Sunday, November 11, 2007

What It Means To Be In Shape

People who are obsessed and preoccupied with the condition they are in, are obviously not experiencing good health and well-being but are actually indicating their lack, or wishful-thinking for an ideal they feel they have to measure up to, and so are constantly obsessed with that striving. People who ARE in good condition, without problems, obviously do not exhibit such behaviors as their “limitation,” and preoccupation. They can take it for granted -- and move on to whatever requires their full attention at the moment, which implies the capacity make an effective response in achieving that task.

They will not have to say, “As soon as I get into shape, I will do everything that needs to be done and is required of me -- but until then, it’s obvious that I have a good excuse (reason) for not doing anything. So don’t blame me; I’m doing everything I can.” It’s always one excuse after another -- for not delivering everything, or anything promised.

At the very minimum, one should at least stop promising what one has no intention of delivering -- rather than merely increasing the promises and expectations with each failure, as though the promises are all that one thinks is necessary to deliver. And thus, the chasm between the expectations and the realities grow to which there is no connection with one another, and then one can say whatever one wants -- because there is no expectation that it must have any connection with any reality.

And so the people who talk the most about “diet and exercise,” are simply those who talk about diet and exercise the most -- not that they ever do anything about it. That is their exercise, and for that, they are the world’s foremost experts -- on talking about it. The actualities of their behaviors otherwise, show no indication that they know what they are talking about. Physical educators are not the only bad examples of this disconnect between the teachers and those who really know what they are talking about -- instead of just going to school to learn to pretend to know, which is what most “teachers” learn as the curriculum of education.

Those who really know, or are discovering to find out, realize that learning oneself, is the key to having anything of value to teach, rather than being so full and blinded by their own knowledge, they can see nothing else -- and believe there is nothing else, when in truth, they have not even begun to look around and ask the right questions. Their teachers may in fact, have instructed them that there is nothing else but what they know -- even when what they know, doesn’t work and makes no difference.

Many people’s knowledge is of that kind; it doesn’t make a difference, and can neither be measured or disproved. The only thing that matters, is how strongly one believes in that truth, and are quite proud to say, that every fact is only an opinion or belief. While that is true, some opinions and beliefs make a positive difference -- and not that it is smart to believe and do just anything, the same as any other thing -- and think there will be the same great results!

3 Comments:

At November 14, 2007 10:56 AM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

What most physical educators now overlook, is that the muscles can be conditioned to directly put one into the shape one wants to be in -- and not that they'll have to persist a few months and years before a "miracle" takes place, and they are transformed as though by plastic surgery, into the person they want to be.

Customarily, that appearance and persona, is forged by one's life -- and everything one does in it, including what it is a person "thinks" the body (person) CAN do, which is often called attitude. But it is more than just wishful-thinking or the desire for any outcome; what is manifested in reality, is one's actual understanding and insight into what is actually going on -- and not just the common notion of it, which is largely the content of most physical education.

Teachers are a lot like doctors in this respect -- that they are usually not the original researchers of an insight and understanding, but have been told which authorities are approved to be believed -- for whatever reason. Oftentimes, it is just the politics of that professional hierarchy, which designates those socially approved, and those not.

But in every case of a major leap in the understanding of a discipline (profession), that advance must come from those who challenge the whole structure and hierarchy of the current status quo -- which then becomes the greatest defender and impediment to those changes and disruptions.

The test of a true and good education -- is how it prepares one to embrace those changes and new ideas, and not how strongly they resist learning anything new, thinking the defense of the old, is what their profession (discipline), is dedicated to.

Such people will be proud to repeat, "Nothing ever changes; history merely repeats itself, and people who believe in progress and evolution will be properly vanquished." Such people also will convince themselves that they ARE the "progressives" and eternally enlightened in their defense of the status quo.

In the field of conditioning activities, the troubling idea is that people cannot change -- except over time, and with great resistance to change, rather than that this plasticity of human capabilities, is what makes humans most fit -- to cope with the challenge of the environment they have created -- momentarily.

It is not just one environment, but the choice of many -- which one could choose to adapt to and thrive in, if they first believe that is possible, and if they have the know-how to effect that reality -- rather than "somebody else" (usually the government) should do something, which is an affirmation of their sense of powerlessness.

So the education (conditioning) that serves one best, is that which makes change immediately accessible -- rather than convincing people that any change must take ten or a hundred years to effect -- and there is nothing else they can do but "sacrifice" their lives for the time and others to come after them.

Cultures and environments empower or disempower in this way. The very notion that education (conditioning) is a process of time rather than of immediate insight that is mastery (transformation), is basically what characterizes the new mind (culture) from the old, which is still common but decreasing in its effectiveness and influence.

Learning to be "in-shape" is a skill rather than a permanent condition, one can learn to effect as needed.

 
At November 14, 2007 11:15 AM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

What all movements have in common is the universal principle of "change." That defines movement, but not only in the obviously visible -- but more importantly from a health standpoint, what is not visible -- which is what is going on inside the body, that is also manifested outwardly.

But it is not vice-versa, which is the process by which it happens. That is, it is not by moving the weight, that the muscle is changed -- but because muscle is changed, that moves the weight.

Without this simple understanding of the proper cause and effect, one is hopelessly lost, and doomed to labor futilely in all one does, with the predictable outcome that one despairs that any effort is useful and productive, so becomes envious, resentful, bitter and frustrated -- and wants everybody else to feel that way also.

 
At November 14, 2007 11:34 AM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

Having spent a fair amount of time among competitive bodybuilders, most of them look good because they practice looking good -- after they've had their "regular" workouts, as their validation of the effectiveness of their workouts -- rather than their posing (looking good) making them so.

Many therefore, don't realize the true cause and effect of their workouts -- and their posing to look good, or even better -- at least by commonly judged physique standards -- which are not necessarily the ultimate forms the body can achieve, but merely the stereotypical ones the consensus of judges has determined to be the current ideal.

Thus, there have been cases in which those who exhibited freakish muscular development were actually penalized because they did not fit the expectations of the judges, of what one should look like. That was especially the case in the early days of women's bodybuilding/physique contests, when the early judges (and some still do), think a women, or any human, should not look the way, many freakish individuals will differentiate.

So there is a fine line between being exceptionally good and freakishly so -- which eventually revolutionizes every sporting event -- often causing the ruling bodies to pass rules that prohibit such grossly unfair advantages of the truly exceptional.

The best example was that dunking a basketball was for a few years prohibited -- as a freakish display of ability. A lot of people feel that way in just looking their best -- or being their best, and are advised to hide or otherwise self-censor themselves, so that others will continue to maintain THEIR unfair advantage.

 

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