i62 Modern Breaking 



prompt and lasting benefit as massage. The 

 medical profession is applying it more and 

 more, while among horsemen and athletes it is 

 as old as is their history. 



During severe exercise the heart beats with 

 increased force and rapidity, and the blood is 

 forced through the large arteries into the smal- 

 ler capillaries which thread through the muscles 

 and give them their nourishment. A muscle 

 is made up of bundles of filamentous muscle 

 fibers that move more or less upon each other. 

 So long as the exercise continues up to the 

 point of exhaustion, the blood supply is forced 

 by the heart down through these small vessels, 

 and then is drawn back to the heart by the 

 vacuum created in the chest cavity by the al- 

 ternate expansion and contraction of the lungs 

 and the pressure upon the veins of the con- 

 stantly moving muscles surrounding them. 

 (The veins are fitted with small valves, so 

 that the pressure upon them will only permit 

 of the blood being sent one way and that toward 

 the heart.) 



When exercise ceases the heart for a time 

 continues its rapidity of action and forces the 

 blood to the extremities, but as there is no 

 action of the muscles to keep up the return 

 circulation in the veins the blood stagnates in 

 the small capillaries surrounding the muscle 

 fibers and agglutinates them together ; the 



