Hammer Your Core

15 Facts You Didn’t Know About Your Penis

For all the attention they direct below the belt, most men actually know very little about their penises. Here’s the knowledge you need to keep yours healthy, strong, and ready for action—for life.

Penis Fact #1
Smoking can shorten your penis by as much as a centimeter. Erections are all about good bloodflow, and lighting up calcifies blood vessels, stifling erectile circulation. So even if you don’t care all that much about your lungs or dying young, spare the li’l guy.

Penis Fact #2
Doctors can now grow skin for burn victims using the foreskins of circumcised infants. One foreskin can produce 23,000 square meters, which would be enough to tarp every Major League infield with human flesh.

Penis Fact #3
An enlarged prostate gland can cause both erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation. If you have an unexplained case of either, your doctor’s looking forward to checking your prostate. Even if you’re not.

Penis Fact #4
The average male orgasm lasts 6 seconds. Women get 23 seconds. Which means if women were really interested in equality, they’d make sure we have four orgasms for every one of theirs.

Penis Fact #5
The oldest known species with a penis is a hard-shelled sea creature called Colymbosathon ecplecticos. That’s Greek for “amazing swimmer with large penis.” Which officially supplants Buck Naked as the best porn name, ever.

Penis Fact #6
Circumcised foreskin can be reconstructed. Movable skin on the shaft of the penis is pulled toward the tip and set in place with tape. Later, doctors apply plastic rings, caps, and weights. Years can pass until complete coverage is attained….Okay, we’ll shut up now.

Penis Fact #7
Only one man in 400 is flexible enough to give himself oral pleasure. It’s estimated, however, that all 400 have given it their best shot at some point.

Penis Fact #8
There are two types of penises. One kind expands and lengthens when becoming erect (a grower). The other appears big most of the time, but doesn’t get much bigger after achieving erection (a shower).

Penis Fact #9
An international Men’s Health survey reports that 79 percent of men have growers, 21 percent have showers.

Penis Fact #10
German researchers say the average intercourse lasts 2 minutes, 50 seconds, yet women perceive it as lasting 5 minutes, 30 seconds. Are we that good or that bad?

Penis Fact #11
Turns out size does matter: The longer your penis, the better “semen displacement” you’ll achieve when having sex with a woman flush with competing sperm. That’s according to researchers at the State University of New York, who used artificial phalluses (ahem) to test the “scooping” mechanism of the penis’s coronal ridge. Next up: curing cancer.

Penis Fact #12
The penis that’s been enjoyed by the most women could be that of King Fatefehi of Tonga, who supposedly deflowered 37,800 women between the years 1770 and 1784—that’s about seven virgins a day. Go ahead, say it: It’s good to be king.

Penis Fact #13
Better-looking men may have stronger sperm. Spanish researchers showed women photos of guys who had good, average, and lousy sperm—and told them to pick the handsomest men. The women chose the best sperm producers most often.

Penis Fact #14
No brain is necessary for ejaculation. That order comes from the spinal cord. Finding a living vessel for said ejaculation, however, takes hours of careful thought and, often, considerable amounts of alcohol.

Penis Fact #15
The most common cause of penile rupture: vigorous masturbation. Some risks are just worth taking.

(Source: menshealth.com)

Save your swimmers!

The WiFi signals from your laptop may be damaging your swimmers, reports a recent study in the journal of Fertility and Sterility. The researchers gathered semen samples from 29 men and placed them underneath a laptop connected to WiFi. After monitoring the semen samples for 4 hours, the results showed that a quarter of the sperm were no longer swimming and 9 percent showed significant DNA damage.

This isn’t the first study that assumed laptops could be frying your fluids. After monitoring subjects who spent 60 minutes with a running laptop on their thighs, State University of New York researchers found that the computer heated up to nearly 104 degrees Fahrenheit—which made the temperatures in the scrotum increase by 66 degrees Fahrenheit.

How exactly does that affect your boys? According to a European fertility study, an increase of 33 degrees Fahrenheit could reduce your sperm count by nearly 40 percent.

