Understanding Conditioning -- Volume Four

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 dysfunction, ill health, old 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?"

What Matters

Everything you do in life matters -- and is revealed in the condition one is in.

The people who are in poor health and condition, don't think anything matters -- and that is the shape their bodies take.

If they are "too busy and have no time," what are they doing?  It is obviously not anything requiring skilled movement -- except their hand to mouth coordination, which obviously, they don't need to do anymore of.

People in great shape are not that way because of how much they do, but how much "better" they do it -- because of their practice at extending the range of their movement, and not just repeating a limited range of motion and expression endlessly -- until those joints wear out and have to be replaced.

Even the heart wears out from unnecessary wear and tear -- because it is not designed to last forever, so to arbitrarily cause it to wear out out prematurely, is obviously foolish -- though unquestionably good business for the cardiologists advising people to do so.  The wise and prudent people of every discipline, seem to advise the utmost mindfulness and attention to what one is doing -- and not just flailing one's arms and legs meaninglessly as though some good will come of that.

If one shoots a thousand shots, there is a chance one might hit the target once -- but the objective, is to hit the target, with one shot, or as few as possible.  Thus the best golfer, bowler, basketball player, quarterback, pole vaulter, weightlifter, etc., are not those doing the most -- but invariably doing the least, perfectly the first time.

Ironically, that is usually never a consideration in the discussions of exercise, conditioning and fitness -- but only gross amounts of activity, calorie expenditures, heart rate, time spent, etc. -- all things easy to measure, but whether they are the most important things to measure, most teachers of any skill, will recognize is irrelevant to the mastery that transcends them to the next level -- which is the reason for their practice, and not just the mindless activity that is certain to end in frustration, despair and no idea of what and why they are doing what they are doing.

Until that understanding is addressed, all their activities and movements will be random -- resulting in random results, instead of the very specific objectives they wish to achieve.  You don't get there by going in the wrong (opposite) direction no matter how long and strenuously one's efforts are.

When people fail to achieve their objectives, it is invariably not because of a lack of effort, but this lack of understanding of what they ARE doing, and lack of clarity of how everything is related to everything else -- and not that nothing is related to anything else, and so anything one wants to believe, is equally valid.

That's not how the world works.

Living and Dying 

The overarching theme is that everybody has to learn to take better care of THEMSELVES first -- so that others won't have to do it for them.

A lot of these people are not in the best condition at any point in their lives before they begin a prolonged terminal decline -- from whatever their best health and condition was.

The person in optimal health will continue to improve their health and condition -- to assure their best life -- all their lives, but only a rare few presently have this view of life.  Many others, begin to deteriorate as soon as they get out of high school, and there is nobody telling them what to do and how to live their lives -- which is the beginning of a lifetime of dependency, supported by institutionalized codependency.

Some now even measure their success in life -- by how much they can get other people to do things for them.  They "rely almost totally on the kindness of strangers," and ultimately on their friends and family -- but never themselves -- to assure their best lives.

After a lifetime of living this way, they are not going to be capable of taking care of themselves in their old age -- as many never mastered as young people, or any other prime of their lives.  It was one straight shot downhill.  The obvious cases are the obesity, chain-smoking, drugs and alcohol, addictive dependencies and codependencies -- from which many plunge into their terminal conditions.

But if one is in one's best health, doing all the right things, few can fault one if disaster should strike -- but fully 95% are not beginning at that base level from which to deteriorate -- and dragging everybody down with them, as the only way they know how to do and live their lives.

We also need to learn how to die better -- as well as live better, which is the summation of one's living.  In such a society, the young will not have to sacrifice themselves for the dying, or the old for the young, etc.  No one should have to live for another.  Everybody will have the fullest responsibility to live for themselves -- or to die with dignity and courage -- and not dragging everybody else into the grave with them -- which is the horror of these dying experiences, that should not be the model for the future but the past that we turn away from.

We have to create a better way -- of living and dying, or we are stuck with the present dysfunction.

Nautilus Principles and High Intensity Training

If Casey Viator made it past 62 in the marvelous condition he was noted for, I would have proclaimed that Arthur Jones and the Nautilus Principles (high intensity training) he advocated, was definitively vindicated and validated -- as a modality that could be embraced by anyone wishing to maintain and achieve their peak condition throughout today's extended lifetimes.  But if such an extraordinarily gifted individual as Casey could not, I doubt that anybody else can. 

Arthur handpicked him as the prototype for his theories -- while many others have famously passed advocating similarly extreme training regimens -- the result of which apparently, is to produce enlarged, weakened hearts (congestive heart conditions), which seems to cause their premature deaths despite their previous great success at muscular and strength gains -- including Oliva, Mentzer, Redding, Bednarski. several world's strongest men, etc.

That's a particular concern when cohorts of that generation begin to sense that they cannot sustain training that way once they are past 40, 50, 60...as many of the Baby Boomers are now.  It's not a lack of will but simply a physical impossibility -- when even the most prolific specimens, such as Oliva and Viator, cannot sustain their progress but go into a dramatic health reversal as a result of their lifetime devotion to high intensity (overload) training ending in their untimely deaths -- just as Jim Fixx of a previous time advocated running as the antidote to heart failures, or the original Olympic marathoner collapsing and dying as he reached his destination to announce, "We triumph."

For many now, retirement age is just the beginning of life, and not its conclusion -- as it has been in previous times.  A generation ago, people were expected to die a few years after they qualified for Social Security, and now the future viabilityof that system, is threatened by many living a whole lifetime beyond that -- but the question remains, "How can we do it with increasing good health?" -- and not just the appearance of it -- until suddenly one day, we learn of their passing.

