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the MUSCULAR SYSTEM. — PLATE 
 
 For the explanation of this Plate, see Chapter V. 
 (pp. 40 et seq.\ The Muscles of the Body. 
 

 
HOME GYMNASTICS 
 
 FOR YOUNG AND OLD 
 
 BY 
 
 PROFESSOR HOFFMANN 
 
 AUTHOR OF “ MODERN MAGIC,” “ MORE MAGIC,” ETC., ETC, 
 
 WITH 59 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 11 The wise for Health on Exercise depend.” 
 
 —Dryden 
 
 LONDON 
 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, Limited 
 
 BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL 
 GLASGOW, MANCHESTER, AND NEW YORK 
 
LONDON: 
 
 BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LIMD., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 
 
(e> 13.7 / 
 
 *4 
 - u 
 
 i 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This little book is the outcome of a personal 
 experience. The writer has on several occasions 
 ^ found himself in the condition popularly known 
 as “ below par,” neither mental nor physical 
 powers reaching their proper level. Medical 
 advisers were agreed as to the cause—the too 
 sedentary conditions of a literary life—but none 
 of the remedies suggested gave more than 
 temporary relief. Finally, however, a medical 
 friend, who had made a study of such cases, 
 indicated a course of treatment, the chief element 
 v of which was a daily half-hour employed in 
 certain special dumb-bell exercises. The pre¬ 
 scription proved so marvellously effective as to 
 suggest, in the interest of others, the desirability 
 of acquiring a closer acquaintance, theoretical and 
 practical, with the subject of Home Gymnastics, 
 , < and this little volume is the result. 
 
 Of works on Gymnastics there is no lack, but 
 .' their authors, as a rule, devote their space to the 
 
IV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 more showy feats performed with the aid of fixed 
 apparatus, and either ignore or dismiss with a 
 few curt pages the homelier exercises with 
 dumb-bells, pulley - weights, &c. The latter, 
 however, have in truth a far wider application, 
 and consequently higher value. The feats of 
 the gymnasium can only be practised in the 
 gymnasium ; a most serious limitation of their 
 usefulness. They are only suitable for young 
 and vigorous persons, and demand for the most 
 part an amount of skill as well as strength, only 
 to be acquired by an arduous course of training. 
 The exercises described in this book may be 
 practised in any home. They may be used, with 
 slight and obvious modifications, by any one; 
 man, woman, or child. The w r eak will become 
 strong, and the strong stronger by their use ; but 
 developed muscle is the smallest of their gifts. 
 Healthier appetite for food, sweeter sleep and 
 brighter waking hours, greater vigour for work or 
 play, in a word, keener all-round enjoyment of 
 life, will be the sure rew r ard of anyone who will 
 fairly test and persevere in the exercises here 
 recommended. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION.I 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE.8 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE VARIOUS FORMS OF EXERCISE. 22 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HOW AND WHEN TO EXERCISE. 33 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE MUSCLES OF THE BODY.40 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH . . 49 
 
 b 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS.90 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EXERCISES WITH THE PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS . . 103 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EXERCISES WITHOUT APPARATUS.1 32 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN . . . 148 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 EXERCISE IN RELATION TO OBESITY. 1 66 
 
 186 
 
 L’ENVOI 
 
HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 “The first Wealth,” says Emerson, is “Health.” 
 Certain is it that, lacking health, all other wealth 
 is but of little value. Unfortunately, the two 
 kinds of wealth by no means always go together; 
 indeed, it is a constant experience to find the 
 man best furnished with worldly comforts, least 
 able, for lack of health, to enjoy them. The 
 daintiest dishes have no relish for his feeble 
 appetite, and even the plainest food renders him 
 a victim to dyspeptic tortures. He is flabby, 
 puffy, scant of breath ; the smallest exertion is a 
 toil to him ; he travels through life in a condition 
 of chronic weariness, and is fortunate if he escape 
 the added pains of gout. 
 
 Nor is the millionaire the only sufferer: the 
 same ailments, varying in degree, are the curse of 
 thousands of middle-class men in every great city. 
 The lawyer in his chambers, the merchant in his 
 
HOME G YMNA S TICS. 
 
 office, the literary man at his desk, are all more or 
 less victims of the same tormenting demon, a 
 demon of many aliases, but whose most approved 
 name is Nervous Exhaustion. Some fly to delusive 
 “ tonics,” others to still more delusive “ nips,” 
 which only aggravate the evil they are designed 
 to cure. “ When the overworked man of business, 
 having been on his legs all day, and feeling fit to 
 drop, with a sensation of ‘ all-goneness ’ about the 
 region of the stomach, rouses himself with 
 whatever he may be in the habit of taking, be it 
 whisky, champagne, or even tea or coffee, he does 
 not add one atom of force to his stock of energy, 
 but having put to sleep his sense of weariness, 
 simply appropriates some of his reserve for the 
 present necessity. He has accepted a bill at 
 short date to which a ruinous rate of interest is 
 attached, and his resources will not allow him to 
 make many repetitions of the experiment. His 
 account at the bank of life will soon be over¬ 
 drawn. Alcohol cannot add one iota to his reserve 
 of nervous energy, though it may delude him into 
 exhausting it.”"" Medicinal “pick-me-ups” are 
 only less injurious as being less seductive to the 
 palate, and less constantly available. Even 
 where taken under the advice of a medical man, 
 
 * Health Troubles of City Life , by George Herschell, M.D. 
 (Swan, Sonnenschein & Co.) An admirable little work, well 
 worthy the attentive perusal of all brain-workers. 
 
3 
 
 THE NEED OF BODILY EXERCISE. 
 
 they give but passing relief, and the often 
 prescribed fortnight’s rest, or trip to the 
 seaside, is in like manner only temporarily 
 effective, the return to the “ mill ” being followed, 
 sooner or later, by a recurrence of the old 
 symptoms. 
 
 The first step towards finding a remedy for 
 this quasi-invalidism is obviously to discover its 
 causes. These doubtless vary more or less. 
 Over-work, and still more, over-worry, yearly 
 slay their thousands; but there is a wide margin 
 of cases (indeed, the far larger number,) in which 
 neither of these explanations is admissible. Men 
 in the prime of life, in assured financial and social 
 positions, and working solely at their own 
 pleasure ladies of fashion, with little or nothing 
 to do, and only self-created worries,—are still 
 found to be victims of the nervous exhaustion 
 plague. What is the common element in such 
 cases ? Nine times out of ten it will be found 
 that the cause of the evil can be stated in three 
 words,— Insufficient Bodily Exercise. 
 
 It is only within the last few years that even 
 medical men have begun to realise, in a practical 
 sense, that sufficiency of bodily exercise is a 
 primary condition of healthy life. Theoretically 
 the fact has long been admitted. The great 
 Sydenham, the father of English Medicine, writ¬ 
 ing in the seventeenth century, says, “If exercise 
 
 I> 2 
 
4 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS 
 
 be omitted, all the remedies which have hitherto 
 been discovered will not at all avail/’ With his 
 dying breath he enforced the same lesson. “ I am 
 content to die,” he said, “ since I leave behind me 
 three great physicians, Air, Water, and Exercise.” 
 Abernethy used in like manner to say that the 
 only remedies for nervous diseases were air and 
 exercise. Fuller, the author of the Medicina 
 Gymnastica (1705), a book which passed through 
 nine editions, says, “ Exercise is to physic, as 
 bandage is to surgery, an assistance, or medium 
 without which many other administrations, though 
 never so noble, will not succeed. It is a kind of 
 reserve, but yet of that efficacy that the thing you 
 most depend upon, though in itself very powerful, 
 may yet receive its derniere puissance from this 
 reserve. And to this it is, that we must un¬ 
 doubtedly attribute the wonderful success that the 
 ancients had in their curing with such indifferent 
 materials as their pharmacy afforded them.” 
 Equally eminent authorities in every generation 
 have testified to the same effect. But all medical 
 men are not equally honest; and when they do 
 speak the truth, the public do not always take it 
 to heart. A recent writer, Dr. Oscar Jennings,* 
 puts the medical man’s side of the matter very 
 fairly : “It is indisputable,” he says, “ that 
 
 * Cycling and Health , by Oscar Jennings, M.D. Iliffe & Son. 
 
THE NEED OF BODILY EXERCISE. 
 
 5 
 
 exercise and regimen are but too rarely insisted 
 upon by physicians, which is the more surprising 
 now that the benefits of the various forms of all 
 athletic exercises in the education of the young 
 are universally recognised. The explanation 
 seems simple, however. To-day, when money 
 is supreme, when even “ time is money,” and 
 every hour is counted, people insist on being 
 treated tuto, cito et jucunde, that is, with the least 
 possible trouble to themselves. From necessity, 
 doctors are compelled to fulfil these conditions. 
 Invalids demand sedatives for their nerves, 
 provocatives for their appetites, and narcotics to 
 secure sleep, and they are practically compelled 
 to order the fashionable remedies of the day. 
 
 . . In a vague kind of a way every one knows 
 
 that exercise is necessary for the maintenance of 
 health—that exercise and diet may be employed 
 as a means of treatment; and they are often pre¬ 
 scribed in an indifferent kind of a way, by medical 
 men. But notwithstanding the fact that half the 
 chronic diseases from which we suffer are abso¬ 
 lutely and wholly curable by exercise and diet, 
 there is not one physician in a hundred who 
 preaches this truth to his patients. I say ‘ preach ,’ 
 because in this matter an off-hand counsel is 
 generally useless. Patients are so accustomed to 
 expect health from physic, that it is necessary 
 to preach and persuade them to the contrary. 
 
6 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 I have then no hesitation in preaching, that the 
 great majority of those who lead miserable lives 
 in consequence of nervous prostration, insomnia, 
 neuralgia, gout in its innumerable manifestations, 
 rheumatism, liver diseases, diabetes, and a host of 
 other troubles, and who pass most of their time in 
 consulting and doctoring, might by the proper use 
 of diet and exercise, be restored to perfect health. 
 
 “The chief reason why medical men do not 
 insist on this point sufficiently is that the honest 
 enthusiasm for the ideal in medicine is soon 
 blunted by the immeasurable stupidity and 
 injustice of the public in matters of this kind. 
 The man who has fifty times told an anxious 
 mother that no medicine whatever is required, 
 say, for chicken-pox, and who has. seen his 
 patients snapped up regularly by a smarter practi¬ 
 tioner who shrugged his shoulders indulgently, 
 and prescribed some pink water, finally realises 
 that pink water is the best policy; and although 
 a young practitioner with a head full of science 
 may begin life by recommending temperance and 
 sobriety to the over-fed dyspeptic, he soon 
 learns that if he is to live by his practice he had 
 much better lose no time and order blue pill. 
 Populus vult decipi." 
 
 So outspoken a statement by a member of the 
 medical profession should be taken to heart by 
 every thoughtful reader. It is at once a forcible 
 
THE NEED OF BODILY EXERCISE. 7 
 
 testimony to the value of nature’s remedies, and a 
 scathing rebuke to those who reject them. The 
 public, unfortunately, do not always hear such 
 plain speaking, though any one even slightly 
 acquainted with the books written by medical men 
 for medical men could quote scores of similar 
 passages. 
 
 On the broad question, however, of the value 
 of exercise as a remedial agent, the case does not 
 rest upon mere professional opinion, however 
 eminent, but is demonstrable to any one who will 
 take the trouble to look into it. One of the latest 
 contributions to the literature of the subject is a 
 work entitled The Physiology of Bodily Exercisef 
 by an eminent French writer, Dr. Lagrange ; a 
 treatise in which the scientific aspect of the matter 
 is exhaustively dealt with, and to which we are in 
 a great degree indebted for the facts and proposi¬ 
 tions set forth in the following chapter. 
 
 * International Scientific Series. Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 
 
 The immediate agents in the movements of the 
 body are the muscles ; bundles of reddish fibres 
 which form the fleshy masses surrounding the 
 different parts of the skeleton. These bundles 
 are usually of an elongated shape, tapering down¬ 
 wards from the centre, and terminating at either 
 end in a tendon attached to a bone. Every 
 muscle possesses the property of contracting, and 
 when it contracts it exercises more or less tension 
 on the bones to which it is attached. In shorten¬ 
 ing, it grows larger, particularly towards the 
 centre, as would a stretched mass of india-rubber 
 of similar shape on reverting to its former 
 condition. 
 
 The necessary impulse is given to the muscle 
 by the Will, conveyed through the medium of the 
 nerves. The quality which causes the muscle to 
 answer to such impulse is known as its irrita¬ 
 bility. The majority of muscles, or sets of 
 muscles, are in pairs, so to speak, the one having 
 the precisely opposite action to that of the other. 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 
 
 9 
 
 Thus the muscles which bend a limb, known as 
 flexors , are balanced on the opposite side of it by 
 others which straighten it, known as extensors , and 
 these two sets of muscles are relatively said to be 
 antagonistic. To preserve due harmony of shape, 
 strength and activity, both sets should receive 
 equal employment. Each such set of muscles 
 forms a check upon the other, and their due co¬ 
 ordination is necessary to precise and easy 
 movement. In some instances such co-ordination 
 is instinctive ; in others (as in the case of the 
 pianist, bringing down his fingers in rapid succes¬ 
 sion on precisely the right keys) it is only acquired 
 by long habit and practice. Perfect co-ordination 
 is the foundation of grace and dexterity ; the lack 
 if it produces clumsiness and awkwardness. 
 
 Whether a given movement be well or ill-per¬ 
 formed, the mere fact of such movement of neces¬ 
 sity gives rise to certain chemical phenomena 
 within the body. The circulation is quickened ; 
 in other words the blood flows with greater rapidity, 
 and this not merely through the substance of the 
 particular muscle used, but in a modified degree 
 through the whole of the circulatory system. “It 
 is a vital law,” says Lagrange, “ that every organ 
 in activity draws towards it a greater quantity of 
 nutrient fluid than it does when in a state of re¬ 
 pose.” It is equally a law that “the nutrition of 
 an organ is in proportion to the quantity of blood 
 
IO 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 which passes through it; ” hence the fact, familiar 
 to all, that the limb which does the largest share 
 of work—the arm of the blacksmith, the leg of the 
 pedestrian,—is more fully developed than the other 
 members of the same body, or the corresponding 
 members in persons of different occupation. 
 
 But this local development is only one of the 
 salutary effects of exercise. The increased demand 
 of the active organ causes, as we have seen, greater 
 activity in the whole of the circulatory system. 
 Nor is the heart alone concerned. A greater 
 volume of blood being driven to the lung, this 
 organ in turn becomes more active. A fuller 
 supply of oxygen is drawn into the system, and, 
 under the new impulse thus imparted, those 
 mysterious processes of combustion on which our life 
 depends are made more rapid and more complete. 
 
 For there is a strange phoenix-like process 
 perpetually at work in the human body. In 
 the words of the late Archibald Maclaren, the 
 pioneer of scientific gymnastics in England :— 
 “ Our material frame is comprised of innumera¬ 
 ble atoms, and each separate and individual atom 
 has its birth, life, and death, and then its removal 
 from the place of the living. Thus there is going 
 on a continuous process of decay and death among 
 the individual atoms which make up each tissue. 
 Each atom preserves its vitality for a limited 
 space only, is then separated from the tissue of 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. n 
 
 which it has formed a part, and is resolved into 
 its inorganic elements, to be in due course 
 eliminated from the body by the organs of 
 excretion. These processes are greatly influenced 
 by the activity of the bodily functions. Every 
 operation of the muscles or nerves involves the 
 disintegration and death of a certain part of their 
 substance. We cannot lift a finger, we cannot 
 perform the slightest movement, without causing 
 a change in certain of the atoms which compose 
 the muscles executing the movement, in those of 
 the nerves conveying the stimulus which directed 
 them to contract, and in those composing the 
 nerve-centres in which the stimulus originates,— 
 and this change involves their decay and death. 
 
 “ The loss then of the body, and of each part 
 of the body, being in relation to its activity, a 
 second process is necessary to replace the loss, 
 otherwise it would rapidly diminish in size and 
 strength, and life itself would shortly cease. 
 This reparative process is performed by the 
 nutritive system, the organs of which convert our 
 food into blood—liquid flesh (chair coulante) as it 
 ' has been called—which in itself contains, and in its 
 never-ending circulation bears to each tissue, the 
 material for the replacement of all waste and for 
 the building-up of all additions. And as this 
 material is borne along through channels permeat¬ 
 ing every part of the organism, each part, by a 
 
12 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 law incomprehensible but unerring, selects from it 
 and appropriates that particular pabulum which is 
 fit for its special use, and that only. At every 
 point of the human body is this law in unceasing 
 operation—activity, a loss of vital power, disin¬ 
 tegration, decay, and removal—to be met by a 
 replacement of substance and a renewal of vital 
 power. And as the disintegration of any part is 
 hastened by its activity, so by an equally unerring 
 law is the flow of blood, bearing the renewing 
 material, increased in that part; and again by a 
 law equally unerring and ever operative, the 
 worn-out particles are cast into this current in its 
 backward course, and conveyed to organs whose 
 function it is to eliminate them from the body. 
 
 .And the strength of the body as a 
 
 whole, and of each part of the body individually, 
 is in relation to the frequency with which these 
 atoms are changed ; and the strength of the body 
 as a whole, and of each part of the body individu¬ 
 ally, is thus ever in relation to its newness. 
 
 “ Exercise, then, as we have seen, is the chief 
 agent in the destruction of the tissues ; but it is 
 also the chief agent in their renovation, inasmuch 
 as it quickens the circulation of the blood, from 
 which the whole body derives its nourishment; 
 the tide on which is brought up all fresh material, 
 and on which is borne away all that is effete and 
 useless, brought up and borne away most rapidly 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 
 
 in those parts which are being most rapidly 
 employed, where disintegration is most rapidly 
 taking place.” # 
 
 We have given this quotation at length, as 
 indicating in a clear and precise manner the way 
 in which bodily exercise tends to conserve and 
 increase strength , but it has yet to be shown that 
 it operates in an equally marked degree on the 
 conservation and increase of health; and con¬ 
 versely, that the lack of exercise tends to lower 
 the standard of vital energy. This arises from 
 the fact that the chemistry of nature, given a 
 sufficient amount of the needful pabulum in the 
 shape of food, is not content with maintaining a 
 mere balance in the system, but is constantly 
 accumulating what are known as “ reserves,” 
 consisting partly of fat, partly of a sugary 
 substance called inosit, and partly of nitrogenous 
 products, deposited in the substance of the tissue. 
 The combustion of the two former is the main 
 source of the force employed in muscular move¬ 
 ment, and so long as, by regular exercise, they are 
 kept neither above nor below the normal limit, 
 all is well. Should such reserves, by excess of 
 work, or deficiency of nourishment, become 
 exhausted, the combustion produced by exertion 
 
 * A System of Physical Education , Theoretical and Practical . 
 Clarendon Press. 
 
14 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 is effected at the expense of the essential tissue of 
 the organs themselves. Under such conditions the 
 machine after a little while wears itself out, and 
 the patient dies. 
 
 But in a far larger number of cases the reserve 
 materials are in excess, and the system is clogged 
 by its own waste. As George Herbert quaintly 
 says of the moral nature, 
 
 “ Man is no star, but a quick coal 
 Of mortal fire : 
 
 Who blows it not, nor doth control 
 A faint desire, 
 
 Lets his own ashes choke his soul”— 
 
 In like manner with the physical organization. 
 The process of combustion, to which we have 
 adverted, is at work from the cradle to the grave. 
 But it is for man himself to “ blow the fire,” and 
 this is to be done by bodily exercise. Exercise, by 
 quickening the circulation, sends a fuller supply of 
 blood coursing through the arteries and veins. 
 Exercise, by stimulating respiration, charges the 
 blood w-ith fresh oxygen, which the heart forth¬ 
 with despatches through the circulatory system 
 to its allotted function of burning up the excess 
 of reserve material. 
 
 But the fact of combustion alone is not 
 sufficient. Combustion is never absolutely per¬ 
 fect, but always implies some form of inorganic 
 residue. The most important of these residues 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 15 
 
 in the present case are carbonic acid, urea, and 
 lactic acid. The former passes off through the 
 lungs, the second through the kidneys, and the 
 third through the skin ; while many others, as to 
 which our knowledge is less definite, pass away 
 partly through the above organs and partly 
 through the intestines. Given regular and 
 sufficient exercise, each of these organs does its 
 work without discomfort or disturbance, and 
 maintains the system in a condition of hygienic 
 equilibrium. But if, by too long continued 
 inactivity, the reserves are allowed to accumulate 
 to an abnormal extent, the waste occasioned even 
 by very slight exertion is in excess of the power 
 of the excretory organs to eliminate it, and the 
 patient suffers by such non-elimination in a 
 variety of ways. The tissues, over-rich in carbon, 
 generate under exercise an excessive quantity of 
 carbonic acid. This in ordinary course is 
 conveyed by the blood-vessels to the lungs, to 
 be thence worked off by respiration, but the 
 quantity is here so large, that the lungs—even 
 were they of normal vigour and expansive power 
 —would have great difficulty in making excretion 
 keep pace with production. But the lungs in 
 such a case are of by no means normal power, 
 seeing that under the conditions of sedentary life 
 they are hardly ever expanded to their full 
 capacity, and one-half their air-cells remain 
 
16 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 habitually contracted, taking absolutely no part 
 in the act of respiration. When a sudden call 
 arises for a full and deep inspiration, these air- 
 cells, having lost their elasticity by disuse, cannot 
 respond to it. There is a further impediment in 
 the shape of the chest itself, which from the same 
 cause has become narrowed and sunken. As a 
 natural result, the slightest unaccustomed exertion, 
 such as walking quickly upstairs, or running a few 
 paces to catch an omnibus, is sufficient to cause 
 a painful attack of breathlessness, and not un- 
 frequently a dangerous strain upon the heart, 
 enfeebled in like manner from the same cause, 
 viz; that it has never been stimulated by exercise 
 to regular and vigorous action. It is noteworthy 
 that this condition of breathlessness is more 
 readily provoked by exercise of the lower limbs. 
 This, which at first sight seems an anomaly, 
 arises from the fact that the muscles of the thighs 
 and legs are the largest and bulkiest of the whole 
 body, and consequently throw off in action a 
 larger quantity of carbonic acid. 
 
 The same movements less quickly executed 
 do not cause the same amount of distress. This 
 is because the generation of carbonic acid is in 
 such case slower, and time is given between each 
 movement for the lungs to throw off the quantity 
 conveyed to them by the blood-vessels. 
 
 But even supposing the unaccustomed exercise 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 
 
 17 
 
 to be of a nature which does not produce this 
 particular form of distress, any one “ out of con¬ 
 dition,” as it is termed, is still liable to many 
 other inconveniences, some of which may take a 
 very acute form. A familiar example is found in 
 the case of the man who, without any previous 
 training, leaves his desk and starts off for a 
 walking or cycling tour. He may so regulate his 
 pace as to feel no immediate distress either of 
 lungs or heart, but after his first day’s work 
 (unless it has been extremely small), he will find 
 that, although very tired, he cannot sleep but by 
 fits and snatches. His head aches, his skin is 
 hot and dry, his mouth parched, his whole body 
 full of fever. The next day he gets up stiff in 
 every limb, so that fresh exertion is a positive 
 pain to him. This means that the unaccustomed 
 exercise has charged the blood with other forms 
 of waste in the shape of lactic and uric acid. If 
 he perseveres in his unaccustomed toil, one of two 
 things happens, according to the greater or less 
 amount of his present exertion, and the degree in 
 which he has debilitated himself by previous 
 inactivity. If he has not sunk too far below par, 
 and his present exertions are moderate in degree, 
 the stiffness and other discomforts will gradually 
 pass off by the elimination of the disturbing 
 elements; and he will find himself able to attempt 
 even harder work without inconvenience. In other 
 
HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 words, he is gradually getting into “condition.’ 
 In the opposite case, he will be pulled up short 
 by a sharp attack of gout or rheumatism. And 
 this state of things unfortunately tends to per¬ 
 petuate itself. The inactive man finds himself in 
 a vicious circle, from which it is extremely dif¬ 
 ficult to escape. He has continued so long in 
 his habits of sloth, that the effort to break through 
 them is a positive pain to him, and the longer he 
 so continues, the greater the difficulty becomes. 
 
 Nor is he exempt, though he avoid all active 
 exercise : Nature is not to be eluded. If her laws 
 are outraged, she will exact the penalty ; if not in 
 one way, in another. Gout will find out the 
 self-indulgent man, though he never stir from his 
 easy-chair. Meanwhile, a host of lesser evils, 
 impaired appetite, indigestion, sleeplessness, ner¬ 
 vous irritability, not to mention the many forms 
 of liver and kidney disease ; indeed, half “the ills 
 that flesh is heir to ” lie in wait for the man who, 
 from carelessness or indolence, fails to make due 
 use of the bodily powers with which his Maker 
 has endowed him. 
 
 It would be easy to go much more deeply into 
 this hygienic side of the question, but to do so 
 would be out of place in a popular manual. Any 
 reader who desires more ample information as to 
 this aspect of the matter, will find it discussed in 
 the fullest manner in the treatise of Dr. Lagrange 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 
 
 19 
 
 already mentioned.* We have, however, said 
 enough to enable us to claim as a postulate what 
 is really the text and raison d'etre of this little 
 book, viz. that a sufficiency of bodily exercise is a 
 necessary condition of healthy life,. 
 
 It will however be well, before we pass away 
 from this branch of the subject, to say a few 
 words as to the nature and causes of the special 
 pain which follows continued exertion, and which 
 we call fatigue. The function of fatigue is clear; 
 it is the danger signal against over-exertion. So 
 long as bodily exercise is kept within due limits, 
 i.e., in due proportion to the strength of the 
 subject, fatigue is but transitory, and on the 
 cessation of exertion, speedily disappears. This 
 form of fatigue arises simply from the blood 
 being, as we have seen, temporarily charged 
 with carbonic acid beyond the power of the lungs 
 to eliminate it, and from the heating of the blood, 
 (also a necessary consequence of work) producing 
 a depressing effect upon the nerve-centres. 
 
 But if the warning be disregarded, and the 
 exercise taken be relatively either too long or too 
 violent, fatigue does not come to an end with the 
 cessation of the exercise which caused it, but 
 continues in a more or less acute form, for a 
 considerable period. The circulation of the blood 
 
 * See p t 7. 
 
20 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 falls back to its ordinary rate, the production of 
 carbonic acid is stayed, and its excess excreted by 
 the lungs, while the temperature sinks down to or 
 below its normal level, and yet the sensation of 
 fatigue, in this case known as consecutive fatigue, 
 continues. There is a sensation of fever, prostra¬ 
 tion, general discomfort. These symptoms arise 
 ■from the formation of the waste-products to which 
 we have already adverted, # with which the blood 
 is now charged, and which produce a condition 
 of what is medically known as “ auto-intoxica¬ 
 tion/’ or self-poisoning, and this continues until 
 these waste products are little by little carried by 
 the blood to the kidneys, and thence eliminated 
 from the system. Hence the persistence of 
 consecutive fatigue. Nor does the mischief 
 always end here. If the waste products are too 
 abundant, or the resisting power of the organism 
 insufficient, these noxious substances give rise, 
 by a process of which we are ignorant, to other 
 similar substances, which renew themselves in the 
 blood during many days, and give rise to the 
 fevers of over-work.f 
 
 * See p. 15. 
 
 t Lagrange, Physiology of Bodily Exercise, p. 166. The same 
 writer quotes two cases of pseudo-typhoid fever (so called from its 
 close resemblance to actual typhoid) arising from this cause. Both 
 patients were young men; the one an enthusiastic fencer, had 
 spent six hours daily with the foil in his hand ; while the other had 
 exercised fourhours daily on the horizontal bar. Dr. Lagrange further 
 notes that the occasional outbreaks of typhoid in the army are usually 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 
 
 21 
 
 The foregoing explanation shows the reason 
 why the inactive man is so much more readily 
 fatigued, and remains so so much longer than the 
 man who leads an active life. In the latter case 
 the waste-products are habitually and regularly 
 eliminated from the system. In the former they 
 accumulate, lying quiescent in the inactive muscles 
 till some unaccustomed exertion throws them into 
 the blood, and produces the auto-intoxication, or 
 self-poisoning, to which we have referred. 
 
