I was sent this scan by a reader, and it is actually quite a scarce set, so many thanks. And it has led me to a quite fascinating discovery, that being that not only is this position, touching your toes, much harder to achieve than was always thought (indeed many athletes cannot do it), but it is no longer a test which demonstrates someone`s physical fitness, and in fact, being unable to perform it is an advantage for runners.
As you can see, this man is bending forward and touching his toes. This was long thought to show that you were flexible in the important regions of the lower back, hamstrings, and calves, and it was also used as a warm up to stretch those parts still further. And it would be attempted beyond the point of pain.
Yet today we know that having loose hamstrings is not good for an athlete, stiffer muscles and connective tissue have more elasticity so spring back faster, without bouncing about, and wasting energy. And the moments of looseness can not only affect balance and steadiness, but can cause injury.
This set first appears, and has its longest description, in our reference book to the issues of the British American Tobacco Company, RB.21, published in 1952, as :
374. EXERCISES FOR MEN AND WOMEN. Large cards, size 71 x 58 m/m Front in colour. Back in greyish black, with details of exercise, Numbered series of 50, Nos 1-25 covering the exercises for men, second batch covering exercises for women also numbered 1-25 and distinguishable from the first batch only from the different pictures and letterpress. U.T.C. issue.
This is converted for our World Tobacco Issues Index, published in 1956, to :
EXERCISES FOR MEN AND WOMEN. Lg. 76 x 58. Nd. 1/25 each for Men and for Women. (50). See RB.21/374 ...U14-18
I have checked several times and the dimensions do differ in each book. And though our updated World Tobacco Issues Index lists the set as appears below, it is not known whether this was just copied from the original work without cross checking with the cards :
EXERCISES FOR MEN AND WOMEN. Lg. 76 x 58. Nd. 1/25 each for Men and for Women. (50). See RB.21/374 ...U560-430