25 Feb
Blog

MacBook Pro 13-inch Review: Why We Can’t Recommend It

Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch review: why we don't recommend it

"The MacBook Pro 13 with touch bar is beautiful, but flawed."

  • Exquisite appearance

  • The screen is among the best we've tested

  • Loud, pleasant speakers

  • Spacious, responsive touchpad

  • Excellent hard drive performance

  • Adapters are required to connect most devices

  • The keyboard is below average

  • Touch bar has no obvious purpose

  • The battery life takes a step back

This review was updated on January 23, 2020 with the context of the 16-inch MacBook Pro and rumors of an updated 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The MacBook Pro 2016 redesign was, to put it lightly, disagreed. With its chic new touch bar, reduced connectivity, and sticky keyboard, the new model's reception wasn't as warm as Apple had hoped.

Many of these issues have been resolved with the new 16-inch model, which is the best Mac product in years. The problem? The 13-inch MacBook hasn't solved the problem yet, and not everyone needs the performance and size of this larger MacBook.

Fortunately, Apple lowered the price of the 13-inch MacBook Pro in mid-2019 and lowered the base model (which now includes the Touch Bar) to $ 1,299. These include an 8th generation Intel Core processor, 128 GB SSD storage and 8 GB RAM. Is the current 13-inch MacBook Pro worth your money with an update coming soon?

Still the most luxurious laptop

A look at the MacBook Pro 13 is enough to know that it is a Mac. Despite the many imitators, the MacBook Pro design still stands out. This was all the more impressive when Apple decided to avert attention from its branding and paint the bright white apple in favor of a sleek, subtle glossy logo that resembles that on the MacBook, iPhone, and iPad.

As always, the MacBook Pro 13 has an aluminum unibody design with no visible seams other than the bottom seams. It is sturdy like a stone without a hint of bend in one corner of the device. That remains true even though it's only 3.02 pounds and only 0.71 inches thick. It's not as extreme as in 2016, but the MacBook Pro remains a very portable laptop to travel with.

Apple MacBook 13-inch touchpad

Apple MacBook 13-inch touchpad

Apple MacBook 13-inch touchpad

Apple MacBook 13-inch touchpad

  • 1.
    Someone who wears the original Macbook like this

When this design was originally launched in 2016, the bezels looked slim and modern, although they weren't as aggressive as Dell. We noticed that users with the older Pro model appreciate the improvement.

The MacBook Pro is available in space gray or silver. The new MacBook Air also has the gold option in the mix. The color selection may seem petty, but it does add a touch of personality, and we hope Apple brings some of it to the MacBook Pro. Even Dell has expanded the XPS 13's conservative color scheme, and the HP Specter x360 also offers some fancy color options.

Regardless, there is no argument about the elegance of the MacBook Pro. The beauty of Apple design has always been subtle, which is why the company is sometimes accused of being safe or boring. The professional doesn't even try to avoid this criticism. It is neither the smallest 13-inch laptop nor the lightest. There's something to be said for design that works, even if it's not innovative, and the MacBook Pro remains the most luxurious laptop there is.

Although the MacBook Pro 13-inch has a headphone jack, it makes another connectivity option that is equally controversial and functionally more important. Apple has decided that USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 are the future, and has thrown every other port overboard.

Yes, USB-C is all you get. The MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar has four of these ports, two on each side. Even the card reader is missing. The decision has advantages. The ease of port selection is difficult to dispute, and each port is a charging port, so you can connect the wall adapter to any port. The ports are also fast, so you can connect multiple displays or use fast external SSDs without worrying about connectivity bandwidth.

You need adapters, and you may need many of them.

Now for the bad news: you need adapters, and you may need many of them. Are you using an external display? That is an adapter. External hard drive? Adapter. Any kind of wired input? Adapter. Ethernet? Adapter. SD card? Adapter. At best, you need to buy one or two dongles. In the worst case, you need a dock solution that can add another $ 100 to $ 200 to the price.

The greatest irony? Even Apple's iPhone cannot be connected to a MacBook Pro 13 without buying an adapter.

Thanks to Apple's lead, however, this has increasingly become the norm, whether good or bad. Laptops like the HP Specter 13, the XPS 13 and the Huawei MateBook X Pro now have similar connectivity options – and this will still only be the direction in which things are going.

At least it can communicate wirelessly. Speaking of which, the new Pro 13 has the usual 802.11ac WLAN adapter, which is now coupled with Bluetooth 5.0.

The keyboard of the future is not very good

The 12-inch MacBook released in 2015, which has since been discontinued, first introduced a brand new "butterfly" switch that is much thinner than any previously used in a laptop keyboard. Although Apple found it great, we complained that "(our fingers) were typed with a dull ache for more than an hour" because the keyboard feels stiff and can only be moved to a limited extent.

This keyboard is now also on the MacBook Pro. Well, not exactly the same thing. When launched, the Pro's keyboard was a "second generation butterfly mechanism" with slightly more travel than the first. And it is an improvement.

Apple MacBook 13-inch touchpadBill Roberson / Digital Trends

Bill Roberson / Digital Trends

That doesn't mean that it will serve you well. While travel has improved, the keyboard continues to suffer from a stiff, abrupt ground movement that can tire long typing processes. To what extent this will bother you is a matter of preference. Some Digital Trends authors thought this was perfectly acceptable and most thought they could learn to live with it. Nobody said they preferred the older MacBook Pros.

And it is not clear why this sacrifice was made. The new MacBook Pro 13 is thin, but just as thick or thicker than many competitors with better keyboards like the HP Specter x360, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and the Dell XPS 13. Whatever the reason, Apple had to compromise on size , Performance and keyboard quality, with the latter getting the bad end of business.

The increasing complaints (and complaints) about sticking keys doesn't help either. Even with Apple's latest keyboard update, the third-generation butterfly, it was clear that the problem with sticking the keyboard wasn't fixed. We expect Apple to use the new "Magic Keyboard" of the 16-inch MacBook Pro when the rumored 2020 update for the 13-inch model comes on the market.

The keyboard suffers from a stiff, abrupt movement of the ground, which can tire long typing processes.

A revised oversize touchpad is located under the keyboard. In contrast to the keyboard, this is an absolute plus. The spacious surface improves the usability of multi-touch gestures that work well throughout. While the new, larger surface means constant contact between it and your palms, we haven't noticed a single unintentional input during our tests. Windows touchpads have improved significantly in recent years, but are still not as luxurious as Apple's.

And don't forget Force Touch. The haptic feedback system, which uses vibrations to simulate a click, can emulate real motion so well that most users won't notice a difference. It is quieter than before without affecting the satisfactory clarity of the click. The touchpad also offers sensitivity to force, which can enable special interface functions – just like the iPhone. The feature isn't widely accepted even by Apple's own software, but is great when it is offered.

The touch bar searches for the purpose

If nothing else, the Touch Bar is great to look at. It has a retina-equivalent pixel density, which means that symbols are rendered with crisp, vivid graphics. And because it is OLED, black tones look so dark black that it is often difficult to find the limits of the touch bar.

So it stops as a conversation starter. As a functional tool? Fewer. Apple tries to integrate the Touch Bar in such a way that it is also relevant in everyday web browsers, when taking notes and when viewing photos. The display changes constantly when new apps are opened and old ones are closed. It works well and keeps pace, no matter how quickly apps are switched or how many are open.

Apple MacBook 13-inch touchpadBill Roberson / Digital Trends

Bill Roberson / Digital Trends

However, it is rarely used a lot. At best, it offers a quick way to scroll through lists like your photo stream. This can also be useful if you want to scroll through a video. It's great for capturing such content and activating a scroll bar, even when you're surfing YouTube.

In other cases, however, it is clearly a solution that looks for a problem. Immediately take the input. As you type text in Safari, Word, and other apps, the touch bar keeps flashing suggested words. This feature works well on iPhone, where typing is often slow and cumbersome.

It's not that easy on a laptop. For example, type "office" and the touch bar will suggest alternatives. Did you mean "officers"? Or maybe "off season"? This happens regardless of whether a word is spelled correctly or not. Even if you make a typo, it is hard to imagine why a user would look for help on the touch bar when MacOS is already showing a correction on the screen and in most cases will automatically correct the spelling.

Since its release, more and more apps have been offering touch bar support – including Evernote, Microsoft Outlook and LastPass. But even with more developer support than at startup, the touch bar isn't quite as important to the MacBook user experience as Apple would like it to be.

If nothing else, the Touch Bar is great to look at.

Even though it could be useful, the size of the touch bar is limited. Automatically opened Safari tabs with thumbnail content previews appear, a feature that may prove helpful. However, the thumbnails are so small that it is often difficult to distinguish the tabs from each other, even if only three or four are open. If you open six, eight, or ten tabs, the previews get even smaller until they are so small that it is difficult to guess which one is right. Similar problems affect the photo preview and video preview functions.

In theory, you can scroll through photo collections. In practice, this is more difficult than with the touchpad. Asus has developed a competing idea with the ZenBook Pro 15's ScreenPad. While this is not perfect, it does offer an enticing insight into something better than the Touch Bar. In the future there will even be fully equipped dual-screen laptops like the Surface Neo or the ThinkPad X1 Fold.

