Understanding Conditioning 2024

  Understanding Conditioning 2024

The most important exercise, is to understand what one is doing — and why they are doing it. The way exercise is usually taught, is just to do this and do that, and if you don’t like it, then you have to do more of it. So this conditioning is coercion rather than understanding — which is like getting a new toy, and rather than first reading the instructions for proper assembly and operation, one forces the parts together and destroys it in quick order — no matter how much force is applied.

The proper understanding of the human body is to note that the features that distinguish a human specimen from all the others — is the large brain, tool-manipulating grip, and feet that enables an upright posture. All human movements emphasize those functioning and expressions — whether they realize it or not. Some forms, have made it a deliberate study and discipline — which is the forerunner of health and healing (medicine).

Contemporary health issues often manifest at the extremities — where the circulation is poorest — as the most distant from the heart. However, the problem is not that the heart is not strong enough to push the fluids out to the extremities, as it is the muscles at the extremities do not help the heart in the circulatory process (function) by contracting in exercise to pump the blood out of the tissues that makes it easier for the always working heart to pump blood into that vacuum — which is the principle of fluid dynamics, or how fluid moves.  That's also how CPR works: you have to push the air out of the body, to allow atmospheric pressure (fresh air) to enter into that vacuum -- and simply blowing more air into an already filled lung, is not going to do much good.

The heart is only a one pound muscular organ — while the rest of the musculature is 40–50% of the total bodyweight in most people. So the purpose of any exercise should not be to work the heart harder and faster, but to make the rest of the musculature aid in more powerfully optimizing the circulation — particularly in inactive and poorly conditioned bodies in which the skeletal muscles are doing nothing especially useful or productive. In that case, an intelligent and insightful person would ask, what can I do to best enhance my health for all other purposes — and that would simply and obviously be, optimizing the circulation that rids the body of toxic waste products (inflammation) and in doing so, create space for new nutrients to enter and keep the body at its highest health.

Understanding that, one would further realize that the greatest priority for doing so, should be at the greatest assets at the head, hands, and feet — and that doing so, implies the circulation through the rest of the body to get there. But that is not the case, if the focus and objective is merely to make the heart work harder and faster, or to focus on the core muscles closest to the heart. That does not recognize that the weakness of the circulation is at the extremities that in time, becomes the dementia and atrophy of the neck muscles, the weakened grip, the unsteady gait and balance which are the characteristic markers of individuals in declining health.

Any and all amounts of making the heart work harder and faster, or developing the abdominals and glutes do not address those problems — directly and powerfully — and in all probability, diverts those resources from where they would do the most good. Unfortunately, that is the popular paradigm of exercise that naturally fails for most people — no matter how much time, energy and effort they put into it — because it is flawed not to do what is most urgent to do as the priority.

Those are the exercises generally not done — if favor of everything else, that makes much less sense to — and will predictably be abandoned when one could benefit from the proper understanding and exercise most urgently — and beyond that, assure their lifelong highest functioning as long as they live. But that understanding is usually jettisoned in favor of some product or service that is more commercially lucrative as the ticket to health.

For this reason, the ancients were closer to the truth than most modern advice and practices for lifelong health and functioning throughout — in their fragmentation and specialization of exercise equipment and practices that head in this wrong direction. What the ancient observers understood, was that the essential pathways and connections to the center of the body, was the health and functioning at the head, hands and feet — which evolved into reflexology, acupuncture, wing chun, dance, rhythm gymnastics, etc.

Those are the fine motor skills of life — rather than the gross. When individuals maintain those fine motor skills throughout life, they remain productive and capable throughout their lives — while those who only cultivate the gross motor skills, lose those fine motor abilities — and become less able to live independent and productive lives. That is the end-game — and not just the “15 minutes of fame” followed by a prolonged lifelong decline — as the familiar pattern of premature and largely unnecessary aging.

So when one observes that the neck muscles are atrophying, those are the muscles that must be engaged and activated specifically and directly — and not simply making the heart work harder and faster. That is also true for the deteriorating grip strength. One must activate and exercise those muscles specifically and directly — and not do more treadmilling or swimming — or anything else. The same is true for foot and balance problems. One must articulate the foot muscles — and not simply do more bench presses, deadlifts, squats or anything else — thinking to achieve the desired results.

