E

EAT MORE, SPEND LESS Power Meals for Any Budget

STRONGER, FASTER, BETTER

ZAC
EFRON
The HUSTLE , the MUSCLE
+ His Next WILD RIDE
Special Report:

Guys
REAL
R
Naked
REAL
REAL TALK ABOUT
Their Bodies
BRAD
B PITT’S
Fight Club
Physique,
EXPLAINED
T
THE
BATTLE
AGAINST
Bigorexia CAN

DROPPING
ACID
EASE YOUR
E
ANXIETY?
ANXIETY
I
 “I enjoy pushing myself
10.2022
and really laying it all
out.Otherwise I don’t
feel like myself.”
—ZAC EFRON, P. 54

Zac Efron photographed exclusively for Men’s

Health by Ture Lillegraven. Styling by Natasha
Fomina. Prop styling by Ward Robinson. Styling
assistance by Priscilla Langdon. Grooming
by Sydney Sollod/the Wall Group. Tailoring by
Neli Abrahamy. Production: Crawford & Co.
On the cover: Muscle T-shirt by Jungmaven;
vintage motocross pants from Fox Costumes
& Wardrobe; boots by Alpinestars; gloves by FLY
Racing; watch by Garmin. This page: Muscle T-shirt
by Jungmaven; vintage motocross pants from
Fox Costumes & Wardrobe; boots by Alpinestars;
gloves by FLY Racing; watch by Garmin.

54 ZAC EFRON 62 NEXT-LEVEL THE STATE OF THE BODY 2022

F E A T U R E S

RIDES AGAIN NFL MUSCLE 70 EVERY BODY 82 LET’S TALK 88 BIGOREXIA

He has been a child In today’s NFL, IS PERFECT ABOUT (BRAD Muscle dysmorphia
star, a fitness pinup, speed, nutrition, Love handles. PITT’S) FIGHT is on the rise.
a leading man, an and mental strength Body hair. Wrinkles. CLUB (BODY) Social media may
onscreen himbo, and require constant Stretch marks. be making the
an environmental innovation. Jonathan Two decades ago, problem worse,
Eleven men show Tyler Durden took
activist. But Zac Efron Taylor, Tom Brady, us what happens but it may also offer
hasn’t always been Lane Johnson, off his shirt. Men new solutions.
when we learn to everywhere still see
healthy. Now he’s and others let you appreciate every BY PETER FLAX
reinventing himself peek at their his body as the
part of ourselves. masculine ideal.
again, and he wants playbooks. (Spoiler: We
to do it right. BY ANNA KATHERINE become stronger.) Why? BY BRETT
BY LAUREN LARSON CLEMMONS WILLIAMS, NASM-CPT

PHOTOGRAPH BY TURE LILLEGRAVEN MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 1

 CONTENTS
MH WORLD
7 Weird things about
your body that you love,
battling the NFL
Sunday beer gut, and
your thoughts on
Chace Crawford’s The
Boys workout.
2 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH
THE KING OF
SANDWICHES
Three simple
ingredients
done right.
(See page 36.)
LIFE
33 The 2022
MH Sneaker
Awards! Featuring the
best kicks for every
occasion.
36 There’s only one
right way to make the
perfect BLT.
38 5 for $50: Turn
ordinary steak and eggs
into a workweek’s worth
of protein-packed fuel.
40 Home Front: No
more cheap pillows.
Invest in your bedroom
and reclaim your sleep.
43 You smell . . . old?!
Update your cologne
with these fresh takes
on classic scents.
44 Cool Dad: Comedian
Kevin Fredericks
thought his parents’
advice was dumb. Then
he had his own kids.
MIND
47 After traditional
meds failed to work
for Cody Blue Snider,
BODY he tried ayahuasca.
Now he’s on a mission
13 Peptide injections 26 Tricks to protect to destigmatize
promise muscle and your eyes against medical plants.
youth on demand. screens, headlights,
But do they live up to pollen—and more. 50 Kindness is proven
Food styling: Barrett Washburne. Prop styling: Maeve Sheridan.
the hype? to boost your mood. All
28 Sleep. Steps. you have to do is give.
16 Build muscle and Calories burned!?
rev up your heart with Here’s what data 51 Brooks Running CEO
this 25-minute is actually worth Jim Weber’s secrets
bodyweight blitz. tracking. to staying on track all
day long.
22 Classic yoga but with 30 Transfor-nation!:
a ten-pound sandbag. How a device helped 52 A new “bottom up”
This is flexibility meets one man get his approach to therapy can
strength training. diet, and his diabetes, help you unpack trauma.
under control.
24 6 a.m.: Skip Bayless’s +
undisputed early- 96 Six Pack: Roman
morning workout. Reigns’s favorite stuff.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LAURA MURRAY
 All for

C H IC K E N FOR A L L .
More crispy chicken. More family faves.
 Personnel Question:
TEAM What’s the podcast you
can’t stop listening to?
MEET THE
MEN’S HEALTH
Richard Dorment
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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SVP, GROUP PUBLISHING DIRECTOR A DV I S O RY
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PA N E L
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EDITORIAL performing Kristina McMahon VP, Marketing The doctors, scientists,
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Executive Directors, West Coast CARDIOLOGY
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ART
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love hearing new Patty Rudolph PR 4.0 Media, Southwest Adnan Nasir, M.D., Ph.D.
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HEARST VISUAL GROUP Emma Chapman Research Manager
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Melissa Macaleer Executive Marketing Directors Martin Gibala, Ph.D.
Deputy Visual Directors
Bonnie Blue Marketing Director Mark Peterson, Ph.D., C.S.C.S.*D
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Alesandra Ajlouni Associate Marketing Director Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D., C.S.C.S.
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with laughter Stephanie Rubino Senior Marketing Manager Felice Schnoll-Sussman, M.D.
by the end.” Caroline Hall Associate Marketing Manager
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John Kenney Managing Copy Editor Flannery Wilson Sales & Marketing Coordinator Keith Roach, M.D.
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PUBLIC RELATIONS MENTAL HEALTH
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4 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

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 WORLD
BEHIND THE SCENES
WITH THE EXPERTS,
ADVISORS, AND
READERS WHO BRING
MEN’S HEALTH TO
LIFE, AND THEN SOME.

EVERY BODY I have super tiny ears. When I

IS PERFECT
was younger people would make
fun of them, but now that I’m
older the joke’s on them: all my
friends have huge old man ears.
@JuffBlidges

Starting on page 70, 11 real guys get real about

how they overcame body-image issues. Which got I have a big nose. A
us to thinking about you guys.... beak, as some may
WHAT’S THE WEIRDEST THING say. . . I take it as a
ABOUT YOUR BODY—AND WHAT DO compliment!
YOU LOVE ABOUT IT? @robDaria14569

Started losing
my hair in high
school. Accepted
it and rocked the
cue ball style.
@KomorowskiRob

My fingers are crooked

(I think the term
is hypermobility).
Showing people my
fingers is a fun party
trick. Their reactions I have some stretch
are amusing. marks from a serious
@JoshSaek
weight loss. I used
to be really self con-
scious about them,
I have a pronounced limp but now they’re more
from an old sports injury, of a reminder of how
far I’ve come.
but my wife says it makes @JWrightNotWrong
me look tough!
@TheFakeTPain
Getty Images

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 7

 WORLD EDITOR’S LETTER

is not a single person working at or reading

this magazine who doesn’t have one or more ASK
or many things about their physical appear-
MEN’S
HEALTH
ance that they would change if they could.
Such as the guy asking the above question.
It’s a smart question, and I’m not going to
tell anyone their concerns aren’t important
or they shouldn’t derive any kind of pleasure
or pride from their appearance. Feeling
Q. How can
stronger and more confident after shedding I make up for
a few pounds or noticing some new definition
in your biceps doesn’t make you superficial,
all the beer I
and spending time, energy, or money on drink on NFL
self-improvement (however you define and Sundays?
measure it) doesn’t make you vain. It makes
you human.
But body image is complicated, and it’s A. Practice control.
There’s no such thing as
personal, and you don’t need me or any
“justifying” unhealthy
stranger to tell you how to feel about it. Be-
eating and drinking.
sides: What I say probably wouldn’t matter. I
Sticking to a healthy
could tell you that other guys don’t really care
ASK THE E.I.C. diet all week (which
about your [insert insecurity here], and that
prioritizes lean protein,
your partner doesn’t really care, and that you
How do I create a better should love your body and just be grateful for
whole grains, fruits,

BODY IMAGE?
and vegetables) is your
your health, but you’re not going to listen,
best defense against the
because whatever is bugging you comes
game-day beer. When

W
from a place beyond reason—a much deeper
Sunday arrives, have a
place of individual pathologies and cultural
satiating breakfast—
—@markd.fitnessjourney
expectations around pride, shame, aging,
that means healthy fats
and masculinity.
like avocados, complex
Starting on page 70, we devote 26 pages to
carbs like spinach,
unpacking those pathologies and expecta-
WHEN I FIRST got this job back in 2018, and proteins like eggs.
tions. From childhood taunts and Brad Pitt’s
my friends would text me questions about You’ll be less hungry
Fight Club body to the #nofilter (read: highly
what it was like working at Men’s Health. come game time and
filtered) fitfluencers flexing on your social
Like: Do you even lift, bro? And: Don’t you feel fuller faster when
feeds, there are so many varied reasons
need six-pack abs to work there? And: How’s drinking. You can also
why so many of us have lousy body images.
your sixer coming along? There were a lot portion-control. What
There is only one solution, however, and it
of questions about that area of my body, I would tell my clients:
begins and ends with how you decide to feel
actually, which sounds weird until you Bring a single can. To
about your body. The men in our stunning
remember that this magazine spent decades avoid peer pressure,
photo portfolio “Every Body Is Perfect” each
holding up a set of well-defined abdominal use your friends to
decided at some point to stop letting others
muscles (six-pack, washboard, etc., etc.) reinforce good habits.
dictate how they would see themselves. From
as a signifier for . . . something. Excellence. Say: “Guys, I’m only
physical therapist Ilya Parker, who escaped
Self-possession. #Goals, before hashtags drinking one beer
jokes about both gender and weight as a
were a thing. An easy metonym for what today; hold me to it.”
youngster to become a fitness-inclusivity
was loosely and largely thought of as a good If you have more beers
advocate for heavier people, to Cody Young,
body—maybe even a perfect one. than you intended to,
a self-described body-hair ambassador, they
So here’s what it’s actually like working at don’t feel shame on
are choosing their own standards of physical
Men’s Health: Very few people here (and I’m Monday. Just return
excellence. They don’t have six-pack abs, and
not one of them) have six-pack abs, mostly to your healthy-eating
they don’t need them. They’re strong and
because they’re not compatible with our best practices.
self-possessed and totally convinced of their
genetics and/or lifestyle, and nobody thinks
awesomeness just the way they are—stretch — FATIMA CODY STANFORD, M.D.,
they have a perfect body or that such a thing
marks, jiggly hips, and all the rest of it. M.P.H., M.P.A., M.B.A. ,FAAP,
even exists. That doesn’t mean we’re sitting FACP, AN MH ADVISOR
That’s a #goal worth pursuing.
around feelin’ ourselves all the time. Stretch
Allie Holloway (Dorment)

marks. Jiggly hips. Cellulite and double

chins and curvy flanks that resist all manner
of spot training. To live in a body is to be + Have a question for Rich?
Tweet us at @MensHealthMag
constantly surprised and frustrated about with the hashtag #AskMHRich
what it will and will not do for you, and there Richard Dorment, Editor-in-Chief and ask away.

8 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

BRING YOUR PROMOTION

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 WORLD GOALS

MVP
THE DEEP
BRYAN

MEMBER
SAYAS

GOES DEEP
STATS
AGE: 42
OF THE
MONTH LOCATION:
Garden Grove, CA
Yes, The Boys spoofs superhero OCCUPATION:
movies. But its stars are still 100 Hospice care
percent jacked. Chace Crawford,
who plays the problematic Aquaman
knockoff the Deep, showed MH MY ROLE MODEL
YouTube viewers the workout that RIGHT NOW
keeps him in superhero shape, and My sister Kimmie.
some of you had a lot to say about it. She’s a mother, wife,
daughter, friend to all,
and an occupational
therapist; she encour-
ages us all to be our
best selves. Thank you,
Kimboy! Love you.

MEN’S HEALTH MVP members have access to some of MY PUMP-UP JAM

the best health, fitness, and entertainment coverage on “Champion,” by
the entire Internet. Each month, we survey our MVPs and Kanye West.
choose one whose story catches our eye. Sign up at join
.menshealth.com and you could see yourself here one day. HOW I STAY
MOTIVATED
Ryan Deffley MY FITNESS/ MY DREAM IN MY GYM BAG Wanting to set
Finally a guy who keeps it real NUTRITION WORKOUT Jump rope, running an example for my
and sticks with the basics. A GOAL THIS YEAR PARTNER shoes, extra shorts, family and friends
lot of celebrity fitness stuff Keep drinking Roger Federer. He’s extra socks, extra that we all just have
is based around fluff. But full 160 to 200 ounces evolved his tennis Dri-FIT shirt. to keep moving.
body and compound exercises of water daily and game with training
gets it done. run the Long Beach and a strong work THE ONE FOOD THE BEST PIECE
Half Marathon with ethic, and at over 40 I CAN’T LIVE OF ADVICE
my one-year-old he’s still at the top of WITHOUT “Always be honest.”
Jacinta Tate daughter, Serena, in his sport. Pizza. —my mom
This was a really great video full the stroller.
of realistic training! Love how
down to earth Chace is and his
physicality is inspiring.
THE MEN’S HEALTH TWITTER POLL
Lester Robin B. Pe THE MH SNEAKER AWARDS ARE ON PAGE 33.
WHAT’S YOUR GO-TO SNEAKER STYLE?
I’ve always wanted to see how
he trains his triceps—they look
huge even in season 1.
MINIMALIST VINTAGE MODERN NBA INSPIRED
LIKE ADIDAS STAN
SMITHS, COMMON
STREET STYLE STREET STYLE LIKE NIKE AIR
JORDANS, CONVERSE,
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34.3% 29.5% 24.8% 11.4%
Courtesy subject (Sayas). Courtesy brands (sneakers).

JacktheRipper
Love this guy in The Boys.
We need a Homelander
workout routine.

Stranger On The Internet

I just rewatched Gossip Girl . . .
Nate Archibald, what have
you become?
But honestly this dude
doesn’t age at all.
Based on 254 responses to @MensHealthMag.

10 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

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BODY
O? U E V EN
VITALITY STARTS HERE

DO YO
E, BR
P T ID
PE Speed workout recovery! Build
and maintain muscle! Turn yourself into
a real-life, self-healing Wolverine!
Injectable peptides do it all! Or do they?
BY LOU SCHULER

JUAN LEIJA, 38, had a problem:

He was a personal trainer and a
serious lifter whose elbow pain
prevented him from doing some
of the most fundamental lifts.
“I’d been dealing with tendinitis
for a year,” he remembers, “but
it had been extreme for about six
months. It felt like there was
something broken in there.”

ILLUSTRATIONS BY RAFA ALVAREZ MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 13

 BODY PEPTIDES
Just as Leija was starting to worry
about his ability to train, a friend of his
who owns a wellness clinic told him about
something called BPC-157. It’s an inject-
able peptide compound that, his friend
said, could do for Leija’s elbow what a year
of conventional and alternative therapies
couldn’t: make the pain go away.
“I went home and looked it up,” Leija
says. Evidence was scarce, but enthusi-
asm wasn’t. Satisfied users—athletes,
fighters, soldiers, and gym rats among
them—referred to it as the Wolverine
peptide for its healing powers.
BPC-157 is part of a growing list of com-
pounds called peptides gaining interest
in fitness, wellness, and antiaging cir-
cles. The buzz comes from their supposed
potential to help you build muscle, cut
fat, sleep better, or, with peptide PT-141,
rekindle sexual desire—all without the
side effects of riskier, more powerful
options like testosterone and synthetic
growth hormone.
Some peptide names, like MK-677,
sound like secret mind-control experi-
ments. Others, like sermorelin, look like
they exist only to trip up 12-year-olds in a
spelling bee. But what are peptides? Why
are so many people suddenly promoting
them? And do they even work?
THE PROMISE OF PEPTIDES
“PEPTIDES ARE short chains of amino
acids,” says Ryan Greene, D.O., the chief
medical officer of Monarch Athletic Club
in West Hollywood, California. Your body
actually produces more than 7,000 of
them, all with specific duties: regulating
your metabolic health, your appetite,
your body’s natural growth hormone.
There’s a perception now in gym
culture that injecting peptides, albeit
ones made in a lab, is a safer way to go
about getting gains than taking human
growth hormone (hGH) and/or anabolic
steroids. But the sales pitch isn’t new.
Antiaging clinics have been pushing the
same promise of looks and performance
since the late 20th century.
What’s new is the price, says Graham
Simpson, M.D., a physician with Opt
14 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH
The appeal is so strong
that people are injecting
the stuff daily or a few
times a week.
Health, a telemedicine clinic that offers
peptides. For instance, instead of paying
$1,200 a month for shots of growth hor-
mone—the original fountain of youth—
you’d pay a couple hundred a month for
peptides that stimulate your body to
release its own growth hormone. Or you’d
pay for peptides believed to stimulate
tissue-healing cells.
The appeal is so strong that people are
injecting the stuff daily or a few times a
week. Dr. Simpson regards these treat-
ments as “reasonable things we can do to
[increase] our health span and life span.”
Jeremie Walker, M.D., Dr. Simpson’s
colleague at Opt Health, agrees: “They’re
mimicking what your body already does
but with more specificity. It’s the difference
between using a hammer and a scalpel.”
WHAT THE SCIENCE SAYS
FOR ALL THE supposed benefits of
these peptide injections, the FDA hasn’t
approved any of the ones we’ve mentioned
to improve sexual function, enhance
healing, or slow aging. (Sermorelin is
FDA approved for use in children with
pituitary issues.) The World Anti-Doping
Agency has banned BPC-157 and any
growth-hormone-releasing peptides, too,
which means no athlete competing in a
drug-tested sport should go near them.
WADA’s ban suggests that they could
confer an advantage—which also means
there just may be something to them.
Yet when you go looking for the
scientific research, you don’t come up
with a lot. One study on BPC-157 showed
accelerated healing in rat tendon tissue.
Another study, on MK-677, published
in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinol-
ogy & Metabolism, showed it boosted
growth-hormone levels in real live older
folks to the normal range found in young
adults. But the kind of large-scale clinical
trials you depend on to know whether
something’s worth it? Not there yet.
Proponents argue that peptides are
relatively low-risk. They’re made of
amino acids; the theory is that if your
body doesn’t need them for a specific use,
they can be broken down and used for
something else, Dr. Greene says. But low
risk doesn’t mean zero risk.
If you’re constantly stimulating your
body over time to produce its own growth
hormone, Dr. Greene ponders, “is there
a potential risk for something similar to
what you see with synthetic growth hor-
mone? I think yeah, absolutely.” Known
side effects of taking synthetic hGH on
its own include increased risk of certain
cancers and diabetes.
And beyond the possible health risks,
the peptide industry is a target-rich
environment for scammers. “The current
state of affairs is pretty messy in the
peptide world,” Dr. Walker acknowledges.
“I kind of liken it to what we’re going
through with cryptocurrency and the leg-
acy financial system.” Opt Health doctors
use phrases like “buyer beware,” “nascent
industry,” and “kind of rogue right now.”
Peptides prescribed by wellness clinics
are made and sold by compounding phar-
macies with minimal standardization.
If that sounds scary to you, you’re
not alone. Take endocrinologist Karl
Nadolsky, D.O. He’s a former NCAA
Division I wrestler and a self-described
“meathead in the gym, but with a focus
on health.” He cautions: “I would never
personally take or suggest anyone take
any of these peptides without clear
clinical evidence for benefit in treating
a disease,” he says. Dr. Greene says that
if you do take them, you should do so only
under a doctor’s supervision, so they can
do regular check-ins and blood work.
 THE PEPTIDE CODEX
These four popular peptides promise quick fixes. But there are other,
science-tested ways to go about getting their benefits.

NAME THE HOPE DO THIS INSTEAD

BPC-157 Accelerates If you’re not recovering from a workout quickly, Dr. Greene says, “my
healing and first question is ‘Why? How’s your hydration, how’s your sleep?’ If all
workout those things are on point, it could be age or the type of training you’re
recovery. doing.” For tendons, platelet-rich-plasma therapy, in which your platelets
are concentrated and injected to promote healing, is pricey but proven.

MK-677 Increases Lift consistently, progressively, and with enough effort to get bigger
muscle mass and stronger. Eat protein-rich meals to give your body what it needs to
and reduces fat. build and repair muscle. Supplementing with creatine may also help.

PT-141 Increases Keep blood flow strong by eating a heart-healthy diet, exercising
sexual function regularly, quitting smoking, and, of course, trying pharma (Viagra,
and arousal. Cialis, Levitra, and other ED pills).

SERMORELIN Preserves You can increase natural-growth-hormone production by fasting,

muscle tissue getting a good night’s sleep (growth-hormone levels are highest when
and slows down you sleep), working out (high-intensity exercise seems to work best),
signs of aging. losing excess body fat, and limiting sugar and other refined carbs.

A SHOT OF REALITY
WHICH BRINGS US back to Juan Leija,
the personal trainer who turned to BPC-
157 to deal with his worsening elbow pain.
Consistent with Dr. Greene’s advice, he
went to a doctor for a prescription.
And it worked. “I would say within
two or three weeks, the pain in my elbow
started going away,” Leija says. “Five
weeks in, it wasn’t there anymore.” He’s
been using it ever since, injecting the
peptide in his abdomen five days a week.
He considers the cost of the treatment to
be money well spent.
Obesity specialist Spencer Nadolsky,
D.O., on the other hand, had a very dif-
ferent experience with the same peptide.
For all the skepticism he shares with his
endocrinologist brother, Karl, he bought
BPC-157 from a compounding pharmacy
in an attempt to alleviate his own tendi-
nitis. And? “I didn’t get shit for results.”
Anecdotes won’t stop a lot of guys.
“Many bodybuilders consider themselves
on par with lab rats,” says Rick Collins,
a criminal defense attorney who spe-
cializes in cases involving steroids and
dietary supplements. “They have a much
different threshold from the average
person. If they’re hurt now, they can’t
wait for FDA approval.” But popularity
shouldn’t be mistaken for a prescription.
Only evidence can fill that.

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 15

 BODY NO GEAR, NO PROBLEM!
BODYWEIGHT BLASTER
Ditch the iron and master your bodyweight with this speedy
25-minute blitz that revs your heart rate, builds the muscle your
body needs, and blasts your abs on every single move.
DIRECTIONS: Do this
workout 3 to 5 times a
week. All other days, go for
a 10-minute walk or run.
WARMUP
SPIDERMAN TO
CAT COW
Start in pushup position,
then shift your right foot to
alongside your right hand.
Return to pushup position,
squeeze your abs and glutes,
and repeat on the other side.
Bend your knees, lowering
your shins to the floor.
Squeeze your shoulder
blades and arch your back
slowly. Then round your back
and spread your shoulder
blades. Return to pushup
position. That’s 1 rep; do 4.
16 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH
THE ULTIMATE
BY FARIS KHAN, C.S.C.S.
CIRCUIT 1
DIRECTIONS: Do each
move for 30 seconds,
then do a 30-second
high-knee sprint. Rest
1 minute. Do 3 rounds.
1a
YOGA PUSHUP
Get in pushup position, abs and glutes tight. Keeping your legs straight, raise your
butt as high in the air as possible. This is the start. Lower your hips to return to pushup
position as you simultaneously bend at the elbows and shoulders, lowering your chest
to within an inch of the floor. Press back up and raise your butt high again. That’s 1 rep.
1b
PAUSED
BULGARIAN
SPLIT SQUAT
Stand on your left leg,
right instep on a box, right
knee bent. Bend your
left knee, lowering your
torso until your left thigh is
parallel to the floor. Hold
3 seconds. Press back
1c
up. That’s 1 rep; do 30
seconds on each side.
V CRUNCH
Lie on your back, arms and legs out-
stretched. Tighten your abs, pressing
your lower back into the floor, shoul-
der blades and legs an inch off the
floor, hands beside your butt. This is
the start. Pull your knees toward your
chest. Return to the start, and as you
do this, rotate your torso to the right.
Repeat, this time shifting your torso
toward the left. That’s 1 rep.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY T YLER JOE
 T R A I N E R S P O T L I G H T : FA R I S K H A N , C . S . C . S . , is a Maryland-based P I C T U R E D H E R E : J E R R Y S T. L O U I S is a New York
performance trainer who specializes in bodyweight training. City–based trainer. Follow him on Instagram
His no-gear workout program is available to all Men’s Health at @jaycoachz.
MVP Premium subscription members.

