How to Get Strong and How to Stay So (1899)/Conclusion

CONCLUSION

In the earlier chapters of this little book attempt has been made to call attention both to defects and lacks resulting largely from not taking rational exercise, and to what such exercise has accomplished wherever it has been thoroughly tried. In the tenth and eleventh chapters have been suggested not a long and difficult system of gymnastic exercises needing a fully equipped gymnasium, a trained instructor, and years of work to master; but rather a few plain and simple exercises for any given part or for the whole body, and hints as to how to distribute the little time to be given to them daily. The teacher, the parent—the child even, without the aid of either—the young man or woman, the middle-aged and the old, will all find variety enough of work, which, while free from risk, will still prove sufficiently vigorous to insure to each a good allowance of daily exercise. All else that is needed is a good degree of the steadiness and perseverance which are generally inseparable from everything worth accomplishing.