The Eustace Miles system of physical culture : with hints as to diet

Front matter

WITH

HINTS

AS

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

Preface ------ i

I. How TO DO THE EXERCISES 7

I. How To Do The Exercises

The greatest mistake which ordinary people can make in Physical Culture is to do the whole of a vast system, or, as it is often described in so-called health-books, “systematically exercise every muscle of the body every day.”

1. It is far better to begin with one or two exercises, and gradually add to them without giving them up. The first will soon become easy, and, if the series is well arranged, will lead up to the new exercises.

2. Take one exercise. Go through it correctly, concentrating your mind upon it, and directing your mind (and, if possible, your eyes) upon the muscles which are used. In order to perform it correctly, you are almost bound to perform it slowly, or, rather, to perform it leisurely.

3. If it is a movement that goes to an extreme, i.e.y as far as the muscles will allow, pause a moment at the extreme, so as to realise the sensation. It is astonishing how little we practise the extreme extensions in daily life. Yet it is these extreme extensions and contractions that most thoroughly empty the smaller blood-vessels.

4. In order to realise any movement, make up your mind that after you have performed it you will repeat it in imagination without moving. This is difficult at first, but soon you will be able to imagine yourself and to feel yourself going through any exercise, and you will have some of the sensations of that exercise, without performing the exercise itself.

It is very unusual to find a person who maintains his Physical Culture week after week, year after year. The tendency is to begin enthusiastically, after purchasing some apparatus, and then to drop the movements because they are too much of a nuisance. Therefore,

5. In order to keep yourself in practice, realise the advantages, which are various : for example, the improvement of the appearance and of the athletics, the fitness for work, the self-control. Connect the exercises with your ambitions.

6. A great help is to say to yourself, before you begin the movements: ” I’m going to attend to these exercises and think of nothing else. I’m going to perform them leisurely, because they’re worth while.”

7. Almost all the popular teachers of “ Physical Culture ” neglect the art of muscular relaxing. They do not understand it. They say, “ Do these movements ” ; perhaps they mention the muscles to be used. They do not know, or at least they do not say, that it is no less important to refrain from using any muscles unnecessarily. The muscles not needed for any given movement should be relaxed. The principles of the art of muscular relaxing are explained in this book.

8. Similar to this error of “ Physical Culturists ” is their error of almost invariably exercising the two sides together, as in Fig. 1. In daily life you hardly ever use the two sides together. No matter what occupation you take, you will find yourself using either one side only, or the two sides in

HOW TO DO THE EXERCISES different ways. In “ Physical Culture ” almost invariably you find the two sides used together nearly as in a freehand drawing. In nature and in daily occupations you find

“Physical Culturists” make a great mistake in using the two sides

generally together.

no such hard and fast symmetry. You find no tree in nature that has its two sides precisely alike. You must learn to exercise each side independently, at first relaxing the other side, and, later on, teaching it to perform some different movement independently.

9. You must control your breathing while you exercise. That so many “Physical Culturists” should neglect the most essential features of true Physical Culture is only natural ; with certain notable exceptions, they are not educated to see life all-round; they are only educated to see life as a series of muscle-movements, and among the muscles

C they scarcely reckon those of breathing. While you do the movements you must not, as a rule, breathe too quickly ; you must not hold your breath; you must breathe leisurely and rhythmically. This control of the breathing is one of the chief means towards general self-control.

10. Nearly the whole of this section, on the way to do the exercises, is unorthodox. Still more unorthodox is the suggestion that you shall use your originality and adapt my exercises to your own needs; that you shall alter some, take some away, add some.

1 1. Another point of difference between my system and the system of others: — When an exercise has become easy — that is to say, when the muscles can perform their work almost automatically — you can regard yourself as normal with regard to these muscles. You can, as a rule, give up this particular movement and pass on to the others. The chief value of this movement is now as a relief ; when you are worried you may find it useful to resort to it. As you have paid attention to it so often, you will find no difficulty in paying attention to it now, and so you will divert your mind from the subject of worry.

12. Another hint: — Instead of having half an hour of exercise every day, and neglecting the rest of the day, have your spell of exercise for as long as you think fit, but also use odd moments, especially those when you are waiting. You are probably waiting in the train, or in the ’bus or tram, and at street-corners. Do not waste these moments. During them practise breathing, and a gentle and unnoticeable form of muscular relaxing. Use the idle moments, as well as the busy minutes set aside specially for the Course.

io

II. Conditions For Exercise: Places

TIMES, ETC.

