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
But a little time each day is needed, never over half an hour of actual
work in-doors and an hour out-of-doors. Suppose a teacher has forty
pupils, and that thirty of them have either weak or indifferent chests.
Let her form a chest-class out of the thirty, and, for ten minutes a day,
let them practice exercises aimed exclusively to enlarge and develop the
chest. Some of such exercises will be pointed out on page 245. Begin very
gradually, so mildly that the weakest chest there shall have no ache or
pain from the exercise. For the first week do that same work, and that
much of it daily, and no more; but do it carefully, and do not miss a
stroke. Let this exercise come at the appointed hour, as certainly as any
other study. The second week make the work a trifle harder, or longer, or
both. In this, and in every exercise, insist, as far as possible, on an
erect carriage of the head and neck, and frequently point out their value.
Insist, further, on the pupil's always inhaling as large, and full, and
slow breaths as he can, seeing to it that every air-cell is brought into
vigorous play. 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. Now, when a fortnight
has gone by, use a little heavier weights; stay at the work without
weights a little longer, or draw the pulley-weight a few more strokes
daily, never forgetting to hold the head and neck erect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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