Better or Worse

 People won’t want to hear this — but walking on a spot (in place) is SUPERIOR to actual walking. The greatest advantage is that one can do it in the comfort of one’s own home (controlled environment), rather than the much more perilous random conditions one is likely to encounter walking around most cities — and particularly hazardous now that public officials don’t enforce safe and drug-free environments, in addition to treacherous sidewalks.

The key thing that makes the step in place superior as an exercise is the range allowed by tailoring the conditions to optimize safety and performance. The extreme is the knee-lift that can be achieved by marching in place. That is contrasted to the much more limited range of movement in barely lifting one’s feet — as most people do — in walking. That is the essential movement — repeated over and over again so it becomes conditioned automatically. That is the purpose of exercise — self-conditioning — rather than being conditioned by everything else — much of it extraneous.

Increasingly with years, is the realization that one can’t be doing things that aren’t working — for the dwindling remainder of their lives. At some point, they hope for a resurrection to their best selves. That manner of thinking can be programmed into all the moments of our lives — but obviously not what got us to this state. Then one is shocked into the realization that everything they do matters.

Will We Need to Change?

 To be successful throughout life, a person has to be changing and evolving with the times and circumstances — and not thinking if they keep doing the same thing for time immemorial, it will be right for any time and all circumstances. That is the essence of life — and not having a fixed idea of perfection and never deviating and evolving a better response to the present challenges — then wondering what went wrong, and how one got so detached from reality and proper functioning. Then every day after that, their situation seems to get more dire and hopeless. Change is the way of life.

As people grow older, they can also grow wiser — but many will stay the same all their lives, and fare poorly because of that mindset and approach. Those who remain viable all their days are quicker to recognize what they thought worked, no longer does — if it ever did, and make the proper adjustments. It is the same with all aspects and activities in life.

In the case of the bodybuilders and weightlifters, they eventually come to realize that simply doing what they did when young, may be impossible when they are old — which doesn’t preclude everything else one has not tried before — including and especially, that exercise can be made easier and more productive, rather than continuing to beat themselves up the hard way, with less results, and more possibilities of injury — and reduced recovery ability until finally, they just give up entirely. Of course that is the worst case outcome leading to total disability.

One gets better at doing what one actually does — but when one is resistant to trying, nothing will be done. So rather than increasing the resistance, the proper course is to lower the resistance — or maintain the same level as one ages so that movement looks and becomes easier, and not more labored. That is obviously the reversal of what one has been taught to believe that one should be constantly adding as much resistance as possible at every opportunity to do so — infinitely. It doesn’t work in older people, and neither does it work in younger people. Because it was never that the resistance was so important but that the full-range movement itself produced the fullest contraction and the fullest relaxation of the muscle — which optimizes the circulatory flow that is health.

All the mumbo-jumbo, hocus-pocus, jargon, pharmaceuticals aside, that is the simple process ensuring health. Most bodybuilders and weightlifters condition themselves to the wrong things — and that becomes unsustainable in time and age, and is the primary reason they die prematurely at younger ages than their cohorts — usually from heart problems because they are overworking their hearts — thinking the harder the better. The primary value of exercise is not for the heart — but for all the other skeletal muscles that are not working unless one deliberately programs them to. The heart is always the hardest, most dedicated muscle of the body — and doesn’t need to be stressed harder or exclusively while the rest of the skeletal muscles continue to do little or nothing at all. And worse, some think it desirable to work the muscles against the heart to make it work even harder — endlessly until it fails. Of course, that is the ultimate failure.

Instead, one desires to learn to use the body and muscles so that it can sustain its functioning and activity as long as necessary — all of one’s life if possible. That requires a very different approach and mindset. That probably is the great challenge of conditioning activities of these times — not just for bodybuilders and weightlifters, but for everybody aspiring to achieve their best lives, for the rest of their lives.

