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41 Articles

MY ENO HAMMOCK.I PREFER TO SLEEP IN THERE MORE THAN A TENT MOST OF THE TIME.–CORI RITCHEYPATAGONIA DUFFEL/BACKPACK—KEY FOR CARRYING EVERYTHING WITH EASE AND MUCH-NEEDED WEATHER PROTECTION.–TED STAFFORDSTAINLESS-STEEL MUGS TO DRINK FRESH COFFEE OUT OF IN THE CLEAN MORNING AIR.–JASON SPEAKMANBUG SPRAY, BECAUSE I REFUSE TO DONATE BLOOD UNLESS IT’S FOR A GOOD CAUSE.–SEAN ABRAMSSUNSCREEN! ALWAYS A NECESSITY.–LEANNE MATTERNMY SONOS ROAM SPEAKER. IT SOUNDS GREAT EVERYWHERE AND INSTANTLY SETS THE VIBE.–JAMIE PROKELLMY GERBER MULTI-TOOL IS IN MY PACK AT ALL TIMES. IT’S LIKE PACKING A FIVE-INCH, HALF-POUND TOOLBOX.–CHRIS PEEL…

BODY BY GRIDIRON

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH THE EXPERTS, ADVISORS, AND READERS WHO BRING MEN’S HEALTH TO LIFE. I’ll go with Bo Jackson. He had elite power, speed, and balance. @michael.rogers Steve Weatherford. Dude was a punter, into fitness to an obsessive level. @cbarry23 I thought a lot about Walter Payton and the workouts he put himself through all year long. @chris.bernaky Jim Thorpe–multi sport athlete that excelled in all. @Luis.Rivera Darrell Green. He was among the league’s fastest players in his late 30s and you rarely see anyone athletic enough to play corner at that age. @alek.bee Ed Reed. Looks like he can still play. @marc.lassman…

BODY BY GRIDIRON

WORLD ASK THE E.I.C.

POWER PLAYERS The 2024-25 NFL season has arrived—and with it a class of athletes who are redefining strength. We’re talking about DK Metcalf, a six-foot-four WR who can hit a top speed of 21.66 mph. Or Christian McCaffrey, a run-catchblock RB triple threat who led the league with 1,459 rushing yards last year. Or QB Joe Burrow, who took the “off” out of “off-season” and added a solid ten pounds while recovering from injury. We couldn’t decide on “the One” to put on our cover this issue. So we picked all three. What now? ELECTION STRESS? Is this an actual thing?—COLIN JACKSON-WHITE IT’S NOT JUST a thing, Colin, at least not in the way that Hyrox is a thing (see page 13) or an Everything Shower is a thing (page 44). Sometimes it’s…

WORLD ASK THE E.I.C.

MH EXPERTS HAVE YOU COVERED

THE THINKING MAN’S TO-READ LIST To help fight the stress of everything, maybe it’s time to pull from our collection of the 14 best books about mental health, according to therapists. If you’re a doomscroller, try: Unwinding Anxiety, by Judson Brewer, M.D., Ph.D. Recommended by MH columnist Kier Gaines: “Dr. Brewer lays out, in great detail, how anxiety affects the brain, and useful tools to cope.” If you’re generally bummed out, try: When Things Fall Apart, by Pema Chödrön Recommended by MH advisor Avi Klein, L.C.S.W.: “This book helped me through a difficult moment in my life by showing me the rich possibilities for growth.” If you’re stuck, try: The Big Leap, by Gay Hendricks Recommended by MH advisor Gregory Scott Brown, M.D.: “I recommend this book if you are afraid to take the next move toward…

MH EXPERTS HAVE YOU COVERED

IS HYROX WORTH ALL THE HYPE?

THE SUN BEATS DOWN, stadium jams from Skrillex and Imagine Dragons blare, and hordes of scantily clad people throng around me—stretching instead of dancing. It’s the first day of June, and I’m at Manhattan’s Pier 76 along with more than 5,300 other competitors for Hyrox, the racing phenomenon and new new thing in fitness. I’m working up a sweat just weaving through the masses to reach the warmup corral inside a giant hangar next to the Hudson River before my 11:30 heat time. We’ve signed up to tackle a series of eight movement stations connected by one-kilometer runs, a competitive mashup of a CrossFit event, a half marathon, and an urban obstacle race. There’s a mixture of cardio work (SkiErgs and rowers), strength challenges (sled pushes and pulls and farmer’s carries),…

IS HYROX WORTH ALL THE HYPE?

