Author: fitness-expert
Like most middle aged men, I struggle to balance the delights of eating with the disappointment of my waist line. I hire a personal trainer three times a week; I eat loads of fruit and veg, and am on a low saturated fat diet (to curb my concerning cholesterol levels). Despite this I continue to buy trousers that are too tight for me on the assumption that ‘at some time in the near future’, the new me, no, the real me, will return, and I will be able to fit into them. The gold standard of a washboard stomach seems…
Depressed mood is one of the most common problems I see in my practice with men. Feeling low is not the only symptoms guys complain of. Often low mood is coupled with a lack of energy, sleep disruption, reduction of libido, anxiety and appetite changes. Sometimes men feel so bad they think life is not worth living and feel suicidal. Depression is a serious health problem that can lead to death and should never be ignored. The question is how should it be treated? I recommend a three pronged attack to get your life back on track. Antidepressants, cbt (cognitive…
Premature ejaculation is a difficult subject for many men, and there are many approaches to helping sufferers. Medical solutions include prescribing antidepressant drugs with a known side effect of retarding ejaculation. Physical solutions include building core stability to enhance ejaculatory control. Psychological solutions involve retraining the mind to pay attention to the dick resulting in a more mindful understanding of the sexual arousal cycle. What I find interesting about most of the self help books on premature ejaculation, and indeed, therapy manuals for psychotherapists, is that they invariably presume the participation of a partner to help with the therapeutic process.…
In Western culture we have become fascinated, dazzled and bewitched by our own egos. We know what we like and what we don’t like. We know who we like and who we don’t like. And we know what parts of ourselves we like and those we want to change. Therapists collude with this tacit assumption that somehow more ego is better. Indeed in our increasingly atomised social world, where independence is prized above all other qualities, it often feels that we have to ‘fully’ be ourselves, in order to exist. This view of self or ego, I want to suggest,…
Mindfulness, through meditation, is gathering momentum in the mental health industry as a treatment that can help in a wide range of mental health problems, particularly depression. I thought I would write a post that explains a simple meditation technique that readers can get themselves started with. It is important to sit in an upright position so that you can stay aware and alert and not fall off to sleep. Sit on a chair with your feet flat on the ground and a small cushion at the base of your spine. Your shoulders should therefore not be resting on the…
Smell is an important indicator of sexual attraction, and science is starting to understand why. One of the first studies to look at sexual attraction and smell was conducted by Claude Wedekind in the 1990’s. He asked over 40 men to wear t-shirts for three days at a time. The men deliberately avoided using deodorants or anything else that could mask their natural smell. A panel of women were then invited to smell the t-shirts and give their verdicts on which ones smelled the best. What the researcher found was that women chose the men with a major histocompatabilty complex…
Approximately 50 percent of men in their forties experience prostate problems while one in 11 North American men over the age of 50 will develop prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. Fortunately, medical research has demonstrated that BPH and other prostate conditions and diseases can be prevented, reduced and treated by a variety of procedures, medications, herbal supplements as well as nutritional and lifestyle changes. The right nutrition can protect the prostate and reduce the risk of disease. Early detection also increases the chance of beating prostate cancer. Physicians estimate that almost 80 per cent…
Book Review: Iron Man Family Outing – Poems about a transition into a more conscious manhood by Rick Belden. Fathers are important, especially to little boys. The author of this anthology of poems, Rick Belden, describes his father as “angry, abusive” and “unavailable”. To cope with the hurt, Rick escaped into imaginative fantasy. His favourite was the comic book hero, Iron Man. When the Iron Man started to appear in his dreams as an adult, it precipitated a forensic examination of his childhood and the man he had become. This book of poetry documents, often with brutal honesty, Rick’s penetrating…
Since 1971, the 26th August has been designated women’s equality day. It’s a day when women, and some men, reflect on the sexism that is still faced by women around the world. Perhaps in the West we have made progress towards female equality, some would say not enough. But for great swathes of humanity women continue to be oppressed by men in the most horrific ways. Women are denied an education. The right to vote. To manage their own affairs. To get justice. Even their right to life is brutally repressed in some cultures that ‘honour’ female murder. In countries…
The athlete Caster Semenya has recently caused headlines the world over since her gold medal in the Berlin World Athletic Championships caused the IAAF to order tests to ascertain her gender. I personally find it outrageous that the tests could not have been arranged discreetly rather than in the centre of the world media frenzy. The last person this happened to was Santhi Soundarajan who attempted suicide in 2007 after failing a gender test. I hope Caster is able to bear the pressure, and humiliation, that has been put upon her. But the case does raise interesting questions about who…