The Wisdom of the Ages

 The Wisdom of the Ages

A person is either growing — or deteriorating; they never stay the same. That is the quality that gives them life — always changing, and so the direction of that change is up to them. The simplest gauge is whether they are improving on some measure of improvement — of which the most obvious, visible, and measurable is their appearance and quality of movement. That conveys the dynamism of their underlying health and robustness. They can do what they have to do — and not merely expend as much energy as possible with no rhyme or reason. Unfortunately, that is the mentality often taught as “exercise” — rather than the economy and efficiency of movement which is appropriate to any task — even in the realization that such expenditures of energy and the risks they entail, are unnecessary and wasteful uses of their time and energy.

Thus when people are clear in their objectives and intents, they can achieve meaningful results in everything they do — and so life turns out well for them — not by accident but because they are constantly refining their skills to increase their proficiency in what they do. Strength is a component of that but even more important is the skill at utilizing that strength — since very few tasks in life are accomplished by brute force and power. Rather, it is energy that has been channeled and honed to produce a precise effect and result — which accrues and transfers to all other aspects of their doing. That is the manner in which they do everything — from personal hygiene, household chores, preparing meals, and all the tasks of managing their environment and circumstances that give them the best chance for survival and prosperity — that they earned and is deserved, because they paid attention to these details that made it so.

So they don’t perish in a careless moment or overestimate their abilities — but know fairly accurately what they presently are — because they’ve regularly and recently exercised them — rather than simply reminiscing about what they used to do 50 years ago — but haven’t tested lately. Not that they have to win any medals or contests for their age-group — but it is enough not to have any limitations in doing anything in their daily lives, which might include walking up a flight of stairs, or carrying a week’s worth of groceries from the bus stop to their front door, or even riding a bike for that purpose. If they can maintain that level of regular daily activities, they are already far ahead of the crowd — in the most meaningful and productive way.

One would even say there is no distinguishing them from any other cohort. They are not adjudged young or old, but fit and able at fulfilling all the tasks of caring well for themselves. That is the healthy paradigm, and not the more contemporary expectation of one growing too weak to do necessary things for themselves — that begin insidiously with one thing — and predictably to everything. That level of total reliance and dependence on another, and even an army of caregivers just to maintain that one life, is an unsustainable vision of future life and society. Instead, everyone achieving that longevity, will have to merit it by their own dedicated and thoughtful self-care — as the only way possible, so the younger generations can do what they have to do — which is to take care of children properly and attentively so they do not become the next generation of people living on the streets — totally unprepared for productive and meaningful lives.

Not only do the old folks have to get healthier and more able (fit), every member of society has to carry their own weight — as the paradigm of a healthy society. Many think that is somebody else’s job — or responsibility, but that is the province of every sovereign life. That is to say that every such person is king of their own lives — and they are fully entitled to everything they can provide for themselves. They are not entitled to the fruits of the labors of everyone else — just because they are a privileged citizen demanding unlimited entitlements.

But in that doing, they remain stronger, more vibrant and able, and worthy of praise and emulation as the pioneers of the next evolution of human life and possibilities. The wisdom of aging has yet to be tapped — beyond trying to remain youthful. With all the information and products of these times, a quality of life unimaginable in the past is now possible for those who embrace those possibilities in living them — not with great determination and effort, but because it makes great sense to do it. The old dysfunctional and (co)dependent ways make them seem prohibitive.

That is also the old paradigm of strength training — that it must be a struggle against great resistance — rather than the integration of all the previous understandings that came before it — to be a better way of living and doing, rather than the age-old belief in the power of brute force. Strength and health comes by increasing the flow and circulation to areas we wish to improve — directly and manifestly. It doesn’t just happen because we make the already hardest and oftentimes only working muscle of the body work harder and faster — until it ultimately fails. We need to recruit all the other muscles of the body for this primary purpose — and that direction provides the nutrients by which the body grows healthier and stronger. That’s how all of life operates and evolves. It is the most natural thing. And then we are one with the universe and our environment — as Nature intended.