 The moral is two-fold ; first, that the man who 
 values his health should not allow these insidious 
 foes to increase and multiply in his body, as they 
 surely will, unless he declares habitual war against 
 them ; and secondly, that if they have unhappily 
 gained a footing, a wise caution must be exercised 
 in the process of their expulsion, sudden and 
 violent measures tending to produce an even 
 worse condition than that which they are designed 
 to remedy. 
 
 traceable to spells of general over-work. The researches of other 
 scientists have discovered that there is found in the blood in such 
 cases a specific poison, known as muscarin , closely resembling the 
 poison extracted from certain kinds of fungi. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE VARIOUS FORMS OF EXERCISE. 
 
 The need of exercise, in some form or other, 
 having been established, the next question for 
 consideration is “ What form should such exercise 
 take ? ” 
 
 The most popular forms of exercise, as such, at 
 the present day, are as follows — 
 
 Walking. 
 
 Riding. 
 
 Cycling. 
 
 Running. 
 
 Boxing- and fencing. 
 
 c> o 
 
 To these must be added various out-door 
 games, such as lawn-tennis, cricket, and foot-ball. 
 
 Each of these has its special recommendations, 
 and each finds champions, who are prepared to 
 maintain its virtues against all others. In truth, 
 all are good, but neither perfect as a means 
 of exercise. In the words of Maclaren, “There 
 is no single exercise invented or inventable by 
 man, which gives employment to more than a 
 part of the body, and to a very small part too, 
 
THE VARIOUS FORMS OF EXERCISE. 
 
 23 
 
 when closely examined.”* Let us take walking, 
 for instance. The value of walking as a gymnastic 
 exercise, is sufficiently evidenced by the fact that 
 the oarsman training for a race, or the boxer for a 
 pugilistic encounter, makes it part of his daily 
 work, as one of the chief means of getting into 
 perfect condition. But walking, to be effective, 
 must be done as the rower or boxer does it, not 
 at an idle saunter, but at a smart, springy pace of 
 not less than four miles an hour ; and if walking 
 is the only exercise, not less than nine miles a day 
 should, according to the best authorities in 
 hygiene, be regularly covered to keep the experi¬ 
 menter in good condition. Further, the exercise 
 of walking tends to develop mainly the muscles 
 of the lower limbs, which, under almost any 
 circumstances, get the larger share of work. The 
 chest, (if the yralker attends to position)f profits 
 by the greater amount of work given to the 
 
 * Training in Theory and Practice, p. 21. 
 
 t Much of the value of walking, as an exercise, depends upon 
 the position maintained by the pedestrian. This should be as 
 follows : Head up, chest forward, arms down, shoulders squared. 
 Further, each step should be with a distinct and unmistakable 
 pressure on the ball of the foot as it leaves the ground. This 
 habitual pressure tends more than anything to develop and 
 strengthen the muscles of the calf and front of the thigh, and to 
 make a really good walker. The acquisition of the habit will be 
 found a little fatiguing at first, but once acquired, the pedestrian 
 will be astonished with the ease and speed with which he covers the 
 ground. The pressure referred to should not be enough to lift the 
 body in any perceptible degree, but just sufficient to impel it forward. 
 
24 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 respiratory organs, but the muscles of the arms 
 and shoulders gain little or nothing; and the 
 same may be said of cycling, which, delightful and 
 health-giving as it is, at best only employs a 
 portion of the muscles, and in some cases, from 
 the crouching, round-shouldered position foolishly 
 adopted by the rider, is absolutely prejudicial 
 to the development of the upper part of the 
 body. There is another danger incidental to 
 cycling, in the temptation to attempt distances or 
 rates of speed in excess of the strength of the 
 rider. An eminent authority, Dr. B. W. Richard¬ 
 son, gives a typical example. “ A gentleman, 
 seventy-eight years of age, has started a tricycle. 
 He finds, to his intense surprise, that he can ride 
 from Brighton to Lewes without fatigue; that is 
 about eleven miles. In a few days he discovers 
 that he can go there and back in one day, without 
 fatigue. A few days later he tries to do the same 
 distance against time. He can do it in four 
 hours. But there is a young fellow he knows 
 (who, by the way, is only sixty years younger) 
 who can do it in a little over two hours. Why 
 should he not come near to that mark also ? It is 
 a mere matter of practice and skill. So he does 
 his best, and having no elastic tissue left in him, 
 fitted to give his lungs and blood-vessels due 
 elasticity, he finds himself jarring all over. . 
 
 He cannot get over the ‘jolting’ for a month, 
 
THE VARIOUS FORMS OF EXERCISE. 25 
 
 and dates a good deal of mischief from the jolt¬ 
 ing.” 
 
 In such a case the verdict of most people would 
 be that the elderly cyclist was deservedly 
 punished for his folly. But the incitement to 
 over-exertion may come in much more subtle 
 forms. The cyclist goes a few miles out of his 
 way ; his goal is further off than he anticipated ; 
 the roads are bad and his labour thereby doubled, 
 but he is bound to get home, and by the time he 
 does so, he may find that he has done thirty, 
 forty, or fifty per cent, more work than he had 
 intended. Even to the most moderate rider, 
 there is another risk attendant on cycling, the 
 extent of which few people appreciate. We 
 allude to the frequently recurring temptation to 
 ride a hill too steep or too long for the strength 
 of the rider. As to this we have already, writing 
 as a cyclist for cyclists, sounded a gentle note of 
 warning. “No cyclist should shirk a hill fairly 
 ‘within his powers, for it is by steady perseverance 
 in the face of difficulties that powerful riders are 
 made ; but so soon as the cyclist finds that he 
 cannot proceed without actual distress, and in 
 particular if he is conscious of undue strain upon 
 the heart and lungs, he should at once dismount 
 and walk, pushing his machine before him. And 
 in this matter each must be the judge for himself. 
 The fact that A is able to mount a given hill 
 
26 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 is not the smallest reason that B, perhaps two 
 stone heavier, and mounted on an inferior 
 machine, should be able to do so likewise, and if 
 he persists in making the attempt, he may have 
 grave reason to regret it.”* 
 
 Dr. Herschell, in the little book to which we 
 have already adverted,f after referring to the 
 dangers of racing, gives a similar warning. 
 “ The rider must carefully avoid the temptation 
 which is always present, of rushing the last few 
 yards in climbing a hill. More weak hearts are 
 permanently damaged by this than most people 
 imagine. You are climbing a hill, you are near 
 the summit, a few more strokes are all that are 
 required to enable you to surmount it. But these 
 last few strokes are harder work than any which 
 have preceded them ; your heart’s action is 
 already most probably accelerated, and the extra 
 strain thrown on the overtaxed organ frequently 
 produces serious injury.” 
 
 It will be obvious that these dangers arise from 
 abiise of the sport. But it is equally clear that, 
 in estimating the therapeutic value of cycling, 
 these possible dangers must be taken into con¬ 
 sideration. It must further be remembered that, 
 during a large part of every year, cycling is 
 impracticable for any save the hardiest of riders. 
 
 * Tips for Tricyclists (Warne & Co.). 
 
 t Health Troubles of City Life. See p. 2. 
 
THE VARIOUS FORMS OF EXERCISE. 27 
 
 Horse exercise, though a capital stimulant for 
 the liver, and furnishing sharp work for several 
 sets of muscles, still leaves a large number 
 unemployed. That neither boxing nor rowing, 
 taken alone, affords adequate all-round exercise, 
 is sufficiently proved by the fact, to which we 
 have already adverted, that walking or running 
 forms an essential part of the accepted training of 
 the boxer and the oarsman. Rowing is subject 
 to another drawback, in the fact that, like the 
 “ grasshopper ” style of cycling, it tends to contract 
 the chest. Indeed, it is at best but a partial exer¬ 
 cise. The enthusiastic oarsman may deny this, 
 but the fact is admitted by the best authorities 
 on gymnastics. “ Rowing,” says Maclaren, 
 “gives employment to a portion of the back, more 
 to the loins and hips, and most of all to the legs, 
 but it gives little to the arms, and that little 
 chiefly to the fore-arm, and least of all to the chest. 
 
 . . . The legs have strong employment in 
 
 rowing, but it is the extensor muscles alone which 
 have actual employment; the flexors are compara¬ 
 tively idle ; they perform no exercise, they gain no 
 bulk, they obtain no increase in power.”* The 
 American writer, Blaikie (How To Get Strong , 
 p. 232), testifies to the same effect:— 
 
 “ Rowing,” he says, “ taken as substantially 
 one’s only exercise, as is too often the case with 
 
 * Training in Theory and Practice*^. 18, 19. 
 
2$ 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 rowing men, brings a partial and one-sided 
 development, making the parts used look too 
 large for the rest, the fact being that the rest have 
 not been brought up as fast as the former. 
 Unless one’s chest is unusually broad and strong, 
 and often even if it is, constant rowing warps his 
 shoulders forward, and tends directly to make him 
 a round-shouldered man, while the upper arm, or 
 that part above the elbow, has had practically no 
 development, the inner part of the triceps or back 
 arm alone being called to severe duty, but the 
 bulk being almost idle.” 
 
 Fencing and lawn-tennis, both admirable exer¬ 
 cises in their way, share the drawback that they 
 tend to develop unduly one side of the body to 
 the exclusion of the other, the left arm and 
 shoulder getting by no means their due pro¬ 
 portion of exercise. Fencing, indeed, if indulged 
 in to any considerable extent, has a tendency to 
 produce lateral curvature of the spine, known as 
 fencer s scoliosis. 
 
 Cricket and football need hardly be discussed 
 in the present connection. As recreation for the 
 young, they have their value; somewhat dis¬ 
 counted in the case of cricket by the long 
 intervals of inactivity, and in that of football by 
 the many risks of accidental injury, but no one 
 would seriously put them forward as adequate 
 forms of daily gymnastic exercise. 
 
THE VARIOUS FORMS OF EXERCISE. 
 
 29 
 
 It will have been noted that in each one of the 
 recreations we have mentioned, a part only of the 
 muscular system comes into active operation. 
 But there are further difficulties in the way of 
 their regular employment as hygienic exercises. 
 Fencing, boxing, tennis, all demand an antagonist, 
 and an antagonist is not always available. Walk¬ 
 ing, riding, and cycling, are each “slow” without 
 a companion ; and further demand a considerable 
 daily expenditure of time, if they are to be made 
 really valuable in a hygienic sense. Cycling, in 
 addition, demands for its proper and safe enjoy¬ 
 ment, a complete change of costume before and 
 after the exercise, and the extra time thus occupied 
 is in itself a consideration to a busy man. In a 
 word, the sports we have named, though each 
 delightful in a recreative and valuable in a hygienic 
 sense, fail to “fill the bill” as complete and adequate 
 means of daily exercise. For, be it remembered, 
 to the maintenance of perfect health two re¬ 
 quirements are necessary. The exercises must 
 in the first place be so contrived as to give 
 due employment to every part of the body, 
 and secondly, they must be taken in gentle 
 doses, but with unfailing regularity. Half an 
 hour of quiet easy work, repeated daily for a 
 week, will do certain and unmistakable good, 
 while the same amount of exercise crowded 
 into a single afternoon would, in the case of 
 
30 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 a person out of condition, just as certainly do 
 harm. 
 
 How then is this needful daily stimulus to be 
 procured ? It is clear that it must take a form 
 which shall be always available, involving neither 
 serious loss of time nor any special exertion outside 
 the exercise itself. These conditions bar in the 
 majority of cases the use of the public gymnasium, 
 which is further excluded by the fact that the 
 majority of the exercises there practised are 
 both too violent and too difficult for the class 
 for whom these pages are mainly intended, 
 the class, namely, to whom health, rather than 
 strength, is the chief object of desire. Maclaren 
 has some pregnant remarks on this subject. “ It 
 is health rather than strength that is the great 
 requirement of modern men at modern occupations; 
 it is not the power to travel great distances, carry 
 great burdens, lift great weights, or overcome 
 great material obstructions; it is simply that 
 condition of body, and that amount of vital 
 capacity, which shall enable each man in his place 
 to pursue his calling, and work on in his working 
 life, with the greatest amount of comfort to 
 himself and usefulness to his fellow men. . . . 
 
 Very closely are health and strength connected, 
 but they are not the same, and a man may possess 
 either without the other. For strength may be due 
 to the great force possessed by one system of the 
 
THE VARIOUS FORMS OF EXERCISE. 31 
 
 body, such as the muscular; or great force in one 
 part of the body, such as the trunk or the limbs ; 
 but health is the uniform and regular performance 
 of all the functions of the body, arising from the 
 harmonious action of all its parts—a physical 
 condition implying that all are sound, well-fitting, 
 and well-matched. Young minds do not look far 
 enough into life to see this distinction, or to 
 value it if seen ; they fix their eyes longingly 
 upon strength —upon strength now, and care not 
 for the power to work long, to work well, 
 to work successfully hereafter, which is health. 
 Therefore it is fortunate that the same means 
 which usually give strength give health also ; 
 although the latter may be jeopardised by 
 irregular efforts to maintain the former.”* 
 
 Far be it from us to disparage physical strength, 
 or to undervalue the exercises of the gymnasium. 
 Indeed, we hold that education, to be complete, 
 should include a two years’ course of thorough 
 gymnastic instruction, and that without having 
 undergone such a training, no young man or 
 young woman is fully equipped for the battle of 
 life. But when middle life is reached, it is too late 
 to begin such a course. The body has gained in 
 weight what it has lost in elasticity, and the 
 exercises which are sport to the lad of twenty, 
 
 * Physical Education , p. 24. 
 
32 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 would be a trial, not to say a danger, to his 
 middle-aged progenitor. 
 
 Fortunately, however, the difficulty is easily got 
 over. By the aid of one or two simple and 
 inexpensive appliances scientifically 'used, the man 
 of mature years may obtain all the exercise which 
 health demands in his own dressing-room or study. 
 The nature of such appliances, and the conditions 
 under which they can be employed to the best 
 advantage, will be discussed in later chapters. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HOW AND WHEN TO EXERCISE. ^ 
 
 The time of day at which Home Gymnastics 
 are practised is by no means unimportant in a 
 hygienic sense. The best time, in our own 
 opinion, is immediately on rising in the morning. 
 One advantage of selecting this particular time is 
 that it does not interfere with the other occupa¬ 
 tions of the day. The busiest man can, by rising 
 that much earlier, “make time ” for half an hour’s 
 gymnastic exercise in his bed-chamber or 
 dressing-room. If the neophyte finds, as he may 
 do at the outset, that even light exercise before 
 breaking his fast produces a sinking or exhausted 
 feeling, there is no objection to his munching a 
 biscuit or a crust of bread beforehand, but it will 
 be found that this is very much a question of 
 habit, and if he can dispense with it, so much the 
 better. A brief spell of exercise the last thing 
 before retiring to rest is also valuable, but in this 
 case it should be limited to ten or fifteen minutes, 
 so as to stop just short of fatigue or perspiration. 
 
 If, unhappily the patient is too indolent to take 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 the needful exercise before breakfast, and too 
 fagged at the close of the day to take it before 
 retiring to rest, any other hour may be selected, 
 subject to the qualification that it should not be 
 in any case less than two hours after a meal, and a 
 still longer interval is advisable. For a consider¬ 
 able period after eating, the blood is impelled 
 toward the stomach to aid in the work of diges¬ 
 tion, and if it is diverted therefrom to the muscles 
 (which, as we have seen, is the natural effect of 
 exercise) the process of digestion suffers, and 
 dyspeptic troubles are likely to be the result. 
 
 There is a special convenience in the selection 
 of the early morning as the time for exercise, in 
 the fact that it is in such case naturally and 
 conveniently followed by the morning bath, which 
 forms its hygienic complement. With regard to 
 the precise form the bath should take, much will 
 depend on individual taste and habit. A young 
 and vigorous man may plunge with impunity even 
 into ice-cold water. An older man, of less active 
 circulation, indeed any man who has passed 
 thirty-five or forty, will do wisely to take “ the 
 chill off” before he ventures on his dip. Of late 
 years medical men are chary of advising complete 
 immersion even in the tepid bath as freely as they 
 were wont to do, and in cases of nervous exhaus¬ 
 tion or lack of tone, recommend the “rub- 
 down ” bath in preference. This, which we 
 
HOW AND WHEN TO EXERCISE. 
 
 35 
 
 regard as the bath for the gymnast, is taken as 
 follows :— 
 
 The bather, standing in a few inches of water, 
 warm in winter, tepid or cold in summer, rubs 
 himself vigorously all over with a pair of wetted 
 flesh gloves. The body should be dried with a 
 rough towel, and then again rubbed with a pair 
 of dry gloves. The gloves used for the purpose 
 may be either Cash’s Patent (made of unbleached 
 woven tape), or those known as the Knotted 
 Calefacio* both procurable of any chemist. The 
 latter are, however, only suitable for dry rubbing. 
 In any case each pair of gloves (wet and dry) 
 should be used for its own purpose only, and both 
 gloves and towels should be of flax, not cotton, 
 the latter material losing its “ tooth ” too quickly. 
 Many for wet rubbing prefer the oriental 
 “loofah,” which may be used either in its natural 
 condition —simply split open—or made up into 
 regular rubbers, with a strap across the back 
 wherein to thrust the hand. 
 
 The chief point about the rub-down is that it 
 should be cue rye tic; the friction hard enough to 
 redden the surface of the skin, and every limb 
 receiving its due share of attention. As a com¬ 
 plement to the previous exercise, its effect is 
 
 * The surface of this glove is divided into minute squares like 
 those of a chess-board, of same colour, but rough and smooth 
 alternately. 
 
 D 2 
 
HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 36 
 
 remarkable. All sense of fatigue disappears as if 
 by magic. The skin is no longer moist with 
 perspiration, but glows with a genial warmth. 
 The head feels clearer, the spirits lighter, the 
 whole body full of energy for the coming day’s 
 work. A weekly Turkish bath is a very ex¬ 
 cellent thing, as keeping the skin thoroughly 
 “ clean ” and its pores free from obstruction, but 
 it by no means takes the place of the morning 
 rub-down, neither is it of the smallest use (as 
 some suppose) as a cure for obesity. There is 
 naturally a slight loss of weight during the 
 process of the bath, but unless such loss is main¬ 
 tained by intentional abstinence from liquids after¬ 
 wards (a very unwise proceeding), the lost weight 
 will be regained in the course of a few hours. 
 
 Reverting to our more immediate subject, it 
 may be well to say a word or two as to the clothing 
 most suitable for the practice of Home Gym¬ 
 nastics. The ancient Greeks were wont to per¬ 
 form their athletic exercises, in the words of Hans 
 Breitmann, “mit nodings on,”'" and where climate 
 and other conditions admit, this is undoubtedly 
 the ideal costume for the gymnast. Such a 
 costume, or lack of costume, would be inadmissible 
 for obvious reasons among ourselves, but it is 
 well to get as near it as circumstances permit. In 
 
 * Hcncc the term “gymnastics,” from yv^vos, naked. 
 
HOW AND WHEN TO EXERCISE. 
 
 37 
 
 other words, the clothing should offer the least 
 possible obstruction to the movements of the 
 body, and the least possible impediment to free 
 circulation of the air around it. These conditions 
 are fairly met by the ordinary gymnastic dress, 
 consisting of low-heeled canvas shoes, flannel 
 trousers, secured by a belt at the waist, and a 
 tight-fitting jersey. The only point which might 
 be improved upon in a hygienic sense, is the latter 
 item, which should be woollen, and not cotton, as 
 is usually the case, the former material being more 
 favourable to free transpiration, and involving 
 less liability to chill. Cyclists have long since 
 discovered that woollen is “ your only wear ” for 
 exercise involving copious perspiration, and the 
 sooner gymnasts recognise the same principle, the 
 better it will be for them.'" 
 
 The home gymnast is, of course, not restricted 
 to the conventional garb cf the gymnasium, but 
 may adopt any costume he pleases. In the 
 solitude of his own chamber, he may even revive 
 
 * The only cotton material which can safely be used by athletes 
 is that of the Cellular Clothing Company, 124, London Wall. This, 
 from the peculiar manner in which the fabric is woven, (forming 
 a kind of network, enclosing minute air-cells) has most of the 
 virtues of all-wool, with sundry advantages of its own. It allows 
 the free escape of the exhalations of the body, while the air enclosed 
 in the fabric maintains an equable temperature around it. It is 
 much less expensive than all-wool, and is free from the liability to 
 shrink in washing, which is so serious a drawback to woollen 
 garments. 
 
38 HOME G YMNASTICS. 
 
 the traditions of ancient Greece, or without going 
 to this extreme, a flannel shirt and drawers, or the 
 pyjama suit, now gradually creeping into popular 
 favour, will be found a very satisfactory athletic 
 costume. If the reduction of weight is a special 
 object, a woollen “ sweater ” may be worn in 
 addition, but anything in the nature of coat or 
 jacket should be avoided, as tending to interfere 
 with perfect freedom of movement. 
 
 It is essential that the room in which the 
 exercises take place should be freely ventilated. 
 As has already been pointed out (p. io) a great 
 part of the benefit of exercise arises from the 
 quickened circulation and more perfect oxidation 
 of the blood. To render such oxidation complete, 
 an ample supply of oxygen is needful, and this is 
 only to be obtained by allowing free ingress to 
 the external air. Consequently ( verbuin sap:), 
 keep your windows open when practising. 
 
 With regard to the duration of the daily 
 exercise, no hard and fast line can be laid down. 
 In the early stages of practice it is better to err 
 on the side of doing too little than too much. 
 Chi va piano va sano, and the proverb has no 
 more fitting application than to gymnastic exer¬ 
 cises. A total of ten minutes will be enough to 
 begin with, and this total should be divided 
 between various exercises, so as not to unduly 
 fatigue any one muscle, or set of muscles. At 
 
HOW AND WHEN TO EXERCISE. 
 
 39 
 
 this early stage, the repetition of a given move¬ 
 ment ten times will be found quite sufficient; to 
 be gradually increased, as practice brings facility, 
 to fifty times, which, unless the development of 
 some special muscle is sought, will in most cases 
 be found a sufficient maximum. Rather than 
 continue a given exercise beyond this point, it 
 will be found better to increase the number of 
 exercises, so as to obtain a wider range of effect. 
 Professor Dowd recommends the daily exercise 
 to be continued for an hour, and if a high degree 
 of general muscular development be aimed at, 
 this is not too much ; but if health alone is sought, 
 and strength, as such, made a secondary consider¬ 
 ation, a full half-hour each morning will usually 
 be found sufficient. 
 
 It should however be borne in mind that, to 
 gain the fullest hygienic benefit, three effects 
 should be produced. At the close of the 
 morning’s task the patient should be slightly 
 fatigued, a little out of breath, and gently 
 perspiring. If the suggested half-hour’s work 
 does not produce these effects, either the time 
 should be increased, or more energy put into 
 the work. Five to fifteen minutes may be bene¬ 
 ficially employed in the same way just before 
 retiring to rest, but in this case the exercise 
 should be more gentle, stopping just short of the 
 three effects we have mentioned, 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE MUSCLES OF THE BODY. 
 
 The first step towards an intelligent appre¬ 
 ciation of the exercises we are about to describe, 
 will be to gain an elementary knowledge of the 
 muscular system, and such knowledge may be 
 very readily attained by a careful study of the 
 two plates at the beginning and end of this volume, 
 representing respectively a front and back view 
 of the celebrated Ecorcht of Houdon. 
 
 We must premise, for the information of the 
 non-scientific reader, that space will only permit of 
 our dealing with the principal muscles ; the total 
 number being far too large, and their relations 
 too complicated for explanation in a popular 
 manual like the present. The muscles of the 
 head alone, exclusive of the neck, are about forty 
 in number, even so little mobile an organ as the 
 nose having no less than fourteen (seven on 
 either side) employed in its service. When we 
 consider the almost infinite varieties of move¬ 
 ment of which the human frame is capable, and 
 
THE MUSCLES OF THE BODY. 
 
 4 ' 
 
 that so small an act as picking up a pin employs, 
 more or less, muscles in every part of the body, 
 we cease to wonder at the complexity of its 
 mechanism. With the minor muscles, however, 
 we have, for our present purpose, no concern. # 
 Many of them, indeed, are but subdivisions or 
 branches of larger muscles, their function being 
 to modify, in some special manner, the effect of 
 the contraction of the main body. These gain 
 incidental development from the exercise of the 
 larger muscles, and with the latter alone, there¬ 
 fore, it will be needful here to deal. 
 
 Beginning at the neck, we have (1), the Sterno- 
 cleido-mastoid muscles, one on either side. These, 
 working in opposition, move the head from side 
 to side; in conjunction, they tilt it forward. A 
 little more to the rear of the neck, but hidden by 
 the Trapezius (hereafter referred to), behind which 
 they pass perpendicularly downwards, are the 
 pair of muscles known as Levatores Anguli 
 Scapula, which lift the shoulder-blades in the act 
 of shrugging the shoulders. Covering the 
 shoulder, we have (2) the Deltoid , so called from 
 its triangular form, which gives it a fanciful 
 
 * Professor Dowd gives exercises even for developing the 
 contour of the face—for filling out a hollow cheek, and improving 
 defective smile. Into these regions we have not ventured to follow 
 him. Even he, however, only deals with but a small part of the 
 total number of muscles. 
 
42 
 
 HOME G YMNA S TICS. 
 
 resemblance to the Delta (A) or Greek D. This 
 muscle consists of three masses or divisions, 
 with different attachments, and serves to raise the 
 arm, either straight up above the head, or to the 
 front or rear, according as one or the other portion 
 of the muscle is in more active contraction.*' 
 
 Covering the upper part of the chest, we have 
 (3) Pectoralis Major , the great pectoral muscle. 
 It will be seen that the muscle on either side is 
 fan-shaped, tapering to a point at its junction 
 with the shoulder. This muscle draws the arm 
 across the chest, either horizontally, or above or 
 below the horizontal plane, according as the 
 middle, higher or lower portion of the muscle is 
 in the more active operation.'!' In connection 
 with this, may be mentioned Pectoralis Minor; a 
 smaller muscle, which depresses the point of the 
 shoulder, and raises the ribs in forced inspiration. 
 
 Passing to the arm, we have, in front of the 
 upper arm (4) the Biceps Cubiti, more shortly 
 
 * It follows, that to give this muscle its fullest possible develop¬ 
 ment, it must be duly exercised in all three directions. The same 
 principle applies wherever a given muscle has a double or alterna¬ 
 tive function. 
 
 f The motive power of the flight of birds is derived from this 
 muscle, which in their case attains an extraordinary degree of 
 development. The perforates of the swallow, for instance, are 
 said to exceed in weight all the other muscles of the bird taken 
 together, 
 
THE MUSCLES OF THE BODY. 
 
 43 
 
 known as the Biceps, which co-operates with (5) 
 Brachialis Anticus to flex the arm at the elbow, 
 while (6) the Triceps and its continuation beyond 
 the elbow [Anconeus) extend the fore-arm.** 
 
 Passing now down the front of the fore-arm, 
 we have— 
 
 (7) Supinator Radii Longus. 
 
 (8) Pronator Radii Teres. 
 
 These are antagonistic muscles, the Supinator 
 turning the palm upward, while the Pronator 
 turns it downward. 
 
 (9) Flexor Carpi Radialis. 
 
 (10) Flexor Carpi Ulnar is. 
 
 These two muscles serve to flex the wrist, 
 while (n), Palmaris Longus, assists in flexing the 
 wrist and elbow, and makes tense the palm. 
 
 (12) Flexor Pollicis Longus , as its name denotes, 
 flexes the thumb, while (13) Flexor Sublimis Digi- 
 torum performs the same office for the fingers. 
 
 Passing round to the back of the arm, we come 
 upon a group of Extensor muscles, as under— 
 
 * It should be noted that the muscles which bend a limb {flexors) 
 will be found on its inner side; all muscles which extend a limb, 
 C extensors ) on its outer side. The remembrance of this fact will be 
 of material aid in tracing the position of a given muscle on the 
 diagram. The reference number indicates the position of the 
 body or thickest part of the muscle, but it may take its origin 
 at some distance from this point. Thus many of the muscles 
 shown as in the forearm really originate at the shoulder. 
 
