I’ve been writing about testosterone on this site for over a decade because testosterone is an important part of a man’s overall health and wellness. It helps with strength and muscle mass, strengthens your bones, improves your sexual health, and boosts your mood.

You’ll find a lot of information out there on the interwebs about how to increase your testosterone naturally. Cold showers, taking testosterone-boosting supplements, and even exposing your balls to red light.

But after talking to experts on the podcast about testosterone and reading a ton of research on the topic, the conclusion I’ve come to is this: hormone health comes down to consistently doing the boring stuff.

Several years ago, I spoke with fitness coach Vic Verdier on the podcast about how men can combat the fall-off in vitality that can come with aging, including the natural decline in testosterone. His answer was taking care of the fundamentals.

Vic uses an acronym he calls SEEDS to capture the basics of what you need to do to keep your T-levels healthy. It stands for Sleep, Exercise, Environment, Diet, and Stress.

Let’s talk about each of the testosterone-improving components of the SEEDS framework:

Sleep

A large portion of daily testosterone production happens during sleep. So if your sleep consistently sucks, your testosterone drops. When researchers at the University of Chicago restricted young men to five hours of sleep a night for one week, their testosterone levels fell 10-15%. Aim for 6.5 to 9 hours a night.

If you’re looking for ways you can improve your sleep, check out these AoM articles and podcast episodes:

• What Every Man Should Know About Sleep
• 22 Ways to Get a Better Night’s Sleep
• 45 Tips — That You Haven’t Heard a Million Times Before — to Improve Your Sleep
• What to Do When You Can’t Sleep
• How to Fall Asleep in 2 Minutes or Less
• The Importance of Building Your Daily Sleep Pressure
• Podcast #661: Get Better Sleep by Stressing About It Less
• Podcast #1,055: Sleep Like a Caveman

Exercise

Exercise helps to boost testosterone by increasing muscle mass and decreasing body fat. Carrying around too much body fat isn’t good for T because body fat converts testosterone into estrogen; the less fat we store, the more T we have.

Two forms of exercise are particularly helpful for increasing testosterone. The first is lifting heavy weights with compound lifts that target large muscle groups, such as the squat, deadlift, and shoulder press, and taking adequate rest between sets. The second is HIIT or “High Intensity Interval Training,” which calls for short, intense bursts of effort, followed by periods of less-intense recovery.

But beyond regimented exercise, Vic recommends just staying active throughout the day. Your body wasn’t designed to do 45 minutes of structured exercise while being parked in a chair for the other 15 waking hours. Walk. Do yard work. Play catch with your kids. All those little “movement snacks” can keep your body running like a finely tuned machine, including the parts that manage hormones.

Environment 

Vic’s specific point here is about sunshine and vitamin D, which is closely linked to testosterone production. If you’re spending most of your waking hours under fluorescent lights and only seeing the sun through your windshield on the commute, you’re probably falling short. So get outside more. Eat lunch in the sun. Take your phone calls on a walk. If you live somewhere that gets dark for months during the winter, use some tactics to get more sun during this cold and dreary season. It may be worth supplementing with vitamin D3. But actual sunlight on your skin is the goal.

Besides helping with vitamin D production, getting outside can also help manage stress, which, as we’ll see in a second, is another important factor in hormone health.

Another factor to think about when it comes to your environment and healthy testosterone levels is to make sure you’re not bathing in T-killing chemicals. Pesticides and industrial chemicals can dampen testosterone (and can cause cancer), so definitely limit your exposure to that stuff. Wash produce thoroughly, eat/drink from glass or stainless steel containers when possible, and limit use of products with heavy chemical fragrances or pesticides around the home.

You also want to reduce your exposure to xenoestrogens that are found in a lot of consumer products. Xenoestrogen is a chemical that imitates estrogen in the human body. When men are exposed to too much of this estrogen-imitating chemical, T levels can drop. The problem is xenoestrogen is freaking everywhere — plastics, shampoos, gasoline, cows, toothpaste. You name it, and there’s a good chance there’s xenoestrogen in it. I wouldn’t spend too much mental bandwidth trying to buy products that are completely xenoestrogen-free. Just don’t microwave your food in plastic containers and don’t lick your CVS receipts, and you’ll probably be fine.

Diet 

You don’t need to do any special T-boosting diets like eating Ron Swanson amounts of eggs or consuming three Brazil nuts before you go to bed because the selenium will boost testosterone production while you sleep.

Just eat a balanced and varied diet. Get enough protein. Get enough carbs to fuel workouts. Get a moderate amount of fat for hormone health. Research suggests that about 20% to 40% of your calories should come from fat for healthy testosterone levels. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables to get the micronutrients your body needs for hormones. If your diet is solid, you’ll probably have no reason to supplement.

Diet can also help with fat loss, which will help reduce estrogen and increase T. For help with nutrition, check out these articles and podcast episodes:

• How I Used the AoM Podcast to Lose 20 Pounds in 3 Months
• How to Eat What You Want and Still Lose Weight
• Podcast #1,011: Lose Weight and Keep It Off With Flexible Dieting
• Podcast #721: The Psychology of Effective Weight Loss
• Podcast #636: Why You Overeat and What to Do About It
• Podcast #475: How to Lose Weight, and Keep It Off Forever

Stress

Cortisol and testosterone compete for resources in your body. When cortisol is jacked up all the time from work, doomscrolling, or a schedule crammed too full, testosterone suffers. I think managing stress is particularly important for guys in their 30s, 40s, and 50s who are running hard and wondering why they feel depleted. Vic’s prescription is to build a life with some margin. Give yourself some time to chill the heck out. Take up a hobby. Become a cinephile. Download the Headspace app and meditate if you have to. Getting better sleep will also help with stress, so make that a priority.

None of these are exotic interventions for boosting T-levels. They don’t require a lot of time or money or exposing your balls to red light. Do them consistently, and your hormone health should be fine.

