It All Adds Up

 People often wonder if what they do for exercise must be done on a certain time schedule -- rather than fitting into their lives -- which is obviously the sensible answer.  A set of squats is not undone because one doesn't do a complete hour or two of similar exercises reserved exclusively for such activities.  It is just as good to do an exercise whenever the mood strikes one -- or as needed.  

That is by far the natural way to keep fit and ready to take on any task as required -- which is more likely to be how a normal, healthy life is lived and sustained.  When one has too many rules and protocols to consider before embarking on any task or exigency, then of course, the likelihood that one will be ready and fit for any real life applications are likely to remain remote and removed from one's daily activities -- until eventually, one doesn't even have time and energy to think about it anymore.  So one ends up doing nothing -- which is the worst possible outcome -- even if one lives to be the oldest person ever.

Undoubtedly there may be individuals genetically blessed to outlive all the others -- but the chances of living a fuller, more robust life is indicated by at least some modicum of activity and involvement beyond simply staring at a screen of virtual reality.  Even brief, intermittent respites from that exclusive engagement adds up -- and indicates that everything is still functioning as needed.  That is quite different from one who merely assents their need for more activity -- but exhibits no inclination to do anything about it.

As one grows older with inactivity, the chances that they do nothing at all increases -- and they even lose the muscle memory that indicates they are still capable of such movements any more.  They never know unless they try it -- and for many, even the thought of it, is out of the question.  No matter how genetically gifted one is, one will not know that for a fact until one actualizes that potential and possibility -- and not simply believe they could if they really wanted to.  That is merely wishful-thinking -- and finding out the actual truth of the matter, is far more valuable and productive -- and is the actuality of the matter.  

A lot of people don't realize when they've lost all their movement -- until the moment they actually try to express it -- and it just isn't there.  But one does not need to obsessively do it at every possible moment either.  Admittedly, there are a rare few who were born and bred to do nothing but -- which is a blessing as well as a curse.  For such people, every moment is an opportunity to do their thing -- which could be dance, martial arts, yoga, writing, art, politics, etc.  But even with such people, a well-balanced life and existence is the bigger picture -- and not just any one thing even manifested exclusively to its highest level.  Humans are not built that way -- to eat or die.  Thus, they don't need to be eating all the time -- as many animals have to do -- and get plenty of exercise that way.

 Instead, humans have figured out a way to obt,in nutrient-dense foods that enable them to spend most of their time not eating -- and be immensely better off for it.  So what activities supplant that need?  That surfeit of free time allows them to build civilizations that outlast any individual's lifespan -- as the legacy of their own.  In doing so, they provide a foundation for what is possible for further development -- and in that way, life does not just repeat, but evolves.  That is the ascent of man -- to go farther, figuratively and literally.

In that manner, nothing is lost but forms the foundation for future actions and developments.  As with civilizations, nothing is lost in individual lives also -- which becomes their karma.  Those are the seeds of whatever comes after.  Many have convinced themselves as well as others, that if they or others do not do the whole and complete program, it is all canceled and wasted -- and therefore they never get around to doing anything at all, but despair in the futility of doing anything anymore.

There is no downside to moving only as needed, or inspired to -- waiting only for conditions to be optimal in order to do so.  Almost always, those preconditions are purely arbitrary, and not in line with real time life.  Humans have not evolved their highest form in order to operate a treadmill unfailingly for a certain amount of minutes -- but rather, to do a myriad of different things as the requirements and opportunities arise.  So the conditioning for that kind of life, should be similar -- and not unvarying machine-like repetition for hours on end -- while being totally oblivious and unaware of everything else going around them.  That latter would obviously be "inappropriate" conditioning.  Even in athletics, one never wants to be that individual "doing their own thing," oblivious to what everybody else in the game is doing.

The most valuable player, is invariably the one who has the greatest awareness of what everybody else is doing -- so that their response is based upon that understanding of the greatest synergy -- and not merely the preoccupation with their actions alone.  Those latter people are interesting for the first 15 minutes before realizing they have no idea what is going on -- in the big picture.  They regard all the others as there only to serve their own needs -- and so are a net drain on the total resources and resourcefulness.  In like manner, that kind of short-sightedness undermines all their own efforts and aspirations -- because they are never putting into the system but only taking out.  No society or individual can operate successfully for long that way -- and so the organism inevitably has to fail because no new nutrients can enter from the greater environment.

