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 DIG IN
Christopher Meloni
photographed by Ben Watts
exclusively for Men’s Health.
Styling by Ted Stafford.
Grooming by Danielle
Crawford. Makeup by
Becca Perkins. Set design
by Rob Strauss Studio.
Production by AREA1202
Productions. Location:
Skyline Drive-in NYC.
On the cover: T-shirt by
Armani Exchange; jeans
by John Varvatos. This
page: Jacket by Belstaff.

“A friend of mine
said, ‘Did you ever
think in a million
years you’d be
on the cover of
Men’s Health?’
I said,‘Certainly
not at age 60.’”
—CHRISTOPHER MELONI, P. 60
FEATURES

60 IT’S MELONI TIME
Christopher Meloni,
longtime TV cop and
2021’s most unexpected
sex symbol (at 60!),
keeps getting stronger.
BY ANNA PEELE
68 NFL 2021:
FIRST AND #GOALS
How Travis Kelce forges
speed, strength, agility,
and grit. Plus 12 other muscle,
recovery, and nutrition tips
from the NFL’s best.
BY ANNA KATHERINE CLEMMONS
76 SWEET. SOUR.
SPICY. HOT.
The DIY guide to cooking
tasty, healthy, modern
Chinese food.
BY CLARISSA WEI
82 THE TRIUMPH
AND TRAGEDY OF
THE WORLD’S BEST
FREEDIVER
Russian freediver Alexey
Molchanov is at the top of
his sport. But getting there
required a descent into
unimaginable physical and
emotional depths.
BY SAMI EMORY
88 THE FOREVER
SOLDIERS OF THE
FOREVER WARS
Twenty years after the Twin
Towers came down, and with
the U. S. war in Afghanistan
finally ending, four soldiers
who deployed soon after 9/11
share what they’ve learned
about sacrifice, grit, and
strength over the two decades
of fighting. BY MATT GALLAGHER

PHOTOGRAPH BY BEN WATTS MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 3

 CONTENTS
MH WORLD
9 Your go-to
icebreakers, fitness
inspiration from
Gucci Mane, and
how to (actually)
build calf muscles.
4 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH
BODY
15 No ropes. No harness.
Just you versus a wall.
Why bouldering is on the
rise and how to turn it into
your next workout.
18 Blast arms, abs, and
quads and build total-
body strength with just
one—one!—dumbbell.
20 6 A.M.: How Hall of
Fame astronaut Michael
López-Alegría forges
zero-gravity muscle.
PLUS!
FALL STYLE:
BACK TO
THE GRIND
Upgrade your post-
lockdown wardrobe
to look sharp and feel
comfortable, starring
Alexander Ludwig.
p. 54
LIFE
31 Let there be
light(ness)! Why faith-
based diets are the rage.
34 There’s only one right
way to cook a perfect,
fluffy pancake.
36 30/10: The protein-
packed poultry you’re
not eating. (Hint: It walks
like a duck!)
38 Ketchup and mayo?
Yawn. Try these flavor-
enhancing condiments
to upgrade your grilling.
40 Simplify your skin
routine with six multi-
tasking products.
42 Cool Dad: Marlon
Wayans wants high-key
affection. His kids want
a low-key dad.
HA-HA MOMENTS MIND
How to use humor
to defuse stress and 47 Harness the life-
boost your outlook. changing, mood-
(See page 47.) altering power of
laughter.
50 Gregory Scott
Brown, M.D., on the big
22 The secret to better pandemic lesson:
fitness? Sneaking more when to be flexible—
activity snacks into your and when to dig in.
daily grind.
51 Pod Save America
24 Why an ophthalmol- cohost Jon Favreau’s
ogist uses a stationary stress-busting tactics.
bike for his eye health. 52 Inside Coa, the
26 September is the new gym for your
new January: Use these mental health.
doctor-approved tips to +
finish the year strong.
96 Six Pack: UFC
28 Tap Wu-Tang Clan heavyweight champ
master RZA to train your Francis Ngannou’s
eyes, ears, and mind. essential gear.
ILLUSTRATION BY DOUG CHAYKA
 TUNE IN TO FUEL-UP WITH:
LUKE COUTINHO BRYAN SNYDER, RD

SCOTT M. SMITH, PhD DALLAS SEAVEY

JEREMY JONES VICKY LOSADA

For you to cut out and keep!

ALISTAIR & JONNY JOSH ALLEN

BROWNLEE
 Personnel Question:
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TEAM for the office?
MEET THE
Richard Dorment Jack Essig MEN’S HEALTH
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Ben Paynter Features Editor
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Nojan Aminosharei Entertainment Director Doug Zimmerman Senior Grooming Director know as much as the doctors,
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Deputy Editors Kyle Taylor East Coast Automotive Sales Director scientists, and trainers who
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HEARST VISUAL GROUP Corey L. Hartman, M.D.
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Samantha Irwin General Manager, Hearst Men’s Group
Visual Directors Italo M. Brown, M.D., M.P.H. Brazil nuts.
Karen Ferber Business Manager
Scott M. Lacey Deputy Visual Director Robert Glatter, M.D.
Paul Baumeister Research Director They’re a
Amy Wong Senior Visual Editor
Alison Papalia Executive Director, Consumer Marketing ENDOCRINOLOGY: low-carb source
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PUBLIC RELATIONS GASTROENTEROLOGY:
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Alisa Cohen Barney Senior Copy Editor taco meat! I bring Brenda Powell, M.D.
MARKETING SERVICES
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cheese, toppings, Cameron Connors Executive Director, INTERNAL MEDICINE:
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RESEARCH tortillas and make Stephanie Block Integrated Marketing Director
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Nick Pachelli Assistant Research Editor Alison Brown Special Events Director Some salmon
the office. Jana Nesbitt Gale Executive Creative Director Thomas Joiner, Ph.D.
Avi Klein, L.C.S.W. jerky, which
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Milo F. Bryant, Michael Easter,
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NUTRITION:
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OTHER CONTRIBUTORS for energy.
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MEN’S HEALTH INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS Gilbert C. Maurer, Mark F. Miller Publishing Consultants SPORTS MEDICINE: Six
Australia, China, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Simon Horne SVP, General Manager & Michael Fredericson, M.D.
Italy, Japan, Korea, Latin America, Managing Director, Asia & Russia
hard-boiled
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Middle East, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Kim St. Clair Bodden SVP/Editorial & Brand Director
Bill Hartman, P.T.
Russia, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, UK Chloe O’Brien Deputy Brands Director spicy
Shelley Meeks Executive Director, Content Services TRAINING: mustard.
Lee Boyce, C.P.T.
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HOW TO REACH US: Customer Service: To change your address, pay a bill, renew your subscription, and more, go David Jack
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 WORLD
BEHIND THE SCENES
WITH THE EXPERTS,
ADVISORS, AND
READERS WHO BRING
MEN’S HEALTH TO
LIFE, AND THEN SOME.

LIGHT EN
UP!
On page 47, we explore
the life-changing power of
laughter. So we asked you:
What’s your go-to joke
that never fails?

What’s the
difference between
in-laws and
outlaws? Outlaws
are wanted.
@meechan74

Where do generals
keep their armies?
Why does Snoop Dogg In their sleevies.
@keith.t.mcintosh
carry an umbrella?
Fo drizzle.
@mistertee.vargas

Why did the

When does a regular scarecrow win
joke become a dad the award?
What did one wall joke? When it Because he was
say to the other becomes apparent. outstanding in
Grant Cornett/Art Partner

wall? I’ll meet you @bobbytryner his field.

@donnell.strickland.92
at the corner.
@james.paredes.100

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 9

 WORLD EDITOR’S LETTER

ASK
MEN’S
HEALTH
but rather, I dunno, the extreme stress of liv-
ing through a global pandemic that’s causing
it. In which case: Less weight loss and more
Q. “Can I
meditation, please.) actually make
Other times, the numbers and formulas my calves
are based on standards that aren’t realistic bigger, or am I
or even accurate. Take the body mass index doomed by my
(BMI), which is your weight in kilograms genetics?”
divided by the square of your height in meters
—JED, BURLINGTON, VT
and has long been held up by doctors (and
life-insurance companies) as a standard,
universal gauge for a person’s health. Except
there’s nothing standard or universal
A. You’re not
doomed! Your
calves are made up
Q+A WITH THE E.I.C. about the index. It’s based primarily on the of two muscles: the
average body composition of white men of gastrocnemius (the
“What is the appropriate European descent, and thanks to a lot of
first-rate reporting over the past few years,
baseball-like bulge)

BODY-FAT percentage I’ve come to appreciate just how much BMI

and the soleus (the
muscle behind it). You
can’t tell us about our health, especially for
for a MAN?” non-white men and women. (As my Hearst
need to train both to
see real results. Calf
—Claude Molinari, MH MVP member colleague Adele Jackson-Gibson points out raises are your secret
in her excellent Good Housekeeping article weapon for achieving
SO I’M GONNA do that thing where I sort of “The Racist and Problematic History of Body that. Aim for 4 sets of
answer your question before asking the ques- Mass Index,” a large 2003 study published 10 to 20 reps 3 times
tion I actually want to answer. in The Journal of the American Medical a week, and point
First, you: If we go by the benchmarks laid out Association has shown that slightly elevated your feet an inch
by the American Council of Exercise—which BMIs are less problematic for Black people.) outward to better
I like to refer to as ACE! (punctuation mine)— Does that mean you should side-eye every- target both muscles.
then you’re good with any percentage between thing your doctor tells you? Of course not. It Remember, training
6-ish and 24-ish. Below that and you’re just means you can’t, and shouldn’t, get too calves does more than
reaaaallly lean; above, you’re technically wrapped up in what any one number means forge leg gains; it
“obese.” Neither situation is great, except, well... for you, at least not without understanding it also improves ankle
Why are you asking? If your doc flagged it first. I’ve been using an InBody scale for the mobility and builds
and told you to lower it, that’s a potentially past few months—it’s one of those fancy athleticism!
valid concern and worth talking through with models that calculate not just total weight
them: What about your percentage is a prob- but also the nitty-gritty, like skeletal muscle —DAVID OTEY, C.S.C.S.,
A MEN’S HEALTH TRAINING ADVISOR
lem? Are you in danger of developing any of the mass, body-fat percentage, and (yes) BMI—
cardiovascular, metabolic, or mental-health and I’ve been spending a lot of time tracking
issues that have historically (and sometimes the ups and downs of the various numbers.
incorrectly) been linked to extremely low and/ It’s fun, I guess, and vaguely satisfying to
Have a question for Rich?
or high weights in some populations? Do other know how much any given gain or loss is mus- + Tweet us at @MensHealthMag
diagnostics (your blood levels, your blood pres- cle versus fat. But when I step off the scale and with the hashtag #AskMHRich
sure, etc.) support the doc’s worry? There’s no get on with my life, I’m not thinking about and ask away.
such thing as asking too many whys in a doc- numbers or ratios or percentages. I’m think-
tor’s office; they don’t charge by the question. ing about how I feel, and more often than not,
The reason I’m skeptical (and I think you that’s all the data that really matters.
should be, too) is that there’s only so much that
numbers and formulas can tell us about our
health. Sometimes they’re just too simplistic
and don’t take into account other things hap-
Allie Holloway

pening in our bodies, minds, or lives. (Oh, your

blood pressure is high? Maybe it’s not the extra
pounds you’re carrying around your middle Richard Dorment, Editor-in-Chief

10 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

 WORLD GOALS

MVP OF T HE
MONT H

CHRIS
MOTTA
Chris Motta,
STATS 39, loves kickball
and wants to be in
AGE: 39
the best shape of
LOCATION: his life by 40.
Brooklyn, NY
DON’T CALL IT OCCUPATION:
Digital- and social-
A CRISIS! media assistant
vice president
still hadn’t made real
friends in New York
In his new book, Roar City. I’m naturally
(out September 7), author competitive, so it’s
(and MH parent company Hearst perfect for me—
alum) Michael Clinton shows us even though I’m an
how to set goals, embrace change, okay player.
and reassess our relationships as
we hurtle toward life after mid- My pump-up
age. To read an exclusive excerpt, jam is. . .
head to MensHealth.com. “The Business,” by
Tiësto, or “Swish
Swish,” by Katy
MEN’S HEALTH MVP members have access to the best health Perry. Any old-school
and fitness articles out there. Each month, we survey our DMX, too.
MVPs and choose one whose story catches our eye. Sign up at
join.menshealth.com and you could see yourself here one day. My cheat
meal is. . .
My fitness goals everyday things like I know that’s a con- A two-cheeseburger
are. . . walking up the stairs. troversial answer, meal from
I want to be in the For the first time in my but you burn more McDonald’s.
best shape of my life life, I’m working with a calories with it!
by the time I turn 40. trainer to change that. My personal
For me, that means I decompress by. . . motto is. . .
building muscle and The gym tool Playing kickball. I’m “Keep improving.
strength. I’d only re- I can’t live in an adult kickball You’re only as good

Tom Pfeiffer (Motta). Alamy (The Godfather, Goodfellas, Scarface). Courtesy Netflix (The Irishman). Getty Images (Jeong).
cently realized I was without is. . . league. I got into it as your last hit.”
out of shape doing A Booty Band. in 2015 because I —Gucci Mane

SUPER
SHOUT-OUT!
Marvel’s newest hero, Simu Liu,
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12 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

DISCOVER EAU DE PARFUM
 From the Editors of Men's Health

Special
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S H O P T H E F U L L C O L L E C T I O N AT M E N S H E A LT H . C O M / W H M H F I T N E S S
 U L D E R , VITALITY STARTS HERE

B O
O N G E R ,
ST R

STANDING ON A THICK pad at

E R
Brooklyn Boulders climbing gym, Juan

RT
Guardiola (pictured above) stares at the

A
wall in front of him, which is dotted with

SM
big, knobby holds for hands and feet. He
, tries to talk himself up for his first-ever
y muscle to attempt to get to the top of a bouldering
od d
e s total-bs your minnow. route. But he’s stuck playing out worst-
rg in t case fall scenarios because unlike in stan-
lde r ing fo ty and tra r it’s so ho dard rock climbing, there are no ropes or
Bou nd agili wonde C.S.C.S. harnesses in bouldering. He goes for it,
r, a No
powe roblems.E ISH A F E T T E
RS, reaching with his hands and pushing with
p Y K. AL his feet, as he moves up from hold to hold.
solve B In a matter of seconds, he’s 15 feet up, his
arms and legs quivering, and he braces
his core to help stick to the wall. He takes
a deep breath and spiders his left leg up to

PHOTOGRAPHS BY NOLIS ANDERSON MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 15

 BODY BOULDERING
the next hold. He pushes through the left
leg while reaching one hand to the high-
est hold. He pulls off the route’s final and
most complicated move. He’s at the top.
That’s the beauty of bouldering: It’s
just you versus the wall. Each route,
aptly called a problem, demands power
and precision. Most involve making just
five to ten moves along walls that top out
around 15 or 20 feet. Speed is a factor
because your muscles fatigue as you pull
and push your body up the wall, so the
faster you go, the better you’re able to
make it to the top without your muscles
giving out. If they do, or you miss a hold,
or your feet lose traction, you fall onto a
crash mat. Serious injuries are rare, and
the damage is mostly to your ego. (See
“How to Fall,” opposite page.) Then you
start climbing again.
Guardiola climbed again. And again.
“I loved the physical and mental chal-
lenge, the speed, and how you could fail
and do it over and over until you succeed-
ed,” he says. It’s now five years after that
initial climb, and Guardiola, 30, is a pro-
fessional climber and route setter at the
brand-new branch of Brooklyn Boulders
in Lincoln Park in Chicago. Guardiola
spends hours each week creating the
intricate patterns of colored holds on the
gym’s walls, giving people an opportu-
nity to take their physical and mental
strength to the next level.
Bouldering’s
Ascent
Climbing in general has become more
popular in recent years, thanks in part
to documentaries like Free Solo and
The Dawn Wall. These put the sport in
the spotlight and started many would-
be wall-scalers on the path to top-rope
climbing, the style in which a rope runs
from a person at the bottom of the route
through an anchor at the top and back
down to the climber.
The popularity benefited bouldering as
well, because the sport is like a gateway
to climbing—it’s easier to start, and you
don’t need a harness, rope skills, or part-
ner, yet it’s supremely challenging.
“Rope climbing is like running a
marathon, and bouldering is a 100-meter
dash,” Guardiola says. Each move, from
hold to hold, tests you in different ways,
allowing a single bouldering problem to pack
all the challenges of a two-minute rope
climb into 15 to 30 seconds and taxing
16 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH
GET A LEG UP
Bouldering builds a blend of strength and mobility, but it also demands it.
Climb easier with these moves from Guardiola’s training arsenal. Add them
to your regular program twice a week.
1. LIZARD POSE
Do four 15-second holds
per side.
Training your hip flexibility
increases how easily you
can reach faraway footholds.
Being able to reach more
options gives you more
ways to solve any given boul-
dering problem.
HOW TO DO IT: In a lunge
position, place both palms
on the floor on the inside of
your lead foot. Slowly lower
your hips toward the floor,
straightening your back knee.
To deepen the stretch, lower
your forearms to the floor.
2. TEMPO PULLUP
Do 6 sets of 2 reps, working up to 3 sets of
6 to 8 reps. Rest for 1 minute between sets.
You don’t have to be able to do pullups to
crush a bouldering wall, but it helps. These
require a lot of grip, back, and core strength,
which will serve you well on any wall.
HOW TO DO IT: Grab a pullup bar with an
overhand grip, hands shoulder-width apart.
Squeeze your shoulder blades down and
together, brace your core, then raise your
feet off the floor. Explosively pull through
your back and drive your elbows down along
your sides to raise your collarbones to the bar.
Pause, then slowly lower over a count of 5.
If you can’t do a pullup (yet), jump up to the
bar to start. Then slowly lower yourself down.
Release and repeat.
your energy systems the way high-intensi-
ty interval training does. It does all of that Work Your Natural
in a high-stakes, no-ropes sitch—mean- Advantage
ing you need to be focused and creative. At BKB Lincoln Park, climbers range in
Gyms are fueling the interest. Among the age from five to 75-plus. Some are lean
61 climbing facilities set to open through and chiseled; some are thicker and softer.
2021, the majority will feature boulder- That’s another beauty of bouldering:
ing, according to the Climbing Business You can be a success at it with any body
Journal. The combination of strength, type. Every physical quality comes with
agility, and mobility—not to mention pro- both some benefits and some difficulties.
prioception, your sense of where and how For instance, while Guardiola’s long
your body is moving—makes bouldering a arms and five-eleven frame let him grab
great functional training method for both faraway holds with ease, they don’t let
life and sports off the wall. Training for a him contort into the small, scrunched-up
triathlon? Working toward a new deadlift moves his shorter friends can do. Guys
PR? Just want to move easier and without with good balance make “slabs”—boul-
pain? Bouldering can help you get there. dering talk for walls that angle at less

4. DEAD HANG
Do 3 sets of four 10-second hangs, resting 1 minute
between hangs and 2 to 5 minutes between sets.
Bouldering needs more than grip strength; it needs
finger strength. This foundational bouldering
exercise strengthens your fingers and forearms
while also building shoulder stability. It can be done
on a campus board, as shown here, or a hangboard,
which tends to have holes for your fingers to fit in.
HOW TO DO IT: Using an open-hand grip, grab same-
height holds on the board, using your four fingers
without your thumb. Squeeze your shoulder blades
down and together, brace your core, then raise your
feet off the floor just in front of you. Keep your entire
body tight and your shoulders away from your ears.
Most climbing gyms have hangboards or campus
boards, but you can do these on monkey or pullup
bars. Hang from the bar with your four fingers; don’t
use your thumb or wrap it under the bar.
HOW TO FALL
Though it’s ideal to climb down a
problem, sometimes you fall. So before
you try bouldering, you have to know
how to fall so you don’t break the fall
with your arm (and break your arm).
Follow these steps:
than 90 degrees—look easy, while people
with great upper-body and grip strength
have an advantage on overhangs.
“The beauty is that everyone has the
same problem in front of them, and how
they solve it is unique to their body,” Guar-
diola says. And no matter your body type,
you can expect some clear-cut changes to
it when you grab hold of bouldering. The
most noticeable: total-body muscle.
Many newbies assume bouldering is
Ben Mounsey-Wood (illustrations)
just a series of pullups, but good, efficient
form requires leading with your legs, so
it’s a glute, quad, and hamstring workout,
too. You raise your foot to a hold, push
through, and, as you step up, grab the
next hold with an outstretched arm. This
3. HIGH BOX STEP
Do 4 sets of 8 reps per leg.
This works on lower-body
mobility so you can stretch your
legs farther apart on the wall.
HOW TO DO IT: Face a sturdy box
that’s knee height or higher.
Place one foot on top; transfer
your weight to that leg. Explo-
sively drive through your lead
foot to straighten your leg and
raise to standing. Pause, then
slowly lower your trailing foot.
Land on 2. Bend 3. Roll onto
your back.
arm-leg connection is key to bouldering’s
core-strengthening skills. After all, your
core is the link that connects the two
parts of your body and helps you transfer
force throughout it.
Bouldering is about more than just
muscling through: It’s about grit and
mental dexterity, too, which is why it’s
often called a cerebral sport. “Before
each attempt, you look at the start, the
end, and map out the order you will move
your limbs,” Guardiola says. It’s an act
done with mindfulness, and that mental
focus becomes even more critical once
your feet leave the floor. “You can’t ever
think of anything else,” he says. “You
have to be there, present on the wall.”
5. WRIST CURL AND
EXTENSION
Do 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps with each arm.
This move seems small but has big benefits. It
strengthens the muscles on both sides of your
forearms, ones that control your fingers.
HOW TO DO IT: Sit down and rest the back of your
forearm on your thighs. Hold a light dumbbell
in your hand. Let your wrist hang down over the
edge of your knees. Relax your fingers so the
weight rests close to your fingertips. Slowly curl
your fingers over the handles, then roll through
your wrists to raise your palm as close as possible
to your forearms. Pause, then slowly lower.
Do all reps, then flip your forearm so your palm
is down, hanging over your knee. Grip the dumb-
bell in your hand, and raise the back of your hand
as close as possible to your forearm. Pause, then
slowly lower.
4. Tuck your arms into your
When you do fall? You analyze and con-
sider the facts, without judgment, and
try again. “Even if I solved the problem,
I ask how I could have made it easier on
myself,” he adds.
“Bouldering has sent my patience
and ability to manage stress through
the roof. It teaches me how to stay above
my fear—to evaluate the risks but still
perform enough to accomplish the tasks
I’m doing,” Guardiola says. At least most
of the time. He still gets scared of heights
occasionally. You never totally get over it,
he says. You simply learn how to feel fear
and still focus.
The first step: Climb a few feet up the
wall, he says. Then let go.
MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 17
 BODY PLANES AND SIMPLE!

