Exercise is not the Enemy

 Exercise doesn’t require one to be standing, walking, running or jumping — but can be done sitting, lying, or floating. When one considers what they cannot do — because of illness or injury, they can realize all the other exercises they can do instead — and even create a few new ones for themselves. That is ultimately what fitness is all about — adapting to the present circumstances and challenges — to do what is advantageous to do — even if one hasn’t done them before. It is a good time to start, and if not now, when will they ever get around to it?

There’s nothing in the book that says that one has to be doing the same things they’ve always done before. In fact, that is a prescription and advice to become less fit and adaptable — so if one cannot do a particular thing — as one has always done before, it is an opportunity to do what they haven’t done before — and strengthen their repetoire of responses.

As long as one is still alive, some movements (change) are possible, but when it stops completely, then life has ended for that animate being. With over 600 voluntary (skeletal) muscles, some movement is possible — even if they are not the one’s one is used to doing regularly, if not unfailingly, but if they are not possible, then one merely need consider what else is possible — under those circumstances, and do the best they can with it, if nothing else better is possible. In that doing, they may find out what they haven’t known before. Making those discoveries, are even more important than doing the same things all the time — and might even work better. One won’t know, until one finds out — and that is the exercise.

Only a few exercises require one to stand, walk or run. Many exercises can be done seated; in fact when one goes to a gym, more often than not, one is doing them seated — or lying if there are mats around. It is quite possible to design an exercise routine around only lying exercises — because that doesn’t preclude any other strictures than the one. The problem is that many are conditioned only to do one thing — and not the many things possible even for that one person. That is the joy and expression of life — and movement — to do what they’ve never done before — as well as what they’ve always done before — even if it is just more of the same.

In fact, the whole conditioning process is to prepare oneself for the next level — whatever that is, and wherever it takes them: that is the adventure of their lives. It doesn’t have to be world records — or even personal bests — but each thing done to its best, creates the precedent for subsequent achievements. That’s how practice makes perfect — or more often enough, better. But it actually has to be doing something — and not just thinking about the many things one can do but never actualize. That is the integration of body with mind — which one hopes to achieve in every exercise.

So does that require optimal conditions and equipment for that? — or accomplishing that despite the adversity and lack, the joy and purpose of it all? That joy and repurposing, is what recreation is all about — re-creating the self, to live a better life. As long as one is doing that, they’re doing their best — with what they have, and that is all one can ask of themselves. But just to lie there and give up and do nothing, is not going to be sustainable and productive. Yet many these days, seem to have reached that point — and demand that everyone else must do for them what they refuse to do for themselves. That enables disabilities and handicaps — rather than overcoming them in every possible way — and hoping that capability for everyone else as well.

What else better does one have to do? They need to figure out a way out of their predicament. Surely they have all the time in the world until they do — and there is nothing more important for them to do. If they can’t use their legs, then they can still exercise (use) their arms — or head. Often, the most productive movement one can do is to move their heads — which many haven’t moved since the advent of television eliminating that necessity. That’s why the common trait of atrophy in most people is the deterioration at the neck, forearms (hands), and lower legs (feet) — and their functionality as they age. In fact, that deterioration is the cause of that aging — as well as its chief manifestation. Most just accept that as the normal facts of aging — rather than the keys to not. That is where the breakdown is critical — to the survival of the whole.

Those are the axes most important to move around — because that control, determines the extent and effectiveness of the circulation (blood flow). When one does that, they have optimized the conditions for functioning up to the challenge of the moment. Movement focused at the extremities, affects all the supporting muscles back to the center of the body — because they are connected to do so. Those are the key movements for the sick and disabled to focus all their attention and energies on — to make them well again, and to get better. They don’t have to move their entire mass from one place to another — as an actual requirement of productive and meaningful exercise. They need to note what is the least expenditure that produces the maximum benefits — and not just the maximum expenditure even when it might be injurious, counterproductive, or unnecessary.

Exercise is not the enemy. It is what one actually does.

Why We Are All Here

  Most people argue over whether they should use more weight for fewer repetitions, or use a light weight for higher repetitions — when the far more productive way to train, is to increase the range of motion in that movement. The most important part of every movement is the start and ending positions — while most work only the midrange, and then shorten that even further to accommodate more weight or more repetitions.

