The Key to UNDERSTANDING Exercise

The bottleneck in the circulatory system is not that the heart is not pumping -- but that it is pumping into the resistance of the fluids remaining at the extremities -- and so merely pumps the blood back into the heart -- rather than to the extremities, which as he points out, has no flow. However, the alternating contraction and relaxation of the muscles does create a pump -- but the obvious effective design, is to create a pump at the extremities -- which one can do when one realizes this obvious problem, which explains the deterioration of the human body -- beginning at the head, hands and feet -- embodied by the swelling and inflammation, as well as lack of articulation of the joints/muscles at the extremities, where people start to show this aging first, and most obviously. That deterioration is noted as a lack of movement as well as functioning at the critical extremities of the body -- resulting in the common problem of the turkey neck as well as cognitive decline (dementia) at the head, weakness of grip, and absence of sensation and balance in the feet -- because those organs have degenerated from the lack of optimal flow that removes waste products and creates room for nourishment. My observation has been to dispute the erroneous notion that exercise is done mainly for the benefit of the heart -- when the heart may be the only consistently working muscle in the body -- and just making it work harder, doesn't optimize the flow any better -- but as noted in many athletes, merely enlarges their heart -- because it is pumping harder into that resistance. What does make a difference and optimizes the flow, is to initiate a muscle contraction at the furthest extremity -- realizing that in every case, the insertion of each muscle, must move towards the origin -- which is towards the heart, and contraction (making a volume smaller) is also compressing fluids towards the heart. As I pointed out to Arthur Jones, the creator of the Nautilus machines, and the founder of "high-intensity exercise," you don't need to create a machine to work every, or even most of the muscles -- because initiating a muscular contraction from the furthest extremity, triggers a contraction in the supporting muscle (proximal) -- until they all go back to the origin at the heart. That is the most productive thing one can do -- because that action pumps the blood back towards the heart -- creating space for the heart to pump blood into, rather than just short-circuiting back towards the heart. This insight came into focus for me around the time Nautilus was at its height of popularity but I noted then that few were achieving the results his machines promised -- despite how hard (high-intensity) one was willing to train -- but noted that many were even beginning to die of heart problems, including notable bodybuilders and professional wrestlers. I didn't think that was the objective. Meanwhile, I was giving presentations on an easier approach to exercise -- that could be done in any setting because it simply required this better understanding of the human body and functioning -- that really eluded most exercisers, and so it becomes entirely ineffective in their later years -- although the spirit is still willing. The most important movements are the movements of the head, hands and feet. Running, jumping, dancing is fundamentally moving the foot as a lever; but those end movements, imply the rest. It is impossible to contract a more distal muscle as fully possible -- without the supporting muscle (proximal) being engaged (anchoring) -- and with that understanding to optimize that flow -- that left unaffected, results in the accumulation of toxins and allowing for no new nourishment -- no matter how hard the heart is pumping. Because it is pumping into the resistance of the fluids already remaining there. That fluid just remains there -- and is not the blood re-entering the heart but the blood that has no where to go because the fluid (blood) in the extremities are not being evacuated by the proper understanding of this optimization of the circulation. You have to create a pump at the extremities -- and with the proper observation, one realizes that beginning at the extremity, is the only way to do it -- and not working the heart harder until it fails. In this way, the critical faculties of the head, hands and feet become the leading indicators of this continuing vibrancy -- rather than just being in good shape for a person who looks like they should be dead.

No, I'm not saying that simply doing (more) of the conventional exercises -- like yoga, tai chi, and deep breathing will work any better than it has over the centuries. However, a better understanding of the process -- will work wonders, rather than just sell more heart rate monitors and courses promoting the wrong effort -- which is the primary reason that business model was so commercially successful -- as well as promoting all the so-called "heart-healthy products." In most people, the heart is not the weakness of their muscular (nervous/circulatory) system but is obviously the strength -- since it is always working, and usually infallibly. It is doing its part -- but it can't do it alone. When one asks, "What is the best exercise one can be doing?" -- without preconceived notions of what it must be -- the usual answers are such things as walking, running, swimming, etc. -- rather than the much more productive answer of what optimizes the circulation (health) throughout the body -- and particularly to those parts that have the poorest circulation, and so those parts fail first -- at the extremities. But simply making the heart beat faster is not the solution if there is no space for the heart to pump the blood into -- and will simply return to the heart. As the doctor points out, that flow is fine -- but the flow in the capillaries are non-existent, and remains that way. It is only a presumption that the blood in the capillaries (at the extremities) is the blood returning to the heart -- by some convoluted explanation. But as the doctor also notes, if one were to design a circulatory system ideally, it would be at the top of the head -- so it flows down. But since you have a closed hydraulic system, flow is not so much dictated by gravity as it is by pressure difference. So if the blood in the capillaries don't move, the flow cannot obviously go into it. One has to create a vacuum (space) which readily draws blood into it. The way to do that is to create a heart-like pump at the extremities -- by mimicking the action of the heart -- in contracting and relaxing at the furthest extremity from the heart -- that contraction squeezing the blood back towards the heart, and upon relaxation, the heart has plenty of vacuum to allow the blood from the heart in. Bruce Lee as well as Jason Fung essentially said the same thing -- "That in order to fill your cup, you must first empty it." Similarly, philosophers and other wise individuals advised that in order to gain wisdom, one must let go of all the junk in their minds first -- that leave no room for anything new. Likewise, the computer model in which one must first clear memory -- in order to use it. It all sounds very metaphysical -- but is actually the simple and obvious -- but people can't accept it, because they want to hold on to what doesn't work, and all their fanciful ideas -- that don't work, often because they think that knowledge in itself is valuable because that is what everybody else is saying. The head (face and neck), hands, and feet are the first places to display the effectiveness of the circulation -- and not the core -- which is the usual extent of one's movements -- while the much more important functions at the head, hands and feet deteriorate. Increasingly, that is the problem -- that while people's heart may continue to beat tirelessly, their brains have died, their grip is weak, and their balance (feet) is so weak it cannot hold them up properly -- even among the lifelong exercisers. They're not specifically addressing the real problem -- but are doing something else instead. No amount of doing the wrong thing, will get one the right results.