by Lloyd Shaw
I wanted to write this article to point out how this term is used extensively to protect not the consumer but health professionals egos. In this article I will point out obvious logical issues with calling something "traditional" when in fact no "tradition" exists surrounding most of the things labeled that. I will prove beyond a doubt it is just used as to describe something someone "knows and understands". Anything beyond their own experience or intellectual capacity is automatically labeled as useless, a waste of time or ineffective.
Think about this, how many forms of exercise did our grandparents do that were taught at school or Uni and promoted throughout peoples lives that exercise was important, that we do today. Why don't you ask them and see what they say.
Grand-Dad did you do............
(1) Jogging .................. Why?
(2) Weight Training.......... I lifted your Grandmother up once
(3) Pilates ....................... The Scarlet Buccaneer, my favorite movie
(4) Yoga ........................ Don't like the stuff, tastes like off milk
(5) Aerobics Class............ No good at math's at school
(6) Walking ..................... Everywhere till I brought a car
(7) Swimming.................. When my boat sank
(8) Martial arts .................. Sound kinky
(9) Cycling ....................... My first bike was red, I was only 5........
(10) Tai-Chi ...................... No thanks, I only drink coffee
(11) Kettle Bells.............. Does that go round a cows neck ?
(12) Rowing..................... Did you know your great, great, great, great grand daddy was a Roman slave ?
(13) Boxing..................... Only when drunk
(14) Sprinting.................. Only when being shot at by a German
I think you get the idea.
Now sports people may have done some of the above, but they were in a very small minority and more in the pursuit of winning rather than wellness or longevity. Others had jobs that were physically demanding , and the Armed Forces made you train but only so you did not get killed so fast on the battle field, not to reduce heart attacks or strokes. Maybe in Asia doing some form of exercise every day , for exercises sake, was more the excepted norm but it took years for the West to understand its importance. .
It has taken us almost 100 years to document and predict the health benefits of some of the most basic forms of exercise. Which is great and a good start but to call them " traditional" is kind of a stretch.
Why do I mention this....?
Well as you probably know Vibration training has been attacked by some people as being irrelevant and pointless and is not as good as "traditional exercise" . Not realizing that maybe pulling a plow or digging a hole might be traditional exercise, but they themselves probably do something that in reality is quite new, and at some stage not too long ago was NOT considered normal or traditional. There is a huge difference between "old school" and just plain "ignorant" and these people seem to take for granted the evolution of exercise, its many forms and how hard it was for some of them to be recognized as beneficial.
Eg...
Weight Training ...... Not endorsed by Doctors until 1990s . Until then concerns for joint problems and other risks outweighed any other benefits it "might" have.
Pilates ............ Developed in 1910 by Joseph Pilates , a German self defense instructor for Scotland Yard, while in a concentration camp in the U.K. during WW1 . Not recognized until, 2000 legally as a form of exercise and only 1 country in the world has a national cert. ( U.K.) His work is watered down by marketers to look easy and glamorous.
Indoor Cycling and Rowing .......... 1910 . Laughed at by "purest athletes" who scoffed that people should just do the real thing and some even said that without "fresh air" no benefits could be obtained.
Jogging................... Considered a complete laugh by most of the public and it was not until the 70s that it took off as something people did to "stay fit" Jogging for health sake was just not seen on mass until then, but running must have been around forever right ? Some people thought you should only run if someone was chasing you, it just looked daft. But such things as the first running shoe helped change all of that.
The lesson is the people that scoff at us now are just trying to cover up their own insecurities, lack of education and experiences, and are exactly of the same breed that laughed at all the above forms of exercise, before they ware accepted by people much smarter than them to be beneficial of course. And they also completely fail to see how advancements in technology even made some of these simple forms of exercise possible for people to do.
So remember what they are really saying when they say "traditional" is ........
I HAVE DONE IT
I UNDERSTAND IT
I CAN RELATE IT TO SOMETHING ELSE I ALREADY KNOW OR AM EXPERIENCED AT
For them everything has already been invented , and everything about the human body is already known. Because to say only something "traditional" can work is the same as saying nothing new can. I prefer to say we are only beginning to understand the human body and its potential and tradition has no place in science.