That's what sustains life -- and knowing that, optimizes it.  And that is really the whole point of life and healthy living.  You do what you were meant (designed) to do.  If you don't, then you will be dysfunctional, diseased, and prematurely dead.  However, that doesn't mean that one has to be pushing themselves beyond their limits until they injure themselves.  Far better to exercise and move in ways that merely increase their range of expression and articulation -- throughout their lives.  And that is the problem now -- that people lose their full functionality way before their time -- mostly through atrophy, and secondly, through abuse, or self-injury.  Undoubtedly, they think they are doing all the right things -- but in the wrong way.  That doesn't have to be the case: they could be doing all the right things -- in the right way, and this latter, is what they are practicing on.

So what they are doing is a practice -- to get up, lift themselves off the floor, optimize the circulation to the most important parts of their body -- and keep those critical faculties in lifelong top shape.  Unfortunately, that is where most people fail as they age -- because they prioritize other areas more highly.  The most conspicuous example is the atrophying of the neck muscles which most older people exhibit -- not because those structures are impervious to development, but because they require the actual movement of the head to activate.  It is because the resultant circulation is bad that the neck, face and brain atrophy -- and not merely because of age.  People can develop that muscular atrophy at any age.  A muscle atrophies because the circulation to it is poor -- and the only way to improve it, is to contract that specific muscle involved -- and not just hope that the heart alone will see to that unfailingly.

Movement tells the blood where to go -- by producing a contraction that pushes the blood (fluids) out of those capillaries and tissues, and upon relaxation, the heart has space to push new nutrients into it.  It can't do it as well if there are no muscular contractions to optimize that flow, and so it just becomes a stagnant pool of toxins that build up in the tissues to cause deterioration with no outlet.  That is what inflammation and swelling is -- and why its remedy is usually compression to aid in pushing the fluids back towards the heart.  That can be achieved with compression clothing and devices, massage (back towards the heart), and most effectively and easily, with deliberate and thoughtful muscular contractions designed specifically to achieve those purposes.

That would be far and away the most intelligent way to go about it.  It first has to be understood, and then practiced as much as possible, any time, any where, under any circumstances one can think to do it.  All one is doing is exercising specifically and directly to be healthy -- and functioning at the highest level immediately possible.  The rest takes care of itself -- as it has for millions of years already.  We don't have to reinvent the wheel -- or a better treadmill.

Yoga, Isometrics, Dynamic Tension, Posturing

 Getting big and lifting heavy is what a lot of people think is desirable and necessary to optimize their health -- especially in the gyms where they think they are doing it for other people's benefit and validation.  But far more valuable are the exercises one can do when obvious movement in the conventional ways are not desirable, or even possible.  That of course is when one is restricted from doing so by pain and other injuries -- when it hurts to move anything.  What most never learn or realize is that the far more important aspect of exercise is what goes on inside the muscles (body) and not from the obvious measures of "work," which requires movement to measure.  

However, the beneficial aspect of exercise is that it causes movement of blood and other fluids with the tissues -- and that movement is what causes the optimal functioning which is health, strength, and balance -- or the total package one is aiming to achieve -- and not merely one measure while sacrificing all the others.  Not only would that be pointless but it often results in destructiveness and self-inflicted injuries.

So it is important to learn while doing all one's activities, that proper balance that results in harmony and well-being -- rather than simply cultivating an endless need for more of one thing while undermining and destroying every other thing -- and that wholeness (completeness) is the objective -- and not any one thing to the detriment of all the others.  Thus even exercise, nutrition, "rightness," can be overdone and undone -- as happens when one is merely focused on one thing despite the destruction of all the others.

The wisest people know this -- and that is what makes them wise -- this understanding of the big picture, and not just one cog in the great wheel of life.  Unfortunately, in a world of increasingly narrow and bureaucratic specialization, most are not taught the importance of the big picture upfront, but are merely instructed on the minute and even petty, and so never get to the next level -- and the next -- because they are fixated on what doesn't matter -- thinking it is the only thing that matters.  One hears it especially in sports and athletic competitions -- that winning is the only thing that matters -- and not how one gets there.  Thus, many are ruthless and cheat at getting there, and think that is all that matters -- and then learn later in life when their health and good relations are spent, that they've moved permanently to the back of the line, and now have no idea how to reverse those alarming trends.

Those are the lessons one hopes to learn along the way in getting there -- and not simply burning all the bridges as soon as one has crossed them so no other (competitor) can get there.  That's why sportsmanship is also prized -- and may be the greater distinction among the truly knowing.  How many others has one helped to get there?  That's when the competitor becomes the master (teacher) and transcends that activity.  And that transcendence is what one is working to achieve -- and not merely being one more cog in the great wheel of life, signifying very little of real importance.

