Build Your Strength to Build Your Health!

[macchoi]

Study suggest changes in melanocortin receptor expression responsible for decrease in CVD risk in response to weight lifting:

"These data suggest that the observed responses in MCR expression and decreases in CVD risk in response to resistance training represent an important anti-inflammatory mechanism in regulating exercise-induced decreases in chronic inflammation that occur independent of chronic changes in systemic cytokines."

Melanocortin Receptor Expression Is Associated with Reduced CRP in Response to Resistance Training
American Physiological Society. Journal of Applied Physiology
Submitted 23 January 2012.
Revision received 31 May 2012.
Accepted 3 June 2012.

Abstract

The existing paradigm of exercise-induced decreases in chronic inflammation focuses on the expression of inflammatory receptors on systemic monocytes in response to exercise training, with the role of anti-inflammatory receptors largely ignored. Our recent preliminary studies indicate that the anti-inflammatory melanocortin receptors (MCRs) may play a role in modulating exercise-induced decreases in chronic inflammation. Here we present a study designed to determine the effect of intense, resistance exercise training on systemic monocyte MCR expression. Because low-grade chronic inflammation is associated with elevated cardiometabolic risk in healthy populations and exercise decreases chronic inflammation, we investigated the associations between systemic monocyte cell surface expression of MCRs and inflammatory markers as a possible mechanism for the beneficial anti-inflammatory effects of resistance training. To this end, the present study includes 40 adults (aged 19-27 years) and implements a 12wk periodized, intensive resistance training intervention. Melanocortin 1 (MC1R) and 3 (MC3R) receptor expression on systemic monocytes and inflammatory markers, including C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin 6 (IL-6), 1 beta (IL-1β) and 10 (IL-10), were measured before (PRE) and after (POST) the intervention. Resistance training significantly altered MCR systemic monocyte cell surface expression, had no chronic effects on IL-6, IL-1β or IL-10 expression but significantly decreased CRP levels from a moderate to a low cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk category. More specifically, decreased MC3R expression significantly correlated with decreased CRP, independent of changes in adiposity. These data suggest that the observed responses in MCR expression and decreases in CVD risk in response to resistance training represent an important anti-inflammatory mechanism in regulating exercise-induced decreases in chronic inflammation that occur independent of chronic changes in systemic cytokines.

[macchoi]

"Hidden forces, sometimes marvelous and mysterious, lie
within nearly every human soul. Develop, expand and bring
out these latent powers. Make your body splendid, your mind
supreme; for then you become your real self."

-Bernarr Macfadden

[macchoi]

Excerpt from Muscular Power and Beauty, by Bernarr Macfadden (1906):

"Muscular power is beginning to assume its proper importance in the minds of every sensible man and woman. A few years ago, so-called refined persons were inclined to belittle its value. They affected to associate large, well-developed muscles with various undesirable mental and bodily characteristics. But the physical culture movement has wrought a marvellous change in these as in others. A true manhood and womanhood are founded upon strong, beautifully developed physiques; these last are being accorded the recognition which they deserve. You cannot exaggerate the value of muscular power and beauty. In erecting a building, the material that enters into its construction is of the utmost importance. How much more important then, is it that used in the construction of the human body is of the soundest? By which is more particularly meant, strong, symmetrically formed muscles. For a sound muscular system in nearly every case, means the possession of equal strength in your functional organism. It also insures the nervous vigour that is so essential in the attaining of ones objects of life, no matter whether physical or mental energy is required."

...

Value of developing the muscular system
—increases the nervous forces and the general functional power
—apps to the virile qualities of the blood, thus affecting for good the nerves, brain and every part and organ of the body
—modern methods of training the author’s discovery of simple exercises which, without instructors or expensive accessories, bring about marvellous muscular power and great physical beauty.

[supertzar]

Which old-time strongman is it in your avatar, Macchoi? I have enjoyed reading some of the books at http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/compindex.htm

[plam]

Originally Posted by macchoi

"Hidden forces, sometimes marvelous and mysterious, lie
within nearly every human soul. Develop, expand and bring
out these latent powers. Make your body splendid, your mind
supreme; for then you become your real self."

-Bernarr Macfadden

This rings true.

The weak body allows the mind to take over.
The mind is the trigger of the so called "disease" (which are simply body responses).
The mind is an interloper and damages the sensitivity of the senses.

The strong muscular body does not allow the mind to interfere [too much]
Because the strong body has enough mass and energy to absorb conflicts.

Do you want the proof?

Spot-light on Muscular Strength

Here is the primary conclusion: “Higher levels of muscular strength are associated with lower cancer mortality risk in men, independent of...overall and central adiposity, and other potential confounders.” There’s more to it than that, however.

The details are quite enlightening for anyone interested in living a long and healthy life. The particulars are a bit mind-numbing, but the end result is clear as a bell.

There were three main findings on strength, fatness and cancer mortality.

First, muscular strength was significantly and inversely associated with cancer mortality; men in the moderate and high strength category had about 37% fewer cancer deaths than those in the lowest strength category. This association remained after adjustment for overall and waistline fatness, and for cardiovascular fitness.

Secondly, percent body fat was positively associated with rates of cancer mortality; higher body fat was associated with higher rates of cancer deaths. This association, however, did not persist after adjustment for muscular strength or cardiovascular fitness. In other words, higher strength and fitness appear to substantially override higher body fat.

Third, a combination of muscular strength and fatness is powerfully associated with cancer death; men in the lowest third for muscular strength with high levels of fatness have a 40% to 50% higher rate of cancer death than obese men with at least moderate (middle third) muscular strength. In short, a moderate level of muscular strength helps a lot if you are obese.

