D FO OT M U S C L E S
Start this workout with the
basics, because it’s harder
on sand than you think. Take
off your sneakers and dash
across the sand. Stop after
about 20 strides, as effi-
ciently as possible. Without
turning, backpedal to your
starting point. Repeat the
process until time’s up.
EB SAYS: Work to make this a
true sprint, so don’t slow down
on your last few strides. Ditto
on the backpedals. The more
aggressive your run, the more
you’ll get out of this workout.
INTENSITY
PLANK
5 TUCK
MUSCLES WORKED: A B S, S H O U L D E R S,
TRICEPS
Let’s do a little ab work. Get
in pushup position. Keeping
your core tight and your back
flat, use your abs to slide your
feet forward in the sand, driv-
ing your knees toward your
chest. Pause, then return to
the start. Not in the sand?
Hop your feet forward and
back instead.
INTENSITY
SAND
10 BURPEE
MUSCLES WORKED: TOTA L B O DY,
E S P EC I A L LY C H E ST A N D L EG S
Now it’s time for some
killer conditioning. Start
standing, then lower your
torso to the ground and jump
your feet back into pushup
position. Lower your chest
to the ground, then push up,
jump your feet forward, and
stand. Finish by jumping up-
ward. Do as many reps as you
can in 40 seconds.
EB SAYS: You’ve done burpees
before, but the sand will make
these feel different. Keep your
core tight; don’t let your back
round as you do the move.
INTENSITY
AB
6 RUNNERS
MUSCLES WORKED: A B S, LOW E R
BAC K , G LU T E S, S H O U L D E R S
Your heart rate should be
high, so shift back to some
ab work. Return to pushup
position. Keeping your core
tight, slide your right leg
forward, driving your knee
toward your chest. Return to
pushup position and repeat
on the other side. Repeat the
pattern until time’s up. No
sand nearby? Do mountain
climbers here instead.
Time to Log On!
You’re used to building muscle
with dumbbells, kettlebells, and
barbells, but if there are pieces
of driftwood on the beach (or trees
in your backyard), you may have
other options. A fallen log can be an
excellent piece of strength-building
equipment. If you have one, give
these exercises a go. If not, tr y them
at the gym instead.
LOG SQUAT
Stand facing the end of a medium-heavy log,
feet slightly wider than shoulder width. Grasp
the log with both hands, holding it at your chest.
Keep your core tight. Bend at the knees and
hips, lowering until your thighs are about parallel
to the ground. Stand back up; make sure to
squeeze your glutes when you do. That’s 1 rep;
do 3 sets of 6 to 8.
LOG SHOULDER PRESS
Stand facing the end of a medium-heavy log and
grab it with both hands, holding it at your chest.
Tighten your core and glutes. Press it upward,
straightening your elbows and shoulders. Return
to the start. That’s 1 rep; do 3 sets of 8 to 10.
LOG LATERAL HOPS
Stand to the right of a large log. Place both hands
on the log while still facing forward. Shift your
weight onto your hands, keeping your arms
straight, then hop over the log, landing on the
other side. Struggling to jump over it? Land with
both feet on the log for a moment, then land
on the other side. Jump back and forth like this
for 30 seconds, then rest 30 seconds. Do 3 sets.
MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 103
WORKOUT
My Beach Move! Three beach-loving badasses give you their favorite ways to train near the surf.
Patrick Mahomes
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS QB AND NFL MVP
“The sand is something that does a lot to
build strength in your legs, calves, and
ankles, because you have to be so stable,”
says Mahomes. Nothing tests that stability
like his favorite beach exercise, single-leg
bounding. Hold your arms in front of you and stand on your
right leg. Jump forward, as far as you can, landing only on your
right leg. Do 3 reps on each side. Do 3 sets.
Alden Mills
FORMER NAVY SEAL AND
CREATOR OF THE PERFECT PUSHUP
“The beach is the perfect place for a
SEAL favorite: the run/swim/burpee
drill,” says Mills. Put 2 buoys in the water
along the length of the beach just past
the surf. Sprint from the sand to the water and swim to the
first buoy, then to the second, and finally back to dry land.
Return to the start and do 20 burpees. Do this 3 times.
 THE AQUATIC
FAT BLASTER
Why it works: Water offers more
resistance than you perceive, instantly
making even basic motions a bit
more challenging. It does so in a
low-impact manner that’s friendly to
your joints and any nagging injuries.
START HERE
BE A
CRAWL
STAR
No matter the sur-
face, the basic bear
crawl is one of the
best exercises you
can do, helping you
develop coordina-
tion, core strength,
and athleticism.
Jason Kempin/Getty Images (Mahomes). Tom Stahl
(Mills). Jennifer Cawley/Laird Apparel (Hamilton).
Laird Hamilton
SURFER, WATERMAN
The best thing about the sand: If you fall, it
doesn’t hurt. That’s why Hamilton says it’s
perfect for handstand practice. “Inversion is
phenomenal, even if it is just for minutes,” he
says. “If you can’t be inverted for minutes at a
time, then I would question the functionality of your circulation.”
Try to hold a handstand for a minute. Don’t have the body control?
Have a friend hold your legs, or do it against a palm tree.
INTENSITY
SHALLOW-
WATER BEAR
5 CRAWL
MUSCLES WORKED: TOTA L B O DY,
E S P EC I A L LY Q UA DS A N D C O R E
Get on your hands and knees
in shallow water, or even just
near the waves. Focus on
keeping your core tight; that
will help you keep your shoul-
ders and hips level. Crawl
forward 4 or 5 steps, then
crawl back to your starting
point. Repeat the pattern until
time’s up.
INTENSITY
CORE
4 WAVES
MUSCLES WORKED: A B S, O B L I Q U E S,
H I P S, S H O U L D E R S
The bear crawls raised your
heart rate. Now let’s hit the
abs. Get into deeper water.
Clasp your hands in front of
you, about shoulder level;
bend your knees until your
arms are just underwater.