But…

If you’re doing all of this consistently and you still have symptoms of low T (low energy, brain fog, declining strength, low libido, low motivation), get your levels checked and talk to a doctor about whether testosterone replacement therapy makes sense. But make it the last option, not the first. Get the basics right and your body will usually handle the rest.

More testosterone-related AoM podcast episodes:

• Podcast #893: Optimize Your Testosterone
• Podcast #761: How Testosterone Makes Men, Men

For more tips on maintaining your edge as you age, listen to our whole podcast with Vic Verdier:

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

In our podcast episode with Dr. Martin Gibala about high-intensity interval training, he mentioned a high-intensity workout program that was developed by the Royal Canadian Air Force during the late 1950s, took only eleven minutes to perform, and became hugely popular with the civilian population. Duly intrigued, we decided to dig up the program to see what it involved.

The 5BX plan (Five Basic Exercises) was born out of a particular need: a third of the RCAF’s pilots were deemed unfit to fly and needed a workout program that 1) could be done without any specialized equipment, as the pilots were often stationed at remote bases without access to standard gyms, and 2) could fit into airmen’s busy schedules.

While high-intensity training hadn’t yet won mainstream acceptance, the pioneering research of Dr. Bill Orban had showed that by increasing the intensity of exercise, people could get the same fitness-improving benefits in much less time. Orban used this insight to develop 5BX, which involved doing five exercises — four of which targeted flexibility and strength and one that worked aerobic capacity — in just eleven minutes. The Canadian military encouraged not only its pilots to perform it, but their children as well. Orban also developed a plan for women called XBX, which involved doing ten exercises in 12 minutes.

In the 1960s, the programs were published together as the Royal Canadian Air Force Exercise Plans and distributed outside the military. The booklet became popular with civilians not only in Canada but around the world; it was translated into thirteen languages, sold 23 million copies, and is credited with helping to launch our modern fitness culture. 

If you’d like to try it out, we’ve reformatted and republished the 5BX plan below. It features six “charts,” each of which includes the program’s five main exercises:

1. Stretching
2. Sit-up
3. Back extension
4. Push-up
5. Running in place, interspersed with various jumps (can be substituted for an actual run or walk)

Each chart offers progressively more difficult variations of the five exercises, and you work your way from one level of performance on a particular chart to the next, and then from one chart to the next. Charts 5 and 6 get into some elite-level athletics — good luck with those toe-touching jack jumps, friends.

For a visual demonstration of some of the exercises, watch this 1959 Royal Canadian Air Force training video.

The Five Basic Exercises (5BX) Plan presented in this booklet is designed to show you how to develop and hold a high level of physical fitness, regardless of where you may be located. The scheme is not dependent on elaborate facilities or equipment. The exercises require only eleven minutes a day and can be done in your bedroom or beside your bed in your barracks.

The diversity of work assignments, combined with lack of adequate gymnasium facilities at many of your stations makes it difficult to schedule formal physical training periods for all our personnel. The 5BX Plan puts physical fitness training within reach of every member of the RCAF.

It is your duty and responsibility as a member of the RCAF to maintain a high level of physical fitness and be ready for any emergency which may require the extended use of your physical resources. Positive physical well-being is also closely allied with mental and emotional fitness, all of which are essential in the discharge of normal daily tasks.

Warming Up

The 5BX Plan was designed so that no additional warmup is necessary in order to receive its maximum benefits.

The older one is, the more necessary proper warming up becomes to avoid “strained” muscles. The 5BX Plan has a built-in method of warmup. This is achieved in two ways:

• by the arrangement of the exercises; and
• by the manner in which these exercises are performed.

For example, the first exercise is a stretching and loosening exercise which limbers up the large muscles of the body. In addition, this exercise should be started very slowly and easily, with a gradual increase in speed and vigor.

Let us see how this principle applies to exercise No. 1, which requires you to touch the floor. You should not force yourself to do it on the first attempt, but rather start by pushing down very gently and slowly as far as you can without undue strain — then on each succeeding try push down a little harder, and, at the same time, do the exercise a little faster so that by the end of two minutes you are touching the floor and moving at the necessary speed. All the exercises can be performed in this manner.

What Is It?

The 5BX Plan is composed of 6 charts arranged in progression. Each chart is composed of 5 exercises which are always performed in the same order and in the same maximum time limit, but, as you progress from chart to chart, there are slight changes in each basic exercise with a gradual demand for more effort.

A sample rating scale for Chart 3 is reproduced below and is to be used in the following way:

These are the Physical Capacity levels, each indicated by a letter of the alphabet.

Exercises 1, 2, 3, and 4 apply to the first four exercises described and illustrated. The column headed 1 represents exercise 1 (toe touch), etc. The figures in each column indicate the number of times that each exercise is to be repeated in the time allotted for that exercise. Exercise 5 is running on the spot. Two activities may be substituted for it, however, and if you prefer, you may run or walk the recommended distance in the required time in place of the stationary run of exercise 5.

The allotted time for each exercise is noted here. These times remain the same throughout all the charts. Total time for exercises 1 through 5 is 11 minutes.

NOTE:

It is important that the exercises at any level be completed in 11 minutes. However, it is likely that in the early stages, an individual will complete certain exercises in less than the allotted time while others may require longer. In these circumstances, the times allotted for individual exercises may be varied within the total 11 minute period.

How Far Should You Progress?

The level of Physical Capacity to which you should progress is determined by your “Age Group.” Levels for “Flying Crew” are listed separately. See “Your Physical Capacity Level” below.

How to Begin

Check your daily schedule and determine the time most convenient for you to do the exercises. It should be the same time each day.

Here are some suggested times:

• Before breakfast
• Late morning or afternoon, at your place of employment
• After your regular recreational period
• In the evening just before you retire

Regardless of the time you choose, START TODAY.

