No pain without gain.

I know, I know. The trainers at the gyms are looking at me cross eyed. You have it backwards…they accuse….it’s “no gain without pain!” The idea is that in order to build muscles one needs sustained amount of reps and pain. And by reps I mean repetitions not representatives. “Time under tension” or TUT they mutter to themselves even as they train yet another new wannabe. It’s very simple, the formula to large pecs, large biceps, large back muscles, large chest filaments, large trapezoids: keep the muscles under a certain amount of strain over a sustained period of time, even if the weight is low, and eventually the muscles develop lactic acid and they start to burn. It’s that burning sensation that is what you are after at the gym. That’s the pain and unless you get that, you didn’t truly go to the gym. I’ve seen people go to the gym and workout like they were simply reading a book. In polite society one suppresses the urge to go and say … what are you doing? Posture wrong, tension incorrect, weight too much….it’s all bloody wrong mate. You’re working out your shoulders in a chest exercise. It always helps to close your eyes and feel the tension. What group of muscles do you think you’re working out and do you feel that after closing your eyes? Or do you feel an entirely different group of muscles got activated? If so, you’ve done something but not what you set out to do.

The fringe right is ascendant not just in America. Reform is arriving at the UK shores like migrants on ships. Here’s how to make a population angry.
Step 1: Have a slow economy with low jobs.
Step 2: Have increasing number of migrants.
Step 3: Have more migrants arrive everyday.
Step 4: Have a foreign country totally destroy the local manufacturing economy and take it over.
Step 5: Introduce a guy who says: “this is rubbish, it doesn’t have to be this way! Vote for Reform! We will deport these monsters and restore the glory of Great Britain. MGBGA!”

Anyway, this essay was about muscles. NO GAIN WITHOUT PAIN. That’s the philosophy…you create the environment so that you first experience pain. That makes the people willing to listen. Then you gain seats. And that’s how the UK becomes fringe right.

Note: All of the images have been taken from The Financial Times, long considered to be the paper of The Establishment.
Note 1: Just as Japan can easily stop the carry trade if they wished to, UK and EU can easily stop the pain if they wished to. The fact that they don’t is the real story.