It is a common habit, of English people who can afford it, to pay a large fee, and then to go in for a vast Course of strain-movements. True, they may have been examined physically ; and no one should enter upon a Course without being examined by a medical man. But a medical examination is not sufficient. Many people are passed as organically sound when they are utterly unfit for strain-movements, which may increase the size and hardness of their muscles, but will not increase the health and power of their nerves. The first condition for exercise, then, is fitness for the particular exercises to be tried.

I have already said a word or two about the right times for exercise. All depends upon the individual and his daily life. I have suggested that the odd moments should be used for small and unnoticeable, yet none the less important, exercises, such as breathing and gentle stretching.

In regard to the general question of time, the early morning suits a large number of people; some exercise before they wash ; others after they have washed ; others both before and after. An increasing class of people, however, who want their freshest and finest energies for their brain-work, will

1 1 not exercise in the morning, but prefer the evening. I omit the few who have leisure to exercise in the early afternoon, which is a capital time, but a hard time for business-men. Of the evening workers, some find the time before the evening meal best; others find the time before sleep the best. Personally, I find this latter time unsatisfactory; ordinary exercises, taken then, tend to keep me awake.

These are only a few of the varieties with regard to time. Some, who make a very serious thing of Physical Culture, exercise before and after the bath, in the early afternoon, before the evening meal, and late at night! But this seems to me too much of a business for a thinking man.

One general rule, however, may be offered to most people. It is to use the early morning for breathing, relaxing, and self-massage, along the lines suggested below; and to use bed-time for breathing, and relaxing, and for rubbing the skin with a soft flesh-brush or glove, or with the hand.

With regard to the place of exercise, comparatively few people are free to choose. Most people are limited to a small bedroom or sitting-room, and in that room there is ample space for most movements. True, such a series of movements as the jumping with the special dumb-bell, and even the elaborate skipping, would be impossible in a narrow room. But most of the leg and trunk movements are quite easy if there is a yard or two to spare. Provided that there is air and light, almost any little space is sufficient.

With regard to washing — a most important condition of exercise — I must refer to the particular section. I think the washing should follow most of the more vigorous movements, and in turn can be followed by rubbing with the hand, or a soft flesh-brush, or a towel. This rubbing in itself makes almost sufficient exercise for many weak people.

CONDITIONS: PLACES , TIMES , ETC .

The most neglected time is Sunday, and the most neglected place the bedroom. Not long ago I wrote, in “ C. B. Fry’s Magazine,” an article called “ The Best Room in the House.” In this I pointed out that the room usually called the drawingroom is wasted nearly all the day. In most houses it is the best room, and is set apart for artificial social functions. If it were set apart to be a health-room, we should not be the miserable nation that we are. But as, whatever our so-called politics, we are by habit a conservative people, we must not expect radical changes. Each must make use of the room which he has, and the time which he has; and the best time which he has is Sunday. If he reads his New Testament carefully he will not consider himself sacrilegious because he strives to heal himself as well as to study the Gospel. The disciples were told to carry on the two classes of work — healing and preaching — side by side. Was ever a disciple on the sick-list?

Any special set of movements should be supplemented by walking, running, swimming, and other more or less natural movements ; by games and athletics adapted to modern times — for instance, by cricket and hockey in large bare rooms; by a sensible study of physical exercise ; by hobbies ; by work ; and by rest.

There has been too much emphasis of late years on the movements of the muscles. True, many of the movements are scientific ; but there has been a neglect of many other studies, without which “ Physical Culture ” is barren, or worse than barren. There are hundreds of “ experts ” who will tell people how to move ; there are only a few real experts who will tell people how to rest. But anyone who knows anything about real life will agree that to be able to exercise without being able to rest is very far from the ideal.

III. Fundamental And Supplementary Exercises: Breathing, Etc

No Course, such as I suggest, must be considered as complete Physical Culture. It would be ridiculous to pretend that any fifteen or any thirty exercises will suffice for the body’s needs. In this section I wish to lay the foundations, as it were, on which such exercises can be built, and to mention other exercises which are necessary to supplement the .System.

This section will include notes on breathing, muscular relaxing, stretching, self-massage, walking, swimming, etc., play and athletics, practice for these and adaptations of these, and hobbies.

Breathing. — On the subject of breathing I wrote a special book some years ago. Even to begin to master the art of correct breathing may take eighteen months or two years. Therefore do not hurry. Practise steadily every day, using the many opportunities that occur, as, for example, when you are waiting before crossing the road.