“Taken together, these findings indicate that having at least moderate age-adjusted levels of muscular strength may counteract the deleterious consequences attributed to adiposity,” the report stated. “Efforts should then focus not only on reducing levels of adiposity but also on increasing the muscular strength level.” (Emphasis mine)

[macchoi]

Originally Posted by supertzar

Which old-time strongman is it in your avatar, Macchoi? I have enjoyed reading some of the books at http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/compindex.htm

The guy in my avatar is Arthur Saxon
sandowplus is an excellent site. It's hard to find these books in print these days.

It's amazing how much these old timers knew about health and its relation to muscular strength.
ALL of them were way ahead of their time.
Even with "advances" in science and medicine today, nothing compares to what these guys accomplished just by using diet, homeopathy, and strength training.

[macchoi]

Originally Posted by plam

This rings true.

The weak body allows the mind to take over.
The mind is the trigger of the so called "disease" (which are simply body responses).
The mind is an interloper and damages the sensitivity of the senses.

The strong muscular body does not allow the mind to interfere [too much]
Because the strong body has enough mass and energy to absorb conflicts.

Exactly

"Just as the person of sedentary habits and weak body
possesses a correspondingly sluggish mind and lack of energy, so those who
assiduously pursue a physical development gain not only that desired
government of their organs, but in marked degree obtains a thorough
mastery of their will and, consequently, an easy and contented mind."

- George Hackenschmidt (1908)

Originally Posted by plam

Do you want the proof?

Spot-light on Muscular Strength

Here is the primary conclusion: “Higher levels of muscular strength are associated with lower cancer mortality risk in men, independent of...overall and central adiposity, and other potential confounders.” There’s more to it than that, however.
...

Excellent

People today must understand:
Building your strength is more than just building nice-looking muscles.
But rather, it's about building a healthy and robust body, capable of doing anything! - and capable of protecting itself from "dis-ease" and impact!

[macchoi]

This article appeared in the July 1937 issue of Physical Culture

Are You Rich or Poor in Strength?
By Charles Atlas

The majority of people go through life envying the rich and regretting the fact that they are poor. They are always wishing that they could be rich. And yet there is one form of riches that is within the reach of everyone who will do a little work for it. It is really worth more than gold. If you had it, you would not give it up for the gold, and countless rich men would give up a fortune to possess it; for there is no other such wealth as health.

You may call yourself “poor”, but let me tell you that there is no one as hard up as the rich man who has lost his strength and energy. Why, he is the poorest man in the world, except for the miserable wretch who is poor both ways, who has neither money nor strength. Perhaps it is not his fault if he has very little money. I know plenty of men who work hard and try to save money who still have almost nothing. But in the matter of strength and energy, some of our so-called poor men are rich indeed. When they have no strength, however, that is largely their own fault. Nature intended them to be strong even if not rich. And nature will give them strength and energy if they will only give her a chance.

The terrible part of it is that most people are quite satisfied to be “poor” in this respect. They are sorry for themselves because they have very little money or possessions, but they should be sorry and even ashamed of themselves because they have very little strength and energy. They have no sense of power within themselves, and so they want the sense of power by having a big house, powerful automobiles, a fine yacht, a private hydroplane, and a large business in which they are masters of other people working for them.

Here’s a man who is not satisfied with an ordinary good eight-cylinder car because it is not powerful enough for him. He must have a sixteen-cylinder car capable of going a hundred and twenty miles an hour. But as for himself—look at him! He is personally a little four-cylinder job and he is missing on two or three cylinders at that. He is my idea of a poor man. While talking about cars, I might confess that I have a powerful machine of my own, but I’m not proud about that. What I am proud of is what I have inside my skin. And if I were not a high-powered proposition in my own person, I would be ashamed to look you in the face. Once you get my point of view you will feel the same way, and then you’ll be bound to adopt a course of living that will make you rich instead of poor in strength and energy.

It is all in the way you live. It isn’t hard work to live my way—it is easier. Ife is easy to live when you have strength. You can stand up to your problems and burdens. Life is hard only when you haven’t the strength. And I’m talking about strength of mind and body and spirit, because they all go together. It is all so simple because it is just a matter of a viewpoint and the plan of life that goes with it. You don’t admire the shiftless man who cannot get himself organized. You think he is silly to live a haphazard way, with slovenly habits and no character. You want to live a well-organized life, thrifty, punctual, out of debt, getting somewhere. You want to budget your money, keep a bank balance, and get to work on time and all that sort of thing.

But—in the matter of your physical condition you are shiftless. In the vital business of keeping fit you live in a slovenly, haphazard way. You get soft. You get rusty. You creak. You will break to pieces when you are fifty, whereas you should be going strong when you are eighty-five, and then take it easy for another fifteen or twenty years. It is more important that you have a balance of strength and vitality than that you have a bank balance. Well, why not have both, but get this thing first and it will help you to get the bank account in good shape. I can tell you that I am not going to crack up at fifty. I was forty-for last October, and you may see by my photographs, taken at half past forty-four, that I am not even beginning to fall apart.

When I was in England last year there was a lot of concern about the poor physical condition of the people in general. Of course the reason why they were worried about it in government circles was the threat of war which is hanging over all Europe, and they are thinking of the military fitness of their citizens. It is not a question of being fit for business, fit for happy home life and accomplishment, but of being fit to fight for their country. Personally, I think it is much more important to be really fit to live than to be fit to die. It seems to me that a weakling is just as fit to die by powerful explosives or poison gas. However, England has made an appropriation of millions of dollars for the physical training of citizens, and has set up a Royal Commission to make plans for this purpose.

But the physical condition of the people in the United States is worse than England. They have much more interest in sports over there. We watch baseball games and football. Over there more people participate. They do more hiking and they ride bicycles when we ride in motor-cars. In the World War our Government drafted an army of three million men, and found that the majority of our young men were not physically fit. Suppose that our Government should make a study of the physical condition of our people today, without waiting for a war to arouse interest in the subject, what would we find? We would discover that our people are even worse off than the English. As a nation we are too much like the wealthy man who is rich in possessions but poor in health. In saying this I do not want to belittle my own country, but as a citizen of this greatest nation in the world this situation disturbs and worries me. I would like to see everybody in this country rich in strength and energy.

