BREATHING AND PHYSICAL EXERCISES LESSON IX

IN the physical exercises I give in these lessons it is as well to remember that very little good will result unless proper breathing exercises are indulged in, as well as the physical. Muscles alone are not the first consideration, and muscle does not really tend to promote personal magnetism. In moderation they are beautiful, but when overdone they transform the most perfectly formed man into a grotesque “something” that ought to be planed down with a carpenter’s plane to reduce it to its proper proportions. Let the muscles be lithe and supple, like steel and whipcord; let the lungs be perfectly developed, so that they can create healthy blood, which is vitality, and let both be equally blended.

Dumb-bell exercises with heavy bells certainly tend to create muscle; but it is heavy, lumbering, useless, except for brute strength, so that the heaviest dumb-bells a man should use are 3 lb. Bells, and a woman 1 lb.

Before commencing any exercises of a muscular nature, first learn how to control the breath. Very deep breathing is injurious, but most people exercise the lungs so slightly that they become atrophied – waste away for want of use, because they are never properly filled or emptied!

Attitude is the first step of importance. You can’t breathe if you round your shoulders and let your chin sink forward on your chest. Stand erect, waist in (in front, please, I must be polite, I suppose; but when I say waist I mean abdomen), shoulders squared and held back, chest well out, head thrown back, chin in. Now, with your mouth closed, draw a slow, deep breath, (not too deep at first, for by violent breathing the lungs only become tender and bruised), hold it for a second, then as slowly exhale, or breathe out through the nostrils.

There are three methods of breathing: from the abdomen, or solar plexus, from the rib and from the abdomen, or solar plexus, from the rib and from the upper chest. Begin right down in the abdomen – but gently, please – and raw the breath in through the nostrils so that the abdomen (don’t forget the abdomen is not the stomach, the two
are quite distinct; the stomach is the bag or receptacle for one’s food; the abdomen, the thick fleshy wall which covers the intestines) is drawn in. In this way you force the intestines into action, awaken the solar plexus, and then slowly fill the lungs with fresh air, which in turn generates fresh blood, and fills every fiber and tissue of the body with new life – and ANIMAL MAGNETISM. This process done to excess will tire you, so be gentle at first, especially if you are one of those poor unfortunate wretches whose sole idea of breathing – if they ever think of it at all – is a little, quick, panting action which never fills the lungs once – nor empties them – and accounts so fully for pale cheeks, lifeless eyes, flabby flesh, and narrow pigeon breasts.

Proper action, proper breathing, perfect development, control of will power, and the acquirement by these means of perfect health and animal magnetism, are within the reach of all.

It may be urged that all people who possess this subtle power of magnetism, have not got perfect health.

Agreed, but they have perfect will control, and as a rule are absolute masters of some one or more accomplishments; and their magnetism is very apt to evaporate apart from the said accomplishment. Just think how few popular authors; painters or musicians are interesting, or even attractive, apart from their works. No, you simply must have HEALTH, if you are to fulfill MY ideal of personal magnetism.

Given that, you may be as ugly as sin, have no brains in particular, yet your health and your will power will win you recognition everywhere.

It is not one bit of use starting muscular and physical development until you have learnt how to breathe. Practice this continually until you are master of it. Practice it in the open air if you can; best of all in the sunshine, when you not only draw in pure air, but the subtle magnetism direct which is given off by the sun, the center of magnetism for our wee Universe.

Muscular exercises help us to make and store animal magnetism.

The breathing exercises accomplish the same end. The lessons in concentration already given help to develop the WILL power, and added to these, you have to consider the question of perfecting the magnetic gaze.

The magnetic gaze simply means perfect control of the nerves governing the eyesight, which must be strengthened to that “piercing” degree which can hold another person’s eyes, with or against their will.

Coming now to the subject of physical exercises for the muscular development necessary to the storage of magnetism.

Recollect that you must not only take the muscular exercise, but practice correct breathing at the same time, otherwise your pains are wasted.

Stand erect, as directed above, take the dumb-bells and place your hands to your sides, then begin to inhale a long, deep breath – gently, though; no exertion – and as you inhale, slowly lift your arms above your head, till the dumb-bells clash.

Count five, mentally, holding your breath the while; then slowly return your arms to your side, exhaling the breath as you go.

Repeat this twenty times, but remember very little benefit will accrue if you forget the breathing and attend only to the exercise. This breathing and muscular exercise tends to strengthen the lungs and chest; and is, simple as it may appear, very valuable.

Continue this exercise DAILY, with the breathing exercise.

Now I will show you how to store magnetism for use.

At the close of each spell of exercise, morning or evening as the case may be, or both, draw the breath in as directed before; then as you breathe, slowly stretch one arm at a time straight before you, clenching the hand (without dumb-bells) until every muscle is tense and rigid; relax each arm separately, then repeat with both arms. Making both tense and rigid.

Now make each leg, the trunk and backbone, and the neck equally stiff, holding your breath meanwhile, then as you exhale, let every part of your body RELAX, so that you are limp. Let your arms sink to your side, your neck and body give way, LET GO everything, be limp as a rag, and so rest.

It is not easy, this relaxing process, you want to relax the brain too, for otherwise it continues its hold on the muscles and sinews, and in spite of your efforts they remain strained and tense.

Practice an arm at a time, let the fingers hang loose and helpless, then the wrist, and so on, until the entire organism is at your control, to become tense or relaxed as you please.

But, when you tense your muscles, make them rigid – INHALE YOUR BREATH. When you relax your muscles, EXHALE YOUR BREATH.

It’s no end easy to be limp when, like a pair of un-worked bellows, you have no air in your lungs; and it’s not at all easy to keep rigid with empty lungs. In the next lesson I give a diagram showing the principle muscles, and the best methods of developing them for our present purpose.