The head, the hands, and the feet, are not simply stumps — used to punch, kick and head butt — but are the primary tools of human expression, functioning, and productivity — whether that be art, dance, writing, music, athletics, etc., but modern life has reduced much of those activities to simply watching television or a computer screen requiring very little movement — particularly of the head. Not surprisingly, the neck muscles atrophy — a sign that the circulation is very poor to those areas beyond that. The brain requires all the resources it can get — to take care of the rest of the body — autonomously (automatically) — just as the heart functions autonomously. That is not where the conscious effort should be applied to.

The conscious (voluntary) effort should be specifically and directly directed to where those movements and actions are not automatic and modern life has made unnecessary. That is where one makes the greatest difference in optimizing the circulation and ensures their greatest quality of life and functioning. Everything else is a diversion and distraction from that greatest purpose.

The Giant Swing

 The Giant Swing

In the mid-80s, I ran across a very thin volume in which a doctor from the early 20th century, advised doing the Giant Swing — as a remedy for virtually every major human ill — and so it was hard to take him seriously — in an age of increasing specialization and fragmentation.

Each of the 20 chapters or so, described a health condition in two pages, for which the remedy was the exact same movement — which he called, The Giant Swing. It was kind of maddening to see the same simple exercise prescribed for all the major illnesses of the times — but I was used to hearing eccentric ideas regarding training — often from the inventors themselves, and kept an open mind as to how their insights concurred with actual observations and experiences.

As a still fairly young person, these answers seemed too easy and obvious — or “too good to be true,” that it is easy to assume that they must not be true — because we are conditioned to not believing our own senses but to rely on the “unquestionable authorities” who claim to do all the thinking for everyone henceforth — just because they thought of it first. But real science is always challenging authority — in a quest for a better understanding, and not merely accepting previous authorities as the end-all of what can be known — especially when it fails to solve our age-old problems.

At that point, we don’t stop looking and give up in despair that there can be a better solution and understanding, but find out ourselves what works and what doesn’t — even if only for ourselves. And then if it does, the secret will get out — even if suppressed, censored, edited out by the gatekeepers of information paid handsomely to maintain the status quo.

But the quest for truth and understanding, is a higher calling that eventually overwhelms the narrow self-aggrandizing interests — to lay the foundation for the next level of evolution, which requires the presence of a critical mass of population of first sufficient longevity, and secondly, the healthspan beyond that. Thus, simply a longer life, is not sufficient to define health, but health is now measured beyond mere survival. That sign, would be the ability to maintain their functioning, mobility, and competence to accomplish all the tasks to maintain independence and freedom in life. That is now the new standard for meaningful existence — and not simply the bare vital signs with no willful capacity.

On the other hand, one does not need to be setting world records for their age group — or in open competitions for that matter — to prove they are still viable, and merit living longer. It should be enough to provide for their own independent living — at increasing higher levels of competency. That is already plenty, and accomplished even by a few — including the young and more active. Only a few become wiser with age — while many more become older and simply fall apart increasingly, because they have no way of getting better. The many ways offered by the “experts,” require them to be highly-functioning, to become better, rather than starting from their present state of competency — even if it is barely detectable.

That is the basic level of responsiveness — where any sign of voluntary movement is indicative of the possibility of improvement. Everyone has days like that, and so what is of primary importance, is being able to raise oneself from the dead — as required, this one more time. Or if one doesn’t feel up to doing anything, anymore. The giant swing is a good way to get started — because the movement of the head relative to the torso, produces the alternation of the muscle contraction and relaxation at the neck, to enhance that flow to the most important organ of the human body. But without that specific flow, it doesn’t matter how fast and how hard the heart is working — because that is not the lack — but is the last thing one needs to worry about. But in most conventional exercise with their muddled and even backwards understanding of the value of exercise, they place the autonomic above the voluntary muscular action — which is certainly wrong thinking and wrong understanding of the human body.

There is a reason it is an autonomic (automatic) function and not that one has to reinvent millions of years of evolution because Nature got it wrong in providing so — in every living animal. But the voluntary muscular actions, is what every individual can do to enhance their present functioning, capabilities and development. That is simply inescapable common sense and self-evident truth — that any right-thinking individual can discover for themselves. But unfortunately, that is not how many learn anymore — thinking that the primary way of learning, is to ask somebody else for the truth of the matter. And if all the “experts” are aligned on one consensus, it doesn’t matter that it doesn’t work for anyone — and never will. They are in agreement on what the truth is — despite it being nonproductive and even ruinous for everyone — but they are the experts who will continue to be in charge as these problems get worse — without end.

