Universal Body Language: The Exultation

When my good friend Ken Leistner (High-intensity Training) and I used to hang out together in New York and Boston in the '70s, and talk about training ideas as we wandered all over the cities gesticulating our points, we'd invariably spot an individual who stood out and apart from the masses of people, and note to one another, that that person must be "somebody" -- to stand out in that way, just in moving about in their daily business. That individual would usually see us coming and seem to read our thoughts and expressions as they greeted us knowingly with a smile as though familiar old friends.

It is also well known that in the animal kingdom, accomplished predators are those that can pick out the weak (and probably also the strong) just in their "normal" movements, so as to predispose their success ratios, and avoid risky encounters and maneuvers. That is a large part of the survival of the fittest -- that before they challenge another, they know fairly well the probable capabilities of the other -- while those who are less successful at such judgments, usually aren't around for very long.

In human societies, we usually only notice such overt behaviors in the fields of athletic competition most familiarly, and in "professional wrestling," as a parody or caricature of those basic human tendencies. The most familiar, is raising one's arms in victory and triumph -- before the matches even begin.

In "real" competitions, people are generally not so brash and flamboyant -- except when acknowledging their own quite extraordinary and unbelievable accomplishment -- usually when they set a world's record. Then everybody expects it -- and it would be almost a violation of protocol to deprive everyone of such moments of triumph -- because it marks a milestone not only as an individual, but establishes new ground for all mankind -- and thus both arms poised defiantly towards the sky, announces that great triumph for all mankind to bear witness.

Such expressions of joy and dynamism, is also available and allowable to everyday living, to a much greater extent than most people think possible. Probably only those whose professions or avocations approve of such flaunting -- are the competitive forums of gymnastics, where walking to the start, is just as important as the event performance itself. One has to make a majestic entrance worthy of their performance -- because at such competitions, many things are going on simultaneously, and one is also competing for that attention. It's less pronounced at track meets -- but certain especially charismatic individuals, manage to direct all eyes and ears, to their performance.

Shakespeare was one to point out that all of life was a stage in this way -- so one should put on their best performance as though even God was watching. But modern psychologists and students of behavior and performance, know that caring deeply oneself, is the primal driver to any excellence. One has to first care deeply themselves, to then be able to convince anyone else, that they know what they are doing -- and showing that confidence. Many times, assessments are based mainly on that confidence and flair, than for the actual execution, if done without that conviction. Human beings, after all, are influenced by the thinking of others -- in deciding for themselves, whether something is good, bad or indifferent.

Such judgments are an interaction and communication between people -- and no longer just the practice in isolation and privacy. But what one practices, is what one becomes good at. If one is in the habit of thinking that one is not good enough, as their own motivation, they will convince others of those thoughts also. Some even undermine and contradict everything they ever do -- and so despite all that they do, have nothing substantive to show for it, because they cancel every positive with an immediate negative. That is their value system and cosmology of what they think the universe is all about -- a positive action immediately canceled out by a equal, and opposite reaction. Such people invariably pride themselves in their understanding of the nature of duality and think it is a higher understanding yet, to fragment, divide and compartmentalize every aspect of reality so that it no longer has its essential wholeness.

In their conditioning activities, they will choose to define their objective, as "burning" as many calories as possible, rather than in any constructive manner of building something worthwhile -- and thus realizing, the need to go about it in the most energy-, time-, and resource-efficient manner possible.

It turns out that one of the most useful exercises (movements) to do is simply to raise one's arms up in triumph for 50 repetitions -- as one would do in a commonly performed movement called the overhead press, or lifting a weight overhead to arm lockout. However, added weight is not necessary to obtain superior results. The expression itself, which is not ordinarily performed except in the press, done without weight but rotating the fist in the knuckleward direction, effects the maximal contraction of the dorsal (backside) line of the body in a comprehensive and integrated way, that is a much better movement than virtually any other exercise (movement) or athletic activity done to merit this supreme posture of victory -- that states emphatically, one is a "winner."

One might as well start at the top -- to go higher.

Being Young and Being Healthy, Are Two Different Things

The young are not necessarily healthy, but the healthy can be so at any age. Age does not imply illness, disability and malfunctioning. However, what the young and the old do and can do, are two totally different manifestations of human possibility.

