What Children Should Do if They Are Bullied

It's normal for children to be frightened or angry when other children bully them. But they can discourage attacks by showing confidence and not overreacting.

Children should not fight with a bullying child or make verbal or written insults. This could lead to more aggression and possibly serious injury. Have your child call out for help or find an adult or peer right away if he or she feels unsafe.

5 Amazing Things Your Brain Does While You Sleep

We spend a third of our lives sleeping, an activity as crucial to our health and well-being as eating. But exactly why we need sleep hasn't always been clear. We know that sleep makes us feel more energized and improves our mood, but what's really happening in the brain and body when we're at rest?

Research has identified a number of reasons that sleep is critical to our health. When we're sleeping, the brain is anything but inactive. In fact, during sleep, neurons in the brain fire nearly as much as they do during waking hours -- so it should come as no surprise that what happens during our resting hours is extremely important to a number brain and cognitive functions.

Here are five incredible things your brain does while you're asleep -- and good reason to get some shuteye tonight:

How to go vegan

Take it slow

Keep your end goal in mind, but go at your own pace. Some people manage to go vegan overnight and if that's the right approach for you, fantastic. But don't be concerned if you feel you need more time. Like any other lifestyle change, going vegan not only takes getting used to, but it takes time to determine what will work best for you. It's not a one size fits all experience and there are numerous approaches you can take.

Making small changes to your everyday meals is one of the easiest ways to increase the amount of plant-based foods in your diet. You could start by removing meat or dairy one day a week and go from there. Or you could try changing one meal at a time, having vegan breakfasts during your first week, adding a vegan lunch during week two and so on. You could even try changing one product at a time by swapping cow's milk for almond or soya milk or butter for coconut oil or margarine. There's a plant-based alternative for almost every type of food you can think of, so you don't have to miss out on any of your favorite foods.

This Is THE Equipment-Free Move Trainers Swear by for Sexy Arms and Shoulder

When we surveyed some of our go-to trainers for their favorite move to sculpt arms and shoulders (no equipment necessary), half of them recommended the same exact move—and it's one you're probably pretty familiar with: pushups.

Okay, so maybe we didn't just blow your mind with this exercise you learned in P.E. But hear us out: If professional muscle makers are recommending this move for a toned upper body, why waste your time doing anything else?

The main superpower of the pushup is its effectiveness at targeting your triceps and deltoids, says strength and conditioning coach Mike Boyle, owner of Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning in Woburn, Massachusetts. And bonus: This exercise also engages your core and your chest, says Boyle. Yay for multitasking moves!

4 Ways to Burn More Fat

Strength training is the gift that keeps giving. You burn calories during your workout. You also burn them for hours afterwards. The harder you work, all else being equal, the more you should burn both during and after.

But there’s a catch: The most advanced lifters don’t get much of a post-workout metabolic boost, which scientists call EPOC, short for excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. A recent study at Florida State University recruited a group of experienced lifters and had them do two different workouts. (All the lifters did both workouts, with at least one week in between.) Both workouts included the same four exercises using fairly heavy weights—85 percent of their one-rep max. But one workout included twice as many sets as the other.

4 Ways to See Your Doctor Faster

When a mystery ailment pops up but it isn’t serious enough to warrant a trip to the urgent-care clinic or ER, you’d still like to get it checked out soon. The only problem: Your doctor’s a busy guy.

On average, you’ll need to wait 19.5 days to see a family doctor, says a recent survey by healthcare company Merritt Hawkins.

Special appointments are even worse. The delay for dermatology, for example, is 28.8 days.

There’s no magic word that will make other patients’ appointments vanish off the calendar, but you have more scheduling power than you think. Use these tactics to make sure you get seen as soon as possible.

The Science behind Why You’re a Picky Eater

You call your palate “selective.” Your friends call you a picky eater. But researchers have discovered that there are actual scientific reasons that may explain why the short list of foods you eat mostly comprises of chicken fingers, buttered noodles, grilled cheese, and pizzas.

