FLOW

Hungarian Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined the metaphor “flow”. “Flow theory” states  a phenomenological structure of seven dimensions and describes the experience for individuals across occupations, demographic groups, and cultures. Csikszentmihalyi lists them as follows.[1]

Phenomenological dimensions of Flow:

1	Balance of skill and demand
2	Action and awareness merged
3	Concentration on task
4	Sense of potential control
5	Loss of self‑consciousness
6	Altered sense of time
7	Autotelic (self‑rewarding) experience

The metaphor of flowing or “flow” is used by Csikszentmihalyi to designate the moods of life that are the basis of optimal experiences. He as describes these moments as:

These exceptional moments are what I have called flow experiences. The metaphor of flow is one that many people have used to describe the sense of effortless action they feel in moments that stand out as the best in their lives. Athletes refer to it as "being in the zone", religious mystics as being in ecstasy, and artists and musicians as aesthetic rapture. Athletes, mystics, and artists do very different things when they reach flow, yet their descriptions of the experience are remarkably similar.^[2]                     

In modern sports psychology, athletes and coaches have referred to this flowing mood as “being in the zone”. “Being in the zone” is a calm yet energized, challenged yet confident, focused yet instinctive mood. A mood characterized by confidence and only slight resistance.

In regards to religion, Csikszentmihalyi thinks that the “flow” phenomenon equivalent to ecstasy. I disagree and would not equate religious ecstasy always with “flow”. Ecstasy is itself an elated mood but different then flow. Therefore to maintain the religious connections, “flow” may be closer to the Zen Buddhist phenomena of muga or “no-mind.” The state of muga, occurs when the split between the acting self and the self-observing self disappears, and the act becomes effortless, automatic, and entranced.

In the arts, this “flow” phenomenon is frequently called aesthetic rapture. It was this phenomenon of aesthetic rapture that was the basis for the interest and the development of the metaphor of “flow” by Csikszentmihalyi. This is because Csikszentmihalyi doctoral thesis focused on how visual artists create art. To do this, he studied photos taken every three minutes as artists created a painting. After looking at many of the photos he writes:

Struck by how deeply they were involved in work, forgetting everything else. That state seemed so intriguing that I started also looking for it in chess players, in rock climbers, in dancers and in musicians. I expected to     find substantial differences in all their activities, but people reported very            similar accounts of how they felt. Then, I started looking at professions like surgery and found the same elements there in a challenge which provides clear, high goals and immediate feedback... They forget themselves, the time, and their problems.[3]

As it is shown, flowing involves a special experience of the self, reality, time and is filled with emotions of satisfaction and great enjoyment.

---

[1] Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow (Harper Collins, New York, 1997) p.29

^[2] Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow (Harper Collins, New York, 1997) p.29

[3] Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow (Harper Perennial, New York,, 1991) p.4

Ninja Turtles, Censorship and Nunchaku

the latest incarnation of the 'mutant turtle ninja teenagers'

So the latest version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja/Hero Turtles is now in box offices and they have a new CG gritty look (Warning: I have not seen the new film, nor plan on going to the theatre, and this in not a review) and like all new superhero/comic movie adaptations there are tons of grey landscapes done on blue screens. Anyway I am no movie production critic (maybe a movie narrative critic) and so my main concern today is to discuss a matter related to these dudes-censorship. We need to back up a bit though-like to Plato's Republic.

The Republic is the 'ideal city' in the philosophy of Plato and perhaps his most well know work and contains the famous 'cave analogy' among others. Part of the perfect city involves a (some would argue) totalitarian regime and deliberate censorship of certain arts. The most famous was the banning of flutes, and Aristotle in his work of Politics notes a sign of cultural decline when 'legislators' allowed the flute back into the public education. Flutes caused people to get excited and so better ban them! :) Flutes were only good for war and the Olympics!

Fast forward to the 1980's in the North America and the UK where the is a new conservative political stranglehold over the arts again. BUT this time it effected me. You see when I was very young I was into superheros and ninja's.  The 'ninja film' (well the US incarnation of ninja films) was in full effect.  There had already been ninja art "booms" in Japan in the 1930, and 50's and was a major source of children's books and entertainment- and spread to North American originally through James Bond novels and the film You Only Live Twice) . 

(side note: The documentary from 2006 THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED covers lots in interesting ideas around how and why films get certain rating and how any explicit lesbians love scenes would be considered x-rated while some PG-13 movies had murders and violence in spades, but that is a separate article. BUT IT IS AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF THE CULTURAL ENGINEERING PUZZLE. Anyway back to ninja movies.)

In 1988 my family moved from Canada to the UK where my "mum" was from. The original Laird and whatever his name was  "teenage mutant ninja turtles" were at the time still part of 'geek comic culture' and had not yet been completely pillaged and were pretty gritty and a very cool idea at the time. 

this original sketch sold at auction for like a bunch of money recently 

This was lightyears before MARVEL sold off all the right to its world and Mutants were all over the box office and Prof X became a household name.

Captain Jean Luc Xavier 

The original 'medium' for the Turtles was graphic novels and they were awesome to say the least.

