BUILD BIGGER BICEPS ON THE MOVE
FREE YOUR BRAIN FROM YOUR DESK p14
WHY CALORIE DON’T COUNT
p22
p48
STAYING WOKE A BOOMER’S GUIDE p74
BIG
MOMOA ENERGY
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9 771329 307002 > NOV 2021 $9.50 NZ $9.99 INC GST
Meet Jason Momoa, Your New Best Mate
PP100028915
ISSN 1329-3079
Catch Of The Day We Go Fishing With NZ’s First Man, Clarke Gayford
CO NTE NTS 11 / 2 1
66 Big Momoa Energy
JASON MOMOA’S raw charisma lights up the big screen but it’s his wider zest for life that’s truly inspiring. We sat down to chat with the irrepressible actor to discover the secrets of his largerthan-life spirit.
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE TACTI C S
p08 Quit or Stick
Stressful job? Figure out if it’s
100 Fire & Smoke
With summer approaching it’s time to fire up the barbie. But rather than just snags and steaks, we tapped four pitmasters to remix your repertoire with a sizzling range of muscle-building meals.
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p16 Stand-up Guy
WEIGHT LOSS
Let There be Light
Can a divine diet deliver you from weight gain?
How Laughter Lifts You Up
Splitting your sides is an underestimated mental health salve. Discover what your sense of humour says about you and how tickling your funny bone can defuse stress and brighten up your life. MIND
LIFE
p28 First Man, First Love
74 Parlez-vous Woke?
Wokeness has been weaponised as an insult when, in fact, it’s an attitude grounded in compassion. Use our glossary to avoid getting cancelled and to view the world with your eyes wide open.
NZ’s first man, Clarke Gayford, on the powerful pull of the sea.
p80 12 Minutes and a Life
The tragic story of how running became deadly for a young Black man.
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6AM With Ludacris...
Known for his gritty lyrics and melodic voice, rapper Chris Bridges, aka Ludacris, has a simple attitude to working out: go all out six days a week so you can drink beer and whisky on weekends.
F IT NE S S
p30 Six-pack Results
What happens when you build a corrugated core.
p117 Orr Inspiring
CrossFit coach Shane Orr on helping wife Tia-Clair Toomey reach the top.
NOV EMBER 2021
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E D I TO R ’S L ET T ER
menshealth.com.au
YOU DO YOU
Men's Health Australia
@menshealthaustralia
@MensHealthAU
AUSTRALIAN
Working for Men’s Health comes with some undeniable perks, none more rewarding than the people you meet. We cross paths with extraordinary talents and minds: doctors, scientists, athletes, artists and, yes, the odd celebrity. While still in my journalistic infancy, I have picked up a few habits from more senior colleagues – one of which is to immerse myself in the world of my subject. A kind of ‘method journalism’, it involves trying to gain an insight into their life before we talk; to share a common mindset; to understand what makes them tick or, at the very least, to have had a shared experience. The goal is to break the ice, leading to a more authentic conversation – and, hopefully, a more interesting read for you. Before interviewing Mark Wahlberg, for example, I rose at 4am for a workout. Before a photoshoot with Patty Mills, I managed to shoot a few hoops. And prior to hiking with Liam Hemsworth, I listened to Miley Cyrus break-up songs on the drive to Malibu. This month, when I had the good fortune to land a chat with our cover guy, Jason Momoa, Sydney was in the midst of an interminable lockdown, limiting my ability to go full Momoa. Were we meeting in normal times, perhaps I may have gone for a ride on a Harley; or spent the morning bouldering; or even taken part in some axe-throwing – all well-documented Momoa activities. Instead, I settled for perhaps the most infamous (and easily accessible) of Momoaisms: sinking Guinness. Although these pre-interview shenanigans will doubtless provide great fodder for story time with my grandkids, none of them resonated with my subject quite as I’d hoped. When I told Wahlberg I’d risen pre-dawn to hit the Hollywood trails, he snorted, not even faintly impressed, and said simply, “Poor you”. It snowed the day we shot Patty Mills in Denver, so my hoop dreams turned into a damp squib. And there was no way I was going to request a heartbreak-fuelled Cyrus sing-a-long with Hemsworth. Yet there I was, sitting in my living room at 10:30pm on a cold Friday night, Guinness in hand. When Momoa materialised on screen, we chatted for a bit before getting down to the nitty-gritty. From off-screen, I produced my half-full bottle of dry Irish stout and admitted to trying to “get into character”, at which point Momoa revealed his own beverage: a mug of tea. Oh, the irony! You see, I am an avid tea drinker. Green, lemon ginger, English breakfast, chai – whatever-is-in-the-cupboard or whatever-I-canget-my-hands-on. Nothing is off limits. If I had stuck to my own routine and stayed true to myself, I would have had more in common with Aquaman in this pivotal moment of our relationship. As it turned out, the Momoa traits I should have been emulating were self-actualisation, self-confidence and self-acceptance. Momoa’s unbridled authenticity is what endears him to millions around the world and is quite possibly the best lesson one can take from our chat (p. 66). Clearly one of the keys to his sustained success, staying true to himself has seen Momoa grow into a beacon of strength, positivity and vitality in a world that craves these attributes, now as much as ever. To be so unapologetically yourself that you create your own signature energy is a gift we can all take from Momoa. If you draw anything from this issue, let it be that your best course of action in the pursuit of happiness is to be undeniably you. Sure, you may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But you’ll be a hell of a lot more palatable than a Guinness.
SCOTT HENDERSON
Editor
BEN JHOTY
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Scott Henderson
scott@menshealth.com.au Men’s Health acknowledges the Cammeraygal people, Traditional Custodians of the land on which this publication is produced, and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. We extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
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Published and Distributed by Paragon DCN Pty Ltd by Permission of Hearst Magazines, Inc., New York, New York, United States of America. Printed and retail distribution by Ovato Limited. Published 12 times a year. All rights reserved. Title and trademark Men’s Health © Hearst Magazines International. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission. Men’s Health is a registered trademark and the unauthorised use of this trademark is strictly prohibited. issn 13293079. © 2021 Paragon DCN.
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AS K MH THE BIG QUESTION
How do I Know When I Should Quit My Job? – RW Ask yourself: is the job worth your investment? “Most challenging jobs come with stress; it’s the level of stress you need to be mindful of,” says psychotherapist Avi Klein. Are you gaining weight or losing your appetite? Are you losing interest in hobbies, lacking motivation or easily angered? (Burnout can look like depression.) Are you developing unhealthy habits, like
eating more sugary foods, drinking more and avoiding friends? “All of this could be a sign that you’re under too much stress,” advises Klein. Next, ask yourself: are things likely to get better soon? If there’s no hope for the stress turning into gains (a promotion, a better job down the line, a respite after a project), it might not be worth toughing it out.
Some jobs just aren’t worth the aggravation.
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ANCIENT SOLUTION TO A MODERN PROBLEM Q My life these days is just bills, stress and relationship dramas. How can I find joy again? A If you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down. – Buddha; b. circa 500BC
TEXT A PT ‘How do I build shoulders that really make a statement?’ – SE
ASK THE GIRLS IN THE OFFICE
Today 5:38am I’m starting to think shoulders make a physique. I train mine heaps but there’s nothing special about them.
Shoulders are crucial, no doubt about it, because properly developed, they help give you width and the V taper. My guess is your delt training is too front focused. Huh? Quick anatomy lesson. The shoulder’s a three-headed muscle with front, medial and rear components. You need to be hitting all three to produce strong, stable and eyecatching delts. Well, I do a lot of push-ups, military presses and front raises. How’s that sound? Like a recipe for trouble. All those moves are primarily targeting your front delt. Keep the military press but sub out the other two for lateral raises (side delt) and scarecrow rows (rear delt). Okay. Weight room, here I come! Just a sec. Those new exercises depend on isolating the target head and are best done with light weights, certainly at first. Start slow, finish strong. BEN WILLIAMS, Personal Trainer
Ask the MH girls the questions you can’t ask anyone else. They’re three women who speak their mind, so don’t expect sugar-coated answers
I’ve met someone on Tinder. It looks promising but it’s very early days. At what point should I delete all my dating apps? – TA Becky: Ooh, jumping the gun a bit, it feels like. Lizza: Hmmm, I would say not until you’re . . . Nikolina: Married? Becky: Had your first child. Then you can delete them. I’m joking. Lizza: For me it’s until you have that conversation where you agree you’re exclusive, and then you can delete them together. But don’t jump in. Don’t disarm unilaterally. Becky: Agreed. Because no one wants to redo their profile. Lizza: It might be as simple as saying, “Hey, I’d like us to be exclusive – would you delete your apps?” Or you could be very casual: joke about having your profile still and then suss things out and see how they’re feeling.
Becky: The other person’s expectation will be that if they’ve deleted their apps, you should as well. And vice versa. Nikolina: If there’s been a conversation about exclusivity, you’d certainly hope so. Becky: You could say something like, “Hey, this is going really well. I feel like maybe I’d love not to see anyone else. How would you feel about getting rid of Tinder? Personally, I’m over it”. Lizza: And if they baulk, then I guess that tells you where you stand and maybe the relationship isn’t as serious as you thought it was. Becky: Yeah, keep swiping. Download Bumble, too. Why not?
Got a query? DM us via Instagram @menshealthau
Lizza: There’s one app that’s just for one-night stands. It’s like Grindr for straight people, but someone I know actually met someone on it. Becky: Really? Lizza: They weren’t serious, until suddenly they were. And then one day, they said to each other, “Oh, we still have the app”. And from there they decided they were going to be exclusive because they enjoyed sleeping with each other.
B ECKY NIKOL INA
LI ZZA
NOVEMBER 2021
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THE RIGHT KIND OF BEER BELLY
WORDS: LOUEE DESSENT-JACKSON; ARTWORK: PETER CROWTHER AT DEBUT ART; ILLUSTRATIONS: ANDREA MANZATI AT SYNERGY ART
Here’s a scientific discovery that we’ll gladly swallow: a strong beer’s probiotic properties can enhance your health
RED WINE has long enjoyed its rep as a heart-healthy tipple, celebrated for its high polyphenol content. But it’s hardly a summer thirst quencher. Fortunately, according to Dutch gut scientists, grain matches grape, and a daily pint can be “very healthy”. It’s a claim to which we’re happy to raise a glass this month. This finding comes courtesy of Eric Claassen at the University of Amsterdam, who points to beer’s lifeextending probiotics as an excuse to keep the fridge well stocked. Specifically, he recommends Belgian beers, which go through a double fermentation process, as opposed to mainstream lagers, which are only fermented once. The second fermentation stage doesn’t just make the beer stronger and more flavourful; it involves a specific type of yeast that can help to prevent illness. Studies have linked probiotics to more than just improved digestion. They have been found to support the health of your heart and even to help you balance mood and reduce anxiety. Of course, you’ll get the same benefits consuming other fermented foods and drinks such as natural yoghurt, kimchi and kefir – though these might not sate your thirst in quite the same way. It goes without saying that such positive effects require moderation: if you overindulge, you’ll wipe out the benefits, because high concentrations of alcohol harm the gut – a fact that most of us learn the hard way. Plus, let’s face it: this is one piece of advice you’ll want to remember the next morning.
Down your risk of illness.
EVERYDAY LIFESAVERS
A daily pint isn’t the only ordinary activity that can extend your life
LEND A HAND (OR FOOT)
Volunteering – to run your weekend footy team, say – lowers all mortality risks. Aichi Prefectural College of Nursing and Health
BREW A DOUBLE
Two or three coffees per day could help to delay ageing at the molecular level. Decaf doesn’t have the same effect.
TURN THE PAGE
Reading for half an hour per day has a measurably positive effect on your lifespan. Yale University School of Public Health
Harvard University
NOVEMBER 2021
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THE FEED Done carefully, fasting can speed things up.
LESS IS MORE
Fasting can offer an effective short cut to better health. Chew over these three pinpoint strategies
Eat all of your kilojoules in an eight-hour window, while fasting for the other 16. Studies show that this helps you shed fat while holding onto muscle. Journal of Translational Medicine
THE FASTED ROUTE TO RAPID HEALTH GAINS
Switching up your diet without first prepping your body can be a recipe for disappointment. New science suggests that some time without can help OVERHAULING YOUR DIET in pursuit of better health is never easy. Swapping microwave dinners for meal prep requires time and effort – and to cap it all off, there’s a risk that your body might not be ready to reap the benefits of your hard work. Specifically, your gut microbiome might not be ready. The billions of health-promoting organisms in your digestive tract multiply or decrease according to what you feed them, but this change is often slow. If your diet has been less than optimal for a while, you might not have enough good bacteria to extract all of the benefits from a nutritious meal. Unless, that is, you fast first. In a recent study at the Max Delbrück Centre for Molecular Medicine, researchers divided overweight people who were about to embark on a new healthy-eating regimen into two groups.
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One group followed a liquid-only diet for five days before the plan started; the other ate as normal. Among those who fasted, scientists noted a rapid increase in healthy, immunity-supporting and blood pressure-balancing bacteria. Surprisingly, benefits were detected even three months later. Both groups had spent those months prioritising a diet of fruit, veg, wholegrains, pulses and fish; yet the fasters still maintained lower bodyweights and healthier blood markers. Embarking on a five-day fast without medical supervision is inadvisable – frankly, it’s a bit extreme. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to boost your health with a shorter food-free period. Hungry for evidence? Consult our list of sciencebacked controlled-eating protocols (right). The benefits are worth working up an appetite for.
5:2 DIET
Eat normally for five days per week, then restrict yourself to about 3330kJ on the other two. A study found that this helps to improve insulin sensitivity. International Journal of Obesity
EAT-STOP-EAT
Fast for a 24-hour period twice a week – for example, stop after breakfast at 8am one day, then fast until breakfast the following day, so you still get to eat at least once every day.
WORDS: LOUEE DESSENT-JACKSON; PHOTOGRAPHY: JOBE LAWRENSON; DIGITAL MANIPULATION: SCRATCHINPOST.CO.UK; ILLUSTRATIONS: ANDREA MANZATI AT SYNERGY ART
16:8 METHOD
Audi Vorsprung durch Technik
Beauty. Beast. RS 7
The Audi RS 7 Sportback Uncompromising power. Irrepressibly beautiful design. The Audi RS 7 Sportback is a force of nature.
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FREE YOUR BRAIN FROM YOUR DESK
Far from increasing productivity, easing back into your old, sedentary desk culture could harm your focus and attention span. Take a stand
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THINK OUTSIDE THE STATIC DESK
Try these office focus boosters. They may seem counter-intuitive, but they’re backed by science
KEEP YOUR HANDS BUSY
Mindless doodling has been linked to better memory retention when engaged with a dull work task. University of Plymouth
WATCH THAT VIRAL CLIP
In a study, those who watched a funny video tried harder to finish a problem. Journal of Business and Psychology
Get your body moving to keep your mind alert.
STRATEGIC DAYDREAMING
Allowing your mind to wander when wading through admin can help your brain conserve energy for harder tasks. Harvard University
WORDS: LOUEE DESSENT-JACKSON I PHOTOGRAPHY: AGATA PEC I ILLUSTRATIONS: ANDREA MANZATI AT SYNERGY ART
THE RETURN to the office (eventually!) might be good news when it comes to watercooler gossip and post-work beers, but settling back into your (hot) desk has a few unexpected downsides. While our homes might be full of domestic distractions – dishes that need washing, dogs that need walking – long periods of uninterrupted work aren’t inherently more conducive to getting things done. Not only is sitting down for hours at a time bad for your body, it’s bad for your mind, too. Scientists have long suspected that sedentary habits negatively impact cognitive function. Now, they know how. An experiment at the University of Illinois tracked the activity levels of 89 overweight adults over the course of a week. During the study, researchers assessed participants’ ability to multitask when faced with distractions. They found that those who habitually moved less – regularly sitting for 20 minutes or more in unbroken stretches – were less able to maintain focus, with both the speed and accuracy of their work impacted. The results suggest that, in an office setting, keeping yourself chained to the desk will only make it easier for your mind to wander. If you have lost some of the opportunities for movement that you had while working from home, there’s a risk that your productivity levels will dip unless you unshackle yourself. So, for the sake of your health and your chances of making the 5.48pm train, build periods of physical movement into your day: take the stairs to consult with a colleague instead of emailing, or pop out to eat lunch outdoors. It might feel like a waste of precious minutes, but you’ll make them back by working more efficiently. Then sharpen your focus further with the following suggestions (right).
Go Deeper Eco-Drive Diver 200m Boundless curiosity and a passion for the deep sea. diver’s watch. Get ready for a whole new world of adventure.
ADVANTAGE STAY AHEAD OF THE GAME
STAND-UP GUY Comedian, radio and TV star DAVE ‘HUGHESY’ HUGHES has been telling gags for a living for over 25 years. Find out why laughing at life has helped him build a career that’s no joke . . . and gloriously silly at the same time BY BEN JHOT Y
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COMIC BELIEF: HUGHES SEES THE FUNNY SIDE OF HIS OWN MISFORTUNES.
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WHAT DO YOU call a comedian who tells you he doesn’t drink, runs 5k in 20 minutes, is a vegan and practises meditation? A liar? No. A comedian? Because if it’s not a lie it’s got to be a joke, right? Wrong again. The answer is Dave Hughes. I’m listening to Hughes tell stories about how he became the man he is today as he sits in his home study. As he talks, the 50-year-old funny man is contemplating a severed head of himself that’s staring back at him from his desk. “I did it for Halloween, and it’s looking at me, and well, it’s me decapitated,” says Hughes, his famously laconic, deadpan drawl instantly bringing a smile to my face. “It’s probably not good feng shui. I probably should move it somewhere else.” As macabre as it is having your own head encroach upon your workspace, the 3D cranium is perhaps a useful reminder to Hughes that life is short and, at its core, ridiculous. It’s something Hughes realised a long time ago. The problem? Like most of us, his ego sometimes sees him forget it. “I remember having the attitude that life was funny from an early age,” says Hughes. “I was able to see the silliness, luckily. But still, to this day, I’m too egocentric in many ways, where you just take yourself too seriously. My feelings get hurt every day. And it’s all ego related, whether it’s someone saying something not nice about you, or some bloody ratings that aren’t going your way or some bullshit, where you’re comparing yourself to others.” Of course, seriousness, particularly the overly introspective kind, is the flipside of silly; but as Hughes has mined to great effect, there is a symbiosis between the two states. Because although self-absorption should be the antithesis of funny, by digging ever deeper into his neuroses, Hughes has somehow managed to expose the absurd, often trifling nature of his own and others’ anxieties and fears. It’s some feat. As appealing as the idea of taking life less seriously might be, most of us fail or forget to employ this sunny attitude, often just moments after we’ve vowed to embrace it. Thus, we curse as we confront a loungeroom full of Lego pieces, get triggered by someone on social media, or start ruminating on something we said yesterday. After more than 25 years’ trying to make people laugh, Hughes knows better than most that prioritising silly over serious is a struggle, something you strive for and, at best, achieve only fleetingly. But those moments when your troubles recede or you’re able to see how minor, trivial or even pathetic your problems often are, those are precious. And, as Hughes has discovered, without them life can be pretty hard work.
GAG R E F L E X
IMPRACTICAL JOKER: HUGHES FINDS COMEDY IN UNLIKELY PLACES.
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Hughes grew up in Warrnambool in Western Victoria, at the end of the Great Ocean Road. It is, or it was, the type of place where you played footy in winter and cricket in summer, or you surfed, he says. Hughes loved it. “I was a ’70s kid, country lad, and I would be outdoors every day kicking the footy around until dark or playing
TACT I C S
cricket in the local nets, which were over our back fence.” As well as sporty, he was smart, a combination that landed him “middle of the range” when it came to popularity. “I was certainly not as popular with the girls as I would have liked to have been,” he says. “But look, I had friends. Enough friends without being the king of the schoolyard.” Enough perhaps, to be the class clown and the everyman. Hughes remembers performing a play on a grade six camp and getting a laugh from the small audience. “I remember thinking, ‘Hey, maybe I’ve got something here’,” he says. In fact, whenever he found himself in front of a group of people, he couldn’t help trying to make them chuckle. “I was going to Christian Brothers’ College and I remember doing a speech for religious education and just being able to crack the whole room up and that being intoxicating,” he recalls. From around 13, he began nurturing a secret ambition to one day become a comic. “I remember feeling lucky that I knew what I wanted to do,” he says. At the same time, though, the class clown pulling pranks was just as often the kid crying in the dunnies when he didn’t make the school footy team. “It was funny: I was a contradiction of someone who knew they wanted to be a comedian and so would be laughing half the time and the other half the time I was crying because I wasn’t as popular as I wanted to be, or I didn’t get the right score on some bloody test at school,” he says. “So, I was definitely a contradiction in the way I thought about life growing up. And to this day, let’s be honest. I’m still feeling sorry for myself half the time.” But while Hughes knew he wanted to become a comic, back then at least, it wasn’t a career you just went out and pursued, particularly if you were the dux of your high school. He dropped out of an IT course at Swinburne University, then tried accounting at the local campus of Deakin, before dropping out again. And that’s when things began to unravel. Hughes began binge drinking and smoking marijuana. Feeling rudderless, he became depressed. Several times, drunken benders saw him wake up in strange places. While he never felt suicidal, he says, he did indulge in reckless behaviour, particularly in cars. The type of behaviour where you don’t always care about what happens to you. “I think a lot of young people go through those moments of just not caring about results and doing stupid stuff that you regret,” he says. “Even in cars where people are drunk or you’re drunk.” Hughes began to feel like his mind was haunting him. “At one point I thought I was absolutely insane,” he says. He turned to his mother for help. “I said, ‘Mum, I think I’ve got schizophrenia’. I was having these episodes where I was just flipping out, basically.” His mum took him to a doctor who told him he didn’t have schizophrenia. The news
LEFT: A PASSIONATE CARLTON SUPPORTER, HUGHES WAS A KEEN AUSSIE RULES PLAYER GROWING UP. BELOW: HUGHES BECAME A VEGAN AFTER WATCHING THE DOCUMENTARY THE GAME CHANGERS, AND HASN’T LOOKED BACK.
NOVEMBER 2021
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WHAT I’VE DONE IS TURN MY OWN PATHETIC PROBLEMS INTO COMEDY
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TACT I C S
settled him down. Afterwards he quit drinking and smoking for good. That was 28 years ago. You wonder how he managed to get off the booze and bongs so easily when so many young men spend the rest of their twenties and beyond struggling to come to grips with these and other vices. One reason is that unlike a lot of young guys, he actually sought help. “If you think you’ve got issues, talk to people,” he says. He also worried about what he was doing to his brain. “I do remember once reading an article saying that every time you lose a memory from drinking you kill some brain cells, and I thought, ‘Jesus Christ, I’m killing a lot of brain cells’, because I’d lose memory every time I drank. But the longer I was sober the happier I felt, and the more I realised it was the right thing for me.” It didn’t hurt that he had ambition. Or an ego. He wouldn’t become a comic for a few years yet, but the dream was still hanging around, teasing him with possibility. “Certainly, I had an ego that said that I could . . . it’s a wanky thing to say, but I could achieve stuff,” he says. Ultimately, Hughes believes sobriety allowed him to start taking the reins in his life. “It’s all about getting control back,” he says. “Not letting something else dictate your emotions. You have complete control of your own brain. Whether you think you do or not, you actually do. It’s empowering to realise that.”
INSTAGRAM: @DHUGHESY
FINDING F UNN Y
Hughes first stand-up gig was a bomb. He’d moved to Perth at 22 and tried out at a local comedy club. “I felt like a loser because no one was laughing,” he recalls. “All my insecurities came flooding out on stage. There’s no way you can make an audience laugh when you’re feeling like that.” He went back to the club a second time and felt that he “kept my dignity at least”. His third attempt a few months later was transformative. “I walked on stage and I had an epiphany, which is that I don’t have anything to prove and that just by getting up on stage I’m a winner. That was the start of my career.” After that he was hooked. “I love the thrill of a ‘bit’ getting a laugh,” he says. “It was just the joy of something occurring to you and you walking on stage and turning that into comedy for people. It was just amazing. It still is.” But as enraptured as he was to be finally pursuing his dream, he was raw. So raw in fact that he didn’t know you were allowed to repeat jokes night after night. “I thought the barman would heckle me,” he says. But he kept getting up on stage, because that’s what you do when something’s your dream. And he kept trying out new material, seeing what hit and what missed, gradually refining his act. Other comedians wondered what he was doing. Why didn’t he stick to the stuff that worked? You’re probably familiar with Hughes’ act today. The everyman ranting about the petty trials and tribulations of life. He’d been inspired by an American comedian he’d seen on a stand-up video as a kid – Sam Kinison. “He was ranting about the fact that his wife screwed him
over,” Hughes recalls. “He was ranting about things in his own life that were painful to him. But he just did it so, so funny. What I like to think I’ve done is turn my own pathetic problems into comedy.” As he says this, I find myself recalling some of Hughes’ rants on TV, his face red with indignation at perceived slights and minor daily infractions, often ‘perpetrated’ by his long-suffering wife, Holly, and his three kids. “Life is ridiculous,” he says. “If you can sort of reflect that, or you can convey the ridiculousness of life, there’s going to be a certain amount of people that are going to go, ‘Yes, thank you for doing that’.” If you can remind yourself at the same time, all the better.
L OSE T HE M A SK
After getting up at 4.30am to record The 2Day FM Morning Crew With Hughesy, Ed and Erin Molan on the Hit Network, Hughes is now munching on peanut butter and banana oatmeal toast. Two years ago, he saw the Netflix documentary The Game Changers and decided to become a vegan. A keen runner, Hughes had struggled with muscle soreness after runs since his early thirties. Doctors told him it was age. The problem got progressively worse, until in his mid-forties he was “blowing calf muscles every third run”. Going vegan, he believes, has helped reduce the inflammation in his body after exercise. As a result, the soreness has vanished. “I honestly haven’t pulled a calf muscle in two years,” he says. “I can walk down the stairs in the morning without going sideways. At the age of 50, it’s amazing. I treat it like a miracle.” Certainly, it sounds ‘game changing’, allowing him to run between 5-7km, five days a week. He aims for 4-minute kays, or around 20 minutes for a 5km run. “You’re always in a better mood after a run,” he says. “So, the more you do it the better.” The other pivotal habit that helps underwrite Hughes’ health and mental wellbeing is meditation, something he tries to practise for 20 minutes, twice a day. He loves it, he says, because it helps keep him in the moment. “It’s corny to say it but when you live in the moment, there’s nothing else. If you can just stay in the moment, life is beautiful. All our troubles happen when we don’t live in the moment. The more you can stay there the better.” Hughes dishes out such nuggets of hard-won, self-help wisdom throughout the
ABOVE: HUGHES WITH BECKY LUCAS AND NAZEEM HUSSAIN ON THE SET OF HUGHESY, WE HAVE A PROBLEM. BELOW: HUGHES LIKES TO RUN HIS MOUTH . . . AND HIS LEGS.
course of our conversation. He’s clearly a man who’s faced down his demons and if not defeated them, then is certainly giving as good as he gets. Between silly and serious there is a third rail that’s perhaps been as crucial to his health and happiness as anything else: self-awareness. It’s a topic I clumsily broach by way of his return as a judge on the new series of The Masked Singer. What, I wonder, does Dave Hughes’ mask look like? “My mask is that I try to take the mask off,” he says. “I’ve got a smile on my face most of the time . . . and so I bloody should, you know what I mean? I’ve got absolutely nothing to complain about. So, my mask is a smile. But it’s ‘fake it till you make it as well’, I reckon. If you say to yourself, you’re going to be happy, you will be. No one else makes a decision about my mood. I make them. I’ve got the power. As everyone does.” I ask him if the mask on his desk – that severed head – has a smile on its face. “No,” he says. “It’s not smiling, which probably reminds me that that’s how I’m going to end up, so I should try to smile till I get to that point.” You should, too. And laugh. Seriously. The Masked Singer airs on Network 10 NOVEMBER 2021
21
F I TN ESS
What You’ll Gain
BUILD BIG BICEPS ON THE MOVE
22
MEN’S HE ALTH
TORCHED KILOJOULES
Loop a towel through the kettlebell handle. With your feet at shoulder width, hinge down, keeping your back straight. Grab an end in each hand. Drive your hips forward and lift the bell in a deadliftlike motion.
Want to wipe out your working-from-home posture issues while upscaling your arms? Welcome to the TOWEL GUN WALK
THE JURY IS out on exactly how many steps we need to take per day – after all, 10,000 is just an arbitrary number – but if you bring a kettlebell along for some of them, you’ll feel the benefits with every stride. “I absolutely love this move,” says fitness trainer Andrew Tracey. “It sits between isometric and dynamic loading: you’re hitting your biceps with a static move, while building your core stability and working your traps, scapula and upper back.” It’s also an “anti-flexion” exercise, which is essential for those of us hunched over a desk all day. “Because you’re holding a weight in front of you, every step will try to collapse your core,” says Tracey. “To prevent this, your scapula retracts and your upper back, rhomboids and erectors keep you upright, while your core works to stop you folding over.” If all you have is a heavy kettlebell, perform quick 10m shuttles. But if you have access to more manageable weights, try this protocol. Walk 12.5m and back – every minute, on the minute – then rest for the remainder of your 60 seconds, before going again. “That’s a lot of time under tension for your biceps and those postural muscles,” says Tracey. Get moving.
