Health Beyond Civilization

I recently saw a patient who was so healthy he was almost intimidating. He was young, tall, handsome, and athletic. He literally had no complaints; said he woke up every morning feeling great, could run a mile without being winded, took about 2-3 breaths per minute, could do everything he wanted to do. He was just in for the experience of acupuncture, and get a one-time tune-up. So when I put my fingers on his radial artery, I expected to feel an abnormally healthy pulse.

Instead, I felt distinct signs that this person had been depleting himself, burning the candle at both ends, so to speak. Sure, he had a lot of energy, and that showed in the pulse; but there were also indications of a significant long-term drain, consistent with chronic overwork or overexertion.

This, then, begs the question: What is the difference between health and fitness?

The conventional view of health has a lot to do with a conditioned set of images: Ripped abs, bulging biceps, clear skin. Or a set of numbers: breaths per minute, miles walked or run, optimal heart rate, pounds bench-pressed, etc. If you can lift more, run faster, score more, and win, then you must be pretty damn healthy.

But that’s fitness — the ability to perform up to certain standards. It’s not the same as health. Health is broader, more general, more amorphous; it’s a quality, a sense of ease and fluidity and enjoyment, not a number or a concrete image. Certainly, health should result in some demonstration of fitness, but the reverse is not necessarily true. We’ve all heard of bodybuilders and athletes who use steroids to improve their performance, who end up with some crippling hormonal imbalance later. We’re probably familiar with many a yoga instructor or avid jogger who nevertheless has chronic headaches or high blood pressure or pain. The ability to function well within a sport or skill or muscle group does not necessarily translate into overall well-being.

The intent of the baseline practices outlined on this blog is to give yourself a broad understanding of where you stand, rather than a narrow view based on some arbitrary numbers. It matters less how much you weigh and how far you can run; it matters more how well you feel in your body while going about your daily activities. The small things and the subtle things can be of great importance, as things that damage the health often don’t happen all at once, but accumulate in the body even while you think you’re at your peak.

Our aforementioned patient clearly has his shit together on many levels; but his pulse indicated that there’s some level of functioning that’s severely imbalanced. I think this is a good lesson for us all, that there’s always more you can learn about balance. It’s never wrong to go back to the basics, back to the level of self-knowledge and self-awareness, to see what more you can understand about yourself.

Further, it’s very important to make sure that we’re moving toward health in a way that reflects true health rather than a narrow performance standard. From my own experience, I was never more “fit” than when I lived in the woods. I had to walk everywhere, even to go to the bathroom or get water, so that by the end of that period of time I had built up a lot of muscle and endurance. But, I was also more tired and unhealthy-feeling than I had felt in a long time.

This is not to say that no standards should be set or no goals should be aimed for. Rather, we should operate under the assumption that the “how” is as important, or more important, than the “what.” In other words, the practical focus should be on the process, not the destination. An emphasis on process places us squarely in the experience of the present moment in our bodies. This present-moment experience should be the standard by which we set our physical training.

I’ve seen people do a lot of damage to themselves by consistently forcing themselves to run more than they can handle, simply because they were trying to meet some arbitrary number of miles or minutes. I’ve done it myself; it’s a pervasive concept. What are we told by doctors? “Try to get 30 minutes of exercise three times a week.” But this is incorrect — or, at least, insufficient. It attempts to apply a set of numbers to your use of your body. Do doctors ever mention what you should experience, how free or alive or energetic the body should feel? Or is it all about how much time you spent with your heart rate at 80% of maximum?

Shaolin qigong and kung fu master Wong Kiew Kit writes,

The traditional Chinese martial art way is first strengthen yourself, including all your internal organs and life-function systems. Then, as the result of strengthening you can perform any exercise better, including push-ups, jogging and sit-ups. The Chinese martial art way pays great importance to gradual progress; it is utmost important not to over-train yourself.

The western approach is reverse. You do the exercise first, and hope that by doing the exercise you strengthen yourself. Chinese masters call this “confusing branch and root”, or confusing effect and cause. In western terms, it is putting the cart before the horse. Strengthening yourself is the cause; being able to do exercise well is the effect. The western approach has reversed cause and effect. Consequently the western approach gives only an appearance of fitness.

Those who lift weights or jog, for example, appear to be fit, but actually they are not because they have not strengthened their organs or improved their systems to do extra work. Instead they force their organs and systems to work hard; they do not feel the strain because they have conditioned themselves to endure.

This is extremely unhealthy. You may now better understand why so many former world champions have become physical and mental wrecks at middle age. At their prime period when their vital organs and life-sustaining systems were still able to endure the strain, they were paragons of the western concept of health and fitness. But later their organs and systems gave way to persistent over-straining. Not many people, however, know about their suffering at middle age. It is indeed sad to see them in such miserable conditions.

The qigong approach is based in flow of energy, and the free flow of energy is founded in relaxation and enjoyment of your physical being. It’s a good approach to adopt.

The standard ought to be: Enjoy. Move fluidly, open and play and act on your body in such a way that makes you feel more alive. A byproduct of this is that your heart rate may rise, your muscles may be worked, you may get out of breath, but that is not the point. The point is to feel your body doing these things, with quality of experience in mind. And when you stop feeling alive through your movement, then stop.

You should feel more alive after you train or exercise than before. And if you don’t, then something’s wrong.

Training for health is a process that encourages the flow of energy through the body in its most natural way: according to instinct. The body knows what it needs and it will do what it needs if we get out of its way. And this way happens to be more nourishing to the internal organs as well as the muscles and circulation, and gratifying to long-term enjoyment of life and spiritual well-being.