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In this issue:
Good News | Product Highlight | Brainpower | Finances | Security | Health/Fitness |
Factoid | Thought 4 the Day
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Defund Nancy Pelosi!
1. Good News: Where the Intel is Good
- President Trump's approval rating among MAGA voters is 100%.
That is not a typo! And there are more MAGA voters now than ever. In 2024, 28% of voters identified as MAGA and
today it is 30%. The source of this info? The Communist News
Network! Watch the video report here:
https://twitter.com/i/status/2034294893929968050 . As more
people undergo a cranio-rectal extraction procedure, you will see
that 30% continue to increase.
- Yet another awesome month for job growth. 178,000 new ones, and
these are not the fake numbers that the Brainless Biden regime used
to spew. They come from, among other things, the $18.4 trillion
invested in the USA manufacturing sector by foreign companies last
year. More and more factories are coming online, bringing more jobs
with them. And in energy-starved ("who needs coal, we'll use
bird-killing machines and rely on Russian gas!) Germany is not a
good place to manufacture anything anymore. Which is why Mercedes is
now building a $4 billion plant in Alabama. As the communist
economies of EU countries continue to collapse from years of
stupidity-based policy-making, those countries are also losing
wealth-generating, tax-paying manufacturing operations to the USA.
We can expect hundreds of thousands more new jobs between now and
the mid-term elections.
- A recent survey shows that over half of registered Democrat
voters do not like the Democrat Party. Those voters are likely to
sit out the mid-terms, leaving the commies to fight for a much
larger share of "swing voters". Not good for the commies is the fact
that most voters are "swing voters" and they will overwhelmingly
vote for Trump. Still, unless non-commies turn out en masse to vote
Republican the commies could avoid taking much damage. And we cannot
let that happen. We need these disturbed individuals out of office
and out of power; this November is our single best shot to do that.
- "A Consent Decree in Missouri v. Biden now bars the CDC, CISA,
and the U.S. Surgeon General from coercing social media platforms to
suppress protected speech for the next decade." [Courageous
Discourse]. This is the most significant blow for civil rights
in the USA since Browder vs. Gayle (Rosa Parks). Maybe even more
significant than that, as it formally acknowledges the illegal
censorship that ruined careers and cost lives on a massive scale
purely to advance a money-making fraud with the full complicity of
the Deep State.
- SCOTUS delivered a 6-3 ruling late last month, reversing a lower
court's ruling that would have made it open season on police
officers sued by leftwing "peaceful protestors" and other violent
offenders. Of course, the 3 who opposed were the three leftwing
nutjobs on the SCOTUS. Of those three, the latest addition is
patently unqualified (Brown), one is clearly in dementia (Sotomayer),
and the other is a low-information moron (Kagan) with no prior
judicial experience; it is a travesty that any one of them is on the
SCOTUS. Sadly, they are all fairly young so won't leave be retiring
(or dying) soon.
But Justice Thomas is 74 years old and the average American male is
dead at 75. Granted, Thomas is not an average man. But still. We
must get the SAVE Act enacted so the next POTUS can replace at
Justice Thomas with a qualified, noncommunist judge if he decides to
retire or if his age catches up with him health-wise. There may also
be an opportunity to replace Justice Sotomayer for medical reasons,
and the commies pushed her to retire when President Autopen was in
office during the Communist Occupation.
- "The Women’s Sports Policy Working Group and Champion Women
welcome the news that the International Olympic Committee has
restored the female sport category." [Champion Women Newsletter]
- Men will be barred from competing in women's Olympic events,
starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games. Men who get breast
implants and are chemically neutered are still men, no surgery or
drugs can replace their Y chromosome with an X chromosome. This is
true even if the men lie about what sex they are.
- The tight border has reversed the communist-caused fentanyl
problem. The Mexican drug cartels can no longer afford to lose
product they attempt to send over the border, plus the vast market
the commies gave them has dried up. They are going out of business.
This is very bad news for the commies and their "destroy America"
mission. But it is very good news for the 131 million citizens of
Mexico and the 338 million citizens of the USA.
