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
A little foot-work, for a minute or two remaining, would make a good
conclusion. With the hands closed and elbows bent, the body and arms
held almost rigid, the neck well back, and the head up, let the column
now start off around the room on an easy trot, each stepping as
noiselessly as possible, and no heel touching the floor. A minute of
this at a lively pace will be abundant at first; and as the legs
gradually get strong, and the breathing improves, the run can be either
made faster or longer, or both.
As the pupils began to grow steadier, with their hands on the bars they
could next swing their feet back and forth, and jump with their hands as
they swing forward; then, later, could jump forward as the feet are
swung backward, and backward as the feet are swung forward. The
vaulting-bar for the boys meanwhile may steadily rise, peg after peg;
and, when proficiency is reached with two hands, one-hand vaulting may
be tried, and the bar gradually raised as before, the teacher always
standing near the vaulter. The swinging on the rings, instead of being
any longer simple straight-arm work, with the body hanging nearly down,
can now be done with the elbows bent much of the time, the knees being
curled up toward the chin as the swinger goes backward.
After two months of straight-arm work on the parallel bars, even the
girls may now try the same exercises they did with their arms when
straight, save that now they should always keep them bent at the
elbows. This will come hard even yet, and must be tried with care.
These are the well-known "dips," followed up little by little, and
month after month. By-and-by these exercises will come as easy as was
the straight-arm work.
To all, or nearly all, the high bar work should now be done with bent
elbows, while the vaulting should, say by the end of the year, be nearly
at shoulder height for each pupil, and even, for many of them, that high
with one hand. The running should have improved correspondingly, so that
five minutes of it at a respectable pace, say at the rate of a mile in
seven minutes, would not trouble the girls, and even ten minutes of it
not distress the boys.
Now, what have these few exercises done for the muscles
and their owners?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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