EXERCISES THAT HELP MAKE YOU BEAUTIFUL
There are exercises that reconstruct, build over, and there are
exercises that destroy, chiefly by excess. I am going to tell you of
the first sort. The second may be dismissed as violent exercises.
Violence is always a destroyer of beauty. Excessive exercise with heavy
dumbbells, whose weight exceeds the strength of the person wielding
them, I mention as one of the worst of these destroyers.
I have before said, and I am glad to have an opportunity to repeat,
that I disapprove of heavy exercise for women. Extreme physical effort
taxes the strength and leaves its marks upon the countenance, writing
the heavy, disfiguring characters of fatigue. It overdevelops the
muscles, robbing the figure of its soft, delicate outline, making it
bumpy, unseemly and masculine.
Exercise for women should have three aims. First, securing as much
fresh air as is needed for health. Second, as much motion and
adjustment of the internal organs as are needed for health. Third, for
the correction of such habits as are threatening to the health and
disfiguring to the beauty. A good eclectic system of exercises serves
all these purposes.
A simple exercise that I have long used when I noticed a tendency of
the shoulders to sag forward is to place my arms behind me, bend them
at the elbows and thrust between the back and the elbows my brother’s
cane. When he rebelled or when he and his precious cane were absent,
I used my own umbrella or sunshade. The temporary support drew the
shoulders far back and expanded the lungs so greatly that it became my
favorite exercise. In this attitude I walk about the room many times,
or, standing before the open window, tightly close my lips and breathe
deeply. This I continue for fifteen minutes, unless my arms grow very
weary, in which case I cease for the time, beginning again in a few
minutes when I have rested. In all exercises I stop short of the point
of fatigue.
For a sagging abdomen, slow, regular bending exercises are best. Stand
with the arms raised above the head and the palms forward. Keep the
elbows straight. With a slow, sweeping motion bend forward until the
tips of the fingers reach the floor in front of you. This is difficult,
especially for the stout and those with muscles stiffened from lack of
use.
When you have mastered this exercise, by practise, thrust the hands
clasped at the finger points as far back between the knees as you can.
In this way a semicircle is described at one sweeping motion, and the
abdominal muscles are strengthened at the same time and the abdominal
organs stimulated.
For inactive, heavy back muscles the rotary trunk motion is best. Bend
the body forward from the waist line, and swing the upper part of the
body slowly around as though the waist were a pivot. Move the trunk
slowly to the right as far as it will go, then to the left as far as
possible. Sway slowly from the extreme right to left and back again,
being careful not to wrench the body. These last two exercises are
invaluable for setting sluggish intestines at work.
Hundreds of queries are sent me putting in various ways the one
essential question: “What shall I do for a muddy complexion?” Let me
answer all those questions now and briefly. Set your sluggish liver
to work. The exercises I have just described will aid in that most
necessary work. So will walks long enough for sufficient exercise, yet
not long enough to exhaust you.
If all these, together with much water-drinking, fail to correct the
liver-marked complexion, this will be assuredly helpful: Standing
perfectly erect, raise the right arm as high as you can, stretching the
left arm downward at the same time. Reverse this motion, and alternate
the two. This air-sawing, done rapidly, will bestir the laziest liver.
For chronic indigestion I recommend walking, varied by rope-jumping.
After a brisk walk, return to your room and, resting briefly, jump
the rope from twenty to fifty times. Your strength must determine the
number. It is better to begin with ten times and increase the number to
fifty, or even seventy-five, as you become accustomed to the unusual
exercise.
A favorite exercise of mine is the simple, easy one of sitting
straight. Sitting straight develops the habit of poise. I sit every
day before a mirror, and at sufficient distance from it so that I can
see my reflection at full length. I note whether my chest is high or
drooping. If high, I know that my figure is at normal. If drooping, I
at once seek the cane or umbrella of which I have spoken and take the
shoulder and chest raising exercise I first described, and which I call
my “uplifting” exercise.
This I vary by clasping my hands behind and letting the head rest in
them as a cup, while I inhale and exhale profoundly, moving the head
slowly in its socket of clasped hands from one side to the other.
Swinging about on my revolving dressing stool, I note closely and
critically my profile from brow to toe. If my chin tends to sag, seems
by the slightest tendency to sag, I lift it as high as I can and,
closing my teeth tightly, draw the backs of my hands alternately across
it. I repeat this exercise fifty times, until the chin tingles and I
know that the renewed circulation is doing its work of restoring the
firmness of the muscles. My chin, I may explain, seldom displays the
pendulous tendency, for I sleep with a very low pillow or no pillow at
all. The high pillow I regard as one of the greatest enemies of beauty,
for it causes curving shoulders and heavy chin.
