Cycling.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 956, 27 June 1890, Page 9

Cycling.

ITS EFFECTS ON THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. Dk. Richardson, in the Asolepiad. I do not recall seeing any special functional injury of the muscles as a result of cycling. I never knew cramp or spasm as a direct result. I have never heard of rupture of muscles or of the fascia surrounding them, not even when they have been most tried. Sprain, which is a common accident from many exercises, is most uncommon as a result from working the machine, when it is separated from collisions and falls with which I have, at this moment, no concern. I have never met with a single instance in which I could trace the. common accident of ordinary rupture, or hernia, to the ; exercise, although in the first days of cycling this accident was named as one which would of itself, from i!s frequency, put the exercise out of the field in a very short time. The evidence so far is favourable to the exercise generally, but there are one or two drawbacks which must be named. The muscles most severely taxed attain sometimes an unusual size. The muscles which draw the upper limbs down to the sides become, in some riders, very large and strong. The extensor muscles of the thigh are still more apt to become large and powerful, and are, I believe, always extra powerful in those who are fully trained. The muscles of the calf of the leg are also rendered large, the soleus especially, after severe and long-continued cycling exercise. These effects are the common ones, but there are exceptions even to them, for I have once or twice known wasting of the much-used muscles—a bad indication, and one which should be accepted as giving notice that there is something constitutionally wrong in the person who shows it. Taking into careful consideration the general effects of cycling on the muscles which it calls most into play, we may consider that enlargement of muscle is the most prominent derangement, that such enlargement is chiefly confined to the muscles of the lower limbs, and that the effect is to create a rather indifferent gait, which, in persistent riders, is not concealed. The step loses in firmness, in walking the foot is raised rather more than is natural, and there is a tendency to tread too much on the toe iu the act of walking. I cannot suppress the suspicion, also, that much cycling reduces pedestrain powers, both as regards speed and endurance. For this reason some good pedestrains who are proud of their feats on foot, or are fond, of walking exercise, have given up cycling because it spoiled their walking. The fact is not peculiar to cycling j it extends, likewise to horse exercise, which, carried out as a habit, interferes with exercise on foot. So one of our great military surgeons once reported his opinion, which is, I believe, accepted as correct in military circles, that it is easy to turn infantry into cavalry, but to turn cavalry into infantry is one of the most difficult tasks. The concentration of muscular powers in the muscles of the lower limbs has another effect which should not be forgotten. It wearies out one particular set of muscles at the expense of all the rest ; that is to say, it. draws the nervous stimulus to muscular exertion from the general muscular system to divert it towards one special set of muscular organs.. We must not be blind to the truth that this is a condition not altogether fair to the system at large, and I know that it is sometimes a cause of systematic disturbance. All the muscles of the body, voluntary and involuntary, call for action derived from nervous stimulus, and if they are deprived of their stimulus, by diversion of it to other parts, they undergo enfeeblement, and are not ready to perform their duty in a satisfactory manner when called upon. The fact is often well illustrated in some unprecedented and,. I venture to thiuk, unwarranted attempts to .ride very long distances against time. We read that during these attempts the capacity for taking food is interfered with, that there is nausea, or even vomiting. The explanation is simplicity itself. Under the extreme exertion the digestive system is robbed of its nervous power, and from the enfeebled condition induced in it, it is unable to carry on the digestive functions which are essential for the proper digestion of foods. I have known the same thing to happen in the case of ordinary riders. A man starts out for too .long a ride without being provided with sufficient food. In time he feels a hunger which he cannot, at the moment, satisfy. He says to himself, *I am very hungry, I must push on to a place where I can get food.’ He pushes on ; but by-and-bye, to his surprise, the keen sense of hunger passes away, while the sense of exhaustion, minute by minute, increases. At last, when he reaches his destination, and the food is actually before him, he cannot enjoy it; the nervous power required for his stomach has escaped by his legs, and has been dissipated into space in the revolution of the wheels of his machine. In plain terms he has left his digestion flying behind him, and he has before him a bad and often long-continued fit of indigestion, which he attributes to cycling, but really is attributable to inattention in a matter of common sense.

The bad effect of over-fatigue in cycling on the muscles which supply and govern the organs of the vegetative life is, or may be, supplemented by a disturbance of the muscles of the voluntary system which have, so to speak, been lying fallow. That natural and general fatigue which would lead to comfortable repose is thereby prevented. The overwearied cyclist lays himself down to rest with the idea that he is going to fall at once into the most peaceful slumber. He does not. He is tired, but he is also restless. He turns over and over again, but only to sleep in snatches ; his lower limbs sleep, but the rest of his body is but half sleeping, and when, he rises, although he can ride again fairly, in so far as the work of his legs i 3 concerned, he is weary of body, and often for some hours is discontented and not up to tire mark. This stale is produced by precisely the same break of nervous balance as that which has been described above, During the night the over-

exhausted lower limbs have been recuperated at the expense of the other parts of the vital machinery, the brain, thedigesti- e system, and the other great groups of the muscular structure including the muscles of respiration, and the heart itself. So the man rises leg recruited, but not recruited through and through, as he ought to be in first-rate condition, and feeling all ova? in rude and vigorous health. I have said that it has not befallen me. to witness any particul-r strain or mechanical injury to the muscles under work by the cyclist. I havq, however, a few times observed a kind of rheumatic condition induced in the muscles, attended with considerable pain, and very disabling as long as it lasts.. The symptoms do not usually come on during the very act of cycling, but perhaps some hours, afterwards, and they last for several hours, it may be days,. The attack is always attended with, feebleness and depression, and may he sufficient to lead those who feel it severely to give up the exercise, since the effect, is not controlled by moderate riding, but, being constitutional, may follow a short as well as a long ride.