1TOWEL DOWN
BOULDER BICEPS
THE
BEST
EXERCISE YOU’RE NOT DOING
RIGHT ANGLE
Keeping your shoulders back and your eyes looking straight ahead, curl the kettlebell up so your forearms are parallel to the floor, with your elbows at 90 °.
3WALK IT OFF
Tense your core and walk with long, purposeful strides. Grip the towel hard to keep those muscle fibres switched on and working continuously.
SLOW GAINS
As your biceps and traps start to burn, resist the urge to hurry. The kettlebell will swing around. “It’s in a precarious position, so keep it under control,” says Tracey. A burn in the bis beats a bell in the balls.
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N U TRI T ION
EAT ROOTS AND LEAVES ROOTS
SHOOTS
100
140ml A study in the Journal of Applied found that beetroot juice
according to the
25% folate RDI*
2.3g
ENDIVE
PAK CHOI
289% vitamin K RDI
11% calcium RDI
Leafy greens are low in carbs, containing around 0.5-1.5g per portion. They provide recovery-supporting antioxidants with minimal impact on your macro count.
1g
4.7g
A single, skin-on roasted spud dishes out 4.7g of fibre, delivering gut health benefits and a steady energy release.
MICRO MACHINES 28% manganese RDI
MINDING MACROS
20g
330% vitamin A RDI
103% vitamin C RDI
Tubers such as sweet potatoes pack about 20g of carbs – an ideal amount to consume an hour before a moderate training sesh. Double it for more brutal sessions.
HITS & MISSES
Low in kilojoules
Not very filling
Good for hydration
Easy to meal prep
Endurance carbs
Taste great mashed
Tedious to peel
Fuller for longer
JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE With a nutty taste, this is delicious puréed or roasted. It’s a source of inulin, a prebiotic that feeds “good” gut bacteria.
THE MH VERDICT: ROOTS WIN! We all know eating leafy greens will help your health and fitness flourish. But for their sheer variety of options, useful micros, delicious flavour and energy-giving, slow-burning carbohydrates, root vegetables are our champions. Dig for victory! 24
MEN’S HE ALTH
WORDS: SCARLETT WRENCH I *ALL PER 100G I PHOTOGRAPHY: DAN MATTHEWS | ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: STUDIO 33, GETTY
little bit helps: for example, a side of sautéed Swiss chard will top up your levels by 2.3g.
32
HOW I BUILT MY BODY
HOW THE MOUNTAIN
YEARS
FOUND HIS NEW PEAK Champion strongman HAFÞÓR BJÖRNSSON was on a mission to get fitter ahead of his boxing bout against Devon Larrat. Now the summit is in sight BY
SCARLETT WRENCH ANDRI MÁR MARGRÉTARSON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
THE MANTLE of “World’s Strongest Man” is a heavy one to bear. Since relinquishing it, Hafþór Björnsson feels considerably lighter. More than 50kg lighter, to be precise. “I feel so much better than when I weighed 205kg,” the strongmanturned-pugilist tells MH. “I’m obviously healthier, but I am also more focused.” In the pursuit of weightlifting records, bigger is better. “But when I had to force-feed myself every day, I used to get so tired,” he says. “Now, I’ve retired from that.” Björnsson, whose formidable size earned him the role of Gregor “the Mountain” Clegane in Game of Thrones, was speaking to MH from Dubai, where he’d been
BEFORE Undeniably the strongest of strongmen. 26
MEN’S HE ALTH
AFTER Now 50kg lighter, and fighting fit – quite literally.
205cm HEIGHT
155kg WEIGHT
F IT NE S S
EAT LIKE THOR
Björnsson eats five times a day, balancing protein with slow-burning carbs. Here’s a sample menu
BREAKFAST
• Chicken, 200g • Eggs, 3 • Greek yoghurt, 150g • Berries, 100g • Oats, 40g
LUNCHES
• Tenderloin beef, 220g • White rice, 180g • Greens, 100g • Chicken, 220g • Potatoes, 250g • Greens, 100g
DINNER
• Salmon, 220g • White rice, 100g • Greens, 100g
THE WORLD’S STRONGEST MAN HAS SWAPPED SHEER SIZE FOR A RIPPED RIG.
SNACKS
• Greek yoghurt, 250g • Almond butter, 30g • Banana, 100g
BACK TO BASICS: BJĬRNSSON’S SIMPLE DIET AND OLD SCHOOL TRAINING ARE DELIVERING, BIG TIME.
FULL-BODY ACTION
For ring-ready fitness, take on Björnsson’s quick-fire cardio routine
Repeat these exercises for three minutes, take 60 seconds’ rest, then jump on the assault bike and go at it hard for three minutes. Rest or four rounds. SQUAT JUMP (4 reps)
PHOTOGRAPHY: DAN MATTHEWS, LOUISA PARRY, STUDIO 33, LUCKY IF SHARP, I ILLUSTRATIONS: HARVEY SYMONS
B A
BURPEE (4 reps)
assiduously prepping for his recent fight against armwrestler, Devon Larratt, a last-minute stand in for Eddie Hall. The hard training clearly paid off: he knocked out Larratt in the opening round. In Dubai, his days were structured and repetitive. He ate the same five meals every day and boxed six times a week, while taking on four strength workouts – two upper body, two lower body – and four endurance sessions. Assault bike intervals are “a killer”, but they mimic the
stop-start nature of a fight and train him to stay mentally sharp in a state of exhaustion. On other days, he rode at a steady pace for up to an hour. “You’ll be on there for half an hour, and you’re just, like, ‘Fuck, I still have half an hour left?’” In total, Björnsson was in the gym for up to five hours per day. Yet he trusts that the rewards will be worth it. “If I stay focused, I’ll reach my goal,” he says. “I’m that kind of person. I love being obsessed. I love seeing results.”
Björnsson knows that he walks a “fine line” between pushing his limits and compromising his recovery, so he takes his rest seriously. As well as ice baths and saunas, he is an advocate of the Graston technique, a form of soft tissue therapy using metal instruments. But the hard graft hasn’t dulled his passion for the sport. “I am absolutely loving boxing right now, and I enjoy it more each week,” he says. “It is hard. But I like hard work.”
B
A
PUSH-UP (4 reps)
A
B
NOVEMBER 2021
27
FIRST MAN, FIRST LOVE Upon those raised in its presence, the sea can exert a powerful magnetic pull. CLARKE GAYFORD, the partner of New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern, reveals how he erased growing feelings of disenchantment by reconnecting with The Big Blue
28
MEN’S HE ALTH
Gisborne: by the time you’re 19, you can’t wait to get out of a town like that. And when you’re older, you find a million excuses to go back. On finishing high school, I was keen to take a year off, but my parents wanted me to go to university. As an act of rebellion, I picked the university furthest from home that would take me: the University of Otago, in Dunedin. I enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts degree and became a textbook case in how to be a useless student for a couple of years. Then I got all my fees refunded and snuck off to Indonesia to surf. That was my introduction to the wider world. Back on home soil, I became passionate about wanting to work in television. That came from growing up on a farm where we never owned a TV. Sometimes we’d rent one, so it was a novelty, a treat; it became something mystical. I had a few confidence issues coming out of school and never thought someone like me was allowed to do something like that. It took a couple of years to realise that, okay, you can give this a go. I applied to the New Zealand Broadcasting School, which took about 17 people a year. I didn’t get in, but I’d made up my mind by then and just kept pestering them. Finally, they relented and agreed to interview me. I had long hair, which I cut off, and I bought a suit jacket. I climbed into an old yellow station wagon and drove all the
way to Christchurch, where I presented at the interview and managed to sneak in. Thus began a long career in TV and radio, where initially I worked behind the scenes but in time found myself in Auckland on the mic, hosting everything from a midnight show to breakfast radio, always in the youth-orientated, musical space. I ended up at a station where I felt engaged and stimulated, until a large company took it over and the DJs went from choosing all our own music and being passionate about what we played to having playlists imposed on us. For me, by then in my thirties, all the shine went off the job.
T HE C A L L OF T HE SE A
It wasn’t just work that was bringing me down. Something was missing from my life, something elemental. My separation from the sea had been too abrupt, too complete. In an interview I stumbled across, the fisheries research scientist Catherine Chambers said something that resonated with me: “Fishing is not a job. It’s a livelihood and it is bound by place. When those things separate from each other . . . you get into real problems with isolation, depression, anxiety, nervousness.” I certainly missed my connection to Gisborne. But more than that, I missed my connection to the ocean. As luck would have it, I had the chance
STORY COMPILED FROM AN INTERVIEW BY DANIEL WILLIAMS
LOOKING BACK, I can recognise my childhood as idyllic. At the time, though, do we ever realise how good we have things? Rarely. More often, the truth dawns later, when we catch ourselves as adults trying to recapture the magic of days past. I grew up on a small horticultural farm in Gisborne, on the east coast of the North Island. My family also had what we call a bach, a tiny holiday home about an hour’s drive south in a beautiful spot called the Mahia Peninsula. Split between those two places, my boyhood revolved around the sea. Among my earliest memories are my dad pushing me onto waves on a surfboard and taking me fishing. He taught me how to go around the rocks at low tide and find paua (abalone), how to snorkel and how to head out to sea by boat, drop anchor and check the wind. As I got a little older and more independent, the fishing took on a life of its own. I’d save my pocket money and buy sinkers, fishing reels and all the bits and pieces I could afford. I’d pore through the fishing magazines. I’d go off by myself around the rocks and catch whatever I could. Aged 10, at Makouri Primary School, I composed a story about the life I envisaged for myself. “I would like to be a fisherman,” I wrote. “I will buy a great big boat. We are going to have a radio in the boat. We are going to have a deep-water sounder.”
M A N
to buy a small boat – our old family boat from Gisborne that my dad no longer needed. I moved it to Auckland, and instantly it carried me back in time. I was excited about rising at five in the morning to go out on the water, as opposed to coming home from a nightclub around that time after a DJing gig. But I knew the sea needed to be more than something I squeezed in before work; I needed to make it a central part of my life once again. When my friend and film industry legend Mike Bhana returned to live in New Zealand after 25 years of blue-chip documentary work in the Pacific, we decided to take a chance on a format we dreamed up over a few beers. Our television program, Fish of the Day, which first went to air in 2015, has allowed us to explore all corners of New Zealand and much further afield, as well. I suspect the sea is fundamental to who we are as humans and how we might best balance our lives. When I travel, I make a point of speaking with veteran commercial fishers, mostly old men, and they talk about the ocean as a holistic experience. They go out to sea because they have this need for it. Skirting its edges as I do, you get a glimpse into its power. From the moment you pick a destination and cast off from shore, you’re solving problems until the moment you return. Being at sea forces you to think about that and nothing else. If you’re facing other pressures, they all disappear. It is a massive mental release, a wonderful real-life game of chess. And if you’re lucky, you come back with dinner.
FIND A WAY
In 2013, two years before the launch of Fish of the Day, I began dating a young Labour Party MP named Jacinda Ardern. In October 2017, Mike and I were diving off Mooloolaba on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. When we surfaced, the skipper of the boat called out, in his wonderful Australian accent, “Mate, you might want to call home – your missus has
TO
MA N
had a promotion”. Jacinda had just been elected unopposed as Labour Party leader. Just seven weeks after that, she became Prime Minister. The following year, in June 2018, we welcomed into the world our daughter, Neve. The role of partner to a head of government doesn’t come with a manual, and I’ve had to sharpen my reflexes along the way. Is it emasculating? No. I believe in what my partner’s doing. I believe in the things she’s trying to push through. Prior to having a child, you hear about how it’s going to upend your life. And then the child arrives and, oh my goodness! It doesn’t matter how much you’d like to do some or all the things you used to do . . . that’s not possible anymore. That said, Mike and I managed to film a season of Fish of the Day for this year, and I did a documentary on great whites, Shark Lockdown, for Discovery Channel. I have my diary in which my filming segments are blocked out. And I look forward to them, now more than ever, but they do come with the guilt of knowing you’re not around, not helping at home. Obviously, we have such a busy household now, and Neve’s mum has her eye so firmly on her job, which is relentless. But there are times I’ll say to Jacinda, when I’ve been stuck on land for a while, “I just need to go”. I need to get on the water and escape, even for half a day. For Shark Lockdown, we were right on the edge of the roaring forties, amid that proper biting cold that cuts straight through you. We were getting into cages and, at one point, we had six great whites near the back of the boat, albatross all over the surface and seals around us. If you’re not feeling alive in those moments, there is no hope for you. Fish of the Day, by Clarke Gayford and Mike Bhana (Penguin NZ), is out now.
“Something was missing. My separation from the sea had been too abrupt”
NOVEMBER 2021
29
F I TN ESS
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN
…I GET A SIX-PACK? Revealing your abdominals doesn’t require excessive crunches and near starvation. Here’s how to invest in your midsection
01
04
CRUNCH TIME
We all have abs, but their strength, shape and visibility vary, says PT Claire Steels, director of Steels Fitness. The extent to which they pop isn’t tied to the number of crunches you do. “Some will have visible abs without strong abdominals, while others will have strong abdominals without visible abs,” says Steels.
02
SCORCHED EARTH
01
02
03
04
30%
CORE VALUES
Want abs that would make a Love Island contestant blush? For that, men need to have less than 13-14 per cent body fat, says Steels. Aim for consistency in your training and nutrition, maintain a kilojoule deficit, and adapt your plan after four weeks if you’re not seeing any changes.
30
MEN’S HE ALTH
03 BRICK BY BRICK
An overlooked factor in the quest for abs is that the muscles have a functional purpose: to provide support to your core. Train for strength and the aesthetics will follow. “Dynamic exercises, such as twists, will cause your muscles to shorten and lengthen to produce power, whereas static exercises such as the plank require an isometric contraction,” explains Steels. Combine the two for the best results. “And avoid training your abs more than four to five times per week. They need to recover.”
05
Leaning out is no easy feat. The Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition suggests that to do this safely, you’ll need to lose 0.5-1 per cent of your bodyweight per week. And you don’t need to ban carbs. In fact, says Steels, you might find it easier to limit your fat intake to 30 per cent of your kilojoules.
05 CRASH COURSE
Take it slow and steady. “Reducing your energy intake too much can interrupt sleep,” says Steels. A smaller deficit of 1200kJ per day might take longer, but it’ll be less arduous. And remember: ultra-low body fat isn’t a marker of wellbeing. Men aged 30-50 can be healthy at the 20-23 per cent mark.
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ELLIE COLE As the swimming great nears the end of her brilliant career, she urges you to shrug off the negativity of others and to focus not on barriers but glorious possibilities BY
LIZZA GEBILAGIN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE
BACCON
“You shouldn’t be listening to the limitations everybody tries to put on you“
32
MEN’S HE ALTH
GROWING UP, Paralympian Ellie Cole revered Australian swimming royalty. Now, the 29-year-old has become a legend herself. The champion in freestyle and backstroke has won 17 Paralympic medals, six of them gold. The addition of two more at this year’s Games (a silver and a bronze) secured her place in the sporting pantheon as Australia’s most decorated female Paralympian. Having topped off her fourth outing at a Paralympics by bearing the flag at the closing ceremony, Cole has signalled she will hang up her goggles after the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham next July-August. As the sun sets on her days as a competitive swimmer, what better time to reflect on where it all began and what she’s learned along the way?
WO M E N
I N
S PORT
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ELLIE COLE Men’s Health: How has sport shaped your life? Ellie Cole: I grew up in a little bit of a minority,
so sport was a platform to showcase what my abilities were when the rest of the world saw something completely different. I’ve kind of come across the same obstacles – being a female in sport, being treated a little bit differently as I was growing up – but I’ve seen so many wonderful and powerful female athletes coming through the ranks, especially in the last 10 years, whom I’ve really drawn inspiration from. And I know that I can get out there and be just as good as the boys, if not better.
MH Who were some of those athletes who inspired you as a child? EC I grew up really looking towards Susie O’Neill, Petria Thomas, Jodie Henry… all of those powerhouse athletes. When I was a kid, I used to sit cross-legged in front of the television and see what they could do. Now we see so many Paralympic role models coming into the mix. It’s really great just to have so much diversity in sport and for anybody to grow up knowing that they can achieve great things in sport – and outside of sport – if they just give it a good crack. MH You mentioned that you also faced adversity because of your gender. Has that changed over time? EC Swimming, in terms of inclusion, is probably further progressed than most sports, especially when it comes to gender and disability. In terms of other sports, I’ve seen a real gender gap when it comes to [media] exposure and support, whether that’s air time or funding or development opportunities for young girls. You find boys and girls usually learn how to play sport together, but then once they hit puberty they start to become segregated and treated differently. We are seeing that change slowly, and I think a big part of that is just exposure on television and for people to see that female athletes are really powerful, they’re really talented and they’re really skilled. Increasingly, it doesn’t matter what gender you are, you have the same opportunities. Obviously there are still gaps, but we are seeing that gap closing. But there’s still a long way to go. MH What advice do you have for young athletes who want to follow in your footsteps? EC Being an athlete can be very challenging at times, especially when you have this idea of what you want to be and everybody else sees something completely different. And so the advice that I would give young athletes is just to go for it. You know what you’re
capable of. You shouldn’t really be listening to the limitations everybody else tries to put on you. You know deep down what you’ve got. You know deep down what you can deliver. And you know deep down who you really are. So just embrace all that and really use it going forward. MH Do you think there’s a difference between the Ellie Cole the world sees and the real you? EC Yeah. I think that I really started noticing that I was being treated differently probably from the age of three. I was in the cancer ward having chemotherapy and my parents were told that I was going to have a disability, and all of a sudden their whole world changed. I grew up with one leg when everybody else had two. And so a lot of my memories from when I was a young girl are of being sidelined at school sport and people wrapping me up in cotton wool. And when you see that over and over again, it can really affect your confidence. I just got in the water and I felt the same as everybody else. Nobody could see that I had a difference when I was in the water. All of a sudden I was in a place where I was on an equal platform to all of the other kids. That gave me a lot of confidence. And so that’s why I owe so much to Paralympic sport. And I think that if my parents had known that Paralympic sport was around when I was younger, they would have felt a lot more comfortable with the idea of me being different. And that just goes to show how sport can change the world. Now I have young kids sending me pictures of stick figures of people in wheelchairs on top of podiums. They can see that people who have a disability can still be champions, and that’s something that I didn’t have growing up. MH When you’re competing, do you hear the crowd getting behind you? EC There’s this phenomenon in sport where if you’re in the zone, you don’t actually remember any of your race. You dive in and then before you know it, the race is finished and you’re like, “Wow, I was just on autopilot the whole time”. For me, I don’t really hear the crowd in the water. I guess I’m just so focused on what I’m doing. But the one thing that I do hear when I touch the wall is my mum. For some reason her voice carries over 15,000 other voices and it’s the only thing that I can hear. You’ll often find at the end of my races that I’m having a bit of a laugh to myself because I’ve got my mum over here with flags coming out of her hair, somehow being louder than everybody else.
MH What would you be doing if you weren’t
a swimmer? EC I always think about what I’d be doing if I wasn’t an athlete. The one thing I wanted was to be a ballerina, for some reason. I really like watching dancing. I actually wanted to be a dancer before I got into swimming. But if I wasn’t an athlete, I’d be sleeping in, for sure. Also, probably watching what I’m eating a little bit more and being a little bit more social. Athletes aren’t the most social people. We usually just sleep all day. We’re actually quite lazy. I know how lazy I am when I’m doing my washing, because 90 per cent of my clothes are pyjamas. And then the other 10 per cent is activewear. It’s like, “Gosh, I need to go out more”. MH What does your training consist of? EC I’m a swimmer, which means we get up
before the sun does. I usually do nine pool sessions a week and they’re about two to two-and-a-half-hours long. And then we do three strength and conditioning sessions a week. They’re individually designed based on what your weakest areas are, and they’re about 90 minutes. In between all of those sessions, we’re doing a lot of physiotherapy, prehab work, massage, nutrition talks and usually studying or working, as well. So it’s a pretty busy life. MH Is your diet regimented? EC I don’t know what normal people eat. I
usually have a little bit of protein, vegetables and carbs. I usually have carbs before a training session. And then afterwards, I have carbs and protein as a snack. Everything seems to revolve around getting ready for my training sessions. MH How do you cope with stress leading up to big events? EC Stress was a really big thing for me last year. It’s one of those phenomena, I guess, where you don’t realise how stressed you are until you push yourself over the edge. I started getting a lot of stress migraines and really had to learn how to put myself first. And so for me, I really need to check in with myself every day. I need to get up a little bit earlier just to have a bit of quiet time before I go to training – reading the newspaper or whatever. But as I’m approaching a big competition, I’ve actually started meditating to try and relieve my stress. At first, I didn’t think it would work, but it’s actually been really helpful just to take 20 minutes out every day, get my breathing right and check in with my body. I can’t believe the difference it’s made.
NOVEMBER 2021
33
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Bringing a fresh, urban edge to your work and play, the ECCO ST.1 HYBRID prioritises supreme comfort yet meets the demands of a more formal aesthetic. Creating elevated footwear for progressive global citizens, ECCO’s office hybrids fuse the traditional dress shoe with all the bounce and support of a sneaker to put your wellbeing at the forefront. Iconic silhouettes, premium leather uppers and leather welts you would ordinarily expect on a traditional dress shoe are mixed with ECCO’s radical technologies to produce a stylish shoe on the sneaker platform that complements your work-life balance. Built with ECO FLUIDFORM™ Direct Comfort Technology, and an anatomical last that follows the curves of your foot, the ECCO ST.1 HYBRID offers a natural fit and feel, along with a modern balance of cushioning and rebound with every step. A pop of green on its lightweight sole is a vibrant reminder that this hybrid is built with an integrated ECCO SHOCK-THRU point, providing state-of-the-art shock absorption not usually expected with urban footwear. The ECCO ST.1 HYBRIDs are beautifully crafted in sleek, full-grain leathers and velvet-touch nubucks from the Danish family-owned tanneries while purposefully utilizing ECCO Leather’s water-saving DriTan™ Technology. The distinct external design features perforations, signalling a fresh, summery vibe matched by stylish neutral tones. This is a shoe made for urban professionals who lead - not follow.
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PROBLEMS WEIGHING YOU DOWN? A LITTLE MIRTH WILL EASE THE BURDEN.
HOW LAUGHTER LIFTS YOU UP The right sense of humour can defuse stress and boost your outlook. Shift yours to gain more from each ha-ha moment BY
STEVE KNOPPER
WAYNE FEDERMAN IS a veteran stand-up comedian who has written late-night monologue jokes for Jimmy Fallon and appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Silicon Valley. But his ability to find humour in just about any situation helped him cope particularly well in quarantine. “During the pandemic, I’m shut down. All my gigs are cancelled,” he says. “I’m alone in the house, and I find out my ID is stolen. I’m like, ‘Yes! This could be the best day I’ve had in years’. ” The more he thought about it, the funnier the situation seemed. “Sometimes you think you don’t matter in life, and you wake up and think, Hey, somebody wants to be me,” he says. “That’s awesome.” Many of us have probably felt equally desperate to find something to laugh about amid the darkness of the past year and a half. No wonder the pandemic has been a hothouse for the humour-as-self-care industry, with podcasts, books and Netflix comedy specials all promoting the idea that you NOVEMBER 2021
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can feel more upbeat, confident, vital and/or successful by taking life a little less seriously. “You’re happy when you’re laughing,” says Joseph Vazquez, the associate dean of clinical education at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine & Health Sciences. That’s because laughter generates oxytocin (what some call the “love hormone”) in the hypothalamus while suppressing the brain’s release of cortisol; together, these processes can cue feelings of relaxation and trust, explains Naomi Bagdonas, an executive coach, Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer, and coauthor of the recent lifeoptimising book Humor, Seriously. Laughter “improves our mental health,” she says. When you laugh, you’re also tapping into the same chemical that’s “released during sex and childbirth – moments when, evolutionarily, we feel bonded,” adds Bagdonas’s coauthor, Jennifer Aaker, a Stanford marketing professor. So how can more of us laugh more often?
M A KING SENSE OF HUMOUR
As the saying goes, the best way to kill a joke is to explain it. But if you take a step back, what makes Federman’s quips so great is that they’re both absurd and hopeful. That’s different from teasing others or making yourself the butt of the joke, which can actually take a toll on your mental health. “There’s a distinction between ‘Oops, I made a mistake, ha-ha’ and ‘I’m garbage, ha-ha’, ” says Andrew Olah, a research consultant who studies humour and tracks the impact of humourous messaging. But it turns out it’s pretty easy to evaluate how healthy your own sense of humour is and then finetune it. The Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) is a test created 20 years ago by researchers at the University of Western Ontario to explore how your style of humour might predict and affect certain aspects of your mental health. It still resonates today because the HSQ doesn’t tell you how funny you are; it tells you how you try to be funny.
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Respondents are asked to rate 32 statements, such as “I will often get carried away in putting myself down if it makes my family or friends laugh”. Based on their responses, they receive scores in four widely recognised categories of mirth: aggressive (sarcasm and teasing), self-defeating (making fun of yourself for others’ amusement), affiliative (telling jokes and bantering with others), and self-enhancing (a general humorous outlook, able to see the comedy in most situations). The researchers noted that an individual’s style of humour is associated with certain personality traits. Most toxically, aggressive humour can tip from gentle teasing into hostility or racist and sexist jokes, while self-defeating humour is linked to neediness and anxiety. Affiliative humour builds relationships but also relies on other people, so it’s difficult to do during, say, a global pandemic. “The best one by far is self-enhancing humour,” says Julie Aitken Schermer, a psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario, because you can improve your mood without anybody else’s help. That style is associated with mentaltoughness skills like optimism, independence and confidence. “You may be doing your dishes and reflect on a funny scene, and you can actually cheer yourself up,” Schermer says. “You’re less likely to be depressed, feel lonely or engage in self-harm.” Mark Shatz, a professor emeritus of psychology at Ohio University Zanesville and author of Comedy Writing Secrets, knows how important the right kind of humour can be. Seventeen years ago, he learned a disturbing fact about his wife: he thought he was her second husband, but it turned out he was actually her fourth. They’d been together for 10 years and, somehow, he never knew this. “How did I deal with it? My lovely friends gave me every article of clothing with the number four on it: ‘I couldn’t even place in the top three!’ ” he says. His response began as self-defeating (beating himself up as he tried to figure out what the hell happened), then took an affiliative turn (looking to friends for distracting banter). Finally, he became more self-enhancing by adopting a
new spin: he started wearing the number-four apparel. He wasn’t just in on the joke – he’d taken ownership of it. These ideas come naturally to professionals. “Even when I feel like crap, when I get to the show, onstage, it lifts me up,” says Stacy Kendro, a veteran New York comic. “I don’t want to call it a coping mechanism, because that makes it sound so clinical. But there are times when stand-up pretty much saved me.” She still loves laughing by herself at home, though, like when rewatching Tootsie. “That’s like a healing,” she says, “a moment when you needed that release.”
HOW YOUR OWN AC T MIGHT BOMB For his part, Federman’s flip-the-script, self-enhancing mentality dates back to high school, when, after reading the best-selling self-help book Your Erroneous Zones, he decided he alone was responsible for his feelings. He gave himself the power to reframe a stressful situation into something funny. While isolated during quarantine, for example, he started shooting baskets and playing horse – against himself. “One game was so intense, I had to go into a concussion protocol,” he says, before pausing to reflect on his self-enhancing humour. “Comedians just look at life slightly askew,” he says, “and that makes it fun, all the time.” The problem is that it’s easy to shift into self-defeating mode, which correlates with low self-esteem, avoidance and even depression. (In fact, when I took the HSQ, I crushed this category, scoring in the 99th percentile with a 51. It was my highest score.) Schermer says this sort of thinking – “Hey, guys, laugh at me; maybe you’ll like me” – may develop in early childhood, perhaps when kids are trying to find ways to relate to one another on sports teams. Peter McGraw, the director of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Humor Research Lab
(HuRL for short) and author of 2020’s Shtick to Business, a book about using humour to get ahead, says the HSQ is a tool to “help the introspective person make some positive steps”. Are you keeping your humour to yourself? Do you need to bring in other people? You can make this change to improve your mental health. “You don’t have to learn music theory in order to become a better pianist, but it helps,” he says. The best comedians, McGraw adds, are tinkerers who tell jokes to audiences big and small, then assess the reaction and adjust accordingly. You can do this in your personal life. Thomas Ford, a Western Carolina University psychology professor, suggests keeping a humour diary, where you write down everything you find funny, then study it later. “Maybe you hit someone with a wisecrack – the humour log would allow you to think, Why did I do that? Is this something I did when I was insecure or nervous and this kind of reaction comes out? Sometimes I get impulsive or pushy.” Adds Olah, the research consultant: “This is something you work at intentionally. It’s a specific skill, just like woodworking or mountain climbing.” My own HSQ scores explained a few nagging feelings that I’ve had. I realised that the jokes I tell most frequently, and those I find funniest, are on me. (I have no sense of direction, so friends call me “Maps”.) And I have been known to say dumb things that lead to repeated roastings. The experts say this is self-defeating humour — healthy only in small doses. So I decided to try rebooting my sense of humour.
