Mindconnection eNL, 2010-05-23

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The study had several serious flaws, one of which was the fact that the measurements taken after the trial period didn't measure the abilities the puzzles maintain or enhance. This is like doing biceps curls for 6 weeks and then concluding, after measuring your calves, they weren't effective. Another serious flaw was the puzzle exercises went on for only 6 weeks.

Exercising your brain (or mind) is much like exercising your body:

• Exercise is necessary to maintain what you've got.
• Working on the fitness of the overall system trumps working only small parts (e.g, do big exercises to work the whole body, big challenges to work the whole mind).
• Gains come in small increments that accumulate over long periods.
• Lack of exercise brings on decline and atrophy.
• You need variety.
• You need to enjoy whatever exercise you're engaged in.
• For real gains, the exercise must be intense.

If you enjoy brain teaser puzzles, go ahead and do them. If they are part of a larger brain exercise program, you will benefit from doing them.

If you don't enjoy brain teaser puzzles, can you still exercise your brain? Certainly. Here are some ideas:

• Think of brain exercise ideas. Seriously, this is great brain exercise.
   
• Keep track of your activities for a few days, noting which are not "automaton" ones. Most people will have a list of exactly zero, when done. If you're not like most people, great. Now, what automaton activities (e.g., television watching) can you replace with brain exercise ones (e.g., reading serious nonfiction)?
   
• Learn a new language. Mindconnection sells the iTravl and 900 series translators, which have a language tutor program onboard. It's a lot of fun.
   
• Learn a new skill. You can get books, DVDS, and other tutorial materials from your library. Or, take a class or find someone to teach you.
   
• Review your company's business processes. Suppose you can present your boss with a way your department can increase productivity 15%, just by doing things a little differently. Great brain exercise while you're figuring that out, but also a great career move.
   
• Be still. As people rush around from one automaton task to another, they never take time to just sit and reflect on things. Consequently, their thought processes are lost in the white noise of meaningless activity. Take time not to smell the roses, but to ponder their existence.
   
• Make time for serious conversation. Most people are disinformed, living inside the Matrix and believing the lies that spew forth from the mudstream media. Most, but not all. If you are outside the Matrix, you may have noticed you naturally attract people who seem well-informed and can apply logic. Spend more time with those people. For maximum benefit, talk about those things you disagree on--polite debate is a great brain workout.
   
• Rearrange something. Simply rearranging (for better organization and purpose) the contents of kitchen drawers or the layout of the living room is good mental exercise. It works your spatial abilities. The new layout may provide other benefits, also.
   
• Play "toss out." Pick any closet or drawer. Go through the contents, and toss out anything you haven't used in the last 12 months (you can toss it out to charity, if you wish). This not only reduces clutter, it works your memory.

Manufacturing plants have maintenance engineers (typically someone with a mechanical or electrical engineering degree), electricians, mechanics, electronics technicians,  and other skilled trades on hand for predictive and preventive maintenance. The test equipment investment is eye-popping, yet worth every penny. Ditto for training. This huge effort is typically coordinated with a Computerized Maintenance Management System. I know this, because I spent several years heading up maintenance in manufacturing and today write a twice-monthly newsletter on the topic.

How can you extend the life of your various items, to reduce replacement costs? Here are some tips:

• Refrigerator. Pull the unit out and unplug it. Use a vacuum cleaner to remove dust from the coils. How often? Monthly.
   
• Range. If you have a glass top, use cleaner and a soft cloth. Don't let grime bank onto the glass. If you have the other kind, clean the burners once a month per the manufacturer's instructions. Clean the oven after it cools after each use, instead of waiting for stuff to bake in for removal with harsh chemicals.
   
• Lawnmower. Use synthetic oil. Change the air filter and spark plug, at least once per season. Rinse the mower off after each use, to prevent paint damage (which will occur from fermenting grass).
   
• Car. Use synthetic oil. Check fluid levels once a month. Use a high-quality, 3-stage system to apply a good sealant finish to the body.
   
