The Fallacy of "Failure"

 Proponents of "High-intensity" training think it is a simple matter of training a muscle to "failure" -- and that will automatically produce gains -- and they go on further, to say it is such a productive manner of training, that one should do at least 5 sets for each exercise -- which obviously indicates they have no understanding of the concept of "failure."  

Failure is the utter inability to go on further; one has done all they can momentarily -- and will require some time to recover, and not simply one or five minutes between each set.  It will often take as much as a week to fully recover for the next all-out attempts to failure -- and in many cases, often longer.  Otherwise, they are just conditioning themselves to quit as often as possible -- rather than conditioning themselves for the rare once-in-a-lifetime maximum attempt -- as though their lives depended on it.  

So it was noted by the original proponent of such a concept, Arthur Jones, that it should be done infrequently -- as could be observed by the strongest specimens of every species.  It was for the lesser members, to be always proving their place in the hierarchy -- while the king of the pack, infrequently engaged unless he absolutely had to.  In the workplace, that was seen in how the foreman at a work site, was not the person doing the most work, but the individual who stepped in when all the efforts of all the others, were insufficient to get the task done.

Those get to pick their battles -- and take on only the most worthy challenges -- that make the difference between survival or extinction for that species -- while the countless more worker-bees, were consumed in the lesser day-to-day housekeeping tasks.  And there is a proper place for that work as well -- or the colony wouldn't exist in the first place.  So it is not a matter of which to do exclusively -- but the importance of doing both -- appropriately as required.  And that is the critical judgment -- so one is not going all-out, when a lesser force would be more appropriate to the task.

Many ask which is better to do -- exclusively, as though that was the optimal choice.  It is like asking whether one wants to be able to do only the hard tasks -- or only the easy tasks -- and not either when more appropriate.  That is what critical thinking is -- the ability to discriminate these things skillfully, and not doing just their one thing no matter what.  It may be likely that their one ability, is inappropriate for most occasions -- but still, that's all they know what to do -- and will insist on doing them no matter what -- even to the astonishment of everybody there who see the objective clearly.

But it happens all the time -- especially in the training/conditioning centers.  People will persist in doing their one thing -- despite the fact that they may not be getting any positive results, and in fact, is the cause of their pain and injuries.   Despite acknowledging that, they will persist in their one exercise -- as though nothing else is possible, or permissible -- because that is what some authority insists is the only thing that can be done.  Obviously, there are many ways that work for different people, but the only thing that matters to each individual, is what works for them particularly -- and if not, finding that way that does -- even if they have to invent it themselves.

That is what the champions do -- what nobody else has done before -- or can imagine doing, before they think of it.  And that is the great prize of any doing -- to do and discover what hasn't been done before -- even for oneself.  Of course that doesn't happen every day, or all the time, but that it happens at all in any life, is a great accomplishment -- upon which to build on to subsequent developments.

In this way, one would prefer to condition themselves by success -- rather than failure -- and so rather than quitting at 10 repetitions or 15, and calling it "failure," a better arbitrary number is 50 -- to ensure that one does something at all -- as a daily habit, or conditioning to persist at least that much.  The problem with doing a bench press with 300 lbs. to failure, is that although they cannot do another repetition at 300 lbs., they might be able to do a few more at 200 lbs., and subsequently 100 lbs., and then with 10 lbs., until they can no longer move their arms with even no weight (resistance).  That is true failure --- and not loading the bar up to 1,000 lbs. and proclaiming they failed when they could not do one.

Using the training style of unloading the bar only wears out the spotters, and not the trainee as intended.  The better approach is to take a light weight, and extend the range of movement in the direction of the muscle contraction -- which is much easier done in the direction of the relaxation -- which is mostly allowing gravity to do the work.  But lifting the bar further in the direction of contraction produces such a severe contraction that most unfamiliar with such movement, are likely to experience it the first time as a severe muscle cramp -- whereupon they have no further control and are likely to drop the bar on their chest if they are lucky -- and on their neck or head if they aren't -- even using a light weight.  But that is preferable to using a heavy weight.

Eventually, training in that manner results in a more controllable "pump" that many using too heavy weights so that they perform no productive work by it, claim they no longer experience -- nor wish to experience because it reduces their ability to handle heavier weights in doing so.  But that is the productive part of what they are hoping to do -- to dramatically increase the circulation to that muscle to effect an immediate result.  Simply lifting a lot of weights does not have the same magical effect.  That is simply doing a lot of unnecessary work -- and not getting the direct positive results -- that when effectively done, can transform most people immediately, and they get better in subsequent sessions.

This phenomenon is undeniable -- and even the top bodybuilding competitors are pumping away to achieve their maximum impressiveness even for that moment.  That much is unsaid -- when in fact, is the quality that distinguishes those who can effect such transformations instantaneously, from those who haven't a clue as to what is going on.  Instead, such charlatans will insist that if one continues to do what they are advising, one year from now they will see some results -- but never before then!  But bodybuilding exercises, when properly executed, has an immediate, often dramatic result -- simply because that is the body's response to such inputs.  So when "aging"bodybuilders no longer experience such positive effects, it is usually because they have lost sight of that direct connection and response, and think that something else is more important than effecting the blood flow -- which is usually how much weight they are using, or how many repetitions -- even when they don't directly effect the blood flow in a palpable way.

