Sunday, August 25, 2013

Understanding Conditioning

One of the great motivations for people to exercise, has been the belief that exercise keeps one youthful and healthy -- which seems to be true until one reaches a peak at about 30 for most, give or take 10 years.

At some activities, a person will be considered "old" at 20, and on their downhill trajectory -- which is most characteristic of women gymnasts, and so, very few continue beyond their college careers (years).  In a lot of professional sports, that is also true but less obvious as the competition eliminates many by injury by the time they reach 20, so that many don't go on to professional competition because they've peaked at that age, or have suffered a career-ending injury, or an accumulation and culmination of injuries that tells them they have to do something else.

For unfortunately many at that time, it is to do nothing else -- because their condition precludes those possibilities they have previously excelled at, but fortunately, not every -- and nowhere is that more true than in the activity of "bodybuilding," in which one hopes to build up their body sufficiently, for whatever else they want to do, or simply look like they can.  In that way, the bodybuilder is the generalist in the world of (competitive) specialists.  Most bodybuilders are not competitive bodybuilders but a small percentage are -- and even among them, are an anomaly to the general category of that population sample.

In that way, it is not unlike a lot of other sports and activities -- because most people will experience a fight, threat and intimidation, without having the desire to become the world champion professional boxer, wrestler, or martial artist, in order to feel at ease in the world and their daily lives.  It will be sufficient for most, if they can just avoid those confrontations as much as possible, rather than rise to the pinnacle, inviting the challenges of all-comers at every opportunity.

Most involved in any activity, recognize that that is not how the "king of the hill" distinguishes themselves, but is more likely to be the one who feels no need to prove that distinction to everyone else, at every opportunity.  It is enough that they know that they have that capacity -- if they really need it, which reduces greatly, the possibility of needless injury and risk in doing anything life-challenging/threatening -- as the needs inevitably present themselves even in the most diligent and prudent, risk-averse life.  

Bad things happen to even good people.  They happen even more to those who are thoughtless and ill-prepared.  In fact, the best way to assure that bad things don't happen, is to be well-prepared for when/if they do.  The best way to do so, is to build up that reserve and capacity for responsiveness (action) -- without necessarily exhausting it too frequently -- while having the ability to access it, momentarily as needed -- which is the rationale for bodybuilding, or building up one's capacity and ability -- for the ultimate challenge, to one's own health and well-being.

That capacity only has to be maximally tested infrequently -- and not everyday, or constantly, or one begins to experience a rapid depletion and deterioration of health as one under constant stress, until one's capacity (for recuperation and recovery) is overwhelmed, which can be accumulative as well as acute.  That deteriorative process can begin as early as childhood -- for those who do not grow properly and fully, which we hope is what the conditioning process is all about -- and not something only a few discover in "extracurricular" activities.  That is rather, the whole point of any of it -- the "core curriculum," if you will.

That is the original meaning of education, or the academy -- for that purpose -- to develop one completely, and not just partially and fragmentarily, as has been the fashion in increasing specialization in which a partial and partisan understanding, is thought all that is necessary, instead of a whole one -- which is the meaning of comprehension, or "grasping the whole."

Living with a partial understanding of anything, is the most dangerous way to live -- in that one thinks they understand the whole, when they have not even begun to suspect the right questions.  So in everything we do,we are foremost developing a greater capacity to meet our greatest challenge, which is not just mental, physical, psychological, etc., but the total greatest response -- requiring the greatest development of all our faculties, and those responding on that level, are truly awesome -- and hardly ever seen just "treading the mills", and "putting in their time," as though that was all that was necessary, productive or meaningful.

The extraordinary challenges that define one's greatest capacities and responses, come quite unplanned and uninvited -- for those living even ordinary lives.  But their responses to those moments, are what transformed them to the extraordinary -- when most do not rise to the occasion, or recognize the significance -- of simply being and doing their best.  It is such moments, that one's being is one's doing -- and doesn't require one to do other than what one is.  That is the actualization and realization of who one is -- and the ultimate quest of every body/being.

Learning From the Heart  

Of all the things one can learn and practice to be proficient at, it should be obvious that the most critical of these, is what is most essential to defining life itself -- and that is the function of the heart in ensuring at least a minimal circulatory and respiratory effect.  Yet clearly, what matters beyond that in the voluntary muscular actions, is how individuals differentiate and excel in their functioning and continued vitality -- which is unclear and the subject of much debate and discussion, most of which is totally a waste of time, energy and resources, so that simply "more," would not be productive, but actually counterproductive -- and largely what they come to realize at some point in their lives mistakenly as the natural and inevitable "aging" process, rather than rightly recognizing it as the failure of their understanding.  But that is usually not suspected -- but rather assume, that their understanding of the process is "perfect," or perfected, but either their execution of that understanding falls short, or can make no difference after a certain point in life, no matter how valiant the efforts.

So while much is made of the various traditions and conventions of muscular effort in the ancient and primitive ways that have persisted as to what is the best things one can do, we've never thought to use the entirety of the muscular system that exists throughout the body, to directly and greatly optimize the circulatory and respiratory effect as the value in itself -- and not as an adjunct to lifting a weight or moving the body any distance.  The critical work is entirely that which is done within the body -- not simply as a meditation, or thought -- but the requirements of actually effecting the optimal circulatory effect that produces the health of the cells and organs -- without the drain and risk of injury to that which is counterproductive to achieving and maintaining that health, including the added stress, impact and blunt trauma force we have come to associate with so-called "beneficial" activities.

The action of the heart is to do no other work but to fully contract albeit momentarily -- and instantly relax, and spend 99% of its phase, out of the peak contraction, which we can also call peak intensity.  So while the heart always achieves peak intensity, or fullest contraction, it does so only for the briefest instant and then is relaxing out of it or moving into it -- and not sustaining a maximal contraction for any prolonged period -- which then becomes counterproductive, just as it would be disastrous for the heart to seize in that way -- impeding the optimal functioning and flow of the rhythmic heartbeat.  That manner would be undesirable and life-threatening.  The requirements for peak power production from any (every) muscle is characteristically, a peak (full) contraction achieved only for an instant -- and not sustained for any length of time, but which is characteristically how most people exercise to make it harder, and to feel the "burn."

Yet those rapid-fire (rhythmic) contractions and immediate release, are not the result of resistance but simply the understanding of what position a  muscle must be in to produce the shortest length of that muscle (contraction).  That is not dependent on the amount of resistance to achieve, and in fact, the addition of resistance and other impediments, make such movement difficult if not impossible to achieve -- and is always counterproductive to that maximal effect -- without resistance.  The simplest example of such a peak muscle contraction, is to touch one's wrist to the opposite ear -- which may be so foreign to many people's experience, that they think of it as a "cramp," and are then alarmed that they cannot just as easily relax out of it -- because they haven't conditioned themselves to move in and out of contraction, but think in terms of muscular effort being static -- as in poses and postures held for as long as it takes to require extraordinary effort.

That is a startling revelation to most in the exercise instruction business -- who have never given it a lot of thought, if any at all.  They have simply carried on the tradition, whether it really works or not, but now that many more realize the value and difference life-extending and life-enhancing practices can make in their already extended lives and years, there is an understanding beyond the usual "brute force" as the miracle ingredient in achieving this higher understanding and functioning.

So rather than seeing how long one can hold a pose, posture, or muscular contraction -- the value really is in achieving a position for the briefest moment and relaxing otherwise -- as the exercise effect of greatest significance and benefit, which would also be the least stressful manner to conduct such an activity -- and thus likely to be done, and sustained as a healthful life practice -- not requiring extraordinary motivation to maintain.

The Necessity of Beginning at the End 

Those with the familiarity of the physiology of muscle design and function, know that muscular activation, must occur from the insertion or farthest end of the muscle towards the origin of that muscle -- which then merges into the insertion of the supporting muscule, etc., until they all reach the center of the body, close to the heart, and the primary reason for this, is that the contraction of the muscles forces fluid (blood) dynamically and powerfully back towards the heart, and into the heart by the contraction of the heart creating a momentary vacuum (space) in forcing blood out in the other direction.

It is the dependence on the skeletal (voluntary) muscles to perform and optimize this pumping back towards the heart, that is largely the beneficial exercise effect -- in optimizing the circulation throughout the body by also creating the space for which the heart can pump blood into.  That is the huge part of the circulatory effect not understood by those who think the circulatory effect is limited to the heart alone -- because it is the heart working in conjunction with the other muscles of the body to direct (allow) that flow properly and effectively.

That is what even the ancient health strategies tried to do -- but clearly with less understanding and information than we now have of that process.  Yet because of the specialist point of view (training), they believe one thing has no relationship to anything else -- and the muscles at the extremities of the body, have no relationship to the muscle most central to the body (heart) -- when it is an easy thing to see how they are integrally related -- so that a circulation problem's impact, is likely to be greatest at the furthest distance from the heart (the extremities), rather than the heart itself, or exclusively, with a profound impact in the health and functioning, of the head (brain), hands and feet -- which are the extremities of the body.

They cannot be maintained optimally, and primarily, as an afterthought -- but should be the primary objective and realization of the importance of exercise and what it means to fitness -- particularly in a prolonged life of cumulative effects that continue to get worse with time (age), and thinking that nothing can be done -- but to exercise in the typical emphasis on the functioning of the heart alone, rather than the movements that begin at the extremities that then can trigger integrated muscular contractions that are much more efficient than isolated muscular contractions could ever be.  The body just doesn't want to work that way -- was not evolved and designed to function optimally in that manner -- with each muscle acting in isolation from every other.

The "system" wants to be fully developed, and will not allow, one part to be developed disproportionately to every other, because such a system of disparities and unequal development, produces great weaknesses in relation to great strengths -- which is a danger in the integrity of any individual.  That is the well-recognized need for balance, symmetry and moderation in everything we do -- and not the great imbalances modern thinking often produces of one aspect dominating and obliterating all the others -- because it believes it has this "perfect" knowledge, or perfected knowledge -- when it hasn't even begun to suspect the right questions.  That is the arrogance of thinking that what one knows, is all that can be known -- and leads to monstrous certainties that are the great inhumanities of history and society, as well as individual dysfunctions.

The Problems of the Human Condition

 As people live longer lives in unprecedented affluence, they may now spend half of their lives with the thought that they are in their declining years -- which in a possible life of 100 years, may be 50!  That is a long time for one to live and feel as though their best (years) are behind them -- rather than ahead of them, which is that distinctive quality of youth.  And up to now, most people's lives and experiences bore that belief out -- when as they matured further into adulthood, they found they no longer recover so easily from injuries and excesses, until one day, they just abandoned what they previously loved to do, because it was too painful and obvious that they were in their declining years -- in that respect, and nobody thought to change the validity of those measurements, activities and movements.

Does one really have to be the World's Strongest Man in order for them to feel competent and confident to handle any situation their actual lives might challenge them to?  The parameters of those measurements are extremely limited -- for the purpose of eliminating most people until only one exceptional remains, which could happen in any measurement of human capacities.  Some one person, will be the world's greatest eater -- although it might not be who everyone would think based just on appearance, or gender.  In fact, woman competitive lifters now, are up to the level that the men were 30 years ago -- with flawless technique that the men 30 years ago could not duplicate -- or even imagine.  They were too socked in to the notion that one had to overpower the weight -- and not that it could be finessed, but it still takes exceptional muscle, tendons, ligaments, proportions (leverage) and neuromuscular firing ability to pull off.

But now with the aging of the first wave of the Baby Boomers, we also see the first cohort from that era in which bodybuilding began to become a mainstream popular activity -- and those pioneers are presently "hitting the wall," though many still try to maintain their rigorous training schedules and loads thinking that will be sufficient to ward off the effects of aging -- and realizing the futility of those efforts, because those ways will not serve them well when they no longer have bountiful reserves of recovery ability.  Those efforts now seem to incline them to injuries, medical care, and the affirmation, that they can never improve and reverse the aging process -- other than rationalizing and denying what is clearly obvious to everyone.

So is there another way that works -- other than the "no pain, no gain" excesses, that now reveal the real truth of that statement -- that there is no gain, but only pain -- hereafter.  Other ancient practices offer alternatives -- but usually, they offer their own different strains and pains -- as there are always the few people who will benefit just from the change of not doing what they formerly were.

Even in the testimonials for the new anti-aging supplements, one is inclined to remark, "He looks fantastic for an old guy," rather than, "That's an old guy?"  For truly, that is the holy grail people want but do not dare to expect.  But from what we already know and have achieved, if we can put it all together in one comprehensive package of clarity in redefining life as is now possible to do, it should be not only possible but inevitable for those now living to achieve.  That means re-envisioning and re-inventing the human life (span), and what do billions of aging (retired) people have more important to do -- for themselves foremost, but also for the future of humanity hereafter?

Obviously, people, and a whole generation have to get better -- unimaginably and immeasurably better -- because the future of humanity actually requires it -- or civilization goes into irreversible decline, with its growing numbers requiring the care of others to sustain their lives (existences).  That's not a viable future of humanity, society, purpose, meaning and dignity.  Those are the problems of the human condition that need not be so -- if we can first change our thinking, and with it, change our lives -- because of that better understanding, and conditioning.

The Next Chapter 
  
Many living in these times, will find it hard to believe that the premise of society and individual achievement, was based on the mistaken notion of making everything as difficult and complicated as possible -- to keep most people out of the full participation of society, so as to reserve all the spoils for oneself and one's clique.  For a long while, that was even true of athletics -- so that most women and children were not allowed to join gyms and exclusive (country) clubsPeople find it incredulous now to believe that computers were once made to be as difficult and impossible to use, so that there could be a limited group of "information processing" professionals -- that required that all the information had to be run through their machines, and nothing could be 'known," until they got their data back from the processing through those very expensive and few machines -- that now virtually everybody has, and uses because it is easy to do so, cheap and abundant.  

In fact, the great information revolution occurred because of the mind-blowing notion that information should be easy and available to all -- and not just controlled by the hierarchies (monopolies) of the past -- who thought to claim the turf first, as their exclusive province of economic exploitation of all the others.  That manner of thinking, is a hard habit to break -- but undoubtedly is the next revolution underway, when many more see it as their right to live the best years of their lives, without paying all the self-proclaimed toll collectors their preferred lifetime job security for the fulfillment of their health and lives.

That means each individual also decides what is best for themselves -- rather than having it decided for them, by a self-proclaimed few others -- who tell them what they should believe, as the "correctness," they are there to enforce -- as the only way one can think about these things.  It doesn't matter that they'll tell us one thing at one time, and something else another, often exactly the opposite -- because their authority is absolute -- as though God handed them the tablets, just after he did Moses.

And so we should recognize that the truth is always being discovered and rediscovered as it is being reexamined and not simply handed down from the beginning of creation -- so that everyone should feel free to question all pronouncements made authoritatively -- as though they actually knew.  Such challenges by anyone, at anytime, in all conditions, is the truly scientific method -- and not just the authoritarianism that passes itself off as the only credible (certified) people who must be believed -- whatever they say, because they say so.  Invariably in the fitness field, it is the flabby physical therapist or obese dietician, who know everything -- even if they do not exemplify it personally.  It should be sufficient that they just have the "certificates" to prove they know -- or they wouldn't have been allowed to buy them.

But whether they actually know anything worth knowing, is another matter altogether, and for most of such people, not a matter of their concern -- much less their understanding. For them, it's not about getting results, or making a difference -- but only about making money, which is the sad side of the fitness business -- that has now overtaken the healthy side of it.  But in the end, that's what will really matter, and make a difference between a fully realized life to the very end -- or dying and deteriorating for most of it, by those who don't know what to do when people stop telling them what to do.

At that point, some people actually flourish and thrive -- because they're no longer being bent to the will of those who think they know better what everybody else should be doing -- though how they came to know what they think they know, is what somebody else told them to think.  That is the weight and legacy of tradition, which people born into it, never question if it can be any other way -- than increasing dysfunction and dependency, as the normal and acceptable course of lives in contemporary society.  Certainly nothing makes more sense than to be one's own best primary caregive, and teacher/researcher -- as soon as, and as long as one can be.  Nobody knows oneself as one can themselves -- or has the (self-)interest in doing so, as much as one will.

Professionals cannot replace that caring -- as much as one should care for oneself.  That is true whether one is fixing one's car, or ensuring one's health and highest functioning, from which everything else flows.  That is one's basic right to their own life, liberty and pursuits of happiness -- and not just simply to be the pawns and patients (clients) of somebody else's ambitions and livelihood.

The Obvious Secret

Any movement that can be done with resistance (weights, machines, apparatus, etc.), can  be done without them -- even better.  Many have been convinced that it is the machines that allow them to make such movements, but obviously, one can do the movement before someone invented the machine that provides them the resistance or "guidance" to perform that particular movement -- and in fact, that is how exercise machines are designed -- by first going through a movement freehand, and then finding a way to provide resistance to make that movement more difficult.  

But it has always been noted, that as one adds resistance to such movement(s), the form of the movement deteriorates, or deviates from what was intended and so the design of the machine is compromised, and thus, performance, measurements, and results become meaningless -- because all the variables and parameters have changed, and not just the weight (resistance).  This is often called "cheating" -- from the desired ideal -- which was the movement originally conceived, without any resistance and distraction.

It should be, but is never obvious by those intent on selling machines, that no such machines (equipment) is needed to perform the "correct" movement, but it is the movement itself through the greatest range of its articulation (muscle contraction), that is the healthful quality of movement -- and not the distraction of the weight (workload), because that full range, produces the maximal contraction alternated with a maximal relaxation -- and it is the relation of one to the other, that maximizes the effect (benefit).  Thus, it does not matter how long one can hold a steady muscular contraction without relaxing -- or how deeply and prolonged one can relax (stretch), but the alternation from one extreme to the other -- just as the critical function of the heart does.

That is somewhat accomplished by most familiar aerobic activities -- that are defined by the fact that they can be prolonged for an indefinite duration, because adequate relaxation is allowed punctuated by very brief, but powerful (full) muscular contractions, to accomplish some task (work), and more commonly now, some recreational or leisurely activity -- as in cycling, rowing, swimming and running, etc.  

But such movements do not effect the greatest range of muscular contractions because it is not their intent to deliberately do so -- but only as an adjunct to the primary purpose of that activity, which while they may be correlated with increasing health -- the movement is not designed expressly and exclusively for that purpose of optimizing the fullest range of movement possible in circulation and respiration -- as the ends in themselves!  When that is one's primary and exclusive focus -- then the rules change from what is average behavior, to what is selected improvement and evolution in a specified direction -- like sporting activities for the young.  

But now, the sport is improving the quality of life very consciously and deliberately -- and particularly in the old and disabled, which also works in the most prodigious, because it is the most basic and universal understanding of human functioning -- instead of the present model, of getting all the old and disabled to emulate the routines of the world champions -- thinking that is what is going to make them equally so!  That manner merely eliminates  everybody else but the champion.

So once we are clear from the confused thinking of the (physical) educators,  we can see these things very clinically and technically -- and consider what would we do if we were to redesign human movement, exercise and activities according to their actual possibilities and limits -- and not just the limits of the past and the known, as the best it can ever be -- which may have be satisfactory for a million, a thousand, or even a hundred years ago, but now, everything we know of life, is different than we knew even ten years ago!  How does one exercise (maintain their healthful condition and functioning) in weightlessness as those inhabiting space shuttles have to do -- when our notions of conditioning are based upon premises that are no longer true?

The rather remarkable insight is that all those considerations formerly thought important and necessary for life itself, turn out not to be the overriding or limiting considerations they have long been thought to be.  As even the great bodybuilders recognize, there is no infinite limit to how far they can contract a muscle but its own natural limit to further contraction -- and that is determined ultimately, by the range of movement at the extremities of the head, hands and feet.

Many however, are not even aware of that -- that the peak contraction of their bicep, is determined by the angle of the hand (fist) -- rotated towards the forearm as far as possible.  Most just do it -- without that insight into what they are doing, until finally, they stop doing it because their joints and muscles hurt too much to do it anymore -- from all that abuse they have placed on themselves.  At that point in their lives, they no longer participate in those conditioning activities -- because it hurts just to move without any load (resistance) on them -- which should be obvious then, that that is all they need to do!

Doing so for 50 repetitions (a count of 50), confirms that they are moving aerobically -- as the benchmark number indicative of the ability to do more repetitions if it were absolutely required and necessary -- but need not be.  That is already very different from the 10-12 repetitions they have always done before -- that can be done anaerobically (without breathing) -- and usually is, which is to say, without the alternation between fullest contraction and fullest relaxation that allows such movement to be prolonged indefinitely!

The Relativity of Weight (and Weightlessness)

If one holds a weight on top of their chest while lying on a bench -- and then lifts it to arms length -- is the muscle only contracted at the top, or must it also be contracted at the bottom also -- in order to prevent the bar from going through and crushing their chest, if they were completely to relax?  Obviously they have to be exerting pressure equal to the weight to prevent the weight from moving further down into their chest, and so that position is not necessarily resting or zero muscular exertion just because it is lower than a bar held at arm's length.  It is still the same 200 lbs. whether it is resting on one's chest -- or "resting" at arm's length -- and so one never goes to complete relaxation, or rest -- which is why most weightlifting/weight-training, is anaerobic -- because it doesn't allow for the complete rest and recovery necessary to sustain that activity (movement) indefinitely.

That is why most people training with weights (resistance) fail after 10-15 repetitions whether they are doing a maximum weight or a minimal one -- because the manner of their performance throughout the exercise, is done essentially holding their breath, or breathing so shallowly, that they might as well be -- even when that breathing is loud and forceful.

The beneficial effect of exercise is the extent to which it completely empties an area in order to create space to fill it again with fresh nutrients.  That effectiveness is determined by the relationship of the complete relaxation to the complete contraction (or intensity of effort) -- which if one never relaxes, is essentially zero -- or performing an "isometric" (steady state) contraction even while there may be discernible movement and audible exhalation of air only of the windpipe -- and not from the bottom of the lungs themselves.

That manner of not breathing and constant constriction of the chest volume eventually requires one to have to put the weight down, and come to a complete rest, and allow time for sufficient recovery to once again attempt a maximal effort.  For that reason, world record holders are much more likely to be working themselves into the most relaxed state they can achieve prior to a maximal attempt -- rather than working themselves into an unrelenting frenzy prior to their maximal attempt.  The maximum contraction, is dependent and related to the maximum relaxation one begins from.  That fact is completely unappreciated and overlooked by the many personal trainers who think their job (value) is to get their subjects to fail as thoroughly and quickly as possible -- a manner of conditioning that would be counterintuitive and counterproductive to doing anything in real life.

One desires to persist until the job is done -- and not fail prematurely to accomplishing the task -- including being injured in the effort.  That won't be helpful.  Yet many training strategies seem to have that objective -- to push one to premature failure or injury as the only acceptable outcome of their training, and not surprisingly, that is the predictable end result -- before they tire of hurting or being injured all the time.  That certainly is not well-being in any stretch of the imagination.  Thus, one might as well accept the consequences of not exercising and poor health and conditioning -- than prematurely and acutely bringing it upon oneself.

In this way, the person who never exerts -- is similar to one who always exerts -- in that they never vary the muscular states greatly from one to any other.  In fact, the one who is always tense is at great a risk as those who seldom make any exertion -- largely because they do not exercise the range of these possibilities that convey their fitness for meeting a wide range of challenges and tasks.  That is what conditioning does -- prepare one for the greatest range of responses one might be required to express (articulate).  Everything else would fall within their range of capabilities -- and not that one can only do one thing regardless of its appropriateness.

You Don't Need to Get Your Heart Pumping

Many people mistake the cause for the effect -- or the variable for the constant.   A voluntary muscular effort, may be associated with a rise in heart rate -- but just because the heart rate increases, does not necessarily mean they have set a new world's record, or have done anything significant or productive -- for that matter.  Raising the heart rate unnecessarily, may actually be the most counterproductive thing one can do in maintaining one's health and well-being.  That is why many (most) people don't like exercise, especially at those times in their lives that it could be most beneficial to take up as a lifelong daily practice.

That would not be unprecedented, but is in fact a standard course for many schools and cults aiming for that avowed purpose -- as the meaning and purpose of their lives, such as in the monasteries particularly noted for their higher spiritual development, but to some extent, the more complete development of all one's being.

The heart function is not a variable but a constant of life -- along with breathing, being the essential autonomic functions -- that unless something goes terribly wrong, one does not have to consciously provide for.  That's why we can go to sleep at night, unconcerned that we might stop breathing, or the heart stop beating -- and if it does and is not noted pretty nearly instantly, life for that individual may come to an end.  In the past, and in many circumstances today, that is how most people pass on -- quite naturally, and only a tiny percentage can be saved by artificial respiration and circulation techniques.  Many times, the end is just the end -- even if one is in intensive care -- being carefully monitored for those vital signs, which is obviously not all there is to a healthy, vibrant existence.

And that is a growing problem today of many people living longer lives because of the extraordinary ability for medical procedures to prolong life -- sometimes with very little quality beyond the heart and breathing function.  So obviously, that is rarely the limit -- but rather, the functioning of all those critical faculties at the extremities of the body that include the head (brain, face), hands, and feet (cognition) -- which most people ignore -- as the problem, thinking that simply more heart beats and breathing is going to solve that problem.

Obviously, one has to deliberately maintain that connection, control, health and functioning (responsiveness) -- as the self-evident truth of those continued abilities -- and not what nature and evolution has already well provided for -- not just in humans, but for all animals -- even if they've never heard of target heart rate and body mass index (BMI).  In fact, knowing about such concepts and conjectures, doesn't make one better off for it -- but may have set the cause of fitness back 50 years, which is when it was accepted as an unquestioned truth -- that led many to believe that they knew something -- that was not worth knowing, and is even counterproductive to it -- because now it reverts an automatic (autonomic) function -- to a conscious one, or simply making more work that doesn't need to be done -- as its greatest objective!