- The death dealers MPH Pfizer and BioNTech "...have halted a
large U.S. clinical trial for their updated COVID-19 booster
injection because they could not find enough participants willing to
take another mRNA shot." [Nicolas Hulscher, MPH Epidemiologist and
Foundation Administrator, McCullough Foundation]
In other words,
they can't find enough people stupid enough to fall for con this
time around. Hulscher continues, "The study, targeting healthy
adults aged 50–64, required tens of thousands of participants.
Despite this, enrollment failed, confirming that public demand for
COVID boosters has completely collapsed. Those seeking their 6th
booster are now either dead, disabled or have finally woken up to
reality. A recent Rasmussen survey found that 56% of Americans
believe the COVID-19 vaccines have caused large numbers of deaths."
Just noting, Hulscher is using the term "vaccine" so that he's
understood by those not familiar with what the scam actually is. He
has publicly stated many times over that these gene therapies are
not vaccines. He continues, "At the same time, real-world uptake has
collapsed—only about 18% of Americans received a booster during the
2025–2026 season. The era of mass booster compliance is over."
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Action Item!
VSRF has officially launched the National Petition to Repeal the 1986 Vaccine
Injury Act. For forty years, this Act has shielded Big Pharma from liability and
accountability. With Senator Rand Paul’s S. 3853 and Rep. Paul Gosar’s H.R. 4668
gaining momentum, this is our best chance in four decades to end the "blank
check" for safety. We need one million signatures to show Congress we demand
real liability. Sign the Petition:
https://www.vacsafety.org/petition-repeal-1986-law/#sign-petition
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Communist Connecticut and ID
Communist Connecticut recently passed a law requiring ID when
redeeming large amounts of bottles and cans for recycle. But they still
fight against requiring ID to vote.
Communist Carolina and ID
The people of North Carolina have long been suffering under a
modified communist regime. One that, of course, did nothing to help them
in the aftermath of the severe flooding not all that long ago. It seems
from interviews with the flood victims and the emergence of Mark
Robinson in NC that the state is filled with patriots not idiots. So why
do "they" keep electing communists to office? They aren't doing that,
the election fraud machine is. Good news for North Carolinians, U.S.
District Court Judge Loretta Biggs finally ruled that Voter ID is
Constitutional. This same judge had ruled against Voter ID twice before,
which isn't surprising given the fact she's an Obama era appointee.
We can speculate about what made her come over from the Dark Side, but
what we need to see here is this is a major crack in the edifice. It
won't have any effect on federal elections (Trump won NC every time he
ran), but it will have a huge effect on other races in the state and
more importantly, Judge Biggs has shown by example that judges, even if
appointed by communists, can and should stand up against evil.
Disenfranchising 75 million people is, contrary to Upchuck Schumer's
ideology, evil. Requiring voter ID ends a major vector for election
fraud, protecting OUR democratic process not THEIR "democracy". It is
farsical that the commies, talk at all about protecting democracy or
even call themselves "Democrats" since snuffing out democracy has been a
core mission of theirs since 1912. The Soviets installed communism by
violent revolution, the American commies have done it through decades of
deceit and steady erosion. The USSR collapsed, and with the SAVE Act the
American communist party will also collapse.
Communism and Washington State
The communist government of Washington passed its first-ever income
tax, a 9.9% tax on income over $1 million. The 1040 income tax also
started out as a "tax only on the wealthy" and then morphed into a
brutal system for terrorizing and subjugating the entire populace while
also placing a heavy tax burden on the middle class. You can expect a
mass exodus, and it won't be to Commie-fornia. This was the stupidest
possible move for the financial future of that state.
Communism Benefits
There are many benefits to communism:
- No obesity, because most people are starving.
- No unruly protesting, because if you protest you get shot (e.g.,
China) or they come to your home and kill your whole family (China's
client state Iran).
- Free health care. What they mean is they take everything you own
and give you a low salary, then kick back some of the booty to pay
for your medical care if you can last long enough to get in to see
the doctor. It's not free, it's extremely high cost and they ration
it by attrition.
- Free education. That is, you are free from education.
Brainwashing, gaslighting, and propaganda not so much.
- Free comedy. The politicians and bureaucrats are inept clowns.
- No rent hikes! No decent service or improvements, either.
Welcome to my rat-infested, rundown apartment comrade!
- No worries about the future, it's guaranteed to suck.
- No inheritance worries. Since there's no private property, you
have nothing to leave your heirs and nothing for them to fight about
after you are gone. What a paradise!