In short, the touch bar is not great. However, transferring the function line to an OLED display offers an important advantage called Touch ID. Yes, you can now log in with your fingerprint and it works just as seamlessly as on the iPhone. Fast and secure login authentication methods are an excellent way to improve security for the average user. Windows users have been enjoying this for several years thanks to Microsoft's Hello functionality. Touch ID is built into Apple Pay, so you can securely shop online – in stores that accept Apple Pay.

The most powerful function of the MacBook Pro: the display

A quick glance at the technical data could give the impression that the new MacBook Pro 13 from Apple had an old display. It's still retina, which means that the resolution is still 2,560 × 1,600. That was breathtaking in 2012, but today it seems mediocre alongside QHD + (3,200 × 1,800) and 4K (3,840 × 2,160) screens.

But don't worry, loyal to Mac. You can remove all concerns about the display from your head. It's awesome.

We measured a maximum brightness of 548 lux. This is ridiculously brilliant and a complete overkill for indoor use, but it can help the screen, which is still very shiny, can be used in extreme situations. In comparison, the Dell XPS 13 with QHD + display only achieves 278 lux and the HP Specter x360 355 lux. Both systems can have a problem with glare in bright lighting conditions. However, Dell gives you the option to combat this with a matte display option.

Apple MacBook 13-inch touchpadBill Roberson / Digital Trends

Bill Roberson / Digital Trends

Brightness is only important in a bright room. What will amaze you no matter where you use the MacBook Pro 13 is its color. The display can achieve 100 percent of the sRGB color space and 91 percent of the AdobeRGB. It also delivered an average color error of 0.72 (lower is better). Everything under one is generally imperceptible to the human eye, and this reading is among the lowest we have ever recorded on a laptop. Only the XPS 15 from Dell with its excellent 4K IGZO ID display had a better average error value of 0.6.

The contrast ratio of 1,200: 1 is also excellent. The Pro can easily deliver dark blacks alongside brilliant colors.

The only error we found is gamma, which occurred at a value of 2.3. The ideal curve is 2.2, and the MacBook Pro 13's result indicates that the content is displayed slightly darker than it should. However, this is a very slight fluctuation that many competitors miss.

The retina display may not be the title of this professional, but it remains the most attractive feature.

When the numbers are counted, the new Retina display wins. It defeats the Dell XPS 13, the HP Specter x360 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and surpasses them in terms of color gamut, color accuracy and contrast ratio.

But that doesn't mean that there is a lack of competition. Microsoft's Surface Book 2 can be used from head to toe in some categories. Our tests showed that the surface book had an even better contrast ratio of 1,460: 1 and that the gamma curve display was the correct 2.2. But they also don't quite match in terms of color accuracy and brightness.

There are also a small handful of Windows systems like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga that are available with OLED displays. These affect the high contrast ratio of the MacBook Pro 13 and offer an even wider color gamut with precise gamma. However, they don't match the Mac's ready-to-use color accuracy.

Aside from the numbers, the MacBook Pro 13's display is excellent and looks like this in everyday use. Games and movies are crisp and vivid, and high-quality photos are rendered with such detail that you may think your screen has been replaced by a canvas print. The retina display may not be the title of this professional, but it remains the most attractive feature.

Sound quality is another important multimedia feature, and Apple has always shown an affinity for audio quality that is rarely found elsewhere. Simply put, the MacBook Pro is no exception. In fact, the speakers are the best we can remember in a 13-inch system. That says a lot, because some newer laptops in this category, like the Asus ZenBook 3, surprised us with their quality.

The MacBook Pro 13 offers a wide range of volumes and is at most much louder than most people need for normal use. It can fill a large room with music. The bass is there and is taken into account in minimal but noticeable amounts – the beat can be felt at higher volumes via the keyboard. The sound in the high and middle range remains clear and distortion-free.

External speakers are an improvement as always, but the audio quality here is surprising and can convince you that you don't have to connect anything to the headphone jack.

A fast processor that faces tough competition

Specifications have never been Apple's focus, but this was more of a marketing problem than an indication of the company's preference for hardware. However, this has changed in recent years. The MacBook Pro fell behind and took over new Intel processor lines late.

When it was updated in mid-2019, we were happy that the MacBook Pro 13-inch was updated to the 8th generation Intel processors. Intel now has 10th generation processors in most new laptops, which means the 13-inch MacBook Pro already looks out of date.

Drive performance is often overlooked by consumers, but is important to the overall performance of a system. Apple knows that and has been a leader in storage performance for years. The new MacBook Pro range is no exception. Read speeds of 3.1 gigabytes per second and write speeds of 2.2 gigabytes per second are specified.

We can't do an apple-to-apple comparison with Windows competitors here because the tools we normally use to test performance aren't compatible with MacOS. However, we tested two benchmarks that only run on Apple's operating system.

In the first place was Blackmagic, a test to inform experts whether a drive is suitable for processing content with certain frame rates and resolutions. A write speed result of 1,348 megabytes per second and a read result of two gigabytes per second were achieved (annoyingly, this seems to be the maximum result that the benchmark can show). This is a big improvement over the MacBook Pro 13 with Retina (2015). It achieved a write speed of 647 MB ​​/ s and a read speed of 1,056 MB / s.

It is clear that the MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar offers excellent drive performance and can handle all the workloads you want.

We also launched DiskMark. The sequential read performance was 1,826 MB / s and the sequential write performance 1,289 MB / s. We had never tested with this benchmark before. So take the numbers with a grain of salt. Still, they're good numbers and they pretty much match Blackmagic.

These benchmarks also do not run on Windows, so we cannot compare the hard drive performance from apple to apple. However, the numbers from CrystalDiskMark, our Windows test, indicate that Apple is at the top.

The Dell XPS 13 with 512 GB solid-state drive achieved a read speed of 1,893 MB / s and a write speed of 475 MB / s. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, on the other hand, could keep up better with 2,121 MB / s and 1,832 MB / s.

If all of this sounds confusing, don't worry. Although the numbers are excellent, you don't have to think about them. It is clear that the MacBook Pro 13-inch offers excellent drive performance and can handle any workload that you ask of it. This is possibly the most future-proof component in the entire system.

Mac games are still a bad idea

As in most previous incarnations, the Apple MacBook Pro 13 is based on integrated Intel graphics. If you want a more powerful discrete graphics solution, you have to accept the MacBook Pro 16's larger footprint.

We launched Civilization VI and tested it at 1440×900 resolution on the MacBook Pro 13 and at the same resolution on the HP Specter x360, with a minimum of detail and memory usage selected.

Apple MacBook 13-inch touchpadBill Roberson / Digital Trends

Bill Roberson / Digital Trends

The game was identical on both sides – and bad – and delivered 21 frames per second over the in-game benchmark. However, the HP was the better experience because the Mac had graphics errors that were not present on the HP Specter x360.

If you're curious as to why the game is performing poorly despite more technical skill, blame Apple's OpenGL support, which hasn't been updated significantly in years. Instead, the company prefers Metal, its own API that can be used on both iOS and MacOS devices. The problem? Porting a game from the popular Windows DirectX API to Metal is unknown. Windows PC game developers don't have a good option for porting to Mac. The result is often an accomplishment that is less impressive than expected.

With games ported from iOS, like CSR Racing Pro 3, Super Octagon and Limbo, you're lucky. There is a fair selection of such games in the Mac App Store. You can also play some games that are available in Apple Arcade, but the Mac doesn't get the full library.

A smaller battery leads to sufficient endurance

While the MacBook Pro 13 has significantly improved processor performance, it has also significantly improved battery capacity. The previous model had a 74.9-watt-hour battery, but the 2016 MacBook Pro 13-inch was launched with a 49.2-watt-hour battery (the model without a touch bar has a slightly larger 54.5-watt-hour -Battery pack). That was a capacity reduction of almost 35 percent. In the 2018 update, the battery was increased to 58 watt hours, although Apple's lifespan estimates have remained unchanged.

If you want excellent portability, you should choose the Dell XPS 13 with 1080p display and Core i5 processor, the Asus ZenBook 13 UX333 or the HP Specter Folio. The best of all battery life options is the Surface Book 2 13, which had an amazing 17 hour battery life in our video playback test. The MacBook Pro 13 used to be the last word in battery life, but the new model – or at least the Touch Bar version – has lost the crown.

Our opinion

Apple's new MacBook Pro 13-inch is a gorgeous device, but it has some flaws that make it difficult to recommend. It doesn't have the performance of the MacBook Pro 16-inch or the new keyboard. Despite the recent price cut, it's a little too expensive for what's on offer, especially if you consider the other alternatives.

Is there a better alternative?

Both of the other MacBook options offer better values ​​for what they are. The MacBook Air isn't that powerful, but it's great for students and affordable for just $ 999. The 16-inch MacBook Pro offers content creators fantastic multi-core performance.

If you are open to choosing between Windows 10 and MacOS, there are numerous competitors. The best is the Dell XPS 13, which is faster and cheaper, and includes an option for a 4K display. It also includes much better battery life as long as you stay at 1080p. The 13-inch Surface Laptop 3, the HP Specter x360 13 and the ThinkPad X1 Carbon are all good rivals.

How long it will take?

Apple has control over the life of each Mac by determining which systems receive MacOS updates. A new MacBook Pro 13-inch should last as long as any Mac currently available.

Especially with this MacBook, the real danger is in the keyboard, which has encountered significant reliability problems. There's no way around it.

