Sex efficiency through exercises : special physical culture for women / by Th. H. van de Velde ; [photos, by E. Steinemann].
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the perineal—muscies if harm from difficult and frequent births is to be countered. But, on the whole, these some- what vague—though indisputable—truths are all that is vouchsafed concerning the functions of women, in sex and maternity, from the point of view of the advocates of " pelvic exercises." And this is not enough. In practice the results of what we know about physical culture and human anatomy are observed and utilised more helpfully in " amateur physical exercises," than in professional gymnastic displays, games and sports. For, in the latter, there is not sufficient recognition of the woman's different structure and needs. Women with particularly powerful and tense muscles in the lower part of the body are apt to suffer excessively, and often incur permanent injury after child-bearing, for the muscles act as constricting iron bands, through which the child must make its entry into the world. This entry is always painful to some degree, but it is rendered much easier and less exhausting, for both parties to the act of birth, if the maternal muscles are strong but stipple, elastic and under control, both in their contractions and relaxations. And this is especially the case with the perineal and perivaginal muscles, which have been somewhat ignored by gymnastic theory and practice until the immediate present. This realisation of the possibilities of physical culture is significant and helpful, but largely negative—indicating what not to aim at—rather than positive. But the practical efforts of students of physical culture in relation to the special functions of women have produced a few short manuals on gymnastics during pregnancy, as well as the recognition that some gymnastic exercise of a remedial type is necessary after child-birth. These manuals are, however, elementary, and do not offer anything like the amount of knowledge that is available, nor of help that is requisite. Finally, we must record that medical recognition of the importance of the pelvic floor for the position of the female genital organs—or rather, the practical application of this knowledge—has enriched the gymnastic repertory with a number of exercises, supposed to strengthen the muscles of