Brash barbs. A quick wit. Fast fists. Lavish watches. Whisky. Wayward shopping trolleys. Conor McGregor is known for many things but parenting advice is not really one of them.There may be more to the Irish mixed martial arts fighter (and businessman) than meets the eye, however.Enter: a video he posted to Instagram at the start of April, whilst eating lunch in Dubai. McGregor captioned the clip: “I love that my son has seen his father stick to a training and nutrition regimen most of his young life. Sure to rub off.”
Others, like fellow MMA fighters Kiefer Crosbie and Cian Cowley, quickly chimed in to show their support.
“It sure will champ.”“Yes bro, leading by example.”
Though a simple insight, McGregor actually pinpoints a crucial psychological and behaviour-building phenomenon any budding parent would do well to heed. It’s also not the first time in recent weeks he has shown off the time he has been spending with both his son and daughter.
“Depending on what you do or do not do,” the Center For Parenting Education writes, “You can be either: a very important protective factor (an environmental influence that protects against problem behaviour) or a very powerful risk factor (an environmental condition that is associated with an increase in problem behaviour).”Also important is to practice what you preach. According to Parenting Exchange.com, “Children are sensitive and astute with an uncanny ability to distinguish between adults who only talk a good game and those who play the game by the rules they preach.”
“Credible adults inspire kids’ confidence and admiration. Hypocrisy disillusions children and sends them looking for others to follow.”
There’s your Monday dose of inspiration, served hot. Now to read up on fitness and nutrition and you’re good to go.
The watch world has been in an absolute spin this week thanks to Watches & Wonders – the industry’s most important trade show and a week-long cornucopia of horological delights.Brands have been competing fiercely for their share of the spotlight and the first few days of the show were dominated by high-profile releases from the likes of Hermès,Patek Philippe and Rolex (just to name a few). The hype train’s chugging along at full steam – but it’s easy to get caught up in the flurry of it all and miss the really intriguing stuff.Case in point: Officine Panerai, who’s just gone and unveiled two of the most genuinely exciting and forward-thinking watches not only of the entire show but potentially of the year, that set a truly high water mark for sustainability in modern manufacturing.Let’s see why Panerai is deserving of your undivided attention.
Dolphin friendly dive watches
You’d think Panerai as a brand would be a bit more Arnold Schwarzenegger than Greta Thunberg, but you’d be mistaken. Actually, Panerai has long been a leader in sustainability within the watch industry, with their Panerai Ecologico initiative gaining critical acclaim.The iconoclastic Italian brand has upped the ante even further with their W&W headline release: the Submersible eLAB-ID, which Panerai describes as “the watch with the highest percentage of recycled-based material ever made”.98.6% of the weight of the watch – so the vast majority of the timepiece – is made from materials that are mostly recycled. Recycled titanium for the case, recycled plastic for the strap, recycled silicon in the movement, even recycled Super-LumiNova for its indices… From the sapphire crystal to the gold hands, most of the major components contain recycled-based material. L-R: the Submersible eLAB-ID (ref. PAM01225) and the Luminor Marina eSteel in ‘Blu Profondo’ (ref. PAM01157), ‘Verde Smeraldo’ (ref. PAM01356) and ‘Grigio Rocca’ (ref. PAM01358) respectively.It’s a real milestone. The watch industry is notoriously ecologically extractive, so to have a piece of precision engineering like a Panerai dive watch made virtually entirely from recycled materials – without any impact on performance or aesthetics – is truly impressive.Alongside the Submersible eLAB-ID, Panerai has also unveiled a trio of Luminor Marina models comprised of eSteel, a recycled-based steel alloy. Available in blue, green and grey, recycled-based materials comprise 58.4% of the total weight of the watches – less than the Submersible but still incredibly impressive.RELATED: ‘Save The Divers’: The Sustainable Trend Innovative Watch Brands Are Following
Getting technical
Panerai also unveiled a bevy of new Luminor Chrono models: three non-limited and two limited editions respectively. All four boast a new movement, the P.9200 calibre, as well as an impressive 100m water resistance (you’d expect nothing less from a brand famous for their deep-sea dwelling watches).The main-line Luminor Chrono is available in three colours: black or white with matte dials or blue with a satiné soleil finished number. The black and white come on alligator leather straps (with an additional rubber strap) but the blue comes exclusively with a stainless steel bracelet.Joining them is the Luminor Chrono Luna Rossa, another limited edition celebrating the Florentine brand’s relationship with the eponymous Italian racing yacht team. Unlike the other Luna Rossa editions Panerai has released thus far, this one has a more traditional look with a steel case, blue dial and fabric/rubber strap.RELATED: Inside Luxury Watchmaker Panerai’s Exclusive Partnership With The America’s Cup’s Coolest TeamL-R: the Luminor Chrono in white (ref. PAM01218), the Luminor Chrono Luna Rossa (ref. PAM01303), the Luminor Chrono Monopulsante GMT Blu Notte (ref. PAM01135) and the Submersible Bronzo Blu Abisso (ref. PAM01074).Also impressive is the Luminor Chrono Monopulsante GMT Blu Notte, which boasts not only a chronograph function but a GMT function and distinctive linear power reserve indicator. The black sandblasted ceramic that forms its case pairs beautifully with the Blu Notte dial that informs the model’s name.