Deep breathing is in itself a superb tonic, and certain exercises aid
greatly in forming that habit and developing the power to breathe from
the very extreme of the lungs, creating, so to speak, a continual
draught in the lungs. Climbing is one of these. The well-known value
of mountain-climbing is due to the fact that it necessitates deep
breathing. If mountain-climbing is not open to you, there must be hills
within your reach. And there are always staircases. This exercise,
being somewhat taxing, should be moderately and gradually taken.
Climbing develops the calves and thighs.
A horse is a splendid colleague in the work of upbuilding. A gallop
sends the “reconstructive” fresh air, the true carpenter of the body,
rushing through the body, doing his work quickly and well.
Young women who complain of dark circles under the eyes admit, by
describing that symptom, depressed circulation. All of these exercises
that develop the power and habit of deep breathing correct lowered
circulation and impoverished blood and cure their unlovely symptoms.
From India, where the gospel of deep breathing as a spiritual as well
as physical aid was born, comes a method of deep breathing that is
wonderfully quieting to rebellious nerves. Close the eyes, and with the
forefinger pressed closely against the left nostril, completely closing
it, inhale and expel the air solely through the right nostril. Next,
closing the right nostril by placing the forefinger upon it, breathe
deeply through the left. Reverse these operations, and continue this
alternate breathing for several minutes.
For clearing clogged lungs this, also derived from India, is useful:
Inhale naturally and deeply, but expel the air slowly and thoroughly
from between the lips, letting it escape with a whistling sound.
Remember, however, to inhale through the nostrils alone, expelling only
with the lips, for while germs cannot be drawn into the system through
the nostrils, the fine hairs which line the nose being nature’s sieve,
they swarm from without into the open mouth at the slightest chance.
That chance is afforded by the intake of air. This outrush, of course,
bars their entrance.
It is really one of the simplest things in the world to have healthy
lungs. Sit erect, stand erect, walk erect. And if you go through life
sitting correctly, standing correctly and walking correctly, you will
breathe correctly, and, breathing correctly, you will have healthy
lungs.
And in order to have a good pair of lungs, a working machine that will
serve you well all your life, begin at once--the younger you are,
of course, the better--to build up the muscles between the shoulder
blades, the muscles at the top of the shoulders and the muscles at the
back of the neck.
Fresh air you must have, of course--plenty of it. But of what avail the
purest oxygen if there are districts in that wonderful region inside
your ribs where a breath of fresh air can never reach. And those are
the very spots where pulmonary germs, like Jeshurun in the Bible, wax
fat and kick. When one has little plague spots like these inside of
his anatomy, fresh air and exercise, the usual prescriptions for sick
lungs, are of no great value unless erect sitting, standing and walking
are systematic and continuous habits. Then only are fresh air and dry
sunshine of avail to affect radically the germs of tuberculosis.
Begin right off now. Straighten up. Whether you have well lungs or sick
lungs, start exercising. The results obtained by even the simplest
gymnastics are often magical, not only as a gain in health but as a
distinct asset of physical beauty. One of your shoulders may hang a
little lower than the other; that will work much harm to a depressed
lung. Look to it always that your shoulders are well up in the air and
well back. Lift up and throw back your shoulders so that your shoulder
blades will lie flat on the back of your ribs, with the tops of the
shoulders themselves pointing directly upward. Make this a habit.
I myself exercise but little. The reason is apparent. I am of slight
physique, requiring rather a fostering of the vital spark than a lavish
expenditure of it, in the direction of muscle making.
Light gymnastics after the bath in the morning, and a drive in the
afternoon quite suffice for me. Since I never grow fat there is no need
of training down. Therefore the exercise I take is quite enough for my
needs.
But for American women, with their tendency to grow fat, this, I know,
is not enough. While I believe there should be only enough exercise to
properly tone the body, yet some require much more for this purpose
than others, and there is not enough toning, when the body grows fat.
There is no one form of exercise so generally tonic to the system, I
think, as walking. If a woman be of the bilious temperament, with an
inclination to grow sallow and heavy-eyed, she needs longer walks than
the woman of sanguine temperament, whose blood leaps through her veins
and seems to seek escape by way of the mounting blushes in her cheeks.
