The human body and its brain are pretty incredible. They're also fragile and dumb. Realizing this can make your life miserable, or you can look at it as an opportunity and take control. This weekend, learn a few built-in superpowers you may not have known you had. All they take is a little practice.

Let's go piece by piece, from head to toes.

Your Head

There are a lot of fun things you can do with your head, inside and out. Let's start with the brain. We post multiple mind hacks a week, so there is no shortage of ways to trick yourself into being smarter, more creative, happier, and whatever else. Nonetheless, mind hacks can be applied a bit broadly and simply refer to finding better ways of thinking or learning a little bit more about the weird stuff your brain might make you do. We want something bigger. When you stimulate the brain in various ways, it will react positively or negatively or somewhere in between. It may seem like we have no control over how this happens or how it makes us feel, but we do. Sometimes its as simple as priming your brain with the right words. It can also be as simple as conjuring up a feeling. If you really want to hack your brain, read our guide. It'll introduce you to some of the basic techniques you can use to gain more control over your own behavior. Doing so can help you use food cravings to your advantage, make difficult decisions more easily, create stronger bonds with people you care about, and prevent your brain from sabotaging your life.

But the outside of your head can do some neat things, too. You can dialate or shrink your pupils on command. If that doesn't seem particularly useful, you can improve your night vision by just moving in and out of light and dark spaces (or just use a cellphone to alternate between light and dark without having to actually go anywhere). Pressing your tongue against the roof of your mouth can keep you from crying when dealing with onions and even prevent brain freeze. Need to swallow a tricky pill? Follow these instructions and squeeze your left thumb to decrease your gag reflex. You can even amplify your car's remote signal by point it into your mouth. It's kind of scary how many weird tricks you can play with your own head.

Your Hands and Feet

Your hands and feet are kind of useful, but they have their downsides. One such example is when they "fall asleep" and are ravaged by pins and needles. If your hands come down with this problem, just relax the nerves in your neck. When it happens to your feet, the best thing you can do is walk around.

There's much more you can do with your hands. We've already mentioned squeezing your left thumb to reduce your gag reflex, but you can also relieve nausea by pressing on your wrist. In fact, there are quite a lot of neat things you can do with a little acupressure. But if you'd rather just impress people, check out these 10 badass things you can do one-handed. The moment you open a beer bottle, shuffle a deck of cards, or eat an entire chicken wing with only one hand, you'll get a round of applause.

There isn't quite so much neat stuff you can do with your feet, but if you're looking to burn some fat there is one thing: start tapping your feet. Apparently fidgeting is a big calorie-buster.

Your, Uh, Middle Area

Oh, the magical things you can do with your crotch. Most of the time we shy away from the area but there are a few tricks worth noting. One of the biggest problems we have is our bladders—specifically when we need to empty them out and there's nowhere to (politely) do so. When you're stuck without a place to pee, scratch your leg or rub the back of your calf. It can help reduce the need. After the business has been done, many men are probably familiar with the issue of getting it all out. When there are a few drops left, several Redditors suggest applying light pressure to your perineum to get it all out. This might not be the world's least embarrassing solution, but it works for many men.

Your Whole Body

Some tricks work well for your entire body. If you get hot, knowing your body's cooling points can make it easier for you to cool off faster. It's not about cooling your entire body, but rather cooling of certain areas to expedite the process. If you've got limited cooling resources, this is especially helpful.

Plenty of other things can affect your body in interesting ways. Learning a few breathing exercises can increase your stamina when exercising. Simply looking at sick people can give your immune system a boost. With a little practice, you can boost your alcohol tolerance. Those are just a few examples. You'll find more on our body hacks tag page.

Photos by Sofia Santos (Shutterstock) and agsandrew.

Exercise is often hard enough on its own, but you make it even harder on yourself if you're not practicing good breathing techniques while you're working out. Proper breathing delivers the right amount of oxygen so you can exercise longer with less effort. Fitness blog The Greatist breaks down how to do it for several popular exercises.

Depending on the intensity of a workout you should have a different breathing technique. For running, the Greatist suggests two different techniques to try:

While there's no golden rule, many runners find it most comfortable to take one breath for every two foot strikes, says Alison McConnell, a breathing expert and author of Breathe Strong Perform Better. This means taking two steps (one left, one right) while breathing in, and two steps while breathing out - also known as the 2:2 rhythm.

That's great for running, but it's a totally different approach when you're strength training:

Using the bench press as an example, exhale slowly and continuously while pressing the bar, then inhale at the top of the life or on the return. Just remember that once that barbell is pressed, the weight doesn't vanish, McConnell explains, so be sure to keep the core engaged to protect the spine, similar to preparing for impact during contact sports.

The lesson is that proper breathing is just as important as proper technique. Doing it wrong can lead to decreased performance and side stitches. Hit up The Greatist for more information on the exercises above as well as breathing techniques for high-intensity sports and yoga.

How to Breathe for Every Type of Exercise | The Greatist

Photo by Tony Alter.

Nobody likes the discomfort of feeling a little chilly, but if you don't have a jacket on hand a recent study in the journal Emotion suggests all you need to do to warm yourself up is think nostalgic thoughts.

Across four different experiments researchers found that people were more comfortable in cold environments when they indulged in nostalgic reverie. The theory is that nostalgia serves a homeostatic function that tricks your mind into returning to a happier place and effectively making your body more comfortable. The next time you wander out without your jacket just remember to think nostalgic thoughts and you might just combat that cold long enough to get home.

Heartwarming Memories: Nostalgia Maintains Physiological Comfort. | Emotion via BPS Research Digest

Photo by infowidget.

If you often have trouble falling asleep quickly, perhaps a change in your shower schedule can help. Taking a warm shower or bath at night adjusts your body temperature so you're nice and groggy by the time you hit the sack.

When you come out of a warm shower into a cooler bedroom, your body temperature will drop. That drop in temperature signals your body that it's time to rest, slowing down essential metabolic functions including heart rate, breathing, and digestion.

Greatist suggests keeping your showers short and moderately warm—between 5 and 15 minutes and under 104°F (normal hot tub temperature)—to avoid raising your body temperature too much and instead making you feel energetic. You can also gradually lower the water temperature at the end of your sleep-inducing shower.

If that doesn't work, try other sleep hacks such as tensing your muscles and repeating "the", using stimulus control therapy to train yourself to fall asleep faster, cooling your head, doing some math, and more.

Tip: Take a Warm Shower Before Bed to Help Sleep | Greatist

Photo by SerrNovik (Shutterstock)