Hike or Outdoor Work

Get some bars of iron, one inch in diameter and three feet long.  They should cost fifty cents apiece, and weigh about eight pounds.  Give half the company these bars to carry, and at the middle of the hike transfer them to the other half to bring home.  Distance mile and a half.  No “Double Time.”  Carry the bars by the middle in the hands, and then for a time behind the back and through the elbows, with the hands in front.

TENTH DAY

Attention!

  Arms Cross
  Body and Knee Bend, turning on Hips and touching Floor with Hand
    (First one and then the other.  The right hand on bending right knee
    and the left hand on bending left knee).

Attention!

  Hips Firm
  Neck Firm
  Body Prone
  Body Backward Bend

Attention!

  Stride Stand
  Arms Cross
  Balancing (On one foot—­to right and left)
  Crouch (Quarter-bend)

Attention!

  Mark Time
  Mark Time on Toes
  Faster
  Running in Place

Attention!

  Stepping
  Deep Breathing

Hike or Outdoor Work

Carry bars, distance mile and a quarter, every man carrying his bar all the way.  “Double-time” them once during march for twenty steps.  Insist on erect carriage all the way, with neck back against collars.

Part II

THE DAILY DOZEN

A CONDENSED SYSTEM OF EITHER GROUP OR INDIVIDUAL SETTING-UP EXERCISES

CHAPTER VII

We may now consider the question of time-saving for those who may be obliged to largely forego pleasurable exercise and who yet desire to keep fit and well in spite of this deprivation.

There are two divisions in this class, as may be shown in the case of the present world war.  The first class embraces all the men in active service, with two subdivisions—­officers who are over forty and officers and privates who are under that age.  The second class comprises the men (and women, too, for that matter) who, unable to do service at the front, must support the troops in various ways behind the lines.  It is said that it takes five men behind the line to support one man at the front, and, judging from the pressure that already has come upon our people, this is manifestly not an incorrect statement.  These reserves must be kept in good physical condition, and with this end in view the writer has prepared a modified form of setting-up exercises which has been tested out with large numbers in actual practice.

These exercises are intended to prepare the younger men for the more strenuous training which they are to undergo later; in the case of the older men, they are to be used before entering upon the ordinary day of business routine.  After a great deal of study a system has been devised which answers the needs in both cases; it is not too strenuous for the older men, and it will add suppleness, vitality, and endurance to the physical assets of the younger men.