HOW TO GET STRONG
dumb-bells, say of a tenth of your weight, in the hands during the operation.
A more severe tax yet is had by holding one foot far out, either in front or back, and then stooping down wholly on the other foot. Few can do this many times, and most persons cannot do it at all. For swiftly bringing up a thigh at present weaker than its mate, and so restoring the symmetry which should always have been there, this work is almost unparalleled.
Jumping itself, either high or flat, is admirable for the thighs. Charles Astor Bristed, in his Five Years in an English University, says that he at one time took to jumping; and was astounded at the rapid progress he made in a branch of athletics at which before he had been no good. Maclaren says that hardly any work will quicker bring up the whole legs; but this will probably prove truer where a large number of moderate jumps are taken daily; than where a few extreme efforts are made.
Both fast walking and running bring vigorous action to these muscles; slow walking does little for them, hence the number of weak, undeveloped thighs among men who do little or no quick foot-work. A man, too, whose body is light and thin, may do a deal of fast walking without greatly enlarging his thighs; because they have comparatively little to carry. But let him, after first getting thoroughly used to fast and continued walking, carry weight a while; say a twenty-five-pound bag of shot or sand; or a small boy, on his back; or dumb-bells in his hands—of course, on a gymnasium-track, or some other course where his action will be understood—and he will find that the new work will soon tell, as would, also, long-distance running, even though not weighted, as Rowell so eminently shows.
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