It All Adds Up

People often wonder if what they do for exercise must be done on a certain time schedule -- rather than fitting into their lives -- which is obviously the sensible answer.  A set of squats is not undone because one doesn't do a complete hour or two of similar exercises reserved exclusively for such activities.  It is just as good to do an exercise whenever the mood strikes one -- or as needed.  

That is by far the natural way to keep fit and ready to take on any task as required -- which is more likely to be how a normal, healthy life is lived and sustained.  When one has too many rules and protocols to consider before embarking on any task or exigency, then of course, the likelihood that one will be ready and fit for any real life applications are likely to remain remote and removed from one's daily activities -- until eventually, one doesn't even have time and energy to think about it anymore.  So one ends up doing nothing -- which is the worst possible outcome -- even if one lives to be the oldest person ever.

Undoubtedly there may be individuals genetically blessed to outlive all the others -- but the chances of living a fuller, more robust life is indicated by at least some modicum of activity and involvement beyond simply staring at a screen of virtual reality.  Even brief, intermittent respites from that exclusive engagement adds up -- and indicates that everything is still functioning as needed.  That is quite different from one who merely assents their need for more activity -- but exhibits no inclination to do anything about it.

As one grows older with inactivity, the chances that they do nothing at all increases -- and they even lose the muscle memory that indicates they are still capable of such movements any more.  They never know unless they try it -- and for many, even the thought of it, is out of the question.  No matter how genetically gifted one is, one will not know that for a fact until one actualizes that potential and possibility -- and not simply believe they could if they really wanted to.  That is merely wishful-thinking -- and finding out the actual truth of the matter, is far more valuable and productive -- and is the actuality of the matter.  

A lot of people don't realize when they've lost all their movement -- until the moment they actually try to express it -- and it just isn't there.  But one does not need to obsessively do it at every possible moment either.  Admittedly, there are a rare few who were born and bred to do nothing but -- which is a blessing as well as a curse.  For such people, every moment is an opportunity to do their thing -- which could be dance, martial arts, yoga, writing, art, politics, etc.  But even with such people, a well-balanced life and existence is the bigger picture -- and not just any one thing even manifested exclusively to its highest level.  Humans are not built that way -- to eat or die.  Thus, they don't need to be eating all the time -- as many animals have to do -- and get plenty of exercise that way.

 Instead, humans have figured out a way to obt,in nutrient-dense foods that enable them to spend most of their time not eating -- and be immensely better off for it.  So what activities supplant that need?  That surfeit of free time allows them to build civilizations that outlast any individual's lifespan -- as the legacy of their own.  In doing so, they provide a foundation for what is possible for further development -- and in that way, life does not just repeat, but evolves.  That is the ascent of man -- to go farther, figuratively and literally.

In that manner, nothing is lost but forms the foundation for future actions and developments.  As with civilizations, nothing is lost in individual lives also -- which becomes their karma.  Those are the seeds of whatever comes after.  Many have convinced themselves as well as others, that if they or others do not do the whole and complete program, it is all canceled and wasted -- and therefore they never get around to doing anything at all, but despair in the futility of doing anything anymore.

There is no downside to moving only as needed, or inspired to -- waiting only for conditions to be optimal in order to do so.  Almost always, those preconditions are purely arbitrary, and not in line with real time life.  Humans have not evolved their highest form in order to operate a treadmill unfailingly for a certain amount of minutes -- but rather, to do a myriad of different things as the requirements and opportunities arise.  So the conditioning for that kind of life, should be similar -- and not unvarying machine-like repetition for hours on end -- while being totally oblivious and unaware of everything else going around them.  That latter would obviously be "inappropriate" conditioning.  Even in athletics, one never wants to be that individual "doing their own thing," oblivious to what everybody else in the game is doing.

The most valuable player, is invariably the one who has the greatest awareness of what everybody else is doing -- so that their response is based upon that understanding of the greatest synergy -- and not merely the preoccupation with their actions alone.  Those latter people are interesting for the first 15 minutes before realizing they have no idea what is going on -- in the big picture.  They regard all the others as there only to serve their own needs -- and so are a net drain on the total resources and resourcefulness.  In like manner, that kind of short-sightedness undermines all their own efforts and aspirations -- because they are never putting into the system but only taking out.  No society or individual can operate successfully for long that way -- and so the organism inevitably has to fail because no new nutrients can enter from the greater environment.

That's what sustains life -- and knowing that, optimizes it.  And that is really the whole point of life and healthy living.  You do what you were meant (designed) to do.  If you don't, then you will be dysfunctional, diseased, and prematurely dead.  However, that doesn't mean that one has to be pushing themselves beyond their limits until they injure themselves.  Far better to exercise and move in ways that merely increase their range of expression and articulation -- throughout their lives.  And that is the problem now -- that people lose their full functionality way before their time -- mostly through atrophy, and secondly, through abuse, or self-injury.  Undoubtedly, they think they are doing all the right things -- but in the wrong way.  That doesn't have to be the case: they could be doing all the right things -- in the right way, and this latter, is what they are practicing on.

So what they are doing is a practice -- to get up, lift themselves off the floor, optimize the circulation to the most important parts of their body -- and keep those critical faculties in lifelong top shape.  Unfortunately, that is where most people fail as they age -- because they prioritize other areas more highly.  The most conspicuous example is the atrophying of the neck muscles which most older people exhibit -- not because those structures are impervious to development, but because they require the actual movement of the head to activate.  It is because the resultant circulation is bad that the neck, face and brain atrophy -- and not merely because of age.  People can develop that muscular atrophy at any age.  A muscle atrophies because the circulation to it is poor -- and the only way to improve it, is to contract that specific muscle involved -- and not just hope that the heart alone will see to that unfailingly.

Movement tells the blood where to go -- by producing a contraction that pushes the blood (fluids) out of those capillaries and tissues, and upon relaxation, the heart has space to push new nutrients into it.  It can't do it as well if there are no muscular contractions to optimize that flow, and so it just becomes a stagnant pool of toxins that build up in the tissues to cause deterioration with no outlet.  That is what inflammation and swelling is -- and why its remedy is usually compression to aid in pushing the fluids back towards the heart.  That can be achieved with compression clothing and devices, massage (back towards the heart), and most effectively and easily, with deliberate and thoughtful muscular contractions designed specifically to achieve those purposes.

That would be far and away the most intelligent way to go about it.  It first has to be understood, and then practiced as much as possible, any time, any where, under any circumstances one can think to do it.  All one is doing is exercising specifically and directly to be healthy -- and functioning at the highest level immediately possible.  The rest takes care of itself -- as it has for millions of years already.  We don't have to reinvent the wheel -- or a better treadmill.