Squat to Pushup (Everything, All at Once)

There is an inclination among those who should know better, to make things more difficult than they have to be -- rather than as simple and easy as possible.  Nowhere is that more true than in most exercise instruction -- to maintain the supremacy and authority of the "teacher."  That is the primary reason exercise has not evolved for hundreds of years, and  most will abandon those practices as soon as they can -- while a few others, will continue with diminishing returns -- and think that is all there is, or can ever be.  That invariably, is that the difficult just gets harder until it becomes impossible -- at which point one is "blamed" for not doing it -- as now the reason for one's difficulties.

There is no good reason for making any movement harder and more prohibitive.  In many former exercisers, that is the reason they no longer exercise, or do now with greatly restricted range of movement.  That should not be the inevitable result of practicing proper movement -- which should be to increase those capabilities.  Yet in most cases of misguided instruction, the ultimate result is to restrict and disable as much capability as possible in the notion that handicapping them in that way is the best way to improve their abilities.

Probably the most insane of such instruction is the advice for a frail, elderly person to practice getting up off the floor without using their hands and knees -- or any other aid for that matter -- when any rational and sane person would use every advantage they can to do so.  That is also what it means to be "fit" -- to use every advantage possible -- rather than tying all one's appendages behind one's back, and proclaiming any survivor the "winner" of that (con)test.  The smart ones will not put themselves in that position in the first place.

What is generally recognized as the most productive and beneficial movements to practice is the squat -- but it is made more difficult than easy and accessible for most -- by using every advantage one can, and is convenient.  That would be to use all appendages -- and extend the range of comfortable movement -- which can be easily done holding the back of any chair for that support and performance.  That removes the stress on the knees in the lowest position, while allowing for the straightening of the leg directly onto the toes -- as the universal leg function -- making that movement easy for most people.

But it naturally gets harder with subsequent repetitions because only in that forward leaning position can the leg muscles achieve full contraction -- rather than simply a bone-on-bone lockout -- which is also true of most exercises people do unproductively.  A bone-on-bone lockout is never a full contraction -- that most people think it is, but is actually the muscle resting in equilibrium.  To force it out of that resting state, one has to lean forward out of balance and then have the arms contract along with the lower legs to complete a full body squat -- which engages most of the musculature of the human body in one thoughtful, well-designed movement.

That is the minimum one can do -- to engage and exercise most of the muscles in the body, and maintain functional (useful) strength.  The problem of the squat is the speed with which one drops into the lowest position, which can be controlled by using the arms to slow that descent, and then on the other end, to move directly onto the toes and arms instead of the unproductive bone-on-bone lockout of standing straight up.  Because of that feature, one can stand in that position indefinitely -- which means it is not working the muscles.  For the muscles to be working, they have to be contracted -- beyond the bone on bone lockout position -- and most people don't ever go there.  They stop well short of the fully contracted position -- and never go further, to the hypercontracted position -- which like the fully relaxed position, can only handle a much lighter weight. 

The hypercontracted position is so intense that one feels imminent failure and loss of control.  It can be demonstrated with any exercise but the most familiar would be the bench press -- in which one can hold a weight aloft in the bone-on-bone lockout -- but if one attempts to press out beyond that, one instinctively fears he will lose control completely -- and thus will never attempt to do so -- unless using the lightest resistance possible.  That is as it should be because the range of movement determines the muscular state -- and not the maximum weight in a bone on bone lockout -- most people mistake for a full muscular contraction.

And so it was thought that the way to solve that problem, was to vary that weight from minimal to maximal -- without realizing that the true resistance curve is actually light to light again -- if the range of motion is extended far enough in both directions.  Instead, one usually stops even before reaching fullest contraction -- and many people don't contract at all.  They just flop their arms and legs around thinking that is all that is needed -- and therefore can persist for longer than 50 repetitions, because there is no fatigue produced by the muscle moving into full contraction 50 times -- which is most people's limit -- even with a light weight.  

The cause of  momentary muscular failure is not the weight used but the intensity of the muscular contraction produced by the range of movement -- particularly in going from the fullest relaxation (elongation) to the fullest contraction.  That action optimizes the blood flow to that specific area producing muscle growth and health. Without that blood flow, the nutrients don't get there, and the toxic waste products don't get out of there, and so the health and growth will be suboptimal -- and show it.

Because it is not the weight used that matters, but whether a full contraction is achieved -- that is the work of the muscle.  Most people do not lift a weight by a muscle contraction around one axis (joint), but lift it by levering their entire bodyweight while immobilizing the movement around any particular joint (axis) -- even if a machine is designed to prevent that.  They will simply operate the machine in a manner that defeats (overrides) the greatest contraction possible -- which is the fullest contraction, most will experience in later life as a cramp they cannot control.  It is precisely this control, that regular exercise seeks to establish -- or that lack of control gets progressively worse (with age).

That neuromuscular degeneration is the need for exercise in one's later years -- more than remaining competitively active.  If they don't do anything, they don't get better -- but surprisingly, many people expect to -- even if that has not happened all their life previously.  Yet that seems to be the expectation in most people -- rather than that they have to deliberately and systematically produce that outcome.  It doesn't just happen -- but rather, the opposite is more likely.  That's what we're all up against.

