Sommaire pour October 2015 de Maxim

MUSCLE IS WHAT enables us to run faster, jump higher, lift heavier, or—as the beautiful Ronda Rousey demonstrates every time she squares off in the Octagon—pummel our foes. It can also be a certain kind of guy for hire. But most important, muscle is proof that we’re stronger than excuses, and that we’re willing to suffer for our goals. Our bodies, after all, are made to come back stronger; hard work damages the muscle fiber, which grows bigger as it heals. This is why muscle matters: It’s the result of sacrifice. Nothing good comes easy. The people in this issue exemplify this truth. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who applied the same focus and determination he honed as a professional bodybuilder to triumph as both an actor and a politician, is this month’s…

Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk’s sporty tip on how to improve bar selfies? Bring a ridiculously large trophy. EVERYONE I MEET ON BOOK TOURS wants a selfie, and the best selfies suggest a story larger than two people standing together. A photo prop makes all the difference. On tour for my novel Pygmy, I commissioned a towering trophy consisting of gilded columns and winged angels. It broke down into pieces that fit in my suitcase, and the afternoon before each event I’d sit in my hotel room like a sniper, assembling the threaded rods and marble slabs until the trophy stood taller than most people. The final touch was looping prize ribbons and medals all over it. For each photo, I’d pretend to be presenting it to a happy winner…

I IS 15 YARDS TOO EASY? Judge for yourself: We calculate kickers’ success rates from different yardages and how many game outcomes per season might be impacted by missed extra points. II GO FOR TWO! A smart, aggressive coach could change the game by following the math. Consider: Two-point conversions succeeded about 47 percent of the time, which means they produced an average of 0.94 points. Extra-point kicks from the 2-yard line scored better, with an average of 0.99 points. But kicks from the 15 are less accurate, meaning... STATISTICALLY, GOING FOR TWO NOW PRODUCES MORE POINTS THAN AN EXTRAPOINT KICK. III GAMES LOST BY A MISSED EXTRA POINT AT THE 2...AND HOW HISTORY MIGHT HAVE CHANGED AT THE 15 Few games were lost on a botched extra point—but it…

THEY CALL them dumbbells for a reason. For most, the rusty-steel, scuffed-rubber gym weights feel like an obligation, a haunting specter of would-be exertion that sit in boxes under beds, mocking New Year’s resolutions that have come and gone. They are weights, physically and metaphorically. That, anyway, is how Toronto-based designer Joseph Aaron Klinsky, of JAK Atelier, saw it. A few summers ago, the chef-turned-renovator-turnedcraftsman added exercise to his ever-expanding to-do list but was disappointed by the pedestrian design of most workout gear. And so Klinsky began his quest to—yes—raise the bar. His reimagined dumbbell is grounding, elemental, and beautiful. The soapstone weights are fitted over a wooden bar fashioned from North American black walnut, which will oxidize and darken with age— complete with screw-on end caps so the load…

SHE SAID IF YOUR lady friend is calling you out by @-sign, unfriend her: Outing a hookup buddy is taking the classic toenail-painting gossip sesh too far. You might as well do the deed in the middle of Grand Central at rush hour. At least someone might throw you a buck. But if you’re just talking about a harmless subtweet, let it go. Paying for the ride back to your apartment was a nice gesture, but if you want to obtain a signed and notarized NDA before you get busy, you’d better have a few Oscars on the nightstand, or at least a Moonman. Expecting a woman to give you control of her social media flow presumes a level of intimacy that you simply haven’t earned. It’s like trying for…

YOU MAY KNOW Keke Palmer as that child star who grew up to be the woman of your dreams. In that case, cue the night terrors. “I did a horror movie before this, and I loved it, loved it, loved it,” says the 21-year-old actress from the set of Scream Queens, a slasher-comedy series premiering on FOX this month. “I just want to keep doing more.” Born in the suburbs of South Chicago, Palmer has always been good at getting what she wants. After starring in her first Hollywood film, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, at age nine, she convinced her family to relocate to L.A. so she could pursue an acting career. And she’s been unstoppable ever since. On top of her four dozen–plus acting credits (she’s had recurring…

THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF BEER, broadly speaking: lagers and ales. And for most craft-beer drinkers, one is seen as clearly inferior. “People once rejected lager as the symbol of the evil big brewers,” explains Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery. And that’s why, as craft brewing transformed American beer, innovative beer-makers built their movement around classic ales instead. “But the view these days is much more nuanced. More people understand and recognize a well-brewed lager as a beautiful thing,” says Oliver, who makes his own, Brooklyn Lager. So now a new movement has begun: There are roughly 1,000 more breweries making lager today than there were in 2011, says Bart Watson, Ph.D., chief economist at the Brewers Association. This is your guide to the best of them. India Pale…

