...Hot To Take a Punch Like a Hunk
If you want to be the hit of the party, point to the biggest guy and tell him to take his best shot at your abs. Here are some tips for withstanding his wallop.
— Aaron Rowe
1. Train for strength and speed.
Do lots of crunches, supplemented with plyometrics — exercises that help you contract muscles quickly. Lie on your back and have someone drop a medicine ball onto your abs.
2. Pick the target.
Have the bruiser aim at the center of your abdomen. If the blow lands too high or too far right, it could rattle your liver. To the left, it could squish your spleen. Too low? Busted bladderville.
3. Breathe out and tighten up.
When the incoming haymaker is just about to connect, tighten your tummy muscles to help absorb the impact and exhale hard so it can't knock the wind out of you.
4. Bend like the willow.
Whatever you do, don't try to hold your ground — let the force of the slug push you backward. As the immortal bard Diamond Dave once said, "You've got to roll with the punches to get to what's real."
...How To Chase Storms
Tracking twisters and catching lightning in a Flip cam is as much art as science. Just ask Jim Reed, author of Storm Chaser: A Photographer's Journey. We did.
— Mathew Honan
Get in its path. "It's less about chasing and more about intercepting," Reed says. Rather than play catch-up, ride alongside a developing storm, then pull out in front when it's going strong. Bring an old-school NOAA weather radio for over-the-air updates.
Unpimp your ride. Storm chasing is hard on a vehicle, even if you don't hydroplane off the road, suffer lightning strikes, or get submerged in rapidly rising waters. "Your car gets destroyed by large hailstones," Reed says. Drive a beater.
Try not to die. Stop chasing and start fleeing when lightning is coming about every 15 seconds or when you see a hail core — the most intense precipitation that falls in a violent sheet. It's also wise to retreat anytime debris starts flying. "You don't want to have a golf ball come through your chest," Reed says.
...How To Hold Your Breath for a Really Long Time
Magician David Blaine has gone without oxygen underwater for a world record 17 minutes. Here's how he did it. 1. Hyperventilate. The buildup of CO2 in your lungs can get just as painful as the lack of oxygen. Purge as much as you can before you begin. Repeatedly exhale and inhale. Hard. Imagine you're trying to blow a toy sailboat away from you. 2. Practice. Right before you go for the record, alternate several rounds of purging, holding, and deep breathing. Make the first hold about 90 seconds and build up to about 75 percent of your goal. Then take an extremely deep breath — a hit of pure oxygen if you've got it — and submerge. __3. Go limp.__The less you move, the less oxygen you'll need. There will be pain. Lots of it. And then comes tingling in your extremities. (That's your body redirecting O2 to your vitals.) Quit when the pain is unbearable. Don't try this alone.
— Aaron Rowe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFnGhrC_3Gs