Anywack lets get back to "me" ;) and the point of my story. While Nancy Reagan was teaching everyone that all drugs were equal and they were all hand made by the devil- the UK took the craziness a step further and decided that in order to make England safe (in a land where you can easily get crushed and killed at a 'football' match and where the food needs to be burned to carcinogenic levels to be considered cooked) they decided to ban a word- guess what word "NINJA". not kidding and I wish I was because I had to live in this crazy irrational culture for a few years. The ban was part of the "video nasty's" campaign that decided to ban movies like the EXORCIST as 'too bad for society'. So not only did they already have all guns banned in the UK, all martial arts weapons  needed to be banned as well and then one person really earning their censorship pay check decided "you know what lets extend the ban into the fantasy world- that should really teach those pesky kids NOT to imagine anything and follow the rules blindly right". SO here are some of the things that came out of that brilliant idea.
1. TEENAGE MUTANT HERO TURTLES; yes they actually changed the name from ninja to hero (not synonyms for the record). and here is proof from a video game cover from Konami as released in the UK.

2. It gets better now, because the Japanese Nunchaku or "NUM-CHUKS" as they are normally called are so difficult to make just like this video demonstrates, like a kid could not just make them in 5 minutes (holy shit is my sarcasm dripping out of the screen yet)

HOW TO MAKE "NUMCHUKS" they decided that it would be best to 'remove' them from reality completely!!!!! Well at least as far as they could not even be featured in a fantasy movie, like they were more dangerous then a time machine or ray gun. So the 'num-chuks' were removed and Michelangelo was given a grapple hook???? This scene "proves" he used numchuks in the original :) 

Anyway it gets even better because in TMNT 2 the secret of the Ooze a scene was deleted when Mike is swinging pepperoni in a 'numchucky way' -I know people were getting paid to make these decisions and probably even patted themselves on the back for 'improving society" FFS!

COMBAT COLDCUTS- do you think the carcinogenic preservatives or the 'numchukness' was worse??

AND the icing on the cake.

Do you know why nunchaku became so popular??? One name: BRUCE LEE!

Bruce Lee was no traditionalist and that is why he is using a Japanese weapon "the nunchaku" and they looked awesome on camera. It was also 'not' a Japanese ninja weapon, there are very few distinct 'ninja weapons' in fact and is a modified farming tool much like the traditional Okinawa Sai and Kama. Legendary Dan Inosanto was said to introduce them to Bruce. 

BUT LOOK AT THIS from the IMDB (movie database) on alternative versions of 'THE GAME OF DEATH".

"All footage of nunchaku was removed from the UK cinema version (which also meant substantially re-editing the closing credits), and video versions received a further 2 secs of cuts to remove a closeup shot of a back-break. The cuts were fully restored for the 2001 Hong Kong Legends release though the 2005 Universal DVD featured the heavily cut video version."

I remember vaguely Bruce using a stupid looking baton-like stick and I think that was what they 'altered' the nunchaku with as seen here. 

Anyway,  I am done writing for now, there are tons of directions this can go and I will leave it at that! 

Cytomel, Ray Peat and Fitness

hey reader read this: I am not a medical doctor so don;t pay attention to anything I say about this stuff, go and ask your doctor if you have real health concerns, this is just for fun :) 

"got any fat friends?" was the question a "gym guy" once asked me years ago as he produced a bottle of these out of a gym bag. He was asking because he was looking to sell some "thyroid" pills - since it could supposedly help drop weight fast. At the time all I "knew" was that if you ever took Thyroid, it may get you shredded but you would be hooked on it for life (not true but  that was the thinking at the time). This was back in the day when most underground physique drugs were either domestic or international "real" pharmaceuticals unlike the majority of drugs today which come from China in powders and any fraternity can buy a capsule making machine or mix some vegetable oil with it or alcohol and set up an 'underground lab' and sell stuff on the internet with  a home label making machine. Safe sounding isn't it? 

So now when you buy internet T3 or T4 it comes in a dropper bottle, made who knows where by who knows who, and says "not for human consumption." 

I mean unless you have a prescription for it but even if you did here in Canada the best that you will get is T4 (thyroxine) the boring stuff, since the HOT T3 stuff (triiodothyronine) is not actually even available in Canada by prescription?? Does that make ANY sense???? The US has tons of it for everyone though :) 

But the internet changed all kinds of stuff, including how people buy and sell drugs. :) Silk Road anyone? :) 

BUT I DIGRESS: back to how thyroid relates to fitness.

For the average person, they have heard that Billy is overweight because of a "gland problem" and that gland they mean is the thyroid gland my friends. 

For the average gym rat, thyroid is something not considered that much, and people still like to do cardio for fat loss and weights for muscles. The one thing they know is that thyroid is linked to that magical thing 'the metabolism' which is given to each person by a Greek god before birth to determine how happy they will be with their waistline. So that is why Sally is always so skinny- she was born with a "good" metabolism. 

