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CONTENTS

05.19

Surf legend Kelly Slater won’t slow down, shooting for a 12th world title while building an eco-friendly business empire.

COVER GUY: KELLY SLATER PHOTOGRAPHED BY:

RYAN FOLEY

AUSTRALIAN

BOOST YOUR FLEX LIFE Pump Up Your Arms in 8 Simple Moves

FIGHT FAT AND WIN “SUPERFOODS”

EXPOSED

WAKEUP YOUNGER CARNIVORES VS VEGANS

PickYourSide

INSTANT

LIFE HACKS THE

TH EAR SUE IS

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

H E A LT H

p18 Nap Time

Slash your risk of heart attack with an afternoon snooze.

p48 How Gross Are You? Which of your less-than-hygenic habits might actually kill you?

FITNESS

p115 Freedom Fighters

Rugby’s elite are using yoga to unlock their bodies – and play better.

p118 Whip-Arse Workout Need to shed lard in a hurry? Here’s our fastest-ever plan.

TACT I C S

p32 You’re Gonna Die

How to enrich your life by facing up to the inevitable.

p98 The Side Hustle

Strapped for cash? Turn your passion into a moneyspinner.

N U T R I T I ON

p52 Snob’s Guide To Pies Order In New Brainpower How Chinese takeaway could boost your memory and stave off dementia.

Boost Your Flex Life The insider tricks and tweaks you need to build sleeve-shredding arms.

Convert your favourite cheat meal into a nutritional powerhouse.

p78 Carnivores v Vegans We taste-test two hot, and diametrically opposed, eating plans.

ST Y L E

p55 The Woodsman Enough already! Head into the wilderness, ready for anything.

p60 Ditch “The Usual” Check out these legends’ locks before your next haircut.

104

Leaps of Faith Lessons in crazy-brave from the world’s scariest mountain-biking competition.

Marathon Men Expand your physical limits by taking on a cause bigger than yourself. May 2019

E D I T O R’S L E T T E R

Men's Health Australia

@MensHealthAU

menshealth.com.au

MAKING WAVES WITH A LEGEND I first met Kelly Slater four years ago. On our annual pilgrimage to the Mecca of Australian surfing, Bells Beach, my best mate and I were cruising along the Great Ocean Road, gazing out the window at empty waves and pristine beaches. Suddenly, our eyes settled on a lone surfer. The distant figure launched off the lip of a wave, so perfectly in tune with the water that he seemed to be mocking us mere mortals. We pulled over and, awestruck, watched him for 90 minutes. Given his affinity with the ocean, and the way his iconic shaved head caught the setting sun, there was no mistaking his identity: we’d made a rare sighting of Slater in the wild. Unfortunately, this is where the supreme coolness of this story ends. Realising the greatest surfer in history was parked next to us, I very uncooly approached him, uttering a nonsensical “You make my life”. One of history’s great embarrassments, captured on film and now etched in print. This month, the paths of Slater and I cross again, as MH launches our first eco-issue. Alongside Slater’s ongoing efforts in sustainability and innovation, MH has made our own commitment to Mother Nature: from this month onwards our subscriber issue will be sent out in biodegradable plastic. I’m still yet to witness a human being more at home in the water than Slater, for whom the waves seem to be an extension of his being. He’s evolved into a fierce protector of the environment, a sustainable-fashion entrepreneur with his own clothing brand, Outerknown. And nowadays, he really does control the waves, in the form of his new man-made wave company. Eyeing a 12th world title at the age of 47, Slater is living proof that time spent in harmony with nature is time dedicated to professional longevity and vigorous health. In fact, our labcoated mates have proven it so. ‘Forest bathing’, aka spending time in nature, has recently been proven to reduce stress, boost immunity and lower blood pressure so effectively that the practice is now enshrined in Japanese public-health policy. In this issue, take a leap of faith (p. 104), head out into the woods (p. 55) and hit the trails (p. 70). Look after your world – and, in turn, look after yourself.

SCOTT HENDERSON Editor BEN JHOTY Deputy Editor DANIEL WILLIAMS Associate Editor DAVID ASHFORD Creative Director JASON LEE Deputy Art Director KATE FRASER Head Of Pictures – Fashion and Health LAUREN WILLIAMSON Digital Content Manager – Health ALEX PIEROTTI Digital Content Editor TODD LIUBINSKAS Fitness Director CHIEF BRABON Transformation Coach JEFF LACK Style Editor ERIN DOCHERTY Grooming Writer

KATHY GLAVAS

CLARISSA WILSON

Brand Solutions Director

Head of Health

COURTENAY McDERMOTT

JESSICA LAY

Brand Solutions Manager

Marketing Manager – Health

CALVIN SIMPSON

Marketing & Events Executive

ANDREW CAMERON

Production Manager

ALEX DALRYMPLE

Print Operations Manager

Brand Solutions Coordinator

ELLIE FLETCHER PAUL KING

Executive Creative Director

ALLAN WEBSTER

Multimedia Content Producer

GEREURD ROBERTS Chief Executive Officer, Pacific Magazines GUY TORRE Chief Financial Officer LOUISA HATFIELD Group Content and Brand Director

NICOLE BENCE Commercial Director MARK BOORMAN Group Production Manager

RICHARD DORMENT

Scott Henderson menshealth@pacificmags.com.au m

Editor in Chief, Men’s Health US SIMON HORNE

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KIM ST. CLAIR BODDEN

SVP/Editorial & Brand Director CHLOE O’BRIEN

SVP/Managing Director Asia Pacific & Russia

Deputy Brands Director

RICHARD BEAN

Executive Director, Content Services

Director of International Licensing and Business Development

C Clean Slater: who knew H Henderson’s chance meeting w with the maestro would p presage a noble alliance?

JEREMY SUTTON

Group Subscriptions Manager

SHELLEY MEEKS

Pacific Magazines, Media City, 8 Central Avenue, Eveleigh, NSW 2015 Phone: (02) 9394 2000 Fax: (02) 9394 2319 Subscription enquiries: 1300 668 118 Printing Bluestar Web, 83 Derby Street, Silverwater NSW 2128. Distribution Gordon & Gotch. Published 12 times a year. Registered business name Pacific Magazines Pty Ltd, (ABN) 16 097 410 896. All rights reserved. Title and trademark Men’s Health © Hearst Magazines International. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission. Men’s Health is a registered trademark and the unauthorised use of this trademark is strictly

ASK MH

THE BIG QUESTION

Is social media making me a shallownarcissist?

If you have to ask, AK, you might not “like” the answer. Narcissism isn’t simply a matter of self-love: it’s a set of behaviours that includes an exaggerated sense of your own importance and an excessive need for the admiration of others. Social media thrives on these feelings. Though you may know – on an intellectual level – that Instagram selfies aren’t a true reflection of reality, it’s all too easy to compare your daily life to someone else’s carefully curated highlights reel. And self-flagellation of this sort can send your fragile selfesteem plummeting. “This prompts us to search for ways to boost our confidence with likes and comments,” says psychotherapist Ben Bidwell (@thenakedprofessor). “Then we compete by sharing our own, highly selective and filtered images.” Each new like or notification validates us, giving us a hit of dopamine, the brain chemical linked to pleasure, reward and, sometimes, addictive or compulsive acts. If you’re not yet ready to delete your accounts, try using greyscale mode (Google this to see if your phone offers it). Making the experience of social media less engaging slackens its grip; greyscaled avo on toast and #yolkporn is just not worth the double-tap. Apps to monitor screen time can also help to bring your usage down. But, Bidwell says, for a lasting fix, it’s best to extinguish the need to scratch that itch. His plan (see right) will help with your social media detoxification.

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LEARN TO “UNLIKE” YOUR NEED FOR INSTA VALIDATION.

ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR CULL YOUR FOLLOWERS

What does each exchange give you? Inspiration? Education? Laughs? If you don’t know what they bring to your feed, just unfollow.

Heed Ben Bidwell’s tips to avoid becoming a slave to your phone

TAKE IT OFFLINE

Use social media only when you’re alone, and never in the company of friends or family. Use an “app-blocker” to eliminate distractions.

BE TRUE TO YOURSELF

Review your past five posts – are they honest? Praise, when not earned, can cause mental distress, a University of Pennsylvania study finds.

ANCIENT SOLUTION TO A MODERN PROBLEM I’ve changed my mind about marriage equality. Am I weak? RW

It is better to change an opinion than to persist in the wrong one. Socrates, ancient Greece

TEXT A PT Hi. I planned to train my legs at lunch but I’m seriously sore. Do I have a pass to skip the gym? Well, training sore muscles will increase your injury risk, and it’s unlikely you’ll be able to lift as much as in your last session … … but don’t skip it, shirker! Try steady-state cardio on a bike, or head to the pool instead. You g can return to your regular routine tomorrow. Fair cop. But how can I stop soreness hurting my progress? Just don’t overdo it: try no more than than eight sets on one muscle group each session.

WORDS: MICHAEL JENNINGS; PHOTOGRAPHY: JOBE LAWRENSON

OK. Should I split my training into muscle groups, then? Do two push and pull workouts a week. Squats and leg presses on push days, hamstring moves and deadlifts on pull days, with a day off in between. Go heavy on day one, lighter on day two. That way, you’ll always have two rest days before training the same muscle. Go easy, OK?

DOES IT WORK?

Isfastedcardiothe best route to fat loss?

CHASE DOWN FAST RESULTS WITH A DIET YOU CAN STOMACH.

If you don’t eat before training, your body will burn fat for fuel instead of carbs: a win-win. Or so the theory behind fasted cardio goes. But nutritionist Chris Lowe says that this is an oversimplification. “When it comes to using fat or carbs for fuel, there’s no on/off switch. You’ll never burn 100 per cent carbs or 100 per cent fat. It’s always a combination.” It gets more complicated. In one study, those who trained on empty stomachs burned more fat than breakfast-eaters immediately after exercise but, 12 hours later, they were

GET WITH THE TIMES 90 MINUTES BEFORE Chocolate Oats

• A scoop of chocolate whey • Rolled oats, 50g • Strawberries, 5, chopped • Honey, 1tsp • Greek yoghurt, 1tbsp

burning more carbohydate. The reverse occurred in subjects who had a pre-cardio meal. It pretty much balanced out. Our advice? Do what feels good. If not eating keeps you in a kilojoule deficit, stick with fasted training. A carb-based meal the night before should help you avoid emptystomach problems. If you do eat first thing, “Avoid having too much fat or fibre, as these can cause digestive issues,” suggests Lowe. Our perfectly-timed fuel options (below) will set you up for success.

Whatever your routine, Lowe’s plans will help you fuel the right way

60 MINUTES BEFORE

Banana & Strawberry Smoothie

Blend this in your Thermos ($44.99; thermos.com.au) for sustained power: scoop of strawberry whey, 250ml almond milk, 1 banana.

30 MINUTES BEFORE Coffee & Water

Caffeine enters the blood within 5-15 mins and peaks at around 40-80 mins. Have it half an hour before your sesh for a late boost.

Andy Vincent, @andyvincentpt

May 2019

MAXIMISING LIFE’S GREATEST LUXURY

PHOTOGRAPHY: PAVEL DORNAK AT LUCKY IF SHARP

POWER UP YOUR NOODLE WITH A CHINESE TAKEAWAY.

WE’VE BEEN CONDITIONED to believe that indulgence, especially when served with a bag of prawn crackers, has few redeeming qualities. But while the kilojoule hit of spring rolls and egg fried rice is something to be enjoyed only occasionally, it should not be avoided wholesale. In fact, scientists at Tottori University in Japan suggest your Chinese takeaway could deliver weighty brain benefits in 45 minutes. According to new research, monosodium glutamate (MSG), a key ingredient of Chinese food, may play a role in staving off dementia, with test subjects who consumed it

showing noticeable improvements in memory. Though unclear exactly why, some scientists suggest that it activates the hippocampus (the area of the brain dealing with memory), while others believe that it might improve our ability to absorb zinc, which could help repair damaged brain cells and stave off dementia. However MSG works its magic, its memory-boosting gifts are clear, which has an obvious crossover to your work life – especially when the boss quizzes you on those figures in your 9am meeting. Late night at the office? Order in the Mongolian lamb, chopsticks at the ready.

MINUTES TO ORDER IN NEW BRAINPOWER AND EXTRA MEMORY May 2019

01 HOUR TO FIRE UP YOUR VO2 MAX BY WALKING TO WORK

TAKING THE CAR or train for your 10-minute commute? We don’t blame you. Autumn mornings can be chilly, and all that coughing and spluttering in the typical rail carriage is never something to relish. But while there’s still decent morning light, research suggests that you should swap those four wheels for two feet. According to the US’s National Health and Nutrition Survey, conducted on nearly 2000 people aged 20-49, the more vitamin D you have in your system, the higher your VO2 max will be. So, taking advantage of an extra hour of morning sunlight by walking to work will not only top up your vitamin D levels and put the spring back in your step, but it’ll make you fitter, too. All without breaking a sweat. VO2 max is not something you buy

in Priceline to keep your hair in place. It’s a measure of your body’s maximal oxygen uptake and the most important factor in determining your fitness. The report states that vitamin D may increase your muscle protein synthesis, boosting the number of fast-twitch fibres to stave off fatigue and therefore improve your aerobic fitness. In essence, the greater your VO2 max, the higher your capacity for exercise. That means extra stamina and an ability to train harder and progress faster in the gym. Combine this with sunlight’s ability to provide a mental salve of feel-good hormones, strengthen your heart and even protect against liver disorders, and it’s clear that a gentle cardio commute is the ideal addition to your regimen. It really is a bright idea.

TAKE THE FIRST STEPS TOWARDS A LASTING STAMINA BOOST.

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*Minimum Spend $99. Valid on Selected Full Priced Items only until 11.59pm on 30.06.2019. Cannot be used with any other code or offer. Conditions apply. For full terms and conditions and a list of brand exclusions go to: www.theiconic.com.au/terms-of-use/#voucher

10 SECONDS TO LICK AGEING AND WAKE UP LOOKING YOUNGER

BLOW OUT THE YEARS BY BRUSHING UP ON YOUR ORAL HYGIENE.

THE INTERNET is awash with bizarre cure-alls. But while brushing your tongue is hardly as odd as Gwyneth Paltrow’s vaginal steamer, its purported benefits are no less spectacular. In this instance, however, they’re backed up by science. According to new research, brushing your tongue for just 10 seconds per day allows new “good bacteria” to grow, which in turn facilitates the production of nitric oxide – a molecule that helps to slow down ageing by

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regenerating old cells. Sound good? The ageing process is largely caused by three factors. First, the telomeres at the end of your chromosomes stop working as efficiently, so DNA can’t be replicated as accurately. Second, your mitochondria power down, resulting in your cells receiving less energy. Finally, your stem cells’ ability to repair damage begins to wane. According to US researchers, nitric oxide helps to slow the effect of all three processes

– and scientists at Baylor College, Texas, believe that 50 per cent of the body’s total nitric oxide production takes place on your tongue. Brushing your tongue (try the Oral B Smart 4000 Electric Toothbrush, $99; harveynorman.com.au) maximises the manufacture of this internal youth elixir. The good oral bacteria produce nitrites, which mix with your stomach acid to create the nitric oxide you need to turn back the clock.

NEW

AFTERNOON TO HIT SNOOZE ON YOUR HEART ATTACK RISK

PUT YOUR CHANCES OF HEART TROUBLE TO BED WITH A WEEKLY DOZE.

menshealth.com.au

TIRED? That makes all of us. According to the Sleep Health Foundation, Australians are undersleeping by an hour every night, equivalent to a whole night’s sleep over the course of a week. This deficit is playing havoc with your health – lack of sleep can double your risk of heart disease, according to US researchers. Greek epidemiologists believe that naps are the answer, but because you’re likely reading this plugged into Australia’s always-on work culture, not on the sleepy Mediterranean coastline, we doubt a siesta is scheduled in your Outlook calendar. There is, however, a dreamy solution. In a survey of 24,000 people, conducted over six years, just one

afternoon nap per week was found to slash the participants’ chances of a fatal heart attack or stroke by half, with men benefiting more than women. Although the researchers came to no definitive conclusion as to why a nap reduced heart attack rates so significantly, one assumption made from the findings is that it provides an extra opportunity for stress hormone levels to reset, reducing blood pressure and harmful inflammation. Heart disease is the major cause of preventable death in Australia, yet this science suggests that the antidote could be as simple as sleeping through a Sunday arvo movie. You probably won’t miss much. This is a life-saving hack so easy that you can do it with your eyes shut.

+ Advantage STAY AHEAD OF THE GAME

Endless Summer

As he prepares for what could be his farewell season, surfing icon Kelly Slater is laying the foundations for a life outside of competition. In an exclusive interview with MH, the GOAT reveals the secrets to sustaining excellence and why he likes his chances of claiming world title no.12 BY BEN JHOTY

PHOTOGRAPHS BY RYAN T. FOLEY

IT’S 7.45 on a Friday night on Hawaii’s famous North Shore and Kelly Slater is reclining on his bed, contemplating an image that captures perfection. It’s a photograph of the most incredible wave Slater has ever seen. The picture was taken at Pipeline about five years ago. The thing that makes this wave perfect? Not even Slater could catch it. “I was in this heat in the semifinals of the competition and this wave came along that I’ve been looking for my whole life at Pipeline and just never been in position to catch,” he says, reliving the day in his mind’s eye. “I was close to getting on it but I just couldn’t catch it. It was too intense and I wasn’t in the spot. My friend got a picture of it from the water. It’s just the most insane wave.” Slater’s eye wanders up to the ceiling or where the ceiling should be. Instead there are rafters where some of his favourite boards lie across the beams. “I have all my guns, my big boards up there,” he says. “Anything that’s eight foot or longer hangs in the rafters above my head.”

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A+ COVER GUY

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD: SLATER IS EYEING A 12TH WORLD TITLE.

May 2019

A+ COVER GUY

MH: As you prepare for your comeback to the tour are you looking to prove you can still compete at 47 or are you doing it simply because you love it? KS: It’s probably both. I love surfing. But I don’t love competing very much at this point – the grind of getting on the tour and going to this contest that I’ve been to 50 times before, I don’t love that. I do love the challenge of certain guys though. When I get to surf against my favourite surfers, the John Johns, the Gabriels, Filipe, I love that challenge and that opportunity. From here on I’m doing it for my fans and for people who seem to be inspired by me doing this at my age. The sheer number of people, on a daily basis, that are like, ‘Man, at your age you’re doing that? You’re older than me and it made me

This image of the king of surfing at home in his bedroom, surrounded by the tools of his trade and a picture of a wave that couldn’t be caught says plenty about the man who’s ruled his competition in a way few athletes in history have ever had dominion over their sports. If you want to try to understand the secrets of Slater’s incredible success and longevity – he’s won a record 11 world titles and is both the youngest at 20 and eldest at 39 to achieve the honour – it begins and ends with the contents of his bedroom. First, the passion. The first thing Slater sees when he wakes up in the morning and the last thing at night are those surfboards. “You’ve just got to love it and nothing else,” he says when asked to identify the primary factors in his prolonged success. “Surfing is that for me.” Then there’s the humility. As the picture constantly

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reminds him, as good as he is, the ocean is greater. Taken together these two qualities, passion and humility, represent the twin girders of enduring excellence. Possess them and you can ride almost any wave to shore. Which is exactly what Slater’s doing, raging against the dying of the light as he returns from injury to take on a new brigade of young surfers, some of whom aren’t even half his age. Outside of competition his fervour trickles down into projects like his sustainable clothing line Outerknown, his revolutionary artificial wave company and his board brand Firewire, that will form the broad planks of his post-surfing life. As Slater prepares to embark on what may be his final full year in the World Surf League, he chatted to MH about the secrets of sustained success, life beyond the tour and why he’ll never stop chasing that perfect wave.

get off my butt and get myself in shape again’. That and the challenge of being 47 and going against guys that are 20 years old. For all those guys, ‘You know what? I’m your gatekeeper now. You’ve got to beat me and I’m the old guy’. MH: Do you think you have a shot at winning this year? KS: Oh yeah. I know I do. I’ve won enough times to know what I have to do to win. But it’s commitment. It’s focus. I’ve watched guys win contests over the past two years who were not doing anything even remotely untouchable for me. A lot of times, most of the guys who win pick the right waves and they make good choices. It’s not necessarily doing some crazy giant manoeuvre that no one else can do. It’s usually just doing the basics really well on the best

waves. Ninety percent of the time if you do that you’re going to win. If I do that 90 per cent of the time, I’ll win the world title this year easily. Can I go out and do it 90 per cent of the time? Probably not, but I can give myself that opportunity every time I paddle out. MH: If you don’t win these days is it easier to accept than when you were young and more cutthroat about it? KS: You have no choice. I’ve learned that. In 2008 I was in Bali and I’d won

three of the first five events of the year. And if I were to win in Bali, I was going to win the world title so early in the year. I felt super good and in my first round I got a 10-point ride and like a nine-point-something. I was really tuned in. And then I lost my second heat in the third round. I was so angry at myself. I couldn’t let it go. I couldn’t sleep that night. So, I got up the next day and went surfing. When I got to the beach to paddle out I remember looking at the heats my main rivals

“If you do the basics really well on the best waves, 90 per cent of the time you’re going to win. If I do that, I’ll win the world title easily”

POOL YOUR RESOURCES: SLATER RELAXES AT HIS NORTH SHORE BEACH HOUSE.

May 2019

A+ COVER GUY

were going to surf. All the guys who could potentially catch me were still in the contest. And they all had heats with competitors that I was like, ‘Oh they’re going to beat those guys easily’. So, it made me even more angry. I was just telling myself the worst. But as I started surfing I went, ‘You know what, it’s not going to help me at all to feel this way. Just let it go’. And that moment just freed me. I literally felt a thousand pounds lighter. I went out and really enjoyed my surf. I surfed for two or three hours and when I came in all the guys I was worried about had lost their heats. It was just weird. It might have been sheer coincidence but I processed something so fully and so completely and I felt really light afterward and then it went my way. It was a good lesson for me. Your biggest lessons come from losing, not winning. MH: You’ve managed to stay at the top of your game for over 25 years. What would you say have been the keys to maintaining that standard for such a long time? KS: I think there are a lot of things that go into it. Primarily you have to be passionate about what you’re doing. Obviously, there’s the physical side. You have to eat well, not party, keep your body in good shape, avoid injury. I think it’s sort of tempering yourself just right to be on that threshold of the best surfing, but not going so radical all the time that you’re injuring yourself. You’ve got to throttle back and forward at the right times. I feel like I’ve done that well. I’ve been injured for the last year-and-a-half but prior to that I never missed two events in a row. I was really lucky. Especially in the middle where I was going for records and world titles. Any injury would’ve halted a lifelong goal. MH: Do you think your ability to be constantly at the forefront of new trends and styles has helped you succeed even as surfing has changed? KS: For sure. You have to know what the standard is and know what you can push. You have to have your mind open to new things all the time. When I started, I looked to my heroes. They planted the seeds of what could be done on waves. Then as I got on tour, that changed. Suddenly all the guys I was most excited about were my age. So, we were this group that was pushing each other, feeding off each other. Now I find myself at a place where all the best surfers in the world are younger than

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me. I’m looking at guys who literally weren’t even born when I won my first world title. MH: You’ve often said surfing is the best training for surfing. Do you think having that intrinsic motivation helps in sustaining your physical peak? KS: The reason I said that is that especially leading up to an event you need to be really tactically sharp, really decisive with your equipment and how you’re going to surf the waves. But I do think everyone needs a little bit of cross training. Whether it’s just stretching or some leg strength or mobility work. That’s where you might flare a turn a little more powerfully or a little quicker than someone else. That could be the difference between a world title and not having one. My body is generally in pretty good shape but I do lazy man’s yoga, which is Thai massage. They just stretch you and work your muscles out a tonne. I get a lot of deep-tissue work done. My issue is my lower back and my left hip, which I had a surgery on. When my back is getting too tight I know it’s time to get into some stretching.

MH: Given that you haven’t had that many injuries in a long career, has this last one had any effects on you mentally? KS: It was a break that I wasn’t going to choose to have on my own, but it was really needed. It was the permission I needed to allow myself to get in that headspace to say, ‘Hey I might be stepping away at some point soon so I’m really going to enjoy the time I have left for what it is and all the people around me’. I’m not announcing my retirement. I am looking into the 2020 Olympics. That could potentially be retirement time. I’m getting close. MH: Do you think because your career has been so complete and you have so many projects outside of surfing you’ll find it easier to look ahead rather than back once your career is finally over? KS: Look I’ve burned the candle at both ends for so long. I mean non-stop competing since I was eight years old. Next year will make 40 years. I’m going to burn this thing out of me and be done with it. Then I’ll just go on enjoying surfing the rest of my life. I may compete here and there in an event or two each year. But it won’t be what motivates or drives me. It hasn’t been for a while now. MH: Are there lessons from your surfing career and competing that might help you in the business world? KS: Surfing and competing for me has been the never-ending belief that you can achieve whatever you set your mind to. No matter how little time is left in a heat you can still figure it out. It’s not that you want to live your life that way. Competing comes down to some nervewracking moments and you don’t really want to run a business that way but there are heats I’ve surfed that have gone so smoothly because the planning was right and the approach was right. That, by no means, gives me a business degree or anything like that. I have really good people that I work with who come from that world. We see all the things we do as a meeting of the minds.

“Now all the best surfers are younger than me . . . guys who weren’t even born when I won my first world title”

RAPID FIRE Favourite trick? Hitting a barrel. The barrel is the ultimate in surfing Favourite prank? Pantsing your friends in front of a big group of people Cheat meal Vanilla ice cream with dark chocolate Hype-up song My all-time favourite artist is Stevie Wonder so if I just listen to Stevie it doesn’t matter what song it is, it puts me in the vibe Biggest career rival? Andy Irons Last book you read? “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins Karaoke song? Faithfully by Journey Hero? Al Merrick, who was my shaper at Challenge Surfboards, has just been such a figure in my life. And my godfather. He was a Vietnam helicopter pilot. He’s got some cool stories. He was an all-time guy

May 2019

A+ COVER GUY

MH: After 23 years at Quiksilver you founded Outerknown. What was your inspiration? KS: I remember my contract was coming up and I was talking to my manager on the phone one day. We were just talking about the environment around clothing, who I was in my career and what my ideals were around all of that. I remember saying to him, ‘You know what? Let’s just do this. Let’s do this other company. Let’s put everything into it’. MH: What has been the general market reaction? KS: One of the pillars of our brand is to be transparent about everything: our sourcing, who builds our products, where they’re made, all of those things. When we launched it was a tough day for us because of the prices we launched at. We were doing such low volume and our maximum orders

THE LONGEST WAVE

MH: Has sustainability been something you’ve always been passionate about?

1991

1992

Turns pro; finishes 90th in world rankings; signs a sponsorship deal with Quiksilver

Returns to competition; the makers of the Tony Hawk video game series release Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer

1994

Becomes youngest -ever male champion at 20 with first title; plays Jimmy Slade in Baywatch

DENOTES WORLD CHAMPION

1993

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MH: What were your main aims with the brand’s aesthetic and tone?

