The Problem with Most Exercise

One notices that when one goes to a gym these days, there is very little exercising actually taking place -- but what most people are doing, is resting -- or playing with their cellphones -- just as they do with much of their other time that got them into their hated sedentary shapes.  Yet they are perplexed that they are not getting into the shape they think (hope) they should be in -- despite spending countless hours "at" the gym.  I've even seen caregivers drop off their clients at the "aerobics" machine and then do nothing while they go off and use the swimming pool or hot tub, and return an hour later -- and presume that their clients were exercising all that time -- in a classic case of wishful-thinking making it so.

Of course they rationalize that they were free to do whatever they wanted and could not be forced to do anything they didn't want to do -- and out of sight, was out of mind, and no longer their job (responsibility) to do anything beyond that.  And so it spirals into a worsening of condition -- while being totally mystified that it should be so -- because the wishful-thinking surely must have had precedent over the actual reality in the virtual reality they inhabit.

The invariably, the more involved exercises they are advised to do, are even more problematical to do -- usually producing pain in addition to the boredom of treadmill activities.  So quite predictably, they get very little benefit for the "time" they put into such activities -- while they could be doing what is most beneficial to do.  That would be simply moving at the critical junctures of the head, hands and feet -- if nothing else, because the entirety of productive movements, is expressed at those points.

All the other musculature supports the movements taking place at the extremities -- and if movement is not effected at the extremities, very little productivity can be achieved.   That would be the actual movement of the head from left to right, and up and down.  The feet moving to raise the heel, and conversely, to raise the toes.  And the hands (grip) to flex and extend -- as the major movements needed to maintain one's capabilities.

Those are obviously the critical joints at which movement is designed for -- the smaller, multiple bones activated by multiple muscles, while the larger bones are best suited for support and stability -- and not vice-versa.  That is important to consider because in designing meaningful exercise movements, the tendency is to focus on the movement of the larger muscles and bones, rather than as nature intended, the fine motor control -- that actually makes the critical difference.

That is true in every athletic and performance movement (metric) -- whether throwing a football, baseball, hitting a tennis ball, baseball, throwing a javelin or shot put.  If the wrist is not activated and fully engaged, the movement is basically meaningless -- and that is the design of most modern movements that instead focus on moving mainly the largest muscles of the body -- with little or no regard for the fine motor movements and control that make any movement actually  productive and/or expressive.

But it is well known that the obvious markers of decline in human health is the attenuation of the grip strength, foot balance, and head movement (cognition) -- that should be the focus of any movement therapies and strategies -- that is overlooked as "normal," while it can be most greatly impacted by intelligent and thoughtful exercise and movements.  Those are the capacities one wishes to maintain and enhance above all the others -- and failing that, it doesn't matter how long the heart continues to beat while those critical faculties are unresponsive.

And that is the kind of people we're producing -- who have long outlived their effective usefulness.  That is clearly avoidable -- but it is not enough just NOT to shake one's head in agreement -- but those very movements are indicative of the further functioning of the head apparatus.  Otherwise, how do we know it is still working?

The same is true of hand and foot movement -- even while the heart will continue to beat unceasingly until it doesn't.  Most people in sedentary lives are not conditioned to move at those very important joints of the wrists and ankles -- even while they may tread for miles on a treadmill shuffling their feet and immobilizing their wrists.  

But that is the very source of the problem -- of the lack of effective circulation resulting in the buildup and retention of fluids at those areas notable for poorest circulation.  That is what has to move -- at that axis of rotation because that contraction is also the compression that causes the flow back towards the heart, while the alternating relaxation allows for new blood to flow into those tissues.  That keeps the body healthy.  Not to effect that flow, allows the toxins and waste products to accumulate in the tissues as the inflammation that causes disease and deterioration.  But there is a mechanism for dealing with that.  That is producing the flow -- with the proper understanding of that process.  The heart plays its role -- unfailingly -- but the other muscles determine where that flow goes to -- in clearing that space first.

The helpful precedent for understanding this process is how cardiopulmonary resuscitation works.  The effort has to be made to empty the cavity of air and fluids by compressing the space -- and on relaxation, the atmospheric pressure will fill the void -- while simply forcing more air and fluids into an already filled spaced, will simply provide resistance for doing so.  The evacuation (contraction) must occur first -- or further effort (compression) will be ineffective.  One must precede the other -- in the proper order.

Then one can do whatever one wills -- because then it doesn't matter.  But unequivocally, the proper order is to engage the smaller muscles that engage the larger as part of its own functioning -- but it doesn't happen vice-versa because the larger muscles, doesn't need to activate the smaller muscle -- but that is what is most important to do -- if the ultimate objective is to produce and maintain a fully functioning human being throughout the full span of their lives, and not simply prolong the heart long after its critical responsiveness has disappeared.

That is the best one can do -- but is still no guarantee of immortality.  That might entail living in a test tube.