exercise

Design your exercise

Why does one need exercise? Surly not for doing one's job. The required muscles would get strengthened automatically.

Not everyone is an athlete - and need not be . Thus, the exercise should be for "fitness" - as most want to.

The dictionary meaning of  fitness is "to be in suitable condition or ability" - For What? - well, to be able to deal with normal chores of the daily life without undue tiredness, and to enjoy the occasional outing.

Thus, a fit person need not run a marathon or lift 200 Kgs.  A fit person does not need to show "muscles" or perform complicated gymnastic exercises.

Does that mean one does not need separate exercise? Hardly so. Let us start with the requirement "Health is Wealth".  Good health leads to better piece of mind and helps i achieving happiness - a state of mind - And it is proven that a healthy mind requires a healthy body ( with rare exceptions). Healthy body requires the right type of exercise. Having established the need for exercise, let us now decide on the exact requirement. Except those who are involved in manual labour ( and some who are involved in the manual labour), do not use many of the muscles, which slowly lose their effectiveness.

Some of these muscles are used to move the limbs or for other bodily movements, and can be called external  or motor muscles- these can be specifically and consciously controlled by us.

Some of the muscles are internal, and are controlled by the brain directly - such as heart, liver, stomach, etc.,. Then there are some more, which can be consciously controlled, but presently not trained to do so by most of us. We will come to those groups of muscles much later.

The inadequacy of the external muscles would be known during travel, extra work or during functions - either as pain or tiredness. But the malfunctioning of the internal muscles can be known only as a symptom of the disease - But if on has to be concerned about strengthening all the muscles, then one would have no time for living.

What then is to be done?  Simple ! One has to choose the exercise and the intensity of the exercise to suit one's body and the requirement.  AND who can be the best judge to know one's body than oneself?

For this, let us first understand the working of the muscles.

As we had said earlier, the muscles can be grouped into

•                  Those which are used in the movement of the body

•                  Those which are internal.

Irrespective of the groups and irrespective of the fact whether they can be controlled voluntarily or not, each of the muscle can only be in two states - either contracted or relaxed. This means that the muscles work only one way - On signal, they contract and once the signal is stopped, they get back to relaxed state.

Thus, the we have to first know how to send the signal for the muscle to contract.

Let us now examine the properties required from the muscles. They can be termed as 3S, standing for

Strength is achieved by loading the muscle repeatedly, with progressively increasing loads.

Stamina is achieved by repeating the muscle action number of times, gradually increasing the load to   required levels.

Suppleness is achieved by using other muscles / body wight to stretch the muscles.

The muscles in different parts of the body requires different combination of strength, stamina and suppleness, which again varies with the nature of job and their personal life styles. We can but generalise these requirement only to some extent - the idea is to guide one to chose the required exercise to suit their needs

Strength

Now let us look at the strength needs.

Everyone should have the minimum strength for lifting the normal loads encountered in day to day life, say lifting a bucket of water, or carrying a suitcase full of clothes etc., for a reasonable period of time without muscle fatigue. Similarly, they should have the strength for turning the handle of the car jack, a tight tap, a screw driver etc.,

The muscles used for these functions, and which required to be strengthened can be identified by performing these tasks. Then  simple exercises which load these muscles (such as pushing one's body against the walls for strengthening deltoid muscles) can be practised till these muscles become strong enough. Most exercises do not require fancy external gadgets, and can be performed at home, using body weight. One can extend these requirements to include the strength of pulling oneself above say a compound wall, as these can come handy in times of need.

The leg muscles and thigh muscles do get sufficient strength on normal walking, and sit-ups can easily add the required strength, if needed.

Once the required strength is achieved, very little effort is required to maintain it. Either one can continue these simple exercises with reduced repetitions, or can plan these exercises in a batch over a gap of few weeks, for three four days a week . The individual is the best judge.

Stamina

Of the three properties, it is the stamina which requires closer watch and continuity, especially when the overall stamina can be affected by the reduced capability of  individual muscles. For example,

The heart capacity or lung capacity can restrict the long walk/ run, even if the leg muscles have enough stamina.

Weak arm /shoulder muscles can reduce the capability to pump water, even though the lung/heart has sufficient capacity.

The stamina of the back muscles may become the constraint for rowing, in spite of the high stamina of the arm/shoulder muscles.

Numerous such examples can be listed. It is for the individuals to find which muscle requires more stamina, and at what load - for their normal working life or for what ever they want to do in their leisure.

Suppleness:

Suppleness is easy to define, but difficult to determine as a requirement.

Many of the normal movements do not require contortionist abilities - but there are many cases, where a little bit of extra stretching may be a big boon.

One of the easiest examples are the ability bend back wards, which stretches the stomach muscles, and the ability bend forward, which stretches some of the back and posterior leg muscles. While one may not require high degree of bending backwards, bending forward comes handy in many occasions.

Since most of the normal activities does not demand high suppleness, except for dancers and for thse with special interests, we may not go farther.

The easiest way to increase suppleness is by using the momentum - that is, the stretching exercise is essentially a faster movement. Care should be taken not to damage the muscles. This is in contrast to strength building, which has to be done at the slowest speed possible.

Let us nw make some attempt on the requirement of the various muscle system for some of the normal activities, which many an average citizen find themselves as not fully fit.

