Risks and Rewards

 The most significant contribution of Arthur Jones in developing the Nautilus principles and machines was not variable resistance through the full range of movement around one axis — but actually determining in what position that muscle had to be in to be fully contracted and fully relaxed — because it is the alternation between those muscular states — that determines the blood flow (circulation), and that is what produces health, growth, and optimal functioning. To him, that was incidental to developing machines that would be “foolproof” in ensuring that a person did precisely the right movement — and ensuring the results he “guaranteed.”

However, he did not account for trainees to actually subvert the intended functioning of his equipment — usually by lifting more weight than could be maintained by the proper performance. The machines were not designed to enable one to lift the most weights, but actually to exhaust the muscles using the least amount of resistance. All that got lost in training and selling machines to those who believed that using the most weight (resistance) was what produced optimal results — rather than by achieving the greatest difference in the state of muscular contraction and relaxation — just as the heart is effective in pumping blood out towards the extremities by that same action.

However, contrary to popular belief, the heart cannot force blood through the miles of capillaries, in which the purpose of that evolutionary design is to slow the blood down to where it can efficiently exchange gases with the resident tissue — at which point, contractions of the muscles at those extremities that contain the capillaries (at the head, hands, and feet), are effective at contracting (pumping) that blood back to towards the heart aided by the veins that allow blood to flow in only that direction back towards the heart (center of the body). It is two different set of blood vessels, and not just the heart providing the motive power for all the blood flow. That is the greatest misunderstanding of cardiovascular functioning and exercise effectiveness.

That is why exercise — or more specifically, contractions at those extremities, cause blood flow that ensures the elimination and removal of those accumulating and stagnant metabolic waste products (inflammation), and then allowing the new nutrients that ensure health, development and optimal functioning — as Nature intended. That process ensures the health and well-being of that individual — and not simply wanting it more than everybody else — as the jocks fancy it is.

So, far and away the most important thing, is to understand the science of this process — and not simply lifting the most weight possible. Thus the squat, deadlift, bench press are not the most effective exercises as often touted — but are simply those movements that allow one to use the most weight — regardless of whether they produce the desired results. As many have known and proven time and again, lifting the most weights possible, is a precursor for a career-ending injury, while a better objective for most, is to obtain the maximum benefits with the least amount of risk and injury. That is the wise strategy no matter what one is doing.

And hopefully by now, many more are entertaining how well they are functioning, or can function at all, when they are 75, rather than thinking that any price at 25, ensures their glory for the rest of their years. That has been the predictable failing in the traditional sports model as the template for lifelong fitness and health. It won’t matter how good one was at 25, when one is absolutely no good at 75 — and god forbid, even live another 25 years in that persistently declining condition.

After all, this is the 21st Century and the Space Age — and not just the continuation of the Cave man era — when life was assuredly, short, nasty and brutal. Then the future did not matter — and how one hoped to improve for it. It was just “one and done” — at every opportunity. And so life has persisted with that kind of attitude and outlook — rather than in thinking it is for a better tomorrow, and day after that… So yeah, excessive drinking, smoking, eating, driving recklessly and fast, has consequences and long term effects, and not taking the maximum risks just because one can.

The Future of Exercise

 In order of descending importance, the organs which one would most want to improve, are the head, hands and feet — which conventional exercises pay very little attention to and frequently regard as nothing more than stumps, but which will always make the greatest difference in one’s health, development and functioning. This is also the reason that conventional exercises don’t seem to work as one gets older and really needs them to work — because it increasingly becomes a matter of life and death. When one is young, it seems that everything can work — even if they are uncertain what does work from all their frenetic activity. Thus we .typically see the legendary bodybuilder or athlete, who is dumbstruck in their later years, that what they thought worked, doesn’t now, when it matters the most.

One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist, brain surgeon, or god forbid, a PE teacher to notice that the familiar pattern of deterioration and aging at the neck, hands and feet where circulation is poorest, and the simple value of exercise, is that it enhances the circulation specifically to those areas actually moved at those joints, or axis of rotation. There is movement around those joints because the muscles providing that movement either shorten (contract) or lengthen (relax), and that alternation of the contraction with a relaxation, produces the pumping effect — just as the heart does in pumping the blood out towards the extremities.

