News – Men's Axis

Be Like Andrew Luck: Know When to Quit

Mark Greene — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 08:19:03 +0000

When Andrew Luck retired before the 2019 season even began, Colts fans were understandably crushed. They were also angry.

When he left the field at the end of the final preseason game, fans booed him. They called him soft. Of course, none of them could ever do what he did.

Not one of them could take the physical beating he did, for as long as he did. That, though, is beside the point. Men should aspire to be Andrew Luck because he knew when to quit, not because of his toughness.

Toughness is great, but knowing your limits is better. Luck has a baby on the way, and he probably wants to be physically able to play with his kid. Prolonging his football career is only going to lead to more injuries. It’s not like he needs the money, he’s earned millions of dollars as a quarterback and he has an architecture degree from Stanford. So why risk chronic pain and brain damage any longer?

Luck knew when to quit. His life will be better for it. Its too easy to push yourself too far, to sacrifice too much in pursuit of goals that aren’t always as important as we think they are. Men owe it to themselves to step back and evaluate their priorities. How important is it really for you keep moving up the corporate ladder? No judgment here; if it’s important to you, it’s important to you. That’s that. Football wasn’t as important to Andrew Luck as his health, so he quit. Cut out the things in your life that aren’t important to you, and be more like Andrew Luck.

How the Afterburn Effect Really Works

Mark Greene — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 08:05:36 +0000

The afterburn effect is the fun name for excess pose-exercise oxygen consumption. The idea is that after an intense workout, your heart stays high for a while, and your body continues burning calories for some time after you leave the gym.

Fitness junkies have been chasing it for years, convinced that its the key to losing weight and keeping it off with minimal effort. After all, you’re literally burning extra calories while not exercising; that’s the dream, right?

The only problem is, it doesn’t really work. It will cause you burn a few extra calories after your workout ends, but nowhere near the hundreds of extra calories people claim.

It’s not totally worthless, though. Weight loss is a long process, and any extra calories you burn make a big difference in the long run. It’s like using one of those apps that automatically invest your spare change every time your debit card is charged- they round up every $1.99 charge to $2 and invest the extra penny. It doesn’t seem like much, but it adds up fast.

The problem is that people have assumed the afterburn effect is some sort of get-skinny quick cheat code, but those don’t exist. It takes time to lose weight. The afterburn effect is a great tool for your health and fitness as long as you understand what it is and how it works. In the long run, it’ll make a big difference in your health.

Save Your Money: Space Vacations are Coming

Mark Greene — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 08:00:04 +0000

By 2025, there’s going to be a hotel in space. Be honest, is there any possible vacation cooler than that?

The station will rotate to simulate gravity, so you won’t spend your whole vacation floating around in zero gee. Apparently, it’s going to be like Disney land or a cruise in space. It’ll have full service kitchens and bars providing top quality food, and you’ll be able to enjoy low-gravity sports like basketball.

And yes, this is real. It doesn’t sound real; it sounds like a joke. But it’s not. In six years, there’s really going to be a hotel up there. At least, if everything goes according to plan. I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I heard about a construction project finishing on time. And that’s here on the ground, just imagine the complications that will slow down the construction of a hotel in space.

The hotel will have room for 100 guests at a time, so demand is going to be high. It’s hard to imagine that rooms there will be affordable, since even the air is going to have to be imported. I’m willing to bet that a rocket flight up to the hotel won’t be cheap, either, and you’ll have to pay to get from your home to the rocket, too.

You’ve got six years to save up though, so start pinching pennies. Yeah, it’ll be expensive, but I’m pretty sure that it’ll be worth it.

Boost Your Testosterone Naturally

Mark Greene — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 07:55:44 +0000

Men today have lower testosterone than men of the past, and that can cause lots of health problems for us.

If you’ve had your testosterone levels tested and found that they were low, you should know that you can increase your testosterone naturally without using hormone replacement therapy.

Exercise can boost your testosterone, and lifting heavy weights is the most effective testosterone boosting exercise there is. High-intensity interval training is a close second, so it might be a good idea to incorporate both into your training routine.

You also want a healthy diet rich in protein and healthy fats. Don’t overeat, but you need the protein to build muscle and the fats help to create more testosterone.

Stress can lower testosterone levels, so try to reduce stress in your life. Get lots of sleep, find ways to relax consistently in the evenings and on weekends, and don’t skip a workout. Exercise is one of the best stress reducers there is.

Zinc plays an important role in testosterone production, and most of us aren’t getting enough. Zinc supplements, or foods high in zinc (like leafy greens and oysters) can boost your testosterone.

The best part of boosting your testosterone naturally is that having lots of sex is, in fact, one of the best ways to do it. In fact, having sex increases your testosterone, which in turn increases your libido. It’s a beautiful cycle.

Exercise, eat right, reduce stress, and have sex. These things will all boost your testosterone and, as an added bonus, these habits all feed off of each other. Exercise, healthy food, and sex all reduce stress, and reduced stress, better diet and exercise increase libido, etc etc.

Don’t turn to hormone therapy or testosterone supplements yet. You can do this naturally, and have fun doing it.

