EUGEN SANDOW ON ATHLETIC TRAINING.

Otago Witness, Volume 11, Issue 2280, 11 November 1897, Page 56

EUGEN SANDOW ON ATHLETIC TRAINING.

Many people who will admit that training produces permanent results of an unfavourable kind upon the constitution -will deny my assertion that it is a failure even as regards the production of the muscle and stamina necessary for the performance of athletic feats. Here, again, my. views as to what constitutes good muscular development will differ from those held by many. To my mind the building up *of a fine physique is very similar to the building of a good house. You do not put a massive roof upon thin walls ; you are careful that, every brick is well'and trulj laid ; you make quite snre of your foundation before you proceed any farther. And thas should it bs in the development of the human body. It can be done no other way. I repeat it — in no other way. But is it so in the case of the trained athlete? Muscle, yes — a lump here and a lump there ; but bow often do you find one with every muscle in his body perfectly and symmetrically developed ? Not in one ca^e out of 10,000. 'In the othar 9999 cases the development is exceedingly irregular ; the man with good biceps has a poor chest, he with the fine calf has very inferior development in the upper, part of his body. Not only this, but the smaller muscles are,' in the majority oftrained men, almost non-existent ; and they are really the, most important, constituting as they do the connecting links of the whole fabric. The muscles which appear on the surface are valuable, but they are not allimportant ; those which are deeper seated have their part to play in supporting and sustaining the others while they are at work. Further, many of the chief internal organs are largely muscular ; if the machine is to work smoothly and safely they must be sufficiently strong to bear the strain imposed by the violent exertion of the external muscles. You see what 1 am driving at 1 The strength of the chain is, we know, that of its weakest link; any unusual strain upon the body will find out the weakest spot. Is not the moral plain ? Muscu'ar development' must be distributed equally all over, inside and out, if it is to be a source of real strength. A man with a huge aim may be ! actually weaker than another individual with only half his development if the former's heart and lungs are not proportionately powerful. These, then, are, I think, the great mistakes of training : instead of endeavouring to build up the body gradually in Nature's own way, it aims at developing by violent methods certain muscles which are required for the performance of specific feats. !

This, as I have said, can only be done at the expense of other portions of the frame, and this is the radical mistake. The athlete may say, " Supposing this to be the case, I develop the muscles I require for my work ; that is all I care about." My reply would be that,, granting he is foolhardy enough, not to mind running the risk of ruining bis constitution, he will surely pause when I tell him that this is not the way to develop to their fullest extent even those particular muscles wbich are- his special care. Most athletes understand what is meant by being "muscle-bound." That is, they realise the condition without understanding the causes from which it arises. It is simply due to the unequal development of unequal sets of muscles. Take the muscles of the arm. You rarely find that a man with very large biceps is a quick or hard hitter. The reason is obvious. While he has cultivated his pulling muscles (the biceps), the hitting muscles at the back of the arm (the triceps) have been, comparatively speaking, neglected, consequently the arm is never fully stretched, and the tendons of the biceps shorten. Owing to this the idea is very prevalent that big biceps are detrimental to hard hitting ! That is absolute nonsense. If the triceps were equally well developed they would neutralise the pnlling-in tendency of the biceps, and there would not be the slightest difficulty in shooting out the arm hard and straight. So with many other groups of mjiscles. For practical purposes it is almost better not to have your muscles developed at all than developed unequally.

And now, in conclusion, I would like to ! say a word or two more on the right method of becoming an athlete in the right sense of the word. You must use your mind. Exercise, without the will be concentrated uponthe work in hand, is labour wasted. In the introduction to my book I say • " I£ physical exercise alone and unaided could achieve the desired end, then would everyone who, , like the breaker of Btones, has* to use his muscles to earn his daily bread become, in the popular acceptation of the term, 'a strong man.' The breaker of stones, however, never uses his mind. He has to gat throDgh a given amount of work, and his method is purely mechanical. Though ho tnay use his muscles in bard work every day of the year, it is unlikely that his strength will ever materially increase." I have quoted my own words because the? give in. a nut- .

shell the system I have followed myself and the system I puriue with the pupils who attend my school of physical culture. Lit the would-be athlete live bis ordinary life so long as it is a temperate one ; let him eat and drink what his fancy dictates and what experience has taught him agrees with him ; let him smoke if he has been accustomed to do so. He need not deny himself nor live a life of strict asceticism. But if he exercise every one of his muscles in turn, and put his mind as well as his Back into "the work, he will be perfectly astounded with the results. That is my system, and I speak with confidence, because I have .put it to very severe tests. I have taken two men, of about the same weight, strength, and general muscular development. One I have had trained in the ordinary way; the other I have taken in hand myself. Then they have been matched at a variety of feats demanding both strength and agility. The latter has won easily. To t make doubly sure, - 1 have then reversed the positions — i c., taken over the first myself and allowed the second to be " trained " ; and after a couple of months or so put them together again. My system has again triumphed. In my own mind I am firmly convinced that the trained man is far inferior in e*very/way to one nnr tared by the natural and reasonable methods I, advocate ; but I would like to have a chance to demonstrate? this to the world. Oxford has been' victorious in the Uaiversity Boat Race 'for some years past ; give me the Cambridge crew and sse what, I will make of them. . I am no rowing'expert ; they must be properly coachedj but, instead of training them aB is customary, let me take charge of the id whenthey are out of their boat. Provided they have been taught to row properly, they shall win, if superiority in muscle, wind, and general vitality can do it. I guarantee no such crew will ever have been seen in a University eight or . any other racing boat before. — St. James's Gazette.