Moving Everything

As a person diagnosed since his childhood days as having "arthritis," I knew that if I didn't consciously and systematically move a part of my body each day upon awakening, that when I later initiated such movements without any warmup or preconditioning for it, I was particularly susceptible to pain and injury -- that if I undertook even a very brief exercise at, conferred great preventive as well as performance-enhancing advantages.

The challenge though is that with over 600 different muscles in the body, one would be hardpressed for time if he only exercised one at a time, rather than large groups at a time. That should not be mistaken for exercising a large muscle as though they are many -- because each is just one, no matter how large or small. So the trick, challenge and effectiveness is to devise movements that engage as many muscles at once -- and not just the largest muscles, which is unfortunately the approach taken by fitness instructors as the best way to "burn" as many calories as possible, while limiting the movement to the focus on one muscle, working in isolation.

That was a huge problem in early thinking of strengthening the body by isolating each part of the muscular whole -- in favor of movement around only one muscle. Even if one was very conscientious, obviously one had to perform 600 movements before one felt assured that they had complete development and immunity from the lack of exercise.

In that environment, it was revolutionary to think that the better approach was in creating movements that didn't isolate the muscles, but actually required them to engage all the other muscles. What does that?

After many years of observation, study, and experimentation, it was obvious to me that simply doing "more" of what one was already doing, was not a solution to anything -- but that is largely the thinking in the most hopelessly out of shape people -- that they are doing everything well, but simply need to do more of it, rather than move differently -- and actually create new ways of moving for them, and that will make a huge difference, and not more of the same.

The same is the familiar, and so when discussing what obviously isn't working, such people limit their discussion only to considerations of doing more of what they are used to -- such as walking, and will refuse to try anything else, no matter how effective it might be. They just have a mental barrier to doing things in another way that actually might work and eliminate their problems of being in poor condition and shape. Many undoubtedly convince themselves that they are in marvelous condition -- despite that being the source of all their health problems that preoccupy their lives and limit their possibilities (range of activities and movement).

So logically one would make the proper exercise of a person each day, increasing that range of movement -- at the extremities that activate all the supporting muscles to effect. That would be the logical approach and logical thing to do.