THE ONE-DUMBBELL
MUSCLE-BUILDING BLAST
Build total-body strength and forge resilience with twisting and lateral
movements that target your glutes, mid-back muscles, and abs. The best
part: You’ll do it all with one dumbbell. BY DAN GIORDANO, P.T., D.P.T., C.S.C.S.

Do the exercises in order. WORKOUT

of each move. Use a medium-weight 1 SINGLE-ARM OVERHEAD PENDULUM LUNGE

Start standing, a dumbbell held overhead in your right hand (a). Step back with
dumbbell or kettlebell. your left leg, then bend at the knees and hips, lowering into a lunge, right knee at
a 90 degree angle and left knee an inch from the floor (b). Stand and step your left
foot forward, lowering into a forward lunge (c). Return to standing. That’s 1 rep;
do 8, then repeat on the other side.

(a)

(b)
(c)

WARMUP

SQUAT TO T-SPINE ROTATION

Start standing, feet shoulder width apart.
Bend at the waist, lowering your hands to the
floor, palms facing up. Step gently on your fin-
gers. Bend your knees, pulling your torso down
into a squat. Tighten your hamstrings. Raise
your right hand toward the ceiling. Return it to
the floor and repeat on the other side. Stand
back up. That’s 1 rep; do 3 sets of 5.

18 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

 T H I S M O N T H ’S T R A I N E R : D A N G I O R D A N O , P.T. , D. P.T. , C . S . C . S . , PICTURED HERE:
is a cofounder of Bespoke Treatments, a physical-therapy C H R I S T O P H E R A L M A Z A N is the
clinic in New York City that specializes in sports and orthopedic founder of Deliciously Fit meal prep
rehab. He’s also a Men’s Health advisor and the creator of the and the owner of the New Jersey gym
daily mobility workout on All Out Studio. Project Sculpt.

3 LATERAL LUNGE
Start standing, holding a dumbbell
in your right hand at your right shoul-
der, core tight. Take a large step to
the right with your right foot. Keeping
your left leg straight, push your butt
back and bend your knee slightly,
lowering until your right thigh is nearly
parallel with the floor. Press back up
explosively, returning to a standing
position. That’s 1 rep; do 8 per side.

5
SINGLE-ARM DUMBBELL SWING
Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width, a
dumbbell on the floor about 2 feet in front of you. Bend at the waist
and push your butt back, bending your knees slightly and lowering

4
SINGLE-ARM
BENT-OVER
ROW
Stand with a
dumbbell in your right
hand, core tight. Push
your butt back, bend
your knees slightly,
and lower your torso
until it’s at a 45 degree
angle with the floor;
let the dumbbell hang
naturally. This is the
start. Keeping your
hips and shoulders
square to the floor, pull
the dumbbell to your
rib cage. Pause, then
lower it. That’s 1 rep;
do 8 per side.

tank by brooks running; shorts by lululemon; shoes by hoka one one.

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 19

 BODY

6 A.M. WITH...

THE ASTRONAUT

HALL OF FAMER
MICHAEL LÓPEZ-ALEGRÍA is prepping for his next trip into space by
boldly taking his muscles where they’ve rarely gone before.
BY BRETT WILLIAMS, NASM

M
MICHAEL LÓPEZ-ALEGRÍA has spent 257
days outside the earth’s atmosphere and
performed ten space walks totaling 67
hours and 40 minutes, more time than
any other American. But right now, on the
backyard deck of his Washington, D. C.,
home, he’s found a new frontier. He’s on
all fours, one end of a resistance band
wrapped around his left foot, the other
held in his right hand. He tightens his abs,
then extends arm and leg. He’s doing a
banded bird dog, an exercise that pushes
the bounds of his core strength—and
one that may help him reach new heights
during his next trip into space.
That trip comes in 2022, when López-
Alegría, 63 years young, blasts off to the
International Space Station (ISS). He’ll
command the ten-day Axiom Space Ax-1
mission, the first private spaceflight to the
ISS, which will be launched by Elon Musk’s
SpaceX. It’s a giant leap for mankind (and
space tourism), and it starts with López-
Alegría’s small wellness step. The U. S.
Astronaut Hall of Fame inductee says he
has never loved “working out for a work-
out’s sake.” But he knows his body needs it.
This isn’t about biceps or abs, though.
“You don’t need Olympic-athlete fitness
to be an astronaut,” he says. “You just need
to be healthy.” Still, he has to pass a bat-
tery of medical tests, and, 14 years after
his last trip into space, he worries that
he won’t be able to. So he started work-
ing with trainer Emiliano Ventura, who
designs workouts for F1 race-car drivers.
“Your cells break down, your body breaks
down,” López-Alegría says. “Now it’s like
‘Geez, am I gonna pass this thing?’”
When he left NASA in 2012 after four
spaceflights, López-Alegría thought
he was done star-trekking. After years
consulting for various space-industry
firms, he joined Axiom Space, a company
that has designs on space vacations and
manufacturing, as an exec. He quickly
discovered a problem: Few customers
wanted to join a mission without someone
who had been in space before. “We kind
of looked around the room,” he says, “and
I was a guy who was still able to fly and
had been there and done that.”
So to get in mission-ready shape, he
embraced workouts like today’s session, a
six-exercise, bands-only circuit. He does
20 reps of bird dogs on each side, then sits
on his deck with his legs straight, wraps
the band around his feet, and grasps its
ends. He starts doing 20 reps of rows,
strengthening mid-back, biceps, and fore-

20 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPHS BY SHAWN HUBBARD


Michael López-Alegría
will rely on resistance
bands when training in
space, doing moves like
(clockwise from left) bicy-
cle crunches, jumping
jacks, bird dogs, and rows.
BAND FORGE UPPER-BODY STRENGTH WITH THIS 3-ROUND CIRCUIT
CAMP BUILT FROM MOVES LÓPEZ-ALEGRÍA DOES OFTEN.
BAND PULL-APART
Stand holding a resistance
band in front of you, arms
straight. Squeeze your shoul-
der blades and pull the band
apart, keeping your arms
straight. That’s 1 rep; do 20.
SEATED ROW
Sit on the floor, legs straight,
a band wrapped around your
feet, hands holding its ends.
Squeeze your shoulder blades
and row your elbows back to
your torso. That’s 1 rep; do 15.
BETWEEN
SETS
FAVORITE EXERCISE?
“My favorite exercise is
really playing a game.
I like racquetball or
squash—something
that doesn’t feel like
working out; it feels like
you’re having fun.“
THE EXERCISE
BANDED PUSHUP YOU HATE?
Hold a looped resistance “Running would be at
band in both hands, the very top of that
wrapped around your back. list. And then next is
Get in pushup position and burpees. I don’t know
tighten your core and glutes. why the burpees
Do 15 pushups. just kill me—[I’m] just
completely gassed.”

arms. Arm and grip strength and stamina
serve astronauts during space walks.
“You’re in a pressurized suit, which wants to
maintain its [shape],” he says. “Think of a
surgical glove that’s blown up and inflated.
So in order to bend the fingers of the glove,
you have to exert some force.” Things get
even more challenging if he has to grab
a wrench or other tool. “Grip strength is
important,” he says, “and [so are the] lower
arms, upper arms, shoulders, chest.”
That’s all unnecessary inside the station.
“It’s super easy to get around,” López-
Alegría says. “You don’t stand up, even.” To
offset that, he and his team will train daily
on the ISS, splitting time between cardio and
resistance-band work. Unlike dumbbells,
bands still provide resistance in space.
WHAT’S ON YOUR
This training makes it easier for astronauts PLAYLIST?
when they return to earth, readying them “I’m very into the
Hamilton soundtrack.
to face the power of gravity again.
I just fell in love with
But the training does more than that. the lyricism.”
López-Alegría and his crew will be aboard
the ISS for about eight days, working DREAM WORKOUT
through a packed schedule that includes a PARTNER?
series of experiments, and that can lead to “Neil Armstrong on the
moon. I think the suit
plenty of stress. He expects some crew mem- would be pretty tough.”
bers will meditate to stay calm. Others will
stave off anxiety by attacking their work- ULTIMATE CHEAT MEAL?
outs. “As you know,” he says, “some people “Anything with pasta.
crave [exercise] and they have to have it.” I love pasta. Probably
the cheatiest of
The man leading the mission doesn’t all those would be
crave it, but every single day he’s in space, linguine carbonara.”
he’ll train, too. “It’s all about preparing
yourself for when you come back [to earth],”
he says. That process has already started.

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 21

 BODY THE DISCOMFORT ZONE

GO AHEAD.

TAKE THE STAIRS.

Only 2 percent of Americans will pass up a ride
on an escalator and take the harder way up.
What do they know that the rest of us don’t?
BY MICHAEL EASTER

I
I RECENTLY SPENT a month in the Alaskan
backcountry. I came home in the best
shape of my life, but I hadn’t “exercised”
the entire month. Life took effort. Getting
warm required hauling firewood. Satiating
my hunger and slaking my thirst meant
hunting across tens of miles of rough
land while wearing a heavy pack or hiking
down to a stream and hoofing heavy water
bags back to camp. Returning to camp each
day required rucking across untamed, hilly
land. Even rest wasn’t inactive—I had no
chair, so I’d kneel, squat, or sit cross-legged,
always fidgeting for a better position.
These tasks twisted over the course of a
day to burn thousands of calories.
This is how life was for millennia. But
from cars to escalators, humans have built
the modern world to eliminate physical
activity from our lives. Compared with
today’s Americans, our hunter-gatherer to research. One study showed that this
ancestors may have gotten about 14 times PEOPLE WHO WALKED type of incidental activity accounts for up
as much moderate to vigorous physical DURING MEETINGS to 800 of the calories you burn each day.
activity, a 2016 study found. These early That’s like a six-mile run. Even standing
humans were essentially professional ath-
REPORTED or fidgeting while sitting can burn as
letes whose livelihood made physical effort FEELING 5 PERCENT many as 350 more calories across a day
imperative. They didn’t “work out,” because
nearly all of their waking hours were spent
MORE CREATIVE AND compared with sitting stationary, accord-
ing to research from the Mayo Clinic.
doing necessary-to-not-die tasks that we 8 PERCENT MORE In fact, the CDC recommends at least
might classify as exercise today. They filled
their days digging, carrying, walking, and
ENGAGED AND FOCUSED. 150 weekly minutes of moderate activity
—like yard work or a brisk walk. Hitting
sometimes running, covering anywhere this target may reduce our risk of chronic
from nine to 20 miles. The 2016 study deter- disease and premature death by 20 to 30
mined this type of lifestyle caused them to distinct from our lives. But it turns out percent, according to scientists in Canada
burn about 40 percent more calories a day that seemingly small choices—like who analyzed 16 large-scale exercise stud-
than the average modern American. whether to take the stairs, where and how ies. The more movement we sneak into
Once machines and comforts began to sit, and whether to park in the faraway our days, the more death resistant we’ll
removing exertion from our days, we spot and carry our groceries—can, in fact, be. Still, only half of Americans hit that
started seeing exercise as a 30-minute have a larger impact on our health and 150-minute recommendation. Twenty-six
class we take at the gym—separate and fitness than our workout does, according percent of us don’t do any type of physical

22 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH ILLUSTRATION BY RYAN GARCIA

 T H E E X P E R T : M I C H A E L E A S T E R is a contributing
editor at Men’s Health and a professor of journalism
at UNLV. He spent 33 days in the Alaskan backcountry
reporting for his new book, The Comfort Crisis.

THE
SNEAKY ACTIVITY
GUIDE  
Improve your fitness and
health by doing more of
these activities daily.
Just ten minutes can burn
serious calories.*
120
CLIMBING
STAIRS 106
BRISKLY DANCING
86
CHOPPING 79
WOOD PLAYING
WITH
68 THE KIDS
WALKING
VERY BRISKLY 61
(4 MPH) FIXING
54 THINGS
DOING AROUND
YARD THE HOUSE
WORK
48
WALKING CLEANING
DURING A THE
MEETING HOUSE
45
COOKING 34
CARRYING
24 GROCERIES
USING A
STANDING 22
DESK FIDGETING
3
WHILE
CHEWING SITTING
GUM
*NUMBERS ARE FOR A 180-LB MAN

activity, life as a sort of prolonged shuffle
from bed to office chair to sofa to bed.
We shouldn’t be surprised or feel bad
about it. Evolution wired humans to favor
inactivity and feel uncomfortable under
physical strain because it saved precious
MEN WHO CLIMBED
20 TO 34 FLIGHTS
energy when food was scarce. To under-
stand just how wired we are for inactivity,
consider this stat: 2. That’s the percent-
age of people in one study who took the
stairs when an escalator was nearby.
When I got home, seeing the benefits
from Alaska, I dedicated myself to becom-
ing a two-percenter—that sliver of people
who push back against our lazy wiring.
It would be impossible to mimic the
constant effort I faced up there, so I tried
to engineer my world to be a little more
lead to pain. Putting in a little effort doing
new activities, especially when you’re
exhausted from work, can offset that.
None of these acts on their own are able
to move the dial, but collectively they are
powerful. I’m not moving quite as much as
our ancestors—14 times as much is a big
number—but I’m getting there, and tak-
ing the stairs definitely helps. I’m losing
stubborn fat and boosting my health and
fitness.

OF STAIRS EACH WEEK effortful. I carried my groceries, parked

Adapted from the book
EXPERIENCED 24 PERCENT in the farthest spot, took phone meetings The Comfort Crisis:
while walking or cleaning the house, and Embrace Discomfort to
FEWER STROKES more. Even those who are bone-tired after Reclaim Your Wild, Happy,

THAN THOSE WHO a day of performing manual labor can

Healthy Self, by Michael
Easter. Published by
benefit from this—the repetitive nature of
CLIMBED FEWER THAN many physical jobs often creates move-
Rodale Books. Copyright
© 2021 by Michael Easter.
TEN FLIGHTS A WEEK. ment and strength asymmetries that may

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 23

 BODY FRONT LINE

AN OPHTHALMOLOGIST’S GIVE YOUR EYES

GUIDE TO YOUR A LUNCH BREAK

EYES
The popular 20-20-20 rule says you should look away from your
screen every 20 minutes at something 20 feet away for 20 sec-
onds to relieve digital eyestrain. I find that’s impossible to follow.
Instead, I close my eyes for ten minutes on my lunch break and
listen to a meditation app. Your eyes get tired with intense use.
Closing them is like taking a break between sets of exercise.

SWEAT
TO SAVE
YOUR RETINAS
After reading a recent
study that found that exer-
cise may help maintain
good eye health, I’ve done
100 pushups daily and I fit
in a Peloton session three
times a week. Physical ac-
tivity may stave off some
of the cell aging that leads
to issues like macular de-
generation. And being
active can also help pre-
vent diabetes, which dam-
ages the blood vessels
that feed your retinas.

BAN SCREENS
FROM THE BEDROOM
I keep my phone from intruding on my night—disabling
notifications and turning on “do not disturb” so texts don’t
wake me up. In general, extra “awake” time means you’re
doing more bad things to your eyes, such as staring at
screens. And you’re depriving your body of the sleep that
another strain into our lives: Zoom- helps your eyes regain moisture, which protects them from
itis, aka the digital eyestrain that infection and abrasions and keeps them comfortable.

results from staring at screens all day.

If there’s a good thing about this, says
Jerry Tsong, M.D., it’s that it prompted SHAMPOO
people to be more aware of their eye YOUR LIDS
health. Here’s what he does to keep his Most people have never
eyes comfortable and in working order. heard of “eyelid hygiene,”
NOURISH but hear me out. Our eye-
YOUR PEEPERS lids collect oil all day long.
After hours of screens, the
I jumped on the Mediterranean- oil glands along the lashes
BLOCK diet bandwagon in a serious way get clogged. Tears evapo-
ULTRAVIOLET RAYS when research found it might
reduce the risk of age-related
rate more quickly, and the
eyes become crusty and
I’m really obsessive about putting on my Ray-Bans as macular degeneration (AMD) by irritated. I put a little baby
soon as I step outside. UV light is linked to aging diseases 41 percent. This produce-filled diet shampoo on a washcloth,
such as cataracts and macular degeneration—the can help prevent the inflamma- apply it on my lids, and
Adam Voorhes/Gallery Stock

number-one cause of blindness in the developed world— tion that may contribute to AMD. rinse with water. This is
and harm can start adding up in your 40s. Indoors, I It’s a cliché, but I love avocado my version of a digital de-
don’t wear glasses to block blue light—I haven’t seen toast for breakfast and often have tox at the end of the day.
any research that shows they help with eye fatigue. a kale quinoa salad for lunch. —AS TOLD TO SARAH E. RICHARDS

24 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

EXCUSES
STOP HERE

MUSCLE AFTER 40

MH LOGO SWEATSHIRT

EXERCISE BALLS AND BANDS

 BODY

2. TO DO
RIGHT
BY YOUR
HEART:
FOCUS ON HIGH-
IN-FIBER CARBS
YOU MIGHT LOVE doughnuts
and cookies, aka simple, or
refined, carbs—ones that are low
in fiber and nutrients and raise
your blood sugar quickly—but
your heart does not. A new study
in The New England Journal of
Medicine showed that people
whose diets contained the most
of these foods had a 14 percent
higher risk of a major cardiovas-
cular event over ten years (and a
25 percent higher risk of death
from any cause) than people
whose diets had the least. What
this has to do with your heart:
Too many simple, low-in-fiber
carbs may lower “good” HDL
cholesterol and increase
triglycerides and unhealthy

HEALTHIEST
LDL cholesterol.
PRO TIP:

YOUR Spencer Kroll, M.D., a fellow of

the American Board of Clinical
Lipidology, noticed that his
patients with unhealthy blood
sugar and insulin function also

BODY STARTS NOW had more dangerous blood fats.

So he revised his own diet, tak-
ing out simple carbs like bread
and pasta to cut carbs from 40
to 20 percent of his calories. The
SEPTEMBER IS THE NEW JANUARY, say health and wellness pros, who see a
remaining carbs are high in fiber.
flood of new patients and clients when the anything-goes dog days of For instance, at breakfast, “I’ll
summer are over and the back-to-school vibe kicks in. Set yourself up eat a small bowl of nuts, berries,
to finish the year strong. BY JESSICA MIGALA and a barley cereal,” he says.
Other meals include higher-fiber
grains like quinoa. “I’ve seen
significant improvements in my
LDL cholesterol,” Dr. Kroll says.
the next decade compared
1. TO FEEL with guys who could do fewer
than ten. The ability to hammer
PRO TIP:
“I start most days with 150
pushups,” says John P. Higgins,
“My triglycerides are better, and
my insulin function is, too.”

YOUNGER: out those reps is a sign of

DROP AND
DO 40
A STUDY OF more than 1,100
firefighters found that those
who could crank out more than
40 pushups had a lower risk
of a cardiovascular event, like
a heart attack or stroke, over
total-body muscular strength,
which is associated with good
blood pressure and metabolic
health. Can’t do 40 in a row?
Do as many as you can in a
row, then rest 10 seconds;
repeat this until you’ve done
40 total reps. Do this three
times weekly; you’ll build the
strength to do 40 straight.
M.D., a professor of medicine
at McGovern Medical School
at UTHealth in Houston. He
uses the Perfect Pushup tool.
“It has handles that rotate on a
base, which helps me be more
stable and use correct form,”
he says. “Ever since doing 150
a day, my upper body, breath-
ing, and abs are better. And it
really wakes me up.”

