#but instead it's holding something moderately heavy up for 80 years

[clonerightsagenda]

I think it's very characteristic of Eiffel that regret over the accident is a major driver of his character - it informs his insistence on not hurting people and his desire to find goodness/capacity for change in others - but also he's still selfish and careless and gets the people around him hurt. It's like how he respects and cares for Minkowski and still says her name wrong. He tries, and then he stops.

#he's much better in the big crises than the little moments #when they're staging a mutiny he will insist on not going scorched earth bc they have to live with themselves later #and he knows how things weigh on you #but day to day? eh he wont depressurize those canisters #if Minkowski loses a few toes that'll be too bad #where's that tumblr post saying people want being a good person to be pulling a lever once #but instead it's holding something moderately heavy up for 80 years #wolf 359

[star-anise]

So. I’m currently reading Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey, since it was finally released on audiobook this year. Re-reading, in fact; reading these books as a 31-year-old therapist instead of a starry-eyed 13-year-old. 

I ranted the other night about the book's depiction of Elspeth as "spoiled" instead of "abused", and @feathersescapism (as part of the post's excellent and thoughtful contributions) said this about Mercedes Lackey:

It’s so effing messy for me because like on the one hand she saved my life. She was the VERY first place I saw loving, validated, celebrated queer relationships and ironically Vanyel was the first time I saw an example of someone who was angry and hurt and messy and bad at people and bullied but not a passive victim be portrayed as fundamentally loveable. As in fact valuable enough, worthy enough to be PURSUED, even, to have someone make the effort to get past his hostile defense behaviors. That was priceless to me. Unfortunately it’s like….it was water when I was dying of thirst but it turns out it was water laced with heavy metals that then did a lot of long term damage.

Which is partly just a concentration thing; if you are drinking from many wells, having one be poisoned won't damage you as much overall. But if it's your only source of water, even trace amounts get dangerous. And, well, we were Eighties babies, mentally ill queer kids with access to small-town libraries who ducked guidance counsellors who pushed conformity as the path to happiness.

So I just found a scene that I think really shows that Lackey was writing from a specifically 80s understanding of psychology, before we knew almost anything about trauma; as considered today, it's bad practice on multiple levels, and can point to some of the underlying problems with the Valdemar worldview.

TW child abuse, child neglect

So in this part of the book, 13-year-old Talia, who was rescued from her awful abusive life among the Holderkin by a giant magical horse, is settling into her new life as a Herald-trainee. She attends classes during the day, and then sleeps in her own room in a dormitory wing of her fellow trainees. Her teachers know that she displays all the symptoms of an abused child, and that she's from an extremely insular and rigid culture.

Her teacher, Teren, asks her to stay after class, and she does, wary and panicked because she doesn't know what's going on. He explains that the Heralds sent a letter back to her family to explain that her disappearance was because of the magical horse choosing her as a future Herald, and they get half-taxes that year and she's going to be very important. Her family, however, replies to say only, "Sensholding has no daughter Talia." Because she ran away instead of staying and getting married, she is disobedient and bad, and therefore totally shunned by her entire community.

She didn't realize she was weeping until a single hot tear splashed on the paper, blurring the ink. She regained control of herself immediately, swallowing down the tears. [...] It was odd, but when she'd chosen to run away, their certain excommunication hadn't seemed so great a price to pay for freedom; but somehow now, after all her hopes for forgiveness had been raised only to be destroyed by this one note-- Never mind; once again she was on her own--and Herald Teren would hardly approve of her sniveling over the situation. "It's all right," she said, handing back the note to the Herald. "I should have expected it." She was proud that her voice only trembled a little, and that she was able to meet his eyes squarely. Teren was startled and slightly alarmed; not at her reaction to the note, but by her immediate iron-willed suppression of it. This was not a healthy response. She should have allowed herself the weakness of tears; any child her age should have. Instead, she was holding back, turning further into herself. He tried, tentatively, to call those tears back to the surface where they belonged. Such suppression of natural feelings could only mean deep emotional turmoil later--and would only serve as one more brick in the wall the child had placed between herself and the others around her. "I wish there was something I could do to help." Teren was exceedingly distressed and tried to show that he was as much distressed at the child's denial of her own grief as with the situation itself. "I can't understand why they should have replied like this." If he could just get her to at least admit that the situation made her unhappy, he would have an opening wedge in getting her to trust him. [...] "I'm going to be late--" Talia winced away from the outheld hand and ran, wishing Teren had been less sympathetic. He'd brought her tears perilously close to the surface again. She'd wanted, above all other things, to break down and cry on his shoulder. But--no. She didn't dare. When kith and kin could deny her so completely, what might not strangers do, especially if she exposed her weaknesses? And Heralds were supposed to be self-sufficient, self-reliant. She would not show that she was unworthy and weak.

What I took away from this book, at 13 and during most successive readings, was that the fault in this situation is Talia's unwillingness to trust Teren and break down. It is her inability to open up emotionally to her deep, vulnerable feelings that causes problems. I suspect that my reading is not terribly far off the narrative's own perception of the central problem. In the 1980s, psychology was very based around the individual, the dance of the id, ego, and superego. Talia's problem is that she has an overactive superego, which prevents her from expressing her natural feelings in a healthy way. She uses unhealthy coping mechanisms, which must be overcome to achieve health and full congruence with her feelings. This runs very much on the catharsis model, where emotions build up like a boil, and must be lanced; once someone "vents", they feel better.

Now, at 31, and trained to help vulnerable 13-year-olds, I can see a lot of differences in how I'd assess the problem now. The trauma field especially has come to understand that humans are essentially relational beings; our brains are born in relationships. We function best in relationships. We need, more than anything else, to feel connected and understood. And then, above that: we are beings in brains and bodies. Our consciousness is limited by the hardware it runs on. If our body is dedicating all its resources to fight-or-flight, we cannot be rational, logical thinkers. We need to understand how to regulate our own emotions, both by personal actions and through relationships with others, to achieve health. It takes repeated, patterned practice to master the skills of understanding and moderating those emotions. Coping mechanisms may be unhealthy, but as I was taught in grad school, "All psychopathology was adaptive once." If you're going to take away someone's unhealthy coping mechanism, you need to have first replaced it with something healthier.

So looking at this scene now, I can point out that Talia represses her emotions instantly because in her family of origin, she got beaten up for crying. Her teachers have already observed that she has the defensive and startle-reactions of an abused child. It should not be very hard for Teren to put two and two together and think: She has been systematically trained to view emotion as unsafe. 

He could, at this point, make the rules of their current situation clear: "It's all right to cry. You don't have to put on a brave face for me." This would let Talia know that she won't lose support or status if she cries. But that assumes, frankly, that she can cry; that the experience of being vulnerable in front of another human being wouldn't be too overwhelming, perhaps terrifying, for her to bear. He could also validate that, and let Talia know he sees her and understands. "It'd be all right if you let that guard down, but it looks like you've got a lot of experience with dealing with hard knocks. If you ever do want to talk about it, I'm here."

It's important for him not to try to force her to show feeling the way he thinks she should. He doesn't actually know that it's safe, or that he's safe. Traumatized people need, more than almost anything else, to achieve a measure of control over their own emotions and bodies. They need to be able to make themselves calm when they need to be calm, and not to be ambushed with sadness or fear out of the blue. It should be, more than anything, Talia's decision of when and where to express her emotions. Is bottling it all up unhealthy for her? Oh, probably. She might get depression later this month, or heart disease in 40 years. But being forced to cry when she's not ready to can leave her feeling violated and retraumatized, right here, right now.

The thing that makes crying comforting for most people is that they have a very deep pattern etched on their brains: They cry, someone comforts them, their pain recedes, they feel calmer. It's the pattern of a thousand hungry wakeups as a baby where someone was gentle and kind and fed them. It's skinned knees kissed and broken toys mended. But Talia probably doesn't have that; her experience of crying has been that she's punished and abused for it, and as an infant whose mother died in childbirth, she probably wasn't adequately nurtured either to build those good associations in the first place. Crying just takes her into a deeper place of loneliness and self-hatred. So for her to soothe herself, she might need to be taught very basic ways of doing that--to take a break, to do something she loves, to get a hug from a friend. Her traditional reaction has been to mask her emotions, and to self-isolate and let those feelings of pain and alienation swamp her.

What he could even do, as I sometimes do as a therapist, is respect that repression as a way of coping and roll with it. If someone can only bear the most glancing reference to their trauma? Then glance. Use black humour or obvious irony to acknowledge the situation without engaging with its emotional depth. “So, you know, no big deal. I bet that’s what you’ve always wanted.” So long as it’s paired with other kinds of real caring--especially useful, immediate help and close emotional attunement--that’s not out of place.

One thing he seems to have assumed is that of course, if your family is awful and devastating, you get to take the morning off to cry. I can only assume that's why he's pushing her to cry at the end of class, when she has another one to go to right after. But she might not know that. Certainly her familyexpected that if they did something awful and devastating, Talia needed to get back to work as soon as possible. Teren doesn't discuss this, and I think it's important; Talia goes to something like four other classes, has lunch, and reads for an hour before she finally gets to do anything relevant to taking care of her emotions. Implicitly, the idea that schedule and routine supercede emotions, and that emotional work takes second place, gets reinforced by the system that thinks it's "saving" her.

The other thing traumatized people struggle with, next to control, is connection. Trauma is hugely isolating; it reroutes resources away from the parts of the brain that foster social connection, so people literally lose track of anyone who might be loving and supportive, and it's hard to make ordinary people understand what you're going through. This is part of why Teren showing Talia all his distress isn't really good for her; he's overloading her still further with natural empathy for his emotions, increasing the weight she has to carry mentally, but not reinforcing her connections. He doesn't remind her that other Heralds are her family now, nor does he give her help in how to reach out to anyone.

Who might Teren remind her of? As much as he's taking on the role of The Person She Can Be Emotional To, he's hardly ever in her life; this is the last day of their week-long class where he met her for one hour a morning. He could encourage her to talk to one of her regular teachers, including his twin Keren, who teaches her equitation, or the cook, in whose kitchen Talia is most confident and in her element. If her dormitory had older Heralds who lived there in a kind of supervisory or mentoring role, spending hours of unstructured free time with the trainees, he could direct her to one of them. He could even direct her to her age-peers, with whom she lives, who might not be the most emotionally attuned but certainly seem to be the group with whom the Heralds expect her to do most of her emotional bonding.

Or he could--now here's a thought--suggest she spend the rest of the morning with the magical psychic horse who can beam rays of love and devotion directly into her brain.

But he doesn't. It is only after Talia has attended classes on history, geography, mathematics, etiquette, and archery, eaten lunch, read for an hour, and cried in the back of the sewing room, that she finally sees her magic horse. And she does feel a bit better! But by then, her major adrenaline has worn off, and with it the ability to etch memories deeply into her brain; the first hours after her shock were spent ignoring her feelings and being disconnected from people who didn't notice she was in pain, thus reinforcing all her old traumatic impressions.

So the book sets up a recurring number of incidents where Talia's loneliness and isolation is reinforced by the world around her; where no one provides her the necessary scaffolding to help her build bridges with other people and develop the skills to be healthier; and then, as happens throughout the series, when something bad happens to her, she is blamed for being so isolated and repressed. 

When I was 13, I had no framework to understand any of this. On the schoolyard, I'd been taught many of Talia's lessons about the dangers of showing weakness, and in the classroom, about the importance of repressing emotions; I used her as an emotional model. (Later in the books, Talia lbecomes an Empath and Mind-Healer, which hugely impacted my decision to become a therapist.) But then, when her loneliness turned into defencelessness and her lack of emotional control turned into instability, the narrative said it was her fault for not being healthier. And so I thought: Yes. It is completely reasonable to provide a young person with no emotional support at all, and then get mad at them for being fucked up.

And so there's lead in the water.

#staranise original #therapisting #valdemar revisited #child abuse tw #child neglect tw #trauma tw

[theforbiz]

Guide to Buy Hiking and Mountain Pants

Buying a pair of best hiking pants women’s, or men, is not as easy as it seems. There are hundreds of brands and more technical fabrics every day. The price of a mountain pants can vary from much more than you can imagine. There are cheap pants, the price of which is suspiciously low, while others are prohibitive. It is not the same hiking pants for beginners than “advanced trekking” pants, which allows you to get away from the rainiest and coldest days of the high mountain.

Why a Jeans Pants is not worth it?

Many people wonder why jeans are not worth hiking. They are resistant fit the body well and you feel comfortable with them. However, a cowboy can cause you several inconveniences:

The first is that since it is made of cotton, its water resistance capacity is very low. They soak easily and take a long time to dry. If it rains, and there is no need for a heavy downfall, they will make your body cool, become heavier and move with them is very uncomfortable. Jeans do not allow freedom of movement of mountain pants, which usually include elastic fabrics in their composition.

Why Choosing Hiking Pants is not that Easy?

Unlike what happens with t-shirts and mountain jackets, the pants are a garment that is not put on and removed throughout the day. If it’s hot you can take off your jacket, and if it cools you can add another layer. This flexibility you do not have with the warm hiking pants women that, with some exceptions, you will wear all the time. If it’s too hot you’re going to get hot, and if it’s too thin and windy, the cold will leave you cold.

What do you want the Pants for: Hiking, Trekking, and Mountaineering?

There are several terms that are confusing: Hiking, hiking, trekking, mountaineering, … first it is better to clarify them.Hiking is the same as hiking. It involves activities on easy paths and the level of physical effort is low or moderate. They are usually one-day walks, of more or less kilometers.

Trekking implies more physical effort and the possibility of traveling off tracks and trails. The trekking became fashionable in the 80s and refers to the approach to the base camp of the climbers. It can last several days and the physical effort is greater. Also, the backpack is heavier since you have to carry all the clothes and material.

Finally, there is mountaineering, which can be considered an advanced trekking in high mountains. Climatic conditions are more severe because the altitude causes the temperature to decrease, exposure to solar radiation can be very high, and wind and rain can appear at any time. It also requires more physical effort, there are no marked roads, you have to climb steep slopes and sweat must be evacuated as quickly as possible.

How are Hiking Pants Different from Trekking or Mountaineering?

Although then I will go into more specific details, the main difference between a simple hiking pants and a good mountain pants is in the performance of the garment to meet the different demands of each activity.

It is not the same to take a placid walk along a path with no slope at the foot of a mountain, then to climb over 2,000 meters in height and face the inclemency of the high mountain. Neither the effort is the same nor do the climatic conditions coincide. Therefore, a mountain pants is more technical than a hiking pants. This translates into the ability to perspire, to maintain heat, to resist abrasion, or to prevent rain from heating.

A mountain or climbing pants is more robust and resistant to abrasion. It is reinforced in places where wear can be higher, such as in the inside of the legs, where the use of crampons can cause tears.

What time of year do you want the Pants?

More than for what season: Spring, summer, autumn or winter, it would be better to ask under what conditions and in what places you will wear the pants. It is not the same a cool summer in the Pyrenean mountain that, despite being summer, the weather may be cool, then a rigorous summer in any mountain range in southern countries. In any case, there are pants for dry and warm weather, and others women’s cold weather hiking pants are better for cold or rain.

Autumn / Winter Hiking and Mountain Pants (Cold and Rainy Weather)

For cooler days, the Top rated hiking pant – The best hiking pants in the world must have thermal benefits. Too thin pants would be too cool to resist a winter day on the mountain. In addition, if it is windy, which is frequent on the mountain, you should not only check that the pants help you maintain the temperature, but also function as a windbreaker, otherwise you will be cold if the wind blows hard.

In case of Rain, there are 2 types of Hiking Pants that can serve you:

Softshell – they have thermal capacity and a certain capacity to prevent water from transferring them. They are versatile although they will not be worth it if it rains heavily.

Hardshell – are pants with waterproof membrane. They are the ones that offer the most guarantees against water since they act as a layer of protection against wind or rain, being breathable.

