Keeping Fit Through the Winter Months

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 986, 31 May 1930, Page 19

Keeping Fit Through the Winter Months

How the Business Man Deprived of Outdoor Recreation in the Winter Months Can Maintain Bodily Vigour and Good Health

—— ■ ■ ■ ==i ODERN man is like jj "" "' | ; J 9 bear in that he —, and the animal, however, is that Mr. Grizzly can come out of his favourite tree stump at the first

breath of spring without feeling any ill effects from his long sleep, whereas Mr. Man’s body is further below par at the end of the winter than at any other time of the year. The business of keeping fit in winter is tremendously important although the majority of persons do not seem fully to appreciate it. A man must fast, physic, exercise or become sick. Any annual report of vital statistics will disclose that there is more sickness and the death rate is higher in winter than in any other proportional division of the year. Yet most of us are prone to do nothing about it. The advent of the rainy winter days chases us off the tennis courts except for the days that are throw backs to Indi 11 summer. It cuts down on the amount of sunshine, and, consequently, of healthful outdoor recreation. The young men have their football and hockey. The older men go indoors for their hibernation and unfortunately most of us stay there until spring comes around, forgetting that our

muscles were made to use and our lungs to inhale good, fresh air that purifies our entire system. When winter comes, it is not at all necessary for us to shut up our physical workshop and let it rust avray for a dozen weeks or more. The process of keeping fit —of remaining right up to the mark—can be carried on just as easily when the snow is on the

ground as when Old Sol is beaming down in all his midsummer splendour. The problem of keeping fit in winter —if you want to call it a problem —may be solved by adherence to two cardinal rules. The first rule involves deep breathing and the second requires that the abdomen be kept rigid. When properly done, walking is an exercise that combines those rules. There are several minor points that it would be well to remember, but those two are pre-eminent deep breathing and a sagless stomach. For if you want to keep a stiS upper lip,

you have to keep your stomach stiff. The importance of the two rules mentioned will be proved by physicians or any other person who is conversant with the make-up of the human body, who will tell you that deep breathing and keeping the abdomen rigid are the principal secrets of longevity. Then, too, there are some very

simple and fundamental physical exercises that are valuable adjuncts. They are not difficult to perform and do not require much time in their execution. They go hand-in-glove with the necessity of keeping the stomach from sagging. The two exercises to -which reference has been made will require no more than five or ten minutes a day to perform. If possible, they should be done twice daily, but that is not essential; once is really sufficient. They are alternate exercises and they are executed as follow:

1. Sitting up from a lying-down position with the hands behind the neck. This develops the stomach muscles. 2. Raising the legs from a prone position to an angle of 45 degrees and lowering them slowly. This exercises the abdominal muscles. When a person first tries these exercises, he is soon convinced how little stomach and abdominal development is possessed by the average human being, because some soreness will result from the first few days of

effort. This is true of any muscle in t.he body that has been long in disuse. If these two alternate exercises are tried —and people who would keep fit are strongly urged to attempt them — they should not. be done violently at the beginning. Caution should be employed in the early stages of the exercising, which later should be increased gradually after the muscles have limbered up from their first touches of soreness.

ducive to good sleep. At bedtime the heart action should reduce gradually. However, the exercises described hardly can be classed as heavy ones, unless the individual himself makes them so, and it probably would not be injurious to take them at night if no other time during the day can be found for them. Walking is not strenuous and will not accelerate the heart action to a harmful point if indulged in just before retiring. The belly of a human being may be fat layers of fat may cover the

muscles —but it shouldn’t sag. If the two alternate exercises mentioned above are employed, the layers of fat are apt to disappear and the desired results will be achieved.

The importance of deep breathing during the winter cannot be too strongly stressed. In cold weather people do not ventilate their bodies sufficiently, when, as a matter of fact, an airbath is almost as beneficial as a sunbath. The airbath for the lungs may be taken without any great effort.

The best time to .take these exercises is in the morning and again later in the day if it is possible. It is not beneficial to indulge in heavy physical work immediately before retiring, because this brings the heart up to a too rapid action and is not con-

There are numerous benefits attached to deep and proper breathing. It freshens up the blood stream and accelerates the circulation of the blood. Then, too, it helps to carry off the divers and sundry poisons

accumulated from overeating and few will deny that most persons overeat in winter. Deep breathing is a matter of train ing, yet it is not a difficult thing to learn. The well-trained sprinter, having been schooled correctly in this

