Exercises And Your Health

EXERCISE AND YOUR HEALTH
by Dr. Lawrence Wilson

All information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health condition.

SUMMARY

Benefits. The benefits of exercise include improving oxygenation and circulation, massaging the body organs, strengthening the muscles, and increasing flexibility and stamina.

Problems. Too much exercise depletes nutrients, can stress the body, and causes some oxidant damage, in all cases.

Sports to avoid. These include skiing, skydiving, hang gliding, tackle football, ice skating, roller skating and long distance running. These cause many injuries and not healthful for this reason.

Girls sports. Sports teams for girls and women have other serious risks, mainly rape when the girls ride buses and chum around with the boys sports teams. For details, read Girls Sports.

Recommendations. Some gentle exercise daily is excellent for everyone. However, in my experience, vigorous exercise is not needed for weight loss or cardiovascular health. Also, it slows development and can be dangerous if one is in bad health, which includes many people.

I know this goes against the mainstream and the holistic medical thinking today, so this article explains why the bodies today are too exhausted and too sick to benefit much from vigorous exercise.

Exercise and the development program. This article focuses on the way to use exercise as part of the development program. This is quite different from the way most other health authorities view exercise.

THREE EXERCISE PRINCIPLES

1. Everyone needs some physical activity. This should be obvious, but it is not obvious to some people who lead busy lives, or who are very tired, for example, or just not in good physical condition. Exercise is helpful for all parts of the body.

One of the “diseases of civilization” is that we live in our automobiles or other mechanical means of transportation, we don’t climb stairs because we live on the ground floor, or we use elevators in the big cities.

The result is that the muscles become flabby and weak, the bones also weaken, the ligaments stretch and may weaken and so on. Also, the very structure of the body becomes distorted from just sitting in front of computers, for example, and not stretching and toning the system.

Walking – an excellent and simple answer. The simplest answer is to walk every day for at least 15 minutes at a stretch. This is not hard to do. You do not have to race walk or get all sweaty. I do not believe that you must get your heart rate up high in order to benefit.

Where to walk. First, DO NOT JOIN OR GO TO GYMS OR HEALTH CLUBS. This is because sexual predators often lurk in these places. Please avoid them!

You can walk on the street in good weather. However, women should always be with a friend, and preferably a strong man.

A covered mall or a large store are often excellent places to walk. Advantages are that usually there are other people around, so it is fairly safe. You can duck into stores, if needed, for safety. Also, you can walk in all weather, the climate is controlled, and you don’t have to dodge vehicles, bicycles, or breathe polluted air as you do on some streets.

Women must be careful in malls, however, if you are alone and there are not many people around. Malls can still be unsafe in this regard. Also, always wear shoes that you can run away in, if needed. This is sad to have to discuss, but important nevertheless.

Some people have learned to park their car at the far end of the parking lot when they shop or at work, so they walk a ways to and from their car. This is excellent, as long as it is safe. Parking lots are not the safest places because cars suddenly appear, seemingly out of nowhere. However, it is one answer to the question of how shall I get my exercise several times a week.

Other people walk on treadmills or use exercise bicycles at home. This is fine, too. If possible, have an ozonator/ionizer air purifier in the room or in the home, as this will enhance the effects of your exercise.

Walking is probably the best overall, simple, inexpensive and safe solution to the exercise problem for most people. No special equipment or space is needed, you can do it alone or with others, and it gently moves the spine without stressing the joints, tendons or ligaments excessively.

More on how to walk so as to use walking as a very useful method of healing and development is found in the articles Walking and Grounding And Centering on this website.

Other forms of gentle exercise. Other good forms of exercise are gentle weight lifting, bicycling if done safely, which is difficult, swimming in safe, non-polluted, non-chlorinated water, and perhaps some light sports such as gentle tennis or racquet ball as long as it is gentle and you do not become exhausted.

Notes on rebounding. Rebounding is a decent form of exercise. However, it always moves subtle energy in the wrong direction. It is possible to mentally move energy downward from your head to your feet at the same time you are using a rebounder or mini-trampoline, but it takes a lot of concentration. To read a lot more about the importance of moving energy in a downward direction please read Downward Moving Energy and Healing on this website.

2. Vigorous exercise is not helpful. In essence, we find that most people are simply not well enough to be doing heavy exercise, such as intense running, intense weight lifting, and other vigorous sports. This may sound heretical, but it is our observation. Even Kenneth Cooper, the founder of aerobics, near the end of his career sounded the alarm about too much and too vigorous exercise routines.