26 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

 3. TO CONTROL
YOUR BLOOD
PRESSURE:
TACKLE STRESS
ONE OF THE best ways to be
healthier is to get your blood
pressure under control. When
it’s high, it can damage nearly
every organ in your body. And
one of the most overlooked ways
to help it stay low is to manage
stress. All-day stress may push
your BP high while you’re awake,
says cardiologist Christopher
Kelly, M.D., of UNC Health Care
in Raleigh. Even if it becomes
normal overnight, it still taxes
your system. Stress may also
lead to overdrinking, smoking,
and other choices that don’t
help BP, he says. In addition
to seeing a doctor about high
BP, carve out time to reduce
stress. Meditation isn’t the only
way to do it. Lean into your own
Jacob Lund/Adobe Stock (pushup). Pavel Dornak (quinoa). David Sykes (brain). Sun Lee (toy).
stress shedders, even if they’re
quirky, like making playlists or
solving a Rubik’s cube.
PRO TIP:
“I love going to Costco when
I need a break,” says Jamin
Brahmbhatt, M.D., a urologist
with Orlando Health. “Some-
thing about that place is
calming. I look at the new TVs
and might buy something that I
may not always need. It’s been a
ritual since high school,
when my friends and I would
go once a week. It brings back
memories of those times.”
5. TO STOP
LANGUISHING:
FIND WHAT
FOCUSES YOU
THINGS MIGHT BE looking
up with Covid, but maybe you
feel . . . absolutely effing blah.
You’re stagnant. Aimless. You’re
not depressed but not excited,
either. The term for this is
languishing, and “I’m seeing an
6. TO STICK
WITH YOUR
WORKOUTS:
HAVE A TWO-
MONTH PLAN
IF YOU DON’T know why
you’re going to the gym today,
it’s going to be harder for you to
get there than for the guy who
knows he wants to deadlift 200
pounds by November and has a
plan to do it. You want a workout
plan that sets you up for prog-
ress, explains MH fitness direc-
tor Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S.
“Too much workout deviation
keeps you from mastering
moves and movements.” And
4. TO FINALLY GET a sense of mastery is what helps
SOME SLEEP: keep you coming back to the
gym. “A good progressive eight-
or 12-week program will have
RELAX YOUR BRAIN you doing at least three key
A BIG REASON we toss and turn is that “we are really good exercises or movements on a
at learning how to get pumped up, but we are sometimes not weekly basis,” Samuel says.
particularly good at winding down and don’t give it its proper
space,” explains MH advisor W. Christopher Winter, M.D. “The
PRO TIP:
Random exercises and some
wind-down process doesn’t need to be elaborate; it’s just
walking on the treadmill? “That
important to have a process.” Shut down screens at least 30
minutes before bedtime—their light can suppress your body’s
haphazard way of training
doesn’t work at all. Follow a pro-
production of sleep-inducing melatonin—and do something
gression that has a prescribed
relaxing. Stop thinking of that time as doing nothing and fill
number of sets and reps,” says
it with something you’re into: a podcast, sex, music, jotting
Charlie Seltzer, M.D., C.S.C.S.,
down a few great things about your day or your partner.
an obesity-medicine physician
PRO TIP: in Philadelphia. “The positive
As a technology-free transition to sleep, Raj Dasgupta, M.D., reinforcement you get from
of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern knowing you’re getting stron-
California, works with his wife on 1,000-piece puzzles for 15 ger—as in ‘I could only curl 20
to 30 minutes. “With each puzzle piece found and placed pounds for five reps last week,
correctly, the puzzler gets a little hit of dopamine, which and now I can do eight’—makes
rewards the brain and, in turn, relaxes the body,” he says. you more likely to be consis-
tent.” And stay that way.
epidemic of it in my practice,”
says New York City psychother-
apist Allison Abrams, L.C.S.W.
PRO TIP:
“I kiteboard once a week,” says
Alex Dimitriu, M.D., founder of
Recognizing and naming it is
important and helps validate
Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep
Medicine in Menlo Park, Cal-
what you’re feeling. One way ifornia. He considers it “wind
to help clear it up is to do therapy,” which is his oceanic
something that gets you into version of forest bathing, a tra-
a state of flow—when you’re dition in Japan of recharging by
fully absorbed and focused on spending time in the woods. It
something outside yourself, requires focus, and “the feeling
she says. Take a step toward of wind against my body makes
whatever gets you there: Maybe me feel fresh and alive, espe-
it’s fly-fishing, rock climbing, cially during days of working
painting, or planting . from home,” he says.
MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 27
 BODY PEAK PERFORMANCE

TRAIN LIKE:
The BRAIN for 5 to 9 seconds. person, place, or
Slowly exhale thing. Choose 5 to
1. RZA uses breath-

RZA
through your mouth 9 different images.
ing exercises based for 5 to 9 seconds. Repeat for 3 sets.
on Shaolin kung fu Repeat 9 times for
to increase oxygen 1 set; do 3 sets. 3. To hone focus,
and chi to the brain. play chess, sudoku,
Sit in a comfortable 2. To sharpen your or another compu-
position and press memory, sit down tational strategy
your tongue to the and close your eyes. game for 10 to 30
roof of your mouth Think of a person, minutes a day. You
behind your front place, or thing you can also solve equa-
teeth. Close your know. Say the name tions throughout the
mouth and breathe in your head while day in your mind
LOTS OF GUYS focus on the pecs, biceps, in through the nose envisioning the or on paper.
and abs. But for creative powerhouses like
RZA—a rapper, music and film producer,
and actor (see: next summer’s Minions: The
Rise of Gru)—the most important perfor-
mance happens above the neck. Here’s how
the 52-year-old WuTang mastermind keeps The EYES
his eyes, ears, and brain in optimal shape. 1. To expand your field of
vision, stand and close
your eyes for 3 seconds.
The EARS Open them and fix your
focus in 8 directions, 2
1. Train your range: Sit seconds each, moving
indoors and focus your clockwise and then
hearing on low or high counterclockwise.
frequencies for 30 sec- Repeat for 3 sets.
onds. (Think appliances
for low frequencies, 2. Improve your eye
chirping birds for high for detail: Place a book
frequencies.) Break the 3 feet away. Close your
silence for 10 seconds eyes for 3 seconds,
by counting down from then open them and
10 to 1. Do 3 sets. look at the title font
for 3 seconds. Repeat
2. Listen to quiet sounds with the next-smallest
to nourish your hearing. font until you reach the
While sitting, cover both smallest font that you
ears with your hands to can read. Do 3 sets.
block out noises. Hold
for 30 seconds or until 3. To train perception,
you begin to hear your stand outdoors and
breathing and heartbeat. close your eyes for 3
Remove your hands. seconds. Open them
Repeat for 3 sets. and set your gaze on
the closest thing.
3. Sit and play some Next, gaze at the far-
music at normal volume thest object you can
for 15 seconds. Play it see (say, a building or
again at half that volume. mountain), then fix your
Continue the process until sight on the object as if
the music is at the lowest you’re piercing through
volume that’s audible, it. Repeat for 3 sets.
all the while focusing on
hearing it as if it’s at the
original volume. Do 2 sets.

MEDICAL OPINION
“RZA is training his mind and body to work for and not against him,” says Gregory
Scott Brown, M.D., the founder and director of the Center for Green Psychiatry
Lukas Maeder/Redux

and a Men’s Health advisor. “It’s about starting small, being consciously aware
of breath, balance, and movement. Techniques like hatha yoga have stood the
test of time and are great for improving physical and mental health.”

28 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

 Get All Out Arms, the new
program from Men’s Health
Fitness Director Eb Samuel,
plus 100s of other programs
on the All Out Studio app.

We Have
the Secret to
Big Arms
MensHealth.com/AllOutApp

Brought to you by the editors of

m p
 eing a trainer, bodybuilder, and nutrition
B expert means that companies frequently
send me their products and ask for my
stamp of approval. Most of the time I dive into
research, test the product out, and send the
company honest feedback. Sometimes, however,
I refuse to give the product a try, because frankly,
the ingredients inside aren’t real food. And I’d
rather drink diesel fuel than torture my body with
a chemical concoction.
Like my father always said, “What you put
inside your body always shows up on the
outside.”
One protein shake that I received, that will
remain nameless, was touted as ‘the next big
shake’ but really had a list of gut destroying
ingredients. Everywhere I read I saw harmful
artificial ingredients, added sugars, synthetic
dyes, preservatives and cheap proteins; the kind
of proteins that keep you fat no matter how hard
you hit the gym, sap your energy and do nothing
for your muscles.
Disappointed after reviewing this “new”
shake, I hit the gym and bumped into my favorite
bodybuilding coach. This guy is pushing 50, has
the energy of a college kid, and is ripped. So are
his clients.
While I firmly believe that the gym is a no-talk
focus zone, I had to ask, “Hey Zee, what protein
shake are you recommending to your clients
these days?”
Zee looked at me, and shook his head.
“Protein shakes are old news and loaded with
junk. I don’t recommend protein shakes, I
tell my clients to drink INVIGOR8 Superfood
Shake because it’s the only all natural meal
replacement that works and has a taste so good
that it’s addicting.”
Being skeptical of what Zee told me, I decided
to investigate this superfood shake called
INVIGOR8.
Turns out INVIGOR8 Superfood Shake has
a near 5-star rating on Amazon. The creators
are actual scientists and personal trainers who
set out to create a complete meal replacement
shake chocked full of superfoods that—get this—
actually accelerate how quickly and easily you
lose belly fat and builds even more lean, calorie
burning muscle.
We all know that the more muscle you build,
the more calories you burn. The more fat you
melt away the more definition you get in your
arms, pecs and abs.
The makers of INVIGOR8 were determined
to make the first complete, natural, non-GMO
superfood shake that helps you lose fat and build
lean muscle. The result is a shake that contains
100% grass-fed whey that has a superior nutrient
profile to the grain-fed whey found in most
shakes, metabolism boosting raw coconut oil,
hormone free colostrum to promote a healthy
immune system, Omega 3, 6, 9-rich chia and
flaxseeds, superfood greens like kale, spinach,
broccoli, alfalfa, and chlorella, and clinically
tested cognitive enhancers for improved mood
and brain function. The company even went a
step further by including a balance of pre and
probiotics for regularity in optimal digestive
health, and digestive enzymes so your body
absorbs the high-caliber nutrition you get from
INVIGOR8.
While there are over 2000 testimonials
on Amazon about how INVIGOR8 “gave me
more energy and stamina” and “melts away
abdominal fat like butter on a hot sidewalk”, what
really impressed me was how many customers
raved about the taste. So I had to give it a try.
When it arrived I gave it the sniff test. Unlike
most meal replacement shakes it smelled like
whole food, not a chemical factory. So far so
good. Still INVIGOR8 had to pass the most
important test, the taste test.
And INVIGOR8 was good. Better than good.
I could see what Zee meant when he said his
clients found the taste addicting.
I also wanted to see if Invigor8 would help me
burn that body fat I’d tried to shave off for years
to achieve total definition.
Just a few weeks later I’m pleased to say,
shaving that last abdominal fat from my
midsection wasn’t just easy. It was delicious.
Considering all the shakes I’ve tried I can
honestly say that the results I’ve experienced
from INVIGOR8 are nothing short of astonishing.
A company spokesperson confirmed an
exclusive offer for Men’s Health readers: if you
order INVIGOR8 this month, you’ll receive $10 off
your first order by using promo code “MEN10” at
checkout. If you’re in a rush to burn fat, restore lean
muscle and boost your stamina and energy you
can order INVIGOR8 today at www.drinkInvigor8.
com or by calling 1-800-958-3392.
 CHANGE FOR THE BETTER

LET THERE BE

LIGHT(NESS)
Is guidance from the Almighty the secret to sustainable—
or healthy—weight loss? BY IAN LECKLITNER
“AND GOD SAID, Behold, I have given you every herb unprocessed plant-based foods, primarily vegetables,
bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, fruits, nuts, and seeds. It is not to be confused with the
and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yield- Daniel Plan (inspired by the biblical prophet Daniel),
ing seed; to you it shall be for meat.” a nutrition program cooked up by megachurch pastor
The Hallelujah Diet, inspired by the above pas- Rick Warren in 2011 that involves eating 75 percent
sage from the Book of Genesis, requires its disciples vegetables and whole grains. And that is not to be con-
to consume 85 percent of their calories from raw and fused with the Daniel Fast (same prophet), which asks

ILLUSTRATIONS BY EDDIE GUY MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 31

 LIFE WEIGHT LOSS

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 in-
terview skills. “It’s 21 days of prayer and
fasting,” he said. “By the time you see me,
I’ll probably be hallucinating. Stay tuned.”
In the year of our Lord 2020, the most
stressful 12 to 18-and-counting months
that many of us have ever experienced,
nearly half of all Americans said they put
on pounds, with freshly rebranded “well-
ness” giants like WW (formerly Weight
Watchers) and Medifast posting mas-
sive gains in customers (and revenue).
At the same time, more than a quarter
of the country reported a stronger belief
in God—meanwhile, and not unrelated,
online searches for “prayer” rose to their
highest level ever—and for these Amer-
icans, faith in the Almighty has begun
to inform their food choices. “When life
is unpredictable, such as in a global pan-
demic, we tend to do two things,” says
Brandice Lardner, author of Grace Filled
Plates: Ditch Diets and Find Food Free-
dom Through God’s Grace. “One, hyper-
focus on what we can control, and manag-
ing 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 theolog-
ical dietar y g uidelines, 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 engage-
ment—increased sixfold on Instagram.
That’s where Gerald Law, an Orlando-
based musician, and his wife, Yohanna,
rediscovered it. (They were familiar with
it from their church.) “Social media is ev-
erything right now, and whatever seems
popular on social media, everyone tends
to try,” Yohanna says. Weighed down (lit-
erally and figuratively) by the challenges
of 2020, the couple embarked on the Dan-
iel Fast together as a way to strengthen
their relationship with God—and each
other—and to find greater clarity in the
chaos of the year. “I wasn’t sure if I could
complete the fast,” says Gerald. “Not eat-
ing 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 the country started to get
serious about the big business of weight
loss. Back then, “all kinds of diets were
launched,” says Susan Roberts, Ph.D.,
a professor of nutrition at Tufts Univer-
sity. “Americans were gaining weight,
losing health, and needed weight-loss
programs to fix things. As a nation, we
seem quite susceptible to wanting ‘mira-
cle 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 emphasizes mind-
ful eating and intermittent fasting, and
the program at the heart of Secrets of a
Kosher Girl: A 21-Day Nourishing Plan to

Dietitian Brian St. Pierre, M.S., R.D., director of

A Religious Diet Decoder performance nutrition at Precision Nutrition, helps us

unpack four of the most popular nonsecular diets.

1 2 3 4

THE HALLELUJAH DIET
The Hallelujah Diet consists
largely of raw, plant-based
foods. It also calls for juicing;
consuming the program’s
BarleyMax supplement, an or-
ganic juice powder; and taking
numerous other proprietary
supplements. In other words,
it’s hyperrestrictive, which
can pose problems. “The over-
emphasis on raw plant foods
will make it harder for folks to
follow and can lead to GI is-
sues if folks aren’t used to that
much fiber,” says St. Pierre.
“Suggesting supplements
that you can buy from them
raises red flags as well.”
THE DANIEL FAST
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 im-
proved several risk factors
for metabolic and cardio-
vascular 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.”
BUDDHA’S DIET
Rather than limiting what you eat,
Buddha’s Diet limits when you
eat, the goal being that you even-
tually 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, guilt-free.”
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—and far more
expensive—for most people,” says
St. Pierre, “and reducing so-called
‘toxins’ ignores biological com-
plexity. The liver detoxifies the
body just fine, and most ‘toxins’ it
mentions are not actual toxins.”

32 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH


Lose Weight and Feel Great (Even If You’re
Not Jewish), which combines Jewish prin-
ciples and “clean eating.”
Many of these programs raise similar
questions for believers and skeptics alike.
Some argue that bringing God into the
conversation adds unnecessary pressure
to the already-arduous process of losing
weight, with holy-book-based virtues like
purity, discipline, and cleanliness influ-
encing 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, R.D.,
author of Good Food, Bad Diet. One ex-
ample 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 benefit of approaching weight loss
from this God-centered way is that our suc-
cess is not dependent on our willpower,”
says Mike Cleveland, founder of Setting
Courtesy subjects (3)
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 uni-
formly 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 sus-
tainable way for long-term health,” says
Roberts, the nutritionist. But introducing
any kind of community, faith based or oth-
erwise, can be a big positive. “We all need
our own tribe of people, our cultural group,
and churches and faith communities pro-
vide that,” says Roberts. “With more than
40 percent of Americans having obesity
today, religious organizations can fill an
important function of supporting health.”
Even if a religious diet doesn’t result
in sustained weight loss, some would say
that the journey is more important than
the destination. Take the Laws, the cou-
ple from Orlando who did the Daniel Fast
together. Yohanna says she dropped ten
pounds: “It was a little tough in the begin-
ning, 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, received the
clarity I was looking for.” As for Gerald, he
says he lost weight, but “I honestly do not
remember how much. The experience was
really inspiring. We will absolutely be do-
ing it again next year.”
MEN’S HEALTH
Father Rafael Capo
@fathercapo
Father Rob Galea
@frrobgalea
Father Ryan Rooney
@spinningpadre
MEET THE
JACKED
CLERGYMEN
WHO CAN HELP SAVE
YOUR SWOLE
The kingdoms of heaven and heavy
weights have joined forces on Ins-
tagram, 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 pushups may seem an
unlikely pairing, but these men of
the cloth beg to differ. “The gym is a
prime place for evangelization,” says
Rooney, a cofounder of Priestfit, an
online community of Catholic priests
enthusiastic about health and fitness.
“Not that we’re there to convert every-
body as we’re in the gym, but there
is a yearning from a lot of people in a
hypersexualized, ego-driven environ-
ment sometimes to seek something
greater than themselves, and we hap-
pen to have the answer for that.” It’s
just a bonus that they can help you
up your squat game, too. —I. L.
| SEPTEMBER 2021 33
 LIFE T H E E X P E R T : R O X A N A J U L L A PA T is a pastry chef and the head baker
and co-owner of Friends & Family in Los Angeles, as well as the author
of Mother Grains: Recipes for the Grain Revolution, available now.

T H E R E’S ON LY ON E R IGH T WAY T O...

MAKE A FLUFFY, FILLING

PANCAKE
1

Small pancakes are flimsy, forgettable. Large

ones rise high and have substance. So rein-
force your batter. In a large bowl, sift your dry
mix: ¼ cup each buckwheat and all-purpose
flours, plus 1 Tbsp sugar, ¾ tsp baking pow-
der, ½ tsp baking soda, and ¼ tsp salt. This will
yield one big, thick, crispy, fluffy flapjack.

acids of buttermilk, which react with the leav-

eners (baking soda and baking powder) to
release dough-raising carbon dioxide into the
batter. (Cool, right?) Whisk your wet mix:

mix. Add the liquids and whisk slowly from the Joe McKendry (illustrations). Food styling: Anna Stockwell. Prop styling: Maeve Sheridan.
center to combine. Add 3 Tbsp melted butter.
(The batter will be slightly thicker than from
TOP THAT!
Jam, fresh berries,
powdered sugar,
peanut butter, or . . .
 all of them.

Maple syrup is awesome—but you can make it even
HOLY SH!T awesomer. In a small saucepan over medium, heat a
4-to-1 ratio of syrup to any liquid. (May we recommend
KITCHEN TRICK! bourbon, coffee, stout, or porter?) Cook, stirring
frequently, till well combined, about 5 minutes.
4
BUBBLE AND BAKE
Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a medium
pan over medium high, melt 1 tsp butter
and a li’l vegetable oil. Add the batter and
cook till the edges bubble, 1 to 2 minutes.
Then bake for 5 minutes, flip the pancake,
and cook until browned, 1 to 2 minutes.
—AS TOLD TO JOSEPH HERNANDEZ

34 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPH BY CHELSEA KYLE

 Build Muscle with Plants!

Super-
charge
your health
and your
workouts

How to eat
plant-based
in five
easy steps

All the
protein
you need
at every
meal!

Available wherever books are sold or go to

menshealth.com/plantbasedcookbook
 LIFE 30/10

DUCK, YEAH!
There’s a wide world of delectable poultry
out there beyond chicken. Duck is a powerful
source of nutrients like protein and iron—
and, let’s not forget, flavor. Round
out the meal with two southern-
inspired, fiber-rich sides.
BY KEVIN BELTON AND PAUL KITA

36 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

 T H E E X P E R T S : K E V I N B E LT O N is a chef and cookbook writer. His latest
is Kevin Belton’s Cookin’ Louisiana, from which this duck recipe was
adapted. PA U L K I TA is the food and nutrition editor of Men’s Health. THE FIBER 10g

Either of these sides will help you

get the protein you need to build
muscle, the fiber you need to stay
full, and the awesomeness you

THE PROTEIN 30g

A six-ounce serving of roasted duck breast with the skin has about 42 grams of protein
and 344 calories. If you’re worried about calories, the same amount of duck without
the skin has 37 grams of protein and 188 calories. If you’re not worried about calories,
that fat is delicious; you should also save whatever renders when you cook. Duck fat
makes for next-level hash browns, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower.

B U Y I T You’ll likely find three types of duck breast: Pekin (the mildest of the bunch),
Muscovy (the gamiest), and Moulard (a balance of the two). The D’Artagnan brand is a
good online source for all three varieties (dartagnan.com) and may be available at the
grocery store, too. Make sure you buy the raw, not the smoked, kind for this recipe. Roasted Okra and Corn
Preheat the oven to 450°F. In a large
HOW TO MAKE IT bowl, combine 4 cups okra (sliced),
Crispy Glazed Duck 3½ cups corn kernels (fresh or
1. In a food processor or blender, combine the hoisin, frozen), 2 medium onions (diced), 2
W H AT YO U ’ L L N E E D mirin, five-spice powder, ginger, and garlic. Pulse until Tbsp olive oil, 2 Tbsp Creole season-
¼ CUP HOISIN SAUCE
it forms a runny paste. Pour into a 12-inch baking dish. ing, and 1 tsp kosher salt. Spread the
¼ CUP MIRIN (RICE WINE) mixture onto a large rimmed baking
2. Pat the duck dry with paper towels and add to the
½ TSP FIVE-SPICE POWDER sheet. Roast, stirring twice, until the
marinade, skin side up. Divide ½ tsp kosher salt between
1 INCH PIECE OF GINGER, vegetables are tender and beginning
PEELED, SLICED the breasts. Marinate, uncovered, in the fridge for a to brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Feeds 4
Food styling: Jamie Kimm. Prop styling: Carla Gonzalez-Hart.

4 CLOVES GARLIC,
COARSELY CHOPPED
4 DUCK BREASTS, 8 OZ EACH
Nutrition per serving:
419 calories, 43g protein, 13g
carbs (1g fiber), 19g fat
couple hours to overnight. Remove the duck from the
Per serving: 227 calories, 7g pro-
fridge and let it come up to room temperature, at
least 20 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Pat the duck dry with paper
towels again and score the skin with the tip of a sharp
knife in a ½-inch diamond pattern. In a cast-iron pan over
medium, add the duck, skin side down, and cook until
golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Flip the duck and sear,
3 to 4 minutes. Flip once more, transfer the pan to the
oven, bake 8 minutes, flip to skin side up, and bake until
the skin is dark brown, 6 to 8 more minutes. Transfer
the duck to a big plate, skin side up. Rest 10 minutes
before carving and serving.* Feeds 4

*Consuming raw or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood,

shellfish, or eggs may increase your risk of foodborne illness.
In a large pot, add ½ lb bacon
(chopped) and heat over medium.
Brown the bacon, 12 to 15 minutes.
Add 1 cup onion (diced) and cook un-
til beginning to sweat, 1 to 2 minutes.
30g WAIT, WHAT’S 30/10? Add 1 small garlic clove (minced) and
30/10 delivers healthy, filling meals to help you get 30 grams of protein and 10 grams cook till aromatic, 1 minute. Pour in
10g of fiber. For an entire month’s worth of recipes, head to MensHealth.com/30-10. 4 cups chicken broth; turn the heat
to high. When it reaches a boil, add ½
lb each of the following (cleaned and
roughly chopped): collard greens,
mustard greens, and turnip greens.
Add ½ Tbsp Creole seasoning, ¼ tsp
ground black pepper, 1 Tbsp white
distilled vinegar, and 1 Tbsp sugar.
Cover the pot, lower the heat to me-

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTOPHER TESTANI MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 37

 LIFE F L AV O R B O M B S
HIT THE BOTTLES!
Ketchup, yellow mustard, mayo: tried-and-true. Surprise your taste buds
(and barbecue buds) with these now-not-so-secret flavors. BY ALIA AKKAM
SPICY
The Fiery Tongue Tickler
Che Fico Calabrian Chili Bomba
Add tangy-spicy pickled Calabrian pep-
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a potent spread that stands up to the bold
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with butter and slather over corn on the
cob. $14; cheficoalimentari.com
The Forget-Me-Not
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Brooklyn Delhi Tomato Achaar
It’s as if Sriracha, ketchup, and chili
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S AV O R Y
The Fancy Relish
SD Sauce Ginger
Vegan Thai Hot Sauce 
This sorta-chunky relish fuses bright-hot
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Chemical-tasting ranch this is not. Thick
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Feges BBQ Mop Sauce
Pleasantly sweet and acidic, with a
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MILD
38 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH
The Hot Orange Crush
Jamboree Jams Spicy Satsuma
Satsumas are small, sweet oranges,
combined in this jar with tongue-
tingling Criolla Sella chile peppers. This
mash works as a tropical-style glaze for
grilled rib eye. Great on pork chops or
fish, too. $10; jamboreejams.co
The Italian Experiment
Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria
Salsa Piccante
Executive chef Justin Smillie’s
experimentations with fermented
chile peppers spawned this hot
sauce. Rounded out with white
S W E E T/ F R U I T Y
vinegar, agave, garlic, ginger,
and salt, the mix plays well with
shrimp. $15; ilbucoalimentari.com
The Flavor Explosion
Egunsi Foods Ata Din Din Sauce
Inspired by founder ‘Yemisi Awosan’s Nigerian
roots, this umami-heavy relish is packed with
flavors: habanero, bell pepper, onion, garlic,
celery, paprika. Use it to ratchet up marinades
for grilled chicken or portobellos and hold on
to your butts. $80 for four; egunsifoods.com
The Perfectly Sweet Stuff
Courtesy brands (products). Getty Images (lines of sauce).
Basbaas Tamarind Date Sauce 
This Somali-inspired, thick, smoky paste
offsets fiery cherry-bomb peppers with
naturally sweet Medjool dates. That fruit-
iness means it works with hearty fish—
swordfish, salmon, and mahi mahi. $22
for variety two-pack; basbaasfoods.com
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 LIFE COOL DAD T H I S M O N T H ’ S C O O L D A D : M A R L O N WAYA N S is a
comedian and an actor. Watch him in Respect,
and in the stand-up special Marlon Wayans: You
Know What It Is, on HBO Max this month.