1. Shoulder and neck muscles

Everyone knows that head is supported by the neck and the major load is taken up by the spine. For those who are familiar with elementary physics, the load on the spine is one sided, and thus needs muscle support for ensuring that head remains in its position. These neck muscles are supported by the muscles in shoulder. So, one has to ensure strong shoulder muscles, even while exercising for strong neck muscles. With strong shoulder and neck muscles, the "stiff neck", "spondylitis of the neck" etc., would no longer be a "pain in the neck" - and one can travel long distances even in rural roads of India.

2. Back and stomach muscles

Stomach cavity is the location for most of the internal organs. These internal organs are supported by ligaments, connected to the back  / front walls, made of muscles. Like the load of the neck, the torso is also loaded on one side of the spine. That is the reason, standing erect causes load on the back muscles, requiring strong back muscle, even for standing normally.

Each muscle is best when in a relaxed state, or least loaded. Thus, when one has strong stomach muscles, they provide partial support to the upper torso,  reducing the load on the back muscles and avoids distorted loading on the spine. Indians being bulk eaters, tend to develop a large stomach and also puts in large mass in the stomach. This adds to the frontal load, while weakening the support possible by stomach muscles. For women with larger mummery glands, The frontal weight is even more - creating the necessity of even stronger back muscle.

Strong stomach muscles also help in keeping the internal organs in positions, as the ligaments get a much better support.

3. Muscles of the limbs

As mentioned earlier, the muscles of the arms and legs get their normal strength on day to day activities, to the extent required. It is recommended that one works a little for that bit of extra strength in arms and legs - once strengthened , normal activities would maintain it.

4. Muscles of the internal organs

Some of the internal organs, such as stomach liver intestine are also muscles. Though we may not be able to or need to exercise these, they must be left free and not overloaded.  The internal excess load comes from over eating, unplanned diets and excess of un healthy intakes - (for example, excess alcohol or sugar overloads the liver, excess of spices over loads the kidneys).  The external load is caused by these organs fighting for space and squeezing each other. Both the internal and external loading reduces the ability of these muscles to go through their natural motions, which is required for their effective functioning.

The strong stomach muscles help to avoid the excess external load - but it as the basic control and the moderation which helps in controlling the internal load. This does not mean that the joy from food, alcohol etc., need not be stooped, but need to be monitored and not allowed to result in long term killjoy.

5. Internal muscles of lower torso.

There are number of internal or non superficial muscles in the pelvic region, which are small but essential for normal life. These muscle control bowel movement, ensures bladder control etc.,  Some of the muscles play important roles in sexual interactions - the vaginal muscles, the muscles controlling the pelvic erection by pumping of blood etc., the muscles closing the urethra during the sexual act  are a few of such muscles. If one can get even an iota of control over these muscles, or able to exercise them for additional strength, their sexual performance and the consequent incremental joy would be higher.

It has been well documented  (Dr Deepak chopra's books give their references) that those who worry less and enjoy more, without physically harming their body physically or chemically , live happily and longer.  In short, if you enjoy life and  take care of the body , the joy is not only more but lasts longer.

Sex and physical fitness

The relationship between sexual enjoyment and the physical fitness can be described as a supporting helix. This, of course, is based on the assumption that the other mental attributes required for such a relationship does exist.

The physical fitness helps improved sexual performance, and the sexual intercourse itself enhances the physical condition of the body muscles , both superficial and internal. In fact, nothing exercises the internal muscles as well as a good satisfying sexual act. But then this does require reasonable strength and stamina of the external muscles. Let us see how.

Assuming that the actual act lasts for about 3 minutes (compared to 7 minutes as the base by Irving Wallace) one has to keep the momentum for 180 seconds.  How many can be fit to move their hips for 180 seconds, either in the missionary position or otherwise?. When unfit, the acts lasts so less, the exercise benefit is totally lost. Once fit, the time can be extended at will, resulting in exercise with pleasure.

It has also been clearly established that the orgasm results in marked contraction of the internal muscles - considering that one has no other control over these muscles, what better way can be there for a good exercise?.

Considering that the pre-menstrual/ menstrual pain of the women are caused by action of the muscles connected to the uterus, strong uterine muscles would help in reduction of such pain. It would be an interesting statistics, to record the extant of the pain of married and unmarried women  (as a measure of relating to sexual action).

Conclusion

Most of the books  / articles on the body and fitness stress the phrase "Use it or Lose it". How not to lose fitness, health and happiness may be possible with these simple steps.

1.               Identify ones normal requirements, including occasional sporting /outing.

2.               Analyse and list those requirements which are presently difficult

3.               Identify the muscle / group of muscles which are involved in those actions.

4.               List out the specific improvements of strength, stamina and suppleness  needed in each of those muscles.

5.               Select the exercises required and the extent based on the specific need

as listed above.

For strength  - repetition with maximum load

For stamina  - repetition with required or less than required load.

6.               For suppleness - stretch with the help of other muscles.

7.               Those who prefer to sexercise, fix targets for increasing the timing by physical exercise.

If one adds mental equilibrium to the systematic exercise, then Fitness, Health, Happiness and longevity would be part of normal life, with out extra effort.