Personal hygiene and physical training for women

by Anna M. Galbraith

But, on the other hand, actual harm may be done if any one who has been accustomed to lead a sedentary life, or who is not vigorous, suddenly engages in the more violent forms of exercise. In this extreme exertion the heart may be embarrassed by the respiratory action. At the end of deep inspiration the increased pressure of the lungs impedes the flow of blood from the right side of the heart, while the compression of the heart itself by the distended lungs tends to overfill the large veins, and to further endanger the right side of the heart.

During general muscular contraction the arterial pressure is increased at the outset of exertion, before the arteries have become relaxed, and this in turn may lead to the engorgement of the left side of the heart and the circulation through the lungs. To these conditions may be added still another; that is, the exhaustion of the respiratory muscles, partly because of the unusual amount of labor thrown upon them, and partly from the inadequate supply of properly oxygenated blood. If the disturbance of the pulmonocardiac equilibrium be severe and the condition unrelieved, general prostration ensues long before the muscles engaged in the work are exhausted. If, on the other hand, the equilibrium be restored, or when the heart and lungs have been trained to accomplish the restitution, the distress disappears, and the individual is said to have gotten his second wind.

The Gymnasium in the Campaign against Disease.—Women, generally speaking, do not take sufficient exercise. The trend of the present day is for girls of the richer classes to lead an outdoor life, but the women of the middle and lower classes do not obtain enough variety of exercise or enough fresh air, and to the lack of proper outdoor exercise is due their anemic condition, pallor, flabby muscles, and generally ill-nourished appearance.

With the division of labor and the increase of wealth it has become possible for a large proportion of the community to live without much all-round mental or physical activity. As a consequence, there are faulty circulation and defective nutrition, the vital resistance of the body is lowered, and some of its various organs or tissues are ever ready to take on disease. The lowering of the tone of the body through dissipation, want of fresh air and sunshine, insufficient sleep, lack of proper occupation or recreation, also increases the susceptibility of the body to disease.

Senile decay is by no means only a matter of years, but the manner of life led. And very many people over forty years of age fall into a condition of senile decay, merely because they do not take a sufficient amount of active exercise. In consequence the joints stiffen, the muscles relax, and the arteries harden prematurely. The prime of life would be very greatly extended, and old age delayed, if women only continued their active interest in work and systematically kept up gymnastic exercises and outdoor sports.

For all classes of women provision must be made, and sufficient time afforded, to be devoted to some form of mental and physical recuperation and systematic physical training.

Gymnastic versus Athletic Training.—The actual experience of the past few decades has proved that the most effective way of developing the mental and physical powers and the constitutional vigor is through a judicious system of gymnastics, athletics, and carefully supervised plays, sports, and games.

To show which of the two contestants was the “better man” was the primary object of all contests, and this is the fundamental source of the love of games and athletics. England has relied for her physical training upon a large variety of games and sports, instead of an elaborate system of gymnastics. The Englishwomen live an outdoor life, are great walkers, horseback riders, and go in for athletics and sports, and we find that the English women have a much more vigorous physique and healthy and ruddy appearance than their American sisters.

In Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, and Italy more stress is laid on the gymnastic training, and in the Olympic contests, held in London in 1908, the twenty-five women from Denmark afforded a revelation to many of the Americans present.

Medical gymnastics had their origin in Sweden, and are practised largely in that country and on the Continent.