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Ken Burns goes long. Since releasing his first major documentary, in 1981, the 66-year-old filmmaker has become renowned for his sprawling, multipart epics about big, all-American subjects—baseball, jazz, the Vietnam War. His latest, Country Music (debuting on September 15 on PBS), is no exception, tracing the rise of the genre from hillbilly music in the 1920s to Garth Brooks’ arena-filling peak seven decades later. Men’s Journal caught up with Burns by phone from his home in New Hampshire....

A trip to Los Cabos may have slipped from the top of your to-do list after that one tequila-fueled spring break back in college, but it’s time to revisit the idea. Sitting on the southernmost tip of the Baja California Peninsula, Los Cabos is split into Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, divided by a long stretch of hotels and resorts known as the 20-mile tourist corridor. 11 Hotel Rooms with Unreal Views...

The resolution to lose weight in the new year is a noble one but for many folks, it is a difficult one. It can be hard to get going in the right direction and to stay there. So when you decide to start that journey off, you should take a look at BeachBody and the free two-week trial being offered up right now. Making that journey to lose weight and live a little healthier is not easy, but with BeachBody is can be a lot easier than you assumed it would be....

Maumee Bay Brewing Company has made an “algae beer” that has the green glow of toxic ooze. While double IPA doesn’t contain actual algae (just matcha powder for color and kiwi for taste), it was made to raise visibility of the drinking water quality of local Lake Erie. Three years ago, residents of nearby Toledo, Ohio woke up and were unable to drink the lake’s water, as a toxic algae bloom was sitting on top of the water intake....

Pitchers looking to add a few miles to their fastball might focus on upper body training—the bigger your bicep, the stronger your pitch will be, right? But if you really want to add some speed to your game, you’ll need to focus on more than just your arms to get faster. It’ll take work on your lower body—especially your hips, glutes, and legs. For proof, look no further than New York Mets pitchers Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom, two of the hardest-throwing players in baseball....

Sponsored content. Men’s Journal receives compensation for this article as well as for purchases made when you click on a link and buy something below. Whether you need to lose just a few pounds or if you’re after significant weight loss to drop pounds and body inches, you’ve got to have a plan. Just deciding to eat less or work out more won’t hurt. But chances are you won’t lose your desired weight—and you definitely won’t keep it off....

After a 20-mile drive down a dirt road, Texas-based adventure athlete Aicacia Young arrived at Húnaflói Bay, a 30-mile-wide inlet on Iceland’s northern coast, and found that the water was dance-floor flat. Iceland has a strong surf community, owing to its often large, if frigid, swells. Young had hoped to hit the waves, but the smooth water wasn’t exactly a huge surprise. “Surfing in Iceland is super rewarding but fickle,” says Lucas Gilman, a California photographer who’d come along on the trip that October day....

NBA guard Danny Green is thriving with the Toronto Raptors. After spending the previous eight seasons with the San Antonio Spurs and establishing himself as one of the top 3-point shooters in the league while winning the 2014 NBA championship, Green was traded to the Raptors alongside All-Star Kawhi Leonard. (Update: Green is now with the Lakers.) Basketball Is Back: The Minimally Informed Man’s Guide to the 2018-19 NBA Season...

This member of the winter squash family has a bright exterior and stringy, light yellow-white pulp that resembles thin noodles once cooked. One cup of the stringy squash contains 40 calories, 2g of fiber, and 10% of your daily recommended amount of vitamin C. It’s also become a very popular pasta replacement touted for its low sugar content. So go ahead, dig in. Nutrition information (per serving) Calories: 199; total fat: 7g; saturated fat: 3g; protein: 7g; carbohydrates: 31g; sugar: 12g; fiber: 9g; cholesterol: 16mg; sodium: 373mg Recipe and photo by Elizabeth Shaw, M....

Climber Nirmal “Nims” Purja had quite the year. The former U.K. special forces officer spent most of his time in 2019 climbing up and down some of the biggest peaks in the world—setting an incredible record in the process. His milestone? Climbing 14 of the world’s tallest peaks in less than 190 days, shattering the previous record of seven years, 10 months, and six days. Nims Purja: Meet the Climber Setting Speed Records on the World’s Highest Peaks...