44 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 (14) Extensor Pollicis —extending the thumb. 
 
 (15) Extensor Communis Digitorum, extending 
 the finders. 
 
 Co 
 
 (16) Extensor Carpi Radialis, and 
 
 (17) Extensor Carpi Ulnar is, extending (i. e., 
 bending outward), the wrist. 
 
 Returning now to the trunk : below the armpit, 
 and covering the upper ribs, we have (18) the 
 saw-like muscle known as Serratus Magnus, 
 which serves to throw the shoulder forward in 
 the act of pushing or thrusting. In front of the 
 body we have (19) Obliquus Externus Abdominis , 
 which co-operates with Obliquus Interims Ab¬ 
 dominis, and (20) Rectus Abdominis to compress 
 the abdominal viscera, and flex the chest on the 
 stomach in various directions. 
 
 In the rear of the trunk, we specially note (21) 
 the Trapezius, a broad flat muscle in shape not 
 unlike a boy’s kite; attached at top to the base of 
 the skull, at its lower extremity to the dorsal 
 vertebrae, and spreading laterally from the ver¬ 
 tebral column towards the shoulder-blades. Its 
 function is to draw the head backward and the 
 shoulder-blades together, (thereby expanding the 
 chest); it also raises the shoulders.* The 
 
 There are frequently several muscles which take part in 
 producing or modifying, a given movement, but in an elementary 
 
THE MUSCLES OF THE BODY. 
 
 45 
 
 Scalenus muscles, of which there are three pairs 
 (Anticus, Medius, and Posticus ), flex the neck 
 laterally, or raise the upper ribs. Levator Anguh 
 Scapula raises the shoulder-blades, while Rhoni- 
 boideus Major and Minor draw them upwards 
 and backwards. (22) Latissimus Dor si (a broad 
 muscle, occupying much of the space between arm- 
 pit and hip) serves to draw the arm downwards 
 and backwards, and to depress the shoulders. If 
 the shoulders be kept rigid, it raises the lower 
 ribs. Crossing this muscle in a transverse direc¬ 
 tion, but farther from the surface, lies the 
 Longissimus Dorsi, antagonistic to the Rectus 
 Abdominis, and serving to straighten the upper 
 portion of the spine, while the Erector Spince and 
 Sacro-lumbalis do the same for the lower part of 
 the spine, and hollow the back.* * Just behind the 
 upper arm, are (23) Teres Major, (24) Teres Minor , 
 and (25) Infraspinatus, the former co-operating 
 with Latissimus Dorsi, the two latter rotating 
 the shoulder-joint outwards. 
 
 Passing downwards, still in the rear, beyond the 
 
 sketch of this kind, it is impossible to notice more than those 
 principally concerned. Conversely, many muscles have some 
 secondary function, in addition to that here indicated. 
 
 * There are several other muscles which take part in the erection 
 of the spine, but they are mostly deep-seated, and would require 
 additional diagrams to show their position. It is therefore hardly 
 worth while to enumerate them. They will be referred to under 
 the general description of E recto res ■ Spin cc . 
 
46 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 hip-joint, we have (26) Gluteus Maximus, the 
 great muscle which forms the buttock, and whose 
 function is to extend and abduct " the thigh, and 
 rotate it outwards; co-operating also with the 
 Erectores Spines to keep the trunk erect. 
 
 In front of the thigh we have (27) Rectus 
 Femoris, (28) Vastus Externus, (29) Vastus I11- 
 ternus, and Crureus, t together forming the mass of 
 muscle known as the Quadriceps Extensor, and 
 serving to extend the leg. Whilst the (30) Pec- 
 tineus, helps to flex the thigh, and rotate it out¬ 
 wards. Crossing the front of the thigh in an 
 oblique direction is (31) Sarlorius (‘‘the tailor’s 
 muscle ”) serving to flex and cross the legs. 
 Adductor Brevis (32), Adductor Longtis (33) and 
 Gracilis (34) adduct and flex the leg, while 
 Adductor Magnus, a deeper muscle, below 
 Gracilis, in conjunction with Pectincus (see above) 
 adducts and rotates it outwards. 
 
 In the rear of the thigh and antagonistic to the 
 Quadriceps Extensor, we have (35) Biceps 
 Femoris , which, aided by (36) Semi-tendinosus and 
 (37) Semi-membranosus, flexes the leg at the knee. 
 35 also rotates the leg outwards, and 37 inwards. 
 
 * To abduct, in physiology, is to move a limb in a different direc¬ 
 tion to that of the axis of the body. To adduct is to bring it back 
 again. 
 
 t Vastus Interims and Crureus form practically one muscle only, 
 and are usually treated as such. 
 
THE MUSCLES OF THE BODY. 
 
 47 
 
 The calf of the leg is formed by the combination 
 of three muscles; (38) Gastrocnemius, (39) Soleus 
 and (40) Plantaris —serving to extend the foot, 
 as in walking. The two former unite at their 
 lower extremity to form (41) the Tendo A chillis* 
 making the connection with the heel-bone. (42) 
 Tibialis Anticus flexes the ankle-joint, and 
 elevates the inner edge of the foot, while (43) 
 Peroneus Longus and (44) Peroncus Brevis ex¬ 
 tend the foot. 
 
 The muscles of the foot, serving to flex, ex¬ 
 tend, abduct, and adduct the toes, are very 
 numerous, but these, for our present purpose, it is 
 hardly necessary to specify. 
 
 In addition to the various muscles shown in 
 our illustrations, must be mentioned the Dia¬ 
 phragm or Midriff, a dome-shaped muscle, lying 
 between chest and stomach, and being the muscle 
 chiefly concerned in the act of inspiration. When 
 the diaphragm contracts, its arch becomes flatter, 
 
 * This tendon will under ordinary circumstances bear a direct 
 tension of 1,000 lbs., but is nevertheless very liable to be ruptured 
 by a sudden strain, more particularly in the case of persons past 
 middle life, who have not by regular exercise kept the tissues in 
 good condition. We have known the Tendo Achillis snap in the 
 course of a game of lawn tennis. The sensation at the moment is 
 said to be as if the calf of the leg had been struck by a stone. This 
 is followed by absolute powerlessness of the limb, and the only 
 remedy is rest in a recumbent position till the healing power of 
 nature has again united the severed fibres. 
 
43 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 and the cavity of the chest being thereby en¬ 
 larged, air rushes in to supply the vacuum, and so 
 fills the lungs.* 
 
 * As already stated the above must be regarded as a mere 
 rudimentary sketch of the muscular system. Many of the 
 muscles lie one above another, and a very large number of 
 diagrams would be needed to shew the position and course of each. 
 Thus Levator Angiili Scapulce and Rhomboideus Major and 
 Minor (see p. 45), occupy in part the same area as the Trapezius , 
 and to have endeavoured to indicate their position by numbers on 
 the diagrams we have given, would have only led to confusion. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 
 
 The appliances of the Home Gymnasium need 
 be neither numerous nor costly. Even a single 
 pair of dumb-bells may be made to serve the 
 purpose. There are more modern and in some 
 respects more effective appliances, which will be 
 discussed hereafter, but a pair of dumb-bells, 
 properly used, will afford all the exercise absolutely 
 needful for health, and at the same time produce, 
 with perseverance, a very fair degree of muscular 
 development. But the proper use of dumb-bells 
 is much more the exception than the rule. With 
 a vague idea of improving his biceps (the only 
 muscle which is in most cases taken into con¬ 
 sideration at all) a man purchases a pair of dumb¬ 
 bells—usually much too heavy for him—swings 
 them about, without any definite system, for a 
 longer or shorter period, and finding little or no 
 benefit from the process, finally gives them up as 
 “no good.” This is the experience of probably 
 nine out of ten self-taught users of the “bells,’ 
 
5 ° 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 and it is therefore scarcely to be wondered at that 
 they give them up in disgust. 
 
 The proper use of the dumb-bells can hardly be 
 called a science, but to be effective it must be 
 based on scientific principles, and if such principles 
 are fairly understood, there is little fear that the 
 exercises will be found uninteresting. If the 
 student is simply told, without any reason 
 assigned, to move his arm in a particular manner, 
 it is not surprising that he soon becomes tired of 
 doing so.- But if he has been made to understand 
 
 Fig. i. 
 
 that moving the arm in the manner indicated 
 produces an immediate definite effect in the 
 contraction of a given muscle, and that such 
 contraction, repeated sufficiently often, produces 
 other effects, less immediate, but equally certain, 
 in the development of that muscle, and incident¬ 
 ally in the improved health and the better working 
 of his whole frame, the habit of watching for and 
 noting such effects will speedily deprive the work 
 of any irksomeness. 
 
 The dumb-bell, in one form or another, has been 
 in use from very remote times. It was known even 
 
DUMB-BELLS- AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 51 
 
 to the ancient Greeks, though the dumb-bell of 
 their day differed a good deal in shape from that 
 of our own, taking the forms of a crescent, with its 
 ends either united by a transverse bar, or termi¬ 
 nating in round knobs. The annexed diagrams 
 illustrate the most approved forms of the modern 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 dumb-bell, Figs. 1 & 2 in iron, Fig. 3 in polished 
 wood, which for very light dumb-bells (say 2 lbs. 
 and under) is the preferable material. 
 
 The iron dumb-bell (which is the more fre¬ 
 quently used) may be either of the bare metal, 
 (as shown in Fig. 1) or covered with leather, 
 preferably cowhide, as depicted in Fig. 2. 
 
 In the former case its price ranges from two¬ 
 pence per pound, in the latter it is about six-pence 
 per pound. With the handles alone covered, 
 dumb-bells may be had at three-pence per pound, 
 
 E 2 
 
 U. OF ILL' UB. 
 
52 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 or with wooden handles at a slight advance on 
 that price. The naked iron handle strikes some¬ 
 what cold to the hands, but in other respects it is 
 immaterial which is used. 
 
 The weight is a point of much greater import¬ 
 ance. Formerly the fashion was in favour of 
 heavy dumb-bells, and gymnasts were accustomed 
 to work with the heaviest weights they could 
 conveniently lift. Muscular development was 
 gained thereby, but it was at the expense of 
 agility, for the movements with such ponderous 
 masses were necessarily slow, and the muscles, 
 accustomed to slow and laborious contraction, 
 became thereby unfitted for rapid movement.* 
 There is a further drawback incidental to the use 
 of very heavy dumb-bells, in the constant liability 
 to “strain.” The evils of too heavy dumb-bells 
 being at last recognised, the tide of popular opinion 
 set in the opposite direction, and it became 
 the fashion to use either bells of only nominal 
 
 * Some of the more laborious exercises of the gymnasium, if 
 practised to the exclusion of lighter work, have the same tendency. 
 Professor Dowd ( Physical Culture, p. 48) gives an instance of a 
 pupil who had practised the feats of drawing himself up with the 
 hands to the horizontal bar, and of u sinking” between the parallel 
 bars, till he could perform each an unusual number of times. Both 
 feats belong to the ABC of gymnastics, but they involve great 
 muscular effort, as the arms have to lift the whole weight of the 
 body, and the practice of them had made his muscles so slow in 
 action, that he could only strike about thirty blows from the 
 shoulder in the same number of seconds, while an ordinarily active 
 man will strike about three times that number, 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 53 
 
 weight, or none at all, as in the ‘‘free ” exercises 
 of the Swedish or “ Ling ” School, in which the 
 pupil is entirely empty-handed. # We have no 
 desire to undervalue exercises which have unques¬ 
 tionably done much good, and which are still used 
 with advantage, as preparatory exercises, both in the 
 army and in the gymnasium, but we cannot resist 
 the conviction that, used alone, they represent much 
 waste of time, inasmuch as the same amount of 
 benefit might, by the use of suitable apparatus, be 
 obtained far more quickly. Maclaren puts the 
 rationale of the matter very forcibly. “ Besides 
 muscular movement, true exercise possesses 
 another ingredient, which may be termed 
 resistance. The voluntary muscles are made to 
 do more than merely to move the parts to which 
 they are attached. Man is placed on the earth to 
 labour, to toil, to overcome and to remove 
 material obstacles innumerable. Everything 
 which floats upon the ocean or is built upon the 
 land is the work of his hands—in simple fact has 
 been created by the contractions of his voluntary 
 muscles ; these muscles were made therefore not 
 merely to enable him to move, but to do this and 
 carry his burden too. They were made in their 
 
 * Now largely adopted, and with great advantage, in our Board 
 Schools. We hold, however, that the use of light apparatus would 
 produce effects yet more beneficial. There are some few exercises 
 for which apparatus cannot usefully be employed. These will be 
 separately treated. 
 
54 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 action to encounter and overcome resistance in 
 every movement ; and being created for this, 
 their health and strength will be developed and sus¬ 
 tained in proportion to the fidelity with which this 
 theirdesign is remembered and observed. Exercise, 
 which is voluntary labour, must resemble actual 
 labour in all its physical essentials, if it be desired 
 to obtain from it the physical advantages which 
 actual labour bestows. Without resistance there 
 can be no full demand for muscular contraction, no 
 full call for material disintegration; no full require¬ 
 ment therefore for material exercise involving pro¬ 
 portionate increase of bulk and power; for, as we 
 have seen, the strength of the body, and of each 
 part of the body, is in relation to its youth or 
 newness.” * 
 
 The truth that exercise, to be effective, must 
 represent some weight lifted, some obstacle over¬ 
 come, seems almost too obvious to need serious 
 argument, indeed, it has been acknowledged from 
 the earliest times. “So fight I, not as one that 
 beateth the air,” says sturdy old Paul, and the modern 
 
 * Physical Education, p. u. There is another advantage in the 
 use of some form of apparatus, from what may be called the moral 
 point of view. There is a feeling of irksomeness attached to all 
 unproductive labour, and unless the experimenter keeps resolutely 
 in view the ultimate goal of his exertions, in the increase of health 
 and strength which will surely if slowly result from them, he is apt 
 to get weary of lifting a weight or pulling a cord day after day, with 
 no immediate gain to show for it. But this “ labour wasted J7 
 feeling is far stronger in the case of “ empty-handedexercises. 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 55 
 
 pugilist follows his example. He is not content 
 to spar with an imaginary opponent, but for lack 
 of a better antagonist, will even pummel a sack of 
 bran, and with all the force he can put into the 
 operation. The supposed analogy of walking, 
 running, and dancing,—all exercises of undoubted 
 value,—is sometimes put forward as an argument 
 in favour of free exercises. But the two cases 
 are not parallel, for there is in the exercises 
 above-named a very material element of resis¬ 
 tance in the weight of the body itself, which is 
 lifted more or less at every step. 
 
 In this, as in most cases, the “ golden mean ” is 
 the object to be sought. The dumb-bell should 
 neither be so heavy as to preclude rapid and 
 energetic movement, nor so light as to add 
 practically nothing to the work done by the mere 
 movement of the limb. As to the precise weight 
 to be used, authorities differ. Professor Dowd 
 recommends, for a fairly strong man, dumb-bells 
 of five to eight pounds each. The general 
 tendency, however, is at present in favour of the 
 use of much lighter weights, some authorities 
 regarding even two-pound bells as heavy enough 
 for adult use. This is going to the opposite 
 extreme. It should be borne in mind that 
 -—given equal strength and condition — the 
 heavier the man, the heavier the weight he can 
 handle without inconvenience. The most satis- 
 
56 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 factory rule, in our own opinion, is that the pair 
 of bells, for ordinary use, should weigh ap¬ 
 proximately one twentieth as much as the user. 
 Thus a twelve-stone man would use a pair of 
 4 lb. bells, a nine-stone man a pair of three- 
 pounders, and so on. Be it remembered, how¬ 
 ever, that we are here considering only the 
 attainment of health and general muscular 
 development. Where the development of the 
 muscles of the arm is specially aimed at, heavier 
 bells, say up to eight or ten pounds, may be used 
 with advantage, and bells of like weight for 
 certain lifting exercises. 
 
 With these heavier bells, however, the move¬ 
 ments must be made slowly and deliberately, and 
 as already stated, the tendency of such slow and 
 laboured movements is to increase strength at the 
 expense of agility. Better all-round results are 
 produced by lighter weights and quicker motions. # 
 
 Coming now to the consideration of the par¬ 
 ticular movements to be preferred, we may 
 
 * The training of horses furnishes a familiar example. Use a 
 horse for heavy cart-work, and he will develope big powerful 
 muscles, but will never exceed a very moderate rate of speed. Jf 
 on the other hand you wish to make him a fast trotter, ^ou 
 habitually run him in the lightest trap obtainable. In the case of 
 the race-horse, in which all else is sacrificed to speed, he carries no 
 more than saddle, bridle, and jockey, and the weight of these is 
 reduced to the lowest possible limit. Each animal is what his train¬ 
 ing makes him. The race-horse can no more do the work of the 
 cart-horse, than the cart horse that of the racer. 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 57 
 
 remark that the dumb-bell extensions, practised 
 eti masse in the gymnasium, are by no means 
 equally suitable for home use. These are usually 
 arranged more for prettiness of appearance than 
 with reference to the amount of exercise to be 
 obtained from them. In an approved series 
 of such exercises, which lies before us, the first 
 five consist of the movement known as “ twisting ” 
 the bells, i.e., making with them a half-turn of the 
 wrist to right and left alternately. The gymnast 
 stands at the outset with the arms hanging down 
 by the sides, and at the word of command twists 
 the bells eight times, first outwards and then 
 inwards towards the body. At the word “change” 
 he is to make a right turn on the heel, bring up 
 the elbows to his sides, and repeat the twisting 
 movement (eight times more) in that position. 
 This done he is to make another right turn (so as 
 to turn his back on the point which he faced at 
 starting), to extend his arms outwards and side¬ 
 ways level with the shoulder, and repeat the 
 twisting movement in that position. For Exercise 
 4 he is directed to make another right turn, raise 
 the arms perpendicularly above the head, and 
 repeat the twisting movement in that position. 
 For Exercise 5 he is to make a final “right turn,” 
 (bringing him to the position in which he started) 
 to extend the arms horizontally in front of him, 
 and repeat the twisting movement as before. 
 
5S 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 Such a series of movements, neatly executed 
 by a trained squad (with or without musical 
 accompaniment) have no doubt a very pretty 
 appearance, but so far as practical effect is 
 concerned, the greater part of what may be 
 called the “ variations ” might just as well be 
 omitted. The successive facings to the right are 
 absolutely useless, and the successive alterations 
 of the position of the arms very nearly so ; the 
 essence of the exercise lying in the “ twisting ” 
 movement, which developes the pronator and 
 supinator muscles of the fore-arm. For all 
 practical purposes the same effect would be at¬ 
 tained by the repetition of the twist” the same 
 number of times in one position, say that of 
 Exercise 3, where the extended position of the 
 arms throws a little work, in addition, on the 
 deltoid muscle. There is of course no harm in 
 the pupil varying the position of the arms as 
 described, but the so doing in exact order involves 
 a needless effort of memory, and further tends 
 to make him imagine that he has done more real 
 work than is actually the case.* 
 
 * Such “ fancy” movements are quite in place in the gymnasium, 
 where they serve as introductory to, or interludes between, more 
 arduous exercises. The point we desire to enforce is that they are 
 unsuitable for “ home ” gymnastics, wherein it is important to employ 
 a limited time to the best possible advantage, or in other words to 
 get the maximum of practical effect out of each movement made. 
 
DUMB-BELLS ■ AND EXERCISES THERE WITH. 59 
 
 Upon the assumption that, as will be the case 
 in most instances, the time available each day for 
 Home Gymnastics is limited, it will be desirable 
 so to arrange the course of exercises that each 
 shall employ not merely a single muscle or group 
 of muscles,* but several, so that the benefit shall 
 be distributed as widely as possible. Such 
 movements may either be made concurrently, or 
 in immediate succession, i.e. without bringing 
 back the body in the meantime to its original 
 position. 
 
 POSITION. 
 
 It is very important that the novice should 
 assume a correct position at starting, as not only 
 the “ finishof his exercises, but much of their 
 effect, will depend upon attention to this 
 particular. He should stand perfectly erect, 
 heels together, feet forming a right angle, head 
 and chin drawn back, shoulders square, chest 
 forward and stomach retracted just the 
 
 * By a group of muscles, we mean such as co-operate to produce 
 a particular movement. Thus the biceps flexor cubiti and 
 brachialis anticus co-operate to flex the forearm ; and the four 
 muscles conjointly known as;the quadriceps extensor, to extend the 
 leg at the knee. These may therefore be appropriately described 
 as “ groups of muscles.” 
 
 t There will be found at the outset, particularly in stout persons, 
 a tendency to thrust the stomach forward. This tendency (which, 
 by the way, is increased by the use of unduly heavy dumb-bells) 
 
6o 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 position, in fact, of a soldier standing at “atten¬ 
 tion.” The arms should hang straight down by 
 the sides, a dumb-bell in each hand, the axis of 
 the dumb-bell horizontal and lying from back to 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 front, as shown in Fig. 4. To avoid repetition, 
 this will henceforth be referred to as the position 
 of Attention. 
 
 must be stedfastly resisted. Until the correct position is fully 
 acquired, it will be found useful to practise in front of a cheval- 
 glass, so that any deviation may be at once noted and corrected. 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 61 
 
 EXERCISES. 
 
 Exercise A.—This being, like many others 
 here described, an exercise consisting of two or 
 three distinct movements, worked in combination, 
 it may be convenient, for the 
 sake of clearness, to describe such 
 movements separately. 
 
 First Movement .—Starting from 
 Attention, raise the arms, keeping 
 them stiff at the elbow, till they 
 meet above the head. As they 
 rise, they should be turned slightly 
 inwards, so that when the bells 
 meet above the head they shall 
 be in a straight line, end to end 
 (as in Fig. 5). Again lower them 
 to the posture cf Attention. 
 
 Both movements should be 
 executed slowly and deliberately, 
 the bells not being allowed to 
 fall by their own weight, as they 
 have a natural tendency to do. 
 value of the exercises here described will be lost, 
 unless the arm resists the weight in downward 
 movements, as it- of necessity does in upward 
 movements. 
 
 This exercise strengthens the deltoid muscles 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 
 Much of the 
 
62 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 (see p. 41) and renders the shoulders more 
 shapely. The slight twisting movement of the 
 arnjs also exercises, in some small degree, the 
 muscles which rotate the fore-arm. 
 
 We now proceed to the Second Movement. 
 Standing at Attention, and keeping the arms 
 motionless at the sides, rise as 
 high as possible on the ball of 
 the foot (Fig. 6), and sink down 
 again, repeating as long as you 
 can comfortably do so. This 
 alternate rising and falling move¬ 
 ment necessitates vigorous con¬ 
 traction of the “calf” muscles 
 (gastrocnemius and soleus , see p. 
 47). The extensor muscles of 
 the toes participate to some 
 extent in the benefit. 
 
 The two movements above de¬ 
 scribed, as will be seen, each exer¬ 
 cise mainly a single group of 
 muscles. In the first the arms 
 are employed, but the legs are idle. In the 
 second, the leg muscles are hard at work, but the 
 arms are idle, and supposing that three minutes 
 .were devoted to each exercise, six minutes in all 
 would have been expended. But there is nothing 
 to prevent our working both movements simul- 
 
 Fig. 6. 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 63 
 
 taneously, when both sets of muscles will have 
 received their quota of exercise, and three minutes 
 of time will have sufficed for both. 
 
 The exercise may, however, be made still more 
 effective. Instead of leaving the breath to take 
 care of itself, inhale strongly as you raise the 
 arms, and exhale strongly as you lower them, 
 keeping exact time with the movement.* 
 
 * All persons should cultivate the habit of inspiration and 
 expiration through the nostrils only , the mouth being kept closed. 
 There are many advantages in this. The process of respiration is 
 rendered more deliberate, and the power of holding the breath is 
 increased. The fauces are kept moist instead of getting dry and 
 parched (every wheelman knows the comfort of this in cycling); 
 and lastly, the minute hairs which line the nostril act as a natural 
 “ respirator,” excluding not only dust, but any bacillic germs which 
 may be floating in the atmosphere, and which if admitted into the 
 system might do injury. 
 
 There is a valuable but little-known work by George Catlin, 
 the American traveller, which deals specially with this subject. It 
 bears the quaint title Shut yoitr Mouth and Save your Life . 
 (Triibner & Co., London, 4th Edition, 1870.) Mr. Catlin advises 
 as follows :—(p. 86). 
 
 “ Keep your mouth shut when you read, when you write , when 
 you listen , when you are in pain , when you are walking , \Vhen you 
 are running ; when you are riding , and by all means when you are 
 angry. There is no person but will find, and acknowledge, im¬ 
 provement in health and enjoyment from even a temporary atten¬ 
 tion to this advice.’ , He goes on further to say, (p. 91)—“ If I 
 were to endeavour to bequeath to posterity the most important 
 motto which human language can convey, it should be in three 
 words— 
 
 “Shut—your—Mouths 
 
 The especial object of the book is to inculcate the closing of the 
 mouth during sleep . Mr. Catlin noted that among the North 
 American Indians the mothers always carefully closed the mouths 
 of their sleeping infants. The habit thus formed is maintained 
 
64 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 Inhaling and exhaling the breath as above 
 indicated have a very beneficial effect in expand- 
 
 through life, and to it Mr. Catlin attributes the singular freedom 
 of the Indian tribes (in their natural state) from decayed teeth, 
 nightmare, diseases of the lungs, and many other disorders that 
 more civilised flesh is heir to. As we have seen, however, his 
 teaching is by no means limited to the hours of sleep; and he 
 adduces sound philosophic reason for his recommendations. He 
 tells us, with ample warrant : 
 
 “The mouth of man, as well as that of the brutes, was made for 
 the reception and mastication of food for the stomach, and other 
 purposes ; but the nostrils, with their delicate and fibrous linings 
 for purifying and warming the air in its passage, have been 
 mysteriously constructed and designed to stand guard over the 
 lungs—to measure the air and equalise its draughts during the 
 hours of repose. 
 
 “ The atmosphere is nowhere pure enough for man's breathing 
 until it has passed this mysterious refining process ; and therefore 
 the imprudence and danger of admitting it in an unnatural way, in 
 double quantities, upon the lungs, and charged with the surround¬ 
 ing epidemic or contagious infections of the moment. 
 
 “The impurities of the air which are arrested by the intricate 
 organisation and mucus in the nose are thrown out again from its 
 interior barriers by the returning breath ; and the tingling excite¬ 
 ment of the few which pass them cause the muscular involutions 
 of sneezing, by which they are violently and successfully resisted. 
 
 “ The air which enters the lungs is as different from that which 
 enters the nostrils as distilled water is different from the water in 
 an ordinary cistern or frog-pond. The arresting and purifying- 
 process of the nose upon the atmosphere, with its poisonous 
 ingredients, passing through it, is not less distinct, nor less 
 important, than that of the mouth, which stops cherry-stones and 
 fish-bones from entering the stomach. . . . 
 
 “Infinitesimal insects also, not visible to the naked eye, are 
 inhabiting every drop of water we drink and every breath of air 
 we breathe, and minute particles of vegetable substances, as well 
 as of poisonous minerals, and even glass and silex, which float 
 imperceptibly in the air, are discovered coating the respiratory 
 organs of man ; and the class of birds which catch their food in 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THERE IVLTIL. 65 
 
 ing the chest, and strengthening the muscles 
 {s err at us posticus superior and inferior , the 
 intercostals, and the diaphragm ) which take part 
 in the act of respiration.'" 
 
 Reverting to our exercise, we may, instead of 
 bringing the dumb-bells up end to end, as shown 
 in Fig. 5, bend the wrists smartly downward and 
 inward as they reach the highest point, so as to 
 bring the bells upright and parallel, as shown in 
 Fig. 7. In commencing the descent, make a 
 sharp outward movement of the wrists in the 
 
 the open mouth as they fly, receive these things in quantities, even 
 in the hollow of their bones, where they are carried and lodged by 
 the currents of air. 
 
