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22 chapters
PREFACE.
PREFACE.
Millions of our people pass their lives in cities and towns, and at work which keeps them nearly all day in-doors. Many hours are devoted for days and years, under careful teachers, and many millions of dollars are spent annually, in educating the mind and the moral nature. But the body is allowed to grow up all uneducated; indeed, often such a weak, shaky affair that it gets easily out of order, especially in middle and later life, and its owner is wholly unequal to tasks which would have prove
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CHAPTER I. DO WE INHERIT SHAPELY BODIES?
CHAPTER I. DO WE INHERIT SHAPELY BODIES?
Probably more men walk past the corner of Broadway and Fulton Street, in New York city, in the course of one year, than any other point in America—men of all nations and ages, heights and weights. Look at them carefully as they pass, and you will see that scarcely one in ten is either erect or thoroughly well-built. Some slouch their shoulders and double in at the waist; some overstep; others cant to one side; this one has one shoulder higher than the other, and that one both too high; some have
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CHAPTER II. HALF-BUILT BOYS.
CHAPTER II. HALF-BUILT BOYS.
But , whatever our inherited lacks and strong points, few who have looked into the matter can have failed to notice that the popular sports and pastimes, both of our boyhood and youth, good as they are, as far as they go, are not in themselves vigorous enough, or well enough chosen to remedy the lack. The top, the marble, and the jack-knife of the boy are wielded with one hand, and for all the strength that wielding brings, it might as well have been confined to one. Flying kites is not likely t
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CHAPTER III. WILL DAILY PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR GIRLS PAY?
CHAPTER III. WILL DAILY PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR GIRLS PAY?
Observe the girls in any of our cities or towns, as they pass to or from school, and see how few of them are at once blooming, shapely, and strong. Some are one or the other, but very few are all combined, while a decided majority are neither one of them. Instead of high chests, plump arms; comely figures, and a graceful and handsome mien, you constantly see flat chests, angular shoulders, often round and warped forward, with scrawny necks, pipe-stem arms, narrow backs, and a weak walk. Not one
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CHAPTER IV. IS IT TOO LATE FOR WOMEN TO BEGIN?
CHAPTER IV. IS IT TOO LATE FOR WOMEN TO BEGIN?
But if the school-days are past and the girl has become a woman, what then? If the girl, trammelled by few duties outside of school-hours, has found amusement for herself, yet still needs daily and regular exercise to make and keep her fresh and hearty, much more does the woman, especially in a country like our own, where physical exercise for her sex is almost unknown, require such exercise. Our women are born of parents who pride themselves on their mental qualifications, on a good degree of i
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CHAPTER V. WHY MEN SHOULD EXERCISE DAILY.
CHAPTER V. WHY MEN SHOULD EXERCISE DAILY.
The advantages to men of a well-built body, kept in thorough repair, are very great. Those of every class, whose occupation is sedentary, soon come to appreciate this. Some part of the machinery gets out of order. It may be the head, or eyes, or throat; it may be the lungs or stomach, liver or kidneys. Something does not go right. There is a clogging, a lack of complete action, and often positive pain. This physical clogging tells at once on the mental work, either making its accomplishment unco
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CHAPTER VI. HOME GYMNASIUMS.
CHAPTER VI. HOME GYMNASIUMS.
All that people need for their daily in-door exercises is a few pieces of apparatus which are fortunately so simple and inexpensive as to be within the reach of most persons. Buy two pitchfork handles at the agricultural store. Cut off enough of one of them to leave the main piece a quarter of an inch shorter than the distance between the jambs of your bedroom door, and square the ends. On each of these jambs fasten two stout hard-wood cleats, so slotted that the squared ends of the bar shall fi
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CHAPTER VII. THE SCHOOL THE TRUE PLACE FOR CHILDREN'S PHYSICAL CULTURE.
CHAPTER VII. THE SCHOOL THE TRUE PLACE FOR CHILDREN'S PHYSICAL CULTURE.
But , well adapted as our homes are in many ways for the proper care and development of the body, there is one place which, in almost every particular, surpasses them in this direction, if its advantages are understood and fully appreciated, and that is the school. A father may so arrange his time that a brief portion of it daily can be regularly allotted to the physical improvement of the children, as John Stuart Mill's father did his for his son's mental improvement, and with such remarkable r
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CHAPTER VIII. WHAT A GYMNASIUM MIGHT BE AND DO.
CHAPTER VIII. WHAT A GYMNASIUM MIGHT BE AND DO.
Few colleges of any pretension have not some sort of a gymnasium—indeed, hold it out to parents as one of the attractions. There is a building, and it has apparatus in it. The former often costs twice as much as needs be; the latter may be well made, and well suited to its purpose, or may not—in fact, more frequently is not. Instead of having apparatus graded, so as to have some for the slim and weak, some for the stout and broad, too often one pair of parallel bars or one size of rowing-weight
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CHAPTER IX. SOME RESULTS OF BRIEF SYSTEMATIC EXERCISE.