That is like thinking one has to create air before one can breathe it -- when one merely adapts to the amount of air available, automatically.

Most certificates for "personal trainers," merely certify that one has previously been certified and presented that certificate in first aid and CPR to the enterprise that then charges them ten times more, to additionally qualify them as "personal trainers" -- which is more like a trade association than a college or research organization that their names often imply.  There is no campus or research facilities other than the anecdotal conjectures or "wives' tales" now given the mantra of credibility because everybody agrees to repeat it as though it were some sacred and unchallengeable truth -- in the original case, to sell a heart rate monitor and stress testing, to every man, woman and child in America (the world) -- as though it was an undeniable great value.

Others followed quickly offering body mass indices, and skin fold measurements, and body fat (immersion) measurements -- as though everyone should have them, and also, it wouldn't be a bad idea if everyone paid $500 for a certificate that certified that they had previously gotten a $50 certificate for taking the First Aid and Cardiopulmonary (CPR) course from the American Red Course, or other businesses selling that training, although it is admitted that one doesn't need the certificate to apply the principles in an actual emergency, because that would be preferable to nothing. Otherwise a person is just dead -- and doesn't care that one hasn't had a renewal certificate issued within the last two years, or however long they proclaim that training is good for.

People familiar with the fitness business, know that the scams that can be perpetrated in the name of health are pretty nearly endless -- even people duly certified but needing clients to help pay for the equipment (and certificates) they've purchased -- including that people who have traditionally been the experts on sick people, now are the self-proclaimed exclusive authorities on achieving and optimizing the supreme health of individuals better than each can do for themselves -- in every aspect of their lives!

As preposterous as that would be for a fairly well-informed and educated person to do, it's quite a transgression when people think they have carte blanche authority on the basis of their familiarity with the rudiments of basic first aid, circulation and breathing -- to think that they are the experts on the higher actualization of such functions and being -- mainly through the principles of brute force, coercion and intimidation to conform to the marketing mantra (fad) of the day -- whether that has been isometrics (high-intensity) or its opposite, super-relaxation techniques -- as the panacea for everyone, under all conditions -- at every (any) stage of their lives.

Yes, people who are more active and in the midst of activity, have a higher heart rate than those at rest, sedentary or prone -- but does that tell one enough about the quality and value of any activity for specifically improving one's conditioning to improve their functioning, performance and appearance (of health) and critical responsiveness -- in any specific event?  The "general" or "average" response, may be entirely inappropriate for any specific condition -- as when those running or bicycling think that it is paramount to maintain their target heart rate while trusting traffic to recognize and defer to them on that account -- which of course, has no survival value but instead, places one at the greatest risk for death and injury.  That is decidedly not the survival of the fittest.

Achieving Clarity and Awareness

So what we are trying to achieve in our self-conditioning programs of increasing fitness (as opposed to those imposed upon us by others), is the ultimate fulfillment of the best we can be -- as the end in itself, realizing that in that condition, all we do, will be our best -- and not just presuming that whatever we do, is the best we can do -- despite our low-level of functioning and results.

For much of the 20th century, increasingly more of our conditioning was by the popularity of ideas propagated by the mass media by those who could afford to purchase it -- including many purely self-serving organizations and affiliations -- that recognized that the mass media was ideally suited for implanting preprogrammed experiences and thoughts, in place of actual experiences.  Schools were set up to refine those techniques -- for mass communications that were available to the marketers of various persuasions -- as well as a few that embellished the role of the mass media in performing this function.  In the early days, these marketers and promoters were distinguished as the "Madison Avenue" crowd, but in the latter half of the century, there was no longer such distinction -- between the merely commercial promoters, and the "facts" as revealed at the various universities and other such research facilities.

In fact, it was even begun to be promoted, that individuals could discover nothing of truth for themselves, but were reliant on the hierarchies of the various bureaucracies of specialized information for the truth -- and one's own experiences were instead fallacious and anecdotal, or specific.  Thus, it began to be thought, that all specific experiences and incidents must fit into a generalized explanation and academic theory sanctioned by a certified and anointed few (often by the mass media), rather than that every individual could do so -- which is really the foundation of the scientific method -- which opened these challenges to anyone -- especially from those outside of the officially sanctioned chain of authority -- that was rigidly enforced in medieval society and its institutions, and in a few societies to this day.

Because of this deference and preference to the official doctrines of what can be thought, many people abandoned those practices and movements that allowed them to gather information on their own -- using their own senses and honing those fine abilities.  Instead, they were told to keep their "noses to the grindstone" -- and never look up and around, to see the truth of their activities and environments (the original treadmill?).  That is familiarly, not unlike much of the conditioning advice given these days -- to people operating such machinery -- as though just unthinkingly and unvaryingly performing such mindless motions, were enough to achieve the miracles of their own greatest actualizations.

Instead, it more predictably turned individuals into machines -- for a mass society machine, which then evoked a revolution against such conditioning (programming) to the movements we see beginning, as individuals once again beginning to differentiate greatly and widely through their expressions of unique abilities and dispositions.  That includes sedentary lifestyles as well as the few who can stand all day and do the same the next day.  But even standing in one place all day, would be a torture that most could not endure -- especially if one is overweight and out of condition -- as the misguided, insensitive advice frequently given -- as though the denial of anything, made it actually so.

Most conditioning activities, deliberately cultivate the non-movement of the head, hands and feet -- in preference to the movements of the supporting (core) musculature -- which is basically the opposite of the design of the human body, for movement at its finer structures of cognition and responsiveness.  Other than amusement, there is no end use for a pectoral muscle bounce or buttock contractions -- while the mastery of fine motor control at the hands, face, feet -- is widely appreciated as the distinguishing achievements of art, science and technology.

It should be self-evident to most perceptive people, that those with the greatest amplitude, are the prodigies of that field -- and not merely those who stubbornly persist at a limited range, or single repetition repeated endlessly and unvaryingly -- like the heart beat, as though that were not long ago perfected not only in humans, but in every animal species -- as though the heart function needs to be reinvented -- just as those claiming to have (re)invented the wheel frequently claim credit for advancing the human knowledge.

It is obviously the fine motor movements at the head, hands and feet -- which have traditionally not been recognized as critical, that keep the rest of the neuromuscular system at peak -- throughout one's vitality, and the lost of such movements, are the markers of decline.  That is the shocking experience of walking into a nursing or long-term care facility -- and being struck by the lack of expression and vitality at those sites of human expression and mobility -- despite their continuing to breathe and heart beat sufficient to persist in a virtual vegetative state indefinitely.

Those are the sites one should begin the resuscitation, recovery and reanimation of the expressions that define their vitality and responsiveness -- and not how much movement they have in their hip flexors.  It is not a thought or a theory -- but the actuality of actually moving the head to discover directly what is going on, and the conditions one should adapt and respond to -- and not living entirely within one's thoughts and memories of what the world used to be -- or should be.  That's why we were born with senses -- to detect those things for ourselves -- if we are not conditioned not to.

Is Our Condition Behavioral? 

Our conditioning, is the condition we are in -- and not simply our destinies determined by some great forces long ago, for which we now have no power to influence.  That is the conditioning of those in poor condition -- who feel hopeless to modify, because they don't think one thing is related to any other, is caused by another.  Their worldview is that things just happen -- randomly all the time, and so it makes no difference whether they do one thing or another -- because everything is out of control, and beyond their control.  Often it is because they want to change the world -- without first learning how to lift (move) a finger, yet it is that simple action, which is the beginning of moving mountains -- because it is the connection between wanting, and making it happen -- and not that the only thing one can do, is to convince others to make it happen for them.


That is what "power" means to a lot of people -- not the power to fulfill one's own wishes and desires -- but the power to convince others that all their wishes and desires should be fulfilled, with no effort on their part directly.  It is enough just to let others know what their wishes are.  That begins with many people, their desire that the doctors and other experts should make them "well," while they have a pizza, soft drink and chain-smoke -- while others are working for them.  And then when they get back from their "break," they are shocked that everything hasn't already been done for them to make it "perfect" -- at which time they unleash a torrent of abuse and outrage, that they now have to find someone else who will do that job -- only each can do for themselves.

Greatly for that reason, "personal trainers" don't work, because one can only be as good as one themselves, want to be.  Therefore, the best personal trainer, has to be oneself -- and that is true for any achievement and undertaking, that if one can achieve that success, the first person they would use it on, is themselves first -- and not as a sacrifice for everyone else's benefit.  And nowhere is that more true, than the actualization of one's greatest health and well-being, if they knew how to achieve that.

In that manner of thinking, the health practitioners, should be their greatest example of their own expertise -- presently, and not only as they claim to have once been, or even more frequently, as they never were.  Yet frequently, one literally sees the "blind leading the blind" in the teaching of exercise -- because the students feel comfortable only being taught by somebody they can identify with -- having their own struggles to "get in shape," just as the fat person will claim to be an "expert" on diets because they've tried every one of them, and they all don't work.

Many come to accept this  cognitive dissonance as the truth, or reality of the world, and their own limited experience of what the world and life is, and being convinced, that there can be no other way of being and doing, and in fact, the more one does, the less one is likely to be -- because they have never discovered the world in which the being and doing are the same thing.  In the world in which they grew up and were conditioned, being was always one thing, and doing was something else entirely unrelated -- and in fact, they were encouraged to seek the opposite, in order to get what they really wanted.  They were educated (conditioned) to live in the world of self-contradiction and cross-purposes to everything they hoped to achieve in life -- that receded farther the more they sought them.

Such people will always defeat themselves -- proudly proclaiming that unlike all the others (who are less enlightened), they only compete against themselves -- and therefore manage to "win" all the time.  Obviously that is not a more enlightened approach, but makes one their own worst enemy -- creating the multiple personalities and alter-egos, that will undermine one's best efforts.

Muscles are not antagonistic to one another just because they have their own distinctive primary function and axis of movement; they act in cooperation synergistically with every other, to achieve that perfection of movement with effortless grace.  That is the person (condition) we are conditioning to be.

The Being Is One's Doing 

It's always amusing to hear of one who exercises daily or every other day, for hours at a time -- with no hint of a person who does.  One wonders of course, just what kind of exercises are you doing to get into that shape and condition?  So obviously, many more people exercise to get into their bad shape, than become the champions of their activities.  That should be obvious -- so what they are conditioning themselves to be, is their conditioning -- and not that there is none, or they are not doing enough of it.  Contrarily, they are doing far too much of exercising that puts them into a bad shape -- and if they don't realize that, they should take a course in art and  aesthetics  to learn something about proportion and symmetry that makes one look like the accomplished others, or they won't have a lot of credibility among their peers.

That goes for bodybuilding as much as it does for any other activity -- which is why all the top ballerinas, gymnasts, sprinters look similarly -- because they have to, to do what they do.  That is what millions of participants, practicing countless hours, have evolved as what it takes to be successful in that movement and activities.  So it is not by accident, that the top competitors (participants), all have the same geno/phenotype -- and not just anybody walking off the street, has an equal chance as anybody, at distinguishing themselves among the top.

In this, just the amount of activity tells one very little about the quality of activity, performance and execution -- which in the case of the person whose appearance belies their competence, is merely doing too much of the wrong thing -- just like memorizing all the wrong answers to a multiple choice exam won't get one superior results.  But why would one want to do that?  Obviously, because they don't know any better, and were taught by people who have no idea either, but that is also what their peers are doing also.

That is the major problem of exercise and conditioning presently taught by the physical education teachers, who are not alone in propagating error as the truth -- because when things really work, they work, and a little goes a long way.  But as many physical education students have suspected for a long time, most of their instructors have no idea of what they are talking about -- but they have the right to enforce them on everybody else -- because those are the rules.  As the kids are fond of saying, "Those who can, do;  those who can't, teach;  those who can't teach, teach PE."

For that reason, most people who desire coaching and instruction, have to find personal coaches rather than the mass one for everybody -- and especially for those who don't want to be doing what they're being forced to be educated about.  That never works -- despite how much funding one throws at it.  People have to want to learn anything, because they are convinced of the value of it.  And that is the proper role and function of the teacher -- and not simply to force them to do what they don't want to do and see the value of.

And it is not simply a matter of tricking them into valuing what one has to teach, or convincing them that what they don't want to do, is something they should enjoy doing.  That kind of conditioning is the most destructive and counterproductive because one is always trying to impose one's will on one's senses and better judgment -- which will win out in the end as a complete revolt against everything one attempts to do -- because they don't believe in their own higher authority of their own common sense(s).  Thus the struggle that is apparent as all one is doing against oneself -- and not the harmony and grace of being totally "together," and in "synch."

That is the highest compliment one can receive in any crowd and field of activity -- that one is completely "together," and there is no question, that one's being, is one's doing -- and is instantly recognized by those who know what that completeness and fulfillment is in any other field of activity, as that which is inherently and self-evidently right.  That is the moment when everything makes sense in the world because there is complete integration and oneness of being and doing.

Pain Is Negative Conditioning 

Negative conditioning is what makes one avoid any activity.  That is hard-wired into every living organism -- that must avoid pain, and move towards that which pleases, nurtures and sustains them -- and that has to be understood, or we will continue to see people drive themselves through torturous conditioning regimens, but quit as soon as there is no reason or person to keep them doing it.  Even the greatest athletes in a sport, will quit if they keep getting injured -- because they no longer have a choice in the matter.  The realities, just dictate that -- and so one must quit professional boxing or football, before they are literally killed -- even if it means complete nonparticipation from then to the end of their lives,

Most of the time, their doctors and therapists don't give them much choice -- because the obvious solution to, "It only hurts when I do that," is not to do that anymore -- but usually, one can compensate and live a full life doing many other things, besides running the 50 meter hurdles, pole vaulting, and throwing fastballs at 100 miles an hour -- all omissions one can live with.

But going through one's daily life, is the standard of what one has to do, and should do as well as possible -- as events that most people just take for granted, as things they should be at their best to do -- and that would make all the difference in the quality and experience of their lives.  So the question is, "How does one get into top condition to do that?"  

Just like in any event, one performs a systematic routine by which they enable and empower themselves to go from a relatively low level of capability, performance and responsiveness -- to the peak that enables them to set personal bests,  That portion of one's routine -- most take for granted -- is the only part that needs to be done -- to get into peak condition for doing anything else, and not the event itself -- obviously.  That is usually called the "warmup," but actually, what it is, is the pre-conditioning required to get one operating at the highest level possible -- which is the conditioning process, and not the thing that comes afterwards -- which most people regard as the "main event," or the specific activity they are competing/participating in.

It is this general conditioning that gets them in the best condition to do anything that has much greater overriding value in their lives -- because that is how they will live their lives, and not just participate in for a time until they are forced to move on.  That is the sustainable part of their existence, and not just a brief entertainment and distraction from it.

Central to this realization and importance, is that the primary reason for physical exercise, is to increase the movement and functioning of the brain -- which exercise strategies of the past, thought was not connected and critical to the value of exercise and conditioning -- so much so that doctors, therapists and exercise instructors have even insisted that the head should never (cannot) move -- when in fact, it is the critical site ideally designed to move, and the only way to ensure that connectiveness and blood flow to the rest of the body, is to actually move the head -- as the movement of greatest consequence and significance.

It doesn't just happen -- because the heart is beating faster, or one is sweating profusely, or experiencing much pain, and all the rest of it.  The head actually has to move throughout its full range, producing that distinctive muscular contraction and alternating relaxation -- indicative of that enhanced, directed flow -- to the body's most important organ regulating and sustaining all the others, including the heart. That is the critical path -- to ensuring the health and well-being of the body -- that is dismissed as of no importance and influence, in the functioning and activities of our daily lives!

That is the problem of the dementias and all those conditions people fear they can do nothing about -- but rely on miraculous interventions from others in the form of contemporary medicine, wonder drugs and health care (insurance) -- that largely prolong life in this deteriorative conditions that should be a cause for wondering if the fate of humanity can be any different?

Surely not if we continue to exercise as we have been -- with its predictable  and proven results (outcomes).

Once we engage and enlist the fullest powers and faculties of the head (brain and senses) -- it then becomes possible to harness this energy and cognition in the doing of anything else we have to do -- rather than not being on the top of our game, with our heads into it.  There's a huge difference in that level of functioning -- with any other.  Achieving those powers, are what health and well-being are dependent on -- and not to have them at one's service, creates all kinds of problems and difficulties.

The pain of exercise, is the cutting off of the flow of oxygen to the brain, which will then not allow any muscle to deplete that availability, at its expense -- which then, must result in failure, or the cessation of further effort.  But if the brain (head) is ensured of the greatest flow as a priority, it will enable any other effort to its highest abilities possible -- including the challenges of life most people just resign themselves to as "aging," with its increasing dysfunctions and decline in abilities.

The Critical Feature of "Movement"

One of the great thinkers of all time, Archimedes, two hundred years before the birth of Christ, noted that if he was given a place to stand, and with the use of a lever, he could lift the world -- and as ancient as this realization, most people people still don't understand its relevance and significance -- in human movement, exercise and conditioning.  Muscles are built around levers, or points (axes) of rotation -- rather than the simple-minded observation of linear movement -- in a straight line.  For that straight line movement to occur, there has to be a muscular contraction taking place around a point -- producing a rotational force around that point (axis) -- as the familiar bending of the arm is a rotation at the elbow.  Such movement, or rotation, is measured in degrees of an angle -- in relation to a fixed point, which Archimedes would call the ground on which he is standing on -- to lever (leverage) something else.

That movement, would seem to  be merely up and down, because we are only observing and considering a small part of that larger rotational movement -- just as the earth seems flat until we regard it beyond the limits of our own sight.  And for most practical purposes, up and down, left and right, forward and back, seem adequate for most discussions with another person -- except what is happening at the origin of these movements within the body.

Muscles are shortened in certain positions, and lengthened in others -- but the amount of resistance, is not necessary to achieve such movements -- simply knowing what those positions (postures) are, and moving in and out of them -- alternately, easily and efficiently.  So all those considerations people think necessary to achieve movement, are in fact, totally unnecessary, and as it turns out, counterproductive to achieving and maintaining them.  We have been conditioned to fail in the very familiar pattern we call aging -- thinking that is what is required to make us more fit, when ultimately, it merely eliminates us from the participation -- as most competitions are designed to do.

And that is why one has to break that mindset, in order to achieve one's greatest, unfulfilled health -- because that very concept, must lead to their own elimination and extinction.  By those rules, they must ultimately fail -- and while that seems to be a good idea when one is young, as they get older, they become their own greatest victims in subscribing to those beliefs -- rather than adopting ones that gain them a greater advantage, and not just handicap.

It is a hard habit to break because that is the very foundation of compulsory education -- the competition and comparison with every other as necessary and integral to our lives in society.  Those most successful, will also be its greatest victims -- proudly proclaiming that they are only competing against themselves -- rather than learning to cooperate with themselves, and making everything easy for themselves to do everything and anything.  

That is taught as necessary and the reason for being of learning -- to make everything, including learning, more difficult -- increasing the resistance, as though that was an intelligent thing to do.  Obviously as people get older and less fit, any movement, becomes more difficult and problematical -- and so the last thing they need, is added resistance -- even making the already difficult, impossible -- for lifelong injuries to boot.  Yet one still thinks all that is necessary - -rather than the very source of their problems and hindrances.

Because what people (we) really want, is to be able to move fully, expressively, easily and gracefully -- but do everything the opposite, thinking that the only way to achieve anything and everything -- when obviously, it is a faulty conditioning (education) that cripples everyone.  There will always be a few people who see this obviously and early - -and warn the others of the dangers of this conditioning -- that needs to be improved, and not simply, adhered to more rigorously,vigorously and unfailingly.

At realizations like this, is the transformation of human consciousness to quantum leaps of understanding and possibilities -- manifested by physical actualities.  But as in the times of Columbus, those in charge of propagating the "correct view" of the world, think the world is flat -- because they cannot see far enough, or even think to look.

Exercising While Lying Down

People are fond of creating all kinds of requirements for "proper exercise," that are really arbitrary, rather than necessary -- and one of the most common, is the belief that one has to get up on their feet in order to exercise -- so that nothing but standing, running, or walking would qualify, when obviously, people also swim, bicycle, and do bench presses, gymnastics, etc.  But that doesn't sell athletic shoes as much as the need to run and wear them out prematurely -- along with one's feet, knees, and back, etc.

In fact, a great feature of the design of the bicycle, was to spare the body from this excessive wear and tear -- in traveling long distances.  Those who race in wheelchairs, do what they can do -- and don't just languish in depression because they cannot get up and walk or run anymore.  Many people choose water exercises because it causes them great pain simply to stand, let alone walk or run, which would also preclude them from obtaining "proper exercise" as determined by these "experts" -- usually people who have never thought deeply about what they are so rabidly insisting everyone else must believe, and do.

In this manner, anything can seem true -- when stated so authoritatively -- but that would preclude the participation of those for whom exercise would make the greatest difference in recovering their health -- from a grave illness, the bedridden.  And then there are those who live predominantly sedentary lives because of obesity, back pain or hip, knee, foot pain, who are advised by such unthinking authoritarians, that they still have to get up and run, walk, and jump -- for their own good, when obviously, even to the simple-minded, that would be contraindicated.

It's wholly possible and ideally so -- to design exercise around those limitations and realities -- to optimize functioning for whatever condition and handicap one is in.  That is the only intelligent thing to do -- and not just insisting that the cripple should walk.  But even the bedridden are still capable of considerable movement -- at the hands, head and feet, by which through those movements, they can increase the circulation throughout the body, and ultimately recover the use and function of those supportive, intermediary areas -- because in order to effect the circulation at the extremities, it obviously has to travel through everything else to get there -- and back.  Nothing else is possible!

But people used to practicing  specialized medicine, think nothing is related or connected to anything else, so that nothing that goes on at the hands, feet, or head, have anything to do with what goes on at the heart, and vice-versa.  Obviously such a disjointed view of the human body and functioning, is not going to be very helpful in the understanding and mastery of anything -- understandably, but will be dysfunctional all their lives and at the mercy of health practitioners advising them of every manner of ad hoc (made up) explanations.  A unified theory of understanding is not possible, but only a thousand different explanations for a thousand different things that go wrong.  Thus one needs a cadre of experts to guide one through the perils of life.

That was the ideal of a previous generation -- of unlimited (cult of) experts -- before the modern age of one as their primary own expert, and right to self-determination.

The Heart (Or the Mind) Is Not Everything 

About as preposterous as anything, is the belief that some how, some way, the heart alone will pump all the other muscles (and organs) into shape, rather than the much more verifiable, obvious and apparent action of the skeletal (voluntary) muscles pumping themselves into shape through those specific, directed actions.  That is the reason why it is quite possible and common to see those who have developed one specific set of muscles at the expense and even the detriment of all the others -- by only working those muscles -- and not all the muscles equally, as would be the case if only the heart was responsible for that development -- because there would be no way for it to develop one over any other.

But we do see disproportionate development usually -- rather than the proportionate, symmetrical development that would be invariable if only the heart function were all that was necessary to achieving those ends -- but obviously, that is not what is happening to those with hearts beating fast or slow.  What is necessary, is voluntary muscular action in addition to the constant and autonomic heart function, to direct that flow specifically to where and how one wishes that development to optimize, and conversely, to remove the impediments to such flows and development that one is previously not conscious and aware of -- that may be stunting or preventing growth.

In most cases, that would simply be the lack of awareness that such movements and articulations are even possible -- as the fullest movements of the head, hands and feet -- which are usually totally ignored in favor only of the increased heart action -- because such instructors, are not aware of any other muscular functioning -- and that is why no amount of exercising with such instruction, will achieve those desired results -- despite all the time, energy, pain, injury and effort, because it totally lacks any understanding of simple and obvious cause and effect.

Muscles (the body) gets into shape, because one puts it into those shapes -- directly or indirectly -- but won't get into those shapes (conditions) unless it knows how.  That is usually the rationale for instruction -- rather than that they have no idea how because all they know with certainty, is how the heart works as a pump, and how to simulate that action if it doesn't -- while waiting for the emergency response personnel to arrive.  But knowing that, is not going to enable one to achieve and sustain optimal muscular development and functioning -- which is all one can do, and not the least signs of life.

You can't extrapolate and interpolate such actions meaningfully -- because those are extraordinary interventions -- and not wholly willful and modifiable ones.  Then it becomes meaningful to prefer one set of actions over random many others -- and think those efforts can make a difference.  But if one believes simply that anything is better than nothing, than such discussions are already meaningless and futile -- because anything goes, and one is satisfied to believe whatever one already believes -- despite the fact that it has put them into the shape and condition they don't want to be in -- and feel powerless to do anything about.

How that is an advance in human or individual progress is truly mystifying and obviously, those operating with that worldview, are virtually impossible to have an intelligent discussion with -- and achieve any intelligible results from those discussions.  Masterful instructors recognize the futility of such instruction, in preference for those to whom instruction is much more beneficial and effective as a validation of their own ability to distinguish these differences -- of what really makes a difference.

This greater awareness is the difference between focusing on the one thing -- to the awareness of all things, and how they relate to one another -- and not everything in isolation -- which is the current state of the art in understanding, which is how we want to condition ourselves to be in.  But we can't just think about it, or wish it were so -- but have to actualize it in movement -- as the flow that is how the body shapes itself.

That is the remarkable revelation to those who have conditioned themselves to think that getting into the shape they want to be in is a long and torturous process -- that they have the power to do so instantly -- as what their muscles are capable of doing, but don't know how to do.  It is not a process or necessity of becoming someone (something) else to do 
 so.

That was the striking revelation in conducting one of the first scientific studies of weight-training among a diverse group of admittedly self-selected individuals.  In exhaustive and thorough documentation of before and after results, what was most striking after several weeks of training, was that the greatest change and improvement, lay in people's abilities to momentarily change their shape and condition immediately.  That is the skill they learned to do -- and become proficient at.