But if one can simply perform the giant swing that ensures the enhancement of the blood flow primarily to the brain, and secondarily to the muscles (organs) of the torso, one can feel fairly confident that one is engaging enough of the total musculature beyond simply working the heart harder and faster — to do some real good. However, one still has to do that, and not merely think that that makes perfectly good sense — and knowing that alone without exercising that knowledge, is sufficient to obtain desirable results.

The giant swing is more commonly known as the torso twist while looking straight ahead, or the 360 degree head turn — requiring the engagement and activation of all the muscles of the body to achieve.

Once a Week Higher-Intensity Gym Workouts

 If you work out intensely, then it won’t be possible to work out oftener than once a week. That is the general rule — or observation, because that all-out effort can only be done infrequently — and not every day — even by the best. It is like a professional or even college football player playing a big game every day. There is not enough recovery ability and psychic energy to do so on that frequency. If one did, then one would exhaust their recovery ability and regress —rather than progress — but far more common is becoming injured because the body cannot maintain that level of intensity for long — or frequently.

So that is lesson one in any athlete’s training — to discover that point that is not too little, or too much — and err on the side of too little, because one can always do a little more — but if one is too aggressive, is that they will injure themselves, and set them back for weeks — or forever, which is how many swear off exercise for the rest of their lives. You don’t want to be that guy —- that is the worst case scenario.

That’s why anybody who tells you they are training to failure everyday, on every set, doesn’t know what they are talking about — because even the greatest athletes know to pace themselves and peak at exactly the right moment — and then once that is achieved, many often go off the rails — and do all kinds of things they feel they have deprived themselves of to reach that peak condition in that right moment.

Most people however, just want to be in acceptable shape and condition all their lives — rather than the one moment of glory and then die prematurely — or become crippled for life. That greatly explains why a lot of these bodybuilding competitors die early — rather than being the paragons of health up to 100. And that really is the objective for most people — and not whether they can obtain maximal gains at any cost, no matter how briefly. With that in mind, one wants to know what is the sustainable pace of improvement throughout one’s life — rather than the one and done — and then we move on to the next impressive prodigy with short shelf life. We really want to be the first person to 100 who doesn’t look 100 — and not the person who is 100 who looks like they should be dead. Or even 60 for that matter.

The problem with a once a week intense workout is not that it is not productive, but that it produces extreme muscular soreness for the following week that seems to worsen even up to the fourth day and sometimes beyond after the workout, and then finally to show signs of recovery up to the day of one’s next weekly intense workout. So the problem is always that one is recovering from this extreme muscle soreness — that pains one to bend at most joints — if one does not do anything else for the whole week. And so the key breakthrough, was recovering from this extreme and debilitating muscle soreness, so that one can live an enjoyable life — rather than just being in recovery perpetually — even if that is what it takes to achieve maximum muscle growth in the fastest time possible.

Because the bigger objective — in all one does — is to achieve the most enjoyable life possible, and not just the one thing — and being healthy and highly functioning is more important than any single competition — at whatever cost. The wise strategy is finding out how much less one can do to achieve that same effect — rather than how much more one can do — which often results in less of that effect — or diminishing returns for more cost and effort. The medical expression is the smallest effective dose — and not the popular belief that if a little is good, than more must be better — infinitely.

So if one goes to the gym once a week and works out at any intensity, that is already good enough to keep them in the game — all their lives. You just don’t want to go to zero — by overdoing it and getting injured or burned out so that one swears off doing anything anymore for the rest of their life. That is the critical failure. But if one is going to the gym once a week and working out as hard as they want to, that puts them way ahead of most people — including a lot of people who do more — and then stop, because their regimen becomes too difficult to continue.

Lots of people recount how active and even prolific they used to be 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago — but haven’t done anything since — so what matters is what they still do now, and can do better. But a hundred times zero, is still zero. That is also true for 1,000% followed by zero. So the proper intensity, is what one can do — and continues to do — regularly. That is “regular” exercise. Then when one is exercising regularly, the next question to ask, is what is most beneficial to do?

For most people, that would be becoming good or better at what they already do — and not as the exercise experts would have them do — become good or better at what they never do otherwise. Yet that seems to be largely what the exercise experts teach — movements one would not even think to do — while ignoring the difficulties/or pain they are having at what they actually do.

