Fri 17 May 2002 19:06
p111 The Life We are Given by George Leonard and Michael Murphy
In the course of meditation, many people experience a gratitude for life that ....

p112
meditation can:

lower resting heart rate;

reduce both systolic and diastolic blood pressure

p113
meditation can have negative outcomes for certain people
intensify obsessiveness, divert attention from genuine problems, and contribute to feelings of depression.

The path to enlightenment is "sharp as the razor's edge," reads the Katha Upanishad.

Like hunting or hunted animals, many artists and athletes exhibit a trancelike focus of attention, an indifference to discomfort and pain, and a remarkable forgetting of difficulty.

p115
Our Kata ends with meditation,

Two years of ITP classes have taught us that this set of exercises often produces an afterglow.

The ongoing effects of repeated affirmations, the pleasure of exercised muscles and ligaments, the multiple benefits of imagery and meditation last longer than the Kata itself.

New freshness of perception, increased empathy for others, alert relaxation, enhanced sensory-motor skills, and other improvements of mind and body have been evident in members of our classes

p117
The exercise factor.

Early in life we are urged to study hard so that we'll get good grades. We're told to get good grades so that we'll graduate from high school and get into college, so that we'll get a good job. We're told to get a goo job so that we can buy a house and a car.
Goals are important.
But the real juice of life is to be found not nearly so much in the products of our efforts as in the process of living itself, in how it feels to be alive.

p118
We were born, it seems to us, with a [predisposition] to move vigorously, gracefully, and joyfully. Our being so often robbed of this right constitutes a major tragedy of our civilization, one that can be traced in large part to the denigration of the body common to most civilized societies as well as..

Far from being a mere machine, the human body is the most advanced material realization we've encountered of the divine potential hidden in the earl, inchoate universe.

we can read the story of cosmic evolution, that chronicle of exquisite joinings and hairbreadth escapes, which has created a consciousness capable of knowing itself. (?)

To live is to move. Even in sleep, the body is incessantly moving. A silent pulsing of heart, blood vessels, glands, diaphragm, lungs--the busy intercourse among a hundred trillion cells--with many other organisms. When we consciously move through space,

p119
the evolutionary gamble of the upright stance

To see this form of movement as if for the first time, lean over so your head is upside down.

From this perspective, a group of people walking toward you, especially in bathing suits on a beach, reveals an amazingly supple, undulating movement, an easy, liquid flow of energy unlike that of any other creature.

Walk for the joy of it.
Be sure to walk vigorously.

It's possible, but difficult, to walk too much.

Running..
The earth becomes our drum, and the rhythm of our drumming feet presages the quickened pulse of heart and blood.
[I'm guessing this chapter is Murphy's]
We experience the beginnings of a familiar exultation along with a touch of fear, a momentary catch in the breath. It is a feeling of vertiginous anticipation and delicious dread akin to the first awareness of sexual arousal.

the human runner is relatively slow and the energy cost of running is about twice as high for humans as for most other mammals.

Yet, in a long chase, a well-conditioned runner can catch a horse, deer, wildebeest, zebra, kangaroo, or pronghorn antelope. (?)

To run long distances, especially with a partner or a group, is to summon our primal past: the profusion of healthy sweat, the lusty breaths, the glory of distance traveled, the shouts of triumph as prey is overtaken.

Endurance running is an essential human activity that preceded abstract thought and helped make it possible.

There's a dangerously hypnotic quality that accompanies running long distances at a steady pace and stride.

The secret of power, whatever your sport, lies in relaxation.

Every muscle except those being used specifically for locomotion at any given moment should be quite relaxed.

Change the length and bounce of your stride. Alternate longer-than-usual with shorter-than-usual strides. Or take an especially long stride, a leap, every third step.

Skipping may be better than jogging for aerobic conditioning, while leading to fewer injuries.

Try running backward, or sideways, crossing the feet alternately, scissors style.

Vary your speed.
periodic as well as continuous exercise holds great value; it's all right to stop for a while during a run--or a walk--and stretch for relaxation or just enjoy the view.

Work out a steeplechase, a sort of runner's obstacle course, with ditches to leap, walls to run on or jump over, trees and bushes to dodge.


The parabolic curve of a ball in flight adds another element to your running. By catching it, you make visible your intuitive knowledge of the laws of physics.

Many ball sports that involve running--tennis, volleyball, racquetball, squash, basketball--can also be made aerobic by switching from a competitive to a collaborative mode, the idea being to keep the ball in play as much as possible and to run at a moderate rate most of the time.

bear in mind it's not necessary to stretch just before running. Better to start with a few minutes warm-up along with the articulation of body joints.

p123
The down side of this virtual weightlessness is that, in not stressing the bones, swimming doesn't buil bone tissue as the weight bearing sports do.

