A lady told me that with her third child she practiced going up and down stairs on purpose for the exercise. The result was the easiest labor and the best recovery she ever had experienced.
In climbing hills, observe the same rules—keep the mouth closed, expel slowly through the nose, and stand erect. Not long since I read a long letter, upon running, written to boys (and why not to girls as well?) The writer claimed that the whole secret of being able to run and defy all competitors, was to keep the mouth closed. Why? Simply because it forces deep breathing, and compels the use of the diaphragm. Any one can prove this. So with any exercise, but especially in climbing hills or stairs, keep the mouth closed.
Let me urge and emphasize that the pregnant woman must walk, ride, take gymnastics, climb hills and stairs, beginning according to her strength, and increasing the amount from day to day. Upon strength, power and vigor of muscles, largely depends easy labor.
The Delsarte system of esthetic gymnastics is a method of physical training leading to the cultivation of grace and strength. Truthful or natural expression of one’s individuality is the key-note of Delsarte’s thought. This is really a desirable means of obtaining rest, for it teaches giving up all unnecessary tension. In this it is quite the opposite of other methods of gymnastics. This letting go or giving up, can not be done all at once. The teachers of the system give a series of exercises to free the different parts of the body; first the head, then the hands and feet, then the muscles of the waist and chest. Deep breathing aids in freeing the vital organs. All forces of the body are thus allowed a natural and graceful expression.
Annie Payson Call, in her tract on the Regeneration of the Body, says: “The soul can be regenerated and the body remain disorderly; the body can be trained to a fine physical life and action and the soul remain unregenerate; but certainly the fulness of life, both for this world and the next, must come from a more perfect harmony of the material body with the soul.”
CHAPTER XI.
CHASTITY IN THE MARRIAGE RELATION.
“So dear to heaven is saintly chastity,
That when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lackey her.”
—Milton.