Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-12
THE QUEST OF BEAUTY
A Woman's Physical Exercise
Should Be Light
so A LEADER SA 7 s
THE NEW SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL
CULTURE AND ITS ADVICE.
Work for Women - Circulation, Not
Muscle Building, Should Be
the Keynote.
so A LEADER SA 7 s

for women Eyes. dumbbells, to be sure,
but not according to the old school. "ouid
no more put a girl through what mas peeh
commonly called physical training than
would give her pianos to move the physi-
cal culture of the strenuous schooi Is
dead letter.
what did it do that it ought not to have
done@
ut overstrained fragile women, firing
them into prostration and Illness 1t racKeo
their nerves with the effort to accomplish
the assigned task. When it did no harm OF
this kind, it built up Jumps of muscle that
have no place In the contour Of the beau
tiful woman. Who wants to see humps
and boulders standing out upon woman
shoulders, arms and back!
And what did it fail to do!
1T failed to give graceful curves or form:
it failed to give f1eXibility; 1t failed to give
nerve relaxation. properly distributed circu-
| la tion, bodily rest"
Then what should the ideal modern gym
nasium offer?
Rather say. what should it suppress?
| In the first place, let pully weights be done
away with. l do rot consider them harm
| full; used properly. they may be very bene-
| ficial But they have been over-used by the
epterprising young woman of the now-dy-
ing fad-that fad which taught that the
heavier the weight woman could lift, the
better off she was physically
The Old-Time Way.
Ladders, bars weights, leather mounted
horses-aL these have been used improper
ly in gymnasiums. 1t seems hard for girls
to repress themselves otherwise they might
be given all the apparatus with impunty.
But until the strenuous fad is past 1 should
say: Furnish a gymnasium with rings for
swinging; mattresses for floor work; hand
| ball. medicine ball. foils and masks wands,
two-pound dumbbells and one-pound Indian
| clubs. Be sure to provide piano; the out
| fit is then complete.
Mr.. Harper represents the newest move
ment in physical culture for women and he
went on to explain what that movement
means. 1t Is based on the principle of re-
Taxation. 1t is designed to ease and timber
| muscles that are cramped by the ordinary
life of the non-athetic woman. If she
writes at desk, stands at a blackboard
stitches at machine, rides in her carriage,
her muscles are not having full play, her
body is not free. There is a bodily con-
straint in any life without athletics or some
form of physical culture. Even housework,
although good as far as 1t goes, has its lin
itations. 1t leaves certain muscles I'M
moved.
The new school remedies that fault of
our modern housed life and does it's best to
make up Tor the time when the fair sex
reached for its own cocoanuts and ran wild
In forests. Every form of exercise intro
duces what is known as extension work.
This means nothing more than stretching.
In the dumbbell work the reformation
shows more than in any other line. There
was time when you could see in every wo-
mans gymnasium graduated row of bells
hanging against the wall. The beginner
was given a light wooden pair: gradually
the weight was increased; finally a heavy
iron pair was put into her hands. She had
developed manly muscle in the meantime,
and she welded these irons vigorously,
pumping them up and down as violently as
her brother. She was proudly becoming
hard She stood rigidly during the per-
Torrance.
Only Two Founders.
The up-to-date teacher offers nothing
heavier than two-pound bell to his most
| advanced pupil. His point is not to work
up to the power of handling heavy weight
1t Is to use the bells as means to the end
namely stretching. The light weight Of
the bell helps the pupil to put more force
into her motions than she would If going
through them empty-handed.
Even the primary exercises involve
stretching. One bell is raised high above
the head then the other. Both are raised
are stretched forward, to the sides AS soon
as few motions of this kind are learned
the steps are introduced
Here enters another reformation. The
new School does not give arm work with
out leg work at the same time Mr. Har
per says:
1t used to be customary to let a pupil
stand rigidly still. sometimes for half an
hour, and go through the most difficult arm
work all the time. The result was that the
circulation was violently stimulated in the
upper part of the body alone The modern
idea is to push the blood into stronger and
quicker circulation throughout the entire
body. distributing it equally
Circulation is the watchword. On 1t de-
Ponds everything. All the system is stirred
to activity. The skin is cleared and bright
tC he nrtfy ar1 ODD l.
So here Is a word to the wise who want
to better their compilations.
For the Complexion.
AS soon as the dancing steps and the
dumb-bell motions are learned separately
they are combined, and we have all sorts of
pretty bends and twirls and stretches
There Is far more grace in the new work
than in the stiff, muscle building old style
Not but that the new builds muscle; but
that is not the primary object, and the
building is carried only to the point where
it rounds out the form sufficiently for
beauty-never beyond that.
Indian club exercises are the same as
ever, with the addition Of dancing steps
This work is based on the same principle.
that the circulation of the blood must be
evenly distributed throughout the body
All the exercises are given in quick time
for the sake of this circulation. The piano
means much in that it inspires grace. If
you will experiment you will readily find
that it Is easier to fall into pretty poses
and move in pretty curves in rhythm with
music than at the instigation of mere
counting.
1t is claimed that the old school failed
to increase flesh for the thin In that 1t
worked their flesh off. 1t Is an established
fact that violent exercise, causing profuse
perspiration, does this. In the last century
all women, fat and thin alike, were given
the same kind of hard lessons
Abdominal work of all kinds is one of
the specialties of the new gymnasium. Mr..
Harper claims that dancing is OF the
best exercises for the abdominal muscles.
The Earring strengthens them. Certain
twisting and bending movements effect the
same result That work is prominent also.
Mat Work Rules.
Mat work, you may or may not know.
is done while lying on mattress on the
floor The legs are stretched to their full
extent. up out and SO on; the knees are
drawn up on the chest; all the muscles in
the region of the hips and abdomen are
forced into action.
Hand ball is one of the best games q girl
can play" says Mr.. Harper TT Is light
and quick The blood is started into brisk
circulation, but the physical strain OF the
game Is not intense
Dancing and rope jumping jar the body
In such a way that they amount to an alb
dominal massage. They are invaluable in
STRENGTHENING the abdominal muscles which