Weightlifting

“ The Farnese Hercules no doubt could lift weights of prodigious heaviness, but if the acquisition of{71} this power has been attained at the cost of speed and promptitude, we altogether fail to see how he is benefited. Correctness and control are the first objects of muscle-culture; by proper practice comes endurance, speed, and often very great muscular power. But power—slow weight-lifting power—should be considered not as the first, still less as the only object of exercise, but as a probable result. ”

“ You often have to grip your man in wrestling fashion or else collar him; the latter method giving plenty of work for head and neck, the former exercising ribs, chest and stomach, as you fasten your own grip or escape from your opponent’s. Sometimes you make your mark, sometimes you use one of the holds that are taught in the wrestling schools; and this means a very considerable strain on the loins and the legs. And so for this sport a man must be a strong runner: he will have to swerve and leap sideways as well as run straight forward and this is hard exercise for the legs. ”

“ In addition to the ordinary gymnastic exercises of the palaestra, the athletes were instructed in carrying heavy loads, lifting weights, bending iron rods, striking at a suspended leather sack filled with sand or flour, taming bulls, &c. Boxers had to practise delving the ground, to strengthen their upper limbs. The competitions open to athletes were running, leaping, throwing the discus, wrestling, boxing and the pancratium, or combination of boxing and wrestling. Victory in this last was the highest achievement of an athlete, and was reserved only for men of extraordinary strength. ”

“ A heave is not so effective as a quick jump, with the muscles concentrated at the same moment. The quicker the hop and the throw are made, the further the distance put, provided that the balance is not lost. Any delay between the first hop and the final spring is fatal. In delivering the weight, let it be put upwards—that is to say, aim to hit an object about fourteen feet above the spot where the weight will pitch. The further the weight has to be put, the higher must be the elevation. No exercise is a greater proof of strength than this. ”

“ Since he had gone in for wrestling he had made it the specialty of all his athletic exercises. He had practised everything that had any bearing on the strengthening of particular muscles or general agility. He had practised cart-wheels, hand-springs, back and front flips. He had worked with his neck at the chest-weight machine. He would walk on his hands to strengthen his throat, and his collars had grown in a few weeks from thirteen and a half to fifteen, and he could no longer wear his old shirts without splitting them. He made the mats in the Kingston gymnasium almost his home. ”

“ The reason is that weight-throwing and jumping both require a harmonious well-timed effort of every part of the body. The use of jumping weights increased the resemblance between the two exercises; for the swing of the weights was not unlike the swing of the diskos. The general development and complete control of the muscles necessary for these events would give an equal advantage in wrestling, especially with men of the same weight, for the heavy-weight wrestler would be excluded by the very nature of the pentathlon. ”

“ The gymnasium director in one of our largest colleges, who has spent his whole life in exercise, is a small, slender man whose muscles are not at all prominent and yet they are like steel wires. He has made a life-long study of himself and has developed every muscle in his body. From his appearance he would not be considered a strong man and yet some of the younger athletes weighing fifty pounds more than he, have, in wrestling and feats of strength, found that the man with the largest muscles is not always the best man. ”

“ Punching that foot-ball is pretty lively work, and the best kind of exercise for a boxer. Then the rubber straps with handles, which can be obtained almost anywhere, give a great variety of exercise, are inexpensive, and take up no room. With such apparatus a man or woman can have a gymnasium at home, and one hour out of twenty-four devoted to exercise and rubbing, will keep anybody in good condition, and make him healthy and cheerful, if not wealthy and wise. Swimming is one of the best of exercises, but unfortunately the opportunities for indulging in the sport are limited. ”

“ It is by the straightening of these joints, and not by the action of stabbing, that the rapidity and force of a thrust are achieved.
It is just the same in boxing. No one who has the least knowledge of sparring strikes a round-handed blow, for, putting aside the ease with which it is parried or avoided, it has scarcely any force in it. When a boxer hits “straight from the shoulder,” he not only straightens the Toggle-joint of his left arm, but that of his right knee also, so that the force of the blow comes quite as much from the leg as the arm. ”

“ Nearly every muscle of the body is brought into play. The triceps, or pushing muscles on the back of the arm, the shoulder and back muscles, are the ones especially developed in boxing. The bare back of a boxer is a perfect mass of muscle. Great knots and coils appear between and across the shoulders with every movement, while the ridges stand out clear down to the base of the spine. Let a boy practise a single left-hand lead in front of a mirror in gymnastic costume, and note how [Pg 64] many muscles are used. ”

“ At no time during the day ought a man in training to loll about idly.
Whether for boxing, rowing, wrestling, or swimming, there ought to be a regular running exercise before the mid-day meal. This exercise ought to begin moderately for time and distance, and increase gradually; the last quarter of the run should always be at the top speed.
If the men are training for rowing, they ought to exercise in the boat twice every day. Let it not be forgotten that constant exercise, spread over a long period, is necessary to bring the muscular system into condition which can be depended upon. ”

“ The cultivation of phlegmatic tendencies through all of the twenty-four hours of the day brings with it increase of weight.
There is no need of changes in exercise when added weight is sought, except that gymnastics should not be too strenuously followed. Walking is required by the Japanese instructors to be kept up as usual, with the exception that the gait be strolling instead of brisk. When seeking increase of weight the student must bear in mind that every exertion, however necessary, must conform to the requirements of repose—healthful laziness! ”

