EXERCISE: IN MODERATION.

By “THE NEW DOCTOR.”

here is a temptation to all to eat too much and take too little exercise. Many of us have from childhood learned to suppress this temptation; but we fear that there are many more who are constantly fighting the battle against laziness and over-eating, and not a few who give up the struggle altogether.

Of all earthly gifts we look upon good health as the greatest. We should doubt if anyone would choose gold in preference to health. And yet why is it that most persons strive so much harder for the former than for the latter. Perhaps it is that a healthy person has an idea that her health can take care of itself; whereas she knows full well that wealth cannot be acquired without working for it. Or perhaps it is that people do not know how to take care of their health.

It is all very well to talk about Nature being able to look after herself (or rather ourselves), that she is an infallible guide for us to follow, and that she tells us what to eat, when to sleep and how to be generally happy and healthy. But does Nature do this for man? Perhaps she would be so obliging if man were a natural animal.

But a civilised man is not a servant of Nature, and though he is unable to rebel against her, still he has the power to question her promptings and the will whereby to alter or nullify them. And if we think ever so shallowly we cannot escape from the knowledge that Nature very often prompts us to do what our higher understanding tells us is wrong, and if we do our duty we set aside the dictates of Nature in favour of our own consciousness. Even in cases dealing with the lowest vital points, such as eating, dressing, or sleeping, Nature by no means always directs us aright. When you have been running on a warm day and have got very hot, what does Nature tell you to do? To sit in a draught and get cold. And yet if you value your health, this would be the very last thing that you would dare to attempt.

Since we have no natural instinct to tell us how to keep healthy, we have founded upon our experience a code of laws to regulate our bodily functions. These laws of health, which we should all observe have been gradually evolved from the observations of generation after generation of physicians and others, and though they may have differed in detail at different times and in different countries, in the main they may be considered as absolute.

Everybody must have heard of these laws of health, but there is a very large number of persons who do not know what they are or how to carry them out.

There are six chief laws of health. The first deals with the sanitation of our homes and dwellings; the disposal of sewage; the draining of the soil; the laws of ventilation; the supply of sufficient quantities of pure water, and the general hygiene of the community. We support governors and committees to look after this part of the business, so we need not worry ourselves about it.

The second law of health concerns itself with personal hygiene. It tells us how we should wash and clothe ourselves; how we should ventilate our rooms; how to cool ourselves in hot weather, and the means by which the animal heat is maintained in winter.

The third law tells us about our food; how we should eat; what is the best food for man in health and sickness; what we should drink; and other matters connected with the supply of fuel to our bodies.

The fourth law deals with sleep. It tells us its nature; why we sleep. It insists on the necessity of sufficient sleep, and sleep at the right time.

The sixth law deals with the proper education of the mind. How to educate our children. The absolute necessity of mental study for the physical health of our bodies as well as its more important functions.

We have omitted the fifth law, but will now refer to it, and we will devote the rest of this article to its consideration. This law deals with the question of physical exercise.

Physical exercise is as essential to health as is food or sleep; but, because the need of it is not brought home to us so forcibly as these two other necessities, it rarely receives that attention which it deserves. Everyone knows full well that we may eat too little or too much, that we may eat at improper times, that everything that we can put into our interiors is not equally wholesome, that much that we can eat is positively injurious, and that we must eat every day, be the weather fine or rainy. But how few there are who know that the laws of exercise are in every way comparable with these! Most people are aware that we can take too little exercise; some moderate persons likewise know that we can overdo exercise, and that exercise is not equally good at all times. We have met people who know that all forms of exercise are not equally good, and a few who are aware that some forms of exercise are positively injurious; but we have seldom spoken to anyone who would admit that exercise is essential every day in all weathers.

The first question that we will discuss is, how much exercise is needed every day, how much will give the greatest benefit, and how much is positively injurious?

And on the threshold we are met with the greatest difficulty of the whole subject; for persons vary extremely in their endurance of exercise, and a walk which would be insufficient for one person may be infinitely beyond the powers of a second to endure. We cannot lay down a rule in this particular. Every person must find out for herself what amount of exercise she must indulge in daily. For a perfectly healthy girl of sixteen to twenty, three to five miles’ walk daily, or an hour’s bicycling, or, if outdoor exercise is not permissible, half an hour’s gymnastic exercise is the minimum amount of exercise which she should take daily.

Ever so many people have an idea that you can lay in a stock of exercise, as you can fill a coal-cellar, and draw on the reserve when you are too lazy to renew the supply. These persons will tell you, “I do all my walking on one day, so that there is no necessity for me to go out any other day in the week. I walk twenty-one miles on that day, that is three miles for each day in the week, so I am all right on this score.” Now just consider one moment what you are doing, and you will agree with us that your method is not only fallacious, but exceedingly harmful.