Making Exercise Easier

 Making Exercise Easier

Your living area should reflect the priorities of what you think is most important to do. For many people, their living spaces are configured to accommodate that ease and convenience — of plopping down into a Lazy Boy and turning on their television by remote control — and spend the rest of their hours in that position until it is time to go to sleep, and many just give up entirely and go to sleep in that position. So of course, they don’t get a lot of exercise in their daily lives — except to get up for bathroom breaks and getting something to eat. That reflects who they are and the shape they are in.

People who make exercise the central activity of their lives con’t have to buy a lot of exercise equipment just to use for a minute each day — but are inclined to have a nearly empty room for which they can move around quite easily — because it is the movement itself which is important, and not the amount of equipment they have — and use so briefly. The best example of this is the dance studio — with little or no furniture — only bars installed into the walls to practice their balance and flexibility. Close seconds are the martial arts studios with their cleared space to practice their movements. And then there are the yoga practitioners — who don’t move around a lot, and just require a mat — if that.

Clearly the lesson to be learned from these examples of people highly likely to break into exercise at any opportunity and inspiration, is that they are not dependent on any particular apparatus and circumstances, but can improvise with nothing or very little — rather than being constricted and constrained by the furnishings and predisposition to comfort with no further effort. Monasteries are often set up in this way — to make prayers, postures and practices the only thing possible, as well as to indulge in as much as possible.

That would be the template for anybody desiring to design more exercise into their lives — or anything else for that matter. Their living room should be their exercise studio — and everything else secondary to that primary purpose — if at all necessary. Instead, the usual contemporary life accumulates as much clutter as is possible — to make productive movements and exercises nearly impossible and prohibitive. Rather than clutter as much as possible into their living space, the ascetic values that space as the room that makes movement possible, productive and expressive — instead of limiting those possibilities, and even putting away their exercise equipment to limit their access and spontaneity to it.

But rather than cluttering up one’s space with as much specialized equipment as one can afford, a far better idea is to realize that the floor, walls, movable chair and mat (not rolled up and put away), is the perfect time and conditions for practicing and mastering whatever movements one can think of. One could even do 10,000 steps marching in one place more productively than walking outside — in less ideal conditions. It doesn’t matter how far one goes, but how fully they lift their knees and articulate the leg movement — which is likely to be more constrained if they have to transport the rest of their body over uncertain terrain.

That’s what the exercise adepts realize — that it is not the external trappings that make exercise more conducive, but this anywhere, anytime access possible — even if one just thought of it in the spur of the moment. That really is what the true spirit of exercise was meant to be — and not all this planning, expense, and thinking people insist is required. Many will even insist that you consult with one’s Primary Care Provider or Certified Personal Trainer before attempting to do anything new and unfamiliar.

People are invariably successful because they discovered a way that works for themselves — despite what all the experts say and prescribe for everyone else. That is the whole poi.nt of living, purpose and meaning in the fully actualized life — not reserved just for the experts, media and influencers. That ultimately is the permission to live one’s own life — and achieve the greatest success at it. No one can do it for any other. That success is entirely personal. It either works, or it doesn’t — and what one should go by.

Lots of things work for a while — and then it stops working once the novelty wears off. That merely indicates that one has to improve the understanding — and not that all understanding is futile. Exercise doesn’t have to be hard and difficult. Only the experts insist that it is so — but then it doesn’t work for them either. So one has to break all the rules to find the way that does work — and not simply settle for more elaborate explanations of why things don’t work. Anything that works is self-evident truth. Life is very simple in that way.

Hip and Back

 There is a reason the gluteus muscle is the largest and strongest muscle of the human body — but most people cannot see the reason for it, and so ignore and even deliberately do not develop it — in favor of developing all the other, less critical muscles of the body — and that becomes the source of a lot of pain and problems even in the otherwise well-developed human physique. The major function and importance of the gluteus muscle is to bind the upper body to the lower body, and in that manner, provide maximum stability and support for all the movements taking place at the extremities that are obvious as “movements,” while the base (gluteus) seems immobile.

