Exercise book

“ The most beneficial exercises ordinarily are the gentle ones, in which no strain is put upon the heart and the respiration. The special aim is to secure the equal use of all the muscles, not the development of a few. The performance of feats of strength should never come within the scope of any educational scheme. Exercises which call for sustained effort, violent exertion, or sudden strain are best avoided by those who have had no preparation or training.
Regular exercise, not sudden and occasional prolonged exertion, is necessary for health. ”

“ The effects of sound physical exercise are well exhibited in the aspect of the neck, shoulders, and chest of one who has been well trained. This is noticeable in gymnasts and others who practice upon the horizontal bar, with chest weights, dumb-bells, and other apparatus which develop more especially the muscles of the upper half of the trunk.
Fig. 41.—Young Woman practicing at Home with the “Whitely Exerciser.” (From a photograph)
Exercise improves the condition of the tissues generally. ”

“ The exercise consists of throwing ball to one another, and the catching of it develops the chest, exercises the back, arms, legs; in fact, improves the whole system.
Home Apparatus “One of the aims of physical training is to make exercise interesting and enjoyable. To be beneficial in the highest sense it must be recreative. Particularly is this true of physical exercise for business men. As a class, in their daily work, they are kept on a constant mental strain. Besides, they are, to a large degree, physically inactive. Life becomes too intense, too serious, too sordid. ”

“ The advantage of exercise to a student or any other brain-worker, is that it lessens the over-stimulus of his brain, distributes the blood more equably, calling to his muscles some of those streams which would impetuously be rushing through his brain. ”

“ It has, therefore, become the increasing concern of the college teacher of physical training to develop activities in physical exercise that the student may use after graduation. Teachers of physical training have become more and more impressed with the importance of interesting exercise, not only because interesting exercise is more likely to become habitual exercise, but also because exercise that is accompanied by the play spirit, by happiness and joy, is physiologically and therefore healthfully of very much more value to the individual. ”

“ Besides his usual or regular exercise, a person under training ought to employ himself, in the intervals, in every kind of exertion which tends to activity, such as golf, cricket, bowls, throwing quoits, &c., so that, during the whole day, both body and mind may be constantly occupied. ”

“ Exercises and Their Object
To make yourself strong and healthy it is necessary to begin with your inside and to get the blood into good order and the heart to work well; that is the secret of the whole thing, physical exercises should be taken with that intention. This is the way to do it:—
(a) Make the heart strong in order to pump the blood properly to every part of the body, and so to build up flesh, bone, and muscle. Exercise: "Swimming" and "Wrist Pushing."
(b) Make the lungs strong in order to provide the blood with fresh air. Exercise: "Deep breathing." ”

“ We seek in vain in most physiological text-books for instruction respecting exercise; if it is given, only the so-called bodily exercises are generally considered, and they are represented as merely exercises of the muscular system; therefore it is not strange that laymen in medicine, professors of gymnastics, and school-teachers generally believe that. ”

“ A year's practice is almost sure to develop a prediction for some form of athletic exercise but the experience of every gymnasium teacher proves that, on the other hand, there are also individuals with a practically unconquerable aversion to special branches of his curriculum. ”

“ But systematic physical exercise has its sufficient reason in its aid to a graceful use of the limbs, its development of muscles that are left unused or rudimentary unless called forth by special training, and for the help it gives to the teacher in the way of school discipline. ”

“ The first source of pleasure varies of course with our condition and the state of the surrounding circumstances; the second with the amount and kind of power, and the extent and kind of action. In all forms of active exercise there are three powers simultaneously in action, - the will, the muscles, and the intellect. Each of these predominates in different kinds of exercise. In walking, the will and muscles are so accustomed to work together and perform their task with so little expenditure of force, that the intellect is left comparatively free. ”

“ To these three essentials of physical education—health, harmonious development, economical utilization of muscular force—correspond a series of exercises which can not produce their maximum useful effect without being subjected to regulations of which we proceed to sketch the principal features.
Health may be with equal ease confirmed or destroyed by exercise. It is only necessary to refer to the deplorable condition of the ancient athletes, with whom the enormous mass of the muscles absorbed all the activity of the organism. ”

“ There is a kind of exercise, purely natural and mechanical, that renders the body robust without injuring the mind. Of this description are swimming, running, leaping, spinning tops, and throwing stones. All these are well enough; but have we nothing but arms and legs? Have we not eyes and ears as well? and are they of no use while the others are employed? Use, then, not only your bodily strength, but all the senses which direct it. Make as much of each as possible, and verify the impressions of one by those of another. ”

“ In short, if exercise is spontaneous and rational, qualitative rather than quantitative, for the nerves rather than for the muscles, it will improve the efficiency and facility of one’s habitual occupation, will establish a general vigor and stability of body, and maintain mental balance and alertness ”

“ But, truly, the exercise is so admirable--the body being thrown into endless graceful postures which bring every muscle into play,--and the training in pluck, daring, and resource so invaluable that it is a pity trees and cliffs and walls should be forbidden even to little girls. ”

“ It is certain that sedentary men, and men of hard-worked intellects, are greatly in need of some means of distributing the circulation through the muscles. Exercise is the means. When the avocations are such as to render continuous exercise in the open air difficult or impossible, we should seek to compensate for this by variety of gentle activities distributed throughout the day. ”