Hiking Pants for Spring Summer (Dry and Warm Weather)

For sunny days and in good weather, it might seem that you don’t need too technical pants. However, nothing is further from reality. When it’s hot, sweat can be a big inconvenience. If you sweat too much, you can suffer from dehydration, so it is best that the pants perspire well.

A second problem may be solar radiation. At higher elevations, it is closer to solar radiation and the skin is more vulnerable to ultraviolet rays. Therefore, a mountain pants must offer protection against UV rays, if you are going to use warm hiking pants women on warm and sunny days.

Short, Long or Convertible Hiking Pants?

A short hiking pants allows you to go cooler. However, it has some possible disadvantages:

Scratches and wounds – if you are going to travel away from roads and paths, plants or rocks can leave your legs quite bruised and full of scratches.

Solar radiation – They don’t protect your legs from the sun’s rays. They force you to wear sunscreen.

A short-insulated hiking pants women’s or mountain pants would be nice to walk tracks or easy trails. Instead, long pants protect you more in every way (insects, UV rays, rocks or branches).There is a third option that are convertible pants. Thanks to a zipper, you can remove each leg and leave them short or long as it suits you. They are very versatile and have some advantages:

Easy to wash – the dirtiest part can be washed separately.

Breathable – you can leave part of the zipper open for easy perspiration.

Now that you know the types of mountain and best hiking pants womens and men s that exist in the market and for what type of activity and conditions are more suitable, it is time to deepen the technical characteristics, which are the ones that will allow you to enjoy the Montana.

Water Resistance what is a Waterproof Hiking Pants?

Under the name of waterproof hiking pants, you will find a wide range of garments in which both the price and the benefits vary. A good insulated hiking pants women or for men, truly waterproof, is not easy to find for less than € 100. However, there are pants that can offer you some protection on a day of moderate rain.

Hiking Trousers with (Durable Water Repellent)

DWR means permanent water repellency. The tissues that carry it have a zig zag surface that prevents water from spreading throughout the tissue and soaking it. The water forms large drops that just shake the pants fall to the ground.

This treatment does not make the pants waterproof, although it helps you not soak up the first change, when it starts to rain. The DWR treatment deteriorates over time although it can be regenerated by washing the pants, or by applying a spray. There are many pants that have this treatment, although not all have a true waterproof membrane.

Hiking Pants with Waterproof Membrane

If you really need waterproof pants, you should opt for membrane pants. The best known and most effective is Goretex, which not only gives you a good resistance to rain, but allows you to perspire, something very important.

In the market there are other alternatives to Goretex. Many brands develop their own membrane. The problem is that it is difficult to know which one is the best because there is no standardized measurement system that allows comparison. However, some brands usually provide a measure of water resistance. It is the column of water that holds the pants before the water passes through the tissue.

Pants with Removable Inner Leggings

Some pants have a built-in inner gaiter, which provides a higher level of protection against water in an area that usually gets wet easily if you step on snow or if you move through areas of rain-wet scrub. This type of pants usually has a high resistance to water in the rest of the fabric and it is normal to carry some of the usual and best-known membranes.

Pants Breathability

It is important to check the ability of the tissue to evacuate sweat and allow good perspiration. Especially if it is waterproof pants. It is no use that the pants are waterproof if it is at the cost of not letting sweat escape. In the end you will end up soaked with your own sweat, especially if the temperature is a bit high and you have to make a physical effort climbing a slope to reach the top of a mountain.

In the most technical mountain and trekking pants, data on breathability usually appears. It is known as textile resistance to evaporation (RET) and measures the difficulty that sweat finds to go outside. The lower the data, the better because it tells you that sweat will go outside more easily.

Abrasion Resistance and Durability of Mountain Pants

The resistance of the pants depends on many details, starting with the seams, following the fabrics used and ending with the reinforced areas.

The seams of the Pants

If you turn the pants, you can check the quality of the seams. If the seams are simple and detect loose threads, it is very likely that the pants will wear off after a few uses. On the other hand, pants of a certain quality have double seams.

Windbreak

Wind protection usually coincides with water protection, although not always. You can find windproof pants that are not literally waterproof.

Depending on the type of fabric, you can find pants with Goretex membrane, which protects against wind and water, or softshell type pants, with a certain thermal capacity (depending on the thickness), and that gives you protection against the wind, although not so much in front of the water.

Thermal Capacity of the Pants

The inner part of the pants is usually a carded fabric that, depending on the thickness, can be more or less warm. There is always the possibility of using inner meshes to compensate in case the pants do not offer the thermal benefits you need. In this way you gain versatility, although you must always check that you do not lose freedom of movement and that the undergarment not only shelters, but also transpires well.

The Weight of the Pants

The weight of the pants is important depending on the activity you are going to do. For a day out of hiking it may be unimportant that the pants weigh 200 grams less. However, if you are going to do several days of mountain trekking, it is important to carry the minimum possible weight. Summer pants are lighter and may not exceed 400 grams. Instead, winter pants can double it.

The Pockets and Zippers

It is not given the importance it has. However, a mountain pants with several zippered pockets is safer when it comes to storing your belongings. In the mountains it is easy to lose things when you sit or climb some rocks. In these cases, pants with zippers in the pockets are better.

The Color of the Pants

It is important that you choose a color that you like. Today of any model you can choose between several colors. However, color also has its function. Darker colors are better for winter because they absorb heat better when the sun sets, while lighter colors reflect it and are cooler for warm weather or summer.

Trouser Adjustment

There are pants that fit more to the body (slim fit) and that are more comfortable because they do not easily hook in the branches or when you are climbing rocks. Others have a straighter cut leaving a greater margin with the body. There are also more baggy ones. These, although they may seem more comfortable, may not be so much compared to tight pants, especially when the latter is an elastic fabric.

What are the Best Hiking Pants for you?

The best mountain pants are not the most expensive, nor the cheapest. The best is the one that suits the type of activity you are going to do, the climatic factors, and of course your budget.

A cheap mountain pants can be very expensive. Its durability, it will be pock and may be unprofitable, and may not offer you the degree of comfort and protection you need. When the weather conditions are hard (rain, wind, cold), low quality mountain pants will jeopardize your own health, and prevent you from enjoying the mountain.

And you do not need to buy expensive mountain pants, which is very technical, if your usual activity is going to be hiking through easy terrain without leaving roads and paths.

There are more versatile and versatile men and women’s cold weather hiking pants that can be adapted to more situations and climates. These are never those of winter (too hot in temperate climates) or those of summer (excessively cool for cold weather), but those that have an intermediate weight and weight.

If you are looking for versatility, there are also convertible pants that allow you to adapt to the environment for certain terrains and climates.

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[carrollstreetstation]

days before doom, 1992-1993

doom was a watershed moment in gaming culture. it changed everything; it rocketed id software from stardom into super-stardom, making them one of the most well-known names in the western games industry. it redefined the discussion on video game violence, climaxing in the shitstorm that surrounded the 1999 columbine shooting. and it put the first person shooter firmly on the map for good, looming large over developers, serving as the chief example of what happens when you push the envelope just that extra bit. it’s impossible to overstate just how important doom is. but the key thing about watershed moments is that there is a status before them as well as after them. in the years immediately preceding doom, the first person shooter genre was starting to grow in size, and a variety of approaches to design were prevalent. here, then, are three of doom’s immediate predecessors.

wolfenstein 3D

the early years of modern PC gaming were a strange time; the burgeoning field of home PCs (at the time called IBM-compatibles) were replacing the multitude of home computers that ran with proprietary hardware and software, with increasing parity between brands when it came to internals and a slow gravitation towards plain beige boxes (not counting some of the more experimental models.) PC game development was something of a wild west, a career for hobbyists and isolated-but-brilliant coders. id software were no different, a motley four-man crew consisting of programmers, designers and an artist, who liked heavy metal and super mario, who met working in the games department for the computer magazine softdisk but chafed under softdisk's office culture. after proving that side-scrolling games could be done on then-underpowered PCs using a technique john carmack devised, they formed id software and began "borrowing" softdisk's computers over the weekend to design their own games, to be sold independently. after getting busted by the management, they left softdisk with no criminal charges under the stipulation that they write one game every two months for softdisk for a period of time, but without any direction from softdisk.

id software were now free to pursue their own avenues of game design, with john carmack's programming genius at the helm. alongside the now-classic platformer series commander keen, carmack's experiments in writing a first person engine had resulted in early landmark titles hovertank 3D and catacomb 3D. while catacomb 3D had been the result of carmack's assertion that he could write a faster texture renderer than the fully-textured ultima underworld, which he'd seen at a CES demo in 1990, wolfenstein 3D was intended to be the next step up -- faster, more action-packed, and -- most importantly -- violent.

similar to how catacomb 3D was a first-person followup to john carmack's softdisk title catacomb, the wolfenstein franchise goes back before its “3D” entry. the series began life in 1981 under the auspices of industry legend silas warner, whose apple II classic castle wolfenstein was a vastly different sort of game. a top-down shooter, castle wolfenstein is by all accounts the first stealth game, in which the player must hide from patrolling nazis, using stealth and subterfuge to complete their objective and escape from the castle. ammunition was scarce and the player was sometimes better off holding up guards and stealing their equipment, rendering them harmless. the game was a smash hit, with a followup coming three years later.

the idea to utilize the wolfenstein name was john romero's, but they ran through a number of alternate titles beforehand, among them "hard cell," "luger me now," and "how do you duseldorf?" after meeting with silas warner himself and getting his blessing, id software went ahead with the wolfenstein name and the rest is history.

on a technical level, wolfenstein 3D was the next step up from catacomb 3D. while the basics of the engine were unchanged (textured walls, but no floors or ceilings) there were several notable updates under the hood. the most visible difference is the switch from the EGA display standard, which allowed for up to 16 colors (out of a palette of 64) to VGA, which could display up to 256 colors. that this switch was done mid-development is made plain in the somewhat limited palette in the art assets, with an abundance of shades of blue, turqouise or purple, all of which were common colors in EGA programs and games.

the second big difference was speed; players could move at an almost inhuman rate around the mazes of the game, and the focus was on action over the more sedate tactical espionage of castle wolfenstein. the emphasis on speed figured into the game design; plans for features like dragging bodies out of sight of patrolling guards were scrapped for the sake of keeping up the breakneck pace.

perhaps the standout element, of course, was the violence. sex and violence in video games and other media was an increasingly hot topic; the 80s had been marked by controversies surrounding games like custer's revenge and splatterhouse, and the legacy of 1976's death race 2000 cast a bit of a shadow as well. but nothing could have prepared the industry for what was to come in the 90s. wolfenstein 3D managed to slip in ahead of the shitstorm that id's next game, doom would get embroiled in alongside mortal kombat, but even still it drew concern from id's retail publisher at the time, formgen. artist adrian carmack (no relation to john) had long been a fan of gory themes in his work; doing the art for the relatively kid-friendly commander keen had chafed him, and he relished the opportunity to do something grotesque. hovertank 3D had been a good start, but wolfenstein 3D gave him the opportunity to really cut loose, and in response to formgen raising its concerns, he added much more violence to the art assets, the levels being dotted with skeletons and corpses, and tom hall and john romero recorded themselves screaming almost random phrases in broken german to give voice to the enemy forces. the original three episodes of the game culminated in a final battle with hitler, resulting in one of the goriest deaths ever seen on a screen at the time. (it's worth noting that this isn't the first time hitler's been exploded in a video game...)

like doom, wolfenstein 3D saw a number of ports over the years; a mac version had updated graphics, but the one that most people remember is probably the SNES version, which is infamous for its censorship. gone were the nazis (hell, the bad guys didn’t even speak german anymore!) gone was the blood (it was sweat instead) and hitler himself was replaced by the generic “staatmeister.” the development of the SNES version is a particularly sore memory for id software, in part due to this censorship and in part due to the initial contractor (rebecca heineman) assigned to the porting project going AWOL.

wolfenstein 3D has a long legacy. the serious tone of castle wolfenstein had given way to a grindhouse vibe, stripping away complexity to leave one of the first pure action FPS games, where you go from point A to point B while killing everything in your way and occasionally using keys to progress. while its design was primitive compared to later games, with strictly orthogonal walls and an unchanging height, it proved the potential of the 3D engine for creating realistic environments. while the franchise has seen a couple of revivals, most recently in the utterly brilliant wolfenstein: the new order, it's wolfenstein 3D that laid the groundwork for the future, making the first person shooter popular and proving that shareware distribution was, for the time, a viable method of publishing games.

and besides, everybody loves dead nazis.

pathways into darkness

speaking of dead nazis...

if id software were once the rock gods of PC gaming, bungie were the jazz masters of mac gaming. formed by a pair of college students in the early 90s, they got their start assembling and shipping copies of minotaur: the labyrinths of crete by hand, which is a seriously humble origin given the legendary status bungie holds today as the creator of halo and destiny. their early focus on mac development was largely due to jason jones, who grew up on apple computers, but also because the field was a lot more open in mac development at the time.

after the moderate success of minotaur, they set about working on a first person shooter, inspired by wolfenstein 3D. minotaur and bungie's earlier game operation: desert storm were quirky in an intellectual kind of way; operation: desert storm came with a glossary of military terms and trivia, and authentic maps of the kuwaiti theater of operations during the gulf war. pathways into darkness was no different, which set it apart from the mindless fun of wolfenstein 3D. initially intended to be a first person version of minotaur, they chose to write an original story instead, a lengthy tale of a secret special forces mission to stop the awakening of a dreaming cosmic monster deep beneath a pyramid in the yucatan peninsula. along the way one can speak to the dead that litter the pyramid's corridors, ranging from the player character's special forces comrades to a lost nazi expedition that had entered the pyramid in the late 1930s looking for a potential superweapon.

in terms of technical stuff, the engine isn't a purely orthogonal game like wolfenstein 3D is. instead, walls are quite narrow, with beveled ends; while the underlying map design does seem to be grid-based, the grid squares appear to be much smaller than the massive blocks of wolfenstein 3D, which allows for narrow columns built out of in-game architecture rather than having to use sprites. lighting is not universal, either, and visibility fades into black off in the distance, though a flashlight pushes the darkness back a little. the initial version of the game used gradients for the walls and floors; the powerPC version finally texture maps these.

at times, the game comes off feeling more like a cross between a survival horror and an adventure game with dungeon crawler elements; a text parser requires some specific keywords for talking to the dead, and some of the puzzles are obtuse as hell, and it's entirely possible to play yourself into a corner without realizing it for hours. meanwhile, time actually passes as you play, and you only have five in-game days to complete your task. a weight limit determines how much you can carry, and healing options are limited to rare blue potions and sleeping, the latter of which uses up time. ammo is scarce until you find a certain magical item that lets you create duplicates of anything you put into it, and enemies respawn, furthering the constant threat. saving the game can only be done at save points, which are far and few between.

in spite of its difficulty (or perhaps because of it) pathways into darkness was a smash hit; it was the first native first person shooter for the mac (not counting the colony) and launched bungie into stardom, enabling them to expand their operations.

unfortunately, accessibility to this fantastic game is quite limited. mac owners will be pleased to know that it's available for free on the app store; for everyone else, there's basilisk II (or sheepshaver for the powerPC version) but setting up can be quite the chore.

in addition, art game genius brendon chung has devised his own spin on the early hours of the game in the form of doom 3 mod pathways redux.

ultima underworld: the stygian abyss

ultima and its major competitor wizardry are probably the two greatest influences on RPGs, east and west. a lot of the things we take for granted in RPGs now were invented and codified by these two series. for most of the early 80s they dominated sales, but by the early 90s they'd lost their grip on the market as their successors began to take over, especially final fantasy and other japanese series. ultima VI had shown the franchise still had the chops, but wizardry was fading fast, and by the 1990s only a cult following in japan really still cared about it. as the cRPG scene began to go dormant in the face of the rising wave of jRPGs, the bigger names began to experiment, tossing out a few spinoffs in an attempt to remain relevant. most of them weren’t successful -- the worlds of ultima��series seem to have gone forgotten -- but there was at least one runaway hit.

