Manual of physical training
Excerpt;
OBJECT AND SCOPE OF PHYSICAL TRAINING.
1. The object of physical training is the production of a state of health and general physical fitness so that the body may be enabled to withstand the strains of daily life and to perform the work required of it without injury to the system.
2. It is not sufficient to train the muscles alone and to neglect the heart, lungs, and other internal organs, for it is on the internal organs that the body depends not only on its health but for its very existence.
3. The required condition of physical fitness necessitates that the heart and lungs should above all things be sound and healthy; but the harmonious development of the whole — the skeleton or framework, the internal organs (including the brain and nerves), and the muscular system — is necessary to produce this condition.
4. The ordinary daily work of the individual develops some parts of the body and neglects others. If the brain alone is worked the body suffers, and vice versa. Manual labor is often “ one-sided,” the positions adopted are apt to be cramped and crooked, certain muscles are employed very much more than others and the range of movement is frequently very limited. The result of this is inharmonious development.
5. The exercises employed in a system of physical training, if they ensure as they should the harmonious development of the whole body, will at the same time correct the faults engendered by one-sided work and so put the body in a better state to perform any other work that may be required of it.
Date: 1914
Download Manual of physical training
Date: 1914
Download Manual of physical training