Keeping your arms in front of
you, rotate your torso back
and forth until time’s up.
EB SAYS: Focus on using your
abs to drive the rotation; this
will crush your six-pack mus-
cles and your obliques.
MEN’S HEALTH
INTENSITY
WAIST-DEEP
7 SQUAT JUMPS
MUSCLES WORKED: H A M ST R I N G S,
CA LV E S, G LU T E S, A B S
Now drive your heart rate
back up. Start standing in
the surf. Lower into a squat
as far as is comfortable
underwater; feel free to
briefly immerse your head,
too. Explode out of the
squat, jumping up as high
as possible. (It won’t be very
high because of the water.)
Repeat until time’s up.
INTENSITY
UNDERWATER
9 HIGH KNEES
MUSCLES WORKED: Q UA DS,
H A M ST R I N G S, G LU T E S, CA LV E S
Finish with a little more ab
work. Start standing in the
water, at any depth that’s
comfortable. Drive your right
leg upward, crunching your
abs tightly; take your time do-
ing this to focus on the con-
traction. Return to the start,
then drive your left leg up-
ward; gradually pick up speed
as you repeat the process.
EB SAYS: You may have knee
issues doing high knees and
squat jumps on flat ground,
but the water will remove
much of the impact, making
these easier and less painful.
/ July • August 2019 105
 Louis is a 27-year-old assembly-
line worker in Three Rivers,
Michigan. He has no health
problems and rarely sees
a doctor. Yet for a man in his
prime, Louis thinks a lot about
cheating death. He researches
strategies online, and he even
converted to a plant-based diet
after hearing from a YouTube
channel called Vegan Gains that
veganism could extend his life. Louis thinks the diet will buy
him a few extra years, but he feels the urge to keep seeking new
life-extending methods. “I’d like to live as healthily as possible
for as long as possible,” he says. “And if we have therapies and
practices today that will prolong our healthy life span, I believe
we need to follow these therapies and practices.”
Charles is your average 50-year-old middle-class family
man. He lives in the suburbs of Atlanta, works a 9-to-5 in mar-
keting, does Brazilian jujitsu, and spends weekends watching
his kid at wrestling tournaments. Except Charles has a hang-
up: He worries about feeling like he’s withering, about those
growing-old hallmarks like thinning hair, losing a step, and
forgetting his buddy’s wife’s name. Charles is the kind of guy
who’s active on antiaging Internet forums and takes fistfuls
of supplements. “A few years back, when my granddad had
cancer, I watched him die,” he says. Charles read up on alter-
native ways his granddad could attempt to extend his life,
but his grandfather didn’t try them. Soon after, Charles (who
asked not to use his real name) got some news that sent his
hang-up into hyperdrive. “I took this 23andMe genetic test,”
he says. “I found out I have a risk for Alzheimer’s.” It’s a risk
that increases as your body ages.
Van is a 72-year-old who managed medical-device sales in
Boston until he retired and moved to Spain. He used to run
five miles and lift weights three times each per week. But in
his late 60s, all that wellness stuff wasn’t working so well. “I
began getting really tired in the afternoons,” says Van, who
108 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH
also didn’t want to give his name. “I’d be too tired at night
to go out to dinner, and I also started having high blood
pressure. I was feeling the effects of aging.” His attempts at
flinging a kettlebell were halfhearted, and his walks around
the neighborhood were getting slower. Van felt the sun was
setting on the life of vitality he loved and that he was heading
toward a gloomy and inevitable bedridden demise.
Each of these men found a solution to their concerns about
aging at roughly the same place and time. They came across
information in Reddit threads and on longevity blogs about
something that people on the other end of the keyboard said
could help them live better for longer. It would make Louis
healthier now, as he aged, and as all of his friends saw their
bodies fade. It would slash Charles’s risk of Alzheimer’s and
have guys ten years younger tapping out against him in BJJ.
It would kick-start Van’s training again and drop his blood
biomarkers to those of someone half his age. It had the poten-
tial to be more powerful than diet and exercise. But it also
had the potential to cause some problems.
It was a curious substance discovered in soil that had been
scooped up on Easter Island during a 1964 Canadian research
expedition. Scientists studying disease there noticed that
people didn’t pick up tetanus via their feet as they would
expect, and they figured the ground held some secrets. But
nobody expected to find this one. The soil sat in frozen storage
in a University of Montreal lab until 1969, when a researcher
looked for useful compounds in it and came across a molecule
that was a powerful immunosuppressant. In 1999, the FDA
approved the molecule as the drug Rapamune (sirolimus),
also known as rapamycin. By the mid-2000s, rapamycin was
found to increase the life span of worms and yeast, and in a
2009 study, it extended the life expectancy of mice by 28 per-
cent for males and 38 percent for females. Twenty-eight per-
cent, plus more energy? That could translate into more than a
decade of better years for humans, the Redditors and bloggers
said. But there was a catch.
Rapamycin wasn’t exactly benign, nor was it something
Louis, Charles, or Van could just go pick up at CVS. In high
doses, rapamycin suppresses your immune system. The FDA
approved it for people who’d undergone organ transplants
to keep their bodies from rejecting the donated organ. The
stuff could put you at risk of side effects. Roughly 5 percent
of patients in clinical trials experienced them badly enough
that they had to quit the drug. The FDA stamped rapamycin
