Thinking Differently

The Only Movement that Matters

2012-01-31T11:25:00.000-08:00

About 35 years ago, a friend working for NASA, asked me how it would be possible for astronauts in space to maintain their fitness levels, since prolonged periods of weightlessness seemed to have a deteriorative effect on the body -- since there was no resistance (weight) to keep the muscles and bones strong.

As one of the pioneers of "high intensity training," through my various experiments with "state of the art training concepts," 40 years ago, we knew definitively that as little as one five-minute workout a week could produce the stimulus and demand for the muscles to grow at a fairly dramatic rapid pace -- but the entirety of the time not training, would be spent recovering and recuperating from the crippling pain of muscle soreness -- that could be briefly ameliorated, by just attempting to produce movement during that recovery period of 7-10 days -- before experiencing normalcy again.

Otherwise, the soreness was so intense, that any movement at all, caused tremendous pain, requiring tremendous effort to produce any movement at all. The sole objective was to achieve as rapid muscle growth as possible -- with as little training time as possible -- and every other consideration was considered the cost of achieving those objectives -- even if it meant to be in a state of constant pain and recovery from such brutal workouts, that could be conducted only on the frequency of once a week, for five minutes.

That is the justification for high intensity workouts -- that if one increases the intensity to the maximum challenge, the body has to fail -- and then subsequently recover, and take a week or so of recovery time, to actually get stronger and bigger muscles.

But even if one is highly motivated enough to withstand excruciating constant pain for prolonged though predictable, controlled periods of one's conditioning in that manner, the much larger question is whether that is a sustainable life beyond short term objectives of achieving maximal growth. Invariably after 4-6 weeks of such brutally intense training, we required a longer break before starting up again, with even more people interested in such gains -- if such a thing were possible.

But training that way myself as the lead subject, as well as supervising the training of many others, was very exhausting, requiring one to break from that involvement and study, to relish once again in not being obsessed that one's entire life and energies, were not so singlemindedly focused just in producing the most intense workout experience possible, and recovering from that experience -- to attain a constantly higher normal.

Eventually, one notices beginning age 30 that one no longer has the same recovery ability -- and is prone to injury or exhaustion as a major consequence of their training -- which then becomes obviously counterproductive. Thus many fall away from their training and rigorous conditioning for the first time in their entire lives -- some never to return to those rigors, but a few adapting, or finding some greater key to the greater objective of making life truly better for themselves in all the ways, and not merely on singular measurements that could even be contraindicative to improving the health and quality of life.

So the other end of the question, once I was sure of what could maximize the pain and recovery from it, was what level of movement, could be done every day, at any time, as often as one wanted to, without producing such pain and requiring extraordinary recovery? This is the question that few think to ask -- in a culture and world that always demands "more." How much less can one do, and still get the same or even better results because of it? And what does that have to be?

The movement that makes the greatest positive difference is the movement that happens as the muscle alternately contracts and relaxes to actually move blood (cells) throughout the body -- and not the movements external to the body such as the movement of weights or even moving the body entirely from its frame of reference, such as running, jumping or swimming. That is to say, that the movement of greatest importance, cannot be seen in such traditional parameters of gross movement, but occurs entirely within the body itself, and to a great extent, in the changing of the state of the muscles from its greatest contracted state to its relaxation -- and not just one or the other, as is preferred in yoga or isometric contractions.

It's really much simpler than that -- to effect the flow of the blood -- even while watching television, sitting at a computer, or even lying down wondering if one can get up today. It's less important to run a mile if one feels like running a mile than it is just getting out of bed when one thinks he might not be able to (anymore) -- and it is such responses to such challenges, that is the conditioning one needs to overcome whatever difficulties and challenges one expects to prepare themselves for in a long life of varied experiences -- rather than the endless treadmill of doing the one same thing from the day they were born to their last, until one finally doesn't or can't.

That's what doesn't change -- even in "outer space," as long as one is still alive.

Integrating "Exercise" Into Your Daily Living (Activities)

2012-01-23T15:59:00.000-08:00

What makes "exercise" so problematical for many people, is that it is required by those who instruct it, to be something apart from their normal daily activities -- rather than as it naturally should be, that which improves one's normal daily activities. If they don't, then they don't have a lot of meaning or rationale for doing it -- other than to detract from the doing and enjoyment of one's normal (preferred) activities, and to make one miserable in the backwards thinking that the reason for doing anything, is because "it feels so good when you stop." A rational and intelligent person might then ask, "Why then, begin them at all?"

In this manner of thinking, exercise hasn't come a very long way from the days of the gladiator, in which it was said, "What doesn't kill you, will make you stronger." So one had no choice but to get stronger -- or be killed. A lot of people still use that kind of primitive psychology, motivation and reasoning -- as the hallmark of their conditioning activities (exercise) -- that if one doesn't lift the 500 lbs, it will crush them -- or if you don't batter your opponent senseless, they will do it to you -- as though that was some kind of perfectly good logic.

Every Saturday night, all across the world, some person will lose their life proving to everyone else that they are "better" than those they think they are competing against, to prove their fitness and superiority to those who are similarly impaired and impressed. It may be in showing how fast they can drive a course in that impaired state of mind and capacities -- while taking the greatest risks or even being completely oblivious to all of them.

The common feature of all those things, is that they are not the normal activities of daily living -- but activities decidedly not in the normal course of their living, so there is no way for them to get better at what they practice all the time. It unfortunately turns out to be a "one shot deal," in which if they were familiar with it, they would not be susceptible to grievous error and misjudgment.

Instead, one would approach it like an accountant who knows that "2 + 2 is going to be equal to 4 every time," -- and not that the sky is the limit because they've never done 2 + 2 before -- or while high, or impaired. Such people are addicted to living dangerously -- and out of control, fancying that that is what real living is about -- and not all that daily stuff, they could do better, much more meaningfully and productively.

It should be no secret to anybody that life now is much more sedentary than it was in primitive days when people needed to devote most of their waking lives to providing for a meager sustenance for themselves. And we should rightfully think that such a life now is better for it rather than the thinking of an invariable few that those old days and ways were so much better because the few people who did live then, were healthier -- because they had to be during their brief and hard lives.

But is simply making life hard again, what makes people healthier, or is that a non factor that invariably shortens and increases injury and death -- but we only show the pictures of those who are still alive? And conversely, much of what we know of "old sick people," is that those are the people the health care organizations "see all the time," and never those who never need to see them -- who might as well not exist -- for all practical purposes, because they are so exceptional.

But the exceptional, is where we should be heading, and not the normal -- in discussions and programming for exceptional good health, and not the normal that keeps such patients returning regularly -- as though that is now the new normal. Thus the right question is not how we can get people to give up their preferred sedentary activities, but how to make them healthful ones -- rather than requiring people to stand on their feet all day, or run around all day in the misguided notion that that will make everyone Olympic champions rather than more accurately, that will cripple even Olympic champions if they had to endure lives of such demanding and crushing workloads.

The lion is king not because it is leading every hunt and misadventure, but arrives in time, when the hunt is concluded.

Not How Much, But How

2012-01-12T11:22:00.000-08:00

By now, many people have exhausted themselves and been demoralized by the realization that their best laid plans for the coming year (and beyond), have already gone awry -- and so-called "experts" merely advise them to keep on doing what is obviously not working -- in the misguided notion that if one merely continues doing what one has been doing with disastrous or no favorable results, the results will miraculously turn out differently the next time -- or some future time, as though that was how anything actually worked.

When something actually "works," that truth is self-evident, and not some preconception of what one would like the results to be -- despite the obvious self-evident truth of it that every individual can see for themselves -- instead of what the experts tell them they must believe despite all evidence to the contrary. "Studies" they proclaim, have proved it so -- and they are the self-appointed and self-certified experts on such matters, and nobody else must be allowed to question what they say -- because that is what they say.

That mentality is reminiscent of the "dark" or medieval (middle) ages, when one person determined the truth as told to them by God Himself -- and they further sanctioned the designated propagators of the "truth," on punishment of death and torture for non-believers. So it is not like it hasn't been done before -- to enforce the conformity (socio-political correctness) of everybody -- because it follows this singular hierarchy of authority that allows no other alternatives to be considered, rather than the strength that such knowledge can withstand all challenges from anybody, at anytime, under all conditions -- and not just the special case of their one (secret) laboratory conditions, usually to prove what somebody has already paid and told them to "find."

Nowhere is such "findings" more common and plentiful than the field of exercise and "conditioning" -- to believe the correctness of the day that somebody has already paid for -- in the various media outlets whereby an oft-repeated untruth, develops the ring of truth because it has been repeated so often -- as some catchy jargon or buzzword. The most famous of course, is "No pain, no gain," -- as though pain was a reliable guide of what to do, rather than the built-in safeguard of what not to do.

Thus many people can be fully convinced that everything that isn't true, is true, and everything that isn't false, is false -- and they have no way of knowing and determining for themselves, the truth of any matter -- because their entire education (socialization), has been not how to think for oneself, but what to think because the duly-self-appointed experts tell them it is so -- because they too, have merely learned the jargon and buzzwords they mistake for actual insight into the investigation of any phenomena.

Among those who did poorly in every subject but physical education -- often because they were allowed to beat up all the other competitors, a particularly intriguing word they believe implies knowing anything, if not everything, is that their exercise is superior because it is "cardio" -- as though any exercise or movement could not involve the cardiovascular system -- at all times, in everybody, under all conditions if they are alive -- as the basic precondition of life. That is, one could not design an exercise that does not involve and engage the cardiovascular system -- since such people boasting of such expertise, think nothing is related to anything else -- and they alone, are the experts in getting anyone's heart pumping -- because they do not think that is what hearts do and have evolved perfectly for -- without their instruction.

The self-evident obvious truth of the matter is that the best and only way to get into the shape one wants to be -- is to articulate (express) that shape as one's focused effort and objective -- while effecting the full range of expression from fullest relaxation to fullest contraction -- by those muscles expressly. In other words, one cannot make the biceps peak, just by making the heart beat faster. The bicep actually has to articulate the fullest range of its capacity to lengthen and shorten -- or change its appearance directly and momentarily -- just as competitive bodybuilders do in maintaining their constantly contracted state.

What they have to learn is achieving the opposite effect of relaxation -- that allows them to effect the appropriate muscular state as a task requires, because it is the appropriate response to the varying challenges of change and conditions, which conveys their greatest fitness, and not simply doing one thing, maintaining one state of contraction or effort, more and longer -- as in a pose or posture. Like the heart, it is the changing from one muscular state to the other, that gives every muscle its value and usefulness -- and not simply more of one without the other -- which results in death, and the inability to change anymore.

The Greatest Cause of Accidents and Misunderstandings

2012-01-07T12:50:00.000-08:00

Surely, driving requires eye-hand and eye-foot coordination more than than the skillset required to walk a tightrope -- or stand on one leg -- as though that were a prerequisite for anything.

You'd think that with modern day technology and awareness, those essential faculties is what is tested for -- and not the random metrics of a prehistoric ere -- as though that is an indication and predictor of fitness for anything.

Obviously a more appropriate measurement for driving, is likely to be the skills demonstrated by a video game -- than running a marathon, or walking a tightrope from one building to another. These days, most people, and particularly emergency responders, have a cell phone, and I'm sure some enterprising or perceptive individual has already created an "app" for better measuring eye-hand, eye-foot coordination -- and before that, assessing vision and awareness -- which is the major reason for most accidents -- people just didn't see, or were aware of the road conditions -- and not that they were perfectly aware but only temporarily impaired.

Far more likely is that their impairment has become a chronic or permanent limitation in older ages -- because the young are much more likely to be the ones getting into accidents because of alcohol and drug experimentations and impairment. Instead, what is being "measured" by the present standards, is physical condition -- which those who are limited in their movements, have the greatest reason for driving -- because they have problems walking, standing, balancing, and so the cars equalize for those increasing disabilities -- as long as their vision and hand-foot coordinations remain intact.

That's why I've long advocated that it is much more meaningful to measure the health and condition at the head, hands and feet, than all those metrics that have no idea what they're measuring, but keep doing so, because that's the way they've done it before, and is therefore the approved way of doing things.

I've faced such resistance before when I pointed out to the people teaching CPR that chest compressions is breathing also -- making mouth-mouth breathing unnecessary, because breathing (the movement of air in and out of the body) is the result of altering chest volumes resulting in pressure differentials.

So the test that really needs to be done -- is vision and awareness, which is attention and greater awareness of the conditions including the presence of others, and not the self-isolation of one who can focus only on their own inner control -- which precludes the awareness of what is going on in the greater context.

That seems to be the overriding problem of most accidents as well as misunderstandings.

The Impossible Question

2011-12-30T08:02:00.000-08:00

If one is in the habit of observing -- rather than being told what to see -- it becomes apparent to the observer, that some things are more significant than other things, and those who can make those distinctions properly and reliably, go on to be successful at whatever they are doing, while others will do many things, and be confused as to what is important to do. And so they rationalize such behaviors with the proclamation that doing anything, is better than doing nothing at all, and even observing and understanding what they are doing and hope to accomplish, before acting at all, is "doing nothing" -- rather than the most significant thing to do -- before anything else.

Such people are "exhausted,' because it seems the more they do, the less they accomplish, and the farther they become, from those promised objectives -- if they still recall what they are. Usually, they just get lost in all their activities and busyness -- as though that was the objective in itself. Thus such people are always "too busy" to be healthy, happy and fit -- because they are too busy throughout their day and lives, to have any time and energy for that which is most important to do -- and to let go of the rest.

That happens whether one has a lot to do, or a little. So the significant question to ask, is what 5% of the effort, gives one 95% of the results -- and making that determination (discrimination) consistently and persistently, always leads to favorable results (outcomes) -- because one is distinguishing the significant from the total randomness of activity. That is actually what scientists do -- and makes anybody scientific and systematic in the pursuit of any objective -- determining the 5%, and then the 5% of that, and then the 5% of that, which achieves the more than 99.9%-tile which almost guarantees certainty.

Such people then, seem to know what they are actually doing -- differentiated from the many who just "think" they do, but have no clear idea of what they are doing, because it has just become a compulsion with them. They do what they do, because they've always done it that way -- and can't think of any other way to do things, except as they have always done them before -- regardless of whether they achieve any desired results (outcomes). It is enough that they just do them, or follow the directive of the next thing to do (compulsion).

But always, they do not think through these things for themselves -- and rely on their own senses and results (outcomes) in determining whether it makes sense to continue in the way they have been -- until finally, they may become so exhausted and confused, that they just "give up" on everything -- including and especially, looking for the 5% of effort, that provides the 95% of the favorable returns.

Unfortunately, most people's conditioning (education) are still that way -- thinking that anything, is better than nothing -- instead of determining the 5% which clearly distinguishes the qualitative difference, and from that, those who will go even further in refining that 5% to the 1%, and then the unmistakable because they are so extraordinarily exceptional.

Most of that math, or computations, are done for us now, by computers that begin asking the simple question of, Is it this or that? (Yes or no?) -- to determine the clear 50%, and then the next question is, similarly and tirelessly, Is it this or that? -- at which one immediately arrives at the 75%-tile, and the result of that tedious and relentless determination, will in 10 simple distinctions, enable one to determine the 99.9%-tile unquestionable champion of that activity and distinction, which is the veritable needle in the haystack that would have be futile to begin the quest for.

That is how the impossible becomes the possible -- and then the inevitable.

The Season of Appreciation

2011-12-22T08:02:00.000-08:00

No amount of money will be adequate if one doesn't have the skill to manage it well -- not only in saving it, but more importantly, in spending it -- because that is when money can be exchanged for value even greater than money. That is the actualization of money at its exchange function -- which makes the biggest difference in individual lives.

For unfortunately many, their thinking is to get as much as possible, while giving as little as possible -- which is not a fair trade, but to exploit an inefficiency in the market -- until that becomes corrected, and those values no longer are available at such an undervalued price. But before that happens, the few who can appreciate values rightly, are the major beneficiaries of those inefficiencies at which the best are practically given away, because most people don't want them if everybody else doesn't see the value of them first, and are heavily promoted and advertised.

In this way, people who can think for themselves, and not simply chase the crowd, will experience the riches and richness of the world -- that the status quo vested interests, tell those under their sway, are not possible. That's how the world has always changed -- and not simply by giving the powers that be who always wish to remain so, "more."

When there are great disruptions in economies and societies, it is not because the world is getting worse, but is undoubtedly changing for the worse -- for a few, even as it is getting better for infinitely more. That's the situation we see in the world today, when many Americans complain that things were never so bad, because most of the world is gaining on them -- experiencing the life that only Americans used to.

Many are upset, that the great disproportions and inequities of fortune, are no longer just the privileges of Americans, but now have become the birthright of citizens all around the world. There is a certainly mentality, that derives its sense of well-being, from the knowledge that everybody else is worse off than they are -- and that is the only measure of pleasure they derive, and not the possibility that life can be good anywhere, for anybody, and ultimately, everybody. But that is not a possibility they can appreciate.

That is the conditioning (education) they've had -- to believe that in order for themselves to win, everybody else has to lose -- which is the destructive force in the world. Nature doesn't want everybody to lose so that she alone can win -- but wants as many to win as possible, which is first, realizing that possibility -- of fitness not being a competition for the survival of the fittest, but assuring it for as many as possible under all conditions and circumstances -- to enhance one's own, for the world is, one's experience of it.

It doesn't have to be a daily struggle -- but a realization of how things can be made better, beginning with one's own baseline functioning in it. Thus it is important to be firing on all cylinders, every waking moment of one's life -- beginning with the very moment of awakening as the single greatest moment for achieving that actualization.

That of course, is the moment one awakens from sleep -- and makes the transition to conscious activity, beginning at the most fundamental level -- of conscious breathing that radically changes (improves) one's operating conditions. This is a huge problem for many people as they sleepwalk their way through their day and lives -- knowing no other way of being, yet suspecting they could be functioning much better in the moment -- and not just in regrets for all the moments bungled and lost -- because one wasn't fully there, acting one's best, being one's best -- but recalling in horror, that they must have been somebody else, doing things they never would have done in their right mind and capacities.

But rather than thinking they need infinitely more capacity, the secret is the realization to do better with the capabilities they have already been gifted with -- which is to appreciate (make greater) that which one already has.

As Easy as Breathing

2011-12-13T11:37:00.000-08:00

Previously I've warned of the dangers and undesirability of stressing the heart by making it work harder and faster -- as though that was ever (always) a wise thing to do, much less doing it for its own sake.

The heart is far and away the hardest working muscle (organ) of the body -- and contracts a mind-boggling 100,000+ times a day -- just to maintain life at its most rudimentary level, and one of the noted dangers of exercise, has been an enlarging of the heart and thickening of the heart by repeated demands to accommodate high stress levels and demands -- usually leading to a premature shortening of life and/or disability caused at the weak point of the individual's systems. People are unique in that way of being prone to individual vulnerabilities -- much like Achilles' heel (tendon), many people's backs, knees, aneurysms, dementias and depressions. And so we all don't die in the same way, have the same (chronic) conditions to have to deal with all our lives, or have the same strengths as well as weaknesses.

But for all the living, the heart is an autonomic function -- which we are born with as our essential metabolic function and rate -- unique to each individual. The next step beyond though, is something much more variable, although autonomic to a great extent also yet it can be modified greatly -- and is the basis for many time-honored health regimens (practices) that have stood the test of time, and that is the breathing movement, or function. We can hold our breath -- but if we hold it too long, we pass out and it reverts to being an autonomic function as it must.

This then is the essential movement we have control over to modify -- safely and healthfully. So when we can understand that function well, we would intelligently make that the primary objective as the most valuable "activity" (practice) a person would consciously and deliberately engage in -- decidedly in preference over walking (especially in the cold/hot, rain and dark), running (with its high impact), pushups, situps, and all the other movements and activities "contrived" to make one healthier, and thus, more highly functioning as the base level for anything they might do in the course of their lives -- which makes them more fit and prone to survive, and even thrive at the highest levels, individually and/or in community.

This they naturally do because that is the consciousness and awareness of the brain functioning on the higher level in which it connects with other brains as though it is one -- rather than struggling against every other, which is obviously the brain functioning at a very low level and consciousness -- thinking even, that they have to completely reinvent the wheel, every time they want to do something, and so are easily discouraged and dissuaded not to.

In the early 50s and 60s, the most popularly performed bodybuilding movement, was not the bench press or squat, but an exercise done prior to such strenuous movements if they were done at all, that was called the Lying straight arm pullover to articulate the greatest difference between the girth of the chest and the girth of the waist moving the arms backward, and then bringing the arms and head forward to a contraction (compression) along with concurrent movement at the hands and feet to effect all the muscles as though it were just one, which is essentially breathing with the entire movement of the body.

The original Nautilus machine was also designed around this one basic and valued movement -- which was the one exercise the inventor originally thought was essential to do -- before creating machines for each bodypart at the height of the movement towards specialization in everything. That was also the time in which IBM mainframe computers, did all the data processing for every other field of activity, because that was their specialized function -- so one could not know the results of anything, until one got the results back on the IBM printouts.

There was every reason to believe that increasing specialization and fragmentation of comprehension would continue -- with everyone just knowing a tiny slice of their own world, apart from all the others. It was not thought necessary or even possible, that one should have a comprehensive understanding of the world as a whole, because in that grand scheme of things, every individual was just a mindless cog doing what they were told (expected) to do, in the assembly line society envisioned prior to "1984."

Then the world changed -- beginning ten years earlier, with the great market crash of 1974 -- signaling a great change was in the making, a movement away from uniform lives in a uniform society. The ten years from 1974-1984, culminating and symbolized by the ending of society as a machine dominated by centralized planning and determination by a few self-designated experts (technocrats), began its reversal to the present-day decentralization of all authority -- as exhibited by the present day chaotic, distinctly disorganized (random) movements.

But it is not just enough to be against the old; one has to have a better idea of how individuals and societies work -- and simply "more of the same," will not be the answer to the challenge of the times anymore. Something fundamentally and profoundly has changed -- to a higher realization of making the most out of what one already has. That is the key to why some can make it on $10,000 a year, while some cannot make do on $100,000 a year. It's no longer about the money -- but what greater values one can exchange it for. Many of those exchanges, will result in no value received, no matter how much money is given for it. It is foremost, an exchange of information -- in determining credible, verifiable, authentic and useful information, from that which is promoted merely to maximize the gain from those transactions -- while providing little or nothing in return.

That's how much the world has changed -- and what we must do now, to optimize our lives in going with that flow.

All is Better Than One

2011-12-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

The flaw in the popular conventional thinking on exercise, is the belief that if one works only the heart, it will develop all the other muscles of the body -- rather than the much more logical thinking that if one develops all the other muscles, the heart will take care of itself -- which is really the design and function of the human musculature. That's why the heart is an autonomic function; it does what it has to do without conscious effort to do it. It automatically adjusts to the demands made on it by the other muscles -- and not vice-versa.

One of the great mistakes is thinking that the effect is the cause -- rather than the proper relationship of the cause to effect. With that kind of thinking, one is led to believe that simply raising the heart rate to target levels, automatically makes one jump higher, lift more and run faster -- rather than the mastery of a specific coordination of the voluntary muscles -- acting in confidence that the heart will take care of the rest of the body, so the mind is free to focus its concentration to that which requires its complete attention.

Random energy expenditure, is not the same as extremely focused concentration of energy -- which is what a person is deliberately attempting to do, rather than just randomly burn as many calories as possible -- even when the objective is weight control, and body shaping -- the latter which is seldom discussed, even when the subject is "Getting into shape." The muscles will get into the shape, one expresses it to do so -- just as the muscles can produce a frown (disapproval) or grimace (denial), rather than a smile and affirmation -- until that is the permanent expression (shape) the face takes on -- and one could not suspect it could appear any other.

All expressions of the human body, are effected by the musculature similarly, if not consciously -- but it is more than a matter of just elevating the heart rate deliberately and specifically -- to cause those effects. It is the very deliberate and intentional expressions that alters the underlying support systems -- to be healthy, because that is what one can effect and affect through voluntary actions (movements). A muscle that has never been expressed, has no idea what is the shape it can take. It requires some bit of experimentation and then practice, to achieve the effects it desires -- but wishful thinking alone, makes little difference in those outcomes. One has to actually express them -- which is the muscle, altering its shape (and appearance) -- in contracting or lengthening, which is all it does -- but 600-800 muscles throughout the body, produces a complexity of expression and usefulness unduplicated and unmatched by any other species -- particularly at the extremities of the head, hands and feet that individuate people.

Other species are much more specialized, and therefore limited, in the expressions and uses it can have -- such as a horse's hoof to give it speed, a tiger's claw, or even an monkey's grasp -- have all not achieved the versatility of the human hand for manipulating tools, the human face for expressions (communication), and the feet to run, jump, push, pull, lift, or dance. And because of these expressions, people take on different appearances to embody what they do -- specifically, which is why gymnasts as a group, look strikingly different from marathon runners -- which is the ideal chosen as the general rule of what it means to be fit -- even though such a highly self-selected gene pool, has very little relationship to how most humans look -- even as an ideal, for doing anything other than running the marathon.

But is running a marathon, or operating a treadmill for extended periods of time, the best and most useful expression of the human capacity? Undoubtedly, fat people just want to get as skinny as possible, and skinny people want to get as massive as possible, but beyond those gross generalizations, what truly is the human ideal? Those whose specific objectives come closest to defining that, are probably the competitive bodybuilders, but as many others realize, that is not the ideal for everyone also -- to be as intimidatingly massive as possible -- in a very stereotypical fashion unique to that competition.

For most others, but probably less dedicated to such singlemindedness of purpose and conformity to that ideal, infinite other variations are also possible -- not that they would necessarily win any other contest. But what matters is that they are in the shape they want and require to be in -- which is the best they believe they manifest and embody at any time -- and not just to peak for one contest, which is very damaging for the overall health of individuals -- as many are familiar with in virtually collapsing in exhaustion from the effort and deprivation required to achieve that optimal "look" even for that one targeted moment. That's not a prescription for a healthy lifestyle most would want every day -- because "balance" is the key concept in developing a healthy and happy life.

Acknowledging that, would one be better to work the one muscle more that already has to contract over 100,000 times each day unfailingly, or spend that time, actuating (activating) all the other muscles, that may not work at all, every day, even for a moment? What would make the bigger difference?

Fortunately, one doesn't have to do 600-800 specialized movements to activate each muscle in isolation -- if one knows how to activate all the muscles as though it is just one.

Conformity (Consensus) Is Not Reality

2011-11-24T12:22:00.000-08:00

No matter how many "experts" they get to repeat it, conformity of opinion, is not the same as reality.

In the previous age of mass media, that was what was important -- to get everybody repeating the same thing, as though that was enough to make it so -- even if the results in reality, could not be verified, but people were advised they needed to believe harder, and do it even more. That used to be the only game in town -- and so those who could buy up all the mass media, propagated their world view, as though that was true, because that was the only thing people ever saw, and even the freelance writers were paid to confirm.

Writers don't get paid for writing the truth; they get paid for writing what somebody else wants them to write -- as though it were the truth, and how they got to that point, was the tricks of the trade in convincing people of what they wanted them to believe. This is especially true of law and politics -- that whoever is most successful at propagating (propaganda) their truth, controls the offices and institutions.

That's been true the whole history of civilization -- as Plato noted in Socrates' dialogue -- on the difference between reality, and the shadow on the wall -- most people mistook for reality. The shadows were the manipulations to convince one that the "appearance" was the actuality -- which is the beginning of the divergence of thought from the reality -- which is not simply an opinion, and who can control opinion most completely and ruthlessly.

And that is why although more people than ever before try to attain and maintain their optimal health and condition, fewer than ever before actually achieve it -- because they simply have the wrong understanding of what it takes to achieve that, and not that people have to believe harder, and spend more time and effort achieving it. No amount of effort with the wrong understanding, is going to allow one to achieve the same results of having the right understanding -- with very little effort and resistance.

That is true with everything in life -- especially and particularly true of conditioning to attain and maintain one's optimal shape and conditioning. No amount of only working the heart harder and faster, is going to cause all the other muscles of the body, to actualize their best condition and shape. One has to actually effect and articulate those possibilities with the muscles one actually wants to shape in that manner -- and nothing else is possible!

But one doesn't have to do 600-800 specialized exercises (movements) to work all the different muscles of the body -- if one understands that effecting movement (contraction) from the furthest extremity (insertion) at the head, hands and feet, requires the engagement of all the supporting (connected) muscles back to the point of muscular origin of the muscular structures back at the heart -- which is conveniently designed and evolved by nature as the greatest efficiency of purpose, form and function.

In realizing this, the heart is not the lack of functioning in the (human) body, but rather, the lack of the skeletal (voluntary) muscles, in pushing blood back towards the heart -- which is why exercise (movement), produces a healthful effect. But simply working the heart harder, is the major reason most people don't want to exercise -- in this conventionally prescribed manner, and even if they persist, achieve minimally satisfying results to persist as a lifelong, nearly effortless, rational practice.

If You Want To Make Somebody Do Something

2011-11-16T09:49:00.000-08:00

If you want to make somebody do something, the best (easiest) way to do it, is to make it as easy as possible to do it, and not increasingly more difficult -- until people just give up and no longer try, or even think about it.

Unfortunately, that is the track education, or the learning of anything, has taken -- because it provides more jobs for teachers (professionals and experts, etc.), and not that that would be the best way to do anything, much less, learn how to do it. Eventually, as we're now seeing, it requires more and more expensive education, just to do nothing in particular (the unemployed).

Meanwhile there is a lot of good that could be done -- but goes undone, because all the money is tied up in this "education" for no particular purpose -- except to provide lifetime job security for the teaching professionals. The fact of the matter is that we don't need more education and more highly paid teaching professionals, but could get by with less -- because most of the people are already educated so that one cannot help but be educated by living in such a society (environment). It is a learning culture -- and not the medieval one that needs to be reinvented every day to justify doing what we've always done before.

If anything worthwhile has been done, it changes the world, and society -- and most would have to admit, that the world has changed greatly even while they were fully awake for the last 20 years -- unlike the Rip van Winkle of legend who awoke after a sleep of 20 years to find the world changed.

For the last 20 years, even those trying to keep up with all the latest developments, found themselves woefully behind every curve -- because progress did not wait for their approval to go on without them. Of course that is very disconcerting to those who would call themselves "leaders" in those societies they demand everybody else follow behind them.

