So how did Neil, Mike, and Buzz get their exercises on their way to the Moon and Back? And how did the astronauts counter the effects of weightlessness? NASA provided the crew of Apollo 11 with an Exer-Genie for isometric exercises.
Concerned about the effects of weightlessness on the astronauts, NASA supported the crew of Apollo 11 to exercise many times each day in flight.
Nevertheless, when the Moon mission was completed, commander Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon, reported: “We all did a little bit of exercise nearly every day.”
Armstrong Was Not a Firm Believer in Exercise Regimens.
And according to astronaut John Glenn, the first man (Armstrong) on the Moon was not a firm believer in exercise regimens.
In his autobiography, Glenn, an enthusiastic runner, reported that Neil had a theory about exercise that would make any couch potato happy. Everyone was given only so many heartbeats, said Armstrong. And he didn’t want to spend any of his doing something stupid like running down the road. No matter his opinions, as a former naval aviator, Neil got his share of exercise before he walked on the lunar surface.
In a post-flight Apollo 11 mission debriefing on their exercise habits, Buzz explained that “you are not going to deteriorate that much in three days [to get to the moon and in three days back].” Michael Collins added, -“I had the idea that it was worth exercising on the way home and perhaps not worth exercising on the way out.” Work to achieve a successful Moon mission coupled with the whirlwind of anticipation to make exercise a low priority throughout the nine-day Moon mission.
Sometimes, Neil, Buzz, And Michael Did Calisthenics.
Furthermore, there wasn’t a full understanding back then of just how necessary exercise is to preserving body composition, particularly muscle tone. They were only in the very beginning stages of understanding that.
Sometimes, Neil, Buzz, and Michael did calisthenics, but they also adopted a contraption called the Exer-Genie. And this isometric gizmo allowed a wide variety of ways to increase the strength. The off-the-shelf exercise gear had traveled on Gemini before NASA made modifications to improve its usability on Apollo missions. NASA told Apollo astronauts to exercise many times each day for 15 to 30 minutes.
The Exer-Genie.
The gizmo fits simply in a storage locker. Given its span of 49 5/8 inches and width of just 1 ¾ inch. It’s made up of an aluminum cylinder covered with nylon rope inside a metal tube, and the exercise machine provided the crew with flexible conditioning levels to make up to a hundred various exercises in space.
So, amongst the choices were a horizontal press, side bend, sit-up, biceps curl, and hamstring stretch. Furthermore, to set up the machinery in the confined spacecraft. They had to attach the 2 top straps to the vehicle wall of the command module, set the resistance. And applied the bottom straps, tugging and stretching at multiple angles and positions.
Neil Said It “Worked Alright.”
Neil told that it “worked alright,” except when used forcefully, the handle became too hot to handle, Michael said.
Throughout its use on several Apollo missions, the multipurpose device drew differing opinions. The crew of Apollo VII found in October 1968 that the Exer-Genie helped to reduce back pain from sleeping in compact spaces. Nevertheless, in April 1972, Apollo XVI command module pilot Mattingly believed the crew’s time could be spent more productively on other tasks.
One dilemma for the Apollo crew was that “they needed to have sufficient footholds to secure the required stability to make their muscles work efficiently with the equipment.
Open Surfaces in The Spacecraft Was Not Obvious to Find.
Aboard a spacecraft in which each ounce of weight must be measured against the need to lift the rocket into space. Open surfaces for settling one’s feet were not obvious to find.
The vehicle had not been designed with this specification on the agenda. That made use of the Exer-Genie extra challenging.
Entered in 1961, the Exer-Genie offered would-be fitness fans and athletes a compact, easy-to-use option to lifting weights or doing calisthenics.
The product’s big opportunity came in August 1968. Almost a year before Apollo 11’s Moon mission, when it was featured in the magazine Sports Illustrated article named as a “seemingly innocuous little device.”
And the article recommended the compact exerciser: Though Exer-Genie itself weighs just 1.5 pounds and simply fits into a briefcase, it now plays an important role in the training programs of several first-rate college swimming teams, and baseball teams, professional football not to mention a huge number of non-athletes who desire a good, quick workout in their own homes.
Credit: NASA.
NASA Had Tested Its Own Exercise Ideas.
Deciding to purchase and use this product is “an example of one of these instances where NASA leveraged advancements in the corporate world to allow astronauts to do their job.
NASA had tested its own exercise ideas. And Rita Rapp, who would become responsible for the Apollo astronauts’ food, earlier designed Gemini astronaut exercises that included using elastic equipment during the flight to stimulate muscles not much different from the idea behind the Exer-Genie.
Following, after discovering a ready-made product that fulfilled its needs for challenging exercises without minimum storage requirements, NASA chose to adopt it. The gizmo, now with padded handles, continues on sale today, and its manufacturer boastfully draws attention to its use in the space program.
The Consequences of Weightlessness Continue to be a Problem.
Now, the consequences of weightlessness continue to be an essential problem in manned missions, and this will become an indeed higher priority as NASA looks forward to the coming decades with plans for more extended missions on the Moon and possible journeys to Mars.
NASA recently released the outcomes of a multi-year study that focused on twin astronauts Mark and Scott.
Scott spent almost a full year on the International Space Station from March 2015 to March 2016, while his brother Mark, then a retired astronaut, remained on Earth.
Astronaut Scott’s Chromosomes Revealed Unexpected Changes.
Before, during, and after his space flight, synchronous medical testing of both siblings measured their physical conditions. Follow-up examination traced how the time on Earth after Scott’s trip induced some changes from in-flight findings.
Scott Kelly’s chromosomes, his retina, and his carotid artery revealed unexpected changes. However, most returned to normal after some months back on Earth.
The chromosome changes surprised scientists. At the ends of Scott’s chromosomes, their telomeres increased in length during the flight. But returning to a more normal length following his space station mission.
Considering telomeres become shorter as we age, experts are not sure how to explain these changes. Scott Kelly further got flu shots before the flight, throughout the flight, and after its end.
The First Time an Astronaut Had Been Vaccinated in Space.
Outcomes revealed that his immune system reacted normally. This marked the very first time an astronaut had been vaccinated in space.
Scott’s experience in space differed significantly from those of Apollo astronauts.
Moon-bound spacecraft offered astronauts a very confined space with little open room for exercise. Furthermore, the astronauts on the relatively spacious space station. They have multiple choices to strengthen their muscles, including a treadmill, an exercise bike, and a weight machine.
Scott Kelly’s body mass shrank seven percent in space-flight, partially because he exercised more throughout his 340-day space mission on the space station than he routinely worked out on Earth.
The Availability of Extra Room to Exercise in Space May Become a Hurdle in The Future.
Though not a significant issue on the space station. The availability of extra room to exercise may again become a hurdle in future long-distance or extended-duration jobs.
While identical twins gave researchers a unique opportunity. Scientists were fast to point out that many more extra tests lie ahead before the consequences of space travel are fully understood.
NASA believes that our aim is to stay in space long-term to have a permanent human presence in space. And to do that, we have to be ready to prepare the human body for it.
I hope you enjoyed this article. Check out this article – Why was the Saturn V rocket painted white and black? There’s a pretty cool answer to this one. You will be surprised.
Thanks for reading, see also my posts on the inside of the Apollo Saturn V rocket and its significant components. You will be amazed.
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