Nature Gone Wild
15 June 2005If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
It is the absolute foliage zenith out in the wilds. The mountains where I live are exploding with growth and fertility. You look at the mountains and see every conceivable shade of green. June is the growth apogee month. Every tree, bush and plant is coming into various stages of ripeness. Actually many varieties of wild vegetation are experiencing over-ripeness, that thin sliver of time where a plant comes to total fruition and then pushes past into a short period of past done, as Lonnie my farmer friend calls it. Once the short over-ripe period passes, the great brown-out commences and the process of imperceptible disintegration starts the long slow slide towards a mid-February frozen low point. Life explodes in June; a stark, beautiful desolation rules deep winter.
Nowadays the forest pathways are choked with growth overhang and the spider webs are so thick you have to hold your walking stick in front of your face in order to keep the crystalline strands (and the arachnid occupants) off your face if the webs are gone my spider senses go off: someones been through here earlier this morning! but that never happensThe early morning mountain pathways this time of year are pristine and deserted. The brightest early morning sunlight is incapable of piercing the foliage canopy, dappled sunlight or none at all. There are scents galore; some subtle, ethereal, and faint, like the waxen leafed rhododendron that line both sides of a particular path, fifty yards long and fifteen yards deep. These plants nestle under pine trees in the densest, lowest section of the forest floor, always near the stream that always seems to run between any two serious mountains. The honeysuckle clusters lie near the sunlight and currently emit an overripe scent that is positively overpowering: sickening sweet, almost too much. The honeysuckle smell mixes with the over-ripened giant hydrangea now starting to wilt and decay.
The trout stream water level is low and rocks not seen above surface for a year are plainly visible. The trout that cluster around the bridge bulkhead supports have all high-tailed it to the few remaining deep cool holes. I shall try and coax them from these holes with my fishing skills but they are sluggish and not inclined to bite unless you happen to be present when the 40-minute daily feeding window opens and closes. The deep forest moss is still brilliant green and shows no signs of drying out. It is cool and comfortable on the deep wood pathways easily 15-degrees cooler than out in the open. The days are cloudless and sun intense and it is shocking when you walk out of the cool loom path into the fierce sun to walk a fire-trail or perhaps the paths that runs between cornfields and tree line.
The heat makes it easy to generate a high heart rate; walking these same paths in February I would continually perform free-hand squats, pushups and jumping jacks to elevate my heart rate and then keep it elevated. In the June high heat, how easy it is to jack the heart rate up and once up keep it up. Power walks up the steep grades on the open ground under the blazing sun cause the huge spikes in the hear rate precisely my goal. Whats the point to my nature-boy slice-of-life recollection? Serious cardio exercise can be enjoyable. Imagine that. That which we enjoy we seek to repeat that which we abhor and dread (no matter how good for us that thing is) we will find a way or rationale to discard at the first decent opportunity. Can you wean yourself away from the seductive ease of cardiovascular exercise machines? I have gotten great joy from cardio swimming, jogging outdoors, playing organized sports such as racquetball, grappling and related martial arts type activities. Test drive the local public park (trust me theyre always deserted in the early morning) or walk the immediate neighborhood. I have as of late been experimenting using light weighted implements.
Lightweight kettlebells and clubbells are used to generate an elevated heart rate for a protracted predetermined period. I am able to target with great precision the intensity of the session by using a heart rate monitor an indispensable tool for accessing cardiovascular intensity. Would you lift weights without knowing the poundage? The beauty of using weighted implements is that a significant heart rate can be generated standing within a 5×5 foot square. Indoors or outdoors; I like using these in my backyard under the Chinese maple tree. Another advantage of weighted implements is you avoid burning out a particular body part through overuse. The improvised arm/torso/leg movement combinations make it impossible to incur a repetitive motion injury, a real concern for those who use the same machine over and over and over, ad infinitum.
A machine has a frozen, super-specific bio-mechanical groove and too much use can over time wear out human body parts. By improvising ballistic and grind motions with weighted implements the process is always fresh and vital. Sucking natural air into your lungs in an accelerated fashion is vastly superior to inhaling stale, recycled gym air. There is an energizing effect that accompanies gulping huge amounts of clean oxygenated air as opposed to breathing in the exhaled, halitosis-laden carbon monoxide from the fat slob on the treadmill 18-inches to your immediate left.
Everybody in America has a well-kept public park within a short car drive. Open your mind to new and different cardio mode possibilities sameness begets sameness. Lets mix it up out there.
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