What is the matter with the majority of people who are contented to drift through life in a state of flabby weakness, more or less tired all the time? Is it pure ignorance? I cannot think like that. Do you suppose for one minute that most people don’t know that exercise will built strength? Why, every child knows that exercise builds muscle and energy and endurance. Surely, the poor physical condition of our people is not because they don’t know how they can gain strength. Then what is the matter with them? If you are among these people who are physically below standard, just why is it in your own case? Do you know? Have you ever stopped to think about it? You would feel humiliated if you thought you were mentally below standard. Your pride would be hurt too much if anyone thought you feeble-minded. Then why are you satisfied to be feeble-bodied?

To say it is mere carelessness, and to let it go at that, is loose thinking. The real trouble in most cases, I think, is the lack of any plan of life. For if you ever face this question and think it out, you will decide that you want to be at your best physically, just as you want to be capable mentally. In your heart you know that keeping fit comes first in any scheme of personal efficiency. If you have a plan of life you must know that you need a pattern of strength and energy. And as soon as you think your way into such a pattern of fitness, you will just naturally want to do the things that make you fine and strong and enduring. You will want a body that you will be proud of, and not one that you should be ashamed of.

You can put a period of exercise in your daily routine just as you include shaving. You cannot escape shaving, and so you do it and do not mind it. But you can just as easily put fifteen minutes or more of exercise in your morning routine, and you will not mind it. Indeed you will like it because you feel so much better. I know a man in his fifties who has made his setting-up exercise in the morning a part of his daily routine for thirty years. And of course it has kept him fit and young...

[macchoi]

Exercise Versus Medicine
By Eugeune Sandow, The Gospel of Strength (Talk XIII), 1902

Perfect health is consciousness of full vitality, of exhilaration, keen enjoyment of life, and strength to perform any task, and it is a melancholy reflection that not one in a thousand men and women of middle-age has it. Yet the average healthy child fulfills those conditions, simply because of his unceasing activity--an activity that knows no tired from early morning till, tired out, he falls asleep at night--keeps the various organs of the body in constant exercise. No muscle has the chance of stiffening, no organ grows weak from disuse, or sluggish because of tasks set beyond its powers. The savage knows nothing about the secret of health, but his life is spent in the manner of an irresponsible pleasure-loving child; hence the aliments of civilization are practically unknown to him in his normal state.

Weakly people talk enviously of others who have had a heritage of health, and undoubtedly there is such good fortune inherited by some. But it should not be forgotten that a heritage may be built up as well as inherited, and that while we are building it up we are enjoying its accumulation ourselves, as well as laying up treasure for those that come after. It is my firm conviction that every young man who has not yet begun life hopelessly handicapped by an inheritance of organic disease, may build up a constitution and health which will enable him to live his life as gladly as does a child; to perform, without undue pain, the part in life Nature has destined for him; and to leave to his offspring, in later years, such a heritage of health as will make them bless his memory.

Of course it will be thought by the foolish that all this talk of mine is a bit of special pleading for the system of Physical Culture with which my name is associated. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. The children and savages whom I have used, by way of illustration, have no scientific system of physical exercise, and yet they represent a state of health to which two-thirds of civilized mankind are strangers. So it is clear that health may be enjoyed apart from my system. Only, it must be remembered that children and savages lead a perfectly natural life; plenty of open air and plenty of exercise, and no duties which involved unnatural postures of the body, late hours, or over-work.

…All good things suffer from exaggeration of their virtues. The moment any drug is recommended as a panacea, a cure-all, it becomes degraded to quackery, and I am afraid that exercise has suffered to some extent by the vague and general manner in which it has been recommended for every ailment under the sun. No such thing exists in nature as a universal remedy, and it is unwise in the highest degree to exalt any remedial measure to such a height.

Before closing this chapter, I should like to say something about medical exercises and their field. First, discussing the question from a very general point of view, I must remind you that the exercise of any faculty is necessary to the retention and development of that faculty.

The love of play and recreation develops the physical powers. Existence itself demands the continual exercise of the mental powers, and the problems of this life are quite sufficiently many and mysterious to exercise from day to day moral faculties.

The use of any function bring improvement and perfection; its disuse brings degeneration and decay.

The tendency of the day is, of course, to make less and less exercise, partly because of want and time, partly because of facilities for rapid transit. Now, of course, this denial of bodily activity makes for physical degeneration and must be in some way replaced. Systematic exercise is exercise reduced to a science, and when we come to compare it with recreative exercise the result is as follows:

Systematic Exercise
1.Occupies little time
2.Is immediately invigorating and refreshing
3.Is a distinct addition to the permanent strength

Recreative Exercise
1.Occupies long time
2.Is fatiguing
3.Is not considerable addition to the permanent strength

Physiologically speaking, exercise is universally beneficial; that is to say, the health and energy are naturally improved and increased by exercise and every tissue beneficially affected. But ti would not be wise to argue that because this is so therefore medical exercises form a cure for all diseases. In the first place, all acute disorders fall outside the scope of medical exercise; the field rather confines itself to sub-acute or chronic disorders.

To take deformities in the first place. Of course nearly every muscular deformity can be cured by exercise; especially is this so in the case of lateral curvature, where certain muscles become weaker and weaker, while the opposing muscles become stronger, and thus rapidly increasing the vicious habit of the curvature.

Another muscular group is that of bad development or under-development. Take, for example, the case in which the muscles of one limb have fallen hind in consequence of some congenital defect. This, of course, can easily be cured.

A third group we might take is that associated with nervous disorders, such as wry neck, writers’ cramp, paralysis, etc. In the cause of paralysis the scope of exercise will be much clearer if the following point is quite understood.

