Following are some very basic key practices which may well extend your lifespan and increase your level of wellness, both physically, and emotionally. Key techniques have been gleaned and borrowed from a number of arts, sciences and disciplines, such as: cardiovascular training, resistance exercise, yoga, tai-chi, Ju Jitsu, physical therapy, Pilates, transcendental meditation, hypnotherapy, NLP, nutrition, and a host of others. I only can take credit for having assembled these components for The Protocol, which I happily do.
Some of these key techniques are scientifically proven to be effective, while others are merely anecdotal, but seem to help certain adherents. Different persons will derive different benefits -- and remember...frequency and consistency in The Protocol are more important, and will produce greater, perceivable benefits, than sporatic intense workouts. Integrating The Protocol into your routine is a lifestyle choice, and not one made frivolously. If you are involved in other sports and athletic activities, The Protocol will provide you with a helpful minimalist baseline. BODYBUILDERS BEWARE: you might need to modify some of the dietary/ caloric aspects of The Protocol -- this may compromise part of its longevity benefit...but then again, so do injectable steroids.
THE INFORMATION PRESENTED HERE SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS MEDICAL OR HEALTH ADVICE, AND THERE ARE NO CLAIMS OR STUDIES BY THE AMA OR THE FDA WHICH ENDORSE THE VALIDITY OR SAFETY OF THIS PROTOCOL. THIS PROTOCOL IS PRESENTED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AT NO COMPENSATION TO THE AUTHOR. THIS PROTOCOL IS NOT INTENDED TO PREVENT, DIAGNOSE, TREAT OR CURE ANY DISEASE, AND NO GUARANTEES OF ANY RESULTS EITHER NEGATIVE OR POSITIVE ARE OFFERED BY THE AUTHOR OR ANY OTHER THIRD PARTIES. ANY PARTY PARTICIPATING IN THE PROTOCOL IS DOING SO AT HIS OR HER OWN INITIATE AND DISCRETION, AND ASSUMES ALL RISK RELATING TO THE PRACTICE OF THE PROTOCOL: THE READER HOLDS THE AUTHOR HARMLESS AND INDEMNIFIES HIM AGAINST ANY LIABILITY RELATING TO THE USE OR PRACTICE OF THE PROTOCOL, OR ANY OF THE ELEMENTS CONTAINED THEREIN. (phew).
IN SIMPLE TERMS, YOU EITHER CHOOSE TO UTILIZE THIS PROTOCOL RESPONSIBLY, OR NOT TO UTILIZE THIS PROTOCOL AT ALL, AT YOUR OWN RISK.
READERS ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO SEEK THE ADVICE AND CONSENT OF A TRUSTED AND QUALIFIED HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL PRIOR TO EMBARKING ON THIS PROTOCOL, OR PRIOR TO COMMENCING ANY DIETARY OR EXERCISE REGIMEN.
THIS PROTOCOL IS FOR PERSONS WHO ARE BASICALLY HEALTHY, AND WHO ARE NOT LIMITED IN TERMS OF THEIR ACTIVITIES BECAUSE OF ANY PHYSICAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITION, OR OTHER WELLNESS CHALLENGE.
As with any health program, consistency and perseverance are essential in order to maximize individual benefits. Some individuals should be prepared to progressively "work their way up" to executing the full Protocol, particularly those who are not in the habit of getting rigorous regular exercise.Baby steps are absolutely fine, as long as they are intentionally progressive. Never exercise to the point of nausea, collapse, or after sustaining an incapacitating injury. Do not be tough. Be smart. Be consistent. Experience improved physical and emotional health in ways that you had never imagined. In future postings we will discuss nootropics, cognitive enhancers, prohormone stimulators, and the like, but for today, we have a very simple Protocol to get us started.
If all goes well, and you are patient and consistent in religiously appliying The Protocol as directed below, you should begin to experience significant changes in your health and feelings of well-being within two weeks. If you have any comments or questions about any aspect of the protocol, please contact me directly at FreeDECastle001@yahoo.com, and I will be happy to do my very best to personally assist you and work with you. For some of you, some modifications to The Protocol might be appropriate -- you are invited to discuss them with me, but you should speak with your trusted healthcare practitioner if your issues may be medically-limiting in any fashion.
Your investment of "active" time with The Protocol will be between 1 and 2 hours per day. If you choose to scale down or to modify the program, less time will be required proportionately. If any particular aspect of The Protocol intriques you, I encourage you to do some of your own research --of course, I hope that you will share the results with me, either in a post to this site, or by email to FreeDECastle001@Yahoo.com. I will combine emails periodically into Master Posts which I will put up on this site for all to share.
Here's to a long, healthy, happy and productive life!
