Category: Mental Health

The return of fall means many different things. For some, it means that their yards will soon have a blanket of yellow, orange, and brown leaves. It means the temperatures are growing colder and the days are getting shorter. It also means the return of one of the most seasonally specific beers: the pumpkin ale. They hit the store shelves in September (sometimes appearing in the midst of the August heat). Then they’re gone like a ghostly phantom in the night by Thanksgiving.

If it seems like pumpkin beer is a rather recent phenomenon, it’s not. When European settlers first came to North America, wheat and barley were hard-to-come-by ingredients. If you had any, you were more likely to make bread than alcohol. In place of grains and malt, native pumpkins became an important ingredient in beer. There’s even a recipe that dates back to 1771 for ‘pompion’ ale. In … Read more

Continue Reading

Forget the deer-spotting stereotypes. Backcountry hunting requires trekking for miles over rugged terrain only to retrace your steps while carrying hundreds of pounds of fresh meat on your back.

“Packing out an animal is hard,” says Dustin Diefenderfer, hunter, ultrarunner and founder of MTNTOUGH Fitness in Bozeman, MT. “You need a strong chassis, like an F-150.” Hunter or not, try his signature 45-70 heavy pack workout. It’s designed to build the muscle endurance and strength required for such a daunting task.

The Best Heavy Pack Workout to Build the Strength and Endurance for Backcountry Hunting

Directions

Load a multiday backpack that has a harness system with sandbags (or wrap free weights with towels) to approximate weight. Perform a descending/ascending ladder with the rep scheme: 30, 20, 10, 20, 30. Rest 2 to 5 minutes between sets. Repeat workout three times a week.

1. Curl

Continue Reading

The traditional refrain when heading out into the cold is simple: You’ve got to layer up. Sounds easy, but if you’ve ever shivered your way through a winter hike or stripped off a layer on a chairlift because you’re steaming in your ski gear, you know getting all those layers to work together is tricky.

When it comes to regulating your temperature, you need midlayers. Stack one over a moisture-wicking, next-to-skin base layer and under a weather-proof shell. They’re made from materials that help your body retain heat—an absolute must when temperatures drop, and especially when you’re battling snow, sleet, wind, or rain.

Types of Midlayers

Retaining heat in cold weather makes sense, but when you look at exactly how midlayers do it, things start to get a little complicated. First, you can opt for either fleece … Read more

Continue Reading

A classic cocktail with just a few ingredients, the dirty martini seems like it should be easy to assemble. But, it’s actually quite the delicate drink—a tad too much brine, for instance, can commandeer the earthy, briny cocktail, making it too salty, even for those who like an extra-dirty martini. Plus, each step of this drink is nuanced and ripe for debate as James Bond proved when he so famously ordered a martini “shaken, not stirred,” which, by the way, most bartenders firmly advise against.

“Stirring your martinis will give them a nice, silky texture,” says Javelle Taft, head bartender at Death & Co NYC. “Shaking them tends to over-dilute your cocktail, leaving them with too much water.”

With that disclaimer out of the way, here’s what else you need to know about making the perfect dirty martini at home, from picking a base spirit (vodka vs. gin?) to choosing … Read more

Continue Reading

Of the 10,271 people who’ve triumphantly set crampons atop the highest point on Earth, fewer than 10 are Black. Next spring, 10 climbers plan to change that: A group of of alpinists from across the U.S. and Kenya have teamed up to become the first Black mountaineering expedition to reach the summit of Mt. Everest since the 29,032-foot Himalayan giant was first scaled in 1953.

“Because it’s Everest, it’s an iconic mountain to climb for anyone who’s into mountaineering,” says Philip Henderson, leader of the seminal Full Circle 2022 Expedition. “The other part of it—we could climb other mountains in the Himalaya—it’s a test. It’s a piece of experience in someone’s mountaineering career. It’s about the Sherpa people and working with them. It’s sharing that connection with other American climbers who haven’t been to the Himalaya.”

For the Everest climb, Henderson (58) from California, now living in Colorado, will be … Read more

Continue Reading

A football weekend isn’t really complete without a tailgate worthy of the game itself. A football game lasts around three hours, but a true football experience––tailgating and all––encompasses an entire day. To maximize your fall tailgating, it’s essential that you show up on game day with some essential tools at your disposal: a grill, portable shade, a cooler, and, of course, cornhole (to name just a few must-haves).

Below, we’ve rounded up 11 gear items that’ll make your next tailgate the best it can be.

The Best Tailgate Products

1. Coleman Camping Chair With Built-In Four-Can Cooler

Coleman is a gold standard tailgating brand, and this chair will be a versatile player for your tailgating offense. It’s a no-frills, quality seat that provides all the necessary support and comes … Read more

Continue Reading

It’s fun to go out to eat but there’s really nothing like making your own meals. You get lost in the process and if you get into the swing of things, you can end up making meals that are better than whatever exists out there. Healthier too. And anyone that likes to make their own meals at home, knows that you need to have the right gear to make meal prep go as smooth as possible. One such piece of gear being an electric knife sharpener.