GE T TING THE L AUGHTER YOU DE SERV E My quest to be the kind of guy who laughs easily – with others or at virtually anything – without being the punchline began with writing down what amused me on social media. There was that map of Italian words for “vagina” on Twitter and Monty Python’s fish-slapping dance on YouTube. In addition to self-defeating humour,
I found that I have a tendency toward self-enhancing humour, which includes laughing by myself at stupid, silly things. (Sarcasm can be self-enhancing, too, so long as it’s not used in a hurtful way.) Then I took an extra step by calling friends and asking them to describe what they notice I find funny. My sense of humour is, well, repetitive, one said: “Your jokes are like every five seconds! It’s the constant search for the pun”. I also took some advice from Bagdonas, who suggests you can use funny TV shows or movies to enhance your world-view in general. “When we’re making time to watch something comedic before bed instead of a horror movie, we are feeding our brains,” she says. (For me, that meant rewatching Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure for the 11th time instead of doom scrolling.) Gradually I began to feel more upbeat. The more I focused on being open to laughter, the less bummed out I felt. But to McGraw’s point about how comedians constantly try out new lines and assess audience reaction, at some point you’ll want to test your material and concentrate on making it inclusive. For instance, one day, during a writing class
I teach via Zoom, a student named Cat referred to a story she might write about her lifelong trouble finding the right dog. I’m more of a cat person, so I could have been gently self-defeating and recalled how a couple of dogs bit me when I was a kid, or I could have been aggressive by making fun of dogs to the group, which would have embarrassed the student. Instead, the dad joke that came to me hinged on wordplay. “I hear Cats and dogs don’t get along,” I said. It wasn’t the funniest joke, but it brought the class together. They laughed. Affiliative humour! Another healthy style. Next, my daughter sent me two photos from college, one of some pretty trees on campus and one with some friends sitting around smoking a joint. I could have told her she must’ve been high to send me that second picture, but that would have been aggressive and not what I was looking to do. Instead, I verified that the trees were indeed pretty but admonished her not to smoke them. She totally ignored me, but that’s the beauty of a self-enhancing joke. If she liked it, she laughed. If she didn’t, no one got hurt. Either way, I was starting to amuse myself.
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THE NEW GYM FOR MENTAL HEALTH This mental-fitness start-up is out to prove that expensive, hard-toaccess therapy is not the only way to get psych help. Can it really tone up your mental health? BY
MICKEY RAPKIN
ILLUSTRATION BY
ISRAEL G. VARGAS
I HAD MY FIRST panic attack at university a few months before graduation. Kevin Love of the Cleveland Cavaliers had his in front of millions of viewers during a televised game against Atlanta. The stakes were slightly different, but the symptoms were remarkably similar. “It was like my body was trying to say to me, ‘You’re about to die’, ” Love wrote of the experience, adding: “I ended up on the floor in the training room, lying on my back, trying to get enough air to breathe.” As for me, I was on the floor of a beer-stained campus bathroom convinced I was having a heart attack. We’d both waited for a crisis to finally seek treatment, which is the second (and probably last) thing I have in common with the NBA all-star. Though it’s good to know that waiting way too long to ask for help is a dude thing, according to psychologist Emily Anhalt, who advocates for a more proactive approach to mental health. “It’s like waiting until you’re diagnosed with early signs of heart disease to do cardio,” she says. Anhalt is a cofounder and the chief clinical officer of Coa, a San Francisco Bay Area start-up that bills itself as the first “gym for mental health”, which is exactly what it sounds like. Coa offers small group classes in emotional fitness starting around $25 each. Although the pandemic forced the company to hit pause on its brick-and-mortar plans and move its classes online, one can see 38
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the appeal in a SoulCycle for mental health. Group classes are more affordable than traditional one-on-one therapy, and the camaraderie of a passionate cheering section keeps you coming back. This isn’t your average community support group – it’s support with licensed therapists and smart branding. If it seems like a gimmick, it may be, but Silicon Valley is all in; Coa raised $US3 million in an initial seed round last year and counts Kevin Love and Casper Sleep founder Neil Parikh among its backers. “We spend so much time talking and working on our physical health,” Love told me when I asked him about his investment. “If mental health was given the same amount of attention, we’d make massive strides to help those who need it.”
CL ICK B OOM!
RAISE THE BAR ON YOUR MENTAL WELLBEING.
The wellness space has increasingly attracted the attention – and cash – of VCs and professional athletes. Who better to break down long-held stigmas about mental health than high-achieving gladiators in touch with their feelings? U S soccer star Megan Rapinoe and Minnesota Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks are both investors in a start-up called Real that’s raised $16 million; it lets users stream eight-week courses on topics like anxiety and communication and live events for as low as $28 per month. Michael Phelps, who has been vocal about his battle with depression and substance abuse, is a spokesperson for the talk-therapy company Talkspace. With access to care strained and therapists reporting growing waiting lists, these apps are filling a very real need. But this isn’t about burdening some bot with your problems. What Coa offers is online group therapy (in a slick package) coming from an action-oriented approach. “The world wants a quick and easy fix for a problem that is not quick or easy,” said Anhalt. “Who we are as people is nuanced, it’s layered. And the only solution that’s going to work is one that honours that complexity.” Do you even lift, bro? Coa’s curriculum is rooted in Anhalt’s Seven Traits of Emotional Fitness, which she developed
from her own research on emotionally fit individuals. (These people practise selfawareness, empathy, mindfulness, curiosity, play, resilience and communication; Coa’s classes help you firm up those areas in your own life.) Coa offers targeted eight-week online classes like Emotional Fitness for Mental Wellness, Emotionally Fit Leadership and Emotionally Fit Leadership for BIPOC Leaders for $240. (It also provides matchmaking services with one-on-one therapists in California and New York, with plans to expand nationwide.) In the classes, clients (patients?) are instructed to leave their cameras on and come ready to share. The classes are less about, say, rehashing childhood trauma and more focused on questions that challenge patterns and offer actionable steps to improve confidence, reduce stress and strengthen relationships. Said company CEO, Alexa Meyer: The name Coa comes from coalesce, “growing together. That’s what we’re helping people do”.
P U T ME IN, C OACH
I took the 90-minute virtual Introduction to Emotional Fitness class, which promised an appetiser – “a little taste”, our facilitator said – of Coa’s ethos. About 40 minutes in, I wondered if I might leave with a time-share in Aruba. Or at least a tote bag. But the tone was informative and authoritative while not shying away from Internet slang. I’m a professional sceptic, but I’m also a human who suffers from – say it with me – crippling self-doubt. And it was both scary and empowering to tell 20 strangers on Zoom something I like about myself. I can’t believe I’m putting this in print, but I might actually take Coa’s advice and start a “self-esteem file”, a place to put every piece of positive feedback you’ve ever received, to skim on days when you feel like garbage. Actually, that would be the third thing I have in common with Kevin Love, who told me that he keeps a journal. “For me, self-awareness is key,” Love said. “I write things down and have a routine that involves different journals for specific topics I want
to dive into or explore. Journaling is a form of therapy for me. I also constantly practise mindfulness by listing gratitudes and have made it part of my everyday life. Sometimes putting something down on paper can help simplify and help you execute.” But seriously, a journal? “I’m in a hypermasculine sport and never wanted to be looked at as weak or lose trust from my teammates and coaches,” Love said. “Thankfully, exposing my truth was incredibly freeing and helped me settle in both on and off the court. Share your story. Nothing haunts us like the things we don’t say.” Chris Jones, 39, was about to launch his own developmentand-production company in Los Angeles when the pandemic hit. The son of a therapist, he already had a regular meditation practice and considered himself on firm ground. Still, he enrolled in Coa’s eight-week class on emotionally fit leadership, treating Coa’s proactive approach as another tool in his arsenal. “It’s more resources to keep me grounded, keep me present, keep me doing the things that I was already doing to be healthy,” he said. Through the classwork, Jones recognised patterns in himself, like excuses he’d make for getting defensive. He’d had trouble in the past “being comfortable with discomfort”, he said, especially when forced to give negative feedback to people who worked for him. Coa’s facilitator raised questions like: As discomfort arises in conversations, what do you do about it? What are you doing to protect yourself? What are the story lines that might be limitations? “Then we’d go into breakout sessions and talk about it,” Jones said. “This type of intervention may be a good bridge to a more evidence-based treatment program, like meeting with a psychiatrist, or a good place to get support,” says psychiatrist Gregory Scott Brown. He calls the idea behind Coa “a step in the right direction”, but cautions that “severe mental illnesses – major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia – would need a higher level of care with a doctor”. NOVEMBER 2021
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LOSS
CAN A HOLY EATING PLAN CARRY YOU CLOSER TO YOUR IDEAL WEIGHT . . . AND TO SALVATION?
LET THERE BE LIGHT Is guidance from the Almighty the secret to sustainable – or healthy – weight loss? BY IAN LECKLITNER ILLUSTR ATIONS BY EDDIE GUY
“AND GOD SAID, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” The Hallelujah Diet, inspired by the above passage from the Book of Genesis, requires its
disciples to consume 85 per cent of their kilojoules from raw and unprocessed plant-based foods, primarily vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. It is not to be confused with the Daniel Plan (inspired by the biblical prophet Daniel), a nutrition program cooked up by megachurch pastor Rick
Warren in 2011 that involves eating 75 per cent vegetables and whole grains. And that is not to be confused with the Daniel Fast (same prophet), which asks its practitioners to subsist only on fruits, vegetables and whole grains (and engage in lots of prayer) for 21 days. In 2019, no less a
celebrity than Chris Pratt touted the Daniel Fast on Instagram, noting that the end of his fast would align with the beginning of his Lego Movie 2 press tour and joking that it just might affect his interview skills. “It’s 21 days of prayer and fasting,” he said. “By the time you see me, I’ll probably be hallucinating.” NOVEMBER 2021
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In the year of our Lord 2021, amid the most stressful 12 to 18-and-counting months that many of us have ever experienced, more than 1 in 3 Australians report putting on weight, according to an Ipsos survey, with freshly rebranded “wellness” giants like WW (formerly Weight Watchers) and Medifast posting massive gains in customers (and revenue). At the same time, according to another survey by social researcher Mark McCrindle, more than a third of respondents said they were praying more and 41 per cent said they were thinking about God more. And for some of these people, faith in the Almighty has begun to inform their food choices. “When life is unpredictable, such as in a global pandemic, we tend to do two things,” says Brandice Lardner, author of Grace Filled Plates: Ditch Diets and Find Food Freedom Through God’s Grace. “One, hyper-focus on what we can control, and managing our diets fits neatly into that box. Two, we seek one who can control things. Our faith grows in these
times. A religious diet meets these two tendencies at once.” These aren’t your typical theological dietary guidelines, like Islam’s pork prohibition or Judaism’s kosher restrictions. They’re more like crash diets, usually accompanied by books and meal plans, and they’re finding a new flock of converts: according to Google Trends, searches for the Daniel Fast, the most popular of the many faith-based plans, skyrocketed from midyear 2020 to January 2021, and the hashtag #danielfast – an indicator of engagement – increased sixfold on Instagram. That’s where Gerald Law, a musician, and his wife, Yohanna, rediscovered it. (They were familiar with it from their church.) “Social media is everything right now, and whatever seems popular on social media, everyone tends to try,” Yohanna says. Weighed down (literally and figuratively) by the challenges of the time, the couple embarked on the Daniel Fast together as a way to strengthen their relationship with God – and each other – and to
find greater clarity in the chaos. “I wasn’t sure if I could complete the fast,” says Gerald. “Not eating meat was something that my mind convinced me was out of the question. But denying myself things I thought I needed showed me how powerful God is.” Though currently popular, religious diets have been around since at least the mid-’70s, just as western countries started to get serious about the big business of weight loss. Back then, “all kinds of diets were launched,” says Susan Roberts, a professor of nutrition at Tufts University in Massachussets. “Americans were gaining weight, losing health and needed weight-loss programs to fix things. As a nation, we seem quite susceptible to wanting ‘miracle cures’, so these big-bang diets that are extremely austere and hard to follow get publicity and customers.” While they’ve been predominantly Christian, there are a few tied to other religions, including Buddha’s Diet, which emphasises mindful eating and intermittent fasting, and the program at the heart of Beth Warren’s Secrets of a Kosher Girl:
JESUS MADE A POINT OF FEEDING THE HUNGRY, BUT USUALLY WITH WHOLE FOODS AND NOT TO EXCESS.
A RELIGIOUS DIET DECODER Dietitian Brian St. Pierre, director of performance nutrition at Precision Nutrition, helps us unpack four of the most popular nonsecular diets
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THE HALLELUJAH DIET
THE DANIEL FAST
The Hallelujah Diet consists largely of raw, plant-based foods. It also calls for juicing; consuming the program’s BarleyMax supplement, an organic juice powder; and taking numerous other proprietary supplements. In other words, it’s hyperrestrictive, which can pose problems. “The overemphasis on raw plant foods will make it harder for folks to follow and can lead to GI issues if folks aren’t used to that much fibre,” says St. Pierre. “Suggesting supplements that you can buy from them raises red flags.”
The Daniel Fast is a 21-day vegan diet consisting entirely of unprocessed foods, and it may help with short-term weight loss and better health: a 2010 study found that the 21-day plan was “well-tolerated” by men and women, and it improved several risk factors for metabolic and cardiovascular disease. While it may be challenging for meat eaters, St. Pierre says, “its emphasis on eating simply and focusing on minimally processed foods is a good one.”
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BUDDHA’S DIET Rather than limiting what you eat, Buddha’s Diet limits when you eat, the goal being that you eventually arrive at a daily nine-hour eating window. It’s basically a variation on intermittent fasting, which, St. Pierre explains, “helps folks eat less because you have less time to eat”. Buddha’s Diet also incorporates a weekly cheat day, which is nice for your tongue, but maybe not so nice for your waistline. “A full cheat day is often a concept that goes badly,” St. Pierre says. “Most people do better long-term if they can find ways to add in small indulgences regularly.”
THE MAKER’S DIET The Maker’s Diet is less restrictive than many other religious diets, but also less science based. Its principal tenet: maintain a diet of natural, unprocessed, organic whole foods. Plus, it asks you to avoid water, toothpaste treated with fluoride and overexposure to electromagnetic fields from cell phones and microwaves. “Only allowing organic foods makes this far less accessible for most people,” says St. Pierre, “and reducing so-called ‘toxins’ ignores biological complexity. The liver detoxifies the body just fine.”
LOS S
@spinningpadre
FATHER RYAN ROONEY
@frrobgalea
FATHER ROB GALEA
@fathercapo
FATHER RAFAEL CAPO
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A 21-Day Nourishing Plan to Lose Weight and Feel Great (Even If You’re Not Jewish), which combines Jewish principles and “clean eating”. Many of these programs raise similar questions for believers and sceptics alike. Some argue that bringing God into the conversation adds unnecessary pressure to the already-arduous process of losing weight, with holy-bookbased virtues like purity, discipline and cleanliness influencing how dieters approach food. “Many of those diets are relying on a perspective that focuses more on the food than the heart,” says dietitian Abby Langer, author of Good Food, Bad Diet. One example that Langer cites: the concept of original sin in traditional Christianity results from Adam and Eve consuming the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, so it’s easy to convince a religious dieter that partaking of “forbidden” food is an echo of that earlier sin. (Gluttony, after all, is one of the Big Seven.) Others, however, believe that God can act as a crucial motivation while dieting. “The
“Others, however, believe that God can act as a crucial motivation while dieting” benefit of approaching weight loss from this God-centered way is that our success is not dependent on our willpower,” says Mike Cleveland, founder of Setting Captives Free, a ministry that hosts weight-loss boot camps. “Not only did God make us . . . He can fix what is wrong with us. To have the living God working in us is far better than mere human resolve or the restriction of contrived diets.” That’s not to say religious diets are uniformly healthy, even if they’re grounded in the best of intentions. Those that rely on severe dietary restrictions, such as the Hallelujah Diet and the Daniel Fast, are “not teaching people how to eat in a sustainable way for long-term health,” says Roberts. But introducing any kind of community, faith-based or otherwise, can be a big positive. “We all need our own tribe of people, our cultural group, and
churches and faith communities provide that,” says Roberts. “With more than 40 per cent of Americans having obesity today, religious organisations can fill an important function by supporting health.” Even if a religious diet doesn’t result in sustained weight loss, some would say the journey is more important than the destination. Take the Laws, the couple who did the Daniel Fast together. Yohanna says she dropped five kilograms: “It was a little tough in the beginning, mostly because I’m a very picky eater and don’t eat veggies. But in the end, I felt better and felt closer to God, and I received the clarity I was looking for.” As for Gerald, he says he lost weight, but “I honestly don’t remember how much. The experience was really inspiring. We will absolutely be doing it again next year.”
ME E T THE JACKE D CLE RGY ME N W HO CA N HE LP SAV E YOUR S WOLE The kingdoms of heaven and heavy weights have joined forces on Instagram, where muscled priests like Father Rafael Capo (@fathercapo), Father Rob Galea (@frrobgalea), and Father Ryan Rooney (@spinningpadre) share workouts, biceps pics and the word of the Lord to more than 125,000 followers. God and push-ups may seem an unlikely pairing, but these men of the cloth beg to differ. “The gym is a prime place for evangelisation,” says Rooney, a cofounder of Priestfit, an online community of Catholic priests enthusiastic about health and fitness. “Not that we’re there to convert everybody as we’re in the gym, but there is a yearning from a lot of people in a hypersexualized, ego-driven environment sometimes to seek something greater than themselves.” It’s just a bonus that they can help you up your squat game, too. – I. L. NOVEMBER 2021
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MY MUSHROOM PROBLEM We need better therapies for depression and addiction. But are hallucinogens really the answer? BY
DR GREGORY SCOTT BROWN SCOTT ANDERSON
ILLUSTRATION BY
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YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD about all the ways that shrooms (or, more specifically, their active hallucinogenic compound, psilocybin) are mentalhealth cure-alls. Depression, PTSD, addiction: you name it and some wellness guru has likely told you that the right kind of mushroom can fix it. In the US, the people of Oregon voted last year to allow the therapeutic use of
psilocybin in clinical settings. It sounds exciting, but I’ve been sceptical, since I’ve seen a lot of promising yet fleeting therapies, especially for issues where conventional drugs don’t work that well. But then I thought, maybe this is the moment we need. With the mental-health fallout from the pandemic and concerns that
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suicide rates will rise, could a mystical, psychedelic experience truly bring people some muchneeded relief? I called up someone who knows more about it than almost anyone else: Matthew Johnson, at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, where psilocybin is administered legally in research studies. Then I talked to Rick Doblin, founder of the leading organisation for psychedelic studies in Oregon. It solidified a few things for me and opened my mind (with a chat, not shrooms) about others.
PSILOCYBIN CAN BRING ON BREAKTHROUGHS IN THERAPY. BUT SO CAN TALKING
Psychiatrists and psychologists are constantly chasing “aha” moments in therapy, when a patient says, “I finally understand why I feel the way I do”. Sometimes this process takes weeks, and sometimes it takes years. Johnson believes that psilocybin can actually jump-start these types of breakthroughs and create “big-picture changes” quickly. Science hasn’t yet pinned down exactly how the drug works — some studies suggest it can increase the number of connections between brain cells in the areas that are responsible for processing thoughts, feelings and emotions. That might help explain why people report huge leaps in insight or dramatic changes in how they view things after a single experience with the drug. I think about it as pressing the mind’s reset button. In Johnson’s lab, one of the most striking benefits of the drug has been its role in easing anxiety and depression in people with cancer. Next up, he’s targeting addiction and PTSD. It’s thrilling to think a drug can help with these afflictions. But it’s also important to remember that breakthroughs are achievable via therapy, without the possibility of a bad trip.
IF YOU “DO MUSHROOMS” THE HELPFUL, THERAPEUTIC WAY, IT’S NOT EXACTLY A PARTY
“Sometimes people come out of the session saying, ‘Why in the hell do people do these for fun?’, because they come out emotionally and physically exhausted,” Johnson tells me. And those are instances when the active ingredient is
measured and controlled. In recreational use, it’s harder to judge how much psilocybin you’re getting, and it’s easier to end up in the kind of bad trip/downward mental spiral your high school health-ed teacher warned you about.
TO GET A USEFUL EFFECT, THERAPY IS STILL ESSENTIAL
For psilocybin to help, “it’s not just about taking the drug,” says Doblin. “It’s not even just about the experience. It’s about what you do with it and how you integrate it [into your life].” A task force in Oregon, with input from Doblin, is aiming to nail down what the clinical model should look like, and a key will be having a mental-health professional or trained guide there with you who has gotten to know you first. This guide, and the therapy you get stemming from the drug experience, is critical. In fact, it keeps Doblin up at night thinking about what would happen if psilocybin were an approved drug and therapists simply started prescribing it without the proper protocols. It won’t necessarily help to just have the drug out there, he says.
IT’S NOT GOING TO BE AT THE OFFICE ANYTIME SOON
Right now in Australia, you can get this therapy only if you’re in a study as a terminally ill patient. In February, the Therapeutic Goods Administration rejected an application to allow doctors to prescribe psilocybin and MDMA (ecstasy) to people suffering from chronic anxiety, depression or PTSD. The battle is sure to continue. In the meantime, the DIY approach to using mushrooms to change your state of mind isn’t the way to go. Though Johnson doesn’t have issues with recreational use per se (legality issues notwithstanding), he says that you have to be honest and not pretend you’re doing it for your mental health. Outside of a lab, there are always reports of people who don’t recover from a bad trip, or even harm themselves during one. “There will be casualties for sure,” says Doblin. My mind is still open. It’s possible that with enough good research, psilocybin could become part of the future of mental wellness. But don’t wait until then to get help for the issues that are bothering you.
HOW I KEEP IT TOGETHER
For some people, decompressing after a long day might mean grabbing a beer from the fridge. For Justin Kan, the sober cofounder of the live-streaming platform Twitch – which had 55 million monthly active users when he sold it to Amazon for $970 million in 2014 – a green tea “productivity” drink helps reenergise him. Here’s how the serial entrepreneur and YouTuber manages his stress. By Spencer Dukoff
6:45AM
THINK POSITIVE Kan, 37, kicks off his morning with a cup of decaf coffee and a “productivity” beverage called Magic Mind, containing the adaptogens ashwagandha and turmeric as well as longevity supplements resveratrol and glucosamine. After that, he’ll meditate for 25 minutes and write in his gratitude journal.
9AM
BREAK A SWEAT Now that he’s a new dad, Kan refers to his workout schedule as “aspirational”. Plus, “I broke my elbows a year ago in a bike accident,” he says. “But before, I was doing a lot of yoga.” These days, he’ll push himself with cardio by fitting in a ride on his Peloton bike or doing his favourite strength workout: 500 kettlebell swings.
12:15PM
LEAVE YOUR DESK With a lot on his plate, Kan can struggle to zero in on a specific task. He’s found that going for long walks helps with focus. “I’ll try to take calls while walking,” Kan says. And he’s not a huge fan of video calls, preferring to do business over text or to jump on Clubhouse, where you’ll catch him moderating conversations about tech.
2PM
MIX PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL One of the best parts of Kan’s career? “I don’t often feel like I’m doing work.” When you’re having fun, your job seems easier, and Kan likes to jump between two things he loves: investing and creating content for his podcast. “My social and work lives are blended . . . I work with a lot of people I’m friends with.”
7:00PM
SERVE UP GRATITUDE Every night, Kan keeps dinnertime free so he can sit down and eat with his family. They also have a ritual: “Before we have dinner, we’ll go around and everybody says what they’re grateful for”. Maintaining feelings of gratitude through the day helps boost his mindset, which, in turn, makes him more productive.
10:30PM
RESET YOUR ALGORITHM “We’re running a resource-scarce algorithm in our brains in a resourceabundant world,” says Kan. Translation: everyone has access to a lot of stimulation. To “reset”his mind at night, Kan deleted email and entertainment apps on his phone, instead using it only for reading and meditation.
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NOW, THOSE ARE GOOD EGGS Huevos rancheros are everything boring breakfasts aren’t: vibrant, satisfying and packed with nutrients. With a side, you’ll hit 30 grams of muscle-building protein and 10 grams of filling fibre BY
30g 10g
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KEVIN BELTON AND PAUL KITA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
CHRISTOPHER TESTANI
Hold up. What is 30/10?
30/10 delivers healthy, filling meals to help you get 30 grams of protein and 10 grams of fibre. For an entire month’s worth of recipes, head to MensHealth.com/30-10.
N U T R IT I ON
30g
10g
THE PROTEIN
One whole egg has six or seven grams of protein, depending on the size, and about 335 kilojoules. (We like Woolworths Macro Organic in terms of flavour and nutrition.) You could use any size in this recipe, but extra-large eggs will better cover small tortillas so that you get a little of each in every bite
THE FIBRE
The base recipe has you covered for your 10 grams, so consider these as bonus produce
Huevos Rancheros WHAT YOU’LL NEED
SERVES 2
• 2 Tbsp olive oil • 4 small corn tortillas • 4 extra-large eggs • 1 cup salsa macha (see recipe below) • 1 avocado, sliced • Coriander leaves and Greek yoghurt or labneh to garnish *Consuming raw or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood, shellfish or eggs may increase your risk of foodborne illness.
METHOD 1 In a medium nonstick pan, heat 1 Tbsp oil over medium. Cook the tortillas till puffed, 20-30 seconds per side. Remove each tortilla and place it between paper towels in a tortilla warmer or a clean kitchen towel. In the same pan, add the remaining oil and cook the eggs one at a time until the whites set and the yolks are still runny. Season with salt and remove to reserve on a large plate. 2
Place 2 cooked tortillas on each plate followed by an egg on each tortilla. On each plate, add ¼ cup of the salsa macha on each of the eggs and tortillas to cover the tortillas and most of the egg whites. Garnish each plate with ½ a sliced avocado, coriander and a spoonful of Greek yoghurt. Finish with flaky sea salt. Feeds 2 3
Nutrition per serving: 2470 kilojoules, 23g protein, 41g carbs (10g fibre), 39g fat
Make Way-BetterThan-the-Jar Salsa Macha
Betabel with Salsa Macha y Queso Fresco
Preheat the oven to 220ºC. On a large sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, arrange 450g red and/or golden beets (rinsed and patted dry). Coat with 2 Tbsp olive oil and ¼ tsp salt. Seal the foil and place the packet seam side up on a large parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast till tender, about 45-60 minutes. Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly, then peel and dice. (Wear gloves to avoid staining your hands.) Arrange the beets on a serving dish, dress with ¼ cup salsa macha, and top with 1 cup shredded queso fresco and 3 cups loosely packed rocket lettuce. Feeds 4 Nutrition per serving: 960 kilojoules, 10g protein, 16g carbs (6g fibre), 15g fat
You could use the pre-made stuff for these huevos rancheros, but then you’d be missing out on worlds of flavour. So if you have the time, you should make your own. (Can’t find some of the spices at the grocery store? Try thespicepeople.com.au)
1 PAN-ROAST DRY CHILLI
2 CHAR FRESH INGREDIENTS
In a large cast-iron pan over medium high, toast 1 dried guajillo chilli and 1 dried morita or dried chipotle (both seeded), just a few seconds per side, then dunk them in a bowl of hot water to rehydrate, 10-15 minutes.
In the same pan, add 1 serrano chilli (stemmed), 4 Roma tomatoes, ½ white onion (peeled and quartered), and 3 skin-on garlic cloves. Char, turning often, 5-10 minutes; remove the garlic earlier to avoid burning it.
3
PULVERISE!
Peel the garlic and add to a blender with the charred ingredients, rehydrated chillies, and 1/8 tsp Mexican oregano. Puree till smooth. Clean the cast-iron pan. Add 2 Tbsp olive oil and heat over medium high. Carefully pour in the puree and boil, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add 1 large bunch of greens (kale or Swiss chard, stems removed and finely chopped).
4 SIMMER AND FINISH
Allow the greens to wilt, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt. Add ¼ cup minced coriander leaves and stems. Reserve. Makes 2½ cups.
Sweet Corn and Pepita Guacamole
In a large bowl, mash 3 avocados. Add the kernels from 2 ears of grilled corn, ¼ cup pepitas, 3 Tbsp pomegranate seeds, ¼ medium red onion (minced), ½ cup coriander (chopped), 1 tsp lime juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir well. Feeds 4 Nutrition per serving: 1120 kilojoules, 7g protein, 21g carbs (9g fibre), 21g fat
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WHY CALORIES DON’T COUNT Tracking our calorie intake has long been touted as the only sure path to weight loss. However, in a new book, obesity researcher DR GILES YEO argues that we’ve been misled – and offers his alternative prescription BY SCARLE T T WRENCH PHOTOGR APHY BY JULIAN BENJAMIN
DR GILES YEO A geneticist with two decades’ experience studying obesity, Yeo is based at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Why Calories Don’t Count and Gene Eating.
BALANCING ACT: A HEALTHY WEIGHT COMES FROM A SENSIBLE DIET, NOT CALORIE COUNTING. 48
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W E I GH TLOSS
Men’s Health: A reduced-calorie
diet is generally considered the key to weight loss. But you argue that most diets fail. Why? Giles Yeo: In a sense, the majority of diets do work. They get people to eat less, which means they lose weight. The problem is keeping weight off. The way we’re set up evolutionarily is that the brain hates it when you lose weight; it considers it a reduction in your chances of survival. So, your brain will drop your metabolism slightly, and it will make you hungrier (1). It’s worse with extreme diets. The weight comes back on even quicker. MH What’s the alternative? GY The only way to lose weight
is to change the way you eat forever. You’ve got to put together a lifestyle strategy for keeping it off. It will always be difficult, and anyone who tries to tell you it’s easy is lying.