Maximum Rate of Progression Through Chart 1 According to Age

• 20 years or under, at least 1 day at each level
• 20-29 years, at least 2 days at each level
• 30-39 years, at least 4 days at each level
• 40-49 years, at least 7 days at each level
• 50-59 years, at least 8 days at each level
• 60 years and over, at least 10 days at each level

(If you feel stiff or sore, or if you are unduly breathless at any time, ease up and slow down your rate of progression. This is particularly applicable to older age groups.)

A Note of Caution

Even if you feel able to start at a high level and progress at a faster rate then indicated — DON’T DO IT — Start at the bottom of chart 1 and work your way up from level to level as recommended.

For best results from 5BX, the exercises must be done regularly. Remember, it may take you 6, 8, 10 months or more of daily exercises to attain the level recommended for you, but once you have attained it, only 3 periods of exercise per week will maintain this level of physical capacity.

If for any reason (illness, etc.) you stop doing 5BX regularly and you wish to begin again, do not recommence at the level you had attained previously.

Do drop back several levels — until you find one you can do without undue strain. After a period of inactivity of longer than two months, or one month caused by illness, it is recommended that you start again at Chart 1.

How to Progress

Start at the lowest Physical Capacity Level of Chart 1 (D-). Repeat each exercise in the allotted time or do the 5 exercises in 11 minutes. Move upward on the same chart to the next level (D) only after you can complete all the required movements at your present level within 11 minutes. Continue to progress upward in this manner until you can complete all the required movements at level A+ within 11 minutes. Now start at the bottom of Chart 2 (D-), and continue in this fashion upwards through the levels, and from chart to chart until you reach the level for your age group.

Chart 1

Feet astride, arms upward. Forward bend to floor touching then stretch upward and backward bend. Do not strain to keep knees straight.

Back lying, feet 6” apart, arms at sides. Sit up just far enough to see your heels. Keep legs straight, head and shoulders must clear the floor.

Front lying, palms placed under the thighs. Raise head and one leg, repeat using legs alternately. Keep leg straight at the knee, thighs must clear the palms. Count one each time second leg touches floor.

Front lying, hands under the shoulders, palms flat on the floor. Straighten arms lifting upper body, keeping the knees on the floor. Bend arms to lower body. Keep body straight from the knees, arms must be fully extended, chest must touch the floor to complete one movement.

Stationary run. Count a step each time the left foot touches the floor. Lift feet approximately 4 inches off floor. Every 75 steps do 10 “scissor jumps.” Repeat this sequence until the required number of steps is completed.

Scissor jumps. Stand with right leg and left arm extended forward and left leg and right arm extended backward. Jump up and change position of arms and legs before landing. Repeat (arms shoulder high).

Chart 2

Feet astride, arms upward. Touch floor and press (bounce) once then stretch upward and backward bend. Do not strain to keep knees straight.

Back lying, feet 6” apart, arms at sides. “Sit up” to vertical position, keep feet on floor even if it is necessary to hook them under a chair. Allow knees to bend slightly.

Front lying, palms placed under thighs. Raise head, shoulders, and both legs. Keep legs straight, both thighs must clear the palms.

Front lying, hands under the shoulder, palms flat on floor. Straighten arms to lift body with only palms and toes on the floor. Back straight. Chest must touch the floor for each completed movement after arms have been fully extended.

Stationary run. Count a step each time left foot touches the floor. Lift feet approximately 4 inches off floor. After every 75 steps, do 10 “astride jumps.” Repeat this sequence until required number of steps is completed.

Astride jumps. Feet together, arms at side. Jump and land with feet astride and arms raised sideways to slightly above shoulder height. Return with a jump to the starting position for count of one. Keep arms straight.

Chart 3

Feet astride, arms upward. Touch floor 6” outside left foot, again between feet and press once then 6” outside right foot, bend backward as far as possible, repeat, reverse direction after half the number of counts. Do not strain to keep knees straight, return to erect position.

Back lying, feet 6” apart, arms clasped behind head. Allow knees to bend slightly. Sit up to vertical position, keep feet on floor, hook feet under chair, etc., only if necessary. 

Front lying, hands interlocked behind the back. Lift head, shoulders, chest and both legs as high as possible. Keep legs straight, and raise chest and both thighs completely off floor.

Front lying, hands under the shoulders, palms flat on floor. Touch chin to floor in front of hands — touch forehead to floor behind hands before returning to up position. There are three definite movements, chin, forehead, arms straightened. DO NOT do in one continuous motion.

Stationary run. Count a step each time left foot touches the floor. Lift feet approximately 4 inches off floor. After every 75 steps, do 10 “half knee bends.” Repeat this sequence until required number of steps is completed.

Half knee bends. Feet together, hands on hips, knees bent to form an angle of about 110 degrees. Do not bend knees past a right angle. Straighten to upright position, raising heel off floor, return to starting position each time. Keep feet in contact with floor — the back upright and straight at all times.

Chart 4

Feet astride, arms upward. Touch floor outside left foot, between feet, press once then outside right foot, circle bend backward as far as possible, reverse direction after half the number of counts. Do not strain to keep knees straight. Keep arms above head and make full circle, bending backward past vertical each time.

Back lying, legs straight, feet together, arms straight overhead. Sit up and touch the toes keeping the arms and legs straight. Use chair to hook feet under only if necessary. Keep arms in contact with the sides of the head throughout the movement. Allow knees to bend slightly.

Front lying, hands and arms stretched sideways. Lift head, shoulders, arms, chest and both legs as high as possible. Keep legs straight, raise chest and both thighs completely off floor.

Front lying, palms of hands flat on floor, approximately 1 foot from ears directly to side of head. Straighten arms to lift body. Chest must touch floor for each completed movement.

Stationary run. Count a step each time left foot touches the floor. Lift feet approximately 4 inches off floor. After every 75 steps, do 10 “semi-squat jumps.” Repeat this sequence until required number of steps is completed.

Semi-squat jumps. Drop to a half crouch position with hands on knees and arms straight, keep back as straight as possible, right foot slightly ahead of left. Jump to upright position with body straight and feet leaving floor. Reverse position of feet before landing. Return to half crouch position and repeat.

