Conditioned

Nothing feels better than stepping out of a hot, humid day into a cold air-conditioned room. Getting away from the constant swelter relaxes and rejuvenates the body. It enhances our strength, giving us the ability to continue our journey in the heat of everyday living. I have a clear bias for cool, but I know the same truth applies to heat seekers; to them nothing feels better than stepping into a hot, humid, sweat dripping environment. Cares and concerns roll off the body or mist away as the heat melts all our worries and anxieties. Our response to these environments is one of conditioning; we like the familiar, natural environment we've spent most of our life in. We can adapt and learn to appreciate new environments, but we'll always have a preference for our home temperature. Or will we?

Modern devices give us a choice. We can choose to be warm and we can choose to be cold, an option billions of humans have never had. But what's interesting about our temperature preferences, are the axioms that go with skin coloration. The whiter the flesh, the sooner winter will refresh; the darker the color the more heat will recover. Is it true that our bodies have adapted to prefer a specific temperature; is this good science? Not really. Skin color has more to do with diet and sun exposure than temperature. But it does bring up a good point. How is it that some of us love one degree of heat, while disdain another? Especially since we can adapt to any environment regardless of our skin's pigmentation. While it is true that some medical conditions prescribe a specific environmental temperature and humidity, this doesn't describe a typical healthy human. What I would like to argue is that we are physically and mentally conditioned to prefer one environment over the other, and that this also applies to other areas of life, especially fitness, and even faith.

I love the wide range of motions in the fitness world. What's cool (see temperature preferences!) about these motions, they all have a time and a place. I love moving fast. Nothing feels better than finishing a hot and intense workout with the sensation of cool sweat trickling down the body. The feeling of trembling muscles, pushed to their limit is unbelievably pleasurable; I love it! It brings me great joy! Even though many people roll their eyes as soon as I start talking about it ;) But I also appreciate moving slow, especially as I've come to experience its benefits through practice. While the hot and fast workouts are amazing at building the body and flushing toxins, they can also lead to quick and reoccurring injuries. Moving slow often prevents these injuries, while opening up the body without breaking it down in the process. Moving slow helps the mind focus and lets the body unwind. It's not that moving fast is bad, or moving slow is better, they each have their place, but how quickly we do, or do not move is up to us, and the physical condition of our bodies. If we have not prepared ourselves to move quickly, moving quickly isn't a great way to start. If we never slow down to take care of our bodies, then our bodies will degrade into hurt, injury and chronic pain. So we should all move quickly to build our bodies, but slowly as we reinforce what has been built.

You could argue that moving quickly is a young persons activity, that eventually we all slow down and stop moving entirely. While our final cessation of movement is assured, how we get there is not. As I've read about movement and the body, the scientific community agrees that continued movement prevents aging. Thus the longer we continue to move and stay conditioned the healthier and younger our bodies look and feel. Which is why 80 year old farmers are still in peak physical condition, as compared to their fellows who haven't gotten up everyday and engaged in some sort of exercise. There is a huge health gap between the movers and nonmovers. One group is healthier than the other. Moving isn't a be all, cure all, and it won't always mean we'll have a six pack for life (or ever), but it will mean that our chances of enjoying the years in our life we increase. This is one of the primary reasons I pursue fitness, that and I was born to love it! (Okay, I admit I was more than likely conditioned to enjoy certain activities, but I was born with the capacity to love fitness!)

Which leads me to our next topic of discussion, what capacities are we born with? Born this way arguments believe that there is something so central to life, that it's hardwired into who we are. That no amount of conditioning can change what is true and natural about us, and that to change that part of who we are is wrong. When I think about fitness, I believe we are all born with the capacity for exercise, that our bodies crave movement, slow or fast, but we don't always pursue our natural desire to move. Our desire to move is often overcome by our desire for other things: like making money, spending time with family, pursuing education, putting food on the table, etc. We are moved by the most powerful forces in our life and allow those forces to condition us. And because of this some of us are in poor physical condition. Which is an affront to the nature of our bodies, and makes me very sad. We should all have the opportunity to move, we shouldn't have to choose! Which is what makes me even more sad; fitness and exercise make their way into our lives unnaturally. Fitness is supposed to be part of living, but currently we have to set time aside just to do fitness. Which is rather odd and why most people choose not to physically condition themselves; they simply choose other activities that no longer require movement. Its not that we ever lose the ability to move, but as time goes on it becomes harder and harder to physically condition our bodies. And the less we move, the less we want to move.

I'm not a big fan of hotness (see temperature preferences), I try not to concern myself with body shape, but rather bodily health. It should come as no surprise that beauty standards shift overtime, but healthy bodies are always attractive and desirable, even though medical standards of health shift (this is my shocked face). Even though standards shift, healthy people glow. Which may or may not be an actual light shining from within, but is manifested in a persons presence. People want to be around healthy people; its as if healthy people draw others in, without them even trying or noticing. (Being a health nut doesn't make you healthy, it might help, but it's not the end all be all. Health is more than skin deep, its an attitude and a presence as well.)

Which leads us to the next topic, what is a healthy faith? Just like the body, I would argue that a healthy faith is a faith that manifests itself in a daily way; it's consistent, a part of who that person is. When we track consistencies and establish guidelines, we form religions, literally ties that bind, or bonds with others if you will. As most of us want to live in societies with other healthy people, most of us would agree that we want to be a part of a healthy religion. But just like we don't all have healthy bodies, not all religions are healthy. And just like our friendly health nuts (which I've been told I am one) who mean well, being nutty isn't exactly the best way to make new friends, nor is it a good way to get people to like your religion. So why is it that so many people are nutty about their social practices?

I think many of us have been conditioned to be this way. Somewhere along the line we've been told that always being nutty is okay. Its not that our nuttiness is wrong, but when all we know how to talk about is our particular flavor of nuttiness, its a taste most people won't keep coming back for. Just like good food, and good fitness, we need a diversity of taste in our social nuttiness. It's okay for there to be a central flavor to our tastes, but there had better be some great sides and a cold refreshing beverage to wash it down with (again temperature preferences!)! The hard part of all this is knowing what has been a conditioned element in our nuttiness, our added seasonings if you will. If we discover that we've taken our seasonings as the main element, then we're unhealthy. It's getting down to the core of our life's meal: finding basic foods that make us healthy, basic movements that promote our physical health, social activities and guidelines that promote health in others and structuring our daily lives around those elements. And hopefully we healthily condition ourselves to enjoy those basic elements of life (or we could all just remain nuts :) ).