To a certain extent, that is what most bodybuilders do, and what their competition is mostly about -- except that the most meaningful and significant changes, occur individually -- rather than against those with different favorable and unfavorable genetic predispositions.  That is to say simply, that for every individual, their own unique ability to transform themselves to whatever extent they feel possible and necessary, is much more meaningful than in competing against everybody else in doing so -- all starting from different levels of proficiencies, aptitudes and motivations, which throughout life, will invariably change and be in flux.

In this regard, the world champion may actually show the least ability to change (improve) -- because they begin with a high level of proficiency that may already exceed the gene pool, but are so highly specialized, they may restrict themselves only to what they do well -- and not develop fully beyond those talents, as preparation for the day when they are no longer the best at what they do.  Many begin a spiral of disintegration in that day of reckoning -- because that is not the world they have optimized for -- when they are old and vulnerable, and can no longer compete, or are "competitive."

How do they change and adapt then?  And that is far more meaningful to individual lives than who is the present world champion or record holder, which will always be somebody -- but not necessarily themselves, and can one live with that?  Competitions take place in very specialized categories and highly ritualized protocols -- but are not all or the totality of life and human activities and what is meaningful and important to do.  Life itself, is far more important than any, or many competitions, usually as amusement and entertainment, for which winning is not everything, or even, the only thing.

At any and every moment of people's lives, their greatest survival skill (fitness) is their ability to change and respond to the urgencies of their individual lives as appropriately and effectively as possible, and be in that condition of readiness to do so -- and not simply in measuring one against every other, because one can.

A Simple Cure for Mostly Anything

Before we started off on our bike ride out there, I offered Mike a bottle of guaifenesin syrup to meliorate his gout, because I was familiar with it as the cure for fibromyalgia -- which I learned about nine years ago when I had what I thought was terminal back pain that had plagued me all my life -- along with bouts of bronchitis, which I didn't suspect were related until I researched guaifenesin, and why it could be the cure for most of the afflictions affecting those with chronic conditions distinguished by the thickening of the body mucous -- most commonly as a respiratory inflammation of the lungs characterized by thickened mucous, as well as the thickening of the mucous (lubricant) of the body's essential fluidity (viscosity) that causes all other bodily pain, commonly known as the autoimmune diseases of arthritis, gout, lupus, fibromyalgia and the other hundreds of autoimmune conditions of the failure of the lymphatic fluid (mucous) to function properly.

The thickening of the mucous, is also a longstanding observation of the aging process -- by which such people were described as rheumy and phlegmatic.  Guaifenesin has only one property -- of thinning the mucous in the body, and particularly the lungs, which most people are conditioned to believe, has no relationship to the mucous of any other part of the body -- just as it would be preposterous to think that thinning the blood to the brain, has no relationship to thinning the blood flowing anywhere else in the body -- except that one specific organ that the specialists claim to have total and exclusive jurisdiction in understanding and curing.

But that was probably the greatest significant discovery of my ten years in Hawaii after I left Seattle.  Life was very good for my first four years there, and then everything turned very bad -- including my recurring back pain throughout life, threatened to become a permanent condition -- and while desperately investigating all my dwindling options, I ran into the free public presentation of this doctor's claim that he had discovered the cure for fibromyalgia -- which turned out to be the active ingredient of cough syrup (Robitussin et al), that I was familiar with, having taken it many times in my life for the bouts of bronchitis I suffered at least twice a year for several months, alternating with back pain for several other months -- both of which can be symptoms of fibromyalgia (FMS), which I was unfamiliar with at that point.

But as I researched it more, along with guaifenesin and its effects, many things came together for me, including that 15 years earlier, I thought Robitussin did have remarkably healthful effects as a general health tonic -- that should be promoted instead of Geritol for that purpose.  I felt so strongly about that that I purchased several thousand shares of AH Robbins, the owner of the patent on guaifenesin on the rumor that it was the cure for an undisclosed ailment.  Fibromyalgia became a well-known condition along with many other of autoimmune conditions at that time -- but I sold my shares with the stock market crash of 1987, and hadn't thought much about guaifenesin until I ran into the headline in 2003 while in Waikiki, that the doctor who discovered guaifenesin as the cure for fibromyalgia, was giving a free introductory presentation at a hotel two blocks from where I lived -- just before I felt compelled to move in with my mother just outside of Waikiki -- because of my rapidly deteriorating condition.

The doctor did not original set out to discover the cure for fibromyalgia; he was interested in the cure for gout -- for which the medicine commonly prescribed for colds, flu and respiratory/bronchial inflammations, turned out to be that same cure -- for a lot more complicated and convoluted reasons, than simply the thinning of the mucous -- being the cure for whatever ails one.  That is to say, good health is distinguished by thin mucous and poor health is characterized by thickened mucous -- which is the essential fluidity (viscosity) of the  body fluid -- along with the blood, for which it has long been recognized that thinning the blood also ensures its greatest operating condition., for which many people routinely take aspirin, for its blood-thinning property.

Together, aspirin and guaifenesin is the longstanding protocol for colds, flus, respiratory ailments -- but what is less noticed at those times, is that they are also accompanied by other body pains -- that seem to go away with a cold, flu, etc.  Guaifenesin can cause stomach upset because it produces an acid reaction as well as thinning the mucous that lines the digestive system.  But Alka-Seltzer, which is a longstanding remedy consisting of aspirin and sodium bicarbonate, had for 50 years been the tonic of choice for anything that ailed one -- which led me to my present regimen of daily guaifenesin along with Alka-Seltzer, as the supplementation that ensures one's health without disruption as long as that regimen is routinely maintained.

As incredulous as that doctor's claim that he had discovered a simple and cheap cure for fibromyalgia, it was clear to me that this was the basis for virtually all the human ailments by this same simple process -- and I haven't experienced any illnesses since adhering to that health regimen -- after several decades of steadily declining health and almost constant illness before then that led me to believe I would never walk again.  I haven't had so much as a cold since then -- though would usually be the first person to catch somebody else's cold, flu, virus, etc.

That was when I stopped being sick again.


Movement is Change


What ultimately makes anyone fit, is their ability to change -- or adapt to the actual requirements of any challenge -- rather than to stay the same throughout their entire lives, which many think is remaining young, immature and steadfast -- all one's life.

That does not make one highly adaptable though they may be ideally suited for one set of circumstances -- but when those circumstances, conditions and environment change, they cannot change to adapt to it and perish, or likely are greatly compromised and dysfunctional -- because their perfect adaptation to only one set of conditions, doesn't allow for any flexibility to change for another.  We see that all around us, all the time -- when people respond in the way they have been conditioned to, even though the realities, that require their urgent, timely and fit(ting) responses, are something other than what they think they are, or may not think at all about them.

The presumption is that one should be that one way -- all the time, every time -- though the requirements for appropriate action, may be other than what that individual is prepared to deliver each and every time, at every moment in their lives.  Such people often wonder, why is it that I am doing everything I can do, yet there is no favorable result?  Simply doing anything, is very seldom likely to be the right thing, which is what one must determine before doing anything.

Yet those who like the sound of their own words, regardless of whether what they say has any meaning or relevance, will think they have said something of great wisdom and significance -- feeling quite satisfied, that anything is better than nothing.  But the wise person knows, those who talk do not know, and those who know, do not talk -- unless they actually have to.  For silence, they know, is a mind inquiring to find out what it does not know -- while the chattering mind, does not want to know it doesn't know, and does not know how to find out.

That is the importance of a quiet mind and body -- ceasing effort, and in that state, taking in the new information, rather than the continuation of thought and action that may have long ceased to be timely and appropriate.  That is the importance of non-action, or the principle of wu-wei.  It is the rest between the heart beat.  It is as important as the action.

So it is important not just to be one-way all the time -- but one state or condition, gives meaning to the other.  Thus one's conditioning for the ultimate survival -- which is life itself -- is learning the maximum effort (peak contraction), but also as importantly, the fullest relaxation of those muscles which produce movement by their alternation.  Such conditioning, would prepare one for all the responses one might conceivably have to make -- and not just the one movement (treadmill) that is neither the greatest contraction or relaxation, but only constant, unvarying busyness -- regardless of what is happening.

Of course such conditioning, has very little value to a person with a wide range of interests and activities in their daily lives, let alone for the extraordinary demands of life in the balance -- requiring that one do what one has never done before, or even imagined they could (would have to).  One often witnesses this total relaxation, just preparatory to a world record attempt -- but that was the requirement, for that supreme effort to be achieved.

Most just won't notice it. 

Enhancing Your Strength and Health Throughout Life


Most people think that at some point in life, they have to begin to deteriorate -- and not get better, but at best, simply slow down that decline, and adjust their attitude that is the best they can hope for, and convince themselves, that is not so bad -- as long as they can keep denying that.  That is undeniably the reality of most people's lives -- but is that deterioration absolutely necessary and inevitable, or is life itself, successfully figuring out what needs to be modified in one's behaviors, to change that balance -- and restore it to a positive again.

I think even the most dysfunctional person, would admit that at some point, they made a wrong turn in their lives that has caused their disastrous plunge towards destruction that they are so overwhelmed by that they can no longer think clearly, and have the insight that will allow them to regain their footing on the right path again.  For a few, that has seemed like a long time now, in which all they have experienced and known, is a long, irreversible and irrecoverable "losing streak," and have long ago given up on expecting, much less hoping for anything else.

That is the truth and reality of their "conditioning" -- that has produced the shape and condition they are now in -- and would like to see changed, if they thought that it was even possible anymore.  There is a saying in life, that as long as there is life, there is still hope -- or the possibility for a different outcome than the one that has been trending and accelerating for as long as they can remember now -- and has become their "reality."  But is that reality, their inevitability -- or is there the possibility of a cure, from their own self-inflicted mortal wound?

Of course, not every wound is self-inflicted -- but most are.  Invariably, it was making a decision, or adopting a practice, that one persisted with, that was wrong -- yet wouldn't change, despite the overwhelming evidence, that it was "wrong," so determined one was, that it was right -- no matter how much evidence to the contrary, was evident to every other person but themselves, and it was not everybody else that had to change their thinking, but only themselves, that had to come upon that better understanding, and changing that reality.

You cannot change the outcome -- by not changing anything else.  One has to change the behaviors, that produce that outcome -- unfailingly, and invariably.  Some people will insist that you need their permission to do so -- or for that matter, to do anything -- and they are also part of the problem, and how one became to be conditioned that way -- in thinking that one could not change and improve oneself, until they first sought permission and paid some one else to allow them to improve their own lives.

In fact, the whole idea that people even had a right to their own lives, is an idea that some people and cultures will not allow -- and even kill others, to maintain.  One reads it in the news every day -- as well as in the fairy tales one has been conditioned as young people to inherently believe others are -- and the world is.

It is the affirmation that the situation is hopeless -- unless there is some miraculous intervention by someone else, some greater power, be it the president or some party, that will deliver us from all the problems of the world -- that we are not allowed to solve ourselves, individually, and more effectively -- as the only way it ever can be for every individual -- to live a life of improvement, all through one's life.  But that changes and has to be rediscovered from time to time -- when it no longer works, even if it ever did.

That is a shocking revelation for those who have been educated and convinced that the world (of knowledge),  was always the way it is now -- and should also remain so, forevermore.  That is the aging of knowledge, that also becomes its reality.

So there is this immense challenge throughout life, of remaining in reality, and not fixed in only the knowledge of it -- and then demanding that reality must conform to that knowledge, rather than that the knowledge, must change and adapt to the new realities that are always changing -- and so to be moving with it, is what it means to be "fit" for that survival, and beyond that, to thrive and prosper -- as one's greatest hope for the future, no matter what.  That outlook, is having one's whole life ahead of them -- no matter what.

Then yesterday's weariness and fatigue, can be replaced by tomorrow's revival and resuscitation -- to even greater capabilities than were spent -- thinking they were lost forever.  Instead, they became the directives for new growth -- in the ways one recognized were the new needs, and not just the old -- one thought they could never unburden themselves of until the (ac)cumulative weight of them, dragged them down before ultimately crushing them.  That is what many recognize as the despair of "old age."

But it has very little to do with age, and mostly to do with outlook, attitude and understanding (conditioning) -- which is how people begin to differentiate "in time." 

It Doesn't Take Much


People have been conditioned to think that the best way to make things easy, is to make them impossibly hard (and difficult), so that the actual doing of it, seems easy by comparison -- rather than to make things as ridiculously easy in the first place, so that it doesn't take much to do them at all.

This is particularly important in exercise -- as the tendency to find even the easiest things difficult in time, so that eventually, one no longer even attempts to do anything any more, because just the thought of doing it anymore, discourages them.

That is especially unfortunate for those who can no longer do very punishing workloads any longer -- because their bodies just can't take it anymore, and recover for the next.  So one of the key concepts in retaining this lifelong ability to keep on doing what one has been doing, is to actually discover ways to make it easier -- and not as many people erroneously do, make everything in life as hard, difficult and complicated, so that eventually, they just don't even try anymore -- or even think about it.

That is the conditioning we know as "aging" -- or finally reaching that point at which we just give up trying -- as perfectly acceptable and justifiable, because it is just too hard, difficult, and impossible anymore.  In exercise, we call that increasing the "resistance" or workload, until finally it crushes you, and then one has a perfectly good reason for not doing it anymore.  Your permanently crippled and disabled body is proof enough that you don't have to do anything anymore, but just let nature take its course to the ultimate end.

So it's really a mind-boggling, and earth-shaking proposition, to make exercise increasingly easier -- so that one can always do them -- with no excuses for not.  That's not what people want to hear -- who are conditioned to the excuses for not doing anything anymore.

All those movements that can be done with weights or on weight machines, can be done even more effectively, without weights (resistance) -- better and longer without them!  That's been known for a long time -- that the lighter the weight, the better the form in performing that movement -- and it is the movement itself that is important, and not any amount of weight or added resistance -- that makes that movement difficult and corrupted.

And as people age, doing the movement itself -- without any weight, is often difficult or impossible anymore -- and in most cases, even imaginable anymore.  Thus obviously, just being able to perform a movement as lifting one's arms overhead would be quite an achievement -- and doing that for 50 times, would be enough to retain and even improve that movement -- without danger of injury because no extra-ordinary resistance or load is imposed -- that simply adds to the risk of injury, while doing nothing to increase the benefit in perfecting that movement.  In short, the reward-risk ratio, begins at zero and proceeds to negative -- until there is only the certainty of injury, death or disability, and at that point, the wise person retires, or withdraws from further competition.

One simply recognizes their limits -- rather than taking it to the ultimate end.  There is no shame in that.  One should explore their abilities until they reach those limits -- and then move on to explore and develop other aspects of their potential in which they haven't reached those limits but still can double their gains daily.  And that obviously, would be in doing those things one hasn't done before -- so that in going from zero to even one, is a tremendous improvement, and then up to fifty (50), is most people's point of exhaustion -- in any movement, even without any resistance.

It doesn't have to be a particularly difficult movement to begin with -- but in doing it for 50 times, will require one to develop a proficiency and efficiency of that movement, that simply doing it once, twice, ten or twenty times, won't necessarily require.  Yet adding weight (resistance), ensures that one will fail before 50 repetitions of a movement have been accomplished -- which is self-defeating, if the greatest value of that movement, is achieved at simply the ability to perform that movement for a minimum of 50 times -- which is the indicator that one has mastered the movement enough to persist at it indefinitely longer, if an occasion should require it.

This persistence of movement, is what makes "work" possible -- or the capacity to endure at anything sufficiently long, as to be meaningful and productive.  One revolution on a bicycle, or one stride, doesn't mean much or get one far, but 50 is likely to be sufficient in getting from one place to any other in the normal organization and layout of their lives -- to accomplish most everything in the normal course of their day.  In that scheme of relevance, a marathon would necessarily be a once-in-a-lifetime event -- if at all necessary, and someone in a large pool of people, would likely volunteer for that task -- in notifying the capitol (next town), that the invaders had arrived but the locals had prevailed -- as one's ultimate sacrifice and act of valor.

More often than not, one wins by being the only person to show up -- after recognizing what really needs to be done, while the masses are doing what everybody else is doing, in a typical duplication of efforts, leading up to the cancellation of everybody else's efforts in a competitive event simply to eliminate everybody else.  That is the ultimate resistance, or workload -- that everybody's efforts are worthless, but only the one -- and everything else was in vain.

Most, therefore, grow out of that competitive mentality at some point in their lives, and have to create a meaning beyond the competition -- for their ultimate fulfillment, as individuals and unique destinies.  That is every person's study of their own lives -- and personal fulfillment not dictated by anybody else, but just deciding to do what is right for themselves -- uniquely.  That is what one person cannot decide for another -- find out for any other.

But the practical and productive movements are not infinite -- and in fact, are surprisingly few.  They are the movements at the extremities of the human body -- of the head, hands and feet -- to do the essential tasks of being human, where we uniquely differentiate from all the other animals and life forms.  The human head, hands and feet are like no other.  All have similarly functioning hearts, lungs, digestive tracts, internal organs.  That part has been perfected for all.  Where we really differentiate and distinguish ourselves uniquely, are at these furthest extremities of evolution -- the farthest reaches of life so far.

And that is what we need to exercise, master, and perfect -- throughout life. 

The Significance of Blogging (Writing)


As people get older, an obvious problem is their physical decline and deterioration, greatly from the wear and tear over a long life, and particularly so, for those formerly involved in very rigorous and injurious activities -- including the constant pain many inflict on themselves -- because they've been brainwashed into believing that it is "good for them," even when it causes them injury, harm and pain.

But even less obvious, is the deterioration of the brain from its improper use, and more likely, lack of use -- because it is no longer challenged to grow as it was encouraged, if not forced to do as an impressionable young person.  At retirement, nobody seems to care anymore, what one does -- and therefore, every individual has to take that primary responsibility for themselves!  That is a shocking thing for a lot of people -- and the major reason many at retirement, immediately go into irreversible and irrevocable decline -- because they haven't cultivated any regimen or strategy for replacing that void that the external institutions and persons played in their lives -- and so they are truly lost, with no idea of how to resuscitate and resurrect themselves.

The major reason for blogging is not that it will (might) get read, but it will be surely written by the person doing so -- as the most powerful act of maintaining and expanding their mental capabilities, and if not read in their lifetime, still has a chance of being eventually discovered when the time is right for that realization.  Throughout history, most of the great inventive minds, were not realized until after their time on earth -- which often drove them to an early death -- in being greatly misunderstood and even persecuted for it.  The classics are Jesus, Socrates, Galileo, Paracelsus, Mendel, and just about anybody who has been too far ahead of their time -- so that there was basically no peer group competent and qualified to judge them, thought they invariably did, with famously disastrous conclusions.

What is important, is that one is very clear to oneself, and works on refining that clarity -- as the unique meaning and purpose of their existence, which never ends until it ends, as the vehicle that requires them to be at their best -- even when nobody else can tell that difference.  What is supremely important, is that one themselves still can tell that difference -- and make that difference!

Blogging (writing) is what most people still can do -- even when it seems they can do very little else anymore -- but in keeping the brain (mind) functioning at its peak and expanding its range in this manner, the health and viability of the rest of the body, is given its greatest chance for maintaining and attaining its peak capacities.

But what should one blog (write) about? -- is a question that daunts and discourages many from taking up the pen (keyboard).  Obviously, that should be what one is the most knowledgeable, if not the best in the world at -- which for everybody, would be themselves -- and their own health and awareness, which for most of our lives, we've been discouraged to think has any validity and should be discarded -- in favor of the experts' opinions, and other vested interests who would like to do the thinking for everybody else.  All that they ask, is to be allowed to do so.

One has to be clear when that authority is given -- to supersede one's own judgments about these things -- that should know better, for themselves.  It might be such a simple thing as what foods they are allergic to -- and what things they seem to have an advantage in -- as their own unique profile of who they actually are, and not always, the way the experts and controllers demand that they must be -- in order to fit into their expectations of how everybody ought to be -- for their benefit, convenience and world view as the expedient truth, and not the actual specific in every case.

The generalization is not the reality -- even most times, because one doesn't know if one is generalizing about the right phenomenon -- or mistakes one thing for something else -- unless they first bother to learn of the specifics.  That is first and foremost, the work of the blogger (writer) -- and not just simply spouting off one generalization and cliche, as inappropriately and irrelevantly as possible -- as though that was enough to make the mind sharper, more penetrating, effective and powerful -- throughout their life, not as a competitive game, but as an exercise of the limits of their being.  That is far more meaningful than running farther and faster each day, until the limits of that endurance are exhausted and irrecoverable -- as the actual limits of those exercises.

But with the mind, there are no actual physical limits in this way -- but one's own frontiers of where it has not gone before -- and need to be explored and vitalized.  Such exercises increases the critical mass of the mind that drives the rest of the body -- that is the animating spirit beyond the muscles and flesh.

Many are reaching the point in life in which the physicality of their existence is still intact, but their mental capacities and connections have vanished -- and while they may live on in that way for years if not decades, healthy individuals would not choose to be in that hopeless deteriorating condition -- if it was at all possible to avoid.  For certainly, that would be a living death -- and beyond that, an interminable descent into pain, deterioration and debility, nature (life) never intended -- even if possible to prolong indefinitely.

The amount of resources required to prolong such existences, would drain away all the resources required to sustain the most healthy and viable -- which is the preservation of the species, which is the larger objective of all human meaning and purpose.  Thus, health should be prolonged as long as it is possible and viable -- while not being mistaken for death and dying as health, and a healthy way of living.  It is a matter of priorities and limited resources -- and the intelligent choices one has to make, to remain so. 

Making Exerrcise (Movement) Possible


When one works with the most senior/disabled populations, what is obvious, is that one has to create a way of making exercise and movements possible -- and not merely harder, more difficult and painful -- because they simply can't do them, and any encouragement to do so, is practically a death warrant.
That became obvious to me when a 101 year person asked me to take them on a walk of the grounds where she lived because despite living there for a while, and having many visitors, nobody had ever had the time to take her on that tour -- because it was fairly problematical to do so, since she was effectiveely blind (macular degeneration), and had recent hip surgery, requiring her to use a walker with wheels -- which was poorly adjusted so that all she could do was push it forward, and not down to support her weight -- which obviously negated the use of that walker as an aid.  

And in fact, the first thing that happened when we broke into the clear of the cars parked obstructing the sidewalk, is that the walker shot forward, with her holding on -- as she was not able to brake it, her grip strength was so diminished.  Fortunately, since I remained vigilant and attentive in providing an umbrella shade on a hot day for that excursion, I was in an excellent position to catch her as she fell forward hanging on dearly to her walker -- gracefully I might add, so that it seemed a choreographed move -- rather than the extremely perilous one it could have been otherwise.

So unlike everybody else, I advised her not to take daily walks out of either of her doors, as probably the most dangerous thing she could do that put her imminently in jeopardy, with every such incident, a life-threatening event.  Instead, I suggested she remain in the comfort of her own apartment -- which was organized for maximum effectiveness, safety and comfort -- and move her head, hands and feet as her primary exercise -- to strengthen those notable weaknesses, before even attempting a walk outside -- which she recognized as the only advice she received, that made totally good sense for a person in her condition and disabilities.

I noted that the movements at the head, hands and feet, could be done standing, seated, and even lying if she chose -- ensuring maximum safety to exercise.  This is a consideration given scant attention -- if any, by most exercisers, in deciding to jog at night with headphones blocking out all further information on potential hazardous conditions -- which of course, placed them in imminent danger that negated any health benefits they could receive in extending their life and well-being.

This is done unthinkingly in many ways -- as people decide to run marathons on the hottest day of the year, take foolhardy risks just to prove they are invulnerable, fight unnecessarily, etc.  That is mainly what most conditioning activities are about -- rather than strengthening the weak; they merely eliminate the weak from their population samples -- until they arrive at the one in ten, or one in hundred, that will confirm their belief, that that is the only course for everyone -- despite failing everyone else.

That is not "scientific" -- but merely the imposition of brute force on reality and outcomes so that nothing else is possible.  But now we live in an age and technology that makes almost everything possible -- if we can only effectively access the solutions -- that someone, somewhere, has dedicated their time, energy and focus, to discovering -- usually for their own benefit first, but to the benefit of all, eventually.

That is the powerful motivation for discoveries -- and not as many MBAs would believe, that people just sit around thinking how they can make money, and then go about figuring out ways to do so -- as though that was an intelligent way of doing anything.  The great discoveries are made, because one's very life is at stake in the matter -- and not just because they want to be "rich and famous when they grow up" -- although they haven't figured out what they want to do otherwise.

Such people come up with all kinds of worthless ideas -- and inventions, because they don't know what is meaningful and valuable to do.  Those people also think that just burning as many calories as possible, will inevitably result in something worthwhile -- while not realizing, that the greatest calamities and catastrophes of civilization and human experience, are due to this wanton expenditures of brute force and wastefulness.   That is the measure of a society that regards the consumption of resources, as a measure of its worth -- instead of the more insightful reflection, that those resources must first be created, invented and realized -- and not merely destroyed, as the intelligent human action.

That is the manifestation of human intelligence one wishes to embody -- as one does so in actual practice (conditioning).  It is not just physical conditioningtotal conditioning, and total responsiveness -- and not the fragmented and partial response to any challenge, while tying one's hands behind one's back -- in handicapping oneself in any other manner as is so ofteen the case, in limiting that responsiveness by some arbitrary conditions.  It might be that one cannot use advanced technology in accomplishing that task -- but must conform to strict guidelines of performance eliminating all the possibilities but the narrow, predetermined expectations as the only thing allowable. obviously -- but

So when people arre given no choice, no other options but to ensure their own deterioration and death, they are within their rights, to seeks out alternative realities and outcomes. including, getting unimaginably and unpredictably better.  Not everyone will welcome such liberation and freedom; many will prefer to remain behind the bars because that's all they know and think possible -- as integral to their conditioning.  They have their lives (and deaths) planned by such scenarios and preconceptions of how life has to be -- because all the experts say the same thing, taught by the same schools and teachers.
They've even been conditioned (brainwashed) to believe that no truth can be learned or discovered except from those duly-certified and qualified -- rather than the greater truth that all people are capable of discovering the truths for themselves, and that no monopoly or trade association owns that exclusive right -- that they would like everybody else to believe.   The truth is beyond the control of any one special interest group -- no matter how powerful and influential they have become, even with the consent of the governed.

