Your body isn’t a simple machine. It’s a complex, adaptive biological system that constantly exchanges energy and information with its environment. The Law of Dissipative Structures, introduced by Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine, describes how living systems respond to stress and energy. In simple terms:

Stress + energy → adaptation → resilience
Stress without adaptation → dysfunction → disease

When you move, you create small, intentional disruptions: a rise in temperature, a spike in lactate, a flood of signaling molecules. These stressors push your system away from equilibrium. In response, your biology reorganizes itself at a higher, more resilient level. Mitochondria multiply. Muscles grow stronger. Vessels remodel. Even your brain builds new connections. You become more adapted and more capable.

This is what makes exercise powerful: it’s not punishment for what you ate; it’s an invitation for your biology to evolve.

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