Reprinted from the April 1936 issue of Doc Savage Magazine

The Doc Savage Method
Of Self-development

as explained to KENNETH ROBESON

Because of thousands of requests for more definite knowledge of the exercises which are part of Doc Savage's daily routine, Kenneth Robeson has prepared this exposition of the means used by Doc Savage to reach his present state of mental and physical development. As explained here, they start from the very beginning of Doc Savage's career with the most elemental tests. They are numbered for convenient reference. It is only because of the faithful daily performance of even the smallest of these exercises that Doc Savage has developed his senses and perceptions to the present high degree.

Exercise LVI.

Doc Savage often has to depend on his miraculous ability to hold his breath, in order to save his life. Doc developed this ability through his famous two hours of daily exercise, which he never misses.

Doc stands erect in his room, clad as is usual during his physical exercises in loose-fitting clothes, preferably shorts, and before an open window. He stands relaxed, breathing deeply.

Still relaxed, Doc raises his arms and locks his fingers back of his head at the nape of his neck. Now he begins a deep breath, drawing the air into his lungs slowly and with a conscious mental willing to force into the lungs the greatest amount of air they can hold. He exhales slowly.

This breathing he does three times, and on the fourth breath Doc fills his lungs to their greatest capacity and does not exhale until he is forced to do so. During this fourth breath, Doc tightens the muscles of his arms and body, and while he is holding his breath he stretches as hard as he can. He mentally wills his spinal column to elongate and his muscles to stretch to their utmost.

When he is forced to release his breath, Doc does so with a rush, and then stands relaxed for five quick breaths with his hands to his sides.

During this exercise, Doc mentally traces the circulation of a drop of blood through his body.

This exercise Doc Savage performs three times each day, listing on a pad the number of seconds he has been able to hold his breath at each exercise. He has found that in three months he doubled his time for holding his breath, and now can hold it an almost unbelievable length of time.

Exercise LVII.

Because of the great number of times Doc Savage has had to depend on the strength of his fingers and wrists to accomplish his purpose, he has paid great attention to their physical development.

One of the first exercises Doc developed was one in which he stood head up, shouiders back and spine straight and stiff-a soldier at attention.

With a snap, Doc brings his arms Up stiff, straight out in front of him. Slowly he turns his wrists, bringing his hands upward, palms out, fingers pointing upward. Keeping the fingers of the hand held together, the hand moving at the wrist only, Doc describes a figure eight with the finger tips-both hands moving inward for the first three eights, and outward for the next three.

Doc keeps the hand stiff throughout and at as near right angles to the arm as possible, moving only the wrist.

Next, and without rest, he moves the first finger from the other three as far as possible and repeats the exercise. Then the first and second finger are separated, and finally the first three fingers are together and the little finger alone on the exercise.

Doc has found this exercise to be invaluable for the development of his wrist and hand muscles, as well as finger control. While performing this exercise, he recites aloud the countries of the world and their rulers.

Exercise LVIII.

Tn order to distinguish two or more odors at the same time, Doc Savage developed the following exercise.

He obtained ten small wide-mouthed bottles, which he filled with water; then he mixed with the water a few drops of some liquid, or a small amount of powder, that produced an odor.

For his first exercise, Doc used wintergreen, powdered cinnamon, powdered cloves, peppermint, cherry flavoring, rose toilet water, lilac toilet water, chocolate, plain water, and a mouth wash. of course, as he learned these odors, he had to substitute others. These were mixed with the water in each bottle and labeled.

When he was ready for this exercise, Doc Savage would place on his desk the ten bottles, in pairs. Removing the tops from each bottle, he covered each pair with a plain card. He then went to the first pair of bottles and, placing his nostrils between the two, removed the card.

Doc would breathe deeply once, replace the card and jot down what the two bottles contained, as: wintergreen, left bottle-cinnamon, right bottle. This exercise was done very swiftly, and Doc only allowed himself as much time as it would take him to recite one verse of Robert W. Service's poem, "The Men Who Can't Stay Still."

Exercise LIX.

In order to bring his sense of touch to its point of highest efficiency, Doc Savage tries to foresee any possible emergency that might arise, and guard against it. To make his sense of touch familiar with indented messages, as well as raised ones, Doc obtained ten three-inch-by-three-inch blocks of unglazed tile.

Upon these blocks of tile, Doc deeply inscrilbed capital letters of such size that the edge of them came only a quarter of an inch from the edge of the tile. He used the five vowels A, E, I, 0, U, and five of the most used consonants, S, T, R, G, H. He cut hese deeply in the tile by using a diamond-point cold chisel, which can be found in any tool kit.

When the letters were properly cut, Doc Savage closed his eyes and shuffled the tiles about. Npw tle placed his finger tips on the tile first at hand and by his sense of touch, determined what letter was cut in that tile. This he did with the next tile, and after identifying all ten, attempted to form a word of at least four letters without any aid other than his sense of touch.

One of the first words Doc formed was GATE; then came THEIR, and many others.

After each word was formed, Doc Savage opened his eyes and verified the findings of his finger tips. A variation of this word-forming game, Doc discovered, was making up ten words before the exercise began and then forming those words by his sense of touch.

Doc formed ten words each day, and timed himself to see the improvement his sense of touch derived from this exercise. He was gratified to learn that it helped him to such an extent that he could add another five letters in two weeks time, which made many more words available.

Exercise LX.

Doc Savage, as all of his followers know, has always to depend upon his ability to see things as they are, not as they appear to be.

In an endeavor to gain perfection in this particular faculty, Doc prepared twenty cards, eight inches long by five inches wide, of white cardboard. Upon these he printed backward twenty words, two or more of which resembled each other in the first few letters. For his first ten he used: abbey, abbot, abduce, abduct, abjure, abject, aboard, abode, abroad, above. The second ten were a matter of choice. The first two letters of the vrords were printed plainly and heavily, but the remainder of the letters were smaller and not as heavily printed, thus making the distinction between the words more difficult.

Now, standing before a mirror and placing the cards before him so they would reflect in the glass, Doc shuffled them up so he would not know their sequence. Then, looking in the mirror, he dropped the cards swiftly, one by one. So swiftly did the cards fall, that Doc could not read them but only photograph their appearance in his mind. After ten were dropped, he noted on a pad the ten words in their proper sequence as they fell; and then repeated with the next ten. This exercise permitted Doc to have a constant check on the speed with which he sees, and the accuracy of his sight.

Other words and a greater number of cards were added from time to time, as the exercise became too easy for Doc's mental processes. At the present time, Doc can correctly and easily perform this exercise with one hundred cards, once over and no errors; and he no longer stops to write them down after each series of ten, but remembers the entire one hundred.

More of these explanaIions of Doc Savage's exercises will be given
in the next issue of Doc Savage Magazine.

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