Why You Should Have Your Testorone Checked

Mark Greene — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 07:51:51 +0000

We’ve got a testosterone crisis, folks. Men today have, on average, 20% less testosterone than men did just 20 years ago. That’s a problem.

Low testosterone is associate with depression and obesity, not to mention decreased libido.

Not only does low testosterone make it easier to gain weight, it also makes it harder to lose weight. And, while low testosterone decreases libido, normal testosterone levels increase libido. Having normal testosterone levels also encourages muscle growth, and improves cognitive function while lowering the risk of Alzheimers.

So, testosterone is crucial to men’s health, but we have less of it than ever before. And yet, I’m betting most of us have never had our testosterone levels checked. Routine blood work done at your yearly physical doesn’t check it, and your doctor probably hasn’t been asking you if you want to have it checked.

You more than likely have no idea what your testosterone levels are. You really should, though.

This only becomes more crucial as you get older, since testosterone levels naturally decline with age. You may well be starting low, and going lower.

There are plenty of things that can be done to raise your testosterone levels, but first you need to know what your testosterone level is. It’s possible that your fine, but it’s also possible that you’re levels are at an unhealthy low. The solution is to make an appointment with your doctor and ask them to check your testosterone levels, and to have them go over the results with you.

Be Confident, Not Cocky

Mark Greene — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 07:49:34 +0000

Nobody likes the cocky guy. Nobody. In fact, that guy drives everyone crazy, especially because he’d probably say that they’re just jealous of him. They’re not.

There’s a fine line between cocky and confident, but at it’s most basic the difference is that cocky people draw their confidence from external sources, and confident people are simply confident in themselves.

Cocky people draw their confidence from having lots of money, having a hot girlfriend, a nice car, etc. Status symbols are everything. Take those away, and they literally have nothing. No confidence. They also can’t handle criticism, because they’re fragile. They won’t even listen to it.

Confident people, on the other hand, draw that confidence from a sense of self-worth. They’re confident because they know their strengths and they’re weaknesses. They’ll probably still be stylish and ambitious, but they won’t go overboard, and they won’t spend all their time bragging about their status symbols. In fact, they won’t have status symbols. Their car may be cool, but they’ll have it because they like it, not because it sends a message to everyone else.

More importantly, confident people are strong. They can handle criticism. That means they can grow and become better.

We like to think that women like cocky guys. They really don’t. Not the good ones, at least. You don’t want to be with a woman who likes cocky guys, because she’ll be just as sad and fragile as they are. Confidence is not the same thing as cockiness. It’s a lot better. Be confident, not cocky.

Learning to Cook is Manly

Mark Greene — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 07:33:50 +0000

There are plenty of reasons you should learn to cook. Homemade food is generally healthier and cheaper than any restaurant food. No restaurant cook in the world is concerned about your health, they care about making sure you like their food. That means there’s probably a lot more salt, fat or carbs in their food than you need to be eating.

Cooking for yourself can be a dramatic step forward for your health, but do you know what else it does? It really impresses the ladies. Apparently, women find men who cook “irresistible.”

If your own health doesn’t motivate you to learn to cook, I’m betting that being irresistible to the opposite sex is enough motivation. Lucky for you, it’s never been easier to learn how to cook.

You could use companies like Blue Apron; they’ll send you meal kits with all the ingredients you need and simple instructions for cooking them. If you have literally no experience cooking, that’s one way to guarantee that you’ll be able to put something tasty and impressive on the table.

It’s still more expensive than just buying your own ingredients and planning your own meals, though. The internet is full of websites that can teach you to cook. Serious Eats is a popular one that has nothing but awesome recipes and how-to guides. You don’t need to drop money on an expensive cooking class; you can easily teach yourself to cook five-star meals in no time. So, gentlemen, get in the kitchen and start impressing the ladies like never before.

Your iPhone is More Expensive Than You Think

Mark Greene — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 07:23:06 +0000

How much do you think it costs to own an iPhone? When you decide to buy a new phone, are you only thinking about the purchase price of the phone?

When the original iPhone came out in 2008, it was priced at $499. I remember laughing at that, thinking “who would be dumb enough to waste that much money on a phone?” Now here we are, 11 years later, and the average cost of a new smartphone in the US is $567, with most people upgrading their phone every 32 months. The newest iPhones always have models priced over $1000, too.

On top of all of that, network providers have done away with two-year contracts, and everyone celebrated it. You know what two year contracts did really well? They made smartphones affordable- you got a huge discount on a new phone every two years. Now, you either pay full price up front or you pay a monthly fee to essentially lease your phone.

Between the skyrocketing cost of the phones themselves and the monthly bill for cell phone service, you’ll spend $75,000 on your phone over the course of your life. And that’s just based on the average costs; if you’re buying the top model iPhones, it’ll be more than that.

That, folks, is a lot of money. There may not be much of a choice here; smart phones and data plans have become necessities in modern life. Still, it’s hard not to wonder what else we could use that $75k for.

