A military system of gymnastic exercises for the use of instructors / by Archibald MacLaren.

  • Maclaren, Archibald, 1819-1884.
Date:
[1862?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A military system of gymnastic exercises for the use of instructors / by Archibald MacLaren. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    EULES FOR CONDUCTING THE LESSON. 1st the introduction explaining the principles upon which the system is founded, it is shown that each course consists of a selection of exercises all as nearly as possible of a uniform degree of difficulty, and demanding in their performance an equal amount of muscular effort. By this arrangement the youngest beginner has as wide a range of exercises, as extended a use of the gymnasium, as the most advanced learner; for the limitations of the courses are decided by the degree of difficulty of the exercises themselves, and not by the apparatus on which they are performed; and every machine, with very few exceptions, presents exercises suited to the capacity of learners of every grade of physical power. Each course, and in a great measure each exercise in each course, leads direct to that in advance of it, so that the learner in his first efforts in his first lesson is really practising that which will aid him in mastering the most difficult exercises in the terminating course. This essentially progressive character, this gradual, uniform, onward-march of the entire range of exercises from the first to the last, must never be lost sight of by the instructor, but must always be viewed by him as being the fundamental principle of the system, the main source of its value, and the chief guarantee for its safety, while it also con- stitutes a most powerful agent in sustaining the interest of the learner during his practice. To give variety to the lesson, each course is made to consist of a much greater number of exercises than can be performed by the learner at any single attendance, so that the instructor is provided with ample scope for selection, by means of which he may vary the lesson almost daily, while still ranging within the prescribed limits of the course. But there is another form of variety which it is most desirable to secure, and which, as it could not be provided for by any arrange- ment of section or course, must be in a great measure intrusted to the intelligence and care of the instructor. As explained in the introduction, each article of apparatus in the gymnasium is designed to give special employment to special parts of the body, in accord- ance with the principle that all muscular power is intermittent, and is most effectively cultivated and sustained by brief and recurring efforts. It will, therefore, be the object of the instructor to secure, by a judicious selection of the various machines during the lesson, a fair share of exertion to the several parts of the body, and to pass his squad from machine to machine in such order that each succes-