The adults of any species, don't do what the young of that species do -- because what is appropriate and intelligent behavior and functioning, depends on their understanding capacities. In the young, they are trying to discover what those capacities are, whereas in an adult, one should have a fairly good idea of what their capabilities are, and so just making the same mistakes they did when they were just starting out on the lifelong journey of discovery and actualization, would not be considered understandable behavior -- but ignoring and denying the realities one has experienced as the actualities of their existence.

Not everyone is destined and designed to be the leader of the pack, but for everyone to think so, would be so disruptive as to quickly lead that community into extinction. In a well-functioning society, people have to eventually realize what roles and functions they better serve -- and not everyone demand to be the quarterback, lead singer, chief executive officer.

In similar fashion, everyone serves society best when they recognize the skills and liabilities they bring to the community -- at the appropriate time. It would behoove every society for the fully mature, to simply act as newborns -- thinking that is how they actualize their potential. That potential emerges and evolves with the exercise of them -- and so an essential quality and component of every exercise worth doing, is that it evolves into a higher and deeper understanding of what they are doing and their ultimate limits at it -- and not simply repeating every movement as though an unimproving machine.

That is the different between machines and living, growing organisms: one improves while the other can only deteriorate. So the concept that is important, is whether one is improving, or getting worse -- and knowing the difference. Obviously, those who think they can only remain the same, have no understanding in the value of life. They have eliminated every possibility of improvement and evolution -- to regard themselves as unvarying machines, who will only know deterioration and decline.

Many people don't recognize that there is always this change, and changing -- as the essential quality and difference of life, until it is too late, and they realized they have changed but they did not ensure that they would do so in an advantageous and beneficial way. Thus, when they are least prepared for it, change overwhelms them, and they are usually driven henceforth, by change not of their own design and desires, but have become the pawns of those who gladly control the fate of others. Such personalities, are also an unhealthy development in human beings because they prey on the vulnerabilities of others -- generally those who have not effectively and sufficiently matured in their own mastery of their lives.

So the challenge of the future is not how can the old remain young, as though that was the indication of health, but how do we actualize and manifest health, at every stage of life appropriately to benefit from all these fulfilled and actualized talents and abilities of healthy human personalities and societies? This is the point lost in many discussions on health and well-being -- that people think that simply remaining immature, unrealized, and unfulfilled, is the highest possibilities in society, let alone, a healthy one.

Does an 80 year old need to run a marathon once a month or once a year, or at even at all, to be in healthful conditioning -- while the many who still try to, are the cause of their own injuries, disabilities, and inappropriate and unnecessary wear and tear -- often causing their own pain and misery. One asks, "Does it necessarily have to be that way?," or are there ways of being much better, we have not even become to imagine -- because it hasn't been done that way before?

A Great Way to Shake the Winter Blues

It's Vitamin D. Until very recently, doctors warned against taking more than 400 IU per day, and now the new recommendation is that everyone can tolerate 10,000 IU of the sunshine vitamin. It used to be the quandary that no more than 400 IU was what the skin could tolerate without the fear of risking skin cancer, because that is primarily how Vitamin D is created -- by sunlight on the skin.

Some doctors have gone as far as to say that one should get no sunlight exposure on one's skin to reduce the risk of skin cancer. Obviously, that wouldn't be right -- if millions of years of evolution had created that response. But thisdeficiency of Vitamin D, seems now to be recognized as a primary cause of osteoporosis in the elderly -- who don't get out in the sun enough, and was warned to limit their intake to 400IU a day.

The new higher levels, actually seem to be the missing ingredient in the human well-being and functioning equation. I've always noticed being particularly prone to that "seasonal affective disorder," but since I have been encountering many independent sources recommending the new higher doses, I thought maybe that was what I needed to boost my mood and energy -- and darn if I haven't noticed a dramatic difference immediately.

It is like the difference between living in a world of sunshine, and living in a world of continual darkness. Life evolved because of sunlight -- and it is impossible without it. So if you can take a capsule that can give you the equivalent of constant sunshine without any of the hazards from that exposure, it doesn't make sense not to take it, and not to make it the cornerstone of all one's nutritional supplements.

I was pretty sleepy and required a long nap everyday but since taking 2,000 IU 2x daily, I haven't felt that drowsiness anymore -- and my vision has greatly improved. That has bothered me for at least the last 15 years. I always suspected that time in the sun seemed to have a good effect on my vision.