Where there is the possibility of exercising will-power it should be used. Some kinds of paralysis are so advanced that the sufferer has entirely lost the power of conscious movement. These cases, of course, must be treated with hand massage or electricity. But where the power of movement exists, in even a slight degree, immeasurably better results will follow if actual exercise with the employment of will-power be used along with massage. That is to say, the more severe the paralysis, the more we must fall back upon hand massage and electricity; the less severe it is, the more we must employ movement massage, resistive movements, and voluntary exercise.

Another muscular group is that associated with bone deformity. Into this group come club-foot, knock-knees, the severer kinds of curvature, many rickety deformities, etc. These require almost special treatment, in which surgery must work hand in hand with exercise.

Leaving muscular disorders, we come to organic complaints, in which the great arteries are more or less diseased. In the first place, one danger which has to be pointed out is the prescription of exercise by an incompetent man. The danger is not in anyway, however, so great as that of leaving hand massage at the discretion of an ignorant person. For this reason, then, if there is any doubt, a medical man should be consulted. It must be said, however, that many conditions exist which are general supposed to make exercise dangerous, but which are, as a matter of fact, empowered by exercise.

Taking two of these I may mention cases of rupture and of heart disease. In the first case, provided a truss is worn whilst exercising, exercise may be taken without danger and with distinct benefit. As a preventative of rupture, exercise is infallible.

Heart affections fall into two classes: one where actual disease is not present, the other where the valves are affected. The first condition can generally be absolutely cured by exercise, the second condition can generally be considerably ameliorated. Of course it goes without saying that, in cases of heart weakness, exercise should be prescribed only by an expert.

The three great organic groups where exercise comes as a sovereign remedy are:–First, nervous disorders; second, lung disease; third, ailments which have as their cause abdominal congestion. In the first group come all kinds of nervous prostration or disorders. In the second, of course, the case resolves itself into combating that great scourge of civilization–consumption. I am convinced that exercise, combined with the taking of cod-liver oil, will be and effectual cure, except in the last stages. The third group of abdominal disorders includes congestion of the liver or sluggish liver, constipation and its attendant train of evils.

[vegan_on_the_land]

Someone said there are no exercises specifically for the internal organs. This may or may not be correct but certain exercises practised in China are said to strengthen the internal organs. The exercises have gone by various names such as the Ancient Art Silk-Weaving Excercises, the Eight Pieces of Brocade, Ba Duan Jin Qigong and other names.

There's a video on yewtube of Shaolin monk, Shi De Yang, demonstrating them (accompanied by nice music) but his movements are much faster than the way I learnt them. Some of the exercises are slightly different to how I trained in them and the last one is completely different and not one I would recommend - especially not for anyone with a dicky back. I only ever did the standing exercise. The sitting ones seem daft. I did feel internal pressure and stretching in the movements in which the arms travel in different directions. Those particular movements are called names like Two Hands Push the Sky, Draw the Bow and Shoot the Eagle, Separate the Sky and Earth.

You need to synchronise the breathing with the movements. Generally, you breathe out as you push your hands up or down or out and breathe in as you return them. One of the last ones, where he has his hands behind his back as he raises on his toes really contracts the lats and pecs.

They are pleasant to do and very meditative - when done slowly. It's a good way to start the day especially if you have a nice garden to do them in. Best done with a calm mind and love in your heart.

Here's a video of Shi De Yang, doing the exercises.

Shaolin Monk 8 Pieces of Brocade (Baduan Jin)

Shaolin Monk 8 Pieces of Brocade (Baduan Jin) - YouTube

Shaolin Monk 8 Pieces of Brocade (Baduan Jin) - YouTube

By the way, I like his clothes. Even the colour is nice. I can just see myself togged up like that.

[macchoi]

Some modern day quotes for inspiration lol :

"Get rid of all excess in life.
The more you own, the more that owns you.
Strip yourself of all things, of all the fat,
and leave nothing but brain, muscles and cock.
That is life."

- Jim Wendler

"The weight room isn't just a place to train.
It's a temple. It's a Zen-like place on symbolically
higher ground where we bring our hopes, dreams,
and aspirations. It's where we commit to grueling
personal discipline and the continuous challenge to
improve ourselves by putting five more pounds on
the bar, performing one more rep, putting on another
pound of muscle mass, dropping another pound of body
fat, or understanding ourselves better.
If we're serious, it's a way of life."

- Dave Tate

[macchoi]

Originally Posted by vegan_on_the_land

Someone said there are no exercises specifically for the internal organs. This may or may not be correct but certain exercises practised in China are said to strengthen the internal organs. The exercises have gone by various names such as the Ancient Art Silk-Weaving Excercises, the Eight Pieces of Brocade, Ba Duan Jin Qigong and other names.

There's a video on yewtube of Shaolin monk, Shi De Yang, demonstrating them (accompanied by nice music) but his movements are much faster than the way I learnt them. Some of the exercises are slightly different to how I trained in them and the last one is completely different and not one I would recommend - especially not for anyone with a dicky back. I only ever did the standing exercise. The sitting ones seem daft. I did feel internal pressure and stretching in the movements in which the arms travel in different directions. Those particular movements are called names like Two Hands Push the Sky, Draw the Bow and Shoot the Eagle, Separate the Sky and Earth.

You need to synchronise the breathing with the movements. Generally, you breathe out as you push your hands up or down or out and breathe in as you return them. One of the last ones, where he has his hands behind his back as he raises on his toes really contracts the lats and pecs.

They are pleasant to do and very meditative - when done slowly. It's a good way to start the day especially if you have a nice garden to do them in. Best done with a calm mind and love in your heart.

Here's a video of Shi De Yang, doing the exercises.

Shaolin Monk 8 Pieces of Brocade (Baduan Jin)
Shaolin Monk 8 Pieces of Brocade (Baduan Jin) - YouTube

By the way, I like his clothes. Even the colour is nice. I can just see myself togged up like that.

Ba Duan Jin is awesome
It was the first form of qigong I ever learned during my training in traditional Chinese martial arts.
This was many years ago. I no longer practice TMA.