“Like many behaviors, it appears to be the result of a complex interaction between your genes and the environment,” says Marcia Pelchat, Ph.D., a researcher at Monell Chemical Sense Center in Philadelphia who focuses on food preferences.

Let’s start with genetics. Variants of a gene associated with taste, called TAS2R38, determine how strongly you taste bitter flavors, like coffee or kale, researchers say. And if you perceive that broccoli, for instance, as being unbelievably bitter, you may shun it.

When You Should Say No to Sex

Guys are expected to be horndogs, ready for sex at the drop of a bra. But that’s a lot of pressure, says Men's Health Sex Professor Debby Herbenick, Ph.D.

“Sometimes men end up accepting sex because their partner wants it, but they’re not that into it,” she says. “Then they have difficulty with erections, and it sets them up to feel like they have ED.”

Why Disobedient Kids Are More Likely to Become Millionaires

My 10-year-old daughter is a handful. Love her dearly, it goes without saying. Problem is, Taylor thinks she's in charge. Hardly a day goes by in which we're not arguing over: her attitude, her tone, her backtalk, the completely inappropriate thing she did in public, the fight she started with her older sister . . . The list goes on.

But I've also noticed two things about her:

1) She's incredibly competitive. Taylor isn’t the most athletic kid on her soccer team, but if she gets smoked a couple of times in a 1v1 drill, the claws come out. She won't get smoked again. Likewise, no matter the size or significance of the argument, she’s relentless. She won't back down. No threat eases the tension; no punishment (and we've tried them all) prevents it from happening again. She. Must. Win. Even if it leaves half the household in tears.

7 Sleep Doctors Reveal Their Favorite Tricks for Falling Asleep Fast

Sleep doctors toss and turn sometimes—but it’s never for long. That’s because they use scientifically-sound methods to lull themselves into dreamland. Steal their techniques so you can finally get a good night’s rest.

Blow bubbles
It sounds ridiculous, but blowing a few bubbles—like the kind that comes in a plastic bottle that you played with as a kid—right before bed can help you fall asleep faster, says Rachel Marie E. Salas, M.D., a professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

It’s like a deep breathing exercise, which helps calm your body and mind, she says. And since it’s such a silly activity, it can also take your mind off of any potential sleep-thwarting thoughts.

How Much Sex Is Too Much Sex?

“More bang for your buck” might not apply in bed: Having lots of sex could make you enjoy it less, finds new research from Carnegie Mellon University.

In the study, married couples who got busy at least once a month, but no more than three times per week, were split into two groups. Some pairs were asked to double their sex rate, while the rest kept their habits the same.

After 3 months, couples who boosted their boning reported having less desire for sex than they had at the beginning of the experiment.

Things You Should Never Say to a Woman on a First Date

Yes, she’s smart, funny, attractive and single. You feel that it’s time, five minutes into the date, to say something that the logical side of your brain isn't so sure about.

Stop talking.

Stop talking.

Seriously, stop making words. You want to stand out. You’ve had some alcohol. You end up trying to casually mention your bank account or workout routine. You don’t succeed because that approach never succeeds.

5 Best Ways to Improve Workout Performance

Move, sweat, eat, repeat makes for a decent training plan up to a point. But if you want to maximize your fitness gains, eventually you need to train smarter: smarter eating, smarter moving, smarter recovering.

But with the avalanche of fitness information available to the average guy these days, it’s not always clear what exactly makes for smart training, and what makes for last year’s forgotten fitness fad.

How to Make Life Suck Less after a Breakup

Your bed might be emptier these days, but that’s no reason to avoid it: Sticking to a steady sleep schedule may help you cope with a breakup, suggests preliminary research from the University of Arizona.

In the study, people going through a separation who continued to hit the hay and wake up at the same time every day reported greater life satisfaction than those who didn’t follow any particular bedtime routine.

Inconsistent sleepers spend some days feeling fatigued from short sleep, and other days trying to catch up on missed shuteye, says study coauthor Spencer Dawson, Ph.D.(c).

