Friday, May 28, 2010

"Time" is the Limiting Factor

People who are fond of recommending that everyone should get several hours of strenuous activity every -- or at least every other day, usually have no experience working with real people, and that is the reason and justification, why they themselves have no time for it -- but intend to get around to it at their first opportunity in life, which they expect to do sometime after retirement, and even beyond. In short, if that is what it takes to get into shape, they'd rather be dead -- rather than dying every day, and living in constant pain and duress.

You wonder what kind of people would prescribe such a high drain/stress program, so that one always lives under this burden of guilt and obsessive-compulsion that one can never do enough because the bar for satisfactory compliance, is always set out of reach -- as some kind of cruel motivation technique by those who have no understanding of the differences between realities and wishful thinking.

Of course if one could run a marathon once, or lift one's bodyweight overhead once in one's lifetime, that would signify a major lifetime achievement, but then someone is certain to come along and demand that that is now the minimum new expectation, rather than the exception, and think they have improved the lot of well-being for everyone, instead of creating untold, unnecessary misery for countless generations.

That is pretty much what the fitness industry does -- as their public service, rather than actually creating well-being and fitness. It's like the tactics of similar "professionals" who tell us that after taking a class from them, we'll then require even more education classes, or more legal advice and services -- rather than less. Certainly we wouldn't go to a health care professional who assured us they would be a constant and necessary support to our daily lives -- for the rest of our lives.

And neither should that be a requirement of services of any kind -- including the information services of the past, which we now see languishing as the old media pipeline of information -- usually to create a obsessive-compulsive need for even more and evermore information, that they would like you to believe they are the exclusive sources of. Even the universities used to make those claims -- but they fell victim to their even more archaic academic style of language, which was even the reason for the rise of the mass media in its time. But then they became overwhelmed and victims of their own jargon and desire to remain permanently at the tollgates to the information storehouses they claimed to steward.

But life itself, and reality, is information -- and one can learn directly from it, as even scholars and researchers had to. Only in the academic tradition, was it possible to lay claim to never learning directly from phenomena, but from the "knowledge" of what somebody knew previously -- and build on that. That will always lead one far astray from the realities we hope to understand -- although it is quite possible, to understand only that knowledge, divorced from that and any realities. That has always been the danger of "education," and particularly the formal education which is the socialization/indoctrination of every community and society.

But always alongside the development and entrenchment of such hierarchies and institutions, are a few pointing this divergence from the actualities of our existence as the explanation for why so called "solutions," only seem to require more of the solution -- infinitely, and not the cessation of the original problem, which is the proper understanding of it.

The One-Minute Revolution

Since time is always the excuse for not being able to get into a fitness program, it should be obvious to instructors, that the easiest and minimally invasive way to do so, would be the lowering of the barriers to such a participation and involvement, that ensures movement throughout every part of the body -- which would be the turning of the head in a 360 degree rotation. If one simply does that, he has already done much more of beneficial and healthful movement than anything else he can do -- while not producing any apparent head movement, including miles and hours of running and biking -- in which the head stays pretty much stationary throughout the entire course of activity, no matter how strenuously and fast the heart is beating to effect a greater flow that can only be effected by the actual changing of muscular states of the muscles in the neck, moving from fullest contraction and relaxation. A fixed tension in any state, does not enhance that flow as effectively and actually impedes that flow -- because it is the varying hydraulic pressures within the vessels, that cause the circulatory effect -- in conjunction with the heart that is always beating incessantly and necessarily.

But it is only in the heightened fullest contractions of these muscles directly, that one observes obvious and impressive muscle growth -- as the antidote to the atrophying of the muscles indicating the aging effect. When muscles atrophy, the skin seems to sag because of the absence of this underlying supportive musculature, which many people then fill in with Botox, to restore that fullness. The better approach would be to maintain and develop muscle growth -- which is only possible done with the proper engagement and articulation of the muscles directly involved in contraction and relaxation -- no matter how hard or fast the heart is beating otherwise!

It just doesn't happen otherwise, and is responsible for the effect that most so-called endurance athletes, have an atrophied musculature rather than the more visible and impressive one of athletes who must produce these vigorous and full contractions -- like the sprinters of that same activity. But it is not the explosiveness or the speed that is often attributed to producing such effects -- which can also be achieved with slower and deliberate full contractions that eliminate the possibility of danger from such speed and momentum.

As my good friend Dr. Ken Leistner (High-Intensity Training) described that style I recommended as "tai-chi with weights," the better description, is to find out what position the body(part) is in, in which the muscles must be contracted, and moving in and out of that position -- not because of effort or resistance, but because of that understanding, that nothing else is possible in that position -- but to fully actualize the limits of its expression and development in doing so.


