CULTURE OF THE ABDOMEN

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18015, 6 March 1924, Page 9

CULTURE OF THE ABDOMEN

HEALTH FOB THE MIDDLE-AGED fepov oxra own coßazspoSMurc.) LONDON, January 89. ; Mr F. A. Hornibrooit, who vras' tin exponent of the vigorous Sandow exercises in Chri3tchurch for a good mauy years, suffered during the war through, illness from an undue increase in weight. To ft man who had made perfection of muscular development one of the aims of hi* life, the ordinary stoutness of a careless-living person must have been a serious blow. Deprived of his usual exercise through an ac- . cident to hid arm, he began to put oiw weight, and in July, 1922, tilraed the sca.eo* at 14 stone 8} lb. Diet restrictions < <mu ordinary exercises failed to effect any reuuetioii. Hence he was compelled to design an entirely new system of physical exercise. 1 Patting his new system into practice upon himself, in nine months he reduced his weight to 12 stone 94 lb. He expiated his methods privately to medical practitioners, who were convinced of their soundness, and sent him many jxitienta. The results were gratifying, and Jar Hornibrook lias now. set down his system in a volume entitled "The Culture of tho Abdomen."

The system is primarily for ' the benefit of people troubled with obesity There ; it no intention, to compile a complet4' t?eati*e on physical training. The» object, as Mr Homibroolt explains, has beeij to design a £ye tern, which, will cultivate those parts of the body, which, owing to man's posture and to his civilised habits, ate the most neglected parts of the body, albeit the most important, viz.. the, muscles of the abdomen and the organs of digestion. How important those muscles are the author takes time to explain. He to such purpose that even the middleaged man who has been an aUilete, but has dropped into careless ways, will.. register a vow that he will return to virtuoua paths again and devote at least a few minutes a day to the proper exercise' of long-neglected 1 muscles, 'lie remarkable result* of the system are demonstrated in several illustrations throughout the book. We _ see tha photographs of men who are suffering from acute obesity. A few months afterwarw the same people are illustrated with normal aad not unpicturesqud figures. What has happened in the meantime is a course of the new physical exercises. These all seem very simple, and they are adequately explained and illustrated. ... Sir William Arbuthnot Lane (consulting surgeon to Guy's Hospital) writes a. prefaco • ... to the volume. "I believe,' he_ says, "tliat this book, «o carefully corapilea, will bo of the greatest service to the public. It deals with one's most valuable asset, namely, health, without which success m anv form brings no real satisfaction: Mr Hornibrook has spent' his W« » ihe of physical education, and he has succeeded in producing a work jn/which describes, in the simplest and *be<?learest how it is open to everybody to be vigwrou* j «k1 healthv. His methods are excellent in their simplicity, ana are most effectual. _