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I designed exercises to focus around full-range movement at the head, hands and feet -- in which the movement at those axes to the extremes, produces the greatest muscle contraction possible -- throughout the musculature of the body.

The whole neuromuscular system is designed to produce fine motor control at the hands, feet and head -- where most of the muscles are located, enabling all those movements. The major(larger) muscles mostly serve as support and movement is a secondary function.

For example, in playing basketball, most people are aware of the impressive gross movements but it is the fine movements of the wrists and fingers that determine whether the ball goes in or not. Record home run hitter, Hank Aaron used to say that it was "all in his wrists" -- his ability to turn (rotate)his wrists.

The great performers like dancers, gymnasts, ice skaters, are set apart by the extension (movement) at the hands, head and feet. These athletes are distinguished by extraordinary neck muscle development, along with young looking hands and feet beyond the usual occurrence.

The most shocking thing when visiting people of advanced dementias is that they never move their head at all -- and rather look like living statues. Despite the fact that a lot of people get a lot of movement activities, few people think to focus movement at those most critical areas of the body -- that are the major means of expression of the body and imply functioning in all the rest. If I send a directive to move the hand, it has to go through the rest of the neuromuscular structures to get out there -- obviously.

One of the markers of decreasing strength is the measurement of grip; as people lose foot strength, balance becomes a problem. All the exercise devices ignore these areas of the body because they don't require apparatus to activate. It is just a function of range of movement -- which most people overlook or forget they even have.

You make a fist, and then slowly and deliberately move that fist palmward as far as possible, attempting to increase that range of motion with each subsequent repetition. You'll note that the farther you move into that extreme range of movement, the more it activates the supporting muscles of the body. That contraction is pushing the residual fluids of the tissues (bloat) back to the body, so that there is space for the heart to pump the new fluids into that area, optimizing the circulatory effect.

All these movements can be done without bearing any weight at all because the only measure is the range of movement -- that produces the maximum contraction. When you can effect the fullest range of muscular contraction alternated with the fullest range of relaxation, you have essentially trained your entire voluntary muscular system to aid the heart in optimzing circulation in the body -- which is the healthful effect.

You can check my profile for further writings on the topic.