p. 12 | The Value of Exercise

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 21, 1903

The Value of Exercise

By A. M. WINEGAR-SIMPSON, M. D.

A. M. WINEGAR-SIMPSON, M. D.

Few people really appreciate how much they might accomplish for themselves by exercise. Most people think they get sufficient exercise while doing their work. When speaking to women especially about exercise, they say, “I do my housework.” While this is good as far as it goes, there are muscles that are scarcely brought into play. If you should tie your arm up so it could not be used, the muscles would after a time become useless, weak, and flabby.

The reason for using the strength-test machine is to ascertain the strength of the various muscles of the body, in order that we may know what parts are weak, and prescribe exercise accordingly. With many people the arm and leg muscles are strong, and the back and abdominal muscles weak; other muscles may be weak, each case being influenced more or less by the manner of life and occupation. The dynamometer reveals the weak parts, and the plan of the exercise should be to develop these weak parts.

Some patients become discouraged because they lose flesh. It is not of great importance if a person does not gain in flesh. You have your ordinary weight, and keep to that usually from year to year. You may lose a little in summer and gain a little in winter, but a gain in flesh is not an indication that you are actually making progress in your case, neither is a loss of flesh necessarily an indication that you are losing. You might gain fifteen pounds in flesh, and yet the strength not be any greater than before. There are very few who will not gain in strength after taking systematic exercise. A man often gains more rapidly in strength than a woman, because his muscles are already better developed; but even in women we have seen a gain of one thousand pounds of strength in a month’s time. If you gain that many pounds, you are making an actual gain.

Patients come to the sanitarium and take treatments, such as massage, for the muscles. These are all passive exercises, and somebody else is doing the work. When you go to an institution and have to pay for all you get, it may seem too bad to have to work your way, but it is the only way to receive a benefit. You can not have some one do it for you. Massage is good for one who can not take exercise; but exercise taken in the gymnasium or outdoors is far more beneficial than any passive exercise.

In some cases, of course, walking would be impossible. It is best to use care in beginning a course of exercise, especially in cases of heart trouble. In dealing with such cases it would be impossible to give gymnasium exercises, but there are special exercises for persons with serious heart trouble. We begin by letting the patient lift one arm above the head, and then lower it. That is all for one day. The next day the other arm may be raised, and the following day the two arms may be raised. This may seem a very simple exercise, but some patients can not do more than this. Then they begin to exercise the lower extremities, and after a time the heart and other parts of the body begin to gain strength from the exercise. It is a wonder how much can be accomplished for such patients by working carefully and gradually. There are very few patients who come to us who are not able to take exercise of some kind. Patients can take exercise in their wheel-chairs, or even in bed if necessary.

When the abdominal muscles are weak, or there is bowel or stomach trouble, and where the exercises have to begin in bed, it is well to use the arms in some exercise that will cause the abdominal muscles to contract, gradually increasing every day, until the muscles are strengthened. After a severe illness a person has to learn to walk again. So it is with the muscles that have not been used for some time. If patients would take exercise that way, they would be surprised how quickly they would be up and walking.

Many of our troubles may be relieved by systematic exercise, and many cases of lung disease may be avoided, or even cured when begun in time, by systematic exercise. This has been demonstrated in some cases where persons have had tuberculosis. They have devoted themselves to exercise out in the open air, breathing full and deep. I know a gentleman who four years ago was pronounced incurable with tuberculosis, and the physician thought he could not live more than six or eight months. The physician told him that his case was really incurable, and that if he had any business arrangement to make, he had better attend to it at once. This seemed to stimulate him to action. He said he was not ready to die. He went to his home in the country, and began working in the field, taking all the exercise possible; and in two years from that time he was well and strong, with no lung trouble whatever. It was the determination that he put into his efforts to get well that brought about this good result. Many persons in his condition would have given up in despair.

There is another reason for taking exercise, aside from gaining strength, and that is to increase the circulation over the whole body, so that the broken-down tissues may be eliminated from the body. So we see that exercise increases the circulation, develops the muscles, and causes the poisons of the system to be thrown off.

Women, particularly, never take exercise enough. They usually do not take other than walking, and the difficulty with the majority is that they walk so lazily and leisurely that they are not benefited. It is not enough to walk out around the grounds. If you walk for exercise, you must walk fast and hard enough to feel that you are getting a little tired, and then it will do you good.

When you are out for exercise, walk erect. One purpose of the gymnasium is to teach you correct habits of standing and walking. Do not let the abdomen protrude, but keep it well back, head and chest well up. If you do not cultivate this position, you will find that the exercises are accomplishing little or nothing.

When you are out for exercise, walk vigorously, and take deep breaths of air, so you can feel it in every part of the lungs. When you do this, the walk will do you good.

A short time ago we had two patients here treating for obesity, and they were practically on the same treatment. One went into it as if she meant business, and walked vigorously, and lost flesh. The other patient did not have ambition enough to go at it as the first one, but walked back and forth leisurely, and hardly raised a perspiration. The first lost twenty pounds, while the other did not lose more than two pounds. The difference was that one put force and vigor into the exercise, and the other walked about in a leisurely sort of way; so when you take exercise, take it vigorously. If you are not able to take all the exercise at once, take the breathing exercises, and then rest a little while. Then take a little more exercise, and rest again.

Our purpose in taking a test of the patient’s strength is that we may know how much exercise he can take. It is well to know where he is the weakest, then he can take exercise for that part, and thus gain in strength. There are some patients whom I would not advise to go into the gymnasium, and some of these

same patients would not be able to take the strength test.

Daily exercise is just as important as treatment or diet, and you will find, when you follow it out, that you will gain much more rapidly than without exercise. You should walk out every day. While you are taking your walk, you are accomplishing two things,—getting the exercise, and at the same time taking in deep, full breaths of fresh air. When you go out alone, you perhaps are not able to accomplish so much, because you are thinking about something else, and almost forget to breathe.

Breathing exercises are very important. You should use the lower part of the lungs when breathing, as well as the upper part. Many women breathe only with the upper part of the chest, because their clothing is so constructed that it will not allow the free movements of the chest. Many of the physiologies make the statement that in man the respiration is abdominal, while in woman it is costal. If we observe a child, we shall see that it breathes correctly. Boys and girls breathe alike until the girl is about thirteen or fourteen years of age. If they breathe alike up to that time, what has happened to bring about the change?—It is simply that at this time the girl’s clothing is made to constrict the body, and it interferes with the respiration. If you should put the same kind of clothing on a boy, he would breathe the same as the girl does. It is correct to breathe with the abdomen. We should breathe with the whole chest, and then we are breathing in the natural way.