Should you buy it

No. The MacBook Pro 13-inch isn't a bad laptop, but you'll be disappointed with the outdated design, faulty keyboard, and high price tag.

Editor's recommendations




25 Feb
Blog

5 Reasons Why You Deserve The Benefits Of Massage

Let's start with this question: what could be your reason for not getting a massage? Because there are not many if you take into account the health benefits. You may feel guilty about massages. They can be expensive. They are time consuming. They are a luxury that is difficult to justify if you have appointments, meetings, pick-up and drop-off services, and a to-do list that never gets shorter, but only gets longer. All of this can be true, but are massages more than just a pleasure?

You get a back massage next to the water

A pleasure … and a treatment

Massages are indeed good for you. Sure, they make you feel like you're floating out the door with a huge smile on your face when it's over, but massages aren't just a feel-good treatment: they promote health and well-being in a way that has affected mankind for thousands of years Years known. "The therapeutic massage started about 4,500 years ago," he says Brian Goodwin, International trainer for Eminence Organic Skin Care, "And it has expanded to include the discovery of facial lifting massage, lymphatic drainage, reflexology, Swedish style and other techniques."

Health benefits of massage

5 Health benefits of massage

How does the massage make us physically and mentally healthier? Let's count the ways:

1. It strengthens your immune system. Like exposure to nature, massage is a surprising activity that can increase your built-in immunity. According to a study on Cedars-Sinai Medical CenterMassage causes a measurable increase in the body's immune response by increasing the number of white blood cells. The bottom line: Our immune system is stronger and you can fight diseases and diseases more effectively.

2. It appears to reduce inflammation and help you heal. After all, chronic inflammation is at the root of many of our health problems – from sore muscles to serious conditions like arthritis and muscular dystrophy. Massage seems to reduce the production of cytokines, which are the key to inflammation. "The bottom line is that there appears to be a suppression of the inflammatory pathways and an increase in mitochondrial biogenesis," says Dr. Mark A. Tarnopolsky The New York Times,

Woman with neck pain sitting at the desk

3. It relieves anxiety. Studies have shown that massage treatment can reduce the stress hormone cortisol and increase dopamine and serotonin, which are the feel-good neurotransmitters in our body. Boldijarre KoronczayThe President of Eminence Organic Skin Care explains: "Our goal when performing massages is to relieve tension in the whole body."

4. It helps you sleep better and you generally feel more awake. According to The National Institute for HealthA simple massage is all you need to increase serotonin, which will help you get to dreamland. By triggering this important neurotransmitter (also known as a “Happy Chemical” massage, you improve your sleep and relieve depression and your general well-being).

5. And finally, it also has beauty benefits for the skin! The friction alone from Massages help remove dead skin cells and replace them with lively new ones in order to maintain a fresh, radiant complexion. Massage enhances the moisturizing effect of creams, which is so important in winter. It helps drain toxins from your lymphatic system, relax muscles and soft tissues, help blood flow to your skin, nourish and rejuvenate, and boost blood flow for a healthy glow.

This is how you prepare for the maximum benefit of your massage

After you've booked your massage, the next thing you need to do is figure out how to prepare yourself to get the most out of your massage. Here's what you should do to get ready:

Don't stress yourself unnecessarily. Come to your session with enough time.

  • To prepare your skin properly, exfoliate at home beforehand. (Or request a body scrub for your spa treatment.)Eminence Organics Pear & Green Apple Massage Souffle

  • Choose a delicious massage cream for your treatment such as our Pear & Green Apple Massage Souffle – ideal for deep massages and makes the skin hydrated and supple.

  • Or opt for a moisturizing Oil, like our Apricot Body Oil or Stone Crop Body Oil, for a massage that requires additional gliding and reveals a spectacular looking skin.

  • A body wrap like ours Stone Crop Restorative Body Wrap improves the benefits of massage and makes you feel hydrated and rejuvenated from head to toe.

  • Drink plenty of water before and after the massage.

Few things in life can make you as happy and healthy as a good massage. Use our Spa Locator to book a treatment at the closest Eminence Organics Partner Spa. Which luxurious personal care product from Eminence Organics rounds off a relaxing massage treatment for you? Let us know in the comments or share it with us on social media.

25 Feb
Blog

Train the Foundation of Success: Willpower

So many of our behaviors are the standard of an incorrect environment setting. An alarm, a pre-made sports bag and a drawer full of healthy snacks can do a lot. Assume your environment is spot on and your plan is flawless. You still have to show up and run.

People throw away all their processed food and fill the house with fruit, vegetables and fish, and then drive to the Dairy Queen four days a week after dinner. People stow their work clothes in a locker in the gym and then start the ridiculous habit of going to the gym every morning to get changed without training.

Even if everything in your life leads you to the right movements, you still have to do it. This is where willpower comes into play.

It doesn't matter who you are, you don't always want to exercise and eat well. Most of the time, even the most experienced and consistent fitness professionals with a sense of fear are at their pre-planned training block. It is human nature.

When we have the choice between the comfort that gobbles up our lives today and the effort, every fiber of our being pulls us to remain in sedentary comfort. We are programmed to use and save energy.

Our body never expected a world with plenty of energy (food) and we were able to survive while we were barely moving. There are more and more snacks, another Netflix show and a new YouTube video "next".

Therefore, it takes a stupid amount of willpower to break the standard patterns of our comfortable life and add the necessary inconveniences. And that's exactly what fitness goals usually boil down to – interrupting the pattern of seated comfort.

Once you start everything will be easier. You may even find that we are energized and want to do more. Starting is the hard part. Finding the current determination to ignore every impulse or instinct and to feel uncomfortable – this is now the basis for every healthy lifestyle.

You may be thinking, but what about those days when I'm full of energy and excitement to move? Can't I just restore these conditions with good pre-workout and good music? Nope. You are the aberration. No matter how good your planning is, you will often find that you don't want to stick it out.

Jocko Willink, former Navy Seal, says in his book “Discipline equals freedom”: “Motivation is moody. It comes and goes. It is unreliable and if you count on the motivation to achieve your goals, you will likely miss out. So … don't count on motivation. Rely on discipline. “And that means willpower.

You set your goal or set this personal rule when you think about what's best for you. In this emotionless, distant state, it is easy to see which course will be the most fulfilling in the long run. The moment you have to step up and act, however, it is much more difficult.

You won't always want to follow through. If you have the willpower to assert yourself, you will feel better all day, If you make a concession and break your own rules, you have created a dangerous precedent that will make it more likely for you to find the easy way out in the future.

You can justify at any time that skipping a day or spoiling yourself once does no harm. A decision doesn't have a bad impact, but to be healthy you have to consider every event as a general pattern. Overcoming temptations and sticking to the plan is a constant thing.

Whether your goal is to eat better or do more exercise, willpower is critical to your success. Where's the plan for that?

Willpower 101

Willpower is real and it's a superpower. Study by study and book by book have shown that people with greater willpower are healthier, happier, more successful and in better relationships. Above all, willpower determines the quality of your life – and it can be trained.

Scientists tracked down 59 of the subjects from the famous Stanford Marshmallow Test and used functional resonance imaging to monitor their brain activity when tempted.

They found that the brain patterns of subjects with little self-control and subjects with high self-control were different. The inexperienced mind has far greater difficulties in overcoming impulses, You need to train willpower. Without them, your health goals are unlikely to be successful.

Willpower is like a muscle in every way. It grows when it's trained. It tires when in use. Your chest and triceps could be trained to improve from a maximum bench press of 245 pounds to a maximum weight of 400 pounds over time. You could work from three reps at 225 pounds to 15 reps.

The same principles apply to training willpower. Through consistent training, you can build the ability to absorb much more willpower that requires tasks, and build up to a point where previously challenging tasks require almost no willpower.

Even if your willpower grows, you can't take in too much volume every day and expect good results, Just like a two-hour glove of sprints, snatches and heavy squats would roast the central nervous system even with the best conditioned athletes, you can't expect extreme willpower every day.

In addition, every willpower consumes the same reserve. It doesn't matter whether you use it to resist hunger attacks, censor yourself when speaking, keep eye contact, not checking your phone, studying, or exercising.

Self-control habits allow you to automate behaviors that cost a lot of willpower to most people. This means that expensive willpower tasks can become free or far cheaper. If you usually speak well, you don't have to censor how you speak to people. If you usually make eye contact, the focus will no longer increase when you speak to your boss.

If you have a habit of studying every day after class, this is part of the routine. You don't have to find out when and how you will learn. They follow the pattern and no willpower is used to make decisions.

The more good habits you have, the easier it is to do positive tasks without using a lot of willpower. In this way, some people have put themselves in a position where they seem to always be able to do everything at a high level.

Decisions can also put a lot of strain on your willpower. Deciding what to wear, what to eat, or what to do will deplete your willpower, so environmental design and planning can go a long way. If all the steps to get you to the gym or to the right foods are prepared for you, your willpower will not be put into the effort to get there.

If you are serious about a goal at all, first shape your life so that the least possible willpower is required to bring us to your desired goal. Avoid fluff when dressing and eating so that you save willpower every day and, if possible, do your most will-dependent tasks early in the day to ensure sufficient enthusiasm.