MH CHARTS THE HIGH-WATER MARKS ON SLATER’S SURFING CV

Finishes 43rd; named one of People magazine’s 50 most beautiful people

1990

KS: It was something I was never concerned about when I was younger. As a kid I just wanted to be sponsored by a company and have a logo on my board like the pros that were my heroes. There’s a funny story my dad used to tell about when I got my first surfboard. All I really wanted was the word ‘team’ on the board. But they wouldn’t allow me to have it. Granted I was an eight-year-old kook and I wasn’t a very good surfer yet. I just wanted to feel included. It’s funny. Everyone evolves. It took me getting to a place where I was more socially and environmentally aware before I had the balls to step into that position. Nowadays I’m really particular about what I put in my body, so I want to be really particular about what I put on my body.

were like 300 pieces per unit. And we decided not to just do the typical cheap, fast fashion clothing you get from most surf brands. We didn’t want to do that and the feedback immediately was a little tough. People were saying, ‘You forgot about who your fans have been and who’s supported you’. Unfortunately, I didn’t do a good enough job of explaining to people what it costs, the way it’s been made, the raw material prices. Because even though you’re doing the right thing it still costs more. Ultimately, we’re trying to get to a place where we can finish supply chain, get our prices down to the right place with the margins at a place where we can continue doing business and hopefully increase our sales.

1995

1996

1997

Wins a record five consecutive titles and retires; releases an album with the band the Surfers

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

Finishes second in the title race; publishes autobiography Pipe Dreams: A Surfer’s Journey

2004

KS: I didn’t want a bunch of giant logoprinted tees, bright colours. I wanted something a bit more classic. When I was 13-14 years old every board I had was green and orange. That’s not the colours I live by these days. I think the basics are the standard. That’s what stands the test of time and those are the things I like to wear. I’m not a huge risk-taker when it comes to fashion. I’m not a guy who can wear some kind of cheetah print with a weird giant letter or something. It’s just not my thing.

2005

2006

Breaks Tom Curren’s record of 33 event wins (he’s now on 55)

2007

Wins seventh title; becomes the first to score a perfect 20 under the two-wave system

2008

MH: So, as the ends draws nearer, what are you looking forward to most in your post-surfing career? KS: It’s probably not going to happen but having a totally open schedule for a year. In my head I think of my year ahead and it’s always based around competition. I want to go enjoy all the places I’ve got to know all these years without a specific time schedule.

MH: One of your other major projects is the artificial wave company, which has attracted some criticism that it removes that link with the ocean surfers have always celebrated. Is your hope that it will take surfing mainstream? KS: I think that’s a little bit broad of a brush. My hope is that anyone who already loves surfing will have more access to surfing. There are a lot of guys who don’t get surf-time in every week because they’ve got a job, they’ve got kids. If you did live in a community that had a manmade wave, you could schedule an hour when your kids are sleeping or at school and get a few waves and feel like you’ve quenched

MH: Would you say the ethical side of the business gives it a deeper mission outside of the financial bottom line? KS: If we’re not able to take some market share from other brands then I would see it as a little bit of a loss. Because, essentially, you want to replace something with something better. I left a very lucrative contract

Wins eighth title

your surf thirst for the day. I call it surf vitamins. It’s supplementation to the real surfing. It doesn’t replace it. It’s just an addition.

that I could’ve signed for the rest of my life and I took a giant pay cut to do it. I believed in it. So, I do take the things I choose to be involved in seriously. I try to respect the position that I have.

2009

Wins ninth title; publishes second book For the Love

“Your biggest lessons come from losing, not winning”

Wins 10th title; US Congress honours his achievements

2010

2011

2012

Becomes the oldest champion at 39 with 11th title

Laaunches sustainable clothing line Outerknown O

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

Breaks his foot at the J-Bay Open; makes quarterfinals of the Pipe Masters on one foot

Makes his comeback at J-Bay at 46

2018

2019

Returns to the tour full-time at 47

May 2019

A+ HEALTH

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW

WELLNESS? If you think you’re up-to-date on the latest nutrition, health and fitness news, you’ll find this quiz fun. Couldn’t care less? Well, then you need to take it more than anyone

What should you track in order to help you lose weight?

BY AARON TOUMAZOU

of these obviously 1 Which awful weight-room habits (which you never do, of course – right?) may actually enhance your strength? A Not wiping down equipment B Spitting C Swearing

C: Holy sh*t! People who vocalised frustrations during bike and hand-grip tests saw a 4.6 per cent uptick in power and an 8.2 per cent increase in strength compared with silent types, a study in Psychology of Sport & Exercise found.

Which of these forms of procrastination might instantly renew your focus?

A Watching videos on YouTube B Reposting memes C Tweeting

A, B & C: Aussie researchers found that younger people who took breaks that included non-work-related Internet browsing paid more attention to tasks afterwards.

Flexing which body part might boost your deadlift?

A Your jaw B Your quads C Your toes

A: Research shows that clenching your jaw improves strength and power. When Spanish scientists asked men to bite on a mouth guard during a hand-grip test, they performed better than those who clenched without using the device, so be sure to protect your teeth when lifting big.

5 Feeling tired on a Sunday afternoon? You should: A Take a nap B Have a snack

An injury preventing you from lifting? The best way to stay swole is to_____:

Pound orange juice

Sit and think

Go to the gym anyway

B: Ohio University researchers found that when study participants who had their hand immobilised in a cast imagined their muscles contracting, they lost half the strength of those who didn’t visualise.

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C Hit the gym

A: Power down for 30 minutes or less and you may wake up happier, research reports. Set an alarm: short naps during the day can renew your focus and creativity, while longer ones (45 minutes or more) should curb the effects of stress and lower your blood pressure.

A Kilojoules B Meal times C Steps

B: You don’t have to crunch kilojoule numbers to hit your goals. Simply delaying breakfast until 10am and eating nothing after 6pm can reduce your daily kilojoule intake and may also lower your blood pressure, according to a 2018 study published in the journal Nutrition and Healthy Aging. The best part? After 12 weeks, test subjects lost an average of 3kg without depriving themselves of any of their favourite foods.

Adding which of the following to your water might help you run faster?

Going all out in the gym for ______ could give you the same fitness boosts as a low-intensity 45-minute workout.

A 60 seconds B 10 minutes C 30 minutes

BCAAs

Salt

Sugar

C: University of Georgia researchers found that runners who swished and spat a sugar solution during a 12.8-km run cut their time by three minutes compared with those who rinsed with H2O. The carbohydrates trick the reward centres of your brain into thinking it’s going to receive kilojoules, even though you’re not actually ingesting any.

A: Study participants who did brief, intense interval exercise for 12 weeks saw the same improvements in their cardiometabolic health as those who did longer, continuous exercise, according to a study by researchers at McMaster University. But you really have to push it. Hop on the stationary bike and work until your lungs beg for a break. Fun!

Listening to which of the following tracks during training may offer an instant power boost?

“Power,” by Kanye West

“Shape of You,” by Ed Sheeran

which meal 10 Eating component may help

curb your appetite?

“In My Feelings,” by Drake

Grilled chicken

Sweet potato

Side salad

A: Psychologists at Brunel University London found that synchronising repetitive exercise with a steady musical beat can enhance endurance by as much as 15 per cent. Not only might the music distract you from physical discomfort, but affirmative lyrics can also have a motivating effect.

A: Protein speeds the signal that you’re full to your brain, meaning you might be less likely to overindulge, according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Shoot for around 25 grams of the stuff at mealtimes and you’ll reap protein’s many benefits, from fullness to body-weight management to a significantly reduced heart-disease risk.

HOW MANY DID YOU GET RIGHT?

0 to 4

Read up Revisit some of the questions you blanked on and ask yourself how you can incorporate the behaviours into your life.

5 to 7

Keep learning You have a solid foundation and should see the benefits: less stress, more confidence and an uptick in energy levels.

8 to 10

Well, well, well! Since you know so much, here’s a bonus tip: sleep. More rest may aid in protein synthesis and muscle development.

May 2019

A+ HEALTH

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN…

…I Take Probiotics?

With the “good bacteria” industry predicted to be worth $100bn by 2023, we put probiotics under the microscope to see if the purported health panacea really has the guts

BUGS OF WAR

The effects of your first dose can range from effortless bowel movements to diarrhoea. If you suffer from the latter, don’t worry. Fatigue-causing yeast overgrowth – the result of eating too much sugar or refined carbs – begins a turf war with the incoming good bacteria. This can be explosive, but the result is a biome repopulated by the victors and a rise in your energy levels.

GREEN GOBBLIN’

Unfortunately, the benefits of these supps are temporary, lasting only as long as you’re taking them. For long-term results, raise your intake of prebiotics, which feed good bacteria and allow them to grow naturally so you don’t have to parachute them into your gut with pills. The best sources are high-fibre asparagus, cabbage and spring onion. Add to basket.

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INSIDE TRACTS

The idea that your wellbeing begins in your gut is increasingly gaining credence. Safeguard your “good bacteria”, the thinking goes, and you’ll set up both body and mind for a healthier outlook. But don’t reach for those yoghurt shots just yet. Your best bet is to take your probiotics in an acid-resistant capsule that protects them from stomach acid until they reach your intestines. For maximum effect, pop a supp 30 minutes before brekkie.

LOSS ADJUSTER

Probiotics can also help you lose weight by limiting the absorption of dietary fat in your intestines. One study* found that people who take lactobacillus rhamnosus for three months lose almost 50 per cent more weight than others; a separate study suggested even low doses of a different strain taken for 12 weeks can reduce belly fat by 8.5 per cent. It may be time you called in the reinforcements.

BRAIN FOOD

Improving your gut biome can have happy consequences. A review of 15 human studies found that supplementing your diet with “friendly” lactobacillus and bifidobacteria for a month can fuel a mental health reboot. Studies have shown that probiotics can fire up the function of your central nervous system to help alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression, while improving memory.

WORDS: TOM WARD; ILLUSTRATION: PETER GRUNDY; *BRITISH JOURNAL OF NUTRITION; **EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NUTRITION

REBALANCE YOUR HEALTH FROM INSIDE OUT.

A+ MIND

Don’t Forget, You’re Gonna Die! And other ways to feel better about getting older

BY DAN HARRIS // ILLUSTRATION BY SHOUT

menshealth.com.au

MY WIFE proudly flashed her phone in my direction the other day to show off a picture she’d recently taken of me holding our young son in a swimming pool. I promptly grabbed the device and used my fingers to zoom in on my belly, whose size and general flabbiness I have been loudly and repeatedly bemoaning of late. “I knew you were going to do that,” she tsk’d. She thinks I am being ridiculous about my gut – and she has a point. By any measure, I am slim. I eat reasonably carefully and work out at least six times a week. Yet I miss the visible ab muscles I had in my 30s. I miss

more than that, actually. Now in my mid-40s (wait, is 47 my late 40s?), I notice that I am increasingly criticising myself for looking old and bedraggled. So why, considering this noxious little stew of narcissism and body dysmorphia, would you listen to me about aging gracefully? Because while I do perseverate about this stuff, the amount of worry – and the way in which that affects my behaviour – has improved dramatically. Here’s a comparison. About 10 years ago, I was in the throes of a balding crisis, an omnidirectional freak-out that bled into every area of my life.

“AGEING GRACEFULLY ISN’T SOME YODA-STYLE IMPERTURBABILITY”

I was on a flight home from an incredible journey to report on an isolated indigenous tribe in the Brazilian Amazon. Instead of savouring the experience, I locked myself in the toilet and spent ten minutes scrutinising my hairline and engaging in a robust bout of what the Buddhists call prapañca, or “mental proliferation”. My mental movie went something like this: Baldness --> Unemployment --> Flophouse in Duluth. This prapañca made me irritable and miserable. Just ask my wife, Bianca, who caught me staring in our bathroom mirror many times during this period.

These days, my gut panic aside, I am much better at seeing my self-centred anxiety crop up and then letting it go. While writing this column, I asked Bianca whether I am handling my belly/ageing concerns more successfully than the balding crisis. She chortled and said, “There’s no comparison”. What made things better? Part of it was the combined effect of marriage, maturation, and meditation (which has become a daily practice and also an active side hustle). But another important ingredient has been something that may strike you as supremely counterintuitive: contemplating death. Somehow death has become taboo in our youth-obsessed culture. As the meditation teacher Greg Scharf has observed, dying is the ultimate in “really bad taste”. Yet it is inevitable – even for you. (And even for those tech titans in Silicon Valley who are reportedly spending billions to “solve” death. Good luck with that.) There’s a fitting line from the Mahabharata, the great Indian epic: “What is the most wondrous thing in the world?” The answer: “All around us people can be dying and we don’t realise it can happen to us.” Every great spiritual tradition has recommended that in order to live fully, the best practice is to contemplate death. How to do this? The Buddha recommended meditating while staring at decomposing bodies. Because of how deeply impractical that proposal is, my wife and I opted for a more feasible alternative: a few years ago, we signed up to become hospice volunteers. I was assigned to a small, eight-bed hospice in a posh corner of my city. Once I got over my initial jitters, I learned lessons that ranged from the inspiring to the deeply comforting. For example, I noticed that for many people who are close to the end, fear seems to recede. I recall chatting with a former university

professor who told me that as death neared, he felt less like a separate ego and more like a part of a larger system. Yes, I thought: there’s nothing unnatural about death. Nature is in constant flux – and we are nature. I also found that spending time in a hospice provided a massive dose of perspective on my workaday problems. I experienced this most poignantly through my relationship with a patient named Ronnie, a former construction worker with chronic lung and heart problems. When he was first sent to the hospice four years ago, he was given three days to live. Instead, he defied the odds and thrived. Every week, Ronnie and I eat snacks, shoot the shit and play video games. One time, I was telling him a story about how I had been worrying about some issue in my life – and that I had then remembered Ronnie and stopped myself. Without even interrupting the game, he turned to me and said, with utter nonchalance, “Yeah, you have no problems”. Working in a hospice is not a panacea, however. I often end

up getting in a cab afterwards, checking email and becoming wholly caught up in my own nonsense again. And I still believe that there is actually some upside to my egoistic selfflagellation: a certain amount of awareness of my midsection can provide a healthy motivation to get to the gym. But on the 85th time I find myself musing darkly on my hairline or waistline, I now sometimes have the wherewithal to ask myself: given my limited window on Mother Earth, is this really how I want to be spending my time? Yes, it makes sense to work hard and strive, but what’s the point if you’re not enjoying the ride? Ageing gracefully isn’t some Yoda-style imperturbability. Your insecurities and peccadilloes remain; you just learn to manage them more skillfully. I usually wrap up these columns with something witty, but due to the weight of this issue I will forgo the cute and put it to you bluntly: given the undeniable reality of your finitude, how do you want to live? If in doubt, just ask death.

HOW TO GAIN SOME PERSPECTIVE You don’t have to work in a hospice (although I recommend it). Here are some other tips to help you increase your aging-gracefully quotient – you curmudgeonly old-timer. Download an app called WeCroak. It hits you up with notifications at five random times a day that remind you to stop and think about death. It pings you, “Don’t forget, you’re going to die. Swipe to see the quote. . . .” When you

swipe right, there’s a great quote about mortality. Remember that everybody who’s ever been born will die. All these lives, all this drama, it just comes and goes. Think about it. My meditation teacher, Joseph Goldstein, recommended a three-minute exercise to reflect on dying in as vivid a way as possible. First, you ruminate on the great sweep of generations over time and remember that everyone has died.

Second, you systematically envision all the people in your life and think of the fact that they will die. One by one: your partner, your children, your friends. “It isn’t morbid, but rather a way of keeping the truth that we all die front and centre,” he says. You can access a three-part meditation, “Turbo-Charge Your Meditation,” that ends on a death contemplation for free at 10percenthappier .com/menshealth.

May 2019 33

A+ RELATIONSHIPS

The Real Secret to a Good Kiss It’s not about where you put your hands. Or even your lips BY LAUREN LARSON

menshealth.com.au

At first it was hard for me to figure out what the man I was kissing reminded me of, but once I pictured it, I couldn’t un-picture it: he was like one of those drinking-bird toys that bob their head up and down in perpetuity. I very much liked him and had been very much looking forward to kissing him, and I was so bummed. He was a drinking bird, bobbing against my mouth with dry, mechanical rhythm. I stuck with him for a month or so, hoping that I could change his ways or that he would just, like, relax, but I couldn’t and he didn’t. Finally, we exchanged rote pecks and parted ways.

ILLUSTRATION: KYLE HILTON

“ KISSING IS LIKE BREATHING: IF YOU START THINKING TOO HARD ABOUT IT, YOU’RE NO LONGER ABLE TO DO IT PROPERLY” I thought of the drinking birds again last summer, only this time it wasn’t the guy who was the bird. It was me. I was on my third date with someone who I could see was objectively attractive and likable, but for whom I felt nothing. I was kissing him so mechanically that even I was bored, so I wasn’t especially surprised when he pulled away and said, “I have an early meeting tomorrow.” (He was unemployed.) But that wasn’t the end of it. For several months after that, I was a terrible kisser. I would have a great date with someone, but as soon as we were in front of my apartment and he was leaning in, I’d go rigid. I would stand there, hands on his shoulders, moving my head with all the ease and finesse of my year-eight self. I’d been struck down by the kissing yips, and I assumed my romantic career was over. Even if you haven’t experienced the kissing yips, per se, you’ve probably had a moment or two of self-doubt in your kissing career – one of my girlfriends recently stumbled into a sexy oasis after a long dry spell, and she described acute terror that she’d “forgotten how to kiss”. We talk a lot about bad sex as a deal breaker, but I think bad sex is way more workable than bad kissing. With bad sex, you can critique specific things your partner is doing without sounding like you’re critiquing them as a person. (“Less rotary dial, more push-button!”) We’re used to getting feedback about sex – when someone gives us feedback in bed, we just think it’s sexy that they know what they want. Kissing is different. Kissing is governed by pasión, not technique, and it’s much harder to comment on the former. When you acknowledge that you didn’t enjoy a kiss, you’re usually

acknowledging that you don’t have chemistry with someone. In hindsight, my kissing yips boiled down to stress – I was anxious and felt totally alienated from the possibility of having chemistry with anyone. One day, after I’d calmed down, I kissed someone whom I found both objectively and subjectively attractive and felt cured. But before that, I had plenty of time to obsess about what makes a kiss good or bad. A good kiss is one in which no one feels self-conscious. As one friend put it, “A good kiss happens when neither person is taking it too seriously, particularly in the early stages. Midkiss smiling is great”. Ideally, you’re so consumed by your lust for your partner that you’re not worrying about the mechanics. Sure, you should keep some basic kissing guidelines in mind: “Your target should under no circumstances feel as though your tongue will cause them to choke,” another friend said, “and everybody’s spit should stay in between the mouths – a terrible kiss requires you to wipe your mouth afterwards.” But when neither of you is overthinking it, those logistics come more naturally. You don’t fret about where you’re putting your hands. (I like one in my hair, one at my waist.) Kissing is like breathing: if you start thinking too hard about it, you’re no longer able to do it properly and you start to feel faint. I find it helpful to mentally zero in on the kissee’s most attractive feature. If I’m thinking about his biceps, I’m not stressing about whether I should open my eyes to check if his eyes are open, or whether he can tell I have a deviated septum by listening to my laboured nose breaths. If you cannot isolate an attractive feature, abort.

The real mastery comes in making your kissing counterpart feel comfortable. Permission is important. For a long time I thought that when a man asked if he could kiss me, he destroyed the spontaneity and thus the romance. But in recent years I’ve started to really like being the arbiter of the kissing – I’ve started to like being the arbiter of everything. Last year I’d been at a bar with a Tinder date for about an hour when he asked, “Can I kiss you?” I said no, because I hadn’t had time to vet him yet and I’m uncomfortable with PDA. I’m so glad he asked, because I would have been really annoyed if he’d just swooped right in. As it was, he didn’t seem at all offended, and he quickly dissipated any awkwardness by asking me, sweetly, “Can I ask you again later if I can kiss you?” On paper the exchange looks like a parody of consent culture, but in the moment, seeking consent is never corny. It’s just hot. Beyond giving and receiving enthusiastic permission, the best way to make someone feel confident is also the simplest: tell them they’re a good kisser. Unless you’re kissing someone with whom you have absolutely no chemistry, someone who is inextricably wound up in their anxieties, or one of those 0.0003 per cent of people who really are inherently, clinically bad kissers, affirmation will fix it. Even if they suck (literally), before you write off someone you like as a bad kisser, try a Hail Mary lie. Pause for a breath and say, “Wow, you’re an amazing kisser”. Yes, they might continue doing whatever unsettling thing they’re doing. More likely: they’ll relax, and you’ll have a really good kiss.

May 2019 35

A+ HEALTH

THE MIND OR THE BODY? Yoga and meditation have transitioned from go-to mental salves to cure-all health remedies. But which practice has the scientific backbone? MH oms and ahhs over the stats

$364 million

100 percent

Participation growth among Australian adults since 2008, according to Roy Morgan Research

The new age of anxiety has seen self-help start-ups, such as meditation app Headspace, grow to become tech giants valued in the millions

Stick at yoga and your levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor – a biomarker that’s lower in those with depression – will triple, bolstering your mood in the long term*

MONTHS

2.5X

A course of restorative yoga is proven to help you lose 2.5 times more subcutaneous fat than standard stretching, according to the US’s National Institutes of Health

mental Biology study ction in anxiety after of guided meditation. itive impact on stress ls lasted up to a week

HOUR

FAT CHANCES

Mindfulness is the perfect addition to your weight-loss plan. The University of North Carolina found that those who meditated lost seven times as much as those who didn’t

ALL-ROUNDERS Slows ageing

Soothes inflammation

Eases insomnia

2X 23%

Finish your morning run with downward dogs and US researchers found you’ll enjoy twice the drop in blood pressure, which slashes vascular stress to cut your heart disease risk Daily sun salutations may feel purely spiritual, but Indian scientists revealed they increase your bench press strength by 23%. It’s the most wholesome route to mirror muscles

Enhances energy

Cures back pain

Improves memory

HEART CENTRE

30%

MUSCLE STRETCH

5MIN

Reduces cancer risk

Proven to release nitric oxide, which opens up your blood vessels and lowers blood pressure, mindfulness can cut your risk of dying from heart attack or stroke by almost a third†

Short, daily meditation has been linked to spikes in testosterone and human growth hormone, which increase protein synthesis and support the growth of new muscle cells**

THE MH VERDICT: MEDITATION WINS!

While you may expect the mental and physical nature of yoga to give its benefits a more measurable edge, the research disagrees. Despite focusing solely on the mind, meditation’s physiological benefits are miraculously wholesale. Incense at the ready.

menshealth.com.au

Lowers cholesterol

WORDS: BEN WELCH; PHOTOGRAPHY: PAVEL DORNAK AT LUCKY IF SHARP; *FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE; †JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION ; ** MAHARISHI UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT

MEDITATION

YOGA

A+ TACTICS

NOT ENOUGH TIME

Does that headline stress you out as much as it does us? There’s a word for that – a German word, of course – and Jeff Csatari has a way to fix it SOMEWHERE between anxiety and dread is that feeling that creeps in on a Sunday evening. You still haven’t finished the spreadsheet that was due Friday COB. Or cleaned up after the party on Saturday. Or bathed the bulldog. Or yourself. Oh, and it’s five minutes to midnight. The Germans, who have an uncanny ability to capture in one word a feeling that would take a full sentence in English to explain, call this dread Torschlusspanik. Literally, “gate-shut panic”. It’s the medieval fear of not making it safely behind the castle gate before nightfall. In modern usage, it describes the fear of running out of time . . . to act, to accomplish, to meet deadlines real or perceived. Torschlusspanik can be triggered by trivial stuff like an overly ambitious weekend chore list or, say, a surprise visit from the boss, who plants himself in your office to chat when you have less than an hour to prep for a critical meeting. Often, all it takes to get that feeling started is procrastination and the guilt that stems from that inaction – “You shouldn’t have left such a complicated project to the last minute!” Or, on a grander scale, upward comparison, the dangerous practice of holding yourself up to someone you think is almost at the top of the mountain while you’re still trying to figure out which ropes to use. Whether your fear of time running out is short-term or more epic, there are ways to make it . . . kaput. DON’T LET TIME PRESSURE STOP YOUR BRAIN FROM TICKING OVER.

menshealth.com.au

WHEN TIME IS RUNNING OUT... THIS HOUR

TODAY

THIS YEAR / THIS LIFE

If you’re faced with 60 minutes to finish a report, answer “urgent” emails and pick this week’s fantasy-team, tackling three tasks at once may seem wise. But studies prove the opposite: multitasking lowers attention span, increases stress and makes each task take longer. So keep it simple, says Jordan Etkin, a professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business who’s researched multitasking. When you have deadlines of 60 minutes or less:

Now you have 24 hours to play with. The trick to feeling like there’s still sand in the top of the hourglass is to stop glorifying being busy. Our culture values action, so working through lunch makes us feel more productive and less guilty . . . while in fact ceaseless work makes us less efficient. Instead:

Perhaps your head has run these lines: how is it April? How did I get to be this age without starting a family/hot venture-capital firm/ counterculture revolution (hell, I haven’t even broken 10,000 Twitter followers yet)? This is a deeper level of fear than the temporary panic of having too much to do. It’s the anxiety of falling short of your own expectations coupled with the feeling that you don’t have enough time left to meet them. When it hits, breathe and:

TRUNCATE YOUR TO-DO LIST

High achievers are ruthless about prioritising, she says: “Take a step back, figure out what’s most important and work on that thing.”

REFRAME THAT HOUR

Duke researchers discovered that when students cramming for an exam thought of one hour as 60 minutes, the hour seemed longer, they felt more productive and they found the subject matter more interesting.

TAKE TEN SLOW BREATHS

We know everyone and their six-year-old has told you to “belly breathe” when you feel stressed. It’s not BS: dozens of studies have shown how deep breathing activates the part of the nervous system that works like a brake on the stress train, helping you focus enough to get stuff done. In other words, when you’re under the gun, these breaths help you be filled with fewer “I can’t pull this off” worries and have more success at just pulling things off.

DO 90-MINUTE INTERVALS

“Humans weren’t made to work in a linear way,” says Andrew Deutscher, managing director of the Energy Project, a performance consulting firm. “We’re built to pulse like waves.” So step away from work every 90 minutes; people who do so have a 28 per cent higher level of focus than people who take one or no breaks.

LET NATURE HELP

Hunt for a natural scene. When a group of students viewed a rooftop meadow for 40 seconds, they had greater concentration and made fewer errors in an attention test than those who looked at an empty concrete rooftop.

KNOW WHAT TO IGNORE

US President Dwight D. Eisenhower used what became known as “the Eisenhower Box” to get things covered before nightfall. Try it: draw four boxes, two stacked over two. In each, write one of these things: urgent and important daily tasks; important but not urgent work; urgent but not important tasks; work that’s neither urgent nor important. Use it to determine what to ignore, leave for later, delegate or do immediately — you know, like launch the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

ASK BIGGER QUESTIONS

The larger question you should ask isn’t how to cram it all in. It’s why you think you have to do all those things you set out for yourself, says Raj Raghunathan, of the University of Texas, Austin. Instead of tallying up a life by job titles and degrees earned, he says, rethink what a meaningful life is. It might not be what’s on your LinkedIn page.

