58 OUR BODIES AND HOW WE LIVE 



Running, leaping, climbing, and other vigorous sports are 

 well enough if they are not kept up so long as to cause 

 extreme fatigue. 



85. More Vigorous Exercises. Vigorous sports, such as 

 baseball and football, are severe exercises. Rowing is ad- 

 mirably suited to most persons of either sex. Horseback 

 and bicycle riding, 1 swimming, tennis, golf, and skating 

 are important helps toward bodily vigor, and develop a 

 certain amount of skill and adroitness of action. 



Certain sports also tend to beget self-reliance, coolness 

 in danger, and a certain dignity and grace of person. There 

 is hardly any one kind of exercise which, taken alone, is 

 able to give even a fair development of all the muscles. 



86. Gymnastic Exercises. Light gymnastic exercises 

 are a convenient means of developing muscles which are 

 not used in ordinary work and games. 



Growing children should be trained every day at home 

 or in school in the use of light wooden dumb-bells, light 

 clubs, or wands. A daily exercise of ten minutes will do 



1 It is not the fashion at this time to use the bicycle so much for exercise 

 as in former years. Such riding, however, tends to promote good health 

 fully as much as any other form of exercise. A bicycle is always ready. 

 A half-hour's spin can be taken every day, when the weather permits, by 

 even the busiest. A ride of ten or even twenty miles a day, on a fairly 

 level road, at a speed of not more than nine or ten miles an hour, is for most 

 persons excellent exercise. 



It is especially as a heart and lung exercise that wheeling is beneficial. 

 The muscular exercise involved in moderate and not too rapid cycling is 

 just sufficient to induce stronger contractions of the heart, and this results 

 in increased activity of the circulation; for more blood passes through the 

 lungs in a given time, and so it is aerated more efficiently. At the same 

 time the heart muscle is strengthened by its increased action. In addition, 

 the rapid movement in the open air and the exhilaration of the exercise 

 increase the rapidity and depth of the inspirations, the lungs are expanded 

 more fully, and air is forced into the smaller tubes and air chambers. 



