The childhood being a period of physical and emotional contact with the environment, it is important that much be done to insure the child of a well balanced emotional development. If the child is healthier and stronger, his emotions will be more stable.
Through progressive exercise, it is quite easy to give the child a physical background much better than the average youngster today, and as he grows in years through adolescence he will have more self confidence and less fear, and consequently will become stronger emotionally. The close relationship between the physical and emotional reactions assures us of a stronger emotional back ground in a stronger body, less effected by the stress and strain of modern living.
In children, the emotion of fear is the one responsible for the most difficulty. Fear of failure in school, in meeting parental requirements, fear of punishment, fear of criticism, fear of ridicule, and as he grows older, fear of responsibility, financial failure, etc.
By increasing the physical ability, strength and health of the child, all the fears arising from uncertainty and feelings of inferiority will be greatly diminished. Most fears arise from a feeling of insufficiency or a lack of self confidence. There is no single factor in increasing self confidence in children as great as an improvement in health, strength and physical ability.
The physical objective for adults is different from that of children in many ways, yet in many ways much the same. Both men and women are interested in the years before them being free from discomfort and physical limitations in activity. We want the body to be as free from fatigue as possible and illness of all kinds. We would like to be reasonably sure of a relatively normal span of life. The only assurance that these conditions can be realized is through building physical fitness and maintaining it habitually. The habitual practice of progressive resistance exercise will give the body the reason to build its capacities to a high level and given the reason, it has the ability to acquire that physical condition.
Through planned progressive effort of the large muscle groups we can build cardiovascular-respiratory functions to the greatest efficiency possible. We can strengthen the general muscular system to hold body structures in the best possible position. The combination of the two strong influences of body mechanics and physiology is the only foundation that can assure us of the kind of life we want to have. Some effort and some planning is required to attain the level of fitness we need, but most people spend more time and effort toward other objectives much less important.
With the adult, there is always the question of “what can I accomplish at my age?” Many people have the idea that when the age of twenty-five or so has been reached, the body is going to deteriorate steadily until it fails completely, and there is nothing that can be done about it.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is correct that during the growing years of six to twenty the body will respond most completely to training, yet in the years above twenty it will also respond. As long as there is life in the body there is some degree of adaptability to stimuli or stress. It has been our experience that the man or woman can improve the physical condition to any objective desired up to the age of forty-five years or so.
Some individuals will respond as well in the late forties and fifties as in earlier years.
From fifty to sixty years of age most people can reasonably expect to have their capacities for effort increased at least from 50 to 100 per cent and can make remarkable improvement in body mechanics as well.
In later years there comes a time, of course, when it is not possible for the body to improve further and we are happy to maintain as high a fitness level as possible. It is the personal opinion of the writer that most of us could be better physically at seventy years of age than most people are now at the age of forty. The state of fitness we will enjoy at the later years does not depend upon what we do in those years so much as on what we do before those years are reached. In other words, the state of physical fitness we will have five years from now depends on what we do until that time, not what we do at that time!
The person who begins controlled resistance exercise in the later years can expect a greater feeling of well being and greater capacities to enjoy his years than he could possibly expect without such activity.
Some of the most enthusiastic devotees of resistance exercise did not begin its practice until in the late sixties or early seventies!
Regardless of the age of the individual, he must make room in
his living for some planned controlled exercise to assure him of the full satisfying physical life he wants to have. Nothing else in life offers so great a return for so little effort!