"WINDED."

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2951, 5 January 1912, Page 7

"WINDED."

AN EXPLANATION OV THE ACTUAL PHYSICAL CAUSES.

When a man has done a training spin over a mile at racing pace, ho very often pulls up "winded"; but he is not always aware of exactly what has been the cause of that uncomfortable condition. First of all, the contraction of a muscle leads to the formation of carbonic acid gas. The muscle derives carbon from its food taken into the body, and the blood supplies it with oxygen taken from the air. When the muscles are called upon to contract more than usually, a larger supply of OTygen or, in reality, an increased flow of blood is required by those muscles.

Consequently a greater quentity of blood must pass through the lungs for the purpose of absorbing oxygen, and it must also pass at a quicker rate through the tissues to supply that oxygen to the muscles. Thus it will be seen that the organ that has really all the work to do is the heart, and when this has not been systematically prepared for its increased work it is apt to go on strike, and give its owner that unpleasant feeling of being "winded." Remember that the heart's muscular tissue, which differs in no way in this respect from other muscular

tissue, grows in size and power with increased work. And herein lies a danger that should be considered by every athlete. Do not throw a sudden strain on your heart. If a strain is exerted on it by easy degrees, as in the case of judicious training, the muscles develop correspondingly in size and in strength, so as to be prepared for the increased work. Thus no injury results. But if the strain is sudden and over-violent—as was the case recently at. some Freshmen's sports, when a man fell in a faint half-way through the "hundred"—there is grave risk of the heart's walls giving way, and of the entire organ becoming stretched, dilated, and more or less weakened for ever. "Stitch," a very frequent enemy of cross-country runners, is due to the fact that while out of training a considerable number of the air-cells of the lungs are not used at all, but in a run these are called into action at once ; and it is a summons to them when tbey are unprepared that gives the unpleasant sensation known as "stitch."—"Modern Man."