Chart 5

Feet astride, arms upward, hands collapsed, arms straight. Touch floor outside left foot, between feet, press once then outside right foot, circle bend backwards as far as possible. Reverse direction after half the number of counts. Do not strain to keep knees straight.

Back lying, legs straight, feet together, hands clasped behind head. Sit up and raise legs in bent position at same time twist to touch right elbow to left knee. This completes one movement. Alternate the direction of twist each time. Keep feet off floor when elbow touches knee.

Front lying, arms extended overhead. Raise arms, head, chest, and both legs as high as possible. Keep legs and arms straight, chest and both thighs completely off floor.

Front lying, hands under the shoulder, palms flat on floor. Push off floor and clap hands before returning to starting position. Keep body straight during the entire movement. Hand clap must be heard.

Stationary run. Count a step each time left foot touches floor. Lift feet approximately 4 inches off floor. After every 75 steps, do 10 “semi-spread eagle jumps.” Repeat this sequence until required number of steps is completed.

Semi-spread eagle jumps. Feet together, drop to a half crouch position hands on knees with arms straight. Jump up to feet astride swing arms overhead in mid-air, return directly to starting position on landing. Raise hands above head level, spread feet at least shoulder width apart in astride position before landing with feet together.

Chart 6

Feet astride, arms upward, hands reverse clasped, arms straight. Touch floor outside left foot, between feet, press once then outside right foot, circle bend backwards as far as possible. Reverse direction after half the number of counts. Keep hands tightly reverse clasped at all times.

Back lying, legs straight, feet together, arms straight over the head. Sit up and at the same time lifting both legs to touch the toes in a pike (V) position. Keep feet together, legs and arms straight, all of the upper back and legs clear floor, fingers touch toes each time.

Front lying, arms extended over head. Raise arms, head, chest, and both legs as high as possible then press back once. Keep legs and arms straight — chest and both thighs completely off floor.

Front lying, hands under shoulders, palms flat on floor. Push off floor and slap chest before returning to starting position. Keep body straight during the entire movement. Chest slap must be heard.

Stationary run. Count a step each time left foot touches the floor. Lift feet approximately 4 inches off floor. After every 75 steps, do 10 “jack jumps.” Repeat this sequence until required number of steps is completed.

Jack jumps. Feet together, knees bent, sit on heels, finger tips touch floor. Jump up, raise legs waist high, keep legs straight and touch toes in midair. Keep legs straight, raise feet level to “standing waist height.” Touch toes each time.

Your Physical Capacity Level

Each age group is given a Physical Capacity level to attain; that is, a goal which they should try to reach.

The Physical Capacity levels in this plan are based on the expectation of average individuals. 

With every average, there are individuals who surpass it, and those who fall below it. In terms of the 5BX Plan and the goals, this means that there will be some men who are capable of progressing beyond the level indicated, and on the other hand, there will be persons who will never attain this average level. 

If you feel able to move further through the charts than your Physical Capacity level, by all means do so. If, on the contrary, you experience great difficulty in approaching this level you should stop at a level which you feel to be within your capability. It is impossible to predict accurately, a level for each individual who uses this program. Use the goals as guides, and apply them with common sense. 

Here are a few tips:

When you start, defeat the first desire to skip a day; then defeat all such desires as they occur. This exercise program has plenty of bite; the longer you do it the more you will enjoy it.

As you progress well into the program you may find certain levels impossible to complete in 11 minutes — work hard at that level — it may take some days or even weeks — then suddenly you will find yourself sailing ahead again.

Counting the steps in exercise 5 can be difficult. You can lose count very easily at times. If you have this problem, here is an easy way to overcome it. Divide the total number of steps required by 75 and note the answer—place a row of buttons, corresponding in number to this answer, on a handy table or chair. Now count off your first 75 steps—do your ten required movements—and move the first button. Repeat until all the buttons have been removed, finishing with any left over steps.

For diversity, occasionally an exercise from the previous chart may be substituted.

Wishing is not good enough.

With our archives 4,000 articles deep, we’ve decided to republish a classic piece each Sunday to help our newer readers discover some of the best, evergreen gems from the past. This article was originally published in March 2024.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game by C. Thi Nguyen. C. Thi Nguyen is a philosophy professor who used to write food criticism for the LA Times. He’s also an avid rock climber and tabletop game player. He uses these interests to explore the philosophy of games and how the scoring systems we use in our daily lives can subtly take over our values. For example, law school rankings were designed to help students assess what a law school has to offer, but then law schools started making institutional decisions so they could rank better, even though those changes didn’t actually improve the student experience. Or we buy a sleep tracker to see how we’re sleeping, but then become obsessed with our sleep score, which in turn makes us anxious about sleep, which makes our sleep worse. Nguyen calls it “value capture.” The number that was supposed to represent what you care about ends up replacing it. One insight that he made in the book that has stuck with me is the distinction between an achievement attitude and a striving attitude. Achievement players play to win; striving players play because they love playing. It’s made me think about the metrics I’m tracking and whether they’re actually helping me live a flourishing life. 

Flint and Tinder Vintage Sateen Shorts. It hit 95 degrees in Tulsa last week. In March. So I’ve officially declared shorts season open and realized I could use a pair that wasn’t just another chino short. Flint and Tinder based these on 1940s U.S. Army fatigue uniforms. The fabric is matte on the outside, soft against the skin, and comes garment-washed so they don’t have that stiff new-clothes feel out of the box. The vintage military silhouette is exactly what I was after. Not cargo shorts, not golf shorts, just a clean utilitarian look that actually goes with things. Shorts for when you’re tired of reaching for the same khaki pair every time it gets warm.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

In the world of watches, the word complication doesn’t mean something has gone wrong. It simply refers to any function beyond those of a three-hander, which tells the hours, minutes, and seconds.