You might learn to love the cool [I wish all pools were cool], wet solitary world of the swimmer, even when cruising back and forth from one end of a pool to the other.

Murphy is great. This has got to be him (murphy's the distance runner, Leonard, the aikidoist)

Gliding across the earth on a bicycle at the pleasant speed of 12 to 15 mph on softly spinning wheels as both passenger and motor,


p 124
Then you have rowing, cross-country skiing, skating, ...
Given sufficient imagination and will, aerobic activities are there for the finding. shadow box.
You can dance aerobically and thus participate in one of the most primal of activities: There are cultures with no permanent dwelling places, no tool or weapon other than the stick and stone, no clothing other than the loin cloth, no plastic art, but there are no human cultures without music and dance.

And if it's in your nature, you can make an even more primal activity, sexual intercourse, the basis of an aerobic workout.

Any happily vigorous activit that uses several muscle groups, especially those long muscles that attach to the pelvic girdle, will grant you the gift of sweat and lusty breathing.

energy follows attention, that staying aware of your breath, the articulation of your joints, and the contraction and relaxation of sinew and muscle can significantly increase the quality of your exercise.

do your aerobic exercise primarily for the joy of it.


p125
Exercise can produce or contribute to overcompetitiveness, excessive fatigue from overtraining, preoccupation with diet, obsession with body image, neglect of job or family, general self-centeredness, and physical injuries.

As in any form of self-cultivation, physical training calls for intelligence, balance, and good judgement in order to produce good results.


p126
The practice of ITP should be available to as many people as possible, regardless of physical or financial status.

1991 book _biomarkers_ evans & rosenberg. All ten can be favorably altered thus alleviating most of the debility that accompanies old age.

1. Your Muscle Mass
2. Your strength
3. Your basal metabolic rate
4. your body fat percentage
5. your aerobic capacity
6. your body's blood-sugar tolerance
7. your cholesterol/hdl ratio
8. your blood pressure
9. your bone density
10. your body's ability to regulate its internal temperature.

Of these ten, according to Evans and Rosenberg, muscle mass and strength are primary.

They write that a high ratio of muscle to fat int he body,

causes the metabolism to rise, meaning your can more easily burn body fat and alter your boy composition even further in favor or beneficial muscle tissue;

increase your aerobic capacity--and the health of your whole cardiovascular system--because you have more working muscles consuming oxygen;

triggers muscle to use more insulin, thus greatl reducing the chances you'll ever develop diabetes;

helps maintain higher levels of beneficial HDL cholesterol in your blood.

Frank Zane's picture of him at 50 is incredible-- I should scan it in.

--
[aww.. you shouldn't have --b. spears]

p127
Aerobic ability, for example, seems to fall of at a rate of some 8 to 10 % for every 10 years after age 20

On average, we lose almost seven lbs of muscle every decade.

from 20 to 70, we lose nearly 30% of our muscle cells.
Our basal metabolic rate--the ability to transform food into energy and build tissue--declines by an estimated 2% a decade starting at age 20.

And so it goes, a dismal picture of degeneration and decay.



We compared young men who underwent endurance training with men between 45 an 60 years old who had the same training and found that aerobic capacity and percentage of body fat is related to the time spent exercising--not to age. In this study age did not predict anything.

p128
Muscle growth in people ranging from 60 to 96 years old was as great as could be expected in young people doing the same amount of exercise.

p129
A pump when I picture the muscle I want is worth ten with my mind drifting." A. Schwarzenegger.

p130
Never stretch strenuously without warming up first.

if you wish to make stretching a part of your exercise routine, it's best to stretch after exercising.

pushups, pullups, dips.


The ultimate physical trainer.

Most of all, don't forget to appreciate the miracle of the human body in motion. No matter what its present state of conditioning, this body is the culmination of an incredible evolutionary journey, the repository of the experience of aeons, the harbinger of inconceivable adventures yet to come.

the ultimate physical trainer is not the man or woman with clipboard, but the delight that resides in your own body, waiting patiently for you to summont it forth.

He is wonderful!

p133 Food for transformation

food is life.

p73, I want to write in the intro to the ITP Kata, since it is so great.

The Japanese word kata (kah-tah) means "form." Our usage here is similar to that in the martial arts, where the practitioner performs a series of predetermined moves. The ITP Kata was designed by George Leonard to be performed in forty minutes, each element blending into the next without a sense of haste. You can trace its lineage to hatha yoga, the martial arts, modern exercise physiology, Progressive Relaxation, visualization research, and witness meditation. If offers practitioners the following benefits:

Balances and centers the body and psyche

Provides a generalized warm-up, speeding the heartbeat, increasing the flow of blood and sending an infusion of heat to all parts of the body

Articulates practically ever joint in the bod, enhancing the lubrication of the synovial joints (those such as the shoulder or knee, which are surrounded by capsules filled with synovial fluid)

Makes available a comprehensive course of stretches, increasing flexibility of all major muscle groups.

