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7/31/2019 How Fit Are You

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How Fit Are You? 3 Simple Tests to Find Out

Ask 10 experts for their definition of fitness, and youll hear 10 different answers. Thats because

how you define the word depends on the type of performance you expect. Some athletes need to

develop a particular type of fitness over all otherspowerlifters at one extreme, marathoners atanotherbut most of us are at our best when we achieve balanced fitness. In other words, were

good at everything a healthy, active man needs to be able to do.

On these points the experts agree: You need core stability. You need lower-body strength and

power to run, jump, and lift heavy objects off the ground. You need torso strength to lift your own

body weight in repeated challenges. And you need enough endurance to run a mile without stopping

for defibrillation.

Thats why we asked our experts to create seven fitness tests that will help you assess the shapeyoure in. Start with the three challenges below, which measure core and upper-body strength

areas guys generally care about most. (You can see all 7 fitness tests inAre You MH Fit?) But don't

just do these exercises once; make them part of your regular workout and you'll quickly broaden

your shoulders, build your biceps, and chisel your torso. And become as fit as you've ever been.

Try the fitness challenge to find out how strong you are.

And dont aim for average. Keep working at these exercises until you're not just fit, but Mens Health

Fit. Let the games begin.

Fitness Test #1: Core Stability

Fitness begins in the middle of your body. Thats also where it ends, if your core isnt strong and

stable. Not only do the muscles in your torso defend your spine against unwanted movementsthe

twists and jolts that produce injuriesbut they also enable the movements you do want. Theyre the

linchpins that allow coordinated actions of your upper- and lower-body muscles.

So well start with the plank, a fundamental test of core stability and endurance. The average guy

should be able to hold a basic plank for 60 seconds, says strength coach Nick Tumminello. If you

aspire to be Men's Health Fit, you should be able to do a more challenging version for the same

amount of time.
http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/are-you-mens-health-fit?cm_mmc=Yahoo_Blog-_-How_Fit_Are_You-_-7_Fitness_Testshttp://bit.ly/yAR7hGhttp://bit.ly/yAR7hGhttp://www.menshealth.com/fitness/are-you-mens-health-fit?cm_mmc=Yahoo_Blog-_-How_Fit_Are_You-_-7_Fitness_Tests


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Youll need something long, solid, light, and straight, like a broom

handle or dowel. Assume a basic plank position, with your weight resting on your forearms and toes.

Your body should form a straight line from neck to ankles. You want your feet hip-width apart and

your elbows directly below your shoulders.

Have a friend set the dowel along your back. It should make contact at three points: the back of your

head, between your shoulder blades, and your tailbone. Hold that position. Stop if your body loses

contact with the dowel at one of these three points.

If you can hold your position for 60 seconds, stop and rest for two minutes. Then do the plank with

your feet on a bench. (You wont be able to use the dowel, because it will slide off.)

Nailed it? Rest two minutes and try this version: With your feet back on the floor, move your arms

forward so your elbows are beneath your eyes instead of your shoulders. If you can hold this one for

60 seconds, congratulations: Youre Men's Health Fit.

Planks are a big part of the2012 Spartacus Workout, which readers are calling their favorite workout

ever. The best part is its simplicityall you need are dumbbells, a stopwatch, and some serious grit.

Are you tough enough to try it?

THE SCORECARD

Below average: You cant hold a basic plank 60 seconds

Average: You go 60 seconds

Above average: You can hold a plank 60 seconds with your feet elevated on a bench

Men's Health Fit: You can hold a plank with your arms extended for 60 seconds

How to push past a fitness plateau.

