Enhanced quality of life - the whole picture

[Gem]

Hello

I recently completed my Certificate III in fitness - the entry level qualification in the fitness industry, and I aim to share my knowledge, both academic and experiential, for the benefit of others. I first joined a gym only 18 months ago, and in that time have experienced significant benefits both physically and psychologically, and on a deeper level of wisdom, hence I am motivated to serve others so they might benefit in a similar way, but as it pertains to themselves.

I first have to start on a negative note and address the huge cloud of bulldust being sold in the name of 'fitness' and 'health', and much of this fallacy is associated with spiritual paradigms. On one side we have the nonsense like 'great abs on my 4 week program' and further nonsense like 'eat my magic goji berry' - apart from all the 'ethical diets' based on spiritual notions of 'compassion'.

Firstly, the health requires balanced nutrition, not magic superfoods and 'alternative herbs'. Secondly, there is no magic exercise program that gets 'instant abs', 'burns belly fat' and so forth. That is all lies, and I call it 'lies' specifically because the professionals selling these 'fads' know better, and they deliberately mislead people. It's a scam, plain and simple.

So to start here in dispelling the fallacies, we can cut the bulldust and start actually looking into the real lived issues of health and fitness. We are immediately aware that it is not a 'health issue' for which there is a remedy, but a lifestyle issue, which is also a social issue, in need of transformation.

So this thread addresses human lives - as whole people within their social-cultural contexts. The whole self as a physical/psychological person as they exist in socio-cultural space.

If any person wishes to discuss openly their health/fitness/mood, I want to do what I can to hear you out and open the wider possibility for an enhanced quality of living.

Thanks for listening.

[running]

i have found if its not about some kinda specific competition, such as a sporting event that requires muscle mass. ieverywhere can be a gym. simply because the more natural the exercise that incorporates the most muscles at one time gives the best overall effect for overall.

as an example. when you do a bench press the body is supported by the bench. limiting the muscles to the chest, shoulders and so on. doing pushups activates many more muscles than just the chest, triceps, and so on. more importantly its the most important muscles that i can't even name but play a huge roll in supporting the body. such as lower back, stomach and so on.

after years of weight training in gyms to build muscles and stay fit. today i prefer doing just a few exercises that can be done literally anywhere. partially because i have less interest in building muscle mass and more interest in just being fit. and great interest in all the supporting muscles that when strong keep me from getting hurt.

1. this alone can do the job. upper body muscles, lower body muscles, and all the supporting muscles.

up, downs.
you start from a standing position.
drop to a squating position
kick your legs out to a push up position.
do a push up.
kick your legs in back to a squating position
jump up. in the air or just back to a standing position
repeat to however many one wishes to do.

2. pushups

3. run

if there is one muscle that is most important to keep from getting hurt. that would be the stomach. when the stomach is strong its hard to hurt the back. doing labor work most of my life i have found when my stomach is strong i dont get hurt. when it is weak i have. as a truck driver today and i keep getting older. i do my best to keep my stomach strong.

up downs and pranayama i do when i run keeps my stomach strong.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by running

i have found if its not about some kinda specific competition, such as a sporting event that requires muscle mass. ieverywhere can be a gym. simply because the more natural the exercise that incorporates the most muscles at one time gives the best overall effect for overall.

as an example. when you do a bench press the body is supported by the bench. limiting the muscles to the chest, shoulders and so on. doing pushups activates many more muscles than just the chest, triceps, and so on. more importantly its the most important muscles that i can't even name but play a huge roll in supporting the body. such as lower back, stomach and so on.

after years of weight training in gyms to build muscles and stay fit. today i prefer doing just a few exercises that can be done literally anywhere. partially because i have less interest in building muscle mass and more interest in just being fit. and great interest in all the supporting muscles that when strong keep me from getting hurt.

