Yesterday, I wrote a blog to say, “Strength Ain’t The Way.”
Some heated debate arose on a website that runs my blogs in tandem. While I am trying to start a revolution of better health, and freely offer excellent advice, some senior citizens argued with me that lifting weights is ALWAYS a good thing.
This morning I found a valuable link on Oprah.com; multiple “fitness” experts offer advice on exercise in your 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, period. If you briefly peruse the article you will see just “how important” weight lifting is to LOSE WEIGHT when you’re young; then gradually, the experts tell you to phase out of it in order to maintain your mobility. There is no mention of how to exercise after the decade of your 60’s: http://www.oprah.com/health/Exercise-for-Your-20s-30s-40s-50s-and-60s_1/print/1
My work coincides greatly with this information, with the exception that I’m not advising exercise for fat loss. I’m trying to convey the message that MOBILITY IS PARAMOUNT TO YOUR HEALTH.
I want you to think of it this way: imagine a 1-14 scale pH test for mobility. Less than seven is incrementally decreasing mobility, and 8-14 is increasing mobility. When you’re born, you’re immobile: you are a one (1) on this scale. Then as you grow up, you get more mobile until you reach a precipice; let’s just guess you reach pH 10 at age 15. Then you start getting older, and gradually stiffer. You reach pH 7 at age 30, and lose a point every decade after that. Most people finish life grossly immobile.
If you were to imagine a pH scale for health, it would overlay the pH scale for mobility almost identically. So again:
MOBILITY IS PARAMOUNT TO YOUR HEALTH. What I sincerely want you to understand is that the more mobile you are, the fewer health problems you will have. This has everything to do with stimulation of the internal organs & the spinal column, and weight-bearing on your bones (which is where white blood cells are manufactured).
Every time you lift weights, you are reducing your mobility. Your tendons are getting shorter and shorter from all the excessive pulling; this in turn reduces your range of motion. Even if you stretch, it’s not enough. Your mobility pH is going down every day. When you’re older, you’ll have twice as far to go to regain mobility.
Conversely, if you practice Tai Chi, you will let go of your strength. You will relax; stand upright; allow your tendons to stretch in natural, rotational patterns; and increase your mobility. If you thought it was strange that a 15-year old only achieves a mobility of 10, it’s because people like gymnasts, dancers and Tai Chi masters are far more mobile than even a highly flexible teenager.
Tai Chi is based on the philosophy of the “Tao Te Ching.” Chapter 76 reads:
Man when living is soft and tender;
When dead is hard and tough.
All animals and plants when living are tender and fragile
When dead they become withered and dry.
Therefore it is said:
The hard and tough are part of death;
The soft and tender are parts of life.
Weight lifting will speed you to your death. Fu Tai Chi will make you tender and years younger.