As such, the best exercise for the gluteus does not require or exhibit movement, but actually occurs when the gluteus is simply squeezed into a tighter contraction — without and regardless of visible movement. Such compression and activation, forces the engagement and subsequent blood flow, that becomes problematical when there is no contraction and relaxation (pumping effect) of the gluteus muscle resulting in the numbness or sciatica of people who do not activate their glues for prolonged periods.

It is like any other muscle of the body that has that capability — but is ignored, because it can be — in the modern sedentary life and activities. One back researcher noted that such back pain was unheard of among indigenous peoples — who always exhibited well-toned and usually contracted gluteus muscles — but then developed elaborate back exercises to remedy back pain in modern sedentary lives — rather than the much more obvious solution to contract the gluteus muscles — as is apparent in any athletic performance — but invariably overlooked, as the key functioning that makes the supreme effort most effective.

Instead, they will seek to develop all the muscles adjoining it — like the spinal erectors above and the hamstrings and quadriceps below it — but not the gluteus itself. It is always taken for granted, and assumed to be working as well as it can — even without deliberate attention paid to it. In fact, a lot of exercise machine design addresses the upper body and lower body exercises as though they were two separate universes — rather than an integral whole. The obvious example is the difference between the standing press and the bench press — because no upper to lower body tie-in is required in the latter. And then in the leg press, no upper body tie-in is necessary. And that is how the body is generally worked — as two different and unconnected spheres of power — the shoulder girdle, and the hip girdle — but seldom as one and the same thing, which natural movement is meant to be.

Some traditional and conventional movement disciplines don’t make such divisions, and their whole intent is integral movement — rather than the isolated movements favored by the makers of exercise equipment. The more, different, and unrelated movements, the more machines and gimmicks they can sell — rather than the simplicity of understanding the human body at its most basic and functional level. The best example of these are the dancers and yogis who are fond of saying that their bodies are their instrument. From there, gym equipment and apparatus can get more elaborate and costly. But as fitness and exercise afficionados have known forever, all one requires is the body itself — to get the best workout.

Knowing what to do is the lack. The hardest thing to see is the obvious. Most glute exercises are unsatisfactory because they are done lying on one’s stomach (pressuring the abdomen) — while moving the thigh bone rearward. The easiest way to contract the gluteus is to lie straight on one’s back and with very little visible movement, simply squeeze the gluteus muscles — and then alternately relax. The sciatic nerve comes out of the vertebra into the gluteus — so if that (blood) flow is not optimal, it would affect the entirety of the sciatic nerve running all the way down the leg resulting in the familiar numbness and pain. The nerves are not being stimulated and fed by that proper functioning.

The other position to perform the glute squeeze is lying on one’s side — and placing the upper hand on the lower glute for added range of movement — with that twist. The glute can only be maximally contracted when the body is in a straight line — and not as commonly practiced in a squat, deadlift, or any other hinged movement. That is the peculiarity of the glute contraction — that it is to provide stability and support for all the other movements of the body — which even squatting or deadlifting cannot do, or any other back and leg exercises commonly done for glute activation and development.

It is an important muscle in the body — but not for the reason most people think so — as some kind of a sexual magnet, but is the anchor of the entire body — to which all other movements and activities are ultimately based in. We ordinarily don’t think about it, and merely take it for granted that it will just be there — until one day they fall, and the shock absorber they thought would always be there, isn’t, and so they fracture their hips — with devastating consequences. Shock absorption, is one of the major attributes of muscles that provide an added layer of responsiveness and protection in a long and prosperous life. It’s not just decoration.

Learning from Everything

 Learning from Everything

Structure provides the framework so that one is not reinventing the wheel to do anything and everything in life — which means they are always starting from zero — instead of where they left off, which becomes the foundation and baseline for improvement. However, many people take this structure as inviolable and perfected for all time and all conditions, rather than just the beginning of their undertaking, which may be different every time, and particularly, changing with time and age — no matter how much one wishes it were not so. So change will happen whether we make it happen or not — because that is what life is — constantly changing, improving, evolving — and we cannot keep everything as they were, frozen in time and space, no matter how much we try.