CHAPTER IX. SOME RESULTS OF BRIEF SYSTEMATIC EXERCISE.
In a country like ours, where the masses are so intelligent, where so much care is taken to secure what is called a good education, the ignorance as to what can be done to the body by a little systematic physical education is simply marvellous. Few persons seem to be aware that any limb, or any part of it, can be developed from a state of weakness and deficiency to one of fulness, strength, and beauty, and that equal attention to all the limbs, and to the body as well, will work like result thro
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CHAPTER X. WORK FOR THE FLESHY, THE THIN, THE OLD.
CHAPTER X. WORK FOR THE FLESHY, THE THIN, THE OLD.
While the endeavor has been made to point out the value of plain and simple exercise—for, in a later chapter , particular work will be designated which, if followed systematically and persistently, will correct many physical defects, substituting good working health and vigor for weakness—the reply may be made, "Yes, these are well enough for the young and active, but they will not avail a fleshy person, or a slim one, or one well up in years." Let us see about this. Take, first, those burdened
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CHAPTER XI. HALF-TRAINED FIREMEN AND POLICE.
CHAPTER XI. HALF-TRAINED FIREMEN AND POLICE.
There are two classes of men in our cities and larger towns who, more than almost any others, need daily and systematic bodily exercise, in order to make them efficient for their duties, and something like what men in their lines ought to be. In times of peace they do in many ways what the army does for the whole country in war-time—they protect life and property. These are the police and firemen. The work of some of the firemen before they reach a fire is even more dangerous than when actually
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CHAPTER XII. SPECIAL EXERCISE FOR ANY GIVEN MUSCLES.
CHAPTER XII. SPECIAL EXERCISE FOR ANY GIVEN MUSCLES.
While symmetrical and thorough physical development are not at all common among Americans, and undeveloped, inerect, and weak bodies almost outnumber any other kind, the general want of familiarity with what will develop any given muscles, and bring them up to the fulness and strength which ought to be theirs, is even more surprising. If proof is wanted of this, let the reader ask himself what special work he would choose to develop any given part; the muscles of the forearm, for instance, or th
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CHAPTER XIII. WHAT EXERCISE TO TAKE DAILY.
CHAPTER XIII. WHAT EXERCISE TO TAKE DAILY.
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 wi
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APPENDIX I.
APPENDIX I.
Showing the average state of the development of 200 men upon entering the Bowdoin College Gymnasium, from the classes of '73, '74, '75, '76, and '77. ...
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APPENDIX II.
APPENDIX II.
Showing the average state of the growth and development of the same number of men (200) after having practised in the Bowdoin Gymnasium half an hour a day four times a week, for a period of six months, under Dr. Sargent. In this case the apparatus used was light dumb-bells, 2½ lbs.; Indian clubs, 3½ lbs.; pulley-weights, from 10 to 15 lbs....
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APPENDIX III.
APPENDIX III.
Showing average increase of 200 students at Bowdoin College, in various measurements, after working but half an hour a day four times a week, for six months, under Dr. Sargent. ...
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APPENDIX IV.
APPENDIX IV.
Showing the effect of four hours' exercise a week for one year upon a youth of 19, at Bowdoin College, under Dr. Sargent's direction. This was two hours' work more each week than was required of the regular classes. ...
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APPENDIX V.
APPENDIX V.
Taken from Maclaren's "Physical Education." Showing effect of four months and twelve days' exercise, under his system, on fifteen youths ranging from 16 to 19 years of age. Return of Course of Gymnastic Training at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, from Feb. 10th, 1863, to June 22d, 1863. ...
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APPENDIX VI.
APPENDIX VI.
Taken from Maclaren's "Physical Education." Showing effect of seven months and nineteen days' exercise, under his system, on men ranging from 19 to 28 years of age. Table of Measurements of First Detachment of Non-commissioned Officers selected to be qualified as Military Gymnastic Instructors. ...
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APPENDIX VII.
APPENDIX VII.
Taken from Maclaren's "Physical Education." Showing the result of one year's continuous practice. The following Table shows in another form the Results of the System; not by Brief Courses or Periods of Voluntary Attendance, but by a Year's Steady Practice from Birthday to Birthday, with two Articled Pupils, the Younger being 16, the Elder 20: ...
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CONCLUSION.
CONCLUSION.
In the first eleven chapters of this little book attempt has been made to call attention both to defects and lacks, resulting largely from not taking rational daily exercise, and to what such exercise has accomplished wherever it has been thoroughly tried. In the last two chapters have been suggested not a long and difficult system of gymnastic exercises needing a fully equipped gymnasium, a trained instructor, and years of work to master, but rather a few plain and simple exercises for any give
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