CIRCUIT 2

DIRECTIONS: Do each exercise

for 30 seconds, then move on to
the next exercise. Rest 1 minute
after completing the full circuit.
Do 3 rounds.

2a BACK WIDOW
Lie on your back, heels near your butt,
upper arms on the floor at a 45 degree angle
to your torso. Keeping your abs tight, drive
your elbows hard into the floor; this will raise
your torso off the floor slightly. Hold for 2
seconds, squeezing your shoulder blades.
Lower back to the floor. That’s 1 rep.

2c SINGLE-LEG HIP THRUST

Lie with your shoulder blades on a bench, chair, or box, heels
near your butt. Raise your right foot off the floor; keep your hips
square to the ceiling as you do this. This is the start. Squeeze
your left glute, driving your hips toward the ceiling; pause, then
lower to the start. That’s 1 rep; do 30 seconds on each side.

2b FEET-ELEVATED
MOUNTAIN CLIMBER
Get in pushup position, abs and glutes
tight, feet on a box or bench. Keeping your
hips and shoulders square to the floor and
tightening your abs, drive your right knee
toward your chest. Return to the start.
Repeat on the other side. That’s 1 rep.

2d
TWO-STEP SHUFFLE
Get in athletic stance, knees
bent, feet about shoulder-
width apart, weight on the
balls of your feet. Explosively
push off with your right foot
and hop to the left, landing
in athletic stance. Repeat the
movement to hop back to the
right. That’s 1 rep.
tank by lululemon; shorts by
ten thousand; shoes by on.

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 17

 BODY TREND ON TRIAL

ENTER

SANDBAG!
Classic yoga gets a strength upgrade,
thanks to ten pounds of sand.
Can fitness editor BRETT WILLIAMS, NASM-CPT,
muscle up?

I BEND AT THE WAIST, then twist my

torso, reaching my right hand toward
the floor as I reach my left hand toward
the ceiling. I’m in triangle pose, a classic
yoga position that stretches my chest and
opens my hips and lower back.
But this triangle feels different. I’m
midway through Equinox’s new Yoga
Strong class, a unique training expe-
rience that uses a ten-pound sandbag
for nearly every move. Right now that
sandbag is in my left hand, and its weight
is continually forcing me to reach my
left arm just a bit higher. The class, at
Columbus Circle in New York City, has 12
members, and when two people near me
struggle, our instructor, Margaret, walks
over to them and helps them reposition
the sandbag. She’s friendly but deliber-
ate, telling several other people to do the
move without the sandbag to get it right.
I squeeze my abs a little tighter and
clench my glutes. And in this moment,
I can feel how different this is from your
average yoga session: The sandbag resis-
tance is stealthily challenging my mus-
cles to activate during basic stretches.
Yoga Strong is the latest class to intro-
duce resistance tools to flexibility work-
outs, a trend that’s been popping up in
many yoga classes. The CorePower Yoga
chain offers a YogaSculpt class that uses
light dumbbells, and Iron Yoga, another
dumbbell-based practice, is growing in
popularity. Decades before all that, the
Iyengar yoga tradition, which originated
in India, integrated sandbags to help you
deepen stretches, add pressure to key
poses, and ground yourself.
Equinox considered other modes of
BY THE
NUMBERS
CLASS NAME:
Yoga Strong
LOCATION:
Equinox
HOW LONG:
60 minutes
GOAL: Strength
and flexibility
resistance, like weighted blocks, wear-
able weights, and resistance bands, says
Michael Gervais, one of the creators of
Yoga Strong and a director at Equinox.
But the team settled on sandbags after
noticing their flexibility. A yoga-gear
manufacturer added a custom seam and
handles to make these implements easy
to heft, and after a few iterations, the
final form was ready for flows. It works
brilliantly in class, too, especially when
I’m told to fold it, hamburger-style, at the
seam to bring the handles together in my
palm. Suddenly, it feels like a kettlebell.
And once I see the sandbag as a slightly
unstable kettlebell, many of the moves
start to make sense. That’s partly because
of how Margaret programs. She’s a yoga
instructor, but she injects a strength-
training vibe into this class. After several
familiar yoga moves, like chair pose and
downward dog, she pushes us through
more strength-based exercises.
We do bent-over rowing movements,
training our back muscles by hinging
forward, squeezing our shoulder blades,
and pulling the sandbag toward our rib
cage. We challenge our shoulders by
pressing the sandbag overhead. Later,
we challenge our hips and lower back,
bending forward with the bag balanced
on the small of our back.
No, these aren’t classic yoga moves,
and no, I’m not moving heavy weight. But
I enjoy this hybrid training approach,
and my muscles are starting to feel a

22 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPHS BY T YLER JOE


burn. This is the perfect yoga class for
guys like me, who focus on strength
training but know they need flexibility
work. I’m getting stretched out, but the
sandbag makes me work for it.
That’s particularly true during Yoga
Strong’s version of warrior 3. I balance
on my left leg, bending at the waist until
my torso is nearly parallel to the floor, my
right leg straight behind me. The sand-
bag hangs in my straight arms below my
chest. Then I squeeze my shoulder blades
and row upward. I’ve held a warrior 3
before but not while rowing. Ten pounds
doesn’t sound heavy, but as I fight to keep
my strict position, the tiny sandbag deliv-
ers plenty of challenge.
Following all that weight work, we tran-
NAMASTE
AF!
Build flexibility (and muscle)
with these moves from Yoga
Strong. Don’t have a sandbag?
No sweat; grab a light backpack
filled with books instead.
TRIANGLE POSE
Stand with left foot
behind right. Raise your
arms and reach forward
over your right leg until
your torso is parallel
to the floor. Lower your
left hand to your right
foot. Too hard? Place
your hand on a
block. Hold for 30
seconds; do 3
reps per side.
CURTSY WITH
ROTATION
Stand with a
sandbag at your
chest. Take a
crossover step
back with your left
The author, center, rows foot, then bend at
the sandbag into position. the knees and
Right: Michael Gervais, head hips. Rotate your
of yoga and meditation for torso to the right.
Equinox, models the moves. Stand up; do 8 to
10 reps per side.
sition to balance moves. First I’m
in tree pose, balancing on my right foot, my
left foot pinned to my right thigh, a sand-
bag held overhead. Moments after that,
I’m on the final round of warrior 3 holds
and my entire body is shaking. I’m using
all my strength just to hold my stance.
We end the workout by lying on our
back in Savasana, the relaxed position
that closes most yoga sessions—and Yoga SINGLE-LEG
Strong has a twist on this as well. Now my ROW HOLD
sandbag is a grounding tool, sitting on Stand with a sandbag in your
my waist and pressing my hips down. I right hand, right foot off the
love it so much that I grab another sand- floor. Tilt your torso forward
bag and place it on my chest, feeling my until it’s parallel to the floor. Row
body truly sink into the floor. Turns out the sandbag to your chest. Hold
sandbags are great for building muscle— 20 seconds; do 3 reps per side.
and helping me relax, too.
MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 23
 BODY FOREVER FIT

6 A.M. WITH...

THE HOT-TAKE CHAMP

S
As he enters his 70s, SKIP BAYLESS, cohost of Fox Sports’ Skip and
Shannon: Undisputed, ensures he’s ready to keep up with every pro who
appears on his show (including LeBron). BY SPENSER MESTEL

SKIP BAYLESS hates commercial breaks—
especially right now. He’s two minutes
into a five-minute plank, the final exercise
in his workout, and he needs something to
distract him from the burn.
Most mornings, that means there’s a
prerecorded sports game on his iPhone—
except that game has just cut to com-
mercial. So Bayless refocuses himself by
remembering his reason for working out
in the first place. He’s in the gym at Fox
Studios in Los Angeles at 5:30 today not
just to build muscle. At 70 years old, he’s
also here to forge mental strength, which
is what he needs in order to hold his own
on Undisputed, the Fox Sports debate
show he cohosts every weekday morning.
His job: verbal jousting with NFL Hall
of Famer Shannon Sharpe on the sports
topics of the day. Every conversation
is supposed to be combative. (It makes
for good TV.) “It’s relentlessly intense,
because we’re trying to win,” Bayless says
as he squeezes his abs a bit tighter in his
plank, “and win to the point of embar-
rassing your opponent.” (Because that
makes for good TV, too.)
Each episode of Undisputed is filmed
live, starting at 6:30 a.m. and running for
two and a half hours. Bayless and Sharpe
discuss a boatload of subjects, everything
from NFL free agency to the latest star
on the LPGA Tour. So Bayless must have
knowledge of every sport, and if he doesn’t
know something, he must sound confident
enough on air to hold viewers’ attention.
This morning workout is key to that con-
fidence. It’s a workout that has remained
largely the same for nearly three decades.
Bayless started working out in 1982,
relying heavily on weight-room Nautilus
machines, but as the years have worn on,
he’s embraced free weights and cardio.
Long before his five-minute plank, he
began this session with an hour of tread-
mill running, stoking his cardio engine.
After that, he battled through a series of
classic bodybuilder exercises: cable chest

24 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPHS BY ETHAN SCOTT

 FILL IN THE
PLANK
NOTHING TO WATCH WHILE YOU’RE MID-
PLANK? DISTRACT YOURSELF WITH
THESE VARIATIONS. DO EACH FOR 30
TO 40 SECONDS; DO 3 OR 4 SETS.

SHOULDER TAP Start in pushup

position. Lift your right hand and
touch it to your left shoulder;
repeat on the other side.

TOE TAP Start in plank position.

Lift your left foot. Keep your leg
straight and squeeze your glute.
Lower; repeat on the other side.
BETWEEN
EXTENDED PLANK Get in pushup
Skip Bayless may be 70 years old, but that doesn’t
stop him from crushing an hour of cardio, bodybuilder
SETS
position. Walk your hands out as exercises like cable presses (left) and triceps extensions
far as possible without arching (above), and a five-minute plank (below) every day. GUILTY PLEASURE?
your back. Keep your arms “I drink a Diet Mountain
straight. Hold as long as possible. Dew every morning
before we start taping.
PLANK REACH Start in plank believes he can keep up with. “LeBron’s It’s my only vice,
always posting his workout videos,” Bay- because I don’t
position. Reach your right hand
eat sugar.”
out, thumb up, in front of you as less says. “Well, that’s great, but I prom-
far as possible. Return it to the ise you that I do that much. I go that hard. WILDEST INJURY?
floor; repeat on the other side. I go hard at my weights. It is no picnic.” “A while back, I tore my
Especially not right now, with his left biceps tendon
basketball game still stuck on commer- doing the lat pulldown
machine. I had to get
cial break and one minute left on his surgery on it, and it
presses, hammer curls, and chinups. It’s plank finisher. Bayless tightens his fists, was a bitch.”
all central to Bayless’s long-term goal: holding for the last few seconds of misery.
continuing to outwit the aging process. When it’s finally over, his confidence is STRANGEST
“All I care about in the end is staying so high that he throws another diss at TRAINING HABIT?
“I like to close my eyes,
healthy,” he says. “That’s the essence of the king. “If LeBron came and raced me because I’m focused
what we’re talking about.” on my running course for eight miles, I on the weight of a
Three days a week, he pushes through would kill it,” he says, “because I weigh weird thing when I do
this weight-room session. Seven days a 165 pounds, and I do it all the time. I run weight. That connects
with your soul better.”
week, he guts out that hour of cardio. He like a maniac, and I’m pretty good at it.”
hasn’t missed a regular cardio session It must be showtime.
since May 3, 1998, he says, when he had
a sinus infection. (Earlier this year, he
even trained through a bout of Covid.) In
Bayless’s mind, this consistency doesn’t
just power up his lungs; his workouts are
as intense as any session a pro athlete—or
the chiseled Sharpe—might undertake.
And yes, Bayless says, it matters that
he does his cardio preshow. In a way, he
hints, it makes him tougher than Sharpe.
“He does all his workouts afterward,”
Bayless says. “He couldn’t fathom doing
any sort of anything before the show.”
Sharpe isn’t the only athlete Bayless

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 25

 BODY COMFORT IN SIGHT

MAKE YOUR EYES SAY

AHHHHH Your eyes have been working overtime.
Discover exactly what’s to blame for all that
redness, dryness, fuzzy vision, and
general burnout—and how you can find relief.
BY ALICE OGLETHORPE

THE CAUSE:

LED HEADLIGHTS
MORE THAN 50 PERCENT of cars have
these bulbs, which are brighter and
sharper than ever. Oncoming cars with
LEDs can make your vision skip a beat.
“Your retina photoreceptors get washed
out, which takes some time to recover
from,” says Theodore Leng, M.D., an
associate professor of ophthalmology at
Stanford University School of Medicine.
The Fix: Until the newly approved
“smart” LED lights (they adjust to oncom-
ing cars) are prevalent, glance slightly THE CAUSE:

SCREENS, SCREENS, AND MORE SCREENS

down and to the right of the road until the
bright beams pass. Also, “dry eyes can
be more sensitive to light,” says Thomas
Steinemann, M.D., a spokesperson for the
American Academy of Ophthalmology, so
point air vents away from your face.
Junk or Science?
BEFORE YOU THROW DOWN
FOR THOSE NEWLY FDA-APPROVED
VISION-CORRECTING EYE DROPS, KNOW
THIS: A BOTTLE ($79) LASTS ONLY ABOUT
A MONTH, AND “THE DROPS MAKE YOUR
PUPILS TINY, SO THE WORLD MAY LOOK
DARKER,” DR. STEINEMANN SAYS.
WE NOW USE our digital devices 60 percent more often than we
did prepandemic. Because you blink less frequently and fully when
viewing a screen, your eyes aren’t well hydrated. “When your tear
film breaks up from dryness, it isn’t just uncomfortable—you also
don’t see as well,” says Richard Gibralter, M.D., an associate profes-
sor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at Montefiore Medical
Center. And focusing for hours at close range leads to eye fatigue,
headaches, and blurred vision.
The Fix: Ideally, follow the 20/20/20 rule: Every 20 minutes,
look 20 feet away for 20 seconds. But even eye doctors admit that’s
hard to do. At least try to close your eyes for a few seconds or glance
down a hallway or out a window as often as you remember. (Now is
good.) For immediate relief, use lubricating eye drops—look for the
words “artificial tears” or “lubricating” on the label, as on Systane
Getty Images

and Refresh brands.

26 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

 THE CAUSE: 3 RULES
SUGARY, CARBY SNACKS FOR NO-REGRET
PIZZA, ENERGY BARS, CHIPS —these grab-and-go goods can spike LASER EYE
your blood sugar. If you have diabetes or prediabetes, elevated glucose
can damage the tiny blood vessels in your retina, says Dr. Leng. This SURGERY
can potentially lead to blurring, distortion, and vision loss.
The Fix: “Leveling out your blood sugar is the healthiest thing you When Americans get laser eye
surgery to correct their vision,
can do for your eyes,” says Dr. Steinemann. The best way to do it is with
most go with LASIK, since it’s a
a well-balanced diet high in fiber. A more radical approach: inter- household name and promises
mittent fasting. Refraining from eating meals outside of an eight- or fast recovery. The trouble: Dry
ten-hour window has been shown to lower glucose levels, according to eyes are significantly more
a review paper in the International Journal of Endocrinology. prevalent with LASIK than with
other surgeries, and I’ve only seen
that increase with more screen
time. PRK and ASA (advanced
surface ablation) shape the
THE CAUSE: cornea without a cut, resulting in

SO MANY ALLERGENS far less damage and dryness. Use

CLIMATE CHANGE is making pollen seasons
longer and more intense—one reason your
eyes may feel more irritated and itchy and
look redder than ever before.
The Fix: Pick the right allergy eye drops.
Skip redness reducers and reach for a prod-
uct that contains an antihistamine, such as
alcaftadine (in Lastacaft). Antihistamines
block your eyes’ receptors for histamine, a
chemical your body makes in response to an
allergen. Equally good are “mast-cell stabi-
lizers,” products that block histamine from
being released in the first place. Look for the
ingredients ketotifen (in Alaway, Zaditor)
or olopatadine (Pataday). Trial and error is
the main way to know which works better for
you. No need to rush out for contact lenses
that contain an antihistamine—the drops
work fine, and if you’re not used to contacts,
these can just add “a layer of complexity and
hassle into your day,” Dr. Steinemann says.
these strategies before you sign
up for any laser vision-correction
surgery. —CRAIG MOSKOWITZ, M.D.
SHOP AROUND
The right vision-correction surgery
must reflect the patient’s lifestyle. If
you have a job where clear vision—
especially at night—is important,
then the halos, haze, and starbursts
that can appear after LASIK spell
trouble. If you play contact sports—
or have a baby—an accidental poke
to the eye can dislodge the corneal
flap left by LASIK. If your doc isn’t
willing to recommend alternatives,
find a new doc.
CHECK THEIR EXPERIENCE
Ask the doctor how many times
they’ve corrected prescriptions
similar to yours. You never want to
have the highest prescription that
a surgeon has ever operated on.
Your surgeon should recognize the
limitations of laser eye surgery for
very high prescriptions.

HOW TO PICK THE PERFECT EYE DROP
GO PRESERVATIVE-
FREE. Preservatives can
be irritating, says Mina
Massaro-Giordano,
M.D., at the University
of Pennsylvania Scheie
Eye Institute. No-pre-
servative drops come in
bottles now, not just in
tiny, expensive vials.
DON’T OBSESS OVER
INGREDIENTS. There are
small differences in how
lubricating drops form a
protective layer over your
eye, but there’s no bot-
tom-line rule for which is
better for whom. They’re
all soothing, Dr. Massaro-
Giordano says.
FIND OUT HOW LONG
RECOVERY TAKES
PAY ATTENTION TO Make sure your doc is clear that PRK
PERCENTAGES. The and ASA require a longer recovery
higher the percentage period because the corneal surface
of the lubricating ingre- needs to heal. LASIK’s is almost
dient, the thicker the eye immediate, but you live with the
drop is going to be and effects of the flap cut.
the blurrier it can make
your vision. Go with a
lower percentage in the craig moskowitz, m.d., is the
day and higher at night. founder of Moskowitz Eye Care
in New York City.

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 27

 BODY TRACKERS

HOW TO DO

DATA RIGHT
The deluge of numbers from your wearables
can tell you a lot—but not everything. Read what
you need. Optimize your life.
BY CHRISTIE ASCHWANDEN

JAN FEB MARCH APRIL MAY JUN JUL AUG SEPT

IF SOMEONE ASKS you, “How are
you doing?” and you feel the need to
pull up your tracker app, we get you.
Humanity has entered the golden age
of health and fitness tracking. Everybody
wears a tracker now, whether strapped
around the wrist or cuffed around a
finger. The global tracker industry was
already worth $41 billion in 2021, and
it is forecast to grow to more than
$138 billion by 2028. A legion of com-
panies—Garmin, Fitbit, Whoop, Oura,
Amazfit, and so many more—advertise
wearables that promise to quantify
everything from heart rate and stress
And that promise is alluring: If you can
track it, you can improve it, these brands
argue. Except that some experts are now
seeing the symptoms of overtracking.
“One risk of all this measuring is that you
become so obsessed with metrics that you
forget the reasons you’re out there—things
like recreation, fun, hanging out with your
buddies,” says Michael J. Joyner, M.D., a
human-physiology researcher at the Mayo
Clinic. Even sleep is no refuge, because you
feel pressure to attain a high sleep score.
Yet there is a way to make your tracker
work for you. Follow the new rules
to streamline what it tells you, optimize
REFINE YOUR FOCUS
IDENTIFY TWO or three metrics that
support what you want most. For
instance, if your goal is to finish a
10K, then the distance you can run
without stopping is more relevant than
something like your respiration rate,
explains Dr. Joyner. “You have to ask
yourself how collecting more-granular
data is going to help you achieve your
goals.” Of course, pace will be relevant,
and a healthy amount of sleep can
help you get there, too. But how heat-
acclimatized your device thinks you are
and how much recovery you need from
Getty Images

level to metabolic rate, fitness level, your life, and stay in control of your a workout may not be accurate enough
recovery status, and sleep quality. device—not the other way around. to benefit you. And you probably don’t

28 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

 200
150
100
50
0 formance coach Brad Stulberg, author
-50
-100
-150
OCT NOV DEC
need a tracker to tell you whether your
stress level is high or low.
USE IT TO LOSE IT
THE IDEA IS that eventually you won’t
even need a tracker to hit your goals.
When used wisely, tracking technology
can help you develop your inner
compass, says performance expert and
coach Steve Magness, author of Do
Hard Things.
You might not require it to understand
you need more hours of sleep, but seeing
how little you get can help you prioritize
rest more. And when you don’t, a sleep
score can help you pay attention to what
it feels like when you haven’t gotten
enough. When things match up—you
kind of know what the score is before you
THE VERDICT ON
even look, and then you see that you’re TRACKER
right—the tracker may have served
its purpose. The next step is connecting
DATA
what you do during the day with how it To track or not to track?
makes you feel the next day, then mak- Here’s what experts say is
ing adjustments to get more sleep—or
opt-in or opt-out.
to stop doing whatever interferes with
it (screens, caffeine, keeping the “play
next episode” setting enabled, etc.).
Trackers can send you down the
right path without nagging you. Per-
HOURS OF SLEEP
of The Practice of Groundedness, worked This metric affects everything:
with a high-powered executive who told athletic performance, mood,
him that wearing an Oura ring helped cognitive ability, energy. Most
him drink less alcohol. The device trackers do a pretty decent
flagged sleep impairments caused by job of measuring it.
overdoing it. “It was almost like a little
reminder on his finger not to drink so
much,” says Stulberg. “Did he need to
spend $400 on a device plus the mem-
bership fees to deliver this boilerplate
health advice? No.” But the thing about CALORIES BURNED
Those counters that purport
basic health advice is that it can be hard
to follow, so if a tracking device can to measure how much you’ve
nudge you in the right direction, that’s burned are never accurate,
and fixating on them can make
worth something.
you anxious, Stulberg says.
STOP AT 9.99
CAN YOU END A RUN when your watch
hits 9.99 miles—or when your step
count reads 9,999? Magness urges you
to try it—and reap the mental benefit
DAILY STEPS
It shouldn’t be your only activity
that comes from not letting your tracker
metric, but unless you’re doing
dictate your behaviors. Stopping short an exercise that won’t register as
“trains you to sit with the discomfort— steps, like swimming or cycling,
to navigate the anxiety and be okay your step count gives a decent
with it. Learning to accept and sit with idea of how much you move.
discomfort is what toughness is all
about,” he says. And while the tracker
can’t spit out a toughness or resilience
score, it can help you hone those
valuable qualities.
“The question here is: How much PROPRIETARY
decision-making power and autonomy RECOVERY SCORES
are you willing to cede to some elec- Until these secret algorithms
tronic device?” asks Dr. Joyner. “If my are published and validated in
device says I should take it easy but I scientific literature, you have to
feel pretty good today and want to push take the company’s word for it
it, do I let the algorithm tell me no?” Go that they really mean some-
ahead and watch your numbers, but pay thing, Dr. Joyner says. Right
now they don’t mean much.
attention to what your body is telling
you, too.
MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 29
 BODY TR ANSFOR-NATION!

