SOUND BODIES 



The chest muscles in particular, which are with most 

 persons greatly in need of exercise, and which most 

 calisthenic exercises neglect, are most prominently 

 developed by this simple exercise. I know of no other 

 single exercise that can do so much for the particular 

 muscles that most need assistance as this. And the best 

 thing about this exercise is its extreme simplicity, in 

 virtue of which it may be performed almost anywhere 

 and at any time while you lie in bed, while you are 

 walking or standing, or as you lean back in your 

 chair to rest a moment while sitting at your desk. The 

 exercise may be varied and its value increased by vary- 

 ing the position of the hands, as already suggested, by 

 placing them behind the back, for example, and by 

 making the direction of action and resistance vertical 

 instead of horizontal. These and numerous other 

 modifications will readily suggest themselves to any 

 one who undertakes to develop himself by this method. 



It would be hardly possible to overestimate the health- 

 preservative value of even so simple an exercise as this if, 

 performed systematically for, say, thirty minutes in the 

 aggregate at various intervals during the day, especially 

 if it were combined with a brisk heel-and-toe walk, in 

 which the legs were used as propellers, and not as mere 

 pendulums, as is the wont of most walkers. The tone 

 which the muscles acquire will soon be reflected in the 

 tone of the brain. Lassitude will give way to mental 

 vigor, languor to a sense of well-being (unless, of course, 

 there be some actual disease to interfere). 



But the difficulty is that with all these incentives to 

 keep up exercise few people have the persistency to 



