Limbic Oxystatic Exercise
Majid Ali, M.D.
In the early years of
my work in integrative medicine, I recognized that
exercise in chronic illness and for healthful aging
must be different from that done by competitive
athletics. I developed a program for
non-competitive, meditative, and restorative
exercise that:
1. Restores oxygen homeostasis
(see below for a listing of major oxygen functions),
2. Avoids micro-traumas to
muscles, ligaments, tendons, cartilage and bones,
3. Does not directly or
indirectly stress the body organs affected by
disease processes, and
4. Can be individualized to the
patient’s specific needs.
The last two items are crucial. I
have seen a very large number people who were
injured doing exercises for which they were not
physically conditioned. For example, many of my
patients had developed atrial fibrillation (a type
of heart rhythm disturbance) after exercise, and
many others suffered heart attacks after exercise.
For example, it is not uncommon to see patients who
developed chest pain or heart attacks while
shoveling snow or lifting heavy objects. Of course,
stress was often a cofactor in such cases.
I offer my guidelines for
nutrients for endurance exercise in a companion
tutorial.
In my program of exercise, I
adopted some ancient Chinese and Indian concepts of
physical fitness. I introduced the term limbic
exercise for my program to underscore its
spiritual aspects, and specifically excluded the
prevailing no-pain-no-gain-huffing-and-puffing
schedules that are in vogue in the United States at
present. In my book entitled " The
Ghoraa and Limbic Exercise"
(1993), I defined the following terms:
1. Cortical and Limbic Exercises
2. Type I (slow twitch) and Type
II (fast twitch) Fibers
3. Lipolytic and Glycolytic
Exercises
4. Energy, Fatigue and Stress
Molecules
5. Cortical and Limbic Pacing
6. Cortical Greed and Limbic
Gratitude
7. Cortical Clutter and Limbic
Openness
8. Limbic Breathing
Limbic Exercise for Neck and Back Pain States
I I
strongly urge readers who suffer from
chronic neck pain
and chronic backache states to consider Limbic
Exercise, beginning with very gentle exercise and
building strength as they proceed.
Cortical
Exercise
Cortical exercises are intense,
competitive, and goal-oriented. These exercises are
of the stop-and-go type which focus on technique,
style, duration and results. The best examples of
cortical exercise are competition sports and
athletics such as wrestling, bodybuilding, football,
tennis, basketball and soccer. Sharply focused,
highly intense and meticulously analyzed cortical
exercises are evidently essential for such sports.
Limbic
Exercise
Limbic exercises are continuous,
non-intense, non-goal oriented, noncompetitive
exercises. There is no hyperventilation or
perspiration. When done limbically, exercise ends
with more energy than that with which it began. The
essence of limbic exercises is the absence of
focus. When we run limbically, we do just that — we
simply run. There is no effort made to run well, to
run at some predetermined speed, to run for some
defined distance or to run to solve the problems of
the day. When we walk, we simply walk. We make no
attempt to solve our problems or sit in judgment on
how we walk. Limbic exercises are done with
abandonment, with total disregard of all the demands
of the thinking head.
Cortical exercises are performed
while taking commands from the thinking mind. Limbic
exercises, by contrast, are exercises done while we
take counsel of our tissues, counsel from muscles
that contract to produce motion, counsel from
tendons that carry the commands from the muscles to
the bones, counsel from the ligaments that hold the
bones together and counsel from bones that provide
muscles their scaffolds. We take counsel from lungs
that bring air into the body and from the heart that
pumps the blood to spread nourishment to the body
tissues. A period of listening to body tissues (and
dismissing all demands from the thinking mind—the
cortical monkey) is a necessary prelude to limbic
exercise. It generally requires several moments to
switch from the analytical (cortical) to a
meditative (limbic) state. With continued limbic
exercises comes what I call "limbic openness."
Limbic openness is a period of
inner reflection, meditation, prayer and deep
visceral stillness. There is no rush of cortical
thoughts. There is only a spontaneous flow of limbic
perceptions past one another. I elaborate this
subject in many healing stories posted on Wiki-Medical.org.