with a “black box” warning, its most extreme, for drugs that
come with “serious or life-threatening risks”—risks like
infections, pneumonia, and cancer.
Still, the forums had links to legit research and showed
lots of buzz in the ranks of influential biohackers like Tim
Ferriss and physicians like Peter Attia, M.D., who’ve had
MIT researchers and University of Chicago doctors appear
on their podcasts talking about the drug’s potentially age-
bending benefits. Doctors generally won’t openly prescribe
rapamycin for longevity. Van got lucky and found someone
who did. But Louis and Charles, like many people who want
something today, went looking around the web.
We talked to many men like Louis, Charles, and Van for
this story. They range in age from 27 to 76, and their opin-
ions on the drug go from “probably helpful but no better
than exercise” to “easily the most important drug ever dis-
covered by mankind and should be a key topic of discussion in
the upcoming presidential election cycle.” They are manual
laborers, academics, medical doctors, entrepreneurs, and
everything in between. There are hundreds, perhaps thou-
sands, of these men quietly experimenting with rapamycin
across the country. And if these guys are right, they could be
like the lucky rodents in the research, walking around with
improved brain health, heart health, and vitality while the
rest of us surrender to mortality. Or they could be killing
themselves slowly. It’s too soon to tell.
THE MYSTERY OF AGING
S C I E NTI ST S STI LL D O N ’ T KN OW what actually causes
aging. Maybe it’s that your cells stop dividing, or that your
telomeres shorten, or that you exhaust your stem cells, or
that your DNA becomes damaged and stops repairing itself,
or a combination of all those processes. Or maybe it’s none of
them. All we can do to live longer and better for now is treat
aging’s symptoms. So that’s what the antiaging community
until this point has been stuck with trying to do.
It’s a history of whack-a-huckster. In the 1800s, the treat-
ments were patent medicines like Clark Stanley’s Snake Oil
Liniment and Hamlin’s Wizard Oil. In the 1920s, antiaging
doctors charged $750 to $2,000 for life-extending gland
transplants. Medical boards in the late ’30s intervened
to cut down on these quack treatments. But in the ’90s,
boomers brought the quack back. This generation was hit-
ting middle age and, having grown up in the turbulent ’60s,
was willing to question the establishment—in this case, the
medical establishment—and turn to self-help. Boomers
began popping questionable OTC supplements and getting
HGH injections, all in the hope of extra life. In 2002, when
the antiaging market hit $43 billion, a group of 51 scientists
in the field published a statement in Scientific American
decrying the burgeoning, built-on-almost-nothing business
of antiaging medicines. No one really cared. Just five years
later, the market was expected to reach $64 billion.
Which is about the time Silicon Valley stepped in with
big data, big science, and big money to, of course, “disrupt”
death. Larry Page, Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, and other tech
billionaires have since funneled billions into life-extension
companies such as Calico and the Methuselah Foundation.
(See “Death Disrupters,” page 111.) Much of the new research
is founded on an antiaging discovery that occurred all the
way back in 1935. It was then that researchers at Cornell
found that rats that spent their lives in a state of caloric
restriction lived longer.
Eventually, this finding would be connected to that life-
extending compound in the Easter Island soil through the
microscope of David Sabatini, Ph.D., M.D. Dr. Sabatini didn’t
set out to get mixed up in this odd world of antiaging, but in
1992, peering down at a sample he was analyzing one day as
a student at Johns Hopkins Medical School, he discovered a
protein, now called mTOR (short for mammalian target of
rapamycin), that would eventually form a link between the
way rapamycin might extend life and the way caloric restric-
tion does. He had discovered the mTOR cellular-signaling
pathway that answers to rapamycin. The drug just might act
on the very causes of aging.
Dr. Sabatini, now a professor of biology at the Whitehead
Institute and MIT, explains the mTOR pathway like this:
Pretend your body is an old house. Your oldest cells have all
sorts of problems and are implicated in your house falling
apart. “You couldn’t fully renovate the old house by bring-
ing in only a plumber, or only an electrician, or a roofer, or a
drywall guy,” says Dr. Sabatini. “You’d need to hire a general
contractor, who would hire all those specialists who would
then come fix all those problems that needed to be fixed.”
The mTOR pathway is like the general contractor, signaling
to your body to demolish parts of its old cells and replace
them with newer, healthier ones.
Dr. Sabatini thinks rapamycin essentially tricks the body
into thinking that it’s in a state of calorie deprivation, which
is what causes the contractor to call in all the guys for renova-
tion work. The cellular workers consume your oldest, weakest
cell parts, even parts of senescent cells. These are cells that no
longer divide and are thought to spur aging and maybe even
drive cancer. Which is to say that rapamycin could give you
all the benefits of fasting without the ravenous downsides. In
addition to the studies on rapamycin in yeast, worms, flies,
and mice, in 2014 scientists began work on dogs; it found that
those on the drug showed signs of younger hearts and a rever-
sal of age-related cardiac issues.
While this was going on, Mikhail Blagosklonny, Ph.D.,
M.D., a prolific researcher on aging at the Roswell Park Com-
MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 109

prehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, began writing about his
theories on rapamycin in medical journals. He noted its anti-
aging promise in 2008 and hypothesized that a lower dose
than transplant patients take might bring on benefits with-
out side effects. On Christmas Eve in 2014, a study conducted
by researchers at Novartis and Stanford and published in Sci-
ence Translational Medicine confirmed Dr. Blagosklonny’s
theory. Older people taking the drug for six weeks didn’t see
their immunity decrease—it actually increased in groups
that took as little as 0.5mg a day or 5mg a week. Adult trans-
plant patients typically take a 2mg dose every day.
Today, more than 2,000 clinical trials studying rapamy-
cin are under way around the globe, nearly 1,000 of them
in the United States, and even the director of the NIH has
blogged about its potential benefits. All of which means
rapamycin checks a lot of boxes in the description of a trend
that’s about to explode: wellness gurus talking it up, credi-
ble researchers giving it ink, and enough unknowns to inter-
pret the research in any way that works with your worldview.
But the science, as science does, is proceeding slowly and
carefully and may never find answers. Because the drug is
already generic, drug companies aren’t interested, and anti-
aging enthusiasts are going ahead and taking it, sometimes
with severe consequences.
DECIDING TO POP THE PILL
IN THE WORLD OF R APAMYCIN for antiaging, guys find
ways to get the drug. Louis and Charles searched the
forums—not the somewhat moderated ones, like Reddit’s,
but forums Charles would “rather not mention, just to pro-
tect them, you know?” Charles found a post with a link to an
obscure, unregulated pharmacy in India that was willing to
ship anyone rapamycin, no prescription needed. Louis got
his from a supplier he won’t disclose.
Van located the one doctor in the U.S. who would prescribe
the drug. His name is Alan Green, M.D., and he treats patients
out of his home in Bayside, Queens. Because you have to visit
him in person, Van flew to LaGuardia Airport, took a cab to
Bayside, and wound up in Dr. Green’s office.
With these antiaging meds, there are the sketchy,
we-don’t-know-the-effects-yet prescriptions—the ones you
get from Dr. Green—and then there are the sketchy sketchy
ones from overseas pharmacies and underground suppli-
110 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH
Dr. Alan Green, 76, had no idea so many men would come
to his office in Queens to get rapamycin, which he started
taking himself when “everything was going to shit.”
ers. Many foreign pills are fine, but some aren’t. The
bad ones can be counterfeit, contaminated, tainted,
or otherwise unsafe. They can make you sick, lead to
dangerous interactions with other medicines you take,
and even kill you. In Charles’s and Louis’s eyes, the big-
ger risk was doing nothing. They each asked for a ship-
ment of rapamycin; Charles got a four-month supply for
$100, and Louis got two years’ worth for about $200.
Van’s prescription came from Dr. Green, who takes
the drug himself. The doctor—five-foot-ten and 175
pounds when he started, with a rim of white hair around
his tan head—says the decision to take it was easy. He had just
turned 72, and “everything was going to shit. It was clear that
I was going downhill fast,” says the now-76-year-old. “I would
get winded easily and wasn’t moving as well. I knew I wouldn’t
be alive much longer if I kept deteriorating at this rate.” He
came upon Dr. Blagosklonny’s work and wrote himself a pre-
scription for 6mg once a week. “I didn’t have anything to lose,”
he says. “The first thing I noticed is that it became easy to lose
weight. I was losing two pounds a week. I also had a marked
increase in energy and wasn’t getting winded as easily.”
Dr. Green continued his treatment for a whole year with
nothing but upsides. “So I decided, ‘Well, I’ll make this avail-
able to other people,’ ” he says. “The FDA’s black-box warn-
ing is an excellent warning—as it applies for use for organ
transplants.” At the doses for antiaging? Not so much, says
Dr. Green. It’s not illegal for him to prescribe the medication.
“Once the FDA approves a drug, health care providers gener-
ally may prescribe it for an unapproved use when they judge
that it is medically appropriate for their patient,” explains
Jeremy Kahn, a spokesman for the FDA. Overall, one in five
Kathryn Wirsing/Studio D. Pills: Bozena Fulawka/Getty Images (2); Lina Bruins/EyeEm/Getty Images; Jupiter Images/Getty Images.
prescriptions today is doled out for off-label use, like the
blood-pressure drug Inderal being used for performance anx-
iety or the antidepressant Zoloft for premature ejaculation.
Dr. Green created a website laying out the research and
began hearing from people who’d found him online. “I
figured I’d see a few patients a month,” he says. His phone
started ringing far more than that. “I think I was Dr. Green’s
second patient,” says Van. The doctor ran Van through a
handful of questions about his health history, why he was
interested in rapamycin, and what he hoped to get from it.
Then he did some basic blood testing, Van says, and wrote
him a prescription. Van filled the Rx, dumped six of the aspi-
rin-sized 1mg pills into his hand, and popped them into his
mouth. He flew back to Boston, and at home he’d take that
same 6mg dose once weekly. “My blood work quickly became
that of someone 20 to 30 years younger,” he says.
Seeing Dr. Green isn’t cheap. You’ll have to travel, and he
charges $350 for an initial visit and $100 to $200 for follow-
ups. Your insurance won’t cover the meds, which cost $75
to $150 a month. Dr. Green now sees about three patients a
week, and “many are doctors, Ph.D.s, and executives,” he
says. But that doesn’t help guys like Charles and Louis.
They received the rapamycin pills a couple weeks after
placing their orders. Charles added a 5mg dose in with all
the other supplements he takes and washed the mix down
with water. Louis did the same with a 7mg dose. Both guys
take their pills once a week. “I dropped 10 or 15 pounds in the
three months I’ve been taking it,” says Charles, who admits
Death
he has also been eating better. “I feel less sore, like I’m taking
Advil. I was going to quit jujitsu a couple years ago because Disrupters
of my joint pains, and now I’m rolling with 25-year-olds. My
hair also seems a lot thicker.” Louis has been on and off it Why disrupt only
for almost a year; he says he can’t tell if less joint pain and technology when
an improved mood are direct results or merely coincidental. you can disrupt
He had some mouth sores, indications of a compromised death? Who’s
immune system, but they didn’t rattle him—he thought they, working on what:
too, might just be a coincidence.
Concerns about infections and worse are one reason more
doctors aren’t prescribing rapamycin. Dr. Green says bacte-
rial infections happen in about 5 percent of patients. “I’ve
had a few skin and soft-tissue infections, which I treated with
antibiotics,” he says, and he emphasizes that the infections
1 P E T E R T HIE L
The cofounder of PayPal and
early Facebook investor sees
death as a “problem that can be
can get bad quickly without antibiotic treatment. “I have two solved.” He has famously said
patients who’ve developed pneumonia and required hospital he would dose himself with
treatment. In both cases, they’d delayed a few days to a week younger blood and has recently
dumped $3.5 million into the
or more in starting antibiotics.” Methuselah Foundation, a
“I think [prescribing rapamycin] is bordering on unethi- research organization whose
cal,” says Dr. Sabatini, who does not take the drug. “I think goal is to make “90 the new
we’re far away from knowing that there are no downsides to 50 by 2030.”
long-term use.” Dr. Attia, the influential 46-year-old physi-

