David Ferry

Taking even a few steps to stop the bleed wont bea waste. A few steps that won't make a huge impact on you can have a big effect on how much you throw away and how much you can lower your grocery bills, get more done and, yes, take fewer trips to the trash bin.

We compiled the best small steps you can take to minimize waste in three key areas: Food, Plastic, and Life. Here's how to make it happen now.

Up to 40 percent of the food supply in America is wasted, and not in some abstract Big Agriculture or restaurant-industry kind of way. A family of four wastes an average of $1,800. worth of food a year, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

These three rules can help you turn food waste around:

1) Be realistic with what youre buying.

People are aspirational at the grocery store, says Dana Gunders, interim executive director of the anti-food-waste group ReFED. They hope to cook more and eat better, and then life happens. By Wednesday, theyre ordering pizza and the food is rotting. Beware of overbuying, and plan for lazy nights. We all have them.

Recipes (and food Instagram accounts) train you to eat the nice-looking parts of foods (broccoli crowns) while ditching the ugly parts (broccoli stems). Gunders has another name for those less liked parts: delicious.

<ul><li> If you have cauliflower stalks, m ake: Cauliflower rice. In a food processor, pulse chopped stalks into a rice-like texture. Saute with butter. </li><li> If you have carrot or beet tops, make: Fresh pesto. Combine tops with pine nuts and grated Parmesan. In a food processor, blitz, then puree, drizzling in olive oil until saucelike. Season as you like. </li><li> If you have potato skins, make: Chips! Heat a pan with a quarter inch of oil over medium high. When the oil shimmers, add skins and cook till crisp. </li><li> If you have slightly expired eggs, m ake: Mayo. In a blender, mix yolks, a little lemon juice, Dijon mustard, and salt. Add olive oil, drop by drop, until thick. (Note that use-by dates are only suggestions; they generally dont have to do with safety, and no regulatory body oversees them. Smell okay? Taste okay? Its probably okay.) </li></ul>

Fun fact: Casserole means ah, nasty, not again in French. Okay, not really. Regardless, dont suffer through another one. Instead, enjoy these meals, which give life to leftovers.

<ul><li> Combine leftover vegetables, a can of tomatoes, some slightly stale bread, and eggs into shakshuka. Heat tomatoes and veg in a pan till bubbling. Stir in some cumin, red-pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Drop in the eggs, cover, and cook till the whites are set. Serve with toast. </li><li> Combine vegetables, meat, random fresh herbs, leftover grains, and bottled dressing into a grain bowl. Toss the vegetables and meat in a little dressing: layer over the leftover grains. Microwave, then scatter herbs on top. </li></ul>

People buy 1 million plastic bottlesper minute (and only about 23 percent are recycled). Yes, plastic is choking our oceans, lakes, and rivers. Microplastics are making their way into our seafood. And as if that werent bad enough, researchers believe that chemicals in all that plastic may disrupt endocrine activity, which can lead to lowered fertility and cancer.

I thought I was pretty careful about plastic, but when I tracked my waste for a day, I was shocked to find it everywhere (toothpaste! gym shoes! beer cans!). For ways to cut back, I looked up Rob Greenfield, who wore all the trash he produced for 30 days in 2016. By the end, he was carrying 84 pounds of plastic bags, water bottles, and plastic-lined food containers. I was barely able to move, he says today. Most disturbing, he says, is single-use plastic. Think about, say, a bag of potato chips. It takes five minutes to eat it. But that bag will be around for 500 years, Greenfield says. Does that make any sense? It didnt to him, which is why hes aiming to cut plastic from his life entirely. You dont have to go that far. Just pick your levellifes hard; no judgmentand try his tips.

