Keeping fit all the way : $b how to obtain and maintain health, strength and efficiencyCamp, Walter
Science
Keeping fit all the way : $b how to obtain and maintain health, strength and efficiency
Camp, Walter
Hygiene; Physical education and training
The man who is continually giving orders to subordinates and having
other men do things for him, soon finds that he is unable to accomplish
things for himself; then, if he is thrown on his own resources, he is
helpless. Take a group of men, executives, who for a dozen years have
been ordering other men about instead of obeying orders, and you will
find that for the most part these captains of industry have lost 50 per
cent. of their muscular control. On the other hand, the man who is
taking orders retains command over all his muscles, for he is daily and
hourly training them to instant obedience. A group of privates will snap
into "attention" at the word of command with splendid muscular control;
the same number of officers would find great difficulty in doing this.
Now as the man loses muscular control he loses poise and carriage. His
head rolls about in a slack way on his neck, and has a tendency to drop
forward; the muscles of the neck and the upper part of the back grow
soft from lack of use and control and he begins to become
round-shouldered; his chest falls in as the shoulders come forward and
the chest cavity is reduced. This means a gradual cramping of lungs,
heart, and stomach.
By way of compensation he lets out a hole or two in his belt and starts
in to carry more weight there. In other words, he exchanges muscle for
fat, and as the fat increases he has less and less muscular strength to
carry it. It is as though in a motor-car one added hundreds of pounds of
weight to the body and reduced the horse-power of the engine. Pretty
soon the man becomes so heavy around the waist that he notices his
discomfort, and it produces exhaustion; now he becomes more and more
averse to exercise, and the facia, or fat, having the better of the
battle, begins to penetrate even the fiber of the muscles.
THE REMEDY
The heart is a muscle, like all the others in the body, and fat may
accumulate there. When this condition comes about the man is perforce
obliged to be careful, for the heart muscle has lost its strength. As
stated, the situation becomes a vicious circle: as the man adds fat he
becomes more and more averse to exercise, and the less he exercises the
fatter he gets. And yet all this can be prevented; nor is it necessary
to take up any violent system of training, or to engage in tremendous
gymnastic exercise. If the patient is willing to take reasonable
physical training along scientific lines, a few hours a week will keep
him in respectable shape, so that he may preserve not only his figure,
but also his activity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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