EXERCISE FOR ANY GIVEN MUSCLES
stand as before; but this time keep the arms parallel, and raise them in front as high as you can, rising on the toes and soles as before. And so repeat. This is your chest-deepener; while the other was its broadener. Five minutes in all daily of this broadening, and as much more of the deepening for every child in every school in America—and sitting always erect—would in one year do more to prevent consumption than almost anything else that could be done. It needs no tool. And it costs nothing. Only be sure of one thing, namely—breathe as slowly and deeply as you can all the time you are at this exercise. Nor is it only for children. For the president of one of the largest banks in New York in a few minutes of this breathing work each day, after he was forty years old, increased the girth of his chest four inches.
Of course care should be taken to do these few exercises only in pure air. For, as Dr. John A. Lewis, of Kentucky, a physician of great experience and success, well says, "Consumption, the arch enemy of the human race, finds its chief ally in the impure air of our poorly ventilated houses,"—a hint that should be taken in every home and school-house, office, store, and factory in all the land.
And running slowly, taking just as short steps as you can—is a rare chest-expander. Indeed you can do this right in your room, right on one spot, in fact, which is called still running.
Spreading the parallel-bars until they are nearly three feet apart, and doing such arm-work on them as you can; but with your body below and face downward, helps greatly in expanding the chest. So does swinging from the rings or bar overhead, or high parallels, and remaining on them as long as you can.
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