Ideal Home Life - online book

A valuable and well-organized system for home education(homeschooling) 3 to 12 years.

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	462                          IDEAL HOME LIFE into systematic use the muscles and organs of any affected por­tion of the body, wonderful curative powers are put in operation. There have been half a dozen treatises on the application of physical exercises to healing purposes written by members of the medical profession. But most of them were designed merely to supplement the ordinary treatment by drugs. We undertake to supply herewith a series of exercises, devised to gradually strengthen the entire physical body, and to do it so gradually that even an invalid may take up the system, and by following it through to its conclusion obtain not only relief from his disease, but the requisite degree of muscular strength which one of his or her particular height and build should possess. Most of the systems of physical culture heretofore put be­fore the public are arduous, and demand considerable time. The advantage we claim for the following exercises, which em­brace all that is necessary to secure the development of an athlete, is that they requires absolutely no apparatus, although we give a few movements at the close for dumb-bells; and that all the time required is a few minutes every morning and night. You will never miss these short periods of exercise from your day's duties, and you will find yourself unconsciously gaining vigor and elasticity, and the buoyant spirit that is inseparable from successful achievement. • Chapter II—Diet I referred in the preceding chapter to the importance of supplying the proper fuel to the intricate living engine—the human body. The importance of this subject becomes greater when we undertake to effect a development of the physical system to that degree of perfection that accompanies health. A person might exercise persistently, practicing the most ap­proved movements, and still never succeed in developing a par­ticle of muscular tissue, or gaining the normal level of health, if they refused to conform to a diet that would supply the ele­ments of nutrition needed by the body to maintain its heat and effect its repairs.