The last thing that growing boys should try to accomplish is to get hardened muscles. This sort of thing retards growth and development, thereby defeating the very end that the boys think they are attaining. The best kind of training for the younger lads is to keep regular hours, both for meals and sleep. They will find this more beneficial than to keep a regular hour each day for running or jumping or putting up heavy dumbbells. The boy who gets his breakfast, luncheon, and dinner at a regular hour each day, and who sleeps eight or nine hours each night, and who bathes every morning, will make a much stronger man than the boy who trains for "junior" events.
But, as exercise should form a part of each day's occupation, the sixteen-year-old boy should take his exercise in a way that will do him the most good. He will probably not find it so interesting at first, but he will soon discover that he is becoming a better specimen physically than his fellows who can run a hundred yards or a mile under a certain figure, that really does not mean very much.
FIG. 1.
There are a number of body motions that can be performed at home alone, or in the gymnasium with others, that develop the chest and the arms, the back and the legs, so that when the time comes when it can do no harm for a young man to enter into regular athletic training, his muscles are supple, his skin is clear, his chest is deep, his back is straight, and his legs are firm enough to allow of the natural strain which comes from any kind of training.
FIG. 2.
One of the simplest methods of developing the strength of the legs is to stand erect with the hands on the hips (Fig. 1), and to perform what is called the frog motion. That is to bend the knees and to squat down, rising at the same time on the toes, and keeping the body erect, from the waist up (Fig. 2). This motion should be continued up and down until you feel tired. Stop at once when the slightest sensation of fatigue is felt. At first a boy will not be able to perform this motion more than ten or a dozen times, but if he keeps it up every morning he will soon find that he does not become tired until he has dropped and risen again some seventy-five or a hundred times. The important point, however, that must be kept in mind all the time is not to overdo.
FIG. 3.