Type 1
(Slow Twitch) Muscle Fibers
Type I muscle fibers burn fats to
generate energy, much like a candle burns wax to
generate light slowly but for a long time. These
muscle fibers are rich in mitochondria — and the
oxidative enzymes contained in them. They are
designed to break down fats and utilize the fatty
acids liberated from fats by their oxidative
enzymes.
Type 2
(Fast Twitch) Muscle Fibers
Type II muscle fibers burn sugar
to generate quick bursts of energy, much like a
piece of dry paper burns to produce sudden heat with
a flash but only for a few moments. These muscle
fibers have fewer mitochondria and are poor in
mitochondrial oxidative enzymes. Unable to use fatty
acids for energy, they follow the path of less
resistance and burn whatever sugars are available to
them (the glycolytic or sugar-burning molecular
pathways for energy generation).
Lipolytic
Exercise
Lipolytic exercises are
fat-burning exercises. In these exercises, Type I
muscle fibers burn fat in a slow and sustained
fashion; the flame of the candle is subdued but it
lasts for long periods of time. So it is that
exercises that require a low but sustained supply of
energy are predominantly lipolytic. Again, the
myocyte (muscle cell) senses the energy needs and
acts accordingly. In general, fat-burning exercises
are limbic exercises.
Glycolytic
Exercise
Glycolytic exercises are
sugar-burning exercises. In these exercises, Type II
muscle fibers burn sugars fast; the flame of the
paper is bright but it dies out within moments. So
it is that exercises that require rapid bursts of
energy for short periods of time are predominantly
sugar-burning. The myocyte knows it, is quick to
sense the requirements for energy and acts
accordingly. In general, sugar-burning exercises are
cortical exercises.
Energy,
Fatigue, and Stress Molecules
One of the principal energy
molecules in the human frame is ATP (adenosine
triphosphate), while lactic acid is one of the
principal fatigue molecules. Adrenaline and its
cousin molecules catecholamines are the principal
stress molecules. Although cortical exercises have
many health advantages, when it comes to prolonging
one's life span, the effects of cortical exercise
are not as beneficial as those of limbic exercises.
Cortical exercises deplete the body of its ATP
energy molecules and increase the number of fatigue
(lactic acid and others) and stress (adrenaline and
others) molecules. Limbic exercise, by contrast, has
the opposite effect: The number of lactic acid and
adrenaline molecules is reduced and the number of
ATP molecules is increased.
Cortical
Pacing
Cortical pacing is the common
method for determining the type, technique, speed
and duration of exercise. This type of exercise
pacing is highly goal-oriented, much like keeping a
tight schedule at work. It includes the commonly
used methods of "pushing the distance of the run,"
measuring the "pulse peak" and counting the
breathing rate.
Limbic
Pacing
Limbic pacing is a mode of
exercise whereby a person allows himself to simply
follow his inner "limbic voice." This voice may wish
him to walk slowly or quickly, run with arms
swinging from the shoulders or just hanging by the
side; it may urge him to continue or stop.
Cortical
Greed
Cortical greed is the
irrepressible desire to "do autoregulation right."
The core idea of autoregulation is to listen to the
tissues by overcoming the unrelenting cortical
demands for knowing what was, is and will be
happening within our body tissues. These cortical
demands negate the very idea of autoregulation. This
is a point of enormous practical significance.
Unquestionably, this has been the most common
obstacle encountered by those patients of mine who
have tried to learn autoregulation.
Limbic
Gratitude
Limbic gratitude describes the
sense of gratitude with which we accept whatever
responses we receive from our tissues when we do
autoregulation. Autoregulation, I reiterate, is
about listening to body tissues; it is not putting
demands on them. Limbic gratitude is gratitude in
receiving, at a nonintellectual, limbic level.
Cortical
Clutter
Cortical clutter is a term I use
to convey the unending chatter in which we engage
with our cortical minds. It is living in the head,
an unremitting case of head fixation. It consists of
all the What if, Why couldn't it, Why not, Why me
and all of the other favorite lines we use for
punishing our tissues. Unfortunately, canceling the
cortical clutter is easier said than done.
