Men's Fitness

Trying to Eat Healthier? Take a Look in the Mirror

When it comes to losing weight (and keeping it off), guys are always looking for new tools to win the Battle of the Bulge. But while taking up marathon training might help, most guys prefer slightly more realistic weight-loss methods that help them stay on track without making huge changes to their routine.

Fortunately, researchers have hit on a new way to stick to your finely tuned nutrition plan without any extra thought: A mirror, preferably installed in your kitchen.

When people have to choose between a healthy snack and junk food, they tend to think the junk food doesn’t taste as good if there’s a mirror in the room with them, researchers found.

Why? Mirrors make us more conscious of social standards, and that includes diet plans, according to University of Central Florida marketing professor Ata Jami, Ph.D., who led the study published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.

Read my writeup at Men’s Fitness to learn more about this surprising diet tool.

Men's Fitness

Steroid Myths, Busted

Ever since famed slugger Mark McGwire was infamously accused of using performance-enhancing drugs back in 1998, anabolic steroid use has not only become a part of the pro game, but also infiltrated average Joe gyms across America. And even though steroids are illegal in the U.S. and have some serious negative health side effects, they’re still growing in popularity — particularly among everyday gym rats who want bigger muscles, faster.

But while guys are plenty familiar with the supposed “benefits” of steroids, they’re typically in the dark— or, worse yet, downright misinformed—about all the nasty side effects they have on your body and possibly even your mind. (And they are nasty.)

In an enterprise story for Men’s Fitness, I spoke with two experts — Dr. Ed Sebanegh, M.D., the department chair of urology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, and Dr. Stuart Weinerman, M.D., an endocrinologist at North Shore–LIJ Health System in New York — to clear up some of the myths about steroid use.

Men's Fitness

The Star Wars Workout

I like working out. I like Star Wars.

So on the eve of Episode VII’s U.S. premiere, I visited New York Sports Club for a sweat-inducing cardio workout class that involved one key piece of equipment: a lightsaber. (I got a blue one, thereby assigning myself to the “Light Side of the class.” No, that’s not me in the picture.)

The workout incorporated martial arts, calisthenics, and bodyweight moves that wiped out all but the fittest people — Jedi masters, one might say — in the studio. (If the Force was flowing through me, it was at a trickle. Then again, that may have been the sweat running down my face.)

Guided by Jedi master/instructor Amira Lamb, C.P.T., I endured — and then, for Men’s Fitness, wrote about — the Star Wars Workout.

Men's Fitness

Hot Workouts vs. Cold Workouts

Sure, working out in the extreme cold or the extreme heat make you mentally tough. But when it comes to burning calories and performing faster, which direction should you spin the thermostat?

Writing for Men’s Fitness, I spoke to Michael Joyner, M.D., a marathoner and specialist in exercise physiology, about the scientific evidence for the benefits of working out in extreme conditions. Here’s what he told me.

Men's Fitness

An Interview With the Fastest “Beer Miler” in the World

Lewis Kent is very good at doing two things extremely quickly: He can run. And he can chug a lot of beer.

Kent, a Canadian college student, set the world record in the “beer mile,” in which competitors must chug a 12-oz. beer, run 400 meters, and then repeat that three more times — without “losing their beer” in the process.

So, naturally, I interviewed Kent for Men’s Fitness. We talked training methods, the most important characteristic in a champion beer-miler, and why he prefer blondes—or at least one particular blonde.

Men's Fitness

13 Cold and Flu Remedies That Actually Work

Someone once told me that the best way to cure a cold was to slice open an onion before bedtime, and then put one half (open side facing up) on a nightstand. The onion would absorb the nasty viruses in the air, and the patient would be miraculously cured.

I’ve always been curious about these kinds of home remedies for viruses like the common cold. Some folk medicines have some value, after all, even if they get the theory wrong.

So, in a story for Men’s Fitness, I asked two experts: Dr. Pritish Tosh, M.D., an infectious disease specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and Donald Ford, M.D., a family medicine specialist at the Cleveland Clinic. We discussed 13 home remedies for colds that actually work, so our sick readers could get back to bicep curls and back squats in no time.

(Oh, and the onion thing? Total bull. But onions do have some astringent effects, which can help unclog stuffy sinuses.)

Men's Fitness

Every Exercise From Every “Rocky” Training Montage, Ever

We don’t often do humor writing at Men’s Fitness, if only because we’re usually too busy cranking out service pieces to help guys lose weight and get six-packs.

But when Rocky Balboa returned to the big screen in Thanksgiving 2015—this time as a mentor Men’s Fitness November cover star Michael B. Jordan in Creed—it gave me a chance to take a lighter look at the some of the most beloved gym scenes in cinema: the training montages from the Rocky movies.

From South Philly to Siberia and back, I detailed every montage and every move you need to get jacked like the Italian Stallion himself.

Men's Fitness

The Kick Felt ‘Round the World: Holm Defeats Rousey in UFC 193

One of my main roles at Men’s Fitness is quickly reporting, writing, and promoting news stories that affect and interest our readership. Granted, not much qualifies as hard news that we’d cover in depth. We’re not a sports brand, and we don’t really touch science or politics. Our cover stars tend to be actors in big-budget films, meaning that we do entertainment stories more often than not. Even the Olympics Games are mostly outside our typical coverage.

But there’s one big exception, and her name is Ronda Rousey. By virtue of her fighting ability, well-earned braggadocio, and media-ready persona, she seems to be a lightning rod for discussion among our audience. Everyone’s got an opinion about Ronda. Especially dudes.

So on the morning of Sunday, November 15, as the East Coast was waking up to the results of her bout against Holly Holm in UFC 193, I was the guy at the computer, reporting and writing, trying to answer a question that Men’s Fitness basically had no choice but to cover:

Ronda lost? What the hell happened?

What happened was the kick felt ’round the world.

NBC Digital

Past Papal Visits, as We First Saw Them

When Pope Francis visited Washington, New York, and Philadelphia in September 2015, he became the fourth pope to visit the United States. But his visit was more than a continuation of that papal trend; it also marked a high point of enthusiasm, from both Catholics and non-Catholics, for Francis and his vibrant message of inclusion for a global church.

Together with Daniel Sircar and Jessica Glazer, I researched and wrote a multimedia retrospective of past papal visits to the U.S., which was then published on NBC’s Owned Television Stations sites, which included NBC New York, NBC Washington, and NBC Philadelphia.

Collected writing for Men's Fitness, Men's Journal, Muscle & Fitness, NBC News, and Notre Dame Magazine