Exercise Made Easy

The big mistake of the fitness industry, was the notion that in order to make themselves indispensable to the process, they needed to make exercise hard rather than easy -- adopting the education model, that learning should be as difficult as possible, rather than as easy as possible. It was thought that unless these activities could be made to seem as difficult as possible, there would be little need for those who know better, to push their subjects harder, against their will, to do more. Trusted to their own good sense and instincts, their disciples would conclude rightly, that they ought to do as little of the recommended regimen as possible -- just as their coaches now do. Coaches and teachers existed to do as they said, and not as they do -- which is why they are coaches and teachers, rather than still active players, throughout their life far beyond the need for competitions to motivate them.

The notion that anything should be made easy -- rather than hard, is only a recent realization growing in popularity for the last twenty years. Prior to that, it was thought that the height of wisdom and sophistication was to make everything and anything seem as complicated and difficult as possible -- as an indication of superior intelligence in mastering it. What virtue could there possibly be in mastering anything that was simple and easy? During this period, academics went to great lengths to prove that they could require an entire semester to teach nothing at all -- as a mark of superior guile and cleverness. Entire books might be written with all the jargon signifying nothing of any consequence. It was the Golden Age of Liberal Education -- during which, the highest achievement was proving the utter futility of learning anything.

That was also the beginning of the end -- of unproductivity and inefficiencies that would bring about a revolution in how we did everything. And truly, the average person would soon be capable of doing nearly everything -- moderately well and easily. But some old habits and ways of thinking die a little harder. Exercise was still thought to require making it harder than easier -- lowering the barriers until there was nearly universal participation -- instead of excluding all but the most obsessive and compulsive. Nobody even seemed to want to test the notion that it did not require the arduous discipline, dedication and will power of only the most virtuous and vain.

Yet in the ancient academies, that was the core curriculum -- the well-rounded and balanced development of the complete human being. The problem was the fragmentation, specialization and professionalization of every aspect of contemporary life fostered by prolonged education. But the reintegration of existence begun twenty years ago, will bring about the healing required for a more healthful, integrated existence. It is a movement whose time has come -- because of a stage of life that never really existed before. That is, the healthy, productive life beyond the years of competition, striving, and need to become other than what one actually is -- without guilt, obsession and compulsion as prime motivators.

When we get beyond those issues, what needs to be done is pretty straightforward. It is our "issues" that won’t allow us to make things easy for ourselves. Life is very hard, until we allow ourselves to make it easy.