Mindconnection eNL, 2017-05-21

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Item 1. Have you noticed an increasing number of "citizen rescues" of law enforcement officers? On the one hand, it's bad news these officers are being attacked. On the other hand, it's good news that armed citizens are coming to the rescue. Yes, I mentioned this in the last issue. But I have seen a ton of incident reports since then!

Item 2. And it's not just law enforcement. In Indiana recently, an armed female citizen rescued a state conservation officer.

Item 3. Wait, it gets even better. Did you know the number one cause of death among firefighters is being run over (by a car or truck) at the scene of a fire? That's right, deranged morons believe they need to drive around the flagman and any barricades and then through the fire scene. There are only so many police officers to go around, and now armed citizens are helping to secure the scene and protect our valiant fire fighters.

Item 5. Last year, Ohio issued 1118,000 carry permits. That's the most in any year since they started issuing them in 2004.

Item 6. Gun ownership has gone way, WAY up over the past 10 years. As you might expect, the murder rate has gone way, WAY down over the past 10 years. Not only that, the total number of accidental deaths attributable to firearms has gone down by an order of magnitude--thanks mostly to the easy availability these days of qualified firearms instructors.

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• Get centered. When I first began studying Asian martial arts, this concept was heavily stressed. You need to relax and be fully in the moment and fully in the situation. Rather than let your mind be all over the place, focus on your center of gravity (unless you're obese, it's about an inch or two below your navel and a couple of inches deep. It takes practice to be able to do this in a snap. The practice is worth it.
• Assess the situation or problem. What is really going on? What do you need to or want to achieve, and why? What are the dangers? What are your options for minimizing the dangers while meeting your objectives?
• Don't equate partial knowledge to complete knowledge. This is a common mistake. It's how people fall for scams. Ask probing questions, look for reliable substantiation of the answers.
• Ignore the popularity of an idea. Just because many other people fall for a lie does not mean you should. The popularity of a statement or idea has no correlation to its veracity.
• Get the facts, then apply logic. Someone offers you a no-collateral loan at 1% interest. Sounds fantastic, right? This is an actual come-on that's used to rob people. The 1% is not the APR, it's the WEEKLY interest rate. The missing fact here is the period of the interest rate.

http://reason.com/archives/2017/05/01/the-moral-case-for-tax-cuts .

The USA is still in a Depression. Both the jobless rate and the homeless rate exceed those of FDR's time (sorry Frankie, you were outdone by Barry). One consequence of this is the number of scammers has risen dramatically over the past eight years. Many of these people refer to themselves with fancy titles, such as:

• CEO. They aren't the "chief" anything if they run a one-person operation. Or if there's no corporate structure.
• Doctor. It's not illegal to call yourself "Doctor" when you don't have a doctorate. It is illegal to practice medicine without having a state license to do so, but there are other kinds of doctors. Somebody pretending to be an expert can use the Doctor title even if s/he has no doctorate degree. Don't let the title sway you.
• Mrs. Michelle (Michael) Obama (nee Robinson) used this title, despite obviously being a man. And Obama was not even Soetoro's legally valid last name! Together, they pulled off one of the most audacious scams of all time.
• Reverend. While this title is legitimate in many religions, it's also a title that scammers like to use to give the impression they are honest people.
• Liberal. Yes, I know this is typically code for "moron" but many scammers like to don this title and castigate people who challenge their spiel as "cold-hearted" or "selfish." It's most often done when a state or local government is wasting money like crazy and concerned citizens object. The "liberals" butt into forums and use ad hominem attacks to shut down exercise of the First Amendment.

The tip here is to go with the merit of the case, not the title of the person making it. That title may well be false. If the title is legitimate, then the person making the case does not need to rely on the title to make the case.

I believe that vision has its genesis in the world of running, a place where updated knowledge of physiology is typically ignored in favor of outdated traditions.

This same process often takes place in weight gyms. You see people stretching before hitting the weights. That's a huge mistake. I'll explain why, in a moment.

Warming up is a good idea, but keep the warm-up short. A cool down makes no sense for weight training, though a finishing set that helps pump out lactic acid makes great sense.

For many sports situations, you do want some moderate stretching because you need flexibility to do your thing. Climbing, for example, requires a high degree of flexibility. So do most martial arts. Ballet, also.