DIALING BACK have only so much influence. On the one

hand, it was so frustrating. But on the

DESPERATION
other, I was working so much—and you
know me, I don’t just have one job—it

THE was like, The nerve of me to think that I

Acceptance seems like a simple concept, but sometimes
it’s the hardest thing in the world. BY MARLON WAYANS
I’M A SUPER touchy-feely kind of guy, and
before I had kids, I had all these dreams
about being around them constantly. With
my 19-year-old son, Shawn, I hoped that
we’d be going to ball games, playing video
games, and just hanging out all the time.
With my 21-year-old daughter, Amai (aka
“Sweetness”), I had dreams of meeting
her boyfriend and the three of us all being
cool, with him almost becoming like a
surrogate son. But you know, life throws
you curveballs. My daughter’s gay. My son
doesn’t think I’m cool.
My kids are so aloof. It’s bad, man.
On their birthdays, I’ll post a photo
of them on Instagram and say so many
beautiful things about them that I wind
up running out of characters. But with
me, on Father’s Day, my daughter might
post eight measly words. Happy Father’s
Day, Dad. You a good dude. My son gives
me three letters: #HFD. I didn’t know
what it was—Houston Fire Department?
I told myself, next Father’s Day Ima
write six measly words: Dear kids, Fuck
you. Love, Dad.
But that was me being sensitive.
I just wanted my kids to be more like
me. I grew up getting a bunch of affec-
tion from my mom, who was all kisses
and coddling and sweet words, while
my dad was the disciplinarian. But my
children’s mom, she’s more emotionally
neutral. And because I worked so much,
my kids turned out to be 65 percent her,
35 percent me—almost like they didn’t
get the affection part.
When me and their mom split when
they were younger, they lived with me.
For a while, it was great. I would bathe
them and there would be bedtime stories.
I would sit up with them, hang out and
play with them in the yard. But then when
they went to live with their mom, I could
actually have time to be an overbearing
dad. But that wouldn’t stop me from com-
ing off as desperate anyway.
I just felt like I always had to be “on”
for them. I’d put all this energy into all
these plans, flying back and forth across
the country to be with them for a day,
maybe two. And then you look, and I’m
knocked the hell out on the ride at Disney
or in the movie theater or at my son’s
game or at Christmas, after filling the
room with gifts. At a point, when they got
to be teenagers, they were like, “Thank
you, Dad—we love you, but this is a lot.”
That’s when I started to take my foot
off the gas and realize that not only are
these kids with good hearts who love and
trust me but that God gave me exactly the
kind of children I needed to accomplish
the things I wanted to in life. I’m realizing
that just a little can go a long way. Now
that I’ve accepted how they love me and
that their love language is understate-
ment, I can sit down with my son and my
daughter and her girlfriend—who’s like a
surrogate daughter—and have a nice din-
ner and talk about school or relationships
or flaws or bare our souls.
We’re, like, great friends. It’s so cool.

42 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH ILLUSTRATION BY AKEEM S. ROBERTS

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MAINTAIN YOUR
BODY WITH CBD
Everyone feels the hurt as we age, but
CBD can help you deal with it.
ife really does fly by. Before I knew it, my
L
40s had arrived, and with them came
some new gifts from dear ol’ Mother
Nature—frequent knee pain, stress, low energy
and sleeplessness. Now, I’m a realist about these
things, I knew I wasn’t going to be young and
resilient forever. But still, with “middle-age” nearly
on my doorstep, I couldn’t help but feel a little
disheartened. That is until I found my own secret
weapon. Another gift from Mother Nature.
It began a few months back when I was
complaining about my aches and pains to my
marathon-running buddy, Ben, who is my same
age. He casually mentioned how he uses CBD
oil to help with his joint pain. He said that CBD
has given him more focus and clarity throughout
the day and that his lingering muscle and joint
discomfort no longer bothered him. He even
felt comfortable signing up for back-to-back
marathons two weekends in a row this year.
That made even this self-proclaimed skeptic
take notice.
But I still had some concerns. According
to one study in the Journal of the American
Medical Association, 70% of CBD products
didn’t contain the amount of CBD stated on
their labels. And, as a consumer, that’s terrifying!
If I was going to do this, I needed to trust
the source through and through. My two-fold
research process naturally led me to Zebra CBD.
First, I did a quick online poll—and by
that, I mean I posed the CBD question on my
Facebook page. Call me old fashioned but I
wanted to know if there were people whom I
trusted (more than anonymous testimonials)
who’ve had success using CBD besides my
buddy. That is how I found out that Zebra CBD
has a label accuracy guarantee which assures
customers like me what is stated on the label is
in the product.
Secondly, I wanted cold hard facts. Diving
deep into the world of CBD research and
clinical studies, I came across Emily Gray M.D.,
a physician at the University of California at
San Diego (UCSD) Medical School who is
researching the effects of CBD. Dr. Gray wrote
“early results with CBD have been promising
and we have a lot of research underway now.
I’ve had several patients using CBD with good
success. It’s important that you know your
source of CBD and how to use it properly. Zebra
CBD produces top-quality products with easy to
use instructions.”
After hearing it from the doctor’s mouth, I
returned to my online poll and was amazed
by the number of close friends and family who
were already on the CBD train. Apparently, I
was the only one without a clue! And funny
enough, a couple of friends who commented
were using the same brand as my buddy—Zebra
CBD. There was no consensus as to why they
were using CBD, but the top reasons given were
for muscle & joint discomfort, mood support,
sleep support, stress and headaches, as well as
supporting overall health & wellness.
Eventually, even the most skeptical of the
bunch can be won over. With a trusted CBD
source in mind, I decided to try it.
When I viewed Zebra CBD’s selection online, I
was impressed by its array of products, including
CBD oils called tinctures, topicals, chewable
tablets, mints and gummies. After reading on
their website that all their products are made
with organically-grown hemp, I ordered... and it
arrived within 2 days!
The first product I tried was the rub. Now
this stuff was strong. Immediately after rubbing
it on my knee, the soothing effects kicked in. It
had that familiar menthol cooling effect, which I
personally find very relieving. And the best part
is, after two weeks of using it, my knee pain no
longer affected my daily mobility.
The Zebra Mint Oil, on the other hand, had a
different but equally positive effect on my body.
To take it, the instructions suggest holding the
oil in your mouth for about 30 seconds. This
was simple enough, and the mint taste was, well,
minty. After about 15 minutes, a sense of calm
came over my body. It's hard to describe exactly;
it's definitely not a "high" feeling. It's more like
an overall sense of relaxation—a chill factor.
Needless to say, I’ve really enjoyed the oil.
While it hasn’t been a catch-all fix to every
one of my health issues, it has eased the level
and frequency of my aches. And it sure doesn’t
seem like a coincidence how much calmer and
more focused I am.
All-in-all, CBD is one of those things that you
have to try for yourself. Although I was skeptical
at first, I can say that I’m now a Zebra CBD fan
and that I highly recommend their products. My
40s are looking up!
Also, I managed to speak with a company
spokesperson willing to provide an exclusive
offer to Men’s Health readers. If you order this
month, you’ll receive $10 off your first order
by using promo code “MEN10” at checkout.
Plus, the company offers a 100% No-Hassle,
Money-Back Guarantee. You can try it yourself
and order Zebra CBD at ZebraCBD.com or by
calling 888-762-2699.
 WHERE STRENGTH MATTERS MOST

HOW

L AU G H TE R
L I FTS WAYNE FEDERMAN IS a veteran
stand-up comedian who has written late-

YOU P night monologue jokes for Jimmy Fallon

and appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm

U and Silicon Valley. But his ability to find

humor in just about any situation
helped him cope particularly
well in quarantine. “During
The right sense of the pandemic, I’m shut
down. All my gigs are can-
humor can defuse stress celed,” he says. “I’m alone
and boost your outlook. in the house, and I find out
Shift yours to gain my ID is stolen. I’m like,
more from each ‘Yes! This could be the best
day I’ve had in years.’ ”
ha-ha moment. The more he thought
BY STEVE KNOPPER about it, the funnier the
situation seemed. “Some-
times 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.”

ILLUSTRATIONS BY DOUG CHAYKA MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 47

 MIND H AV E M O R E H A - H A M O M E N T S

48 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

Why can’t
stressful things
seem funny?
“Comedians
just look at life
slightly askew,”
Federman says,
“and that makes it
fun, all the time.”
GETTING THE LAUGHTER
YOU DESERVE
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
humor, I found that I have a tendency
toward self-enhancing humor, which in-
cludes 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
humor 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 Bagdo-
nas, 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 concen-
trate 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 aggres-
sive by making fun of dogs to the group,
which would have embarrassed the stu-
dent. 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 to-
gether. They laughed. Affiliative humor!
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.
 MIND T H E E X P E R T : G R E G O R Y S C O T T B R O W N , M . D . , is a
psychiatrist, a Men’s Health advisor, and the founder and
director of the Center for Green Psychiatry in Austin.

SE T H E
C R E T TO
BE
T T ER

With the world constantly in flux, you have to be open to change.

The trick is knowing when to adapt and when to dig in.
BY GREGORY SCOTT BROWN, M.D.

FOR THE PAST few months, I’ve listened to my patients talk about their to manage security and change at the
struggles with adapting. First to locking down, then to changing how they work, same time is to keep a few aspects of your
forming new friendships in new ways, and starting over in a new city. One of the most life—like your morning coffee routine—
useful things the pandemic taught us was the importance of being flexible. So why, now consistent. Habits and routines buffer
that it’s time to adapt again—to getting back to the office, to being social, to moving the effects of emotional stress. Choose
forward—do so many of my patients find themselves wanting to dig in their heels? more than one area of consistency so
I’ll be honest: I’m not the guy who readily embraces change, either. (My wife gets that if you need to adapt in one, you have
annoyed with me for ordering the same boring thing—grilled fish with basmati rice something else to fall back on.
and vegetables—every time we go to our favorite Mediterranean restaurant.) Although
adapting can be challenging, not having strategies to deal with the stress of change (from Unlearn Some Things
new office protocols to a significant life change) can lead to major depression, adjustment WHEN TECH INVESTOR Natalie Fratto is
disorder, and even PTSD over time. Becoming better at adapting helps you move through deciding which start-ups to support, she
your chaotic days with more ease, more energy, and less stress. looks for signs of adaptability. One clue:
Adaptable entrepreneurs are willing to
Some business consultants use a be stable in certain areas so that you unlearn what they think they know. To
short quiz to measure your adaptability can be flexible in others and not end up figure out what needs to be unlearned,
quotient—your ability to adjust, change breaking. Use this tool kit to help find look at uncomfortable situations in which
course, or learn to perform better by the right balance. you’re being challenged to do things
performing differently. It’s not an differently and are tempted to shut down
official diagnostic tool, and I like the Establish a Stable Base the idea immediately. Before Covid, some
idea of thinking about how adaptable WHEN CHANGE IS everywhere, it can of my patients asked about online visits,
you tend to be, especially since most of feel as if there’s nothing secure in your and it always felt awkward saying I didn’t
us can improve. But that doesn’t mean I life to hold on to. This can cause you to offer them. Even though the question kept
think we should fall for the notion that start resisting change altogether, which coming up, I thought everyone preferred
adaptability equals being flexible about also may close you off to opportunities meeting with a psychiatrist in person.
everything, all the time. You need to that might make life better. The way Since I’m not always quick to adapt, I had

50 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

 to intentionally challenge what I thought
I knew about what my patients wanted.
When you use resistance as an opportu-
nity to unlearn, you can then relearn at a
pace that works for you. It makes adapting
easier, because no one is forcing it on you. JON FAVREAU
Focus on Your Core WHEN EVERYTHING nearly imploded in 2020, most of us
UNDERSTANDING WHAT’S MOST couldn’t stomach the news. But Jon Favreau—a cofounder
important to you—knowing your core of Crooked Media and a host of Pod Save America, which has
values—keeps you from losing yourself
around 1.5 million listeners per episode—dived headfirst
in the process of change. Ask yourself
into the chaos. Here’s how the former chief speechwriter for
questions like: Why did I decide to take
this job in the first place? What originally President Obama finds his balance. BY JOSH OCAMPO
attracted me to my partner? Why did I
choose to live here? Change can quickly 5:30 A.M. You have to have struc-
ture,” he says.
5:30 P.M.
lead you in the wrong direction if you let it WORK OUT CELEBRATE
pull you away from these values.
Being intentionally adaptable means
Because he cohosts
a “no-bullshit conver- 11:45 A.M. BATH TIME
Before the pandemic
reinventing yourself on your own terms. sation about politics,” PHONE A FRIEND hit, he’d expected to
While I’m not sure what changes lie Favreau, 40, keeps up Despite crafting spend the election year
ahead in my office, the next time I’m at with the news cycle. In speeches for four years traveling. “Instead, we
an election year, that in the Oval Office, were on lockdown and
the Mediterranean restaurant, I still
meant checking his Favreau still runs into my wife was pregnant,”
know what I’m having for dinner. writer’s block. “Sitting
social-media feeds he says. He tries to clock
before even getting at a computer and star- out at the same time
out of bed. “I was on ing at a blinking cursor each day to spend time
What’s Your my phone constantly,” is just going to increase with his one-year-old
Adaptability he says. One thing
that’s helped him get
anxiety,” he says. So
he unplugs by reading
son, Charlie, feeding
him, giving him a bath,
Quotient? by: Most mornings, he long-form articles to and reading him a story.
Use this mini quiz to assess your skills as heads to a local gym help him come up with “I don’t have to pay at-
a change agent. Answer honestly! in Los Angeles for HIIT new ideas. “Back in the tention to the news at all,
classes—though he’s White House, I’d also and that’s really nice.”
SCORE YOURSELF currently in recovery call my parents and
1: never / 2: seldom / 3: regularly
4: frequently / 5: always
from a shoulder injury.
“I was looking down at
friends I hadn’t seen in
a while. Talking to peo-
7:30 P.M.
my phone and tripped ple can really unlock NETFLIX AND
I am able to shift gears with CHILLAX
minimal complaints. on the sidewalk. Now that block.”
my goal is just to lift my Before bed, Favreau
I challenge myself to question
what I presume to know.
arm above my head.”
1:15 P.M. and his wife hit the
couch and scroll

I am frequently on the lookout

10:00 A.M. EAT ALL
THE CHEESE
through streaming
channels or binge-
for new ideas to consider and test. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN Two years ago, Favreau watch shows like
To record two Pod adopted his own Schitt’s Creek. “I
My habit is to reach out for help and Save America episodes version of a keto diet. gravitate to comedy
acknowledge the assistance. a week, Favreau has He cut down on carbs because I deal with
Dan Saelinger/Trunk Archive (stretchy toy). Jason Raish (Favreau).

learned the value and upped his veggie stressful news envi-
My failures present opportunities. of an outline. It’s his intake. Life’s good ronments all day,” he
way of organizing without bread, he says. says. “When I worked
ADD UP YOUR RESPONSES: his thoughts and the “I feel [like] I have more on campaigns or in
5–8 You likely struggle with change and revolving door of energy. I didn’t use the White House, we’d
would benefit from mentoring and celebrity guests and the pandemic as an party, not get much
other forms of guidance. politicos. “I’ll write a opportunity to just sort sleep, and then be
9–12 You’re somewhat adaptable but sentence of what we’re of pig out on every- somewhat hungover
have room to improve. going to cover, then thing, which is great. the next day. That was
13–19 You’re open-minded yet could stand
to sharpen your adaptability skills.
discussion questions And I don’t have to life in my 20s. Now de-
20–25 You’re change-agent material and on that topic. I was worry about how much compressing is much
should be mentoring others. never an outline writer, I’m eating with this low- more like sitting on the
but podcasts are a carb diet. I can, like, eat couch and actually
Source: Executive Agenda
collaborative effort. cheese all day long.” getting some sleep.”

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 51

 MIND MENTAL STRENGTH
INSIDE COA, THE NEW GYM FOR
MENTAL HEALTH
This mental-fitness start-up is out to prove that expensive, hard-to-access therapy is not
the only way to get psych help. Can it really tone up your mental health?
I HAD MY first panic attack in college a
few months before graduation. Kevin
Love of the Cleveland Cavaliers had his in
front of millions of viewers during a tele-
vised 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 expe-
rience, 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
52 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH
BY MICKEY RAPKIN
campus restroom 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 Emily
Anhalt, Psy.D., 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 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 class-
es 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 the appeal in a Soul-
Cycle for mental health. Group classes
are more affordable than traditional
one-on-one therapy, and the camaraderie
ILLUSTRATION BY ISRAEL G. VARGAS
of a passionate cheering section keeps Chris Jones, 39, was about to launch
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, with plans to expand nationwide.)
it may be, but Silicon Valley is all in;
Coa raised $3 million in an initial seed
round last fall 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, Through the classwork, Jones recog-
we’d make massive strides to help those
who need it.”

CLICK BOOM! PUT ME IN, COACH

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; “This type of intervention may be a
it lets users stream eight-week courses
on topics like anxiety and communica-
tion 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 ther-
apists reporting growing waiting lists, days when you feel like garbage.
these apps are filling a very real need. But
this isn’t about burdening some bot with With the pandemic maybe finally
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 prob-
lem 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 honors that complexi-
ty.” 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 practice self-awareness, empathy,
mindfulness, curiosity, play, resilience, “We want to be big,” says Anhalt.
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, we don’t say.”

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 53

 ST YLE
LL
FA

BATOCTHKE
GRIND

THE MO
ON

VE
Leave your schlubby
WFH clothes in the before
times. The key to post-
lockdown style—offices,
restaurants, concerts!—is
pieces that look dressy but
still deliver serious comfort.
Let ALEXANDER LUDWIG, star
of the new Starz series Heels,
show you how it’s done.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDRE PERRY
ST YLING BY TED STAFFORD
 THE

CARDI-CAN
Your old college
sweatshirt is super-
comfortable, but you
can’t wear it to the
office or a dinner date.
The ribbed knit of this
Armani Exchange
cardi makes it feel like a
hoodie, but it’s dressier.
Throw it over a T-shirt
and stretch-corduroy
pants for a look that’s
equally appropriate for
Grooming: Marcos Gonzalez. Production: Katherine Prato Productions.

work or play or (hey, why

not?) riding your hog
through the streets of
New Orleans.
Versatility is the most important quality in clothing Jacket ($135)
Knit cardigan ($160) by
Armani Exchange; T-shirt
THE right now, what with the boundaries between work
and home dissolving. Consider this Ben Sherman
by Ben Sherman;
sweater ($90)
by Tommy
($68) by Mack Weldon x
Men’s Health Capsule
Collection; pants ($208)
by Citizens of Humanity;
sneakers ($175) by Rothy’s;
MVP corduroy bomber jacket the Most Versatile Player in
your wardrobe. Wear it with a T-shirt and jeans to the
game, then switch to tailored wool pants like these
from Banana Republic when you head to the bars.
Hilfiger; pants
($170) by Banana
Republic;
boots ($400) by
Wolverine;
Lunar Pilot watch ($995) Mixing rugged and refined pieces dresses up your watch ($4,725)
by Bulova; sunglasses
($250), Eyewear by look without making you seem like a stiff. by Tudor.
David Beckham.

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 55

 ST YLE
LL
FA

BATOCTHKE
GRIND

THE EASY UPGRADE

Your default is to throw on a ratty tee when you’re running around town, Henley ($128) by
7 for All Mankind;
but it’s just as simple to choose a Henley instead and add some subtle style. jeans ($90)
The long sleeves and button neck of this 7 for All Mankind Henley instantly by Levi’s; boots
dress you up, but—and here’s the kicker—it still feels exactly like a T-shirt. ($445) by Allen
Edmonds;
Wear it with Levi’s dark stretch jeans and a pair of rugged boots to finish off watch ($350)
your super-casual-Friday or weekend-warrior look. by Citizen.

56 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

 THE

EVERYWHERE
PANTS
The technical wizards
at Mack Weldon know
exactly how to make
you look your best
whether you’re lifting or
lounging. And that’s why
we collaborated with
them to create these
stretchy, weatherproof
pants that are so
comfortable you’ll forget
your baggy sweats. Wear
them with the body-
mapped fitted tee in
Men’s Health red to show
off your gains all day,
even after you’ve left the
gym behind.

T-shirt ($48), pants ($98),

and bag ($228) by Mack
Weldon x Men’s Health
Capsule Collection;
sneakers ($175) by Rothy’s;
watch ($750) by Bulova.

INTRODUCING:

A new capsule collection

featuring eight versatile
pieces (think T-shirt, polo,
pants, jacket, and more)
for work and play and
everything in between.

Buy them all at

mackweldon.com/
menshealth

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 57

 ST YLE
LL
FA

BATOCTHKE
THE
GRIND
RETRO
REBEL
Need to be formal and
fun? Add a collar. A Todd
Snyder bowling-style
button-front knit pulls
double duty—button it up
for an important meeting,
then let those buttons
loose when you hit
happy hour (undershirt
recommended). Play
up the vintage vibes by
pairing it with simple
tailored pants. Park the
sneakers at home—
penny loafers add polish
without effort (or laces).

