Maggie's Farm

The Enlightened Superstitions of Steven Pinker

 Are All Cultures Equally Good?

About Cardinal McKerrick 

Paramount Owes America an Apology for Jay-Z's Trayvon Series

MIDDLE RAGES - WHY THE BATTLE FOR MEDIEVAL STUDIES MATTERS TO AMERICA

Environmental scare stories 

 Photographer of starving polar bear admits losing control of “climate change narrative”

EPA: Key Air Pollutants Drop 73 Percent Since 1970

But there is still CO2 in the air! 

Social Justice Warriors Have Finally Come for the Comedy Classic ‘Animal House’

 NY Dem Governor Attacks Media For Asking Tough Questions

They're sposta be on his team 

SURVEY: Americans support 1A rights, but don’t know what they are

 Understanding Trade Deficits

Report: Worker pay rising at fastest pace in 10 years

Z-man:  The fight over open borders today is actually a battle to expand the franchise by those seeking to push through a post-national agenda.

Noncitizens across U.S. find it easy to register to vote, cast ballots. Russian national surprised to be on rolls in San Francisco

 Majority of Democrats: Illegal Aliens Should be Given the Right to Vote

 Media don´t want to understand Trump voters, all 63 million of them

 Politico Reporter: Between Them, You’d Get A Full Set Of Teeth From The Crowd At A Trump Rally

Democrats wheel out the 'kids' as a campaign theme, again

 All Democrats have to do is act crazy, and Steyer will back them.

It's not either-or.  Low-rep (1-5) high weight is for strength. High-rep (8-12) with lower weight is for muscle endurance, but we would never suggest more than 10 reps for any powerlift set.

A typical powerlift sequence is a warm up set with very light weight, then 4-5 working sets advancing to your day's target.  For example, lately I have been doing, say, with deadlift (most important exercise, I feel), warm-up set of 5 at about 100, 5 reps at 155, 5 reps at about 180, 1 rep at 200 and another rep around 225. Like I say, I am not a big strong guy. Everybody is different. My one-rep max is probably 245, but I don;t know for sure. My goal is 300.

Many fitness people do a week of high rep every month or two. "Lower weight" is around 60-70% of your one rep max. "Higher weight" is around 80-90% of your one rep max.

As always, there are exceptions, mainly for accessory exercises. For example, for curls or tricep cable push-downs, 10-20 is fine to keep those things "toned".  

My take on heavy weights: Pull-ups are heavy weight. Push-ups are just calisthenics. If you can do 20 pullups bravo to you and put some weights on you to be more efficient. I won't do barbell bench or barbell squats without trainer or partner.  Without those, I'll do dumbbell bench and kettlebell lunges or squats instead.  If no weight station is free, I'll do kettlebell deadlifts or trap bar instead of regular. It's all good as long as it is HARD and makes you want to cry or spout 4-letter words.

Since I only do half of my powerlifts one day, and half of them another day (not ideal for strength but ok for fitness), I fill in my weights hours with accessory lifts to get a full workout. But to be more precise, I also do pullups twice/wk and one day of dumbell bench and another day barbell bench because I want to focus on those right now. There's only so much time to fit in weights, calis, and plain cardio. If a week had 8 days, I'd do another day of weights. It doesn't fatigue you like calis, but it kicks your ass and kicks your mind.

Just got an email from a second old friend (ie, elderly - 60s) who has produced a third kid under age 7. I wonder what it's like to be a dad in your 60s.

It would not work for me. Maybe it keeps them young, but who has the patience for little kids?  For that matter, what guy ever did?

Toon via Theo 

Mario Vargas Llosa’s journey from Castro groupie to steel-eyed critic of both Leftism and populism gives the observations and commentary of his latest book the authority of a long life both lived and examined. To describe it as a joy of the first order would be to engage in understatement

UW-Madison encourages students to report communists ‘microaggressions’

The Nation Apologies for Publishing an 'Ableist' Poem  - "Caused harm to members of several communities"

I doubt it. Nobody reads it

 Distributing the Green (Cards): Permanent Residency and the Income Tax after the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986

 Former Hippies Put in Horrible Position of Rooting for F.B.I.

California:

 Its political leaders and a credulous national media present California as the “woke” state, creating an economically just, post-racial reality. Yet in terms of opportunity, California is evolving into something more like apartheid South Africa or the pre-civil rights South. 

Connecticut is poised to reject Democrats’ economic mistakes

 Study: "Medicare for all" plan touted by Bernie Sanders would cost $32.6 trillion

VDH:  Progressive Regression

 German Police: 126,000 Immigrants Set for Deportation Have ‘Disappeared’

I need to find out more about this artist, Julian Merrow-Smith. Update: I did. He's a picture/day guy in Provence. I love that painting.

Image via Dalrymple's An Evening in France