NO MORE "CHESTS OUT."

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13293, 23 May 1907, Page 3

NO MORE "CHESTS OUT."

The century-old order of discomfort, detested by the school lny and volunteer recruit, " Chests out and stomachs in," has been heard for tli; last time in the British Anm-. The soldier of the future -.rill .stand upon ] and in natuial attitude, not as if his breast- were always expanding to some imaginary ball. Instead, lie will be told henceforward not to putt' out his chest on any account. The Army Council, after consultation with a large number of medical men and experts, who were all of the fame opinion, have decided that the top-heavy, stiffbacked, rigid-necked variety of soldier, who has long been the ideal, is not, generally speaking, a tower of strength. Often his massive chest contains a heartthat lias been over-strained in its development. At the inquest' on an army sergeant, whose figure was most probably the admiration of hi? iegim-nt, but who died of heart failure, a doctor told the coroner's jury that the death was due of the " pernicious pract ; of the. British Army of puffiing out the'chest." Along with" the protruded chest, the dumbell system of exercises has been discarded as "an antiquated, unscientific, stupid perversion of the ■ways of Nature," inferior in all respects to the system of "free gymnastics," which has already been adopted in most Continental Armies, and will now take the place of dumbells in Great Britain. "The thing we now impress on men in gymnastic work," an officer explained to a, writer in.the '/Daily Mail," " is, 'Do not hold your breath; you must breathe easily all the time. Any exercise which prevents your breathing" freely is bad.' " Tha knotted muscles, according to this adviser, are greatly wronjr. They simply bind the chest, and tie the heart", down. They do riot expand the lung, and give the heart plenty of room, which is what the athletic neels. Old-fashioned English officer:; will prob:tblv be as much perturbed by the new regulations as were th°ir On-mean predecessors by the discarding: -of the traditional throat-strangling stock, but it is doubtful if the innovation will mean much in this colony. Our New Zealand volunteers. however much they may admire the British carriage, as counselled and ; exemplified by imported instructors, hardlv ever achieve it for themselves. Now "their freedom from rigidity will be a virtue.