Schematizing the position of the human being with respect to the activity of walking, we could say that his experience and response is in three levels: he likes it, he resists it or he has a maniacal inclination.
On the first and the second position we have already expressed different opinions in more than a hundred previous Posts. The manic inclination obeys a need of the unconscious type; however, it also has a physical causality, fundamentally of the hormonal type.
The manic alteration in the human behavior consists of having a propensity difficult to resist that forces us unconsciously to change the place where we are or reside; it is an unconscious compulsion (irrational obsession) that impels us to get out of from the place where we have remained stable for a certain time (t), 1 week, two weeks, 1 month, several months, an indefinite time that depends on each person who suffers from it, and after a certain time (T) this impulse to change again the place where we are is reborn.
A great part of the population that suffers from this syndrome, resolves it by traveling, when their economic level and other social and family aspects allow it.
This manic inclination has been called in various ways, depending on the epoch, the establishment, doctrine, the context, the appreciation, the impulse, and even the repulsion to certain social and/or family conditions: wandering mania, odomania, poriomania, automation of moving without control, drapetomania (escape), ecdemomania, dissociative fugue (memory and perception), hypermobility, and a dozen other nominations.
This state of mind is different from the impulse that every individual generates in the age of adolescence and requires to do so in order to strengthen his personality (Post THE WALK AND THE INSTINCT TO LEAVE THE PLACE OF ORIGIN), or at least in those initial years; however, it is worth asking the question whether this imperative need has not been generated precisely because we have not allowed ourselves to respond in a timely manner to this primary instinct to leave the place of origin.
The approach I make in this Post reminds me of a trip that 6 young people made in 1967 to Monreal, Canada, to attend the World’s Fair of that year. M. Basáñez, the Paredes brothers, the Margain brothers, and myself, at the average age of 20.
I have expressed that at certain moments something much more intense is demanded, to travel to strengthen one’s own personality, unconsciously seeking its healthy development. A timely departure from our place of origin allows us to develop ourselves better and to search for our own personality and character. This is an action that all young people should carry out by themselves. This impulse is an instinct that impels us to travel, by the mere fact of leaving that place where we have remained for long months or years; a congenital impulse, which facilitates us to better develop our personality, without which it is more difficult to find the meaning of life, and it delays the achievement of vital goals.
Of course, none of the 6 of us had any idea of this. I repeat: everything is an impulse to be outside our place of origin.
MONREAL, CANADA, 1967
I believe it is pertinent to dwell a little on this question because it is possible that many of the individuals who suffer from dromomania in adulthood have been provoked by not attending to this instinct, when it appeared in their respective adolescent ages. At this age it is common for the young person to “escape” one weekend and repeat it several times; this will be a sign of his or her instinctive and natural need to get out of his or her familiar environment, a need that must be addressed in a timely manner. As discussed in the post mentioned above, this syndrome may be caused by not having achieved the personality or having lost personal identity, which in part is lacking the meaning of life, feeling dissatisfied with what he does or with life itself: “Going for a walk is not only a physical impulse to exercise the body and give movement to the mind, but it is closely related to something much deeper in the soul: going out to strengthen the individual personality. This going for a walk is a metaphor of the unconscious that seeks the healthy awakening of the personality of the being. Leaving one’s place of origin in a timely manner -at a certain age- allows one to develop better and to search for one’s own personality. Definitely, this is an action that every human being -man and woman- must put into practice by himself, as his own decision and encouraged by his parents”.
We said in Post WALKING AND ITS SYMBOLISM: “An analogical extrapolation of this is traveling, which is nothing other than the search for a renewing experience, the beginning of a change that seeks to get somewhere; initiator of a metamorphosis for transcendence. Thus, walking, as an analogy of traveling, symbolically signifies the intrinsic need to free oneself, seeking an initiating experience of change. It is a symbol of transcendence. Trying to break away from the social status that surrounds you: friends, peers, family, work, studies, etc. The journey is the symbolic representation of a quest to face new experiences and discoveries, liberation, renunciation, atonement. It is generated by a natural state of discontent with oneself and the environment around us. Search for a change, exploration of the knowledge of the nature of life and death, to know what to do with one’s existence. Depending on the individual, it can be a trip around the world, leaving one’s village, moving house, or simply walking aimlessly. All this, to transcend inwardly towards a new way of living.”