Suppose that you eat on an average two pounds’ weight of food a day. Do you think that it would be equally beneficial to take the fourteen pounds of food on one day and then have six days’ starvation? Some animals can do this, but man is not fitted for living in this way. With the usual logic evinced by most people when they are contradicted, we are at once answered, “Oh, if what I do is no good, as I cannot take exercise when I like, I shall not go out at all!” Evidently concluding that she takes care of her own health out of consideration for our feelings!

You must be a physician to hear this form of argument without smiling. Perhaps you would feel inclined to answer this lady, “Well, it does not matter to me what you do. It is your health, not ours, that is at stake.” So, indeed, would we like to answer; but if we did, what would be the good of us? No, we will not offend this lady; we will wait till to-morrow, when she will have come to the same way of thinking as ourselves.

You must never walk so as to over-tire yourself. We are not going to say that an occasional long walk is injurious. It is not, but it is not the proper way to take exercise.

All forms of exercise are not equally good. Some are very beneficial, others are doubtfully healthy, others again are downright noxious.

Walking is so infinitely the best form of exercise, that to compare any other with it is ridiculous. Walking is essential to health, and no other form of exercise can be substituted for it.

Boating, riding, and bicycling are fairly good forms of exercise, but none of these possesses the value of walking. Driving in a carriage is simply not exercise at all. You get a little fresh air and change of scene in driving; but as there is no exertion required in the process, there is no exercise.

Many of our outdoor games are good exercise, many are a little hard and excessive perhaps, but on the whole they are very healthy, unless carried to excess. These games are good because walking or running is an essential part of them. Golf is by far the most healthy of all games. As far as outsiders can tell, it seems to us to be walking with a little skill and excitement added to render the walking pleasant to those who will not walk for walking’s sake alone.

Of the forms of exercise that can be carried on indoors, we will say but little. A little dumb-bell or Indian-club exercise in the morning after the bath is very beneficial to healthy people. The dumb-bells should be made of wood, should not weigh more than two pounds, and should be used for a few minutes only. The heavy iron dumb-bells so often used to “improve the figure” are exceedingly injurious and should never be used.

Of gymnastics we would rather be silent altogether; but, since this form of exercise is very popular and largely on the increase, we must say a word or two about it. In our opinion gymnastics of any kind are poor forms of exercise, and the severer kinds and “strong man exercises” are exceedingly injurious to everyone.

We have been accustomed, when we look at a man whose muscles are enormously developed to consider him a strong man. But if you were to question him on his health or powers of endurance, you would probably discover that he was a very sickly specimen. We have seen a “strong man,” a rather famous one too, sit down in a corner and cry for half an hour because a boy threw a cherry stone into his eye—an injury at which a healthy person would laugh. Does this denote strength? Another strong man whom we knew was always shivering with the cold both in summer and winter. And once, when he happened to catch a cough, he was completely prostrate for weeks.

Another strong man told us that he was careful never to read or use his brain in any way because it interfered with the development of his muscles! Yet another who prided himself on the enormous expansion of his chest—we forget how many inches’ difference there was in the diameter of his chest in inspiration and expiration, but it was something sensational—caught cold, contracted consumption, and died six weeks later! Yet the exercises for expanding the chest are said to prevent phthisis!

The man with great muscles is not the strong man, but a sickly monster. What good can it do to anyone to lift a horse and cart, or break iron bars? Develop his muscles as far as he can, no man will ever excel a steam-hammer or an engine in force or weight.

Give us the thin wiry person who has cultivated his mind and body to do that work for which he was made. He is the man who can brave disease, and who, if he by any misfortune happens to be injured, can bear the suffering like a man, and whose body is well capable of recovery from the many vicissitudes to which it is liable.

Exercise is essential in all weathers. Because to-day is wet, are you going to forego your walk? In England about one day in three is rainy. Are you going to suppress one-third of your necessary exercise from this cause? Oh, you are afraid of catching cold! Now English people talk a lot about catching cold, for they of all nations suffer most from this cause. But very few persons indeed really understand what catching cold means or how it is produced. We hope to give an article on this subject shortly. At present we will merely state that, unless the day is very cold or windy, walking in the rain, if you are sufficiently protected, will not cause you to take cold. We would not, however, advise any invalid to go out on rainy days; but still they must not abandon exercise altogether. Half an hour’s dumb-bell exercise or mild gymnastics may be substituted for the day’s walk.

Exercise is best if taken in the morning. For very strong people it is preferable to take a walk before breakfast; but people who are not feeling up to the mark should not attempt to walk before having had some food.

You should never take exercise immediately after a meal, and conversely you should never eat till half an hour after a long walk, and you should never go to bed immediately you come home from a walk, but sit down quietly for at least half an hour before retiring.