Productive Exercise without the Hassles

Whenever we think of "exercise," we think of something hard -- missing the whole objective that it is a practice of making the difficult easy -- and not increasingly more difficult.  That misses the whole point entirely -- and precisely why exercise is of little use and benefit, precisely when we need it most -- to be easier and more accessible.  Instead we create unnecessary barriers to it -- instead of lowering those bars, and even eliminating those constraints.

Then all you have are the benefits -- without the hassles, reservations and objections established by the self-appointed gatekeepers.  But it must be productive, and not merely another way of wasting time -- because one has no better idea of what to do with one's time and energy -- but to waste it.  Along the way, we at least hope to remain interested -- if not entertained -- for lack of a greater meaning to what we do.  "Anything is better than nothing" -- we rationalize these behaviors, while not entirely convincing ourselves.

At best, we hope to simply be able to "go through the motions" -- thinking that is enough to make a difference -- anything but this relentlessly deteriorating condition we seem powerless to do something about.  The best we can hope for, is to slow down the rate of deterioration -- long abandoning the notion that we can ever get better anymore.  And that is still the state of our conditioning and exercise -- for those who need it most.  They need something that works -- fast and immediately, and not only after staying with the program for years -- but becoming discouraged way before then.

So is it really possible to obtain the benefits of exercise -- without all the hassle and hard work we are conditioned to believe we have to endure to obtain those benefits?  Why not immediately get into shape -- which is quite possible for anyone -- and then stay in that shape for as long as possible?  It's possible right now -- for anybody who can still move, to do so.  All it requires is understanding what that shape (and position) is -- and maintaining it for a discrete muscular contraction (change) -- as the shape one wants to be in -- preferably and more often than any other.

That would be the "contracted" state -- rather than the "relaxed," or flaccid state.  But no matter what condition and "shape" one is in -- one can move into the contracted state, and "condition" oneself to do so -- but must understand that is the intention and purpose -- and not any other, usually offered as "motivation," or some other rationalization for obsessive-compulsive behavior.  That has been the usual approach to conditioning -- to make it an obsessive-compulsive behavior -- rather than an intelligent manifestation of this higher understanding and insight into this process.

It is still largely, this brute force mentality of forcing square pegs into round holes -- and failing that, applying even more force -- until of course, something breaks,  Those are not the instruction manual to an intelligent way of being -- which becomes even more obvious with the passing of time and years, leading most to believe that it no longer works as one ages -- mainly because that manner of functioning and operating the body, was never a good idea in the first place, and only disposed one to the inevitable injuries that would put a stop to all that nonsense once and for all.

But it doesn't have to be that way, and in fact, the intelligent approach to exercise and conditioning, is the only way it can be.  Any other way, simply does not work -- no matter how many centuries the practice has been going on -- also not working, but not stopping anyone from continuing to do so.  The success is not that they continue to do so, but are the results (effects) they get from doing it -- and not merely the affirmations that it is working, though it is obviously and apparently not working.

In that manner, many go into denial until the inevitable -- and are no longer capable of functioning at all -- not in spite of their exercise and conditioning, but because of it -- as the only outcome possible!  That is particularly true of those engaging in obviously dangerous occupations and preoccupations -- even maintaining to the day they die, or is the cause of their dying, like professional wrestling, boxing, or other injurious activities -- from which the "lucky" ones even get to retire from.

But even those lucky few, usually stop doing anything -- because all they know how to do, is to exact further damage on themselves -- until they are crippled and disabled for the rest of their lives, which is usually prematurely shortened.  Obviously any further activity, must be focused on therapy and recovery, and not exacting further damage until it is not physically possible to do any more -- and then they stop.  At that point they have no choice.

But at that point, they can still move on -- heal and recover -- to even better than they ever have been, because they now know better.  However, it should be obvious also, that it can't be done simply in the old, familiar ways that brought them to that state of disrepair (dysfunction).  At that point, only the rare few, will take it to the next level -- of immeasurably better health, beginning with the understanding of what they have been doing -- or simply, awareness.

