Exercise is Finding Out

 Why is exercise so hard to do?  It depends on what one means by "exercise."  A lot of people think they own the category -- rather than it being the unique way each individual finds out who they are, and what their ultimate capabilities are.  So why would some people not want to know that?  It is because they have been conditioned to think that only other people are fully worthy of such challenges and calling -- but not themselves.  Such people have long consigned themselves to being spectators for the lives of others -- so what they do, is not important -- when it is the most important thing to do and find out in every life.  That is what matters.

Many millennia ago, it was thought that only one person mattered -- the person at the top, and it was the duty of everyone else to serve and sacrifice for that one person, and the lives of everyone else did not matter and could be sacrificed for The One.  So if such a personage died, all those who knew or served them, could be dispatched to keep them company along the way.

But as time played out, it was increasingly realized the one needn't compete to be exclusively that one person with all the spoils, and there could be societies in which there was enough to go around for everybody.  In such a society, many could be winners -- and not just the one.  Then many more had a vested interest in the success of that society rather than everyone only battling to be the one on the top -- and once there, they expended all their resources and energies to keep everyone else down.  Invariably, such societies would disintegrate and disappear, and generations later would run across their artifacts and wonder, "What were these people thinking?"

That was old world thinking, and the new world thinking is the exploration of vastly more than that.  It is not merely a new generation of oppressors and people who want to be the boss of all the others -- but the much more expansive question of what one would do if each were their own boss?  How would each manage their own lives?  What was important to do, and what did one not want to do -- but thought they had to?

In that old paradigm, "exercise" often was that compulsion to do what they really didn't feel like doing -- and would do anything to avoid.  But lost in that resistance, was the realization that they themselves could define the rules and parameters of the games they played -- and make them as fair and rewarding as possible -- rather than just setting themselves up for failure and humiliation.  It doesn't have to be that way -- though countless minds think that is the only way possible.  We recognize such minds as undeveloped and unfulfilled -- because given the freedom and liberty to do all things, they seek only to destroy the freedom and liberties of everyone else -- and not to become as great as they can be themselves.

Such people are invariably the products of poor conditioning and traumatic experiences that limit their ultimate growth -- that those without those limits imposed upon them were not crippled by and set back.  But a few overcome them, and the exceptional even rise from those formidable handicaps that make them extraordinary persons.  While nice to read about and learn about in other lives, it is much more important to do one's best in their own lives -- as what is most important.

Those expressions and activities are the exercise of each life -- from potential to fullest articulation (actualization).  That is what is worth knowing -- and not what everybody knows -- because only one knows that.  That is the secret of successful and fulfilling lives -- and not simply wondering all one's life, what could have been.  The only way to learn that, is to find out -- to the fullest extent possible, physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, etc.  That is the exercise of life -- finding out.  It is not enough just to "know better," but making no attempt on their own, to find out the truth of that matter for oneself.  That art and skill are lost in an age in which all the answers are provided to them -- without having to make any effort of their own.  And so one thinks they know all the answers -- when they have not even begun to ask the right questions -- so that kind of knowledge is invariably irrelevant and just a mind full of useless information -- signifying nothing of any consequence and difference.  It wouldn't even begin to tell the difference.

It is a mind disconnected from any reality -- and thinks that what they see on television, videos, and print, have more reality than what they are actually experiencing in their daily lives -- and the "results" they are getting.  Invariably, what they think they are doing, differs greatly from what they are actually doing -- and that is why they get the results they are getting.  Their thoughts are not aligned with reality -- which is the whole purpose of the exercise of their faculties.  They don't really know what they have -- until they express it in the actuality -- and actually make that connection manifest -- which is to say, "Make it happen."

It doesn't just happen because one wants it to more than anybody else.  More often than not, it takes hours of practice, to manifest the results one wants -- even with the greatest of talent, and optimal conditions.  But usually, it is not like one is the only one trying to accomplish that -- as probably a few other prodigies, see the value of doing so as well.  How each goes about it, is frequently the story of competitions -- but that is not the only thing going on.  Probably as much, or even more, is going on unwitnessed -- and in that way, it is important for each to be their own judge and jury of how well they are doing for the countless hours that are the majority of their lives.