ultima underworld: the stygian abyss began as the brainchild of paul neurath, who worked at origin systems, the company richard garriot founded to aid in publishing his ultima series, and which had grown into a huge company by the 1990s. neurath was dissatisfied with the simplistic graphics of earlier dungeon crawler games like wizardry, and wanted to create something that built on suspension of disbelief. he founded blue sky productions (not to be confused with bluesky software, creators of vectorman) with the intent of developing this game. the famous demo shown at CES 1990 came out of the early work; origin was so impressed that they offered a publishing agreement and suggested the game be rewritten as an ultima spinoff.

i've written a lot in this space about immersive sims; one of the more invisible aspects of immersive sims, particularly the "traditional" ones like thief and deus ex, is a development process that is perhaps more organic than that of other studios. ultima underworld was developed in such an environment, and is often described as the first immersive sim -- and indeed, it would seem to fit by most any standards, including mine. stepping away from the grid-based movement of classic dungeon crawlers like dungeon master or, yes, wizardry, realtime movement combined with more tactile world interaction pushed ultima underworld out of the hoary old dungeon crawler genre and into something a little more interesting. there's actually a surprising amount of things to see and do, and the entirety of the dungeon is open to you. in a very real sense, ultima underworld laid the groundwork for everything from deus ex to skyrim to dark souls, on top of being leagues ahead of the competition in terms of technology, with fully-textured everything, curved walls, sloped ceilings and floors, and some early 3D models. it's also singlehandedly responsible for launching the career of warren spector, whose previous production work had been wing commander II and one of the worlds of ultima spinoff games. spector would go on to produce system shock, which was in a very real sense the sci-fi counterpart to ultima underworld, and the rest is history.

of course, a game with ultima underworld’s cult popularity can’t go without a sequel. by september 1992 origin was forced by money issues to sell to electronic arts (a shocking move given garriot's long-running hatred of EA founder trip hawkins.) blue sky ended up merging with lerner research, a small outfit that mostly did flight sims, to form looking glass technologies, and it was under these auspices that ultima underworld II: labyrinth of worlds was created in 1993, with much stronger ties to the ultima franchise than its predecessor. years later, arkane studios (they of dishonored fame) would create a spiritual sequel called arx fatalis. and just as the ultima series lives on in garriot's upcoming shroud of the avatar, so too will ultima underworld, in underworld ascendant.

i'm on record as saying i strongly dislike ultima as a series, finding them to be mostly unplayable and difficult to take seriously, and i think garriot is a hack resistant to change, even positive change that would make his games more accessible to people other than crazy assholes who speak in faux-old english in their daily life. i find ultima underworld's controls to be clunky and its historical slowness on DOSbox has long precluded me from being able to get into it. but even i must admit that ultima underworld, and ultima as a whole, are among the most influential games ever made, which is why whenever some gaming site talks about gaming history and ignores the franchise and its influence on everything from final fantasy to bioshock, i have to wonder just how lazy they really are.

this article is a complete rewrite of an earlier entry.

history of FPS masterpost

#wolfenstein 3d #pathways into darkness #ultima underworld #id software #bungie software #looking glass software #ultima #wolfenstein #marathon #halo #history of fps #classic FPS #classic gaming

[kacydeneen]

Is the Keto Diet Safe? Everything You Need to Know

An estimated 45 million Americans go on diets each year to improve their eating habits or lose weight. And while there's no shortage of diets to choose from, the latest weight-loss trend gaining an increasing number of followers is the ketogenics diet.

Halle Berry, Katie Couric and Al Roker are among the growing list of celebrities who stand behind the "keto" diet. They have attributed their weight-loss success to its low-carb formula. After losing 50 pounds following the keto plan, Vinny Guadagnino from MTV's "Jersey Shore" became one of the diet's biggest advocates. The reality star even launched a second Instagram account, @KetoGuido, which boasts over 700,000 followers, to document his new meaty lifestyle.

US Experts Reviewing Low-Carb, Other Diets for Guidelines

But what exactly is keto? Its popularity aside, is the keto diet healthy and sustainable? Here are some answers to your top questions about keto:

What is the Keto Diet?

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The keto diet is a low- to no-carbohydrate diet that helps the body to burn fat by forcing it into a state of ketosis, a metobolic process where the body uses fat instead of carbs as its fuel source. Keto is intended to be a short-term diet, according to Ruth Frechman, a registered dietitian nutritionist, targeting rapid weight loss while reportedly curbing food cravings and boosting mood, mental focus and energy.

The diet was originally introduced in the 1920s as therapy for children suffering from epilepsy after several studies indicated that the ketone chemical produced during the breakdown of fat for fuel could help to reduce their seizures.

Hong Kong Police Fire Tear Gas, Water as Protest Escalates

It was developed for weight loss decades later by Dr. Gianfranco Cappello, a professor of surgery at the University La Sapienza in Rome. Cappello tested the diet in a study that spanned between 2006 and 2011, and found that it helped more than 19,000 participants lose an average of 22 pounds in 25 days. 

"The treatment is safe, fast, inexpensive and has good one-year results for weight maintenance," he wrote in the study’s findings published in 2012.

What Foods Can You Eat on the Keto Diet?

Keto is similar to other low-carb, high-fat diets like Atkins and South Beach.  The standard keto meal plan calls for consuming 75% of daily calories from fat, 20% from protein and 5% from carbohydrates. 

According to Franziska Spritzler, a registered dietician and certified diabetes educator, these are some of the foods you can eat on the keto diet:

Meats

Fats and high fat oils like butter, olive oil and mayonnaise

Low carb vegetables like avocado, spinach and broccoli

High fat dairy like cheese, heavy cream and sour cream

Nuts

Seafood

Eggs

Spices

Berries (sparingly)

Artificial sweeteners like Stevia and sucralose (sparingly)

What Foods Can't You Eat on the Keto Diet?

Fruits

Grains and starches

Breaded or cured meats

Root vegetables like potatoes, carrots and beets

Legumes

Sweeteners

Sweets like candy and chocolate

Some oils: canola, sesame, sunflower

Sweetened drinks

Low-fat dairy items, which often have added sugar 

Sweetened sauces and dips like ketchup, barbecue sauce, some salad dressings

For a more comprehensive list of foods you can and can't eat on keto, click here.

Can You Drink Alcohol on the Keto Diet?

While the keto diet does not ban alcohol specifically, alcoholic beverages that contain carbohydrates and more calories, such as beer, cocktails and mixed drinks, should be avoided. However, hard liquors, dry wine and champagne all fall within the guidelines of keto if consumed in moderation. Women shouldn't drink more than one drink per day, while men should stick to no more than two.

Is the Keto Diet Safe?

Some doctors and nutritionists say following a keto diet is considered safe for people who are healthy and eat heart-healthy fats. Studies have shown that it is able to accelerate weight loss in some dieters, reduce seizures in children with epilepsy and improve blood sugar control for patients with Type 2 diabetes. Many who follow a keto plan also noted an improvement on their mental focus. 

But restricting one's carbohydrate intake doesn't come without side effects. For some dieters, this restriction can cause "keto flu." Common symptons of the keto flu include fatigue, dehydration, brain fog, dizziness and insomnia.

Ruth Frechman, a registered dietitian and author of "The Food Is My Friend Diet," told NBC that ketosis is not a "pleasant experience." The rapid weight loss it causes from the burning of fat calories is a result of water loss from muscles. From there, according to Mary Jane Detroyer, a New York-based nutritionist and certified dietitian, the body goes into survival mode, which means that it holds onto fat while losing muscle. When the diet is over and the person goes back to eating normally, their body begins rebuilding muscle, thereby making it much easier gain back the lost weight, Detroyer added. 

"In my opinion, Keto is another fad diet setting a person up for failure,” said Frechman. “Who can sustain a diet of 80% fat that was originally meant for child epilepsy? I have had clients on keto, and their cholesterol levels have gone up."

According to Dr. Lisa Young, private practice nutritionist and adjunct professor of nutrition at New York University, most scientists reject the keto diet because it is both too limiting and deprives people of healthy foods.

“It is a poor choice — it eliminates entire food groups along with healthy food choices and nutrients in those groups,” Dr. Young, who has also written "Finally Full, Finally Slim" and "The Portion Teller Plan," told NBC. “[There is] no need to cut all carbs — fruits and whole grains are super healthy.” 

To reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer, experts say it is better to eat a balanced diet that also includes fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

"No diets are a good choice," Detroyer told NBC. "We don't need fad diets, we need to be connected to our body and what it tell us. No one can tell you how much to eat, even a dietitian. Only your body can tell you this."

Should You Take MCTs on the Keto Diet?

If you're a follower of the ketogenic diet, than you may have heard the words "MCT oil." MCT, or medium-chain triglyceride, is a type of fatty acid derived primarliy from coconut oil. It is very popular among keto dieters due to its crave-curbing abilities. MCTs pass from the stomach to the liver much faster than other types of fatty acids and are quickly converted into energy, thereby decreasing the likelihood that the body will store it as fat cells while giving the user an instant power boost.  

Another commonly used supplement is exogenous ketones, a synthetic type of ketone called beta hydroxybtyrate (BHB), which is created naturally by the body.

According to Michelle Milgrim, a nutritionist at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y., these supplements reportedly help propel the body into a state of ketosis and stay there when you eat something that's not keto-friendly. But, Milgrim notes, there is little research on the long-term effects to support these claims.

"Only short-duration studies examining small samples have found that exogenous ketones can help achieve ketosis quicker and may decrease appetite," she told Women's Health magazine.

Jaclyn London, Good Housekeeping nutrition director and author of “Dressing on the Side,” reported that keto diet pills could be harmful to your health. According to London, supplements that contain MCT oil can mess with your digestion and many users experience nausea, vomiting, constipation and diarrhea. These supplements can also negatively impact your metabolism. While they initially help to decrease appetite, they have a reverse effect in the long term and ultimately can increase hunger cravings once the dieter stops taking the pills.

"I do not recommend [these supplements],” Young said. “They may give people external hope but as soon as you stop them, you can regain lost weight. I prefer lifestyle changes that people can sustain — choosing healthy foods, portion control, and exercise."

Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. Is the Keto Diet Safe? Everything You Need to Know published first on Miami News

[theliterateape]

When Facts Dispute Ideology, What Do You Do?

by Don Hall

When, in Chicago, the powers that be decided that it was a greener idea to ban plastic bags at groceries, it seemed like a great idea. I mean, the alarmist media told us how bad plastic bags were. The activists enthusiastically threw themselves at the wasteful practice. My wife was already reminding me at every trip to the Jewel to bring one of my several public radio tote bags instead of using the godawful plastic bags. If I forgot, I always went for paper because the dogma was that plastic bags were the embodiment of all things anti-environment.

"So about 30 percent of the plastic that was eliminated by the ban comes back in the form of thicker garbage bags," Taylor says. On top of that, cities that banned plastic bags saw a surge in the use of paper bags, which she estimates resulted in about 80 million pounds of extra paper trash per year

Plastic haters, it's time to brace yourselves. A bunch of studies find that paper bags are actually worse for the environment. They require cutting down and processing trees, which involves lots of water, toxic chemicals, fuel and heavy machinery. While paper is biodegradable and avoids some of the problems of plastic, Taylor says, the huge increase of paper, together with the uptick in plastic trash bags, means banning plastic shopping bags increases greenhouse gas emissions.

SOURCE

What? Huh? No, wait a minute. Really?

I’ve mentioned this set of facts to several people who I know are pretty hardcore environmental activists and the answer is always the same.

They don’t care. The ban on plastic bags is good. Their boots are steeped in concrete and their ideology won’t allow them to budge.

But the FACTS, I say. Ignoring the facts is for the Other Guys, right? We’re the side of the fence who respect the facts, preach the facts, and goddamn anyone who, y’know, votes against their interests by actively refusing to acknowledge the facts.

I’m noticing a similar trend when it comes to veganism. Vegans committed to the practice are finding themselves in poorer health than when they ate meat. Studies are being done that dispute the ideology of it being a healthier approach to food. Yet, vegans double down on their conviction despite evidence to the contrary. It’s certainly a more humane way of eating but healthier. Nope, not even close.

Likely the longest standing example of ideology obfuscating the facts is white supremacy. The facts simply do not support the idea that European heritage is in any way superior to the billions of people with color in their skin but the ideology is bedrock for some. They’ve tried to justify it with science and failed. They’ve legislated it and it failed. This many failures in trying to bolster the argument, with anything rational, would mean the idea is false on the foundation. And yet ideology reigns.

“As a result of their infatuation, existence overflows with purpose.”

Another is the Milton Friedman conceived Trickle Down Economic model. We’ve seen so many examples of that model in failure, it would seem to be complete lunacy to continue to trumpet it but the zealots can’t let it go.

The idea that there are no substantive differences between male and female brains is sticky right now because to suggest that there is a difference is to somehow be labeled anti-trans but facts are facts:

[The German philosopher] Arthur Schopenhauer said there are three phrases to the acceptance of any truth: First, the truth is ridiculed. Second, it’s opposed. Third, it’s accepted as self-evident. I spent much of the past 20 years in the ridicule phase: “Oh, Larry Cahill, you used to do such good work. Now he’s studying the sex-differences bullshit!”

But it’s reached a critical mass now where both within neuroscience and outside of it, it’s getting scary for people who believe there can’t be sex differences in brain. So, now we’re in phase two, which is fighting it. I tell people to stay away from the ideologues on both sides of the issue. Stay away from the ones who tell you, “There’s male and there’s female and never the two shall meet.” But also stay away from the ideologues on the other side, who unfortunately are given a voice by editors at places like the New York Times, who know nothing about the issue except that they’re afraid of appearing to be on the wrong side of it.

SOURCE

The tragic part of this beyond having those strident idiots at your birthday party as they turn everything including your choice of cake into a debate about their cause is that a more logical and progressive approach is this: recognize that you tried something and it failed. The underlying cause for trying something isn’t bereft of reason but doubling down on a failed solution is.

It’s more humane to avoid eating meat but it isn’t a healthy way to live. Be creative. White people are in no way superior to black and brown people. Accept it. Try redlining or something. There are too many plastic bags clogging up the sea. The ban made things worse.  Find a different solution and try that. If it fails, admit it and try something new.

Only one problem with this, though:

New research published in Current Biology on December 18, 2018, confirms this feeling: people with radical beliefs actually think differently than those without. Specifically, radicals have less metacognitive sensitivity than moderates.

Metacognition refers to the ability to be aware of and analyze one's own thinking. Metacognitive sensitivity is similar, but more specific: it refers to the ability to distinguish between one's correct and incorrect judgements. The new paper, titled "Metacognitive Failure as a Feature of Holding Radical Beliefs," shows that radicals have measurably less metacognitive sensitivity than moderates.

SOURCE

When facts dispute your ideology, please — PLEASE — access those two brain cells that control your ability for self reflection and understand that those facts mean your failed solution doesn’t need another shot. You need to come up with a different solution, dumbass.

Remember, the option of the intelligent outweighs the certainty of the ignorant.

#Trickle Down Economics #white supremacy #plastic bag ban #zealotry #vegans

[robertkstone]

Roger Penske: The Interview

Roger Penske is one of America’s most respected captains of industry, a name uttered with reverence from corporate boardrooms to racetrack RV parks. Whether it’s leasing and distributing medium- and heavy-duty trucks, retailing new and used automobiles, or running wildly successful teams in NASCAR, IndyCar, and other racing series, Roger Penske is a household name. His driven, entrepreneurial sense in creating his business empire has proven unerring, though he will admit to disappointments. At Acura’s unveiling of its new IMSA race car—for a two-car team that Penske will campaign in 2018—Motor Trend sat with the 80-year-old Penske for a lengthy discussion of past, present, and future.

It’s been a few years (2012) since you won your first NASCAR championship—something you’ve said was a lifelong goal. But now that there’s been time to reflect, would you say that’s still the most personally satisfying racing victory for you?

