Is One Set Enough?

  Many people think that “progressive weight training” is simply using more weight — rather than considering all the variables. Number one is considering range of motion. The early bodybuilders were very adamant that one had to begin their movement from the greatest stretch possible — and then move into the fullest contraction possible, and alternate that change of muscular state as “one repetition.” But when one thinks that all that matters is how much weight one loads the bar/machine up to and then proceeds to move only a few inches by adjusting the leverage rather than by muscle change — and not going anywhere close to the fullest relaxation and fullest contraction — that manner of performance explains why they don’t achieve favorable benefits from all their “exercise.” They can exercise in that manner until the cows come home, and won’t obtain the benefits of properly executed exercise. Ultimately, that is what they are hoping to exercise and become proficient at — changing muscular states.

Then once that is established as what one is trying to achieve — then the number of repetitions becomes the second consideration of importance. Most people will achieve muscle failure at 50 repetitions — without prolonged resting — performed in this full range manner, whatever weight they are using. So if they are smart, they will select the lightest weight that makes 50 repetitions possible. Once they have obtained momentary muscle failure — nothing more is necessary — or possible. But rather than resting as long as possible to make further effort possible, the more productive strategy is to move onto the next exercise on one’s agenda, and then the next, until one has completed their entire workout with as little rest as possible — and one is completely exhausted. That manner of exercising would make it “aerobic” or “cardio” because an effort sustained for so long, has to be done with attention to breathing — while six repetitions can be done without proper attention to breathing, which makes it ‘anaerobic.” Thus, one has to rest overly long to recover from that deficit.

In fact, properly performed movement actually rides the breathing contraction and will then act as a pre-exhaustion for the subsequent exercise because there is no cardiovascular failure prohibiting further efforts. But unlike using too heavy weights, a light weight becomes heavy — until finally, one cannot even lift their arms without any weight or resistance. That is true muscle failure. That is the state one hopes to obtain in working out — that signals to the body that it must become stronger and more enduring. If it spends 90+% of its time resting, then there is no imperative to become stronger and more able. One simply quits whenever it is convenient to and adapts to the resting state — and so those “results” are not immediately apparent, as it is for those who have learned to make that transformation instantaneously. That is what the physique competitors become good at — making that impressive transformation.

Many are impressive coming in off the streets, but what distinguishes the champion bodybuilders from all the others, is this ability to transform to even greater levels than their fellow competitors can — which was the scientific flaw of Arthur Jones and his Nautilus principles. Rather than selecting a random population sample to “prove” his ideas, he found the two people who were the greatest genetic freaks in making those transformations — and nobody else came close. What makes something “scientific” is that it can be proven on random population samples — and not self-selected individuals with that predisposition for exhibiting those qualities one hopes to exhibit.

That is to say that what works for Casey Viator or Sergio Oliva, is not necessarily going to work for anybody else — but what works for a broad population of 70 year olds, probably has merit. By then, that population sample has already entered into those years in which muscle atrophy is the distinguishing characteristic of that population — and anything that defies and defeats it, is extraordinarily significant. By that measure, traditional and conventional exercise does not work — or it would have been demonstrated conclusively a long time ago. Just simply more of that is not going to work — no matter how strident the belief.

But that doesn’t mean that nothing can work — only that what we thought might work, hasn’t worked before — and so maybe we need to rethink it entirely to match the realities, rather than persisting in the belief that if we wish it hard enough, it will become reality. That is the paradigm of contemporary exercise — and why it doesn’t work, or only works among the young — and then fails utterly as people age, and need it most to work. It doesn’t make sense and is only our desire to impose our will over that reality.

Of course most people would like to believe that they can get into better shape by not doing anything — or just doing whatever they want to do — regardless of the consequences or the results. But life doesn’t work that way. Or merely doing the opposite of whatever life is telling us. That creates a lot of extra work and jobs, and for many, busyness itself is its own virtue and reward. Thus, many still think that proper exercise is simply a matter of burning the most calories — rather than actually getting “results,” and especially, with as little expenditure of time, energy and other resources. The object of a car is not simply to burn as energy as possible but to actually get somewhere — preferably as economically and efficiently as possible.

But one has to measure the output (results) and not simply the inputs (efforts and good intentions) — that can be unlimited with no commensurate results. So when we ask is one set sufficient to optimize gains, the better question is in what manner of training, is nothing more possible? That would obviously be doing 50 repetitions of one exercise immediately followed by the next exercise for 50 repetitions, etc until the body is fully exhausted. There is no place for multiple sets — which means resting for more than one is actually exercising. That is the reason most people fail to make gains — they’re resting most of the time — claiming they are doing “multiple sets” — to failure even. They don’t have the slightest idea what that is.

If they do only one set to failure (or 50 repetitions), that will produce the extreme muscle soreness that will take about a week to recover from — if they do nothing else. But the quickest way to recover from that extreme muscle soreness is just to exercise alternating the contraction and relaxation of those muscles because that action is the circulatory effect that removes the inflammation and promotes healing. Such daily exercises until the next gym workout is for the recovery and consolidation of those gains.

That’s how one set of each exercise is more than enough, and one gym workout a week, is more than enough — to sustain gains at any age, because what one is doing then, is working on their recovery ability — and that is the problem of aging and disease. Then, even the exceptional, run out of recovery ability — and go into irreversible decline. But that is not necessarily inherent in aging. Some activities are more productive than others — and that is what the true scientists are trying to isolate — and not just doing anything, and wondering why it doesn’t work.