Walking is very pleasant, indeed, and there are innumerable cases in which it has been a health-builder. About three miles a day is sufficient, but if that requires too much time, then two miles will do. A walking schedule of not less than twenty or twenty-five miles a week is advocated by experts. We are an inconsistent people. Walking is the main activity of life, yet most of us do not know how to walk correctly. In the rush and bustle of this workaday world we

essential, takes his breath at the starter’s words, “Get set!” He holds his breath as the gun is fired and. what’s more, he continues to hold it almost throughout the course of his 100-yard dash. The ten-second runne would be slowed down more than thi average person realises if he were tc take a breath every few strides. The importance of giving an air bath to the body cannot be emphasised too strongly. When combined with a few simple mov nents of the arms inhalation tends to force air into the apices of the lungs—the tops of the lungs—where tubercular germs artapt to start their work if oxygen doe--not enter. In exhalation the points outlined below will, if followed oat, tend to fore out some of the residual air which always is present in the lungs. It is common knowledge that virtually two-thirds of the residual air is rarely used unless exercise of some sort is indulged in. Of course, it would be impossible to deflate the lungs entirely and still live, but the point to be made is that the forcing out of some of this residual air and the taking in of new, fresh air is a purifying process of inestimable value. In all breathing exercises, inhalation should take place through the nose and exhalation should be made through the mouth. This is quite important. Here is a set of breathing exercises that will achieve the desired results and will not require too much time to perform: 1. During inhalation through the nose, raise the arms sideways and upward without bending the elbows, so that the palms of the hands touch above the head. While exhaling through the mouth, lower the arms slowly to the sides so that they traverse the same route through which they were raised. 2. During inhalation, raise the arms forward until the hands are level with the shoulders. While still inhaling, bring the elbow's as far back as possible, keeping the elbows, the hands and the shoulders on the same plane. This is a movement that forces fresh air into the apices of the lungs and tends to cleanse them. While exhaling, thrust the arms forward more or less violently, with the body bending over parallel to the ground and with the arms extended and swinging downward and backward. This is the exercise that tends to force out some of the residual air, for in this position the lungs are t-s marly deflated as is humanly possible. Unfortunately, as a people, we are forgetting how to walk. Nowadays, instead of walking we’re too eager and ready to hop into a motor-car, a tramcar or a taxicab in order to reach destinations that are a comparatively short distance away. We imagine urselves as time-savers when, as a matter of fact, we are labouring under a sad misapprehension At the moment we may be saving time, but in the final analysis we are really cutting down our allotted span of years. For, make no mistake about it, walking is a tremendously import-

overlook the strengthening powers that walking provides for the lungs, the heart and other vital organs. In learning to walk correctly, let is take a tip from primitive man. We ire told that he used the straight foot m action because his life consisted of pursuit and flight. Yet this modern civilisation of ours has produced the everted foot!

Walk with your feet pointed straight ahead! That is recognised by most authorities as the proper method. Our best track athletes run that way—some of the greatest of them have been even pigeon-toed. This business of turning the toes outward is all wrong. It has been the leading reason for the breaking down of the foot structure, a thing that is truly wonderful in its formation. With its twenty-six bones and the complicated arrangement of the muscles, it is susceptible to a high degree of training—witness ballet dancing and fancy skating. But, of course, the feet are not the only portions of our body that are used in walking. The legs, the hips, the knees, the arms, the spine and the chest all enter into this exercise. The carriage of the upper part of the body Is dependent upon the position of the chest, which should be forward and high. The spine then becomes erect, the breathing rower is increased and the head and shoulders naturally assume the proper positions. In walking, the weight of the body should never be borne on the heels. The leg is thrown outward from the hips, with the knee acting in harmony and the heel touching the ground first, but the weight should be so quickly transferred to the ball of the foot that the heel makes no noise. Noisy walkers are ungraceful and improper walkers. While the heel should not support the weight of the body, you should not walk literally on the ball of the foot. To do so would produce a mincing gait that is not at all in keeping with the grace of proper walking. A pendulum-like swing of the arms in harmony with the legs is a part of the correct method. The shoulders should be flexible and should not be held consciously, as tension at those points will make the entire arm stiff. The hips, our strongest joints, also should be flexible. They can be made to do much of the work now unnecessarily performed by the back simply by bending slowly in different directions and by long swings of the leg while standing with the weight on the other foot. The knee joints, which appear weakest considering the amount of work they perform, can be strengthened by the simple practice of sitting and rising naturally from a chair very slowly. Do not heed those old-fashioned promidic bits of advice to “throw your shoulders back,” “turn your toes out” and “hold your chin in.” They are relics of a bygone and misinformed age. All you have to do is to keep the feet pointed straight ahead, hold the chest high and forward, and you'll walk straight down the broad highroad of health.

A Man must fast, take physic, exercise, or become sick. Deep breathing and keeping the abdomen rigid are the principal secrets of longevity. Airbaths for the lungs carry off the poisons that accumulate from over-eating. Walking is the most beneficial of all fundamental exercises. At least three miles a day twenty to twenty-five miles a week is a great health-builder. Take a tip from primitive man walk with your feet pointed straight ahead. Hold your chest high and forward, and you’ll walk straight down the broad highroad of health.