The Giant Swing

The Giant Swing

In the mid-80s, I ran across a very thin volume in which a doctor from the early 20th century, advised doing the Giant Swing — as a remedy for virtually every major human ill — and so it was hard to take him seriously — in an age of increasing specialization and fragmentation.

Each of the 20 chapters or so, described a health condition in two pages, for which the remedy was the exact same movement — which he called, The Giant Swing. It was kind of maddening to see the same simple exercise prescribed for all the major illnesses of the times — but I was used to hearing eccentric ideas regarding training — often from the inventors themselves, and kept an open mind as to how their insights concurred with actual observations and experiences.

As a still fairly young person, these answers seemed too easy and obvious — or “too good to be true,” that it is easy to assume that they must not be true — because we are conditioned to not believing our own senses but to rely on the “unquestionable authorities” who claim to do all the thinking for everyone henceforth — just because they thought of it first. But real science is always challenging authority — in a quest for a better understanding, and not merely accepting previous authorities as the end-all of what can be known — especially when it fails to solve our age-old problems.

At that point, we don’t stop looking and give up in despair that there can be a better solution and understanding, but find out ourselves what works and what doesn’t — even if only for ourselves. And then if it does, the secret will get out — even if suppressed, censored, edited out by the gatekeepers of information paid handsomely to maintain the status quo.

But the quest for truth and understanding, is a higher calling that eventually overwhelms the narrow self-aggrandizing interests — to lay the foundation for the next level of evolution, which requires the presence of a critical mass of population of first sufficient longevity, and secondly, the healthspan beyond that. Thus, simply a longer life, is not sufficient to define health, but health is now measured beyond mere survival. That sign, would be the ability to maintain their functioning, mobility, and competence to accomplish all the tasks to maintain independence and freedom in life. That is now the new standard for meaningful existence — and not simply the bare vital signs with no willful capacity.

On the other hand, one does not need to be setting world records for their age group — or in open competitions for that matter — to prove they are still viable, and merit living longer. It should be enough to provide for their own independent living — at increasing higher levels of competency. That is already plenty, and accomplished even by a few — including the young and more active. Only a few become wiser with age — while many more become older and simply fall apart increasingly, because they have no way of getting better. The many ways offered by the “experts,” require them to be highly-functioning, to become better, rather than starting from their present state of competency — even if it is barely detectable.

That is the basic level of responsiveness — where any sign of voluntary movement is indicative of the possibility of improvement. Everyone has days like that, and so what is of primary importance, is being able to raise oneself from the dead — as required, this one more time. Or if one doesn’t feel up to doing anything, anymore. The giant swing is a good way to get started — because the movement of the head relative to the torso, produces the alternation of the muscle contraction and relaxation at the neck, to enhance that flow to the most important organ of the human body. But without that specific flow, it doesn’t matter how fast and how hard the heart is working — because that is not the lack — but is the last thing one needs to worry about. But in most conventional exercise with their muddled and even backwards understanding of the value of exercise, they place the autonomic above the voluntary muscular action — which is certainly wrong thinking and wrong understanding of the human body.

There is a reason it is an autonomic (automatic) function and not that one has to reinvent millions of years of evolution because Nature got it wrong in providing so — in every living animal. But the voluntary muscular actions, is what every individual can do to enhance their present functioning, capabilities and development. That is simply inescapable common sense and self-evident truth — that any right-thinking individual can discover for themselves. But unfortunately, that is not how many learn anymore — thinking that the primary way of learning, is to ask somebody else for the truth of the matter. And if all the “experts” are aligned on one consensus, it doesn’t matter that it doesn’t work for anyone — and never will. They are in agreement on what the truth is — despite it being nonproductive and even ruinous for everyone — but they are the experts who will continue to be in charge as these problems get worse — without end.

But if one can simply perform the giant swing that ensures the enhancement of the blood flow primarily to the brain, and secondarily to the muscles (organs) of the torso, one can feel fairly confident that one is engaging enough of the total musculature beyond simply working the heart harder and faster — to do some real good. However, one still has to do that, and not merely think that that makes perfectly good sense — and knowing that alone without exercising that knowledge, is sufficient to obtain desirable results.

The giant swing is more commonly known as the torso twist while looking straight ahead, or the 360 degree head turn — requiring the engagement and activation of all the muscles of the body to achieve. 

