Any Time, Any Where

 Sitting or lying does not preclude being able to exercise. It can be done anywhere, at any time, under any conditions. ‘The prerequisite for beneficial exercise, is knowing what exercise is — and does, and not simply following the directives of some authoritarian figure presuming to know what is best for everybody — having never thought it through for themselves, but only being “conditioned” to do what they are commanded to. That’s what passes for exercise and physical education in unenlightened societies and cultures — and why there is great resistance to doing what doesn’t make perfectly good sense. But that is irrelevant because the “conditioning” to just do — without question or understanding, is the whole purpose and intent of such conditioning.

The rationale and justification for exercise is that it enhances the circulatory effect — beginning with the proper understanding of breathing — because it is oxygen and other nutrients that one is attempting to circulate, while effectively removing the accumulation of waste products of the body due to extraordinary exertion — as well as normal metabolic processes that are going on all the time as the minimum requirements for sustaining life at the most basic level. With that understanding of the “basics,” then one can concoct a strategy for maximizing those benefits while eliminating the invariable and inevitable negatives — which occurs in everything one does in life.

Thus, one assesses first, what is the reward to risk of what I’m proposing to do — rather than adopting the reckless abandon of thinking that “whatever doesn’t kill me, will make me stronger.” Life doesn’t work that way — so even the lion does not take on the bull elephant, or the shark the orca — which will surely kill them — no matter how many times they try. Instead, they know better to harvest the low-hanging fruit first before attempting to get at the most difficult — and precarious, thereby risking life and limb. Those are the inviolable rules of survival, and learning those lessons well, enables one to live a good and long life.

Sitting in itself is not a bad position to be in — and is usually preferred to standing all day, or even lying all day. If sitting precluded healthy exercise, then bicycle riding wouldn’t qualify as healthy exercise — nor would most of the equipment in the gym consist of flat and adjustable benches. Nor would the weightlifter or football player sit down at every chance they have. The problem with standing all day is the steady state muscle tension/relaxation that doesn’t vary which produces the pumping (circulatory) effect that rids the tissues of waste products and creates space for new nutrients. One has to precede the other — and the new cannot simply force out the old occupying that space.

That’s what muscle contraction does — squeeze out the old fluids — so upon that muscle relaxation, there is space to accept the new. That’s how breathing also works: the old has to be contracted (compressed) out first, and upon relaxation, the atmospheric pressure will fill the lungs with fresh air — and not simply that one can suck in air harder despite the lungs not being emptied first. “Lungs” very specifically means branching tissue — requiring air and fluids to take a very specific fixed path. It is not just a balloon where every random air molecule, can go wherever it wants to. The circulatory (blood) system also has that same construction — requiring the old first to be pushed out, and upon relaxation, new nutrients are drawn into that space (vacuum.)

Then when one has that proper understanding on that very fundamental and basic level, one can easily design the functioning that optimizes that. The contraction beginning at the furthest extremity (joint) will cause all that fluid to be evacuated towards the center of the body — but if there is no movement at those extremities — there is only a contraction from that joint actually moving — which may be minimally at the shoulder and hip girdles, while placing greater demands on the heart alone — and so that kind of exercise has been deemed “cardio,” because there is no commensurate effort otherwise. That is an artificial construct devised by people who sell “cardio” equipment, rather than the requirements of movement in the natural world, which would more accurately measure output rather than input.

That is to say, that it doesn’t matter how hard the heart can be forced to work, if it results in no measurable difference in output or outcomes. The far more meaningful measure, is the movement at the hands, feet and head — just like placing the thermostats at the farthest reaches of the house — and not in the furnace itself. It doesn’t matter how hard the heart is working — if it never gets that flow to the hands, feet and head — the critical faculties of the body. That’s where most of the senses are located.