 ‘‘Against the approach of these things to the lungs and the eye, 
 Nature has prepared the guard of the mucous and organic arrange¬ 
 ments, calculated to resist their progress. Were it not for the 
 liquid in the eye, arresting, neutralizing, and carrying out the 
 particles of dust communicated through the atmosphere, man 
 would soon become blind ; and but for the mucus in his nostrils, 
 absorbing and carrying off the poisonous particles and effluvia for 
 the protection of the lungs and the brain, mental derangement, 
 consumption of the lungs, and death would ensue.* . 
 
 The gymnast may at first find some little difficulty in breathing 
 through the nostrils only. The novice feels as if he could not, in 
 the time available, take in a sufficient supply of air through so 
 narrow a channel ; but this feeling will quickly disappear, and the 
 habit, once formed, will be a material assistance towards the 
 acquirement of the still greater desideratum—breathing through the 
 nostrils only during sleep. 
 
 * So far as we are aware, Professor Dowd alone, among writers 
 on this subject, lays sufficient stress on the extreme importance of 
 the management of the breath in gymnastic exercises. We are 
 indebted to his work, Physical Culture for Home and School, for 
 many valuable suggestions in this particular. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 Opposite direction. This affords good exercise 
 for the muscles of the wrists, the dexores carpi 
 ulnar is and radialis. 
 
 In this combination of movements, which toge¬ 
 ther form Exercise A., we have thus four sets of 
 muscles simultaneously employed, with no greater 
 expenditure of time than would be required for 
 one only. The gain is obvious. Wherever, in the 
 exercises which follow, similar combinations are 
 practicable, we have endeavoured to make them. 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 67 
 
 Exercise B. —Standing as before at “ Atten¬ 
 tion,” raise the arms (keeping them rigid at the 
 elbows) straight out in front of the body, continu¬ 
 ing the movement till they point vertically 
 upwards, as shown in Fig. 8 ; then lower them to 
 their original position. This exercise deepens 
 the chest, and strengthens the deltoid and scalenus 
 muscles. But its effect may 
 be greatly enhanced by bend¬ 
 ing the body (see Fig. 9) in 
 the act of lowering the arms, 
 so that the dumb-bells shall 
 be made to touch or almost 
 touch the instep ; and then 
 rising again to the position 
 shown in Fig. 8. The abdo¬ 
 minal muscles, the erector 
 muscles of the neck and 
 spine, with the longissimus 
 dorsi, now take part in the exercise, and if the 
 gymnast inspires strongly as the body rises, and 
 exhales strongly as it sinks, the chest and lungs 
 again share in the benefit. 
 
 dorsi and spinalis 
 
 Exercise C.—This is a valuable exercise (which 
 may be practised with or without dumb-bells) 
 for strengthening the abdominal muscles. Stand¬ 
 ing in the latter case with one hand on each hip, 
 (the attitude commonly known as a-kimbo) the 
 
68 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 operator bends the body alternately to right and 
 left (as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. io) as 
 far as possible in the same plane, i.e., not inclin- 
 
 Fi.jr II 
 
 Fig. io. 
 
 ing either backwards or forwards. With the 
 dumb-bells the exercise may be made still more 
 effective, as follows :—Hold a bell in each hand, 
 with the arms bent as shown in Fig. 11. As the 
 body inclines to the left, bring the right-hand 
 dumb-bell across the body, and thence in a hori¬ 
 zontal circle round the head, finally bringing it 
 back to its former position. (Fig. 12.) As the 
 body bends over to the right, repeat the same 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 69 
 
 movement with the left-hand dumb-bell, 
 not only intensifies the work 
 done by the abdominal mus- 
 cles, but exercises in addi- / f 
 tion the rotator muscles of 
 the spine and shoulder, and, 
 in a less degree, the biceps 
 and brachialis anticus. 
 
 This 
 
 
 Exercise D.—Standing 
 with the feet about nine 
 inches apart, but otherwise 
 in the posture of Attention 
 (see p. 60), bend the knees 
 (towards the front) and sink 
 down on the hams as low 
 as possible, at the same time 
 lowering the dumb-bells to 
 the ground on either side, 
 as shown in Fig. 13. Rise 
 up again, straightening the 
 legs, and elevating the body 
 on the toes, as in Exercise 
 A, and at the same time 
 bend the arms, and lift the 
 dumb-bells into the arm- 
 pits, flexing the wrists so 
 as to get them well home 
 (Fig. 14). 
 
 These movements, which, in this particular 
 
70 
 
 HOME G YMNA S TICS. 
 
 combination, are the invention of Dr. Herschell,* 
 bring a singularly large number of muscles into 
 
 action. The bending of the 
 knees employs the glutei 
 and the flexors of the legs 
 and ankles, while the lower¬ 
 ing of the dumb-bells to the 
 floor gives work to the tri¬ 
 ceps , anconeus and pectoralis. 
 The rising movement bring 
 into play the psoas and 
 iliacus, the quadriceps ex¬ 
 tensor (four muscles in cne), 
 the gastrocnemius and so- 
 leus (the muscles of the calf), 
 and the peronei. The abdo¬ 
 minals and the elevators of 
 the spine share to some ex- 
 
 * Author of The Health Troubles of City Lije (see p. 2), and a 
 specialist in disorders of the digestive organs. By the courtesy of 
 Dr. Herschell, we are enabled to quote at length the instructions 
 which he is accustomed to place in the hands of patients suffering 
 from insufficiency of exercise. The movements prescribed represent 
 in a small compass a very wide and well-considered selection of 
 muscular exercises, and we can personally testify to their value. 
 The weights indicated are somewhat in excess of those generally 
 approved at the present day, and we think the rule laid down at 
 page 56 will be found, at the outset, a safer guide in this particular. 
 As the strength of the operator increases, the weights may be 
 increased in like manner. 
 
 Dumb-Bell Exercises for the Sedentary. By George 
 Herschell, M.D.Lond. (For the use of his patients.) 
 
 In order to keep the body in health, every one must perform a 
 certain amount of muscular work daily. This should be kept apart 
 
DUMB-BELLS. AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 71 
 
 tent in the movement (with a host of minor muscles 
 too numerous to mention), while the lifting of the 
 
 from, and not confounded with, the fresh air and recreation also 
 necessary. To be of the greatest use, the daily exercise should 
 work most of the important muscles of the body. This is the 
 reason why walking exercise, which only brings into play a certain 
 set of muscles, is not enough for those whose occupations are 
 sedentary. Properly used* dumb-bells can be made to afford this 
 necessary additional exercise. The following movements will be 
 found to be sufficient for the purpose. They should be practised 
 daily on rising in the morning, at first five times each, increasing 
 the number from day to day, always stopping short of absolute 
 fatigue, until they can be performed fifty times each without stopping. 
 When you arrive at this stage, the time has arrived to work with 
 heavier dumb-bells. Always rest for a few seconds between each 
 exercise. Exercises i, 2, 3, should be performed with dumb-bells 
 of 6—8 lb. for a young man ; 2—4 lb. for a young woman ; and 4—6 
 lb. for a middle-aged man. Exercises 4 and 5, with 10—15 lb. 
 for a young man ; 4—6 lb. for a young woman ; and 6—10 lb. for an 
 elderly or middle-aged man. All movements to be slow, avoiding 
 jerking and swinging. 
 
 Exercise i. —Take a dumb-bell in each hand, bend the arms 
 and rest the dumb-bells on the shoulders. Slowly straighten the 
 arms until they are vertical. Lower the bells until they rest on the 
 shoulders again. Continue straightening and bending the arms. 
 
 Exercise 2.—The arms hanging by the side, nails of hands in 
 front. Raise the dumb-bell slowly to the shoulder, keeping the 
 upper arm fixed close to the body. 
 
 Exercise 3.—The arms hanging by the side, keeping them stiff 
 and extended, raise them in the plane of the body until they are 
 at right angles to it and in a line with the shoulder. Drop them 
 slowly until they again hang by the side. 
 
 Exercise 4.—Take the heavier pair of dumb-bells, place one on 
 each side of you on the floor close to the outer side of the feet. 
 Stoop, and grasp them. Gradually straighten the back until you 
 are upright; then bend each arm until you have brought each 
 dumb-bell into the corresponding arm-pit ; keeping them in this 
 position, raise yourself on your toes. Lower yourself gradually, and 
 reverse the movements until the dumb bells are again on the floor. 
 
72 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 dumb-bells into the armpits exercises the biceps , 
 brachialis anticus, and flexores carpi. 
 
 In addition to the direct benefit obtained from 
 these movements, there is an incidental advantage 
 in the fact that, from the great bulk of many of 
 the muscles employed, their repeated contraction 
 generates large quantities of carbonic acid. This 
 being thrown into the blood, and thence carried 
 to the lungs, very quickly produces breathlessness 
 (which movements of the smaller muscles are 
 much slower to do). The quickened respiration 
 thereby caused is an important factor in producing 
 that elimination of waste material which it is one 
 of the main objects of bodily exercise to promote 
 (see p. io). Further, the more vigorous expan¬ 
 sion of the lungs which breathlessness induces has 
 a marked effect in expanding the walls of the chest, 
 and rendering it more spacious. To favour its 
 operation in this respect, the breath should be 
 inhaled as the body rises, and exhaled as it sinks 
 downward. 
 
 Exercise 5. “ The CrankT —This is especially valuable to those 
 inclined to embonpoint. Take the heavy pair, as before, one in 
 each hand, and lower them in the direction of your toes until you 
 have got them as near the floor as you can, bending the body 
 forward from the hips. Now, try and imagine that you are turning 
 the handle of a crank towards you. Keeping ‘the arms stiff and 
 well out away from you, straighten your back as if you were rowing. 
 Now bend your arms and bring the dumb-bells in to your chin, 
 lower them in front of you until they arrive at the first position. 
 Make the motion as circular as you can. 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 73 
 
 Exercise E.—This is another of the special 
 exercises of Dr. Herschell, and like that last 
 described, employs a 
 muscles. 
 
 Starting from the 
 position of Attention, 
 bend the body for¬ 
 ward at the hips, 
 keeping the arms stiff, 
 and lower the dumb¬ 
 bells in the direction 
 of the toes, as near 
 the floor as possible 
 (see Fig. 9). Then, 
 rise up again, still 
 keeping the arms ex¬ 
 tended to the front, 
 but moving the dumb¬ 
 bells in a circular di¬ 
 rection as shown by 
 the dotted arrows in Fig. 15 (as if you were turning 
 the handle of a crank, but in the reverse of the 
 usual direction, i.e., upwards instead of down¬ 
 wards). As the hands approach the chin, square 
 the shoulders and draw back the elbows, keeping 
 them close to the sides, as in running; continue 
 the movement without reverting to the position 
 of Attention. 
 
 The forward movement of the body employs 
 
 singularly wide range of 
 
74 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 the psoas, iliacus, pec tineas, and rectus abdo¬ 
 minis. The rising movement, the longissimus 
 dorsi and ercctores spiiicz. The movement of 
 the arms opens the chest and develops the 
 triceps, biceps, and brachialis anticus, also the 
 middle portion of the trapezius muscle. 
 
 The breath should, as before, be inhaled as 
 the body rises, and exhaled while it is bending 
 forward. 
 
 Exercise F.—From the position of Attention, 
 bend the arms at the elbow, so as to bring the 
 bells to the shoulders. Then, extend the arms 
 vigorously, at the same time spreading them to 
 the rear (a little lower than the shoulder), as far 
 back as possible. Finally, again drop them to the 
 position of Attention. The breath should be 
 inhaled during the backward movement. 
 
 The first portion of the movement exercises the 
 biceps and brachialis anticus; the second, the 
 extensors of the arms, the trapezius and a portion 
 of the deltoid, at the same time expanding the 
 chest. 
 
 Exercise G.—Standing at the position of 
 Attention, raise both arms straight to the front, 
 each bell being held vertically, as shown in Fig. 16. 
 Then, still keeping the arms extended, and with¬ 
 out altering the position of the feet, turn the body 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 75 
 
 to the left as far as you possibly can, then in the 
 same way to the right. 
 
 This movement exercises specially the abdominal 
 
 muscles and the rota¬ 
 tory muscles of the 
 spine, and incidentally 
 T-'v-/ the deltoids and ex- 
 tensors of the arms, 
 triceps, anconeus, &c. 
 
 
 {T .,<. 
 
 Fig. 16. 
 
 Exercise H.—Standing 
 at the position of Attention, 
 make a quarter-turn of the 
 body only (without shifting 
 the feet) to the left, and 
 at the same time elevate 
 the bells vertically above 
 the head, as shown in Fig. 
 
 17. Then, make a like quarter-turn to the 
 right, meanwhile lowering the arms in front 
 
 Fig. 17. 
 
76 
 
 HOME G YMNA ST ICS. 
 
 of the body, and bringing them up to the same 
 position on the opposite side, as shown by the 
 dotted lines. # 
 
 This movement exer- 
 /■' % cises very much the same 
 
 muscles as the last, with 
 \ the addition of the ser- 
 ■ 1 ratus magnus, and the 
 •f rotator muscles of the 
 / shoulder. 
 
 Exercise I.—Standing 
 at the position of Atten¬ 
 tion, turn the hands so 
 that the finger-nails shall 
 be to the rear, and move 
 them slightly forward as 
 to clear the body. Then, 
 keeping the arms fairly 
 stiff, let the dumb-bells 
 cross each other, and con¬ 
 tinue their movement in 
 an upward direction (as shown by the dotted lines 
 
 * This is one of the introductory “ Indian-club ” exercises, but 
 it is equally effective with the dumb-bells. That next following 
 (Exercise I), is also a “club ” exercise. 
 
 It may be regarded as an omission by some readers that Indian- 
 club exercises, as such, are not included in the present work, but 
 it has been thought better on the whole to exclude them. This 
 little book is intended for the million, and the exercises described 
 in it are purposely limited to such as demand no special dexterity 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 77 
 
 in Fig. 18) till they have each described a 
 complete circle, again crossing each other at the 
 top. Continue the movement till you have 
 completed half your intended number of revolu¬ 
 tions, and then return to the starting position. 
 After a moment’s pause, lift the arms from the 
 sides, and rotate them in front of the body in 
 the opposite direction, the hands crossing in the 
 first instance at top. 
 
 These movements tend to develop the pedo- 
 rales and the rotator muscles of the shoulder. 
 
 Exercise J.—This movement, for which we are 
 indebted to a German work,'" has some resemblance 
 to that last described, but gives employment to a 
 
 or previous practice for their due performance. The management 
 of the Indian-ciubs, on the other hand, is an accomplishment , only 
 to be attained, in any complete degree, by long practice under 
 skilled personal instruction. A very good manual on the subject, by 
 Professor E. F. Lemaire, is published by Messrs. IlifTe & Son, but the 
 number of exercises described, and the complicated appearance of 
 the diagrams.which illustrate them, are enough to frighten any but 
 a thorough gymnast. 
 
 The clubs, moreover, share with fencing, and indeed with all 
 difficult exercises, a disadvantage in a hygienic point of view, in 
 the sustained attention which they demand, involving a constant 
 strain, more or less, upon the mental faculties. It may be taken 
 as an axiom, that the more mental labour a given exercise involves, 
 the less valuable will it be as a means of improving health. It is 
 true, that even the most difficult exercise may be practised until it 
 becomes to a considerable extent automatic; but in the meantime 
 its effect on the system is exhausting, rather than recuperative. 
 
 * Hans-Gymnastik fur Gesunde tend Kranke , by E. Angerstein 
 and C. Eckler, Berlin, 1890. 
 
7S 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 far wider range of muscles, and is worthy of 
 special attention. Standing with the feet apart, 
 at a distance of about twenty inches from heel to 
 heel, the gymnast describes with each bell a circle 
 in a vertical plane immediately in front of the 
 
 . .****•••. # 
 
 
 Fig. 19. 
 
 body, but in this case both in the same direction. 
 As the bells tend to the one or the other side, the 
 knee on that side is flexed, and that on the other 
 side stiffened (see Fig. 19). The muscles brought 
 into play by this movement are almost too numerous 
 to specify. The pectoralcs , the abdominal muscles, 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 79 
 
 those of the neck and spine, the pelvic muscles, 
 and those of the leg and thigh, are all brought 
 into rapid and vigorous contraction. 
 
 Exercise K. —This is another very valuable 
 exercise. Starting from the position of Attention, 
 raise the arms straight 
 out in front of the 
 body, and continue 
 the movement to the 
 rear, till each bell has 
 performed a complete 
 revolution. Each arm 
 should be kept straight 
 at the elbow, and as 
 nearly as possible 
 in the same plane 
 throughout the move¬ 
 ment. This will be 
 found easy enough 
 till the arms have 
 reached the vertical 
 position. Atthis point 
 they are bound to di¬ 
 verge, or the revolution could not otherwise be 
 completed, but they should be allowed to do so 
 as little as possible (see Fig. 20). The breath 
 should be taken as the arms ascend. This 
 exercise broadens and deepens the chest, and 
 
8o 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 at the same time strengthens the perforates and 
 the rotator muscles of the shoulder.* 
 
 Inhale as the arms rise ; exhale as they fall. 
 
 Exercise L.—This movement is the same as 
 that last described, save that the arms are rotated 
 in the opposite direction, i.e., from below upwards. 
 It is good exercise for the perforates and the 
 shoulder muscles, but is a degree less valuable 
 than Exercise K, inasmuch as it does little or 
 nothing to expand the chest. 
 
 Exercise M.—Stand with the heels about six 
 inches apart, the arms held straight up above the 
 head. Bend the knees, keeping them as wide 
 apart as possible,t so that the body shall sink 
 down to within ten or twelve inches of the floor 
 (the lower the better), and at the same time flex 
 the arms, drawing the elbows down to the sides, 
 
 * It is a curious thing, that rotatory movements, which form 
 almost the whole of the Indian-club exercises, are scarcely ever used 
 in connection with dumb-bell work, though they may be employed 
 therein with the greatest possible advantage. Even Professor 
 Dowd, who shows full appreciation of the value of rotatory move¬ 
 ments in connection with the pulley-weight apparatus, does not give 
 one such movement for use with the dumb-bells. 
 
 f It should be noted that there is a distinct difference between 
 the leg movement here and in Exercise D (see p. 69). In the 
 latter case the flexure of the knees is towards the front , in this 
 case it is as nearly as possible in the same plane, like the movement 
 of a pair of lazy-tongs. 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 81 
 
 and the dumb bells close to the shoulders (see 
 Fig. 21). Then rise again to an erect position, at 
 the same time extending the arms above the head 
 as before. This movement exercises the deltoids , 
 the triceps and biceps of the arms, and the flexors 
 and extensors of the leg and thigh, including the 
 sartorius muscle, which ordinarily gets but iittle 
 work to do. Some little 
 practice will be needed 
 to perform it neatly, a 
 novice having usually a 
 tendency to lose his balance 
 in rising, but the effort to 
 maintain it is very bene¬ 
 ficial in strengthening the 
 abdominal muscles. It is 
 well to practise in the first 
 instance the leg movement 
 alone, with the hands resting 
 on the hips ; and when this can be executed with 
 facility, to add the arm movement. 
 
 Exercise N.—We have up to this point done 
 comparatively little for the flexors and extensors 
 of the arms. These are best developed by a few 
 comparatively simple movements, which we pro¬ 
 ceed to describe. 
 
 Extend the arms horizontally from the 
 shoulders to either side, as shown in Fig. 22. 
 
82 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 Bend the wrist alternately up and down as far as 
 possible, as shown by the dotted lines. This 
 looks easy work, but it is surprising how soon the 
 novice will have had enough of it, and even the 
 practised gymnast does not care to keep it up 
 
 very long. The up and down movement of the 
 wrist makes very active work for the muscles of 
 the fore-arm, (particularly the palvzaris longus 
 an d flexores carpi), while the effort of holding the 
 arms extended in one position causes a consider¬ 
 able strain upon the triceps and deltoids ; for it must 
 be remembered that a muscle which is occupied 
 in merely resisting force may be just as hard at 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 83 
 
 work as if it were in actual movement. Indeed, 
 the effort of passive resistance very often involves 
 the greater strain. In the present case, what the 
 arm is called upon to support is not the weight of 
 the dumb-bell only, but 
 such weight multiplied by 
 the leverage of the arm, 
 which magnifies it in a 
 surprising ratio. 
 
 Exercise O. —Extend 
 the arms horizontally, but 
 in this case straight out to 
 the front, with the backs 
 of the hands upwards, as 
 shown in Fig. 23. Bend 
 the wrists outward till the 
 finger-nails are brought 
 uppermost, then in the 
 contrary direction till the 
 backs of the hands as nearly as possible face each 
 other. Repeat as long as strength permits. 
 
 The muscles more especially affected by this 
 exercise are the pronator quadratus and supinator 
 longus. Incidentally, as in the last case, the 
 deltoid muscles and the extensors of the arm 
 also share in the work to a considerable degree. 
 If the strain on these latter be found too 
 great, the arms may be drawn back till the 
 
 Fig. 23. 
 
8 4 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 elbows touch the sides as in Fig. n and the 
 exercise continued in that position, but it will 
 be found impossible to make so near an 
 approach to a complete revolution as in the 
 former case. 
 
 Exercise P. — Standing at the position of 
 Attention, raise the arms in the plane of the body 
 
 Fig. 24. 
 
 to the level of the shoulders, and bend the elbows 
 so as to bring the bells down upon the collar-bone, 
 as shown in Fig. 24. Again extend the arms, 
 lower them to the sides, and repeat ad lib. 
 The work is here thrown mainly on the biceps and 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 85 
 
 brachialis anticus , though the deltoid shares in it 
 to some extent. 
 
 Exercise Q.—Starting from the position of 
 Attention, bend the arms so as to bring the dumb¬ 
 bells to the shoulders, as in Fig. 25 ; extend them 
 vigorously to right and left as shown by the 
 
 dotted lines. Draw them smartly back to the 
 shoulder, and let the arms again fall to the 
 position of Attention. 
 
 After having executed this movement, say 
 twenty times, vary it by shooting the arms per¬ 
 pendicularly upwards , instead of outwards from 
 
86 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 the shoulder. After another twenty movements 
 again vary by shooting the arms out horizontally, 
 to the front, again drawing back to the shoulder 
 and falling back to Attention as before. 
 
 All three movements exercise very much the 
 same sets of muscles, viz. the flexors and ex¬ 
 tensors of the arms, the trapezius , and the deltoids , 
 as well as deepening and expanding the chest. 
 In the case of the two latter muscles, however, 
 each variation sets in motion to some extent a 
 new set of fibres, and the exercise is less fatigu¬ 
 ing to the arm muscles than if the same move¬ 
 ment were repeated without alteration. 
 
 Exercise R. — Standing 
 with the heels eighteen 
 to twenty inches apart, 
 elbows to sides, and bells 
 drawn back to the 
 shoulder, strike out with 
 the right and left arm alter¬ 
 nately in a direction a 
 little above the level of 
 the shoulder. As you ex¬ 
 tend the right arm, stiffen 
 the left leg, and slightly 
 flex the opposite leg as 
 shown in Fig. 26. When you extend the left arm, 
 the left leg will be flexed and the right leg stiffened^ 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 87 
 
 The striking movement will develop the ex¬ 
 tensor muscles of the arms, rendering them not 
 only stronger, but more flexible and rapid in 
 action; while the straightening of the opposite 
 leg in unison with the blow will do the same for 
 the extensors of the leg, and less directly, for the 
 abdominal muscles. 
 
 Exercise S.—Standing in the posture of Atten¬ 
 tion, the arms holding the dumb-bells hanging 
 down stiffly by the sides, draw up the shoulders 
 strongly (as in the movement known as “ shrug¬ 
 ging ” the shoulders) and then force them down as 
 strongly, as though some counter-force was pressing 
 the dumb-bells upwards. You will find that this 
 alternate movement very speedily produces a 
 sharp ache between and across the shoulders, a 
 sure proof that it is throwing unaccustomed work 
 upon some muscle or muscles in that quarter. As 
 a matter of fact, the “ lifting ” movement exercises 
 the middle portion of the trapezius muscle, and 
 the downward movement the pedoralis minor and 
 the latissimus dor si, the broad muscle behind and 
 below each shoulder. 
 
 In this case, the movement being of very brief 
 duration, it is well to inhale with the upward 
 movement, then to hold the breath, with the chest 
 fully expanded, as long as can be done with 
 comfort, meanwhile repeating the alternate move- 
 
HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 88 
 
 ment, and finally to exhale with the downward 
 movement. Take a full breath with the next 
 upward movement, and proceed as before. 
 
 Exercise T.—Starting at the position of Atten¬ 
 tion, make a half-turn to 
 the left.* Bring up the 
 left arm till the dumb-bell 
 rests on the hip, and the 
 right arm till the dumb¬ 
 bell is level with the 
 shoulder. This is the 
 position for the movement. 
 From this ppsition step for¬ 
 ward about twenty inches 
 with the right foot, bend¬ 
 ing the right and stiffening 
 the left knee, and at the 
 same time thrust the dumb¬ 
 bell in the right hand 
 vigorously forward and up¬ 
 ward, at an angle of 45° to the body, as in Fig. 27. 
 Return to position, and repeat as may be desired; 
 the foot should be brought forward smartly, and 
 with a slight stamp, like the lunge of a fencer, and 
 
 * The neatest method of doing this is to draw back the left foot 
 till its hollow rests against the heel of the right, and then, lifting 
 the toes, to turn smartly on the heels. At the finish of the move¬ 
 ment, the right foot should be pointing.straight to the front, an<J 
 the left foot at right angles to it, straight to the left. 
 
 Fig. 27. 
 
DUMB-BELLS AND EXERCISES THEREWITH. 89 
 
 recovered in like manner; the left hand remains 
 throughout on hip. 
 
 Exercise U.—Make a half-turn to the right, 
 and go through the same exercise with the left arm 
 and foot, the dumb-bell in the right hand resting 
 on the hip. # 
 
 The muscles exercised by these two movements 
 are very numerous, comprising the deltcid, the 
 flexors and extensors of the arms and legs, the 
 erectors of the spine, and the abdominal muscles; 
 in fact, very nearly the same muscles as are used 
 in the fencing school, with the important modifica¬ 
 tion that both sides of the body receive an equal 
 share of exercise, which is not the case in fencing. 
 
 * When these two exercises are performed en masse in the 
 gymnasium, they are usually worked alternately, returning after 
 each “ charge ” to the position of Attention ; but the above method 
 is preferable for home use. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS. 
 
 We now pass to the consideration of an 
 apparatus of a different kind. The work done 
 in this case consists of pulling or thrusting at a 
 stirrup-handle attached to a cord, such cord being 
 normally drawn by the downward pull of a weight 
 in the opposite direction. The cord passes over 
 a pulley or pulleys, so arranged that the direction 
 of the “pull” can be varied at pleasure. Appli¬ 
 ances of this kind, under the names of “ chest 
 machines,” “ rowing machines,” &c., have been in 
 use for many years, but have for the most part 
 been too cumbrous and too expensive for general 
 adoption. Of late, however, the ingenuity of 
 experts has been directed to their improvement, 
 and at the present day such contrivances can be 
 procured in much more convenient forms, and at 
 a fraction of their former cost. We have selected 
 for illustration two, either of which can be recom¬ 
 mended as sufficiently answering its purpose. 
 
 The first, Fig. 28, which may be taken as the 
 prototype of the new departure, is the invention 
 of an American, Professor D. L. Dowd, Director 
 

 Fig. 23, 
 
92 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 of the School for Physical Culture, East Four¬ 
 teenth Street, New York.* 
 
 The machine is known indifferently as the 
 “ Home Exerciser,” or “ Health Exerciser,” and 
 is constructed as follows :— 
 
 a is a bracket, firmly screwed to the wall at a 
 height of seven feet six inches from the floor. 
 This has a movable arm bearing a couple of 
 pulleys, bb, over which pass two cords, cc, in 
 connection with a weight, or rather group of 
 weights, d. (The shape of the single weight is 
 shown at x in Fig. 29.) The undermost weight 
 alone is actually attached to the cords, others 
 being superimposed upon this till the desired 
 amount of resistance is obtained. A stretched 
 wire, e e, extending from the bracket a to a screw- 
 hook,^ in the floor, passes through the centre of 
 each weight, keeping them steady, and preventing 
 their swaying from side to side.f The bent wire, 
 
 * The agent for Europe is Mr. R. II. Greenleaves, who con¬ 
 ducts a similar school at Windsor Villas, Prestbury Road, 
 Macclesfield. Of Mr. Greenleaves can also be obtained (price 
 6 s. 6 d.) Professor Dowd’s treatise, Physical Culture for Home and 
 School , a work which contains much valuable matter in relation 
 to physical development. The exercises given in this book are the 
 most complete we have seen, and we are indebted to it for many 
 valuable suggestions. 
 
 t The lifting of the weight by two cords is a faulty arrangement, 
 as the least inequality of tension pulls it askew , in which 
 condition it tends to “bind ” on the guide-wire. A single lifting 
 cord is decidedly preferable. 
 