Winning that was something we hadn’t achieved as a team. We were close. We were in the running last year. The competitive challenge of NASCAR, over 38 races, with format changes … you gotta be on your game. Certainly with teams like [Rick] Hendrick, [Joe] Gibbs, [Richard] Childress—they are obviously in the same boat we are. There are eight, 10, 12 cars that can win any race. We have good drivers and good sponsors. We are well supported by Ford.

Obviously, IndyCar is where my heart is because that’s where we got started. We have four great guys who are competing for us. We can see the championship, but we have to execute.

We also are competing in the Supercars series in Australia. That’s been our latest real challenge. I was going to Australia on business, for MAN and Western Star distribution and Detroit Diesel engines, and I wanted to have a way to build the brand there. The Supercars series would be something that could give us some notoriety and the brand-building capability. So we bought a small partnership, and we struggled in the first year because Marcos Ambrose decided after a couple races he wanted to do something else. Then we got Fabian Coulthard, and as part of building the team, we contracted with Scott McLaughlin, who is the hottest young driver with 11 pole positions and six victories. So we’re not only leading the driver championship, but we’re leading the team championship.

Our latest challenge is in IMSA with Acura. We go back to 1966 when the first race we entered was at Daytona with the Corvette. So this is a great step for us because we have the driver talent in-house to a certain extent. The Honda powertrain is well developed and reliable. The chassis almost won Le Mans with Porsche. Along with Honda Performance Development and our people, from a technical standpoint we can put together a competitive package. I have moderate expectations because we can’t walk into these partnerships and think we can have success overnight. But we’ve raced with Honda before and had success. We have six Acura stores across the country, so it’s nice to tie together the business and performance. I’m pretty excited about the opportunity.

You mentioned your car-retail holdings. Where do you see the U.S. auto market headed?

The market has a lot of push, primarily in the premium luxury sector. Land Rover and Porsche have their inventories under control, but the mix-shift from sedans to SUVs has caught some premium guys short, in terms of not having the product lines they need. Sedan residuals are off, and that’s had an impact on leasing. I see a flatter year for the next 12 to 24 months. We do see pressure on margins from the internet, TrueCar and other disruptors in the retail business, so we are looking at how do we take cost out. We probably have a little more work to do because premium luxury has been a 50, 55, 60 percent lease market. Those residuals are being impacted because of all the sedans coming back.

I’ve been concentrating on my used car superstores, and we’ve had success with CarSense (the used car superstores Penske recently acquired).

We’re also making a tremendous investment in facilities. But if we can sell cars over the internet, that will affect our parts and service business. Are we going to have to have a new franchise that is doing service remotely and have 25 bays that are empty? We have to talk to the OEMs about that. We’re not just looking at what’s happening today. We’re looking at two, three, four, five years from now, whether it’s car sharing or maintenance.

Which automaker is doing things right today?

Every one of them is looking across the bow of being more efficient and taking cost out. We’re seeing the electrification of the business where everyone has the same kilowatts and torque and fuel mileage, so now it’s about the customer experience, styling, technology. That’s what they are locking onto. We represent all the great brands, so I never say one is ahead of the other. One might have a different approach. We’re seeing a new relationship with Acura. [Brand General Manager] Jon Ikeda is focusing on performance, and that’s another way to connect with customers.

What is your feeling about the overall business climate, given the actions of the Trump administration?

The administration was very positive, as far as what was going to happen. With health care and taxes and smaller things he can sign himself, these haven’t affected the auto industry yet. The EPA is revisiting rules on gliders in the truck industry. But I’m not in Wall Street, so I don’t know the impact of [repealing] Dodd-Frank [Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act]. Washington today certainly is an important part of the face of the U.S., and that’s my biggest concern. I go around the world, and our reputation is somewhat tarnished by our inability to get things done, and the M.O. that Trump has. [Politically] I’m straight down the middle. I want to support the administrations, whether they are Republican or Democrat. I have never relied on government to make my business better, and I’m not counting on them to make it worse. You put the effort in, and whether you are 15 or 60 you have the opportunity. That’s what keeps me active. You look at Uber and the amazing things that have taken place. Ten years from now, we’ll see which had sustainability and which were pop-ups that lost their momentum. Amazon has a tremendous market cap but needs a big return.

Speaking of sustainability, what do you think of Tesla?

Tesla has done a really good car, but I wonder about their distribution model. They want to go direct, so my concern is about captive financing because when business goes bad, the banks go away. Ford Credit kept Ford in business during the financial crisis. As Tesla goes to next level, the Model 3 will have less margin, and selling more models means more customers to be handled properly. When you look at the bottom line, there seems to be an equity infusion going into debt. There has to be a point where the business makes money, where it’s more than things people want to have. You have to ask what are their residuals and battery technology, when companies like Porsche and Land Rover are coming with similar products.

There was talk during the Recession about you becoming chairman or CEO of bankrupt General Motors. Was there any truth to that?

No. You know how stories get started. [Former Chrysler CEO Lee] Iacocca talked to me, but it was not in the cards. That was many years ago. I had my own business. I wouldn’t be a good big-company CEO. I want to go do things.

You’ve talked about human capital as the most essential piece of your business. But with 60,000-plus employees to navigate, how do you determine who would be a good fit in your organization?

We have a robust recruiting process. Look at the people who work for us, most come up through the organization. Our culture gets instilled early on. We stretch people. No one is ever ready, but nobody fails. We move them on to find what works well for them. When we look at employee surveys, one question we get is that we don’t move fast enough. For every 200 employees, we have probably one or two people who are specifically focused on human resources. That way, you can connect with someone if you have a concern. At big organizations, you can have nowhere to go. It’s hard to get in our business, and we want it to be hard to leave.

What business decision would you want to do over—either a decision you went ahead with or one you decided not to take?

We were never able to execute the purchase of Saturn from GM. I felt we had a good purchase there. Samsung would have built the cars. But at the end of the day, it was a disappointment. My biggest failure was the Kmart auto centers, when Kmart went bankrupt, and we went from 1,400 (Penske Auto) centers to 900, and we had to shut it down.

You are known as a boots-on-the-ground CEO. You’ll go out to your operations and talk to those who are interacting with customers every day. How do you interact with the one who’s running the local operation?

In the morning, I do a site walk around with the people, and I encourage our managers. I don’t go to the conference room. I walk around the facilities. In Belfast, we have a big complex with Mercedes, Audi, BMW, and Porsche, and at 7:30, I meet those managers, walk all the sites, and get up to speed.

One of the things that came from a site walk was when we bought Detroit Diesel in the ’80s. I shut down the management cafeteria and instead had management meet with the people we do business with. We put air conditioning and TVs in the employee break areas rather than have the chairs chained down like they were. We had over 3,000 grievances at the time, and we were able to bring those down and develop a very important relationship with the union. When (President Bill) Clinton came to Detroit, he came to Detroit Diesel because of the partnership we had developed with the union.

   The post Roger Penske: The Interview appeared first on Motor Trend.

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[neilmillerne]

20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its Really Hard

I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t have great quads.

It’s not that my legs don’t have size, it’s that they have no shape or definition. When I started working out, there was some improvement, but still no quad sweep, no tear drop. Nothing.

For someone who was squatting 315 pounds, it just seemed like my legs should also look like I could squat 315 pounds, right? 

My legs were lagging. Training them at the same frequency and intensity as my upper body, I began to question my genetics, figuring I just wasn’t cut out to have the kind of legs I craved.

But that wasn’t true. Genetics weren’t the problem, and everything changed when I found 20 Rep Squats. 

42 Days of Pain and Gain

Before we get into what you can expect on this program, I want to talk a little bit about my experience on it because my legs weren’t the only body part to see results: my back and shoulders got swole.

In fact, it’s the only thing anyone noticed when I wasn’t wearing shorts.

My pants were also a bit looser, despite the scale not moving at all, they fit as if I’d lost 5 pounds. I ended up putting on about a pound of muscle per week while losing the same amount of fat. 

So, if want to finally bring out your quads, get yoked, and lose fat, keep reading.

What Are 20 Rep Squats? 

Back in the late 80s, Dr. Ronald J. Strossen made some extraordinary claims in his book, Super Squats: How to Gain 30 Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks.

In a nutshell, the program has you squatting three times a week, doing a single set for 20 reps.

Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong.  

You see, this 20-rep set isn’t going to be done with your 20-rep max, it’s going to be done with your 8-12 rep max.

See? Not so easy, after all.

In fact, it brutal.

Just picture what one of these sets might be like: 

After you’re done with eight hard reps, instead of racking the bar, you’ll take a few deep breaths, say a prayer to the gods, both old and new, and crank out a few more reps. As you move up in reps, the number of reps you can do between breaks goes down, and the length of the rest period goes up (to be clear, this means instead of taking two or three labored breaths, you might take three to five).

And then you keep doing that until you complete all 20 reps (another name for the 20-Rep Squat set is Breathing Squats, and once you do a set for yourself, you’ll understand how it got the name).

Even though you’re already doing 20 reps with your 8-12 rep max, you’re then going to add 5 pounds to the bar on your next workout.

And the next.

For 6 weeks.

That’s right.

At the end of six weeks, you’ll be doing 20 reps with an additional 90 pounds on top of your current 8-12 rep max.

Beginners will want to look elsewhere. Why It Works: Feel Free to Skip Ahead if You DGAF About Science

There’s some decent science behind why this program works. Without getting too much into the weeds, muscles are made up of different fiber types, with type I (slow-twitch) fibers handling strength work and type II (fast twitch) handling endurance work respectively.

Slow and powerful animals, like cows, contain red meat (mostly slow-twitch) and smaller animals, like chickens, built for endurance, consist of white or lighter colored meat (mostly fast-twitch).

The distribution of muscle fiber types (what each muscle consists of) varies from muscle to muscle and from individual to individual. Some cows will have a larger distribution of slow-twitch fibers in their muscles compared to other cows, and some chickens will have a larger distribution of fast-twitch than other chickens.

Similarly, muscle fiber distribution differs person to person.

And in a given individual, each individual muscle will also vary in muscle fiber distribution. The quadriceps muscle, for example, having four different heads, consist of different muscle fiber compositions depending on which head we’re talking about.

All this means is that some people will respond better to heavy training. Others with lighter, high-volume training. Some muscles and heads of muscles respond better to heavier weights, while others respond better to high volume training.

Trying to figure out which type of training works best for you and each of your body parts can take years…for most people.

Fortunately, 20 Rep Squats doesn’t have time for that.

And that’s exactly why this program works well. 

The first few reps will target the endurance fibers. Then, as you start doing 2 and 3 rep mini-sets, catching your breath between rounds, you’ll be hitting the strength fibers. By the time you’re done, your legs will be toast; no fiber of your legs will be left unscathed.

Put Up or Shut Up

A well-developed pair of legs are a Rubicon, of sorts; they are the line that separates the people who just work the mirror muscles from the ones who’ve paid their dues with some time under the bar.

Very few workouts require as much mental toughness as breathing squats. The first workout will be hard. After your first 8 reps, you’ll have to dig deep and continue. And you’ll probably experience a good bit of DOMS for the next few days.

Your legs will be weak.

Your arms will be heavy.

Palms? Sweaty.

There might even be vomit on your shirt.

And as the weights start to get much heavier, especially around week four, you’re going to have to talk yourself into completing the set.

And then two days later, you have to do it all over again, with slightly heavier weights. And then 16 more times, with each workout being a little harder than the last.

Don’t be surprised if the set takes 2-3 minutes, and if it takes upwards of five minutes to catch your breath before you can proceed to the rest of the workout.

Oh, did you think you were just coming into the gym to squat?

Think again, Sunshine.

You still have more work to do. But after that set of squats, almost anything else is a cakewalk by comparison.

But what about the trap and arm gains?

I didn’t forget.

There’s a full workout below. And when you get yourself under the bar properly, the bar will rest right around your traps and rear delts, give or take. In order to do that, you’ll have to shrug to flex the traps, and then place a heavy barbell on them for several minutes. The isometric tension alone will spur new growth around the traps and shoulders.

Don’t Be Stupid, OK?

I’m not sure if I said this yet, but this program is going to be hard.

That being said, it can be done.

Just make sure that you’ve got all your bases covered: a proper warm up, making sure that your form is on point, and that you’re taking care of your recovery and nutrition.

Even with all of these precautions, make sure you listen to your body. Even if you’re doing all of these things right, running this program three times per week might feel like it’s crushing you, especially towards the end.

If that happens, instead of training every other day, take two days to recover from a particularly tough session. As the weights get heavier, you may notice that you can only recover from two workouts per week.

You might also start to feel twinges in parts of your legs; that’s your body telling you that something’s up with your form. This is yet another reason to lower the frequency to two days per week while continuing to monitor and improve your form if necessary.

Lastly, please squat in a cage or a power rack. If you have to bail, you want to do it as safely as possible.

The Workout

Workout A – Upper Body Focus

A – Squats w/unloaded bar – 1 x 10

B1 – Squat – 1 x 20 ***This your 20 Rep Squat and should be done with your 8-12 rep max

B2 – Dumbbell Pullover – 1 x 20

C1 – Barbell Bench Press – 2 x 6-8

C2 – Barbell Row – 2 x 6-8

D1 – Overhead Press – 2 x 6-8

D2 – Dumbbell Curl – 2 x 12-15

E1 – Crunch – 2 x failure

E2 – Standing Calve Raises – 2 x 10 (1-second hold at the top, 2 seconds down, 1-second hold at the bottom, then explode out of the bottom).

Workout B – Lower Body Focus

A – Squats w/unloaded bar – 1 x 10

B1 – Squat – 1 x 20  ***This your 20 Rep Squat and should be done with your 8-12 rep max

B2 – Dumbbell Pullover – 1 x 20

C1 – Chin-ups – 2 x 1 rep short of failure

C2 – Chest Dips – 2 x 1 rep short of failure

D1 – Romanian Deadlift – 2 x 6-8

D2 – Overhead Barbell Triceps Extension – 2 x 12-15

E1 – Reverse Crunch – 2 x failure

E2 – Standing Calve Raises – 2 x 10 (1-second hold at the top, 2 seconds down, 1-second hold at the bottom, then explode out of the bottom).

Cycle through workouts A and B, hitting three workouts per week, for 6 weeks, and every week, add 5 more pounds to the weight you’re squatting in your 20 Rep Squat.

Here’s a sample schedule. Feel free to alter it as needed: 

Week 1:

– Monday: Workout A – Wednesday: Workout B – Friday: Workout A – All Other Days: Rest

Week 2:

– Monday: Workout B – Wednesday: Workout A – Friday: Workout B  – All Other Days: Rest

Suggested (Mandatory) Recovery

Make sure to get at least three, 30-minute active recovery sessions during the week. You can do it whenever you want, but doing it right after the workout is preferable in terms of minimizing soreness.

These sessions should only consist of light to moderate intensity. And they can be done in or out of the gym. Take your dog for a walk. Walk to the grocery store. Park farther away from the store when you go shopping.

Get creative, but most of all, get moving.

Putting It All together

Getting through this program isn’t for the faint of heart. But what waits for you on the other side will make it all worth it.

If you want to take on a challenge and find out what you’re really made of, this program will show you. And if you don’t like what you see, completing this program will fix that.

Take all the precautions we discussed, get plenty of food and rest, you’ll grow quickly. You’ll be filling out those jeans in no time and no longer will you dread wearing shorts.

Best of all, no one will turn you into a meme about skipping leg day.

The post 20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its Really Hard appeared first on Roman Fitness Systems.

http://ift.tt/2uDzQuo

#20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its R

[ruthellisneda]

20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its Really Hard

I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t have great quads.

It’s not that my legs don’t have size, it’s that they have no shape or definition. When I started working out, there was some improvement, but still no quad sweep, no tear drop. Nothing.

For someone who was squatting 315 pounds, it just seemed like my legs should also look like I could squat 315 pounds, right? 