Communists and the DSM
The commies have been claiming that MAGA is falling apart, Trump is
deeply unpopular with his base, and his "failed policies" have doomed
the patriots this November. As with everything else they say, the
reality is the opposite. Belief in Marxism belongs in the DSM, either as
a manifestation of severe irrationality or as a distinct mental illness
in its own right.
Polls show MAGA is growing and MAGA is 100% behind Trump (0%
disapprove). As for his policies, egg prices are down 31% and on every
other marker we are better off than we were during the Communist
Occupation. That even includes the price of gas at the pump, though it
has gone up due to the Iran War. Note that the Iran War does not
directly affect our oil prices, because we are now a net exporter and
don't even use Iranian oil. The costs are highly affected by futures
trading, which is highly affected by irrational human emotions
influenced by the leftwing media. If you want the price at the pump to
come down, then put the leftwing media out of business.
Communists Against ICE in the Airports
Now I understand why the commies don't want ICE at the airports. I
had thought it was because the commies wanted to cripple our air
transportation system (which they have done). But there's another
reason, watch this video to see what it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFI5srJs_rw
This move by our brilliant POTUS (putting ICE agents in the airports)
did bring the commies to the negotiating table. The Senate has now
passed funding for DHS, though said funding will not apply to ICE. But
since the OBBB funds ICE through 2029, this is a meaningless exclusion.
It will come back to haunt the commies this fall, even with the leftwing
legacy media pumping out their fantasy version of events.
It is progress for America in the face of yet another commie attack.
The commies really stepped in it this time, and the replays will be
wonderful during the run-up to the mid-term elections. These destructive
parasites just cannot help themselves when it comes to attacking the
American people. We need the American people to remember that this fall.
More than anything though, we need the SAVE Act passed so the commies
can't simply cheat their way to a win as they are so well accustomed to
doing.
Commies and "Day in Court" Myth
The commies argue that when ICE agents pick up an illegal alien for
deportation, that person should subsequently "have his day in court" as
the next step. The reality is that when ICE picks up a person for
deportation, that person has already appeared before a judge and an
administrative warrant for his deportation has already been issued.
Senator Marshall of KS explains this in an op-ed published in a
small-town Kansas newspaper (the big papers don't want the truth and
will not publish it):
https://salinapost.com/posts/664f1581-df3e-4c16-a727-64ea77bc8b33
Defund the Legacy Media!
War Chests: Communist Party Vs. GOP
"The latest publicly disclosed figures show the RNC has roughly a
$109 million cash reserve, versus about $17 million for the DNC, leaving
Democrats with a nearly $100 million gap (not counting $18 million in
DNC debt left over from the Cabbage/Cackler campaign; a throbbing Biden
hangover.) When you add in Trump’s main super PAC, MAGA Inc., flush with
over $300 million on hand, Republicans’ combined war chest is more than
half a billion dollars ahead of Democrats." [Jeff Childers, Coffee &
Covid]
Childers went on to identify some other funding sources the GOP has
that the commies do not. Though he has talked about it previously, in
this particular story Childers did not digress into how the commies have
been systematically alienating rich potential donors. Really stupid
things like passing the millionaire tax in Washington.
Basically, everything the commies have done since installing
Brainless Biden into office in direct defiance of the voters (who
overwhelmingly elected Trump) has been toxic economically, socially,
diplomatically, strategically, etc. Communism does not set well with
wealth producers, because it robs them of the rewards of their risk and
labor. Communism combined with the kind of hysterically stupid antics we
witnessed during the Communist Occupation sends sane people running for
the exits.
Coming into the mid-terms, the commies are facing a slaughter. Their
war chest is at a net negative value, while their opposition has by far
the largest ever amassed. And their ability to simply fraud their way to
victory has been sharply reduced. They do, however, control the legacy
media including the New York Times which is inexplicably read by people.
They could regain control of the federal House and Senate while also
gaining or keeping seats in state legislatures. How? If normal people
fail to get out and vote.
The victory is ours to lose. Let's not lose it. Let's send these
dangerous, deranged morons packing.
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2. Product Highlight
We are proud to offer the Rocket Pen Reading Tutor. Click the image for more
info, such as videos. Highlights:
- READING TUTOR: The only reading pen with learn-to-read functions, and we
have six: spelling, syllabication (how the word is "built"), lookup of
phrasal verbs, lookup of idiomatic expressions, colors for different
dictionary fields, and it highlights words as it reads from scanned text.