GO OUT MORE

People who meet with friends more than once a week are 27 per cent more likely to be satisfied with life than those with no friends or who get together only a few times a year.

DON’T OVERTHINK IT

Regrets over things we could have done can trigger Torschlusspanik, too. These tend to haunt us much longer than regrets over things we should have done (like go to your friend’s son’s wedding), says Cornell psychologist Tom Gilovich. So stop wasting additional time fretting over the “wish I hads”, and just plunge in. After all, the gate’s closing. But there’s time to make it in.

May 2019 39

A+ MUSCLE

MAKE RED-HOT MUSCLE

BUILD BIG MUSCLE WITH A RED- HOT HORMONE BOOST.

YOU ONLY HAVE to do a lap of the gym floor to see that all-black everything is the training apparel trend of the moment. But here at Men’s Health, we prefer to set the agenda, rather than follow it. Besides, those black sheep are missing out on a sartorial performance enhancer. Be bold and opt for red gymwear, and research suggests it’s your arms and abs that will truly stand out from the crowd. In a study in Biology Letters, participants were asked to rate images of men for traits such as aggression and dominance, while interpreting their emotional states. When pictured wearing red, the men were consistently perceived as more dominant than those in blue or grey. They were also rated as appearing “angry” more often than the others. As a result, scientists believe that seeing yourself in red can trigger similar mental connections, causing a natural spike in your testosterone. Pull on a rouge top and you’ll enjoy an injection of man’s ultimate anabolic hormone before leaving the gym changing room. Even a short-term testosterone boost is associated with improved physical performance, muscle power, aerobic endurance and faster recovery times, which explains why research shows that sports teams wearing red are more likely to win. Inject some colour into your sporting wardrobe and score the results you want, faster.

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TIME FOR T

Make gains around the clock with our testosterone spikers

08.00 Swap pre-workout coffee with a green tea. High levels of caffeine can spike cortisol, which inhibits T release.

13.45 Brave a cryotherapy chamber after a lunchtime workout to boost T synthesis. A cold shower will work too.

18.00 Reapply aftershave before dinner. A Japanese study found floral scents up T levels, aiding muscle recovery.

22.00 Most T is produced during sleep, so make it an early night. A magnesium supp will help you to drift off, US scientists found.

WORDS: LOUEE DESSENT-JACKSON | PHOTOGRAPHY: ROWAN FEE

Maximise your summer gains with an overhaul of your gym wardrobe. CrossFitters, take note: red is the new black

WEEKEND BRUNCH SORTED. For eating spots that care about farm animal welfare and are serving cage-free eggs search choosewisely.org.au

choosewisely.org.au |

@RSPCAchoosewisely

A+ WEIGHT LOSS

REASON 3

YOU’RE DRINKING YOUR MEALS Most packaged “meal replacement” shakes or fruit smoothies won’t keep you satiated for long. First, liquids empty out of your stomach in less than an hour, says Levenson. By comparison, solid foods take two to four hours. Second, blending foods pulverises their fibres, so your body breaks them down faster, reducing satiety. THE FIX: Listen to mum and chew your food. A 2015 review of studies found that higher levels of “oral processing” (otherwise known as chews per bite) at a meal affect the gut hormones linked to reduced hunger and increased feelings of fullness. Try nuts in your morning Greek yoghurt.

Here’s Why You Can’t Stop Being Hungry

REASON 4

YOU’REHAVINGPROBLEMSINBED

Are you frequently covered in Doritos dust? Here’s how to demagnetise your pantry – and shed that extra lard

Lack of sleep may disrupt the appetiteregulating hormones, according to a 2016 report by the American Heart Association. Ghrelin, the hormone that stimulates hunger, can rise when you’re sleep-deprived. Leptin, the hormone that signals satiety, can decrease. In addition, the more hours you’re awake, the more likely you are show up at the refrigerator. THE FIX: Try for seven to eight hours of sleep per night. And remember that blue light from your devices can sabotage sleep.

BY ABBY LANGER

REASON 1

YOU’RE NOT REALLY EATING Maybe you’ve never liked breakfast. Or your work schedule pushes meetings through lunch. Or you just “forget” to eat. It’s time to prioritise consistent mealtimes. People who don’t eat regular meals have poorer diet quality, and skipping breakfast is associated with a higher intake of added sugars, according to a 2017 study published in Circulation. The same research found that eating breakfast also reduces impulsive snacking. THE FIX: Don’t skip meals – intentionally or unintentionally. When you’re awake, your stomach takes about four hours to empty after a meal. If you’re hungry before then, you didn’t eat well at the preceding meal (more on that soon). If you frequently forget to eat, set a phone alarm or calendar alert.

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REASON 2

YOU’RENOTEATINGENOUGH PROTEINORFIBRE Pick up a breakfast wrap or two from the drivethru and you’ll stay full till lunch, right? Nope. Though they have some protein, most fast-food breakfast wraps are empty carbs. This is also why you can slam an entire order of pad thai at lunchtime and still be hungry two hours later. THE FIX: At every meal, aim to eat about 30 grams of protein – a quantity that will increase satiety (your body’s feeling of fullness postmeal), found Purdue University researchers in 2015. As for fibre, shoot for at least 10 grams per meal. “That amount of fibre will slow emptying from the stomach and contribute to satiety,” says gastroenterologist Dr Scott D. Levenson, director of the Digestive Care Medical Center in San Carlos, California.

REASON 5

YOU’RE NOT ACTUALLY HUNGRY False hunger is a real thing. Next time you think you’re hungry, run through a quick checklist. Are you bored? Tired? Thirsty? Ingesting too much social media? A 2016 study review in Brain and Cognition found that looking at food images triggers physiological changes that increase your desire to eat. THE FIX: Do your snack binges correspond to social-media binges? If so, false hunger may be at work. The next time you reach for your phone, instead take a short walk or tackle a small project with your hands. If you’re still hungry afterwards, then consider a protein-rich snack.

Collagen keeps your joints moving Collagen is a component of our ligaments, tendons and skin. It also makes up over 66% of our joint cartilage, which acts as a cushion between bones and keeps joints healthy. Naturopathica Collagenix Joints contains the latest innovation in joint health: Fortigel,ÂŽ a collagen protein that helps support healthy joint function.

Collagen for Every Body.

Available at:

A+ MOTORING

POWER PLAYERS

Utes are shedding their dour, ahem, utilitarian image in favour of personality and panache. Use our guide to choose a pick-up that works for you Remember when the humble ute was a simple workhorse? You know, those battered and bruised worksite wanderers with dented steel trays that were only ever used to carry dogs, tools or, very occasionally, your mate Jimmy’s shitty old couch because he’d talked you into helping him move again even though he still hasn’t given you the slab he promised you the last time you did it? Well, at some point that all changed. Utes became cool. Fashionable, even. And now there’s a tray-back to suit every possible guy and goal. So, to help you navigate this fast-rising flood of new pick-ups, we’ve trimmed the list to our favourite four. BY STEPHEN CORBY

May 2019 45

A+ MOTORING

Best Brawler

Ford Ranger Raptor Ford’s new Raptor takes the already tough-looking Ranger ute as its canvas and then ups the menace at every possible opportunity. From its blackedout grille with its huge “FORD” lettering, to its swollen wheel arches and super chunky All Terrain tyres, the Raptor cuts a seriously mean figure on the open road. Happily, though, it looks even better off it. It’s more than just a not-so-pretty face, with all the critical underbody stuff either reinforced or replaced to ensure it can thunder across the dusty outback without breaking stride

(or an axle). It’s wider and higher than the regular Ranger, and the normal suspension has been swapped out for Baja-ready Fox Racing Shox dampers. In fact, the only slightly disappointing thing here is that there’s been no engine overhaul, with the Raptor making do with the brand’s regular 2.0-litre twinturbocharged diesel, good for 157kW and 500Nm. Not that the motor stopped people throwing money at Ford. More than 1000 Raptors had been pre-ordered (at a cost of $74,990) before the car even arrived in October last year.

Best Behemoth

Chevrolet Silverado If bigger really is better, then Chevrolet’s gigantic Silverado must be bloody brilliant. This American beast stretches more than six metres in length, 2.4m in width and is more than two metres high. And at its heaviest it weighs more than 3.6 tonnes. It arrives in Australia courtesy of HSV. Yes, the iconic Holden tuning house is better known for its work with Commodores. But with no homegrown cars to tweak anymore, it’s struck a deal with GM in the US to import left-hand-drive Silverados and convert them in its new Melbourne facility. The numbers here are ridiculous: a huge and turbocharged 6.6-litre diesel

V8 produces 332kW and a whopping 1234Nm of torque. That’s almost twice the torque of the V12-powered Lamborghini Aventador SVJ. But don’t expect supercar heroics. While the Lambo is all about stripped-back performance, the Silverado weighs the same as an orbiting planet. And so the torque is used for pulling power, rather than acceleration, with the giant truck capable of towing 3.5 tonnes of braked trailer. The cheapest version will set you back $114,990. But at least it will take your mind off your fuel bills. Consider this: at today’s average diesel price, its 136-litre tank will cost you some $220 to fill.

The MVP

Toyota HiLux You really can’t have a ute conversation without including the Toyota HiLux. Australia’s best-selling vehicle – that’s not just utes, by the way, but all cars – for two years running, it’s carved a rightful place at the top of the country’s ute mountain. As you might expect, there’s a HiLux to suit just about every budget, from the apprentice-spec WorkMate to the Raptor-rivalling SR5, with a price range spanning around $21k to almost $60k. In its most basic form, the HiLux is the ute that could have pretty much coined the term “one-tonner”; a no-nonsense, virtually unbreakable workhorse

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that will do everything you ask of it without complaint. But in its more-expensive guises, it becomes SUV-like in its comfort, cabin materials and equipment. A reputation for reliability and the HiLux’s never-ending popularity means good resale, too. The one you really want, though, is the SR5+ version ($56,440), which wraps the sturdy bones of the HiLux in the most fashionable suit available, including big 18-inch alloys and LED daytime running lights, and then crams the interior with leather seats, push-button start, dual-zone climate control and the best stereo on offer.

“THIS IS NO-FRILLS MOTORING AT ITS ABSOLUTE FINEST”

Hardest Worker

Isuzu D-Max

The easy way to see how serious Isuzu is about utes? Take a quick look at its line-up. In it, you’ll find exactly two models: the D-Max ute and the D-Max utebased MU-X. That said, there’s no shortage of D-Max models to choose from. In fact, the updatedfor-2018 Japanese ute is available in, wait for it, 23 different variants. From the $28,600 SX to the $54,700 LS-T, there’s a staggering number of body and tray styles to choose from, all with two- or four-wheel drive. Honest is the term that

springs to mind most quickly when thinking of the D-Max. This is no-frills, no-fuss motoring at its absolute finest. And with a hardworking 3.0-litre diesel engine, a 1024kg payload and a 3500kg braked towing capacity, it will drive up and over any mountain you point it at, carry anything you throw at it, and tow just about anything you tie to it. Unlike others on this list, you get a five-year warranty (and capped-price servicing), too, so if you do somehow manage to break it, it should prove no issue.

May 2019

A+ HEALTH

How Gross Are You? Every now and then, food sits on the counter all night and sheets don’t get changed. But how germy does that make your life, really? Jessica Migala gets the facts on how risky your habits are to your health

YOU WASH YOUR COFFEE CUP ONCE A WEEK. HOW GROSS IS IT?

If you take your brew black, you’re in luck: “Coffee has antimicrobial properties, and it doesn’t contain the nutrients bacteria need to multiply,” says Angela Fraser, a food-safety professor at Clemson University. Nutrients like protein and sugar – which means milk and sweetener. If your lips deposit bacteria that combine with milk residue, you could give birth to millions of germs. Limit the risk: wash the mug at every knock-off time.

YOU EAT PIZZA THAT SAT OUT ALL NIGHT.

YOU USE THE SAME DISHRAG UNTIL IT STINKS.

HOW GROSS IS IT ? Pizza crust is dry, the sauce is acidic, and pepperoni and sausage are preservative-laden – all things that don’t support bacteria survival, says Fraser. Different story if you got spinach and tomatoes: moisture-rich toppings tend to breed microbes that can gang up and fell you (diarrhoea, vomiting). Best to refrigerate pizza within four hours, before bacteria have the chance to really go wild.

That odour is a telltale sign of a bona fide science experiment. By the time something smells, “it has millions of organisms growing inside,” says Reynolds. (You need only hundreds to cause illness.) That can include E. coli and salmonella. Ideal: throw it in the washer after every use. Since pretty much no one does that, at least spread the rag out to dry. That’ll kill roughly 90 per cent of bacteria, she says.

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HOW GROSS IS IT?

YOU SLEEP ON DIRTY SHEETS. HOW GROSS IS IT?

YOU WEAR OLD GYM CLOTHES. HOW GROSS IS IT?

Well, Rocky did it, right? ”Most men have probably reworn sweat-stained shirts without a problem,” says Dr Jason Miller, a dermatologist. You might get minor acne on your chest or arms; worst case, a staph or fungal infection or folliculitis. If you do wear yesterday’s clothes, kill acne-causing bacteria by sudsing up after your session with a body wash that contains benzoyl peroxide.

YOU SKIP WASHING YOUR HANDS AFTER PEEING. HOW GROSS IS IT?

None of our experts specifically said it’s okay, but it’s not the biggest offense so much as just a really rough look. “It’s unlikely that you’ll pick up a germ while urinating that’s hazardous in the way it can be if you pick up a microscopic particle of stool on your hand when using the toilet,” says Dr William Schaffner, an infectious-disease expert. Washing (with soap and hot water) after sitting is, of course, non-negotiable.

Many people carry staph bacteria on their skin without it causing trouble. But it could if the germs you naturally shed while you sleep multiply enough, says Kelly Reynolds, director of the Environment, Exposure Science and Risk Assessment Center at the University of Arizona. Aim to launder sheets weekly, or at least wash your pillowcase, since it’s next to germ entry points (mouth, nose and eyes).

YOU TEXT ON THE TOILET. HOW GROSS IS IT?

Is this at your home, and do you live alone? If so, fine to keep the conversation going. Not so in a public bathroom, says microbiologist Philip Tierno. Think about it: you touch the door and locks, pick up a virus, then deposit it on your phone while texting. Later, your phone goes up to your mouth and the virus goes in. You need only one measly cell of norovirus to chain you to the toilet (without texting) for up to three days. Keep it in your pocket.

May 2019 49

A+ TRAVEL

SWELL TOWN

California’s home of surfing, Huntington Beach, offers endless breaks amid a rich boardriding history. Whether you’re a barrel-eating pro or a rank beginner, it might be time you dropped in

GETTING THERE Fly Virgin Australia direct to LA virginaustralia.com

I’M PERCHED ON THE END of a strange, red velvet throne in the humble International Surfing Museum at Huntington Beach, California, watching archival footage of 66 members of the local surf community help each other up onto a supersized surfboard. Like tiny toy soldiers they move into a tight formation before effortlessly surfing the required 10 metres to claim the world record for ‘most people riding a surfboard’. The screen switches to Kiwi-born Bob Steel, the man who built the famous 12.5-metre board that now hangs proudly outside the museum. As the clip finishes, who should walk in but Steel himself. His timing is purely coincidental – he hasn’t dropped by in months – and his appearance generates rock star-level excitement among the museum staff. This image of a close-knit surf community pulling together to achieve their goal, and the genuine warmth they show the outsider who helped them in their quest, very much captures the spirit of this idyllic Southern Californian coastal town. Huntington is perhaps better known as Surf City USA, so named for the year-round consistency of the surf. It’s been a Mecca for boardriders since the legendary Duke Kahanamoku introduced the sport to California back in 1925. Now the relaxed surf culture flows through the town as easily as the Pacific runs into the pristine waterways of Huntington Harbour, where rows of stylish multi-million dollar homes compete for attention. I’m a novice surfer so my

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introduction to the local scene is via an instructor known as Surf Jesus (see pic top left and it’ll make sense). He tells me the real appeal for surfers is that “you can surf every goddamn day of the year if you want”. Huntington’s unique pattern of currents means there’s never an excuse not to get out there and enjoy the waves. Even in the relative depths of the Californian winter, the water is a bearable 16˚ in my wetty. The combination of waves to suit all levels, a beach voted ‘Best in California’ last year by readers of USA Today and a distinct absence of sharks all make it the perfect place for a learner like me. More adept surfers might want to head to the town’s iconic 555-metre pier. The closer you surf to the elevated walkway the more respect you command and if you have the skill

and bravado to actually weave between its concrete pillars – which locals refer to as ‘shooting the pier’ – they might even buy you a beer down at Duke’s Barefoot Bar. It’s at this very bar at the base of the pier that I share a few drinks and a mud pie withAussie surf legend PT Townend, the first IPS/ASP world surfing champion back in 1976. A resident for 40 years, Townend fell in love with the town soon after falling for his Huntington-born wife. The Queenslander has the air of a winner, his still-thick Aussie accent punctuated by sporadic bursts of So-Cal as he regales a bunch of us with tales of the local surf community. Remarkably, these days he’s training the Chinese surf team for the Tokyo Olympics. The Chinese have

PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID ASHFORD

BY DAVID ASHFORD

WHERE TO STAY Paséa Hotel & Spa

A perfect balance of stylish and laid back located right on the beachfront. Named one of the best coastal hotels in the US by Condé Nast. They even supply a pair of flip flops to keep!

WHERE TO EAT Tanner’s

at Paséa Hotel & Spa Southern Californian cuisine within a relaxed, rustic setting. If you like to watch your meal being prepared get a spot close to the action in the glass encased wood-fired inferno grill. If the fire pits at the beach sound too much like roughing it, have a cocktail next to the fancy one up on the rooftop lounge. meritagecollection.com/ paseahotel

Bear Flag Fish Co.

A local favourite set in the food hall at Lot 579. Select your fish from the board then specify how you want it cooked. gopacificcity.com/ bear-flag-fish-co

Mama’s on 39

Only enter if it’s seriously your cheat day! This charming diner’s menu features favourites like deep fried steak, a 450g burger called ‘The Monster’ and a chocolate bourbon shake. mamason39.com Extras dukeshuntington.com olamexican.com

identified this new Olympic sport as one to invest in and have sourced athletes with compatible physical attributes. Unfortunately, many of them had not so much as seen a surfboard before Townend came along, so you feel Disney would do well to keep an eye on them – if things go well it could have another Cool Runnings on its hands. Townend is clearly taking the mission seriously, learning Mandarin and spending six months a year imparting his surf wisdom in China. When I ask if he thinks they can pull off a shock and qualify for Tokyo 2020, his assessment is Aussie in its bluntness: “Not a bloody chance, mate . . . but keep an eye out for them in Paris 2024!” Most of the action after dark takes place on Main Street, where local-run surfy bars and eateries rub shoulders

with chic boutiques and restaurants. Fresh Californian seafood might be the go-to but there is also a host of stand-out Mexican and Vietnamese options. Don’t leave without trying the ubiquitous fish tacos and wash them down with some of the colourful and creative margarita options like the ‘lively’ Abreojos at Ola featuring a lipnumbing spicy chilli salt on the rim. A much more affordable and traditionally Californian way to spend your evening (and add a splash of purple sunset to your Insta) is to position yourself at one of the many fire pits positioned along the beach and watch the sun go down over the Pacific. Either bring your own wood and drinks or prebook a spot from one of the hotels or beach hire operators and arrive with your fire pit already roaring for you.

Chairs, blankets and, perhaps most importantly, s’mores are thrown in. A good, albeit busy time to visit is in late July when half a million people descend on the town to watch the world’s largest surf competition, the US Open of Surfing. This nine-day event has been staged here for 60 years and the proximity of the pier gives surf fans a rare chance to get an up-close, wave-side view of the world’s finest weaving their magic. Ever since Duke got the locals hooked back in the ’20s, legends have been made here and who knows, in a few years’ time maybe one of Townend’s Chinese prodigies will add yet more folklore to the town’s already rich surfing heritage. For additional info go to surfcityusa.com

ACTIVITIES

International Surfing Museum See that record-breaking surfboard as well as artifacts from the town’s rich surf heritage, then take a stroll down the Surfing Walk of Fame Surf Lessons Get tips Cali-style from Surf Jesus & co. located at the Hyatt Regency Resort. toesonthenose.com Hire a bike Hire one for a couple of hours and enjoy a glorious 9km oceanside ride to Newport beach; waterfrontresort.com Sunset Harbour Cruise See how the town’s well-heeled residents live from the comfort of this family-run boat. princechartersllc.com

May 2019

A+ NUTRITION

THE HEALTH SNOB’S GUIDE TO

PROPER PIES

For too long, this definitive Aussie symbol has been unjustly neglected by gourmands and gym-goers alike. Here, we celebrate its upper-crust nutritional cred

PUT A LID ON IT

MAKE YOUR CASE

Once a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, the humble pie has slipped into the doldrums of reheated footballstadium grub. But chef Tristan Welch wants to reverse this own goal. Done right, pies are a nutritious, macroladen payload presented inside a deliciously buttery parcel. They’re a crust above, in other words. This is how to get a slice of the action.

A CHICKEN TIKKA

The combo of muscle-building protein – 23g per 100g – and the metabolism-enhancing spice of tikka marinade makes this option a true game-changer when you’re aiming for a lean, strong physique.

B SARDINES

The ultimate oily fish, sardines are full to the gills with omega-3 fatty acids. Their antiinflammatory properties help to prevent heart disease and reduce your risk of blood clots.

C LAMB NECK CHOPS

The L-carnitine content in lamb will fire up your stamina and give your muscles an energy lift, as it increases your levels of new mitochondria – your cells’

in-built “power generators”.

D SAUSAGE MEAT

That sausages make you happy is obvious. But allow us to present some scientific evidence. As a source of choline, the porcine filling plays a role in the formation of SAM-e, a feel-good hormone that helps to relieve depression.

menshealth.com.au

Puff pastry and potato toppings require little explanation, while hot water crusts are rare. So we’ll focus on shortcrust – an essential part of any man’s culinary armoury. “This delicate pastry is perfect for pies, because it soaks up the sauce and takes on its flavour,” says Welch. Start by sifting 225g of flour into a bowl that has a silicone base – this will keep it steady when you’re mixing later. Slice 100g of butter into small pieces over the flour; use two knives rather than your fingers to keep the butter cool. Mix together and, once a fine crumb forms, add two egg yolks and a splash of cool water, gradually stirring until the mixture has evenly combined. Use the flat of the knife to fold it into a dough, then shape it into a disc with your hands. Roll out your pastry, occasionally rotating the dough 90 degrees. A smart rolling pin with attachments on both ends will help you to achieve an even thickness. Wrap in cling film and chill for 20 minutes. Then, trim to fit, brush with an egg and start preparing your application for next year’s MKR.

FILL YOUR PIE HOLE From a bite-sized Herbert Adams to a massive masala, pies can sate all appetites. Falcon’s five-piece pie set ($66; botanex.com.au) covers all bases: its enamel finish transfers heat evenly for a perfectly cooked filling, and no chance of a disappointingly soggy bottom. Once you’ve updated your kitchenware, follow Welch’s expert recipes to make your cooking time as easy as, well, pie.

PATRIOT GAINS

SCIENCE SUGGESTS THE CLASSICS ARE OFTEN THE BEST FOR YOUR HEALTH, TOO

MUSCLE-UP TIKKA MASALA PIE

TAKE HEART FISH PIE

SERVES 8 • A chicken, whole • A jar of tikka marinade • An onion, finely chopped • Garlic, 3 cloves, crushed • Ginger, 6cm, chopped • Chilli powder, 1tsp • Tinned tomatoes, 400g • Double cream, 300ml • Plain flour, 150g • Flora ProActiv Buttery, 100g, cubed • Eggs, 3 • Cold water, 3tbsp

SERVES 4 • Sardines, 4 • Fish stock, 250ml • Crème fraîche, 125g • English mustard, 25g • White wine vinegar, 1tbsp • All-butter puff pastry, 250g • An egg yolk • Streaky bacon, 150g, unsliced • Baby onions, 16, halved • Quail’s eggs, 16

METHOD Marinate the chicken overnight in the fridge, then roast at 190°C for an hour. Rest, then debone. For the sauce, fry the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli in butter. Blend the tomatoes and cashew nuts, then add to the pan. Cook for 20 minutes, pour in the cream, bring to a boil, add the chicken, then fill a pie dish. Mix the flour and butter until crumbs form. Stir in two yolks and cold water to bind the dough. Roll it, wrap in film and chill for 20 minutes. Brush with egg and bake at 180°C for 30 minutes. Dig in.

METHOD Reduce the stock by half and whisk in the crème fraîche, mustard and vinegar. Trim the pastry into a rectangle and cut out six golf-ball-sized holes around the edge. Brush with the yolk, then bake for 20 minutes. Fillet the sardines and grill alongside the heads and tails. Chop and fry the bacon and onions and poach the eggs. Arrange the sardine fillets, bacon, onions and eggs in the dish and pour in the sauce. Cover with

the pastry, poking the sardine heads and tails through the holes, and serve .

FISH AND CHIPS

Go heavy on the vinegar. Research shows that its acetic acid reduces levels of cholesterol in your blood to safeguard your heart.

SUNDAY ROAST

PHOTOGRAPHY: LOUISA PARRY

The rosemary with your lamb and veg can give you a cognitive boost and 15 per cent improvement in short-term memory*.

FULL ENGLISH

Be generous when ladling on your baked beans. The high-fibre hit and the antioxidant lycopene will take a bite out of your cancer risk.

AGE-DEFYING SHEPHERD’S PIE

ALL SMILES SAUSAGE PIE

SERVES 4 • Lamb neck chops, 8 • Maris Piper potatoes, 600g • An onion, sliced into rings • Carrots, 8, peeled • Celery, 2 sticks • Flora ProActiv Low Salt, 150g, diced • Plain flour, ½tbsp • Lamb stock, 350ml • Milk, 100ml • Frozen peas, 4tbsp

SERVES 8 • Pork sausage meat, 700g • Butter, 55g, cubed • Plain flour, 265g, plus extra for dusting • Strong white bread flour, 55g • Lard, 65g • Water, 135ml, boiling • Mustard seeds, 4tsp • Streaky bacon, 600g • Pork stock for gelatin • Red apples, 6, sliced • Apricot jam, 2tbsp

METHOD Roast the potatoes at 140°C. Flour the lamb and brown in a casserole dish. Remove the chops and add the onion, carrots and celery. Add the butter and flour, mix and add the stock. Simmer, put the chops back in and cook. Scoop the potatoes into a bowl and combine with milk and butter to create the mash. After two hours, remove the lamb and add the peas. Divide the mix into four dishes, add two chops each, crossing the bones at the top. Pipe the mash over and bake for another hour at 160°C. It’s worth the wait.