My legs were lagging. Training them at the same frequency and intensity as my upper body, I began to question my genetics, figuring I just wasn’t cut out to have the kind of legs I craved.

But that wasn’t true. Genetics weren’t the problem, and everything changed when I found 20 Rep Squats. 

42 Days of Pain and Gain

Before we get into what you can expect on this program, I want to talk a little bit about my experience on it because my legs weren’t the only body part to see results: my back and shoulders got swole.

In fact, it’s the only thing anyone noticed when I wasn’t wearing shorts.

My pants were also a bit looser, despite the scale not moving at all, they fit as if I’d lost 5 pounds. I ended up putting on about a pound of muscle per week while losing the same amount of fat. 

So, if want to finally bring out your quads, get yoked, and lose fat, keep reading.

What Are 20 Rep Squats? 

Back in the late 80s, Dr. Ronald J. Strossen made some extraordinary claims in his book, Super Squats: How to Gain 30 Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks.

In a nutshell, the program has you squatting three times a week, doing a single set for 20 reps.

Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong.  

You see, this 20-rep set isn’t going to be done with your 20-rep max, it’s going to be done with your 8-12 rep max.

See? Not so easy, after all.

In fact, it brutal.

Just picture what one of these sets might be like: 

After you’re done with eight hard reps, instead of racking the bar, you’ll take a few deep breaths, say a prayer to the gods, both old and new, and crank out a few more reps. As you move up in reps, the number of reps you can do between breaks goes down, and the length of the rest period goes up (to be clear, this means instead of taking two or three labored breaths, you might take three to five).

And then you keep doing that until you complete all 20 reps (another name for the 20-Rep Squat set is Breathing Squats, and once you do a set for yourself, you’ll understand how it got the name).

Even though you’re already doing 20 reps with your 8-12 rep max, you’re then going to add 5 pounds to the bar on your next workout.

And the next.

For 6 weeks.

That’s right.

At the end of six weeks, you’ll be doing 20 reps with an additional 90 pounds on top of your current 8-12 rep max.

Beginners will want to look elsewhere. Why It Works: Feel Free to Skip Ahead if You DGAF About Science

There’s some decent science behind why this program works. Without getting too much into the weeds, muscles are made up of different fiber types, with type I (slow-twitch) fibers handling strength work and type II (fast twitch) handling endurance work respectively.

Slow and powerful animals, like cows, contain red meat (mostly slow-twitch) and smaller animals, like chickens, built for endurance, consist of white or lighter colored meat (mostly fast-twitch).

The distribution of muscle fiber types (what each muscle consists of) varies from muscle to muscle and from individual to individual. Some cows will have a larger distribution of slow-twitch fibers in their muscles compared to other cows, and some chickens will have a larger distribution of fast-twitch than other chickens.

Similarly, muscle fiber distribution differs person to person.

And in a given individual, each individual muscle will also vary in muscle fiber distribution. The quadriceps muscle, for example, having four different heads, consist of different muscle fiber compositions depending on which head we’re talking about.

All this means is that some people will respond better to heavy training. Others with lighter, high-volume training. Some muscles and heads of muscles respond better to heavier weights, while others respond better to high volume training.

Trying to figure out which type of training works best for you and each of your body parts can take years…for most people.

Fortunately, 20 Rep Squats doesn’t have time for that.

And that’s exactly why this program works well. 

The first few reps will target the endurance fibers. Then, as you start doing 2 and 3 rep mini-sets, catching your breath between rounds, you’ll be hitting the strength fibers. By the time you’re done, your legs will be toast; no fiber of your legs will be left unscathed.

Put Up or Shut Up

A well-developed pair of legs are a Rubicon, of sorts; they are the line that separates the people who just work the mirror muscles from the ones who’ve paid their dues with some time under the bar.

Very few workouts require as much mental toughness as breathing squats. The first workout will be hard. After your first 8 reps, you’ll have to dig deep and continue. And you’ll probably experience a good bit of DOMS for the next few days.

Your legs will be weak.

Your arms will be heavy.

Palms? Sweaty.

There might even be vomit on your shirt.

And as the weights start to get much heavier, especially around week four, you’re going to have to talk yourself into completing the set.

And then two days later, you have to do it all over again, with slightly heavier weights. And then 16 more times, with each workout being a little harder than the last.

Don’t be surprised if the set takes 2-3 minutes, and if it takes upwards of five minutes to catch your breath before you can proceed to the rest of the workout.

Oh, did you think you were just coming into the gym to squat?

Think again, Sunshine.

You still have more work to do. But after that set of squats, almost anything else is a cakewalk by comparison.

But what about the trap and arm gains?

I didn’t forget.

There’s a full workout below. And when you get yourself under the bar properly, the bar will rest right around your traps and rear delts, give or take. In order to do that, you’ll have to shrug to flex the traps, and then place a heavy barbell on them for several minutes. The isometric tension alone will spur new growth around the traps and shoulders.

Don’t Be Stupid, OK?

I’m not sure if I said this yet, but this program is going to be hard.

That being said, it can be done.

Just make sure that you’ve got all your bases covered: a proper warm up, making sure that your form is on point, and that you’re taking care of your recovery and nutrition.

Even with all of these precautions, make sure you listen to your body. Even if you’re doing all of these things right, running this program three times per week might feel like it’s crushing you, especially towards the end.

If that happens, instead of training every other day, take two days to recover from a particularly tough session. As the weights get heavier, you may notice that you can only recover from two workouts per week.

You might also start to feel twinges in parts of your legs; that’s your body telling you that something’s up with your form. This is yet another reason to lower the frequency to two days per week while continuing to monitor and improve your form if necessary.

Lastly, please squat in a cage or a power rack. If you have to bail, you want to do it as safely as possible.

The Workout

Workout A – Upper Body Focus

A – Squats w/unloaded bar – 1 x 10

B1 – Squat – 1 x 20 ***This your 20 Rep Squat and should be done with your 8-12 rep max

B2 – Dumbbell Pullover – 1 x 20

C1 – Barbell Bench Press – 2 x 6-8

C2 – Barbell Row – 2 x 6-8

D1 – Overhead Press – 2 x 6-8

D2 – Dumbbell Curl – 2 x 12-15

E1 – Crunch – 2 x failure

E2 – Standing Calve Raises – 2 x 10 (1-second hold at the top, 2 seconds down, 1-second hold at the bottom, then explode out of the bottom).

Workout B – Lower Body Focus

A – Squats w/unloaded bar – 1 x 10

B1 – Squat – 1 x 20  ***This your 20 Rep Squat and should be done with your 8-12 rep max

B2 – Dumbbell Pullover – 1 x 20

C1 – Chin-ups – 2 x 1 rep short of failure

C2 – Chest Dips – 2 x 1 rep short of failure

D1 – Romanian Deadlift – 2 x 6-8

D2 – Overhead Barbell Triceps Extension – 2 x 12-15

E1 – Reverse Crunch – 2 x failure

E2 – Standing Calve Raises – 2 x 10 (1-second hold at the top, 2 seconds down, 1-second hold at the bottom, then explode out of the bottom).

Cycle through workouts A and B, hitting three workouts per week, for 6 weeks, and every week, add 5 more pounds to the weight you’re squatting in your 20 Rep Squat.

Here’s a sample schedule. Feel free to alter it as needed: 

Week 1:

– Monday: Workout A – Wednesday: Workout B – Friday: Workout A – All Other Days: Rest

Week 2:

– Monday: Workout B – Wednesday: Workout A – Friday: Workout B  – All Other Days: Rest

Suggested (Mandatory) Recovery

Make sure to get at least three, 30-minute active recovery sessions during the week. You can do it whenever you want, but doing it right after the workout is preferable in terms of minimizing soreness.

These sessions should only consist of light to moderate intensity. And they can be done in or out of the gym. Take your dog for a walk. Walk to the grocery store. Park farther away from the store when you go shopping.

Get creative, but most of all, get moving.

Putting It All together

Getting through this program isn’t for the faint of heart. But what waits for you on the other side will make it all worth it.

If you want to take on a challenge and find out what you’re really made of, this program will show you. And if you don’t like what you see, completing this program will fix that.

Take all the precautions we discussed, get plenty of food and rest, you’ll grow quickly. You’ll be filling out those jeans in no time and no longer will you dread wearing shorts.

Best of all, no one will turn you into a meme about skipping leg day.

The post 20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its Really Hard appeared first on Roman Fitness Systems.

http://ift.tt/2uDzQuo

#20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its R

[almajonesnjna]

20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its Really Hard

I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t have great quads.

It’s not that my legs don’t have size, it’s that they have no shape or definition. When I started working out, there was some improvement, but still no quad sweep, no tear drop. Nothing.

For someone who was squatting 315 pounds, it just seemed like my legs should also look like I could squat 315 pounds, right? 

My legs were lagging. Training them at the same frequency and intensity as my upper body, I began to question my genetics, figuring I just wasn’t cut out to have the kind of legs I craved.

But that wasn’t true. Genetics weren’t the problem, and everything changed when I found 20 Rep Squats. 

42 Days of Pain and Gain

Before we get into what you can expect on this program, I want to talk a little bit about my experience on it because my legs weren’t the only body part to see results: my back and shoulders got swole.

In fact, it’s the only thing anyone noticed when I wasn’t wearing shorts.

My pants were also a bit looser, despite the scale not moving at all, they fit as if I’d lost 5 pounds. I ended up putting on about a pound of muscle per week while losing the same amount of fat. 

So, if want to finally bring out your quads, get yoked, and lose fat, keep reading.

What Are 20 Rep Squats? 

Back in the late 80s, Dr. Ronald J. Strossen made some extraordinary claims in his book, Super Squats: How to Gain 30 Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks.

In a nutshell, the program has you squatting three times a week, doing a single set for 20 reps.

Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong.  

You see, this 20-rep set isn’t going to be done with your 20-rep max, it’s going to be done with your 8-12 rep max.

See? Not so easy, after all.

In fact, it brutal.

Just picture what one of these sets might be like: 

After you’re done with eight hard reps, instead of racking the bar, you’ll take a few deep breaths, say a prayer to the gods, both old and new, and crank out a few more reps. As you move up in reps, the number of reps you can do between breaks goes down, and the length of the rest period goes up (to be clear, this means instead of taking two or three labored breaths, you might take three to five).

And then you keep doing that until you complete all 20 reps (another name for the 20-Rep Squat set is Breathing Squats, and once you do a set for yourself, you’ll understand how it got the name).

Even though you’re already doing 20 reps with your 8-12 rep max, you’re then going to add 5 pounds to the bar on your next workout.

And the next.

For 6 weeks.

That’s right.

At the end of six weeks, you’ll be doing 20 reps with an additional 90 pounds on top of your current 8-12 rep max.

Beginners will want to look elsewhere. Why It Works: Feel Free to Skip Ahead if You DGAF About Science

There’s some decent science behind why this program works. Without getting too much into the weeds, muscles are made up of different fiber types, with type I (slow-twitch) fibers handling strength work and type II (fast twitch) handling endurance work respectively.

Slow and powerful animals, like cows, contain red meat (mostly slow-twitch) and smaller animals, like chickens, built for endurance, consist of white or lighter colored meat (mostly fast-twitch).

The distribution of muscle fiber types (what each muscle consists of) varies from muscle to muscle and from individual to individual. Some cows will have a larger distribution of slow-twitch fibers in their muscles compared to other cows, and some chickens will have a larger distribution of fast-twitch than other chickens.

Similarly, muscle fiber distribution differs person to person.

And in a given individual, each individual muscle will also vary in muscle fiber distribution. The quadriceps muscle, for example, having four different heads, consist of different muscle fiber compositions depending on which head we’re talking about.

All this means is that some people will respond better to heavy training. Others with lighter, high-volume training. Some muscles and heads of muscles respond better to heavier weights, while others respond better to high volume training.

Trying to figure out which type of training works best for you and each of your body parts can take years…for most people.

Fortunately, 20 Rep Squats doesn’t have time for that.

And that’s exactly why this program works well. 

The first few reps will target the endurance fibers. Then, as you start doing 2 and 3 rep mini-sets, catching your breath between rounds, you’ll be hitting the strength fibers. By the time you’re done, your legs will be toast; no fiber of your legs will be left unscathed.

Put Up or Shut Up

A well-developed pair of legs are a Rubicon, of sorts; they are the line that separates the people who just work the mirror muscles from the ones who’ve paid their dues with some time under the bar.

Very few workouts require as much mental toughness as breathing squats. The first workout will be hard. After your first 8 reps, you’ll have to dig deep and continue. And you’ll probably experience a good bit of DOMS for the next few days.

Your legs will be weak.

Your arms will be heavy.

Palms? Sweaty.

There might even be vomit on your shirt.

And as the weights start to get much heavier, especially around week four, you’re going to have to talk yourself into completing the set.

And then two days later, you have to do it all over again, with slightly heavier weights. And then 16 more times, with each workout being a little harder than the last.

Don’t be surprised if the set takes 2-3 minutes, and if it takes upwards of five minutes to catch your breath before you can proceed to the rest of the workout.

Oh, did you think you were just coming into the gym to squat?

Think again, Sunshine.

You still have more work to do. But after that set of squats, almost anything else is a cakewalk by comparison.

But what about the trap and arm gains?

I didn’t forget.

There’s a full workout below. And when you get yourself under the bar properly, the bar will rest right around your traps and rear delts, give or take. In order to do that, you’ll have to shrug to flex the traps, and then place a heavy barbell on them for several minutes. The isometric tension alone will spur new growth around the traps and shoulders.

Don’t Be Stupid, OK?

I’m not sure if I said this yet, but this program is going to be hard.

That being said, it can be done.

Just make sure that you’ve got all your bases covered: a proper warm up, making sure that your form is on point, and that you’re taking care of your recovery and nutrition.

Even with all of these precautions, make sure you listen to your body. Even if you’re doing all of these things right, running this program three times per week might feel like it’s crushing you, especially towards the end.

If that happens, instead of training every other day, take two days to recover from a particularly tough session. As the weights get heavier, you may notice that you can only recover from two workouts per week.

You might also start to feel twinges in parts of your legs; that’s your body telling you that something’s up with your form. This is yet another reason to lower the frequency to two days per week while continuing to monitor and improve your form if necessary.

Lastly, please squat in a cage or a power rack. If you have to bail, you want to do it as safely as possible.

The Workout

Workout A – Upper Body Focus

A – Squats w/unloaded bar – 1 x 10

B1 – Squat – 1 x 20 ***This your 20 Rep Squat and should be done with your 8-12 rep max

B2 – Dumbbell Pullover – 1 x 20

C1 – Barbell Bench Press – 2 x 6-8

C2 – Barbell Row – 2 x 6-8

D1 – Overhead Press – 2 x 6-8

D2 – Dumbbell Curl – 2 x 12-15

E1 – Crunch – 2 x failure

E2 – Standing Calve Raises – 2 x 10 (1-second hold at the top, 2 seconds down, 1-second hold at the bottom, then explode out of the bottom).

Workout B – Lower Body Focus

A – Squats w/unloaded bar – 1 x 10

B1 – Squat – 1 x 20  ***This your 20 Rep Squat and should be done with your 8-12 rep max

B2 – Dumbbell Pullover – 1 x 20

C1 – Chin-ups – 2 x 1 rep short of failure

C2 – Chest Dips – 2 x 1 rep short of failure

D1 – Romanian Deadlift – 2 x 6-8

D2 – Overhead Barbell Triceps Extension – 2 x 12-15

E1 – Reverse Crunch – 2 x failure

E2 – Standing Calve Raises – 2 x 10 (1-second hold at the top, 2 seconds down, 1-second hold at the bottom, then explode out of the bottom).

Cycle through workouts A and B, hitting three workouts per week, for 6 weeks, and every week, add 5 more pounds to the weight you’re squatting in your 20 Rep Squat.

