Intensity and Resistance

 Usually when we speak of resistance, that is referring to a mass outside the body, which can be moved measurably — including the body mass itself. In fact, many people’s idea of exercise is to move the body itself — before adding further resistance. However, the really important part of movement, is the movement happening within the body itself — which is the circulation, or circulatory effect that enables one to perform a movement, and more importantly, sustain such effort to accomplish some task.

It’s rarely the case that one accomplishes anything with one burst of power — and then no further effort. Those incidents are largely involved in the destruction of something — rather than the making of it. Building something requires time and effort — while great things can be destroyed in a millisecond. But then all one has is a lot of broken pieces, while the objective of most work and effort, is to build something out of nothing — over time. That is the work of man — whether building a structure, or their own bodies, health, and well-being.

Such edifices can last a lifetime — while “one and done” is dependent on how much one started out with — to last very long. If one hasn’t first build up that reserve, then there is no well to go to — and one is constantly in search of a new source, and exhausting oneself each day in that way. Thus the practicality of building up one’s reserves — so that they are readily available at the right opportunities — or the need for survival. But rather than exist only in perpetual survival mode, one wishes to have a little extra, and if possible, a lot extra — to better take advantage of the opportunities presented to them. That begins with one’s health and fitness — or readiness to respond to the challenges of their own existence — as the basic equipment they always have with them.

Naturally, it would make a lot of sense if that did not require a lot of equipment, nutrients and other resources to carry around with them — to access those inner reserves — by the body’s own design. That is the function of the circulatory system and effect. It gets those resources to where they need to be — to be most useful and productive. In primitive times and conditions, the daily movements required for survival ensured people stayed in the best health for what they had to do. But in contemporary life and times, there is little one actually needs to do to ensure that survival, and so a lot of people become unfit — simply because they can.

In earlier and less prosperous times, societies could not support such unproductive individuals, and so it just didn’t happen — not if any individual could help it. But with the growth of societies and civilizations, it became possible to support most people in abundance, and prosperity if they managed that abundance well, and wisely. Life became a little more complex — because it afforded most with that luxury. However, such wealth can be frittered away if not valued and managed properly for optimal results.

One might simply waste as much time, energy and resources as the thing to do — thinking that is all to do in life. And so their exercises and activities will reflect that wasting of capacity rather than the building of those reserves toward a greater life. Predictably, their measure is only how many calories they “burn” — as though that is all — and not the possibility that it is to build the body for greater capacities than it started out with. Most are aware of such possibilities, but think that it is only possible with great sacrifice of time, energy and resources — rather than how the body would prefer to be — and was designed for.

All animals are similarly designed in that way — unless their movements and activities are distorted and constrained. In humans, certain movements naturally produce muscle contractions — which are the triggers for blood flow to increase in that way. That is the effect of use, or exercise — specifically to produce a maximal contraction that expels fluids out, and upon relaxation, reload because of the space (vacuum) created by that expansion. — allowing the heart to easily fill those areas with its reliable pumping. All the muscles of the body work in this simple way: There is a position in which it must be fully contracted, and another position in which it must be fully relaxed, and those are the important positions — and NOT the resistance in going from one position to the other.

The body doesn’t care about the resistance in going from one extreme to the other. In that way, it is similar to the operation of a computer. The computer only recognizes if a switch is open or closed — and how it gets from one extreme to the other is irrelevant. But that is what most people concern themselves with — the resistance in getting to the extremes, and so never get there. Getting to those extremes, is what is required in increasing the range of motion (movement). Instead, the tendency is to shorten the range of movement — while adding more resistance — whether that is bodyweight, free weights, machines, angle, difficulty, etc.

The problem is that one selects a resistance that is determined by the most weight one can handle in the pre-contracted position — rather than the proper weight determined by the pre-stretched position — and thus never gets into the super-contracted or super-relaxed positions indicative of the greatest range of that possibility. That can be achieved not by resistance — but in knowing what the extreme ranges of that muscle expression are. That was what I observed when I studied the Nautilus machines that featured “variable resistance throughout the full range of movement.” The range of movement itself, was the greatest resistance — moving in either direction.