In competitive bodybuilding thyroid (mainly T3) is used for fat loss during contest prep but it is very possible for it to work too well and eat away a bunch of muscle and LBM at the same time and so many guys only stack it will other drugs. However some forums will say that all ones needs is T3 to get shredded. 

But it is used because one thing bodybuilders know/knew a long time before the mainstream public was that our body runs on a few powerful hormones and by increasing and decreasing them with pills, injections and creams, one can radically alter body composition. Think testosterone, think insulin, think IGF1, and thyroid falls right in line here. 

if wondering what "shredded means" see picture above

The Thyroid gland (some people call it the throat chakra which relates to personal expression from Hinda philosophy ) is a "butterfly" shaped gland in the throat. Some of the disorders people have are hyper (too fast) and hypo(too slow) thyroid. When a thyroid is slow, the metabolism is slow and weight loss is much harder and gain much easier due to a slowing of caloric metabolism. 

So when people want to speed up the metabolism, some turn to thyroid supplements and drugs. Many OTC supplements in fact contain real thyroid, like many supplements contain pharmaceuticals off label (one famous pre workout drink had prescription blood thinners in it according to a Health Canada report) but some people simply get a thyroid test and get a script. 

Anyway IF thyroid health can have positive effects on body composition for people who struggle to stay lean- what can one do to keep it healthy? 

Well my new favourite 'food dude' is Ray Peat since he is cynical and smart enough to make me think about stuff again! 

my new favourite 'food dude'-like to meet him someday RAY PEAT! 

He is big on promoting thyroid health and I have even read people criticize him because he recommends T3 ALOT. But I am keeping an open mind to his brilliant ideas. 

And so without just repeating everything he said I am linking a great article for other people looking to learn more. 

http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/thyroid.shtml

ps: Peat diet spoiler: lots of OJ and Homo Milk, raw carrot, lamb or beef once a day, some cheese, salt and vitamin E + some T3 for good measure! :) oh yeah and relax and buy a red light bulb! 

Live like a wrestler: the care of the self

"Live like a wrestler" -Socrates

This guy actually had a website full of social philosophy! Who knew? RIP

"Live like a wrestler, what did Andrew just say?? I thought he advocated a health based lifestyle maximizing both the body and the mind???  So now he wants me to live hard and die young like the Ultimate Warrior??? Has Andrew finally lost it like Nietzsche?

On a serious note, being able to define "govern-mentality" is what divides the real Fitness Philosopher from all the copy cats! Seriously I went to school for an extra 15 years to know this stuff! 

The 1960, 70’s and 80's saw a massive wave of personal development psychologies and movements. My father was an educational psychologist and so I grew up with all these psychology books.

"Cocaine fuelled my books! Good luck matching my writing with coffee, suckers!" -Freud (total ectomorph) 

In the late 1970’s at Berkeley, Michel Foucault gave a series of lectures focused on the modern ‘culture of the self’. The ‘care of the self’ idea is one of actualizing the human potential. Foucault’s main thesis of these discussions was the recognition that the ‘care of the self’ was not a modern invention as conventionally understood. Most people (but not philosophers of course) attributed the modern quest for self-development and self actualization to be based in rather new "sciences" like the psychological: found in Maslow or Freud. And the pop culture versions like Dale Carnegie.

Michel Foucault argued that the “care of the self” could be traced back to Greek philosophy, to Socrates and specifically to the Platonic dialogue, Alcibiades. 

The care of the self: what is it? 

The idea that a human being needs to continually work on creating the best possible self relates to how a young man in Athens needed proper formation for a life in politics. In the dialogue, Alcibiades thinks that he is ready for a life of politics but Socrates warns him that he is not yet ready. Alcibiades needs a wise master, such as Socrates, in order to learn how to properly think and act. The proper instruction on the care of the self is an essential pre-requisite to political life, since good leaders are born of παιδεία and habit and not by nature alone. 

Socrates advises Alcibiades to care for himself, in the same way that a wrestler must maintain conditioning even after combat has subsided. 

The Neo-Platonists considered Alcibiades to be the first dialogue one would read to prepare one for philosophy. This dialogue was said to open the reader to the idea of the care of the self though Socrates insistence that Alcibiades is still in need of cultivation. 

The German term, ‘Bildung’ derives from the Greek paideia and posits a ‘pure self’ buried beneath the bad habits and irrational beliefs of the average human being. This pure self is for the Neo-Platonists the ‘image of god’ within each human being and derives from the Pythagoreans.

---

A fitness lifestyle, like how I teach people, is ultimately about the care of the self. One can see it in deep metaphysical ways, or not so much, just focussing on getting those 'abs' or 'getting stronger. 

Live like a wrestler! 

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

 I am now starting to take online clients as I get close to finishing my PhD! Please email freedomfitness7@gmail.com if you want to work with the original Fitness Philosopher, Andrew J Cutler. 

My approach is a lifestyle that balances workouts with proper rest, and tasty diet and geared willing to put in some effort! I have been training people for over 15 years and so my 'practical experience' can make this fun as well! If you are interested in learning or being tutored in Philosophy: ethics, history, politics, philosophical anthropology or metaphysics, well we can do that too! :)