Exercising for Life

 The greatest reason for exercising is to attain and maintain one's optimal functioning and health -- and not to lift more, or to get big -- both in the long run, might be disastrous to one's lifelong well-being.  Lifting the most weight possible always comes with the risk of incurring a major injury that will haunt one for the rest of their lives.  Once injured, that remains a lifelong vulnerability -- but one takes that into account and works with and around it as best they can.

Only rarely can one claim to be 100% fully restored and better than new -- but one does their best to aim for it.  One learns to make behavioral adjustments.  In that manner, many formidable strong men overcame their disabilities and weaknesses they might not feel the need to if born fully competent and even gifted.  

People in such disadvantage know that their best gains come from going back to the basics -- and mastering them to build a stronger foundation for which to build further gains on.  It was the inattention to those details that might have inevitably led to their injury -- taking things for granted, or miscalculating one's abilities.

And so the proper course of rehabilitation, is to begin all over again -- as though one knew nothing, and have the advantage of doing it right from the very beginning.  This is particularly true for those starting off exercise late in life -- at which such miscalculations could cost them permanent and lasting injuries, and even death, if they miscalculate their abilities.

So the wise course, is to take nothing for granted, and nothing as known -- which might have been the very reason for their resulting predicament.  In this case, the people frequently in the worst shape and conditioning, are those who think they know everything there is to know about exercise -- that is obviously untrue and not working for them.  Some even go so far as to teach classes of people who are all in better shape and condition than they are -- because they have been duly "certified" to do so.

Most exercise instructors are not "certified" to be experts in any activity or event but have paid their fee to have an organization certify that they took a First Aid and CPR course as entrance to their weekend certification seminar -- of which much of the familiar jargon and misconceptions are indoctrinated and repeated -- such as BMI and Target Heart Rate.

All activity that can be sustained for five minutes is "aerobic," while those efforts that exhaust one in under a minute, is anaerobic because one cannot sustain such efforts without incurring an oxygen deficit.  That happens when one is not breathing deeply and fully to sustain that activity indefinitely.  It is just "one and done," or maybe even three repetitions at the most -- before one must deload and breathe more normally again -- often resting in this way most of their "workout" time. 

That is not the nature of work most people have to do -- and be productive.  Thus, most labor takes place over a course of an 8-hour day, and not just the one and done -- and they go home or do nothing more.  That is more likely not to be productive effort, but destructive effort.  It takes just that one moment of destructive force, to undo eight hours or even a lifetime of constant, steady, persistant effort.

That's how civilizations are built -- as well as individual bodies -- that unrelenting, unwavering effort -- and not the uncontrollable moment of thoughtless rage that destroys everything.  That's what human beings and bodies are designed for -- and what keeps them in good shape and condition all their lives.

It is the fullest articulation of these possibilities over a lifetime, and not the force exhibited in a moment.  So when it is asked what is the proper exercise for a human -- a single attempt or persistent repetitions, the better answer is the expression of strength as endurance -- to persist.  That is what gets most jobs done -- and ultimately, that is the purpose of any undertaking -- to be able to do it as long as it takes.

In most cases, that is taking it slowly and easily -- for as long as one has to, and not be one and done, and doing nothing for the rest of their lives -- thinking nothing more needs to be done.  That is the problem of most of the people who have fallen out of exercise -- they think that it is sufficient what they have done 20-40 years ago, and that should be enough to coast on in for the remainder of their lives.  It doesn't work that way.  

If that were the case, than one could rest on all those heart beats one expended earlier in life, rather than that it is just as necessary now and forevermore.  Those are the rules of life.  If one wishes to maintain those capabilities, one has to actually use (articulate) them -- and just the memories of having done so ages ago, will not suffice.  Every day anew, they have to articulate their fitness -- to go on.

But it doesn't have to be world record efforts and feats, as just the movements themselves -- without making them harder and more improbable.  But that is what most do in thinking of exercise -- not how to make movement easier and effortless, but how to make it increasingly and progressively more difficult -- until invariably, it becomes impossible and unthinkable -- especially for the old and infirm.

Rather than being unthinkable, it should be the first thing one thinks to do -- by first considering, what is the human body designed to do?  There is a good reason the body is hinged as it is -- to provide movement unique to the species.  No other species moves in that way.  That is true for all species -- they each have their unique possibilities of movements.

The obvious is not flying -- but no other animal can do a deep squat -- because their legs aren't hinged for it.  Yet many people think a deep squat is an aberration rather than what humans are built to do.  Many do everything they can not to ever go into a deep squat -- explaining that their tendons, ligaments, and bones won't allow them to.  More likely than not, they just haven't done it since childhood -- when it was the most natural position for them to attain.

But years of sitting on poorly designed furniture rendered them incapable of achieving those positions anymore.  Not only that, but their backs hurt -- and every other joint in their body because of the positions they put themselves in for overly long hours.  So the fluids in their body pool and stagnate rather than providing the optimal circulation to maintain working order.  That becomes the new normal -- of increasing dis-ability, and they think that is what Nature intended in the great evolution of beings.