How to Give Her Multiple Orgasms

Giving her just one orgasm is cause for celebration. But any woman who can climax once can probably cross the finish line again—and again, says Ian Kerner, Ph.D., author of She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman.

It’s a biological gift: You have to wait for your refractory period to pass before you’re ready for round two, but women don’t seem to experience the same reloading phase, says Men’s Health sex advisor Debby Herbenick, Ph.D. She could experience her second wave of pleasure in as little as 1 minute.

But just because she can come twice doesn’t mean she will. Studies suggest that only 14 to 40 percent of women have had multiple orgasms in one session.

Food You Can Feel Good About: The Clean Food Movement

“This dish could really use some potassium sorbate, right?”

Yeah, that’s something you’re never going to hear and pretty much sums up the importance of the Clean Food Movement—a new push for ingredient transparency that we think will mean better food made from simpler ingredients.

Why come clean? Because we think, quite often, the simpler the ingredient, the better it tastes. Food should make you feel good—it should do good things for you and the world around you. When ingredients are simple and readily identifiable, you’ll feel better about every bite you take.

145 Things You Should Never, Ever Say to a Naked Woman

Here’s the thing about guys: Sometimes we say stupid things.

This is especially true when a naked woman is standing in front of us. Because come on, is there anything more amazing or life-affirming than a woman without clothes on? It's like we won the lottery every time it happens!

Seeing a woman in all her naked glory does something weird to our respective brains. It mucks up the wiring, clogs the connection between our frontal lobes and our mouths. When a woman takes off her clothes and lets us stay in the room, we are no longer, as they say in the last will and testament business, “of sound mind.”

How Much Sunscreen Do You Really Need?

Your sunscreen might have a dark secret: Unless you’re slathering liberal amounts of the lotion on your face, arms, and neck this summer, you could be leaving your skin more exposed than you think.

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommend using a sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15.

But unless you’re spreading 2 milligrams of lotion onto every square centimeter of exposed skin, you’re likely getting just a fraction of the sun protection listed on the label, according to a report from the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, a company that conducts independent evaluations of medical treatments.

4 Places You Shouldn't Touch During Sex

Great sex is all about spontaneity and exploration—assuming, of course, you have her consent—but there are a few parts of her body you shouldn't touch willy-nilly. Here are four such spots you're better off avoiding.

1. Her cervix.

If you reach her cervix during sex, recognize that something is wrong. Remember, this is the narrow canal that connects the vagina to the uterus—where babies grow. That isn’t a place you want to go, so don’t knock on the door. For starters, it’s painful for her to have something rammed against her cervix, and it could be a sign that you need to shift for a position with shallower penetration. But it could also mean that she isn’t warmed up enough. Her uterus will actually “lift” upwards when she’s sexually aroused, making her vaginal cavity a few inches deeper than when she isn’t turned on. So don’t skimp on foreplay, and don't service her cervix.

The Punch You Have to Make This Weekend

Whether you are  hosting guests this weekend or hitting a buddy’s barbecue, forego the expected 12-pack and treat your friends to this boozy and decadent Daniel Webster’s Punch from restaurateur Danny Meyer’s newest NYC watering hole, Porchlight.

Porchlight’s spin on this classic concoction is an unexpected marriage of several spirits mixed with red wine, Oloroso sherry, and black tea. An oleo-saccharum—a combination of citrus juice and sugar that is considered a key ingredient in any good, authentic punch—anchors the drink.

Can Your Eyes Get Sunburned?

If an epic, sunny day outdoors ends with your eyes feeling like they’re covered in sand, you might wonder: Did I fry more than just my skin?  

Though it may sound strange, your eyes can indeed succumb to sunburn. “It’s called photokeratitis,” says Jeff Pettey, M.D., clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. “It’s essentially a sunburn on the cornea and whites of your eye.”

The Best Way to Ask Her Out

Don’t assume she knows what “let’s grab a drink” means. Nearly 70 percent of single people have been confused about whether an outing was a date or not, a recent report finds.

According to the survey, which was commissioned by ChristianMingle and JDate, men are just as bewildered as women when it comes to classifying dates. That’s a little strange, since guys usually initiate the rendezvous, says April Masini, author of Date Out of Your League.

But here’s why: Many men are purposefully vague when asking a woman out to avoid getting shot down, Masini says. While it’s tempting to try to dodge rejection, if the woman doesn’t know you’re into her romantically, you could get stuck in the friend zone, says Masini.

How Your Allergies Have Evolved over the Years - and When They’ll Strike Next

Wheezing, sniffling, and snotting can strike at any age, sometimes disappear for a while, then return with a vengeance later in life. So why do you feel lousy one decade, only to have your symptoms ease up the next?

Here’s how hay fever and similar allergic conditions evolve over the course of a lifetime—and what you can do to put them into a more permanent remission.

Why Do You Get Allergies Anyway?

No one’s born with allergies, says Donna Sharpe, M.D., of Duke Otolaryngology in Durham, North Carolina. But mom and dad do pass down a trait called atopy, or the genetic tendency to develop allergies.

A Better Way to Drink Tequila

The problem with tequila is that most people are drinking it wrong. They knock it back in a shot glass, and then wonder why they feel so terrible the next day. (Go here to find out The Truth about Tequila and Your Hangover.) But tequila is one of those alcohols which should sipped rather than slammed. Not just to avoid that post-shot grimace, but because sipping tequila might actually be good for you.

“A single tequila drink consumed slowly over an hour can have great benefits if consumed several times a week,” says Eric B. Rimm, a Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. “It benefits your good cholesterol as well as reducing your body’s insulin resistance and also the propensity for your blood to clot, which ultimately is what causes a heart attack and most strokes.”

The Right Way to Wear Boots in Warm Weather

Boots can definitely be worn year-round, says Men’s Health Associate Fashion Editor Dan Michel. The trick is picking a pair that remains comfortable when the warmer temperatures roll around.

“Where your insulated winter boots will look strange, a simple leather pair will come off as cool and rugged,” says Michel.

Good examples would be a waterproof pair, like Timberland’s rugged Chestnut Ridge 6-Inch Waterproof Boots, to keep your feet dry during summer storms or Chippewa’s clean, uncomplicated Crazy Horse General Utility Service Boots, which will work with most outfits. Lighter colored leather automatically looks more seasonally appropriate than dark browns and black.

Hats Don't Protect You from the Sun as Well as You May Think

It’s that time of the year again—hats have officially transitioned from a fashion statement to a weapon in the war against UV rays. But do they really offer much in the way of protection from the sun’s damaging effects?

A little bit—but definitely not enough for you to forgo using SPF on your face and any exposed areas of your body. "Wearing a hat provides instant shade, which increases your cumulative total sun protection factor by at least 10,” says Ava Shamban, M.D., a dermatologist in Beverly Hills. "Regardless of whether [or not] you wear a hat, you need to apply a sunscreen of at least SPF 30 because ultraviolet light is reflected off of surfaces." Remember to stick to this rule: Apply about a shot glass worth of SPF to your entire body, and reapply every two hours.

It Only Takes 5 Days of Indulging in Fatty Foods to Mess with Your Muscle Function

No matter how much you try to eat healthy, things happen—you indulge in daily bacon cheeseburgers with a side of piña colada on vacation or end up ordering takeout a lot in one week.

We’ve all been there, which is why we’re filing this news under “terrifying”: A new study from Virginia Tech has discovered that eating a high-fat diet for just five days can change the way your body’s muscles processes nutrients. That can lead to weight gain, obesity, and diabetes, among other long-term health issues.

How to Recreate Spa Water at Home

Ever notice how the water at spas always tastes so much better than...just about any other attempt at flavored H2O? The secret, says Cecelia McKibben, spa manager with the Hotel Jerome's Auberge Spa in Aspen, is filling your water dispenser with all of your ingredients the night before you want to drink up to really let the flavors seep in (she notes that the Auberge Spa uses filtered water and organic ingredients, which could also help with the flavor). Here's the super simple recipe McKibben's spa uses most often if you want to whip up your own batch at home:

HOT GIRL ASKS 100 GUYS IF THEY WANT TO HAVE SEX AND YOU’LL NEVER GUESS HOW MANY SAY NO

It Only Takes 5 Days of Indulging in Fatty Foods to Mess with Your Muscle Function

No matter how much you try to eat healthy, things happen—you indulge in daily bacon cheeseburgers with a side of piña colada on vacation or end up ordering takeout a lot in one week.

