1896 article - Regular Exercise for Girls

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January 14, 1896 – Harper’s Young People

Regularity in bodily training is the “golden rule” of all physicians and gymnasium teachers. “A little exercise every day, taken at a certain time,” is worth more than all the spasmodic exertion in the world. It accomplishes more in play and work. Nor need such exercise become monotonous. The work of to-day may call into use one set of muscles, and that of to-morrow another. It is well not to develop our arms and neglect our legs, or vice versa. The pleasure accompanying them makes out-door sports more beneficial to the health; but in-door training, according to fixed rules, has a great value in teaching you how to use your limbs and joints easily and well. The practice it gives helps you to learn anything quicker than you would without it.

Any girl knows how easy it is to “fall out of the way” of doing things, whether the “thing” is a kind of fancy-work or a school task. So it is easy to “fall out of the way” of making use of your bodily powers. Your arms and legs and back and body were all given you to use, just as well as your lungs and other organs. And it is clearly your fault if you do not get the best service out of them by keeping them in practice. You must teach them to be supple, agile, and quick to respond to any calls you may make upon them to contribute to your good or amusement. Suppose you suddenly decide to play tennis, and have never learned to run! What will happen to you is that you will be an awkward and unlucky player until you learn to use your legs. Therefore regular daily exercise is good all round—for health and for pleasure.

Our first impulse on waking in the morning is to yawn, to push out the arms, to throw out the legs, to stretch and twist and roll about the body, and so gradually work off the cramped feeling induced during sleep. These natural gymnastics, in which even babies indulge when they first waken out of a sound slumber, indicate pretty clearly what is the best time to take a regular daily dose of gymnastic work.

During the night the respiration has been slower, the heart-beats less frequent, and the muscles have become contracted from remaining too long in certain positions. We know, without being told, that our bodies need shaking, stretching—some exercise, in fact, to get us into shape for the day’s work. The blood must circulate quicker, and mind and body partake of the bright, brisk feeling which helps us to do everything easily. For those who spare the time, fifteen minutes, or even ten, on first rising is the best time to select for gymnastics.

But many persons, young as well as old, must rise quickly and dress hastily, and have no minutes to spare for such morning exercise. They must choose some other time. Just before the daily bath is another opportune moment. The exercise taken induces perspiration, and this waste matter is removed by the bath following, leaving the skin in a clear, healthy, and normal condition. We feel wonderfully refreshed and full of vitality after the process.

At night, before retiring, certain exercises of the muscles can be used with good effect. If we are tired or have overused one set of muscles, we do not exercise those already used too much, but others in opposite directions. For instance, if we have stretched our arms up until over-tired, it is rest and relief to stretch them down—again and again, and again, so making the strain upon the muscles equal.

Or if we have used our arms too much, we rest ourselves by giving our legs a good amount of exercise—just as a long walk rests you after rowing, or as a good game of ball rests you after hard study. In the first case it is exercise in an opposite direction which gives the needed relaxation. In the second the same result comes from exercising the body after too much exercise of the mind.

This “law of opposition,” as it is called, is a big subject. But the rule holds just the same, whether you understand “the reason why” or not. Exercise muscles or parts of the body in opposite directions or in different ways from the motions and actions which have tired you. To do this at night “promotes sleep and helps digestion,” say the physical culture teachers.

And who should know better than those who have studied up on the subject and who can give you the “reason why”?

From “Daughters of the Lost Century”

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There is 1 comment on this post. Join the discussion!

lisagrimm says:

Leslie's Weekly was quite handy for women's fitness stories in the 19th century; here's a link to an image of women medical students in the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania gym, 1888 (and there's lots more there on changing attitudes to women's exercise):

http://xdl.drexelmed.edu/item.php?object_id=3048andsearch_param=keywordandsearch_by=leslieandt=womanmd

Monday, April 25, 2011 at 12:54pm EDT

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