94 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 g, helps to maintain them in position. The upper 
 ends of the cords c c are attached to a yoke, h, 
 and this, by means of a swivel joint, z, at its centre, 
 to a second yoke, j. From the extremities of this 
 depend two other cords, k k, each terminating in a 
 stirrup-shaped handle, /. 
 
 When an upward, instead of a downward, pull 
 is desired, the cords kk and the yoke j are 
 removed, and a single cord, m, of greater length, 
 with a cross handle, is passed through the pulley 
 n (which is screwed into the floor, about eight 
 inches in front of f), and attached to the centre of 
 h in their place. (See Fig. 29.) 
 
 Fig. 30 represents another form of Home 
 Exerciser, the invention of Mr. A. Alexander, the 
 director of the Liverpool Gymnasium. The 
 pulley and guide-rods are in this case affixed to 
 an upright back-board five inches in width and 
 six feet in length. This is secured to the wall in 
 any convenient position. The group of weights, 
 a , is in this case supported by a movable bracket, 
 c, working up and down between the guide-rods, 
 dd. It is drawn up by a single cord, bb, and rests, 
 when not in use, on a cork buffer, r. The weights, 
 which are of two pounds each, take the form shown 
 in Fig. 30 b, the opening at the back enabling them 
 to be passed sleeve-fashion over the square upright 
 rod, e, which is fixed to the back of the movable 
 
96 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 bracket. This arrangement holds them securely in 
 position, the use of the single pull and double 
 guide being a decided improvement on the opposite 
 arrangement. Of the weights any number, up to 
 seven or eight, may be used. The uppermost is 
 of one pound only, but has a couple of upright pins t 
 as shown in Fig. 30 A, projecting from its upper 
 side, so that a dumb-bell may be laid across it 
 as shown in Fig. 31 ; thus affording a means of 
 further increasing the weight to any desired 
 extent. It will be observed that the cord bb , start¬ 
 ing from the upper bracket, passes round a mov¬ 
 able pulley, g, before it reaches the fixed pulley h. 
 The addition of the movable pulley seems at first 
 sight an improvement, inasmuch as the weights, 
 which in Dowd’s Exerciser rise and fall some four 
 feet, here travel only half that distance, enabling 
 the height of the apparatus to be considerably 
 reduced. This makes it more compact and port¬ 
 able, but at some sacrifice of effectiveness, for there 
 is a distinct advantage for certain movements in 
 having the downward pull approaching the vertical , 
 and this it cannot be unless the fixed pulley is seven 
 feet six inches from the floor. If so fixed as to 
 bring the upper pulley to this height, the lower 
 extremity of the board would be eighteen inches 
 from the ground, at which height the tipward pull, 
 (of which we shall presently speak) would be 
 comparatively useless. If fixed, on the other 
 
THE PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS. 
 
 97 
 
 hand, low enough to make the upward pull 
 effective, the upper pulley would be only about 
 six feet from the floor, which in the case of many 
 exercises would bring the downward pull too low 
 for effective use. In the writer’s own practice with 
 the Alexander machine, he has met this difficulty 
 by fixing the machine at the higher altitude, and to 
 the floor immediately below it, a block of wood (six 
 inches in length by four in width, and two inches 
 thick), into the ends of which are screwed a couple 
 of supplementary hooks to receive the pulleys for 
 the upward pull. A nearly vertical pull is thus 
 obtained in either direction. 
 
 It should, however, be stated that with the 
 exception of the rowing movement (see p. 128) 
 almost every exercise for which the upward pull 
 is designed may be performed just as effectively 
 with the dumb-bells. There is a certain conve¬ 
 nience in being able to work the whole series of 
 exercises with the same machine, but it is quite a 
 matter of taste whether this or the “ bells” are 
 used for the exercises in question. 
 
 The use of the movable pulley, in accordance 
 with a well-known mechanical principle, halves 
 the resistance of the weight, so that to get a 
 “ pull ” of 10 lbs., you must, roughly speaking, put 
 20 lbs. on the machine.* 
 
 The free end of the cord bb is attached to the 
 
 * The calculation is not exact, because the bracket which supports 
 the movable weights itself weighs about 2 lbs., thereby adding i lb. 
 
 H 
 
HOME G YMNASTIES. 
 
 w 
 
 centre of a yoke c, to the ends of 
 which are affixed two other cords, 
 terminating in stirrup handles, as 
 in the apparatus already described. 
 
 Where it is desired to get an 
 upward instead of a downward pull, 
 the two last-mentioned cords are 
 disconnected from the yoke i, and 
 twolonger cords, first passed through 
 the pulleys kk, are attached to it 
 in their place. (See Fig. 32.) * 
 
 to the pull, and the friction to be overcome may 
 be reckoned at another half pound. In practice, 
 17 lbs. of movable weights require a pull of 
 about 10 lbs. to lift them. 
 
 * These pulleys are attached by two hooks to 
 the wooden bracket /. This, as the Exerciser is 
 at present made, is a faulty arrangement, for the 
 yoke i in descending is apt to strike the ascend¬ 
 ing weights. This could be cured, for rowing 
 machine purposes, by making / project a little 
 more, so as to give better clearance. In all 
 upward pulls, however, the pull should start 
 from the level of the feet, as already indicated. 
 The use of two cords instead of one for 
 the upward pulls is a decided improve¬ 
 ment on the single cord of 
 Professor Dowd. 
 
 Mitrimir ini«Mii«i.nr 
 
THE PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS. 99 
 
 In point of cost there is little to choose between 
 the two machines. Mr. Alexander’s apparatus 
 sells at 405 ., and Professor Dowd’s, in a corre¬ 
 sponding grade of finish, at /\.2s. The latter makes 
 also higher priced Exercisers ranging up to 74 s., 
 but the only difference lies in extra finish (bronz¬ 
 ing or nickel-plating of metal portions, and the 
 like), adding nothing to the practical value of the 
 instrument. It should be noted that Professor 
 Dowd includes in the price above quoted, a 
 copy of his book, Physical Culture , already men¬ 
 tioned,* a very useful addition. Either machine 
 may be had without the upward pull, at a reduction 
 of ten shillings. 
 
 Mr. Alexander’s London agents are Messrs. 
 Geo. Philip & Son, 32 Fleet Street, E.C. 
 
 There is a third form of Exerciser which we 
 may incidentally mention, known as an Accumula¬ 
 tor, and procurable, in various degrees of strength, 
 of any dealer in gymnastic apparatus. Its con¬ 
 struction will be understood from an inspection of 
 Fig. 33. a is a ring wherewith to attach the 
 apparatus to a hook fixed at a convenient height 
 in the wall; bb and cc, cc are stout hempen cords, 
 and dd cords of india-rubber, kept apart by the 
 cross bar 6 ; ff are the handles. 
 
 This apparatus being fixed as above mentioned, 
 
 See p. 92, 
 
 h 2 
 
ICO 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 the user standing with face or back towards 
 it, and grasping the handles, is enabled to go 
 
 a. 
 
 through many of the exercises appropriate to the 
 pulley-weight machine. 
 
 It has been urged as a defect in the Accumula¬ 
 tor that its resistance is not uniform, being nil at 
 
THE PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS. 
 
 101 
 
 the beginning of the pull, and becoming needlessly 
 strong towards its close. Some, on the other 
 hand, put this forward as a recommendation, 
 asserting that muscle is developed to the best 
 advantage by overcoming this sort of “give and 
 take ” resistance.'"' There is a more serious draw¬ 
 back in the possibility that the rubber, particu¬ 
 larly if it has been left unused for any length of 
 time, may snap at the moment of the greatest 
 strain upon it, but a little caution should suffice to 
 avoid any risk in this particular. Reverting to the 
 pulley-weight apparatus, the first point to be con¬ 
 sidered is the amount of weight to be used, and 
 here, as in the case of the dumb-bells, there is 
 considerable conflict of opinion. The weights 
 recommended by Mr. Alexander are 3lbs. for 
 trunk and 6lbs. for arm work.f These, in view of 
 the fact that both hands are employed, and divide 
 the weight between them, seem to us inadequate. 
 Professor Dowd, on the other hand, recommends 
 a weight of five to ten lbs. to begin with, to be 
 gradually increased (as improved strength may 
 
 * An argument in favour of this view may be found in the 
 undoubted fact that professional “ strong men ” frequently, as part 
 of their training, exercise with a piece of thick rubber cord. No 
 handles are used, but the rubber is merely held one end in each 
 hand, and stretched in various directions. The power of the 
 grip is said to be enormously increased by this exercise. 
 
 t We take this to refer to the actual /?///, the weights on the 
 machine being so arranged (see p. 97) as to be equivalent to that 
 amount. 
 
102 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 warrant) to fifteen, or in the case of very strong 
 men, twenty lbs. It is proverbially difficult to 
 “decide where doctors disagree,” and still more 
 so to lay down a canon which shall suit all cases, 
 but it is easy to devise a workable rule of propor¬ 
 tion. The plan we advocate is to begin with a 
 pull of half a pound for each stone of personal 
 weight, to be gradually increased as strength 
 permits to one lb. per stone, which for health 
 purposes should be the outside limit. It is far 
 better to err on the side of lightness than exces¬ 
 sive weight, and if it be found that the weight in 
 use is more than can be manipulated with ease— 
 that there is a tendency to get the body pulled 
 out of a perfectly erect position, or to bend the 
 waist too far forward or backward in the effort to 
 maintain such a position—the pull should at once 
 be reduced to a more comfortable limit. It 
 cannot be too strongly impressed upon the home 
 gymnast that the development of muscle, and still 
 more the quickened respiration and quickened 
 circulation on which the value of exercise, as a 
 health-giver, so much depends, are more rapidly 
 and effectively produced by quick movements 
 overcoming slight resistance, than by slow move¬ 
 ments overcoming greater resistance. In other 
 words, it is the number of times a muscle con¬ 
 tracts, and not the force with which it contracts, 
 that most contributes to its perfect development. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EXERCISES WITH THE PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS. 
 
 It will have been observed that the construc¬ 
 tion of the pulley-weight apparatus admits of the 
 force of the pull being exerted in two oppo¬ 
 site directions : i, downward ; 2, upward. This 
 renders it available for a wide variety of exercises, 
 which may be further diversified in effect by alter¬ 
 ing the position in which the operator stands. 
 This may be either with face, with back, or right or 
 left side to the apparatus, each such alteration of 
 position bringing, more or less, a different set of 
 muscles into operation. 
 
 It is desirable frequently to vary the position 
 as above, as the so doing distributes the labour 
 done, resting the muscles which have been in 
 action, and calling upon others which have not 
 hitherto been used. 
 
 A correct position at starting is here quite 
 as essential as in the case of the dumb-bell 
 exercises. (See p. 59.) The elements of the posi¬ 
 tion are practically the same as in that case, viz., 
 head thrown back, shoulders squared, chest for¬ 
 ward, stomach retracted. But there is in this 
 
tfOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 fo4 
 
 case a difference, arising from the fact that the 
 operator is here, in most of the exercises, drawn 
 by the force of the pulley-weight towards the 
 apparatus, whereas the weight of the dumb-bells 
 operates necessarily downward. To counteract 
 this pull towards the machine, it is generally 
 advisable, before beginning the specific exercise, to 
 take a pace forward or backward, as the case may 
 be, with the one or the other foot, thereby enlarg¬ 
 ing the performer’s base, and enabling him the 
 better to resist the force of the pull. 
 
 If the operator is facing the machine, he will 
 naturally step backward, the weight being thrown 
 on the hinder foot. If standing with his back 
 towards it, he should take a step forward, and 
 throw the weight on the forward foot, the opposite 
 limb being stiffened so as to offer the most 
 effectual resistance to the force pulling in the 
 opposite direction. 
 
 The distance of the operator from the machine 
 should be so regulated that the weight shall, when 
 the hands are nearest, be lifted a few inches from 
 its position of rest. The tension of the pull will 
 then be continuous throughout the exercise. 
 
 Our opening exercises are primarily designed to 
 promote the development of the chest.* 
 
 * Any absolute division into “chest” exercises, “arm” 
 exercises, &c., would be impracticable, for, with the exception of a 
 few of the very simplest movements, there is scarcely an exercise 
 
PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS EXERCISES. 105 
 
 Exercise A A. (With downward pull.) 
 
 Stand with face to the machine, one handle 
 in each hand, arms extended horizontally in front, 
 palms facing each other. Take a short pace 
 backward with the right foot, and let the weight 
 
 Fig- 34- 
 
 of the body rest upon such foot, at the same time 
 bracing the left leg so as to resist the forward pull 
 of the weight. Head and shoulders back, chest 
 forward, stomach retracted, (See Fig. 34.) 
 
 that could be devised which employs exclusively a particular set of 
 muscles. Our own endeavour, in the series here given, has been to 
 indicate exercises which will employ simultaneously the largest 
 possible number of muscles. 
 
io6 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 Having got the position correctly, move the 
 arms slowly backward in a horizontal direction, 
 each describing a quarter of a circle, till they 
 reach the position shown by the dotted lines in 
 the figure. Simultaneously with the principal 
 movement, turn each hand over inward, so that, 
 when the movement is finished, the back of the 
 hand shall be to the front. When the arms have 
 gone back to their fullest extent, let them slowly 
 return to their original position, maintaining 
 throughout a steady resistance to the opposing 
 pull of the weight. # 
 
 So much for the movement itself, but, here as 
 with the dumb-bell work, its value as a hygienic 
 exercise may be greatly enhanced by the judicious 
 management of the breath. The operator should 
 inhale (through the nostrils) t as the arms are 
 drawn back, and exhale as they return to their 
 first position. The inhalation through the 
 nostrils may upon first trial seem difficult, the 
 
 * The twisting movement is an addition to the primary exercise. 
 Such an addition is optional, but wherever it is practicable to work 
 two distinct movements in combination, there is an obvious gain in 
 doing so. Professor Dowd gives no less than thirty-four exercises 
 for the pulley-weight apparatus. All are good in their way, but by 
 judicious combination the series might have been made very much 
 shorter without detriment to its practical utility. In this high- 
 pressure age, the amount of time which most persons can devote to 
 hygienic exercise is limited, and it is therefore essential to employ 
 such time to the greatest possible advantage, 
 f See p. 63. 
 
PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS EXERCISES. 107 
 
 novice usually feeling as if he could not get suffi¬ 
 cient breath in this manner, but a little practice 
 will make it easy. 
 
 The muscles here employed are, in the back¬ 
 ward movement, the trapezius , rhomboideus major 
 and minor (the muscles which draw the shoulder- 
 blades together), and a portion of the deltoid. 
 The twisting movement exercises the biceps and 
 the pronators and supinators of the fore-arm, 
 and the forward movement the pectorales. The 
 rise and fall of the chest in the act of inspira¬ 
 tion and expiration exercise the diaphragm and 
 intercostal muscles. Meanwhile the whole exer¬ 
 cise affords good work for the extensors of the 
 arms, which are continuously employed throughout 
 the operation.* 
 
 * It must be borne in mind (see p. 82) that a muscle may be 
 doing very hard work without being in actual movement. To con¬ 
 vince himself of this, let the reader take a light dumb-bell (say two 
 pounds only), and try how long he can hold it horizontally at arm’s 
 length. The exertion seems nothing, but after the lapse of a 
 minute or two he will find that the weight appears to grow heavier 
 and heavier, and a little later the arm will drop to the side from 
 sheer exhaustion. 
 
 The work done by the muscle in the above and similar cases is 
 known as passive resistance , and the primary duty of many of our 
 muscles is to do just this kind of work. Take, for instance, the 
 muscles known as the erectores spince (see p. 45). If we bend the 
 body forward, it is their function to bring it back to the upright 
 position, but their habitual work is simply to keep it erect. Such 
 muscles are therefore exercised as well by passive as by active 
 use. The man who holds himself habitually upright, with head 
 erect and shoulders square, is unconsciously exercising the muscles 
 
lo8 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 Exercise BB. — Turn the back to the appara¬ 
 tus and take a handle in each hand, extending the 
 arms horizontally on either side, as shown in 
 
 which tend to keep him in that position, and as a consequence, 
 they will always be found in good condition, and performing their 
 work automatically. He, on the other hand, who makes a practice 
 of sitting or standing with bent head and rounded shoulders, 
 allows these muscles to become, by disuse, weak and inert, and can 
 only assume the erect position by a distinct and painful effort of the 
 will. 
 
 Allied to this, but yet differing from it, is the work thrown on a 
 muscle by what is called latent stimulation. This term is given 
 to the condition of a muscle in a state of what may be called anti¬ 
 cipatory tension, as that of the cat crouching for a spring, the 
 runner preparing to 44 go” in a race, or the fencer feeling with his 
 blade .the blade of his adversary, and ready to lunge the instant 
 an opening is given. A similar condition arises in boxing, 
 wrestling, &c. The subsequent fatigue is in such cases far more 
 than proportionate to the amount of muscular exertion undergone ; 
 the reason being that they involve, in the words of Lagrange, “ a 
 continuous nervous expenditure, an incessant stimulation emanat¬ 
 ing from the grey matter of the brain. While the fencer on the 
 watch has all the appearance of complete repose, his brain and 
 nerves are in a condition of excessive tension. Like a Leyden jar 
 being charged, his muscles are making, in a manner, a store of 
 nervous energy, in order that at the right moment the will may 
 suddenly determine the explosion of movement.” For this reason, 
 Dr. Lagrange condemns fencing as an exercise for men who study 
 much, or for young persons who do much brain-work. On the 
 other hand, for persons of active brain, but little mental occupation, 
 or for those of corpulent habit, he as strongly recommends it. 
 44 Fencing,” he tells us, 44 like all exercises which produce dis¬ 
 turbances in the nervous system, is a most valuable exercise to 
 persons who wish to get thinner. Among the most important 
 functions of the nervous system is that of regulating nutrition ; so 
 we see all fatigue borne by the nerves, all excessive expenditure of 
 nerve force lead to diminished energy of the process of nutrition, 
 and favour the opposite process, thereby causing loss of weight.” 
 
PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS EXERCISES. 109 
 
 Fig. 35. Let the arms go back as far as possible, 
 so as to draw the shoulder-blades together. 
 Then bring the arms forward to the position 
 shown by the dotted lines, the cords passing over 
 the shoulders, one on each side of the head. 
 
 Take a deep breath as the arms go back, 
 and exhale as you bring them together again. 
 Repeat ad libitum. 
 
 This it will be seen is the converse or comple¬ 
 ment of Exercise AA. The main movement is the 
 same, but the effect is different. In the former case 
 the pull of the machine tended to draw the arms 
 forward, so that the hard work of the exercise fell 
 upon the trapezius and the rhomboideus major 
 
HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 i io 
 
 and minor (the muscles which draw the shoulder- 
 blades together), and so move the arms apart. 
 In this case the force of the weight works in 
 concert with the above-mentioned muscles, and the 
 brunt of the exercise falls on the pectorales, which 
 draw the arms together. 
 
 This exercise is primarily one for the benefit of 
 the chest and chest muscles, but it may also be 
 made to afford good work for the muscles of the 
 forearm. To effect this, when the arms have 
 reached their utmost point of expansion, bend the 
 wrists backward as far as they will go, and, on the 
 return, check the movement of the arms so soon 
 as they are parallel with each other, and continue 
 it with the wrists only, bending them forcibly 
 inward. This movement sets the flexors of 
 the w r rist in vigorous action, and, if frequently 
 repeated, will be found most effective, not merely 
 in strengthening, but in improving the shape 
 of the forearm, the full development of these 
 muscles contributing in a marked degree to the 
 grace of its outline. 
 
 Exercise CC. (With downward pull.) 
 
 Stand with back to the machine, and arms 
 extended to the front (about the level of the 
 waist), and take a step forward with the left foot, 
 as shown in Fig. 36. The force of the weight is 
 now pulling you backward, and you must therefore 
 
PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS EXERCISES, iii 
 
 throw the chest well forward, and brace the right 
 leg, in order to neutralise it. 
 
 Keeping the arms as stiff as possible, let each, 
 moving in the direction shown by the dotted 
 lines, describe a com¬ 
 plete circle, returning to 
 their original position. 
 
 Inhale strongly as the 
 arms ascend, and ex¬ 
 hale as they descend. 
 
 After having done this 
 ten or a dozen times, 
 hold the breath, with the 
 chest fully expanded, 
 and repeat the move¬ 
 ment as many times as 
 you can without incon¬ 
 venience, but still ad¬ 
 hering to the rule that 
 when you do exhale, 
 it shall be with the 
 descending, and when you inhale, it shall be with 
 the ascending movement. 
 
 This exercise is extremely valuable, partly for 
 the work it gives to the deltoid, trapezius, and 
 pcctorales, but more especially for the energy with 
 which it expands the walls of the chest, and for 
 the vigour it gives to the respiratory muscles. In 
 conjunction with the two or three exercises which 
 
 Fig. 36. 
 
112 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 next follow, it will be found to enlarge the chest 
 to an extraordinary degree, a gain of two or more 
 inches in circumference being by no means 
 unusual. As to the value of such an increase, 
 apart from the obvious improvement of figure 
 thereby produced, we need only refer to an often 
 quoted passage in Dr. Morgan’s “ University 
 Oars.” “An addition of three inches to the 
 circumference of the chest implies that the lungs, 
 instead of containing 250 cubic inches of air as 
 they did before their functional activity was 
 exalted, are now capable of receiving 300 cubic 
 inches within their cells. The value of this 
 augmented lung accommodation will readily be 
 admitted. Suppose, for example, that a man is 
 attacked by inflammation of the lungs, by pleurisy, 
 or some one of the various forms of consumption, 
 it may readily be conceived that, in such an 
 emergency, the possession of enough lung tissue 
 to admit forty or fifty additional cubic inches of 
 air will amply suffice to turn the scale on the side 
 of recovery. It assists a patient successfully to 
 tide over the critical stage of his disease.” 
 
 Exercise DD. (With downward pull.) 
 
 Standing with the arms uplifted in front as shown 
 “dotted” in Fig. 36, and holding them stiff as 
 before, again describe a circle with each, but in the 
 opposite direction, i.e., falling as the arms pass in 
 
PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS EXERCISES. 113 
 
 front of the body, and rising as it travels behind 
 it. The muscles employed are much the same as 
 in the exercise last described, but they are 
 employed in a different manner, and fibres pre¬ 
 viously passive come into active operation.* 
 
 The breath should be inhaled as the arms begin 
 to rise behind the body, and exhaled when they 
 •have reached their highest point, as shown by the 
 dotted lines. 
 
 Exercise EE. [With downward pull.) 
 
 Detach the cords and handles, and standing 
 close to and facing the apparatus, grasp the yoke, 
 one end in each hand, the arms being extended to 
 full length above the head. Draw the yoke 
 slowly down to the full extent of the arms, and 
 repeat the raising and lowering motion alternately, 
 inhaling as the arms rise, exhaling as they sink 
 again. Throughout keep the head up, the 
 shoulders square, and the chest forward. A slow 
 motion is better than a quick one.f After breathing 
 some eight or ten times as above, taking care 
 
 * It may be taken as an axiom, that wherever it is possible to 
 work the same movement in two opposite directions, it is always 
 desirable to do so. 
 
 t It will be seen that this movement is practically the same as 
 that of bell-ringing, which has a particularly beneficial operation in 
 expanding the chest. The movement is also identical in effect with 
 the familiar “ pull up ” to the horizontal bar, for which it is a very 
 good preparation, pretty nearly the same muscles being employed, 
 and in the same way, save that in the case of the bar they have to 
 lift a mass many times heavier, viz., the weight of the body. 
 
 Where this exercise is used not merely for health purposes, but 
 
114 
 
 HOME G YMNA S TICS. 
 
 always to fill the lungs to their utmost capacity, 
 the breath may be held, as in Exercise CC., while 
 the movement is four, five, or more times repeated. 
 
 The muscles here chiefly employed are the del¬ 
 toid, the flexors and extensors of the arms, the trape¬ 
 zius, xhelatissimus dorsi, and the respiratory muscles. 
 
 The same exercise may, by a little modification, 
 be rendered yet more effective, as follows :—■ 
 When, in executing the downward pull as above 
 described, the hands have reached their lowest 
 point, continue the downward motion with the 
 body, sinking down upon the hams till the 
 knuckles touch the floor between the feet, then 
 rise again to the erect position. This additional 
 movement exercises the “ hamstring ” muscles, and 
 the gastrocnemius and soleus , the muscles of the 
 calf, besides throwing some useful work on the 
 extensors of the toes. In again raising the body, 
 the quadriceps extensor femoris is brought into 
 action. Further, from the large bulk of the muscles 
 employed, a proportionately large quantity of car¬ 
 bonic acid is thrown into the blood, thus producing 
 the “breathlessness” which, as we have seen, has 
 so large a share in the beneficial results of exercise. 
 
 as a preparation for regular gymnasium work, there is no objection 
 to gradually increasing the weight, as strength permits, considerably 
 beyond the ordinary limit, say to 50 or 60 lbs. It will still be much 
 below the weight of the body, as pulled up to the horizontal bar. 
 
 This exercise practically illustrates what we have said (p. 96) as 
 to the desirability of the overhead pull starting from a height of 
 not less than 7 ft. 6 inches. 
 
PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS EXERCISES. 115 
 
 If this be found too severe a task (as it pro¬ 
 bably will by many persons), a compromise may 
 be made by simply rising on the toes as the yoke 
 descends, and sinking down again as it ascends. 
 The hamstring muscles now take no part in the 
 work, but those of the calf are kept in active and 
 beneficial operation. 
 
 Exercise FF. (With downwxrdpull.) 
 
 Having replaced the cords and handles (re¬ 
 moved for the purpose of the last exercise), stand 
 with the back to the apparatus, the arms extended 
 (palms downwards) straight to the front, with a 
 handle in each hand. Keep the arms stiff, the 
 hands about eight inches apart. Step forward 
 with the left foot, and throw the weight of the 
 body upon it, at the same time bracing the hinder 
 leg, so as to resist the rearward pull. Now, keep¬ 
 ing the arms stiff and the chest forward, let the 
 arms travel upwards till they reach a vertical 
 position, inhaling as you do so. Then bring 
 them down again to their original position, at the 
 same time slowly exhaling. Do this a few times, 
 and then alter the breathing arrangement, making 
 one inspiration serve for half a dozen or more 
 upward and downward movements. 
 
 This is a partial combination of CC and DD, and 
 may be used as an alternative exercise by those 
 persons who may find CC and DD too fatiguing. 
 
ii6 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 The upward movement exercises the deltoid and 
 trapezius, and the downward the pectoral muscles, 
 while both employ the extensors of the arms and 
 the respiratory muscles. 
 
 The foregoing exercises, regularly practised, 
 will do all that is needful for the development of 
 the chest. Those next following are mainly 
 designed for the improvement of the arm and leg 
 muscles, though, as will be seen, the benefit to be 
 derived from them is by no means limited to 
 those members. 
 
 Exercise HH. {With downward pull.) 
 
 We will begin with an exercise for the striking 
 muscles. These are primarily the triceps and 
 anconeus , but the act of delivering a vigorous 
 blow is a complex one, employing more or less a 
 very large number of muscles. 
 