If only they care, that is not nothing, but the most important of the audience -- especially when their moment is out of the spotlight.  At that point, even the best and most famous, find themselves in a vacuum many are hardpressed to fill for the remainder of their lives.  It is easy to understand their motivations and judge their success while they are still vying for the top of the podium -- but whether they can sustain themselves beyond those glory years is everyone's greatest challenge yet.  That's why so few, if any yet, make it to 100 -- in peak condition.  Most have lost a step or two, while many have given up entirely, and are ready to go at the earliest moment of expedience -- when they could be reinventing the rules for their survival advantage. 

It's not about cheating death or cheating age, but fulfilling it to its ultimate purpose.  What they should have going for them is the wisdom of experience.  That doesn't necessarily mean remaining young and foolish forever -- but taking that wisdom and experience to another level that hasn't been achieved before.  There is no greater challenge or calling -- because it is not just one's own, but the legacy of all human knowledge and being up to the present moment.  It's not just longer lives in a deteriorating condition -- but health beyond what has been achieved up to now.  Implied in this is longer lives, but more than that, it is a vastly greater health that makes length a moot point.  One would presume that it would mean a longer life, but it is more than just hanging on for dear life -- but attaining and actualizing a more robust, vibrant existence never witnessed or even imagined before.

That's really the story of humanity.  At some point, greater quantity produces the conditions for the critical mass that makes a qualitative quantum leap inevitable.  That's how life evolves -- and has not simply repeated over the millions of years.  That's how change happens: slowly at first, and then explosively -- past all our expectations -- into the unknown, that then becomes the knowable.  And the only way to get there is not for a few, but for as many as possible, to embark on that exploration -- and task.

Functional Fitness

  I don't know how many times I've encountered a title on "functional fitness," only to find them teaching impractical skills -- thinking that some day they will be useful, when the very nature of that teaching, is to make everything as impractical and difficult to do as possible -- so as to make them useless and worse, dangerous and injurious.

A good case in point is the manner in which an initiate is taught to perform a squat -- with their arms held up straight in front of them.  Under no circumstances would a person actually lift a weight in that manner -- and in most cases, would never think to do so -- unless they were taught that performance as being unequivocally the "correct" thing to do -- with no deviation or even questioning allowed.

It does nothing but flatter the instructors of such performance that they are "right," and the rest of humanity is less intelligent and knowledgeable because they know something that everybody else does not.  Whether that knowledge is useful or not, is besides the point.  They simply "know" something most others don't -- whether it is useful or not.

The whole point of that performance, is to maximize every advantage one can conceive -- beginning with the realization that the center of balance and gravity must be aligned -- which absolutely requires the hands to be in a downward position close to one's ankles -- just as the Olympic weightlifters and other strongmen invariably know to do.  Nobody in their right mind, would think to lift even the lightest weight with their hands held out straight in front of them.  What purpose would that serve --- except to learn something totally useless and dysfunctional?

But a lot of people now go through their entire lives with that kind of modus operandus -- thinking the more they know the better they are -- rather than in realizing that the fountain of all wisdom, is the realization that they know nothing.  From there, one can discover wondrous things -- while those who begin thinking they know everything, will never attempt to find out anything.

That's mainly the difference between those who succeed and those who have no idea what they are talking about -- but are merely repeating what they were rewarded to repeat unquestioningly.  Of course, that is the failing of our education system -- that people are not instructed to find out the truth of any matter for themselves, but rely on their instructors to reward them for their faithfulness in unquestioning obedience to such a program.

So of course, many arrive at the twilight of their lives totally misguided -- without a clue as to how they can set themselves right, and feel like they are simply cash cows for all those who profit handsomely on their misfortunes and (dis)ease.  Whenever there are problems, there are two basic impulses -- the first is to eliminate those problems, and the second is, to exploit those problems and make a handsome living from them.

Thus, it becomes the driving force behind why small problems at first, grow larger until they consume all one's resources -- and there is no more quality of life for any of its inhabitants -- while other societies, don't understand why there should be a problem.  In most cases, the problems are of their own making -- and are not inherent to life, but instead, antithetical to life -- because they cannot tell any better.  The problems become their lives and way of living.

Such societies go into decline -- while others rise and flourish.  That is the eternal story of civilization -- and why nobody stays at the top forever -- even with all the spoils.  The most robust at solving (eliminating) problems rise, while those consumed with problems fall -- usually at their own hands.

The casual visitor to such societies will note those obvious differences -- of greater civility in one, and increasing lawlessness, disrespect, and disregard in the other.  The public relations will tell us that things were never better -- even while misery and despair are all we see -- even camped out on the doorsteps of civic government.

