Be Strong, Be Natural, Be Wise

I just left LA Fitness. Went there because I like to sweat in the sauna and I had left another local gym because it was nasty.

Before signing up the manager wanted to give me tour. When we arrived in the free weight area he started to offer me his ideas on how to care for the body and how to exercise for results. Then he goes off on the old story of “you must tear muscle to make muscle”. Saying each time you come you need to break it down muscle to build it up. Although functionally this may be true, the action of tearing muscle three to five times a week is insane.

Why do I say insane, don’t we want bigger muscles?  No, what we want need are toned muscles, muscles that are strong yet free of tension and proportional to our body. Tension filled tissues do not carry blood, lymph and qi (energy) easily, instead block their movement causing stagnation of these critical constituents of life. We want and need muscles that work both physically and aesthetically with the rest of who you are.

I’m sure you’ve all seen men and women who are clearly out of proportion, arms, legs, chests and shoulders that look like they’ve been transplanted from someone else. No 5’8 man needs nor can use 16” inch biceps and certainly not a woman of that height, yet still they try and many accomplish such just to find themselves muscle bound, looking wrong and functioning poorly.  Also trying to maintain such because it’s unnatural is an exercise in futility for the simple reason it is unnatural.

Even more important the process described by the trainer causes a response that has been proven to cause diseases of every kind, that being inflammation. Those who work out even three times a week using the method of ripping and rebuilding are living with Chronic Inflammation, a state that will harm and even kill some of them. Don’t do it!

It is better, far better, to find the body you were meant to have and maintain it. Yes, most westerns need to supplement movement because most of us no longer “work” for a living, but instead sit for a living and so we need to offer some movement useless we want to evolve into a giant head with a stick figure body.

So want to do?

I’ve been working with a set of rules offered me by qigong master BK Frantzis fifteen years ago. They are… Never work the body to exhaustion. Never work the body into tension, and always work the body while the mind is connected to every movement we make. In other words, don’t exercise mindlessly.

This is what I was taught about weight training.

Find a weight you can do sets of 20 reps with then take that weight down by 30 %.  Never push the body till it shakes, neither from the weight or repetitions. This will build strength, offer some mild increase in bulk, yet never do you harm.

Know that as soon as you go beyond the 70% your body will tense up; qi, blood and lymph will stop moving and the exercise will become more harmful than good.

If you're interested in receiving a consultation I offer them at a reasonable cost in my office or by phone.

Be Strong, Be Healthy, Be Wise…gi