HOW ONE GUY GOT HIS

DIABETES UNDER CONTROL

WITH A SINGLE PURCHASE
BY MARTY MUNSON

IN 2021, Angel Romero didn’t want to hit age 50 with

30 extra pounds and diabetes running his life. That’s
when he bought himself a continuous glucose monitor
(CGM). A sensor on his arm checks his blood sugar and
sends info to his phone. “It has allowed me to live and
feel so much better,” he says. In a year, he took his A1C
level from 8.7 (diabetic) to 5.7 (prediabetic). His tips:

RETHINK
CARBS

ROMERO USED TO BELIEVE that

cutting carbs required eating plain
chicken, no sides. That wasn’t sus-
tainable for a guy whose Mexican-
Armenian heritage meant rice,
beans, and tortillas. Based on data
from his CGM (made by January
AI), he learned what kind of carbs
worked for him. He swapped rice
for a blend of cauliflower rice and
quinoa and switched from flour
tortillas to low-carb versions. “I
generally recommend 50 percent
of calories from carbohydrates, 15
percent from fat, and the rest from
protein,” says Sandeep Dhindsa,
M.D., a Men’s Health advisor.
ADJUST, ADJUST,
ADJUST
“BEFORE, IT WAS ALMOST like I
was on an island without feedback
after a meal,” Romero says. The
CGM showed him details such as
how frozen custard didn’t affect
his blood sugar but ice cream did.
And it taught him to appreciate
moderation. “When I see what two
bites of a food does to my blood
sugar, I’m able to stop there when
I need to,” he says. If too many
bites start to move his blood sugar
out of his usual 70 to 180 mg/dL
SHARE
THAT DATA
“BEFORE THIS, MY FAMILY couldn’t
comprehend my disease process
or how certain foods would affect
me,” Romero says. But when the
CGM app clearly showed that
everything he did had an impact on
his glucose, his family understood.
Courtesy Angel Romero (Romero). Courtesy January AI (CGM).

range, he now blunts the effect by Now they take walks with him and
taking a walk. make sure to have diabetes-
friendly foods around the house.

CGM Get It Wear It Upgrade It

101
CONTINUOUS GLUCOSE MONI-
TORS ARE GENERALLY Rx
ITEMS. INSURANCE OFTEN
COVERS THE COST, WHICH MAY
RUN AS MUCH AS $400, PLUS
SENSORS AND APP FEES.
SOME CGM s CHECK BLOOD SUGAR
ALL THE TIME (DEXCOM, JANUARY
AI, FREESTYLE LIBRE 3); OTHERS
READ IT WHEN YOU HOLD
YOUR PHONE TO THE SENSOR
(LEVELS OFFERS BOTH KINDS).
IF YOU HAVE TYPE 1 DIABETES,
A CGM CAN BE PAIRED WITH
AN INSULIN PUMP TO
DELIVER THE RIGHT AMOUNT
OF INSULIN WITHOUT
YOU EVEN INTERVENING.

30 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

 INSIDEOUT
DC LEAGUE OF SUPER PETS - PURE LEAF ICED TEA
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Pure Leaf believes that “no” is beautiful, and that’s why we say “no”
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voice
ADVERTISEMENT
 LIFE CHANGE FOR THE BETTER

RUN.
TREK.
WORK.
CHILL.
Different situations
require different sneaker
games: on dates, at
the office, on weekend
errands. Our team of
testers slipped on more
than 40 new pairs to
determine the best in
seven key categories.
These are our favorites.

B E S T COLLAB
NikeCraft GPS
Nike’s partnership with
New York artist Tom
Sachs is a winner.
Between the breathable
Prop styling: Gozde Eker

knit and the old-school

style, you could wear
these for hours (and
look awesome doing it).
NikeCraft GPS, $110.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFFREY WESTBROOK MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 33

 LIFE S N E A K E R AWA R D S

B E S T OUTDOORS CH SUPP
ORT
UM AR
M AXIM
Eddie Bauer Hypertrail
Salomon Sportstyle
Low, $120.
XT-6 GTX, $200.

Columbia Wildone
Navigate, $110.

THESE TREKKERS are built for the trails. Salomon’s Gore-Tex membrane fights
moisture. Columbia’s Adapt Trax outsole steadies you in the wettest terrain.
Eddie Bauer’s midsole Trailfork shank reinforces foot support for the long haul.

B E S T WH ITE ADE
BLY M
AINA
SUST
Veja Urca CWL, $165.
Nike Air Force 1 Crater
Flyknit Next Nature,
$130.

Ecco Street Lite, $130.

WHITE SNEAKERS are back in style—with a post-Seinfeld update. A mesh

outsole gives the Nike 1’s more breathability and comfort. Natural rubber makes
Veja’s trainers sustainable. A patterned tread adds stability to Ecco’s retro kicks.

B E S T RUN N ING
OMF ORT
EME C
EXTR Brooks Running Reebok Floatride
Glycerin 20, $160. Energy 4 Adventure,
$120.

Allbirds Tree Flyer,

$160.
Courtesy brands

THANKS TO nitrogen-infused cushioning, Brooks Running’s Glycerin 20 has one

of the softest midsoles we tried. Allbirds’ Tree Flyer midsole is 30 percent lighter
than its predecessor. Reebok’s new bouncy foam absorbs shock with ease.

34 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

 B E S T EVERYDAY TION
RAC
N CED T
ENHA
Skechers GOrun Hoka Bondi 8, $165.
Maxroad 5, $145.

Under Armour HOVR

Machina 3, $150.

HOKA’S MATTRESS-LIKE cushion is made of lighter, more durable material.

Skechers’ neutral runners have a carbon-infused plate for stride efficiency. Under
Armour’s HOVRs are designed without seams or overlays to reduce chafing.

B E S T TH ROWBACK
P SOLE
T GRI
GREA Adidas Samba OG, Gola Harrier, $100.
$100.

Puma Suede Classic

XXI, $70.

ADIDAS’S BEST-SELLING Sambas now feature soft suede, a perforated finish

for extra style points, and enhanced breathability. Puma’s and Gola’s classics
are reimagined in bold colors that blend in or stand out, depending on your look.

B E S T WORK THAB
ILIT
Y
BREA
NCED
ENHA
Cole Haan GrandPrø Vionic Lucas, $130.
Crossover, $160.

Florsheim Premier,
$110.

BUSINESS CASUAL ISN’T as “business” as it once was. Florsheim’s and

Vionic’s leather lace-ups have removable EVA footbeds. Cole Haan’s crossover
sneakers have temperature-regulating materials for less sweat and more swagger.

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 35

 LIFE THE EXPER TS: AND R EW MA RKER T and BAR T HUTCHINS
are the co-chefs of Fight Club, a sandwich-centric
restaurant in Washington, D. C.

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

BUILD THE ULTIMATE

BLT 1

BUY BETTER BACON

Thin strips of packaged bacon are easily overpow-
ered by the bread and tomato. Seek out smoked,
black-peppered slab bacon that you can cut into
¼-inch slices. Many butchers carry the stuff, as does
dartagnan.com; if it’s not peppered, just grind some
on later. One pound will make 4 sandwiches.

SLOW-SIZZLE
Panfrying bacon can turn it too brittle. Instead,
place the slices on a high-rimmed sheet
pan and slow-roast them in a 250°F
oven for about 2 hours. The bacon’s fat
will render slowly, resulting in tender, meaty
strips that are slightly chewy. Yes, it’s worth it.

PREP THE INGREDIENTS

You want the bacon warm when it hits the sandwich,
so organize everything else. Slice 1 large heirloom
tomato the same thickness as the bacon, for balance.
Then thinly slice ½ head iceberg. Cut 8 slices of sour-
dough, each ⅝ inch thick, and toast them till golden
brown. Finally, break out Duke’s mayo, which has the
right acidity, sweetness, and creaminess.

ASSEMBLE!
The order: bread slice, bacon, tomato (sprinkled
with salt and pepper), lettuce, bread slice (slathered
with 1 Tbsp mayo). The theory: Biting into the bread,
you’ll first taste the glory of the bacon, which acts
as a base to prevent the lettuce from spilling and the
tomato from slipping, and as the mayo melts from
the warmth of the bread, it lightly dresses everything.
Food styling: Barrett Washburne. Prop styling: Maeve Sheridan.

THREE WAYS TO MAKE A BLT

EVEN AWESOMER
PISTACHIO A PICKLE A ROOT BEER
BUTTER “It’s a palate Markert says
Food-process ½ cup cleanser,” says the sweetness
roasted pistachios Markert. Flavor plays off the
and a li’l salt and doesn’t matter, saltiness of the
sugar; drizzle in as long as it’s a bacon. American
canola till smooth. spear (to get lager works
Spread 1 Tbsp on that crunch). Eat well, too. Sip on
bottom slice. on the side. the side.

36 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH PHOTOGRAPH BY LAURA MURRAY

 ®

IT ALL

STARTS HERE
S reng nd s min ou er
ere
IMPROVED SLEEP s r wi ig -perform nce nu ri ion in ere.

BLUE LIGHT 30% Protein & 20% Fat to

Optimizes Oxygen

BLOCKING FRAMES Maintain Lean Muscle

Metabolism (VO2 Max)
for Increased Stamina

M E N S H E A LT H .C O M / E Y E W E A R
ProPlanSport.com
Purina trademarks are owned by Société des Produits Nestlé S.A.
Any other marks are property of their respective owners.
 LIFE 5 FOR $50

STEAK & EGGS

EVERY DAY
You can eat like a boss on a budget. This plan
proves that you can feast all week—and spend
1 Curry Steak
Noodles

about 50 bucks for five muscle-packing meals—

if you cook it all on a Sunday. BY MATTHEW KADEY, R.D.

PREP IT
Cook these key components to build the
foundation for your five meals.

S TE A K SW E E T- the heat, cover, and

P O TATO C U R RY
1 In a large pan over me-
dium high, heat 2 tsp oil.
Add 6 oz eye of round
steak (thinly sliced) and
1 red bell pepper (sliced);
cook until steak is well
browned, 3 to 5 minutes.
Transfer to a plate.
2 In the same pan, add
2 shallots (chopped),
1 Tbsp ginger (chopped),
and 2 garlic cloves
(minced). Saute till soft,
about 2 minutes. Stir in
1 Tbsp red curry paste;
heat 30 seconds. Add
1 cup coconut milk,
½ cup water, and 2 tsp
fish sauce; simmer
1 minute. Add 1 sweet
potato (peeled, cubed),
bring to a boil, reduce
SHOP IT
We’re guessing you
have cooking oil and
seasonings. Scan the
QR code for a grocery
list that accounts for
everything else.
simmer till tender, about
15 minutes. Stir in ¼ cup
unsalted peanuts and
1 Tbsp lime juice.
3 In a blender or food
processor, add every-
thing except the steak
and peppers. Blend
till smooth. Store it all
in a container.
BASIL SAU C E
In a pot of boiling water,
blanch 2 cups basil for
30 seconds. With a slot-
ted spoon, transfer the
basil to a blender or
food processor. Add
2 Tbsp olive oil, 1 Tbsp Place hard-boiled eggs in
lemon juice, 1 garlic ice water to cool for 10
clove (chopped), ¼ tsp minutes before peeling.
crushed red-pepper 2 Generously season
flakes, and ¼ tsp salt; 4 oz steak with salt and
blend till smooth. pepper. In a pan, heat
1 Tbsp oil over medium
TH E E X TR AS
1 Place 4 large eggs
high; add steak. Cook
for 10 minutes for me-
in a pot and cover with dium rare, turning once.
cold water by 1 inch. Let rest 10 minutes,
Boil, then cook for 30 then slice.
seconds. Cover the pot, 3 Cook 2 oz egg noodles
remove from heat, and according to package
set aside for 10 minutes. directions and drain well.

38 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

 T H E E X P E R T : M A T T H E W K A D E Y is a registered
dietitian and the author of Rocket Fuel:
Power-Packed Food for Sports + Adventure.

PACK IT
Now store the food you made to
reheat different meals all week.

1Steak
Curry
Noodles
1 cup shredded
mozzarella. Sepa-
rately, pack 3 bibb
Pack half the curry leaves and half the
and 2 cups spinach basil sauce. Stuff
together. In another steak into lettuce and
container, add the top with basil sauce.
noodles. Reheat the
Nutrition per meal:
curry and spinach
806 calories, 53g
till hot and combine protein, 25g carbs
with the reheated (2g fiber), 52g fat
noodles. Pack a
handful of cilantro
to add on top. 4 Curry
2 Mediterranean Nutrition per meal:
Steak Sandwich
Pack the other half
Egg Salad Bowl 763 calories, 39g
protein, 86g carbs of the curry and
(9g fiber), 31g fat 1 sliced whole-grain
hoagie roll sepa-

2
Mediterranean
rately. In another
container, pack
½ cup shredded
Egg Salad Bowl carrot, ⅓ cup radish
In a container, layer (sliced), and ¼ cup
2 cups spinach, cilantro. Reheat the
1 cup black beans, curry, stuff into the
2 hard-boiled eggs roll, and top with
(sliced), ½ cup the vegetables.
cherry tomatoes
(halved), ½ cup Nutrition per meal:
cucumber (diced), 804 calories, 39g
protein, 96g carbs
⅓ cup radish (sliced), (14g fiber), 33g fat
⅓ cup roasted red

5
pepper (sliced),
¼ cup red onion Loaded
3 Steak Pizza (sliced), and 2 Tbsp Nachos
Wraps Kalamata olives In a container, layer
(sliced). Pack half the 2 cups tortilla
basil sauce sepa- chips, 2 hard-boiled
rately and drizzle on eggs (chopped),
salad before serving. ½ cup black beans,
Nutrition per meal: 1 cup shredded
868 calories, 47g mozzarella, ⅓ cup
protein, 112g carbs roasted red pepper
(33g fiber), 29g fat (sliced), and ¼ cup
red onion (diced).
3 Steak
Pizza Wraps
Pack 2 cups bibb
(shredded) sepa-
rately. Microwave
In a container, add
tortilla mixture until
4 oz cooked steak
cheese is melted,
slices, ½ cup cherry
top with lettuce and
4 Curry Steak tomatoes (halved),
⅓ cup roasted red
hot sauce.
Sandwich
pepper (sliced), Nutrition per meal:
843 calories, 51g
5 Loaded 3 Tbsp Kalamata
olives (sliced), and
protein, 63g carbs
(12g fiber), 41g fat
Nachos
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAURA MURRAY
Food styling: Barrett Washburne. Prop styling: Maeve Sheridan.
 LIFE HOME FRONT

SLEEP YOUR NEW

HUMIDIFIER

REEEEEAL EASY
Homvana Cool Mist

Big, bulky humidifiers suck

up floor space and are a pain
to clean. This compact, no-
frills vaporizer keeps your
bedroom moisturized over-
A good night’s rest starts with your bedroom. night to ease your conges-
These new tools are engineered to help tion, and it comes with seven
mood-lighting colors. It’s like
you wind down better, fall asleep faster, and a lava lamp but actually cool.
wake up awesomer. BY CHRISTIAN GOLLAYAN $56; homvana.shop

YOUR NEW
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YOUR NEW PILLOW Somnox
Sijo CloudSupport
Wedge this football-sized device
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Memory foam can feel like a brick. Down
ach and marvel as its vibrations
pillows flatten fast. Sijo finds a balance
help deepen your breathing
with a latex foam core and Tencel, a
and lull you to sleep. It’s way
sturdy fiber that offers support and sus-
easier than meditation.
tainability. Bonus: It’s sweat wicking.
$599; somnox.com
From $110; sijohome.com

YOUR
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a smartphone
This magic trick of a blanket is warm (thanks
app. It even has
to organic cotton) yet still lightweight (credit
a wakeup mode
the interwoven mulberry silk), which means
that simulates a
no more midnight kick-the-covers-off battles.
natural sunrise. From $419; nestbedding.com
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Increases
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SLEEP! DRINK! sleep duration
•
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•
overnight
•
sleep quality
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• • • •
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DRINK

the beverage to its

sleep benefit? Casein Tart cherry Chamomile Warm milk
juice tea

sleep duration; tea = improves sleep quality; milk = is just tasty

40 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH
KEY: Casein = increases muscle growth overnight; cherry juice = improves
 W O W, Y O U S M E L L G R E A T LIFE

FRESHEN UP YOUR SCENT

The foundational notes of men’s cologne may never change, but fragrance
chemists (real thing!) are updating the classics to build “younger” scents
(also a thing!) that smell more modern. Here’s how the five pillars of old-school
colognes are being reinvented for a new generation. BY GARRETT MUNCE

THE PILLAR THE PILLAR THE PILLAR THE PILLAR THE PILLAR

WOODS like sandalwood, LEATHER jackets are a Citrusy, herbal, clean— SMOKE notes like birch tar OUD (pronounced “ood”)
cedar, and pine are MVPs timeless style staple. colognes with a FOUGÈRE and tobacco are robust is a Middle Eastern
of men’s fragrances due Same goes for colognes scent conjure up laid- and mysterious without resin that gives off an
to their versatility. that carry a similar scent. back beach vacations. being overbearing. intense, earthy aroma.

THE REFRESH THE REFRESH THE REFRESH THE REFRESH THE REFRESH

Burberry Hero Boss Bottled Parfum D by Diesel Byredo de los Santos Marly Paris Haltane Eau
Eau de Parfum ($128) ($110) ($70) Eau de Parfum ($276) de Parfum ($395)

This bottle has classic This leather-forward Many fougère scents Palo santo, a resinous Marly rounds out the
pine notes but also in- cologne mixes in vibrant match well with warm incense, tilts the oud with citrusy berga-
cense and benzoin, a floral notes that balance weather but feel out of smoke in this jar from mot and herbal vetiver.
vanilla-tinged compound things out. If you’re place in cooler months. roaring campfire to It is pricey, so spritz
that gives the scent an looking for a scent Not this one, which calming meditation when the stakes are
edge. That means it’s with subtlety, maybe for blends in lavender and class. Wear it as a high: job interviews or
perfect for date night any the office or happy denim, making it a good weekend reminder wedding ceremonies
time of the year. hour, this is it. go-to year-round. to relax. (yours or others’).

SMELLS LIKE SMELLS LIKE SMELLS LIKE SMELLS LIKE SMELLS LIKE
Courtesy brands (bottles). Getty Images (remaining).

+ + + + +

SAMPLE FIRST
YES, YOU CAN Many sites offer sample vials that
BUY FRAGRANCE cost less. Or go with only tester
bottles through Scentbird,
ONLINE which sends you a new 8ml vial
every month. Bonus: Samples
But only if you know how. are also great for travel.
READ THE REVIEWS. (REALLY.)
Hardcore fragrance fans post
detailed reviews on sites like the
unbiased fragrantica.com. It’s a
good place to go for a prepur-
chase double check.
FIND THE RETURN POLICY
Some stores, like Nordstrom,
Ulta, and Sephora, will let
you return a fragrance, even
if the package is opened,
within 60 days of purchase.

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 43

 LIFE COOL DAD
M I T,
M
DA MY PAREN
WERE RIGHT
It took raising two kids of my own to
finally realize that Mom and Dad
actually knew what they were doing.
BY KEVIN FREDERICKS
BACK IN MY TEENAGE DAYS,
my parents used to complain about me
not being around. I even made it my
business to let them know how boring it
was to be in the house with them before
I rode off on my bike and into the sun-
set. Now I have two teenage sons, Isaiah
(Zay Zay) and Josiah (Jojo)—and they
no longer want anything to do with me.
I’m not even their favorite comedian.
Tony Baker is.
Kids will deflate your ego. And now that
I’ve been humbled by my own children,
I’ve started to realize that a lot of the
lessons my mom and dad passed on to me
were actually pretty good lessons. Like:
44 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH
T H I S M O N T H : K E V I N F R E D E R I C K S , aka KevOnStage,
is a comedian and a coauthor of the new book
Marriage Be Hard (out now), with his wife, Melissa.
TS
LESSON #1:
“IT NEVER GETS EASY—
YOUR WORRY JUST CHANGES”
MY DAD used to say this when my wife
and I were young, clueless parents. When
Zay Zay and Jojo were babies, our main
concerns were things like SIDS or them
choking. We couldn’t wait for the kids to
grow up so it could all be simpler.
But simpler never came. Puberty
came. Learning to drive came. Police
brutality, gun violence, and mass shoot-
ings came. Our worries turned from
SIDS to STDs, from choking on hot dogs
to choking on the SATs. You can try to be
levelheaded as a father. You can try to be
a good example. You can try to have all
the “right” discussions. But the worry
doesn’t fade—it just evolves. Accepting
that somehow makes things easier.
LESSON #2:
SEE THE WORLD (OR AT LEAST
OTHER PARTS OF THE COUNTRY)
MY FAMILY didn’t have a lot of money,
but my parents made sure to do what
they could when they could. My dad felt
that it was important to have cultural
capital. So we would take two weeks
every year and travel: Arlington Nation-
al Cemetery, Grambling State Univer-
sity, Six Flags Over Texas (hey, coasters
are a form of culture, too). I’m thankful
that we were able to enjoy glimpses of
things that were beyond El Paso, Texas.
I get it now: It’s important that children
see the world so that their view of the
world can be bigger. That said . . .
LESSON #3:
YOU CAN’T BUY MEMORIES
MY WIFE and I once took vacationing a
step further than my parents. We decid-
ed to skip expensive gifts for Christmas
and birthdays to save for Big Trips. So
what if the kids got one less present? We
were going international! Amsterdam,
Italy, Japan—Isaiah and Josiah shuffled
through these vacations, staring at their
parents with looks that said, “We’re glad
you’re having fun, but this isn’t the beach,
and where are my video games?” Now
we’re back to doing an extra present or two
at Christmas again. And beach trips.
LESSON #4:
KEEP IMAGINING
MY MOM was a writer, and my dad was
a musician. When I was young, I wanted
that Burger King paycheck to buy things
I didn’t really need. My parents let me
learn that lesson on my own, all the while
playing music and publishing. I soaked
up creativity through them—and the
sense that life can be fun and interesting
for as long as you hold a sense of wonder
about it all. Zay does animation, video
work, and sketches. I’ve hosted a podcast
with Jo. I acknowledge that, yes, money
is important, but so is appreciating your
God-given (parent-encouraged) talents.
And eventually, maybe someday, Zay
Zay and Jojo will learn to appreciate that
I taught them that.
ILLUSTRATION BY AKEEM ROBERTS
P m i

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gy 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 “mid-
dle-age” nearly on my doorstep, I couldn’t help
but feel a little down. That is until I found my
own secret weapon.
It began a few months back when I was com-
plaining about my aches and pains to my mara-
thon-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 mara-
thons two weekends in a row this year.
That made even this self-proclaimed skeptic
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But I still had some concerns. According to
one study in the Journal of the American Med-
ical Association, 70% of CBD products didn’t
contain the amount of CBD stated on their la-
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If I was going to do this, I needed to trust the
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First, I did a quick online poll—and by that,
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Secondly, I wanted cold hard facts. Diving
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Diego (UCSD) Medical School and medical
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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 im-
portant that you know your source of CBD and
how to use it properly.”
After hearing it from the doctor’s mouth, I re-
turned 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 us-
ing 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
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Eventually, even the most skeptical of the
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When I viewed Zebra CBD’s selection online,
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The first product I tried was the rub. Now
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 MIND WHERE STRENGTH MATTERS MOST

