Sex efficiency through exercises : special physical culture for women / by Th. H. van de Velde ; [photos, by E. Steinemann].

EXERCISES OF THE FIRST GROUP: PELVIC AND ABDOMINAL ZONE CHAPTER III INTRODUCTION We shall first deal with exercises of the pelvic or abdominal zone, briefly explaining their process and mechanism and describing a selection of such exercises. Only a selection, bien entendu ! For the possible modifications and combina- tions of muscular action are so numerous that it would not be possible to enumerate them all in detail. Among these possible pelvic exercises, however, there are many in which the pelvis and lower abdomen are merely accessories— however active—but our exercises have been specially chosen with a view to letting the pelvis " play lead." For it is the aim of this study not only to give women complete control of all the pelvic muscles concerned—extraordinarily important though such control may be—but to make this control so absolute that it becomes instinctive, almost automatic, in fact. And we must remember that in most women the pelvis is relatively static and immobile. Pelvic exercises have points of resemblance with dancing. When learning to dance it is necessary to concentrate attention on the " steps " one wishes to master. But the adept in this art performs difficult steps with ease and rapidity, for they have become but means to an end, links in the process of expression—the Dance. Moreover, there are special affinities with pelvic exercises in certain popular modern dances, and women who devote themselves to the tango, for instance, do often attain considerable pelvic mobility and agility, or rather, in most cases, appear to attain it, for they sway from the knees only and not from the hips. The same is true of most beginners when performing some pelvic exercises—