These combine to dramatically improve literacy and reading fluency.
- READER PEN: You scan, it reads aloud individual words and even multiple
lines of text in natural voice. Helps those with dyslexia or other
reading-challenges gain reading independence. Earbuds automatically mute the
built-in speaker to avoid classroom stigma. Select different voices for
playback, lefthand or righthand use, left or right scan direction.
- READS ANY SURFACE. Scans what you actually read from: phone, tablet, PC,
other screens - not just paper. We could not find a single other reading pen
that can do this. But the Rocket Pen can.
- MASSIVE ONBOARD DICTIONARIES: The Rocket Pen has the New Oxford American
Dictionary with Oxford Thesaurus of English (Americanized) with over twice
the entries of the best competing products. It also has the Oxford American
Children’s Dictionary with Oxford American Children’s Thesaurus (both
Americanized). The Rocket Pen scans English and French only, but also
contains an English to Spanish dictionary and a French definitions
dictionary (French to French).
- COMES COMPLETE. Self-contained, no computer or Wi-Fi required. Kit
includes Rocket Pen reading tutor, USB charging cable, Quick Start Guide,
and earphones. Meets FCC, ROHS, and CE standards, and conquers illiteracy.
- BACKED BY EXPERIENCE. The lead developers of the Rocket Pen Reading
Tutor each have over 25 years of experience in reading assistive devices,
and yet the Rocket Pen is the newest and most advanced reading pen on the
market. And the only one with reading tutor functions.
- MISSION-FOCUSED. The Rocket Pen isn't loaded with other features a
struggling reader doesn't need. Its focus is on helping the reading
challenged master not only the texts they encounter but reading itself. This
reading pen is the only one that is also a reading tutor. Unlike other
products in this space, the Rocket Pen is truly a learn to read pen not just
a text to speech scanning pen. It provides six different methods for users
to learn how to read rather than just being read to. It's a powerful
dyslexia reading tool for students and adults, and for anyone else with
reading challenges. It provides six different methods for users to learn how
to read rather than just being read to.
- READY TO USE, EASY TO USE. Comes ready to use, no setup needed, easily
customized. 1.9 inch color touch screen; Physical buttons for screenless
scan and read; Select English or Spanish user interface.
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In
our Amazon store you will see more offerings, including:
Disability Products:
(We are the sole Amazon seller for these)
Radios:
- Connex 10 meter radios
- Dosy meters
- Galaxy 10 meter and 11 meter (CB) radios
- President 10 and 11 meter radios
- Ranger 10 meter radios
- Texas Ranger radios (Chuck Norris not included, sorry)
- Uniden radios and scanners
Tools:
- AEM instruments
- Bahco tools
- Case tools
- CAT tools
- CPS tools
- Irwin saw blades
- Mayes tools
- Rigid Tools work lights and related
- Vessel tools
- Wera tools
- Wiha tools
- Williams tools
More:
- American Hard Bag aftermarket sound system parts for Harley Davidson
motorcycles
- Centerpoint Archery devices
- Cold Steel knives
- Dead Downwind hunting products
- G5 hunting products
- Flexilla hose connectors
- Funko collectibles
- Mike Holt Electrical Exam Preparation products
- Nagy's aftermarket sound system parts for Harley Davidson motorcycles
- Paraben Consumer data recovery sticks, porn detection sticks, and
similar diagnostic/ IT tools
- ROK straps
- Rostra universal cruise control kits
- Swhacker archery products
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3. Brainpower tip
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Let's say for the sake of discussion we hate Brad Pitt. When someone says, "I
just saw an old Brad Pitt movie and it was excellent!", we respond with things
like he's a racist, he's a Nazi, and he hates immigrants. We even have
subscriptions to paper and electronic publications that assassinate his
character and give bad reviews to all of his movies--none of which we have seen.
This is actually why we hate Brad Pitt to begin with. What a lowlife, never made
a decent movie either.
What is the problem, here?
OK, let's say for the sake of discussion we hate Elon Musk.