But here, too, the reality remains that at a certain point in time you only have to do the difficult thing if your emotions rebel against it. How do you train the ability to overcome this impulse? Slow and steady.

Willpower training made easy

As your willpower grows, it's about strengthening your muscle strength to make yourself an experience you'd rather avoid. You know that training will make you happier in the long run, but the moment your emotions shout "No!" Like a toddler is told it is time to leave the birthday party.

You want to build the ability to do the difficult consistently, even if you don't want to. In training, Constance always surpasses the occasional outbreak of great efforts. You will see the best results of daily willpower training, So take a cold shower every day.

The cold shower is the perfect willpower training technique because you will never want it and always have time. You always have three minutes to shower. At the moment, you are probably waiting three minutes a day for your shower to warm up. It is not known where or when. Business and convenience are not available excuses.

After a three-minute cold shower, you will feel much better. In addition to the cascade of physiological effects, you have self-confidence and a sense of achievement that only arises from challenges. You only have to commit to it for a very short amount of time so you can feel better all day – just like when you exercise.

But training is of course about progress. Biting too much, biting too early is a recipe to stop, Start with 30 seconds. You can take a minute next week. Keep crawling in 30-second increments until you take a three-minute cold shower every day. You train the ability to do the difficult.

This is the root of every health goal. If you can take a cold shower, you can start exercising. If you can take a cold shower, you can bypass the smell of free donuts that blow from the staff lounge.

You may be tempted to stop taking a cold shower every day because you just don't want to, This temptation is the point. You have to face the reality that you have to take control of your health repeatedly to take control of your health. Your mind will rationalize all sorts of reasons for not doing what you planned. Emotions take control of your conscious thinking. Act anyway. This is your mantra. You cannot rely on motivation. Follow the plan. Action. This is the willpower exercise.

Commit is more important than trying

"Do it or not. There's no attempt."

– Yoda

Everyone can take a cold shower every day. You just have to make the decision to commit properly. You can't say, "I'll try." Why would you frame it as an "attempt"? No skills or opportunities are required. Don't try.

You either commit to it or you don't. I thought about providing other willpower training protocols, but this complexity only promotes inconsistencies. There is nothing to think about.

Taking a cold shower is difficult, I am only a few minutes away from mine and even after doing this for over a year the prospect makes me flinch. Acting keeps my willpower muscles in shape so I can better control my actions when it's difficult. I know that growing willpower increases the ability to act the way I want to act and who I want to be, so I will continue this practice.

There are some helpful mechanisms you can use to make this or another willpower attempt more successful:

1. The first and most important thing is to start with a "no matter what" clause

I borrowed the terminology of the "no matter what" clause from music star Mike Posner, who recently migrated from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I've always used a similar version of it, telling myself that 99% is a sissy.

In any case, the point remains: there is no scope. Once you have decided to do this, this must be the end of the conversation. For this reason, I recommend that people who start changing their lifestyle always start small. You have to create a habit, an identity, to persevere.

When approaching life in this way, you need to think carefully before committing yourself as you are doing everything you are committed to. Promise conservatively. You can always add later. If you find that you have taken over too much, you must keep your word (even if it is just a promise to yourself) until you reach your next planning period. I suggest a weekly planning session where you think about the week and allow yourself to adjust the plan by adding or subtracting it as needed.

2. Be prepared for curve balls

But let's say the unthinkable happens. You wake up late, rush to work, miss dinner, spend the evening in the freezing cold season and watch your daughter's soccer game, come home and decide that I just don't take a cold shower … or exercise … or resist the urge To eat biscuits until you are sick. You broke your promise. We are all human, after all. What now? The next day you are on the right track again.

So often people get stuck on arbitrary goals and when they fall off, they just give up. They describe themselves as failure and return to life without the goals. We have to commit ourselves, but a lack is not the reason to throw everything down the drain.

Sure, you have committed yourself with heart and soul and it is a shame to fail, but what is past is past. If the impossible happens and you break your promise to yourself, you must immediately commit again. There is water under the bridge. Back to ace kicker mode.

3. Make your commitment bigger than yourself

We are social beings. If you take a 10-year exercise break, I'm willing to bet that your behavior in your social group was normal. You would have behaved differently if you had just left the Marine Boot Camp. If you find social levers that will lead you to your goals, you will be more successful.

Social pressure often works against our goals. In most places you go, people could actually pressure you not to take a cold shower every day. They say things like, "Why would you do that? It's just stupid." As if training the willpower, the main determinant of success, was nonsensical. So you have to intentionally create positive social pressure. You can find like-minded friends and engage each other, or even try more creative tactics.

My partner Justin Lind and I created the Pillar Experience Calendar – a structure to consistently take into account the most transformative experiences of self-development. Every month we have a topic with a lesson and accompanying challenges that are discussed and supported by an online group.

Last month our group committed to an extended fast. Many of them only consumed water with Justin and me for 48 hours. Others reduced themselves to 24 hours or treated themselves to coffee. We all found immense strength in mastering the challenges together and discussing them over time,

Separate your life from making the right decisions

Organize your life so that you make the right decisions and distance yourself from those you want to avoid. Take on the difficult tasks early in the day. Commit yourself to cold showers daily and take the time to build an accountability system.

You could make willpower far more complicated, but that would only offer opportunities for failure. Too much thinking just distracts you from what you have to do.

It is best to make your plan simple and the measures clear, Then just act, because this will increase the willpower muscle. And this muscle is far more important than anyone else when it comes to long-term fitness and health.

25 Feb
Blog

2020 Hyundai Venue First Drive Review: All The Tech For Less

2020 Hyundai venue outside

2020 Hyundai Venue first ride review: All technology for less

"The Hyundai Venue 2020 offers a lot of technology at an affordable price."

  • Good technical value

  • High quality interior

  • Comfortable ride

  • Gutless motor

  • Driver aids work poorly

It is now a matter of course that American buyers prefer crossovers over normal cars. As a result, automakers are increasing the driving heights of small hatchbacks to develop new models that have the crossover look but not the utility or all-wheel drive. The trend started with the Toyota C-HR and Nissan Kicks, and now we have a new entry – the 2020 Hyundai Venue.

The venue follows the same recipe as the C-HR and Kicks. According to Hyundai, however, it is primarily aimed at used car buyers. Hyundai believes that a low base price combined with the latest technology and a new car guarantee will attract buyers of used car lots. Starting at $ 18,345, the venue offers a ton of technology for the money, including standard Apple CarPlay / Android Auto and a variety of driver aids.

But is the 2020 Hyundai Venue really cheap and cheerful or just cheap? At Hyundai's invitation, I drove a venue from Miami to the Florida Keys to find out.

Design and style

The venue differs from conventional small hatchback models in its design. It's a bit bigger, both because of an upright, boxy body shape and because of a higher ride height. The venue also carries the same grille as larger Hyundai crossovers to reaffirm the idea that it's not just a regular car.

2020 Hyunda venue profileStephen Edelstein / Digital Trends

Like the Nissan Kicks, the Venue is available in a two-tone color scheme that gives the car a bit more personality. However, this option is only available in the upper denim trim. You have only one color combination to choose from – blue with a white roof.

Your mileage may vary depending on the design, but a box-shaped design should offer more passenger and cargo space than something leaner and more car-like. Despite its sloping roofline, the Toyota C-HR has more cargo space than the venue.

Meanwhile, the kicks has more cargo space and more passenger space than the Toyota or Hyundai. On paper, the venue has more headroom and legroom for the rear passengers than the kicks, but that's not much in the real world.

The venue differs from conventional small hatchback models in its design.

The back seats of the venue are narrow, especially if the front seats are designed for tall people. The hold is good for a small hatchback, but not impressive compared to real crossovers. Even the Hyundai Kona, a tiny vehicle, offers more.

When it comes to utility, the venue (and other similar vehicles) don't offer enough to justify the crossover label. If you buy the venue against used cars, as Hyundai believes, many buyers will likely find something with more space at the same price.

2020 Hyundai Venue touchscreenStephen Edelstein / Digital Trends

The front seats are at least a nice place. They are comfortable for a vehicle in this price range, although we prefer the more supportive chairs in the Nissan Kicks. Hyundai also has nothing to do with Nissan's optional Bose audio system, which has speakers in the front headrests.

However, the interior and overall design of the venue look more sophisticated than that of the Nissan, and both the kicks and venue look more inviting than the Toyota C-HR, which appears to be outdated in comparison.

technology

Hyundai has saved on interior space, but not on technology. The affordable venue is equipped with numerous technical functions as standard.

The standard infotainment system includes an 8-inch touchscreen as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Toyota offers the same screen in the C-HR and adds Android Auto in addition to Apple CarPlay for the 2020 model year.

Nissan requires you to upgrade the basic equipment of the Kicks S to the SV to get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The largest touchscreen available is only 7 inches tall. Venue models equipped with navigation also receive real-time traffic information at no extra charge.

This is where Hyundai's strategy comes in to play the venue off against used cars. You are not guaranteed to find these connectivity features on every older vehicle.

The venue is an entry-level model, but it offers a lot of technology.

As with other Hyundai models, the infotainment system is simple but functional. The graphics on the screen are not complex, but are easy to read at a glance. Keyboard shortcuts for menus make it easier to use the system while driving.

Hyundai also offers several places, including a shelf on the passenger side of the dashboard, which looks like a good place to rest a phone. At least until you accelerate or brake hard and the phone flies.

