HOW TO GET STRONG
Do not ask him to make each boy and girl as strong as he has made himself. But let him show each how to get as much strength and vigor as shall best suit their wants, and fit them for whatever may come in life. These three men could lay before a legislative joint-committee plans for the rebuilding of the coming men and
expanded sixty-one inches! He regards wrestling as "better than any other physical pastime." He says, "Not a muscle of the body but it catches hold of and improves; calves, thighs, arms, and back, every little bit of human hand and strap is used. And it does one's wits good. Patience, nerve, endurance, agility, quickness and coolness are all involved. Of all English games," he says, "I like football best. It is magnificent. not only as a muscular exercise; but it involves at every turn mental strength, coolness. quickness and judgment. I saw a football match in Lancashire once, which beat any other athletic display I ever saw. The men were so bold, swift, skilful and cool. "Nor have I much faith in gymnastics as they are usually taught. They don't bring out the muscles one uses in every-day life. Parallel bars, and much of the apparatus of training, I have found of little use. My faith is pinned to dumb-bells; and I do all my training with their aid, supplemented by weight lifting. By the constant use of dumb-bells, any man of average strength can bring his muscles to the highest possible development; but he should of course know my system, which has been adopted after much careful and scientific study, and has had the approval of the military authorities of Britain, and in the training-schools for the army. If I had a boy, I would start him with half-pound dumb. bells when he was two years old—and then gradually increase the weight with his years. My idea is that boys of ten to twelve should have three-pound dumb-bells; from twelve to fifteen four-pound—and from fifteen upwards I consider five-pound dumb-bells quite sufficient for any one. But there is little use, and only a waste of time in exercising with dumb-bells by fits and starts. They should be used persistently and systematically. It should be compulsory in all schools for boys to have regular training with dumbbells; and if this were universal, there would soon be a most beneficial change in the physique of the rising generation."
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