Getting Started

  Getting Started

As one gets older, just getting out of bed in the morning, becomes a monumental achievement — as the whole body seems to fall into a state of total flaccidity (incapacity) — that can be activated and energized once again systematically, in the easiest way possible. That is the challenge of changing from the resting (inert) state to a fully contracted one — as a sustained and progressive exercise — without the weights or gym equipment. All one is hoping for at this state (stage), is to make it out of bed — which is a challenge for a lot of people — especially the old, disabled and terminal.

Even champion athletes may have so exhausted themselves in an effort or game, that their body will feel so spent that they feel they cannot move a muscle they next day upon awakening, and feel like only a week of complete rest and sleep will enable them to fully recover — and that is the importance of exercising to failure from time to time — to condition the body to recover rather than avoid such supreme efforts when appropriate and commensurate to the risks.

Under the right circumstances, one wants to be able to go all-out and find out what that is — whether they are the world champion or given no hope for survival and told nothing further is possible. We want to find out what is the actuality of the possible — by manifesting it, and not what others say it is. That is the most important concept in exercise — to find out what the truth of the matter is by manifesting it — and not merely as a mental exercise — by which all things can be possible, or impossible. That is testing reality — and finding out what that really is.

When we are clear on that, it doesn’t matter at what point we start from — from the weakest to the strongest, because we know we can change that. That’s what muscles enable us to do — change. They either contract, or relax, and by that alternation of muscular states, producing the pumping action that is the flow of blood and other nutrients to those volumes — by first compressing the old out of those spaces, and then as those muscles relax, the heart has space to pump blood and fluids into it. That is the proper understanding of blood flow — and how it is effected by the voluntary (skeletal) muscles — and not the popular notion that the heart simply works harder and faster and forces the fluids out throughout the body — equally, nevertheless. Physics and physiology doesn’t work that way — no matter how many certifications they have.

To activate the greatest circulatory effect, one would produce such contractions at the furthest extremities of the body — which are the known weaknesses of the feet, hands and head — where if an engineer were designing the body, would place hearts at those extremities for optimal effectiveness. However, one doesn’t need dedicated hearts at those extremities, as long as they recognize that the feet, hands and neck/face operating in the manner of a heart which is to ostensibly contract and relax, achieves that same effect — which is the value of exercise for any part of the body. Fortunately, to get to these extremities, one has to go through the rest of the body — which is not true if the axis (focus) of the movement, stops at the hip or shoulder girdle — as most “exercise” does.

The axis (focus) of movement (contraction/relaxation) must move to the wrist, ankle, and neck to effect the most productive flow — which again, is where most contemporary sedentary lives virtually never move — with these well-known disastrous consequences of most of the afflictions of modern life.

Walking as the Ultimate Exercise

  Walking as the Ultimate Exercise

The problem with most people’s walking is that they are doing it very poorly — reinforcing bad posture and movement — whether they’re taking 10 steps or 10,000 steps. You are what you practice, and if that is shuffling one’s feet because of the lack of balance, it doesn’t matter how many times you do it because you are only reinforcing bad movement. The same with walking stooped over. And so what a person has to do, is practice walking perfectly and efficiently — which is what walking with trekking poles comes closest to simulating — as the “Nordic” walking style, which seems very contrived to most people because the use of the arms and poles, lifts their torso into an exaggerated upright and erect posture as they use their arms to propel themselves.

Many older and disabled people have difficulties standing — let alone walking, but hardly notice it because they walk so minimally. They walk a little more with the aid of walkers and canes, but walking that way doesn’t usually restore them to the proper walking gait — until and unless they actually practice it. That would mean graduating to walking with trekking poles — which is the proper gait — with or without poles. In either case, what matters is that they perform the movement correctly — and not that it is harder, and therefore, better.

It is like performing any movement — perfectly, precisely and efficiently, and not made better because it is more difficult or impossible to do — and so one does it badly, or not at all. That was precisely the reason for the development of exercise machines — not primarily to make exercises harder, but more usefully, to make such movements possible and easier to many more. The best example is the pull-up — which most people cannot do even one. The solution is not to force them to do ten, but to reduce the weight (resistance) so even one is possible, and then even further so that an adequate number of them can be done — which is at least 50 to activate and sustain that blood flow that builds that muscle.

One is not going to be sufficient for activating and perfecting that movement — but 50 done regularly will establish that nerve stimulation and blood flow, and the objective is to nourish those structures to make them grow and function well. For that purpose, the body doesn’t care whether it is a new record accomplishment in a single lift, but is building the capacity and reserve for any subsequent efforts it may have to make in the future along that lines. That is what muscle and that infrastructure is. Unfortunately, that is what is lost to most beginning exercisers who are focused on the wrong things — instead of the singular importance of the movement itself. They are usually advised to make it as difficult and impossible from the beginning — and to increase the workload to make the movement unrecognizable — which is obviously the wrong form.