Back in bronze
Panerai is one of only a few mainstream luxury watch brands that make watches with bronze, with the original ref. PAM382 Bronzo a real innovator in that regard. It’s an unusual material to make a watch out, particularly one that’s likely to see a lot of action in the water as bronze is more reactive than steel or titanium, for example, and develops a patina very quickly.But that’s entirely the point of Panerai’s bronze watches: the idea is that they tarnish quickly and distinctively, meaning your bronze watch is entirely unique. Bronze is also a material that is commonly associated with ocean-going: the core of Panerai’s brand identity.W&W saw Panerai unveil the Submersible Bronzo Blu Abisso, which unlike previous Bronzo models comes in a remarkably small (for Panerai at least) 42mm. The dark blue pairs wonderfully with the bronze but it’s no mere art piece: water-resistant to 300m, it’s a proper dive watch and a nice alternative to the legions of carbon-copy 42mm dive watches out of Switzerland’s lofty manufactures.For more technical details on Panerai’s latest mechanical marvels, head to their online boutique.
Guys only want one thing…and it’s a huge chest. Step foot in any gym and you’ll see a swarm of guys hogging the weights floor and huddling around the mirrors so they can see their chests pop in all their veiny glory. This behaviour is most commonly observed on Mondays, otherwise known as international chest day.But while you may think you have a pretty solid chest program nailed down, which likely includes bench pressing, dumbbell presses and cable flys, there are some techniques you may not have known or thought about, that can bring you a chest the size of which knows no bounds. And where do you find such information? From none other than crazy German bodybuilder Jo Lindner.The muscle mountain from Deutschland features regularly on our pages here at DMARGE, not just because of his incredible workout insights, but also for the way he puts that information across. If you’ve never seen his videos before, you’ll soon understand why we find him so endearing. Always one to help motivate us in the gym, Jo’s latest advice will see you getting yourself a huge chest in no time.His techniques are surprisingly simple too. Take the cable fly for example. Most guys will follow a routine movement of having their arms bent at the elbow and pushing forward. Jo says that just by changing the angle of your hands, or the positioning of your elbows, can have dramatic effects on the area of your chest that is targeted. His main bit of advice is to try and get your elbows to touch. He admits this isn’t possible, but if you imagine in your mind that they can, and put them into a position that brings them as close together as possible, then you’ll reap the rewards.He adds, “one thing that people often forget is we have the positive rep and the negative rep. Proper breathing is important. Breathe out when you’re pushing it [your arms] together.”“That’s very important. The other thing is time under tension, the time that each rep actually takes. You see people in the gym doing it extremely fast and you see others doing it extremely slow.”
“For me, I always count in my head, one, two, three, four, five, six. You also want to hold it [at the top of the rep] for two seconds. Why is that important? Because you want to feel it all the way [through the movement].”
Not only is elbow and hand positioning important, says Jo, but your whole body positioning needs to be spot on too. You want to make sure you’ve got your traps locked down, your head up and your chest up. No leaning forward. Doing this places more tension on the chest, which results in the muscle being worked far harder.
“In order to get these massive pecs, you need to isolate them.”
“You have your compound movements, your bench press and things like that, but you need your isolation movements too. That is why cables are just so good.”The full video – just over 7 minutes – is well worth a watch. He may not look entirely natural, but Jo really does know what he’s talking about, and could be the #FitnessInspo you’ve been searching for.A bulging chest awaits.