But some people think that their objective in life is to relive and reinvent the past — rather than improve the present — which means learning as we are doing, and not simply going through the motions and reliving the past as though that were enough to keep one young forevermore. So while it is nice to have a preconceived program for what one intends to do, the much greater gain lies in learning something new and possibly better — because that’s how one makes these quantum leaps in life, and not simply plod along as one always has, hoping for a different (better) result. Those are the breakthroughs in life that are not simply a matter of time and staying the present course — but the transformative moments when life becomes unexpectedly something else — much greater.

We don’t know what that is, if we only stay within the known and familiar — and so there must be a provision for breaking the mold as well. It is the same with every human activity — those who grow immensely from it, and the many who don’t, get discouraged and move on from one fad to another — never figuring out what actually works. That means learning and trying something new — and the surprisingly easiest way to do that is just to keep one’s ears, eyes and mind open — and learn what is going on around them, as well as what their own body is telling them.

Often, the exercises one is doing is not making them better, but actually making them worse — like lifting as heavy a weight as possible, or running or walking arbitrarily great distances — to the point that their feet, knees, hips and back are begging them to stop. At which point, most sensible people will just stop — but not try something else, because they were misled to think that was the only way — and it worked for everybody else but them. Obviously, the truth of the matter is that it doesn’t work for most — even as much as these “experts” claim it will — although they don’t seem to be living proof of that themselves. Often, these experts are experts because they’ve tried everything that doesn’t work — and that is what makes them the expert on these matters. You can’t tell them otherwise.

The gyms are full of people who used to be in shape — even at the top of the game once — but what they claimed worked before, no longer works now — when they need it to work most. That is the present state of the art — who knows what works best now, for the condition they are in now? Just doing what one did 50 years ago, is not the answer to reliving that peak. The deadlift, squat, and bench press were not the most productive (healthful) movements performed but owed their popularity to being the movements that allowed for the most weight to be used — and there was nothing magical beyond that. Yet still, they are prescribed as the cure for all the damage done by lifting maximum weights in those movements — by those who claim to know better.

That’s obviously not how it works. What doesn’t kill you, will eventually do so — if one persists at it. That’s what injuries are about — but even before that, are the imbalances that may be disabling in the later years of life — that one unfairly attributes to normal aging. That includes the limited range of movement, the lack of balance that leads to falls and hip fractures because the largest and strongest muscles of the body are left undeveloped in favor of the frivolous development of the showy muscles that are less critical to health and functioning.

That is the greatest threat and fear of the old people — that they fall and have no musculature to absorb the shock with the gluteus muscle. That is the great danger — and not that their biceps are lacking. That is the key to understanding the problems of aging — the back pain, hips pain, knee pain, foot pain. There must be a good reason Nature made the gluteus the largest and strongest muscle of the human body — that few think to accentuate it — not because of the concern that it will become too large and prominent, but that the well-developed glute holds the body together tightly — and that is its fundamental and integral strength.

The exercises we think develop this vital connection — the deadlift and squat, cannot engage and activate the gluteus muscle because it requires the thigh bone to be moving backwards — which is prohibitive in those movements. And in fact, the completed position for the deadlift and squat, produces an uncontracted gluteus muscle — in a bone on bone lockout. That is the problem with most weightlifting movements — that they end in a bone on bone lockout — rather than the fullest muscular contraction. That fullest muscular contraction, has to be designed into the movement — or it will always terminate in a bone on bone lockout — which allows the muscle to rest and relax.

That was the rationale for the Nautilus machines — which were actually so effective and efficient, that one had to use less weight rather than more — but bodybuilders being bodybuilders, defeated that purpose by adding more weight than most could use to perform the movements correctly and completely — and continued in that direction until it became unproductive for most. It was designed to be used in a rehabilitative manner than a competitive one — and in that manner, would have produced the foolproof results its inventor promised, rather than being abandoned by most within a decade.