There are dozens of possible complications and some of them are wildly elaborate: perpetual calendars that account for leap years, “tourbillons” that counteract gravity, minute repeaters that chime the time on demand. At the highest end, watchmakers compete to stack as many of these feats of engineering into a single case as humanly possible.

But for most men, those aren’t the complications that matter.

The vast majority of watches you’ll encounter and realistically consider wearing feature a couple of common, practical complications. They add useful functionality, distinctive character, and a certain mechanical charm that stands out in a sea of smartwatches.

Here are the five most common watch complications — and why you might choose a watch that includes one or more of them.

The Date

The date window is the most ubiquitous complication in modern watches. It’s simple, useful, and unobtrusive. If you routinely sign documents, schedule meetings, or just like having the date visible without pulling out your phone, it’s handy to have.

It’s also a complication that allows for a bit of variety and personal style. A small date window at 3 o’clock adds a touch of modern utility; a larger display near the bottom makes a bolder statement.

The Chronograph

A chronograph is essentially a stopwatch built into your watch. It allows you to measure elapsed time — useful for exercising, grilling a steak, or calculating speed when paired with a tachymeter bezel.

Chronographs undoubtedly add visual interest, but can also veer into busyness. You may run into multiple subdials, pushers on the case, and extra markings, which can give the watch an overbuilt, tool-oriented feel. Whether you like that or not comes down to personal preference; if you appreciate mechanical ingenuity or want a watch with a bit more presence on the wrist, a chronograph certainly delivers.

The GMT or Dual Time

Originally developed for pilots, GMT watches allow you to track a second time zone simultaneously. It could be a fourth hand that circles the dial once every 24 hours or a small separate dial.

If you travel frequently, work across time zones, or have family overseas, this complication is genuinely practical. It also carries a subtle air of adventure and the romance of global exploration.

If your life is firmly rooted in one time zone, it may simply be a perfectly acceptable aesthetic choice.

The Moonphase

Few complications are as poetic as the moonphase. It tracks the lunar cycle, displaying the waxing and waning moon through a small aperture on the dial.

It’s certainly not necessary, but often beautiful and just plain fun.

This is a complication that’s less about utility and more about tradition and craftsmanship. Long before modern calendars and digital displays, watchmakers devised moonphase complications to track the lunar cycle for navigation, agriculture, and religious observance, making it one of the oldest features of horology — the science, study, and art of measuring time. Because early watchmakers had to mechanically replicate the moon’s 29.5-day cycle using gears alone, the moonphase became a showcase of both technical skill and decorative artistry.

The moonphase complication thus connects modern wearers to centuries of horological heritage. If you’re drawn to watches for their romance and history, this complication may speak to you.

The Power Reserve

On mechanical watches, a power reserve indicator shows how much stored energy remains before the watch needs winding. It’s especially practical if you rotate watches; while a daily-worn watch is either continuously wound (automatic) or regularly wound by habit (manual), one worn only occasionally can unexpectedly run down.

A power reserve also adds a subtle technical character to a watch — a reminder that what you’re wearing is a human-engineered machine.

Choosing What Fits You

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you should choose a watch based on its complications. But the truth is simpler: pick those that align with how you live and what you think looks nice.

If you value clean design, a simple three-hand watch may be your best companion. But depending on your tastes, one or more complications may be exactly the fit for your life and your personal style.

A watch is one of the few pieces of gear you’ll wear every day. Function matters, but so does the way it looks and feels. A watch’s complications should serve your daily life while also bringing some subtle satisfaction each time you glance at your wrist.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

We tend to think of genius as something you’re born with — a rare trait possessed by the Einsteins and Teslas of the world. But what if many of the abilities we associate with genius — a great memory, quick problem-solving, mental math, creative insight — are actually trainable skills?

My guest today says that’s exactly the case. His name is Nelson Dellis, and he’s a six-time USA Memory Champion and the author of the book Everyday Genius.

In our conversation, Nelson explains why memory is the foundation of thinking well and why having information stored in your head still matters in the age of ChatGPT. He shares a practical technique for improving your memory, how to read with greater focus and retention, and how to study to actually make information stick. We then talk about the importance of developing “number sense” and how to convert imperial measurements to metric in your head, strategies for solving problems more effectively, and even how to gain an edge in the games of Monopoly and Connect Four. At the end of the conversation, we get into more esoteric territory, including intuition, dreams, and the idea of remote viewing.

Resources Related to the Podcast

• Nelson’s previous appearance on the AoM podcast: Episode #546 — How to Get a Memory Like a Steel Trap
• AoM Article: 10 Ways to Improve Your Memory
• AoM Article: How to Speed Read Like Theodore Roosevelt
• AoM Podcast #385: Learning How to Learn
• AoM Article: Study Tactics of the Successful Gentleman Scholar
• The CIA’s remote viewing program

Connect With Nelson Dellis

• Nelson’s website
• Nelson on YouTube

Thanks to This Week’s Podcast Sponsor

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This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Back in January, a day before a big winter freeze was about to hit Tulsa and dump a foot of snow on us, our home’s furnace stopped working. I didn’t want to spend a week without heat, so I called an HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) company.

The technician who came out told me that the furnace’s motor was cooked. Because our unit is old (about 25 years), they didn’t have any replacement motors in stock and would have to order one. Given the weather, it would have probably taken a week to get here.

I didn’t want to spend a week in a house with single-digit temps outside, so I made the call to replace the whole unit. As I said, it was a quarter-century old, and wasn’t likely to last much longer anyway, having already surpassed the typical lifespan for a furnace (15–20 years). In addition to the expired motor, it also had some leaking issues, and the refrigerant the HVAC system’s AC side used had been discontinued, so if that needed replacing, I’d be out of luck.

While it seemed like the right idea to replace the thing, boy, I was not prepared for the bill. Dang! These things are incredibly expensive. The technician said the cost of HVAC units has jumped astronomically just within the last decade, as companies try to add more wizbang features to justify an ever steeper price tag. This is why you always have to be squirreling away money for such things — beware of phantom homeowner expenses!