This is particularly helpful to note in people with limited range of movement — which is virtually everybody — but obscured with the preoccupation of “resistance” used — while the range of the movement varies greatly from one person to another — so as to be virtually meaningless. That is true of all the exercises usually performed and seen in a gym — further exacerbated by overly long rest intervals, so as to render most workouts predictably unproductive. Some are more obvious than others — such as talking or scrolling on their smart phones for 90% of their gym time. Very rarely does one witness a person actually working out the entirety of their gym session — but if one does, that is usually the best conditioned person in the gym.

But it is not enough just to do a limited range movement like the treadmill or stationary bike — in which there is no articulation of the neck, wrists and ankles — indicative of people only working their heart harder and faster, with the resulting atrophied and emaciated look of “cardio” exercisers throughout the rest of their musculature. Sensibly, they should be doing light resistance weight training without rest as all the cardio they need — while achieving total muscular failure/exhaustion in an hour. I’ve never seen that program fail to produce impressive outcomes with each and every workout — no matter what the level of previous training and experience.

That quality of workout can be done only once a week — while simulating those movements without weights the rest of the week — to obviate the muscle soreness that might linger the rest of the week. What is generally called a “high-intensity” workout uses heavy weights for a small number of repetitions — that produces cardiovascular failure rather than true muscle failure, because the weight restricts the breathing by compressing the chest — while the heart rate exceeds the safe levels under that duress. So everything about that manner of performance and exercise is telling the trainee to stop or they will suffer extreme adverse effects — and not that whatever doesn’t kill them, will make them invulnerable. Life doesn’t work that way.

Rethinking Exercise

 The major difference between high-intensity training (HIT) and low-intensity training (LIT) is that HIT cannot be sustained for very long, which requires a rest (Interval) making it HIIT. Low-intensity exercise does not require one to have to take a rest break at frequent intervals — but is exercise that can be sustained and prolonged indefinitely — like a cross-country bike ride. That person would not require a rest break every ten minutes — or they’d never get anywhere. But the high-intensity effort can usually not be sustained for very long because it usually means holding one’s breath for a maximal effort — which makes it anaerobic — or done without breathing.

The internal pressures involved with such maximal efforts are what causes a lot of damage and premature deaths among such highly-motivated athletes — like the proverbial “John Henry” who thought he could outrace a steam engine. Many of the “World’s Strongest Men,” also succumb to such stresses and retire quite young from such competitions, as well as many bodybuilders — including the Arnolds and the Ronnies. It is not that the spirit is not willing, but the body accumulates all these past traumas — and rather than becoming infinitely stronger, it inevitably takes a toll. That is not likely to be the case with low-intensity training — in which one can go on indefinitely — and so the body is telling you something in that.

However, just because one can sustain an activity indefinitely, is no guarantee that it will be productive enough to produce muscle growth and enhanced functioning. So one is aiming for that sweet spot at which one can sustain muscle growth and improved functioning for the rest of their lives — rather than the brief moment of glory followed by a lifetime in decline — which is the case in many former champions.

It may be that they suffer a few injuries along the way that makes no longer all-out efforts possible, and they’d be happy just to rehabilitate those injuries so they could resume a life without pain and disabilities — and that is the far superior role of lower-intensity but also productive exercise — which almost every highly-competitive athlete comes around to — but unfortunately, know no other way to train and exercise but the all-out to the next injury style.

At this point, many just give up and abandon exercise completely — or come back for high-intensity training that forces a prolonged rest, burnout and/or injury — before becoming completely discouraged. Their conditioning has been that they either have to force themselves beyond their limits each and every workout, or it is a waste of time to do anything less. But the less can be more — if it can be sustained over an entire lifetime, and I thing that is the paradigm people want — but are usually not offered that possibility.