That ultimately, is the supreme exercise of freedom and movement. 

The problem with QiGong, Tai-chi, yoga, (hyper)stretching.


Some exercise modalities focus on the relaxation phase of "movement," while others focus on the contraction (impact) end of it -- but the real value and power of movement, is the ability to move from fullest contraction, to fullest relaxation -- and not simply relaxation to hyperstretching, or contraction to isometric contraction (without intermittent relaxation).

The thing I've observed in your movement practices and routines, is the lack of dynamic or robust muscular contraction -- which may be a deliberate avoidance on your part -- as the parameters of movement of QiGong or some types of tai-chi.  That's why in the discussion of tai-chi, it is usually pointed out, that there are two types of  it -- one being the constant slow movement that avoids the extreme ranges of movement (contraction or full relaxation) but always maintains a constant low-level tension, and the dynamic form of tai-chi that includes a dynamic contraction characterized by acceleration and deceleration of movement.


This is important because not only does a full range of movement produce a dynamic robust) contraction, but that contraction also produces a compression within an enclosed volume (which is the tissues), that moves fluids from the high pressure area created by muscular contraction at the extremities -- towards the heart and filtering organs of the body at the center -- which reduces the buildup of such toxins as calcium buildup in those areas of poorest circulation -- which the Achilles tendon and feet are famous for.


Although my father had practiced slow movement tai-chi all his life, that did not confer on him immunity -- from the deterioration at the extremities, most notably his head and brain -- and so one of the most important movements I realized, was that the extreme range of movement of the head, automatically produced that contraction -- but he never moved his head anymore, and why I realized it was a priority to maintain that range of movement, and was so gratified at recently seeing a 101 year old woman who basically had minimal neck muscle development, show shocking muscular development in just a week of practice -- obviously.


Every time I show you my movements, and watch you copy them, I notice that you do not push on through the extremes of the range of movement in the fully contacted position, nor do you go to full relaxation -- but maintain the constant tension of slow-movement tai-chi and qi-gong, which I find exhausting to do because it requires that constant tension -- that many are not aware of.  To me, it is similar to the constant tension of carpel tunnel syndrome -- which creates its own problems, which sounds like the problem you are having in your foot from that constant position maintained in driving -- just like a person can experience, operating a computer too.  It damages the nerves with an unvarying constant tension -- that one is not aware of.


The full relaxation would obviously not be holding any pose or position but complete collapse into relaxation, before attaining the fullest, complete range of contraction -- which is what I do.  I completely relax, after hitting the peak contraction -- and so am only concerned with two points of the movement, rather than the 99% of the movement most people are.  I don't care how one moves from point 1 to point 2 and back -- but that is what many traditional forms of "movement" are preoccupied with -- notably slow-form tai-chi and qigong -- as far as I can tell.


And because people do not achieve this fullest, robust contraction -- the tissues are not flushed completely, causing this buildup of calcium deposits and other toxins to remain in the tissues (extremities), and the body to further retain fluids (water) to dilute its effects, which is the bloated (swelling) look of edema and gout.  It doesn't matter that one has a lot of activity in the midrange of movement -- because those extremes of peak muscular contractions are never attained -- which is the maximum compression of the tissues as the objective of the movement that flushes and optimizes the circulation process not limited to the blood but all the fluids, gases, solids, etc.


So, many people who are quite active, also don't achieve the sleek look of those whose movements cause these powerful and stimulative compressions of their body to shape their body in the way they would like to -- which would make a lot of sense as the direct objective or one's movement practices.  That is what I design to do -- directly and explicitly.


What I would suggest for you to do is to do two movements while lying in bed -- which are the two variations of the straight arm pullover, in one version starting with the arms behind the head, and moving forward to the other extreme down towards your hips, using head, hands and feet movement in one direction for 50 repetitions and then 50 repetitions in the other -- aiming for those complete, powerful, dynamic  contractions you deliberately avoid and eschew -- while placing no weight on your knees and other parts of your body that cause you great pain bearing weight.


As you bend your wrist with your hands closed, you open your hands as you bend (rotate) your hand -- which counteracts the contraction that would be achieved if your hand was tightly closed, and contracted even further with the bending of your wrist.  Observe this in yourself and movement. You do not allow movement to continue in the direction of further (extreme) contraction -- but offset it in some other movement -- like the opening of the hand as you bend at the wrist, or bend at the knees, rather than moving further at the foot -- giving the illusion of movement, but not moving at the axis of rotation that is meaningful to do so.


There's a very direct and powerful physiological reason as to what is happening in the body with movements that are self-evident in this way.  That is what I think you need to practice on -- and those movements, correct the problems of the lack of proper (full-range) movement.  


Starting Over Again


For those starting exercise programs after a long period of inactivity, or enhancing a lifelong maintenance program, the best way to go about it, is not to envision themselves a year or a month down that path, but merely to commit to one week -- and if done diligently, all subsequent progress will result from that.  So it is very important to get that first week right -- and that conditioning becomes a habit, that no amount of wishful thinking can substitute for.  That conditioning strategy works for just about any changes one wishes to make in their lives -- the one week commitment.

Although that sounds too easy to be true -- a week of actual change, is far more effective and powerful, than any amount of just intending to change, if one is forced to it.  Unfortunately, most people will never change unless they are forced to it -- which means they have not embraced the change, as the person who wills to do so, and actually carries it out through their actions -- if only for a week, but that one week, is reality, and not just wishing it were so.

In this world, many confuse the image (wishful thinking), for the reality, or truth of the matter -- in never finding out.  To such people, that they think it so, makes it so, and that the world they live in -- and when given the choice between the illusion and the actuality, will prefer the illusion over the actuality, which then becomes their  delusion of success and well-being.  Those are hard habits to break -- and why one who hopes to change anything, must actually effect that change -- once, and preferably over a week of daily practice (conditioning), to effect and implant that change successfully -- which seems strange at first, but that is all that is required.

That is the proverbial first step, that many never take -- and wonder why nothing changes, and particularly, that they don't change -- as much as they wish it would.  No amount of wishing, will effect the change that actually doing them -- will make.

And so those really earnest in producing change, will make it as easy as possible to effect -- and not difficult at first, and then increasingly more difficult.  The right conditioning program, makes change, increasingly easy -- so that change is the easiest thing to do, while the ineffective ways, require much more energy to effect -- for little or no positive benefits and results.

Thus changes are much more likely to be successful, if they seem minor rather than traumatic, and becomes the new reality -- because it is easier, and more productive.  But people who have been conditioned to always do things the hard way, will think that any change, must be even harder -- and reflexively prefer not to undergo that trauma, which stunts them for the rest of their lives, and brings about the steady deterioration many experience as the only change they think is possible in the world.  So their preference is always for the least change possible -- thinking that nothing good can ever come of change.  Then then become the defenders of the status quo -- all the while, all the while fancying themselves as the vanguard of progressive thought and enlightenment.

That is the challenge of every generation -- not to become the defenders of the status quo, and the agents against change -- that produce and results in their own destruction, because in order for life to remain vital and vibrant, one must be changing all the time.  To remain static, is to become dead -- to all the change and life about them -- in the self-isolation that has become the disease of our times -- in the physical handicaps that preclude us from participation, but also, mentally and socially, as we become disconnected even from our own bodies.

That begins with the divisions and the fragmentations of reality into the many unconnected parts -- instead of the integral drive for wholeness and integration of the new into the old -- and not the constant battle of the old against the new, ensuring that nothing new can ever supplant the old.  That's how people and things age.  There is no provision for assimilating the new, processing the new -- as the new, and better -- but insisting that everything new is merely the old, and must fit into the old categories, and business as usual.

That's how life has changed -- to a new, better reality, but one must embrace that change, and allow that such things are possible, or surely, the more things change, the more they will stay the same -- until that society and its individuals, disintegrate from the stresses -- of denying the new realities whose time has come. 

You Don't Need to Have Lofty Goals to Succeed


In fact, the more ambitious the goal, the greater the chances of failure rather than success -- while those who set modest goals for themselves, are likely to succeed at them all the time, thereby conditioning themselves with success.

This is a very important concept to understand -- and the reason people fail, and set themselves up for failure: they have to succeed, at whatever they are doing, and not rationalizing their failures with unrealistic, noble goals -- because what matters, is what they actually do, and not what they intend to do, but so far have not achieved, and ultimately, have no intention of doing so.  An apt observation, is that the road to failure (folly) is paved with many good intentions.

It is not so much that one succeeds by setting a new personal best for weight lifted -- as they do just by showing up each day at the gym/health club, and while they are there, can just putter around on the machines for 30 minutes -- just by osmosis, since that is what other people there will invariably be doing.  That is an inescapably healthy environment -- if nothing else, for that exposure to people involved in healthful activities and objectives, and being around healthy people as role models.

If we truly want a health care system that works, we'd pay for that access for everyone -- rather than the astronomical health care costs of those who avoid those venues and possibilities.  Daily attendance at such venues, would be mandatory -- to collect whatever other government assistance they are receiving -- such as unemployment benefits, etc.  One has to maintain their condition for employment -- even while not having a job.  And while they are at it, they can get into good habits like keeping the machines clean -- for their own use, as well as maintaining a "work ethic" -- and that is that one actually has to do something, to make any difference in one's life, and in the world -- and not just demand it from others.

That's not how a healthy world works. -- and that is the ultimate meaning and fulfillment of society -- and not just getting more than one's fair share of government funding, as the people of famously dysfunctional societies think.  So then, everything they do seems to be arbitrary -- without meaning and purpose, other than having to do so because everybody tells them that is how to play the game -- so that is what they become good at.

In that way, many mistake "health care" for health -- which means being without the problem, rather than always requiring a greater and more expensive solution -- which merely continues the problem.  Predictably, one finds that in such "solutions," the problem(s) grow even worse -- requiring more money and professionals for their own lifelong job security.  Some people grow up entirely in that world of dysfunction and dependency -- and never even begin to suspect that there can be any other way of being.

No one is going to bring that enlightenment for anybody else; -- no matter how much they insist that they are so selfless.  Each individual, in the course of their life, will have to attain that understanding and liberation for themselves -- by thinking for themselves, and not just repeating the words they have been "taught" as the only truth they should ever know.

More than anything else, that is the importance of doing and practice -- that is one's conditioning for the life one will probably live and actualize, and not the life that doesn't work, but for which there are new explanations for its failures -- as though that makes a difference. 

Your Health IS Your Wealth


No matter how much wealth one has, it means very little if one doesn't have the good health to enjoy it all -- other than paying a lot of other people to make them well -- which is not the solution, but the problem.  Ultimately, every individual is responsible for the greatest health they enjoy -- and not their medical care (health) insurance -- that is designed ideally for catastrophic bad health.

The other ideal, is never to need those services offered by others to "heal" oneself, but in the course of one's life, learns of one's uniquely own vulnerabilities, as well as strengths, that if developed fully, distinguishes them as one of the most remarkable persons of the times -- if not the defining personality of that age.  That sounds very grandiose, in an age in which people are indoctrinated to be like all the others -- as the mark of their achievement -- that they know as much as anybody else.  But implied in that, and unstated, is that one should not know what everybody else does not know -- which is the academic, or political correctness, by those who self-appoint themselves as guardians of what humankind must know -- usually for their own prominence and ascendancy over all the others.

That desire for prominence and dominance is a primal instinct beyond the impulse to serve all others first, and is often confused as serving everybody else, when it is obviously serving only their own -- which they feel is a selfless, nonprofit endeavor and organization, because their own cause, is above everyone else's -- exclusively.  So the challenge of civilization at any time, is to merge those two impulses into the whole, and not increasingly the partisan, or even, bipartisan points of view.  Two half-truths, will not make a greater whole truth -- but begins with people who are nonpartisan from the beginning, even though the glib will insist that man's very nature is to be partisan, rather than the whole of that society's consciousness.

This being whole, is the greatest marker of health -- that one is fully and totally developed and functioning optimally in every facet of one's existence, and not being limited and distorted by all one's various limitation, afflictions and disabilities.  In the matter of disabilities, we often come across those rare individuals who have managed to overcome them in developing even greater abilities to compensate for their vulnerabilities so as to make others unaware of their handicap, because they have turned it into an impressive advantage.

That is often the great motivation and inspiration for the development of great skill and abilities -- that one wanted to, above all else -- even if nobody else cared, or thought it was possible.  What is important, is that one thinks it is supremely important, and nothing could be more obviously true, in the observation of human appearances and behaviors.  There are populations that distinguish one by their ailments and disabilities, and other populations, that distinguish individuals by their proficiencies, even though they may be harder to categorize and identify -- because they may exceed an observer's abilities to judge those capacities with any competence.  Thus, it takes one, to know one.

Only an intelligence that presumes itself to be greater than all the others, can attempt to create a criteria for determining the intelligence of all the others -- which obviously, must place themselves at the top -- or they could not say with authority, that one is more intelligent than all the others.  But when an intelligence exceeds that of the observer, the observer then, is the observed.  That is always the supreme intelligence -- in anybody, and in all bodies.  That is total awareness.

Unfortunately, the whole thrust of contemporary society is to make one less aware, rather than more, because those partially aware, or only of their partisan view, are much more manipulable, manageable and easy to convince of what the promoters would want us to believe -- for their own agendas and self-promotion above all the others.  Thus every individual has to take it upon themselves, not to be the pawns in somebody else's games, have their lives defined by all the others but themselves, and wondering why they've ended up in such a horrible and futile existence and fate, that those they trust, tell them that is the only reality possible for everyone, as just another statistic that will predetermine their outcome.

So if one can see through all that -- as the self-fulfilling prophecies that don't have to be that way, it is quite conceivable to avoid the fate, others have predetermined for them -- and become the master of one's own existence, beginning with one's own health.  But it must be the attention at the very beginning, and not the end, when it is too late to make any difference -- but to be a cash-cow for others promising to make them well. 

Crossroads to the Future


There are two visions for life in the future -- (1) that people get worse irreversibly and irrecoverably, or (2) they get better as long as they live.

Those of the first view, will obviously say that such a thing is not possible -- as they are living proof that people can only get worse -- and not that they are simply good examples of people who have chosen their path poorly.  Far more difficult and arduous, are those who have taken the road to betterment and improvement -- because they have to travel it alone.
The far easier path is to become less able -- because then one needs more assistance in life, until ultimately, one needs assistance just to get through their day.  The present course of society, is to fund and enable that deterioration and dysfunction, because only then, is one showered with assistants, and support(ive) services, until one is convinced, that is the road to success -- their utter failure to provide anything for oneself -- as the mark of a "compassionate" society.  

That is the difference between an enabling society, and an empowering one.  The enabling society, merely helps those who are worse off, and so, people inevitably do -- to gain those advantages, but it is ultimately at the cost, that they really do become less capable of doing anything for themselves.  Thus, they become entirely beholden to whomever offers them more assistance, until finally, they are at the complete mercy of it.

The other path is not even spoken of anymore, except in the disparaging thought that one could be so foolish as to think they could, or should ever wish to be truly independent and capable of fending for themselves, and making it on their own.  All kinds of fears, inducements, insurance and guarantees are offered to them to "get in line," and do what everybody else is doing -- unquestioningly.
This crossroad is summed up in the question, "At what point does one begin to age?," which implies that one is in irreversible decline -- and the future never gets brighter or better.  One is already "washed up," and incapable of living their lives competently on their own, but become more dependent on the aid of the government, to continue a miserable and marginal existence because they are no longer capable of minimally caring for themselves -- and even their own personal needs and hygiene.  Many in that condition, no longer are aware that it makes a difference -- but they can be kept alive in that condition indefinitely.

Thoughtful people will ask, "Is that a viable (meaningful) future for humanity?"  Or is that future so bleak, that the impossible question can arise, "Could there be another, better way?"  What do all those "retiring" people and people in "retirement" or "disability," have to do that is more important, than to make their lives better?  That begins of course, with one's own health and well-being -- on the most fundamental level of doing anything, and subsequently, everything -- and that makes a difference, so that one gets better, or simply worse by never improving -- but only repeating, those behaviors that maintain the diminishing status quo -- that demands more money, energy, and time, to get decreasing returns and results.
That most accept that way and their fate, is not surprising, but they should not be allowed to drown out the few who think that life in a very different way is not only equally possible, but more plausible.  But obviously, the solutions offered so far, merely feed into the despair that there can ever be real improvement -- because they don't make any more difference than fooling oneself that it does.

People often say, that they haven't been "so busy" since they retired, while obviously showing signs of aging (neglect) -- rather than one would think they would do once they had all the time for doing so -- to regain their own health and vitality because they are no longer forced to do what they didn't enjoy doing, with all its deleterious health effects -- such as standing up all day, or dealing with constant stressful situations and difficult people.  They then have the time and (adequate) income to do what is best to improve their own health and well-being.

So few people think that way that it is appropriate to ask, "Why? What is it they do, that is more important to do? -- particularly at that critical juncture of their life?"  Because by then, most people don't think it makes any difference what they do and think anymore, and they just have to do what everybody else is doing -- as a senior citizen.  Is that necessarily a person in the twilight of their years, or is that the beginning of living one's own best life? -- as is now possible?

It is not the young against the old, but the old against the new, that prevents the revisioning of life in all the possibilities of a new understanding and insight into this meaning and significance of life. 

Are You Better Off Now Than You Were a Year Ago?


That's an easy question everyone should ask of themselves -- at least once a year, to get a gauge on whether their health and life is improving, or just worsening -- to which "aging" is the explanation that requires no further explanation or investigation.  That is just how it is -- and one accepts as gracefully as possible -- or appropriate others will deride and mock them into falling in line.

"Of course, life can only get worse from here on out," the self-appointed wise ones will admonish -- as though thinking any other way, was proof of one's stupidity.  That's how far we've fallen in the last fifty years -- when people used to think that life was for improvement, and not merely grasping at last straws.

The rare exception seems to be those found at gyms and health clubs -- who think their primary job is to improve themselves -- and not merely demand that of others, while one increasingly does nothing for themselves.  That has been a trend for these fifty years that needs to be reversed -- at least in individual lives -- before it becomes a prevailing way of life.  Those are the pioneers of every time and place -- the exceptional few who see the problems overcoming societies, and take it upon themselves to find a better way -- even if they have to create it themselves, but that is how reality has always come into being.

That is in fact, the reality of human beings -- of what they actually are and manifest.  They always begin with these basic assumptions and premises -- of whether the purpose of life is to get better, or merely to get worse -- and so the best one can hope for in that version of life, is to live as long as possible, even if one is no longer aware and conscious of anything anymore -- let alone capable of doing anything for oneself.

Yet it is thought enlightened and progressive that we enable that kind of life -- rather than entertain the possibility that we can empower lives so that each individual increases their capacity to do those things for themselves, and become less dependent -- which is to become more independent and free.

People are entitled to whatever they can provide for themselves -- and have that primary responsibility as citizens of any society, to do so -- long before they demand the constant care and assistance from those who don't have those things for themselves.  In such a society, those who simply demand the most, believe they are entitled to that as their fair share -- and that everybody else, exists to provide that for them.

The foundation of those capabilities, is one's individual efforts to increase their health and well-being as their foremost duty -- even if nobody pays them to do so.  The real payoff, is that quality of life, as the basis for the enjoyment of all the experiences they will have in their lives -- unlimited by their diminished and undeveloped capabilities, for doing even the simplest and most common things in life.

Invariably, that is simply to move with ease and without pain -- and not endure a life of agonizing and debilitating pain, that only ceases when one leaves their life -- usually in some inglorious way -- often in the absence of any societal presence and participation for several years, and often decades.  To even see such people, is a jarring reminder of how individuals are shaped by the presence and contact of others -- and merely existing for years in isolation to the forms that are barely recognizable anymore as human.

Just as in ancient Greece, the gymnasium or academy, is where people go to shape themselves -- their minds as well as their bodies, as the most healthy environment for doing so.  One could alternatively, go to movies, restaurants and other entertainments where it would be ruinous to become gluttons in those venues -- which is a large part of the problem of contemporary life and health -- that people overconsume the wrong things -- because they can afford to.

The limit of exercise, is one's own natural energy to engage in it -- tirelessly, and finding out what those limits for every unique individual, is the major reason for those exercises -- and not just arbitrarily doing, what everybody else should be doing.  Not to discover the possibilities and limits of one's own living -- every day of one's life, is the unexamined, unfulfilled, and unlived life -- that no amount of it in diminishing, compromised and undeveloped repetition, can even imagine. 

Two Different Worlds


In life, there are always two different trends -- the one that is getting better, and the one that is getting worse -- even though many of the latter, are positive they are on the right track -- but things still continue to get worse.

Meanwhile, assuredly, even if most people do not know about it, things are also getting better -- even if everyone is not getting better.  What is important, is that some do -- because they are the future of the longterm survival of the species, even if most of the others get wiped out. 

That is the survival of the fittest -- and not indiscriminately everyone, for as long as humanly possible.  There has to be some kind of accounting system, even when not consciously designed -- that makes whatever happen, happen -- even when most are not aware of what is happening.  That's never been a prerequisite for reality to come into being.

The sum of intelligence, is more than any one person's, or even a majority of the people.  So even as things seem to get worse for most people, there are a few for whom life is getting immeasurably better -- because they have exercised their individual choices not to accept the fate of most people -- who invariably believe there is no other choice or fate -- because they go to the senior centers, and see so many aging even worse than they are, and are grateful they are better off -- than the worst, and think that is quite an achievement.

That's because the best are nowhere to be seen there.  They would not self-identify as the worst, the aging, those in decline.  They are not even to be seen in the other institutions of socialization (indoctrination), where people learn to behave as they should, and act their proper age and station in life.

For those in "retirement," that should be to begin to die -- by becoming increasingly weak, frail and incompetent, as many people do -- feeling that is their entitlement -- because nobody has prepared them properly for the life beyond their "working" years, and so they have no idea of what to do, but to try to get everything they can before they leave this earth as though that will ensure that they never will.

Thus, people think that if they have "enough" health care insurance, they will never die, and not regard true health, as the best insurance for continuing their viability -- but think that at that stage of their lives, it is all in the hands of the health care professionals to make them better -- or at least, continue their lives in diminishing capacities for as long as science and technology now makes possible -- at whatever cost, because that is what future generations "owe" them.

Every generation has to live for itself -- and not sacrifice themselves to the prior one, or the future one.  Each serves best, making the most and best life out of their own.  Only in that way, is the present secured, and the future made possible -- and not by sacrificing oneself for the future, or the past -- which is now the great problem of these times.

One person dying, can consume the lives of ten people who have to sacrifice themselves to keep that one alive -- if people do not get better, so no one has to "sacrifice" themselves for any other.  That is the truly "compassionate" society, and not how many others, have to sacrifice themselves for the worst off, and the dying -- which is a natural process of life also.

Living well is not about consuming the most resources, controlling the most people, -- even living the longest, but is ultimately about the satisfaction and gratitude for the life one is living, at every time in one's life.  And when one is in that state of grace and peace with the world around them, then when death comes, they are prepared for it also.  But until it comes, they make the best of every moment, and their lives -- in the simple living of it.

For such people, endlessly "More," is not their concern and only response to all of life's challenges; they know what is sufficient and plenty -- because they make it so.  Those are the people who manifest reality and actualize it.  The others will never have enough, no matter how much they have and is given to them -- because all they know, is to demand "More." 



Must One Deteriorate (Age)?

Is deterioration an inevitable process of aging (time), or could it be merely the accumulation of bad choices that have caught up with one?


Conversely, are there good choices one makes, that improves the viability and vitality of life – throughout one’s existence?

Most people just accept the “fact” that they will deteriorate into an eventual hopeless condition until death seems like a natural conclusion – but if one were to continue to improve and get healthier, most would say that is not possible – or is it?

Much of what people do, ultimately harms them – unless they realize what they are doing, that causes them that injury, pain and suffering – more than it is, that bad things just happen.  People predispose bad things happening, as much as they predispose good things happening – although they often claim that they have absolutely no control of what is happening.

But is that really true, or just another rationalization, like all the rationalizations they accept for explanations that delude themselves?  They really don’t want to know, don’t want to see that they are ultimately responsible for what happens to them.  They like to believe they are just helpless victims of fate – and society, and not that their lives are the accumulation of all the individual choices they have made that have brought them to their present condition and situation (crisis).

A life of care – or a life of abuse, eventually shows itself.  There is no escaping one’s self-created (inflicted) destiny.  We are mostly, what we make ourselves.  Those are strange and aliens words in these times – when very few think they have any impact on their own lives!  How did we come to this?

More importantly, how can we take our lives back, and become the masters of our own fate and lives?  We have to show constant and continual improvement – even in the smallest ways, because even the smallest things matter – but there cannot be this resignation, that nothing matters, or makes a difference.  Something has to make a difference – and that is the beginning of progress – to find out what that is.

Obviously, the things that don’t work, don’t make that difference – but that should not lead one to conclude that nothing does.

We know that some people age better than others – which the people of despair and hopelessness will quickly attribute only to genetics – and not to the many choices one has made along the way to attaining that grace and presence of being.  Few grow old gracefully – with dignity and beauty.  That should be the aspiration of all – and not the current vision of increasing disability and senility, with enough health care insurance to ensure as much health care as possible, simply prolonging an irreversible decline of health as long as possible – as the only case possible.