Rising to the Challenges of Daily Living

 The chief benefit of all exercise is to direct all the energy and resources to the task (challenge) at hand — and maintain that capability all one’s life. So obviously, if one does not actually exercise that capability, one doesn’t know if one has it, nor the degree to which it can be recruited — momentarily, as needed. That is not dependent on free weights, machines, or any other apparatus — but is the mastery over one’s own body and its functioning. There is nothing magical about the equipment; the major ingredient is the understanding of the challenge and the individual’s response.

Muscles are the means by which we can change to accomplish any task and objective. We do that by contracting a muscle — or relaxing it to achieve the desired effect. When any movement is studied and observed beyond the distractions, we realize that those are the essentials that keep the body functioning optimally — regardless of the activity. Weight-training and machines isolate those movements — which can be performed productively without that equipment, and is probably the breakthrough that enables people to exercise throughout their lives — by DECREASING the resistance to such movements. That is the key to exercising in longevity. Not lifting more weights, but learning to produce those contractions and relaxations — without the resistance or need to accomplish any other extraneous work.

In that way, it is similar to a lot of athletic events that require minimal apparatus — like yoga, tai chi, dance, etc., that have become ritualized in its own way — and become a hindrance to the simplicity in effecting immediate health. It doesn’t take years of study and practice to produce a muscle contraction or relaxation. That is just what muscles do. But exercise (training) makes them do it better — but the capability is always there as the nature of the organ. The user guide is another matter entirely — and unfortunately many, if not all, come into the world having no idea what to do with it — although the child prodigies of movement have a huge head start in this mastery — just as they do in every other, and that is why one is advised throughout life, to discover who they are, and what they were born to do — as they will have great advantage in doing so.

But the simplicity of exercise is the understanding that if one increases the circulation to any organ or area, that maintains its health — as a priority over organs and areas not given that priority. Everything will not develop equally well just because it is the heart’s job to pump blood equally well to every part regardless. Preference is given to what one actually does — and not all one could do, but doesn’t. And that is many things. But in rising to the challenge of one’s own existence and environment, one is shaped in that way — to be more prolific at what one actually does. So it is not enough just to wish one had those formidable capabilities, but actually practice it enough to make it so.

But then we usually get lost in the activity and the competitions surrounding it — until much later in life when we wish we just had the ability to do what we used to do so easily — but took the erroneous path of making it more cumbersome and difficult, and eventually impossible and even injurious. We are encouraged to do so by those who would sell their products with the promise to restore those capabilities — whether it still makes sense to do so or not — as one now has trouble just getting out of bed, or out of a chair — and doesn’t think those are worthy challenges to master but are now their handicaps for life.

Then instructors and therapists will come along and advise them how to make those movements more difficult — to make the simple seem easier. But that just raises the bar higher, and what is indicated, is lowering the bar, so that they can actually do it — and do it easily, effortlessly, and gracefully. And as long as they can do that, then movement is their friend, and not their struggle — but it requires that simplicity of understanding, and not making it more complex and harder.

So the simplicity of movement is that it is effected by contracting a muscle or lengthening it — and the rhythmic alternation of those states, produces the same pumping effect as the heart does unfailingly until the day one dies. As important as its role and function, the heart is still a small organ of roughly one pound — supplying blood for a 100+ body, and the best and most healthful use for all the other muscles, is to assist the heart in pumping the blood out of the extremities at the head, hands and feet where circulation is poorest — back towards the center of the body for elimination, exchange and recycling — or the body simply accumulates those waste products as the inflammation and swelling that undermines this healthful process. That is the kind of exercise one needs in the extraordinary circumstances of outer space of deepest depths of the ocean — or simply getting out of bed each day ready to take on the challenges of one’s daily living.

Once a Week Higher-Intensity Gym Workouts

  If you work out intensely, then it won’t be possible to work out oftener than once a week. That is the general rule — or observation, because that all-out effort can only be done infrequently — and not every day — even by the best. It is like a professional or even college football player playing a big game every day. There is not enough recovery ability and psychic energy to do so on that frequency. If one did, then one would exhaust their recovery ability and regress —rather than progress — but far more common is becoming injured because the body cannot maintain that level of intensity for long — or frequently.

So that is lesson one in any athlete’s training — to discover that point that is not too little, or too much — and err on the side of too little, because one can always do a little more — but if one is too aggressive, is that they will injure themselves, and set them back for weeks — or forever, which is how many swear off exercise for the rest of their lives. You don’t want to be that guy —- that is the worst case scenario.