It does require rethinking productive movements — beginning with the notion of the measurement of exercise at the heart — which defines high and low intensity. High intensity exercise is measured by achieving maximal heart rate — which is a danger zone and why that theoretical maximum was formulated — to protect those with heart problems from approaching those thresholds. Thus the concepts or “aerobic” and “cardio” also derive from that focus on heart function alone as the measure of effectiveness. But in the hands of the highly competitive, what was originally designed as maximums that should not be broached, was interpreted by the jocks as minimums that must be exceeded each and every time to be productive.

That is not true. The central focus in exercise is not how hard the heart works, but how effectively the muscle one wishes to develop is working — to increase the blood flow through that area — which is the circulatory effect — that more sensibly, has to be measured at the extremities rather than at the heart — because that is the objective — to pump the blood to the farthest reaches of the body, and not just to the heart itself. The heart always gets all the blood — by design. But the muscles don’t — unless they are activated in the same manner as the heart — in alternately contracting fully and relaxing fully, which makes its an auxillary pump.

That muscle mass is about 30% of the body weight — as opposed to the one pound heart — which people think is erroneously pushing the blood singlehandedly throughout the body as well as lifting hundreds of pounds externally. What the body does, is use favorable leverage to perform such tasks — rather than the naive notion that one simply has to make the heart alone work harder and faster — until it fails completely, and that is not a desirable outcome. Instead, one wants to produce as much results as possible, at a slow and steady pace — which usually makes the difference over time.

Meanwhile, the high-intensity guys are usually resting — which is a hell of a way to get anything done — but that’s what they think they are doing. But as people get older and wiser, they recognize that if they can still move through a great range, they are way ahead of the game, and that more than increasing resistance over a decreasing range, is the quality of life and movement they want.

High and low intensity is inherently the wrong way to think about it — because the focus is on working the heart harder and faster — rather than whether the muscles of the body are working as the heart does — making the entire musculature dedicated to the circulatory effect — which produces the optimal health and all its benefits.

Exercising the Brain

 The brain/head responds to physical exercise in the same way that all the other regions of the body do — and even more so because it is the highest priority of the body because it regulates all the other functions of the body. As such, any thinking person would ensure that all the physical exercise strategies would be directed there — above everything else.

One will note that people with lack of brain function also lack head movement — and it is movement that largely determines blood flow — particularly full range head movement that articulates the fullest contraction with the fullest relaxation of that muscle producing that movement. That is why exercise works to increase muscle functioning and development. By creating that alternation of muscular states — just as the heart works unfailingly — it works as a pump, which produces a flow — by alternating the volume of that muscle, which in turn, increases and decreases the pressure — which is the basic principle of fluid dynamics.

All the oxygen and other nutrients don’t matter if they never flow to the places desired for that health and functioning. And while the heart always does its job, that is its job, and should not be expected to do everything else — like powering a 500 lb deadlift, squat or bench press. For that to happen, one would recruit the greater mass of muscles in the body, often comprising one-third of the bodyweight. The heart is only a one pound muscular organ — and to make it work harder and faster is not what produces better outcomes — but engaging the much greater muscular mass — which in many contemporary people these days, does nothing or very little — and thus the atrophying of those organs for lack of that enhanced circulation caused by those regular (rhythmic) muscular contractions.

Thus one notices that the particular vulnerabilities of the body are at its extremities — which are the feet, hands and head — in which the lack of optimal circulation produces the accumulations we note as inflammation (edema, lymphedema, lipedema, arthritis, neuropathy, etc.) The obvious and simple remedy is simply to effect those rhythmic contractions in some kind of conventional and familiar exercise — but even more effectively, just intentionally effect those alternating muscular states expressly for the purpose of the circulatory effect. That would be a 21st century understanding of the effectiveness of exercise — rather than the muddled understanding most have of it, no matter how fancy the jargon and explanations get — or how costly the wonder supplements are.