THE CASTLE ACTION PROTOCOL
1. GET BETWEEN SEVEN AND EIGHT HOURS OF GOOD, QUALITY UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP NIGHTLY. Sleep not only restores muscular tissue, but it gives the mind a time to engage in many little-understood types of problem-solving and learning-processing. A great deal of reasoning activity goes on during sleep, and during certain types of dreams where we address certain types of stressors or confrontations with ourselves introspectively, and with the world beyond us.
2. DRINK BETWEEN EIGHT AND TWELVE GLASSES OF COOL, CLEAR, CLEAN WATER EACH DAY. Hydration is critical for the maintenance of proper circulation, digestion, and energy. Water is also a helpful appetite suppressant --if you drink two glasses within fifteen minutes prior to meal times, you will have less of a ravenous appetite.
3. REDUCE YOUR DAILY CALORIC INTAKE BY FORTY PERCENT. (gulp!). Every 10% reduction in daily Caloric intake translates to an aprroximate estimated 5% increase in healthy longevity, if this habit is sustained over a number of years! There is no known benefit to reducing caloric intake beneath the 40% level. A good rule of thumb is to determine your optimum body weight (for your body type...I'm a happy mesomorph, personally), find out how many Calories you would be required to consume on a daily basis to sustain it (your local nutritionist can help you there), and reduce that amount accordingly. The easiest way to achieve this target is to eliminate processed sugars, sweets, desserts, excessive alcohol, animal fats and white carbohydrates from your diet. The bottom line is to eat less, but eat a better quality of food. Need encouragement? By way of illustration, if you reduced your daily Caloric intake from 2,000 to 1,600 (i.e., by skipping a slice of pizza or a mocha mud pie), you could increase your lifespan by 10%! You'll live to laugh when you see your old enemies' names in the obituary section of the local newspaper. Think of the fun!
4. BREATHE DEEPLY, FULLY AND CONSCIOUSLY, ESPECIALLY DURING TIMES OF PHYSICAL EXERTION, EMOTIONAL STRESS OR ANXIETY. Shallow breathing is unhealthy for both body and mind...it causes you to retain and re-circulate numerous toxins throughout your entire body. It is de-energizing. Take full, deep breaths, all the way from you diaphragm, and expell all of the stale air to permit positively-energized and nutritious air fill your hungry lungs. On e useful technique is to envision that as you exhale deeply through your mouth, that all of your tensions and all of your toxins are being expelled, and that as you breathe in, you inhale positive, life-giving energy.
5. BURN A MINIMUM OF 250 CALORIES PER DAY IN ONE UNINTERRUPTED SESSION OF LARGE MUSCLE GROUP CARDIOVASCULR MOVEMENTS. These can include swimming, jogging, treadmill (my personal favorite), vigorous calisthenics, dancercise, martial arts, stairmaster, and the like. If you are not sweating profusely, you are doing less than you need to be doing. When you do this, you sweat out toxins, strengthen your cardiovascular system, burn wasted reserves of body fat, aid your digestion, and accelerate your rate of metabolic burn...A good rigorous workout may well boost your metabolic rate, even at rest, by an additional ten percent. This type of exercise helps to reduce blood pressure (if you have hypertension), atherosclerosis, and cortisol in your system. Bodybuilders take note: You may handle a toonage of weight in your daily workout and still not get the benefit of good, rapid-paced, heart-thumping cardiovascular exercise. When you use large muscle groups (legs, glutes, back) you tend to do the most caloric burning. The key to the sought-after flat stomach or six pack is not just exercise (in fact that's a small part of it)...it is the busrning away of subcutaneous fat that covers the muscles and conceals them. When you burn more fat, muscle definition generally becomes more apparent. Conversely, ever see a walrus-like fellow doing hours of crunches and sidebends? He is wasting his time. Do not waste yours
6. DO AT LEAST 45 MINUTES OF PROGRESSIVE RESISTANCE EXERCISE AT LEAST THREE TIMES PER WEEK. This may include free weights, circuit gym workouts, Nautilus Machines, Kaiser Machines, etcetera, in any combination. Doing pull-ups, chin-ups , dips and other iso-exercises are a good addition to this resistance exercise component, but they are not adequate. You must constantly strain and disrupt muscle tissue in order to build muscle mass, strength, endurance, and to better support your skeletal structure. Resistance exercise is vital for men in excess of thirty five years of age in order to continue to "prime the male hormonal pump" with HGH, testosterone, various androgens, endorphins and libido-enhancing chemicals which the body slowly discontinues manufacturing as we age. While we will discuss hormone replacement therapy options, Progressive resistance exercise primes the pump as nothing else can. You should do at least five different exercises per workout, between two and three sets of each exercise, and you should be using a weight level that permits you to complete (at full strain ) 6 to 8 repetitions. Higher repetitions with lower weights may provide some cardiovascular benefit, but your body needs to be forced, and physically stressed to keep you hormonally balanced.