That greatly accounts for the overwhelming success of the early bodybuilders of the 50s and 60s — most who got into it not because they were great athletes to begin with, but because they had no other hope as the proverbial 90 lb weaklings and other outcasts from the most prolific natural competitive athletes of their time — very few who trained with weights at that time. Then the world changed.

First Things First

 I had the good (mis)fortune to be diagnosed at a young age with childhood (rheumatoid) arthritis — for which the doctors said I would be crippled as an adult — “but then they could operate.” So I asked innocently if that would make me well — and the doctor replied facetiously, “No, but then they can operate.” So early on, I realized I was on my own — at least until I was old enough for them to “operate.”

When one is “old,” it does not much matter if one’s arthritis is the cause of being too young — or too old, because all one hopes for, is to be functioning at the highest level possible — all the rest of one’s days. Many of the greatest transformative legends began with such modest but realistic goals — just to be able to breathe without fearing one can’t. Two of them, Tommy Kono and George Eiferman, went from being scrawny asthmatics, to having strongman performances including blowing up hot water bottles til they burst — as well as being acclaimed as the most perfectly developed physical specimens of their time.

That was before everybody realized how effective exercise could be in producing such great results. But these original pioneers weren’t doing it for such spectacular results — but were starting to just get up to normal — and derived all the great benefits beyond. Those were the bodybuilding stories in the first half of the 20th century — before the hype took over, and everyone was sold to believe anybody could have similarly great results.

The truth of the matter was that nobody knew for certain who could and who couldn’t achieve such remarkable results — except by actually finding out for themselves — in the doing. In that way, they would remain grounded in their own reality — limitations and potential. That is all one can ask in life — that it is uniquely and personally their own experience — and not just the average as the truth of that endeavor for everyone. That is the primal lesson in life.

That is also what “science” is — testing out the truth of that matter for oneself, and not simply relying on the “experts” to tell them what the truth is — regardless of whether it works for them or not. And then if it doesn’t, the next question is to inquire why it didn’t — and refine a better solution. Otherwise, one is trapped in the conundrum of doing the same things over and over that doesn’t work — expecting a different result, no matter how fanciful the explanation. Therefore, the greatest motivator, is testing whether an idea works in the present reality — and not only after a year has passed. If it takes a year to manifest, you’re uncertain what worked — because a lot can happen in a year.

But if it manifests immediately, one can have more confidence that what one just did — is probably the reason for the difference (change.) The simplest and most direct understanding of the body and how it moves, is manifested at the extremities of the feet, hands and head — and as long as those organs are functioning well, the rest of the body is less important for ensuring lifelong health and functioning. As easy as it is to say, most older people lose their movement at these most distal joints — which defines the possibilities and limits of that functioning — including the arthritis at those joints and the brain fog at the head.

That is totally predictable and likely. But if such individuals do nothing else but keep their head, hands and feet looking youthful and fully functioning, there’s no easy way to tell how old such a person is — because the telltale markers are absent. That won’t change with more movement at the hip or shoulders — while remaining unmoving at the neck, wrists, and ankles. It is at those distal joints that movement has to be articulated — which implies the engagement of the supporting muscular structures — because that is how the body actually is designed to work — and not by short-circuiting the movement and circulation to the proximal structures — that does nothing, or very little for beyond that movement.

That is the most misunderstood part of exercise — that makes it far less effective and unproductive — but with the proper understanding of the whole design and objectives of the human body, the ultimate objectives can be achieved and manifested immediately. That goes for beginners or advanced — and puts everyone into the game — without the torturous path to it. You simply do what the body immediately needs and will benefit most by, and the body fills in the rest. Otherwise, the efforts and resources are diverted to the lower priority needs — at the expense of the higher. It’s like considering the brain alone. All things being equal, what would one choose to develop most? Then do it first.

The Intelligent Exercise of the Human Body

 The Intelligent Exercise of the Human Body

The distinctive features that make the human being the ultimate achievement of evolution, is the large brain, tool-using hands, and feet that make upright posture and locomotion possible. So it would make a lot of sense that the most practical and productive development of those faculties would be the preferred conditioning program — rather than the development of what is common to all life forms, which is the heart similar to most other species.

