Exercise equipment

“ No error is more common than that of supposing open-air exercise to be indispensable to health: we may have no time for walking, rowing, riding or any of the ordinary modes of out-door activity, yet—as the excellent health and strength of domestic servants, who scarcely ever stir out, will show—the mere activity of the body, in various occupations, suffices for the equalization of the circulation. ”

“ There is one apparatus, however, which we should recommend as indispensable for a family, and that is the Pilaster. This simple machine, which is at once compact and ornamental, supplies the means for fifteen different exercises, enabling us to expand the chest, or strengthen by exercise any member of the body that needs our aid. Nor is it possible to do this without some adaptation of mechanical means; and the more perfect the means, the more complete will be the success. ”

“ If, therefore, the student be tired of one exercise, he should begin another. Besides, if the fingers are fatigued and hot by playing, and the nerves irritated, an exercise of some of the different free or mechanical gymnastic appliances will refresh the muscles, by imparting to them a new and an easier movement. ”

“ It is unnecessary to describe in detail the parts of the setting-up exercise which tend to develop members which are already pretty thoroughly exercised in the daily routine of work and drill. The average man of the service needs expansion of chest capacity, which adds to his resistive power; a stronger, better-developed back; and suppleness and quickness and mobility of trunk. To develop these qualities we must have exercises which may be continued on board ship or near the front, and which can be carried on without apparatus. ”

“ You want to have all your muscles developed alike, not one at the expense of another. To avoid this lop-sided kind of growth is the reason that gymnasiums have such a variety of appliances.
Now for the apparatus, and how it should be used. What boy, especially if he has lived in the country, has not tried to climb a rope, or go up a ladder hand over hand, and then, for the first time in his life, realised how heavy he is? Perhaps no form of exercise develops so quickly the upper arm and the chest as work on the rope and ladder in a gymnasium. ”

“ Indeed, the lung power of an individual can be more rapidly enlarged here than elsewhere, since exercise is here adapted and may be directed solely to that end. However, one may not require for this purpose anything beyond a simple and inexpensive apparatus, consisting of a cross-bar and a pair of rings attached to some point above, with just room enough to swing the person clear of the floor. ”

“ The defects of ordinary gymnastics have been felt by those interested in physical culture, and have been partly obviated by the introduction of free movements, like running, jumping, and wrestling, and partly by the use of resistance machines, usually constructions of levers, pulleys, and weights, designed to exercise special groups of muscles, as in the Sargent system of apparatus. ”

“ Having established the fact that in all our popular athletic, as opposed to gymnastic, exercises, our walking and running, cricket and football, fives, tennis, and racquets, and especially rowing—which has advanced as an art but has declined as an exercise—we circumscribe the line of muscular operation by giving the greatest share of the work to the lower limbs, and by developing one half to the injury of the other ”

“ Crank-work gymnastics are apt to pall, but in pursuit of a favorite handicraft even an invalid can beguile himself into a good deal of health-giving exercise, and, besides, the versatile development of the muscular system reacts on the functions of the vital organs, and thus explains the robust health of active mechanics often laboring under the disadvantage of indoor confinement. ”

“ To weakly constitutions training may be injurious—even fatal. In developing the voluntary muscles, as of the arm and leg, the growth of which we can measure, we must be careful of the involuntary muscles—those regulating the heart and lungs, and which are naturally and unconsciously brought into use. Of course, those muscles most brought into play by special exercise will be most developed—of the legs and thighs, for instance, in walking, and those of the arms, legs, and loins in rowing. ”

“ The progress of the age has been everywhere to substitute mechanical for manual labour; and while an almost perfect system of locomotion compels us to dispense with pedestrian exercise, the wondrous development of machinery almost as completely supersedes manual exertion. ”

“ In this swimming tank, artificial waves about three feet high are produced by mechanical means and the bather gets the benefit of an open air bathing resort nearer at home.
The sport laboratory is fitted out with all sorts of scientific instruments and apparatuses to investigate scientifically the effects of physical exercise on the human body, especially on heart and lungs. A gymnasium shows the usual development instruments well stocked with material. The great oval is for out-of-door meets and is almost daily in use. ”

“ Each station exercise is only for a particular muscle group.
The performer progresses from station to station exercising each muscle group at the given intensity and duration. Each muscle group is given a chance to rest while the other are being exercised.
Progression in training is accomplished by gradually increasing the number of circuits around the stations or reducing the time for a single circuit or increasing the number of repetitions at each station within the given time. Development of muscular endurance results from activities of low resistance and high frequency. ”

“ This truly useful machine exceeds any other yet invented for the relief of persons inclined to dormancy. It is well known that a carriage affords little or no exercise: on the contrary, the exercise on the Chamber Horse is similar to the canter of the managed or trotting horse, and by the use of the arms only, will, by easy exertion, cause genial warmth and general circulation of the blood. May be hired in London,—HOPES Warehouse, 11, Rathbone-place, Oxford-street. ”

“ Trapeze-evolutions, spring-board and dumb-bell practice rank, therefore, highest among the gymnastic specifics; wood-cutting and sawing among the more arduous kinds of manual labor; and trotting down-hill among the various modes of pedestrian exercise. It is worth a dyspeptic's while to hire a sedan-chair to lug him to the top of an out-of the-way hill, and a boy to run him a race to the foot of it. ”

“ In early times, when learning to ride a tall machine was considered quite a feat of gymnastic exercise, such as only the young and sprightly could ever perform, many, who afterwards by force of circumstances did accomplish the feat, would never have tried it if there had been anything else, such as the present Safety, to learn upon. ”