Thus the major function of such leadership, would be to defend the status quo, and not disrupt it by suggesting that the new leveling of the playing field at which everyone begins as a beginner again, is fair and just. They want their more than everybody else -- as what they think they are entitled a lifetime to, with no further discussion. And so those problems and inequities cannot be solved and examined because they are sacrosanct. But those are mainly the problems of the institutions and not the greater progress of humanity -- which simply marches on without them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv_NEo6NzqY&feature=related

The Revolution in Thinking

2011-11-08T08:38:00.000-08:00

Any fool can make a simple thing seem very difficult and complicated -- not because it inherently is, but foolish people think that is what smart people do -- try to seem more intelligent (knowledgeable) than they actually are. Mainly that is achieved by simply repeating what all the people pretending to know what they are talking about -- are saying, simply because they believe that many people thinking it so, makes it so. Other variations of this social phenomenon, is that might makes right, which is usually the defense of the dominant and domineering status quo -- or the powers that be, and intend always to remain so.

And so the first thing they enforce, is the belief that everything they say, is true, just because they say it is -- and there is no greater truth and validity beyond that. That is the lesson of Columbus, Galileo, Paracelsus -- and every other heretic who ever challenged authority -- with good reason to believe that theirs was a better understanding, that conformed to the observations, rather than the insistence, that one could not trust their senses, but had to rely on the proper authorities in the hierarchies to tell them the right thing to think -- which we know today, as the political correctness insisting that "consensus" must be achieved as the highest end -- even if we are all wrong, and eventually dead-wrong.

But before that happens, there is just the general feeling that everything is not right, and nothing makes sense anymore, because all that we were taught to be true, doesn't seem to explain anything at all -- except that we need more of that kind of education (indoctrination). Eventually, as the pre-Industrial Revolution poets wrote, everything falls apart, but is replaced by a greater social order and productivity -- until the next, but always towards a greater simplicity and accessibility to all, and not just the old favored few.

That is also the disruption of these times -- when a few think life is getting worse, while for many others, they are getting better.

Yet we are still conditioned to think, that life must be hard to be noble, virtuous and good -- and only through that route, can one reached the "promised land. " This is especially true of the more primitive cultures that believe that in order for anyone to win, everybody else must lose -- and not that there is enough for everybody to win, if the resources (abundance) is managed wisely. That requires shared intelligence (information), rather than the old model, of the knowledgeable, exploiting the lesser -- and so on.

When everyone has all the information, individual actions predispose that reality and outcome for everyone -- including oneself subsequently and inevitably. Any society loses its vitality and sustainability when individuals become dependent on many others for their basic needs and survival rather than the ability to sustain and improve themselves -- all their lives.

That is the challenge of these times. How can we continue to get better all the days of our lives?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv_NEo6NzqY&feature=related

The Beginning of a New Age

2011-10-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

To those who have been paying attention to the diversity beyond the traditional and customary -- of sex, race, age, status -- a new form of life (being), has clearly emerged in the last twenty years to a razor-sharp focus. Life has changed -- not for the worse as many believe, but undoubtedly for the better -- as the obvious conclusion one would have to come to in seeing increasingly many more, who now reach "retirement," with little signs of aging in the traditional expected pattern, in which they obviously have entered a period of steady decline and deterioration -- rather than the improvement that is still possible at any age.

Of course, many still regard that suspension of reality as "unnatural" -- as well as not unaided -- as though one has no right to the use of anything possible, to maintain their survival and greatest fitness -- at all times. Overlooked, is that some are gifted at birth with traits that favor their survival and success, while many more, have to overcome their unique handicaps -- on the path to optimizing their own greatest health and well-being, and therefore, have a greater control over their fate as a consequence of that original disadvantage but learning to overcome them -- which many gifted people, do not. While young and vibrant, it is easy to mistake natural aptitude for a hard-earned one, but as the years play out and those initial advantages are taken for granted and wasted, those who have earned their right to a better life, begin to take a lead.

So while the news is about the many more who now live to be 100, the real milestone, is the first person to reach that age, with no visible and obvious signs of aging. Many others, have written about the possibility that in this century, someone will conceivably (or even certainly) live to 150 -- but as most people know, in order for that to be meaningful, one has to first slow down or reverse the deteriorative process for that to be a desired outcome, because they can already keep a person in a vegetative state alive indefinitely.

But that is not the quality of life, most thoughtful people will want to prolong indefinitely -- mainly for the benefit of the health care industry and workers. So that measurement, is not the most significant yardstick by which to measure, but whether that quality of life is improving or hopelessly deteriorating -- and what can be done about that on the many levels besides expanding the health care system -- and the nightmare vision of people kept alive indefinitely with no other signs of life indicating a greater consciousness or responsiveness -- because certainly, the former has already been attained into the quandary of these times.

I don't think anybody has an argument that one has a right to live as long as they wish and can provide themselves for that life. But when it begins to take a whole village, to sustain a person in that state of indefinite deterioration -- at the expense of everything else, responsible decisions have to be made. At that point and stage, life at any cost, costs all the other lives -- that are being dedicated and sacrificed for those ones -- just like they were at the dawn of civilization -- for the pharaohs and kahunas. The young were sacrificed, so the old could live just one more minute -- and so they required unending sacrifices to that end.

It's not a pretty vision of the future -- so those who can blaze that path to an unprecedented health and self-sufficiency, are truly the pioneers of these times -- and not those merely calling for greater sacrifices from everyone else, so that we can continue the present status quo forevermore -- or certainly, one will face the horror of seeing a person deteriorate to the age of 150 in a vegetative and completely dependent state -- as is already happening.

Making Exercise Easy

2011-10-11T10:44:00.000-07:00

Any genius' great contribution to society, is that they make the inaccessible -- accessible to many others, and not just keep all that advantage just for themselves.

And so the great wisdom of great intelligence, has always been to make the difficult and hard -- easy.

That was the genius of Steve Jobs, while the dominant cultural trend at that time, was to maintain data processing (computing), just for the few professional I(nformation) T(echnology) professionals -- and at its height of dominance and power, required all the information to have to flow and be processed by their their (mainframe) computers, administered by a few self-selected technicians (professionals) -- to be the One Thing everybody had to know.

So up to that time ('60s), the monolithic (monopoly) power, always made it more difficult to access the computers and the information therein -- until the young heretic represented by Steve Jobs, challenged the rule of Big Brother, as the only option there was -- and would be forever more. That was not the only rebellion and revolution of its time, but is a fitting and well-documented emblem of its time -- and age, that with his passing, asks the question, "Whither now?"

But even geniuses do not grow up in a vacuum, but are the product of their time and age -- of which many others are also seeing the "writing on the wall" in the fields of their own interests -- because all things are connected to everything else. Obviously, the music of that time underwent a revolution that more people were aware of -- because more people plug into those interests -- while art was only beginning then to merge into life, as the integration of form with function -- that many credit the iPhone/iPad with being this manifestation/synthesis of art with technology.

The new paradigm, is making it easy -- and not harder, to access information, music, health, etc., and not in the old mode, of making things harder -- which implies costing more time, energy and money, to the benefit of the new priests and gatekeepers of their time, and those who wish to be, and always remain so. But the lesson of history, is that nobody stays on top for ever -- but that epochs and ideas come and go, and that flow is the rightful process, evolution and progress of life.

We can choose to become more aware of this or not -- but now it is easier to do so.

The Video: Understanding Conditioning II (Making Exercise Easy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1mMH98uObQ&feature=youtu.be

The Quality of Life is Change

2011-10-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

An individual's ability and power to change -- is the quality of life they experience. Implied in this, is that they are very much aware of their environment -- which is the context in which they live their lives, and successfully adapt to their specific and unique challenges, so that whatever arises, they are fully capable of meeting those challenges, and especially, to grow from them to even greater capabilities of expression and actualization.

That is what the schools were originally conceived for -- and not as they have become, merely to continue the status quo -- of not responding to the present circumstances and challenges, but to enshrine the past and previous responses, as the only ones still possible -- even though they are obviously not working and not responsive to the challenges of the present time -- only hoping that if they stall long enough, the old "normal" will return again.

Thus, there is really no belief and conviction that what they do really and actually matters, but if they keep on doing what they've always done before, that is what matters. So there is this disconnect between cause and effect --in favor of going through the motions as a ritual they hope will produce favorable results -- just as primitive people once danced to the gods, hoping to be favored. But that they could directly effect and influence any outcome, was an aspiration that was beyond belief and expectation; they were in fact, heretical and sacrilegious, and could even get one burned at the stake, or tortured in other ways until they capitulated to the futility of it all -- in God's master plan to keep humankind subservient, humble and powerless (despairing) -- as many still think is the way it should be.

That state of powerlessness and hopelessness, we now refer to as the Dark Ages -- in which few even thought to question authority, lest they face The Grand Inquisitor, which was that day's version of political/social/moral correctness -- as determined by the Church and its handmaiden, the universities, which was the training ground for the Church -- and not its antithesis modern scholars will now have us believe. They were rooted in the same institution, the same status quo -- of which anything else, was the excommunication from the society of the right-thinking brotherhood. Beyond was only the wilderness, perdition, hellfire, and unthinkable horrors.

So the thinking that any individual could control their own destiny and fate, is a recent development -- in the history of humankind, that once it got out, grabbed hold and accelerated in modern and contemporary civilization to where now, it doesn't seem far-fetched for those who want to, to custom-design their own best world -- without having to wait for it as the reward in the afterlife. But it is not just a matter of going out and buying it -- as the only thing available in the marketplace of ideas, goods and services, because it is out there with a million other things competing for one's time, attention and money.

The value of money, is the greater good one can exchange it for -- and not just because one has infinitely more money, but nothing of greater value they can exchange it for. In that case, their money is worthless, because they cannot exchange it for any greater good -- but like old King Midas, just have more gold -- and everything they touch, turns to more gold. But man does not live by gold alone. At some point, they have to be able to convert it to satisfy other needs -- like food, shelter, clothes, tools, etc. Sometimes, it is even the air, water, and sunlight -- that we take for granted, but is essential to life, and the very foundations of it.

But the hardest things to see, is that which is all around us -- as the premises of our existence. That, of course, is the obvious.

A Few Words About Nutrition (Hawaii)

2011-09-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

The most significant book ever written on nutrition, is Roger J. Williams, Free and Unequal -- which describes the biological basis for human individuality. His work was not well-received by the stewards of political correctness -- who wished everyone to believe that everyone was identical and interchangeable -- because it suited their mass media/mass educational model of "one size fits all," rather than the more accurate observation, that people really are different -- fundamentally.

That is true down to the foods and environment one will find optimal -- as well as hostile. About 25 years ago, I recall reading a book that claimed to be the first written on the subject of "lactose intolerance," which most of the world's population suffers from -- rather than experiencing milk as the "perfect food," those advocates (industry) promote it to be. Others will promote an all-vegetarian diet for everyone -- as the optimal human diet, which your own experience tells you is not true for you.

That is reality, and not any amount of studies (usually underwritten by the self-promoting industry), that tells us this is true for most, if not everyone. Unfortunately, if you give people enough money, they will say anything you want them to -- especially in Hawaii (because the cost of living is so high that a person does what somebody will pay them to do -- or they'll find somebody else who will). But that is true elsewhere too -- to a lesser extent, because people are used to and aware of more options -- than the only choice they are given.

So each individual has to discover for themselves uniquely, what is the optimal diet for themselves -- rather than simply being told what to think, or the generalization of what is true for others, or even most, but not necessarily for oneself.

That is the importance of the longstanding advice and wisdom, of "Knowing oneself," in this very personal and individual way -- which is unlike and even antithetical, to the mass media/education way of the "experts" doing all the thinking for everybody else -- as if they had that perfect knowledge, which is usually only what somebody else told them to think and accept as the unquestionable truth.

When one embarks on that quest and journey, one discovers the world of actuality and reality -- and not just the world of illusion and confusion, in which nothing seems to work, despite all one's "knowledge." That is the beginning of the freedom to know what really is -- and as one discovers and gets to know that truth, things miraculously work as they should.

Lose the Resistance

2011-09-22T21:41:00.000-07:00

One of the unchallenged great beliefs of exercise (conditioning), is the notion that resistance is essential to improvement, and so instructors (and students) immediately set out to make theirs as hard as possible -- thinking that the more difficulty, pain and suffering they create for themselves, the better it must be. And so for those conditioned in this manner, which is most people, life becomes an endless struggle against everything and everybody -- for they're not sure what reason, but that's what they see everybody else doing, or think that is what it takes to achieve anything worthwhile -- without first trying, to see if the easiest, most effective way is possible -- even if one has to invent it themselves.

That, of course, is human ingenuity -- which is the motive force for everything we do in life, and gives greater meaning to life, and to "fitness," which is the survival of the fittest. The physical component is an undeniable and unmistakable component of this, but even more, is the total response of the individual to the challenge -- using not only the mastery of their own bodies, but their mastery of everything else that comprises that greater reality -- such as what the opponent (if any) might be doing, and if none, not creating one for themselves unnecessarily -- as those fond of saying they are competing only against themselves.

Why compete at all? -- or why create the resistance to any movement -- without first seeing and understanding the natural limits of that movement, and how extending the range of that movement (articulation), naturally has its limitations that can be overcome -- without first creating the arbitrary limitations. Thus instructors think themselves knowledgeable, to advise that one should add more weight (resistance) if one can do 10 repetitions -- without first inquiring, how many repetitions of a movement could one do without any resistance at all? That discovery would be quite a revelation to those who presume that if the resistance is zero, the repetitions would be infinite. The body doesn't work that way -- and neither does the world.

That's why such questions as how much one would consume if money (or any other real world consideration -- time, energy, etc) were no object, is meaningless, because it is. That may be the most critical consideration -- because the heart does not pump infinitely, nor the arm throw endlessly, the legs pound the ground with no wear and tear, or the head (psyche) recover from one trauma after another -- and get better because of it.

Yet that is the way many think to bring about improvement -- rather than the elimination of those stresses and distresses, as the true breakthrough of their efforts for betterment. Better, is different from simply more in that primitive way of understanding -- that it is only through the application of more brute force, that the world can be changed favorably -- when that of course, is the problem, and the root of most evil and destruction.

As people deteriorate, the problem is seldom that they cannot achieve a personal best, as it is that they cannot move at all -- and so anything that makes it even harder, would be obviously counterproductive and discouraging, requiring coaches, personal trainers and support staff to convince them otherwise, and prod them further against that resistance. They will learn the discipline of working against themselves -- as the highest virtue and attainment, which if they are successful and indoctrinated, becomes the source of their own hardship, particularly as they age, and things naturally seem to (be)come harder -- unless they compensate in always making things easier for themselves.

Most people don't think this way -- but why shouldn't they? So these people become trapped in the thinking that every effort must come against increasingly greater resistance -- until finally, they are just too exhausted, to try anymore. That is really the inevitable result of that kind of conventional/traditional/primitive conditioning.

But is that the only way it can be? When we recruit the total intelligence to solve any problem, the solution is easy and inevitable -- but if we limit ourselves to the thinking that it must always be as hard and difficult as possible, than everything we do will become a hardship, and an endless struggle, until we can rest in peace -- free from these self-imposed torments.

The Power to Change

2011-09-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

What is the mechanism (process) by which humans can bring about change? Understanding this, is vital to being able to make a difference -- as what every healthy human being wants to do -- if only they could, or knew how.

Unfortunately, that is still not what is taught as the basic lessons most humans have to learn -- but instead, start off by doing what they are told to do, and never first, why they should be doing so. That is simply what everybody else is doing -- which is enough to make it right -- or the "correct" thing to do. That is socialization -- which is not wrong in itself, but doesn't necessarily make anything right in itself -- either. And so throughout history, something that is right in one time, may easily be recognized as the wrong thing in another time, simply because those understandings have changed too.

Thousands of years ago, in the development of yoga and tai-chi (chi-gong), it was widely understood that the major function of muscles was to relax, and thus unblock the tensions (contractions) that were recognized to impede the flow of healthy life impulses -- which predates science in their intuition.

In the 20th century, it is realized and systematized, that muscle contractions are the distinguishing characteristic of what makes muscles proliferate, culminating in the brief popularity of "isometric" exercises, or muscle contractions in the 1960s -- which was the sustained muscular contraction (state), for as long as possible, as the key to muscular and strength gains. The problem with that, was those who could sustain those efforts overly long, eventually blacked out for lack of flow throughout the body -- particularly to the brain, as the most sensitive organ to the deprivation of the flow (circulation). Predictably, such programs were fairly quickly abandoned as soon as they reached those logical extremes.

But on the way to those obviously hazardous extremes, many others practiced the common strategy of producing a more limited and isolated constriction of the flow to a localized area, with what is familiar as anaerobic exercise, because the flow back to the heart is constricted to produce the pumping up of muscles to the point that they finally fail. That is the common practice of bodybuilders, to actually impede the flow back to the other organs so that most of it stays in the muscles -- until that muscle failure is reached and nothing more is possible, and the greater survival instincts and mechanisms of the body, force a relaxation to restore a healthy flow once again.

That is thought to be the process by which one can build the muscles up rapidly -- which undoubtedly is an unhealthy practice prolonged for too extremes. Thus the advocacy of aerobic exercises not like that, were thought to be the safe threshold that everyone could participate -- because it avoided entirely, producing those undue stresses on the human body, no matter what condition they were in -- which is particularly important for the beginner, and more importantly, for those who always wish to remain so.

So there is nothing magical and mystical about "aerobic exercise," except that they are movements that can be sustained and prolonged for an extensive enough period of time to produce any benefits. Obviously, any single maximum attempt, is not an aerobic exercise -- albeit, a highly stressful one. The same can be said of sets of 10 repetitions or fewer. But when one can perform 20-25, that would usually only be possible "with breathing," and with 50 repetitions, that would certainly require one to develop a strategy for sustained performance in itself indicative of an aerobic activity.

And so what makes a movement or activity "aerobic," is not the kind of activity, but its sustained duration for a prolonged (indefinite) period -- rather than producing what is often called "muscular failure," but is more truly, brain failure -- because it is the lack of flow (circulation) to the brain, that will stop all other extraneous activities and efforts by any other part of the body that produces and exacerbates such a condition. The brain is the unfailing determiner of that. It will shut down all the other systems, if survival comes down to that.

So the important lesson here, is that rather than teaching and favoring the muscles to do all relaxation, or all contraction, it is the change, from one to the other, that is the distinguishing characteristic of the healthy human body and being -- and not just being one way, which results in death, and before that, all degrees of dysfunctions and decline before then. That is the basic lesson that needs to be understood before embarking on any program for change and improvement -- the very basic process of change itself, and how it is effected -- either as a muscle in relaxation, or moving to its fullest contraction, which is its articulation and expression -- of all it can be. That achievement (peak contraction), is its highest intensity, which should be achieved momentarily, alternated with much greater periods of relaxation and rest -- in order for such movements to be able to be sustained indefinitely -- and performed with that proper understanding, is the power and ability to change (anything).

But one should not just caught up in the words and incantations as though they have magical and mystical powers in themselves -- as though that was enough to make any difference in anything.

Easier and More Effective

2011-09-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

In order to get the right answer, one has to ask the right questions, because even the right answer to the wrong questions, will not make the difference one desires.

In the field of health and fitness, the wrong question is obviously how to make exercise harder, more difficult, and less effective -- so that one has to exercise harder, etc. The question is how to make exercise easier, and because it is easier, more effective, and more accessible -- any time, any place, any condition one needs it. Of course, that will be especially true, when one needs to strengthen and increase one's capabilities -- under the worst conditions, even bringing oneself back to life, from lifelessness.

Thus, one doesn't need to be in condition, to get into condition, but rather, needs to have the ability to change themselves instantaneously and momentarily, from suboptimal, to optimal. One asks logically, how would one do that? Would that be sending all the blood supply to the glutes, abs, biceps as one's first priority? Or would there be some more critical path that determines the effectiveness of all the rest, and thus, is the limiting factor that first must be enhanced?

Coaches call that "getting one's head into the game," because it doesn't matter how formidable and well-conditioned an athlete is -- if his head is not in the game, which for the non-professional athletes, is how they live (play) their daily lives. Then, performance is not so widely observed and measured, but everything one does, affects the outcome -- which is the health and well-being we achieve. That is the objective of all our striving and efforts -- to improve our lives, as much as we can -- and from that, everything else flows.

We hear too often, that people can't do this or that, because their health limitations prevent them from even considering doing anything, and there it ends, as they drift hopelessly into greater helplessness -- which they have determined, is the normal course of every life -- and don't want to even hear that there could be another. They don't even have the energy to consider another way of doing things -- except the one provided conveniently for them -- by the schools, the media, the institutions, the powers that be -- who always wish to remain in charge.

The great power of life -- is always having a choice, a real choice, and not just "yes" or "no," about the one choice -- like in many dictatorships in which the leaders receive 95% of the vote, and the rest are persecuted, tortured, imprisoned or killed. But even in so-called "free societies," many are convinced they have no choice but the one offered to them, from one source, who demands that one should offhand, vilify the other so that one never ever listens to what the other has to say.

That is familiarly, the political indoctrination often seen in the mass media -- promoted and perpetuated by the most suppressive. They demand that their one way, be the only way -- and that one way, is what they are the toll collectors for -- whether education, hazing, trade association or union -- to enforce and coerce the one way -- as the only way, it has been, will be, and should be -- and nothing else is possible, and can even be considered.

That is the failing of formerly free societies -- when all the decisions and choices are made for them -- by the experts, who think they should always do the thinking for everybody else. That is a great temptation to resist -- the power to exercise over others. But the even great power, is the power to control one's own life, thoughts, movements -- as the exercise of one's freedom to do so, if they are so empowered to do so.

And so the ultimate conditioning program, must begin with empowering one's brain, which is not unlike exercising any other faculty of the body -- by directing the flow of energy expressly to it. One is not just talking about directing thoughts that way, by the actual flow of circulation (nutrients), in knowing how the muscles effect that greater flow, by acting as the heart does with its characteristic contraction and relaxation, or pumping effect. This understanding and control, is more important than throwing a ball, doing many pushups, and running exhaustively.

Of course, that is never what is taught -- but simply, arbitrarily, to do as one says -- as though it had great importance and significance, and repeating it long enough, would be the answer in itself. By then, one will have long forgotten how to ask any question -- or even if it is possible.

So the question one should ask, "Is there an easier and more effective way?" -- or only endlessly harder, more difficult, less effective, until I give up for good?

Not A Problem (Limitation)

2011-09-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

Question:

"I've been trying to do the exercises as you demonstrated & explained - flexing & holding the arms & wrists, flexing the legs & pointing the toe while rotating the foot, etc., while doing the gentle "twisting" motion turning my head to look back over my shoulder, etc. But I've run into a couple problems. I had back surgery 3 years ago & have fused vertebra in both my neck and lower back & titanium rods in my lower back. I've been having noticeably increased pain in both my neck & lower back even though I started out doing minimal stretching & built up, and it's causing some dizziness. As I said to you when we met - I've been an athlete all my life and I know about starting out slowly, listening to one's body, and building up gradually. I've also had carpal tunnel surgery in both wrists & started having some wrist problems after starting the flexing up & down.

I've concluded that I will do as much as I can for whatever benefit I can receive, but I'm 69 yrs. old - even though I don't look it - and my chances of "reversing" much at this stage of health I think is minimal. So I guess I don't fit into the picture of who you need to demonstrate your methods."

Response:

Under most normal conditions, one would initiate the integrated muscular contraction at the furthest insertion of the body -- which is typically at the neck, wrists and ankles -- but if that is the problem and source of immobilization and pain, then one has to move the focus of movement even further out to the fingers, toes, and facial muscles. That will be the focus (axis) of your movement -- while the rest of the joints need not move at all and play a supportive and stabilizing role -- or to the extent that there is no pain.

But a key concept is that the body is strengthened to the furthest point at which one mobilizes (activates) that responsiveness -- which for you, is to avoid such movements beyond the shoulders and neck -- which naturally causes the atrophying of all those areas beyond it -- because there is no neuromusccular impulses, and cardiovascular maintenance as well.

If the neck cannot be moved, the brows can be lifted, as well as the cheek muscles producing a smile or dimple. Both would require maintaining (increasing) the body's responsiveness beyond the usual limitations you have.

Like I've said, I've worked with some of the most challenging cases, and had to determine where they could move -- and had feeling and control, despite their usual limitations. If your neck is fused, can you lift your eyebrows with your muscles: can you effect a smile; can you bend at the furthest joint of your fingers? -- then you are not paralyzed, and have no hope of recovery. With the hands, can you move your fingers, or can you move your toes -- because if you can, you can effect a contraction of all the muscles back to the origin of the entire muscular system at the heart -- without having to move the neck, wrists, ankles, knees, hips, shoulder, elbow, etc. That is what you have to work with -- and not arbitrarily conform to the exercises, no matter what your limitations.

if nothing else, you develop the most powerful smile, expression of delight, and tremendous dexterity -- because that is what you become good at. That is your mantra, or practice. That's how the guy with no arms becomes a pianist (or painter) -- playing with his toes. But he wouldn't be able to do it if he just limited himself to the "normal" use of his legs -- he's extended that control all the way out to his toes, by expressly moving in that way.

Likewise with people who have very expressive faces -- and range of expressions. That is what they become the masters of -- and not the conventional, and even the preposterous notion that it is beating their heart. The body has to do that regardless, or one is no longer living. But all those expressions and ranges of movement are possible -- to the furthest extent one does have control and the possibility of movement -- and actually expresses (articulates) it..

That is what you need to recondition yourself to.

That is the essential insight: that an integrated muscular contraction begins at the furthest extremity (joint) that you actually move -- and increase THAT range of motion. You learn to move better in the ways you can move, and not just in the original ways -- thinking you can ignore or deny your present realities. That is not helpful.

You have to learn how to move your body in the ways you can -- and actualize their fullest possibilities, and not just limit yourself further and further.

I hope I've been helpful. Good luck.

Being Your Best Doesn't Have to be an Extreme Sport

2011-08-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

It's obviously the intelligent thing to do -- to always be one's best, even in "retirement." Actually, there is nothing more important one should do at that stage of one's life, because that health and well-being is the criterion of how well one is doing -- when there is no "other" to tell them how well they are doing anymore.

That is a very difficult thing for those who have been raised from the cradle to nearly the grave with somebody else always telling them what to do and how to live their lives -- from the schools to the unions (trade associations), coaches, political parties, and of course, newspaper opinion writers -- on top of one's requirement to hire somebody else to tell them how to get into "shape," and "how to" live one's life, as though that could be done for any other.

So whether one is beginning kindergarten or retirement, they should ask whether what they are learning, helps them discover the truth of anything for themselves -- and not just how to follow orders of those who know best for everybody else, what they should be doing -- as though they knew, and had a right to tell them what to do, what to believe and repeat (propagate) as the political/social correctness (consensus).

The "truth" is in the discovery, and not the answer; it is a journey, and not the end of the journey, at which one no longer has to learn anything more. That is always the beginning of stagnation, deterioration, and ultimately death -- because there are no more worlds to conquer (discover).

Fortunately, we live in an age in which constant, if not endless discovery is possible -- with some great invention or innovation merely awaiting discovery because the present controlling vested interest (hegemony) has prohibited such knowing. In health and well-being, that is that one has to run the gauntlet of the health care system and sadistic personal trainers to break into the clear beyond of perfect health -- or is there simply higher walls to climb beyond that -- endlessly, until one can die in peace?

Thus many are reluctant to even begin that journey -- that merely gets harder, the better one gets. Is that how it is supposed to work?

Health is not simply being young -- and doing the same things they do, but beyond that, is doing things differently and better, so that they are no longer hard and difficult -- like with any other learning and rewarding participation. One doesn't simply do it until one is permanently disabled so one can no longer live an active life anymore -- with a good excuse for not doing so, and can place those responsibilities in the hands of the health care system from here on out.

The major function of the brain is not thought but the production of health for that individual, which is not produced by the separation of mental from physical activity, but is the integration of the entire being so that the thought conforms to the reality -- rather than superimposing one's beliefs over those realities, which is the struggle.

If one does nothing else, one should move their head, as the key to maintaining and strengthening that connection -- instead of moving every other part in preference and priority to it, because that structural and integral maintenance and improvement creates the biggest difference in change, which is why the most visible sign of deterioration of the health of the entire being, is the atrophying of the muscles of the neck. When there is optimal flow, the muscles, blood vessels and nerves show it in their appearance, as well as function -- as that sign of vital well-being.

Meanwhile the heart, on which so much attention is focused, already beats 100,000 contractions a day -- without further extraordinary effort. So the relative increment (rate of change) of moving the head 360 degrees (full contraction), is much greater doing 100 repetitions -- than working the heart even harder than it already does, while the rest do nothing -- and predictably atrophy, as the accepted norm of the aging (deterioration) process.

The Fountain of Youth (Elixir of Life)

2011-08-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

My father was a Taoist, for whom the study of good health, long life, if not immortality, is a basic objective of their studies, and so I was very disappointed to see that his knowledge failed him as he reached into his 90s.

So it was quite natural for me to take this study further in asking the more practical and achievable question of whether it was possible to live a long life without the ravages of age and its afflictions that we accept as the inevitable -- because we run out of solutions for the problems and challenges of our daily living, which we invariably attribute to the catch-all, aging process.

Until we reach that point, we think it is merely a matter of discovering a yet undiscovered secret -- and seeking the many experts, gurus, and keepers of the great truths, until we feel we have seen and heard it all -- and nothing makes a difference that matters anymore.

But through the present miracle of the Internet, we now can easily access the collective knowledge and intelligence -- if only we know how.

As a historian (archivist) by training and disposition, I like to research the beginnings of ideas, and have evolved throughout the history of thought -- which is actually my specialty. And so I have this particular and unique sense of history and time more than most -- who seem to forget or were conscious that things were not always that way. Most live and think in that temporal vacuum -- of time not being bound to any other. But for the historian, what happened ages ago, seems relevant to the present, evolved, and is manifested in the present -- as the summation of all (previous) thought.

One of the oldest themes for the justification of knowledge and thought, is the desire and belief, that there is some kind of magical potion, that conveys to its possessor, optimal good health -- the fountain of youth, or the elixir of life, and of course, life abundant and everlasting in all its versions.

In more contemporary times, for the past 80 years, that was promised in the iconic commercials promising "fast relief" for the most common afflictions of contemporary life -- which were (head)aches and pains, digestive upset, and even the general blahs -- before they were forced to cut back on their unquantifiable claims. But for most of the generation now alive, they were at least aware of the commercials that mostly ran, "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz. Oh what a relief it is." That was the last of the golden age of patent medicine home remedies -- before Big Pharma took over, and promised super cures (drugs) for highly specialized diseases and conditions -- all unrelated to one another, as though such a thing were possible. But that was the new paradigm of the 20th century of increasing specialization and fragmentation of life -- that made it easily incomprehensible to most as the norm, if not the ideal.

