There is another very effective gymnastic exercise for strengthening
and rendering flexible the wrist of the right hand. A movement
resembling it has already been described above, but to prevent any
misconception, I think it well to give explicit directions respecting
it here.
Take hold with your right hand of the extreme end of a long and rather
heavy _Alpenstock_, and while continually keeping the hand in the same
place, move it upon the upheld left hand vigorously up and down:
1. With the whole arm, 30 times;
2. The middle length, 25 times;
3. As near as possible to the lower end, with the wrist alone, without
in any way moving the arm, 30 times;
4. As near as possible to the upper end, with the wrist alone, and
especially up-stroke, without in any way moving the arm, 30 times.
This exercise, on anatomical grounds, produces a considerable effect on
the muscles and sinews of the wrist and the forearm, in imparting to
them the wished-for strength and flexibility.
Besides, it is a well-known fact that, having handled a heavy object,
it is more easy skilfully to handle a lighter one.
If it should be objected that the last-mentioned gymnastic exercises,
being of rather a rough kind, might spoil the elegant stroke, my answer
is, that those so-called rough exercises only last a very short time
daily, and are undertaken for the special purpose of rendering the arm
and wrist strong, easy, even, and flexible. Indeed, if these right-hand
exercises are made _carefully_ and _according to the directions given_,
a short time every day, they will strengthen the wrist of the right
hand and render it pliant and flexible to such a degree, as to enable
persons, in a comparatively short time, to play with the wrist almost
as vigorously as with the arm.
There is, moreover, another advantage attending these exercises, viz.,
that, if continued for some weeks only, and for a few minutes daily,
they will soon give the proper position to the student’s arm, which,
consequently, will not be required to be tied to the body, as was often
done in former times.