Mindfulness may have its roots in ancient wisdom – but it has become a fluffy buzzword.But sitting quietly behind the hyped apps, strict silent retreats and $79 yoga mats there are some practical – free – strategies anyone can use to start looking after themselves better.Enter: the following self-care strategy. Arriving at all your appointments 15 minutes early. Deceptively simple, the technique was brought to our attention by award-winning journalist turned media entrepreneur (and co-founder of The Travel Boot Camp) Georgia Rickard.Georgia shared the insight to Instagram, where it made us think twice – and not just because of our love of being fashionably late.RELATED: Psychologist Explains The Mindset Of Living In BondiThe Instagram story was captioned: “I read somewhere recently that one of the most inexpensive forms of self care you can offer yourself is to arrive 15 minutes early to all your appointments.”Intrigued, we called Georgia to ask where she came across the advice, and how it works.“I first came across this tip from a publishing acquaintance of mine, Lisa Messenger,” Georgia told us.“When I read that, I was being pulled in just a million different directions – launch parties, events, interviews, flights, speaking arrangements, corporate workshops; hosting gigs. Something inside me was really just deeply yearning to be still.”
“When I read that, it just smacked me in the face.”
“Self-care has become one of those buzzwords that people really like to bandy about as an excuse to eat the cake, or go shopping and you know, rack up some credit card debt. And I mean, those things can be important, right – joy is a very important aspect of self-care. But the flip side of the coin is also being disciplined.”
“You really need to learn how to take care of yourself… in a way that gives you space and time for rest. And for sleep. And for quiet. That really appealed.”
RELATED: Why We Should Be Wary Of Australia’s New ‘Self Care’ CultureAs for how it works, Georgia told us she doesn’t have an aggressive routine (“I’m not like, ‘Okay, you’ve got 15 minutes, now, you must set aside eight minutes to meditate!”) but it’s more just that when you add 15 minutes in between your appointments, it’s like adding a layer of bubble wrap around each area of your day.
“It’s like building in shock absorbers between each of the experiences that you’re going through and… gives you the space to not necessarily return to ‘Zen and peace,’ but to come back to yourself in the middle of the craziness.”
Georgia also said decompressing regularly throughout the day reduces her need for one big decompression at night – something which, for many of us, can involve being tempted into counterproductive habits.
“Like so many of us, I’m very goal-oriented, very motivated; very interested in [high] achieving. If I don’t do that, then I find myself getting swept up in the day and then it gets to the end of the day, and I find it really hard to just chill out. And prior to implementing micro-moments or slowing down, I was definitely the girl who would do stuff on the coffee in the morning and then calm down with wine in the evening.”
“I still do that – I’m not some Zen master now. But I probably only have one coffee a day now. And I really only drink three nights a week.”
“It’s often when you withdraw into yourself, or you kind of relax when you pull back, that’s when you actually find the energy and the power to go out and kick goals and actually really enjoy high energy levels.”
“Pull back to push forward.”
“I definitely still have times where I forget to schedule 15 minutes in. And when I don’t, I get to the end of the day, and I find it much harder to come down.”
“[This strategy] helps me stay more connected to myself, and therefore able to make better micro-decisions that add up to a better quality of life.”
“If I stop for 15 minutes before I go into a lunch meeting, then I might decide at that lunch meeting not to order a glass of wine – because I’ve taken 15 minutes to decompress.”“Whereas if I’m frantically running from appointment to appointment, I might collapse at the table and go: ‘Give me a Chardonnay.’ So they’re not huge changes, but the quality of our lives can be measured in those incremental inches, and all those micro-decisions that you make each day are often the things that make the biggest difference over time.”
“If you can improve 1% each day for a year, then you’ve improved 365%.”
Who knows: it may even be possible that – done right – micro-moments and micro self-care could help dig you out of a rut you thought you needed a round the world plane ticket to escape from (even though, as Georgia points out, they are not a silver bullet solution, but rather one small, positive strategy that can incrementally improve your life).“Where a lot of people really go wrong, when they think, ‘I need a break’ is they think that they need to do something really extreme like, ‘I need to be really quiet all weekend,’ or ‘I need to lock myself in a dark room and sleep for 14 hours’ or ‘I need a gap year,'” Georgia told us.“We go through these quite extreme periods where we end up with exhaustion and burnout. But if you can master the art of threading small but consistent moments of stillness through your day, you become much more even – and much more able to execute at a much higher gradient, more consistently throughout your life.”Dr Lars Madsen, a clinical psychologist, who sits on the board of the mental health charity The Mindshift Foundation, spoke to DMARGE about self-care last year, and also highlighted the importance of design.
“These habits require a person to do some planning. It’s not something that happens automatically. Also, it requires a degree of self discipline: ‘I’m going to exercise now because it’s good for me, because it’s good to manage my stress, even though right now I don’t feel like exercising.’”
