The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-01-05
SHOULDER 0u0
NECK EXERCISES
FOR WO M EN-
"1wVHERE go an old woman and a

ssHWNHERE go an old woman and
Young woman-those two walk
4 ing ahead of us said the physi
cuIturist to her pupil. She on the left
is the young one the one on the right
is fifty-five if she's 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
complications are about the same, pink
and white; both artificial, I guess
Now, how do you know the one on the
right is 1fty-five?
BY her shoulders and the back of
her neck. Don't you see this part or
her body has lost its Iimberness, that it
is inmovable as a dressmaker's wood
en- dummy 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 paralysis. If
could place my fingers upon her YER
tebrse just al the back of the neck and
a little below, I would find them
swathed IN a mass of fat chat renders
them irnmobiIe as the shoulders of an
OK. No matter how a woman improves
her complexion and blondines her hair
and assumes a sprightly manner, those
stiff shoulders and neck at the back are
a dead give away"
What PITY" exclaimed the pupil.
Yes. it would be a pity if it were
necessary. It is not. A woman of sew
enty may be as 1.-the as a girl if she
uses the means to keep her So It is
laziness and indifference that cause old
women to have ungraceful bodies
Sometimes, too, a fat young woman has
these stiffened shoulders"
But how can a woman prevent it2
I'd like to tell mamma if there's any
remedy, and, heavens, I'd rather be
dead than to have my body become like
that, even though I live to be hum
dred- What ought mamma to do to re-
move the disfguring stiffness %
1T 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 mirror before her to look
into. There is no vanity in looking into
a 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,
especially back. energetically for five
minutes, showing it back forcefully
against the lump of fat. The object is
to work off the lump of fat she has al
lowed to accumulate upon the verte-
brse at the back of the neck. The mo-
ton I give is bound to do this in time,
and every practice aids a little
AT the same time it loosens and
stretches the neck and shoulder mus
cles she has allowed to grow stiff with
her evil negligence. If she perseveres,
by and by she will be able to hold her
head perfectly erect and her spine
straight always at the back of the neck,
for there will be no lump of fat to pitch
her forward. Will and memory must
assist to hold the head level, poised
splendidly upon the spine.= After finish
ing this exercise 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 it a dozen or more
times. That 1inbers 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 a circle, first with a for
ward motion. then with a backward
one This releases the great muscles
around the shoulder blades which with
the average woman are stiff as boards
OF course the exercises must be taken
with the body perfectly free and uncor-
seted.
These simple exercises persisted in
six months to a year will give your
mother or anybody's mother the supple
neck and shoulders of a girl of sixteen,
even after incipient rheumatism has
begun its work. Looking into the mir
ror while exercising enables one to
know when the movements are correct.
Besides, it fixes the mind on the task.
and concentration of mind is more than
half the battle.
MARY GOULD LYLE.