Bicycling and Health for Women
Cite this book
Citation
Lucy M. Hall. Bicycling and Health for Women. 1890. cyclearchive.com, https://cyclearchive.com/books/bicycling-and-health-for-women-l-hall-1890/
Page numbers are pages of the PDF, which can differ from the numbers printed on the page.
Contents
- Lucy M. Hall opens with the dream-like ease of a fast, smooth ride, which she says a bicycle gives even more fully than a tricycle.
- A well-known woman writer who rides a safety bicycle admits she cannot hide the exhilaration she feels, to her sons' disapproval.
- Argues that cycling is healthful for women: it exercises the arms, shoulders and breathing muscles, quickens the heart and circulation, and replaces stale air with fresh oxygen.
- Compares skating, horseback riding and cycling, all of which give mental exhilaration that adds to their value as exercise.
- In field sports the mental stimulus comes from the game's accessories, companionship and opposition rather than from the exercise itself.
- Walking gives the mind little to do and wearies the tired, whereas an easy spin on a safety revives drooping spirits; any woman able to walk is able to ride.
- Notices of fashionable weddings announce a part of the wedding trip made awheel, and English ladies ride as readily as they walk.
- A showily dressed young woman draws the attention of onlookers away from a modest cyclist; the author holds that her standards are right but her display is faulty.
- Argues that women need health rather than fairer looks, and that proper dress and enjoyed exercise such as cycling build the resistance that prevents nervous breakdown.
- Describes the charm and fellowship of cycling, likened to flying, and notes that riders keep it for six to ten years, unlike baseball, rowing, tennis or roller-skating.
- Advises a medium-weight, inconspicuous cloth (alpaca, on a friend's recommendation), flannel underwear, a white tennis cap or felt hat, and a laced gentleman's shoe rather than a boot.
- Describes the divided bicycle gown shown in the January 1890 Jenness Miller Magazine, with plaited outer legs fastened with elastic under the foot, which look like a kilted skirt when standing.
- A run of quotations from a tricycle comparison, physicians, clergy and periodicals on cycling's benefits, including the claim that a woman can ride twenty-five miles in a day with little fatigue and that learning takes half an hour's practice.