Fitness Test #2: Pushups

The bench press is the best size- and strength-building exercise for your chest. And yet the lowly

ground-based pushup actually works more muscles, even if it doesnt allow you to hit certain ones

with maximum intensity.
http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/skinny-spartacus?cm_mmc=Yahoo_Blog-_-How_Fit_Are_You-_-2012_Spartacus_Workouthttp://www.menshealth.com/fitness/skinny-spartacus?cm_mmc=Yahoo_Blog-_-How_Fit_Are_You-_-2012_Spartacus_Workouthttp://yhoo.it/yiATvehttp://www.menshealth.com/fitness/skinny-spartacus?cm_mmc=Yahoo_Blog-_-How_Fit_Are_You-_-2012_Spartacus_Workouthttp://yhoo.it/yiATve


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Like the bench press, the pushup works your chest, shoulders, and

triceps to exhaustion. Its also a core exercise, forcing muscles in your abdomen, hips, and lower

back to work hard to keep your spine in a safe position. But the biggest benefit of the pushup may be

the way it forces the web of muscles surrounding your shoulder blades to man up and support your

shoulder joints, which can become dysfunctional on a steady diet of bench presses.

This test, courtesy of Martin Rooney, one of the world's top strength and conditioning coaches, may

be humbling for you, particularly if youre at your best with your back on a bench and a barbell inyour hands. Assume a pushup position with your hands directly below your shoulders, your feet hip-

width apart, your weight resting on your hands and toes, and your body in a straight line from neck to

ankles.

Lower your body until your chest is about an inch above the floor, pause for 1 second (this is

essential), and then return to the starting position. Complete as many consecutive pushups as you

can while maintaining strict form.

THE SCORECARD

Below average: Fewer than 15 pushups

Average: 16 to 29 pushups

Above average: 30 to 44 pushups

Men's Health Fit: 45+ pushups

Fitness Test #3: Chinups

Just as the bench press has replaced the pushup in many exercise programs, so has the lat

pulldown replaced the chinup. And thats a shame. Both exercises hit the featured muscles in the

upper and middle backthe lats, lower trapezius, and rear deltoidsbut the chinup goes lower and

deeper. Because youre hanging from a bar rather than sitting on a padded seat, you force muscles

in your middle back to work with the muscles in your hips and lower back to keep your spine in a

safe position.


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Chinups are a great test of upper-body strength and endurance,

core stability, and spinal stabilization, says Mens Health advisor Alwyn Cosgrove, C.S.C.S.,

coauthor ofThe New Rules of Lifting for Abs. Pulldowns are certainly easier, but as with so many

things in life, limited effort produces limited rewards.

Grab a chinup bar using a shoulder-width, underhand grip. Hang at arms length. Pull your chest up

to the bar, pause for 1 second, and then slowly lower your body back to the starting position and

repeat. A repetition counts only if you start from a dead hang with your arms straight.

THE SCORECARD

Below average: Fewer than 3 chinups

Average: 3 to 7 chinups

Above average: 8 to 10 chinups

Men's Health Fit: More than 10 chinups

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Negative Woman

We see her true colors.Gallery View:Negative Woman

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Stare at the red dot on this woman's nose for thirty seconds.Then, look over at a blank white space (a piece of paper oran empty browser tab will do). Did you see the "correct"version of the image? Here's how it works: stare longenough at an object and the eye's photoreceptors

(particularly the color-sensitive cone cells) lose sensitivityfrom overstimulation. Divert the eyes to a blank space, andthe surrounding cone cells send out a ... more

Stare at the red dot on this woman's nose for thirty

seconds. Then, look over at a blank white space (a piece

of paper or an empty browser tab will do). Did you see the

"correct" version of the image? Here's how it works: stare

long enough at an object and the eye's photoreceptors

(particularly the color-sensitive cone cells) lose sensitivityfrom overstimulation. Divert the eyes to a blank space,

and the surrounding cone cells send out a much stronger

signal. The brain interprets this discrepancy as looking at

the precise opposite colors, in what is known as a

'negative afterimage.' Nifty, no?


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Isolated Peru tribe makes uncomfortable contact

LIMA, Peru (AP) Peruvian authorities say they are struggling to keep outsiders away from aclan of previously isolated Amazon Indians who began appearing on the banks of a jungle river

popular with environmental tourists last year.

The behavior of the small group of Mashco-Piro Indians has puzzled scientists, who say it maybe related to the encroachment of loggers and by low-flying aircraft from nearby natural gas and

oil exploration in the southeastern region of the country.