“When looking at the big picture, any type of applied heat to the scrotum is bad,” explains Larry I. Lipshultz, M.D., chief of the division of male reproductive medicine and a professor of urology at Baylor College of Medicine. “Men really need to be more conscious when it comes to items such as hot tubs, heating pads, and heated car seats—basically anything that will put direct heat to the scrotum.”

So what are some other contributors that could leave your boys shooting blanks? Check out these surprising items that may be damaging your goods.

Cell Phones.
Although we’re not blaming the WiFi in this case, the culprit is similar with cell phones. Researchers believe that the radiation from the cell phone’s electromagnetic frequency (EMF) potentially could be damaging sperm. Turkish researchers collected samples of human sperm and subjected it to 1 hour of cell phone EMF radiation. The results showed that the exposure caused sperm abnormalities; mainly the sperm were having trouble attaching to eggs. As long as the cell phone isn’t within close proximity to your boys, though, your sperm should be safe from the radiation.

Canned Food.
It’s not so much about the products you’re buying, but what the product is packed in. A study published in the journal Fertility and Sterility found that men who had higher levels of bisphenol-A (or BPA, the chemical that’s found in the lining of food and beverage containers) in their urine were more likely to have low-quality sperm. The researchers monitored two groups of men, one which was exposed to BPA and one that was not. The results: Those exposed to the chemical had the lowest sperm measure. According to the research, BPA behaves a lot like estrogen in the male body—meaning it will offset the functioning of male hormones. Thus the participants who had the most BPA in their system had a lower sperm count, fewer live sperm, and poor sperm quality (meaning the sperm had trouble swimming).

Muscle Enhancers.
Within the health community, steroids are already classified as a fitness pitfall. But if the disapproval of others isn’t enough to get you off the juice, maybe the thought of infertility will. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, when taking anabolic steroids, the testicles tend to shrink, causing the production of male hormones to be disrupted. “Whether it’s a pill, a gel, or an injection, men need to realize that taking these enhancements can have extremely negative effects on their reproductive systems,” says Dr. Lipshultz. “It literally turns off sperm production.”

(Source: news.menshealth.com)

3 ways you can keep swimming strong

Men with the highest levels of vitamin D in their blood also have the best-swimming sperm, according to a new Danish study.

The researchers took blood and sperm samples from 300 men over the course of a year to account for seasonal differences in vitamin D levels. Using microscopes, the scientists saw that sperm from guys with the most vitamin D in their blood, on average, were 14 percent more likely to be “progressively motile”—meaning it wriggles rapidly like healthy sperm should—than sperm from the guys with the least amount of vitamin D.

Vitamin D starts a series of signals that allow the tail of the sperm to spin faster, says study author Martin Blomberg Jensen, M.D. A faster tail means a faster sperm that’s more likely to break through the outer wall of an egg and result in fertilization.

It’s not yet clear if boosting your vitamin D levels with either an extra day in the sun or a supplement will result in stronger sperm. But here are three ways you can keep swimming strong:

Have lots of sex: Men who had sex (or masturbated) once daily for seven days saw the percentage of their sperm with DNA damage drop from 34 percent to 26 percent by the end of the week, according to an Australian study.

Eat more folate: Men who don’t get enough folate, also called vitamin B9, produced 20 percent more sperm containing an extra chromosome, which can cause Down’s syndrome and other birth defects. Our advice: Eat a folate-enriched cereal for breakfast. Spinach and asparagus are also rich in it. And avoid soy, The Most Dangerous Food for Men.

Cut out trans-fats: A recent Harvard University study found that men with the highest levels of trans-fatty acids in their semen also had the lowest number of sperm. Whether or not a food contains trans fats will be listed on the nutrition label. Aim for 0 grams—even these foods can contain up to .5 a gram of trans fat.

(Source: news.menshealth.com)

7 Reasons You’re Still Hungry—Even After You Just Ate!

Do you sometimes feel ravenous, even though you just polished off a tasty lunch, a full dinner, or a midnight snack? Some food ingredients can trick our bodies into not recognizing when we’re full, causing “rebound hunger” that can add inches to our waistlines.

