Survival of the Fitness

Every so often, one sees a body that is so unusually out of shape, that the usual talk about exercise and its value, does not even begin to address the situation. The body seems to have become entirely disconnected from the mind, itself, and everything else. It’s just a mass that one marvels at how it can move around -- in its flaccid condition. And one wonders, doesn’t this person realize that something is grossly wrong -- and how could a seemingly rational and otherwise intelligent person look that way? What goes through the minds of everybody else around them? The reaction and responses to people in such condition are obviously prejudiced and distorted. The impact is too great to ignore. Their condition has become a huge handicap for them -- and nobody in their lives dares breach that subject with them again. They have reached the point of no return.

Some people claim it is the natural process of age -- as their excuse. But not every person of advanced years is in that condition. And there are young people who are afflicted in that way also. The body language is that there is no possibility for change, and thus, for improvement, because improvement requires change; to stay the same is already catastrophic, and the fear and inevitable, is that the condition deteriorates even further. One doesn’t even want to project into that further possibility. One wonders however, what is the culture and environment that supports such deterioration and dysfunction?

If one learns nothing more about exercise, it should be that the essential organ of the will to change, is the muscle. It is that tissue and its interconnectedness, by which one can do anything, effect changes, produce movement -- willfully. One doesn’t have to run a marathon to convince that one is capable of doing so -- if the body seems capable of doing so from its evidence of command in essential body language and communication.

What would be a shocking revelation to many, is the realization that a healthy body is integral to the healthy, fully-functioning mind -- that the powerful mind must be contained in a powerful body, and vice versa. It is extremely rare to find a highly developed body without a highly developed mind -- while a highly developed mind without a supporting competent appearance, undermines the confidence in that person’s overall abilities. Anything less, conveys an imbalanced weakness and vulnerability. When one is the “total package,” a completely and fully developed human being, opponents do not know where to strike for a vulnerability and quick advantage they can further exploit.

But such a poorly out of shape person would be at everybody’s mercy, and the obvious target for all the other players -- as the weakest link in every forum and human activity. They don’t have to be physically picked on; the psychological effect is the same. They don’t have the ability to react, to respond, to be an active, moving target for such taunts, verbal or otherwise. They are the proverbial human punching bags. They can only stand there and take it; they are at the mercy of everybody else. It does not bode well for one’s prosperity and success in life.

Fitness is the power to change -- all one’s life. That is the survival of the fitness. It’s more important, the older one gets -- not less important. It just doesn’t have to be the onerous task, that many have been conditioned to think it has to be.