METHOD Combine the butter, flour and lard in a paddle mixer, adding the water to form the dough of your hot water crust. Set aside to cool. Roll and layer inside a pie tin, then freeze. Remove and crimp the rim. Mix the mustard seeds, meat and half of the bacon, diced, and form into a patty. Wrap in a lattice of the remaining bacon and drop into the pastry. Bake at 180°C until the centre is 74°C. Reduce the stock and pour in. Caramelise the apples and layer on top before glazing with heated apricot jam. Now, pig out.

May 2019

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STYLE

ACTIVATE YOUR “OUT OF OFFICE” FOR A WEEKEND OFF THE GRID. HERE’S HOW TO TRANSITION FROM WORK TO WILDERNESS

STYLING BY JEFF LACK PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS MOHEN GROOMING BY NIAMH JONES @Details for Men TALENT VINCENT @Kult Models

HEATH @IMG Models WORDS BY HARRIET SIM

May 2019

When venturing into the scrub, the traditional rule of thumb is to go plaid-clad and sporting an unkempt beard. These days, however, versions of that same style can be mistaken for hipsterism. To avoid looking like a guy who favours deconstructed coffee, MH style editor Jeff Lack offers a fresh alternative for the modern adventurist. Whether it be a weekend escape or a breezy outdoor gig, layering is key for rugging up when the mercury drops. Your best bet? A staple shearling. “Get ahead of the cold curve by pairing a classic tan shearling jacket over a heritage plaid shirt,” says Lack. LEFT

H&M cap, $19.90 (hm.com/au) Rolla’s coat, $249.95 Rolla’s flannel, $109.95 (rollas.com.au) Tarocash jeans, $109.99 (tarocash.com.au) Clarks boots, $229.95 (clarks.com.au) Tag Heuer Aquaracer watch, $2100 (tagheuer.com/en-au) BELOW

Ben Sherman coat, $329 (bensherman.com.au) H&M gloves, $49.90 Rolla’s shirt, $99.95 ASOS jeans, $50 (asos.com.au)

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RIGHT

G-Star RAW coat, $280 (g-star.com/en_au) Uniqlo shirt, $39.90 (uniqlo.com.au/store/men) ASOS jeans, $50 Akubra Lawson hat, $240, and Pendleton bandana,$30, (both strandhatters.com.au) TOC cuff, $330, TOC ring,$120, and TOC signet, $200, (all toc.design) Tag Heuer watch, $2100 Suit Supply bag, $399 (eu.suitsupply.com)

STYLE

May 2019

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STYLE

Going rogue also means abandoning style rules. So as the foliage fades, go bold and juxtapose your surroundings with deep-forest greens and striking navys. “Mixing green and blue is usually a no-go, but the textural mix of wools, cords and cotton offers a refreshing take on autumnal style,” says Lack. For the cautious explorer? Pare it back with monotonal pieces. A great parka goes a long way and utilitarian threads make for a happy camper. Just leave the dad sandals at home.

LEFT (HEATH WEARS)

Rolla’s jacket, $179.95 Uniqlo turtleneck, $59.90 G-Star RAW pants, $230 Ted Baker cap, $89.95 (tedbaker.com) Tag Heuer watch, $2100 TOC Cuff, $120 (VINCENT WEARS)

Rolla’s jacket, $249.95 Ben Sherman sweater, $139 ASOS jeans, $50 Hills Sherlock cap, $120

RIGHT

Suit Supply turtleneck, $249, and pants, $299 (suitsupply.com) Merchant 1948 boots, $239.90 Pendleton blanket, $290 (strandhatters.com.au) H&M scarf, $19.90 TOC Cuff, $120 Tag Heuer watch, $2100 BOTTOM RIGHT

Marcs jacket, $129.95 (tkmaxx.com) Uniqlo turtleneck, $59.90 Lee shirt, $99.95; lee.com Lacoste pants, $199 (lacoste.com.au) Timberland sneakers, $199.99 (timberland.com.au) ASOS beanie, $9.90 Tag Heuer watch, $2100

May 2019 59

GROOMING

CutsThat’llM keYou Y Want n To T Ditch c “The h Usua ”

Here’s how to get a look of the moment – and style it at home

You might want to start popping a biotin supp, because longer locks are having a serious moment right now. Look around. Shaggy, ‘70s-inspired hairstyles are back in a BIG way – and we reckon you could pull one off. “I’ve been seeing heaps more length on guys – longer styles are definitely in at the moment. I’m seeing guys moving away from the tight, clean-cut styles and rocking more relaxed, ’70s-inspired shags,” says Jules Tognini, VSforMen lads’ styling expert and renowned hair educator. “I’ve been doing lots of mullet-like styles and even fringes on men. We’re seeing the lived-in look a lot; the undone surfer hair is really big right now. A lot more guys are getting colour, as well – warmer and lighter tones in their hair achieving a more sun-kissed look. Even the guys who are going short are choosing textured and more lived-in looks rather than classical clean-cut.” But it’s not all bad news for those who like to keep things a bit more on the polished side, because Tognini predicts that the buzz cut is also set to make a return. “A shaved head would be the easiest, most low-maintenance hairstyle out there. Shaved heads are making a comeback, and they tend to look great on guys with strong jawlines,” he says. Check out Tognini’s style predictions for 2019 – and the famous fellas who wear them.

menshealth.com.au

BY ERIN DOCHERTY

SHAGGY LOCKS

BLEACHED HAIR

BUZZ CUT

REFERENCE: BRADLEY COOPER

REFERENCE:

Bradley Cooper has had just about every haircut, ever. But his latest style on A Star Is Born shapes as the most iconic. There’s something about that long, swept-back mop and scruffy beard combo that looks so effortless and cool. WHAT TO ASK FOR: So, obviously

ZAC EFRON

Zac Efron usually plays things pretty safe. So when he debuted a platinum-blond style, observers did a double-take. And for good reason: it looked good. While big shots like Jared Leto, Justin Bieber and Pete Davidson have rocked icy hair in the past, it seems Efron’s transformation somehow made dyeing your hair seem so much more mainstream.

you’re going to have to grow your hair a bit for this one. But as it gets longer you’ll want to see a stylist in order to move things in the right direction, starting with a texturised cut. “The biggest tip for achieving the messy Bradley Cooper look would be to get a texture cut into your hair first. This will make it much easier to achieve the look,” says Tognini. As with any hairstyle, the best way to get what you want is to show your barber a picture beforehand.

you’d like your hair to be more on the ‘cool’-toned side – just keep in mind this type of style usually takes a few visits, especially if you have darker locks. “If you want it done right, you have to pay the money,” says Tognini. “Don’t cheap out on bleaching. If you want a good result, go and see the best or you’ll likely be left with yellow, damaged hair.”

HOW TO STYLE IT: This is a pretty low-maintenance style – you’ll just need some lightweight products to get it looking on point. “Stay away from greasy waxes and putties. Instead, use products such as clays and texture pastes, dry shampoos, powders and sea-salt sprays.”

HOW TO STYLE IT: Bleach strips the hair of moisture and nutrients, so regular, deep-hydrating masks will help anyone who bleaches or is looking to do so. “If you want to get to that platinum-white as opposed to yellow, you’ll want to put a bit of effort into pre-treatment hair care.”

WHAT TO ASK FOR: Tell your stylist

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

Justin Timberlake’s shaved hair is iconic (almost as much as his ’90s ramen-noodle hair) – which is proof that simple can also be stylish. If you’re all about low-maintenance, no-fuss cuts, this is definitely the look for you. WHAT TO ASK FOR: A buzz cut can

take many different forms, so it’s best to make sure you and your barber are on the same wavelength in terms of how sharp you want it. Pull out a photo to avoid confusion. If you’re feeling confident, you could also go down the DIY route. “Do it yourself at home if you want to save money and time,” says Tognini. “The VSforMen X6 PRO is ideal for high-performance cutting at home, meaning you can sort out your hair in a fraction of the time it takes to go to a barber.” HOW TO STYLE IT: This would have to be one of the most low-maintenance hairstyles out there. Just keep your scalp healthy and clean, and you’re good to go.

BRUSH UP ON YOUR GROOMING

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WA T C H E S

TOUGH COOKIES

IF YOU LEAD A FULL-CONTACT LIFESTYLE, MAKE SURE YOUR WATCH CAN KEEP UP BY LUKE BENEDICTUS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY PHILIP LE MASURIER Mido Ocean Star Diver 600 $2325 The case is coated with DLC (diamond-like carbon), a super-tough material designed to reduce abrasive wear and used in drill bits and Formula 1 engines.

Tissot Seastar Chrono $725 The world record for the deepest-ever SCUBA dive stands at 332m. While you’re working up to that, the Seastar is water-resistant to 300m.

G-SHOCK Mudmaster $1099 Heading to the jungle or the desert? This watch is specially built to prevent sand, mud or dust getting in – it’s billed as the ideal tool for rescue crews.

OMEGA Speedmaster “Dark Side of The Moon” Apollo 8 $13,050 The Speedmaster was the first watch to be worn on the moon. This revamp is made from black ceramic that’s lightweight, scratch-resistant and strong.

Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight, $3910

TAG Heuer Aquaracer Calibre 5 $5300 Strong and light, carbon fibre is used to make everything from race cars to yachts to … the bezel of this watch, where it’s grafted onto a titanium case. 62

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Seiko Prospex SRPD09K $750 For many serious divers or spear fishermen, Seiko is still the default dive watch. The reason? They’re rugged, reliable and reasonably priced.

WATCHES ARE OFTEN spruiked as the ultimate heirloom - a treasured item you can pass down to generation next. In practice, however, this raises the question of durability. If your watch is going to pass muster in 40 years’ time, it has to last the distance. Fortunately, the watch world has two eternal sources of inspiration. The first is the world of adventure. From diving to trekking to blasting into space, many watches are purpose-built to deliver at the outer limits of human endurance. In other words, they’re pretty bloody tough. Secondly, for both aesthetic and practical purposes, watchmakers get turned on by cutting-edge tech. New materials based on carbon, ceramic or anti-magnetic alloys are regularly plundered from supercars or aeronautics. If there’s a new development that can make a watch stronger or lighter, it’ll wind up on a wrist near you very soon.

SCORCHING. COLD. No m matter the temperature outside, Genuine Thermos® Brand hydration bottles keep contents cold for hours, helping you to keep hydrated all day long. The secret is Thermos™ vacuum insulation technology whic ch virtually eliminates temperature change within the container. Genuine Thermos Brand has been trusted since 1904. THERMOS is a registered trademark in over 115 countries. © 2016, 2018 Thermos PTY Ltd.

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HEALTHY LIVING

SUPPORT YOUR HEALTHY LIFESTYLE GOALS AND MANAGE CHOLESTEROL WITH THE GREAT TASTE OF FLORA PROACTIV A healthy lifestyle starts with a healthy diet. If you need to lower your cholesterol, it’s good to know that with just a few simple tweaks you can see improved results in just weeks, without sacrificing the flavour or enjoyment.

SPREAD THE WORD

Just one heaped tablespoon a day of Flora ProActiv contains 2g of plant sterols, which have been proven to reduce cholesterol levels by up to 10% within just 21 days. Flora ProActiv is a delicious spread that comes in five variants to meet most dietary needs, and it has been developed specifically to help reduce cholesterol. Incorporating Flora ProActiv in your daily diet is simple: spread it on your toast or sandwiches, cook and bake with it, and use it like you would any other spread.

“I encourage

everyone to give plant-based eating a go

”

ELLIE BULLEN

EAT FOR GOOD HEALTH Need some inspo? Australian nutritionist Ellie Bullen from Elsa’s Wholesome Life is a great advocate of plant-based diets, as well as a best-selling cookbook author, consultant and blogger with an Instagram following of more than 680,000. She believes a healthy diet needn’t be boring, in fact quite the opposite, and has created these and other plant-based recipes incorporating Flora ProActiv, so you know they’re as nutritious as they are delicious.

FLORAPROACTIV.COM.AU

MAPLE PECAN BANANA BREAD

HOME-MADE CRUMPETS

MAPLE PECAN BANANA BREAD

SERVES 8

¾ cup pecans 1 tbsp maple syrup Two pinches salt ½ tsp Flora ProActiv, plus ¼ cup 3 large ripe bananas 1 tsp vanilla extract ½ cup coconut sugar 1 cup spelt flour 1 cup all purpose flour 3 tsp baking powder 1 tsp cinnamon powder 1 cup soy milk 1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius fan forced. 2. Mix together in a bowl the pecans, maple syrup, a pinch of salt and ½ tsp Flora ProActiv, and massage together with hands. 3. Transfer to a lined tray and bake in oven for 10-15 minutes or until caramelised. Remove from oven and set aside to cool. Turn oven up to 180 degrees Celsius. 4. Peel the bananas and place in a bowl. Mash with a fork until smooth, and stir

through the vanilla extract. 5. In a large mixing bowl, add the coconut sugar and ¼ cup Flora ProActiv and, using a hand mixer with the beat attachments, beat until smooth and fluffy. 6. Sieve the flours, baking powder, cinnamon powder, and remaining pinch of salt into a separate bowl. 7. Add the soy milk and mashed bananas to the mixing bowl with the sugar and Flora and mix all ingredients together. 8. Pour wet ingredients into the dry bowl and fold together until just mixed. 9. Line a loaf tin with baking paper. Pour batter into tin and top with caramelised pecans. 10. Place in the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes. 11. Remove from oven and place on a bench to cool for 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool for a further 10 minutes. 12. Slice up the maple pecan banana bread and eat warm with a teaspoon of Flora ProActiv.

HOME-MADE CRUMPETS

MAKES APPROX 16-20 MINI CRUMPETS 250mL soy/coconut milk 1 cup water 1 sachet dried yeast 2 cups 300g plain flour 1 tsp bicarbonate soda 1 tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla 1 tbsp Flora ProActiv (for cooking) Suggested serving toppings Coconut, yoghurt, strawberries, raspberries, basil, maple syrup, Flora ProActiv, hemp seeds 1. Gently warm the soy/coconut milk and water to a tepid temperature. 2. Place in a large bowl, add the dried yeast sachet and allow to stand in a warm place for 15 minutes or until foamy/bubbly. 3. Sieve in the flour, bicarb, salt and vanilla and stir together. Place a damp tea towel over the mixing bowl and sit for 35-40 minutes. Mixture should rise and become very bubbly. 4. Heat a large fry pan over

med-high heat, and lightly grease pan and egg rings with some Flora ProActiv. 5. Stir mixture – the consistency should resemble a thick pancake batter (except bubbly); add ¼-½ cup more water to reach desired consistency. 6. Spoon in 2-3 tablespoons of mixture into each egg ring. Cook for approx 2 minutes or until tops are completely covered in bubbles and top batter is dry. Remove rings and transfer crumpets to plate. 7. Keep warm in an oven under 100 degrees Celcius while you repeat until all batter is used up, adding small amounts of oil to the pan as needed. 8. Continue until mixture is used up, then serve crumpets warm with any toppings you like. I have suggested some toppings in the ingredients list. Tip: Do not overheat the milk and water or you will kill your yeast.

GARLIC THYME MUSHROOM RISOTTO

SERVES 4-5

300g pumpkin 2 tsp olive oil Pinch of cinnamon Pinch of salt 1L vegetable stock 1 cup water 6 cloves garlic, crushed 1.5 cups arborio rice ½ cup white wine 5 sprigs thyme 1.5 tbsp Flora ProActiv 200g mixed mushrooms, chopped roughly 2 large handfuls baby spinach 1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius fan forced. 2. Cut pumpkin into 3cm chunks, skin on, and place on a tray with 1 tsp olive oil, cinnamon and salt. Bake for 30 minutes or until soft and cooked through, then remove from oven and set aside.

3. Meanwhile, bring stock and water to boil, turn off heat and cover. 4. Heat another large pot over high heat. Add 1 tsp olive oil and half the garlic, sauté for 30 seconds, add the rice and white wine and allow it to evaporate. Add 1-2 cups of stock, and thyme, and cover, continuing to add stock as it evaporates, until rice is cooked and all stock is used up. 5. Meanwhile, heat a fry pan over high heat. Add the Flora ProActiv, mushrooms and remaining garlic, sauté for 5 minutes or until golden, and set aside. 6. Add the cooked mushrooms and the baked pumpkin to the risotto when it’s almost ready (rice is soft), stir through and simmer for another 3 minutes. Add the spinach and simmer for 1 minute. 7. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve in bowls.

“I strongly believe

everyone should try to eat more plants: daily, weekly or all the time!

”

ELLIE BULLEN

SPELT BERRY PANCAKES

Serves 2-3

Batter 1 cup spelt flour 1 tsp baking powder ½ tsp bicarbonate soda Pinch of salt 2 tsp chia seeds ½ tsp vanilla extract 1 cup plus 2 tbsp soy milk 1 tbsp Flora ProActiv 1 tbsp maple syrup To serve Flora ProActiv, maple syrup, fresh berries, figs 1. Preheat oven to 100 degrees Celsius fan forced. 2. Sieve together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate soda and salt into a bowl.

3. Blend together the chia seeds, vanilla, soy milk, Flora spread and maple syrup. 4. Pour wet mixture into the dry bowl and fold together until just combined. Small lumps are good - we don’t want to overmix the batter. 5. Heat a non-stick/stone fry pan over high heat. Wait until pan is hot. Drop another ¼ tsp of Flora ProActiv into pan. Pour in ¼ cup of pancake mix into the centre of the pan. 6. Fry for approximately 1 minute (or until bubbles form on top) and then ﬂip and cook for 30 seconds on the other side. Transfer to a plate. 7. Place the plate in the warmed oven to keep pancakes warm. 8. Repeat with remaining pancake batter. 9. Serve with seasonal berries or fruits, maple syrup and Flora ProActiv.

MAKE A PROACTIV CHOICE Lowering your cholesterol absorption is easy with Flora ProActiv. Available in ﬁve delicious variants, including Original, Light, Buttery and Low Salt, there’s one to suit every taste and dietary need. GARLIC THYME MUSHROOM RISOTTO

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Marathon Often, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only when you run for a purpose greater than yourself that you can go further and faster than you thought possible. Here, five indefatigable men reveal the joys and struggles of running for a reason BY DANIEL WILLIAMS AND BEN JHOTY

menshealth.com.au

FITNESS

Men

May 2019

50 Shades of Pain The sudden death of a mate, followed by an encounter with the world’s most charismatic motivational speaker, inspired Sean Bell to run 50 marathons in 50 days

M ELBOU RN E

NAME:

Sean Bell

AGE:

LIVES:

Melbourne, VIC

RUN:

50 marathons in 50 days

“To understand why I did this, you need to know a little bit about Joey Moschetti. In 2016, he and I were teammates at the Vermont Football Club in Melbourne. It was Joey’s first season at the club and straight away he made an impression. At training he was the sort of guy who’d shake everyone’s hand – sometimes multiple times to make sure he got around to everybody. He wasn’t the best player in the team, but he had an enormous heart and tried so hard. He just loved the culture of footy and loved all the boys, and everyone loved him back. He and I bonded over footy and a shared love of the Richmond Tigers. One Friday night in July, 2016 he went to bed – no doubt excited to come to footy the next day – and didn’t wake up. It was a complete shock for everyone because he was a healthy kid of 18. The doctors say they don’t know what happened and that we’ll never know. At the end of that season, in honour of Joey, the club instituted the ‘Moe Award’, which would go to the player who best lived his values of hard work, mateship and empathy. I 72

menshealth.com.au

won it, and Joey’s dad presented it to me. I didn’t know it at the time, but that moment changed my life. That night was the first time I’d met his parents, and we became friends. They’d invite me over for dinner every couple of months and I’d hear their sad stories about losing friends after Joey’s passing. This happens a lot to parents who lose a child. People don’t know what to say and end up drifting away. ALL FIRED UP It’s hard to explain, but I’d always felt I was born to do something special. I just didn’t know what that something was. In March, 2017, my mum took me to LA and we attended a Tony Robbins Unleash The Power Within seminar. Tony spoke about ultramarathoner Stu Mittleman, who’d run across America from San Diego to New York, 85 kilometres a day for 56 days straight. At the time I’d thought, ‘Nah, that sort of thing isn’t possible for everybody – this guy must be predisposed’. But later that year, when footy wasn’t giving me the same pleasure that it used to, I thought back to Stu’s story and started researching long-distance runners in Australia. I wanted to see whether anyone had done something similar here. I came across a couple in their 60s, Alan Murray and Janette MurrayWakelin, who’d run around Australia in 2013, shuffling out a marathon a day for a year. Suddenly, it all clicked. I looked across my bedroom at my ‘Moe Award’ plaque, and in that moment made up my mind that I would ‘Jog for Joey’. I’d start with 50 marathons in 50 days. And that would be a prelude to the bigger goal of running around

Australia, which I’m looking to start at the end of next year. When I made my decision I went to Joey’s parents and told them what I planned to do. I said, ‘You guys choose a charity’. They chose The Compassionate Friends, which had helped them since Joey died. It was founded in England in 1969 by a hospital chaplain who’d realised there was no grief as intense as parental grief. He started bringing together couples who’d lost a child, and they found comfort in their shared experience. But The Compassionate Friends’ main message concerns how the rest of us can help bereaved families. People are so worried about saying the wrong thing that they avoid grieving parents. But the best thing you can do is say, ‘I don’t know what to say, but I’m here for you’. I began the 50-in-50 on January 4 of this year. It’s not as though I was an experienced marathoner. I ran my first 42 kays at the the Melbourne Marathon in 2017 – and loved it – but I could barely walk for a week afterwards. It made me change my focus to running back-to-back and slower marathons, rather than running for time. Prior to the 50-in-50, I’d completed only that 2017 marathon and one 60-km ultramarathon, outside of training. The first week of Jog for Joey was the worst. My body felt awful. My coach, Jase Cronshaw of V & B Athletic, had predicted this. He said my body was going to hurt, but to hang in there because it would adapt. I went to bed after Day 7 really sore, with calf, hip flexor and adductor issues. On Day 8 I woke up and, honestly, felt born anew. I felt amazing. I actually got told off by

my coach later that day because I went out and ran a 4:19 – which was quite a bit faster than what I averaged. He said, ‘Come on, slow down – you’ve 42 to go!’ I said, ‘I know, but you don’t understand – I felt great’. Most mornings I got up around 5am with a view to setting off at 6. The early starts were important because this was midsummer. To prep, I’d take a cold shower and have a big breakfast – maybe seven WeetBix and two pieces of toast with peanut butter. I’d foam-roll, and then once I felt breakfast was digested enough I’d set off. HIGHER CALLING Often I’d have company along the way, but there was plenty of alone time. It’s then I’d think about

FITNESS

was eating well and plentifully, I’d be right. The after-run meal was always big – usually four eggs on toast with tomato, spinach, mushrooms. And a big smoothie. You might think the last few runs would have been the hardest, but I was well and truly in the groove by then. Your body’s an amazing mechanism. But the mind’s crucial, too. It’s mind over matter in the sense that you need to give your body a good enough reason to keep going. Your body can achieve anything you set your mind to.”

Forged in Fire As a former rugby player, Ben Seymour’s training priorities had always been strength and power. Until an urge to push his limits and inspire others saw him lace up for a 250-km slog in the Chilean desert BOLIVI

PA R A G U

CHI

ARG

PT Sean Bell (@seanbellfitness) completed his 50th marathon on February 22 by running into the Manhattan hotel in Ringwood, Melbourne alongside Joey Moschetti’s brother, Harry.

“I wasn’t counting kilojoules – I didn’t want something else to worry about”

ENT

INA

NAME:

Ben Seymour

AGE:

LIVES:

Sydney, NSW

A 250-km race across the Chilean desert

RUN:

“My rugby career ended three years ago, after a pay dispute with an Italian club. I came home to Sydney and worked for my dad for a while in building before falling on my feet as a personal trainer. In rugby, you do endurance only at the start of preseason – and even that’s just 1.5-km time trials. Mostly, you’re doing short, sharp stuff – and a lot of weights. When I finished playing I stayed focused on strength. Then last year I was talking with a friend of mine, ultra-endurance athlete Jacqui Bell. She was on my case about coming to Chile and doing the Atacama Crossing – a six-stage, seven-day, 250-km running race across the desert. At first, I just laughed it off: ‘Yeah, look, I’d love to – but it’s never going to happen’. I was on holiday in Greece at the time and not even training, but I said to myself, ‘If I can clock up 100km this week while I’m in Greece,

ALEC BAKER - @ALECBAKERFILMS

why I was doing this – about Joey and The Compassionate Friends. I couldn’t have finished without those deeper reasons. I’d also listen to podcasts like The Rich Roll Podcast; to people who’ve taken on bigger and crazier challenges than I have and pulled them off. Fifty marathons in 50 days may sound crazy, but the Iron Cowboy [James Lawrence] did 50 Ironmans in 50 days in 50 States of the US. Marathon 19 was a horrible day. Coming down a hill I strained my right quad – just a grade 1 strain but that would normally stop you from running for a week or so. I limped my way through the rest of that run, then had intensive physiotherapy. The next few days were slow but the injury gradually came good. I also had help from a nutritionist. There was always the danger I was going to lose a lot of weight but I started at 71kg and hovered around that mark for the duration. I wasn’t counting kilojoules – I didn’t want something else to worry about. I figured that as long as I

May 2019

where it was 40˚, then I’ll consider it’. I went out and did runs of 30 kays, 20 kays, 25 kays . . . and eventually racked up over 100 kays for the week. I texted Jacqui and said, ‘I’ve booked the event and I’ve booked my flights – see you over there!’ One thing that plays on my mind is that a lot of people in the fitness industry call themselves influencers, but they’re not actually having a positive influence on anyone. As a trainer, I’m not good with words. I’m not someone who’s going to make some great speech. My biggest thing is just to do the work and inspire you through my actions. I actually enjoy going out there and putting myself through things. And then people can be like, ‘Holy shit – if he can do that, then I think I can do this!’” This challenge was definitely about me – and I didn’t want to let my family down. But showing other people that anything is possible, inspiring them to step outside their comfort zone and give something a go even though others say it’s impossible or crazy, that was part of it, too. I also did it for our Paralympians, and raised $4000.

except sit there with your feet up and rehydrate and refuel. The last day is a 14-km run, so it’s a bit of a cruise home. Overall, I finished 19th out of 120, which I was happy with because after Day 2 my only goal was to finish. I’d started the race weighing 95kg and lost 8kg. It was definitely the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life. But within days I was thinking, ‘What’s next?’ I do miss the camaraderie you get in footy. But I really like doing these solo endurance challenges because you can’t rely on anyone else, or blame anyone else. ALTERED STATE Chile changed my perspective on many things. When you finish a race like that, you learn so much about what you’re physically and mentally capable of. You realise a lot of the doubts you have about yourself are misplaced. And that most of the stuff you worry about at home is insignificant. My perspective on how I’d been living my life altered while I was away. I realised how important positive influences are. I realised that in a world so filled with things that are fake, being real and authentic is a priority for me. And another thing: giving without expecting anything in return is rewarding.” Ben Seymour (@seemorebenny) is an ambassador and coach at BeFit Training in Sydney’s Double Bay.

