The physician will always select the proper calisthenics, but the following "movements" generally prove satisfactory. To exercise the muscles at the front of the abdomen one leg after the other is raised and lowered; as this is being done the knee will be bent (flexed) at first, but later the leg may be held straight (extended). Other muscles come into play when the feet are alternately brought together and separated as widely as possible. A third movement which exercises the muscles at the side of the abdomen consists in raising the shoulders from the bed and twisting the trunk so that the weight of the chest rests now on the right, now on the left elbow. When these movements can be performed fifteen or twenty minutes without fatigue more vigorous exercises may be adopted. For example, the buttocks, together with the lower part of the back, are raised off the bed, while the shoulders, elbows, and the heels remain stationary. A day or so before getting up the patient should practice alternately raising herself from the recumbent to the sitting posture and returning to the above position without assistance from the arms. The value of bandaging the abdomen immediately after delivery as a means of strengthening the abdominal muscles is questionable; though physicians agree to the advantages of a supporter after patients are out of bed. We constantly see perfect restoration of these muscles without the early use of a binder; in fact, women who have employed it throughout the lying-in period do not secure an efficient abdominal wall more frequently than others who began its use two weeks after they were delivered. Even those physicians who advocate an early application of the binder concede that it works harm in certain cases and do not recommend it indiscriminately. Those who postpone for a fortnight the use of the binder will escape the tendency it has to cause displacements. By this time the involution will have advanced so far that the womb lies within the pelvic cavity, where it is surrounded by the hip bones, which protect it from external forces that otherwise would influence its position. When permitted to get up patients ought to use a binder, because it counteracts the feeling of "falling to pieces" of which some complain when the abdominal walls are not comfortably supported. But there is no evidence to show that a binder plays any part in restoring the figure. When, in spite of ample rest, the abdominal muscles fail to recover completely, we have no better way of strengthening them than by use of calisthenics or massage.