It is as simple as understanding the basics of flow — just as in the basics of understanding the functioning of life. Without the proper circulation, there is no health and optimal development, and at its most rudimentary level, there is no life at all, or decreasing functionality. The full range movement of the head, from left to right, and up and down, is the first indication of how well the brain is actually functioning — because of that effectiveness of movement and circulation. Yet that obviousness is almost never tested — and so the lack of proper functioning of the brain and head is not detected until too late. It is also the same with feet and hands that need to be amputated — because that functioning is already cut off as dead tissues threatening remaining tissue.

We know the compromised hand as weakened grip strength, and the weakened foot as the swollen feet, but think there is nothing amiss when the neck muscles obviously atrophy — and beyond that lies the brain. How much effective circulation must it be getting — if the development is caused by the enhanced, optimal flow? And the thing to understand about effective blood flow, is that it is caused by the contraction back towards the heart — rather than the heart forcing blood into already filled volumes — as is the present misunderstanding and why exercise does not work for many people. The understanding (paradigm) is entirely wrong about the heart being the prime mover in human action.

The heart’s role by being reliable, is to provide a constant ambient pressure — just as externally, the atmospheric pressure is a constant, ambient pressure — so that once the breathing compression (contraction) is relaxed, air merely flows into a lower pressure volume. That is also key to understanding the flow (circulation) throughout the body — and why some areas of the body develop and function well — while others languish for that lack of optimal conditions. One sees that immediately when the eyes light up — in response to that difference. Obviously, there is something going on in the brain and head that wasn’t happening in lieu of such movements. That is the brain operating on oxygen — and the other nutrients brought by effective, enhanced, optimal blood flow — which affects all the functioning of the body.

That is the critical path and role of the brain in every body — that is usually taken for granted as being “optimal.” And instead, the focus is misplaced to the functioning and measurement of the heart — with the presumption that it too is operating “optimally.” But wishing it were so, doesn’t make it so. The poor condition of the neck is not the inevitable fate of growing old, but of the atrophying of the neck circulation that affects the circulation to that area and organs. To some extent, it is automatic — but it can be made much more effective and optimal — especially when there is a deficiency or decline in functioning. That is the role and function of proper use and exercise — enhanced by the better understanding of this process. It works on every body part of the body — because that is how life evolved, and continues to improve.

Fitness for Life

 Effective exercise is not dependent on equipment — but the proper understanding of the human body. The body is designed to move — particularly at the head, hands and feet — and all other movements and functioning, is designed to support those movements. What places humans at the top of the evolutionary scale is a uniquely large brain, a tool-manipulating hand, and a foot that allows for upright posture — so that their senses are as high as possible for maximum effectiveness. Logically, those developments and skills should be the highest priority in considering self-improvement — and everything else goes along for the ride.

However, in most exercise programs, they are ignored entirely — or taken for granted that nothing can be done to improve them — when it should be obvious to the observant and thoughtful individual, is that those are the features that ultimately differentiates the exceptional from the ineffective. Most people aren’t even aware of that fact because all they see is the gross movement rather than the fine motor movement — of the head, hands and feet. But that’s what really makes the difference — whether throwing a rock, spear or ball — or jumping high and running fast — or being more aware than the person who only has their head down looking at a single spot, and so has no idea of what is going on around them — and can select the most appropriate action. That is what fitness is ultimately all about — most critically in primitive times, but just as importantly in modern times.

Most people have lost that connection — or never had it brought to their attention. They were just told to do this or that — which they blindly obeyed because the other was bigger than them — or simply more demanding of them. And so unfortunately, that is the limit of most people’s understanding of why they do anything. That’s also what “everybody” says they must do also — even if they don’t get the desired results — or find it impossible to do. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen instruction videos informing people that if they do what is impossible for them to do presently, they will be in wonderful shape and condition eventually. The trick then, is getting from here to there. But as many admit, you can’t get there from here. So of course, that is not helpful.

Realizing this important any time in life — but more so as one becomes increasingly aged and debilitated, but often is what it takes to try another way that might work — out of sheer desperation, if nothing else. Often, that is what it takes for people to make meaningful and impactful changes in their lives. Otherwise, they just go on doing what isn’t working — because they have the time, energy and money to spare. But then when they don’t have such reserves, they have to make the most of what they actually have — even getting down to the absolute basics.