7. JUMP (UP IN THE AIR) AT LEAST 100 TIMES PER DAY IN ONE CONTINUOUS SESSION. Use a small trampoline if you have one, or simply jump on a flat surface if need be. Jumping improves coordination, balance, lung capacity, circulation, lower body strength and digestion. Jump high on your toes, and minimize the time between jumps. You should seek to achieve a continuous springing action.
8. BALANCE ON ONE LEG AT A TIME, ALTERNATING LEGS. To do this properly, one foor should be kept plat on the floor, while the other leg is raised to hip level (such that the thigh is parallel to the floor) and cocked there, with toes pointed downward. You may relax your hands at your sides, or rest them on your hips. Hold this position for a count of 45 (approximately 20 seconds) per leg, and alternate rapidly. A full set requires that you stand one each leg ten times.
This develops your balance, regulates your energy (ki) flow, and has a salubrious effect upon the whole endocrine and chakra systems. Balance is a key protocol component, and if you haven't stood on one leg in some time, you will find that it will take some getting accustomed to; but if you practice, your balance and feeling of confidence and well-being will improve rapidly. Have faith and be diligent.
9. BEND, STRETCH AND TWIST YOUR BODY FOR AT LEAST TEN MINUTES DAILY. This does not mean sitting in your office chair and rolling your head around, trying to do a self-chiropractic neck-cracking adjustment. I mean full trunk twists, toe-touching (don't bounce...let your body relax and it will naturally become more flexible -- try this and see for yourself -- deeper, slower breathing also increases your flexibility), side-bends, and the like. This key component of the Protocol is best done either first thing in the morning, or prior to engaging in any vigorous physical exercise. The benefits to every aspect of your physical being will become apparent. Not too surprisingly, stretching induces a feeling of calm and relaxation.
10. PRACTICE RAPID EYE MOVEMENT. Many of you may be new to the concepts of RET aand EMDR. Both of these sytsems are used as therapeutic interventions in PTSD victims, individuals with certain phobias, and poor hypnotic subjects. While the science is not totally understood, the popular belief is that eye movements trigger certain responses and connections in the brain, as well as changes in the actual neurological (synaptic) chemistry. Here are the exercises, each of which must be performed without moving the head or neck, and preferably from a relaxed, seated position, with eyes totally open, face front:
FIRST: Take your eyes from a theoretical focus approximately 12" above your head (you cannot actually see this point, and your eyes may feel strained, or may likely cross), and bring them slowly down until you are looking deep down "through" your cheekbones. Repeat this movement fifty times. Ajni experts use this exercise as a means of stimulating the pineal gland (or for activating the legendary "Third Eye"), and hypnotherapists and NLP coaches use it occasionally as a means of getting the mind into the Thinking Zone, for improved learning, receptiveness and mind inter-connectivity. At very least, it is an excellent eye-muscle strengthening exercise. But again, I believe it opens the gate to much, much more.
SECOND: Take your eyes from the furthest extreme lower left-hand focus, and move them gradually upward to the extreme upper right-hand focus. Repeat this movement fifty times. This particular exercise has a reported tendency to reduce fear and stress associated with past experiences and traumas. A variation on this exercise is used in Rapid Eye Movement therapies for phobias and PTSD.
I would advise doing these exercises, if you feel that you are worth the investment of time, twice daily; once, in the middle of the day, and then again, within a half-hour prior to going to sleep.
There you have it. The Castle Action Protocol. I believe, as do others, that the above ten components are a very basic, even a minimalist foundation, for life extension and quality. Having said this, I believe that, nutritional supplementation, nootropic regimens, hormone replacement therapies, and various emotional, behavioral and intellectual (cognitive) self-improvement interventions such as hypnosis, NLP, Time Line Therapy, cognitive therapy, EFT and a host of others, must also play a role.
This is provided you without charge, but not without moral obligation. Here's what I would like for you to do right now, as a kindness to me, and as a kindness to others:
1. Print out a copy of this Protocol and keep it with you;
2. Email this post to at least three of your valued acquaintances (you can email this article by clicking on the envelope icon below, and even include your personal message);
3. Practice the Protocol (even if you have to work your way up to the "full" workout) for at least two weeks, and let me know your results and thoughts via email to me at FreeDECastle001@yahoo.com at your convenience. I am interested in any specific additions, subtractions or modifications which you might have regarding the Protocol, especially as it applies to certain specific objectives, disabilities, etcetera.
Thank you all in advance for making The Protocol a part of your Life Extension & Quality Program!
***This article, as well as the name "The Castle Action Protocol" are Copyright 2006, Internationally by Douglas E. Castle, all rights reserved. If you choose to email, forward, re-publish, or reproduce this article, you may do so only if the article is published in its entirety, with full attribution given to the author***
Faithfully, and with wishes for a long, happy, healthy and productive life,
Douglas E. Castle
p.s. See you very soon.
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