Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/190

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HINTS FOR TRAINING AND GOOD HEALTH.
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recreation (re-creation, or renewal of vigor), and there is no recreation in sawing wood, or any other laborious occupation.

Remember that pleasure is a means as well as an end. The exercise that has in it the element of amusement is ten times as healthy as a listless walk.

Never attempt severe mental or bodily labor after a meal.

If possible take your heavy tasks, mental or bodily, in the forenoon.

    hour out of twenty-four devoted to exercise and rubbing, will keep anybody in good condition, and make him healthy and cheerful, if not wealthy and wise. Swimming is one of the best of exercises, but unfortunately the opportunities for indulging in the sport are limited. It is good for the arms, legs, back, and almost all parts of the frame, and it increases the lung power better than anything else.

    "One need not train like an athlete, and a man does not require a physique like mine, to be perfectly healthy; but if men and women could be kept healthy for a few generations, physical development like mine would be the rule, not the exception. Nine-tenths of the diseases that now keep the doctors busy would be absolutely unknown. No healthy man ever got pneumonia, no matter what the exposure. There is no case on record of a sailor having pneumonia. This is because a sailor's lungs are kept in good order by pure air, and he gets plenty of exercise. The amount of exercise necessary to keep the body in good condition is less than you might suppose. Fifteen minutes a day, rightly employed, will do wonders. A person ought to exercise a few minutes in the morning, and then take a sponge-bath in salted water, followed by vigorous rubbing with hair gloves or a coarse towel. The