The new gymnastics for families and schools : together with the dumb-bell instructor and pangymnastikon

Front matter

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THE

NEW GYMNASTICS

Introduction To The English Edition

The contents of this volume are in three divisions, the second and third parts being translations of the celebrated German treatises of Kloss and Schreber on the Dumb-bell and the Pangymnastikon ; while the first and most important portion describes a new and very unique system of gymnastics constructed by Dr. Dio Lewis, of America. .

Concerning the German treatises there is need merely to say that, both in Germany and in the United States, they have done good service in the cause of physical education. There is reason to believe that a similar result may be accomplished by them in England.

It is to the gymnastic system of Dr. Lewis that I wish more particularly to direct the reader’s attention. The peculiarities of this system are to be found in the apparatus employed, as well as in the mode an 1 the results of its employment. Instead of the heavy, elaborate machinery of the ordinary gymnasium, the Dio Lewis system adopts simply light wooden rings, wooden dumb-bells, rods, and clubs. None of these implements are attached to post, or wall, or ceiling ; but each is merely held in the hand when used, and laid aside when the exercises connected with it are performed. Furthermore, the exercises which this simple apparatus involves are elaborated, with a view to their physiological value, in distinct sets ; each exercise has its own invariable place in the series to which it belongs ; all are adapted to quick and stirring music ; they combine almost infinite variety with consummate simplicity and precision ; and, finally, they admit of being performed in drawing-room, school-room, or hall — wherever there is space sufficient for outspread arms, in a manner the most graceful, pleasing, and appropriate.

The foregoing paragraph may serve as a general description of the new gymnastics. I add a few sentences for the purposes of emphasizing certain important details, as well as to make mention of some of the more valuable results, of Dr. Lewis’s method.

I. — The machinery of the new system. There have been two difficulties in constructing a system of gymnastics which should be capable of universal diffusion. On the one hand, if the method was thorough, the apparatus was too elaborate, too costly, and absorbed too much space ; on the other hand, if the apparatus was simple, the exercises were apt to fail in thoroughness, variety, and prolonged interest. Dr. Lewis’s system ingeniously reconciles both extremes of difficulty ; for. while the implements are extremely simple and inexpensive, there is connected with them a vast multitude of the most varied and powerful movements, bringing into play, under healthful conditions, every muscle, joint, and member of the body.

II. — The mechanical principle of the new system is to give prominence to the idea of velocity in gymnastics rather than of weight. It cannot be doubted that a better muscular result is obtained by this method. While huge lifting power is quite desirable for those who design following the profession of a porter, or a hod carrier, or a coal-heaver, it is not so important for ladies and gentlemen in the more usual avocations of life as flexibility, grace, ease, poise, perfect accuracy and rapidity of muscular action, and a general diffusion of muscular vigour.

III. — The physiological principle of the new system will be sufficiently indicated by the remark that it adopts the plan of light, moderate exercises, in opposition to that of laborious, violent, exhausting movements. The idea is becoming very generally accepted by physiologists, that the muscular system may be cultivated at the expense of the vital ; that a man may develop a magnificent shell of muscle, and draw away to the surface the life and power of the interior ; that a man may become very weak by becoming very strong. A recent number of The Lancet says : — “ While exercise, properly so called, tends to development and health, excessive exertion produces debility and decay.”

IY. — The new system entirely discards the acrobatic principle.

V. — The introduction of music proves eminently successful in stimulating and regulating the movements. It is not claimed that the use of music as an accompaniment of bodily exercises is an original suggestion of Dr. Lewis. The practice is as ancient as the dance and the military step ; it was employed in the rythmic gymnastic movements of the Spartans ; and, in our own day, it has been largely used by Froebel in Kindergarten. The merit of Dr. Lewis is to have been the first to construct a system of gymnastics, in which music should be not merely a casual or incidental element, but an essential and an inseparable one.

VI. — One of the most beneficent results of the new system is, that while it provides an elaborate scheme of exercise for man, there is not, within all its ritual, one exercise which cannot be performed with equal safety, propriety, and success by women.

VII. — Among the physiological results of the Dio Lewis system, a very marked feature is the symmetry of the muscular development produced. For every muscle of the body, Dr. Lewis has devised movements ; the result is a beautiful, harmonious, complete cultivation of the entire body.

VIII. — A very important consideration is the attractiveness of the new system to those who practise it. It insists upon being enjoyed, if pursued at all. It seeks to stir the sources of exhilaration, mirth, enthusiasm. It seeks to achieve this by the vivacious character of the exercises, by the contagion of perfectly concerted action, and by the delightful stimulus of music. It recognises the artistic necessity of touching the play-impulse. It attempts to inaugurate, during the hour devoted to gymnastics, a sort of physical jubilee — a carnival of the emotional and vital powers.

Concerning Dr. Lewis personally, I, as his pupil and friend, should be glad to say more than my present space 'will allow. As a physician and a medical writer, he enjoys wide renown in his native land ; but it is as the leader of a great gymnastic reformation in America — as distinct, as profound, as memorable, as that of Leng in Sweden, or of Jahn in Germany — that he lives in the hearts of his countrymen.

M. C. T.