• Tires. Keep tires inflated, and have them balanced and rotated on schedule. Apply a "tire shine" coating to the sidewalls to help protect against sunlight.
   
• Computer. Open the case, and blow out with canned air. How often? Once a month is good.
   
• Furnace system. Check the air filter once a month. If you have a standard 1-inch filter, use a high-rating filter instead of the cheap fiberglass one to keep innards clean.
   
• Garbage disposal. Buy disposal cleaning pads and use one at least once a month. Gunk that sits in a disposal will corrode it, in addition to producing noxious fumes that you may or may not smell.
   
• Shoes. Never wear a pair of shoes two days in a row. Not only does wearing the same pair of shoes two days in a row greatly diminish the life of your shoes, but it puts stress on your neck, back, hip joints, and knee joints.
   
• Your joints. Go price a joint replacement operation. They aren't cheap, and they aren't painless. Keeping your body free of excess fat (no more than 9% body fat for men) eliminates the mechanical imbalance that is a common cause of premature joint failure.

Many people think climbing (rock or gym) takes a great deal of upper body strength, but actually that is not true. If you take climbing lessons, you'll understand why--I won't go into that here.

Gym climbing has a long learning curve for mastery of technique. Once you've learned some basic techniques, you solve climbing puzzles and burn calories at a rapid clip as you climb. You burn calories because climbing requires repeatedly pushing up your body weight (it's much like squatting, in that sense). For this reason, climbing has long been associated with lean, strong physiques. The concept of a fat climber is an oxymoron, or at least it used to be.

Many health experts say we have an obesity epidemic. It would be more accurate to call it an overeating epidemic, because there is only one cause of obesity. Regardless of your genes or any particular condition, you will get fat only if you overeat.

What does this have to do with climbing?

People who habitually overeat are now dabbling in sports inappropriate for their girth, then deluding themselves that they are athletes in that sport. This is happening in climbing now, with smokers and overeaters showing up at climbing gyms and concluding they are athletes simply because they were there and managed to struggle through a "kiddie route." I don't want to discourage anyone from climbing or taking up any other sport. But let's be real about this. There is a huge difference between a disciplined, healthy athlete and someone who is an undisciplined, unhealthy non-athlete.

Yes, go ahead and get started in those sports. But don't use that entry-level participation as a way of fooling yourself that you are just as physically fit as people who don't overeat and don't smoke. Use that participation as additional motivation for getting your health priorities sorted out.

Now, that brings up a related issue. Don't assume you have to be in top condition to get started in a sport. On the one hand, I'm saying not to use participation as a "reason" to keep engaging in unhealthy behaviors as if you are an athlete simply by showing up. On the other hand, I'm saying don't put off participation until you're at world class level (which, for most people, means indefinitely).

The middle ground here is to pick activities appropriate for your fitness level, periodically evaluating to see when--or if--it's time to ratchet up to the next level. For example, someone who's profoundly unfit would begin by taking short walks a few times a week. That person might next move to circuit training in the gym. These are great for beginners, but are very limited in their fitness effect. Once you reach the limit, you "should" take up something more challenging and keep progressing.

What was that "when or if" about? You may not need to ratchet up to a more challenging level. If you're already very fit, then your choice of sport is really a matter of what's most fun for you and what fits into your schedule. Physical fitness is an enabler in life, not an end unto itself.

As regular readers know, I was 48 years old in the picture (above, right), taken in December 2008. I don't diet down for summer. I don't have good genes for maintaining a lean body, either. I really have to be conscientious and disciplined about it. That doesn't mean I suffer, eat bland foods, or starve myself.

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.

Nor does it mean being hungry all the time (you are less hungry on six small meals a day than three large ones), being weak from hunger (on a proper dietary regimen, you will have much more energy than otherwise), or "giving up pleasures" (I have no idea where this concept comes from, unless a person considers being sick a "pleasure").

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This eNL is supported by sales from www.mindconnection.com. Please shop there, as appropriate.