Here’s a sample schedule. Feel free to alter it as needed: 

Week 1:

– Monday: Workout A – Wednesday: Workout B – Friday: Workout A – All Other Days: Rest

Week 2:

– Monday: Workout B – Wednesday: Workout A – Friday: Workout B  – All Other Days: Rest

Suggested (Mandatory) Recovery

Make sure to get at least three, 30-minute active recovery sessions during the week. You can do it whenever you want, but doing it right after the workout is preferable in terms of minimizing soreness.

These sessions should only consist of light to moderate intensity. And they can be done in or out of the gym. Take your dog for a walk. Walk to the grocery store. Park farther away from the store when you go shopping.

Get creative, but most of all, get moving.

Putting It All together

Getting through this program isn’t for the faint of heart. But what waits for you on the other side will make it all worth it.

If you want to take on a challenge and find out what you’re really made of, this program will show you. And if you don’t like what you see, completing this program will fix that.

Take all the precautions we discussed, get plenty of food and rest, you’ll grow quickly. You’ll be filling out those jeans in no time and no longer will you dread wearing shorts.

Best of all, no one will turn you into a meme about skipping leg day.

The post 20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its Really Hard appeared first on Roman Fitness Systems.

http://ift.tt/2uDzQuo

#20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its R

[joshuabradleyn]

20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its Really Hard

I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t have great quads.

It’s not that my legs don’t have size, it’s that they have no shape or definition. When I started working out, there was some improvement, but still no quad sweep, no tear drop. Nothing.

For someone who was squatting 315 pounds, it just seemed like my legs should also look like I could squat 315 pounds, right? 

My legs were lagging. Training them at the same frequency and intensity as my upper body, I began to question my genetics, figuring I just wasn’t cut out to have the kind of legs I craved.

But that wasn’t true. Genetics weren’t the problem, and everything changed when I found 20 Rep Squats. 

42 Days of Pain and Gain

Before we get into what you can expect on this program, I want to talk a little bit about my experience on it because my legs weren’t the only body part to see results: my back and shoulders got swole.

In fact, it’s the only thing anyone noticed when I wasn’t wearing shorts.

My pants were also a bit looser, despite the scale not moving at all, they fit as if I’d lost 5 pounds. I ended up putting on about a pound of muscle per week while losing the same amount of fat. 

So, if want to finally bring out your quads, get yoked, and lose fat, keep reading.

What Are 20 Rep Squats? 

Back in the late 80s, Dr. Ronald J. Strossen made some extraordinary claims in his book, Super Squats: How to Gain 30 Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks.

In a nutshell, the program has you squatting three times a week, doing a single set for 20 reps.

Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong.  

You see, this 20-rep set isn’t going to be done with your 20-rep max, it’s going to be done with your 8-12 rep max.

See? Not so easy, after all.

In fact, it brutal.

Just picture what one of these sets might be like: 

After you’re done with eight hard reps, instead of racking the bar, you’ll take a few deep breaths, say a prayer to the gods, both old and new, and crank out a few more reps. As you move up in reps, the number of reps you can do between breaks goes down, and the length of the rest period goes up (to be clear, this means instead of taking two or three labored breaths, you might take three to five).

And then you keep doing that until you complete all 20 reps (another name for the 20-Rep Squat set is Breathing Squats, and once you do a set for yourself, you’ll understand how it got the name).

Even though you’re already doing 20 reps with your 8-12 rep max, you’re then going to add 5 pounds to the bar on your next workout.

And the next.

For 6 weeks.

That’s right.

At the end of six weeks, you’ll be doing 20 reps with an additional 90 pounds on top of your current 8-12 rep max.

Beginners will want to look elsewhere. Why It Works: Feel Free to Skip Ahead if You DGAF About Science

There’s some decent science behind why this program works. Without getting too much into the weeds, muscles are made up of different fiber types, with type I (slow-twitch) fibers handling strength work and type II (fast twitch) handling endurance work respectively.

Slow and powerful animals, like cows, contain red meat (mostly slow-twitch) and smaller animals, like chickens, built for endurance, consist of white or lighter colored meat (mostly fast-twitch).

The distribution of muscle fiber types (what each muscle consists of) varies from muscle to muscle and from individual to individual. Some cows will have a larger distribution of slow-twitch fibers in their muscles compared to other cows, and some chickens will have a larger distribution of fast-twitch than other chickens.

Similarly, muscle fiber distribution differs person to person.

And in a given individual, each individual muscle will also vary in muscle fiber distribution. The quadriceps muscle, for example, having four different heads, consist of different muscle fiber compositions depending on which head we’re talking about.

All this means is that some people will respond better to heavy training. Others with lighter, high-volume training. Some muscles and heads of muscles respond better to heavier weights, while others respond better to high volume training.

Trying to figure out which type of training works best for you and each of your body parts can take years…for most people.

Fortunately, 20 Rep Squats doesn’t have time for that.

And that’s exactly why this program works well. 

The first few reps will target the endurance fibers. Then, as you start doing 2 and 3 rep mini-sets, catching your breath between rounds, you’ll be hitting the strength fibers. By the time you’re done, your legs will be toast; no fiber of your legs will be left unscathed.

Put Up or Shut Up

A well-developed pair of legs are a Rubicon, of sorts; they are the line that separates the people who just work the mirror muscles from the ones who’ve paid their dues with some time under the bar.

Very few workouts require as much mental toughness as breathing squats. The first workout will be hard. After your first 8 reps, you’ll have to dig deep and continue. And you’ll probably experience a good bit of DOMS for the next few days.

Your legs will be weak.

Your arms will be heavy.

Palms? Sweaty.

There might even be vomit on your shirt.

And as the weights start to get much heavier, especially around week four, you’re going to have to talk yourself into completing the set.

And then two days later, you have to do it all over again, with slightly heavier weights. And then 16 more times, with each workout being a little harder than the last.

Don’t be surprised if the set takes 2-3 minutes, and if it takes upwards of five minutes to catch your breath before you can proceed to the rest of the workout.

Oh, did you think you were just coming into the gym to squat?

Think again, Sunshine.

You still have more work to do. But after that set of squats, almost anything else is a cakewalk by comparison.

But what about the trap and arm gains?

I didn’t forget.

There’s a full workout below. And when you get yourself under the bar properly, the bar will rest right around your traps and rear delts, give or take. In order to do that, you’ll have to shrug to flex the traps, and then place a heavy barbell on them for several minutes. The isometric tension alone will spur new growth around the traps and shoulders.

Don’t Be Stupid, OK?

I’m not sure if I said this yet, but this program is going to be hard.

That being said, it can be done.

Just make sure that you’ve got all your bases covered: a proper warm up, making sure that your form is on point, and that you’re taking care of your recovery and nutrition.

Even with all of these precautions, make sure you listen to your body. Even if you’re doing all of these things right, running this program three times per week might feel like it’s crushing you, especially towards the end.

If that happens, instead of training every other day, take two days to recover from a particularly tough session. As the weights get heavier, you may notice that you can only recover from two workouts per week.

You might also start to feel twinges in parts of your legs; that’s your body telling you that something’s up with your form. This is yet another reason to lower the frequency to two days per week while continuing to monitor and improve your form if necessary.

Lastly, please squat in a cage or a power rack. If you have to bail, you want to do it as safely as possible.

The Workout

Workout A – Upper Body Focus

A – Squats w/unloaded bar – 1 x 10

B1 – Squat – 1 x 20 ***This your 20 Rep Squat and should be done with your 8-12 rep max

B2 – Dumbbell Pullover – 1 x 20

C1 – Barbell Bench Press – 2 x 6-8

C2 – Barbell Row – 2 x 6-8

D1 – Overhead Press – 2 x 6-8

D2 – Dumbbell Curl – 2 x 12-15

E1 – Crunch – 2 x failure

E2 – Standing Calve Raises – 2 x 10 (1-second hold at the top, 2 seconds down, 1-second hold at the bottom, then explode out of the bottom).

Workout B – Lower Body Focus

A – Squats w/unloaded bar – 1 x 10

B1 – Squat – 1 x 20  ***This your 20 Rep Squat and should be done with your 8-12 rep max

B2 – Dumbbell Pullover – 1 x 20

C1 – Chin-ups – 2 x 1 rep short of failure

C2 – Chest Dips – 2 x 1 rep short of failure

D1 – Romanian Deadlift – 2 x 6-8

D2 – Overhead Barbell Triceps Extension – 2 x 12-15

E1 – Reverse Crunch – 2 x failure

E2 – Standing Calve Raises – 2 x 10 (1-second hold at the top, 2 seconds down, 1-second hold at the bottom, then explode out of the bottom).

Cycle through workouts A and B, hitting three workouts per week, for 6 weeks, and every week, add 5 more pounds to the weight you’re squatting in your 20 Rep Squat.

Here’s a sample schedule. Feel free to alter it as needed: 

Week 1:

– Monday: Workout A – Wednesday: Workout B – Friday: Workout A – All Other Days: Rest

Week 2:

– Monday: Workout B – Wednesday: Workout A – Friday: Workout B  – All Other Days: Rest

Suggested (Mandatory) Recovery

Make sure to get at least three, 30-minute active recovery sessions during the week. You can do it whenever you want, but doing it right after the workout is preferable in terms of minimizing soreness.

These sessions should only consist of light to moderate intensity. And they can be done in or out of the gym. Take your dog for a walk. Walk to the grocery store. Park farther away from the store when you go shopping.

Get creative, but most of all, get moving.

Putting It All together

Getting through this program isn’t for the faint of heart. But what waits for you on the other side will make it all worth it.

If you want to take on a challenge and find out what you’re really made of, this program will show you. And if you don’t like what you see, completing this program will fix that.

Take all the precautions we discussed, get plenty of food and rest, you’ll grow quickly. You’ll be filling out those jeans in no time and no longer will you dread wearing shorts.

Best of all, no one will turn you into a meme about skipping leg day.

The post 20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its Really Hard appeared first on Roman Fitness Systems.

http://ift.tt/2uDzQuo

#20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its R

[johnclapperne]

20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its Really Hard

I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t have great quads.

It’s not that my legs don’t have size, it’s that they have no shape or definition. When I started working out, there was some improvement, but still no quad sweep, no tear drop. Nothing.

For someone who was squatting 315 pounds, it just seemed like my legs should also look like I could squat 315 pounds, right? 

My legs were lagging. Training them at the same frequency and intensity as my upper body, I began to question my genetics, figuring I just wasn’t cut out to have the kind of legs I craved.

But that wasn’t true. Genetics weren’t the problem, and everything changed when I found 20 Rep Squats. 

42 Days of Pain and Gain

Before we get into what you can expect on this program, I want to talk a little bit about my experience on it because my legs weren’t the only body part to see results: my back and shoulders got swole.

In fact, it’s the only thing anyone noticed when I wasn’t wearing shorts.

My pants were also a bit looser, despite the scale not moving at all, they fit as if I’d lost 5 pounds. I ended up putting on about a pound of muscle per week while losing the same amount of fat. 

So, if want to finally bring out your quads, get yoked, and lose fat, keep reading.

What Are 20 Rep Squats? 

Back in the late 80s, Dr. Ronald J. Strossen made some extraordinary claims in his book, Super Squats: How to Gain 30 Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks.

In a nutshell, the program has you squatting three times a week, doing a single set for 20 reps.

Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong.  

You see, this 20-rep set isn’t going to be done with your 20-rep max, it’s going to be done with your 8-12 rep max.

See? Not so easy, after all.

In fact, it brutal.

Just picture what one of these sets might be like: 

After you’re done with eight hard reps, instead of racking the bar, you’ll take a few deep breaths, say a prayer to the gods, both old and new, and crank out a few more reps. As you move up in reps, the number of reps you can do between breaks goes down, and the length of the rest period goes up (to be clear, this means instead of taking two or three labored breaths, you might take three to five).

And then you keep doing that until you complete all 20 reps (another name for the 20-Rep Squat set is Breathing Squats, and once you do a set for yourself, you’ll understand how it got the name).

Even though you’re already doing 20 reps with your 8-12 rep max, you’re then going to add 5 pounds to the bar on your next workout.

And the next.

For 6 weeks.

That’s right.

At the end of six weeks, you’ll be doing 20 reps with an additional 90 pounds on top of your current 8-12 rep max.

Beginners will want to look elsewhere. Why It Works: Feel Free to Skip Ahead if You DGAF About Science

There’s some decent science behind why this program works. Without getting too much into the weeds, muscles are made up of different fiber types, with type I (slow-twitch) fibers handling strength work and type II (fast twitch) handling endurance work respectively.

Slow and powerful animals, like cows, contain red meat (mostly slow-twitch) and smaller animals, like chickens, built for endurance, consist of white or lighter colored meat (mostly fast-twitch).

The distribution of muscle fiber types (what each muscle consists of) varies from muscle to muscle and from individual to individual. Some cows will have a larger distribution of slow-twitch fibers in their muscles compared to other cows, and some chickens will have a larger distribution of fast-twitch than other chickens.

Similarly, muscle fiber distribution differs person to person.

And in a given individual, each individual muscle will also vary in muscle fiber distribution. The quadriceps muscle, for example, having four different heads, consist of different muscle fiber compositions depending on which head we’re talking about.

All this means is that some people will respond better to heavy training. Others with lighter, high-volume training. Some muscles and heads of muscles respond better to heavier weights, while others respond better to high volume training.

Trying to figure out which type of training works best for you and each of your body parts can take years…for most people.

Fortunately, 20 Rep Squats doesn’t have time for that.

And that’s exactly why this program works well. 

The first few reps will target the endurance fibers. Then, as you start doing 2 and 3 rep mini-sets, catching your breath between rounds, you’ll be hitting the strength fibers. By the time you’re done, your legs will be toast; no fiber of your legs will be left unscathed.

Put Up or Shut Up

A well-developed pair of legs are a Rubicon, of sorts; they are the line that separates the people who just work the mirror muscles from the ones who’ve paid their dues with some time under the bar.

Very few workouts require as much mental toughness as breathing squats. The first workout will be hard. After your first 8 reps, you’ll have to dig deep and continue. And you’ll probably experience a good bit of DOMS for the next few days.

Your legs will be weak.

Your arms will be heavy.

Palms? Sweaty.

There might even be vomit on your shirt.

And as the weights start to get much heavier, especially around week four, you’re going to have to talk yourself into completing the set.

And then two days later, you have to do it all over again, with slightly heavier weights. And then 16 more times, with each workout being a little harder than the last.

Don’t be surprised if the set takes 2-3 minutes, and if it takes upwards of five minutes to catch your breath before you can proceed to the rest of the workout.

Oh, did you think you were just coming into the gym to squat?

Think again, Sunshine.

You still have more work to do. But after that set of squats, almost anything else is a cakewalk by comparison.

But what about the trap and arm gains?

I didn’t forget.

There’s a full workout below. And when you get yourself under the bar properly, the bar will rest right around your traps and rear delts, give or take. In order to do that, you’ll have to shrug to flex the traps, and then place a heavy barbell on them for several minutes. The isometric tension alone will spur new growth around the traps and shoulders.

Don’t Be Stupid, OK?

I’m not sure if I said this yet, but this program is going to be hard.

That being said, it can be done.

Just make sure that you’ve got all your bases covered: a proper warm up, making sure that your form is on point, and that you’re taking care of your recovery and nutrition.

Even with all of these precautions, make sure you listen to your body. Even if you’re doing all of these things right, running this program three times per week might feel like it’s crushing you, especially towards the end.

If that happens, instead of training every other day, take two days to recover from a particularly tough session. As the weights get heavier, you may notice that you can only recover from two workouts per week.

You might also start to feel twinges in parts of your legs; that’s your body telling you that something’s up with your form. This is yet another reason to lower the frequency to two days per week while continuing to monitor and improve your form if necessary.

Lastly, please squat in a cage or a power rack. If you have to bail, you want to do it as safely as possible.