I wouldn't say that these movements directly target the internal organs, but the combination of the movements + breathing does indirectly stimulate them, in the same way weightlifting does. That' just my opinion and experience, though.

I still incorporate these qigong movements sometimes, into my training either as a warm-up prior to strength training, and/or as a way to cool-down after strength training.

The movements are very relaxing and when performed correctly, feels like a massage (hard to explain, but physically it feels good), where as in strength training, performing the movements involve some pain due to the nature of heavy-ass loads lol.

My preference though, still leans towards lifting heavy-ass weights, though I do appreciate the benefits I attain from qigong.
I guess you can say it's a healthy balance between "internal" and "external" training... yin yang, etc.

[macchoi]

For years, I developed a spiritual outlook towards my weight training.
I could never vocalize this in words until I found this quote:

"For many, life may be as simple
as a strong, banal focus on purely the physical,
with little or no exploration of any other horizons.
However, for some in the pursuit of a richer
enlightenment, it’s a constant seeking of a
symphonic balance between the conditioning
of the body, the cultivation of the mind, and
a continuous unfolding growth of the spirit,
all the while maintaining a harmony with their
natural environment."

- Randy Roach

This perfectly illustrates my POV towards strength training

[vegan_on_the_land]

Originally Posted by macchoi

Ba Duan Jin is awesome

The movements are very relaxing and when performed correctly, feels like a massage (hard to explain, but physically it feels good), where as in strength training, performing the movements involve some pain due to the nature of heavy-ass loads lol.

Yes, it like a massage for the mind and body.

[macchoi]

Vitality Supreme
by Bernarr Macfadden, written in 1915

…Vitality first of all means endurance and the ability to live long. It naturally indicates functional and organic vigor. You cannot be vital unless the organs of the body are possessed of at least normal degree of strength and are performing their functions harmoniously and satisfactorily.

…It really takes more power to run a defective machine than it does to operate one in which all parts are working in harmony, and the same can be said of the body and its parts or organs. Therefore, if you have vitality enough to continue to live even though diseased, rest assured that you have enough to acquire health if you conform to Nature’s enactments. And this kind of health usually brings a physical and mental exaltation that is truly beyond description.

…Vitality means normal functioning. When the organs of the body are all performing their duties satisfactorily, you can practically be sure of a plentiful supply of vitality. So it can truly be said that proper functioning is the secret of power.

…The body is really a combination of all these various parts and functions, and without strength and activity in all of them, simultaneous and harmonious, not one of these interdependent parts could do its work, and the body as a whole would be thrown into a state of disease. Strength of the internal organs is infinitely more important than mere muscular strength, if one could properly make a comparison.

…It is true that internal strength is more important than external muscular strength, but the fact is that they go together. As a general thing, by building muscular strength one is able at the same time to develop internal strength. The influence of exercise in purifying the blood and in promoting activity in all the internal organs really strengthens the “department of the interior” at the same time that it develops the muscles concerned. Muscular stagnation means organic stagnation, to a very large degree. To be thoroughly alive and to enjoy the possession of unlimited vitality it is necessary to be both muscularly and functionally active. The requirements of Nature, or what are more commonly termed the “laws of Nature,” in reference to all these bodily functions must be strictly observed, for it is only under such conditions that life and health can be maintained at their best.

…The body may be regarded as a machine. Why not make it a strong machine, and as perfect as possible? Its efficiency means everything. If you had an engine, a motorcycle, a sewing machine or a printing press that was a very poor machine, you would like to exchange it for a better one, would you not? You would even spend large sums of money to secure a better machine to take the place of the poor one. But if your body is imperfect, inefficient, weak, rusty and clogged up with grit, dirt and all the waste products due to the “wear” in the bodily structures, you seem nevertheless entirely satisfied. You go on from day to day and from year to year without thinking of the possibility of getting a better physical equipment. But why not consider the body in the same light as any other machine that is of value to you. Your body is the thing that keeps you alive. If it is a poor instrument, then it is more important that you should get a better one than that you should buy a new engine or new printing-press or new sewing-machine. The only difference is, that it is within your power to get a better body machine by building up the one that you have. You can repair it, you can add to its vitality, you can strengthen the functional system, you can make it more perfect and efficient. You can make it a high-power machine that will be of real value in any undertaking that you may wish to carry out. You can make it strong instead of weak, and you can thus enjoy that superabundant vitality without which life is hardly worth the living.

[macchoi]

“I have never yet met a ‘Strong Man’ whose digestion
was poor. Their powers of digestion and assimilation are
on par with the power of their muscles. Now, whether
their muscular strength comes from the perfect working
of their organs, or whether their perfect digestion comes
from their muscular strength, it would be hard to say; but
undoubtedly there is a connection.”

– Earle E. Liederman – Secrets of Strength

[macchoi]

Super Human Radio: Episode# 997:
Muscle Saves Lives: The Judy Madsen Story

More proof that an emphasis on Physical Culture leads to health and longevity.
Madsen is an inspiration to all - but especially women.
At the young age of 75 she now holds a world record in the Deadlift.
But more importantly she is living proof that women should not think being
strong is just for men. So for those of you that think women shouldn't
strength train you may want to listen to Judy's inspiring story!!!

Direct MP3 Download:
http://www.superhumanradio.com/compo...R_Show_997.mp3

[macchoi]

Why you Develop
Excerpt from the book, The Science and Art of Physical Development by W. R. Pope, 1902

Probably the first question asked by those starting on a systematic course of exercise for developing and strengthening the entire muscular organism is, “why do we develop?” A writer on the physiology of bodily exercise says, Dumbbell exercises, in spite of the great quantity of work they need, have little influence on the brain. They affect the functions of nutrition much more than those of innervation. The energetic and sustained muscular contractions which they render necessary draw blood to the muscles in great quantity and keep it there a long time.

