How to Get Strong and How to Stay SoBlaikie, William
Science
How to Get Strong and How to Stay So
Blaikie, William
Physical education and training
Standing in the aisles, and about five feet apart, every child taking a
dumb-bell in each hand, keeping the knees unbent and the head and neck
erect, let them raise or "curl" the bells slowly until they are up to
the shoulders, the finger-nails being held upward. Then lower, then
raise again, and so on ten or twelve times each half-day for the first
fortnight, and double that many thereafter. This tells principally on
the biceps or front of the upper arm, on the front of the shoulder,
and on the pectoral muscles, or those of the upper front chest. When,
later on, any pupil endeavors to pull himself up to his chin, he
will find what a large share of the work these muscles have to do.
Instead of the one-pound dumb-bells then, his whole body will be
the weight to be lifted.
Again, let the dumb-bells hang at the sides. Raise them slowly, high up,
behind the back, keeping the elbows straight and the arms parallel.
After holding them there five seconds lower them; do it again, and keep
on, ten times twice a day at first, making it twenty in a fortnight, and
thirty thereafter. This work will enlarge that part of the back of the
upper arm next to the body, and will also tell directly on the whole
back of the shoulder, and on the large muscles on the back just below
where the arm joins it.
This time, holding the knuckles upward and the elbows straight, lift the
dumb-bells till level with the shoulders, the arms being extended
sideways as if on a cross. After holding them up five seconds, lower
them; then raise them but five or six times at the first lesson,
increasing to twenty by the end of the month, and then maintaining that
number. The corners of the shoulders are getting the work now, and
by-and-by not only shapely shoulders will come from it, but a noticeable
increase of the breadth across the shoulders. This work may be varied by
raising the arms parallel in front until level with the shoulders, then
lowering, and so continuing.
Next raise the two bells to the shoulders; then, facing the ceiling,
push both up together until they are as high over the head as possible;
then lower, push up again, and continue six times twice a day for the
first week; make the twelve the third week and the twenty of the fifth,
and then keep at that. The outer or more noticeable parts of the upper
back, the arms, are busiest now; and this exercise directly tends to
enlarge and strengthen them, and to add materially to the appearance
of the arms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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