Perils of Inactivity.
The modern idea of efficiency puts a premium on the sedentary feature of occupations, and employees are frequently automatons that sit. The business man sits at his desk, sits in a comfortable automobile as he goes home, sits at the dinner table and sits all evening at the theater, or at the card table. It is sit, sit, sit until he gets a big abdomen, a puffy skin and a bad liver.
He tries to counteract this with forced exercise in a gymnasium or a couple of hours golfing a week. Very likely, his golfing is more interesting because of the side bets than because of the exercise.
We are losing out on the natural, pleasurable, and practical exercises, mixed in the right proportions to promote physical poise and health. Things are too easy, luxury and comfort too teasing, for the ordinary mortal to resist, and the great mob sits or rides hundreds of times when they should stand or walk.
When my objective point is five or six blocks, I walk, and I think on the way. I probably get in from two to four miles of walking every day, which my friends would save by riding in the street cars or autos.
I walk to my office every morning—a distance of nearly four miles.
I walk alone, so that I may relax and not expend conscious effort as is the case when I walk with another.
That morning walk prevents me from reading slush and worthless news, and relieves me of the necessity of talking and using up nerve energy.
I get the worth-while news from my paper by the headlines and by trained ability to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Four Great Body-Builders.