The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-05
MACHlNE-MADE ATHLETES.
ALL-AROUND TRAINING ON A NEW
DEVELOPING APPARATUS.


hines Work for Many Muscles and
Can BE Used in Competition, rs II
is "A Sort of Land Boat, and Is Pro-
PEELED Across the Gymnasium
Floor by the Efforts of the oper-
ntor-SpeciaIIy Valuable in Cor
recting the Characteristic Ameri-
can FauIts of Physique, Dropping
Head, Flat Chest and Rounded
ShouIdersi Also Reducer OF
Fat-Other New Apparatus and
Training Methods in Use Among
Athletes.
New York, Aug. at would perhaps
be difficult to prove that the men who
are to-day winning college boat races,
football games and other athletic
contests are more perfect muscular
machines than the champion of other
days. but certain it is that the past
few years has seen some most impor-
tant additions to the mechanical APP
paratus for bringing about physical
perfection The public however, hears
little about this. To the vast majority
of the sport loving public training is
an ll-comprehensive term that may
mean almost anything so long as 1t
produces tangible results, and perhaps
not one in a thousand of the shouting
men who crowd the grandstands at the
big contests, realizes that the twentieth
century athlete is trained and deVel-
oped, muscle by muscle, ana nnally
muscles, heart, lungs and that intan-
gible quality which we call nerve OF
endurance, all together; until the
machine
to the highest point of possible en-
deavor.
one of the most radical achievements
in this direction is the invention, by
Prof. Dudley A. Sargent, director OF
the Harvard University Gymnasium, or
an ingenious machine known as the IN
motor which is said to exercise sim
uItaneously a larger number OF the
muscles of the human body than any
other apparatus ever introduced. d.
rector Sargent came to the conclusion
some years ago that there was some
thing lacking in gymnasium work. He
found that for number OF the men IN
his classes the heavy work was too ar
duous and exhausting, whereas the
light work, on the other hand, was TOO
feeble and spiritless Dumb bells In
dian clubs and many other kinds OF
portable apparatus, he found, were es-
than general, and it is to this realiza-
ton that may be attributed the rele-
cation to comparative obscurity of
these types of developers in the most
up-to-date gymnasiums. The trainers
found that a man would develop, by
means of these old-fashioned devices,
one part of the body after another I'M
til he was very strong all over, ana
yet be decidedly lacking in ability to
Of
er for any length of time. Indeed. IL
was discovered by actual tests that
men who had gained general muscular
ity on this local installment plan were,
when called upon to bring a great
many muscles into action at one time,
actually greatly distresser for breath.
Although it was obvious that the old
system of producing athletes was faul-
ty it was not an easy matter to sub
stitute something better. A man
trained in accordance with the anti
uuated custom was like factory ac-
customed to work but few of it's ma
chimes at one time, and provided with
an engine adapted to that purpose. If
it were desired to operate all the ma
chimes at once obviously it would be
impossible to generate sufficient steam.
The factory in such case would need
a larger engine and more powerful boil
.
circumstances requires an invigora-
ton of the heart and lungs, and If pos
sible, more nerve power. 1t was just
here that the greatest stumbling block
was encountered. The best forms of
exercise to produce the results desired
are rowing, running and swimming,
but unfortunately these may be in
dulged in during only a comparative
brief portion of the year, and so Mr..
Co oh
modelling the old-fashioned apparatus
into a machine which should combine
heart, lung, and INCREASING
power with general muscular develop
ment. The inomotor was the result.
The inomotor more nearly resembles
a rowing machine than anything else
in the old-fashioned gymnasium equip
ment, but the exercise for which it pro-
vides is designed as an Improvement
even upon that of rowing. in that the
use of muscles in a cramped position
is not required. What a wonderful
riece of mechanism this new marvel is
may be appreciated when it is ex
planned that it is almost a gymnasium
in itself; that it can be used indoors
OF. out-of-doors, and that it can be APP
piled to the propulsion of vehicles on
land, ice or snow, or to the propulsion
of boats by means of oars, paddle
wheels or propellers.
To put the matter in a nutshell this
new contrivance may be described in
its simplest aspect as pair of levers
connected by four adjustable rods, with
a sliding seat, and sliding foot rest
which are each in turn connected by a
power-ap applying rod or cord to a crank
clutch gear or sprocket wheel. 1t Is
supposed to act especially upon the
back. waist and abdominal region,
which most of the instructors and
trainers have come to regard as the
weak points of the American athlete
1t tends to correct the dropping head,
rounded shoulders and fiat chest, and,
most important of all to many an am
bilious athlete, can be used for the re-
duction of fat through general muscu-
lar activity, without obiiging the indi-
Vidual TO support his own weight and
thereby strain the muscles and tendons
of the feet and legs before the rest of
the body has had exercise enough to
bring about vigorous circulation and
perspiration.
Some important principles, heretofore
largely disregarded. have ben rigidly
observed in planning the inomotor.
For one thing it is desired ITO permit
the use of the muscles in a perfectly
natural way, each group according to
its strength, and to admit of one
group of muscles being used while
the others are relaxed or to enable
one part of the body to rest while an