Entry-level plastic-saving tips

<ul><li> Dont just recycle old to-go containers: Consume fewer of them. Bring reusable ones to your usual takeout spot and have them put your meal in there. </li><li> Cheap clothes are loaded with plasticky synthetic fabrics like nylon and polyester. Cotton feels better, anyway. (Ditto wool and cashmere.) </li></ul>

Advanced-level plastic-saving tips

<ul><li> Food packaging fills up trash binsone more reason to avoid processed food. Use cloth bags for produce and choose items not packed in Styrofoam. </li><li> Trawl Craigslist for new power toolsmodern ones have many plastic parts. Better yet, chip in on one with your neighbor. </li></ul>

Pro-level plastic-saving tip

<ul><li> Clean up your bathroom. Shampoo, deodorant, and toothpaste are often packaged in and loaded with plastics. Turn to brands that dont use them in their products. Consider bottle-free bars for shampoo and conditioner (Humankind makes some), and plastics-free cleaning detergents (like Method). </li></ul>

Stacey Staaterman meets a lot of people at the top of their professional lifeand who are also in the pits. Shes a career strategist and coach who spends her days advising workers who feel like theyre wasting their life. Is there value in what Im doing? her clients ask. Am I wasting my best years in this career I dont love?

For these folks, Staaterman pulls out a homework assignment, one she completed 17 years ago when she felt unmoored and directionless. I ask people to write on a single page what they want their life to be like: a paragraph on your home, family and friendships, work, hobbies, mind, body, and spiritual lifeanything that matters to them, she says. Notice that money is not on the list. Money is a tool, a means to something.

Look at the list and rank what matters most to you. Then, instead of trying to fit your priorities into your life, build your life around them. If time with your family is key, then maybe the hustle isnt worth it. If you need money now, then overtime might be the right call. If youre skeptical, Staatermans one-pager from 2003 is tacked to her office wall, and shes still following it. You can take care of your situation now or wait until youre nearly dead, she says. Because life, indeed, is a terrible thing to waste.

How to Waste Less of Everything in Your Life

Waste is having a moment: The Pacific garbage patch. The turtle with the plastic straw stuck in its nose. Plastic bag bans. City compost sites. Last year, youyeah, every single one of usprobably generated 1,606 pounds of refuse. But waste isnt just about the garbage bin. Every day, we waste the plastic we consume, throw out our food, and maybe even squander our lives.

A number of recent and tantalizing studies have suggested that simple, restorative sleep can help you think, perform, and recover better. Its compelled the worlds leading players (often prompted by their teams sleep coaches) to reprogram their social lives and change their priorities. Its why pro teams practice facilities include nap roomsthe Red Sox turned an old utility room into one, and the Warriors new Chase Center includes individual sleep pods. Theyre reclining chairs with caps over the top that block out noise and light, but still: sleep pods!

<h1> How sleep improves performance </h1>

Sleepnot training or working for another houris when your body gets stronger and your mind gets sharper. You break down your muscles in training, but rest is when the fibers repair themselves and become more powerful. And all those skills and memories you acquire in a day are encoded while the lights are out. Lose sleep and your neurons start firing more slowly and working together less efficiently. Your reaction time, your speed, and your focus all degrade. Even just three nights of crappy sleep has been shown to drop your <a href="https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a25126689/how-to-bench-press/" id="c917bc03-fae6-30cc-a93b-b12342ef7833"> bench press </a> by 20 pounds. And in the long run, youre cueing up obesity, heart disease, stroke, and other health troubles. The research thats coming out now is unequivocal, says MH advisor W. Christopher Winter, M.D., the neurologist who first figured outmore than a decade agothat jet lag was related to Major League Baseball teams losing games. People who sleep more and sleep better perform better, both in the short and the long term. You might not need ten hours like an elite athlete. But you should shoot for seven to nine, and most of us arent even coming close.

<h1> What does more sleep really get you? </h1>

Cheri Mah, M.D., knows better than most the dividends sleep can pay. In 2011, as a researcher at Stanfords Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory, she published the study that catapulted the subject of sleep into clubhouses across the country. Dr. Mah required a group of players on Stanfords mens basketball team to snooze at least ten hours a night. (How do you get college students to sleep more? Make them spend more time in bedfor almost everyone, more time in bed leads to more time asleep, she says.)

No one expected more sleep to be bad for the players, but the results were a shock: Free-throw percentages increased by 9 percent, successful three-point field goals jumped 9.2 percent, and injuries dropped to boot. They all improved, says Dr. Mah, whos now with the University of California, San Francisco. Related studies she conducted showed that with more sleep, college swimmers improved their times, soccer players sprinted faster and reported increased vigor, and tennis players saw their accuracy increase in serves and shots. Basically, both their brains and their bodies functioned better. Then my story became: How do I apply this?