The back lot at Bodie Stroud Industries may look like a junkyard, but each junker is potentially worth millions. Surrounded by tall fencing, it’s cluttered with cars that are torn in half, parts broken beyond recognition, and stacks of bumpers. A 352 Ford V-8 engine dangles from a chain hoist, a motor without a home. The junk, the cars, the tools, and even the workers—there are eight of them today, wearing respirators and Mechanix gloves, sanding, shaping, tearing, bending, spraying, and turning wrenches—are covered in dust from the concrete factories that pervade this very industrial, very hellish corridor of the sun-blasted San Fernando Valley. To look at the plain exterior of BSI and its grim surroundings, you might never guess that Johnny Knoxville was here not long ago to pick…

What? How strong do you need to be to physically break someone’s bed? On a scale of one to Schwarzenegger, he was probably about a six. But I remember watching him have to turn slightly sideways to fit through a door frame. It was pretty hard not to notice him. Where was that? I met him at a rooftop beer bar a few summers ago. I was with some friends, and he walked over and sat right next to me and started talking like he’d been part of our group the whole time. That’s never happened to me before. Bold move. I don’t mind a bold gesture now and then, if you can back it up with personality. Though in this case the biceps helped. He told me he worked…

BUILDING a perfect body is ultimately a lot like making a beautiful sand castle. Part of what’s cool about sand castles, especially the more elaborate ones, is that we know they’re not going to be around for long. When it comes to our bodies, that’s something we like to ignore. The difference between building beautiful bodies and making sand castles, of course, is that no one is going to want to fuck you just because you made an awesome sand castle. (That might happen, but it’s much more likely you’ll be struck by lightning and then immediately eaten by bears.) Building a good physique, on the other hand, is pretty much all you need to do to ensure that someone, somewhere will want to have sex with you. What’s strange…

ON A CLEAR SUMMER MORNING in downtown Manhattan, an SUV pulls up outside an empty basketball court. Twins—two absolute giants of men—exit the car and make their way toward the blacktop, each holding on to new basketball shoes. One, Brook Lopez, is a Brooklyn Net. The other, Robin Lopez, is a newly minted New York Knick. And they’re about to begin what is, technically speaking, the very first hometown face-off of their professional careers—and a media storm that will likely consume them all season. Get ready, New York City: Your newest, greatest cross-city rivals are about to play H-O-R-S-E. “These are actually my brother’s shoes,” Robin says, as he warms up. “I don’t have any of my things here yet. Luckily, we’re the same size.” (That’s size 20.) All right,…

TYPOGRAPHY BY STUDIO MY NAME IS WENDY 1 THE SINGER THE MUSIC FORECAST CALLS FOR SNOH. SIGNED TO SONY AT 14, Snoh Aalegra spent her teens in the studio, honing hypnotic, soulful sounds that led to collaborations with hiphop legends No I.D. and Common. The chanteuse has been writing love songs since before she knew what they meant, but for her new EP—and debut album to follow— she drew on personal experience. “I’m writing about things in my life now,” she says. “And I’m a hopeless romantic.” —Mikelle Street 2 THE MATCHUP BROLIN VS. BROLIN NEVER MIND THE Avengers vs. Ultron. The year’s ultimate cinematic battle will take place September 18. In one corner: a sturdy, square-jawed leading man playing a sketchy military contractor. In the other corner: same dude,…

IT’S TIME TO MAN UP AND ADMIT IT: We’re turned on by a woman who can shove us across a bedroom. Consider the visual majesty of undefeated UFC superstar Ronda Rousey, whose stirring Valkyrie visage is even more beautiful than the perfectly executed arm bar that vanquishes her hapless opponents. Or American Ninja Warrior’s “Mighty” Kacy Catanzaro, the tiny gymnast with a rippling bod of steel who jumped and climbed her way to glory as the first woman to finish the notoriously tough obstacle course. Then there are the untold legions of distractingly toned fitness models on Instagram, whose ripped physiques recall the bodaciously buff Jen Selter far more than those bulky lady bodybuilders of yore. No question, muscular babes are enjoying an appreciation not seen since Lucy Lawless kicked…

“LET’S GO! It’s time to fucking get ready! Stop dicking around,” pitching coach Billy Bryk yells, stomping into the Frontier Greys locker room. In an hour, his guys will be taking on the Slammers of Joliet, Illinois, a team named in honor of the local prison. They are professional baseball players, technically in the minor leagues, though on the lowest rung. And few are dressed. They’re mostly all joking about a tray of…corn dogs? Nobody’s sure what to call it. It’s a mound of lukewarm hot dogs dumped atop a bed of what is surely canned corn, left on a table in their locker room. The Greys’ pregame diet is entirely dependent upon the whims of the host team. A few guys had tried the grub and spat it out.…

WHAT SEALED THE DEAL WITH YOUR LAST ONE-NIGHT STAND? 1. He invited me to play hooky for the day with him 2. Too much wine 3. He wore a uniform. God bless the troops 4. I playfully hit him and felt nothing but muscle, and thought: ooh! 5. He was an Italian in Italy, and I was drunk 6. He promised breakfast the next morning 7. He told me he loved my butt and my eyes— in that order 8. I was horny and knew he was easy 9. He stuck up for me in a fight 10. He bought a painting from my art show anonymously and left a note requesting I personally deliver it 11. We drank all night like rock stars. Then I took him home, and…