A Paradigm that Explains it All

  Exercise in the traditional sense (gravity) and sweating are not the indicators of health most think they are. The proof of that is that people continue to live in zero-gravity space because the human body is a closed hydraulic system — which accounts for the health and functioning and not the resistance to the environment. That’s why SCUBA divers can also maintain their health and functioning under water as well — and you don’t see sharks and whales floundering around like jellyfish because of their environmental conditions. Instead, they each try to optimize their survivability as best they can — which is what makes them healthy and fit for that environment.

The outer space conundrum is helpful in discussing the actual requirements of life and how to enhance its functioning and development — apart from how we are used to thinking about these things. The value of exercise and functioning, is that we can access the life-sustaining environment, so that our own organism can survive and flourish. To do so is not about lifting weights, sweating, getting the heart rate as high as possible, moving our bodies in space, but the movement that occurs within the body — or what we call respiration and circulation — which is the ABCs of life-restoring protocols.

A would be checking the Airway to see that there is no obstruction or blockage preventing one’s access to the environment (air). Then when that is assured, the primary importance is getting the air to come into the body and then be expelled — so there is the effective exchange of the life-giving nutrients, and the removal of the accumulated toxins in the body. But it is not enough just to get it in and out of the lungs; it has to get into the blood for further circulation throughout the important parts of the body — and particularly to the brain and neuromuscular tissues.

That movement is caused by pressure differences within the cardiovascular system as well as the branching structure of the lungs. The characteristic of that design, is that one large vessel, branches and continues branching to the finest possibilities until a single air molecule or blood cell can pass — which is optimal for the exchange of gases. At that point, the autonomic provisions for that movement diminish, and the voluntary exercise of that movement back towards the heart and lungs take on primary importance — and that is the importance and significance of those voluntary movements we call exercise.

Those who produce more of those voluntary movements, achieve much greater functioning and development because that is what optimizing the circulation supports — while those not in the habit of making those voluntary skeletal muscular movements and contractions (compression), are not likely to have the optimal circulation to function and grow further. That is why muscles and other organs grow healthily — they are given every resource to do so — by optimizing the circulation of the body — which is automatically done by the heart and lungs, but is modified and enhanced greatly by the contractions and relaxations of the skeletal muscles — particularly beginning at its furthest point from the heart — which is where the circulation is poorest — resulting in the characteristic deterioration beginning at the neck, hands and feet — noted in older people.

This deterioration is particularly pronounced in those who no longer move their heads, hands and feet — even if they may spend hours each day making their hearts work tirelessly harder and even enlarge (weaken) — which may serve the heart well enough, but at the expense of the lack of circulation to these very obvious sites of deterioration that even those with the most plastic surgeries cannot hide, but should be obvious to any observant person, that is where the deterioration and weakness is most obvious. So it is not surprising if they have no grip strength or foot strength not to topple over, and obvious deterioration of the neck area, is already a sign of what is happening in the brain as well — because of that similar lack of optimal circulation.

That circulation, is what makes the body healthy and well-functioning — but is grossly misunderstood by all the experts including the cardiologists and brain surgeons. Those organs are not operating in the manner they were designed to self-maintain themselves in optimal conditions — which is the head turning, the hands gripping, and the feet levering against the ground to provide locomotion. But one doesn’t need the ground to provide that contraction and relaxation that occurs when the joint is moved through its full-range of movement. That is to note that contraction is not a function of resistance (gravity), but must occur because of the articulation of the fullest range of movement at that joint — because that is how it is designed to work.

So when it works in the fullest expression of that possibility, all the other good stuff also must happen — but in the absence of that observation and understanding, no amount of effort will produce those same desirable results. The resistance is not against gravity but the body’s own resistance to move those fluids throughout the body effectively. And if one is intelligent, one would devote the entirety of their efforts in ensuring the health and functioning of the most important organs at the head, hands and feet — over the development of the biceps and the six-pack — which is the emphasis that makes so many older bodybuilders look comical — because particularly, it is accompanied by no development at the neck, forearms and calf muscles indicative of a well-developed and proportioned physique.

And those who exercise their hearts to the exclusion of all the other musculature, have that characteristic look of the atrophied body dying to make it to the finish line — rather than a robust look. So now, not surprisingly, many who adhere to the belief that one can’t work their heart hard enough, seem to have a shocking number of their numbers dying “young, fit and healthy,” for mysterious reasons. It’s the wrong paradigm because the preferred understanding, is the realization that one can devote and use every muscle of their body to do the one thing that maintains and enhances the well-being of any individual — and that circulation is not just the exclusive function of the heart, but of every muscle in the body to ensure that exchange in its own localized area.

A person understanding that intelligence built in to every life form, will obviously get much more out of life — than those caught up in a struggle against everything they know to be true in life, and work against it tirelessly all their lives.

Why Are So Many Fit People Dying?

  The obvious culprit is “cardio exercise.” The heart doesn’t need to work any harder. It always is the hardest working and most reliable muscle of the human body. It is the other skeletal muscles that frequently languish — and they play the most significant role in optimizing health, functioning, and continued well-being. There is even the legend of “John Henry,” who was a hard-working man who thought he could outwork a steam engine — and of course, his heart exploded with that effort.

Similarly, a lot of the “World’s Strongest Man” competitors suffer from and even died of the great exertions required by their event. Additionally, it is a well-recognized fact that many of the top competitors in the Mr. Olympia and other bodybuilding contests experience heart as well as all other kinds of vital organ failures — thinking that it is enough just to push their bodies and organs to their limits for the body to adapt to those demands — rather than attaining critical failures — as with most things in real life.

Brute force is not going to make one invulnerable — especially from self-inflicted abuses — whether from exercise or from illicit drugs, and in many cases, both. So these untimely ends are not entirely unexpected and unprecedented, but are well-proven, and despite that, many go into denial about these obvious realities.

I’ve long pointed out that the heart has little effect on enhancing the circulation in the body — because it is the CONSTANT and not the VARIABLE — and in every experiment and experience, it is the variable that accounts for any significant difference and not the constant which is immutable. That is to say, that the heart is what it is, and nothing will change that, but the action of the rest of the muscles in the body, is what greatly impacts the effectiveness of circulation — particularly to those axes (joints) actually moved.

Otherwise, the heart has no idea where to prioritize that flow of blood and nutrients — but more importantly, it is those contractions of the skeletal muscles — that account for the propulsion of the blood and other fluids (inflammation, edema, lymphedema, lipedema, etc) back towards the heart — while creating space for the new to enter by virtue of the always working heart.

But for grossly misinformed people to think that all one is trying to accomplish in exercise is to work the heart infinitely harder, is the reason they are more likely to cause the heart to fail completely, rather than achieve the much more intelligent objective of using the entire musculature of the body to optimize the flow — and not just require the heart to work infinitely harder as the prescription for a longer and healthy life.

That is particularly the problem of the dementias — that the heart and lungs continue to function for many years after the circulation to the brain, hands and feet have ceased to remain vital functioning parts. It is a seriously flawed understanding that does not bode well for prolonged lives in continued good health and functioning — and therefore, all is lost.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1984/07/29/the-jim-fixx-neurosis-running-yourself-to-death/681bd977-8295-4d4a-802c-bbfd54684be5/