Clan members have been blamed for two bow-and-arrow attacks on people near the riverbank inMadre de Dios state where officials say the Indians were first seen last May.

One badly wounded a forest ranger in October. The following month, another fatally pierced theheart of a local Matsiguenka Indian, Nicolas "Shaco" Flores, who had long maintained a

relationship with the Mashco-Piro.

The advocacy group Survival International released photos Tuesday showing clan members onthe riverbank, describing the pictures as the "most detailed sightings of uncontacted Indians ever

recorded on camera."

The British-based group provided the photos exactly a year after releasing aerial photos from

Brazil of another tribe classified as uncontacted, one of about 100 such groups it says existaround the world.

One of the Mashco-Piro photos was taken by a bird watcher in August, Survival International

said. The other two were shot by Spanish archaeologist Diego Cortijo on Nov. 16, six daysbefore Flores was killed.

Cortijo, a member of the Spanish Geographical Society, was visiting Flores while on an

expedition in search of petroglyphs and said clan members appeared across the river from Flores'

house, calling for him by name.

Flores could communicate with the Mashco-Piro because he spoke two related dialects, saidCortijo, who added that Flores had previously provided clan members with machetes and

cooking pots.

The Mashco-Piro tribe is believed to number in the hundreds and lives in the Manu National

Park that borders Diamante, a community of more than 200 people where Flores lived.

Although it's not known what provoked the Mashco-Piro clan to leave the relative safety of their

tribe's jungle home, Beatriz Huerta, an anthropologist who works with Peru's agency for

indigenous affairs, speculated their habitat is becoming increasingly less isolated.


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The upper Madre de Dios region where the tribe lives has been affected by logging, she said.

"They are removing wood very close."

Meanwhile, Huerta said, naturalists in the area and Manu National Park officials told her duringa recent visit that a rise in air traffic related to natural gas and oil exploration in the region is

adversely affecting native hunting grounds, forcing increasing migration by nomadic tribes.

The clan that showed up at the river is believed to number about 60, including some 25 adults,

said Carlos Soria, a professor at Lima's Catholic University who ran Peru's park protectionagency last year.

"It seemed like they wanted to draw a bit of attention, which is a bit strange because I know that

on other occasions they had attacked people," Cortijo said by phone from Spain. "It seemed they

didn't want us to go near them, but I also know that the only thing that they wanted was machetesand cooking pots."

Cortijo said the group lingered by the river a few minutes, apparently to see if a boat would passby so they could ask for some tools, something authorities say they had done in the past.

"The place where they are seen is one of heavy transit" of river cargo and tourist passage, and sothe potential for more violent encounters remains high, Soria said.

That is compounded by culture clash. The Mashco-Piro live by their own social code, which

Soria said includes the practice of kidnapping other tribes' women and children.

He said the Mashco-Piro are one of about 15 "uncontacted" tribes in Peru that together are

estimated to number between 12,000 and 15,000 people living in jungles east of the Andes.

"The situation is incredibly delicate," said Huerta, the government anthropologist.

"It's very clear that they don't want people there," she said of the area where the clan has been

loitering, noting that it had ransacked a jungle ranger's post that authorities later removed.

One of the clan's likely fears is being decimated by disease borne by outsiders, as has occurred

with other uncontacted peoples, Huerta said.

But its also a mystery why they have appeared in an area so heavily trafficked, she added.

After the first sightings, and after tourists left clothing for the Mashco-Piro, state authoritiesissued a directive in August barring all boats from going ashore in the area. But enforcing it has

been difficult as there are few trained and willing local officials.

Authorities say they aren't sure why Flores was killed. It could be that the Mashco-Piro wereangry because he hadn't provided them with more machetes and cooking pots. Or perhaps it was

because they considered the farming plot where he was killed too close to what they considered

their territory.


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Cortijo, the Spanish archaeologist, said the loss of Flores makes reaching any understanding with

the Mashco-Piro very complicated.

"The problem is that 'Shaco' was the only person who could talk to them," he said. "Now thathe's dead it's impossible to make contact."

___

Frank Bajak on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fbajak

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