A woman who needs walking, and she and her physician should be the
best judges of whether she does, may begin by walking five city blocks
and end by walking five or six miles. She should increase the distance
gradually, for one long walk may be of brief benefit, but regular long
walks are of inestimable value. It is never well to begin suddenly
violent, unaccustomed exercise.
The chief value of walking is that it forces deep breathing, and deep
breathing causes a cleansing of the intestines, as when a blast of cold
air is introduced into a furnace it burns up all the refuse that while
the fire was low clung to the sides and back of the grate. Here is a
fact that should be kept hanging on a prominent peg in the memory. In
ordinary instances, when a person rests he breathes four hundred and
eighty cubic inches of air a minute. This is much less than is needed
for cleansing the body. That is the reason why I oppose too much sleep.
During the sleeping hours the amount of air we breathe is much reduced.
That is the reason why many persons look at their worst when they rise
in the morning. Lack of the amount of oxygen they take into the body
when they are moving about, leaves their cheeks pale, their muscles
sagging, and their eyes dim. Note how much handsomer you are an hour
afterward than immediately upon rising.
On the other hand, while walking at the rate of four miles an hour,
which is not the maximum rate, you will inhale five times as much air,
that is 2,400 cubic inches, in the same time. Have you a room or suite
of rooms, containing four windows? Have you opened one, and, finding
that the air was not being freshened fast enough, have you opened the
other three and noticed the instant improvement? That then must be the
best argument for walking as against driving.
If you form the daily walk habit see that it becomes a daily habit.
Don’t stay indoors, because it is too hot, or because it is raining.
One should not take her daily walk in midsummer while the sun is
highest. Rise earlier and take the walk in the dewy part of the day
before breakfast.
If it is raining dress for the walk in the coquettish little rubber
boots that are now fashionable, and the short serge or flannel walking
skirt, and the little Tam o’Shanter or turban. Thus garbed, you don’t
care how wet you become. Leave your umbrella behind and let the rain
pour upon your face. It will be the most grateful bath you ever had
in your life. The rain bath for the face is delicious. Having had one
you will lose no opportunity to take another. You will see in your
glowing cheeks their first resemblance to the rose complexion of the
Englishwoman, the finest complexion in the world.
The walk is cheaper and its effects a thousand times more lasting than
any cosmetic. It throws off the enveloped cloak of lassitude that
hides beauty. No woman is so attractive when she is listless as when
she is thoroughly and happily alive. The walk awakens the sleeping or
submerged self. It makes life under any circumstances seem worth while.
And a woman, to keep her beauty, must always think life worth while.
I have seen a woman start on her walk pale, dull eyed, with the
drooping lips that give the appearance of greater age, and have seen
her return from that walk an hour later, her sallowness replaced by a
clear pink skin, her eyes youthfully bright, her lips curling upward,
the sign of content, her step springy. By the magic of the walk she
seemed at least five years younger. Most of the famous pedestrians live
to an old age. In a small town in America lives a man of seventy-five
who recently took a two hundred mile walk in three days, stopping only
for short rests of a few hours. He returned home, having rid himself of
a bilious attack.
Another seventy-year-old youth walked off the rheumatism in a ramble
from San Francisco to New York.
Therein lies one of the greatest values of the walk. It eliminates
lingering, self-made poisons from the system.
An excess of uric acid is just now the fashionable affliction. No one
suffers from it who is an habitual walker. Rheumatism and gout are
caused by the settling of deposits about the joints. Those deposits
of poisonous matter are not permitted to form if there is a thorough
elimination by means of walking and much water drinking.
Indigestion in its various forms can be corrected, especially in
the earlier stages, by walking, in connection with careful diet.
Indigestion is a physical failing, especially peculiar to women.
Walking, by bringing into play unused muscles and by making deep
breathing necessary, as a walk always does, relieves this condition.
Whatever clears the internal organs clears the complexion. Whatever
naturally clears the internal organs brightens the eyes. Whatever
promotes deep breathing lays in a new stock of vigor, as we fill our
cellars with coal in the winter.
Riding is good exercise for women, if not taken in excess. Its drawback
is that the side saddle forces one hip and shoulder higher than the
other. If a woman rides she should by all means ride astride, so
obviating this difficulty.
While I take my own morning exercise after the bath, with no aid
whatever, dumbbells are valuable to those who “cannot become interested
in freehand exercise.” I should advise beginning with the smallest
dumbbells made, those weighing one to half a pound.