“ There should be two full hours of exercise at this period of the day, varied in speed, care being taken, whether in rowing, running, or boxing, that not too much is done at the top speed. "If a man or a crew has been exercised at high pressure on one day, he should be allowed to do less the following evening, and he will be all the better on the third."— (McLaren.) When work is over, a man may have a bath, and be well rubbed down. (I have seen a rough silk mitten, manufactured in Boston, which is most excellent for the rubbing, both wet and dry.) ”

“ Punching that foot-ball is pretty lively work, and the best kind of exercise for a boxer. Then the rubber straps with handles, which can be obtained almost anywhere, give a great variety of exercise, are inexpensive, and take up no room. With such apparatus a man or woman can have a gymnasium at home, and one hour out of twenty-four devoted to exercise and rubbing, will keep anybody in good condition, and make him healthy and cheerful, if not wealthy and wise. Swimming is one of the best of exercises, but unfortunately the opportunities for indulging in the sport are limited. ”

“ In the use of each of those species of exercise great attention should be paid to the degree or force of action with which they are applied to the body. For example, in riding in a carriage, the exercise will be less in a four-wheel carriage than in a single horse chair, and less when the horses move in a walking, than a trotting gait. ”

“ From this point of view the science of walking will be treated in the present work; for whether a man may have entered in an engagement to run, walk, jump, swim, row, or box, no training can be thoroughly accomplished until the athlete has undergone a certain amount of exercise on foot, and reduced his superfluous weight to such an extent that he can follow up his peculiar forte with fair chance of improvement, or at least so that he may not have to stop short from sheer want of wind or strength. ”

“ A convenient machine by means of which all the muscles of the body may be easily and pleasantly exercised with sufficient variations in the movements to relieve it of monotony.
A space 6 ft wide, 6 ft deep, and 7 ft high nearly in front of the machine is required for exercise. ”

“ As to the locomotive system, modern experience sufficiently proves that exercise is the most powerful strengthener of the muscles, and of every part on which activity depends. In its operation on the vital system, training always appears to benefit the state of the lungs. Indeed, one of its most striking effects is to improve the wind: that is, to enable a man to draw a larger inspiration, and to hold his breath longer. ”

“ They embrace every conceivable variety of effort, and also another class of applications which may be termed shampooing, as they consist of kneading and rubbing. Among the twenty machines are those designed for flexing, stretching and extending the limbs, for kneading the back and neck, for rubbing the body and limbs to induce circulation and simulate the effect of exercise in the cases of weak persons or those confined to their beds by casualties. Some of these were in Philadelphia in 1876. ”

“ Systematic exercises are "described and illustrated, which are suited to strengthen and develop all parts of the muscular system, and this without the use of any other apparatus than a bench or seat, and even this is by no means indispensable. All that is required for exercise is the body itself, and as most people possess this outfit they need not be put to the slightest expense to secure a comprehensive system of gymnastic exercises, and which, moreover, shall be just as efficient as they choose to make it. ”

“ Quite often, if the lifting be not carefully graduated in weight, the in-rushing blood bursts some of the finer net-work of the vessels, or the delicate covering of the muscles is rudely torn, and the would-be athlete is an invalid for life.
The one-pound or two-pound dumb-bell strains nothing: it only adds to the swing of the hands. The exercise can be varied so as to develop upper and lower limbs and trunk. It is particularly adapted to those who are not trained athletes. Say, the arms are thin and weak and soft, and you want to increase their size, strength, and firmness. ”

“ Among special exercises I should put first those that strengthen the forearm and fingers, for ‘gripping’; those that build up the muscles of the trunk, which have the greatest share of work to do in climbing; those that train the body to balance easily up and down on one leg, for balance; and those (if there are any but wood chopping) which prepare the shoulders and trunk for the movement of step cutting. But the working in easy combination of groups of muscles is what the climber aims at. Excessive exercise of independent groups is apt to militate against quick muscular interaction. ”

“ It has been proved by Hawk, of the University of Pennsylvania, in his experiments on the blood-count of an athlete in training, that various forms of active muscular exercise produce an average increase of 16.8 per cent. in the number of red corpuscles. When exercise is long-continued, the rate of increase lessens, and, further, the number may be decreased in greatly prolonged violent exercise. The explanation of this is that a large number [Pg 295] of cells lie inactive in various tissues of the body until they are brought into the circulation by muscular exercise. ”

“ The extent of the leap in height, or horizontally, is proportioned to the power employed, and the practice acquired. As it is performed with facility only in proportion to the strength exerted, and the elasticity and suppleness of the articulations and muscles of the lower extremities, much exercise is necessary to attain that degree of perfection which lessens all obstacles, and supplies the means of clearing them without danger. ”

“ The right arm is usually stronger than the left. For the first month or two, give the left arm nearly all the exercise, gradually increasing the amount until it is able to do its share equally with the right. If the chest is small and the muscles of the back are weak, select the exercise specially suited to the case. The greatest care must be taken not to overdo the matter. For two or three weeks, only the mildest form of exercise should be employed, but the drill must be persistently kept up and gradually increased in difficulty. ”

“ Increased exercise is the price of increased vigor. Running and walking steel the leg-sinews. In order to strengthen his wrist-joints a man must handle heavy weights. Almost any bodily exercise—but especially swinging, wood-chopping, carrying weights, and walking uphill—increases the action of the lungs, and thus gradually their functional vigor. Gymnastics that expand the chest facilitate the action of the respiratory organs, and have the collateral advantage of strengthening the sinews, and invigorating the system in general, by accelerating every function of the vital process. ”