Making Something Out of Nothing

 In a world full of options and choices, one doesn’t have unlimited time, energy and resources, and must develop priorities — in order of what is most important to do. In a time of scarcity and dearth of that abundance, that might have been eating, drinking, travel, entertainment, bodybuilding and weightlifting without end — just because we could. However, even the most prolific practitioners often culminated in premature deaths, injuries, and health problems — and so one has to question whether just getting as big as possible, running as far as possible, lifting as much weight as possible, are productive ends in themselves.

If one could truly develop any aspect of their bodies and lives, what would they deem most important? The intelligent answer would be those qualities that make humans above all the previous iterations of life forms — which is the large brain, tool-making hand, and feet that enables an upright posture. That would be obvious to the anthropologists studying the evolution of species over time, and was particularly the topic of JJ Bronowski’s “The Ascent of Man.” From there, he describes the further evolution and development of humankind and what the ideal can be.

That brought us to the 20th century in which people like Abraham Maslow, inquired what is the ultimate “human actualization?” — and writers like Heinlein, Rand, Orwell, et al fleshed out in their literary creations. The underlying question was what is the ultimate human form and expression — of every individual life, which is the underlying theme of Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. That was the story of a human born on Mars and had no preconceived ideas of what the ideal form should be — and so he manifested it, or made it flesh.

There is a widespread belief that the heart pumps blood equally to all parts of the body — but obviously, more so to those areas actually exercised — which is the reason some people only manifest upper body development, while their legs languish. That would not be possible if the heart pumped that blood equally — even to those muscles and organs not used. Instead, the blood goes more to those muscles that are contracted and relaxed — just as the heart moves fluid. Where there is no such articulation at that joint, the blood and fluids remain in those tissues — and will immediately increase that flow, when it is exercised directly. That’s why people who do cardio exercises have small, atrophied muscles. Their hearts work harder and faster — but the rest of the musculature largely is inactivated.

That is the advantage weight-training has over most conventional exercise — it can be directed to develop the part of the body one thinks is so important — like the biceps and abdominals, etc. But the most efficient and economical way to enhance the flow (circulation) is to activate the joints at the extremities of the body — because that pushes the blood back towards the heart at that axis of activation. Those are the places where aging is most visible — even in aging bodybuilders. That’s where most of the aches and pains are experienced first — in the arthritis and neuropathies — where the circulation is the poorest, and not health-sustaining. Those are the casualties of disuse and aging.

It doesn’t have to be. One can activate all the muscles of the upper body by simply bending at the wrist. Likewise, one can activate all the muscles of the lower body by raising the heel or toe as much as possible. It doesn’t require weights to produce those contractions. The movement itself, is a contraction — and the farther one expresses those extremes, the more it engages all the supporting and connected muscles back towards the center of the body where all the muscles converge. The ancient Chinese called it dyantin — or simply, the center of the body — conveniently located next to the heart.

Nature is very smart in that way. It makes things economical and efficient — because it really wants us to live, thrive, and evolve to higher possibilities, rather than favor disfunction, disease and extinction. That is ultimately what “fitness” is all about — and not just doing what we’ve always done before with the predictable end results. It’s not that lying, sitting, standing are bad in and of itself — but there is no movement at the wrist, ankle and neck — that implies the rest. But if there is no movement beyond the shoulder and hip girdle, all those areas beyond it, don’t receive the exercise effect.

Knowing this, one can design an exercise program with heel raises, wrist curls and the turning of the head all the way to the left and right — and most inactive people will come alive in doing so. That is the easiest way just to get up in the morning. One does not need resistance or to make these movements any harder. The (lack of) movement is the resistance. It’s not that one isn’t moving their head to the left and right with 100 lbs of resistance — but they never move their head at all. That is most obviously true in what passes for the typical cardio exercise — the head and hands never move, and the feet shuffle as fast as possible — with little articulation. The proper foot articulation would be to raise the heels as high as possible — just like the ballet dancers — men and women. But all one needs to do is hold on to the back of a chair or countertop and merely raise their heels up as high as possible and down — as the superior leg movement. No special equipment required. No need to make the movement harder, or add more weight and resistance. The movement itself is exemplary.