 Standing with back to the apparatus, right foot 
 advanced, and chest thrown forward, take both 
 handles in the right hand, resting the opposite 
 hand on the hip. Draw the arm slowly back to 
 the shoulder (see Fig. 37), and then thrust it 
 vigorously out again, as shown by the dotted lines, 
 at the same time throwing the right shoulder for¬ 
 ward, and stiffening the left side and leg. Let 
 both blow and return be as straight from and to 
 the shoulder as possible. 
 
 Here, in the forward thrust, we find employed, 
 
PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS EXERCISES. 117 
 
 in the arm itself, the deltoid, triceps and anconeus, 
 but many other muscles work in concert with them. 
 The pectorales, serratus magnus, and obliqtius 
 abdominis help to throw the shoulder forward, 
 and the extensors of the 
 left leg, by stiffening the 
 limb, further enhance 
 the force of the blow. 
 
 By resisting the pull of 
 the weight in the re¬ 
 turn movement (draw¬ 
 ing back the arm), the 
 same muscles receive 
 further exercise, and 
 the benefit is main¬ 
 tained throughout. 
 
 Having sufficiently 
 tired the right arm, re¬ 
 peat with the left in like 
 manner. The left arm, in most persons, is a little 
 weaker than the right. This is a defect, arising 
 simply from the fact that the left arm is habitually 
 less used. The home gymnast should not rest 
 content until, by dint of exercise, he has brought 
 the weaker limb up to the same standard as its 
 stronger brother. 
 
 Exercise II. [With downwardpulli) 
 
 But we may do more yet to develop the 
 triceps. The mechanism of the human frame is 
 
 w 
 
118 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 contrived with such exceeding art, that a given 
 muscle frequently performs a double function/'" 
 and to give it full employment, not one , but many, 
 exercises are necessary. 
 
 Stand facing the apparatus, with a handle in 
 each hand. Extend the 
 arms, palms upwards, hori¬ 
 zontally in front of the 
 body, as shown in Fig. 38. 
 From this position lower 
 the arms, still keeping 
 them extended, till they 
 are as shown by the dotted 
 lines. As they descend, 
 turn the palms inward, 
 continuing the rotatory 
 motion so that when the 
 arms reach the position 
 indicated, the hands shall 
 be back to back. Then 
 let them slowly revert to 
 
 * In the well-known words of Pope 
 
 “ In works of man, though laboured on with pain, 
 
 A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain. 
 
 In God’s, one single can its end produce, 
 
 Yet serves to second too some other use.” 
 
 Any one who has occasion to study the mechanism of so-called 
 automata, even the most admirable of their kind, will be enabled to 
 appreciate the unapproachable perfection of the human organism, 
 and the comparative clumsiness of the most elaborate mundane 
 contrivances. 
 
PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS EXERCISES. 119 
 
 their original position. Inhale as the arms 
 ascend, and exhale as they descend. 
 
 This exercise tends to develop the triceps 
 (especially that portion which is nearest the body), 
 the pectorales, latissimus dorsi, and the pronator 
 and supinator muscles of the fore-arm. The 
 biceps also is benefited by the twisting movement. 
 
 Exercise JJ. (With upward 
 pull .) 
 
 Remove the cords of the down¬ 
 ward pull, and substitute those for 
 the upward pull. Taking a han¬ 
 dle in each hand, stand facing the 
 apparatus, and close to it, so that 
 the force of the pull shall be as 
 nearly vertical as possible. Keep¬ 
 ing the arms straight, “ shrug” the 
 shoulders, lifting them as high as 
 possible. Then depress them, 
 with a distinct downward thrust, 
 as low as possible. (See Fig. 39.) 
 
 The upward movement helps 
 to develop the trapezius, rhom- 
 boidei and levatores scapulce , and, in a less degree, 
 the pectorales. The muscles chiefly affected by 
 the downward movement are the latissimus dorsi 
 and obliquus abdominis , but all the muscles of 
 chest and back largely participate. No one who 
 
 Fig. 39 - 
 
120 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 has not actually tried it would believe the amount 
 of real work there is in this apparently trifling 
 movement. 
 
 An economy of time may be effected by working 
 this simultaneously with the exercise next following. 
 
 Exercise KK. (With upward pulli) 
 
 Standing in the position last above described, 
 a handle in each hand, and the arms hanging 
 down by the sides, rise on the toes as high as 
 you possibly can, and then slowly sink down 
 again ; the weight of the body being supported 
 on the ball of the foot. Continue as long as 
 strength will permit. 
 
 This movement, small though it is, throws 
 very severe work on the gastrocnemius and soleus, 
 •which together make up the calf of the leg. To 
 improve the shape of a too scanty calf, this exer¬ 
 cise will be found invaluable. 
 
 Where these two exercises are worked in con¬ 
 junction, the body should rise simultaneously with 
 the lifting of the shoulders, and sink down as 
 they fall. 
 
 Exercise LL. (With upwardpull .) 
 
 Stand facing the machine, arms extended to 
 the front, palms upwards. Take a short pace 
 back with the right foot, throwing the weight 
 upon such foot, and stiffening the left leg. 
 
PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS EXERCISES. 121 
 
 Now bend the arms, bringing the handles as 
 close to the shoulder as possible, then extend 
 them straight downwards and outwards on either 
 side, carrying them as far to the rear as you can. 
 
 Again extend the arms to the front, and repeat 
 until the muscles are fairly tired. 
 
 A full, deep inspiration should be taken at 
 starting, and the breath held as long as can be 
 done with comfort. When needful, exhale, and 
 take another deep inspiration, so that the chest 
 shall be kept fully expanded. 
 
 The muscles here employed are primarily the 
 flexors and extensors of the arms. The upper 
 arm gets the larger share of the work, which is 
 mainly done by the biceps, brachialis anticus , 
 triceps, and trapezius; but the pectoralis major 
 and latissimus doi'si participate to a greater or 
 less extent. The respiratory muscles also share, 
 but this happens in the case of all vigorous 
 movements. 
 
 Exercise MM. {With upwardpull.) 
 
 Facing the machine, and taking a handle in 
 each hand, sink down gradually on the ball of 
 each foot, as shown in Fig. 21, then slowly rise 
 again to the upright position, taking care through¬ 
 out to keep the shoulders well back, chest forward, 
 and head upright. As you rise, bend the elbows 
 and wrists so as to bring the handles under the 
 
12 2 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 armpits. This, which is one of the movements 
 specially recommended by Dr. Herschell, is 
 primarily an exercise for the flexors and extensors 
 of the legs, giving employment not only to the 
 gluteus maximus, and the quadriceps and biceps of 
 the thigh, but also, by the work thrown on the 
 ankle, to the tibialis anticus, a muscle in front of 
 the leg, which took no part in the work done in 
 K K. Its benefits, however, do not end here, for 
 the rising movement more or less involves the 
 abdominal muscles, the longissimus dorsi, and the 
 elevators of the spine. For these latter, however, 
 we shall find more direct work in the next exercise. 
 The bringing of the hands into the armpit gives 
 employment to the biceps , and the flexors of the 
 wrists. 
 
 Exercise NN. (With upward pull.) 
 
 Standing with face towards machine, feet to¬ 
 gether side by side, stoop down, keeping the body 
 rigid save where flexed at the thigh, and take a 
 handle in each hand. The distance should be so 
 regulated that there shall even in this position be 
 a distinct tension on the cords. (See Fig. 40.) 
 Keeping the arms stiff, rise to the erect position 
 as shown by the dotted lines, and bend backward 
 so as to hollow the back as much as possible, at 
 the same time throwing the chest forward and head 
 back. The knees must be kept stiff throughout, 
 
PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS EXERCISES. 123 
 
 The stress of this exercise, though it employs 
 many muscles more or less, falls mainly on the 
 trapezius, erectores spince , and hamstring muscles ; 
 all the muscles, in fact, which tend to keep the 
 body erect. For this reason it will be found 
 
 Fig. 40. 
 
 extremely beneficial to any person of a stooping 
 habit. It also strengthens the abdominal muscles, 
 and relieves them of superincumbent fat, which 
 fact gives it special value in the treatment of 
 obesity. Exercise MM. will also be found very 
 effective for the latter purpose. 
 
124 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 Exercise 00 . (With upward pull.) 
 
 Face the machine at some little distance, a 
 handle in each hand, the arms extended to the 
 front, palms upwards, as shown in Fig. 41. 
 Bend the arms, drawing the handles as nearly 
 as possible into the armpits (see dotted lines). 
 
 This necessarily involves a slight twist of the 
 fore-arm, and the combined movement has an 
 extraordinary effect in the development of the 
 biceps, which has a double function, viz., to flex 
 and to rotate the fore-arm. The movement 
 described calls upon it to perform both duties 
 simultaneously ; hence its special effectiveness as 
 a gymnastic exercise. 
 
PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS EXERCISES. 125 
 
 Exercise PP. (With upward pull) 
 
 Stand with right side to the pulley-weight 
 apparatus ; right hand holding both handles, arm 
 extended, sloping downwards at about 45 0 from 
 shoulder. Feet eighteen to twenty inches apart. 
 Left hand resting on hip. (See Fig. 42.) The 
 distance should be so arranged that the weight 
 should at starting be lifted a foot or more from 
 its resting-place. 
 
 Bend the body over sideways to the left as far 
 as possible, then as far as possible in the opposite 
 direction (see dotted lines). 
 
 The knees should be kept stiff, so that the 
 whole brunt of the work shall fall on the abdo¬ 
 minal muscles, which it is the object of this 
 exercise to develop. 
 
 When you have expended half the time you 
 propose to devote to this particular exercise, turn 
 the other side to the apparatus, and repeat with the 
 handles in the left hand. The work will thus be 
 more equally distributed. 
 
 Exercise QO. (With downward pull .) " 
 
 Replace the cords appropriate to the downward 
 pull. Stand sideways to the machine, with both 
 handles in the right hand, as directed for the 
 last exercise, the weight being lifted a foot or so, 
 
 * This exercise can be performed with either the downward or 
 the upward pull, but the former is preferable. 
 
126 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 and stretch the arm to its full extent. (See Fig. 43.) 
 Then, keeping it stiff at the elbow, draw it gradually 
 down (as shown by the dotted lines), as far as 
 
 you can in front of 
 the body. Let it slowly 
 rise again to its former 
 position, then once 
 more draw it down, 
 but this time behind 
 the body. Repeat this 
 alternate movement 
 , until the muscles are 
 thoroughly tired. 
 
 Any one ignorant 
 of anatomy would 
 probably imagine that 
 you were exercising 
 throughout the same 
 muscles, but such is 
 by no means the case. The muscle which draws 
 the arm in front of the body is the major pectoral, as 
 you can readily prove by placing the disengaged 
 hand on the chest, in front of the armpit. When 
 the arm is brought forward, this muscle swells and 
 hardens under the hand, but when the arm is 
 passed behind the body, it remains flaccid, showing 
 that it now takes no part in the action. On the 
 contrary, if you place the hand on that portion of 
 the back immediately behind the armpit, you will 
 
PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS EXERCISES. 127 
 
 find that the muscle there situate (the upper part 
 of the latissimus dor si) is in contraction when 
 the arm is drawn behind the body, but quiescent 
 when it is passed in front of the body. 
 
 Exercise RR. [With downward pull.) 
 Standing with face to the machine, feet 
 
 together, arms horizontally to the front, and 
 weight slightly lifted—step back as far as you 
 comfortably can with the left foot (the right 
 remaining unmoved), and at the same time make a 
 slight turn to the left, and draw both handles past 
 the body on that side. (See Fig. 44.) Return 
 
128 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 smartly to the first position ; then move the right 
 foot to the rear, and draw the handles past the 
 body on that side. Repeat the alternate move¬ 
 ment, as above. 
 
 A very large number of muscles take part in 
 this exercise—those principally concerned being 
 the flexors and extensors of the arms and legs, 
 the pectorales, latissimus dorsi, and abdominal 
 muscles. 
 
 Exercise SS. {With downward pull.) 
 
 Stand with the back to the machine, feet 
 together, arms extended vertically above head. 
 Step forward about twenty inches with the right 
 foot, and at the same time lunge vigorously 
 forward with both hands in the same direction. 
 Recover your original position, then step forward 
 in like manner with the left foot, and thrust the 
 handles in that direction. 
 
 The muscles employed are here very much the 
 same as in the last exercise, but the mode of their 
 employment is different, and the one exercise 
 forms just the needful complement of the other. 
 
 Exercise TT. (Rowing Exercise.) With up¬ 
 ward pull. 
 
 For the purpose of this exercise, where used, 
 two additional items will be necessary, a low 
 hassock, five or six inches in height, and a foot- 
 
PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS EXERCISES. 129 
 
 board, secured to the floor just in front of the 
 base of the machine, and having a couple of 
 straps for the feet. The hassock being placed on 
 the floor at a convenient distance from the instru¬ 
 ment, the operator seats himself upon it, places 
 his feet within the straps, and with the knees 
 
 Fig- 45 - 
 
 slightly bent, grasps a handle in each hand. (See 
 Fig. 45.) The length of the cord must be so 
 regulated that to do this he must bend forward 
 over the toes, with the arms extended, the weight 
 being lifted, by the tension of the cords, about 
 six inches from its position of rest. 
 
 This done, the operator draws back his body 
 and arms to the position shown by the dotted 
 lines, the legs being straightened, the hands drawn 
 well in to the chest, and the body inclined back¬ 
 wards till it forms an angle of about 40° with 
 the floor. He should then return to his oriodnal 
 
 o 
 
 position, with the hands as far over the toes as 
 
J3o HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 possible, simulating as nearly as he can the move¬ 
 ments of a rower in an outrigged boat. 
 
 This movement employs the flexors, the 
 lumbar muscles, the extensors of the legs and 
 extensors of the arms, and the erector muscles 
 of the spine. The respiratory and abdominal 
 muscles also participate in the exercise. 
 
 If the operator uses this exercise as a means 
 of keeping himself in training for actual rowing 
 work, he should as the arms come back to the 
 chest, drop the wrists, and bend the hands 
 backward, thereby simulating the movement of 
 “ feathering.” This position of the hands should 
 be maintained until the arms have again reached 
 their full stretch over the toes. This addition 
 will be found to contribute greatly to the 
 strengthening of the wrist and the development 
 of the forearm. 
 
 The fixed foot-board with straps is in itself, 
 even without the pulley - weight apparatus, a 
 valuable adjunct to Home Gymnastics. The 
 operator, seating himself in this case on the floor, 
 should place his feet in the straps, and cross his 
 arms over the chest. He should then alternately 
 allow his body to sink backwards at full length, 
 and rise again to the sitting position without 
 using the hands, but by the mere strength of the 
 lumbar muscles, the legs being meanwhile kept 
 
PULLEY-WEIGHT APPARATUS EXERCISES. 131 
 
 down by the securing of the feet in the straps. 
 Special care should be taken that the body should 
 not swerve from side to side, but move steadily 
 through the same plane, both in ascending and 
 descending. 
 
 This will be found a considerably more la¬ 
 borious exercise than the foregoing, wherein the 
 operator is aided in the return movement by the 
 pull of the weight. The arms here take no part 
 and the legs but little in the movement; it exer¬ 
 cises the lumbar and abdominal muscles in a way 
 in which they are rarely or never called upon 
 in ordinary life, and the benefit to health 
 and strength is proportional. The exercise in 
 question is one of the best possible as a remedy 
 for dyspepsia, and is also exceptionally valuable 
 in the treatment of obesity. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EXERCISES WITHOUT APPARATUS. 
 
 We have already recorded our conviction that 
 exercise, to produce its maximum effect in a 
 hygienic sense, should have some mechanical 
 resistance to overcome.* Hence the value of 
 appliances like the dumb-bells or the pulley- 
 weights, which furnish such resistance in an easily 
 graduated and constant quantity. But there are 
 some few exercises of such a nature that they 
 do not need or gain little from the use of such 
 appliances, by reason that the weight of the body, 
 or of a given member, itself furnishes a sufficient 
 resistance. Thus in walking, running, and 
 leaping, exercise may be carried even to the 
 point of exhaustion without the use of any 
 external appliance. These are familiar instances, 
 but there are other cases less obvious to which 
 the same principle applies, and for the sake of 
 completeness it will be well to indicate them. 
 
 First and foremost come exercises for the 
 muscles of the neck. These muscles are liable to 
 
 * See page 53. 
 
EXERCISES WITHOUT APPARATUS. 133 
 
 various forms of weakness, which render them 
 less able to perform their special duty of keeping 
 the head erect, poised easily and gracefully upon 
 the shoulders. As a consequence the neck 
 becomes scraggy and ill-formed, with probably a 
 couple of ugly depressions before and behind the 
 collar-bone. It may be welcome news to persons 
 so afflicted to know that such defects can be cured 
 by means within the reach of every one, if only 
 they have the courage and patience to persevere 
 long enough in the treatment. The actual period 
 required for the cure will vary according to 
 the longer or shorter standing of the defect to be 
 rectified. 
 
 Exercise i. —Stand with feet together, head 
 thrown back, chest forward, hands on hips. 
 Now let the head drop as far as it will go towards 
 the right shoulder, then in like manner towards 
 the left shoulder. Continue the motion alter¬ 
 nately from side to side, as nearly in the same 
 plane as possible, i.e., not allowing the head to 
 tilt either more forward or more backward than 
 its original position. This exercise develops and 
 strengthens the sterno - mastoid muscles (see 
 p. 41), situate one on either side the neck.* 
 
 * Professor Dowd recommends the employment of the pulley- 
 weight apparatus for these exercises, the hand holding the handle 
 close to the side, front or back (as the case may be) of the head, so 
 
HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 m 
 
 Exercise 2.— Standing in the same position, 
 let the head drop forward on the chest as far as 
 possible, then draw it back till the face is almost 
 parallel with the ceiling. Repeat until the neck is 
 thoroughly tired. 
 
 The forward movement exercises the platysma 
 myoides, a broad thin muscle which covers the 
 front of the neck. The backward movement is 
 equally beneficial to the upper portion of the 
 trapezius , which covers in like manner the back of 
 the neck. 
 
 These are muscles which in an ordinary way 
 get very little exercise, and suffer accordingly. 
 Any one who will persevere in these two exer¬ 
 cises for, say, three months, will note a marked 
 improvement in the contour of the neck, and if 
 the carriage of the head has been previously 
 defective, a similar improvement will be found in 
 this direction. 
 
 Exercise 3.— The hanging forward of the 
 
 that the muscle shall, when the head moves in the opposite direction, 
 have to overcome the resistance of the weight. We cannot endorse 
 this recommendation. In the first place, the use of the pulley-weight 
 apparatus as directed is awkward and troublesome ; and secondly, 
 it is calling upon the muscles in question to do work beyond their 
 proper function. The muscles of the arm are intended by nature 
 to overcome amounts of resistance far in excess of the weight of 
 the limb itself. The muscles which move the head, on the contrary ? 
 are designed to move the head, and for no further duty. The two 
 cases therefore are not parallel. 
 
EXERCISES WITHOUT APPARATUS. 135 
 
 head, a very frequent consequence of much desk- 
 work, is almost always accompanied by more or 
 less roundness of the shoulders. The exercise 
 we are about to describe is designed to remedy 
 this double deformity. 
 
 Standing upright, with feet toge¬ 
 ther, shoulders square, and head 
 erect, interlace the fingers behind 
 the body, palms downward, as shown 
 in Fig. 46. Retract the head 
 strongly, tilting it well back and 
 elevating the chin,'"' and stiffen 
 the arms throughout their whole 
 length (thereby drawing the 
 shoulder-blades together), at the 
 same time inhaling strongly. Relax 
 the strain, and let the head go 
 forward; repeating until the muscles 
 are thoroughly tired. 
 
 The drawing back of the head and 
 straightening of the back exercise the muscles 
 known as the erectores spina; and the strain put 
 upon the shoulder-blades the trapezius and the 
 rhomboideus major and minor , between the 
 
 * As Blaikie has well pointed out {How to get Strong, p. 246), 
 the mere throwing back of the head of itself tends to eievate the 
 front of the chest. But to gtt the maximum benefit from the 
 movement, the shoulder-blades must at the same time be drawn 
 together. 
 
 Fig. 46. 
 
*36 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 shoulders. The strengthening of these muscles 
 will in time draw back the neck and shoulders 
 to their proper position, while the simultaneous 
 inhalation will gradually expand the lungs and 
 chest, which are of necessity contracted by the 
 “stooping” habit. 
 
 Exercise 4.—In similar cases much additional 
 benefit will be obtained from the daily practice of 
 the following exercise. 
 
 Standing upright, with shoulders squared, cross 
 the arms behind the body, each hand grasping the 
 opposite forearm, as near to the elbow as possible, 
 and the forearm pressed strongly into the hollow 
 of the back. Throw the head well back and take 
 a deep breath, when it will be found that of 
 necessity the chest is expanded to its utmost limit. 
 Then bend the body till it is nearly horizontal, 
 at the same time exhaling the breath, but without 
 allowing the shoulders to go forward, the strain of 
 the arms keeping them in position. Then rise 
 again, throwing the head as far back as possible, 
 and hollowing the back, at the same time inhaling 
 strongly. 
 
 This movement exercises much the same 
 muscles as in the last case, but in a slightly 
 different manner. 
 
 Exercise 5.—Standing with feet together and 
 
EXERCISES WITHOUT A PEA RATES. „ 137 
 
 hands on hips (see Fig. 10, p. 68), bend the body 
 over to the right as far as possible (without any 
 forward or backward inclination) ; then over to 
 the left in like manner, and so on alternately. 
 
 This exercise develops the abdominal muscles, 
 contributing greatly to an erect and graceful 
 carriage of the body. It is also valuable as 
 tending to reduce obesity, for the greater the 
 development of muscle round the abdominal 
 region, the less will be the accumulation of fat.'"' 
 All exercises which flex the body on the pelvis ,— 
 a movement rarely required by the conditions of 
 every-day life—have a special value for corpulent 
 persons. 
 
 It will be observed that the exercise here 
 described is in effect the same as Ex. PP with the 
 pulley-weight apparatus. (Seep. 125.) This is a 
 case where the employment of such an appliance 
 is practically a matter of indifference. The use of 
 the pulley-weights of course increases the work 
 done, but only in a slight degree, as they add but 
 a small percentage to the weight of the trunk 
 itself, the resistance of which causes the real stress 
 of the exercise. 
 
 Exercise NN, p. 123 (bending the body over 
 
 * “ Firm and vigorous abdominal muscles form the best 4 girdle 
 against obesity.' Lagrange: Physiology of Bodily Exercise 
 p. 277. 
 
138 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 the toes, with arms extended, and then rising to the 
 erect position), may in like manner be practised as 
 a free exercise with little sacrifice of its effective¬ 
 ness. This also has a special value in cases of 
 obesity. 
 
 Exercise 6. —This is practically identical with 
 dumb-bell Exercise G. (Seep. 74.) Stand upright, 
 with the feet together, hands clasped together, 
 arms stiff and extended straight to the front. Now 
 turn the upper part of the body as far to the right 
 as possible, then to the left in like manner. 
 
 This is a very useful exercise for the abdo¬ 
 minal muscles and rotators of the spine. But it 
 has a further and special virtue in the fact that 
 it produces a sort of internal massage of the 
 stomach and bowels, and a quickening of the 
 circulation in those parts, most valuable in cases 
 of indigestion or chronic constipation. 
 
 With regard to the extension of the arms as 
 above described we have followed Drs. Angerstein 
 and Eckler. The position suggested has its 
 advantages, in so far as the swing of the extended 
 arms helps to carry the body round from side to 
 side, but it is by no means an essential part of the 
 exercise, which may be performed with hands on 
 hips, if preferred, without any material sacrifice of 
 effectiveness. 
 
 Haus-Gymnastik fur Gesande und Kranke. Berlin, 1890. 
 
EXERC/SES WITHOUT APPARATUS. 
 
 139 
 
 Exercises S (dumb-bell) and JJ (pulley-weight), 
 i^pp, 87, 119), may in the same way be practised 
 empty-handed, and will be found very beneficial, 
 though in these two cases the downward pressure 
 of the dumb-bell or pulley-weight very decidedly 
 enhances the effect of the exer¬ 
 cise, as the novice may readily 
 satisfy himself by testing it under 
 both conditions. He will find 
 that the feeling of local fatigue, 
 which is the evidence that the 
 exercise has produced the desired 
 effect on the muscle, will in the one 
 case be produced in two-thirds 
 (or less) time than in the other. 
 
 The legs, with most people, are 
 far better developed than the / 
 arms, by reason that the most 
 indolent person perforce gives the 
 former a certain amount of exer¬ 
 cise, which, from the fact that they have to carry the 
 weight of the body, is relatively of a severe kind. 
 The exertion of a heavy person in ascending two 
 or three flights of stairs represents an amount of 
 work which, if required to be done with the arms, 
 would be regarded as impossible.* But the leg 
 
 t'ig- 47 - 
 
 * Lagrange takes the case of a man, weighing say 150 lbs., 
 taking two minutes to ascend a staircase twenty yards in height. 
 
!4o 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 muscles are intended to do heavy work, and, as a 
 rule, get far less of it than they ought to have, to 
 keep them in thorough condition. We therefore 
 proceed to describe one or two leg exercises. 
 
 Exercise 7.— Stand beside a fairly heavy 
 chair, the left hand grasping the back. The body 
 being thus steadied, support yourself on the left 
 leg, and extend the right leg as far as possible to 
 the front, at the same time pointing the toe down¬ 
 wards. (Fig. 47.) Then, still keeping the leg stiff, 
 draw it back, as shown by the dotted lines, at the 
 same time bending the toes upwards. Repeat 
 until the leg is thoroughly tired; then grasp the 
 chair with the other hand, and repeat the exercise 
 with the left leg. 
 
 The use of the chair is merely a concession to 
 inexperience. So soon as the novice can perform 
 the exercise without its aid, he should do so, as 
 the additional effort of keeping the body balanced 
 has a very beneficial influence on the muscles of 
 the spine and abdomen. 
 
 This exercise is in fact the balance-step, pro¬ 
 fanely spoken of by Thomas Atkins as the “ goose- 
 step ; ” but let not the neophyte despise it for its 
 
 This seems no great feat, but he will thus in two minutes have 
 raised a weight of 150 lbs. 60 feet, or, in other words, have done 
 work equal to 9,000 foot-pounds. This is the same thing as if he 
 had within two minutes lifted thirty 100 lb. weights, or sixty 50 lb 
 weights, and placed them on a table three feet high. 
 
EXERCISES WITHOUT APPARATUS. 141 
 
 homely name, for it employs a singularly wide 
 variety of muscles, and contributes perhaps more 
 than any other form of exercise to improve the 
 walk, and build up a strong and shapely leg. 
 
 The forward movement of the thigh exercises 
 the psoas magnus and iliacus (the large muscles 
 on the front of the thigh), and the rearward move¬ 
 ment the glutens maximus , the muscle of the 
 buttock. Meanwhile the pointing of the toe 
 in the forward movement exercises the muscles of 
 the calf ( gastrocnemius and soleus), and the elevation 
 of the toes in the backward movement the tibialis 
 anticus, the corresponding muscle on the front of 
 the leg. The extensors of the knee-joint also 
 participate in the work, and gain proportionate 
 development. 
 
 Exercise 8. — Standing with the feet together, 
 and holding on to the chair as before with the left 
 hand, raise the right leg, keeping it stiff at the 
 knee, sideways as high as you possibly can, then 
 let it sink slowly down to its former position. It 
 must be kept throughout the movement in the 
 plane of the body ; for if allowed to bend forward, 
 as it will have a natural tendency to do, the work 
 will not wholly fall on the muscles which it is 
 intended to benefit, viz., the gluteus medius 
 and minimus, the abductors* of the thigh. 
 
 o 
 
 * See note on p, 46, 
 
142 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 Exercise 9. —This is the converse of the 
 preceding exercise. The chair is not here needed, 
 as a very little practice will give the necessary 
 balance, and the abdominal muscles will profit by 
 the effort necessary to obtain it. 
 
 Stand with the feet together, 
 one hand on each hip. Bring the 
 right leg, fully extended, across 
 the left, and let the toe (which 
 should be kept well pointed) touch 
 the ground about twelve inches 
 beyond the left foot, as shown by 
 the dotted lines in Fig. 48. Then 
 draw the foot back and let it touch 
 the ground at the furthest attain¬ 
 able point on the opposite side. 
 Continue until the limb is tired, 
 and repeat in like manner with 
 the opposite leg. 
 
