The Washington herald., 1915-06-12

NERCISE is the natural instinc,
of the child in the cradle. She
- stretches her limbs to exercise
each newly discovered muscle. she
cries to develop her lung capacity. As
soon as a baby can run about and climb
up on things. her energy seems I'M
ceasing. Every little muscle is test
ed and exercised through sheer JOY in
! growing and developing.
/ In a very few years it comes the
time when the skirts are heightened
and the braidS turned up; then we see
complete change in the child's atti-
tude toward physical exercise.
Some of this distaste comes from
restricted clothing. Many mothers are
: lax in this respect and allow corsets,
tight skirts and shoes that conform to
fashion, perhaps, but not at all to the
natural shape of the foot. at an age
when the growing body needs the
greatest possible liberty.
There is an idea. too, that outdoor
games such as children indulge in are
not ladylfke for the girl after she has
reached ID or il. and she is rather en-
couraged to drop the very physical ac-
tivity so necessary during the growing
adolescent period. This is a period of
/ change when perfect activity of every
nerve cell, vital organ and muscle is
most desirable. Perfect freedom of
sports in the open is more than ever
necessary.
{ The boy continues his outdoor activi-
! ties. but the girl Is moro or less shut in.
quiescent. she is inclined to stop all
/ trunk movements and her exercise is
/ simply quiet walk She is not even
brisk about it. and, II corseted, exercises
chiefly the limbs. and the vital organs
which particularly need the exercise do
not set sufficient activity. Think how
much exercise the baby gets for the
spine and the vtals and how little the
grown child. Yet. while the girls body
is growing and developing she has need
for all possible stimulant for health and
development.
girl play football or baseball, and l am
not in favor of sk,t-balL There are
too many risks and it tends to bolster
business. a girl does not need to be-
. come too muscular: the ideal woman's
| figure is timber. supple, well poised
with the vital organs in place. the chest
capacity well developed, the circulation
even.
The growing girl needs physical Gull
ture OF definite sort. for vital organs
spinal nerves and lungs, during ali this
period of maturity from IA to % or "A.
During the early years of marriage. the
average wife, mother. OK housewife
: feels that she has enough to do. Her
life is sufficiently active to be true. but
she rarely uses the muscles of vital or
Sans and spine with perfect co-ordina-
ton. Mistakes in carriage, badly dis
, trihuted flesh. sagging muscles. are ap.
70 date from this period as well as many
diseases OF the digestive and pelvic Or
gans which could have been prevented
! If the daily curriculum had included
some definite form of physical work
Regular co-ordinated exercises at this
time would prevent prolapsed viscera
now so common among those who lack
physical resistance
Every woman at this period needs a
set OF well-directed physiological exer-
cises arranged for her Individual needs
They may take but fifteen minutes
day. but those fifteen minutes are neces-
sary IL she is going to keep her strength.
vitality and ecstasy of living.
The woman who wisely cares for her
self at this period need not dread ex-
c"ss OF flesh or failing muscles when
the forties are reached. The exercises
may have TO be changed to suit physical
conditions. but the body has been trained
to exercise and responds quickly to Il.
Why grow old at this period? Why
grow old at any period? 1t Is not neces-
sary.
The well-trained body with muscles
cess flesh. will not thicken at the waist
line or develop an unssinly lump of flesh
between the shoulder blades.
I am often asked how early should a
girl begin physical culture. at what age