Page:How to Get Strong (1899).pdf/98

 it is stormy, dress for it; ''and walk it just the same. Add to it each week, till you are doing two'' miles. And you may work about as hard as you like now at your business, till far down in the afternoon, without need of more exercise; if you will do two things. First—always while seated, sit erect. By-the-way, Professor Blackie well says: "Sitting, in fact, is a slovenly habit; and ought not to be indulged. Why should a student indulge so much in the lazy habit of sitting? A man may think as well standing as sitting; and often a little better." Second, and even more important; take as many slow, deep, and full breaths through your nose as you can. Not straining, or violent breaths at all; but large, easy, and ox-like ones; till each would almost fill a football. Oh! but you cannot think to do this! Let some one pay you ten cents a breath, and see if you cannot think to do it. And, if you can do it for pay;-you can do it without pay. And if you persist in it a while, you will at length do it without thinking of it. Mr. Beecher says that "the reason that most men do not get rich is because they are too lazy." It is even more true with getting healthy and strong. Can't, in nearly every instance, means won't.

On the way to and from luncheon; or dinner, if that is the noon-meal; the hard-pressed brain-workers often find it better not to dine till the day's work is over—again breathe slowly and deeply. It relieves the brain, and fits the stomach for its work; and it helps it do that work as soon as you have eaten. A very few minutes of rest, after eating; a walk of even a block or two, breathing deeply (with some laughing, if you can get it), will fit you for the work of the afternoon. But, right after eating, just try a few times seeing how high you can reach with each hand. Now try a quarter of an inch higher yet; or an eighth of an inch even; and hold