On the other hand, the human body has needs that it satisfies with its own generation of organic substances (Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE SELF-PRODUCTION OF ORGANIC SUBSTANCES), and regarding this topic it has been commented that SEROTONIN, DOPAMINE, ENDORPHIN and OXYTOCHIN are hormones that regulate certain brain functions. When their levels are low, the body loses the ability to take action and no longer wants to strive to achieve certain goals and objectives, both in the every day and the unaccustomed.
Walking -and any other acceptable exercise- is an activity, which raises the levels of these 4 hormones, among other physiological and nutritional measures (Future Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE HORMONES OF HAPPINESS).
Regarding the physical causality of the hormonal type -which is not of a manic nature-, we will expose the different glandular scenarios in several future posts, where we will analyze the relationship of the WALK-RWD system with each of the endogenous and exogenous glands, and their particular production of hormones, and of course, with that need to travel.
We must also point out that dromomania is generated by emotional causes (affectation of feelings), which, without reaching levels of psychopathy, generate in the human being an irresistible need to escape, (drapetomania), to flee, to leave the place where we are residing, not to mention those numerous cases of avoiding commitments, responsibilities, not facing problems (big or small), debts, obligations, family inconveniences, etc. An emotional need to evade work (in the office or in the factory), family commitments, because he does not enjoy anything since he may be suffering from an emotional depression and tries to escape.
Let’s analyze our personal situation and see what we have stored inside us on the subject of travel. Some key questions are: Do I want to travel? What is my situation? Do I want to travel alone or with someone else? The answers to these questions – and others – contain some very important explanations.
An effective way to carry out this analysis and to arrive at a sincere answer, according to our deep interiority, is by walking and putting into practice the WALK-RWD system. Do not doubt it, walking opens our mind. Any experience we get from walking is positive to open our positive emotions and our mind “Open your mind while walking”.
The human body withers when it does not search and does not find the way or path to WALK, in the same way it happens to waters that have no outlet and does not move, they become a swamp.
The main characteristic that a body of water has to be considered a swamp is that it has no exit, and therefore its waters are stagnant and do not move. The fact that its waters remain static generates a state of decomposition that, as time goes by, makes it more difficult to rescue it and clean it from the deterioration it has reached.
In itself, the swamp is the highest state of degradation that a body of water can reach.
1145.-TRANSCENDENTAL SUBJECTION
Daily walking by an individual is synonymous with opening a new channel to a body of water so that it can drain, cleanse its waters and free itself from suspended sludge. In each walk the human body is revitalized just as when we free the stagnant waters of a swamp; it is supplied with oxygen, its lungs are strengthened, the blood circulates better through the veins, toxic substances are discarded and new energy (impetus and strength) is injected for the next experiential launch.
Let’s start walking and avoid all those ailments that come with time as the swamps are born with quicksand that turn them into damaged and dangerous bodies.
It is essential to have a better knowledge of the composition and structure of our body, that is, of the arrangement throughout it, of the different parts, elements and systems that make it up.
There are 206 bones that give structure to the human body (Future Post WALKING AND THE 206 BONES OF OUR BODY) and 660 muscles that compose it (Future Post WALKING AND THE 660 MUSCLES OF OUR BODY). This bone and muscle constitution must be taken into account to know how our body responds, both physically and mentally, to the functional aspects of its symmetry.
Undoubtedly, the human body has a functional symmetry. The better we understand how the body moves and the functions performed by joints, muscles, bones and ligaments when performing certain movements and actions, the easier it will be to improve the execution of the mobilities (physical displacements) necessary for the practice of a given exercise or sport, always looking for its structural balance.
Thus, balance and symmetry are two fundamental aspects that must be taken into account for any type of body exercise.
A) The human body keeps a balance when walking, not only because of the symmetry of the body -defined by volume, mass and weight-, but that balance that is achieved and maintained by the existence of a centroid line, which is a dynamic line that divides the body longitudinally into two volumetric parts with equal weight, as it moves.
B) Every exercise should be performed taking into account the symmetry of the body, that is to say, to perform it for the two symmetrical sides of the body and according to that dynamic line. (Future Post THE PRACTICE OF THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM USING THE TWO SYMMETRIC PARTS OF THE BODY)
VERTICAL AXIS OF SYMMETRY
The human body is constructed with parts symmetrical with respect to a vertical axis of symmetry, as we see in the previous figure and in the following one.