Another word for intensity is “focus” — which means to concentrate one’s energy and efforts to the proper axis of attention — and not have it dissipated and scattered everywhere so one loses that central importance of what is being studied — and its causes and effects. Then one can measure its significance as cause and effect — rather than just being coincidental and correlated to anything — which may or may not be important. Correlation is the beginning and not the ending of one’s studies. Poor scientists and researchers seek to confirm their beliefs by eliminating all the information contrary to it — rather than proving a direct causal relationship in a random population sample.

The importance of that is that a principle will work on anybody and everybody — and not just on a highly motivated self-selected few — who may have very little in common with the average population. It may be that it only works for a special population sample — rather than being a universal truth. But one recognizes the truth that everybody is not indefatiguable — and must rest and recover to some degree greater than others. It is during those times that the body has the chance to get rid of the damage and build itself better — for the next time. But if the next time never comes, that response is extinguished — because the body has more important things to do than maintain a reserve that is never tapped.

As one gets older, they realize that resources are not unlimited but have to be diligently maintained in the best balance — with priority to whatever is most important to do. That with unquesttionably be to maintain the functioning and health of the extremities of the head, hands, and feet, where it is usually noted, that the circulation and development is the most compromised — as the telltale signs of aging. Perfect — because those alternating contractions and relaxations of the musculature of those organs, optimize the circulatory effect of the body — if one were designing the human body as a machine for optimal performance and functioning. Those movements can be performed anytime, anywhere, as needed — to enhance the recovery from the once a week intense workouts at the gym.

Beyond Resistance Training

 The calves, forearms and neck muscles are similar in that they are the muscles at the extremities of the body — that respond most to range of motion — rather than resistance. Added resistance merely decreases the range of motion. Regardless of the condition anybody is in, as soon as they turn their heads all the way to the left or right, the sternomastoid muscle of the neck contracts into prominence — whether one is obese or a body builder, but the people most likely to have a pleasing neck development, are the dancers — who cultivate that development — along with the movements of the hands and feet. It is typical for them to point their feet to be in line with their lower leg — while the typical range of movement for most people, is to barely move their feet from a right angle to the lower leg. It is that range of motion that accounts for the fuller development of the lower leg muscles — and adding more weight, further restricts foot movement.

That is the major argument against the thinking that simply adding more resistance to a movement, will produce a prodigious development — when in fact, for most people, just bodyweight alone is already too much weight for them to be able to raise fully on their toes. They may perform their calf raise on an elevation — and then only go up to slightly above a right angle to their lower leg — and then back down to the stretched position. And so their calf muscle doesn’t develop no matter how much weight they use, or how many reps they do — because they don’t do the most productive part of any exercise — which is the full contraction.

The magic of the full contraction is that it physically forces the blood and other fluids to be compressed out of those tissues — and upon relaxation, the heart can easily pump blow into those areas because the compression has created a vacuum that draws fresh nutrients in. A semi-contracted or semi-relaxed muscular state, which is how most people perform their weight-training exercises, does not produce that impactful flow caused by the difference in the greatest contraction alternated by the greatest relaxation — just as the heart works as a pump.

The ideal design for improving circulation, would be to have pumps at the furthest extremities of the body to pump the fluids back towards the heart — but the muscles of the body can voluntarily do that in many productive activities. Unfortunately, the modern paradigm eliminates that essential involvement and places it on the heart rate and core development — while ignoring the development of the essential movements and development of the neck, forearms and lower legs — which is totally backwards and why modern bodybuilders have grossly disproportional developments — that even Arnold finds disturbing.

That disproportionate development does not happen if one exercises from the extremities on in — because that is the natural evolutionary design. That is, the larger muscles develop to support the fine motor movements at the head, hands and feet — and not the larger muscles with no expression at the head, hands and feet — as many conditioning activities do. What is particularly noticeable in older physique competitors, is the glaring absence of lower leg, lower arm, and neck development — despite the overdevelopment of biceps and abdominals.

