Exercise is not the Enemy

 Exercise doesn’t require one to be standing, walking, running or jumping — but can be done sitting, lying, or floating. When one considers what they cannot do — because of illness or injury, they can realize all the other exercises they can do instead — and even create a few new ones for themselves. That is ultimately what fitness is all about — adapting to the present circumstances and challenges — to do what is advantageous to do — even if one hasn’t done them before. It is a good time to start, and if not now, when will they ever get around to it?

There’s nothing in the book that says that one has to be doing the same things they’ve always done before. In fact, that is a prescription and advice to become less fit and adaptable — so if one cannot do a particular thing — as one has always done before, it is an opportunity to do what they haven’t done before — and strengthen their repetoire of responses.

As long as one is still alive, some movements (change) are possible, but when it stops completely, then life has ended for that animate being. With over 600 voluntary (skeletal) muscles, some movement is possible — even if they are not the one’s one is used to doing regularly, if not unfailingly, but if they are not possible, then one merely need consider what else is possible — under those circumstances, and do the best they can with it, if nothing else better is possible. In that doing, they may find out what they haven’t known before. Making those discoveries, are even more important than doing the same things all the time — and might even work better. One won’t know, until one finds out — and that is the exercise.

Only a few exercises require one to stand, walk or run. Many exercises can be done seated; in fact when one goes to a gym, more often than not, one is doing them seated — or lying if there are mats around. It is quite possible to design an exercise routine around only lying exercises — because that doesn’t preclude any other strictures than the one. The problem is that many are conditioned only to do one thing — and not the many things possible even for that one person. That is the joy and expression of life — and movement — to do what they’ve never done before — as well as what they’ve always done before — even if it is just more of the same.

In fact, the whole conditioning process is to prepare oneself for the next level — whatever that is, and wherever it takes them: that is the adventure of their lives. It doesn’t have to be world records — or even personal bests — but each thing done to its best, creates the precedent for subsequent achievements. That’s how practice makes perfect — or more often enough, better. But it actually has to be doing something — and not just thinking about the many things one can do but never actualize. That is the integration of body with mind — which one hopes to achieve in every exercise.

So does that require optimal conditions and equipment for that? — or accomplishing that despite the adversity and lack, the joy and purpose of it all? That joy and repurposing, is what recreation is all about — re-creating the self, to live a better life. As long as one is doing that, they’re doing their best — with what they have, and that is all one can ask of themselves. But just to lie there and give up and do nothing, is not going to be sustainable and productive. Yet many these days, seem to have reached that point — and demand that everyone else must do for them what they refuse to do for themselves. That enables disabilities and handicaps — rather than overcoming them in every possible way — and hoping that capability for everyone else as well.

What else better does one have to do? They need to figure out a way out of their predicament. Surely they have all the time in the world until they do — and there is nothing more important for them to do. If they can’t use their legs, then they can still exercise (use) their arms — or head. Often, the most productive movement one can do is to move their heads — which many haven’t moved since the advent of television eliminating that necessity. That’s why the common trait of atrophy in most people is the deterioration at the neck, forearms (hands), and lower legs (feet) — and their functionality as they age. In fact, that deterioration is the cause of that aging — as well as its chief manifestation. Most just accept that as the normal facts of aging — rather than the keys to not. That is where the breakdown is critical — to the survival of the whole.

Those are the axes most important to move around — because that control, determines the extent and effectiveness of the circulation (blood flow). When one does that, they have optimized the conditions for functioning up to the challenge of the moment. Movement focused at the extremities, affects all the supporting muscles back to the center of the body — because they are connected to do so. Those are the key movements for the sick and disabled to focus all their attention and energies on — to make them well again, and to get better. They don’t have to move their entire mass from one place to another — as an actual requirement of productive and meaningful exercise. They need to note what is the least expenditure that produces the maximum benefits — and not just the maximum expenditure even when it might be injurious, counterproductive, or unnecessary.

Exercise is not the enemy. It is what one actually does.

Exercise Is Like CPR for the Rest of the Body

Just about everybody knows by now that when the heart stops pumping (contracting), one can manually get it working by compressing the chest that houses the heart and lungs -- because the alternation of contraction (of the chest volume) with relaxation (expansion of the chest volume) effects a flow by the laws of fluid (gas) dynamics.  That is to note that as a volume contracts (gets smaller), the pressure within that volume increases -- and moves to an area in which there is a lesser pressure.  And then when a volume increases, the pressure decreases, and pressure from a higher area moves into that lower pressure -- as is the case when the normal atmospheric pressure of 14.7 lbs per square inch is higher than the pressure of the lungs that have been previously compressed.  

