For the promotion of lost health, due to bodily neglect; as a cure for insomnia, and many abdominal disorders, it needs no recommendation.
Concerning my personal improvement, little need be said, sufficient to say I never felt better in my life, and recent weight-lifting tests have proved me to be possessed of nearly double my former strength.
Nor has my speed or activity suffered in the least (which so many, erroneously, consider to be the inevitable result of such training). On the contrary, I feel as capable of doing my 10⅖ for the 100 as ever I did.
Believe me,
Yours very truly,
Harold L. Butler.
Casteluan,
Wimbledon Hill, S.W.,
March 8th, 1899.
Dear Sir,
Having been under your system for a little over a year, I should like to add a few words in praise of your system generally. I hardly think that actual figures as to measurements and weight-lifting, give any adequate idea of the general benefits received by anyone who takes up Physical Culture thoroughly and puts his back into it.
If figures are any guide to you, however, I may quote the following, which were all taken at your School in Ebury Street.
My lung capacity has increased from 283 to 417 cubic inches, my chest expansion from 39½ to 42¼, thigh from 20½ to 22⅝, and calf from 13⅞ to 15¼.
In weight-lifting I can raise 125 lbs. from the ground with my right hand above head by means of the body-press, instead of 60 lbs. With two hands I can jerk 165 lbs. instead of 85 lbs., and I can hold out at arm’s length with my right hand 45 lbs. instead of 20 lbs.