Polo ($248) by Todd

Snyder; tank ($26, pack of
three) by Hanes; pants
($325) by Closed; loafers
($110) by G. H. Bass & Co;
watch ($6,500) by
TAG Heuer.
 STYLE SHIFTER
YOU PROBABLY recognize Alexander
Ludwig from Vikings, on which he
kicked ass in leather and fur for five
seasons. The 29-year-old Canadian
actor says he’s always had a “chame-
leon” personal style that allows him
to slide into different roles. This
month, he’s playing the hotheaded
wrestler Ace Spade on Starz’s new
dramedy Heels. “Ace is supposed
to be a rock star in the ring, and
I needed to do that justice,” says
Ludwig, who grew his hair for eight
months, learned all sorts of stunts,
and worked out like a madman.
During our shoot, he showed
some bold moves, including grab-
bing his favorite piece, the Todd
Snyder button-front knit opposite.
THE UN-SUIT
Sometimes you need to go from the home office to the actual
“My wife was like, ‘You have to take office then to dinner, with no time to change. This unconstructed and
this shirt,’ ” he says. “So I begged flexible Banana Republic Standard blazer helps you fit in anywhere.
the stylist. And he was like, ‘Yeah, Pair it with a soft, stretch long-sleeved tee and slim trousers in the
you can have it.’ So I’m wearing that same color family to get the stylishness of a suit without the fuss.
a lot.” We admire that commitment,
to work and to style. —evan romano  Motion Tech jacket ($229) by Banana Republic; T-shirt ($68) by Mack Weldon x Men’s
Health Capsule Collection; pants ($208) by Citizens of Humanity; sneakers ($175) by
Rothy’s; watch ($995) by Bulova.

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 59

 TV
The toughest cop on k with his
rne d 6 0 , a n d no w he’s bac
just tu rde r: O rg anized Crime.
own show , La w & O
C H R IS T O P H ER M E L O NI is
Finally ,
an d loving his life.
ca llin g th e sh ots
By ANNA PEELE
WATTS
Photographs by BEN

60 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

 IT’S
ME LO N I
TIME
THEY ARE WALKING
WITH THEIR BORDER
TERRIER ALONG THE
HUDSON ON THE WEST
SIDE OF MANHATTAN.
IT’S A LATE-SPRING
MORNING, AND SMALL
SWELLS OF RIVER ARE
flicking at the wooden posts poking out
of the water, ghosts of an expired pier.
Christopher Meloni asks Sherman, his
wife of 26 years, if they’ve gotten a bid
on demolition—they just purchased an
entire floor of a co-op in the West Village,
and Sherman, an artist and former
production designer, is going to lead the
renovation of the investment property.
Meloni tells her he’s going to let Scotty
off leash, which Sherman warns is against
park rules. “He’ll be fine,” Meloni says,
unclipping the dog and turning back to the “Don’t go too close to the body!” Sherman in his mid-50s and coming into, Meloni
reno updates. No one recognizes the actor, calls out while dialing. “It’s a crime scene.” says, “a world he doesn’t understand. You
a rare occurrence lately. After a few min- “I know it’s a crime scene!” Meloni know, you’re a white cop of a certain age,
Styling: Ted Stafford. Grooming: Danielle Crawford. Makeup: Becca Perkins.

utes, they wonder: Where is Scotty? Mel- shouts. “I do this for a living!” you’re not allowed to do a lot of things,
oni whistles for him, lowering his NYPD Chun-chun. and you’re being challenged on your
Set design: Rob Strauss Studio. Production: AREA1202 Productions.

hat and turning until he sees the wiry little
dog in the sunlight, sniffing a full plastic
bag on the waterline. “Get away from
that!” he says, annoyed. “You know, these
fucking guys throw garbage away, and
it just floats up on our shores.” Sherman
grabs Meloni’s extravagantly muscled
That is how Meloni merrily turns the
story of a placid morning into the cold
open of an episode of Law & Order: SVU,
the corner of the Dick Wolf multiverse
in which he spent 12 years bashing perps.
He played Detective Elliot Stabler, who
retired from the force in 2011 due to an
bona fides on both sides. How woke are
you? And how much of a man are you?”
One could also ask these questions of
Christopher Meloni. Yet this past spring,
Americans seemed to spontaneously and
simultaneously cathect on this white man
of a certain age who plays a cop. Orga-
Location: Skyline Drive-in NYC.

bicep. “I don’t think that’s trash,” she says.
Meloni finally understands that the bag is
actually a body bag: There’s been a grisly,
perverted murder. “Call 911,” Meloni says
over his shoulder, running toward what he
now realizes are the remnants of a victim.
offscreen contract dispute with NBC.
Meloni spins his tale of corpse finding
from the 26th floor of a luxury high-rise
purchased with the money that enticed
him to return to Law & Order in his own
spin-off, Organized Crime. Stabler is now
nized Crime debuted in April, followed
a week later by an on-set photo posted
to a neighborhood Facebook group that
depicted Meloni’s butt girth appearing to
rival Kim Kardashian’s, and then, a few
days after that, a tweet by Queen Cher:

62 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH


CHRISTOPHER MELONI
IS EXCELLENT,
CHARISMATIC ACTOR.
“Zaddy!” the Internet cried. And
Zaddy Meloni welcomed his new acolytes
onto his thickly quaded lap. When I tell
him he’s having a cultural moment, he
says, accurately, “My ass is.” And Meloni,
with his butch blend of off-color blunt-
ness and gleeful mugging, is enjoying
the high. “It’s cool as shit,” he says of
having a renaissance in the back third
of his life, sipping espresso out of a mug
with his face printed on it. “The aspect of
age comes into play as far as the cover of
[this magazine] and how I feel about it. A
friend of mine said, ‘Did you ever think
in a million years you’d be on the cover of
this page: swimwear
by emporio armani;
sandals by apl.
on pages 60–61: tank
by jaciues; shorts by
aarmy; sneakers by
hoka one one; sun-
glasses by ray-ban.
Men’s Health?’ I said, ‘Certainly not at
age 60.’ ” In other words, if Meloni and his
melons were going to happen, they should
have happened already. So why does
America want him to be its Zaddy now?
MELONI HATES BULLSHIT. Can’t stand
it. When I show up at his building ten min-
utes early—thinking I’d wait while setting
up in the gym where we are supposed to do
a punishing workout together—the door-
man says Meloni wants me to meet him in
his apartment, where he is scowling and
rubbing out knots with a Back Buddy mas-
sager. “I’m edgy,” he says by way of greet-
ing. He’s on hour 12 of an intermittent fast
when we head down to the building’s gym
to grunt through 80 minutes of box jumps,
pullups—Meloni does 25 while I manage
zero, which he nonverbally attributes to
a total lack of lats and rhomboids with
a grim tap to the outside of my shoulder
blade—and something called “the saw,”
a move as unpleasant as it sounds. I am
informed that this is a light workout. Mel-
oni is balletic in this beastly show of force,
though there’s a cost. “You have trauma,”
he says, “and your tissue doesn’t go back
to normal. Then you have a scar, so you
don’t have flexibility of the tissue to move.
The pliability of it is compromised. So I’m
compromised. I feel my compromisation.”
After the workout and an egg-white
omelet with cheese that has raised
Meloni’s blood sugar to a level at which
socializing isn’t so burdensome, I
propose we stay in the no-bullshit zone.
Meloni agrees, though throughout the
interview it becomes clear I didn’t need
to make the request. During our time
together, he will animatedly point out
that I’ve spat on him, and after I explain
what a recurring dream is with an exam-
ple of one of my own, he says, “Can I be no
bullshit? Let’s not talk about dreams.”
Meloni grew up in a home thick with
silence and bullshit. His parents were
Catholic, and every Sunday he and his
brother and sister would attend Mass
with them. “Going to church was close
to death,” he says. “Saturday afternoon
would roll around, and my weekend was
over. That’s how much I dreaded going to
church.” It was the lack of honesty and
clarity that bothered Meloni so much.
“Who exactly is the big dog?” he says of
the moment of his disillusionment. “I got
a Father, I got a Son, I got a Holy Ghost.
I remember asking a nun about Jesus and
God, and she couldn’t give an answer.
I was about nine, maybe 11. I was like,
‘You know, I feel like I’m done.’ ”
At home, things weren’t any more
transparent. “Living in that house was
like living in a dark cloud,” Meloni says.
“They were so quiet and so reserved, but
you feel it.” Or at least he did—no one
else in the family seemed bothered by the
silent tension. “I just remember always
looking around, like, ‘Am I fucking
crazy?’ ” No, Meloni decided. He was
acknowledging reality. “Get the fuck out
of here,” he says he thought of the entire
situation. “I could feel it.” It is still there,
compromising him. “The trauma of
childhood is real,” Meloni says. “And I
carry that with me.”
MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 63
 Meloni graduated from the University of
Colorado Boulder with a degree in history,
focusing on contemporary U. S. diplo-
macy and communism. Not long after he
graduated, he says, “the Berlin Wall fell,
so it was all a moot point.” Obsolete degree
in hand, he went to New York to train at
an acting studio, then embarked on more
than a decade of mostly unsuccessful audi-
tions. When they would go badly—which
was almost every time—Meloni would
stand in front of a mirror in the apartment
he shared with three others and scream
at himself: “What the fuck are you doing?
You get the opportunity to be in the room
to take this job, and this is what you do?
This is the best? That’s what you did? You
sucked!” He demanded he answer for his
failure. “What are you doing?” he shouted
at the person he knew could do this but just
kept blowing it. “What are you doing?”
Then, suddenly, what Meloni was doing
started working. In 1997, he got a role on
one of HBO’s first prestige dramas, Oz,
as inmate Chris Keller. A year later, he
debuted on SVU. Just after taking on the
leading role, Meloni woke up in the mid-
dle of the night trembling uncontrollably.
He got out of bed so that he wouldn’t wake
Sherman during what he thought might
be his dying moments. “When something
weird and out of the norm happens, I don’t
panic,” Meloni says. “I always sit with it
and go, All right, let’s experience what’s
happening, because getting tenser is not
going to help the situation.” When he
realized it was merely a deluge of anxiety,
he let it subside and went back to sleep.
This occurred two more times over the
next few months. (“Is this ‘Chris Meloni’s
unstable’?” he asks about the thesis of
this article in his brusque deadpan. “Is
this the fucking theme we’re going with?
Because I’m not going to stand for it.”)
Meloni was being crushed by the
success he sought, a dog getting run over
by a car he’d managed to catch. “When
my career started to happen, I could feel
it,” he says of the powerful position he’s
attained again. “But I didn’t want to trust
it, because I had struggled for so long—or
at least it felt like I’d struggled for so long—
and I didn’t want it to go away. I don’t know
how many people get this opportunity to
dream a dream and have it come to frui-
tion. Because everyone does the first part,
but to have it come to fruition then starts
a whole other journey of Now what? And
What is this? And How do you manage?”
Meloni knows this is a top-shelf problem.
“This doesn’t fall under the category of
burden or anything like that,” he says.
“It’s just a new world. You’re so used to the
old way of: I have to keep this mindset and
I’ll just dream a dream. But if the dream
actually happens, then you’re like, Okay,
now we have to manage the dream. We
have to . . . what do we do, actually?”
Around the time he was shaking
himself awake, Meloni was called back to
the church. It was Christmas Eve, and he
and Sherman had just moved into a SoHo
loft and were about to start a family. His
career was exploding, and he was won-
dering what that meant for him. While he
was out for a walk, it began to snow, just
enough for the sidewalk to glitter under
the streetlights. Meloni remembers
thinking, “Oh my God, if this is not a sign
to come back to the fold. . . . I was legit-
imately pensive, feeling the moment.
I was just overwhelmed with the love,
the beauty of it, the spirituality of it, the
potential of it. I remember almost float-
ing to Mass.” The church was packed, and
Meloni joined the flock. The father came
out, and everyone stood, ready to receive
the Word. And lo: “This guy could not
have been more bored, more uninvested,
more by rote,” Meloni says. “He might as
well have been reading the phone book.
And I went, ‘There you go. You’re just as
tired as you were when I left you.’ ” Meloni
would have to find his own answers.
LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME
has been a more successful return to a
sacred institution. Meloni left in the first
place when contract negotiations broke
down. He says he told NBC, “Well, if it’s
this”—meaning this amount of money—

“then this is the way to go around so you
don’t have to pay this”—meaning this
larger amount of money that Meloni
wanted. He got creative. “My thought was:
Instead of 22 episodes, bring me back for
nine episodes, or bring me back for 18
episodes. They literally came to me on a
Thursday night and said, ‘This is the deal.
We want the answer by tomorrow. It’s our
way or no way.’ ” And that, to Meloni, was
some bullshit. He says he told them, “I
don’t want to fuck around with you guys.
This is what I want. If you can’t do it, that’s
fine. Let’s figure out my exit.” (That may
be the downside of the “no bullshit” dic-
tum. Despite his decades at NBC, Meloni
says he has few friends there. “I’m just not
a showbiz guy,” he says, crediting that to
being “horrible” at schmoozing.)
Meloni spent a few of his post-exit
years living in L. A. at the base of Runyon
“WHEN SOMETHING WEIRD HAPPENS, I DON’T
PANIC. I ALWAYS SIT WITH IT AND GO, ALL RIGHT,
LET’S EXPERIENCE WHAT’S HAPPENING.”
Canyon. He departed the stolid world of
procedurals, bringing the weirdness that
emanates from him in person onto the
screen, as the fridge-humping camp-
cafeteria chef in Wet Hot American
Summer and as the star of a two-season
Syfy show called Happy!, which he tries
to entice me to watch by screening a scene
in which his character has pink cartoon
diarrhea. He had a minor but excellent
part as the stepfather in Marielle Heller’s
directorial debut, The Diary of a Teenage
Girl. Heller says she initially found him
“intimidating”: “I remember my first
phone call with Chris, and thinking,
God, he’s so intense and gruff.” During
production, she discovered the sillier side
of Meloni. “There was a moment when
we were filming and this fan came up to
him and asked to take a picture of his
butt,” Heller says. “He posed in a funny
this page: henley
by joe’s; jetns by
john varvatos; boots
by wolverine.
opposite: ttnk by
mack weldon; jetns
by john varvatos.
way, then turned to me with this sly
smile and said, ‘There’s kind of a thing
about my butt. People are really into it.’ ”
Meloni was in small projects for which,
he says, “you’re a little sapling trying
to find the light.” But what he calls the
“800-pound gorilla” of Law & Order kept
stomping through.
Then in February 2020, Dick Wolf
summoned Meloni to Burbank and
proposed he return as Elliot Stabler on a
series built around the character, who is
avenging his wife’s murder by the Mafia.
Wolf says he’d wanted to reunite with
Meloni “since the day he left” Law &
Order, and he finally got his wish.
It worked. Organized Crime is the 12th
most watched TV show in America and
the fifth most watched scripted series.
Meloni owns two large homes in Manhat-
tan and a lake house where he can water-
ski. There’s a better-than-decent chance
his ass is trending right now.
People missed Meloni’s Stabler—his
banter with Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia
Benson, which always stayed respectful
and nonharassing; the fact that he was
obviously capable of hurting others but
only ever did so when they were bad, bad
people; the well-meaning paternalism
MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 65
 “EXERCISE IS THERAPY, CHURCH, MEDITATION,
AND A KIND OF PERSONAL REENGAGEMENT
WHERE THE BRAIN AND THE BODY GET TO TALK.”
that made you feel like “If we’re stuck
with the patriarchy, at least this pow-
erful white man has good intentions.”
Organized Crime’s showrunner, Ilene
Chaiken, who also created The L Word,
says, “He’s a good one. If we have to have
a daddy, let it be him.”
Meloni seems to share some of Sta-
bler’s core qualities, or at least grapple
with them. When his character in The
Diary of a Teenage Girl was rewritten
to have an affair with his stepdaughter’s
15-year-old friend, he called Sherman
to make sure their daughter would be
66 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH
comfortable with it being depicted
onscreen. He’s rabidly protective of his
family—the only times he goes off the
record during our conversation are when
we talk about them. And the sole time
Meloni refuses to answer a question is
when it seems like they are the answer:
When I ask if he’ll tell me why he went
back to Law & Order, Meloni oscillates
his head along the no axis and says, “It
felt good to have to make that decision—
which was a big yes-or-no decision—with
a sense of clarity and a sense of certain
things being correct.”
THERE ARE MANY paintings in Meloni’s
home, but two stand out. They are nearly
life-size portraits of Meloni and Sherman,
rendered by artist Andrew Myers on what
appear to be gigantic pieces of ripped-out
binder paper. Around the figure of Meloni
are assessments, like what you might see
in the comments section of an elementary-
school report card, which the artist wrote
down after talking to him. Meloni, like
Elliot Stabler, is not much for self-
reflection; when I ask him how he feels
after our workout, he has a hard time
answering. “It’s very strange,” he says after
a pause so long I assumed he either hadn’t
heard or was ignoring the question. “I
never talk [about] or discuss it.” Exercise,
he says, is “therapy, church, meditation,
and a kind of personal reengagement
where the brain and the body get to talk
 tank by hanes;
sweatpants by todd

GLUTE CIRCUIT
snyder x champion; Thanks to his love of running and waterskiing, Christopher
sneakers by asics.
Meloni already had strong glutes. But throughout the win-
ter, the Law & Order icon used a bodybuilding split that
emphasized his lower body and further sculpted his glutes
(HOW MELONI GOT BACK) (as the Internet noticed). “Chris had some permutation [of
leg training] every day,” says his trainer, Matt Pietrantonio, NSCA-C.P.T. Add these four moves to
your workouts for serious glute gains. —EBENEZER SAMUEL, C.S.C.S.

1 FRONT-LOADED KB GOOD MORNING

Stand holding a kettlebell at your chest,
core tight. Push your butt back and bend
at the waist, lowering your torso until your
chest is nearly parallel to the floor. Pause,
then stand, squeezing your glutes. That’s
1 rep; do 3 sets of 15.
3 BARBELL SUMO DEADLIFT
With your feet wider than shoulder width
and pointing out, bend at the waist and grab
the bar with a shoulder-width overhand grip.
Squeeze your glutes, push the floor away,
and stand. Pause, then lower. That’s 1 rep;
do 3 sets of 4 to 6.

2 HAMSTRING WALKOUT
Lie on your back, heels near your butt,
feet flat. Lift your butt and lower back an inch
from the floor, then slowly walk your feet
away. When your knees are nearly straight,
pause, then walk back. That’s 1 rep; do 3 sets
of 10, taking at least 2 seconds per rep.
4 BARBELL HIP THRUST
Sit with your shoulder blades against
a bench, heels near your butt, holding a bar-
bell with an overhand grip, directly over your
waist and an inch off the floor. Squeeze your
glutes, driving your hips high. Pause, then
lower. That’s 1 rep; do 3 sets of 12.

to one another”—apparently so he doesn’t
have to speak about it himself. Still, Meloni
found being interviewed by the artist ther-
apeutic. “[Intense]ly funny,” the painting
says. “What/who are you protecting?” “You
seem to be questioning the questions!?”
At the top of the painting is a letter
grade, which Meloni assigned himself. B+.
Why didn’t he give himself an A? “Because
I don’t know what an A looks like,” he says.
But Meloni no longer wakes up in
the middle of the night terrified by the
thought of failing. If things fall apart—if
Organized Crime eventually gets canceled
(it was renewed for season 2) or he comes
to another impasse with NBC or, God
Ben Mounsey-Wood (illustrations)
he didn’t know the first time: “There are
bigger things, more important things. I
know how important this is to me, but I
have a clearer vision of life. I know a little
more about love. I know a little more about
real pain. I know about joy. I know better
management skills. As you go through life,
you get a clearer understanding of things,
of your holes and of your gifts.”
Meloni finally asks: What is a “Zaddy,”
exactly? “I just thought it was a cutie
thing,” he says, as adorable as a hulking
195-pound man can be. I explain that a
Zaddy is a distinguished vintage. “Daddy
plus?” he asks. “Daddy platinum?” Then
he gets why he couldn’t be our Zaddy
intoning the existential question of success
with the confidence of someone who has
very literally restricted his fructose con-
sumption to achieve the tuchus we extol.
“How much am I allowed to enjoy this?”
While we look out over the Hudson and
Meloni eats peanut butter, we talk about
the flow state—how sometimes, like right
now for him, you hit all the green lights.
When I tell him I’ve been killing flies with
incredible accuracy lately, he says, “I
catch flies with my ass cheeks, like a Venus
flytrap.” He giggles wildly. “I’m clever
with my ass cheeks!” he says, cackling.
Moments later, a fly lands on the table.
Meloni raises his hands. There’s a clap,

forbid, his glutes pancake—it will be okay.
“This time around with the Law & Order
ride, I’m not stressed by: Will it go well?
Will it not go well? Not that I know how it’s
going to go. Just that, eh, just ride. Just do,
just be.” Because Meloni knows now what
before now. “It’s reserved for an older gen-
tleman,” Meloni says in wonder, his cobalt
eyes widening. This moment couldn’t
have happened until now, because Meloni
wasn’t yet who he is now. “How much am
I allowed to taste of this fruit?” he says,
then silence, and Meloni is smiling, once
again looking down at a dead body.
ANNA PEELE is a culture writer and
editor who has written features for
Esquire, GQ, and New York Magazine.

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 67

 MEN’S HEALTH 

/// 
NFL 2021 /// 

How Travis Kelce—the

toughest player at the
toughest position in
football—forges speed,
strength, agility, and
grit. Plus, 15 other
muscle, recovery, and
nutrition tips from
the NFL’s fittest men
and sharpest minds.
Featuring DK Metcalf,
Lavonte David, Justin
Herbert, and more.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY

ARTURO OLMOS

First and
The Fitness Secrets
 Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce
has racked up five 1,000-yard
receiving seasons—and has
missed just two games in his
seven-year NFL career.

