Salt Lake Tribune | 1916-12-24 | Page 31 | Why we Rest upon One Leg

v WHY We REST Upon ONE LEG MAX, we are told In our school books, Is distinct from animals for one reason rea-son because he stands upright upon two I ' W' 1 ' - , I D 0 jNpT I G ? Any man at rest shifts his weight upon one foot. legs instead of traveling upon all fours. But If you watch yourself or other persons you will notice that it is unusual for people to rest upon two legs. Nearly always we are standing on one leg and resting the other one. Practice will prove that to stand with the weight nearly equally divided upon the two legs is tiring. Even in the army, where comfort is al-ways al-ways sacrificed to trim appearance, tnecom-, tnecom-, mand, '"Stand at ease," which allows the soldiers to throw one leg back and prop themselves upon it, shows how impossible a perfectly upright position is to maintain for any length of time. Standing perfectly upright can be done only by a very complicated cross strain, one set of muscles pushing forward, another holduig back. With every movement we make a new adjustment of these muscles takes place. The trouble is all with our hip bones. Therefore, to rest these muscles we place one of them at rest by throwing one leg to one side, allowing the other to do the work. When one leg has rested sufficiently it takes up the strain and the other takes a spell. Nor does it matter how much we strengthen our log muscles by walking or other exercises, exer-cises, the perfectly upright position is still & hard one to Uen,