WHAT IS AN EXERCISE?

On account of the many misconceptions of the nature of human

development, will it not be well, before beginning our program to

consider seriously--What is training? What are some of its principles?

What can we do with ourselves by obeying nature's laws? Or, if these

questions are too serious, too difficult for a short answer, should we

not, at least, try to realize what is an exercise?

To many persons, any kind of movement, any jerk or chaotic action, is an

exercise. They think that the more effort put forth, the better. Thus

some teachers of voice contend that, to be an exercise, there must be

muscular effort in producing tone. On the contrary, many movements are

injurious; unnecessary effort will defeat some of the most important

exercises.

The exercise must obey the laws of nature. It must fulfill nature's

intentions, stimulate nature's processes, awaken normal, though

slumbering activity.

An exercise is of fundamental importance to all human beings. Man comes

into the world the feeblest of all animals. He has the least power to do

anything for himself, but he comes with possibilities of higher love and

union with his fellow-men. He comes into the world with a greater

possibility of unfolding than any other created being.

Accordingly an exercise is a means of progress, a simple action which a

man must use for his own unfoldment.

An exercise is a conscious step toward an ideal.

Man is given the prophetic power to realize his own possibilities. We

can hardly imagine an exercise independent of the conscious sense of the

highest and best attainments, of thereby making ourselves stronger and

in some way better.

This ideal is instinctive, even on the part of animals, in fact, the

animal instinctively regards its own preservation, its own unfoldment

and the reaching of its ideal type.

A tree will cover up its wound and reach out its branches freely,

spontaneously in the direction of the light and toward the attainment of

its own type.

With man the ideal is a matter of higher realization. We have the lower

instincts in common with the animals but we have also something higher.

There is inborn in us a conception that man transcends all present

conditions.

An exercise is a step towards the attainment of a chosen end.

Accordingly we have high exercises and low exercises; exercises on a

mental and on a physical plane; exercises that may train men down to an

abnormal type; exercises also that are intellectual, imaginative and

spiritual.

Everywhere in nature there is a low and a high. In animals of a high

order of unfoldment there is specific functioning of every part but in

those of a low order the functions are confused. The organs are not so

well differentiated.

Even in human beings, in the process of degeneracy a man loses a greater

variety of his powers, and his very voice and body lose some of those

characteristics which belong to the ideal member of the race.

A true exercise always brings sound and specific parts into action. Part

is differentiated from part. All parts are made more flexible and more

capable of discharging a function distinct from all other parts of the

body. A true action of the hand cannot be performed by the foot nor can

a foot become a hand except by a process of degeneracy.

An exercise implies a struggle upward over against a drift downwards.

An exercise is an aspiration.

An exercise is a demonstration, it reveals a man's best to himself. It

is a process of translating his dreams into reality. It is the only

proof of himself, his intuitive language.

An exercise is not physical but mental.

Never regard your exercises as merely physical. The expression "physical

training" is a misnomer. All training is the action of mind. It may

manifest itself in a physical direction, but training itself,--the

putting forth,--is mental. It is the emotion we feel more than the

movement that accomplishes results.

No matter who laughs, consider your morning exercises sacred to you.

Make them a part of your very life and habits, and put into them your

thought and the attitude of your mind toward your fellow-beings.

You will be tempted to regard such movements as merely mechanical and

artificial. You will be tempted to think they are just the ideas of some

crank. Put all this aside. Begin your exercises joyously and happily,

for the very pleasure of the action.

Remember that you are not a body in which you have a soul; you are a

soul and have a body. The cause of everything, even of health, is in our

minds. Our awakening is not a physical matter.

There is no power in the material body to move a finger. An exercise is

bringing a mental action into manifestation. However physical an action

may appear, its only significance is as an act of mind.

An exercise is an expression.

It is an act of being, not of body; it is activity of being in action of

body. There is no such thing as physical expression.

Expression is not merely a reflex action. It is the emanation of

activity. It is the union of thinking, feeling and willing.

An exercise implies that we can choose what we are to express. It

implies also that we can consciously regulate, guide or accentuate our

mental, imaginative and emotional activities.

Here we find the importance also of expression as an educational view.

Repression and suppression may be injurious to health. Expression is

necessary even for the proper functioning of the vital organs.

