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It is kind of surprising but a lot of people don't understand tariffs There is a persistent myth about tariffs that sounds very appealing. The story goes like this: The United States imposes a tariff on a foreign country, that country writes a check to the U.S. Treasury, and Americans reap the benefits of the revenue. It sounds like a penalty fee charged to a competitor. That story is false. If you walk away with only one fact, let it be this: A tariff is a tax collected at the American border, paid entirely by American companies. The "Importer of Record" To understand why you are paying the bill, you have to look at the paperwork. When a cargo ship docks in Los Angeles or Savannah, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency does not send an invoice to the government of China, Mexico, or Germany. They do not bill the foreign factory that made the goods. By law, the tariff is charged to the Importer of Record. This is the American company trying to bring the goods into ...

To an untrained person, size appears to be everything. But in practice, a smaller, skilled individual can overcome a much larger opponent. It is essential to begin with an unvarnished truth regarding combat sports and self-defense: size is a massive advantage. Mass, density, and reach are natural attributes that act as force multipliers. If two people have equal skill, the larger person will almost always win. For a smaller person—such as a female defender—to control or submit a larger male attacker, the skill gap must be significant. Technique acts as a lever, but mass is the fulcrum. A small grappler cannot afford to make mistakes. A large opponent can muscle out of poor technique, but a small grappler must execute moves with near-perfect precision to succeed. The strategies outlined below rely on the assumption that the smaller individual possesses trained, technical proficiency and the larger individual is relying on instinct and brute strength. The Principle of Misalignment The pr...

Wrestling is actually safer than many other combat sports in specific ways - like boxing, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, etc. Before we get into the scary stuff, it is important to acknowledge that wrestling is actually safer than many other combat sports in specific ways. Unlike boxing or kickboxing, nobody is trying to give you a concussion by punching you in the head repeatedly. You don't have the cumulative brain damage risk that strikers deal with. Unlike Jiu-Jitsu, where the goal is often to snap a joint or choke someone unconscious, wrestling is mostly about control and pinning. However, wrestling is fast and explosive. It is a sport of high impact and sudden twists. While you might not get knocked out, you are at risk for orthopedic injuries—bones, ligaments, and joints. The injury profile here isn't about getting beaten up; it is about your body moving in directions physics didn't intend. To survive, you have to understand how to move correctly. Protecting Your Knees The k...

Men typically carry a greater proportion of body mass in the upper body, while women tend to carry more body mass in the lower body. In combat sports, weight is not just a number on a scale; it is a distribution of mass that dictates how a fighter moves, strikes, and grapples. While every individual is different, biological dimorphism generally creates two distinct physical archetypes. The first is the Upper Body Heavy physique, often seen in men, characterized by broad shoulders and a high center of gravity. The second is the Lower Body Heavy physique, typical of most women, characterized by a powerful pelvic girdle and a lower center of gravity. These distributions create massive differences in the strategic "meta" of fighting. The Upper Body Heavy Build: The "V-Taper" This build is defined by dense pectorals, a thick neck, and heavy arms. The Center of Gravity is located higher up, typically around the sternum or solar plexus. The Benefit of Kinetic Stiffness Whi...

Daniel Cormier in his prime was a force of nature When discussing the greatest heavyweight of all time in mixed martial arts, names like Fedor Emelianenko and Stipe Miocic often dominate the conversation. However, a deeper look at the context of performance, physical attributes, and skill application reveals a different truth. Daniel "DC" Cormier stands alone as the most impressive heavyweight combatant to ever step into the cage. His legacy is not just defined by the belts he held, but by the colossal physical and age-related disadvantages he overcame to hold them. Defying Physics and Anatomy The visual optics of a Daniel Cormier fight often looked like a mismatch before the opening bell even rang. Standing at 5'9½", Cormier was significantly undersized for the heavyweight division, where competitors frequently tower over 6'4" and cut weight to make the 265-pound limit. He did not possess the towering stature of a traditional champion, nor did he have the l...

Chyna was really the 9th wonder of the world If you were watching wrestling in 1997, you remember the shift. The air changed. Amidst a sea of managers in evening gowns and valets serving strictly as eye candy, something entirely different emerged from behind the curtain. She didn't walk like the others. She didn't smile for the cameras. She stood next to Triple H, arms crossed, jaw set, and she looked like she could tear the ring ropes apart with her bare hands. Joanie Laurer, known to the world simply as Chyna, wasn't just a new character; she was a glitch in the matrix of sports entertainment. Before her, the "women’s division" was often a sideshow or a pause for breath. Chyna didn't join the women's division. She ignored it entirely. She arrived as an enforcer, a role exclusively reserved for the toughest men in the business, and she played it better than almost anyone else. Beyond the Male Gaze What made Chyna so immediately arresting was her refusal t...

Running is one of the best exercises you can do For generations, society operated under a persistent misconception about the relationship between the body and the mind. We largely viewed them as separate entities, distinct and almost unrelated in their functions. The body was seen merely as a vessel, a biological machine designed to carry the "real" us—the brain—from place to place. In this old way of thinking, intellectual pursuits were the domain of the sedentary scholar. We believed that to cultivate the mind, one had to sit still, read, calculate, and ponder. Conversely, physical exertion was often viewed as a distraction from deep thought, or worse, the domain of those who relied on brawn rather than brains. This "dumb jock" stereotype pervaded our culture, reinforcing the idea that physical prowess and mental acuity were on opposite ends of a spectrum. However, a quiet revolution has taken place in neuroscience over the last two decades. We have discovered tha...