But in walking, two legs are good, but four are indeed better — and more stable. Walking with trekking poles changes that equation. One is using four appendages for locomotion — and in monkeys and apes, the reason their arms are more impressively muscled than their legs. The only improvement I would suggest for making walking with trekking poles an even better exercise, is to forgo the use of the straps in favor of gripping the poles without them to make it that same better use of the grip and upper body development — which then becomes like the monkey swinging from branch to branch. The straps eliminate the need to develop this grip (strength) and the upper body development emanating from that contraction from the most distal axis of those structures — rather than limiting this movement at the shoulders as most exercise machines also do. Or the hips.

In this manner, the fullest articulation of the joints at the extremities can be exercised — ensuring the optimal circulation through the most essential organs at the head, hands and feet — rather than stopping at the shoulders and hips because there is no further articulation beyond those joints (axes).

How Muscle Action Keeps Us Healthy

How Muscle Action Keeps Us Healthy.

Most people are familiar with the action of the heart — as the quintessential muscle of the body — that works by the action of alternating full contractions with full relaxations, and can work no other way because it is solely dedicated to that task. It doesn’t directly cause one to jump higher, run faster, or lift more weights — as many naively think. It’s primary function is to provide for that constancy of pressure that will cause blood to flow outward towards the rest of the body — depending on the action of the voluntary (skeletal) muscles to produce varying pressure differences through their own contractions and relaxations. That is why muscles that are “exercised” in that way, grow larger and healthier that are not exercised in that manner — rather than being equally developed because the heart is pumping blood equally everywhere.

The design of the musculature is that when it contacts, the insertion (distal/distant) moves towards the origin (proximal/center), while the venous blood flow also allows movement in this same direction back towards the center — with its many valves that prevent backflow. So the important concept that most people get wrong, is that the primary function of exercise is not to pull ump more blood into an already full muscle, but by contracting reduce the volume of the muscle to accelerate this flow out of those tissues, and upon relaxation, there is now a vacuum or void to draw fresh nutrients into that space with the constant activity of the heart and arterial blood vessels.

That is the health-giving process that was noted centuries earlier as the “vital life-force” — which the Chinese called “chi” and the Indians called “prana.” The important aspect was the recognition of “flow” — that could be enhanced by deliberate “practices” — long before they “discovered “ oxygen and circulation.

Flow is the principle by which things move and is interconnected, rather than the old concept of static categories in which nothing is related to anything else, and can never be changed or effected. As understanding increased, effort could be decreased — and one could achieve greater productivity and effectiveness by eliminating the extraneous (noise) and focus only on the significant — to greater effect. Rather than jumping higher, running faster, lifting more weight, etc., the essential could be reduced to the muscle state itself — as the difference between full contractions and full relaxation optimizing the flow by contracting (compressing) the waste products and inducing new nutrients by creating the void (space) for the new due to the constant (autonomous) action of the heart.

That change is entirely within the realm of the voluntary muscles to direct — especially when it is properly understood as the default action in the body rather than increasing the resistance to it. In fact, one wishes to decrease the resistance in going from one state to the other — because it is the difference in states, that makes the difference. People get no visible results from their efforts because they do not intentionally, deliberately, and dramatically change those muscular states — that optimize the flow. Their exercises consist of little to no movement at the furthest extremities at the axes of the neck, wrists, and ankles — where the retention is the problem. It doesn’t matter how much harder and faster the heart is working. The is virtually no movement and change of muscular states at the axes of extremities leading them to conclude that those are the most difficult body parts to develop — when the fact of the matter, is that they are not moving there specifically — and that changes the body.

The Most Practical Exercise

  A hundred years ago, when a person took a fitness class, the standard of achievement was whether they could walk with a book on the top of their head — exhibiting the control and grace in that movement. Fast forward a hundred years and most people approaching one hundred cannot walk at all — and by a few decades earlier, they require either a cane or walker, and those who adopt walking as their main exercise, are doing it poorly — usually by shuffling their feet so as not to fall. The axiom of conditioning activities is that no amount of doing anything improperly will substitute for doing a movement properly and perfectly. So when a person is advised to walk for 10,000 steps and all will be well, there is no telling definitively what a person is actually doing — because that movement is limited by manner of performance. That is true for every movement that is recommended as “proper” exercise. That is the major reason some people attain remarkable results, while most do not — while thinking they are doing the same thing. And in fact, many older people do not get the results they did 50 years ago — not because of age, which is convenient to blame it on, but that they’re simply not doing the same thing they were 50 years ago — but thinking they are doing the exact same thing.

Nowhere is that more true than the simple movement of walking — when many can barely walk, or even stand anymore. So what can they do? — when they can’t even walk in a straight line anymore? Using a walker won’t regain their best walking form, nor will using a cane. What may help in restoring proper walking form is the use of trekking poles — that makes the proper form possible again by using four legs (sic) instead of merely two. Often, the problem with walking for older people is that it hurts their feet, knees, hips, and back by placing all the weight on the legs, while using the arms to aid in that support and propulsion, makes proper movement possible again — by reducing the weight (resistance) supported entirely by the legs.