All movement is cardiovascular AND neuromuscular — and those divisions are simply manmade — because the body cannot operate that way, one exclusive of the other. However, while all movement will raise the heart rate, it is possible to raise the heart rate without engaging any other particular muscular structures — as most cardio machines do. In the most popular version of the treadmill, the upper body is largely immobilized, while the range of foot movement is minimal, emphasizing a limited range of movement at the hips and knees. So limited in fact that one could continue the exercise indefinitely — because there is no muscle fatigue/demand otherwise. That is true for most movements: if you shorten or limit the range of movement, the muscle can go on indefinitely — even jogging a marathon.

However, if one performs a movement to increase the range in both the contraction phase as well as the relaxation phase, that muscle will fatigue — because an extraordinary demand is placed on it — to which it must adapt and accommodate — both in the short term and in the longer term once one has recovered from that challenge. As one gets older, there is a tendency to decrease the range of movement until eventually one is all but immobilized — and then others have to do for them what they previously could easily do for themselves, but over the years, lost that range of movement — more than that they couldn’t lift their own weight or do endless repetitions of a limited movement.

Everybody who has ever lifted weights, knows there is a beginning position in which they rest, as well as an ending position in which they can also rest. However if they try to extend that range of movement beyond those resting points (bone on bone lockouts), any attempt to do so is extremely fatiguing and even perilous because that is uncharted territory that the muscle will fail. In order to avoid injury, one would not attempt to do so with heavy weights, but even light weights will be challenging enough — and even no weights at all would allow that manner of performance with maximum safety.

The key movement would be expressed at the joint furthest from the center of the body — which are the axis of movements at the wrists, ankles, and neck — as the body is naturally designed to move most critically. For millions of years, humans evolved in conditions that required them to have to use those faculties beyond all else — to survive, and then thrive and prosper. Then, it was quite obvious that if one did not turn their head, they had limited information of what was going on around them — because they had to turn their heads to see and hear better — to know what dangers lurked, or where their next meal was coming from. Throwing a stone or spear required that wrist movement, and the feet were a lever against the earth — to run, jump, reach tall branches.

But modern life made a lot of that unnecessary, and so people just stare ahead into their screens now, and may go to a gym to increase their heart rates while moving very little else. And then they wonder why their brains fail, their grip weakens, and their feet cannot hold them up reliably. But they think the answer to all those ailments is just to force the heart to work harder and faster while immobilizing all the other muscles that are doing very little — as the preferred modality of “exercise.”

And so we have the great fear now that people will lose those critical faculties for full responsiveness beyond just having their hearts beating for years and even decades in that condition. Who will be there to take care of them? It would seem that the far better model for life in the future, is for everybody to take better care of themselves in the manner that makes such extension of capabilities more likely as the conditioning paradigm — over the expenditure of calories and heart beats as though there are no limits and no difference.

Once one is clear in understanding how life works and what one is doing, it is easy to design exercise without the need for equipment, supplements, instruction, measuring devices, etc. Everything will make perfectly good sense — and that is the greater question of why we are all here.

Exercise Is Like CPR for the Rest of the Body

 Just about everybody knows by now that when the heart stops pumping (contracting), one can manually get it working by compressing the chest that houses the heart and lungs -- because the alternation of contraction (of the chest volume) with relaxation (expansion of the chest volume) effects a flow by the laws of fluid (gas) dynamics.  That is to note that as a volume contracts (gets smaller), the pressure within that volume increases -- and moves to an area in which there is a lesser pressure.  And then when a volume increases, the pressure decreases, and pressure from a higher area moves into that lower pressure -- as is the case when the normal atmospheric pressure of 14.7 lbs per square inch is higher than the pressure of the lungs that have been previously compressed.  

Simply put, volume is inversely related to pressure -- and that is what is affecting movement in the human body and not gravity.  That is to say that gravity is not the prime mover in the body but pressure is -- and that is particularly important in the movement of blood and other fluids (gas) within the body -- because that is what is keeping us functioning, and beyond that, healthy and growing.  Under normal conditions, the heart works unfailingly, and will be the last thing that does -- until finally, it ultimately fails to work automatically (autonomously).

