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.