The Resistance Within

  The Resistance Within

Every person is their own “Primary Care Provider" rather than the designated, specialized health professionals. That is to acknowledge that one is primarily responsible for their own best health and well-being — and everybody and everything is secondary in that endeavor. That includes researching and choosing the best professionals in every field to assist them in achieving their ultimate objective of attaining the best life possible for themselves — and not just be the best customer/client a professional ever had. There is a difference — because not every professional or amateur, is equally good and competent. One has to make those determinations as well — and not go by their sales pitch, marketing program, or sincerity in saying, “Trust me.” One is their own ultimate judge and jury of such matters, as well as every decision they make in life.

If they choose well, life will be successful — but if they choose poorly, things will turn out badly. Fortunately in most things, it is never too late to see the light and course-correct — because that too is life, and maybe the better part of it. That’s how one' improves — and not the fantasy of making one decision, and then living happily forever after. Even the great ones failed a thousand times before achieving their greatest successes. That is every “greatest story ever told.”

In health, that is invariably the story of the runt of the litter and the 98 lb. weakling transforming themselves into the renown human specimen — because that was the drive and necessity for their very survival. It was either that or they would perish — at every opportunity to do so, but fatefully, they chose and acted wisely, and continued for another day. Such individuals then became famous for their resilience and persistence in the face of all odds. It did not matter how daunting the obstacle, they would overcome them as their signature style at living life large.

But it doesn’t just happen; those are the people in the habit of overcoming every obstacle — and when they fail, simply consider it practice until they eventually succeed. And then if they don’t, they’ll perish like everybody has before them — but know they gave it their best shot, and so went out on top regardless of the outcome. So that is the question to ask of oneself — each and every day — and how to get there, and not just settle for arbitrary goals others say will guarantee them eternal happiness and immortality.

There is a tendency to get caught up in such lofty and far-flung goals rather than remain focused on the simple matters at hand — known as the “attention to details,” yet it is this latter, that makes the most difference. This is why a rare few achieve remarkable results — while the vast majority come to regard their efforts as futile, or hardly worth the effort — because they’re focused on all the wrong things. It’s not about how many calories they burn, how profusely they sweat, how much pain they endure, how elaborate their theories and explanations, or how much weight they lift. What makes the difference, is how well they increase the health/life-giving circulatory effect to the part of the body that needs it the most. That is more than just thinking to make the heart work harder and faster — because that is not the ultimate and greater objective: it is the greater circulatory effect — that can be achieved when all the muscles of the body assist in that task, and not just the burden of the heart alone — even working against all the others — as though that was a smart thing to do.

That is the primary function of all the muscles in the body, and when one understands that, it is a simple matter of designing movement that effects that most optimally — regardless of equipment external to the body, or even moving the entirety of the body itself. What one wants to know and achieve, is how to optimize the flow to the areas one can benefit from the most — to produce the greatest functioning and health, and from that, all the other attributes are derived and manifested — rather than vice-versa. In a cause and effect world, one has to properly identify which is the cause and which is the effect — and mere correlation is insufficient to this understanding and purpose. It is not a co-incidence that things happen; that is the fallacy of epidemiological studies.

“There is a reason things happen.,” and not that if one does anything, they achieve the desired results. Of course they may attain many other unintended consequences — like injuries or loss, which is inevitable in a cause and effect world. Nothing happens randomly — although there can be unintended results. That is, it may make things worse, and become the problem — rather than its solution. That happens frequently when a plausible explanation is not true — which is the old wives tales that are commonly believed as the truth — rather than the actuality of the results. When this is pointed out, the resistance against the obvious, is simply increased — instead of rethought — to achieve a more effective level of understanding.

That is the unfortunate legacy of many physical regimens. Simply harder is better, rather than taking the time upfront to develop clarity. One wants to be as busy as possible so that there is no possibility for thought and understanding — before applying maximal effort and force. It may be that a lighter touch with a better understanding is all that is required. In exercises, it is the movement itself that is the benefit and not the resistance against it — and then not doing it properly. The proper movement, produces the alternating full contraction with a full relaxation — whereas the steady state muscle impedes that flow no matter how hard the heart is working. That is also the definition of what it means to be “aerobic.”

That produces dysfunction and failure — whether one is sedentary or riding a stationary bike. The flow is not induced where the muscle involved is not moving — from fullest contraction to fullest relaxation — which is what modern bodybuilders and previously, muscle control artists, understood and actualized. That control could be achieved entirely without equipment — but equipment could also be designed to instruct one on where the movement requires the muscle to be in its most contracted state, and in which position it must be in its most relaxed state. That was the genius of the Nautilus machines. The inventor designed the movement to effect those muscle states — regardless of the resistance used. That’s how the human body works.

This is particularly important as one ages — or desires to strengthen a weakness. It is the range of movement that is significant — and not the resistance increased at the expense of this range. The range is the resistance.