That is the greatest part of the cardiovascular system -- that half that operates automatically and pushes the blood out of the heart into the rest of the body.  But once it gets into the capillaries and tissues, the heart has done its job -- and can have little effect on the blood returning back to the heart and recycling/purifying organs of the body -- like the lungs, liver, kidneys, etc.  If that doesn't happen, then the toxicity of the body builds up -- which is the problem of inflammation (swelling) where those waste products simply accumulate in the tissues, and is not eliminated and recycled by the organs designed for that purpose.  That process keeps the body healthy, well-functioning, and growing -- because in that evacuation of that space, new nutrients have room to move into -- but not if the old remains and becomes the resistance to that healthy process.

While the heart will work tirelessly and unceasingly in its role and function, the voluntary muscles provide that driving force in the clearing process -- and that is the reason that those in the habit of performing such voluntary (skeletal) muscle contractions, develop much more prodigiously and prolifically.  That's just the physics (reality) of the life processes -- that those who perform that work, are rewarded in that way.  To a certain extent, those life processes can be maintained at a minimally subsistence level -- but knowing that, it can also be conducted to higher levels of effectiveness and efficiency.  That has been well-noted for ages -- that those who do more, have more to show for it.  It is not a random world in which all outcomes are the same no matter how much or how little one does.

But it is far more than how much or how little -- but more importantly, whether one is doing the right things -- and not simply anything -- as though all that matters is how many calories are being consumed and expended.  Some actions produce greater desirable results -- for the same, or in fact, less energy -- but doing all the right things, and not merely as much as possible of anything -- as though it doesn't matter.

That is a very flawed but common understanding of what exercise is -- and why many things it doesn't matter, or might even be counterproductive to a good life -- rather than the reason and basis of a good, rewarding, and richer life.  Because it matters and makes a difference in subsequently everything one does.

What is important to understand is the significance of the alternating contraction and relaxation cycle -- which is produced by the position in which the muscle must be contracted, and the position in which it is relaxed -- and just alternating those positions produces that flow within the body -- more importantly than any external work produced -- like the lifting of weights, running, jumping, etc.  Then once that simplicity is reduced to that essential understanding, productive exercise can be conducted under any conditions and age because one is simply optimizing the functioning of the human body and its processes -- which is obviously meant to be.

Those are the basics -- optimized.  Recognizing that, one would be a fool not to take advantage of that to improve their functioning at everything they do -- especially in prioritizing that flow and development to the most important aspects and organs of the body at the head, hands and feet -- rather than trying to change the heart beat.  That takes care of itself -- as the fundamental of life in everyone.  What makes the biggest difference, is working the muscles of the body similar to the heart in effecting the optimal circulation possible -- and not simply making the heart work harder and faster, which is the characteristic enlarging and weakening of the heart noted in heavy exercisers.  Instead, one wants all the other muscles of the body to work harder in assisting the heart in optimizing the circulation -- which invariably causes those muscles to be developed and grow to their highest possibilities because they are also the greatest beneficiaries of doing so.

That requires one to know in what position the muscle must be contracted, and what position they are relaxed, and simply alternating those positions.  It is not the resistance to doing so that is productive -- but the understanding and recognition of what those positions are -- and alternating them for at least 50 times to produce fatigue -- which is the resistance within the body, and not external to it as many people think, or those exercises would continue to be productive after they reach a certain age when it famously does not, but only increases the wear and tear on the body unnecessarily, until they abandon such activities entirely.

But then, one doesn't want to know what may have worked 50 years ago -- but doesn't now when they need it to work the most.  They need to know what works now -- and for the remainder of their lives -- because it has to.  Those are the laws of nature -- and not merely wishful-thinking that it can overcome those realities.

Last Man Standing

 Having been raised on fairy tales and hype, many come to believe that for anything significant and meaningful to be done, requires heroic effort and struggle, and sacrificing all else to achieve.  That is the thinking that we can have only one thing rather than everything, and so in order to obtain the one thing, we have to sacrifice everything else -- be that war, athletic competitions, wealth or health -- and further thinking that we can have either the appearance of health, or health without the appearance -- when the greater implies the specific, and not that that is all there is.  That is a vision of the world in which nothing is connected to everything else, rather than the realization that everything is connected to everything else -- even if we are not aware of it yet.  

Those are the early stages in the awakening of awareness in anything we choose to learn about -- that that one thing, did not just manifest out of thin air, but has been millions of years in the making, and the accumulation of many previous actions.  Every individual life is merely the continuation of that process.  One thing builds on everything else -- and not that everything is always starting from scratch.