The Five-Minute Transformation

Once one understands this cause and effect, producing this effect throughout the body, can be accomplished within a
maximum of five minutes of well-designed (ingenious) movements -- and not the hours usually prescribed by those who have no idea what they're trying to accomplish but to burn (waste) as much energy and time possible, as though that alone had a magical effect -- though by what direct process, they don't know but to repeat the same affirmations they've seen repeated everywhere else, by countless others who also have no idea that there should be a direct connection between what one "knows," and an actual underlying reality.

It is just enough that they know what everybody knows -- and think that is the limits to all that
can be known.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Overcoming the Resistance Within

If one feels like running a marathon, or lifting 500 lbs., it is generally not necessary to do so -- or have to "prove" it, because the feeling of that ability, IS the achievement, and not that one has to get anywhere else -- or to a higher level.

The problem is that in life, one is often in a condition in which just moving itself, seems to present great resistance -- without one having to add additional "resistance" to make such movements even more productive. That is especially true at those critical points in life, at which one is at the crossroads of determining whether they get better or worse, despite of what they are doing, and probably. because of it.

Obviously, if one is doing something that causes pain and injury, one should cease that activity and try to determine the reason for that feedback -- and then make the appropriate adjustments before even more serious and severe catastrophe completely immobilizes them. Usually, it is not a dramatic event, but rather a slowly encroaching condition that appears, persists, and worsens -- unless and until we adopt an effective strategy for dealing with those new realities.

As one gets older in life, but not necessarily just at that stage in life, there may be times when, any movement at all becomes painful and difficult, as though one were made of rock instead of a healthful fluid condition. In the old days, such thickening of the body fluids, were called "rheumatism," in its various forms and afflictions -- which indicates a thickening of the body fluids that make fluid operation difficult, if not impossible.

I have suggested in previous essays, that one should consider taking guaifenesin, as the over-the-counter, readily and cheaply available product that is the essential ingredient that liquefies the mucus, specifically indicated for the treatment of the thickening of the mucus associated with colds, flu, bronchitis, and its associated bodily aches and pains, that are usually considered less significant, when breathing itself is so threatened.

But that same thickening of the mucus, is also the basic composition as well as lubricant for any movement of the body, and so when that thickens, causes that stiffening of the joints, and every other movement of the body. At such times, it is obviously appropriate to move slowly and deliberately, and if one does, can articulate and regain, "normal" movement in a fairly short order.

That is the reason for the five-minutes of daily exercise, consisting of five movements, for a 50 count each, that addresses the "joints" (axes of rotation) of most daily universal movements -- and specifically and directly, the five extremities of the body which are the focus of whether activation and circulation, are up to operating conditions. They are the head, hands, and feet, and only direct, observable articulation and movement there, is a guarantee of that responsiveness and readiness of the body -- for any other subsequent action, which includes the highest level of athletic competition.

So it is the proper warmup for everything -- and for the most mobility-impaired, is sufficient to regain as much strength as they are momentarily capable of -- while increasing that capacity in doing so. That is the "magic bullet" everyone needs to know -- the minimum, and not the maximum of all that could be done -- by all the ingenious ways humankind can imagine. That would not be productive to know or enunciate, when one is critically challenged to be extremely focused for marshaling whatever capacities are available to their momentary highest level of activation -- especially at those moments, when the barest movement, seems to be the world's greatest achievement possible, at that moment.

Then one can change the world -- but not before then.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Shaping the Future

Arthur Jones, inventor of exercise equipment and wildlife capture (in the actual as well as videography), enjoyed making outrageous and provocative statements, including his observation that even "Miss Americas" and "Mr. Americas," were nothing but well-shaped fat -- by which he hoped to interest people in body immersion tests to assess precisely one's muscle to fat ratios -- and assess whether there was actual change in the composition of the body, or just the appearance of it -- from his prescribed training regimen.

However, even those precise measurements, do not reflect on one's abilities to look far more impressive than one's actual composition, as fairly muscular individuals can seem to be fairly unmuscular, while minimally muscular people and even fat people, can train their muscles to mold the fat into the shape that is more pleasing, for aesthetic purposes, like bodybuilding competitions. I've known and trained along both -- very strong and muscular individuals who didn't look very muscular, and because of it, were vulnerable to taunts that they were just fat, instead of big and powerful -- which needed no posturing in their minds. That probably accounted for their sensibility that it didn't matter how they looked, as long as they could perform when it mattered, and to them, most of the time did not matter.

So the mold of the old strong men, were guys who looked like Paul Anderson or Louis Cyr, the proverbial 5 foot by 5 foot brick shithouses -- and I suppose they kind of liked lowballing people's expectations to better impress them. That was also a kind of personality and mentality popular in another age, in which an "integrated reality," was a far-fetched anomaly reserved for perfect specimens of another universe -- and not the reality of individuals prone to self-contradiction/destruction in their lives in which they could not hope to improve, much less to perfect.