The value of all movement is that it increases the blood flow to the muscle actually moved — in addition to the action of the heart muscle to provide for a constant and reliable flow — or outward pressure from the center. The problem is the lack of pressure and flow back towards the center — that is effected by the rhythmic contractions at the extremities. In the absence of exercise equipment designed for that purpose, the articulation of movement at the wrists, ankles, and neck — determines the muscular state. That is achieved not by resistance — but by range of movement — and so by articulating the fullest range of movement at the furthest extremities determines the circuit (extent) of effectiveness.

If all one does is increase the work of the heart, then the rest of the skeletal muscles are not engaged in increasing the flow but actually is the resistance to the flow (circulation). That is the troubling design of most equipment designed to increase the work of the heart — while moving very little else in the body — and particularly, at the hands, feet and head. Those remain immobile — and thus, largely unaffected. That remains the problem — throughout life — because that is where the fluids accumulate and are not flushed out by the vigorous action of deliberate muscle contractions at those axes of movement (rotation).

The heart does its job by filling in any space that is vacated by the contractions (compression) from the extremities but cannot overcome the fluid remaining because of the lack of those contractions — which is the problem of modern life that requires no such contractions to sustain life at its most primitive and basic level. That was the kind of movements required to sustain life. One had to be successful at throwing the spear to stay alive — and to eat. It was not enough just to get their heart rate up. That would have happened just by being in a precarious situation of life or death. Fortunately, we live in times and conditions that don’t require that everyday struggle for survival — but instead, live in an abundance of food and leisure — requiring very little exertion and effort from us — unless we deliberately program it into our lives as the person we wish to be.

That is the significance of bodybuilding — that most people have no idea they have the power to do — as the most important thing to do. Unlike “competitive” bodybuilding, it can be extremely personal and unique to each individual’s aspiration of themselves and their own unique ideal of what beauty, aesthetics and usefulness is. But it has to have some basis in reality and functionality — that is distinctly meaningful and useful. That bottom line for most, is taking care of oneself — so that everybody else doesn’t have to do that for them. Such societies are less than zero-sum games — and will impoverish all — as each requires more care and resources than each individual can produce to sustain for the continuance of that society, and beyond that, abundance, prosperity and happiness.

Otherwise, they reach an old age and wonder, “How did I get into such a hopeless condition?” — and think there is no other way than the one that has failed for ages with no alternatives in sight — because they fail to address the critical failures of the aged — at the head, hands and feet. There are a lot of people whose hearts continue to beat — but show no movement at the head, hands and feet — that are indicative of a vital and vibrant human being. That is what we call responsiveness — or if you like — fitness that lasts as long as one lives. It is a matter of the right priorities and order of importance.

When More Isn't Working

 The problem with Negative Accentuated or the slow-lowering of the weight is that it's not natural movement -- and most people experience it that way, and so discontinue that method of training. Undoubtedly what it does do is make the body prematurely fail -- but that failure is not caused by pure muscle failure -- but by cardiovascular failure -- and that is seen in all the videos claiming to be high-intensity training -- by everyone, including Arthur Jones. That was also the problem with Isometric training -- causing the vasalva effect -- as well as when lifters pass out from heavy deadlifts or squats.

That is the natural and predictable result of not breathing when one artificially resists the natural work of gravity -- in lowering the weight. That's why the human body will sense that it is the wrong thing to do -- because the intelligent thing to do, is allow gravity to perform that work whenever possible -- while positioning oneself in each rep -- by getting into the relaxed position as much as possible -- preparatory to the next positive movement. The relaxation is just as critical as the contraction -- but if one is contracting as hard or even harder in the relaxation phase of a movement -- then there is no alternating relaxation/contraction cycle -- that not only performs work, but enables the optimal respiration and circulation (flow) that enables functioning and development.

