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
It should be remembered that all the members of the body partake of the
slackness that is apparent externally. Thus organs that should be active
in changing fat into energy lose their tone, and with that goes their
ability to carry on their proper functions. The best work of the man
himself is co-ordinated with the proper performance of the bodily
activities. Growth and strength depend upon and react upon the tissues,
and while this process is less active as age comes on, it can be
stimulated to the great advantage of both mind and body.
WHAT WORRY DOES
Every man who has reached a high place in his community or who has
become a leader of note knows that executive work has a tremendous
effect upon the nerves and body. If the man becomes run-down the
smallest decision gives him difficulty; it seems weighted with enormous
possibilities of disaster. A problem, which under normal conditions he
would turn over with equanimity to his assistant, takes on, in his
nervous state, a seriousness that leads to hours of worry. And yet if he
goes away on a vacation he returns to find that nine-tenths of these
troublesome things have been well taken care of during his absence.
Moreover, now that he has come back in a state of physical health and
with nerves that are normal, he sees that these awful problems were
simply exaggerated in his own mind by his overwrought physical
condition.
Few people realize the effect of worry upon the digestion.
An experiment was once tried upon a cat, which was fed a dish of milk,
stroked until it purred, and played with for half an hour. The animal
was then killed and the stomach examined; the milk was perfectly
digested. Another cat was taken and given a similar saucer of milk; then
its fur was rubbed the wrong way and it was teased and annoyed as much
as possible for half an hour. Upon examining the stomach of the second
cat it was found that not a step in the process of digestion had taken
place.
AMERICANITIS
It is wise to study the condition that we might almost call
"Americanitis." The American youth, as shown in the Olympic games, is
not only a match in speed, strength, and stamina for the youth of other
nations, but when it comes to the individual specialist even then the
American-trained boy is his superior. We smash records regularly. We
have been doing this for a decade with hardly a break. Even those who
criticize our tendency to develop individuals are obliged to admit that
this continual advance in athletic prowess fosters the spirit of
emulation among the masses. Moreover, we are improving in the way of
distributing our efforts, and more and more men in schools and colleges
come out for physical training and development. We have not by any means
perfected the system, but it is on the way. Supplementing this general
athletic development comes now the introduction into the curriculum of
military drill.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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