Certainly, there has to be a better, more noble fate for humankind.  No society can be viable and sustainable, merely producing more disabled, dying and less-able bodied people.  That is the crisis of these times – that threatens to overwhelm every mature nation in the world – that is aging at an unprecedented alarming rate no society has dealt with before – unless they have already perished.

The first waves of the mass aging populations have already gotten there – and fared badly thus far, cut down by heart attacks, strokes, cancers, depression,  social alienation, dementias, disabilities, obesity and atrophy.  Underlying those difficulties, is no will to change and improve their conditions, other than that the government, or maybe the medical institutions should do something about it – while these individuals feel there is nothing they can do for themselves.

Obviously, that is the wrong paradigm and attitude – moving in the wrong direction.  But rather than time working against one, time can work for them – because that is the major advantage most have at that time in their lives, and nothing is more important to do than to improve their health as the primary occupation of their lives.  That doesn’t necessarily mean they have to devote all their time to it – but that should be their top priority, and then they can better go about the rest of their lives.

But that has to be the critical path – the first thing they do, and not the last, if they get around to it at all.  It should come even before they eat – just like in the monasteries, their devotion to God, comes before they breakfast – to get their priorities straight.  In others, it is their meditation, or exercises, before anything else, and those who don’t, don’t eat.  It is what one must do themselves, alone.

Many don’t know how to do anything themselves, alone – and that is their major problem, because unless one has that intense inner drive to improve, one will not do it for themselves – and no one will force them to.  So most won’t do it – but must suffer the consequences.  There is no escaping that fate.


50 Repetitions (The Key to Bodybuilding After 50)


Even former champion bodybuilders start to panic when around 50, the slow deterioration beginning at 30 -- begins an even sharper descent, and by 60, they regard their condition as irreversibly hopeless -- in that the more they try to do to prevent that deterioration, only seems to accelerate the pace of injury from which they no longer recover, let alone, stimulate gains.

The most common expression, is that everything they do, every movement they make, causes pain -- which should be an indication that they are doing something wrong in the first place, and merely persisting and persevering in that manner, IS NOT the solution -- but is creating and the source of the very afflictions they are suffering.  That is a hard belief to overcome -- that what they've been taught and believed their whole lives to be good for them, is actually very bad for them -- despite what all those teachers and the mass media say.

The truth is their actual experience -- of knocking themselves out with little in return -- and in fact, the despair that all they can do is slow the deteriorative process down, rather than rightly experiencing rapid and sustained growth and progress.

Most of these people in distress will counter that they are using the same weights as they did before -- for the same 5 sets of 5 reps -- as they did before, but now the pain in their joints is excruciating, and they have to spend every moment away from the gym -- which now becomes more infrequent, undergoing various therapies just to be able to make it to their next workout, when they repeat that torturous experience -- until they finally, utterly, give up.

It doesn't have to be that way.  Instead, they have to go back to where they got off on the wrong track -- thinking it was the amount of weight they were using in the movement that is beneficial, to the realization that it is the movement itself without any weight, that is the benefit of movement -- and so making that more onerous and difficult, is heading down the wrong path, and is directly responsible for the pain in their joints -- which the movement done without weights for 50 repetitions, would be curative, restorative, and even produce growth.

Why then don't people just do 50 repetitions of any movement?  That's largely because they've always been told that they shouldn't, and it would be more beneficial for them to add weight, anytime they can do more than some arbitrary low number of repetitions -- usually around 5.  But anybody who has ever tried to do 50 repetitions of any movement (even without any weight), will realize that fatigue begins to set in around 25, and then every subsequent repetition becomes more difficult -- unless one learns to perform the movement more aerobically, which means increasing their circulatory/respiratory efficiency in order to sustain their efforts.

That is the real meaning of aerobic activity -- and not all that pseudo-medical jargon and explanations to make physical education seem like brain surgery, so they can be compensated commensurately.  But understanding this process, is a fine art and science -- of distinguishing actual experience and observation, from the endless elaborate and convoluted theories and explanations of why things go wrong.  Always, the explanation for things that go right, is very simple -- and obvious, but the various profit-making activities, need to complicate it to make their profit -- and seem invaluable to the process.

50 repetitions may seem like a lot -- or a little, depending on where one is coming from.  To a marathon runner, 50 repetitions seems like hardly going anywhere -- but for the sprinter, 50 strides will cover 100 yards -- and the person with the fewest strides, will also be the fastest.  For record-setting weightlifters, a single lift is all they think important -- but those are the very people, who usually are forced out of such competitions beginning at age 30, and by 40 are eliminated by injury or conditions related to such monumental efforts without consideration of the longterm impacts on their health.  They often retire to a lifetime of inactivity -- because of crippling injuries -- and never learn how to move and exercise without harming themselves (further).

Most people have this mental reservation that they can't do 50 of anything -- especially if they haven't done anything before -- or have been taught and conditioned to believe they must never go beyond 5 -- or 10.  What happens to those who do?  Surprisingly, they don't perish by violating those taboos, advice and admonitions -- but instead, discover a whole new world of enjoyable and sustainable movement -- that makes them feel immediately better, and better each subsequent time.

The reason for this is because in order to perform 50 repetitions of ANY movement, one has to perform that movement with aerobic efficiency -- which means fully contracting, as well as fully relaxing the muscles involved -- or it will produce anaerobic failure -- just as the heart will fail, if it cannot alternate from one state to the other.  Additionally, a weight that will only allow only 5 repetitions of maximal effort, will require explosive muscle contractions that will cause pain and injury to the joints -- until the muscles, tendons, or ligaments are damaged -- rather than strengthened by a maximal circulatory flow to those areas "exercised" in this healthful manner -- as indicated by the 50 repetitions.

The attainment of the 50 repetitions, is always accompanied by a noticeable and dramatic muscle pump -- that is often disparaged for its very effectiveness -- of maximally directing the blood flow to the specific area (muscles) desired -- which is the restorative, curative, therapeutic and growth effect.  That's how the body works -- to direct its resources (nutrients) to those areas very specifically and deliberately.

That's why and how people tend to get good -- at what they actually do, sustain, persist and persevere -- rather than the opposite.


The Simplicity of Movement (Action)


There are only two things one needs to teach (condition) one's muscles to do: Achieve fullest contraction, and achieve fullest relaxation of that (any) muscle -- and every movement, will fall between those extremes.  

That lesson is best taught by the premier muscle of the body -- which is the heart, because it always works so unfailingly, or life is no longer possible.  But the objective of exercise (conditioning) is not simply to make the heart work harder and faster, but to enlist the other voluntary (skeletal) muscles of the body in aiding that critical function of circulation -- because the flow is only meaningful when one considers the end destination, and the complete circuit -- and not just the action at the heart, without any movement anywhere else.

However, such action is frequently seen in people kept alive by extraordinary life support technologies as is now possible -- initially conceived for temporary usage to make a full recovery possible -- but now also employed when recovery is not possible, and often to prolong vital signs to extraordinary lengths beyond the consciousness and enjoyment of life -- which a few insightful pioneers regard as the definition of a viable, sustainable and meaningful life -- which undoubtedly will be discussed at greater length and depth in the forthcoming years.

But way beyond that, one can ask the question, what meaningful actions (movements) can one take, that significantly enhances the optimal functioning of the human body -- not just to do trivial things, or the obvious things -- but to enhance functioning at its most critical level that underlies everything we are, and everything we do (health) -- that is largely taken for granted that we already do, when in fact, we have never even begun to carefully consider them.

Thus, we still have the arguments between those who should know better and those who don't, of whether exercise is good or bad, and moving beyond that (if possible), what would be the nature of the most productive manner of exercise -- not just to run faster, jump higher, and lift more weights, etc., but to do all those things -- when the brain functioning on its highest level of challenge, deems those maximal attempts and resources need to be employed appropriately, efficiently and effectively -- and not merely squandered as though it is an unlimited resource, and the more one uses, the more one gets.

Nothing in the real world works that way -- of unlimited use, leading to a further expansion of the resources, rather than its (premature) exhaustion -- so that in the learning (conditioning), one has to also calculate the proper reward-to-risk ratios.  Preferably, that would mean jumping out of a plane with a parachute rather than without one, and cycling with a helmet rather than without one, following the advice of those who boldly proclaim, that what one does that doesn't kill them, will make them stronger.

So the problem of beneficial movements, is not whether one can achieve one extreme of muscular state (contraction or relaxation) to the exclusion of the other, but in one's ability to enhance the greatest articulation (expression) of that full range, while also increasing that range at its accustomed limits (extremes) -- as the fundamental measure of that change, and ability to produce it -- as deemed appropriate and necessary.  

There are some who teach that the only action of the muscle, is to produce a relaxation response -- as in yoga, chi gung, relaxation and stretching (only) techniques, while others believe, that all one aims to achieve is muscular contractions at all times, not surprisingly accompanied with hypertension -- because the heart must pump into that unrelenting resistance. On the other hand, the perpetually relaxed muscles at the extremities particularly, do nothing to aid the circulatory process with its own alternating rhythmic contraction-relaxation phase -- that would effectively push the fluids back towards the heart more expeditiously, which is the beneficial health effect.

So it is not enough just to make the heart alone work more vigorously while the skeletal muscles remain largely inert, but more sensibly, to get the muscles that are not engaged, performing the most useful actions they can contribute to the basic maintenance of the healthful operation of that individual -- which is enhance the flow of nutrients to the extremities of their critical functioning at the head, hands and feet, while also removing the waste products that are the results of such exertions, in the release of that energy to move.

The problem in exercise, is that while moving, one may not be aware that the ultimate objective, is to achieve that awareness of that state of muscular contraction one is in -- because the state is not only determined by position, but also resistance.  That is to observe, that even when 500 lbs is resting on one's chest rather than at arm's length -- that is not a state of relaxation and rest, because the resistance doesn't go down to zero -- but has to remain minimally, at 500 lbs.  "Resting" at the top, is also 500 lbs.  The difference between those two positions, is the power needed to move from the lower to the higher position -- but the lower position is not fully relaxed, nor the top necessarily fully contracted.

Despite the apparent movement, there is very little change in the muscular state -- usually beginning with contraction, and maintaining that contraction throughout -- despite apparent movement -- which is not the desired change of desired states from full relaxation to full contraction -- and back again, for a sustained period indicating that aerobic nature.  That is the problem with doing benchmark movements such as chinups or parallel bar dips even without additional weights; that weight never goes to zero -- at any point during that set of repetitions.  There is no resting (relaxation) phase -- but rather a prolonged anaerobic effort until one fails -- not because of muscle failure, but first because that lack of circulatory effectiveness is detected first by the brain, that will cease all further operations and efforts, until a healthful reserve can be restored to the brain -- which overrides every other functioning, movement and activities.

That was the rationale in the development of the Nautilus and other variable resistance machines -- that they would allow one to go from zero to 100% (and back repeatedly) -- but it also has to be used with that understanding, and not defeated by exerting twice as much effort against that natural relaxation phase -- which then prevents any relaxation from occurring and predictably, making failure inevitable and faster -- which is the last thing one would actually want to do, in any real world challenge, or more importantly, in real life -- which is also the problem of aging.


Easy Does It


What's with all the experts making everything seem as difficult as possible? -- so that we need their expert guidance to make it through the tortuous maze of doing anything?

That reliance on the "experts," is behind the lack of competence and confidence of most contemporary people now to do anything for themselves -- or to feel confident doing anything for themselves anymore.

But it's as simple as whether we "buy into" our own disempowerment -- or we continue to think for ourselves, and increase our own competence and confidence to do so.  That seems to be the "service" offered by most news and information outlets these days -- certainly the mainstream mass media as has always been their reason for being, but especially so lately, with those who confuse their own self-interests with those of the public interest -- and can see no difference.

There is only a world of opinion -- and so everyone's is as good as any other, and everyone is "entitled" to their own, no matter what the consequences or realities.  All one has to do is assert it, to make it so -- since their opinion can never be tested in any real world conditions, which makes it possible for the world of their opinions to coexist in perfect contradiction to their actual experiences and results.
 
But in most things, truth is in the doing -- and not what the experts say should be so, even though they've never thought of it before, or tested it -- before a reporter with a story already written, seeks corroborating "opinions " --   to confirm their preconceived story line.  It is possible that way, to only hear what one wants to hear, and answer only the questions one wants answered -- which may not be all there is to know.  But they will insist, "That is all one needs to know."

And so in the vital discussion of health, what is frequently discussed instead -- are the best health care mandates in the absence of it.  But it is becoming increasingly clear, that in the distinctions between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have nots, the division is not between who has good health care insurance and who doesn't, but those who actually have/are healthy, and those who are not.  That is what it means to be rich and poor in today's world -- because that defines every other experience one has in life.

If one has very little money, but one is the healthiest person in the world -- you are the richest person in the world.  That is what matters.  That is what it is all for -- and about.  And more than ever before -- that means the total package of physical, mental, emotional, social health -- and not merely one sacrificed at the expense of all the others.  Maybe in previous times, that kind of specialization was all the resources that was available to most individuals -- rather than total access to all the resources, including and especially information -- and the ability to discover the truth in the actuality of our own lives and experiences.

That is the "new school" -- and no longer the "old school" of specialists finding out for everybody else in controlled laboratory conditions -- and then telling it to the media (middle men), to tell it to somebody (everybody) else, and in that manner, the message (truth) being horribly garbled and distorted by the time it returned to the original observer to note, "That's not what I said."  But whatever has caught on, has taken on a life (and truth) of its own.

Nowhere is that more true than in one's "conditioning" activities -- in which one actualizes everything one knows -- or thinks they do. Yet that is why most people are in such poor conditions and shapes -- because that is the reality of their understanding, but when that understanding is clear -- the problems go away very quickly, including all the pain one is inflicting upon oneself -- under the mistaken notion, that one shouldn't trust one's own senses -- but listen to the "experts" instead.

Rather than daily exercise being what most want to avoid, it can and should be designed to be everything one wants to do -- and not what they dread doing.  For many people, that is avoiding running or even walking -- as not their best activity and movement, rather than being convinced that it is unarguably "the best exercise."  There's a good reason a lot of people don't like to walk or run -- or swim or pole vault for that matter.  And it should be the task of the instructor to help a student find what it is they were designed to do -- which they will love doing, and not the absurd notion that they will come to love doing what they hate -- and know to be wrong for themselves, and so they won't do it.

There's a reason there are hundreds of exercise machines and variations -- which some will enjoy and do better on some rather than the others -- but for the misguided experts of the world to mandate that they know best what is right for everyone, is the beginning of the downfall for any society since the beginning of "time."  Evolution is much smarter than that.  It requires that there be as much diversity to a wide range of challenges the species must face -- to ensure its own survival, which is fitness and the fittest.

In an age in which many reach a ripe old age, the difference is obviously those who do so in good health -- and the evolving better health that long lives and better information/technology makes possible.  The greatest beneficiaries will be those who pioneer that evolution -- because they will be the ones who enjoy robust good health, while the expectations are still of inevitable and invariable decline and deterioration -- and so to have what virtually no others have, is to have great wealth.

Yet rather than being an impossible thing, or even a hard thing to accomplish -- it is actually the easiest thing to do and realize -- once one breaks through the old conditioning -- that everything has to be hard, difficult and tortuous, but is easy and self-evident, and in fact, they can follow their own good senses -- and hone them, in preference to the old conditioning of distrusting one's own good sense and judgment.  That really is the revelation of these times -- in a post-mass culture and broadcast information age.

To the "Old Guard," such a world would be total chaos and disaster -- without their control.  But is the world so problem-free under their control and guidance now? -- or are we on the edge of a major collapse, and must find another way -- even questioning the very premises of life itself?  "Easy" means acting on the information and wisdom people already have -- rather than being discouraged and unconfident of doing so, because they think some "greater intelligence" should be telling them what to do -- and rewarding/punishing them for doing so -- and not that they should/must be doing it for themselves, as the ultimate objective in any meaningful life.

The whole objective of "fitness," is to discover what life can be -- for each individual, rather than presuming that we know what that is, for everyone -- because we know better what that is for everyone.  That is the true source of all the problems in the world.

The Hardest Thing to See is the Obvious


As one who has spent over fifty years instructing people on exercise, very few are willing to accept the obvious -- that the primary function of their own muscles, is to shape the condition they are in -- directly and immediately.  Many teach that only as a product of time -- in one year, something miraculous happens that transforms them totally -- and not that that possibility exists presently, but obviously, some have a greater skill at doing that than others.

Competitive bodybuilders look the way they do, because that is the way they want to look -- so that even the novices have that "look" -- of a bodybuilder, because it is a "conditioned" response.   That is what their conditioning does -- but that is not the only condition possible to be in.  But unless one has their own unique sense of aestethics and ideals, they will default to what everybody else looks like -- which may not be their own best shape, or condition.  They are trying to be somebody else -- and as long as one does, they cannot be the best at what they alone are meant to be, and manifest.

That's always what I found disagreeable about competitive bodybuilding -- in that there is a stereotypical ideal that only a few conform to, while rejecting all the other possibilities of supernormal development.  In fact, those with too freakish development, are penalized for wrecking the symmetry of the preconceived ideal -- which is that people have to look like stereotypical competitive bodybuilders, rather than actualizing their own unique possibilities.

But that is not the green light for the lazy and cynical, that being in one's worst shape and condition, is as good as being in one's best -- because everything one does and thinks, and even thinks of doing, is determined by their conditioned readiness to respond.  That is to say, that one will be ready to respond to challenges that arise, because one has the immediate capacity to do so -- and not only what one hopes to do a year from now, or at some more ideal time and condition in their minds.

That is the difference between those who do, and those who only think they can -- and think that is the same.  Thus they feel, what they can see themselves doing in some imaginary future, is what they actually are capable of doing, or in fact, have already done -- in their mind's eye.  And for such people, those fantasies and delusions become even more "real," than their actual experiences and actualities -- which is the mental illness called cognitive dissonance.  Their report of reality, cannot be confirmed, tested and verified by any other independent observer -- not previously told what to think and see.

A lot of that kind of "learning," is passed down as the academic tradition -- of agreeing to what the duly-certified authorities have said everyone must believe -- and not that there could be another way of seeing things.   Any other possibilities, or truth, are not taught -- even if they could be more valid, and obviously closer to the truth, they don't want to believe.

So the conditioning of the mind as to what is possible, and what is not possible, usually preserves the status quo except when there is extraordinary insight that supersedes that past conditioning -- and bumps it onto a different trajectory, a different pattern of being.  That is why a lot of people's conditioning programs, keep them the same -- rather than changing them immediately, effectively, and then permanently.

A clear and elementary example is the person with a pot-belly -- who can still effect a pose in which that shape and condition disappears -- because they have "sucked" it in.  Instead of doing fifty situps -- or even a thousand -- hoping to make that appearance permanent in that roundabout way, it is obviously much more effective, and self-evident, that they can produce that "condition" directly and immediately -- and that should be their "practice" or exercise, and not all the others they are doing, that don't produce that immediate appearance and effect.

There is nobody who is in poor or undesirable condition and shape, who doesn't have any muscle.  But their muscles haven't been trained (conditioned) to do anything they want to do, or would be beneficial to do -- but instead, they are useless and unexercised to produce those effective responses -- which is nothing more than to relax or to contract, as appropriate for the situation.  And the socially desirable response, would be to be in the best shape and condition possible -- unless it was perceived that being in a "damaged" condition was more advantageous -- which undoubtedly, is a bad lesson to learn, and poor outlook to have in life.

Such attitudes and outlooks, damages one psychologically -- into thinking one is powerless on one's own, but if they attach themselves to some larger group, they can be powerful -- or at least, untormented.  In being harmless and impotent in that way, one thinks they can escape the notice and wrath of more powerful individuals they think will taunt and bully them as they learned on their first days on the playground as kids -- and the wisdom of not standing out, or ever standing alone -- even to be one's own best.

It Doesn't Take Much


Most people have been conditioned to think that simply "more" is always and unconditionally better -- except maybe in the case of smoking, eating, drinking, and conspicuous consumption.  However, even too much of a good thing can be harmful, or counterproductive -- as in the case of exercise, when more results in injury and constant fatigue and the shortage of time and energy -- rather than increasing it.

So it is important to find out just the right amount of something -- that produces maximum results in the greater considerations of life, rather than just being ends in themselves, that begin to detract from everything else in life -- which is the often heard complaint that they don't have time to do anything more (else), so why bother?

That would be the first consideration in designing a program of any effectiveness -- that it doesn't take all one's time, to return very little -- or in many cases, no measurable results, so that such behaviors become obsessive compulsive disorders in themselves -- not necessarily an improvement from the condition they were trying to improve.

So while one may begin an activity thinking how much better they will make the rest of their lives, it can shortly become the only thing in their lives -- until eventually, they can no longer do it at all -- at which point there is a huge void in their lives, and no longer the capacity or will to embark on anything else again.  That is the problem with many overzealous programs -- that ultimately result in people becoming "burned out" and coming to to feel the futility of any further effort -- and even to care about such improvements anymore.

In fact, the whole notion of "improvement," is regarded as a folly and impossibility henceforth in their lives.  That is the mental part of "aging" -- which is the giving up that any further effort can result in a betterment -- and all one can do anymore, is simply accept deterioration and decline as gracefully as possible -- which becomes their self-fulfilling fate.

'That's why it is very important to have ways of measuring improvement -- even if one has to create them oneself, because nobody else cares anymore whether one does or doesn't.  It is vitally important that one themselves care -- and can tell the difference, which is the basis of any measurement of improvement -- and not that not being able to "discriminate" any differences anymore, is the height of age and wisdom.  Vitality, is about being able to distinguish those differences -- and especially, those things that do make a difference of significant importance.

Many lose their way -- and think that the most trivial matters, are equally as important as the most significant -- because they have no way of distinguishing the two, or anything else.  Thus every day, is simply the repetition of every day before it, and expected to be repeated as long as it is possible to do so -- as the only measure of their lives, that "more" is simply better -- always and unconditionally.

But for a rare few, the quality of life, matters more -- and not unsurprisingly, results in "more" too, but that is not its objective.  Better implies the more, but the more, does not necessarily produce the better.  This is the distinction overlooked in most discussions on the effectiveness of exercise for the human body.  What quality allows one to persist over a lifetime of sustained improvement -- and not just the traditional pattern of improvement for a relatively brief period in one's life, and then the complete cessation of it -- during those times and conditions one would benefit tremendously from that structure and orientation in one's life.

That is obviously the "step beyond," where even conventional/traditional exercise has not gone before -- in producing old people who can still do impressive things, but not in producing people who do not age in the first place -- but are regarded as "ageless" people -- or those we never think to categorize primarily by age, because of attributes that are more significant to describe them.  But it doesn't just happen.  It has to be deliberately designed to address the vulnerabilities that lead to the despair that all efforts in these matters are hopeless and futile.  Otherwise, one would do them.

But to do things just because somebody, or the mass media says one should, with no confirmation from one's own experiences, quickens the sense that all is futile and hopeless, and the institutions (authorities) exist merely to delude us further -- which is the increasing cynicism and disbelief of the old, that anything can be trusted anymore.

The key is not setting oneself up for these disappointments and failures -- but rather, designing the milestones (measurements) for easy success that becomes a habit and expectation invariably fulfilled.  There is nothing wrong with succeeding time after time after time so that it becomes one's tendency -- and the path of least resistance.  That is a mind-boggling concept for those who have been conditioned, and condition themselves always to make things harder on themselves -- thinking there is something virtuous in that -- until eventually, their goals are too far from their capabilities -- and discourages them from even trying anymore.

That's usually and predictably how people fail.  Knowing this, one would then plan to fail, as much as to succeed -- or program rest, as well as effort.  That is much like the action and example of the heart -- that derives its usefulness from its ability to both fully contract, as well as fully relax.  Formerly very active, dedicated and devoted people quit entirely -- for that reason, that they think they have to always do too much, and never allow themselves adequate time for rest and recovery -- until they are forced to, by some cataclysmic breakdown of the body now demanding rest and time off.

So before one gets to that point, too much of a good thing -- can become a bad thing too, and not train to the point of exhaustion and failure, on a daily or weekly basis -- and build up that reserve instead for the long haul, and those times when one actually has to go to those limits.  But not routinely.  That is what one is trying to build up.

Better or Worse?


Better or worse?

That is always the question.

In everything one does, the measure of what one is doing, and how well they are doing, is whether they are better or worse for their efforts.  If they continue to get worse, then they should do something else, and not just continue what they are doing, hoping the results will be different.  However, if they get better, one should continue with what one is doing, until one gets worse.  That seems to be an infallible guide in life.

That is true at anytime in life, but particularly so when there seems to be irreversible worsening with no cessation in sight.  At that point, one should be desperate for any other solution -- but the course they have been traveling.  That should be obvious to anyone, doing anything -- but especially so to those who are overwhelmed by their difficulties.

Just as obvious, should be the advice -- to make things even more difficult and complicated -- because what is needed first, is the return to simplicity, and the simple.

Most people's poor health is caused by the fact that they do nothing to promote their own good health -- while doing many things, to subvert that good health -- such as overeating, and no longer exercising any of their faculties except their imaginations that they are doing everything possible, and even that they are the ONLY person in the world doing anything -- by worrying and complaining about it.  In their world, somebody else should do something to make them healthy again -- and not that they can ever do anything for themselves anymore.  That is at the root of most health problems -- that just get worse, if nothing is done, to alter that course.  

Decline, deterioration, injury and death, are inevitable and predictable, and not merely a cruel twist of fate -- that everyone is as equally vulnerable to, despite what they do.  That way of thinking, and perceiving the world and all that happens, is the cause of most of the problems people feel afflicted with, and not realizing they are bringing upon themselves -- often with "expert" and "professional" help.

