You think you’re on top of your workout game. You’re always in the gym, you mix up your muscle groups – you even make cardio a priority. But when was the last time you worked your deep cervical flexors?

Before you Google where those muscles are, let’s assume you haven’t made time for them in your regular workout routine. But that’s about to change.

Many men apply the “bigger is better” philosophy to working out. But some of the most important muscles in daily life require the least equipment to strengthen.

While you’re focusing on the muscles you can see – the lats, pecs, biceps, rectus abdominis, glutes and quads – the muscles that actually help you get things done are being left out. These areas need your attention, too – or you might even face problems down the line.

Read more: The best exercises for big muscles – plus a 28 day mass-building workout plan

Here is a list of five muscles (or muscle groups) that you’ll want to work into your regular fitness routine to help you get stronger, starting now:

1. Deep cervical flexors

Chances are you’ve never thought about these muscles in your life, but they are crucial for proper head positioning.

Deep cervical flexors include the Longus Colli and Longus Capitis, which play an important role in stabilising the neck and improving your head position and cervical alignment. These muscles are often weak in people who spend many hours at a computer or at a desk, leading to a forward head position or the chin being tilted upwards.

Research shows that strengthening the deep cervical flexors can reduce symptoms in people living with chronic neck pain. Unsure if your neck is weak? Try lying flat on your back. Tuck your chin downward then lift the head up using only your neck. Try and hold this position for 20 seconds. Not so easy, huh? Weakness in these muscles can lead to cervical and thoracic pain, and even headaches.

Try a chin tuck to strengthen these muscles, and try incorporating your new and improved alignment into your lifting routine.

Read more: How to fix these common posture problems

2. Grip strength

We use our hands for countless tasks every day, but how often do you take time to specifically strengthen your grip? Unless you’re a rock climber or training for the next American Ninja Warrior competition, the answer is probably not often enough.

Research shows that grip strength might be an early indicator of long-term health and longevity. In fact, it may also be a predictor of disease risk in the future. On top of that, your hands are the connection to those heavyweights you’re lifting at the gym. Make an extra point to ensure those hands are strong, and you’ll only see positive results.

If you’re just starting out, try low-resistance wrist extension/flexion with a dumbbell, squeezing a soft ball with your hand, or practising pinch gripping heavy weights to target some important muscles in the fingers.

3. Intrinsic foot muscles

Our feet connect us with the world. Most of the time, they are our only physical connection, so what happens down there matters. Intrinsic foot muscles are the muscles that start and end in the foot itself. We don’t use our feet for climbing and traversing rocks and sticks like we used to back in prehistoric times, so the role of our feet in daily life has been minimised. But that doesn’t mean we don’t need them to be strong.

Arch support comes from a team of muscles, including the intrinsic foot muscles. By strengthening these muscles, you can help prevent your arches from collapsing. Why does this matter? When those arches collapse, your feet pronate. This can contribute to valgus at the knee (or the knees knocking together or moving inward inward). This stresses the inner knee compartment. Compound the force created by that movement with heavy lifting, single leg leaping and jumping, and you put your knees at high risk for injury.

Try practising foot doming while you lift to train your feet stay in better alignment. Your knees will thank you.

Read more: Here’s exactly how to treat the most common foot problems

4. Transverse abdominis

When people think of the “core” they often imagine the rectus abdominis (RA) muscle, or the muscle that gives you a six pack. But the transverse abdominis (TA) is often left out of training.

If you’ve ever seen a low back brace when someone is lifting at the gym, you should have an idea of the purpose of this muscle. The TA is deeper than the RA and wraps around the lower abdomen and upper pelvis to form your very own built-in low back brace.

The first step is figuring out how to engage this muscle. Once you practise some gentle activation and strength exercises, the TA should be engaged for stability prior to any lifting.

