Your definition is reiterated to every single client that starts exercising with me in my studio. I highly enjoy your writings on here Ken, I wish you well. M 👍🏼
As a context, none of this is negative criticism. I’m trying to understand and clarify my thinking. I love your writing and have gained a lot from your work. I’ve bought most of your books. I really enjoy interacting with you, one of the most innovative and unique thinkers in this field. My comments flow from thinking through the definition. These are my thoughts on the definition. which I hold lightly!
As a context a definition is definitely needed. It clarifies, explains and allows discussion.
1 “Process” - it seems like a redundant word. You could just as easily say “Exercise is work of a demanding nature, in accordance with muscle and joint function, in a clinically controlled environment, within the constraints of safety, meaningfully loading the muscular structures to inroad their strength levels to stimulate a growth mechanism within minimum time.” “Process” doesn’t add anything. I am left looking for the different steps in that process. Unless the process includes both the stimulus and the response?
2 “meaningfully” / is this also redundant in that inroad of strength in minimum time is stated and that is what makes it meaningful?
3 Inroad is a metric not a process. “Process” would be the series of steps taken to cause inroad, to cause a decrement in strength. This is probably my key “objection”. Is inroad a noun or a verb. “Inroad is the real and only process” - makes inroad a verb but surely inroad is the reduced strength, the gap between initial state and final state. It is a metric, measuring the immediate effect of the work done.
4 Purpose - ie Section 4 - is the purpose the stimulation of a growth mechanism - however broadly we to want to define growth - or is it the stimulation of a process that strengthens the muscle, which may or may not cause growth but will accompany beneficial changes to various structures and systems in the body? I’m not convinced that the focus on growth is sufficient or accurate.
5 “clinically controlled environment” - I’ve read Critical Factors and I am still not sure of the meaning of clinically controlled. If it is about safety then this too is redundant. I know there is a chapter in Renaissance on environment but I don’t have that book to check. The environment is important but I’m not convinced that it fits in the definition. It is what the environment allows - ie focus, perception, concentration - that is important. Some may be able to exercise in an environment that is not clinically controlled. If so then it doesn’t need to be in the definition as it can be done in an alternate environment. There is an ideal environment, but is such necessary?
6 Time - is it minimum time or optimal time? I’m still thinking that through.
So perhaps a definition might be:
Exercise is demanding work, in accordance with muscle and joint function, within the constraints of safety, loading the muscular structures to inroad their strength levels within optimal time to stimulate a mechanism that strengthens muscle and promotes beneficial change in other systems in the body.
My other thought while I was walking this morning was whether there needs to be additional clarification of inroad, that is to say is there a threshold to be achieved for a stimulus to occur. This relates to the minimum time I suppose. Work will produce inroad - ie a decrement in strength - but that might be tiny, hardly noticeable. Absolute inroad would be momentary failure. What threshold of inroad are we seeking on that scale from infinitesimally small to absolute?
I was also thinking that some of this discussion becomes almost esoteric as elements are internal to the perception of the subject.
Sorry, one more thought. Given the accepted difficulties with the idea of “work” in the definition, could we just say “mechanical tension” instead which would cover both dynamic and static exercise.
So we get to
Exercise is the application of mechanical tension to muscles, in accordance with muscle and joint function, within the constraints of safety, loading the muscular structures optimally to inroad their strength levels with the aim of stimulating a mechanism that strengthens muscle and promotes beneficial change in other systems in the body.
You are retracing the thoughts I've considered over the years.
Yesterday, I noted that, although I expected the definition to evolve with time, the only change I've made since first showing it in its whitepaper was to remove the hyphen between "clinically" and "controlled."
All great questions... I'm grateful that this spurs your thoughts. These are debates for future writers. As the aphorism goes in the series, "The One Hundred," my fight is over.
"Clinically controlled" can be summed up with "distraction-free environment." This is a broad topic.
