The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-06-28

Gle - often d great ITduu LOlS VI
boys and men who can show huge
ones aren't strong enough in the rest
of the body to be worth mentioning.
Sailors, soldiers. hunters and other
men who work for their living in sim
liar conditions, do not develop the
huge biceps muscles Of the boxer or
the dumb bell shower. But in a days
march or a days work on ship they
could do a hundred things, each call
ing on a different set of muscles, and
do them without becoming tired, while
the boxer would be limp as a rag if he
tried to keep pace with them.
big biceps muscle alone is almost
worthless. The arm is only a tool
To use it properly there must be lev
erage behind it. And that leverage is
furnished. not by the biceps muscles,
but by the abdominal and shoulder
muscles.
Hold your arm straight out before
you, put your fingers under a fixed
object and lift upwards without bend
ing the arm. Where does the strain
come?
You will feel some of it on the BIZ
cops muscle, but you will also notice
that 1t is largely the strain needed to
hold your arm out straight. The real
lifting strain comes on the muscles
of the abdomen. You will find that you
cannot lift the object without, making
your abdomen hard and rigid.
Stoop forward without bending your
legs and pull a some heavy object as
if you wished to lift it. Now, although
your arm is doing the lifting work di-
directly, there is no strain on ii at all
1t is your back that must do the work.
Lift your weight with both hands,
and you win feel a powerful strain on
your loins and the muscles of your
waist. If you are weak there, the big
gest biceps in the world would not help
you to raise yourself clean and fair
many times.
The arm is used so much by every
human being that in ninety-nine per-
sons out of a hundred it is much
stronger in proportion than any other
part of the body except perhaps, the
legs. And naturally. in the case of
boys who have not INDUCED in any
athletic exercises, this disproportion is
still greater than it is in the case OF
those who have developed the other
muscles to some extent at least.
Therefore, the average boy who
goes in first of all to develop his
biceps muscle is developing the very
part that is ahead of the other mus
cles in strength already.
The very best way to become
thoroughly strong person-strong in
arm, shoulders. back, loins, abdomen
and legs-is to engage in outdoor
work. And better than mere gym
nastical exercises are the exercises
which are incidental to such sports
as rowing, climbing trees, swimming
and even fishing.
Climbing is one of the very best of
all matchmaking exercises. To lift
ones weight taxes every muscle from
the neck to the ankles. The boy who
becomes a good climber will never
need to fear about his biceps muscle.
If it should happen not to be as big
as that of a boy who worked over
nothing else, it will still be big enough,
and in addition all the other muscles
will be equal to it.
A good climbe is almost always the
kind of athlete who makes a good
wrestler. This is because climbing
not only tests the strength as no mere
exercises can do, but it makes the eye
and hand quick. Unless it is over
done, it creates quick" muscles, that
is. muscles that are not only strong,
but active and swift to respond.
Rowing is an exercise that ruins
the symmetrical body of many persons
every year and turns out round-shoul-
dered, shamb1ing men, because it is
done wrong. There is no more GER
tain test of a lazy person than to
watch him row. If he sits squatted
in the boat with his shoulders rounded
and pulls only with his arm and Shout
der muscles, be sure that he is lazy
too lazy to make his backbone support
his own weight, too lazy to use his
thighs and loins, too lazy to do his
work right.
In rowing properly, the thwart or
seat should never be more than a
pivot or fulcrum for that lever, the
body 1t should only be the least bit
of a support for the weight of the
body and not the point from which
do with the rowing. That is done by
the feet, loins, abdomen, back, arms
and shoulders in unison.
Each stroke of the oar should make
the muscles pull all along the back
force the abdominal muscles to be-
come as hard as wire, set the thigh
muscles of the lower leg and ankle
stretch and contract in unison with the
stroke.
The boy who pulls with his arms
alone will, no doubt get bigger BIZ
cops in a shorter time than will the
boy who pulls with his whole body.
But in long race, the biceps muscles
soon grow tired of doing all the work.
And, more than that, the heart is taxed
severely whenever it is called on to
help those poor lonely biceps mus
cles to do an unfair share of labor.
And then, before long, the whole body
will be filled with the waste materials
that produce the condition known as
fatigue"
Remember that fatigue is only an
over-supply of waste materials in the
body If the work piles up faster than
the skin and lungs can throw them
Off they began to clog the machinery
just as the ashes would clog the fur
mace of a steamship. and, finally, shut
off the draught entirely.
So anything that tends to make one
organ or muscle of the body do an
unequal share of work demands more
draught from the furnace than would
be needed if the work were done
right. And that means more piling
up of the ashes or waste material
than those busy strol1es-the pores IF
the skin and lungs-can throw out.
Then you are tired. If you have over
done it, you will fall helpless. You
are poisoned with waste material