Real self-care, Lars told us, is about being good to yourself, and finding a healthy balance between making progress on the areas of your life you have control over, and rewarding yourself in a constructive manner.In other words: if you ‘decompress’ too quickly, you’ll get the bends (and throw your organic kale smoothie out the window).Lars said that to give yourself the best shot at achieving a good balance, it helps to build activities into your day that “relate to enduring and longer-term benefits” – be that physical, psychological or emotional.RELATED: The ‘No Fuss’ Australian Meditation Trend America Could Learn FromThis typically means “things like exercise, meditation, maintaining a good diet, restricting your amount of alcohol and drugs, getting a good night’s sleep, avoiding toxic people, reaching out to people back home and talking about your problems [with a trusted friend or family member, or even a professional].”“Self-indulgence, rather, is a much more short term focus: I just want to feel good right now. It’s uncomplicated and not really about any longer-term goals: eating the cake, getting drunk, things like that,” Lars told DMARGE.
“We can still do those things, but the consequence exists on a sliding scale – if you persist then the consequence is typically negative and not in the interests of self-care at all.”
Stick that in your wine glass and drink it. Maybe it’s time to re-organise your calendar?
Cacti. Linen. Orchids. Succulents. Macro crocodile skin wallpaper. These items are scarce in the modern man’s bachelor pad.
After growing up on Kitsch horror stories of tastelessly decorated bedrooms, gaudy (not Gaudi) hallways and cheap living rooms full of replica mid century “designer classics” we have been brow-breaten into the “grey, beige, white” palette, and taught that to stray from this urban colour scheme could result in having our “stylish man” status revoked.
Although the postmodernists claim there is no such thing as objective truth, when you bring a girl back to your bachelor pad, only to trip over the milk crate you’ve been using as a chair and land on the two-minute noodles you forgot to clear up, her departure will feel all too real.
So today we’re going to show you how to strike a balance between function and style, complement and contrast, and flashy vs. understated. Remember: your bachelor pad is your temple—so build it wisely.
We’re going to help you give it a facelift, with the help of Darren Palmer, an interior designer and TV personality from Australia’s best known renovation reality show, The Block.
And if anyone knows how interior design can change your life, it’s Darren, who in addition to working with hundreds of high-profile clients over the years, transformed a 1930’s art deco apartment in Potts Point (his bachelor pad of three years, back in 2010) into the ultimate single man’s abode.
He tells us how he lived in “this white box” for 3 years, always intending to turn it into ideal bachelor pad. “Then i started the reno: putting down tallow wood, even applying it to the walls so that the whole colour scheme was black and tallow wood, installing macro crocodile skin wallpaper, a black kitchen, and a big vinyl mural of a stallion against a black background, which subtly integrated into the kitchen.”
He also added “lovely touch points” like glass-cloth paper and timber. However there was one problem: “I was married by the time it was finished—so i never got to sleep in it, and in the end it was not my bachelor pad after all…”
Apart from impacting your dating life, doing up your apartment can also make your property more valuable, and make you feel better about yourself. And the best way to start, a key design principle, is the idea of complement vs. contrast.
The key to this, says Darren, is, “Understanding that most things need to tie together.” Although there is no sure fire ratio (it depends both on the space, and personal preference), as a general rule between 60% and 90% of your home decor should be complementary (linked in some way, whether by colour or texture).
But on the flip-side: “You absolutely need contrast in any great interior,” says Darren, “Because that’s the stuff that pops.”
“It’s like, if you’re going to the races: you could wear a beige suit with a white shirt and if you have the right accessories that will make the whole outfit work—but if everything was beige you’d look washed out. It’s exactly the same with your house.”
According to him, a common mistake is that, “Everybody goes to this place of buying things that are in the grey, beige, white neutral palette because that’s safe and familiar.” But what people forget is, “You need touch points like different textures, black, metallics, timber, stone and leather.”
“All of these things you can add in there add interest and contrast to a neutral palette.”
If you are looking for homewares like this, his range at Myer has a lot of brass and black items, which make for great decorations (like the white and gold bar kit, and black trays) and are interesting touch points for any bachelor pad.
If you’re feeling brave, you could even chuck in some Dina Broadhurst prints…
As for furniture, he says it doesn’t matter so much if you go cheap or expensive, as long as it’s not a knock off.
“I would steer people away from replica mid century designer classics because they look cheap.”
He also says that Australian brands like Jardan and Mark Tuckey have great features, which are locally designed, made for our aesthetics, and look good in men’s houses.
Another crucial feature to remember is the bedroom. We all know the key to seduction is between the sheets, but to make the ultimate statement as a lover (and a designer) Darrren says his “insane” linen could give you that extra special edge over the guy she tells you not to worry about…
On that note, he then told us that you want your man cave to be versatile, as well as homely: “Make it appropriate for everybody that would be there (or at least, for the sort of people who you want to be there).”