1. this alone can do the job. upper body muscles, lower body muscles, and all the supporting muscles.

up, downs.
you start from a standing position.
drop to a squating position
kick your legs out to a push up position.
do a push up.
kick your legs in back to a squating position
jump up. in the air or just back to a standing position
repeat to however many one wishes to do.

2. pushups

3. run

if there is one muscle that is most important to keep from getting hurt. that would be the stomach. when the stomach is strong its hard to hurt the back. doing labor work most of my life i have found when my stomach is strong i dont get hurt. when it is weak i have. as a truck driver today and i keep getting older. i do my best to keep my stomach strong.

up downs and pranayama i do when i run keeps my stomach strong.

Yes, 'core strength' is really important, and it isn't the same as 'abs', because the core is deep musculature including the diaphram, the pelvic floor and the deep abdominal muscle called the transverse abdominus. Air pressure is an important aspect of 'core strength' as well, called 'intra abdominal pressure'.

The exercise you describe is usually called a 'burpee' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZgVxmf6jkA. Of course it's very effective across cardio vascular and muscle endurance aspects. It's very popular with Crossfit athletes.

Where the benchpress is concerned, it is quite a technical movement involving the whole body, but probably too technical for this thread. Pushups are excellent, the best front upper body drill of all, really.

In this age when people are always hunching over their phones, computers, desks, steering wheels and so on, back exercises have become really important in exercise routines. So pull up, high rows, shrugs, and rear shoulders... pulling motions.

We usually work complete with upper body/lower body - push/pull.

The routine you describe is all push so one will see development in front portion, but not in back, which in practice would exacerbate the hunched position common to the typical modern man/woman.

The lower body isn't designed for pulling, just pushing so we don't have 'pull exercises' for legs and glutes per-se.

[Gem]

So, we speak of 'quality of life' in a society which has a 'standard of living' which has little to do with life quality.

I researched 'standard of living', and basically it means GDP per capita. Essentially, the more productive and cost effective the populace is, the higher the GDP, hence 'better standard of living'.

Now if a person works hard all day and makes big bucks, his standard of living is individually assessed on disposable income, and this includes better health care, better housing, better schools for his kids, and better opportunities due to social status - and perhaps a gym membership with personal trainer.

If such a person wants my assistance then he can pay $100 and hour, but I'm not motivated by profit, and hence I am not going to contribute to standard of living, but I am motivated by the benefit of others so am contributing to the quality of life.

I once took meditation retreat with a woman from Milne Bay Province in Papua New Guinea. She was a highly educated individual and married to an ambassador, so well traveled and totally a 'woman of the world'. Not forgetting her roots as a village girl, she was motivated to improve the standard of living in her home village. She told me she had returned home to implement her expertise to increase the productivity and hence the gross profits of her home place. That is, increase 'standard of living'. Problem was, her people were basically happy fishing, gardening and just being together. After a while there she realised, to bring business and development to the area would be detrimental to the peoples' quality of life, so she abandoned all her great plans and left things just as they were.

From this analogy we can surmise how standard of living doesn't actually relate to anyone's quality of life, and if you were to go the Milne Bay Province and reside among village folk, you would not see obesity and its associated diseases. If, on the other hand, you went to an urban centre, you would. Hence, transforming village folk into 'productive consumers' degenerates rather than enhances quality of life, even though it increases 'standards of living'.

In our Western lives, we don't realise, because we are immersed in productivity and consumption. To us, more money enables better health, and it's true that the richer portion of society have better health outcomes that the poorer.

BUT, When Europeans first arrived in Australia, they documented the health of Aboriginal inhabitants by saying they were practically free of diseases and superior in fitness to themselves. As we know, the Europeans took over the place without any permission, developed business over all the land, which resulted in the current health dilemmas of Aboriginal folk.

How many examples I can give where 'standard of living' is inversely proportionate to 'quality of life'.