2
cian focused on longevity, says he won’t prescribe it to other
JEFF BEZOS
people either—at least not yet. “I take rapamycin myself, so
The Amazon founder and richest
on some level I’ve decided it’s a smart option,” he says. “But I man in the world recently cut
haven’t prescribed it to any patients, except one, who is him- a multimillion-dollar check to
self a scientist studying rapamycin. And I think that speaks to Unity Biotechnology, a company
my desire to better understand the risks, not only of taking too founded in 2009 and now valued
at $700 million. It aims to
much but also of not taking enough.” We’ll likely never be able
develop therapies to target
to study directly whether rapamycin really helps humans live senescent cells—the type of
longer, says Dr. Attia. It’s too time-consuming and too expen- cells believed to help fuel aging.
sive to do a study like that well. “We’ll have to rely on some
combination of proxies,” he says, and scientists are discussing
the development of such tests to analyze what kinds of mark-
ers could really pin down what’s happening with the drug.
Yet Louis, Charles, and Van aren’t waiting for science to
3 M A R T INE RO T HBL AT T
After founding Sirius/XM Radio
and a successful biotech
company, Rothblatt created
catch up. They’ve been on the stuff for as long as two years and Terasem Movement Foundation
don’t plan on stopping. Maybe the three of them, the rest of Inc. in 2004, under the assump-
Dr. Green’s patients, and the untold numbers finagling rapa- tion we’ll ultimately be able
to revive the dead, perhaps in
mycin off the Internet will be among the 95 percent of people
machine form. But those
who see no negative side effects. That’s assuming the pills human-machines will need your
they get are legit. And maybe they’ll end up outliving us all. data in order to be, well, you.
Or maybe they’ll find an unknown, unforeseen consequence. Terasem stores your “mindfiles,”
Medicine can be a gamble. Some medications sat on shelves for all of your digital records, so you
can be brought back to “life.”
decades before doctors realized they came with harmful long-
term side effects and had to be pulled. The painkiller Vioxx, for
example, was linked to 27,000 heart attacks and strokes after
it was FDA approved, and the acne drug Accutane dramatically
increased the risk of miscarriage and severe birth defects in
women taking it during pregnancy. Many later sued its maker.
4 SE RGE Y BR IN A ND
L A R RY PAGE
Calico Labs is a secretive
research project created by
Not that any of those cases will influence the decisions of Google’s founders and funded to
the antiagers we spoke to. “I don’t know if it’ll make me live the tune of $2.5 billion. On the
longer, but hopefully I can head off dementia,” says Charles. record, Calico is saying that the
“And I feel good, man. So why not?” lab’s interdisciplinary team is
researching how and why we
age, as well as methods we can
MICHAEL EASTER is a health and fitness writer and a professor use to get around diseases like
at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. cancer and neurodegeneration.

MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 111

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. . . Keep on flowing this way

 Stock your cooler with a spectrum of
“light” beers that don’t suck. These picks
will fuel your day without filling your gut. The
Latest
Trend
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No Beer
Within the past year,
three macrobrewer-
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RIBBON RIBBON
NON-ALC

ST LIKE
JU

weeding. Thanks to its 4% ABV, you could go CARLSBERG

back to working in the yard. Or have another. 0.0%

Is There a Smart Way to Day-Drink?

Yes, but heat and water loss pose a challenge. TIP 1: Stay hydrated. Because you’re
likely outside and sweating, you should drink water or seltzer between beers.
TIP 2: Replace electrolytes. You lose them when you sweat, so make sure you also eat
Gallerystock (toast)

something with salt. Pretzels, anyone? TIP 3: Heed nature’s call. Ignore the whole
“breaking the seal” myth. Frequent urination is a sign that you’re well hydrated. If you
can’t remember the last time you peed, it’s time for water (and maybe lay off the booze).
—KEITH ROACH, M.D., NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Men’s Health advisor
 Your Guide to

Party

The
Pack the Best New
Perfect Cooler Cooler
The trick is to separate
of the
your offerings into thirds. Summer

1
Pelican 20-Quart
Elite Cooler
The First Section Overpriced options
Dedicate the first third to straightforward may come with Blue-
beers everybody loves; these are your tooth or ATV tires,
crisp pilsners and classic lagers, says Joe but what matters is
Bisacca, cofounder of Elysian Brewing. how long beer stays
Think Corona, Yuengling, Michelob Ultra. cold. Pelican says

2
this box keeps
The Second Section 25 pounds of ice for
Devote this part to beers for more up to ten days. If
adventurous types, but skip nap-inducing that’s true, who
double IPAs or anything aged in a bour- needs a fridge? ($150;
bon barrel. Instead, go with varieties such pelicancoolers.com)
as sours, goses, and saisons.

3
The Final Section
This is your party fail-safe. Stock this
portion with nonalcoholic alternatives—
your water, your seltzers, and (everyone
forgets this last part) a few snacks.
Everyone’s happy; no one’s thirsty.

Mix
Q:
Add Booze to Your Booze! Why Do
New-school beers make great mixers straight out of the can. Some Beers
Carey Jones, coauthor of Be Your Own Bartender, has your recipes.
List Calories
Food styling: Michelle Gatton/Hello Artists. Prop styling: Heather Greene/Hello Artists. Illustrations: The Ellaphant in the Room.

Start with:
GOLDEN ROAD BREWING
MANGO CART
Pour 3 oz into a pint glass
with ice and 5 oz coconut
water, 1 oz dark rum, and
½ oz lime juice.
Garnish it with: a lime wheel
and a cocktail umbrella.
And you have: a MangoNut
Punch, which tastes a lot
like lounging poolside at a
swanky Miami hotel.
Start with:
DOGFISH HEAD
SLIGHTLY MIGHTY
Pour 4 oz into a collins glass
with ice and 2 oz ginger beer
(such as Fever-Tree), ½ oz lemon
juice, and 1 oz vodka.
Garnish it with: a big mint
sprig, clapped between your
hands to release its aroma.
And you have: a Slightly
Mightier, which is one heck of
a while-you’re-grilling drink.
Start with:
SUFFERFEST BEER
COMPANY FKT
Pour 1 can into a pint glass
rimmed with lime juice and salt,
plus 1½ oz blanco tequila,
2 oz pomegranate juice, and
a squeeze of fresh lime juice.
Garnish it with: a lime wedge.
And you have: a SufferLess,
which goes best with Taco
Tuesday, preferably after a
long run or bike ride.
and Others
Don’t?
A: Well, no one forces them
to. While nutritional label-
ing is regulated by the FDA,
alcohol falls under the juris-
diction of the Alcohol and
Tobacco Tax and Trade Bu-
reau, which currently sets
no such requirement. Some
breweries publish calories
(Miller 64, for one) but do so
voluntarily. One general
rule: The higher the alcohol
by volume a beer has, the
higher in calories it is.
—CAREY JONES

MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 115

 B R U C E L E E I N
AS M E R ’S
T H E S U M
ONE O F
O V I E S ,
T E S T M
H OT
M I K E M O H
E I Z I N G T H
R E V I TA L
IS
O F
N
Y
O
C
LEGA
R T I A L - A R T S I C
T H E M A I T S F)
E L
H E S P O RT
(A N D T
P O P C U L T U R E
I N B OT H
E S S .
AND FITN
L aw re n c e
By A n d rew

