Functional Fitness

 I don't know how many times I've encountered a title on "functional fitness," only to find them teaching impractical skills -- thinking that some day they will be useful, when the very nature of that teaching, is to make everything as impractical and difficult to do as possible -- so as to make them useless and worse, dangerous and injurious.

A good case in point is the manner in which an initiate is taught to perform a squat -- with their arms held up straight in front of them.  Under no circumstances would a person actually lift a weight in that manner -- and in most cases, would never think to do so -- unless they were taught that performance as being unequivocally the "correct" thing to do -- with no deviation or even questioning allowed.

It does nothing but flatter the instructors of such performance that they are "right," and the rest of humanity is less intelligent and knowledgeable because they know something that everybody else does not.  Whether that knowledge is useful or not, is besides the point.  They simply "know" something most others don't -- whether it is useful or not.

The whole point of that performance, is to maximize every advantage one can conceive -- beginning with the realization that the center of balance and gravity must be aligned -- which absolutely requires the hands to be in a downward position close to one's ankles -- just as the Olympic weightlifters and other strongmen invariably know to do.  Nobody in their right mind, would think to lift even the lightest weight with their hands held out straight in front of them.  What purpose would that serve --- except to learn something totally useless and dysfunctional?

But a lot of people now go through their entire lives with that kind of modus operandus -- thinking the more they know the better they are -- rather than in realizing that the fountain of all wisdom, is the realization that they know nothing.  From there, one can discover wondrous things -- while those who begin thinking they know everything, will never attempt to find out anything.

That's mainly the difference between those who succeed and those who have no idea what they are talking about -- but are merely repeating what they were rewarded to repeat unquestioningly.  Of course, that is the failing of our education system -- that people are not instructed to find out the truth of any matter for themselves, but rely on their instructors to reward them for their faithfulness in unquestioning obedience to such a program.

So of course, many arrive at the twilight of their lives totally misguided -- without a clue as to how they can set themselves right, and feel like they are simply cash cows for all those who profit handsomely on their misfortunes and (dis)ease.  Whenever there are problems, there are two basic impulses -- the first is to eliminate those problems, and the second is, to exploit those problems and make a handsome living from them.

Thus, it becomes the driving force behind why small problems at first, grow larger until they consume all one's resources -- and there is no more quality of life for any of its inhabitants -- while other societies, don't understand why there should be a problem.  In most cases, the problems are of their own making -- and are not inherent to life, but instead, antithetical to life -- because they cannot tell any better.  The problems become their lives and way of living.

Such societies go into decline -- while others rise and flourish.  That is the eternal story of civilization -- and why nobody stays at the top forever -- even with all the spoils.  The most robust at solving (eliminating) problems rise, while those consumed with problems fall -- usually at their own hands.

The casual visitor to such societies will note those obvious differences -- of greater civility in one, and increasing lawlessness, disrespect, and disregard in the other.  The public relations will tell us that things were never better -- even while misery and despair are all we see -- even camped out on the doorsteps of civic government.

The people one would think whose job it was to see and report on these things, tell us there is nothing to see, and there is no problem -- except that we need infinitely more funding to solve these non-problems.  In Hawaii, they've even built a transportation system that will not go anywhere.  They claim it is nearly perfect, because nobody can get on, and nobody can get off -- anywhere they'd want to go.  It is "perfect" because it will require infinite funding.  So many Islanders are getting their wish that the Islands return to where they were before civilization invaded their harmony -- and nobody needed to go anywhere.

But that is not the whole story of what is going on in the world.  One is not likely to hear about it, but there are some cities rising into the 21st century with gleaming new skyscrapers and pristine public areas.  Yet we are told that they are third-world countries -- and not the leaders into the 21st century with all that implies.  That is the new world order -- and not just the old, maintaining itself at the top -- and selling this "old world charm," for tourist dollars.

Obviously, they are not the living places of business and industry, but a trip of nostalgia, and the good old times.  But that is the past, and not the future.  The future is a whole new way of life -- built on the past surely, but leaping into the unknown -- and favoring those who know they do not know.  And so they find out, and in doing so, create the way of the future -- and not simply repeat the past, for one more iteration.

What people have regarded as "fitness," hasn't served them very well -- when even their staunchest advocates die prematurely even while at the top of their game, or disabling themselves for life by abusing themselves in ways not meant to be -- which causes them to cease all healthful activities from early on in life.  Many take up drugs to escape their pain and fill the void in their lives.  So obviously, a whole new, better paradigm of activities and purpose is needed based on integrating exercise into contemporary lifestyles -- instead of the failed model of stopping life so that one can exercise, and do anything productive and significant.

That is easier done than said -- because the body is built for movement -- but not arbitrary movements the devious mind can conceive -- so that it has to fail.  The proper exercise of the body, is actually how it is designed to work -- without the mind taking precedence of the most profitable model to conduct and sell that instruction.  It is like the infant learning how to become proficient with its own body -- before they encounter those who insist on telling them what to do and how to be -- as unqualified and incompetent to tell anybody else what to do.

The kinesthetically gifted are never that way.  They learn through the actuality of their experiences (exercise) -- which requires constant attention and attentiveness -- of which there is no limit, unlike the treadmill of activities that discover nothing new, and frankly, produces no favorable results beyond reinforcing the belief that that is the only way things can ever be done.

Getting back to the manner of squat performance, another accompanying instruction is to never allow the knees to move forward of the toes -- which then displaces the center of gravity to the unnatural position that cannot be sustained comfortably over a prolonged period -- as is seen in indigenous cultures.  That exercise is the proper alignment of the major hinges of the human body -- that simply happens because it must.  Human babies are quite proficient at it -- with no instruction usually given.  They know how to use natural advantage -- and thus we marvel at the wisdom of the young -- in discovering what is in them, and not in all the books pretending to know something -- but in reality, is responsible for setting faith and confidence in human knowledge back to the Dark Ages.

The fact of the matter is that it just doesn't work -- and increasingly in their twilight years when they desperately need it the most.  That is true for even the most ardent exercisers.  They accept their increasing deteriorating condition as the general rule, and point out only one metric, if any, that defies that general trend.  That's not convincing proof of the validity of all they are promulgating.

In most cases, lifting a heavier weight does not increase the productivity -- as many think is automatic.  What matters, is the precision and mastery of performance -- regardless of resistance or load.  That's where many go astray.  It is the quality of the movement rather than the quantity of the load that results in the optimal stimulus of movement.  While most are impressed with the amount that can be lifted with excellent form, the magic is the excellence of form, and not the weight.  Correlation is not causation.

The mastery of performance is what allows for maximum poundage, and not simply upping the poundage at every opportunity -- until one invariably injures themselves because of the improper form.  In observing world champion lifters, what is striking is the attention paid to their form using only the bar -- and if that is not precisely where it should be, they do not go higher.  What would be the point?  Like the practice of medicine, the first rule should be, do no harm -- and once one has ensured those parameters, the rest takes care of itself -- but not before then.  That would be putting the cart before the horse -- with similarly disappointing results.

Particularly for the oldsters out there, if you can still do the snatch and clean and jerk in perfect form with the bar alone at age 100, you don't need to lift anything more.  That alone says it all.  It's like the ballet dancer; if they can still lift their leg up over their head at 100, they don't need to add any more weight to make it a better exercise. It will invariably make it a worse exercise -- and a travesty, but somebody will come along recommending it as the "next big thing."