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The Second of an Instructive and Valuable
Series of Remarkable Athletic Lessons and
Health Hints for Men and Women, Boys and
Girls Written for This Page by the Physical
Champion of the World.
By Jess Willard m —
With Body Raised.
No. 1—Side Position
I TAKE It for granted that by this time you
are practising daily the breathing exer
cises that I talked to you about last week,
and have already begun to feel the beneficial ef
fects that are certain to recult from them.
You are no longer 'all tired out” at the end
of the day. but are beginning to wonder to your
self why you did not think of such a simple
remedy before. Some of you, perhaps, are
eager and anxious to get along faster with your
physical development and have been waiting
anxiously for this article to appear so that you
could advance your studies. I hope that such
(s the case, forT am very much In earnest In
these lessons, and I feel that If I can do ever so
lltXle toward helping the youth of my country
along the lines of health It will be a bigger
reward to me than the championship belt*
You will remember that In my last article I
was particular to point out the dangers of try- \
ing to do too much. Since writing that article
I came across a passage in a book called
’Health and Common Sense," by Dr. Woods
Hutchinson, whom you all know, that backs up
my warnings. Here it is:
"Every physician who has practised in or
lear a university town can point to a dozen
athletic young men who have been Injured seri-
•usly by muscular exercise. Particularly la this
true of overstrain of the heart muscles. A re
tent study of boys in training at a Western
academy by the school physician showed that
>ver BO per cent had cardiac (heart) murmurs.”
Therefore 1 repeat again, take things easy.
Don't try to get strong all at once. Hurrying
things will do you more harm than good. 1 am
sure that If you follow out my programme you
will find yourself becoming stronger every day,
but a little at a time. Suddenly you will wake
up to the fact that you haven't seen your old
family doctor for ever so long, and also that you
are doing your work easily and without half the
effort that you used to empoly. Physical exer
cise, too, is a great thing for a "grouch.” Per
haps I ought to say it is had for a grouch, be
cause Mr. Grouch soon finds himself changed
to Mr. Smile If he is physically fit.
You will see by the pictures that I am still
talking particularly to the ctty boy and girl and
man and woman who have no chance to go to a
gymnasium and have only a roof to exercise in.
in the pictures you see that 1 am only using a
chair The exercises Illustrated are about at
valuable as any I know of. In fact, if you had
the use of the finest gymnasium In the country
it could do no more for you In thiB particular
branch of exercising than the old kitchen chair
used with the rules l am about to set down.
If you have never taken any physical exer
cise. or if your physical condition Is bad, I
would advise you to first take up the exercise
shown in the two bottom pictures, in which
both hands are used. If your muscles are in
iYifiVrtii
picture for a special purpose.
Here is a boy who is lucky
enough to be able to exer
cise in the open. Other boys
who have no time for that
and who are cooped up in a
house and an office most of
the time will propably look
at that picture and wish
they had the same opportuni
ties that that boy had.
All right, city boy. Now lis
ten to me and you won't be
so discouraged. That boy Is
This Exercise
Develops But
One Arm and
Should Not
Be Indulged
in Tcro Freely.
No. 2—Side Position With Body Lowered — This Exercise Is Meant
% Only for Those With Strong Arms.
Your brother or father can do this if you ask
him.
Stand directly beneath the curtain pole or
transom and try to imagine it is a sort of sta
tionary trapeze bar in a gymnasium. Jump up
from the floor and catch hold of the bar. Then
swing your body from right to left' lifting your
feet sideways as high as you can get them, so
as to get that bend at the waist that is so use
ful in keeping the abdominal muscles to correct
proportions.
Do this until your arms are a little tired—not
too tired. Then let yourself down to the floor
and wait a few minutes for rest. Then do it
again, only this time face the other way^ An
exercise to be used in conjunction with'this is
“chinning the bar”—that is. drawing yourself
up until your chin is on a level with the pole
or transom. You will find, if you are not used
to an arm exercise, that it will come very hard
at first, but easier as the days of practise in
crease, as is the way with all exercises.