(1) PENNINGTON BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER (2) FOOD & NUTRITION RESEARCH (3) STANFORD UNIVERSITY
MH Why can’t calorie-counting
“IF YOU FOCUS ON YOUR HEALTH, YOUR WEIGHT WILL SORT OF TAKE CARE OF ITSELF” difference lies in protein. For every 100 calories of protein, we absorb only 70 calories.
your health, your weight will sort of take care of itself (3).
MH How much of a difference
be a part of what you call a “lifestyle strategy”? GY Clearly calories do count to some degree. They reflect the energy content of a food. If I need to reduce my intake, I can halve my portion of chips from 500 calories to 250 calories. That’s legitimate, because it’s the same type of food. What doesn’t make sense is blindly counting calories, because it makes a difference whether you’re eating 100 calories of celery versus 100 calories of sugar. People say all calories are equal.
does that make? GY It’s not a big difference from meal to meal. But over every single meal of your life, it will be. If you look at foods that aren’t high in quality, particularly ultra-processed foods, they tend to be low in protein and fibre, both of which are less calorically available (2). The amount of protein and fibre in foods is an easy marker of quality. It’ll make you feel fuller, too.
MH Are they not? Nutritional
MH So how do we make
whose primary goal is weight loss would find that contentious… GY Start by asking why you’re trying to lose weight. If it’s to look good, then what’s your definition of “good”? I want to look like Brad Pitt, but I don’t. You might not be totally happy with how you look, but are you healthy? Are you able to lift your child up? Are you able to cycle? Are you eating high-quality food? If the answer is yes and you can maintain your weight, then perhaps that’s what you should do.
MH Then let’s talk about minimising pain. What advice would you give? GY Concern yourself with the quality of the food you’re eating. Looking for ways to improve the quality of your diet will improve your health, and if you focus on
MH Do you believe in a “set point” weight? GY I usually refer to a set range. Say I lose half a stone [3.1 kilograms]. Keeping that off will require effort. But if I stay where I am, there’s almost no effort. If you’re an MMA fighter, or a model, that’s different. For most of us, what we want is to be able to walk up the stairs or go for a run without feeling out of breath. Look, a lot of people
benefits aside … GY No. We process different foods very differently. The number on the packet does not equal the number of calories you end up using. What’s not reflected is the amount of energy it takes you to “get at” the calories. Something like fat doesn’t cost a lot to break down. It’s 97 per cent calorically available. Carbohydrates – wholemeal bread is 92-95 per cent available, and sugar is 95-97 per cent. The big
losing weight sustainable and not painful? I can’t claim that it won’t sometimes be painful.
MH Many calorie-counters
do need to lose weight – I’m not saying that they don’t. But a lot of people just need to be healthier. MH You talk about combating weight stigma. Is that a hard line to walk, as your job is to study obesity? GY As mature human beings, we should be able to hold two thoughts in our heads at once. Obesity is a problem. But then there’s blaming people who are suffering from that problem. Undoubtedly, the prevailing view is that our bodyweight is a choice. But our thermostats are set in different places, biologically (4). Some people think that they have more willpower, but we are just looking at ourselves and projecting onto other people. MH Your own guidelines seem relatively straightforward: enough protein, more fibre, less sugar and less meat. GY It sounds boring, but it’s as close as I’m going to get to a plan. And it’s not a diet – it’s really just eating sensibly.
(1) Exercise habits are a better predictor of weight loss maintenance than a person’s diet. (2) In one study, two groups ate sandwiches with identical calories: one made using whole foods, the other processed. The former required 47 per cent more energy to digest. (3) Focusing on the quality of your food without counting calories can lead to greater weight loss. (4) Dr Yeo’s research suggests some of us are genetically 5 per cent less likely to be able to say “no” to excess food. NOVEMBER 2021
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A RUSH FOR THE AGES The MERCEDES-AMG GT R is like fizzy drink for your adrenal glands. A few laps in this bullet on wheels and you’ll be producing more activation hormones than you know what to do with BY
JAMES JENNINGS
IF YOU WERE to ask the average guy how he might give himself a little jolt of energy to start the day, he’d probably mumble something about a cold shower or a strong coffee. His answer is less likely to be: “Drive one of the world’s fastest street-legal cars so rapidly that you create an internal volcanic eruption of adrenaline that feels like it’s about to violently spurt from your ears”. That’s a shame, because I tried it recently, and in terms of getting you moving in the morning it’s right up there with waking up next to a tiger. My morning jolt was the Mercedes-AMG GT R, a sleek bullet on wheels that can deliver an experience akin to roughly 10,000 intravenous espressos. Our early-morning start was at a MercedesBenz driving event held at Sydney’s famous Motorsport Park, and while there were plenty of other exciting elements to the track day – skid-panning in a car fitted with smooth, plastic wheels (“Like driving on Maccas trays,” says our instructor) and doing a vertigoinducing reverse vertical climb in the GLS 400 SUV – nothing quite rinses out the adrenal
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glands like a quick spin in the gorgeous Mercedes-AMG GT R. Fitted with a weight-saving carbon-fibre roof, a static rear aerofoil and sporty tyres designed to grip the tarmac like superglue, the GT R is built for speed – and looks it. Gunmetal grey, low to the ground and with curves designed to give the laws of physics a good, hard slap in the face, it’s the kind of car that begs you to test its limits – if only you were good enough to do so. Tucked into the driver’s seat, I notice first off how cramped the GT R feels compared to a standard passenger car. This makes sense – the smaller the car, the greater its capacity for speed – but if you’ve got big, cumbersome, leg-of-ham feet like I do, having the brake and accelerator so close together can take some getting used to. It may feel a little alien at first, but thankfully I have racing driver Chelsea Angelo as co-pilot to offer sage advice, including a gentle suggestion that I may enjoy the drive a little more if I were to stop strangling the steering wheel with the kind of raw tension you’d only find at an Oasis reunion.
Once I’m out on the track and giving the accelerator what for, there’s a rather loud exhaust pop that startles only slightly less than the unholy roar coming from the engine, which dishes out 430kW of raw power and 700Nm of spine-bending torque. The problem with the GT R – if you can even call it a problem – is that it offers an incredibly smooth ride, even when you’re punching it well past 200km/h. Such ease of driving at high speeds soon makes 100km/h feel like you’re crawling through a 40km/h school zone, which is fine when you’ve got a mostly empty race track to contend with, but not so great on standard roads that don’t feature the omnipresent aroma of burnt rubber. It may have left my adrenals misfiring to the point where I kept waking up in a cold sweat for weeks afterwards, but the Mercedes-AMG GT R really does live up to its reputation as an unmatched, invigorating performance car. In the immortal words of one Ferris Bueller: It is so choice. If you have the means – and we’re talking a cool $373,400 here – I highly recommend picking one up.
M H
GA R AGE
“IT’S THE KIND OF CAR THAT BEGS YOU TO TEST ITS LIMITS”
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MH
Rustic Retreat WE HEAD TO THE COUNTRY TO SHOWCASE SPRING STYLE IN ALL ITS GLORY PHOTOGR APHY BY JAMIE
GREEN L AW GROOMING BY MA X MAY
MODEL: ELIAS BLACK AT KULT.
ST YLING BY TESSA
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STYL E
Rebel with a cause
Channelling a vintage James Dean, an elegant knit and a plain white T-shirt is one combination that will never go out of style. Left: Knit ($399) and pants ($259) and belt ($219), all by Polo Ralph Lauren; T-shirt ($39.95) by Marcs and watch ($4350) by TAG Heuer. NOVEMBER 2021
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STY LE
Jacket ($499) by MJ Bale; scarf ($89) by Polo Ralph Lauren.
Right: Jacket (POA)
by Tommy Hilfiger; T-shirt ($39.95) by French Connection; pants ($349) by BOSS; hat ($489) by Phylli Design.
Bare essentials
This spring, we encourage you to go places you’ve never been. Case in point: a neck scarf and suit jacket on top of a bare chest. 54
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Bullseye
With tweed currently dominating the runway, don’t let the models have all the fun. We recommend pairing a jacket with pants from the same colour family.
NOVEMBER 2021
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STY LE
Suit yourself
Post-lockdown dressing is about being bold. This tailored white suit with a striped tie is a good place to start.
Left: Suit ($949), shirt ($299) and tie ($139), all by BOSS; watch ($4350) by TAG Heuer. Right: Pants (POA), by Tommy Hilfiger. NOVEMBER 2021
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STY LE
Left: Shirt ($189) by
Polo Ralph Lauren; suspenders ($149.95), pants ($299) and shoes ($399) all by MJ Bale.
Right: Elias wears
jacket (POA) by Tommy Hilfiger; cardigan ($249) by Polo Ralph Lauren; T-shirt ($39.95) by Marcs; pants ($239) by BOSS; and shoes ($120) by Converse. Doha the Dog wears scarf ($89) by Polo Ralph Lauren.
Picture perfect
The beauty of suspenders is that you don’t need to wear a jacket. With the weather heating up, this makes them the ideal spring style companion. 58
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Man’s best friend
Spring is the season to embrace tonal layers, enabling you to move seamlessly with the changing temperatures. Pairing sneakers with a jacket, meanwhile, will help inject some personality into your ’fit.
NOVEMBER 2021
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MULTITASK
During FaceTime YOUR DAILY GROOMING ROUTINE NEEDN’T INVOLVE A TONNE OF WORK OR A TONNE OF PRODUCTS. SAVE TIME AND MONEY BY HARNESSING THE POWER OF A NEW BREED OF DO-IT-ALL SERUMS AND GELS
FACE-SAVING FEATURES Moisturises Quells inflammation
BY
GARRE T T MUNCE ILLUSTR ATION BY NICOL ÁS ORTEGA
Prevents environmental damage Screens sunlight
Kiehl’s Powerful Strength Line-Reducing Concentrate
Reduces dark spots Fights wrinkles Prevents acne
Men often lack protective antioxidants, which help keep your skin firm and young looking, says dermatologist Dr Michelle Henry. The vitamin C in this two-for-one serum gives you that boost of antioxidants you need, while hyaluronic acid hydrates your skin. ($108; kiehls.com.au)
GetMR. The Daily Moisturising Face Lotion with SPF 30
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Clinique Radical Dark Spot Corrector + Interrupter
Olay Regenerist Retinol24 Max Night Serum
This clinical-strength serum improves the appearance of dark spots, age spots and blemishes via a brightening molecule that evens skin tone. It also contains a blend of calming botanicals that quells irritiation and disarms environmental aggressors. ($195; clinique.com.au)
Retinol is one of the ultimate wrinkle fighters. It helps skin recover from damage and even boosts collagen production, so your skin stays smooth and supple. This formula also includes niacinamide to fight inflammation and dryness. ($36; chemistwarehouse.com.au)
* CLINICAL, COSMETIC AND INVESTIGATIONAL DERMATOLOGY, 2013.
Good sunscreen helps protect your skin from the sun’s rays. Great sunscreen, like this hybrid sunscreen-lotion, contains antioxidants that also protect against environmental factors, like pollution, that cause early skin ageing. (And no one wants that.) ($55; getmr.com)
G ROOM ING
80%
Contr ibut to the ion of sun e xp fo ageing ur visible si osure gns (w pigme rinkles, sag of ntat ging related ion, vascula , rblemis hes)*
Cut through skincare confusion by favouring multi-purpose options.
SkinCeuticals Silymarin CF Serum
Dermalogica Smart Response Serum
Salicylic acid removes debris that plugs up pores and leads to acne. Even better, the acid actually helps you absorb this serum’s antioxidants more effectively, giving you healthier-looking skin, says Henry. ($228; skinceuticals.com.au)
This serum targets wrinkles, dehydration, dark spots and redness, and its ingredients are activated only in response to specific issues. If your skin’s red, the serum reduces that inflammation. If your skin is wrinkle-free, the collagen-boosting ingredient stays inactive. ($211; dermalogica.com.au)
NOVEMBER 2021
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Your wrist deserves a warm-weather makeover BY
LUKE BENEDICTUS
AS THE TEMPERATURES rise your wardrobe starts to change. Your jeans get swapped out for shorts, lace-ups are ditched for thongs and shirts become tees. But what does this seasonal switch-up mean for your wrist? To make an informed call on such a vital matter (#firstworldproblems), it’s worth assessing the sun-baked tasks that lie ahead. Essentially, you need a watch that will be your trusty sidekick as you turn a steak on the barbecue, fall off a paddle board and enjoy a couple of cold ones at the cricket. Abrasive sand won’t bother it as you make a heroic dive in beach volleyball. And if you’re rubbing sunscreen into your partner’s back by the pool, it’ll remain cheerfully unfazed if an errant globule lands on its dial. Essentially, therefore, a summer watch needs to pass three main criteria. Water-resistance is definitely one of them, but that can also be confusing. That’s because if your watch says it’s water-resistant to, say, 50
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metres, that doesn’t mean it can go 50m deep, but that it can withstand pressure equal to a depth of 50m. As a rule of thumb, if your watch has a water resistance rating of 30m, it can usually handle rain or a splash of water while you’re washing your hands, but shouldn’t be exposed to a swim or shower without the possibility of damage. Water resistance of 50m can deal with a short dip or shower, but still won’t enjoy prolonged time in the water. If you’re planning to go swimming or enjoy other watersports then you really want something that offers a water resistance rating of 100m. And if you’re planning to dive, then go for something 200m plus. Another summer-watch consideration is your watch strap. Traditionally, a leather strap is still regarded as the dressiest of all, which makes it a less obvious option when you’re wearing shorts and a Bingtang singlet. More importantly, leather is not water resistant, and if you wear a leather watch strap daily in the heat,
TAG Heuer Aquaracer “Nightdiver” ($4800)
its pores can absorb the sweat/dirt/ God-only-knows-what from your wrist and start to trap lingering odours. In other words, your watch can start to smell. A more favourable alternative is a metal bracelet that can easily be wiped clean. Planning to spend a lot of time in the water? A comfy rubber strap is an even better bet. Another great option is a NATO strap that’s made from nylon and is durable, comfortable, waterproof and washable. Both NATO and rubber straps also have one other advantage up their sleeves: they come in a variety of colours, which leads me to the final point. Whether you’re skimming a Frisbee or lolling in a hammock, summer is a time to kick back. Your watch should signal this happy-go-lucky vibe and tell the world that you’re well and truly off duty. That’s why you might consider going a little bolder and considering a vibrant pop of colour for your summer watch. After this dismal year, you have our blessing to let the good times roll.
DOXA Sub 200 Whitepearl ($1550) Citizen Series 8 ($2599)
Hublot Big Bang Unico Summer Limited Edition ($29,200)
Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight 925 ($5880)
Mido Decompression Time ($1800)
Rado Captain Cook Bronze Burgundy Automatic ($4150)
BALL Roadmaster Marine GMT ($4700) NOVEMBER 2021
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SUB TOD SCRI AY! BE * S a v i n g i s b a s e d o n y o u r f i r s t 1 2 i s s u e s . Yo u c a n c a n c e l y o u r s u b s c r i p t i o n a t a n y t i m e a n d y o u w i l l c o n t i n u e to receive magazines delivered through to the end of your last billing period. We do not provide refunds for partial billing periods. Offer valid in Australia and New Zealand only until 07/11/21. Paragon DCN Pty Ltd is collecting your personal information for the purpose of processing and managing your subscription. We will handle your personal information in accordance with Paragon’s Privacy Policy, which is available at paragonmedia.com.au/our-policies.
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MH C OVER GUY
Action hero, spiritual bro, environmental warrior, family guy, humble husband. The multiple personalities of Jason Momoa, the most modern male movie star on the planet, will surprise you BY
MOLLY KNIGHT AND SCOT T HENDERSON
PHOTOGR APHY BY
TURE LILLEGR AVEN
ENERGY NOVEMBER 2021
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ate on a Friday night, in the midst of what is becoming Australia’s never-ending lockdown, my laptop fires up for a meeting with Jason Momoa. As the video call connects, Momoa appears in a radiant hotel suite – the light is fluorescent, the furniture all white and the walls are pristine. It’s as if Hollywood’s most easygoing star is zooming in from Heaven. And, as it turns out, he is. Well, his own version of it, at least. Momoa is also in quarantine, locked in this room with his family ahead of an intense few days of filming Aquaman 2 in London. His kids, Nakoa-Wolf (Wolfie) and Lola, can be heard playing ping pong in the other room to the unmistakable beats of Billie Eilish, and as he tells me almost immediately, he’s relishing the quality time with them. As the connection falters, then regenerates, I’m immediately hit with what has become known as Big Momoa Energy. As we all know after months on end of Zoom meetings and interviews, it’s hard to appreciate somebody’s essence through a computer screen. Tech issues, delays, poor lighting . . . they all make it hard to fully appraise a person. Not Momoa. He has an aura that penetrates even the bin fire that is 2021. The man does not disappoint. Within seconds of appearing, Momoa throws his tousled mane into a man bun using his famous pink scrunchie (“It’s mine, not Lola’s,” he says as a point of fact). With Guinness in hand (mine, not his), I’m one “Right on, man” from Momoa Bingo. It’s hard to unpack Momoa Energy on first impression. You’d think his larger-than-life positivity combined with his larger than make-believe presence would be the makings of said energy. But with the physicality of an in-person encounter removed, it’s clear there’s more to it. Momoa is an enigma. An axe-wielding, Harley-obsessed, Guinness-guzzling, unkempt man mountain. But for all his affection for classic racers and vintage Harleys, and for all the brick-house physicality that would’ve made him an outstanding ’80s action hero, Momoa has spent the past few years slowly revealing himself to be the most singular and surprising – the most modern, really – male movie star we’ve got. “I don’t do incognito,” he explains. “Here’s this flamboyant Cadillac I’ve had since I was 22, because I love Elvis. Here’s my top-hat collection, because I love top hats. Here’s my ridiculous pink fur coat. I have a lot of weird things.” Perhaps it’s because he used to go antiquing “all the time” with his mum that he appreciates well-made items and durable designs. “I can look at a rusty spoon,” he tells me, “and it defines who I am.” Go ahead and think of another action star, much less one who stands six-foot-four (193cm) with broad shoulders and 68
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a barrel chest that make him seem much, much bigger, who speaks of spiritual communion with cutlery. Or who likes to reminisce about the last time he cried. Or who’s in regular touch with his aumakua (Hawaiian for ancestral spirits). Or who hates going to the gym and says yoga is too hard. Go ahead and think, really. We’ll wait. And while we wait, consider that Momoa would be the first to tell you that all of the tough-guy vibes you picked up from his Walk of Fame performances in Game of Thrones (as Khal Drogo) and Conan the Barbarian and Aquaman were just an act. Which makes sense, because he was acting. “I may look big and tough, but I’m not,” he explains. “I’m nothing like Khal Drogo. I’m not even the king of my own house! I’m absolutely terrified of my wife.” With Momoa, we’ve got ourselves an altogether different type of star from all the Chrises and Ryans who serve up their own spins on wholesome, wellgroomed, on-script masculinity. Spontaneous, humble, earnest and actually, honest-to-goodness-ly authentic, he’s more like the charismatic spawn of The Rock and wee Timothée Chalamet, bulldozing outdated and restrictive modes of manliness and showing the rest of us how to embrace our full non-incognito selves. Now, at 42, after two decades of playing buff guys without a lot of brains, Momoa is getting his first taste of working on a prestige film with an acclaimed director and a metric tonne of Academy Award–winning and –nominated actors. The man is not done surprising us yet.
DUNE BUGGY
If it seems as though Jason Momoa is everywhere at the moment, it’s because, well, he is. No matter your streaming platform of choice, Momoa is somewhere near the top of the ‘trending’ list. Season 2 of post-apocalyptic thriller See has just returned to Apple TV+, Sweetest Girl is the number one movie globally on Netflix, and the recently re-released Justice League still reigns supreme on Binge. And if omnipresence is the goal, it’s sure to be achieved upon the release of his latest project. The film is Dune, and it’s the first instalment of the long-awaited adaptation of Frank Herbert’s best-selling sci-fi novel. It’s the type of film whose teaser trailer breaks the Internet, and it would’ve been the biggest movie of 2020 if COVID-19 hadn’t pushed its release date to late 2021. For Momoa, there was no other option than to wait for cinemas to reopen before unleashing the interplanetary opus. “I want to see films in the theatre. Like I’m never going to have a theatre in my house that is going to be on the level of what I want to see a proper film like this. I don’t want to see Avatar in a home-screening theatre. I don’t want to see Star Wars like that; I don’t want to see Aquaman like that and I don’t want to see Dune that way. There’s just certain films I want to be immersed in. I love the communion of it. I love being there with the audience, feeding off of it and hearing it. You’re feeling it with everyone.”
STYLING: JEANNE YANG/THE WALL GROUP. PROP STYLING: WARD ROBINSON/WOODEN LADDER. GROOMING: GLENN NUTLEY/OPUS BEAUTY
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Momoa plays Duncan Idaho, a swordmaster and mentor to the young protagonist Paul Atreides, played by none other than Chalamet. As Momoa and I talk over teas and Guinness (again, surprisingly the tea is his), he struggles to contain his excitement for the movie. He leans into the screen and his eyes light up, bouncing around in his seat while telling me all about his costars, from Chalamet (“he’s like a little brother, and he’s phenomenal in this”) to Oscar Isaac (“he ended up being my man crush”) to Josh Brolin (“the big brother I’ve always wanted”) to Javier Bardem (“like a god to me”). He’s like a high-schooler coming home after his first day at a new school, telling his parents all about his awesome new friends, each one cooler than the last. “You know when you meet your heroes?” Yes, Mr Momoa sir, I can relate . . . “I met a bunch of them and they suck. And so when you meet someone you like and they don’t suck, that’s beyond beautiful.” He counts director Denis Villeneuve, best known for bringing Blade Runner 2049 to the screen in 2017, among those heroes. Villeneuve read the Dune series as a kid and considers making the film a lifelong dream. In an email to Men’s Health, Villeneuve calls casting Momoa in the role a no-brainer. “Duncan Idaho is a true heroic knight figure, a proud, courageous, righteous and ruthless man, famous for his unmatchable fighting skills. He’s also a bit of a bohemian. I thought that Jason would be perfect to embody him. Like Duncan Idaho, Jason has an insane charisma that makes people gravitate around him. Jason is a force of nature. He’s bigger than life.” Momoa says that signing up to portray Idaho in 2019 was such an honour – he was working on the first season of See, and was looking for something big – but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t scared shitless. “Knowing Denis picked me to play this role,” Momoa says between sips of tea, “I’ve never been this nervous.” Despite starring in some of history’s most popular, not to mention bankable, franchises (including a stint on Baywatch), Momoa insists roles like Idaho don’t just fall in his lap. “I wish it was that cool and I could have done that. I worked my ass off to get Game of Thrones, and that kind of opened the door for Aquaman. So that kind of fell in, and then I think Denis heard through the grapevine and through some people that I might be someone that could play a role like Duncan Idaho.” He recalls that one of the first scenes he shot required him to share the screen with Oscar winner Bardem, aka the “god”. “We were sitting at this table, and the scene is all about Javier walking into the room. I’ve never seen someone strut into a room like such a boss. He just comes right up to this table and stares everybody down. He’s glaring at everyone else but giving me a little bit of a twinkle, and I’m just giggling inside because I can’t believe I’m at this table right now. So then he delivers his lines and just kills it. And right after that, Denis goes up to him and starts giving him notes. I’m shocked, like, What the hell could you possibly be giving him notes on? So I’m standing there absolutely terrified because I had to deliver all this sci-fi exposition, which is not my bag at all. And then I did it and I did not get any notes at all. I was so unbelievably happy I could have cried.”
Momoa may have felt like, ahem, a fish out of water among this company, but his costars say he was crucial to the cast’s on-set chemistry. “Jason inspires a group spirit to all around him,” Chalamet later writes. “He is someone who brings a raw joy for filmmaking to the set every day. He’s one of those enriching humans to be around for their joy of camaraderie, which is especially important to be around when you are starting out as an actor.” Villeneuve felt it, too: “He has a very contagious positive attitude. You could feel the Momoa wave of energy coming in just as he was landing on set.” That’s it, the Big Momoa Energy, something he first learned to harness and channel at a young age. He was born in Hawaii but raised as an only child by a single mother in Norwalk, Iowa. (His dad is a painter who still lives in Hawaii.) Momoa says that when he looks back on his childhood, he recalls there being not much to do in the small Midwestern town. He whipped up his own adventures in dusty fields and developed a love for old, beautiful things on those antiquing trips with his mum. He played street hockey and discovered rock climbing. “Even though I work in Hollywood, I’m 100 per cent roots Midwest,” he says. “I work hard and don’t take anything for granted. I’m a big family guy.”
Above: Tank by Rick Owens; necklace by Weloha; sunglasses by Electric. Previous page: Tank by Rick Owens; pants by MadeWorn x Jason; boots by Wesco; necklace by Weloha; sunglasses by Electric.
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The importance of family was never bigger for Momoa than in 2020. “I was spoiled rotten,” he says of his time hunkering down with his wife and children. “It was amazing. Just loved up and being at home for six, seven months which has never happened since I was broke in the first part of my career and the babies were little. It was amazing just being at home and being with family. I really cherish that. I don’t want it to go back to the way it was. There’s a lot of stuff that has to change. So with this, hopefully there’s some positive change in the world.” When he’s not on a film set, axe-wielding or riding old Harleys, he spends most of his days rock climbing or playing with Lola and Nakoa-Wolf, whom he calls Wolfie. “My wife is very sophisticated and smart and [our kids and I are] kind of like animals that need to be trained a little better,” he says. “I’m constantly a work in progress, and I’ve just been trying to get better as a father and a husband.” This past year was as stressful and scary for him as it was for the rest of us, but the silver lining was that it kept him at home. There is no television in the house and his kids don’t have phones, so family play involves climbing on the two walls he had built, swimming, skateboarding, guitar playing, listening to records and hiking with their three dogs. “I can’t believe it – they love reading,” he says. “I’m like, ‘Stop reading! Get outside’. It’s insane.” While he has brought his family with him on shoots all over the world, Momoa says his kids are old enough that even though they still enjoy being with their dad, they don’t want to miss out on school and hanging with their friends. “It’s the coolest experience because my son and my daughter were on set for Justice League. They were on set for Aquaman. And then just sitting next to them at the premiere, taking them and just being able to share that experience now for Dune. It’s really like prime age because, they may just be like, ‘Ugh, dad,’ later. But right now, they’re still definitely in it. They haven’t gotten to know the bad parts yet.” When Momoa met wife Lisa Bonet in 2005, she was a single mum raising her teenage daughter, Zoë, with ex-husband Lenny Kravitz. Rather than being intimidated by the fact that the woman he was trying to woo used to be married to Lenny fucking Kravitz, Momoa became so close to him from the jump that they now refer to each other as ohana, or family. Momoa is also close to Zoë – he’s called her “zozo bear” on Instagram, and she’s referred to him as “papa bear”, and the whole thing is incredibly sweet. “I love her husband,” he says. “I love her dad. I hope and pray my daughter is that talented and loving and open and close to her family.” Once Zoë started bringing boyfriends around the house, Kravitz played the whole thing super cool (no surprise there), while Momoa was the house worrier. “Lenny is way cooler than I am,” Momoa says. “I was baffled.” He says part of the reason he cried about Lola turning 13 was that he knows at some point she will start dating and he will inevitably freak out. “I’m not going to do well with it,” he says. “I’ll just hate it if she brings home some dipshit bad boy.” He’s hoping she’ll gravitate towards someone as devoted to her as he is to her mum. “I’m like, ‘If you find a man who treats you better than I [treat Bonet], good luck!’ ” A nice guy, in other words. A modern man. Someone like him.
AQUA-STAN
For all the smiles and broisms, don’t mistake the trademark Momoa joviality for weakness. The man is passionate. Fiercely. And when he believes in a just cause, he will defend it with a savagery that rivals his Atlantean alter-ego. His most recent battle, alongside fans, was to encourage the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, aka the Snyder Cut. Alongside co-stars Gal Gadot and Ray Fisher, Momoa was one of the loudest voices leading the charge for the release of the mythical Snyder Cut, an alternate version of the much-maligned 2017 Joss Whedon-helmed version. The rumoured version, locked away in the Warner Bros vault, was the iteration created by original director Zack Snyder before his departure from the production following the loss of his daughter. The rumours of a very different Justice League turned out to be true, and in a huge moment in popular culture, the film was re-released as a result of the immense pressure placed on the studio by fans and cast, restored 70
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RAPID FIRE WORKOUT TUNES Metallica, Pantera, Rage Against the Machine, Slayer. Those four are mandatory.
KARAOKE SONG “Debra” by Beck.
HERO Tom Waits – his lyrics, his composition and the sounds he makes.
FAVOURITE DESIGNER I mostly wear work clothes, but if I have to wear something fancy, I go Tom Ford, straight out of the box, boom.
CHEAT MEAL Hawaiian food: Kalua pig, lau lau, rice, poi, poke and Portuguese sausage, salad . . . the amount I eat is the cheat part.