This post is how try to make an overall impression of the bigger picture, because now we consider our fitness and health, we do so within a commercial culture of productivity and consumption. A culture with no concern for health. Several years ago I promised myself I would not consume 'food additives' and that means of the foods for sale in any supermarket I can only select from maybe 10% at most. The food advertising, the biggest spenders in the US are beer makers; Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper, Keloggs cereals, Hershey, Gatoraid, Redbull and Wrigleys confectionary. (https://www.redbooks.com/top-food-an...-advertisers/).

Unsurprisingly, the 'standard American diet' is represented in this 'pie' (pun intended) chart. https://hcldr.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/pic7.gif?w=640

In short, our social-cultural environment is an unhealthy environment. I know I say what is already known, but I just want to point out that we don't live with fitness and health 'naturally and normally' in the culture within which we exist.

[running]

Originally Posted by Gem

Yes, 'core strength' is really important, and it isn't the same as 'abs', because the core is deep musculature including the diaphram, the pelvic floor and the deep abdominal muscle called the transverse abdominus. Air pressure is an important aspect of 'core strength' as well, called 'intra abdominal pressure'.

The exercise you describe is usually called a 'burpee' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZgVxmf6jkA. Of course it's very effective across cardio vascular and muscle endurance aspects. It's very popular with Crossfit athletes.

Where the benchpress is concerned, it is quite a technical movement involving the whole body, but probably too technical for this thread. Pushups are excellent, the best front upper body drill of all, really.

In this age when people are always hunching over their phones, computers, desks, steering wheels and so on, back exercises have become really important in exercise routines. So pull up, high rows, shrugs, and rear shoulders... pulling motions.

We usually work complete with upper body/lower body - push/pull.

The routine you describe is all push so one will see development in front portion, but not in back, which in practice would exacerbate the hunched position common to the typical modern man/woman.

The lower body isn't designed for pulling, just pushing so we don't have 'pull exercises' for legs and glutes per-se.

sounds like you learned a lot. im certain many will benefit from it.

i also agree with you its much better to include pulling exercises as well. i really should be at least trying to find something around to do some pull ups. even if its just a tree branch. lol. for now at least. my natural make up is stronger pulling than pushing. and my previous job required constant pulling. but at some point things may catch up with me and i may better find that tree branch for some pull ups. lol. but in all practicality im not ganging any muscle mass with what i do. so its not so important compared to if i was from doing heavy weight and low reps weight training.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by running

sounds like you learned a lot. im certain many will benefit from it.

i also agree with you its much better to include pulling exercises as well. i really should be at least trying to find something around to do some pull ups. even if its just a tree branch. lol. for now at least. my natural make up is stronger pulling than pushing. and my previous job required constant pulling. but at some point things may catch up with me and i may better find that tree branch for some pull ups. lol. but in all practicality im not ganging any muscle mass with what i do. so its not so important compared to if i was from doing heavy weight and low reps weight training.

Yes, I learn some things at school to do with fitness and exercise, and I learn other things in what I do myself, which is strength training.

Pullups are so good, and if there one pulling exercise to do, that would be it. The other is the Australian row (called the 'Australian row' because you are 'down under' the bar.) An excellent one for posture adjustment, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K49EcUzIJEI

Most untrained individuals will be much stronger pulling with arms than pushing, because we usually push with legs, but still, because our habitual posture is leaning over phones, computers, steering wheels etc, most people benefit from 'corrective' exercises that involve pulling the shoulders right back and extending the chest. It is postural, which means position of the bones and the mobility of the joints, mostly a sunken chest, hunched shoulders, forward head position and bent forward/rounded over position of upper spine. Of course it is the muscles which over time pull the bones into that position, so postural correction involves both stretching out the front musculature, mainly pectorals (chest), and strengthening the muscles in back. Australian row does that.

I use the over head squat to correct upper body posture and joint mobility. Nothing tests postural issues like the overhead squat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD_vUnqwqqI

Yes, gaining muscle is pretty hard to do, and people interested in gaining muscle size and strength have to eat a high protein diet with a lot of calories. The body will need at least 0.75g of protein per pound of bodyweight - that's lean bodyweight not including fat - and about 300 calories total daily excess. Most people who start training for musculature and strength fail in their eating.

