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The Second of
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 Je'ss Willard m
No. 1—Side Position
With Body Raised.
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Copyright, 1915, by A. Merritt. All Foreign Rights Protected.
I 1 TAKE It for granted that by this time you
are practising daily the breathing exer
cises that I talked to you about last week,
I and have already begun to feel the beneficial ef-
B; facts that are certain to result from them.
You are no longer "all tired out” at the end
• of the day, but are beginning to wonder to your-
aelf why you did not think of such a simple
| remedy before. Some of you, perhaps, are
1 eager and anxious to get along faster with your
•physical development and have been waiting
•anxiously for this article to appear so that you
Icould advance your studies. I hope that such
•Is the case, for I am very much in earnest In
these lessons, and I feel that if I can do ever so
little 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
11 came across a passage in a book called
.•‘Health and Common Sense,” by Dr. Woods
Hutchinson, whom you all know, that backs up
tny warnings. Here it Is:
£, “Every physician who has practised in or
™»near a university town can point to a dozen
? athletic young men who have been injured seri-
n ously by muscular exercise. Particularly is this
a true of overstrain of the heart muscles A re-
O cent study of boys in training at a Western
t academy by the school physician showed that
c*over 60 per cent had cardiac (heart) murmurs.”
a Therefore 1 repeat again, take things easy,
jp Don't try to get strong all at once. Hurrying
i things will do you more harm than good. 1 am
||'Cure that if you follow out my programme you
r-j will find yourself becoming stronger every day,
B but a little at a time. Suddenly you will wake
■ up to the fact that you haven't seen your old
K family doctor for ever so long, and also that you
■ are doing your work easily and without half the
B. effort that you used to empoly. Physical exer-
jt else, too, is a great thing for a “grouch.” Per
il haps 1 ought to say it is bad for a grouch, bo-
* cause Mr. Grouch soon finds himself changed
} to Mr. Smile if he is physically fit.
< You will see by the pictures that 1 am still
|i talking particularly to the city boy and girl and
I man and woman who have no chance to go to a
If gymnasium and have only a roof to exercise in.
IVln the pictures you see that I am only using a
L: chair. The exercises illustrated are about as
|j- valuable as any I know of. In fact, if you had
the use of the finest gymnasium in the country
H tt could do no more for you in this particular
H branch of exercising than the old kitchen chair
■ .used with the rules I am about to set down.
5 If you have never taken any physical exer-
B' else, or if your physical condition is had, I
B would advise you to first take up the exercise
B shown in the two bottom pictures, in which
B both hands are used. If your muscles are in
R fair shape both exercises embraced by the four
pictures can be tried.
Referring first to the two bottom pictures.
you will see that I first allow my body to touch
the floor. The picture directly above shows the
body raised. I know nothing better in the way
of exercise for the development of the arm,
shoulder and back muscles. If you will start
doing this—raising and lowering yourself as the
pictures show you—ten times a day for a week,
then twenty times, then thirty times, and so on,
you will be astonishd with the results.
Within two weeks you will notice little mus
cles appearing on your shoulders, your biceps
will have commenced to round out and you will
find yourself holding your head more erect, and
involuntarily you will throw back your shoul
ders while you walk. This exercise is good also
for the stomach muscles, but later on I Intend
to show you special exercises for that part of
the body.
All my exercises, however, are meant to help
the development of all parts of the body. Some
exercises, like the one I have just told you
about, go toward specially developing certain
muscles, but at the same time taking care in a
smaller way of the reBt of the body. I do not
believe In exercises that are centred on one set
of muscles alone. This leads to neglect of
other parts of the body and pYoduces stiffening
of muscles, better known as “muscle bound"
conditions.
It is most important that you keep your mus
cles supple. 1 have seen men with biceps as
large as mine who could not hit any harder
than an ordinary man. But when it came up to
lifting great weights they were right at home.
Of course, if you Intend to become a profes
sional weight lifter my advice is not for you,
but I don't think many boys look forward to
that kind of a life.
The two top pictures show an exercise very
much like the other one, but Intended for those
whoso arms are good and strong. Of course,
after you have practised the first exercise
for a few weeks you can then take up the other,
hut, as I said before, if you are not In fair
physical condition I would not advise taking up
the second exercise until you have become used
to the first.
In the second exercise you only rest one hand
on the floor, placing the other on your hip and
lying sidewise. You then allow your body to
bend toward the floor as far as possible without
giving yourself any feeling of great strain, and
then raise yourself slowly to a horizontal posi
tion. After you have done this with one hand
a few times turn over and do it with the other
hand. Bo sure to praettse the exercise evenly.
For Instance, if you raise and lower yourself
ten times with the right hand, do the same
with jho left hand. This brings you an even
development.
One of the first things you noticed when you
came to this page was the picture of the boy
posed as if to “put the shot.” 1 haVe used that
Thot-oj ©by A.nei-rrTT.
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
developing his shoulder and
arm muscles by putting the
shot. Notice his position
and the muscles that are
brought Into play.
Now' look at thos e four
pictures of me that I have
been talking about. As far as
working those same muscles
that you use in putting the
shot, don’t you see that my
exercises that you can do in
your room produce exactly
the same results, and, in fact,
are better.
This Exercise
Develops But
One Arm and
Should Not
Be Indulged
in Too Freely.
No. 2—Side Position With Body Lowered — This E
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 «n the
Schuylkill. I chose this picture because these
boys looked to me from the photograph to bp
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 I 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.
They are bet
ter because they develop both arms, while
putting-the-shot boy Is only working with
arm.
You can believe it when I tell you seric
that my exercises with the chair in your r
■Photo b>- international Newi -Service.
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 I mention boys frequently in
many of my talks to you, I take it for granted
that the girls know I am talking to them also.
And the same thing applies to boys when I speak
of girls. I intend to show no exercises that
cannot be done by both boys and girls. In
fact, I don’t now of any. Is there anything in
athletics that a boy does and that a girl can’t
do? I 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
will 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.
uing uie .bar” Can Be Done
On a Curtain Pole.