So, you're probably wondering how I got interested in promoting Fitness and Health in the first place. And why I went on to invent the HeartFlex.
My paternal grandfather lived a very healthy and fulfilled life to the age of 98 (he was still golfing). He didn't smoke or drink yet he did walk for an hour every day. My father was 43 when I was born and on his birthday, this December 4th, 2007, he would have been 100 years old.
I went to high school on Randolph Air Force Base and our school, which is located near San Antonio, Texas was registered as a AA school. This meant that the school was really small. Most of the attendees moved every couple of years (Air Force dependents). When you are a kid and you get continually uprooted you either get tough or you don't thrive. Anyway, the football team at Randolph was always winning. We went to state each year that I attended; 1964-1969 (back then our school included the 7th - 12th grades).
My father was retired from the Air Force in 1965 and I was allowed to continue to go to the school on base as long as he paid tuition. In high school I was vertically challenged (my mother's father topped out at 4' 11"). My senior year I opted to be the manager of our football team, after 5 years of band. This brief stint really opened my eyes to some of the differences between fitness vs. health.
What I noticed was our football coach encouraging (OK forcing) my friends to lift progressively heavier weights. Our school had the first Universal Gym that I had ever seen. Coach had all of the athletes lifting progressively heavier weights to put on muscle bulk. As the football coach I can understaned his short term goals of winning. I wish he had considered (he probably didn't know) the long term effects of what his regimen of progressively intense exercise would do to my friends and classmates.
The Randolph R0-Hawks came in second in Texas AA football my senior year, 1969. Well, that was all well and good - as far as it went. I learned several valuable lessons.
1) Large muscles are built by ripping the muscle tissue, waiting a day for the white blood cells to fill the muscle tissue, and then working and ripping the muscle again. As a consequence there was some additional strength yet compared to the size of the muscle created (the white blood cells also formed scar tissue which was embedded in the muscle) the strength compared to size just wasn't there. Also, these larger muscles limited flexibility. Some of my friends couldn't even touch the backs of their head.
2) My other friends, gymnasts and martial artists, were developing functional muscles. The muscles that they made were built by performing multiple repetitions over time. These muscles were very dense, strong, powerful, and fast. We have all seen swimmers, long distance runners, gymnasts, and the like that are "buff" and "toned" yet don't have the "Arnold" look. Marvel comics were a big hit around this time and a lot of Jack Kirby's heroes look like some of the ultra bodybuiders of today - cartoonish.
I think of Olympic athletes around this time and I recognize that they were not as "muscled" yet had the abiltiy to perform and excel in the sport(s) of their choice.
3) So, if I had to put it in a "nutshell."
- Size does not equal strength.
- Size does not equal speed.
- Size does not translate directly to either Fitness or Health.
4) Out of these realizations came the genesis of HeartFlex. Because I used a boxer's "speed bag" as I was growing up I came to realize that light resistance combined with multiple repetitions is what builds muscles that work. Muscles that, pound-for-pound, produce the most explosive power and speed.
If you want big muscles to impress others then working to muscle exhaustion is your way to achieve that goal. Today there is evidence that working only a single repetition and loading that repetition until muscle failure (where the muscle fibers rip and the muscle is subsequently gourged with white blood cells) will build the largest muscles possible.
If you want muscles that are functional and fast and will last a lifetime then I recommend doing what the premier athletes do. Combine light resistance with multiple repetitions over time. Lance Armstrong didn't work out with a few short, intense, bursts. He worked out over extended periods of time and build his incredibly strong and resilient body.
These observations are what led me to invent the HeartFlex upper body strengthener. It was not designed to build huge muscles but muscles that work. HeartFlex produces an easy "consistent resistance" over a range of motion; and when combined with multiple repetitions builds dense, functional muscle tissue.
Our French distributor, Jean Makpevode, is a third degree black belt in Tae-Kwon-Do. He embraced the HeartFlex after discovering that it builds muscle strength, flexibility, and hand speed. If you'd like to visit his website, www.heartflex.fr.