FAMILY MEAL Steak on the grill – pretty basic. My wife is an amazing cook, so she does most of it.
thanks to the power of the people. “Justice. There was justice,” says Momoa with a wry smile, acknowledging the restoration of the project he originally signed on to. “I wouldn’t be Aquaman if it wasn’t for Zack, and so that vision is what I signed up for. And so I didn’t re-shoot one thing. That was all the stuff we shot. And now it’s just amazing that although there’s this massive tragedy that happened, I’m happy that my friend got to put out his art and I’m happy Warner Brothers let him put out his art and it all worked out.” It was a risky move, speaking out against the studio that will hopefully keep him gainfully employed for any number of foreseeable Aquaman sequels, although an unsurprising one when you learn of his devotion to the fanbase. For him, the fight wasn’t an option – he was always going to side with the fans. “When you play certain roles, you do it for the fan base. You do it for the fans. Like playing Conan, I didn’t do it for
I’d like to go from being the best fan of Guinness to being just a really good fan of Guinness”
Id diid it for the t Rober Rober Ro b t ffel ell in love ov wi w th, th h, wi h with th mea ean to be. eant be Th That aat’ t’s what at s y I’m sl m going n to follow low ow d thin h ngs hap ha pen n an nd ust real allly y hap appy py y that tha ha it alll f h have two of them [Justice League movies]. So, fantastic. And there’s a lot of great things from the first one, and there’s a lot of great things from the second one.” Momoa’s passions and activism extend well beyond the big screen. He’s a heavy investor in green initiatives and environmental protection. Indeed, Momoa was interested in protecting the oceans long before he swam into Aquaman’s suit. He was studying to be a marine biologist at college before dropping out to become an actor and spending his early 20s drifting around Australia (“I would happily film movies there for the rest of my life”).
Above: Shirt by Napili, available at vintage-aloha-shirt.com; pants by Carhartt; boots by Wesco; necklace by Weloha; sunglasses by Electric; belt and scrunchie, Momoa’s own.
“There are so many massive issues happening that can’t be tolerated anymore, and I’m absolutely behind them. I’m looking forward to not going back to normal. I do believe we’ve hit a tipping point. We just need to keep fighting for it. For me, I’ve been on the forefront of trying to do a lot of things with climate change and environmental issues, and that’s all part of this, too. That’s kind of gone by the wayside for some people, but it hasn’t for me.” He says one of his major goals for 2021 is to try to cut back on eating meat, for environmental reasons, which will be difficult because he really loves eating meat. Other vices he’s keen to crush? “I’d also like to go from being the best fan of Guinness to being just a really good fan of Guinness.”
GAIN OF THRONES Looking at Momoa, you’d assume he must bust his gut in the gym to get the kind of build that makes him look every inch the DC superhero. You’d be wrong. “It’s just throwing stuff NOVEMBER 2021
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I tried yoga the other day, and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I’d rather squat a car. Climbing El Capitan would be easier than doing two hours of yoga”
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around outside,” he says. “Hawaiians are big people. I rock climb a lot. Maybe I’m an ape. I love the way it feels. I like being upside down. I always loved climbing trees as a kid and swinging in the breeze. But lifting weights is challenging. Being in the gym is just kind of a killer for me. It feels kind of sterile, but I just started falling in love with kettlebells. It’s just been super helpful for my shoulders and for my legs and core. And it’s translated over to rock climbing and it’s translated over to other sports.” Momoa’s hardcore training for superhero roles has taken its toll, especially of late, as he lists his injuries: broken femur, surgery on both knees, a tear in the long head of his bicep and just “shoulders”. “It’s tough because doing the whole superhero body thing . . . it’s just a look, right? So it’s not really functional. My body feels better doing kettlebells. I’m sure my body would feel better stretching and [doing] yoga and stuff like that, but I feel like kettlebells has been something that’s really active. And I can do it, I can swing them around anywhere. I can be outside and just drop them down in the dirt. It just feels a little bit more savage doing that.” Bonet is big into Pilates and yoga, and she’s been urging her husband to join her. “So I tried yoga the other day, and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he says. “I’d rather squat a car. Climbing El Capitan would be easier than doing two hours of yoga. I can’t bend over anymore! My hamstrings are so tight. It’s pathetic. I’m falling apart. I remember one time I was all yoked out for Conan the Barbarian, and I was in a yoga class with these older ladies and everyone was just holding their arms up and I was like, [screams] ‘This is so hard!’ ” The more Momoa makes fun of himself, the easier it is to envision him excelling in comedic roles, like John Cena or The Rock. So much of what made his performance in Aquaman entertaining was that he gave us a superhero who never took himself too seriously. After he shoots Aquaman 2 (filming started
two days after we spoke), he will begin filming what he calls his “dream role”. He won’t tell me anything about the project, other than that he cowrote it and it will shoot in Hawaii. Oh, and he won’t be playing a doctor or lawyer. (“I wouldn’t hire me for those roles, either.”) When he’s done with his current projects, he says, he wants a chance to do comedy. “Romantic-comedy lead, the nerdy best friend, anything,” he says. “I would love to do it, but so far nobody will hire me for it.” He’s hoping that after Dune, different doors will open for him. He could live a more than comfortable life continuing to play the same characters over and over again, but comfort has never really been his thing. “I don’t chill. I’m completely neurotic in my head. I’m super ADHD and can’t sit still, I’m a spaz. It just looks like I’m chill. I’m absolutely not chill. I’m pretty all over the place. And so I’m trying to learn how to not stress as much. And I know I have the same problems everybody has, and definitely when you get bigger there’s just a lot more challenges. So I think I’m kind of going through the same thing everybody is. We all need help. We all need love. We all need hugs. We all need to be nice to each other, and it just does us no good to be assholes. Be You.” And with that, Momoa has unlocked the very essence of BME. I ask him to confirm if that is in fact the key to his happiness and continued success. “Right on, man”. Bingo.
Stay in Shape Without Weights!
ILLUSTRATION: BEN MOUNSEY-WOOD
You don’t need barbells to build action-hero strength, and Jason Momoa is proof of that. His weight-room hate is legendary, which is why he built his Dune body far from the gym, relying on these real-world activities. They can be the perfect antidote to boring curls and bench presses, so give them a try
“As a Hawaiian, surfing is in his blood,” says Kim Fardy, Momoa’s friend and stunt double. Momoa likes to surf and paddleboard. The benefit is that paddleboarding challenges your balance and core strength while also serving as an “active recovery tool,” says Fardy.
PRETZELING
ROCK CLIMBING
One of Momoa’s goals is to do more yoga and Pilates, which help with the flexibility he needs to do fight scenes. “I’m gonna call it extreme stretching,” he says. “Like, ‘All right, guys, there’s the beer! Pick it up! Now reach over here and give that beer to your buddy!’ ”
Momoa climbs as much as possible. Just 10-20 minutes of climbing or bouldering can fire up your forearm and back muscles, and your mind gets a workout, too. “It’s the mental game,” says Fardy, “of figuring out different problems to reach your goals.”
BODYWEIGHT TRAINING Why do bench presses and deadlifts when push-ups and bodyweight squats work just fine? “He can train anywhere,” says Fardy, “even between takes on set without access to a gym.” Try doing 100 push-ups between work calls and emails. Enjoy the burn. NOVEMBER 2021
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A MH Primer An
Parlez-vous
Woke? Whether you’re on a journey of personal growth, determined to see social justice prevail or simply want to avoid being cancelled by righteouss millennial colleagues, this is our guide to the terms worth knowing in 2021. You’ll be okay, Boomer BY
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HE WORD “WOKE” has been weaponised. Look at almost any headline on the matter and you’ll find it used as an insult, another sign that this country has lost its live-and-let-live mentality and is headed straight for the dogs. And the targets are indiscriminate. In recent months, the media has labelled the following things as woke: the Oscars, private schools, corporations, the ABC, the concept of social distancing, Disney World, children, the Church of England and a video game called CyberPunk 2077. In reality, “woke” just means that you’re alert to injustice. It means that you’ve opened your eyes and noticed the world around
B
BAME
BoPo
A term that exploded in popularity a few years ago, BAME – or black, Asian and basically ”. You’ll see ervously nvariably n the a panic attack about how asian their staff is. Howev don’t say ll anybody ly, I have e non-white oves of the mpression have drawn emselves. s “us”, e circle, re anyone or has t’s the ” of ould ded.
Short for “body positivity”, a movement that celebrates the human body in all of its forms and rejects the idea that everyone should strive to conform to society’s narrow ideals. Pioneered by women, the movement has more recently been adopted by male activists. It’s also an issue that is riddled with complexity, as evidenced by the fact that I’m writing this in a magazine that more likely than not will feature a stern-looking, ripped man with his top off a few pages along.
PHOTOGRAPHY: SUN LEE, JOBE LAWRENSON, MICHAEL HEDGE, ROWAN FEE; ARTWORK: PETER CROWTHER AT DEBUT ART
Adjective.
LISTEN: on politics.
you. In most sentences, you could easily substitute it with the word “compassionate”. And being compassionate benefits you as much as others. Research suggests that a kinder, more considered lifestyle is linked to decreased depression, reduced stress, lower blood pressure and better recovery from illness. According to a study by the University of Michigan, it can even make you live longer. Plus, both men and women state that kindness makes a person more attractive. So, there’s that. But there s one pr ionary’s worth of jargon that couldn t see penetrable. Luckily for you, I’m here with a quick glossary. Read s, absorb it and change the world. Or perhaps just your outlook.
Noun.
dcast, t view
FOLLOW:
@Bopo.boy on Instagram.
Black Live
Noun.
A movement tha disproportionate n people were killed police officers. Th Lives Matter is a rejection of overt systemic discrimi black people. Im the phrase doe that only black liv means that black li same protection as e
READ
They Can't Kil by Wesley Lo
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Bropropriate Verb.
This is when a man takes a woman’s idea and soaks up all the glory from it. SAY: “Stuart Heritage bropropriated this feature from his editor, Scarlett Wrench, who came up with the idea in the first place.”
C
s
Noun.
JK Rowling was “cancelled” for tweeting her views about the trans community. However, you’ll notice that JK Rowling still writes books, which probably means that cancel culture doesn’t actually exist.
“I have been cancelled. And I will now tell you about it in my newspaper column.”
Noun.
Noun.
x.
Cancel Culture
DON’T SAY:
Clicktivism
d from the Latin meaning “on the side of”, which is the opposite of the prefix trans, which means “across from”. The term’s modern usage began when German sexologist Volkmar Sigusch coined it in his 1991 article “Die Transsexuellen und unser nosomorpher Blick”. Cisgender basically means not transgender. I probably should have just said that to start with.
READ:
The Gender Games by Juno Dawson.
Capitalism ry you wield as a consumer can or o bad. So, imagine you want bu uy it on Amazon, handing in national giant with g a lot of tax and a orkers o poorly? m an indie sttainable and ? Why are you nk, nk you monster?
DON’T SAY:
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u ucks, Bezos. I hope it helps you in n lair you’ve had your eye on.”
Basically, the bare minimum that anyone can do to help a cause. It’s a name on a petition that isn’t backed up indles “like” click on Twitter. It’s a Twibbon. After the murder of George Floyd, millions of people posted a black square on Instagram, which made them feel like they were contributing in some way, even though not all of them were. Clicktivism is less about actually helping the oppressed and more about signalling to the rest of the world that you don’t want to be associated with the oppressors. WATCH:
Clicktivism Is Bad for Charity by the Feed on YouTube.
TACT IC S
Cultural Noun.
led his dreadlocks, the world exploded with anger – not because they made him look like a gap-year trustafarian, but because lly was s k with d, e ky, he on .
DON’T SAY:
ur ss class?
F Noun.
shion
Cheaply made, low-quality clothing designed to be thrown away after a few wears. Fast fashion banks on ove ov pieces thatt out to shop p real time, a workers w less than wage, fac c toxic che e supplies s footprin n aviation on and eq q tactic c better er smallll
READ:
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on
How to Break Up With Fast Fashion by Lauren Bravo.
G
Ver
Flexitarianism Noun.
A halfway house between eating meat every day and being vegetarian, in that you still eat meat, just not all of the time. Some might argue that this is a cop-out, but the evidence suggests that it’s a good thing. A 2015 study published in Frontiers in Nutrition found eating vegetarian five days a week and meat on just two days would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water and land use by about 45 per cent. Not bothered about the planet? A study of 416,000 people by JAMA Internal Medicine found that swapping roughly 314 kJ worth of meat a day for plant proteins can reduce men’s risk of early death by a quarter.
READ:
The Flexible Vegetarian by Jo Pratt.
To g som to w them som isn’t as a rela abu ove as a say han COV to th run
nce ous sed
DO
“There is no such thing as gaslighting. Why did you just say there was? Everyone’s laughing at you now. You’re an embarrassment.”
Gender Binary Noun.
This is the idea that people are born either male or female, with no other ways to identify – a viewpoint that excludes non-binary and transgender people. How can you dismantle this? Add your preferred pronouns to your email signature. That way, you’re helping to normalise gender discussions while signalling that you aren’t making assumptions about how other people identify. Which could potentially be seen as a sort of clicktivism, but we won’t go into that here.
READ:
They/Them Their by Eris Young.
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Intersectionality
This is when a company goes out of its way to convince you that it’s more environmentally friendly than it really is. For example, a few years ago, McDonald’s switched plastic straws for paper ones – but it quickly emerged that their thickness made them too hard to recycle at the time. Meanwhile, H&M’s “Conscious” line of supposedly sustainable clothing hardly makes up for its fast fashion business model. A truly green company, such as the carbon-negative clothing firm Sheep Inc, will always give you specific details about their eco-credentials.
Strap in, guys – this one is pretty complicated. Intersectionality refers to the understanding that all social categorisations – such as race, class and gender – can overlap, forming interdependent systems of privilege and discrimination. So, feminism must include black women, gay women, trans women and workingclass women to be considered intersectional. It’s essentially a reminder that everything is bad, but in a much more complicated way than you thought.
Verb.
WATCH:
Greenwashing: A Fiji Water Story on YouTube.
I Internalised Misogyny Noun.
Noun.
READ:
Introducing Intersectionality by Mary Romero.
M
LISTEN:
Verb.
rd t. You probably haven’t. I’ll
The Shameless podcast: “The Uncomfortable Reality About Internalised Misogyny”.
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is when a man, brimming with self-confidence, t to a woman who already understands it, because mple woman’s brain You’ll sometimes see this on Twitter, where men often explain a scientific process to the female scientist who invented it.
this, but it’s called ‘mansplaining’ as it's a compound of the words ‘man’ and ‘explain’.”
Aggression used to be such an easy thing to spot. You’d go to the pub, get drunk, throw a beer-garden chair through a window and there it was. However, things change and now we all find ourselves struggling with a million different microaggressions: acts of insensitivity that you might not even notice but cumulatively become exhausting for the recipient. Have you ever asked a black person if you can touch their hair? That’s a microaggression. Have you ever assumed that a gay friend knows another one of your gay friends, just because they’re both gay? That’s also a microaggression. y g y gg of some sort, so I apologise in advance.”
Mansplain
DON’T SAY:
Noun..
SAY:
ng Remember when #MeToo took off, and a few women were, like, “Isn’t it a woman’s place to be groped at the office?” These people might have been exhibiting internalised sexism: a type of Stockholm syndrome, in which they’ve grown so accustomed to being treated badly that they no longer view it as problematic.
Microaggression
w
TACT IC S
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Noun.
t-Based
erm “vegan” an and you’d drip who ling over. you simply as caused erhaps because “plant-based” makes it sound more s on the way home from the pub. FOLLOW: Bosh.TV on YouTube, the “plant-based and vegan recipe channel”.
R Reading List Noun.
T
Toxic Masculinity
Trigger Warning
Just as internalised misogyny causes many women to believe that they have to behave a certain way – even when it is to their detriment – toxic masculinity makes men feel obliged to present a tough, stoic exterior to the world, regardless of the emotional anguish they’re going through. And it’s deadly. In 2005, a scientific paper found that men tend to die younger in patriarchal countries. Men are also three times more likely than women to die by suicide.
The emotional equivalent of a spoiler alert. Just as you might want to be alerted if a review states that Bruce Willis turns out to be a ghost in The Sixth Sense (look, it’s been 22 years...), some people want to know if what they’re about to read might bring up memories of a trauma they’ve suffered. Advocates say that trigger warnings are simply thoughtful; critics think that you should just toughen up and accept every last scrap of harrowing awfulness the world has to fling at you.
A method of living that helps the environment by minimising the amount of waste you produce. Take reusable bags to the shops. Drink from reusable water bottles, instead of buying Evian at a train station. Set up a compost system. Avoid plastic wherever you can. It all helps. Note: nobody really expects you to reduce your waste to nothing. But if you can reduce the amount of waste you produce even by a quarter, and everyone else does, too – bingo – ent .
SAY:
READ:
Noun. If you’re a straight white man, there has never been a better time to read books by people with different backgrounds. If you want to know more about how the world wasn’t designed for women, read Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. If you want to learn about how society wasn’t set up for non-whites, read Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge. If you want to know how you can be a better LGBTQ+ ally, read We Can Do Better Than This by Amelia Abraham. These may make you feel terrible about yourself, by the way – but that’s sort of the point.
READ:
All of these books, obviously.
READ:
The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry.
Zero W Noun
Noun.
“Trigger warning: this article is a bit preachy.”
Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson NOVEMBER 2021
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For Ahmaud Arbery, fear and bigotry intersected to tragic effect.
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12 MINUTES AND A LIFE One Sunday afternoon in February 2020, a young man named Ahmaud Arbery went out for a run and was shot dead in the street. More than a year later, the question of how we can make the world safer for all athletes is as pertinent as ever. In this Pulitzer Prize-winning article, Mitchell S Jackson tells Arbery’s story and asks: who deserves to run? What does a runner look like? And is the community failing its Black members? BY
MITCHELL S JACKSON PHOTOGR APHY BY LYNSE Y WE ATHERSPOON
AHMAUD MARQUEZ ARBERY 8 MAY 1994 – 23 FEBRUARY 2020
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Right: Ahmaud Arbery pictured in 2012, wearing a 21 shirt in honour of his brother, Buck.
Imagine young Ahmaud “Maud” Arbery on the practice field of the Brunswick High Pirates American football team. The coach has been taunting his defensive players. “Y’all ain’t ready,” he says. “You can’t stop us.” In the next bit of action, Maud – who, at 5ft 10in (178cm) and a shade under 76kg, is small for his defensive linebacker position – bursts between blockers and makes a tackle that echoes across the field. It’s a feat that the teenage Maud intends as a message to his coaches, his teammates and anyone else who still needs to hear it: don’t test my heart. Some teammates smash their fist to their mouth, saying, “Oooh”. Others slap one another’s pads and point. An assistant coach runs to the aid of the tackled teammate. And the head coach blows his whistle. “Why’d you hit him like that?” he shouts. “Save that for Friday.” That Friday, in Glynn County Stadium (one of the largest high school stadiums in American football-loving Georgia), the Pirates, clad in their white jerseys with blue and gold trim, stampede out of the fog-filled mouth of a blow-up tunnel onto the field. The school band plays, and cheerleaders shake pompoms. There’s a raucous sea of blue and gold in the stands, including plenty of Maud’s people. Game time: the opposition calls the same play that Maud put the fierce kaput on in practice, and beneath a floodlit glare that’s also a gauntlet, Maud barrels towards the running back and – boom! – makes a hit that sounds like trucks colliding. It’s a noise that resounds into the stands, that just might ring all over Brunswick. The fans send 82
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up a mighty roar of appreciation, but Maud merely trots to the sidelines, almost insouciant. Assistant coach Jason Vaughn grabs him by his face mask. “Now, that’s how you hit,” he says, tamping down his astonishment that a boy his size could tackle that hard. But that’s young Maud through and through – undersized in the physical sense, supersized in heart.
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Time-stamped security footage from an adjacent home shows Maud, who is out for a run in Brunswick’s Satilla Shores area, wandering up a sunny patch of narrow road and stopping on the spotty lawn of a sand-coloured, under-construction bungalow addressed 220 Satilla Drive. There’s a red portable toilet in the front yard. The garage is wide open. Maud, dressed in low-top Nikes, white
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“By and large, running remains a pastime pitched to privileged white people”
T-shirt and khaki cargo shorts, loafs on the lawn for a moment before drifting into the building. The security camera records him inside; it’s a skeleton of beams and plywood and stacks of piping and wire. There are boxes of materials scattered about and a small forklift in a corner. Maud doesn’t touch any of those things. He looks around, then gazes beyond the frame of the camera towards the river behind the house. Maybe he conjures an image of a family who could afford to live in a place so close to water. Maud isn’t the first person to wander onto the site. Its security cameras have recorded others, including a white couple one evening and a pair of white boys another day. On four occasions, it also recorded what appears to be the same person: a slim, young, Black man with wild, natural hair and tattoos on his shoulders and arms, a man who, by my eye, does not resemble Maud. Let me add that the homeowner will confirm that nothing was stolen or damaged during any of the visits. Meanwhile, a neighbour spies Maud roaming the site and calls the police. “There’s a guy in the house right now,” he reports. The man waits near the corner of Jones Road and Satilla Drive. “I just need to know what he’s doing wrong,” says the officer. “He’s been caught on the camera a bunch before. It’s kind of an ongoing thing out here,” says the caller. It’s a statement of which he can’t be sure, though he does get right Maud’s physical description: “Black guy, white T-shirt.” To fathom what it meant for Maud to be out for a run in Glynn County, Georgia, you need to know a thing or two about recreational running in the US. Before the 1960s, unless you were a serious athlete, your attitude to jogging would likely have been: “Now, why would I do that?” But in 1962, track coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman visited New Zealand and met fellow coach Arthur Lydiard, who had developed a cross-country training program. Bowerman returned to the US excited by what he had seen. He launched a similar program in Eugene (home of his employer, the University of Oregon) and wrote a pamphlet on the subject in 1966. The next year, he published a co-written book called Jogging: A Medically Approved Physical Fitness Program for All Ages, Prepared by a Heart Specialist and a Famous Track Coach. That book became a bestseller and kick-started jogging
as an American pastime and the first global running boom. I am one of the rarest of Americans – a Black Oregonian. As such, I feel compelled to share a truth about my home state: it’s white. I’m talking banned-Blacks-in-its-state-constitution white. At the time Bowerman was inspiring Eugene residents to trot miles around their neighbourhoods in sweatpants and running shoes, the city was a stark 97 per cent white. One could argue that the overwhelming whiteness of running in America today may be, in part, a product of Eugene’s demographics. But the monolithic character of running can be credited to the ways in which it has been marketed and to the systemic forces that have placed it somewhere on a continuum between impractical extravagance and unaffordable hazard for scores of people who aren’t white. Around the time Bowerman visited New Zealand, millions of Black Americans were living in the Jim Crow (segregated) South. By 1968, blacks had mourned the assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. And by the late 1960s and beyond, the Black Americans of the Great Migration from the southern states were pressed into ever more depressed sections of northern and western cities, areas where the streets were less and less safe to walk, much less run. Forces aplenty discouraged Black Americans from reaping the manifold benefits of running. And though the demographics of runners have become more diverse over the past 50 years, by and large it remains a pastime pitched to privileged white people. I invite you to ask yourself: who deserves to run? Who has the right? Ask who’s a runner. What’s their so-called race? Their gender? Their class? Ask yourself where they live. Where do they run? Where can’t they live and run? Ask what the sanctions are for asserting their right to live and run in the world. Ahmaud Arbery, by all accounts, loved to run but didn’t call himself a runner. That is a shortcoming of the culture of running. That Maud’s jogging made him the target of hegemonic white forces is a certain failure of America. Black people have never owned the same freedom of movement as whites.
1.08PM Maud strolls out of the house and begins to jog. He is unaware of the witness who called the police, a man still surveilling him. “He’s running right now. There he goes right now,” says the witness. “Okay, what is he doing?” says the officer. “He’s running down the street,” says the man. The footage shows Maud jogging past the Satilla Drive home of Gregory and Travis McMichael – a father and son. Gregory McMichael, an ex-cop stripped of his power to arrest for failure to attend use-offorce training, notices Maud passing his house and deems him suspicious. “Travis, the guy is running down the street,” he shouts. “Let’s go.” For reasons the McMichaels must now account for in court (though months passed before their arrest, both were indicted on nine counts in June last year, including felony murder and aggravated assault, and in November they were denied bail), they arm themselves NOVEMBER 2021
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– the son with a Remington 870 shotgun and the father with a .357 Magnum pistol – and hop in a white Ford pickup truck. Part of the golden isles, which lie along Georgia’s Atlantic coast between Savannah and Jacksonville, Florida, Satilla Shores is a neighbourhood of upper- and middle-class families; of blue- and white-collar retirees; of seasonal holiday-home owners and lifelong denizens. The small neighbourhood features narrow roads canopied by moss-draped live oaks, tall southern pines and crepe myrtle, and one- and two-storey homes with landscaped lawns. Homes on one side of Satilla Drive back onto the sediment-coloured Little Satilla River. Maud’s family home in Brunswick, the one where he lived at the time he was killed, is a mere three kilometres from Satilla Shores but, in meaningful ways, it’s almost in another country. The median household income for all of Glynn County is AU$69,000; in Brunswick, that figure is AU$35,000. The poverty rate in what young Black residents call “the Wick” is a staggering 38 per cent. The Wick is where Ahmaud Marquez Arbery was born on 8 May, 1994. He was the third child of Wanda Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery Sr. Their working-class family also included his elder brother, Marcus “Buck” Jr, and sister, Jasmine. The family called Ahmaud “Quez”, a shortened version of his middle name, while his friends called him Maud. Maud had a slight gap in his front teeth and dark skin forever burnished by hours spent outside. He attended Altama Elementary School and, around that time, Maud met his best friend, Akeem “Keem” Baker, a fellow resident of the Leeswood Circle apartment complex. Keem, who in those days was a chubby introvert, recalls Maud being one of the popular kids. The “sandlock brothers”, as Keem called them, were soon inseparable: sitting together on the bus to school, playing a football game called Hot Ball, or a basketball game they christened Curb Ball. In those days, Maud’s brother, Buck, just three years older, was a hovering protector. Buck also introduced Maud to American football. He began playing with Buck’s friends, boys who were two and three years older or more. During an early neighbourhood contest, one of those friends tackled Maud so hard that Buck moved to defend him. Before he did, Maud sprang to his feet and shook it off. “I knew then he was tough,” says Buck. “That he was going to be able to take care of himself.” Around that time, Maud’s parents gave his 84
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sister a Yorkshire terrier that she named Flav. Maud might have been hard-nosed on the football field, but he spent hours frolicking with Flav outside and helping his sister with caretaking duties. The family moved to a small, white house on Brunswick’s Boykin Ridge Drive, and in the new place Maud continued to share a room with his brother. “I was a neat freak,” says Buck. “But Maud would have his shoes scattered everywhere – have his T-shirts where his boxers go, his polos with his socks.” At high school, Maud got a job working at McDonald’s, to put some cash in his pocket and to help his mother, who often worked two jobs. By then, Maud had adopted some of his brother’s tidiness and become fashionconscious. He favoured slim jeans and brightly coloured polo shirts and kept his hair shorn low with a sharp hairline. Some days, Keem – the first to have a car – would drive Maud to the Golden Isles YMCA and play basketball and/or work out for six or seven hours straight, jaunt across the street to Glynn Place Mall for a fries-and-wings combo, and head back for hours more of playing/training. Brunswick High coach Jason Vaughn met Maud in his second year there, when a fellow coach promised him a tough linebacker for his squad. When Maud, slim and undersized, walked out, Vaughn was quick to doubt him. “What’s this little guy gonna do?” he said. He soon had his answer. “He was fearless on that field,” Keem remembers. When Maud tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus in a game, a less dedicated player might have given up, but he completed an arduous rehab. He reinjured his leg the following summer and committed again to a tough rehabilitation. “Our parents used to tell us, if you start something, don’t quit,” says his sister, Jasmine. Maud needed to wear a leg brace, which hampered him and his prospects of a college scholarship. Still, the fact that he played at all in a league that included a number of future pros is further proof of his strong character.
1.10PM The McMichaels, both armed, tear off after Maud in their pickup and stalk him down Burford Road, a narrow street shaded by lush oaks, pines and magnolias. From his front yard, William “Roddie” Bryan sees his neighbours hounding Maud, and for reasons he’ll have to explain in court (he has been indicted on nine counts, including murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment), jumps in his pickup and
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The memorial in Satilla Shores on the site where Arbery was gunned down by Travis McMichael.
joins them. The McMichaels race ahead of Maud and try to cut him off, but Maud doubles back, only to find himself facing down Bryan’s pickup. Bryan tries to block Maud, but he skirts the truck and runs around a bend onto Holmes Road. The elder McMichael climbs from the cab to the bed of his son’s truck, the one with a Confederate flag on its toolbox, armed with his .357. They track Maud as he sprints down Holmes Road. Maud played in the prestigious FloridaGeorgia War of the Border All-Star game after his senior season but didn’t land a college football scholarship. After graduating, he enrolled in South Georgia Technical College (SGTC) and set his sights on becoming an electrician. Like Maud, I was a high school athlete (my sport was basketball) who was not recruited to a major college. And, like Maud, I attended a small college in my home state. Both Maud and I saw friends win scholarships, float off to towns and cities elsewhere and continue playing the sports we loved. Maud quit SGTC after a year and returned to Brunswick and his mother’s home. I, too, quit my first community college. But I didn’t have to return to my mother’s apartment, because I already lived there. James “JT” Trimmings, another of Maud’s old friends, believes that homesickness was the cause of Maud’s premature return from college. But I suspect that Maud also doubled back because his life as an athlete was over, and disappointment can grind
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on even the toughest of us. The year after he graduated, Maud was arrested for carrying a gun and sentenced to five years of probation, which he violated by shoplifting. A few years after I graduated from high school, I was arrested with drugs and a gun and spent 16 months in a state prison. But Maud is dead and I, by grace, am a writer-professor hurtling towards middle age. If Maud nursed thoughts of re-enrolling in SGTC, that idea lost its appeal once he met his first serious girlfriend in 2013. Shenice Johnson noticed Maud when he strolled into McDonald’s one day and convinced the manager to give him his old job back. The pair were soon eyeing each other up on their shifts. According to Shenice, their five-plus-year relationship began when she offered the boy at work a free McFlurry. On their first date, Maud, wearing a white-collared shirt and sparkling Nike Air Force 1 shoes, treated Shenice to a seafood feast, opened doors, pulled out her chair and paid the bill without hesitation. “When I was with him, I didn’t have to worry about anything,” she says, a smile in her voice. On the couple’s first Valentine’s Day, Maud drove all the way to Savannah, bought Shenice a Build-a-Bear he named Quez and delivered it to her along with a gold, heart-shaped promise ring.