When you stretch, what you are doing (mostly) is elongating the muscles. This makes them weaker. You've just put your limbs through "full extension" and now you're going to contract them presumably to full contraction?

If you stretch before weight lifting, you are wasting your time. You're elongating the muscles, but then immediately following with repeated hard contractions that shorten the muscles. Why bother stretching in the first place?

The time to stretch is after your training. You've just shortened the muscles, so some moderate stretching to bring them back to their normal length is a good idea.

If you overstretch for basketball, martial arts, ballet, etc., your stabilizer muscles can't keep things in proper position because those muscles are elongated and weakened. This is how injuries happen.

My own flexibility is exceptional, but I really had to work at getting there. What got me going on that was my martial arts training that I started in my teens. But in the interests of better joint stability, I have over the years deliberately scaled back my stretching regime to reduce my flexibility.

A high level of flexibility allows you to execute moves that come in handy during a climb or (martial arts) a fight. But extremely high flexibility just so you can kick uselessly high comes at a cost to your knees and back while reducing the power and stability you need. It's a trade-off, don't overdo one element at the expense of the other.

Yes, stretch. But after your workout, not before.

More, below.....

Top photo taken 16SEP2016, just days before 56th birthday; bottom photo taken 3 days after 56th birthday

He tells people, "You need to stimulate, not annihilate, your muscles." When he told me that was his message, I replied that I'm also a big fan of Lee Haney. Mr. Haney said that in an interview many years ago, and knowledgeable people like to repeat it.

Some of the bad practices include:

• Not performing squats. Mr. Haney says these are essential. But ask him or Frank Zane about how people typically do them and you'll get an ear full. The subject of squatting can take up a whole book. Do them, and understand not only how to do them correctly but WHY the correct method is correct.
• Lifting too much. The theory is the heavier the weight, the more your body will adapt. Your body has no idea how much weight is on the bar. What your muscles and joints know is the force put on them. If you concentrate that force through proper isolation (achieved with proper form) you can use much less weight and get the same results minus the joint and tendon damage.
• Doing "whole body workouts." This nonsense is being pushed right now by several online "experts" but the concept violates nearly every training principle proven in body building.
• Lollygagging around. When I visit gyms during travel, I see most people are there for social reasons. If that's your thing, fine; walk around with your towel and water bottle. But if you want to sculpt your body, go in there with a plan and seriously execute it. No fooling around.

About preworkout supplements:

It's a mistake to consume the typical "preworkout" supplement. Most of these contain sugar, massive doses of caffeine, and massive doses of B vitamins.

• The sugar spikes insulin, thus dropping your testosterone.
• A little caffeine is helpful, too much just jacks your body chemistry.
• There is zero evidence that overdosing on B vitamins helps with a workout. If you have a vitamin deficiency, correct that apart from your workout.

All you really need preworkout is beta-alinine (which you can take many hours or even a full day before) and L-Arginine (to get that "pump" by relaxing the cells in your veins so the veins swell up). You can take L-Arginine a few hours before your workout, also. Creatine before a workout makes little sense and can give you an upset stomach. Take it after your workout. Consuming L-Glutamine before and after a workout can also speed recovery, though it won't do anything for the workout itself.

About post-workout supplements:

Most of the concoctions touted as helping you recover actually do the opposite because they create an insulin spike that depresses your testosterone. Post workout, any or all of the following are good:

• Beta-Alinine.
• Creatine.
• L-Glutamine.
• Amino complex.
• Alternative to an amino complex, a protein shake. I do not consume dairy-based ones, but if you do then limit whey to 20g; any more than that is likely to be converted to body fat.

About pre-workout and post-workout carbs:

Many hucksters now hawk "energy" or "carb complex" or some other BS kinds of products involving corn starch, table sugar, or high fructose corn syrup. Great way to kill any chance of real gains other than around your waistline. Any or all of the following are good carb sources (and not the only ones):

• Fruit.
• Sweet potatoes (thank you, Mr. Haney, for putting me on to these!). Better source of calcium than cow's milk is.
• Oats (I eat mine raw).
• Whole grain rice (cooked, obviously).
• Beans of any kind (eat with the rice, for best results).
• And to a lesser degree, vegetables of any sort. Any leafy green vegetable is also a better source of calcium than cow's milk is.

If you found at least one mistake of yours above, then I am really happy I've helped you. If you don't make any of these mistakes, keep training smart!

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