116 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH

THE
TIME
Mike Moh met Quentin Tarantino, they
were crammed into a small room inside a
Los Angeles casting office. Moh was in the
second round of auditions for the role of
Bruce Lee in Once Upon a Time . . . in Hol-
lywood (out July 26). After watching Moh
deliver his lines, Tarantino pounced. “Let’s
get you up on your feet,” he said.
Moh stood up and found himself toe-
to-toe with the Academy Award–winning
director, not knowing what to expect. “So
here’s what I’m thinking for the fight,”
said Tarantino, who then spent the next
five minutes taking Moh through the Hong
Kong–style martial-arts moves he’d picked
up from a lifetime of watching kung fu mov-
ies. Moh labored to keep up. “At one point,
he’s down on the floor,” Moh says. “Then
he’s up in the air. By the end of it, we were
both sweating. It was wild.”
The 35-year-old won the role in the Taran-
tino film—which, among other things,
aspires to acquaint a new generation with
Bruce Lee’s impact on film and martial
arts. Before the kung fu
movie craze blew up in the
’60s, it was a purely Hong
Kong phenomenon. But
that all changed in the
THEBEST
MOVIE
spring of 1973, when Lee’s
The Big Boss landed in U.S.
theaters. It relaunched MARTIAL
the Hong Kong film super-
star—who until then was ARTISTS
better known stateside for OFALLTIME
his work on the one-and-
done season of ABC’s The BYMIKE
Green Hornet—and sent
kung fu movies flooding
MOH
onto our shores. At one
point, says Matthew Polly,
author of Bruce Lee: A Life,
118 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH
“there were 30 chop-socky films from Hong
Kong playing in New York City.”
Then Enter the Dragon dropped in
the summer of ’73—a month after Lee’s
untimely death at age 32—and broke the
mold. It was the first kung fu film to be pro-
duced expressly for an American audience
and made it trendy to use real martial-arts
practitioners as actors. Many American
movie stuntmen complained that Lee’s
quick and close fighting style, which he
called Jeet Kune Do, moved too fast. “They
were all used to the John Wayne punch that
misses by three feet,” Polly says. “Bruce
wanted to get in close, do a bunch of things,
and just barely miss. Guys didn’t know how
to react.” Dragon was a box-office smash
that established martial-arts movies as a
bona fide action subgenre.
In the process, Lee became a household
name and a wiry fitness legend whose like-
ness became as prevalent inside gyms as
it was in the martial-arts studios popping
up across the country. “If you think about
1.
BRUCE LEE
“In Enter the Dragon,
Bruce throws a lightning backfist
that’s the fastest
move I’ve ever seen on film.”
Moh at age 12, two years before he
earned his black belt in tae kwon do.
men in terms of iconic physiques,
there’s Arnold and then there’s
Br uce,” says Moh, who f irst
watched Dragon at age eight. He
connected with Lee’s swagger
and underdog status. “You have
this automatic picture of Bruce
just ripped with his shirt off and
his big aviators on.” That was all
the motivation he needed to begin doing
pushups in the basement of his home and
perfecting his Lee impression in the mir-
ror. Moh started tae kwon do lessons at
12. “Bruce is the GOAT. I’m not trying to
be the next Bruce Lee,” he says. “I’m just
trying to do him justice.”
Like Lee, Moh, a fifth-degree tae kwon do
black belt, is an actor–slash–martial-arts
Ronald Grant Archive/Alamy Stock Photo (Enter the Dragon). ©Warner Bros/Everett Collection (The Matrix).
instructor with his very own school (in
Waunakee, Wisconsin, where he lives).
Like Lee, he fights with a sort of hyperki-
netic grace. Like Lee, he’s married with
kids and prides himself on being a family
man. And like Lee, he’s had doors slammed
in his face in Hollywood. “I didn’t get into
acting because I thought the only way I
could make my mark is by being a martial
artist,” he says. “It just so happened that I
was drawn to kung fu flicks.”
That’s a testament to Lee’s influence
on kung fu films, which had fallen out of
favor at the box office by the time Moh was
growing up in the Twin Cities during the
’80s and ’90s—mostly because no other
headliner could approach Lee’s blend of
skill, charisma, and English fluency. It’s
also a testament to the subgenre’s impact
on action choreography. “The Matrix in
particular did something powerful, which
2.
KEANU REEVES
“That fight simulation in The Matrix
has a Jeet Kune Do homage to Bruce.
Keanu wasn’t the most polished
then, but he keeps getting better.”