The event location is equipped as standard with an autonomous emergency braking system, a lane departure warning system and an attention monitor for the driver. The SEL trim in the middle area offers monitoring of the blind spot and a warning of rear traffic.

As with infotainment technology, used cars with these features may not be available at the same price, so Hyundai's argument is correct. However, the event's new car competitors offer technologies similar to the standard equipment – as well as functions that the event location does not offer. The Toyota C-HR has adaptive cruise control, while the Nissan Kicks has autonomous reverse braking.

Stephen Edelstein / Digital Trends

The driver's aids at the venue are mixed. The lane departure warning system was too sensitive, since every slight deviation from a straight line was a possible off-road excursion. It was also confused by highway exits. The lane departure warning system is not only shy, but also pulls aggressively on the steering wheel to bring the venue back into line.

I was impressed with the ability to monitor the blind spot to see cars far behind the line of sight, but the loud warning sound sounded like a bad television special. Instead of being helpful, it was a joke.

Experience behind the wheel

According to Hyundai, the venue was designed for young city dwellers, and my test drive began and ended in downtown Miami, with sections of the highway in between. Here Hyundai's Penny Pinching began to show itself.

The venue is only available with a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine that delivers 121 horsepower and 113 pound-feet of torque. If that doesn't sound enough to you, you're right. It's easy to assume that driving in the city is just about sitting in traffic, but that's not really the case. Maneuvers that would have been routine in most other cars became nerve-wracking.

This may be due in part to the transfer of the event location. Base SE models get a six-speed manual, but my two test cars (a SEL and a denim) had the optional continuously variable transmission (CVT), which Hyundai calls the IVT (for "intelligent variable transmission").

The manual would at least have given more control and helped keep the engine in its power range. The problem could also be poor coordination. Nissan's kicks also use a CVT and offer similar performance to the venue (122 hp and 114 lb-ft). But the kicks don't feel nearly as sluggish as the venue.

This little Hyundai was comfortable and quiet, but not fun.

Auto people like to say that driving a slow car fast is more fun than driving a fast car slowly, but the venue is the exception to this rule. This little Hyundai was comfortable and quiet, but not fun. It is small but not agile. The driving experience was so understated that we didn't mind being in Florida, a state notorious for its lack of good roads.

In order to keep the price of the venue low, Hyundai did not use all-wheel drive. The additional traction of the all-wheel drive is one of the reasons for choosing a crossover instead of a conventional car. However, the all-wheel drive would have increased $ 2,000 in manufacturing costs (which would have driven up the base price) and 200lbs in curb weight (which would have had an impact on fuel consumption), Derek Joyce, PR manager for Hyundai crossovers, told Digital Trends.

The venue is only front-wheel drive. Fortunately for Hyundai, it's the Nissan Kicks and the Toyota C-HR. The venue does have a "snow mode" for traction control that changes throttle response and CVT behavior for more grip, but I couldn't test that in sunny Florida.

Fuel consumption and security

The 2020 Hyundai Venue is rated at 32 mpg combined (30 mpg city, 34 mpg highway) with the CVT and 30 mpg combined (27 mpg city, 35 mpg highway) with the six-speed manual. This places the venue below the Nissan Kicks, which achieves a total of 33 mpg, and above the Toyota C-HR, which achieves a total of 29 mpg (both vehicles are only available with CVT).

2020 Hyundai Venue first rideStephen Edelstein / Digital Trends

The venue is a new model, so it is difficult to predict future reliability. Overall, Hyundai has a reputation for reliability and offers one of the longest guarantees in the business. The Korean automaker's 10-year drivetrain warranty of 100,000 miles and the 5-year drivetrain warranty of 60,000 miles far exceed Nissan and Toyota.

The venue is new, so crash test assessments by the Road Safety Insurance Institute (IIHS) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are not yet available.

How DT would configure this car

My ideal 2020 Hyundai Venue is a denim model. The denim has optional technical functions such as monitoring the blind spot, warning of cross traffic at the rear and navigation from the SEL trim level, giving it a portion of style. The two-tone blue and white exterior and the blue interior of the denim make the venue feel special. At $ 23,045, the denim is a big step up from the base Venue SE starting price of $ 18,345 and still a good value.

Conclusion

The 2020 Hyundai Venue is a solid car, but whether it's the right car for you depends on your priorities. If you are looking for a real crossover with more interior space than a normal car and all-wheel drive, look elsewhere. The venue is more like a high hatchback than a real crossover.

This also applies to the Nissan Kicks and the Toyota C-HR, the two logical rivals of the venue. The Nissan and Toyota also have no four-wheel drive and are similar in size to the Hyundai. We were impressed by the quality of the material and the general sophistication of the venue, but it's not a clear victory. The kicks don't have a standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but more interior space and a bolder motor. The C-HR has a higher base price, but is equipped with an adaptive cruise control as standard, which is not available at the event location at any price.

What about the used cars that Hyundai said were the real rivals of the venue? Priorities are also important here. The venue offers the latest technology and a new car guarantee, but at the expense of the interior and acceleration. Hyundai offers more technology and security for the money, but it is possible to bring more cars to the used market.

Should you get one?

Yes. The 2020 Hyundai Venue may not be a true crossover, but it is a good car.

Editor's recommendations




25 Feb
Blog

Best Reviews For Eminence Organic Skin Care Products

Sometimes something is just so great that you are forced to tell the world about it. It can be a jewel in a book, an underestimated television series or – an amazing skin care product. Every now and then we summarize a collection of Eminence Organics reviews and share with you our top rated products. If you want to add these five-star favorites to your skin care routine, here are some of the best of the best.

cleanser

Stone crop gel wash

"I'm lazy, so I love that."

"I don't like using makeup remover and then washing myself. With (Stone Crop Gel Wash) I can remove my makeup in one step. My skin is sensitive and can easily dry out. This (product) makes my face feel clean and balanced – not dry and not too greasy. I've been using it for a decade and while I've strayed a few times for a moment over the years (I'm lazy AND slightly bored), I keep coming back to it! "

– Melanie

Eminence Organics toner

Toner & mist

Red currant matting mist

"Another Eminence Winner"

"I use (Red Currant Mattifying Mist) every day to keep fat at bay. This is the PERFECT toner for combination skin / oily skin with large pores. "

– – Dermstore Consumer

Masks & treatments

Stone Crop Oxygenating Fizzofoliant

"Best peeling ever!"

""This is an amazing product and by far the best scrub I have ever used. I have sensitive skin that is dry on the surface but still prone to hormonal acne. (Stone Crop Oxygenating Fizzofoliant) gently polishes and detoxifies without irritating, and is the only scrub I've tried that softens the skin without that stripped and tight feel. This is a new staple for me. "

– Penny

Probiotic mask with clear skin

"Refreshing"

""I had a facial with me local spa and they used this mask on me to treat my chin area. I just can't stop resting on my hands while staring at the computer at work, causing me to break out. This mask really helped clarify things and felt so good. There was a refreshing and cooling feeling on my skin. I honestly wish I could put everything over my body and sleep in it. It feels so good that I bought the (Clear Skin Probiotic Masque) to use at home when needed. "

– Ashley

Eminence Organics Bamboo Firming Liquid

Bamboo firming liquid

"Fabulous for days!"

""I love this product! After a good facial peel and a hot shower, I wear two (2) pumps of the (Bamboo Firming Fluid) and massage it onto my face to make sure that the most important areas (pockets under the eyes, "crow's feet" and forehead) are preserved. What I love most is that it's packed with moisturizing ingredients like monoi oil, coconut oil, and coconut water, which is great for anyone with dry skin! "

– Micah

moisturizers

Coconut Age Corrective Moisturizer

"The Coconut Age Corrective Moisturizer is bombbbbbbb – it literally smells like paradise. I am completely obsessed with adding this to my skin care routine. "

– Stefani H. am Facebook

Serums, oils & concentrates

Daily mangosteen surface renewal concentrate

"HOLY GRAIL"

"My skin ages, is blocked, dehydrated, the texture is thick, but can break out = anywhere on the map. (Mangosteen Daily Resurfacing Concentrate) fixed my texture problems, my skin is soft, radiant, the pores are reduced … and it's instant !! Can't shout enough about this new HOLY GRAIL !!! "

– Jennifer D.

Strawberry and rhubarb Hyaluronserum

"Amazing Magic Oil"

"Eminence can not go wrong in my eyes! I love all of their products and (The Strawberry Rhubarb Hyaluronic Serum is no exception! My skin is radiant, it is so soft and my fine lines and wrinkles seem to be softer. I also love the smell of all of their products. It's like a spa experience, thanks to Eminence and Dermstore! "

– Dermstore end users

Eminence Organics Stone Crop Body Oil

personal hygiene

Stone crop body oil

"Heaven Made Product!"

"I started this beautiful (Stone Crop Body Oil) a few months ago. My skin became hydrated, plump and rejuvenated! My husband said, "Your skin looks so much better, what exactly are you doing?" I simply replied: "This is due to the Eminence!". Thank you, Eminence, for your wonderful products that we love so much! "

– Thily

Apricot Body Oil

"I love Eminence products! My favorite is that Apricot Body Oil. I was a sun lover but these products make my skin look fantastic at 60 !!!!! "

– Julie Z on Facebook

Also look for these top rated favorites Bestseller on our website. And if you have products you can't live without, we'd love to hear from you! Write a Eminence Organics product review or take part in social media entertainment.