That was a time and age before the greatly expanded capacities that have been made abundant in the generations coming of age in these times. But those who came of age in a previous time and generation, hope to convince the future generations, that their mold was when humankind achieved "perfection," and it's been a humongous downhill slide for humanity since they were coincidentally at their peak, and human history and evolution since, has just been an unrelenting spiral downward.

That used to be the paradigm of life we all came to accept -- but many deluded themselves, that they really weren't declining, even though nobody took them seriously with handicapping them for "age." There are a few exceptions who seem to persist in improvement because of the years -- but usually not past 60, or the time of "retirement," in which the expectation is for even healthy people to begin experiencing cataclysmic change from which there can never been full recovery and restoration from -- much less improvement, except by the most condescending allowances for it.

That's what I hate about exercise classes for "seniors," which is practically a admission of surrender to lowered and decreasing expectations -- from here on out. People around them, just learn to have no expectations -- and marvel at how a person who looks like they are dead, can still do anything anymore. Far better, it would seem to me, if one looked vibrantly healthy and capable, yet they actually couldn't run a marathon -- which most people don't need to, and most never will in their lifetimes.

So the prescription that they need to take up marathons at that late stage of their lives, hardly seems a practical prescription for keeping or getting " fit," yet those are most often the articles featured in "sophisticated" publications, on how it is never too late, to take up a regimen of well-intentioned conditioning movements -- for the life they will subsequently be living.

Certainly those conditioning movements, should articulate the actual movements and activities they can expect to express, and not the meaningless and harmful excessive wear and tear, hoping that by tearing down the body, they still have the recovery ability to repair and improve from those extreme demands -- while never considering, how little it might take, to maintain and sustain improvement -- at any level, because the level is not as important as the direction of change.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

No Monopoly on the Truth (Information)

Until very recently, individuals and organizations thought they still could be the exclusive gatekeepers and tollkeepers for whatever field they proclaimed as their turf -- not necessarily because they discovered everything that was "known," but because they claimed to have the hierarchy that controlled the flow of that information -- as guilds, trade associations, universities, schools, and lately, "media," which purportedly, told us "all the news fit to print" -- and those who dutifully repeated as much, were the sanctioned high priests of information and the politically and socially "correct." That was the dogma of mass media -- that those who could get as many as possible to repeat their "truth," had the right to power, and made it true.
,
And so a lot of things that weren't really true, became accepted as the truth, because they were repeated so often, as the only truth -- and that anybody who claimed or believe otherwise, was intimidated and bullied by the majority, whose numbers, made the issue unquestionably resolved by those who could achieve the most successful propaganda campaign -- at least in the short term for expeditious campaigns and legislation.

That has a very disastrous effect on longterm outcomes though -- when the faddishly popular, determines the truths that become the undisputable foundations for further progress, leading most in that society, into the invariable dead ends of maintaining they have the solutions, even though nothing works as they should -- but people have accepted and resigned themselves to that inevitable conclusion, that the only solution, offers them no hope for improvement, or change -- but yet they must persist futilely.

What's the point of having such "solutions?" The point is that it satisfies those who despair that there can be any meaningful difference between solutions that work, and those that are merely arbitrary -- because so many other people are also wrong. In their world, the majority makes it "right," and that's the only thing that matters. And so if they can convince everybody else they are right, it it the same as actually knowing the truth of the matter, even though, it is easier to discover the truth, than it is to convince everyone, that the false is true.

The reason for going with the latter, is that it creates more jobs (expenditures) doing so -- while the truth is usually a solitary pursuit -- with very little opportunity for profit from exploiting ignorance, or the mass delusion.

In exercise, conditioning, and the rest of life, that is the notion that consuming as much time, energy, and thought as possible, gives one the greatest results, rather than that the genius of all of life, is the economy and efficiency of effort -- even if it doesn't provide as many jobs to solve the many more problems, of thinking in another way -- that doesn't solve the problems, but actually creates more problems to solve. That way may initially seem like a perpetual job-creation machine, except that it doesn't make life better, but makes it worse, for just about everyone.

And really, the whole objective in life and all activities, is actually to make life better -- even achieving it with a minimum, or no work because of a better understanding that it is not the effort that is the measure of value, but its cessation and elimination -- that frees one to take on higher levels of challenge and fulfillment, than merely survival at the barest minimum level of disfunction, disease and deterioration -- which are the present orientation of health care programs in this society.

That is the product of relegating, or delegating "health," as only what "health care" professionals do -- rather than it is the basic requirement of every responsible citizen's measure of full participation and actualization in their society.