Inside the May 2014 issue of Men's Health

Let me tell you a little of how magazines work in the ever-expanding universe of “content”.

Stay with me on this, because ultimately it’s about you.

There’s this media smackdown, see, where digital goes up against billboards goes up against cinema goes up against TV goes up against magazines . . . and so on and so forth.

Each medium has what it believes is the killer hold, given names like “reach” and “analytics” and “demographics”.

Magazines? We have “engagement”. Stripped back, we’re saying that when you’re reading Men’s Health, you’re not doing so in a passive, distracted, twitchy-thumb way.

You’re really kinda into us.

We know that, because you’ve parted with hard cash to be entertained and informed on subjects that interest you. You dive into our pages and hope – no, expect– to come up clutching pearls that can improve your life. If you surface empty-handed, you’ll either blast us via social or email, or simply stop buying us.

Now, we understand one of the pearls you most prize in Men’s Health is expert advice on fitness and nutrition. Accordingly, we make sure we sprinkle those liberally throughout our pages.

This month, though, we decided to invert that formula, hitting Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to ask what gleaming slices of road-tested wisdom you’d like to share. What’s your go-to pre-workout snack? What’s the one workout you do that hits every muscle? What’s your favourite quick-and-tasty high-protein meal?

In all, more than 1000 of you took the trouble to respond. After running it all past our experts, we compressed the pick of the feedback into 12 pearly pages (“Written By Readers”, page 90). If ever there was confirmation that you’re practising what we preach, this is it.

Engaged? We rest our case.

• Of all the health conditions that attract headlines, strokes seem curiously under-reported, especially considering they put 50,000 Australians in hospital each year. This month, the National Stroke Foundation is looking to redress the balance by raising awareness and research funds through sales of their Stroke Solidarity String and promotion of their hashtag #fightstroke. Our advice? A good investment.

Ian Cockerill, Editor

Grab the mag for Usher's ring-fit diet, 21 simple ways to shrink your gut and a man's guide to red wine. To subscribe, click the pic below.