Rethinking Exercise

  The major difference between high-intensity training (HIT) and low-intensity training (LIT) is that HIT cannot be sustained for very long, which requires a rest (Interval) making it HIIT. Low-intensity exercise does not require one to have to take a rest break at frequent intervals — but is exercise that can be sustained and prolonged indefinitely — like a cross-country bike ride. That person would not require a rest break every ten minutes — or they’d never get anywhere. But the high-intensity effort can usually not be sustained for very long because it usually means holding one’s breath for a maximal effort — which makes it anaerobic — or done without breathing.

The internal pressures involved with such maximal efforts are what causes a lot of damage and premature deaths among such highly-motivated athletes — like the proverbial “John Henry” who thought he could outrace a steam engine. Many of the “World’s Strongest Men,” also succumb to such stresses and retire quite young from such competitions, as well as many bodybuilders — including the Arnolds and the Ronnies. It is not that the spirit is not willing, but the body accumulates all these past traumas — and rather than becoming infinitely stronger, it inevitably takes a toll. That is not likely to be the case with low-intensity training — in which one can go on indefinitely — and so the body is telling you something in that.

However, just because one can sustain an activity indefinitely, is no guarantee that it will be productive enough to produce muscle growth and enhanced functioning. So one is aiming for that sweet spot at which one can sustain muscle growth and improved functioning for the rest of their lives — rather than the brief moment of glory followed by a lifetime in decline — which is the case in many former champions.

It may be that they suffer a few injuries along the way that makes no longer all-out efforts possible, and they’d be happy just to rehabilitate those injuries so they could resume a life without pain and disabilities — and that is the far superior role of lower-intensity but also productive exercise — which almost every highly-competitive athlete comes around to — but unfortunately, know no other way to train and exercise but the all-out to the next injury style.

At this point, many just give up and abandon exercise completely — or come back for high-intensity training that forces a prolonged rest, burnout and/or injury — before becoming completely discouraged. Their conditioning has been that they either have to force themselves beyond their limits each and every workout, or it is a waste of time to do anything less. But the less can be more — if it can be sustained over an entire lifetime, and I thing that is the paradigm people want — but are usually not offered that possibility.

It does require rethinking productive movements — beginning with the notion of the measurement of exercise at the heart — which defines high and low intensity. High intensity exercise is measured by achieving maximal heart rate — which is a danger zone and why that theoretical maximum was formulated — to protect those with heart problems from approaching those thresholds. Thus the concepts or “aerobic” and “cardio” also derive from that focus on heart function alone as the measure of effectiveness. But in the hands of the highly competitive, what was originally designed as maximums that should not be broached, was interpreted by the jocks as minimums that must be exceeded each and every time to be productive.

That is not true. The central focus in exercise is not how hard the heart works, but how effectively the muscle one wishes to develop is working — to increase the blood flow through that area — which is the circulatory effect — that more sensibly, has to be measured at the extremities rather than at the heart — because that is the objective — to pump the blood to the farthest reaches of the body, and not just to the heart itself. The heart always gets all the blood — by design. But the muscles don’t — unless they are activated in the same manner as the heart — in alternately contracting fully and relaxing fully, which makes its an auxillary pump.

That muscle mass is about 30% of the body weight — as opposed to the one pound heart — which people think is erroneously pushing the blood singlehandedly throughout the body as well as lifting hundreds of pounds externally. What the body does, is use favorable leverage to perform such tasks — rather than the naive notion that one simply has to make the heart alone work harder and faster — until it fails completely, and that is not a desirable outcome. Instead, one wants to produce as much results as possible, at a slow and steady pace — which usually makes the difference over time.

Meanwhile, the high-intensity guys are usually resting — which is a hell of a way to get anything done — but that’s what they think they are doing. But as people get older and wiser, they recognize that if they can still move through a great range, they are way ahead of the game, and that more than increasing resistance over a decreasing range, is the quality of life and movement they want.