5. Lateral ankle stabilisers (peroneals and tibialis posterior)

If you’ve got wobbly ankles, the more weight you load onto your body the more prone to injury you become. The peroneus longus and peroneus brevis wrap around the outer (lateral) ankle and move your ankle to the side while helping dorsiflex the ankle (lift the toes up – important for not tripping and avoiding turf toe). The tibialis posterior is on the other side of your ankle, wrapping around the inner (medial) ankle and helping to both move your ankle inward and point your toe downward.

But most of the time, these muscles are working together to stabilise your ankle. They are part of an important group that helps to prevent excessive ankle movement during single and double leg activities. To work on ankle stability, try single leg exercises such as standing on one leg and moving the other leg forward, sideways and backwards ten times. If that’s easy, try doing it while balancing on an unstable surface like a pillow or a BOSU.

Look back at this list. If you’re lifting heavy with bad head positioning, weak grip strength, turned in knees and no built-in low back brace, you might be putting yourself at risk for an injury.

Save yourself the setback by focusing on those little muscles you never thought about before. You could even wind up becoming the guy with the strongest cervical flexors in the gym. You’ll only see positive results from putting in the extra work, so start focusing on the little things to make the big things even better.

^{This article was originally published on www.mh.co.za}

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Rachel Tavel

When are peanut-butter cookies and chocolate cake healthy? When you’re making them. Bust out a Bundt pan and cook up some perks…

1. Less stress

Measuring out ingredients or kneading dough forces you to concentrate.These mindful moments calm the brain’s emotional centre – and direct blood flow to its impulse control hub. Which means you’ll feel more chilled overall.

Read more: Here’s exactly how to make your fast food choices healthier

2. Boosted immunity

Eeek, you’ve burnt the base! When it happens, focus on the upside: Now you, too, can join the #PinterestFail sisterhood! Regularly flipping judge-y thoughts to more positive ones can lower stress hormone levels, which improves cell health and your body’s overall ability to fight off illness.

3. Enhanced cognition

Any way you bake it, mixing up Grandma’s muesli rusks provides great brain benefits. Stringently following a recipe strengthens your procedural memory (a form of long-term recall that allows you to do something you haven’t done in years – you know, the “it’s like riding a bike” cliché). But going rogue – and say, holding the raisins and adding dried cranberries – flexes your smarts and gives your strategic reasoning skills a workout.

Read more: 5 healthy snacks that taste like sin but will keep you trim

4. A healthier heart

Moving from counter to fridge and back does not equal cardio for the day! But it does engage your muscles, which improves the way your body metabolises sugars and fats. Keep at it for two hours and you’ll net better blood-sugar levels – and, over time, significantly lower “bad” cholesterol. This, in turn, strengthens your ticker.

5. A longer life

Friends don’t let friends bake alone – at least not if they want to spend their golden years together. Battering up with a loved one can build strong bonds that tack years onto your life. Sharing the fruit(cake)s of your labour is even better: Generous acts lower inflammation levels, curbing your risk for chronic diseases like diabetes.

Read more: 5 best alcohols to drink if you’re trying to stay healthy and lose weight

6. A slimmer bod

Isn’t it ironic? Indulging in home-made treats once a week buoys self-control, maintains a healthy-eating motivation (finally, a break from kale!) and prevents the “oh, what the hell” effect that leads to inhaling the whole tray. The key is planning the indulgence. Have one or two brownies warm out of the oven, then feed the rest to friends.

Sources: Dr Nicole M. Avena, author of Why Diets Fail; Dr Elisha Goldstein, author of Uncovering Happiness; Dr Timothy De Waal Malefyt, Fordham University; Dr Emma Seppälä, Stanford University School Of Medicine.

^{This article was originally published on www.womenshealthsa.co.za}

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Jessica Migala

India has launched its new flagship health insurance scheme, dubbed “Modicare”.

Whether to front-load or back-load your daily bread is an argument as old as time. We serve up the nutritional stats on which plate to make your focus meal of the day.

Breakfast

Early bird benefits: You can trick yourself into cutting 3 766 kilojoules throughout the day by timing your breakfast immediately after a morning training session, according to the University of Scranton.