was to incorporate a kung fu movie into a
completely different genre,” says Polly.
“Now when you watch a Marvel fight scene,
they’re throwing knees and elbows and
Distant Horizon/Everett Collection (Flash Point). ©Warner Bros/Everett Collection (Lethal Weapon 4).
Max Montgomery (previous spread). ©New Line Cinema/Everett Collection (Rumble in the Bronx).
kicks. They’re martial-arts badasses.”
The same goes for after-school shows
like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which
Moh binge-watched. It’s almost too fitting
that his first acting break came courtesy
of a chance encounter with Mike Chat (aka
the Blue Lightspeed Rescue Power Ranger),
who recruited Moh for a stunt role in a Hong
Kong action comedy starring Jackie Chan
in 2005. “Jackie would eat with the stunt
guys. He also helped direct. He also swept
the floor,” Moh recalls. “It was eye-opening.”
Those lessons in humility helped Moh
deal with casting directors who saw him
as little more than a major martial-arts
talent with minor acting chops. Even past
attempts to play Lee ended in rejection.
“Honestly, it seemed like I was cursed,” Moh
3.
JACKIE CHAN
“In the fight in the arcade in Rumble
in the Bronx, Jackie weaves
props and comedy into a frenetic
scene with multiple attackers.”
says. “Like, Okay, maybe this
is not meant to happen.” But
then, after that sweaty spar-
ring session with Tarantino, he
scored his breakthrough.
Moh’s resemblance to Lee
starts with his five-foot-eight frame. (Lee
was five-foot-seven.) But he’s heavier, at
145 pounds—Lee was a zero-body-fat 135.
Lee was years ahead with his approach to
training, too: The fitness polymath lifted
weights, did calisthenics, ran intervals,
and skipped rope, as well as mixing mar-
tial arts long before MMA was a thing.
Moh admits he can’t peacock like Lee,
who could do single-arm, two-finger, and
thumb-only pushups. Moh’s training is
focused on tae kwon do, but for this role,
he did more weights to tone his muscle and
cut carbs to claw out that six-pack. Moh
also practiced kicks and punches for hours
to imitate Lee’s grace and flow. “Bruce
wanted that animalistic spirit to come
4.
DONNIE YEN
“Check out Flash Point—tight
framing, slow-mo, one of the first
fights with joint locks and
submissions blended with striking.”
Moh, as Bruce Lee, fighting with Brad Pitt
in Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood.
out in his movements. You hear Bruce’s
‘WoooooAAAAHHHH’ and you know.”
Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood hits
theaters the same year as the finale of AMC’s
martial-arts drama Into the Badlands and
the debut of Cinemax’s kung fu crime series
Warrior (based on a concept Lee came up
with). While it’s still too early
to say whether this is a blip or
a trend, Once Upon a Time has
rekindled America’s fascina-
tion with Lee, an actor who
was often imitated but not
especially well, though Jason
Scott Lee (no relation) set a
worthy standard in the 1993
biopic Dragon.
Moh’s take, which became
the unexpected highlight of
the Once Upon a Time trailer,
earned even higher marks.
“When I watched him,” says
Polly, “I was like, yeah, that’s righteous.
He gets the aspect of who Bruce Lee was
as a character onscreen.” Most of all, he
nails Lee’s accent, a mix of Hong Kong and
American English. Moh never anticipated
so much buzz about whether he’d play Lee
again. “What I really want to do is work on
great projects with great people,” he says.
“And if that happens to fall in line with
something that’s Bruce-related, it would be
my honor to do it again.” In the meantime,
he’ll settle for defying audiences’ expecta-
tions. Just like Lee.
ANDREW LAWRENCE is based in Beaufort,
South Carolina. He has written for Sports
Illustrated, The Atlantic, and others.
5.
JET LI
“Lethal Weapon 4: Jet looked so
sinister. He could be the most
physically talented of them all. His
moves are smooth and fast.”
MEN’S HEALTH / July • August 2019 119
 AND ANOTHER THING!

The
Ultimate
Summer ESMÉ WEIJUN WANG
RECOMMENDS . . .

Reading WHERE REASONS END, BY YIYUN LI

The writer lost her son

List to suicide. This powerful

novel details an imagined
conversation between the
two. Li bares her soul and
We asked one of our urges you to do everything
favorite writers for you possibly can to tell the
ones you love just how much
their favorite unsung you do. “This book tore my
beach read. Then we heart into pieces,” Wang
asked the author of says, “and yet it manages to
be so elegant in its beauty.”
that book for their
favorite. And so on...
BY EVAN ROMANO

MEN’S HEALTH
RECOMMENDS...

RAISED IN CAPTIVITY: FICTIONAL HANIF ABDURRAQIB

NONFICTION, BY CHUCK KLOSTERMAN RECOMMENDS . . .
It’s a cluster of surreal short
stories, with subjects including THE COLLECTED SCHIZOPHRENIAS,
BY ESMÉ WEIJUN WANG
but not limited to: a mountain lion
These 13 essays each spotlight
in an airplane bathroom, a man
what it’s like to live with a disease
who ponders a procedure that
or disorder that, on the outside,
would allow him to experience his
may not show any major symp-
wife’s childbirth pain for her, and

Danielle Daly (books). Jason Booher (Klosterman). Kate Sweeney (Abdurraqib). Jacquelyn Tierney (Wang). Styling: Laura Woolf (books).
toms. “I love how the stories
a classified operation assessing
accumulate and haunt, weaving
why coin flips no longer have
seamlessly through the personal
50/50 odds. Bizarre? Yes.
narrative without being isolating,”
Entertaining? Absolutely.
says Abdurraqib. And though
Wang’s honesty can be arresting,
she leaves you excited to be alive.

CHUCK KLOSTERMAN RECOMMENDS . . .

DREAMING THE BEATLES, BY ROB SHEFFIELD ROB SHEFFIELD RECOMMENDS . . .

Maybe you think you know the Fab Four, but
this book argues you don’t. One of Klosterman’s GO AHEAD IN THE RAIN, BY HANIF ABDURRAQIB
favorite anecdotes: “In 1967, the Beatles liked the “Hanif’s one of my favorite music writers,
beach so much that they (unsuccessfully) tried because for him music is about everything,”
to purchase an 80-acre Greek island,” he says. Sheffield says. “His ode to the rappers A
Sheffield goes beyond what made the Beatles Tribe Called Quest turns into a poetic tour of
larger than life and instead explores why. youth, getting older, losing friends, holding
on to what’s crucial through the years.” The
book pairs perfectly with Tribe’s 1991 album,
The Low End Theory.

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120 July • August 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH