How to Tell if Your House Is Haunted

There are lots of "ghost stories" out there, but we're, like, 100 percent sure they're just that: stories. But out of pure curiousity, we figured we'd get the point of view of some real life paranormal reserarchers: John E.L. Tenney, cohost of Destination America’s new series "Ghost Stalkers," and Joanne Emmons, author of I Think My House Is Haunted!

Tenney and Emmons get calls from people who experience strange sightings or sounds, then work systematically to rule out all non-paranormal explanation. Ninety-eight percent of the time, the calls can be explained by forces in the everyday physical world, Tenney says. His phone rings off the hook every fall and spring because that’s when changing temperatures cause all kinds of creaks, groans, and pops in people’s homes. Or a flickering light proves to be a case of bad wiring, for example.

5 Orgasm Myths That Are Just Not True At All

If you had to put your relationship status with orgasms on Facebook, admit it: It would probably say: It's complicated. Sometimes, you wind up sighing in frustration that you just can't finish, and others, the big O sneaks up when you least expect it. Orgasms are elusive enough without having to cut through the myths—and when it comes to climaxes, there are a lot of them floating around. Read through these common misconceptions so you can ditch them and get on your way to your best possible sex life.

9 Things Some Men Are Too Afraid to Ask For in Bed

No matter how much crazy-great sex you and your partner might be having, admit it: You've wondered if there's any desire he's holding back. Hey, chances are you have a fantasy or curiosity that you may or may not have worked up the courage to divulge just yet, so what's his?

To find out, we asked some men what they're not asking for in the bedroom (but secretly kind of want to). Their answers may or may not surprise you, but regardless, it's a good reminder that we can all be a little more open behind closed doors.

Is MSG Really Bad For You?

Few things have been demonized in the nutrition world as much as monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavor enhancer used in processed foods such as canned soup, packaged snacks, or your favorite Chinese takeout. But how bad is it for you, really?

A video made by the American Chemistry Society, a professional society for chemists, explains that the case against MSG is mostly hype. And Men's Health nutrition advisor Mike Roussell, Ph.D., agrees. "The science behind our fears just doesn't hold up," he says.

Monosodium glutamate is just salt combined with glutamate. Salt is essential to health. Your body can't make it, and your cells need it to function. And glutamate is a naturally occurring amino acid that makes foods like soy sauce, aged cheese, and beef so tasty, Roussell says. So when you eat MSG, it's broken back down into salt and glutamate, he says.

How Daydreaming Helps Your Mind Focus

Letting your mind wander may actually help your concentration, suggests new research from Cornell University.  

Here’s why scientists think that: In a study, participants matched photos of celebrities more quickly and accurately than they did for pictures of anonymous people they didn’t recognize. 

The Deadly Cancer That Grows for Two Decades

This news could leave you gasping: Lung cancer—which kills more people than any other cancer—can develop slowly for 20 years before it becomes aggressive enough to detect, finds new research from University College London.

Scientists studied 25 regions of seven lung tumors surgically removed from patients. They found that certain genetic mutations occur early in a tumor’s development, probably as a result of carcinogen exposure, especially in smokers and ex-smokers. Later—likely years later—a DNA-editing protein called APOBEC mutates DNA within the tumor, and that’s when the cancer really starts to progress, says study author Elza De Bruin, Ph.D.

How to Work Your Abs with a Basketball

When it comes to working your abs, a basketball probably isn't the first tool that comes to mind. But BJ Gaddour, C.S.C.S., CEO of Men's Health StreamFIT, came up with a fun—but tough—way to add it to your core routine.

The move: Dribbling a basketball while holding the top of a pushup position.

It's hard for two reasons, he says. First, you have to hold the position with only one arm.

5 Reasons She Hates Oral Sex

Can't break her BJ embargo? While some women just aren't interested in fellatio, your partner may be fine with it—but you could be killing her desire to go down below. Here are five things you do that turn her off to oral sex.

1. You get handsy. “When a guy pushes his partner’s head down during [oral sex], that’s the biggest complaint I hear from women,” says Ava Cadell, a doctor of human sexuality and author of NeuroLoveology. Despite what you see in porn, a lot of women aren’t cool with you working her head like it’s a football and you’re running a play-action fake. Instead, “Give her compliments on how good she is at giving oral and how beautiful she looks while she is doing it,” Cadell advises.

What Marijuana Might Do to Your Brain

The stoner character may be more than stereotype: Smoking pot may actually make you lazy. Occasional marijuana use can affect your motivation, according to a recent study from Harvard Medical School.

Out of 40 college students, the half who smoked pot once or twice a week for a few months showed more changes in the brain areas regulating emotion, mental illness, and motivation than the drug-free undergrads. “Your motivation levels determine whether or not you get out of bed in the morning,” says study coauthor Anne Blood, Ph.D. "And we're seeing some pretty convincing changes in these regions.”

The Easiest Way to Keep Off Weight

Good news for your waistline: A shot of sunshine in the morning may lower your body mass index (BMI), according to a new study from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

Regardless of an individual's physical activity level, diet, sleep, or age, people who had most of their daily exposure to natural light between 8 a.m. and noon had significantly lower BMIs than those who got most of their exposure later in the day.

The reason: Natural light provides a boost to your circadian rhythms—or your body's internal clock—which is known to regulate your metabolism, hunger, and energy levels, says co-lead author, Giovanni Santostasi, Ph.D. In fact, previous studies have found that constant exposure to bright light later in the afternoon or at night can throw off your circadian clock and increase your risk of obesity.

The Worst Work Hours for Your Health

Bad news if you burn the midnight oil: People who regularly work night shifts are twice as likely to have diabetes, finds new research from the University of Pittsburgh.

And the risk remains even after they've retired and returned to a normal sleeping schedule.

How come? Previous research shows that messing with your biological clock and limiting sleep can lead to decreased resting metabolic rates and increased blood glucose concentrations, which set the stage for diabetes and other diseases, says study author Timothy Monk, Ph.D.

Are You Overhydrated?

You've heard it since you were a kid, from your parents to your gym teacher: Drink two liters (or eight glasses) of water every day. Lately, though, researchers have been questioning the tried-and-true water rule, and in fact, believe even health-minded individuals could be drinking too much H2O.

“There’s no scientific method behind those numbers,” says exercise physiologist Stacy Sims, Ph.D., a hydration researcher at Stanford University. “And the recommendation doesn’t take into account gender, environment, altitude, fitness level—factors that could affect fluid intake needs.”

In fact, there’s a lot of marketing behind popular hydration recommendations, Sims says—with potentially dangerous consequences. “Drinking too much fluid can lead to hyponatremia, which is when sodium in blood becomes too diluted,” Sims says.

How to Boost Desire in a Long-Term Relationship

When you've been with the same partner for a long time, there will inevitably be times when you want to climb them like a tree and times that you just don't. It's totally normal.

That said, mismatched libidos can sometimes become a bigger problem and lead to stress in a relationship—not to mention a lack of satisfaction. So researchers aimed to find out what strategies women were using to manage sexual desire differences in their bond and if any of them were particularly useful.

The Difference Between Slow and Fast Weight Training

Just like the beats of reggae versus merengue, your weight-training rhythms—a.k.a. the tempos at which you perform your reps—don't affect your body the same way. Look around the weight room and you'll see folks doing everything from long drawn-out movements to Energizer bunny-style repetitions. So who's got the right idea? As with many fitness questions, it's not so hard and fast. We talked to two trainers with different takes to get the lowdown on slow and quick strength-training speeds:

Should You Slow It Down?
The trainer: Ellington Darden, Ph.D., weightlifting guru and author of The Body Fat Breakthrough
The argument: It's great for building strength, and safer for beginners.

Should You Mix Walking Into Your Runs?

Do you know how to run-walk? You see, there's more to a run-walk training plan than just running until you have to walk: It's actually a technique that uses a mix of running and walking intervals to reduce impact on your body, build up your base level of fitness, boost speed, and help you recover more efficiently.

Sounds like magic, right? It's pretty simple: By walking every few minutes, you're adding valuable recovery time to your run. That means that instead of exhausting your body with long runs, you have time to slow down, catch your breath—and approach the next interval with more speed and energy.

Run-walk is an awesome strategy for beginner runners: Not only do you get to physically slow down and regroup during the walking intervals, but by breaking the run down into small increments, longer runs can seem more manageable, says Jenny Hadfield, running coach and author of Running for Mortals.

The Running Test You Should Be Able to Pass

Back in grade school, you ran one mile for the President's Challenge Physical Fitness Test to show how aerobically fit you were. As an adult, you’re lucky if sprinting on the basketball court or chasing your kids across the lawn doesn’t leave you sucking wind. But holding your own during a short run is important as you get older. Regular aerobic exercise reduces your risk of heart disease and helps keep your body fat low.

Test yourself with a 1.5-mile run on a flat road or track. “It’s a good predictor for your work capacity, ability to recover quickly, and do more work in general,” says Steve Di Tomaso, C.S.C.S., endurance athlete and strength coach for Envision Fitness in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada. Compare your time to the average guy in your age group. If you fall short or want to be better than average, add Di Tomaso’s running and strength workouts to your routine to increase your gains.

Why You Love Morning Sex — and How to Get More of It

There’s never a bad time to have sex, but science says it’s especially fun to mess around in the morning. How come?

For starters, you naturally build up testosterone overnight, which boosts your coital instincts in the A.M., says Tammy Nelson, Ph.D., a sex and relationship therapist and author of Getting the Sex You Want. You also have higher levels of vasopressin, a hormone that helps give you feelings of emotional attachment. Couple that with an erect penis, “and you may feel closer and more attached to your significant other in the morning,” Nelson says.

The Chest and Shoulder Blaster that Will Leave You Spent

It takes more than a steady diet of presses and curls to reach your full potential for size and strength. "You need to challenge your upper-body muscles in fresh ways to stimulate new growth," says Sean De Wispelaere, a coach for Men's Health Thrive in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Enter the three-move chest and shoulder blaster. Your muscles won't know what hit them.

"Using the dumbbell chest press, the feet-elevated TRX pushup, and the bear crawl, you'll target both your fast- and slow-twitch muscle fibers," explains De Wispelaere. "The unique combination of exercises increases your power, size, and endurance, and bullet-proofs your shoulders, making you stronger in all upper-body lifts."

6 Things You Didn’t Realize Totally Turn Her On

You can pull out all the stops to get her to like you—dates, flowers, even romantic strolls on the beach. Wouldn’t it be great, though, if you could get her to like you without even trying—or at least, not trying quite so hard? Well, good news: being her Casanova need not be so hard. Read on to find out the six ways you’re turning her on just by being regular ol’ you.

You wear red every now and then
A study from the University of Rochester found that simply wearing red makes a man more attractive and sexually desirable to women. The reason? It makes you appear more powerful. Plus, it’ll have her giving you a double-take. “Red is one of the colors that, depending on the background contrast, causes longer orienting reflexes, in which you look abruptly at a novel feature in the environment,” says Jim Pfaus, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Concordia University. “So wearing red could get her to look at you.”

15 Things She’s Thinking When You’re Naked

Okay, let’s get something out of the way first: she’s probably not comparing you to Brad Pitt. “Women don’t pick apart your naked self as much as you might imagine,” says psychologist Jill Weber, Ph.D, author of Having Sex, Wanting Intimacy. “They’re less aroused by a naked male body than they are by depictions of actual sex activity.”

But while the butt-naked you may not be hitting the same arousal buttons as her bared bod does in your eyes, you can be sure that she is checking you out nonetheless. All of you. “Studies tracking eye movement show women give men the once-over physically just as much as men do women,” says sex columnist and author Tracey Cox. So when you drop trou in her presence, keep the following intel in mind:

26 Ways to Feed Your Body for Results

Sports nutrition is easy, if you're a cartoon character. Take Popeye: The gravel-voiced sailorman would down a can of spinach, and next thing he knew he was shot-putting a bowling ball into the stratosphere. Try that at home and the only thing you'll be heaving is the spinach.

"No specific food will make you faster or stronger tomorrow," says Lonnie Lowery, R.D., Ph.D., an exercise and nutrition scientist at Winona State University, in Minnesota. Instead, whatever your goal—packing on muscle, going the distance, or losing that gut—you have to think long-term. "Sports nutrition is all about many factors adding up over time." In other words, think marathon, not sprint.

So even though there's nothing that will make you an instant athlete (or substitute for that last set of reps), the right foods and drinks can help you work harder, train longer, and look better. Good nutrition supports good workouts, and good workouts make the most of good nutrition. We've rounded up the latest research to help you fuel the body you have—and create the body you want. All you need is enough strength to twist a lid, tear a pouch, and, yes, open a can.

5 Signs He's Falling In Love With You

Men aren't always the best at expressing our emotions. It's not that we can't talk about our feelings—we just don't even stop to think about them very often. Emotion, especially the lovey-dovey stuff, is kind of like elevator music to us. It plays softly in the back of our heads, but most of the time, we're barely listening.

That's why I sympathize with any woman trying to figure out how a guy really feels. Most of the time, the guy probably doesn't even know. Sure, he was just in the emotional elevator this morning, but he was too busy checking his phone for Twitter updates to notice what was coming out of the speakers.

The Best Way to Solve a Relationship Conflict

Isn't it strange how you can offer your friend sage advice when they're fighting with their spouse, but when it comes to your own relationship struggles, you're way less rational? That might be because people who mentally distance themselves from a situation (their own or another person's) are better at thinking things through, according to new research to be published in the journal Psychological Science.

Researchers recruited nearly 700 people for a three-part study. In each phase, participants were split into groups and asked to describe how they would handle certain situations (like if a partner cheated) from different perspectives. Some were asked to analyze this imaginary event as if it happened to themselves or to a friend from either the first person point of view ("why am I feeling this way?") or the third person angle ("why is she/he feeling this way?"). The goal was to see which mindset would get people to pause and really think about a problem instead of just acting irrationally.

Antioxidants: The 13 Healthiest Foods

In her just-released book, The O2 Diet,weight-loss expert and WH contributor Keri Glassman, R.D., reveals the powerful benefits of eating foods that are packed with antioxidants.

When it comes to eating healthy and losing weight, we've been focusing on the wrong set of numbers, says nutritionist Keri Glassman, R.D. This month, Glassman launches a revolutionary way of eating in her new book, The O2 Diet, which is based on the foods that have the highest antioxidant activity levels. This plan will make it super-simple for you to shed pounds, look fabulous, boost your energy, and amp up your brainpower.

Glassman's plan is based on the ORAC scale—a scientific value that represents the antioxidant levels of foods. (ORAC stands for oxygen radical absorbance capacity.) Using this scale, she has devised a diet that gets you 30,000 ORAC points a day—10 times the current recommended level of 3,000. It's those mega ORAC points that scoop up free radicals, the damaging rogue elements in our bodies that contribute to everything from wrinkles and brain fog to cancer and heart disease.

5 Easy Ways To Make Your Mom Happy

A card, flowers, and brunch are the go-to gifts for the woman who raised you, but are they that thoughtful? What does a modern mom really want on the official salute-your-mom day of the year? Stop clinging to the cliché and give her a day she can brag about.

Arrange adventure
Your mom probably doesn’t want to sit around in a rocking chair all day, says Kate Lombardi, author of The Mama’s Boy Myth. “Moms want to have fun and hang out,” she says. So, go for a hike—pack a few beers—listen to live music, hit the bar, or pass the afternoon taking in America’s pastime. You can even suggest a last-minute weekend getaway to the beach or somewhere close by that she’s always wanted to go, says psychologist Peggy Drexler, Ph.D. Think outside of activities you typically do with your mom, and consider arranging something neither of you have done. “To spend time with their sons, moms would definitely try something new,” says Lombardi. You’ll both have a new shared experience and a great story to tell.

10 Common Habits That Hurt Your Skin

By Meirav Devash for Refinery29

Like all medical professionals, dermatologists subscribe to the Latin proverb "primum non nocere," or "first, do no harm." But, when it comes to your beauty routine, sometimes derms really, really want to smack you upside the head. "It’s amazing what some people do to their skin," says Doris Day, M.D., dermatologist and clinical associate professor of dermatology at New York University Langone Medical Center.

We're not talking obvious skin sabotage like chain-smoking Pall Malls or sprawling in a tanning bed. Some habits, like enthusiastic exfoliation and loading on anti-agers, are actually good practices gone wrong. However, with the expert tips and fixes below, "it's surprising how much the skin can forgive," says Day. As for those dermatologists? Just don't make them angry. You wouldn't like them when they're angry.

This Simple Trick Will Make You Want to Work Out Right Now

Whether it’s slashing seconds off your Fran time or making the winning shot, thinking about a positive exercise memory can motivate you to exercise more, according to a new University of New Hampshire study.

Researchers found that college students who were asked to recall positive exercise memories performed more workouts the following week than students who were prompted to think of negative exercise memories or no memories at all.

She Wants You to Watch

Foreplay begins at  the cocktail bar when Jeff surreptitiously slips his hand beneath the hem of Anne's skirt. As the two grope in the cab on their way to Jeff's apartment, the driver alternately huffs in disgust. . .and sneaks peeks in the rearview mirror.

Now, in the privacy of Jeff's apartment, Anne, 29, glances at the large windows facing the complex next door. She's making sure the curtains are wide open. Should his neighbors or anyone else passing by happen to look, they would have a clear view of Jeff sliding Anne's panties down her hips and pushing her onto the bed, and Anne wrapping her legs around him.

Sex with Jeff is good. But with the curtains open, it's great. Anne is not shy, clearly. And she's not shy about describing what that exposure does to her. "Knowing that anyone can see us steps up my game," she says. "It makes everything hotter. I like to imagine people are watching—and that they're jealous."

Raise Your Steaks

The cow I ate was born in April 2011 in rural Pennsylvania.

Cathy Pomanti, the owner of Sugar Hill Farm, midwifed my calf into the world. Pomanti raises grass-fed organic Scottish highland cows, a shaggy breed yielding meat that's among the tastiest on the planet. On one farm visit, my fiancee saw a highlander, went quiet, and then said, "I don't want to eat them. I want to hug them." But I was hungry for a cow to call my own.

Watch Out! Social Media Can Sink Your Love Life

It may have taken years to build, but a relationship can crumble in only 140 characters. A new study from the University of Missouri found that frequent tweeting increases your odds for real-life couple conflicts. Worse, it can actually be the downfall of your relationship, leading to cheating, breakups, and divorce.

Here's the deal: Researcher Russell Clayton polled couples of all dating durations and found they argued over basically every element of the survey, including who their partner tweets to, what they’re posting, and the sheer amount of hours they spend on the site. Clayton’s previous research found Facebook also sparked relationship trouble.

7 Sex Upgrades for Your Bed

The whole "twin  bed with threadbare sheets" thing may have worked in college, but you’re out of the frat house now—which means your bedroom needs to grow up, too. “Surrounding yourself with warmth and luxury is a catalyst for sex—an aphrodisiac, even,” says Cathy Hobbs, an interior designer in New York City. “It’s the difference between being at Motel 6 and the Four Seasons.”

Make your bedroom a place where women want to jump between the sheets—and stay there—with these seven tips. Then hang up the “Do Not Disturb” sign and get busy.

Could Porn Cause ED?

One out of  every four new erectile dysfunction patients is under 40, according to a recent study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. That’s compared to a 2002 Dutch review that found just 2 percent of younger men suffer from ED.

What explains this apparent spike in bedroom-related blues? Theories range from higher rates of stress to greater honesty in reporting the issue. But some research suggests your online porn habit may also play a role.

7 Reasons She Breaks Up With You

Breaking up isn’t always hard to do. Sometimes it’s really, really easy—like when a girl realizes she's dating a cheater. But sometimes the reason a relationship ends isn't as clear. That's why I compiled a list of women's dating dealbreakers. Commit any of these crimes, and you'll send her running for the hills before the relationship even begins.

You flirt with her friends.
The only thing worse than checking out another woman in a girl’s presence is hitting on one in her inner circle. Even if it’s playful, it’s a turnoff. Sure, she’ll love that you can hang with her group, but she doesn’t want to wonder if you’d rather be hooking up with her leggy friend. Be nice to her girlfriends—but give her your undivided attention. After all, she wants to know you only have eyes for her.

4 Financial Sins That Ruin Relationships

Hooking up with  another guy might seem like the worst way she can cheat on you. But what if she borrows your credit card and fails to mention it? If you suspect the woman you are with lies about how much she spends, saves, or borrows, it could be ruining your relationship.

In fact, one in three adults who have combined their finances in a current or past relationship admit to committing financial infidelity, reports a recent online survey by the National Endowment for Financial Education. And it turns out this type of cheating has serious consequences—76 percent of respondents reported that financial deception hurt the relationship, 10 percent reported it led to divorce, and 8 percent claimed it led to separation.

Do You Really Need Deodorant?

Some guys may  think their sweat doesn’t stink like everyone else’s, but ask their girlfriend or anyone near them in the gym and you’ll probably hear a different story.