Your definition is reiterated to every single client that starts exercising with me in my studio. I highly enjoy your writings on here Ken, I wish you well. M 👍🏼
Thanks for writing this Ken. I will read it over a few times and may have comments or questions.
As a context, none of this is negative criticism. I’m trying to understand and clarify my thinking. I love your writing and have gained a lot from your work. I’ve bought most of your books. I really enjoy interacting with you, one of the most innovative and unique thinkers in this field. My comments flow from thinking through the definition. These are my thoughts on the definition. which I hold lightly!
As a context a definition is definitely needed. It clarifies, explains and allows discussion.
1 “Process” - it seems like a redundant word. You could just as easily say “Exercise is work of a demanding nature, in accordance with muscle and joint function, in a clinically controlled environment, within the constraints of safety, meaningfully loading the muscular structures to inroad their strength levels to stimulate a growth mechanism within minimum time.” “Process” doesn’t add anything. I am left looking for the different steps in that process. Unless the process includes both the stimulus and the response?
2 “meaningfully” / is this also redundant in that inroad of strength in minimum time is stated and that is what makes it meaningful?
3 Inroad is a metric not a process. “Process” would be the series of steps taken to cause inroad, to cause a decrement in strength. This is probably my key “objection”. Is inroad a noun or a verb. “Inroad is the real and only process” - makes inroad a verb but surely inroad is the reduced strength, the gap between initial state and final state. It is a metric, measuring the immediate effect of the work done.
4 Purpose - ie Section 4 - is the purpose the stimulation of a growth mechanism - however broadly we to want to define growth - or is it the stimulation of a process that strengthens the muscle, which may or may not cause growth but will accompany beneficial changes to various structures and systems in the body? I’m not convinced that the focus on growth is sufficient or accurate.
5 “clinically controlled environment” - I’ve read Critical Factors and I am still not sure of the meaning of clinically controlled. If it is about safety then this too is redundant. I know there is a chapter in Renaissance on environment but I don’t have that book to check. The environment is important but I’m not convinced that it fits in the definition. It is what the environment allows - ie focus, perception, concentration - that is important. Some may be able to exercise in an environment that is not clinically controlled. If so then it doesn’t need to be in the definition as it can be done in an alternate environment. There is an ideal environment, but is such necessary?
6 Time - is it minimum time or optimal time? I’m still thinking that through.
So perhaps a definition might be:
Exercise is demanding work, in accordance with muscle and joint function, within the constraints of safety, loading the muscular structures to inroad their strength levels within optimal time to stimulate a mechanism that strengthens muscle and promotes beneficial change in other systems in the body.
My other thought while I was walking this morning was whether there needs to be additional clarification of inroad, that is to say is there a threshold to be achieved for a stimulus to occur. This relates to the minimum time I suppose. Work will produce inroad - ie a decrement in strength - but that might be tiny, hardly noticeable. Absolute inroad would be momentary failure. What threshold of inroad are we seeking on that scale from infinitesimally small to absolute?
I was also thinking that some of this discussion becomes almost esoteric as elements are internal to the perception of the subject.
Sorry, one more thought. Given the accepted difficulties with the idea of “work” in the definition, could we just say “mechanical tension” instead which would cover both dynamic and static exercise.
So we get to
Exercise is the application of mechanical tension to muscles, in accordance with muscle and joint function, within the constraints of safety, loading the muscular structures optimally to inroad their strength levels with the aim of stimulating a mechanism that strengthens muscle and promotes beneficial change in other systems in the body.
You are retracing the thoughts I've considered over the years.
Yesterday, I noted that, although I expected the definition to evolve with time, the only change I've made since first showing it in its whitepaper was to remove the hyphen between "clinically" and "controlled."
All great questions... I'm grateful that this spurs your thoughts. These are debates for future writers. As the aphorism goes in the series, "The One Hundred," my fight is over.
"Clinically controlled" can be summed up with "distraction-free environment." This is a broad topic.