The first lesson is to breathe well in with a lull breath through the nostrils, while the mouth is kept closed — gently closed, not tightly clenched.

The “ in ’’-breathing can be divided into two or three processes. The first expands the lungs downwards; the

BREATHING, RELAXING , ETC.

second expands them outwards; and the third fills the top or apex of the lungs, where disease is apt to settle.

It is advisable for most people to master each process separately, devoting a certain amount of time to each process without troubling about the others. Eventually, the two and then the three processes should be blended into a single one. It is a mistake, I think, for most people to start with the practice of breathing fully as a single process; for one part of the apparatus is almost certain to be weak and to be neglected. This part will generally be the lower breathing of women, and the middle and outward breathing of men.

The first process you will find easiest to practise as you lie flat on your back : for instance, in bed, before you get up in the morning; or on the inclined plank. But it is not necessary to be in this position. As you take a good breath in and well up through your nostrils, let your abdomen out; as you let the breath out, draw your abdomen in. Your lungs will be expanding downwards when your abdomen comes out. It is rather a help to put one hand or both of your hands over your abdomen, so that you may feel it moving out and in, as in Fig. 2A.

Later on, you should practise this downward expansion even while you hold your abdomen in. All the time — without severe strain, however — hold your abdomen in with your hands and expand your lungs not outwards so much as downwards. You will find this almost impossible at first, until the former exercise has become easy. This harder kind of breathing will obviously benefit you by pressing down upon the stomach and liver, and giving them a natural squeezing and massage. By keeping your abdomen in, you keep your stomach and liver in their place, and your lungs then come down and press the diaphragm down upon them, and massage them thoroughly. By letting your abdomen out, you do not keep your stomach and liver in their place; to some extent they make way for the descending diaphragm, which will not now squeeze and massage them thoroughly.

Now for the second “ in ’’-breathing. Keep your abdomen in. Take a full breath well up through your nostrils. Meanwhile, expand your chest-walls in all directions, in front, to the sides, and behind. But do not strain. It will help you if you hold your hands on your chest-walls, as in Fig. 2B . This will not expand the lungs downwards so much as expand them outwards in different directions. As you breathe out, contract your chest-walls.

It now remains to combine these two breaths in a single process. First, expand your lungs downwards as you breathe in, then, as you still breathe in, draw your abdomen in or keep it in, and expand your chest-walls outwards.

Now for the third kind of breathing, which is to bring the air to the top of the lungs. Clearly the way to do this will be to fill your lungs as full as possible with the first two

Fig. 2 a.

Fig. 2B.

Breathing.

Fig. 2c.

BREATHING , RELAXING , ETC.

breaths, and then, before letting the air out, to contract your abdomen and your chest-walls as much as possible. You can help this by pressing with your hands, and by leaning forwards as in Fig. 2c. This will force the air up to the apex of the lungs. But be sure not to strain.

The fullest process, therefore, will be the downward expansion, • followed smoothly (and as part of the same inward breath) by the outward expansion, and then, while the air is still retained, a contraction of the abdomen and of the chest-walls, which will force the air up to the top of the lungs.

A still more advanced exercise is to fill your lungs with air by the downward and outward expansion, and then to move your abdomen in and out while you retain the breath; then, to let it out.

Then fill your lungs again, similarly, but, this time, expand and contract your chest-walls while you hold in the breath. Notice that the expansion and contraction of the walls of the abdomen and the chest are possible without any breathing at all. They can be practised as separate muscular acts. The result of them, when the lungs are full, is to send the air all over the lungs.

It is as important to breathe out fully as to breathe in fully. When you have practised the full breath, and have held it for a little with the abdomen and chest-walls contracted, then let it out as thoroughly as possible.

The Hindus have a special exercise which they call the cleansing breath. In this, when you have filled your lungs, you form your mouth as if you were going to whistle (but you do not actually whistle unless you are alone) ; you then let the air out in short sharp puffs, until your lungs feel empty. Of course they are never really empty ; they always have a residue of air.

The advanced exercise corresponding to the above movement when your lungs are full will be a similar movement when your lungs are “ empty.” After “ emptying ” your lungs, keep them empty, and move the walls of your abdomen in and out. Then breathe in and out once more, and move the walls of your chest in and out. This should, like the other exercises, help the circulation of the blood in the neighbourhood of the chest. It should also massage the internal organs.

Three words of warning seem to me to be necessary for the beginner.

