Mindconnection eNL, 2014-04-20

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1. Kathleen Sebelius, formerly the corrupt governor of my state, recently announced her resignation as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Of course, this doesn't mean her post will be filled by someone competent or someone with a conscience, but at least there is an opportunity for improvement. Personally, I'd like to see all of these gangsters arrested rather than just resigning.

2. Recently, state-sponsored terrorism took a hit. At least temporarily:

http://www.ntu.org/governmentbytes/4-4-14_taxpayers-claim-win-in-fight-against-irs-rule.html

The really good news will be when this gangster group of psychopaths is disbanded (and, preferably, incarcerated). How any government can fund such criminals and claim to be legitimate simply boggles the mind. So when they are gone and their reign of unlawful abuse and systematic terrorism ends, of course there will be cause for massive rejoicing just for that reason. But we will also be able to rejoice because it will signal that we've taken a huge step toward lawful government.

3. The crime conducted by those psychopaths just never stops. Here's something else you would do well to be aware of and to write to your misrepresentative in CONgress about: http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2014/04/17/a-new-more-sinister-irs-scandal. The good news here is you have one more brick to toss through their window. We can put an end to the barbarity, if we toss enough of these bricks.

In fact, the speech translation function now encompasses 64 languages.

That means, for example, you can carry on a conversation with a Spanish speaker in the USA, fly to Quebec and have a conversation with a French speaking person, then jet on to Germany to sprechen ze duetch mit der Berliner.

From there, head to Tuscany and discuss fine Italian cuisine with the natives, then go to Brazil for a little fun on the beach with a local. Maybe visit Russia or Ukraine while you're at it and converse with the natives.

OK, maybe you don't have the money for such travel and are too honest to do it on the company expense account. But then, maybe you do have occasion to interact with people who speak those languages. The LUX is the perfect solution.

Click on any of the LUX images at right, or the Free Shipping illustration to see the multilanguage LUXes. Click on one that interests you, and watch the demo video.

The reason for the mercury is we burn coal to generate electricity. All coal contains mercury, and this metal is emitted from those smokestacks you see. It gets washed out of the atmosphere and into the oceans, where it begins concentrating in animals as it moves up the food chain.

I don't eat meat, wheat, corn, or soy either. But tuna is definitely off-limits to anyone who cares about his/her brain. Just as soda pop is DIY osteoporosis in a can, tuna has for many years now been DIY Alzheimer's in a can. That is a very terrible disease; eliminate one risk factor entirely by eliminating tuna from your diet.

He's controversial, but there's no doubting his success. Arnold outlines his 6 rules of success at a commencement speech given a few years ago at the University of California. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyhOmBPtGNM

It has a grammatical snafu midway and a misconception at the 2 minute mark, but otherwise the facts are correct and it's a good presentation.

The more you can do to protect yourself from this killer, the more secure you will be. Note that I don't mean isolation (it doesn't work). You have to actively seek the imposition of restraints on this killer while simultaneously not getting its attention directed at you.

Now, let's look at another training "controversy." I've come across more than a few "experts" who pooh-pooh dumbbells. I mean the ones used in weight lifting, not the ones who "serve" in CONgress.

Both seven time Mr. Olympia Arnold Schwarzenegger and eight-time Mr. Olympia Lee Haney made extensive use of dumbbells in their prime and I know from speaking with Mr. Haney's son Josh that Mr. Haney still does.

Haney even confirms this in an interview you can find on Youtube. Arnold, in fact, stated that he did not train much with the bench press but relied on flyes--a classic dumbbell exercise--to develop his pecs.

There are two ways the anti-dumbbell crowd has gone. One is to machines, and one is to complete reliance on compound exercises. In both cases, the primary motivation seems to be to work out with heavier weight.

I've already spoken on machines. If you like injuries and failing to train for useful strength, then by all means stick with machines.

But what about those compound exercises? Frank Zane, also a Mr. Olympia, was adamant about doing squats--the mother of compound exercises. Today, Dr. Zane is a chiropractor who adamantly opposes back squats. But Dr. Zane is big on front squats. And Dr. Zane has developed a special contraption to make front squatting even more inherently safe than it already is. But he never said to leave out dumbbells. Only a dumbbell would say such a thing.

You need to combine various forms of training to correctly and fully stimulate the muscles. That's why, for example, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson does pullups from a chinning bar. So does Sylvester Stallone and just about every other person who's serious about building a strong back.

When to use dumbbells

Many gym rats use dumbbells just for biceps curls and lateral raises. This is a mistake. As mentioned previously, Arnold relied on flyes to develop his chest. Taking a cue from him (but of course coming nowhere near his size), I do a flyes workout every afternoon of a chest/triceps day (chest/triceps workout done in the AM). This is a highly focused workout done specifically to stimulate the pecs. I usually start with two 55lb dumbbells and lower them very slowly. Then I raise them very slowly. I do maybe 3 reps, then rest a minute before hitting another set. I complete the session with a few sets of intense flexes.

You can do variations of the flat bench flyes I do, by inclining or declining the bench. In addition to that slow movement, you want to keep your shoulders back. If you rotate them forward, you recruit your front deltoids and diminish the effect on the pecs.

I use dumbbells in every upper body workout. Exercises include bent-over pullovers, standing rear delt rotations, lying rear delt rotations, triceps extensions, and three variations of biceps curl. I do those three in the same workout, as each works the biceps in a different range of motion.

Personally, I think the dumbbell is the most useful piece of exercise equipment a person can own, if you understand how to use it to train and if you apply yourself properly. Combine a set of dumbbells with a chinning rack, and you can have a world-class physique with no other equipment.

Yes, you can even do squats with dumbbells. Even so, I recommend also having an Olympic bar and weights to go with it because this gives you a wider range of exercises. And the front squat (requires a bar, not dumbbells) is really hard to beat as a core exercise in your program. My cousin Carl says the same thing about Roman deadlifts, which he does with the bar (as you're supposed to) rather than dumbbells (which you could do, I suppose, but I really can't see it).

It shows

My friend Jerome, a fellow "oldie," is also serious about his training. He looks impressive. Women at his gym like to claim him as their "gym husband." Yep, his training regimen relies heavily on dumbbells. He has a body that proves this works.

I said earlier that Arnold relied on flyes. If you do them, you understand why. People who do flyes correctly look like we do a lot of heavy bench pressing, but in fact we work flyes.

People who try flyes and don't get results invariably pronate their shoulders. That's why they don't get pec developmeent from flyes. They don't get pec development from the bench press either, but they can cheat up some impressive weight there so mis-train with the bench press while claiming flyes are for sissies. Arnold a sissy? Lee a sissy? PUH-LEASE. There are fools everywhere. It doesn't mean you have to listen to them. Ignore the "flyes are for sissies" people.

Stretch when done

Don't forget to do pec stretches when you're done, or you'll be setting yourself up for some serious tendonitis problems. You don't need to go overboard with those, just make sure you do them. Leaving your pecs tight won't cause them to grow any bigger or stronger, but stretching them after (never before) working them helps in multiple ways including making the fascia less constrictive. But the main reason, IMO, is preventing tendon problems.

• The best workouts are short and intense.
• A good diet contains far more flavors and satisfaction than the typical American diet.

The deliberately stupid and willfully ignorant often want to "discuss" or "debate" irrational "points." Engaging them is at best a collective monologue that wastes your limited time. Simply walk away from "debates" with such folks and use your time for better things.