Don’t skip it

Ditching breakfast for a lie-in lowers your stocks of the reward chemical dopamine, making an afternoon sugar binge more likely, according to the University of Missouri.

Read more: Why you should chow a cheese steak omelette for breakfast

Weighting game

Stacking 2 900kJ in the morning and limiting your dinners to 800kJ helps you lose 2.5 times more weight than doing the reverse.

Worst culprits

• Diabetes risk
• Not filling
• Energy crash
• Sugary cereal

Endorsements – Joe Wicks

“After I’ve smashed a HIIT session first thing, it’s important I refuel my body correctly with a proper breakfast.”

Read more: The 15 best keto breakfast ideas to power up your morning

Dinner

Supper heroes: You can burn a total of 1 000g of fat in two weeks, while also supporting post-workout muscle growth, all by tucking into a hearty evening meal, according to the University of Munich.

Don’t skip it

According to Psychomatic Medicine, forgoing dinner to cut your kilojoule intake causes a rise in cortisol, not only slowing your metabolism but also disrupting your sleep.

Weighting game

Make dinner your largest meal and you’ll find it easier to maintain muscle while dieting, resulting in a better overall body composition.

Worst culprits

• Microwave curry
• Kilojoule bomb
• Blood pressure spike
• Packaging BPAs

Endorsements – Terry Crews

“Fasting between 22:00 and 14:00 the next day has kept me in truly great shape for the past five years.”

Read more: Make these two changes at dinner to avoid gaining weight

The MH verdict

Breakfast wins! The old proverb rings true. While porridge can’t compete with T-bone for taste, the importance of breakfasting like a king to maintain a healthy weight and set the tone for beneficial decisions throughout the day is incontrovertible. It pays to be a morning person, whichever way you slice it.

^{This article was originally published on www.mh.co.za}

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When it comes to sleep, everyone has their own ideas on how to get a good night’s rest. Some people swear by drinking a glass of milk, while others say you should never eat cheese before bedtime. How can you separate fact from fiction? We delved into six common sleep myths, and now we’re here to tell you why they’re flat-out wrong.

Read more: Five steps to help you wind down and get to sleep faster

Myth #1: Everyone needs 8 hours of sleep

Reality: The amount of sleep someone needs depends on a variety of factors, including genetics. “Sleep need is like height, we are all different and how much we need is to a large degree, genetically determined,” sleep expert Dr Neil Stanley explained to The Independent. Tracking your bed time, how many hours you sleep a night, and how well rested you feel each day can help you find the ideal amount of sleep for your body, according to sleep experts at Harvard.

Myth #2: Drinking warm milk makes you fall asleep

Reality: Drinking milk to go to sleep is such a popular theory, it’s been featured everywhere from dairy commercials to Happy Gilmore.

However, there’s no scientific evidence that drinking milk will help you sleep, according to the University of Arkansas. As the university explains in a blog post, the myth began because milk has small traces of tryptophan, an amino acid used to make the hormones serotonin and melatonin in our bodies, which do help us sleep. However, there’s not nearly enough tryptophan in milk to make anyone drowsy.

 Myth #3: Napping makes it hard to sleep at night 

Reality: Some believe napping is bad for bed time, but a quick afternoon rest won’t disrupt your ability to go to bed, according to the American National Sleep Foundation. In fact, our internal clocks are programmed to make us sleepy in the afternoon. A short 20-minute nap is best so you don’t enter a REM, or a deeper stage of sleep, as this will only make you tired later in the day.

Read more: How to fix the four biggest sleep disorders

Myth #4: Cheese causes nightmares 

Reality: Although people often blame cheese for their bad dreams, nutritionist Joy Dubost, previously told MensHealth.com there is no evidence to support this idea.

Researchers believe people who are sensitive to lactose may have trouble sleeping if they consume dairy before bed due to gas, bloating or cramps – but not due to nightmares.

