Life of Hardin Vol. IV, No. 20

Salud de hombres

(Men’s Health)

September 2007

in today’s issue:

Best Foods for the Paraguayan Man

Mr. Paraguay Competition: Winners and Losers

Feature Article: Top Exercises for the Busy Paraguayan

(article excerpt)

If you’re like me, it’s hard to find time for proper exercise. Monday through Saturday you get up at five, take a 45-minute bus ride to work, get off at six, and ride another 45-minutes home. Not much time left for anything but meals and sleep. And forget about Saturday night. That is reserved strictly for cerveza. Some guys just give up and leave the perfect body to the professional bodybuilders.

But don’t fear! Salud de Hombres has done the legwork for you. We sent our experts on a four-week trial to find those exercises that give you the most bang for the buck without losing time out of your busy day. We narrowed it down to five and put them in order of least effective to most. In other words, we saved the best for last.

Clubbing. Okay, it sounds crazy. It surprised us, too. But when we thought about it, the benefits became obvious. Most guys dance while they are at a club. Even if it’s just a shuffle or shimmy, you burn a few extra calories. You may ask, “Don’t you add them back drinking beer?” One would think. But we found that guys who club order the big beers, the magnum sizes that come with their own giant cozies. It’s a full workout to lift one of those to your lips. Multiply that by how many drinks you take, and you’ve got a serious superset. Add this to the fact that a guy in a club is awake burning cals instead of sleeping, and you’ve put in a decent workout. So don’t stay home on those Saturday nights, guys. Get out there and club.

Asado. Some of you may be homebodies. Hey, we all are sometimes. We just don’t have the energy to get out to the clubs every Saturday night. So throw a party of your own. Besides the benefits mentioned above, when you throw a party at your own house, you do all the work. We found that guys who did the cooking for their asado burned loads of calories standing over the hot coals. It’s like a sauna in there. And with the prep work of carrying all that raw meat back and forth you’ve got a real man’s workout.

Walk to and from work. What could be simpler than this? Buses are easy, but you spend money and that chipa so’o you ate for breakfast (all carbs) goes right to fat. So take a hike! If you need an extra push, see our next suggestion.

Pilates. Yes, Pilates is generally for women. And nowhere is that macho sentiment more at home than in Paraguay. Yet that’s exactly the point. The Pilates gyms are kind enough to have all plate-glass windows for walls. The guys we studied didn’t take the Pilates classes, but they made a point to walk past them to and from work and during lunch hour once or twice. So find your nearest Pilates class and do some sightseeing. Now that’s motivation for an extra cardio power walk.

Those are all great, but they don’t even come close to our top workout for busy guys. If you’re really crunched for time, try this one.

Dodge traffic. Ever try to cross the street in Asuncion? If it took you more than 2 seconds, then you’re not reading this because you’re squashed flat. Smart pedestrians cross in front of the Beamers and Mercedes. They know they’ll stop rather than ding their fender. But you can get in some great wind sprints if you dash in front of those old Fiats or Nissans. Give it a week. We promise you’ll be thinner one way or another.