Men's Health (1-year auto-renewal) [Print + Kindle]

As a regular reader of "Men's Health," I have long enjoyed its articles for their entertaining style and the useful information contained in its pages. After several years, however, it has become obvious that there are only so many abs exercises, or amusing sex tips, or ways to portray men as charmingly stupid. I realize that I no longer need to buy the magazine as I can just look at the back issues I have instead. It covers the basics well, but does it over and over, so my advice is to enjoy it for a year and then go on to more advanced things on your own.

I've enjoyed subscribing to Men's Health magazine in the past but I had to stop to prevent being sold products and renewals without my authorization. Be aware that with your subscription, they will automatically renew your subscription "for your convenience" and bill you accordingly.

Also, I would receive post-card notices in the mail about their latest fitness guide ($28) and how I can "preview" it for 21 days. Of course, I think not and toss the card out. Too bad I didn't pay close enough attention. I have to fill out and send the card back in order to decline. The fitness guide shows up in the mail and I have 21 days to repack it and ship it back. They got me with two of them (I admit, I did fail to get it shipped back before 21 days was up) and, along with the auto-renewal, I had enough and called and told them I didn't want to be a customer anymore. Fine....I thought. It's been four months since my last issue and here I am now with a postcard from Rodale Books about previewing the 2008 Fitness Guide. I guess cancelling my subscription wasn't enough to keep them from auto-selling me stuff.

Can you imagine this new tactic of selling becoming the norm? The retailer gets to choose what we order and it's up to us to decline it. Crazy! If you google for "Rodale return card 14 days" you'll see that there are some who have attempted to sue Rodale over this. Think twice before ordering this magazine and being subjected to the same sales tactics.

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I know that Amazon does not have the option of zero stars but if given that option, I would still give Men's Health one star for at least its content. I have been a fairly consistent subscriber to the magazine for about 6 years and I have definitely been educated and entertained by its content. The authors and layout staff have definitely made Men's Health a pleasure to read.

Unfortunately, over the last couple of years that I have noticed, the parent company, Rodale has been engaging in some fairly poor business practices. First off, they love to send random hardcover books to you and charge you for them without you ever really consenting to it. There is basically no way for you to ship back the books without costing a fortune on shipping fees. To my knowledge, there is no option of opting out of this.

Also, unlike a lot of other normal magazines, Rodale never gives you the option of renewing your subscription. They pretty much just send you a bill at the end of your original renewal period and charge you for the next period automatically. If you do not respond they will send your debt to a collection agency and that is a whole different nightmare to deal with.

Of course I'm sure if we all read that thing we signed before subscribing to the magazine that there will be a section in small print informing us that Rodale can do whatever it wants. In that aspect, it is indeed my fault for letting them take advantage of me but I have recently canceled my subscription and never plan to subscribe again until Rodale decides to change its policies.

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My problem isn't with the magazine itself, but with their new (or at least new to me) subscription policy. Subscriptions now automatically renew, which means you will start receiving bills months before your current subscription ends. If you decide you don't want to renew you must call them. If you don't they will turn you over to a collection agency, even if you don't receive issues from the new subscription.

I have subscribed to Men's Health off an on for many years, and even own some of their books. This is the first time I have had this problem, and it will be the last. Apparently they are getting desperate trying to keep their subscribers.

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I like Men's Health a lot, because it is one of the most practical, useful magazines I get. It covers fitness, diet, health (it is very big on prevention and self-diagnosis early, so as to avoid major health problems later), fashion (good stuff, trendy and basic, not latest-from-Paris kinds of stuff), relationships (carefully sneaked into a magazine that looks like it isn't about relationships -clever, because men don't read magazines about relationship tips), finance, and other topics that come up. There are brief articles on each of these (this is the magazine I read while standing over the kitchen sink eating breakfast -articles tend to be brief enough to finish in that period of time), and I appreciate the witty, upbeat style that is not pompous or pretentious, just good basic 'guy stuff'.

Alas, in each issue there is at least one article on 'how to drop five pounds this week' or 'how to lose 10 pounds by Easter' -these look like they'll work and seem very reasonable, but I cannot comment on their effectiveness (would that I were able to!). I can comment on the effectiveness of time management, basic financial planning, and exercise routine advice -these have worked for me. In fact, I credit many of the articles in this magazine with helping me to plan a graceful exit from my old job and into my new self-employment career and graduate school/seminary endeavour, by illustrating stories and giving useful advice.

There are also fun things, too, like a recent issue's back-page article on how to effectively tan, by the tan-master himself, George Hamilton. Do you know how to tie a bow-tie? This magazine had an article showing that, too.

This is not an 'in-depth' magazine, but then again, it doesn't pretend to be. Many of us work and live in a world that doesn't permit time-consuming research and consideration of essays on health and fitness, unless we are professional in that field. Thus, magazines like this fill a need. So far as health and fitness magazines are concerned, this one is a good one -many magazines are veiled soft-core erotica. Men's Health does not avoid the topic of sex, but doesn't overplay it the way many do.

The magazine has a good graphic sense to it -it illustrates the physical things discussed in photographs without as much embellishment as many other fitness magazines. Comparing this to several others on the magazine rack, it is understated, has less flash and more substance in the articles.

Definitely worth a look!

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