Myth #5: Sleepiness is caused by the number of hours you sleep each night

Reality: It’s entirely possible to sleep for eight or nine hours a night and still feel fatigued if you suffer from sleep apnea. People with the condition stop breathing while they sleep, which causes them to repeatedly wake up throughout the night. This makes it hard to sleep deeply, which causes daytime sleepiness.

Read more: Can’t sleep? What you should not be doing that sabotages your shuteye

Myth #6: Only some people dream at night

Reality: Researchers say that everybody dreams each night. In fact, the average person will dream four to six times per night when they enter REM sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

People who think they don’t dream simply don’t remember, and scientists aren’t sure why some are able to recall their dreams better than others.

^{This article was originally published on www.mh.co.za}

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See what life is like as a medical photographer at a city hospital.

Having an orgasm is a powerful, full-body experience. Your muscles contract, your breath quickens and you might even break a sweat.

Which is why you may have wondered at one point or another: Do orgasms actually burn kilojoules? Your heart’s pumping like you’re running a marathon and you’re clenching your core like you’re busting out an ab workout, so it’s got to be something, right?

Read more: 9 ways men can make their orgasms even better

Determined to figure it out, I put on my Sherlock Holmes cap and reached out to Dr Uchenna Ossai, a pelvic health physical therapist and sex educator for LifeStyles Condoms. Here’s what she had to say.

How many kilojoules does an orgasm burn?

To answer my question, Dr Ossai pointed to a 2013 study on the number of kilojoules men and women burn during a full sex session. Published in the journal PLOS ONE, it found that the average male burns around 16 kilojoules a minute, and the average female burns around 12.

“With the average sexy-time session lasting about six minutes, that only allows for 75 to 100 kilojoules,” Dr Ossai reasoned. “So if we are looking at a measure of heart rate, and your orgasms are lasting anywhere from 10 to 60 seconds, you can expect a maximum kilojoule burn of 16 kilojoules [during an orgasm].”

Read more: Married women orgasm way less than their husbands, here’s what you can do

Even if you’ve mastered the art of having multiple orgasms, you’re still not exactly on your way to working off that cheat meal. Sorry, pal.

But wait! There’s good news. Even if orgasms don’t burn many kilojoules, they still have plenty of health benefits. They can relieve pain, help you sleep, improve your cognitive function and boost your mood.

“Orgasms are stellar tools in the never-ending battle with stress and anxiety,” Dr Ossai said.

Read more: Orgasm: 8 strangest side effects that can happen after one

And here’s something you probably didn’t know: “Even though ejaculation is not necessary for orgasms, research does indicate that regular orgasms and ejaculation can be a protective factor against prostate cancer,” she added. (It’s true: Check out these studies from 2004 and 2006.)

The takeaway? Orgasms are great – just not in the kilojoule-burning department. That’s fine, because sex isn’t about working out, anyway. That’s what the glorious post-sex gym session is for.

^{This article was originally published on www.mh.co.za}

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Jordyn Taylor

Instead of visiting the doctor each autumn, sitting in a waiting room filled with the sniffling, sneezing masses – what if you could just slap on a flu vaccine “patch” sent in the mail?

That’s the vision of researchers who’ve developed and conducted early tests on an injection-free vaccine that looks like a Band-Aid you place on your arm.

Microneedles deliver the vaccine

Their initial hope is to create such a vaccine that would allow for a rapid public health response in case of a pandemic flu.

“If there’s a pandemic flu, the last thing you want is for people to be coughing on each other while they’re waiting for a flu shot,” said the study’s lead author, Darrick Carter.

“The new vaccine uses a combination of three technologies, and was designed quite specifically to be used by the person receiving the vaccine. It could be sent through the mail, and you could put it on and protect yourself,” said Carter. He’s vice president of the Infectious Diseases Research Institute in Seattle.

Results of the ferret and early human trials were published in the journal Science Advances.

Microneedles on the patch deliver the vaccine. “Mostly, when we get injured, we scrape ourselves or get a superficial wound, and much of the immune system lays on the surface of the skin to respond,” Carter said, explaining why it isn’t necessary to have an intramuscular injection.