Lying Side Back Arch

 Lying Side Back Arch

Most of the traditional/conventional back exercises don’t work the lower back muscles (posterior chain) in their position of strength and integrity — but rather produce contractile forces while in their most vulnerable positions, resulting in greater back pain rather than relief from it. The clearest example of this would be the deadlift — usually touted as a cure-all for this problem, when the vertebrae is stretched while the muscles are contracting. The safe way to contract these muscles maximally, would be to begin in a compressed position, and contract further — with minimal movement, or isometrically. The simplest way this can be done is to lie on one’s side, and contract the head and feet rearward — while placing one’s upper hand on the spinal erectors or gluteus maximus to verify that this most powerful contraction of the posterior chain muscles are in fact activated and engaged — with an intensity that cannot be achieved in any other manner.

The primary function of the muscles of the glute and lower back is not to provide movement but to provide this stability and anchorage for the movements taking place at the extremities — at the head, hands and feet. The action of the muscles is that the contraction moves from the insertion (distal) towards the origin (proximal) of that muscle — which in turn, triggers the underlying supporting muscle to contract from its insertion towards its origin and finally getting back to the anchorage at the core of the body — which are the largest muscles of the body for good reason.

Thus the logical action of those muscles, would be to contract even more from a beginning position of strength — as happens with only slight movement of the head and feet in a rearward movement. While it may not seem like much, one will note that very powerful effect and contraction taking place — because it just has to. Most other movements and exercises are not so direct at producing such an instant and immediate effect — and should be the exercise done by everyone just to get up and out of bed each morning — especially with back/hip pain. As such, it would also be the exercise one would do if bedridden to regain their strength and functioning — from a weakened or debilitated state.

During sleep or long periods in bed, the many muscles attached to the vertebrae may fall out of alignment during the complete relaxation of the muscles — and some will activate and be engaged a lot better than others, while a few will remain less responsive — and as a result, the whole body will not be as coordinated as it can be initially. However, the lying side back arch requires the activation and engagement of the entire posterior chain — without firing them individually and out of proportion to the others, and one can gauge that with the hand placed on the spinal erectors or gluteus to confirm that response and effect.

So it is a movement that works on many respects — as the must do exercise, each and every day, before one even gets out of bed — or whenever one experiences debilitating back pain. In this position, it is also possible to “crack” one’s own back — or relieve the uneven pressure one feels in the spine that is experienced as back pain — for which people often go to a chiropractor, massage therapist, or acupuncturist to do for them. This is one way to do it for oneself — by oneself, in the many instances that one doesn’t have a team of health care professionals at the ready. The backwards arch while lying on one’s side produces this equal pressure on all the vertebrae — that puts them into their proper alignment.

Once the bones are in the proper place and alignment, then the muscles can contract maximally — with minimal risk of pain and injury, and in fact is curative for those with back (joint) pain and aches. The version for the anterior chain of muscles would be the lying press down (dip) with toe retraction to contract all those muscles with one movement (position) that can be performed dynamically or isometrically for a count of 50 — and repeated for another round as desired or required. All this can be done before getting out of bed — or as a means to get out of bed — and then beneficially, as needed any time one needs a reset or reorientation to proper muscular functioning.

Some things just work.

Heavy or Light?

  The father of modern day bodybuilding, Eugen Sandow, used 5 lb dumbbells for 50–100 repetitions in a daily workout of about 20 exercises lasting approximately an hour. He could also lift heavy weights but did not advocate that as a training style — but as a skill, as heavy weight lifting is actually, just as others would choose many other sports and activities to specialize in.

The major objective was to be as healthy and well-functioning as possible — to do whatever you want to do. That obviously begins with being as muscular as possible — rather than flabby, grossly underweight, unprepared and unpracticed. So the common theme underlining all fitness activities is to be at peak readiness for whatever one chooses to do — all their lives, and not sacrifice everything, including one’s health for a momentary glory and achievement — and even perish in the process — as is the lore of competitive bodybuilding — while the concept of general and healthful bodybuilding throughout one’s life, is always a good idea.

