Personal hygiene and physical training for womenGalbraith, Anna M. (Anna Mary)
Science
Personal hygiene and physical training for women
Galbraith, Anna M. (Anna Mary)
Physical education and training; Women -- Health and hygiene
_Heat Production._—By watching a muscle when contracting, we see
that there is not only a change of shape, but a dilatation of its
blood-vessels, that is, more blood passes through a muscle when it
is contracting than when it is at rest, and this increased flow
continues for some little time after the contraction has ceased;
there is also a rise of temperature. Nearly three-fourths of the
heat developed in the body is produced in the muscles at the actual
moment of muscular contraction. Hence, we learn that the whole body
is heated by muscular exercise; the even temperature of the various
parts is maintained through the circulation of the blood. This
combustion, going on throughout the entire economy, is the source
of all force or energy in the body. In every movement, every breath
taken, in the change even of a muscle of expression or the conception
of a passing fancy, combustion has occurred and potential force has
been liberated.
_Muscular Fatigue._—The fatigue produced by muscular contraction may
be due to the consumption of the readily available material present
in the muscle, to the consumption of the supply of oxygen, or to the
presence of the products of combustion, and, if Weichardt’s theory is
correct, to these must be added the presence of a definite “fatigue
toxin.”
During repose the internal changes of the tissue manufacture new
explosive material out of the comparatively raw material already
present in the fiber, and the directly hurtful products of the act
of combustion are either carried off, or undergo changes by which
they are converted into comparatively inert bodies. A stream of fresh
blood may exert its restorative influence, not only by quickening
both of these events, but also by carrying off the immediate
waste-products, while, at the same time, it brings new raw material.
Every movement of the body depends as much upon the proper
coördination of the muscles for its accuracy, grace, and force as
upon the strength of their contraction, and while the fatigue, of
which we are conscious in our own bodies after prolonged or unusual
exertion, arises partly from the exhaustion of the motor nerves,
it is chiefly from the exhaustion of the central nervous system
concerned in the production of voluntary impulses. A man who feels
absolutely exhausted may, under excitement, perform a very large
amount of work with his already wearied muscles. The will rarely, if
ever, calls forth the greatest amount of contraction of which the
muscle is capable.
=Passive Exercise: Massage.=—Massage has been defined as the
systematic manipulation of the surface of the body by the hands
of the operator in movements of stroking, pinching, kneading, and
striking. The passive movements consist of flexions, extensions,
rotations, and other movements of joints and limbs by an operator or
machine without the coöperation or resistance of the patient.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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