Why should you have an electric knife sharpener in your kitchen? It’s quite simple really. You need to make sure your knives are always as sharp as possible. Because if those bad boys get real dull, you can have a hard go at it when you prep your meals. Even eating your meals, if you prepare something that you need to cut as you … Read more

Continue Reading

Trainer Troy Perez on how to rethink your local gym post-quarantine

Most 14-year-olds see lifting weights as a launchpad to escape an awkward teenage body. Troy Perez saw the practice as something else: a bridge to connect with his dad, who had been struck with a brain aneurysm. “He was a man’s man—he built everything—and when the whole right side of his body became paralyzed, so much was taken from him physically,” says Perez.

The high schooler spent hours daily training his father, noticing his joy as his strength improved, even slightly and incrementally. “I realized then that if you’re not moving, you’re not living,” says Perez.

Now 50 years old, Perez is part of a new wave of personal trainers. He and others emphasize that 
“gains” can be more than just a bigger bicep measurement and preach that the gym is not just a place to get swole.

Continue Reading

Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence arrives in Jacksonville already looking like a Hollywood creation. The former Clemson University star, is now inviting comparisons to NFL greats that point to a Super Bowl destiny.

Who Trevor Lawrence Could Be Compared to if Things Go Right

Heart: KURT WARNER

Super Bowl title and MVP St. Louis Rams (2000)

Lawrence and retired QB Kurt Warner are both open about the importance of their Christian faith. Both entered the league as married men—Lawrence wed his high school girlfriend this year. Warner was an obscure college QB and, like Lawrence, often credits his success to deep religious conviction.

Legs: PATRICK MAHOMES

Super Bowl title and MVP Kansas City Chiefs (2020)

Over his Clemson career, Lawrence legged out 943 yards, averaging 314 a season. Mahomes ran for 308 yards in 2020. Although Lawrence didn’t run a 40-yard dash at his NFL pro day, he was clocked … Read more

Continue Reading

If you’re wavering among carrots, tomatoes, or spinach to accompany your next meal, go for the greens. Researchers at the University of Vienna in Austria have discovered that when green vegetables break down, they release something call sulfoquinovose (SQ), a plant-derived sugar, which in turn provides essential food for good gut bacteria to feast on.

“Our research has found that SQ promotes gut microorganisms known to be associated with healthy individuals,” says lead study author Buck Hanson, Ph.D. Specifically, SQ is broken down into acetate and hydrogen sulfide, metabolites that support the body in functions ranging from brain signaling to appetite regulation to cardiovascular health, says Hanson. (To figure all this out, the scientists studied the fecal samples from a group of vegetarians—hello, plant poopers—and worked their way backwards to figure out the influence of SQ on gut microbes.)

Continue Reading

Forget about psyching out your competition. If you’re looking to get an edge on your rivals in your next race or game, consider psyching yourself up first. Pressure training, a mental technique that simulates the stress of high-stakes competition during practice, is the newest tool coaches are using to prepare athletes for battle. And for good reason: Research in the journal Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology found that when nearly 300 athletes underwent some form of pressure training before a competition, “they consistently outperformed peers who did not train under pressure,” says study co-author Billy Low.

How pressure training works varies by situation—one coach might put up a leaderboard in the locker room, where everyone’s practice times are ranked for others to see. Another athlete might post daily weightlifting goals on his Instagram account, then force himself to report the results that evening. The aim: Get used to training in … Read more

Continue Reading

Summer 2021 marked the return of outdoor gear shows following the public health hiatus of 2020—and with it the much anticipated inaugural Big Gear Show, hosted at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah. The Big Gear Show was an opportunity for your local retailers and gear testers to scope out what manufacturers have in store for the upcoming seasons. The past year has only fueled our appetite for getting outdoors. Even with the reality of ongoing supply chain issues and health restrictions, gearmakers are seeking solutions and continuing to push innovations for you to enjoy your time out there. There were 138 companies at the show, with plenty of products to comb through. So here’s a rundown of some stand-out camping lifestyle gear we had a chance to test.

1. GSI 2 Can Cooler Stack

Cold beverages for the summit anyone? GSI is fixing a long-standing problem … Read more

Continue Reading

There’s no shortage of hulking SUVs designed to bring your family and all your gear on adventures—or to the grocery store. While often overlooked in the full-size, three-row category, the Nissan Armada is making a case for itself with a 2021 refresh. The updates are aimed at making the ride more refined, comfortable, and luxurious for seven or eight passengers, while keeping the brutish V8 power the truck-based SUV’s always had. On the inside, the sport-ute feels more like Nissan’s Infinity QX80 than the brand’s Titan pickup. That’s where the Armada story started: Nissan bolted an SUV’s body to the truck’s frame back in 2004. To see if the updates are enough to put the Armada into the conversation with the Tahoe, Yukon, and Expedition, we packed the SUV with luggage, bikes, and (at one point) five kids and headed out on a long weekend trip from New York to … Read more

Continue Reading