LEGS AND COMMONSENSE

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 200, 24 August 1929, Page 16 (Supplement)

LEGS AND COMMONSENSE

HINTS FOR SHAPELINESS.

BARE LIMBS AND COURAGE.

SOME ADVICE TO DANCING

WOMEN".

(By DR. HAROLD DEARDEN.)

Many unkind things have been said about the prevailing fashion amongst ladies of going about in short skirts and bare legs, but to the interested observer it has one very considerable advantage. It simplifies to.an enormous extent the diagnosis of varicose veins, and knock knees. I was recently dining at a fashionable restaurant in the South of France, where almost all the ladies, irrespective of age or shape, appeared in evening dress with their legs, or, at any rate, the seven-eighths of them which were visible, covered in nothing but sunburn. The quantity of varicose veins which met .my sympathetic gaze was really- remarkable. This being so, it seems to me opportune to say one or two words in this connection.

In the first place, one of the chief causes of varicose veins is some degree of back pressure in the blood stream, which interferes to some extent with the return of the blood to the heart. Obviously the legs are most likely to be affected by this condition, since the blood, as it were, tends to stagnate in the lower extremities, but there is one additional factor which is very commonly present. A chronically overloaded bowel does more than anything else to impede the return of the blood from the extremities, and it was reasonable to suppose from the complexions of most of the dancere on the occasion to which I refer that most of them were suffering from this condition. Influence of Muscles on Veins. If, therefore, on your return from an evening's gaiety you scrutinise your ankles, and are compelled to admit the presence of varicose veins, and if still further inspection compels you to recognise that all is not well with your bowel either, you will know at least what to do in your dilemma. If, however, your varicose condition is at all advanced, not all the salads or aperients in Christendom will avail you much. You are faced with a structural weakness which you can only remedy with. toil. The muscles of the leg have a very profound influence on the healthy tone of the veins. In the first place, if the muscles are in good condition, their mere support is of considerable value in preventing a distension of the veins. But in increasing this muscular'tonc care must be taken, or the results will be disastrous. If exercise be taken in the normal position, with the body weight supported on the feet, all that will happen is that blood' will collect in the distended. veine, and the contraction of the muscles will do little more than still further to distend them. The following procedure is well worth adopting in order to rid yourself of this distressing condition. First thing in the morning, before putting your feet to' the floor at all, throw the bed clothes oif you and elevate your feet in the air. In this position and at this time the veins in your legs well be more empty than at any other period in the day, and any exercise taken under these conditions will increase the tone of your muscles; whilst the veins themselves are in an ideal state for the purpose in view. Profitable Exercises. • Keeping your legs, then, raised in the air, proceed to go through all such movements as are calculated to exercise the muscles of the thigh and calf. Go through the action of pedalling a bicycle upside down, and continue to do this briskly until you arc tired. If you arc prepared to attach to your feet two stout pieces of indiarubber, and hold the other ends in your hands, the increased resistance will be well worth the trouble involved..; Next, proceed to exercise the small muscles of the calf by alternately flexing and extending the foot at the ankle, and then describe with the toes as wide a circle as possible in both, clockwise and anti-clockwise directions, keeping the leg motionless. If you persiet in these exercises every morning in the manner described, -you may hope to excite less interest amongst the spectators at your next appearance in a ballroom. It need scarcely be said that those who have to wear an elastic stocking should put this support on the leg after the exercise, and before lowering the limb to the ground.

With regard to knock knees and bow legs, the matter is not quite so simple. Nature, as part of her purpose, has seen fit to construct all women on a somewhat knock-kneed plan, but while this cannot be avoided, its drawbacks can be minimised very considerably by reducing what may be called the "knobbly" outline as far as possible. Whatever opinions you may hold as to the respective intellectual powers of men and women, one glance at the spectacle afforded by the present short skirt will, at any rate, convince you that, in courage at least, woman is in no way inferior. I have a vivid recollection during the war of the agonyi of mind suffered by some officers in kilted battalions, when, for the first time since boyhood, they were compelled to show their knees to the world at large. They were aware in,many cases that, however admirable as joints, these structures could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be described as beautiful, and it is probaßle that only that access of gallantry peculiar to the time supported them in this ordeal. Ballet Dancing aa Beauty Aid. With women, however, the matter appears to arouse no tremors whatever. Knees are visible ■ in our land to-day which would do justice to any advertisement to attract subscriptions, for an Indian famine fund. Every ligament can be seen stark' and ghastly on either side of an angular and distorted joint, or, on the other hand, the joint itself is buried from view beneath layers of superfluous fat. Whilst giving full credit for the courage which permits of these spectacles, I am prompted to believe that, in giving a few hints for their amelioration, I shall be at least doing a service to. the average male beholder.

Here, again, exercise is the only hope. It may be said that since most of these sufferers spend the bulk of their time upon a dance floor, they are surely obtaining all the exercise either necessary or desirable. But this is far from being the truth. The modern dance is conducted almost entirely on the flat feet, •which no doubt accounts for the fact that most of the best male exponents are almost indistinguishable from waiters. A straight knee is-also, I am assured, essential if smoothness is to be allied to jazz, and beauty result from both. Under these conditions it is plain that the muscles which are responsible for the outline of the knee joint must be almost neglected. In ballet dancing, on the other hand, precisely the opposite condition prevails, and the effects of this upon the shapeliness of the limb are so obvious as to require no emphasis.