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the truck bed with his gun in hand. He runs into what must feel like a trap, but perhaps it feels like another time his courage has been tested. Maud zigs one way, zags the other. He darts around the right side of the truck and crosses in front. Travis McMichael heads him off at the nose of the truck and shoots Maud in no more than a heartbeat. The blast cracks over Bryan’s cell footage. “Travis!” screams Gregory McMichael and he drops his phone in the truck bed. The buckshot blast hits Maud in the chest, puncturing his right lung, ribs and his sternum. And yet, somehow, he wrestles with Travis McMichael for the shotgun; and yet, somehow, he manages to punch at him. Gregory watches for a moment from his roost. Meanwhile, Bryan continues to film. Travis fires his shotgun again, a blast that occurs outside the view of Bryan’s phone, but sends a spray of dust billowing into the frame. Maud, an island of blood now staining his white T-shirt, continues to tussle with Travis McMichael, fighting now for what he must know is his life. In the midst of the scuffle, Travis McMichael blasts Maud again point blank, piercing him in his upper chest. Maud takes a weak swing, staggers a couple of steps and falls face-down. Travis, shotgun in hand, backs away, watches Maud collapse and makes not the slightest effort to help him. His father, still clutching his revolver,
1.14PM Mobile phone footage captures Maud on Holmes Road, bolting away from Bryan’s truck but towards the McMichaels’ white pickup. Bryan, about this time, pulls out his phone and starts to film. Meanwhile, Gregory McMichael calls the police. “Uh, I’m out here at Satilla Shores,” he says. “There’s a Black male running down the street.” He’s asked where. “I don’t know what street we’re on,” he says. “Stop right there. Dammit. Stop!” the tape records him yelling at Maud. Maud, fleeing now for no less than six minutes, runs towards a red-faced Travis McMichael, who stands inside the door of his truck with his shotgun aimed, and towards Gregory McMichael, perched in
“The McMichaels, both armed, tear off after Maud in their pickup and stalk him”
Arbery’s best friend, Akeem “Keem” Baker, who would sometimes accompany him on his runs.
runs to where Maud lies, blood leaking out of his wounds. Maud jogged alone on the day he was killed. No one can know for sure the route he took before reaching Satilla Shores, but he had set off from his home, so there’s a strong chance that on his run he encountered homes flying a Confederate flag. To reach Satilla Shores from Boykin Ridge, he would have also had to cross US Route 17, a highway that for years served as a de facto border between the area’s blacks and whites. Maud had been running for years, but the origin of his practice lacks consensus. According to his sister, Jasmine, who was NOVEMBER 2021
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“Ahmaud Marquez Arbery was more than a viral video or a name on a list of tragic victims” also once an avid runner, sometime in 2017, Maud asked her how many miles a day she ran, and soon after began doing it himself. She says it was natural for her brother, because he loved the outdoors and “wanted a release”. Akeem agrees that Maud used running as a kind of therapy, but thinks his main motivation was staying fit after football. This theory would locate the timing of when he began running to a few years before 2017. Maud would run in a white T-shirt and khaki shorts. He would run shirtless in basketball shorts. Or, as Keem sums it up, “He could run in anything.” Sometimes, Maud would persuade JT and a couple of other friends to drive out to the North Glynn Country Recreational Complex and run around the park’s freshwater lake. Other times, when Keem was home from college, he and Maud would cruise to one end of the Sidney Lanier Bridge, do some warm-up stretching and run back and forth across it, a distance of 4.5 kilometres. The pair would keep a steady pace. “But sometimes he’d push me,” says Akeem. There’s no evidence of Maud training for 10Ks or full or half marathons, or obsessing over his mileage or PBs. Yet it’s obvious that he was a young man who loved to run and who, by all accounts, was a gifted runner.
1.15PM According to the police report, Gregory McMichael rolls Maud onto his back to check for a weapon. He checks despite the fact that Maud hasn’t brandished or fired a gun during any part of his flight, not even when caught between two armed white men and what he couldn’t have known was an unarmed white man behind him. Glynn County police officers will arrive within seconds of the shooting, their sirens screaming along Satilla Drive. But before those squad cars reach the scene, Travis McMichael – according to Bryan’s statement to investigators in May last year – will call Maud a “f**king [N-word]”. The bridge that Maud and Keem used to run on is named after the 19th-century poet and Confederate Sidney Lanier. It’s hard to imagine a Georgian with honorifics on a par with Lanier. Along with that bridge, there’s also the eponymous Lanier County in southern Georgia and a Lake Lanier. Keem seems surprised when I mention Lanier’s Confederate ties, which makes me wonder how much Maud knew about the history of his home. Whether the young men were aware of Lanier’s hagiography or not (who stops to read the plaque on a bridge?), every single run across that bridge was an insult, an insidious means of humiliating them and their people. Yeah, the tiki-torch-toting bald-faced racists are a menacing spectacle. But what about the legions of bigoted invisible men and their myriad symbols? Lanier died in 1881, which is to say, near the end of Reconstruction and the outset of Jim Crow. In 1964, a few months after the Civil Rights Act ushered the de jure end to Jim Crow, a documentary 86
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film crew from National Educational Television profiled Brunswick, because it was managing to integrate without the bloodshed that was occurring almost everywhere else in the South. The Quiet Conflict won numerous awards and was a key reason for Brunswick’s reputation as a “model southern city”. While Brunswick might not have equalled the bloodletting of its southern counterparts, its segregationists still put up stern resistance. In one example, the Ku Klux Klan was called in to threaten blacks attempting to integrate a local bowling alley. In another, whites filled a public swimming pool with dirt rather than let black kids swim in it. Several residents have gone on record to proclaim their surprise at Maud’s killing and to downplay the significance of race. And for those who would argue that the spirit of Sidney Lanier and the segregationists is long gone, or that the younger McMichael might not have said what Bryan claimed in his statement to police, evidence – including McMichael’s own social media posts, cited by US investigators – suggests something different. I submit, as another example, this Facebook post from Chris Putnam, who went to high school with Travis McMichael: “I’m not going to be one of the classmates of Travis McMichael’s that sat here saying nothing. He was always the very definition of a racist, gun-loving redneck and we all knew something like this was going to happen one day. I remember plenty of people that were themselves very openly racist and joked about
Jason Vaughn, Arbery’s high school football coach and organiser of a memorial run called #IRunWithMaud.
Far right: Black Lives Matter protesters hold Arbery’s image alongside that of George Floyd.
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how ‘at least [they weren’t] Travis’”. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the US once defined lynching as a death in which 1) There was evidence that a person was killed, 2) The death was illegal and 3) A group of at least three actors participated in the killing. According to Lynching in America, a report by the Equal Justice Initiative, there were 4084 southern-state lynchings between 1877 and 1950. Of the 594 reported in Georgia during that period – one of only four states yet to pass a law on hate crimes – three occurredin Glynn County. Between 1920 and 1938, the NAACP New York headquarters flew a flag that announced “A Man Was Lynched Yesterday” to mark a murder that fit their criteria.
1.16PM “Two subjects on Holmes Road. Shots fired. Male on ground, bleeding out,” radios a police officer. Maud musters his last breath near the intersection of Holmes Road and Satilla Drive, a mere 300m from where, not 10 minutes earlier, he’d wandered inside a construction site. The officers will cordon off the scene and investigate. They will question the McMichaels – Gregory’s hands bloody from rolling Maud onto his back – and William Bryan. And in an act that is itself another violence, they will let all three go about their merry way as free men – for almost three months. On 23 February 2020, a young man out for a run was lynched in Glynn County, Georgia. His name was Ahmaud Marquez Arbery, called “Quez” by his loved ones and “Maud” by most others. And what I want you to know about Maud is that he had a gift for impressions and a special knack for mimicking the actor Martin Lawrence. What I want you to know about Maud is that he had a sweet tooth and requested his mother’s fudge cake for the birthday parties he often shared with his big sister. What I want you to know about Maud is that he signed the cards he bought for his mother “Baby Boy”. What I want you to know about Maud is that he and his brother would don the helmets they used for go-karting and go heads-up on their trampoline and that he never backed down from his big brother. What I want you to know about Maud is that he jammed his little finger playing basketball at school and instead of getting it treated, like Jasmine advised, he let it heal on its own: it remained forever crooked. What I want you to know about Maud is that he didn’t
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like seeing his friends whining; that when they did, he’d chide, “Don’t cry about it, man. Do what you gotta do to handle your business”. What I want you to know about Maud is that Shenice told me he sometimes recorded their conversations, so he could listen to her voice when they were apart. What you should know about Maud is that he adored his nephews Marcus III and Micah Arbery; that when they were colicky as babies, he’d take them for long walks in their pram until they calmed. What you should know about Maud is that when a college friend asked Jasmine which parent she’d call first if ever in serious trouble, she said neither, she’d call Maud. What I want you to know about Maud is that he was a connoisseur of the McChicken sandwich with cheese. What I want you to know about Maud is that he and Keem were so close that the universe coerced each of them into breaking a foot on the same day in separate freak gym accidents, and that when they were getting treated in the trainer’s office, Maud joked about it. You should know that Maud dreamed of a career as an electrician and of owning a construction company. You should know that Maud gushed often of his desire to be a great husband and father. You should know that he told his friends that he wanted them all to buy a huge plot of land, build houses on it and live in a gated community with their families. You should know that Maud never flew on a plane but dreamed of trips to Jamaica, Japan, Africa. What you must know about Maud is that when Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and William Bryan stalked and killed him less than three months shy of his 26th birthday, he left behind his mother, Wanda; his father, Marcus Sr; his brother, Buck; his sister Jasmine; his maternal grandmother, Ella; and his nephews, six uncles, 10 aunts and a host of cousins, all of whom are unimaginably, irrevocably, incontrovertibly poorer because of his absence. Ahmaud Marquez Arbery was more than a viral video. He was more than a hashtag, or a name on a list of tragic victims. He was more than an article or an essay or posthumous profile. He was more than a headline or a
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news package or a part of the news cycle. He was more than a retweet or shared post. He was more than our likes, or emoji tears, or hearts, or praying hands. He was more than an RIP T-shirt or placard. He was more than an autopsy or a transcript, or a police report, or a live-streamed hearing. He was more than a rally or a march. He was more than a symbol, more than a movement, more than a cause. He was loved. Some of those loved ones got to see Maud play his last high school game, away at Lakeside-Evans High School. Maud is a team captain, so he swanks onto the 50-yard line to call the coin toss. Maud, who will earn the team award for most tackles that season, blazes around the field, but still his Pirates trail by 20 points at half time. But the team mounts a second-half comeback, one no more promising than when Maud leaps to snatch an interception, zags here, jukes there and bursts down the field, the wind whispering through his helmet, his lithe legs floating him oh, so close to – but not into – the end zone. Ultimately, the Pirates lose the game and miss the playoffs. While their opponents celebrate, Maud and some of his teammates circle in the middle of the field. There they stand, hand in hand, tears running. Boys who will soon be young men mourning a seasonending loss, boys mourning the eternal end of their football seasons. Maud could use his gift for humour to lighten the mood, but he concedes to the moment’s gravity. Yes, some will play on at college. Others will attend as students alone. And some will forsake a campus altogether for work. But here’s the truth: under that final gleam of Friday night lights, neither Maud nor any of his teammates can be sure of what lies ahead.
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17 The
Biggest Food Myths of All Time
Navigating the factual maze that is the modern nutrition industry is no easy task – even the most clued up among us can lose our way. Yesterday’s cure-alls are tomorrow’s compost as diets drift in and out of favour. To shed a little light, we asked a panel of experts to tell us about the myths and pseudoscientific theories they frequently come up against – then debunk them. Here’s your bite-sized guide BY
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SCA RLE T T WRENCH PHOTOGR APHY BY JOH A NN A PA RKIN
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Breakfast Is the Most Important Meal of the Day
ereal companies put a lot of marketing money into making people believe this,” says PT and health pseudoscience debunker Hendrick Famutimi. “But really, as long as you’re eating enough nutrients after training, your body will have what it needs.”
If you prefer a light morning meal, refuelling with gusto after your midday workout is a perfectly effective strategy. The same goes for those on a 16:8 intermittent fasting protocol. Research suggests that it’s not breakfast that keeps you lean, but rather that people with
a higher BMI tend to eat later in the day. So, what will make a difference? Eating your kilojoules within daylight hours can help: in one University of Pennsylvania study, those who ate out of sync with their circadian rhythms had poorer profiles of blood glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides.
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Cutting Carbs Is the Smartest Way to Lose Weight
he term “carbs” may have become synonymous with bread and pasta but, in reality, they’re found in a variety of foods, from leafy greens to oats and lentils. “Are we seeing higher levels of obesity because we’re overeating oats and lentils? Not based on any current data,” says dietitian Ryan Andrews, who points out that body composition is “influenced by countless
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factors, from stress to sleep” – not just your partiality for buttery toast. So, why the confusion? Eating carbs raises blood sugar levels, triggering the release of insulin, a hormone that controls fat storage. But this is a normal biological process and, as long as you’re feeding your body with the right amount of energy to meet its demands, there’s no
If You Eat Carbs After 6pm, They’ll Be Stored as Fat “SOME PEOPLE think if you eat carbs before going to sleep, they’ll have a negative effect because your metabolism will slow down,” says Famutimi. That's false. What matters are your habits across a month. If you work out after 6pm, "Eat high-carb meals after your workouts, when your body craves nutrients," says Famutimi.
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reason you’ll put on extra padding. True, some people lose fat on a low-carb plan: “Cutting back on carbs, like any other food, can put you in a calorie deficit,” says Famutimi. But it’s no magic bullet. Some of the healthiest people in the world eat plenty of carbs: only 4 per cent of Japanese men are classed as obese, even though rice and noodles are staples.
Quitting Dairy Leads to
“MILK DOES A BODY GOOD” was a 1980s marketing campaign that positioned dairy as the antidote to osteoporosis. And for the 40 per cent of adults globally who have no trouble digesting it, dairy has its benefits: it’s a source of vitamins D and B12, phosphorus and calcium. But tofu, soya milk, pak choi, kale, plus certain beans, nuts and seeds are also rich sources.
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6 To Build Mo More Muscle, All You Need Is Protein… n…
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A Raw Food Diet Is Best for Nutrient Uptake
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ot all foods are best eaten raw: after all, self-denial isn’t in itself beneficial. Cooking increases the bioavailability – the ease with which your body can extract and use a nutrient – of lycopene and beta-carotene, the healthboosting nutrients found in orange and red foods such as
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n ... And You Need That Protein P Immediately After Traiining
YOUR DIGESTIVE system is smarter than you give it credit for – it's able to absorb and store amino acids for when your muscles need them. According to a review in the Journal of the International Society
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tomatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes, plus leafy greens such as spinach. What’s more, pairing foods containing fat-soluble vitamins A (tomatoes and ain), ai n), D (mu (mushr shroom shr o s), gus an and d char charrd) and K colili,, Brus r sel ru els s spro spro p uts ts s) ke e oli olive ve oi oil or o bu utte er also helps.
m scratch. We need it from our diets,” says sports nutritionist Sinead Roberts. “So, protein is essential for building muscle.” However, it is not the only ingredient in muscle growth. “The process is largely regulated by a molecule called mTORC1, which is switched on by strength training. But to stay switched on, it requires energy – i.e., calories.” An abstemious diet of lean meat and leaves won’t cut it. Not only do you need enough protein, you need to eat enough in general. “Research has compared ‘simple’ protein foods, such as egg whites, to more complex foods, such as whole eggs, which also include fats and extra micronutrients,” says Roberts. “The results show that some whole foods might be more effective in supporting muscle protein synthesis.” Find what works for you. Fin
High-GI Carbs
t’s all about context,” says nutritionist Steve Grant. The glycaemic index (GI) ranks how carb-containing foods impact your blood sugar levels, but combining carbs with proteins, fats and fibre dampens the blood sugar response. A jacket potato, for example, might score highly, but a spoonful of tuna mayo and some avocado will bring its GI right down.
utrition, yourr t-exercise meals rated by abou ut four hours dering your growth. “It for your body to go into tate,” says Famutimi.
t n some circumstances, arbs can even be l,” Grant points out, arly when you want to your glycogen stores ning.” e react differently, too. microbiome has been influence the glycaemic a food,” says Grant. “We nique responses.”
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9 Supercharge Your Metabolism There’s a crucial difference between “supercharge” and “support”. Micronutrients, including B vitamins and certain minerals, will support healthy metabolic function. But a pinch of chilli powder or a spoonful of apple cider vinegar won’t help your body to incinerate kilojoules in any meaningful way. At best, they’ll assist with blood sugar balance and satiety. That may be less sexy, but it’s still useful. “There was a time when people thought that if you took a spoonful of coconut oil before a workout, you would burn more fat,” says Famutimi. This, again, is specious. The MCT fats in coconut oil appear to improve fat oxidation compared to other forms of fat, but it’s a case of marginal gains – and won’t compensate for the fact that you’ve eaten a spoonful of oil.
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Plants Aren’t a Real Source of Protein
“Natural Sugars” Are Good for You
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here’s not a huge difference between ‘natural’ sweeteners and sugar,” says Grant. “There may be a few more micronutrients in sugars like molasses, date syrup and honey, but from a calorie and macronutrient perspective, they’re pretty much the same. So, it’s still important to be mindful of your intake.” in other words, factor those organic flapjacks into your recommended 30g daily limit.
“Humans love categorical thinking,” says Andrews. “It’s not uncommon to hear people say that meat is a protein, wholegrains are a carbohydrate and nuts are a fat.” In reality, most foods contain a variety of macro- and micronutrients. Though it’s true that many plantprotein sources are “incomplete” – they don’t contain all nine essential amino acids – this is only a problem if there’s no variety in your diet. Vegans should eat one portion of legumes per day, such as chickpeas, to get the amino acid lysine.
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The More Fat You Eat, the More You Burn
You Can’t Get Too Much of a Good Thing
“Humans can survive and thrive on a variety of dietary patterns,” says Andrews. “But manipulating fat intake doesn’t appear to be as important to body composition as other factors, such as aiming to eat a high-quality diet – minimally processed, with plenty of plants.” A ketogenic diet, in which 70 per cent or more of your kilojoules come from fat, pushes the body into a fasting-like state in which the body switches from using glycogen as a fuel source to using ketones. But it’s energy balance – not fuel source – that dictates weight loss and gain.
Flooding your body with synthetic vitamins in the hope of reaching nutritional nirvana does not work. Micronutrients offer diminishing returns: “Many are ‘hormetic’ – they have an increasingly beneficial impact up to a certain point, then above that, they begin to have an adverse effect,” says Roberts. Take, for example, vitamin C: the “upper tolerable limit” is 2000mg per day, after which you might experience side effects such as nausea or trouble sleeping. Read the labels and, if you’re worried about deficiencies, get a blood test before topping up.
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Cheat Meals Help You Burn More KJs
Eating Little and Often Will Stoke Your Metabolism
“This is a hot topic now,” says Roberts. It’s true that dieting for an extended period can cause your metabolism to slow. Cheat meals – or even cheat weeks – have been proposed as a way to prevent this. That could mean bringing your kiljoule intake up to maintenance levels (hardly cheating), or even introducing a surplus. “For the period when you’re refeeding, your metabolic rate might be restored,” says Roberts, “but studies suggest that it will fall again when you return to the diet.” That’s not to say that boosting your kilojoule intake is of no benefit, however. A recent study noted that a break decreased “diet fatigue” – the boredom of being deprived of your favourite foods – “so it may help people adhere to an eating plan, and therefore see more weight loss”.
Despite all the talk about “burning”, “incinerating” and “torching”, your metabolism is not a furnace. You won’t stoke it with hourly kindling and smother it with a hunk of wood. Multiple analyses and reviews conclude that meal frequency will make little difference to your metabolic rate. What you eat matters more. Meanwhile, a Japanese study noted that fasting provokes “a metabolically active state”. Put that in your furnace and smoke it.
15 A Healthy Diet Shouldn’t Require Supplements Most nutritionists advocate a “food first” approach. As Roberts puts it, “A vitamin C tablet just provides vitamin C, whereas a portion of beetroot provides vitamin C, nitrates, potassium, manganese, fibre, folate . . .” However, there are some nutrients that are hard to get from diet alone. These include vitamin D3 (aim for 10ug a day, in winter), EPA and DHA fatty acids, unless you’re eating plenty of oily fish (store these in the fridge, as light and heat degrades them), and vitamin B12 for vegans. Meanwhile, there are supplements that might be useful for athletes, including creatine for muscle mass and strength, and nitrates for aerobic performance. Even the most wellbalanced eating plan can be optimised.
17 Giving Up Sugar/Dairy/ Wheat/Caffeine Can Help Your Body to Detoxify
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etox from what? In 2009, an investigation of 10 detox companies by independent research body Examine found that none of them could name any of the toxins they purported to eliminate. Things have not improved in the decade since. “The phrase ‘detoxing’ is overused,” says Grant. “Though I don’t disagree that we’re exposed to more toxins than ever, cutting out sugar, dairy and so on isn’t what I would class as a detox.” Avoiding foods that are causing
you digestive issues (potentially, but not always, including the aforementioned groups) will support your body’s detoxification process. “But a calorie deficit has the potential to increase toxin exposure, as some toxins may be stored up in fat cells,” cautions Grant. Instead, he advises increasing your intake of high-nutrient whole foods and digestion-boosting fibre, while adding the occasional sauna session to your gym schedule.
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DON’T TAKE PILLS ON TRUST ALONE.
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THE TOXIN HUNTER Both hiding in plain sight and in the recesses of the dark web, retailers are pushing pills and powders that purport to enhance your health – yet cause more pain than gain. To combat the trend, a rebel doctor in the US state of Massachusetts is taking on rogue manufacturers, one false claim at a time. His findings call into question how much we really know about the supplements we’re taking BY
S TEPH A NIE CLIFFORD PHOTOGR APHY BY MITCH PAYNE
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IRST, IT WAS INSOMNIA. THE PATIENTS STREAMING INTO THE OFFICE OF DR PIETER COHEN ALL COMPLAINED OF SLEEPLESS NIGHTS.
COHEN ON AIR, LEADING THE CRUSADE AGAINST UNSAFE DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS. 96
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of fenproporex, an amphetamine linked to anxiety and addiction. The supplement had been spiked, a practice in which manufacturers cut corners by covertly including harmful ingredients. Cohen alerted his regional Food and Drug Administration (FDA) office, hoping that it would take the pills off the market. But nothing happened. No warnings were issued. After several months, the pills were still on the shelves. Undeterred, Cohen produced warning pamphlets and shared them in the community. He talked to local radio stations and newspapers. Eventually, the pills started disappearing. Cohen never imagined that this experience might lead him to investigate another toxic supplement, then another, until his self-appointed role of policing the inadequately regulated world of supplements turned into an obsessive quest. He now analyses dozens of pills and powders every year, pursuing any hunch that a dangerous ingredient might be lurking behind a toogood-to-be-true marketing claim.
LAW AND DISORDER
In the US, adverse events related to dietary supplements cause an estimated 23,000 emergency room visits a year. But it’s not a problem confined to the US. The World Health Organization estimates the world’s fake medication market is worth around $200 billion a year. Meanwhile, researchers at Harvard University recently found that dietary supplements that claim to build muscle, sustain energy or help with weight loss were linked to nearly three times as many severe medical events in people aged 25 and under as vitamins alone. In one of Cohen’s published studies, an experimental stimulant called 1,3-dimethylbutylamine (DMBA), unstudied in humans, was detected in a pre-workout product sold by an online UK retailer. In a 2014 letter to the BMJ, British researchers described finding the breast cancer drug
ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: STEVE GALLAGHER, COURTESY CBS THIS MORNING, ANNA RABKINA, DAVID NEWTON, STUDIO 33; DIGITAL MANIPULATION: SCRATCHINPOST.CO.UK
One woman had headaches, chest pain and nausea. Another was depressed, sweating and trembling. Then a truck driver came to him with another concern: he couldn’t figure out why he had just tested positive for amphetamines. It was 2006, and Cohen, who was working at a community health clinic in Somerville, Massachusetts, realised that something was amiss. Many of his patients were Brazilian immigrants, so Cohen, who speaks some Portuguese, began to ask them questions. There was little that was surprising about their diet or exercise habits, but the results of their lab tests shocked him. A number of the patients had amphetamines in their systems, though none believed they had taken any. Some also showed traces of known tranquilisers, hypnotics and antidepressants. Eventually, staff members at the clinic suggested a possible culprit: Brazilian-made diet pills, sold in generic packaging in the local area. Cohen asked his patients about the pills and they all admitted to taking them. “Because people were having such significant symptoms, it just gave me the sense that something powerful was in the pills that was mysterious or interesting,” Cohen recalls. He acquired samples and found a lab that could analyse them. The tests showed that the pills contained dangerous amounts
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tamoxifen in bodybuilding supplements. In Australia, meanwhile, in 2010 thousands of counterfeit Viagra pills made their way into Australia’s official supply chain and ended up at a children’s hospital in Sydney. While in 2018, an Australian government operation made close to 90 seizures of illegal pills, potions and injectable drugs in a single month, according to a report by the ABC. Cohen has stepped in where he sees the American regulatory system failing, bent on pulling unsafe and mislabelled products off the shelves. But being a solo sleuth taking on the multibillion-dollar supplement industry is not without its risks. “I think some people were probably, like, ‘Pieter’s crazy,’” says Cohen. “But to me, it’s fundamental to the work. It’s an extension of caring for the patients.” Tall, bald and fit, Cohen is 51 years old and wears well-worn trainers with his medical scrubs. When he is talking about supplements, he becomes loud and animated. When he is with his patients, however, he is calmer and carefully inquisitive. When Men’s Health visited him at work, he made use of an unusual piece of equipment to enhance his bedside manner: instead of a face mask, he sported an air-purifying respirator with a clear face shield, so his patients could read his lips and see his facial expressions. Cohen grew up in an affluent suburb of Boston, the son of a lawyer and state superior-court judge (his mother) and a professor of experimental psychology (his father). He enrolled in medical school with the objective of helping underserved communities. “I had all this privilege,” he says, “and I wanted to make sure I gave back.” The Somerville clinic where Cohen works today is part of the Harvard Medical School-affiliated community health network, Cambridge Health Alliance. One day, his phone rang, and on the other end was a lawyer at the FDA’s office, who told Cohen that what
23,000
The number of people in the US per year who seek medical advice after a reaction to a dietary supplement
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he was seeing in Somerville was what they were seeing nationally: supplements were being spiked with drugs all over the country. And it wasn’t just diet pills. It was potentially everything from brain boosters to protein powders to vitamins. Since many different manufacturers make these products, issuing a recall or seizing them directly from companies can feel like playing whack-a-mixture. “A lot of people would be, like, ‘That’s not my lane – let the lawyers or the public-health experts figure that out,’” says Cohen. Instead, the doctor started studying chemical structures, read about the history of the FDA and came to recognise some serious problems in the regulatory protocols for supplements. This framework wasn’t outlined until the 1990s, when bodybuilding and diet supplements started gaining popularity. The industry objected with a well-financed campaign, including a TV commercial that showed an armed squad seizing vitamin C from Mel Gibson. The American FDA has no power to approve most supplements before they hit the market and little recourse to stop distribution afterwards. As a result, while some products purchased online contain exactly what is listed on the label, it cannot be guaranteed.
ON SHAKY GROUND
When the first US law specifically governing the sale of supplements passed, there were about 4000 products on the market. Now, there are between 50,000 and north of 80,000. In 2020, the global supplement market grew to almost $189bn, and is expected to keep expanding fast. Slow responses can have dire consequences. Consider the amphetamine derivative DMAA, which is associated with heart attacks, seizures and neurological problems. In 2011, two soldiers died while exercising. After it emerged that they had taken workout supplements spiked with
Look for the ‘Human and Supplement Testing Australia (HASTA) Certified’ seal on your protein powder or pre-workout. The seal means that every batch has been tested for over 200 WADA prohibited substances.
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Be wary of bold claims, says Cohen. Go for “protein powder”, not “muscle builder”; or “ginkgo”, rather than “memory enhancer”. Cohen advises checking brands’ websites to see if the claims are supported with robust scientific evidence.