1. Do not begin to breathe against resistance. Let everything at first be gentle. Never strain in the early stages. If you begin to feel giddy, stop and rest.

2. Do not imagine that exercises of the arms, and what are known as breathing-movements, are fundamentally important. They are not. They may help one or more of the particular kinds of breathing, or they may not. But the fundamental act of breathing is, I think, rather as I have described it. It should not be dependent on such movements as rising on the toes, raising the arms above the head, extending the arms out to the sides, and so forth. I have described some of these in my book on “ Breathing,” but they are not breathing-exercises; they are exercises that are intended to help the breathing; but the breathing itself is a matter not for those muscles so much as for the muscles of breathing.

3. Do not buy an expensive apparatus — or even a cheap apparatus ! All those that I have seen, with one exception, are strain-exercisers: unnatural, and utterly unlikely to be beneficial for ordinary people. The one good kind I have seen is, I believe, not to be obtained in London.

Voice-production is an art closely connected with breath-

BREATHING , RELAXING , ETC.

ing. I can only give a hint about it here. First close your mouth and breathe in through your nostrils, and then let the air out through your nostrils. That is easy enough.

Fig. 3.

Voice-procluclion.

Then breathe in similarly, and let the air out through your mouth.

When this is easy and natural, then you will in time be able to breathe in through your nostrils even while you have your mouth open. At first this is extremely difficult. But the breathing in was obviously intended to be mainly through the nostrils, even while one is speaking or singing. I think that he who can breathe in through his nostrils, even while he is speaking or singing, is at a great advantage. He filters and warms the air, and irritates his throat much less.

But I agree with Sir James Crichton Browne that, if the nostril passages are closed, it is better to breathe in through the mouth, than to breathe in an inadequate supply of air. Meanwhile, do your best to clear the nasal passages by inhaling salt and water — a very weak solution — to which may be added a little bi-carbonate of soda. This water-breathing is very useful, especially to those who live in cities. Not only does it cleanse the passages; it also tends to cool the parts at the top and back of the nose.

Another useful practice is first to close the left nostril while you breathe in through the right, then to close the right nostril while you breathe out through the left; then to practise vice versa.

Relaxing. — The outward breathing gives an opportunity for relaxing the muscles of the body, so as to economise energy. We waste a vast amount of energy by keeping our muscles contracted when we gain nothing by doing so. The Greek statues show no such mistakes, except in such hideous examples as that of the Farnese Hercules. Many of our so-called “ strong men ” have their muscles always standing out, whether these muscles are wanted or not. Such a habit is not only uneconomical ; it is ungraceful, if not positively ugly. It is against endurance, and against athletic success.

The relaxing of the muscles which are not wanted for any special purpose is by no means the same as laziness and sleepiness. It is a different matter. It is a matter rather of saving labour.

A good exercise to begin with is the one devised by Miss A. P. Call, and taught to me by her pupil, Mrs. William Archer, who is the leading English exponent of the art of relaxing.

Sit well forward on a bed or sofa, or on a chair without arms; let your legs be comfortably apart, but not crossed. Now, as you take a full breath in through your nostrils, lift up and back your trunk and shoulders and head. The full breath will almost do this of itself. Hold the breath for a moment. Then be particularly careful not to force it quickly 'out; rather, let it ooze out of itself, and, as it oozes out, let

BREA THING, RELAXING , ETC.

your various muscles relax, especially those of your hand and face. Let your head and shoulders sink forward, and then let your trunk sink forward. Take another full breath in without lifting anything up. As you let it out slowly again, let yourself relax still more, as in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4.

An exercise in relaxing.

When you are sunk down almost like a sleepy or drunken man, or like the toy in the streets, the inflated india-rubber pig or cock which is made to give up its air and to sink down relaxed, wait for a moment and think of something nice — great expanses of beautiful scenery, sunshine, a laughing river, children at play, or anything that is harmless yet pleasing.

Then, without hurry (for in this exercise you must be particularly careful never to hurry), take a deep and full breath in, and, as you take it in, lift up and back first your trunk and shoulders, then your head. You have perhaps closed your eyes; you can now open them. And lift yourself up still further as you take a second deep and full breath in.

You can practise a similar exercise as you stand; only here

2 1 there is more strain on the legs. Figs. 5A and 513 show the inward and outward breath.

An exercise in relaxing as one stands up.

A still more elaborate exercise is to start standing and go through these movements, then gradually, as Mrs. Archer has described it, crumble down upon the floor, bending your legs and letting your whole body sink down gently, until, at last, you are lying flat upon your back.