Like the variable resistance curve, it does not just move from light to heavy -- but beyond to light again -- if the range of movement is extended in virtually every exercise, while what is witnessed in most, is the foreshortening of every movement until it fails to be productive anymore.  It's not that one is simply getting old and unresponsive, but one is not doing what used to get them results anymore -- while thinking that they are.  

There is ample video evidence that that is so, and no further academic studies need to be funded to observe that is so.  It was not the weight that mattered but whether the muscle moved into the state of full contraction -- with or without resistance.  That has been proven by competitive bodybuilders posing -- from contracted pose to contracted pose.  What they don't do is alternately relax -- which is the reason that a lot of these participants cramp up and pass out, by interfering with the circulatory and respiratory functions that can result in damage or even death in disturbing numbers -- when taken to extremes.

But not taken to those extremes, we recognize the Charles Atlas course of "dynamic tension," or Eugen Sandow's "high repetition with minimal weight" programs as all one needed for the fit appearance indicative of underlying health and robustness.  That's all it has to be.  How do I make a movement more doable -- and not less so?  You utilize every advantage you have -- rather than handicapping oneself arbitrarily. That is the proper understanding of millions of years of evolution -- and how things were meant to work.

The Rest is Unnecessary

 The Rest is Unnecessary

For most practical purposes and tasks, it is generally not productive to do anything for a single attempt and then rest for five minutes — with the rare exception of athletic competition and records, which is not how humans normally work and are productive. They are more likely to work one hour, and rest for 5–15 minutes. One would not get very far riding a bicycle for one minute and resting for five — even for lifting weights. If one were to achieve the highest productivity to exhaustion, that would result in a workout of 15 minutes — at best. A sustained effort for as long as possible usually results in “failure” around 15 minutes at the highest level of intensity — and beginning at a minute for most.

Increasing the intensity, results in even a shorter duration of effort — and a longer rest interval, and pretty soon, we observe more resting than actually working out — which was the whole purpose, resulting in the predictable lack of change and results. One actually has to do something (besides resting) in order to achieve favorable results — and no amount of resting will substitute for this lack of effort. Naturally, training in this manner prevents failure and exhaustion — which is the demand for the body to increase its capacity.

If it is hardly tapped, than the message to the body is that no additional reserves are required — and one is fine with even less capabilities. Therein lies the importance of the concepts of “failure” and “exhaustion,” which indicates that a person is doing as much as momentarily possible — as long as possible, and not doing less, or nothing at all, for as long as possible. Even rank beginners will recognize that such workouts (effort) will be nonproductive — and that is what most people want, whether they admit it to themselves or not — to stay the same. When they actually produce change, such people will find it disturbing, and therefore do everything possible to sabotage further productive efforts — including and especially, doing nothing, or as little as possible, while calling it “working out,” or simply, “work.” That unfortunately, is some people’s idea of “work,” and so are greatly disappointed that nothing ever seems to “work out,” and so they fall into hopelessness and despair of making any and all efforts that might be productive in the rest of their lives and activities.

So proper training strategy, is reconditioning such people into more productive ways of doing things — which includes sustaining any efforts for a sufficient duration of time as to actually show results — and not simply one and done, and claiming they have gone to failure and exhaustion. Instead, they have simply quit and given up prematurely because they’ve never been conditioned to persist and persevere long enough at anything to actually make a difference. They just get distracted from one entertainment or channel to the next — and think that is all there is. Certainly no miracles.

The great coaches seem to beat the dead horse to endless repetition — knowing that the exceptional few will get better at it, while those less inclined, will give up and find some other distraction — until hopefully they find a more suitable calling. That is the process of natural-selection — to determine the few who will persist and persevere to become eventual champions. Repetition and practice is what they love to do — and in that process, quantity of effort, is transformed into quality of effort. They can do it in their sleep — or in any condition of fatigue or necessity, and not only when they are well-rested, well-fed, well-hydrated, well-supported, etc. They are ready tore go, ready for prime time. The other guy won’t be ready until next week.

So knowing what one is capable of momentarily — and doing that, is more important than saving it only for one’s singular best — that may come next week, next year, or never. It is the doing that makes the difference — even at half the weight, or in the case of true failure and exhaustion, no weight at all. Yet many people talk about doing each set to failure — as though they understood what that meant. One never reaches failure with liberal rest periods — and stopping short of actual exhaustion each time — no matter how little the weight. Failure is NOT not being able to lift 500 lbs; it is not being able to lift one’s arms — even with no weight at all added.

To get to that state of utter exhaustion, every exercise is a pre-exhaustion for the subsequent one — by allowing no rest to recover completely. Then rather than deloading the resistance for each exercise to achieve failure, one can merely start at a much lighter weight — which is already close to failure. Even then, most people will experience exhaustion and distress in 15 minutes or less — because that is the equivalent of sprinting for 15 minutes, which nobody has ever been able to do yet. So once those parameters have been established, one can back off a bit, and find at what level a person can sustain a workout for approximately an hour and avoid the extreme distress that becomes negative conditioning not to continue in that manner.

Most will not train hard enough, but a few, will actually train too hard, and the art and science of productive bodybuilding — like in most other things — is to find the sweet spot where they can sustain that activity productively all one’s life. The rest is the easiest factor to eliminate.