24 Feb
Blog

Strength Routines for Developing a Strong and Healthy Upper Back

Strength routines to develop a strong and healthy upper back - fitness, training, strength training, shoulder, muscle break, back exercises, rows, upper back, pull-ups, pull-ups

A strong upper back is important to minimize injuries to the shoulder joint and shoulder belt. Many athletes and training enthusiasts love the pressure and pressure exercises: bench press, incline press, press down, dips and overhead presses. To balance these movements and improve the stability of the shoulder joint, however, antagonistic pulling exercises should be incorporated. If these movements are neglected, the risk of injury increases.

I understand that train movements are not popular or are controlled by the "I can lift X weight" mentality, so unfortunately they can be neglected. "How much can you close handle pulldown or bowed row?" You never hear that, do you?

In order to strengthen the upper back / shoulder area, minimize the potential for injury and improve your ability to optimally perform your upper body sporting skills, the following exercises for pulling the upper torso should be integrated in order to emphasize the exercises for most trainees to push the upper body counteracting the front body:

  • Pulldown / chin with a wide grip up to the upper chest
  • Close the pulldown / chin to the upper chest
  • Sweater machine
  • High row
  • feature
  • row
  • Low row
  • Upright row
  • Rear delta machine / curved fly
  • External rotation of the rotator cuff

Think of it this way: for each thrust exercise there should be an opposite pulling exercise. Examples:

  • Overhead press – pulldown with wide or narrow handle, machine sweater
  • Tilt press – high row or face pull
  • Breast press – seated / curved row, low row, rear delta / curved bow tie
  • Push / Immerse – reject upright row

Before we go any further, we need to know two things:

  1. It is literally impossible to isolate a particular muscle only when doing an exercise move. For example, if you perform a side elevation to target your delts, both the anterior and medial deltoid muscles are activated along with the clavicle head of the pectoralis major (chest) and the supraspinatus (a rotator cuff muscle).
  2. Regarding this point, some front muscles are activated when performing traditional back / pulling exercises. During a pulldown with a tight grip and supinated forearms (the palms facing you), for example, the sternal head of the pectoralis major and the long head of the triceps support the lats, teres major and other posterior / pulling muscles.

And then there is the question of the venerable upright row – where does it belong? It's a pulling exercise, but it works with the deltoid muscles that typically occur in anterior / pressure exercises. What a dilemma. Let's go through a basic tutorial on upper back musculature and kinesiology:

When discussing the upper back muscles, two anatomical points and relevant joint movements must be taken into account: the shoulder blade (shoulder blade) and the humerus (upper arm). Shrug up, down, forwards and backwards. This is your shoulder blade in action. Move your upper arm in several directions. This is your humerus articulating on the glenohumeral joint.

Looking at the development of the upper back, the following table shows the details of the movements and the muscles involved:

Strength routines to develop a strong and healthy upper back - fitness, training, strength training, shoulder, muscle break, back exercises, rows, upper back, pull-ups, pull-ups

Training logs for the muscles of the upper back

There are many ways to develop the upper back muscles using a series of movements / exercises with a variety of overload protocols. I have provided a sample exercise that can be used in individual workouts and some set / rep scripts that can be applied to it.

Exercise movements in the upper back for individual workouts:

  • Large handle pulldown
  • Bowed row
  • Upright row
  • pull ups
  • Low row
  • Face pulls
  • row
  • Pulldown with a tight grip
  • Curl biceps
  • High row
  • Rear delta machine
  • machines sweater

Set / repeat script options that can be applied to them:

  • 2 sets of each exercise in 10-14 and 6-10 repetition ranges
  • 2 sets of each exercise in a range of 8-12
  • 3 sets of each exercise, all in repetition ranges 12-16, 8-12, and 4-8
  • 3 sets of each exercise in a range of 6 to 10 repetitions
  • 1 set of each exercise in a range of 12 to 16 repetitions

Many options work for certain training days. Regardless of whether you exercise two or three days a week with a full body workout or a split routine where your upper body is trained twice a week, you should consider the above-mentioned upper back exercises.

Make sure that you balance all common pushing exercises with pulling exercises in the upper back. Work it as hard as all of your bumps. This approach protects against shoulder injuries, gives you balanced muscles, and improves your ability to perform sporting skills better.

24 Feb
Blog

Pascal’s Wager Review: Dark Souls Somehow Works on Mobile

Selected image for Pascal's bet evaluation

"Pascal's bet doesn't quite match the impressive standards of his inspiration, but Dark Souls fans should check it out."

  • Excellent level design

  • Characters offer unique play styles

  • Creative enemy design

  • Sanity System is a fun twist

  • Great bosses

  • Boss is too difficult

  • Requires controller for best experience

  • Messy story with bad acting

The developer FromSoftware developed Dark Souls, probably the most influential game of the past decade. This game and its sequels encountered waves of imitators, which we have collectively referred to as "soul likes", but so far they have been limited to consoles and PCs.

Creating such a challenging and complex game on a mobile platform seems like an impossible task, but TipsWorks tries Pascal's bet. It's not too original, but it does have a few tricks up its sleeve.

Story: Talk to me. Or not.

Dialogue in Pascal's bet

Contrary to the vague narrative that is often standard in FromSoftware games, TipsWorks in Pascals Wager offers more direct storytelling. It highlights the game's AAA-like production values, but also shows how effective the less direct approach can be.

In a world full of darkness after the disappearance of the creatures called "Colossi", the game is playing Terrence, a courier who is looking for his wife, who was apparently seduced by the darkness. During his trip, he is accompanied by a trio of other adventurers. the gunslinger Viola, the coffin-swinging Norwood and the nun Benita. All three have an ulterior motive, while Terrence is more direct and transparent.

There are a few clever twists in Pascal's bet, but almost every stroke is affected by terrible writing and speech. Characters sometimes don't seem to know what emotions to feel, alternately screaming and whispering loudly.

It can be strange. For example, people known as "Marcians" are often pronounced "Martians" and a few lines randomly display subtitles in Chinese. It would have been more compelling to let the players fill in the gaps and give them atmosphere and light contextual information.

Gameplay: Yes, it lasts.

Playing as a viola in Pascal's bet

Enough players have skipped the film sequences in Dark Souls over the years to know that the story in these games is secondary. If you take this view, you will be satisfied with Pascal's bet.

The fight is almost entirely like other games in the genre, with an arsenal of light and heavy attacks, evasive action, back stabbing, finishing moves and parades. Pascal's bet also has a "rage" measurement, which increases when you land a hit, and which can then be used to trigger special attacks. It adds a nuance and strategy to battles, especially when you're trying to reduce your enemy's stamina to get them to get rid of them.

What sets Pascal's bet apart from other soul likes is the character change system. With a few exceptions, you will be sent to battle with Terrence and a companion. You can swap whenever you are not in combat. If one dies, switch to the other instead of returning to the next checkpoint.

Due to their different fighting styles, this can mean that the techniques differ in the middle of the fighting. Terrence is a mediocre character with average defense, speed, and attack power, while Viola and Benita are both mushy but can do enormous damage. Meanwhile, Norwood can cause relatively high damage, but is slow, which makes him responsible for certain encounters.

If you prefer one of them to another, you can keep it in your squad forever. In my case, I found Benita most effective because it can heal itself without using restricted potions.

If you are familiar with the animation-based battle of Dark Souls or Bloodborne, Pascal's bet is the place for you. Once you launch an attack, this animation will play until you hit or damage an enemy. This means that you have to be extremely careful when hitting.

Enemies are unforgiving, especially in groups, and they often hide in unsuspecting places as you navigate through the game's open environments.

Don't play without a controller

If you face the game's tougher opponents, you'll understand one of the game's main suggestions: play with a controller.

By default, Pascals Wager uses a virtual stick and buttons to do everything. Even if this is possible in Fortnite, you will go crazy here. Fortunately, iOS 13 has added support for Xbox One and PS4 controllers. In combination with a controller mount, you can play with a more recognizable layout. If you request this, the purpose of putting the game on the phone first will be somewhat negated, but there is no better solution.

As is common in this genre, Pascals Wager offers numerous doors, lifts and gates that you have to unlock from one side before they can be used on the other. The game clearly mimics the design of FromSoftware and makes it absolutely clear.

Every time you explore an area, you feel that you have made significant progress.

Every time you explore an area and discover a link to a checkpoint, you feel that you have made significant progress. At this point you can redeem your "bones" for upgrades. This is both experience and currency. Unlike the Dark Souls games, you only lose a fraction of your bones when you die instead of all.

This can make death less frustrating and allow you to improve yourself in difficult areas. At the checkpoints – the game calls them altars – you can also equip special equipment that improves certain statistics, replenishes consumables, and distributes skill points to your current characters.

Difficulty: It's going to be insane

Fight a boss in Pascal's bet

One of the consumables is a reason elixir, which is vital for one of Pascal & # 39; s Wager's most unique mechanics. If you damage enemies, you will gradually lose your "sanity" that appears next to your health bar. If it falls into the "abnormal" area, you will get a slight health impairment, and if it is completely lowered, you will enter a "crazy" state.

