PRINCIPAL MUSCLES INVOLVED.

The diaphragm, all the abdominal muscles, including the intro-abdominal, the iliacus, anterior femoral, and muscles connecting thigh with hip and knee.

EXERCISE FOR FREEING AND STRENGTHENING

SIDES.

Place thick of hand upon floating ribs, merely as a guide to the mind, not to assist the muscular effort; draw the sides as near together as possible, as in Fig. 7, then send them as far apart as possible, as in Fig. 8. Repeat this movement, and then allow the arms to fall at sides. During this exercise a perfectly upright position is to be maintained; the body is not to bend in the slightest degree.

HYGIENIC VALUE.

The exercise gives great activity to the stomach by causing it to fall and rise as it does during the respiration of very powerful men and women. It carries this needed motion to much greater extent than can be

accomplished in breathing except by the most gigantic persons. It is a very vigorous exercise of the most powerful muscles of respiration. The will is exerted exclusively in moving the sides, no thought being given to respiration, which takes its own automatic. course in accord with the movement. It develops greater breathing capacity, and gives more freedom to the vital organs.

ESTHETIC VALUE.

The appearance of narrowness of feeling and constraint of manner offends the taste. Intuitive taste always demands in appearance what moral philosophy demands of character. Moral sentiment requires sympathy and magnanimity, and good taste requires their expression. The æsthetic sense is made up mostly of feeling; it does not reason upon truth and goodness, it feels them. It is influenced in such a subtle way that one usually fails to recognize the cause. By careful observation I have been led to believe that the sides appeal to the feelings of sympathy and magnanimity, either attracting, repelling, or neutralizing them. The effect is not produced by their breadth or narrowness, but by their freedom or restraint.