But only several months ago, when I attended the new expansion of the medical facilities in Salem and attended most of the seminars on current topics of interest, I was stunned to hear of the new advice on Vitamin D -- particularly on osteoporosis, but then I started hearing it used on depression, and a whole lot of nontraditional remedies for virtually all the ailments. Vitamin D has usually been dismissed as not being being too important, and if it is, one should limit the intake rather than ensure a healthy dose of it.

It's probably the biggest difference I've ever felt virtually immediately. It's fairly cheap, although there will undoubtedly be expensive versions of it. I got 200 caps of 2,000IU at WalMart for $9. I've seen it on the Internet for $5 for the same quantities. I think I even saw it at Costco for a premium price.

In the past, I'd have to buy some tanning sessions to recharge myself during the sunless winter months in the Pacific NW. Many others, just get used to feeling depressed -- and have accepted that as the normal pattern of life without thinking there was anything they could do about it. Apparently there is -- once you realize that the dietary restrictions that have been observed for many years have been lifted in favor of a whole new prognosis.

It won't have been the first time that the medical profession has reversed itself completely in a new, improved and better understanding -- replacing the arbitrary traditions everyone had adopted without challenge and question -- that might have been the very source/cause of many problems, even in sunny climates where people have to avoid the sun because of its obviously damaging effects. In fact, in such places, one often takes extreme precautions to avoid sunlight at all costs -- like in the Middle East. One doesn't get a lot of sunlight being completely covered from head to toe.

In some less harsh sunlight, people have taken the precaution of using modern sunscreens, hats, dark glasses and other protective clothing -- which effectively does the same thing, more immodestly.

This is not unlike many cases in which the conventional wisdom and old wives tales have reversed themselves -- after many years of acceptance as the inviolable truths, that are finally questioned and held to the light of real inquiry. The most famous example is Christopher Columbus's assertion that the world was not flat and he was bound to prove it so by physically getting on a ship and sailing as far as they could -- discovering whole new worlds as they did. This frequently happens when it is conventional wisdom to hear that everything that could be discovered and known, is already discovered and known.

That is the familiar landmark that whole new worlds of discovery and invention, are on the cusp of human experience.

Maintaining and Increasing One's Range of Motion

If one could constantly maintain and increase one's range of motion (movement), quite obviously, one would never feel that they are in a deteriorating condition -- but rather have tangible validation that one is indeed getting better in an obvious and self-evident way. And if one can achieve that progress all one's life, there is very little more one needs to do.

If one can maintain that clarity of simplicity and purpose, all those conditioning exercises, rituals and theories, become quite unnecessary -- and those objectives can be achieved every day, with no extraordinary thought and effort -- and is simply the realization, that that is ultimately what one hopes to achieve.

However, people have a way of making the simple and easy very difficult and arduous, as though that gives the simple, more value -- rather than producing the confusion in the world. So as one reads the many articles written on fitness, one is likely to get farther from their objective than closer.

It is like asking, "How does this computer work?", when one merely wants to know, which button will turn it on -- while the overeager instructor, will duly recommend a four year course in computer science and instructions on how to apply for admission and obtain financial aid for the entire four years.

Most discussions on fitness immediately launch onto these many points that are simply a distraction from this simplicity of obvious purpose. What is the proper measure of fitness -- except as range of motion -- and not how much more one can do in a very limited range. That's how we identify the gifted and proficient in any field -- their range beyond what everybody else can do, and not that everybody is doing the exact same thing, but some are working harder or doing more, or faster.

That is true for the singer, dancer, athlete, writer, thinker, entrepreneur and inventor. The inventive, do that with any problem they encounter -- expand their range so that as many times as they have done the same thing, they have done each of them differently, and so it is a fresh experience, and not just a repetition of the same thing done over and over in exactly the same pattern of habit.

Naturally, people gifted in movement, would find a treadmill quickly boring, and so rather than being an aid to improvement, would dull their skills, sensitivity, and ability for fine-tuning an adjustment, and they would simply not return but rightfully find something interesting and challenging to do, that they can continue to grow with in their involvement.

