Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-06
COMMON SENSE EXERCISE.
Don't Go Into q Gymnasium and Make
aFool Of Yourself.

| Don't Go Into q Gymnasium ana Make
| aFool Of Yourself.
THAT'S WHAT HUNDREDS DO, THOUGH, AND THEN
SAT- GYMNASTICS ARE NO GooD-HERR ARE SOME
rHINoe TO DO AND NOT TO DO.
From the n. 7. Sun.
Now that it is too unpleasant to exercise out
of doors, all the gymnasiums in town are
| crowded with men who have started in with
their annual resolve to take faithful and regu-
lar exercise all winter. Before New Years day
a third of the number will have dropped, end
by the time spring comes not quarter Of the
large number of men who started in this month
will be left. The difficulty is that few men
know how to exercise, and that too many Of
them rush it too much at first. II man were
going to exercise his horse or his dog,
! + if he were going to train some
animal he would not start with three or four
hours Of violent exertion on the first day, and
| expect to keep it up. II he were to try that
sort of treatment on horse the horse would
break down. II he were to try it on an ele-
| plant, even, the elephant would 60 off his feed
and become dispirited and listless. Still,
number of men start every fall in just the op-
posite way from the way they should start. As
| a result some Of them are injured, and almost
two-thirds quit.
Go into any gymnaysium at this time of the
| year. and you will see from ten to twenty-five
| men and youths of various constitutions and
different weights trotting around the track at
| the same pace, and each of the amateurs try
ing to
GO FURTHER THAN HIS FRIENDS.
A young man who would not think of running
two three blocks on the streets in the open
air, or a mile or two along a country road, will
run 10 or Is miles around the track in closed
room, until his head swims and his tongue
hangs out like dogs. Because he cannot
start in and do this at once without injuring
himself, and because he finds that he is in
| worse health than he would be if he had no
exercise, he comes to the conclusion that
gymnasium is a failure, and after a few weeks
trial stops until another year or gives it up.
A young man who has not been in gymna-
SUM before, or an older man who has not been
In gymnasium since he was Young wants at
once to do everything. He wants to put up
the 5O-pound dumbbells and whirl them
around between his fingers like he does pen
in the Office where he is clerk. Or he wants
to pull the rowing machine with forty-one
stroke, as he has read in the papers that the
Yale and Harvard crews do at the end of their
annual race. Or he wants to travel around the
track and see whether there is not the making
OF a six-day pedestrian in him. Sometimes he
tries to do all these things at once. He has an
idea that the mere fact of being in a gymna-
SUM enables him to do things which he could
not do outside. He tries all these things the
change his diet. He does not take proper care
OF himself, and after hard days work in the
Office he is disappointed because he cannot do
professional gymnasts tricks at night. Every
little While some one is
HURT BY HIS CONFIDENCE
that what another man can do he can do at
once. In every gymnasium in New York young
men tumble from the rings and bars and
trapeze who would not have been allowed on
ha.rn had khAx,, IL
they were able to do it all. A few of these ac-
cidents are known, but seldom, unless some
one is killed. is anything heard about them
and a fall from the rings or the bars seldom re-
suits In death, but only cripples the inexperi-
than these accidents are the injuries to the
constitution and the development of young
man who tries to do too much at once. 1t is
all right, perhaps. for a professional Oarsman
to pay more attention to the muscles of his
back and the pulling muscles of his legs
than to his chest muscles. 1t may be justifi-
able for runner to develop his legs without
giving adequate attention to his arms and for
dime museum prodigy to get his arms. legs.
and back in such condition that he can manage
enormous weights. But what a sane Young
man. that does not expect to be a gvmnast or
a runner or sculler, but who exercises to keep
his mind clear. and both his head and body in
good working order. should want with all these
Things that belong to professional it is hard
to see.
A man becomes sick of ANYTHING. no matter
how enjoyable and healthy, by taking too much
OF It, III his muscles are not in good working
order, II his stomach is little out of shape, he
ought to start in moderately and with ease He
ought, In fact, to loiter good deal around the
gymnasium and not to strain himself, either at
the beginning or at the end 1t may be pleas
ant thought that you have put up a 75-pound
dumbbell more often than your friend but it ia
not fun, and it does you no good while you may
lnJure yourself in trying. Anyhow it well be
much easier to put up a 75-pound dumbbell if
you begin on 2-pound dumbbells.
Exercise should be taken in pleasurable mod
Grafton. The first thing is to find place to do
IL In. There are any number of gymnasiums
in town, and most of them are good. The adj
vantage OF gymnasium is that the accommo-
dations are better than in ones house. and one
has company. COmpanionship increases the
value OF exercise. man should have two or
three friends to exercise with him, not more.
and there is no harm if there is only one.
They can combine movements, and if they can
keep the spirit OF emulation down il will be
good thing for them both The advantage of
having a friend exercise with you is that Won
can combine fencing and boxing, two of the
best known exercises. with those that a man
can do alone. Punching bag may be as good
work as punching man, but it is not as good
exercise. 1t would be easy for a man to stand
in position and lunge with a foil certain
number OF times at a swaying mark if that
were all that fencing consisted in, but it would
be
RATHER POOR EXERCISE
The place may be ones room if one will not
be alone there while exercising. II party of
men lives in fiat, and they have a spare room
1t can be turned into a gymnasium to good ad-
vantage, though there will be no hundred-yard
track. On getting up in the morning the men
may go in there, work with light dumbbells
while, swing Indian clubs few simple mo-
tions, spar a couple of slow and one sharp
round with each other, and then take a cold
sponge BATH rub themselves down with coarse
towels and hard brushes, Dress and then break
fast. This will not take three-quarters of an
hour day, and il persisted in day after day.
changing the exercise, and occasionally taking
foils instead of gloves, it will result in
hardening the flesh, Frightening the eyes,
and giving sound appetites to all the
men. 1t will not make them either
good boxers or good fencers unless one of
them is an adept and teaches the other. On
the contrary, il at the start they are tolerable
sparrers this kim of work may spoil their style
and make then worse sparrers. They would
be far better men in a square fight, but they
will be worse at sparring for points. 1t is not
expected that any young man who looks for
ward to being a pugilist, or an expert swords
man, or professional gymnast, will heed this.
What he should do is to go to a trainer and
teach, or put himself in their hands and follow
their instructions. II is for the average young
man who works a good part Of the day and ex-
| poets to work for many years mora1 Ind whose
ambition in N Inns inaaa and notYy, athletics