Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Science
Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)
Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Diet; Hygiene
It is impossible to go into detail regarding various exercises here.
Those who wish to take care of themselves can easily devise a number of
good ones, or they can employ a physical culture teacher to give them
pointers. Here as elsewhere, good sense wins out. It is not necessary to
give much time to exercise, but a little is valuable. Those who labor
with their hands often use but few muscles, and it would be well for
them to take corrective exercises so that the body will remain in good
condition.
There is no excuse for round shoulders and sunken chests. A few weeks,
or at most a few months, will correct this in young people. The older
the individual, the longer it takes. If the vertebrae have grown
together in bony union no correction is possible.
It is as necessary to relax as it is to exercise. When weary, take a few
minutes off and let go physically and mentally. A little training will
enable you to drop everything, and even if it is for but five minutes,
the ease gives renewed vigor. It does not matter what position is
assumed, if it is comfortable and allows the muscles to lose all
tension. At such times it is well to let the eyelids gently close,
giving the eyes a rest. Eye strain is very exhausting to the whole body
and often results in serious discomfort.
Many do not know how to relax. They think they are relaxed, yet their
bodies are in a state of tension. When relaxed any part of the body that
may be raised falls down again as though it were dead. People who do
much mental work are at times so aroused by ideas that refuse to release
their hold until they have been worked out or given expression that they
can not sleep for the time being. A few minutes of relaxation then gives
rest. When the problem has been solved, the worker is rewarded with
sweet slumbers. An occasional night of this kind of wakefulness does no
harm, provided no such drugs as coffee, alcohol, strychnine and morphine
are used.
We are undoubtedly intended to be useful. Normal men and women are not
content unless they are helpful. Hence we have our work or vocation.
However, people who get into a rut, and they are liable to if they work
all the time at one thing, lose efficiency. Therefore it is well to have
an avocation or a hobby to sharpen mind and body.
It does not make much difference what the hobby is, provided it is
interesting. We waste much time that could give us more pleasure if it
were intelligently employed. An hour a day given to a subject for a few
years in the spirit of play will give a vast fund of information and may
in time be of inestimable benefit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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