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.