Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-24
TRAINING OFF FAT.
Heroic Measures Resorted to by
Jockeys and Prize Fighters.
THE LATTER MUST HAVE MUSCLE,
While the Former Need Only Enough tt
Hold on to the Pigskin.
TWENTY-FIVE POUNDS IN TWO DAYS
WRITTEN FOR THE DrspArcH.J

ly ever to be popular in this ease and leisure
loving age, is working it Off" Not "work-
ing it OFF, in any fgurative sense by Ian
guild endurance of Turkish baths, or general
abstemiousness, or healthful exercise, or
medicinal treatment, but by heroic measures
to the fullest extent of all that phrase i'm
plies. Jockeys, pugilists and athletes, who
simply must get themselves down to cer-
tain weights for participation in the
"events" by which they earn their bread,
are those who carry this system to its fullest
extent, but in more or less modified forms
all, however, too severe for any but the
most resolute souls. 1t is the chief reliance
of all good trainers They claim that only
by real hard work, in conjunction with vio-
lent sweating, and sometimes strong purga-
tive medicine, can fat be taken off rapidly
and at the same time strength increased
and breathing improved.
Replacing the Fat With Muscle.
Mr.. Goldie, formerly Master of Athletics
at Princeton College, has had great deal
to do in the reduction of the wealthier class
of Gotham's fat men to normal weights,
and his treatment was about just what an
intelligent trainer would have laid out to
fit an athlete to eight for mans life. Z"
II
round of exercises-deyoting only five or
ten minutes to each, but aggregating two or
three hours every day-by which every
muscle in the body was impelled to exercise,
at first gently, afterward with force. Lying
upon his back and then upon his face,
standing, sitting, bending, ETC., the patient
was forced to call into active play any num-
ber of muscles that he never before knew he
had or expected to have any use for. But
the great reliance was upon running, and
next to that boxing.
The last 10 or 10 minutes at least of each
period of each exercise had to be spent in
sparring with Mr.. Goldie, which was by no
means play. Of course, there were dietary
restrictions in force at the same time, but
they were simple, little more, in fact, than
prohibition of fat-forming foods and excess
of vegetable matter, with allowance of
abundance of muscle-making, plain and
easily digestible aliment, mainly beef, to re-
place by sound tissue the waste of habby
fat that was steadily going on. The energy
compelled by Mr.. Goldie's system was not
without its reward, and some of his cures
were really remarkable. The eminent law
yer, s. L. NJ. Barlow, for instance, when he
placed himself under the wiry little Scotch
mans care, had, by hearty feeding and
studious avoidance of exercise, got himself
into such a condition that it made him puff
and wheeze to walk across the sidewalk from
his door to his carriage; but in few months
he became able to run-actually to run-a
distance of five miles without stopping to
take breath. At the same time he regained
goodly shape and better health than he
had known since his boyhood.
What Muldoon Did With Sullivan.
Yet more violent and rigid is the exercise
system put in practice by the famous trainer
and athlete, William Muldoon. The course
he put John L. Sullivan through when fit
ting him for bis fight with Kilrain was
enough to appal any lover of physical COM
fort. Practically it was going on all the
time the pugilist was not asleep. Running
over the Ulster county hills-which are
steep, pounding the "sand bag" sparring,
hand ball, foot ball, jumping and walking;
doing many hard things because they were
hard exercise, and not few harder ones,
thinly disguised as play; wearing heavy
fannels to induce profuse perspiration
while thus toiling, and all the while eating
only what was good for him. Sullivan GER
tainly earned the fine physical condition in
which he found himself when Muldoon pro-
nounced him Sin condition"
The modern trainers methods of fighting
excess of weight, both of fat and inert
muscle, are infinitely more intelligently
conceived than were those formerly in
vogue. The old-time treatment was very
efficient in removing undesirable material,
but comparatively ineffective in replacing
it with that which was required. ''Toppy"
Mcguire, by means of a mysterious and
fearfully potent pill and sweats in sheets
saturated in certain chemicals, could make
man lose pounds almost as rapidly as a
butcher could have taken them off with
cleaver.
III r T1I~ r
But the mans strength was almost certain
to go away with the pounds, and in the
process of getting it back a large proportion
Of the pounds returned with it. And it was
not every one who could endure with i'm
punity such violent treatment. Beyond
doubt, if Sullivan, at the time he went under
Muldoon's care, had been given few of
'Toppy's" pills and sweats he would have
broken down hopelessly
Only among professional jockeys is there
any marked survival of the o1d-time methods
for rapid reduction of weight. To them
the retention of strength is relatively an
unimportant matter. So long as they
are strong enough to bestride the horse
excitement will temporarily lend them
sufficient nervous power in the hands
and arms to control the intelligent
animals they ride, and that is all required
But it is essential that they shall scale
down to certain weights at whatever cost
of privation and suffering. The man must
in the estimation of the judges-ft the
horse, no matter how he does it, and the
proportion is so nice that it is expressed in
ounces. There are very few jockeys in
the country who, like William Donohue
and George Taylor, can ride at 101 and 102
pounds that do not train and seem incapable
of accumulating fat. And even they, as
they grow older, will no doubt meet with
the same difficulty that caused so much pain
and trouble to the celebrated James Nc
Laughlin and finally drove him from the
pigskin. The bones grow larger and heavier.
Eventually the time comes when bone and
fat together are too much for the jockey.
But long time before that point is reached
his life, during racing seasons, at least, is a
constant fight to hold himself as close as
possible to the actual weight of his bones,
enough skin to cover them and the few nee
essary internal works to keep him going.
Mclaughlin Says It's No Childs Play.
Mclaughlin used to train himself much
as Muldoon trained Sullivan, by hard work
and perspiration. In reminiscent descrip-
tion of the process, being asked how he did
it, he replied: "Oh. by the hardest kind of
work-plenty of running and very little to
eat and drink. 1t was my custom to rise
very early in the morning, put on, the
heaviest suit of underclothing and top
clothing, including sweaters and great coats,
that possessed, and run from five to seven
miles at brisk gait. On my return to the
quarters, reeking with perspiration, my
valet had a bath ready for me. was rubbed
dry and weighed. If scaled what should,
all well and good, but if not 1 had to put on
flpv olOt hInU and do IL oil 0vay ooaip Vor,