You Drink Too Much Soda
Sodas, iced teas, and other sweetened beverages are our biggest source of high-fructose corn syrup—accounting for about two-thirds of our annual intake. New research from the University of California at San Francisco indicates that fructose can trick our brains into craving more food, even when we’re full. It works by impeding the body’s ability to use leptin, the “satiation hormone” that tells us when we’ve had enough to eat.

Your Dinner Came Out of a Can
Many canned foods are high in the chemical bisphenol-A, or BPA, which the Food and Drug Administration recently stated was a chemical “of some concern.” Exposure to BPA can cause abnormal surges in leptin that, according to Harvard University researchers, leads to food cravings and obesity.

Your Breakfast Wasn’t Big Enough
After following 6,764 healthy people for almost 4 years, researchers found that those who ate just 300 calories for breakfast gained almost twice as much weight as those who ate 500 calories or more for breakfast. The reason: Eating a big breakfast makes for smaller rises in blood sugar and insulin throughout the day, meaning fewer sudden food cravings.

You Skipped the Salad
Most Americans don’t eat enough leafy greens, which are rich in the essential B-vitamin folate and help protect against depression, fatigue, and weight gain. In one study, dieters with the highest levels of folate in their bodies lost 8.5 times as much weight as those with the lowest levels. Leafy greens are also high in vitamin K, another insulin-regulating nutrient that helps quash cravings. Best sources: Romaine lettuce, spinach, collard greens, radicchio.

You Don’t Stop for Tea Time
 According to a study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, people who drank one cup of black tea after eating high-carb foods decreased their blood-sugar levels by 10 percent for 2 and a half hours after the meal, which means they stayed full longer and had fewer food cravings. Researchers credit the polyphenolic compounds in black tea for suppressing rebound hunger.

You’re Not Staying Fluid
Dehydration often mimics the feeling of hunger. If you’ve just eaten and still feel hungry, drink a glass of water before eating more, and see if your desires don’t diminish.

You’re Bored
Researchers at Flinders University in Australia found that visual distractions can help curb cravings. To test yourself, envision a huge, sizzling steak. If you’re truly hungry, the steak will seem appealing. But if that doesn’t seem tempting, chances are you’re in need of a distraction, not another meal.

(Source: menshealth.com)

Your Body Is A Bar-Bell

Surely you’ve run nonstop for 15 minutes before. But have you ever performed 15 minutes of resistance exercise without rest? Try it with these challenging body-weight exercises from trainer Craig Ballantyne, C.S.C.S. “You’ll be surprised how hard you can work without a gym,” he says.  Alternate between the Y squat and the Spider-Man pushup for three sets of each. Then perform the remaining three exercises consecutively (again, without rest), doing three sets of each.

Stand with your shoulder blades pulled back and your arms extended up and out so your body forms a Y. With your feet slightly more than shoulder-width apart, sit back at your hips to lower your body. Go as low as possible without allowing your back to round. Squeeze your glutes and push yourself back up to the starting position. Do 12 repetitions.

Assume the classic pushup position with your legs straight and your abs tight. As you lower your body, bend your right leg and rotate your right knee outward until it’s outside your right elbow. Don’t drag your foot, and try not to allow your torso to rotate. Return to the starting position and repeat, pulling your left knee to your left elbow. Do eight reps per side.

Stand with your butt, upper back, and head against a wall. Raise your arms so your shoulders, elbows, and wrists also touch the wall. Maintaining these points of contact, bend your arms until your elbows are tucked in at your sides. You should feel a contraction in your shoulders and the muscles between your shoulder blades. Reverse the move. Do 10 reps.

Stand on your left foot with your right foot raised behind you, arms hanging down in front of you. Keeping a natural arch in your spine, push your hips back and lower your hands and upper body. Squeeze your glutes and press your heel into the floor to return to an upright position. Perform eight reps per leg.

Assume the classic pushup position with your hands directly beneath your shoulders, your legs straight, and your abs braced. Lift your right foot off the floor, bending your knee, and place the foot outside your right hand. Return to the starting position and lunge out with your left leg. Continue alternating legs for a total of 20 reps.

(Source: menshealth.com)