“If you’re going to invite anybody into your nest, it also has to appeal to them.”
To achieve this is actually quite simple: “Having scented candles, flowers, or if that’s too soft for your liking, black succulents and cacti also look good and are low maintenance.” Other (impressive) hard to kill items include “a good fern on the dining table” or “a potted orchid” that will last you two months of flowering a year “if you just water it once a week.”
If you would like to know about these tricks and tips in more detail, or are an aspiring interior designer yourself, Darren has just updated his online platform for interiors (it has been around since 2006, and has helped over 50,000 people worldwide).
Since September this year Darren has added a Master Series of 15 videos, created in partnership with The Interior Design Institute, each one aligned with the module in his course that you can enrol in for $62.46 per week. These excerpts give you an insight into Darren’s unique point of view and career experience, including everything he has learnt along the way, and is aimed at people interested in interior design either as a hobby and a profession, who want to learn online at their own pace.
“If you want to get into styling or just make your own home look nice,” Darren explains, this course could be for you.
“Understand how to make your bachelor pad not just a white box.”
He says it will also teach you how to shop well, what to shop for, the foundations of interior design, and how to understand lighting, furniture placement, planning, and then apply your own style to your home.”
When Kylian Mbappé first played for Paris Saint-Germain back in 2017, it was a rare homecoming moment in the very international world of professional football.A native of the City of Lights, Mbappé has proven to be a real asset for his team and French football more broadly: since he’s been with PSG, he’s been incredibly successful, breaking records after records and also securing a spot on the French national team. Mbappé’s forthright personality and indisputable skills have garnered him praise throughout the footballing world, and he’s inarguably one of the sport’s biggest talents.He might also be one of the sport’s most stylish figures – although you’d expect nothing less from a Parisian gentleman. Just take this outfit he was rocking just before PSG’s quarter-final match against legendary German team Bayern Munich on Thursday morning. An effortless blend of high and casual fashion, Mbappé’s understated style proves that Parisians really do know how to dress.
Blending elements of both high and ‘low’ fashion in a characteristically playful way, Mbappé paired a slim Hugo Boss suit, dark cardigan and white collared shirt (very classy) with some Nike Dunk Low sneakers (the ‘People’s Jordans’); a PSG cap and mask (gotta rep the team) and what looks like a Hublot Big Bang chronograph of some description (we reckon) it’s the Original Steel 44mm).RELATED: Lapo Elkann’s ‘Millennial Pink’ Hublot Big Bang May Be The Most Underrated Watch Release Of 2020The only thing more brilliant than Mbappé’s sartorial chops was his performance against Bayern, actually. PSG triumphed over the Bavarians 3-2 to end their Champions League winning streak, with Mbappé scoring two of those goals.Mbappé was buoyant after the hard-fought match, relating “I love this type of game. They haven’t always gone my way and maybe they won’t in the future, but I’m not here to hide. I love this kind of game and being decisive,” BBC Sport reports.PSG’s next game will be a Ligue 1 matchup against Strasbourg on Sunday, followed by a second Champions League game against Bayern on Wednesday.
We may not be a global powerhouse of Big Macs or blockbusters, but there are a few areas Australia leads the world in – rock/reggae fusion, coffee snobbery, activewear, waterfall chasing, abusing the word wholesome; brunch.There may now be another feather we can add to that cap – making meditation cool again.RELATED: ‘Unfairly Maligned’ Bondi Trend The Rest Of The Australia Can Learn FromAustralians are getting more into meditation than ever. Rather than it be a ~cringe~ hobby some Silicon Valley millionaire says you should be doing, it’s now more and more just a casual activity you see people doing on the grass (or at the beach).Speaking of Silicon Valley millionaires… People call you crazy until they call you right. So even though you might roll your eyes at aspects of ‘LA inspired’ Bondi, Byron, Bali triangle, where much of our ‘spiritual’ rhetoric comes from, they aren’t the only ones doing it – and there are some huge lessons we can take from them.One of them is to care less about what people think. Another is to learn to meditate.To get some top tips on being in the moment, DMARGE recently spoke to Australian big wave surfer, author, keynote speaker and Lexus Australia ambassador Mark Visser, who told us the key to getting started is to realise meditation not a limited thing.Mark is the creator of the Elite Mindset program, a system that helps you unleash your inner demons usefully. Mark has also, among other things, spent 18 months with a professor in the forest of Ubud, as well as worked with the likes of Kelly Slater, the Melbourne Demons AFL team, and the Australian Military.“I think it’s awesome that people are taking the time to just check in with themselves,” Mark told DMARGE of the growing trend of beach meditation.“When I first started working in this space, when someone said to me that I had to meditate, I found it almost a little bit of rigid in the sense that I felt like I had to follow a certain set of rules.”“But the cool thing about meditation or, or whatever you want to call it, is all you’re really doing is checking in with yourself. There’s no set way to do that. So it’s awesome that people are starting in a way and figuring out what that way is, and whether that’s sitting on the [meditation mile] wall at Bondi, and that’s their first exposure to it then that’s fantastic.”
