A PERFECT WORLD, PART II

“Vision is the art of seeing things invisible”
—Jonathon Swift

The illusion is a simple sleight of hand. The obvious sometimes isn’t, as nothing is perfect. Nothing is as it seems and nothing exists without chaos, the ultimate twist of irony as it’s the only predictable event you can count on.

Within the exercise and health industry, concepts are scientifically researched and evaluated considering the notions of well-planned and predictable events occurring in a precious and perfect little world. Debates are waged, pondered, and theorized, yet, truth be told, within a reactionary world the only action that is predictable is the random nature of chaotic events. Good, bad, sad, joyous…plan what you may but expect the unexpected.

And so the weakness of most training mechanisms for today’s exercise culture is twofold at least. Firstly, there seems to exist within a catch-all idea of man as a rigid machine. Nice visualization and brilliant graphics for the ad campaign, but it doesn’t exist. A good friend of mine and brilliant writer, Ori Hofmekler phrased this perfectly to me one time when he pointed out that in all the brilliant marketing attempts to conceptualize man as a machine, they forgot that each of us is unique, divine and definitely not a machine. Secondly, in the race to promote exercise mediums (read “unique selling opportunities”) and to prove superiority of whatever is being pimped, excuse me…ahem, I meant “proven,” exercise movements are chosen that conform to the surroundings and not the needs. Training goals and objectives for improved performance (whether that is on the field or much more importantly the “field of life”) are being evaluated with testing mechanisms and findings that may not carry over to any real-world application. Evaluation tools are generally static in nature with an over-compliance to predictable protocols and lack the slightest shred of understanding the fragile and imperfect world of performance.

And yet, the most obvious and major exception to this would appear to be military training units that have long since realized that all the training you do in a pristine training environment doesn’t train you for the intense stress of the world where lives depend on it. In a situation where your life depends on the ability to respond, you sure as hell better be confident within chaos. And right now with so much of our nation dying from obesity, the public health system in a shambles, the health and fitness industry keeps promoting chiseled abs and ignoring the reality of how to get there.

While it may seem incredibly ethereal to some and certainly quite “flowery,” the concept of perfection is only found within imperfection, the intense subtitles that marry the divine element of individualism, nature, functionality and the harmonization of body, mind and soul. And so in an unpredictable world, how can exercise reflect a functional carryover to improve the quality of our lives when the toughest challenge is lying down on a bench to push a bar off your chest when you decide to do it. To perform in rapidly changing and chaotic events you have to be accustomed to them and the first step is to incorporate subtle tastes of imperfection work within your life.

To accommodate chaotic training you need to take a back seat to training for this precise minute and consider some very long-term training goals and objectives. Truthfully in our era of instant gratification and short attention spans, preparation has to go back to its roots and recall how “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” As an example, I can easily make reference to my own training of late. After a series of incredibly nasty splats skateboarding in bowls over the last few years, my ankles have become a foul mess. Rehab has been hard, effective and has gotten me back to where I want so that I can perform in rapidly changing environments whether that is making my run at busting mad air snowboarding or carving a tight line in a bowl. But let me emphasize that there was a lot of work to do that has started like any of my earliest athletes, wearing an Xvest™ while simply walking on uneven surfaces such as grass and sand as well as an Indo board, ensuring proper foot placement and picture-perfect posture at all times that will assist in strengthening supporting muscle, ligaments and regaining the flexibility needed. By using the Xvest™ in this manner it evolves not simply from an exercise medium in heavy weightlifting environments but from rehab and transitional into imperfect training conditions. That simple course of action made the ultimate difference and was part of the solution to bridging the gap between the form of training and the functionality of performance and getting back on the board.