READY, WILLING AND ABLE

PART I-The Transformation of Exercise, From Practice to Performance

LANDING ON THE TERRAIN OF A NEW NORMAL

When the torque of resistance matches the torque of effort, the challenge gives the joint’s contact surfaces and its contractile tissues the best chance to retain congruency and master control. After arranging the torque of intended fibers within the path of the resistance, this is accomplished by inverting the torque of resistance i.e. adjusting it so it diminishes where the intended fibers have less tension and/or torque, and increases where they can torque optimally.

This is accomplished with the recognition of the aforementioned summation of strength per moment of the joints’ range of mobility called the “strength profile”. Remember, this profile represents our effort. To improve the contraction, especially at the end lengths of its attachments, the summation of resistance needs to complement the muscle’s strength.

When it does, it enables us to emphasize the forcefulness of the contraction, not only in the midst of the joint’s excursion, but, more importantly, at the extremities, and, to do this with the intended fibers, without losing control and causing alarm. On the contrary, if the resistance profile does not match the strength profile (per moment), the inconsistency will provoke indiscriminate “cheating” which heightens the “shields of the nervous system’s defenses that defeats the whole purpose of our conscious efforts to appease it in return for an adaptation of homeostasis. 

The aptitude to obfuscate and postpone the autonomy of subconscious impulses that compensate for the sensory messages until after we have had the chance to send more direct signals of our intentions for goal specific motor nerve transmission is crucial for exercise to transfer from challenge to benefit. 

Failure to procure this essential need creates the irresistible urge to cheat, resulting in the joint instability that imposes excessive demand on ligaments and cartilage. Even when ascribing to all the other intentions of building a better body, if the profiles are inconsistent (as they are in ordinary circumstances), we are left with only two options, and neither will validate those best of intentions:

Option one is to keep the mobility within a range where it doesn’t induce systemic joint instability, which means the end range will still be compromised. The other is to “cheat” to complete the concentric end range. The subsequent dispersal of resistance caused by the aimless strain to succeed induces the destabilization of joints that are actually supposed to remain immobile (providing sufficient contractile support for the Mobilizers).

There are two reasons why this stability is so important for the purpose of building a better body. One is obviously because it enables the contact surfaces of joints to articulate congruently. If muscle fibers directly in the path of the resistance’s torque are firing optimally, they fulfill their purpose, as mobilizers. This enables adjacent fibers to “centrify” the course of the joint surfaces. 

Consequently, when they remain on a steady course, there is less demand on ligaments to do the steadying. Also, the aforementioned forces between the joints remain well distributed. Both of these reduce the risk of erosion. However, this can only occur if the state of the muscles’ contractions are forceful enough to take the load off of the non-contractile tissues, throughout the entire range, and especially at the end ranges.

The other is that, in the presence of Mobilizer fiber deficits, the purpose of retaining stability of all joints other than those of the deficient Mobilizers, is to build or restore contractile strength. The sturdier the surfaces of all the joints that are not the intention of the mobility, the more there is to pull against. Adaptation to a strategic challenge only occurs in the presence of sufficient muscle torque, but if a tendon is on “shaky ground”, its muscle will surrender some of its forcefulness (tension) to the subsequent tremor, meaning it will still not have enough to torque against the joint to reach the end, with control, if at all.

The instability and the torque deficit feed on each other. Instability leads to torque deficits. Torque deficits lead to instability. It is no more possible or plausible to strengthen contractile tissues sufficiently to hold bones in place and on course against unstable joints than it is to improve balance on unstable surfaces. Nor is it any more plausible to increase contractile deficits at the unconditioned end lengths, where muscle tissues attach to their bones, and where their intrinsic fibers have the least leverage against resistance, that is gaining the most (leverage).  

Do the math. Adding a negative to a negative does not equal a positive, but it does add up to the absence of control. Remember, the key ingredient to a successful outcome that transfers to better performance or a better quality of life is to appease the Central Nervous System, because it regulates the stasis of its systems. Therefore, when we serve it with control, it gratifies us, but it also knows when to deny assimilation, like, when we cheat.

This is not to imply that cheating is always inappropriate, or that the only way to train correctly is against a complementary match of resistance and effort. In fact, cheating is beneficial, when it is conducted strategically, with a purpose that does not cause harm, or alarm i.e. with control. Furthermore, inconsistent profiles are a fact of life. So is the mechanical advantage of rotational inertia. The proposition here is for a way to make life, and living better i.e. functioning better, with orthopedic security.

It is also not to imply that it isn’t possible to benefit in the presence of indiscriminate cheating. Of course, it is. We not only do this all the time, but, without a doubt, we can gain strength, muscularity, power, etc., all the benefits imaginable, depending on the intent of what we envisage. The question is, where, within the muscle tissue length, is the benefit allocated, and, at what orthopedic price?

Although we need more torque for more control and more stability at the ends of the tissue lengths, involuntary cheating causes the instability that results in joint erosion because the tissues are only affected in mid-lengths. The affects never reach the ends. Unprepared, unconscious cheating, “cheats” the attachments out of the benefit, where it is needed to prevent the tremors (regardless of how much joint mobility is required).  