Someone points out that Musk has just offered to pay the salaries of TSA
employees that the commies are withholding from them. We respond with things
like he's a racist, he's a Nazi, he hates immigrants, and he's deprived millions
of people of Medicare. That last one must be absolutely true, I read it in the
New York Times. This is the same Elon Musk who was instrumental in making PayPal
what it is today, who created many good paying jobs with Tesla, and who saved
free speech and thus Western Civilization.
What is the problem, here?
OK, let's say for the sake of discussion we love Nancy Pelosi and she can do
no wrong. Someone says, "She's made tens of millions of dollars on insider
trading, was a key player in the Covid Scam, and was instrumental in shoving the
Unaffordable Care Act down our throats. We respond with, "But she's saving the
trans children!"
What is the problem, here?
In all three cases, there is an existing opinion that has zero basis in
reality. This in itself is not so bad. First impressions are often like that.
Here is what is bad, and thus must be avoided:
- Being so attached to the opinion you won't change it no matter what.
- Forming the opinion in the first place, when the basis is
sensationalism, hatred, or an absurd accusation (such as Musk, who is an
immigrant, hates immigrants).
- Forming the opinion in the first place, when common sense says it is
likely (or even definitely) wrong.
- Not seeking information related to the opinion and trying to get a more
full picture of things.
- Rejecting anything that doesn't support the opinion.
- Seeking the approval of others who hold that opinion, rather than
getting the perspective of someone who might not.
This is where you wink and say, "You must have left President Trump out on
purpose, as he is the prime example of being targeted by low-information,
hatred-driven people who cling to their baseless opinions regardless of any
actual facts." Yep, ya got me there. |
4. Finance tip
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Air conditioner season is upon us. Air conditioning is a massive user of
electricity, costing people in some regions an extra $100 or more per month on
their electric bill. Here are some ways to save money by reducing how hard your
AC must work. General
- Check that furnace filter every other week, not once every three months.
Clean or replace as needed.
- Do not use a pollen-rated pleated filter, it puts way too much strain on
your blower. Instead, install an electronic filter. They come even in a
one-inch media version that can replace the standard filter. You can buy
these on Amazon; the Aireman brand is excellent. Back pressure is actually
less than for a brand-new low-rated pleated.
- Ensure vents are not blocked by furniture or other objects.
- Do not use vent hoods to direct the air horizontally. In the winter,
these help with comfort by warming the floor better. In the summer, they
impede the heat transfer by pushing cold air to where it is least needed.
- In the afternoon, adjust a few floor vents to about 80% open while
leaving the bedroom ones fully open. This will give your bedroom slightly
better cooling, which will make it easier for you to sleep.
- Close west-facing blinds and/or curtains in the afternoon.
- When people come to your door, either go outside or invite them inside.
Never stand in the open door chatting, this is a huge energy-waster.
- Place a mat by the door on which people can leave their shoes. This
reduced the need to vacuum as much, and vacuum cleaners produce heat.
- Take lukewarm showers, not the hot ones you may have gotten used to in
winter. These help cool your body and they don't put as much heat into the
piping system or the bathroom air.
- Look for energy vampires, such as power blocks, that you can unplug or
shut off during peak hours.
- Turn off lights when you exit the room. Yes, even LED lights when it is
hot outside.
- Use your clothes dryer less. Hang items to dry. If you hang them
outside, they may pick up pollen so do not hang outside between 1000 and
1500 (the peak pollen time).
- Check all ceiling fans to be sure they are set for summer mode. This
means they rotate counterclockwise to create a cooling breeze. Generally,
this allows you to run your thermostat four degrees hotter to get the same
comfort level.
- If you have a cat or dog, brush your furry friend daily. This not only
improves your pet's quality of life, it prevents the problem of getting pet
hair everywhere including in your HVAC system.
Bedroom
- Keep the blinds closed, or at least partially closed, all day long.
- If you have a west-facing window that is not a high-grade thermal window
(and despite the hype, no vinyl window is truly a thermal window because all
of them leak due to the flimsy material), use a shrink-plastic window kit or
other means to block the kit.
- Use a cooling blanket. Yes, these really work. You can buy one on
Amazon.
- Change sheets weekly. Use vinegar in the fabric softener bin of your
washing machine, this will help remove detergent during the rinse cycle and
make your sheets feel softer.
- Use a small table fan on warm nights, use the ceiling fan when it's hot.
