Thanks for hanging in there with me and reading my pages. I can hear you out there. Give me an exercise! Cut to the chase! Stop all this theory and give me something to do! Wish I could; boy, do I wish this were simpler. Actually, the human body’s responsive position to gravity is unbelievably simple in construct and application. What is not simple is the layers of misunderstanding that have been place over the truth that makes it so complicated.
It’s not that simple because, well, we make it complicated. There are so many places in the virtual or real world where you can find tons of exercises or exercise systems without any understanding of how they fundamentally link together in a way to protect the body’s integrity to gravity. This is a major concept; THE major concept for health in a unidirectional gravity field. Most gym rats and even advanced exercise systems designed by experts are concerned about muscle physiology; you get paid back on your effort by stronger muscle, feeling fit and busting out some endorphins. But hardly any speak to the requirement of integrity to gravity – a major flaw which leads to damage and ultimately failed attempts at reaching your exercise goals.
Yes, some systems make the attempt and are better than most – pretty good in fact, but none take the entire nose to toes multi-dimensional body position into such deep analysis or make it as simple as Posturegenics system.
Most people when they try to just exercise without understanding screw it up. Their exercise strategies or pain reduction plans don’t include an awareness and appreciation of how their body works against gravity. The goal of just getting stronger, while a valuable ideal, is a short sighted solution fraught with problems that you never knew existed before venturing into the gym. Utilizing the Posturegenics system can make any exercise or exercise system better, more effective and safer.
It hurts me to go to a gym. Not me exercising hurts; it’s watching most of the other people throwing weights around in arcs and lines that might benefit one muscle or muscle group in the short-term, but has major deleterious effects to the long-term health and function of that part or other serially connected parts. It is like watching a car wreck pile up in slow motion. Fingernails on a blackboard. Painful. Can’t look. Can’t watch. Ugly.
And they have no clue; they think they are doing something valuable and beneficial, which is actually going to hurt them in the not too distant future. That to me is the tragedy; the avoidable damage gone into with good intent but little awareness of exercise’s collateral damage.
People need to understand the vital foundation of the basic movement patterns of the body. And how to incorporate that understanding into a series of movements which may be called exercises. We’ll start slow, we’ll start simple, but you just can’t to ‘an’ exercise and make this change. Just exercising without regard to posture is usually better than just doing the couch slouch. However, all repetitive motions performed with poor mechanics regardless of beneficial intention, without a thought to how it affects the whole structure, leads to damage and could possibly be more damaging than just being a couch potato. That’s a scary thought; a couch potato is healthier than some well meaning but poorly informed dedicated exerciser.
Keep playing and working with me and also remember to keep the attitude of play and discovery. I’ve never seen people get better long-term results with struggle and arduous effort. It’s got to be playful; to experience the wonder of how the body really moves is a joyful experience full of aha’s and a profound sense of connectedness.
Would you get behind the wheel of your car, drive off and ignore the rules of the road? Drive on pavement or sidewalks, whatever speed, stop on green, and go on red? That would be a very dangerous experience. We drive within the rules of the road; obeying the laws that are set up because, well, because they work. We get from here to there safely because of these rules. When you follow them you don’t really remember that you are following them, as a set of rules; you do it because it just the way it’s done. Let’s not think about those people who don’t follow safe driving protocols – not following the road rules is just as dangerous as exercising without obeying gravity’s rules.
Would you jump into a pool without learning how to swim? Would you ride a bike down a steep hill without first learning how to ride? Most of us take our standing, walking sitting and moving for granted. If it gets me to the next thing on my list it is fine; good enough. Not realizing that there is a spectrum of effective motion that can be life enhancing to life deteriorating on either end is a major tipping point to helping or hurting yourself under gravity’s effects.
All exercise is based around resistance. You work against something and hopefully you improve the tone and the quality and the stamina of your muscle system. That’s how it is supposed to work. But if you don’t arrange yourself to gravity properly, engaging correct muscle patterns, you are working against gravity in a harmful way. Gravity is the biggest most constant source of resistance we have. Many times I have seen people who have increased their muscle mass at the expense of their efficiency to gravity, which leads to injury, poor performance and rapid degradation of the muscular system.
We all know that the strongest animals that ever walked the earth were dinosaurs and they’re oil now. Gravity wins - always. The Posturegenics idea is to create and maintain a state of maximum efficiency to gravity. The goal of effective exercise is not how strong you are but how efficient you are. Your body’s position to gravity is an effective tool in distributing force over the maximum area available. Strength is magnified and force absorption is dissipated through the entire structure. Stress is dampened and absorbed easier, gentler and over the long run the body remains durable and incredibly effective. So you organize and maximize your effort into effective resistance to constant force which minimizes its harmful effect.
In Posturegenics there is recognition that posture needs to be an active process; like a resident program on your computer working in the background. Without that simple, subtle, silent awareness, congestion, inflammation, stiffness, starts developing and accumulating. The little whisper of discomfort builds and gets more active, with a more strident and shrill voice as it ramps up through the spectrum of discomfort to pain to incapacitating pain to chronic inability to function.
I’ve seen so many good to excellent athletes whose career’s ended far shorter than need be due to avoidable damage and preventable injuries. Their careers could have been longer, more successful by placing more emphasis on proper mechanics so needless stress didn’t build to permanent deterioration beyond repair.
I’ve seen a lot of strong people get into trouble, just from the fact that they are strong. Strength has its own strategy that doesn’t require good and proper form or mechanics. Strong people move without a thought for efficient moving. They also pick things up or play sports without good form. They do this because they can get away with it. Not consciously but found an early strategy that ‘worked’. This strategy or lack of one initiates and perpetuates stress in the tissues creating weaknesses, damage that leads to the demise of that activity.
Because strong people are doing this without thinking, there is no conscious strategy or solution – a way to solve the problem. They just keep trying to use strength. There is a point of diminishing returns where, normal muscular effort leads to more pain, more frustration, more damage, more inflammation by doing the same things over and over hoping for different results. Einstein’s dictum about problems can’t be solved with the level of thinking that created the problem in the first place also applies here.