That was what I was beginning to suspect at the height of the popularity of the Nautilus machines back in the mid-80s -- after actually being one of the first persons to embrace the Nautilus Principles -- on hearing it from Arthur Jones at the 1970 Teenage Mr. America, where Casey burst upon the bodybuilding scene -- and Arthur produced his one prototype machine -- which all the contestants got to try, but Casey seemed to double in size, while the others stayed moderately the same.  That was the visual impact of Casey at the Teenage Mr. America contest (and subsequent national contests) -- that he was twice the size of everybody else -- particularly in response to using the Nautilus Pullover machine.

But they seemed to want to maintain their distance -- as though they weren't already working in collaboration at that point, but they turned up together at the York Barbell Club later that week, as I watched Bob Bednarski train -- who had just won the world superheavy weight lifting championship -- and was also a superfreak of his generation -- who shortly also died of a heart attack.  People tend to blame the steroids rather than the trainiing methodology -- which is admittedly very stressful -- with short and longterm side effects that seem to be increasingly overwhelming and conclusive as not the way one wants to be training if sustainable longevity in improving health is the objective -- way past the short term goals of winning any physique or strength contest should be.

I was just wondering recently, probably on his birthday, I wonder what condition Casey Viator is in?

Understanding and Eliminating Common Back Pain

More often than not, the most common experience of back pain -- is not from aggravating it in some traumatic exertion or injury, but noted when one gets out of bed, and cannot move the back into the condition of mobility and flexibility -- but the spine seems to be locked into one position that virtually immobilizes not only the spine, but every other joint attached to it -- and thus the movements of that individual, seems to be very limited and even painful to the observer.

Meanwhile, the movements of a healthy back and individual, is to seem unrestricted even by the presence of any backbone -- so fluid, effortless and pain free is their movement -- as to seem to be impossible or unimaginable to most other observers, who have never explored those ranges -- or thought it possible.

The most extreme examples, are the movements of the rhythmic gymnasts and ballet dancers, who try to make effortless, what to most others, is impossible -- including and especially, standing on their toes, or equally impressive -- pointing their toes towards the ceiling, etc. --  when most people have to be reminded that they even have the power to wiggle (move) their toes.  Yet on the other extreme, there are those who have learned to paint with their toes, or play musical instruments -- usually in compensation for the absence of the usual faculties for performing such tasks.

That is what they have trained and conditioned themselves to do -- and so they can.  That is similar to the person who has cut their hand, and then has to teach a finger to apply continuous pressure to that wound for an extended period of time -- to prevent extensive blood loss.  That's not what they usually do, but that is what they must do -- to get by for the next 24 hour period -- and that is what they have to get very good at, because their very health and lives depend upon it.

So the range of possibilities are very great -- when one sees the urgency of it -- as simply what must be done, especially when there are no others around to take over the situation -- and nurse one back to full capabilities and health.  That should also be one's recourse, if the professional advice does not work -- rather than the lifelong dependency on those treatments that never full eliminate the problem -- in the first place.

And that seems to be the case with many people reporting back pain that even seems to get worse with (bed) rest -- that the bed itself may be the culprit.  The obvious case, are the old spring mattresses in which the springs are so badly worn, that one is essentially sleeping in a jacknifed position all night long -- and then finds it difficult to just straighten up as soon as they get out of bed, and instead, they have to walk in that jack-knifed position all day, or at least a while before their back loosens up enough to allow them to straighten up.

That's the obvious one, but less obvious, even with a good mattress and support, is that the back muscles will relax, and allow the lower back which is usually an arch, to flatten out along the bed and even to assume a rounded position -- accounting for the appearance of those with a permanently rounded back that does not have the shock-absorbing properties of the back in an arched position, which also allows maximal chest expansion -- just in breathing, and most importantly, breathing while sleeping.  Instead, their chests remained always compressed, rather than assuming its fullest expansion possibility because the back must be arched to articulate that position.

That is the essential value of yoga -- which is this focus on back articulation, and the breathing it enables.  But it sufficient to note, that the back rounded position, is also the chest compressed position, while the back arched position, is also the chest maximally expanded -- and most athletic movements, are variations on this theme.  One produces maximal power by thrusting the head forward, while obtaining maximal relaxation just in moving the head back to produce an exaggerated arch -- which is also the greatest range of the breathing movement, as the chest volume is altered that produces the greatest pressure differences that determines air movement.

The measure of health, can also be detected by the fullness of one's breathing -- as well as the constricted breathing of people in poor health, and particularly mental health -- because the organ most impacted by oxygen and blood flow (circulation), is the brain, which is the limit of every other function and functioning in the body.  Nothing else can perform better than it -- by deliberate design of evolution.  That has to be the top priority no matter how much one would wish it to be otherwise -- and what person in their right mind, would desire it to be otherwise?

The distinctive feature, that proclaims the human's evolutionary success over all other forms and species, is the peculiarity of an upright posture -- that is enabled by the curvature of the spine that is shock-absorbing -- that allows this chest expansion and shoulders-back presentation of robust health -- as opposed to the slouched over position of one obviously in declining health, and moving in great pain -- which the predatory animals, are particularly instinctive at spotting as the target for their efforts, and their best chances for their own survival.

They're not going after the gymnasts with their greatly exaggerated shoulders back and sway-back postures and strut.  They're going after the ones with their shoulders rounded forward so as to constrict their chests, with their heads bent forward and so immobilized in that position as to be unaware of most of the activity around them -- including their impending doom.

Realizing this, one should not sleep with a pillow under one's head simulating this posture, but instead, should place that pillow in the small of one's back so as to force one to rest in a back arched posture and chest maximally expanded and the shoulders back -- as their default (resting) posture, that is the condition they want to be in.