Impression implies the conscious use of an impulse. It implies the

ability to share our ideas, feelings or experiences with others.

An exercise is a means of turning an impulse in a higher direction. It

implies also the curbing of abnormal impulses.

Exercise implies stimulation of normal functioning. It is an endeavor,

but one in accordance with principle.

Thus, an exercise is an expression of an aspiration. Exercise implies

many things. It implies that a man may be low down but that he can rise;

it implies that if he begin early and work patiently enough he can

control, soon or late, his nature. He can control the expression of his

being and every manifestation of life if he will only come close enough

to the fountain-head of thinking and feeling. He must be willing to

demonstrate on an humble plane, and, while striving for the highest

ideal, take the simplest exercise as the first step of the ladder.

An exercise localizes function. Every part of the body, even every

muscle has certain functions to discharge. Awkward men use the wrong

part to perform a certain action; part interferes with part. A true

exercise will train each part to discharge its own function and bring it

into harmonious co-ordination with other parts. It will stimulate both

growth and development but make growth precede development.

While aspiration is universal it becomes conscious in a human being. We

have definite ideals and not only instincts for their attainment, but we

can adopt rational methods for their realization. We have not only an

instinctive consciousness of what is normal but a deep intuition that we

can improve every power of our being, every agent of our body and every

tone of the voice.

A simple, a most commonplace action, when done with aspiration becomes

an exercise. In fact, everything that man does is part of the training.

A true list of exercises must reflect the spirit of all life.

A normal man can distinguish between a wrong and a right exercise,

between that which will lift him upward and that which will cause

degeneracy. When men give up to their lower appetites they strengthen

the downward impulses, but the mind can be awakened and every little

step will become a demonstration of higher possibilities. An exercise is

a demonstration to a man of his possibilities.

Sometime the science of sciences will be that of training and education.

All over the organic world we find tendencies toward degeneracy or

downward; and we find everywhere aspirations or activities upward.

Every bird, every rose, every blade of grass is trying to reach an

ideal. This universal upward tendency or process we call by some big

words which confuse our minds and obscure the facts.

An exercise is not only mental but emotional, not only expressive of

thought but of normal emotion.

The wise doctor looks at his patient. He does this not only to recognize

the patient's condition but to see how much courage he has, how much

joy, how gladly he accepts life.

An exercise demands accentuation of extension.

Muscles should have a certain normal length and the power of relaxation

to take a certain length. On account of abnormal positions, such as

obtain during sleep, certain muscles become unduly elongated and others

too short. To restore the balance of proper proportions those shortened

need extension and the elongated need shortening. Accordingly the

so-called extensor muscles of the body need frequent action.

The effect of these stretches is to harmonize the vital forces. When a

man lies upon his bed, as has been said, he breathes less, the

circulation is more or less impeded; hence, the dull feeling and

unwillingness to rise.

The stretch also equalizes the circulation. It affects the veins where

the pressure of blood is weakest, where there is a more immediate

indication of congestion, so that the bad blood flows away, and the good

blood from the arteries where the pressure of blood is strong, flows in,

and the processes of life go on with more decision.

There is still another explanation why the stretch is so important. It

is primarily activity of the extensor muscles and is vitally connected

with all true expansion. The flexor muscles on account of the position

in sitting and because of a lack of expansive activity, often become too

short. They can be extended only by activity of the extensor muscles.

The stretch is the special and instinctive action of the extensor

muscles in response to a distinctive demand for freedom of the organs,

or harmony of the whole myological mechanism. It is also, as has been

said, closely connected with the circulation, and the activity of the

vital organs.

There is no more important exercise than stretching. Its neglect is one

of the strange things in training. One who wishes to be stronger, to

have the normal possession of all his faculties, powers and organs, can

be initiated and secure the result most rapidly, by the use of this

simple and elemental exercise.

An exercise is an act of expansion.

The action of man's body consists of expansion, contraction and

modulation, the latter being the union of the other two.

True energy expresses itself primarily by expansion. Life expands and

any increase of new life and all positive emotions cause an increase of

expansive activity in the body.