It is a well-known phenomenon of contemporary life that those senses and faculties fail in people long before the heart does — because of this lack of effective circulation — resulting in weakened hand and foot strength, cognitive functioning indicated by the deterioration of the neck musculature and appearance, coinciding with decreasing head movement. Those are the joints and parts of the body that actually need to be moved — and is irrelevant whether one is standing, sitting, or lying — or for that matter, is in outer space.

The movement at the neck, wrists and ankles can all be effected sitting, lying, or standing — inconspicuously and largely unnoticed unlike most traditional exercises which aim to be as conspicuous and attention-seeking as possible. That is the way most people have been conditioned to think exercise “has to be” — appealing for the validation of others, and if nobody is going to pay them any mind, they’re just not going to do it. They don’t quite get it that exercise is good they are doing for themselves, and not for the good of everybody else — if that even makes sense. Thus, they won’t care, if everybody else doesn’t — first. And if nobody cares, they’ll quit at their first opportunity — or just won’t do it at all.

So the understanding has to precede the doing — and once one is clear about what they are doing, then it is a simple matter to devise the movements Nature quite intended for humans to do. Move the head left and right, up and down. Move the closed hand towards the palmward direction, and the knuckleward direction. Move the heels up and down, and feet side to side for 50 reps as an impromptu exercise whenever one has the opportunity to — and those motions, will increase the circulation to the extremities of the body — where the body begins to break down because of that deficiency of effective circulation.

Then once a week, have a gym workout — and maintain that schedule for the rest of their lives — for a higher intensity capability — using those same principles and priorities.

Making Exercise Easy and Possible

There is no lack of "teachers" who can make any subject difficult, complicated and impossible to understand -- and therefore master.  Promoting that, ensures their own lifelong job security -- until the student breaks free from that codependency -- and moves on.  

That is part of the journey in any learning -- which true teachers also recognize and encourage.  The bad teachers never want their students to move on and do without them -- and that is the problem of many primitive cultures in which the "witch doctors" keep as many people as possible under their personal control.  That is the essential feature of such societies -- the control by others, and power derived outside of oneself.

But with the development of civilization, individuals are increasingly empowered to be their own light and motive power -- rather than the instruments of any other -- particularly of forces they may never be aware of.  Then that is like living in those more primitive societies in which one never realizes who is pulling their strings and pushing their buttons-- as though they thought of these things themselves.

That's why it is so important to know oneself -- both the powers and limitations -- and in that process, discover the real -- and not just what somebody else would have them believe is the truth of the matter.  Many such teachers, would have us believe that what they know, is all that can be known -- when in fact, any explanation is not the ultimate truth but just the quest for a better explanation -- particularly if the explanation merely justifies why everything is going wrong -- working with that current "understanding."  But that does not solve the problem -- and in fact, may be one of these explanations that can never be tested for truth because it is purely hypothetical.

In philosophy and science, it is not the knowledge itself that is so important -- as it is whether it can be proven in each instance to be a valid truth in each individual case.  If not, then its value is unproven, and it really doesn't matter what one believes.  Any explanation will be as good as any other -- because none can be tested for the truth, or is untestable.

Fortunately, most of life is not that way -- but easily accessible for any individual to test the truth of the matter for themselves.  Yet many don't -- because they have been indoctrinated to believe that the truth is what somebody else says it is -- and they cannot test the truth for themselves, because they are not the "experts."  People don't usually become good at what they do by listening to the experts -- but in discovering the truth of the matter for themselves.  Those are the real experts, and not those who know what somebody else taught them is the truth -- and they inquire no further.

Those are the inquiring minds -- to whom the known is just the beginning and not the end of their quest for the ultimate limits of any truth and understanding.  Nowhere is it more possible to test the truth and validity than in exercise and physical education -- because the results are direct and immediate -- and not just in some other time and place far away.  If competitive bodybuilders prove nothing else, it is that such immediate manifestations and transformations are possible.  That is the underlying theme in any quest -- and not simply doing the same things somebody has told them to without commensurate and immediate results.

