Issue# 2704
- WEALTHY: Tangible protection for your wealth in these times (Ted Peroulakis)
- HEALTHY: Why bigger isn’t better (Matt Furey)
- WISE: Mark Twain on spirit vs. brawn
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Making the most of your limited time (Bob Cox)
- Your editor isn’t always right! (Suzanne Richardson)
- It’s Fun to Know… about a quick – but dumb – solution to unaffordable car payments
- Add “choleric” to your vocabulary
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[Ed. Note: Ted Peroulakis offers timely commentary on specific and overall market trends in ETR's sister publication, Investor's Daily Edge. And he's just one of the market analysts helping investors make good decisions every day. Find out more about IDE here.]
“Spirit has fifty times the strength and staying-power of brawn and muscle.”
- Mark Twain
Big Muscles Are Overrated
By Matt Furey
I don’t care what body part you’re talking about. Just because it’s bigger doesn’t make it better.
Bigger often has a hypnotic effect. You see a guy with big biceps, pecs, lats, forearms, thighs, calves, and so on – and it’s hard to take your eyes off him. And in the world of fitness and combat training, a lot of people think that if you’re bigger it means you’re stronger – that you’ve got more power.
In some cases this is true. But many big, muscular specimens are not strong. On the other hand, many folks who do not have impressive muscles are.
So I always get a good laugh when I read about how “important” it is to add size to your arms – or some such nonsense.
When I was young and dumb, I thought having big pecs and biceps was cool. I learned to jiggle my pecs on command, as well as my biceps and thighs. And when I competed against others, I compared their muscle sizes to mine and tried to figure out who was the better athlete. (I was wrong so often I don’t want to think about it.)
As a wrestler in college, I learned that bicep and pec size has almost nothing to do with how tough someone is. Or how strong.
One of the ultimate lessons came from none other than Dan Gable himself, the head wrestling coach when I was at the U. of Iowa. He didn’t have big biceps, thighs, calves, or pecs – yet he could beat the living crap out of everyone in the room who did.
When it came to running stairs with someone on your back, I remember struggling to cart Gable to the top – and he weighed about 155 pounds. Then, when it was his turn, he carried me to the top like I was no heavier than a feather.
Put our legs side by side and if you came from the big muscles school of hypnosis, you’d have assumed I was stronger. Not a chance.
Why is this?
Based on my study of martial arts, I believe that muscular size is way, way overrated. But I won’t stop there. I’ll go so far as to say that muscular strength is overrated.
What? How can I say such a thing?
I can say it for a few reasons:
1. Your internal organs. They have more to do with the strength of your muscles than you realize. Take a guy with big “guns” (biceps) and give him a kidney stone… and we’ll see how freaking tough he is. Every time you pull, curl, twist, jump, or squat, you’re not just using your muscles, your kidneys are working as well.
And kidneys are just two of the main organs that dictate overall body strength.
2. Your tendons. When properly trained and strengthened, they will give you a massive advantage over anyone with big muscles. Just because your muscles are large doesn’t mean your tendons and ligaments are strong. A little inflammation in the elbows or knees can sink your game very low very fast.
3. Your breathing. Most people with big muscles don’t know the first thing about how to regulate their breathing to maximize strength and endurance. Sure, they know how to inhale and exhale when doing a bench press – but that’s about as far as it goes.
How much further can you go? A helluva lot further. In fact, learning proper breathing, combined with exercises to strengthen your tendons and tone your internal organs, will do your body (as well as your mind) far more good than picking up a dumbbell or barbell to do a set of curls.
Nothing wrong with curls, if that’s your bowl of cereal. But let’s get serious. Big muscles don’t make the man – or woman. They may look nice. They may draw a crowd. But when it comes to doing real battle – mental as well as physical – they won’t help you much.
Far more important is what you cannot see.
It’s the difference between shallow external appearances and internal strength and power.
One exercise that builds both mental and physical strength is the bridge – especially if you do it at bedtime.
1. It creates a euphoric state. (Nice to feel that before you go to sleep, don’t you think?)
2. It energizes you. Not with the kind of energy that interferes with sleep but with the kind where you KNOW your brain is rejuvenated.
3. It makes you aware of energy at a more subtle level. (This helps you whether you’re a competitive athlete or someone who deals with people for a living.)
4. It increases sexual energy.
5. It helps burn off belly fat, as well as the loose turkey fat on your neck.
6. It increases the feeling of being grounded.
Those are only six reasons why the bridge is so great. There are many others.
In my book Combat Conditioning, you can discover core exercises (including several versions of the bridge) that can help you drop unwanted pounds… relieve lower back, neck, and shoulder pain… end fatigue and stress… heighten mental clarity… and give you confidence.
By the way – if you can’t do the bridges in my book just yet, if they’re too advanced for you, start with a light bridge over a Swiss ball. That’ll get you headed in the right direction.
[Ed. Note: Fitness expert Matt Furey believes in strengthening yourself on the inside as well as the outside - and what he has taught you today goes to the heart and soul of the matter in a way that you've probably never experienced before. And when you add Matt's Combat Conditioning into the mix... LOOK OUT. You'll become the master of your universe. Find out more here.]
