Simplicity

Categories: Blog Aug 14, 2016

One of the beautiful things about Original Strength is it's simplicity. Simple movements like head nods, rolling and crawling build intricate neural connections which establish a solid foundation of reflexive stability, mobility and strength. Simple principles like breathing with the diaphragm and activating the vestibular system provide a lens which helps discern movements as neurological resets. And simple openness that embraces all movement and all effort as either good, better, or best. There is no "bad". How one moves is how one moves, initially, and it is good - we start from a place called "good."

Simplicity can be defined as Freedom from complexity, intricacy, or division into parts. It can also be defined as Freedom from deceit or guile; sincerity. Simplicity offers freedom. Perhaps then, complexity offers imprisonment.

Have we put ourselves in a prison? Does it seem right that our very own bodies should be so complex for us to control and master? Does it seem logical that things like exercise and nutrition should be complicated and only understood by experts? Does it seem sensible that no one has to be taught how to master and perform amazingly complex sequences of motion like walking or running - we all learn how to do this on our own. Yet adults now have to be taught how to pick things up from the ground so as not to injure their backs. What is going on?

We have somehow traded simplicity and good sense for complexity and absence of thought. If you look at the above definitions of simplicity, we have given away our freedom. Should our own bodies be so complicated to manage? Yes, they are intricately woven together and complex in inner workings beyond our current knowledge, but man (and woman) has been around for thousands and thousands of years. We may not understand all the science and cellular miracles that happen inside of us, but that doesn't mean our bodies are too complex for us to use and manage properly and optimally. For example, I don't know how a car really works, but I certainly know how to drive one very well. Sure, I took driver's ed., but actually driving taught me how to drive.

Anyway, as children, we build amazing strength without being taught how. We know when we are hungry and we know what to eat (as babies). We learn through doing and exploration. We keep things simple and we build amazingly complex structures. But somewhere along the lines this all changes. We begin to seek the complex, we begin to want to be "fed" instead of seeking out the answers. We want to be told how to move, how to eat, how to think. We trade in our intuition and good sense for "higher logic" and no sense. We don't solve our own problems, we don't use our own thoughts. The seemingly complex must be right. We must move a certain way, we must eat a certain percentage of macronutrients, we must even know what we are supposed to think if we do choose to think.

We have become a people who want to be fed fish, but not a people who want to go fishing. We are told everything, but weigh out and test nothing. We don't even have to be told complicated things anymore, we just have to be told. Sure the complicated seems fancy, but the truth is many of us are willing to settle for lies as long as we are being fed.

I guess I just don't think our bodies should be too complicated to manage. If there is an expert that knows and understands how your body works, it should probably be you. You should be able to move well and know how to move well. You should be able to eat well because you just know through good judgement and available resources what makes sense. You should be able to think clearly, evaluate information and solve problems. You don't have to understand the complexities of your design in order to understand your design. You were designed to move, to be strong, to be smart and to be free. Therefore, move. Move and build an amazingly intricate nervous system that underpins both a brilliant mind capable of all thought and an amazingly strong body capable of all feats. Exercise your brain and ponder what foods are worth eating and which ones are best avoided. Your body, how to optimize your management and control of it, should not be complicated. It should really be quite simple. Move a lot, drink water, eat good food.

More than likely, you have no idea how your smartphone does all the things it does - all the programs that run in the background, the operations, the code, the booleans, the circuits, the apps, the storage, etc, Yet, I am most certain you know how to operate your smartphone exquisitely. It should be the same with your body - operate it exquisitely. This is best done by keeping things simple, by choosing to think and move and learn.

You should be your expert. Learn how to fish again.

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