We’ve all been there, which is why we’re filing this news under “terrifying”: A new study from Virginia Tech has discovered that eating a high-fat diet for just five days can change the way your body’s muscles processes nutrients. That can lead to weight gain, obesity, and diabetes, among other long-term health issues.

Why the FDA Can't Be Totally Sure Your Food Is Safe

You read all food labels and stay away from artificial ingredients. You nosh on plenty of whole fruits and vegetables daily and squeeze in some lean protein at every meal. But what about the ingredients lurking in that gluten-free pasta you're about to cook? You may be putting yourself at risk without even knowing it.

There's a certain level of trust we put in the hands of food manufacturers. But it seems an antiquated law may be allowing them to slip in new ingredients without prior approval from the FDA. The Food Additives Amendment, which has been around since the 1950s, allows manufacturers to self-proclaim ingredients "generally recognized as safe" (or GRAS), after which they can be used in products without any special warnings on the packaging.

What Happens to Your Face When You Use Expired Makeup

You know you’ve done it—we're talking about using a makeup product that's way past its expiration date. After all, you shelled out major dough for that mascara, so why would you want to toss it once the date on the tube has come and gone?

But expiration dates serve a bigger purpose than merely getting you to buy another product. That’s because old makeup not only works less efficiently—it can do major damage to your skin. You’ve been warned, ladies.

7 Secrets of Female Masturbation

Your recipe for masturbation is pretty simple: A bottle of lube, an open Xtube browser, and a five-finger grip deliver results in no time flat. But women’s solo sessions are a bit more complicated.

They can’t do it wherever they want, they don’t always care about reaching orgasm, and they definitely aren’t flipping through Fifty Shades as much as you’d imagine. So how do women masturbate? Read on to discover the secrets of what happens behind closed doors.

This Daily Habit May Cause a Deadly Stroke

Here’s another reason to close out your tab early: Drinking too much alcohol during your middle-age years can raise your future stroke risk, finds new research from the University of South Florida.

In the study, “heavy” drinkers—defined as people who downed more than two beverages a day—had a 34 percent greater risk of stroke during the 43-year follow-up than those who consumed less than half a drink a day.

That third daily cocktail increased the participants’ stroke risk even more than diabetes or high blood pressure did, at least until they hit the age of 75.

4 Steps to Resolve Any Fight with Her (and Get Straight to the Makeup Sex)

It’s not shared hobbies or amazing sex that make a relationship great—although those don’t hurt.

It’s how you and your partner fight, says Wendy Walsh, Ph.D., founder of relationship resource site AskALoveGuru.com.

“Conflict is normal,” Walsh says. If you can resolve spats before they turn into blowups, the friction can bring the two of you closer together rather than tear you apart.

Plus, sparring could save your life: A recent University of Michigan study finds that spouses who suppress their anger die earlier than those who argue regularly.

Here’s your plan to defuse any fight and get straight to the fun part: makeup sex.

5 Easy Ways to Make Her Horny

As a guy, you’re probably the one who initiates sex in your relationship. It’s not that your girlfriend isn’t in the mood, or doesn’t want as much sex as you do—you’re just the one who rings the dinner bell 99.9 percent of the time.

Why is that? “This comes from many things, but one of them is that women are afraid that if they step out of traditional gender roles, they won’t be seen, accepted, and appreciated as feminine being,” says psychologist and relationship expert Tracy Thomas, Ph.D. “It also becomes another area where she could potentially fail, and be rejected—and most women are terrified of being rejected.”

But you can fix this, Thomas says, by creating an atmosphere in which she doesn’t feel like she needs to be perfect. “You want to get her in the mood—make her horny—but what does that mean?” Thomas says. “What you really want is to make her feel like it’s safe for her to let go, like she can surrender to her sexual desires.”