We got the unit replaced that day, and the house was warming up again just as it started to snow.

The experience made me realize that I didn’t understand very much about how my HVAC system worked. So I decided to learn. And, as I’m wont to do, share what I learned with you.

What follows is an average joe’s guide to understanding his home’s HVAC system. You’re not going to finish this article and be able to diagnose a refrigerant leak. But if you want a working mental model of how your house stays warm in January and cool in August, this should get you there.

Note: I’m focusing specifically on central gas-fired heating paired with central AC, which is what most American homes use for heating and cooling. Oil furnaces work on a similar principle but are different enough in the details that they’re a separate conversation.

Your HVAC System Is a Loop

Your HVAC system is a loop. It pulls in air from your house, heats or cools it, and pushes it back out. This loop, running over and over, is how your house stays 70 degrees whether it’s 9 or 109 outside.

The system pulls in air to be heated or cooled through return vents. These are large grills that are located in central areas of the house. After the HVAC system heats or cools that air, it pushes it out through supply vents. These are the small vents you might see in your floors, walls, or ceilings. When you put your hand over them, you can feel air coming out.

How Your Furnace Heats the House

When your thermostat calls for heat, it signals the furnace to fire. Gas flows to the burner assembly and ignites. If your furnace is in a closet in your home (like ours is), you can hear this happen. It sounds like a gas log fireplace turning on.

The flame heats up a component called the heat exchanger — a set of metal tubes or chambers. The heat exchanger does two things.

First, the combustion gases created by the burner, including carbon monoxide, travel inside those tubes and get expelled outside your house through an exhaust vent. This is what prevents you and your family from dying of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Second, the outside walls of those tubes get extremely hot. Air will run across these red-hot tubes, and heat will be exchanged from the tubes to the air. Hence, the name heat exchanger.

When the heat exchanger is sufficiently warmed up, the blower motor in your furnace kicks on. This is a large fan inside the furnace that pulls return air in from your home and pushes it across the outside of those hot metal tubes. The air picks up heat as it moves across the exterior of the heat exchanger, gets pushed into what’s called the supply plenum (a large metal box sitting on top of the furnace), and from there travels out through your ductwork to every room. An important note: your house air never touches the exhaust gases, because, as mentioned above, those are sealed inside. This ensures the breathability of the warm air coming out of your vents.

Two safety components on your furnace are worth knowing about. The first is the flame sensor. It’s a metal rod that confirms the burner is actually lit. If it’s dirty (coated in carbon from years of use), the furnace will ignite for about 3 seconds and then shut itself off as a precaution. It’s one of the more common reasons a furnace starts and stops repeatedly. The second is the limit switch, which monitors the temperature inside the furnace. If it gets too hot, usually because something is blocking airflow, the limit switch shuts everything down before any damage is done.

Something else to know about modern furnaces is how they’re engineered for efficiency. When I replaced my unit, the tech started talking about variable-speed motors and multi-stage burners, and I had basically no idea what any of that meant.

Here’s the short version:

Older furnaces run like a light switch. They either go full blast or are completely off. A variable-speed blower motor runs more like a dimmer switch, ramping up slowly and adjusting its speed based on what’s needed. It uses significantly less electricity and runs quieter. Similarly, a two-stage or modulating burner can run at partial capacity on milder days instead of always firing at 100%. The result is fewer dramatic temperature swings and a lower gas bill.

Furnace efficiency is rated by something called AFUE — Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency. An 80% AFUE furnace sends 20% of the energy it burns up the flue as waste heat. A 96% AFUE furnace loses very little of it.

The tech explained that the technology that allows for these increased efficiencies is a big reason why furnaces have gotten more expensive over the years. The idea is that you spend more upfront on the unit and save money on utility bills over the life of it.

How Your AC Cools the House

The first thing to understand is this: Central air conditioning doesn’t make cold air. Instead, it removes heat from your house and dumps it outside. This might seem like a trivial distinction, but it matters for understanding how the whole thing works.

The AC part of your HVAC unit has two parts. One part is connected to your furnace, and the other part is outside.

First, the outdoor unit. It’s that big metal box that sits next to your house. It contains the compressor and the condenser coil. The compressor squeezes refrigerant into a hot, high-pressure gas. That hot gas flows through the condenser coil while a fan blows outside air across it, transferring the heat out into your yard. The refrigerant, now cooled and condensed into a high-pressure liquid, flows back inside.

That cold refrigerant liquid travels to a thing called an evaporator coil that sits directly above your furnace. It’s shaped like an upside-down V. The liquid refrigerant flows through the evaporator coil, where it absorbs heat and evaporates into a cold gas.

Now here’s where the AC connects back to your furnace. That same blower motor that moves air in winter is doing the same job in summer. It pulls return air from your home and pushes it across this now-cold evaporator coil. Thanks to the second law of thermodynamics (which basically says that heat always moves from a hot place to a cold place), the heat in that air transfers into the refrigerant. The cooled air gets pushed through your supply ducts into the house. The refrigerant, loaded with your home’s heat, cycles back to the outdoor unit to dump it, and the whole thing starts again.

Besides keeping your house cool, your AC also dehumidifies the air that gets blown into your home. It does this because when warm, humid air passes across it, moisture condenses out. That water drips into a drain pan and exits through a PVC condensate line, which means the AC is also pulling humidity out of your house while it cools it.

A clogged condensate line is a common reason your AC won’t turn on. If that line gets clogged with algae or gunk, a small safety device called a float switch trips and cuts power to your thermostat. So if you notice your AC isn’t kicking on, check the condensate line before you assume the worst. An HVAC guy can do this, but you can also DIY it. I’ll do an article about it in the future.

Maintaining Your HVAC

Leave supply vents (mostly) open. You should avoid closing more than about 20% of your supply vents. It seems like it makes sense to shut them in the rooms you’re not using; why waste all that warm or cold air blowing into them? But closing the vents increases static pressure in the ductwork, which stresses the blower motor. Leave the vents open.