But as a lifelong arthritic having to take some kind of pain reliever to make it through each day, I had to accept that the accompanying digestive upset was one of the tradeoffs one had to make -- until I thought to try the old Alka-Seltzer bromide mainly out of desperation because nothing else worked anymore -- immediately or temporarily, much less indefinitely. That it worked at all, piqued my curiosity to research it further, leading me to realize it was the fountain of youth -- in a tablet.

Throughout history, people have noted the curative (restorative) effect of certain spring (mineral) waters that people have bathed as well as drank, to cure a multitude of ills and conditions. That is the basis for the notion of the fountain of youth, and the miraculous curing (restorative) waters -- that are essentially naturally occurring Alka-Seltzer. But what gives Alka-Seltzer its added potency, is that it is a way in which many who cannot tolerate aspirin (a highly effective pain reliever) in its usual forms, can actually access it -- because it is buffered, and in solution, rather than irritating, concentrated pill form. And when many more can tolerate aspirin, it obviates the need for other pain relievers, including alcohol and addicting (prescription) drugs -- which are much more costly but frequently preferred because they are covered by one's health care or drug plan -- while economical, sensible and more effective choices have to be borne by oneself, and so many will be misguided by that decision.

The Greatest Misconception

2011-08-16T18:48:00.000-07:00

The biggest flaw in most people's understanding (especially among exercise instructors), is the notion that movement begins at the core of the body (musculature), and then proceeds to move on out to the extremities -- rather than the accurate understanding that movement must begin at the extremities (insertions), and then move towards the origins of the body musculature, in every meaningful, integrative and productive movement. Nothing else is possible, no matter how much one tries to override the intelligence of millions of years and species in evolution.

About forty years ago, martial arts icon Bruce Lee, used to demonstrate the effectiveness of his "one inch punch," which amazed people who were used to seeing a very flamboyant and dramatic roundhouse punch or kick in telegraphing the power and damage that such a movement would do, which he still felt obligated to do for the sake of movies, but as a student and teacher of the art of movement, he recognized that it was not the very observable movement that mattered, so much as what was happening internally -- of all the muscles of the body contracting simultaneously -- but only expressed at a single point of contact.

That is like the force produced by a women walking in high heels -- exerting an immense force in a tiny area -- that can be quite damaging to floors. The obverse of that, is to absorb a great force over as wide an area as possible to mitigate its impact, and so one of the first things many of these martial arts teach, is simply to fall, or take a blow -- and dissipate it harmlessly throughout the body.

The important lesson here, is that it is the movement that is happening within the body, and not the movement external to the body, that is important and essential to the health. That's why a lot of the time honored health regimens, frequently have this kind of mystical and metaphysical quality about them -- of the movement of energy, spirit and life force, way before "scientists" documented the processes of circulation and respiration. Something was moving within the body -- though they didn't have the instruments to observe it yet. When they did, they called it "muscles," because it seemed to be a mouse running under the skin. Yet few today who "exercise," are so observant.

Instead, they have been instructed, that the explanation and the theory of what is important, supersedes their own experience and mastery of what they are doing -- which is a giant step backwards, and no wonder why contemporary health has declined so greatly, despite all the attention and emphasis given to these things -- especially to do more, of what never made a whole lot of sense in the first place, the first time they were instructed (forced) to do so. Unfortunately, that is still how much of "physical education" is still done -- trying to force one to get with the program, glorifying the many who were reluctant to do so initially -- while ignoring the many others, who didn't do as prescribed yet never had a problem with their conditioning and struggles to be "in shape."

It's like the many people who are never ill or injured, despite the warnings that they should be -- just like everybody else, because "bad stuff" happens equally to everyone, no matter what one does to avoid them. Thus one can be convinced that wearing a helmet makes no difference -- whether one is racing cars, motorcycles and bicycles, and that only sissies, would play football, baseball, hockey, with a helmet and other protective gear.

So it is not surprising, that many think the virtue of any conditioning program, is one's risk of injury motivating them to do their best -- because their life depends on it, and eliminating those dangers and risks, would take all the fun and value out of them -- until incapacitated and disabled permanently. That was the lifespan of an athlete or warrior, in previous times -- that was their badge of honor and former glory. So it behooves those of this gentler times, to know if one can avoid all that -- and merely obtain the health benefits, without having to do all those things one has been "conditioned" to think one has to do to have all those benefits -- without all the pain, sacrifice, penance, torment and torture, one has been convinced is absolutely necessary and essential to it.

At which point, many decide they cannot afford the price -- and that price is to somebody else, acting as the toll keeper, to get to the promised land because that was how life was meant to be -- before a few decided they owned the turf exclusively, for their own benefit. And so that which was easy and natural, became difficult and arduous -- because it was much more profitable to do so -- for a self-selected few.

It doesn't have to be that way.

Seeing Through to the Obvious

2011-08-06T08:09:00.001-07:00

The distinguishing characteristic of the deterioration (aging) process, is the atrophying (shrinking) of the muscles, which then gives a sagging look to the skin, because there is no longer the underlying support from this musculature. Robustness (health) on the other hand, gives the appearance of the muscles virtually exploding underneath the skin, producing that tautness that is wrinkle-free.

The obvious, most visible places this can be seen is at the face and neck, hands and feet of individuals -- which curiously, very few seem to connect as these obvious vital signs of health. People who look healthy, usually are; and people who look worn and drawn, invariably are under stress and on the limits of their "recovery" ability.

Recovery ability is this margin of reserve -- so that one can recover from traumas, injuries and sickness -- often to become even better than before, but not always, and forever after. Life has a limited recovery ability that has to be understood and managed well -- or one goes over the edge, at which recovery is no longer possible, if one isn't done in by the miscalculation of an overwhelming, fatal challenge.

It might be that one is on the precipice which is just beginning, rather than the hoped for end -- and has no margin of reserve for an even greater (sustained) effort. So in addition to the effort one has already put out, it is just as important to have a little, or as much, or even most, still in reserve -- to ensure one's survival and recovery, and if still possible, betterment.

One can read that just in the appearance -- of what gives one the look of vibrancy and vitality: "that look," is unmistakably that there is more from where that came from, rather than the look of being irrevocably past one's better days and times. So the question the inquiring mind asks on observing any individual, is whether the better and best, lies ahead or behind -- in order to make one's calculations on the future prospects and trajectory for any outcome.

Thus we so often speak of the young as having their best years ahead of them, while unfortunately to many others, we note that most of the life and spark are flickering away, and we would not be surprised to learn, had been extinguished.

Clearly, though not usually, muscle atrophy is not irrecoverable and irreversible -- if one knows what causes muscles to hypertrophy (grow), which is that the muscle has to achieve its fullest contraction -- like the heart characteristically must, but no other "voluntary" muscle must, unless one clearly understands how to make that happen. It doesn't just happen -- like the heart, because nothing else is possible.

That is the most common misunderstanding of the value of exercise, fitness and all the other talk attendant to these activities and desires for improvement in the physical capability of individuals -- which is usually not even on the radar screens of most people calling themselves fitness/exercise instructors. They lack this understanding at the most fundamental level of what is going on -- to produce this movement that produces this beneficial and transformative effect of how muscles work and thus produce this healthful effect. Instead, they think that it is enough just to know that the heart is working -- as though that alone told everything, or enough.

And so they think that the only thing possible, is to make the heart work harder and faster -- which is not the objective or the end of any human activity, but the presumed given. It is not a variable but the constant. The heart will beat no matter what, but everything else is the variable we seek to modify -- and not vice-versa.

Many people with no further education, think that receiving a "certification" for being previously certified, makes them a cardiologist, because they know and use such terms, implying a complete mastery of all the words and terms they use -- like some magical amulet. That one calls their exercise "Cardio," makes the heart know it should get involved, and not calling an activity specifically "Cardio," means the heart will not respond, and they will have to resort to their cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training, to get the heart pumping, or something like that.

That's all that many of these "certifications" certify -- that one was previously certified as having taken the CPR and First Aid training, and not that they have any knowledge and training of anything else besides having duly paid their fee to obtain their certificate. That is perhaps the most outrageous scam of all the multitude associated with health improvement schemes -- that one no longer has to legitimately master any skill, training and teaching, but one is "certified" to do so. They also award "official" certifications for Creative Writing and Resume Writing -- so don't be caught without one.

What's Wrong with High-Intensity (Crossfit) Training?

2011-07-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

The major problem with high-intensity (crossfit) training is that it is ultra-high impact -- targeted to the older person who is much more vulnerable to such injuries than the prime competitive ages under 30 -- as a panacea for staying young!

Thirty years ago, at the height of the aerobics craze, most of the instructors would come down with joint injuries -- because it might be one thing to do a 30 minute session daily, but then to teach two morning classes and two evening classes, virtually assured that they would soon be crippled with back, knee, hip or foot pain. It was such a widely recognized phenomenon, that many gyms then installed special rebound floors to mitigate those impacts. But the decimation of high-impact instructors did not slow down, even as they introduced low-impact aerobics, which eventually fell out of favor because they didn't produce as high an adrenaline rush as many found necessary to fuel their addiction.

That seems to have been resurrected as the crossfit training style. Most will not maintain that level of commitment and intensity for long. Rather than making the weak, strong, it merely eliminates the weak, as the standard modus operandi of competitive athletics -- to eliminate the weak until only a singular strong remains. But that is not what one desires in strengthening oneself from the weak to the strong -- which is to make movement as easy as possible, rather than progressively more difficult.

In fact, the problem of aging, is that moving at all, is problematical and difficult, and not that they want to learn ways to make such movements even harder and more difficult. The intelligent strategy (fitness), is to find a way to make the difficult, easy -- in keeping with the universal principle of the conservation of energy and effort..

So even easier than walking, which is already problematical for many, and particularly those morbidly obese and out of shape, is simply to hold on to the back of a chair or some other supportive object, and shift their weight from one foot to the other -- articulating the fullest range of movement of the foot not restricted by supporting weight, which movement requires the fullest contraction or lengthening of ALL the muscles of the leg (lower body) to effect -- as the most efficient and optimal way to achieve that healthful circulation that maintains the muscularity indicative of robustness, vitality and responsiveness -- without doing any of those damaging things most people have been convinced they have to do to get those effects.

They are simply unnecessary in today's state-of-the-art understanding of kinesiology, physiology and physics. Even as one observes movement, the greatest practitioners of their art, are those who move with grace, ease and range, and not those who make the least movement onerous and difficult -- even to move a little.

The original argument for "aerobics exercise," was that productive exercise needn't stress the heart and joints unduly -- and the "targets" for the heart rate, were intended to establish a safe maximum, and not be the minimum, the physical educators again got wrong -- in their competitive zeal. That set the fitness industry back 50 years -- resulting in an explosion of obesity and the avoidance of healthful activities because they believe it has to be everything people don't want to do, that the authorities (experts) insist, is good for them, and they know better -- than one's own good sense. It shouldn't be that way -- or that will be the failure of any health program.

Is There a Cure for Alzheimer's (Aging)?

2011-07-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

Back in the late '80s when I first got involved with the problems of the aging, disabled and terminally ill, I noticed that those with dementias (diminishing brain function) also characteristically did not move their heads as well -- and tended to sit and lie like rigid, unresponsive, immobile statues -- even lacking the muscular development that would support such movements anymore.

The atrophying of the muscles understandably indicate a lack of blood flow, while optimizing that flow, produces that robustness and dynamism in development (hypertrophy), whether one seeks to achieve that development or not -- and so it was clear to me, that unless one specifically designed exercises (movement) to that area, the blood flow would be diverted to areas that are actually in movement -- and one should not presume, that just because the heart is beating faster and harder, that flow is going throughout the body equally well.

Bodybuilders are acutely aware of that phenomenon -- and thus know, that if they want to develop their biceps, they have to perform exercises that are specifically effected by the biceps, deltoids, pectorals, etc. However beyond these conspicuous muscles -- they ignore the much more important and critical muscles where the human body distinctly has the poorest circulation (blood flow) at the extremities of the head, hands and feet -- where the human body ages most visibly and obviously as well -- as well known conditions of arthritis, diabetes, congestive heart failure, and most unnoticeably, diminishing brain/cognitive function in all its various manifestations.

And so I determined that if exercise was indeed effective in producing and maintaining optimal development and functioning, the major "muscles" that should be developed as highest priorities for these effects, were the head, hands and feet more importantly than the currently popular preference for the "core" muscles -- including the heart, which should be obvious to even the least informed, always gets all the blood, and therefore, is least likely to suffer from that lack of circulation.

Obviously then, the lack (effectiveness) of circulation, should be measured at the extremities (head, hands, feet) -- and not the heart, which is the conventional/popular focus of that function, because it is simply the easiest thing to measure. However, it should be obvious to any researcher or thinking person, that the easiest thing to measure, is not necessarily the most important thing to measure.

But there are always a few people who make that important distinction -- and differentiate (discriminate) what is most important to consider. That is real science -- and not what most people think it is because someone has told them that is the truth -- because they are the "authorities" on such matters, as though that was the "scientific method," and the end of all knowing. The scientific method is discovering the truth of any matter for oneself -- independent but not ignorant of such "knowledge," which is never all that can be known -- however much any self-proclaimed expert may insist is so -- usually because they have been told by others as well -- or at least biased in that direction.

But unfortunately, that's what science (medicine) has become -- the organization and hierarchy of experts each protecting their own specialized knowledge (turf) without a disposition to see the whole, and how the parts relate to one another. And that's why there is the erroneous idea that the greater phenomenon of circulation is just what the heart does -- rather than the whole cardiovascular system, which includes the muscles, as well as every part of the body -- as more than the sum of its parts.

It is this fragmented and compartmentalized way of thinking, that is a great part of the problem in functioning in the later years of our lives when we are forced to live and think outside the box -- that is the particular and unique challenge of our times, and lives.

The Cause and Cure of Obesity (Dysfunctions)

2011-07-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

Most people's "obesity" is excessive fluid retention from not producing muscle contractions originating at the extremities of the body back towards the heart, which compresses the fluid back to the excretory/purifying organs of the body -- and as more toxins accumulate at the extremities, more fluid has to be retained to dilute its damaging effects, so a person continues to bloat further and further in this manner. That's how the human organism also begins to die, deteriorate and age.

The conventional focus of exercise of simply making the heart work faster and harder to pump blood to the rest of the body -- is NOT the problem, if the extremities are not first evacuated in this manner so that there is space for fresh blood (fluids) to enter.

That was also my observation about why mouth to mouth breathing was not necessary if cardiopulmonary resuscitation was also being performed simultaneously or intermittently -- because the compression of the chest, evacuated the lungs, and the release of that pressure, allowed fresh air to enter, because as we know, "nature abhors a vacuum," and will equalize to the atmospheric pressure, while blowing air into an already filled lung, produces no additional benefit -- if the residual air is not evacuated first.

When people have this right understanding of body functioning, it becomes a relatively simple process to eliminate and ameliorate this damaging condition of the human body to retain fluid and its toxins, and to restore its more healthful circulatory state -- which the flawed understanding of the sports medicine/fitness industry, does nothing to alleviate -- because they misunderstand the root of the problem.

When this is properly understood, most people can affect an immediate transformation and change in appearance and health, and with continued practice of this healthy optimization of the circulatory function -- which no amount of effort with the misguided, primitive, flawed understanding, can duplicate.

The key is the right understanding, and not simply more (unlimited) effort with the wrong understanding of the process. The skeletal muscles have to make those contractions -- rather than overworking the heart further, which even those "certified" in CPR, should realize under ordinary circumstances, is a totally autonomic (automatic) function they should not be attempting to override -- thinking to improve. It's the voluntary (skeletal) muscles that must be the focus of that attention; that is the lack of proper (any) functioning, resulting in the bloated (obese) look -- even in physically active people.

So random, arbitrary movements (activity), is not going to have the same powerful transformative healthful effects as this systematic, intelligent approach to conditioning for better health and its attendant effects -- no matter how much they do in the traditional/conventional mode. That should be obvious by now.

You Don't Have to Get On the Ground to Do Pushups

2011-07-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

They work just as well seated, standing, or lying down.

What matters is that the muscle is moving towards contraction (shortening) -- or relaxation (lengthening). That is all a muscle does -- either contract, or relax, and it is not the effort, or the resistance -- that causes this movement, but knowing the positions where the attachments of the muscles -- either move closer together or farther apart.

Appropriately enough, the muscle in its most contracted position, are in its strongest position -- and releases the most energy (work), moving from the relaxed position to its its fully contracted position -- which most people are not fully aware where it is, even if they've been lifetime exercisers or athletes, because most activities and events, do not require a maximal effort of this sort.

And then if one examines any other sustained activities, they are often just that one movement, repeated many times, as long as possible -- such as running, walking, bicycling, swimming, etc. In such events, one can choose to increase the speed and therefore explosiveness, while recognizing as they do so, that that pace is not sustainable for long. However, the major difference in any event, is not whether one runs a mile or 50 yards, but whether one can run at all, or not -- even for a single movement (repetition).

That is by far, the greatest difference in capacities and abilities between one individual and another -- the difference between zero and one. If you can do one, properly, perfectly, than 50 or 500 is a fairly simple matter.

Many people will be surprised that they cannot even do 10 repetitions of a "pushup" from a comfortably seated or lying position -- because their muscles are not "conditioned" to perform such a movement, and not that they don't have the muscles to do so -- or that those muscles are not strong enough to overcome one's own bodyweight. And that is the lack of conditioning most people have -- and not the lack of muscle or (present) ability to do so.

So for those trying to get into a more desirable shape, the thing they would wish to do, is to perform those movements that expressly and simply do that -- shape their body mass into the form they wish to assume, because all the random activities and movements, are not going to accomplish that -- specifically, directly, immediately, which is what I think they would want, if they were not so convinced that such a thing was impossible -- and instead, they have to raise their heartbeats to distressing levels, burn as many calories as possible, work up a sweat, and all those other reservations and objections they may have -- all those things indicating no understanding of the process in the power of direct, intelligent action to accomplish.

But nowhere is the indoctrination (forced beliefs) so powerful, than in what we have called "physical education" -- even to defeat one's own purposes and native intelligence.

You Don't Have to Make Exercise Hard(er)

2011-06-26T13:24:00.000-07:00

Actually, making it easier, makes it more effective -- and more likely to be done. All that talk about how good it feels when it stops, shouldn't be the normal, natural and desirable discussion on "exercise," which has a connotation of something laborious and difficult -- as though it is a test of one's tolerance for the unpleasant and irrational, which then becomes the excuse for why it is not done.

When anything makes perfectly good sense, there is no other thing that can be done -- but when it doesn't, one must hire an army of "motivators" (supervisors), to make one do it -- to coerce/trick one into doing it. Then as soon as the motivator goes away, one would no longer do such things; what person in their right minds would?

Yet that seems to be the mentality of those teaching exercise these days -- especially under the guise of "personal training" -- as though everything in life, is to force one to do, what does not make perfectly good sense to do -- and therefore they will do it, to feel better, look better, and perform (function) better -- and what person in their right mind wouldn't want that?

Instead, their "conditioning," is that the opposite of that is true -- and they must force themselves to believe it. So their objective is that one must be made to feel worse, look worse, and perform (function) worse, in this world in which everything is the opposite of what it truly is order for it to be(come) better -- in the world of opposite-think (doublethink).

Why should exercise be any of these things -- that people don't like about it, and the teaching (instruction) rightfully be, on that which makes one actually, immediately, and directly better -- which is really the objective in coaching and teaching -- and not so that one merely requires more coaching and teaching for the lifetime job security (dependency) of such promotion.

So the first thing one should ask of any course of instruction (information) -- is if there is another, more obvious way -- which is how the field of knowledge progresses and evolves -- towards increasing simplicity in understanding, and not increasing complexity requiring more experts to explain -- why things don't work and get better.

Generalizations Are Not The Truth

2011-06-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

Roger J. Williams at the University of Texas pioneered the work on individual biochemical diversity -- that individual tolerances vary so greatly that "one man's meat is another man's poison," so that the only way one knows definitively that something works for them (or not), is actually to run the experiment themselves -- rather than rely on the generalized experience, because one could well be the exception. And if that is the case, that is the fact, no matter what the average

That's particularly true with mood enhancers -- because if it makes you think you feel better, then it is working. So you should keep a journal during your own trial experiment -- or you will have difficulty differentiating the marketing propaganda, from your actual own experience.

There's a lot of bad freelance pseudo-medical/scientific articles that make it into the mainstream media because the editors have even less competency to judge because they proudly took no science or mathematic courses because their "liberal arts" major did not require it.

Their course of instruction lay mainly in repeating what they believe the duly-certified authorities say -- with no idea of how to determine the truth of any matter for themselves, which of course, is the scientific method -- rather than the mere scientism of the currently fashionable "politically correct" -- that they are propagandists for, which confirms their belief and world view, that nothing can ever work, and one cannot tell the difference -- and those who do, are the charlatans.

Most of what people believe to be true in health and science, is what has been commercially successful -- even though there may be actually no validity to their claims at all -- but usually, they are careful not to make any claims at all, preferring to allow people to believe what they want to believe. Propagandists and marketers know that what is repeated often enough, comes to be regarded as the truth -- whether there is any to it at all.

The classic case is aerobics and target heart rate -- which is usually held up as the Holy Grail of sports medicine. It was the first book on exercise that sold over a million copies -- and so everyone else plagiarized it -- wholly or in part. Many books sold at the height of its popularity, were nothing more than a new title like "Aerobics for Poets," and "Aerobics for Yoga," and then ripped off the original work in its entirety.

The original work simply established the guidelines in which one could feel fairly confident that one was not putting undue strain on one's heart by recommending one stay with 50-80% of a theoretical maximum -- calculated by age, which is not the most significant difference in individuals. Some people have congenitally slow heart rates of 50 or lower (usually the most fit), while some people have heart rates above 100 -- which is already a factor of 100% error -- based arbitrarily on age. The 50% threshold is the normal resting heart rate in the average person -- which implied that it did not require the raising of it to a minimum of the 80%, which became in the hands of physical education experts -- the opposite of what it was intended.

Another popular misconception is that exercise can fundamentally alter one's metabolic rate -- rather than it being one's unique constant that everyone has to familiarize themselves and master. Nothing one does, can successfully turn them into someone else -- and so the enduring wisdom of the ages, has been that one has to "Know oneself," uniquely -- and not as the fictional generality, or average.

The average is not the reality; the specific is the reality -- no matter how hard the marketers and propagandists try to convince us, that their truth should supplant one's own life experience, and override one's own senses at all times -- which makes them perfect fodder for the marketers and propagandists of all stripes and intents.

That is usually the rudimentary mass education and conformity to what people should think -- while reserving that power to a few who believe their unique calling in life, is to tell everybody else what to think -- instead of the true meaning of education, in how to think, and can then discover the truth of anything, for themselves.

The New Vital Signs of Life and Health (A Critique)

2011-06-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

There comes a time when people realize that no matter how hard they train, the body is not as responsive as it was when they were in their youthful "growth years" -- no matter how hard they train. And in fact, they notice they no longer have that same recovery ability that enabled them to build up after tearing down their muscle tissue, which is the natural process of releasing energy.

Many at that stage in their lives, even notice that training seems to result in more injuries than gains -- which is usually an indication in even world-class athletes, that they have to wind down their careers, because training intensely as they used to, not only doesn't result in gains anymore but more often than not produces (aggravates) injuries they can no longer recover from -- and so many just stop (exercising) completely, because going all-out, is the only way they've been "conditioned" to think and train -- and so many spiral into extremely poor health from there.

I actually was one of the pioneers of "high intensity training" (HIT), being one of the first to adopt the Nautilus training principles as learned from Arthur Jones himself -- when everybody who was anybody in the weightlifting/bodybuilding world, congregated in York, Pennsylvania in the summer of 1970 -- when he introduced them to a hostile and resistive crowd of Mr. Universes, coaches, etc.

But in the mid-80s (at the height of their popularity), I started to question not only the conventional wisdom of training but even the supposed superiority of the Nautilus principles that then became the basis for "sports medicine," because I realized that no matter how intensely and full-range one attempts to work a muscle in isolation -- a muscle in isolation, cannot be fully contracted because it is dependent on the muscular state of its underlying supporting muscle -- of which it is contracting towards. That is to say, that as a muscle contracts from its insertion to its origin, it then "fires" the insertion of its anchoring/attached muscle -- which makes the most effective as well as efficient muscle contraction, one that begins from the furthest muscle (insertion) from the body, so that instead of having to work 600-800 individual muscles, and create exercises for each one (or machines for them), if one begins the contraction at the extremities of the head, hands and feet -- it causes a chain reaction of muscular contractions -- back to the origin of all the muscular structures, which is at or next to the heart. That is the genius of the neuromuscular, cardiovascular development -- to pump the blood back to the heart, which is the weakness of the human body and condition.

In most people, the heart is the only muscle that is in the proper condition because it always contracts fully 50-100 times a minute, while the many other voluntary muscles may not contract fully even once a day, and so even 50-100 times would represent a huge increment of difference, and effect.

In studying the pictures accompanying your article, what is striking to me, is that while the more visually striking core muscles of the body are still obvious, there is no muscular development and articulation at the head, hands and feet -- which would require the bending of the fist 90 degrees. (Or head turning 90 degrees to the left or right.) You will notice that in producing that movement alone, brings out a peak muscularity (contraction) -- even if nothing else moves, because that range of movement by itself, is the muscular contraction -- and not the resistance, or for that matter, an increase in heart rate -- producing a greater flow to those areas even with the most strenuous efforts. The heart is relying on the contractions from the extremities, to optimize the circulatory effect because it cannot be done by the heart alone -- since it has no effect on the flow back to the heart.

Muscular contractions of this sort place very little drain on the recovery ability of the body, while intensity is achieved for a brief moment -- at peak contraction -- obtainable in no other fashion. Most machines and exercises increase the range of movement in the wrong direction -- towards the elongation (relaxation) -- rather than increasing the range towards the fullest contraction, which always begins and requires a movement at the furthest extremity of the body towards the center.

It is at these extremities that the circulation is the poorest and the areas prone to disintegration -- as in arthritis, diabetes, congestive heart failure, dementias and other brain (mental/cognitive) dysfunctions -- that further cause the break down in the rest of the body. That is also why typically, one can tell the age of a person most easily by the aging (deterioration) that occurs at the head (face and neck), hands and feet -- that most people are not aware of because they think there is nothing that can be done there, when in fact, that should be the focus of the new health paradigm -- in which people don't show those signs of aging -- which implies the health of everything else in between. As Arthur Jones would say, "Nothing else is possible."

When Everything You Know Isn't True

2011-05-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

In the late '70s, one of my instructors working on the integration of physical sciences (physics) with the humanities (liberal arts), told me they were trying to figure out a way in which astronauts (NASA) could maintain their strength, because in "outer space, all the tenets by which people could exercise beneficially and meaningfully, did not exist, because the standard of measure -- moving a mass (weight) a certain distance in an interval of time, was meaningless in those conditions. So was there a way astronauts could exercise meaningfully -- beyond the usual terms of those discussions?

While some things did change, many do not -- when one is residing beyond the gravitation of the earth -- or life would cease to exist. The reason life can be sustained normally, is that atmospheric pressure is maintained -- just as it is on a jet plane, and that pressure, constitutes our environment more than gravitational forces do.

That's important to keep in mind, when we think that we are battling against gravity, as the overriding objective in exercise -- which is the presumption of one body acting on another (external to it), when the really beneficial effect of any exertion, is really the movements that occur solely within the body -- as nerve impulses, and the resultant/concurrent flow of fluids and gases produced by pressure differences, or hydraulic dynamics.

When a volume decreases (contraction), the pressure inside it rises, and when the volume increases (relaxation), the pressure drops -- which is why the heart and lungs work, and those observations can be applied to ensuring the health (well-functioning) of the rest of the body. Most popular contemporary exercise instruction observes this action of the heart and lungs and thinks it is enough just to increase the rate of that action alone -- rather than more productively, conditioning the rest of the voluntary muscles of the body, to aid the heart and lungs in optimizing those functions of circulation and respiration, and in that manner, strengthening those "voluntary" muscles, while saving excessive wear on the heart, lungs, back, hips, knees, and other joints prone to premature failures -- while the rest of the muscles and joints, atrophy for lack of use (articulation) -- although they are optimally designed for movement and expression.

Paradoxically, most contemporary exercise programs, try to move what is designed not for movement but for support and stability instead -- creating many of the problems they think their exercise should be preventing or healing.

Probably the best example is the familiar "sit-up," in which one tries to bend the torso at its most inflexible point -- rather than the opposite end -- where the vertebrae is better designed for movement at the neck. Not only is the latter movement easier, but it also more effective -- just to exercise (engage) the abdominal muscles with nothing more than the forward movement of the head alone -- while producing no or minimal movement at the trunk -- because it is the movement of the head forward, that is the essential useful movement of the abdominal muscles, and not the movement of the trunk. It is just that most people are not aware of this -- because they pull their heads forward, in order to do a conventional sit-up, and is impossible to effect, without the head first moving forward -- either through its own voluntary contraction, or being forced into that position involuntarily -- by the action of other muscles -- in this case, the arms bringing the head forward.

Most conventional exercises are designed with that "understanding" of movement of force exerted on some other part of the body or object, rather than producing its own voluntary (internal) movement, and in this way, being its own self-maintenance and improvement. It is like the difference between forcing a student to learn -- and a student wanting to learn.

The former stops as soon as there is no one to force them to do it, while the latter, continues because they see the benefit of it, and want that advantage. It is their will to be, and express -- as what they are, and are fit to be. It sounds very deep and metaphysical, but it is actually the simplest way to be, and understand, and once there is that clarity, there is no choice between being the best one can, or not. The confusion is created, by convincing one that is not the easiest and best way to be -- but that one should prefer the hard, difficult and painful, because that is the good and virtuous path -- taught by one who knows better what is best for another (everyone else).

Thus one becomes their own worst enemy -- and undermines everything they attempt to do, and particularly, their essential health and well-being (fitness). So the conditioning is discussed as a matter of the mind conquering the body or in perpetual struggle with it -- rather than manifesting its optimal actualization. In this way, a lot of formidable minds destroy their own bodies -- thinking that is the victory, that is the purpose -- the subjugation and immolation of the body and senses, "No pain, no gain" -- until it is too late, they have defeated and vanquished themselves.

Of course that is a very destructive way of being -- against one's environment (body) -- instead of developing an awareness and understanding of these relationships, and how one can optimize one's chances and quality of life beyond this previous destructive and deteriorative conditioning -- to work against one's own body, and to treat it as though it doesn't matter and has no bearing on one's well-being, all one's life. That doesn't make any sense at all -- which is why we have to be forced to understand it -- and abandon it as soon as we can.

It doesn't have to be that way. There can be an integrative (integrated) understanding.