That is no longer operating obsessive-compulsively -- but now deliberately and intentionally for the better -- because one now understands this process, and sees things clearly.  That is the step beyond the traditional and conventional ways -- that are not working, despite a few still being able to do them.  If it really worked, everybody would be doing it -- but they aren't, and are offered no other possibilities, largely because they've never heard of any other -- at least none that made any significant difference.  There can be many alternatives that do not work similarly -- but those don't make a difference.  They are simply more ways that do not work, and what we really want, is something that actually works -- and not simply to convince ourselves and each other, that what doesn't work, is working

That has largely been the progress of exercise and conditioning to this point -- that we don't recognize that it isn't working, until it is too late, and we are offered no other possibilities.  One either gets with the program that isn't working, or doesn't -- but there is no option of anything working any better, if at all -- especially when their lives depend on it, in their later years.  All they can do, is the same thing they have been doing, more feebly and ineffectively until they can't do anything at all -- and then they are done, and free -- to move onto the next life, but never the next level.  That movement, is not an option.

That failure, is what we have been conditioned to regard as "aging," which is the ultimate failure to understand better -- before it is too late, and we perish.  There is nothing inevitable about it; we are simply provided no other choices, no better understanding and insight  that would free us from this hopeless chain of self-destruction.

Once we have wiped the glass clean, we can see very clearly what we have to do -- and the bonds that have kept us that way -- the way we were.

Practice Makes Perfect

Many people think there is a point in life at which it is no longer necessary to keep improving -- and think that they can only get worse -- no matter what they do, so that many just give up trying.  Therefore, the prognosis for everything is not good -- as a self-fulfilling prophecy.  

They already know the outcome -- and there will be no positive surprises.  Mostly, that is their conditioning -- rather than undeniable fact.  Some people do go on improving day after day -- not by chance, but by deliberate intention.  That skews the odds away from randomness and entropy -- which is increasing randomness.

It is quite fashionable among some cohorts --to believe that life and everything one experiences in it, is random, and there is nothing one can do to make a difference -- so bad things just happen, and good things, are not what they seem.  Thus they warn, if it seems too good to be true, it is -- and so they will not even consider those possibilities as real, and actual.

In this way, they live their whole lives in denial -- that everything that seems obviously true, are false, and vice-versa.  The obvious is never the truth -- or actuality.  The mind, they are convinced, must convert everything it experiences as the actual reality -- into its opposite, and do that for everything one encounters and considers in life.  Thus it is easy to fall into confusion and contradiction -- forgetting which is the true and which is the mind making a conversion into its opposite.

The simple-minded have no energy to waste in doing so.  They simply accept the obvious as the obvious -- because they don't know better, and haven't been conditioned otherwise.  Of course, that is the tactic of advertising and marketing -- to convince one of what is not true, and deceive them(selves) into buying whatever they happen to be selling.

The world was never meant to be so complicated and convoluted.  People get good at what they actually do -- and not merely what they wish not to do -- even if it is the obvious.  That is the deception of wishful-thinking -- that it is the same as actually doing anything, especially by those who pride themselves in knowing better.  They think that knowing is simply enough, and not doing anything based upon that knowledge.  If fact, those believe that knowledge is a substitute for doing -- and even better.  So they never bother to practice and effect the value of that knowledge; it is merely enough for them  "to know."  And so they never find out the truth of the matter.

Yet that is what practice is -- finding out what is the truth of the matter, not only once, but as many times as one can -- until one can't.  When that day arrives, there's nothing they can do about it -- but until then, they do it to assure themselves they still can, and know what they can do.  They live their lives that way -- every day of their lives, instead of falling far short of when they actually cannot -- and have long given up trying -- claiming they are too old, too young, or inexperienced.

That's what practice is for -- to gain that experience and expertise.  It may not be the same as it was before -- but learning the new limits is even more valuable than dwelling upon memories of what one had before.  That's what young athletes do to get better -- practice.  That's also what the devotees of any discipline do -- to get get better -- even if it is to better learn their new limitations, as well as capacities.  

In doing so, one strengthens themselves in unexpected ways, and increasingly less in the expected and predictable ways.  That is real progress -- and not merely staying within the box of their limited expectations.  That is the ultimate intent of "practice" -- to break through to where one has not gone before, or even thought possible, and not merely to repeat the tedium endlessly -- as though somehow that is transformative.

The practice is to make perfect.