How to get strong and how to stay so / by William Blaikie.

  • William Blaikie
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: How to get strong and how to stay so / by William Blaikie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    flat on their backs on the floor or gymnasium mat, and while some one holds their ankles, taking a two-hundred-pound man, lying across their chest at riffht anomies with it, will raise him several times till they are in erect sitting posture. Sitting on one of the parallel bars in the gym- nasium, and placing both feet under the other, and now dropping the body back until it is horizontal, then rising to vertical and repeating, is very hard work for these abdominal muscles, and should only be practised by those already strong here. These muscles are brought into direct and vigorous play in rowing, to such an extent that no man who has them weak can be a fast oars- man over any ordinary racing distance. Indeed, this is the very region where young rowers, otherwise strong, and seemingly fit for hard, fast work, give out first. Every time the foot is raised in running, these muscles are called to active duty far mo2*e than in walking, and the high, strong, sharp step works them severely, so that no man weak here could be a fast runner with good action. Jumping, vaulting, leaping, all bring them into sudden, spasmodic, almost violent action. Let a man mow awhile, when unused to it, and see how soon it tells across this region, the muscles aching next day from the twisting motion.
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