Most of the bodybuilders who got into it around the '50-'60s were told by Bob Hoffman of Strength and Health, and Perry Rader of Iron Man, to begin their workouts with light squats alternated by light pullovers -- and most made unexpectedly fantastic gains doing so. What they did right was time their movement to the natural rhythm of their breath -- exhaling to lift the weight, and inhaling as they lowered the weight. But if one resists the lowering of the weight, one invariably has to stop breathing (inhaling) -- which is the natural result of relaxation and the expansion of the chest cavity.

The distinguishing feature of "high-intensity training" is the elimination of rest between one set of each exercise -- and the easiest way to achieve that is to do one set of 50 repetitions with a weight allowing one to do so -- with no rest between exercises. In this manner, one can achieve muscle failure without the cardiovascular failure -- as each muscle pre-exhausts the next, and achieves complete exhaustion in about an hour. That usually requires one week to fully recover -- accounting for the infrequency requirement. The trick then is recovering from extreme muscular soreness -- which can best be alleviated by doing those movements with no weight at all -- but rotating (contracting) at the head, hands and feet which are the insertions at the most distal parts of the body to effect a flow to remove the inflammation, while producing the void to allow new nutrients into those tissues.

This is particularly helpful for older bodybuilders who no longer experience growth and may even be experiencing decline (sarcopenia) despite their efforts. They have to upgrade their understanding of the process -- because more of what isn't working, is not the answer.

A Brief History of Bodybuilding

 Back in the ’50s and ’60s — often regarded as the Golden Era of Bodybuilding — almost all trainees would begin their sessions with high repetition (light weight) squats alternated with light breathing pullovers — because those were the exercises promoted by the publishers of the two leading magazines at the time on the subject — Bob Hoffman of Strength and Health, and Perry Rader of Iron Man. The other leading publications, were those of Joe Weider, who insisted on naming everything after himself — whether it was exercise, a principle, a supplement, a piece of equipment, etc. Obviously, bodybuilding did not begin and end with him, but he made it seem so with his tireless self-promotion of his brand and products.

That was how a lot of people got around to thinking that they had to take a certain supplement if they wanted any gains at all — rather than that the exercises themselves had this transformative power. Many articles on bodybuilding will even claim that bodybuilding is 90% diet and nutrition — and only 10% exercise — or what one is actually doing. And then when people are at the gym, believe that all the resting, talking on their phone, loading and unloading plates, getting the right equipment in preparation for their exercise, takes up another 90% of that time — and wonder why they get zero results, and even putting on more excess weight despite taking so many supplements and drinking so much water — that leads them to believe that “exercise” doesn’t work.

The fact of the matter is that they aren’t exercising — if they actually run the tape of them actually exercising — or what they think they are doing — or are focused on all the wrong things — like weight and reps — rather than the proper form in any movement, and before that, understanding why they are doing what they are doing. The value of exercise is that one is optimizing the respiration and circulation that provides for optimal health and functioning — which is not automatic, but has to be cultivated by understanding, practice, and exercise. Then one inevitably and invariably gets results — and not just does the same thing over and over again with no or little results, and thinks that is the best that can be hoped for — in a life of futility and disappointment.

As soon as one makes any effort, the respiration and circulation will go up — because the body is hardwired to support it. That is the constant; the variable is what one does to change it — which in this case is the exercise. But one does not change the constant — which is the fallacious understanding of that process and relationship. What one has in lung capacity and heart functioning, is what one has to learn to work with and optimize — rather than desiring it is otherwise.

For most people, what they have is underutilized — because it is improperly understood. With such a simple thing as breathing, it is generally thought that that is effected by the action of the diaphragm — which by itself has little impact — compared to the much larger impact of varying the chest volume deliberately and directly — which is what the exercise of the pullover does better than any others — either straight-arm or bent-arm with a light weight that enables the maximum articulation of its greatest extremes. That would be the greatest expansion alternated with its greatest compression of the chest volume — that houses the lungs, because that is breathing, or the exchange of the air within the lungs with the air in the environment — under atmospheric pressure.

