Saturday, October 22, 2005

The One-Minute Workout

No matter how brief, simple and easy one makes it, there will always be those so resistant to exercise and conditioning activities, that they will demand that it be even less. With that thought in mind -- for all those too busy to do anything else other than what they are already doing, this is the one-minute, if-you-do-nothing-else program. And if one does nothing else, with this, one will notice significant improvements in health, appearance, and functioning. It would be this:

Upon awakening each morning, while lying on one’s back, raise the knees towards the chest with legs bent at the knees and ankles crossed. Then grasp the lower part of one’s legs with arms and hands to hold that position, as the head moves forward naturally. Hold that position for one minute -- with an awareness of how that position causes the contraction of the stomach muscles. While holding that position, note the changes in muscular contraction just in breathing -- as naturally and effortlessly as possible -- letting air move only through one’s nose.

In this simple exercise, there is no limit to how good one can become at it. Only in this position, is it possible to achieve maximal muscular contraction of ALL the muscles of the body. This is the position of ultimate muscle contraction. It is the very familiar fetal position -- which is obviously the position of strength as well as growth for the human organism. But rather than being a retreat and withdrawal from the world, as often encountered in despondent and dysfunctional individuals, it can be, by intelligent and deliberate design, transformed into the ultimate movement (posture) for growth and improvement. It is that simple.

While the basic fetal position is suggestive as the model for this posture -- it doesn’t take it far enough -- in the direction of complete, ultimate and maximal contraction uniquely possible in this position.

What most people don’t realize is that muscle states -- of contraction and relaxation -- is not determined by effort or resistance, but simply in knowing what positions the body part has to be in for the muscle to be maximally contracted or relaxed. The muscle really doesn’t care whether it took a lot of effort or resistance to achieve that position. Once one realizes what position the body part has to be in for the muscle to be in contraction, one doesn’t have to create an apparatus to assist him in getting into that position (or make it more difficult). It is simply the natural range of motion -- accessible at any time, under any conditions, once one is aware of it. That is something which is not normally taught -- or learned by most, no matter how long they live, and all that they do.

Obese people will have difficulty accessing those extreme ranges because the mass of their own body makes it difficult or prohibitive. But simply moving into that range as much is possible, causes a contraction (making smaller) that ultimately becomes the more normal appearance and function of that muscle.

The position, posture, movement described, perfected one minute each day, as soon as awakening, will result in the most dramatic transformation possible.

1 Comments:

At October 22, 2005 1:32 PM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

There's a whole new world coming:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9777070/

Accidental invention could light up the future
Quantum dot mixture takes LED lighting to a new level
Updated: 6:44 p.m. ET Oct. 21, 2005

The main light source of the future will almost surely not be a bulb. It might be a table, a wall, or even a fork.

An accidental discovery announced this week has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soon offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to the traditional light bulb. The miniature breakthrough adds to a growing trend that is likely to eventually make Thomas Edison's bright invention obsolete.

LEDs are already used in traffic lights, flashlights, and architectural lighting. They are flexible and operate less expensively than traditional lighting.

Michael Bowers, a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, was just trying to make really small quantum dots, which are crystals generally only a few nanometers big. That's less than 1/1000th the width of a human hair.

Quantum dots contain anywhere from 100 to 1,000 electrons. They're easily excited bundles of energy, and the smaller they are, the more excited they get. Each dot in Bower's particular batch was exceptionally small, containing only 33 or 34 pairs of atoms.

When you shine a light on quantum dots or apply electricity to them, they react by producing their own light, normally a bright, vibrant color. But when Bowers shined a laser on his batch of dots, something unexpected happened.

"I was surprised when a white glow covered the table," Bowers said. "The quantum dots were supposed to emit blue light, but instead they were giving off a beautiful white glow."

Then Bowers and another student got the idea to stir the dots into polyurethane and coat a blue LED light bulb with the mix. The lumpy bulb wasn't pretty, but it produced white light similar to a regular light bulb.

The new device gives off a warm, yellowish-white light that shines twice as bright and lasts 50 times longer than the standard 60 watt light bulb.

This work is published online in the Oct. 18 edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Better than bulbs
Until the last decade, LEDs could only produce green, red, and yellow light, which limited their use. Then came blue LEDs, which have since been altered to emit white light with a light-blue hue.

LEDs produce twice as much light as a regular 60 watt bulb and burn for over 50,000 hours. The Department of Energy estimates LED lighting could reduce U.S. energy consumption for lighting by 29 percent by 2025. LEDs don't emit heat, so they're also more energy efficient. And they're much harder to break.

Other scientists have said they expect LEDs to eventually replace standard incandescent bulbs as well as fluorescent and sodium vapor lights.

If the new process can be developed into commercial production, light won't come just from newfangled bulbs. Quantum dot mixtures could be painted on just about anything and electrically excited to produce a rainbow of colors, including white.

One big question remains: When a brilliant idea pops into your mind in the future, what will appear over your head?

 

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