The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-08-08
CALIsTEENICs FOR GIRLS.

What is the best form of exercise
for girl? is question often asked.
One thing is certain. 1t should be
such as will develop alike all parts of
the body. If the chest is hollow it
must be expanded and the lungs in
creased in size. If the shoulders are
rounded they must be exercised until
they acquire the proper degrees of
fatness. If the arms are thin the
muscles must be developed and
strengthened.
Thus it is plain that there can be
no one best form of exercise. To at
tempt to train girls mind by fore
ing her to follow single line of study,
as Latin or mathematics, for exam
pie, would be no greater folly than to
try to develop her physically by the
practice of a single form of exercise,
as walking or swinging Indian clubs.
In physical culture, the first thing
to ascertain is the capacity of the
lungs. How often do you draw a
tull breath? When standing with
the arms and hands extended before
you and after taking a full inspira-
ton, can you touch the hands behind
the back without the desire to cough /?
Can you touch the back of the hands
in this position, or make the elbows
meet, without assistance?
Try it, not once, but often. fyou
cannot accomplish the feat at first,
keep at it until you can do so, and
you will find that the lungs are ex-
panding and the rounded shoulders
becoming Strengthened.
With the lungs demanding more
air, the blood will become better OK
ygenated, the eyes will grow brigh-
brain clearer.
Standing erect, swing the body
around from the hips till your face Is
where the back of your head was.
Then swing first around to one side
and then to the other in this way
twelve times, and then let the body
hang limp from the waist, the arms
hanging dead and motionless.
Whirl the head around, letting it
hang over at the neck as if it were
broken. Hang it backward, then in
front, then to each side, and finally
straighten the head, stretch the neck
high and relax. These exercises
make waist lines trim and the head
and throat supple.
Then come the arms. Stretch
them and strain in all directions, up
and out and down. Whir1 them like
mill wheel, stretch them to the
back, clasp them to the front and
over the head and behind the head
and pull hard. Lock them together
behind the waist.
The fingers must be exercised next.
Thrust them out stiff and hard, strain
ing them with force and at arms
length. Then close them into tight
fist and bend them up and down over
and over again. Shake them until
they are limp and dead and relaxed.
The girl who is able to go through
with these movements easily and
gracefully will become in time as
plant as blade of grass.
The same position must be main
tanned during these exercises-the
back straight, but with the definite
curving in of the small of the back,
the abdomen flattened and the chest
thrown out.
The correct standing position gives
an erectness of figure and good
poise of the head. She who wishes
to preserve the slimness and contour
of her figure must begin by learning
to stand we'll and to hold the body
erect when seated. Always preserve
erectness and poise until it becomes
second nature.
The figure is kept youthful in this
way, because muscles are made firm
and strong.