The major rationale for proper exercise is not that one will look and feel better a year or ten years from now -- but that it does effect that affect immediately, and improves with practice.  That is what one is learning -- and not just mindlessly burning as many calories as possible -- doing anything!  Likewise, it doesn't matter how much money one spends -- but how much value one obtains in those exchanges that improve the quality of their lives.  So obviously, one should devote all one's attention to what they are doing -- and not simply doing as much as possible, burning as many calories as one can.  

But that is the mindset many have in doing anything -- usually because some authority told them so -- and not that they ever learned anything on their own, and so when facing any challenge, they ask everybody else what they should do -- without bothering to test their own capabilities and understanding on the matter -- and then consulting the collective wisdom of the known.  That is the challenge under which most will have to live their lives -- and why we were each given our own brain and senses.

Not even little children first consult their parents before attempting to find out the truth of the matter for themselves -- by themselves.  They often will try and try again -- before one day miraculously standing all by themselves.  Some personalities and predispositions will be more inclined than others.    But the understanding shouldn't be a limiting factor -- except when imposed as what a few self-designated experts regard as their exclusive economic opportunity.

Life is more important than that.  A basic right is that everyone should first resort to their own brain and senses -- before asking anybody else what to do.  That is already going about it in the wrong way.  The value of exercise, conditioning, practice, and improving, is that skillset comes in handy throughout their lives -- but especially so when they are retired and in declining health.  Rather than continuing to get worse, one should experiment to see if one can get better -- even resurrecting themselves from the nearly dead back to unprecedented good health.  What have they got to lose? -- and everything to gain -- even if ultimately, they run out of time and life.

So does everybody else.  That is the great equalizer.  We all come into the world alone, and leave it alone.  Nothing has ever changed that -- not even the great pharoahs and emperors of old -- who thought they could bring everybody else with them -- to continue to serve them in the next world.  But at that point, one would be deluding oneself to think that one would still be in-charge and controlling everybody else.

The genius in exercise, conditioning and fitness, is not how to make it harder for everyone, but how to make it easier -- so that even those on their death beds or at death's door, can still do it to get better -- and that is the greatest challenge of their lives at that moment.  That may be the difference between moving on, or staying unmoved forevermore.

Everything else is variations on those basics.  The heart works by alternating a full contraction with a full relaxation.  If it only contracts, or only relaxes, it is no good.  It has to do both.  But that is not so much a problem with the heart, as it is with every other muscle in the body -- of never contracting again.  It is like CPR for the rest of the body.  One knows that alternating a compression with a rest, is necessary for life itself -- and beyond that, all the muscles of the body could be trained to mimick the heart in that way -- optimizing the circulation that ensures and enables healthy functioning and development.

Some exercise researchers claimed that the soleus muscle was a second heart -- pumping the blood back to the heart -- and not realizing all muscles will act as a pump when contractions (compressions) are alternated with relaxations.  That is the principle of fluid dynamics.  That is all that is necessary to effect (optimize) the flow -- of blood surely, but also the lymphatic fluids that allowed to stagnate and accumulate, become the scourge of inflammation and all disease and malfunction.  So just knowing that, is worth all the other.

But most have never thought about it -- as much as people all over the world participate in these athletic events and competitions -- until of course, they can't.  They're good up to that point -- but then many fall off the cliff -- even before they get to middle age, and some after they leave kindergarten.  That's way too early to stop learning anything more.

At this age and stage, we are rewriting life itself -- in just living it.  No need for added drama and difficulty.  The easiest movements to do, are simply moving at the head, hands and wrists -- producing those alternating muscular contractions/relaxations -- at the furthest extremities one moves at -- which would be at the head, hands, and feet -- where it is most productive and healthy to do so.  It is as simple as that.  You don't need to get the whole body around the track -- but can get a better health effect by simply alternating contractions at the extremities with the most critical organs of the body -- that makes each individual distinctive.