Exercise and over-exercise / by Sir Lauder Brunton.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Exercise and over-exercise / by Sir Lauder Brunton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    condition of the digestive canal. Every vital process is carried on more vigorously, and the individual feels brighter, happier, better able for work, and is not only capable of enduring greater exertion, but is better fitted to resist attacks of disease. The uses of exercise are so obvious, that we often hear people say in regard to their friends with ailing health, that if they would only take more exercise they would become perfectly well; but there are great differences in the effects of exercise, according as it is of a suitable character and taken at suitable times or not. We have already seen that severe bodily exercise should not be taken immediately after meals, although a quiet stroll may not interfere with digestion. A quiet stroll, or as people often call it a “ constitutional,” has less power than actual exercise for harm, but it has also less power for good, and we shall be dis- appointed if we expect from it the increased appetite and the better digestion which would follow such exercise as a game of cricket, golf or lawn tennis. There are two reasons for this. One is that in the constitutional the movements of the limbs are less active, the heart and lungs are not stimulated, and moreover, fewer muscles are brought into play than in the games which I have just mentioned, where the arms and trunk are actively employed and not the legs only, as in a constitu- tional. Another reason is that a constitutional does not help to increase the excretion of bile. Bile is formed in the liver at very low pressure, and will hardly run out unless the liver be to a certain extent squeezed between the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. Now this squeezing does not occur in a constitutional walk, but it does take place when the abdominal muscles are tightened at the same time that a deep breath, is taken. By putting the hand on the abdomen you will find that in quiet walking the muscles tighten but very slightly, but in running or walking up a hill they tighten very much more, and a quarter of an hour’s walk up a steep hill will do a man more good than a couple of hours’ walk on level ground. Where people have not the time or opportunity of walking uphill they may help the liver by one of the movements which are generally taught at the commencement of drill, namely, trying to touch their toes with their fingers while they keep their knees straight.