Exercise Necessary for Health
People, who have to work hard all day as manual labour, do not need any other bodily exercise. The ploughman, the blacksmith, the coolie, and the mason, find all the exercise they need in their daily work. What they want when the day is over and they go home is rest, not more exercise. But nowadays a great many people work more with their heads than with their hands. Clerks sit on stools all day, adding up figures or typing letters, businessmen sit in their offices, and give orders, and talk to customers; schoolboys and students are indoors in their classrooms, learning their lessons. Such people get no exercise in their work; and so, if they want to keep well and strong, they must take exercise when their work is over.
For such people, exercise is necessary for their health. If they do not use their muscles they will become weak; if the body is always resting, it will become fat and useless. And then all kinds of illnesses may come like indigestion, weakness of the heart, impurities of blood, and trouble in the lungs.
Exercise can be taken in many ways. Generally, it takes the form of some game-like football, hockey, cricket, tennis, and many more. These are good games for those who cannot spare much time for exercise, because one can get a lot of exercise running about a football field, in a very short time.
Riding is a good exercise if one can afford to keep a horse. Walking suits many people, because it is a gentler form of exercise than rough games. Perhaps swimming is the best exercise because it makes one use all the muscles of the body.
Besides these, there are exercises specially meant to strengthen the muscles, broaden the chest and improve general health such as gymnastics and physical drills.