GET YOUR HYROX ON!

SINGLE-LEG STEPUP Hyrox’s 50-meter sled push decimates quads, glutes, and core. Train for it with single-leg stepups: Holding dumbbells at your sides, place your right foot on a bench, step, or chair. Drive into your right foot as you stand tall, then lower with control. Repeat for 8 to 10 reps. Switch legs. Do 2 or 3 sets on each side. ROMANIAN DEADLIFT The 50-meter sled pull that follows isn’t rocket science: You’re pulling something heavy. Deadlifts ready you for those big pulls—and blast your forearms, too. Stand holding heavy dumbbells at your sides. Push your hips back and lower your torso until it’s at a 45 degree angle with the floor. Drive through your hips to stand, squeezing your glutes. Do 2 or 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps. DUMBBELL THRUSTER Prepare yourself…

THE MUSCLE SPRINT

DIRECTIONS: Do pushup reps for 30 seconds, then rest for 30 seconds. Follow with a set of bodyweight lunges for 30 seconds. Do 2 rounds of this circuit. WARMUP PUSHUP GET IN PUSHUP position, abs and glutes tight. Bend at the elbows and shoulders, lowering your chest to within an inch of the floor. Press back up. That’s 1 rep. REVERSE LUNGE START STAND-ING, then step your right foot back about 3 feet. Bend at the knees and hips, lowering until your left thigh is parallel to the floor. Stand back up explosively, then repeat on the other side. That’s 1 rep. LADDER WORKOUT DIRECTIONS: Do this workout as a 10-round circuit. In the first round, do 10 reps of each exercise. Immediately begin the second round, this time doing 9 reps of each exercise. Repeat, decreasing…

THE MUSCLE SPRINT

MARCUS FREEMAN FINISHES his one-mile warmup run at the same place every morning: in front of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, in the middle of Notre Dame’s campus in South Bend, Indiana. “I always look at that clock, because it tells me that time’s running out,” he says. “It’s a reminder that time’s running out at Notre Dame and in life.” He walks by the Golden Dome, pausing at the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue “as a way to center myself and feel grateful for this life,” before he hits ND’s athletic complex for his leg-and-chest-day workout. The 38-year-old Freeman, a linebacker at Ohio State from 2004 to 2008, is beginning his third season as coach of the Fighting Irish. Freeman steered a young Notre Dame to a 10–3 record…

DECK OF CARDS WORKOUT

BENCH PRESS Lie flat on your bench; press up 185 pounds anytime your card shows clubs. Now feel the burn. CHEST FLY Grab 25-pound dumbbells, squeezing them together as you close your wingspan. Want a greater challenge? Freeman recommends using a pair of 30’s. SQUAT Start standing. Push your butt back, bend your knees, and lower your torso until your quads are parallel to the floor. LEG PRESS Push off on 225 pounds and feel fortunate that diamonds aren’t forever here. Freeman says this HIIT session is efficient on campus, on the road while recruiting, and even in a hotel room without weights (swap in pushups, situps, burpees, and mountain climbers). The best part: “It’s constant go! So now your race is against time.”…

DECK OF CARDS WORKOUT

BACK-ROUND CHECK!

LIFT WITH YOUR legs, not with your back. It’s a cue many trainers use anytime you bend down to lift something heavy. It makes sense, too, since conventional wisdom holds that rounding your back with heavy weight leads to injury. But if you look closely at a strongman like Tom Stoltman hoisting a 300-kilogram (661-pound) Atlas stone, you’ll notice that his spine isn’t ramrod straight at all. Instead, he’s almost hunching forward, curling his entire spine around the stone. And if you scroll fitness social media long enough, you may come across an exercise called the Jefferson curl, which asks you to stand holding a light barbell, then lower the barbell while simultaneously rounding your back as much as possible. Truth is, rounding your back when you lift can be safe,…

BACK-ROUND CHECK!

