| Share page |
|
506 IDEAL HOME LIFE
and physical charm a little nearer what should be its normal term.
Physical education, like intellectual education, is something that should be kept at through life. Those who drop all intellectual exercises upon leaving school or college, rapidly deteriorate intellectually; and such as leave the health-giving exercises which they naturally indulged in as children out of their scheme of life upon reaching maturity, as quickly become physically degenerate—weak, easy prey for disease: and invariably, in the case of a woman, she quickly loses her beauty.
Because physical education is something that must be kept up all the time, it does not follow that it is a hard, grinding, monotonous affair, to be avoided even at the sacrifice of a few years of one's life. The right sort of physical training does not require much of one's time. It only requires the determination to undertake it, and then the formation of habits which will in a short time become almost second nature; which will not take up much time, and certainly not prove irksome.
Women and men are so different in physical attributes that there must of necessity be some difference in the methods adopted for producing the highest degree of physical and mental health in members of the two sexes. To a certain extent a woman may participate in all the exercises laid down for the development of a man. In the golden days of Greece, women contested with men in the public games, and often gave splendid exhibitions of courage, endurance, and dexterity, and there have been many examples of women who were physically as powerful as men. But in dealing with our modern women, the physical culturist must recognize certain differences and limitations and provide for them. With the exception of some of the more strenuous exercises included in the preceding systems, any woman of ordinary strength may take them with benefit. This applies especially to such exercises in the dumbbell system as are intended for the development of the arms, chest, and shoulders. These and the door exercises in the preceding system will be found especially effective for the development of plumper bodies, and firmer, more symmetrical busts.
For the woman, however, whose aim is to promote better |
||