How to Avoid Winter Weight

Mark Greene — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 07:15:01 +0000

Humans, like bears, have a natural tendency to pack on the pounds in winter. We have a subconscious impulse to overeat in the winter. In the days before grocery stores and Uber Eats, this made sense. Food was scarcer in the winter months, and eating more food, or carrying extra weight, helped to ensure your survival.

Food shortages in the winter aren’t a thing for us anymore, but that subconscious impulse remains. It doesn’t help that most of what we consider traditional winter foods are rich, fatty, starchy, sugary, or some combination of all of the above.

So, we’re naturally inclined to eat more in the winter, and a lot of the food is going to be extra-rich in calories. Winter weight gain seems almost unavoidable.

The best way to avoid winter weight gain is really the same thing you do all year round to keep yourself in good shape. Eat lots of vegetables, complex carbs, and protein. This keeps you full longer and helps suppress your appetite.

Focus on whole foods, too. Nuts, nut butters, sweet potatoes, beans, whole grains, fish, lean meat, you know the drill. Exercise is crucial, too.

In other words, the best way to avoid gaining winter weight is to do all the same things you normally do to avoid gaining weight. There’s no magic trick, and there’s nothing special about avoiding weight gain in the winter. Just stick to your normal routine, assuming your normal routine keeps you fit and trim, and you’ll be fine.

Know Your Woman Before You Propose

Mark Greene — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 07:11:07 +0000

So, a man proposed to his girlfriend during the New York City Marathon 2018. As in, he literally hopped over the barrier in the middle of the race, stopped her, and proposed.

The internet, predictably, went nuts. I know this story is a year old, but it just popped up in my timeline and the reaction of random people on the internet to a proposal is…baffling. Everyone is outraged that the guy would stop his girlfriend in the middle of a marathon to propose.

And sure, it seems like a bad time to do that. But, if you watch a video of the proposal, she seems thrilled. There are lots of happy tears, she says yes, and she finished the race.

There’s even quotes from the family saying how happy the two are. So, if she’s happy, why is everyone outraged on her behalf? She clearly didn’t have a problem with the way her boyfriend proposed.

Now, it’s also clear that plenty of women would never be OK with this sort of proposal. That’s why there’s so much internet outrage over it. People are projecting themselves into the situation.

The marathon-proposal couple is happy, folks, and they’ve got an awesome and unique proposal story. But the only reason that’s true is that this guy clearly knew his girlfriend well enough to know she’d love it if he proposed in that way. This could’ve been an absolute disaster. The moral of the story is, know your woman well before you propose. And maybe don’t spend so much time being outraged at happy people on the internet.

Why You Should Be Freezing Your Sperm

Mark Greene — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 07:01:59 +0000

Most of us hear the phrase “biological clock” and think “that’s a thing that women have.” It’s long been known that women have a hard time limit on their fertility. Once menopause hits, they’re done.

We know now that women actually begin to lose fertility well before menopause, and the drop off after age 35 is steep. That means women tend to feel pressure to have children young, or to consider freezing some of their eggs just in case.

Men haven’t felt that same pressure, though. We keep on producing sperm until the day we die, and we’ve all seen or heard of plenty of old men impregnating younger women, so what’s to worry about?

It turns out, though, that men’s fertility declines with age, too. That’s right gentlemen: we, too, have a biological clock.

There’s no male version of menopause, but the quality of our sperm decreases with age. Once you hit 40, the decline in quality starts increasing. Guys like Mick Jagger may have fathered children in their 70s, but that’s because they were with much younger women. The extra fertility of the woman made all the difference. Most of us aren’t going to be in that situation.

Freezing your sperm is a good idea, even if there’s still an expiration date on the stuff. If you’re still young and virile but have no plans of settling down soon, freezing your sperm now is a good way to hedge your bets for the future.

Hustle Porn is Ruining You

Mark Greene — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 06:59:26 +0000

You might know it better as struggle porn. The gist is this: struggle is good. Suffering is good. You struggle, sweat and suffer for your work because that’s how you succeed. You work dawn till dusk and then keep working some more because that’s the way to get ahead and as long as you’re doing that, you can’t possibly fail.

There are lots of problems with that. Chief among them is that struggling guarantees nothing. Sure, struggling can be a necessary part of life, and the willpower to struggle through something difficult is something every man should possess. But continuous struggle is pretty obviously a bad thing. If you’re constantly struggling at your job, you’re probably bad at your job. If you’re good at your job and still struggling, you either work way too hard or you’re working in a toxic environment.

This is especially prevalent in the tech and gaming industry, and the Red Dead Redemption 2 scandal is only the most recent and visible example of hustle porn causing problems.

Working hard is good. Having the ability to handle struggle is good. Fetishising and celebrating these things above all else is just stupid. Life is not supposed to be a continuous struggle. Work is not supposed to be a continuous struggle. A struggle is a sign that something is not right. The definition of struggle is literally to make strenuous or violent efforts in the face of difficulties or opposition.

The implication is that a struggle is supposed to end. The whole point of a struggle is to end a difficult situation. If all you do is struggle, you’re going to fail. If you’re constantly struggling, it’s time to do something different.