The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-10-23
HEALTHY ATHLETES.
Eugen Sandow. the Strong Man, Gives
His Views On the Subject.

He Says the System of Training which Is
| Usually Employed Does Not Mako q
Healthy Man - Radical Difference Be
tween 1t and His Own Method.
have read with great interest the arti-
Gle under the heading SIS the Athlete
Healthy" which appeared in the 81
James Gazette, and it is with much pleas
ure that set out to say o few words upon
| a subject which | can, without concelt, lay
claim to know as thoroughly as any man
breathing. have studied it all my life,
and though I am still quite young man
I dare say that few men Of any age have
devoted more attention to physical culture
and all that appertafns to It. am not
speaking merely of physical development
as exemplified in myself-although l may
he pardoned if l contend that 1, in my own
person, am an irrefutable proof OF the cor
| recthess of my theOries-but my convic-
tions are based on much wider grounds.
7 have tested my theories upon others, and
in every instance such experiments have
brought about the same results There
are a good many people, I believe, who
think that | am merely phenomenally
strong man who is himself ignorant of the
sources of his strength and who argue that
my $50 called system of physical culture
is, to use a common expression. SO much
"showmans patter." That this is NOT
the case l hope to show. have gone into
the subject in scientific manner and with
the sole desire of wrestling from nature the
secret of Identifying and developing the
body In that l think have succeeded.
The athlete in the sense that the word
is commonly used is, in my mind, no ath-
lete at all, for real athlete must be a
healthy man. But this is perhaps a little
beside the point. AS has been stated. by
an athlete is usually meant the man who
has been trained, and it is really on this
point, whether training produces strength
in the best sense Of the word, that I am
asked to give my opinion. I say no! The
training which an oars1nan or q runner IN
dergoes not only does not conduce to
health, but is positively pernicious and
dangerous. Training, SO far as amateur
athletes are concerned, is largely a matter
of dieting and living by hard and fast
rules. 1t means living for a considerable
length of time under entirely different
| conditions from those which a man has
been accustomed to. This is altogether
wrong, as it goes directly contrary to ma
| ture. Nature gives man craving for
certain articles of food and drink, and the
fact that man does crave for them shows
| plainly that these things will do him good.
The pleasure he gets in having that which
he desires will help him to digest and as
| simulate it. OF course I am speaking Of
the normal man, not of the dipsomaniac,
the glutton CT the obese man. This theory
Is, am aware contrary to the ideas of
many medical men, but know something
about the construction and duties of the
internal organs as well as of the bones and
muscles and hold to it notwithstanding.
But most people have practically found
that this is the case. So the young man
who prior to his period of training has
been living an ordinary life suddenly finds
himself denied many of the little luxuries,
such as his glass of beer and his tobacco,
he has been accustomed to indulge in
And on the top Of this he has to do an ex-
ira amount of hard physical work-the
engine has to put out more energy by the
aid of fuel which is perhaps utterly I'M
suited to it, Yes it may be said, that is
quite true, but the proof of the pudding is
in the eating. This noxious system does
turn out the young athlete in capital con-
| dition That I would answer, largely de-
ponds upon what you mean by condition
Certainly the university oarsman Graded
in this system appears to benefit by it, but
does he really? l say no; that he not only
weakens his whole constitution, but does
not produce anything like the amount Of
muscle and "go' which he might obtain
by more judicious methods with 1.-THE Of
the exertion.
To my mind, the building up of a fine
physique is similar to the building of
house. You do not put massive roof
upon thin walls; you are careful that
every brick is truly laid; you make quite
sure of your foundations before you pro-
coed further. And thus should it be in
the development of the human body. 1t
can be done no other way. But is it SO in
the case of the trained athlete? Muscle,
yes-a lump here and lump there, but
how often do you find one with every
muscle in his body perfectly and symmet-
rically developed? Not In one case out of
TO-, 900. In the other 9, 999 cases the deyel-
opment is exceedingly irregular; the man
with good biceps has poor chest, he with
fine calf has very inferior development in
the upper part of his body Not only this,
but the smaller muscles are, in the major
ity of trained men, almost nonexistent,
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 all Important; 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 i'm
posed by the violent exertion of the ex-
ternal muscles. Muscular development
must be distributed equally all over, in
side and out, if it is to DO source of real
strength. A man with huge arm may
be actually weaker than another individ-
ual with only half his development if the
formers heart and lungs are not proper
tionately powerful These, then are,
think, the great mistakes of training In
stead of endeavoring to build up the body
gradually in natures own way, it aims at
developing by violent methods certain
muscles which are required for the per-
Torrance of specific feats.