Just Do the Warmup

Some people think that the only way to do things is by leaps and bounds (extraordinary effort) -- rather than slowly and tentatively -- without going all out until one can't.  In life, it is relatively rare and infrequent that one has to do every little thing as though their life depended on it -- which may be the dominant paradigm for animals in the wild, whose very existence may depend upon it -- because there is no excess capacity or abundance that civilization and culture enables.  Thus it is possible for many now to eat to excess, while doing very little to obtain their needs -- and so that balance is off, and becomes the undoing of many, if not all in contemporary life.

One sees that imbalance in every human activity -- from eating, to resting, and exercise.  I wish I had a dollar for every person I've seen in the gym who spend 90-100% of their efforts building their upper bodies, and virtually zero on the lower half of their bodies -- thinking it is enough just to go through life wearing a tank top and jeans -- thinking they are fooling everybody.  Then as they hobble onto the bodybuilding stage, even the judges are conditioned only to use the biceps as the pinnacle of development and achievement -- rather than the complete development in symmetry and proportion.  It is even worse for runners -- who think that running is all there is -- and let their upper bodies atrophy, even while thinking they are the paragons of complete and balanced development.

One is not better than the other.  Both are grotesque forms of disproportion -- alien to the notion of complete and balanced development -- that has been the true ideal of every major civilization and culture.  That is why such prodigious and prolific development can be appreciated across all cultures -- as the embodiment and hallmark of health and vitality -- impressive in itself.

What is surprising to many -- conditioned as they are to believing that nothing less than overdoing everything or not at all, is the realization of how little goes a long way -- but not absolute zero -- which is to note that the greatest difference on every scale, is not one from many, but zero from one.  When even that one is absent, the deficiency is glaring.

With even the simplest movement, one step is very different from not being able to stand at all -- or even considering such a movement anymore.  Thus it has been noted that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step -- and even before then, to enable one to take that single step -- which are the many milestones to that achievement, and once having come that far, all else is merely repetition.  It's just that simple -- and eventually, easy and effortless.

But one doesn't get there having to climb a mountain first -- as many instructors (gurus) demand first.  Thus, they make even the simplest and most natural movements, as difficult as possible -- rather than as easy -- to make it possible.  A good example is the difficulty many have in getting into what is often considered to be a universal position of a squat -- that most who don't know any better, can get into until the day they die -- because the instruction to do so, makes it nearly impossible to accomplish -- and most don't even realize it.

There's no requirement that one's hands have to be held forward and the back upright to lower oneself into the finished squat position.  The easiest way to get into it, is to begin with one's hands resting on one's thighs, as is frequently seen among athletes as the resting posture.  From there, if they allow their hands to move down along their legs until they reach close to their ankles, they will be in a proper squat position -- without thinking about it, or trying too hard.  But that will never happen if they think that the hardest way to achieve that position, is the only proper way to do it -- and the reason many have difficulty achieving that position.  They are taught (instructed) to do it in the most difficult and unnatural manner possible -- so as to make it prohibitive for most.  This method of instruction is often seen in yoga -- in which the many beginning instructors think to make their practice seem as difficult as possible -- as though that was a sign of advanced "enlightenment."

I know the rationale for not using one's hands in this manner is to make the movement more difficult -- if not impossible for most, whereas learning to do so in the easiest manner, makes it accessible to nearly everyone.  If that were not the case, then many would have stopped having bowel movements because that is the position required to get into for them to do so.  But they are not so "brilliant" as to figure out a manner of doing so that makes it difficult if not impossible to them to get into.  As a practical matter, they will choose the easiest manner to get into the proper position -- and have to do so until the day they die, even if it means using every appendage and advantage they have -- in the most efficacious way.

That is what most people do -- throughout the world -- rather than ceding to an expert class on how to do the simplest, most basic tasks.  It doesn't get any more basic than that.  But nine out of ten healthy Americans will insist that they cannot do a proper squat as directed by these experts.  It is because these "experts" have no idea what they are talking about -- or understanding of the simplest realities of life.  Otherwise, life would not be possible -- following their "expertise."

And of course, the people in the media know even less -- because they are asking such "experts" what to do -- having long ago lost their capacity to take a proper dump, and so are full of it.  Bursting at the gills -- eager to share all they know -- to make it all that can be known.  That's how these things come into being -- The Pharisees and the Scribes.  They will gladly crucify all those aren't with the program -- as though it was their sacred duty, and what they were put on earth for.  They were trained to be the gatekeepers for all that can be known -- and knowable.

In this way, they are like people of every epoch who thought it was up to them to decide these things for everybody else -- rather than let each person determine the truth for themselves -- using scientific principles rather than authorities to tell them what to think.  Many people have no problem with that -- and that is why there are so many difficulties and problems in the world -- and such hardship.  They refuse to make it easy, and thus, it becomes impossible for many -- when it should be the easiest and most natural thing for everybody.

There is no virtue in standing in the most difficult manner conceivable; far more valuable, is learning the easiest and most efficient manner to do so -- even if it means using everything one has got, and even inventing a few unthought of ways.  That is the genius of human being.  It should be allowed to flourish -- even without the profit to the experts and other narrow self-interest groups who think that everybody else exists for their exclusive exploitation and profit.  It doesn't have to be that way.  That is the problem. 

One doesn't need to set a new world record at everything one does -- but if one is paying attention, they will notice that even the world champion, goes through a humble warmup before attempting the world record.  Be like them; just do the warmup -- same as the world champ.