High and low intensity is inherently the wrong way to think about it — because the focus is on working the heart harder and faster — rather than whether the muscles of the body are working as the heart does — making the entire musculature dedicated to the circulatory effect — which produces the optimal health and all its benefits.

Everything You Do Matters

 Everything you do matters. That is to say that everything has consequences (effects) — whether one knows it at the time or not. The fact that one can get out of bed — or a chair makes a difference — from not being able to do it at all — anymore. The biggest difference is being able to do one — or not being able to do any. Once you do one, then two, and how many others after that — is made possible, because you can do the one. So how one does the one, becomes the prototype for future success — because most movements are the repetition of that one movement — and that practice, makes perfect. That is the economy and efficiency of movement that shapes the body and the psyche.

Those who become the best at it, are the world champions — at whatever they do. Obviously the best at what they do, are not learning it from someone less capable than themselves — and so are essentially self-taught. as well as self-learned — and so that self-discovery and self-actualization is the transformative experience of mastering the art of being one’s best — and that is the whole point of exercise, and not just mindlessly doing what somebody else tells them they must do — often to their own detriment.

That kind of mentoring makes one resentful of everything they are doing — as though self-punishment and self-annihilation is the point. Thus the experience of pain is the gain — which later on in life extinguishes itself because of that negative reinforcement. As one gets older, aches and pain are what one is trying to cure — and not cause, because that is the default in growing older. The cessation of pain and suffering is the major objective of lifelong exercise, and in doing so, optimizes the health, functioning and well-being — and that is the purpose of exercise often lost in the misguided intents — and especially competitions with others for dubious achievements.

If one can simply reach one hundred years of life in healthy condition — with no signs of aging, then that says it all — and there is no need for further contests to determine their fitness. Very rarely does one need to prove their fitness with any arbitrary achievement. In most cases, a formidable presence and appearance is enough to deter attackers who invariably look for the most vulnerable — before engaging in combat or competition. The one who looks and acts like the winner, is usually acknowledged as such.

So at one hundred, it is not necessary to squat 500 lbs — but enough to just look like one could — and move like one can. Not too many people get there with conventional and traditional exercise strategies. So it must be something beyond that — even if one has to pioneer that knowledge themselves for all those to follow. Having observed exercise all my life, what seems to be the key to maintaining full functioning and health is the blood flow to the extremities of the body — which implies the blood flow through the rest of the body in getting there, which produces muscle growth because of optimizing those conditions that enable it — even before they are aware of bodybuilding as a goal in itself.

Many then think that it is the lifting of heavy weights that cause muscle and strength growth — but in time, actually becomes a deterrent to continued participation -- and ultimately the cause of aches and pains rather than its relief and cure. And so they stop exercising entirely — ensuring and speeding their aging deterioration.

As best as I can determine, the best exercise for maintaining the baseline health is sitting in a tripod chair and doing alternate heel raises, while simultaneously articulating the fist movement at the wrist, and turning the head from side to side — as is not practical and dangerous on a regular bicycle — but I nevertheless did on daylong rides on little trafficked country roads to restore the circulation to my hands and head. I frequently do this when I wake up at night and can’t get back to sleep immediately and this allows me to exercise silently and inobtrusively. And when one realizes that it is these subtle movements at the neck, wrists, and ankles that imply the engagement of the rest of the musculature and circulatory system, it can be done  inconspicuously anywhere, anytime, under any conditions, with or without equipment — by properly understanding the functioning of the human body — without all the commercial considerations getting in the way.

Exercising the Brain

 The brain/head responds to physical exercise in the same way that all the other regions of the body do — and even more so because it is the highest priority of the body because it regulates all the other functions of the body. As such, any thinking person would ensure that all the physical exercise strategies would be directed there — above everything else.