Wrapped in a lightweight woolen bathrobe, and wearing tights or
knickerbockers, hose and sandals or slippers, let her stand before the
open window while she manipulates the dumbbells. With shoulders back
and chest thrown out and head erect, let her curl the dumbbells twenty
times, meanwhile breathing slowly and deeply in time with the exercise.
Start with the dumbbells at the shoulders and push them high over the
head, counting and breathing deeply twenty times.
[Illustration: MADAME CAVALIERI IN HER MUSIC ROOM]
Rest for five minutes, the dumbbells standing on the floor in front of
you. Bending your knees very little, but keeping your arms straight,
rise to an erect position, with the dumbbells resting at your waist.
Repeat this exercise, but raising the bells as high and as far behind
your neck as possible.
Now start with the bells held by the arms in a horizontal position.
Raise the bells until they are high above the head, then lower to the
first position, keeping the elbows straight.
When this exercise has become easy, turn back the face until you are
gazing at the ceiling. Breathe deeply. This is one of the best known
exercises for chest expansion. The others develop the back, arms,
chest, shoulders and waist.
This is valuable to correct a torpid liver. Stand erect. Raise the
right arm, reaching as far as you can with it, at the same time pushing
downward with the left hand. Reverse this movement, pushing upward with
the left hand and downward with the right hand. Alternate until you are
nearly breathless.
For a flat chest this exercise without apparatus is helpful. Shrug the
shoulders as high and as fast as possible, ceasing only when you become
dizzy. This, if the shoulders are even. If they are uneven, practice
raising the defective one alone until in the course of weeks or months
they are straightened, or carry a high cane on that side.
For the girl who has not learned to breathe correctly--that is, deeply,
it is well to stand before the open window, and with her hands raised,
the palms outward, inhale deeply, counting ten, hold, counting ten,
exhale, counting ten.
Or this: Clasp the hands behind the head, the palms supporting it, and
with the chest thrust forward, inhale, count and exhale as advised. If
this at first causes giddiness count but four and gradually, as the
body becomes accustomed to the new exercises, increase the counts to
ten, and even to twenty-five.
For a stretching of all the muscles the best exercise I know is to
clench the fists and, raising the arms, with elbows unbent, above the
head, stretch the body to the greatest possible height.
Another to give suppleness to the body is to rise on the tiptoes, then
lower the body until the weight rests upon the soles, then up and
down again fifty times. I have known persons so infatuated with this
exercise that they repeated it two hundred, and even five hundred times
a day.
One warning: Never carry exercise beyond the point of slight fatigue.
Never let it reach the point of exhaustion, for exhaustion, like
illness, is a synonym for ugliness.
Women fancy that a weak back is the heritage of their sex. They fancy
that aches and pains in that region are inevitable. In this they are
mistaken. The back may be rebuilded and strengthened as can other weak
spots. Discreet exercises are the best aid in that desirable direction.
For children who are growing round shouldered, shoulder braces are,
for a time, beneficial, for they train the muscles to erectness. When
this training has been accomplished the braces should be removed and
the child required to practice the carriage the brace has taught him.
But for a grown person I never advise braces except as a last resort
in a desperate case, and particularly in cases of lung affections, to
require the person to inhale fresh air.
We often receive the advice, “Rest your back to stop its aching.” This
is sound advice in cases of extreme fatigue, but generally the best way
to rest the back is to strengthen it, and the way to strengthen it is
by well directed, but not violent, exercises.
Every muscle in the body is there for some use. Everyone should have
enough exercise to keep it healthy. The muscles of the back are weak
because they are so seldom used.
The best exercises for development of these neglected muscles are those
which involve stooping. Spoiled, pampered beauties test themselves by
stooping, and if they can touch the floor with their finger tips,
without bending the knees, they pronounce themselves fit. Women less
spoiled and pampered have far less anxiety about keeping fit. Their
everyday work requires enough stooping to keep the muscles of the back
flexible and the muscles of the abdomen firm, and of normal size.
Lifting moderate weights from the floor is a good exercise for
strengthening the back. If the back be very weak it is well to begin
with an empty bucket. As exercises strengthen it gradually fill the
pail. A basket with a handle may serve the same purpose. Stoop slowly,
and slowly lift the weight. Keep the leg muscles tense and make the
muscles of the arms tense. Reach slowly forward and lift the weight
with both hands. Lift it on a level with the waist line. Then lower it
as slowly to the floor.