The truth is, some people do give off fewer odors than others—but everybody has some sort of trace: “Body odor is determined by environmental factors, like what foods we eat, and genetics. Some people just smell stronger naturally,” explains Robyn Gmyrek, M.D., director of cosmetic dermatology at Columbia University Medical Center. But it’s not the actual dampness that smells. The bacterium that breaks your sweat down into organic compounds is what has that potent stench, she adds.

9 Surprising Ways to Whiter Teeth

A bright smile  not only looks great, it could improve your chances at landing a girlfriend. According to a recent study by Match.com, 71 percent of women say that they judge a man based on his teeth. Translation: Having a brilliant smile will actually help you be more attractive to women. “A smile can be very inviting—having a whiter smile is engaging and exciting," says Beverly Hills-based dentist Arthur Glosman.

6 Reasons Women Fake Orgasms

In (uncomfortably relatable) sex news, researchers identified a whopping six different reasons that women fake orgasms, according to a pair of surveys of over 350 women, published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior. Even weirder (slash, more interesting): their reasons differ based on whether they're faking it during oral sex or penetration. Oh!

During penetrative intercourse, women tend to fake it for four main reasons:  to avoid hurting their partner's feelings; because they feel insecure about having an orgasm; to speed things up and end the sex ASAP; and as an attempt to increase their own arousal (sort of a fake-it-'til-you-make-it approach—hey, whatever works!).  

Chore Wars: How the Division of Domestic Duties Really Affects a Couple’s Sex Life

Are women less attracted to men who do more domestic chores? Or are men who share equally in the workload at home more appealing to a generation of stressed wives who are juggling family responsibilities and more work hours than ever?

It’s not a new debate, but it is one that has resurfaced recently thanks to a series of articles about stay-at-home fathers and a feature this month in the New York Times magazine by writer and psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb in which she suggests that that equality is turning us off. She writes: “In an attempt to become gender neutral, we may have become gender neutered.”

Why Guys Say Things on Social Media That They Won't Say to You

Alexandra Sifferlin for Time.com

Here's a scenario you might recognize if you're a woman dating a social media butterfly: You're sitting on the couch together silently watching TV. When you take a moment to peek at your Twitter feed, you see your significant other has been sharing a stream of personal thoughts about House of Cards with the Twitterverse—even though he hasn't uttered a word to you.

The Major Benefit of a Vegetarian Diet

Chock this up to one of the many reasons you should make an effort to eat more veggies: A vegetarian (or even flexitarian) diet may help lower your blood pressure, according to a new meta-analysis of more than a century’s worth of clinical trials and observational studies.

Researchers from various universities and medical facilities in Japan and the U.S. teamed up to pore over the vast amount of existing data on the relationship between a vegetarian diet and its effects on blood pressure. In addition to dietary info, researchers looked at study participants’ systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings—i.e., the ratio-like stat your doctor gives you at checkups, measured in millimeters of mercury. (A healthy BP is 120/80.)

Another Amazing Perk of Red Wine

Wine is packed with antioxidants. You know this and probably revel in it on the regular (as you should). Here's one more reason why: A new study in Cancer Cell International shows those antioxidants may block the growth of lung cancer—the most deadly type of cancer.

Researchers from Brock University and McMaster University in Ontario studied the effects of various types of wine—Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Riesling—on non-small cell lung cancer cells, the most common form of lung cancer.

7 Sex Upgrades for Your Bed

The whole "twin  bed with threadbare sheets" thing may have worked in college, but you’re out of the frat house now—which means your bedroom needs to grow up, too. “Surrounding yourself with warmth and luxury is a catalyst for sex—an aphrodisiac, even,” says Cathy Hobbs, an interior designer in New York City. “It’s the difference between being at Motel 6 and the Four Seasons.”

Make your bedroom a place where women want to jump between the sheets—and stay there—with these seven tips. Then hang up the “Do Not Disturb” sign and get busy.

Make Any Exercise Harder

If you want  to make an exercise harder, add weight. If you want to make your whole body work harder while performing an exercise, change your stance. "Altering the way you place your feet on the ground forces you to use more stabilizing muscles, which compounds the challenge of the move,"says Bruce Mack, co-founder of Thrive Training Systems.

Working your stabilizing muscles strengthens your core, which will help you move heavier loads in the future, Mack says. He suggests advancing your stance for standard exercises like the biceps curl. While foot placement won't increase the stress on your biceps, stabilizing yourself will strengthen muscles in addition to those in your arms. The result: a bigger calorie burn and a greater total body strength-building effect.

