Many men give the impression that they don’t care about strength and physical fitness, but they are kidding themselves. I don’t know anybody who wouldn’t like to look strong and feel strong. Especially if he could do it in 90 seconds a day. You have only to look around you to see the vanity of man. We kid women about wearing falsies, but all men wear them.
If you don’t believe me just feel the padding in the shoulders of your coat. The benefits of being fit: Strength produces positive benefits to the man who possesses it. Today practically anybody may be called upon to defend himself from burglars, from the other driver in the accident, or just from the guy next door when he gets nasty-drunk on Saturday night. Strength brings many other, less obvious benefits. No matter what you do, if you do it with less fatigue you do it better. In today’s civilization, the most sedentary worker is under physical strain. Go to any main line station in New York or London at five p.m. any weekday and see the commuters in their nightly battle for a seat on the train. It requires the speed to run and the strength to shove. Sitting in your car, driving to work trough traffic, is an equal strain. Just try to get from home to work in the morning without feeling your muscles tense up. If your muscles are strong, they can take the tension better.
Being strong brings great benefits to any man: He can take the strain of modern civilization better. He can perform better on the job, on the athletic field, or wherever he is. He is not knocked out at the end of the day. If he is a school or college athlete, he is able to hit the books after an afternoon of practice. If he is a family man, he can come home to his wife and children ready to assume his role as head of the household with verve and enthusiasm. He carries himself more erect, with head held higher, carriage straighter, step springier, handshake firmer…and he is more of a man. When exercise is missing: Regardless of what a man does, no matter what his contribution to civilization, he is not a whole man if he comes home so fatigued and tense at night that he cannot participate in a family life. If all he can do is gulp down a drink, eat dinner, and then plop himself in front of the television set, he is not fulfilling his mission here on earth. A major reason for fatigue and irritability towards the end of the day is the simple lack of strength.
A strong man can withstand the strain of modern living far better than a weak man. It is significant that an integral part of the brainwashing process, as reported by American soldiers and Marines taken prisoner in Korea, was to deprive them of fresh air, light, adequate food, and exercise. The body soon deteriorates when deprived of the opportunity to exercise the muscles; mental health, alertness, determination, and strength of character decrease along with it.
The Communists knew what they were doing when they cooped their prisoners up without exercise. The corollary is obvious. When the body is in good physical shape, with strong muscles and the heart vigorously pumping fresh blood through brain and body cells, the mind is fresher and works more efficiently. It’s a lot easier to make a bold and independent decision, to do what you think is right, when your mind is operating at full strength. Investigation into the cause of traffic accidents has shown fatigue to be a major contributing factor in many cases. In industrial accidents fatigue plays an even greater role. One way to reduce fatigue, of course, is to get adequate rest. Another is to develop the strength to meet the task and responsibilities of twentieth-century life.
Fighting fatigue: An isometric workout is the best way to lick fatigue for it only takes a few seconds right where you are. It gets the blood circulating again, carrying off the fatigue produced from the muscles. Tired muscles are like a smoldering fire. Shake that fire up, get the ashes off and a fresh supply of oxygen, and it starts blazing up again. Anti-fatigue exercises: Here are a few simple isometric exercises that you can perform in your own office: >1 Reach down, grip the seat of your chair, and try to lift it while still sitting on it. >2 Pull in your stomach muscles, trying to flatten them against your backbone. >3 When you are phoning, squeeze the receiver with all your might for a few seconds (not cell phones).
Each of these exercises stimulates a different set of muscles. 1 is a general exercise for arms, abdomen and upper legs; 2 improves the muscles of the arms, shoulders and neck; 3 strengthens the grip and forearms. Another commonly used practice for grip is, the continuous compression of a tennis or racket ball for 90 seconds, then release. One can have devised isometric exercises to strengthen particular muscles for people with particular problems and goals, but for a well-rounded isometric workout you need only basic exercises. These have been designed to give you a complete toning-up in just 90 seconds. I will be covering these complete 15 basic exercises in Part II. TY.