VERTICAL AXIS OF SYMMETRY
We have limbs, lower and upper, in pairs; and even almost all the external senses and organs are housed symmetrically in both parts of the body, except for some which are not in pairs.
All the external senses exist in pairs, except taste, which must have a physiological reason to be unitary and individual.
That is to say, we could assure that the left part is equivalent to the right, the human body being divided by a vertical line passing through its middle part.
Thus, we have 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 feet, 2 heels, 2 ankles, 2 knees, 2 buttocks, 2 hands, 2 wrists, 2 elbows, 2 shoulders, 2 ears, 2 nostrils, 2 eyes, 2 cerebral lobes, 2 testicles, 2 ovaries; all of them equidistant to a central, longitudinal axis, which separates them vertically and symmetrically, in a single plane and equidistantly. There is no other axis that divides the human body symmetrically.
The sense of sight can clearly illustrate this symmetry and give us some valuable information as to why we have a paired constitution. Binocular vision allows us to focus on objects at variable distances, through the phenomenon of convergence. This is a coordination that is done with binocular vision, that is with the 2 eyes, to place the images in an exact point of the retina and send the message to the brain. In this way we can calculate -approximately- how far –or near- an object is from us. If we cover one of our eyes, we will realize that this calculation becomes more difficult.
Bipedalism -walking on two legs and feet- is an activity that should continue to be deeply analyzed in the future to better understand its functionality and the benefits it generates on the entire human body, physical and mental.
Now, the LINE OF GRAVITY and the POINT OF GRAVITY, are 2 parameters functionally equivalent to the concept of centroid that we use in engineering to calculate the moments (Force x Distance) of the different elements that are used to study the loads and efforts of the materials and the metallic, concrete, wood and other structures. In planar figures (geometric or any other configuration) it is not advisable to talk about the force of gravity, since they are figures that are only “ideally” defined in 2 dimensions. In the analysis of our subject, being the human body the main object to be exercised, we must consider for its observation and treatment, the 3 dimensions since it is a volume and has a weight, so it is essential to use the concept of gravitational force, since among other technical and functional aspects, it is required to place it under analysis and observation (exams and laboratory tests) of its operation with respect to the gravitational phenomenon (Future Post A SMALL STEP FOR A MAN, A GREAT LEAP FOR MANKIND).
In itself, gravitation is one of the important phenomena that we must take into account for the observation and examination of the functioning of the human body.
There is no doubt for us, at present, that the human body is practically symmetrical physically with respect to that vertical axis; but surely it is also symmetrical with respect to the cerebral-spiritual functions (Keep in mind what was expressed in Post TOTEM AND WALKING-PART I, ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASPECTS, about what I consider spiritual [*]). That is to say, the activities we develop also have a symmetrical effect on the brain functions and the aspects of creation and creativity generated by our mental-spiritual part. All the exercises that we perform -as we have already mentioned- must be based on the 1st fundamental principle of the WALK-RWD system so that they are carried out in a harmonious way with respect to the vertical axis or alternating the 2 respective symmetrical members.
[*] We said in that Post: “I would like from this moment, at this level of the Blog, to mention that when I use the word “spiritual” I am not referring exclusively to the religious concept; of course they are intimately related, but they are not equivalent. Religion is an evolved phase of Magic and Totemism, as James George Frazer rightly mentions, and spirituality is the sensitive and dynamic force (energy), which escapes the rational and the senses for its quantification, dimensions and power, through which, the human being develops certain forms and religious aspects, but also dozens of other functions and soul operations, which only with this ethereal energy, constitutive of being, we can achieve”.
We should always keep in mind this dimension of the bodily, mental and spiritual symmetry of the human being, because effectively, only by maintaining the body in a correct symmetry of weights and volumes, including areas (Future Post THE MAN OF VITRUVIUM AND THE PROPORTIONATE WALKING OF THE HUMAN BEING) we will be able to keep a corporal balance, and therefore, to facilitate all the other activities that we develop while we walk.
