And a suggestion I have made before reoccurred to me: if Americans slept on mattresses on the floor, and sat on the floor when watching TV and eating, the way they do in some (perhaps most: I don’t know) Asian countries like Japan and I think Korea, they would HAVE to take better care of themselves, and the very act of getting down and back up would ensure a basic level of mobility. I sleep on the floor and have to do a lunge every time I get up. It’s a good thing.
We have a decent life expectancy in this country, but we age terribly. Our old people take dozens of medications daily and spend much of the latter years of their lives sedentary on couches watching television.
Actually, on that note I will insert parenthetically without the parentheses, that if we eliminated TV, and all other ways of consuming media, such as computers, smartphones and tablets, that our national IQ would go up nearly instantly. That is my view. Everyone is beguiled. A spell has been cast, which people have willingly embraced.
One other note: high blood pressure. I am a large man. 6′, 285 or so. A boss told me a couple years ago I look like “someone who could hurt somebody”. That is likely true, but that is not an aspiration of mine. Violence is stupid in nearly all cases.
My blood pressure should be through the roof. But the last time I had it measured, about two weeks ago, when seeing a nurse (I will note for anyone living in a Blue State: around here, you can see a Nurse Practitioner at the grocery store for $70. You don’t need an appointment, and you can pay cash if you are uninsured.) for an eye irritation. 110/80. I’m not buying this 70 stuff: I think the pharmaceutical companies pushed that.
But a week and a half earlier I was 145/90. I had actually bought myself a home tester because I figured this was something to keep an eye on.
So I developed a plan. Here is the thing: blood pressure is called hypertension. It is called hypertension because your veins and arteries are not pliable (a word Tom Brady has not yet succeeded in trademarking). They are stiff and rigid. So what to do? FLEX them.
How to do that?
1) Full body myofascial release and a reasonable program of stretching, using balls and rollers of various sorts and sizes. Work from the traps down to the feet. As an inevitable result, you are kneading everything that carries blood within a few inches of the surface, and with the stretching probably going even deeper.
2) Cold showers long enough to elicit a response. I’m doing what I guess are called Scottish showers, where you take a normal shower, then just turn it to cold when you are done for 30 seconds to a minute or so, maybe a tad longer if it feels good, which sometimes it does.
3) IMPORTANT: saunas. 20 minutes 5 days a week. I have taken to going into the gym and just doing this, even if I don’t work out. Cold and hot should not be alternated, in my view, since it confuses the body. But both, in the course of a day, are I think helpful.
4) Weight Training. Full body movements, especially, like the squat and deadlift, must in my view vastly increase the pressure on the system for a moment, then release it. This is very much like stretching your blood vessels.
5) Some form of NO booster. I take Animal Pump. Again, this is supposed to loosen up your veins.
6) Relaxation. I do many things. Kum Nye, EmWave2, Neurofeedback, Spoonk (30 minutes while listening to the sounds of thunderstorms), Floating, and walks in nature.
It’s a comprehensive HEALTH approach. You’ve likely seen the cartoon about the long line in front of the pill counter, and the non-existent line in front of the Lifestyle Change counter.
Me, I don’t want to age like a typical American. Fuck that.