“ Practice makes a man perfect: Where as in the field co-sports and games or in the field of Physical Activity, practice alone is not sufficient. The scientific principles based upon such as physiology of exercise tells us the efficiency of physical activity depends on physical fitness, mental fitness and emotional fitness. The physical fitness components such as strength, speed, endurance, co-ordination, agility, flexibility and balance can be developed through Training Methods. ”

“ Be careful that he or she does not, without your knowledge, get hold of heavier apparatus, or try more difficult exercise in the same direction, before the muscles are trained to take it. Overdoing is not only useless, and sure to bring stiffness and aches, but it is in it that any danger lies, never in light and simple work, adapted to the pupil's present strength, and done under the teacher's eye, or in heavier work after he has been trained gradually up to it. ”

“ Physical exercise in these various forms has its immediate and valuable influence upon the health condition of the individual student, if taken in sufficient quantity. It has its lasting and very much more important influence in those cases in which physical exercise becomes a habit. ”

“ While each exercise calls into play many other muscles than the ones for whose development the exercise is given, the exercise is classed under the group for the region which it is especially designed to benefit. ”

“ An endeavor has been made thus far to point out how wide-spread is the lack of general bodily exercise among classes whose vocations do not call the muscles into play; and, again, how local and circumscribed is that action, even among those who are engaged in most kinds of manual labor. Various simple exercises have been described which, if followed steadily and persistently, will bring size, shape, and strength to any desired muscles. It may be well to group in one place a few movements, which will enable any one to know at once about what amount and sort of work to take daily. ”

“ Exercises for the Development of Special Muscles.—Few persons, even among those who have given considerable attention to physical culture and have spent much time in a gymnasium, could, if asked, tell what special forms of exercise were best calculated to fill out a hollow shoulder or flat chest, or strengthen weak loins or back. ”

“ The first desideratum in taking exercise is to have every organ of the body free, therefore a [71] gymnastic dress is a necessity. Then we should have the exercise conducted by some one who understands the peculiarities of each individual and knows just what exercises are suited for her in her special physical condition. They should also be directed by one who understands perfectly that the girl with an anæmic brain, that is, with a brain having too little blood, cannot be conducted on the same plan as the exercise of the girl who has a superabundance of blood in the brain. ”

“ Maturin, “but how is one to know precisely what he needs, and when?”
“Take, for illustration,” resumed the Physician, “those moments when you feel the need of exercise. A little analysis of the sensation will make you aware of a kind of hunger for activity in some particular muscle. A little ingenuity will devise some appropriate exercise, and its moderate practice will both meet the particular need that was felt and diffuse a general tone of well-being. ”

“ Now, in the same way that education develops and increases the power of the brain, so exercise has a similar effect on the body. When the muscles are strengthened, the beneficial effect is also participated in by the heart, lungs, and digestive organs, and thus the removal of worn-out material from the body is assisted. The effect of exercise is thus to remove used up products from the system, and so afford an opportunity for renewed material to take their place. ”

“ Heavy-weight exercises, consisting in the use of heavy dumb-bells or other apparatus in which the actual physical pull exerted by the body in moving the weights is sufficient to try the muscles to their maximum capacity. This system of exercise should be discouraged; while it may add to the mere lifting strength, it takes from the muscles their flexibility, and from the body its agile and supple activity. ”

“ After the first week run the exerciser-work up to fifty at a time; and increase the outdoor distance covered both morning and afternoon, being sure to go in all weathers, and to eat and sleep all you comfortably can. Vary the indoor work also somewhat. In addition to the exercise on page 204 practise now twice as many daily on the exerciser, but this time facing it; and with elbows always straight, arms parallel, and neck firmly back draw your hands down close past your sides and far back of you. ”

“ But even where natural or physical energy is deficient, an energetic manner may be acquired by practice and exercise under judicious direction; just as the muscular powers may be improved, and bodily vigor increased, even in a feeble frame, under a course of training and well-regulated exercise. ”

“ But any one who has had a natural childhood and who has been taught to play, and who has taken his or her exercise naturally, or incidentally in the course of pursuing some mental interest—any such person may be excused for saying that a pair of dumb-bells should be deposited in our museums as indications of what was understood by exercise even as late as the earlier years of the twentieth century. All exercise for the sake of exercise is a mistake—or, at any rate, a second best. ”

“ Naturally it is out of the question to assume that the youth from eighteen to twenty-five and the man of fifty-five to sixty can take the same amount and the same kind of exercise. On the other hand, if we consider the work each is required to do in his daily routine, we can, so far as the setting-up exercises are concerned, bring the two points nearer together, especially if we regard these setting-up exercises in the proper light—a mere preparation for the more onerous tasks that are to follow. ”

“ Individual instruction is given in every case, based on the pupil’s present condition, habits, mode of living, and the object which he wishes to attain. By The Stone Method of concentrated exertion, more exercise is actually obtained in 10 minutes than by the use of apparatus two hours. ”

“ What is the best exercise for youths?
Walking or running, provided it be not carried to fatigue. The slightest approach to it should warn a youth to desist from carrying it further.
Walking exercise is not sufficiently insisted upon. A boy or a girl, to be in the enjoyment of good health, ought to walk at least ten miles every day. I do not mean ten miles at a stretch, but at different times of the day.
Some young ladies think it an awfully long walk if they manage a couple of miles! How can they, with such exercise, expect to be well? How can their muscles be developed! ”