About the mental aspects, I expressed in Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM ENCOURAGES CREATIVE THINKING: “So much has been experimented that walking promotes the harmonious functioning of the cerebral hemispheres, that there is no doubt about it. Walking is an exercise that causes effects on the 2 symmetrical parts of the human body, so any exercise that generates it, will have similar effects (Future Post THE SYMMETRY OF THE BODY, ITS BALANCE AND WALKING), as long as they are not gymnastics or sports too strenuous, exhausting or violent”.
On the other hand, perhaps we could differentiate the physical-anatomical axes from the almathic or hermetic ones, such as those we observe in the conceptualization of the CHAKRAS. The latter irrigate the spiritual body along an axis that is also vertical, but of the almathic, not somatic, type.
The CHAKRAS remain on the same symmetrical anatomical-physiological axis. The axis of the CHAKRAS is of the hermetic-almathic type (Future Post WALKING ALONG WITH OUR CHAKRAS).
# 940 y 405 SEVEN CHACRAS
Thus, each of the symmetrical and proportionate parts that make up the human body can capture the reality of the world in a specific and different way from its corresponding symmetrical one, and the joint work of the pair, by the simultaneous harmonic perception and its dynamic-energetic assimilation, allows us to have a better complete and unique representation of the external reality -as we explained in the case of the sense of sight). It is a known fact that the very functioning of these symmetrical pairs and their respective perception, being different in realization and perception, is due to their direct or crossed connections with the 2 cerebral hemispheres; these being the ones that contain dissimilar mental neurological functions, and that by receiving the information of the symmetrical pairs, they retransmit compositive images to the other double parts of the human body and to the rest of their own constituent elements and to other systems, organs and glands.
Walking is beneficial for the development of all these functional actions, communications and transfers. The reason for this, from the mechanical point of view for bodily locomotion, is that the body keeps its balance better supported by two elements than by only one. And in relation to the external senses it is probably because they work better in pairs to distinguish and better perceive the motive, object or external stimulus, since they must be located in time and distance. In other words, two vectors of the same sense are required to better locate and distinguish the respective stimulus, both in its distance and in its temporal disposition. These functions of the human body is where we can appreciate them more objectively the dimensions of time, distance and number (periods of exercise, speed, acceleration, even limbs and organs, etc.).
Walking benefits, drives and stimulates: a) physical equilibrium, b) mental-cerebral equilibrium and c) instinctive-spiritual equilibrium. The first one moves us bodily and harmoniously through all external physical environments; the second one allows us to develop mentally, intellectually and emotionally, in the social environment that surrounds us; and the third one guides us in a prudent way, through the path of intuition, imagination & creativity.
Therefore, all exercise activities that we develop, and mostly in our own walks, we must take into account this constructive structure -of symmetry, pairs and dynamic balance- to maintain the stability of the body, physical, mental and spiritual. In this regard, we must keep in mind that the human body – I repeat- has only one axis of symmetry: the vertical axis. There is no other. And that will be the axis on which we will have to program and project the exercises.
In general terms, we can affirm that due to the symmetry of the human body itself, the physical exercises, whatever they may be, should be carried out considering it, even if in a simultaneous way, using the two symmetrical limbs (arms, legs, etc.), or alternating one and the other, if not immediately, then with small inter-phases.
In my own experience, when I am walking, I perceive that my two cerebral hemispheres begin to work together. I realize this because the responses I get during my walks are different from when I am static, abstaining from my daily walking. Type of ideas are different, they are less in quantity and of course, the best ideas come to me when I am walking. (Future Post WALKING VERSUS SITTING, STANDING, LYING DOWN).
Of course, as I have already mentioned, this symmetrical structure of our whole body, acts on that healing and creative potentiality, which emerges from within us, when we are walking.
In future Post LISTENING TO OUR BODY WHILE WE WALK, we present a whole series of mechanisms that we must use to become aware that our body is permanently communicating with us, and how to understand it in its symbolic language.
I do the same in some future posts:
In the future Post THE MAN OF VITRUVIUM AND THE PROPORTIONATE WALKING OF THE HUMAN BEING, the proportionality of the areas, volumes and weights that must be considered to perform any walk is explained.
In the future Post BODY PARTS FOR WALKING- CARE OF THE BODY we explained in a general way the care we should take with our body, and observe the aspects of balance and symmetry, which are essential to developing our walks, in an adequate and healthy way.