This is bad. Enemies become much more difficult and even get new moves. It's annoying to deal with at first, but managing your sanity through potions becomes a crucial part of struggles.

Boss fights are by far the most dangerous time to lose your mind. Challenging, but (largely) fair, these are the best moments of the game and show an unexpected level of creativity. They range from horse magicians to Lovecraftian brain monsters with sprouted tentacles, all of which require their own strategy.

After a few tries, you will learn their movements and can better estimate when to attack. The battles in the late game offer a great mix of difficulty and spectacle. After death, you always have a short run back to the battlefield to try again so that you don't forget anything that happened in the last fight.

The jump in difficulty from the penultimate boss to the last fight is ridiculous.

The delicate balance between challenge and frustration is present in almost every fight except the final boss. Yes. I couldn't beat it.

Despite hours of trying, the game's somewhat tricky camera and three-phase format of combat make it almost impossible. Yes, the final boss should always be the hardest, but the jump in difficulty from the penultimate boss to the final fight is ridiculous and slows down the breakneck pace of the game.

At the beginning of the game there is the possibility to reduce the level of difficulty with an Easter egg. However, if only one boss is the problem, this is not a good solution.

Our opinion

Although Pascals Wager goes overboard his boss and is a ridiculous story, he's an impressive action game. Translating this hardcore genre to phones and tablets is not easy. The reasoning system and several playable characters make the game of TipsWorks worthwhile even for those who normally do not like mobile gaming.

Is there a better alternative?

Not on mobile devices. Dark Souls games are undoubtedly superior on console and PC.

Do you want more iOS options? Check out our favorite iPhone games.

How long it will take?

According to TipsWorks, the game lasts between 10 and 20 hours. We found it closer to the latter.

Should you buy it

Yes, provided you have a controller and holder for your phone.

Editor's recommendations




24 Feb
Blog

How To Best Treat Cystic And Hormonal Acne – Our Top Do’s And Don’ts

When you are well into adulthood, there are certain things you can expect from your skin – dehydration, fine lines and wrinkles, even hyperpigmentation. But have you ever thought that cystic or hormonal acne would still be like this? Problem?

Regardless of your age, breakouts and skin problems are still a problem that many want to address. If you want to know why your outbreaks occur, check out our blog post "What Causes Acne? If you are looking for a treatment for your problem skin, you should read on. While knowing what you're dealing with is important, treating problem skin is even more important because you want to get rid of breakouts like NOW.

Differences Between Cystic Vs. Hormonal acne

Once you understand why your breakouts occur, you can use this knowledge to determine the best treatment option. While hormonal acne occurs in men and women who go through significant hormonal changes – aging, pregnancy, or even stress – cystic acne occurs at any age due to nutritional sensitivity and overproduction of sebum. Because of this, treating these two different types of problem skin often requires unique acne treatment options.

If you're not sure whether your breakouts are hormonal or cystic, there are some differences that you can use to determine whether your problem skin is more cyclical or caused by something else, e.g. B. an increase in sebum or inflammation at a deeper level of the skin. Here's the difference between cystic and hormonal acne:

Cystic acne

  • Appears mainly on the face and in the T-zone as well as in the back, chest and shoulders.

  • Usually bigger than your traditional pimple and much more painful and red.

  • Cystic acne treatments are a must since it doesn't go away on its own. Picking outbreaks also increases the risk of scarring and hyperpigmentation in irritated areas.

  • Some outbreaks of cystic acne are due to poor nutrition – especially when consuming plenty of dairy products.

  • These outbreaks occur at all ages, but especially in teens.

mature woman applying skin care product to treat acne

  • Usually occurs with changes in hormone levels Menstrual cycles, pregnancy and menopause. Men who experience a drop in testosterone can also get hormonal acne!

  • Stress causes a change in hormone levels and increases the development of problematic skin breakouts.

  • Hormonal acne appears in areas such as chin, jaw and neck

These two types of problem skin differ significantly, so the treatment approach must also be different. Combating cystic acne requires regular exfoliation with a gentle formula and detergent that works deep in the pores to eradicate bacteria and relieve inflammation.

For the treatment of cystic acne, two skin care sets offer products that target problem areas while providing healthy skin with the nutrition it needs. Our The Clear Skin Starter Set contains a complete program that was specially developed for problematic and oily skin types. From probiotic cleanser to booster serum, products in the Clear Skin Starter Set use ingredients such as tea tree oil, sweet almond milk and cucumber to clear problematic skin without removing the much-needed moisture from the skin.

Treatment of hormonal acne is more about a general skin care and wellness routine. If you notice drastic or severe hormonal fluctuations, a gynecologist is a good source to get you back on track. However, if you treat hormonal acne yourself, a good routine includes products that target problem skin, reduce bacteria in the pores, and at the same time moisturize and care for the skin. The starter set with eight greens is particularly advantageous for two reasons: It targets and manages existing problem skin while the skin is being cleaned in order to reduce further problems.

Eminence Organics Acne Advanced Clarifying Masque

For those at risk of breaking out, ours The Acne Advanced 3-Step Treatment System, including the Acne Advanced Clarifying Masque, contains products to treat and prevent acne. If you suffer from sporadic cystic acne or regular hormonal acne, the 3-step system cleanses, clarifies and hydrates for a beautiful and breakout-free complexion.

behaviour rules

If you have an outbreak, it is a recipe for disaster to nudge it or speed up its life cycle. Keep these tips in mind when treating problem skin, whether it's cystic or hormonal.

Keep your skin clean with consistent and clarifying skin care. The peeling prevents the pores from clogging, while the clarification of the formulas eliminates bacteria that lead to breakouts.

DO NOT peck pimples or breakouts. As tempting as it may be, picking spreads bacteria (which leads to MORE outbreaks) and increases the risk of scars or infections.

Use serums and targeted products for problematic skin. Ingredients in serums such as tea tree oil and willow bark clear the pores and prevent the growth of bacteria, which leads to healthier and clearer skin when used consistently.

DO NOT scrub. If you have inflamed and irritated skin, the last thing you want to do is make it worse. Instead of aggressively scrubbing the face with harsh peels, choose a gentle cleanser and massage it into the skin. Then rinse it off with lukewarm water and apply serums or moisturizers to further treat and prevent problematic skin.

Do you suffer from breakouts? Find out more about how Eminence Organics products can target skin problems, or make an appointment with a professional. Visit the Spa locator to find an Eminence Organics spa or salon near you!

24 Feb
Blog

5 Weight Loss Principles That Say It All

Weight loss is very important for boxers if they want to successfully make weight for an upcoming fight,

While this is usually more important for boxers outside of the super heavyweight (amateur) and heavyweight (professional) divisions, Anthony Joshua's recent success against Andy Ruiz has been largely attributed to his ability to keep moving around the ring, which he almost certainly benefited from had lost a significant amount of body weight six months earlier since their first fight.

For every boxer who needs to lose weight, there are two simple rules to follow:

Rule 1: You must have a calorie deficit.

This is when you consume fewer calories than you burn every day. The easiest way to check if you are in deficit is to log your food intake with a food tracker (such as My Fitness Pal) so you can see how much you are consuming compared to what you need to eat depending on your height, gender, age and level of activity.

Rule 2 You must have a calorie deficit over a longer period of time.

Most people have problems not being able to stick to a calorie deficit.

A typical approach that many boxers use is to simply keep their food consumption to a minimum. Although this is an effective way to be in a calorie deficit, the energy level will remain extremely low and you will not be able to exercise and recover properly.

It is critical that the weight loss plan is sustainable and easy to follow. With that said, here are my five principles of boxing weight loss diet.

Principle 1: Make the plan comfortable

A very easy way to do this is to allow 10-15% of your calories from whatever you want.

Remember, as long as you have a calorie deficit, you can actually eat anything you want and still lose weight. Another trick is to make your food tasty with herbs, spices, spices, etc.

Principle 2: Get the protein in

You need to be sure to eat 1.8-2 g of protein per kg of body weight.

Protein not only helps you to recover properly from an intense workout, it is also an excellent way to satisfy your hunger.

Protein is found in meat, poultry, fish and dairy products. Protein supplements are a good idea if you don't eat enough protein from other foods.

Principle 3: focus on vegetables and fruits

In order for this principle to work, you need to eat at least five different types of fruit and vegetables a day.

Fruits and vegetables contain a lot of nutrients. The more nutritious your diet is, the more energy you have – and the better your hunger and appetite are controlled.

Principle 4: sleep, sleep, sleep

Your body needs to rest and recover, so it is very important that you have more than 7 hours of sleep every night.

A clear connection between sleep deprivation and increased hunger has been established. If your goal is weight loss, this is counterproductive to your goals. If you get enough sleep, you can also maintain a good level of energy.

Principle 5: Use re-feed days

A re-feed day is when you have an additional 500 kcal per day. Ideally, these calories come from carbohydrates (500 kcal = 125 g carbohydrates). You can have up to two feeding days per week.

Refill days can help keep your hunger and energy at bay.

Apply these five principles and I guarantee that it will be much easier for you to stick to your eating plan and gain weight without the drama of hunger and low energy.

24 Feb
Blog

Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3 Review

emporio armani smartwatch 3 review ea front

Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3

"The few positive aspects of the Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3 cannot convince us to pay the high price."

