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
This is the reason why it is advisable to teach co-ordination, prompt
response to the command of the brain over the muscles, and the general
sense of self-control which comes to a man when he has only to think in
order to turn that thought into quick action. One of the penalties of
the executive position is that, although the man begins as a disciplined
private, when he goes up higher and gradually reaches the point where he
gives commands only, and never has any practice in obeying them, he gets
the habit of pushing buttons to make other people jump, while there are
no buttons pushed to make him jump.
WORRY AND FEAR
Now as to worry. It has been said, and not untruly, that one of the very
largest causes of worry is bodily weakness. And in more than a majority
of cases this weakness comes from poor physical condition. A good
digestion and proper elimination seem to make the organism move
smoothly, not alone with muscles, but with nerves. Hence if we get the
engine right, the lungs doing their duty, the skin acting as it should,
and the bowels and kidneys taking off the waste products, we generally
find a robust man, little given to that most expensive habit, "worry."
Fear is the forerunner of illness.
There is nothing quite so effective in producing a bad condition of the
human system as fear, and this fear is what worry develops into; later
it becomes pure, downright cowardice.
Worry makes cowards. If a man has enough worry and anxiety, fear follows
in its wake, and then the man becomes a mental and moral and often a
physical coward.
THE FATAL MISTAKE
The average man, when he is pressed to overwork, thinks that by cutting
out some of his exercise and devoting that extra time to his work he can
accomplish more. There never was a greater mistake; in the long run this
method is the most expensive of all. No factory manager would think of
running his automatic machines twice as long with half the amount of
oil, and yet that is just what the man is trying to do in this case. The
result is that he gradually piles up the various toxic products within
himself until self-poisoning is inevitable. All his organs struggle to
eliminate these poisons, but, being given no assistance, they gradually
become less and less efficient, and then begins the payment of the
penalty, for Nature never forgives this kind of treatment. From a
practical, useful running machine he retrogrades into something fit
only for the scrap-heap. The history is the same in all cases, although
it may be more or less prolonged. The discomfort, occasional slight
illnesses, the gradual loss of effective thought and power to
concentrate, lack of appetite, unreasonable temper, insomnia, nerve
diseases, and perhaps a complete nervous and physical breakdown if the
conditions are not recognized in time, are the varying punishments
inflicted by Nature.
[Illustration: ARCH WORK]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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