ALEC BAKER - @ALECBAKERFILMS

NO PAIN Doing the Atacama Crossing, you’ve got heat, you’ve got altitude, and you’ve got to carry everything, excluding a tent. I started off with an extra 15kg on my back. Day 1 was 35km and I felt good. I got it done in about five-and-a-half hours. The only

thing was my feet were swelling in the heat and I was getting some pretty bad blisters, which I didn’t stop to fix as I should have done. So on Day 2, which was another 35 kays, I took off my shoes at the last checkpoint to get the sand out and struggled to get them back on because my feet were that bad. The last 10 kays took me about three-and-half hours to walk. It was unbearable. I was talking to myself: ‘It’s okay to quit . . . you don’t have to answer to anybody . . . you’ve done enough’. Finally I got into camp and went off to first aid, where they drained all my toes and strapped them up. On Day 3, the hardest part was putting my shoes on because I’d got the wrong size and they were too small. I ended up cutting the fronts off so my toes were hanging out. I figured I’d take some painkillers, do the first 10 kays and see how I went. But as you start running the adrenaline takes over and you stop thinking about what’s wrong. I probably had my best day on Day 3. Chile was like running on the moon or Mars. There wasn’t an insect in sight. And no sound besides the rocks cracking under your feet. At night, the stars were amazing. Day 5 was the hard one. It was the 80-km day. Again, I set off thinking, ‘Let’s see how you go’, and I managed to finish in 12 hours. Most people do that stage over two days but I did it in one so I could take a whole day off to relax. It’s 45˚, so there’s not a lot you can do

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FITNESS

Drawn to Run Ahead of their latest challenge, the 84km Bali Hope Ultra, seasoned endurance runners Jason Cronshaw and David Jones reflect on how they turned a passion into a partnership founded on offering a helping hand, both to those in need and their fellow runners

BA LI

NAME:

Jason Cronshaw & David Jones

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46 & 43

LIVE:

Sydney, NSW

RUN:

84km Bali Hope Ultra

DAVID: “I’ve always thought that

if you’re in a position to be able to help other people, you should. We love running because of how it makes us feel and the fitness aspects of it but if you’ve got a cause outside of yourself to run for, then the times when you’re ready to give up, they go away. I did the Bali Hope Ultra on my own last year. A good friend of ours is Samantha Gash, the ultra-runner. She knew it was exactly what I like to do. Last year the goal was to put 100 kids through primary school. Over there the family unit income is like 50 bucks a month. You put these kids through high school and the family unit income goes up to about 250 bucks a month. I signed up on the spot. The race itself brings together 20-30 people from all over the world. A bunch of them had never done anything like this or run any sort of distance before. I think a couple of them hadn’t even run more than 5km before in their life. And this is 84km. Overnight. In Bali.

JONES, LEFT, AND CRONSHAW WORKING AS A UNIT FOR A CAUSE BIGGER THAN THEMSELVES.

CAUSE AND EFFECT JASON: Bali will be a challenge because it’s hot. But it doesn’t scare us anymore. It’s the 180km races that scare us now. If you can do a half marathon you can run an ultra because the checkpoints are about the same distance as a half, you’re just backing up. It’s all about that frame of reference. What was a challenge for you previously just becomes your warm-up. We apply that mindset to the way we train people, the way we train ourselves and then to the events that we take on. Nowadays we try and insert ourselves into as many races as possible during the year, just as sweepers. It’s the joy of helping people overcome that struggle. The amount of times I’ve crossed the finish line with somebody running beside me in tears because, for them, it’s monumental. I love it, because I’ve now introduced somebody else to something that I love. And that feeling that you get when you cross the finish line together, it’s mind-blowing.

DAVID: The truth is, if we were

good enough to be competing at the pointy end, we probably would be. But really, just helping other people through it is a big part of why we do it now. Last year in Bali I wasn’t intending to sweep at all. But there are a lot of wild dogs that just roam around and some of them are aggressive, which made a lot people nervous. Just by chance, I ended up next to a woman called Julie, a hundred metres off the start line. And a dog started barking and she grabbed my hand. I said, ‘Oh, okay’. She had a chest infection, which she had been dealing with all week. The first 4-5km is okay and then for 17km, it’s straight up. So, I sort of had to tow her up for 17km. And after that, we just stuck together. The next 60km is undulating, fairly easy terrain,

but as you hit the morning and the Bali traffic, it’s pretty uncomfortable conditions for running. And she was miserable. I’ve never seen anyone who was just so out of it. She could barely walk for periods of time and I had to cheer her up. It was so good to see someone push themselves to that level. She was determined she was going to finish. In terms of the cause, in Bali Hope where there are cars and trucks and smog and dogs, your normal reaction would be, ‘What the hell am I running here for? This is miserable’. And then you think, ‘Well, hold on a minute, a lot of the kids that we’re raising money for walk through this every day of their lives to get to school’. So, actually it changes your mindset, and suddenly you’re like, ‘Well, this is nothing, we’ll be done in a few hours, we’ll

“It’s the joy of helping people overcome that struggle” May 2019

just get this done’. So, it gives you a different context, which enables you to push yourself further than you otherwise could or would. PAIN AND GAIN JASON: I think when we first

started, it was more about accomplishing things and having the bragging rights. But then that evolves, it becomes less about yourself and more about others. It’s about being authentic. We do it because that’s who we are, that’s what we believe in. DAVID: I think when it’s related to endurance there is such a long lead period, it isn’t like just putting some money in a charity tin. You spend 3-6 months getting ready for an event, so you just naturally engage more with that charity than you would otherwise. You’re really invested in it by the time you get there. JASON: In the lead-up we’ll work our way up to 36, maybe 38km, as the longest run. The majority of the training will focus on strength, so hill climbing with weight because, obviously, the first 20-odd-kays you’re going straight up. We also do interval stuff, tempo work. We’ll average around 50km a week. You’ve got

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to simulate the conditions as best you can. I’ve got a stairwell at the apartments where we live, which is enclosed, no air, it’s hot. And I’ll throw my wrist weights on, throw a face mask on, and just go up and down until I can’t move. You’ve got to get yourself to that point of saying, ‘Okay, now I’m uncomfortable’. But you’re looking for that feeling, versus trying to stay away from it. When it comes to ultrarunning generally, the advice I’d give is run when you can, walk when you can’t. Just keep moving forward. It’s when you sit down, and your mind then says, ‘Okay, we don’t need to do this’, that it’s very hard to get up again. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. DAVID: In terms of suffering, you can never replicate what it means not to get an education or what it means to live with a rare disease. But that knowledge pushes you to be able to do more, so you go, ‘Well, I’m really hurting now, or I’ve got a massive blister on my foot, but that’s nothing compared to those I’m supporting’.” Jason and David are founders of vandbathletic.com.au To find out more on the Bali Hope Ultra go to: bali-hope.com

Run, Forrest, Run In 2016, Englishman Rob Pope set out to emulate the feat of his hero Forrest Gump and run across America five times. As he discovered, determination, goodwill and causes you believe in can take you into a realm where limits no longer apply

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Rob Pope

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RUN: Over 25,000k m inspired by Forrest Gu mp’s fa mous route

“I’D WANTED TO run across America for a long time, which progressed from a thought to an ambition after reading a book about a crossing by a chap called Nick Baldock. The Forrest link came when I looked for an inspirational and unique aspect for my run. Around 300 people have run across America, which is a far smaller club than those who have climbed Everest, but no-one had ever successfully completed the run that Forrest did, which is almost five times across America and 25,000km, give or take. I also identify strongly with the fact that Forrest was an incredible individual. He treated everyone alike, with respect and an open mind and went about his business with the minimum of fuss, getting the job done. Be more Forrest. I had made a promise to my mum, who’s not around anymore. She said to me: ‘Do one thing in your life that makes a difference’. And after a lot of not very focused attention on the issue, I realised that this run could do something great for my two chosen charities, Peace Direct and the World Wildlife Fund. The two charities between them touch on the five

FITNESS

“Fewer people have run across America than have climbed Everest”

bases Forrest was asked if he was running for in the movie – world peace, the homeless, women’s rights, the environment and animals. Clever, huh? To be honest, I’d have given up after my first crossing if I wasn’t running for the charities. My athletic ambition was satisfied with one crossing and apart from a few ultra-running aficionados, no-one would separate my run from other smaller runs. I knew that even four crossings wouldn’t be enough. To do the ‘Gump’ I had to finish where Forrest did having covered the same or more distance. I knew this was at great physical, mental and financial risk to myself, but I figured that the issues weren’t going to quit, so neither should I. I believe the phrase is, ‘Have a teaspoon of cement and harden the **** up!’ I averaged around 60km a day. No rest days. It was incredibly difficult. I’ve had a few major injuries, the first being anterior tibial tendinitis only 700km in, where I thought it was game over. I had a breakdown in a gas station in front of the poor attendant as I’d put

so much into this for it to be on the brink of failure so early on. I also had issues with achilles tendinitis, a quadriceps tear, piriformis syndrome and hip flexor tendinitis. Mentally it was tough. The first time I turned around at an ocean knowing I had 22,000km at least to go after the first 3,500km had been so tough was really trying. The enormity and also the repetitive nature: everyday, get up, eat, run, eat, run, sleep. It’s also been lonely at times and I often missed home and a normal life. The financial stress was massive, with me doing this from my own savings and help from friends with no major sponsors. But it was still worth it, especially if I reach my charitable goals. I’ve currently raised about $100k and I’d like to raise a $1 million, but I acknowledge that this may be hard as my charities aren’t necessarily the ‘heartstring breakers’ that raise the big bucks. I had a rule that if I had seven bad days in a row then I would quit as no-one wants to read about that ongoing drudgery and I hoped that they also wouldn’t want me to be hating the run. That would defeat the original

purpose. I can see why Forrest decided to call it quits at the point he did, though. We obviously have similar-length fuses. People love the Forrest outfit and when I ran the famous curve at Grandfather Mountain, I could have stayed all day for people to take photos. I get enough shouts of ‘Run, Forrest, run!’ even when in just normal running gear to last me a lifetime. It never gets old, though, and it still makes me smile.” Pope is considering another US crossing this year to mark the 25th anniversary of Forrest Gump. Go to: goingthedistancerun.com

May 2019

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WITH VEGAN ATHLETES LEADING THE CHARGE, A SURPRISING NUMBER OF MEN ARE SWERVING FLESH IN FAVOUR OF FALAFEL. FIND OUT WHY PLANT-BASED EATING COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE BY JACK PHILLIPS

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS EDSER

May 2019

“Don’t do it. Your farts will smell so rancid you’ll have the bats fallin’ from the trees.” That’s the typical advice I’m offered when I tell friends that I’m toying with the idea of ditching meat Monday through Friday for a month. For a group of ‘lads’ whose love of sport is matched only by our love of Saturday night pints and Sunday afternoon steaks, the notion that I’m about to swerve a cutlet for a chick pea is, well, hilarious. But, according to Google trends, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and our friends over at Nielsen, I’m not alone in questioning the role meat plays in our diets. According to Roy Morgan Research, between 2012 and 2016, the number of Australian vegetarians rose from 1.7 million to almost 2.1 million. That’s an increase from 9.7 per cent of the population to just over 11.2 per cent. You’d be forgiven for assuming the trend is location specific. But it’s not just hipster bubbles like Bondi Beach and Byron Bay, or hippie communes in rural Victoria, that are sold on plant power. No, according to figures released by Euromonitor International, Australia has the third fastest growing vegan population on the planet. As I tie my laces and run out onto a soccer pitch for five-a-side footy with a bunch of meat-mad 30-year-olds that first week, I feel slightly alienated from my fellow players. But the truth is, by choosing not to eat our fourlegged friends, I’m not exactly an instigator of some alternative counter-cultural movement. Rather, I’m an adoptee of a new health shift in which men from all walks of life look to a plant-heavy diet to improve their health. I feel like I’m riding the tide of nutritional science. I only hope my stomach concurs.

PATH OF BEAST RESISTANCE: FOLLOW YOUR TASTEBUDS TO A BRIGHTER, PLANTBASED FUTURE.

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RUB OF THE GREEN “When I became a dietitian, it was mostly female millennials that were really getting into it,” says dietitian Nicole Dynan, who has spent the best part of a decade helping people understand the implications of what they put into their bodies. “I have 70-year-olds asking how they should incorporate more plants into their diet, but I’ve also noticed more and more men coming in for advice, too.” Dynan says the reasons are myriad but key factors are health and longevity. People simply want to live better, for longer. “It’s an unfortunate fact that heart disease is the biggest killer in Australia,” she says. Although not alone, red meat is considered a major dietary risk factor for cardio-metabolic diseases, including coronary heart disease, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Dynan says many of her clients are looking to plant-based diets to lower their risk of trouble.

It’s a trend that’s showing up at the cash register, too. Euromonitor International predicts that by 2020, Australia’s packaged vegan food market will be worth $215 million. Another change that’s occurring is the labelling. Plant-based is vegan, right? Well, yes and no. Unlike veganism, which is an ethic, a statement that says, ‘I will not consume meat products of any form in any aspect of my life’, ‘plant-based’ denotes a health choice and doesn’t extend to shunning leather goods. It is for this reason far more approachable as a diet and as a lifestyle choice. “There is a shift happening,” says sports physio Simon Hill one morning, between mouthfuls of banana and acai. Having just finished a gym session, his sizable biceps and boulder-like shoulders are puffed up like party balloons. As a nutritionist and founder of Plant Proof – a resource for those interested in plant-based diets – aesthetically he

“UNLIKE VEGANISM . . . ‘PLANT-BASED’ DENOTES A HEALTH CHOICE AND DOESN’T EXTEND TO SHUNNING LEATHER GOODS” contradicts most of the naysayers who believe non-meat eaters are incapable of achieving bodybuilder levels of swoll-ness. Having spent some time working in private health clinics in Melbourne helping athletes turbocharge their onfield performance, Hill’s foray into plant-based diets led to him ditching meat altogether in 2015. “I worked in rehabilitation at clubs and with various AFL players. I realised my ability to help them was limited by the fact that my university course, like a lot of medicalbased courses, covers no nutrition. I had a bro-science mentality, you know? Just what I

PLA

picked up at the gym or the football club. ‘Let’s go smash protein; dairy after training; whey protein shakes; keep it lean, low carb’.” Hill admits that he had spent years believing meat was the only way to get an adequate amount of protein into his body, enough to stack on lean muscle and impress on a Friday night at the bar. But with increased awareness being driven largely by a band of vocal elite athletes across social media, more Aussie men than ever are questioning the meat mentality and seeking out alternatives in a bid to feel healthier, perform better and live longer.

POWER PLANTS If I’m honest, my interest and subsequent experimentation with plant-based diets came from these athletic advocates. The sporting world is now brimming with big-name pros singing the virtues of an all-plant diet. Ultramarathon runner and entrepreneur Rich Roll, five-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady and tennis great Venus Williams are three of the most famous when it comes to attributing success or career longevity to their diets. Closer to home, AFL star Chris Mayne and NRL trainer Kelly Benson are both touting little green trees on their Instagram accounts – a modern marker of plant-based diet advocacy. With so many athletes posting bowls of colourful veg on Instagram, I have no shortage of inspiration for my own deep-dive into plant-based eating. Even so, staring into the fridge the first week is odd. Instead of the usual chicken breasts and beef strips, there’s vegan Quorn mince, which I proceed to pan-fry while swapping a plate for a bowl. Emboldened, I begin to pack flavour punches into my meals, pickling radishes and blitzing chick peas to make falafel balls. Thanks to the plethora of advice and ‘beginner’s guides’ online, my cooking repertoire explodes as I experiment with weird and wonderful vegetable combinations like jabuticaba and Kiwano melon. It takes a while for my gut to adjust to the increased fibre I’m taking in. I work out I’ve jumped from consuming an average 15g of fibre a day to 30-odd grams – a considerable increase – and so my colon has taken to protesting at random points during the day. But after 20 days of little or no meat, it begins to settle down. That’s when the upsides really begin to kick in for me. I experience more balanced energy levels throughout the day and notice a markedly faster recovery time after time-trial bike sessions. Matt Frazier, vegan ultramarathon runner and author of No Meat Athlete and The No Meat Athlete Cookbook, says that as plantbased athletes like UFC fighters Mac Danzig and Nate Diaz came to the fore, so did interest around their diets. “Once mainstream athletes started having success with plantbased diets in sports that are more about strength and quickness – MMA being such May 2019

a good example – I think a plant-based diet gradually started to seem a more attractive choice for men,” he tells me. Aussie rugby league player Brenden Santi, formally of the Wests Tigers and now at Toulouse Olympique, converted after getting injured. “Doctors said I would have to take six months off,” he explains. “And for the first few weeks I ate whatever I wanted. But I started putting on weight and feeling down. I knew the only thing I could control was my diet.” He noticed his energy levels immediately improved. But more than that he found they remained far more stable than when he’d been on a meat-based diet. Sure, like me, he was probably farting constantly and shitting somewhere between three to four times a day, but overall, he crashed less and felt just as strong as he did before. “I didn’t feel as heavy,”

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he says. “Emotionally, I felt more positive. I had fewer breakouts on my skin. Mentally, I was in a much better place.” The health and environmental cases for going green are rock-solid. Researchers at Oxford University found global adoption of a vegan diet would avoid 8.1 million deaths per year and reduce mortality by 10 per cent from all causes by 2050. In addition, vegan diets were projected to reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions by 70 per cent of those currently predicted for 2050 and save US$1067 billion per year in health-related costs and US$570 billion in costs arising from environmental damage. A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, meanwhile, found vegetarian diets could significantly improve a person’s cholesterol profile compared to a control diet . But while the evidence is compelling

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and increasingly difficult to ignore, it’s not always that easy to make a lifestyle change and then stick to it, as any number of wasted gym memberships or discarded subscriptions to online training programs attest. Frazier says it took years for him to go fully plantbased and advises you to go slow. “Treat each new phase as an experiment, without the discomfort that comes from thinking, ‘I’ll never be able to eat a cheeseburger again’,” he says. “Don’t beat yourself up. A lot of people feel that if they mess up one time and give into a craving for meat or cheese, then they’ve failed, and then they give up. But this doesn’t have to be the case. I think the more of your kilojoules that come from plants, the better, but if you just can’t imagine being 100 per cent plant-based, then don’t worry about that yet. Do what you can, and know that it’s better than before.”

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GREEN LIGHT As my own vegie vigil continues, one of the most striking things I find is that veganism is no longer viewed as a marker for longhaired hippie culture. Docos like Cowspiracy are raising awareness of the practices of the meat-production industry, making more people uneasy about consuming animal protein. Many people I talk to express interest in going meat-free, even if they’re yet to act on that impulse. In sport, there’s still a debate unfolding. And while rugby players like Brenden Santi, fighters like Nate Diaz and endurance athletes like Frazier and Rich Roll have found support among their peers, Hill says he still sees a level of secrecy among some players he connects with on social. “I am in contact with a few top-level athletes who are covertly switching or have switched to plant-based diets, but they haven’t told their clubs because they’re unsure of the reaction,” he confides. In my somewhat smaller and less glamorous circle, there’s been little in the way of widespread adoption. In fact, my dabbling in plant-based eating has become little more than another opening for my mates to throw a playful jibe my way on a Friday evening. But what it’s also done is prompt questions from certain individuals. A text here, a photo of a vegan bowl there. Questions in the vein of, ‘Can you overdose on smoked tofu?’ have become commonplace. I know my final vegan meal on day 31 of my experiment won’t be my last. I’ve become fond of the hodgepodge vegan bowls I construct and have found ways to make them interesting by adding strong flavours via dried fruit or garlic ’shrooms. And never eating kale. I goddamn hate kale. I work out that during my meat-shy month I’ve eaten perhaps five meals with animal protein out of a possible 93 – and two of those were pies at the footy. To be honest, I’ve found (almost) ditching meat pretty easy. Getting rid of eggs and cheese has been harder. Regardless, my body seems to respond positively to less meat. Sure, you need to plan your meals further in advance and go through the whole ‘I’m vegan (or trying)’ song and dance whenever you’re eating out. And tofu – no matter how you cook it – still tastes as bland as sawdust. But overall, I’ve found plant-based eating to be worth the hassle. If only you could make those farts smell like roses.

“ONCE ATHLETES STARTED HAVING SUCCESS WITH A PLANT-BASED DIET, IT STARTED TO SEEM ATTRACTIVE TO MEN” 6 Ways to Go Green NUTRITIONIST NICOLE DYNAN’S TIPS TO GIVE FLESH THE FLICK

Include at least three serves of legumes each day: scrambled tofu, bean burrito bowls, hummus dips, vegetarian burgers, soy milk.

Eat good sources of Vitamin C to boost iron absorption: citrus fruit, tomatoes, capsicum, strawberries and green-leafy vegetables.

Include sources of calcium in meals: fortified rice, almond or soy milks; tofu and tempeh; green-leafy veg, Lebanese cucumbers, broccoli, oranges, dried figs.

Include a daily serve of healthy fats: 1 teaspoon of flaxseed oil or olive oil, 30g or ¼ cup of nuts and/or seeds or ¼ avocado.

Choose foods that enhance iron and zinc absorption: wholegrain breads made with yeast or sourdough, toasted nuts and seeds and sprouted grains and legumes.

Take supplements where needed: vitamin B12, iodine, vitamin D, Omega-3, iron and zinc.

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PLEASURES of the

FLESH The 100 per cent carnivorous, veg-be-damned diet is the apex of new extreme-eating trends. Its followers claim that weeding out plant foods can rebalance our appetites, restore vitality and even reverse chronic illnesses – while its detractors say it’s deleterious. But could it work for you? BY RICHARD GODWIN

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JASMIN SCHULLER

COULD MEAT REPLACE ALL OF YOUR DAILY STAPLES? WE GIVE THE FACTS A LICKING.

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his is a story about human carnivores – people who believe that the best diet is one comprised only of meat. No bread, no roast potatoes. No Caprese salads, no kale. Not even cheeseburgers. Just animal flesh. Or, in the case of Canadian psychologist Jordan B Peterson, 56, and his daughter Mikhaila, 26, just beef, salt, water – and the occasional glass of bourbon. “I know how ridiculous it sounds,” Mikhaila conceded, when challenged about her eating habits by a reporter last summer. But she credits her diet with easing the debilitating autoimmune conditions, depression and fatigue that had made her life a misery since she was a teenager. Her father, too, claims he has lost more than 20kg since following his daughter’s lead and says he now feels magnificent, even if it’s as “dull as hell”. This is also a story about science and ideology, carbs and fat, and the line between healthy scepticism and conspiracy theory. But it begins with a few people slowly coming to the conclusion that the standard nutritional advice – that you need fibre, your five a day, your daily bread – isn’t working for them. “Those who were going carnivore 10 years ago did so because they’d been chronically sick,” says 51-year-old Shawn Baker. A former orthopaedic surgeon based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Baker now sells books and diet plans to would-be carnivores. He has recently noticed a surge of interest among men who aspire to his apex-predator physique – he’s built like a cartoon henchman – but he tells 86

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me that carnivory initially developed as a niche diet for people who found eating “normally” made them feel awful. “They’d usually tried everything. They had been vegetarian and vegan. They had been on all kinds of medication. This was the only thing that worked for them.” One thing the internet has done is allow people with niche interests to find one another. The carnivore “community” mostly came together on the Reddit forums r/zerocarb and r/carnivore. A computer scientist named Amber O’Hearn has blogged extensively about the subject at empiri.ca for the best part of a decade. Her strapline is: “Eat meat. Not too little. Mostly fat.” (A nice spin on Michael Pollan’s advice: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”) That Baker was struck off the medical register in 2017 likely doesn’t help his cause. Nevertheless, he is careful to stress that the diet is not for everyone, and he encourages anyone interested in trialling it to do their own research. “It challenges what we’ve been taught about nutrition over the past half-century or so,” he says. When you mention the carnivore diet to an omnivore or herbivore, their reactions tend to fall somewhere between scepticism and anger. And understandably so: our hogwash-ometers are on high alert when it comes to celebrity-endorsed miracle cures, and “Jordan Peterson’s Cow Plan” sounds like the bullshit bullseye. That Peterson, a controversycourting author and public speaker, is often portrayed as some sort of alt-right troll (not entirely fairly, but it’s not ungrounded, either) makes the diet sound as if it has ideological roots, too. After all, if veganism is associated in the popular imagination with environmentalism, progressive causes, the left, femininity and compassion, carnivory must surely stand for the opposite, right? It sounds like a parody diet for climate-changedenying, coal-rolling, gun-toting, toxically masculine gammons. Such is the age we live in: nothing can just stand for itself. Certainly, we all know people who

700g THE WEEKLY LIMIT OF RED MEAT ADVISED BY THE CANCER COUNCIL. CARNIVORES EAT CLOSER TO 800G A DAY.

“The diet challenges everything we’ve been taught over the past half-century” think it’s hilarious to taunt vegans as left-leaning loonies. But Baker seems confused by all of this. “In a number of interviews I’ve done, it’s been painted as some kind of political movement, like it’s an alt-right thing,” he says. “But that’s not what I’m seeing at all.” Most of the carnivores I speak to are shy about discussing their diets. Their friends think they’re mad. Many of them have scientific backgrounds. Intriguingly, many used to be vegans, having tried various food-elimination regimens to address illness or weight gain. Colin, 38, is a single father of two who manages property. He describes

CONSULT THE EXPERTS BEFORE YOU GRAB A SLICE OF THE CARNIVORE ACTION.