The Workout

Workout A – Upper Body Focus

A – Squats w/unloaded bar – 1 x 10

B1 – Squat – 1 x 20 ***This your 20 Rep Squat and should be done with your 8-12 rep max

B2 – Dumbbell Pullover – 1 x 20

C1 – Barbell Bench Press – 2 x 6-8

C2 – Barbell Row – 2 x 6-8

D1 – Overhead Press – 2 x 6-8

D2 – Dumbbell Curl – 2 x 12-15

E1 – Crunch – 2 x failure

E2 – Standing Calve Raises – 2 x 10 (1-second hold at the top, 2 seconds down, 1-second hold at the bottom, then explode out of the bottom).

Workout B – Lower Body Focus

A – Squats w/unloaded bar – 1 x 10

B1 – Squat – 1 x 20  ***This your 20 Rep Squat and should be done with your 8-12 rep max

B2 – Dumbbell Pullover – 1 x 20

C1 – Chin-ups – 2 x 1 rep short of failure

C2 – Chest Dips – 2 x 1 rep short of failure

D1 – Romanian Deadlift – 2 x 6-8

D2 – Overhead Barbell Triceps Extension – 2 x 12-15

E1 – Reverse Crunch – 2 x failure

E2 – Standing Calve Raises – 2 x 10 (1-second hold at the top, 2 seconds down, 1-second hold at the bottom, then explode out of the bottom).

Cycle through workouts A and B, hitting three workouts per week, for 6 weeks, and every week, add 5 more pounds to the weight you’re squatting in your 20 Rep Squat.

Here’s a sample schedule. Feel free to alter it as needed: 

Week 1:

– Monday: Workout A – Wednesday: Workout B – Friday: Workout A – All Other Days: Rest

Week 2:

– Monday: Workout B – Wednesday: Workout A – Friday: Workout B  – All Other Days: Rest

Suggested (Mandatory) Recovery

Make sure to get at least three, 30-minute active recovery sessions during the week. You can do it whenever you want, but doing it right after the workout is preferable in terms of minimizing soreness.

These sessions should only consist of light to moderate intensity. And they can be done in or out of the gym. Take your dog for a walk. Walk to the grocery store. Park farther away from the store when you go shopping.

Get creative, but most of all, get moving.

Putting It All together

Getting through this program isn’t for the faint of heart. But what waits for you on the other side will make it all worth it.

If you want to take on a challenge and find out what you’re really made of, this program will show you. And if you don’t like what you see, completing this program will fix that.

Take all the precautions we discussed, get plenty of food and rest, you’ll grow quickly. You’ll be filling out those jeans in no time and no longer will you dread wearing shorts.

Best of all, no one will turn you into a meme about skipping leg day.

The post 20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its Really Hard appeared first on Roman Fitness Systems.

http://ift.tt/2uDzQuo

#20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its R

[albertcaldwellne]

20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its Really Hard

I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t have great quads.

It’s not that my legs don’t have size, it’s that they have no shape or definition. When I started working out, there was some improvement, but still no quad sweep, no tear drop. Nothing.

For someone who was squatting 315 pounds, it just seemed like my legs should also look like I could squat 315 pounds, right? 

My legs were lagging. Training them at the same frequency and intensity as my upper body, I began to question my genetics, figuring I just wasn’t cut out to have the kind of legs I craved.

But that wasn’t true. Genetics weren’t the problem, and everything changed when I found 20 Rep Squats. 

42 Days of Pain and Gain

Before we get into what you can expect on this program, I want to talk a little bit about my experience on it because my legs weren’t the only body part to see results: my back and shoulders got swole.

In fact, it’s the only thing anyone noticed when I wasn’t wearing shorts.

My pants were also a bit looser, despite the scale not moving at all, they fit as if I’d lost 5 pounds. I ended up putting on about a pound of muscle per week while losing the same amount of fat. 

So, if want to finally bring out your quads, get yoked, and lose fat, keep reading.

What Are 20 Rep Squats? 

Back in the late 80s, Dr. Ronald J. Strossen made some extraordinary claims in his book, Super Squats: How to Gain 30 Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks.

In a nutshell, the program has you squatting three times a week, doing a single set for 20 reps.

Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong.  

You see, this 20-rep set isn’t going to be done with your 20-rep max, it’s going to be done with your 8-12 rep max.

See? Not so easy, after all.

In fact, it brutal.

Just picture what one of these sets might be like: 

After you’re done with eight hard reps, instead of racking the bar, you’ll take a few deep breaths, say a prayer to the gods, both old and new, and crank out a few more reps. As you move up in reps, the number of reps you can do between breaks goes down, and the length of the rest period goes up (to be clear, this means instead of taking two or three labored breaths, you might take three to five).

And then you keep doing that until you complete all 20 reps (another name for the 20-Rep Squat set is Breathing Squats, and once you do a set for yourself, you’ll understand how it got the name).

Even though you’re already doing 20 reps with your 8-12 rep max, you’re then going to add 5 pounds to the bar on your next workout.

And the next.

For 6 weeks.

That’s right.

At the end of six weeks, you’ll be doing 20 reps with an additional 90 pounds on top of your current 8-12 rep max.

Beginners will want to look elsewhere. Why It Works: Feel Free to Skip Ahead if You DGAF About Science

There’s some decent science behind why this program works. Without getting too much into the weeds, muscles are made up of different fiber types, with type I (slow-twitch) fibers handling strength work and type II (fast twitch) handling endurance work respectively.

Slow and powerful animals, like cows, contain red meat (mostly slow-twitch) and smaller animals, like chickens, built for endurance, consist of white or lighter colored meat (mostly fast-twitch).

The distribution of muscle fiber types (what each muscle consists of) varies from muscle to muscle and from individual to individual. Some cows will have a larger distribution of slow-twitch fibers in their muscles compared to other cows, and some chickens will have a larger distribution of fast-twitch than other chickens.

Similarly, muscle fiber distribution differs person to person.

And in a given individual, each individual muscle will also vary in muscle fiber distribution. The quadriceps muscle, for example, having four different heads, consist of different muscle fiber compositions depending on which head we’re talking about.

All this means is that some people will respond better to heavy training. Others with lighter, high-volume training. Some muscles and heads of muscles respond better to heavier weights, while others respond better to high volume training.

Trying to figure out which type of training works best for you and each of your body parts can take years…for most people.

Fortunately, 20 Rep Squats doesn’t have time for that.

And that’s exactly why this program works well. 

The first few reps will target the endurance fibers. Then, as you start doing 2 and 3 rep mini-sets, catching your breath between rounds, you’ll be hitting the strength fibers. By the time you’re done, your legs will be toast; no fiber of your legs will be left unscathed.

Put Up or Shut Up

A well-developed pair of legs are a Rubicon, of sorts; they are the line that separates the people who just work the mirror muscles from the ones who’ve paid their dues with some time under the bar.

Very few workouts require as much mental toughness as breathing squats. The first workout will be hard. After your first 8 reps, you’ll have to dig deep and continue. And you’ll probably experience a good bit of DOMS for the next few days.

Your legs will be weak.

Your arms will be heavy.

Palms? Sweaty.

There might even be vomit on your shirt.

And as the weights start to get much heavier, especially around week four, you’re going to have to talk yourself into completing the set.

And then two days later, you have to do it all over again, with slightly heavier weights. And then 16 more times, with each workout being a little harder than the last.

Don’t be surprised if the set takes 2-3 minutes, and if it takes upwards of five minutes to catch your breath before you can proceed to the rest of the workout.

Oh, did you think you were just coming into the gym to squat?

Think again, Sunshine.

You still have more work to do. But after that set of squats, almost anything else is a cakewalk by comparison.

But what about the trap and arm gains?

I didn’t forget.

There’s a full workout below. And when you get yourself under the bar properly, the bar will rest right around your traps and rear delts, give or take. In order to do that, you’ll have to shrug to flex the traps, and then place a heavy barbell on them for several minutes. The isometric tension alone will spur new growth around the traps and shoulders.

Don’t Be Stupid, OK?

I’m not sure if I said this yet, but this program is going to be hard.

That being said, it can be done.

Just make sure that you’ve got all your bases covered: a proper warm up, making sure that your form is on point, and that you’re taking care of your recovery and nutrition.

Even with all of these precautions, make sure you listen to your body. Even if you’re doing all of these things right, running this program three times per week might feel like it’s crushing you, especially towards the end.

If that happens, instead of training every other day, take two days to recover from a particularly tough session. As the weights get heavier, you may notice that you can only recover from two workouts per week.

You might also start to feel twinges in parts of your legs; that’s your body telling you that something’s up with your form. This is yet another reason to lower the frequency to two days per week while continuing to monitor and improve your form if necessary.

Lastly, please squat in a cage or a power rack. If you have to bail, you want to do it as safely as possible.

The Workout

Workout A – Upper Body Focus

A – Squats w/unloaded bar – 1 x 10

B1 – Squat – 1 x 20 ***This your 20 Rep Squat and should be done with your 8-12 rep max

B2 – Dumbbell Pullover – 1 x 20

C1 – Barbell Bench Press – 2 x 6-8

C2 – Barbell Row – 2 x 6-8

D1 – Overhead Press – 2 x 6-8

D2 – Dumbbell Curl – 2 x 12-15

E1 – Crunch – 2 x failure

E2 – Standing Calve Raises – 2 x 10 (1-second hold at the top, 2 seconds down, 1-second hold at the bottom, then explode out of the bottom).

Workout B – Lower Body Focus

A – Squats w/unloaded bar – 1 x 10

B1 – Squat – 1 x 20  ***This your 20 Rep Squat and should be done with your 8-12 rep max

B2 – Dumbbell Pullover – 1 x 20

C1 – Chin-ups – 2 x 1 rep short of failure

C2 – Chest Dips – 2 x 1 rep short of failure

D1 – Romanian Deadlift – 2 x 6-8

D2 – Overhead Barbell Triceps Extension – 2 x 12-15

E1 – Reverse Crunch – 2 x failure

E2 – Standing Calve Raises – 2 x 10 (1-second hold at the top, 2 seconds down, 1-second hold at the bottom, then explode out of the bottom).

Cycle through workouts A and B, hitting three workouts per week, for 6 weeks, and every week, add 5 more pounds to the weight you’re squatting in your 20 Rep Squat.

Here’s a sample schedule. Feel free to alter it as needed: 

Week 1:

– Monday: Workout A – Wednesday: Workout B – Friday: Workout A – All Other Days: Rest

Week 2:

– Monday: Workout B – Wednesday: Workout A – Friday: Workout B  – All Other Days: Rest

Suggested (Mandatory) Recovery

Make sure to get at least three, 30-minute active recovery sessions during the week. You can do it whenever you want, but doing it right after the workout is preferable in terms of minimizing soreness.

These sessions should only consist of light to moderate intensity. And they can be done in or out of the gym. Take your dog for a walk. Walk to the grocery store. Park farther away from the store when you go shopping.

Get creative, but most of all, get moving.

Putting It All together

Getting through this program isn’t for the faint of heart. But what waits for you on the other side will make it all worth it.

If you want to take on a challenge and find out what you’re really made of, this program will show you. And if you don’t like what you see, completing this program will fix that.

Take all the precautions we discussed, get plenty of food and rest, you’ll grow quickly. You’ll be filling out those jeans in no time and no longer will you dread wearing shorts.

Best of all, no one will turn you into a meme about skipping leg day.

The post 20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its Really Hard appeared first on Roman Fitness Systems.

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#20 Rep Squats: The Definitely Not Secret Secret to Building Huge Legs That No One Does Because Its R

[yes-dal456]

A Stupid Proposal For GOP To Save Face On Healthcare Reform

Congressional Republicans have now positioned themselves firmly between a rock and a hard place on healthcare reform. This would be highly amusing if it weren’t for the seriousness of the subject matter, which could accurately be described as a life-or-death subject for millions. Republicans now have the choice of voting for a bill which is massively unpopular with the public (increasingly so, as a matter of fact), or admitting to their own voting base that they’ve been flat-out lying about the evils of Obamacare for the past eight years. That’s a tough choice, because no matter what route they take, it is bound to cause anger among the voters ― at this point, it’s just a question of which particular voters (and how many of them) will be massively disappointed.

At the heart of the Republicans’ problem is the simple fact that they’re rushing headlong towards passing some bill ― any bill ― without even bothering to give lip service to “regular order” (which Paul Ryan and other Republicans used to profess to hold dear, it’s worth pointing out). The Obamacare bill took 14 months to pass. It had dozens upon dozens of hearings, committee meetings, efforts to reach out to the other side of the aisle, and amendments, as well as ample discussion and debate in Congress. At each and every stage along the way, the bill was sent to the Congressional Budget Office for “scoring.” Compare that to the two efforts that Paul Ryan has so far made towards their “repeal and replace” bill. No hearings, no committee meetings, no efforts whatsoever to reach out to the other side of the aisle, amendments solely designed to make the bill worse, and the only discussion and debate taking place is in the back rooms, far from the eyes of the public. Their first effort went down in flames after only 18 days. They allowed a C.B.O. score to be released during this brief period, but the score was devastatingly bad. The second go-round is being hustled through the House with similar haste, and this time they’re trying to avoid the C.B.O. altogether. And please remember, they’ve had seven full years after Obamacare passed to get their act together. During much of this time, they held control in the House of Representatives ― meaning there was nothing to stop them from taking their time and using regular order to put together a well-thought-out bill. They did not avail themselves of this opportunity, preferring instead to pass bills they knew full well would either die in the Senate or get vetoed by President Obama.

When either party tries to pass a major bill this quickly, the obvious question is: What are they trying to hide? Why are they trampling all over their own committee chairmen and refusing to allow the C.B.O. to score the bill before the vote? Where are the hearings with expert testimony about the affected industries? Why are the drafts of the bill held in secret rather than publicly posted? The obvious answer is: They’re definitely trying to hide something (or several things), because they know the public won’t approve.

The biggest secret ― and the real reason why there’s a lot of pressure to move hastily ― is that this entire effort is nothing short of a massive tax cut for the wealthy masquerading as healthcare reform. If Republicans can pass this bill before they tackle tax reform, then their “baseline” shifts, which will allow them to pass even bigger tax breaks for millionaires later (so their thinking goes). This is truly all Paul Ryan cares about ― it doesn’t really matter to him what’s in the bill itself, as long as the bottom line remains close to the same. Donald Trump, on the other hand, really doesn’t care what’s in the bill, he just wants a political victory to brag about. As long as he can stand up and claim “I repealed and replaced Obamacare,” nothing else matters. The urge to spike the political football is of far greater importance to Trump than how the bill will affect any of his voters, that’s for sure.

The big problem for Republicans is that they have now achieved something even Obama could not ― now that people are finally understanding exactly what Obamacare contains, it is becoming more and more popular. For the first time, a majority of the public approves of Obamacare ― something that had never been true before Trump was elected. All the news on the GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare has been about what guarantees the public is about to lose, which explains Obamacare’s new popularity. At the same time, the Republican efforts are not popular at all. Only 17 percent approved of the initial bill. The second iteration will likely be even less popular, once the public finds out what’s in it.

Which leaves Republicans betwixt a hard place and a rock. At this point, all their options look pretty bad, politically. Their best realistic option now would be to just table the entire bill and not hold a vote on it in the House. That way, at least, individual members wouldn’t face a slew of election ads from Democrats about all the various awful consequences of the bill: “Congressman Jones voted to let this retired woman choose between buying health care and eating.” With over 80 percent of the public disapproving of the bill, these ads will just about write themselves, really. In fact, Democrats would be guilty of political malpractice if they didn’t run such ads.

Republicans’ second option is to offer various deals and kickbacks to individual House members to get their vote count over the finish line. This is what is currently being attempted by Ryan. House Republicans may decide to pass the bill in the sincere hopes that the Senate saves them from their own political folly. This would allow them (so their thinking goes) to campaign on: “Don’t blame us, we tried ― but the Senate failed to repeal and replace Obamacare.” They could chalk up what would (for them) be a political victory, knowing that it would never actually become law. This worked wonders for them while Obama was still in office, but it’s dubious that it would work so well again with a Republican Senate and a Republican president.