 This movement exercises the 
 adductor muscles of the thigh, or 
 those muscles which draw the thighs together. 
 These are the muscles which mainly contribute 
 to a firm seat on horseback, and consequently in 
 persons who ride much are likely to be well deve¬ 
 loped, but save in this one instance they get but 
 little work to do, and suffer accordingly. 
 
 Exercise 10.—Standing with hands on hips, 
 
EXERCISES WITHOUT APPARATUS. 
 
 43 
 
 bend the right knee, and draw up the heel as near 
 to the buttock as possible. Continue till the leg 
 is thoroughly tired ; then repeat with the opposite 
 leg. 
 
 This movement distributes a good deal of work 
 among the flexors and extensors of the leg, but 
 its main effect is to develop what is known as the 
 “ biceps ” of the thigh, the large muscle immedi¬ 
 ately in the rear of the limb, which performs the 
 same office with regard to the leg which the biceps 
 cubiti does for the arm. 
 
 Exercise ii.— Standing with heels together 
 and hands on hips, slowly sink down by bending 
 the knees laterally (not to the front) as far as 
 you possibly can, then slowly rise again to the 
 erect position. (See Fig. 21, dumb-bell exer¬ 
 cises.) This movement exercises the sartorius 
 or “ tailor’s muscle,” a muscle which in ordinary 
 life gets very little employment, and degenerates 
 accordingly. 
 
 Exercise 12. — We will now proceed to 
 describe an exercise of a different kind, and 
 considerably more severe than any of the fore¬ 
 going. Take a couple of strong dining-room 
 chairs (the more upright the better), and place 
 them back to back just so far apart that, with a 
 hand resting on each, you can stand comfortably 
 
144 
 
 HOME G YMNAS TICS. 
 
 between them. Standing with the hands as above 
 described, and bending your knees so as to lift 
 the feet off the ground, let yourself sink down two 
 or three inches by flexing the arms, and then raise 
 yourself again by extending them. This sounds 
 easy enough, but it is extremely hard work to an 
 unpractised person, even though of considerable 
 general strength."' Facility, however, will come 
 with practice. The length of the “dip” will 
 gradually increase till the shoulders sink con¬ 
 siderably lower than the elbows, and the possible 
 number of dips will increase in like manner. 
 
 When the novice has attained a reasonable 
 degree of facility in the “ arm ” portion of the 
 work, the legs should next receive their share of 
 training. Instead of being bent backwards in the 
 kneeling position, they should be kept straight at 
 the knee, and flexed at the hip, rising to the front 
 till they are at right angles with the body. (See 
 
 * Blaikie (Sound Bodies for our Boys and Girls , p. 45) says, “ The 
 writer, in 1879, saw Hanlan, the famous oarsman, try to do a few 
 “ dips.” Although very powerful in the muscles he rowed with, yet 
 when at first he dipped down till his knees touched the floor, he 
 actually could not rise up once. A few months after we saw him 
 try again. He dipped fairly twice. At the third dip he got down 
 till his elbows were bent, but could scarcely straighten up again at 
 all, and stopped. And yet this same Hanlan is one of the greatest 
 rowers the world ever produced,—indeed, was long the champion 
 oarsman of the world. And in the muscles most used in rowing, 
 those of the loins, the bro id of the back, the abdominal muscles, 
 and those of the forearms, the front of the thighs, and . of the 
 calves, he is a very strong man,” 
 
EXERCISES WITHOUT APPARATUS. 
 
 45 
 
 Fig. 49.) This leg movement may be practised 
 in the first instance with the arms held vertical, 
 but when habit has made it fairly easy, the “ dip ” 
 should be practised with the legs in this position. 
 
 Fig. 49. 
 
 The same exercise may be practised from the 
 sitting position, the performer placing himself 
 in a sufficiently strong armchair, and raising 
 and lowering himself by resting his hands on the 
 arms, the legs being held as above described. 
 
 The above will be recognised by athletes as 
 one of the earliest, but by no means the least 
 valuable, of the exercises performed on the 
 
146 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 parallel bars. The “ arm ” portion of the exercise 
 is unsurpassable for the development of the 
 triceps , while the raising of the legs to the “ half¬ 
 lever,” as it is called, is equally beneficial to the 
 abdominal and hip muscles, which, as a rule, get 
 far less than their fair share of work. 
 
 It w T ould be easy to enlarge this list of “ free ” 
 exercises to an indefinite extent. It is obvious 
 that the whole range of dumb-bell exercises, for in¬ 
 stance, might be performed empty-handed, though 
 to do so would, as we have said, be unwise ; as 
 employing the time available for exercise to 
 comparatively small advantage. We will con¬ 
 clude this chapter with the description of a valu¬ 
 able little exercise (13) for developing the muscles 
 of the forearm, though it scarcely comes within 
 the category of “free” exercises, inasmuch as it 
 involves the use of a small item of apparatus, in 
 the shape of a couple of short pieces (say four inches 
 long) of india-rubber tubing, one and a quarter 
 to one and a half inches in diameter. Grasping 
 these one in each hand, with the elbows close to 
 the sides, and the forearms extended horizontally 
 and parallel to each other in front of you, palms 
 upwards, rotate each hand inwards till they are 
 turned palms downwards, at the same time 
 squeezing the rubber tubes with the full force of 
 the hand. Then again turn the wrists outward, 
 
EXERCISES WITHOUT APPARATUS. 
 
 T47 
 
 simultaneously relaxing the grip of the hand. 
 Repeat until the aching of the forearm compels 
 you to desist. 
 
 This apparently trifling movement exercises 
 two different sets of muscles, the half turn of the 
 wrist employing the pronator and supinator 
 rpuscles, and the gripping movement the flexors 
 and extensors of the fingers. But you have not 
 yet done. Now take the tubes between the fore¬ 
 fingers and thumb of each hand, and press with 
 these. This brings into contraction a muscle 
 which has hitherto taken no share in the work, 
 the flexor longus pollicis. 
 
 This muscle, with those employed in the last 
 exercise, together make up the fleshy portion of the 
 forearm, just below the elbow, and if these receive 
 due employment (for which purpose the above 
 two exercises are amply sufficient), a strong and 
 shapely forearm will be the sure result. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 
 
 Among the various exercises already described, 
 there is scarcely one which may not be used to 
 advantage by any person, without distinction of 
 sex or age, always provided that, if dumb-bells or 
 pulley-weight apparatus be used, the amount of 
 resistance to be overcome shall be duly pro¬ 
 portioned to the strength of the person attempting 
 it. In the case of the pulley apparatus the weight 
 may for a woman or child be from two to six 
 pounds. In the case of dumb-bells one or two 
 pounds each will be found amply sufficient. 
 Wooden dumb-bells, of the pattern illustrated in 
 Fig. 3 (p. 51), are to be preferred, iron bells being 
 less satisfactory to handle in very small sizes. 
 
 Besides the above, however, there is another 
 class of exercises which has a special suitability 
 for persons of delicate frame and slight muscular 
 development. We refer to those performed with 
 the Wand. 
 
 The Wand, for persons of five feet and upwards 
 in stature, should be four feet in length, and 
 
WAND EXERCISES. 
 
 149 
 
 three-quarters of an inch in diameter.* For 
 children, it may be six inches less in length, 
 and f inch diameter. It may be made of any 
 kind of light wood (ash, for choice), and should 
 be polished. This not only makes it more 
 comfortable to handle, but keeps it clean; an 
 uppolished wooden surface very quickly becoming 
 soiled. A good polished wand should not cost 
 more than sixpence or eightpence. Unpolished, 
 a wand may be had for half that price. 
 
 Wand Exercise i. —Stand with heels together, 
 toes turned out, head and chin up, shoulders 
 square. Arms hanging down perpendicularly at 
 sides, grasping the wand as shown in Fig. 50. 
 This is the position of “ Attention.” 
 
 Raise the arms perpendicularly as shown by 
 the dotted lines, getting them as far back as 
 possible, and at the same time hollowing the back. 
 Then let them sink down to their former position. 
 
 Meanwhile, the management of the breath 
 
 * For men's use, the wand is sometimes made five feet long, but 
 four feet is amply sufficient. At the German Gymnasium a round 
 iron bar is substituted for the wooden wand. The amount of work 
 done in each exercise is naturally made much heavier thereby, but 
 the substitution is of doubtful advantage. In the wand exercises 
 the element of weight is not needed, the rigidity of the wand, keep¬ 
 ing the hands at a uniform distance from each other, supplying the 
 needful “ resistance.’* Further, the primary object of the wand 
 exercises is to impart, not great strength, but agility, though the 
 acquirement of the latter necessarily promotes that of the former. 
 
HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 150 
 
 should receive attention. Inhale as the arms rise. 
 Exhale as they fall. Do this ten times. Then 
 repeat ten times more,* holding the breath, with 
 
 c;:;/-.-;;;-,'.'. v. v;V&T- :.v:: v ::» 
 
 ; s i '• 
 
 Fig. 50. 
 
 the chest fully expanded, as long as you con¬ 
 veniently can, taking care however always to 
 inhale with an upward, and to exhale with a 
 downward movement. This rule may be re¬ 
 garded as appropriate to the whole series of 
 these exercises. 
 
 * The actual number may be made less or greater at pleasure. 
 It is often hard work at the outset to perform an exercise ten times 
 which after a little practice can easily be performed fifty times. 
 
WAND EXERCISES. 
 
 5« 
 
 [Principal muscles exercised : The deltoid, pecto- 
 rales, the flexors and extensors of the arms, and 
 the respiratory muscles.] 
 
 Wand Exercise 2.— Commencing from the 
 position of Attention, let the hands travel outwards 
 
 along the wand till they are about two feet three 
 inches apart.* (Fig. 51.) Raise the arms as be¬ 
 fore till the wand is above the head, then lower 
 them by bending the elbows till it rests on the 
 shoulders, passing behind the head, as shown by 
 
 * No precise rule can be given as to exact distance, for it will 
 vary with the stature of the operator, but it should be such that 
 when the wand is lowered behind the head, as shown in Fig. 51, the 
 forearms shall be exactly vertical. 
 
152 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 the dotted lines. Raise it once more above the 
 head, and bring it down to the front, as at first. 
 Repeat at pleasure. 
 
 [Principal muscles exercised : The deltoid, pecto- 
 rales , trapezius, rhomboideus, latissimus dorsi, and 
 the respiratory muscles. The forcing back of the 
 shoulders by the lowering of the wand behind the 
 head has a wonderful effect in expanding the 
 chest.] 
 
 Wand Exercise 3. —Standing at the posture 
 of Attention, carry the hands a little further 
 towards the ends of the wand, and proceed as 
 directed for the foregoing exercise, but instead of 
 letting the wand rest on the shoulders, force it past 
 them in a downward direction till it is as shown 
 by the dotted lines in Fig. 52. When it reaches 
 this position, the palms will be to the front, 
 the wand being supported by the thumbs only. 
 Raise it again, and bring it down to the front, 
 as at first. 
 
 You must be careful to let the wand sink down 
 horizontally, neither end being in advance of the 
 other. To ensure this, and indeed correctness in 
 the movements generally, it is well to practise at 
 the earlier stages before a looking-glass. 
 
 At the outset you will find this a difficult 
 exercise, and only to be performed with the hands 
 grasping the extreme ends of the wand. After a 
 
WAND EXERCISES. 
 
 153 
 
 little practice you will be able to manage it with the 
 hands nearer and nearer together, and you should 
 endeavour to achieve this, for the closer the hands 
 
 are together, the greater will be the effect of the 
 exercise as regards the expansion of the chest, 
 [Principal muscles exercised : As in the last 
 case, with the addition of extra work for the 
 rotator muscles of the shoulder, and the latissi- 
 mus c/orsi.~\ 
 
 Wand Exercise 4.— Standing at Attention, raise 
 the arms perpendicularly as shown in Fig. 50. 
 
154 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 Then, still keeping the arms extended, bend the 
 body so as to bring the wand over the toes within 
 six inches of the ground. Rise slowly up again, 
 getting the wand as far back as possible, and 
 hollowing the back. Repeat ad libitum. 
 
 [Principal muscles exercised : The deltoid , 
 erectors of the spine, and abdominal muscles.] 
 
 Wand Exercise 5.—Holding the wand in the 
 same way, i.e., with arms parallel, elevate them above 
 the head, then bend the body to the right, without 
 leaning forward (Fig. 53),'* till the wand is brought 
 as nearly as possible perpendicular. Then bend 
 over to the left in like manner, repeating the 
 movement as long as strength will permit. 
 
 [Principal muscles exercised : The abdominal 
 muscles, deltoid, and the extensors of the arms.] 
 
 The last two exercises may if preferred be worked 
 in alternate sequence, thus : (1) bend forward ; (2) 
 rise to upright position ; (3) bend over to right; 
 (4) bend over to left; (5) return to upward 
 position. Repeat in above order. 
 
 Wand Exercise 6.—Holding the wand as before, 
 with arms parallel, elevate them above the head, 
 
 * In Exercises 5, 6, 7, the head will naturally move with the body, 
 but it would have confused the diagrams to have endeavoured 
 to indicate this by dotted lines. 
 
WAND EXERCISES. 
 
 155 
 
 at the same time turning the body to the left as 
 far as possible. Drop the wand to the horizontal 
 (bringing the body back to the front), and again 
 
 raise it on the right side, turning the body in that 
 direction. (See Fig. 54.) Repeat ad libitum. 
 
 [Principal muscles exercised : The deltoid,perfo¬ 
 rates, extensors of the arm, rotator muscles of the 
 spine, and abdominal muscles, ] 
 
 The above will be found a rather fatio-uino- 
 movement, if long continued. Should it prove 
 too much for the strength of the operator, the 
 
1 5 6 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS 
 
 exercise next following may be substituted, with 
 the same advantage, so far as the effect on the 
 abdominal region (which is the most essential 
 element of the exercise) is concerned. 
 
 Fig. 55 - 
 
 Wand Exercise 7. —Starting from the position 
 of Attention, raise the arms (still keeping them 
 extended) till the wand is level with the chest. 
 (See Fig. 55.) Then without moving the feet, 
 turn the body to right and left alternately, as 
 shown by the dotted lines. 
 
 The muscles here exercised are principally the 
 abdominal, but the chief benefit of the movement 
 
WAND EXERCISES. 
 
 >57 
 
 arises from the sort of massage thereby exercised 
 on the stomach and intestines. 
 
 Wand Exercise 8. —From the position of 
 Attention, let the hands travel along the wand till 
 they are within an inch or so of the respective 
 
 Fig. 56. 
 
 ends. Raise the arms, as in Fig. 52, then lower 
 them so as to bring the wand behind the head, as 
 shown in Fig. 51. Bend the left arm, and extend 
 the right, as shown in Fig. 56, then bend the 
 right arm and extend the left in like manner (see 
 dotted lines), so as to shoot out the wand to right 
 and left alternately. 
 
i 5 8 
 
 HOME G YMNA S TICS 
 
 [Principal muscles exercised : This movement 
 affords excellent work for the trapezius and rhom- 
 boideus (the muscles between the shoulders) and 
 the flexors and extensors of the arms. It is like¬ 
 wise extremely valuable for expanding the chest, 
 and correcting a stooping habit.] 
 
 N.B. The same exercise may 
 be performed with the wand in 
 front of the body, but it is less 
 effective in that shape. The 
 work done by the arm muscles 
 is the same, but the effect on the 
 chest is much less beneficial. 
 
 Wand Exercise 9. — Holding 
 the wand, as last directed, with the 
 hands within a couple of inches of 
 the ends, bring the left hand close to 
 the side (the arm hanging straight 
 down), and the right arm across the 
 body about the level of the fore¬ 
 head, so that the wand shall be 
 perpendicular, as shown in Fig. 57. 
 
 Then reverse the position, raising 
 the left arm, and lowering the right, till the 
 wand assumes a similar position on the opposite 
 side of the body. The shoulders should be 
 kept level, and the body upright, throughout the 
 operation. 
 
 Fig- 57 - 
 
WAND EXERCISES. 
 
 159 
 
 j Principal muscles exercised : The flexors and 
 extensors of the arms, and the intercostal muscles.] 
 
 Wand Exercise 10.—Hold the wand as shown 
 in Fig. 57, left hand down, right hand across the 
 body. Pass the right arm over the head, and 
 lower it behind the body till the wand reaches 
 the horizontal position ; then raise the left arm, 
 bring it over the head, and so bring the wand 
 first to the vertical position on the right side, 
 and then to the horizontal position in front. 
 
 Repeat at pleasure. When you have com¬ 
 pleted half the intended number of movements, 
 vary by working the wand round and over the 
 body in the opposite direction. 
 
 [Principal muscles exercised : Generally speak¬ 
 ing, the same as in the last exercise, but more 
 vigorously, and with more marked effect on the 
 rotator muscles of the shoulders. The restric¬ 
 tion as to keeping the body upright and shoulders 
 level may in this instance be disregarded, this 
 exercise being designed to impart elasticity rather 
 than strength of fibre. 1 
 
 There are, many other movements performed 
 with the wand, but those we have given will 
 be found to cover all that is really essential in this 
 particular direction.* The remainder are mostly 
 
 *-The same series of movements is equally adapted for use with 
 the French dumb-bell or bar-bell, a wooden or iron bar, with a 
 
i6o 
 
 HOME G YMNA S TICS. 
 
 of a “ fancy ” nature, arranged chiefly for prettiness 
 of effect in the “ mass ” exercises of the Gym¬ 
 nasium, of which they form one of the most 
 picturesque elements. 
 
 Before finally quitting the subject of gymnastics 
 for women and children, we must not omit to call 
 attention to the virtues, in a hygienic sense, of two 
 very familiar playthings, the ball and the skipping- 
 rope. 
 
 Few people are conscious of the amount of 
 genuine work done in five minutes of brisk skip¬ 
 ping. Dr. Lagrange says, “ Let us suppose that 
 a little girl is amusing herself by skipping. It is 
 easy to jump one-tenth of a metre high* * one 
 hundred times a minute. The work done, there¬ 
 fore, will be equal to an expenditure of force 
 capable of raising her body to a height of ten 
 metres.t Now there are not many gymnasts who 
 could climb with their hands alone to a height of 
 ten metres in a minute ; and there is not probably 
 one who could go on climbing for three minutes at 
 this pace, while there are many little girls who can 
 skip for five minutes or more without stopping. 
 
 “In the act of skipping, the work is not done 
 
 ball at each end, but as we have already stated (p. 149), we do not 
 consider that the additional resistance of “weight” is any advan¬ 
 tage in this class of exercise. 
 
 * Physiology of Bodily Exercise, p. 232, Approximately, four 
 inches. 
 
 t A little over thirty-three feet. 
 
THE SKIPPING-ROPE. i6r 
 
 by the same muscles which are used in climbing a 
 rope, so the local effect of the two exercises will 
 be different. But if in both exercises the number 
 of kilogrammeIres* of work is the same, the 
 general effects of the work will be identical, for 
 the changes in the great organic functions, and 
 particularly the changes in breathing, are in direct 
 ratio to the sum total of work done in a given 
 time. Now, in the application of exercise to 
 hygiene, the general effects of work are especially 
 sought; we wish to render the blood-currents more 
 active, to increase the power of the respiratory 
 movements, and, in a word, to associate all the great 
 organic functions of the economy in the work.” 
 
 It is clear that by the act of skipping a very 
 large number of muscles, belonging to arms, 
 legs, and trunk, are brought into rapid and 
 energetic contraction. The effect on the respira¬ 
 tory organs is also very marked, as any one un¬ 
 accustomed to this particular exercise may readily 
 satisfy himself, by trying the experiment. Indeed, 
 Lagrange advises, in another passage, “ When a 
 young person has a narrow and flat chest, recom¬ 
 mend running if a boy, skipping if a girl.” 
 
 * In England the unity of measurement, for estimating quantity 
 of work, is the “ foot-pound? i.e. the amount of force expended in 
 raising a weight of i lb. through a space of i foot. In France the 
 unit of measurement is the “ kilogrammltre” i.e. the amount of 
 force needed to lift a weight of one kilogramme (a little over two 
 lbs. three ounces) through a space of one victre (about 40 inches)* 
 
 M 
 
HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 162 
 
 Nor must it be supposed that skipping is an 
 exercise only suitable for children, though it un¬ 
 doubtedly has a special appropriateness in their 
 case. A child skipping is always a more or less 
 graceful object, whereas a stout elderly gentleman 
 or lady exercising in the same way would hardly 
 come within the same description. Of its value 
 for athletic purposes, however, there can be no 
 doubt; indeed, so eminent an authority as the 
 late Charles Westhall specially recommends it 
 to pedestrians in training, as a means of getting 
 rid of superfluous fat. After referring to the 
 efficacy of walking exercise for this purpose, 
 he goes on to say, # —“ If the weather be un¬ 
 favourable, a bout at the dumb-bells, or half- 
 an-hour with a skipping-rope, parallel bars or 
 vaulting bars, will be found not unfavourable as a 
 good substitute. The value of the skipping-rope, 
 as a means of exercise on a bad day, is not well 
 understood by amateurs. Clothed in flannels, the 
 weight comes off very rapidly, while the exercise 
 to the leg muscles is very beneficial. Skipping 
 need not by any means be a monotonous exercise, 
 for there is much scope in it for the exercise of 
 skill and variety. Even when the weather is not 
 bad, an hour’s skip in the back-yard or garden is 
 
 * Training: for Running , Walking, Rowing , &»c. By Charles 
 Westhall, late Pedestrian Champion of England. Revised and 
 enlarged by E. T. Sachs* Ward & Lock, 1890. 
 
BALL EXERCISES. 
 
 163 
 
 a very expeditious method of taking off weight in 
 a natural way, which is the safest.” 
 
 Equally valuable, in another direction, is the 
 “ ball.” Mr. Alexander has even elevated “ Ball 
 Practice ” to the dignity of regular gymnasium 
 work, and has compiled a series of mass exer¬ 
 cises* for its use. The ball recommended by him 
 is the familiar hollow rubber article, five inches 
 in diameter. This is a handy size, being about 
 the maximum that can be conveniently grasped 
 by one hand. For home use the following will 
 be found very beneficial exercises. 
 
 Ball Exercise I.—Stand erect, with the feet at 
 right angles, heels about fifteen inches apart, head 
 up and shoulders square, arms close to sides. Take 
 the ball in the right hand, elbow bent, finger-nails 
 upwards. Toss it straight upward to within a 
 foot of the ceiling, and as it falls, catch it overhand 
 with the same hand. 
 
 Ball Exercise II.—Repeat the same process, 
 but with the left hand instead of the right. 
 
 Ball Exercise III.—Toss the ball with the 
 
 * Modern Gymnastic Exercises . Part II. Advanced. By 
 A. Alexander, F.R.G.S. (Geo. Philip & Son, 32, Fleet St.) Mr. 
 Alexander recommends that the ball be painted red, which doubtless 
 adds to prettiness of effect ; but for home use we think the plain 
 grey rubber preferable. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 right hand as above directed, and catch it with the 
 left.* Then toss with the left, and catch it with 
 the right. 
 
 Ball Exercise IV. — Taking a ball in each 
 hand, toss them simultaneously, catching each with 
 the same hand. 
 
 Ball Exercise V. — Taking a ball in each hand, 
 toss them simultaneously, but so as to cross each 
 other, and catch each as it falls with the opposite 
 hand. 
 
 Ball Exercise VI. — Taking one ball only, let it 
 droo on the floor, and as it rebounds beat it down 
 again (without catching) with the right hand, held 
 flat, palm downwards. As it again rises, again 
 beat it down, counting as you do so, and striving 
 to keep it up as long as possible. 
 
 Ball Exercise VII. — Repeat with the left hand. 
 
 Ball Exercise VIII.—Repeat, using each hand 
 alternately. 
 
 Ball Exercise IX. — Take two balls, and using 
 both hands, repeat with both simultaneously. 
 
 * As the operator advances in dexterity, he may increase the 
 difficulty of the exercise by holding the hands farther and farther 
 apart, so that the ball shall describe a wider arc in falling. 
 
BALL EXERCISES. 
 
 165 
 
 Where a second person can be induced to 
 take part, the exercises may be varied by 
 throwing the balls from the one to the other, 
 first singly, then simultaneously. Specific direc¬ 
 tions are in this case scarcely necessary. The 
 exercise now takes the form of a “ game,” but 
 without any detriment to its hygienic value, nor 
 need the dignity of the most serious suffer by 
 taking part in it. If it can be played out of 
 doors, so much the better, as there will not only 
 be a more plentiful supply of oxygen to the lungs, 
 but greater space for active movement. 
 
 The above exercises, energetically carried out, 
 will be found to involve an amount and variety of 
 movement which would hardly be believed by any 
 one who has not actually tried the experiment. 
 The muscles of the arms and legs take the 
 most direct part in the operation, but besides 
 these, the constant following the ball with eye and 
 hand involves a perpetual hither and thither move¬ 
 ment of the abdominal and neck muscles (which 
 in the ordinary avocations of life get by no means 
 their fair share of exercise), and the work thrown 
 upon these muscles will be found most beneficial, 
 not merely in reducing obesity, but as promoting 
 an easy and graceful carriage. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 EXERCISE IN RELATION TO OBESITY. 
 
 Among the many conditions in which system¬ 
 atic bodily exercise will be found beneficial, there 
 are none in which its use is, in medical phrase, 
 more clearly “ indicated ” than in cases of obesity. 
 While the spare man may be benefited by a 
 course of moderate gymnastics, the corpulent man 
 must. Exercise is Nature’s prime remedy for his 
 ailment. In nine cases out of ten, the neglect of 
 exercise has been a main factor in producing his 
 morbid condition, and conversely, exercise, if 
 sufficient in quantity, and long enough continued, 
 will, unassisted, effect a cure. Blaikie [How to 
 get Strong, p. 157) cites the case of a middle- 
 aged man of his acquaintance, who, from a weight 
 of 305 pounds, without any other change in his 
 mode of living, in five months reduced himself to 
 215 pounds, simply by walking at his best pace, 
 each evening after his day’s work was done, from 
 three to five miles. .The only remarkable point 
 about the story is the strength of mind, which 
 enabled the patient to persevere in so heroic a 
 
EXERCISE IN RELATION TO OBESITY. 167 
 
 treatment; for it must be remembered that the 
 condition which it was designed to cure is the one 
 of all others to render such a remedy distasteful. 
 For a man in middle life, carrying over a hundred¬ 
 weight of superfluous fat, to carry out such a 
 course of training, shows an amount of resolution 
 which we fear is likely to find but few imitators. 
 
 Fortunately, however, the corpulent man, de¬ 
 siring that his “ too, too solid flesh would melt,” is 
 by no means compelled to adopt so painful a 
 remedy. We have said that in such cases, want 
 of exercise is usually a main factor, but it is rarely 
 the only factor ; the second cause being indis¬ 
 cretion in diet. Such indiscretion is very probably 
 in quality rather than quantity. It is by no 
 means a matter of course that a corpulent person 
 should be a very large eater (indeed, the case is 
 often the reverse), but in the words of the old 
 adage, “what is one man’s meat is another man’s 
 poison,” and foods which, to a man of spare habit, 
 are not only harmless but beneficial, may be 
 directly injurious to his more corpulent brother, 
 by overloading his system with those super¬ 
 abundant reserve materials which exercise, as we 
 have seen (p. 20), converts into active poisons. 
 It is therefore neither necessary nor wise to call 
 upon exercise alone to undo a state of things 
 which lack of exercise has only partly created. 
 Exercise alone will produce the desired effect, but 
 
HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 168 
 
 the cure will in such case be long and painful, 
 whereas, if moderate but regular exercise be sup- 
 plemented by an amended dietary, it may be made 
 comparatively easy and pleasant. 
 
