Risks and Rewards

  The most significant contribution of Arthur Jones in developing the Nautilus principles and machines was not variable resistance through the full range of movement around one axis — but actually determining in what position that muscle had to be in to be fully contracted and fully relaxed — because it is the alternation between those muscular states — that determines the blood flow (circulation), and that is what produces health, growth, and optimal functioning. To him, that was incidental to developing machines that would be “foolproof” in ensuring that a person did precisely the right movement — and ensuring the results he “guaranteed.”

However, he did not account for trainees to actually subvert the intended functioning of his equipment — usually by lifting more weight than could be maintained by the proper performance. The machines were not designed to enable one to lift the most weights, but actually to exhaust the muscles using the least amount of resistance. All that got lost in training and selling machines to those who believed that using the most weight (resistance) was what produced optimal results — rather than by achieving the greatest difference in the state of muscular contraction and relaxation — just as the heart is effective in pumping blood out towards the extremities by that same action.

However, contrary to popular belief, the heart cannot force blood through the miles of capillaries, in which the purpose of that evolutionary design is to slow the blood down to where it can efficiently exchange gases with the resident tissue — at which point, contractions of the muscles at those extremities that contain the capillaries (at the head, hands, and feet), are effective at contracting (pumping) that blood back to towards the heart aided by the veins that allow blood to flow in only that direction back towards the heart (center of the body). It is two different set of blood vessels, and not just the heart providing the motive power for all the blood flow. That is the greatest misunderstanding of cardiovascular functioning and exercise effectiveness.

That is why exercise — or more specifically, contractions at those extremities, cause blood flow that ensures the elimination and removal of those accumulating and stagnant metabolic waste products (inflammation), and then allowing the new nutrients that ensure health, development and optimal functioning — as Nature intended. That process ensures the health and well-being of that individual — and not simply wanting it more than everybody else — as the jocks fancy it is.

So, far and away the most important thing, is to understand the science of this process — and not simply lifting the most weight possible. Thus the squat, deadlift, bench press are not the most effective exercises as often touted — but are simply those movements that allow one to use the most weight — regardless of whether they produce the desired results. As many have known and proven time and again, lifting the most weights possible, is a precursor for a career-ending injury, while a better objective for most, is to obtain the maximum benefits with the least amount of risk and injury. That is the wise strategy no matter what one is doing.

And hopefully by now, many more are entertaining how well they are functioning, or can function at all, when they are 75, rather than thinking that any price at 25, ensures their glory for the rest of their years. That has been the predictable failing in the traditional sports model as the template for lifelong fitness and health. It won’t matter how good one was at 25, when one is absolutely no good at 75 — and god forbid, even live another 25 years in that persistently declining condition.

After all, this is the 21st Century and the Space Age — and not just the continuation of the Cave man era — when life was assuredly, short, nasty and brutal. Then the future did not matter — and how one hoped to improve for it. It was just “one and done” — at every opportunity. And so life has persisted with that kind of attitude and outlook — rather than in thinking it is for a better tomorrow, and day after that… So yeah, excessive drinking, smoking, eating, driving recklessly and fast, has consequences and long term effects, and not taking the maximum risks just because one can.

Easy Does It

 The worst advice on exercise is to make it harder all the time -- aiming for a point beyond one's present capacities, and never being satisfied with one has actually done.  That kind of "negative" conditioning will cause one to abandon all efforts -- when just a persistent modest effort, would make a huge difference.  That becomes a huge factor in later life -- when one is often defeated and discouraged before one does anything at all -- and falls further into despair and hopelessness as their fate from here on out.  Why does it have to be that way?

Few have asked that right question because they;ve ben conditioned from the start to accept that Commandment -- as though it embodied some truth, or great wisdom -- rather than headinng in the right direction in seeking the path of least resistance -- which is the better way,  Why would one voluntarily take the most perilous and laborious path -- when it would make more sense take the easy and safest route -- in just about everything?

So we have been conditioned in the wrong direction and least rewarding and productive path -- as though it was some kind of wisdom and great virtue.  Why shouldn't we pick the low hanging fruit first -- and then only if necessary, and driven to it, would be to climb the most precarious branches -- even as impressive as that may be.  In this manner, we have been conditioned wrongly -- by people who don't know any better, to take the difficult and impossible path, rather than the easiest to ensure their success and rewards.