The muscular fibers benefit from this and increase in size. On the other hand, the blood is enriched with a great quantity of oxygen, for increased respiratory need is the first effect of great expenditure of muscular force. This need finds free and easy satisfaction in the period of repose which inevitably follows each exercise. Finally the intensity of the combustions due to a great quantity of work, promotes the using up and prompt disappearance of the reserve materials, and the need of quick repair: whence increased appetite.

On the other hand, the repeated contractions of the abdominal muscles in frequently recurring efforts, performs a sort of massage on the intestines, which favors the onward movement of the feces and makes the bowels regular. Such exercises are then favorable to all nutritive functions. They increase energetically, and even violently the working of all the organs of the body, while leaving in relative repose the nerve-centers and physical faculties.

They tend to increase the weight of the subject. Observations of facts show that these exercises, when they are not beyond the strength of the subject, place him in the most favorable conditions of nutrition.

Exercise of this kind deserves the preference from the hygienic point of view, and it is in fact in the professions in which work is taken in large doses that we find the most vigorous persons.

Finally, it is necessary to avoid overwork, that the work should be gradually increased, and not done in the largest quantities till after complete training.

[macchoi]

Why Men Should Exercise Daily
From: How to Get Strong and How to Stay So, by William Blaikie, 1879

The advantages to men of a well-built body, kept in thorough repair, are very great. Those of every class, whose occupation is sedentary, soon come to appreciate this. Some part of the machinery gets out of order. It may be the head, or eyes, or throat; it may be the lungs or stomach, liver or kidneys. Something does not go right. There is a clogging, a lack of complete action, and often positive pain. This physical clogging tells at once on the mental work, either making its accomplishment uncomfortable and an effort, or becoming so bad as to actually prevent work at all. It may make the man ill. There is very little doubt but that a large majority of ailments would be removed, or, rather, would never have come at all, had the lungs and also the muscles of the man had vigorous daily action to the extent that frequent trial had shown best suited to that man’s wants. One of the quickest known ways of dispelling a headache is to give some of the muscles, those of the legs, for instance, a little hard, sharp work to do. The reason is obvious. Dr. Mitchell puts it well when he says that muscular exercise flushes the parts engaged in it, and so depletes the brain.

But fortunately that same exercise also helps make better blood, gets the entire lungs into action, quickens the activity of the other vital organs, and so tones up the whole man, that, if the exercise is taken daily and is kept up, disorder, unless very deep-seated, disappears.

It is well known that when the system, from any cause, gets run down, disease is more likely to enter, and slower at being shaken off. Thousands and hundreds of thousands of men and women have hard work, mental strain, fret and anxiety, daily, and for years together — indeed, scarcely do anything to lighten the tension in this direction. They tell you they are subject to headache or dyspepsia, or other disorder, as if it was out of the question to think of preventing it. But had the work been so arranged, as it nearly always could be — far oftener than most persons think — to secure daily an hour for vigorous muscular exercise for all the parts, this running down would, in most instances, never come. The sharp, hot work, till the muscles are healthily tired, insures the good digestion, the cleared brain, the sound sleep, the buoyant spirits.

The president of one of the largest banks in this country told the writer that, disappointed one summer in not getting a run to Europe, reflection told him that one marked benefit such jaunts had brought him was from the increased sleep he was enabled to get, that thereupon he determined on longer sleeps at home. He got them, and found, as he well put it, that he could “fight better.” Beset all day long with men wanting heavy loans, that fighting tone, that ability to say “no” at the right time and in a way which showed he meant it, must have not only added to his own well-being, but to the bank’s protection as well.

Again, many men are liable to occasionally have sudden and very protracted spells of head-work, where sleep and almost everything else must give way, so that the business in hand may be gotten through with. “Tom Brown” told the writer that, when in Parliament, he could work through a whole week together on but four hours of sleep a night, and be none the worse for it, provided he could have all he wanted the next week, and that since he was twenty -five he had hardly known a sick day.

A father, tired from his day of busy toil, may have a sick child, who for much of the night will not let him sleep. Such taxes as this, coming to one already run down and weak, cannot be braved frequently with impunity. Unless the five or six miles a day of Tom Brown and his fellow-English-men’s “constitutional”, or some equivalent, is resorted to, and the man kept well-toned-up, one of these sudden calls may prove too severe, and do serious if not fatal injury. This toning-up is not all. If the bodily exercise is such as to get all the muscles strong, and keep them so, the very work that would otherwise overdo and exhaust now has no such effect, but is gone through with spirit and ease. There is that consciousness of strength which is equal to all such trifles.

The very nervousness and worry which used to be so wearing, at the sudden and ceaseless calls of the day, have gone, and for the reason that strong nerves and strong muscles are very liable to go together, and not to mind these things. What does the athlete at the top of his condition know about nervousness? He is blithe as a lark all the day long.

Dr. Mitchell says:

"The man who lives an outdoor life — who sleeps with the stars visible above him, who wins his bodily subsistence at first-hand from the earth and waters — is a being who defies rain and sun, has a strange sense of elastic strength, may drink if he likes, and may smoke all day long, and feel none the worse for it. Some such return to the earth for the means of life is what gives vigor and developing power to the colonists of an older race cast on a land like ours. A few generations of men living in such fashion store up a capital of vitality which accounts largely for the prodigal activity displayed by their descendants, and made possible only by the sturdy contest with nature which their ancestors have waged. That such a life is still led by multitudes of our countrymen is what alone serves to keep up our pristine force and energy."

Now, while this extreme hardiness and tone cannot be had by a person who has twelve hours of busy brain-work daily in-doors, and only one of bodily exercise, still, much can be done, quite enough to calm and tranquillize, and to carry easily over those passes which used to be dreaded.

If the man who habitually works too long without a rest would every hour or so turn lightly from his work, for even sixty seconds, to some vigorous exercise right in his office, or even in the next room or hallway, until the blood got out of his brain a little, and the muscles tingled with a hearty glow, he would go back so refreshed as to quickly make up, both in the quantity and quality of his work, for the time lost. When his hour for exercise came, instead of having no heart for it, he would spring to it with alacrity, like the school-boy does to his play.