One will note that people with lack of brain function also lack head movement — and it is movement that largely determines blood flow — particularly full range head movement that articulates the fullest contraction with the fullest relaxation of that muscle producing that movement. That is why exercise works to increase muscle functioning and development. By creating that alternation of muscular states — just as the heart works unfailingly — it works as a pump, which produces a flow — by alternating the volume of that muscle, which in turn, increases and decreases the pressure — which is the basic principle of fluid dynamics.

All the oxygen and other nutrients don’t matter if they never flow to the places desired for that health and functioning. And while the heart always does its job, that is its job, and should not be expected to do everything else — like powering a 500 lb deadlift, squat or bench press. For that to happen, one would recruit the greater mass of muscles in the body, often comprising one-third of the bodyweight. The heart is only a one pound muscular organ — and to make it work harder and faster is not what produces better outcomes — but engaging the much greater muscular mass — which in many contemporary people these days, does nothing or very little — and thus the atrophying of those organs for lack of that enhanced circulation caused by those regular (rhythmic) muscular contractions.

Thus one notices that the particular vulnerabilities of the body are at its extremities — which are the feet, hands and head — in which the lack of optimal circulation produces the accumulations we note as inflammation (edema, lymphedema, lipedema, arthritis, neuropathy, etc.) The obvious and simple remedy is simply to effect those rhythmic contractions in some kind of conventional and familiar exercise — but even more effectively, just intentionally effect those alternating muscular states expressly for the purpose of the circulatory effect. That would be a 21st century understanding of the effectiveness of exercise — rather than the muddled understanding most have of it, no matter how fancy the jargon and explanations get — or how costly the wonder supplements are.

It is as simple as understanding the basics of flow — just as in the basics of understanding the functioning of life. Without the proper circulation, there is no health and optimal development, and at its most rudimentary level, there is no life at all, or decreasing functionality. The full range movement of the head, from left to right, and up and down, is the first indication of how well the brain is actually functioning — because of that effectiveness of movement and circulation. Yet that obviousness is almost never tested — and so the lack of proper functioning of the brain and head is not detected until too late. It is also the same with feet and hands that need to be amputated — because that functioning is already cut off as dead tissues threatening remaining tissue.

We know the compromised hand as weakened grip strength, and the weakened foot as the swollen feet, but think there is nothing amiss when the neck muscles obviously atrophy — and beyond that lies the brain. How much effective circulation must it be getting — if the development is caused by the enhanced, optimal flow? And the thing to understand about effective blood flow, is that it is caused by the contraction back towards the heart — rather than the heart forcing blood into already filled volumes — as is the present misunderstanding and why exercise does not work for many people. The understanding (paradigm) is entirely wrong about the heart being the prime mover in human action.

The heart’s role by being reliable, is to provide a constant ambient pressure — just as externally, the atmospheric pressure is a constant, ambient pressure — so that once the breathing compression (contraction) is relaxed, air merely flows into a lower pressure volume. That is also key to understanding the flow (circulation) throughout the body — and why some areas of the body develop and function well — while others languish for that lack of optimal conditions. One sees that immediately when the eyes light up — in response to that difference. Obviously, there is something going on in the brain and head that wasn’t happening in lieu of such movements. That is the brain operating on oxygen — and the other nutrients brought by effective, enhanced, optimal blood flow — which affects all the functioning of the body.

That is the critical path and role of the brain in every body — that is usually taken for granted as being “optimal.” And instead, the focus is misplaced to the functioning and measurement of the heart — with the presumption that it too is operating “optimally.” But wishing it were so, doesn’t make it so. The poor condition of the neck is not the inevitable fate of growing old, but of the atrophying of the neck circulation that affects the circulation to that area and organs. To some extent, it is automatic — but it can be made much more effective and optimal — especially when there is a deficiency or decline in functioning. That is the role and function of proper use and exercise — enhanced by the better understanding of this process. It works on every body part of the body — because that is how life evolved, and continues to improve.