"Exercise" in the 21st Century

The bottom line is that we have to change our thinking -- as well as the way we talk about conditioning activities.  The "old" manner of talking about exercise, is a huge part of the problem -- that one has to run three miles every other day, or have to bench press our bodyweight as indicative of greater fitness.  Exercise doesn't work "even" for older people; it works "especially" for older people -- and people in deteriorating conditions.

But those "exercises" can't be ones that increase one's risk of injuries disproportionately to any benefits.  That's as preposterous as the health experts advising people to stand up all day -- as though that is the best thing for sore feet, aching knees and backs.  I don't know how many times I've heard a 100 year old frail and blind person explain that they fell trying to follow their expert's advice to walk a half hour each day.

That's not an appropriate activity for such an individual.  And any running would be worse.  But one can create movements they can do in bed, sitting, or standing in one place -- when they realize the really meaningful movement, has to take place at the critical joints of the head, hands and feet -- rather than the attention to the autonomic functions of the heart beat and breathing -- which is the problem when they persist, when movements (and activities) at the head, hands and feet, are no longer exhibited in any meaningful and responsive action.

And reviving 5,000 year old understandings of the human body and health -- as the latest and greatest new insights, are moving in the wrong direction -- towards a 21st century vision of actualizing lifelong health of extended durations.  The parameters for these measurements and discussions focus on the wrong things -- and simply doing more of the same things, is not the answer but the problem.  People won't do them because it doesn't make perfectly good sense.  When things make perfectly good sense, there's nothing more important or effective for them to do to begin each day.

That is the clarity they have to begin each day with -- or no amount of coercion masquerading as "physical education," will overcome.

The Exception is the (Greater) Rule

Some "highly educated people" think that the object in life, is to see no difference in everything -- rather than the uniqueness in everything.  And so they think they've seen everything, when they have not even begun to see anything, or to look earnestly.  So even when something is new and different, they will only see it as the same, and are quite content to confirm that it is what they already know -- even thought they have not even begun to inquire and investigate.  They just know they are right -- and there is nothing more to know.  That is the end-all and be-all of any inquiry -- just to confirm what they already know, and have done -- repeated one more time.

In that manner, nothing new will ever be discovered -- but only the ancient wisdom confirmed, reasserted, repeated -- as though nothing new can ever be discovered, or will ever be.  And of course, for such people, nothing ever will -- though they will claim to know many things, because they have been the invariably same thing repeated through the generations.  Such minds, and therefore bodies, become old before their time, and there is nothing they can do about it -- because that is the way it is -- and there is nothing they can do about it, etc.

People just age badly, because that is what they were meant to do -- and there is nothing to do but commiserate, as the fate all must endure -- and not that life and fate could be any other way, as it must be, for the few who will be the successful exceptions to the rule of failure.  One will invariably know only that failure, until one discovers the success against it.  That is what individuals who are successful, eventually do.  They find a way to overcome and prevail, against the rule of failure, that thus far prevailed and ruled life until that point.

That is what changes life -- and the world, and not just repeating the failures and mistakes forevermore.  Individuals find a way to win, and prevail, when the collective wisdom and "the averages" say they can't, and suggest they should not even try, or even think about it.  All must simply acquiesce, or give in, to what those who claim to know all, and better, say is the rules for all time -- just as they have always been up to now, and nothing more is possible -- because all knowledge and wisdom, was perfected long ago -- by their chosen ones, and it is heresy to believe anyone can do any other, more, or differently -- under threat of even death, which they feel comfortable and justified to enforce.

That is invariably "the news," just as it has been for all time before -- and not that the real news, is the unveiling of the challenge to the rules revealing a greater underlying truth -- formerly dismissed, as only an exception to the rule, and an aberration not worth knowing about.  Thus the "law of averages," remain inviolable and sacrosanct, as laid down previously by "the authorities," which are the self-appointed few of every profession and self-interest.  They are "the experts," and no further proof and demonstration, is required other than their say so, which must not be questioned -- or the gods themselves would be upset.

That was the old world order -- that new information revealed as the limits to thinking that retarded the progress, until it too was challenged and overcome -- and life became very different, for the next generations to come.  It has always been that way -- until it isn't, and becomes the critical failure, at which life ceases as we know it -- and something radically and unfamiliarly new and different, comes into being -- as the natural evolution of how it must be -- with or without us.  Life will go on.

But the question for every individual, is to remain a part of it -- and not the many falling by the wayside -- until we can't.  That is quite different, from the many who drop out, because they refused to find a way to go on -- but were discouraged and frustrated at every turn, until they simply gave up trying and waited for their end -- even for however long that might be.