This last exercise of “chinning,” however, is
not as useful as the first, and should not be in
dulged in too much. It can be overdone. Some
boys and men delight in this because it in
creases the size of the biceps, but if practised
extravagantly it Is likely to produce a binding
of the arm muscles and slowness, especially in
boxing.
Don’t imagine because one set of muscles
is big that you are very strong. There isn’t
much use in being strong just in one set of
muscles. It is the whole body that you want
to make strong, and that is why I am trying to
teach you.
I have used a picture to-day of some Phila
delphia high school boys in their shell on the
Schuylkill. I chose this picture because these
boys looked to me from the photograph to be
Just about as fine specimens physically as I
would want to see. All/of them are well set
up, and their whole appearance is that of vigor
and vitality.
That is the way I would have every American
boy look. You will notice that none of their
muscles bulge. The muscles are there, but
they are long and supple muscles. In other
words, they “shape up well.” The exercise that
they are going in for—namely, rowing—is a
good one, but can’be easily overdone, almost as
easily as running, so 1 would advise no boy to
go in for rowing as a continuous exercise unless
under the eye of a trainer.
If that is done then rowing will turn out to
be of wonderful benefit to you. There is hardly
a muscle in the body that rowing will not
benefit. It affects the legs, arms, chest, back
and waist, but it is a hard exercise on the
heart, and therefore must be indulged in care
fully.
If you have the opportunity to row without
going into contests or races, then take it up by
all means. Increase your distance gradually
and do not allow yourself to get very tired at
any time. I want to emphasize that rule in
connection with all my exercises—never allow
yourself to get tired out. Now, be sure to re
member that.
When the body becomes utterly tired out it
takes a long time for It to recover, so that your
exercise has done more harm than good. By
the time you should begin to exercise again
you have not really recovered from the strain
of the other.
No physical exercise, by that I mean vigorous
exercise, should be taken within an hour after
a meal. Give your stomach a chance. When
you have eaten, the greater part of the blood in
your body rushes to the stomach to help it out
in its work of digesting your food. If you start
to exercise you take away strength from the
stomach that it needs, and your food is not
properly digested.
In this connection I would advise working
boys and girls who only have half an hour for
their lunch to train themselves into eating
lightly at that time. Take ten minutes to eat
something simple and easily digested and twen-
Next week Jess Willard will devote his
article to instruction on swimming, giv
ing the beginner as well as the expert
many valuable hints and suggestions. An
important part of the article will be that
devoted to self-protection in the water
when attacked by a drowning person.
rhoto tjy International Mewj 5ervi«e.
your window opened properly and are not in a
draught you can get the benefit of fresh air,
too. which is always very important. It is a
good thing to spread newspapers over the car
pet when you do those leaning down exercises,
so when you start to breathe heavily you will
not inhale dust and germs that are always in
carpets and rugs.
I have mentioned boys frequently while de
scribing this series of exercises, but I want my
girl readers to distinctly understand that they
are included every bit as much in my talks as
the boys. While 1 mention boys frequently in
many of my talks to you, 1 take it for granted
that the girls know I am talking to them also.
And the same thing applies to boys when 1 speak
of girls. 1 intend to show no exercises that
cannot be done by both boys and girls. In
fact, 1 don't now of any. Is there anything in
athletics that a boy does and that a girl can’t
do? 1 don’t know of it, and. in fact, some girl
athletes I have seen were, when comparing
ages and experience, much quicker to learn and
"catch on” than their boy rivals.
The girl's picture Is of an exercise that is
highly important in keeping the waist line at
graceful proportions, and helping to strengthen
the abdominal muscles. It also affects the
little muscles on top of the shoulders, that are
so often neglected. The young girl with bony
shoulders, pin-point elbows and a thin neck
wifi do well to practise this exercise.
The transom bar over the doorway to your
room or the curtain pole can be used. The cur
tain pole is better, as you then have more room
to swing yourself, as 1 will describe, but gen
erally curtain pole fasteners are not made to
bear much weight, so you must see before you
begin that the fastenings are strengthened.
No. 3—Full Position, With Body Raised,
No. 4—Body Lowered—A Wonderful Exercise for
Arms, Shoulders and Waist,
v~c .bar” Can Be Done
On a Curtain Pole.