Once that exchange is optimized, than the resulting circulation by the heart will have a life and health enhancing effect with all the other organs, tissues, and cells of the body — as much as possible. The most basic understanding of this process is what is achieved in CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). If breathing is caused by the diaphragm, then the obvious approach would be to press on the stomach — affecting the diaphragm more than the chest — but that is not what is done. Instead, we alter the volume of the chest by compressions — and then let the atmospheric pressure refill that void.

No other movement (exercise) does that as dramatically and effectively as the pullover — because that is what it is focused on doing — and every other movement and activity — does it much less directly and deliberately — mainly as an afterthought when the breathing is struggling to catch up with the effort. The far easier thing to do is to adjust all one’s activities to the breathing, and in doing so, the breathing rhythm and efficiency will just effortlessly increase — so that one can continue all day if required to. That is the nature of work for most of human existence — that kind of persistence over time — rather than the one and done of single attempts. That is the classic lesson of the turtle and the hare — or the person still living healthily — as opposed to the reckless young person going out in a blaze of glory — or so they think.

Lots of young people are very competitive — but much fewer are competitive or even viable at an older age — and so the question even the older bodybuilders ask, is how they can still remain at their peak as long as they live, and not just relive their glory years in their memories and fading thoughts? A common report by older bodybuilders that no longer show responsiveness even while exercising as much as they did when they were young, is that they no longer experience “the pump” — and it was the pump that was responsible for their muscle growth during their most productive periods in bodybuilding.

That is largely because over the years, their heads have been crammed so full of extraneous thoughts that they lose the connection to the simple and obvious. It wasn’t the equipment, supplements, or sophisticated explanations or even drugs that produced that effectiveness — but that simple naivety they had as young adolescents picking up a magazine and wondering if it was really true that such simple and basic exercises could actually make such a difference. If it did, they would do it religiously — but then, over the course of the years, it all became more complicated, and many lost their way — in everything marketed to them — the treadmills, the machines, the heart monitors, the supplements, the glamour and of course, the drugs.

But as my friend and mentor Arthur Jones claimed in 1970, you only need two exercises to work most of the major muscles of the body (shoulder and hip girdle) — the Pullover and the Hip and Back machine, but where most people got it wrong using them, was to think that its primary purpose was for lifting as much weight as possible — rather than in circumscribing the positions in which the muscle could be fully contracted and fully relaxed — and that created the greatest pump, or flow — as the objective in itself — and that is what keeps the body at maximal health throughout life. To which I observed, the most important places that one should maintain that optimal flow is to the head, hands and feet — where the human body breaks down first because of this lack of circulatory effect. That is the work not of the heart, but of the muscles at the extremity to clear space for the heart to do its work — easily and effortlessly — in contracting (compressing) the residual fluids (edema, lymphedema, lipedema), out of it. But as he dismissed, you don’t need to build a machine to exercise the head, hands and feet. They already rotate around a single axis.

Understanding Conditioning 2024

  Understanding Conditioning 2024

The most important exercise, is to understand what one is doing — and why they are doing it. The way exercise is usually taught, is just to do this and do that, and if you don’t like it, then you have to do more of it. So this conditioning is coercion rather than understanding — which is like getting a new toy, and rather than first reading the instructions for proper assembly and operation, one forces the parts together and destroys it in quick order — no matter how much force is applied.

The proper understanding of the human body is to note that the features that distinguish a human specimen from all the others — is the large brain, tool-manipulating grip, and feet that enables an upright posture. All human movements emphasize those functioning and expressions — whether they realize it or not. Some forms, have made it a deliberate study and discipline — which is the forerunner of health and healing (medicine).

Contemporary health issues often manifest at the extremities — where the circulation is poorest — as the most distant from the heart. However, the problem is not that the heart is not strong enough to push the fluids out to the extremities, as it is the muscles at the extremities do not help the heart in the circulatory process (function) by contracting in exercise to pump the blood out of the tissues that makes it easier for the always working heart to pump blood into that vacuum — which is the principle of fluid dynamics, or how fluid moves.  That's also how CPR works: you have to push the air out of the body, to allow atmospheric pressure (fresh air) to enter into that vacuum -- and simply blowing more air into an already filled lung, is not going to do much good.