For too many, that is sadly when one no longer has dedicated teachers and guidance for their improvement -- and they are "on their own," to provide it for themselves -- as the successful individuals, they are conditioned to be.  Instead, they learn all the wrong lessons -- that plagues them all their lives.  Society then has no recourse, except that they must enforce the rules for such persons, because they cannot mature as individuals -- discovering the truth for themselves, as the exception to the rules -- they are uniquely privileged to discover for themselves.  That is the reward, of their very living -- and not just what everyone is "entitled" to, regardless of how they live their lives.

That is the reason for their living -- and the meaning and purpose of their lives, they've given to themselves.  That is very different from those who think that "Shit happens," and because of that, they have no control over their own lives, but should control everybody else's -- for the same results, or worse.  What is important for such people, is that all experience the same results -- without variation, or individuation, because their golden rule, is that everything be the same, for everyone, for all time.  That is their "Paradise," and what they strictly enforce.

They simply do what everybody else does -- thinking "more" is all they can do -- and never differently, or better.  Such things are not possible -- to their way of thinking.  Only more or less -- in only one way of thinking.  And so their problems are never solved, but only get worse with time and age -- until the critical failure when it is impossible to continue any longer.  But that is not the one way it has to be for everyone.  That is the value of those who discover the "exceptions to the rule" -- that reveal the even greater truth lying undiscovered beneath it.  It was there all along too.

It was the "simpler" truth -- there for the taking, but nobody could figure out how to make their exclusive profit from it -- and so it languished, neglected and ignored, until impossible to overlook anymore.  It was the mountain overshadowing all the molehills people claimed as their exclusive turf and could work their own profit from.  That is the greater life beyond present imagination to recognize -- that transforms life immeasurably without such limits and preconceived notions of what it is.

Easy Does It

Most people who think that exercise has to be hard and difficult, end up not doing any -- because just the thought alone, is enough to discourage them. Eventually, it is not even a consideration, or an impossibility -- for some trivial reason. They just never "go there" anymore.  What do they do instead?

Exercise is what one actually does -- and not just the thought of doing something, that one doesn't. The human capacity is expressed in this manner -- or loses that capability for the lack of its actualization and expression (exercise).  One tends to keep and improve those capabilities they actually express -- as the requirement to keep them intact, fully functioning, and improving as long as one does so

Those faculties not exercised, naturally atrophy and are extinguished as unnecessary baggage particularly with diminishing resources.  That is just the way it has to be.  So at all times, one has to be choosing to do this or that, and not that by doing neither, all capacities remain in top form -- just because they ought to.

People become good at what they practice (exercise), whether it is beneficial to do so or not. That is their conditioning - and far from doing just one thing, an obviously better approach is to determine what range of movements and actions one wishes to become good at -- even if at first, they don't start off doing it perfectly.  A large part of any practice, is to simply become better and more efficient at it -- to make it easier and more disposed to moving in that way.  Those variations are not unlimited. -- but they are varied -- and not just one motion, repeated as the entirety of one's repertoire of movements -- enabling all whenever one has to.

The superior performer, has a greater range of movements than just the one done repetitiously and unvaryingly -- as many people's choice of the one capacity they wish to maintain, while the rest are neglected, and predictably atrophy. In this perspective, running alone would be a very poor choice of an adequate response to most real life demands  In fact, it is distinctly useless in contemporary life -- when the speed of transmission, is the speed of light and electricity.

The obvious and most visible places people deteriorate, are the extremities of the head, hands and feet, that even athletes who should know better, regard merely as stumps -- which they often become -- because those parts are never moved.  That has a catastrophic effect on doing those things most important and critical to do -- and not merely speeding up the autonomic functions of breathing and heart beat.  Autonomic means simply that -- that they don't require conscious thought and effort to effect or optimize, and as we often see, many can go on breathing and beating, for many years beyond any other willful motions of intent and expression -- which is the bane of lengthy lives -- with no other meaningful and willful capacities.

Fine motor coordination and capacities is the first thing lost, and is the most reliable predictor of declining health -- rather than breathing and heart beat, that can distressingly continue way beyond most resources to support in that state.  The appearance and functioning at those extremities, are the indicators (whether people realize it or not), of vitality and responsiveness -- that most people consciously ignore, and are never taught (or learn), as the highest expressions of human capacity and life.

That is what needs to be exercised -- no matter how much one runs, jumps, bicycles, walks -- without attention to those extremities of expression -- as in writing, drawing, playing an instrument, taking care of oneself as deftly and skillfully as possible.  It is a very serious disability not to be able to feed oneself.  Those abilities don't just disappear easily -- but have to be maintained, as well as perfected just as children are taught to do, as their basic conditioning (education) in life.  But as people get older, all that is taken for granted, and when there is serious dysfunction and disability, few think there is anything they can do about it -- like making that development the focus of their activities (exercise), rather than all the other things that are doing fine without that need for attention and attentiveness.

One has to address those needs and weakness -- and not simply divert all one's time and energies to doing what doesn't need to be done -- thinking that is all one can do.