That is the kind of conditioning that keeps one challenged and growing throughout one's life -- rather than in the traditional pattern of deteriorating all one's life as soon as they are no longer considered to be youths with lives yet to improve. Unfortunately, most people are conditioned to think they require somebody else to push them to improve further -- with inducements, grades and other awards, or they will lose interest and wither away.

One can then be convinced he needs the services of others to motivate them -- and while it may seem to work for a while, eventually, one has to be one's own motivator, or one increasingly gives this power to others, which is also the greatest benefit one hopes to get in their conditioning exercises -- for increasing self-mastery and understanding. Otherwise, if one is dependent on another for that motivation, when that person goes away, one is lost, and increasingly at the mercy of all the forces outside of oneself.

And so what one is doing in their conditioning, is finding out one's own limits, and moving beyond that a little bit more -- as a simple daily exercise, that eventually makes great achievements possible. It begins with that simple understanding -- and movement.

All the Birds with One Stone

Occasionally I run across a real stroke of luck.

I was feeling pretty good on passing my 60th birthday 9 days ago, but there were a few things that bothered me that I was uncertain how to proceed in finding a cure for.

For the past year, I've become increasing aware of poor quality sleep that left me feeling very tired all the time. The major syndrome was sleep apnea, or a disruption or cessation of breathing while sleeping that causes one to awaken, and in some unfortunate cases, die while sleeping. But usually, the stoppage of breathing causes one to wake up. I noticed it was caused by the collapsing of the airway, accompanied by an extremely dry throat.

For a while, I thought to have water always on hand to drink, but I didn't like the taste of plain water because of the bad taste in one's mouth one usually has on awakening, and so I thought to make it more palatable by adding tea, and even lemon juice to make water more palatable. Then I started having sore gums that made drinking anything quite painful. It seemed like I was trapped in a weird conundrum.

But because I felt like celebrating my birthday, I thought I'd go down to the Dollar Store and look around specifically for liquid acetaminophen, and check out everything else. One of the first things I spotted was those mesh back supports that were being sold at the state fair for $20 each, with another thrown in for free. They seemed like a good idea but at $20, it was above my threshold for trying all those products one can obtain at such events -- but when I saw it for a dollar, I bought two, just in case they worked enough to make a difference.

When I got them home and tried them skeptically, I felt very positive that they did eliminate back pain -- and so I was overjoyed by that realization because back pain had been a major problem for me for most of my life, until I discovered the guaifenesin protocol almost eight years ago. Then, I no longer had debilitating back pain -- but just the common variety most people have.

While there, another product I took a chance on, was instant dissolving strawberry flavored TUMS powder, in 24 premeasured packs -- because it seemed like a good idea and way to flavor my water to be more palatable, while reducing stomach acid (a problem for most people) and obtaining calcium, which is difficult for me to obtain because I cannot tolerate dairy products with the exception of cheeses. My major concern was that it might contain trace amounts of sugar that would cause cavities -- because it lists sucrose and dextrose, while providing 5 calories and 1 g of sugar.

As the week wore on, I first noticed that my gum pain was gone, and there didn't seem to be a major problem with sugar, because I'm actually quite sensitive, if not allergic to it. I seemed to enjoy drinking my antacid solution very well and no longer had a problem with sleep apnea or parched throat, and then today, when I wasn't certain whether I wanted to be up yet, I was shocked by the transformation I saw in the mirror -- at first because it seemed my hair was darker and manageable, and then the slight bag under my right eye had disappeared -- after I thought it might have been my imagination that the one under my left eye was shrinking yesterday, and by today, was completely gone, and the one under my right eye was becoming virtually undetectable also.

My entire body seemed to have taken 15 years off -- in a span of a week, by the addition of this antacid drink -- they must have been clearing out at the Dollar store, or test-marketing. By the packaging, I'm sure this was intended to sell for $5 a box at least (24 packets -- 2 packets per pint bottle enhanced with 2 saccharine tablets.)

I'm really quite amazed at the things I've been able to glean from the Dollar Tree store -- just by looking at everything and being openminded enough to try these things. A few things don't work out, but far and away, I'm amazed at how many life-changing things I've gotten there -- for only $1. I went back and bought 6 more back supports and 6 more boxes of antacids.

