Sex efficiency through exercises : special physical culture for women / by Th. H. van de Velde ; [photos, by E. Steinemann].
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The image contains the following text:
Group III. : Exercises of the Thighs and the
A bdominal and Pelvic Muscles
(12) Knee Raising in Recumbent Posture (no illustration).
The woman lies on her back. She draws up one knee, as
close to her body as possible. Then she slowly stretches out
her leg and rests it on the couch again. Practise alternately,
left and right. The woman may draw her knee closer to her
body with both hands if she prefers to do so, but only in the
early stages of pregnancy, not in the later months.
This exercise becomes more vigorous and exhausting if
the second knee is raised before the first has returned to the
initial posture.
If these movements are modified and accelerated so that
each leg is flexed and then stretched alternately and con-
tinuously without returning to the recumbent posture, the
combination of movements is that of bicycling.
Note.—The bicycling exercise is very popular, and partly
so, perhaps, because no detailed explanations are necessary
for the patient to understand it. There are nursing homes
and clinics in which " And do the bicycling exercise steadily!"
sums up all the instructions previous to the special gymnastic
treatment of the puerperal stage (after child-birth.) And,
of course, this procedure is better than the complete absence
of any definite purposive movements. But it should be
borne in mind that this exercise entails considerable exertion,
especially when performed rather rapidly, and is, therefore,
only safe and suitable for healthy women with comparatively
good muscular tonicity.
(13) Knee Raising in Recumbent Posture against Pressure
(Fig- 30).
[a) The woman lies on her back while the gymnastic
instructress lays the palm of one hand in the hollow of the
patient's foot and clasps the thigh from above with her other
hand. She lifts the lower leg (i.e., below the knee), pressing
the thigh, thus bending the patient's knee. Then the knee
is again stretched and the leg laid flat. Repeat several times
in succession and not too quickly. The suitable tempo