Thus, that is not the distinguishing feature, nor does it have to be worked any harder and faster — because its value is that it works reliably as its greatest function — automatically. That’s why the heart is only a one pound organ in humans, rather than 30% of the body weight — as in the well-muscled human. The heart can only do one thing — while the skeletal (voluntary) muscles of the human body can do whatever one wants it to do. That may include nothing at all — which is the problem for many. On the other hand, the heart as a muscle, does not have that option, but must always work until the day one dies — unfailingly.

Realizing that, the thoughtful person wishing to maximize their effectiveness, would choose to do what is not automatic but lacking, as their greatest contribution to increasing their productivity, functioning, overall health and proficiency. That is what is sorely lacking — and not what has been provided for in all living beings — no matter what. That is to note that we do not need to create “gravity” because it is simply a fact of life in our environment — whether we realize this or not. Many people don’t, and can live healthy and productive lives — just like the air we breathe.

We don’t first have to create the right mixture of gases that compose the air we breathe. We just have to access it as best we can — but a few will try to perfect the science of that functioning to gain an advantage — if it makes a difference. In most things, if a tool does the job, it doesn’t have to be a precision instrument made of the best materials. And often, the cheapest thing that can do the job, is the best money can buy — and beyond that, the rest may be impressive to others, but conveys no further advantage — for all practical purposes.

That is the first law of survival — if it works — regardless of the fancy explanations of why it does, or worse, why it is not working — but they are the “experts” in the field. They know all the things that do not work. Thus they claim, they need more funding to maintain that status quo — of them in charge, and to keep all others out of it. That kind of thinking is endemic to all activity and spheres of influence — but the trick is to distinguish that and not get caught up in those distractions that can consume a lifetime. And so many will conclude that it doesn’t make a difference — because they faithfully did all the things that did not work.

That is usually evident from the very start — but many insist one has to give it time — like a few years to exhibit those results, because it does not work. It is like asking a class of grade schoolers if they know how to “make a muscle,” and every arm in class will bend In the appropriate manner to make their biceps contract. That’s how easy it is — to make a muscle — and that simplicity and directness should not be complicated by elaborate explanations paraphrasing what researchers far away know exclusively — but have yet to prove in their own lives and being.

It is not because of age or lack of equipment and space that are the barriers — but simply the lack of the awareness of their own doing — or lack of it. The simple exercise that always works, is simply to turn one’s head as far to the left or right as one can go — and find out what is possible and the limit of that range of movement. In that very movement, the muscle of the neck will contract to enable that movement — as surely and demonstratively as the grade schoolers contracting their biceps. But for all intents and purposes, turning their heads is much more valuable as that movement affects the circulation to the head and brain — which most exercise practitioners just ignore as not being very important — because they think the head, hands and feet should be immobilized to enable their exercise. That kind of exercise is the wrong kind of exercise specifically for that reason — in that it precludes the movement where it is most important to move — and make a muscle because the circulation has been enabled by that movement.

That is the very reason the human body deteriorates prematurely and very visibly — at the sites of the neck, hands and feet — before all else, but is also the easiest thing to rectify — because it is simply a rotation around the furthest axis of the human body — which implies all else, but not vice-versa. The “core” muscles don’t need to be moved because their major function is stability and support — for the fine movements that occur at the extremities — whether that it shooting a basketball, hitting a ball with a bat or racket, painting a picture, playing an instrument, running, jumping, walking, etc.

As such, only enough room to move the head, the hands, the feet, is all that is required to optimize the circulatory flow throughout the body — rather than move or jump over mountains — to achieve the beneficial effects of exercise in any environment one feels most comfortable in, and has the inspiration and opportunity to do. That’s how easy, convenient, and accessible it can be — unless one insists that it has to be otherwise. Then it becomes an excuse not to do it.