The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-04
SHOULDER AND NECK
 ExERCISES FOR WOMEN.

'"There go an old woman and young woman-those two walking ahead ot us, said the physical culturist to her pupil. ''She on the left is the young one; the one on the right IS 55, If she's a day"
 I'd like to know how you can tell that" said the pupil, Both are rather, slender, both have blond hair, and as they turn the side of the face their com plexions are about the same, pink and white; both artificial, I guess. Now. how do you know the one on the right is 66?
 By her shoulders and the back of her neck. Don't you see this part of her body has lost it's limberness, that 1t is immov- able as dressmaker's wooden dummy 2 Now look at the younger woman. You see she can turn her head this way and that and move her shoulders. When the old woman walks quickly, you observe her head has a lottery, wabbly motion, as though she had a faint stroke of para lysis. If I could place my fingers upon her vertebrae just at the back of the neck and little below, would Ind them swathed in mass of fat that renders them immobile as the shoulders of an OK. No matter how a woman improves her complexion and blondines her hair and assumes sprightly manner. those stiff shoulders and neck at the back are a dead give away"
 What a pity!" exlcaimed the pupil.
 ''Yes, 1t would be pity If it were nec- essary. It Is not. A woman of 70 may be as 1.-the as a girl If she uses the means to keep her so. It is laziness and indIf- ference that cause old women to have un- graceful bodies. Sometimes, too, a fat young woman has these stiffened shoul- ders."
 But how can q woman prevent 1t? I'd like to tell mamma if there's any rem edy, and, heavens, I'd rather be dead than to have my body become like that, even though live to be hundred. What ought mamma do to remove the disfigur- ing stlffness?"
 Ut is a matter of patience. industry and grit Twice a day for five minutes the woman with the telltale shoulders should practice this exercise: Let her stand erect and hold her chest up. She should have a mirror before her to look into. There is no vanity in looking into mirror in order to correct deformity. Then, always holding herself perfectly erect let her move her head and neck back and forward, back and forward, es- pecially back, energeucally for five min utes. showing it back forcefully against the lump of fat. The object is to work off the lump of fat she has allowed to accumulate upon the vertebrae at the back of the neck. The motion I give is bound to do this in time, and every prac- tice aids little
 "At the same time it loosens and stretches the neck and shoulder muscles she has allowed to grow stiff with her evil negligence. If she perseveres, by and by she will be able to hold her head per- fectly erect and her spine straight al- ways at the back of the neck, for there will be no lump of fat to pitch her for ward Win and memory must assist to hold the head level, poised splendidly upon the spine. After finishing this exer. else let the middle aged woman who wishes to regain the supple shoulders of her youth turn her head from side to side as rapidly and as far as she can turn 1t a dozen or more times. That lin1bers the neck muscles.
 '"There Is one more-for the shoulders. Let the arms hang loose and limp at the sides. Then whirl the shoulders around and around in circle. first with a for ward motion, then with a backward one. Thds releases the great muscles around the shoulder blades, which with the av- ara1e woman are stiff as boards Of course the exercises T.ust be taken with the body perfectly~lree and uncorseted-