by Thomas Kurz
Information on this Web page is for educational use only, and is not intended as medical advice.
Every attempt has been made for accuracy, but none is guaranteed. If you have any serious health concerns, you should always check with your health care practitioner before treating yourself or others.
Always consult a physician before attempting any self-treatment.
My previous articles were about treating worn-out joints. This one is about preventing such trouble by keeping joints healthy with exercise. For this I will acquaint you with a complex of exercises called One Thousand Movements. It was designed by Nikolay Mikhaylovich Amosov (1913-2002), professor, academician, surgeon, head of Kiev’s Cardiac Surgery Institute.
Professor Amosov’s One Thousand Movements
When professor Amosov was 40 years old, he began experiencing back pains. To fight these pains he devised in 1954 a complex of 10 calisthenic exercises. The complex consists of simple exercises that do not require equipment or much space. In the beginning professor Amosov performed 10 repetitions of each exercise, but his back pain persisted. So he kept increasing gradually the number of repetitions of each exercise, and when each was done for 100 reps, the back pain was gone. It took him up to 25 minutes to perform the whole complex of 1,000 movements. In 1972 he added 1 to 3 km of jogging. These exercises, together with demands of his work as a heart surgeon, kept him in great shape. His resting heart rate was down to 50 bpm. Unfortunately he developed a dysfunction of the heart’s natural pacemaker (he had heart problems since his youth). In 1985 the dysfunction progressed, and he had to limit his physical activity to slow calisthenics and walking. For a few months he resisted implanting a pacemaker—he felt well, but eventually came headaches and high blood pressure. So he had the pacemaker implanted. Two weeks after the surgery, he was back to his old activity program, doing high-pace calisthenics, jogging, performing surgeries, and leading the Institute. At the end of 1992, at age 79, he ceased to perform surgeries. In 1993 he had a new pacemaker implanted, with two heart rate settings: 70 bpm for rest and 130 bpm for exercise.
The Thousand Movements
There are only 10 exercises in the whole complex. Professor Amosov stated that for young people, up to the age of 30, whose joints function well, it should be enough do only 20 repetitions of each exercise. When joint aches appear around age 40, the number of repetitions should be increased to 50 or even 100. When a joint hurts, it should be exercised more: 200 to 300 repetitions. To physicians’ objections that this is too much, the professor responds that these high repetitions are needed to compensate for the unnaturally immobile lifestyle of most workers.
Professor Amosov advises to begin with 20 or even only 10 repetitions and add one repetition every two days. For healthy people less than 30 years old, reaching the full 1,000 movements should take 10 weeks; for those over 30 but under 50, 15 weeks; and for those over 50, 20 weeks. The effort is excessive if the heart rate rises to more than double of the exerciser’s resting rate.
At the age of 77, the professor’s daily exercises consisted of 1,000 movements in the morning, jogging 20 to 25 minutes, and 1,000 movements in the evening.
Since 1954 the complex changed very little—some exercises were replaced by more effective ones, but the total number of exercises, the recommended number of repetitions, and the time to perform the complex stayed the same. Here is the 2002 version of the complex:
1. Knees to Head: Lying supine, arms hold on to something stable (if in bed, grab the headboard). Lift legs to bring knees to the head.
2. Standing Toe-Touch: Standing, reach up with both arms and then bend forward to touch the ground with fingertips, or better yet, with palms of your hands. Head leans forward and backward together with trunk movements.
3. Arm Circles: Standing, do arm circles in the sagittal plane with maximal range of motion.
4. Side Bends: Standing, arms along your sides, bend to alternate sides. Hands slide along your sides—one down and the other up.
5. Touch Behind Shoulders: Standing, raise arms to shoulder height and throw them behind your back to touch each palm to the opposite shoulder blade. Head nods forward at the instance of touching.
6. Trunk Twists: Standing, twist trunk alternately to each side, at your maximal range of motion. Hands at chest height, fingers interlaced, arms move together with the trunk, helping to increase the range of motion. Head turns together with the trunk.
7. Knee Raises: Standing, alternately lift each bent leg, to bring its knee up to the abdomen.
8. Push-Ups: Lying prone, place hands at shoulder level, stiffen the trunk, hips, and legs to move as a unit, and push up with your arms. If too weak to support yourself on hands and toes, put your knees on the ground and do the push-ups on hands and knees.
9. Back Bends: Sit on a chair or on a balance ball, feet hooked under something stable. Bend back, like a back bridge, and then forward, like a sit-up. Head nods backward and forward together with movements of the trunk.
10. Squats: Standing, hold back of a chair and do deep squats.
Eventually each exercise should be done at a fast pace for 100 repetitions. The whole complex of 1,000 movements should take 25 minutes. After these calisthenics, the professor recommends a 2 to 3 km jog or walk. Athletic people may increase the exercise load by doing 1,500 repetitions, of which 500 can be done with weights, say dumbbells, up to 5 kg (11 lb). Professor Amosov warns that for joints health, the added resistance cannot make up for the lower number of repetitions. So repetitions with weights have to be done in addition to the 1,000 repetitions without, not instead of them. If doing these exercises with weights, instead of exercise 5 do Elbow Pull-Backs:
Standing, arms bent at chest level, forearms crossed, elbows out, move arms back (in a horizontal plane) to put elbows as far as possible behind your back.
Consult your physician before attempting any self-treatment.
Recommended reading:
Joints in Trouble: Self-Treatment