Most people don't have to consult their physician or registered dietician, to eat less or change their diet for the better.  Neither do they have to consult their physician or "certified" personal trainer to take a walk -- or join a gym, and then exercise in whatever manner gives them the best results -- even without personal supervision and instruction.  Most of what they need to know, they can just learn by observing others, and deducing what is appropriate to do.  That is a time-honored tradition of learning anything -- that one has a chance to first observe and see if anything being done makes sense, and decide whether they also want to do it -- instead of being driven to it from the moment one enters, to the moment one cannot go on any longer -- as though there was some kind of ancient wisdom in that.

Actually, the best learning, is just to observe, without any compulsion or coercion to join in and go along, but if things make sense and people seem to be enjoying what they are doing, to join in on whatever level one feels up to, and desires to continue.  That usually indicates that one feels better, and is getting better, and to other observers, look better doing so.  So there is this immediate confirmation of reality and sensation coming together in a comprehensive and integrated whole -- observable and verifiable by everyone, and not just a few self-designated experts.

Even doctors and athletes die or get injured (most do), which may indicate their fallibility as experts on health matters.  Some doctors smoke, and many athletes will take drugs to improve their short-term (one-time) performance -- at the risk of their longterm health and well-being -- that invariably shows up and impacts their health in later life.  Often for that reason, many die prematurely, before they can fully manifest the devastating, detrimental results.  Most of the time, it is obvious -- in painful movement that eventually results in minimal movements -- and when that happens, the prognosis for recovery is not good, because it is the proper functioning and exercise of one's capacities, that maintain and increase their capabilities.

That is the value of exercise -- and conditioning oneself to get better -- that becomes a way one does everything, including getting older.  The problem is that many get older, but they do not get better, or wiser -- but seem to spend a prolonged period in life, getting worse -- which is not inevitable, obviously, for everyone.  A few do defy the familiar pattern of aging -- which is unfortunately associated with getting older -- because everyone gets older, but only a rare few, get better as they get older -- in most of the ways we are used to assessing such changes.

It's no longer enough that a person can perform amazing feats while seeming to be in aging or declining health and appearance.  The next wave of improvement, is that many people don't exhibit most of the signs associated with growing older, and continue to get better -- with age.  That possibility exists because one has never attained their fullest actualization yet -- and not that they peaked at 18, or 28, and have been in a free fall decline ever since, which is a long time to fall, if people now live to 90 routinely.

That being the case, we have to manage life much more wisely, so that longevity represents many more opportunities to get better -- not necessarily in the same way one did in their younger years.  But that means the discovery, of ways they were not aware of before -- before they grew so wise.  That used to be the meaning of age -- the wisdom obtained in that longevity, and not just minimal vital signs maintained for as long as possible -- with no other consideration for these quality of life issues, and their measurement.

But now that many, if not most, live to a ripe old age because there are no wars, famines, diseases, disasters and hardships to cut down vast swaths of the most vulnerable, individuals have to take it upon themselves to define a higher meaning and purpose for their own lives -- beyond being kept alive at the most minimal levels of that possibility, and when it is the proper time to move on also.

What Is A Blog?


Succinctly, it is the official publication of whoever publishes it.  That is a matter of record -- of their thoughts, and how they think.  As such, there are no "shoulds" as to how it should be, or must be -- but is, whatever one can imagine it to be -- good or bad.  One cannot "fake" a blog.  It is, what the person is -- really, and for that reason, many do not blog -- because it would reveal their true thoughts.  Many others will start blogs, and then erase everything they previously published, because they don't want to be known by it.

Many, instead of telling you what they think -- tell you what you ought to think -- about them, that they are "award-winning," "world-acclaimed" and some such.  They have merely taken a page from the "mainstream mass media" in that way -- of telling us what we ought to think, and not just laying out the facts of how they came to think as they do, and letting us think for ourselves, and come to our own conclusions.

Instead, they claim to do all the thinking for us, or know those people who should, and are duly-authorized to do so exclusively for everyone else. So once we are aware of all these deceptions, intimidations and manipulations, we can read any blog (publication), and learn the true intent of the authors -- which may range from the genuine desire to share information (discoveries), or reveal the single-minded (and shameless) intention to exploit all those less competent, or attentive than themselves -- as the continuation of the primitive struggles of a more brutal and ruthless times.

Thus some blogs will stand the test of time, and endure, while many will be disowned and purged, as soon as the authors themselves realize the folly in revealing everything they know, and how they are undone at their own hands.  It further reveals, what they think of those they have written these words for -- whether for the most unwary, or for the most diligent, aware and attentive -- or the supreme intelligence in the universe, ie., God, and therefore is their ultimate dedication to the greatest they are capable of.

In this way, it becomes their fullest and greatest expression of who they are, and what they know -- as the achievement of their worthiness for entrance to even higher callings.  They have demonstrated in this very obvious expression -- the highest intelligence they are capable of understanding -- and expressing, and there is no other -- if the truth be known.  There is not some vast storehouse of wisdom and knowledge that they know -- but cannot express, communicate, and demonstrate palpably to another -- though they may claim to possess it -- known only to themselves.

Conveniently, a group known in former times as the Scribes, would offer to bridge this chasm of what such people claimed to know (Pharisees), and how they could convince the masses that they actually knew something, and were in direct communication with the highest authorities, and spoke for them, on every matter.  They later became institutionalized as the "academics," and then with the printing press, the "publishers" and "the media" -- or those who had the means or access to these presses.  

Undoubtedly, information was more widely available than it ever was before -- when all writing had to be individually hand-transcribed by people largely dedicated to that purpose.  That was the creation of the original universities -- when one person in authority and presumably knew, would lecture to a roomful of students (novitiates), to copy word for word as they spoke -- as best they could. Even then, all books did not come out identically.  Many had fancy doodlings in the margin -- waiting for the rest to catch up, so everybody could move on -- to the next passage, in this lockstep fashion.

So the printing press was quite an advancement in the production and reproduction of the original ideas -- as true to how they were originally expressed.  The next advance is in distribution -- because even if one has mass quantities of anything -- getting them to the right people who can use and appreciate them, is another matter entirely -- or at least, used to be.  The revolution in any field, is when the many things, become only one thing -- subsuming all the others.  In writing, that is when the printing becomes the distribution in the same act -- and not that one has warehouses of books one wonders what to do with, and how to market, and manifest value from them.

Probably the great majority of words printed, did not find find the proper targets -- as they were randomly and broadly distributed, hoping to find the few, and hopefully the many, who would value that information greatly, if not desperately.  But even the most valuable, gets drowned out by the sheer mass of the offerings and appeals -- thinking to achieve their own agendas, whatever that may be.  Many hope to leave their mark in the world, in this way.  Simply that they existed -- even if for no good reason or purpose.  Wild animals do the same -- by urinating and defecating to mark their territory, and let the world know they are there -- and claim the turf.

Presumably, they communicate a lot of information in that way -- about what they eat, and importantly, how much they eat -- so that one knows what they are dealing with, and whether one should throw their lot with that pack, and whether they are the prey or predator.  Written communications do the same -- much more efficiently, because no physical material is actually needed to represent it as they are in words, images and symbols denoting that -- to those who have learned those tools of language -- and how to use them expertly precisely -- to express all they know.

We All Must Become Bodybuilders


The distinguishing characteristic of aging and deterioration, is muscular atrophy or shrinkage -- obviously visible as sagging and wrinkled skin -- for which there is no dynamic, underlying support -- of the musculature.  That is less obvious in the obese -- because of the mass that supports the skin, just as artifices like botox do in filling out the spots that have basically collapsed because there is no underlying supporting structure -- as the muscles are designed for.

Thus one can tell right off, whether that specimen is "robust" -- or in declining health, which is the major cue in life as to a prospect's chances of success or failure, which in the successful and healthy, determines the course of their lives.  They don't make bad choices, but instead, make better and better choices -- which makes the quality of their lives improve with age, rather than revealing the accumulative effects of a life of bad choices.

First we have to acknowledge, that the quality of our lives is a choice -- and not just random fate, so that all choices result in the same outcome, so it is futile to hope to do better.  Many people try to pass off that despair as the wisdom of being older -- and so go through the motions of doing something productive and meaningful, while having no idea of what they are doing, much less how they could be doing it better.

For such people, nothing really and actually makes a difference, but they go along unquestioningly -- because one can't be wrong doing what everybody else is doing -- even if it is obviously and categorically not working.  Their sole criteria of "right," is what everybody else is doing/thinking, regardless of whether it makes no difference.  It is the end-all and be-all, just to do what everybody else does -- including the complaining of the futility of their activities and lives, because that is what everybody else does.

But assuredly, some things do make a difference -- and the reason there are differences, and not that an "enlightened" society must now ban all differences -- and agree that everything must be the same.  Obviously, that is a giant step backwards for individuals as well as civilizations -- and human evolution.  The thrust of evolution and progress, is that we become more discriminating -- and not less -- to the ultimate achievement that we cannot distinguish any differences in anything.  The supreme achievement of life, is to be able to distinguish differences (qualities) that no other person can distinguish as well -- or even realizes there can be.

That obvious difference, is whether one is getting better, or worse -- and determining what behaviors and activities result in those conditions -- in all the things we do, to produce the preferred outcomes that enhance our lives and prospects for the future -- all the days of our lives.  It doesn't make much sense, for life to get unrelentingly worse each day, all the rest of our lives -- until death is a welcome release, and then lament that end.  Better one should go suddenly at the peak of their powers -- especially at a hundred.  That alone would be a life extraordinarily lived.

But the present pattern, is that one peaks fairly early in life (40), and then may spend half as much in decline -- claiming that is the normal and healthy, and the only thing that can be expected, as the way life is -- despite the fact that life was not always so long, and kind.  Life before, was "brutal, nasty and short," and people were conditioned to such lives -- but now, that is not the only way it can be.

But a better life doesn't just happen.  It happens because people deliberately make it happen -- in all that they do, as the organizing principle of their lives.  For the first 40 years of one's life, it is not so  important to be a bodybuilder, one as one ages, it is increasingly important and obvious that that is what one must do -- but is presently, when most people stop and abandon all hopes of becoming one, because the present regimen and conditioning ideas, fail to work -- and prove futile and discouraging.  That is not inherently the case.  It is simply that the popular notions are wrong -- and fail at those times they must succeed -- that really matter.

And that is the major determinant of the quality of life in that latter half of one's life -- that makes those years golden, rather than the unrelenting torment it has become for those who no longer care -- about anything anymore -- or can tell the difference.

The Will to Overcome


At some point in every life, they choose to give up -- which at times, can have even greater survival value than choosing to fight -- against insurmountable forces.  At times like that, one is wise to go with the flow, rather than face a certain obliteration.  It doesn't matter how great a swimmer one is -- in the face of a tsunami wave; one should just run as fast as one can to higher ground way beforehand.

So choosing when to fight, and when to flee, is a key survival skill -- as is assessing when to give up entirely, and then to battle on, when it can make a difference -- and not just being in vain, so that one eventually regards every undertaking, as futile and hopeless.  That is the utter despair of one's existence -- that one can make any difference at all, in anything one does -- anymore.

If one is young and obviously able, such desperate acts are often the test, that it really does matter what one does -- and life is not just a video arcade game of "virtual reality," that blurs into the rest of one's life and desires.  If one is of advanced years, we often dismiss that erosion of confidence and competence, "normal aging," which more than a few, are now starting to question, if there is anything "normal" about it -- or whether that is merely a carryover of the previous life that was notably "short, nasty and brutal," and the life we were conditioned for.

But when that life changes, many of the older, are not reconditioned to live in the new age -- in which all the young usually are -- unless they have these throwback "educators," who believe that what education was good for them, is also inviolably good for the newest generation -- and the new should be indoctrinated into the old, rather than the old into the new.  And that is the crux of the problem in every age and generation -- when the differences grow greater, as well as people living longer.

Many look like they shouldn't even be alive, yet they are -- but largely hidden from view because that is not what we want to recognize, as where most of our health care expenditures are producing.  It is much more costly, to keep the dying living, than it is to support the living, and their obvious will to live and overcome whatever obstacles stand in that actualization.  They have a life of their own -- that transcends every other life to support and control.  They are not simply dependent on all the others for their life -- but create it for the many others.

That is what is overlooked in the thinking that all must be equal -- no matter what, as the supreme principle of the universe -- to which every other consideration must be subservient to.  Some things matter more than others -- which the most observant, label as "significant," and of greater significance -- than everything merely being the same, or equal.

Unfortunately, in the government schools of political correctness -- that vital understanding, is lost and overridden, in favor of what the bureaucracy has determined we all must believe, repeat, and propagate -- as the business of citizens, to make all subservient to the will of those who determine that for everyone else. But that absolute and tight control, breaks down when change (of the information/understanding) is too rapid, for the controlling agencies to maintain a tight rein.  That happens when there is a massive sea change -- like a hundred tsunamis, when everything that was previously thought (taught) to be true, turns out to be false -- and even those formerly in control and supervisory positions, are swept away with those changes.

That's what we see happening now -- in the aging paradigm of these times.  Increasingly many, are not aging in the traditional pattern, but a distinctly different life form is emerging, and manifesting itself.  That is the story of the evolution of life -- even while the current reign of the dinosaur, seems absolute and eternal, but nothing lasts forever, even in the minds of men.  Shortly it is written, that it was always that way.

But it was just the challenge and triumph of its own time -- and that will change again.

Making the Weak, Strong


The problem with making the competitive model the basis for individual lifelong (health) improvement, is that its purpose is not to make the weak, strong, but to simply eliminate the weak from further participation -- which is disastrous as a public health program.  So there is no mystery why the prevalence of obese and inactive individuals living substandard lives is so alarming.  That is the whole purpose of those competitive activities -- to derive and identify the one winner, and not to help the billions of others by confusing the issue, with their continued participation.  Then the judges have to "find the needle in the haystack," rather than see only "the last man standing."

And while that can be an amusing thing to do, it's not real helpful when the purpose becomes keeping as many people "in the game" as possible, so that they all don't end up warehoused waiting to die from an early age -- as many view their lives now, beginning even during their 20s -- before they have even hit their prime and peak.

The reason we have "education," is to make the ignorant, informed and educated about things that should matter, and not just to eliminate them, so that we teach only the smart, and then proclaim we are the greatest teachers in the world, and know what we are doing -- because the only "student" remaining, knows more than all the rest.  Then the danger and threat to society becomes what happens to the overwhelming rest -- and not that there is just one champion who will live life for all the rest -- as the pharaohs, emperors and kings of a much more primitive time.

Hopefully, we no longer condition people for living in such a world, when only one winner can live the fullest life -- but that possibility, exists for everyone in that society.  Then truly, we can see how far we have come as a civilization -- in that everyman now, can live as well as only kings could live in the past, with literally virtual access to everything -- limited only by their ability to find the needle in the haystack of information, marketing and propaganda.

Thus the real function of education, is to ask first, why is one learning what is being taught, and not simply because that is what everyone is being taught -- with never a question, "Why?"  In this way, the first can often be last -- in learning all that can be useless, counterproductive and destructive, because they are too willing and eager, to jump the mark for a quick start and advantage -- thinking it is just enough to be at the front of the pack, before asking where it is going -- as it often is, to their own destruction.

That is the competitive way, and not asking the right question, of what makes the weak, strong?  You can never come to the right answer, by not asking the right question -- but when one asks the right question, the answer is there.  Many are not even aware they are asking any questions at all -- so sure are they that they know what they are doing -- until they can't, because of injury or unbearable pain or discomfort warning them they should stop.  The body is wise in its intelligence to recognize that -- despite all the advice and encouragement otherwise.

But when everything makes perfectly good sense, there is no such resistance and objection -- because it is not crippling, but enabling and empowering -- and one would not do otherwise, because nothing else makes more sense to do -- if one still does anything at all.  Most people are actually advised not to do anything until and unless they consult with "professional opinion" (over one's own senses) -- which they can rely on to be dependent for the rest of their lives -- as only fit to follow another's orders, including and especially their own well-being, keeping them weak and dependent forevermore, and getting worse, with every passing year.

That is what we too familiarly recognize as the "aging" and "disabling" problem that is the epidemic of these times -- that the weak simply get weaker, all their lives, with no hope of a recovery and turnaround.  That is just the "normal" aging process, these experts will proclaim -- and for that, they will always be "there" for us, and never the possibility, that we will ever be strong enough not to need them.

Then society goes into a hopeless downward spiral without end, as the only possibility, in that people can only get worse, and never better -- and then want to get worse, faster -- to get even more aid and so we get to the current health care crisis of increasing, endless resources for the dying -- rather than the living.

Your Health Is YOUR Job


Because of the excessive specialization and fragmentation of jobs and roles in societies even of the recent past, many people don't think they have a job and/or responsibility unless they have the specific job title, and pay that goes along with it.

That has disastrous consequences when such people "retire" -- and can take on any job they are willing to pay themselves.  They are not in the habit of "paying" for anything themselves -- and are only accustomed to think of "being paid" -- at which they are willing to do anything, but if they have to decide what to pay themselves -- will choose nothing, or as little as possible.

That is the damage in thinking of oneself as less than the whole of society -- or as individuals, which means the indivisible whole.  Such people are always fighting with themselves, struggling with themselves in everything they do -- and even think it highly enlightened and ennobled of themselves, if they only "compete" against themselves -- and so undermine and sabotage themselves all their lives, as the only thing they know what to do.

So when one suggests that they must look after their own health, their immediate knee-jerk response is, "Who for?"  While it is nice to think of one's spouse or kids, it should be obvious that one must attain their greatest health so that they can perform and do their best at whatever they do -- and not that, they should sacrifice their health in the doing of anything, including suffering serious injury or death.  An intelligent person is always weighing the risks against the rewards, in determining what is the best course of action.  The ultimate price, may be his life, or less dramatically, their health thereafter.

That consideration must be foremost in every living thing -- which is the real meaning of "fitness," and not that a brief moment of glory, justified a lifetime of pain and disability.  One is not on earth, to "sacrifice" for everyone else -- and be the pawns and entertainment for those who feel others exist for that exclusive reason.  Everyone has a right to live their own lives -- as best they can -- and not that it is true only for a rare few living at the top of the pecking order.

One's health is the quality of their existence -- rich or poor, tall or short, gifted or not.  Their health is their best life.  And so for many not to regard it as their greatest asset and treasure in life, means nothing else will have greater worth -- if they abuse their own health and bodies in such obvious ways.  They really don't care enough about themselves -- to care about anything else more.  It can only be less.

That -- more than anything else, is the great challenge of these times, of people having to learn to value their own health as their greatest possession -- and make the most out of it, and not regard it as a hopeless cause, and a great inconvenience.  That is truly their whole purpose and meaning for being -- to be the best they can be.  That is not something separate and apart from everything else they do -- and then all their efforts are contributing to everything they do, and not canceling out everything else they do -- as is most obvious in the tortured writing of many whose every sentence is a contradiction and denial of everything else they've said previously.

So one wonders, what is the point -- of anything they do, but to oppose themselves and negate any effort they make -- no matter how hard and valiant?  That is a lot of people's conditioning strategy -- to simply oppose themselves, as though that was ever an intelligent thing to do.  But one can spin their wheels endlessly in that manner -- and of course, have nothing to show for it -- but to "grow another day older, and deeper in debt."

Yet many people still live their lives that way -- enshrined and encouraged in song and literature -- as their conditioning (indoctrination), that that is what life is all about -- from time immemorial, to at least their generation also.  But if that is the problem of that age, what is the point in carrying on that tradition -- instead of ending it, by creating another path.  What is there to be lost but that bondage to the past -- that merely nullifies their existence?

So when one wonders, what will this generation of retiring Baby Boomers do? -- the answer should be obvious, that from Day One of Retirement, their only job is to actualize the greatest health they've ever manifested and thought possible for themselves -- as the first step of any journey to anywhere, and without that preparation, they simply won't be up to any task -- and will truly have lived their lives in vain, never finding out what that is -- when their very being, is their doing.

Making the Biggest Difference


Many contemplating "retirement," are scared out of their wits that they won't be able to secure competent and trustworthy "caregiving," when they get to that point in their lives -- without considering for a moment, that first thought should go to "doing it yourself," as one's best option.

That is to say, that first and foremost, before resorting to another's help -- one should make every attempt to improve their own efforts to "care" for themselves, and thus make themselves better -- in the many facets of that meaning.  The biggest difference, is that one has a vested interest in getting better -- and not getting worse, and therefore, more dependent on that "help" -- which then becomes a self-aggrandizing momentum of its own, resulting in utter and hopeless, irreversible dependency.

That is as much conditioning (learned adaptation), as absolute physical necessity.  The outcome depends on one's initial, as well as subsequent responses -- predisposing eventual outcomes.  Many on encountering an obstacle in their lives, will be discouraged and defeated, while a few will be determined to overcome those obstacles so that they do not become a handicap or disability -- but rather, their own unique adaptation, despite the general rule.  Many world champion athletes, actually come from that backdrop -- of needing to overcome their arthritis, polio, deformity, and disability -- to become the best in the world at that performance and activity -- because their whole life hinged on that inflection point.

They could accept defeat -- or find another way, even if they had to create/discover it themselves.  That's how the great discoveries of the world have been made -- as well as the great discoveries in every individual life.  It's not the discoveries scientists make for everyone -- without exception, but the discoveries every individual makes in the course of their own lives, that matters the most.  That is what makes the difference in every life -- the discoveries and decisions they make in their own lives.

The mass manipulators will say that is not so -- that one has no choice in the important matters of one's life -- but to go along with the masses, and do what everybody else is doing -- because there is no exception and choice in these matters.  It's almost as though Nature had designed that as a test -- to eliminate the weak and unconfident, for only those of immense and unshakeable confidence, could prevail in these challenges against convention, conformity and tradition -- so that there can be no exception.

That is how the status quo is continued -- even as much as it is problematical, and produces the well-known problems, that have never been successfully challenged and solved before.  Nobody has broken beyond -- to challenging and shaking the paradigm at its very roots and assumptions.

The best care cannot come from another -- because no other has a greater vested interest in that outcome.  It is one's own life -- and cannot be sacrificed for another, or expect that another will sacrifice theirs for one's own -- no matter what they say to convince one otherwise.  To do so, would be foolish, and one would not expect a fool to serve one better than one could themselves.  Like in every other case, one would employ themselves, to assure they are hiring the best, the most capable and honest -- and that would be themselves, if that were truly so.

Doing Anything, Is Not the Same as Doing the Right Thing


Many are conditioned to believe that doing "anything," is better than doing "nothing" -- without considering for a moment, that the very thing they are doing, might be the source of all their problems and difficulties -- to which doing nothing to create them in the first place, would be a huge improvement.

It's not the case that people who do nothing (but hopefully observe), are beset with problems, so much as it is that those who aggressively do what they have been doing, invariably find themselves in deep trouble -- because they did not proceed cautiously and thoughtfully through every step of the journey -- that got them to wherever they are -- usually up to their necks in trouble.

The cause of most (all) injuries, is not that a person is not doing "anything," but that they are doing too much, thoughtlessly and recklessly -- to prove that something not true, is true -- despite every fact to the contrary.  For most people, that is their conditioning -- to force a conclusion in the face of overwhelming opposition that says it is not so -- which may be that that they do not overeat, or underexercise, when the body plainly says, that is not the case.

Instead, they will go into elaborate theories and explanations of why the plainly obvious, is the furthest thing from the truth of the matter.  Convincing such people otherwise, is a futile task; they will stop trying, only when they run out of people willing to believe them in that way.  But such people, usually have their own ulterior motives -- which is that it is their turn, to exploit such a gullible and clueless person themselves.  That is the invariable human pecking order -- in which the strong prey on the weak (vulnerable), which only the supremely strong, have no interest in proving -- because they have trascended those daily struggles.

In this society, that is not a hard thing to do.  One simply needs to live long enough to gain that status not to have to go out each day and earn that livelihood, but it is now simply conferred as one's entitlement -- as one who has proven one has done so previously.  That of course, is what we call "retirement," which is no longer the need to do anything for that livelihood -- which seems like a dream come true for many younger people -- but that creates the unique challenge for every individual, of what they will do -- when they no longer have to do anything.

For many people then, it is unfortunately obsessing about their health -- of which they think there is nothing, or very little they can do about, but die as slowly and gracefully as possible -- before even giving up, that even that is possible.  We encounter that mindset much less in the young and healthy, and people living dynamic lives at any age.  With those, getting better each day, is the organizing principle of each day of their lives -- which doesn't blur into the feeling that "it doesn't matter" -- which is not about inevitability, but the choices individuals make that matter.

As the most mature adults in that society, those are the choices they have to make individually, and uniquely -- which their whole lives up to that point, would have prepared them for.  It is not the end, but only the beginning -- and we all have to start all over.

How would we design a life, if we had the chance to start all over again -- knowing what we know now?  That is a rebirth at any age -- many think is impossible.  but it is only in dying to the old, that we can be reborn in the new.  That is the meaning of life and death.

"Regular" Exercise Won't Do It


Everyone who's ever been involved in athletics or exercise, recognizes that there comes a time when what "used to" work, no longer does, and they have to modify or cut back drastically on what they had been doing -- just to not risk or aggravate further injury.  That's usually what causes even the most successful people in such activities to stop -- because they can obviously not go on in that way.

Pain and injury is not the objective, or the desire of any activity -- but rather the cessation and freedom from such agony -- that is the improvement in the quality of that life.  Like all living entities, the basic thrust of life is to do that which improves that quality of existence (experience), which is the underlying health of that individual, and to do everything possible to avoid that which makes that life a misery -- including and especially ill health that prevents the enjoyment of much that is possible in any life, at any level of it.

One doesn't have to be the "world champion" or 'supreme being" in any activity, to maximize their enjoyment in finding out what it is they best enjoy and thus are good at.  That's what every individual does in experimenting with the myriad of activities and opportunities the world has to offer -- from the lowest to the highest levels of that participation, recognition and validation.