Designing an Exercise Program

  The value of exercise is that it directs the blood flow specifically to those parts of the body in which the muscle is contracting — which is how it lifts weights and does work. Conversely, when it relaxes, gravity moves the object to its lowest level, and the only resistance required is just enough to keep an object from breaking. The alternation of muscle contraction with relaxation, produces a pumping effect — just as the heart is specialized and dedicated to doing — in the direction towards the extremities of the body. But once at the extremities, the body relies on the muscle contractions at those extremities to produce the compression of fluids back to the center of the body — and those that do that more often and effectively, develop greater health and the musculature that an enhanced blow flow enables.

That is not simply making the heart alone work harder and faster, but the recruitment of the skeletal (voluntary) muscles to enhance that effect very deliberately and specifically. Those who do that best are self-described “bodybuilders,” because their exercise is to produce that effect — while in all other activities and events, that is a secondary, adjunct consideration. So if one considers the amount of weight lifted as primary importance, they may not achieve as impressive a bodybuilding effect — as it is to one who places “the pump” as their primary concern. The older weight trainers were very clear on this difference and distinction.

In present times, those distinctions and differences are lost, and so, many will exercise long and hard without achieving their desired ends — if they are even clear on that. Most people want to be the biggest and strongest ever, without considering that many others also wish for that, and many, like in every facet of human activity, are just more gifted genetically to be successful at it — because that is the way it is with everything in life. There are the prodigies — and everybody else, but that does not preclude them from doing what they truly love to do above all else.

However within their potential, there is considerable room for improvement — and that is not nothing. It can also be its own calling in its own unique way. Except for specifically prescribed competitions and protocols, there are all manner of ways one can define their own success. Many of the legendary strong men were motivated to overcome their handicaps and poor health as their motivation for breaking their own limits of what was possible — and ultimately to set the standard for many others to follow.

One does not know for certain what the ultimate actualization of that potential is — unless it is articulated and developed. Nobody comes into the world completely developed. That is a process of time and growth — and the adventure of every life, is discovering what that will be. Many think that the feet, hands and head are designed to support the rest of the musculature, when it is the other way around. And so they are “conditioned” not to move their feet, hands and head but instead immobilize them while moving the larger muscles as though they were the prime movers.

But anybody familiar with anatomy knows that a muscle will contract from the insertion (most distant) towards the origin of that muscle — and never vice-versa, and when a joint is fully articulated, it will activate the larger muscle supporting it. In this manner, it is possible to engage all the muscles along the five meridians (pathways) back to the center of the body so that the body develops commensurate strength throughout — instead of the disproportionate development working each muscle in isolation — beginning with the largest — and invariably running out of time and energy to exercise the most important muscles at the extremities.

But then in later years, that mistake reveals itself in the muscle atrophy occurring from the extremities back towards the core — in the conditions of edema, lymphedema, lipedema, arthritis, neuropathies, infirmities, and dementias. That is no accident and coincidence. Over the long history and evolution of human societies, the hand, feet and head is what put the human at the top — but because of the conveniences of modern life, we no longer have to move those parts of our body, and movement is what determines the blood flow — and so to immobilize them in exercises is a fatal error — because those are the critically important organs to maintain and develop above all else.

The cardio machines are notably bad for immobilizing the head, hands and feet — while maximizing the heart rate. But the heart is not the weakness of the body as much as it is that the skeletal (voluntary) muscles are unexercised and unengaged. Throwing a rock or spear, requires that flick of the wrist to ensure any kind of accuracy -- whether shooting a basketball, throwing a baseball,  hitting a tennis ball or baseball. Without that wrist activation (contraction) that movement is largely meaningless  and unproductive. Yet those movements have largely been eliminated in many popular conditioning activities — and so seems to have little or no effect on the increasing dysfunction and malfunctioning of those body parts — while thinking one is getting the proper exercise — as defined only by heart action. But what about exercise for the rest of the body? — pumping the fluids back to the heart and cleansing organs of the body.

Where is the atrophy and deterioration most obvious in aging — and all those aging-related diseases? At the extremities. And their usual manner of exercising seems to be less successful at preventing it — much less producing gains. Obviously, they need to renew and emphasize the flow to those areas as their priorities — and not continuing to ignore that development with such disastrous results. It is even more obvious on the former legendary bodybuilders as they age — and are in a panic because all those efforts seem to be futile now even if the gains came easily when they were younger. Their own bodies are telling them what needs to be tended to — but then they go and do something else instead.

That time is up. Now they have to do what they really have to do — as their urgency. That was the normal course of life until the modern conveniences made no such demands on them to assure their usefulness and health. Watching television all day does not require head movement, grip strength and foot balance. They can just as soon do it in a wheelchair. Predictably, they become less able — even if they get out of their chair for a half-hour of treadmill (cardio) — requiring no articulation and movement at the head, hands, and feet.

That’s the heart’s job, right? The heart is a one pound organ that can’t be expected to be the only working muscle in the body. What about all that other muscle mass? What are they doing? And that is the problem — nothing useful — if anything at all. One doesn’t even know what they’re there for. Thus even the bodybuilders will eschew working the neck, forearms, and calves as non-productive exercises because they don’t know how to use them properly.

The range of motion itself produces a contraction and a relaxation — from the furthest muscular insertions of the body and is thus the most effective and efficient way to improve the circulation throughout the body — that maintains it health — beginning with its most critically important organs at the extremities where they are the most useful. But if one never uses them, they wouldn’t know that.