The body should definitely not be put to work while we walk, subjecting it to excessive loads or overloading it asymmetrically:
INCORRECT CONDITION POSITION FOR WALKING
As shown in the figure above, we should not cause a displacement of the verticality (vertical axis) during the activity of walking, so we must be very careful with the objects we carry, especially with those that are heavy to move comfortably.
Even if they are marginal, these displacements generate physical disarrangements in the body that can have medium or long term consequences, important deviations in the spine or simply reductions in the ease of walking or speed.
The correct position for a walk is to maintain a strict perpendicular to the plane of the ground where we are walking, both frontal and lateral. In the following 2 figures we can observe this required perpendicularity:
Maintain a perpendicular with respect to the ground plane
Any exercise should always be performed taking into account the symmetry axis, either simultaneously or alternating. For example, lifting both arms at the same time or first one and then the other. The alternation does not necessarily have to be immediate, we can -depending on the exercise- perform it 3, 6 or 10 times a symmetrical part (arm, hand, leg, foot, etc.) and then the other symmetrical part, the same number of times we exercised the first of them. The latter is imperative and irrefutable, since both parts must be exercised the same number of times and with the same speed, intensity, effort and periodic duration.
Finally, it is worth asking ourselves the question, if this awareness of the symmetry that we must take care of when putting into practice the WALK-RWD system, will also help us to improve our body and our mind? Of course it will, with the commitment that the exercises we perform are carried out for both symmetrical parts of the body.
An illustrative example is that of the skateboard, although this is only for the mechanical device and not for the electric one. Clearly it is observed that the exercise that is developed is of dissimilar effects for the symmetrical parts of the organism. This is not a typically healthy exercise for the human being. However, if we were to perform it alternately, it could be considered healthy; that is, 10 exercises with the left leg and 10 with the right leg, and so on indefinitely. The body always responds to the rhythms, to the measures and cadences to which we submit it, as long as they tend to a mechanical symphony that considers its symmetrical parts, its proportions and its natural inclinations to its mobility, to keep its balance and correct development.
In this exercise of the mechanical skateboard it is clearly observed that the person’s body is positioned in an eccentric way, in addition to the fact that the exercises performed, for the whole body, are carried out in an asymmetric and unbalanced way.
The solution is to alternate in its mechanical practice; for example, to propel oneself with the left leg 10 times and to alternate immediately with the right leg with 10 impulses, and so on without limit.
The case of the rowing boat clearly illustrates what happens, both in the efforts and in the advance.
When you push the boat by rowing with only one arm, you are moving forward but in circles. It is the same when we exercise with only one part of the body, we develop the exercise but only for one part of the body, in an unbalanced way.
In the practice of rowing in the boat, what should be done, to really move forward, is to alternate rowing with both arms. Exercises should also be performed alternating both parts of the body to achieve a symmetrical and balanced exercise.
If we row alternately, we will observe that the boat will advance correctly and thus the assimilation of the exercises, on our body, both physically and mentally.
The same scheme could be done with the skateboard.
From all the exposed, we can deduce the following principle of the WALK-RWD system, as
1st fundamental principle or Principle of Symmetry:
“All the exercises to be performed must be carried out with respect to the vertical axis of anatomical symmetry of the human body, either simultaneously or alternating the 2 respective symmetrical limbs, always in a harmonic way, in both options”.
Walking is an example of the application of this principle, with respect to the second option of alternating the respective symmetrical limbs, in this case, the legs, knees, ankles, and feet.
However, the 2nd fundamental principle of the WALK-RWD system, generated in Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM ENCOURAGES CREATIVE THINKING-PART I, implicit but not expressed, should also be taken into account. Its definition is expressed in the second part, in the future Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM STIMULATES CREATIVE THINKING. PART II, precisely to abound in what are the unbalanced postures (Future Posts THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND KUNDALINI YOGA and WALKING IN THE YOGAKARA) and the “unbalanced” states in movement, such as walking, which generate very important effects in our brain and body (stable unbalanced movement):
2nd fundamental principle or Principle of Dynamic Equilibrium:
“Keeping the body in physical movement through walking, generates by itself a vibration of the brain, which causes it to enter into an imbalance and normal functions are carried out and effects are generated, of the dynamic type, on the different systems, organs and glands of the body”.
Let’s revive our limbs, muscles and joints of the body with walking, taking into account these 2 principles of the WALK-RWD System.