How Many Long Runs Should I Do Before a Marathon?

It seems like common sense that to prepare for a marathon—an event that includes a heck of a lot of running—your training should also include a heck of a lot of running. That’s why marathon preparation dogma preaches that you need to do one long, 12 to 26 mile run each week.

The problem: That often puts too much mileage on your body, says Mark Conover, director of the cross-country and track-and-field programs at California Polytechnic State University.

“The key is to get to the starting line fresh,” says Conover. “You don’t want to arrive at the marathon as damaged goods.”

Stop Stress in 60 Seconds

Severe stress can do more damage than just turning your hair gray and making you shorter. People with chronic stress have a 59 percent increase in their odds of stroke over the next decade, according to new research from the University of Minnesota.

For every single-point increase in test scores measuring stress levels, study participants’ risk of stroke jumped 19 percent. Study authors think chronic activation of the fight-or-flight response may trigger your body’s inflammatory response to go into overdrive, impeding blood flow to the brain.

How to Have Sex for an Hour!

You’ve tried crunching baseball stats. You've mentally replayed your last round of golf. You've outlined the steps to making your favorite sandwich. But the more you try to slow yourself down during sex, the faster you finish—and you’re not alone.

“Premature ejaculation is a problem that affects almost every man at some point in his life,” says Thomas J. Walsh, M.D., a urologist at the University of Washington.

Dr. Walsh says there are primarily two methods of dealing with your speed issues: physical and psychological treatments. While physical remedies target the sensations you feel during sex, psychological solutions address your worry, stress, or other mental factors that may explain your quick trigger, Dr. Walsh explains.

Here, he and other experts break down a few of the most helpful techniques for dealing with premature ejaculation (PE). But be warned: Dr. Walsh recommends trying these out on your own before attempting them during sex.

The Dangerous Disease That 25% of Men Over 40 Have (and Often Don’t Know It)

Your medical history might have some serious holes in it. Nearly 80 percent of people with a common liver disease aren’t diagnosed, finds a new study from Baylor College of Medicine.

In the study, researchers determined that participants had non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)—an often-symptom-free accumulation of fat in the liver—if their lab work showed persistently elevated liver enzymes and no indication of organ-damaging factors like hepatitis or excessive alcohol use.

Why Working Out With Your Girlfriend Helps You Build Muscle Faster

The first time I joined a gym, I was 24 and scrawny. The jacked guy at the front desk said all new members received a T-shirt and asked me for my size. Small, I said. He threw me a muumuu.

“This is a large,” he replied. “It’s all we have. Once you start lifting, you’ll fill it out.”

Hardly. I lasted 8 months.

But then I proposed to Jen, a onetime runner and yoga nut who had largely abandoned those pursuits to sit around with me. With our upcoming nuptials, the threat of shame finally loomed large: If we didn’t shape up and sharpen our softening bodies, we’d be gathering our loved ones together for a display of our shortcomings.

Drink This, Sleep 90 More Minutes A Night

No, it's not whiskey. New research from Louisiana State University finds that drinking tart cherry juice twice a day can help you sleep nearly 90 more minutes a night.

Researchers had seven older adults with insomnia drink eight ounces of Montmorency tart cherry juice twice a day for two weeks, followed by two weeks of no juice, and then two more weeks of drinking a placebo beverage. Compared to the placebo, drinking the cherry juice resulted in an average of 84 more minutes of sleep time each night.

Cherry juice is a natural source of the sleep-wake cycle hormone melatonin and the amino acid tryptophan, says study coauthor Frank L. Greenway, director of the outpatient research clinic at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at LSU.

Why Your Grandparents Are Having Better Sex Than You

The perfect 50th anniversary gift? Lingerie.

Married couples’ sex lives start to rebound after half a century together, a new study from Baylor University finds.