Such a strategy is particularly important the older one becomes -- and how difficult every becomes.  They want to know the easiest and most productive way to do anything -- and particularly, the momentarily impossible.  It is by making the impossible possible, that one becomes more skilled, and not the impossible, even harder - at every turn.  That would be sheer madness -- and the problems of aging.

Hopefully, one learns all those lessons throughout life, which is their meaning in life -- and not to forget everything they once knew, and learned 50 years ago.  They want to live their best now -- and not 50 years ago, or in 50 years to come -- when they are no longer.  Things have to make sense right now -- and in every present moment.  Otherwise, one may never know, or can tell the difference.

The classic case is instructing a person who has fallen on the ground, how to get up.  On hearing this, a lot of exercise instructors tell one how not to fall or be in that condition in the first place -- as though that were helpful.  Classes that instuct one how to get up off the floor are actually readily available as beginner Yoga classes.  But if one is too weak for doing even that, how would one begin?

I do that most mornings by just moving my head as far to the left and then as far to the right -- while wondering how I'm going to eventually get up.  But shortly, I don't worry about it anymore, and move on to activating and articulating my hands to enhhance that circulation and feeling.  Finally, I articulate the full range foot movement from the pointed toe to the retracted -- which some exercise researchers have named the Soleus Pushup -- thinking that function is peculiar and unique to those muscles, rather than the characteristic of all muscle function in its role to keep the body healthy.

It's not optional, and good if one has the time and leisure -- but is the "categorical imperative" for every living being.  It's not just for when they are young, or can win accolades for it, but essential to their very being -- all one's life.  That is the future generation beyond just making it to that age -- in poor and deteriorating condition.  Even to get to that age in any condition used to be a milestone -- but now we know better -- that an unprecedented quality of life can still be actualized.  Just good enoiugh is no longer good enough -- or enjoyable for that matter, and we now think we are entitled to enjoy life -- and not just endure it for as long as we can hold out.

That was yesterday's story.  The future is making the best out of life in every moment one can -- including waiting for the microwave or washer to stop.  Or waiting at the bus stop.  Those are opportunities -- and not just wasted time -- unless making it so.  That is the easy way to do it -- rather than deciding what priority it should have over everything one hopes to do in that day -- and how to manage our time, energy and resources to achieve it.  Some even believe there is no other way but the strict adherence to schedule -- with no exceptions and deviations from the one true path -- for everyone.

But the beauty of life is that we all get to find out -- for ourselves, what is true -- and then share that knowledge to as many as are open to it.  That is particularly true if what one is doing, is not working -- and no amount of additional effort seems to be the answer.  One encounters that frequently in life -- that the answer is not the right answer that actually works.  And rather than arguing over who has the right answer, we need to find out what actually works -- and discard everything else.  Knowledge that doesn't work, is useless -- unless all one wants to do is claim to know the most -- whether it is true and actually works or not.  Many people are satisfied in that way, having all the answers -- but nothing works as they should. They think it is because they don't have enough "likes," as though it is just one big popularity contest, or who is in power to tell everybody else what to do or think.

Some leaders are even thinking that those who "wrong-think"  must be locked away from the public for the rest of their lives.  We thought that those were just the Dark Ages -- but it could be at any time and circumstances.  It's that kind of world -- playing out daily.

So the key observation I come away with is that mental functioning seems to come about because of of the poor neck development produced by the lack of circulation that comes with not turning one's head to use optimize one's awareness.  That distinguishes those who know what is going on around them -- from those trapped in their own thoughts and show no such proclivity to be aware of their surroundings.  Then that world further shrinks and implodes.  That is increasingly the fear of old age -- and everything it entails.  But how not to be like that equally obvious -- with the perspective of evolutionary time.  We are the way we are for a reason.

Understanding that is human nature and the way we work.  That is the key to living and aging well.  Without that simplicity of understanding, no amount of effort will produce the desired results.

The Future of Exercise

  In order of descending importance, the organs which one would most want to improve, are the head, hands and feet — which conventional exercises pay very little attention to and frequently regard as nothing more than stumps, but which will always make the greatest difference in one’s health, development and functioning. This is also the reason that conventional exercises don’t seem to work as one gets older and really needs them to work — because it increasingly becomes a matter of life and death. When one is young, it seems that everything can work — even if they are uncertain what does work from all their frenetic activity. Thus we .typically see the legendary bodybuilder or athlete, who is dumbstruck in their later years, that what they thought worked, doesn’t now, when it matters the most.