One of the first pro teams Dr. Mah consulted for was the <a href="https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a29653858/golden-state-warriors-workout/" id="572cec65-335d-3ab6-a6d4-73c724f0b2f6"> Golden State Warriors </a> . That was in 2014, toward the beginning of their multiseason run as the NBAs dominant force. She quickly helped the team optimize its travel and practice schedules. Cross-country flights before games and red-eyes afterward? No way. Mandatory practice the morning after a six-hour journey? Nope. In fact, fatigue is such a clear indicator of performance that Dr. Mah collaborated with ESPN on a schedule-alert project to predict when NBA teams would be at highest risk of losing based on travel and fatigue factors. In its second season, the tool correctly guessed sleep-based losses 78 percent of the time. Since then, Dr. Mah says, the NBA has improved scheduling by keeping player fatigue in mind. (You should consider the same with your own calendar.) Organizational changes help only so much; athletes have to follow through on their own.

For those of us who arent paid tens of millions of dollars to perform, the idea of finding more time for sleep can be daunting. When obligations pile up, its usually the first thing to go. Thats backward thinking. If you increase your time in bed by even 15 to 20 minutes, you will notice a difference, says Meeta Singh, M.D., a sleep-disorder and sports-medicine expert at the Henry Ford Sleep Disorders Center. You know how Tom Brady gets to bed by 8:30? He prioritizes it. Use these strategies to help yourself get more sleep, too:

I always encounter this type, the Silicon Valley dude whos killing it financially, has kids, is trying to do a triathlon, Dr. Winter says. He goes to bed at midnight and wakes up at 4:00 a.m. He says hes doing great and needs four hours. But just because you can doesnt mean you should. Give your body a chance to operate at its full potential by getting a complete nights rest a few days in a row. Then see how you perform. You might do better on nine hours, even if youve been telling everyoneincluding yourselfthat youre fine with four.

During the season, athletes sleep in different hotel rooms every week. To create the perfect environmenta quiet, dark, cool room (between 60 and 67 degrees)they might need to use pillows to keep blinds and curtains light-tight. LeBron reportedly relies on white noise (Rain on Leaves in the Calm app) to block out distractions. Use your home advantage <a href="https://www.menshealth.com/technology-gear/a25907406/best-sleep-tech-ces-2019/" id="06db79d5-654f-3c89-a95b-4df213a75410"> and maybe even a bit of tech </a> to set up the right sleeping environment every night.

You need a bedtime routine thats not about screens, which mess with your ability to produce the sleep hormone melatonin. Athletes (and probably you) know its a good idea to <a href="https://www.menshealth.com/uk/fitness/a25613402/foam-roller-best-exercises/" id="667cc1b7-1169-35d6-a78a-a95c503dd5d6"> foam-roll muscles </a> anyway, so why not make it part of a dedicated 15 to 30 minutes of wind-down time, Dr. Mah says. Substitutes for rolling: yoga or some time reading an actual book or magazine.

<h1> If travel is short, dont change your schedule </h1>

North American athletes normally shuffle between two to four time zones, Dr. Winter says. Research suggests that the players performance peaks in late afternoon, so he may tell a West Coast pitcher to stay on California time for a nighttime matchup in New York. If youre in a different time zone for a quick meeting that falls within your regular work hours, you might not have to bother trying to adjust.

<h1> Power up with naptime, if you can </h1>

Take a nap to help reset after lunch or midafternoon to finish your workday strong. In the NBA, stars such as Kevin Durant, Paul George, and Steph Curry all swear by the pregame nap to keep them alert and focused.

You need weeks of consistent sleep to live and play to your full potential, Dr. Mah says. That means going to bed and getting up at nearly the same time every day. Your sleep debt accumulates when you dont get enough for days on end, and a night or weekend of extra sleep wont settle your bill.

I tell my athletes and my patients that sleep is the most important thing in the world, but tonights sleep is irrelevant, Dr. Winter says. Dont beat yourself up if you have some rough nights or weeks. Thats normal. What shouldnt be normal is cheating your sleep every night and expecting victory in every game.