In other words: it doesn’t matter so much how you get there, so long as you can simply “be.”“Meditation can be a form of just getting out of the thinking mind. And that can be done by going surfing, it can be done by going for a walk, and it can even be done, you know, by a quiet drive out to the countryside or up in the hills,” Mark told us.“But really tuning in on things is key. Like now you might be listening to the sound of wheels going over gravel, or feeling your feet as they crest through sand when you walk or if you’re walking on grass – the blades of grass, connecting to to your feet.”Many of us, to an extent, actually practise a certain type of meditation, then, without knowing it. Just take the Australian ritual (among some) of going for a daily morning swim even in winter (a coastal retiree favourite).As we reported last year, this winter act of worship is sculpted into the Australian psyche to the point where even those that are on a bus at 7am (and slumped in the office by 9am) follow accounts like Sprout Daily and Morning Bondi to get their daily dose (when they can’t physically make it down).RELATED: Photographer Reveals The Australian Winter Ritual Americans Will Never UnderstandAs Mark told us: “One of my coaches many years ago told me when you’re really stuck in your head, or when you’ve got a lot of stuff going on, ‘Tell me what grass feels like.’ And I remember just going ‘that’s the stupidest thing ever.’ But he was like, ‘No, no, seriously, tell me what grass feels like.’ And he wanted me to actually be able to walk along grass and be able to feel it.”
“So my understanding of meditation is not necessarily sitting there and saying ‘omm’, or whatever it is that it’s perceived that you might need to do, it’s really about connecting to yourself.”
Watching the waves could even count as meditation too… Image: South Avalon carpark, shot by DMARGE.“How you do that is starting with finding the ability to feel and that might be simply noticing the wind on the back of your neck or through your hair or the numbness of your feet where they are connected to the ground.”“But it’s hard to notice – to actually feel that – when there’s so much noise going on through your mind. So the principle of feeling the grass blades was really all about just almost closing your eyes and feeling and walking slow to the point where you can go: ‘okay, I can actually feel the grass.'”
“When I could feel the grass and really tune into that feeling and completely stop thinking and stopped worrying about whatever it was is I had to switch off.”
“That’s the cool thing: it doesn’t have to be a set way. Meditation can be done by playing music. It can be done by, you know, spending time with friends. And it might be just going for a bike ride or doing all those other things that I mentioned before.”
“It’s really finding an opportunity where you can just be in the moment – where you’re present and you’re not doing anything other than just being aware of what’s happening right now.”
Meditation can also open your mind to all sorts of new ways of thinking, clarify your goals, and in the long run materially improve your life. Mark tells DMARGE that was the case with him, with meditation helping him find synchronicity in his personal and professional life.
“For me, being able to work with a company where we have the same ways of doing things [is great]. For example, Lexus has these programmes called, Encore Programmes where they give super value to people. For me to be able to work with companies that do that, it’s really important.”
What if you’re one of those people who struggles to be “in the moment” though, and spends dawn until dusk either working or replacing your inner monologue with entertainment like music, podcasts and Netflix?“It’s just like strength training,” Mark said. “I’d switch off for like, a minute at a time, and then all of a sudden totally want to watch what was on TV, or I was on Instagram, or I was sucked into Facebook.”“Then the next day, you might be like, ‘cool, I’m just gonna give it two minutes.’ So it’s conditioning. And I remember for me, I have a highly active mind. When I started getting involved in the underwater training and things that I was doing, I found it almost impossible to relax and stay still.”“But over time, the mind is almost like a muscle that needs training. My advice would be: you don’t have to go straight into some kind of 30-minute hardcore thing. Just ease your way into it and work off the principle of what feels good [while also setting yourself little goals of time increment].”Focussing on breathing can also help you improve at this, Mark said, explaining: “there’s a great technique that you can do by breathing in through your nose, and out of your mouth.”
“By going in through your nose, it activates different nervous systems. And what that does is allow you to see things really rationally and really calmly. But it also allows you to open up your peripheral vision. And you can actually access that just by breathing through your mouth.”