# Goals
of NFL All-Pros
MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 69

TRAVIS KELCE and other NFL tight ends showcase
all-around athleticism.
Here’s How to Train
Like Them
H IS RIGHT outer hip wasn’t
firing. And Travis Kelce wasn’t
having it.
It was a hot June morning in Kansas
City, and the Chiefs’ tight end was mid-
way through a workout. Minutes earlier,
Kelce had dashed five yards upfield,
planted his right foot, and cut across the
field for a catch. Now he was running the
exact same play, but this time he took two
baby steps before his cut and followed
with another catch.
The catch didn’t matter; Kelce was
thinking only about that sleepy right outer
hip, which stabilizes your knee when you
change direction, preventing injury and
helping you explode. He walked up to his
trainer, Alex Skacel, and pointed to his
hip. He was done running routes. Kelce
finished with 45-second side planks with
his upper leg raised. “It’s on now,” he told
Skacel. A day later, he was back to running
routes. “I’ve really focused on the small
stuff that keeps the big picture in mind,”
Kelce says. “The rehab, the prehab, and
what you can do to stay on the field and at
your peak athleticism.”
It’s all that small stuff (yes, really)
“I’ve really
that turned Travis Kelce into the six-five,
255-pound manimal he is now, a player
who enters the 2021 season as the NFL’s
best tight end after three straight seasons
of 90-plus catches and six Pro Bowl
appearances. He’s also one of the NFL’s
best real-world athletes at a position that’s
finally getting the credit it deserves. Sure,
70 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH
GET NFL FIT
BY ANNA KATHERINE CLEMMONS
receivers have more pure speed, offensive
linemen are bigger and stronger, and cor-
nerbacks can instantly change direction.
But from Kelce to Tampa Bay legend Rob
Gronkowski to hyped Atlanta Falcons
rookie Kyle Pitts, modern tight ends have
all those traits—and more.
Every Sunday, the 31-year-old Kelce
needs enough speed to run past defensive
backs and enough lateral quickness and
raw power to block giant defensive line-
men. He needs the core rigidity to shrug
off would-be tacklers and the jumping
ability to pluck passes out of the air. “Ask
yourself, ‘What is a tight end?’ ” says
Kelce. “It’s not just one position or one
thing. We’re like the utility guy. What-
ever you need done, we have to be able to
have that attribute or that ability to just
have success.”
focused on the
small stuff that
keeps the big
picture in mind.”
It’s the toolbox every guy can use.
Think about it: You don’t need Olympic-
sprinter speed every day. But you do
need a dose of explosive energy to catch
that train you’re about to miss, a burst of
agility to keep up with your kids during
a game of tag, and the strength to pick
up that Amazon box at your door. And
Kelce’s cerebral, nuanced approach to
fitness can help you build that while bul-
letproofing your body against injury, too.
KELCE BEGAN HONING his fitness
approach long before he was catching
passes from Patrick Mahomes and push-
ing the Chiefs to back-to-back Super Bowl
appearances. In the fall of 2005, when he
was a sophomore at Cleveland Heights
High in Ohio, his gym persona, “Trainer
Trav,” was born. Kelce failed French class
the previous year, which automatically
made him ineligible to play football.
Except Kelce’s father convinced him
to work with the team behind the scenes.
Shot on location at Freight House Fitness, Kansas City, Missouri.
So Trainer Trav taped ankles and gave
out water on the sidelines of games. “That
was the start of my appreciation for the
anatomy of the body, understanding
being healthy and at your peak athleti-
cism at all times,” he says.
It blossomed when Kelce started
playing at the University of Cincinnati
in 2009. Early on, he suffered a shoulder
injury and was assigned to work with
a physical therapist. Instead of going
through the motions of rehab, Kelce
 To strengthen
his core and
ready his body
to go hard,
Travis Kelce
does (clock-
wise from
top left) mon-
ster walks,
battle-rope
waves, Pallof
presses, and
depth jumps.
MEN’S HEALTH ///    NFL 2021 /// 

mentally cataloged the exercises that
would build the muscles around his scap-
ula, protecting his shoulders. He came to
understand that he needed strong rhom-
boids and rotator-cuff muscles. “I was
locking them in to where if I got a hold of a
big, 300-pound guy and he’s throwing me
all over the place like a rag doll, it keeps
my shoulders protected,” he says.
By the time he was in the NFL, Kelce
wanted to focus on training his stabiliz-
ing muscles. That jibed perfectly with
Skacel, whom he began working with in
2017. Sure, he did exercises like squats,
lunges, and rows. But he also got a heavy
dose of lighter-weight motions. (See
“Real NFL Muscle” below.) “We don’t
want Travis’s body to rely only on the big-
ger muscles,” Skacel says. “All the things
that make him great come off of that
stable foundation that he’s built.”
A pair of trainers—Skacel, who
describes himself as a “sports physical
REAL
therapist,” and Florida-based Tony
Villani—help Kelce do this, and the tight
end contributes to those discussions by
dissecting every single pass pattern he
runs, just as he did on that June morning.
But he refuses to do it on some 24/7/365
schedule. After the Chiefs fell to the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers in February, Kelce
took more than a month to do anything
but fitness, an off-season tradition that he
says readies his body to perform optimally
once he dives back into training. “The
thing is that the six months you’re in the
season, you focus on it so much,” he says.
“That’s a huge part for me to just rewind
and regroup and just relax.”
Once Kelce starts his off-season, he
focuses intently on those shoulders,
a trouble spot for him throughout his
career. (He had shoulder-labral-repair
surgery in 2017.) Trainer Trav happily
pops out to discuss them, too. “I’ve been
a very bicep and chest and deltoid—I’ve
THE STRONGEST, most durable NFL
been very closed as an athlete my entire
life,” he says. “So what that does is it puts
the AC joint at a very vulnerable position
if I get hit the wrong way. Doing a lot of
trap stuff, scapular stuff, lats, and really
triceps . . . peels back more so that your
posture is better and your overall athletic
build is in a more safe position.”
Skacel supplements those exercises
with consistent cupping and dry-needling
sessions designed to relax Kelce’s tightest,
sorest muscles, both during the season and
in the off-season. Dry-needling and cup-
ping encourage blood flow to muscles to
help speed healing. But instead of relaxing
after each round of therapy, Kelce imme-
diately gets up and works through a light
movement for ten to 12 reps to drive even
more blood flow. So if Skacel dry-needles
the tight end’s front shoulder, Kelce might
do no-weight overhead presses or lateral
raises to stimulate the joint even more.
It’s all made him one of the league’s
must durable players; he’s missed just two
games since 2014. “He invested in his body
and he really, knock on wood, hasn’t had to
deal with anything major,” Skacel says.

NFL
bodies are built with more than
squats, lunges, and deadlifts. Insert ALL THOSE SMALL movements prep
these stabilizing-muscle moves from Kelce’s body to train all out. He does that in
Alex Skacel into your workouts to stay three phases. Early each off-season, he’ll
healthy (and get fast and strong, too).
MUSCLE train his “get off,” exploding from a non-
moving stance. Then he’ll train “immedi-
ate acceleration,” focusing on picking up
speed as he runs routes. Finally, he’ll train
his body to stop and start, something it
must do whether he’s running a route or
blocking a giant lineman.
Once he has started his off-season
training, he never misses a workout.
Skacel remembers traveling with him to
Paris Fashion Week in 2019, and after a
day full of shows and events, at 12:30 a.m.
the pair realized they hadn’t trained.
Kelce’s fix: They walked to a bridge
that crossed over a canal and ran eight
▲ WALL SLIDE ▲ SINGLE-LEG ▲ SINGLE-ARM
400-meter sprints. “I don’t know anyone
Brown Bird Design (illustrations). Getty Images (Metcalf, David).

BOX SQUAT SNATCH

Lie with your right side on
a bench, back and legs
plastered to a wall, legs
slightly bent, wearing
socks. Your heels should
be against the wall. Press
your left heel into the
wall hard; without losing
contact with the wall,
open your leg as wide as
possible. Bring it back
down. That’s 1 rep; do 3
sets of 15 per side.
Start seated on a bench
or box, core tight. Lift
your right foot off the
floor. Lean forward
just slightly. Stand up,
squeezing your glutes.
Without putting your right
foot back on the floor,
slowly lower to sit on the
box again, then stand
again. That’s 1 rep; do 3
sets of 10 per side.
Stand with a dumbbell
at your hip. Push your
butt back slightly, then
stand explosively, pulling
the dumbbell upward.
Once it reaches shoulder
height, punch it overhead,
straightening your arm.
Lower the weight to your
shoulder, then to your hip.
That’s 1 rep; do 3 sets of 6
to 8 per side.
who would spend a full day at these run-
way shows and then be like, ‘It’s 1:00 a.m.;
let’s go run and work sprints and speed
work,’ ” says Skacel. “It was so important
for him to know he’s taking advantage of
every moment he has to get better.”
Sometimes, that just means getting his
right outer hip firing.
anna katherine clemmons is a national
freelance writer and an assistant professor of
media studies at the University of Virginia.

72 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

 NFL

SPEED
Upgrade your acceleration and
brakes like DK METCALF.
THIS PAST SPRING, Seattle Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf, 23, decided to test his
speed against world-class sprinters in an international track meet. But while he’s
one of football’s best deep threats, his 100-meter results weren’t impressive: He
finished in ninth place in his heat (10.37 seconds). Game speed doesn’t translate
into sprint competition, says Metcalf’s trainer, Nic Hill. Metcalf doesn’t focus on
straight-line speed at his day job. Receivers must run fast—and change direction
quickly, too. So he trains for speed but must also refine his ability to slow down. “He
needs to be not just fast but able to stop on a dime, change direction, and reaccel-
erate at a high-level speed,” says Hill. Master these drills and you’ll do both, too.

SPEED YOUR BODY UP! . . . AND THEN SLOW IT DOWN!

1. Trap Bar Deadlift 2. Quick Jumps 1. Split Drop 2. The Runaround

Stand inside a loaded trap bar.
Tighten your abs, push your
butt back, lower your torso, and
grasp the bar’s handles. Stand
explosively, squeezing your
glutes. Do 3 sets of 3 reps. Don’t
focus on lifting heavy, says Hill.
Instead, work to lift the weight
quickly every time.
Metcalf trains his ability to
land and then explode quickly
with hurdle hops, spacing four
36-inch-high hurdles about 2
feet apart. He’ll jump over each
one, land, then take off over
the next hurdle as quickly as
possible. No hurdles? Use any 4
obstacles you have. Do 3 sets.
Start standing, feet together.
Jump a few inches off the floor.
Land with your left foot forward
and right foot back, lowering
quickly into a reverse lunge.
Stop your back knee before it
hits the floor. Pause, then press
back to standing. Do 3 sets of 5
reps per side.
Mark off a 5-yard distance and a
10-yard distance. Sprint 5 yards
as hard as possible, then slow
down quickly. (It may take you
a few steps when you first do
this.) Backpedal back to the start,
then sprint 10 yards. Slow down
quickly again. Walk back to the
start. Do 4 sets.

NFL MUSCLE + EXPLOSIVENESS

The exercise David credits for his

STRENGTH
Build all-purpose muscle
like LAVONTE DAVID.
NFL PLAYERS often create entire careers around one ath-
letic trait. But linebacker Lavonte David of the Super Bowl–
champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers can’t do that. Lineback-
ers need weight-room strength, speed, explosive agility,
and lateral quickness. To develop all these skills, David, 31,
builds his regimen around exercises like the power clean.
Master it, David-style, and enjoy the power.
ability to explode on the field is the
power clean, a lift that has you hinge
forward, grasp a loaded barbell on the
floor with both hands, and quickly
hoist it onto your shoulders. Skip the
barbell and learn the move with dumb-
bells: Grasp 2 dumbbells on the floor,
then explosively stand, rising onto
your toes and pulling the dumbbells
upward to shoulder height.
Squat down slightly to “catch” the
dumbbells on your shoulders. Do 3
sets of 5 reps twice a week.
 MEN’S HEALTH ///    NFL 2021 /// 

NFL

FUEL
Upgrade to a
vegan protein shake
like LAWRENCE GUY.
YES, YOU NEED protein after your
workout, but no, that doesn’t

amounts of chicken breast. New

Lawrence Guy, 31, who is vegan,

NFL
prefers this ultra-filling postlift

FOCUS
shake, which he’s guzzled after
every workout for the past two

postworkout meal for a serious

dose of good fats and protein.

Alex Lau (smoothie). Getty Images (remaining).

INGREDIENTS
Handle pressure situations like (MAKES 2 SERVINGS)
1 CUP ZUCCHINI, CHOPPED
L. A. Chargers QB JUSTIN HERBERT. 2 CUPS FRESH COCONUT MEAT
1 CUP CAULIFLOWER FLORETS
ON EVERY PLAY, Justin Herbert, 23, must ignore on-field chaos and ½ CUP CHAI CONCENTRATE
focus on processing data. He does it well, too, which is why he threw 2 TBSP MCT OIL
2 SCOOPS HEMP PROTEIN POWDER
31 TDs last year. His three moves for focus also work off the field. They
2 CUPS COCONUT MILK
just might help with your next quick-trigger decision at your job.
Nutrition: 574 calories, 13g protein,
29g carbs (10g fiber), 49g fat
BREATHE.
Hours before a game, Herbert does this Wim Hof breathing drill for
calm. Start by inhaling, then exhale through your mouth. Inhale
again into your belly, then exhale. Do this 30 to 40 times. Inhale
one more time. Exhale, then hold your breath for as long as you can. NFL

SEE IT.
When Herbert played at the University of Oregon, he worked
through mindset programs. “The night before a game, [strength
coach Aaron Feld] would have us visualize every play,” he says. A
day before a big meeting or event, try to picture the entire thing.
ADVOCATES
Five years after Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling
TRUST YOUR PREP. protest against racial injustice, these
In the heat of the moment, Herbert doesn’t work to process each
individual bit of data. He relies on the instincts he built during the
faces are leading the charge for a more
week of practice and film study and lets his body react. “Overthink- inclusive and socially active NFL.
ing can slow you down,” he says.

74 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

 NFL

TOUGHNESS
Bounce back from injury like SOLOMON THOMAS.

B
EFORE 2020, Solomon Thomas had never had surgery. But in February
2020, the then 49ers defensive lineman tore his labrum. About a month
later, he underwent surgery for a bone spur in his ankle. He managed to
recover and start the 2020 season. But after only two games, Thomas
tore his ACL, ending his season. Adding injury to injury? His fourth surgery,
in December 2020, for yet another bone spur. “I was healthy for maybe three or
four weeks—total—in 2020,” Thomas, 26, says. “It was a long year.”
Not just for his body, either. To get ready for the 2021 season, Thomas, who’s
now with the Las Vegas Raiders, had to rebuild his mind, learning to trust a
body that had betrayed him. Here’s Thomas’s five-step process for forging the
grit to endure psychologically.

1
ACKNOWLEDGE
2
DO MENTAL JOURNAL
3 4
RECOVER AT
5
RESPECT YOUR
THE PAIN MUSCLE REPS YOUR PROGRESS A GENTLE PACE TIMELINE
Thomas tore his ACL on Thomas began his rehab AND SETBACKS By December, Thomas “You can’t expect the
AP Images (Nassib, Mayhew, Javadifar). Getty Images (remaining).

September 20 against
the Jets and underwent
surgery two weeks later.
Days afterward, he had
a good cry. “I started
bawling,” he says. “I was
like, ‘I’m so sick of being
in pain.’ I couldn’t see
a light at the end of the
tunnel.” The cry helped
him feel better mentally,
and for good reason:
Research has shown
crying can help alleviate
perceptions of pain.
after two weeks, getting It’s easy to see phys- was ahead of schedule, process to be perfect;
physical therapy and ical progress during squatting with weight. it’s six to nine months,”
working to regain range rehab, but Thomas Then he felt a pinch Thomas says. He
of motion in his knee. needed to see mental in his ankle. He had understood that after
He also made time daily progress as well. So he another bone spur. After his second bone spur:
to improve his mental began journaling once surgery to correct that, Even if you’re ahead
state, doing guided a day. He’d start each he returned to training— of schedule, you must
meditations from his morning by recording with a slower mentality. expect hiccups. “It’s a
mental coach, Graham daily affirmations, then “A key is balance,” he grind,” he says.
Betchart. (He used the he wrote down how he says. “You have to be
Headspace app, too.) was feeling (good, bad, intentional about having
“The meditations,” he indifferent). that reset and energy
says, “are a great reset. to focus again.”
[I remind myself] ‘This is
a temporary feeling.’ ”

Carl Nassib Robert Saleh Andrew Berry and Maral Javadifar Najeh Davenport
In late June, the fifth- The ex–49ers Martin Mayhew Javadifar is entering and Kevin Henry
year defensive lineman, assistant coach, who Berry is the Cleveland her third year as assistant The retired players led
who plays for the Raid- spent 19 years working Browns’ second-year strength and conditioning a lawsuit that made the
ers, became the first his way up the ranks, GM; Mayhew is the Wash- coach of the Tampa Bay NFL end race-norming,
active NFL player to is now the Jets’ head ington Football Team’s Buccaneers. She’s one which evaluated demen-
come out as gay, making man—and the first first-year GM. They’re of a handful of female tia claims using separate
the announcement Muslim head coach two of the five Black GMs strength coaches in the standards for white and
on Instagram. in the NFL. in the NFL. league. Black former players.

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 75

SWEET.
SOUR.
SPICY. THE DIY GUIDE TO
MODERN CHINESE FOOD
THAT ’S SUPER FRESH,
MOUTHWATERING, AND REALLY
GOOD FOR YOU. By Clarissa Wei
 CHINESE FOOD IN AMERICA
has a long history of being associated
with cheap and hearty takeout. Platters
of chop suey dressed with MSG and
sugar-glazed chicken are the classic
heavyweights of Chinese American
cuisine, often served with a side of
deep-fried wontons or a fortune cookie.
For decades, this food—tasty and
wonderful in its own right, if not the
most healthful—was the only Chinese
food Americans knew about, thanks
largely to generations of immigrants
from one small part of the vast country.
“For over a century, from the time of the gold rush
through the 1960s, the Chinese population in Amer-
ica was mainly Cantonese, as was Chinese food in
America,” says David R. Chan, a food historian who
has eaten at more than 7,500 Chinese restaurants in
America. In the 19th century, droves of immigrants
from the southeast region of China adapted their
dishes for the American palate using a limited rep-
ertoire of ingredients—the high-carb, low-cost food
that became associated with the cuisine as a whole.
It stuck around largely because—guess what—
Americans have an affinity for high-carb, low-cost
food (pizza, fries, the hot dog). It wasn’t until the
1970s and ’80s, after the U. S. reestablished diplo-
matic relations with mainland China, that other Chi-
nese peoples started immigrating to America and
new provincial dishes began to appear. And, in many
cases, it wasn’t until the American-born children of
these immigrants grew up to open their own restau-
rants that this new cuisine—one that’s melding
authentic recipes with surprising new flavors and a
PHOTOGRAPHS BY greater variety of nutritious ingredients—was born.
ALEX LAU Consider Johnny Lee in Los Angeles, who spe-
cializes in Hong Kong–style barbecue informed by
southern-U. S. barbecue culture. Over in Massa-
chusetts, Nadia Liu Spellman serves an updated
version of her Fujianese mom’s spicy cucumber sal-
ad—crispy chunks of English cucumber marinated
in umami-tinged vinegar and tongue-tingling
chiles. They’re just two of the mavericks leading
the new wave of Chinese cuisine—a bit healthier, a
bit tastier, and still totally satisfying.

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 77

THE DIY GUIDE TO MODERN CHINESE FOOD

GET COOKING
FIRST: GATHER YOUR
INGREDIENTS
The must-haves, the good-to-haves, and
the one thing you don’t really need.
We took FOUR AMAZING RECIPES from some of the
Gold Plum
Chinkiang Vinegar top modern Chinese restaurants in America and had them
Chinese black vinegar is
known for its malty-earthy
simplified for the home cook. Each one will completely alter
taste. “It has a deeper fla- how you think about Chinese food. And, put together, they
vor than white vinegar, but
it’s a bit lighter than bal- make a spectacular four-course meal.
samic,” says Jason Wang of
Xi’an Famous Foods in New
York City. It helps cut the
heft of fat in heavier dishes.

Juan Cheng
Pixian Douban
GATHER YOUR TOOLS
This fermented spicy broad-
bean paste is cured with
chile peppers, flour, and salt.
Choose one that comes from
Pixian, the district where the
paste originated, for a deep,
unique umami that’s earthy,
salty, and sweet.

Pagoda Shaoxing
Huadiao Cooking Wine
The Chinese equivalent
of dry cooking sherry,
Shaoxing wine adds
complexity to marinades
and stir-fries.
The Mala Market
Sichuan Peppercorns
These provide a tongue-
numbing sensation in
dishes, says Harvey Liu of
Duck House. The Mala
Market insists on fresh,
quality peppercorns.
Kadoya Pure
Sesame Oil
Sesame oil is usually
added at the end of cook-
ing and provides a nutty
finish. It is also fantastic
with desserts—try adding
a drizzle of it over vanilla
ice cream. Really.
Wüsthof Classic 7"
Chinese Cleaver
This heavy-duty blade cuts through
thick chunks of meat and bone with
ease. Made out of high-carbon stain-
less steel, it’s an investment, but you
can also use it to scale fish or smash
garlic cloves. $200; wusthof.com
Its steep, sloping walls can han-
dle large amounts of ingredients.
This model is lightweight and
comes preseasoned, which
helps it retain its nonstickiness.
$65; taylorandng.com Zebra
Stainless
Steel Spatula
A good metal
spatula helps
you scrape
the sticky bits
off your wok.
Plus, it’s easier
to clean than
wood. $12;
amazon.com

Joyce Chen 10"

Lee Kum Kee
Hoisin Sauce
The best stuff contains
soybeans, sesame, chile
peppers, and garlic and
tastes incredible in smoky
meat marinades.
Bamboo Steamer rice perfectly in 40
The wooden steamer
coaxes dumplings and sea- $220; zojirushi.com
food to moist perfection.
$21; amazon.com

Where to Buy: You can find most of this

at your local Asian grocery store. If you
don’t have one near you, order online:
sayweee.com/en
freshgogo.com
themalamarket.com

78 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

 THE FIERY FIX:

From: Sichuan Province

The lip-tingling, slow-build burn of
this entrée has made it a best seller
at Duck House Chinese Restaurant
in Portland, Oregon, where it’s
most often eaten over rice. Duck
House co-owner Harvey Liu rec-
ommends washing it all down with
either a harder cider or an IPA.

W H AT Y O U ’ L L N E E D
2 TBSP SHAOXING COOKING WINE
1 TBSP SOY SAUCE
½ LB THINLY SLICED BEEF BRISKET
2 TBSP CORNSTARCH
1 CUP BEAN SPROUTS
2 LARGE LEAVES FROM A NAPA CABBAGE,
CUT INTO 2-INCH PIECES
2 TBSP VEGETABLE OIL
1 TBSP MINCED GINGER
2 CLOVES GARLIC
1 SCALLION, CUT INTO 2-INCH PIECES
4 DRIED CHILE PEPPERS
1 TBSP SICHUAN PEPPERCORNS,
FINELY GROUND
3 TBSP SPICY BROAD-BEAN PASTE
1 TBSP WARMED VEGETABLE OIL, FINELY
MINCED SCALLION, MINCED GARLIC,
AND CRUSHED RED-PEPPER FLAKES
FOR GARNISH

HOW TO MAKE IT
1. In a large bowl, stir together the
cooking wine and soy sauce. Add
the brisket and marinate for 15 min-
utes. Add 2 Tbsp water and stir in
the cornstarch. Set aside.
Food styling: Tyna Hoang. Prop styling: Stephanie Yeh. Courtesy brands (products).

