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.