Researchers interviewed older spouses about their bedroom habits. True to conventional wisdom, the longer a couple had been married, the less often they slept together. That’s because sex with the same person can get less exciting as the years tick by, says study author Samuel Stroope, Ph.D., a professor of sociology at Baylor.

The Best Things to Say before, during, and after Sex

It doesn’t matter if you’re having a romantic dinner for two or getting busy between the sheets—regardless of the situation, women love to talk to you.

That’s because for women, verbal communication is key to emotional intimacy, says relationship psychologist Terri Orbuch, Ph.D., a research scientist at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research and author of Finding Love Again.

Finding the Right Workout for Your Mood

We men don't think of ourselves as moody. Except maybe if our favorite sports team makes a nonsensical trade, and it feels like a personal betrayal. But of course we have more moods than that. And those moods—such as being mad, frustrated, nervous, or even ecstatic—can alter more than your mind. They can affect your muscles.

What you're feeling can make you put less into your workout, or cause you to skip it altogether. But those same moods can be used to help your lifting session.

Why Do Doctors Really Hit Your Knee with a Tiny Rubber Hammer?

Sure, sure, to test your reflexes. Everybody knows that. Isn’t the delayed kick in the pants when the doctor turns his back a slapstick mainstay? Harpo invented it. Or was it Curly?

Anyway, testing reflexes is the objective, but why hit that little sweet-spot below the kneecap specifically? Why doesn’t Dr. Feelgood just lob a quick sucker-punch at you to check your flinch factor?

For starters, the knee gets top billing in the reflex test for one simple reason: it’s easy to access. You’re sitting on the table in that backless gown, fighting humiliation and cold. It’s merciful that nobody’s asking you to hop on one leg while you pat your head and rub your belly. There’s your knee in all its unadorned glory. Sit tight, this won’t hurt a bit.

20 Subtle Clues She’s About to Break Up with You

Women are many things, but straightforward isn’t one of them. So while you may sense that something is amiss when your girlfriend or wife displays obvious signs that she's not happy in a relationship, there are other subtle clues you can watch for before the not-so-subtle ones hit you like a ton of bricks.

We aren’t talking about her reluctance to jump into bed with you. Or her lack of feigned interest in the details of all 18 holes you just played. Or the fight picking. Or the time she unfollowed you on Twitter. We know you know those.

The Easy Way to Help Her Orgasm Every Time

Let her mind wander: Fantasizing during sex may help her orgasm, finds a recent Belgian study.

Women who reported regularly experiencing the big O were more likely to imagine sexy scenarios while getting it on than those who had trouble finishing.

It’s possible that her erotic thoughts help keep her focused on feeling good, the researchers say. Women who have a hard time getting off tend to be more distracted during sex, according to the paper, while those who orgasm easily may be more tuned into their sensations.

5 Reasons She Stopped Doing You (And How to Fix It)

Those first several  months of a new relationship are bliss: You can't keep your hands off each other. You're having sex once, twice, three times a day. You're having crazy sex, public sex, porno sex, hair-pulling sex. It's orgasm after orgasm and your brain is oozing those endorphins that make you feel in love and utterly alive.

And then it comes to a screeching halt.

While it's perfectly normal for sex to slow down a bit after this initial "romance stage," it's never a good sign when the music stops on your nightly Horizontal Mambo. Here are five possible reasons she stopped doing you, and how you can turn it around.

How to Keep from Gagging During Oral, Because It Happens

The spontaneity that can make sex so amazing (mmm, what was that?) can also make it absolutely cringey (OMG, what the eff was that!?). Here's the thing, though: Embarrassing bed seshes happen to the best of us. And while a rogue queef may kill the mood, there's an upside in the long run. "The less-than-romantic times give you both a chance to show your vulnerability, to bond, to feel closer," explains Emily Morse, a sexologist and host of the podcast Sex with Emily. And let's not forget: to laugh your ass off about it later! We rounded up some "help!" scenarios straight from real women to get some insta-fixes from experts.

"I was going down on my BF when I started gagging—and, OMG, actually spat out some of the romantic dinner we'd just had. I'm now officially terrified of oral!" —Lisa, 31, in a relationship for one year