That is contrasted with the still formidable leg, arm and neck development seen in older ballet performers and teachers. If one does nothing else but develop the lower leg, lower arms, and neck, then the eye extrapolates that the rest of the musculature must be awesome — because it is so traditionally underdeveloped as a yardstick for that assessment. But more accurately, the impressive development of the extremities, implies the greater health of the supporting structures — but not vice-versa. That is, one can have a well developed core muscles — while still having a pencil neck, and pipestem forearms and calves — which is a common sight in many gyms. Aside from the aestethics, the common failure of most aging people, is the deterioration visible at the neck (face), hands and feet as the telltale signs of aging.

So the question one asks, is what allows for the greatest range of movement at the joint one wishes to develop? That would be to assume the Achilles tendon stretch against a wall or chair, and then raising the heel to achieve the greatest contraction (articulation) of that forward push off — rather than rising straight up with a weight on their shoulders because the spine is bearing most of the impact. That is true for most of the exercises one thinks they are doing for the development of the larger muscles of the body. The primary victim is the spine and its compression — often leading to back pain for the rest of their lives.

While the ballet dancers are impressive that they can stand on their toes, for the rest of us, if we can get into that position bearing no weight, or as little weight that allows that full range contraction, we can achieve the same effect. Arthur Jones noted that the strength curve between the fully relaxed position of a muscle to the fully contracted position varied greatly, but dismissed the observation that at the most extreme positions, further attempts to increase that range, produced its own unlimited resistance. If one thinks to increase that range of movement (flexibility), it is usually only in the relaxed position — and not the contracted position, where most simply rest in a bone-on-bone lockout — whether that is a squat, deadlift, bench press or standing press. To go into a hypercontracted position would cause the bar to come crashing down because it is so intense as to be unsustainable. But that is what we want to do with a lighter weight, and in many cases, no additional weight at all — which is what a supercontracted calf raise beginning from an Achilles tendon stretch would be.

That is very different than doing the calf raise off of blocks — starting with a maximum resistance. Then at best, one would only raise one’s feet to level before dropping back down into the lowered position. One has to find a way that they can get into the fully contracted, and even hypercontracted position — even without weights — because it is the range of movement that is paramount, and not the weight lifted for no meaningful change of muscular state that will induce the nutrients for growth. It is not the weight lifted, but the changes in the muscular state from full contraction to full relaxation that produces that flow that maintains and grows the body.

It’s not the lack of effort or resistance, but the lack of the proper understanding of what one is doing — and hoping to accomplish. Then when it makes perfectly good sense, one can’t help but do the right things — because it wouldn’t make sense to do otherwise.

Exercising Made Easy

 Proper and effective exercise can be achieved with just the understanding of the human body — and how it evolved to work and maintain itself — and failing to do so accounts for a lot of the difficulties we experience as insurmountable problems in our lives. What is the human body designed to do? It is to move at the head, hands and feet — which is precisely what most popular contemporary exercises ignore entirely — in favor of what they believe are the “core” muscles and development — which have no function and meaning except for an ultimate expression at the head, hands and feet.

The muscular design is for the insertion (distal) of each muscle to contract towards the origin (proximal) — and not that one can produce a contraction starting at the core, or origin out towards the extr emity. This is a very important concept to understand — and when it is properly understood — makes any exercise or activity meaningful and productive, rather than just thinking that the object of every activity is to burn as many calories as possible. Or, not much better, to work the heart as hard as possible — as though it wasn’t already the hardest working muscle (organ) of the body. That is not the problem — but that in most contemporary people, the rest of the muscles in the body — are doing nothing most of the time.

So one asks, “What is the most productive thing those muscles could do?” Is it walking, running, jumping, lifting, martial arts, golf, treadmill, etc? If one is thinking clearly, it would be to help the heart in optimizing the circulation process — particularly at the known weaknesses of the furthest extremities known for its poorest circulation, which then causes all kinds of havoc — including the amputation in people of the feet most commonly, and the lack of circulation to the brain and head, which makes every other functioning meaningless and irrelevant.

If one can improve one’s circulation and functioning to any part of the body, what would be one’s priority? The abs, the pecs, the delts, the biceps, the lats, etc. Any intelligent person would say the brain — and not that the brain can take care of itself — but I need the largest bicep in the world, and that is my key to success in life. But if one gives precedence to the brain, the brain decides if it needs a bigger bicep, but a bigger bicep will not think to develop a bigger brain. One recognizes that the critical path of all development, has to be the brain first — and every other consideration second. But then, in a more reflective and thoughtful moment, one would realize the importance of the fine motor development and control of the hand second, and then the feet as critical to maintaining the upright human posture and propulsion as the feet levers against the ground.