Tom Brady, noted underachiever that he is, aims to be in bed by 8:30 p.m. LeBron James plans his life around nabbing ten hours of shut-eye. Justin Verlander, the Cy Youngwinning Houston Astros ace, clocks between ten and 12 hours every night. (And he does it sleeping next to Kate Upton.) In the past few years, the worlds premier athletes have discovered a new performance-enhancing supplement for their training regimens: sleep.

These Elite Athletes Say Sleep Is Their Secret Weapon

At the Friday meeting, about three-quarters of the way through my workweek, as Blank puts it, a colleague reminded him about upcoming classes he needed to teach. The devil is in the details, the colleague advised. Blank nodded and went for the obvious defense contractor joke: Ive got it under control, as long as the devil coming at me isnt an SS-18. (He was referring to a Russian ICBM dubbed Satan). Expecting at least a chuckle or two, Blank saw only uncomprehending stares. Weird, he thought. Then it hit him: These werent his defense contractor coworkers. He wasnt even at his defense gig. He was at Zilog and, to his growing horror, he realized that he had no memory of driving across town to get there, no recollection of greeting his colleagues, no idea how hed gotten through most of the afternoon without even knowing where he was.

Blank later left the meeting and sat in his office looking befuddled.

Take it easy this weekend, the VP of sales told him. You look a little burned-out.

Most of what you think you know about burnout is probably wrong. Occupational burnout like Blanks is not a simple matter of fatigue or boredom. Nor is it tied solely to level of compensation. Severe burnout can be debilitating. You may find yourself growing profoundly cynical and feel like you never accomplish anything at work; you may hate your clients and colleagues and struggle to find the courage to get out of bed; you might feel detached from your life, almost as if youre operating on autopilot. Burnout syndrome, at its worst, can ravage workers and even entire companies.

According to psychologist Michael Leiter, Ph.D., 25 percent of the workers hes studied suffer from at least one symptom of burnout, and he suspects that figure is also true of the workforce at large. Burnout doesnt discriminate, and it affects people across the board-blue collar and white collar workers, entrepreneurs, call center employees, tech pros, teachers. In this always-on age, when reading a new email from the boss on your smartphone may be the first and last thing you do every day, its not surprising that the problem seems to be worsening.

Its cultural-real men work till they drop, says Blank. I learned it from my boss, who learned it from his boss, who probably learned it from some Neanderthal.

Theres no question that were at greater risk of burnout today than we were 10 years ago, says Ron Friedman, Ph.D., a psychologist who works with private and corporate clients. Men and their supervisors may have misconceptions about what burnout is and have little idea how to stop it. One assumption is that employees crack because they cant handle their workload. This view assumes that something is wrong with you if youre struggling, that you must be weak, not competent, says Christina Maslach, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley. But burnout isnt just about being overworked. In fact, researchers have identified several common causes. Heres a rundown and, most important, how to avoid them.

This may be the major reason burnout is on the rise. Were surrounded by devices designed to grab our attention and make everything feel urgent, says Friedman.

Before the Blackberry and iPhone, leaving your work at the office was the default. Today were all carrying our office around in our pocket. Indeed, in a recent survey of HR execs by the companies Kronos and Future Workplace, 32 percent cited too much overtime/after-hours work as a primary contributor to employee burnout.

To ease the compulsion to check your smartphone, the Center for Humane Technology suggests turning off the color. Why: Your brain loves color. It responds to it. It delights in it. And thats likely one reason you love your smartphone so much. Grayscaling the screen may make you less likely to pick it up and also spend less time online when you do so. Google grayscale and your specific phone model for instructions.

Architect standing at desk looking at mobile phone

<h1> 2. Your coworkers are idiots. </h1>

Leiter, a professor of organizational psychology at Australias Deakin University, studies burnout and incivility in the workplace. He asked burned-out nurses what caused them the most distress at work. Many mentioned unpleasant interactions with coworkers, namely the woman who doesnt say hello when she walks by, doctors who are rude to anyone beneath them, and the endless snark from all quarters. To find out if this incivility was contributing to their burnout, Leiter organized meetings during which he encouraged everyone to discuss their feelings. Then, he says, he basically taught them to talk nice to each other. The result? A year later, with a new social climate in the hospital, nurse absentee rates had declined dramatically, and follow-up surveys were positive.