- Adjust the warm air return to about 80% open. This will cause the
cooling air to stay in the room a tad longer, taking with it more of the
heat.
- Go to bed at the same time every night. Irregular sleep times fight
against your circadian rhythm, making you toss and turn and feel hot instead
of sleep soundly.
Kitchen
- Time baking to cool hours. Open window and use fans (including hood fan,
even if it does not exhaust to outside) to remove heat from the oven and
surrounding area.
- When done using a fry pan, set it outside on a potholder to cool.
- Never stand with the refrigerator door open. Keep that fridge well
organized and know what you want and where it is before you open the door.
- Never stand with the freezer door open.
- To get ice cubes out when you don't have a door dispenser, quickly
remove the ice cube bin and close the freezer door. Get the ice you need,
and then put it back. Every second that door is open, you warm the
compartment and cause the refrigerator to generate more heat to the kitchen
and the air conditioner then has to remove it.
Living room
- Run the ceiling fan.
- If you have a television, keep it off when you are not actually watching
something. And whatever you do, don't watch lamestream media (this has
nothing to do with electricity, but everything to do with being free from
gas lighting and brainwashing).
- During the day, keep the blinds open to prevent the need for artificial
lighting (west-facing windows being the exception).
Outdoors
- Check the condenser for cottonwood or similar, keep it clean.
- Keep the area around the condenser clear. The more airflow, the better.
- Move heat sink types of items (e.g., large earthen pots) away from the
west side.
- During the worst heat, cover west side patio blocks (or similar surface)
with a painting tarp.
- During the hot months, use a root feeder to give each tree an hour of
watering once a week. If you have a cottonwood, you can do this daily. A
tree is like a mini cooling tower. The cost of the water is much less than
the cost of the electricity a tall tree will save you.
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6. Health tip/Fitness tips
|

Age 65 in these pics |
See
all of my climbing videos here:
https://tinyurl.com/ClimbingSigChannel. Some cool climbing videos:
My hardest climb ever, a 5.11d on lead:
https://youtu.be/UT5h0heUUBc . I
made a dumb mistake initially, letting the rope wrap over my shoulder. Watch
what happens.
The scale:
- Beginner: 5.6. 5.7. 5.8, 5.9 (roped) / VV, V0, V1, V2
(boulder)
- Intermediate: 5.10a, b, c, d ;5.11a, b, c, d / V3, V4, V5, V6
- Advanced: 5.12a, b, c, d; 5.13a, b, c, d. / V7, V8, V9, V10.
- Elite and Pro: Even harder. Almost nobody climbs at either
level at any of the 6 local climbing gyms.
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Let's talk about functional strength. For an athlete, improving functional
strength is the reason for training. For everyone else it should be the
reason. For most people who "go to the gym" this goal does not even enter
their thinking. Their training (such that it is) program is not designed to
develop this and they don't measure progress in this area. The typical gym
program today is heavy on machines and heavy on isolation exercises.
I'm going to state that for functional fitness you should not do
machines. You should, instead, use free weights (your body counts as a free
weight). That statement is mostly, but not completely, true. For example,
the lat pulldown is a machine and yet if you use it properly (we'll get to
that in a moment), it can help you develop functional fitness.
And there's an entire category of machines designed with functional
fitness in mind (Nautilus, which takes you through the full range of motion
and adjusts the resistance via a nautilus-shaped cam). Cable machines are
another category, when used properly they can remove gravity from the arc of
motion problem and allow you to get full resistance at the extremes of
extension and contraction.
You should not do isolation exercises for the large muscles unless you
are doing rehab. Why? They are part of a system. The leg press is, to me,
nonsensical because it isolates the quads and you are sitting (which curves
your back wrong) so you remove the whole posterior chain from the movement.
The spinal erectors and all the other muscles that your brain needs to be
able to connect with are isolated out. If you did front squats instead of
leg presses, your functional strength would be perhaps 4X what it is with
the leg press and you would have a thicker, more aesthetic musculature of
your entire lower body and your core.
Isolation exercises are good for small muscles: median delts, biceps,
triceps, and calves. They are also good for hamstrings if you are not
stimulating them enough with compound exercises such as deadlifts. And
that's it. If you are using dumbbells and barbells, you do not need to work
your forearms because they are worked all the time.