The people one would think whose job it was to see and report on these things, tell us there is nothing to see, and there is no problem -- except that we need infinitely more funding to solve these non-problems.  In Hawaii, they've even built a transportation system that will not go anywhere.  They claim it is nearly perfect, because nobody can get on, and nobody can get off -- anywhere they'd want to go.  It is "perfect" because it will require infinite funding.  So many Islanders are getting their wish that the Islands return to where they were before civilization invaded their harmony -- and nobody needed to go anywhere.

But that is not the whole story of what is going on in the world.  One is not likely to hear about it, but there are some cities rising into the 21st century with gleaming new skyscrapers and pristine public areas.  Yet we are told that they are third-world countries -- and not the leaders into the 21st century with all that implies.  That is the new world order -- and not just the old, maintaining itself at the top -- and selling this "old world charm," for tourist dollars.

Obviously, they are not the living places of business and industry, but a trip of nostalgia, and the good old times.  But that is the past, and not the future.  The future is a whole new way of life -- built on the past surely, but leaping into the unknown -- and favoring those who know they do not know.  And so they find out, and in doing so, create the way of the future -- and not simply repeat the past, for one more iteration.

What people have regarded as "fitness," hasn't served them very well -- when even their staunchest advocates die prematurely even while at the top of their game, or disabling themselves for life by abusing themselves in ways not meant to be -- which causes them to cease all healthful activities from early on in life.  Many take up drugs to escape their pain and fill the void in their lives.  So obviously, a whole new, better paradigm of activities and purpose is needed based on integrating exercise into contemporary lifestyles -- instead of the failed model of stopping life so that one can exercise, and do anything productive and significant.

That is easier done than said -- because the body is built for movement -- but not arbitrary movements the devious mind can conceive -- so that it has to fail.  The proper exercise of the body, is actually how it is designed to work -- without the mind taking precedence of the most profitable model to conduct and sell that instruction.  It is like the infant learning how to become proficient with its own body -- before they encounter those who insist on telling them what to do and how to be -- as unqualified and incompetent to tell anybody else what to do.

The kinesthetically gifted are never that way.  They learn through the actuality of their experiences (exercise) -- which requires constant attention and attentiveness -- of which there is no limit, unlike the treadmill of activities that discover nothing new, and frankly, produces no favorable results beyond reinforcing the belief that that is the only way things can ever be done.

Getting back to the manner of squat performance, another accompanying instruction is to never allow the knees to move forward of the toes -- which then displaces the center of gravity to the unnatural position that cannot be sustained comfortably over a prolonged period -- as is seen in indigenous cultures.  That exercise is the proper alignment of the major hinges of the human body -- that simply happens because it must.  Human babies are quite proficient at it -- with no instruction usually given.  They know how to use natural advantage -- and thus we marvel at the wisdom of the young -- in discovering what is in them, and not in all the books pretending to know something -- but in reality, is responsible for setting faith and confidence in human knowledge back to the Dark Ages.

The fact of the matter is that it just doesn't work -- and increasingly in their twilight years when they desperately need it the most.  That is true for even the most ardent exercisers.  They accept their increasing deteriorating condition as the general rule, and point out only one metric, if any, that defies that general trend.  That's not convincing proof of the validity of all they are promulgating.

In most cases, lifting a heavier weight does not increase the productivity -- as many think is automatic.  What matters, is the precision and mastery of performance -- regardless of resistance or load.  That's where many go astray.  It is the quality of the movement rather than the quantity of the load that results in the optimal stimulus of movement.  While most are impressed with the amount that can be lifted with excellent form, the magic is the excellence of form, and not the weight.  Correlation is not causation.

The mastery of performance is what allows for maximum poundage, and not simply upping the poundage at every opportunity -- until one invariably injures themselves because of the improper form.  In observing world champion lifters, what is striking is the attention paid to their form using only the bar -- and if that is not precisely where it should be, they do not go higher.  What would be the point?  Like the practice of medicine, the first rule should be, do no harm -- and once one has ensured those parameters, the rest takes care of itself -- but not before then.  That would be putting the cart before the horse -- with similarly disappointing results.

Particularly for the oldsters out there, if you can still do the snatch and clean and jerk in perfect form with the bar alone at age 100, you don't need to lift anything more.  That alone says it all.  It's like the ballet dancer; if they can still lift their leg up over their head at 100, they don't need to add any more weight to make it a better exercise. It will invariably make it a worse exercise -- and a travesty, but somebody will come along recommending it as the "next big thing."