People want to feel valued. If that isnt happening in your workplace, be the change you desire. Say hello in the morning. Dont be dismissive of support staff, and cut back on your own snark. Civility is contagious. If a colleague keeps acting like an idiot, try respectfully and honestly explaining how his or her behavior is affecting you. And if all else fails, remember the personal motto of WWII general Vinegar Joe Stilwell, popularized by Barry Goldwater and displayed on the desk of former house speaker John Boehner: Dont let the bastards grind you down.

<h1> 3. Youre genetically wired for burnout. </h1>

Burnout could be hardwired into your DNA. Studies have recently tied depression to specific genes. Wilmar Schaufeli, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, is investigating this connection. Burnout has been shown to be more common in children with burned-out parents or siblings, he says, but that may not mean its genetic; home life could have spurred it. Research also notes correlations between instances of burnout and depression.

If your family tree has some charred branches, start paying more attention to the state of your mental health. (Mindfulness is all the rage for a reason.) Be proactive; if youre starting to feel burned-out, dont let it fester. Some companies provide a few sessions of free, confidential psychological counseling as part of their health-care benefits. Check if your employer does and, if so, take advantage of it.

The guy who fails upward. The credit-grabbing sycophant who gets Employee of the Year. The coworker with the same duties who earns more than you do.Workplaces that feel unfair breed burnout. Four out of 10 HR execs in the Kronos/ Future Workplace survey named unfair compensation as a top contributor to employee burnout; it was the most common response. But unfairness is nuanced. As one worker told Leiter, the randomness of why some are promoted and others are ignored drains your spirit.

If youre a manager, then this one might be your fault. Employees may find out if a worker in a similar role makes more money than they do. Salary parity-or the occasional bonus-helps reward employees and may keep turnover rates low. Not a manager? Ask your supervisor what specific responsibilities or achievements it would take for you to get the promotion or raise you deserve-and then nail them.

<h1> 5. Your job is your identity. </h1>

Jari Hakanen, Ph.D., a research professor at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, believes burnout stems partly from our fundamental relationship with work. People who derive all their satisfaction and self-worth from their jobs are more likely to burn out when things go south in the workplace.

Although being passionate and engaged in work can be positive, research shows that its good to detach from work, Hakanen says. You regain your energies. You need other things in your life to build your identity around. Its not just work that is your life.

The next time a stranger asks you what you do, try responding by not mentioning your job. If you struggle with that, guess what? Your job is probably your identity. Try exploring new ways to define yourself. Take up a new hobby, one thats personally challenging and satisfying. Hakanen is into ice swimming. Ive never seen anybody thinking about work issues when theyre in near-freezing water, he says. If thats too Finnish for you, there are a gazillion other things out there for you to try.

<h1> 6. You feel a lack of control . </h1>

Burnout is defined as three feelings: exhaustion, cynicism, and something called inefficacy, or the sense that youre incapable of accomplishing anything. A great way to experience this is to get stuck in a job that gives you no control, says Hakanen. If you dont control your schedule, you cant optimize your workload and things can pile up-another big contributor to burnout, according to the Kronos/Future Workplace survey. And if somebody else is setting unrealistic goals and expectations for you without your input, that also makes it easy to feel helpless.

Simply scheduling your workday on your own could help reduce burnout. You have three options for this: First, seize the day and just start doing it. As long as youre meeting your overall daily goals, the boss shouldnt care how youre getting there. If thats not possible, try saying no to more work requests. Dont get carried away; all it takes is an occasional, Sorry, but I just cant do that to make you feel more empowered. Finally, if neither option fits your workplace, make a to-do list of what you can control (stockpile sticky notes, air-dust keyboard) and eliminate items as theyre accomplished. Dont just tap complete on a productivity app. Write those items down-on paper, dammit-and draw a thick, aggressive line through each one when done. The satisfaction may help your attitude.

Tedious or unsatisfying work erodes your sense of worth. Nobody likes throwing away eight (or 10 or 12) hours a day on doing nothing. But pulling an Office Space stunt isnt always possible; somebodys got to pay the rent.

