Maxick: Using The Mind As An Apparatus
Table of Contents
Story/Analogy
Life Supplementation
Maxalding Theorist
In Life/Training
Wrap Up
Story/Analogy
Some weeks, months, or for a year it can feel like you’re going through life on legendary difficulty.
Your back is against the corner and the walls are closing in. You’re running out of options and the doors in your vicinity you try to open but nothing will budge. After awhile you begin to think about whether all these doors are fake.
Meanwhile, people in that same room with you are telling you that the walls are not closing in and that doors are in fact real and you begin to ask yourself if you’re losing it. What will you do in this situation?
You either let yourself get crushed by the incoming walls or you use your mind, persist, and think outside the box. Find a place in the ceiling you can crawl through or bust through the walls like the Kool-Aid Man or Armored Titan.
Life Supplementation
Through years of training in Calisthenics and Overcoming Isometrics, I have learned to think outside the box a little bit. However, if I could be honest my mental fortitude in the midst of difficulty has not always been there and life in our modern world with all the, “Freedoms” we enjoy is not letting up. Focus/Belief in a higher power will sustain you. One’s hobbies and what they do outside of this focus can act as a supplement. Supplements are not meant to be the be-all end-all but if used properly can aid in one’s sustainability or one’s improvement. Not all supplements are created equal though. Some are expensive, some have side effects, and some get a great deal of press but end up not doing much.
One’s training modality or paradigm is a supplement in a sense. The way in which you choose to train can either add value to your life or just act as a black hole sucking in time and energy.
The supplement I’m beginning to believe to be beneficial in these times is using the “Mind As An Apparatus.”
Maxalding Theorist
“I found out later by experiment that mechanical exercise will only produce good results if interest is directed to the muscles being used. If the mind is directed only to the work being performed, a certain point of muscular resistance is reached; but there it stops. To secure full benefit from the exercise, it is essential that the mind be concentrated on the muscles and not on the work performed.” (p6 Muscle Control, by Maxick)
Physical training should have a positive impact on our lives. Sure, muscle and a new PR in the squat rack or pulling off a sick new calisthenics move are great. But does it help us to be a better neighbor, brother, son, etc?
The “Mind As An Apparatus.” is a concept from Maxick about how weights and more difficult calisthenics aren’t as necessary as being able to generate the tension in one’s muscles through our own means. What I believe is beneficial about this is that it demands a great deal of concentration and that you have to be active in the workout.
I’m not saying that other forms of training are passive. All forms of physical training are active, some more than others.
“Even the mechanical muscular contractions produced by apparatus[weights] resistance can be made more effective by conscious effort to intensify the power, and attain peak contraction by concentration.” (p 1 Health and Strength Annual)
To give a brief history lesson this approach to training was paired with regular calisthenics moves for part of the “Maxalding” program.
Technique, while training is important but trying to generate more tension in the working muscles during a movement brings this to a whole new level of difficulty. You may not even need as many reps as with conventional approaches.
“I very soon learned that the important factor was the inspiration of determination in performing an exercise and not merely the number of repetitions” (p 8, You Are As Strong As You Want To be)
In Life/Training
This, “inspiration of determination” will I believe transfer over to other areas of life. This ability to generate tension or force, and remain focused through whatever pain you are feeling will be key to the times that are coming ahead. There are many fitness YouTubers as well as online fitness blogs that have planted a seed in my brain. Our training, if used correctly can serve us in improving our mental toughness. The mode through which this mental toughness was obtained with most of these folks was through workouts lasting longer than the usual one hour session.
If you have the time then I will not withhold you from exploring this option. But for those of us who are a little shorter on time, there may be a different route. Life is not just about pushing through the pain but keeping our mind focused on the objective or our purpose. You have a set of responsibilities and you continue to do them. Running ultra marathons in the desert will definitely serve the first purpose and a little bit of the latter. But when you are engaged in a workout, holding a position while generating the right amount of force and tension, you have a way to practice both ends.
“If the mind is directed only to the work being performed, a certain point of muscular resistance is reached; but there it stops. To secure full benefit from the exercise, it is essential that the mind be concentrated on the muscles, and not on the work performed.” - Maxick
Overcoming Isometrics
Although I don’t use much of Maxick's training I believe his theories on exercise to be sound. This, I try to incorporate into my workouts when performing overcoming isometrics. To receive benefit my mind is focused on my muscles as well as generating the right amount of tension. Not letting up till my six or eight seconds are over despite the exhaustion and pain.
Don’t push through the pain but stay focused through the pain.
Calisthenics
This can be applied to bodyweight exercises which some of the maxalding courses recommended. Using the mind as an apparatus you can turn a regular push-up into a slow and difficult movement requiring a high degree of focus by ensuring that the proper muscles(chest, triceps, shoulder) are at a higher level of activation all throughout the range of motion. The difficulty of any bodyweight movement can be increased without manipulation of leverage like in progressive calisthenics.
Weights
This same method can be done with weights and I believe can be easier in terms of closed-chain exercises where the arms and limbs move through space and not the body.
Wrap Up
“It must therefore be made clear to everyone that strength in its essence is a condition of consciousness and that all exercise are mere means” (p 10, You Are As Strong As You Want To Be)
This strength and consciousness you’ll carry with you as we move into this new world of ours.
Thank you for making it to the end and let me know your thoughts below.
Until next time…