And that is particularly true of the blood flow to the critical faculties of the body at the head, hands and feet -- and thinking that the only bodypart of relevance is the biceps -- which is the major criteria of senior bodybuilding competitions.  They're fixated on only one thing -- rather than the total picture of health and vibrancy.  One can tell that even without stripping down to posing trunks and "selfies."  It is a person who looks and moves competently and robustly at age 70, 80, 90, and 100.  And if not -- at 60, 50, 40, etc., they have to do something about it -- and not just listen to the self-appointed experts who are usually in that same sorry shape -- because most of the people in the media cannot distinguish any meaningful differences, or anything of substance.

How the World Changes

  First slowly, then all of a sudden.

Some can see it coming, while most will not; they will choose to go into denial until it is no longer possible -- and they are swept away by the tsunami of events -- wondering what happened, and claiming nobody could have seen it coming.  Very few choose to rely on their own senses -- and can see it happening, but will rely on a chosen few to tell them what is happening, and do their thinking for them.

So at the first sign that something is amiss, they claim that is not so because somebody else did not tell them it was so.  In that manner, they will always be the last to know -- rather than the first, and would not have it any other way, even though life punishes them at every turn and juncture -- for not thinking for oneself -- as Nature intended.  That's why everyone is born with the full complement of faculties and abilities to get by on at least a minimal level, and some will go on to develop great mastery in the many ways it is possible to do so.

That is the challenge and meaning of each existence.  It's not all written and done in some sacred books and texts -- but for each to give it a try, and find out for themselves the truth of the matter.  Otherwise, what somebody else says may be true, may not be true for that individual -- and that is the reality that matters.  All anybody has to go by, is the knowledge and experience they have accumulated so far -- which is not all that can be known, or knowable.  The unknown is the vast -- while the known, is what just one person knows -- and they could be wrong entirely.  That wouldn't be the first time that happened.

But we each get to try our best -- for a more perfect understanding, and it never ends there -- but evolves to ever greater levels.  Even with that, one takes their best shot and chance -- that what they think they know, is at least going in the right direction, and at least works satisfactorily for the present moment -- which may have to be revisited and revised at some future moment -- in all probability.  That is not the certainty and authority many demand -- even if it explains nothing, and produces no predictable desired results.

Yet they'll show up the next day, and do the same thing, for time immemorial with no expectations of positive results, nor thinking that anything can make a difference.  That is simply what God intends -- to make fools of us all -- to prove His superiority.  Of course that would be a petty and chaotic world -- rather than the evolution to higher order that the steadfast believe is possible, and even inevitable.  But someone has to break the code -- so the many can follow.

Obviously, to put weight on, one has to first put it in -- and the body doesn't just decide arbitrarily to go haywire and break all the rules of natural laws and experience -- and create mass from thin air.  Glands don't misfire that badly.  Still, that is what many who should know better, insist is happening.  People die out of the blue, for no good reason, so it doesn't matter how immune they condition themselves to be -- because whether one is 600 lbs or 60 -- the chances are the same, so what is the use in trying to do better?

That is political correctness -- an insistence that there are no differences and distinctions, no matter what.  One must be blind to all -- and only in that way, can complete randomness of results be assured.  Nobody ever became good at anything training that way.  Yet that would be blasphemy in most academic institutions now -- the naive notion that anything could make a difference, and that is what we should be discriminating for -- and not that all discrimination is bad and should be outlawed.

That is why people are in poor health -- thinking nothing makes a difference -- when achieving one's best health is not only possible, but the entire reason for all existence.  That says it all; is the whole point -- and not just for the exceptional few.

Not to feel that essential equality of opportunity, is the worst kind of elitism and arrogance.  The world works for everybody -- and not just for self-designated and self-selected bureaucrats -- because they are the "chosen."  Time will always tell, and that is why nobody cheats mortality.

In every event, the unfit will perish first -- and not as many foolish have demanded, that "even one person dying, is one too many," along with many asinine statements displaying no understanding of the most fundamental truths of life -- as though wishing it were so, is enough to make it so.  No matter how rich, powerful and famous, all will still die, but that does not mean that life cannot be better and has to make it so.  No, that is not what everyone owes to every other, but what each owes to themselves -- primarily.

It would be nice if everybody else in the world would look after me as their primary responsibility -- but that's not the world most will live in, in which there is one Pharaoh -- and everybody else in the world just showed up to applaud and adulate me, as the many delusional "stars" have been "promoted" to believe.  The truth of the matter is that most people are busy living their own lives, and only a relative few believe that everybody else just showed up to be their "followers."  Some people have real friends, and real lives.

So when we drill down to that core of existence, those are the results that matter, and not simply what many believe are true -- because they haven't given it much thought, and have relied on everybody else to be right.  Don't mistake the jargon for the reality of the situation.  Exercise is not effective because one designates it as "aerobic" or "anaerobic," or any other term.    That is simply the marketing gimmick.

The actuality is the truth of the matter.  That's why some people get results and many others don't.  It's not enough just to think one knows -- like the countless delusional people.  Only a few make it happen -- but that is enough to change the world.