If youre stuck in a decent-paying gig that just isnt doing it for you, Hakanen recommends job crafting. This means working within the confines of your job to focus on what you enjoy or find fulfilling. Is there another duty you could take on that youre good at and genuinely like doing, even if it adds to your workload? Go for it. That goofy kid right out of college trying to make his way in the firm? Consider mentoring him. And although this may sound crazy, changing your attitude about your job could help too. Think of it this way: Youre not just managing employees and tasks; youre part of a company pushing technology forward and making life better for customers. Go ahead and roll your eyes, but the benefits of such cognitive restructuring are supported by research.

Steve Blank learned all these lessons the hard way. After that frightening Friday, he took a couple of days off and drove an unspoiled stretch of the California coast. Amid the redwood groves, seaside cliffs, and scent of eucalyptus, he realized that no one was going to send him a memo to work less. So he decided to work only at what interested him most. And he vowed to forge a life outside work, eventually buying a home on a serene patch of land by the sea.

These life decisions didnt sabotage Blanks career or make him any less successful. No, he went on to eight different startups and was an innovator in startup creation. But by keeping work in perspective, he did it on his terms. You can too.

Steve Blanks oh-shit moment came during a Friday afternoon sales meeting. He had been dividing his time between two Silicon Valley tech jobs, one for a company outside Palo Alto serving the defense and intelligence communities, and the other for a microprocessor producer called Zilog. He was good at his work-necessary, even. He put in six or seven 16-hour days a week and accepted the crazy schedule.

7 Sneaky Signs of Job Burnout

Earlier this year, I became one of the thousands of Americans who shelled out for a personal air monitor. Mine was an $85 cigar-butt-sized silver cylinder by Atmotube that I attached to my bag. The impetus wasnt asthma or hazy skies-though I live in Los Angeles, so those are practically a given.

No, I bought a monitor because in the past few years, a doorstops worth of scientific studies have piled up that reveal air pollution is much worse for us than we previously imagined. Youre likely aware that dirty air leads to respiratory issues, but how about an increased risk of heart attack and diabetes and links to dementias, including Alzheimers disease?

<h1> How air pollution affects your health </h1>

The consequences of dirty air are far-reaching. It negatively affects childrens brain development; adults are less productive at work. Last year, NYU epidemiologists calculated that 1,341 deaths annually could be avoided-in Los Angeles alone-if air quality were improved to recommended health standards. Zoom out globally and air pollution kills about 7 million people a year, according to the World Health Organization. Not to mention it knocks two years off the average life expectancy. In fact, WHO now considers air pollution to be the greatest environmental risk to human health. What we all fail to appreciate is, minute by minute, day in and day out, pollution constantly fights against you, says Ed Avol, a pollution expert and professor of clinical preventive medicine at USCs Keck School of Medicine. Pollution, whether you know it or not, is killing you slowly.

My personal air monitor wasnt exactly reassuring: A good Air Quality Index, a measure of five major pollutants, is between 0 and 50. Mine read 122.

USA, California, Los Angeles, smog over Los Angeles

The pollution problem can seem overwhelming, Avol concedes. It doesnt help that the United States government has chosen this moment to officially not give a damn about the problem. (In the past two years, the EPA has rolled back regulations governing power-plant emissions, fuel efficiency, smog, and more-a combination that agency statistics suggest will cost as many as 14,000 lives by 2030.) But despair isnt your only option. There are things you can do that will make a difference, Avol says.

First, though, heres the answer to a question that no ones asking but everyone should be: What even is air pollution?

Smog-also called ground-level ozone-is what happens when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, like those in tailpipe emissions, meet sunlight. Its not good for you or your respiratory system, as you probably know. The lesser-known danger, however, is something more ubiquitous and menacing called particulate matter. These are small specks of grime that are so tiny they can evade your bodys natural defenses. They come from power plants and diesel generators, construction sites and foundries, your cars internal-combustion engine and its tires on the road, wood fires, forest fires, plowed fields, grilling food-anything that produces small particles that can mingle with the hundreds of other chemicals in the air.