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the substance, the US Department of Defence banned the sale of products containing this ingredient from its on-base stores. It also released a warning about the dangers linked to DMAA-containing products. By April 2013, the FDA had received 86 reports of people harmed by them. Soon afterwards, it stopped the manufacturer from distributing some of the products. Until then, it had only sent warning letters. Cohen’s goal is to speed up that process, to spur either the FDA or some other governmental agency to act at the first sign of trouble. To do so, he has developed his own network of doctors, academics and doping experts who share tips about what emerging product ingredients might be harmful. Over the past decade, this small pharma rebel alliance has turned up an almost endless array of pills, powders and botanical products containing banned stimulants, alternative versions of dangerous stimulants and ingredients with adverse effects at high doses.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
In 2013, a source tipped Cohen off that athletes using a popular workout powder called Craze were testing positive for an unknown amphetamine. The previous year, the product had been named the “New Supplement of the Year” by bodybuilding. com, and it was being sold through online retailers. When Cohen bought and tested it, he identified a chemical called DEPEA, which is similar to meth. Craze was manufactured by a US-based company called Driven Sports, whose owner had previously been sentenced for mail fraud and shipping misbranded drugs. Cohen published his findings and shared the story with news outlets. That same week, Craze’s manufacturer announced it had ceased production due to safety concerns. In recent years, Cohen has had similar success at identifying both an amphetamine variant called BMPEA in several weight-loss supplements and a neurologic drug called picamilon in supposedly memory-boosting products. After the release of Cohen’s reports on the two chemicals, the state of Oregon’s attorney general sued supplement giants GNC and pushed through a deal banning nutritional supplement chain Vitamin Shoppe from selling products containing the ingredients. The retailer paid a $545,000 fine, pulled the relevant products and suspended sales of anything with an FDA warning or advisory. Then Nebraska picked up the baton: the Vitamin Shoppe agreed with its attorney 98
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general to no longer sell BMPEA products. In 2015, GNC announced that it had stopped selling picamilon and BMPEA products, too, though it publicly stated that the FDA had not, at that point, raised safety concerns about those ingredients. GNC now claims that all of the products it sells must meet specific standards for purity and strength. A spokesperson for the Vitamin Shoppe says that vendors must assure the retailer that their products “comply with all applicable laws”, and all products are reviewed by its scientific and regulatory affairs team before being sold. Even Amazon, an emerging force in the retail-supplement world, says that it has “proactive measures in place to prevent suspicious, non-compliant or prohibited products from being listed”. Amazon requires companies to share a certificate of analysis – testing that confirms the make-up of a product. Cohen says that even though some stores and chains are taking steps to ensure the safety of supplements amid serious shortcomings in the laws, smaller shops and internet sites will continue to fuel the problem. He would like the FDA to issue rulings more quickly. “They’re simply not doing their job,” he says. The FDA has a more diplomatic stance. “We appreciate stakeholder interaction like this for raising awareness and
STRONGER NATURALLY
Smart supplementation might have its place, but you can hit your performance goals with your diet 1 scoop of whey powder = 21g protein; 1g carbs; 2g fat = 150g prawns 1 scoop of pre-workout = 180mg caffeine = 25g chocolate coffee beans
1 endurance drink = 500mg nitrates = 150g beetroot + 100g spinach bringing needed attention to these matters,” says a spokesperson. “We look forward to collaborating . . . to help ensure that products marketed as dietary supplements are safe, well manufactured and accurately labelled while preserving the original commitment to consumer access.” Cohen has criticised the FDA’s lack of effectiveness for years – but he never expected that he would have to defend his tactics in court. In 2014, he read a study written by FDA scientists about supplements that purported to contain acacia rigidula, a shrub that had become popular on weight-loss products’ labels. FDA scientists tested 21 products listing the acacia ingredient and found that nine of them instead contained BMPEA.
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“ IT’S DIZZYING The amount the global supplement market was worth in 2020 – and it’s growing every year
AT WORK, COHEN IS KEENLY ALERT TO THE EXPERIENCES OF HIS PATIENTS.
However, the agency did not specify which supplements had the dangerous ingredient. So Cohen ran similar research, finding BMPEA in several products for weight loss, sports or cognitive function. He published the names of the products and their manufacturers.
COURTING TROUBLE
That April, one of the companies Cohen cited, Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, sued him for $50m in compensatory damages, as well as $150m for slander and libel. The issue wasn’t whether some of its products included BMPEA; Hi-Tech admitted that they did. Rather, Hi-Tech fought his statements that BMPEA was dangerous, hadn’t been rigorously
tested in humans and wasn’t derived from acacia rigidula. Harvard defended Cohen, covering the costs of the lawyers. But the litigation process was all-consuming. Cohen had to dig through his emails to find anything related to this study and hand it over to Hi-Tech. Then he had to analyse all of those communications in case he was asked about them in his deposition or at trial. “I spent every free moment I had [on it],” he says. After a six-day trial, the jury found in his favour. Hi-Tech’s CEO and lawyers did not respond to requests for comment, and while some of its brand names that Cohen analysed are still available, it is unclear whether the company has altered the supplements’ make-up. The trial did have one upside: it proved that Cohen’s work was having an effect. “I didn’t want to have research that is just sitting there and never read,” he says. “I want to have a positive impact on health.” In spite of the continuing threat of lawsuits, he has not slowed down. He has now published more than 50 academic papers skewering major manufacturers for being less than forthright about their products and promises. He paused his investigations when the global pandemic hit, as he put all his energy into sharing anything that might be helpful for doctors trying to diagnose and treat COVID-19. But this March, Cohen published a new study looking at 17 sports and
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$189,000,000,000
HOW COMPLICATED ALL OF THESE PRODUCTS ARE
weight-loss supplements with labels that listed the ingredient deterenol, a stimulant that can cause sweating, nausea and cardiac arrest. Four of the supplements he tested didn’t contain the substance at all, despite the claim that they did; all of the others contained it or had cocktails of deterenol with other stimulants. “It’s dizzying how complicated all these products are,” he says. In the meantime, hyperbolic online reviews of some of these products suggest how strong they might be. Of one pre-workout, a reviewer wrote: “This stuff is just a few levels below cocaine . . . I can smell colours”. Of another, a reviewer said, “As I like to call it, edge of a heart attack”. Personally, Cohen doesn’t even use multivitamins. “My take is just: it’s best to go with exercise and healthy food, and you have to have pretty strong evidence to convince me that something is better than that,” he says. But he did make a small concession at home: when his 19year-old son got interested in supplements and his 15-year-old son started watching TikToks on pre-workout regimens, he let one of them try protein powders. Now, though, they stick to healthy diets – not sports supplements. He understands the pressure that comes with comparing yourself with others, and how anyone who wants to stay a step ahead might go searching for an edge. So Cohen continues to research and write and pitch and advocate, trying to get a single message to consumers of supplements: buyer beware. NOVEMBER 2021
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Done right, your barbecue delivers weighty benefits. 100 MEN’S HE ALTH
Lighting up the backyard BBQ can be as good for the body as it is for the soul – you just need to remix your repertoire. We recruited four premier pit masters to be your guides. Perfect their signature recipes, then spin your barbecued fare into a full month’s worth of fitness fuelling, muscle-building meals. Napkins at the ready BY
TROY DA COS TA PHOTOGR APHY BY SUN LEE
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1 Slow-Cooked Beef Brisket A Texan favourite, smoked brisket is an investment in time and energy, but one that pays back generously in strength-building nutrients – Barbados-born David Carter is the founder of barbecue joint Smokestak, where meat is slow-cooked in a wood-fired smoker
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Ingredients • Cumin seeds, 1tsp
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Remix Your Brisket
• Chilli flakes, ½tsp • Black whole peppercorns,1tsp • Fennel seed, 1tsp • Dried thyme, 1tsp
2 Stuff it in a toasted bun with pickles and red chilli for a quick, protein-heavy lunch. The pickles will help to replace lost electrolytes after training.
• Demerara sugar, 2tsp • Caster sugar, 2tsp • Salt, 1tsp • Paprika, 1tsp • Onion powder, 1tsp • Garlic powder, 1tsp • Mustard powder, 1tsp • Beef brisket joint, butcher-trimmed
Method
3 Or make tacos: shred and serve with diced red onion, tomatoes and coriander. (Cheese and sour cream optional, but advised.)
To make the rub, pan-toast the cumin, chilli, peppercorns, fennel seed and thyme on a low heat until aromatic. Blitz in a blender with the demerara sugar until fine, then add the rest of the ingredients (except the meat). Generously season your brisket – a potent source of muscle-supporting creatine, zinc and B12 – then leave to sit at room temperature for up to an hour. Prep your smoker for indirect cooking at 120-130ºC. Smoke overnight, if you’re confident – or don’t fancy a 5am alarm. Place the brisket fat-side-up and smoke until it’s a dark, mahogany colour, roughly 8-10 hours. “It’s really important to go slow and use low temperatures,” says Carter. Try the “minion method”. (Google it.) “For fuel, use kiln-dried English oak – which is my personal favourite – or beech, birch, chestnut or apple.” Next, wrap the brisket in butcher paper or foil and cook for two to three hours, until it feels like a “wet balloon”. Alternatively, probe different parts of the meat; it should give with only a little resistance, like roomtemperature butter. Once cooked, take your brisket off the smoker. Allow it to rest for at least one hour, wrapped. It will continue to cook. Slice and serve with BBQ sauce.
4 Add slices of brisket to a steaming pho or ramen, along with crunchy vegetables and a whole boiled egg for a nutrient-dense blend of carbs and protein.
5 Leftover brisket can be enjoyed the next day for breakfast, served with hash browns and a fried egg. 6 For a portable, jerky-like snack, make “burnt ends”. Remove the point-end of the brisket, cube and toss in a sugary BBQ sauce before returning to the smoker so it caramelises to form gnarly nuggets.
As this slow-cooked brisket proves, good things come to those who wait.
7 Overcooked it? Then make croquettes: shred the meat, simmer in stock until soft, add diced shallots, BBQ sauce and parsley. Press into a sheet pan and chill. Cut to size, panée and fry. Serve with salad. NOVEMBER 2021 103
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Reinvent old favourites from the vegetable patch.
8 Vegetable Hearth Plate Your fitness is fuelled by more than just animal protein. Top up on vital vitamins and minerals with this nutrient-dense power plate
– Chef director at the Tramshed Project, open-fire specialist Andrew Clarke received the Innovation Award from the Craft Guild of Chefs
Ingredients Method • Climbing zucchinis • Eggplant • Fennel • Red onions • Corno chillies • Butternut pumpkin • Haricot or cannellini beans
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Grill as much as you need to keep your guests fed, plus extra for your working lunch. Clarke likes to highlight the different flavour profiles of each vegetable by varying his cooking technique. For the zucchinis, place an all-metal heavy frying pan over the coals and braise in a garlic-herb stock with plenty of olive oil (watch out for the hot handle). Rinse the pan and fry the eggplant, sliced into wedges, in a dash of oil. The fennel and onions need very little cooking. Simply rub with oil and
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9 Stuff the eggplant and chillies into a grilled flatbread, with pumpkin purée, cashew cream, black olives and parsley salad for a killer post-workout carb hit. 10 Add the hearth veg to a fragrant Thai curry, with plenty of coconut milk. Get creative with nuts and pulses to up the protein content. 11 The zucchinis are delicious with coco beans, calciumrich burrata cheese, basil and toasted breadcrumbs as a light lunch. 12 Leftover chillies make a great sauce for pasta dishes. Combine with tomatoes and cook low and slow. Fold through pasta gently to retain their texture.
chargrill, so they maintain their crunch. Blacken the chillies directly on the coals, then remove the charred skin to reveal the soft flesh. Roast the vitamin A-rich pumpkin in the coals, too, then blend into a smoky purée when soft. Finally, cook the beans in a cast-iron pot, tucked into the coals and laced with olive oil, roast garlic and hot sauce. A 400kJ serving of haricot beans provides 6g of protein. “We serve all this with a simple salsa verde, to bring uplifting herbal notes to the party,” says Clarke.
13 Throw leftover veg in a frittata or omelette for a fast pre-gym breakfast. Along with amino acids, eggs provide musclesupporting choline. 14 Serve the beans and chargrilled fennel and onions alongside pan-fried fish for a delicious, macrobalanced evening meal.
NUT RI T ION
15 Whole Chicken Musakhan Dispense with your usual drumsticks and instead cook up 300g worth of protein in the form of this Palestinian dish
– Josh Katz is the head chef and owner of Berber & Q, a Middle Eastern-influenced grill house and shawarma bar, and the author of a cookbook by the same name
Ingredients FOR THE DRY RUB: • Cardamom pods, 3 • A clove • Fennel seeds, ½tsp • Chilli flakes, a pinch • Ground coriander, ½tsp • Ground cumin, 1tsp
Method
Start with your antioxidant-rich rub. Toast the cardamom, clove and fennel seeds over a medium heat until smoking. Set aside to cool, then blitz with chilli flakes to form a coarse powder. Combine with the remaining ingredients.
Expand your grilling repertoire with this Middle-Eastern chicken dish.
Ingredients FOR THE CHICKEN: • A chicken, 1.5-1.8kg • Salt and black pepper • Lemon, ½ • Oregano, 3-4 sprigs • Garlic, ½ head, plus a grated clove
• Table salt, 10g
• Red onions, 3, medium
• Dark brown sugar, 10g • Ground cinnamon, 1tsp
• Pomegranate molasses, 2tbsp
• Ground ginger, ¾tsp
• Dijon mustard, 1tsp
• Ground turmeric, ¾tsp
• Extra-virgin olive oil, 80ml • Ground sumac, 1½tbsp • Flatbreads, 2, large • Pine nuts, 2tbsp, toasted • Flaked almonds, 1tbsp, toasted • Za’atar, ½tbsp • Parsley leaves, handful
Method
Set up the barbecue for 180°C. Rub the chicken, season the cavity with salt and pepper and stuff with the lemon half, oregano and garlic. Pop it on the rack, offset from the coals. Cook lid-on for one and a half hours, until the juices run clear. Meanwhile, place the onions on the coals to char, turning until tender. Whisk together the molasses, mustard and grated garlic clove, plus 50ml olive oil. Allow the onions to cool, peel off the charred skin and cut into bite-sized pieces. Season with salt, pepper and sumac, then toss in the molasses dressing. Serve in the musakhan style: heat grill to 220°C. Spread onion mix on the bread and top with pieces of chicken. Drizzle the rest of the oil over the top and sprinkle with pine nuts and almonds. Grill for four minutes, then serve. NOVEMBER 2021 105
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Revamp Your Chicken 16 Combine with couscous, dill, coriander and parsley, sliced shallots, cumin and a citrus dressing for a light, pre-workout feed. 17 Try a chicken sandwich with tahini, pickles, herbs and chilli sauce. Tahini’s antiinflammatory compounds speed muscle recovery.
18 Use the carcass for a joint-health-supporting stock, then add shredded chicken, spiced rice and roasted eggplant. 19 Roast red and yellow capsicum and spring onions, then stir in shredded chicken. Pile onto a flatbread with saffron aioli for a postcardio carb hit. 20 Fry the chicken with onions and serve in lettuce cups drizzled with tahini and chilli oil, with a pinch of dukkah, a nut, seed and spice blend. 21 Use your chicken to top cauliflower rice and chickpeas, served with lemon, sumac, parsley and pomegranate. Sumac has properties that reduce fatigue.
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22 Smoked Pork Shoulder
Master this barbecue classic and you can prep enough mouth-watering meat to pig out on for the rest of the week – Chefs Frank Fellows, Martin Anderson and Curtis Bell run From the Ashes BBQ, which champions responsibly sourced meat from hand-selected farmers
Ingredients • Pork shoulder 2-3kg, skin off • Dry rub of your choice • Organic apple cider vinegar
Method
The shoulder is a top source of B vitamins, zinc and selenium, to keep you energised. Apply a dry rub the night before cooking. From the Ashes uses a combination of smoked paprika, garlic powder, kosher salt and coarse black pepper. With the right combo of smoke, moisture and heat, this will create the perfect “bark”, the crusty, caramelised outer layer. Rest at room temperature for an hour before cooking.Get the smoker up to 120ºC and cook the pork until the internal temperature is 90ºC, which should take around four hours. Spritz the meat with apple cider vinegar every now and then to help it retain moisture. Once cooked, wrap the pork shoulder in foil and let it rest for an hour. Don’t be tempted to skip this step; resting helps redistribute juices and tenderise the meat. Pull apart or slice and serve. From the Ashes serve smoked pork with sliced chillies, cucumber pickles and BBQ sauce – but it’s infinitely versatile.
Get high on the hog with this hit of zinc, selenium and B-vitamins.
NUT RI T ION
23
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Spin Your Pulled Pork 23 Roughly chop your pork shoulder and combine with egg fried rice for extra amino acids and fat-soluble vitamins after a hard day’s work(outs). 24 Slice when cold and build a sandwich with fresh apple and red cabbage ’slaw. Cabbage and apple are sources of vitamin C, low levels of which are linked to impaired muscle growth. 25 Or make a Cubano-style toastie with calcium-rich cheese, pickles and mustard. 26 Strip, lightly pan-fry until crispy and toss through a fresh Caesar salad, for a light, low-carb lunch. 27 Sliced and reheated, pork shoulder will elevate your beans on toast, along with a dollop of BBQ sauce. Half a tin harbours 9g of protein and 7g of satiating fibre. 28 Roast a sweet potato and load it up with warmed-through pork, finely-sliced chillies and onions. The spud is a top source of potassium, for healthy heart and muscle function.
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Recovery Made Me...
STRONGER /
HA
CALMER
/
STEADIER / SH
AND AN ALL-AR MORE AWESO 108 MEN’S HE ALTH
H EALTH
APPIER /
/ FUNNIER / HARPER /
ROUND OME PERSON Addiction trends have accelerated during COVID-19 as stress levels increase and
support networks crumble. Meet eight men who have faced their struggles – many of them decades before this pandemic mess – and discovered new, improved versions of themselves through recovery as well as life lessons we can all learn from
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People in recovery will tell you
65% 110 MEN’S HE ALTH
– Spencer Dukoff and Paul Kita of survey respondents identified with at least one of these mental-health challenges: depression (58 per cent), anxiety (66 per cent), PTSD (24 per cent). Having any of these increases your risk for addictive behaviours, which, in turn, may increase your risk of developing these conditions.
Recovery Made Me . . .
A BETTER LISTENER CHRIS MARSHALL, 38, had been sober from alcohol for 10 years when he decided to open a bar. His spot lacks one thing: booze
As the only Black kid in a primarily white neighbourhood, Marshall discovered in high school that drinking was an easy way for him to fit in. The same went for college fraternity life. But fitting in didn’t mean strong bonds, and he says alcohol became his self-medication for anxiety and depression. After dropping out of school, Marshall says his life began to spiral out of control until he checked into rehab at age 23 and found sobriety and connection. Alcoholism festers in isolation. Following a decade in recovery, he opened Sans Bar, a place that could bring together people who choose not to drink. In fact, he says they seem to connect on a deeper level, both with one another and with him behind the counter. Here’s what he’s learned.
1/ Listen with your whole self
True conversation takes place away from screens. Even if your smartphone is facing down on a table, pocket it. And sit in a section of the bar or restaurant where a TV isn’t in view.
2/ Tell people you are listening
“That can sound like just an ‘okay’ or ‘I hear you,’ ” Marshall says. Brief interjections let the person know you’re engaged and encourage them to continue. Silence often doesn’t.
3/ Don’t try to fix things
“Listening is not about curing or diagnosing,” he says. “It’s about being present. That can feel daunting, but there’s so much healing in the ability to have someone listen to you.” – Vanessa Etienne
ADAM MOROZ (MARSHALL); COURTESY SUBJECT (FAMILY PHOTO).
that addiction isn’t just about neurochemical dependency, or intoxicating substances, or thrillseeking behaviours. Addiction is also connected to control, security and self-worth – all of which have taken a massive beating during the pandemic. When US Men’s Health polled 1111 people through SurveyMonkey, 75 per cent of respondents said they are close to someone struggling with addiction and 40 per cent reported an increase in cravings for addictive substances or behaviours. In Australia, a survey from the Drug and Alcohol Foundation found 12 per cent of people began consuming alcohol on a daily basis when COVID-19 began last year. One reason: they didn’t have other people around to keep them feeling connected, grounded and upbeat, says Dr Ken Duckworth, chief medical officer for the US National Alliance on Mental Illness. The fraying of connectivity can trigger addictive behaviours – alcohol, painkillers, drugs, porn, gambling – and relapse for those in recovery. There’s also still a stigma attached to addiction, which means people often suffer in isolation. Psychiatrist Dr Ximena Sanchez-Samper says that to fight the stigma, it helps to reframe addiction as an illness: “If you think about patients that have cancer and have been able to beat their cancer, what do they call themselves? Survivors.” The men profiled here all pushed through the stigma to get help. And beyond managing their addictions – sometimes after a few attempts – they found something else. They discovered that sobriety wasn’t an end but rather a means to a stronger, happier, healthier life.
HE A LT H
A BETTER DAD
You may recognise Trejo from Heat, From Dusk Till Dawn, and Machete. Above: with sons Gilbert (left) and Danny Boy.
Recovery Made Me . . .
DANNY TREJO, 76, is 53 years sober
from drugs and alcohol, with 398 acting credits to his name, as well as a new memoir, Trejo. He went to his first 12-step meeting at the age of 15 and found sobriety in prison. Through recovery, he picked up something else: parenting tools MH Do you believe recovery made you a better father? DT I don’t think I would have been a father without recovery. Anyone can become a father, but being a dad. . . . My kids love me. One of my kids will call me every day. If it wasn’t for recovery, they’d be writing to me in prison. I’d be sending them nice Christmas cards and shit. MH Did you ever fear that you would pass on your addiction to your kids? DT My children have never seen me loaded. I was clean and sober 18 years before I had my first son, Danny Boy. Great kid. Never had any problems. My son Gilbert, he shot dope; he’s six years clean now. My daughter, Danielle, she shot dope; she’s seven years clean now. So this program surrounded me with a support system that was able to help keep my kids from using. The support group saved their lives. MH What lessons have you learned about being a father from the 12 steps?
69%
of male respondents said they considered alcohol to be addictive, 63 per cent said the same about gambling, and 59 per cent did about recreational drugs. Though “workaholic” has entered the vernacular, most people didn’t consider work to be addictive (28 per cent).
DT First of all, you can work the 12 steps on your kids. “God, in all his wisdom, didn’t make me do wise. If I do something stupid, it won’t take Him by surprise.” And, believe me, I’m always doing something stupid. What the program taught me was tolerance – hey, I made mistakes, too – to love my kids no matter what, and don’t snivel. Every day we pray, “God, give me patience, and give it to me right now”. You have no idea what’s coming when you’re clean and sober, but I can guarantee you that it’s going to be better than what you had. – As told to P. K.
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Recovery Helped Me . . .
Pro ska kateboarder BRANDON TUR URNER, 39, thrashed San Diego’s Pacific Drive in the 1990s D but suffered from alcohol dependency. It wasn’t until he got sober that he broke through
“In skateboarding culture, after you land tricks, you celebrate with beers,” says Turner. “Landing a trick was like getting a job promotion. So at the skate park, it was a constant celebration.” The party ended, though, when Turner served a 17-month sentence for two DUIs between 2013 and 2014. He was 31 at the time, but he
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had built a strong reputation and lucrative early career as a skateboarding child prodigy. Prison introduced him to AA meetings and the realisation that maybe it wasn’t the culture of skateboarding that was to blame for his addiction. Maybe it was him. After Turner left prison, he entered a 12-step program and told his skateboarding friends he was sober. “They were proud of me,” he says. “That made me want to keep going.” In June 2020, he founded a skating program with Healthy Life Recovery in San Diego in which he teaches the basics of the sport to aspiring
skateboarders who are in recovery. “When you’re suffering, you tend to live in your head and have that feeling that you’re the only one going through it,” he says. “But being part of a community of people going through the same thing, you now have this new support.” For Turner, that word – support – means more than just being around skateboarders. “I’m constantly checking emails and responding to messages from people who are just trying to get help,” he says. “But it’s not just about getting sober. It’s about connection.” – Josh Ocampo
of men in our survey reported gambling more during the pandemic.
DAN CONNELLY (TURNER). GETTY IMAGES (KELLY). COURTESY SUBJECT (GRINSPOON).
FIND REAL CONNECTION 11%
H EALTH
Recovery Made Me . . .
UNDERSTAND WHAT “VALUE” MEANS Musician RUSTON KELLY, 32, has often written himself into his songs as characters who are racing toward rock bottom. And he lived it: between rehab stints, “I was buying shit at CVS [Pharmacy] to mix with other shit to get high” and coming down and feeling like “walking death”. Now he’s going through a personal and musical remix MH How did being a touring musician factor into your substance abuse? RK I felt encouraged by whatever it was that I was doing, which is really dangerous. To be half drunk on a barstool playing for like two hours and people getting down to that and complimenting you so much on what you’re doing – I felt like, Maybe I just understand myself as an artist better when I don’t understand who I am as a person.
75%
MH You recently celebrated two years of sobriety. What have you learned? RK You look at value a lot differently. You know what it’s like not to have the simple things that seem to be building the very essence of being a happy and fulfilled person. You know what it’s like for your cup to be empty and you keep scraping the bottom. MH Your first two records explore your history of drug and alcohol addiction. As you’re working on the next project, how has sobriety affected your artistic process? RK I think [my first album] Dying Star was like I was floating in water. You can’t really tell if this dude is sinking or rising to the top. [My second album] Shape & Destroy is my head out of water. You see the shore, you’re going straight for it.
of respondents are close to someone who struggles with addiction. Extended family accounted for 44 per cent and close friends for 40 per cent.
7%
of people wished someone would intervene in their addictions. Try Community Reinforcement Approach and Family Training. “It uses relationships for good,” Duckworth says. “It’s designed for people who love you.”
Recovery Gave Me . . .
PATIENCE DR PETER GRINSPOON, 55, was the
classic busy primary-care practitioner, but he was also writing himself prescriptions for Vicodin. In 2005, he spent 90 days in rehab, and he’s been sober for 14 years. Now he’s a primary-care physician in Boston and teaches medicine at Harvard Medical School Fif teen or 20 years ago, I wasn’t really listening to people. I was this insecure, arrogant, stressed-out person who wanted to take a drug because I was so frazzled that I thought I deserved it. People who are susceptible to addiction have very low distress tolerance. The minute they’re uncomfortable, they take a drug to replace the bad feeling with a good feeling. It can be very aggravating to be a primary-care doctor – the computer doesn’t work, the insurance doesn’t pay, the patient doesn’t pick up the phone on the third attempt. I try to reframe things and remember that I’m lucky I get to help people. In rehab we had to write a daily gratitude list. While I’m too lazy to actually write this out anymore, I do make a mental list every morning, and it grounds me in the fact that there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic. When I’m feeling down, I say, “Progress, not perfection”, meaning you’re doing your best to head in the right direction. We have an obligation to be informed citizens in these challenging times, but sometimes you need a news break. The other day, driving home from a day at the clinic, I turned off news about the pandemic – and started listening to the Beatles. It turned around my entire day. – As told to Marty Munson
NOVEMBER 2021 113
Recovery Gave Me . . .
FOCUS Recovery Made Me . . .
FIND DRIVE F SAM LOUIE, 49, wanted to be a TV journalist. But to cope with the
pressure, he harboured a secret life of porn and sex addiction. Then therapy switched him to a different career path: therapist It was the mistakes that would crush him. “After I messed something up on air, I would literally want to curl up in bed in the foetal position and not go anywhere,” says Louie, who started out as a television reporter in Missoula, Montana, in 1996. His parents didn’t love that Louie entered journalism, but he hoped once they saw him on TV, they’d change their minds. “In Asian families, there can be pressure in perpetuating the family. I had to honour the Louie name,” he says. Except that Louie never really changed his own mind. “I had a boss once tell me, ‘You know, Sam, I don’t know if you have a fire in the belly for this work’. ” And he was right, says Louie – though it took him years to figure it out, years that involved better-paying gigs with more clout but also more and more pressure. At first, porn was a way to release that pressure. “Every single night, after working a swing shift, I’d get home at midnight and be online looking
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at pornography while my wife was in bed,” Louie says. She eventually caught him; the two of them went to couples counselling, but they ultimately divorced in 2001. After that, Louie’s addiction progressed to massage parlours and prostitution until finally he sought help in the form of specialised therapists and group therapy. During and between those meetings, Louie says an idea kept popping up: “You’re drawn to this mental-health stuff. Why don’t you do it?” So he entered grad school in 2007 and two years later became a licensed therapist. “Something just welled up in me that said, ‘You’ve got to do it even if you fail’.” The fire in the belly. Today, Louie has 15 years of recovery, works as a licensed mental-health counsellor, and is the author of Asian Shame and Addiction. “I’ve found what I’m supposed to do with my life. I no longer need external validation,” Louie says. “There’s freedom in that.” – P.K.
I liken an addiction to a computer program that eats up a bunch of memory so everything else runs slowly. My brain was consistently having to deal with addiction, whether it was because I was thinking about when I would gamble next or I was worrying about the fact that I got an alert from my bank that I had an overdraft. Once I got into recovery, I could be more present in my career. I could think more clearly. Being more present can only make you a better dietitian, [because] somebody is telling you something and you have to be listening for certain cues. It’s very hard to do that when you’ve gotten two hours of sleep and you’re thinking, When am I going to get paid? Once my behaviour got healthier, I was able to think, Wow, now I can actually use my money toward things that I want to do. It could be for buying a home; it could be for starting my own business. If it weren’t for recovery, that would never have happened. I would have gotten stuck on that treadmill of despair.