  • Ideal for casual fitness tracking

  • Decent EA watch face collection

  • Heart rate tracking, GPS and NFC on board

  • Mundanes design

  • Tired WearOS software

  • Price higher than the competition

  • Uncomfortable rubber strap

There was a time when wearing an Armani suit was pretty much all you needed to make the right impression. Intelligent, refined and noble quality has never been a problem. Unfortunately, since Emporio Armani published his name on Touchscreen-Wear OS smartwatches, he has not been able to capture the same cache. I've worn the latest Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3, and although there's nothing fundamentally wrong with it, I've never loved wearing it the way I would with an Armani suit and in a world full of designer wear OS -Watches with similar mediocre performance, that's a problem.

design

Before we look at the look and materials of the watch, its name is the beginning of the problem. If you want to buy this model, you should look for the Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3 or ART5024 as shown in our pictures. This number three and the generic name are the only things that differentiate it from previous EA smartwatches. Just give it a real name, for heaven's sake. It could only make it more memorable, something that it is not currently.

Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends

We come to the topic of design to be unforgettable. It's a bit of "Smartwatch 101". The round body has some studs, a crown, two buttons, and a circular touchscreen, all of which are placed in the areas you expect. There is nothing that says as sophisticated as you can expect from the brand. There is no stylistic boom that will get someone to take a second look. The hard-wearing rubber strap is very long and very easy to grip, and the zookeeper often caught my wrist hair when I tried to move it over the wristband because it grips like an overzealous limpet. I would recommend choosing one of the metal or leather alternatives over this annoying rubber strap.

On a positive note, there are some pretty colors that breathe life into it, with the burnt orange of my device and an option for metallic blue, both of which look great. Replace the strap or buy the model with the stainless steel bracelet first, and the look will improve but not significantly. The aluminum case is slim and light, making it easy to carry regardless of your outfit. The 44mm case is quite large; It was clearly designed for men. On my test device, an annoying scratch appeared on the edge of the screen, which affected its appearance.

Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends

Let me be clear. The Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3 is not ugly at all, it is only understated to boredom and has no identity. The bracelet consists of two straight pieces of rubber, the buttons have no texture and the bezel is a black, slightly angled edge – and nobody looks at it twice. There's nothing obvious that connects it to the desirable brand Emporio Armani unless you look closely at the crown to see the engraved logo. In a few months, ask me to remember what the watch looked like and I will respond. "What watch?"

Software and performance

The Smartwatch 3 has Google's built-in Wear operating system, which is supported by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 3100 platform, as well as a heart rate sensor, NFC and a microphone / speaker combination for making calls on the watch. The Wear OS has not changed significantly in recent years and feels tired while the control system is bleak and out of date. This is why the design of a Wear OS smartwatch is so important. It is really the only thing that can distinguish it. Wear OS is not particularly good. So buying decisions depend on how good a watch looks and with options like Diesel On Fadelite and On Axial (or Misfit Vapor X, Michael Kors Access, Fossil Gen 5 – the list goes on, really) Emporio Armani's efforts are easy to ignore.

The only Armani-specific software feature is the collection of dials that are diverse and well designed. There's an option for everyone here, with classic styles, modern digital options, and some EA-centered versions. Even if you don't like them, there are many more in the Google Play Store. Third-party apps are also running on the watch, but too many are installed at your own risk, as this noticeably slows performance. Oddly enough, you have to install Google Maps and Google Play Music yourself as they are not preinstalled, although they are useful parts of the smartwatch experience.

Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends

Initial setup is also a tedious process, with multiple updates and far too many passwords and conditions to apply. It's a 30 minute session to make it work. The navigation takes place with swiping and tapping. The response time is average, but never nearly as fast as with the Apple Watch. At least the 1.3-inch AMOLED screen is attractive and pleasant to look at. The EA Smartwatch 3 has a rotating crown that makes life a little easier, especially when scrolling through the notification screen or when adjusting the music volume.

Notifications are displayed in a long list. They are interactive, meaning you can reply to messages, emails and tweets, either with predefined replies or with your voice. However, sometimes I got the same email notifications over and over again, which was frustrating and detracting from the usefulness of the watch. This additional burden of notifications is in direct contradiction to one of the main reasons that smartwatches try to minimize. Unfortunately, I have had the same experience with many other Wear OS smartwatches. So it's more of a software problem than a problem that only occurs with this model.

It's not all bad. The cards that are swiped to the left and that show Google Fit, the weather, and your calendar are useful. Sometimes it is convenient to respond to notifications on the watch. Google Pay is also on board for contactless payments. The special surrounding dials increase the usefulness and aesthetics of the watch as you can always see the time on the screen. The performance is sufficient for pre-installed apps and general use. Overall, it's significantly better than older Wear OS watches, with only occasional slowdowns that are irritating. But fairly average for the current generation of Wear OS devices, and still miles away from the standard fluidity and support seen on the Apple Watch.

Fitness tracking

Google Fit is the proprietary platform for health and fitness tracking. However, since Wear OS can run other apps, you can add Strava, Runkeeper, Endomundo and some others for certain sports. However, Google Fit is a great workout companion for my needs. It shows all the metrics I want – steps, heart rate, calorie consumption and intensity – in a clear and precise way. It is also easy to use and accessible. In conjunction with the lower button on the Armani watch, you can use the menu that appears to measure your heart rate or start a workout. Google Fit also has a guided breathing feature that lasts two minutes and is based on mindfulness and even breathing techniques.

Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends

Smartwatches are useful as a fitness tracker and training partner. The design of the Smartwatch 3 still looks at home in the gym, it hasn't been excessively sweaty under the strap, and the slim body means the risk of bumping into devices is low. Google Fit is great software that works smoothly and effectively on the Smartwatch 3, but is still best suited for the occasional fitness fan.

Battery life

The latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 3100 platform is more efficient than the old Snapdragon 2100 platform. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that you can reach two days on a single charge without drastically reducing functionality. A single day is appropriate with moderate use. This includes about an hour of fitness and heart rate measurement. The charging process takes place via a plastic magnetic base. It takes an hour to fully charge the battery.

Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends

The Smartwatch 3 has a choice of battery extension modes with certain features disabled to ensure the battery lasts longer. Advanced mode turns off the permanently on display, sound, WiFi, heart rate tracking, tilt and touch to wake up the screen, and voice control, and limits the Bluetooth connection between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. If these measures are taken, the watch will last for approximately 48 hours when fully charged. A time-only mode does exactly what it says – no notifications or anything – but it will stretch the battery for about a week.

But of course, such modes reduce the sense of a smartwatch, especially the way it works. I was only able to see the time in advanced mode when I pressed the side button, and can only see the time in time mode. If you want both "intelligent" and "observing" functions, they must be put into normal mode and charged daily. What I like is that the watch automatically goes into a power saving mode when the battery is empty, so I can see the time even when the smart functions are turned off. Practically at the end of a long day.

Price and availability

The Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3 or ART5024 in this color scheme is now available for $ 395 or £ 370 – the same price as an entry-level Apple Watch. It's also more than $ 100 more than several other WearOS smartwatches with the same specs and features.

Our opinion

The Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3 is as general as the name suggests. Although it bears the name Armani, it lacks flair and stylistic attention and is just too expensive. While there are aspects that are good – fitness tracking, contactless payments, quick charging and an attractive screen – the reserved design doesn't make us want to pick it up and put it on – an important selling point for the flooded Wear OS watch market , Emporio Armani has to develop a design that is recognizable as his own, instead of being content with something so ordinary.

What are the alternatives?

We'll say it aloud for those in the background: if you own an iPhone, buy an Apple Watch! Don't buy a smart watch with Wear OS if you don't have to, as the ownership experience is subpar when using an iPhone. Apple's WatchOS software is light years ahead, there are many customization options, and Apple has traditionally supported the software for several years. Health tracking is also second to none. Prices start at $ 400 – the same price as the Armani Smartwatch 3.

If you have an Android phone, we recommend the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 for $ 280, which contains the optimized Tizen software instead of Wear OS. It is more fluid, easier to use and more attractive at the same time. It's not perfect, but better than Wear OS. However, the Watch Active 2's design isn't particularly good, and that's where the better Wear OS watch options come in.

The Diesel On Axial looks great, and we'll put up with the Wear OS software for it, while the $ 295 Fossil Gen 5 smartwatch does everything the Armani watch does for less. Misfits' minimalist design also gets it right with the $ 280 Vapor X. Finally, consider the $ 275 Huawei Watch GT2 if you prefer simplicity and solid design over endless apps and features.

How long it will take?

The battery is always the weak link of a smartwatch. It will deteriorate over time and may affect daily use after a few years. However, people keep smartwatches longer than smartphones, so owning three or four years is quite possible. Google has ignored Wear OS for years. So don't expect any major changes in the near future based on your current track record.

The watch itself will be relatively durable with a water resistance of up to 50 meters, but in the short amount of time it's attached to the wrist, the case or screen (it's hard to tell which exactly) was scratched on the edge, which leaves an obvious consequence of marking and raising concerns about build quality. The strap is attached with quick release pins so that it can easily be exchanged for another.

Should you buy one?

No. While a smartwatch is a great accessory for your phone, you have to buy the right one to ensure a good user experience. Unfortunately, the Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3 is far superior to the better Wear OS smartwatches without having a real reason to buy.

Editor's recommendations




«‹195196197198199›»