The heart is only a one pound muscular organ — while the rest of the musculature is 40–50% of the total bodyweight in most people. So the purpose of any exercise should not be to work the heart harder and faster, but to make the rest of the musculature aid in more powerfully optimizing the circulation — particularly in inactive and poorly conditioned bodies in which the skeletal muscles are doing nothing especially useful or productive. In that case, an intelligent and insightful person would ask, what can I do to best enhance my health for all other purposes — and that would simply and obviously be, optimizing the circulation that rids the body of toxic waste products (inflammation) and in doing so, create space for new nutrients to enter and keep the body at its highest health.

Understanding that, one would further realize that the greatest priority for doing so, should be at the greatest assets at the head, hands, and feet — and that doing so, implies the circulation through the rest of the body to get there. But that is not the case, if the focus and objective is merely to make the heart work harder and faster, or to focus on the core muscles closest to the heart. That does not recognize that the weakness of the circulation is at the extremities that in time, becomes the dementia and atrophy of the neck muscles, the weakened grip, the unsteady gait and balance which are the characteristic markers of individuals in declining health.

Any and all amounts of making the heart work harder and faster, or developing the abdominals and glutes do not address those problems — directly and powerfully — and in all probability, diverts those resources from where they would do the most good. Unfortunately, that is the popular paradigm of exercise that naturally fails for most people — no matter how much time, energy and effort they put into it — because it is flawed not to do what is most urgent to do as the priority.

Those are the exercises generally not done — if favor of everything else, that makes much less sense to — and will predictably be abandoned when one could benefit from the proper understanding and exercise most urgently — and beyond that, assure their lifelong highest functioning as long as they live. But that understanding is usually jettisoned in favor of some product or service that is more commercially lucrative as the ticket to health.

For this reason, the ancients were closer to the truth than most modern advice and practices for lifelong health and functioning throughout — in their fragmentation and specialization of exercise equipment and practices that head in this wrong direction. What the ancient observers understood, was that the essential pathways and connections to the center of the body, was the health and functioning at the head, hands and feet — which evolved into reflexology, acupuncture, wing chun, dance, rhythm gymnastics, etc.

Those are the fine motor skills of life — rather than the gross. When individuals maintain those fine motor skills throughout life, they remain productive and capable throughout their lives — while those who only cultivate the gross motor skills, lose those fine motor abilities — and become less able to live independent and productive lives. That is the end-game — and not just the “15 minutes of fame” followed by a prolonged lifelong decline — as the familiar pattern of premature and largely unnecessary aging.

So when one observes that the neck muscles are atrophying, those are the muscles that must be engaged and activated specifically and directly — and not simply making the heart work harder and faster. That is also true for the deteriorating grip strength. One must activate and exercise those muscles specifically and directly — and not do more treadmilling or swimming — or anything else. The same is true for foot and balance problems. One must articulate the foot muscles — and not simply do more bench presses, deadlifts, squats or anything else — thinking to achieve the desired results.

The head, the hands, and the feet, are not simply stumps — used to punch, kick and head butt — but are the primary tools of human expression, functioning, and productivity — whether that be art, dance, writing, music, athletics, etc., but modern life has reduced much of those activities to simply watching television or a computer screen requiring very little movement — particularly of the head. Not surprisingly, the neck muscles atrophy — a sign that the circulation is very poor to those areas beyond that. The brain requires all the resources it can get — to take care of the rest of the body — autonomously (automatically) — just as the heart functions autonomously. That is not where the conscious effort should be applied to.

The conscious (voluntary) effort should be specifically and directly directed to where those movements and actions are not automatic and modern life has made unnecessary. That is where one makes the greatest difference in optimizing the circulation and ensures their greatest quality of life and functioning. Everything else is a diversion and distraction from that greatest purpose.