We largely take those extremities (organs) for granted — and that is our problem — and not the lack of bigger quads, glutes, biceps, etc. That is not what is going to fail first — but if one activates the furthest most contraction, it triggers off all the supporting muscles closer to the center — where all the muscles have to be anchored next to the heart. Otherwise, all the muscles are disconnected and isolated — and so it is possible to develop disproportionately rather than proportionately as an fully integrated movement from the extremities makes necessary. Then there is no missing link or weakness that predisposes one to injury — or undue wear and tear.

Those joints made to move are moved, and those structures made to provide support and stability for the expressions (articulations) at the head, hands and feet, are not moved excessively and unnecessarily to require routine replacements as part of normal aging. That should be an indication that one is using the body improperly and abusively — and a matter of time before one is injured or impaired. That would be counterproductive to what we hope to be achieving with proper exercise — improvement and enhancement without the excessive and unnecessary risk of injury and even premature death — in the thinking that what doesn’t kill them will make them stronger. You don’t want to be that guy.

A very common sight in gyms — as well as the general population — is to see the modern physique of undeveloped and atrophied neck, forearms and calf muscles — while the development of those areas are sufficient proof that the rest is well-developed enough to support the formidable development at the extremities. But obviously, vice-versa is not true — and is more than just a matter of taste and aesthetics. That is a better measure of functionality (fitness) than how hard and fast the heart is working. That is evidenced by hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills — and not just the gross at the core of the body. That is what people tend to lose as they age — or deteriorate at any age. Yet somehow, they are overlooked — in the zeal to sell exercise equipment, machines and programs.

So we have the problems of arthritis at the hands, feet, and neck — because we never move those parts — even as much as we walk, run, bike, treadmill, and lift weights. Inevitably those parts will be involved — but the full range of that muscle from its ultimate contraction to fullest relaxation is not the intent as it should be — that enhances the blood flow through that area by the action of the voluntary muscular contraction rather than the mistaken notion that the heart can do it alone — unaided by the rest of the much more massive musculature. That is what the muscles can do most productively — and that is the healthiest thing it can do. That is why the body evolved as it did — to make all these things possible, and with the best understanding of it, optimize its functioning.

Is One Set Enough?

 Many people think that “progressive weight training” is simply using more weight — rather than considering all the variables. Number one is considering range of motion. The early bodybuilders were very adamant that one had to begin their movement from the greatest stretch possible — and then move into the fullest contraction possible, and alternate that change of muscular state as “one repetition.” But when one thinks that all that matters is how much weight one loads the bar/machine up to and then proceeds to move only a few inches by adjusting the leverage rather than by muscle change — and not going anywhere close to the fullest relaxation and fullest contraction — that manner of performance explains why they don’t achieve favorable benefits from all their “exercise.” They can exercise in that manner until the cows come home, and won’t obtain the benefits of properly executed exercise. Ultimately, that is what they are hoping to exercise and become proficient at — changing muscular states.

Then once that is established as what one is trying to achieve — then the number of repetitions becomes the second consideration of importance. Most people will achieve muscle failure at 50 repetitions — without prolonged resting — performed in this full range manner, whatever weight they are using. So if they are smart, they will select the lightest weight that makes 50 repetitions possible. Once they have obtained momentary muscle failure — nothing more is necessary — or possible. But rather than resting as long as possible to make further effort possible, the more productive strategy is to move onto the next exercise on one’s agenda, and then the next, until one has completed their entire workout with as little rest as possible — and one is completely exhausted. That manner of exercising would make it “aerobic” or “cardio” because an effort sustained for so long, has to be done with attention to breathing — while six repetitions can be done without proper attention to breathing, which makes it ‘anaerobic.” Thus, one has to rest overly long to recover from that deficit.

In fact, properly performed movement actually rides the breathing contraction and will then act as a pre-exhaustion for the subsequent exercise because there is no cardiovascular failure prohibiting further efforts. But unlike using too heavy weights, a light weight becomes heavy — until finally, one cannot even lift their arms without any weight or resistance. That is true muscle failure. That is the state one hopes to obtain in working out — that signals to the body that it must become stronger and more enduring. If it spends 90+% of its time resting, then there is no imperative to become stronger and more able. One simply quits whenever it is convenient to and adapts to the resting state — and so those “results” are not immediately apparent, as it is for those who have learned to make that transformation instantaneously. That is what the physique competitors become good at — making that impressive transformation.

