Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-07-05
SELF-TRAINING FOR ALL,
Physical Culture-Edwin CheckIey's Sys-
tem-Deep Breathing.

ie"-beep Dreaming.
A very rational writer on physical cul-
ture is Edwin Checkley, whose Natural
Method of Physical Training" has been
published this year. Mr.. Checkley's
"method" consists in nothing more than
the application of a few principles,
which any man might discover for HIM
self, and in the definite and orderly ar
rangement of few facts which most
men and all women persist in disregard
ing, if not denying. Mr.. Checkley as
serts that even the leaders and followers
i'll the present athletic revival diregard
them; and in his hostility to muscle
producing gymnastics as opposed to a
true system of calisthenics he goes far.
Mr.. Checkley's advice, however, is worth
taking for its sake. 1t is unfortunately
true that lazy people of good constitu-
ton could turn deaf ears to every word
he says and yet live in good health and
die at a green old age; but to those who
consider the development of their phys
ical organization a proper subject for
care and thought his pages will prove
most interesting.
Mr.. Checkley's main idea is that
mans physical education must compre-
hend his whole system, not special parts
of it, and that the objects to be sought in
physical education are grace, health, and
related perfection, not simply expert
proficiency in one department or another
of exercise or sport. The body, Mr..
Checkley reminds his readers, is care
fully-constructed machine, whose vari-
ous parts have each proper and distinct
function. Unless this machine is cor
rectly set in motion exercise will not
thoroughly benefit it and disease will not
be thoroughly warded off from it. Three
things must be fully mastered before the
highest development of which it is Ca
pable can be attained. We must first
breathe correctly; next, stand and sit
correctly, and, finally, learn to use all
our muscles so that the ordinary move
ments of everyday life may be performed
with the greatest advantage to every
set of muscles employed
"To learn to breathe, says Mr. Check
ley, is the A B C Of physical health.
The quickening of the circulation is of
no less moment. Mr.. Checkley is right
enough in saying that much gymnasium
work merely fixes mems minds on the
increase and hardening Of their muscles.
AT the same time, however, they learn
instinctively to expand their lungs to the
fullest limit, and this should be main
tanned not only while man is at the
weights and on the bars, but through
every hour of the day and during sleep.
Every return to the slipshod habit of
taking in air with only the upper part of
the lungs weakens their capacity, no
matter how powerful may be the mus
cIes which overlay the ribs, and conse-
quently weakens the general strength.
A very simple test will show a man
whether he has fired his boilers properly.
If until he is fifty years old he can not
run up three flights of stairs with COM
parative comfort, he has himself and not
old age to blame. This may sound ridic-
ulous, and yet by giving very few
minutes daily attention to himself, any
man of average strength of constitution
can perfectly we'll preserve enough &C
tivity to climb Mount Washington at
fifty, and smoke cigar and drink
bottle of claret on its top beside.
Many men who aim at an erect car
riage are apt to think they secure it when
they thrust forward the chest and throw
the back into a hollow curve. This is,
no doubt, to be preferred to the common
habit to be observed in nine out of ten
pedestrians of sinking the stomach into
the hips, the chest on the stomach, and
the chin on the chest; but it is very
undesirable exaggeration of the true po-
| citinp yyhinl, Mr. Chanl.1av oriuas th q
formula as follows "The lips, chin,
chest and toes should come upon one
line, with the feet turned at an angle of
sixty degrees. The chest is given the
greatest prominence, while the abdomen
is carried more modestly than most peo-
pie are inclined to carry it. The shoul-
der hip, and ankle-joint are also kept
upon one line In such position the
body acquires its greatest ease, its great
est endurance and its greatest readiness.
What he means by this he expounds at
length.
"The bone structure of the body is not
meant to perform all the work we thrust
upon it. The muscles should hold the
body in position. On them devolves the
task of holding the trunk erect, of keep
ing the proper relation between the
spine and the pelvis and the upper leg
bones where they join the pelvis at the
hip joint" To effect this wherever
necessary muscles have fallen away
through long-continued hereditary non
use, recourse must necessarily be had to
exercise. But it is surprising what a
little exercise will renew them and keep
them in healthy vigor. They are devel-
oped in gymnasiums, by bicycle riding,
and by rowing, but if SO soon as the hour
or half hour of exercise be over man
relapses into his bad habits of sitting
and walking the good results are rem
dered almost worthless. 1t is like pick
ing up pins with the teeth. A man who
habitually did that would deserve to
have no fingers.
Women are no doubt the worst offend
ers in this respect, and Mr.. Checkley
rightly says that the great injury done
by corsets does not proceed from tight
lacng, which is more or less thing Of
the past, but from providing an artificial
support to the trunk. Scarcely a woman,
standing, sitting, or walking, does not
drop into her stays, with the inevitable
result that her muscles become fiaccid,
her snews weaken, and the cartilages of
her spine shrink, She loses strength,
vigor, and power of resistance just where
she needs them most With the entire
disuse of the abdominal muscles there
comes in both men and women the ugly