 It will be within the memory of most readers 
 that in the year 1863, a worthy gentleman, Mr. 
 Banting, who had been a special sufferer from 
 excess of fat, and had tried all sorts of expedients, 
 including a bread-and-milk diet (!), to reduce it, 
 published a pamphlet detailing the means which 
 ultimately relieved him of what he poetically 
 termed his “ parasite,” and in twelve months 
 reduced his weight from 202 to 156 pounds, his 
 diminution of girth during the same period being 
 12^ inches. The dietary by which he effected 
 this remarkable change was as follows :— 
 
 For breakfast .—Four or five ounces of beef, 
 mutton, kidneys, boiled fish, bacon, or cold meat 
 of any kind, except pork; a large cup of tea, 
 without milk or sugar, a little biscuit, or one ounce 
 of dry toast. 
 
 For dinner .—Five or six ounces of any fish 
 except salmon, any meat except pork, any vege¬ 
 table except potato ; one ounce of dry toast, fruit 
 out of a pudding, any kind of poultry or game, 
 and two or three glasses of good claret, sherry, or 
 madeira.—(Champagne, port, and beer forbidden.) 
 
 For tea .—Two or three ounces of fruit, a rusk 
 or two, and a cup of tea without milk or sugar. 
 
EXERCISE IN RELATION TO OBESITY. 169 
 
 For supper .—Three or four ounces of meat or 
 fish, similar to dinner, with a glass or two of claret. 
 
 For night-cap, if required, a tumbler of grog 
 (gin, whisky or brandy, without sugar), or a glass 
 or two of claret or sherry. 
 
 It will be seen that the regimen was by no 
 means one of starvation, the only articles specially 
 tabooed being bread, butter, pastry, milk, beer, 
 sugar, and potatoes. The pamphlet attracted an 
 extraordinary degree of attention. The doctors 
 declared that there was nothing new in the treat¬ 
 ment. They knew, they said, all about it before, 
 but if so, they had with singular unanimity 
 refrained from communicating the secret to their 
 patients. Mr. Banting had at any rate the credit 
 of calling public attention effectually to the subject, 
 and of having proved, in his own person, that the 
 evil was not without a remedy. Since his day, 
 medical science has advanced in this as in other 
 directions, and the principles foreshadowed in what 
 is familiarly known as “ doing Banting ” have been 
 carried very much farther—to an extent, indeed, 
 which Banting himself never dreamed of. 
 
 The most drastic regimen for the reduction of 
 obesity is that known as the “Salisbury’ 1 System, 
 after the American physician who originated it. 
 Strange to say, however, the use of the Salisbury 
 treatment for this particular purpose is a sort of 
 afterthought, an addition engrafted by later scientists 
 
170 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 on the stock of the original inventor.* Dr. 
 Salisbury’s special work is a treatise on The 
 Relation of Alimentation to Disease , embodying 
 the results of a life-long series of experiments on 
 the influence of various diets in curing or 
 producing disease. Its special object was to 
 establish an effective treatment for certain 
 dyspeptic and kidney disturbances, which, ac¬ 
 cording to the author, lie at the root of half 
 the ailments flesh is heir to. Dr. Salisbury 
 maintains that such ailments arise mainly from 
 the formation (in the stomach and intestinal 
 canal) of certain products (notably lactic, acetic, 
 butyric and saccharic acids, and certain gases) 
 which, if not rapidly and completely eliminated 
 from the system, poison the blood, and lay the 
 
 * Almost the only allusion in Dr. Salisbury’s book to the loss of 
 weight consequent on the adoption of his system is in the terms 
 following (p. 172):—“Never mind the shrinkage in weight. It is 
 natural and absolutely necessary, for the reason that those foods 
 which upholster, or make fat, are the very ones which produce the 
 disease. The weight-decrease is not at all dangerous or alarming, 
 when from the blood examinations it is readily seen that the blood 
 is constantly improving in quality and increasing in quantity. The 
 patient will begin to make new and firm healthy tissue at a later 
 stage of his cure, when normal blood-making processes are fully 
 restored. The tissue with which he has parted—devitalized and 
 enervated—is no loss, and must give place to that of the new order 
 of things.” 
 
 From the above extract it will be seen that the reduction of 
 weight is regarded by Dr. Salisbury as a mere accident of his 
 system, and by no means one of its special objects. 
 
EXERCISE IN RELATION TO OBESITY. 171 
 
 foundation of various morbid conditions. Much 
 of the mischief arises from a yeasty fermentation,* 
 which, once set up in the stomach, tends to 
 perpetuate itself, and by the constant production 
 of carbonic acid gas keeps the mucous membranes 
 in a slimy catarrhal condition. The excessive 
 formation of mucus thereby caused in the stomach 
 and duodenum impedes the due performance of 
 their functions, and every fresh supply of food 
 introduced into the system thus clogged tends to 
 aggravate the evil. Dr. Salisbury’s treatment is 
 directed in the first place to clear the system of 
 this yeasty secretion, and in the second to prevent 
 its re-appearance. The first desideratum he claims 
 to effect by the administration of copious doses of 
 hot water ; the second by the adoption of a novel 
 and somewhat startling regimen in point of diet. 
 
 The hot water is taken in four doses of one 
 pint each, the first dose on rising in the morning, 
 the last just before retiring to rest, and the other 
 two an hour or an hour and a half before luncheon 
 and dinner respectively. The water should be as 
 hot as can be borne without inconvenience, say 
 no° to 150° Fahrenheit; and not taken at a 
 draught, but slowly sipped, so as not to 
 distend the stomach. The selection of the 
 
 * It should be stated that this “ yeasty” theory is by no means 
 fully accepted by English medical men, even though following 
 Dr. Salisbury’s methods. 
 
172 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 hours indicated ensures that it shall be taken 
 as nearly as possible on an empty stomach, the 
 digestion of the last preceding meal being by 
 that time practically completed. Its function is 
 threefold : to aid the dispersion of any residuum 
 of the food last taken, to wash away the yeasty 
 secretion above referred to, and, last but not 
 least, to dilute, to the point of solution, certain 
 matters which otherwise tend to accumulate in the 
 system, and to set up a morbid action therein.'" 
 
 So much for the “ hot water ’’ portion of the 
 treatment, to which comparatively little exception 
 is taken, it being conceded—even by those who 
 do not admit that it does any good—that it 
 cannot very well do any particular harm. It is 
 the dietetic portion of the system which most 
 clashes with old-fashioned medical ideas, and has 
 excited the keenest controversy. Dr. Salisbury 
 asserts that the yeasty fermentation, above 
 referred to, is produced mainly by vegetable and 
 saccharine elements, and these accordingly he 
 taboos, for a season, in toto , afterwards permitting 
 
 * Amongst these we may instance uric acid, which requires no 
 less than eight thousand times its weight of water, at the tempera¬ 
 ture of the blood, to hold it in solution. If the quantity of fluid taken 
 is insufficient, the acid crystallises, and gout, gravel, and other 
 disorders are the necessary consequence. It is true that the 
 solvent fluid might be taken in the shape of cold water, but the 
 body would then have to provide the needful heat to raise it to the 
 required temperature, and there is therefore an economy of vital 
 force in administering it already heated. 
 
EXERCISE IN RELATION TO OBESITY. 173 
 
 them to a limited extent, but in very small 
 proportion compared to the ordinary consump¬ 
 tion of most persons ; the proper or “ normal ” 
 diet of man, according to him, consisting of two- 
 thirds animal to one of vegetable food. For the 
 first few weeks of treatment (varying in number 
 according to the circumstances of the particular 
 case), absolutely no vegetable food is to be eaten. 
 The only food permitted is lean rump steak, free 
 from skin and fat, not even bread being allowed 
 during this earlier stage. On the other hand, no 
 limit is laid down as to quantity, and the patient 
 may, if he pleases, take a full pound or even more 
 of solid meat at each meal.'* 
 
 It is an undoubted fact that any one adopting 
 the all-meat system in its entirety will find his 
 weight diminish with extraordinary rapidity, a 
 loss even of two or three pounds a week being by 
 no means exceptional. We have no reason to 
 believe that the patient’s health would be likely 
 to suffer even from the strictest observance of the 
 regimen indicated,f but we cannot speak on this 
 
 * x * A considerable increase of quantity is inevitable. A patient 
 who would find it difficult to get through half a pound of steak 
 with the usual accompaniment of bread and vegetables, will with¬ 
 out difficulty eat a whole pound alone, and have a good appetite for 
 the next meal. This arises not merely from the meat alone being 
 more quickly digested, but from the fact that the stomach is not 
 distended by the gases arising from the usual “ mixed diet.” 
 
 t We cannot say as much for the much advertised quack 
 remedies for obesity, which may be ranged under two categories, 
 
174 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 point from personal knowledge. With regard, 
 however, to the effect of the same dietary//^ a 
 
 the absolutely inert, and the actively injurious. A little reflection 
 will convince the reader that such is likely to be the case. In these 
 analytical days it is impossible to keep the composition of an 
 alleged remedy a secret, and were there any drug or combination 
 of drugs which would cure obesity without injury to the constitu¬ 
 tion, it would be eagerly adopted and prescribed by medical men. 
 As a matter of fact, every honourable practitioner will frankly 
 admit that he knows of no drug which will directly remove super - 
 fluous fat , except at the cost of injury to the general health . 
 
 Some of the advertised nostrums are preparations of iodine, a 
 drug which will undoubtedly cause waste of tissue, but too 
 frequently in directions where it is least desired. In other cases a 
 show of good faith is made by giving the “ prescription 55 itself, 
 accompanied by a hint that if the purchaser finds any difficulty in 
 getting it made up by his own druggist, he can have a supply of the 
 genuine article from the advertiser for a sum named. Now one of 
 two things usually happens. Either the chemist undertakes the 
 task (in which case the very probable failure of the mixture is laid 
 by the advertiser to some fault in the mode of preparation), or, 
 more frequently, he frankly says that it includes some drug of which 
 he never heard. In either case the victim, determined to have the 
 right thing, ultimately applies for it to the benevolent advertiser, 
 and is fortunate if the mere waste of his money is the only penalty 
 he pays for his folly. 
 
 It should, to a prudent person, be presumptive evidence of fraud 
 that the advertisement, or the prospectus which follows it, almost 
 always states as a recommendation that no change of diet or increase 
 of exercise is necessary, thereby discarding the two most effective 
 bona fide methods of fat-reducing treatment. 
 
 A word of caution may be usefully added against the use of 
 vinegar as a means of reducing fat. Dr. Salisbury quotes (p. 210) 
 a case from the London Medical Gazette ; “ A young lady in easy 
 circumstances, enjoying good health, was very plump, had a good 
 appetite, and a complexion blooming with roses and lilies. She 
 began to look upon her plumpness with suspicion ; her mother 
 being very fat, and she afraid of becoming like her. Accordingly 
 she consulted a woman, who advised her to drink a small glass of 
 
EXERCISE IN RELATION TO OBESITY. 175 
 
 very slight admixture of vegetable food we 
 can testify from direct experience, having, 
 under skilled advice, made personal trial of 
 it, in conjunction with a special course of 
 Home Gymnastics,* * and having derived there¬ 
 from the greatest benefit, not only in diminu ¬ 
 tion of weight and girth,f but in improv ed 
 
 vinegar daily. The counsel was followed, and the plumpness soon 
 diminished. She was delighted with the success of the remedy, 
 and continued it for more than a month. She began to have 
 a cough, but it was at first dry, and regarded as a cold that would 
 subside. But from being dry it was presently moist. A slow fever 
 came on, with difficult breathing ; her body became lame and 
 wasted away ; night sweats, with swelling of the feet, succeeded, 
 and a diarrhoea terminated her life. On examination, all the lobes of 
 the lungs were found filled with tubercles, and somewhat resembled 
 a bunch of grapes.” 
 
 The above is by no means an isolated case, as any medical 
 man will admit. Dr. Salisbury, in the course of his experiments, 
 placed four men, including himself, upon ordinary diet, but using 
 vinegar mixed with sweetened water as their only beverage. From 
 the third day the health of each began to deteriorate, and on the 
 ninth the experiment had to be discontinued, the subjects one and 
 all showing symptoms answering to those of Flog Cholera, a disease 
 which Dr. Salisbury had already shown to be caused by feeding 
 swine on the acid wash of the distilleries. 
 
 * See Preface. 
 
 t To the extent, in eight months, of 30 lbs. of weight, and four 
 inches of waist measurement. The reduction might, no doubt, 
 have been carried much further, but the diminution being regarded 
 as sufficient, the strict rule of diet was exchanged at this point for a 
 less stringent regimen. 
 
 It should be noted that the reduction of bulk is always most 
 marked at the earlier stages of the treatment. So soon as the 
 excess of fat has been got rid of, the diminution proceeds much 
 more slowly. It is also a frequent occurrence (verified by the 
 writer’s own experience) to find the chest measurement diminish to 
 
176 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 general health, and increase of bodily and mental 
 energy. 
 
 the extent of two or three inches by reduction of fat, and afterwards 
 again increase to nearly or quite the same extent, by the expansion 
 of the chest cavity under the influence of daily exercise with the 
 dumb-bells and pulley-weight apparatus. 
 
 With regard to the extent to which it is desirable to reduce 
 weight, it may be worth while to quote the following table, given 
 by Dr. Hutchinson, the originator of the “ spirometer,” in his 
 pamphlet descriptive of that invention. Dr. Hutchinson, who was 
 a leading authority on questions connected with Life Assurance, 
 maintained that any marked defect or excess of weight beyond the 
 normal standard affected the value of the “ life.” As a guide in 
 such matters he framed this table, showing the average weights of 
 2,650 healthy males in thirteen different classes of society, at the 
 middle period of life. It is stated that “ no allowance is made for 
 ordinary dress,” which we take to mean that the weights given 
 include those of the clothes in indoor use. 
 
 It will be noted that two different weights are given for each inch 
 of stature. The first is the average or normal weight, the second the 
 same^ an increase of seven per cent ., that being the limit to which 
 Dr. Hutchinson found the normal weight could be exceeded without 
 depreciation of the respiratory power. Beyond this limit, he 
 states, “ excess weight is disease.” Theorists are, however, some¬ 
 what arbitrary in such matters, and we ourselves should regard any 
 one who did not exceed the higher limit by more than half a stone 
 as in very fair condition for all ordinary purposes of life. At the 
 lower limit we should scarcely think it desirable to aim. Fat, as 
 we have seen, constitutes a great part of the “ reserves ” of the 
 body, and though excess of such reserve material is an evil, to 
 have no reserve at all is equally objectionable, as the system is in 
 such case not in a condition to meet any exceptional waste of tissue. 
 
 Stature. 
 
 Mean Weight. 
 
 Mean Weight 
 increased by 
 
 1 
 
 ' Stature. 
 
 Mean Weight. 
 
 Mean Weight 
 increased by 
 
 ft. 
 
 in. 
 
 st. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 7 per cent, 
 st. lbs. 
 
 ft. in. 
 
 st. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 7 per cent, 
 st. lbs. 
 
 5 
 
 I 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 IO 
 
 8 
 
 I I 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 n 
 
 9 
 
 0 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 I I 
 
 1 
 
 I I 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 1 5 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 5 10 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 5 11 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 11 
 
 1 1 
 
 6 0 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 8 
 
EXERCISE IN RELATION TO OBESITY. 177 
 
 The following are the rules of the two-thirds or 
 “ normal ” diet, as laid down by Dr. Salisbury.* 
 
 “ Let all meals consist of two-thirds animal 
 food, and one-third vegetable food. The pro¬ 
 portions are to be by bulk, to be measured by the 
 eye; broiled steak and ordinary baked potatoes 
 being the best data for making allowances for 
 articles having lesser density or more water. 
 What I mean is that you could take, for example, 
 without exceeding the one-third, a larger apparent 
 bulk of boiled rice than you could of baked 
 potato, on account of the separation of the rice 
 grains and the water they have absorbed. 
 
 Chew vegetable food thoroughly. If it can be 
 chewed until it is so reduced that it disappears, as 
 it were, down the throat without any special effort 
 to swallow, it will be perfectly masticated. 
 
 Eat always at the same hours. 
 
 Do not drink more than six ounces of liquid 
 at a meal. The principal thirst should be slaked 
 between meals, about an hour before meal-times. 
 
 * We quote these rules as to the “normal 5 ’ diet (which are 
 intended to apply to persons in sound health) from a very in¬ 
 structive little pamphlet, entitled Hot Water as a Remedy (Simpkin, 
 Marshall & Co.), by the late Dr. Butler of New York, one of the 
 earliest and most enthusiastic exponents of the Salisbury system. 
 The dietary instructions given by Dr. Salisbury in his special 
 treatise, The Relation of Alimentation and Disease (and quoted 
 fosf, p. 181), are designed to meet acute morbid conditions. 
 
 Dr. Butler’s pamphlet contains, among other interesting matter, 
 an account of various personal experiences of the system. 
 
 N 
 
i 7 8 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 Do not eat or drink anything cold if it can 
 be avoided. If obliged to take something cold, 
 warm it, if possible, in the mouth by chewing or 
 holding it there. 
 
 Do not eat manufactured sugar or products 
 thereof, nor any dish or article prepared with the 
 same.* 
 
 Do not drink liquids having carbonic acid in 
 them, as soda, ginger ale, champagne, &c. 
 
 Eat and drink nothing of which the com¬ 
 position is unknown, or which is known to dis¬ 
 agree with you. 
 
 Avoid malt liquors. An occasional glass of 
 good sound still wine may be taken if it agrees, or 
 some well diluted distilled liquor of best quality. 
 But it must not be a daily practice. 
 
 Smoking, not to exceed one cigar after each 
 meal, is permitted if it does not disagree. 
 
 Soups, pies, puddings, pastry, preserves, 
 
 * Abstinence from sugar is a severe punishment to many 
 people, but a satisfactory substitute is now found in Saccharin (one 
 of the many coal-tar products), which possesses all the sweetening 
 property of sugar without its fattening or fermentative properties. 
 Messrs. Burroughs & Wellcome supply it in the shape of ^ grain 
 tabloids (procurable of any chemist in bottles containing 25, 100, 
 or 200 as required); also in a soluble powder, J ounce in bottle, 
 with microscopic “ scoop.” One to two tabloids or scoops full will 
 effectually sweeten a cup of tea or glass of toddy. For sweetening 
 acidulated drinks, stewed fruit, &c., the plain saccharin may be: 
 mixed with a small quantity of glycerine. 
 
 Messrs, Allen & Hanbury supply similar preparations. 
 
EXERCISE IN RELATION TO OBESITY. 179 
 
 candies, sweetmeats, cakes, nuts, raisins, dates, 
 should be avoided. An occasional fig is allowed 
 if it agrees. 
 
 No condiments allowed except salt, black 
 pepper (use a French table pepper-mill), lemon 
 juice (fresh), mustard, and horse-radish. A 
 little genuine cayenne occasionally, especially if 
 one has a cold in the head. 
 
 Vinegar must be banished.* Use fresh lemon- 
 juice in all cases where vinegar was formerly 
 employed. 
 
 Raw vegetables, such as lettuce, endive, radish, 
 &c., should be avoided, with the sole exception of 
 celery, which is permitted in moderation. 
 
 The pips, seeds, cores, and rinds of fruits and 
 vegetables, and the fat, cartilage, sinew, and 
 tendon of animal food, and things hard and 
 indigestible in general are forbidden. 
 
 Oatmeal, and all other products of oats, and 
 all products of maize, or Indian corn, must be 
 avoided. Wheaten bread and boiled rice should 
 constitute about all your grain food. 
 
 Fresh fruit is recommended, but strawberries, 
 grapes, and pineapples should be eaten very 
 sparingly, especially strawberries. When the 
 rind of the fruit is eaten, or goes into the mouth, 
 it should first be well washed. 
 
 * As tending to produce acetous fermentation in the stomach. 
 
i8o 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 Live principally on roast or broiled meat, fish, 
 poultry, and game, boiled rice, wheaten bread, 
 potatoes baked in their jackets, butter, hot water, 
 tea, and coffee. Eschew the fatter, oilier kinds; 
 such as geese, ducks, salmon, eels. No pork. 
 
 Eat nothing fried* No made sauces, stuffing, 
 or dressing. 
 
 Avoid meats and fish that have been salted or 
 smoked, except perhaps good dried cod-fish well 
 soaked out. 
 
 A soft boiled or poached egg now and then, 
 but not as a regular thing. 
 
 The watery, ligneous, and nitrogenous vegetables 
 are allowed in small proportion once in a while. 
 They can easily be dispensed with, being, with the 
 exception of beans and peas, mostly for flavour only. 
 . . . Such as have peculiar specific properties, as 
 asparagus, spinach, onions, had better be avoided.” 
 
 The foregoing regimen is intended for those 
 persons who are already in normal health and 
 condition. For those who are over-burdened 
 with fat, with or without kidney trouble, the pro¬ 
 portion of vegetable food is still further reduced. 
 It may be useful to quote, for the further informa- 
 
 * This prohibition is, doubtless, on account of the butter, or 
 other animal fat, which is ordinarily used in the process of 
 frying. If fish or meat be fried in pure olive oil, it will be found 
 quite unobjectionable. 
 
EXERCISE IN RELATION TO OBESITY. iSt 
 
 tion of the too corpulent reader, the more stringent 
 regimen recommended by Dr. Salisbury for 
 patients suffering from diabetes or “ Bright’s ” 
 disease, which has a still more marked effect in 
 the reduction of superfluous weight. 
 
 “ Drinks. —Drink from one half to one pint of 
 hot water, one and a half hours before each meal 
 and on retiring, drinking slowly.* .... 
 
 Drink a cup (eight ounces) of clear tea, coffee, or 
 beef tea (made of beef freed from fat and connec¬ 
 tive tissue) at each meal. When thirsty, between 
 two hours after a meal, and one hour before the 
 next, drink hot water, clear tea or beef tea freed from 
 fat or gelatine. Take no other drinks of any kind. 
 Should the hot water sicken the stomach, sprinkle 
 in just enough salt to take away the flat taste. 
 
 “ Food. —Eat the muscle pulp of lean beef, made 
 into cakes and broiled.t . . . . For variety 
 
 use also the steak (broiled) which is cut through 
 the centre of a round (query, leg ?) of lamb or 
 mutton, broiled quail, broiled oysters, broiled 
 
 * See p. 171. 
 
 t Dr. Salisbury elsewhere gives instructions for the preparation of 
 these cakes. They are to consist of the muscle only, freed from con¬ 
 nective tissue, fat and cartilage. Steaks from the centre of the round 
 are to be preferred. The lean muscle is to be first cut up in pieces 
 an inch or two square, and then minced to a pulp. This is to be 
 lightly pressed into cakes from half an inch to an inch thick, and 
 then broiled slowly, till moderately well done, over a clear fire. 
 
HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 i$2 
 
 grouse, broiled woodcock, broiled snipe, broiled 
 partridge, and broiled cod-fish. The whites of eggs 
 may be taken raw, poached, or soft boiled. Avoid 
 all fats as far as possible, using only salt and 
 pepper for seasoning. Mustard mixed with hot 
 water, lemon juice or Worcester and Halford 
 sauces may be used on meats if desired. A little 
 celery may be eaten at dinner if desired. All 
 other foods, drinks and condiments not mentioned 
 above should be strictly prohibited.” 
 
 This rigid diet is to be kept up until all traces 
 of albumen or sugar respectively disappear from 
 the urine. # When these have ceased to show 
 themselves for a couple of weeks, the patient may 
 be allowed one part of bread, toast or boiled rice, 
 by bulk, and not by weight, to eight or ten parts 
 of the beef eaten at a meal. When this new 
 departure has been continued for four weeks with¬ 
 out a return of the symptoms, the bread, toast or 
 boiled rice, is increased to one part by bulk, to six 
 of meat, and a piece of butter the size of a hickory 
 nut is permitted as seasoning. Four weeks later, 
 the proportion of bread, &c., is increased to one 
 part in five, with a little increase of the butter. 
 After another month the proportion may be one 
 to four, and a month later, one to three. These 
 
 * The above are distinctive symptoms of “ Bright’s ” disease and 
 diabetes. 
 
EXERCISE IN RELATION TO OBESITY. 183 
 
 proportions are to be continued for three months, 
 and then, if no sign of the disease be visible, the 
 bread, toast, or boiled rice may be increased to 
 one part to two of meat (the “ normal ” pro¬ 
 portions). A little later milk warm from the cow 
 (half a pint to a pint) is allowed, two hours after 
 breakfast and dinner. Later still the patient may 
 be allowed fruit, to the extent however of only 
 one peach, apple, orange, or bunch of grapes per 
 day, and sugar and cream may be used, but very 
 moderately, in tea and coffee. 
 
 It will readily be understood that a patient 
 whose only object is the reduction of fat, is under 
 no necessity to follow out the system either so 
 long or so strictly as here mentioned; but if he is 
 serious in his determination to get rid of his super¬ 
 fluity, he cannot do so more certainly than by follow¬ 
 ing out the prescribed regimen to a modified 
 extent; say adhering to the “ all meat ” system for 
 three or four weeks, and then relaxing its strictness 
 by the several steps indicated, but at fortnightly 
 intervals, till he reaches the “two-thirds,” or “nor¬ 
 mal ” limit. This should take about four months, 
 and if he has meanwhile persevered in regular daily 
 exercise with the dumb-bells or pulley-weight ap¬ 
 paratus, he should (unless excessively corpulent at 
 the outset) have lost his superfluity of fat, and be 
 in fairly sound physical condition. After another 
 
184 
 
 HOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 month or so of the “ normal ” regimen, he should 
 be in such good condition as to be practically 
 independent of strict dietetic rules; regular 
 exercise and a little wholesome caution in the 
 matter of eating and drinking being sufficient to 
 keep him in vigorous health. The restrictions as 
 to the non-consumption of the fat or skin with 
 meat may thenceforth be disregarded; likewise 
 the prohibition of soups and stews, salted or 
 smoked meats, of milk with tea, of vinegar, of 
 grapes and strawberries. Potatoes and other floury 
 vegetables, pastry and new bread should still be 
 avoided ; also sweetmeats, sugar, and all foods into 
 whose composition sugar largely enters. 
 
 The very slight amount of privation still de¬ 
 manded will come the easier, inasmuch as it will 
 be found that the period of strict abstinence from 
 sundry unwholesome things has sufficed, in a 
 great measure, to destroy the taste for them. 
 Thus it may be safely predicted that the man who 
 has once learned to drink his tea without sugar will 
 never again do otherwise, his palate having in the 
 meantime been educated to a higher level; and in 
 like manner the craving for rich pastry, sweet¬ 
 meats, and highly-seasoned foods, once lost by 
 disuse, will never return in the same degree; the 
 new relish for plain beef and mutton having (to 
 the great advantage of the digestive organs) not 
 
EXERCISE IN RELATION TO OBESITY. 185 
 
 merely superseded, but practically destroyed the 
 taste for more savoury, but less wholesome, 
 dishes. 
 
 The daily use of hot water at the hours stated 
 should still be maintained, such use having a 
 distinct hygienic value, even apart from any 
 special rule of diet. So long as the flesh-food 
 regimen is continued, the use of the hot water is 
 not merely expedient, but absolutely necessary, 
 being required for the complete solution of the 
 salts thrown into the blood by such regimen. 
 
 O 
 
L’ENVOI. 
 
 It is one of the special difficulties of a book of 
 this kind, to know precisely where to end. The 
 subject grows under one’s hand. There seems 
 always to be a little more, and yet a little more, 
 which might be said with advantage. On the 
 other hand, there is risk that excess of detail may 
 obscure the general design ; and that the reader, 
 who might have been tempted by a little, may be 
 repelled by the offer of “ too much.” We have 
 endeavoured to hold the middle course ; with what 
 success we must leave the public to decide. 
 
 One parting assurance, however, we may 
 give to every one who reads these pages. The 
 hygienic principles laid down in this little book 
 are of direct personal interest to every man, and 
 therefore to you. .Study and practise them, and in 
 so doing you shall have three parts gained that 
 first of earthly blessings— health. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LIMD., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 
 
For the explanation of 
 (pp. 40 et seq .), The 
 
 this Plate, see Chapter V, 
 Muscles of the Body. 
 

 
 -^,1 
 
 
SPORTBOOKS 
 
 RARE - OUT OF PRINT - NEW 
 42 CHURCH STRUT 
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