MASTER THE CURVE

CAT-COW This simple stretch takes your spine through a full range of motion. Start on all fours, hands directly below your shoulders, then arch your back and squeeze your shoulder blades. Round your back and spread them. That’s 1 rep; do reps for 60 seconds. CABLE STRETCH ROW Sit in a cable-row station, hands grasping the bar, abs and shoulders tight. Keeping your abs perpendicular to the floor, let the weight pull your shoulders forward, then squeeze your shoulder blades, drive your shoulders back, and row to your belly button. That’s 1 rep; do 3 sets of 8 to 12. INCLINE-BENCH REACH ROW Lie with your abs on a bench set to a 30 degree incline, chest off the bench, dumbbells held in both hands. Let your upper back round downward, then flex your abs…

MASTER THE CURVE

WHAT THEY DO THE KIDNEYS HAVE a few important jobs, but primarily they’re waste-removal experts. Inside your kidneys, blood passes through filtering units called nephrons. The nephrons remove excess nutrients like salts and potassium and send them to the bladder to be peed out. HOW TO KNOW IF THEY’RE OK AY OR NOT YOU CAN HAVE pretty advanced kidney problems without any symptoms, says Blaise Abramovitz, D.O., a nephrologist with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Mercy Hospital. If waste buildup and high blood pressure reduce these organs’ function, you can end up with fatigue, shortness of breath, and swelling, especially in the feet and ankles. Kidney decline is often permanent, leading to the need for dialysis or an organ transplant. That’s why two blood tests—one for creatinine and another for eGFR—are crucial steps…

HOW THIS GUY BROUGHT HIS HEALTH BACK FROM THE BRINK

AMID ALL THE debate around body positivity versus weight-loss drugs, science keeps finding that obesity puts your health at risk. At age 35, musician Amandi Brown weighed 400 pounds and had a pins-and-needles feeling in his legs and feet. “It was a sobering moment when the doctor explained it was a consequence of my weight and unhealthy lifestyle choices.” So were his diabetes and high blood pressure. Now 42, he’s cut his weight in half and no longer needs blood-pressure or diabetes meds. Here’s how he got there. SWAP OUT, DON’T TAKE OUT YOU DON’T NEED to give up everything you love. I used to prioritize convenience over health. Then I flipped it. First it was picking better options wherever I was, like kale crunch salad and grilled nuggets at Chick-fil-A. Now…

HOW THIS GUY BROUGHT HIS HEALTH BACK FROM THE BRINK

YOU MAY THINK that you won’t have to deal with hearing loss for another 20, 30, or even 50 years. But maybe you’ve found yourself turning up the volume on The Bear more often, or leaning closer to friends at a noisy bar. Or maybe you’re like Ibrahim Dabo, now 41, who couldn’t hear his lectures when he was in college, so he’d wait until class ended to copy notes from the whiteboard. “I was embarrassed when I’d ask my friends, ‘Can you repeat that?’ two or three times,” says Dabo. “I felt incompetent. I stayed away from social interaction. I stopped going to movies with friends, because I would be lost.” An estimated 15 percent of American adults—that’s about 38 million people—have some level of hearing loss, according to the CDC. Research…

CAN MARVEL REGAIN ITS SUPERPOWERS?

BY THE TIME Iron Man came out in May 2008, I was already a lost cause. The Batman movies of the ’90s were fun; Christopher Nolan’s 2005 Batman Begins was maybe a masterpiece. But as soon as Iron Man landed, the energy was different—and when it ended with Tony Stark proclaiming to the world, “I am Iron Man,” it became clear that everything was about to change. For the next 11 years and 20-plus films, Marvel Studios sat atop Odin’s High Seat. Its movies grossed billions upon billions of dollars, their casts were stacked with Hollywood legends, and people like me (and probably you, too) were invested. When Spider-Man: Far from Home concluded what Marvel Studios called “The Infinity Saga”—the overarching story of its first 23 movies—it did so with the…

CAN MARVEL REGAIN ITS SUPERPOWERS?