Even if the strong man does occasionally become jaded, he knows, as Hughes did, how to get back his strength and snap, and that a tired man is many removes from a tired-out one. There is a great deal in knowing whether your work is overdoing you or simply tiring you. One of the strongest and best oarsmen Harvard ever had, used, at first, to think he ought to stop rowing when he began to perspire, and was quite astounded when an older man told him that that was only the beginning of the real work. There is no end of comfort to a tired man, either mentally or physically, in the thought that sure relief is near.

Again, this relief by physical exercise will encourage the man to hope that, if war or accident do not cut him down, he may look for a long life, no matter how great may be the occasional strain. Few men, for instance, familiar with the life of the Duke of Wellington will claim that they are better workers than he was, or that they get through more in a day or year, or that, heavy as their responsibilities may be, they surpass or even equal those which were his for years together. Yet all the terrible mental strain this illustrious man underwent, battling with one of the greatest captains this world ever saw, all the exposure and forced marching, privation and toil, which come to the faithful soldier, and to him who holds the lives of multitudes in his hands, this man knew, and yet so controlled his work, exacting as it all was, as to manage to keep his body superior to all it was called on to do, and his mind in constant working order, and this not merely up to threescore and ten, but to fourscore good years, and three more besides. Did not the vigorous body at the start, and the daily attention to it, pay him?

Will it be claimed that the president of one of the best-known corporations on this continent did any more work than Wellington? That president was at it all day, and far into the night, and when away in Europe, nominally on a play-spell, as well. Naturally, he was a strong, energetic man; but he had so worked, and so neglected his body, that he died at fifty-two. Which of the two men showed the better sense?

What does cutting one’s self down at fifty-two mean? Five minutes’ reflection should tell any reasonable person that the man was overworking himself, and going at a pace no man could hold and live. Does not this show a lack of sense, and especially when much of that work could certainly have been done by subordinates? Was not one of Daniel Webster’s best points his skill in getting work done by others, and saving for himself the parts he liked best?

When, after long years of toil and perseverance, one has worked himself up to position and wide influence, is it sensible to do what his humblest employee could rightly tell him is overcrowding, and so forcing the pace that he certainly cannot hold it? Instead of taking that position and that influence and wielding them for greater ends, and improving them very markedly, must there not be a keen pang to their owner when, tantalized with what seems surely within his grasp, that grasp itself weakens, and the machine goes all to pieces?

These later years are especially the precious ones to the wealthy man. They are his best days. Then his savings, and his earnings too, accumulate as they did not when he was younger. Look at the work done by Vanderbilt, for example, accomplished almost thirty years after he was fifty-two! Did not the active out-door life on the little periauger of his youth, and the daily constitutionals which, notwithstanding his infirmities, all New Yorkers saw him taking in later life, pay him? And are they less precious in any other line of life?

Look for a moment at the value health is to a man in any of the learned professions — of having a sound and vigorous body, with each branch of his vital system working regularly, naturally, and in harmony with the rest. Do these things make no difference to the divine? Had the sturdy, prize- fighter make of Martin Luther nothing to do with his contempt for the dangers awaiting his appearance before Charles V. and his Diet of Worms, and which caused him to say he would go there though the devils were as thick as the tiles on the houses; and with the grand stand he made for the religious light which now shines so freely upon the whole Christian world?

James Guthrie, first tying one hand behind him, with the other could whip any man in Oxford who would also fight one-handed. Who doubts that the vigor so evinced had much to do with the faithful, arduous life’s work he did, and did so well that all Scotland is today justly proud of him?

Have the magnificent breadth and depth of Spurgeon’s chest, and his splendid outfit of vital organs, no connection with his great power and influence as a preacher of world-wide renown? Have the splendid physique and abounding vitality of Henry Ward Beecher — greater almost than that of any man in a hundred thousand — nothing to do with his ability to attend to his duties as pastor, author, lecturer, and editor — work enough to kill half a dozen ordinary men — and with the tireless industry which must precede his marked success in them all ? Are not the towering form, the ruddy health, and grand, manly vigor of Dr. John Hall weighty elements, first in putting together, and then in driving home, the honest, earnest, fearless words which all remember who ever heard him speak? Have not the great bodies of those two young giants of the American pulpit, Phillips Brooks and Joseph Cook, proved most valuable accessories to their great brains?

Is there anything feeble about any of these? Put the tape-measure around them anywhere you like, and see how generous nature has been with them. Is it all a mere chance that they happen to have splendid bodies? Why is it that we never hear of such as these having “ministers’ sore throat,” and “blue Mondays,” and having to be sent by their congregations, every now and then, away to a foreign land to recruit their health and keep them up to their work? Do sound and sturdy bodies, and due attention daily to keeping them in good repair, have nothing to do with their ability to cope at all times with the duty lying next to them — and with their attention to it, too, in such a way as to make them so much more effective than other men in their great life’s work ?

That the physician himself needs sound health and plentiful strength, few will question; and yet, does he, from his calling alone, do anything to in- sure it? Dragged from his bed at all hours of the night, thrown daily, almost hourly, in contact with deadly disease — often so contagious that others shrink from going where he goes, like the brave man he must be to face such dangers— would not that general toned-up condition of the thoroughly sound and healthy man prove a most valuable boon to him — indeed, often save his life? And yet, does his daily occupation insure him that boon, even though it does enable him to get out-of-doors far more than most men who earn their living by mental labor? Witness one of their own number, Dr. Mitchell, on this point; for he says,

"The doctor, who is supposed to get a large share of exercise, in reality gets very little after he grows too busy to walk, and has then only the incidental exposure to outdoor air."

Would not a sensible course of physical exercise daily pay him — especially when pretty much all the muscular work he gets of any account is for his forearms and a little of his back, and then only when he drives a hard-bitted horse?