Keep the return vents clear. These are the larger vents that pull air back to the furnace. A sofa pushed up against one, or curtains hanging over it, chokes the system just as much as a clogged filter. Make sure they’re clear.

Change the filter at least every spring and fall. HVAC units need a filter. You’ll usually find them in a spot above your blower fan or in your return vent. What does the filter do? The filter’s primary job isn’t cleaning the air you breathe. It does that, but its main job is to protect your HVAC. Dust on the evaporator coil or heat exchanger kills efficiency and, if it builds up too much, can kill those components completely, forcing you to fork over dough for expensive replacements or repairs.

Clean the outdoor condenser unit twice a year. Every spring before cooling season, gently hose off the outdoor condenser unit to clear it of cottonwood fuzz and debris. This will increase the efficiency of your AC. Takes just 10 minutes and a hose.

Keep the condensate line clear. To prevent clogs from forming in your AC’s condensate line, pour a cup of white vinegar down the line once a season.

Get your unit serviced every spring and fall. Twice a year, have an HVAC guy come check out your unit for routine maintenance and service. They’ll catch small issues before they become big, expensive ones.

Conclusion

While you’re not ready to go to work as an HVAC tech, you now have a basic idea of how your heating and cooling system works and will hopefully be in a better position to understand what’s going on when an HVAC guy is explaining your options on how to remedy your dead furnace when it’s freezing outside.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

People have long been fascinated by their fellow humans’ daily routines — particularly the routines of the famous and successful.

We feel there are likely habits common to high-achievers, which, if duplicated, would help us all elevate our own work. This is especially true of the choice of when to wake up each day. There seems to be special weight placed on this decision, a feeling perhaps born of the idea that how you start something determines how the rest of it will go. The time you get up each day seems to be a potentially impactful pivot point from which the quantity and quality of one’s ensuing work and decision-making will flow.

It’s popularly thought that the best time to wake up is early in the morning. “The early bird gets the worm”; “Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Beyond even the idea that rising early has a practical benefit in aiding productivity, there’s a moral connotation to this habit as well; early risers are perceived as having more discipline, while their late-rising peers are often perceived as lazy.

Is there truly a correlation between waking up early and success?

The Morning Person as Success Story: Considering the Evidence

I decided to find out by re-reading Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work. The book is a collection of short descriptions of the daily routines of 161 eminent authors, mathematicians, architects, and artists — folks who did creative work and were able to set their own schedules. As I read each entry, I kept a tally of when each individual woke up. I only marked down those for whom a specific time was given, skipping entries where the time was kept more vague (e.g., “early morning” or “early afternoon”). In the few cases where a person woke up not at a straight o’clock (i.e., _:00) and instead arose at _:30, or were said to arise sometime between __ and __, I “rounded” to the earlier hour in half the cases, and to the later hour in the other half. My aim was just to get a feel for the general range of times that these folks got up each day.

This gave me the wake-up times for a sample set of 68 individuals, and these have been graphed below:

It’s worth noting that almost all those who woke up at 4 am took a long nap either several hours after rising or in the afternoon.

As you can see, there were indeed many early risers among this high-performing group, with the most common wake-up time being 6 a.m. Yet it is just as significant to observe that there were as many folks who woke up at 8 a.m. as 5 a.m., and almost as many who woke up from 7 a.m. on, as at 6 o’clock or earlier. And those in the former category were no less creative/productive/successful than the latter. Having a good morning to set the tone of your day, it seems, can happen at almost any time.

The real takeaway, then, is that there isn’t in fact one “right” time to wake up if you want to be creative and successful. The answer to the question of “What time should you wake up to do your best work?” is: “Whatever time works best for you.”

The novelist Bernard Malamud came to this same conclusion:

There’s no one way—there’s too much drivel about this subject [of copying other people’s routines]. You’re who you are, not Fitzgerald or Thomas Wolfe. You write by sitting down and writing. There’s no particular time or place—you suit yourself, your nature. How one works, assuming he’s disciplined, doesn’t matter. If he or she is not disciplined, no sympathetic magic trick will help. . . . Eventually everyone learns his or her own best way. The real mystery to crack is you.

Experiment. Be self-reliant. Find your own optimal routine. It’s worth noting that not everyone Mason profiled began working right after waking up; they might arise in the morning but first attend to other important tasks and activities before beginning work in the afternoon or evening. They might get in a morning workout or spend the first few hours of the day with loved ones. There are multiple components in one’s schedule to play with.

Now, all this being said, there was one commonality between all the profiles that was so nearly universal that it should be given real credence: despite the many varied ways in which each individual arranged their daily routine, almost all of them had a routine, and stuck to it religiously.

The Importance of a Regular, Consistent Daily Routine

“My experience has been that most really serious creative people I know have very, very routine and not particularly glamorous work habits,” explained the modern composer John Adams.

“Routine is a condition of survival,” asserted the writer Flannery O’Connor.

The novelist John Updike felt that having a daily routine was so important because it “saves you from giving up.”

These sentiments were shared even among those whose overall personalities and lifestyles were fairly hedonistic; for example, though the modern artist Francis Bacon and the writer Ernest Hemingway could be called night owls and sometimes stayed up late partying (the former drank six bottles of wine a day), they would nonetheless still wake up early and get to work, hangovers and getting enough hours of sleep be damned. A productive morning and day were always on the docket. As Papa put it, “You have to work every day. No matter what has happened the day or night before, get up and bite the nail.”

Further, among the individuals Currey profiled, such revelry was far more the exception than the rule. Despite the reputation of creative types as living freewheeling, iconoclastic lives, the vast majority kept to routines — both within and outside their work schedules — that were surprisingly quiet, prosaic, and closed-in. “I love the cell,” Voltaire exclaimed, and so did many of his productive peers throughout time.