There's a reason humans stand above all else -- in the ultimate evolution of the feet, hands and brain to control it all.  Those are the most critically advanced evolutions that distinguish the humans from all previous life forms -- and that which has to be maintained and optimized over individual lifespans.    Meanwhile, the heart is shared by many life forms -- and as such, needs very little improvement.  It is the mastery at the head, hands and feet that distinguishes accomplishments among human beings -- and not simply who has the faster or slower heart beat -- which is simply easier to measure.

What is easiest to measure, is not necessarily what is most important to measure -- but is the great equalizer if mass marketing a product -- because everyone has one.  But whether that translates into any real world accomplishment remains to be seen -- as we now witness many living prolonged heartbeats with no other vital signs of responsiveness -- most notably in the dementias.  We notice much less that often such lack of responsiveness may occur first at the hands and feet -- from years of immobility resulting in the accumulation of fluids that have pooled and accumulated over a lifetime we recognize in inactive older people.  But is the solution to get the heart to pump harder and faster, or would it be much more productive to activate the voluntary/skeletal  muscles to perform that task much more expeditiously and effectively -- since in contemporary lives, they are hardly activated at all.

And then when it is called upon in various exercises, it is made difficult, problematical, and even injurious -- rather than the normal process by which the organism maintains its health, functioning, and vitality.  It's really a simple thing -- that doesn't need to be made increasingly more difficult.  Yet that is the prescription of what productive exercise requires -- which seems to work when one is young, but fails spectacularly the older one gets

A famous bodybuilder was advised by his doctor after having heart problems and surgery, that he should no longer lift heavy weights, or to hold his breath when lifting a heavy weight, because they produce undue stress on the internal organs -- but in that prescription, there is no prohibition in lifting light weights -- and breathing naturally with every repetition.  Obviously, that is what that person can do -- quite productively -- rather than continuing to do what they are ill-advised to do.

And that is the conventional wisdom -- which quite frequently, is just totally misguided -- because one has already decided what they will do, before considering whether it is the appropriate or intelligent thing to do.  And that is to lift heavy weights -- as though such defiance will convey immunity from those disastrous effects.

Not that the movements are bad in themselves.  The whole objective of such movements, can be reduced to the simplicity of changing the state of the muscle to produce a flow -- which actually relieves the amount of work the heart muscle has to do -- while increasing the greater circulatory effect -- that produces health, functioning, and growth -- because of the environmental and atmospheric conditions life has evolved in.

The best and obvious example of this is cardiopulmonary resuscitation in which it is noted that the important part is not blowing air into the lungs of a person not breathing -- but compressing the air out of the lungs -- and by that same action (movement), effecting the blood flow.  Ancient exercisers believed that it was the breathing in that was important to cultivate -- rather than the exhalation, and upon relaxation, the atmospheric pressure would cause air to enter a volume that was vacant.

That is the reason one doesn't want to lift a heavy weight holding one's breath -- but rather let a light weight rise on the contraction of the breath, and lower quite naturally as those torso muscles relax.  That is also the argument for not lowering a heavy weight unduly long -- because it requires the body to fail from the lack of air movement in preventing the muscles from elongating as the weight is being lowered.  That is unnecessary as well as counterproductive to doing anything in the real world.  Such a manner of performance is entirely contrived -- with no practical applications in the real world but to increase the stress the body is experiencing -- as though that was a good in itself.

Yet that is the convoluted thinking that produces failure 100% of the time -- because that is not the best way to do anything -- especially if one doesn't absolutely have to.  The peculiarity of older competitive bodybuilders is their disproportionate development produced by the atrophying of the forearms, calves, and neck muscles -- as the heart weakens with age -- and they divert all their remaining resources to the misguided development of the biceps and abdominals -- almost exclusively.  All sense of proportion is simply abandoned -- when the proper maintenance of the extremities at the head, hands, and feet axes would ensure that proportionality -- because that is how the musculature is designed to work productively.

That is acutely true as the heart grows weaker.  At that point, the far wiser course is not to make the heart work even harder, but to make it work less hard while increasing the effectiveness of the circulation by making all the muscles of the body work as the heart does.  That would be killing two birds with one stone -- and all the other accolades.  They can continue to be well-functioning every day of their lives -- rather than succumbing to the pattern of decreasing capabilities -- beginning at their most critical faculties.

The primary function of all the muscles in the body, is to recruit as many muscles as possible to make any task as easy as possible -- and not to make every effort and movement, as difficult as possible.  That should be the simple, obvious truth by now.