Designing an Exercise Program

 The value of exercise is that it directs the blood flow specifically to those parts of the body in which the muscle is contracting — which is how it lifts weights and does work. Conversely, when it relaxes, gravity moves the object to its lowest level, and the only resistance required is just enough to keep an object from breaking. The alternation of muscle contraction with relaxation, produces a pumping effect — just as the heart is specialized and dedicated to doing — in the direction towards the extremities of the body. But once at the extremities, the body relies on the muscle contractions at those extremities to produce the compression of fluids back to the center of the body — and those that do that more often and effectively, develop greater health and the musculature that an enhanced blow flow enables.

That is not simply making the heart alone work harder and faster, but the recruitment of the skeletal (voluntary) muscles to enhance that effect very deliberately and specifically. Those who do that best are self-described “bodybuilders,” because their exercise is to produce that effect — while in all other activities and events, that is a secondary, adjunct consideration. So if one considers the amount of weight lifted as primary importance, they may not achieve as impressive a bodybuilding effect — as it is to one who places “the pump” as their primary concern. The older weight trainers were very clear on this difference and distinction.

In present times, those distinctions and differences are lost, and so, many will exercise long and hard without achieving their desired ends — if they are even clear on that. Most people want to be the biggest and strongest ever, without considering that many others also wish for that, and many, like in every facet of human activity, are just more gifted genetically to be successful at it — because that is the way it is with everything in life. There are the prodigies — and everybody else, but that does not preclude them from doing what they truly love to do above all else.

However within their potential, there is considerable room for improvement — and that is not nothing. It can also be its own calling in its own unique way. Except for specifically prescribed competitions and protocols, there are all manner of ways one can define their own success. Many of the legendary strong men were motivated to overcome their handicaps and poor health as their motivation for breaking their own limits of what was possible — and ultimately to set the standard for many others to follow.

One does not know for certain what the ultimate actualization of that potential is — unless it is articulated and developed. Nobody comes into the world completely developed. That is a process of time and growth — and the adventure of every life, is discovering what that will be. Many think that the feet, hands and head are designed to support the rest of the musculature, when it is the other way around. And so they are “conditioned” not to move their feet, hands and head but instead immobilize them while moving the larger muscles as though they were the prime movers.

But anybody familiar with anatomy knows that a muscle will contract from the insertion (most distant) towards the origin of that muscle — and never vice-versa, and when a joint is fully articulated, it will activate the larger muscle supporting it. In this manner, it is possible to engage all the muscles along the five meridians (pathways) back to the center of the body so that the body develops commensurate strength throughout — instead of the disproportionate development working each muscle in isolation — beginning with the largest — and invariably running out of time and energy to exercise the most important muscles at the extremities.

But then in later years, that mistake reveals itself in the muscle atrophy occurring from the extremities back towards the core — in the conditions of edema, lymphedema, lipedema, arthritis, neuropathies, infirmities, and dementias. That is no accident and coincidence. Over the long history and evolution of human societies, the hand, feet and head is what put the human at the top — but because of the conveniences of modern life, we no longer have to move those parts of our body, and movement is what determines the blood flow — and so to immobilize them in exercises is a fatal error — because those are the critically important organs to maintain and develop above all else.

The cardio machines are notably bad for immobilizing the head, hands and feet — while maximizing the heart rate. But the heart is not the weakness of the body as much as it is that the skeletal (voluntary) muscles are unexercised and unengaged. Throwing a rock or spear, requires that flick of the wrist to ensure any kind of accuracy -- whether shooting a basketball, throwing a baseball,  hitting a tennis ball or baseball. Without that wrist activation (contraction) that movement is largely meaningless  and unproductive. Yet those movements have largely been eliminated in many popular conditioning activities — and so seems to have little or no effect on the increasing dysfunction and malfunctioning of those body parts — while thinking one is getting the proper exercise — as defined only by heart action. But what about exercise for the rest of the body? — pumping the fluids back to the heart and cleansing organs of the body.

Where is the atrophy and deterioration most obvious in aging — and all those aging-related diseases? At the extremities. And their usual manner of exercising seems to be less successful at preventing it — much less producing gains. Obviously, they need to renew and emphasize the flow to those areas as their priorities — and not continuing to ignore that development with such disastrous results. It is even more obvious on the former legendary bodybuilders as they age — and are in a panic because all those efforts seem to be futile now even if the gains came easily when they were younger. Their own bodies are telling them what needs to be tended to — but then they go and do something else instead.

That time is up. Now they have to do what they really have to do — as their urgency. That was the normal course of life until the modern conveniences made no such demands on them to assure their usefulness and health. Watching television all day does not require head movement, grip strength and foot balance. They can just as soon do it in a wheelchair. Predictably, they become less able — even if they get out of their chair for a half-hour of treadmill (cardio) — requiring no articulation and movement at the head, hands, and feet.

That’s the heart’s job, right? The heart is a one pound organ that can’t be expected to be the only working muscle in the body. What about all that other muscle mass? What are they doing? And that is the problem — nothing useful — if anything at all. One doesn’t even know what they’re there for. Thus even the bodybuilders will eschew working the neck, forearms, and calves as non-productive exercises because they don’t know how to use them properly.

The range of motion itself produces a contraction and a relaxation — from the furthest muscular insertions of the body and is thus the most effective and efficient way to improve the circulation throughout the body — that maintains it health — beginning with its most critically important organs at the extremities where they are the most useful. But if one never uses them, they wouldn’t know that.