Taking Inventory

 Many people ask what is the purpose of a warmup? -- thinking they should go straight to a personal best, each and every time.  But before one can do that, one should know what their present momentary capabilities are -- or they risk overestimating those capabilities, and less often, underestimating them.  In either case, one is out of touch with the present realities -- thinking that their present capabilities are as they were 20 years ago, or as they hope they might be 20 years into the future.  And the whole point of any exercise, is to find out precisely where one is, and is capable of doing -- not just yesterday, or tomorrow -- but in the present moment, which is the only reality.

The truth of any matter, is not what one thinks -- but the actuality of each moment -- good, bad or indifferent.  The worst is fearing to find out what that actually is -- preferring to live in one's fantasies and delusions of what they would like to be.  It gets worse with age and time.  Many mistake what they did 50 years ago as what they are still capable of doing presently, and don't want to learn otherwise.  But when one knows their present capabilities, they can improve -- from that reference point, rather than further deluding themselves by not putting themselves to the test anymore.

In this way, people lose contact with their present capabilities -- and prefer to think they are something other than they actually are.  That is the importance of actually finding out -- by doing -- tentatively at first, and then going a little bit farther.  That progression of course, is the familiar warmup -- starting at one's lowest level, and gradually moving up -- and in that systematic way, achieving personal bests and even world records -- for those who are genetically and environmentally gifted for that development.  Nobody just starts at the top -- and moves up from there.  In fact, those who go the farthest, usually start with the rudimentary basics done extremely well -- upon which they have a firm foundation to go far -- unlike those who find themselves at the top, without knowing how they got there, and have no way to go but down.

In many cases, it was their youth alone, that put them at the top, and after that, they have no idea how to grow further -- and that is where most of the gains come, and especially when many have given up that further growth is possible.  Unfortunately for many, that is as soon as they graduate from high school or college, and they are certain all of life is downhill from there.  Those are the ones that are obvious, but less obvious are the ones who give up at any age -- thinking that is all there is, so why bother trying anymore?

If one never tries anymore, one will never find out and learn anything new -- and particularly, how much they have changed -- and not that they and the world, has stayed exactly as they wish to remember it -- forevermore.  Invariably, that is themselves at their peak of capabilities -- and not that there could be any improvement -- from what they would like to think.  The obvious best way to find out, is to start tentatively and gradually, and work one's way up -- from the lowest bottom to the highest top -- and so they are familiar with every inch of the territory -- and where to go from there, and how to make the appropriate adjustments.  

The novice, on the other hand, thinks whatever they do is good enough -- so the need and possibility of improvement seems unnecessary and meaningless.  They cannot tell the difference between good and bad, better or worse, and so meaningful improvement is not possible -- just the repetition of one thing -- good, bad or ugly.  The perfectionist, starts with the simplest movement perfectly -- before they go on to higher -- as it is obvious to them, that if they cannot do the simplest movement perfectly, making it harder will make things worse -- and that is precisely what happens in many people's workouts.  They begin and end arbitrarily and thoughtlessly -- and wonder why they don't get the results the "experts" promise, and think there is some mysterious, great secret to getting anywhere.

First, they have to be pointing in the right direction to get where they want to get -- and not simply heeding the advice of experts to just go anywhere, and somehow, they will end up in the right place.  It never happens that way.  People hit what they aim for -- more often than just hitting out in any direction -- thinking that is the same.  One starts slow and easy, and lets the hard take care of itself.  But starting hard, makes it impossible -- or even distinguishing the difference, because from the get-go, one is already taxed beyond their sensibilities -- and they know nothing else, particularly how to make the proper adjustments when things do not go according to plans.

More often than not, things will not go according to how one wishes they would -- but the most accomplished, know how to make those adjustments so well, they seem like they are all part of the plan -- and it is, because that is what they have prepared themselves for -- the challenges at any level, and not just the one they hope it will be.  That would be easy -- but it seldom works out that way.  The most proficient and prolific, are capable of making those fine adjustments -- while those only wishing it were so, merely delude themselves further.