Even if this did come to pass, the battle in the Senate is going to be a lot harder within the Republican caucus. The margin is thin ― only three GOP defections would mean the bill would go down. This would make exactly the same battle that’s playing out in the House ― Tea Partiers versus moderates ― even tougher. For some Republicans, even the bill the House is putting together simply isn’t ideologically pure enough, because it retains major portions of Obamacare. For the moderates, however, the results of the bill are so sobering (tens of millions thrown off health insurance) that they worry for their own political future if the bill actually becomes law.

The big focal point currently is on what Donald Trump calls “the pre-existing.” He swore, in a recent interview, that he’d “take care of the pre-existing,” which only served to shine a spotlight on the fact that the current Republican bill does no such thing. Republicans are now squirming after the revelation that they want to turn the guarantee that people with pre-existing conditions get affordable health insurance into a guarantee that people with pre-existing conditions will definitely be charged a whole lot more money, be forced into a doomed-to-fail high-risk pool, or be priced out of the market entirely. Ryan is trying to dance around this reality, but it’s catching up to him ― especially after Jimmy Kimmel’s on-air plea to Republicans not to kill the pre-existing condition guarantee. It’s pretty hard to argue that a newborn baby deserves to be denied health insurance because of “bad lifestyle choices,” after all. The pre-existing conditions debate, it should be mentioned, is just one awful part of the bill. There are plenty of others to spotlight, as well.

Which leaves Republicans in their tight spot. They’ve been promising ― and winning elections on ― the whole “repeal and replace” mantra for years. But the public’s mood is shifting in a big way. Now that average people are being educated about what Obamacare actually contains (instead of the fear-mongering lies Republicans have been spewing about it for eight years), Obamacare is suddenly popular. And taking things away from people is always a heavy lift for politicians. Republicans had hoped this would all happen so quickly that the public wouldn’t even have time to react, but that doesn’t appear possible anymore. To gain Tea Party votes, they’ve been trying to make their bill even worse, which certainly doesn’t help matters (outside of the floor of the House of Representatives, at any rate). They now are left with the choice of passing a massively-unpopular bill and then suffering the slings and arrows of the inevitable Democratic campaign ads, or admitting that their bill is too awful to pass and risking their own base voters becoming disgusted with being lied to for so long about how easy it would be for a conservative alternative that would achieve the same (or better) results as Obamacare. This has led to the amusing spectacle of Republican lawmakers now sheepishly admitting that Obamacare actually does a lot of good, in some cases. If it didn’t, why would they be concerned about getting rid of it all?

Republicans have only themselves to blame for their current lose-lose situation. Obamacare was, in reality, a very conservative way to address many of the problems in the healthcare industry. The idea was initially proposed by a conservative think tank, then was adopted by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts, and Democrats bent over backwards to allow all sorts of Republican ideas into the final bill. It is a free-market solution to what was becoming an untenable problem with the health insurance marketplace. It demanded something that conservatives used to love ― “personal responsibility” ― in mandating that everyone purchase health insurance. It’s almost quaint nowadays, but conservatives used to decry poor people using emergency rooms for free and demanded that they put “some skin in the game” and buy their own health insurance. To top it all off, the Blue Dog Democrats killed any hint of a “public option” or “Medicare for all.”

Because Obamacare was built on such a conservative framework, it left Republicans with very little wiggle room in replacing it with something supposedly more ideologically pure. This is what they are now painfully figuring out. There is one obvious way out, but it’s a mighty stupid one. Politically, however, it just might work, because it would allow them to save face while still following the medical tenet of “first, do no harm.”

Republicans should get together and write up a list of all the lies they’ve been telling about Obamacare for so long. Then they should craft a piece of legislation that “repeals” all of these myths. Since none of these things ever actually existed, it wouldn’t change anybody’s healthcare at all. Start with Sarah Palin’s infamous complaint: “This bill will hereby ban all ‘death panels,’ because any baby born is a precious life and no government board should ever have the power to decide which babies are worthy to live and which will die. The penalty for any member of such a board making such a decision will be death by drawing and quartering.” This would also, conveniently, address Jimmy Kimmel’s heartfelt plea (at least rhetorically). From there, work down the list of all the mythological evils of Obamacare, and boldly ban each one. As icing on this cake, end with: “Any and all references to ‘Obamacare’ will be changed to refer to ‘Trumpcare,’ in all official documents.” That’ll guarantee a presidential signature. And since, like all the other myths on the list, it wouldn’t change a single thing (the official name is still the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” and never has been “Obamacare”), it could cap off the list of meaningless changes with a Trumpian flourish.

Such legislation would sail through the House. Democratic senators would likely not stand in the way of such idiocy, and allow Republicans to pass it through the Senate as well. In fact, Democrats would be doing well not to break out in gut-bursting laughter during these debates. Then Trump could triumphantly sign it, proclaim Trumpcare has replaced the evil Obamacare, and nobody in the real world would be affected in any way.

Rather than being trapped between a rock and a hard place, Republicans could claim they’d gotten something done and fulfilled their campaign promise in full. Sure, it’d be a monumentally stupid thing to do, but at least it wouldn’t harm anyone. That is the only reasonable way out of the conundrum for Republicans, since all their other attempts have been stupid things to do which would harm millions of Americans. Republicans should learn from Trump’s electoral victory ― style is much more important to Republicans these days than substance. Pass a stylistically-helpful bill that doesn’t actually harm anyone, and everyone from Trump on down to the Tea Partiers in the House can claim a big political victory. Even Sarah Palin would be happy!

Chris Weigant blogs at:

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from http://ift.tt/2qAVWZK from Blogger http://ift.tt/2p7zvZW

#http://www.happiness2arab.tk/2017/05/a-stupid-proposal-for-gop-to-save-face.html

[imreviewblog]

A Stupid Proposal For GOP To Save Face On Healthcare Reform

Congressional Republicans have now positioned themselves firmly between a rock and a hard place on healthcare reform. This would be highly amusing if it weren’t for the seriousness of the subject matter, which could accurately be described as a life-or-death subject for millions. Republicans now have the choice of voting for a bill which is massively unpopular with the public (increasingly so, as a matter of fact), or admitting to their own voting base that they’ve been flat-out lying about the evils of Obamacare for the past eight years. That’s a tough choice, because no matter what route they take, it is bound to cause anger among the voters ― at this point, it’s just a question of which particular voters (and how many of them) will be massively disappointed.

At the heart of the Republicans’ problem is the simple fact that they’re rushing headlong towards passing some bill ― any bill ― without even bothering to give lip service to “regular order” (which Paul Ryan and other Republicans used to profess to hold dear, it’s worth pointing out). The Obamacare bill took 14 months to pass. It had dozens upon dozens of hearings, committee meetings, efforts to reach out to the other side of the aisle, and amendments, as well as ample discussion and debate in Congress. At each and every stage along the way, the bill was sent to the Congressional Budget Office for “scoring.” Compare that to the two efforts that Paul Ryan has so far made towards their “repeal and replace” bill. No hearings, no committee meetings, no efforts whatsoever to reach out to the other side of the aisle, amendments solely designed to make the bill worse, and the only discussion and debate taking place is in the back rooms, far from the eyes of the public. Their first effort went down in flames after only 18 days. They allowed a C.B.O. score to be released during this brief period, but the score was devastatingly bad. The second go-round is being hustled through the House with similar haste, and this time they’re trying to avoid the C.B.O. altogether. And please remember, they’ve had seven full years after Obamacare passed to get their act together. During much of this time, they held control in the House of Representatives ― meaning there was nothing to stop them from taking their time and using regular order to put together a well-thought-out bill. They did not avail themselves of this opportunity, preferring instead to pass bills they knew full well would either die in the Senate or get vetoed by President Obama.

When either party tries to pass a major bill this quickly, the obvious question is: What are they trying to hide? Why are they trampling all over their own committee chairmen and refusing to allow the C.B.O. to score the bill before the vote? Where are the hearings with expert testimony about the affected industries? Why are the drafts of the bill held in secret rather than publicly posted? The obvious answer is: They’re definitely trying to hide something (or several things), because they know the public won’t approve.

The biggest secret ― and the real reason why there’s a lot of pressure to move hastily ― is that this entire effort is nothing short of a massive tax cut for the wealthy masquerading as healthcare reform. If Republicans can pass this bill before they tackle tax reform, then their “baseline” shifts, which will allow them to pass even bigger tax breaks for millionaires later (so their thinking goes). This is truly all Paul Ryan cares about ― it doesn’t really matter to him what’s in the bill itself, as long as the bottom line remains close to the same. Donald Trump, on the other hand, really doesn’t care what’s in the bill, he just wants a political victory to brag about. As long as he can stand up and claim “I repealed and replaced Obamacare,” nothing else matters. The urge to spike the political football is of far greater importance to Trump than how the bill will affect any of his voters, that’s for sure.

The big problem for Republicans is that they have now achieved something even Obama could not ― now that people are finally understanding exactly what Obamacare contains, it is becoming more and more popular. For the first time, a majority of the public approves of Obamacare ― something that had never been true before Trump was elected. All the news on the GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare has been about what guarantees the public is about to lose, which explains Obamacare’s new popularity. At the same time, the Republican efforts are not popular at all. Only 17 percent approved of the initial bill. The second iteration will likely be even less popular, once the public finds out what’s in it.

Which leaves Republicans betwixt a hard place and a rock. At this point, all their options look pretty bad, politically. Their best realistic option now would be to just table the entire bill and not hold a vote on it in the House. That way, at least, individual members wouldn’t face a slew of election ads from Democrats about all the various awful consequences of the bill: “Congressman Jones voted to let this retired woman choose between buying health care and eating.” With over 80 percent of the public disapproving of the bill, these ads will just about write themselves, really. In fact, Democrats would be guilty of political malpractice if they didn’t run such ads.

Republicans’ second option is to offer various deals and kickbacks to individual House members to get their vote count over the finish line. This is what is currently being attempted by Ryan. House Republicans may decide to pass the bill in the sincere hopes that the Senate saves them from their own political folly. This would allow them (so their thinking goes) to campaign on: “Don’t blame us, we tried ― but the Senate failed to repeal and replace Obamacare.” They could chalk up what would (for them) be a political victory, knowing that it would never actually become law. This worked wonders for them while Obama was still in office, but it’s dubious that it would work so well again with a Republican Senate and a Republican president.

Even if this did come to pass, the battle in the Senate is going to be a lot harder within the Republican caucus. The margin is thin ― only three GOP defections would mean the bill would go down. This would make exactly the same battle that’s playing out in the House ― Tea Partiers versus moderates ― even tougher. For some Republicans, even the bill the House is putting together simply isn’t ideologically pure enough, because it retains major portions of Obamacare. For the moderates, however, the results of the bill are so sobering (tens of millions thrown off health insurance) that they worry for their own political future if the bill actually becomes law.

The big focal point currently is on what Donald Trump calls “the pre-existing.” He swore, in a recent interview, that he’d “take care of the pre-existing,” which only served to shine a spotlight on the fact that the current Republican bill does no such thing. Republicans are now squirming after the revelation that they want to turn the guarantee that people with pre-existing conditions get affordable health insurance into a guarantee that people with pre-existing conditions will definitely be charged a whole lot more money, be forced into a doomed-to-fail high-risk pool, or be priced out of the market entirely. Ryan is trying to dance around this reality, but it’s catching up to him ― especially after Jimmy Kimmel’s on-air plea to Republicans not to kill the pre-existing condition guarantee. It’s pretty hard to argue that a newborn baby deserves to be denied health insurance because of “bad lifestyle choices,” after all. The pre-existing conditions debate, it should be mentioned, is just one awful part of the bill. There are plenty of others to spotlight, as well.

Which leaves Republicans in their tight spot. They’ve been promising ― and winning elections on ― the whole “repeal and replace” mantra for years. But the public’s mood is shifting in a big way. Now that average people are being educated about what Obamacare actually contains (instead of the fear-mongering lies Republicans have been spewing about it for eight years), Obamacare is suddenly popular. And taking things away from people is always a heavy lift for politicians. Republicans had hoped this would all happen so quickly that the public wouldn’t even have time to react, but that doesn’t appear possible anymore. To gain Tea Party votes, they’ve been trying to make their bill even worse, which certainly doesn’t help matters (outside of the floor of the House of Representatives, at any rate). They now are left with the choice of passing a massively-unpopular bill and then suffering the slings and arrows of the inevitable Democratic campaign ads, or admitting that their bill is too awful to pass and risking their own base voters becoming disgusted with being lied to for so long about how easy it would be for a conservative alternative that would achieve the same (or better) results as Obamacare. This has led to the amusing spectacle of Republican lawmakers now sheepishly admitting that Obamacare actually does a lot of good, in some cases. If it didn’t, why would they be concerned about getting rid of it all?

Republicans have only themselves to blame for their current lose-lose situation. Obamacare was, in reality, a very conservative way to address many of the problems in the healthcare industry. The idea was initially proposed by a conservative think tank, then was adopted by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts, and Democrats bent over backwards to allow all sorts of Republican ideas into the final bill. It is a free-market solution to what was becoming an untenable problem with the health insurance marketplace. It demanded something that conservatives used to love ― “personal responsibility” ― in mandating that everyone purchase health insurance. It’s almost quaint nowadays, but conservatives used to decry poor people using emergency rooms for free and demanded that they put “some skin in the game” and buy their own health insurance. To top it all off, the Blue Dog Democrats killed any hint of a “public option” or “Medicare for all.”

Because Obamacare was built on such a conservative framework, it left Republicans with very little wiggle room in replacing it with something supposedly more ideologically pure. This is what they are now painfully figuring out. There is one obvious way out, but it’s a mighty stupid one. Politically, however, it just might work, because it would allow them to save face while still following the medical tenet of “first, do no harm.”

Republicans should get together and write up a list of all the lies they’ve been telling about Obamacare for so long. Then they should craft a piece of legislation that “repeals” all of these myths. Since none of these things ever actually existed, it wouldn’t change anybody’s healthcare at all. Start with Sarah Palin’s infamous complaint: “This bill will hereby ban all ‘death panels,’ because any baby born is a precious life and no government board should ever have the power to decide which babies are worthy to live and which will die. The penalty for any member of such a board making such a decision will be death by drawing and quartering.” This would also, conveniently, address Jimmy Kimmel’s heartfelt plea (at least rhetorically). From there, work down the list of all the mythological evils of Obamacare, and boldly ban each one. As icing on this cake, end with: “Any and all references to ‘Obamacare’ will be changed to refer to ‘Trumpcare,’ in all official documents.” That’ll guarantee a presidential signature. And since, like all the other myths on the list, it wouldn’t change a single thing (the official name is still the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” and never has been “Obamacare”), it could cap off the list of meaningless changes with a Trumpian flourish.

Such legislation would sail through the House. Democratic senators would likely not stand in the way of such idiocy, and allow Republicans to pass it through the Senate as well. In fact, Democrats would be doing well not to break out in gut-bursting laughter during these debates. Then Trump could triumphantly sign it, proclaim Trumpcare has replaced the evil Obamacare, and nobody in the real world would be affected in any way.

Rather than being trapped between a rock and a hard place, Republicans could claim they’d gotten something done and fulfilled their campaign promise in full. Sure, it’d be a monumentally stupid thing to do, but at least it wouldn’t harm anyone. That is the only reasonable way out of the conundrum for Republicans, since all their other attempts have been stupid things to do which would harm millions of Americans. Republicans should learn from Trump’s electoral victory ― style is much more important to Republicans these days than substance. Pass a stylistically-helpful bill that doesn’t actually harm anyone, and everyone from Trump on down to the Tea Partiers in the House can claim a big political victory. Even Sarah Palin would be happy!

Chris Weigant blogs at:

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from Healthy Living - The Huffington Post http://huff.to/2pHhxiT

#Healthy Living - The Huffington Post