The number of men who “keep fit” in this
country has been surprisingly few, while the number
of those who have made good resolutions about keeping
fit is astonishingly large. Reflection upon this
fact has convinced the writer that the reason for
this state of affairs lies partly in our inability
to visualize the conditions and our failure to impress
upon all men the necessity of physical exercise.
Still more, however, does it rest upon our failure
to make a scientific study of reducing all the variety
of proposals to some standard of exceeding simplicity.
Present systems have not produced results, no matter
what the reason. Hence this book with its review
of the situation and its final practical conclusions.
I believe that a nation should be made up of people
who individually possess clean, strong bodies and
pure minds; who have respect for their own rights
and the rights of others and possess the courage and
strength to redress wrongs; and, finally, in whom
self-consciousness is sufficiently powerful to preserve
these qualities. I believe in education, patriotism,
justice, and loyalty. I believe in civil and
religious liberty and in freedom of thought and speech.
I believe in chivalry that protects the weak and preserves
veneration and love for parents, and in the physical
strength that makes that chivalry effective.
I believe in that clear thinking and straight speaking
which conquers envy, slander, and fear. I believe
in the trilogy of faith, hope, and charity, and in
the dignity of labor; finally, I believe that through
these and education true democracy may come to the
world.
KEEPING FIT ALL THE WAY
It has long been a startling fact regarding Americans
that so soon as their school-days were over they largely
abandoned athletics; until, in middle life, finding
that they had been controverting the laws of nature,
they took up golf or some other form of physical exercise.
The result of such a custom has been to lower the
physical tone of the race. Golf is a fine form
of exercise, but in an exceedingly mild way.
No one claims that it will build up atrophied muscles
nor, played in the ordinary way, that it will induce
deep breathing; nor, except in warm weather, that
it will produce any large amount of skin action.
Hence it is easy to imagine the condition of the man
who at the end of his ’teens gave up athletics,
and then did nothing of a physically exacting nature
until he took up golf. Now if in addition to his
pastime and relaxation he will do something in the
way of setting-up exercises to open up his chest and
make his carriage erect, thus enabling his heart and
lungs to have a better chance, he will more than double
the advantages coming from his golf. He will
then walk more briskly and will gain very much in
physical condition.