Many are impressive coming in off the streets, but what distinguishes the champion bodybuilders from all the others, is this ability to transform to even greater levels than their fellow competitors can — which was the scientific flaw of Arthur Jones and his Nautilus principles. Rather than selecting a random population sample to “prove” his ideas, he found the two people who were the greatest genetic freaks in making those transformations — and nobody else came close. What makes something “scientific” is that it can be proven on random population samples — and not self-selected individuals with that predisposition for exhibiting those qualities one hopes to exhibit.

That is to say that what works for Casey Viator or Sergio Oliva, is not necessarily going to work for anybody else — but what works for a broad population of 70 year olds, probably has merit. By then, that population sample has already entered into those years in which muscle atrophy is the distinguishing characteristic of that population — and anything that defies and defeats it, is extraordinarily significant. By that measure, traditional and conventional exercise does not work — or it would have been demonstrated conclusively a long time ago. Just simply more of that is not going to work — no matter how strident the belief.

But that doesn’t mean that nothing can work — only that what we thought might work, hasn’t worked before — and so maybe we need to rethink it entirely to match the realities, rather than persisting in the belief that if we wish it hard enough, it will become reality. That is the paradigm of contemporary exercise — and why it doesn’t work, or only works among the young — and then fails utterly as people age, and need it most to work. It doesn’t make sense and is only our desire to impose our will over that reality.

Of course most people would like to believe that they can get into better shape by not doing anything — or just doing whatever they want to do — regardless of the consequences or the results. But life doesn’t work that way. Or merely doing the opposite of whatever life is telling us. That creates a lot of extra work and jobs, and for many, busyness itself is its own virtue and reward. Thus, many still think that proper exercise is simply a matter of burning the most calories — rather than actually getting “results,” and especially, with as little expenditure of time, energy and other resources. The object of a car is not simply to burn as energy as possible but to actually get somewhere — preferably as economically and efficiently as possible.

But one has to measure the output (results) and not simply the inputs (efforts and good intentions) — that can be unlimited with no commensurate results. So when we ask is one set sufficient to optimize gains, the better question is in what manner of training, is nothing more possible? That would obviously be doing 50 repetitions of one exercise immediately followed by the next exercise for 50 repetitions, etc until the body is fully exhausted. There is no place for multiple sets — which means resting for more than one is actually exercising. That is the reason most people fail to make gains — they’re resting most of the time — claiming they are doing “multiple sets” — to failure even. They don’t have the slightest idea what that is.

If they do only one set to failure (or 50 repetitions), that will produce the extreme muscle soreness that will take about a week to recover from — if they do nothing else. But the quickest way to recover from that extreme muscle soreness is just to exercise alternating the contraction and relaxation of those muscles because that action is the circulatory effect that removes the inflammation and promotes healing. Such daily exercises until the next gym workout is for the recovery and consolidation of those gains.

That’s how one set of each exercise is more than enough, and one gym workout a week, is more than enough — to sustain gains at any age, because what one is doing then, is working on their recovery ability — and that is the problem of aging and disease. Then, even the exceptional, run out of recovery ability — and go into irreversible decline. But that is not necessarily inherent in aging. Some activities are more productive than others — and that is what the true scientists are trying to isolate — and not just doing anything, and wondering why it doesn’t work.

Any Time, Any Where

 Sitting or lying does not preclude being able to exercise. It can be done anywhere, at any time, under any conditions. ‘The prerequisite for beneficial exercise, is knowing what exercise is — and does, and not simply following the directives of some authoritarian figure presuming to know what is best for everybody — having never thought it through for themselves, but only being “conditioned” to do what they are commanded to. That’s what passes for exercise and physical education in unenlightened societies and cultures — and why there is great resistance to doing what doesn’t make perfectly good sense. But that is irrelevant because the “conditioning” to just do — without question or understanding, is the whole purpose and intent of such conditioning.

The rationale and justification for exercise is that it enhances the circulatory effect — beginning with the proper understanding of breathing — because it is oxygen and other nutrients that one is attempting to circulate, while effectively removing the accumulation of waste products of the body due to extraordinary exertion — as well as normal metabolic processes that are going on all the time as the minimum requirements for sustaining life at the most basic level. With that understanding of the “basics,” then one can concoct a strategy for maximizing those benefits while eliminating the invariable and inevitable negatives — which occurs in everything one does in life.