There are other less threatening
forms of cortical clutter, for example planning your
day during your walk, or examining somebody else
running on the same track, or simply not wanting to
do exercises because it is Sunday or Saturday or the
4th of July. Most people who walk, run or cycle for
fitness know what cortical clutter is, though the
term may be unfamiliar to them: it is all the
thoughts that cross their minds while exercising,
all the problem-solving, head-clearing and
goal-setting.
Anger and hostility are the first
casualties of autoregulation. Walking or running
without autoregulation is not nearly as effective in
dissolving these serious threats to health and
fitness as the same exercises when they are combined
with autoregulation.
Limbic
Openness
Golfers know what it is to be "on
the greens." For tennis enthusiasts, it is being "on
the courts" and for fishermen, "on the water." In
autoregulation lingo, the term limbic openness
describes a comforting limbic state in which there
is no thought activity, no anger, no hostility, no
desire to excel and no judgmental overview. It is a
state of calm communion between what is under our
skin with what is outside it. There is a
consciousness of an openness, a wide, limitless,
comforting limbic openness. In a more advanced
state, there is a consciousness of a larger
presence, a state totally free of any desire to map
out, define, understand or know this presence. The
presence is simply there.
I don't know if achieving the
full depth and breadth of limbic openness is
possible for most people during limbic exercise.
Perhaps not. What I know from both personal
experience and that of some of my patients is that
limbic openness in some form or other is attainable
by most people through limbic exercise. At the very
least, most people who practice limbic exercise
learn to allow themselves an escape from cortical
clutter without much difficulty. For many
individuals, it may indeed require considerable
practice.
Motivation
for Exercise
The subject of motivation
fascinates me, and I find motivation "experts" to be
fascinating people. Consider the following quote
from Physical Therapy (70:808; 1990):
I examined movement science
research on personal and social-environmental
motivational influence in physical activity
contexts. Motivation is defined as a process in
which internal and external factors direct and
energize thoughts, feelings, and actions. Motivation
is described as a consequence of meaning, which is
derived from a combination of personal and social
factors, including personal goals or incentives,
expectations of personal efficiency,
movement-related perceptual and affective
experience, and social and physical features of the
environment.
Physical Therapy 70:808; 1990
When I read the above lines I
squirmed. The language of this motivational piece
intimidated me as I imagine they would almost
anyone. I read the piece a second time. No relief. A
time to escape, I told myself. I went limbic.
I wonder how many people will
read such an article and become so motivated that
they will jump up and run out for some exercise. The
subject of exercise is not pleasant for many of us.
It conjures up images of boredom (endless running),
lost time (too busy to exercise) and sore legs.
Running on the street, missing the step on the curb
and spraining an ankle. How often do street runners
wear those awful, tortured looks? Stooping down,
ready to collapse. Inhaling air rich in diesel
exhaust. Who ordered this punishment?
Self-flagellation? What are they running from
anyway? Movement-related perceptual and affective
experiences? No thanks, you say. Go ahead, call me a
couch potato. At least I like what I do.
If exercise is to successfully
reverse catabolic maladaptation, it must first be
good enough to be desired. Not only at an
intellectual level, but at a deeper limbic level. If
the butterfly is to find its escape, it must first
recognize the illusion of the skylight glass. This
is the essence of limbic exercise.
Limbic
Breathing
Limbic breathing is a specific
type of breathing that significantly lowers the
blood level of lactic acid, adrenaline and other
catecholamines. There is strong but indirect
evidence that limbic exercises also prevent
depletion of ATP energy molecules. I describe in
detail the specifics of this type of breathing in
The Cortical Monkey and Healing, of which excerpts
appear at the end of this chapter.
Extensive experience with autoregulation and
other non-drug treatment protocols for the reversal
of immune and degenerative disorders has convinced
me of the central place of limbic breathing in the
healing process. That work — and my conviction based
upon it — raised the possibility that limbic
breathing might be of great value in limbic
exercise. This indeed did happen soon after I
started experiments with such breathing during my
own daily exercises.
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