Understanding Flow

 There’s nothing magical about weights and equipment; the magic is in understanding how the body works — and not unceasingly more effort with the wrong understanding — in the thinking that brute force is what works. That is why things break — rather than work better.

So the critical understanding in why exercise works is that optimizing the circulation optimizes the health and functioning in every living being. In mammals that revolves around the constant pumping of the heart to effect the blow flow out to the extremities — but the problem then is that when the capillaries are already full (occupied), the heart cannot simply force the flow through. At that point, it requires the assistance of the muscles at the extremities to contract as the heart does — to effect the flow back towards the heart and central purifying/recycling organs of the body — and when it does that and then alternates a relaxation of those muscles, it has created space (vacuum) for the blood from the heart to enter with new nutrients for new growth. That is the reason muscles and their supporting systems grow, maintain, become healthier, and more proficient.

In the early days of evolution, life required movements to sustain life itself — but now with modern conveniences, it is quite possible for many people not to have to move at all — and so the blood and fluids don’t have these contractions that push the fluids out of the tissues — and so we see the common occurrence of inflammation (retained toxic waste products) that remain in the tissues and that buildup, destroys the nerves — in the peculiar neuropathies notable particularly at the extremities of the hands, feet, and head.

That commonly used to be called arthritis of the hands and feet, but also is noticeable in the atrophying of the neck muscles indicative of a reduced flow to the most critical part of the human body (the brain) — which most people think nothing can be done about it but to succumb to the inevitable aging process. In fact, when I pointed out this lack of head movement in those with dementias, I was told that the head can’t move — which of course is a huge part of the problem, because the head, hands and feet are made for moving — with its fine bones and intricate muscularity. That is what we don’t move in contemporary life — and why people come down with inflammatory diseases.

But the human is designed also with the capability to maintain and improve its health — by design. Muscles contract when the insertion (distal) of a muscle moves towards the origin (proximal) of that muscle — and never vice-versa, so that any contraction by its very design, will push the fluids in that muscle towards the heart and not away from it. But if one is only effecting that contraction at the shoulder girdle or the hip girdle, no contraction (movement) will take place beyond that axis of rotation (movement). That is why “cardio” will only make the heart work harder and faster — while doing nothing for any other muscle, and it shows in those who only do that, in the pipestem arms and legs, and pencil necks — no matter how much they cardio. The problem is not (never) that the heart is not working sufficiently hard — but the rest of the skeletal (voluntary) muscles are doing nothing — most, if not all the time.

The circulation is automatic at least to a minimal (life-sustaining) extent, but intentional and deliberate exercise (movement) at the furthest axes of the wrists, ankles, and neck — will optimize the flow to the most important and critical organs of the human body — and naturally have to develop the rest of the body in its natural predispositions and proportions — because nothing else is possible. That is not true of exercise and movements that immobilize those movements — and focus only on the heart, biceps, and abdominals.

While that is not so problematical with people in good health, it is nonproductive and even aggravates the problems of poor health — particularly in the senior, disabled and terminal populations. Having taught exercise from world class athletes to terminal, one notes that what works for the terminal, will also work for the world class athlete, but not vice-versa — because those are the general principles of physics and physiology that must work for everybody — and not just the exceptional one. That is the mistake all my friends made in designing exercise programs for the exceptional — rather than for everyone — beginning with what is most important to develop in every human being. And then beginning with this universal basics, the exceptional will rise above the crowd and display exceptional aptitude. That’s how it happens.

One will note that the furthest range of movement at the wrists, ankles, and neck — will engage and activate all the supporting muscle structures back towards the center of the body — along those meridians ending at what the ancient Chinese health practitioners called the “dantian.” Increasing the range of movement at the ankles, wrists, and neck triggers the supporting muscles back towards this center next to the heart where all the muscles are anchored. Understanding this interrelationship of all the muscles and how it is possible to effect a contraction in all or most of the muscles at once, is essential to obtaining the maximum benefits of circulation (movement), and how it can be practiced in outer space and other extraordinary conditions — because the conditions that keep one alive internally, are still intact.

The resistance is the fluid in the body — and that is what has to be moved, or life will cease. If it is optimized, then life and health will flourish — beyond the metrics by which it is often discussed, because beyond the weight, reps, distance, that is the bigger picture — over an entire lifetime, and not just the one moment of glory. So that is all one needs to understand to formulate their own effective and productive health regimen — effecting maximum contraction alternating with maximum relaxation so that the entirety of the muscular system works like the heart — rather than against it.