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
But even the case of the adult woman, where not only physical
training but most of the laws of health have been neglected, is far
from hopeless. A poorly developed chest, round shoulders, a beginning
spinal curvature, a poor carriage, bad skin, poor circulation,
indigestion, constipation, and low vitality, with poor powers of
resistance to changes in the weather and environment, are not
insurmountable obstacles. But a woman in this condition cannot manage
her own case. She must consult and place herself under the care of a
competent physician.
Two charts should be made out; the first should be a detailed outline
of her present condition; to the Vassar chart already given should be
added the physical defects needing correction, as round shoulders,
poor chest development, palpitation of the heart on exertion, length
of walk that can be taken comfortably, also the time required per
mile. As the strength of the heart and lungs increases, as shown
not only by the actual tests, but also by the increased powers of
endurance, this first chart will be a matter of great encouragement
to the woman and a great incentive to further effort. In a parallel
column to the defects should be written the corrective measure for
those defects. The second chart should contain the ideal measurements
and strength tests for a woman of her height and weight.
=Rules for Taking Exercise.=—The first things to be aimed at are the
proper ventilation of the lungs, together with their development, and
the strengthening of the heart. During the exercise the windows must
be thrown wide open, or the very object of the exercise is defeated.
Always begin with the simplest exercises and stop at the first sign
of fatigue. The very first exercise will, therefore, be the simple
respiratory exercises, taken in bed until one acquires some control
of the muscles; they are then taken standing before a mirror, to
insure the exercises being taken correctly, and after this they
should be taken before an open window. The respiratory should be
alternated with the abdominal exercises, and all of these should be
taken for twenty minutes at a time, at least twice a day, on rising
and immediately before retiring.
Two hours should be spent out-of-doors every day. If the woman is
weak and unused to taking exercise, she should walk until she feels
the first signs of fatigue, rest, and then continue her walk. If
the weather is too cold for sitting out-of-doors the woman should
preferably take two short walks each day, one in the morning and the
other in the afternoon. For invalids about ten in the morning and
two in the afternoon are the best hours in winter, because of the
greater warmth of the sun at those times. To be effective, exercise
out-of-doors must be taken every day without regard to the weather,
since the system, when in a state of activity, is less susceptible to
sudden changes of temperature than when at rest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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