Greek statues, technology, exercise…..hmmmm

“My mind is a raging torrent. Flooded with rivulets of thought, cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.”

- Harvey Korman, Blazing Saddles.

Have you ever stopped to think about the guys that posed for those muscled and lean Greek statues that are so famous today? How did they get that way? What exercises did they do? What was their diet? From the ancient records we now know they were strong, flexible and oozed stamina. Judging by the evidence the women must have also been lean too.

More rivulets of thoughts……What about India and the origins of Yoga? We now know that it was originally used not only as exercise for the mind but for physical development as well. Some of the Yoga practices were very strenuous and supposedly used in military training. What about the ancient martial arts systems of Asia? Extreme discipline led to extremely powerful bodies.  It still does. In fact the human body has not changed at all in thousands of years. The same exercises, effort, and discipline that forged the men that those those ancient Greek statues were sculpted from, will work just as well today as they did back then.

Compared to today, the technology back then was nothing to speak of. They had no weight machines, treadmills,  exercise bikes, inflatable balls, heart rate monitors, stretch cords, commercial diets, processed/refined foods or the thousands of supplements available today. They used what they had and the most useful tools they had were their own intuition and experience. They had to feel what would work. Their bodies and minds had to stay connected. Go to any gym today and it is full of people who try as hard as possible to disconnect. Ipods, cell phones, TV’s, magazines. Anything they can do to avoid thinking about what they are doing. No intuition, no mind / body connection.  Simply going through the motions. This isn’t really exercise its just another task kind of like stopping by the food mart to pick up a loaf of bread. Are you one of those people who put more thought into picking out a necktie or a handbag, for instance, than your “workouts.” If that’s you then you are selling yourself way short.

In the past they couldn’t help but think about it. They certainly didn’t spend all their time watching themselves in a mirror at some gym. They didn’t worry if a certain exercise was cutting up their biceps or “sculpting” their asses. They were developing something far more than that. A VERY powerful mind/body connection to strengthen them as a whole, and the whole is ALWAYS stronger than the parts. In fact that is the way human bodies worked back then and they still do today. Many of the “fitness gurus” of 150-70 years ago knew the same thing. Read any of their material and they taught full body exercise. Whole chapters of their books devoted to breathing and digestion.  The aesthetics (being muscular, and lean) came naturally as they worked on making the movements of whole body exercises beautiful. In other words (as the great Buckminster Fuller believed) form followed function.  Today it is exactly the opposite. I can’t even begin to tell you the number of times people have asked me how to lose weight or how to make their chest and biceps bigger. They don’t get it. Somewhere along the way we thought we were too smart to listen to the wisdom of the past. Many people today think of their bodies as parts. The last 50 years or so have ESPECIALLY seen a huge swing away from this. Steroids of course have made any results of the last 50 years very suspect as well.

Oh, and don’t forget that physical development (or physical culture as it later became known by) was never looked on as a chore.  It was a vital part of life to improve as nature intends us to. Today many people exercise out of guilt or shame. Just another burden.

This gets to get to the heart of what FFTV is about. Building a leaner, healthier body without worrying about all of today’s nonsense. Fusionfitnessstv is here to help guide you through the marketing of confusion, false promises and exagerated claims. We can all reconnect our bodies and minds. In doing so you get a great side benefit too. Less body fat, stamina, strength, flexibility and ……maybe some more rivulets of thought.

Best,

Robert