It’s not that the calves, forearms and neck are the hardest muscles to develop — but that most don’t think to move at those joints — at all. But in so doing, unlike the disproportionate development many have because they concentrate on core muscles to the exclusion of the extremities, exercise seems to have no preventive effect against aging, atrophy and deterioration. It seems to be the obvious way to design a 21st century exercise program for health in longevity. You don’t want to lose your most valuable parts of yourself — while the heart is still the only muscle still ticking for decades longer.

The Holy Grail of Health

  The question is not whether exercise works and is good for you, but what does one prioritize in a world of limited time, energy and resources?

We see that in older people, what breaks down are the critical faculties at the head, hands and feet — or cognitive function, grip strength, and foot strength (balance), as the major markers of decline — or good health. Those are neuromuscular functions — or voluntary — rather than cardiovascular — which is autonomic. That means that what one can make the most significant difference, is what one can control — rather than what is automatic. The neuromuscular effects the cardiovascular system automatically, while simply increasing the heart rate, does not indicate or improve athletic performance. That is to say that lifting a weight will increase the heart rate, but simply increasing the heart rate, will not necessarily lift a weight.

And in fact, what is usually called cardio exercise, is usually done with very little movement of the upper body, as well as foot articulation. It is the full range articulation at that axis that causes the muscle to be fully contracted or fully relaxed. Just shuffling one’s feet with little of that change of muscular states precludes that flow to the extremities — while the core may continue to function for years. And that is the problem of the unexcercised body — the willful voluntary muscles hardly move again. That movement causes blood and fluids to circulate to those areas — and without it, the circuit is circumscribed.

The heart may be working harder — but none of the other muscles of the body are — and they contribute greatly to the circulatory effect. It is that circulation that produces muscle growth and optimal functioning of all the organs. So if the brain, hands and feet are cut off from that enhancement, effective and efficient circulation will not occur no matter how hard and fast the heart alone works. It is a one pound organ providing for the hundredful mass and musculature — rather than recruiting all the other muscles of the body to optimize that circulatory effect. That would be the intelligent thing to do — and the most productive exercise to do.

That is what is overlooked in exercise expressly for health in longevity. A person who is vital and animated is particularly so by the expressions and movements (articulations) at the head, hands and feet. Those are the organs of human expression. The rest of the body plays a supportive role. When the functioning (health) of the head, hands and feet cease, then that individual loses their uniqueness and identity — and become our worst nightmare — requiring constant care by others to do all the things most people can do for themselves.

But if a person retains and increases their functioning and proficiency at the head, hands and feet, they are functioning at their highest level. But even young and presumably fit people don’t achieve that — because their time, energy and resources are misplaced to what is much less important — including competitive athletics, which presumably is to prepare them for the greater challenges of life ahead. That may be lifting a heavy weight, or running great distances — leaving no time for developing the head, hands and feet.

The best example would be maintaining and enhancing one’s ability to turn one’s head 360 degrees — because that movement, requires the activation and engagement of all the muscles of the body! — and not just the heart alone. The exercise of that movement, would be indicative of a person firing on all cylinders — and not just the one — whether that be the heart, biceps, glutes, abdominals, etc. The atrophied turkey/pencil neck is not inevitable in every aging person — but indicative of poor circulation to the head (brain) — with predictably disastrous consequences. The head must actually move to provide that circulation; playing “mental” games doesn’t produce that very “physical” effect. That is the integration of mind and body long sought as the Holy Grail of Health. It’s not the mind or the body; it requires one to be firing on all cylinders to make the “unprecedented” life possible. That is what we are all here for.

Obviously we just can’t keep on doing the same things that hasn’t worked before — hoping for a different result. We have to do something differently — something that makes perfectly good sense — so we don’t have to force ourselves to do what doesn’t make perfectly good sense and produces those results immediately as self-evident truth.