The purpose of this post is to make known the advantages and disadvantages, benefits and impacts that our body can experience when we load it with artificial light weights, while walking; to know if it generates greater strengthening in the physical and mental aspects, or on the contrary, causes some kind of damage or a demerit in their performance.
The classic is to place weights in any of the upper or lower extremities.
We will focus on weights on the lower extremities, but this does not mean that we should omit the possibility of the others, since weights can also be placed on the wrists or arms, or around the waist with special belts.
The weights, as devices, are placed on the lower extremities, commonly on the ankles or legs, being the most common on the former.
In any of these body parts where it is decided to place them, will allow us to perform greater efforts with and in the limbs and sections of the body where we fix them.
Regarding the characteristics of each type of weights we can resort to specialized companies for it.
The important thing is to be aware that we will be adding weight to our body in those parts where we place them.
There is no doubt that weights, in general, will strengthen our limbs and the sections of the body where we place them, but, and here is the big question that we have: Is it better, healthier, to walk with an overweight, with a lower weight or without extra weights? Let’s imagine that we could walk with a slight decrease in our own body weight, would that invite us to walk with greater pleasure? And if so, how much would it be advisable, for example, to decrease the force of gravity?
Let us keep in mind that walking, as we have always done it, has been carried out with the same gravitational force, although we know that it varies slightly from one geographical point to another, since it is not the same at the equator as at the poles (Post ONE SMALL STEP FOR A MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND), and we know that the physical, emotional and mental benefits that it generates, without variation in that force, are innumerable. This means that normal walking has always developed under the influences of our own weight and without variation of it. Obesity could be a case that should be analyzed taking into account this type of effects: gravity, body weight and mass, significance in health (physical and mental), etc.
Let’s leave for the near future, to investigate and analyze what the force of gravity means in conjunction with our body weight and mass, in the practice of walking, as I have programmed it associated with the WALK-RWD system.
BENEFITS THROUGH THE USE OF EXTRA WEIGHTS ON THE BODY, WHILE WALKING:
Weights make it difficult for us to move while walking, but they strengthen our muscles and other mechanical and functional parts of our body.
In general, the benefits that are generated with extra weights, are:
1. Decrease in body weight, by increasing the consumption of calories (For obesity cases).
2. Improvement in cardiovascular disease
3. Strengthening of the lower limbs, with respect to joints, muscles, bones and tendons.
4. Improvement in the elasticity of the lower limbs, which avoids the vicissitude and incidence of falls.
5. Obtaining greater firmness in walking, which gives the individual, in turn, greater security to perform the other 3 structured activities within the WALK-RWD System.
It is very easy to define the sequence of cause-effect that generates an overweight in the lower limbs: With an overweight is achieved an extra work for our body, because the bones, muscles, tendons, joints, legs, feet and ankles, will work harder. With the ankles (or calves) loaded, it will take more effort to cover the same distances in the walks; which generates that more calories are burned in the same period of time. The latter will translate into greater weight loss per unit of time.
In addition, there is no doubt that the use of weights on legs and ankles achieves its strengthening and therefore improves the development of the walk itself, as well as its safety in the displacement.
It has also been demonstrated that loading the legs or ankles with weights (1/2 pound), the weight of the body can be reduced between 1 pound to 3 pounds, with walks of 1 hour daily, during 45 days. This can be achieved, as we have explained in the post COMBATING SOME ENEMIES WITH THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM: OBESITY, without the need to overload the body. Of course, this type of walking modality does not have the fundamental objective of losing weight, but to improve the health -both physical and mental- of the individual who practices it.
ASPECTS TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT TO IMPROVE MUSCLES:
The following actions should be taken into very careful consideration in order to realize the various desired effects on a muscle, when the body is loaded with extra weight:
1. Frequency in exercising the muscle o Repetition of the exercise. Regularity in the practice of the exercise.
2. Duration of time of the exercise in which the muscle is maintained in alternating tension.
3. Magnitude of the tension or effort to which the muscle is subjected. (The loads to which the muscle is subjected).
4. Rhythm and cadence in the exercise of the muscle. Slow or fast speed.
5. Symmetry or asymmetry of the efforts to which the muscle will be subjected (Future Post THE BODY’S SYMMETRY, ITS BALANCE AND ITS WALK).
