Creating Space-Age Movements
Many people think the traditional and familiar movements they are used to seeing people do all the time, are the only movements people can make, and if they are around others who move very little, have a much narrower idea of what that might be.
On the other hand, there are a few people, who always seem to be creating new movements -- just because they can, and like to. Such people are those with a high physical intelligence that is a creative genius -- often having their movements named after themselves -- as their signature moves while they were active competitors. But many more never compete and have no desire to.
So for people to think that walking, running, pushups and sit-ups are all that one can do, and are the best exercises one can do (to get into condition), is the common thinking of those who invariably fail to get the results they think they should because they can’t do them enough to make a difference.
But when one does something that is tremendously productive, that is very obvious and they continue to do them, instead of abandoning them first chance out of boredom. If it doesn’t make a difference, then simply doing more ot them, is not going to be magically transformative at some point.
In discussions of exercise at the highest level, they invariably mention the problem of astronauts in space deteriorating in their conditioning and health because of the problem caused by weightlessness -- which is only a problem and an excuse because the exercises they can’t continue to do is ineffective in space -- just as it is on earth!
What doesn’t change is that the human body remains healthy and operational because of the hydraulic, fluid and air pressures within the body that remain the same -- even in space, and it would be very clear that what works in space, works as effectively anywhere on earth -- and that is moving the gas and liquids throughout one’s body with greater efficiency and effectiveness.
Exercises of this effectiveness, continue to work in outer space with no diminution of effectiveness because there is the proper understanding that what matters is the movement within the body -- and not outside of it, in relation to external references -- which is the traditional thinking about exercise.
Range of motion is still limited range of motion -- regardless of the gravitational resistance, or absence of it. All the pressures within the body, must be maintained as they are while on earth. Maybe it becomes clearer with restricted space and movement and other resources, that the operating conditions of the human body must remain constant within the body -- and that there is the same resistance to the extreme ranges of any movement regardless of external pressures, and simply moving at the axes of these extremities, causes full muscular contraction and relaxation -- the same as they would on earth.
In such a manner, full muscular contraction from the extremities to the center (origin) of the muscular attachments at the center of the body, create the required tension so that bone-loss from such lack of stimulation should not be a problem. In fact, it is the superior stimulation throughout the length of the bones rather than at perpendicular angles to it that have much less functional value. Bones compress through their length rather than width to provide their greatest strength.
The point is that they work anywhere -- under any conditions, and gravity (weightlessness) should have no effect on the desired outcome.
What Would You Like Your Muscles To Do?
The muscles of the body allow one to do any movement possible, and therefore perform any action -- and one doesn’t just will and wish things to happen, but there has to be some mechanism for actually things done. Many people lose this connection in life because they think the only action of the human being is to sit and eat -- and perform no other. Everything else, is not so reflexive and habitual and so needs a plan of action of how they are to get done.
Many people living modern lives are not thought to familiarize themselves with the various actions of the human body as a general function -- but only thought a specific action unconnected to every other. That allows the many teachers of different activities and functions, virtually unlimited things to teach, and become expert on -- because there is no universal, overriding rules to which their specific arbitrary actions must conform to.
Not only is exercise taught in this manner but every sphere of human activity -- as though each is unconnected to every other, and so in the olden days, most people could only learn to do one thing well, rather than learn just about anything they want to, when they want to. That is the revolution, or quantum leap from the industrial age of machinelike mass production, and the 21st century possibility of doing many different things, as one is prepared to do them.
In that manner, everything is a preparation for everything else that subsequently attempts -- rather than the belief that one is starting all over every time one undertakes anything new, or different -- even the same thing one is very familiar with, in a slightly different manner. So with some, there is great resistance to learning anything new -- because it threatens everything old that they know, and what they know, is their identity and source of pride, and if they lose that, they have to start life all over again, without their advantage of all they know.
The powerful new mind -- and being -- of the present age and for all times for that matter, has been one’s ability to learn the new, and not hang on to the old, as the only pathway allowed forevermore.
The most important lesson exercise instructors miss, is this one essential thing any, and every muscle, can only do -- and that is to move from full contraction to full relaxation, but because there are over 600 muscles that can move in isolation, the permutations and possibilities are virtually limitless.
But rather than the possibility of 600 muscles working independently of one another, and how to master that, one should begin with the most basic of all movements -- which is to see what it would be like if they are all doing the same thing at the same time. Everything would be premature to study and effect -- but in beginning with that simple movement, one learns what it is like to have every part working as a whole, rather than all the parts working against and at cross-purposes with one another, as the familiar confusion of contemporary life and personalities.