People who are overweight should not train to gain muscle mass. People need to either lose fat or gain muscle mass. Can't really do both at once.

[running]

Originally Posted by Gem

Yes, I learn some things at school to do with fitness and exercise, and I learn other things in what I do myself, which is strength training.

Pullups are so good, and if there one pulling exercise to do, that would be it. The other is the Australian row (called the 'Australian row' because you are 'down under' the bar.) An excellent one for posture adjustment, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K49EcUzIJEI

Most untrained individuals will be much stronger pulling with arms than pushing, because we usually push with legs, but still, because our habitual posture is leaning over phones, computers, steering wheels etc, most people benefit from 'corrective' exercises that involve pulling the shoulders right back and extending the chest. It is postural, which means position of the bones and the mobility of the joints, mostly a sunken chest, hunched shoulders, forward head position and bent forward/rounded over position of upper spine. Of course it is the muscles which over time pull the bones into that position, so postural correction involves both stretching out the front musculature, mainly pectorals (chest), and strengthening the muscles in back. Australian row does that.

I use the over head squat to correct upper body posture and joint mobility. Nothing tests postural issues like the overhead squat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD_vUnqwqqI

Yes, gaining muscle is pretty hard to do, and people interested in gaining muscle size and strength have to eat a high protein diet with a lot of calories. The body will need at least 0.75g of protein per pound of bodyweight - that's lean bodyweight not including fat - and about 300 calories total daily excess. Most people who start training for musculature and strength fail in their eating.

People who are overweight should not train to gain muscle mass. People need to either lose fat or gain muscle mass. Can't really do both at once.

thanks again for sharing. until about ten years ago i did strength training and for muscle mass. pretty much since about 13. not competitively or was i ever huge and strong like many become. but i loved it and enjoyed what i got out of it. when i have a chance i will share some things that i have worked for me. there was a great book from Bulgaria i believe that was a big help. the body becomes its function it may have been called. the rest that i know is from sports growing up, trial and error, and time at the gym.

[Alice_1]

Originally Posted by Gem

Hello

I recently completed my Certificate III in fitness - the entry level qualification in the fitness industry, and I aim to share my knowledge, both academic and experiential, for the benefit of others. I first joined a gym only 18 months ago, and in that time have experienced significant benefits both physically and psychologically, and on a deeper level of wisdom, hence I am motivated to serve others so they might benefit in a similar way, but as it pertains to themselves.

I first have to start on a negative note and address the huge cloud of bulldust being sold in the name of 'fitness' and 'health', and much of this fallacy is associated with spiritual paradigms. On one side we have the nonsense like 'great abs on my 4 week program' and further nonsense like 'eat my magic goji berry' - apart from all the 'ethical diets' based on spiritual notions of 'compassion'.

Firstly, the health requires balanced nutrition, not magic superfoods and 'alternative herbs'. Secondly, there is no magic exercise program that gets 'instant abs', 'burns belly fat' and so forth. That is all lies, and I call it 'lies' specifically because the professionals selling these 'fads' know better, and they deliberately mislead people. It's a scam, plain and simple.

So to start here in dispelling the fallacies, we can cut the bulldust and start actually looking into the real lived issues of health and fitness. We are immediately aware that it is not a 'health issue' for which there is a remedy, but a lifestyle issue, which is also a social issue, in need of transformation.

So this thread addresses human lives - as whole people within their social-cultural contexts. The whole self as a physical/psychological person as they exist in socio-cultural space.

If any person wishes to discuss openly their health/fitness/mood, I want to do what I can to hear you out and open the wider possibility for an enhanced quality of living.

Thanks for listening.

Totally agree with you! Nutrition and exercises - everything has to be in a balance to be healthy