The combination of these 5 parameters is the basis of the methodology of the systematic use of weights on the lower extremities during the practice of walking.
RISKS OF CARRYING EXTRA WEIGHTS WITH THE BODY
It is necessary to keep in mind that walking with weights on the ankles can cause wounds, injuries or dislocations in the lower sections of the legs, knees, ankles and feet, in their joints, muscles and tendons due to the efforts deployed. Normal walking may be affected in terms of average performance rates as well as walking techniques, i.e., placing extra weights on the lower extremities disturbs normal walking, and the heavier the extra weight, the more our natural average walking will be affected.
PENDING ASPECTS TO BE RESOLVED IN THE FUTURE
However, there are still some unknowns to be resolved in the future when using these weights on the lower extremities. Does increasing the weight of the loads on the lower extremities improve their effects? We do not know for sure the limits that can be reached.
Regarding the average walking speed: Does it generate a break or an improvement in it, and what are the direct and indirect effects of its alteration?
On heart rate, it has been shown that carrying extra weight on the legs or ankles (1/4-1/2 pound) will increase by 5 beats per minute; likewise, placing that extra weight on the arms, wrists or hands, the heart rate is increased by 6 to 9 beats per minute. Both possibilities are achieved in a period of ½ hour of walking.
GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS.
The following indications (observations, tips) should be taken into account in order to avoid the greatest number of problems when carrying extra weights on the body:
1. Be aware that additional weight is being added to the body, which will generate difficulties in the movement.
2. The weights, as devices, should not be excessive.
3. This type of practice should not be performed if you suffer from any joint problem, no matter how small it may be.
4. You should start with very light weights and gradually increase their weight.
5. Warm-up exercises should be performed before starting to walk with the overweight.
6. Weights should be held gently on the ankles.
7. Avoid carrying extra weights on the lower extremities if you suffer from any severe pain in the muscles, legs, bones, feet or ankles, as well as feeling unusually fatigued, or any unusual symptomatology.
With or without extra weights, let’s get walking. Let’s let our two legs carry us. Let’s thank the left and the right, which have carried us all the days of our lives.
I am subtracting myself from some of my many paths that I use to move from here to there -a body in mobility-, towards the conjunction of the totality, towards plurality -also in movement, always in movement-.
I am generally satisfied with the uniqueness of this body and I conjugate myself in a whole universe of my equals. It is my own uniqueness, of body and mind.
I go through emotional and psychic places that regularly make me reconsider my functional separation (dissociation) from reason, which accelerates or delays my displacement.
The paths that I somehow observed as passable, are transformed -from time to time- into absolute obscurities and therefore my achievements are transferred to certain failed misencounters; however, some of these misencounters are trials perpetrated and consummated, which I have undertaken to transform them into victories, in the presence of the conscience, which procures a reinitiation towards the return, towards starting points, for a possible hope of finding greater illumination in the different paths chosen, to rescue what has been lost by the obstinacy of it, of reason. Several are the crucial moments in which I question myself if I should refuse the calls of some “extra-natural” help.
But the task is not at all easy, because the thresholds of return become indefinite and I no longer wish to return to the everyday world of reasoning.
Therefore, I am constantly trying to complement it, that disoriented reason, or to replace it, since it has failed to achieve the human ideals: tranquility, happiness and freedom. Now it is my turn.
A Hill or elevation of the terrain would be a representation of the different behavioral scenarios of the two of us, two mental functions, which can serve as a figurative analogy of the behaviors and movements, subtle forms of human behavior.
The Hill is the highest point that is observed in the whole horizon dominated by the spirit. By different paths of existence, it can descend from that point and go up again, going through the most extreme aspects from tragedy to comedy.
I like to climb a hill… but… climb a mountain?
Hill …upwards and Hill …downwards, are manifestations of being, which unfold in the same mythical, archetypal theme.
Hill down is a representation of that part of the being that in its experience has assimilated those events that in some way have formed or deformed it. Tragedy is the artistic manifestation associated with this mythological theme, plucked as a revelation from the unconscious. Thus, tragedy, as the fragmentation and the return to the configuration (the union) of archaic (archaizing) forms, is a downhill path where suffering allows the reconstruction of archetypal images.
In the comedy, represented in Colina hacia arriba, the unconscious seeks balance and manifests its exultation (joy) and leaves sadness behind for other moments, where the lord of time gloats.