That is similar to weight-training machines — which most people fail to realize that the advantage is in the ability to lower the weight rather than raise it infinitely more. It is a well-known fact that the average person cannot do even one pull-up. But with a pulley and adjustable weight stack, it becomes possible to do the pull-up movement because the weight (resistance) can be lowered to their present ability — and so rather than no repetitions being possible and performed, they can now do 50 and obtaining the benefit of that movement performed sufficiently to effect a meaningful blood flow that is the value and purpose of any exercise.

That doesn’t happen if they don’t perform the movement properly (or at all) — as to effect its fullest contraction alternated by the fullest relaxation — which is the muscle acting as a pump — just like the heart works. Thoughtfully done, that is to dedicate the entire musculature of the body to perform that health enhancing effect — rather than presuming that the heart alone can perform that sufficiently and optimally for the more than hundredfold mass it is thought to service adequately without additional thought andeffort.

That is the reason some bodies actualize a lot more than most of the others. They have thought to do that very deliberately and systematically — as their bodybuilding program. That same effort and attention is required by any other faculties of the body — to achieve its highest actualization and performance. That should come as no surprise. One doesn’t become the best at what one does, unless they practice it. But practicing anything, is not the same as practicing perfectly and precisely — so there has to be a standard of performance — which trekking pole walking seems to demand — as the simplest, most practical standardized movement to master and repeat — to improve their mobility and coordination, for most practical purposes.

That is the movement working most of the muscles — and as such, that its practitioners achieve proportional muscular development and functioning.

The Simplicity of Exercise (Movement)

 The Simplicity of Exercise (Movement)

The advantage that bodybuilders have over all other exercisers is that they know how to develop any specific muscle from all others — which is the reason a lot of them end up with grossly disproportionate developments — because they fixate on one muscle over all the others — as their priority. A thoughtful person would contemplate then if that is the case, what parts of their bodies would be most important to develop above all the others? If it is simply a matter of lifting the most weights, running (or walking) the farthest distances, jumping the highest, etc., then the comes a time when they cannot proceed any further without injury or natural decline due to aging. That is just a fact no matter how much pain and disability one is willing to endure to achieve those objectives.

But for most people, their highest priority is to live their daily lives as efficiently and economically as possible — which actually begins with the brain, and the hands and feet to carry out their directives. Yet as people decline (age), those are the critical parts of the body that begin to fail first and most noticeably — as in dementias, lack of grip strength, lack of balance — which impacts the functioning of everything they do.

At that point, many people just plow on — until they absolutely can’t anymore — and eventually come to that state in which their lives are greatly reduced and immobilized. Most traditional and conventional exercises are powerless to do anything about it — because of the limitations of their thinking — that things have to be done a certain way, regardless of the fact that it is not working to solve their problem(s).

So how does one achieve a fresh mind? That would be to get fresh blood into an organ by first understanding the basics of fluid dynamics which govern fluid and gas flow — which is pressure differences — primarily caused by the changing states and volume of the skeletal muscles. That is why exercise works to optimize the health and functioning of any part (organ) of the body. That effect is immediate and powerful. That is the characteristic of muscular action — it produces instantaneous effects — and not as the shamans promise, that it will show up in six months or a year.

The world doesn’t work that way. The greatest predictor of future results, are present results. The most obvious example would be a person lying totally motionless, and seemingly incapable of moving anything, even as a response to being alive. The simplest indication of responsiveness is not that they can lift their legs or any other bodypart but whether they can move their head — all the way to the left, and all the way to the right. In that movement, every individual will manifest a muscular contraction — even if they don’t know how.

A muscular contraction is also a compression — as the volume gets smaller — and thus the residual fluid (gas) has to move out in the direction designed for that purpose — which is the venal system allowing movement in only that one direction back towards the heart and center of the body. The heart meanwhile, is not designed for voluntary movement but is an autonomic function providing ambient fluid pressure — just as on the outside of the human body, atmospheric pressure provides ambient (always) pressure that enables breathing. But we also have to understand that the voluntary input is on the breathing o consut (which is also a contraction) — but there are still many explanations that think the inhalation is the necessary. That happens by default — when the muscles relax (expand) and thus the chest volume expands —lowering the pressure below the ambient — and must be equalized by the laws of Nature and physics.

So when we consider what “exercises” are good for the brain — and other extremities as well with their well-known problems of being the first to manifest as the aging experience — we should first consider the wisdom of Nature and evolution in providing for this mechanism — not only in humans, but every other living species as well. That is the benefit of millions of years of evolution to perfect — that should not be ignored — in favor of the latest whiz-bang theory some well-funded researcher comes up with — increasingly more funding to study — but changes nothing in the real world and real time.

It is just a thought of how the world works and what would be its remedy — rather than recognizing what is — and working with it must work.maximally. That’s why those organizations claiming there is no cure, require unlimited funding to prove that is so — rather than manifesting actions (movement) that must work — even if we don’t apply them.

The Wisdom of the Ages

 The Wisdom of the Ages

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lying Side Back Arch

 Lying Side Back Arch

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some things just work.

Heavy or Light?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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