Simply put, volume is inversely related to pressure -- and that is what is affecting movement in the human body and not gravity.  That is to say that gravity is not the prime mover in the body but pressure is -- and that is particularly important in the movement of blood and other fluids (gas) within the body -- because that is what is keeping us functioning, and beyond that, healthy and growing.  Under normal conditions, the heart works unfailingly, and will be the last thing that does -- until finally, it ultimately fails to work automatically (autonomously).

That is the greatest part of the cardiovascular system -- that half that operates automatically and pushes the blood out of the heart into the rest of the body.  But once it gets into the capillaries and tissues, the heart has done its job -- and can have little effect on the blood returning back to the heart and recycling/purifying organs of the body -- like the lungs, liver, kidneys, etc.  If that doesn't happen, then the toxicity of the body builds up -- which is the problem of inflammation (swelling) where those waste products simply accumulate in the tissues, and is not eliminated and recycled by the organs designed for that purpose.  That process keeps the body healthy, well-functioning, and growing -- because in that evacuation of that space, new nutrients have room to move into -- but not if the old remains and becomes the resistance to that healthy process.

While the heart will work tirelessly and unceasingly in its role and function, the voluntary muscles provide that driving force in the clearing process -- and that is the reason that those in the habit of performing such voluntary (skeletal) muscle contractions, develop much more prodigiously and prolifically.  That's just the physics (reality) of the life processes -- that those who perform that work, are rewarded in that way.  To a certain extent, those life processes can be maintained at a minimally subsistence level -- but knowing that, it can also be conducted to higher levels of effectiveness and efficiency.  That has been well-noted for ages -- that those who do more, have more to show for it.  It is not a random world in which all outcomes are the same no matter how much or how little one does.

But it is far more than how much or how little -- but more importantly, whether one is doing the right things -- and not simply anything -- as though all that matters is how many calories are being consumed and expended.  Some actions produce greater desirable results -- for the same, or in fact, less energy -- but doing all the right things, and not merely as much as possible of anything -- as though it doesn't matter.

That is a very flawed but common understanding of what exercise is -- and why many things it doesn't matter, or might even be counterproductive to a good life -- rather than the reason and basis of a good, rewarding, and richer life.  Because it matters and makes a difference in subsequently everything one does.

What is important to understand is the significance of the alternating contraction and relaxation cycle -- which is produced by the position in which the muscle must be contracted, and the position in which it is relaxed -- and just alternating those positions produces that flow within the body -- more importantly than any external work produced -- like the lifting of weights, running, jumping, etc.  Then once that simplicity is reduced to that essential understanding, productive exercise can be conducted under any conditions and age because one is simply optimizing the functioning of the human body and its processes -- which is obviously meant to be.

Those are the basics -- optimized.  Recognizing that, one would be a fool not to take advantage of that to improve their functioning at everything they do -- especially in prioritizing that flow and development to the most important aspects and organs of the body at the head, hands and feet -- rather than trying to change the heart beat.  That takes care of itself -- as the fundamental of life in everyone.  What makes the biggest difference, is working the muscles of the body similar to the heart in effecting the optimal circulation possible -- and not simply making the heart work harder and faster, which is the characteristic enlarging and weakening of the heart noted in heavy exercisers.  Instead, one wants all the other muscles of the body to work harder in assisting the heart in optimizing the circulation -- which invariably causes those muscles to be developed and grow to their highest possibilities because they are also the greatest beneficiaries of doing so.

That requires one to know in what position the muscle must be contracted, and what position they are relaxed, and simply alternating those positions.  It is not the resistance to doing so that is productive -- but the understanding and recognition of what those positions are -- and alternating them for at least 50 times to produce fatigue -- which is the resistance within the body, and not external to it as many people think, or those exercises would continue to be productive after they reach a certain age when it famously does not, but only increases the wear and tear on the body unnecessarily, until they abandon such activities entirely.

But then, one doesn't want to know what may have worked 50 years ago -- but doesn't now when they need it to work the most.  They need to know what works now -- and for the remainder of their lives -- because it has to.  Those are the laws of nature -- and not merely wishful-thinking that it can overcome those realities.