Page:How to Get Strong (1899).pdf/267

 circulation. Still, in a warm and comfortable room they can work to advantage even then. In most instances consumptives have not large enough chests, and in every instance they do not take in enough air. Stripped to the waist, there is found to be a flatness of the upper chest, a lack of depth straight through from breastbone to spine; and the girth about the chest itself, and especially at the lower part of it, is often two or more inches less than it is in a well-built person of the same height. Now, to weed out these defects, to swell up and enlarge the chest, and bring it proper breadth, and depth, and fulness, this will go far towards insuring healthy and Vigorous lungs. And how is this done?

Standing with your back to the exerciser on page 48, holding neck well back, the knees and elbows unbent, draw the two handles forward high over your head and then straight down in front of you, the arms being all the time parallel. Let the handles go back slowly, then repeat, and so do ten. Just as you bear down each time, inflate the lungs to their utmost; and hold the air in them until you have lowered your hands again. Rest about a minute; then do ten more, and a little later ten more. This will be enough before-breakfast work the first week. At breakfast, and whenever sitting down throughout the day, determine to do two things—to sit far back on your chair, and to sit at all times upright, with the back of your neck against your collar. No matter how many times you forget or fail, even if a thousand, keep trying until the erect posture becomes habitual. This point once reached, you have accomplished a great thing—one which may aid not a little to save your life.

Next, about an hour after breakfast, start out for an easy walk. Going quietly at first, the head held, if