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Why It Doesn’t Matter If the Markets Tumble
If you’re one of the millions of people concerned by the latest turbulence in the markets, I’ve got some good news for you.
It doesn’t matter if the markets tumble.
One investor delights when the stock market lurches up and down.
His name is Frederick James and you won’t see him on Larry King or in the Wall Street Journal.
That’s because he’s always preferred to remain part of an elite group of investors who extract their profits in the background while the masses of regular investors see their nest eggs vaporize.
But, now Frederick has decided it’s time to share the wealth. He has agreed to reveal his secrets to ETR readers. Get your special report right here.
Are Your Goals Just a To-Do List?
By Bob Cox
It doesn’t matter if you have just graduated from college or are in your retirement years. It doesn’t matter if you have achieved great financial success or are just embarking on a career. It doesn’t matter if you are a musician, a banker, a personal chef, or a stay-at-home parent.
We all have the same 168 hours in a week. And the better you become at managing those hours, the easier it will be to reach your goals.
Whether your goal is to create additional income or secure better relationships with friends and family or pursue a higher spiritual connection… it takes time. And it requires ACTION to take advantage of the time available to you.
The truth is that your goals are little more than items on a “to-do” list UNLESS action is taken. It doesn’t matter how much you talk about achieving your goals or how much you plan… until you actually take a step toward making something happen, you haven’t done enough.
So don’t let success slip you by. Get serious about the way you use your time.
[Ed. Note: Bob Cox is a business consultant, record-setting pilot, and personal success mentor. He can help you achieve all you want out of life with practical and actionable techniques that take just minutes a day to implement. Find out more about his Total Success Achievement Program here.]
When to Edit Your Editors
“Holly” and I have been close since college. Although she’s only 26, she’s been through a lot. And she’s working on a memoir – a tale of her ups and downs that she hopes will have a positive effect on the lives of others.
When she called me to edit her first few chapters, I was honored. I gave her my thoughts and suggestions, and sent the manuscript back to her.
Holly sent the chapters to “Milo,” another editor friend, made some changes based on his suggestions, and sent the revisions back to me.
When I read it, I was shocked.
Yes, some of the writing was much stronger. Holly had learned to include more specifics – places, names, times of day. She’d also eliminated passive voice.
But gone was Holly’s achingly personal and courageous account of her life.
Milo had leeched out nearly all of what made the writing Holly’s.
Now I’m sure that Milo is an excellent editor. And I’m sure he had very specific reasons for cutting some of the things he cut and changing some of the things he changed. But he wound up sacrificing personality for correctness… or for economy of words… or grammatical reasons…
Holly’s chapters ended up sounding like anyone could have written them. Sure, they were clear and concise. But they were bland and generic, too.
As you know, I’m an editor. So it’s no surprise that I believe editing is a big part of what makes good writing good.
But the truth is, we editors can get so caught up in making something perfect… that it can backfire and end up sounding slick and impersonal.
Sometimes, the best part of a piece of writing is the personal details.
Keep this in mind when you’re editing your own work… or when you’re dealing with a professional editor. Don’t be afraid to fight for a sentence or paragraph that really captures your personality. If the editor objects, talk to him about it. Ask what you can do to keep the personality, while preserving the technically high quality he requires.
[Ed. Note: Learning how to write clearly and persuasively is key to getting your message across. Discover dozens of powerful techniques for writing top-notch sales copy in Eugene Schwartz's Breakthrough Advertising right here.]
It’s Fun to Know: A Quick – but Dumb – Solution to Unaffordable Car Payments
There’s a new trend in insurance fraud: blowing up your car, setting it on fire, sinking it in a lake, pushing it off a cliff, or having a friend trash it and abandon it in the desert… and then reporting it stolen or “vandalized.”
According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, such incidents have been on the rise as increasing numbers of drivers become unable to afford their car payments. Suspicious auto fires, for example, were up 27 percent in the first quarter of 2009.
According to industry watchers, these criminals believe they’ll slip through the cracks and their fraudulent claims will go unnoticed. But insurance companies know that times of economic uncertainty mean an increase in insurance crime, so they investigate possible cases very thoroughly.
(Source: Los Angeles Times)
* Highly Recommended *
I’m Not Scared by Today’s Economic Woes and You Shouldn’t Be Either
Stock market drops, bankrupt companies… and yet here I am smiling.
Why?
Because my investments – my money – are insulated from Wall Street’s woes. And I’m making money… $5,000… $7,000… and $15,000 at a time – off Wall Street.
In fact, I didn’t lose a dime in the market in all 2008… and I’m on track for a repeat in 2009.
Interested in escaping from Wall Street yourself?
Word to the Wise: Choleric
“Choleric” (KOL-uh-rik) – from the Greek for “bile” – means easily irritated or angered; bad-tempered.
Example (as used by Theodore Dalrymple in the National Review): “At his trial, Ferrars argued that he had always been of such choleric disposition that, at times when his blood was up, he knew not right from wrong.”
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker... build your self-confidence and intellect... increase your attractiveness to others... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's Words to the Wise CD Library.]
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