Breathe Your Way to Fit Lungs

We may have different beliefs and cultures about remedies and health preservation systems but we all agree that life is absolutely dependent upon the act of breathing and that man cannot be healthy unless the function of breathing is performed as Nature intended. At birth, the infant draws a long, deep breath, instinctively retaining it to extract from the air its life-giving property; then exhales it in a long wail, and its life upon the earth begins. At the end, with the chill of death upon him, the heart of the old man flutters faintly, then in one gasp he ceases to breathe. And the life principle dependent upon that act leaves the body forever. From the first faint breath of the infant, to the last gasp of the dying man, it is one long story of continued breathing, for life is but a series of breaths. Man may exist for a month without eating, a much shorter time without drinking, but without breathing his existence upon this earth will be measured by a few minutes. “Air is life,” and without pure air good health is impossible. Therefore keep in the open air as much as possible. See that your home is well ventilated, and sleep with your windows open. As you walk, frequently inhale deeply, filling the lungs slowly as full as possible without any feeling of dizziness. Then exhale slowly, allowing the duration of inhalation and exhalation to be about equal. Pure air charged with sunlight is the best source of the ultimate thing that makes us live – air. As you lie in bed in the morning, with the windows open, practice this deep-breathing exercise, the same movement as in walking. The most convenient position is upon your side or back. It must be admitted that athletes or pro¬fessional strong men are, as a rule, short lived. Consumption and pneumonia are the most fre¬quent cause of death among that class of men who, by reason of their strength and physical development, would seem to be immune from those diseases. Usually the sudden death of a noted athlete from pneumonia is attributed to dissipation after the arduous work of preparation for some athletic event or undue exertion when “out of training”. While this is often the case, it will not account for the deaths, by consumption and pneumonia, of a number of professional strong men, who were noted for their abstemious lives. The real reason has been that their bodies were unequally exercised; the external muscles being developed to their fullest, but the lungs, being neglected, have remained in their original condition, and far inferior in their de¬velopment to the powerful external structure. In this condition any unusual strain or exposure which might not have any deleterious effect upon the strong and thoroughly seasoned external muscles, might work very serious injury to the comparatively weak and poorly-de¬veloped lungs. Like a chain which is only as strong as its weakest link, this, the weakest part of the body, suffers. If you would be healthy, develop the body evenly. And if these exercises for the lungs are practiced as described, you need not fear pulmonary diseases. I speak from experience, for my father died of consumption at the age of forty-two. I in¬herited weak lungs and a tendency to that dreaded disease. By these lung-strengthening exercises, I have increased the expansion of my chest from two and one-half inches to five and one-half inches, and am absolutely free from coughs, colds or any lung weakness. I strongly urge the adoption of these deep-breathing exercises, in this or any other system of training or physical culture.