Thus, one assesses first, what is the reward to risk of what I’m proposing to do — rather than adopting the reckless abandon of thinking that “whatever doesn’t kill me, will make me stronger.” Life doesn’t work that way — so even the lion does not take on the bull elephant, or the shark the orca — which will surely kill them — no matter how many times they try. Instead, they know better to harvest the low-hanging fruit first before attempting to get at the most difficult — and precarious, thereby risking life and limb. Those are the inviolable rules of survival, and learning those lessons well, enables one to live a good and long life.

Sitting in itself is not a bad position to be in — and is usually preferred to standing all day, or even lying all day. If sitting precluded healthy exercise, then bicycle riding wouldn’t qualify as healthy exercise — nor would most of the equipment in the gym consist of flat and adjustable benches. Nor would the weightlifter or football player sit down at every chance they have. The problem with standing all day is the steady state muscle tension/relaxation that doesn’t vary which produces the pumping (circulatory) effect that rids the tissues of waste products and creates space for new nutrients. One has to precede the other — and the new cannot simply force out the old occupying that space.

That’s what muscle contraction does — squeeze out the old fluids — so upon that muscle relaxation, there is space to accept the new. That’s how breathing also works: the old has to be contracted (compressed) out first, and upon relaxation, the atmospheric pressure will fill the lungs with fresh air — and not simply that one can suck in air harder despite the lungs not being emptied first. “Lungs” very specifically means branching tissue — requiring air and fluids to take a very specific fixed path. It is not just a balloon where every random air molecule, can go wherever it wants to. The circulatory (blood) system also has that same construction — requiring the old first to be pushed out, and upon relaxation, new nutrients are drawn into that space (vacuum.)

Then when one has that proper understanding on that very fundamental and basic level, one can easily design the functioning that optimizes that. The contraction beginning at the furthest extremity (joint) will cause all that fluid to be evacuated towards the center of the body — but if there is no movement at those extremities — there is only a contraction from that joint actually moving — which may be minimally at the shoulder and hip girdles, while placing greater demands on the heart alone — and so that kind of exercise has been deemed “cardio,” because there is no commensurate effort otherwise. That is an artificial construct devised by people who sell “cardio” equipment, rather than the requirements of movement in the natural world, which would more accurately measure output rather than input.

That is to say, that it doesn’t matter how hard the heart can be forced to work, if it results in no measurable difference in output or outcomes. The far more meaningful measure, is the movement at the hands, feet and head — just like placing the thermostats at the farthest reaches of the house — and not in the furnace itself. It doesn’t matter how hard the heart is working — if it never gets that flow to the hands, feet and head — the critical faculties of the body. That’s where most of the senses are located.

It is a well-known phenomenon of contemporary life that those senses and faculties fail in people long before the heart does — because of this lack of effective circulation — resulting in weakened hand and foot strength, cognitive functioning indicated by the deterioration of the neck musculature and appearance, coinciding with decreasing head movement. Those are the joints and parts of the body that actually need to be moved — and is irrelevant whether one is standing, sitting, or lying — or for that matter, is in outer space.

The movement at the neck, wrists and ankles can all be effected sitting, lying, or standing — inconspicuously and largely unnoticed unlike most traditional exercises which aim to be as conspicuous and attention-seeking as possible. That is the way most people have been conditioned to think exercise “has to be” — appealing for the validation of others, and if nobody is going to pay them any mind, they’re just not going to do it. They don’t quite get it that exercise is good they are doing for themselves, and not for the good of everybody else — if that even makes sense. Thus, they won’t care, if everybody else doesn’t — first. And if nobody cares, they’ll quit at their first opportunity — or just won’t do it at all.

So the understanding has to precede the doing — and once one is clear about what they are doing, then it is a simple matter to devise the movements Nature quite intended for humans to do. Move the head left and right, up and down. Move the closed hand towards the palmward direction, and the knuckleward direction. Move the heels up and down, and feet side to side for 50 reps as an impromptu exercise whenever one has the opportunity to — and those motions, will increase the circulation to the extremities of the body — where the body begins to break down because of that deficiency of effective circulation.

Then once a week, have a gym workout — and maintain that schedule for the rest of their lives — for a higher intensity capability — using those same principles and priorities.