CODY
BLUE
SNIDER’S
PSYCHEDELIC
QUEST
When traditional meds failed to help
with his anxiety and depression,
Snider (the son of rocker Dee Snider)
set out on a journey to uncover
the mysteries and potential magic
of psychedelic treatments.
Was it worth the trip?
BY MIKE KESSLER CODY BLUE SNIDER KNEW the
medicine was taking hold when he
began to hear—really, feel—a high-
pitched vibration envelop his entire
body. It was 2016, and Snider was in the
heart of the Amazon rain forest with
about two dozen other people, many
of them mental-health professionals,
who’d traveled to take part in a Shipibo
Tanya Dahl

ayahuasca ceremony. Snider wanted

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 47

 MIND MENTAL JOURNEYS
out. “I began questioning what I was do-
ing there,” he says in his recently released
podcast, Awakened Underground. “I
felt like a kid riding a roller coaster and
listening to the gears clank, climbing the
rail, suddenly wanting off the ride.”
Snider, who’s a filmmaker and is now
32, had found his way to the jungle by
means of another unpleasant roller
coaster: a dozen or so years of emotional
and psychological peaks, dips, and twists
that started in grade school. His main
challenge—ADHD—was somewhat
manageable with meds, whimsically pre-
scribed by a revolving squad of doctors,
but ultimately, they’d either stop working
or cause side effects, like depression and
anxiety, which required more meds.
“They were helping me cope,” he tells
MH. “But they weren’t helping me heal.”
In his 20s, Snider started hearing more
and more about psychedelics, particularly
plant medicines like psilocybin mush-
rooms, which were being studied at uni-
versities and hospitals, and ayahuasca,
which was championed by people who’d
tried it in ceremonies abroad. But it wasn’t
so simple. Snider is the son of Dee Snider,
the frontman of the 1980s hair-metal
band Twisted Sister, who is straight-edge
and raised his four kids the same way.
Scared by what the medicines might do
but still open-minded, the younger Snider
spent three years reading about psyche-
delics before deciding to give them a try.
The ayahuasca experience terrified
Snider, but he was willing to try it again.
48 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH
A year later, in Costa Rica, he found
himself on an “astral projection through
a strange dimension,” a journey that
included a very wise talking dragon.
The trip was so revelatory, he says, that it
was more beneficial than all his years of
psychiatric meds and therapy combined.
“It was very intense, very profound,” he
says. “I fully punched out of my reality. I
felt into the parts of me that were stuck. I
realized there was another way forward.”
Dee Snider summarized his son’s
before and after like this: “As a kid, Cody
was crippled by an inability to focus and
by his need to put others before himself.
His energy was Robin Williams–esque,
just bouncing off walls. That changed in
the year after his first ayahuasca journey.
It wasn’t instantaneous, but it was real.
That’s when I began to understand that
there are drugs for entertainment and
drugs for self-improvement.”
THE PSYCHEDELIC RENAISSANCE
IT WASN’T LONG before Cody Blue Snider
joined the chorus of psychedelic-medicine effects, such as weight gain, decreased
users, guides, researchers, M.D.’s, policy
wonks, and enthusiasts like Tim Ferriss,
Michael Pollan, and Aaron Rodgers ask-
ing the question: Can psychedelics unlock
the path to better mental health? Snider’s
ten-episode podcast chronicles his own
journey into psychedelic-assisted mental
health and features interviews with top
researchers, therapists, thought leaders,
and his whole family. This moment
marks a new peak for
psychedelics, both in the
medical establishment and Clark, a Los Angeles attorney who worked
in pop culture, and echoes
the excitement of the 1950s and is now doing the same with psilocy-
and early ’60s, when sub-
stances like LSD and psilo-
cybin (the compound that
makes certain mushrooms chopharmacologist, a former psychia-
“magic”) were viewed by
the medical community as
potential mental-health
game changers.
Then came the War
on Drugs, which started
in the early ’70s and put
Cody Blue Snider with his dad,
Dee. Previous page: Cody
Blue burns sweetgrass during putting it back down. It’s a fundamentally
a mushroom ceremony.
the kibosh on most studies. But now
Congress is passing legislation that will
make psychedelic studies far less legally
cumbersome. Schools such as Johns Hop-
kins, UCLA, and NYU are conducting
serious research on psilocybin and other
substances, like LSD and MDMA, as
ways to treat anxiety, depression, PTSD,
addiction, eating disorders, and more.
In Oregon, psilocybin has been decrim-
inalized. Colorado is close behind. And
ketamine is now FDA approved for treat-
ing depression, with clinics popping up
across the country.
At the same time, talking about mental
health and trauma of all sorts is becoming
less taboo, especially since #MeToo, the
murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis
police, and the pandemic. Rates of depres-
sion, anxiety, and suicide are through the
roof, and 13.2 percent of American adults
are on antidepressants, according to the
latest CDC findings, not to mention those
on antianxiety meds. While these pills
have been helpful to millions, they don’t
always work and can cause unwanted side
libido, and suicidal ideation.
Psychedelics, meanwhile, work on a
vast swath of people, as old and new stud-
ies have shown—and as plant-medicine
practitioners have known anecdotally
for centuries. And they’re nonaddictive
and nontoxic. “Whether you use these
medicines to heal depression or anxiety
caused by trauma, treat mental illness,
contemplate your personal life, or deepen
a spiritual practice, one thing you always
need to do is look inward,” says Ariel
on cannabis legalization in California
bin and other psychedelics.
When it comes to treating depression
specifically, Julie Holland, M.D., a psy-
trist at New York’s Bellevue Hospital, and
an advisor to MAPS (see sidebar), takes it
a step further. “With antidepressants like
Prozac or Zoloft, it’s like you’re sweeping
dirt under the rug over and over again.
You’re not really dealing with your issues,
so at some point you have an incredibly
lumpy rug,” she says. “Psychedelics are
like taking the rug out back, beating
the hell out of it, sweeping the floor, and
Tanya Dahl
different way of cleaning your house.”
NEUROLOGICAL “FRESH TRACKS” TRIP FINDER
Use these resources to learn more about the new
RESEARCHERS HAVE a lot to learn about
science and culture of psychedelics.
how, precisely, psychedelic medicines
work. But studies using brain scans and
other technologies make one thing clear: The Multidisci- Heroic Hearts Project
“They allow different parts of the brain plinary Association is a nonprofit
for Psychedelic dedicated to helping
to communicate that usually don’t. And Studies, aka MAPS, veterans navigate
they quiet the parts that are nearly always is a clearinghouse the world of psy-
online,” says Dr. Holland. The active for all things psy- chedelics. It was
chedelic: doctors,
LEARN founded and is run by
ingredients in psilocybin, LSD, and aya-
research, news, former Army Ranger
huasca, for example, attach to the brain’s
events, and more. Jesse Gould. hero-
serotonin 2A receptor, kind of a control maps.org icheartsproject.org
center for the chemicals connected to
depression; depending on the dosage, they
can attach for a few hours (psilocybin),
up to eight (ayahuasca), and as long as 12 WATCH LISTEN
(LSD). Once docked, says Dr. Holland,
they decrease cognitive rigidity, which
How to Change The Psychedelic
“characterizes a lot of psychiatric diag- Your Mind, Therapy Podcast,
noses or symptoms, like OCD, where you starring Michael from Maya. Listen
have fixed beliefs about contamination; or Pollan. This to conversations
alcoholism, where you have a fixed belief Netflix documen- Fantastic Fungi, Awakened Under- with a spectrum
tary was inspired on Netflix. It’s ground, hosted by of experts and
that a drink will make you feel better; or by the book and thinkers about
not entirely about Cody Blue Snider.
depression and anxiety, where you’ve got directed by Oscar psychedelics, but The filmmaker and psychedelia.
fixed beliefs about being hopeless or in and Emmy winner it provides a robust son of Twisted
danger.” As a result, our brains form new Alex Gibney. look at “plant Sister’s Dee Snider
neural pathways, giving us a new outlook. intelligence” and takes you on his
features a power- mental-health
Nicholas Brüss, a clinical psychother- fully told psyche- journey from pills
apist trained in psychedelic therapy, delic anecdote. to plant meds.
uses a simple analogy: “Think of your
psychological landscape like a ski slope,”
he says. After a while, there are grooves “universal interconnectedness” and growth.”To that end, by the time you read
and ruts and bumps that make the run “transcendence of time and space,” as this, he’ll have recently returned from a
especially challenging or even painful. one study recently reported. You feel and psilocybin journey in Peru. That should
Psychedelics, he says, “are like fresh pow- understand things in a way that’s very provide plenty of fodder for his many
der. They allow you to make fresh tracks.” different from what you experience when related projects: season 2 of Awakened
What’s more, unlike psychiatric meds your “regular” mind is in the way. Underground, a green-lit documentary
that rewire our brains in a daily, slow-drip But those visceral aha moments of the same name, and an animated
way, psychedelics essentially turn the usually don’t come easy. Psychedelic show based on his family’s psychedelic
spigot on high, meaning the effects of one experiences can be very disorienting. journeys, to name a few. Snider and his
or two sessions can last weeks, months, or Snider knows as much, and not just from partner are even talking about starting
in some cases a year. Of course, no psyche- his 20-odd ayahuasca journeys. He has their own psychedelic-treatment center.
delic is a panacea. The new neurological also worked extensively with psilocybin, For him it’s a way to combine creativity
tracks you make can again become rutted MDMA, and LSD. In the wrong setting, and public service: “A lot of the world’s
and bumpy. But if you talk about and this can all go horribly awry, not because problems and injustices—like racism,
analyze the trip with a mental-health pro- these substances are physiologically sexism, fiscal inequality—are the result
fessional and take the time to learn from toxic—they’re not—but because they of a sick consciousness. These medicines
it—a process called integration—you can can produce “behavioral toxicity,” like help us go to the root. They can change
refer to the experience and look at your standing in traffic because the lights are people at an individual level and, by
issues with a new perspective. so mesmerizing. That’s why it’s essential proxy, change the culture. They’re the
Listening to someone talk about a to try them in a safe environment, with fastest, most direct tool available to drive
psychedelic experience can be cringey the right guide or medical professional. meaningful change.”
if you haven’t had one yourself. That’s As for Snider, he’s been so busy pod-
because it’s hard to find language for a casting and screenwriting that he has BEFORE YOU GET Don’t be a dummy and
metaphysical—or “mystical”—experi- tapped the brakes on psychedelics. Still, ANY BIG IDEAS ... try psychedelic drugs on
ence that’s so uniquely your own. After he says, “I go back to the plant medicine your own—most remain illegal in most places.
If you’re interested in trying plant medicines,
using ayahuasca, psilocybin, or LSD, when I feel like I need it, as part of my
talk to your doctor or therapist about it first.
for example, patients often describe a overall mental health and personal

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 49

 MIND THE KINDNESS BOOMERANG
STRENGTH
IN SERVICE
The impact of giving back—whether it’s expertise,
money, or time—can be profound, as the
author discovered when he volunteered at a camp for
Ukrainian refugees in Poland. BY MICHAEL CLINTON
WHEN I APPROACHED the
Hala Arena Ukrainian refugee center in
Poznan, Poland, I was struck by the si-
lence. Several families sat quietly outside,
waiting with overstuffed duffel bags. One
girl sat on a suitcase, hugging a teddy bear
with a weary look in her eyes. The same
silence was inside the center, in the food
and clothing distribution area and by the
makeshift cots that filled the arena. It
was the first time I had ever participated
in a humanitarian effort, and the expe-
rience was intense. I joined a local group
that was providing clothes for newly
arrived families. It was heartbreaking to
watch mothers comfort their children,
wondering what would come next. See-
ing people with so little and facing such
uncertainty makes you think about your
priorities and choices.
I found my way to the city of Poznan
through my Polish friend Mariusz Szeib.
He and I had met at the Antarctica Mara-
thon in 2014, where we were both finishing
our seven marathons on seven continents.
Over the years, we stayed in touch, and
when Ukraine was invaded, I reached out
to him to see what was happening in his
hometown. When I learned that 40,000
50 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH
refugees had come through Poznan and
that he had already begun working on
relief efforts, I knew what I had to do.
About a decade ago, some friends and I
started a foundation called Circle of Gen-
erosity, and its mission is to give grants
as random acts of kindness to those in
need. Along with volunteering my time in
Poznan, I wanted to find local organiza-
tions Circle of Generosity could partner
with to help. Ultimately, we made grants
for food, shelter, clothing, and household
goods and teamed up with Warto Razem,
a grassroots organization that assists with
basic services. Being in Poznan gave me a
renewed sense of how fulfilling it is to vol-
unteer and to help others.
Often we focus on creating a fitness reg-
imen but overlook a different kind of work-
out that can also improve our physical and
Left: Since Russia invaded Ukraine,
more than 3 million people have escaped
to refugee centers in Poland.
Below: The author at the Hala Arena
Ukrainian refugee center in Poznan, Poland.
mental health. Service to others can have
multiple effects on your well-being, as well
as nourish your soul. Regardless of how you
define service, I believe you can find true
peace and satisfaction only if you devote
part of your life to helping others. Kind-
ness not only increases your self-esteem
but can also decrease blood pressure and
boost serotonin and dopamine for that
overall sense of feeling good, according to
a range of research. Other studies reveal
that helping others creates a sense of pur-
pose, a shift away from the self, which
improves your mental health.
Service to others has always been one
of my life priorities. It has helped me
de-stress and develop a stronger feeling of
self-worth. In my book, ROAR Into the Sec-
ond Half of Your Life (Before It’s Too Late),
there are many examples of how people
decide how to give back. The key is to figure
out what you’re most interested in and find
a way to contribute, whether it’s expertise,
time, money, or something else.
BECOME A VOLUNTEER
YO U R TI M E I S precious: Identify what
you really care about. Is it youth services,
climate change, social justice, youth
sports, the arts? Only you can answer
what is important to you. As the first
college graduate in my family, I’ve been a
mentor to students as well as to coworkers.
Whether you’re counseling family mem-
bers, colleagues, or friends, there is deep
satisfaction in helping someone pinpoint
their goals and advising on how to achieve
them. Mentoring doesn’t have to take a ton
of time. It’s about consistency: phone calls,
emails, and the occasional coffee or meal.
When I was first introduced as someone’s
From top: Getty Images. Courtesy Michael Clinton.
mentor, it touched me deeply. Friends who
coach youth sports say the same thing:
Being called coach by kids long after they
played on your team is a special bond.
EVERY DONATION HELPS
ACCORDING TO GIVING USA , individ-
uals donated $471 billion to charities
in 2020. I’m sure you have supported
 friends who were leading fundraisers for
their runs or triathlons, or have given to
efforts in your neighborhood. Every dol-
lar that you can afford to contribute will
help (check the rating of your charity on
GuideStar.org and CharityGiver.org)
and will give you that sense of well-
being that comes with it. My suggestion
is to identify two or three charities that
you are passionate about and commit to
them on an annual basis. Involve your
family, especially your kids, who will
learn the importance of giving.
KEEP IT
TOGETHER
!
HOW I

with
JIM WEBER
When JIM WEBER became CEO of Brooks Running Company in
2001, he lived the brand, working out its turnaround strategy on
his long runs. In 2017, esophageal-cancer treatment shrank his
lung capacity and crushed his regimen. Now Weber, 62, is in a
workout groove and helped Brooks hit $1 billion in global revenue
last year for the first time. Here’s how the author of the new book
Running with Purpose keeps it all moving. —Marty Munson
FIND GREATER PURPOSE
S O M E P E O P L E H AV E such a strong 5:00–5:30 a.m. 10:00 a.m. 4:00–5:30 p.m.
desire to give back that they literally WAKE UP AND MAKE LIVE FOR RUN, WALK, LIFT
change companies and even profes- THE COFFEE THE CHECK For many years, a
sions, moving to a business that aligns I’m a morning person, I’m old-school in that long run was absolute
with their ethics and outlook or a non- and I cherish these I still carry a notebook medicine to me. After
profit that has a mission they support. quiet hours to focus and pen with me to treatment, I couldn’t
Marc Kaplowitz was a successful Wall and prepare myself every meeting. I jot run at all. I missed it so
for the day, catching
Street executive who decided to go back down key takeaways much. Now I do long
up on emails and and capture items I walks or walk/runs
to school in his late 40s to get a degree in absorbing global,
adolescent education. He now teaches need to tend to. I’ve and have worked my
national, local, and
math at an inner-city high school. His gotten in the habit of runs up to 12 one-min-
running-industry
shift was driven by the need to have using the “checkbox ute treadmill intervals.
news. My wife and I
greater purpose. If you have worked in love our first coffee by approach” to physi- I also get some of that
cally check off a task. “exhausted in a good
the for-profit sector, nonprofits are eager the window with views
of the Douglas firs There’s something way” feeling from
to have your experience and knowledge,
around Lake Washing- so satisfying about lifting weights. I’m
whether it is in management, finance,
ton in Seattle. that pen-to-paper starting to feel that joy
development, or tech. Curious about
mark; it makes me again that you get from
what’s out there? Start by visiting job-
listing sites like NationalNonProfits.org 8:30 a.m. feel organized and
accomplished.
exercising intensely.

and FoundationList.org ARRIVE AND

9:00–9:30 p.m.
ORGANIZE
I live by my calendar, 2:00 p.m. SLEEP . . . USUALLY
START A FOUNDATION and the one-on-ones STICK TO THE PLAN Because I wake early,
IF YOU HAVE a deep passion for a cause, and small-group It’s super important I generally don’t have
meetings on it really for me to have a plan. much trouble falling
consider starting your own foundation—
fill my cup. I used to be When I was diagnosed asleep. But if I’m still
even if you don’t have deep pockets.
very focused on what with cancer, the most figuring out how to
Contact a lawyer about creating a 501(c) I believed a CEO did: unsettling time was be- connect the dots at
(3), the most common form. At Circle create plans, commu- fore I had the chance work, I wake up at 2:00
of Generosity, we have donated to many nicate, and lead the to do my homework a.m. thinking about
families hit by natural disasters in cities execution. It took me and didn’t have a plan it. I like these sorts
across the United States. Coming from a a decade to figure out
to battle it. Trusting our of puzzles, but if I’m
working-class family, I understand the that it’s really about
plan as a company to tired of not sleeping,
challenges of everyday expenses. With leading people. Now
serve all runners and I throw in my ear-
my own good fortune, I’m now able to help I try to be present for
every conversation. I not lose focus or chase phones and listen to
those who are the neediest through our shiny things allowed us a podcast—usually
remind myself to shut
foundation’s mission. It is a way of paying to get through the pan- about history, music,
my brain off, open my
homage to my own beginning. demic without laying or business (such as
ears, and orient to
where this person is anyone off. I often refer Pivot); sometimes I
Jason Raish (Weber)

today and how they’re to a favorite quotation distract myself with

MICHAEL CLINTON is the founder of ROAR—
Reimagine, Own Who You Are, Act on Your feeling about the of mine: “The secret pure entertainment,
Plan, and Reassess Your Relationships, work, the direction, to success is con- like Conan O’Brien
roarbymichaelclinton.com. and the plan. stancy of purpose.” Needs a Friend.

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 51

 O
MIND L I V I N G F U L LY

OBJECTIVELY, THERE’S VERY little

about The Body Keeps the Score that says
“best seller,” except the best-seller list,
where it’s been perched for nearly four
years. Yet this 464-page, densely written
tome by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., a psy-
chiatrist and trauma researcher, about
how traumatic experiences impact your
capacity for pleasure, engagement, trust,
and even self-control, has a life of its own
right now.
“Kindly asking my body to stop keep-
ing the score,” begs one viral tweet. “Can
the score be like soccer and stop at around
< 3? I feel like I’m playing with basketball
scores,” cheesesteak2018 asks in a Reddit
forum on stress. A few posts down, anoth-
er user chimes in with “This is a book my
sister wants me to read and I’m waaaaay
too scared to do it.”
The book’s big break can’t be traced to
one thing, like a celebrity tweet or a book
club, although there are plenty of those.
It’s more like a series of little breaks and
the vibe shift happening around under-
standing trauma and how psychological
pain can cause lasting physical damage.
From systemic racism and mass shoot-
ings to natural disasters and increased
awareness of sexual abuse, trauma is
everywhere, even to the point that trauma
memes are actually a thing. “Collectively,
we are becoming increasingly aware of
the impact of personal trauma and gen-
erational trauma,” says Arielle Schwartz,
Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist in
Boulder, Colorado. “People are seeking,

WHAT DOES ‘What can I do about this?’ ”

“YOUR BODY KEEPS

Dr. van der Kolk’s long-winded but
well-regarded answer—by way of many
stories of hurt, healing, and scientific
evidence—is basically that if a traumatic
experience is not addressed, it can have

THE SCORE”
long-term physical effects. Your mind
might be aware that the event is over. But
established science has found that the
processes your body uses to defend itself
can become a pattern. And they prevent

REALLY MEAN?
Nobody, including your therapist, your
friends, and Twitter, can stop talking about
The Body Keeps the Score right now—
eight years after it was published. You might
want to listen. BY MADDIE BENDER
you from moving on.
Brain scans of people reliving traumat-
ic experiences show how the organ is actu-
ally changed by them, albeit in different
ways for different people. The scan of a
man who experienced flashbacks of a hor-
rific car crash, for instance, revealed that
his thalamus—a structure in your brain
that’s usually a filter that helps you know
which sensations to pay attention to and

52 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREI COJOCARU


which to ignore—went completely offline
during the flashbacks. Every little image,
sound, or physical sensation that remind-
ed him of the crash could trigger this
thalamus outage. To process something
like that, therapists like Dr. van der Kolk
believe, you need to help your body under-
stand that the danger is no longer present.
One way to start is by treating whatever
physical symptoms manifest, says Dr.
van der Kolk. The goal isn’t not to keep
the score. It’s to be more aware that your
body is doing it at all. Americans may
be uniquely ready for a body-centered
method. With the soaring popularity of
mind-body practices, including yoga and
mindfulness-based stress relief, people
have already accepted that the mind and
body need to be better in sync, says Avi
Klein, L.C.S.W., a Men’s Health advisor
and the founder of Downtown Somatic
Therapy in New York City.
BEYOND WORDS
DR. VAN DER KOLK wasn’t the first per-
son to write about this kind of mind-body
approach, “but he certainly has done it
in a way that makes sense to people,” says
Klein. Today, it’s an introduction to a
type of therapy rapidly gaining accep-
tance: somatic therapy. Practitioners
describe it as a “bottom up” approach.
Whereas talk therapy encourages you to
resolve issues by examining the narra-
tives you create around them, somatic
WHAT’S YOUR BODY TRYING TO TELL YOU?
Learning what your body and mind are experiencing opens
the door to preventing the patterns after trauma from controlling
your life. Somatic therapist Avi Klein, L.C.S.W., suggests
one way to start getting unstuck:
• SET A TIMER FOR FIVE MINUTES.
Starting at the top of your head, very
slowly and deliberately scan your body
for tension and other sensations. Notice
what’s happening in your forehead,
your eyes, your cheeks, and so on,
moving down your whole body.
• WHEN YOU FIND TENSION, be curious
about it. Notice any feelings or thoughts.
• TAKE A DEEP BREATH IN or let a long
exhale out and see if the sensations or
thoughts change, moving down the
whole body again.
therapy helps you heal your concerns by
getting to know, understand, and release
physical sensations. Often, people try to
bury those sensations with alcohol, sex,
lashing out, or shutting down interper-
sonal relationships. “People don’t want
to feel their bodies, because that’s where
all of those difficult feelings reside,” says
Schwartz. “It’s scary. But turning toward
discomfort is a skill we need to develop;
it’s the route to finding relief.”
For instance, if the only tool you had to
protect yourself from a raging parent was
to try to be invisible until the episode was
over, you might find yourself feeling simi-
lar sensations in the face of a screamer of
a boss, whether that’s an impulse to cast
your eyes down or cover your face or turn
away. “You’re relying on an old pattern to
fend off something uncomfortable, but
it’s based on old anxieties,” says Klein.
“You basically use the nervous system of
your child self to solve an adult problem.”
To help remove the hold a pattern has on
you, you can investigate how it works in
your body, as well as what it takes to help
shift it. (See “What’s Your Body Trying to
Tell You?” below). Then you can redirect
energy where it will better serve you. In
the case of the raging parent, releasing
old impulses “allows you to have more
flexibility about how to protect yourself
now,” Klein says. You don’t have to disap-
pear. As an adult, you can ask to continue
the discussion at another time or find
other ways to diffuse the tension.
• IF IT’S REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE TO SIT
with what you’re noticing, that’s
normal. For help processing it, engage
someone who practices somatic
therapy. There are many branches,
including the Hakomi method
(hakomiinstitute.com), sensorimotor
therapy (sensorimotorpsychotherapy
.org), accelerated experiential dynamic
psychotherapy (aedpinstitute.org),
somatic experiencing (traumahealing
.org), and EMDR (emdria.org); each has
its own list of providers.
Helping the
body unlock
its unhelpful
patterns can
bring on an
immediate
feeling
of relief.
RELEASE YOURSELF
THERAPY SESSIONS that integrate
somatic work may be even more useful
than talk-only help for some people.
“Our brains learn patterns, and those
patterns are often more easily accessible
from emotion and physical sensation
than from logic,” says Klein. “Trauma
memories are stored in a different part of
the brain from everyday memory, which
explains why we have trouble moving
on from them.” Identifying specific
sensations in the body and noting what
emotions they bring up may be especially
helpful for people who find it difficult or
unnatural to talk about themselves. And
being able to talk about issues doesn’t
always help you change them. Both
Schwartz and Klein say that helping the
body unlock its unhelpful patterns can
bring on an immediate feeling of relief.
“The body not only keeps the score of
where the trauma lives within us, but it
also gives us feedback as to when we’ve
released it,” Schwartz says.
Dr. van der Kolk centers his book on
healing deep traumas like war and sexual
abuse, but practitioners like Klein and
Schwartz say the bottom-up approach
can be useful for anyone struggling to
move past a troubling experience or out
of a pattern they’re stuck in. And they
caution that it’s not the only way. “Noth-
ing is going to be effective 100 percent of
the time,” Klein says. But the book has
opened more people to the notion that it’s
important to acknowledge your trauma.
“You don’t have to live a life under a bur-
den you can actually heal from,” he says.
In a world that is overrun with unpro-
cessed trauma, we’re starting to learn
that our bodies have something to say. We
might be wise to start listening.
MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 53
 Name Tktktk Tktktk