4 UNSUNG MARVEL MASTERPIECES

Blade (1998) Before Iron Man or Spider-Man or even X-Men, a leather-clad Wesley Snipes hunted vampires in Marvel’s first huge success. Toss in Kris Kristofferson as a wise mentor, Stephen Dorff as a deranged villain, and one of the most memorable opening scenes you’ll ever see (blood rave? blood rave.) and Blade is an instant classic. Doctor Strange (2016) Reluctant hero Benedict Cumberbatch grapples with his humanity, Tilda Swinton, and the formidable Dormammu. From horror (!) director Scott Derrickson, Doctor Strange is stunning, weird, and introspective. And Mads Mikkelsen is a villain, which has never not been awesome. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) We know, we know. But instead of blindly listening to what some randos on the Internet said, watch a couple episodes of She-Hulk as the legal sitcom it was meant to be.…

4 UNSUNG MARVEL MASTERPIECES

TACOS, BUT FOR MUSCLE

CHEF DAN CHURCHILL was supposed to be a cook at the Osprey in Brooklyn for only a few months. This was back in 2013, and the Australian expat was busy building recipes for Chris Hemsworth’s Centr app, writing cookbooks (Eat Like a Legend is his latest), and recording his podcast, The Epic Table. But then people loved his food so much that the Osprey’s owners asked him to stick around. He agreed, largely because of his lifetime dedicated to health and fitness. “Eating well and working out keep me strong and able to take on new challenges with a greater sense of perspective,” Churchill says. For fitness, that’s been surfing, rugby, HIIT, and marathon training. For food, that’s long been fresh, high-protein meals that are easy to pull off—like these…

TACOS, BUT FOR MUSCLE

THE RISE OF FALL JACKETS

HAPPY-HOUR HERO Levi’s updates the varsity jacket with a corduroy blend that’s warm enough for cooler temps and looks sharp. Throw it over a white crewneck tee to make it pop. The jacket will dress up any jeans, too. Jacket ($148) by Levi’s; T-shirt ($65) by Vince; jeans ($148) by Todd Snyder; watch by Movado. THE (OTHER) GREEN JACKET Ben Sherman’s Harrington works on and off the fairway. It’s all cotton, it’s vented in the back, and it zips off easily if things heat up on the back nine. Trade the polo for a Jack Victor ribbed crewneck sweater for the 19th hole. Jacket ($149) by Ben Sherman; sweater ($328) by Jack Victor; jeans ($250) by Lee; sneakers ($160) by Veja; watch by Tudor. NIGHT OWL This mahogany bomber from Bugatchi teams well with dark jeans and…

THE RISE OF FALL JACKETS

BEST HYDRATION PACK Thule AllTrail 16L Hydration Pack This 1.65-pound bag can carry a camel’s worth of water, plus whatever else you want to store in its multitude of interior and side pockets. $130; thule.com BEST ICE-FREE COOLER Oyster Tempo Cooler This aluminum box carries 36 prechilled 12-ounce cans with no ice. Using vacuum insulation, it holds food-safe cold temps for ten hours. $395; oystercooler.com BEST LIGHTWEIGHT RAIN SHELL Arc’teryx Alpha Lightweight Jacket This fitted (and hooded!) featherweight armor defends against downpour conditions yet weighs a meager 8.3 ounces. Gore-Tex keeps it breathable and abrasion resistant. $500; arcteryx.com BEST PORTABLE HAMMOCK Yellow Leaf Vista Stand + Hammock The stand sets up in 60 seconds, weighs 12 pounds, and comes with a travel pack. (Good for the living room, too.) $799; yellowleafhammocks.com BEST WATERPROOF SPEAKER Turtlebox Gen 2 Speaker This Bluetooth speaker is 100 percent…

FULL! POWER! SHOWER!

THREE-IN-ONE CLEANERS. Body brushes that quick-scour everywhere. Waterproof speakers that blast the headlines in 60 seconds. Why are we all in such a rush in the shower? Maybe it’s time to slow down with a little something we’re calling the Everything Shower. Born out of lockdown and popularized on TikTok (we’re talking millions of views), this super suds-down is the body-maintenance equivalent of meal prep. Trim, cleanse, shave, refresh, and restore for the week, all in one go, while enjoying what might be the only 20 (or 30!) minutes you have to yourself all damn day. 1 PRE-SHOWER This is your prep, in the shower stall, without the water on, and will later require the rinse of the shower itself. STAGE 1 If you manscape (trim but not wet-shave), apply baby powder to the…

FULL! POWER! SHOWER!