The Simplicity of Understanding Conditioning (The State-of-the-Art)

2011-05-25T03:05:00.000-07:00

Things to keep in mind:

1. Low impact, low wear and tear. First, do no harm.

2. Ensure (optimal) circulation to the extremities of the body. It has to flow through the core to get there -- not vice-versa. That requires actual movement at the extremities -- of the head, hands and feet, which are ignored in conventional/traditional exercise movements, which makes them ineffective in addressing the deterioration that begins at those sites -- despite the functioning of the central internal organs -- including the heart, lungs, etc.

The extremities, are the critical voluntary organs of the body accounting for the senses of sight, hearing, taste, thought, feeling, touch, balance and stability -- which in most people, deteriorate or disintegrate first.

3. Deep breathing is made possible by slow breathing -- through the nose only. Air movement is produced by altering the chest volume -- and not simply forcing the air out through the mouth, which doesn't require the engagement of the torso muscles for this purpose.

4. Movements should produce full muscle contractions alternated by relaxations in a rhythmic cadence to effect a "pulse" to wherever is deemed most important to keep vital. That can be done lying, seated or standing -- and need not elevate the heart rate, require high consumption of energy or produce overheating of the body (sweating).

5. Effective exercise (conditioning) movements, can be done any time, anywhere, in any condition -- as the need for it is recognized. It does not require special equipment, clothing or place. The human body itself, is the optimal exercise equipment (environment) -- once one understands its design and function -- particularly, to maintain and improve itself.

6. Movements should be sustained for a minute or a count of 50. Counting is a good way to maintain brain-to-movement coordination (memory), particularly in the aged, disruptions (strokes) and impairments (dementias). Intentionally increasing the blood flow to the brain, increases the functioning of the brain (intelligence and awareness).

7. There are far better movements than walking -- but one has to keep in mind, that the movements of importance, must occur at the head, hands and feet articulating its fullest range of movement -- which not coincidentally, produces its fullest muscular contractions throughout the rest of the body, since the design of the human body, is specifically to alter the angles (rotations) of the head, hands and feet, while being stabilized by the larger muscles (structures) of the body.

8. Changes in the shape of the body, can be effected immediately -- by the proper understanding and attainment of its fullest muscle contraction alternated with its relaxation. It is primarily a learned skill -- as the young call it, "Making a muscle." One can do that wherever there is a muscle (throughout the entire human body), and learns to perfect that movement of producing a simple full muscle contraction (articulation).

9. No muscle in isolation (specialization), can achieve its fullest muscular contraction. The state of any muscle, is dependent on the state of its adjoining (supporting) structures (muscles) in an integrated (integrating) movement.

10. A lifelong program of exercise, should be a daily, regular activity like brushing one's teeth. If one feels that it requires extraordinary effort, condition, and will to perform, they will disregard (abandon) it when optimal conditions do not already exist, and think it not possible to achieving that state -- through those movements.

That is the simplicity of Understanding Conditioning.

Is Sunlight Bad For You?

2011-05-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

The thing that is very disturbing about this so-called health jihad against tanning and the advisement against all exposure to the sun, is the fact that life evolved in the presence of sunlight -- and is unimaginable and impossible without it. That is obviously so in plants, but maybe less obviously so in animals -- but just as necessary for healthy growth and functioning.

The absence of light, is well implicated in Seasonal Affective Disorders, which is triggered by low levels of this essential nutrient, to say nothing of a whole generation entering their retirement years with osteoporosis, depression, arthritis, diabetes and other Vitamin D-deficient conditions. It would be hard to imagine life being possible without this vital nutritional (energy) input -- in the development of the human eye and brain as its primary and essential stimulant, as well as all the other developmental processes of light.

So that people should deprive their eyes and skin (surface areas) at all costs -- seems like over-the-top pseudo-medical (commercial) propaganda -- because millions of years of evolution have occurred without the use of these proper sun-shielding glasses, cosmetics and apparel. That's why these miners caught in cave-ins emerge from those deprivations in often critical conditions that take them a while to recover -- and those living at the depths of the oceans, have evolved to such bizarre forms.

Certainly one can't be serious in thinking that the natural and preferred sources of sunshine (Vitamin D), is Vitamin D-fortified milk and vitamin supplements -- rather than as nature intended and provided for conveniently, but of course, there's not so much profit in charging for the sunlight. And now it is claimed that any exposure at all, causes cancer -- and should be avoided at all costs, seems rather contradictory to billions of years of evolution and intelligence.

Of course there can be overexposure to the sun, but none at all, doesn't make any sense.

The Problems of Longevity (Aging)

2011-05-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

As people live longer, what becomes clearer, is that the body begins to break down at the extremities of the body, where the circulation is understandably the poorest -- in being the furthest distance from the heart, but that doesn't make them less important, but are actually, of the most critical importance, since they are the distinctly human organs and features of the head (brain), hands and feet, that make humans the most advanced of life forms.

So to progressively lose those capabilities, makes one decidedly "less human," because one loses those uniquely human capacities to respond to life -- and most exercise prescriptions for maintaining the highest functioning of the human body, have ignored them in favor of organs that make less of a difference, because of the conscious and deliberate attention paid to them -- of the heart, which is an autonomic (automatic) function, and then to the larger, core muscles of the body -- and even thinking that the rules of development and functioning are different for the brain, as they are for the muscles or any other part of the body -- which requires oxygen and blood flow, to maintain their optimal health and functioning.

Of course there is a physical component to mental functioning -- which doesn't continue despite the blood flow being choked off to the brain, while the heart beats frantically -- at its target heart rate. In fact, most of the diseases of aging, are rather distinctly, the problem of a poor (decreased) circulation (movement) to (at) the extremities, becoming critical failures -- as in diabetes, arthritis, congestive heart failure, and dementias -- which while described as diminishing mental functioning (cognitive), is also invariably accompanied by the lack of physical movement of the head, and its various lively expressions, as the whole body begins to adopt an increasingly, statue like impression of immobility and unresponsiveness.

When the circulation gets so bad in the feet and hands, they have to be amputated, which is still not done for the impairment at the head (brain), fortunately, with its obvious consequences. The whole treatment of exercise specialists, is to regard that such functioning and maintenance is automatic -- rather than decidedly voluntary, and where a person can make the biggest difference affecting their health and well-being, because the maintenance of the health of the extremities, implies the health of the rest, but not vice-versa -- as we see with people dying at the extremities, while still maintaining vital health signs for many years after they have stopped all cognitive and voluntary signs of life.

That is the heartbreak of this whole generation of "dying" while the traditional "vital signs," continue for many years beyond -- and one wonders, is there anything one can do to maintain the functioning at those critical vital organs of human functioning and responsiveness as we know it?

Obviously, that would be to place the central importance and measure of health, at these extremities -- rather than at the old measures of this vitality and vigor -- that are rendered meaningless, when these critical (cognitive) faculties are disconnected in this way.

The surprising answer, was in response to my question, is there a movement, that activates all the muscles (600-800), as though it is just one? And that was only possible, in a 360 degree head turn -- which I recalled previously being recommended as the only exercise that one ever needed to do -- by an internist in the '20s or '30s, in a slim volume, of 25 chapters or so, that prescribed this movement as the cure for all bodily ailments and conditions. He called this movement, The Giant (Big) Swing, which was the only exercise he recommended, for 25 "chapters" of cures. (I haven't been able to locate that book again but that was one of my original or confirming inspirations) while I also pondered the question, "What would be the best exercise for developing the neck muscles of the body?", which seemed to be one of the markers of declining mental (cognitive) health as the neck muscles atrophied, especially in talking heads that never moved otherwise. Despite once being known for their mental acuity, they seem to go into a rapid descent -- upon retiring, and becoming increasingly unresponsive in the manner I have described, to become basically, living statues of themselves. Of course that is a horrible end to any life -- let alone a very distinguished one.

There is a cliche in exercise, that if one doesn't use it, they will lose it -- without realizing its fullest implications -- that one has to actually "fire" a neuromuscular impulse at the furthest extremity of the body, to actually maintain the health all along those pathways -- which otherwise, stop at the heart, or wherever hub (axis) one thinks it is important to limit movement to, rather than effecting that movement, at the farthest points of the body -- to ensure those circuits are maintained all the way out -- beyond the hips and shoulders, where most conventional movement (attention) is limited to.

And it is those areas beyond the common (conventional) axes (focus) of movement, that is the problem -- where the body begins to die. Now being aware of this, what would be the inescapable (obvious) solution? Fortunately, they are also the easiest and most convenient exercises to do -- if people were not conditioned to think that exercise has to be hard, difficult and not immediately possible to do -- at any time, condition and position to make that life-altering difference.

The Great Divergence

2011-05-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

As the first wave of Baby Boomers reach retirement, what is obvious to the attentive, is that some are reaching that milestone as the traditional "old people," while an increasing few, are redefining that stage of life, in an unprecedented way -- because they have the information and technology to do so, while the former, shun those new fangled ideas, to their dying days. They will age in the way their parents, grandparents, and ancestors did -- though with conditions made prevalent by living longer than they would have in the past -- to have noticed and categorized.

The implications for that continuance are frightening, especially in light of the recent trend of increasing dependence and codependence, that make the cost of (that kind of) living prohibitive. It is one thing to live a long life in excellent health and condition, but quite another to be wracked by one life crisis after another -- which to a greater extent than most will acknowledge, is the summation of the choices we make, rather than random chance and fate.

Things don't just happen; there's a reason things happen -- why some get healthier and better with time, while others only get worse -- and are enabled to do so, by support systems, that are value-free. On the other hand, those who actualize the highest levels of well-being and functioning, usually have to go it alone, because fewer are interested in fostering that independence -- since its commercial value is less obvious.

So one has to primarily value such attainments by (for) themselves, because there is not going to be large crowds cheering one on -- for achieving milestones that have never been imagined (expected) before. The first few, are greeted with disbelief -- that the now possible, is not only only an accomplished fact, but there is a clear roadmap for others to follow. But the old beliefs (conditioning) die hard -- that the world now, is a very different one from the world of ten years ago, let alone fifty, when most of the retiring generation, were fixed in their world view -- as the only way it has ever been, and should be, as the testament of their own lives and legacies.

But that way of thinking -- is what has passed. That era, was about their egos, and strengthening their own permanence, against an always changing and evolving world -- which now becomes, a huge disadvantage, and keeps them out of the flow, of the fast-moving current that is life itself.

That is the greater life promised and possible in this lifetime -- being able to participate in it fully, as was never possible before. Even such simple things as writing, and speaking, now have been made accessible for those locked out of those activities before -- by the hierarchies and bureaucracies that defined it exclusively as "their turf." But when the ground begins to move beneath their feet and the grass begins to grow, they have a more difficult time convincing everybody else that theirs is the perfect truth -- of which God made them the guardians for everybody else.

And so a whole generation will be awakening to this realization that life can be very different from the one prescribed for them -- as one of the unthinking masses who needs to have all their thinking and talking done for them -- by the new self-appointed masters.

Exercise Doesn't Have to Be Hard, Difficult or Painful

2011-04-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

There's never been a requirement that "exercise" has to be hard, difficult or painful, except some instructors think so -- but that thinking, doesn't make it so.

Those requirements are the main reasons, people don't avail themselves of healthy exercise (movements) -- because they've been convinced they have to be hard, difficult or painful, which far outweighs the promised benefits that are seldom forthcoming, and so rightfully, people choose to not do them because the benefits to cost, are not there, and simply get worse with their adherence.

Not surprisingly then, those who could benefit most from even the most minimal of efforts and focus on such matters, avoid them completely -- which is conditioning of a sort we call negative -- or the avoidance of it. And while one can get by for periods of time where it doesn't seem to matter or make a great difference, there eventually comes a time, in which it makes a critical difference in their quality of life -- and seals their fate, for what has increasingly become a major portion of their lives -- because they have shut out from further consideration, the critical path that all of life has evolved to.

That is the categorical imperative to improve or to perish -- which is neither hard, difficult or painful, but has the momentum of billions of years of evolution to make it the natural course of things -- unless we deliberately choose to choose to go against it and override it, which is not unlike a lot of conditioning programs advising one to fight against gravity, time, or the natural flow of events unfolding -- we know as the painful and exhausting struggle against our environment, as though we have to fight and overcome that, rather than appreciating and acknowledging it as the very sustenance of our lives.

So we have to understand what those principles are -- even if we choose to overcome and override them -- as though they were one's mortal enemies, but in the understanding, should invariably come to realize they are the very foundations of our survival.

The ancients call this the flow even before they had discovered such concepts as "oxygen," the circulatory system, and neuromuscular functioning. It was invariably about how to maximize that flow, and not how to stop it -- thinking that by that strategy, they could make it stronger, rather than produce disastrous effects and consequences.

In this, thought could be as effective a limitation as actual physical constraints -- much like the belief that one could not sail far without falling off the earth, even though people had practically been doing so for ages. But those who placed themselves in charge at systematizing the wisdom of the ages, mistook the thought for the reality, and preferred the error as proof of their dominion over nature. And many used to being told what to think as the truth, believed it because they were never instructed in how to discover the truth of any matter for themselves -- which of course, is the scientific method -- rather than simply relying on unquestioning authority and their hierarchies and bureaucracies that have become the powerful institutions of the times.

That is the meaningful science and experience of our lives and realities -- and not just the "correctness" we must all believe, because it is very profitable for the existing status quo to continue. So not surprisingly, one must be conditioned to believe, that the correct path, must be hard, difficult and painful -- rather than easy, obvious, and liberating from all those preconditions of how things have to be.

But once one breaks through those barriers of conditioned limitations, one realizes that the evolutionary bias is towards success and not failure -- which is the reason why things happen. That is very different from what we often want to happen -- or think is happening, because we simply accept what we have been told to believe, and never considered anything else -- especially preposterous notions that exercise doesn't have to be all or any of those things we've been conditioned to believe they have to be.

People don't have to raise their heart rate, sweat, burn a lot of calories, inflict pain upon themselves, get into awkward and uncomfortable positions, buy any apparatus or memberships, or continue to do anything which is not immediately and obviously productive and healthful. You don't don't have to buy into any belief system -- that the hard, difficult and painful is "good" for you, because somebody else knows better what is best for you -- because they presume to know and have been "certified" so -- as though that commercial enterprise was enough to make them authentic.

Many don't care if anything is authentic because they think everything is phony or merely one entertainment over another. They have become so disconnected from any reality, that they scarcely begin to know how to differentiate reality from the commercial message -- having long since been overwhelmed by the promoted messages over any of their own efforts to find out the truth of any matter. Such people are very vulnerable to whatever is promoted to them because they never learned anything else but the consensus as the reality -- and so are so easily manipulated and deceived by those they trust so willingly, and refuse anything else, any alternative explanation.

That is the presumption and error of "knowledge" -- thinking one knows, even if it makes no sense in one's actual experiences and life, and to one's advantage and benefit.

Articulation and Expression (Body Language)

2011-04-18T10:53:00.000-07:00

The current emphasis on developing the "core" muscles of the body -- develops that which is not (less) necessary to do, while ignoring and dismissing the obvious (glaring) needs of the diminishing (failing) functioning at the vital organs (muscles) of the body, that uniquely manifests the expressions and capabilities of that individual -- which are the articulations and range of movement of the extremities of the head (face and neck), hands and feet -- that gives meaning to the vital connection of hand-eye coordination.

Glute-eye, or even abdominal-eye coordination, has no real-world meaning, because a movement or gesture only becomes meaningful when it is articulated and expressed at the head (face), hands and/or feet -- and not as a gluteus maximus contraction, or "pec bounce." Such movements are entirely contrived -- although it is possible to create any movement and give it great significance -- when it is merely arbitrary to do so.

In the case for "core" development, the rationale is that they are the largest muscles of the body, and so by exercising them, that will ensure the maximum energy expenditure -- rather than the least, or greatest economy and efficiency of movement -- which the masters of every movement and activity, signifies their greatest achievement. Who can do the most -- with the least "apparent" effort -- and not who seems to struggle the most (mightily), just to do the simplest things, or even anything at all. That would not be a pleasing performance to witness.

This is particularly important as one experiences diminishing capabilities and reserves -- necessitating the greatest economies of effort, as would be the case in recovering from life threatening illness, injuries, or circumstances -- that would convey their actual fitness, and not merely exhausting themselves purposelessly at every opportunity. That will not help in conditioning oneself to better overcome the challenges they might face at those moments that determine whether they go on, or life ceases, or goes into irreversible and irrecoverable decline.

For those who have traveled in countries in which a different language is used, "body language" then becomes one's major skill at communications -- including and especially, denoting one's awareness and alertness to an (unfamiliar) environment. We see that most importantly in just passing -- that some are oblivious to everyone and everything else, while others convey a sense of knowing what everybody is doing -- and also respond appropriately.

In sports and performances, that is described as "being in the zone" -- or the largest consciousness and awareness of what is going on -- as though they were actually dictating that reality, and not just being a part, or worse, a victim of what is going on. We call them, "those who make things happen."

But how does that awareness arise, and is determined? It is from our sensory inputs -- located at our head, hands and feet (balance). So not to tend to them as the most important objective of that which is most valuable to maintain and improve -- while diverting those energies and focus to one's glutes (posterior), seems one of the great misplacements of that which is most productive to do -- in favor of that which is really designed and intended not for fine, discriminatory movements, but for support and anchorage to the actual movements of significance, articulation and expression -- which we know as art, music, dance, athletics, writing, thought and all the rest we recognize as a life of great achievement and responsiveness (aliveness).

Again, that is particularly important as people lose that responsiveness with age, and for many, who never fully developed them in the first place -- never thought it was necessary to do so, and instead, thought it more important and meaningful, to know how much weight they could lift with their glutes, or even, leg biceps, which I don't know of any other real application when it would be advantageous to do so.

So what do we want to become good at, and which is most important for humans to do? That would be to communicate as effectively with all the others in the world as possible -- through those faculties we have honed to do so. It is not the treadmill, with a look of disdain and boredom for being compelled to do so -- and not even being allowed to question, "why?"

That is just the old "physical education" of doing what the "teacher" demands, and if not, one will have to do twice as much. That is the price one often pays for letting another do all one's thinking for them -- and never dare to ask, "Might there be another way -- that makes more sense, and is about sharpening those senses, sensitivities and sensibilities -- so that they never abandon us, especially in the times of our greatest needs?

That would be a meaningful sense of "fitness," and a worthwhile conditioning for whatever life brings.

You Don't Need to Stretch, You Just Need to Relax

2011-04-08T17:12:00.000-07:00

There is a key concept which most people who "teach" and talk about exercise, need to be familiar with, which is poorly understood, if any attempt at understanding is made at all.

And that is the lesson made by the muscle that always has to function unfailingly and automatically correctly, which of course, is the action of the heart, that alternates a full contraction with a full relaxation (and nothing else is possible), and thus produces the life-sustaining pumping effect. Skeletal (voluntary) muscles that mimic that action, also produce a pumping effect -- that then aids the heart in optimizing the circulation to those areas open and closed in such a manner.

But if one maintains a constant and prolonged state of contraction OR relaxation. that will minimize the flow, resulting in an "anaerobic" condition, because blood is the carrier of the oxygen -- but if one prevents the flow, or doesn't maximize it during exercise (exertion), those areas become anaerobic (without oxygen), which means the muscle must fail, because the nerves effecting it, require oxygen to function -- just as the brain does, and the activity must cease because critical levels of maintenance are breached.

That was the whole rationale for advocating that exercise be "aerobic" (with oxygen) -- so that it could be maintained, because the optimization of the circulatory efficiency, increases one's performance and momentary abilities to continue and improve -- rather than cause them to deteriorate and fail prematurely, just when one might need them the most -- which of course, would not have much survival value, or fitness.

So the critical understanding is, how does one produce this alternation of fullest contraction with fullest relaxation -- of any, and especially all the muscles acting in a coordinated and integrated effort to produce maximum power (focus) in a single action (movement) -- whether that be throwing a shot put, rowing a boat, or simply, "making a muscle" (getting into a desirable shape).

The objective in all those activities, is to achieve the greatest economy and efficiency of movement possible, which is in observation of the great principle of the conservation of energy, while maximizing it when recognizing the right moment to do so -- and not just leaking energy indiscriminately at every opportunity to do so -- at arbitrary and random moments, which are more likely to be a degenerative, rather than desired condition and abilities.

This kind of mastery of one's movements, gives one a greater control and sense of control in one's life -- so that there is not an increasing sense of despair in their abilities to do anything, or make a difference, that eventually becomes a dominant theme in one's life -- that one excuses as "getting old" -- even just getting out of high school. Then of course, everything is downhill from there.

But it's even simpler than that, because all one has to do is understand what produces a maximum, and full contraction in a muscle, or/and every muscle, and what is not that, is the relaxation. So one is either moving towards a fuller contraction, or by default, one isn't.

This is a critical understanding -- as when I first introduced the idea that in cardiopulmonary resuscitation -- pumping air out of the chest cavity is all one needed to do to effect breathing, because then, the atmospheric pressure will automatically (re)fill the lungs -- as I would demonstrate on my self-inflating Thermarest air mattress. That's why the previous version of resuscitation efforts were effective also -- until replaced by the CPR and mouth-to-mouth breathing as two distinct efforts rather than the one of pressing down and lifting up the arms to expand the chest volume -- alternately.

Because once the initial rush of air has already refilled the emptied (compressed) lungs, there is little advantage to blowing more air in -- which is what one is doing, as soon as the pressure is released from the chest. The important part of breathing is not breathing in, as it is usually taught, but breathing out as fully and completely as possible (through the nose designed for it), and in the relaxation from that effort, air automatically enters the lungs -- that have been evacuated of the "old" air. But no amount of inhalations, will cause the old air, to leave the body -- first, as the precondition for filling the lungs with new, "fresh" air.

That is economy and efficiency of movement -- through a better understanding of the process. Lacking that understanding, the effort is misplaced -- to doing what doesn't need to be done, while ignoring what would make a significant difference.

Stretching a muscle, makes the lengthening of the muscle the effort -- rather than its contraction, and the cessation of that effort (movement), is the relaxation, but not vice-versa. Most exercise instructors and kinesiologists are unfamiliar with what produces a full muscle contraction -- thinking that it is the resistance (load) that makes it so, rather than that it is the movement itself into its greatest contraction, that produces the most resistance against further contraction.

Bodybuilders usually get half of it right. Their unique problem is that they do not allow their muscles to relax alternately but maintain a constant tension (contraction) that impedes the flow (back to the heart), and thus engorges a muscle until it ultimately must fail because of this anaerobic condition.

But usually before they achieve that condition, the constant neck constriction accompanying their efforts, will reduce the (blood)flow to the brain, causing the cessation of all effort -- until at least normal operating conditions are restored (rest and recovery).

This is the reason that a new fad of "accentuating the negative" (relaxation) phase doubly hard as the contraction -- makes no sense at all, as a productive and healthful training strategy -- designed as it is, to ensure and speed muscle and system failure -- by eliminating any opportunity for relaxation.

Conventional Exercise Doesn't Make One Stronger -- They Merely Eliminate the Weak

2011-04-05T07:29:00.000-07:00

The major problem with using a competitive model as the prototype or paradigm for achieving one's greatest fitness (capabilities, health), is that the intention of the competitive paradigm, is not to make the weak strong, but simply to eliminate the weak from further participation. That is the whole purpose of competitive athletics -- to determine who is the strongest (most suited to that activity), and not to make the weak, strong, or stronger. That is the very reason, the weakest drop out, are eliminated, or are injured, and are discouraged from further participation.

Many of those dropouts however, do go on to make themselves stronger -- to understand and overcome their weakness, but premature competition, would discourage rather than aid them in the process, at that vulnerable stage. So it is not surprising that many who who do go on, choose not to reveal themselves as the ultimate prodigies, and even go into seclusion and under cover, not to reveal their activities, intentions, and current capabilities, so that they can singlemindedly focus on finding a way to overcome their weaknesses and/or handicaps.

That is not unsurprisingly, how many get into "bodybuilding," of which the "before" and "after" transformations, are legendary. Often ignored however, are those who are so naturally gifted in this way, that they have the ability to effect this dramatic transformation, "instantly," first because they have the genetic disposition to, but also because they learn how to maximize that effect. Such individuals can therefore effect a this striking "before" and "after" transformation, in a single workout -- and that quality, distinguishes a champion bodybuilder, much more than their comparisons before they "pump" up.

In fact, many will deny that there is a difference between their before and after conditions -- to maintain the general public's illusion that they are "always," or "naturally" that way -- rather than it is an intentional objective. The lesson of the bodybuilders, should not be discounted because this is so, but should rather be encouraging for anyone wishing to "get in shape" -- that it is to a great extent a learned (conditioned) skill, and not a permanent condition of the body. One can immediately get into shape, if one learns to do so -- because that's what muscles do, change its shape -- depending on one's understanding and mastery of that control.

Thus, one of the pioneers of "scientific/medical" exercise machines, Arthur Jones, observed, even the best shaped people, were merely "well-shaped fat" -- which is the existing muscular ability, to shape whatever body mass they have. Other studies have thus noted, that body-mass measurements and indices, will often show that the most muscular as the fat rather than fit, because they can carry 300 lbs. of body mass (which is off their charts) while being perceived as muscular, while on the other hand, there have been very strong individuals, who saw no need to "look" in the preferred muscular shape they advertised to the world, and in fact, felt uncomfortable and did as much to downplay and hide their prodigious strength, mass and abilities, and achieving the reputation as being unduly modest and humble by it.

Those are familiar as the type that camouflage their true capabilities (identity) -- rather than revealing it, and their weaknesses for any opponent or antagonist to exploit -- as a basic strategy of their own fitness for survival and advantage. We see that ploy often on the Internet when people pretend to be less smart than they actually are -- hoping by that, to gain an advantage, or to draw in those who look for those vulnerabilities in others. But while one can pretend to be less smart than one is, it is much more difficult, to pretend to be smarter than one actually is. That can not be faked, though many think they can -- until they run into those with the ability to assess these things accurately .

And so if one desires an accurate assessment of any individual's truest capabilities, one needs to understand the range from its worst to its best, and not settle on an "average," as the actualization of that potential -- which is usually deceptive as any information of significance. For many, that is simply knowing what everybody else "knows," because somebody else told them, that was all that could be known, and so they "think they know everything" -- even if it doesn't work for most people, and requires more time, energy and expense, for little and even worse results.

We most commonly see that in government and institutionalized solutions that require more money and manpower each year -- and becomes its own reason for being. And so they come to accept a solution that simply makes things get worse -- because of their investment in the problem, and not its solution, or elimination. That is the profitable health care strategy of chronic, long-term deterioration defined as "normal" aging. The alternative to such health care, would be health -- which is something else entirely.

Almost no money goes into that discovery because it is not profitable to do so -- except personally, often from absolute necessity of having to. That's also when the best effects actually become more apparent -- but usually not even attempted, and so the condition attenuates, because there is no way to make a person stronger, with as minimal expenditure of recovery ability as possible -- because the very premise of conventional exercise, is to waste as much energy as possible, as though it was an unlimited resource and the whole objective was to burn as many calories as possible -- as though that was an intelligent thing to do, in/under any condition.

Is Milk the Perfect Food/Drink?

2011-03-31T11:22:00.000-07:00

You have to be careful about equating water with milk -- because more than half the world's population (particularly of adults), are lactose intolerant, or simply, "allergic to milk," which can be the cause of a multitude of dysfunctions.

My first job coming out of college in the Vietnam era as a "conscientious objector," was as a medical metabolic (nutritional) research subject conducted by the military, which up to that point, derived most of their conclusions based on the study of Mennonites, or Amish, who were the major groups of COs at that time.

They used a milk-based formula as their basic (control) diet -- to which they would add or omit whatever they wanted to test, since milk was regarded as the "perfect food," and none of their subjects seemed to have a problem with it, because the Mennonites and Amish are one of the most inbred groups on the planet -- all favorable to the diet of milk.

So when I had problems tolerating the diet, I became the subject of exhaustive tests to find out what was wrong with me, because everybody "knew" that milk was the perfect food. After a few months of virtual constant distress, and not being able to find anything wrong with me, we mutually agreed to part company, and I needed to find another "alternative service."

Twenty years later, I ran into a book claiming to be the first written about the unknown, undiscussed and even suppressed phenomenon of "lactose intolerance" -- that was recognized throughout most of the world, and documented in the writings of cultural misunderstandings that caused distrust of American foreign aid that included powdered milk -- that the natives used to whitewash their huts.

Some drug companies addressed this lactase deficiency so that many can digest milk, but while they can, milk is also implicated in thickening the mucus, which produces problems of its own, often noted as the "phlegmatic" condition of the aged and those with autoimmune diseases, for which products that thin or liquefy the mucus, most notably guaifenesin -- the standard remedy for bronchial congestion as experienced in colds and flus, and their accompanying (arthritis-like) body pains -- have been suggested as a "cure."

And even beyond that, the Ayurvedic East Indians, made sacred in their diet, seeds that had the same essential properties of liquefying the mucus -- such as fennel and fenugreek seeds, still used as the base for "herbal" cough medicines in health food stores. The world conqueror Alexander the Great, seems to be the link in passing that information on to the Romans (Legion), who also carried fennel as their standard provision to maintain their health and vitality -- as they conquered the world.

Fennel tea remains one of the standards of that designation of recommended "herbal teas," and there is renewed interest in its consumption for the multitude of ailments, as one of the world's oldest known health elixirs and cure-alls. It is sometimes eaten as a vegetable that looks a lot like celery. Most people are familiar with it as the plant often seen growing in empty lots and untended areas as the peculiar plant whose string-like leaves taste like licorice -- which seems to have been a popular syrup of those peddling patent medicine remedies as their trade before the modern drug industry took over -- with their specialized drugs specific to each condition.

Is Walking the Best Exercise?

2011-03-25T11:15:00.000-07:00

Actually, the best exercise one can do, is just after getting out of bed, or even while still in bed -- trying to get up and started.

A considerable number of people have this problem of achieving optimal operating functioning -- including those with fibro-fog, stress, anxieties, depression, dementias, and other "hopeless" conditions, because of inadequate (constricted) blood flow to the brain, for which there is the simple remedy/movement, of just turning the head all the way to the left and right, to produce the full muscle contractions that dictate the flow.

These same movements can be done with the other extremities of the body -- at the hands and feet, as the essential movements that have to be maintained but are ignored in most fitness/conditioning programs, resulting in the well-known deterioration that invariably begins at the extremities of the head (face, neck), hands and feet, typically called "normal aging," but should make sense as the most important areas to keep vital and optimize fullest capabilities -- throughout one's life.