Next to stooping, twisting the muscles of the back is a good exercise
for strengthening it. But let this twisting be slowly and gently done,
or this will be one of the instances in which the remedy is worse than
the disease. Violent exercise will only make the muscles weaker and
cause a more severe ache, and possibly a severe injury, by wrenching
them.
This is the best method for the twisting. Lift the arms slowly above
the head, with the elbows unbent. Then slowly turn the body to the
right, resting its weight on the left leg. Swing the body around,
keeping the arms above the head but shifting the weight to the right
leg. This is a most valuable exercise, for it contorts the muscles,
causes a supply of blood to flow through them and by the unusual action
they gain strength.
The same exercise as the foregoing can be advantageously done with the
arms stretched out horizontally before you, and swinging them in a
large half circle, being careful to shift the weight from one leg to
the other and keeping tense the muscles of the legs on which the weight
rests.
As a rule round shoulders are the sign of weakened muscles. Or the
appearance of round shoulders may be given by a too great accumulation
of fat across the shoulders.
A good exercise to correct this is a simple squaring of the shoulders,
drawing in at the same time lungs full of air. Push back your arms so
that the forearms are on a level with the waist and the elbows are
pushed as far back as possible. By a gentle sawing motion move the
elbows forward and back. This causes a rush of blood to the muscles
surrounding the shoulders, and nourishes the muscles which you are
exercising and banishes the fat cells.
To banish fat from the back draw the arms back as I have described.
Thrust between the back and elbows a stout cane or a broomstick.
Manipulate the cane by means of the elbows so that the muscles are not
only strengthened but the cane is rolled over the flesh. The effect is
to break the fat cells.
This is sometimes more easily done if you hold the cane in a diagonal
position.
Useful to the same end is the exercise of sitting erect in a chair and
exaggeratedly shrugging the shoulders, first one, then the other, then
both together.
Work with light dumbbells will also in time reduce the fat of the back,
but I counsel the use of light clubs and these in moderation. Standing
erect, the feet resting flatly on the floor and the knees unbending,
raise the dumbbells slowly above the head without bending the elbows.
As slowly lower them until the arms hang loosely at the sides.
If you notice that one shoulder is higher than the other, give heed
to your hips. The hip on the other side is probably thrust up and
the shoulder on that side sinks, the shoulder on the opposite side
rising to balance it. So if one shoulder is high, correct your way of
standing. Stand with the weight evenly divided and rest on the balls of
your feet. Your shoulders will drop naturally into place. Keep them in
place.
Have you ever thought of the broomstick as an aid to beauty? Jesting?
Not at all. I wish to convince you that that everyday tool for keeping
your home clean is a means of making yourself handsomer. Indeed, yes.
Sweeping itself is an admirable exercise. It gives a variety of
activity by causing several of the least used muscles to stretch and
contract. Sweep vigorously and thoroughly and you will feel the rush
of blood to the muscles of your forearm, to the muscles surrounding
your shoulder blades and to those at the small of the back. And, more
valuable than any of these, it causes you to bend the body at the
waist, thus strengthening the muscles which are weak in nearly all
women, those of the abdomen, muscles which, allowed to become weak
and flaccid, cause that part of the body to sag, giving an unlovely
prominence with the ugly bulge at the hips which caused a visiting
artist from Europe to sneer:
“Ah, the great American figure is not, as I thought, the Almighty
dollar. No, it is the unexercised forms of the women.”
The American woman has learned to develop and keep in control the upper
half of her figure. Fine chests, with a graceful line from the shoulder
to the bust, have grown common among American women. Many of them have
mastered the not difficult art of deep breathing, so expanded the
chest, developed the lung power and perfected what may be termed their
upper halves.
But the glaring defect remains--the clumsy, conspicuous lower half
of the body, which can only be made pliable and symmetrical with the
rest of the body by exercises, among which note this simple one I have
named, sweeping. Any household exercise that causes you to bend at the
waist to the floor will keep the hips and abdomen in control, and in
time diminish their size.
For this reason, if not for that of neatness, never lose an
opportunity, if your figure has the defect I mention, to stoop to pick
up a bit of paper or lint, or a scrap of cloth, from the floor.
Stoop from the waist. Don’t resort to that trick of the indolent or the
awkward, falling upon the knees when you pick up anything. Stooping is
a graceful posture. Learn it.
If the defect in your figure is the other sort, the broomstick is
still your friend. But use it in a different way. If you have a weak,
narrow chest, if you are round shouldered, you should apply yourself
to development in a different direction and your sweeping should not
be the main object, but an incident, of your broom handle exercise.