That stated, after training against torque that changes with the variants of our contractile leverage, gains in neuro-musculoskeletal skill (coordination/organization) validate the ability to transfer the benefit from practicing the training to performance-training, and from that to, just, performing a.k.a. to “just do it”.  

However, this cannot be achieved with the cautious, deliberate, resistance inducing rate of “mass-minus acceleration” that increases the forcefulness of full joint range muscle contraction. Those traits secure the orthopedic health, but since life, and all of its machinations, requires the assistance of acceleration that is managed exclusively by the impulsive compensation of the Nervous System, it is necessary to master the aforementioned increase in the rate of contractile frequency which is to contract faster, and to learn how to use that tetanus to increase (accelerate) the rate of resistance torque. 

Adaptation will only be permitted if the acceleration of the effort and resistance torque remain within the grasp of control, so indiscriminate cheating must be prevented (to avoid it). That is why it is necessary to coordinate an increased speed of mass with the prerequisite skill of contracting faster, thus, the preliminary need to leverage the resistance in compliance with the torque of our muscular effort. It enables us to acquire the skill to cheat, tactfully, meaning, to accelerate for assistance without causing instability i.e. without losing control.

The continuum of control begins with the contractile threshold of joint mobility. Initially, it is necessary to concentrate only on reaching and controlling the ends of the range with the torque of our effort. When this skill has been achieved, it becomes necessary to shift our conscious and physical efforts to the (1) path of the mobility in relation to the (2) path of the resistance (which is more complex i.e. ROM is one degree of focus; POM is two.)

When that skill has been achieved, the procedure becomes yet more complex, as it is necessary to also focus on (1) controlling a greater frequency of contraction, while (2) retaining control of the resistance at the end ranges and (3) without allowing the resistance torque to accelerate i.e. controlling the inertial properties. (Three degrees of focus.) Then, when the Nervous System adapts to the increased tetanus, we possess the contractile skill required to “cheat with tact”.

This strategic gambit begins with (3 from above + 1) accelerating only a moment before reaching the concentric end range of joint mobility, which (remember) is manageable because the resistance’s leverage has been modified to accommodate the summary of contractile leverage at that moment. (A fourth degree.)

Then, gradually, the acceleration is induced from the midst of the range to the concentric end, until eventually, it is possible to accelerate the resistance’s leverage from the absolute eccentric end range in one fell swoop all the way to the concentric end, not by moving the load faster, but by contracting i.e. tensing, more forcefully. The net gain in muscle force is then converted into torque, which then increases the rate of mobility. (The fifth degree of focus.)

A higher frequency of contraction produces a more expedient burst of tension. The net torque accelerates the joint’s lever arm. The faster torqueing lever arm of our effort transcends the torque of the resistance, causing the lever arm of the resistance to accelerate, and Bingo, the benefit is the transfer of effort to transcend resistance, and perform better, with more ease, and less risk.

However, better involuntary performance is not attainable if we don’t learn how to defer our contractile skills to the CNS, and that cannot occur with the safety net of homogenous profiles either, because, in any circumstances other than when we are exercising to build better bodies, there is no such safety net; tasks and challenges impose the most torque against us where we possess the least, and our instinct is to accelerate against it to usurp assistance, even in the most extraordinary instances where the load is so excessive that it squeezes acceleration out of the performance.  

We need to function in accordance with our environment and subordinate our control tactics to the authority of the Central Nervous System to fulfill ordinary tasks and/or ultimate goals, but, since the resistance creates the greatest barrier to exceed where we possess the least leverage, there are only two options; (1) surrender and fail or (2) cheat, to succeed. Whenever failure is not an option, which is almost always, the repercussions of success are dependent on how well prepared we are to cheat.

The way to prepare has been duly noted. Therefore, when the Service Provider has duly prepared the Recipient, the Recipient is duly ready to encounter the sixth degree of focus. Just like the need to assimilate the antithetical effects of inertia with the normal, it is necessary to gradually restore the leverage factors to their naturally inconsistent state.

Then, as the Nervous System and the heightened anatomical physics of the Recipient are synchronized, the CNS has better resources to orchestrate, and, (like a “sixth sense”), the Recipient is capable of cheating, “mindlessly”, with a harmless, strategic intent, to prevail. At that moment, the sixth degree of focus is achieved. The conscious efforts of the Recipient are liberated from the “internal dialogue”, where it is finally possible to focus on the performance of the extraordinary challenge, or, on any other thoughts or incidences while performing ordinary tasks, without the risks of unprepared, unintended consequences. 

Yes, initially, all of the “exercise” inducing adjustments that lead to this are virtually opposite of ordinary tasks, but gradually, as the CNS adapts, mental, physical, and psychological efforts coalesce, the benefit transfers, the inner space vessel of muscle fiber lands on a longer, firmer, terrain, exercise becomes performance, and even extraordinary encounters become more like ordinary tasks, with much less risk of long term wear, because the willing are then as ready as they are able.