One doesn't need to exercise to get the heart pumping -- because the heart is always pumping. But the voluntary muscles of the body are frequently ignored and unexercised, yet the curious thing is that the primary function of the smallest muscles, is to get the larger supporting muscle to aid it -- often called "cheating" by exercise instructors because they don't isolate the movement to one large muscle -- instead of the more proper and natural integrative movement, that begins at the furthest extremity (insertion).

So while it is advised that people should walk, often as the "best" exercise because it is cheap and doesn't require equipment, it does require one to walk in adverse conditions, or drive to a mall -- even in a fibro-fog and suboptimal condition, while again ignoring the exercise and fullest articulation at the extremities, that imply, ensure and express the fulfillment and health of the body and mind that is the greater objective of all one's activities.

Meanwhile, most people's idea of walking, is to merely shuffle their feet along without much foot articulation -- either going up on their toes as high as possible, and alternately, rolling back on their heels as far as possible to lift their toes as high as possible off the ground -- which action alone, far exceeds the range of motion normally achieved in every other daily activity -- and so just a few movements of each (25 repetitions), is enough to attain results far superior to any amount of what is usually regarded as the conventional prescriptions for that development.

Then that being done, one can proceed to walk, run, bike without the apprehensions and risk of injury from not preconditioning those vulnerable areas preparatory to their normal, or extraordinary use. That should be the meaning and function of a truly useful conditioning program -- to precondition and predispose one for doing all the things one cannot foresee doing, and not only as an end in itself.

Exercise For Couch Potatoes (and Other Sedentary Beings)

2011-03-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

Like it or not, most people these days live a sedentary life -- which most prefer to being on their feet (toes) all day -- and that is true the older and wiser one gets in life. The downside of course, as with many good things, is that a few and then many, overdo too much of a good thing -- which is the relief from the needless wear and tear on the body and mind, which are not infinite resources, but have to be managed prudently, efficiently and intelligently, to maximize one's best life.

That is best expressed through peak moments in life and activities -- which is not simply an average effort (experience) sustained for as long as possible (state), but the ability to focus one's energies to peak with an effort, and then relaxing and recovering for the next peak effort (dynamism) -- and that is how "peak performance" is achieved, and not simply the mediocre, or average, sustained for as long as possible.

However, many so-called exercise studies, determine the "average" performance, as though that was the meaningful measure, while being totally oblivious to the concept of range and peak (optimal) performance -- as though the objective was to achieve the average rather than the peak, which more accurately determines the difference between the best and the worst, of the meaningful range of individual actualizations.

Then when all are actually doing their best, it then becomes meaningful to determine ranking in abilities, rather than the average, which implies (necessitates) randomness -- and not a directed effort or outcome. Unfortunately, that misunderstanding leads to a lot of poorly designed studies, of which it is then possible to "prove" exactly what the researcher wanted to prove from the very inception -- rather than what would actually be the most significant to observe, measure, and maximize. And in fact, in such a design, every other factor but what the researcher wanted to study, would in fact, be eliminated, so that the only thing possible to arrive at, was one's preconceived idea -- and how they would rig the results to achieve precisely that effect.

And then those results (knowledge), would supplant one's actual experiences, or the truth of one's own results as what one should believe -- although it doesn't work for them, or for that matter, anybody else -- but it is supposedly true, somewhere, somehow -- but it is a top secret that only those way at the very top, are privy to.

So that is the first thing one should know, when a presenter's only argument, is the claim that studies show (say), but nothing in real life experience can corroborate and verify that independently, and "experts" are not so because they've tried everything, and know first hand, everything that doesn't work but knowing that it should.

The true test of anything, is whether any individual, can actually verify and validate the truth of any observation, for themselves, in the actuality -- and not as a belief based merely on authority, or credentials overriding actual experiences.

Human beings, like most other animals, were designed for sedentary activities and life, and not being on the go constantly, working tirelessly like machines. They pick the time and place, to be at their best -- and so the lasting distinction, is who runs the fastest marathon, and not simply who runs the most marathons -- though that is also possible to note. In most events, they are quite happy to have as many participants as possible, subject to individuals determining for themselves, what is a suitable schedule by which they can peak appropriately, to achieve their maximum performance, which is what they'll be known for, and judged by -- and not by the average of how they spend their day.

Champion athletes are notable for how composed and calm they are when they are not "onstage," invariably trying to become as relaxed as possible preparatory to their greatest effort (moment). That is the paradigm, or prototype of conditioning one hopes to achieve, which does not preclude those who spend substantial time seated or even lying throughout much of their day -- as long as they can briefly, still attain the peak.

Once that can be attained, it is less significant, how long that can be maintained -- because that peak, defines the range. If one can do one somersault, one doesn't have to do fifty, to be determined "capable." That also means that performing a treadmill for an hour each day, doesn't imply one could do one somersault -- which would indicate a level of mastery sufficient to have life saving value, in an emergency situation requiring extraordinary agility.

Amazing as it may seem, the most telling areas for which one can determine the vibrancy of individuals, is their range of movement, at the head, hands, and feet -- which people with decidedly poor health and deteriorating prospects for recovery, as well as athletes of poor responsiveness do not articulate, is the range of movement at these junctures -- but people of vibrancy do. That is in fact, their distinguishing characteristic of full vitality -- regardless of their condition otherwise, which is also, not surprisingly, supportive of that dynamism (movement).

It doesn't matter that such people are not running around all day -- doing everything they can still think to do. But if they can keep in mind, while watching television or sitting long hours at a computer, to take a minute from time to time, to articulate the head, hands and feet for at least a minute at a time, they won't suffer from the debilitating effects of maintaining a constant state of muscular tension that constricts the blood flow to their extremities that result in the nerve damage that invariably results from the lack of oxygen and other nutrients that are impeded when there is a sustained constant tension, instead of the healthful alternation of full contraction relieved by full relaxation -- that if sustained for at least a minute (50 repetitions), is the very definition of what it means to be an aerobic movement (while breathing) -- because nothing else is possible, in effecting a fully relaxed phase, alternated by a fully contracted peak.

No amount of walking, running, or typically sustainable activities for indefinite periods of time, will achieve that significant effect, of a minute of conscious movement to express that flushing of the extremities, that allows health maintaining (bodybuilding) nutrients to enter because the space has been created for it to do so.

Is There An Easier (Better) Way?

2011-03-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

The problem with making exercise hard -- and harder, is that most people won't do them, unless you force them to, or compel them in some other way. Usually it is the rationale that it is good for their heart, or good for their sex life, or prevents cancer -- and all such reasons but the sensibility and enjoyment of the movement itself, which in everything one does, should make perfectly good sense in itself, and in that, become self-reinforcing and self-validating, rather than simply going through the motions -- because some "authority" said it was good for them.

The unfortunate experience of contemporary life, is that many people will only learn what somebody else told and taught them, and never will it occur to them, that they can learn anything on their own, and for themselves. And so as they go through life, they're never clear on whether they are doing something for themselves, or merely for the benefit of another -- because they were never confident enough to question that authority, and the authority, never suggested that such a possibility should ever cross one's mind. They are fond of saying that "studies show" -- as though that lent credence to whatever they wanted the other to believe -- invoking even higher authorities than themselves. It seems to have the weight of authority -- but it is merely the coercion to conformity.

But a few in every field of inquiry, will rise above that unquestioning obedience, to discover the new, and the real, and not merely accept what has been passed on from one generation to another -- with no one asking, "Can there be a better way?" And that better way, is not simply more, or faster, or harder -- but the cessation of the problem entirely because it sees that all the actions to solve the problem merely continues it. And so the problem of education requires evermore education -- which surely must indicate that one is on the wrong path, for when one really has an answer, they stop looking for it. So the requirement and insistence on more, should be an indication that that is not the answer -- because any real answer, will require less, and even none at all.

It is like the quest for money -- and more money, to get what we don't have. If we had what we needed (wanted), then there would be no need for money, because money is what we hope to be able to trade it for. Many feel that they are dependent entirely on others to provide all their needs, and not that they could ever provide it for themselves, including and especially, their own health and well-being, and for which they expect to become increasingly reliant and dependent as they grow older. And so that is the great fear in many lives -- of never having enough money to provide for all those needs -- as they expect life to become even more beyond their own control -- and never have they thought, that their mastery of their own health and well-being can increase instead!

All they hear and see about, is the pattern of increasing loss of control over their health and lives -- requiring at least a million dollars now, to secure that peace of mind they become increasingly tormented by. And so no matter how much they have, they feel it is never enough; they are certain they need "more." But "more," never makes them any better off -- because they still need "more," and there is no end -- to that need, which is a conditioning and not the actuality of a healthy condition.

Even with those who do manage to obtain a remarkably healthy condition, most are undone by requiring "more," so that the result is injury, and exhaustion of recovery ability, which speeds the aging and deterioration process -- even as they think they are doing everything possible to avoid it. It is not enough for them to just have dramatic and impressive gains, but now they want to accelerate them with drugs and longer, more intense workouts to the limits of their tolerance and sanity -- as though that could be sustained for very long.

However, it might be possible to sustain a modest rate of improvement indefinitely -- if one were not so insistent that one had to get as much as possible, as soon as possible -- which distorts the equation greatly, making even the easy, difficult. Everyone thinks the answer is "more," and never that it could be, "less."

Maintaining and Improving (Mental) Health and Condition(ing)

2011-02-21T12:21:00.000-08:00

Most people are conditioned to think that the rules of health and condition(ing), are different for the brain than they are for the rest of the body, and so think that the best way to improve that functioning, is by "mental" exercises only, rather than traditional movements that improve the circulation to every other part of the body -- through the directed action of the muscle acting as a pump, in the familiar action of the heart, which is the full contraction alternated with a full relaxation, in a rhythmic, persistent movement.

Even with the heart, a contraction not alternated with a relaxation, is meaningless and unproductive; the one give meaning and value to the other -- but some advocates of one thing or another, think that only the contraction has value and the rest is a waste of time or nothing to be concerned with, or they think that the relaxation, is the only "effort" of great value, and ignore what a contraction entails -- rather than appreciating that they are both equally of value, and most importantly, the ability to change from one to the other. Those extremes of focus on one phase, are isometrics at one end, and yoga, or relaxation techniques at the other extreme -- often warning against the hazards of the other.

But really, fitness would logically be best expressed as the range of movement from one extreme to the other, and the ease by which that can be accomplished -- so as to be seemingly effortless, as appropriate to the situation. If one is too tense, relaxation is the greater benefit; if one is constantly and perpetually torpid, a few efforts of intense muscular action (contraction), can change that impression as well as condition immediately -- because that is what the body is designed to do -- change.

That action of "change," is unfortunately not taught, while "states" and "status," are -- in a conditioning program preferring one state to the other, and not appreciating, that it is the one that gives value to the other. And thus, to be a complete and healthy human being, is to be the greatest range of expressions and possibility, and not the unvarying one, that of course makes life boring, tedious, and unhealthy, because of a failure or reluctance to adapt easily and appropriately.

So the problem of those who are not in the favorable condition they wish to be in, is their conditioned resistance to change, so even if they do anything, it is largely to reinforce their present condition(ing), rather than to change it. And this is why, changing the understanding, is more important, than charging out and doing anything, and any amount of anything -- thinking that that makes a difference, or any difference, while thinking that their understanding is fine, and what they need is just more effort, time and money -- and everything will be perfect.

So when I told the head of research for studies on dementia at a leading university of my observation that those with those condition seldom exhibited head movement also, I was shocked by her response, that one shouldn't move their head or they would get whiplash, which was her interpretation of head movement -- as she further stiffened her head to show that such a thing was not possible.

But the circulation to the brain, is governed by the same rules that govern the circulation to every other part of the body, of which the heart plays an undoubtedly essential role, but is complemented, by the action of the voluntary muscles that push the blood (fluids) back towards the heart and filtering organs, and by that process, health is maintained and increased because optimizing that effect, naturally empowers growth beyond the present state (condition).

For that reason, people become healthier by simply functioning better in that way. Every person I've ever seen in deteriorating health and condition, showed this notable atrophying of the muscles and condition at the neck, hands and feet -- as the sign of the suboptimal circulation to those critical areas of the human body, that attended to, assures the health of the rest -- because that defines the range of the health maintenance that can be circumvented otherwise.

So that must be the foremost consideration in any conditioning program -- beyond all else, because a fully enabled and empowered brain, automatically takes care of the rest of the body, because attention has been directed there first -- and not at the expense of the brain, as in most conventional conditioning activities, movements and practices.

Only A Little Bit of the Right Thing Is Neccessary

2011-02-14T15:28:00.000-08:00

The secret and magic of doing anything, is to identify the 5% of the effort, that produces 95% of the desired results -- and instead of going for the remaining 5% requiring 95% of the effort -- looking for the next 5% producing the 95%, as more than bountiful rewards for all one's time and efforts.

Therefore, hearing that someone is giving 110%, is not an indication of that ability to discriminate that which is most productive to pursue -- because a maximum benefit can only be 100% -- and that can never be achieved with any certainty. But if one can consistently achieve 95% on top of 95% -- time and again, that is far more than the best can hope for, while those thinking to get 101% will fall further and further behind with every subsequent effort until they are so disappointed, and frustrated, that they no longer even try.

That is also the world of reality -- that nobody approaches anything with absolute certainty, controls all the inputs, and manufactures all the outputs precisely and exactly each time -- so that there is in fact, an allowance for that uncertainty, and the ability to respond to the unanticipated, as much as with the expected/hoped for results and outcomes. This explains why those with the ability to handle different situations, are more "fit," than those who can handle only one thing -- and explode/implode when they don't go that way. There is no provision for failure, or the unexpected -- which is not fitness, but a certain prescription for failure, disappointment and extinction.

Knowing this, one would never "train to failure," or come even close, but would further increase their margin of reserve for the unexpected -- which also becomes one's recovery ability, or ability to handle sickness, injury and trauma as well -- instead of being chronically depleted, and even debited on those accounts. The best indication of this, in regards to exercise, is to determine at what level, daily exercise is sustainable and welcomed -- rather than avoided, because one is exhausted from those workouts -- and thus must take several days if not weeks, to recover from that exhaustion, depletion and often injury.

Not surprisingly then, one will realize that a very minimal amount of daily preconditioning, is sufficient for one to prepare oneself to perform the rest of one's normal activities and movements, at optimal efficiency and performance -- and not that extraneous activities and efforts, should now take over one's lifestyle -- and even become one's reason for being in itself.

That would be counterproductive -- but alluring to those lacking meaning and purpose otherwise. It rarely is the case that anybody does absolutely nothing from the moment they awake to the moment they go to sleep again, doing absolutely nothing. In fact, it would be rare to find such a person -- because most normal people have to get an adequate amount of activity just to provide for an acceptable level of maintenance for themselves, let alone the demands of most jobs. If nothing else, they would have to assure their employers or supervisors, that they were still alive at periodic intervals, to continue to collect their paychecks.

Yet many exercise "experts" think that the average person's activity levels drop so low, that the reason for a conditioning program, is to resuscitate themselves and get their hearts beating as though they had no idea that it is an autonomic function of the body that will be the last sign of life to dissipate, and is the least likely organ to be underperforming in their entire body.

Attention, rather, would more productively be directed to those areas that aren't performing so regularly and reliably, as the source of one's deconditioning problems -- especially when they are so obvious at the most visible parts of the body -- which is the head (face), hands, and feet. To detect signs of that vibrancy and vitality, doesn't require one to jump up and run a few times around the block, or drop down for 100 pushups or situps, but is easily detectable to the discerning, who merely notice that range, and when it seems unduly restricted and limited.

Conversely, the quickest read of one in extraordinary health, is the obvious prodigy and vibrancy of such movements -- that seem to extend the range of movement and expectations for such movements that are distinctively described as the fine-motor control of the human body, that produces and expresses the highest attainments in every individual's life -- whether in art, music, athletics or thought (writing and speaking).

That fine-motor control, is what distinguishes the highest attainments and capabilities, and not just heart beat, which will always be the last thing to differentiate life from certain (absolute) death. Those proficiencies, also make life meaningful, and not simply prolonging the heart beat as long as possible -- whether anything recognizable as a normal, healthy responsiveness, has ceased and is no longer detectable. That is increasingly the problem of those who live extended lives but with no cognition or responsiveness to make it meaningful and recognizable to anybody else -- even if they always carry a heart monitor with them, and are overly concerned only with that functioning -- as the measure of one's greatest fitness and capabilities.

The Primary Function of the Brain is One's Health

2011-02-05T06:47:00.000-08:00

Many people would find that statement an extraordinary thing to say, and a few, would even think it to be an extraordinarily dumb thing to say, because in their worldview, everything is unconnected to everything else, so one's health particularly, is independent of any, and especially, the sum of the parts. That is how disconnected they are from their own body, to say nothing of their disconnection from the rest of the world. To their mind, nothing that is happening inside it, has anything to do with what is happening outside it -- and everything they do, and think, is to reinforce the separation of one thing to any other.

And so it is not surprising, that "bad things" just happen, with increasing and predictable regularity, in their lives and all around them, and there is nothing they can do about it, because nothing is related and connected to anything else. This unhealthy worldview, is the perfect prescription and prediction, of great calamity in the world -- beginning with such individuals. So it particularly pleases them, to hear that those who have believed otherwise and taken great care of the fine details , meet of some unforeseen disasters despite their careful considerations and preparations, while failing to see the successes of those responses, that limit any damage, or often, make it seem like a non-event.

Thus one has to be impressed when a major earthquake, typhoon, flood, and fire occurs, and no lives are lost or impaired, because the collective intelligence and culture made it so -- because that is what intelligence does, and not simply play more elaborate mental games -- to distinguish and separate oneself from the rest. That is the integrative nature of intelligence -- that it becomes integral to all that is happening, and not something apart from it.

In this way, the greatest manifestation (intelligence) of the brain, is the health of that individual, and the environment they manifest around them -- and not the scores they achieve on IQ tests, but in the actual living of life itself. So when one hears of the latest study that shows that intelligent people are more attractive than less intelligent people, that would seem to be a self-evident truth -- that one would use their intelligence, to be more attractive -- as a manifestation of intelligence, just as producing a great work of art, a sublime insight, a great piece of music, and themselves, as their greatest work of art.

That would not be vain and stupid, but actually, a real achievement, of their greatest possibility (intelligence) -- and not the denial that such things should ever matter to an intelligent person -- or that there should ever be the valuing of one thing over any other -- including health over sickness and impairment. Such people will use their "intelligence," to construct elaborate arguments that that is so -- while really intelligent people, will recognize that it is a waste of time to try to convince such a person otherwise, and let events and consequences take their course, of teaching them otherwise -- because one could argue endlessly with those who have no other point but to create and prolong such arguments -- as though that was an intelligent thing to do, and a mark of intelligence.

So it is not surprising, that the mind that is always creating these divisions and resulting conflicts, invariably suffer these consequences of seeing everything as unrelated and unconnected to everything else, while those who recognize and maintain these connections and relationships as well as possible, seem to become masters of the environments they live in -- rather than to always be in struggle and at odds with everything and everyone around them.

The New Paradigm for Exercise

2011-01-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

My father died at 91 of dementia -- despite being a lifetime exerciser (tai-chi, yoga, etc.), and because of that, the core of his body was in remarkably good shape, but the failure was, like many problems of aging and deterioration, distinctly at the extremities of the head (brain), hands and feet, which are prone to diminishing circulation even when one exercises in the conventional ways -- including walking, running, treadmilling, and weight-training, because I noted, there is very little direct movement of the head, hands and feet explicitly, such as turning the head 360 degrees, or as much as possible to the left and right, and then up and down as far as possible -- which causes the muscles of the neck to fully contract and relax, and that alternation, vigorously pumps blood back towards the heart, while evacuating the extremities so fresh blood from the heart can refill the space.

The usual thinking that all that is required to increase the circulation to a specific area, and particularly the extremities by just causing the heart to beat faster, is misunderstood, and the reason most exercise is unproductive -- is because the alternation of full contraction and relaxation of the muscles at the extremity (just as the heart works), is the meaningful variable (measure), and not the heart rate.

In the popular notion of exercise, virtually no attention is given to these movements and their motivating contractions that aid the veins in moving the blood back to the heart from the extremities, which if they are not activated in this way, cause the blood pumped from the heart to immediately return to the heart, rather than flow out to the extemities, where many of the critical (sensory) organs of the head, hands and feet are located, and when they fail, as has been noted, the vital signs may continue at healthy levels, but all responsiveness (fine motor coordination) has ceased -- at the head, hands and feet.

Diabetes, congestive heart failure, arthritis, brain dysfunction, all seem to be distinguished by this decreased flow of blood out of those areas, so that fresh, regenerative blood and neuromuscular impulses that maintain the healthy functioning in those organs and tissues are directly assured and enhanced.

But walking is not going to do it, because one needs to express the articulation fully, as occurs when the heel is lifted as far as possible off the floor, or complementarily, the toes are lifted off the floor as far possible, both extremes, causing the full contraction of the leg muscles -- that does not occur in walking, no matter how many miles. The only way the feet can attain those ranges of extreme contraction, is not to be supporting any weight, and likewise, the hands cannot articulate the fullest range of their movement if it is holding any weight, because the resistance prevents the greatest range of movement, which is also the fullest contraction of that effecting muscle.

The conventional wisdom of the usefulness of exercise is actually counterproductive, in shutting off the flow to the extremities by not producing a very deliberate contraction-relaxation initiated at the extremities to enhance the flow from/to those areas, which then defaults immediately back to the heart because that is the circuit of least resistance, rather than the more laborious trip through the muscles and capillaries. In fact, in observing weigh-training, one notes that the performance of most movements, cuts off the flow to the brain as the trainee constricts their neck muscles, which is the real reason for "failure" to continue -- because it is the brain that senses the deprivation of oxygen before the muscles are impaired, causing the entire body to shut down.

So while the heart and internal organs stay healthy, the brain, face, hands, feet, willful and coordinated movements, are not maintained at their highest levels -- which should be the attention of most importance, which implies the health of everything else -- but not vice-versa. Running is even worst, because one has the destruction of the back, feet, knees, hips, concussions from the high impact which usually causes people to desist from even more injury.

So while the proper exercise and movements would undoubtedly be helpful, curative and preventative, as it is popularly practiced, it may be counterproductive and actually aid the deterioration and injury -- and why most people rightfully avoid it, sensing that it is more damaging than helpful.

But seeing that increasing immobility, and characteristic atrophy of the neck muscles, and lack of decreasing range of motion at the wrists and ankles, should provide an insight into those movements that can be done even by people in the most weakened and deteriorative conditions -- because the whole musculature is designed to enable movement at these critical extremities -- rather than the customary meaningless situps, pushups, jumping, running, and even walking.

That is to say, that if all else fails, if one can retain the fullest range of movement at these extremities of the human body -- and nothing else, one would be in remarkable shape and condition, because even the most formidable athletes in their prime, will also decline in these areas, without the proper attention to those movements and areas of vital concern -- specifically, even in people who have exercised their entire lives in the conventional manner of emphasis to the more obvious and familiar movements.

But that is not where the human body critically fails -- particularly when the brain becomes disconnected from the body -- in the distinctive manner of the dementias, that accompanies decreasing head movement, and the atrophying of the neck muscles as the markers of people in deteriorating health, often and usually attributed to the natural aging process. There is nothing natural and inevitable about it.

While critics have pointed out that the ankles and wrists have no musculature to develop, the insertions of the muscles are at these extremities, and the contraction of muscles, is always initiated in the movement of the insertion end towards the origin, which in turn, becomes the insertion of the larger, supporting muscle -- all the way back to the origin of all the muscles near the heart (conveniently), which makes this the most efficient way to effect all the muscles of the body -- beginning with that understanding, that the entire orientation and design of the human musculature, is to effect the angle of rotation of the structures at the extremities, to enhance survival advantage, or fitness, which we also call the survival of the fittest.

The most commonly misunderstood point, is that the heart has no influence in pumping the blood back to the heart from the tissues, but one can create an adjunct heart, by duplicating this characteristic action of the heart -- of alternating full contraction and relaxation, at the extremities through voluntary, willful movements of the skeletal muscles, to greatly enhance the circulatory effect beyond the effectiveness achieved in thinking the heart alone is the only organ (muscle) responsible to achieve this purpose, and in this manner, six hearts are better than one -- and one can actually increase the effectiveness of the circulation, while the heart does the same -- or less work, as the most consistently overworked organ of the body, while weakened muscles, continue to atrophy.

The maintenance of health at the structures at the extremities, implies the health of their supporting structures, while the opposite is obviously not true.

Reconditioning, Recreating, Rejuvenating Life in the 21st Century

2011-01-26T06:19:00.000-08:00

It is obvious to most people who grew up and were conditioned (educated) in the 20th Century, that the world is wholly different now, but the knowledge and possibilities they learned back then, may not serve them so well now and in the future – if they simply repeat the patterns of the past, rather than explore and develop the greatest possibilities of living in the 21^st Century.

Quite possibly, most of what we know, may be no longer true, if it ever was, because information keeps evolving to higher levels of understanding – so that many things thought impossible in the past, including and especially a vastly different and better life, are now the present day realities for increasing many. Some are the first to know about these new understandings and possibilities, while many others, resist them until they are the last to know and accept them.

The conditioning of the past, was partly this resistance to change and accepting different ideas and ways than the one in which they were taught to live out their entire lives, as the only way it has always been done, or had been convinced of that. But the new world, is the understanding that there are many ways, ideas and options – than the one the present conventional wisdom and defenders, try to convince us is the only, if not the best way, even when it obviously does not work for us.

When the knowledge we possess, does not produce the results we desire, we are often told we must simply try harder, and devote more time, effort and expense, into what has not been working, rather than consider that there could be a different understanding, that makes more sense, and in fact, achieves the remarkable results and benefits, with vastly less – because no amount of effort with the wrong understanding, will achieve the results of a very little effort with the right understanding.

In fact, the right understanding automatically leads to the right actions and practices – rather than having to force oneself to continue to do what is obviously not working, and may even be undermining our efforts, and confidence. We often acquired that knowledge (conditioning), because nobody thought to question that there might be a better way (than it's always been done before) – without all the problems, demands and reservations previously thought necessary and essential in those undertakings.

That is the possibility of life in the 21^st Century – to be healthy and whole, not as an exception for only a privileged few, but as the new paradigm of living in these times. One no longer just learns everything in school, from experts or teaching professionals, but learns all the time, from everything, and everybody, all one's life – and it is being in that perpetual state of learning, by which one remains healthy, vital and evolving to ever higher levels of well-being, rather than thinking one has learned everything one needs to know in school, and never needs to learn anything else ever again – which is the familiar and destructive pattern of deterioration, decline and dysfunction (disease).

This is very different especially from how we have been conditioned to think of exercise – as the need to do incessantly “more,” rather than that we could be doing less, but better. People don't get better because they do more (of what made them worse with their old understanding), but because they do better, that allows them to do less. But not simply less with their present understanding – which is to think of themselves as a struggle and competition against everybody else, including themselves, working against gravity, time and circumstances, rather than the proper orientation and understanding of optimizing their actions, choices and behaviors to obtain the fullest benefits from their environment and conditions – which produces greater health and fitness as its logical and inevitable outcome.

Much of what we believe to be true, we take on the word of other people telling us so, rather than that we can verify and validate our knowing through our own experiences and sensibilities, so that we can all think for ourselves and make our own inquiries and discoveries thereafter – and not just be told what to think, and when to think them, which no intelligent human being, would settle for.

Vital to any instruction, is that the student learns to be their own teacher – but in order to learn that, they need to see how one learns, and not simply, how the teacher teaches. The great value of education, is observing how the teacher learns – if they in fact do, and not simply repeat what they have been told, is what they must teach. Nowhere is that more true, than in traditional physical education classes and instruction, which is usually just the most obvious of a heavy-handed indoctrination and coercion that doesn't allow one to come upon the truth of any matter for oneself – which allows them to take that basic and vital skill to all the challenges of all one's activities, interests and pursuits.

That is the critical difference in how life has changed from the last century to this: we are no longer merely narrow specialists capable of knowing only one field of expertise or automatons performing one task endlessly, but can broadly experience and operate confidently and competently in as much as we want to. Undoubtedly, some will be more talented in some fields than others, but on a base level of participation, one can feel qualified and welcomed to participate, and not be intimidated and bullied by the self-appointed few who feel they are the only ones who belong there, and own the turf, and everybody else exists only to pay their dues and homage to them.

We no longer live in that world, and so the new paradigm of conditioning in the 21^st Century, is the liberation from the compulsion and coercion that restricts and limits movement and funnels them into self-defeating and destructive patterns, to the realization that the range of movement is much greater than thought/imagined possible, and increasing those ranges – and not simply doing a self-limiting familiar range, as a veritable self-fulfilling treadmill -- is what will enable one to do what one has not done before, no matter how many countless, tedious times of thoughtlessly going through the motions.

The conditioning of value is what enables and empowers one to do what one hasn't done before – which is to extend one's range of movement and expression, safely, confidently, sensibly and effortlessly – and create that as a base template for every other activity one engages in the normal course of one's day, rather than being a disruption requiring inordinate amounts of energy, time and focus that takes away from one's day, and becomes one's excuse for not having enough of to do it.

So What Does Work?

2011-01-21T08:40:00.000-08:00

One can't help reading about all the injuries incurred by professional and collegiate athletes, and wonder if maybe the conditioning exercises they are doing, are not the major cause of these injuries -- while thinking that performing such movements will render them less susceptible to them.

Particularly of note, are the epidemic of injuries to the Achilles tendon, hamstring, and knee -- for which it is usually recommended to hyper extend the notably vulnerable Achilles tendon and overloading it in the mistaken belief that adding further insult to a vulnerability, is the best way to strengthen it.

And secondly, while it is possible to strengthen a muscle/tendon, the net result may be, to predispose oneself to that injury. It should be noted that while one can train to lift formidable loads with the leg biceps (hamstring), in no real world event or application, would it ever be wise or advantageous to do so -- because the body is better suited to do so in many favorable ways of leverage. The real purpose of the hamstring is to retract (bend) the leg, prior to extending it and applying force -- but never as a primary end in itself, except by the design of the exercise equipment -- which should be a major concern in producing unnecessary injuries through this performance and practice.

And then when the leg is straightened, it is with the purpose of transferring that power through a movement of a heel raise -- rather than in the counterproductive movement of an Achilles tendon hyperextension under increasing loads (until finally there is a rupture), which is not only a problem not only of these movements, but the design flaw of virtually all the machines and apparatus -- in that the range of movement extended, is the (hyper)extension rather than the contraction phases -- which usually stops far short of its fullest range.