That’s why anybody who tells you they are training to failure everyday, on every set, doesn’t know what they are talking about — because even the greatest athletes know to pace themselves and peak at exactly the right moment — and then once that is achieved, many often go off the rails — and do all kinds of things they feel they have deprived themselves of to reach that peak condition in that right moment.

Most people however, just want to be in acceptable shape and condition all their lives — rather than the one moment of glory and then die prematurely — or become crippled for life. That greatly explains why a lot of these bodybuilding competitors die early — rather than being the paragons of health up to 100. And that really is the objective for most people — and not whether they can obtain maximal gains at any cost, no matter how briefly. With that in mind, one wants to know what is the sustainable pace of improvement throughout one’s life — rather than the one and done — and then we move on to the next impressive prodigy with short shelf life. We really want to be the first person to 100 who doesn’t look 100 — and not the person who is 100 who looks like they should be dead. Or even 60 for that matter.

The problem with a once a week intense workout is not that it is not productive, but that it produces extreme muscular soreness for the following week that seems to worsen even up to the fourth day and sometimes beyond after the workout, and then finally to show signs of recovery up to the day of one’s next weekly intense workout. So the problem is always that one is recovering from this extreme muscle soreness — that pains one to bend at most joints — if one does not do anything else for the whole week. And so the key breakthrough, was recovering from this extreme and debilitating muscle soreness, so that one can live an enjoyable life — rather than just being in recovery perpetually — even if that is what it takes to achieve maximum muscle growth in the fastest time possible.

Because the bigger objective — in all one does — is to achieve the most enjoyable life possible, and not just the one thing — and being healthy and highly functioning is more important than any single competition — at whatever cost. The wise strategy is finding out how much less one can do to achieve that same effect — rather than how much more one can do — which often results in less of that effect — or diminishing returns for more cost and effort. The medical expression is the smallest effective dose — and not the popular belief that if a little is good, than more must be better — infinitely.

So if one goes to the gym once a week and works out at any intensity, that is already good enough to keep them in the game — all their lives. You just don’t want to go to zero — by overdoing it and getting injured or burned out so that one swears off doing anything anymore for the rest of their life. That is the critical failure. But if one is going to the gym once a week and working out as hard as they want to, that puts them way ahead of most people — including a lot of people who do more — and then stop, because their regimen becomes too difficult to continue.

Lots of people recount how active and even prolific they used to be 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago — but haven’t done anything since — so what matters is what they still do now, and can do better. But a hundred times zero, is still zero. That is also true for 1,000% followed by zero. So the proper intensity, is what one can do — and continues to do — regularly. That is “regular” exercise. Then when one is exercising regularly, the next question to ask, is what is most beneficial to do?

For most people, that would be becoming good or better at what they already do — and not as the exercise experts would have them do — become good or better at what they never do otherwise. Yet that seems to be largely what the exercise experts teach — movements one would not even think to do — while ignoring the difficulties/or pain they are having at what they actually do.

Another word for intensity is “focus” — which means to concentrate one’s energy and efforts to the proper axis of attention — and not have it dissipated and scattered everywhere so one loses that central importance of what is being studied — and its causes and effects. Then one can measure its significance as cause and effect — rather than just being coincidental and correlated to anything — which may or may not be important. Correlation is the beginning and not the ending of one’s studies. Poor scientists and researchers seek to confirm their beliefs by eliminating all the information contrary to it — rather than proving a direct causal relationship in a random population sample.

The importance of that is that a principle will work on anybody and everybody — and not just on a highly motivated self-selected few — who may have very little in common with the average population. It may be that it only works for a special population sample — rather than being a universal truth. But one recognizes the truth that everybody is not indefatiguable — and must rest and recover to some degree greater than others. It is during those times that the body has the chance to get rid of the damage and build itself better — for the next time. But if the next time never comes, that response is extinguished — because the body has more important things to do than maintain a reserve that is never tapped.

As one gets older, they realize that resources are not unlimited but have to be diligently maintained in the best balance — with priority to whatever is most important to do. That with unquesttionably be to maintain the functioning and health of the extremities of the head, hands, and feet, where it is usually noted, that the circulation and development is the most compromised — as the telltale signs of aging. Perfect — because those alternating contractions and relaxations of the musculature of those organs, optimize the circulatory effect of the body — if one were designing the human body as a machine for optimal performance and functioning. Those movements can be performed anytime, anywhere, as needed — to enhance the recovery from the once a week intense workouts at the gym.