Both Sides Now

  A muscle can do one of two things: it can contract (shorten), or relax (lengthen) — and in concert and coordination with all the other muscles of the body, can produce the myriad of movements possible to the (human) body. Many ancient understandings and disciplines thought that muscles could only relax — or only contract — as their singular function, most exemplified by yoga on the one hand and competitive bodybuilders on the other extreme.

It is the alternation of one extreme to the other, that is the most efficient and beneficial — just as the heart functions for its critical role in circulation. It is not enough for the heart to just contract — and never relax (again). Or for the heart to relax and never contract (again). It is the alternation of one state to the other, that is the life-giving property of the heart — and the heart either contracts 100% and relaxes 100%, and if it only does 50% each way, one has major problems — if not imminent death. Hence, that is the significance of the heart rate, because one knows exactly what the quantity is as a constant — and not a variable.

Realizing this, the limit of any muscle is in its weakest position — rather than its strongest, and that was the rationale for varying resistance along that curve — if at all possible. While a weight (resistance) may remain constant, one uses all the muscles to orchestrate the minimal amount of load to any one muscle exclusively. That is to say that a major function of all the muscles, is to protect any one muscle from exclusively bearing the load — rendering it vulnerable to injury when contracting forcefully in its weakest, most vulnerable position.

The classic example is doing a standing barbell curl with too heavy a weight — causing a rupture at the biceps (tendon) insertion. In that variation of the exercise, the adjoining muscles are not in position and activation to protect the biceps — as they would be if the “finished” position was rotated so that rather than the elbow hanging down, the elbow is rotated to point towards the ceiling — resulting in a maximal contraction of the biceps because its supporting muscle is contracted as well.

All the muscles of the body are connected in that same way — that the contractile state of any one muscle, is dependent on the state of the muscles adjoining it. In knowing that, one can then conceive of the most efficient and effective to effect that state in all the muscles simultaneously, rather than have to do one specific exercise for each muscle — to say nothing of multiple exercises as well as sets for each muscle. The impracticality of that is that there is not enough time in the day to get to all one’s muscles to ensure full muscular development and a well-functioning body.

Fortunately, in understanding that the muscular state of any one muscle is dependent on the state of all the others, it then becomes a simple task to produce that one state or the other — rather than 600–800 different states of contraction/relaxation coordination throughout the body. Not surprisingly, the position of the head determines the muscular state for the rest of the body — which is the easiest to overlook, and with modern conveniences, unnecessary to move at all. The obvious downside of that is that movement dictates the flow to and from the heart. Those are the gates governing fluid flow through the body — particularly problematical in the well-known deterioration of the body beginning at the hands, feet and head — due to the inflammation caused by venous insufficiency in the return to the heart and central purifying organs of the body.

That is what muscular contractions from the extremities do — quite naturally, from most forms of traditional, productive, necessary movements — and why people who do them a lot, tend of be better developed, and more robust than those who seldom perform such movements. That essential “fitness” is hardwired into the evolution of every species — but modern conveniences have obviating their necessity over the last 50 years especially. That is the downside of labor-saving machinery — coinciding with the devolution of human health over that time period — when obesity and metabolic disorders have become the prime threat to human health in longevity.

The other side of the coin is just as bad — in those who remain hypertense all the time. The most extreme example of that are bodybuilders who remain contracted all the time — and never allow themselves to ever be seen “relaxed.” Relaxation is just as important as being able to maximize effort — and switching from one to the other as appropriate, is the healthy response to life — rather than the psychopaths constantly at war with everybody else — for no good reason. Predictably, they too live short, nasty, brutal lives — exacerbated by their behaviors and conditioning. The switch can be instantaneous.

Most conditioning is not done that way — instead thinking there is only one way to be — either all force, or all relaxation, and it is the ability to switch appropriately from one to the other, and all variations in between, that has the most survival value (fitness) — and how one wishes to condition themselves to be.