Every living being does that — as the survival imperative. That means being prepared for all the challenges of life — and not just the one — that is often the one that will prove fatal, or remain their greatest vulnerability until the end. One specifically hopes to strengthen that weakness so it is not the limiting factor In all one' does. That might be performance style as well as pure strength — and every record holder, prides themselves on their style and technique — over brute force and strength. Even the apex predators of land, sea, and sky, are renowned by their technique as the summation of their strengths.

But more importantly, it enabled the weak to become strong — not because of the resistance — but because of the technique for achieving that effect (result). In fact, it was noted that the resistance (weight) used, was not directly correlated to the results one got — but the manner of performance (form) was the greater common denominator in every activity. While not everybody can be the world record holder in that event, everyone can perfect their own form and function — which is their unique event of accomplishment. The right weight for that individual, is that weight that enables them to perfect their form and performance — regardless of the weight and resistance. More often than not, increasing the weight degrades the form — and every subsequent repetition degrades it further and is non- or counterproductive, and eventually injurious.

Meanwhile, the person who perfects their form, and maintains that standard throughout their lives — remain in exemplary condition and shape — and those repetitions are worth repeating. A famous YouTuber, Ric Drasin used to interview the former greats of bodybuilding — of which a common complaint was that they no longer got a pump — even despite doing the same thing they used to — mainly because the weights they were using were almost the same, while their forms in the manner of performance had greatly deteriorated — as to be virtually unrecognizable as that same exercise.

The proper course of action would have been to reduce the weight (resistance) significantly in order to perform at least one good repetition — which was now shortened to a movement of only a few inches — if that, and totally eliminating the most productive part of the movement, which was the muscle in full contraction. Their rationale for not going there anymore, was that range was no longer available to them because of the damage to their joints from years of lifting too heavy weights. The proper prescription at that point, is to reduce the weight to enable proper performance — over any other consideration, and then repeating that for a target of 50 repetitions — which is indicative that they could do more, or continue indefinitely if they had to. In that manner, they become an aerobic activity — which can be sustained indefinitely as long as required.

Most people in gyms do not do 50 repetitions of any exercise because they can’t — no matter how light the weight because their muscle fatigues — if done improperly, or anaerobically. That is to say that they run out of capacity because they are holding their breath, or breathing too shallowly. Meanwhile, they are not contracting and relaxing a muscle to constitute one complete movement (rep), but are merely holding a muscle in a fixed state of semi contraction while leveraging the weight up and down with the rest of their bodyweight. That was the rationale for Arthur Jones’ design of the Nautilus machines to provide variable resistance throughout the full range around one axis (focus) of movement — virtually going from zero to 100% of resistance — as the muscle involved moved from full relaxation to full contraction.

The problem with that thesis is that most trainees started with 100% of resistance at the position of greatest weakness and vulnerability — and never reached fullest muscle contraction because of that manner of performance. So in essence, they overrode the design genius, and made the movement worse — in using too heavy a weight. The proper course would have been to choose the right weight in the weakest position, and slowly increase the range of movement in the fully contracted position they could not come close to attaining by selecting too heavy a weight to start the movement with. So when those machines did not achieve the result he predicted for everybody, he thought it was necessary to create another line of machines for therapeutic and weaker individuals.

The flaw was not that they needed to add more weight — but needed to lighten the weight to enable the fullest range of movement — and doing more repetitions of that proper movement up to 50 times — which is virtually guaranteed to produce a pump in everybody, from the weakest to the strongest — because it has to! But in every video of training sessions and styles, that proper usage is absent — and overridden by the desire to use as much weight as possible. Not only is that unnecessary but counterproductive — because the major complaint among the old and disabled, is that they tire easily — and that is what prevents them from exercising productively and more intensely.

They require a manner of training, that increases their momentary ability to persist and endure — over any exertion that exhausts them from continuing — even if that prohibition comes from the many who claim to know better academically and theoretically what people should be doing — but can’t. More familiar versions of such advice is to ask that an untrained person do ten pullups — when they can’t even do one — but should continue practicing until they can do ten.