The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1903-08-21
CALISTHENICS FOR GIRLS.

What is the best form of exercise for
a girl ? is qustion often asked.
One thing 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 fiat
ness. If the arms are thin the mus
cles must he developed and strengthen
ed.
Thus it is plain that there can be
no one best form of exercise. To at
tempt to train a girls mind by fore
ing her to follow single line of study,
as Latin or mathematics, for example,
would be no greater folly than to try
to develop her physically by the prac-
tice 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 full
breath? When standing with the
arms and hands extended before you
and after taking full inspiration, 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. If you
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 brighter,
the cheeks more ruddy and the 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. Whlrl them like q mill
wheel, stretch them to the back, clasp
them to the front and over 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 60 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 abodmen fattened and tue chest
thrown out.
The correct standing position gives
an erectness of figure and a good polse
of the head. She who wishes to pre-
serve 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 ma
ture.
The figure is kept youthful in this
way, because muscles are made firm