The littlest of these specks, which measure less than 0.1 micrometers wide and could fit several thousand times over into this comma right here, are so small that they can slip right past your lungs cilia-those wobbling, hairlike strands in your bronchi that normally keep crap out of your airways-and enter your bloodstream. And once these toxic specks get into your blood, Avol says, they go everywhere. Just how much damage ultrafine particulate matter does is something were only beginning to understand, but your body appears to respond with inflammation, a condition that affects your brain, heart, and plenty more.

No healthy person drops dead from breathing on a hazy day, says Suzanne Paulson, Ph.D., the director of UCLAs Center for Clean Air, but the smallest bits of toxic particulate matter can stay with you forever. If you were to look inside the lungs of a nonsmoking Angeleno, Paulson says, they would look similar to those of a smoker. Even Alaskans arent immune to particle pollution. Fairbanks, for instance, ranks number one in U.S. metro areas with the most year-round particle pollution (yes, worse than LA, which sits at number four), because so many homes are heated with particle-spewing wood.

<h1> How to breathe less polluted air </h1>

The average person takes about 20,000 breaths a day-youll probably knock out 48 just while reading this-so maybe its not so crazy that were thinking about our breathing these days. While you cant control the air quality outside, you can have an impact on what you breathe-and new studies show that people who reduce their pollution intake see improvements in lung function and a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.

To limit the amount of pollution you get if youre running or biking outdoors, try to skip rush-hour workouts. Staying a block or two away from major roads will lower your risk, Avol says. Using a side street can cut exposure by up to 60 percent.

Heading indoors isnt always an escape from air pollution; many modern homes are weatherproofed and limit the amount of air that comes in and out, leading to a buildup of indoor air pollutants. To keep particles down, turn the stove-hood fan on when you fry foods (yep, that produces particulate matter, too) and mop rather than vacuum. Also recruit your homes HVAC system. Consider upgrading a standard filter to one with a higher MERV rating, which means it eliminates small particles better. Aim for one with at least a rating of 13 on a scale of 1 to 20. A stand-alone air cleaner, in addition to the HVAC filter, may not make your abodes air pristine, but it can remove particulate matter from the room youre in and will likely set you back a couple hundred bucks. Look for one that traps particles smaller than 2.5 microns and is approved by the California Air Resources Board, one of the stricter regulatory bodies. At work, where air quality likely isnt under your control, at least dont sit next to the copier or laser printer; theres some evidence that each emits tiny particles along with ozone.

Maybe add a personal air monitor to your breathe-cleaner list, too. Mine hasnt changed my life-though I check it incessantly-but its made me more aware of my surroundings. And before I move to my next home, Ill examine the average air-quality readouts around it before I sign on the dotted line.

Breathing is all the rage these days. Every week, it seems, a new study touts the benefits of a simple inhale and exhale. Do it right-slowly and mindfully-and it can be good for your nerves, your blood pressure, your memory. In other words, breathing is CBD oil, but cheaper.

The Scary Health Effects of Air Pollution

But before I could straighten up and try to drag my body out of the gym, a trainer called over to Dara Lampe, one of the gyms massage therapists. Coaxing me onto a nearby table, Lampe asked if Id ever had a massage to treat my back pain. Of course not, I thought. No muscle could produce this hellpain. Like plenty of other folks with back pain, I was sure I had a disk problem. Herniated diskswhen the jellylike cushions between your vertebrae bulge out of place and squish against your nervesaffect men twice as often as women. Theyre responsible for the kind of anguish that compels almost half a million Americans to get intensive spinal-fusion surgeries each year, even though studies show that these surgical interventions help barely a third of sufferers. Herniated disks sound serious, and each time my back left me immobilized, I was convinced they were the culprit and never gave my back muscles any thought.

Lampe, a beacon of grace, nodded sympathetically. Then she rolled me over, jammed a knuckle beneath my bottommost rib, and set my brain on fire. Lampe had found my quadratus lumborum (QL), a little-known muscle that plays a big role in back pain. I swore as she manipulated the part of my back in which a boxer would lay a kidney shot, experiencing a whole-body rainbow of agony and release. What I learned from that was a revelation that would change my relationship with my spineand could reduce the pain that millions of Americans live with each year.