EMPOWER YOUR SHOWER

Canopy Filtered Showerhead This gadget strains chlorine, heavy metals, and other gunk from your water. ($150, with filter subscription) Renée Rouleau Back & Body Buffing Towel It’ll help you clean hard-to-reach areas of your back without your resorting to yoga moves; it also gently exfoliates. ($15) Tweezerman Sole Smoother Antibacterial Callus Stone Keep this in your shower to smooth crusty calluses. ($21) Ampere Shower Power This waterproof Bluetooth speaker installs directly onto your showerhead and runs on the water itself. ($99)…

EMPOWER YOUR SHOWER

FATHERHOOD BUT WITH QUESTION MARKS

I THINK IF parents are being honest, none of us know what we’re really doing. The best that you’ll get out of us, maybe, is that we’re trying to protect our children from whatever wounds we may have suffered as kids. We’re course correctors. I know that I don’t know what I’m doing. And my navigation map has a big cosmic hole in it. I was raised by a single mother of three, so what Dad meant to me was absence. Like most kids, I asked a lot of questions, which my mom answered if she somehow found the time. But I don’t remember anyone asking me anything deep or important. When my first wife and I had a son in 2014, I was 41 years old. And I still had questions.…

FATHERHOOD BUT WITH QUESTION MARKS

WHY WE’RE SO (SO, SO) STRESSED

SINCE 2016, I’ve heard the term “election stress disorder” a lot, but I’ve only recently begun to take it seriously. The phrase was introduced by the couples therapist Steven Stosny, Ph.D., during the Clinton–Trump race to describe the effects of the heightened anxiety we feel ahead of an election. Stosny tells me he coined the term after watching an electionrelated video on his iPad. “I forget which candidate said something really stupid,” he says, “but I snapped at my wife about crumbs on the counter, which I have never done before.” He began asking his clients, couples who come to him for help with chronic resentment and anger, to pay attention to what behaviors typically preceded their arguments. Many told him that they’d been watching or reading the news before big…

WHY WE’RE SO (SO, SO) STRESSED

IT WAS 4:00 p.m. on a Friday in 2019—the time the guys typically gather at Bullwinkle’s bar in Brookfield, Wisconsin, to shoot the shit in their weekly “board meetings”—when Riley Enright had a big realization. Enright had brought along a friend that night, a newcomer to the group. In the lead-up to the 2020 election, the conversation turned political—and negative. “Oh my God, you people are depressing,” the newcomer blurted before he bolted faster than you can say, “Hold my beer.” “I did some soul-searching,” says Enright, 63. “I thought, Wow, he’s right.” So Enright and his buddies called another “board meeting” to figure out how to switch things up. As often happens over beers, an idea gathered steam: set an agenda. Now every Thursday, Enright texts the guys with a…

Family 911: BRING SOME PEACE TO DINNER

THE GLADIATOR An alpha who needs to convince you they’re right SOUNDS LIKE: “I’m going to straighten you out on politics.” YOUR RESPONSE: Head things off (“Let’s not go there”), or try friendly banter (“That was a good one!”). If you engage, find agreement first (“Things are really a mess”), then explain your point of view with an “I” statement (“From my perspective …”). Disengage without criticizing (“Looks like we see this differently; maybe we should leave it there for now”). Keep interactions short to avoid an endless loop of them trying to convince you they’re right. THE DEFENDER Prevents you from making a point by tackling what you say SOUNDS LIKE: “So you want XYZ to happen” … and misrepresenting your opinion. YOUR RESPONSE: Acknowledge what they said, calmly clarifying your position (“I’m not really saying XYZ; let me…

Family 911: BRING SOME PEACE TO DINNER

How I Keep It Together: ELECTION EDITION

LOG OFF AND CHILL TROY IWATA, The Daily Show correspondent YOU ARE allowed to not watch everything; you are allowed to not read everything. We think that if you don’t know, therefore you don’t care, which is not true. There is no shame in logging off and taking time to have fun and be happy, even with the world the way it is. Sometimes I just need to get an iced coffee, go for a walk somewhere I can see trees and water, and listen to some Audra McDonald singing Sondheim. Watch Patti LuPone read that and go insane. Patti LuPone reads Men’s Health, right? GET SOME PERSPECTIVE JOSH JOHNSON, The Daily Show correspondent I’M READING a great book called Outrageous, by Kliph Nesteroff, about the history of comedy and cancel culture. As far back…