It's not advantageous to increase the load in extension -- but in the direction of contraction, which as I have pointed out previously, when performed properly, always produces its own greatest resistance to further contraction -- with no further load needed, which in fact, merely decreases the range of movement. That is the natural, intelligent design of human evolution, that no get-rich quick human invention and device can override.

And most seriously, the too common and familiar knee injuries are exacerbated by the movement of the weighted leg extension -- for no practical purpose other than developing the quadriceps for no greater purpose than could be much better achieved with a slight knee bend (dip), onto a rise onto the toes -- that is the universal useful leg movement. That movement can be easily and productively performed with a chair and simulates the breast stroke as the hands placed on the back of the chair, counterbalances the upward movement (thrust) of the legs, with its own downward movement (thrust) against the chair, as sort of a full body pushup -- without weight and resistance on the upper body structures that usually cause people to dislike conventional pushups.

One merely needs to push down, or straighten one's arms, while the leg is simultaneously straightened -- because it is the movement itself that strengthens, and not the resistance preventing such proper movement! -- allowing the body to increase its range in the range in which it develops as well as exhibits that proclivity and strength.

But in most conventional exercises and in the design or machines and equipment, it is precisely the wrong end of the range that is extended -- and overloaded! That will predispose and make injuries nearly a certainly, and an inevitability -- unless one is wise (or lucky) enough to discontinue them before such (en)forced termination to their participation in future conditioning and health maintenance practices because they no longer physically possible -- even when the spirit is still willing.

But there is a better, intelligent way.

Who Owns the Truth (Facts)

2011-01-21T06:43:00.000-08:00

People who have no idea what they are talking about, are fond of (pro)claiming that every idea is as good as any other -- and just because they say it, makes it so, and there is no higher authority.

Nowhere is that more true than in the field of education and instruction -- because such teachers don't do their own thinking and research, but merely teach what they have been told to propagate -- because they don't know any better, and could never tell the difference, because that is not their job, but merely following the directives of so-called authorities.

That is authoritarianism and not authority. The classic example used to be the bureaucratic tyranny of the physical education (PE) instructor, who could make people do any number of insane things -- because they said so, and they were the authorities in charge, and could punish them with even further outrageous demands, no matter how unreasonable and insensible. But now that manner and methods, have spread to most instruction (education) -- which is recognized by only a few (but the most perceptive and aware), as the indoctrination (brainwashing) it is -- moving further into the mainstream because those who claim to know better, don't, and are actually the least qualified and capable of exercising such judgment, and so become one's worst enemy rather than a reliable source of information.

But that is obviously not lost by increasingly many people who have awakened to question such authorities because they prefer discovering the truth of any matter for themselves, and realize the necessity to do so, in the new world of increasing alternatives and information. This development is not unlike the movement out of the medieval age of similar totalitarian authority and information control, to the new age of challenge that could be proved by experience and experimentation that is always a challenge to the old information hierarchies that are mostly represented by the education institutions, and what is increasingly referred to as the old media institutions and their ways of expertly (professionally) manipulating public opinion.

For this, they are most easily identified by their insistence that what they say, are the "facts," and everyone else can merely express their "opinions," because they "own" the truth, and those are the facts.

And thus their readers argue endlessly and pointlessly that their side is "right" and morally superior, while never questioning, how they came to know what they do as the truth, because they never questioned the premises by which they arrived at their conclusions -- but are insistent and certain, that they are "right."

How do you know what you think you know?

The Gimmick is that There Is No Gimmick

2011-01-07T12:38:00.000-08:00

As one astute observer exclaimed after one of my presentations on "Understanding Conditioning" -- as the light bulb lit up in his brain and face, "The gimmick is that there is no gimmick."

In a world which has learned to sell the sizzle rather than the steak, the hardest and most obvious thing to convince people of, is the simplicity of direct understanding, because they are always led on a convoluted "wild goose chase" thought necessary to motivate people to even listen, and in fact, their reason for listening, is the presumption that they are mainly there for entertainment rather than purpose -- and those there for the latter, have to be convinced it is for entertainment, and not something productive.

That is the unfortunate consequence of mainstream mass marketing media -- and not the truth of any real activity, which unfortunately many think, the mass media is a valid and adequate substitute for the actual experience. And so many people, are "conditioned" to think that everything is fake and contrived, and there is no real consequence and significance to anything: that everything is just one big commercial, to fool one into thinking anything the sponsor of that program wants one to think -- and that is the only truth they know.

So when I point out that any movement that can be done on a machine or equipment, can actually be done better and more productively without it, they are incredulous, because their conditioning has been to think that they absolutely need that apparatus to do that movement, or any other requirement -- because the body is designed for one thing, and that is movement. Movement is integral to the design and the evolution of the human body. One actually has to override that genius of simplicity, by being conditioned to defeat that essential intelligence.

The proof of this is that any movement one is used to performing on any machine or equipment, can simply be done without that equipment, but to make it as effective, it should be done for a minimum of 50 repetitions, and not the usual 10 with resistance, before one stops -- thinking that the latter is more effective than the freehand version with no resistance, because the movement itself, will always provide its own resistance -- to further movement beyond its extremest range.

An example is to do a standing press with no resistance -- and to keep pushing the imaginary bar as high as possible. The further one attempts to do so, the obvious further resistance the body provides against doing so -- and one doesn't need a machine to aid in doing so. And really, the whole advantage in movement, is achieving a greater range of movement, and not simply repeating a limited range of movement, tirelessly and endlessly.

That's what differentiates the world champion, or prodigy from the mediocre -- their greatly enhanced and extended range of motion, and not doing a limited range of movement, more than every other competitor can. Just as in singing, it's not who can sing the loudest badly, but who has the greatest range of ability -- even to go from the worst to the best, and not just do the average, more than anybody else can.

Fitness Is An "Expression" Of Who You Are

2010-12-26T12:54:00.000-08:00

Probably the single greatest difference from my teaching of exercise from every other, is the realization that "fitness" has value, as the basic expression and communication of that individual, rather than as most others regard it, as a self-isolating and self-aggrandizing activity -- usually against, or in competition, against all the others, including one's self.

Such people condition themselves to make everything hard and difficult, as their virtue, and justification and rationale for doing it -- because they are uncomfortable with the idea that they are in this context of relationships and communication with all others and their environment. The classic tale of this, is the Greek fable of one who drew his strength from the earth, and eventually is defeated by an opponent, who lifts them off the ground from that contact and sustenance, for an easy defeat.

Even in the context of athletic activity, one's greatest success and triumph, can only come in the success in communicating to one's teammates, what they are doing, and what they intend to do -- and not simply limiting that information, to envisioning in their heads, with nobody else's knowledge and awareness of that fact. We call that mastery, making everyone (the team) better, and not only oneself -- as might happen if one thinks they are in competition with everyone else, including their own teammates, and even against themselves, which would obviously be a damaging and destructive strategy for conditioning oneself -- yet nevertheless, a very common one, by self-destructive individuals and instructors.

So two things to keep in mind in the performance of any movement -- is that one should always move with eyes wide open, and not as many do, with their eyes tightly shut -- because one would never move appropriately and productively, by shutting out that visual information. And so the conditioning, would also be the expression of lifting one's eyebrows so that the eyes are wide open at the moment of maximal expression -- rather than shutting them, as many do -- and in this way, lose their essential contact with what is going on, at every moment of their effort. Because in that blink, the whole world could have changed, and one would not be aware of that.

And secondly, while lifting the eyes and eyebrows (one of the most common plastic surgery procedures), one would wish to communicate approval and acknowledgement, which is the smile, rather than the frown and/or grimace, which indicates discouragement and denial, that one should continue in their own efforts. That is the basic work, as well as play, in contemporary society -- that coordination and collaboration with all others, at every extemporary moment, which is likely to be the "world" most leading edge individuals live in -- that social and environmental context, rather than isolated in a cave somewhere -- and conditioned to live in that mentality.

But such "fitness" would not optimize their lives in the contemporary world, but isolate and put them at odds with everyone else -- for a much more difficult life and existence, and seeming perpetual struggle, against ever greater odds. That whole way of thinking has to be turned around, so that one's basic conditioning (orientation) and fitness, is to first identify, the easiest and most effective course, before applying one's own efforts most successfully and productively.

That is to say, that one's first task, is to take in as much as the information as possible, and with that information, inform all the others of that same information, so that everyone's efforts can be maximized, rather than used to simply cancel out each other's, as a poor prognosis and response for survival. The individual (indivisible) means the whole, and not just the part.

First, Do No Harm

2010-12-22T23:04:00.000-08:00

The most common cause of people giving up their exercise, is because they get injured from it -- whether walking, running, weightlifting, tennis, martial arts or basketball, etc., and so the most effective lifelong exercise, must minimize this possibility, while at the same time, be the rehabilitation from such injuries, which then becomes preventative.

Most people have therefore been advised to do a five minute warm up before embarking on their injurious and often life-threatening activities -- when it should be obvious, that the five minute workout (warm up), is the productive part of their exercise/conditioning activities, and the regular activity, increases the risk-to-reward ratios, which is seldom true of the warmup phase and activities.

But that is why it is important to make the warm up program as productive as possible, as well as realizing that is in most cases, what is necessary before engaging in their normal daily activities, that might include bicycling, swimming, walking, running, even self-defense, and any other, injury avoidance maneuvers -- because that is what one is conditioned to do -- despite not repeating those movements endlessly and thoughtlessly, as though that was enough to convey great skill at the unprecedented responses, skills and agility that will indeed be life-saving and/or life-enhancing.

That is to say, that the great conditioning value, is to be able to rise to unprecedented and unique challenges, and not just repeat a treadmill activity endlessly -- as though the end result would be any other than a treadmill existence of conditioned and programmed mediocrity and routine. Conditioning has to have some greater meaning and purpose in this meaningful way -- and not simply becoming increasingly a mechanical, programmed human turned into a tireless machine. That is what makes humans unique and different from machines -- that perform a movement tirelessly and unvaryingly in the same fashion all the time.

The great value of human activity and conditioning, is that it enables one to break through to a higher level of achievement and performance, and not just repeat the same or present capability forever. That's not what motivates and engages human striving and effort; it has to have that component of improvement, and not simply repeating the same, endlessly -- as though that was all that was meaningful and possible. Most people quit such programs as soon as nobody is supervising and urging them on to continue -- because left on their own, there is no motivation and drive, except for that external coercion.

The fact of the matter is that one came into this world alone, and will probably leave the world in the same way -- and so at some point in one's life, one has has to become their own motive force -- which is to go where they have not gone before, and so what is important, is to define how that might be possible. One can design programs of activity that ensure one's failure and eventual elimination, or one can re-create their lives anew so improvement is perennially possible, so that they always remain engaged.

Yet far too many people, select activities and manner of participation, that immediately and successively, eliminates themselves from that participation. Most common is to compete with the young as one becomes increasingly old, which is a self-fulfilling prescription for failure. But is one perfected at 20, or can there be improvement at 30, 40, 50, 60, 70..., and what would make that progression possible?

Obviously, one has to rethink improvement as something other than just being youthful, and that continuation and perpetuation -- and in that manner, one can become "ageless," so that people will not simply say that one is in good condition for an old person, but the thought of age, never enters one's mind in considering those capabilities -- and in that way, one becomes ageless, and better -- and not merely more of the same.

If You Don't Get Better, You'll Get Worse

2010-12-12T11:25:00.000-08:00

When one is young, it seems like one gets better no matter what one does, but when one becomes old, things seem to get worse, unless one makes them get better. Life is never staying the same, no matter how much one tries to make it so. There is always change, and so the choice one can make, is whether the orientation and organizing principle of that life, is to get better, or get worse -- and if one deliberately doesn't make that effort to get better, they will surely get worse -- which is to achieve a mindless, random result -- and so the great drive in life, is this quest for improvement -- or not.

In this manner, one chooses life (growth) or death (deterioration) -- as long as one can tell the difference and make it matter, as the exercise and expression of their will (to live). Otherwise, it doesn't matter if one chooses life or death, improvement or decline, and eventually, one no longer has the power to effect that desire as the great organizing principle and experience of their lives. This fundamental, and basic orientation, is how one approaches and does everything in life -- so there is improvement, rather than at some point, a reversal that overwhelms one's life until one feels they do not have this control over the course and shape of their lives, existence, experiences and outcomes, and their only hope and recourse, is that somebody else can change that.

Increasingly, that control is claimed by some expert, professional, or politician, who promises that if one lets them do all their thinking for them, everything will work out perfectly -- which is to say, that one no longer has control over one's own life. And the whole meaning of humanity, and individual lives, is not the control of every other life, but merely one's own, and from that power, derives all other.

It is a very simple and basic lesson -- that changing the world, as one is taught is a very noble purpose, must begin with changing one's own life and immediate environment, as the world one can change -- always. If not, then changing the world one doesn't actually inhabit and effect, has no meaning but is a delusion that one is doing something other than what one actually is -- which would be to make the world worse, thinking one is making it better.

In a healthy, integrated life, there is no contradiction of thinking from doing -- but the thinking is one's doing, and not separate from it -- which are always the problem, the disease, and the struggles of the world -- to become other than what is. That is the essential problem -- and never the solution. Because when one understands what one is (doing), there is no conflict of the world in what is, and what one wants it to become otherwise, which is the nature of violence, force and aggression.

But moving with understanding of what is, and not trying to force what is not to be what is, is the denial that makes the resolution (betterment) of anything, impossible.

For this reason, any discussion must examine the understanding of the facts, and not assume they own the facts, and everybody else better "get with the program," because there is no other way. The great improvements in the human condition, is the discovery of other ways -- and not more conformity and obedience to the one way, any group of individuals or trade associations, insists is the only way that one can think about these things.

Being in Shape is a Skill and Not a State

2010-12-04T12:00:00.000-08:00

People are often surprised that the strongest people, are often not the most muscular-looking people, but in fact, have looked very out of shape -- mainly because they didn't think that looking "in shape," in the conventional sense of that word, was very important. In fact, in the old days before bodybuilding became mainstream popular in the '60s, it was regarded largely as a "gay" thing, just like being a "metrosexual" male is presently.

Undoubtedly, many bodybuilders do tend to narcissism, as many do who are overly dependent on the approbation of others, as their chief motivation and meaning, which then makes them very susceptible to manipulation by unscrupulous others. That is the typical experience in being young and in the schools and other mass institutions, where conformity to the norm of "political and intellectual correctness" is demanded for participation and validation, of which the unsuspecting novices in any activity are very vulnerable to.

In time and persistence, they come to realize the validity of their own (personal) experiences and experiments, over the conventional wisdom, and particularly, recognize the insidious way truths come into being, largely by their repetition, and often plagiarism, of those claiming those ideas as the inventor, or at least, one of its first disciples. But the test of that originality (authorship), is whether they can produce another, and a next, etc. -- rather than simply repeating and replicating the conventional wisdom, as though they thought of everything themselves -- which is authoritarianism rather than the authority it hopes to imitate.

Being an "authority" means being the author, or originator of that idea, while the authoritarian, claims that authority, simply as an entitlement -- as many "teachers" do, but wonder why they don't "command" that respect, and frequently, are even ridiculed and disrespected so that they cannot face an audience any more, but have to be promoted to a position as an "educational administrator," because they no longer have a visceral credibility beyond their past honors and achievements.

But that is what "science" and "art" really is -- that productiveness and inquiry into the present great quandary, and not simply repeating the old as though it were the new, to a more uninformed audience.

"The Ultimate Solution"

2010-11-28T11:00:00.000-08:00

This is the season when people become increasingly victims of their own environments and predispositions -- because as the weather gets increasingly colder, they have to insulate themselves more from those external conditions, while creating/manifesting uniquely their own. So it can be a season of joy, or depression and hopelessness/despair for a few as well.

For this reason, past civilizations and societies celebrated light (warmth), when it was at its most cherished minimum, which in modern times is just as appropriate, but there is a lot we can do about it now -- including minimizing the effects of low light exposure, which is categorically described as Seasonal Affective Disorder. Lighting is now available and even cheap -- to virtually create one's own (sun)light and its well known healthy effects, which is much more than just a primitive discussion of energy consumption -- because Thomas Edison's light bulb, is not the same light possible in the age of extended life and growth.

It is much like the primitive discussion we still have in the world of physical culture in which many people still think the only difference is whether one expends more energy or less -- without considering that the greater, much more profound question, is to what effect (purpose) and efficiency (meaning).

Intelligence is more than simply doing more -- rather than in fact, doing things differently, usually resulting in much less effort and work to accomplish the same thing -- and much, much more. The old saying would be, "Killing two birds with one stone," but in this age, it is quite possible to bring down the entire flock, with one strike, such is the level of proficiency we have achieved. But knowing that, there is much greater responsibility to exercise that knowledge at commensurately higher levels -- than just beating more wives and children.

That, obviously, would not be commensurate with a higher intelligence and consciousness -- though there will be an aberrant few who still think in that manner.

Most people are still not aware to what great extent they can create their own world -- at least in their own space. Some still cling to the notion that "space" is how much turf, organization and people they control -- instead of their own mastery over largely themselves. Thus, their idea of changing the world and/or reality, is changing everybody else, and everything else, rather than simply starting in with what they can change directly -- such as their lighting, and other requirements for optimizing their personal space, which results ultimately in affecting everything they do -- because they produce the optimal conditions for their greatest functionality and performance as intelligent and healthy human beings.

Thus, given the same basic conditions as everyone else, individuals can actualize (optimize) it to very different degrees of proficiency, satisfaction, and achievement, as their own measure of success in living their own lives. And that sense is paramount to all others -- especially the feeling that one is nothing unless validated by some greater other that one has less, or no control over, as is very common in a mass media induced culture.

Often, that means doing what nobody else will validate and approve of -- or they would be doing it themselves.

How Life Gets Better

2010-11-21T09:12:00.000-08:00

The way to get around all the rules and regulations, is to be "The Original..."

They can't regulate what nobody has done before, or they can't imagine anybody doing.

That's why they can regulate the craftsman, but not the artist.

There's no law against creating a new idea or a different way of doing things -- only the same things everybody else is doing. That's why it is so important to label and categorize people and actions, so that somebody has jurisdiction over it, and can tell everybody else what to do and how to do it.

Unless of course, they have no idea what you are doing -- because they haven't thought of it themselves before, and then you are the first, making up the rules as you do it. And then once they figure out what you are doing and pass laws to regulate it, you do something else -- differently.

That's particularly helpful in retirement and combating the aging (senility) process in remaining a viable and growing person throughout life. It works for the young too.

That is the frontier and challenge of life in these times -- when obviously, people are living longer lives that could be much better also. In fact, the fact that they are living longer, merely improves the chances that they can be living better -- and not merely the familiar old patters (of aging) longer. That's not ultimately meaningful -- to simply live longer in declining health and abilities -- as the best one can hope for.

Instead, there is a need for a new paradigm of life, not dominated by the aging paradigm, so that one is merely getting better, or worse, and there is something one can do about it -- rather than just resign themselves to those facts off life.

Particularly troublesome is the present paradigm of aging people requiring more dependence on others to live their lives -- that begins with the indoctrination that they should let the professionals and experts do all their thinking and talking for them, after they have properly identified themselves as Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, rich or poor, black or white, besides young or old.

All that is a merely distraction and smokescreen from the essential issue at hand -- which is, am I getting better, or worse, and what can I do to get better? That basic consideration, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

That becomes one's motive drive and lifestyle -- as opposed to the often repeated conventional one in which one simply learns the way things have been done by everyone before -- usually without great, or equal success -- yet the mass institutions, think that is the way everyone should/has to do it, even if it doesn't work, because that is what the experts and self-vested professionals say, must be done (for their benefit and self-aggrandizement).

Predictably, that is often not the best, or in the best interests, of the individuals themselves -- especially when the agency providing that information, is promoting ever more of their services, at increasing compensation to themselves, even if the results of the study, is to indicate a need for more studies (and the funding thereof).

That is what we've come to see in the mass media, as "public service announcements," or advocacy information -- which is not so obvious, as self-promotion. It is a technique used to convince us that our support and patronage, is for our benefit and not their own -- which is to whom all that increased funding would go to.

The Cheapest, Best Nutritional Supplement

2010-11-16T23:05:00.000-08:00

Question: I'm going to try your baking soda to see if it works for me as well. But a friend of mine also suggested that soda crackers might work in principle as well. What do you think?

Obviously, the soda crackers would work too because it contains baking soda, but baking soda as a liquid is probably the ideal, instantaneous manner to obtain the desired effect of neutralizing the over-acidity (which is also a problem in many animals also) -- especially as an after-meal or accompanying beverage -- just as a soda water might be.

Several years ago, I thought Alka-Seltzer might be good for that purpose also -- but when you look at its list of ingredients, it is aspirin (and/or acetaminophen), citric acid as an antacid, and sodium bicarbonate, which is actually the premier antacid. So why are they adding everything else -- when sodium bicarbonate alone by doing nothing more than neutralizing the acidity instantly, creates the optimal internal environment.

It's not as radical as it sounds. I'm just amazed that despite all its miraculous uses for many different purposes, that nobody has thought that baking soda baking may be the cure-all for 90% of the ailments most people suffer from -- except for a few crank (and discredited) physicians who claim that baking soda is the cure for cancer.

One of the problems I had which led me to first believe I was suffering from "aging" effects, was something I suspect afflicts a lot of other athletes also, which is the tendency of their muscles to contract and not release -- as when they tear their Achilles tendon and hamstrings. That's how it happens -- the muscle will contract, but when they send the command to relax, the muscle continues to bind and therefore tears.

So even when I wanted to continue to sprint -- I was very susceptible to these cramps, and tears, which discouraged me from persisting. When muscles contract and release energy, they break down to produce lactic acid as a by-product, which causes fatigue and soreness if the body cannot eliminate that acidity fast enough.

And I also recall that the first time I went on a long bike ride and didn't know how to pace myself, my legs cramped up as thought they were going to break off at the knees, which I felt a need for water -- and salt tablets (sodium), of which, baking soda is the ideal form to administer it. So it is not surprising to read that it has been promoted as a performance enhancer for marathoners, and for bodybuilders to aid in their recovery from high intensity workouts that produce extreme muscle soreness.

And although I have yet to take on a severe challenge of that thesis, I have felt that my muscles are not susceptible to cramping -- which allows me a greater ease of moving into the fullest ranges of movement.

And lastly, one of the advantages of salt (sodium) tablets. is that it seems to keep the tissues the s well-hydrated, which is the look I initially was first struck by when of steroids first became popular in the late 60s. These guys looked like their muscles were going to burst from their skin.

This is particularly important in the later years of one's life when aging people seem to have a noticeably gaunt, or dehydrated (atrophied) look, which could indicate that their tissues could benefit from this greater retention of fluids in their tissues, that is not just the bloated look of those retaining excess fluid to dilute the overacid condition of accumulated waste products.

It's not just enough to drink water. The tissues have to want to hold it -- which seems to be the property that baking soda, as well as glucosamine seem to serve in ensuring the fluidity (lubrication) in movements.

But I haven't tried soda crackers to say that they're not as effective. But I know you can't get anything more concentrated and potent -- and cheaper than just straight baking soda, to use liberally for as many purposes as you can think of.

At Costco, a 13.5 lb. (indestructible) bag costs $5.99 -- which should be a year's supply of the best tonic (medicine) one can buy, for so cheap. It sounds too good to be true.

Question: Yes, I too have a bag of the Costco Arm & Hammer soda. I just had a glass, 12oz w/ one teaspoon of soda. Do you recommend just a glass per day or drinking the glass through out the day? Should you drink more than one glass per day?

The one thing one has to be concerned about is consuming too much sodium -- just like salt, if one has a hypersensitivity to it. So like any good dosage, it should be the minimum effective dose.

I usually mix a half a teaspoon with 20 oz. of water, and add a saccharine tablet for taste. I usually keep two such cups available, and sip it throughout the day, along with herbal teas, and then after meals, I also like to use that solution as a mouth rinse before cleaning my teeth -- of which baking soda is ideal, and even brushing one's teeth, as well as soaking dentures or dental appliances (night guards), instead of those much more powerful products for that purpose. And then of course, it is again ideal for wiping the basin clean and dry.

So I would start with a teaspoon -- over a course of a day as the minimum effective dose -- to eliminate acid reflux, gastrointestinal upset, and irritable bowel syndrome. However, athletes for a competitive advantage, have been advised to take as high as 1 teaspoon per kilogram (2.2 lbs) bodyweight -- which I think would make most people sick, and gag at the thought. But that would be to achieve a one-time competitive advantage -- and not a daily dose, which has notably produced nausea, gastrointestinal distress, etc.

However, I'm inclined to believe that even a modest dose as 1 teaspoon could be tolerated by most people, as just the normal amount of sodium they get in their normal diet. One Alka-Seltzer tablet has more than a teaspoon of sodium equivalent. It's when one gets beyond 5 teaspoons or notices the symptoms of excessive sodium consumption like edema, or swelling at the extremities, and elevated blood pressure that one has to be concerned.

But probably the good, outweighs the downside, especially with constant gastrointestinal upset disrupting one's entire life and ability to live a carefree existence. There's always risk with reward -- and with irritable bowel syndrome (diarrhea), the chances are, one is losing sodium at a greater rate than one is accumulating it in excess.

To Keep You in the Shape You Want to Be

2010-11-09T12:18:00.000-08:00

The human body can express any movement or form it wants to be in -- if it actually articulates that reality and intent.

But just to have a desire to be "in shape," but have no idea what that form should take, and how to manifest it.

Bodybuilders look that way, because that is the way they want to look -- and practice it daily, or on a regular basis, so that their shape is not a random result of consuming and expending a certain amount of calories -- at random movements, and that is why all the treadmilling in the world, will not make one look like a bodybuilder, or a gymnast or ballerina, no matter how fast their hearts beat -- because the actual forms they want their muscles to take, are never articulated in that way. The muscles have no idea what form they should take -- if a deliberate message to them, never gets there, and in fact, is never sent, or even such a thought entertained, because the only emphasis is on making the heart beat faster -- which is not the difference in the shape between human beings. Most hearts, look recognizably alike -- because they have to articulate the full range of its expression -- unfailingly.

But that is not true of all the other voluntary (skeletal) muscles of the body -- that may never figure out even in all its childhood play, how it is that some people can "make a muscle," while it would never occur to others, that such a thing was even possible, and especially those "educated" to think, that the only controllable event, is making the heart beat faster -- and one would never ever desire it, to ever actually beat slower -- which all the world champions, have also to be the best at accomplishing -- because it is the rested state, that is the potential for maximizing one's power.

A muscle already fully contracted, has no potential for further contraction, or power. The muscle has to move into a relaxed state, in order to produce the power in a contraction -- at which time, muscle breaks down to release energy.

Many are told (taught) that very generalized and imprecise activities such as walking, gardening, and even running, is enough to ensure that they will be in "top shape," when in fact, the only way to achieve this condition, is to actually express the fullest contraction possible of these skeletal muscles that give the body its distinctive form, is to actually assume those positions in which the muscles are shortened (contracted), to the fullest extent of their possibilities.

This does not happen in walking, swimming, running, or other generalized activities -- because it requires a very deliberate, but not hard and difficult, familiarizing and articulation of those movements, for a brief but regular basis.

But one can't achieve the same effect and effectiveness, just by making the heart beat faster, while giving no attention to the activation and actualization of the voluntary muscles to assume the position (shape), one desires to be in. It just won't happen, because the heart, which is already in perfect condition because it has to be that way, simply does all the work and is the sole focus of one's getting into shape.

What many have been confused about, but usually haven't thought about, is the belief that it requires resistance to achieve this"work" -- rather than that it is the range of movement itself, that is the work -- in shaping the human body into the condition one wants to be in.

But countless explanations of why something should work, or the sales of heart monitors to every person in the country, is not going to make anybody one bit healthier and clearer on the meaning and purpose of what they hope to achieve.

When one has this clarity, the obvious becomes manifest.

Wheelchairs of the Future

2010-11-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Before it's too late, as many of the elderly should be encouraged to become "pedestrians on wheels," or bicyclists, who maintain their mobility and motor skills in that daily manner, instead of losing it all progressively by driving and then ultimately transitioning to traditional, motorized wheelchairs. Bicycles can be the "wheelchairs of the future," that allow people to retain their mobility throughout their lives -- because bicycling is easier on the body than walking.

Walking is actually harder on the body than bicycling -- and the reason it is possible to go much farther on one's own power in that manner than walking, or even heaven forbid, running -- which is widely recognized as a disastrously high-impact activity. But so is walking to a much greater extent than bicycling -- and especially with a double suspension bicycle. And of course, the daily exercise of those facilities, allows them to maintain their faculties in a way that simply driving a motorized vehicle doesn't.

But because most people feel uncomfortable riding in traffic, and especially riding fast in traffic, they should ride at the speed of a pedestrian on the sidewalks -- while deferring completely to any other pedestrians, baby carriages, wheelchairs, skateboarders, etc., by either riding briefly and safely in the streets, or slowing or stopping completely to let the other past -- because the safety of all, should be their major concern, rather than speed.

That's where I think most bicyclists don't "get it" -- thinking that speed is their primary objective in their race against cars, other bicyclists, pedestrians, and even themselves. The reality of the matter is that 95% of the sidewalks are seldom used and are thus ideal for use by bicyclists but in the rare encounter with another, instead of going to war against one another for primary or exclusive rights of passage, they can defer to one another, which would be the ultimate expression of civility and citizenship, which is also lacking in many elderlies lives -- by isolating themselves in their cars, and in their homes, with their television sets and pets for their primary companionship.

They could be authentically and genuinely interacting with society -- while getting their daily exercise to maintain their mobility and involvement. We know by now that nominal but daily exercise of our faculties enable us to maintain them until we die, while discontinuing such use, causes them to deteriorate to the point in which we no longer think we have them.

That's the great things about the Internet and these forums -- that we can maintain the exercise of these faculties, without having to concoct a major barrier and incentives to do so -- like having to write a novel, thesis or dissertation.

Everything is made easier and therefore more possible and even inevitable, rather than having to walk a mile to the mailbox -- or climbing several flights of stairs to get to one's apartment. People should be making all these adaptations and adjustments to optimize their lives with the possibilities and technologies of living in the present times -- which is the realization that they can be creative in their problem-solving in this way and live long, enjoyable and fully enabled lives -- instead of the old sense of increasing loss of abilities and functionality.

That's the new world we live in -- that rewards people who simply choose to avail themselves of them, by first learning about them, but they have to teach themselves how to do that -- because it is not profitable for anybody else to do it for them. What is profitable, is their increasing dependence on others to do everything for them. But that is not a sustainable and ennobling vision of life.