Includes three essential strength exercises. (?)

Provides a full set of Progressive Relaxation exercises, in which muscle groups are tightened then allowed to relax deeply.

Presents numerous opportunities for deep, rhythmic breathing

Includes a period devoted to transformational imaging during which the powers of intentionality can be applied to making positive changes in body and psyche.

Concludes with ten minutes of meditation.

p133
We imagine our hunting and gathering forbears sitting around the campfire late into the night discussing the day's harvest of plants in its every particular and spinning ravenous fantasies about the results of the next successful hunt.

p134
To be conscious means to pay attention, to be mindful, as you choose or prepare food and as you eat, and that you stay mindful of the aftereffects of the food eaten.

What correlated best with reduced body fat, as it turned out, was the time spent doing aerobic exercise.

p137
in Japan and other countries where the consumption of animal fat is much lower than here it's quite rare [breast cancer]. When japanese women move to the United States....

p137 lean fish (yes, there is a big difference between salmon and snapper)

p139
Animals on high-protein diets die sooner than those given the same number of calories but with less protein.

Too much protein can also lead to bone demineralization and osteoporosis. And in animal studies, even a low-fat diet that is high in protein can promote the formation of coronary artery blockage.

p140
You don't have to be a nutrition expert to combine foods or low-fat, complete protein. Just remember to eat any grains and any legumes anytime during the same day.

In cooking low-fat food there's one indespensible kitchen item: the Teflon frying pan.

p141
Create your own "girdle of fire." Act as if your fat is melting away.

In addition to just feeling health, I like the awareness and heightened consciousness that paying attention to what I eat brings me. George and I eat dinner [Leonard's wife Annie Styron] with candles and music. We have a connecting ritual before we begin. I cherish the pure magnificence of fruits and vegetables when they're in season--the color, the flavor, the texture--knowing that when I eat, I'm being nurtured and helped to grow. I've found that good very-low-fat food, prepared simply is truly something to enjoy and be grateful for.

"over the last seven days, how conscious have you been of what you have eaten on a scale of zero to 10, with 0 being totally unconscious and 10 being toally conscious?

p142
Metanormal capacities emerge from normal abilities that have been developed through life-encompassing practice. M.M.


weight loss as a side effect.
Karen 138lbs 5'5", Dec 1992, Nov 28, 1993: 108lbs

p143
I used to do a kind of mindless eating, nervous eating, snacking on something when I wasn't particularly hungry. My whole relationship to food is something I think is permanently changed due to this class."

At first, Karen found giving up fat hard but soon began enjoying her new way of eating. "A perfect example is, this morning I went to breakfast with a friend and she had eggs Benedict, and looking at that hollandaise sauce on her plate was almost too much for me. It looked terrible. I know how hollandaise sause tastes. It's just too rich. I can't eat things like that any more. I have no desire to eat things like that. You change what appeals to you--what sounds good, what looks good."

Karen followed the program faithfully, doing the Kata five times a week, rarel missing her aerobic exercise. Losing thirty pounds, she insisted, was "really effortless."


Finally, how we eat, just as is the case with how we exercise, stands as a fundamental expression of our embodiment and is thus important to our practice, not merely for the benefits it might bring but for its own sake. To eat with full awareness turns us toward a diet that is both good and good for us.

[btw, I'm no longer eating any additional protein powders! no met-rx, no designer protein, recently, not even brewer's yeast. I have one, symbolic, uneaten met-rx packet at work which has been untouched for almost two weeks now. Though I did have some organic 1% milk this week (finished weds)]

p145
All the books, computers, and electronic networks in the world contain only a miniscule fraction of the information it takes to create one human body.


p146
Balanced means simply that the weight and energy of the body is distributed evenly, right and left, forward and back, all the way from the head to the toes.
Centered means that body awareness is focused primarily in the center of the abdomen rather than, say, the head or shoulders, and also that movement is initiated from that center.

p162 -
leonard's exercises- the surprise from behind- to practice dealing with unexpected ____

the simple aikido push--

now, a ball.

the crystilline state.
Continuing to palpate the ball, think of your most presing personal problem. Put this problem in the ball. Focus your eyes on the problem. Let it take its own shape and texture and color. What does the problem look like now? Does it move? What part of the ball does it occupy?

Ask yourself whether you're willing to give up that problem for the next 20 or 30 minutes. Are you willing to let go of the problem completely for at least this long? Assure youself that you can get it back when the exercise is finished.

if so, press the ball with the problem in it down into the ground. Let it sink into the earth. The earth will serve as a bank; you can always recover the problem later.
2210
.