What 5% of the Effort -- Provides 95% of the Results
People knowledgeable of High-intensity exercise have proven in study after study, as well as personal experience — that one such workout a week is sufficient to induce and sustain growth over the course of their lifetime. However, that doesn’t mean they only work out that once a week at that level of intensity. If that’s all they do — and nothing else the rest of the week — they are likely to experience extreme muscle soreness for nearly all that week until it is time for their next high-intensity once a week workout — which is not a pleasant way to go through life — always recovering, and then inflicting that same muscle soreness for another week, etc.
But that does not invalidate the fact that one hard workout a week is about all a body can stand — without prematurely burning out or getting injured in some mysterious way — causing many to give up exercise entirely once they reach the vulnerable, susceptible “older” ages — which of course becomes fatal at that stage of life. So the challenge for everyone, is to find that “pace” that allows them to remain exercising all their lives — rather than overdoing it for a short period of time, and then quitting completely — as is fairly typical. One desires to be the atypical person who wasn’t just active and in good shape 50 years ago in the past, but one at the top of their game until the end of life. That is the survival of the fitness — and not the many others who have fallen off the exercise bandwagon for some reason or another. At that point, it doesn’t matter what the excuse is — only that one is not doing the best they can — presently.
Thus one will see a lot of people giving advice in their later years — of what they claimed worked 50 years ago, but is simply unthinkable in their present condition — which might have gotten them this way. That includes the damaged knees, damaged backs, damaged hearts, drug addictions, personality disorders, etc. That is often the price the former great athletes had to pay for their moments of glory. To a lesser extent, that is also the calculus daily exercisers have to make as well. The question is, what 5% of the effort and expenditure, gets one 95% of the results and effects of beneficial exercise — and not as many people think, that unlimited more is always better — and guarantees favorable outcomes.
That is usually what naive and young people think — and think is sufficient to keep them always young — but a few grow wiser with time and age, and note that recovery ability is not unlimited — but has to be managed to last and optimize a lifetime. Of course, first we have to have a critical mass of people living to those older ages — before we note, that some do it better than others — as is true of most things in life. So increasingly, we see the great divergence of the healthy becoming unprecedentedly healthier — while there seems to be no limit to how dependent the not so fortunate in this respect can be kept merely alive indefinitely.
That gives a new meaning to the concept of “peak physical condition” beyond the past traditional measures and expectations of what that is — because it is being defined as we live it. It is not just whether we can still sprint a 100 yards — or do 10 pullups — but something much more meaningful in our daily living — as we actually require it. It is just as much about knowing one’s present capabilities and limitations — as it is establishing a “new personal best” by more conventional standards or event.
At some point in life, just successfully recovering from a hard (intense) workout, is accomplishment enough — because if one can maintain that “ability,” that is all the encouragement and motivation one needs. What is worrisome, is reaching a point in life at which one feels they can no longer recover — from anything, and just fall further into hopelessness and despair for the rest of their lives. That is what resilience is about — which is recovery ability — to adapt to the many challenges a life will bring — and that is more important than just doing what doesn’t need to be done — no matter how impressive.
Most are familiar that some version of a squat is desirable to maintain joint integrity of the lower body — but are often advised not to allow their knees to move as far forward as possible — which is precisely the requirement for engaging the ligaments and tendons of the ankle — as well as the plantar fascia of the feet. Yet the excuse for that performance is that it does not stress the knee joint — which is not the limitation in most people but the tightness of the ligaments and tendons of the ankle, as well as the tightness of the plantar fascia. Meanwhile, the knee maintained in a nearly upright position is obviously the most stressful to the knee by forcing all the weight only on to that one hinge (axis), rather than allowing all the joints of the leg to handle that load — and disburse it. That should be the whole purpose of that exercise (movement).
And similarly, for the upper body (shoulder girdle), the movement of greatest engagement is to attempt to touch one’s hands behind one’s back, with one arm going above the shoulder and the other going below the shoulder — as the productive calisthenic (freehand) movement that results in a quick muscle pump of those structures — more so than one could get with the jumping jacks. Such a movement engages all the muscles in one — rather than working only one at a time, with the obvious limitation that one simply runs out of time and energy to do such low-productivity workouts.
And the word on diet is simply that one is best off lowering carbohydrate intake as low as possible — because the healthy body has the capacity to create its own fuel (glucose) from its own healthy cells. That is the basis for the wisdom of the ketogenic diet and autophagy. There is no need to store glucose in the body — which results in obesity and diabetes (insulin/metabolic resistance). With these simple guidelines, achieving optimal health and functioning should not be the difficult resistance many make it out to be. Actually, that is how Nature intended it to be — and provided for, but we have to understand, and learn to work with — and not against.