Ideal Home Life - online book

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

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	SYSTEMATIC PHYSICAL TRAINING 471 Directions for Friction Bath Stand erect, with feet together; grasp towel near each end, firmly; begin at back of neck, and with forward and backward passes of towel, work down­ward to waist, rubbing back, sides, and chest. Then begin at the ankles, and work upward on each limb, as in cut No. 2. Finish on the arms, rubbing them briskly from the wrist toward the shoulders, and immediately sponge off thoroughly with cold water. Chapter V—Breathing The conditions of modern life, especially those surrounding the man or woman of sedentary habits, are such as to make very little demand upon the individual for great lung capacity. The neglect of this function has brought the usual and inevita­ble decadence. There are but few people of normal lung capacity; and those with breathing power sufficient to enable them to run a hundred yards without being completely ex­hausted are exceedingly scarce. One who has never studied the scientific development of the body would be surprised at the results of a few simple breathing exercises practiced daily. They will result, in the course of a very short time, in rounding out the flattened chest, giving greater lung capacity, and endowing the individual with an amount of endurance that he never dreamed of possessing. Breathing is purely a muscular act. Proper breathing con­sists in thoroughly inflating every cavity of lung tissue by suffi­ciently enlarging the cavity of the thorax, to give the lungs room to expand. The upper part of the body, strengthened and surrounded by bony structure, can expand but little, there­fore the normal breathing is done by exercising the muscles of the sides and diaphragm. This results in lifting the chest and