Vigorous exercise routines:

1. Cause severe oxidative stress that can lead to a heart attack or other catastrophes.

2. Weakens the adrenals and thyroid gland by simply overstressing them.

3. Often damages tendons and ligaments if they are already weak and compromised, as they are today in many people.

4. Can cause some young women to stop ovulating, which is awful.

5. Waste your energy, no matter how fun or exciting they seem.

6. May deplete dozens of vital nutrients.

Please listen, those of you that love long distance running, for example, as in running and training for marathons. Please listen. For a short article on running, read Marathon Running Can Kill on this site.

More on the technical aspects of oxidant damage due to vigorous exercise is found in the article on this site entitled Glutathione, A Master Anti-oxidant.

SPIRITUAL ASPECTS OF EXERCISE

I speak with many people who say they feel their best when they are running hard, for example, breathing hard, or otherwise exercising very hard during skiing, skating, or other sports. However, this is mainly a physical ‘high’ caused by adrenal hormone secretion and perhaps thyroid hormone secretion. It is not the same as becoming more spiritual.

In fact, it can be the opposite, as it is damaging to the body, as is all excessive hormone secretion. It is for this reason that I profoundly disagree with many doctors and other authorities who proclaim the spiritual benefits of vigorous exercise, or any exercise at all.

The purpose of life. You may say, hwoever, what is the purpose of life, if it is not to have experiences that make one feel really good?

The purpose and goal of life, from a nutritional balancing perspective, is development. This is a lengthy process of change in the body and brain that drastically improves health, brings out special abilities in a person, and lengthens the lifespan.

A muscular body, a great figure, great flexibility or great physical endurance are but shadows of the much greater abilities that human beings can develop. For more on this topic, please read Introduction To Development and related articles, on this website.

Can one do both? Some people believe one can have it both ways. That is, one can be an athlete and develop spiritually as well. Indeed, there are a number of books promoting this approach. However, for the type of development I suggest, physical activity, beyond that needed for your daily life, will inevitably get in the way. I do not believe one can combine the two.

This does not mean one should be flabby and weak. Quite the contrary. A slender and well-proportioned body is a product of health, and not primarily exercise.

I certainly do not wish to imply that all exercise is bad or harmful. Some is excellent for physical development. However, it is not helpful for mental or spiritual development, no matter what anyone thinks. Highly developed spiritual teachers do not run marathons, for example, as they know better. So stick with gentle exercise for the growth and maintenance of the physical body.

EXERCISE AND WEIGHT LOSS

Many weight loss programs include a lot of exercise as part of the program. While mild walking or other mild exercise is fine, I find that most overweight and obese people are not in adequate physical condition to do heavy exercise.

Also, using nutritional balancing science for weight loss, heavy or vigorous exercise is never needed. Several clients have lost over 100 pounds easily, within a number of months, without the need for vigorous exercise. I do not recommend vigorous exercise if one want to lose weight and improve one’s health.

The way to lose and keep one’s weight is to eat correctly, think correctly, and detoxify the body with a complete nutritional balancing program. Thus I beg to differ from many health authorities who tell those who are overweight to exercise more for health. I think that is a lie most of the time and it just makes them more ill, even if they lose a few pounds doing it. For much more on this topic, please read Weight Loss on this website.

EXERCISE ADDICTION

This is a common condition today. Essentially exercise stimulates the adrenal glands, the thyroid gland and perhaps other glands, and gives many people a temporary high that they believe is healthful, when it is not.

As a result, one is drawn back to the health club, gym or other activity to keep getting another high. This can easily become an addiction, and is not healthful in the slightest. However, it is a socially acceptable type of addiction and is admittedly better than using dangerous drugs or alcohol. Therefore, many people who are tired, depressed, anxious and whose bodies are out of balance use exercise for this purpose.

With a nutritional balancing program, the body chemistry can often easily be balanced so that one can enjoy exercise without it becoming addictive and so that one will feel well whether or not one exercises. This should be the goal of a healthful exercise program.

MYTHS ABOUT EXERCISE

Exercise is often promoted as a cure-all answer for many problems. The following section takes a hard look at some of the myths about exercise, and presents the views of physicians who have watched the body chemistry of thousands of individuals for years.

MYTH #1. Strong muscles and a beautiful body indicate you are in good health.

These may make you feel like you have health, and everyone may tell you how wonderful you look. However, I work with people who look great, but have cancer or some other disease. It is certainly wise to care for your body, but health goes far beyond muscles and body shape.

