Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-10-17
A Chapter from Cneckley.

A Chapter from Cneckley
Edwin Checkley is a young gentleman,
English by birth, who weighs not over
lSo pounds and is about 6 feet I inches
Tall. When he was a baby he was
weakling, who. if he had been u quad
ruped instead of biped. would not
have been thought worth the raising.
Yet today he can lift three men, each
weighing $50 pounds, and trota hundred
yards with them. It was because he
was born a weakling that his family
and himself took especial pains with his
physical development, and his present
superb health and marvellous bodily
powers show the result.
In plainly written little volume called
"A Natural Method of Physical Train
ing" Checkley tells his readers how he
accomplished astonishing results. He
believes the body is a machine, and that
every person should make the most and
the best Of it. It is for this that bodies
are given to us. The doctrine is sound
at any rate.
The powerful young man uses no ma
chnery for physical development. Else
where he has said that his method il
simply an exaggeration of the natural
movements of the human body. In the
present volume he lays down emphatic
ally the law that the first principles of
development are to learn how to breathe
correctly and stand correctly. These are
the foundation of all, that on which the
strength and endurance of the giant
must be built. In breathing the student
must use the abdominal muscles strictly.
He is to stand or sit erect and draw long.
deep breaths slowly through his nos
trils, his lips being tightly closed. The
nostrils were made to breathe through.
Running or going rapidly up stairs or
up hill with the lips tightly closed will
develop the chest in the only natural
way by charging the lungs. By this
practice you will become long winded in
the only right way to be long winded
and full as to your chest. Draw the
long, slow, deep breaths as often as you
can think of it through the day, and let
the air pass out of your lungs as slowly
as it came in.
Modern clothes interfere frightfully
with the correct manner Of carrying tho
body. The conventional cut Of trousers
interferes with easy sitting, walking OF
STOPPING. As to the corset to which
woman is welded, Checkley hates the
corset as Satan hates holy water.
If drawing were made of the way in
which a dozen persons stand, eleven out
Of the twelve would be represented with
distended abdomen and more OF less fat
tened chest. Corsets produce the dis
tended abdomen which is the horror and
the plague of women. The muscles
should be trained to hold the body up
straight and slim and trim, then no cor
set will be needed.
Ninety-nine persons out Of every hum
dred, however, make the bones do the
work of the muscles, and give the latter
no training at all. How to train these
muscles Checkley tells the public in his
book. 1t is designed as manual for
all, and to bring the whole muscular
system up to the high general average
which precedes the special training for
the athlete
The powerful muscles of the hips,
back and abdominal region should sus-
tain Il man when he stands erect If
these are properly cultivated we make
ourselves actually taller than when we
slump down upon the leg bones, and
stand upon our heels. with crooked
knees.
Push the chest upward and forward
when you stand OF walk, but do not ex-
aggerate this pose SO that it hollows in
your back, or you will look hollow
backed, pigeon breasted and ridiculous
Let the lung development make the large
chest chiefly.
Walking is an exercise highly com
mended by the author. In walking keep
face and chest well over the advanced
foot, and preserve the habit Of lifting
the body with the muscles and by infa-
ti,.l of the lungs.