Mark also emphasises not to put too much pressure on yourself, and to cut yourself slack, in the knowledge you can always try again next time.Interest piqued? We recommend checking out Mark’s Elite Mindset program, or tuning into one of the many guided meditation sessions now available online (see Australian surfing legend Tom Carroll’s below).
We’re now three days into Watches & Wonders, the watch industry’s most important trade show, and hype among watch fans is now at a fever pitch.Dozens of brands and hundreds of new watches of all different shapes, sizes and functions have been revealed thus far, but some of the most exciting releases have been dive watches, such as those unveiled by Oris, Panerai and Tudor.You can add TAG Heuer to that list, too, as their W&W reveal – the new Aquaracer Professional 300 diver’s watch – has raised the stakes even higher.With eight new models (including one limited edition), this Aquaracer update is a lot to take in. So let’s dive in. Pun entirely intended.
The main event
The lynchpin of TAG Heuer’s Aquaracer update is the four new 43mm models that form the core of the collection. Four colour combinations are available: a black dial/black bezel (ref. WBP201A.BA0632), a blue dial/blue bezel (ref. WBP201B.BA0632), a silver dial/black bezel (ref. WBP201C.BA0632) and a green dial/green bezel (ref. WBP208B.BF0631).The green stands out not only because of its verdant colour but also because it’s constructed from sand-blasted, grade 2 titanium instead of stainless steel (similar to the limited-edition Aquaracer Bamford TAG Heuer released last year). 2021 has truly proven to be the year of the green watch, with TAG Heuer joining brands like Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe on the green watch hype train at W&W 2021.RELATED: Australians Are Finally Becoming More Adventurous With Luxury WatchesCompared to the previous iteration of the Aquaracer, 2021’s update has seen TAG Heuer refine the Aquaracer’s ceramic bezel, which now features less recessed and sleeker graduations; a more angular, modern overall design; and grippier facets, facilitating greater ease of adjustment. The case is also somewhat slimmer, lighter, and shorter lug-to-lug.The face of the watch, too, features plenty of changes. Most notably, the angular indices of the older model have been swapped out for octagonal numbers that evoke classic dive watch styles with a subtle, individual touch. The date window has been moved from 3 to 6 o’clock, with its cyclops lens now sporting a perfectly spherical design. The hands have also been tweaked: they’re now smaller overall, with the hour hand becoming tapered instead of boxy.Top L-R: the 43mm models in black (ref. WBP201A.BA0632), blue (ref. WBP201B.BA0632), silver (ref. WBP201C.BA0632) and green (ref. WBP208B.BF0631). Bottom L-R: the 36mm models in blue (ref. WBP231B.BA0618), silver (ref. WBP231C.BA0626) and black (ref.WBP231D.BA0626); and the 43mm ‘Tribute to Ref. 844’ limited edition (ref. WBP208C.FT6201).But they haven’t thrown the baby out with the bathwater. The dial might longer read ‘Calibre 5’ but that movement still powers the Aquaracer Professional 300: a hardy, tried-and-tested automatic calibre, it features a 38-hour power reserve. TAG Heuer’s clever metal bracelet stays the same, as does its 300m water resistance.
Something for everyone
On top of the 43mm models, TAG Heuer has also revealed three new 36mm models, which not only reflect the growing demand for smaller watch sizes among men but also how the typical gender roles are becoming increasingly blurred in modern horological fashion. Tastes are changing, people.The black dial/black bezel option (ref. WBP231D.BA0626) and the silver dial/black bezel option (ref. WBP231C.BA0626) are similar to their 43mm siblings but feature a few key differences: their dials feature a more abstract, wavy pattern instead of parallel lines, and the text reading ‘AUTOMATIC’ at 6 o’clock omits the orange colouration of the larger models.The blue dial/blue bezel option (ref. WBP231B.BA0618), however, features eight diamond indices: a subtle little touch of bling. You’d assume it would be aimed at a feminine audience but quite frankly, it’s so seamlessly introduced we could see even macho men wearing it. See our previous point about changing watch tastes.
A fitting tribute
TAG Heuer has also introduced a stylish limited-edition model named Aquaracer Professional 300 ‘Tribute to Ref. 844’ (ref. WBP208C.FT6201). As the name suggests, it pays homage to the fabled Heuer ref. 844 divers’ watch from 1978, while introducing some clever modern touches.