37%
of respondents have tried at least one type of treatment. The most common: individualised counselling (15 per cent). Mental-health services are not on pause during the pandemic, from online counselling to virtual 12-step meetings. In fact, “some people would say that AA on Zoom is better because you can actually see one person at a time and you’re not as distracted,” Duckworth says.
COURTESY SUBJECTS (LOUIE, BELLATTI). KAYLYN WIESE (GAGNON).
After moving to Las Vegas to work as a dietitian, ANDY BELLATTI, 38, received a $50 voucher in the mail to play slots. Five and a half years later, he had maxed out 12 credit cards and cashed out his 401(k) [superannuation], and he was more than $35,000 in debt. His boss convinced him to consider a 12-step program, and now he’s three years into recovery
HE A LT H
Wait, Do I Have a Problem? Experts point toward these five common signs that indicate whether you should seek help
CRAVING Addiction hijacks your desires. Do you fixate on experiencing the effects of a substance or behaviour? Does your behaviour change if something keeps you from using?
COMPULSION Addiction is overpowering. Are you obsessively thinking about a substance or behaviour, making it hard to think about anything else?
Recovery Made Me . . .
STRONGER Adaptive CrossFit athlete, writer and podcaster NATHAN GAGNON, 37, says his substance abuse was holding him back from becoming a more powerful version of himself; 12-step work freed him
I started drinking when I was around 13 and through high school. When I got out of college, I started drinking on my own every day in secret. My
1/ It’s one day, one workout, one rep at a time
If you’re like me and you drank and got high every day from when you were a teenager until you were 26, the idea of not doing it for 10 years is crazy. Don’t think about not doing it for 10 years – do it just for today. It’s like you want to deadlift 500 pounds (225kg) or run a sub-five mile; that’s a really daunting goal. Just go do your work today.
last days of drinking weren’t any sort of dramatic, inciting incident. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I went to a meeting with a 12-step fellowship, and I’ve been sober for 10 years since. I was about two years sober when I found CrossFit. I was hooked from the beginning. It gave me something to work on every day. And it’s taught me important lessons about growing stronger in the gym and in recovery, physically and mentally.
2/ There is no perfect
Instead, it’s about progress. If you’ve got a lot of wreckage of the past, you’re not going to mend every bridge today – you might not mend them all ever. Just try to be a little bit better than you were previously. That same thing applies to strength and fitness: take one step forward in the right direction from the previous day.
3/ Find your path
As much as I’ve seen overlap, I don’t think that my sobriety or recovery would have been contingent on me finding CrossFit. I think everybody needs to find their own thing. I’ve seen countless examples to know it’s true: you can get sober. You can recover under any and all conditions. - As told to Brett Williams
SURVEY METHODOLOGY: Men’s Health conducted this survey of 1111 adults in the US, using SurveyMonkey.
LOSS OF CONTROL Addiction lowers the bar in terms of holding yourself accountable. Are you setting rules or limits for your behaviour, only to consistently fall short?
CONTINUED USE DESPITE CONSEQUENCES Addiction often causes you to struggle at work and in your relationships. Are you making excuses or explaining away those struggles?
CHRONIC NEGATIVE BEHAVIOUR Addiction monopolises your time. Are you leaving work early to meet up with a dealer or skipping your kid’s soccer game because you’re hungover? Many of these issues go hand in hand. If you’re experiencing one or two regularly, it’s likely the other C’s will follow. Externalise the issue in order to better confront it, says Dr SanchezSamper: “I have this. I can recruit other people to help me with this”. Shame and guilt won’t work – honesty and support will. – S. D.
NOVEMBER 2021 115
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121 WORKOUT ENNUI? SAY HELLO TO AN OLD FAVOURITE 122 YOUR TICKET TO LEAN GAINS
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128 NOT SO MUCH INSANE TRAINING – MORE LUDACRIS
R I C H Prescription for pain: Orr pens a WOD for his gun athletes.
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE
Find out how Australia’s foremost CrossFit coach turns athletes into legends – and use his methods to take your own training to the next level BY DANIEL
WILLIAMS
NOVEMBER 2021 117
Vicious cycle: Orr oversees the efforts of Brooke Wells, left, and wife Tia-Clair Toomey.
ORR INSPIRING This mentor has guided two all-time greats of CrossFit. His client for today: you
SHANE ORR’S standout success as a CrossFit coach has carried him a long way from home. A Queenslander raised in Weipa, near the country’s northernmost tip, he smells the roses nowadays in Nashville, Tennessee alongside his wife, the all-conquering Tia-Clair Toomey. At home and in the gym, Orr has been at her shoulder and in her ear for every thrill and spill of a remarkable ride. No matter how long you’ve been dealing with successful people, meeting someone at the top of their
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field can be daunting. In this case, you wonder, what’s Orr going to be like? Prickly? Hyper-intense? Time-poor and thus impatient? Short with an interlocutor who’s not a CrossFit afficionado? Happily, he’s none of these things. His emails suggest he’s keen to talk and happy to do so at the break of dawn to share the burden of an unwieldy time difference. When he answers his phone on a recent Tuesday, his first concern is that he might be keeping you up too late. Based on his solicitous,
good-natured manner, you can’t help but take an instant shine to him. Typically, a story about a top coach would start not at the beginning of his life but at some high point. There’s something about the trajectory of Orr’s career, however, that invites a more lineal tack. He was born 32 years ago in Cairns, the second of three brothers. When he was little, the Orr family moved to Weipa, where his father worked in the bauxite mine and his mother at the hospital as a cleaner. “Mum instilled in us boys to treat others how you want to be treated,” Orr says. “I still carry that today, especially when coaching. When giving advice, you don’t want to be too harsh.” His dad voiced a different mantra: there are no free
handouts; anything you want, you work for. While Orr is reflecting on role models, Toomey comes up, too. She and Orr were teenagers when he fell for her as she emerged from the surf during a local triathlon. It was a “Baywatch moment”, he recalls, with Toomey removing her cap and shaking water from her hair in what seemed to him like slow motion. “I’m not sure she realises this, but Tia taught me discipline,” he says. “Every damn day, you’ve got to work for your craft. Before school, where she was a runner, she’d get up and go to the track or go to the pool. She’d do the normal kid thing and go to school, and after school she wouldn’t have free time – she’d train again.” In his youth, Orr played
a lot of team sport, which was another pillar of his education. They taught him, he says, that success depends on trust and that you won’t get far on your own. In rugby, he was a fine outside centre, though not sufficiently exceptional to crack the game’s highest tiers. Even so, there was something unusual about him. “At training, I might have sounded like a smartarse, but I was always curious about the why,” he says. “I’d chat with the coach: ‘Why are we doing these intervals? Why are we doing these drills?’ I was already thinking like a coach. I was already interested in sports performance.” On finishing school, he started a mechanical fitting apprenticeship and manned the front desk of
Orr and hard training were behind Toomey’s victory at this year’s CrossFit Games.
Winners are Grinners: Orr believes he’s achieved more as a coach than he ever could have as an athlete.
//
a small Weipa gym before heading some 2000 kilometres south to settle in Gladstone. Come the rugby off-season, his coach suggested the players do CrossFit to stay in shape. In 2013, when Toomey joined Orr in Gladstone, he encouraged her to try this CrossFit caper. But as it happened, Toomey hated her first taste and didn’t go back for months. It was during her second stint that her passion for CrossFit was stoked – and her extraordinary talent revealed. Though he didn’t know it yet, the course of Orr’s life had been set. His future would be not in mechanical fitting – the assembly of machines – but rather in athletic performance – the making of flesh-and-blood champions.
AT YOUR SERVICE In 2015-16, Orr twice watched Toomey finish runner-up at the CrossFit Games, the sport’s annual world championships in the US. The second time, he recalls, “to see her so distraught, just shattered . . . it lit a fire in me. I didn’t want her ever to feel that again”. The question was, what could he do about it? If Toomey had a weakness, Orr explains, it was in the strength department. Conversely, strength was his forte. And because they wanted to train together – attack the same workouts at the same time – something had to give. Orr told Toomey they were going to focus on making her stronger, which meant Orr would be spending extra time working on what was already his strong point
The course of Orr’s life had been set. His future would be in athletic performance – the making of champions//
instead of targeting his weakness (his aerobic engine). In other words, Orr chose to abandon his own ambitions as a CrossFit competitor and concentrate on helping Toomey. While he enjoyed competing, “I figured that in order for one of us to succeed at the highest level, the other had to make a change”. So, Orr took one for the team. But please, he says, don’t portray him as a saint. Yes, he says, he was a good competitor, “but she had more potential”. His ceiling was at a regional level, he suspects; Toomey, on the other hand, who following those two runner-up finishes has won the last five CrossFit Games . . . well, you’d need the USS Enterprise to find her limits. The athlete who at one time wasn’t strong enough to
rule CrossFit won weightlifting gold in the women’s 58kg class at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, a feat she squeezed in during her ongoing reign as the Fittest Woman on Earth. Safe to say, Orr’s decision to focus on coaching has been vindicated. Today, his stable of athletes includes James Newbury, Will Moorad and Brooke Wells, and he leads a team of coaches. He and Toomey also operate PRVN Fitness (prvnfitness.com), an online business that makes the power couple’s knowledge and expertise vis-à-vis optimum performance accessible to all.
WHERE GIANTS ROAM A few years ago, with Orr and Toomey having moved
to Tennessee, Orr had the chance to work with CrossFit’s premier male athlete, Mat Fraser, who at the time had prevailed at the previous three CrossFit Games. It was Fraser who suggested they do a few sessions together at the storied CrossFit Mayhem in Cookeville, Tennessee. “That was a no-brainer for us, to train with the best,” says Orr. “It was a great opportunity for Tia, and I was sure Mat would get a thrill out of training with Tia as well. What’s great about male-female training partnerships is that you can go head-to-head without things getting complicated. If you come off second best in a particular workout, that’s okay because the other person is not a direct competitor.”
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Can Orr help turn Wells into a legend like Toomey and Fraser?
//
We could all put [Mat Fraser’s] level of professionalism into whatever we do//
Before long, a few sessions morphed into a bona fide coach-athlete relationship that lasted two-and-a-half years, in which time Fraser claimed another two Fittest Man on Earth titles before retiring in February. What, you ask Orr, could the rest of us learn from a titan like Mat Fraser? “There were two things I took home,” he says. “Firstly, he’s very methodical with all his workouts. He’s very conscious of pacing and execution. He breaks it all down, from the sets he’s going to do to the chalk breaks he’s going to have. “The other thing I appreciated was that he genuinely dedicated his life
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to being a champion. When most of us get home after a day’s work, we switch off. But Mat would get to work with his recovery tools. He had two Theraguns because he’d burn one out and then pick up the other one. Then he’d roll out and stretch. Throughout the competitive season, he’d go to bed at 8:30. It was a case of, this is what I’m going to do, and I’m going to succeed. And, you know, we could all put that level of professionalism into whatever we do. Because there’s simply no way you won’t succeed if you have that mentality.” Not that Fraser was ever some humourless automaton, Orr stresses.
The Canadian-American loved the laidback Australian manner, the banter and sarcasm, and could bring a lighter touch to training. “I wish I could have recorded more footage of Tia and Mat training together – more like The Last Dance – because, man, I’m so lucky to have witnessed all that and to have been part of the process.” Many coaches would shrivel in the presence of a GOAT athlete. They’d think, what the hell can I teach this guy? And sure, Orr asked himself that question. But the point is he had an answer – and it wasn’t, Nothing! His own research told him that, like everyone,
Fraser had weaknesses (relatively speaking), with swimming top of a short list. “That was something we worked really hard on,” says Orr. “That was glaring . . . a hole in his game.” Orr knew the score. He was taking on a champion and there were three possible results: he could make the guy better; he could keep him where he was; or he could make him worse. “The goal I set was to make him better, and I homed in on that goal”. And did you succeed? “Yes.”
TRICKS OF THE TRADE The advice Orr’s mum gave him – to treat others as you’d like to be treated – well, he applied that adroitly to coaching Toomey and Fraser. Let’s say they were practising the clean and
jerk, and Orr noticed that Tia wasn’t utilising the fullest-possible extension of her hips, knees and ankles in the clean phase. Instead of saying, “Babe, your extension sucks”, Orr would turn to Fraser and say, “Hey, I love your extension! You’re doing a phenomenal job on that”. The result, says Orr, is that the non-complimented athlete thinks, Hell, I want that recognition – I’m going to do that! “You boost one athlete, while subtly giving a pointer to the other.” Like Tia, Orr can’t stand still. He tells me they’re about to go into camp with the Australian women’s bobsled team before next February’s Winter Olympics in Beijing. “I’m assisting the coach and Tia is competing,” he says. “We’re finding ways to stimulate us to keep going.”
INSTAGRAM: @SHANEORR01
Might and Power: Orr checks Toomey’s form in the technically challenging snatch.
For Orr and his stable of athletes, there’s always another WOD.
“Hey, man – remember this baby?” In 2007, Orr was intrigued by a workout he saw in Men’s Health that combined a bunch of disparate moves. It was the famous 300 Workout, which he loves to this day. Are you fit? Try it. The goal is to notch your 300 reps as quickly as possible
25 Pull-ups 50 Deadlifts (60kg) 50 Push-ups 50 Box Jumps (60cm box height) 50 Floor Wipers 50 Single-arm Clean & Press (25 per arm with a 16kg kettlebell) 25 Pull-ups
NOVEMBER 2021 121
YOUR SHORTCUT TO STAYING LEAN FOR THE LONG RUN
WORKOUT #1
FULL BODY BLAST
This full-body blast packs a punch, combining dumbbell grinders with bodyweight staples. Use the EMOM (every minute on the minute) format with a twist: at the start of each even minute (0.00, 2.00, 4.00 etc) you’ll perform A1 followed by A2, resting for the remainder of the minute. In the odd minutes, do B1 and B2. Alternate in this fashion for 20 minutes or 10 total rounds of each pairing.
Enhance your fitness, mobility and metabolism with these three quick workouts, each designed to fit around your day-to-day and make lifelong athleticism an easier, more hassle-free endeavour A1A
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all while enhancing fitness. The movements selected promote balance and mitigate injury, building the athleticism necessary to breeze through day-to-day life. The goal isn’t just to look the part, but to have a body that backs it up. All in less than 30 minutes a day. The workouts that follow are to be performed on rotation throughout the week, resting as life dictates between sessions. Each workout pits you against a different challenge, demanding you level up every time you lace up. There’s no doubt, of course, that the approach listed on these pages can lead to six-pack abs and enviable biceps, but these are simply accoutrements. What you stand to gain in terms of quality of life is infinitely more satisfying. Ready? Then let’s get to it.
2B
A1B
PHOTOGRAPHY: PHILIP HAYNES I MODEL: CURTIS REID AT W MODEL I STYLING: ABENA OFEI I GROOMING: NAT SCHMITT USING KIEHL’S | ILLUSTRATIONS: ANDREA MANZATI AT SYNERGY ART
WE’D FORGIVE YOU the audible eye-roll. But this is not another lofty promise, best swallowed with a slug of cynicism. Our definition of ‘lean for life’ doesn’t mean stripping every centimetre of fat to sport a perma six-pack. Rather, we’ve created a time-savvy, sustainable workout regimen. One that doesn’t just fit into the rest of your life, but provides you with the tools to actively optimise it. Whether you’re a work-from-home warrior sneaking in a moodboosting lunchtime session with dumbbells, or a commuter in need of a post-office pump, our approach has you firmly in mind. These full-body, strength-building heavy hitters have been arranged in stamina-boosting protocols to lay the smackdown on kilojoules,
B1A
A2A
B1B
B2A
A2B
B2B
A1 SEE-SAW FLOOR PRESS
(6 reps) Lie flat on your back, knees bent, and press a set of dumbbells into the air (A). Bend your left arm, slowly lowering the weight back down while keeping your right arm locked out (B). Press the weight back up and repeat on the other side. That is two reps. It will get very pumpy.
A2 ALTERNATING BODYWEIGHT LUNGE
(10 reps) Drop your bells and stand tall (A) for a bodyweight quad-burner. Take a long step forward with your left leg, dropping your right knee all the way to the ground (B). Push your weight through your left foot to stand back up explosively. Then switch legs and repeat.
B1 DUMBBELL REVERSE LUNGE
(10 reps) Time to load up your legs. Hold a set of dumbbells at your sides (A) and take a long step back with your right leg, bending your left leg until your right knee touches the ground (B). Maintain an upright torso and drive through your front foot to stand up. Now repeat on the other side and alternate each rep.
B2 PUSH-UP
(10 reps) Finish by doubling up on your pecs. Start in a high-plank position, your hands stacked directly beneath your shoulders (A). Keep your elbows tight to your ribs and lower your body down until your chest hits the floor (B). Now press yourself off the floor aggressively, fully extending your arms.
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WORKOUT #2
BACK TO BEST Now we’re going to focus on those oft-neglected but always respected back muscles. You’re going to use the same vicious EMOM format as before, executing your A movements in the even minutes, before switching to B in the odd minutes. Oscillating between upper and lower movements ramps up the kilojoule burn. Go for 8 rounds.
A2A
A1 DUMBBELL SPLIT SQUAT
(10 reps each leg) Going single-leg will double your gains. With a pair of dumbbells at your sides, elevate your right leg onto a bench behind you (A). Bend at the left knee, lowering the dumbbells towards the floor, and pause at the bottom (B). Drive through your left foot to stand up. Perform 10 reps before switching.
A2 BAND PULLDOWN
(10 reps) Posture problems? Here’s your fix. Sit on the floor holding a resistance band at full stretch overhead (A). Draw your elbows down and back, stretching the band open across your chest and squeezing your shoulder blades together (B). Return and repeat.
BACKGROUND IMAGE LOCATION: CROSSFIT HUNTSMAN NORTH HERTS (CROSSFITHUNTSMAN.COM), PHOTOGAPHY: CALLUM TRACEY
A2B
BUILDING BLOCKS
ROW UP
The plank or ‘renegade’ row builds a strong back, torches your core and improves posture. Break it down with these moves to nail it proper
1/ BENCH-SUPPORTED ROW
Position yourself longways on a bench. With a flat back, reach down and pick up your dumbbell with your right hand. Row the weight in a long arc from below your shoulder up to your hip. Pause and return under control. Switch sides after 10 reps.
2/ BENT-OVER ROW
Hold a dumbbell at your side. Hinge at the hips until your torso is parallel to the ground, working arm at full stretch. With a flat back and tight core, row the dumbbell up to your hip. Pause, lower and repeat for 10 controlled reps. Repeat on other side.
B1 RENEGADE ROW
(5 reps each arm) Kick off with a core-smashing back-builder. Assume a high plank position with your hands stacked on both dumbbells (A). Row the right dumbbell up to your hip while actively pushing down on the left (B). Return to the floor and repeat. Complete five reps before switching sides.
B2 PRISONER SQUAT
(10 reps) Rows duly dispatched, get ready to do some hard time. Stand with your torso upright and your hands on your head (A). Drop your hips back to sink into a deep squat (B). Hold for a second before pressing through your heels to stand up. Now repeat.
3/ RENEGADE ROW
Even when you attempt the full movement, start with single, alternating reps. This will help to further solidify the core strength you’ll need to bust out multiple reps without shifting your weight excessively. A little shift is fine, though. Once you’ve found your rhythm, stick to it.
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WORKOUT #3
CORE CRAZY It’s time to go freestyle. Pick your poison: volume or intensity. As normal, start with the A movements, aiming to perform 100 reps of A1 in the fewest number of sets. The catch? Every time you have to drop the weights, you have to perform a set of A2, before picking straight back up where you left off. Once you hit 100, repeat the process with your B movements.
A1A
A2B A1B
B1A
A2A
EVERY TIME YOU DROP THE WEIGHTS
A1 PUSH PRESS
(100 reps) High-def deltoids: rendering. Lift your dumbbells on to your shoulders, palms facing in. Take a breath and brace your core (A). Dip at the knees and use your legs to help press the dumbbells overhead (B). Lower under control to your shoulders and repeat.
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A2 DUMBBELL LOCKOUT LEG RAISE
(10 reps) Crunch time, sort of. Lie flat on your back, legs straight, with your heels a few centimetres from the ground (A). Slowly lift your legs towards the raised dumbbells, keeping your legs locked out and steady (B). Slowly lower your feet to the start position, keeping your core tight.
EVERY TIME YOU DROP THE WEIGHTS
B1 DUMBBELL DEADLIFT
(100 reps) With your dumbbells on the floor just outside your feet, hinge down and grip them with a flat back and neutral spine (A). Engage your lats and stand upright. ‘Push’ the ground with your feet, squeezing your glutes at the top (B). You’re going to feel this one today, tomorrow and the next day.
B2 PLANK PULL-THROUGH
(15 reps) Hit your trunk from all angles for a three-dimensional core. Assume a push-up position adjacent to a single dumbbell. Reach from the opposite side and grasp your DB (A). Pull it through to the opposite side, keeping your midline rigid (B). Alternate for 15 reps.
MASTERY MATRIX
PROGRESS TO IMPRESS
THE KEY TO PROGRESSIVE IMPROVEMENT IS TO GO AT YOUR OWN PACE – DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU. USE THIS MATRIX TO IDENTIFY YOUR OPTIMAL MOVEMENTS
PILGRIM
A1
DISCIPLE
MONK
Perform hands elevated push-ups
MASTER Perform seated dumbbell presses
B1B
A2
Perform
B2B
B1
Perform single dumbbell/ double-hand deadlifts
As prescribed in the
Perform with a band looped around
Perform standing on plates to increase range of motion
of you
B2 B2A
Perform 30-second bent-arm plank
shoulder taps
As prescribed in the workout
Use a weight you must drag, not lift
NOVEMBER 2021 127
6AM WITH LUDACRIS. . . Yes, actor-rapper Chris Bridges likes the good life – but six days a week, he pushes his body to the limit in fast and furious sweat sessions BY BRE T T
WILLIAMS
PHOTOGR APHY BY ANDRE W
CHRIS BRIDGES is still doing push-ups. A few minutes ago, he was doing classic reps, and then he was gritting out T push-ups: pressing upward, then shifting into a side plank. Now he’s doing one more variation, a snake push-up, meant to stretch his spine as it builds his chest and triceps. Sweat forms a sheen on Bridges’ forehead, but the man you know better as rapper-actor Ludacris doesn’t stop. “No matter how many push-ups I do,” he says, “even when I don’t want to do them anymore, that’s like the only exercise I don’t mind doing.” His voice rises to the frenetic, staccato 11 you remember from bangers like “Rollout (My Business)” and “Southern Hospitality.” “Until I cannot. Fucking. Do. Them. Anymore.” On this morning in
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HE THERINGTON
Atlanta, Bridges will spend two hours in his garage gym pushing himself to that place on everything from bodyweight moves to bench presses to isometric holds. And yes, it crushes his muscles, but the way Bridges, 43, sees it, by pushing himself six days a week, he earns the right to enjoy life, even if that wrecks his physique just a bit. “My goal isn’t to look like the most ripped, biggest guy in the gym,” he says. “I just want to be functionally right in between the man that works out hard, but that motherfucker drinks beer and whiskey on the weekends.” So he sets aside all distractions, trudges out to his personal muscle palace, and attacks challenges from trainer George Bamfo Jr. When Bridges isn’t filming
Pound that MF: A Ludacris workout is an exercise in glorious suffering.
FAST & SERIOUS!
Get an epic, equipment-free chest pump by taking on Bridges’ favourite all-push-ups triset. Do 3 sets of 10 reps for each move, resting 30 seconds between each set
Push-up
Start with classic reps, focusing on keeping your abs and glutes tight.
movies like F9 – the ninth entry in the Fast & Furious franchise – he spends most of his workday juggling and evaluating music and upcoming film and TV projects. Right now, all his devices are back in his kitchen. He’s focused. “If I get a text or email or phone call,” he says, “it just fucks up the consistency [of the workout].” Bridges knows that consistency is key, because he spent the start of his career without it. He rose as a rapper in the early 2000s, then appeared as mechanic Tej Parker in the second Fast & Furious instalment, in 2003. But as his star grew brighter, travelling and touring destroyed any semblance of discipline. “One day, I happened to look down, and there was a gut just looking back at me,” he says. “I was like, ‘There’s no way. I have to get rid of this.’ ” He started doing one-hour sweat sessions a few days a week. Then, in 2019, while prepping for F9,
he met Bamfo, who instituted his current grind. “On day five or six, before you get that rest day,” he says of training with Bamfo, “that’s when it’s hell.” Bridges relishes all of it. His eyes narrow as he grabs a pair of gymnastics rings hanging overhead and hoists his 79-kg body upwards. Tightening his core, he lifts his legs in a straight line, a devastating gymnastics skill called an L-sit. “We never worked on this stuff,” says Bamfo. “As he’s gotten stronger, he was able to do this.” Bridges shows off that strength throughout this workout, following those L-sits with decline sit-ups and bench presses. He finishes with 10 rounds of 30-second treadmill sprints, resting for just 30 seconds between each. When it’s all over, he’s drenched in sweat – and ready for a few six-pack-wrecking ice-cold beers. “I’m more of a four-pack kind of guy,” he says. “Save the other two packs for Friday and Saturday nights.”
T Push-ups
Shift into a side plank and reach for the ceiling after each push-up rep.
Ludacris trains his abs daily, doing exercises like ring L-sits (below) and decline bench med-ball tosses (above). Twice a week, he’ll do incline bench presses (left) to blast his chest.
Inchworm Push-up Start standing, then walk your hands into push-up position.
BETWEEN SETS Favourite exercise?
“Anything chest. Dips and bench press – you always want to get that indentation, whatever you can do to mould your fucking pecs.”
Most hated exercise?
“Squats . . . . fuck the legs, but you have to do them.”
What do you listen to when you train?
“Diplo’s Revolution on SiriusXM satellite radio. I love that shit.”
Go-to cheat meal?
“Chicken parmigiana with noodles and garlic bread.” NOVEMBER 2021 129
DATE: September 17, 2017, 4.10pm NAME: CURTIS STONE FEAT: The celebrity chef finds an unexpected mental sanctuary in an old school boxing gym
“ YOU LEAVE IT ALL IN THERE AND PUSH YOURSELF TO THAT TRUE POINT OF ALLOUT EXERTION” 130 MEN’S HE ALTH
GROWING UP, I WAS always very active and still surfed a lot when I first moved to LA before having kids. But then I got to this point where I turned 40 and fell out of that routine. I stopped going to the gym, I wasn’t getting to the beach – I wasn’t really doing anything. That’s when you feel that 40-something slip starting to happen. But on Sunset Boulevard, there’s this place, Fortune Boxing Gym, which I’d driven past a number of times and watched the boxers coming out with their gloves slung over their shoulders. It’s run by a guy called Justin Fortune, an Aussie heavyweight fighter who now resides in LA and is Manny Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning trainer. I’d always been a huge boxing fan and one day I was driving by and thought, you know what, I’ll just stop and go in. Walking into a boxing gym for the first time is loud and intimidating. There are guys sparring, guys hitting speed bags, and if you’re the unfamiliar face, everyone stops and turns around. Not only that, but I instantly recognised the Aussie lightweight George Kambosos, who’s about to have a world title shot, and the retired Russian cruiserweight Denis Lebedev. Holy shit, I thought: it’s not just a gym – it’s full of fighters! So I stood there a little bit in awe like, am I even allowed to walk in here? But Justin immediately said, “Get your stuff and come back and train, no problem”. So I did and I’ve trained there for the last four years. As a boxing fan, it’s unbelievable because there’s a lot of fighters that come through there who are getting ready for big fights. It’s like being an Aussie Rules fan and just being able to wander into the Geelong dressing room and start training with them. But it’s also super welcoming, too. I train there four days a week and I love the discipline of it. I’m training with one of the world’s best boxing coaches, and his time is obviously precious, so you don’t mess him around. You don’t
cancel. You don’t tell him “something came up”. That’s your boxing time so you show up when you’re supposed to. That’s all there is to it. If I’ve been away from the gym for a week because of vacation or whatever, my wife is like, “Oh, go back to the gym and punch something, would you!” Because she thinks I’m a lot calmer when I go. And there’s something to be said for that. When you spend an hour at a gym, boxing or sparring, you walk out with nothing left. You leave it all in there and push yourself to that true point of all-out exertion. Sure, knowing that you can take care of yourself is a nice thing to have in your back pocket. But it’s been really good for my mental stability. I run a business with a hundred employees; there’s constant pressure and stress. So the gym serves a huge purpose for me, not only physically, but mentally, even spiritually. I can work out a lot of frustrations there. I’m 45 now and training at the gym has also changed how I think about my age. Sure, there’s a lot of young, very, very fit fighters in there. But, you know, Manny Pacquiao just got ready for his last title defence and did a training camp at the gym and he’s 43. We all ran together in Griffith Park in the mornings. I went to Vegas with his team for the fight, and watching him fighting someone almost 10 years younger and do a crushing job, even if he
did lose, well, it’s inspiring. Here’s a guy who’s still absolutely at the top, just a couple of years younger than me. That makes me realise that, regardless of the age on my driver’s licence, I can still be mentally tough. That’s something that boxing has taught me that I now take into so many other areas of my life. Stone’s new ‘Cook With Curtis’ cookware range is available at Coles now.
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