by Doc Stier on Mon May 02, 2022 11:39 am
At the end of the day, the health benefits derived from any personal exercise regimen will be the result of improving the internal circulation of blood and intrinsic energy, the elimination of blockages or impediments to same, and the subsequent optimization of internal organ functions, more than from merely strengthening bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments.
Exercises like TCC, Hatha Yoga, Tao-Yin, etc, typically focus on these internal factors in ways that primarily external exercises like weight lifting, aerobic exercises, running, biking, swimming, etc, usually don't. Ditto for training focused mostly on competitive athletic performance like boxing, wrestling, MMA, gymnastics, and so forth, in which the development of external strength, speed, power, and other athletic physical attributes generally has a higher training priority than developing internal physiological health does.
Thus, by comparison, it is not at all unusual for people who were world class amateur or professional athletes in any sport as young people to be in no better health as elderly people than those who were never good athletes in younger years, and perhaps never maintained any real, viable level of physical fitness throughout their lifetime beyond the PE classes of their school years.
I certainly don't mean to say that regularly engaging in any kind of personal physical fitness program is without potential overall health benefits, but am simply saying that acquiring and maintaining such results as we age is more probable when using a personal training program focused on exercises with a better record of producing optimum internal health benefits, as witnessed in the experience of many generations of serious practitioners to date.
"First in the Mind and then in the Body."