Through these two fragmentations, the obscure paths through which “some” parts of the mind travel and through the tragic or pleasant (pleasurable, pleasing) experience that is aroused in each of them, the spirit tries, in its own way, to prevent them from dispersing, since it is certain that if it continues along the rational path, quite rough, it will only lead the being to become more disunited, more fragmented, and therefore to the disintegration of the inner self. The unconscious is no longer willing to allow reason one more chance; in its special way of participating (acting), it tries to show the emotions, from those elementary to the most complex, as an integral part of the higher capacities of the psyche: the aesthetic, intellectual and religious faculties.
In the manner of a shot that moves these higher capacities as a result of the “real” struggle that arises with the conscious part. This struggle of the spirit is what allows human evolution towards higher forms of being, such as art; but it also involves it when its results are not positive for the being.
Just as the confrontation between these two entities (the conscious and the unconscious) generates difficulties and pathological states of the mind, by blocking (impeding) the flow of evolution (favorable development) being trapped and repressed in the subconscious, so they give rise to higher mental states, either in an intellectualized way (the sciences) or sublimated (the arts).
Staying alert all the time is exhausting. A short pause (respite, rest) in the middle of the road would be enough to recover my lost energies.
Calmness allows the lethargic body to wake up to the overwhelming reality and encounter its own suffering and return to the threshold of my unconscious world, finding itself in the passage of time, with its unreality and recreating itself in a fleeting instant.
The alteration in that moment generates ascents and descents through different paths, which connect some and others, but which do not manage to make reason coincide with me, in those fleeting moments (times).
One is dominated by tragedy and the other seeks compensation for the circumstance, and everything develops in a sleeping conscience, which in its wandering, the unconscious wants to manifest itself to excite it.
The hormonal systems are the best helpers that both the consciousness and the unconscious have to strengthen and defend both the physiological and the mental part of the being.
Perhaps the hormones that have a close and direct link with the psychic functions, are the ones we should be more attentive to and take greater care of their functioning. Thanks to this type of hormones, it is possible to disguise and hide almost all the appetites by which that subtle muscular part that enriches the soul, comes to wear out the spirit and offers us a demoralizing suffering. That is to say, the hormonal participation allows the human being to cope in a less aggressive way with the psychological aspects that are constantly affecting him, either by the stimuli of the physical and social environment, or by the own psychic structure of each individual.
As the various hormonal systems cease to function properly, the stimulating vectors become more direct and harmful (and inciting) to individual behavior.
This great “metapsychic” hormonal system is the main helper (assistant, collaborator) of the individual unconscious, and by extension, also of the collective unconscious; so named in this post, because it cannot yet be scientifically demonstrated. It is in this metapsychic system where the individual unconscious extracts the information to define the traces and routes (routes, paths) to “walk” through the different psychic paths of the being.
Which and in what do these paths consist?
Invariably and individually I walk permanently, without resting, through different places, spaces, forms, to understand if there is or should be that uniqueness in the spirit, uniqueness in the mind of the being, but above all its participation -of its “movement”- in a universal way.
I am not a sub-function or appendix of the consciousness.
# 609.- THE TURN IS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL UNCONSCIOUS
Let us keep in mind that the individual unconscious adjusts to its own trajectories, but sometimes it leaves them, abandoning them and is guided by other instinctive constructions, moving and orienting itself according to the process of the healing machination. Sometimes we also find it dazed and it leads itself to points where reason points it out as “wrong”.
They may be stimulated by the repressed consciousness and the damaged subconscious; the former frightened; the latter, daring, unbridled.
The great secret is that the unconscious helps itself in many ways, both in individual and collective practice. The hormonal systems -the psychic killer fundamentally- are a small part of what the physiological supports it, and the collective unconscious guides it towards universal strata, where the human being can fully develop.
Physical walking is an analogy of the unconscious, it is a reality. The WALK-RWD system is a mental and functional process that supports it realistically and subliminally.
We must recognize that the individual unconscious is not a sub-function or appendix of the conscious part of the being (Future posts THE CONSCIOUS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE APPLICATION OF THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM, WALKING THE 4 PATHS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS, THE CONSCIOUS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS IN UNITY, FOR THE ACHIEVEMENT OF OBJECTIVES, THROUGH THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM).