Then you stretch out your arms and rotate your hands as far as they will go in each direction, afterwards letting them relax. Then do the same with your feet, each in turn.

Then get up quite slowly, and in several stages.

This exercise is too elaborate to appeal to most people, and I think it should not be practised at the start. I have found it very difficult.

A modified form of relaxing is practicable on ordinary occa-

BREATHING, RELAXING , ETC.

sions. It is to take advantage of the outward breath and relax the hands and the face-muscles more and more. It is quite unnoticeable, except that it may make you look less unpleasant than before.

Another exercise, invented by Dr. George Wilson, is the relaxing of the eye, which, especially in cases of worry and fear, is apt to have its muscles tense. Relax these muscles by looking at something in the distance, or by shutting your eyes and imagining something in the distance; or else smile with your eyes — this you should try to do without moving any other muscles of your face.

For, like the elaborate relaxing-exercise above, the elaborate relaxing of the face-muscles is a ridiculous practice in the presence of others. There are many mouth-exercises (such as stretching the mouth wide open and screwing the face about in different directions), which are useful, but utterly impossible in public.

Together with muscular relaxing there should be Self-suggestion or Assertion. When the body is relaxed and passive, then you can work most easily upon your under-mind, which is most likely to receive and act upon any commands or assertions. I have offered some samples in a book on “ Concentration.” You should make out your own list of Self-suggestions or Assertions that are important for your particular needs. For instance, you may be unpunctual; in that case “ assert ” punctuality.

The relaxing of the muscles is important on all sorts of occasions. It is important before you massage yourself. It is important during work, and, as Mr. C. B. Fry has realised, during play.

It is helped not only by the outward breathing, but also by preliminary stretching. Stretching naturally leads up to relaxing.

Stretching is one of the most neglected arts; in fact, these three — breathing, relaxing, and stretching — are execrably performed by almost every civilised being.

The animals know and do much better. Notice how they stretch after they have been lying still, or even sometimes after they have been exercising. In modern life we need stretching far more than animals do, for almost everything around us tends to cramp us: our clothing and furniture, the very walls and roofs, the crowds of people in the street, and the general impression of there being no room in life, all conspire to bend us and make us stiff and narrow. We hardly ever move freely anywhere. It is all the more vital that we should move freely, or at any rate stretch out, whenever we get the chance.

First, stretch your fingers well back. People clench their fingers far too much. Stretch them well back as you would if you pressed them against the wall. Then stretch your elbows well back and down behind you, still keeping your fingers stretched back. Then stretch your shoulders well back and down. Then stretch your head well back, and look up. Keep stretched thus.

Next, take a deep and full breath in, and hold it in for a moment, and, as you let it out, let yourself relax. Let everything sink forward; stand at ease, not in the more or less conventional military way, but quite comfortably.

Another stretching exercise is to bring each hand in turn, with the fingers as before (not gripped but almost bent backwards), well up above your head, while you keep your chin in and the small of your back hollow. Keep your other hand relaxed. (See Fig. 1 8, in Section IV.)

In this exercise you can breathe in when you are in this position, or as you are lifting up your hand. The two ways

BREATHING, RELAXING, ETC.

produce different effects; you had better try each in turn.

Having breathed in, hold the breath. Then, as you let it out, let your hand come slowly down.

You will see how this stretching naturally leads to relaxing. I think that both stretching and relaxing, and of course breathing also, should precede self-massage, about which I will now offer a few hints.

Self-massage. — Probably the most convenient time for self-massage is early in the morning, when one lies down flat on the back, with the muscles relaxed as much as possible.

For the massage of the abdomen, one draws up the knees, as in Fig. 6, then one rubs and presses well in, round the navel, up the right side and down the left, in ever-increasing circles, till at length one is starting from above the right leg and going up well under the right ribs, across (still under the ribs) to

Fig. 6.

Self-massage of the abdomen, to cure constipation, etc.

the left side, and down again. If one practises this for a minute or two before one rises, one may soon cure constipation ; though, of course, some cases require different methods.

Another kind of self-massage is before the bath ; then one can massage the skin by rubbing with the hands or a hand-glove or a soft flesh-brush : I think that the hard flesh-brush is

D scarcely worth while ! The soft flesh-brush is not a cheap article, but it is worth its price.

Then one has the bath, and after the bath one rubs again with the hands, as suggested in a later section. After rubbing with the hands and drying, one should rub a little very pure olive oil into the skin, especially over the chest and abdomen.