Optimal Conditions for Exercise

 The key to understanding exercise under any circumstances and conditions is the importance of the circulatory effect and how it is effected by the change in muscle states from contraction to relaxation (expansion). The prime example of this is the function of the heart — which is dedicated to providing this ambient constant pressure outwards towards the extremities.

However, the flow back towards the heart is not provided by that same functioning — but then is determined by the extent of the skeletal (voluntary) muscles compressing the fluids back towards the heart and central organs of the body to recycle, purify and eliminate waste products out of the body, and the failure to do so, largely accounts for the accumulation of these toxic substances in the tissues as the inflammation (swelling) that is seen as the source of all human dysfunction, disrepair, deterioration and eventually death.

In that sense, the body is an ecosystem dependent on the exchange with the greater environment — taking in food, air, water, other nutrients, and eliminating it from the body in an optimal interdependence. Simply put, that is taking in the new, and getting rid of the old, as the normal, healthy process of life — and therefore, anything that aids in that process, facilitates the health, and that which impedes those processes, have to be addressed, accommodated, and adapted for as much as is practicable in living one’s life, and prolonging those possibilities.

Simply put, one has to put in that effort to survive, and then beyond that, to flourish and prosper beyond the most primitive hand-to-mouth survival — in building up more than adequate reserves to deal with even greater challenges and rewards. Life for every living creature is not automatic and entitled. One has to do the necessary — and the basics, which should not be taken for granted just because they are provided for at a minimal, subsistence level — such as a heart beat. That is the minimal that will keep us alive — but beyond that, we wish to have greater capacities to do the many things that the human mind can conceive of.

So whether one is bedridden, chair-bound, or forced to stand all day, the requirements for effective exercise remain the same — and that is how effectively the body can move the metabolic waste products out of the body — and in that same process, create the space for new nutrients to enter — in changing the muscular states that produce contraction and compression. How much weight, or how far or fast one moves the entirety of the body is irrelevant for this purpose — because the only thing that matters, is the movement of the fluids out of the tissues at it most distant end. Those extremities are the head, hands, and feet — in that order of importance.

That is also the order of decline in most badly aging people. While it is difficult to determine cognitive decline and mental functioning, what is obvious and overlooked, is the decline in the muscularity and condition of the neck and face — which are the indications of the effectiveness of the circulation to those furthest reaches of the body — that people think there is very little they can do something about. There is also very little or nothing they think they can do about a weakening grip or unsteady foot — when these areas can be impacted most easily and greatly by exercise — or movements at these end joints.

Instead, they place great emphasis and importance of movement everywhere else — and especially on increasing the rate at which the always working heart is now demanded to increase the circulatory effect throughout the mass that is at least 100 times the mass of the heart. Meanwhile, the rest of their muscles still do nothing — and they are stunned when they continue to deteriorate dramatically even as they make their heart work harder and harder — until it ultimately fails. That was never the problem.

The problem was that the fluids were accumulating in the extremities of the feet, hands, and head, and they were not producing the movements at those joints (axes) to push out accumulation — and when they do that, they realize they can instantly transform themselves into their highest functioning selves — just as Nature intended and designed the body to — anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances it is required to — to optimize its chances for survival. Other animals grow twice as big when threatened.

That is the primary talent and skill bodybuilders have and cultivate to get better at. That they shrink back to “normal” is quite expected — because one doesn’t have to be at peak form all the time. Only when they have to — same as all the other animals in nature. They do only what they have to do — and keep the rest in reserve — for when they have to. The rest is just a waste of time, effort and resources — devoted to all the irrelevant things — while the really important, go completely unrecognized, ignored, and merely taken for granted — as nothing can be done about it. That is where it makes the most difference. Those are the true markers of the vitality and condition of an aging (deteriorating) individual — the appearance of the neck, hands and feet — implying the health and circulation of the rest.

It is not weight and resistance that determines that — but range of motion at those most distal axes — that trigger the rest of the musculature. It’s always been as simple as that.