The Discovery of Exercise
Contrary to popular belief, the muscle in the body that is in the best shape it can be, is the heart -- because 60-100 times a minute, it must alternately contract and relax fully, so invariably, must retain its good shape and functioning -- while all the other voluntary (skeletal) muscles of the body, are less reliably in such good condition because there is no automatic brain impulse that causes it to express its full range of capability regularly -- and such muscles then forget the shape they can be in.
So the question is, what frequency of activation of those muscles is required for them to retain their memory (shape) -- and for what duration? The answer is surprisingly simple: one minute a day of full contractions alternated by full relaxations, at a rate of 60-100 times a minute, is enough to maintain 90% of this contractile ability and efficiency. Although that sounds like very little, it is a huge improvement in the typical zero amount of conditioning in this manner.
Actually, just doing one full-range contraction/relaxation would be enough -- as demonstrated proof that one still retains that capability. But if one doesn’t do such movements frequently and often enough, one loses the ability of that expression. It is not a requirement to throw the shot-put a world record hundred times -- but just to do it once, that makes one the world record holder, but the likelihood will be great that their average throw is within that range of capability.
That’s why the one “best.” is obviously the most important, that thousands of inferior and mediocre expressions are not better, or even the same. In fact, there is no place in a healthy life for such an abnormal and unhealthy conditioning regimen -- and that is precisely the problem for why the population on average, is decreasing in that fitness and capabilities. That would be the obvious conclusion -- and not just self-selecting the best examples but taking the average of the entire population, including those who don’t want to do it.
They are being conditioned -- not to be in their best shape, but to be in their worst shape -- and the thinking that there is no difference, but this perverse notion of struggle, effort, and “trying” constantly to be what one is not. The whole power of effective conditioning, is being who one is, as fully as possible and actually expressing that -- and not to be something else.
When people realize this, they can assume the shape they want to -- right now, as they already are -- but have not thought to be -- because they think that being in “shape” requires them to do something they are not capable of doing or being, rather than that it is the greatest expression of their present capabilities -- which they have no idea what it is until they actually manifest it.
With anyone still capable of some movement, there is always the possibility of a greatest range of their movement -- and that is what a skilled instructor discovers with the trainee. What is his actual greatest capability (shape) in that moment? That is the discovery of exercise that liberates immense energy and power -- and not simply going through the motions as though that was meaningful in itself.
Movements That Make Sense to Master
In the teaching of exercise, isn’t it strange that all the movements that they teach one to become good at, seem to have no usefulness in real life -- while those movements that might actually be very helpful in daily living and increase one’s chances for survival (fitness), are assumed to be not necessary to practice and master.
Chief among them, would be the simple yet rather extraordinary skill and ability to look all around one and be maximally aware of all that is going on around one -- and so to take the appropriate action based upon that superiority of information. That’s who the “most valuable player” on a team invariably is -- not simply the individual who knows what he is doing, but he who knows not only what he is doing, but what everybody else is also doing.
That larger sense is “awareness” -- unlike the many people in sports and life who seem to think that what they do and any outcome, has little to do with one another, and everyone merely operates in their own little worlds -- so in the end, there is no bigger picture than just what they wanted to do, and what they thought was important -- rather than the immensely bigger picture of life.
All that mattered and matters for such individuals, is how many points they scored -- and who cares if the team won or played together. Such individuals make any game or undertaking a exercise in futility -- that the more energy and enthusiasm put out by everyone, is merely nullified by such individuals -- who think that the objective is simply for everyone to work increasingly harder, more joylessly, and without purpose as thought that were the ends in itself -- and then maybe after they and everybody else were dead, they’d be a great reward and redemption at the end of it all. But in the meantime, all of life was meant to be the joyless effort, suffering and agony -- with each meant to cancel out and defeat every other’s efforts.
Of course, they are the famous “joysuckers” that take the energy and joy out of every activity of humankind. They are those one hopes not to meet that block every roadway and byway in the paths of life -- thinking, if they can’t have it all, nobody else can.
And that’s why those skills that are worthwhile cultivating, is this ability to see the big picture and to have maximum awareness of what is going on -- instead of being increasingly trapped in one’s own thoughts, memories and knowledge of what is going on -- apart from the reality, sense and flow of it.
The obvious best example of a movement of great usefulness is to simply move one’s eyes to describe the greatest field of vision (periphery) possible while allowing one’s head movement to enable such a movement -- while noticing how such a singular movement can actually engage all the muscles of one’s body in a coordinated effort -- that can be as great a skill and ability as any other athletic movement familiar as a fitness activity and exercise.
Those are the people who the masters of movement can easily recognize in whatever venue and conditions they are in/at, that have this extraordinary awareness that makes them stand out, as having remarkable abilities -- without them having to call it to anybody else’s attention -- because that is who they integrally and consistently are, the persons who are the most aware of what is going on, beyond those who just “think” they are.