That is the value of being able to ease into any activity -- and not just operate on an all-out or none basis -- as though one can turn on any capabilities at will, and realize one day, that they won't -- and don't know how to get into that mode from humble or impossible beginnings.  One day they wake up and realize that the precipice is too far from the other side.  It's not that people grow too old too fast, but they forget how to take baby steps that made anything seem possible -- with practice and persistence.  Instead, they grow impatient, and think that the simplest, easiest, most basic movements are unnecessary to practice -- and desire only the world records, or at least personal bests, each and every day -- even if only in their wishful-thinking.

Then one day they wake up and realize they no longer have those capabilities they took for granted would always remain with them.  It all seemed too easy -- and thought it would always remain so -- but now was nonexistent and impossible even to consider.  They had lost the faculties they thought would always remain so -- just because they wished that it were so.  It's not that one has to lift a great resistance to make it worthwhile and meaningful.  Just retaining and perfecting the movement in itself, is 90% of the gain.  Among the older crowd, the difference is not who can perform a movement with record poundages, but those who can do the movement at all -- and those who cannot.

It's not that they cannot do a movement with 500 lbs in their later years -- but that they cannot even do the full-range movement without any resistance at all.  Through all that excessive wear and tear, they cannot even do the simplest of movements involving those joints any longer -- that just being able to do so without great pain and discomfort as well as drastically limited range, would now be a monumental accomplishment.  An older person who has retained all their faculties -- rather than the increasing norm of disability in all its variations -- is the distinguishing difference between those who are thriving, and those on their way out.

For these people, even doing the warmup is out of the question -- when that is all they have to do to retain that mobility -- every day of their lives.  It just becomes easier to tell the winners from the losers - without establishing a course to see who can crawl over the finish line last.  Range of motion tells one everything they need to know about present capabilities.  That is generally regarded as "liveliness," or vitality -- that produces robustness -- just in their being, and doing ordinary things.

It is not the amount of weight one loads onto the apparatus that is productive, but the movement itself -- and quality (range) of it.  That is what the muscularity is designed to express and articulate -- especially and particularly, as one grows older.  That's all there is to it.

Just Do the Warmup

 Some people think that the only way to do things is by leaps and bounds (extraordinary effort) -- rather than slowly and tentatively -- without going all out until one can't.  In life, it is relatively rare and infrequent that one has to do every little thing as though their life depended on it -- which may be the dominant paradigm for animals in the wild, whose very existence may depend upon it -- because there is no excess capacity or abundance that civilization and culture enables.  Thus it is possible for many now to eat to excess, while doing very little to obtain their needs -- and so that balance is off, and becomes the undoing of many, if not all in contemporary life.

One sees that imbalance in every human activity -- from eating, to resting, and exercise.  I wish I had a dollar for every person I've seen in the gym who spend 90-100% of their efforts building their upper bodies, and virtually zero on the lower half of their bodies -- thinking it is enough just to go through life wearing a tank top and jeans -- thinking they are fooling everybody.  Then as they hobble onto the bodybuilding stage, even the judges are conditioned only to use the biceps as the pinnacle of development and achievement -- rather than the complete development in symmetry and proportion.  It is even worse for runners -- who think that running is all there is -- and let their upper bodies atrophy, even while thinking they are the paragons of complete and balanced development.

One is not better than the other.  Both are grotesque forms of disproportion -- alien to the notion of complete and balanced development -- that has been the true ideal of every major civilization and culture.  That is why such prodigious and prolific development can be appreciated across all cultures -- as the embodiment and hallmark of health and vitality -- impressive in itself.

What is surprising to many -- conditioned as they are to believing that nothing less than overdoing everything or not at all, is the realization of how little goes a long way -- but not absolute zero -- which is to note that the greatest difference on every scale, is not one from many, but zero from one.  When even that one is absent, the deficiency is glaring.

