character, and advice as to diet and matters of a confidential nature are concerned, the Secretary of the Pelman Institute will give an introduction to Mr. Miles, who has consented to treat all Pelman students at special fees.
In the lessons that follow, Mr. Miles has achieved two distinctive results:—
(1) He has produced a system of physical training, at once simple and effective, such as a busy man or woman can take up without difficulty or danger; for it must be confessed some systems of physical culture call for rather expensive apparatus and the REGIME is often too punishing to be good for health, especially with sedentary workers.
(2) Secondly, he has invented exercises which combine body building with mind training; in other words, a student can be traming imagination and developing will power at the same time as he increases the vitality of bodily functions. This is a considerable gain to all who seek symmetrical growth – an efficient mind in a sound body.
First Lesson.
Right physical exercises are very important for various general reasons. Here are a few of them:—
1. Regularity of Habit. The late Professor William James insisted that it was a good thing to go through something regularly, especially if it was not very pleasing, so as to prove one’s own power over oneself. The regular performance and repetition of certain physical movements re-acts on the willpower, and reinforces it, so that by degrees one finds it easier and easier to turn one’s attention and one’s energies in any given direction at will.
With regard to exercises of the right sort, this regular practice is all the more useful because—as distinct from most of the drudgery we go through—it brings health and fitness.
2. The right exercises also tend to self-respect. A good instance is the training of the left hand. Most people have very clumsy left hands, and they cannot have proper self-respect while they carry about with them constantly so inefficient a member. Besides this, the training of the left hand influences a certain part of the right side of the brain. Let people train their left hands—not necessarily to equal their right hands in skill, but to approach towards that standard—and they will have more respect for their body in general.
3. Health and fitness in general come from the right exercises, done in the right way. I shall enlarge on this point in future Lessons.
4. Imagination and memory can be trained by certain methods and exercises, and I shall illustrate this in the course of the present Lesson.
Most of these Lessons will be divided into two parts—exercises that you can do in bed, and exercises that you can do when you have got out of bed.
As to exercises in bed, a most famous example of their very good effects is Sanford Bennett, who made himself young at the age of 70, simply by bed exercises. I do not recommend his system exactly as it is, but the idea of doing exercises before you get up is a very good one.
Exercise I.
Lying in bed, flat on your back, and with the bed-clothes off, stretch out your right foot and leg. Stretch them down as far as they will go, with the toes as far away from you as possible, and the knee well braced back. Hold the leg and foot in this position for a moment or two, then stretch a little further still, even if it begins to produce a feeling almost of pain. Do not over-strain. Then, still keeping the leg stiff and the knee back, send the heel down as far away from you as it will go, and keep it there for a moment or two; then the toes down again; then the heel down again.
Next, rest and relax with this leg and foot, and go through the exercise with the other leg and foot instead.
Then go through it with both legs and feet together.
This exercise has many advantages, one of which is that it serves as a means of curing and preventing cold feet. It also can cure certain kinds of headache, by removing the blood-pressure from the brain. And it improves the circulation generally; and has other capital effects.
Exercise II.
Now, still lying in bed, put your two hands over your abdomen, one higher up than the other. Close your mouth, and, as you inhale through your nostrils, send your abdomen up and out. Hold it up and out when you have finished inhaling. A second or two will be quite enough at first. Then exhale quietly, and empty your lungs well, while you draw your abdomen in; and, at the end of the drawing in, press downwards with your hands.
This is one form of diaphragmatic breathing, and it is the kind usually taught in schools, as the first Breathing exercise. It has many advantages, including its good effects on the nerves and on the endurance. But I will not speak of these advantages here. I shall speak of them in a later Lesson.
Repeat the exercise once or twice, but be sure not to strain. If it makes you at all giddy, don’t repeat it at once.
Exercise III.
Now, getting out of bed, practise skin drill, not in the elaborate way suggested by a Danish athletic instructor, but, if you like, with some underclothing on. Rub your skin all over with the palms of your hands, or, if you prefer, with a loofah, or a skin-brush, or skin-glove, or perhaps sometimes in one way, sometimes in another.
This will improve your circulation, and of course will clean your skin of its dead particles, and will be good exercise in itself.
You could go through the skin drill either before you have a bath, or afterwards, or, to some extent, during the bath.
Having gone through the skin drill, close your eyes for a moment, and, keeping your hands and arms still, try to recall the movements and sensations of the skin drill—that is to say, go through the skin drill, not in reality, but in imagination. Be sure to do this immediately after the skin drill.
It is generally agreed that the most effective way of remembering many kinds of things is to recall them directly afterwards, before they have faded from the mind.
On the first day, do not give up too much time and energy to this skin drill. A minute may be quite enough. You could, if you like, keep on some of your clothing while you are massaging some parts of your body. Then cover these whilst you are massaging the other parts.
It need not always be the mere rubbing of the skin; it could sometimes be slapping and pinching, etc.
In the Second Lesson there will be some leg and arm stretching, a second Breathing exercise, and some gentle hopping anc skipping without a rope.
PELMAN LESSON II.
Success in any kind of enterprise—commercial literary, scholastic, social or political—require: Energy. This subject is dealt with in Lesson II where we show how well-directed Energy develops mental ability and formulates character
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