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.