How Your Job Can Save Your Sex Life

When it comes  to work, you dress well, hold your emotions in check, and (usually) show up on time. But most of us don’t apply those same standards to our romantic relationships. And that’s a problem, shows research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

That said, there’s a fine line when it comes to treating your wife or girlfriend like you treat your boss and coworkers. Extending certain work practices to your private life, though, can significantly lower the amount of emotional strain and conflict you and your partner experience. It could even score you more sex.  Here, five ways to get there.

Can Success Make You Miserable?

When you think  of Olympic gold medalists, you think of success—and with that, happiness.A lifestyle of victories and workouts—endorphins flooding and fresh air—coupled with exotic travel. It sounds great.

But is it?

In a recent study of elite athletes, German researchers found that 15 percent suffered from depression. Pros who reported higher levels of stress and self-pity scored even higher on a depression test.

4 Things You Think Turn Her On—That Don't

Your girlfriend's libido

  doesn't just have an on/off switch. She requires a slow build—which means there's plenty of time for mistakes. And no matter how well you think you know her hot buttons, there's a good chance a few moves in your repertoire are actually squelching her sex drive. "Men often assume women are turned on by the same things they are," says Brandy Engler, Ph.D., a Los Angeles-based sex therapist and author of The Men on My Couch. That's your first misstep—and unfortunately, it can lead to many more.  

Is Lube Hurting Your Sperm?

KY may K.O. your sperm. Motility—one measure of sperm quality that has to do with your swimmers’ ability to find and fertilize your partner’s egg—is significantly hampered by sex lubricants, according to a new study from the State University of New York Upstate Medical University. 

From Astroglide to KY, most of the lubricants tested decreased sperm quality by 20 percent or more within 30 minutes. One variety of KY—the “Tingling” type—lowered sperm motility by more than 75 percent, the study shows. The good news: None of the sperm-slowing effects of lubricants persist if you stop using them, the research shows. 

While decreased motility doesn’t guarantee you won’t get your partner pregnant, when you drop below 50 percent motility, you’re going to have a tough time, explains Lauren Streicher, M.D., a gynecologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and author of the upcoming Love Sex Again, which devotes an entire chapter to lubricants. So if you are trying to conceive, stick with brands like Pre-Seed, which only lowered motility by about 1 percent in the study—an "insignificant" amount, says Dr. Streicher. 
 

And if you're not looking to make babies, know that Astroglide won’t replace condoms anytime soon. While lubes hurt sperm motility, “all it takes is one sperm making it to the egg,” Streicher reiterates. Stick with condoms from proven brands like Durex, Trojan, and Lifestyle—they are still your best safeguard against STDs and unwanted pregnancy, according to a Consumer Reports analysis.  

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Article source: http://www.menshealth.com/sex-women/lube-hurting-your-sperm

Screw This! Lift More!

A lot of

  things may run through your head when you're performing a squat: the number of remaining reps, the sweat trickling down your back, the girl on the treadmill. But you probably don't think about your feet. "That's a mistake," says Nick Murtha, a coach for Thrive Training Systems and CEO of Elevate Fitness in Miami Lakes, Florida. "You can instantly increase your gains by 'screwing' your feet into the floor."

Can You "Catch" Diabetes?

Is your wife diabetic? If you answered yes, your risk for the disease just jumped 26 percent, according to new research from Canada’s McGill University. 

A lot of factors determine your diabetes risk—including genetics. But lifestyle choices like how much you sleep, what you eat, and how much you exercise can seriously shrink or swell your chances of developing the disease, explains study coauthor Kaberi Dasgupta, M.D.

Which Are Better: Generic or Name-Brand Meds?

Aged whiskey, high-speed

  laptops, extra-ply toilet paper—sometimes, ponying up for name brands buys higher quality. But when it comes to medications, generic drugs are like a plain white tee—the cheaper option does the same job as the one that breaks the bank. 

“Generic drugs have the same active ingredients, strength, and quality as the name-brand versions,” says Michael Fischer, M.D., M.S., associate physician at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In fact, non-commercial meds must meet the same rigorous FDA standards as their well-promoted counterparts—differing no more than batches of big name drugs produced in separate factories, he explains.