2. In a large pot of boiling water,

cook the bean sprouts and cabbage
till slightly wilted, 2 to 3 minutes.
Strain and rinse under cold water.
Place in a serving bowl.
3. In a wok over medium heat, heat
the vegetable oil. Add the ginger,
garlic, scallion, chile peppers, and
Sichuan peppercorns until aromatic,
about 1 minute. Add the spicy bean
paste and 2 cups water. Bring to a
boil, then reduce heat to low and
cover for 10 minutes.
4. Strain out the solid ingredients
and add the beef, simmering until
just cooked through, about 1 minute.
Transfer the beef to the serving bowl
with bean sprouts and cabbage.
Ladle in some broth. Garnish and
serve. Feeds 2

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 79

THE BEST BARBECUE
YOU’VE NEVER HAD:

From: Hong Kong

This protein-rich meal comes
from chef Johnny Lee of Pearl
River Deli in Los Angeles. It’s
inspired by the fast-casual
Chinese-barbecue shops of Hong
Kong, where glistening cuts of
roast pork and poultry hang in
window displays. “My memories
are eating this out of Styrofoam
boxes over rice,” Lee says.
“This recipe works with most
cuts of pork, including pork loin,
tenderloin—even ribs.”

W H AT Y O U ’ L L N E E D
1¼ CUPS SUGAR
¼ CUP HOISIN SAUCE, PLUS 1 TBSP
2½ TBSP CHU HOU PASTE (OR ADD
2½ TBSP MORE HOISIN SAUCE
IF YOU CAN’T FIND THIS)
1⁄3 CUP DARK SOY SAUCE,
PLUS 1 TBSP
¼ CUP SHAOXING WINE
¼ TBSP CHINESE FIVE-SPICE POWDER
2½ LB PORK BUTT, CUT INTO 1-INCH-
THICK STEAKS
2⁄3 CUP HONEY

HOW TO MAKE IT
1. In a large bowl, stir together the
sugar, ¼ cup salt, ¼ cup hoisin, the
chu hou paste (or more hoisin),
⅓ cup dark soy sauce, the Shaoxing
wine, and the Chinese five-spice
powder. Add the pork and marinate
overnight, or for at least 3 hours.
2. Preheat your grill to medium high.
Place the pork on the grill over indi-
rect heat, close the lid, and roast
until a meat thermometer inserted
into the thickest part of each steak
registers 155°F, about 45 minutes.
3. In a small pot, stir together the
remaining hoisin and soy sauce,
the honey, and 1 cup water. Bring
to a boil over low heat and reduce
until the glaze is slightly sticky.
Cool to room temperature. Brush
this glaze over the pork and serve.
Feeds 4
 THE DIY GUIDE TO MODERN CHINESE FOOD

THE LIGHTNING-QUICK ANYTIME MEAL:

T OM AT O A ND EGG OV ER R ICE
From: Hong Kong
“There are limitless variations to this recipe,” says Lucas
Sin, the head chef of Junzi Kitchen in New York City. “I
grew up in Hong Kong, and my father ambitiously grew
tomatoes. I remember those fresh tomatoes being cut up
and stir-fried with eggs. It’s one of those perfect tomato
dishes, sort of like spaghetti and meatballs.”

W H AT Y O U ’ L L N E E D ing quickly, add the eggs

2 EGGS
3 TBSP VEGETABLE OIL
3 SCALLIONS (SMASH THE
WHITE PARTS WITH THE FLAT
SIDE OF A KNIFE AND SLICE
INTO 1-INCH SEGMENTS;
MINCE THE GREEN PARTS
FINELY FOR GARNISH)
2 MEDIUM TOMATOES, PEELED,
CORED, AND CUT INTO
½-INCH-WIDE WEDGES
SUGAR, TO TASTE
STEAMED RICE, FOR SERVING
HOW TO MAKE IT
1. In a small bowl, beat the
eggs well with ½ tsp salt,
1 Tbsp vegetable oil, and
1 Tbsp water. In a large pan
over medium-high heat, add
1 Tbsp vegetable oil. Mov-
and cook, pushing and fold-
ing constantly with chop-
sticks until just set, about
10 seconds. Remove from
heat and transfer to a plate.
2. Wipe out the pan and
return it to medium high.
Heat the remaining 1 Tbsp
oil. Add the scallion whites
and cook, stirring, until
aromatic and just begin-
ning to brown, about 15
seconds. Add the tomatoes
and cook, stirring con-
stantly until they begin to
break down, about 3 min-
utes. Season with salt and
sugar to taste.
3. Add the cooked eggs
to the tomato sauce. Stir
to combine, about 15 sec-
onds. Remove from heat
and garnish with the scal-
lion greens. Eat with warm,
steamed rice. Feeds 1

THE ANTIDOTE TO
LETTUCE FATIGUE:
CUCUMBER
SALAD
From: Shanghai
“This dish is built on balance—refined yet simple,” says
Nadia Liu Spellman, the owner of Dumpling Daughter
in Massachusetts. “The acid, sugar, and salt all play an
important role and bring out the best in cucumber.”

W H AT Y O U ’ L L N E E D HOW TO MAKE IT
1 ENGLISH CUCUMBER, 1. In a medium bowl, toss
CUT INTO THUMB- the cucumber with ½ Tbsp
SIZED PIECES salt. Allow to sit for 1 hour.
½ CUP SUGAR 2. In a large bowl, stir the
½ CUP WHITE-WINE sugar and vinegar until the
VINEGAR sugar dissolves. Rinse the
cucumber well, add it to the
2 GARLIC CLOVES, MINCED vinegar mixture, and refrig-
1 TBSP SESAME OIL erate for at least 12 hours.
1 TBSP CHILE OIL 3. Strain the cucumber, dis-
carding the marinade, and
1 TBSP SOY SAUCE toss in a large bowl with the
garlic, oils, and soy sauce.
Serve chilled. Feeds 4

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 81

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 83
ON in early September
2019, a Russian diver
bobs gently on the
sparkling blue surface
of the Mediterranean
next to a support raft

five feet 11 inches and nearly 190 pounds, Alexey

“the Machine” Molchanov is sheathed in a golden
wetsuit, his feet snug in a sleek black monofin. He
looks far larger than the lean safety divers who
surround him in the water, waiting for the world’s
reigning freediving champion to begin his descent.

Alexey wraps his fingers carefully

around a dive line descending from the
A CLEAR MORNING

a mile off the shore of

the French Riviera. At

crosslike around his neck, and adjusts its

tiny metal arms over each nostril. With
disciplines. Among active athletes, he’s
set more world records and won more
championships than any other diver, yet
he still heads out every year to compete—
if only against himself. At a competition
in the Bahamas in 2018, he pushed the
world record in constant weight (held by
none other than—you guessed it—Alexey
Molchanov) from 129 meters to 130. The
depth goal today is the same, but the wa-
ter is much colder than in the Bahamas,
making this a more demanding dive.
When the judge gives the signal, Alexey
waits ten seconds and then dips his body,
hovering on the surface for a moment
before flipping headfirst into a duck dive,
his monofin hitting the water behind
him with a single delicate slap. The dive
may test his physical limits, but he’s
chasing something beyond records. By
continuing to venture as deep as possible,
he’s able to explore more of this majes-
tic, otherworldly realm. For most of his
life, figuring out how such submersions
affected people was a family quest. Until
it led to a loss he never expected, one that
has only driven him to go deeper.

ALEXEY’S PARENTS LOVED 

floating platform beside him. Inhaling
and exhaling slowly, he prepares for the
single breath he will hold for the nearly
four minutes he plans to spend under-
water. His target: a metal ring lined with
white tags, suspended at the seemingly
impossible-to-reach depth of 130 meters
(about 426 feet). Round trip, that’s a journey
roughly equivalent to two and a half soccer
fields. His goal is to grab a tag and then
swim back to the surface before his lungs
expire or his muscles give out—or both.
“Three minutes,” a judge shouts from
the raft. With that, the countdown to Alex-
ey’s gold-medal attempt in freediving’s
premier open-water competition, the AIDA
Depth World Championship, begins.
Competitive freedivers—those com-
pelled to dive as deep, or as far, as possible
on a single breath—have several ways to
distinguish themselves: with or without
fins, the assistance of the dive line, or
weights, or even hitched to a heavy sled.
Today’s event, known as constant weight,
is Alexey’s specialty, and while most div-
ers wear a weight belt to aid their descent,
he relies solely on the weight of his mono-
fin and his powerful mermaid-style kick.
As the time ticks down, Alexey slips
on his noseclip, which has been hanging
a minute to go, he begins packing—a
breathing technique that looks like the
desperate cheek flapping of a fish out of
water—filling his lungs in spaces most of
us will never put to use.
To the casual observer, freediving can
seem like an unforgiving sport. It’s not
uncommon for divers who push beyond
their limits to suffer short blackouts from
a lack of oxygen or have blood in their
lungs from the extreme pressure. In fact,
just a couple days earlier, in another dis-
cipline, involving diving to more than 90
meters with no fins at all, Alexey blacked
out briefly as he surfaced and was struck
by a hypoxic fit, or loss of muscle control,
known in the sport as “samba.”
The mishap didn’t discourage him
from continuing. One of his favorite
sayings is that these extreme compe-
titions are “just a game for adults”—as
though willfully ignoring the potential
for disaster. Over the past decade, Alexey
has kept that mindset while continually
raising the peak of human performance.
(Before fellow divers called him “the
Machine,” he was known affectionately
as “the Golden Retriever.”)
At age 34, he’s now ranked at the
top of most of freediving’s open-water
the water before they loved each other.
Both children of the cold war, Natalia and
Oleg met as teens during a swimming
meet. Later, after they were married, they
moved to Volgograd, along the Volga River
in southwest Russia, to start a family.
Before the age of five, Alexey set a na-
tional record in his age group with his per-
formance in the 500-meter backstroke.
Soon he was a champion in freestyle and
butterfly, too. On vacations to the Black
Sea, he donned archaic diving gear that
towered over his frame and began to
explore the deep.
As Alexey neared high school, his par-
ents separated, but his mother made sure
his training continued uninterrupted.
He was accepted into the Raduga Swim-
ming Sports School of Olympic Reserve,
a specialized school for Russians with
gold-medal dreams. Then, in 2002, Nata-
lia told Alexey about a new sport she had
discovered that combined their shared
interests and skills: swimming, competi-
tion, the sea. It was called freediving.
In 2004, Alexey entered his first free-
diving competition and won, setting the
Russian national record in a back-and-
forth pool discipline known as “dynamic”
at 158 meters. That same year, he traveled

84 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH

 to Cyprus to watch Natalia in an open-
water competition. There he ventured a
hundred feet down through the royal-blue
water to examine the Zenobia, a famous
wreck with propeller blades longer than a
man, entirely on one breath. “I was follow-
ing her, and she took me in this exciting
world, which looked like a dream,” he says.
Holding one’s breath to dive deep
into the sea is something that humans
have been doing for thousands of years.
The story of freediving as a competitive
sport, however, starts in 1949, when
Hungarian-born Italian air force captain
Raimondo Bucher dove some 100 feet to
reach the seabed off the coast of Naples
to win a bet against fellow diver Ennio
Falco. Bucher astounded those who had
been convinced that the water’s pressure
would crush him to death.
By the time AIDA—the International
Association for the Development of
Apnea—was founded in the early ’90s in
southern France, pioneers such as Amer-
ica’s Bob Croft, Italy’s Enzo Majorca, and
France’s Jacques Mayol had pushed depth
records to more than 100 meters. The
sport even got the Hollywood treatment
with Luc Besson’s The Big Blue in 1988.
These early freedivers also served
as guinea pigs in the still-developing
study of underwater human physiology.
This page and opening spread: Courtesy Russian Freediving Federation
Researchers found, for instance, that
Croft’s body adapted to conserve more
oxygen underwater and that Mayol’s
heartbeat decreased from 60 beats per
minute to 27 during his dives, a phenom-
enon discovered previously in Tibetan
monks in meditation.
Studies like these ultimately fueled
our understanding of the mammalian
dive reflex in humans. This physiologi-
cal reaction, which occurs in all aquatic
mammals, is triggered by immersion in
water—particularly of one’s face—and
apnea, holding one’s breath. The reflex
allows divers’ bodies to adapt to extreme
depths, if they can learn to harness it.
FOR THE FIRST 20 meters below
the surface of the Mediterranean, Alexey
works hard. He fights against his body’s
buoyancy with a steady pulse of dolphin
kicks. His arms are extended and snug
against his ears in streamline. Eyes
closed, he wears no goggles, entering the
depths blind to his surroundings. At 20
meters, he floats his arms down to his
sides as, under the sea’s pressure, his
Molchanov in his signature wetsuit at the
2017 AIDA Freediving World Championships
in Roatán, Honduras.
lungs are compressed to a third of their
surface volume. Now negatively buoy-
ant, he enters the opening stages of free
fall and starts to sink. The fight, for the
moment, is over.
Alexey is moving at roughly one meter
per second. He need only give himself a
slight boost, a kick every ten meters—
which he does with an uncanny accuracy,
on autopilot—to maintain his speed. This
is Alexey at his most beautiful: smooth,
fluid, at peace. Mid-metamorphosis, he
glides as his body mutates, his stomach
hollowing out as the air in his lungs di-
vides into still-smaller fractions.
Clipped securely to the dive line by a
cord attached to his wetsuit, he focuses
not on navigation but rather on dili-
gence. The main task: the transfer of
air between his mouth and his sinuses
to equalize the pressure in his body’s
cavities in the hope of avoiding a squeeze,
a pressure injury to the lungs, ears, or
sinuses. As he does so, he holds his mind
in a rigid yet gentle state of extreme calm,
keeping at bay the syrupy embrace of
nitrogen narcosis, an effect of nitrogen
saturation that can cause panic or giddi-
ness or both, depending on the dive and
the day. The rapture of the great depths,
Jacques Cousteau called it—or, in scuba
talk, getting narc’d.
WITHIN A YEAR of discovering free-
diving, Natalia Molchanova had become a
self-taught expert, with several national
and a few world records to her name. And
Alexey was on her heels.
Over the next decade, the Molchanovs
rose quickly through the ranks of competi-
tive freedivers, trading national records for
world records, world records for new world
records. By 2005, Natalia was living in Mos-
cow, leading the Russian Freediving Fed-
eration and running a freediving program
at a university. Alexey had moved there,
too, in pursuit of a software-engineering
degree. With a training course that Natalia
developed, they would certify more than
100 freediving instructors.
Natalia also dedicated herself to
researching the potential effects and ben-
efits of the sport. “She would give a lot of
love, always,” Alexey says. “She was always
taking time to talk to people, to explain, to
help with advice, about anything.”
In 2009, off Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt,
in the Red Sea, Natalia became the first
woman to pass 100 meters, diving to 101 in
constant weight. Three years later, on her
50th birthday, she broke the world record
for a no-fins dive by going to 66 meters. The
next year, she smashed a half dozen more
world records. “Many people, when they
reach 50, they think life is over,” she told
the writer Adam Skolnick for his book One
Breath: Freediving, Death, and the Quest
to Shatter Human Limits. “I want to show
them, there is more they can do.”
“Many people, when they
reach 50, they think life
is over. I want to show them,
there is more they can do.”
Deep dives always involve risk. But while
dozens of freedivers, including spear fisher-
men and recreational divers, die each year,
among competitive freedivers fatalities are
rare. The tragic 2013 death of Nick Mevoli,
the subject of One Breath, remains the
sport’s only fatality in official competition.
Close calls, however, are more common.
Yet Natalia and Alexey grew comfortable
with the trade-off. The same year that
Mevoli died, Alexey went to Greece for a
then-world-record attempt of 128 meters
in constant weight. He’d recently had a
cold—a punch to the sinuses—but he was
feeling confident and strong. On the way
up, though, at a depth of 110 meters, he was
struck by a reverse block, an injury to the
middle ear that scrambles a diver’s spatial
awareness, and became disoriented.
At 30 meters, he passed out, and a safety
diver, the accomplished Irish freediver
Stephen Keenan, had to drag him to the
surface. Such deep-water blackouts can
Molchanov atop the podium in Turkey
in 2018 after winning one of his 14 world-
championship titles.
be catastrophic, but Alexey escaped the
whole ordeal with no more than a severely
squeezed lung, which left him coughing up
blood. In One Breath, Keenan recounted
how, afterward, Alexey thanked him but
downplayed the accident, as if he were “in
total denial.” Six days later, Alexey got
back in the water and set his world record.
“It just shows his resilience and determi-
nation,” said Keenan, “and the psychology
of the strongest freediver.”
On August 2, 2015, just one month be-
fore the annual AIDA Depth World Cham-
pionship, Natalia was in the water off
Formentera, an island near Ibiza, giving a
private dive lesson to two students. During
the lesson, the students watched as she
disappeared below the surface in a dive
later estimated to have been a little more
than 100 feet in depth. It should have been
routine for the Russian champion—at 53,
she was now the most decorated athlete in
freediving history, with 41 world records
and 23 world-championship titles. They
waited for her to resurface. And waited.
They saw no signs of her ascent, and an
underwater search was launched. Natalia
never resurfaced.
When Alexey received the call, he flew
to Ibiza and heard the report from the
search party out on the water. But he knew
there was little hope: Going missing at sea
is almost always a death sentence. There
would never be an official statement, the
final word on what happened to Natalia—
many speculated it was a powerful current
or an injury—but Alexey felt one sickening
certainty. “If I had been there,” he said
years after his mother’s disappearance, on
a podcast called The Freedive Café, “most
likely nothing would have happened.”
AT 129 METERS,  Alexey feels for the
marker that will indicate he’s reached his
depth. Below this is the metal ring with its
white tags, gently waving in the water like
Getty Images
a ghostly mobile. He grabs one and turns
skyward. Unlike the journey down, a task
that eases with depth, climbing out of this
 high-pressure zone is extremely demand-
ing, as divers fight against their negative
buoyancy with bodies shot through with
lactic acid and carbon dioxide.
Rather than think about whether he’ll
make it or not, he trusts his body’s muscle
memory to pick up the slack. As he once
put it: “You need to be just performing.
You need to clear your mind and you need
to focus on the things you know how to
do.” As he rises, Alexey switches back to
manual, oscillating his body and fin in
varying rhythms, as if responding to the
water’s every stimulus.
WHEN THE SEARCH for his
mother was called off, Alexey flew to
Egypt, to the waters of the Red Sea, his and
Natalia’s preferred practice ground. In-
stead of paying his respects to those waters
and hanging up his fins, letting sadness or
fear derail his career, he was driven to do
the opposite. He began to train with team-
mates from the Russian national team. A
month later, he went forward with his plan
to compete in the championship.
He came home with two gold medals.
In 2018, in addition to breaking his own
world record in constant weight, Alexey
set the world record in a different disci-
pline, called free immersion, and early
in 2019 he set it in yet another, bifins.
In 2020, he pushed the bifins depth still
further and earned a Guinness World
Record for longest recorded dive under
ice—nearly 600 feet. In March, he donned
his monofin and an extra-thick wetsuit to
plunge below the frozen crust of Russia’s
Lake Baikal, setting another record, for
the deepest dive below ice. And he plans to
best himself once again at the AIDA world
championship this month.
Before his mother’s disappearance,
Alexey had been a fierce competitor and a
promising young diver; after, he became
the world’s best. He’s become something
else, too: a kind of millennial evangelist
for his sport. On Instagram, where he has
more than 114,000 followers, his posts
demystify and destigmatize freediving
through stunning underwater vistas,
free advice, and quippy captions. (“Work
life balance,” he wrote under a photo of
himself in scrubs, cradling both his new-
born son and his cell phone.)
As he shares his mother’s philosophy
Getty Images
on diving, he is also developing his own.
“You can have a very unique experience
underwater, like that you are very small,
From top: Molchanov after another win; his
mother, Natalia Molchanova, winning at the
first women’s world championship, in 2005.
that the ocean around is very big,” he
says. “And it allows you to rethink your
scale, how small you are in this universe.”
As anxiety provoking as the sport may
seem to the uninitiated, freediving, when
paired with mindfulness practices, can
reduce anxiety and aid with depression
and trauma. This kind of work has helped
Alexey understand why he still felt so
inexorably pulled to the water after his
mother vanished. Put simply, it was—
between the sensory deprivation, the
elemental immersion, and the simulta-
neous control and surrender—an escape.
His own form of therapy and his way to
process the loss. “Intellectually,” he says,
“I was realizing what I need to do, what I
have to do, to continue her legacy.”
After Natalia disappeared, Alexey
continued running one side of Molcha-
novs, the freediving business they had
started together. In 2018, he and two other
big names in the sport, Adam Stern and
Chris Kim, who cofounded Molchanovs,
decided to relaunch Natalia’s training
protocols as the Molchanovs Freediving
Education System. Its tiered courses,
available in English, are similar to other
established freediving programs: You
start at the basics and work up to longer
breath holds and deeper depths. You can
get certified to teach, and so far, more
than 500 instructors have been minted.
With training, competitions, his
business ventures, and a growing family,
Alexey shares the same stresses as any
top athlete. But in the time I spent with
him, he’d stop to play tricks on his fellow
competitors, splash around in the shal-
lows, or enjoy copious oysters. “He doesn’t
reach high levels of performance by being
this hyperintense person,” Kim says.
“He reaches it by being a hyperfocused
person, who is also very relaxed.”
Stern chalks this up to Alexey’s ability
to keep the intensity of competitions sep-
arate from the rest. “I had been told that
he was just a machine of a person, and as a
diver, he is,” he says. “But as a person, he’s
a big cuddly teddy bear.”
TWENTY METERS FROM the
surface, the buoyancy catches Alexey,
and his legs calm. It’s just one, two kicks
and then his arm is up, on the line, above
water. He completes the necessary sur-
face protocol to prove his body and brain
are functioning correctly: the removal
of his clip, an “okay” sign with his hand,
and then, between deep, rattling breaths,
the verbal “I’m okay.”
Once he dislodges the white tag from
where he has tucked it away in his hood,
several officials floating in the water in
front of him grin to one another before
flashing the white card. Alexey’s protocol
has been approved; his dive is valid. The
crowd on the raft erupts in applause. He’s
matched his record; the gold medal is his.
By midafternoon, he’s back on shore,
sitting in the competition’s open-air
cafeteria, shoulders slightly hunched.
Everyone has been talking, all day, about
his dive. Now, in this rare moment of free
time, he wants to see what all the fuss
is about. So with the day’s livestream
queued, his iPhone propped against his
water bottle, he watches.
When the dive is done, he presses pause.
Smiling, he says that it’s strange to see the
difference between what one thinks one
looks like in one’s head when one dives
and what one actually looks like.
“What do you look like in your head?”
I ask.
“Better,” he says with a laugh.
When surface life fades away, anything
seems within reach.
sami emory is a writer based in Berlin. Her
work has appeared in The New York Times,
The Baffler, Wired UK, and Gossamer.
MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 87
 The Forever

88 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREA MORALES

Soldiers
of the Forever
Wars
Twenty years since the
attacks on the Pentagon and
World Trade Center, and
with the U. S. war in Afghan-
istan coming to its long-
awaited end, four military men
who deployed in the days fol-
lowing 9/11 share what they’ve
learned about sacrifice, patri-
otism, and strength in the two
decades of fighting. By Matt Gallagher

Army Colonel Adisa King at the

Boots on the Ground memorial
at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.
The boots represent service
members killed since 9/11.

MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 89

 A
generation later, it’s the smoke plumes that lin-
ger most. Their darkness, their stark magnitude, gash-
ing that perfect empty sky. I don’t know if it had to end
the hope for peace in our time, but it sure felt like it, even
then. We compared it to Pearl Harbor. The beginning of
something new.
All these years later, September 11 remains one of
those historical markers that insists upon itself, fixed
on the calendar yet still impossible to reconcile. Not just
all these years, either. I should be more exact. Yesterday
was a long time ago, now. Two decades. Twenty years.
A lot can happen in 20 years. A child becomes a man.
Political leaders rise and fall. A country unites; a coun-
try divides. And a full military career transpires, from
enlistment to pension, cherry youngbloods becoming
battle-hardened senior leaders whose entire profes-
sional lives can be traced through missed holidays and
strategy changes and combat tours fought on the other
side of the world.
“We are At War now,” the late, great Hunter S. Thomp-
son wrote the day after the 9/11 attacks. “It will be guer-
rilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and
no identifiable enemy.”
There have been many different names for these wars,
another result of time’s relentlessness: the terror wars,
the shadow wars, the forever wars, the GWOT (global war
on terror). Call ’em whatever. For 20 years now, they’ve
been waged following America’s lead, though not always
fought with America’s attention. And now, around the
time of this essay’s publication, the American military
will have withdrawn its remaining forces from Afghan-
istan, even as the ripple effects of 9/11 continue.
Such is life in the 21st-century republic.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve recently felt my
appreciation for country lagging. That’s no small
thing to admit, either; I come from a family for whom
the American Dream proved very real and was some-
one who decided to fight for her in the aftermath of the
9/11 attacks. I was a freshman ROTC cadet at the time,
with vague notions of a career as a military lawyer. That
smoke-filled day changed the life trajectory for many
people, and I was one of them. I decided if I was going to
do the Army thing, I might as well do it from the front.
A couple years and a lot of training later, I found
myself in Iraq as a scout platoon leader, part of the
fabled surge. That time remains a formative experi-
ence, one I return to often, because it’s where I learned
what everyday courage looks like in the flesh, from
American soldiers and Iraqi civilians alike. It’s where
I learned the limits of my country’s ambitions. It’s also
90 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MEN’S HEALTH
where I learned that the American Dream is a human
dream, a human pursuit, and not something to be dis-
missed in snark or cynicism.
Still, the recent, long-overdue conversations and
protests on matters of social justice and race here at
home have made it as difficult as ever to separate Amer-
ican myths from American truths for many of us. Just
because my family gained access to that ever-elusive
Dream does not mean it hasn’t been kept from others.
Who are we, really?
What are we fighting for? What is the state of the
American experiment, and what does that experiment
look like to those engaged in the fight, in the most lit-
eral sense of the word?
It’s my great privilege to introduce four men who have
devoted their professional lives to service and country
and have learned some answers to those questions along
the way. Two asked that their identities be concealed to
protect their security because they continue to work in
the shadows of special operations overseas. Maybe their
stories won’t inspire a renewed sense of patriotism, as
happened for me, but I do know they’ll inspire.
Four men, each one representing a major military
branch. Four lives, four careers, many battlefields.
Infinite measures of sacrifice, commitment, resil-
ience, and vulnerability. Yes, vulnerability. That’s the
one that struck me the most. How these hard military
men abounding with bona fides spoke so openly about
the old and easy masculine ways failing them. How they
had to open up and share themselves with their fami-
lies, friends, and fellow service members. Not just to
endure. But to endure and then be even better.
Wresting tidy lessons from these men’s lives and
their wars would be disingenuous given the multitudes
involved. There are lessons, certainly, but they cut, they
demand, they contradict, because that’s how they were
earned. War rebels against simplicity, but for all the
differences in their experiences, all four spoke of the
importance of hardship in learning and growing.
One of the men, Colonel Adisa King, brought up the
concept of post-traumatic growth. That’s a term for
something most every human being on the planet con-
fronts at some point: the chance to be transformed for
the better in the wake of trauma and loss. These are war
stories, to be certain, but of course it’s not only soldiers
who experience trauma and loss. Which means their
post-9/11 journeys offer the same thing September 11
did—an opportunity to remember what has been lost
and to use those memories to shape a stronger, more
honest tomorrow. Perhaps even a tomorrow that makes
available the American Dream to all America’s citizens.
These men taught me about themselves. They
taught me about their fallen friends. And they taught
me about myself, too. My sincere hope is that their
tales affect you in a similar manner.
They are testaments to what we can all be, as citizens,
if we remember America belongs to us all.
Never forget. And. Onward.
Matt Gallagher is a U. S. Army veteran of the Iraq
war. He’s also the author of the memoir Kaboom and the
novel Empire City.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREA MORALES

Army Colonel
Adisa King
45 years old
9/11: Most people saw it on their televisions. I was a second lieutenant
going up a mountain in Georgia during Ranger School. A Ranger
instructor just said to us, “Hey, Rangers, we’ve been attacked. This
is why you’re doing what you’re doing.” We kept going up the moun-
tain. There’s a lesson in that, I think. My outlook changed from
“I want to serve” to “There’s a critical need for my service.”
During multiple tours to both Iraq and Afghanistan, I’ve learned
a lot of things. A big one is: Value your tribe; maintain your tribe.
This is a hard life. For hard people. No one can do it alone.
Being a Black man in the infantry, being an officer, too, I’m
a unicorn. Meaning most of the people who have coached me,
inspired me, mentored me, did not look like me.
A lot of different people from all different types of backgrounds
showed me the way. That’s what I like about the combat arms: the
“I’m gonna give it to you real” approach. People with that in them
come from wherever.
I’m proud of being Black. I’m proud of being American. I’m
proud of where I come from, Jackson, Mississippi. There’s hard
history to that. Call out that history and heritage for what it was.
I think that’s important. We’re all a part of creating a better union,
a better society. Just like when we were across the water. We needed
our fellow soldiers, our allies, our Iraqi and Afghan counterparts.
My first deployment was to Samarra, Iraq, in 2006. I was assum-
Courtesy subject (Destin)
ing command of an airborne infantry company, and my execu-
tive officer was going to be this lieutenant named Mike Cerrone.
Great guy. Very smart. We had breakfast to discuss things, and it
was a good conversation. I’m so glad it was, too. Because later that
day, Mike was killed by a bomb. On his last patrol before switch-
ing units. Life is so precious. Today’s not promised to anyone.
Embrace the moment. Value what’s in front of you.
Physical pain. Spiritual pain. There’s depression and PTSD,
then there’s also post-traumatic growth. All these things I’ve
experienced. Going from a West Point football player to an Army
colonel, in this era of deployments and long wars, it becomes a mat-
ter of sustainment. It’s difficult to sustain yourself if you’re always
thinking about what didn’t happen, what could’ve happened.
Sometimes I get asked about the people in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I tell them: They’re just like us. They want exactly what we want,
a good place to live, a chance at peace for their families, a strong
military. People are people, man, wherever you go. Value them.
Over the years, I realized I couldn’t just muscle my way through
everything. I had to consider my mental health over the long run.
Thinking about the missions, the soldiers who were lost in our unit,
their families, my wife, my daughters, the people I’ve engaged with
in Iraq and Afghanistan, is a constant. I had to learn how to take
mental and physical breaks. This involved everything from
yoga and meditation to bodyweight exercises, boxing, and MMA
workouts. For example, I stopped doing max-weight lifts during
deployments, because it caused too many injuries. I had to adopt
different methods to take care of my physical and mental fitness.
Another thing I’ve learned: It’s okay to disagree. It’s important,
sometimes. As long as everyone is taking ownership of the prob-
lem or issue, disagreement is how the best solution will be found.
One more: Do some hard stuff sometimes. That’ll remind you
you’re vulnerable. I’ve recently been living in Carlisle, Pennsyl-
vania, attending the War College, and the schoolhouse is not the
front line. You can forget what really matters. So when I took my
truck to the shop earlier, I decided to run back. Then I passed a big
ol’ rock and decided, Why not? Let’s see how far I can run carrying
this rock. So I did. Is that crazy? Maybe. But I’m a little bit better,
a little bit stronger, than I was before doing it.
There’s a reckoning going on in our country now. That’s good.
Some of it is overdue. Remember the history, understand it. Then
it’s a matter of “What can we do now going forward?”
Left: Colonel Adisa
King at Fort Camp-
bell in June 2021.
Below: During the
first phase of Army
Ranger School near
Destin, Florida, in
October 2001.
 Senior Master Sergeant
Robert Gutierrez on Joint
Base San Antonio in June
2021. Opposite, from
top: Gutierrez returning
to base after a mission in
Afghanistan in 2009
and at a reenlistment
ceremony in 2007.

Air Force Senior
Master Sergeant
Robert
Gutierrez
41 years old
I WAS WORKING as a meter reader for San
Diego Gas & Electric on 9/11, getting ready
to go in for the day, when I turned on the TV
and literally watched the second tower fall.
I got filled with this overwhelming sense
of anger and frustration. I couldn’t believe
this had happened to our people, our coun-
try. I was healthy, I was young, and I knew
that if anyone was going to go to war, it
should be me. I pretty much quit my job that
day. Went straight to the recruiting offices.
The Air Force recruiter was walking into
his office when I got there. I asked if they
were hiring. “We’re always hiring,” he said.
And that was that.
I became a combat controller because
I wanted to be in the fight. Our motto is
“First There,” and we mean it, we live that.
To quickly integrate with any special-
operations teams on the ground, it’s vital.
We’re their technical expert, the force mul-
tiplier that connects the ground to airpower.
The military’s not for everyone, but I can
say that for me, it changed my life. I had
goals but no direction. The Air Force
gave me that direction and path to get
where I wanted to be.
Commitment to country means every-
thing to me. That commitment was based
on knowing that other people came here to
hurt and try to terrorize our country into
submission. Our country’s foundation of
principles comes from patriots who wanted
to put themselves and their families in a
better place. They fought for that. That’s
what’s seen me through these 20 years.
I’ve deployed to Operation Iraqi Free-
dom, Operation Enduring Freedom in
Afghanistan, and Africa.
Courtesy subject (Afghanistan, ceremony)
In October 2009, I was a JTAC [joint ter-
minal attack controller]-qualified com-
bat controller for a Special Forces team in
western Afghanistan. The mission was a
Taliban target, middle of the night, high
illumination. They’d packed the road with
IEDs, improvised explosive devices, so we
moved in on foot. They had elevated, armed
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER LEE
overwatch of the area, so as soon as we
breached the compound, it was on.
We took cover in a building under heavy
fire. What we thought were ten enemy fight-
ers turned out to be 40-plus. I was working
the radio when one of my teammates was
in a rifle-mag change. I took his position at
the doorway and looked up—20 feet away,
elevated, was an enemy combatant.
We made eye contact and engaged at the
same time.
He died. I lived.
When I got hit, I understood immedi-
ately. When blood’s pouring from your
mouth and nose, that’s not a good sign.
Same when you can’t talk.
Time slowed down, and I thought about
so many things. I had a child coming. I
thought about my teammates and knew
they needed me to help get out of this sit-
uation. So I got up. I had a collapsed lung,
and the medic, he was amazing.
In the middle of a gunfight, under night
vision, he gives me a needle decompres-
sion. Saved me so I could breathe and work
coordinates with the pilots.
I requested guns—high-angle strafes
from two A-10’s. On danger-close strikes
like that, the risk of fratricide is huge.
Closest distance to the enemy was less
than ten meters.
It was so damn loud. But it was on target.
God bless. I personally consider them the
best pilots in the Air Force.
Shout-out to “Bluto” and “Rally.”
One of my eardrums had burst. On the
exfil, my lung collapsed again, so the medic
had to stick me again. A sucking chest
wound, basically. Turned out I’d lost about
five and a half pints of blood. But I wasn’t
the only one hurting. Most important, the
high-value target was dead.
We know there’s inherent risk to this
business, to this profession. And that
it might take your life. But the honor in
dying for your country while fighting for
it, it’s an accepted fate. It’s an honorable
fate. At that point, I was okay with that fate,
because we’d done our job, carrying out jus-
tice for the people we lost on 9/11.
Nineteen months of recovery. Wasn’t
easy, but I wanted to get back to the fight.
A senior NCO told me once, “Get comfort-
able with being uncomfortable.” That
served me well. It means you can work in
whatever environment may be present
and be okay with the fact that it may be
hard, it may be miserable weather or dif-
ficult circumstances, but you can prevail
and get the job done.
Before 9/11, I thought grit and resilience
meant working long days or shifts, trying
to grind through and just live a life of peace.
After two decades of fighting, I’ve come
to realize that grit and resilience means
never quitting. That, in the end, it’s never
about you but those around you who make
you better each day, to serve selflessly for
a higher cause or being. For me, that cause
was my country.
Resilience is a lifelong journey. That’s
something I try to impart now to the next
generation in my role training and sup-
porting future operators.
I felt that commitment to country I had
made on September 11 hadn’t yet been ful-
filled. I had more to give. More to do. I have
an obligation to my teammates, and their
families especially, to continue honoring
them with my service. I always mention in
conversation the teammates we lost. Their
sacrifice will never be in vain, because as
long as we continue to say their names, they
will always be alive and remembered.
When the battle became public knowl-
edge [Gutierrez was awarded the Air Force
Cross in 2011 for extraordinary heroism in
combat], my hometown paper did a story. I
heard from all sorts of people. Some didn’t
even know I’d joined the military. Some said
they didn’t know the Air Force fights.
I still find peace in challenging myself.
Try to get better every day, every time. I’m
big into bowhunting—I eat everything I
hunt. The Rocky Mountain elk I’d say is
the toughest challenge. It’s hard to get to,
terrain-wise. Many things worth finding are.
MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 93
 were clearing an area to take it and hold it from entrenched
Taliban positions with our Afghan counterparts, a multiday
Marine Master Sergeant operation, and came under heavy fire.

Raider Eight* A teammate of mine was shot in the face. There was a lot
of blood. I got onto the radio and organized a medevac. But
it was too small of an area, too close to the enemy, for a heli-
copter to fly in and get him. So I moved him out on foot. Just
39 years old
the two of us, because our team was small and they needed
every rifle and specialized skill in that moment. Despite an
I GREW UP IN QUEENS, kind of by LaGuardia Airport. AK bullet in his face, my teammate walked out on his own
After the first plane hit on 9/11, I went to a nearby park two feet, with a slight helping hand from me. We continued
with a view of the skyline. People didn’t really have cells, so to address some enemy threats from point A to point B. Then
a group of us huddled around an AM/FM radio, trying to he put himself onto the medevac truck. Fortunately, he is
make sense of the jumbled news. still with us today and thriving.
You could see the smoke from both towers at this point. America is a beacon of hope in a lot of places, to a lot of peo-
A little smoke turned into a lot of smoke. We didn’t know ple. Anyone who’s spent time abroad in these places knows it.
what had happened. You know things are going on but don’t They want what we have here, freedom and democracy. They
yet have a full grasp of what, let alone why. are fighting for those same things. They want their country
The Marines were already on my radar on 9/11, and I’d to represent that as well. These aren’t just notional ideas or
signed up for the delayed-entry program through college. talking points. They are as real as can be.
But that day definitely gave me a clear purpose for what I was Before I joined the military, physical strength meant just
about to do. I arrived at boot camp November 5, 2001. that: the ability to complete an exercise or a run or a swim.
Everyone in our Marine special-operations community Mental strength meant not quitting. After two decades, I
and the broader military has a story about pain and loss and realize that your physical and mental strength are part of your
grieving. That’s the through line of these wars, these years team dynamic. Now mental strength is resilience, intro-
when I deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. You have to find spection, and growth from your experiences.
a way to deal with that. I’m a reader, so two books that have I didn’t have an awareness of resilience early in my career.
helped me in this regard: Antifragile, by Nassim Nicholas To be resilient, you have to accept the things that are happen-
Taleb, and Struggle Well, by Ken Falke and Josh Goldberg. ing. There’s an inherent vulnerability to that. Experiencing
Ultimately, life isn’t about what happens to you; it’s about 20 years of problem-solving in high-stress environments has
how you respond. I read a lot of the Stoic philosophers, Marcus made it much easier to put things into perspective. Challenges
Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca. A quiet read in the morning is very are now not as serious as the initial emotional reaction seems.
reinforcing before you start the day. If something is beyond my You will get through the hard times and be better for it.
circle of influence? Leave it there; accept it for what it is. When you have experienced true life-and-death situa-
One time I lived that: About a decade back, Afghanistan. We tions, it reframes how you look at “difficult” things. Imag-
ine the difference between a two-year-old with a
*The subject requested anonymity because he is still an active-duty special operator.
scraped knee and a trauma surgeon with a scraped
knee. They are looking at the situation from very dif-
ferent perspectives.
I no longer wear a uniform to work every day, but
my military experiences lead me in the decisions I
make on Capitol Hill. You have to work with a diverse
group of people, with different goals and ideas on
how to accomplish them. What I have found is that
interpersonal-communication skills are universal.

Left: The Marine master sergeant, who currently

works in national security, on Capitol Hill in June
2021. Below: In Afghanistan in 2011.
Courtesy subject (Afghanistan)

PHOTOGRAPH BY JARED SOARES

 Right: The Navy master chief at Camp
Pendleton in California during a
training exercise in June 2021. Below:
Working construction, circa 2001.

Navy Master Chief

Delta Seven*
37 years old

WHEN 9/11 HAPPENED, I was at home,
having coffee, getting ready to work con-
struction, the family business. Like a lot of
people, we thought it was fake at first.
Joining the military was something I’d
thought about, but nothing too serious. The
events of that morning solidified that choice
for me and inspired me to action.
I had a contract within the month.
I had a yearning to do something in
the medical field, not just to be one of
the guys on the ground but also to help.
I’ve spent almost 20 years in the Navy
and not once set foot on a ship. My entire
career has been as a corpsman, a medic.
Nav y corpsmen have a longstanding,
tight-knit history with the Marines. I’m
now in MARSOC—Marine Forces Special
Operations Command.
Deployments? Once to Afghanistan,
once to Yemen, five times total to Iraq.
In 2015, we deployed to Iraq, when the
ISIS caliphate was at the height of its power.
We were the first Marine special-ops team
on the ground there, to advise and assist.
ISIS was coming for the Kirkuk oil fields.
Everyone knew: This is where we push
them back. We established a forward med-
Courtesy subject (construction)
morning, there were probably seven to ten
Peshmerga, Kurds, fitted into each ambu-
lance. We treated over 100 very critical
trauma casualties that day. By midday, we
started receiving accurate mortar fire and
rockets. So that was different, treating
casualties during all that. A couple hours
later, they began bringing in injured civil-
ians. ISIS was losing, and they’d detonated
some suicide vests to cause chaos.
We were able to save most of the civil-
ians attacked by ISIS. But two small chil-
dren didn’t make it.
To make it in emergency medicine, you
learn early: Sometimes there’s nothing
you can do. All you can do is your best. So
that’s what we did, tried to have the resil-
ience to bounce back.
That mission went on for three to four
more days. And we won. It was a big, vic-
torious day for us, the Peshmerga, and the
people of Kirkuk. That can’t be forgotten,
even through the tragedy.
The time goes by quickly. A decade in,
I realized I had training and experience
some of the junior folks didn’t have yet.
That they needed me there for that. It’s a
calling, in that way. It really is.
training and fighting, I’ve come to realize
that through identifying and understand-
ing our personal or professional vulnerabil-
ities, we can become stronger teammates
and a stronger unit by focusing our efforts
on improvement and lending a helping
hand where others fall short.
Pay attention, learn, improve. Every day.
I thought physical strength was how
much weight you could lift, how big your
muscles were. But serving alongside the
toughest men I’ve ever met changed my
definition: Executing multiday operations
over arduous terrain in 130 degree heat
with a ruck that weighs as much as a small
adult and then having to fight for your life
when you get to your destination is beyond
the traditional standard of strength.
I’ve also learned that the mind is stron-
ger than the body. Psychological strength,
the resolve to break past barriers when
you’re already depleted, is vital.
I thought spirituality just meant being
religious. I’ve learned that we each have a
fire inside connecting all of us, kept kin-
dled by a sense of duty to our team, our
families, our country. The fierce American
spirit is what we rely on to both calm and

ical station as near the fighting as possible. Before 9/11, I thought vulnerability was embolden us to do such dangerous deeds.
Our job was to stabilize casualties so weakness or incapability. Honestly, I think We’re also just regular people. We are
civilian ambulances could get them back we all felt vulnerable when the World Trade sons, brothers, sisters, parents. That’s
to the hospital, Kirkuk General. That first Center was attacked. After two decades of something I wish more people understood.

*The subject requested anonymity because he is still an active-duty special operator.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TARA PIXLEY MEN’S HEALTH | SEPTEMBER 2021 95

 SIX PACK
5. Oura Ring
“I use [the fitness-data-
tracking ring] with my
strength coach from the
UFC,” Ngannou says. “My
ring is connected with
him, so when I wake up
and I open the app, he can
also see the data before I
even get there for training.
He doesn’t need to ask me
questions all the time. That’s
very practical for my training.
I wear it on my ring finger,
and people always think
I’m married!” From $299;
ouraring.com

3. Ceek 360 4D
Wireless Headphones
Ngannou depends on
music to help power
through the drudgery
of cardio training, espe-

FRANCIS NGANNOU
When Ngannou won the UFC heavyweight title
cially road work. “I love
to wear my headphones
when I’m running,” he
says. “And they’re also
good for video gaming.”
earlier this year, the fighter didn’t splurge on anything $250; shop.ceek.com
gaudy. “I went home, and when I got there, the love
that I received is something that all the money cannot
buy,” says Ngannou, 35, who grew up in poverty in
Cameroon. “Billionaires would love to have that,
but they will never have it, and I have it.” Besides, he
already has the six most essential things he needs to
train, recover, and relax. BY BRETT WILLIAMS, NASM Gymshark

2. Samsung Neo QLED

4K Smart TV
Ngannou, who speaks

learning English only in the

past five years. He watches
TV—with the subtitles on—to

1. Egg Weights
“For shadowboxing, I use Google Translate.” From
recently discovered Egg $1,400; samsung.com 4. Hyperice
Weights,” Ngannou says. Normatec 2.0
“They help me work on As an MMA fighter, Ngannou trains
Getty Images (Ngannou). Courtesy brands (remaining).

my shoulders and get a lot, and after workouts he straps

used to weight in my into the Normatec leg system,
hands even when I’m which uses compression to increase
not wearing gloves.” You circulation and help speed up recov-
can also use them while ery. “It’s very relaxing and helps
running. From $28; keep your blood flowing,” he says.
eggweights.com From $900; hyperice.com

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