EXERCISE FOR ANY GIVEN MUSCLES
dumb-bells, and increased gradually by adding to the number of strokes; and long before the year is out, if the person is steady and persevering at it; decided increase in the strength, size, and shapeliness of the upper back will follow.
What has been thus done with the dumb-bells could have been done nearly or quite as well with any other small, compact body of the same weight, which could be easily grasped by the hands, such as a pair of window-weights; flat-irons; cobblestones; or even chairs, whichever were convenient. Where there's a will there's a way; and if one really means to get these, or any other muscles strong and handsome; the way is surprisingly simple and easy.
Now, instead of using the dumb-bells; stand erect, facing the pulley-weights at the gymnasium, or at home your exerciser. Grasping the handles, draw them far back and up; the hands, in other words, doing precisely what they did with the bells; and the same results will follow.
Rowing, either at the oar or the rowing-weights, would have told more yet on these muscles; and, as already pointed out, on many others besides; the weight of the body itself aiding the development, as it would not with the bells or exerciser. It would also broaden the shoulders, and spread them apart; more, perhaps, than almost any other known exercise. Especially if you take in and hold in as much air as you can while you are at this work. But, like any other single exercise, calling certain muscles into play and leaving others idle; taken as substantially one's only exercise; as is too often the case with rowing-men; it brings a partial and one-sided development; making the parts used look too large for the rest; the fact being that the rest have not been
191
