Exercising Full-Range of Motion (Movement)

The great advance of Nautilus machines in the early 70s was the claim that it provided "variable (proper) resistance through the full-range of movement" -- thinking it was resistance that was of paramount importance, rather than the much more simpler observation, that increasing the range of motion in every movement -- is the resistance, and that ultimately, is what one is trying to increase, while simply increasing the resistance, tended to foreshorten the range of movement.

One observes that to be particularly true of aging and deteriorating people -- yet what is invariably advised, is to add more weight (resistance) to the exercises -- thinking that is the missing ingredient -- rather than the lack of range in that, and every movement.  The classic example is the person advised to walk a mile or 20 minutes each day while merely shuffling their feet with virtually no articulation at the ankle joint.  A far more productive movement for such an individual, would be to sit in a tripod chair (readily available at Walmart and recreational stores for camping), and do the movement known as the alternating calf raise -- because with no weight to support, the full range of articulation can be expressed at the ankle joint -- because there is no resistance against it.

This is a very important concept in productive exercise for health considerations above all else -- which becomes far more important as one ages or is rehabilitating an injury.  The last thing one would want to do is add further injury -- at which point safety becomes a paramount concern.  Otherwise, one is simply worsening the condition -- rather than improving it, as one hopes to be doing in one's exercises.  Many people quit or forswear exercise for the remainder of their lives precisely for that reason -- that those exercises recommended merely increase the possibility of further injury, discomfort and pain -- even by the "experts" on such matters.

Fortunately, in exercise, there is such a thing as self-evident truth -- that is available to everyone, and not just the self-proclaimed experts of such jurisdictions.  Plainly something works -- or it doesn't -- in the real life scheme of things.  One then is the picture of health and not just what one would want everyone to believe.  So it is often said, "You're in pretty good shape for an old guy" -- implying that person looks like they are declining rather than improving in health.  How much they lift or how fast they run is belied by their obvious appearance --even as much as they try to distract from those obvious signs of decline.

Those are very obviously exhibited at the extremities of the head, hands and feet -- as indicators of the effectiveness of the circulation to those areas.  That must be measured at the extremities and not at the heart -- but of course, it is much easier to measure the heart than it is to measure the circulation at the extremities.  For that, one would more likely rely on the visual condition at those extremities to see off hand if those organs look in tip-top condition, or are inflamed and swollen -- indicative of stagnation of fluids at those sites rather than the presumed circulation.

That circulation is effected and enhanced by voluntary muscular movements (contraction/relaxations) producing that physical flow -- at the axis (joint) at which that articulation is triggered.  The design of skeletal (voluntary) muscles is that a muscle contracts from the insertion (distant) towards the origin (proximal) of that muscle -- but then when it has gone as far as it can go in that contraction, triggers the contraction of the supporting muscle at its insertion to cause the chain-reaction we see as the coordinated movement we are most familiar with.

That is by Nature's design -- proven over millions of years in millions of life forms -- to result in its own state of the art in humans, which is as far as we've come up to now.  That has been the evolution of life forms -- from the most primitive and basic one cell organism, to the most highly evolved, complex, and intricate.  Most notably, are the features in humans of a large brain, complex hand and foot development that allows for the possibility of doing many things -- like reading, writing and arithmetic, as well as music, art, athletics, dance, etc.

Those are invariably expressed at the head, hands and feet, and why the appearance of health at those areas, are the first clue to the overall health of that individual -- whether we want to admit it or not.  Many people are in denial that those are the obvious indicators of the health and qualities of such individuals -- but would be well-advised to trust those first impressions because they are so visible and obvious.  Swollen hands and feet indicate poor circulation even to the most undiscriminating.  Bloated faces and atrophied necks are that same condition to the area of the body that should be top priority in optimizing those critical conditions -- rather than taking for granted that nothing can be done for it.

That would not be how Nature in its right mind would work.  It would not allow a person doing biceps curls all day to develop 18" arms while having no provision for developing the brain in a similar fashion.  Improving the flow of vital nutrients to any area of the body is enhanced by first producing the space (vacuum) in which the new has room to enter.  That is done by contracting (compressing) the residual fluid out so that the new can enter -- just as is the underlying basis of Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

It doesn't matter how forcefully one blows into an already filled lung; more air cannot enter, and even that which can, has no way of entering the lowest branches of the lungs where there is an exchange of gases between the lungs and blood vessels.  Lungs are not simply a simple air sac but means branched tissue.  The one becomes two, the two four, four eight, etc., which is how the simple becomes complex.  It is not that it sought out to be as difficult and complex so that nobody could ever crack the code, or mystery underlying it -- but we fail to get to the simplicity iterated as much as necessary.

There is not one set of rules governing the functioning of the head, and another for the hands, and yet another for the feet -- to all the specialists' delight and profit, but singular basic rules that apply to all.  And that would be that if one increases (optimizes) the flow of inputs to any area, that organ has access to all the nutrients that produce its well being -- but it must follow the rules governing the movement of fluids, which requires physical (actual) movement, and not merely imagined mental exercise.

Such exercise will have predictably no effect on improving human development and capabilities.