Judging yourself or another based upon how much or how many exercises one does is insane. Human beings need to have the strength to achieve a healthful lifestyle and that is about all. Physical strength is only one parameter of health and not an important one.

MYTH #2. A healthy heart and healthy arteries indicate you are healthy.

This is a recent fetish. Experience with many people shows that if your body chemistry is truly in balance, your arteries and heart will be excellent. This is not to say that exercise is not needed. Some gentle walking is excellent for circulation and the cardiovascular system. However, it is easy to overdo in trying to tone up your muscles and one system that can be negatively affected is the cardiovascular system.

Gentle exercise is beneficial for everyone, but a narrow-minded focus on cardiovascular fitness is insane. Recently a 25-year old woman consulted me complaining of fatigue and depression. She was doing aerobic exercise 3-5 evenings a week. Her heart and arteries were probably fine, but her glandular system was so exhausted she could hardly get out of bed in the morning. Her hair analysis indicated a depleted, exhausted body. Exercise was just aggravating the problem. This case is typical of the 'exhausted exerciser'.

MYTH #3. Exercise rebuilds your body.

Exercise assists circulation of the blood and oxygenation of tissues, and can help rebuilding in this sense. Mild exercise is excellent for these purposes. Excessive exercise, however, stresses the heart, arteries, joints, and glands. They are forced to respond to stress, and to use up energy in that response. Muscles enlarge as a response or accommodation to stress. Large muscles are not a sign of health in themselves.

Healing and rebuilding is largely a biochemical phenomenon, requiring proper nutrients, and requiring plenty of rest so that energy can be directed to the area in need of healing.

To exercise a little when you feel well is great. To exercise "in order to feel well" is skating on thin ice. Today, most people are subtly malnourished due to consumption of food that is low in trace elements, and for other reasons. No amount of exercise will make up for these deficiencies. It is a mistake to think you can compensate for a biochemical problem by exercising.

The result may be that you will feel well for a while. Later, you will find yourself addicted to exercise. If you skip it for two days, you will feel depressed, constipated, irritable or exhausted. This occurs because exercise stimulates the adrenal glands and can keep exhausted glands functioning - like whipping a tired horse. If you stop whipping, naturally the horse will not feel like getting up or performing well.

MYTH #4. Exercise cannot be harmful.

Most marathon runners are good for several years. Then some of them must retire because they are 'burned out'. Many professional athletes die young. Indeed, they have one of the shortest life spans of any group of adults.

Here is something interesting. The slow heartbeat of professional runners is due in part to their healthy heart, but also due to a mechanism to slow their metabolism, because they put such strain on their heart. Cysteine is released from muscle tissue and slows the thyroid. The idea that since a little is good, more must be better, can be lethal when applied to exercise.

Here are some guidelines for exercise:

1. Don't use your pulse as your only guide. Many people are not that healthy, in spite of a normal pulse rate.

2. Follow common sense. Don't push past exhaustion. Listen to yourself before you listen to any coaches, experts or friends. Go at your own pace. Do as much exercise as you need to keep yourself fit for your lifestyle and that is all. Opt for less exercise of a vigorous nature if in doubt.

3. Don't use exercise as a crutch or drug. If you are running to get away from your problems, you are misusing exercise. If you are addicted to exercise, work toward getting unhooked, as you would with any other addiction. Addiction is not health, even if it makes you look and feel fantastic while you do it.

4. If you skip exercise for a few days, you should still feel very well. If you skip your exercise and begin to feel depressed, exhausted, constipated or irritable you are probably using exercise as a whip. Cut down slowly and look into other reasons why you are feeling this way.

5. A tissue mineral analysis performed by a lab that does not wash the hair, and interpreted by someone who understands it well, can often tell you if you are overdoing exercise. There is a list on this website of practitioners whom I personally train and whom I trust. The others, I do not trust with hair analysis. Click here to reach that page.

The properly performed and interpreted hair mineral test will often indicate adrenal exhaustion. Only very gentle exercise is acceptable and helpful for these people. Vigorous exercise of any kind in this condition only slows regeneration and is quite dangerous for your health and healing.

6. Involve your whole body. Exercise outside in the fresh air whenever possible. Flexibility is as important as strength and endurance. Stretching and deep breathing are vital for health.

Walking, swimming, bicycling and gardening are excellent. Long-lived people in the world often work outside, but usually not strenuously. Meditative exercises such as yoga or tai chi are also okay but be careful because many are injured in these classes. The teacher must walk around the entire class at all times to make sure the students are doing the poses correctly at all times. This is very important to avoid injuries. This is why walking is often better, as it is safer.

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