It should be said that a mental effort is requisite in this course as well as the physical one.  The correlation between mind and muscle must be re-established.  The man must become master of his body once more and retain that mastery.  Certain suggestions are also given specifically as to living—­none of them irksome, but quite essential if the full result of the work is to be attained.

This was the first experiment of its kind, and hence it has proven of especial interest.  There are plenty of cases of individuals taking up exercise in one form or another and benefiting somewhat by it; but when twenty to one hundred men in a group have engaged in this Senior Service work, the result has proven remarkable in every instance.  The question seems to be simply this:  If you are over military age and wish to renew your youth, and are willing to pay the price by devoting some three or four hours a week to a scientifically tested system, and can secure a score of other men to do it with you, you can be absolutely assured of success.  Well, isn’t it worth it?

INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP ACTION

Thousands of men are beginning to realize what all this means.  My mail for the last six months has been full of the inquiry.  Men of forty are rapidly awakening and are eager to devote these few hours to the task of keeping fit, and so increasing their efficiency.  At the same time they are preventing these horrible and untimely punishments at the hand of Mother Nature.

Now there are two methods by which a man may still be young at sixty.  One is an exceedingly hard route for most men to travel—­namely, the individual practice of this scientifically tested formula and patient persistence in it.  The other is by group action.  The latter is far easier and its results are doubly effective.  However, as in some cases group action may be impossible, this book furnishes the data for individual practice as well.

All the exercises described are possible for the individual as well as for the group.  Should a man determine to follow them out alone, he must make up his mind that there shall be no interference with his carrying out his program with regularity and exactness.  He must not for a moment believe that he can miss the exercises one day and then make up for the lapse by doubling them the next day.  He must always follow the setting-up exercises with his walk and not do the setting-up in the morning and then wait till afternoon for his walk.  It is the combination that produces the most effective results.

[Illustration:  Effect of thirty days of training upon A company.  These men are carrying iron bars weighing nine pounds each]

[Illustration:  Practising and marching with iron bars weighing nine pounds each]