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SYSTEMATIC PHYSICAL TRAINING |
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Special Exercises for Women
W
HEN you meet a woman her carriage is the first characteristic that impresses you. If it is upright, buoyant, and graceful, the chances are ten to one she will impress you as being a pretty woman, whether her face is beautiful or not. Nine-tenths of the reigning beauties of to-day owe their elevation more to proper and graceful carriage than to mere beauty of features.
Good carriage will to a large extent hide any defect of form. The women of the stage, credited with being the possessors of Venus-like forms, owe their position in popular estimation to the great attention they pay to carriage. If any woman can stand properly, hold her body properly poised, and walk gracefully, she will certainly be set down as a pretty and well-formed woman, wherever she goes.
Proper carriage, the physiologist will tell you, is impossible without proper muscular development. And so it is; yet, a long stride has been taken when a woman decides to make an effort to stand and walk naturally. When the attempt is first made, if improper methods have been habitually employed, it will quickly tire you; but persistence, and a brief period devoted to practice of the movements shown herewith, will make it easy.
Figure 1 shows the right way to stand. The weight should be evenly distributed on the ball and heel of the foot; the limbs should be held straight, and slightly—very slightly—inclined forward from the perpendicular; the abdomen should be held in; the bust should form a graceful curve from waist to neck; the spine should be perpendicular; the shoulders
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