Keeping Fit All the Way eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 109 pages of information about Keeping Fit All the Way.

Keeping Fit All the Way eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 109 pages of information about Keeping Fit All the Way.

One of Mr. Wilson’s principal physical movements is that of body-twisting.  With the toes at a slight outward angle, the heels touching and the body erect, he begins the movement by twisting the body a little more than half-way around; then swinging back in an arc, at the same time bending at the hips, until he has completed the circle and reached a hip-bending position, with the fingers of one hand touching the floor, the other extended vertically.  This gives a stretching movement to all of the muscles of the torso, side, back, and abdomen, as well as considerable play to the muscles of the legs and arms.

THE UNPLEASANT SELF-AWAKENING

We as a nation, through the revelation of the draft, have been suddenly thrown upon the public screen as physically deficient.  And that, too, when the echoes of the Eagle screaming over successes in the world Olympic games had hardly done sounding in our satisfied ears.  Naturally, we don’t like it.  Deep down in our consciousness we are not only dissatisfied with the picture, but we feel that somehow it is distorted; we are hoping to prove that even a photograph does not always tell the truth, at least not the whole truth.  Yet in this search for the truth there are some facts that we must face and admit.  The first of these is that as a race—­blended, if you please, but still the people of a nation—­we are ambitious and hurried.  We act a great deal more than we think.  Cricket is too slow for us; only baseball has the fire and the dash we like.  We haven’t quite enough time even for that, and so we begin to leave the stands before the game is over, craning our necks as we walk along toward the exits for a last glimpse, and then rushing madly to get on the first car out.  All this is typical of our life.  We have had a measure of benefit from our athletics.  They are a spur toward physical development as long as they last.  But no sooner are school-days drawing to an end than we begin the mad rush—­toward what?  To see how fast we can make money or name or position.  We take a final look backward at the last inning of these sports of ours, and then we rush out into the world of American hustle.  The lucky ones prolong their playtime a little by a college course, but they, too, finally abandon sport in favor of business and let themselves go slack until they lose condition.  A week or two in the summer, a fort-night’s orgy of exercise, and then back to the grind of factory or desk.  How can this way of living keep even a young man fit?  Golf has been a godsend to the older man whose pocket-book can stand it, but what about the youth?  And when pressure comes on the older man he quickly gives up his golf at the demand of business.

[Illustration:  Arm and body workThis places A handicap on A heavy man.]

[Illustration:  High-stride Stoop falling.]

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Project Gutenberg
Keeping Fit All the Way from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.