How I Keep It Together: ELECTION EDITION

CHRISTIAN MCCAFFREY IS HIM

EEVERY OFF-SEASON for the past seven years, Christian McCaffrey, the San Francisco 49ers’ All-Pro running back, has met up with Brian Kula, C.S.C.S., a trainer he’s worked with since eighth grade. They talk about any injuries and any niggling pain from the previous season, do a battery of strength and movement tests, and then create a program “to turn CMC back on.” What they’re turning on is primarily strength and speed and, when combined together, power. “We try to hit everything on the force-velocity curve,” explains Kula. “On one end, you’re emphasizing force—think slower moves, like heavy deadlifts and sled pulls and pushes. In the middle, it’s plyometrics, sometimes with weight, and on the top end it’s sprint drills without weights.” For each touch point on the curve, there are various…

CHRISTIAN MCCAFFREY IS HIM

CMC MUSCLE FACTORY

3D LUNGES • CMC does a lunge series in eight directions, but doing three variations that target multiple planes of movement—forward and back, side to side, and transverse—is a good start. First do a forward lunge, then do a lateral lunge. Follow with a transverse lunge: Open your hip and step diagonally back to the right, leaning into your right foot. Do 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps for each variation on each side. ANIMAL FLOWS • To train his core as well as foot and hand grip, McCaffrey does dynamic animal movements like bear-crawl jumps and donkey kicks, sometimes on a trampoline. A good place to start is with an inchworm-bear-crawl flow: From standing, bend over and touch the ground, then walk your hands out until you’re in a plank. Next,…

THE WRECKING.BALL WIDEOUT

GET READY FOR DK Metcalf’s dirty secret. You’d think a six-foot-four, 235-pound slab of muscle would eat some high-protein, everything-bad-free diet, especially when priming for the biggest season of his football life. But as Metcalf speaks on this Zoom in late April, he’s … bingeing fast food. “It’s vacation,” he says between bites, “so I’m having french fries.” He goes on. “I’ll describe it as this: I’m a fat-ass at heart. If I didn’t play football, I would not care about my body.” Not that anyone will believe him, because whenever DK (real name: DeKaylin) Metcalf takes the field for the Seattle Seahawks, he stands out, thanks to a stunning blend of Thor-level size and Black Panther athleticism. Sometimes Metcalf is all explosive strength, the kind that fueled his 73-yard catch-and-run-away…

THE WRECKING.BALL WIDEOUT

BUILD METCALF MUSCLE

UPSTAIRS FARMER’S CARRY • Stand in front of a staircase holding heavy dumbbells at your sides. Walk up 10 to 12 steps. Turn around and walk back down. That’s 1 set; rest 60 seconds. Do 3 sets, blasting forearms and core and building underrated back muscle, too. BARBELL REVERSE LUNGE • Stand with a loaded barbell held across your mid-back, abs and glutes tight. Step back with your right foot, then bend at the knees and hips, lowering into a lunge. Press back to standing. Do 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps per side. HANGING LEG LIFT • Yes, Metcalf trains his abs, too! Hang from a pullup bar with an overhand grip, abs and glutes tight. Tuck your knees toward your chest. Lower with control. Do 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps.…

THE REINVENTED QUARTERBACK

THIS TIME, the call was different. At the end of each of Joe Burrow’s first four years with the Bengals, he’d buzz his longtime trainer, Dak Notestine, C.S.C.S., to plan his off-season workouts. But after Cincy was locked out of the playoffs last year for the first time since 2020, Burrow asked Notestine for something more. The QB wanted to completely rebuild how he thought about strength, fitness, and durability. The 2023 season had started with Burrow fighting through a strained right calf he’d suffered in training camp. And it had ended with a torn ligament in his right wrist in week 11 against the Ravens (who went on to unseat the Bengals as AFC North champs). For the second time in his pro career, Burrow finished the year on injured…

THE REINVENTED QUARTERBACK

FOCUS IN THE CLUTCH!