54 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

 ZAC
EFRON
RIDES
AGAIN He has been a CHILD STAR ,
a FITNESS PINUP , a LEADING MAN , an ONSCREEN HIMBO ,
and an ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST .
But Zac Efron hasn’t always been healthy.
Now he’s REINVENTING HIMSELF AGAIN ,
and he wants to DO IT RIGHT .
BY LAUREN LARSON
Name Tktktk Tktktk

PHOTOGRAPHS BY TURE LILLEGRAVEN

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022

55
WELL, THERE THEY ARE. After Zac Efron
removes his jacket and drapes it over the
chair beside him, my eyes immediately zoop
to his biceps peeking out from beneath his
T-shirt. I spot a vein so protuberant that it
looks like it’s about to exit his skin.
I had seen Efron’s biceps earlier, while
on set for his photo shoot. When I got to the
ranch in the hills north of Malibu, he was
zooming about on an ATV, doing wild cir-
cles around the photographer and creating
a cloud of dust. The sharp lines of his arms
were apparent even through a dust tornado
and even from a safe distance away.
When he arrives at the steakhouse in
Thousand Oaks, where the staff has squir-
reled us away in a back room behind the
kitchen, Efron positions himself as though
to background the biceps—leaning for-
56 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH
ward, with his hands loosely intertwined
on the table—and I feel louche for peeking.
I feel even loucher for writing about
them, but the thing is, Efron’s arms have
become part of his whole deal, appendages
to his identity as well as to his torso—to say
nothing of the torso itself. In 2017’s Bay-
watch, his onscreen abs looked almost
painted on. That film was a fit-guy debu-
tant waltz for Efron. People started look-
ing very closely at his body after that.
Efron has been under scrutiny since
2006, when, at age 17, he played a whole-
some, peppy, Bieber-haired Disney jock in
High School Musical. Next, he starred in
a slew of romances, rom-coms, and com-
coms: Neighbors, The Lucky One, We Are
Your Friends, That Awkward Moment,
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates,
et cetera ad infinitum. His list of titles is
stunningly long, and wildly varied, for
someone so young; after Baywatch, he
began veering toward dramas and shot a
Netflix travel show about sustainability
called Down to Earth with Zac Efron. (Sea-
son 2 drops in late fall.)
Then the pandemic hit, and the guy
who could do it all—and who, since he
was a teenager, had been doing it all, all
the time—did very little. He sequestered
himself in Byron Bay, a beachy haven in
Australia. He slept on a hammock in the
trees. He dated a civilian. He took moonlit
swims with phosphorescent plankton that
glowed around him with every motion.
Meanwhile, everyone else was still

Page 54: Muscle T-shirt by
Jungmaven; vintage
motocross pants from Fox
Costumes & Wardrobe; boots
by Alpinestars; gloves by FLY
Racing; watch (worn
throughout) by Garmin.
Opposite: T-shirt by RRL.
talking about his body. In July 2020, as Net-
flix viewers began watching Down to Earth,
some commented on his “dad bod”—which,
to be clear, was a dad bod only relative to his
lifeguard bod. The New York Post called it
“a far cry from his ripped physique in Bay-
watch”; Twitter called him Daddy.
A world away, Efron, too, was rethink-
ing the body he’d become known for. He
was reconsidering how he ate (vegan), how
he trained (really hard), and how he slept
(poorly). Efron, like many of us, has newly
emerged from his own pandemic cocoon,
blinking in the sunlight, ready to unfurl a
revamped personality with back-to-school
optimism. Besides a new health and fit-
ness philosophy, Efron has a new movie—
The Greatest Beer Run Ever (premiering
September 30 on Apple TV+), in which
he acts opposite Russell Crowe and Bill
Murray—and new career cravings.
In this chapter of Efron’s career, he
is seeking depth. He looks to Leonardo
DiCaprio as a North Star, both as an actor
who seems to have achieved balance in
his life and for the roles he selects; ditto
Robert Pattinson, another veteran of teen
stardom. But Efron, now 34 and with 16
years and a stack of films between him and
High School Musical, still hasn’t found
the niche that will carry him through the
next few decades. He has done demanding
physical transformations for roles. Now
he’s after a much deeper transformation.
EFRON PREFERS to do Los Angeles
in “small doses,” popping in to visit friends
and take meetings. Eventually, he plans to
return to Byron Bay, where he reportedly
owns land, but otherwise he’s pretty tran-
sient. “I’m in a van trying to travel and see
as much of the world as I can, or just hiking
in the woods and camping.” He certainly
doesn’t overburden himself with personal
effects: He says he has ten T-shirts, five
pairs of workout shorts, a couple pants, a
couple sweatshirts, and two Lululemon
shorts-and-hoodie tracksuits that he wears
all the time, “and that’s pretty much it.”
As we peruse the menu at the steak-
house, he reveals that this is his first meal
out in a long time. He’s the kind of actor
around whom fans lose their faculties, and
he’s also the kind of actor whom people feel
comfortable approaching.
I get it. He has a very welcoming face, in
spite of intimidatingly symmetrical and
chiseled features. His eyes are blue and
twinkly, and whenever he’s not smiling,
he looks like he’s about to. He has played
several very approachable characters, the
type of guys a friend of mine calls “self-
aware bros.” He also played Ted Bundy in
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and
Vile, but that doesn’t put anyone off.
“I just don’t go out. People in large
groups, it triggers my agoraphobia,” he
says. It’s a jarring comment from Efron,
who seems to have a compulsive desire
to put those around him at ease, mirror-
ing and doubling the energy of whoever is
before him. Our server, Erin, arrives and
begins to describe the menu’s features.
Erin is bubbly and sharp, and I watch each
one trying to outdazzle the other. “Oh
wow,” Efron says as Erin extols the virtues
of the seafood tower, his eyes trained on
her with evangelical ferocity. By the time
she gets to the meat—to, in particular, the
Japanese A5 Wagyu steak—Efron is in rap-
tures. Once he has ensured that the meat
is grass finished rather than grass fed, he
cajoles me into splitting the A5. We will
also split a filet mignon, as well as a sea-
food tower and two sides. “I’m bulking,”
Efron says, laughing as he hands his menu
back to Erin. When she’s gone, he says, “I
can’t believe I said that,” as though it’s too
Zac Efron a line for Zac Efron.
I had been curious to see what and
whether someone with Efron’s exacting
physique would eat at a steakhouse. It turns
out his vegan days—partly inspired by his
Down to Earth cohost, wellness expert
Darin Olien—were short-lived. After two
years, Efron noticed he felt depleted, and
he began to wonder what would happen if
he started eating everything again. (That
didn’t make him feel great, either, but
following a battery of food-sensitivity
tests he’s settled on a protein-heavy plan;
he also drinks some apple-cider vinegar
before most meals.) “Morally, of course, I
still wish I was vegan,” he says. But tonight,
he will feast on the fauna of land and sea.
The seafood tower comes shortly there-
after, an arrangement of crab claws and
oysters on a mountain of crushed ice,
topped by a basin of dry ice, which drifts
out from below a tureen of Dungeness
crabmeat. Efron actually is bulking, he
explains, for a yet-to-be-announced role,
but he isn’t preparing with the same fervor
he brought to his Baywatch training. He
doesn’t want that body anymore. Or rather,
he doesn’t want to do what he did to achieve
that body. “That Baywatch look, I don’t
know if that’s really attainable. There’s just
too little water in the skin. Like, it’s fake;
it looks CGI’d,” he says. “And that required
Lasix, powerful diuretics, to achieve. So I
don’t need to do that. I much prefer to have
an extra, you know, 2 to 3 percent body fat.”
Beyond taking diuretics, he was over-
training and eating the same three meals
every day. And he wasn’t sleeping enough; if
filming stopped at midnight, he would still
wake up at 4:00 A.m. to train. Initially he
was excited about Baywatch—he thought it
could be a fun action franchise, and he liked
his character—but the recovery walloped
him. Efron says he doesn’t want to sound
like he’s complaining, but he’s opening
up now because he wants people trying to
obtain the Baywatch body to know how dev-
astating the process was for him, and how
long the ill effects of his training lasted.
“I started to develop insomnia,” he says,
“and I fell into a pretty bad depression, for
a long time. Something about that expe-
rience burned me out. I had a really hard
time recentering. Ultimately they chalked
it up to taking way too many diuretics for
way too long, and it messed something
up.” Six months after the film wrapped, he
finally began to feel right again.
MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 57
Muscle T-shirt
by Jungmaven;
vintage motocross
Name Tktktk Tktktk

pants from Fox

Costumes &
Wardrobe; boots by
Alpinestars; gloves
by FLY Racing.

58 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH


It wasn’t until his Australian sabbat-
ical that he really started to reevaluate
his approach to fitness. For the first time
in his working life, Efron had a window to
take a real break. And to fall out of shape.
“At one point, that was a dream of
mine—what it would be like to not have to
be in shape all the time,” he says. He had
been acclimated to a certain level of fit-
ness since he was a kid, joining his father
on runs. “What if I just say, ‘Fuck it’ and
let myself go? So I tried it, and I was suc-
cessful. And for all the reasons I thought it
would be incredible, I was just miserable.
My body would not feel healthy; I just didn’t
feel alive. I felt bogged down and slow.”
But even if he wasn’t training, he was
thinking about training. He read a lot—he
felt particularly aligned with turbo athlete
David Goggins and his “stay hard” doc-
trine after reading Can’t Hurt Me—and
sought advice from biohacking experts
like trainer Ben Greenfield. “I enjoy push-
ing myself and really laying it all out, to the
point where I kind of have to do it. Other-
wise I don’t feel like myself,” he says. He
Styling: Natasha Fomina. Prop styling: Ward Robinson. Styling assistance: Priscilla Langdon. Grooming: Sydney Sollod/the Wall Group. Tailoring: Neli Abrahamy. Production: Crawford & Co.
wanted to keep training militantly—his
fitness philosophy is one of embracing
constructive misery—but more mindfully.
He’s now a foam-rolling fanatic and has
ten or so foam rollers of all different sizes;
he does it for half an hour before training
and a full hour before bed. He champions
stretching, self-massage (“I live attached
to a Theragun”), and yoga. Efron has also
become an ice-bath adherent. “It’s my
favorite part of the day. Before is when it’s
most miserable, and when you finally just
commit and jump in there. From that point
forward, you’ve conquered something deep
within you; you do not want to get cold,” he
says. “That’s the simplest philosophy: Any-
thing you don’t want to do, make it a habit.”
Thanks to the harsh lessons of his
post-Baywatch recovery, Efron had a new
awareness of injury. About four years ago,
in the span of a year and a half, he tore
his ACL, dislocated his shoulder, broke
his wrist, and threw out his back. He also
shattered his jaw, he says, though that was
not a training injury. He’d been running
through his house in socks and slipped,
smacking his chin against the granite cor-
ner of a fountain. He lost consciousness,
and when he woke up, he recalls, his chin
bone was hanging off his face.
I study him as he eats a crab leg. His jaw
area looks much as it has always looked.
This may be salient intel for some, because
in April 2021, after Efron appeared in a clip
promoting an Earth Day special from Bill
Nye, the Internet again came alive with
RAPID
chat ter about Efron’s FIRE conversation, as he talks
body, this time with spec- about the film, his voice
FRENEMY EXERCISE?
ulation that he had had “Those Airdyne bikes. gets quieter, his wording
plastic surgery on his face. That burst of cardio more precise.
When I ask him about pushes my heart rate so The Greatest Beer Run
far through the roof.”
this, he tells me that the Ever is based on the mem-
masseter muscles, used WORKOUT ANTHEM? oir of the same name by
for chewing, work together “The Chicago Bulls John “Chickie” Donohue,
with the other muscles of theme song. And who set out, in November
Kendrick Lamar.”
the face “like a symphony”; 1967, to deliver beer to all
when he was injured, the MEAL YOU COOK WHEN his hometown friends who
muscles on the inside of YOU WANT TO IMPRESS? were fighting overseas in
"Steak and eggs.”
his face and jaw had to Vietnam. At first glance,
compensate. He works BEST BOOK YOU’VE Efron is playing a version
with a specialist and does READ RECENTLY? of some of his past comedic
“Radical Love, by
physical therapy to medi- Zachary Levi.”
roles, a himbo in a war zone.
ate this, he says, but in But the character’s hum-
Australia he took some FAVORITE OLD-TIMEY bling is gradual and pro-
time off from that, too. MEDICAL PROCEDURE? found. Just as gradually,
“The brain mapping in
“The masseters just grew,” Sherlock Holmes.”
the humor of the first half
he says, shrugging. “They gives way to the horrors
just got really, really big.” LAST TIME YOU CRIED? and complexities of war.
“I’m an easy crier. I cried
Efron says he didn’t in Top Gun. I got into The final quarter of the
k now a b out Jaw- g at e my feelings about some- film is very visceral, sur-
until his mother called to thing like three days ago prisingly so if you jumped
ask if he’d gotten plastic and I cried for a sec.” in expecting a PBR-themed
surgery, because, though EUPHEMISM FOR SEX? buddy-com.
he appreciates that social “Shagging. Reminds me Though Efron was under-
media can be useful for of Austin Powers.” whelmed by the roles he
promoting projects he was being considered for at
cares about, he generally the time, he was instantly
avoids it. This is a survival tactic, one taken with The Greatest Beer Run Ever,
that he has been honing since he became written and directed by Oscar winner Peter
a public figure at 17. “If I valued what other Farrelly of Green Book, a film that the Inter-
people thought of me to the extent that net panned but Efron—and, controver-
they may think I do,” he says, “I definitely sially, the Academy—loved. “Sometimes
wouldn’t be able to do this work.” reading a script can take two days,” he says.
“I’m stopping and visualizing it and reread-
ing pages. Sometimes I’m mouthing words.
PERHAPS AS A result of his detach- But with Greatest Beer Run, the writing was
ment from his digital public, Efron is can- so specific and so clear.”
did about most subjects. He doesn’t shy Efron read the script in an hour and a
away from questions about his romantic half. He liked the weight of a film set during
life, for instance, though he says he wishes the Vietnam War and how it balanced ten-
there were more to say. “I’ve really been sion with humanity and humor. What’s
taking time to focus on, you know, self- more, he could relate to his character. “I
fulfillment and trying to find my groove. I can empathize with what he was going
know that probably when I meet the right through, sitting in New York when all his
person, it’s going to be when I least expect close friends are on the front line,” he says.
it.” (When I point out that that kind of talk “It was the fastest decision I’d ever made.”
is likely to earn him a torrent of DMs on At this point, the seafood tower between
Instagram, he admits that not being able to us begins making a witchy bubbling
communicate with certain people on Ins- sound. Efron talks over it for a second, but
tagram directly is one of his few laments the noise draws my attention—the tower
about distancing himself from social sounds like it’s about to erupt. “He gets the
media, then sighs. It’s a “can of worms.”) audience engaged through the humanity
He speaks most carefully about his film and the relationships,” he says of Farrelly
roles and seems anxious not to appear before trailing off, sensing my distraction.
flippant. Once we’ve made some headway Frustration flashes across his face, quickly
on the seafood, I ask Efron what drew him replaced by amusement. He carefully
to The Greatest Beer Run Ever. While he’s moves the remaining Dungeness crab-
jovial and off the cuff during the rest of our meat from its dry-ice bath and places the
MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 59
 “ THAT’S THE SIMPLEST
PHILOSOPHY : ANYTHING
YOU DON’T WANT TO DO,
MAKE IT A HABIT.”
bowl of dry ice on the table. But that isn’t
much better. He then walks the dry ice over
to one of the empty tables, faint icy breaths
unspooling behind him. He tries to pick up
where he left off; however, the distance has
only aggravated the dry ice, which gurgles
menacingly from across the room.
At last, a few bussers arrive and remove
the seafood tower and the banished dry
ice. The steaks appear, and Erin breezes
in after them to ask Efron whether the A5
is the best he’s ever had. “It tastes like foie
gras,” he says. The fat is so finely webbed
throughout the beef that you can’t see it.
“See, that taste, and that feeling right
there, that’s why I’m not vegan anymore,”
he says. Then he turns serious again, eager
to keep discussing The Greatest Beer Run
Ever. He enjoyed working on this film, he
continues, because it engaged him and
challenged him. He felt enormous pres-
sure to get the role right, in part because
Chickie Donohue would be watching.
Sure, Efron had been able to find pur-
pose in his himbo repertoire. He appreci-
ates the “self-aware bro” description and
discusses that kind of character (“some-
THE ZAC ATTACK
WORKOUT
KETTLEBELL SWING HARD-STYLE PUSHUP
Do 10 reps. Focus Do 5 reps. Pause at
on being explosive as you the bottom of each, then
stand up straight. explode to the top.
60 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH
body that’s learning, that’s listening, that
has an open heart and mind”) with tender-
ness. But playing the fun-loving, self-aware
bro is not a challenge for Zac Efron, who
presents as a fun-loving, self-aware bro.
Efron seems poised to plunge into the
ice-bath roles—the ones so challenging
that they “conquer something deep within
you”—but uncertain that people in the
industry see him that way. Farrelly, who’d
wanted to work with Efron ever since they
met years ago, admitted that he proba-
bly wouldn’t have thought of him for The
Greatest Beer Run Ever if he hadn’t seen
him as Ted Bundy, an unlikable character
Efron had to somehow make charming.
“I realized, Well, this is a guy who wants
to stretch,” the director recalls. “I didn’t
realize how much he could stretch.”
Efron didn’t come into the film as a
“know-it-all,” Farrelly says, but rather as
someone committed to portraying a differ-
ent character from the “all-American kid”
he’s often played. According to the director,
several early viewers of The Greatest Beer
Run Ever told him they were a ways into the
film before they realized Zac Efron was Zac
TO CARVE HIS ATHLETIC PHYSIQUE, Zac Efron relies on this single-kettlebell burner from trainer
Ben Greenfield. DIRECTIONS: Warm up with 30 burpees, then set a timer for 20 minutes.
Complete all reps of all the exercises below before each minute is up, then rest until the
start of the next minute. —EBENEZER SAMUEL, C.S.C.S.
KETTLEBELL GOBLET SQUAT
Do 10 reps.
Squeeze your glutes
hard as you stand.
Efron. “He’s a little more edgy,” he says of
the actor. “He disappears into the role.”
Before he can conquer transcendent
roles, though, Efron must conquer his fans.
As we leave the restaurant, he has already
made one (well-earned) birthday video for
Erin’s daughter when a middle-aged man
chases him down to ask if he might take a
photo with his birthday daughter. Efron
accepts the request with gusto. The man
races back to his table and returns with two
teenage girls. Efron poses, smiling, with
the birthday daughter and gamely asks the
non-birthday daughter standing nearby if
she would like a photo as well. She would,
she says, “but can we take a selfie?”
Having spent the past few hours interro-
gating Efron, I have been primed to detect
some discomfort under his jocularity.
And the second the father and his brood
turn away, the actor, after a hasty good-
bye, literally runs away. In an instant, he
has disappeared around the corner of the
building in search of the valet.
When the valet returns to the podium
after sending Efron off, he beckons me
over, looking a little flustered. “I told him
he was funny,” he says ruefully, “but now
I’m like, Ah, that’s not it!” Efron is funny,
but the valet is convinced he’s committed
a faux pas. “He could be like the Twilight
guy,” he says. Robert Pattinson? “Yeah,
Robert Pattinson. If he were in those mov-
ies, he’d kill it! Oscar movies! Tell him!”
The valet has—remarkably, given
his presumably brief interaction with
Efron—perceived him exactly as he seems
to want to be perceived. Maybe everyone
else will, too.
lauren larson is a writer living in Austin.
Ben Mounsey-Wood (illustrations)
WIDE-GRIP TEMPO PULLUP
Do 5 slow reps
(1 second up,
5 seconds down).
T-shirt and jeans
by RRL; sneakers
by Converse.
 NFL M
MEN’S HEALTH /// NFL 2022

NEXT-
LEVEL
HOW ONE OF FOOTBALL’S MOST INNOVATIVE
AND RELENTLESS PLAYERS, RUSHING KING
JONATHAN TAYLOR, TRAINS SMART
(AND HARD!) TO BUILD STRENGTH, SPEED,
AND DURABILITY. PLUS: MIND-AND-BODY
INNOVATIONS TO GET STRONGER, RUN FASTER,
AND STAY AT YOUR PEAK LONGER, FROM
TOM BRADY, LANE JOHNSON,
JUSTIN JEFFERSON, AND MORE!

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDREW HETHERINGTON

62 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH
MUSCLE

Jonathan Taylor spent his

summer training on a Florida turf
field, doing exercises like this
resisted sled high-knee run.
MEN’S HEALTH /// NFL 2022
THE
DURABILITY KING
BY ANNA KATHERINE CLEMMONS
NO PLAYER TOOK more of a pounding
last season than 23-year-old Jonathan
Taylor. The five-foot-ten, 226-pound Indi-
anapolis Colts running back carried the
ball 332 times (the second-highest total in
football since 2015) and rushed for 1,811
yards (552 more than any other player).
And Taylor didn’t miss a game. This sea-
son, he’ll be expected to do the same thing.
Taylor knows this won’t be easy. He—
and the rest of the NFL—is well aware of
the workhorse-running-back abyss, the
way players like him inevitably break
down after just a few seasons of big hit
after big hit. From Giants star Saquon
Barkley, who started his career with
back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons but
hasn’t played a full season since, to Car-
olina’s Christian McCaffrey (remem-
ber him?), big-time running backs in
today’s NFL don’t last long.
Then again, Taylor’s never been broken,
not in three years at the University of Wis-
consin (where he twice ran for 2,000-plus
yards) and not in two seasons with Indy.
And he doesn’t plan to let that change,
which is why he’s borrowing from the
NFL’s original innovator of wellness, Tom
Brady, and rethinking his training plan.
Bigger, stronger, and faster have long
been the goals most players have had in
the off-season—and they’re the traits
that draw the most attention at every
training camp. But five years ago, when
Brady released his best-selling TB12
Method book, the league began to change.
Instead of just training till exhaustion to
make quick fitness gains, Brady chased
longevity, focusing on band and core work
to stabilize and strengthen injury-prone
64 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH
joints and emphasizing recovery. This
shift in training has been duplicated
across the league (and in all of sports,
really), with more players prepping with
long-term goals in mind.
Taylor was paying attention, and his
take on longevity has him chasing a qual-
ity that increasingly eludes those who
play his position: long-term durability.
“We all know the sport we play—injury
rate is 100 percent,” he says. “So being
able to be flexible, be mobile, you hope
everything you’re doing in the off-season,
all the work you do, mitigates your
chance of injury as much as possible.”
On this mid-July morning, Taylor is
seated on a massage table at a gym in
Weston, Florida. He takes a deep breath,
then twists his torso, rotating his chest
to the left. He holds for five seconds, then
returns to the center and repeats the
motion on the other side. Taylor barely
blinks during the entire process. “He
doesn’t have an emotional response,”
says Jermaine Gordon, Taylor’s massage
therapist. “JT knows what we’re doing.” It lor’s bulletproofing summer involves
was Taylor who prompted Gordon to work more. It’s 7:00 a.m., three hours before
this movement into his training. Early trunk-rotation time, and Taylor is on a
in the off-season, Taylor had approached turf field on an extra-humid 82 degree
the therapist to discuss his core mus- day that’s only going to get hotter.
cles. Gordon discovered that there was Part of his pursuit of longevity
room for improvement in the superstar involves maintaining the unique break-
running back’s ability to rotate his torso. away speed and strength he already has.
And Taylor was excited to address this. So for about three hours a day, six days a
So trunk-rotation training became a week, he trains. There are classic weight-
summer point of emphasis. Says Gordon: room sessions that have him benching as
“JT knew exactly what he needed.” much as 375 pounds and plenty of sprint
drills to help him preserve (and maybe
DON’T WORRY: This story isn’t all even improve) his electric 4.39-second
about trunk rotations. Because Tay- 40-yard-dash speed.