“ When he has regained the small quantity necessarily lost at starting the muscular action, and increased on it, he has got what is called his "second wind," and then he is able to go on while his muscular power holds out.
Running is the best exercise to increase the breathing and staying power, as the muscles used in propelling the runner's body do not interfere with those of respiration. The runner can hold his breath, with the chest fully extended, for a long time, while the rower, for instance, must fill his lungs at each stroke,—from thirty to forty times a minute. ”

“ Having relaxed the legs and arms and head, next the spine and all the muscles of the chest must be helped to relax. This is more difficult, and requires not only care but greater muscular strength in the lifter. If the one who is lifting will only remember to press hard on the floor with the feet, and put all the effort of lifting in the legs, the strain will be greatly lessened.
Take hold of the hands and lift the patient or pupil to a sitting attitude. Here, of course, if the muscles that hold the head are perfectly relaxed, the head will drop back from its own weight. ”

“ You may boast of your fine horses and beautiful women, but give me an athlete in perfect training, particularly if I have had the handling of him, and have seen the fat disappear and the strong, clean muscle take its place.
The boys are seated on the long benches or standing in front of the lockers. Here is the slender figure of a sprinter, not an ounce of superfluous flesh or unused muscle, the cords of his shapely legs standing out clear and firm through the satin skin. There is a [Pg 142] shot-putter, stopping a moment to chaff with a friend, stripped to the waist, his shirt in his hand. ”

“ The weight is swung round and back past the right leg as far as possible then up over and round the head and in the hammer throw. One complete swing round the head is usually enough as too much momentum is apt to throw the athlete off his balance. The weight is then swung round together with the whole body as rapidly as possible as in hammer throwing. The athlete works himself to the front of the circle just before the moment of delivery and begins the final heave with his back towards the direction in which he wishes to throw the weight. ”

“ One of its prime advantages is, that by gradually multiplying the number of weights, it adapts itself nicely to the increasing strength of the individual, and to the varying powers of the different members of the family. It reaches directly every muscle of the hand, wrist, arm, shoulder, chest, abdomen, back, and neck. By the use of an extra pulley near the floor, necessitating a longer rope, excellent drill of the leg muscles is afforded. By sitting on the floor, the latter arrangement is converted into a rowing machine, affording exercise for the arms, back, and legs. ”

“ All that is worth noting and testing of courage, temper, strength, tenacity, endurance, force, rapidity, precision, foresight, can be as completely proven, or rather can be better or more plainly proven, in a glove contest than in a bare-handed fight.
Such a change as is hero contemplated was never dreamt of even ten years ago. British boxing was a lamentable exhibition at all times; but for twenty-five years past it has been sinking lower and lower in disrepute. The greatest and manliest physical exercise has been, for this reason, in danger of complete extinction. ”

“ Weight-lifting should never be practised in a confined space or where the weight cannot be readily dropped. To attempt to hold on to a weight after the balance has been lost may result in serious strains and other injuries; the pupil should practice dropping a weight from any position safely and gracefully. If the [Pg 43] pupil bear these few hints in mind he will come to no harm, but, as I have said, weight-lifting is best left alone until it can be practised under the personal supervision of an experienced instructor. ”

“ Thus, defense is an important element in boxing.
Moreover, boxing, besides aiding in defense, is a healthful sport. The body is developed greatly after one goes out for boxing as is shown by the increase or decrease in weight, as the case may be. The weight decreases if one has been in the habit of taking no exercise as he begins training, but the weight soon increases again as the body makes the proper readjustments. Persons who are fleshy soon lose their superfluous fat. ”

“ The fact is that the real specialization of the athlete was only just beginning, and the universal athletic training had produced in the first half of the fifth century so uniform a standard of development that, runners perhaps excepted, it must have been difficult to distinguish between the representatives of other events, in all of which strength was more important than pace. Hence the earlier sculptors, in order to indicate an athlete’s victory, were forced to attach to his statue some special attribute, a diskos, or a pair of jumping weights for a pentathlete, a boxing thong 94for a boxer. ”

“ Again, and this objection applies to athletes even more than to the ordinary man in search of health by means of daily exercise, are not these slow movements of dumb-bells and slow steady resistance against india-rubber productive of quite the wrong sort of strength? No doubt the incessant raising of a dumb-bell above the head, a heavy pushing stroke, will tend to enable{36} the pusher to raise greater and greater weights above the head, but does the ordinary man, does the athlete himself desire to get strength of that kind? ”

“ But the impression is conveyed that any individual can acquire the same muscular strength by practicing their exercises.
It is interesting to note that Sandow in his “Magazine for Physical Culture,” criticizes the abdominal muscles of a Danish instructor in athletics by the name of Muller, as almost abnormally developed, and Muller in turn retorts that Sandow’s arms and legs are too thick for their length, and his figure is too clumsy. That Mr. Muller has a better figure than Mr. Sandow is true, as is likewise the fact that the latter has given too much attention to heavy-weight lifting. ”

“ I don't believe in exertion that taxes the muscular strength. Heenan and all those old-time athletes thought they must use hundred-pound dumb-bells and trot around with great lead soles on their shoes. That made them heavy and slow, and exhausted their strength needlessly. One-pound dumb-bells are heavy enough for anybody, and Indian clubs should not weigh more than four or five pounds at the outside. Gymnasts should not use heavy weights at all. What is needed to develope muscle is movement, action — not strain. ”