Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-05-01
PHYSICAL CULTURE

ny H. DluCC
a T THIS time of year, with its invitation
~ to games and exercises in the open, it
80 - is perhaps not amiss to offer a few
words of warning against overdevotion to
physical culture.
Many people certainly seem to forget that,
valuable and necessary as it is, physical Gull
ture should always be regarded as merely a
means to an end, and not an end in itself.
You will see such people hurrying, day
after day, to the golf links the tennis court,
the running track, or the rowing course. And
multitudes of others you will find addicted to
long cross-country walks or longer rides, on
horse or bicycle Their excuse is forever the
same:
81 need this to keep me fit. If I were to
miss my daily exercise couldn't possibly do
my work properly
And undoubtedly daily exercise is condu-
Give to increased efficiency as we'll as to the
conservation of health. But this longer
holds true when the exercise means undue
abstinence from work and unduly prolonged
physical activity.
For such activity, however sincerely one
may deny it, causes some degree of exhaus-
ton, both lessening the ability to work to
good purpose and actually diminishing the
desire to work to good purpose.
Observe, for example, any so-called "golf
fanatic any young, middle-aged or elderly
man who insists on his daily round of golf.
Does he, following this turn ardently to men
tai activities bearing directly or indirectly on
his next days work?
Not as rule. His habit is, rather, to talk
golf all evening, to engage in some light
mental diversion, such as a game of cards, or
to browse lazily until bedtime.
While next morning he may wake re-
freshed, he can hardly claim that he goes as
eagerly to his work as to the afternoon game
of golf with which he intends to round out a
somewhat shortened working day. You will
find, for that matter, that If your "golf fan
attic" can afford to do so he will gradually
cut his working day shorter and shorter, I'M
til there are many days when he does not
work at all.
| AS with the "golf fanatic so with all who
surrender themselves too willingly to any
form of physical exercise.
They may insist that the fatigue this oc-
casions is only "heaEhy, tiredness'' But il
is noticeable that it disinclines them for Gre
ative thinking, and makes work more ia
! tiguing rather than less of an effort for them
| Cases are not unknown in which physical
culture, unwisely pursued, has been seriously
harmful to the health itself. The "ath1ete'S
heart" is not a Pigment of the Imagination
! And uncommon muscular development is by
no means incompatible with low resistivty tC
| disease.
In other words, any many who wishes tt
really profit from the exercise all men should
take will do well to observe scrupulously the
rule of moderation.
A little walking every day, an occasional
game of golf, tennis, or other outdoor Sport
will most assuredly help to bodily and menta
fitness.
1t effects a heightening, not an impairing
of working ability. And this it will continue
! to effect so long as interest in exercise and
in physical culture is held subordinate tt
other and more important life interest. 1t is
when such interest is permitted to develoI
into oYerinterest that harm threatens.
Copyright, 1929 .'til