The length of Taylor’s sessions seems
to run counter to his objective of dura-
“WE ALL KNOW bility, especially in this fitness era. More
and more, trainers encourage clients
THE SPORT WE to work through shorter sessions and
focus on recovery to make their greatest
PLAY—INJURY gains. But Taylor’s trainer, Adam Boily,
sees training duration differently. On
RATE IS Sundays, Taylor will take to the field for
three to four hours. His body needs
100 PERCENT.” to understand those rigors.
Taylor and Boily have revamped his
—Jonathan Taylor three-hour sessions, though. Increasingly,
they spend time helping the running
back’s body recover. “Back in the day, we
Yes, Taylor can lift heavy, but
over the summer he worked a lot
on mobility and footwork.
trained hard, we were out in the sun, we
were doing three hours a day, then recov-
ery, then medical, then nutrition,” Boily
says. “Now the workouts are getting more
efficient. But that should only mean you
have more time to do more work.”
Taylor doesn’t mind. Clad in a long-
sleeved windbreaker, he starts with a
25-minute (yes, that long) warmup that
includes barefoot footwork drills and sled
drags to hone his running technique. He
finishes with movement prep: Six small
yellow squares are lined up, with the
corners touching to form a circle. Every
few seconds, Boily points to a square.
MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 65
 MEN’S HEALTH /// NFL 2022
Taylor must quickly step one foot into the
square, then back to the center, all while
continuing to shuffle his feet.
The drill, which Boily calls the
“in-place, multidirectional edge work”
exercise, represents another innovative
shift in Taylor’s training. Yes, plenty
of players do footwork drills, but few
do them as frequently as Taylor does.
Boily’s program has him taking them
on several times weekly—and with them,
he’s accomplishing more than honing
his agility. Whenever he pushes off his
foot, he’s teaching his ankle muscles
and tendons to absorb the force of his
body at a different angle, insulating a
key joint against injury.
Taylor does this near flawlessly for
three 30-second rounds. In between,
Boily watches Taylor’s three training
partners slip during the demanding
sequence, which serves as a reminder
that the Colt is a special athlete. “His
body is biomechanically set up for ath-
leticism,” says Boily. “The way his feet
TAYLOR-MADE MUSCLE
Hamstring pulls are common in the NFL, which is why Taylor
spends extra time working his hammies, relying heavily
on this 2-move superset. Do 3 sets once or twice a week.
▶ NORDIC CURL
Kneel on your shins and have a friend
tightly hold them in place. Squeeze
your glutes. Keeping your torso in line
with your thighs, slowly lower yourself
toward the ground. When you can no
longer lower yourself with control, place
your hands in front of you and “catch”
yourself. Press up from the ground to
return to the start. That’s 1 rep; do 4 to 6.
66 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH
and ankles are, the way his hips and bone
structure is . . . the structure of the way
he’s set up is built for power and speed.”
Taylor knows he needs more—and
he has known that since he started
working with Boily three years ago.
Boily prides himself not merely on
working out players but also on educat-
ing them. That jibed with the curious
Taylor, who wants to understand every
adjustment his trainers make. Boily
enjoys focusing on the little things, too,
so he has happily worked with Taylor to
correct his oblique imbalance. He has
also worked to improve Taylor’s ankle
mobility, teaching him to dorsiflex, or
upwardly flex his feet, more effectively.
This just might make Taylor harder to
tackle in 2022—and it’ll help safeguard
his ankles against injury, too. “Ankles,”
Boily says, “are of the utmost impor-
tance to athletes.”
These are the tips that Taylor appre-
ciates, the adjustments that can simul-
taneously keep him healthy and help
◀ BENCH REVERSE HYPER
Lie with your torso on a stable
bench, legs hanging off the
bench, arms tightly holding it, a
light dumbbell held between your
ankles. Keeping your legs straight,
squeeze your glutes and lift your
legs so they’re in line with your tor-
so. Lower slowly. That’s 1 rep; do 10.
him squeeze a little more athleticism
out of his already optimized body. And
after three years with Boily, he’s learned
plenty of others. When there’s a lull in
the session, Taylor talks about his love of
bodyweight isometrics, like pushup holds
and squat holds. They’ve helped him
strengthen his “end range of motion,”
he says, essentially ensuring that his
muscles and joints can maintain stability
when, say, his knee is bent to its max or
his shoulder is stretched overhead at an
awkward angle.
Taylor slips into full-on trainer-speak
when explaining his final speed drill,
the overspeed sprint. He straps a band
to his waist and hands one end to Boily,
who lines up ten yards away. Boily starts
running away from Taylor, as fast as
he can, practically dragging the player
behind him. Taylor starts sprinting
all out, faster than ever thanks to the
momentum Boily’s created. “It allows
you to run faster than you necessarily
can on your own,” Taylor says, “but it
trains or programs the body to get used
to that speed. So now, you do it with
enough repetitions, your body is like,
‘Oh, I can move that fast.’ ”
Three sprints later (with plenty of
rest in between), Taylor changes shirts,
then hits the weight room, working
through heavy bench-press reps. Once
he’s done with that, he saunters over
to the training table so Gordon can put
him through those trunk rotations and
several other stretches. And as always,
Taylor asks Gordon questions the entire
time. “He’s a student of his body and
willing to try new things,” Gordon says.
“Yes, there are players like that, but I’d
say usually later in their career.”
But for Taylor, the chase for longev-
ity means asking those questions now.
Because trunk rotations and ankle
dorsiflexion are just as important as
speed and strength work. “Some guys are
crazy good and talented, even without all
those things that can benefit them,” he
says. “Then imagine them doing all these
things. It’s insane to think about.”
Or it’s Jonathan Taylor, circa 2027—
and still the best running back in
the league.
Peter Sucheski (illustrations)
anna katherine clemmons is an assis-
tant professor of media at the University of
Virginia. She writes about sports for ESPN,
Fox Sports, and The New York Times.
 THE

AGELESS INNOVATOR
LONG BEFORE ALL players obsessed over cutting-edge fitness and
nutrition techniques, TOM BRADY was writing the book on them. Literally.
And sure, his advice was wild (avocado everything, right?), but it worked:
Brady will play the entire season at age 45. To prepare, he recently made
a few changes to his training routine. His longtime body coach (and
TB12 cofounder) Alex Guerrero walked us through the key innovations.

JOIN THE BAND WORK QUICKS

Brady now prefers using heavy
resistance bands over weights, a joint-
friendly approach that lets him push to
fatigue. Brady does a single set of a criti-
cal exercise, as many reps as he can, then
squeezes out a few more by reducing the
range of motion as he tires. Try it with the
deadlift: Start standing with your feet
on a band, hands grasping its ends. Do
as many good-form reps as you can. Next
set, lower your torso only halfway; repeat
until you can do no more reps. Finish by
doing 3 reps, lowering your torso just a
few inches. Do this once a week.
“You can’t make aging athletes
faster,” says Guerrero, “but you
can make them quicker.” That
means teaching Brady to react
and change direction quickly. The
key to that is cone drills: Set up 3
cones (or any 3 objects) 5 feet apart.
Start at the middle cone, dash to
the left cone, then immediately
dash to the right cone. That’s 1 rep;
do 3 per side once a week.

THE NEW EXAMPLE OF

▶ PICK A FIGHT
OLD-MAN During the off-season, Lewis also adds an

STRONG
HE’S 38 YEARS OLD and has survived 16
years in the trenches where linebackers roam.
Despite that, Packers tight end MARCEDES
LEWIS has missed just one game over the past
five seasons. His secret: ditching heavy and
hard lifts for these three rules.
▶ EMBRACE THE SINGLE LIFE
AP Images (Brady). Getty Images (Lewis).
MMA workout nearly every afternoon,
working through drills, hitting the bag, and
sparring for about an hour. The practice
challenges his breathing and footwork and
refines his cardiovascular system—and it
reminds him to stay athletic, too. “It’s held
me accountable to take care of my body,”
he says. Don’t want to do MMA? No prob-
lem: Play a different recreational sport at
least once a week.
▶ DON’T OVERTHINK RECOVERY
Yes, Lewis has the latest Normatec

air-compression boots, but he doesn’t

Lewis typically hits the weight room in the morn-
ing, but he is never focused on PRs. He concen-
trates on single-leg exercises that challenge.
His favorite is the med-ball skater lunge. Stand
on your left foot, holding a medicine ball at your
chest, then leap to the right, landing on your right
foot, knee bent. Leap back to the left. That’s 1 rep;
do 3 sets of 8 to 10 twice a week.
pointlessly chase recovery tech. “It’s
more about the routine of doing things
like that,” he says. He works to integrate
some form of recovery nearly every day,
often keeping it simple. He loves contrast
therapy, alternating between 1½ minutes
in the cold tub and 3 minutes in the hot tub
for 4 or 5 rounds before practice.

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 67

 MEN’S HEALTH /// NFL 2022

THE

THE
COACHING TRAILBLAZER
CLEAN-EATING
LINEMAN
IN 2020, Tampa Bay Buccaneers assistant
defensive-line coach LORI LOCUST became
OFFENSIVE LINEMEN ARE
the first female position coach to win a Super
supposed to be 300 pounds.
They don’t typically have 13 per- Bowl, the crowning achievement in an
cent body fat. How does the 325- unconventional career. As one of a handful of
pound Eagles offensive tackle women in the NFL coaching ranks, she knows
LANE JOHNSON pull off the combo? she must gain the trust of players and col-
By sticking to the Vertical Diet.
leagues. She discovered four tactics at key
The meat-heavy protocol helped
Johnson earn second-team All-Pro moments in her career to aid in that process.
honors last year. And it includes two
servings of this shake every day.

INGREDIENTS
(MAKES 1 SERVING)
20 OZ ORGANIC ALMOND MILK
2011 2018 2019 2020
2 CUPS FROZEN BANANA
1 SCOOP MOMENTOUS
CHOCOLATE GRASS-FED WHEY USE BEATS FIND A PREWORK TRIAGE EMBRACE
1 TBSP ATHLETIC GREENS TO BOND ROUTINE STRATEGICALLY THE NEW
POWDER
As a high school Locust’s first NFL gig When Locust landed Covid and the ar-
2 TBSP ORGANIC PEANUT BUTTER
assistant coach in was a defensive-line with the Bucs as rival of a superstar
1 TBSP PURE MAPLE SYRUP
¼ CUP RAW CASHEWS
Pennsylvania, Lo- internship with the assistant defensive- QB led the Bucs to
cust heard Meek Baltimore Ravens, line coach, she revamp, well, every-
Nutrition: 40g protein, 111g
Mill, an artist she and her workdays needed to learn a thing. Meetings were
carbs, 38g fat, 926 calories
loved, in the locker were packed. There new playbook. Her held on Zoom, and
room. She used that are no five-minute plan: study exactly scheme terminology
as a conversation breathers in the what she needed changed. Locust
starter with players. NFL. Locust’s fix is a for the next week didn’t just learn the
“They’re like, ‘You’re before-work routine: instead of mastering new stuff: She forced
open to where I’m She walks her dog the whole book. “I’m herself to love it. The
at,’” she says. “That and uses that time thinking, Next op- result: a Super Bowl
builds trust.” to mentally prep for ponent, next week, ring. —Amanda
the day ahead. next season.” Lucci, NASM-C.P.T.

THE
Courtesy subject (Johnson). Getty Images (Locust). AP Images (Chiefs).

MENTAL MASTER
STEP 1: PROCESS,
THEN FLUSH IT

“Our goal is: We have the

game, win or loss . . . we come
in after the game, we hug or
IT’S EASY TO overthink big losses and overglorify we cry, and then we flush it
big wins. But SHAUN TYRANCE, PH.D., the Kansas City out of our systems between
the end of the game and
Chiefs’ team clinician, specializes in helping you Tuesday,” Tyrance says. Prac-
find something else: equilibrium. Adopt his method ticing this readies you for the
to bounce back from your worst losses. next challenge.

68 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

 THE

BALANCE
BALANCE
BADASS

Vikings receiver JUSTIN JEFFERSON is one of the

league’s best deep-ball receivers. But his gym focus
isn’t about pure speed; instead, he zeroes in on
balance. “Trying to take those little hits, when I can

THE
still be running and getting those extra yards, that’s
just doing different balance exercises,” he says.

LEG DAY
JEFFERSON’S GO-TO MOVE: THE SINGLE-LEG HOLD
Grab a weight and hold it at your hip in your right
hand. Lift your right leg off the ground. Hold for 30
seconds. Do 2 or 3 reps per leg. “That’s a huge part of
your balance,” he says. “I like to do the balance
work holding weight, mostly. I feel like that’s harder REINVENTOR
on the body and gives the body more strength.”

SQUATS ARE staple moves on any leg day. But

Titans running back DERRICK HENRY also needs
agility and quickness, which is why he and trainer
Melvin Sanders, C.S.C.S., rethought his leg day.
Try their workout for strength and athleticism.

RESISTANCE-BAND
TRAP-BAR DEADLIFT
Stand in a loaded trap bar, feet
on a resistance band that has
its ends looped around the bar.
Push your butt back and lower your
torso to grasp the trap bar. Stand.
Do 4 reps, then do 4 box jumps.
Do 4 sets, building explosiveness.

LATERAL GOBLET LUNGE

Hold a weight at your chest. Keep-
ing your left leg straight, shift your
weight to your right leg. Push your
butt back and bend your right knee.
Lower until your right thigh is
AP Images (Jefferson, Henry). Peter Sucheski (illustrations).

STEP 2: REMEMBER STEP 3: REDISCOVER parallel to the ground. Return to

THE BIG PICTURE ROUTINE the start. Do 4 sets of 8 per side.

“Regardless of whether And stick to that routine,

you’ve won four in a row
or lost four in a row,” says
Tyrance, “we try to keep
everyone committed to the
ultimate goal, which is win-
ning.” That means jumping
right back into hardcore
practice and preparation.
despite any new pressure. ISO LUNGE HOLD
This keeps you ready for Henry can’t go heavy all the time,
what’s to come. “One thing so he mixes in iso holds. Stand in a
we do is we treat every game split stance, right leg in front. Bend
and week exactly the same,” at both knees and lower your torso
says Tyrance. “Our Super until your right thigh is parallel
Bowl week looks exactly like to the ground. Hold for 60 seconds.
week 1, week 5.” Do 4 or 5 reps per side.

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 69

EVERY BODY
THERE’S A SEGMENT of physically active men
we don’t hear from enough—on social media,
on TV, in the pages of this magazine. Men who
seem to have figured out the balance between
striving and satisfaction. They may care about
those puffy fat folds around their armpits. Or
love handles that won’t go away no matter how
much lat work they do. Or dimples on their ass.
But they’re not letting concern about
these issues hold them back. They’re
proudly strolling the beach. They’re
comfortably changing in the locker
room. They’re confidently playing skins
at Tuesday-night hoops. They know you
can be strong in more ways than one.
There’s nothing wrong with pushing
to be your best self, building muscle and
strength. But strength comes in many dif-
ferent forms. This is the message the men
on the following pages want you to hear.
From Martinus Evans, a 347-pounder
who runs marathons, and physical
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CELESTE SLOMAN
IS PERFECT
therapist Ilya Parker, who escaped jokes
about gender and weight as a youngster
to become a fitness-inclusivity advocate
for heavier people, to Cody Young, a
self-described body-hair ambassador,
and bodybuilder Jim Arrington, 90 years
young and still lifting weights daily.
They’re not preaching acceptance of
your body, necessarily. They’re saying
it’s okay for you to want your body to look
different in whatever way you want it
to look different. It’s okay to care more
about how your insides function than
your outsides look. It’s okay to care more
about the walls of your cardiac arteries
than the ripples of your abdomen. (It’s
also okay to care about those things
equally.) It’s okay for you to care about
your man boobs and not your triceps.
There’s a concept in Zen Buddhism
called “big mind.” It means you expand
your outlook enough to see the good and
the bad as they are, so that you can make
fully informed decisions. When it comes
to health and fitness, it means seeing
your blood pressure for what it is. Your
pecs. Your heart rate. Your weight. Your
calves. The way you feel when you get up
in the morning. The way you feel after
30 squats. It means knowing what those
things mean to you. They’re not inher-
ently “good” or “bad.” They just are. You
can change them or not change them,
but the point is not to achieve a certain
goal or look a certain way. The practice—
working out, meditating, eating good
food, getting stronger—is the point.
We’re not “before and after” projects.
We’re all on a journey. We’re all perfectly
imperfect, and no matter how much or
how little we work out, we always will be.
—THE EDITORS OF MH
MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 71
JIM ARRINGTON
90, 5'7"
BODYBUILDER SINCE 1947

WHEN I WAS about 14, I saw

Grooming (Arrington, Merrill, Old Gays, Kwan): Will Carrillo using Philip B. and Embryolisse. Grooming (Young, Parker): Will Sullivan/Honey Artists. Grooming (Evans, Glassman): Hiro Yonemoto/Honey Artists. Manicure (Young, Parker, Evans, Glassman): Tak Okamura/the Wall Group.
this muscle magazine at the
drugstore and I couldn’t be-
lieve—even their forearms were
big! I mailed away for Molding
a Mighty Chest, a 25-cent book
by George Jowett, a Canadian
strongman. My dad had a
couple of steel balls that were
about three pounds each, and I
started training with them.
My goal was to be Mr.
America. But after five years,
I saw I didn’t really have the
genetics. I learned the secret
to bodybuilding back in 1974
from Ken Waller, Mr. Universe
in 1975. He told me to do what
works for you. I thought, Well,
thanks a lot. But that is essen-
tially what you’ve got to do—
experiment to see what works
for you.
At my age, your body’s more
fragile. In the past five years, my
left bicep broke loose and I had
a tear in my right bicep, too. It’s
disheartening, but it’s import-
ant to keep soldiering away. I’ve
entered the IFBB Pro League
Legion Master Reno in October.
I train at Gold’s Gym in
Venice. I see a lot of bodies—
if I compare myself to them,
I’m nothing. But those people
respect me for being what I am
at the age I am. There’s people
at the gym—you don’t have
long conversations with them,
but they know you and they
respect you because you’re in
there every day.
—as told to greg presto

“Training feels
great. I like
to be strong.”
 “Who was
I shaving for?
Not for me!”

CODY YOUNG
33, 6'2"
BODY-HAIR AMBASSADOR

I WAS A CHUBBY KID who

didn’t take my shirt off at the
beach. When I considered what
a man was supposed to look like,
especially a gay man, I did not
see myself reflected at all. I could
never picture myself with six-
pack abs. I went from 230 to 180
pounds, and I was trying to fit
the mold of a “perfect” body. But
I really focused on working out
more when I moved to New York.
Then Covid hit and I thought,
The world is ending. I’m going to
eat ice cream. It was an interest-
ing shift for me. After the world
opened up, I was at the beach
and someone said, “I love your
belly.” I had to relearn how to be
confident in this new body that
was getting a positive reaction.
It was a surprise, but at the same
time, I’m attracted to other
bodies that aren’t gym perfect.
For some reason it’s harder to
put that mindset on yourself.
The body-hair ambassador
thing started as a joke. It wasn’t
until my mid-20s that I stopped
shaving my back hair. I was sick
of the maintenance. I thought
if someone liked my chest hair,
they wouldn’t care if I had hair
on my back. So I decided to pro-
mote on social media all forms
of body hair—chest, back,
shoulder, unibrows, whatever.
I’ve received enough validation
on it to last a lifetime, but what
has helped me most is people
messaging me things like “I’ve
always been ashamed of my
back hair, and following you has
made me feel better about it.”
—as told to garrett munce

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 73

TRENTEN MERRILL
32, 5'11"
PARALYMPIAN (LONG JUMP)
AND DISABILITY-PRIDE
ADVOCATE

I WAS RIDING a dirt bike when

I was 14 near my home in San
Juan Capistrano, California,
and got T-boned by a car. I had
to have my lower right leg ampu-
tated. High school was difficult
because kids would stare at my
prosthetic. I wore long pants
every day because I felt insecure
about it. Sports was my identity
and I started to run track, and
in college I really started to
accept myself and feel more
comfortable in my own skin. I
have a bunch of prosthetics, for
daily wear, sprinting, jumping,
water—I surf—and the biggest
challenge is keeping the socket
comfortable, because even a
weight change of five pounds
can cause blisters and pain.
One of my goals is to win gold
at the Paris 2024 and L. A. 2028
Paralympic Games. I’ve learned
to focus on the process of train-
ing, on the things I can control
and can improve, and not judge
myself on the results. I journal
after every training session and
write down what I learned, any
tips my coach said, and what I
want to improve—basically, I
judge my process. Since I’m an
amputee, my disability is visual,
my struggles are obvious, but ev-
erybody has something they’re
going through. I hope owning
my differences and embracing
my uniqueness encourages and
inspires other people to own
their differences, because we’re
all different and all unique.
—as told to ben court
“I hope owning my
differences inspires
other people to own
their differences.”

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 75

 “My body is a beautiful, layered,
complex reflection of all that
humanity can embrace. ”
ILYA PARKER
43, 5'3"
FOUNDER OF DECOLONIZING
FITNESS AND FITNESS-
INCLUSIVITY ADVOCATE

MY FITNESS JOURNEY was

sparked by my need to attain
gender-affirming medical
care in my late 20s. My gender
designation has never aligned
with the truth I feel internally.
Living in a rural, conservative
state resulted in few doctors
able to care for transgender
patients. My physician told me I
had to lose weight, which wasn’t
based on any medical diagnosis.
The personal trainers I talked
to also didn’t support me. They
said things like “You’re always
going to be a woman; you’re just
fat.” With my background in
physical therapy, I decided I
could do it on my own.
So in 2014, I started a mobile
personal-training service called
Forseca Fitness. The goal was to
help reshape the world of fitness
for transmasculine people—
particularly Black folks. That
expanded into Decolonizing
Fitness, a resource center for
people when they first start
training. I try to show people
that it’s the world pushing down
on you. It’s not necessarily
something you’re doing wrong
or that your body is wrong. Soci-
etal expectations of how a body
should look and move are hard,
including assumptions based on
race, size, height, and gender.
I’m more at peace with
my body now because of what
I know, how I’ve been able
to support people. I always
enjoy working with my clients,
because I witness them develop
a more healing connection to
movement and their bodies.
—as told to keith nelson jr.

