Effective Exercise Has to Be Very Specific and Directed
The value of movement and exercise is that it directs the body to where the effort and resources need to go -- to achieve maximum results. That means if one needs to throw a projectile at a specific target, it won't do just to run off somewhere else --no matter how far and long. It won't accomplish the task at hand. Likewise, if one wants to condition the midsection to be as fit as possible, one has to actually engage and activate those muscles and movements -- and not do everything else but that. Yet that is the muddled thinking used by most -- and particularly the "experts" -- thinking that if they do enough random movements, something might work -- and many waste their whole lives that way.
That is the unfortunate consequence of not being able to "discriminate" anything important and significant -- from every other thing. And that is what a scientist does -- or any person who becomes proficient in anything. They have to differentiate which among the many considerations -- is most important, and not that everything is equally important -- because there is not enough time and life in the world to pursue everything randomly.
That is true whether they are participating in athletics, personal financial management, rocket science, brain surgery, etc. You have to exclude most things, to focus one's energies and resources on what one thinks is most important -- even if it means learning otherwise. Then one can move on -- and higher because one is no longer consuming all their time and energy on everything -- equally. So one must have this fundamental understanding of reality to be successful at understanding anything particular and specific -- unless of course, they want to be successful at wasting as much time and resources (their life) as an ideal in itself.
We recognize such people as being dysfunctional -- and thus wholly out of touch with reality -- as their objective, and it is futile to argue with that. They don't want to be led to greater clarity and understanding -- but wish to drag as many down with them as possible, and so the wise, avoid them as much as possible. That's not entirely difficult to do because they overrun predictable turf -- that most but the police and emergency responders learn to avoid. That is not their job to have to deal with -- at 4 am in the worst part of town -- where most of these bizarre events occur.
However given enough tolerance, it soon spreads to every other aspect of our lives. One thinks that it is enough just to do anything -- and even to waste the most time, energy and resources -- as the "secret sauce" to life, success and prosperity -- because unfortunately these days, nobody teaches them any other -- and they are merely encouraged to "let it all hang out." And so many get into trouble, and have no way of getting out -- but to do "more of the same." Predictably, it doesn't end well -- but way before the final outcome, one can see the signs that all is not well, but are powerless to do anything about -- because they run out of time to get it right.
And so that is the imperative to get it right -- by practicing and perfecting it, and not just thinking that if one shoots enough balls, one is bound to go in. As absurd as it sounds (hopefully), that is the way many think about exercise -- that it is enough just to burn as many calories as possible or to raise the heart beat as many as possible -- rather than to achieve a specific -- which is the whole purpose of any living being -- to optimize its chances for survival. The health of any individual, is the best predictor of those prospects -- and why it is the primary imperative of every living entity.
Those who live closer to the edge for survival are required to be fitter to rise to those challenges -- much in the manner of more primitive times. They literally have to be "looking over their shoulder -- while those in more comfortable environments, may never have to move their heads at all -- and even their "fitness" activities, do not require any movement at these critical junctures -- which is the movement at the head, hands and feet -- where it is universally recognized as the weakness of the body because circulation is poorest and even nonexistent -- to the point where they even have to be amputated -- but usually before then, have become immobilized, and merely repositories of toxic waste products and inflammation.
And so the obvious good of any exercise, would be to address those vulnerabilities -- and even turn them into one's strengths -- in enhancing the circulatory effectiveness by creating muscular pumps at the extremities to rid these impurities -- and in that process, creating the space to accept life-giving new nutrients. There is only so much space in the body -- particularly after one reaches full growth so that one has to get rid of the old, weak, diseased cells to make room for sustained health and even growth.
That part of life hasn't been figured out successfully -- and so we have the inevitable age-old problems of deteriorating conditions impairing the quality of life and living. Some think it requires infinitely more funding to discover -- while many more are working on such discoveries in their own lives. Many more discoveries will undoubtedly be made with many more people working on it -- rather than just the ones claiming exclusive jurisdiction of the territory -- since everybody gets older, and should not be precluded from finding out what works in their own lives -- especially when the remedies of the experts have been expensive failures.
To my mind, the obvious markers of the condition of any individual, is the form and function of the neck, forearms, and lower leg muscles -- that modern lifestyles no longer require to engage and activate -- unless one deliberately does so. That is not a difficult thing to do -- but is the easiest exercise and movements anyone can do -- if they just think about it, and exercise that understanding and possibility -- even while lying in bed, sitting, or standing. That's where the human body fails -- and most people, even the "experts," think nothing can be done about it. But if one just does that -- that ensures the body is firing on all cylinders because nothing else is possible. You have to go through the rest of the body to activate it at its furthest extremities -- but not vice-versa if all one thinks is necessary is to make the heart alone work harder. That paradigm obviously doesn't work.