One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist, brain surgeon, or god forbid, a PE teacher to notice that the familiar pattern of deterioration and aging at the neck, hands and feet where circulation is poorest, and the simple value of exercise, is that it enhances the circulation specifically to those areas actually moved at those joints, or axis of rotation. There is movement around those joints because the muscles providing that movement either shorten (contract) or lengthen (relax), and that alternation of the contraction with a relaxation, produces the pumping effect — just as the heart does in pumping the blood out towards the extremities.

However, once they get out to the capillaries, the heart which weighs less than a pound, cannot push the blood through the miles of capillaries, but are reliant on the skeletal muscles to contract and push the blood back towards the heart as its motive force, and upon relaxation, has cleared space for the new blood and nutrients to easily enter. That understanding greatly reduces the work of the heart while enhancing the circulatory effect.

Many scientists, researchers and exercisers have come to realize that the source of all disease and deterioration in the human body is due to inflammation —or the lack of this efficient and effective circulation. And so the fluids merely pool in the tissues — in the familiar forms of fluid retention (edema, lymphedema, lipedema, obesity, neuropathy, arthritis, etc). Properly thought out muscle contractions alternated with relaxations, optimizes the flow that keeps the body healthy, growing, and functioning (moving). The moving is also the lubrication for such movements.

None of this has to be traumatic or dramatic — but can be achieved just with the proper understanding of these cause and effects. It has very little to do with the common markers for such achievement — such as calories expended, sweat generated, weight lifted, miles moved, etc. The relevant and productive movement, is what occurs at the neck, wrist and ankles — and everything else is a lot less important — particularly for productive exercise as one ages, is disabled, or even hopeless. If one increases the flow to the brain, one has already made a quantum leap in improvement, and then next in importance, improved the flow to the hands, and then the feet — which is the usual progression of deterioration of the human body.

In the long evolution of the human being, these movements were necessary to insure one’s survival. If one was incapable of turning their head, they had no idea what dangers lurked behind them. And then when they recognized the dangers, the ability to throw a rock, or a spear, required the proper flick of the wrist to perfect that accuracy — just as one shoots a basketball, throws a ball, and hits with a racquet oor bat. It is the wrist movement that gives that effort meaning. Similarly, the full articulation of the foot movement acts as a lever against the earth (ground) — allowing them to maneuver into the most advantageous place or position. So merely shuffling one’s feet with no such leveraging effect, does very little to maintain that mobility and circulation. The hands and feet are not just stumps — but actually the marvel of human evolution — along with a large brain.

That advantageous equipment does not come without a high cost — and justifying the highest expenditure of resources to optimize. So once one has that critical understanding of the body, and how it was designed and evolved to work, then one can hone those faculties into finely tuned instruments — rather than the brute force one thinks works miracles. It’s like the cell phone. It works much better the more one understands how it is designed to work, rather than using it as a hammer on every occasion and opportunity.

On days when r I feel particularly lazy and lethargic, I know the best thing I can do to wake up is to increase the flow to my head — which means turning it as far to the left and then right — at least for a count of 50, or at least a minute of sustained movement. Any sustained effort, will raise the heart rate above the resting heart — which is automatically “cardio.” And the 50 repetitions ensures that it is also an aerobic exercise — done “with breathing” — as opposed to only one or two repetitions without breathing — which is very stressful and demanding on the heart. One will frequently note that exercisers of that sort, frequently have enlarged, weakened hearts because of the unfairly disproportionate demands placed on the heart with minimal contractions at the extremities — inn the condition known as congestive heart failure — which is so named in the belief that it is the fault of the heart for not working hard enough — while the organs at the extremities remain immobilized. And so the fluids continue to accumulate to what seems the bursting point of what the skin can contain. It’s not a pleasant sight — and in its extreme forms, those appendages are heavily wrapped and further immobilized.

All the more need to produce muscular contractions at those tissues — while reducing the work the heart has to do. That is a large part of the aging process — that the heart gets weaker, necessitating the need for the skeletal (voluntary) muscles should contribute more to that healthful circulation — as the most important work it can do. Far beyond any competitive activity or sport. The problem is that many people make a game of it, rather than realize it is seriously the best thing one can do — with their muscles — to ensure their health and fitness.

That is the future of exercise.