And if you are of this habit be sure to protect your not robust lungs
from the dust raised, to some extent, by sweeping, even though the
broom be swathed in a damp cloth, by keeping your lips firmly closed.
Dust is nearly always disease laden. While the dry disease germs might
continue their way through the air without causing breeding of disease,
the darkness and moisture and the weakness of your lungs, to which they
find their way through the open mouth, will stir them into new life and
you will be the victim. Never, in any circumstances, inhale through the
mouth. Occasionally to rid the body of an excess of carbonic acid gas
you may safely exhale through the mouth to still further purify the
body. Never, never, take in air through the mouth. Don’t allow the nose
to become lazy. To inhale air is its duty. Force it to perform it. And
aid it by keeping the nostrils free from clogging substances.
The broom stick will serve its best purpose for you by being shortened,
cut to a length of two or two and a half feet, according to the “reach”
of your arms. Grasping the stick firmly, with a hand at either end,
hold it high above the head and draw the air in deeply, filling the
lungs to their capacity with full draughts of air. When you have filled
every cell of the lungs with the fresh air hold the stick firmly above
the head, count silently at least five. This done, drop your arms
slowly, your hands still clenching the stick, in front of you, below
the waist. While doing this expel the air gently until you feel that
the lungs are almost empty of air.
It is not enough to say to most persons: “Shallow breathing is a bad
habit. Correct it.” The active human mind is an interrogation point and
demands the courtesy and satisfaction of an answer.
Well, then, the results of shallow breathing are these: Sensitiveness
to all the conditions that cause colds, and a disposition to allow
colds to deepen into consumption or widen into pneumonia. Shallow
breathing makes the liver lazy, and soon the body is bile flooded, the
eyes becoming dull and the complexion yellow and lifeless. Clogged
stomach and intestines are the marks of the shallow breather, for the
body engine has not enough oxygen draught to burn up the fuel that has
been thrown into it as food.
It is only the deep breather who enjoys life to its full and shows her
enjoyment of it.
If you are not already an out-of-door woman become one at the earliest
opportunity. Make a business of learning at least one of the outdoor
sports.
Shall it be golf? Then you will have chosen well, for golf develops
the muscles which are not strong in women, those of the back. By
encouraging deep breathing it develops her chest. By causing her to
bend considerably from the waist it strengthens her abdominal muscles.
Because it causes her to walk a great deal it strengthens weak ankles
and develops the muscles of the lower leg. These points, remembered
and practiced, will make you a better golf player and will develop your
health and strength in a corresponding ratio. Select your clubs with
careful view to their length, and this will depend upon your own height
and the length of your arms. To choose a club that is too long is as
foolish and injurious as it is, if you are short, to sit upon a chair
so high that your feet dangle.
Learn a good position for your strokes with wooden clubs at the very
beginning. You should be erect. One leg should be straight under the
body. Its heel should be on the ground, the toe a little pointed in.
Slightly below the hips and not more than four inches from the body
should be the level of the grip.
Because freedom of the wrists is so very important better practice
when not on the links with a cane or closed umbrella. Place the hands
together and hold them quite still in front of the hips, depending for
the motion of the stick entirely upon the wrists. Remember that the
golf stick swings on a pivot formed by the hands and wrists.
One of the benefits of golf playing to a woman is that it teaches
concentration. The eye must be kept upon the ball, not before it is
struck or while it is leaving the sward, but after it has left the
ground.
If you take up lawn tennis play in moderation, especially at the
beginning. I like tennis for women because it induces a fine flow of
perspiration that will carry the clogging poisons out of the system.
It stimulates the circulation and forces deep breathing. It has the
further value of distributing the exercise rather generally throughout
the muscles of the body. Many women play tennis, but few play it well.
A reason is that they are careless in learning the first principles of
the game. They are liable to grasp the racket loosely, and this spoils
their play. Relax your grasp and the racket will turn in the hand while
you make your stroke. Always hold it by the extreme end, letting the
leather binding on the handle rest against the palm.
For your preliminary practice before you play a game that is watched
by critical friends practice strokes alone. Bat the ball against the
kitchen door or the barn door or the neighbor’s fence.
You will have spent your vacation well if during it you learn to swim.
Train yourself to the confidence and fearlessness that are necessary
to master swimming. Make yourself realize that you need not fear deep
water. It is no more dangerous to have two feet of water over your head
than as many inches. This is especially true of salt water, for the
deepest water has the greatest power to hold a body on its surface.