FLESHING OUT THE FACTS The Diet

Omnivore

Ketogenic

Carnivore

Your Macro Targets

30% protein, 20% fat, 50% carbs

20% protein, 75% fat, 5% carbs

40% protein, 60% fat, 0% carbs

Example Meal

Grilled chicken breast, sweet potato and baked vine tomatoes 1800kJ, 40g protein, 8g fat, 50g carbs, 7g fibre

Almond-crusted salmon with sautéed kale and mozzarella 2385kJ, 45g protein, 38g fat, 12g carbs, 4g fibre

Rib-eye steak and chicken livers, seasoned with salt and pepper 2259kJ, 55gprotein, 35g fat, 0g carbs, 0g fibre

Supposed Benefits

Easy to follow and uncontroversial; also, the established thinking is that carbs are delicious

Basing your meals around fats trains your body to burn its own fat for fuel; cheese is included

More muscle-building protein than keto; anecdotally said to stabilise energy and cure chronic illness

himself as politically on the left. “You can find plenty of right-wing vegans,” he says. “It’s more about health than politics.” He was motivated to try the diet as a way to cure his irritable bowel syndrome. In a typical day, he eats a dozen eggs, a packet of bacon, three packets of beef mince, plus some liver or kidney. “I like a bit of pork shoulder and lamb shoulder, too. I have chicken occasionally,

but it makes me lethargic.” He gets most of his meat from local smallholdings, where he knows the farmers personally. “I really care about animal welfare,” he stresses. And he isn’t out to convert anyone. “Vegans become incredibly angry at carnivores, but many carnivores have tried vegan diets,” he says. “I did for a while, and it made me feel much worse. I don’t have normal, healthy digestion,

so I can’t say it’s bad for everyone, but I’m sceptical of the idea that it’s right for everyone, too.” He seems as surprised as anyone that carnivory is working. “I tried lots of different diets and I realised that when I ate fewer vegetables, I felt better,” he says. “One day, I was on Reddit and I came across the r/zerocarbs group. I thought I’d try it. Within a couple of days, my IBS went away.” He experienced a little discomfort transitioning – “really loose stools” – but nothing worse than what he was already experiencing. “I’m way more active than I used to be. I have more mental energy. I don’t understand why . . . ” Ryan, 29 (who asked that we change his name), a researcher at Liverpool University, had a similar experience. “Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money, so we’d mostly eat plain pasta or tinned food,” he says. Many of his family are obese. He had been plagued by poor digestion and weight issues throughout his life but, after turning carnivore in July, he finally has a functional relationship with food. Like many carnivores, he made the transition in stages, gradually dropping his carbohydrate intake and then trying the ketogenic diet. “Keto” is a very lowcarb, high-fat diet that was originally designed to help prevent fits in children with epilepsy. More recently, it has gained a cult following among factions of the fitness community. When deprived of carbohydrates, your body switches its energy supply from glucose to ketones, which are derived from your fat reserves. Many people lose weight on the keto diet and its advocates claim that it eases the symptoms of a suite of conditions including Alzheimer’s and type 2 diabetes. But it also comes with significant risks, particularly to kidney and liver function, and is notoriously hard to maintain. At first, Ryan says, the idea of eating all of that butter, cream and meat made him feel ill. However, he found his tastes changed over time. “Not everyone benefits to the same degree, but I experienced pretty much everything you could ask for: improved skin, energy, mood – to the point of feeling euphoric sometimes,” he tells me. It wasn’t much of a leap to drop the leafy greens. “I did a bit more research and came to the conclusion that it wasn’t May 2019

something I needed.” He says he eats only when he’s hungry and often ends up “unintentionally” fasting for hours. “The body knows how to regulate itself,” he says. “We’re just sending it confusing signals by upping our blood sugar a few times a day.” Objections to carnivory generally fall into the broad categories of nutrition, ethics and lifestyle. Carnivores claim they don’t really miss the pleasures of baking or snacking or even applying a little Béarnaise to their steaks. “The less I had, the less I wanted,” says Ryan. “Now, if I’m preparing dinner just for myself, I’ll start eating some of the steaks while I’m cooking the rest and start cleaning up in between.” As for the nutritional concerns, well, it seems fairly clear from my conversation with Ryan that he is alive, so it’s possible to survive on just meat. He also claims to feel great. “Even if it were conclusively proven that this diet would shorten my life by 10 years, I would take it, as the quality of my life is that much better,” he says. But people who like to lunch at McDonald’s and smoke 40 a day often claim to feel great, too. There are placebo effects and confirmation biases. Anecdote is not data. And it may take years for, say, colon cancer, to make itself apparent. Nevertheless, dietary science is notoriously complex and poorly understood. That there are 1.7 million people with diabetes in Australia is not a ringing endorsement of the way we currently do things. And there’s a growing body of evidence that the standard advice regarding fats (which we’re told to limit) and carbs (which are seen as necessary) is back to front. Still, there’s a chasm between lowcarb and nothing but meat. I consult Timothy Spector, genetic epidemiologist at King’s College London, and author of The Diet Myth. “Humans can exist on a wide variety of diets,” he says. “Some have adapted to eat high-meat diets, such as the Inuit, Masai or Mongolian people, but most don’t tolerate it. There may be rare people in the West who can, but it’s dangerous to recommend it as a long-term solution.” Spector cautions that the excess protein is likely to lead to problems such as gout and heart disease. “Most people will be constipated.” An obvious objection concerns vitamin C. The carnivores argue there’s 88

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HUNTING OR GATHERING? Plants offer more vitamins per kJ in terms of RDI but that doesn’t mean meat is devoid of goodness VITAMIN C.

30% 110%

in 100g of lamb pancreas

in one kiwi fruit

MAGNESIUM.

15% 20%

in one wild salmon fillet

in 100g of spinach (a small bag)

VITAMIN A.

290% 205% in 100g of chicken liver

in a mediumsized carrot

FOLATE.

25% 25%

in 100g of beef kidney

per mediumsized beetroot

CALCIUM.

40% 35%

in 100g of tinned sardines

in 100g of tofu

enough of it in fresh meat – particularly raw or offal meats – and that, anyway, the body adapts to reduce its base needs. Another is the lack of fibre. “There’s no absolute physiological requirement for fibre,” Baker argues. “Why do we think it’s necessary? The traditional argument is that it lowers cholesterol, which is true, but you don’t need low cholesterol to survive. People also say it mitigates blood-glucose spikes. If you drink a glass of apple juice, you’ll experience a much larger spike in blood sugar than if you ate an apple. But if you’re not taking in any glucose, that’s a moot point.” So, he reasons, fibre is necessary if you’re eating plenty of toast and biscuits, but not if you’re eating lots of steak. His stool, he is proud to report, is excellent. “The vast majority of people on the

carnivore diet will tell you that, after a transition period – maybe a couple of weeks – bowel habits become normal.” Spector remains deeply sceptical. “To support a healthy gut microbiome, you need to eat fibre,” he says. He concedes that some gut complaints (such as types of IBS) can be exacerbated by certain plants in the short term. But when it comes to the general population? “Doubling our fibre intakes would help the vast majority of people,” he says. The distilled advice of Spector’s book is that you should eat as wide a spectrum of foods as possible, because that’s what keeps your gut bacteria happy. He argues that our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate an enormous variety of foods: about 600 types, far more than are found in our modern diets. Baker argues, however,

“Anecdote isn’t data – and many medical conditions can take years to emerge”

that given the choice between killing a nutrient- and kilojoule-rich mammoth that would feed a family for weeks and scrabbling around for nuts and berries that might easily have proved poisonous, an Ice Age hunter-gatherer would invariably have chosen the mammoth. That may be, but not all hunter-gatherers had access to meat, let alone mammoths, and mammoths are extinct because early humans killed them all (which should be a lesson in itself). And the best evidence we have is that early humans thrived by adapting to different food sources. Around two billion people eat no meat today. So, how Baker’s principle applies in the 21st century is debatable.

2-5

THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF DAYS IT TAKES FOR YOUR BODY TO ENTER A STATE OF KETOSIS (BURNING FAT FOR FUEL) AFTER CUTTING OUT CARBS.

STEAKHOLDERS DISMISS THE NEED FOR A VARIED DIET – DESPITE THE SCIENCE.

Then there’s the environment. If cattlerearing is destroying the planet, a lack of vitamin C may well prove to be the least of our concerns. A much-cited report published in the journal Nature claims that we greedy Westerners must cut our beef consumption by 90 per cent in order to reverse dangerous climate change. But again, the carnivores contest this. Robert (not his real name) is an academic in his forties who has been on a meatonly diet for the past four years. “For me, as a biologist, this [environmental argument] is the craziest part,” he says. “Is there anything more natural than a herd of ruminants grazing on marginal farmland? Should we turn this land over to intensive agriculture – pesticides, fertilisers and machines? “I’m not out to change the world,” continues Robert. “My wife is a vegetarian, as are our daughters. My fervent wish, however, is for state nutritional policy to be scrutinised more deeply.” That doesn’t seem so extreme, even if the message that many seem to have taken from the profusion of contradictory advice is: if you can’t trust any of it, you may as well just pick out the parts that suit you and ignore the rest.

But perhaps the most fundamental objection to carnivory is the evolutionary one. It challenges the whole idea of what it is to be human. It suggests that, perhaps, our species took a wrong turn with the development of agriculture. If you’ve been listening to your Jordan Peterson podcasts, you might hear an echo of this in the “Fall of Man” story in Genesis. When God casts Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, he condemns Adam to a miserable life of toiling in the field. “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread . . .” At a time of great ecological and political uncertainty, the idea that we should have stuck to a huntergatherer existence – or, as the carnivores would have it, just the hunting – has a certain appeal. Ever since Peterson came out as a carnivore, many complain that a certain “madness” has descended on what was once a quirky, little community. Many of the more bizarre posts link to a YouTuber named Sv3rige, who makes videos about his experiments with feasting on raw meat and drinking pig’s blood. Sv3rige’s channel also abounds in flat-earth conspiracies. Some of the carnivores I speak to even suspect that the movement has been infiltrated by Russian disinformation bots to undermine faith in experts and to foster division. One recent Reddit discussion centred on these doubts. Even if, anecdotally, many carnivores feel better, shouldn’t the reality that their diet contradicts all of the established advice not give you pause? “I think doubts are a sign of healthy scepticism,” came one reply. “This goes entirely against what is currently considered healthy by the vast majority . . . That said, my doubts are small. When I was eating what my doctor told me to, I felt terrible: gut pain, bloating, heartburn and high blood pressure. Now I’m eating the opposite, and I feel incredible . . .” In times of uncertainty, it seems that people are ever more willing to trust their gut. May 2019 89

What Makes a Food Super? Ask Moringa.

The idea of exotic food as silver bullet existed long before raspberry ketones, goji berries or maca root. Yet consumers still fall for these supposedly magical products. Dr Alan Levinovitz investigates how one such superfood came to be ILLUSTRATIONS BY DELCAN & CO.

“MORINGA OLEIFERA. Have you ever heard of that?” Dr Mehmet Oz asked his TV audience in 2012. “Moringa oleifera comes from the Himalayas! And there’s a tree in the northwest part of India, where this grows, that has been used for many, many centuries there, for the very reason that you feel you’re being sapped, which is that you don’t have enough energy.” Oz and a guest stand behind a table covered in jars and featuring a sign: reenergise your life. He presents her with a cup of moringa tea. It shimmers yellowish green in the glass cup. She sips and grimaces. She doesn’t look reenergised.

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Seven years after that episode, healthconscious consumers can find moringa in health food stores and online in teas, powders, and capsules. There are moringa snack bars, moringa energy shots and even moringa snack puffs (gluten-free!). Its purported benefits include lowering blood pressure and blood sugar, fighting cancer, and even protecting against arsenic toxicity. Moringa products come emblazoned with all the standard buzzwords – “organic”, “pure”, “raw”, “vegan”, “non-GMO” – and often advertise that they’re better for you than kale. The taste? Well, a smoothie does a good job of masking what would otherwise

be tough to swallow, a bit like grass clippings and wet earth. Still, the global market value of moringa supplement products will grow by nearly 10 per cent by 2022, according to research from Technavio. The global supplement market hit $132.8 billion in 2016, and though moringa is a small portion of that, its growth is indicative of what it takes to stand out in a crowded field. To understand the rise of moringa, you have to look beyond flavour at how, like so many acais and chia seeds and so-called superfoods before it, it has moved from obscure food to billion-dollar business. That means going way back to when the marketing of moringa all started.

May 2019

STEP 1:

Seed the Exotic Origin Story In 2010, a Peace Corps volunteer named Lisa Curtis was living in Niger and subsisting on a diet of rice and millet. After a few months, she began to feel weak. That’s when some villagers told her about a local plant that natives of the Sudan in Africa had called shagarat al rauwãq: “the clarifier tree”. Every part of the plant is edible, and it is drought resistant, making it a reliable source of kilojoules. Its leaves are high in protein, vitamins and minerals, adequate amounts of which are vital in areas with limited food. That plant, moringa, could create miracles. Within days of adding moringa to her diet, Curtis says, she felt her lethargy lift, and she grew fascinated by the plant’s potential to help people. Curtis returned to the US in 2011, and with three business partners launched an Indiegogo campaign to crowdfund a company called Kuli Kuli. With three moringa snack-bar products, she and her cofounders touted its possible uses with lists like “10 Reasons to Eat Moringa Every Day”, which included preventing and managing diabetes, supporting cardiovascular health and treating asthma symptoms. (To their credit, they also offered the standard superfood equivocations: has the “potential” to

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treat, “has been recognised as a powerful tool”, etc, etc.) Curtis had the good luck to launch Kuli Kuli at a time of explosive growth in the superfood and supplement business. Over the past five years, the number of vitamin and supplement businesses has increased by 3.4 per cent – not a small figure considering that the 2018 U S market brought in $31 billion, according to a report by market-research firm IBIS World. An aging baby-boomer generation, determined to preserve good health, may explain why. Even the word superfood has become more widespread. In 2015 alone, the number of new food and drink products labeled as superfoods, superfruits or supergrains increased 36 per cent globally, according to Mintel, and in true American style, the US led “super” product launches. The provenance and promises of moringa have put it on many of the same shelves as acai berries from Central and South America, goji berries from China and maca from Peru. “Superfood implies something exotic,” says Paul Zullo, the managing director at Silver Creative, a branding company that works frequently with food, beverage and nutrition products. “It’s probably something from Egypt or South America, grown somewhere unusual. You don’t get superfoods from Kansas.” They all make use of the same formula: an ingredient from a foreign land that helps natives achieve miraculous health, and that may in fact do the same for you.

STEP 2:

Sprinkle the Magic Pixie Dust It’s easy to see the marketing appeal of a purifying tree. But no one shopping for moringa powder is likely to ever use the plant in the way that led to its nickname. That’s because the people who coined the whole miracle-tree thing weren’t powdering leaves and sprinkling them into smoothies. They had a more urgent concern: drinking water. Powdered moringa seeds, not leaves, are good for purifying H20 but not much else, though many manufacturers push moringa supplements as a way to help you “detox”. If human beings didn’t have their own miracle organ capable of handling toxins, then moringa would surely be a miracle cure. But you do have such an organ – your liver. Ask Curtis about the powers of moringa and she’ll direct you to research on the company’s website. “There are three main reasons that people become excited about moringa: nutrient density, plant protein and anti-inflammatory benefits.” Dr Kevin Klatt, a nutritional biochemist at Cornell University, has conducted nutrient analysis on moringa to assess its potential as a supplement to help malnourished people. Klatt reviewed the Kuli Kuli website and its “10 Reasons to Eat Moringa Every Day”. He concluded that most of those reasons were highly speculative and often based on small studies in journals of dubious quality. One of the larger studies, published in The Bioscan, showed that Moringa oleifera could treat hypoglycemia. However, the journalistic integrity of The Bioscan was questioned in a 2014 report by Serbian researchers. What’s more, many of moringa’s supposed benefits might also be attributable to less exotic, less expensive plants. Klatt observed that moringa’s fans point to a specific kind of disease-fighting antioxidant (called isothiocyanates) as a reason to love the plant – but isothiocyanates are common compounds found in more mundane cruciferous veggies such as cauliflower and mustard greens. So how did Moringa oleifera infiltrate the global health food market? Through high-profile advocates such as Oz, yes, but also through more subtle marketing tactics. Take, for instance, a 2018 Washington Post article titled “Moringa, the Next Superfood?” It seems legit: written by a University of California, Davis science writer, the story

quotes researchers from her university who gush about how the plant can delay diabetes and “feed the world”. As science watchdog HealthNewsReviews.org pointed out, though, the piece is actually a paid advertorial, designed to look similar to a Washington Post news article. Not only that, it failed to disclose at the time that one of the scientists cited was a paid consultant for Kuli Kuli. Nutrition experts like Klatt have pushed back on the rhetoric of superfoods. “I am not a fan of the word superfood,” Klatt says.“It leads to people buying perceived ‘exotic’ foods and supplements even though consuming a nutritionally adequate diet is possible by buying foods at the supermarket.” Dietitians stress that overall dietary patterns are the key to good health, and that superfoods provide few, if any, added benefits to an already healthy diet. Facing this consensus on healthy eating that emphasises whole foods, superfood supplements are now appealing to consumers with a higher cause.

STEP 3:

Grow the Halo Effect It’s not enough for some superfood companies to want to change your health. They want to change the planet, too. Kuli Kuli advertises: “Nourishing You, Nourishing the World”. Natierra-brand goji berries (motto: “Superfoods with Soul”) advertise “Buy One Bag, Feed One Child”. Dr Alexander Chernev, a professor of marketing at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, explains that you’re likely to see a purchase as valuable in two different ways. “For example, say that I buy a bottle of Ethos water,” he says, referring to the Starbucks subsidiary that contributes 5 cents of every purchase to its Ethos Clean Water Fund. “One reason is that I want to reward the company for its good behaviour. The other reason is not to reward

SUPERFOODS THAT DON’T NEED A MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Here’s what’s really worth your money and refrigerator space

“FACING THIS CONSENSUS ON HEALTHY EATING THAT EMPHASISES WHOLE FOODS, SUPERFOOD SUPPLEMENTS ARE NOW APPEALING TO CONSUMERS WITH A HIGHER CAUSE” the company but because I feel some sort of moral satisfaction and self-affirmation. I believe I am a socially responsible person.” In all of this, there’s a whiff of the ancient magic – consuming something with a good soul to fortify your own, like eating deer to become swifter. And with superfoods, the ritual of consumption happens twice: once when you buy the product and again when you eat it. “Food and medicine are particularly sensitive products because you ingest them,” says Dr T. Bettina Cornwell, head of the University of Oregon’s marketing department. There also may be a feedback effect between doing good and feeling good, thanks to a well-established psychological phenomenon called the halo effect. In various contexts, researchers have shown that a person’s overall impression of a product influences the perception of specific, unrelated qualities. For example: high-priced wines taste better when the drinker is aware of the price. With coinvestigator Sean Blair, Chernev studied the effect of perceived corporate responsibility on product evaluations and found that altruism functions like high price. When consumers were told a company was engaged in charitable giving, their experience of the company’s product improved: wine tasted better, teeth looked whiter, hair looked thicker, a scanned image looked crisper. The problem, though, is that this new generation of superfoods, like the first, remains bound up with shaky scientific claims. Cornwell emphasised to me that consumers are self-

interested, which means they may pay a premium for a morally good product if they also believe it benefits them. In the case of moringa, the nutritive benefits are unequivocal, but only for people in areas that struggle with malnutrition. When it comes to your average guy shopping in the health food aisle at the local supermarket, the science doesn’t scream “miracle”. After interviewing Lisa Curtis, I became convinced that at Kuli Kuli, the mission is sincere. Yes, the products are overpriced based on their nutritional value for consumers, but there is no reason to doubt the company’s claim that it has generated $1.2 million in revenue for more than 1365 moringa farmers in Africa. These actions encourage consumers to think globally about sustainability. At the same time, you should acknowledge the appeal of superfoods for what it is, and always has been: the promise of an easy solution to deep anxieties. In truth there is no powder that can heal your woes, nutritionrelated or otherwise. You can’t buy your way to being a good person, no matter how sincere the mission of the companies you’re buying from. So applaud the new superfoods, insofar as they indicate a change in what we value – a focus on helping the world in addition to ourselves. But also remember that making good on those values, like leading a healthy life, will take much more than a little powder in your smoothies.

1 / Beets

2 / Asparagus

3 / Dandelion greens

4 / Dragon Fruit

That deep, rich red colour signals that they contain anthocyanins, diseasefighting antioxidants also found in purplish foods like blueberries and blackberries.

It’s fresh right now, and packed with fibre (4 grams in 12 spears) for little kilojoule cost (163 in 12 spears).

Many supermarkets now sell these bitter greens bundled. Dark leafy greens like these battle cancer and heart disease.

This rose-coloured, wild-looking fruit has a tender interior that tastes like a kiwi, but more sweet-tart. It’s high in antioxidants. May 2019 93

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HEALTH

Form in a Teacup Cold brews and colourful lattes may be trending right now, but a classic cup of tea has benefits that they can’t match. Tea is a rich source of prebiotics, which feed micro-organisms in your gut; meanwhile, black tea, in particular, increases your levels of fat-burning pseudobutyrivibrio bacteria. Seven minutes’ brewing time is optimal if you don’t want watered-down results.

Branch Out Far more than just a bar snack or a Martini garnish, olives offer major benefits to your metabolism, thanks to their high copper and CLA fat content. But you might be missing out on the best bit of the plant: researchers at King Saud University found that oil made from olive leaves increases the production of metabolism-boosting thyroid hormones; in lab rats, levels more than doubled. Add a drizzle to your bruschetta.

Your hour in the gym is merely a piece of the weight-loss puzzle. A crucial one, sure, but there are still another 23 hours in the day. That’s why we’ve compiled this guide to amplifying your fat burn from wake-up to wind-down, no extra effort expended. You’ll torch kilos in record time By

Louee Dessent-Jackson

1300

Divide and Conquer

HACK YOUR BIOLOGY TO CLOCK UP FAST, TANGIBLE RESULTS.

To earn extra burn from your workouts, don’t train more – train differently. Instead of grinding it out for an hour, split your exercise in two. One study* found you could burn almost double the kilojoules via a process called “excess post-exercise oxygen consumption”. Try half an hour of sprints in the park before work and a bodyweight circuit at lunch. You’ll be culling kilojoules for 48 hours.

May 2019 95

Top of the Pops

Breakfast Means Breakfast Forget fasted cardio. Your morning meal activates genes involved in fat metabolism, reports the Journal of Physiology. So, simply by eating it, you can encourage your body to burn more kilojoules throughout the day. A separate study in the International Journal of Obesity found that eating a high-fat meal upon waking primes your system to burn body fat instead of glucose. Upgrade your bowl of Weet-Bix to shred even more.

Learn to Cook in Bi Batches If your al desko lunch consists of a rush-job sandwich and you hungrily devour your main meal once the working day is done, you should consider reversing that trend. According to researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center, eating the bulk of your kilojoules earlier in the day keeps your circadian rhythm in sync, ensuring that your body burns off more of what you put in. You’re going to need bigger Tupperware.

Spin it to Win Stop what you’re curling. While heavy lifting can improve your metabolic rate, for the best results, superset it with a session on the bikes. A y University of Copenhagen study comparing spinners with lifters found that the former group had d higher levels of metabolism-boosting hormone FGF21 after training. This was attributed to either the high intensity or the increased lower-body muscle recruitment. Cap off your session with an AirBike finisher.

Burn More with atter A diet of steak and p protein bars may have benefits for your biceps, but it comes with a metabolic downside. In a University of Connecticut study, athletes on a high-protein diet showed signs of metabolism-stalling dehydration, even though they didn’t feel any thirstier than usual. Don’t wait to feel parched – just 500ml of water can elevate your metabolism by 30 per cent within the next hour, reports the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Just Think About It

TRAIN SMARTER TO INTERNALLY COMBUST.

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Boosting your metabolism may require little more than an attitude adjustment. According to one study†, subjects who were encouraged to interpret their daily activities as exercise burned more kilojoules and lost extra body fat without any change to their routines. It’s strenuous work updating those spreadsheets . . . right?

*BRITISH JOURNAL OF SPORTS MEDICINE MAGE MANIPULATION: COLIN BEAGLEY; DDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES, S DAN MATTHEWS, MICHAEL HEDGE, LOUISA PARRY, PHILIP HAYNES, STUDIO 33; **UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI;†PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE; ‡UNIVERSITY OF GRANADA

Dosing up on pre-workout supps before training may have you buzzing for the gym, but there are other ways to enjoy a similar boost without feeling like a kid on a sugar binge. A study in Scientific Reports found that rats that had been fed grape polyphenols before being let loose on treadmills displayed higher levels of AMPK, an enzyme linked to fat burning. Add a bunch to your stack.

HEALTH

BIGGER IS BEETTER: SERVE YYOURSELF TWO SUPERSSIZEDD MEALS.

Sweet Option Not all body fat is created equal. While “white” fat sto ores kilojoules, active “brown” fat helps you burn them off. Cold-weather exercise boosts your levels of the brow wn kind – but if pounding freezing pavements doesn’t appeal, research‡ shows that eating melatonin-rich foods has a similar effect. Grab a handful of goji berrries.

It’s Hip to Eat Squares S uares “Eat little and often” is a myth so ubiquitous that it’s rarely questioned. But a study in the journal Plos One noted a slight increase in kilojoule burn among men who ate larger meals less frequently, while research by the US National Institute on Aging showed that mice that consumed one supersized daily meal were healthier than constant grazers. It’ll also cut back on the washing up.

Salt S lt Your Y Wounds W Iodine is essential for helping your thyroid to produce the hormones that keep your metabolism in good working order. Sea vegetables such as wakame are excellent sources, best served in miso for easier nutrient absorption. But if you’re more of a seafood traditionalist, add iodised salt to your chips.

Sugary sports drinks might be indispensable mid-marathon, but during a swift 10K, avoid the extra carbs. Instead, add a few drops of peppermint oil to your water. According to the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, it improves oxygen use instantly, increasing the amount of fat your body can burn, while the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine found the scent alone can relieve fatigue.

We know that browsing emails after dark can disrupt your sleep – but it’s equally stressful for your metabolism. Research by Northwestern University linked exposure to screen light to insulin resistance, which harms your ability to process carbs. On those evenings when powering down isn’t an option, take a lutein supp to protect your eyes from blue light. It’s less daft than resorting to wearing amber-tinted glasses.

Mint Conditionin

Delaying your weights session until after work will reignite your metabolism just as it’s easing off (while also helping you to escape the allure of “a quick beer”). In a US study**, subjects who trained after 6pm torched more fat than those who worked out in the morning. The extended lie-ins won’t go amiss, either.

A stronger skeleton will do more than improve your odds of a more robust retirement – it’ll also prop up your fat-burning. A Canadian study found the “bone hormone” osteocalcin improves sugar and fat metabolism. Trade standing squats for plyometrics, such as jumping lunges and V-tucks.

Save It for Later

Top Up Your T Endless back squats aren’t the only way to elevate testosterone, a natural fat burner. A University of Bath study found performing 10 sprints of 30 seconds elevates your T levels for the following hour, while improving sugar metabolism. Keep your work-rest ratio at 1:3 – fail to recover and you won’t put in peak effort.

Hone Your Bones

Order from the Amazon As well as boosting immunity, vitamin C is crucial to a functioning metabolism, offsetting the oxidative stress that slows our bodies down as we age, according to the University of Colorado at Boulder. But you needn’t resort to Berocca. The rainforest fruit camu camu contains five times your RDI per teaspoon of powder and, according to Gut journal, can temper weight gain caused by overeating. So instead of maxing out on oranges, throw some camu camu into your next shake.

It’s Your Round Your weight-loss goals don’t live or die in the gym. A study by the Mayo Clinic found “non-exercise activity” such as pacing and fidgeting significantly affects your body shape and size. A brief stroll after eating has a more positive effect on metabolism than longer walks at other moments, so time your coffee run accordingly.

Throw Some Shade

Embrace the Daily Grind Over pimped-up breakfast bowls? At least one popular porridge topping has legit fat-burning benefits. A study in Metabolism found cinnamon flips the switch that triggers fat cells to torch kilojoules. Spoon into post-gym shakes to optimise your efforts.