“Handmade,” our film about DIY shaping, is done and dusted. The boards were ridden around the world and the film’s been released (which you can watch above, if you missed it), along with our interviews with the shapers about what drew them to building their own boards and the ways in which that process has caused their surfing to evolve (you’ll find those clips below). But one thing that we weren’t able to cover in those shaping bay interviews was how their new boards actually worked, because, you know, they were still unglassed hunks of foam at the time....

On June 20, 2015, 53-year-old Laurie Apgar Chandler launched her yellow Kevlar canoe in the Adirondacks at Old Forge, NY, and began a journey she hoped would take her 740 miles across lakes, rivers and portages, through New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, and deep into Maine’s North Woods, on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. A long canoe trip forces its participants to embrace uncertainty; Chandler was no exception. “Although I had researched, trained, planned, and prepared, so much hung in the balance,” Chandler recalls....

Sometimes, more than just map-watching is necessary to speed spring’s arrival. On a warm day in April, before I’m distracted by the prospect of open water and flowing rivers, I take an hour to prepare my canoe paddles and wooden gunwales for the season ahead. It goes without saying that wood requires more maintenance than composites, but then again, it provides an effective distraction when you get antsy for spring....

A lot can happen in a decade. As we enter the 2020s, it’s important to look back on the powerful stories that grabbed our attention and helped define the 2010s. There’s a lot to consider. Celebrated adventurers pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Everyday people working to make the world a little better. Themes as specific as first responder helicopter crashes and as universal as the bond between father and son—they’ve all found their way into the pages of Men’s Journal over the years....

Here at Men’s Journal, we test a slew of different products for our job—and everyday life. Here, with no particular theme, is the gear we love this week. We think you will, too. LAST WEEK: All-weather Sneakers, Sport Headphones, and More Gear We Love Read article LAST WEEK: All-weather Sneakers, Sport Headphones, and More Gear We Love Read article LAST WEEK: All-weather Sneakers, Sport Headphones, and More Gear We Love...

This is Lael Wilcox. She’s an ultra-endurance bicycle racer who has ridden over 20,000 miles each of the last three years. Hailing from Anchorage, Alaska, Wilcox got into racing when a friend challenged her to enter a 400-mile road race three years ago. She signed up three days before the event and ended up winning on her mom’s borrowed road bike. Now, she’s one of the best ultra-endurance racers in the world....

Back in the 1930s, a new kind of watch burst onto the scene: Alpina’s “Block Uhr,” an anti-magnetic, shock- and water-resistant wristwatch clad in a stainless steel case. Although those specs might seem pedestrian today, they helped create the sport watch category and laid the groundwork for the huge range of outdoors-oriented timepieces that followed. The Alpiner Quartz line of watches is the descendant of the Block Uhr (alongside the mechanical Alpiner 4), and now Alpina has released three new models with a GMT function—a boon for travelers who need to track and adjust to different local times....

If you skipped out on your spring cleaning this year and also packed on a few pounds over the last few months, you better pick up that Swiffer and get to dusting your dirty abode. A new study from the American Chemical Society that appeared in the journal Environmental Science & Technology has discovered that regular house dust can contain common pollutants that have been linked to obesity. It sounds kind of nuts, but there are certain compounds called endocrine-disrupting chemicals, like noted (and widely phased out) plastic bottle ingredient bisphenol-A, that can imitate hormones and mess with the body’s endocrine system, which helps regulate metabolism among many other crucial functions that keep the body in balance....

Photo: Courtesy of Cristina Munteanu/Unsplash It’s going to hurt. You’re going to fall a lot. You’ll want to give up. You won’t be able to walk the next day. These are all the things I was told by everyone whom I informed that, at age 32, I was going snowboarding for my first time. And they were right. I fell, it hurt, many times I thought to myself, sprawled out on the snow with my tailbone throbbing, ‘I should just call it,’ and sure enough, I could not walk the next day....

If you’re having trouble getting into shape, completing that pesky project, or just getting your life back on track, experts agree: Clearly stating your goals and keeping track of your progress is one of the best motivators you can find. If you really want to crush your goals, fitness, entrepreneurial, or personal, get yourself a journal and start writing in it, every day. Of course, some journals are just for writing, sketching, or notes....