<h1> Why a "slipped" disk probably isn't causing your back pain </h1>

Like kale and the Kardashians, herniated disks get way more attention than they deserve. The truth is that muscles, ligaments, and arthritis are responsible for about 85 percent of back-pain episodes. Only a small percentage of patients have a herniated disk, and an even smaller percent will have something that requires surgery, says Matthew Varacallo, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine and joint reconstruction at Penn Highlands Healthcare in DuBois, Pennsylvania. Google searches might make you think you have a herniated disk, Lampe says, but Id say the QL is the most overlooked muscle when it comes to low back pain. Dr. Varacallo adds, Nobody comes in and says, I have a strained QL. But they probably should.

The QL is one of the deepest muscles of the trunk. (Technically, thats QLs, since theres one on each side of your spine.) It fans out from the vertebrae just below your rib cage down to your iliac crest, at the top of your hip bone. Its like a tension cable that keeps your spine upright and your entire trunk steady. Its not designed to do the job alone; your glutes, along with all of the other trunk muscles, help out.

Unless youre a typical desk worker, that is. Thanks to poor posture and prolonged sitting, these helper muscles do practically nothing all day, so your QL potentially works harder and harder to pick up the slack. You go to stand up or deadlift, and the QL, now tense from being on duty by itself, is stuck with even more work. Which its not designed to do, and you feel it in the form of a spasm or low back pain.

So what do you do when youre in my shoes, crumpled on the gym floor and terrified at the prospect of standing up? Lampes targeted massage helped loosen my spasming QL (I had a couple more massages over the next two weeks) and shortened my recovery time. But that was no long-term solution. Although Im still sitting at my desk all day, trying my best not to hunch over my keyboard, I now break things up with simple QL stretches (see below) to keep it agile and less spasm-prone.

Im working with a trainer, too, on exercises (see below) for my dilapidated trunk stabilizers and hip muscles, plus weighted squats for my glutes and endless lat pulls for my upper back. Nobodys gonna say, Nice QL! if they havent seen me for a while. But if the time I spend on the muscle prevents it from taking me down, I can keep on training everything else.

<h1> Best Stretches and Exercises for Back Pain </h1>

Daniel Giordano, D.P.T., C.S.C.S., cofounder of Bespoke Treatments in New York City and an MH advisor, sees a lot of patients with back pain caused by the quadratus lumborum, which too often gets overworked in exactly the wrong way. He prescribes these stretches and these strengthening exercises to make things right:

Lying on your backknees bent, feet on the floorplace a lacrosse ball to the right of your spine, a few fingers width above your pelvic bone. Bring your right knee to your chest, hold 5 seconds, and release. Repeat 10 times; switch sides.

Standing up with your feet hip-width apart, move your right foot behind your left, planting it at approximately 7 or 8 oclock. Stretch your right hand to the ceiling and, moving from your hips, not your waist, gently lean toward the left. Hold 5 seconds. Repeat 10 times; switch sides.

Sit on the floor with knees bent at 90 degrees, right foot behind you, left foot in front of your right knee. With your chest tall and pelvis pushed to the floor, raise your left hand up and over your body. Do ten 5-second stretches; switch sides.

Get in a high plank, feet shoulder-width apart. Place a weight behind your left hand, then use your right to drag it across the floor under your chest. Keep hips and shoulders level; dont arch your back. Repeat on the other side for 1 rep. Do 3 sets of 8.

In a high side plank, pick up a light weight from beneath your body. Rotate your torso to lift the weight into the air, then rotate it down. Follow the weight with your focus. Do 3 sets of 8 reps on each side.

Hold a kettlebellabout 10kgin one hand by your side. Keeping your torso erect and hips and shoulders level, walk 10 paces, then turn around and come back. Switch hands after each carry. If you lose stability, the exercise is done. Ideally, walk 10 paces 8 times.

It was a deadlift this time. There I was on the gym floor, half bent and looking like some sort of sick animal, afraid to stand up. Again. Last time it was moving a couch; before that it was reaching under a car seat; before that it was getting out of bed the wrong way. A familiar future unspooled before me: a week or two on the couch in cranky agony, a month of tenuous recovery, and, as with the approximately 80 percent of Americans who will suffer from back pain, a lifetime of knowing that ...

The Little-Known Muscle That's Probably Making Your Back Hurt

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