No significant side effects

Another component of the vaccine is a new type of antigen – the substance that causes the immune system to produce protective antibodies. Carter said another company provided this component. It uses reprogrammed plant cells to produce virus-like particles.

The final component is an adjuvant – a substance to boost the effectiveness of the vaccine.

The researchers tested a liquid form of the vaccine and the adjuvant on ferrets. A single vaccine fully protected the animals, they said.

They also gave the liquid form of the adjuvant and vaccine to 100 humans to test the vaccine’s safety. There were no significant side effects. In addition, those given the vaccine showed a stronger immune response. However, this study wasn’t designed to test how effective the vaccine was in humans.

Egg-based vaccines antiquated

“This is a clinical proof of concept study,” Carter said. The researchers hope to get additional funding to move forward with the next phase of human trials. If all goes well, Carter said it might be possible to have this vaccine approved in five years or so.

Dr David Davenport, director of infection prevention at Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo, Michigan, said this could be a “game-changer”. He was not involved with the study.

“Egg-based vaccines are incredibly antiquated and we have to move away from that,” Davenport said. “The egg-based vaccine takes way too long [to manufacture], sometimes six months or longer. If we had a major epidemic, we need the ability to rapidly scale up, and a plant-based vaccine could take three months or less.”

Plus, Davenport said, sending a vaccine through the mail for people to self-administer “could get high numbers of people vaccinated”. Currently, fewer than half of Americans get an annual flu shot, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.

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Thought you knew everything there was to know about periods? Read on for some interesting – and sometimes surprising – “current affairs”…

1. No need to bleed!

More and more women are giving periods a hard pass by regulating their hormonal birth control.

Use this news: Going without the flow is totally safe. Women on the Pill can skip placebo-week tablets, eliminating the oestrogen drop that triggers bleeding, says Dr Alyssa Dweck, an assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynaecology. Hormonal IUDs, patches and implants can also get you out of the red – they release a synthetic hormone that thins the uterine lining so there’s little or no blood to shed.

Read more: Here’s exactly how to skip your period every month

2. Wonky cycles find spicy fix

Columbia University research suggests cinnamon could help women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a common endocrine disorder that can cause infrequent bleeding and fertility issues. Scientists suspect the spice helps lower insulin levels, which, in turn, may help balance the hormones responsible for menstruation.

Use this news: Consume a teaspoon a day. Mix some with coffee grounds when brewing a cup or sprinkle on oats.

Read more: Can you really get pregnant while on your period?

3. Weight-loss wonder, revealed

A new study from the American Society for Nutrition found that harnessing your cycle’s hormonal shifts could actually help you lose weight. Women who ate fewer carbs but more protein and fat as their cycle progressed lost about four kilos more over six months than those who just cut kilojoules.

Use this news: When hormone-driven hunger pangs hit (usually the week before your period), satisfy them with peanut butter instead of slap chips.

Read more: 9 side effects of hormonal birth control every woman should know

4. First day of period leave

India made news last year when media company Culture Machine’s Mumbai office offered female employees leave for the first day of their period. And in a Twitter poll, 70% of WH readers said women should get time off for period pains.

Use this news: If your periods are rendering you woman down, chat to your doctor about meds. Then, approach your boss about taking sick leave – per SA’s labour laws, you should be allowed.

Read more: Here’s why women should be allowed to take menstrual leave

5. Life-saving vaccine discovered

Scientists in Vienna say they’ve developed the first vaccine against toxic shock syndrome (TSS), a rare, but potentially fatal illness linked to super-absorbent tampons.

Use this news: Until the vaccine arrives, stay on the safe side by changing your tampon every four to eight hours and using the lowest absorbency for your flow.

Read more: 5 things you didn’t know about toxic shock syndrome

^{This article was originally published on www.womenshealthsa.co.za}

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Juliet, who blogs about her recovery from cancer, explains why she didn’t want breast reconstruction after her mastectomy.