No apparatus for home exercise covers the field so generally and thoroughly as the chest-weights, or pulley-weights. No instructions are necessary, for the boy who uses the apparatus can follow his own idea for strokes, and every muscle in the body may be easily and pleasantly exercised, there being sufficient variation in the movements to relieve them of monotony.
An exerciser similar to the one in Fig. 24 may be constructed out of a piece of plank, two pulleys, a pair of sash-weights, and some cotton rope or clothes-line.
FIG. 24.—AN EXERCISING WEIGHT
Obtain a piece of pine or spruce plank twelve or fourteen inches wide, five feet long, and one and a quarter inches thick; also another piece to form the foot, so that it will project six inches from the base of the plank. Two blocks of wood, four inches long, two inches wide, and an inch thick, will be necessary for the pulleys to swing on. Attach these to the upper end of the plank by means of hinges, as shown in Fig. 25. They should stand out from the board, and in from the edges, the distance of the width of the hinge-leaf, as also shown in Fig. 25. Plate-pulleys are screwed fast to the front edges of these blocks, through which the ropes pass that raise the weights.
The foot-board should be padded with hair or excelsior and covered with leather or burlap, so that the weights may drop on it without making any noise.
From two old tin pails remove the handles and bend the wires around so that a rope may be passed through the eyes at the ends, as shown in Fig. 26. At a hardware store purchase a pair of five-pound sash-weights, and pass the rope ends through the eyes. They should then be spliced or bound with fine line. When the ropes are reeved through the pulleys, a knot should be made in each one, so that it will chock in the top of the pulley and allow the weights to just reach and lightly rest upon the foot-pad. Therefore, when the handles are released the weights will not fall about on the floor as they would otherwise do. The ropes should be about five feet long from the eyes of the weights to the handles. That is quite sufficient to give a good long stroke while bending the body forward or from side to side.
This exerciser may be screwed fast to the rail that should extend all around the “gym,” and also into the floor at the foot to steady it. Lighter or heavier weights may be employed, as the strength of the boy will warrant, but light weights are preferable to heavy ones for continued use.