Fitness for Life

 Effective exercise is not dependent on equipment — but the proper understanding of the human body. The body is designed to move — particularly at the head, hands and feet — and all other movements and functioning, is designed to support those movements. What places humans at the top of the evolutionary scale is a uniquely large brain, a tool-manipulating hand, and a foot that allows for upright posture — so that their senses are as high as possible for maximum effectiveness. Logically, those developments and skills should be the highest priority in considering self-improvement — and everything else goes along for the ride.

However, in most exercise programs, they are ignored entirely — or taken for granted that nothing can be done to improve them — when it should be obvious to the observant and thoughtful individual, is that those are the features that ultimately differentiates the exceptional from the ineffective. Most people aren’t even aware of that fact because all they see is the gross movement rather than the fine motor movement — of the head, hands and feet. But that’s what really makes the difference — whether throwing a rock, spear or ball — or jumping high and running fast — or being more aware than the person who only has their head down looking at a single spot, and so has no idea of what is going on around them — and can select the most appropriate action. That is what fitness is ultimately all about — most critically in primitive times, but just as importantly in modern times.

Most people have lost that connection — or never had it brought to their attention. They were just told to do this or that — which they blindly obeyed because the other was bigger than them — or simply more demanding of them. And so unfortunately, that is the limit of most people’s understanding of why they do anything. That’s also what “everybody” says they must do also — even if they don’t get the desired results — or find it impossible to do. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen instruction videos informing people that if they do what is impossible for them to do presently, they will be in wonderful shape and condition eventually. The trick then, is getting from here to there. But as many admit, you can’t get there from here. So of course, that is not helpful.

Realizing this important any time in life — but more so as one becomes increasingly aged and debilitated, but often is what it takes to try another way that might work — out of sheer desperation, if nothing else. Often, that is what it takes for people to make meaningful and impactful changes in their lives. Otherwise, they just go on doing what isn’t working — because they have the time, energy and money to spare. But then when they don’t have such reserves, they have to make the most of what they actually have — even getting down to the absolute basics.

The value of all movement is that it increases the blood flow to the muscle actually moved — in addition to the action of the heart muscle to provide for a constant and reliable flow — or outward pressure from the center. The problem is the lack of pressure and flow back towards the center — that is effected by the rhythmic contractions at the extremities. In the absence of exercise equipment designed for that purpose, the articulation of movement at the wrists, ankles, and neck — determines the muscular state. That is achieved not by resistance — but by range of movement — and so by articulating the fullest range of movement at the furthest extremities determines the circuit (extent) of effectiveness.

If all one does is increase the work of the heart, then the rest of the skeletal muscles are not engaged in increasing the flow but actually is the resistance to the flow (circulation). That is the troubling design of most equipment designed to increase the work of the heart — while moving very little else in the body — and particularly, at the hands, feet and head. Those remain immobile — and thus, largely unaffected. That remains the problem — throughout life — because that is where the fluids accumulate and are not flushed out by the vigorous action of deliberate muscle contractions at those axes of movement (rotation).

The heart does its job by filling in any space that is vacated by the contractions (compression) from the extremities but cannot overcome the fluid remaining because of the lack of those contractions — which is the problem of modern life that requires no such contractions to sustain life at its most primitive and basic level. That was the kind of movements required to sustain life. One had to be successful at throwing the spear to stay alive — and to eat. It was not enough just to get their heart rate up. That would have happened just by being in a precarious situation of life or death. Fortunately, we live in times and conditions that don’t require that everyday struggle for survival — but instead, live in an abundance of food and leisure — requiring very little exertion and effort from us — unless we deliberately program it into our lives as the person we wish to be.

That is the significance of bodybuilding — that most people have no idea they have the power to do — as the most important thing to do. Unlike “competitive” bodybuilding, it can be extremely personal and unique to each individual’s aspiration of themselves and their own unique ideal of what beauty, aesthetics and usefulness is. But it has to have some basis in reality and functionality — that is distinctly meaningful and useful. That bottom line for most, is taking care of oneself — so that everybody else doesn’t have to do that for them. Such societies are less than zero-sum games — and will impoverish all — as each requires more care and resources than each individual can produce to sustain for the continuance of that society, and beyond that, abundance, prosperity and happiness.

Otherwise, they reach an old age and wonder, “How did I get into such a hopeless condition?” — and think there is no other way than the one that has failed for ages with no alternatives in sight — because they fail to address the critical failures of the aged — at the head, hands and feet. There are a lot of people whose hearts continue to beat — but show no movement at the head, hands and feet — that are indicative of a vital and vibrant human being. That is what we call responsiveness — or if you like — fitness that lasts as long as one lives. It is a matter of the right priorities and order of importance.

When More Isn't Working

 The problem with Negative Accentuated or the slow-lowering of the weight is that it's not natural movement -- and most people experience it that way, and so discontinue that method of training. Undoubtedly what it does do is make the body prematurely fail -- but that failure is not caused by pure muscle failure -- but by cardiovascular failure -- and that is seen in all the videos claiming to be high-intensity training -- by everyone, including Arthur Jones. That was also the problem with Isometric training -- causing the vasalva effect -- as well as when lifters pass out from heavy deadlifts or squats.

That is the natural and predictable result of not breathing when one artificially resists the natural work of gravity -- in lowering the weight. That's why the human body will sense that it is the wrong thing to do -- because the intelligent thing to do, is allow gravity to perform that work whenever possible -- while positioning oneself in each rep -- by getting into the relaxed position as much as possible -- preparatory to the next positive movement. The relaxation is just as critical as the contraction -- but if one is contracting as hard or even harder in the relaxation phase of a movement -- then there is no alternating relaxation/contraction cycle -- that not only performs work, but enables the optimal respiration and circulation (flow) that enables functioning and development.

Most of the bodybuilders who got into it around the '50-'60s were told by Bob Hoffman of Strength and Health, and Perry Rader of Iron Man, to begin their workouts with light squats alternated by light pullovers -- and most made unexpectedly fantastic gains doing so. What they did right was time their movement to the natural rhythm of their breath -- exhaling to lift the weight, and inhaling as they lowered the weight. But if one resists the lowering of the weight, one invariably has to stop breathing (inhaling) -- which is the natural result of relaxation and the expansion of the chest cavity.

The distinguishing feature of "high-intensity training" is the elimination of rest between one set of each exercise -- and the easiest way to achieve that is to do one set of 50 repetitions with a weight allowing one to do so -- with no rest between exercises. In this manner, one can achieve muscle failure without the cardiovascular failure -- as each muscle pre-exhausts the next, and achieves complete exhaustion in about an hour. That usually requires one week to fully recover -- accounting for the infrequency requirement. The trick then is recovering from extreme muscular soreness -- which can best be alleviated by doing those movements with no weight at all -- but rotating (contracting) at the head, hands and feet which are the insertions at the most distal parts of the body to effect a flow to remove the inflammation, while producing the void to allow new nutrients into those tissues.

This is particularly helpful for older bodybuilders who no longer experience growth and may even be experiencing decline (sarcopenia) despite their efforts. They have to upgrade their understanding of the process -- because more of what isn't working, is not the answer.