@ THEOLDGAYS FOUR ANTI-AGEISM, BODY-ACCEPTING INSTAGRAM SENSATIONS
BILL LYONS
78, 5'10"
I’VE ALWAYS been very confi-
dent and accepting of my body.
But I was also celibate for ten
years. Joining the Old Gays and
finding out that people thought
I was hot surprised me. It
makes you think that all the
hard work you did was worth it.
And it is hard work! I used to do
yoga twice a week religiously,
but now all the exercise I do
is dancing and learning the
steps. I only read the positive
feedback. The negatives we
get are so tiny compared to the
positive things that they don’t
bother me at all. There’s a jerk
in every crowd.
JESSAY MARTIN
69, 5'10"
I STARTED cancer treatment a
month before Covid, and then
I had leg and foot surgery. I
gained weight. I used to go to
the gym three times a week,
but now I’m happy as a cat just
walking. Showing my body is
difficult. I have cried many
times, but I’m learning to
just be me. You see people of
different body types and you
give them a story—but you
don’t know what they’re going
through. The Old Gays has
taught me to love everybody.
It’s easier to say than to do, but
I don’t give a fuck what people
think of me.
ROBERT REEVES
79, 6'0"
IN HIGH SCHOOL and college,
I was not very physical. When
I moved to San Francisco in
1980, I became intensely body
aware and went to the gym five
days a week. There was so much
pressure to look the best you
could. I moved to Palm Springs
and continued to work out,
because the inclination in the
desert is to not wear clothes
most of the time. There are so
many sexy daddies around Palm
Springs, you have to look your
best. That pressure is still there,
but how critical physical health
is to longevity is becoming more
important to me.
MEN’S HEALTH
“We are not
all alike,
and that’s
good.”
—JESSAY MARTIN
MICHAEL PETERSON
66, 5'9"
I TRAINED with a gay former
Olympic weightlifter named
Jim Morris at his gym in L. A.
in the ’80s. Then, as now, there
was body pressure. After all,
this is southern California. It
can mess with you, but I used it
as motivation to reach the next
rung on the ladder to perfec-
tion. After turning 60, I was
diagnosed with an autoim-
mune condition. My body is at
war with itself. I have painful
neuropathy in all four of my
limbs. Now I take each day as it
unfolds. Some days I rest. On
days that feel good, I push it!
—as told to garrett munce
| OCTOBER 2022 77
 “Your body can do
amazing things
regardless
of your weight.”
BART KWAN
37, 5'9"
COFOUNDER OF
BARBELL BRIGADE AND
JUSTKIDDINGFILMS
MY WHOLE LIFE, I was the
smallest one in my class.
That was an insecurity that
I had. Growing up, I heard
the stereotype that Asians
are always going to be small
and weak. I even heard that
from my mom.
Before I left the house,
she’d tell me I had to wear a
jacket because I could catch
a cold. I would tell her, “My
friends don’t catch colds,”
and she’d tell me, “Oh, trust
me, Asians are just weak like
that.” It was almost as if my
mom told me, “You’re born
with a disadvantage, and this
is what you have to do to get
stronger.” It was almost like
empowering shit-talking!
78 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH
When I was 15, I started lift-
ing with my friends to put on
size. I would see these swole-ass
Asians who are tatted up and
all big, and I would think, Oh,
Asians can get big if they want.
By my senior year, I had been
training for three years, and
I would look at myself in the
mirror and think I was starting
to have a man shape. Then I
joined the Marine Corps.
You’re in a platoon of 80
to 90 different dudes. You’re
showering and seeing all sizes
and shapes. You see how things
that look like a perk could
also be a disadvantage. You
see a guy that’s six-foot-three
trying to climb into a tank and
getting stuck. Then the guy
that’s five-four is perfect for
that. The Marines helped me
understand and accept how
there are pros and cons to all
shapes and sizes.
Now I’m a competitive
powerlifter and I understand
a lot about fitness. I’ve wanted
to squat over 500 pounds for a
long time, so I just started re-
ally focusing on my squats. How
I looked didn’t matter. I ended
up squatting 515 a few months
ago, but as soon as I did that, I
was like, “Okay, I don’t look my
best. I need to burn this weight
off.” I felt stiff and heavy. If my
five-year-old wanted to run
around, I’d think, I can’t be
running. I’m going to blow my
knees out. Now I want to be as
well-rounded as possible.
My message is that your body
is amazing. From someone who
has swung back and forth in
weight, trust that your body can
do amazing things regardless
of your weight. The most fun
part is the journey, maximizing
every step and having fun.
—as told to keith nelson jr.
 MARTINUS EVANS
36, 6'2"
FOUNDER OF THE SLOW AF
RUN CLUB

ALL MY LIFE, I had to fight.

From when this girl in first
grade told me my titties were
bigger than hers up until my
junior year in high school when
I played football, it sucked to be
big. But once I started playing
football, my body became a
commodity for sports. But
taking my shirt off still made
me self-conscious. Deep down,
I believed that being fat meant I
was worthless.
In June 2012, when I weighed
nearly 400 pounds, I visited a
doctor about a hip injury. The
doctor told me I needed to start
walking and to lose weight or I’d
die. When I told him I was going
to run marathons, he laughed.
I trained 16 weeks and ran the
Detroit Marathon in October
2013. When I crossed the finish
line, I was euphoric. I felt un-
stoppable, finally acknowledg-
ing my body’s strength.
One day in 2017, I live-
streamed a run on the treadmill
on Facebook. I was sweaty,
so I took off my shirt. People
freaked out. Metaphorically, I
crossed another finish line and
started to no longer see my body
as something disgusting but
instead as something beautiful.
I started an online running
club called Slow AF 2018. We’ve
reached close to 9,000 people
worldwide. To other people, my
weight and body are tied to my
identity. For me, my identity
is more tied to running and
providing joy and inspiration
to people who’ve been told they
can’t do it. I give them all the
reasons why they can.

“I went from —as told to keith nelson jr.

being big fatty

to big sexy.”
 “The gym is a place I
can trust. I love that
a ten-pound dumbbell
is always going to
weigh ten pounds.”

BARI GLASSMAN
31, 5'6"
TRANS NUTRITION AND
FITNESS ADVOCATE

WHEN I WAS 21, I was working

with a therapist, and I realized
I saw myself as a cisgender man
in the wrong body. After begin-
ning my transition, I started to
put on more muscle and create a
body I felt more comfortable in.
While I still have the biological
organs of a female, I am a man
now. One of the things I was
self-conscious about was having
breasts. I would go to the gym
and wear multiple shirts. I was
never big-chested, but trying
to do a flat-bench chest press
was very uncomfortable. Last
year, I was fortunate enough
to have top surgery. The scars
are big—they give me such an
appreciation for what my body
has done for me.
With social media and
within the wellness industry as
a whole, it’s all about compari-
son. I fall into the comparison
trap like everyone else. But as
I’ve become familiar with the
trans community online, they
are not competitive. I truly
love working out. The gym is a
place I can trust. I love that a
ten-pound dumbbell is always
going to weigh ten pounds; it’s
never anything else. We should
not seek perfection from our
bodies. We should instead work
to find peace within ourselves.
That, to me, is perfection.
—as told to keith nelson jr.

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 81

Let’s Talk About
Fight Club

It’s been 20 years since

Brad Pitt’s lean and lethal
turn as Tyler Durden
dramatically reshaped
what we consider the
ideal body.

Honestly: Why?
BY BRETT WILLIAMS, NASM-CPT ILLUSTRATION BY EDDIE GUY

82 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

 “Self-improvement
themselves as walking wellness brands. It was
one part of one character in one movie in a ca-
reer that contains multitudes. Still, the Durden

is masturbation.” obsession continues in Hollywood, with stars

like Kumail Nanjiani, Dax Shepard, and Rob
McElhenney all holding up Pitt’s Fight Club
body as their own inspiration or ideal.
—Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden, Fight Club
“When that movie came out, there was abso-
lutely a shift,” says Roberto Olivardia, Ph.D.,
a lecturer in psychology at Harvard Medical
FOR NEARLY 500 YEARS, Michelangelo’s David School and a coauthor of The Adonis Complex:
The Secret Crisis of Male Body Obsession, who
stood in tribute to the ideal male form, and it took helped coin the term “muscle dysmorphia.” “I
Brad Pitt less than 20 seconds to destroy it. For the started hearing with my patients that the goal
wasn’t to look like Muscle & Fitness. It was more
uninitiated, the moment comes about 45 minutes around Brad Pitt.” Thousands of people still
into his 1999 movie Fight Club, when Pitt’s charac- Google some variation of “Brad Pitt Fight Club”
every month, with thousands also searching for
ter, Tyler Durden, takes a turn in the underground his workout, according to Semrush, an analyt-
fighting ring he helped create. After pummeling ics company that tracks the popularity of on-
his opponent into the floor, Durden rises, shirtless line search terms.
Pitt’s first rule of the Fight Club Body may be
and bloody, exposing his full physique to the audi- that he’s no longer interested in talking about
ence. And we haven’t looked away since. the Fight Club Body. (He did not respond to our
request for an interview.) But plenty of others
affected by the movie still fixate on it. Once
Perhaps that’s because while the statue of David is we tracked them down, they confirmed just how enduring and problematic
all about perfectly proportional muscles and rippling the illusory standard has become. It turns out there are really three main
abs, Durden looked both powerful and degenerate. He components to the allure, and like the movie itself, each affects our view of
was a hard-drinking, chain-smoking antihero with a healthy male body image in more complicated ways than you may think.
jagged abs shaped like sharks’ teeth and a crazy-low
level of body fat.
The film flopped—at least initially—returning just THE PHYSIQUE
over half of its $67 million budget domestically. And
yet the Brad Pitt Fight Club Body has attained near “Without pain, without sacrifice,
mythological status among men of all stripes. In the
early aughts, Pitt’s lean and chiseled look appeared
we would have nothing.”
on posters that plenty of guys hung up in their dorm —Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden
rooms. (I’ll admit, I had one.) A decade later, the
movie had become a cult classic and cultural flash WHEN M c ELHENNEY and Nanjiani appeared on Shepard’s Armchair Ex-
point, selling enough DVDs that the special edition pert podcast in March 2020, McElhenney shared that the Fight Club Body is
was reissued, while in 2013 actor Charlie Hunnam be- still “the primo, number-one all-time body” that his own celebrity trainer
came the first of many leading men to publicly point has told him guys want to achieve. Shepard agreed and even fanboyed out
out how nearly impossible it would be to match Pitt’s over the now GIF-able basement scene. “Before the shirt comes off, you’re not
physical standard in that role. really noticing very much,” he said. “But when the shirt comes off, you’re like,
Granted, part of Pitt’s ultra-shredded appeal may oh Jesus.” Their entire conversation continued with at least some awareness
have been that he was appearing on the heels of two of the absurdity: At one point, Nanjiani said the actor appears “pretty small”
decades of muscle-bound beefcakes like Arnold and but great, even though that’s the opposite of the superhero idols of today, who
Sly, who presented their own unattainable caricatures are, as McElhenney once put it, “fucking jacked.”
of masculinity. Unlike the Terminator or Rambo, Therein may lie the biggest appeal for normal guys: Unlike the supreme
Durden was a soap salesman who fought against nor- swoleness of someone like the Rock, Pitt’s physique isn’t about getting out-
mal stuff—or, rather, our resignation to complacency rageously bigger; it’s about honing what you’ve already got under the shirt.
and (in his eyes at least) emasculating social norms. In theory, that could make his transformation seem more doable to some
Sometimes that meant brawling with random guys in men—that is, until you consider exactly who you’re watching. “I have a feeling
a bar basement, although eventually it led to a darker that this motherfucker kind of walks around looking like that,” McElhenney
scheme to free others from our cultural fixation on joked on the podcast.
money as a measure of self-worth. Don Saladino, NASM, a Men’s Health advisory board member who has
But Pitt wasn’t trying to create a fitness ideal like trained Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, and others, says many of his cli-
the Hemsworths and Wahlbergs of today, who market ents still show up seeking that look, too. But McElhenney’s jokes may have

84 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

some truth to them: Saladino calls Pitt an
“ectomorph,” which means his lean frame
doesn’t carry much body fat naturally. So
he’s got a head start when getting chiseled. As
Mike Runyard, the film’s stunt coordinator,
told Men’s Health UK in a 2016 story about the
movie: “Brad just turned up looking like that.
That was his deal. I didn’t do anything with
him. I saw him using hand weights on set, but
that was it.”
Saladino guesses that the actor also likely
went through a “cut”—a period in which
bodybuilders and other athletes limit macro-
nutrients and water to lose mass, which can
create an ultra-lean, muscular look but comes
with side effects, including weakness, irrita-
bility, even hormone imbalances and/or sup-
pressed immune function. All of which is to
say, there’s a level of genetics and stunt diet-
ing that probably makes the Fight Club Body
not achievable for most guys without proper
coaching, even though plenty have wrecked
themselves in pursuit of it.
The exact routine that Pitt used to achieve Pitt’s character is no superhero. He has no scruples about
his Fight Club physique hasn’t ever been his own behavior, and he’s explicitly anti-fitness.
confirmed and is pretty inconsequential.
If you’re seeking to reshape your body in a
healthy way, hard work and consistency
are far more important than a proprietary fitness don’t see anymore,” says Brian Raftery, author of Best. Movie. Year. Ever.,
plan, says Duffy Gaver, author of Hero Maker and which explores the landmark films of 1999 as a pop-cultural turning point.
the trainer who helped Pitt bulk up for 2004’s Troy. Pitt had become a heartthrob immediately with his breakthrough role in
Gaver thinks Pitt’s true superpower is his motiva- 1991’s Thelma & Louise and by 1995 was displaying range in thrillers like
tion. “People have this desire to feel special. Like Se7en and 12 Monkeys. Toss in some high-profile tabloid romances, and by
I got a special car, I got special clothes, I got spe- the time Fight Club appeared in 1999, Pitt had been named People’s Sexi-
cial stuff. I have a special trainer that has a special est Man Alive once already, something he’d repeat in 2000. Today he’s the
workout,” he says. “The idea that there’s a special kind of actor (and producer) who, even in his 50s, can still wow audiences
workout out there is just a fucking marketing thing both in serious roles and with his shirt off. He did both in 2019’s Once Upon
for the industry to sell you shit.” Tyler Durden a Time . . . in Hollywood, 20 years after Fight Club, to earn his first onscreen
couldn’t have said it better himself. Oscar, for best supporting actor. Check out IMDb and you can see that Pitt’s
had plenty of other thirsty roles. (Gaver even made Pitt’s workouts for Troy
available online and in his book, but the Brad Pitt Achilles Body has never
THE CHAR ACTER quite taken off.)

“You are not special. Perhaps that’s because Fight Club’s Tyler Durden seems like someone you
could conceivably sit next to on a plane and wind up becoming friends with,
You are not a beautiful even if he’s played by Pitt. He has everything an impressionable young man
could want—the stylishly absurd wardrobe, marathon sex sessions with Hel-
or unique snowflake. ena Bonham Carter’s Marla Singer, and no scruples about his behavior—but
he doesn’t make those things feel beyond the audience’s reach, either. “Peo-
You are the same decay- ple walking out of Fight Club weren’t thinking, Boy, Tyler Durden is really

ing organic matter
as everything else.”
—Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden
THE GLARE of Pitt’s own fame likely made both his
onscreen physique and Durden as a character seem
even more appealing. When the film first dropped,
“[Pitt] was this real, kind of god-level movie star you
a dangerous person to emulate, and Edward Norton’s character’s really not
well,” Raftery says. “They walked out thinking, Man, Tyler Durden is cool,
and Brad Pitt looks awesome, and that’s who I want to be.”
It helps that Durden is no superhero. The character is even explicitly
anti–fitness regimen, chain-smoking throughout the film. In one scene, im-
mediately before his shirtless fight, Durden and Edward Norton’s narrator
critique a Gucci underwear ad on a bus, with Durden scoffing at the male
models. (A nice sentiment, even if it is coming from Brad Pitt.)
Rather than honing his muscles, Durden is more concerned with using
them—the same mindset held by adherents of functional fitness, yoga, and

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 85

 THE IDEAL
MMA training, all pursuits that have since
risen to prominence in the fitness industry. A HOLLYWOOD HERO BODY
OVER THE YEARS
comment Pitt made to CNN in 1999, respond-
ing to critics’ complaints about the film’s
violent themes, echoed this ethos. “The idea
is just to get in there, have an experience,
take a punch, more importantly, and see
how you come out on the other end—test
yourself,” he said.
Pitt humanized that experience so well
that Durden became unforgettable. “When
people talk about chemistr y onscreen,
they’re usually talking about two people, Arnold
how they get along,” says Raftery. “But Reg Park
Schwarzenegger
there’s also chemistry between the per- (Hercules and
(The Terminator,
former and the character they play, where it the Captive
1984)
becomes so inseparable that if you were to see Gordon Scott Women, 1961) Clint Eastwood
Brad Pitt walking down the street a couple (Tarzan’s Hidden (Every Which
weeks after Fight Club came out, would you Jungle, 1955) Way But Loose,
think that’s Brad Pitt? Or would you think 1978)
that’s Tyler Durden?”

THE X FACTOR

“You are not your

job.... You’re not Bruce Lee Jean-Claude
the car you drive. (Enter the Van Damme

You’re not the con- Steve Reeves

Dragon, 1973)
Sylvester Stallone
(Bloodsport,
1988)
(Hercules, 1958) (First Blood, 1982)
tents of your wallet.
You’re not your
fucking khakis.”
—Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden

THERE’S ONE MORE aspect to the Fight

THE THE RISE
Club Body that men may envy, even if it’s
BODYBUILDER TOUGH-GUY OF THE
not immediately easy to pinpoint. “There was ac-
ERA YEARS EXTRA-BUFFS
tually something even more threatening about (MID-’50s TO ’60s) (MID-’60s TO ’70s) (MID-’70s TO LATE ’90s)
[Durden] than Hulk Hogan,” says Olivardia, the
Harvard psychologist, calling back to a longtime
body-dysmorphic trigger. “[Pitt’s] body really com-
municated this message of functionality.” coordinator who helped Pitt develop the hand-to-hand chops needed to play
Especially by the end of the film, when Norton’s stuntman and former soldier Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time . . . in Holly-
and Pitt’s characters finally face off: Durden appears wood. “He’s very committed, and so obviously the proof is in the pudding.
to carry himself like an accomplished fighter, seam- You see it onscreen.”
Shutterstock (Park). Everett Collection (others).

lessly switching between martial-arts stances. At
one point he holds his arms out wide, as though invit-
ing anyone to stop him.
Pitt reportedly took boxing and tae kwon do classes
with Norton to prepare for his fights. He’s since con-
tinued such hands-on training whenever a role de-
mands it (see: Snatch, Troy, and even Once Upon a
Time . . . in Hollywood). “He put in a lot of time, as he
does with all his movies,” says Robert Alonzo, a stunt
Onscreen, Pitt’s level of physical comfort and flow comes off as something
else. Even way back with Durden, he had swagger (long before that term be-
came overused). It’s like he’s constantly aware of his body and what it can do.
I know about that feeling because, years after that Fight Club poster came
down from my wall, I took up Muay Thai, training four to six days a week for
four years. Over time, the sport taught me that you don’t need to beat someone
down to feel stronger. If you can focus on technique and keep your primal
urges in check, you’ll gain an almost palpable sense of self-control. That’s
something I recognize in Pitt’s performance.

86 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

 Bruce Willis Henry Cavill Kumail
(Die Hard with (Man of Steel, Nanjiani
a Vengeance, 2013) (Eternals, 2021)
1995)

Hugh Jackman Paul Rudd

(X-Men Origins: (Ant-Man,
Dolph Wolverine, 2015)
Lundgren 2009)
(Universal
Simu Liu
Soldier, 1992) Dwayne
(Shang-Chi and
Brad Pitt Johnson
the Legend of
(Fight Club, 1999) (Fast & Furious 6,
the Ten Rings,
2013)
2021)

Chris Ryan Reynolds

Wesley Hemsworth (Deadpool, 2016)
Snipes (Thor, 2011)
(Demolition Keanu Reeves
(The Matrix, Michael B. Tom Holland
Man, 1993)
1999) Jordan (Spider-Man: No
(Creed, 2015) Way Home, 2021)

THE AGE REAL GUYS PLUS THE BRAD PITT SECOND-WAVE THE
OF MARTIAL SOME GREAT STUNT FIGHT CLUB BODY SUPER-BUFFS MODERN MARVEL
ARTISTS DOUBLES TAKEOVER (EARLY 2000s TO TODAY) ERA
(LATE ’80s TO MID-’90s) (MID-’90s TO TODAY) (1999 TO TODAY) (MID-2010s TO TODAY)

For those still interested in the Fight Club Body,
you should also know that Pitt admittedly smoked as
much off-screen as he did in character. How he looked
and how he felt were two different things. “Even Brad
would tell me he was smoking heavily, which is one of
the reasons he was so lean,” says Gaver, who adds that
Pitt quit cigarettes when they worked together. “He
couldn’t throw more than a few punches till he had
to lean on something and catch his breath. It’s funny
that probably one of the most iconic physiques that
people aspire to was, at that time, wildly unhealthy.”
Don’t forget the biggest irony, which is that Tyler
Durden didn’t even exist to begin with. (After two
decades, you can only blame yourself if that’s a spoiler.) Toward the end of
the movie, we learn that he’s a figment of the narrator’s imagination. The
whole film is a satire on the state of modern masculinity, with Norton’s
character representing Who We Are and Pitt’s character the dangers of
Who We Want to Be. Many people have misinterpreted that—including
members of the alt-right and men’s movements, some of whom misread
the toxicity as justification for their warped views. But Pitt and Norton
famously laughed through most of the movie’s Venice Film Festival world
premiere. The Fight Club Body wasn’t supposed to inspire us. It was part of
a much darker joke.
brett williams, nasm-cpt, is an MH fitness editor and former pro
football player who writes about fitness culture and men’s body image.

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 87

“THE DAY YOU
START LIFTING
IS THE DAY YOU
BECOME FOREVER
S M A L L.”
MUSCLE
DYSMORPHIA—
A PSYCHOLOGICAL
DISORDER MARKED
BY A NEGATIVE
BODY IMAGE AND AN
OBSESSIVE DESIRE
FOR A JACKED
PHYSIQUE—IS ON
THE RISE. SOCIAL
MEDIA MAY BE
EXACERBATING
THE PROBLEM,
BUT IT MAY ALSO OFFER
NEW SOLUTIONS.
BY PETER FLAX

88 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 89
 AS STRANGE AS IT SOUNDS, Diego Mercado’s journey
toward a crisis began at a movie theater in the Bronx when
he was 16 years old. Mercado was sitting in a multiplex when
he saw a dude rip off his shirt in a Twilight movie. “Like, you
see that awesome aesthetic body. Like, oh man, I want that.”
Right there, he decided that he had to build a six-pack, too. He
wanted to have a body that everyone knew was in great shape.

So the sophomore hit the weights. At
first, he worked out at Planet Fitness. But
as he got more serious, he sought out a more
serious gym. Star Fitness in the Bronx was
hardcore—full of competitive powerlifters,
bodybuilders, and other guys who made
strength training part of their identity.
He was reading every PubMed study on
testosterone and anabolic protocols when
he should have been attentive in his high
school classes. Mercado immersed himself
in gym culture—feeling passion and peer
pressure to look the part. He was way big-
ger and stronger and fitter looking than he
had been before, but he noticed that some of
his friends who didn’t seem as committed
as he was were making faster progress. He
desperately wanted to make greater gains.
After learning he had low testosterone
levels, Mercado wound up taking a stack
of anabolic compounds without medical
supervision. He became obsessive about
training and dieting. Mercado was crush-
ing two or even three sessions at the gym
daily. To micromanage his food intake,
he was toting a scale to the Mexican and
Cuban restaurants where he worked as a
server and bartender. He also was camping
out on Instagram—exuberantly sharing
his quest for muscularity and mainlin-
ing the fitness content of other ripped
guys. His Instagram account, which he’d
later scrub, was packed with images that
showed his arms stretching the limits of
his T-shirts and his big-screen-worthy abs.
“It felt like going from Clark Kent to
Superman,” Mercado says. When he was at
the gym, he suddenly felt like he was always
his best self; his confidence and energy lev-
els skyrocketed; the compliments from
those around him poured in. He scuttled
plans to become an engineer and focused
on fitness. “I became so obsessed. It took
over my life without me noticing it. I liter-
ally became a different person.”
But in July 2019, that person wound up
having the scare of his life. He was out late
at a club on a Saturday night with restau-
rant friends when he started to feel unnat-
urally hot. Though he’d felt hot from the
steroids before, it was nothing like this.
He went home and crashed but woke up in
a pool of sweat. His head was pounding.
“I felt like I was dying,” Mercado recalls.
He knew he had to get to the emergency
room. There, as he lay on a gurney, doctors
told him that his hemoglobin count was
so high that his blood was getting sludgy.
All Mercado had ever wanted to do was
get strong. He had no idea that he would
eventually grapple with the consequenc-
es of muscle dysmorphia (MD), a disorder
that’s characterized by a desire to get mus-
cular and lean and that can take over your
life. In one sense, Mercado is lucky—he
got his wake-up call before he had a heart
attack or stroke. Now 22, he remains pas-
sionate about fitness and works as a person-
al trainer, and he can do so with the wisdom
of someone who knows how to do it right.
Still, Mercado carries a heavy burden. His
hormone production may be altered for
life—affecting everything from testoster-
one to serotonin. And it’s tough to be a per-
sonal trainer or fitness influencer in this
social-media age if you’re not jacked.
When asked what advice he might offer
young men about going all in to get mus-
cular after his struggle with dysmorphia,
Mercado’s voice cracks. “Don’t do it unless
you’re okay losing everything and every-
one you care about,” he says. “You can wind
up at less than zero when you’re done.”
MUSCLE DYSMORPHIA IS
an enigma—studied for decades but still
not seen as a public-health crisis like eating
disorders. Researchers estimate that MD
impacts about one out of every 500 Ameri-
can men. But those numbers may not reflect
the large group of men who don’t meet the
clinical criteria yet struggle with urges to
get bigger. One 2019 University of Califor-
nia, San Francisco study of young Amer-
ican adults found that more than a fifth of
men engaged in muscularity-based disor-
dered eating behaviors. And a 2018 study of
adolescents found that roughly 40 percent
of boys who were of normal weight were
actively trying to gain weight and get bigger.
We don’t know how many of those boys were
engaging in risky behavior to get the body
they want, but we know it’s not zero. Other
research has indicated that up to 54 percent
of competitive bodybuilders and 13 percent
of men in the military suffer from MD.
Men with muscle dysmorphia are preoc-
cupied with feeling small or insufficiently
muscular. But to meet the criteria, it takes
more than dissatisfaction with your body
or a fixation on lifting, says Jason Nagata,
M.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics
at UCSF. “Muscle dysmorphia comes with

90 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

 2019

2022
an impairment in daily functioning,” he
says. “Men with MD obsess about weight,
food, exercise, and/or appearance in a way
that worsens their quality of life.” This
typically translates into feelings of sig-
nificant distress and a disruption of one’s
personal, work, or school life.
Most guys who’ve lifted weights serious-
ly have some perspective on the problem.
That urge to get more muscular; the lurk-
ing frustration if progress comes slowly;
the way you can slide into overtraining or
obsessive dieting to reach goalposts that
keep shifting; the way you can feel con-
sumed with wanting to get bigger. There’s
even a classic bodybuilding expression
that encapsulates the underlying preoc-
cupation: “The day you start lifting is the
day you become forever small.”
Muscle dysmorphia has been in the news
lately, framed as a disorder of the moment.
While there’s no epidemiological data yet
substantiating a higher incidence of MD,
all the experts interviewed for this story DIEGO MERCADO In 2019,
Mercado could squat 315
see evidence that the problem is growing. pounds; now he’s healthier
So what’s changed? The idealization of the and happier and offers
male physique is hardly new. Arnold’s pecs advice on IG @dmercadofit.
made him a movie star in the ’80s. And then
magazines like the one you’re holding cel-
ebrated a hyperidealized masculinity in to be buff for a long time, but there’s some- ty in the Netherlands and the lead author
which ripped abs became the emblem of thing different about how this generation of that study. “Of course, most men don’t
living your best life. A generation of guys experiences it. My son’s Instagram and look like this—so there’s clear misinfor-
absorbed Fight Club and Abercrombie TikTok feeds are full of dubious inspira- mation between Instagram and real life.
& Fitch branding and Calvin Klein bill- tion—a stream of shirtless torsos, body- But nonetheless, lean and muscular men
boards. This muscle-bound vision of mas- builder types who insist their physiques are get more engagement. Engagement is the
culinity became inescapable—it was even natural despite evidence to the contrary, currency people have now. And with how
in the action figures kids played with. acquaintances who are ripped, and young algorithms function, those men get atten-
But in recent years, that cultural satura- influencers who are more ripped. We’ve tion in the future, too. It’s a vicious circle.”
tion has accelerated. Now practically every reached a point where teenagers who obses- To complicate matters, many social-me-
Marvel character not played by Jon Favreau sively work out and make content in their dia users manipulate photos to make them-
is jacked. Use of muscle-building supple- bedrooms exert legit cultural influence. selves look more shredded than they are.
ments and drugs—ranging from protein But don’t take my word for it. In a 2020 It’s a sad reality that the term “half natty
powders and creatine to human growth study, researchers analyzed 1,000 Insta- lighting” exists, but indeed the Internet
hormone and anabolic compounds—has gram posts that were created by men and/or is full of advice on how to photograph your
grown into a multibillion-dollar love affair. depicted men, to clarify how the male body body to suggest you might be taking PEDs.
And social media has been like lighter is portrayed on social media and how peo- The problem has gotten so intense that
Getty Images (previous spread). Courtesy subject (this page).

fluid on the fire. “In the past, you were in
read-only mode,” says Dr. Nagata. “Now
with social media, everyone can become
an influencer. Boys’ bodies are on display.”
I see the impact in my own household.
My younger son, who’s 15, has gotten into
lifting. He and his buddies hit the gym six
days a week. They’re more interested in
having defined abs than in building basic
strength. They’re drinking protein shakes
and scheming to get creatine. They talk
about getting big. Teenagers have wanted
ple react to these images. The majority of
the posts showed a full body or upper body,
and the majority of the men were lean and
muscular. And results indicated that posts
of leaner, more muscular men yield signifi-
cantly more likes and comments.
“The main takeaway was pretty obvi-
ous—that while women focus on beauty
and being thin, for men it’s about being
lean and muscular,” says Thomas Gültzow,
Ph.D., an assistant professor of applied
social psychology at Maastricht Universi-
multiple studies have examined the con-
tours of so-called Snapchat dysmorphia,
disordered behavior characterized by a
loss of perspective on your own appear-
ance due to heavy editing and filtering of
images on social media. Some people even
explore cosmetic surgery to help them
resemble filtered or manipulated images
of themselves. It’s all part of a disturbing
continuum in which people have trouble
differentiating between what they see on
social and what is real. Katharine Phillips,

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 91


M.D., a professor of psychiatry at Weill-
Cornell Medicine, says that men with mus-
cle dysmorphia have “aberrations in visual
processing,” meaning they don’t see them-
selves accurately and often presume what
they see on social media is attainable.
Plus, social-media users aren’t just con-
suming a buffet of rippling pecs—they’re
gorging on information (and misinforma-
tion) on how to get them. Everyone has an
awesome cheat meal and a favorite bulk-
ing hack. It’s a cacophony that can make
something simple seem fraught. “Young
people today feel pressure to be the best at
something or to stand out,” says Roberto
Olivardia, Ph.D., a lecturer in psychology
at Harvard Medical School. “And the body
is a very salient thing.”
This is the filter through which I observe
my son. I know there are tons of positives—
strength, discipline, confidence, commu-
nity—to be found at the gym. But I also see
the kid saturated with aesthetically orient-
ed content, and I know from three decades
of gym memberships all the compulsions
that lurk wherever 45-pound plates are
racked. I love to see him spot his buddies on
the bench, but I also love to see them skip
leg day to play hoops. Because if you lift a
lot, you know it can get out of control.
G E O R G E M YC O C K , 2 6 , His life revolved around muscularity. “All
understands that fixation. He grew up in
a small town in England, where he played
rugby as a kid. But when he was 13, after
fracturing his spine in a game, Mycock
GEORGE MYCOCK Despite training fanatically, Mycock
thought he looked soft in 2019; now he trains for fun.
2019
IF I POSTED A PHOTO AND IT DIDN’T
MEET MY EXPECTATIONS, “IT WASN’T
JUST ‘MY ARMS LOOK SMALL.’ IT WAS
‘MY ARMS LOOK SMALL,
AND I DON’T LOOK MANLY,THEREFORE
I’M NOT A GOOD PERSON
AND I SHOULD DIE .’”
spent a year bedridden. And by the time
he got back to school, his weight had near-
ly doubled. The formerly brawny athlete
wanted to regain his peers’ respect, so he
started dieting and exercising. Mycock
now knows that his bingeing and purging
was disordered. But at the time, he noticed
how people showered him with praise for
losing weight and getting fit.
Eventually, he turned to social media for
inspiration. “All the guys were massive and
muscular people,” he says. “So I thought,
That’s what I need to be.” He began lifting
and eating more. Things got out of hand
during his freshman year of college. “I
spent the entire year in the gym—I studied
in the gym, I trained two or three times a
day. I was literally there all the time,” he
says. “And whenever, out of exhaustion,
I was unable to train, I’d lock myself in a
room and binge-eat and not talk to anyone.”
my media sources, my entire Instagram,
was just bodybuilders and fitness influenc-
ers,” he says. When he wasn’t bingeing, he
was weighing his food like a scientist and
2022
doing pushups when he went to the toilet at
work. And though his IG feed offered proof
that his delts and triceps were growing, his
IRL social circle was shrinking.
Clinicians identified the symptoms
of this sort of obsession in the ’90s. They
coined the term “bigorexia” for it—sug-
gesting the opposite of anorexia. Now
most experts prefer “muscle dysmorphia,”
since MD sufferers don’t necessarily
struggle with disordered eating. It’s clas-
sified in the broader category of body dys-
morphic disorder. Dr. Phillips has studied
and treated muscle dysmorphia for more
than 30 years and has witnessed the obses-
sive preoccupations that characterize
MD. Young men who end up in her care are
often in severe distress. They may spend
three to five hours a day worrying about
their appearance. They likely have a pre-
occupation with looking at themselves in
mirrors, as well as significant mood prob-
lems. “It can be quite severe,” Dr. Phillips
says. “Some people wind up housebound.
There’s an association with suicide.”
Still, for a condition that’s been stud-
ied so long, much remains unknown.
Relatively few men with MD seek help
from a doctor or therapist. And few
well-designed studies have compared
or substantiated treatment options.
“Up until now, the vast majority of
research on eating disorders and
body-image problems has focused on
females,” says Dr. Nagata. “Because
there have been so few studies on men,
there’s not great data.”
It’s hard to treat a problem on a
large scale without more knowledge.
Thanks to decades of research and
messaging, the public now knows that
men have body-image problems and
eating disorders. In fact, about 30 per-
cent of people with eating disorders are
now men. But despite that progress,
cultural barriers to accepting men who
Courtesy subject
obsess about muscularity remain.
The preconceptions about mas-
culinity that pervade male culture,
 2018

American society, and the medical estab-

lishment run deep. Consider how attitudes
have evolved so people feel empathetic to
folks struggling with anorexia and buli- 2022
mia. Now imagine that deep compassion
being extended to men who relentlessly
chase muscularity. “People don’t have
empathy for someone who looks threaten-
ing,” says Olivardia. “That’s the paradox of
muscle dysmorphia—you have men who are
big and muscular, which suggests a level of
dominance and threat. But internally, the
men that I work with feel incredibly small.”
Mycock witnessed those cultural barri-
ers when he went to see his physician for
a checkup. “He looked at my records and
said, ‘Oh, it says here you have an eating
disorder’ and he flexed his arm at me,”
Mycock remembers. “And he looked at me
and said, ‘You obviously don’t have one.’ ”
Things came to a head for Mycock in
his sophomore year. He started having
thoughts about suicide—even thinking
about how he’d do it. “Social media played
MARC COLEMAN In 2018,
a dangerous part,” he recalls. When Coleman lifted heavy and
he posted a good photo of his body, he was a Hulk-y 245 pounds;
admits, “the likes that I would get would now he’s 228 pounds and
definitely affect my mood more than they has a more balanced routine.
should have.” And it was a crisis if a pho-
to didn’t meet his expectations. “It wasn’t
just like My arm looks small in that pho- ioral therapy to help guys get control of lot more people out there who are not identi-
to—it was My arm looks small and I don’t repetitive behavior, develop strategies fied,” says Olivardia, the Harvard psychol-
look manly, therefore I’m not a good per- to interact with other people, and recast ogist, dipping into what experts call the
son and therefore I should die.” errors in their thoughts. She also says that subclinical range. Think about people who
Luckily a friend got Mycock to open up. serotonin-reuptake inhibitors like Prozac, binge and purge or have a drinking problem
Soon thereafter, he began seeing a ther- Lexapro, and Zoloft help patients rein in but don’t meet the clinical criteria for buli-
apist. Some of the old compulsions still obsessive thoughts and behavior and less- mia or alcohol-use disorder. “Subclinical is
remain, but Mycock has found peace by en social avoidance. These therapies may a real misnomer because it assumes that it’s
being way more honest with himself and require close medical supervision—since less serious or that there’s less morbidity or
those around him, developing strategies to MD can trigger a host of medical issues— mortality, and that’s not true at all.” People
manage his urges, and reorienting his fit- and help with eating problems if needed. in that subclincal range, he says, are like
ness goals around function and sports rath- Still, more than 30 years after muscle functioning alcoholics—at risk, unlikely to
er than aesthetics. These days, Mycock runs dysmorphia was identified, few guys get be identified or seek treatment, vulnerable
a mental-health organization called Myo- treated. While eating disorders have com- to long-term impairment.
Minds, produces a podcast, and is work- manded tons of attention and research and Marc Coleman is in a good place now,
ing to create training courses to help PTs, public conversation, muscle dysmorphia but it could have been different. Coleman,
coaches, and doctors understand and rec- has lingered in the shadows, something the 53-year-old founding CEO of a soft-
ognize the mental-health conditions that that bodybuilders and the lifting faithful ware-development agency in Philadelphia,
commonly affect exercisers—all aspiring talk about with little notice elsewhere. has been lifting for three decades. “When I
to improve men’s access to mental-health was in my 20s, I couldn’t get big enough fast
tools. “I noticed that when I shared feelings enough,” he says, noting that back then he
about my body and food and exercise with WHILE SOCIAL MEDIA is helping bring packed 250 pounds onto his five-eleven
my friends and gym buddies, almost all of muscle dysmorphia into the public eye, frame and could bench 315 pounds. “When
them said that they had similar thoughts,” something more fundamental needs I looked in the mirror, I just saw this skinny
he says. “A lot of guys who take fitness seri- to change. We need a new conversa- person. I wanted to be bigger than I was.”
ously are struggling with these thoughts.” tion that better connects male culture, His inflection point came when he blew
Within the medical establishment, the strength-training communities, and the out his shoulder. He couldn’t raise his arm
Courtesy subject

standard of care for muscle dysmorphia medical establishment. Call it a reckoning. above his head and was in constant pain, but
is typically a multipronged approach. Dr. For starters, the scope of MD is bigger he kept lifting. “I was worried that my chest
Phillips urges the use of cognitive-behav- than acknowledged. “There’s definitely a or arms might shrink—and that seemed

MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 93

worse than not being able to move,” he says.
Eventually, only when he was faced with a
choice between physical therapy and sur-
gery did he take a break. These days, Cole-
man mixes things up more. He works out
five times a week and splits his time between
lifting and cycling. A balance of sorts. But,
he admits, the old preoccupations still lin-
ger. “Now I’m just more interested in being
fit. But honestly, wanting to be fit can feel
like the same kind of pressure.”
Oftentimes our compulsions change
shape rather than disappear. These issues
don’t resolve themselves if men don’t talk
about them. Men with body-image disor-
ders like MD can get help only if there’s an
honest conversation—one that includes
the guys who struggle with the problem
and the medical experts who treat them.
A new study examines how doctors
might better engage in that conversation.
That research, led by Mair Underwood,
Ph.D., an anthropologist at the Universi-
ty of Queensland in Australia, takes aim
at mental-health professionals for acting
as experts on the pathological behavior of
bodybuilders without absorbing the cul-
tural experience of men who wrestle with
the condition. “There are two discourses
on muscle dysmorphia—the medical one
and the bodybuilder one. I’m trying to
bring the two together,” says Underwood.
“Bodybuilding isn’t inherently psycho-
pathological, but the medical community
implies that it is.”
During the course of her research,
RYAN SCHWARTZ In 2002, Schwartz weighed 285 pounds; now
he’s a trainer, weighs 190, and gives advice on IG @beeftraining.
2002
Underwood became embedded in lifting
culture and trained hard to reach aesthet-
ic goals. She says she was in the best shape
she’d been in since having kids but had wild
swings in body image and came to hate
small imperfections. “When you’re focus-
ing on your body that much, your feelings
get out of proportion,” she says.
Underwood’s research documents how
muscle dysmorphia is normalized within
bodybuilding culture—how participants
think it’s part of the pursuit of muscular
perfection. This community perceives the
condition on a spectrum, with many guys
viewing minor symptoms as a positive,
motivating them to train harder. Her study
found that bodybuilders talk openly to one
another about MD, which is particularly
important, as very few of them will seek
help from the medical community. One
reason they don’t is that the treatment will
typically involve giving up behaviors that
are considered normal in the bodybuilding
community, such as long hours of training
and steroid use.
The medical establishment needs to try
harder to reach the people who need help,
says Underwood. “If only a small percent-
age are presenting for treatment, there’s
all these young guys suffering out there,”
she says. “We need to prevent development
of muscle dysmorphia and encourage
management of symptoms. We can’t just
rely on people coming in for treatment.”
Oddly enough, social media may offer
some new solutions.
2022
FOR DIEGO MERCADO, the body-
builder who wound up in the ER with blood
like sludge, fitness means something else
now. His experience has in many ways made
him a better personal trainer. He has hard-
earned wisdom about avoiding shortcuts.
He knows that being healthy and balanced
are more important than being ripped.
These days, his IG feed is big on thought-
ful inspiration and helpful tips rather than
muscle-bound eye candy. In short, he’s us-
ing social media to share his struggle with
muscle dysmorphia to help other people
avoid the same fate. “The real glow-up is
when you stop waiting to turn into
some ‘perfect’ version of yourself
and consciously enjoy being who you
are in the present,” Mercado noted
in a recent post. Another observed,
“Comparison is the thief of joy. And
your biggest competition is you
100%.” Mercado says he now realizes
his journey was really learning to
love and respect himself and develop
confidence. “Most people think of
confidence as a mindset or character
trait,” he says. “Confidence is a skill
that you earn. It comes from keeping
the promises you make to yourself.”
Getty Images (top). Courtesy subject (bottom).
Mercado is not the only next-gen
trainer using social media in new
ways. Ryan Schwartz is another.
Schwartz, a 40-year-old personal
trainer and life coach from Montreal,
learned how things can spiral out of
control—and how to manage that
chaos. When he was 21, Schwartz, at
five-six, was nearly 300 pounds. He

collapsed after a party and woke up on his
Sources for “Spot the Warning Signs”: “Muscularity Concerns Among Men: Development of Attitudinal and Perceptual Measures,” Body Image, Tom Hildebrandt, Psy.D.; and “The Development
back underneath a black sky. “I thought I
was dead,” he admits. A radical lifestyle ad-
and Validation of the Muscularity-Oriented Eating Test: A Novel Measure of Muscularity-Oriented Disordered Eating,” International Journal of Eating Disorders, Stuart B. Murray, Ph.D.
justment followed—no more booze, drugs,
or cigarettes. He replaced those vices with
diet and exercise. In about a year, through
extreme discipline, Schwartz got down to
160. He was way healthier than before, and
he had altered the arc of his life, germinat-
ing a passion for fitness. But he wound up
with a compulsion to get ripped.
Like Mercado’s, Schwartz’s journey to
balance had a layover at the emergency
room. Back then, he was doing three-a-day
workouts—a jujitsu class in the morning,
a 10K run at lunch, a lifting session in the
evening—all on a strict 2,000-calorie keto
diet. “Honestly, it was hell. I was never
happy,” Schwartz says. “I got stuck always
chasing that aesthetic. I wasn’t paying
enough attention to my wife and kids. Work
wasn’t optimal. It was all-consuming.”
But one day, it finally caught up to him;
thinking he might have the flu, he raced
to the ER. A doctor told him that he was
severely dehydrated and his kidneys were
shutting down. So, as he did after his col-
lapse at 21, Schwartz took radical action.
“From that day forward, I changed my
mindset, to pull the focus away from what I
looked like and what I thought other people
wanted me to look like and instead to think
about what’s actually healthy,” he says.
In his current work as a trainer, Schwartz
helps clients adopt that mindset. A lot of
them are teenagers, so he sees the impact of
social media. “Young people are constantly
bombarded with the highlight reel of every
SPOT THE WARNING SIGNS
Jason Nagata, M.D., an assistant professor of
pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco,
uses questionnaires to help patients recognize
disordered fitness and eating behaviors.
Choose one of four responses as it applies
to the following statements. Answering “often” or
“always” to these statements suggests you
may have a problem.
NEVER SOMETIMES OFTEN ALWAYS
I wish I could
get bigger.
I hate my body.
I feel like I have too
much body fat.
I feel anxious when
I miss one or more
workout days.
I pass up social activities
with friends because of
my workout schedule.
What I eat has influenced
how I think about
myself as a person.
I record the nutritional
values of everything I eat.
Proper adherence to
my diet is more important
than adherence to my
work schedule.
If you suspect that you may have a disorder, please seek
professional help immediately or call the National Eating Disorders
Association helpline at 800-931-2237.
person’s day,” he says. “And we sit there phia into the conversation. “The differ-
and think, I look like shit, I feel like shit, ence between men and women is that men
everybody else’s life is awesome.” Schwartz need to come to that rock-bottom moment
encourages clients to focus on their health before they look for help, because we have
and to assess their improvement without been taught that it’s a sign of weakness,”
pursuing perfection. And he talks to him- he says. “That’s why I think we need to
self like he’s a client, too. He follows an push out more of these kinds of stories, to
80/20 rule—meaning he tries to work out make it a safer space for guys.”
and eat right 80 percent of the time, allow-
ing himself space to be less restricted. peter flax is based in Los Angeles
Schwartz thinks there needs to be a and writes about sports, fitness, adven-
grassroots effort to drag muscle dysmor- ture, and culture.
MEN’S HEALTH | OCTOBER 2022 95
 SIX
THE STUFF WE CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

2. Fitbit Sense
PACK Reigns stays in fighting
shape by working out up to six
days a week. Fitbit’s marquee
health tracker keeps him on
top of his fitness goals. “It
helps me monitor my training
intensity.” $250; fitbit.com

3. Woodway 4Front Treadmill

To maintain peak condition,
Reigns incorporates HIIT-
style cardio into his workout
regimen. Enter this beast
of a treadmill, which has
a self-powered option,
making running even
more grueling. “It’s a
great way to get my
cardio in.” Contact for
price; woodway.com

ROMAN REIGNS
With six world championships under 4. Philips Sonicare 4100 Series
his belt and the longest run as Electric Toothbrush
The Tribal Chief keeps his pearly
Universal Champion in WWE history, whites immaculate with this high-tech
the 37-year-old heavyweight has more than toothbrush, featuring a built-in sensor
lived up to his towering stage name. that automatically adjusts pressure
for a custom brushing experience.
Here are the six things that keep him on top. “It’s one of my road essentials,” he says.
BY CHRISTIAN GOLLAYAN $50; usa.philips.com

5. Apple iPhone 13 Pro

Reigns swears by the iPhone 13,
1. C4 Energy Drink which lets him keep track of every-
Like most WWE superstars, thing outside the ring and take those
Reigns is on the road much of the striking selfies in portrait mode.
year. So he stays energized with From $999; apple.com
this clean drink, which has no
sugar, carbs, or artificial colors.
“It has powered me through 6. Nike Air Jordan 1’s
challenging matches, workouts,
When it comes to footwear,
Courtesy brands (products). Courtesy WWE Corporation (Reigns).

and my travels,” he says. $33 for

a pack of 12; cellucor.com only the best will do for Reigns,
of course. He has more than
75 pairs of sneakers, many
of them Jordans. “I have so
many pairs,” he says. “They’re
definitely my go-to.” From
$120; nike.com
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96 OCTOBER 2022 | MEN’S HEALTH

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