Creating a Conditioning Program for the Life You Actually Live

2010-10-26T09:12:00.000-07:00

There seems to be innumerable articles written lately in the fitness magazines asserting that contemporary lifestyles should not be the way they are -- but instead, everyone would be healthier if they returned to work 8 hours in the fields or the coal mines -- as though that would be a life worth living, or even bearable for most. Maybe people ought to just pound their heads against the wall -- in their thinking that it would make their brains stronger.

It seems that once a discussion is proclaimed as "fitness," the most ludicrous regimens become plausible -- as though wishful thinking, will fill any unforeseen realities along the way.

The usual limit to a life of unlimited exercise -- if such a thing were possible -- is the very real fact that the body suffers from "wear and tear," and beyond a very brief period of accelerated exertion and effort, begins to exceed its recovery ability -- and that is when people actually begin a momentum of deterioration from which they do not recover, let alone progress.

That is to say, that if one exercises rigorously one hour on the first day and maintains that rigor each day, he begins to wear down and is unlikely to be maintaining that program after a month -- or certainly a year, and for many, they will give up exercising permanently because of it -- thinking that if they cannot maintain that pace, their continued efforts are futile.

And if contemporary lifestyles is largely sedentary and cerebral, does one have to resort back to a hunter/gatherer or even agrarian lifestyle to maintain one's fitness -- for what purpose? -- if not to negate entirely one's actual lifestyle?

So obviously, the intelligent approach would be to create and design movements that complement and enhance one's actual uses and activities -- rather than having to reserve an hour each day to go to a specially designed environment and apparatus to do movements and activities one would never do otherwise -- thinking somehow, some way, that would enhance their abilities to do what they actually do.

The whole approach is preposterous on its face -- that one should expect to become good at what one does without practicing it, while practicing to perfection, what has no practical or useful application otherwise. That is what is known as opposite-thinking -- or if one wants to do something, they instead, dysfunctionally always do the opposite, which most people would see the absurdity of immediately. But some people, including many fitness advocates, do think beating up their spouse and kids, is the magic path to winning their love and affection. And that is why they believe abusing their own bodies unmercifully, is treating themselves "right," and healthfully.

There is no rhyme or reason, one cannot or should not design, exercise movements, that enhance one's ability to sit longer -- rather than the admonition, never to sit at all. Instead, while in one's usual posture, many movements are actually possible -- beginning with the position one is usually in -- which is always a good excuse to begin one's exercising, from any position, and always from where one already is. Which then makes exercise possible, anytime and anywhere, under any condition one is already in -- and not that one has to overcome at least an hour's worth of reservations and resistance, and then allow for another hour of recovery and disruption afterwards. Thus one is down two hours, before one even does one's hour of conditioning activities -- of bouncing off the walls or whatever.

The effect of all that kind of high maintenance conditioning programs -- to say nothing of the expense and scheduling of personal trainers and other professional experts one is advised to consult and retain, makes it pretty nearly certain, such a program of conditioning, will never be adopted by any person in their right mind, who does anything but obsessing compulsively and constantly about their health and what they have been brainwashed into thinking requires extraordinary amounts of efforts and expense to maintain -- rather than that it is easily achievable at every opportunity.

The most obvious example, is turning one's head all the way to the left and then all the way to the right, or alternatively, raising the head as high and back as possible and then back down and in -- while standing, sitting or lying. That would be the beginning essential enhancement (fitness conditioning) activity (practice). Then, in that heightened state of brain functioning, it will figure out the rest -- as what the brain is primarily designed to do.

The Difference of Change

2010-10-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

One of the great fallacies of popular thinking perpetuated by the mass media and culture, is the idea that simply "more," is better, or even, that "anything" is better than nothing -- rather than the more accurate understanding, that better is different from any more.

That is the critical and qualitative difference between things -- because more of the same thing, is merely the same thing -- but when something is truly differently better, something magical seems to occur -- that those operating simply with the "more is better" mentality cannot see the quantum leap -- from where they are presently, to a whole other level of experience and understanding.

One sees it in the eyes and the personal transformation immediately of those who have undergone such an experience and profound change. For such people, they and everything in the world has changed -- because their fundamental understanding of the world is different from how it was just a few moments ago!

That is the true nature of change -- when there is really that change, and not simply calling the same thing, something different -- thinking that is enough, as though simply knowing the words, conveys the understanding of those words. That is what we call knowing the jargon rather than the experience of such an actuality.

And no matter how educated we are in the words (knowledge), we all still have actual experiences we can learn from and be intensely engaged in in every moment of our lives -- which a few people, make into their daily practice, or meditation -- which is simply to be totally aware of what is happening, and what they are doing -- unprejudiced by their previous knowledge.

Unquestionably, that is a high mountain for many trained in the propaganda of the correct and only information worth knowing, can overcome -- but that is the real objective of such conditioning (indoctrination) -- to produce the few who will go beyond the limits of that understanding that are the present dilemmas.

Obviously, when the state of health in the population is in decline, the so-called explanations of why that is so, is not the solution -- but merely the justification for that present state and its continuation. Once there is clear insight, the problem(s) ceases to be -- as a result of that understanding, and nothing else is possible.

It is like the example of touching a hot stove. One no longer has to even consider it anymore -- each day, and all day. Such a conditioning, would obviously not be better, although it is assuredly, more.

And that is why it is so powerful and instructive, to understand change at its most fundamental and rudimentary level -- rather than going off in all the many confusions of half-knowledge and half-baked ideas -- thinking that if one merely accumulates enough of them, they will constitute a coherent whole -- instead of the hopelessly fragmented and fractured confusion, that thinks more is necessary.

Learning From Everything

2010-10-11T21:05:00.000-07:00

In a world in which information is so abundant and easily accessible as it now, there is no reason one has to go to school or to college to learn anymore -- because one is learning all the time, from everything, if the mind is simply paying, or giving attention -- which is to have an open mind.

But in a world in which we are taught to compete incessantly for attention, the one with all the power is the one who gives attention -- and is aware and can fully appreciate what everybody else is doing. That is always the most powerful person in the room -- he who knows what everybody else is doing, and not all those so caught up in what they are doing, that they have no idea that anything else is going on.

Such people are conditioned to be "busy" compulsively, and so their minds and bodies are never still and quiet -- to observe what is happening, but rather think, that nothing happens, unless they make it happen. And so they think that whatever happens, happens because of their efforts -- and only their efforts. Nothing is known, unless they know it -- and are the first to know it, and until they do, it is the unknown.

That was knowledge in a previous time -- something personal and private, and not accessible to anyone else as well. Such knowledge became a process of time and effort -- which made it a virtue and accomplishment instead of the readily accessible, obvious and verifiable.

That was a paradigm shift that changed the world -- and how we think of it. But our cultural institutions and occupations, have not caught up to that new reality -- and keeps insisting, that nothing has changed, so we still need to do things the way they've always been done before, which in the old school education, is to learn it from the properly designated and certified expert for that instruction.

Immediate knowledge and insight, is not permitted; one must take the time-consuming route as the only indication that one has properly learned the material -- in the properly accredited course of instruction. Any other manner, is still not recognized -- although it is becoming more difficult to ignore, deny, control, and manipulate/deceive.

Who has authority, and speaks with authority? And who just pretend to do so? Who decides?

It is determined by those with the most confidence to do so. Not just those with self-confidence, but confidence without the self- imposing its limitations of understanding and observation, which is only the incessant need to be right and feel superior. That is not knowing oneself -- and so everything one knows, or thinks they know, is only a projection of their own needs and desires, and not the thing they think they "know."

Fish oil linked to increased risk of colon cancer in mice

2010-10-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2601935/posts

Actually, that was my first reaction when I tried the fish oil capsules — tremendous digestive upset that discouraged me from continuing that supplementation.

I also had the same reaction to Vitamin D oil capsules — but didn’t have the same problem with the powdered capsules form of it.

I think there is something about the oil that is an irritant — just like in the old days, cod liver and castor oil were used to remedy constipation by inducing diarrhea. It stands to reason that constant supplementation would produce/induce irritable bowel syndrome.

All my life, I was susceptible to gastrointestinal upset, respiratory inflammations, and back pain, but one day attended a presentation by the doctor claiming guaifenesin as the cure for fibromyalgia, which is one of the innumerable autoimmune diseases that all have overlapping symptoms — usually noted by the thickening of the mucus in the body, particularly in the respiratory and digestive tracts, and at the joints for which mucus provides the lubricant for movement.

The doctor said that people could take it regularly like a supplement — overriding the dire warnings on most cough medicine bottles because they contain ingredients other than guaifenesin that have other implications. But guaifenesin, I noticed, also had a tendency to produce some gastrointestinal upset — and so I wondered if there was a remedy for that.

Then in gardening, I noticed that the plants that were the hardiest and made it through the winter were what is known as “herbs,” which in earlier times, were known as medicine and spices, and before the invention of currency, was actually used as money as the ultimate values of societies. That’s why early societies actually went to war over the “spice” trade and control — and was one of the driving forces for the discovery of the “new world.”

At any rate, that got me into growing nothing but herbs, and researching them to see what was the best, and then I noted that fennel and anise seeds, were the herbs of longest standing as remedies for everything — particularly for conditions of digestive upset. Anise and fennel, are the basis of health store cough medicines instead, and sometimes with the use of guaifenesin, but unlike guaifenesin, is known to soothe the gastrointestinal tract, maintain healthy respiratory functioning, and meliorate arthritis pain — as it has been well known to do for thousands of years.

It is the original herbal tea — that also has the benefit of causing people to drink it frequently and thus assure proper hydration, which is one of the major deficiencies in many people’s health regimen.

The gastrointestinal problems are exploding with the aging of the population, so that it is a primary and limiting concern of most people over 50 with all their escalating ills. The first remedy of resort for a multitude of problems and conditions, would be the age-old and legendary standby of fennel and aniseseed infusions (tea), to restore normal, optimal functioning in most people.

It was standard provision of the Roman Legion as they conquered the world, and were/are the staples of Italian and East Indian cuisines.

Maintaining Muscle (Memory)

2010-09-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

If you exercise your capacity to do something on a fairly frequent basis, the body retains that capacity (memory) and readiness to do so -- but how much repetition is required to maintain that memory, is grossly overstated.

Obviously, you don't require repeating the combination to your locker or password 1,000 times a day, in order for one to retain that capacity to do so -- when in fact, just doing so once a day, would be sufficient for most people to have that memory etched in their minds.

The problem starts, when one doesn't access that memory for several days, then weeks and months, and shortly thereafter, one begins to lose the memory that one even had that capacity anymore -- even though the underlying capabilities are still there.

And that is the reason for "conditioning" and "education" to require frequent drills to maintain that readiness and capability as its essential responses. However, if those responses (memories) are too numerous, and repeated overly long, then one has the problem of having to search through too many memories to find the right one (response), and if it has been drilled into one excessively much, the proper stimulus may initiate no appropriate response -- other than that it is what one always does anyway, no matter what the challenge -- which is indistinguishable, from no response. It is just compulsive and obsessive behavior -- which is more likely what one has conditioned oneself to be, rather than a truly "fit" person, ready to respond appropriately to the challenge (problem) at hand.

We recognize that as the "knee jerk" response, of those who no matter what, is triggered to the identical and predictable response, every time, no matter what -- because that has been their conditioning (education) -- and usually, they have known (been taught) no other way possible.

Then, every subsequent thought, action, and deed -- becomes the repetition of this one same action, even when it is obviously an inappropriate and inadequate response to the challenge -- which is usually that although they are doing more of the same thing that isn't working, they refuse to believe there can be any other possibility -- and are conditioned to reject it as soon as they can identify it as such.

Stepping Into the 21st Century

2010-09-08T09:15:00.000-07:00

As the GP commenter below points out, running is especially bad for those who are overweight, previously injured (from running), or are not ideally built for that activity -- which pretty much eliminates large swaths of the population, so that we easily get down to the 5% who will experience no problems running but will probably experience pain and discomfort that will discourage most people from continuing for long.

That's why even most champions in their sports have to eventually retire from it entirely eventually, and take up activities that haven't suffered that irreparable damage. In sporting activities, generally those who participate are the 5% of the population favorably disposed to that particular activity, and from that gene pool, they select the further top 5%, to arrive at the 99.9% individual, which is largely what athletic competition at the highest levels are.

One notices at the Tour de France, they all have practically the identical body type, which is not ordinarily seen except in that mass gathering of similarly disposed people. Among top marathon runners, the world class also have a very predetermined genotype that makes them not only suitable for this event, but they don't even seem to be breathing hard at the end.

On the other hand, the many others who are not so gifted, are torturing themselves just to finish -- because try as they might, they don't have that makeup, but with running or walking, it's not as definitive as the "uneven bars," and so the differences are not as obvious except to a well trained eye.

But that is what world class trainers can detect in any group of people -- the 5% before they even start to train them. They don't walk into a roomful of children and select them randomly for further training.

And it is especially true that running is not the best activity for those wanting to get into their best shape -- usually beginning from a grossly overweight condition. That should be obvious even to those who advocate running -- and if not, one should seek alternative advisers because that's why there are different activities and disciplines, and personal styles.

A movement that works for such people is to shift their weight from side to side, and one foot to another, and with the foot not supporting the weight, articulate either a toe raise or heel raise, which action will shorten (contract) ALL the muscles of the leg -- while requiring no knee or hip movement, and producing no impact from a foot striking the ground with all their bodyweight.

Similarly, one can create that same effect making a fist and then rotating that fist palmward or knuckleward, to produce that same shortening of all the arm/torso muscles -- without requiring vigorous movement at the elbow and shoulders which are the vulnerabilities similar to the knee and hip.

Finally, one should daily practice the full range head movement as far as one can move the head to the left, and then as far to the right, producing a torso rotation (torsion) to ensure muscular development of the neck and blood flow to the brain, both which are the markers of aging and overall body deterioration which traditional exercises like running do not address because there is no movement (directed circulation/neuromuscular stimulation) expressly to those critical vulnerabilities of the human body.

We can and should design the state of the art in movements -- instead of assuming that the most primitive, is the highest possibilities of that expression and articulations. We need to step into the 21st century -- and not simply fight the lions in the coliseum.

This then, makes the benefits of exercise even accessible to the weakest -- even the bedridden and wheelchair bound -- rather than putting them there.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/7978131/Health-QandA-marathon-training.html

"My Body Is Killing Me"

2010-09-03T11:55:00.000-07:00

Only about 5% of any population sample is well-designed and suited for any particular activity -- whether that be running, gymnastics, weightlifting, bodybuilding, yoga, swimming, etc., and usually what pain or great difficulty tells one, is that they may not be ideally suited for that activity, and should consider others.

What is always amusing to hear is the number of people who take up some kind of exercise activity to cure a back problem, or improve a glaring weakness, and then after two years -- somebody asks them if they've ever considered entering the Mr/Miss Universe contest, because they hadn't realized how extraordinarily well their bodies had responded to their modest efforts for improvement.

The 5% rule is pretty universal and reliable at detecting talent in any activity -- and will cause a lot of frustration, depression and waste of time and energy for those who are not gifted, or in many cases, even well disposed for that particular activity.

This is most often the case of people being advised that running is the best activity for humans -- while the human body is not well-designed for running at all, or we'd have four legs, and hooves instead of feet. Most people learn quickly that gymnastics are not as easy as a few people can make it look -- and while they're invariably muscular and well proportioned, they are no competition against monkeys and apes.

The parts of the body that is problematical for exercisers, are the weakness of the human body, which more assault on, will not render it stronger but actually speed its degeneration and even destruction -- and are encouraged to do so by people who subscribe to a belief that what doesn't kill them, may make them stronger, but in the majority of the cases, will kill them or cripple them for life.

But that is not necessarily the problem with every activity, and also, one can design movements to strengthen and optimize one's own strengths and weaknesses, without the generalization that running is good for everybody -- or bad for everybody.

Making The Difficult (Impossible) Easy

2010-08-31T21:25:00.000-07:00

Though I've met and talked to many masters and teachers of exercise all my life, I'm struck by how few have come to the realization that what they are all trying to achieve, is to make the difficult (impossible) easy, but instead, think it is their task and duty to make the easy, harder, until it is virtually impossible, if not literally so.

Obviously, that is "wrong understanding," since the very essence of understanding, is to make the complex very simple -- and not get lost in one's own confusion. And for students, that ability to reduce every bewildering complexity to a manageable simplicity, inspires them to get started as soon as possible, and stay with it as their fundamental approach to everything else -- for the rest of their life.

And that is what a lifelong regimen of exercise (activity) prepares one to do -- as well as achieve in the actual doing of it. So one of the requirements of a lifelong practice, is that which can be done everyday -- even and especially at one's worst, yet be just as meaningful at one's best, until eventually, there is no discernible difference between one's worst and best; one is simply "on," and always "on," if not "off."

Computers are very effective and efficient because they act in that manner -- either on or off, and not 10% on one time and 90% the next. Such machines would be unreliable, if not useless and dangerous -- and would be replaced at the earliest opportunity before they cause a catastrophic calamity. A calculator can't be right just 50% of the time; as soon as it is not 100% reliable, then it needs to be replaced entirely -- so that all one's time and energies are not consumed solving all the problems caused by that one error that snowballs into a lifetime of misery and undoing.

That would obviously be "right understanding." In modern information processing, or computer programming, that would be the "critical path," upon which all else succeeds or fails, and if that essential understanding is deficient, no amount of subsequent effort can make right. It is not that a hundred unrelated things are wrong, but one critical error that makes everything else go haywire, and makes the world seem to fall into chaos and disorder.

In ensuring that the body retains all its faculties, one has to actually fire up those neurological pathways daily -- to actually effect movement to the furthest range of that possibility, which is easier than it seems, but usually just not thought of.

The contemporary popular emphasis is on the action of the heart -- which is already working as well as it can. That is not the problem; nor is the breathing deficient -- but the end result action, implies all that, and not vice-versa. The critical path is that the focus and axis of movement is the furthest extremity activated -- because obviously to get there, those neurological impulses, have to travel from the brain all the way out to the movement articulated -- and if it is just centered on the action of the heart, than it is no movement at all, because that is the action that has to be activated as the minimum requirement of life -- but it only guarantees the minimum, and simply more of the minimum, does not indicate the maximum possibility.

But a definitive movement at the furthest extremities of the body, implies the neurological stimulation of that entire pathway and state. One cannot move a finger, unless the entire neurological pathway to it, is in working order -- and if it is intact, that improvement is entirely possible -- starting from any base level of proficiency.

The obvious exception, is when there is no responsiveness of any kind. The great masters of movement, can detect that discernible difference -- and achieve its highest expression and articulation. But one has to first recognize what is significant, willful movement -- at the highest level of its expression and possibility.

The McMinnville (Oregon) Experience

2010-08-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

That intense pain and swelling is quite common and predictable among people who do high-intensity (resistance) training -- which is the equivalent of running a 100 yard dash over a mile. No matter how much one thinks they can impose mind over matter, the body will simply not allow it.

In this particular case, the instructor alternated two triceps isolation movements -- done to failure, for multiple sets, over a prolonged period of time (20 minutes). The original concept, was that it was one set done to failure -- and not multiple sets, or the "if one is good, more must be better" fallacy.

And the people originally motivated to try out that manner of training, were self-selected genetic freaks with a high capacity for pain, gain and recovery. Many were attracted to Nautilus training and principles for which they were not only given adequate warning of the effects, but were actually promised them as the ticket to rapid and dramatic gains, if one was willing to pay the price.

That was the ultimate "No pain, no gain" validation.

And while it would produce and sustain gains with as little as five minutes of such intense training a week!, but one always was recovering from such muscle soreness, and when finally recovering, repeated the pattern weekly -- and so there was never a moment when one felt one had achieved well-being, as one was always in the process of achieving it. So there was no fulfillment, or being, but only becoming -- something other than what one was, which, is in a psychological sense, a discontentment with the person one presently is.

That is very peculiar psychological profile of the competitive bodybuilder -- who despite often being the most formidable development in the room, often have this overwhelming sense of inadequacy -- of not being good enough. That is a very damaging mindset to have -- because of course, one is never satisfied with what one has, or is. They have to convince themselves that whatever they have, is never enough.

And so, one would often find oneself in a roomful of the most imposing persons on the planet, and none of them felt they were "good enough." There could only be one "winner," and everybody else, had this tremendous sense of "failure." And that is why the concept of training to failure, ultimately, is counterproductive, no matter how much one gains otherwise.

For ultimately, the greatest gain, is this sense of fulfillment, that one has "arrived," because if one never can, and feels their goals slipping even farther away with each achievement and victory, then one has established the inevitability of their own defeat.

So the lesson learned, is the greater understanding of the actual limits of human possibilities and actualities -- and reasonable expectations and outcomes.

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100824/PREPSSPORTS/8240331/Practice-begins-for-McMinnville-football-team-hit-by-illness?plckFindCommentKey=CommentKey:db84660c-8550-4d5a-bd44-7187d4a12657

The Quantum Leap FROM Nautilus Principles

2010-08-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

When one takes and tests ideas to their logical ultimate conclusions, they frequently break down to reveal an even more basic greater truth.

When one exercises with great (maximal) intensity, obviously, it cannot be maintained (sustained) for very long, and the recovery from such exertions and efforts might take a week to fully recover from -- during which time there is extreme muscular soreness and awareness until that recovery, whereupon, the program schedule would inflict another pain-inducing workout -- even though at that pace, gains would continue, if the program would.

But after three-six weeks of accelerated growth and progress this way, the body demands a further week of rest to recover and fully recharge -- because the demand on the resources are so extraordinary, to even those with exceptional recovery abilities.

So while once a week of a five minute training session of high intensity would theoretically continue gains, as a practical matter, life is unsustainable at that rate of change and challenge without suffering an imminent injury or breakdown of some sort -- which is the reality of running the body at maximum capacity with no margin of reserves for any extended period.

What was required was actually throttling back from that precipice -- to what extent and level? The most instructive and informative organ for this, is the heart -- that is the only organ that must always function reliably, no matter what. And the only way it does, is either to contract fully -- or not, which is the familiar pulse, or beating of the heart.

What Nautilus principles ultimately advocated, was that a maximal effort was to be exerted in the "relaxation" phase as much as the "contraction," which obviously would have made the whole sense of relaxation, impossible -- because it then became one continuous "contraction," or effort, that was sustained for as long as possible -- which naturally, will result in muscle failure, but far before that, result in the cessation of circulation to the brain -- which will shut down all further efforts until the normal order (balance) is restored.

That was also the problem with "isometric" exercises advocated earlier -- that those sustained efforts, caused trainees of that system, to pass out -- from the cessation of blood flow to the brain, when a maximal contraction (state) is sustained for as long as possible. The natural, healthful functioning of the body, is to effect change, from one state to the other -- which is the essence of a flow. A fully contracted state, OR a fully relaxed state without an interval of change -- is disruptive, and the sign of dysfunction and death.

Contrary to popular thinking, increased effectiveness of circulation to any part of the body, and particularly to the extremities which is usually the problem in most people experiencing decreased functioning and decline, is that changing the heart rate is not the essential factor, but rather, ensuring that the voluntary muscles, particularly at the extremities, exhibit and manifest this alternation of muscular state of contraction and relaxation.

However, in most traditional exercises, no attention is paid to the movement and muscular states at these extremities, which implies the health of the rest of the neuromuscular and cardiovascular pathways to effect. Because muscles must always contract from their further insertion towards its origin, beginning at that actual focus of rotation, causes a chain reaction to initiate from that point -- back to the origin of all the muscles near the heart. That is very convenient since the weakness of most individuals is not due to the heart not pumping out to the extremities, but the extremities not pumping blood back to the heart.

This is particularly noticeable in people with congestive heart failure with the notable swelling in their extremities, which they usually further immobilize and exacerbate. To a lesser degree, this condition can be seen in most people ordinarily deemed to be normal and healthy, but give the impression of being bloated in those regions, or obviously, "fat."

Every person undoubtedly has muscles, but most people have never trained, or conditioned their muscles for any particular expression other than to be flaccid -- and this is also the problem of people as they age, to lose the muscularity of expression -- to which they often surgically affix their faces in an immobile expression of responsiveness (contraction), seemingly unaware that they have the ability to effect those appearances with a modicum of conditioning exercises.

That is also true for all the muscles of the body. Most people lack the ability to transform themselves instantly into a more desirable and pleasing shape, with the exception of the bodybuilders, who expressly do. But even they do not realize, that if they alternated those contractions (poses) with relaxation intervals, that would be the easiest way to maintain and even improve their ability to do so -- at the normal rate of the resting heart beat, of approximately sixty per minute!

One can enhance or direct the circulation to any area of the body, with that focus, initiated and activated by that axis of movement. One needs no other equipment but the understanding that the lengthening (relaxation) and contraction (shortening) of the muscles in that way, at that focal points -- is the necessary physics of that process, that not coincidentally, optimizes functioning and well-being, for any other purpose.

The State of the Art

2010-08-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

Forty years ago, I began a program in the basement of the Boston YMCA titled "Scientific Weight-training," (maybe the first adult-education, co-ed classes on the subject) partly to test the claim made by Arthur Jones, that one only needed five minutes and five exercises, to work an individual to complete muscular failure (exhaustion), because such a high-intensity workout, was the best way to stimulate maximal gains, although such a workout, when first undertaken would also result in extreme muscle soreness the likes of which one would never encounter otherwise -- but after the initial shock, one could then engage on that level without as severe effects as experienced the first time.

Many people, working out that way for the first time, would predictably get sick and throw up, but surprisingly, those who never got over that reaction, tended to be those who were otherwise those one expected not to -- the best conditioned athletes, or those who ran the Boston Marathon. As I think back on those days and the reason for that paradox, the obvious answer to me, is that they were the ones who by training, pushed farther than learned to withdraw -- which would be the intelligent response to such trauma.

In any maximal exhaustion, the wise body, would learn to first increase the reserve -- and not the capacity, for exhaustion -- to failure. This is a critical survival response -- observed daily in the wild kingdom, of animals always holding back rather than going all-out, because even if one does manage to catch one's prey, if one is totally exhausted in that effort, one then becomes the prey of a fresh predator, who merely has to happen onto that opportunity for victory.

And so a primal, intelligent response of survival (fitness), is the imperative that one never go to complete failure and exhaustion -- under any circumstances, because that would never be an intelligent thing to do. Thus a better guide than unilaterally going all-out, is to first determine the level of power, capability, and reserve (fatigue), in the other, and then exerting only enough to surpass it appropriately, and if it cannot be exercised with a probability of success, one quickly learned to recognize that, and save oneself for a better time and circumstances.

That is also a huge part of "game strategy," which is first taking in and assessing the information, before acting without any attention and regard to its appropriateness -- resulting in a fatal, or critical defeat. This is also the judgment critical to undertaking and accomplishing anything -- which is usually thought as a separate and unrelated subject, but certainly, is integral to all undertakings.

One has to improve one's chances for success, in all the many ways, before it is enough, just to play the game. With few exceptions, most games are not over in five minutes -- and so, a great part of the conditioning for life, is how does one persist long enough to have a good chance of prevailing?

So while it is often impressive what one can do in five minutes, what matters is how long one stays in the game -- which in most athletic competitions, ends usually by age 50, at which time many think they've done enough for the rest of their lives, even if they never do anything again. Thus a better question to ask, "Is what manner of conditioning, allows one to persist at it all one's life," and not quit at any time?

Surprisingly, it still takes that five minutes, of five well-designed, intelligent movements, to maintain and improve the range of useful movement, and particularly, the expressions at the vital head (face), hands and feet that ultimately account for discernible and useful movement, in those regarded and perceived as vital, fully-capable, responsive human beings.

Even in the worst case scenario when responsiveness is not certain, one would best determine that by asking for an affirmation at any extremity, and not that they comply with a situp, pushup, or one lap around the track -- as a "yes." This is particularly important in determining whether any efforts to increase one's capabilities begin at a minimal "1," or the futile "0." That's always the biggest difference, and not going from 100%, to 110%, or whatever sports hyperbole one fancies.

Thus the state of the art in conditioning, is first and foremost, one's understanding -- before any effort is made -- instead of charging out enthusiastically into the arena, and finding that real lions fill the coliseum.

Even what we used to call the "ravages of time," are not the same for everyone -- and those who learn to work with nature (environment) display an ease and comfort in moving in that environment, rather than those trained to reflexively struggle against it and everyone else, thinking misguidedly, that simply that is enough to get to the "top," and have one's way with everyone else.

That is especially true of one's regard towards one's self, or body -- that it is an enemy to be tortured and tormented, or one can befriend it, and thereby rely on it, to do what beneficially needs to be done. The trite cliches, are not about understanding but a way of preventing one from thinking deeply about these things -- which some would call "meditation," or the mental aspects of the preparation (conditioning).

Adepts and masters of any activity, realize this growing importance of their "practice" -- if they are still at it until the day they die. And if that is the case, that is why they are masters at what they do -- and not simply recall increasingly, their former days of glory as though that were their best and highest understanding, and state of the art.

The Case Against Medical Marijuana

2010-07-26T05:12:00.000-07:00

Smoking anything is bad for you. A lot of the marijuana advocates seem to promote the notion that only tobacco smoking is bad for you, but smoking marijuana has no negative effect on one's health.

Actually, because the marijuana smoked is much more resinous, it probably is even worse than smoking tobacco in the same amounts. This bad effect is notable as the thickening of the mucus in the lungs that smokers of anything develop as the lungs basic reaction to this irritant, which manifests itself as the smoker's cough or hack, or chronic bronchitis, which they then self-medicate with cough medicines (guaifenesin).

I attended a seminar several years ago at which a Dr. St. Amand, claimed that guaifenesin cured fibromyalgia, which is a currently popular syndrome of many common deteriorative conditions which includes chronic bronchitis and body pains. I was particularly interested because I had bouts of frequent bronchitis and back pain throughout my life and at the time, had a episode of back pain that led me to believe that I would be crippled for the rest of my life -- and so I was a particularly attentive listener because I was familiar with guaifenesin as a remedy for the bronchitis brought about through smoking, since I had been a smoker myself, and recognized that enabled me to do so.

Although the doctor had his exotic explanation for why guaifenesin cured fibromyalgia, a simpler explanation seemed to make more sense to me -- and that was that anything that thickened the mucus made one diseased, while things that liquefied the mucus, made one well -- because obviously, the mucus in the body will tend to be impacted in the same way throughout the body -- and not just in the lungs. That's why when people get a cold, flu, or bronchitis, they frequently also experience other body pains -- similar to arthritis pains, because mucus lubricates all the movement in the body, and particularly the interfaces of the respiratory and digestive systems, which seems to be the most sensitive and vulnerable parts that even the hardiest of people note increasing difficulty as they go through life.

In fact, the most notable indicator of aging and deterioration of the body, is the thickening of the two body fluids of the blood and the mucus -- of which the former is usually treated but the latter ignored. But the hugely negative impact of smoking, is that it has a deleterious effect of thickening both body fluids, and the primary effect of medications, is to thin the blood and mucus.

