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Mindconnection eNL, 2026-04-05

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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."

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

 

 

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.

 

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.

Rocket Pen

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

 

3. Brainpower tip

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

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.

 

5. Security tip

Thanks to Mike for this suggestion. Here's how to help shut down telescammers:

https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/investigations/unsolicited-illegal-marketing-robocalls-lawsuit-investigation/?platform=activecampaign&utm_source=email&utm_medium=activecampaign&utm_campaign=thursday_newsletter&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email

 

 

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.

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.

 

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.

 

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.
 

7. Factoid

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)

 

 

 

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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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