The simple rule: You become better at what you do For decades, the fitness industry has sold a specific image of strength that is inextricably linked to size. Walk into any commercial gym, and you will see the assumption that to be strong, you must be big. This misconception is particularly pervasive and damaging for women, many of whom avoid heavy resistance training out of a fear of "bulking up" or losing a specific aesthetic. The reality, however, is that size and strength are not the same thing. While a larger muscle has the potential to be a stronger muscle, a smaller muscle can be trained to output incredible force without changing its physical dimensions. True strength is not solely a property of the muscle tissue itself; it is largely a property of the nervous system. When you see a smaller athlete overpower a larger opponent, or a slender woman lift twice her body weight, you are not witnessing magic. You are witnessing a highly tuned central nervous system that know...

You should constantly seek better health advice but always double or even triple check it In the modern digital age, the pursuit of health has transformed from a personal journey into a spectator sport. We scroll through social media feeds in search of inspiration, hoping to find the motivation to eat better or move more. Instead, what we often find is a deluge of terrifying warnings that make the simple act of eating dinner feel like navigating a biochemical minefield. The rise of the online health "guru" has created a unique paradox. We have more information at our fingertips than any generation in history, yet we are simultaneously more confused and anxious about what to put on our plates. This confusion is not an accident. It is the product of an attention economy that thrives on extremes, where nuance dies and fear goes viral. Influencers, often lacking relevant accredited credentials, have discovered that measured, evidence-based advice about moderation does not get cli...

The simple truth: some body types are better at fighting than others People love asking what the best body for fighting is, as if there’s one ideal shape that beats all others. Tall, short, thick, lean, explosive, durable—every combat sport quietly rewards different physical traits. The truth is more interesting than a single answer. Each fighting style pulls success toward certain body types, and MMA becomes a fascinating collision of all of them. To understand this properly, it helps to look at each major discipline on its own first, and then see how they blend together in modern mixed martial arts. Wrestling: Where Structure Matters Most If there is one combat sport where body type shows up immediately, it’s wrestling. Wrestling is about leverage, balance, pressure, and control. It’s less forgiving than striking because physics doesn’t care about aesthetics. The ideal wrestling body is compact, dense, and brutally functional. Shorter limbs relative to torso length reduce leverage di...

Physical strength was important all through human history and it will be important all through the human future For too long, we have viewed physical strength through a purely aesthetic lens. We see it on magazine covers or in superhero movies and mistake it for vanity. But true strength is not about the size of a bicep or the cut of an abdominal muscle. It is about capacity. It is the physical foundation that allows you to interact with the world on your own terms. When we strip away the mirrors and the lighting, strength is simply the ability to overcome resistance. This is a beautiful thing because it turns the human body into a functional instrument rather than just an ornament to be looked at. To be strong is to possess a hidden reserve of power that waits quietly until it is needed. The Beauty of Utility There is a profound elegance in a body that can do things. A strong back is not just visually striking; it is the structural integrity that protects you during a long day of sitt...

Just don't spar! The camera pans slowly across a dimly lit boxing gym. Dust motes dance in the shafts of light breaking through grimy windows. The rhythmic thwack-thwack-thwack of a speed bag creates a hypnotic beat. Then, the lens settles on an old-timer sitting in the corner. He was a contender once, a local legend maybe. But when he speaks, the words come out thick and slow, like they are wading through molasses. His hands tremble slightly as he wraps them. The narrator speaks of "heart" and "warrior spirit," but your eyes are fixed on the vacancy in the man's stare. This isn't just aging. This is the bill coming due. This is the price of the spar. The Jell-O Inside the Vault To understand why sparring is dangerous, you have to understand the architecture of your head. We like to think of our skulls as helmets, and in a way, they are. They are excellent at protecting us from cuts and direct impacts to the surface. But the problem isn't the helmet;...

Nothing offers such confidence as the ability to handle yourself in physical conflicts First, safety. Most violence against women is close-range, sudden, and physical. It doesn’t start with squared stances and gloves. It starts with grabs, pushes, pinning, and body weight being used against you. If you don’t know what to do once someone is touching you, panic takes over fast. Second, body confidence. Martial arts teaches you what your body can and cannot do. That alone changes how you move through the world. You stand differently. You react differently. Predators notice that. Third, stress inoculation. Being grabbed, thrown, or controlled triggers a primal response. Training puts you in controlled versions of that stress so your nervous system doesn’t freeze when it matters. And finally, agency. Knowing you can resist changes your psychology even if you never need to. That’s not macho. That’s human. The Uncomfortable Truth About Size and Strength On average, women have smaller hands, l...

Dead weight isn't that dead after all It is one of those gym paradoxes that keeps skinny guys awake at night. You look at a powerlifter or a strongman, and often they don’t look like the chiseled Greek statues on the cover of fitness magazines. They look like they enjoy a good buffet. Logic dictates that muscle fibers contract to generate force. Fat is adipose tissue; it just sits there, paying no rent, adding weight to the bar you have to lift. So if Person A is a lean machine and Person B is a bit doughy, but they have the exact same amount of muscle mass, Person A should be more efficient, right? But in the real world, Person B—the one carrying the extra "dead weight"—can often out-lift, out-shove, and out-wrestle Person A. This is the phenomenon known in the lifting world as "Mass Moves Mass." Here is the deep dive into why having a "power belly" is actually a biomechanical superweapon. The Physics of Leverage The most significant advantage of body...