Without this realization, people who think they are treated themselves medically by smoking tobacco, marijuana, ice, or any other substance, are negatively impacting their health in doing so -- so that the underlying condition for which they are treating themselves by smoking marijuana, becomes worse. So, if nothing else, a better method of administration, would be to take it as a tea, or a topical.

However, the greater medical benefit for their painful condition, would be to thin the mucus which lubricates the movements of the cells, tissues and organs -- and there are herbs that specifically provide that effect -- such as guaifenesin, that also treat the common respiratory and gastrointestinal problems people often have -- in great part of medications and self-prescribed nutritional supplements.

The best known cure-alls of this sort, is anise(seed) and fennel -- as herbs that might actually cure most of their symptoms, instead of just allowing them to tolerate the pain enjoyably, as they get worse.

The Failure of Contemporary Education

2010-07-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

Many, if not most, professional "educators," would have us believe that in order for one to learn anything, one has to first pay them a lot of money and assure them lifetime job security, for them to sacrifice themselves by letting us in on what they presume to know -- making learning a function of time, money and control, rather than the simple process of paying attention to the realities of what is going on.

Properly, one then creates a general theory to explain what is going on, and not demand instead, that the reality must conform to their "theory" or "conjecture" of what is going on -- that more often than not, is a faulty understanding of the process.

In fitness or exercise (conditioning) activities, that is invariably that "more is better," without first understanding what is the process in the first place. It is simplified even further that simply making the heart beat faster, or slower, accounts for greater capability for actually doing anything meaningful or productive -- when the fact of the matter is that a specific objective must be measured for anything to be really meaningful -- and not just that in "putting" or "shooting," the faster one can get their heart to beat, the greater one's chances of success. Following that logic, the more one putts or shoots, the better one becomes -- rather than the more valid observation, that the accomplished and proficient at anything, actually uses less attempts (effort) to accomplish immeasurably more.

That is a qualitative difference, rather than simply a quantitative one. That is the fallacy of measurement, which presumes and assumes that all things are otherwise equal -- when that may be the biggest difference. The economy of effort is what differentiates the average from the exceptional. That is the beauty and art of movement (or for anything for that matter) -- and not who looks like they are producing the greatest expenditure of effort, suffering and "sacrifice."

In that way, the popular notion that proper conditioning is the measure of the greatest expenditure of effort and energy, is the focus on the wrong things and measurement. In everyday experience, the objective is to move as effortlessly, gracefully, and easily, rather than making the simplest things a monumental and extraordinary effort, causing much pain and suffering in the doing so -- and thinking that is a major accomplishment, let alone a desirable conditioning (education), requiring a platoon of health advisers to achieve and support. Obviously, that is done for the benefit of the trade associations of fitness/health professionals, and not for the individual desiring the greatest economy of expenditures for maximal benefits -- for themselves.

But as life becomes more institutionalized and bureaucratized -- even in the name of "public service," we lose that connection to the simple realities -- and come to regard the explanations as the reality, and to prefer it -- until one day, there is a critical failure of that theory to match up with reality, and most people then, simply give up on trying to understand anything thereafter, because they think all knowledge and information has betrayed them.

And so the great quest of truth, is to find and identify the exceptional rare few, who do not think this way.

Most of What You Think You Know, Is Wrong

2010-07-09T09:27:00.000-07:00

Just because it is the conventional wisdom, which means it is repeated often without questioning, is the problem, and obviously not the solution, though many will say it is so.

That is especially true of "fitness" and "health" articles one will read in the mainstream media -- who not coincidentally, are people in notorious poor health and fitness, deciding what everybody else should also think -- and therefore be in as hopeless condition as themselves.

The problem is not that the truth is not out there, but the truth that is understood by the reporter and editors, are not valid -- if one just makes the attempt to test out those "truths" for themselves.

One of the longest-standing of those so-called scientific myths that have become conventional wisdom, is the statement that one cannot "spot-reduce," or specifically shape a particular bodypart (muscle) to one's liking and choosing -- but that development, or lack of it, is predetermined genetically, and subject to the fitness of the heart -- only, and that there is no getting around that inviolable "truth," when the fact of the matter, is that all development one sees, is determined by favoring those particular outcomes.

There is nothing wrong with a person who wishes to reduce their midsection, to do exercises specifically to reduce and shape that midsection -- above all else, but the pseudo-experts, who think they know because somebody else told them so without them ever testing any truth for themselves, or observing that truth all around them in every aspect and occasion of life, because they have been brainwashed only to accept what the "proper" authorities on such matters tell them is the truth, under penalty of a lower grade and disapproval, will never discover the truth for themselves about anything.

Those are the people usually rewarded very well by the "establishment" for propagating and defending whatever "truths" the powers that be -- who wish always to remain so, tell them what to say -- unquestioningly. For their business is not to question and inquire, but merely to obey and repeat unquestioningly, until someone in authority tells them the next new truth to believe and defend. Usually, these people are very proud to believe that they have discovered those truths by and for themselves -- because they think they are among the first to receive those truths, when in fact, they are simply working to persuade people of what is not true, as the truth -- which is the only way they can think to perpetuate their "authority." They must be able to convince the rest, that the most preposterous and outrageous statements and affirmations are true, despite nothing in the world corroborating those statements. It is, because they say so.

Anybody who's ever spent any time in the world of bodybuilding knows that that is the reason people often disrupt the natural proportion and symmetry of development -- by deciding that they want to overdevelop one area (muscle) of their body, over every other -- thinking that is what is most aesthetically pleasing, at least to themselves, and project others should think so too.

So people who want to develop "washboard" abs, or peaked biceps -- usually do, because that may be all they do -- so to say that one cannot "spot reduce" or overspecialize to monstrous proportions and distortions, fly in the face of reality so much so as to discredit the speaker entirely that they know anything at all about anything -- and certainly nothing in real life.

While genetics may determine the ultimate possibilities of development, the realm in which most people are working, is untapped potential that is their reality -- and not that it is hopeless to undertake a program of change and effort, because they have been conditioned throughout their lives, to believe that what is not true is true, and they have never broken through to discovering reality for themselves -- but live entirely in the world of thought untested by any actual understanding of reality.

Beyond the Competition

2010-06-30T07:31:00.000-07:00

Many people still persist in believing that the competitive (comparative) model is helpful in providing the motivation to remain involved in one's own betterment throughout life -- as though that was the essential point, and that other people should care more than one does themselves -- which is doing things for the approval of others. While that may work at first in young people eager to gain the approval of others and find their way in the world, eventually each has to go their own way in life, not always having another's approbation to guide them, and even when they think they do, it no longer has as much power as it once may have.

At that point, one has to look towards one's own inner guidance -- as the source of strength that must be one's unshakable guide in all things. And so one must care more than anybody else that they are at their best, achieve their best, as a lifestyle, and a way of doing everything and anything in their lives -- even when there is no other to reward them for that; it is the reward they give themselves, and nobody else is going to do it for them.

But that is the importance of obtaining that development -- which is to discover and know who they really are, and not simply, what somebody and even everybody else tells them what they should be. That is the essential difference in highly self-actualizing lives -- and those who never come close to thinking that such things are possible, or even matter. One has to individually make it matter -- and that is the quality of one's life, that makes any quantity matter.

That is the only approach that will work, especially in later life -- when one is "retired" or grown-up, and no longer has the external props to keep one going and motivated -- to be at one's best. Many at that point, begin a lifetime process of disintegration and deterioration, until finally they no longer care about anything, and their life force diminishes until it is gone. So the question is, how do we continue to cultivate this essential and powerful drive for (self-)discovery by which we do not mean just petty and shoddy self-absorption (-promotion), which is merely the continuation of the need for approval that becomes so unseemly and unbecoming in fully mature people, who then become merely shells of themselves -- a person who used to be vital, and matter.

Such an outlook is not so difficult to achieve or even be aware of -- but it is not as tirelessly promoted in the media as the only way, or the way that must be for everyone. And that is where fitness activities went off on the wrong path -- to measure everyone and compare them to a singular ideal of a optimally functioning heart -- and nothing much, much greater! What they overlooked and lost was the meaning and purpose of it all -- the organizing principle and drive of individual lives, because surely, nothing is more preposterous as reducing all human activity to simply calories expended and heart beats registered as an end in itself -- and not the greater purpose and meaning.

I guarantee you no athlete (participant) in any activity, ever thinks that if they simply get their heart to beat as rapidly and vigorously as possible, that they will accomplish what they hope to achieve. In fact, there would be no greater guarantee of failure -- as such persons would become lost in the minutia of micromanaging every single function until the comprehension and mastery of the greater purpose is entirely lost -- just as many "educators" think that a person should just learn anything for its own sake, instead of only when required and absolutely necessary -- and to know the difference!

Otherwise, one quickly becomes lost in all that can be known, rather than what is essential to know -- which is the organizing principle of life that works extraordinarily well as the art and beauty of each individual. That is what one must become the best at -- which is not to become confused with simply what other people think, no matter how much they try to convince us it matters.

That is the art to life in the age of intrusive media and unrelenting promotions and propaganda.

The Most Important Lesson I Learned From My Father

2010-06-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

My father devoted his whole life to the study and teaching of exercise (tai-chi, chi-gung, yoga), and so when I returned home to see him in his last years, I was very much shaken that despite his dedication to exercise and health practices (Chinese folk medicine), that he was not immune from the contemporary ravage of our times -- which are the dementias (Alzheimer's, etc.), characterized by decreasing brain function in otherwise healthy individuals.

And in fact, therapists sent over would remark and marvel at the fact that my father seemed remarkably vital and youthful -- even that his skin seemed as "soft as a baby's." So it was very disturbing that despite the years of attention to maintaining his health in his personal quest for immortality (the objective of Taoists), he had failed in this peculiar way by which the body remained quite functional -- but seemed to be disconnected entirely from the mind (brain), and so there was no recognizable sense of responsiveness any more, with no hope for improvement and recovery.

That is a very profound realization to come to -- that all one's efforts are futile, and all the therapists and experts, merely concur that there is no possibility for change in any positive fashion anymore.

And so I thought about it -- that maybe even exercise didn't work -- or at least exercise as it was practiced for even thousands of years, didn't address the one thing it had to do -- and that was retain, maintain and strengthen the connection of the mind (brain) with the body, in making head movement integral to all movement. That had never been done -- because the peculiarly of thinking of exercise for the mind/brain, was that it was not subject to the rules that governed all other parts of the body -- and that is, in order to improve the health and functioning of a particular region, one has to actually move that pat of the body -- and that it wouldn't just happen by wishing/thinking it so.

And then when focusing on the movement of the head as paramount, I then realized that the movement of the head, was critical to the muscular state of every other muscle in the body -- because that was the essential function of the human body -- head movement and facial expression above all else. And really, nothing is more meaningful and sensible.

Most of the exercises people still do, treat this is as an unnecessary attention and focus, preferring to focus on what they call the core muscles at the center of their body -- while presuming that any increase in heart rate must produce a corresponding increase in circulation to every part of the body, as though that effect was random, instead of following fixed pathways of increasing resistance to the extremities. First because it has to travel a greater distance, and through much narrower pathways, often where the resident pressure, is even higher than the propelling pressures such as the heart. The vessels closest to the heart, are larger and so any stimulus in them, will be at the expense of the smaller capillaries a greater distance away. The greatest increase, will be observed to the body's own coronary arteries -- or to the heart itself, rather than the more distance brain -- if a deliberate attempt is not made to change predisposition.

It is after all, the brain that regulates the heart, and not simply the heart that ensures optimal brain functioning -- obviously. The more I observed highly functioning individuals in every activity, the more apparent and obvious it became to me, that those who were the best in their activity, were those with the greatest retained muscular development of the neck and facial muscles -- which are basically ignored in most exercise strategies. And in fact, the usual regard, is to regard them as simply stumps, or stubs -- attached to the important core of the heart and larger muscles.

But even in performing an obvious movement for the development of the core muscles of the abdominals, one will note that head movement necessarily precedes any torso movement -- and in fact, it is the head movement alone, that can effect the fullest range of contraction and relaxation of the abdominal muscles, without any torso movement taking place at all. That is the effect the movements at the extremities have in activating the supportive (core), that is not true vice-versa, and in fact, is mostly irrelevant to accessing the fullest range of muscular states which are in fact, meaningless as well as counterproductive to ensuring the optimal circulatory effect to the extremities of the head, hands and feet -- which implies all else, but not vice-versa.

And so I learned definitively from my father, what did not work.

Exercise Anytime, Anywhere, Whatever You're Doing

2010-06-11T12:44:00.000-07:00

The attainment and maintenance of optimal health and functioning is so obviously paramount, that it must be possible to access and perform it, anytime, anywhere, whatever else one is doing. And so while it is nice to be able to watch television while one is exercising (the popularity of the treadmills), it is even better, when one can effectively exercise, while already watching television, or lying in bed trying to get up, even eating, showering, brushing one's teeth -- as well as directly applying that attention.

In fact, enabling one to go from anything and everything else to such a focus on the primacy and effectiveness of simple and fundamental movement, is an accomplishment in itself, and invaluable at all times. That is simply -- developing focus, from the many distractions and diversions of our lives. Some people call that living in thoughtfulness, or meditation, or simply consciousness and awareness of what one is doing, and beyond to what is.

Others refer to it as the heightened state of being "in the zone," when time and space seems to be infinite with all possibilities and unlimited energy and resources. Under such conditions, the extraordinary becomes entirely possible -- or simply, is, and that experience, is what makes life transcendent and enjoyable.

But that's not the same as simply being an adrenaline junkie -- those addicted to the thrills of unnecessary dangers, risk, and stimulation, that simply requires increasingly more to satiate, until one is exhausted of those capacities, and retires permanently from that continuance -- often into the memories of what they used to do, that now become their only reality in preference of the presence they think they can no longer fully engage.

It is because the basis of their conditioning, was the belief that their practices for the attainment of that extraordinary state, required extraordinary circumstances to even consider before attempting, or could not even be attempted otherwise. In this way, they create the barriers for their own continued success, at simply optimizing whatever they have. Athletes have to do it, but so do children and parents -- simply doing the best they can, with whatever the situation presents itself. That is an invaluable conditioning in itself, which very few are prepared to do.

So one of the great advantages to an invaluable conditioning program, is this very ability to shift into what one has to do -- momentarily, and not just a routine, a time, a schedule -- but on demand, as required. It's not unlike the greater paradigm of the times and culture we live in -- that have shifted from an unchanging world, to a constantly changing one -- which requires the necessary preparations and readiness to engage.

That's why people carry on them their cell phones, keys, glasses, wallets -- because that is their readiness to do whatever opportunities present themselves. Obviously, some people are much more prepared and conditioned to do so. Others have so conditioned themselves, that nothing but the predictable and controlled, is what they will do, each and every time. That in itself, is limiting one to the past, rather than increasing the possibilities for the future -- in the present moment. And that is how the past, present and future, comes to be compressed in each moment, as simply the whole of reality, being in the moment.

What Are You Conditioned to Do?

2010-06-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

In every field of education, what is it that we are being educated to do?

It is to accept the authority of another over our own senses and judgment -- while ignoring and dismissing our own. So in a sense, we have disabled all our own God-given hardware, in favor of depending on another to tell us what to do and think, above every other manner of functioning, and developing an understanding of what we are doing.

And so when a new problem arises, we don't know how to go about discovering a solution for ourselves, but first rely on the authority we knows -- with no way of knowing if they truly do or not, because those who vouch for that authority, are those who maintain that hierarchy and status quo, is their own dedication.

Thus, we don't know if what we know is the truth of the matter, or just what those with a vested interest in maintaining their own authority on such matters, want us to know -- if we have no alternative manner of inquiry, but to consult these (self-)appointed authorities -- and questioning that authority, is not an option, despite the fact, that their supposed "answers" to everything, seem to make things worse, rather than eliminate the problems.

Not surprisingly then, the result of current understanding of conditioning and exercise, results in more people being out of condition, and needing more exercise. A few will do the much more, while the majority will decide that it is not worth it -- to punish oneself day after day, with only the prospect of then being able to tolerate more -- as proof that one is better conditioned. That seems to work at first, until the body and psyche simply exhausts its recovery ability, and is forced to take a long break, often through injury and often just the sheer exhaustion of maintaining oneself in a constant "fighting"-ready posture, which prolonged indefinitely, causes an irreversible deterioration of health rather than the desired readiness to meet all challenges.

Obviously, if one's conditioning exhausts one fully, there is never any reserve to actually respond to any real life urgencies -- because one is always in the recovery mode, marshaling their resources for the next workout -- as though that was all there is in life. After a while, that does become one's so preoccupation and reality.

And really, the whole purpose of proper, beneficial conditioning strategies, is to enable us to move beyond -- and not just repeat, and fall further behind, until most simply quit out of exhaustion and the realization that they are no longer better, despite how much they do. If one is still obviously responding and growing, then there is no question that one should continue whatever they are doing -- that is working. But when those benefits and results are not so apparent, then one loses that conviction that that expenditure of time and energy is "worth it."

But if one gets a tremendous return for very little time and effort, one would be a fool not to continue. It is because current popular conditioning strategies do not provide these significant and dramatic returns, that people increasingly abandon these activities and become overwhelmed by the deterioration (aging) process. The only option they are provided, is to make life a constant torment.

So one asks, is that the only way, or can one design a conditioning program without this onerous cost? We've never thought this way about conditioning before -- that rather than being hard, it is should easy, and as effortless as possible -- as the lives we hope to live, without the constant struggles no longer necessary to maintain a competitive edge. And in fact, the great survival value, is the cooperative edge, or not competing with every other thing, including and especially, oneself.

This competing, or working against every other thing in life, is obviously the harder and least productive way to go -- instead of being aware of the contribution of everything else, including millions of years of evolution, to benefit from all that intelligence. That is the implied intelligence of present reality -- or as physicist David Bohm called, the implicate order, and others, called it, the unconscious intelligence, rather than the conscious one of effort -- to struggle against everything else.

That is the meaning of the expression of "going with the flow," and realizing the much greater power, that always to be working against it -- as the currently popular thinking of conditioning, teaches one is wise. In order to maximize the benefits of life, one should avail of them, after becoming aware of them, and so, as many wise have advised, one should develop this ability to be aware and observe -- without struggling and trying to vanquish and dominate it as a knee-jerk response.

That's what we have been conditioned to do. Obviously, that is not intelligence, or the intelligent way to condition oneself.

But does that mean we become cerebral giants with atrophied bodies? That also would not be an intelligent manifestation of being -- because if nothing else, that would indicate to us that the connections and the functions of all the organs, were not supremely maintained -- and most of these sensory organs, are located most generously, in the head, hands and feet -- by intelligent design.

Yet most contemporary, as well as the venerable traditional disciplines of exercise, totally are oblivious to those extremities -- practically regarding them as immovable, rather than as the summation of good health and functioning. In fact, there is no measurement or even awareness of these possibilities, while functioning on the most remedial level, is monitored as though it were sufficient indicators of the highest.

I've often observed that in even formerly extremely vital persons, when they began rapid deterioration, it was most notable, at the cessation of responsiveness at their extremities, as well as in the atrophied development of the structures to the brain -- and have suggested that the greatest precursor I have noticed in those with dementias and other brain dysfunctions, is absence of vital movement at the head vis-a-vis the torso.

As I was observing the acceptance of Ronald Reagan in 1980 to his nomination for presidency by the Republican Party on YouTube, one already notices that there was very little movement of his head, relative to his body, and the absence of well-developed musculature, and in fact, he has a very distinctive wattle. He is simply the most well-known, of those he were diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

"Look forward, and don't turn your head." (And seeing what is going on around you).

"Time" is the Limiting Factor

2010-05-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

People who are fond of recommending that everyone should get several hours of strenuous activity every -- or at least every other day, usually have no experience working with real people, and that is the reason and justification, why they themselves have no time for it -- but intend to get around to it at their first opportunity in life, which they expect to do sometime after retirement, and even beyond. In short, if that is what it takes to get into shape, they'd rather be dead -- rather than dying every day, and living in constant pain and duress.

You wonder what kind of people would prescribe such a high drain/stress program, so that one always lives under this burden of guilt and obsessive-compulsion that one can never do enough because the bar for satisfactory compliance, is always set out of reach -- as some kind of cruel motivation technique by those who have no understanding of the differences between realities and wishful thinking.

Of course if one could run a marathon once, or lift one's bodyweight overhead once in one's lifetime, that would signify a major lifetime achievement, but then someone is certain to come along and demand that that is now the minimum new expectation, rather than the exception, and think they have improved the lot of well-being for everyone, instead of creating untold, unnecessary misery for countless generations.

That is pretty much what the fitness industry does -- as their public service, rather than actually creating well-being and fitness. It's like the tactics of similar "professionals" who tell us that after taking a class from them, we'll then require even more education classes, or more legal advice and services -- rather than less. Certainly we wouldn't go to a health care professional who assured us they would be a constant and necessary support to our daily lives -- for the rest of our lives.

And neither should that be a requirement of services of any kind -- including the information services of the past, which we now see languishing as the old media pipeline of information -- usually to create a obsessive-compulsive need for even more and evermore information, that they would like you to believe they are the exclusive sources of. Even the universities used to make those claims -- but they fell victim to their even more archaic academic style of language, which was even the reason for the rise of the mass media in its time. But then they became overwhelmed and victims of their own jargon and desire to remain permanently at the tollgates to the information storehouses they claimed to steward.

But life itself, and reality, is information -- and one can learn directly from it, as even scholars and researchers had to. Only in the academic tradition, was it possible to lay claim to never learning directly from phenomena, but from the "knowledge" of what somebody knew previously -- and build on that. That will always lead one far astray from the realities we hope to understand -- although it is quite possible, to understand only that knowledge, divorced from that and any realities. That has always been the danger of "education," and particularly the formal education which is the socialization/indoctrination of every community and society.

But always alongside the development and entrenchment of such hierarchies and institutions, are a few pointing this divergence from the actualities of our existence as the explanation for why so called "solutions," only seem to require more of the solution -- infinitely, and not the cessation of the original problem, which is the proper understanding of it.

The One-Minute Revolution

Since time is always the excuse for not being able to get into a fitness program, it should be obvious to instructors, that the easiest and minimally invasive way to do so, would be the lowering of the barriers to such a participation and involvement, that ensures movement throughout every part of the body -- which would be the turning of the head in a 360 degree rotation. If one simply does that, he has already done much more of beneficial and healthful movement than anything else he can do -- while not producing any apparent head movement, including miles and hours of running and biking -- in which the head stays pretty much stationary throughout the entire course of activity, no matter how strenuously and fast the heart is beating to effect a greater flow that can only be effected by the actual changing of muscular states of the muscles in the neck, moving from fullest contraction and relaxation. A fixed tension in any state, does not enhance that flow as effectively and actually impedes that flow -- because it is the varying hydraulic pressures within the vessels, that cause the circulatory effect -- in conjunction with the heart that is always beating incessantly and necessarily.

But it is only in the heightened fullest contractions of these muscles directly, that one observes obvious and impressive muscle growth -- as the antidote to the atrophying of the muscles indicating the aging effect. When muscles atrophy, the skin seems to sag because of the absence of this underlying supportive musculature, which many people then fill in with Botox, to restore that fullness. The better approach would be to maintain and develop muscle growth -- which is only possible done with the proper engagement and articulation of the muscles directly involved in contraction and relaxation -- no matter how hard or fast the heart is beating otherwise!

It just doesn't happen otherwise, and is responsible for the effect that most so-called endurance athletes, have an atrophied musculature rather than the more visible and impressive one of athletes who must produce these vigorous and full contractions -- like the sprinters of that same activity. But it is not the explosiveness or the speed that is often attributed to producing such effects -- which can also be achieved with slower and deliberate full contractions that eliminate the possibility of danger from such speed and momentum.

As my good friend Dr. Ken Leistner (High-Intensity Training) described that style I recommended as "tai-chi with weights," the better description, is to find out what position the body(part) is in, in which the muscles must be contracted, and moving in and out of that position -- not because of effort or resistance, but because of that understanding, that nothing else is possible in that position -- but to fully actualize the limits of its expression and development in doing so.

The Five-Minute Transformation

Once one understands this cause and effect, producing this effect throughout the body, can be accomplished within a maximum of five minutes of well-designed (ingenious) movements -- and not the hours usually prescribed by those who have no idea what they're trying to accomplish but to burn (waste) as much energy and time possible, as though that alone had a magical effect -- though by what direct process, they don't know but to repeat the same affirmations they've seen repeated everywhere else, by countless others who also have no idea that there should be a direct connection between what one "knows," and an actual underlying reality.

It is just enough that they know what everybody knows -- and think that is the limits to all that can be known.

Overcoming the Resistance Within

2010-05-20T07:43:00.000-07:00

If one feels like running a marathon, or lifting 500 lbs., it is generally not necessary to do so -- or have to "prove" it, because the feeling of that ability, IS the achievement, and not that one has to get anywhere else -- or to a higher level.

The problem is that in life, one is often in a condition in which just moving itself, seems to present great resistance -- without one having to add additional "resistance" to make such movements even more productive. That is especially true at those critical points in life, at which one is at the crossroads of determining whether they get better or worse, despite of what they are doing, and probably. because of it.

Obviously, if one is doing something that causes pain and injury, one should cease that activity and try to determine the reason for that feedback -- and then make the appropriate adjustments before even more serious and severe catastrophe completely immobilizes them. Usually, it is not a dramatic event, but rather a slowly encroaching condition that appears, persists, and worsens -- unless and until we adopt an effective strategy for dealing with those new realities.

As one gets older in life, but not necessarily just at that stage in life, there may be times when, any movement at all becomes painful and difficult, as though one were made of rock instead of a healthful fluid condition. In the old days, such thickening of the body fluids, were called "rheumatism," in its various forms and afflictions -- which indicates a thickening of the body fluids that make fluid operation difficult, if not impossible.

I have suggested in previous essays, that one should consider taking guaifenesin, as the over-the-counter, readily and cheaply available product that is the essential ingredient that liquefies the mucus, specifically indicated for the treatment of the thickening of the mucus associated with colds, flu, bronchitis, and its associated bodily aches and pains, that are usually considered less significant, when breathing itself is so threatened.

But that same thickening of the mucus, is also the basic composition as well as lubricant for any movement of the body, and so when that thickens, causes that stiffening of the joints, and every other movement of the body. At such times, it is obviously appropriate to move slowly and deliberately, and if one does, can articulate and regain, "normal" movement in a fairly short order.

That is the reason for the five-minutes of daily exercise, consisting of five movements, for a 50 count each, that addresses the "joints" (axes of rotation) of most daily universal movements -- and specifically and directly, the five extremities of the body which are the focus of whether activation and circulation, are up to operating conditions. They are the head, hands, and feet, and only direct, observable articulation and movement there, is a guarantee of that responsiveness and readiness of the body -- for any other subsequent action, which includes the highest level of athletic competition.

So it is the proper warmup for everything -- and for the most mobility-impaired, is sufficient to regain as much strength as they are momentarily capable of -- while increasing that capacity in doing so. That is the "magic bullet" everyone needs to know -- the minimum, and not the maximum of all that could be done -- by all the ingenious ways humankind can imagine. That would not be productive to know or enunciate, when one is critically challenged to be extremely focused for marshaling whatever capacities are available to their momentary highest level of activation -- especially at those moments, when the barest movement, seems to be the world's greatest achievement possible, at that moment.

Then one can change the world -- but not before then.

Shaping the Future

2010-05-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

Arthur Jones, inventor of exercise equipment and wildlife capture (in the actual as well as videography), enjoyed making outrageous and provocative statements, including his observation that even "Miss Americas" and "Mr. Americas," were nothing but well-shaped fat -- by which he hoped to interest people in body immersion tests to assess precisely one's muscle to fat ratios -- and assess whether there was actual change in the composition of the body, or just the appearance of it -- from his prescribed training regimen.

However, even those precise measurements, do not reflect on one's abilities to look far more impressive than one's actual composition, as fairly muscular individuals can seem to be fairly unmuscular, while minimally muscular people and even fat people, can train their muscles to mold the fat into the shape that is more pleasing, for aesthetic purposes, like bodybuilding competitions. I've known and trained along both -- very strong and muscular individuals who didn't look very muscular, and because of it, were vulnerable to taunts that they were just fat, instead of big and powerful -- which needed no posturing in their minds. That probably accounted for their sensibility that it didn't matter how they looked, as long as they could perform when it mattered, and to them, most of the time did not matter.

So the mold of the old strong men, were guys who looked like Paul Anderson or Louis Cyr, the proverbial 5 foot by 5 foot brick shithouses -- and I suppose they kind of liked lowballing people's expectations to better impress them. That was also a kind of personality and mentality popular in another age, in which an "integrated reality," was a far-fetched anomaly reserved for perfect specimens of another universe -- and not the reality of individuals prone to self-contradiction/destruction in their lives in which they could not hope to improve, much less to perfect.

That was a time and age before the greatly expanded capacities that have been made abundant in the generations coming of age in these times. But those who came of age in a previous time and generation, hope to convince the future generations, that their mold was when humankind achieved "perfection," and it's been a humongous downhill slide for humanity since they were coincidentally at their peak, and human history and evolution since, has just been an unrelenting spiral downward.

That used to be the paradigm of life we all came to accept -- but many deluded themselves, that they really weren't declining, even though nobody took them seriously with handicapping them for "age." There are a few exceptions who seem to persist in improvement because of the years -- but usually not past 60, or the time of "retirement," in which the expectation is for even healthy people to begin experiencing cataclysmic change from which there can never been full recovery and restoration from -- much less improvement, except by the most condescending allowances for it.

That's what I hate about exercise classes for "seniors," which is practically a admission of surrender to lowered and decreasing expectations -- from here on out. People around them, just learn to have no expectations -- and marvel at how a person who looks like they are dead, can still do anything anymore. Far better, it would seem to me, if one looked vibrantly healthy and capable, yet they actually couldn't run a marathon -- which most people don't need to, and most never will in their lifetimes.

So the prescription that they need to take up marathons at that late stage of their lives, hardly seems a practical prescription for keeping or getting " fit," yet those are most often the articles featured in "sophisticated" publications, on how it is never too late, to take up a regimen of well-intentioned conditioning movements -- for the life they will subsequently be living.

Certainly those conditioning movements, should articulate the actual movements and activities they can expect to express, and not the meaningless and harmful excessive wear and tear, hoping that by tearing down the body, they still have the recovery ability to repair and improve from those extreme demands -- while never considering, how little it might take, to maintain and sustain improvement -- at any level, because the level is not as important as the direction of change.