Almost exactly a year ago, I was working the Salvation Army table at the home remodeling fair when some children came by to offer a free cup of water, along with a description of a water filter whose primary task was to convert the water from acid to base, and I thought that water was remarkably good tasting, for a filter/treatment another distributor claimed couldn't do the miraculous things claimed by simply changing the PH of the water -- because supposedly, that effect was nullified by the acid produced by the stomach. However, the water does taste a whole lot better to me -- and while I kept that thought in mind, this antacid, was my first opportunity to test this thesis is a fairly uninvasive way I thought would be a godsend if it addressed just one of my afflictions/concerns -- rather than seeming to have addressed them all at once, and then shocking me, when I noticed the transformation in myself after a week on the project.

I was just hoping I could tolerate it -- and it wouldn't have the negative side-effects like causing more tooth decay. Instead, it seems to even have strengthened the enamel, by always immersing my teeth in a base solution of calcium. Oh, and I never seem to have any digestive upset -- which I suppose is what this product was specifically designed to do.

As people get older, one of the telltale signs of that aging effect is that their cells no longer seem to hold water as well, to give that full, robust look to the tissues anymore. This manner of ensuring adequate hydration seems to address those problems as well, as well as eliminating digestive upset and problems -- which is what it was specifically designed to do as most people have increasing digestive upset with age, and no effective way of countering this drawn look of a body operating at the edge of its capacities.

Instead, there is the familiar look of a person optimally hydrated so that the tissues, particularly the muscles, look full and vital. The dryness of skin also goes away. The skin becomes soft and smooth again -- along with the hair.

I think this addresses most of the problems of aging -- physically.

Like Brushing One's Teeth

One frequently reads about people like Jack Lalanne who works out for two hours every day to keep and maintain his fitness levels -- as though that is going to inspire people doing nothing to want to do it also. But if it took only five minutes a day, most people would conceivably do it -- or at least give it serious consideration, because even the busiest person in the world, must have a five minute block of downtime to spare.

The most obvious times are preparing breakfast or warming food or beverage in the microwave -- usually requiring 3-5 minutes -- plenty of time for a full body inventory of preparedness for optimal functioning. In any sporting activity, or preparation for an event, a person will usually go through a routine, preparatory to making an attempt, or even before "working out," when if done properly, it can be all of the above.

In the warmup, one could have completed a workout in those movements. For any athlete, a warmup has to be what will be able to access their full range of movement and potential, while not unduly exhausting them. There is that fine line not usually understood by novice participants -- so, many exhaust themselves prior to their event, which is a catastrophe. One desires to perform their best at the peak moment -- and not prematurely.

All this does not require lengthy programs of activities and movement in itself, before getting down to the serious business of what they think is so productive. The warmup can be this complete movement and workout in itself -- but people have these myths and fallacies they believe to be the truth -- because that is what they are conditioned to believe, and that is the function of most people's conditioning program -- to believe what is not true, and hope by the constant affirmation of this, to overcome reality. But it doesn't do them any good, because the truth is still there -- waiting to be addressed.

Much of conditioning in the past, was of these beliefs, rather than the actualities -- and so the harder one believed, the more likely they were to see it come true -- when the reality of the matter, is that a better understanding of the process, immediately makes it so. It is important to distinguish this difference -- between belief and wishful thinking, versus doing what is self-evidently true.

Obviously, if one is articulating the full range of movement at the extremities of the body, it requires the engagement and activation of everything in between the origin of all the muscles (which has been noted in ancient observations to be the point below the sternum next to the heart and diaphragm) and those distant (distal) points. Every individual muscle has its own distal and proximal point -- but in every case, the distal (insertion), always moves towards the origin (proximal) closest to the center of the body.

If one "fires" a muscle from its most distant point of the body, it has to set off a chain reaction back to the origin of the musculature system. Nothing else is possible -- except one can learn all kinds of movements and position that defeat that hardwired wisdom -- which many conditioning practices unknowingly or knowingly do, depending on the premises of their belief systems.

Many people's belief systems is that the harder, the better, when in reality, the intelligence is in making the difficult easy and eventually, the impossible, doable. That won't happen if one always makes the easy, harder, and eventually, even the simple, impossible -- yet that is the underlying belief of many so-called conditioning programs that of course, people abandon as soon as there is no authority forcing them to do them.

That's why the authority is so necessary to such conditioning programs -- to convince one to persist in their beliefs against what is true, as though by doing that, they can overcome any reality -- rather than simply, going more each day into denial, and being battered by realities which are a large part of the aging process -- of struggling eternally, against an environment that should be one's ultimate support system.

