The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-11-06
SCIENTIFIC TRAINING.
Development of Special Muscles
Sometimes Injuries.

Sometimes Injuries.
Sandow, considered the strongest
man in the world, writes to the st.
James Gazette on the subject of the
proper training of athletes. Among
other things, he says:
Many people who will admit that
training produces permanent results
of an unfavorable kind upon the con-
stitution will deny my assertion that
it is a failure even as regards the pro-
duction of the muscle and stamina
necessary for the performance of ath-
letic feats. Here, again, my views as
to what constitutes good muscular de-
velopment will differ from those held
by many. To my mind, the building
up of a fine physique is very similar to
the building of a good house. You do
not put massive roof upon thin walls;
you are careful that every brick is
well and truly laid; you make quite
sure of your foundations before you
proceed any further. And thus should
it be in the development of the hui
man body. 1t can be done no other
way. I repeat tin no other way.
But is it so in the case of the trained
athlete? Muscle, yes-a lump here and
a lump there; but how often do you
find one with every muscle in his body
perfectly and symmetrically develop
ed? Not in one case out of ten thou
sand In the other nine thousand nine
hundred and ninety-nine cases the de-
velopment is exceedingly irregular;
the man with good biceps has a poor
chest; he with the fine calf has very
inferior development in the upper part
of his body. Not only this, but the
smaller muscles are, in the majority
of trained men, almost nonresident;
ant, constituting as they do the con-
Meeting 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 sup
porting and sustaining the others
while they are at work. Further, many
of the chief internal organs are large
ly muscular; if the machine is to work
smoothly and safely they must be suf-
ficiently strong to bear the strain i'm
posed by the violent exertion of the
external muscles. You see what l am
driving at? The strength of chain
is, we know, that of it's weakest link;
any unusual strain upon the body will
find out the weakest spot. Is not the
moral plain? Muscular development
must be distributed equally all over,
inside and out, if it is to be a source of
real strength. A man with a huge arm
may be actually weaker than another
individual with only half his develop
ment if the formers heart and lungs
are not proportionately powerful.
These, then, are, 1 think, the great
mistakes of training; instead of try
ing to build up the body gradually in
Natures own way, it aims at develop
ing by violent methods certain muscles
which are required for the perform
ance of specific feats.
, The training which an oarsman or
a runner undergoes not only does not
conduce to health, but is positively per-
nicious and dangerous. Training, so
far as amateur athletes are concerned,
is largely a matter of dieting and liv-
ing by hard-and-fast rules. It means
living for a considerable length of
time under entirely different condi-
lions from those which man has been
accustomed to. This is altogether
wrong, as it goes directly contrary to
nature. 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.