Running is an excellent exercise for children and young people, but should be sparingly indulged in after the age of thirty-five.  If it be accompanied with a feeling of faintness, breathlessness, and palpitation of the heart, the exercise is too severe, and its continuance may do serious harm.  Running as an exercise is beneficial to those who have kept themselves in practice and in sound condition.  It brings into play nearly every muscle of the body, and thus serves to develop the power of endurance, as well as strength and capacity for rapid movement.

Jumping may well be left to boys and young men under twenty, but skipping with a rope, allied to jumping, is an admirable and beneficial form of exercise.  It brings into action many muscles without putting undue strain upon any particular group.

91.  Skating, Swimming, and Rowing.  Skating is a delightful and invigorating exercise.  It calls into play a great variety of muscles, and is admirably adapted for almost all ages.  It strengthens the ankles and helps give an easy and graceful carriage to the body.  Skating is especially valuable, as it can be enjoyed when other out-door exercises are not convenient.

Every child above ten years of age should be taught to swim.  The art, once mastered, is never forgotten.  It calls into use a wide combination of muscles.  This accomplishment, so easily learned, should be a part of our education, as well as baseball or bicycling, as it may chance to any one to save his own life or that of a companion.

In many respects rowing is one of the most perfect exercises at our command.  It expands the chest, strengthens the body, and gives tone to the muscles of the abdomen.  It is very suitable for girls and women, as no other exercise is so well adapted to remedy the muscular defects so marked in their sex.  Even elderly persons can row day after day without difficulty.  The degree of muscular effort required, can be regulated so that those with weak hearts and weak lungs can adjust themselves to the exercise.

92.  Bicycling as an Exercise.  The bicycle as a means of taking exercise has come into popular use with remarkable rapidity.  Sharp competition bids fair to make the wheel more popular and less expensive than ever.  Its phenomenal use by persons of all ages and in all stations of life, is proof of the enthusiasm with which this athletic exercise is employed by women as well as by men.

Mechanical skill has removed most of the risks to health and person which once existed.  A good machine, used by its owner with judgment, is the most convenient, the safest, and the least expensive means of traveling for pleasure or exercise.  It is doing more than any other form of exercise to improve the bodily condition of thousands whose occupations confine them all day to sedentary work.  Dependent upon no one but himself, the cyclist has his means of exercise always at hand.  No preparation is necessary to take a spin of ten miles or so on the road, during a summer evening or before breakfast.