The morning habits and daily rituals of famous authors and artists typically look something like this: wake up, drink a glass of water, eat breakfast, do a few hours of work, eat lunch, do a few more hours of work, eat dinner with spouse, take a walk (if one stand-out commonality did emerge from surveying all these routines, it’s taking a daily walk, or two; almost a third of the individuals profiled kept this habit), watch television or read a book, go to bed. Entire days would pass like this. They went out surprisingly seldom, and this was not an incidental choice but an intentional one; limiting distractions expanded their creativity.

Or as Gustave Flaubert put it, “Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

With our archives 4,000 articles deep, we’ve decided to republish a classic piece each Sunday to help our newer readers discover some of the best, evergreen gems from the past. This article was originally published in March 2021.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Hoosiers. Our kids both play basketball, so we figured it was time to sit them down for this 1986 classic. Gene Hackman plays a new coach with a checkered past who takes over a tiny Indiana high school team and leads them on an unlikely run at the state championship. He ruffles feathers and fights to earn the respect of his players, the town, and a doubtful teacher/love interest. It’s a pleasant, feel-good movie (with an 80s synth soundtrack that feels amusingly out of sync with the 1950s setting) that makes the Indiana countryside look awfully bucolic. Great to watch after your March Madness bracket has been busted. 

In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man by Tom Junod. Tom Junod is widely considered one of the greatest magazine writers of his generation — he spent decades at Esquire penning the kind of long profiles that made you feel like you’d met the person. This is his first book, and it’s a memoir about his father, Lou, a charismatic, larger-than-life philanderer who cast a long shadow over Tom’s upbringing and adulthood. What starts as a son trying to understand his dad turns into something much heavier. Digging around in the past, Tom uncovers family secrets that had been buried for decades. The book is both touching and devastating — devastating in its revelations, and also in how dang well it’s written.

Devil’s Den State Park. Our family did a 16-mile spring break backpacking trip on the Butterfield Trail in Devil’s Den State Park in northwest Arkansas this week. While the Ozark Mountains don’t pack the height and grandeur of the ranges out West, they don’t mess around. There are some long, steep inclines on the Butterfield Trail that reacquainted us with the hurts-so-good satisfactions of strenuosity. We camped at a spot called Rock Hollow right next to a river, which made for a nice burbling background to our sleep. The rest of the park has a lot of pretty spots, as well as structures built by the CCC in the 1930s, which adds a cool historical layer to the whole thing. If you’re anywhere in the vicinity of NW Arkansas, Devil’s Den is worth the trip.

Americans Didn’t Panic About the Telephone. We Didn’t Need To. When concerns about what the internet and the smartphone are doing to our minds and culture are brought up, people sometimes dismiss them by saying that folks have always wrung their hands about new technologies. But as Andrew Heisel points out in this piece, that’s not actually the case. When the original telephone became mainstream, people weren’t much concerned about what it was doing to the world. That’s because it was genuinely useful, and its upsides very clearly outweighed any potential downsides. Our (legitimate) worries about the smartphone arise because we sense that, in its case, the dynamic is the reverse. 

On our Dying Breed newsletter, we published Sunday Firesides: Say Yes to (This) Life and DB Dialogues: Zena Hitz on the Religious Life.

Quote of the Week

All human situations have their inconveniences; we feel those of the present, but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse. 

—Benjamin Franklin

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

With March Madness getting under way, you may be thinking about what you’d do if you found yourself with the ball in your hands, your team down by two, with a second left in the game. Could you make the game-winning shot?

Like most athletic skills, shooting a basketball is less about raw talent than repetition — building a consistent motion so that your body can perform it the same way over and over again. Proper mechanics start from the floor, using the legs to generate power and the upper body to direct it in one smooth, continuous motion. That’s what makes longer shots feel fluid instead of forced, and why players who rely too heavily on their arms often lose accuracy as they tire.

If you tend to feel like you’re trying to shoot a square peg into a round hole, the encouraging part is that even small adjustments can produce quick results. Use the guide above to work on having a better stance, cleaner hand placement, and a more disciplined follow-through — all of which can help the ball come off your hand more easily and with a more reliable arc.

At the same time, remember that good shooting isn’t about forcing your body into a perfectly rigid set of positions. The best shooters develop a motion that’s consistent but still natural — aligned with the basket, balanced, and repeatable, even if it doesn’t look exactly like a textbook diagram. Rhythm and feel matter as much as form. Practice the basics, then let your shot become your own.

Putting up a decent jump shot belongs in the same category of basic athletic competence as throwing a football or swinging a baseball bat; even if you’re not using this skill to secure a championship, it comes in handy for playing pickup ball, coaching your kids, or just putting up shots in the driveway.

Illustrated by Ted Slampyak

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Cold exposure has gotten a lot of attention the past few years, with people dunking themselves in ice baths for the sake of their health and well-being. But, good news here, exposing yourself to heat by sitting in the sauna or even a hot tub, might actually be even better for you, not to mention more pleasant.

In his new book, Hotwired: How the Hidden Power of Heat Makes Us Stronger, Bill Gifford unpacks the dichotomy of heat: how it can be both a danger and a healer. In the first part of our conversation, we dive into that former side, discussing what happens when your core temperature gets too high, why some people handle the stress of hot temperatures better than others, and how heat tolerance can actually be trained. We then talk about the advantages of heat exposure over cold exposure, and the benefits of heat for both body and mind, including how it can boost athletic performance and heart health, and may even be an effective treatment for depression. We also talk about how to get the most out of your sauna sessions and how Bill and I like to sauna.

Resources Related to the Podcast

• AoM Article: How to Sauna — All the FAQs
• AoM Article: How Saunas Can Help Save Your Body, Mind, and Spirit
• AoM Podcast #585: Inflammation, Saunas, and the New Science of Depression
• AoM Podcast #724: The Strange Science of Sweat
• Study reviewing the health benefits of “sauna bathing”
• Hotter’n Hell Hundred bike race

Connect with Bill Gifford

• Bill on IG
• Bill on X

Thanks to This Week’s Podcast Sponsor

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This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.