And does not a lawyer need a good body, and one kept in good order? After the first few years, when his practice is once well established, he finds that, unlike men in most other callings, his evenings are not his own, and that, if he is going to read any law, and to attempt to keep up with the new decisions every year, even in his own State, what between court work, the preparation of his cases, drawing papers, consultation, correspondence, and the other matters which fill up the daily round of the lawyer in active practice, that reading will have to be done out of office-hours often, or not done at all. Even in his evenings his business is too pressing to allow any time for reading. Here, then, is a man who is in serious danger of being cut off from that rest and recreation which most other men can have. The long, steady strain, day and evening, often breaks him down, where an hour’s active exercise daily on the road or on the water, with his business for the time scrupulously forgotten, together with from a quarter to half an hour, on rising and retiring, in strengthening his arms and chest, would have kept him as tough and fresh as they did Bryant, not simply up to sixty, or even seventy, but clear up to his eighty-fourth year. Every lawyer who has been in active practice in any of our large cities for a dozen years can point to members of his Bar who have either broken clean down, and gone to a premature grave from neglecting their bodily health, or who are now far on the road in that same direction. This happens notwithstanding the fact that in many places the courts do not sit once during the whole summer, and lawyers can hence get longer vacations and go farther from home than most men.

Let anyone read the life of Kuf us Choate, and say whether there was any need of his dying an old man at fifty-five. He started not with a weak body, but one decidedly strong. So little care did he take of it that, as he himself well put it,

"latterly he hadn’t much of any constitution, but simply lived under the by-laws."

Did it hinder his distinguished compeer, Daniel Webster, from magnificent success at the bar because he took many a good play-spell with a fishing-rod in his hand? because he not only knew but regarded the advantage and wisdom of keeping his body toned-up and hearty, and so regarded it that he died, not at fifty-five, but at the end of the full threescore years and ten? And did grand physical presence, the most impressive which ever graced American forum or senate-chamber — so striking, in fact, that, as he walked the streets of Liverpool, the laboring men stopped work and backed their admiring gaze by concluding that he must be a king — did these qualities not contribute to that same magnificent success? Daniel O’Connell was a man of sturdier body even than Webster, of whom Wendell Phillips says:

"He was the greatest orator that ever spoke English. A little O’Connell would have been no O’Connell. Every attitude was beauty, every gesture grace. There was a magnetism that melted every will into his."

Had not this wonderful man much to thank these same qualities for? Had they not something to do with the stretching of his vigorous life, not merely up to fifty-five, or even to seventy, but clear up to seventy-three? How many men has the world ever seen who filled, and well filled, more high offices than Henry Brougham, and who, no matter where he was, was always a tireless worker? One biographer says that, as a boy, he was the fleetest runner in the neighborhood, and this man, “as an orator, second in his time only to Canning;” this man, who once spoke in Parliament for seven days consecutively, who, even when upward of seventy, showed his zeal for reform by urging the introduction into England of the New York Code of Procedure — this one of England’s most famous Lord Chancellors took such care of his body that he never ceased from his labors until he was eighty-nine.

Let us look at but one more instance of the way a powerful mind and an uncommonly strong body blend and aid their possessor to his purposes. A recent writer in “Blackwood” says of Bismarck:

“He is a powerful man. That is what strikes at once everyone who sees him for the first time. He is very tall and of enormous weight, but not ungainly. Every part of his gigantic frame is well-proportioned — the large round head, the massive neck, the broad shoulders, and the vigorous limbs. He is now more than sixty-three, and the burden he has had to bear has been usually heavy; but though his step has become slow and ponderous, he carries his head high — looking down, even, on those who are as tall as himself — and his figure is still erect."

During these latter years he has suffered frequent and severe bodily pain, but no one could look upon him as an old man, or as one to be pitied. On the contrary, everybody who sees him feels that Prince Bismarck is still in possession of immense physical power.

And what holds good as to professional men in this respect of course will apply with equal force to busy brain-workers in any other line as well.

It is nowhere claimed here that there have not been in many callings great men whose bodies were indifferent affairs, but endeavour has been made to show, not only that a great mind and a vigorous body can go together, but that the latter is, not to the man of unusual mental power alone, but to every man, a most valuable acquisition, and one that he should, if he does not possess it already, take prompt steps to secure, and then, once acquiring it, should use the means, as Bryant did, to retain it.

In the 1877-78 annual report of Harvard College, President Eliot, who has been exceptionally well-placed to observe several thousand young men, and to know what helps and what hinders their intellectual progress, adds his valuable testimony to the importance of vigorous health and regular physical exercise to all who have, or expect to have, steady and severe mental work to do. Busy professional men may well heed his words. Speaking of the value of scholarships to poor but deserving young men, he says:

“If sound health were one of the requisitions for the enjoyment of scholarships, parents who expected to need aid in educating their boys would have their attention directed in an effective way to the wise regimen of health; while young men who had their own education to get would see that it was only prudent for them to secure a wholesome diet, plenty of fresh air, and regular exercise."

A singular notion prevails, especially in the country, that it is the feeble, sickly children who should be sent to school and college, since they are apparently unfit for hard work. The fact that, in the history of literature, a few cases can be pointed out in which genius was lodged in a weak or diseased body, is sometimes adduced in support of the strange proposition that physical vigor is not necessary for professional men. But all experience contradicts these notions.

To attain success and length of service in any of the learned professions’, including that of teaching, a vigorous body is well-nigh essential. A busy lawyer, editor, minister, physician, or teacher has need of greater physical endurance than a farmer, trader, manufacturer, or mechanic. All professional biography teaches that to win lasting distinction in sedentary, indoor occupations, which task the brain and the nervous system, extraordinary toughness of body must accompany extraordinary mental powers.

[plam]

Check out this girls incredible transformation
after a 14 month period of heavy weightlifting training.

http://www.crossfitfire.com/Jen%2014...20progress.pdf