So rather than designing exercise programs to be as difficult as possible and requiring extraordinary efforts to continue, it would rightfully be designed to be as easy and simple as brushing one's teeth and combing one's hair each day. Most people will do at least that.

Exercise: You Don't Have to Kill Yourself

Three people died over the weekend running (competing) in a marathon -- and all were reported to be in excellent shape. That's not surprising, because when I pioneered work on high-intensity exercise in the early 70s, what we found pretty consistent is that the best conditioned athlete was the one most likely to become extremely impacted by an assault on their momentary capabilities rather than the worst conditioned participants, because they apparently were capable of pushing themselves momentarily beyond their body's capacities -- which is the intent as well as product of that conditioning.

People who were untrained and in poor condition, didn't have the ability to "hurt" themselves in that way. That is true, in most activities; most of the injuries are caused by people who have the formidable ability to hurt themselves -- because they can push their bodies to the limits normally not experienced by most.

And so that power, creates a need to use it responsibly and also understand the risks involved with having that greater capacity and confidence, that if misjudged or misused, can be disastrous. So one of the great lessons one learns in increasing one's capacities, is the ability to use it judiciously and responsibly, because having great power, is a responsibility and does make a difference.

People who can't make a difference, don't think any actions of theirs makes a difference and can have wide-ranging impacts and implications -- which those who do have that power, must learn to use and control responsibly. Thus it is often noted by those in the presence of large and powerful athletes, about how extremely gentle and precise they seem to be -- rather than knocking over all the furnishings as many more average persons are much more likely to do. It is because they have that power and capacity and must be aware of it at all times -- or they would destroy everything and never be invited or allowed anywhere, or would be constantly berated and have their confidence undermined as youngsters growing up.

Instead, they tend to be extremely precise in their movements and aware of the abilities of everything else in that environment to bear their impact. They don't take it for granted that each chair will support them; they will test a chair out prior to using one to see whether the chances of being supported are reasonable.

In this way, supremely conditioned athletes are so not because they can push themselves beyond their limits, but they are acutely aware of them -- whatever they may be. If they sense impending distress, they take the precaution not to test those limits unnecessarily. They know that there will be times enough when they will find themselves not in a position to control those factors (risks) -- so when they can, they opt to survive and maintain a margin of reserve that ensures their survival and success. That is also the conditioning advantage -- of knowing one's limits, knowing when there is greater risk, and knowing that area in which life itself is at stake, and there is a time when one has to take that door, and when it is a needless risk.

Normal conditioning activities, needn't expose one to even the chance of those risks arbitrarily and unnecessarily, because they arise often enough simply in the course of one's daily activities. One's conditioning, is to allow one to experience the greatest amplitude of those possibilities that define one's unique life -- but one need not be foolhardy and reckless to garner that respect from oneself and others. That is a large part of what it means to mature fully in life -- that one no longer takes unfounded and unmerited risks, but does not hesitate and can accurately measure the risks and act prudently even while others around may not have the slightest inclination of what to do and how to respond. One simply does, because he has that capacity to.

So when there is a large number of participants in a marathon, every individual brings their own unique capacities and qualifications for them -- and while it is nice to be able to run a marathon at least once in one's life, it is not necessary for one's well-being ever to do so, and in fact, one can probably obtain superior conditioning in other less intrusive and demanding ways.

Originally, maximum heart rate was determined to be important not because it was necessary to function at that capacity represented by that threshold at which imminent failure was probable -- but that was what was to be avoided. And so from that calculation, one could determine what was the safe thresholds to maintain -- which then was assessed to be at 65% of that theoretical maximum -- a level which can be achieved doing practically anything, including often, just measuring one's heart rate.

So the far more important question to consider, is not rate at which the heart beats, but the optimization of the circulatory effect -- regardless of the rate, which is the thoroughness in which circulation can take place -- particularly to the extremities of the body, and not just to the heart itself, which is not likely to be a valid indicator of the overall development of that individual -- at the extremities in which individuals differentiate and become accomplished in their many proficiencies -- either in thought, words or actions. These are neuromuscular abilities supported by the cardiovascular system, and not cardiovascular activities primarily.

The proper understanding of this essential difference, is the key to optimal condioning.