Set a Curfew Hit the hay early: those eight hours of sleep are of limited benefit after midnight. Why? Hormones that control fat and carbohydrate metabolism surge at 11pm – but only if you’re asleep. May 2019

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TACTICS

In a turbulent jobs market, relying on a single income source is, for many, risky and impractical â&#x20AC;&#x201C; so an increasing number of us are trying to earn a little extra on the fly. The phenomenon even has a name: the side hustle. But how easy is it to start up a second gig? MH clocked in to find out BY RICHARD GODWIN

KICK-STARTING A LUCRATIVE SIDE GIG COULD BE YOUR TICKET TO RIDE.

May 2019 99

the struggling artist with the hard graft of the entrepreneur and a 21st-century flakiness. I mean, it’s not like you have to commit fully, is it? It’s just a bit on the side. It’s the Tinder date of career moves.

Ross Taylor’s side hustle began by accident. Five years ago, he treated himself to a butterfly taxidermy course, just because it looked fun. “I found it very relaxing,” he says. “I’m an impatient person, and it forced me to slow right

down. It’s intricate, delicate and demands a lot of concentration. Then I thought: ‘You know what? No one does butterfly taxidermy in a creative way. It’s all quite standard’. So I decided to mount them on limited-edition gold prints.”

Thirty-three-year-old Taylor is now a preeminent mounter of lepidoptera. At first, he made pieces of butterfly art for friends. Then he raised a few thousand dollars on Kickstarter to make some for strangers, after which he went into business with his partner, Chris McShane. They branched into homeware, and their company, the Curious Department, now sells plates and pillows online and in 20 shops across Europe. Taylor manages this in about 15-20 hours a week. For his “day job”, he is the creative director at Iris Worldwide, an ad agency that counts Adidas as a client. “It’s an amazing job,” he says. “But with advertising, you’re only creative within the constraints of a brand that already exists. The reason I started my side hustle was for creativity that is led only by 100

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what I want to do.” It supplements his already healthy income by about 20 per cent. The term “side hustle” has been around since the 1950s, and it means a venture outside of your main gig. Perhaps it’s your way of making a bit of extra cash; perhaps it’s the dream you can’t let go of; perhaps it’s how you spread your bets in today’s fastmoving economy. I first heard the term a couple of years ago in Los Angeles. There, everyone seemed to have a side hustle: the Uber drivers were screenwriters, the rappers sold streetwear and the yoga instructors couldn’t wait to tell you about their bone broth start-up. Like many Americanisms, the term has spread. The side hustle tells us something about the way we work – or want to work – today. It combines the romance of

“I began to hear the term a lot with the rise of the sharing economy,” says Mike Lewis, a Californian careers adviser and the author of When to Jump, which advocates the side hustle as a way to prepare the ground for a career change without carelessly risking your livelihood. (He’s an advocate for “hustle” in general: “No matter what field you’re in, you need to hustle. You wanna be an intern on Wall Street? You gotta hustle for it . . . ”) The way he sees it, companies such as Uber, Airbnb and eBay have opened up new possibilities for those in search of extra income, while crowd-funding sites such as Kickstarter offer access to investment. Hobbies can become businesses. Got a passion for woodworking? You can sell your handcrafted kitchen utensils on Etsy. Any skill you possess or asset you own can now be monetised. At the same time, jobs have become less secure. “Fifty years ago, people worked one job all their lives, got the gold watch, then retired,” he says. “But, just as there are more ways to source information now, there are also more ways to construct a career.” As a result, we no longer “have to play by the rules”. When I ask around, I find side hustles everywhere, even if not everyone calls them that. I know many people who are trying to write novels or launch music careers while holding down a day job: how else are you supposed to pay the bills? What about all these athletes buying into F45 gyms? Or celebrities backing vodka and tequila labels? In some cases, the “side” and “main” hustles can become interchangeable, each acting as a financial buffer for the other. Luke Hughes, 31, is the founder of Origym, which provides courses for personal trainers. He employs 25 people and last year paid himself a salary of about $275,000, including dividends. “It’s going pretty well,” he says. In the mid-2000s, Hughes made his living from online poker; at his peak, he was earning $45,000 a month. But he realised this better suited the side hustle: if you play during the day, all of your opponents are professionals. If you wait till the evening, they tend to be less savvy. Now he works from 7am to 7pm at Origym, putting in a couple of hours of poker afterwards to unwind. “My mum will be happier now that I’m investing a bit more in my future,” he says. “Still, it was the poker

TACTICS

“YOUR HOBBY CAN BECOME YOUR SIDE HUSTLE. ALMOST ANY SKILL CAN BE MONETISED” that allowed me to fund my business in the first place.”

For those without an obvious passion to pursue, the hustle can mean taking a gamble of a different kind. James Dunworth, 41, got into his present line of work while working as an English teacher in Qatar. His mother tried an e-cigarette at a trade show and immediately saw the potential. Dunworth designed a website so she could sell them online and soon found himself staying up until 2am each morning, organising shipments from China. “I had no idea how big it was going to be,” he says. “The idea was simply to make a little bit of extra money on the side.” It soon became a side hustle for everyone in the family. His wife began to help out with the postage and packing; his sister came on board as legal director and human resources manager. The company, E-Cigarette Direct, is now a successful family business, employing 90 people. Liam Tyler, 25, is at the beginning of that road. He spends his nine to five doing digital marketing for a gaming platform and all other waking hours devoted to Yusa, an energy drink company he co-founded with two schoolfriends. “One of my mates came across this leaf that’s found in Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. We couldn’t believe how many health benefits it had…” Rather than anything legally dubious, the leaf was guayusa, which Tyler and his friends have made into a carbonated tea they market as a health-conscious alternative to Red Bull. Hustles don’t come without sacrifice. To make his project financially viable, Tyler sleeps on the floor of a shared flat with his friends. “We work evenings and weekends. Because we’re living together, we’re constantly talking.” Many of his friends are doing similar things, he says. “People 10 or 20 years ago were more career-centred – they had this idea that if you work hard, you can get where you want to be. But, with my generation, there’s so much freedom.” Emma Gannon, 28, the author of The Multi-Hyphen Method: Work Less, Create More, and Design a Career that Works for

You, echoes the point. “I’m glad I started my side project when I did,” she says. “I began by taking one day off a week. Then I realised I was earning more in that one day off than in my main job. Over time, it’s evolved into the multi-hyphenate career I have now.” Gannon’s status as an author-podcasterconsultant isn’t just a spot of millennial marketing, but a pragmatic means of survival. She started her career at online publication the Debrief and then Glamour magazine, both of which have since closed. For her, this was a sign of how little you gain by staying in one place. “The narrative of what’s risky has been reversed,” she says. “People used to say, ‘Don’t you feel insecure working for yourself?’ Actually, I feel more secure. I have eight income streams. In any company, you can’t be sure if it will even exist in a few years.”

The side hustle has its detractors, too. “So many people feel the need to justify their job in the creative industry by talking about the other even more creative things they’re doing,” says Ben Middleton, who works at Creature advertising agency. “I appreciate that a lot of people do this to generate money, or because they’ve always dreamed of running a whiskey-marmalade conglomerate, or whatever. But I think it’s better to commit to one thing and make it the best you can, rather than dabbling in a pipe dream.” He blames TV programs such as The Apprentice (which gave us Donald Trump, after all), as well as Silicon Valley and hip-hop culture, for romanticising the entrepreneur. “The truth is, there are a huge number of people claiming to be entrepreneurs who just aren’t,” he says. “You see 16-yearolds reselling Supreme streetwear on Instagram with ‘CEO’ on their profile. Real entrepreneurs just get on with it. Generally speaking, the more people talk about their side hustle, the less likely it is that it’s real.” A level of integrity and conviction is crucial. Profit won’t always come quickly, so it helps if you love what you do. Matt ChocqueelMangan, 46, spends most of his time building websites for corporate clients (currently for fashion retailer Asos). Periodically, however,

TURN A SMART IDEA INTO A PROFITABLE START-UP, WITH CAREER ADVISOR SKYE ROBERTSON

BEGIN WITH A PROBLEM

much free time you’ll have – let

Start-ups fail when

alone how much

the problem they

energy and mental

are fixing isn’t one

capacity. Quick

that people care

success is rare, so

enough about to

focus on building

pay for a solution.

momentum. Aim

Know exactly who

for marginal gains.

you are helping.

TEST YOUR ASSUMPTIONS

MAKE YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE

Ensure that you

List the conditions

remain on track

needed for

by sharing your

success – that no

targets with a

similar products

friend or pledging

exist, and so on.

money through

Test your

sites such as

assumptions by

gofuckingdoit.

speaking to your

com. Make

target market.

external pressure an ally.

DRAW UP A SCHEDULE

consistent and

non-negotiable,

things work, ask

you won’t be

yourself if you’re

derailed by social

honestly excited

engagements – or

about your idea?

your day job.

Or perhaps you’re

If your hours are

KNOW YOURSELF If you’re

struggling to make

afraid of failing. To

DON’T BE TOO AMBITIOUS

tackle your doubt, you need to know

It’s all too easy to

precisely what is

overestimate how

causing it.

May 2019 101

BE IT PAINTING, PERFORMING OR WORKING OUT, ASSESS WHETHER YOUR HOBBY CAN BECOME A SIDE HUSTLE

YOU USE YOUR HOBBY… a) To challenge yourself b) For stress relief IF YOUR HUSTLE BECAME MORE CHORE THAN PLEASURE… a) I’d feel the loss

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO GO PRO? a) Working the odd Sunday

b) Work is work, right?

b) Changing my office hours

DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU’RE GOOD ENOUGH? a) I’m hotter than b) Honestly, the pros not always

MAKE A START

But beware of overconfidence. First, tick off all of the “unsexy” steps, says careers adviser Mike Lewis: refine your brand identity, read up on industry news and itemise your costs. First impressions linger and you’ll only get one shot at the big launch.

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GAIN CONVICTION

You need persistence, not perfection. “You don’t have to be the best,” says Lewis. “That logic will only deter you.” But you need to be sure your product is worth investing in. Research competitors to better understand your own market value.

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HANG TIGHT

“Not all hobbies translate neatly to full-time pursuits,” says Lewis. Reach out to people within that industry to be sure your fantasy matches the reality. “Things can be very different from how they appear at surface level.”

JACKET OF ALL TRADES: A SUCCESSFUL SIDE GIG RELIES ON GAINING STREET CRED.

he resigns from whatever he’s working on to his non-partisan political website. His side hustle takes up a few months every couple of years, working one day a week. It began with a realisation that he had “no idea” about politics. “I knew about left and right,” he says. “But I found the way it was presented tedious, and many of my friends felt the same.” So, he read every single manifesto – a “dumbfounding” experience that left him “a little bit obsessed” – to figure out a way to “gamify” the differences between the parties. His site presents you with each party’s manifesto promises on, say, health or immigration; you select the option that sounds best without knowing whose policy it is until afterwards. Millions of people have now used the site, while Chocqueel-Mangan has launched versions in other countries,

TACTICS

as well as Policy Tracker, which tracks the manifesto promises when the party is in power. “It’s crazy. I’ve put thousands of hours into it. We do raise some funds, but overall it still loses me money. And yet it’s the most successful thing I’ve ever done. People really got behind it, and that makes me very happy.” The ideal side hustle, it seems, is one that contrasts with your main job but complements it, too. Take Graham Jones, a hairdresser and radical political theorist. He spends most of his time cutting people’s hair at Open Barbers in north-east London and performing home visits for people with disabilities. But around this, he made time to write and publish a book called The Shock Doctrine of the Left, in which he explains how mass emancipation might arise from economic, political and technological

uncertainty. His two occupations offer a rewarding mix of cerebral and hands-on. “I’ve never thought of either job as a career,” he says. “They’re both just things I like to do.” Before he became a hairdresser, he worked a succession of administrative jobs, mostly doing audio typing. “It used to be a reliable earner, but it got to a point where the jobs were very short-term, as it began to be automated. That’s why I made the transition to hairdressing.” Jones’s mother is a hairdresser and had long sung its praises. “It’s the classic job that can’t be automated,” says Jones. “You can do it anywhere, and it’s people-focused. With office jobs, it often feels like you’re not really doing anything – but with hairdressing, you’re creating something people can see, which makes them feel better. It’s satisfying.”

“TECHNOLOGY HAS MADE A VARIED WORK LIFE A REALITY”

Karl Marx lamented how industrial capitalism fragmented the labour market, forcing each person to specialise in one role for their entire lives. He dreamed of a society that “makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow; to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening [and] criticise after dinner”. Thanks to the digital revolution, something resembling this is now a reality – just not in the way Marx envisioned. We have gone from one job being enough to support a family to two jobs often being not quite enough to support one person. When jobs were more secure, people spent their weekends doing sociable activities such as building model train sets, windsurfing or attending swingers’ parties. Now, we assess every free moment for its profitability. Perhaps that is, in part, a return to how things used to be: before the Industrial Revolution, anyone might have done a little weaving, a little cider-making, a little pork-butchery and a little market-hawking in the course of a day. We contain multitudes, after all. Surprising as it may sound, the more enlightened employers are embracing the idea. Kayleigh Smart works as the “talent lead” (human resources) at creative agency Adaptive Lab. Her firm tries to be amenable to what its employees want. In essence, she says, the company has to accept that people’s life ambition might not be to work for the company. “It’s absurd to think that would be the case,” she says, laughing. “We’ve experimented with different types of employment contracts,” says Smart. “Some people want to work four-day weeks; others want to take lots of unpaid leave in the summer. One of our designers runs a magic school on the side. We have a part-time professional chef on the team who works four days a week for us, then takes time off to work in restaurants . . . We don’t perceive it as something negative.” Neither do the people I spoke to. They view it as an unalloyed positive, a source of fulfilment as well as extra cash. What are you waiting for?

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PHOTOGRAPHY: RED BULL CONTENT POOL

POLANDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SZYMON GODZIEK IN MID-FLIGHT, AS HE PRACTISES FOR A RUN THAT WILL EARN HIM EIGHTH PLACE.

ADVENTURE

LEAPS

FAITH

In the arid wilds of Utah, elite riders clear 20m canyon gaps and fly down sheer cliff faces. But what drives them to tread such a precarious line between glory and disaster? MH dropped into the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most dangerous mountain-biking competition to find out By

Scarlett Wrench

May 2019 105

ear the N top of a prehistoric mesa in Zion National Park, Utah, is a sandcoloured boulder the size of a small truck. It clings precariously to the side of the mountain, poised to plummet to the desert floor below. And it has a fitting name: Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson. The Rock was christened by Brendan Fairclough, a 30-year-old freerider from Surrey, who is planning to ride his bike off the top of it. Once he’s done that, Fairclough explains to MH, pointing up at the vertiginous mountain in front of us, he’ll race down its ridges, sail over its canyons and roll across the finish line, a 237m near-vertical drop below the start gate. These are not the kinds of runs that bikes are designed to handle – nor humans designed to survive. The Red Bull Rampage is a mountain bike competition unlike any other. Competitors 106

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must be invited to take part by a committee of veteran riders, and only the best merit a spot. It’s not a race to the bottom, though points are awarded for speed. Riders are judged on a number of criteria, including airtime and tricks, as well as more virtuoso factors such as fluidity and style. To put it bluntly, they are rewarded for taking risks: riders score points for their willingness to tread the narrow line between victory and injury. Rampage was founded in 2001 by Todd Barber, who took his inspiration from big-mountain skiing and snowboarding competitions. The first event attracted a motley crew of dirt jumpers, slopestylers and downhill racers. It was, in a sense, the UFC of mountain-biking: a mixed-discipline event, at which competitors pitted their skills against riders from a broad spectrum of backgrounds, with no guarantee as to who would come out on top. The 13th event is held on the outskirts of the small town of Virgin, where Mars-like canyons, mesas and monoliths provide an awe-inspiring stage on which the riders can showcase their skills. (The location, incidentally, was first recommended to Barber by his friend Josh Bender, a Virgin native and rider who had attracted attention in the sport after attempting a 17m drop – and ending up in hospital.) Accidents are not uncommon but, as Fairclough, who has ridden at Rampage six times, puts it, “Normality is distorted out here. You’re scared, but everyone is scared.” He shrugs. “And it’s kind of normal.”

Digging for Victory

From top to bottom, the average run is over within the space of a couple of minutes. But

LEFT: SPAIN’S ANDREU LACONDEGUY ON THE PRECIPICE OF A NERVE-RACKING 237M -DESCENT.

ADVENTURE

ABOVE: RAMPAGE VETERAN TYLER MCCAUL TRIES TO REMOVE TREACHERY FROM AN ALREADY TERRIFYING TRACK. RIGHT: WILDCARD ENTRY DJ BRANDT PLUNGES DOWN A CLIFF FACE.

that doesn’t tell the full story. In reality, success is hard won over a period of around eight days, as riders and their two-man dig teams toil in the desert to carve out and then practise their routes. That’s another thing that makes Red Bull Rampage unique: no two riders will run the same line. And finding – or, rather, building – a creative path within the site boundaries is crucial to their final score. If you want a sense of how complicated this process is, watch an online video called Risk vs Reward at Red Bull Rampage. In it, Californian rider Cam McCaul explains a “blind take-off”: a drop in which the first time the rider catches sight of the landing, it’s too late to adjust speed or trajectory. “Two miles (3.2km) per hour too fast and the rider will land halfway down and explode upon impact,” says McCaul, matter of factly. “[Going] two miles per hour too slow will put the rider before the landing – and cause them to get catapulted off the bike.” Tensions run high in the days leading up to competition. The teams are typically up on the site before sunrise, enduring the bitterly cold desert winds in the hours before daylight hits the mountain. After that, the temperature quickly rises to 40°C, and the rest of the day is hot, dry and dehydrating. “It’s hard to keep up morale, so it’s important

to have people you trust and can relate to,” says Fairclough, whose dig team comprises his childhood friend and fellow pro-rider Olly Wilkins, plus friend and former Royal Marine Ben Deakin. “At the end of these tough 10 days, you’ve got this intensely physical and mentally demanding task. On that day, you can’t be at your lowest point. You’ve got to be ready to go.” Carving the perfect line is very much an art, not a science. “The judges have set criteria, but it’s also about the overall feel,” explains Gee Atherton, a British downhill racer, who placed second at Rampage in 2004 and 2010. “You can’t be too clinical about it. Your run has to have some life to it. It’s that soul, it’s that fire, that’s going to impress the most . . . That’s the thing that marks you out.” As a result, the stakes get higher every year, as the riders battle to outdo their previous performances, as well as each other. “It’s advancing quickly,” Atherton says. “Lines that guys built for final runs a couple of years ago would be used to warm up on now. Every year, it gets bigger, and the drops and gaps get a little bit longer. And every year, you think: maybe this is the peak, maybe this is as big as it can get. Then, inevitably, everyone pushes it a little bit further. It gets a little bit crazier.”

Dangerous Games

In 2015, a rider named Paul Basagoitia from Nevada crashed on a step-down and shattered his vertebrae. He was evacuated by helicopter and required nine hours of surgery. The same year, Boston slopestyler Nicholi Rogatkin tumbled off a cliff in his qualifying run, enduring a 12m beating on the way down. Miraculously, he was unharmed: he dusted himself off and cleared the canyon gap on his next attempt. It’s undoubtedly a profession that calls for a fair amount of mettle, but competitors are more than just thrill-chasers. (“Are you calling me stupid?” says Fairclough, laughing, when asked about his motives.) In reality, the risks are carefully assessed. “It’s all calculated,” says Fairclough. “You don’t go jumping off something without knowing exactly what you’re jumping off.” Evaluative skills are just one tool in a rider’s arsenal. Physical training includes weights-based strength and conditioning work, as well as practising tricks and developing endurance on the bike. Core and upper-body stability is as important as quads of steel when manoeuvring down narrow, bumpy terrain. Atherton isn’t a fan of the “adrenaline junkie” label. “It’s not like I’ll do anything just to give myself a buzz,” he says. “I’ve been May 2019 107

“FOR ONE RIDER, THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIDE OF RECOVERY AFTER A CRASH PROVED HARDER THAN THE PHYSICAL” in this sport for a long time, and you have to know when to push harder and when to draw back.” Still, he concedes that Red Bull Rampage “does attract people who are willing to walk a very fine line”. Most riders have suffered their fair share of injuries. In a recent crash, Atherton dislocated his hip and knocked himself out. “The psychological side of recovery was almost harder than the physical. It took me a while to get back on the bike,” he says. “But I worked through it. It’s a risk, but I’m doing something I love.” One rider who has previously been somewhat sceptical about the safety precautions at events such as Rampage is 108

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Nevada-born Cameron Zink. In the year of Basagoitia’s accident, Zink elected not to do the second of his two runs down the mountain – though it could have helped him move up in the ranking – claiming it wasn’t worth the risk. But he has been back each year since, has placed on the podium a total of four times and describes Rampage as “an event unlike any other”. “You have the freedom to go as big as you want, to do anything you can dream up,” he says. This time, however, things don’t go so well for Zink. He is ruled out of competing because of an existing shoulder injury, for which he is scheduled for surgery. “I was just going to deal with it, compete, then get it fixed,” he

tells MH. “But I was coming down on a cash roll, which is basically a front-flip 360, and it popped out on landing. The medics didn’t want to put it back in because of liability, so I had a friend, Mitch Ropelato, do it. There was a grinding and an elaborate pop . . . Bummer.”

A Downhill Battle

On the morning of the competition, the air is especially cold. High winds, which unsettled a few of the practice runs, now threaten to set the riders off course. Fortunately, they quickly die down as the day warms up. Spectators crowd the surrounding hills, scrambling up to the best vantage points, already caked in dry, red mud. The medical team is on standby,

ADVENTURE

LEFT: BRANDON SEMENUK MAKES HIS ASCENT TO THE START GATE – A 40-MINUTE CLIMB THAT AFFORDS PLENTY OF TIME TO QUESTION YOURSELF; TOP: BRENDAN FAIRCLOUGH SAILS OVER THE EDGE; BOTTOM: REMY METAILLER HAILS THE CROWD AT THE FINISH LINE.

and helicopters circle reassuringly overhead. Then, one by one, the riders make their way up to the start gate. The new site is higher and longer than those of previous years, adding around 45m of vertical drop. It can take the riders 40 minutes to hike up to the top, their bikes over their shoulders – it’s simply too steep for cars or buggies. The first rider, Szymon Godziek from Poland, crashes hard after misjudging a backflip. He shakes it off, picks up his bike and finishes the run. Then, Fairclough drops in. From the base of the route, he resembles a distant dust cloud. He speeds down to the Rock for his signature piece – then drops off it with seeming ease, a fall of almost 11m. He

runs down the ridge line, leading up to a 20m canyon. He clears it. Then he rides down a sheer cliff and builds up to a soaring backflip, before – finally – passing the finish gate. The canyon gap holds particular significance for Fairclough. “Two years ago, I built a jump that was 18m, but I only managed about 15m and ended up dislocating both of my thumbs,” he explains. “So, we were looking for redemption.” Wasn’t he afraid? “We’re pretty dumb. We forget pain, you know . . .” After much debate, the top prize goes to Brett Rheeder, a first-time winner from Canada who impressed the judges with a staggering backflip that drew gasps from

the crowd below. Second up on the podium is Andreu Lacondeguy from Spain, followed by wildcard Utah boy Ethan Nell. Fairclough takes tenth place and receives the Kelly McGarry Spirit Award, named after the relentlessly positive New Zealand rider who died in 2016, and given out to commend a participant’s good humour and resilience. MH catches up with Fairclough as he steps off the podium. How does he feel about the result? He looks down at himself. “I’m in one piece. My legs and arms are in the same position as when I arrived,” he says, and smiles. “So, it’s all good.” The next Red Bull Rampage will be held on 25 October 2019. Visit redbull.com May 2019 109

M H D A D

WATER BABY: KLIM WITH HIS DAD, WOJTEK, CIRCA 1978.

WHAT I’VE LEARNT ABOUT FATHERHOOD My dad, Wojtek, was a Polish migrant who came to Australia in the late ’80s when I was 11. He was very entrepreneurial. A risktaker. With the wall about to come down, it would have been easier for him to stay in Poland. But I have this great respect for him and my mum because of the sacrifices they made to move here and provide opportunities for my sister and me. He comes across as a tough guy. He had this authoritarian approach. But because I had this drive from a very early age when it came to sport, I never felt I was being pushed. He knew everything that was going on in my sport and would help and facilitate, but he wasn’t like, say, a typical tennis parent. He’s actually pretty soft. He’d pull me up on things, like respect for elders. He comes from a Polish generation that would kiss a woman’s hand on greeting her. He tried to instil that in me.

Former champion swimmer turned skincare mover and shaker Michael Klim. Father of Stella, 13, Rocco, 10, and Frankie, 7

He travelled to every competition I went to around the world. I could always look up and see him. He actually had a callout, which he made with his tongue, that would let me know that he and my mum were there watching.

a challenge and pursue it to the end, through all the inevitable ups and downs, because that’s when personal growth happens. It’s very easy to pull the pin on anything when it gets hard.

I share the parenting of my three kids 50/50. We all live in Bali now and it’s a week-on, week-off arrangement. You just need to give kids structure. They crave that. They want to know that when they come to me that they’re going to follow the routine they’re used to. No surprises. No last-minute changes.

The kids say, “Oh, dad, can you wear a tank top to school when you pick us up, because all the kids are really scared of you”. Then their friends come over and . . . I’m actually pretty goofy. I mean, my kids know there’s a serious side to me. But I would like to have a friendship with them. Just an open sense of communication. I want them to feel they can come to me about anything. An approachable dad: that’s what I want to be. Looking back, I probably didn’t have a mateship with my dad when I was growing up. But that’s changing. He’s just turned 70 and he’d been losing a bit of size, so now we’re working out together.