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So the first element of functional strength is to work muscles in a
functional manner and the corollary of that is those muscles will be in
groups (you can't do function with isolation).
The second element is to use the weight to resist your movement, rather
than use your movement to lift the weight. This is an important distinction.
You want to use enough weight to make the movement difficult, but not so
much that you sacrifice good form. Good form means you do the exercise as
intended. The intention is usually to move a joint (e.g., the hip when
squatting) through its full range of resisted motion. Not its full range of
motion but its full range of resisted motion. I will explain that in a bit.
The third element is to make sure you work the muscles at their extreme
extended position. Think of how you would lift a couch, are your arms at
full contraction or nearly at extension? This strengthens the tendons and
ligaments, while also providing the maximum stimulus for the adaptive
response. If you miss this range, your tendons stay tender and that is not
good.
The fourth element is to always work opposing muscle groups equally. It
doesn't have to be on the same day, but it has to be. Else, you get muscle
imbalances. Some people do Arm Day, working biceps and triceps in the same
session. Someone else might do back and biceps in one session and chest and
triceps the next. You're not working these muscles exclusively (as in your
biceps won't get worked unless it's Arm Day, which of course they will), but
you are focusing on them and not focusing on any other muscle groups.
Resisted motion is a concept many people don't understand. Try this, to
illustrate. Pick up a pair of 30lb dumbbells and hold them with your arms at
full contraction with your elbows at your sides. Gravity exerts almost no
force through the lever arm. Now lower them halfway (parallel to floor) and
stop. You can't stay there very long, if you can stay there at all. They
feel so much heavier than at full contraction.
Doing standing curls in the full range of motion makes no sense, due to
this leverage effect. You are basically resting during the last 20 degrees
or so of the arc and people generally don't do the lower 10 degrees at all.
You can overcome this problem by using bands or a cammed machine. With free
weights, you simply break it into three different exercises and position
your elbow joint such that you get the maximum gravitational pull on each of
those three arcs.
For example, if you recline at 45 degrees and hold your arms straight out
in front you can do full extension curls using a 10lb dumbbell. For the full
contraction mode, you bend over at the waist 45 degrees and align your
elbows so that arc gets the maximum gravitational pull. For the mid-range,
do normal curls but don't do the full range of motion--do only the range
where the motion is signficantly resisted.
What about that lat pulldown? This is supposed to be a seated exercise. I
turn my lat bar around and do this backwards. Instead of sitting on the
bench, I am kneeling in front of the end of it. This means instead of
rounding the bottom of my spine and doing an unnatural movement, I am
engaging my entire back. Seated, you do get some lat width but you sacrifice
thickness. Doing it my way, you have a better-looking back. More
importantly, you have far more gain in functional strength. You don't want
to do isolation exercises for large muscles, always do them with the whole
group engaged. |
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At
www.supplecity.com, you'll find plenty of informative, authoritative
articles on maintaining a lean, strong physique. It has nothing to
do with long workouts or impossible to maintain diets. In fact:
- The best workouts are short and intense.
- A good diet contains far more flavors and satisfaction
than the typical American diet.
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7. Factoid
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Every major tax increase has been enacted by
Democrats. Every major tax reduction has been enacted by Republicans. |
8. Thought for the Day
"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the
legislature is in session". - Mark Twain (1866)
Please forward this eNL to others.
Authorship
The purpose of this publication is to inform and empower its readers (and save you money!).
The views expressed in this e-newsletter are generally not shared by socialists or
other brainwashed individuals. That's because those fools live in an alternate reality
and have not bothered to learn the basics of how life works. They cannot do
basic math, cannot apply logic, and cannot be bothered to learn the basic facts
relevant to any topic that they are passionate about.
Except where noted, this e-newsletter is entirely the work of Mark Lamendola. Anything presented as fact can be independently verified.
Where sources are not given, they are readily available to anyone who makes the effort.
Mark provides information from either research or his own areas of established expertise. Sometimes, what appears to be a personal opinion is the only possibility when applying sound logic--reason it out before judging! (That said, some personal opinions do appear on occasion).
Personal note from Mark: I value each and every one of you, and I hope that shows in the diligent effort I put into writing this e-newsletter.
It is an act of service, almost no money is generated for me through this
effort. Thank you for being a faithful reader.
Please pass this newsletter along to others.
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