With even the simplest movement, one step is very different from not being able to stand at all -- or even considering such a movement anymore.  Thus it has been noted that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step -- and even before then, to enable one to take that single step -- which are the many milestones to that achievement, and once having come that far, all else is merely repetition.  It's just that simple -- and eventually, easy and effortless.

But one doesn't get there having to climb a mountain first -- as many instructors (gurus) demand first.  Thus, they make even the simplest and most natural movements, as difficult as possible -- rather than as easy -- to make it possible.  A good example is the difficulty many have in getting into what is often considered to be a universal position of a squat -- that most who don't know any better, can get into until the day they die -- because the instruction to do so, makes it nearly impossible to accomplish -- and most don't even realize it.

There's no requirement that one's hands have to be held forward and the back upright to lower oneself into the finished squat position.  The easiest way to get into it, is to begin with one's hands resting on one's thighs, as is frequently seen among athletes as the resting posture.  From there, if they allow their hands to move down along their legs until they reach close to their ankles, they will be in a proper squat position -- without thinking about it, or trying too hard.  But that will never happen if they think that the hardest way to achieve that position, is the only proper way to do it -- and the reason many have difficulty achieving that position.  They are taught (instructed) to do it in the most difficult and unnatural manner possible -- so as to make it prohibitive for most.  This method of instruction is often seen in yoga -- in which the many beginning instructors think to make their practice seem as difficult as possible -- as though that was a sign of advanced "enlightenment."

I know the rationale for not using one's hands in this manner is to make the movement more difficult -- if not impossible for most, whereas learning to do so in the easiest manner, makes it accessible to nearly everyone.  If that were not the case, then many would have stopped having bowel movements because that is the position required to get into for them to do so.  But they are not so "brilliant" as to figure out a manner of doing so that makes it difficult if not impossible to them to get into.  As a practical matter, they will choose the easiest manner to get into the proper position -- and have to do so until the day they die, even if it means using every appendage and advantage they have -- in the most efficacious way.

That is what most people do -- throughout the world -- rather than ceding to an expert class on how to do the simplest, most basic tasks.  It doesn't get any more basic than that.  But nine out of ten healthy Americans will insist that they cannot do a proper squat as directed by these experts.  It is because these "experts" have no idea what they are talking about -- or understanding of the simplest realities of life.  Otherwise, life would not be possible -- following their "expertise."

And of course, the people in the media know even less -- because they are asking such "experts" what to do -- having long ago lost their capacity to take a proper dump, and so are full of it.  Bursting at the gills -- eager to share all they know -- to make it all that can be known.  That's how these things come into being -- The Pharisees and the Scribes.  They will gladly crucify all those aren't with the program -- as though it was their sacred duty, and what they were put on earth for.  They were trained to be the gatekeepers for all that can be known -- and knowable.

In this way, they are like people of every epoch who thought it was up to them to decide these things for everybody else -- rather than let each person determine the truth for themselves -- using scientific principles rather than authorities to tell them what to think.  Many people have no problem with that -- and that is why there are so many difficulties and problems in the world -- and such hardship.  They refuse to make it easy, and thus, it becomes impossible for many -- when it should be the easiest and most natural thing for everybody.

There is no virtue in standing in the most difficult manner conceivable; far more valuable, is learning the easiest and most efficient manner to do so -- even if it means using everything one has got, and even inventing a few unthought of ways.  That is the genius of human being.  It should be allowed to flourish -- even without the profit to the experts and other narrow self-interest groups who think that everybody else exists for their exclusive exploitation and profit.  It doesn't have to be that way.  That is the problem. 

One doesn't need to set a new world record at everything one does -- but if one is paying attention, they will notice that even the world champion, goes through a humble warmup before attempting the world record.  Be like them; just do the warmup -- same as the world champ.