Those are the prizes nobody gives to any other -- but the greatest reward each give to themselves -- when they feel truly worthy of that accomplishment.  And that is also what one hopes to achieve from their activity -- this greater sense of doing all the right things, living the right life, and being right with the world.  The psychologists describe it as the "peak experience" -- and if one is not working to achieve that, their activities and exercise will seem pointless, and they will fall out of it at the first possible excuse and opportunity -- rather than cultivate a personal tradition of betterment in everything they do.  

So this one thing transfers to all the other things one does -- and become one's personal compass -- particularly during the worst of times when all the others have become unreliable measures of which way the winds are blowing.  But one should know at least, which way the winds are blowing -- and all the other forces one has to account for, or one will find themselves far off course -- and even without a paddle, and other necessary equipment to get back in the game.

Even many formerly great athletes find themselves there -- especially as time and age become a greater factor in their lives, and what they thought they knew about getting to the top, no longer works -- and increasingly despair that anything does anymore.  That is merely an obvious signal that one has to shift gears -- and emphasize different aspects to get going again.  Then one discovers that there are many ways, and not just the one way they thought would see them through life totally unscathed, and remain perpetually at the top of their game.

Increasingly, that would indicate looking inward rather than outward -- in the world of exercise to gentler forms, rather than thinking it is enough to still be running a marathon at age 100, or deadlifting their bodyweight, as the only way they know how.  Often, those things are no longer possible, but is that the end-all, be-all of meaningful and productive activities -- or is there vastly more beyond, and better?

At this point, exercise as well as any other practice, becomes a transcendental experience -- taking them to a higher level.  But that does not mean that is the unmeasurable and unfathomable.  It is just more subtle, requiring a higher understanding to perceive.  It is the contraction of the muscle that causes a weight to move -- and not the movement of the weight that causes the contraction -- which is obvious to reflect upon, but many do not understand which is the cause and which is the effect -- and think they are merely coincidental.  Thus they arrive at the "victory" party not understanding they have to first play the game -- or do the work.  Correlation is not causation -- and one must understand that, yet this is the most misunderstood aspect of doing anything -- including and especially athletic activities, which one would think is the most obvious and self-evident.

Yoga, isometrics, dynamic tension, and merely posturing, are examples that one is achieving something impressive without requiring movement and the conventional metrics of work -- and so is difficult to distinguish a person doing nothing, from one who is achieving a high level of proficiency -- until one tries it themselves.  "Isometric" means no or little visible movement, and so many will question how that can be exercise -- if they have been conditioned to believe it is the greatest expenditure of calories, effort and pain that produces a virtuous and desirable result.  But on closer examination, does the lifting of the weight account for most of their movement, or is the movement produced by the falling of the weight -- until rebounded off the body or floor -- or the extent of one's ligament and tendon integrity?

In fact, such a performance style has even been elevated to the highest form of "resistance" training -- that is resisting a weight for up to 90% of the time, and so actually very little of the time is spent actually "lifting" a weight or in a contracting position, but most of the time effort is expended preventing the weight from falling to the ground unimpeded.  That manner of performance is exonerated as the "eccentric" muscle contraction -- over the "concentric" which is the weight being lifted by a muscle contraction.  The problem with this is that there is no need to exercise the relaxation phase over the contractile phase -- because that is the muscular state that one will invariably default to -- just as the effort should be expended on the exhalation of the breath (residual air) rather than the inhalation into an already full or even partially full lung -- because of the peculiar and distinctive structure of lung tissue -- which means branching into smaller and smaller vessels to optimize the surface contact -- as also happens in the blood vessels.

That is not well understood by most practitioners -- or they would be a lot more successful at achieving their objectives of becoming stronger, healthier, and obviously looking so.  In fact, this latter trait is often dismissed as merely cosmetic when actually, it implies all the rest.  The most robust and dominant looking individual in that collective, is obviously the most fit in that group -- as can first be observed in their posture, or body language.  It's not the juveniles constantly engaged in fights to prove their place in the pecking order.  Even the casual observer or newcomer, can observe that difference.  Another term for that heightened condition is "muscle tone," which all exercisers do not exhibit equally -- for the obvious reason that despite their activity, indicates little mastery of this voluntary muscle control -- that enables its greatest practitioners to transform themselves instantly from one state of total muscular relaxation to total muscular contraction -- as they desire or is needed.

That would be a true measure of fitness -- adapting fully to the conditions and challenges of the present moment -- and not simply being an inappropriate caricature of one who never changes and adapts to those requirements no matter what -- as one conditioned only to resist change, but never to initiate it even in the smallest ways -- that over time and persistence, change the world.