For everyone, it is obvious what that experience of life is, by reading the condition primarily at the head, hands and feet -- which are the organs of expression and articulation to the extent of that development and mastery.  Such mastery is called, the fine motor skills of the body, as opposed gross motor skills most people spend time developing -- in strengthening what they call the core -- beginning with the heart.  Some of these advocates even go so far in their misunderstanding of human functioning and development as to believe that one has to consciously get the the heart pumping -- rather than realize that it is an autonomic function that is the most basic movement that always must occur for life to continue -- and not the last.

That becomes a particular problem when so many now, will continue to exhibit nothing else but these vital signs of heartbeat -- long past when all other voluntary movements and responses (cognition), have long ceased.  These failures begin to manifest at different times in every life -- manifested at the organs (extremities) of expression that few think to make the focus of meaningful and expressive movement -- at the head, hands and feet, and that deterioration is most obvious as the aging and deterioration of the human condition -- much more so than the heart or the hip flexors that will be the concern of those advocating traditional "regular" exercises that fail to address and reverse this decline in people.

The obvious better solution, is that movement has to occur at the axis of movement at the head, hands and feet -- which implies the development and support on the larger structures that support these articulations.  That is the difference, between those we marvel at, and those whose hearts are just beating, with no other signs of voluntary and responsive action.

Most injuries occur at the extremities -- rather than at the core, as the wrist and ankle sprains, the stiff neck in waking up one morning -- that as we go inattentively through life, we activate less and less -- yet are the familiar problems of the weakening of the grip, the loss of balance of the feet, the failure to turn one's head to recognize what is going around them, and then the lack of expression -- including the expressions of the face, hands and feet -- that are the distinctive manifestations of every personality, including thought.

If blood does not flow to the brain, that brain cannot function as well as if it does -- yet realizing that truth and importance, there is almost no physical exercise (movement) that recognizes that importance -- but takes it for granted, that it is functioning as well as it can be -- without that attention and proper maintenance.  But the distinctive appearance of declining health, is the atrophying of the musculature at the neck (and its supportive blood supply) -- indicative of a greatly compromised blood flow to the brain, and all the other senses and organs in the head, which is really, the critical organ of the body -- and what any thoughtful exercise and conditioning program would rightly direct as its highest priority, instead of not giving it any thought or prominence at all -- and wondering why it fails to deter any of the familiar signs of deterioration, especially as people age and their circulatory effectiveness declines -- eventually producing total failure of responsiveness at the head, hands and feet -- while the heart continues beating perfectly.

The problem of circulation, is the greatest distance from the central pump which is the heart, and so predictably, the organs at the head, hands and feet will fail -- long before the heart does, in every case.  And when those critical areas of the body die in that way, one begins to lose the vitality, expressiveness and appearance of health -- that really should be the prime concern beyond the condition of the "core" muscles, and their ability to do a lot of contrived movements -- instead of their primary function and task to provide stability and support, for the fine motor tasks at the hands, feet, and head that characterize skill (cognition) in every activity -- whether they realize it or not.

Even running, is not so much about moving the legs, as it is -- moving the foot at the ankle.  Hitting or throwing a baseball, is not so much about shoulder and torso rotation, as much as it rests on the ability to turn one's wrist.  And driving, or even riding a bicycle, is dependent on one's ability to turn their heads and be aware of everything going on around them -- just as in any sport or activity.

That is the best conditioned person -- not the tunnel-visioned person who knows what only they are doing and wants to achieve, but the one who knows what everybody is doing -- and lets that awareness, produce the right action.

Survival of the Fitness


The recent passing of "fitness" luminaries Joe Weider and Sergio Oliva, brings home to all involved during the heyday of their years since the 1960s, that we all succumb to time -- even though there'll always be some new rising star impressing us with what is now possible -- for those in their competitive prime of roughly 20-40.

After that period in their lives, results are a lot more uncertain -- and then by age 60 and beyond, there are the unmistakable markers of decline -- often even very rapid, and sometimes even premature, for those who previously were the very picture of health and well-being.

A rare few still hang around to enter the over 60, or masters contests beginning at age 40! -- which seems to be way too young to be considered over the hill -- or past one's prime at something so essential as our individual health and well-being.  But I would suggest that the competitive bodybuilding ideal is not one of true health and well-being, but mainly the illusion of it -- as we all recognize, those very champions have peaked for that purpose -- even at the cost of their health and well-being! -- in their extreme dieting and training, that may actually be hazardous to one's health under any other real world conditions.

And that is what a conditioning regimen should convey -- real world fitness, especially now, for lives of unprecedented longevity, but often of a questionable quality of health and life, that daunts even the fearless at younger times in their lives.  This eventual decline, we've always been heretofore in denial of -- thinking there is nothing we can do about it -- even though we still try to train as we did in our prime, with previous great success.

It would be an easy matter, if all we had to do would be to sustain those workouts and obtain that same success -- but diminishes in time so that it is merely "All pain and no gain," which certainly diminishes any rationale for continuing in that manner.  At that point, many just stop, or maybe just dawdle on the less demanding cardio machines, or if they're really in bad shape, sign up for a "senior fitness course" and watch the instructor do all the work -- while expecting very little from her trainees, except that they still show up.

Many hope to build up vast reserves as the base from which to begin this decline -- still not believing there is an effective way not to be in this decline -- as the unspeakable inevitable.

We often experience and recognize this turning point as the midlife crisis -- when most competitive athletes, have long retired.  However, competitive athletics, is not the be-all and end-all of an active, meaningful and purposeful life -- especially now, when there is so much of it remaining past that competitive prime.  

In the lore of the great (martial arts) conditioning, there would come that time that every great student, would retire to become a teacher. passing on their knowledge to the next generation of competitors -- but alluding throughout, that there was that step beyond the competitive world to an even greater understanding of the whole of life.  That usually meant "dying" to the life of that youth -- to be reborn in the next chapter of their lives, which is not just remaining young all one's life -- but mastering one's maturity, and eventual seniority -- with the equal grace and skill one experienced as a youth.

So some age well, while many will not -- and not that all who age, must do it poorly, because that is what that period of life is all about.  If it did not matter what one did, then it would not matter what one does -- but having observed that process in many for the last 30+ years, I'm more than convinced one can make that difference in their own lives -- but it means thinking very differently than we've known, and been conditioned to think is the only thing possible.

There is a very distinctive "look" that one has when one begins to decline in earnest, and rather than that being the paunch and deterioration at the "core," it is readily obvious and apparent as the deterioration of the neck muscles and structures -- which many then resort to surgical chin lifts to remove that sag, double-chin, or whatever it is that indicates that lack of robustness in people of all ages -- but most distinctively so as they "age."  And that "physical" condition, also impacts one's cognitive (brain) functioning so critical to everything else.

Noting that, should provoke the immediate question, what can we do about that -- for surely, if exercise unquestionably works for developing every other muscle (structure) in the body, why not make that infrastructure to the brain, one's highest priority? -- and failing to do so, is the limit on the rest of the body -- because the design and evolution of the body, does not allow for any other part than the brain, to be its "best" functioning organ.

When that is addressed and achieved first and foremost, then gains for other parts of the body, can be resumed -- because those resources are not being diverted from the brain, at the expense of the brain, but the brain serviced as the highest priority, will allow other prolific development to manifest.

Most people don't do any exercise to explicitly increase the flow to the extremities of the body -- where it makes the most difference to do so, and ensure that it is functioning at its highest level -- in the distinctly and manifestly human expressions of the head, hands and feet -- which are the sites of deterioration in even the normal, healthy individual.  That is its weakness, its Achilles tendon, as it were -- and no amount of situps, pushups, or running -- directly addresses that diversion of the flow of resources -- to the critical health and functioning of the expressions and articulations of the head, hands and feet, that are regarded in most conventional exercises -- as merely stubs and stumps not capable of movement at all -- except to go along for the ride!  

And in fact, one is often ill-advised by "physical education" instructors that one should never move their head, hands and feet -- but only move at the core, instead of realizing that the distinctly human movements, occur at the head, hands and feet, which are the organs of critical decline -- or prodigy.

Yet in most gyms, there are no machines or apparatus for expressly and effectively developing the neck muscles (which implies its cardiovascular development, support, health and appearance) -- except in realizing, the range of motion, produces its own resistance.  That is to say, that one cannot turn their heads 180  degrees -- without encountering increasingly greater resistance, which is also true for the hands and feet -- and that resistance, is the greatest muscular contraction, capable of being obtained (expressed).  Such contractions, beginning at the extremities, activate the supporting muscle structures -- towards the core, but that doesn't happen, vice-versa -- from the core on out.

Understanding this, makes just a few exercises, very powerfully effective, while lacking this understanding, makes it necessary to conceive and perform separate movements for every one of the 600-800 individual muscles under the presumption that each is unrelated and unconnected to every other -- or that it is desirable, to exercise each in isolation from any other.  But the movement from the furthest extremity (insertion) back towards the center -- sets off a chain reaction of muscle contractions (and relaxations), not requiring this individual attention to each muscle -- which obviously, is the most efficient way to move, as well as the most productive.

As one gets older, one needs all the advantage one can gain from a superior understanding of the forces at work -- and not simply the application of more brute force, thinking that is all that is required to obtain wonderful results.  It should be that easy.  

Standing the Test of Time


"Old age" is the time when all the problems one has not solved in life, comes home to haunt them.

Increasingly, it becomes apparent that the problems of "aging," are much more the problems of life, than they are of "time."

Because with that same time, some look and function better, while others do not -- all the way to the extremes, where some seem prematurely old at 20, while a rare few (now) at 80, look "ageless," so the concept of age, is not one's primary quality one would use to describe such a person -- because that would be largely meaningless to do so, and one wants a better description of such an individual, and not one that could mean anything, or nothing at all.

Except that time, can also convey the positive quality of experience and insight -- and not merely doing the same thing for 50 years, before being drained dry of all one's vitality and desire for betterment -- as though one was just a machine that depreciates with each use.  That is the materialistic view of humanity, that totally discounts and dismisses the distinctive evolutionary drive to improve, and change for the better.  When one has given up on that notion, then we observe, that person is getting "old," and usually there is nothing anyone else can do about it, because it is largely the fate that individual has decided (accepted) for themselves.

The most common exceptions to that rule, are those who still go to gyms expressly for the purpose of improving -- which is not a bad social context, although admittedly, some do it better than others, as with all human endeavors and pastimes.  The cultural tendency of the past century, was to divide and fragment experience, knowledge and life -- in the (materialistic) thinking that "more" is always better -- without ever getting to the realization that the least expenditure of time, energy and attention for the greatest result(s), is the far greater objective and meaning and purpose in all one's activities.  So the objective is not just to burn as much energy as possible, or as much time, or give it so much attention it becomes its own obsessive-compulsive disorder -- while those objectives seem to recede farther from one's original clarity of purpose and intent -- and thus one eventually arrives at the point, that one feels, what is the use of any of it -- and just withdraws from every activity and engagement.

That is familiarly, what we witness as the horrors of aging -- that can happen even with a few at younger ages, causing a rupture from the rest of society into antisocial sentiments and actions -- of which they see no other viable alternatives.  In such cases, their previous conditioning has been so "successful" and "thorough," that further growth (life) is not necessary, and would even be too painful to bear -- and so they end it in some melodramatic statement of not caring.

Such developments are usually not foreseen by those close by, choosing to ignore, and even deny -- believing even, that everything is always the opposite of what they seem -- so conditioned (educated) are they, to believe that there is any connection to reality.  And so they must make one final, desperate effort to find out -- if anything really matters.

So that is the advantage of continually, and throughout one's life, of staying in touch with one's own unique physical reality -- rather than just accepting the mass media reality, as one's unquestioned own -- because the truth is always subject to this personal testing and results of independent verifiable reality.  Many are surprised and shocked in doing so, to learn that what "the experts" say, are entirely at variance with the results of their own experiments (experience), and those who have been socialized well, will always distrust their own judgment and good senses, in preference for what they have been taught to believe (as the unequivocal truth).

But that is largely what others "believe" to be true because that's what they were taught and never allowed to question -- rather than the truth they discovered for/by themselves, which is actually the truth of their own lives.  And that truth, always improves, and improves their condition -- and doesn't make them worse, though that's what all the experts say is so.  That's why we honor the great pioneers -- like Columbus, Galileo, Paracelsus, and Job(s).  They challenged what everybody, especially the experts, told them must be true -- and could not even be questioned, because that is what the "gods "themselves, explicitly told them to pass on to all the others -- as the Commandments.

Fortunately, we now live in an age in which discovering the truth for oneself, is what everybody has to do for themselves -- and those who do it well, reap those benefits far beyond whatever generalizations could apply to everyone else -- because they have so custom-designed their world to work marvelously well, and not the one-size-fits-all, that serves everybody so inadequately.  But that is the reason the better get better, while the worse get worse -- because they want to get better, and do those things that make them so -- rather than engage in more random activity, thinking it is the same.  That is why it doesn't work.

Time Is On Your Side


One of the biggest difference makers, is whether one believes time is on one's side or against them: If the game is long enough, one could still conceivably, improve and win -- no matter what the score is, and how far behind one is.  If the game never ends, then one has not lost -- but has all the time in the world to get better.  If one lives that way their entire life, then there is no losing, or winning definitively for that matter, but simply working on one's game -- always improving.

But some get to the point in life, when they think there can be no improvement -- but only deterioration, decline, decay and ultimately death -- and they frequently live many of their years preparing for that eventuality.  But if one lives that way, then one will have wasted all the years they could have been fulfilling their lives instead of waiting for the end -- and worse.

The usual conditioning is to instill in us that we are always working against time -- rather than that we are working with time, just as people often think that the function of muscles is to oppose, or work against one another -- rather than to work collaboratively, for its greatest effect, and effectiveness.  That is similar to the thinking that one muscle works in isolation to every other -- including the heart, or the brain -- when in fact, they work best, if at all, together.  

One therefore, would never want to condition oneself, to merely cancel out their own efforts by deliberately making any effort any harder than it has to be.  The useful conditioning strategy, is always to make things as easy as possible, and in that way, many more things become possible, so more can be accomplished.  Otherwise, one is stuck merely doing and undoing -- and never moving ahead, never moving on, but merely repeating the same old things unsuccessfully, until one is tired of continuing in that way.

That sounds like a lot of people's conditioning programs -- and so they are excited to start a new one, every six weeks -- that promises to undo everything that they didn't like doing, found objectionable, and caused their worse condition than they began with -- and so they are recovering, until they realize they can't anymore, and prepare just to get worse -- and not that they can ever get better again.

When one thinks time is against one, then one tries to overcome it by doing it as quickly and fast as possible -- which may increase the difficulty to impossible.  But if one has all one's life to accomplish that task, then it simply takes as long as it takes -- and it doesn't matter how quickly, or fast one accomplishes that, because that doesn't matter, only that one did, or was just about to.

How we live our lives, is very much like our conditioning strategy -- because that in effect, is what we are conditioning ourselves ultimately for -- to live our lives, and not sacrifice it, for the trophy or moment of glory and triumph, and then wither away the rest/most of our lives, as many young athletes think to do. But those days are very short -- in a long life, and most of it still to be lived, because the fullness is each moment -- and every subsequent moment being the summation of all the previous ones. 

It doesn't matter that one holds on to all the old memories and thoughts -- because the new subsumes the old, and is not just the accumulation of the old.  The problem of this loss of memories, is the letting go and clearing of the memory banks, in order to create space for the new -- is necessary, and a proper function in the vital, healthy person.

The enemy of the old, is not the young -- but the new.  That can be embraced by both the old and the young, or rejected by either as well -- but we only think that the young person doing so is a tragedy, while the old person doing so, can't help themselves -- that's just the way they are.  But never having to learn anything more new, for half one's life, or all of it, is the great tragedy of human existence.  

The Paradigm Shift (The Quantum Leap)


The major worry, as the Baby Boomers head into the 21st Century, is not that their hearts will fail, but that their senses will, while their vital signs of heart beat and breathing, continue long after -- causing many to expend the rest of their lives and fortunes, in that nearly persistent vegetative (non-responsive) state -- which surely, is the worst of all possible worlds.

Not only is it disastrous for those individuals so afflicted, but it will also impact and drag down all the lives around and associated with them -- because many lives have to be dedicated and sacrificed to keep a person in that nonresponsive though "living" condition -- in that condition, when those individuals are long past being able to do anything for themselves -- and no chances for improvement.  At least babies grow out of that helpless condition to eventually (hopefully) be able to take care of themselves -- and others as well, nurturing the next generation.

But up to now, there hasn't been any provision for those in hopelessly deteriorating conditions -- with no possibility of improvement, and only the guarantee that things will get continuously and progressively worse -- because medical science has enabled that small measure of life to continue almost indefinitely, while the greater quality of life, has long since vanished.  That will continue as long as it is possible, and there is someone who will pay the bills for such continuing care.  Present discussions, are almost exclusively about how we can continue this state of affairs -- and not that the present solution is wrong and misguided, and that there will never be enough money nor manpower for "society" (everybody else), to take care of each individual.

The obvious (better) solution, is that every individual has to learn to take better care of themselves -- first and primarily -- as the greatest responsibility of citizenship and participation in that society.  Thus the measurement of meaningful life, shifts from whether one simply has a heart beat and still breathes, to a higher standard of total functioning -- particularly at the critical cognitive and voluntary organs of the senses (cognition) -- for which humans have long distinguished and differentiated themselves -- before it became "politically incorrect" to do so.

The critical senses (organs) are at the extremities of the head, hands and feet -- by which we express fine motor coordination, hand-eye coordination, hand-feet coordination, ducking a blow to the head, and all the movements most are not aware of that propel the rest of the body.  The movements at the hips and shoulders, which many instructors are proud to identify as the core, are virtually meaningless in the ultimate expression and release of power (to change).

The power of change, is always expressed physically at the head, hands and feet -- as the ability to grip a tool, maintain one's balance, and turn one's head to be aware of what the world is telling them -- before initiating the appropriate responses in relationship to it.  The inappropriate response, is to be oblivious to all that is happening around one -- but to persist in one's actions anyway, thereby requiring greater assistance and resources to keep one alive in that way.

Long before one gets to that point, they need to be increasing the capabilities of the organs of the extremities, by optimizing the circulation to and from it -- in firing neuromuscular impulses to improve those responses and control -- all one's life, which means focusing the movement, at those axes and ranges of movement (expression) -- as the meaningful indicator of their fitness, and not simply stop at the heart beat, which may go on long after any cognitive brain function, hand and foot movement can be expressed.

When those movements are ensured, enhanced and improved -- throughout the remainder of one's life, it is then meaningful to say that one continues to improve and get better -- because that is precisely what they are conditioning themselves to do, and subsequently, beThen it can properly be said, that one's doing, is one's being -- and vice versa, so there is no disintegration and deterioration, but rather the increasing integration and improvement of that individual -- for as long as they maintain that practice.  But it is only perfect practice that makes perfect -- and not just any expenditure of calories and heart beats, that make it so.

That is what most of contemporary conditioning programs miss -- or are entirely unaware of.  One does not become better, or world champion, by simply practicing and doing anything -- as though it doesn't matter.  They have to do everything, as though it matters -- and doing everything in that manner, works in every aspect of their lives and functioning.  And that is not the same thing as just doing anything, in any ol' way, and wondering why one is not getting the desired results.

I notice that there are many videos on YouTube now offering free instruction and advice on the best exercises to do to get in one's best condition -- but most are invariably about what they can do, that nobody else can -- including the 500 lb. bench press, or walking on one's hands for 100 feet, or more familarly, running a marathon at age 90!  Presumably, if one can do that, one will be in marvelous shape and condition -- but fully 99.9% of the population will not be able to take advantage (use) that advice -- invariably offered as a "genius solution."  They may have even bought all the bogus certifications by whomever is selling them -- and convinced the mainstream media (it is very easy to), that they are the premier marketer in that respect.

Meanwhile, the health and social crisis continues to ramp out of control on its present course, because eliminating the problem, is very different from exploiting the present situation -- and hoping it will continue as long as possible.  But there is no future for such a society -- in which everyone becomes increasingly dependent on others to provide for their health and well-being.  The only viable future that makes perfectly good sense, is that everyone has to learn to take better care of themselves -- so there is no need for an army of people to be one's caregivers for the rest of one's life.

That's how the world changes.

The Next Big Thing


What the world doesn't need, is another hypercompetitive exercise in brutality, and movements increasingly more difficult than they have to be -- which is the problem of exercising muscles in isolation, and against one another -- because the whole overriding genius of human evolution, is to make work easier, more efficient, more economical -- rather than go the other way.

Thus, the next big thing, is not even more brutal than mixed martial arts for the 20-30 year olds, but what works for all those aging Baby Boomers -- who can remain active and engaged all their lives, rather than being eliminated by the caveman mentality.

That really shouldn't be hard to figure out -- once one overcomes the primitive notions that the objective in conditioning is not to make work, movement and activities harder -- but to make movement(s) easier, more efficient, more economical, in order for people to maintain that vitality for lengthy lives that could not even be imagined one hundred years ago.

Robert Heinlein, in Stranger in a Strange Land, writes of the human returning to earth from a life he only knew on Mars previously, to imagine the form and function an organism must be, to optimize for living conditions on earth -- as the space age model of possibility, and not reverting to its most primitive forms -- as the rediscovered ideal, and next big thing.

Do we move forward, or do we go backwards -- as the future of human evolution and progress?  What is the future we are conditioning for?

Seeing the Obvious


The most difficult thing, is to see what is everywhere around us, because like the air and water, we don't think to even "see" them -- not because they don't exist, but because everything in life would be impossible without them.  And so they are the "givens" -- that we never question, or think there is anything we can do about -- when precisely, that is what we can do most about -- in modifying our health and condition.

That is quite shocking, for those who have convinced themselves, that first they have to make a million dollars, before they can bother to improve their personal condition and health -- rather than that it is by first improving their health and condition, by which making a million dollars becomes possible -- even if it is just being around long enough to receive/win it.

For a person who is very observant, the bad condition many people are in should be obvious -- that despite all that they do, they fail to do that which they must do -- and not that they are doing nothing.  What they are doing -- is putting them into the condition they are in, and not that it has come about because life is unfair, and they were dealt the bottom cards -- rather than all the winners they were "entitled" to.

All along the way, they frittered away all the opportunities they were afforded -- and not surprisingly, wasting the present moment to change all that -- in an instant.  That is the difference between getting better -- or worse.  Merely doing something different.  But most, have been conditioned (educated) to do the same thing -- even if it doesn't work, and that is their problem -- and not that they can simply eliminate the problem and move on to what else life has to offer.  They are stuck, and limited to solving the same problem as they always have -- thinking that is all quite normal, and the way their life has to be -- until it eventually and inevitably kills them.

That is obviously the case with alcohol and other drug addictions, but less so and more acceptable with other diseases and injuries people often inflict on themselves -- including every single athlete who has had to retire because of injuries.  They simply cannot do that anymore.  But that is very different from not being able to do anything anymore.  One simply has to go on and discover the many things they can do -- that they haven't done before -- including making all the right and healthful movements, instead of continuing to do the ones that predispose them to danger, disease and injury.

People often condition themselves by using danger, injury and even death, as a motivator -- that if they don't execute the 500 lb. bench press, their chest or head will be smashed.  Or if they don't dodge the blow the other is trying to inflict on them, the consequences could be lethal.  But it might be less obvious to advise a frail and obviously helpless 90 year old that they should take up walking or running among heavy traffic and hazardous conditions -- just to stay healthy, when thoughtfully, it would make much more sense, to realize all the movements they can do -- from the safety of their own chair, or bed even.

In fact, the most effective exercises, are likely to be those that can be done in one's bed, and particularly, lying in one's deathbed -- and recovering their health fully from that very real debilitated condition.  And if one can do that, those exercises would work even better, if one has a better base to begin with -- but if it is simply advising a dying person that they should run a marathon to be healthy again, that is worse than useless -- but not unlike the advice frequently given by those who think they know better.

So the question is, what movements can one do -- lying in their deathbed, that could change their prospects and improve their health?  Obviously, it is those movements at the head, hands and feet that people retain the ability for responsiveness -- long after they have lost the ability to run a marathon and do 50 chinups.  Yet that is often what the physical expert requires to  prove that one is still viable -- rather than the least movement, that they can exercise to regain their mastery of movement and responsiveness -- that others will regard as liveliness.
So it is shocking, when a person doesn't exhibit movements at the head, hands and feet, while exhibiting it only at the shoulders and hips -- as the movement of the core muscles, or the largest, rather than the most muscles indicative of the greatest range of expression and articulations -- instead of just the one, performed unvaryingly and tirelessly, until the joints have to be replaced, or can no longer be replaced.

At that point, they are forced to stop -- and given no viable alternatives -- since they were convinced, there was no other way.  That should be a huge problem for those who think that running on a treadmill for 30 minutes each day, is all that is necessary to retain all the movements the body is capable of.  Why should we expect to lose all those capacities -- because we haven't expressed them as part of the necessary maintenance for retaining and improving the health of those abilities?

Thus a well-designed program for maintaining one's vitality -- should extend way beyond the shoulders and hips -- to where they have to be expressed meaningfully and masterfully, in work, gestures, speech, writing, art and music -- rather than stop at the heart beat, which tells us very little about the vitality of that individual, and their range of expression and articulation.  Those are the meaningful movements to maintain -- and improve, all one's life.

Exercise Better -- and Not Simply More (Badly)


Anybody who gets any good out of their practice, does so because they get better at what they are doing -- and not simply do more, badly, and in the same manner they've always done it before.

That improvement, is what is making them better -- and not simply reinforcing the status quo of the way they are but don't want to be anymore.  So unless one's practice (exercise) has this objective of improvement of what one is doing, then in all likelihood, one will stay the same -- because improvement is not the objective, but merely reinforcing and repeating the status quo -- whether they realize it or not.