The study of expansion reveals to us the fact that expansion and

contraction furnish the many elements of all human action, but that

expansion is first, that expansion expresses joy, exhilaration,

animation in life, and that contraction, aside from its co-ordination

with expansion in causing control in intensity, expresses antagonism,

hate, anger, pain. Accordingly this book assigns certain fundamental

expansions, which everyone should practice and does practice if he obey

his own deep instincts.

Negative emotions, such as fear, despondency, or antagonism, cause

contraction and tend to constrict the vital organs.

It can, of course, be seen at once that expansion is due to the activity

of the extensor muscles. The stretch is, in the main, an expansion. At

any rate, it is always associated, co-ordinated, when properly

performed, with expansion.

Moreover, if we observe the action of animals and all true spontaneous

actions in a human being, we observe that the activity of expansion

begins in the centre of the body. It is at this point that we should

initiate our expression. The actions in the middle of the body are more

conditional than those in the feet, hands, or limbs, but the awakening

of conditions should precede modulation. A certain activity of expansion

and diffusion is the very basis of all conditions.

All exercises should naturally begin with expansion. A true exercise

means an increase of activity. Moreover, not only does life expand, but

all positive emotions, such as joy, love, courage, cause activity of the

extensor muscles. These emotions, as is universally known, improve

health.

If we observe the structure of the torso, we find that the chest has no

prop from below; that the ribs are placed at an angle with the spine,

sloping downwards as low as forty-five degrees, while at times they may

be lifted seventy-five or eighty degrees or more. The expansion of the

chest lifts the ribs.

If we study a skeleton, we see that it must be suspended, that it cannot

be propped up.

Man, accordingly, stands and walks primarily on account of the active

expansion of his whole chest. He is the one animal that has levitation,

as will be shown later.

We find that under the ribs in the torso are all the vital organs. The

lungs, the heart, the stomach, all these depend for their normal

position, their normal action upon the expansion of the chest.

When a man stands, the tendency for the chest is to sag. There are no

bones to elevate it. Man has levitation as well as gravitation, and the

expansion and elevation of the chest lie at the basis of all good

position in standing, sitting and also walking.

There are certain co-ordinate curves, beautiful, spiral, rhythmic, in a

normal and healthy human being. These curves depend upon this expansion

of the chest.

All the best gymnastic exercises centre in the development of activity

in the muscles concerned in keeping the chest elevated and harmoniously

expanded.

When we study the expression of this part, we find that it reveals

energy and courage and all the noble, positive emotions of a human

being.

A passive chest expresses indifference, inactivity, fear,

discouragement, a sense of weakness, unwillingness to awake and rise up

to meet emergencies. A sunken chest, accordingly, is an indication of a

tendency to disease, simply because it expresses a negative mental state

or one favorable to the reception of abnormal conditions.

The expansion of the chest, on the contrary, reveals that happy

acceptance of life, that active, energetic determination to control

abnormal conditions which will ward off all disease and eliminate all

failure.

This expansion of the chest, as we can see, is one of the most elemental

actions of expansion of the human being. We shall observe later that

this activity is directly concerned with erect posture. All actions in a

normal condition co-operate or co-ordinate. This expansion frees the

respiratory muscles and all the vital organs, gives man command of the

elemental action of his body as a whole; that is, his erectness

expresses higher emotions and experiences.

An exercise implies co-ordination.

An organism exists only by virtue of certain co-ordination of parts.

Training improves and extends this co-ordination.

Co-ordination is the simultaneous union of many different elements or

actions in different parts of the body.

An exercise is rhythmic.

When exercises are performed in obedience to the law of rhythm, better

results will follow. Rhythm is a law of man's being. Action and reaction

imply a human being doing his little part and then accepting the greater

work out of the heart of the universe. Action and reaction, activity

and passivity, the giving and the receiving, everything natural is

rhythmic. Absence of rhythm is death.

An exercise is simple.

The best exercise is the simplest in its movements. It is not the

spectacular actions of an exercise that make it the best. As every

exercise is a struggle upward it must necessarily be an emphasis of

something elemental and normal.

Any movement is normal when it is part of the discharge of an elemental

or distinctive action of any agent or part.

The difference between accidental and elemental needs more discussion.

Working upon accidentals secures weak results, perverts and interferes

with free function. Working upon elementals brings freedom, power.