LONG BEFORE Younghoe Koo was kicking clutch field goals for the Atlanta Falcons, he was a middle school soccer player in Ridgewood, New Jersey. His approach then was simple. “It was just ‘see ball, hit ball,’ ” he says. Then everything changed. After kicking for the Georgia Southern football team, Koo missed two potentially game-winning kicks as an undrafted rookie for the Los Angeles Chargers in 2017 and was cut. “When the field disappears, what’s your go-to?” he says. “That’s when I kind of figured out the mental part. It’s more preparation, having a process.” When Koo, who’s just the fourth Koreanborn player in NFL history, returned to the league, he arrived with greater mental strength in the clutch. His ability to erase distractions has fueled his ascent: Now 30, he enters…

FOCUS IN THE CLUTCH!

UPGRADE YOUR CORE

THERE ARE bone-crushing sacks that leave QBs eating turf. And then there’s what the Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett did before halftime against the Colts last year, speeding past Indy turnstile (we mean offensive tackle) Blake Freeland, then shoving Gardner Minshew so hard he lost control of the football and rag-dolled to the ground. For Garrett, a six-foot-four, 272-pound defensive end/force of nature, plays like this aren’t about total-body strength or his 585-pound bench press or his viral 58-inch box jump. They’re about core strength. He understands how to powerfully use his abs and core to deliver extra oomph into helpless linemen and QBs. “The way my body is able to react and turn and counter the forces that are being applied to me helps me stay in my rush,” Garrett says.…

UPGRADE YOUR CORE

THE MH STRONG ALL-PRO TEAM

OFFENSE RB CHRISTIAN McCAFFREY 49ers, 5'11", 210 lb NFL’s NFL’s leading rusher deadlifts 500—and does gymnastics. QB JOE BURROW Bengals, 6'4", 217 lb Brains (career 98.6 QB rating) and brawn (see skater squat). RB DERRICK HENRY Ravens, 6'3", 247 lb Churns out 3.32 yards after contact, thanks to a 500-pound squat. TE GEORGE KITTLE 49ers, 6'4", 250 lb The 2023 tight end receiving-yards leader deadlifts 555. OT LAREMY TUNSIL Texans, 6'5", 313 lb Four-time Pro Bowler benches 225 34 times. OT PENEI SEWELL Lions, 6'5", 335 lb One sack allowed in ’23. Thirty bench-press reps at 225 helps. WR AMON-RA ST. BROWN Lions, 6'0", 202 lb Benches 365. Also has three 90-plus-catch campaigns. OT LANE JOHNSON Eagles, 6'6", 325 lb His 705-pound farmer’s carry showcases endurance. C CREED HUMPHREY Chiefs, 6'4", 302 lb Athleticism (33-inch vert) helped him allow just four sacks last year. OT TRENT WILLIAMS 49ers, 6'5", 320 lb Big cosign: CMC says Williams is the strongest player in the league. WR DK METCALF Seahawks, 6'4", 235 lb Strength fueled back-to-back 1,000-yard…

THE MH STRONG ALL-PRO TEAM

MASTERGARRETT’S CRITICAL ROTATIONAL MOVES

KETTLEBELL PLANK DRAG • Get in pushup position, a kettlebell just outside your right hand. Grab the bell with your left hand; drag it to just outside your left shoulder. Reset in pushup position; repeat on the other side. (Garrett does this with 54-pound bells.) Do 3 sets of 8 to 10. LANDMINE ROTATION • Place an end of a barbell on the floor (in a towel), a weight plate on the other. Kneel and hold the weighted end with both hands at your right hip. Press overhead with both hands; lower back to your hip. That’s 1 rep; do 3 sets of 10 per side.…

ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT’S ME, JAKE.

