Manly Health and Training by Walt Whitman

Author:Walt Whitman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regan Arts.

NOT TOO VIOLENT EXERCISE.

Though we have once or twice alluded to the great importance of steady, daily, moderate exercise, as better than any extreme taxing of the bodily powers, at intervals, we think it of sufficient weight to call attention to it in a special paragraph.

The great object is to have the body in a condition of strong equilibrium—but very violent exertions defeat this end. In youth, or for young men, we may mention the evils of undue exertion, lifting immense weights, overworking in the fields of a long and hot day, being badly strained or wrenched in wrestling, or excessive and ill-timed “run” (as often happens to young firemen in our cities,) as some of the occasions when the results we deprecate are apt to take their rise.

We would over and over again caution the young reader of our articles of the often incurable effects of some of these brief but excessive outlays of strength. The fund of vigor and stamina must be used constantly, and encouraged to develope itself gently, but never violently abused.

In training exercises, as before remarked, begin and keep on for a few days with great moderation. “Gently does it,” is the motto which must never be forgotten. The custom among some young men of trying to perform very difficult and dangerous feats should be discouraged. These are only for the professional gymnasts, who have made them the study of their lives. Nor are any of those feats worth applauding unless they are evidently performed with ease.

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