However, once they get out to the capillaries, the heart which weighs less than a pound, cannot push the blood through the miles of capillaries, but are reliant on the skeletal muscles to contract and push the blood back towards the heart as its motive force, and upon relaxation, has cleared space for the new blood and nutrients to easily enter. That understanding greatly reduces the work of the heart while enhancing the circulatory effect.

Many scientists, researchers and exercisers have come to realize that the source of all disease and deterioration in the human body is due to inflammation —or the lack of this efficient and effective circulation. And so the fluids merely pool in the tissues — in the familiar forms of fluid retention (edema, lymphedema, lipedema, obesity, neuropathy, arthritis, etc). Properly thought out muscle contractions alternated with relaxations, optimizes the flow that keeps the body healthy, growing, and functioning (moving). The moving is also the lubrication for such movements.

None of this has to be traumatic or dramatic — but can be achieved just with the proper understanding of these cause and effects. It has very little to do with the common markers for such achievement — such as calories expended, sweat generated, weight lifted, miles moved, etc. The relevant and productive movement, is what occurs at the neck, wrist and ankles — and everything else is a lot less important — particularly for productive exercise as one ages, is disabled, or even hopeless. If one increases the flow to the brain, one has already made a quantum leap in improvement, and then next in importance, improved the flow to the hands, and then the feet — which is the usual progression of deterioration of the human body.

In the long evolution of the human being, these movements were necessary to insure one’s survival. If one was incapable of turning their head, they had no idea what dangers lurked behind them. And then when they recognized the dangers, the ability to throw a rock, or a spear, required the proper flick of the wrist to perfect that accuracy — just as one shoots a basketball, throws a ball, and hits with a racquet oor bat. It is the wrist movement that gives that effort meaning. Similarly, the full articulation of the foot movement acts as a lever against the earth (ground) — allowing them to maneuver into the most advantageous place or position. So merely shuffling one’s feet with no such leveraging effect, does very little to maintain that mobility and circulation. The hands and feet are not just stumps — but actually the marvel of human evolution — along with a large brain.

That advantageous equipment does not come without a high cost — and justifying the highest expenditure of resources to optimize. So once one has that critical understanding of the body, and how it was designed and evolved to work, then one can hone those faculties into finely tuned instruments — rather than the brute force one thinks works miracles. It’s like the cell phone. It works much better the more one understands how it is designed to work, rather than using it as a hammer on every occasion and opportunity.

On days when r I feel particularly lazy and lethargic, I know the best thing I can do to wake up is to increase the flow to my head — which means turning it as far to the left and then right — at least for a count of 50, or at least a minute of sustained movement. Any sustained effort, will raise the heart rate above the resting heart — which is automatically “cardio.” And the 50 repetitions ensures that it is also an aerobic exercise — done “with breathing” — as opposed to only one or two repetitions without breathing — which is very stressful and demanding on the heart. One will frequently note that exercisers of that sort, frequently have enlarged, weakened hearts because of the unfairly disproportionate demands placed on the heart with minimal contractions at the extremities — inn the condition known as congestive heart failure — which is so named in the belief that it is the fault of the heart for not working hard enough — while the organs at the extremities remain immobilized. And so the fluids continue to accumulate to what seems the bursting point of what the skin can contain. It’s not a pleasant sight — and in its extreme forms, those appendages are heavily wrapped and further immobilized.

All the more need to produce muscular contractions at those tissues — while reducing the work the heart has to do. That is a large part of the aging process — that the heart gets weaker, necessitating the need for the skeletal (voluntary) muscles should contribute more to that healthful circulation — as the most important work it can do. Far beyond any competitive activity or sport. The problem is that many people make a game of it, rather than realize it is seriously the best thing one can do — with their muscles — to ensure their health and fitness.

That is the future of exercise.