Eventually, every good student, must become their own teacher -- because the knowledge of others, can only take one so far, and the really significant learning, is one's own experience and manifestation of what is commonly known.  That is true for everything -- whether it is a computer, or an exercise apparatus.  With that same tool, most will use it as a blunt instrument -- thinking to just beat everything else into the shape they want it -- or learn to wield it as a precision instrument, and get precisely the results one desires -- and no more, or no less.

So some people think that the more pain they experience, the greater is their gain -- even leading people to an injury or premature death -- in the mistaken belief, that that is the only consideration at work.  That leads a few to believe that the proper use of their heads, hands and feet, is to drive nails, or break boards, bricks, bones, flesh -- as the highest use of the human body -- rather than creating something out of nothing, or very little -- which is any individual's highest achievement.

There is virtually no limit to how much one can destroy -- thinking they are doing "God's work," when in fact, the truly great religious individual, is creating a greater human fabric -- and not just tearing it (down) at every opportunity.  That was the lesson of the Vandals and Visigoths -- who sacked Rome, and every place else they came upon, but left nothing themselves, of any enduring and ennobling value and creation.

Historians and other observers of human behavior, noted these tendencies in the two distinctive personalities of civilization -- those who were builders, and those who were destroyers (depleters).  For these latter, their delight and power, was to consume and then destroy whatever abundance a society could create -- as their exercise of power over all the others.  There are still isolated antisocial personalities who operate that way -- until they are finally revealed living in the midst of everyone else who presumed they shared the values and goals of most of the others -- to maximize the enjoyment and potential of all human talents, rather than just preying on all the others.

Even in the description and understanding of exercise, a (barbaric) few, still think the objective of their exercise is to "tear the body down" -- thinking in that way, the body will automatically rebuild itself -- stronger and better each time -- until it doesn't, because it has simply exhausted its recovery ability -- and so each new insult and abuse, just speeds the body into a faster downward spiral -- until finally, the only thing possible, is to do as little, or nothing as possible -- so thoroughly beat up and defeated one has become -- at one's own hands!

The smarter, more enduring person, will know to leave a little in reserve -- knowing in that way, they will outlast the competition -- and overcome by simply enduring (persisting), when the others have beaten themselves -- thinking they were only competing against themselves.  That is as much a folly, as thinking (as many competitive people do), that they are always in competition with everybody else for everything -- which won't get them very far in the world, rather than realizing how to harness and utilize all the other and previous efforts that contribute to making the world as it is today, at that very moment -- which should be the focus of their exercise, and not just to toil endlessly, with no idea that some person in authority, told them to -- and they know better what is good for them.

That is an indoctrination for another's gain and agenda -- and not the realization and fulfillment of one's own unique abilities -- which is the purpose and significance of any doing -- and that is their being, ultimately.  That is the major difference between the lifelong exercisers -- and those who will only do so because somebody else tells them to do so -- under pain of some dire consequences if they don't -- because in the end, one has to do what is best for oneself -- and nobody can do that for any other.  That right understanding and perception, results in the right effort(s) -- and that has to come first, or will not come at all, no matter how much one does.


Exercise for One Minute -- Anytime You Like

The field of exercise advice, is fragmenting in two different directions -- those making it harder, and those making it easier -- with the increasing realization, that the "best exercise," is the one, one actually does, and not the ones, one would do if one lived in a test tube.

Since nobody actually lives in a test tube, or would want to, the best exercise, is what one actually does during the course of their lives, and day -- in an integrated existence, that is not distorted by any obsessive-compulsive/addictive activities that impair/sacrifice all the others.  So it is not that all one's other healthful activities should be sacrificed for one's programmedexercise, but that one's entire life -- is the exercise, of who one really/actually is -- and there is none other, and particularly, another person one would like to be, but isn't.

That's no way to live a life -- and especially, one's own.  What one does, is what one's life is.  In a healthy human being, there is no other -- and that is what makes them ahealthy human being.  The fragmented, the schizophrenic, the bipolar individual, is the person who is not whole in that way -- and is always at odds with themselves, struggling against themselves, until finally, they defeat themselves -- utterly, and give up.  So conditioning programs that accentuate such divisions and struggles, are in the long run counterproductive -- eventually leading to the day, when one does nothing, so as to no longer inflict serious damage on themselves! -- which is the ultimate wisdom of the body.

But if one is doing good for oneself,  the body wants to do it -- and doesn't feel it has to do it -- just because some expert (who knows best what is good for others), tells them that is what they should, or must be doing, despite their own senses telling them otherwise.  Those are thegood senses, everybody is born with, for good reason -- to guide them throughout their lives.

However, societies (government) realize the opportunity to exploit everyone else to doing what is advantageous to themselves -- which means doing what they think is best for the them, and not themselves -- and so they have to beconditioned, to do what is best for those who know best for everyone else (experts).  So it is not surprising, that every great athlete, artist, or scientist, had to be their own best teacher -- and not simply learn and do what everybody else did, because what they did, nobody else did.

And that is the longing everybody has -- to do what hasn't been done before, by anybody else -- and not just to do what everybody else is doing, and thinks possible.  That is the conditioning, that is sustainable throughout one's entire lifetime -- and extinguishing of that flame and drive, is characteristic of the decline and deterioration in human beings.  They no longer believe that they, and life, can get better, but are convinced, and try to convince everybody else they can, that every effort in life is futile, and doesn't make a difference -- and they are living proof of it!

Very few efforts in life, actually have to be sustained for more than a minute -- and if one can do anything for a minute, that is proof enough, that one could persist at it longer if one had to.  The fastest speed, cannot be achieved and maintained for over a minute.  A maximum lift, cannot be performed (sustained) for more than a minute.  In fact, a maximum effort, is defined by the peak of that effort -- and not its duration.  A baseball, or golf swing, is much less than a minute -- and there is no rule against serving all aces (unreturnable serves), to end a tennis match.  Or to throw a no-hitter.

That is what one is trying to achieve -- the ultimate efficiency and economy of effort (motion) -- and not simply, to expend as much energy (effort) as possible.  That is what all those successful predators are doing -- and makes them the most fit of their species, and for survival.  So the imperative in life, is that one has to get better and wiser throughout life -- or one perishes, but it is not simply a matter of running faster, jumping higher, or throwing farther -- but also, and more importantly, thinking better -- so that the primary objective of one's exercise and conditioning activities, is the very problem of aging, and becoming worse -- that traditional exercises, and the traditional way of exercising, has been largely ineffective at definitively addressing.

Most people are relatively healthy up to age 50, and then what seemed to work -- no longer works, or no longer works as well, and it becomes increasingly obvious, that maybe it didn't work at all -- at least not in the way they think it does.  Thus the 25 year old inventor of anotherextreme exercise fad, will claim that everybody and anybody can get the same great results they did, if they walk on their hands or somersault on a running course -- without consideration of the dangers for those who can't.  They simply eliminate those who can't, and then claim those who can, do so because of the 100% success rate of their program.

The movement that matters, is increasing the circulation to the brain -- rather than the heart, that gets all the circulation no matter what -- and that happens when one moves the head, rather than getting the heart to beat faster -- without any movement at the head creating a circuit (alternating contraction-relaxation) for that flow.  That is why the markers of aging are invariably -- the head (brain, face and neck), hands and feet -- which never move at the axes of the neck, writs and ankles in most otherwise "active" people -- despite increasingly overworking the hardest, most reliable working muscle of the body -- which is the heart.

The most enduring wisdom of movement strategies(exercise), is not to increase the heart rate in the misguided thinking that the best way to achieve that rest and recovery -- is to stress it as much as possible, but to achieve that slowing down directly -- by recruiting the other voluntary muscles of the body, which are seldom used for any good purpose, to aid in directing (allowing) the flow (circulation) by producing that "pumping" effect at the extremities, which is the most valuable movement and service that can be performed by any muscle -- much more so than any amount of arbitrary but familiar running, jumping, throwing and hitting can ever do.

Each performance of that cycle of full contraction from full relaxation -- and back again, is the directly beneficial effect of any movement -- that directs the flow of neuromuscular and cardiovascular impulses that produces health and growth to that area -- that opens those possibilities by acting as a pump, in the way that the heart does -- by voluntary, thoughtful action -- anytime, anywhere, even for a minute.


The World IS Changing (Last Man Standing)

That's what the world is -- change.  It is people who don't change -- while everything else is.

There are a lot of changes one can make to their life -- that will improve their fitness for continued viability.  The problem is that people don't want to change anymore, and because of that rigidity, they perish -- as every life has to.  That's why the wisdom is that one must remain constantly changing, and going with the flow of change and challenges that life brings -- and not to, is death and dying.  That should be the obvious lesson from our lives up to this point.

But many by then, have already decided, that they're not going to make any more changes in their lives -- but that now, with their "seniority," the world has to change to accommodate them -- and it is never like that.  They will be vanquished.  So sometimes the best thing(s) that happen, is to be forced to change.

Does one ever change voluntarily?  Very rarely, and usually, that is unnecessarily -- because change is only meaningful when it is a response to a real (actual) challenge -- and not just theoretically and academically.  

Of course, that is the familiar problem of dying in today's world -- with all those issues yet to be confronted by many Baby Boomers, as well as their parents who haven't done it so well up to now.  Often, it is the most successful in life up to then, that will experience failure for the first time, and be totally unprepared to handle it.  That is the value of failure -- if one learns to overcome it, and beyond that, is learning to deal with success as well.  Many people are not prepared to handle success, and so they will be their own undoing.

That's why the path of moderation is often advised -- in dealing with the swings of success and failure, and how to meet those challenges.  If it has only been one way all their lives, most don't know how to adapt, adjust, overcome, and move on to the next level of higher challenge -- but remain bogged down, by the first obstacles that become their torment throughout life and finally their end.

Most people's conditioning is just to maintain the status quo -- and not to improve; they in fact think that maintaining the status quo, is improving it -- and without improvement, progress, evolution, there can only be dewrterioration, decline, decay and ultimately death.  That is the fact of life -- its distinctive quality.  It is always changing and improving -- and if it is not, it is dying.

So how does one program into their lives -- this drive to improve -- and not lose it when one is 30, 40, 50, 60...as an increasing number will surely do?  Instead of high growth with high risk of injury and catastrophe, one needs to plumb the line of sustainable growth -- that makes it possible to continue throughout one's life until the inevitable end.  Even the healthiest person in the world, will not be invulnerable, or immortal.

But one can improve the odds considerably,  There's no rule that says that one can't eat only the good foods -- and eschew the rest.  or do those movements that doesn't cause them injury.  That is why most people have to stop exercising -- because what they are doing is injuring themselves -- rather than doing what is healing themselves.  One shouldn't be deliberately breaking the body down to rebuild it stronger, because eventually the recovery ability is exhausted -- and there is just the continued breaking down, with no hope of recovery.

One has to recalibrate to the level of actual recovery -- and not just persist in the wishful-thinking that it can be anything one wills it to be.  That might work when one is 20 or 30, but then at 40 and 50, one goes into the irreversible freefall decline of a lot of even world champion athletes -- who have not learned that they cannot risk their all -- indefinitely.  There will come a time that even the king of beasts, will suffer the chance injury that topples them from that invincibility -- and so the enduring ones, are more selective at choosing their battles.

They are not the juveniles who feel an obligation to prove themselves at every opportunity.  They only do what is absolutely necessary -- but they always do that.


Perfecting One's Art (Movement)

The value of "exercise" is not burning (wasting) as many calories as possible -- but actually learning how to conserve energy -- which is the great principle of the universe, the Conservation of Energy.  That is what drives life, progress and evolution -- and not increasing randomness, which is anti-life.  What distinguishes life from death and deterioration -- is its increasing organization and order (orderliness), and that is why it evolves to higher orders of being.

This happens first in individual lives and existences -- the specific adding up to the general observation and rule -- and doesn't just happen, no matter what.  There is areason why it (things) happens.

Realizing this, a simple practice, is simply to do anything and everything -- well (as though it matters) -- rather than not caring, and not realizing there is a difference.  That is to be a discerning and discriminating individual -- who can tell these differences, and not that it doesn't matter, and the properly educated person, is one who can't tellany difference of significance -- and that is to be adjudged "correct," even if it leads to the most egregious errors and catastrophes.

That is why a lot of these so-called experts belie their own knowledge -- achieving no results with what they practice -- because what they know, doesn't work, and no amount of explaining, can alter that fact.  They think it is enough that they know, and have been "certified" that they do -- which they believe it gives them the right to say anything they want -- under the sanction of that certifying agency -- which is surely not God, but a self-aggrandizing group or individual, who claims to have jurisdiction over such matters -- whether they deserve to or not, and expecting (demanding) mutual agreement (respect) from others claiming their own turf.

But reality is not that way.  It is always open to challenges from all-comers, from any point of view -- and not just those who have agreed to all think and talk the same way, and thus none among them, will ever contradict any other -- if they all agree to stick together unquestioningly.  And that is why "everybody" can be wrong -- if they all agree not to question their assumptions and premises -- but hold them as common tenets, among which is the hierarchy by which they accept these truths, and not that they should ever independently discover the truth of these matters for themselves.

So that means practice and experimentation -- in getting better, and not worse -- or thinking there can be any diffeence, because surely what matters, is how a person does anything -- and not simply in thinking that anything is just as good as anything else, or nothing, for that matter.  That is the important consideration absent in most people's exercise programs -- the reason being to improve their movement -- which is their art (form), and not that it doesn't matter what they do, because a calorie is a calorie is a calorie -- so it makes no difference.

That is what separates the healthy (intelligent) from theunhealthy -- the recognition of these significantdifferences -- that really make a difference, whether one calls themselves a "doctor," "teacher," "personal trainer," "researcher," "reporter," etc. -- that don't make a difference. 

Practice is seldom doing 10 or 15 repetitions of anything and stopping -- thinking that is all that is necessary to do.  What is one doing?  And what is one practicing?  If one does not know, or has ever thought about it -- then how can one be mastering anything -- which is the reason for practice, repeating, and any doing.  One has to become good at what one is doing, and in fact, the best at what one is doing -- and not simply that 10 or 15 repetitions is all one needs to know -- and that is their problem.

That is why they're in the condition they're in.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention


Probably the greatest problem of these times, is the solving of theoretical and academic problems -- instead of solving the very real problems of our  daily living.  Many are very busy and occupied in this way, and thus, they have no time and energy left over from these preoccupations, to solve the difficulties that overwhelm their basic functioning -- which of course, is their health and the "condition" they are in.  Instead, they believe, that their health, which is the result of their living, occurs in spite of what they are doing -- rather than directly because of what they are doing.  Thus they believe, there is no cause and effect in their daily living, but that things happen, in spite of everything they do -- rather than because of it.

Obviously, such a manner of thinking, has a disastrous effect on their lives, and results in the very poor health of many people, and the despair they have in their outlooks for improving it.  They think they are "victims" in their own lives, rather than the "masters" of it -- and that "vision" is promoted by the political leaders and demagogues, as the way of aggrandizing their own power -- but that always comes at the expense of one's own sense of personal empowerment -- which is the major complaint of these times of having no power and control in their lives.

And the institutions and agencies, will gladly assume such powers for themselves -- when people abdicate their own -- simply in choosing not to exercise it.  Not to exercise a faculty (ability), is the same as not having it -- and so the importance of daily exercises to maintain those capabilities one wishes to keep, have to be incorporated and programmed into one's life -- as the essential core of their doing that becomes their being.

That becomes more obvious with time and age -- as the result of what they are doing in their lives.  Undoubtedly, major catastrophes do happen, but not as often as the minor catastrophes they embrace daily in their own callous and reckless individual choices -- like excessive smoking, drinking, inactivity, overeating, and the lack of attention to their own personal hygiene and habits -- which are obviously the most changeable, but which people will insist most vehemently that they are not, but essential to the very existence that is for that reason, overwrought with difficulties that they cannot even begin to imagine overcoming.

All this is of course, is personal choice -- and the personal choices they are making, that largely accounts for individual differences in experiences and outcomes in each life -- much more than what everyone believes they must conform to, that makes all lives the same as any other.  However, the media and culture, largely exists to convince us that all the outcomes are the same for everyone -- or at least should be -- which is the error in thinking that prevents life from actually becoming any better, for those who fail to exercise those responsibilities nobody can exercise for any other.

That is where the failure begins -- and not the failure of the mass, to do everything for them.  The essential problem, is the failure to do anything for oneself -- and eventually thinking that one cannot do anything for oneself, and by oneself -- which results of course, in the utter lack of oneself, and one's power to do anything for oneself -- which should be a shocking fate for anybody contemplating a happy future in a long life.  The present model of longevity, is in fact a (pro)vision of increasing disabilities until an army of personal assistants (and institutions) is required just to keep one alive in a persistent vegetative condition for as long as possible -- without regard to any consideration for quality of life, because the quantities are the only considerations and measures anymore.  How much, and not how well, becomes the de facto standard for any discussion of any activity we are engaged in -- and particularly in those activities we refer to as our "conditioning" activities, that predispose how and with what capacity, we can engage our lives.

In real life, it seldom matters how much we do, as how well we do it -- which is totally disregarded and dismissed as making any difference -- which is obviously missing the whole point.  One has to begin wholly with such considerations, or no amount of partial and half-truths, will add up to the whole truth -- miraculously, at the end.  There will only be the many fractious diversions and distractions that prevent us from seeing clearly and precisely, what it is we have to do -- and do those things, than the many others, we should not instead.  Life is very simple and definitive in that way.


What Are People Doing Wrong?

Many people say they want to change, but everything they do, reinforces the way they are -- and so they remain so.

Nowhere is that more true than it is when people say they want to lose weight -- while maintaining that their favorite pastime is eating.  That is the obvious problem.  One has to develop another pastime besides eating -- and not simply exercising so that one can eat more. 

Even when they do go to gyms to workout -- they choose a style of working out, that allows them as much inactivity as possible -- which is to choose an overheavy weight, perform five repetitions of that movement, and then take the next ten minutes to recover for their next set.  In the meantime, they are commiseerating with others of the same problem, that it is very hard to lose weight -- even exercising, but it sure has worked up an appetite, that they now feel fully justified in indulging.

Their entire lives is one of indulgences -- and that becomes the way they are, quite visibly and palpably. There just can be no other way -- but the truth, of how they live.  So when they go to the doctors, as they frequently must do, there's a whole litany of ailments -- caused by the way they live, and everything they do, and do not do -- that cannot be hidden or erased.  That truth is manifest -- and not what one would simply like it to be, in spite of everything they do -- that makes it so.

One has merely conditioned oneself to that denial of reality -- and what is -- and no amount of wishful-thinking, will make it otherwise.  The task, is to align the reality with what one would like to believe, until they areone and the same, and not fragments of every half-truth one wishes to believe.  The result then, is an integratedhuman being living in that one reality -- and not the many fragmented ones that is the reason for their mental illness and disintegration, decline and demise.

A life in increasing integration -- which means oneness, is a life getting stronger, more efficient and purposeful, while that which disintegrates, is losing its cohesiveness and sense of direction, to become better as a result of knowing its purpose for being and doing, and not increasing its randomness of activities and behaviors that overwhelm those sensibilities.

Death and dying, doesn't just happen -- but are the result of one's behaviors, as much as those designs and desires that foster growth and vitality.  So just doing anything -- in any ol' way -- will not be sufficient, to attain the precise outcomes one hopes to achieve by practice -- of doing the right things.  And how does one know that? The results are usually obvious -- and have been for millions of years of evolution, that there is a reason it has to be this way -- and not to be aligned with that reality, makes extinction imminent.

One still has to be the best one can be -- despite the welfare and Social Security, that says we don't have tobe, as all the margin of safety we need.  For life surely, at that level, is guaranteed at the minimum, and not the maximum of what it can be -- beginning with one's baseline health and functioning.  That is mental as well asphysical -- and beyond that, firing on all cyclinders as a complete and fully-developed individual -- which means to be indivisible, and unfragmented in every way -- so as to be a total human being.

And that is what is now possible, in an age of affluence -- instead of just eating and consuming more -- because that is now possible too.  But those were the solutions for an earlier time -- and regressing to the caveman, is not the extent of human progress, and its highest form and achievement.  

The thoughtful and creative people of any time, are focused on the frontiers of these developments and different possibilities -- and not just a return to the good ol' days, when life was brutal, short and nasty -- as the ideal of how it should be.  And that is why history and patterns repeat themselves -- in thinking there cannot be a liberation from this past, and chain of suffering and torment.  But it means having the insight to see that possibility -- and not just accept the fate everybody around them says they must.

That is a huge part of the aging dilemma -- as people don't know how to live their lives beyond the brutal, short and nasty -- but to assume and accept that fate, because they cannot imagine and create any other -- because nobody taught them how.  That is what they had to teach themselves.  That -- is the meaning and purpose of their life.


Dysfunction, Ill Health, Old Age

There is a tendency to blur the distinction between these three distinct phenomena -- of dysfunctionill healthold age -- and how they are related to one another, and unless one is clear that they are not one and the same, just asdiscrimination is the antidote for prejudice -- and not thecause of prejudice, as the mass media manipulatorswould have us believe.

From that confusion, they can have us believing everything they want us to believe -- since we now think up is down, black is white, left is right, right is wrong, and the effect is the cause of anything -- rather than its logical outcome.  Thus, many believe they are in ill health because they are old -- rather than in ill health -- caused by their dysfunction, or bad choices and behaviors.  Instead, they would rather believe that because they are "old," they have to make these bad choices  -- rather than accept that their ill health, is because of these bad choices -- and not the result of just living longer.

Then they surround themselves with all those who will support them in their thinking that they are helpless and need increasingly more assistance and caregiving from those whose livelihoods are based on such self-abnegating beliefs -- that they simply must get worse, no matter what they do -- but there are "professionals" available all along the way to "aid" them to their ultimate demise and abject end.

And then there is the other half of the population who believe that their lives can get better -- as long as they have something to say and do about it -- who can sometimes be overzealous in their belief and affirmations that "anything is possible, -- for certainly, everything is not, and one is equally in error thinking so.  But rather than take one extreme (erroneous)  view over the other, one is best testing what is true, and what is not, rather than just choosing the beliefs they want to, because that is what suits their purposes and aspirations.

So one asks, can one begin any inquiry and undertaking, without any preconceived beliefs and presumptions -- but rather, proceed to find out the truth of the matter -- not according to what one group of experts says it is -- but actually discovering the truth of that matter in one's own life, because that is what is relevant and significant, because nothing works for everybody, or doesn't work for everybody -- and we have to find out, which we are.

The mass media manipulators would have us believe that there is only one way -- and they are in charge of it -- and have been, ever since their predecessors took their commandment from Moses himself, and that's how they came upon their authority.  But authority is not the same as the actual truth of the matter -- which is always open to dispute, and a better understanding -- despite those who claim to be exclusively in charge of such matters.

The scientific method has always been an open challenge from anyone interested in presenting a better understanding and explanation -- particularly when the present one, merely legitimizes and perpetuates the problem as unsolvable to the end of time.  Certainly before then, if not in short order, somebody will come along with new insight, that eliminates that problem entirely -- because they understand it rightly, and better.

And that is how things come to get better -- and not stay the same forever, or as some experts believe, that the truth was perfected thousands of years ago, and have only gotten worse since then -- and so the superiority of their understanding, is that it hasn't changed for the last thousands of years -- depsite the fact that everything has changed since then.  But to such people, nothing is related to everything else -- and each fragment of their "understanding," exists in a world unrelated to any other -- so that any claim to cause and effect is impossible -- and that's why they are the "experts."

The Impossible Question 

While most people accept that life is change, very few regard that changes can be for the better -- instead of the inevitable worse -- and if they did, then there wouldn't be so much resistance to change, so much fear, anxiety and trepidation.

But we are conditioned to believe that change even for the better, must be at least painful and arduous -- rather than alleviating and ultimately eliminating the pain, and being easier instead of more difficult and complicated.

However, that is not a necessary component of change -- but the price the controlling few think to exact, in order to let the uninitiated into the promised land.  That is the kind of hazing that takes place in every society, to keep the few (elite), the few -- because if everyone could have it so good and easy, what merit could they have over the others?

That is not essential to change -- but rather the rearguard action of those who will soon be last in the coming societal upheaval and transformation.  The vanguard of society, has already moved on -- in creating the new  and not just repeating the old -- as though those incantations, can prevent that progress and evolution to the unrelenting better.

That is the very nature and movement of life -- to seek the better.  All forms of life do that -- because it is in its best interests to do so, and that which is not successful, will perish -- to make way for the successful.  That is what one needs to understand about life -- that if one isn't getting better, than one is getting worse, and even hoping to stay the same, is getting worse, because all of life is improving -- whether one wants to or not.

If one is constantly adapting, re-creating oneself to the challenges of each new moment and time, then one is always at their best -- until one day they are gone -- but not deteriorating for half their lifetime, as many in contemporary life presently experience -- along with so much fear and trepidation.  But if they can continue to keep growing throughout life, then there is no dying and deterioration but only actualization and fulfillment of all the days of their being -- which is living in the eternity of each moment.

And that is the promised land and not only a life in the hereafter -- where supposedly, one gets to live that life in another.  If this life is only a preparation for the next, then there is no better preparation than living that life in the present one.

That is entirely possible -- to do directly and presently -- what one thinks they have to do the opposite to achieve -- because of a societal conditioning, to make everything difficult and complex -- or how could the few (elite), remain above all the others?  So we need competitions to ensure that there will only be one winner -- and all the others, losers -- because that's how we are conditioned to think necessary, so that there isn't a level playing field.  Some must be worse -- even if we have to create a way for them to be so.

So one asks, "Is it possible for everyone to get better -- and how is that possible?"