L-R: the original 1978 ref. 844 compared to 2021’s ‘Tribute to Ref. 844’.Its flat black dial shares the ref. 844’s iconic red 24-hour scale, and features aged lume indices for a nice vintage touch. Unlike the original, it boasts a titanium case as well as the modern Calibre 5 movement, and its very retro strap is made from rubber, instead of the original’s leather.The angular theme of the other 2021 Aquaracers finds its way onto this tribute model, too: the octagonal indices, the faceted bezel, even the perforations on the strap are octagonal. It also has the 6 o’clock date window design and location of the other 2021 models.It’s an exquisite homage to the classic ref. 844 that, refreshingly, doesn’t try too hard to emulate the original… It’s got the aesthetics of an old watch with all the quality-of-life of a modern one. Fittingly, only 844 examples of this timepiece will be made.RELATED: ‘Sporty’ Watch Selling Trick That Can Make You ThousandsAll in all, the new Aquaracer is a more refined, more stylish watch compared to its predecessors that keeps everything that was good about the old model and simply trims the fat. These eight models are all truly delightful – and we’re excited to put them on our wrist.
For anyone who has ever stepped foot in a gym, chances are they will have found themselves falling into one of two major camps. On one side, you have the gym-goers who just want to change the way they look and to become stronger, with a goal to perhaps improve their mental health. And on the other, you have the guys who want their muscles to have muscles; the ones who can’t not look at themselves in the mirror every 5 seconds and who believe that heavyweight bicep curls will get the girls. The ones going all out all session.You’d think the second attitude would be far more conducive to gains any day of the week. But that’s not so: as Canberra, Australia-based fitness coach Ben Griffin has recently taken to Instagram to explain, a lot of us are labouring under some misdirected myths.
Ben’s recent piece of sage advice tells us we shouldn’t always go 100% when we’re at the gym. “Most of what you do during training should be well within your limits”, he captions his post. “Sure, occasionally in some sessions you’ll push things a bit, but not every session.”
“You don’t need to max out every session (if at all actually), to get stronger and/or fitter.”
A daily reminder that simply lifting as much as we can possibly fathom won’t make us any stronger than the guy lifting a lighter load, but with the correct technique. It’s all about patience and being sensible so as to avoid injury.Need more proof? The Khabib vs. McGregor fight (and training strategies) comes to mind…RELATED: Under Training Is The Secret To Building Muscle; This Shredded UFC Fighter Proves WhyThis is something else Ben approaches in another Instagram post, claiming “a lot of people (young males in particular) go through a kind of meat head stage of training when they first start in a gym.”
“You think you know what you’re doing, but in reality, you have no idea. You don’t take the time to learn how to actually do any of the exercises, you just load as much weight on the bar as possible, as quick as possible and max out every session.”
“Often this ends in injury, of frustration, as you don’t really get anywhere with your training.”
Like we said, there are two main camps to potentially fall into. One man who has previously spruiked the benefits of going full beast mode and giving it your all, is David Goggins. Rather than just be yet another influencer with a decent body telling us how can get stronger, David can speak from genuine experience, being the only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller.Speaking to Joe Rogan on a previous episode of his eponymous podcast, David claimed we can’t expect to see results of any kind unless we push through the pain and do the work.“A lot of us are full of shit. We think we are doing more than what we truly are. We are under a false illusion that just because we are working, we deserve and are supposed to be exactly where we want to be in life,” he claimed.He applies this mindset to the gym, “Sometimes you need to just look at yourself when you are trying your hardest but still not succeeding and simply suck it up and say I still haven’t done enough. So when is it enough? Only you have the answer to that. What is ‘it’ worth to you?”RELATED: Psychologist Reveals Pros & Cons Of ‘Viking’ Mentality On Your Mental HealthThe goals you set yourself will likely influence which method of thinking you adopt, and even David admits his ‘suck it up’ mentality isn’t going to be for everyone. But at the same time, if you set yourself a goal and don’t hold yourself accountable if you don’t achieve it, you’ve only got yourself to blame.Now drop and give us 50.
L-R: the Submersible eLAB-ID (ref. PAM01225) and the Luminor Marina eSteel in ‘Blu Profondo’ (ref. PAM01157), ‘Verde Smeraldo’ (ref. PAM01356) and ‘Grigio Rocca’ (ref. PAM01358) respectively.It’s a real milestone. The watch industry is notoriously ecologically extractive, so to have a piece of precision engineering like a Panerai dive watch made virtually entirely from recycled materials – without any impact on performance or aesthetics – is truly impressive.Alongside the Submersible eLAB-ID, Panerai has also unveiled a trio of Luminor Marina models comprised of eSteel, a recycled-based steel alloy. Available in blue, green and grey, recycled-based materials comprise 58.4% of the total weight of the watches – less than the Submersible but still incredibly impressive.RELATED: ‘Save The Divers’: The Sustainable Trend Innovative Watch Brands Are Following
