27623 system 111

111

MY SPECIAL EXERCISES FOR THE NECK

These are not included in " My System ” because they are not actually necessary to the health. But as it does appertain to physical beauty and a good appearance to have a well-developed neck, and as all the exercises for the neck which are to be found in other books of gymnastics only partially effect tlieir object, and as, tn the tliird place, it is only comparatively few who have an opportunity of going in for Grseco-Roman wrestling, which brings the muscles of the neck and tliroat specially into play, I have appended a description of three exer-cises of minę for this purpose by the help of which a raan or woman with a thin neck can make it strong, and Jin. morę in circumference, in three months.

I no longer do these exercises myself, sińce by dint of practising them. my neck has already become too thick and tlierefore apparently too short. 1 wear an iS-inch stand-up collar. and if a raan weighing twunty stone takes hołd of me by the baok of my head. 1 can lean my head back and, without using my arras, swing him right round with his feet in the air. My trick, " The suspended anvil," is also much morę a test of the slrength of the neck than that of the stornach, as I lie with the back of my head restmg on one chair and my hcels on another, while a couple of smiths with grcat sledge-hammers hammcr away on an anvil weighing 200 Ibs. placed directly upon my abdomen

1. Bending the head backwards and forwards

Bond the head well down to the front and grasp the upper part of the back of the head with bofh hands —fingers interlaced (sec Fig. 108). Then, while bringing the head back. resist the movement by strong pressure with the hands. \Vhen the head has, ho\vever. slowly forced its way back, place your hands undcr the chin (see Fig. 109) and press to resist the bending forward of the head, and so on, backwards and forwards, from ten to ńfty rimes

2. Bending the head to the sides

Lean the head over to the right and place the left hand against the tempie as shown in Fig. 110. Then bend the head very slowTy over to the left, p^essing hard with the left band in the contrary direction. When the head has come quite down to the left, take away tiie left hand and place the right hand against the right tempie. The head then returns to the opposite side, the right arm resistrag, and so on in alternate directions, from five to twenty-five times.