All my kids swim pretty well. But they all have other pursuits they prefer. Which is a little bit hard to swallow, to be honest. My oldest, Stella, is a mad surfer. My son is a mad tennis player and basketballer. Actually, my youngest . . . she might be the chosen one for swimming. She’s only seven and does squad twice a week. If she ends up pursuing swimming as a career, that’d be great. But what I’d really like to see is my kids take on

Klim will compete in the 10th Cooly Classic Ocean Swim, off Coolangatta, on April 28. May 2019

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Mountains Out Of Molehills

Kosciuszko loomed large for a 13-year-old kid. Turns out the summit was high enough for dad and son to experience pint-sized epiphanies By Johnny Dry

I HATE CAMPING but I love my 13-year-old son. In an ideal world, I would be able to keep those two propositions separate, in the same way that I hate barista beards but love the Godfather trilogy. Unfortunately, my son wants to go camping with me, whereas no coffee-maker has ever invited me to join the Mafia. Camping is probably a good thing if you’re (a) very young; or (b) live in a pre-industrial society that has not yet developed the tools necessary to construct permanent buildings. As it is, (a) I’m very old; and (b) inhabit the most advanced civilisation the world has ever known. My son and I had already been camping once, when a good mate drove us to a semiremote site, pitched our tent for us, and cooked us a delicious baked dinner using only a hole in the ground. It was all very impressive, and I’ve got no doubt my mate 112

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would survive the zombie apocalypse. But at two o’clock in the morning I had to get up and have a crap in a field, and I realised that, if plumbing systems fail after Z Day, I’m happy to leave the earth to the undead. But even one whole night’s camping wasn’t enough for my son. He next came up with the idea that we should climb the highest mountain in Australia – Mount Kosciuszko, NSW – and camp. Although I hate camping, I like mountains. I’d once dealt with a messy break-up by trekking angrily through the Annapurna mountain range in Nepal, alone and unguided (that’ll show her!) and fueled only by the methane gas generated by two daily bowls of dahl. However, at night I’d slept in tea houses – with walls, floors, toilets etc, etc. The great thing about Mount Kosciuszko is that – at 2228 metres above sea level – it isn’t

actually very high, except compared to other mountains in Australia. You can get up and down in a day. The even greater thing is that a relative has a holiday house in nearby Jindabyne – and said we could stay there. My son was so enthused when I agreed to the mountain, he barely noticed the disappearance of camping from the itinerary. My son imagined an epic trek up the side of a mountain, the kind of journey that might be made by a young Scott of the Antarctic, or a junior Sherpa Tenzing. I figured I might need some support, so asked my mate (another one – I’ve got two) to come along, with his slightly younger but much more athletic son. For the sake of this story, I will call my mate “Titus”, after Captain “Titus” Oates, who sacrificed his own life by walking out into a blizzard so as not to be a burden on Scott’s Antarctic expedition. I chose the name in tribute to

M H D A D

“My son stood on the highest point in Australia and, for a moment, he was the highest point in Australia”

my mate’s bravery and self-sacrifice, but mostly because it gives me the chance to call him “Tit”. Tit and his son met us in Canberra and we proceeded to Jindabyne, which is essentially a service town for the ski resorts at Perisher and Thredbo. The night before our climb, boys and men ate a steak dinner at the entertainingly named The Man from Snowy River Hotel. My son stayed shy and almost silent throughout the evening, hiding beneath his hoodie and wearing a single earphone to connect him with his iPhone. The next morning, the adventure got off to an unpromising start when Tit’s son fell off a bench while trying to sit down for breakfast. My son didn’t even wake up in time to eat. We set off on the half-hour drive to Thredbo Alpine Village and the base of the hill that Tit and I had taken to calling “Aussie Everest”. We were quietly confident. Tit had

read that one woman had reached the peak pushing a baby in a pram. It cost $17 to get the car into the Kosciuszko National Park, which is reasonable, but later we had to pay an additional $78 to get our blended family of four up the scenic chairlift, which isn’t. The tone for our journey was set when we crossed a road over a carpeted bridge. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a carpeted bridge before. We stopped to pick up supplies at the bakery, where a sign asked, “Going for an adventure? Why not take a salad roll?” I’m sure Scott of the Antarctic asked himself the same question. I bought some salt-and-vinegar chips from the ski-resort supermarket, then we all boarded the chairlift. It was a long ride to the top. The boys spent the whole time pretending not to be scared.

I wasn’t expecting much from the mountain, but my cynicism melted away when I saw the snow hadn’t. There were wide white fields of snow on the way to the top of the mountain, and we climbed up a snow trail to look out upon plains of snow from the top. We even slipped a few times. At the top of the snow trail, Tit said, “I think that pram story was a lie.” After about two-and-a-half hours of fairly gentle – but sometimes slithery – progress, we reached the highest public toilet in Australia. This was my kind of adventure. The track disappeared as we neared the top. Icy winds rose and dropped, just like on a proper mountain. One chip packet in my bag swelled up like a pillow and the other burst. “Why not take a salad roll?” I thought, too late. I ran out of water – a potentially fatal mistake – and went to fill my bottle from a mountain stream. This was the most rugged thing I’ve done since Nepal. And the bottle top was screwed on so tightly that I had to bite it off, just like Bear Grylls would’ve done. Unfortunately, I lost the bottle top. At the summit, my son stood on the sign that marked the highest point in Australia and, for a moment, he himself was the highest point in Australia. The boys were both elated. It really was their Everest. (In fact, it was better than Everest, because Everest, as many people might know, is the highest mountain in Nepal, which is a very small nation indeed. Kosciuszko, meanwhile, is the highest mountain in Australia, an island so large it is almost a continent, and the greatest country in the world.) We came down via the same snow trail, which was a bit trickier on the descent, forcing the older members of the party to slide on their bums – and anything involving bums is still hilarious to a 13-year-old boy. The kids were still buzzing back in Thredbo. We had only walked for about five hours, but that was three hours longer than my son had ever walked continuously in his life. For him, it had been 13 kilometres of unalloyed adventure. We ate a second, celebratory steak dinner. This time, my son spoke and joked all evening with cheerful enthusiasm and hard(ish) –earned confidence. He was a Man from Snowy River in the company of other Men from Snowy River in The Man from Snowy River Hotel. My son had never been so high, and I’d rarely seen him feel so high. It made my heart burst and, if I had known he would get so much out of it, I would even have taken him camping. Maybe. May 2019 113

TR AINER

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Your ultimate get-shredded workout

B E C AU S E

F I T

123 Train slower, get bigger

I S

T H E

N E W

128 Armed and dangerous

R I C H

STAR PERFORMERS: BERNARD FOLEY (LEFT) AND KURTLEY BEALE IN WARRIOR (II) MODE.

FREEDOM FIGHTERS NSW Waratahs Super Rugby players are using yoga to unlock their bodies and fend off Father Time DANIEL WILLIAMS

JASON LEE

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TWISTED LOGIC Why even collision-sport athletes

are tweaking their training towards less flex, more flexibility

What would you expect to see at a yoga class in which the only participants are rugby players? I can tell you what I expected: shenanigans. Horseplay. Not at kindergarten levels – these guys are professionals. But I figured someone, however gently, would poke fun at a less-than-supple teammate, and that there’d be at least a little bit of smirking, jovial self-deprecation and paperplane throwing. I was wrong. Unfolding on a patch of grass overlooking the beach at Sydney’s North Bondi on a pristine morning, this was 45 minutes of serious business.

INSTRUCTOR KIRSTEN SCOTT HAS TURNED THE 200-CM ROB SIMMONS TO THE POWER OF OM.

Okay, it might be a stretch to claim, for example, that Bernard Foley looked every bit as focused while executing a tree pose as he does when lining up a penalty shot in a World Cup semi-final. But the difference really was negligible. And just as well. “I take my work seriously,” says instructor Kirsten Scott. “Not too seriously. But we’re here for a reason.” The players could not agree more. They do these non-compulsory sessions on their days off because they believe yoga is improving them as footballers and extending their time at the

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top. “None of the boys is going to become a yogi,” says hooker Damien Fitzpatrick. “But the point is we’re in better shape than we were.” Growing out of a shared association with athletic apparel retailer lululemon, the Waratahs-Scott relationship began at the start of last year and reflects the broader trend of men taking up yoga in pursuit of pain-free movement and greater agility. “As recently as five years ago there might have been one male in my classes – and he’d be in the corner looking embarrassed,” says Scott. But in the last

year or two, things have turned upside down. “Now some of my sessions are 80 per cent male.” At long last, argues Scott, guys are wising up on what a balanced fitness routine looks like. Wall-to-wall weights workouts are murder on joint-andmuscular health. “Guys in the gym are just getting tighter and tighter,” says Scott. “And they’re getting injuries. And I think they’re starting to see that their body is aging quickly as a result of lifting all those very heavy weights. They need some sort of recovery tool that’s going to help them out.”

YOUTH MOVEMENT Scott begins this morning’s session with a query: “Anything I need to know about? Injuries? Trouble spots?” After a weekend bye, the players are unscathed. Not surprisingly, it’s the more senior Waratahs – Foley, Fitzpatrick, Kurtley Beale – who make up the bulk of the group. “When you’re young you feel invincible and you bounce back from the batterings,” says Foley, 29. Young bucks don’t seize up in the wake of intense effort or battle chronic soreness. The mature warrior, on the other hand, can be weighed down by self-doubt. How can

you trust your body – how can you release it – when you fear it might snap? “I’ve just turned 30 and yoga allows me to keep up my flexibility,” says Beale, who looks chuffed when Scott remarks on the improved depth of his yogi squat. It took Scott a matter of moments to size up the Waratahs. After 10 years in the fitness game, “I know the minute I see someone what’s weak, what’s tight and what they need,” she says. Footballers’ shoulders, she explains, tend to be their most compromised part: it’s all that bench-pressing, combined with the constant

FREEDOM FIGHTERS

“Stiffness you’ve attributed to age may disappear” MAT FINISH Complement that strength work and fortify your joints with these top 5 moves from yogi Kirsten Scott

CHILD’S POSE Easy lower-back stretch that comes as blessed relief in a taxing class. Breathe deeply.

ILLUSTRATION: SONNY RAMIREZ (ILLUSTRATIONROOM.COM.AU)

AFTER THE STRETCHING, ABOVE AND LEFT, COMES EARTHLY CONNECTION, TOP, FOR LOCK ROB SIMMONS.

protective hunching and colossal impacts that occur in rugby. Her sessions with the Waratahs, Scott says, are less pure yoga than a combo of yoga and mobility work – “yobility”, she calls it. “The sessions were humbling at first,” says Fitzpatrick. The players knew they were being broken in via elementary poses, yet they still found them challenging. The players were like you, probably: they thought they were strong. And they are, of course – immensely so, in many cases. But it’s a certain kind of strength you build by shifting barbells through the same old arcs. Guys walk out of their first yoga class drenched in sweat, says Scott. “They’ve been looking around at these girls doing amazing things. They’re used to being so explosive, to moving quickly all the time. And now they’re being asked to slow down, to assume positions they’re not used to and to hold them. That can be hard, physically and mentally.”

TUCK AND MAUL Foley’s attendance is predictable: cut from the same cloth as the Lleyton Hewitts and Cooper Cronks of the world, he’s a meticulous customer forever hunting for an edge: “You keep looking for something that makes a difference . . . for that extra one per cent.” But if you’re someone who’s neglected flexibility for years, taking up yoga could prove to be less a onepercenter than a gamechanger. Stiffness you’ve attributed to age may fade or disappear. “It’s really good for us to come here,” says Foley, taking in the grass, the sunshine and the ocean, into which the players will plunge when the session concludes: “To open up our bodies, to stretch, to feel good and to turn on some muscles that don’t normally activate – that’s what this is about.” Rather than subtracting from their lifting, yoga has improved it, the players say. They report being able to shift more weight with their

more limber bodies – and of feeling safer in the process. Their experience is science-backed: men in a Colorado State University study who did eight weeks of yoga were able to pull 13 per cent more weight in the deadlift. Scott advises fitting in a yoga session before hitting the sack on a day when you’ve competed or trained like a demon; it will tame tomorrow’s DOMS. The physical benefits are only the half of yoga’s payoff, Scott argues. The ancient discipline is a form of meditation. “When they’re on the field and in those intense scenarios, the players can keep a steady mind because they’ve learnt to do that on their mat,” says Scott. “It’s what you can take from the mat into the real world that’s both the point and the hard part. If you can take that calmness into your game you’re going to make better decisions. You’re going to think more clearly.” You’re going to be, in other words, very hard to beat.

DOWNWARD-FACING DOG Classic pose that strengthens and elongates a host of muscles.

UPWARDFACING DOG Another all-body his one goes awakener, th after dorma nt glutes.

CRESCENT LUNGE Increased strength, stability and a ow balance flo from this one. o

WARRIOR II Alignment matters in this pose that opens tight hips.

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OUR FASTEST EVER WEIGHT-LOSS PLAN Turbocharge your metabolism with our 14-day training plan and then stand by to unveil your sharpest-ever physique. You’ll be torching fat around the clock

LEAN IN 18 MINUTES

To help you land the most potent attack on your body’s fat stores while armed with only a pair of dumbbells, we’ve made all of the moves in this workout a combination of two exercises. You’ll perform each super-move pairing for 60 seconds, taking a 30-second break in between. Complete three rounds in total, for 18 minutes of kilojouletorching intensity that leaves no muscle unworked in your quest for a leaner physique.

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1|| KNEELING HAMMER CURL TO FRONT RAISE

2|| FLAT-BENCH CHEST FLY TO PULLOVER

(3 rounds of 60sec)

In the first two weeks of your plan, perform this workout on Mondays and Fridays; in your second two weeks, on Wednesdays. Kneel down holding two dumbbells at your sides. Curl both up (A), squeezing your biceps, before lowering them back down to your hips. Without letting go, bring both arms up in front of you (B), before lowering again to work your abs, biceps and shoulders hard.

The perfect pairing to sculpt your chest and back. Lie on a bench with your arms fully extended above your chest. Keep your arms as straight as possible as you lower the weights down wide to stretch your chest (A). Pull them back to the start position. With a slight bend in your elbows, lower both arms behind your head (B), then bring them back over your chest.

PHOTOGRAPHY: PHILIP HAYNES

R A PID W EIG HT-LOSS

THE SPEC MUSCLES

WORKOUT

18 MIN

RESULTS IN

4 WEEKS LEVEL

HARD 3A

3|| RENEGADE ROW TO BEAR CRAWL

4|| GOOD MORNING TO BENT-OVER ROW

(3 rounds of 60sec)

At the top of a push-up, while holding a dumbbell in each hand, set your feet wide and keep your core tight as you row one dumbbell up to your chest (A), before returning down. Repeat on the other arm. Then “walk” both hands forward (B) and bring each foot to the push-up position. Don’t stop for 60 seconds of love handle-shifting effort.

Finish the round with a kilojoule-torching legs move. Hold the weights in the top of a hammer curl, as if there were a band around your hips pulling them back. Let your hips hinge to 90° (A), keeping your chest up and back flat. Extend both arms below you (B), before pulling them into your sides. Drive your hips forward to standing. Two more rounds await.

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NON-STOP INTENSITY

With its one-minute intervals and use of lighter weights, this workout keeps the intensity high to help you expend extra kilojoules. “When you push past the 30-second mark, lactic acid builds up. It’s at this point that you’ll create the most metabolic stress to drive weight loss,” explains trainer Mark Ross. So, think of this workout as cardio and weights rolled into one – the most time-efficient way to carve out a defined body.

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1|| SIDE BEND TO LATERAL LUNGE

2|| BULGARIAN HIP HINGE TO REVERSE FLY

(3 rounds of 60sec)

Commit to this workout on Wednesdays in weeks one and two, and on Mondays and Fridays in weeks three and four. For the first combo, hold a dumbbell in your right hand. Flex your torso sideways to lower it to your knee (A). Extend back up. Perform a lateral lunge with your left leg, lowering the dumbbell to your foot (B), then rise to standing. Switch sides after 30 seconds.

With one foot on top of the bench and dumbbells by your sides, take a step away with your other leg. Imagine your hips are being pulled back so your chest lowers down towards the floor, keeping your arms fully extended (A). From here, lift the dumbbells out to your sides (B). Lower the weights, then raise your upper body back to the start. After 30 seconds, switch legs.

R A PID W EIG HT-LOSS

THE SPEC MUSCLES

WORKOUT

18 MIN

RESULTS IN

4 WEEKS

LEVEL

MED 4A

3|| BULGARIAN SPLIT SQUAT TO LATERAL RAISE

4|| FRONT SQUAT TO ARNOLD PRESS

(3 rounds of 60sec)

Now for your quads. Start in the finish position of the last move to perform a onelegged squat, dropping your opposite knee to the floor (A). Before you come back up to the starting position, lift both dumbbells out to your sides (B), squeezing your delts at the top. Control the weights back down, then press back up through your heel. After 30 seconds, switch legs.

Standing with the dumbbells in front of your shoulders, palms towards you, drop into a squat (A). Return to standing, press the dumbbells above, twisting your elbows out (B). Lower the weights, reversing the move so your palms return to face your shoulders. After a minute, rest for 30 seconds. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got two more rounds to create the biggest kilojoule-burn possible.

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T R A I N S LO W, B O O S T G R O W T H

TRAIN SLOW TO BOOST GROWTH The weights on the bar aren’t everything. Mastering the “time under tension” lifting method will help you smash through plateaus to unlock new muscle. Perfect your form and you’ll add centimetres in weeks

WHY IT WORKS

CHANGE IT UP

Upping your time under tension (TUT) will fast-track your gains. We’ve weighed up the heavy science

Learn these variations to ensure you’re never just going through the motions in pursuit of more muscle

Partial rep

MIND TO MUSCLE During slow eccentrics and partial reps, you can vividly feel the targeted muscles working. This improved connection between your mind and muscles carries over well when it comes to lifting.

What does it involve? Using a limited range of motion for a move: stopping before locking your joints, say, or even halfway up the rep. How does it help? Not only does it extend your time under tension, it also targets the weakest part of a lift. That means earning new PBs when you perform the full move. Best exercise: Bench press.

Slow eccentric

DAMAGE LIMITATION In contrast to plyometric training or heavy sets, the lighter weights used in time-under-tension training, such as drop sets, cause less joint damage, yet still build muscle. You’ll be able to recover more quickly between your sessions.

What does it involve? Deliberately slowing the speed at which you perform the “lowering” phase of your lift. How does it help? It damages muscle fibres, resulting in more nutrients reaching your muscles for repair. Best exercise: Cable push-down.

Pause rep

What does it involve? Holding an isometric contraction, muscles tensed, at the bottom of a move before lifting. How does it help? During an isometric hold, the body can activate more motor units than usual. It’s a test of strength, as you can’t use any momentum to produce force – only your muscles. Best exercise: Barbell back squat.

FAULTLESS FORM A focus on control lifts form and cuts injury risk.

ILLUSTRATION: FLYING CHILLI

Drop set

What does it involve? Performing your sets to just short of failure, then reducing the weight and continuing with more reps. How does it help? Compared to standard sets that tax only the first layer of your muscle fibres, drop sets activate the deepest muscles. Remember: even though you may reach a point of failure with one weight, you haven’t yet reached absolute failure. Best exercise: Dumbbell lateral raise.

Put the brakes on for a faster way to pack on muscle.

May 2019 123

E W !

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TRAINER FUEL

EXPRESS ENERGY BOWL Low in kilojoules and high in protein, our Thai green

curry delivers on flavour but won’t take a bite out of your willpower after a heavy workout and a crazy day

GREEN GIANT

the B vitamins in your capsicum and beans help to metabolise protein, carbs and fat

3 4

0-1MIN

7MIN PROTEIN 31G KILOJOULES 1880 CARBS 56 G FAT 10G

This lean chicken curry from the Fitness Chef, Graeme Tomlinson, couldn’t be simpler. In a bowl, mix the chicken, coconut milk, garlic powder, beans, capsicum and curry paste.

YOU WILL NEED...

• Chicken breast pieces, 100g, cooked • Light coconut milk, 100ml • Garlic powder, 1tsp • Green beans, handful, chopped • Green capsicum, ½, chopped • Green curry paste, 1tbsp • Microwave basmati rice, 125g

TIME TO MAKE

1-5MIN Pop the bowl in the microwave for four minutes and prep the side salad. The medium-chain fatty acids in your coconut milk are a fast energy source and less likely to be stored as fat.

Recharge yourself post-workout with our Thai energy bowl.

3 4

5-7min

PHOTOGRAPHY: PAVEL DORNAK AT LUCKY IF SHARP

Now remove the bowl and microwave the basmati rice in its packet for two minutes. Spoon the rice onto a plate and pour over the Thai curry for a reviving al desko dish.

SUPER SIDE

SWEETEN THE DEAL TO COMPLEMENT THE THAI CURRY’S KICK, CALL ON THIS MANGO SALAD. BURSTING WITH FIBRE, IT’LL IMPROVE DIGESTION AND KEEP YOU FULL FOR HOURS

Prep your fruit by chopping up 100g of mango into small cubes and halving three cherry tomatoes.

a bowl with a fr spinach. Drizzle over one tsp of olive oil. Toss and serve.

M outh water ng ng Mango g Salad An easy express salad containing about 600kJ.

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MH CHALLENGE

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What happens when you pit the 2017 Nutri-Grain Ironman champion against a four-time CrossFit Games athlete in the ultimate battle of the fittest? One hell of a challenge!

THE

CROSSFIT CHAMPI

The 2019 Men’s Health Challenge has been a six-week odyssey, pitting two of Australia’s fiercest competitors head-to-head. The first phase followed the fitness and training programs of two very different professional athletes: Ironman Matt Poole and CrossFit champ Khan Porter. After completing the six-week training blocks tailored to their sporting discipline, the lads took on two workouts together, putting their conditioning and training styles to the test. Which sporting legend came out on top? You be the judge.

V Matt Poole’s Final Workout For his ﬁnal Ironman-forging chaallenge, Pooley subjects Khan to a classic test of endurance: the t dreaded beep test. Sure to reignite high-school PE class nightmares, the beep test involves 20-m shuttle runs between cones, with incremental reeductions in time to complete eachh dash. Work until failure – or uuntil Pooley schools you in the art of endurance. WINNER – Pooley, by a country mile

Khan Porter’s Final Workout Showing why he’s still at the top of the Aussie CrossFit scene, Khann puts Pooley through this highintensity scorcher. We could feel our lungs burning just watching this unfold. For 20 minutes, you do 10 thrusters and 10 burpees every two minutes. In your ‘rest’ time you push yourself to burn as many calories as possible on the Assault Bike, with yoour total burn being your score. WINNER – Khan, proving he’s still the Crossﬁt King

Follow their programs on menshealth.com.au May 2019 127

YOUR ULTIMATE ARM BLAST It takes longer to master the biceps curl than you think. I’ve been there.

I used to make the common mistakes. But I’ve spent the past five years nailing perfect technique.The secrets – time under tension, going slow to grow – are in this workout. You’re going to need some new tees By Ebenezer Samuel, PT DIRECTIONS: Do this workout twice a week. Train on 3 other th days. d mbbell rows per arm Do 4 sets of 15 push-ups on one day, 4 sets of 10 dum the next, and 4 sets of 15 jump squats on the last. Resst both other days.

THE WARMUP Prep your arms with 2 sets of 10 reps of each exercise. Rest for 45 seconds after each set. End with 1 minute j i jjacks. k off jumping

Do 3 sets of each superset.

SUPERSET 1 1a

HALF-KNEELING BICEPS CURL

Pause for 3 seconds halfway.

Kneel on your shins, thighs perpendicular to the floor. Hold dumbbells at your sides, palms facing each other. Curl the right dumbbell towards your chest, rotating your palm as you do. Squeeze, then return to the start. Do 10 reps per arm, alternating between 2 curls on the right and 2 on the left. EB SAYS:

“Too many guys rock their torsos when curling. Keep your torso steady as you do these.”

HALFWAY-PAUSE DUMBBELL CURL Curl dumbbells to your chest; slowly lower. Pause when your forearms are parallel to the floor. Finish.

Take 3 seconds to lower yyour torso.

SLOW CLOSE-GRIP PUSH-UP Get in push-up position, hands directly below your shoulders. Lower your torso until your chest is 2 centimetres from the floor; take 3 seconds to do this. Push up.

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DUMBBELL JM PRESS Lie on n your back on a bench, holding dumbbells, arms rai ight but angled str sligh htly towards your forehead. This is the sta art t. Bend at the elbows and d shoulders, lowering the dum mbb bells until their hea ads touch your sho oul lders. Reverse the mot tion to return the weigh hts to the sta art t. That’s 1 rep p; do d 10.

Keep a 90° angle at the knee.

YO U R U LT I M AT E A R M B L A S T

SUPERSET 2 2a

PAUSE SKULL-CRUSHER

PAUSE-AND-ROTATE HAMMER CURL

Lie on your back, dumbbells directly over your shoulders. Bend at the elbows, lowering the dumbbells towards your head. Pause for 1 second when the dumbbells nearly touch your shoulders, then return to start. Do 10. EB SAYS:

“Keep your upper arms perpendicular to the floor throughout. Never move at the shoulder joint; only your elbows are moving. moving ”

Kneel on your shins, thighs perpendicular to the floor. Hold medium m-weight i ht dumbbells at a your sides, palms facin p ng each other. Curl both dumbbells C d towards you t ur chest, palms still facin s ng each other. Lower the weights L w until your forear y rms are parallel to the floo t or, then rotate the dumbbells so your palm t ms face the ce f eiling. Pause, rotate the dumbbells so r your palms face each other y r again, then lower them a toward the floor. That’s 1 t rep; do 8. r

Pause halfway when lowering, rotate your palms to the ceiling, then finish the rep.

SUPE ERSET 3 3a

ER CURL SPIDE Set an n adjustable bench to a 30° ne. Lie facedown on the bench. inclin Your chest should be just off it. Hold a medium-weight dumbbell in wyour right hand, arm straight, palm facing g left. Curl the weight to you ur chest, then lower it with contro ol. That’s 1 rep; do 8 per arm.

Hold for 2 seconds. d

EB SAYS:

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALLIE HOLLOWAY

“Don’t start s swinging your up pper arm; keep it stationa ary throughout.”

KNEELING PAUSE KICKBACK Hold light dumbbells at your sides. Kneel on your shins and bend at the waist. Keep your upper arms parallel to the floor. Moving only at the elbows, press the weights back until your arms are straight. Hold for 2 seconds, then lower. That’s 1 rep; do 8.

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ONE WORD ANSWER

QUESTION

What laptop setting should you change to sharpen your thinking?

ANSWER

G you can look up,” “NEVER MEMORISE ANYTHIN spite his genius, said Albert Einstein, who, de velist Stephen was notoriously forgetful. No s haunted by “the King, on the other hand, wa t”, to him, involved persistence of memory” – “ar rything”. In this the ability to “remember eve like Einstein: respect, most of us are more fting the perfect memory is less a matter of cra ecking off all the horror story than mentally ch orths for our ingredients we need at Woolw nsequences of Sunday meal prep. Yet the co sery to forgetting can range from Mi potato-free frittata, Desperation: an unsatisfying panic when you’re say, or the Monday-meeting promised . . . but asked about that report you somehow neglected to start. lbourne’s RMIT Thankfully, researchers at Me w tool to prevent University have devised a ne your health and brain fade from consigning t Sematary. In a career aspirations to the Pe were tasked with recent study, 400 students t, presented in two memorising a passage of tex rgetica. The letters typefaces: Arial and Sans Fo d by the RMIT team of the latter – newly designe

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left and are full of – awkwardly slant 7° to the comprehension. This gaps that deliberately slow covered to trigger “desirable difficulty” was dis ding to a seventhe act of remembering, lea in test scores. More percentage-point increase ence in the real than enough to make a differ world, too. gs of a 2010 The study supports the findin iana Universities, paper from Princeton and Ind a memory test on in which students were given in either the a passage of fiction, displayed Sans – a typeface easy-to-read Arial or Comic for its cumbersome, notorious among designers gists discovered scrawled style. The psycholo tive experience of that “disfluency, the subjec gnitive operations”, difficulty associated with co Comic Sans group enhanced results, with the ints higher. scoring an impressive 13 po urself when you So, don’t make it easy on yo list: ignore the type up your next important ts and choose the derision of the design fascis ant font you can most spine-chillingly ineleg y to keep your endure. It’s the simplest wa Zone. prospects out of The Dead

WORDS: YO ZUSHI; ILLUSTRATION: MELVIN GALAPON AT DEBUT ART

Typeface

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