ON A HOT EARLY-SUMMER AFTERNOON, JAKE PAUL SiTS iN HiS BACKYARD, TELLiNG ME ABOUT THE TiME GOD SPOKE TO HiM. We’re poolside at his $16 million house on the north side of Puerto Rico, where he lives andtrains. And while I’maware thata chat with God is exactly the kind of story a YouTube-provocateur-turned-pro-boxer might invent for clicks, this is not a bit. On his podcast, BS w/Jake Paul, the 27-year-old comes off as a brash shit-talker (and he is, recently claiming that Conor McGregor tweets at 3:00 a.m. on coke). But Paul is more thoughtful IRL, nervous almost, clutching his left forearm as he speaks. His features are softer, too; he looks like the villain in The Karate Kid if you drew him from memory. “I’m going to explain something that can’t be…

ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT’S ME, JAKE.

//THE TEXT MESSAGES fly back and forth almost daily. Frank, a teenager in Massachusetts, will see a TikTok post from somebody like @vici.togi. Togi’s post starts with him discussing how he took “a little” of an anabolic steroid called trenbolone, then cuts to him injecting himself just above his hip, followed by clips of his muscle-building progress. Frank will immediately send it to his gym buddy, Jesse. Then one of them will make the joke, says Frank, about “taking tren and turning into an animal and just lifting as much as I could and getting really big because of the tren.” When the two high schoolers hit the gym, it’s more of the same. Often, when either gym bro fails to set a bench-press personal best, Jesse calls out the fix:…

TREN’S TRUE TOXICITY

NOT SURE HOW TO TELL whether someone close to you is just making big gym gains or whether they might be getting a boost from trenbolone? For all the hype around this era’s steroid du jour, it has some very real (and very noticeable) side effects. Watch for these. TREN COUGH This well-known side effect is a cough so bad that users may struggle to breathe or speak. It usually occurs shortly after a tren injection, likely because part of it was accidentally introduced into the circulatory system, making its way into your lungs. ZIT ATTACK You’ll wind up with pimples—but not just an ordinary breakout. “Purple, giant, puffy pimples all over your face,” says Israetel. “All over your back. I had a friend who started tren; he got pimples so bad on his…

TREN’S TRUE TOXICITY

The Wide and Wild World of PERFORMANCE ENHANCERS

THE EXTREME STUFF ANABOLIC STEROIDS WHEN ARNOLD ruled the Mr. Olympia stage in the 1970s, steroid use was basic and legal. “You took one or two doses at a time, and the total amount most guys used per week was significantly less than it is today,” says Mike Israetel, Ph.D., a competitive bodybuilder and cofounder of RP Strength. “Today, bodybuilders often stack several different steroids, layering and overlapping them in cycles that focus on competitions and stretch as long as a year.” Anabolic steroids function similarly to testosterone: They bind to your androgen receptors to help regulate libido, sperm production, bone building, and muscle growth. The federal government designates anabolic steroids as Schedule III substances and has approved only a small number for human use. (Doctors may prescribe some steroids to treat…

The Wide and Wild World of PERFORMANCE ENHANCERS

A Merciless Sun

Just over a year ago, Kekoa Lansford watched from a hilltop as the Maui wildfires incinerated his hometown. While others fled to safety, he ran into the flames to save as many lives as he could. Today, the scars from that blaze—one of the deadliest in the U. S. in more than a century—remain. Where do Kekoa and the rest of the survivors go from here? THE PUNGENT STAIN of a stranger’s burnt flesh seeped into the passenger seat of his Toyota Tundra as Kekoa Lansford drove toward his girlfriend’s apartment on the dark early morning of August 9, 2023. He parked and stumbled into her living room, wearing shorts, a Hawaiian Special Forces tank top, and melted flipflops. She lived in a safe zone, six miles north of the inferno…

A Merciless Sun

1. Vivobarefoot Primus Lite III With minimalist 2mm outsoles, they’re a 180 from the overstuffed sneakers he used to wear. “Finding these has changed everything, giving me better posture, and now my feet feel great,” he says. $160; vivobarefoot.com 2 Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell In his downtime, Timbaland listens to book excerpts online and reads on his phone.He says he recently connected with Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule and has been studying it since. $14; amazon.com 3. Louis Vuitton Discovery Backpack MM “I travel a lot and I don’t want to be carrying around all of this luggage,” Timbaland says. “I make sure that everything I need fits into a backpack.” $2,850; louisvuitton.com 4. Ethika Crew Socks You can usually find the producer head-to-toe in Ethika gear. “I just love how their fabrics feel,” he says. “I’m the kind of guy who…

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