A cannonball with a handle, a bag of sand, clubs and maces. These are the tools the monkey is gravitating towards. Because machines in the gym are there for two reasons:
-Simple, idiot-proof machines make it so that members can
-People want to feel like they're working out without actually working hard. This is why all those silly eliptical contraptions and stair-crapsters are always packed, but nobody's on the rowing machines. Because you can't fake the rower and have to actually work.
All a machine is there to do is take up some of the work & effort so you don't have to. And at that point, you are paying for the privilege of wasting your time. That's absolutely how I look at all the years I spent in & out of gyms, never seeing sustainable results.
Although there is one bit-o-tek that team LexiMonkey wants to get: heart-rate monitors.
Working hard enough to get your heart rate up into the aerobic zone is absolutely essential. Regularly getting your heart up into the zone exercises it (it's a muscle, after all). The more it gets exercise, the stronger it becomes. And that will lower one's heart-rate. The heart gets it's own oxygenation in-between beats. A low resting heart-rate means that when you do start exerting yourself, your heart will be strong enough to get oxygen and keep going.
One of the absolute best aspects of Kettlebell work is that in surprisingly short a time, you can get a SERIOUS full-body workout. But when doing the ballistics like swings and snatches, getting the heart-rate up and keeping it there under work conditions is the whole idea. Know if you're working too hard or need to pull harder helps you keep from... "wasting your time". ;-)
I've been going on and on and on about the book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise & the Brain. But I only think you should read it if you live in a human body, have a human brain, and plan to stay that way for a while.
Daily, heart-rate raising, gravity-defying exercise is absolutely fundamental to maintaining both our bodies and brains INCLUDING GROWING NEW BRAIN CELLS AND MAKING NEURAL CONNECTIONS (you did notice that "Revolutionary New Science" part of the title, didn't you?). Exercise and food are how be body (the brain included) maintains itself. No pill or surgery or external remedy will ever change the fundamental, evolutionary design of Homo Sapiens.
There is no health, physical or mental, without daily exercise. To have a brain, to be human, is to move. Plants don't need brains.
Which is why gym class in American schools is such a tragedy.
I can almost feel heads shaking across the intarwebs.
Physical Culture used to be taught in schools. The idea was to develop the body (and mind) with physical drills, exercise, calisthenics, etc. Health & vitality was the goal.
Somewhere along the 20th century, the focus shifted from physical culture to competitive sports. And that's where the tragedy set it.
What about the kids who aren't in good shape, who aren't athletic? The ones picked last for dodgeball? The ones who would be voted off the
Plus, with most competitive sports, the majority of the players are either sitting on the sidelines, or just standing around waiting for the ball to come to them.
Spark discusses one Phys Ed teacher who tried something new. He went back to a physical culture model for his students, including weekly mile runs. He put a donated heart-rate monitor on the most unfit, skinny looking girl in the class and was astounded.
While she looked like she was doing an insipid put-put pace around the track, her heart-rate was way up into the aerobic zone. She wasn't lazy, she was working her tail off. She was unfit and out of shape, but she was working as hard as she could.
Now, all the kids Phys Ed grades are determined by how consistently they they get their heart-rates up (tracked by the monitors linked to the coaches computer). Every personal best in the weekly mile raises your grade by a full letter. Sports have been re-designed around 3-on-3 basketball, 4-on-4 soccer, climbing walls, Dance Dance Revolution, kayaking, whatever. Pick something you like, strap a monitor on, and go sweat.
Gym class is no longer about how many points you scored for the team, how "we'll play one short rather than have her on our side", or the litany of crap and bullshit that turned so many of us off to exercise early on.
Now, the kids are graded on how hard they personally work within their ability, at things they enjoy. And the kids are learning early on that physical exertion is fun and makes the feel good.
Don't even get me started on how they're finding exercise raises test scores and decreases violence in poor schools. I dare you to read the book and not immediately start considering what you want to do for your personal exercise path.
I double-dog dare you!
Even lo-tek monkey wants to get him a heart-rate monitor.
Yesterday, Lexi & I saw a tall, barrel-shaped guy walking towards us on the street. His right arm was fully rotated forward, entire back of the hand showing. His entire right arm did not swing in the least bit as he walked.
According to Egoscue, that indicates his posture muscles in the lower body are so de-conditioned and out of the picture, the body is recruiting the opposite shoulder muscles to pull everything between the leg and them to heave the leg forward and accomplish walking. This leaves his shoulder locked in place in an unnatural position, rather than swinging naturally as he walks.
The things you notice once your know what to look for. I look around me and I see people crippling themselves with every bent, mis-aligned step they take. Lexi & I are fighting the urge not to run up to strangers and give them a card with Pete Egoscue's books listed on it.
Srsly. If you work from a chair and drive a car, you most likely have crap posture that causing unnecessary wear-&-tear on your musculoskeletal system. Egoscue is of the opinion that what we think of as "old age, wear & tear" is not a naturally occurring thing, but the result of deficient exercise and moving with a mis-aligned skeleton.
I have seen Egoscue's method work on my own posture and alignment.
We all grow old, we all die. Until then, weakness & pain are largely optional.
Tuesday 6/3/08
My "variety" day. Pavel says "Do what ever you want, work techniques beyond the big pull/big press model, bodyweight, whatever. Just keep it easy. Not light, just easy.
I bruised a rib working the trolley last Saturday, and it's still a bit tender. Wanted to do get-ups, but it felt like that was not in the cards. Okay.
16kg (Sergei Bogotir)
-limbering, cossacks, pump stretch, etc.
-10 halos, RL
-3 Windmills, RL
-20 slingshots, RL (passing the KB from hand 2 hand, in a circle around the body. 20 one way, 20 the other)
-10 Rolling sit-ups, RL
-5 Overhead squats, RL
-5 1-minute wall handstands
Power to you!
Previously in O,DIKTO?
-The monkey's workout diary
-I <3 Jack LaLanne!
- Location:OaktownIRONville, CA
- Jammin' to:Moby - Bodyrock
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Comments
If I find a backpack that will carry all my crap, I can see keeping a kettlebell in my hand as part of my walk.
That kind of "panaerobic exercise" (walking & other movements while carrying hand weights) is gold as far as conditioning.
Edited at 2008-06-04 07:25 pm (UTC)
At home, though, I swam. Ran. Climbed trees. I discovered ice skating and got pretty serious about that.
One sweet memory: I'm in the sixth grade. For some reason I cannot recall or understand, the teacher has us running laps around the soccer field. At this point I am spending about 20 hours on the ice every week. While the popular girls huff and puff, I run. I don't get tired. In fact, I pick up speed after a few warm-up laps. Compared to my on-ice training, this is nothing. I feel fast, strong, happy, free. I run so far ahead of them that it's as if I am running alone. It feels good.
I actually hate running now. Hurts my knees. But thanks for bringing back a good memory with your post, Pirate. And I'm going to get this book. You're really quite persuasive with all this stuff.
Here's an Egoscue-trained therapist explaining why poor posture and skeletal alignment causes pain when running.
We a designed by millions of years of evolution to run. Pain while running is an aberration, and a signal that something is out of place.
If your knees hurt, then SRSLY, get you a copy of Pain Free. We are SO pushing this book to every friend of ours who mentions they're got pain issues.
The subject of running is part of an upcoming post I'm marinating on. But in short... Lexi & no longer see training for the marathon as ridiculous.
Merely a whole lot of work.
:D