The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-02-14
HOW TO TEST STRENGTH
BY SARGENT SYSTEM
Novel Inventions Of the Noted
Instructor IN Harvard
Gymnasium.
NEW LIFTING APPARATUS
Athletes Now Compelled to Lift
Their Own Weight-New
Rowing Machine.
NEW LIFTING APPARATUS

NEW YORK. Feb. 1S-The two new
changes in the intercollegiate strength
test made by the Society of College Gym
nasium Directors at their meeting at
Princeton during the Christmas holidays
have increased the list of important con-
tributions that DIR. Dundley Allen Sargent,
director of the Hemenway Gymnasium at
Harvard, has given to the field of anthro-
pometric science.
DR.. Sargent's latest two contributions are,
like many of his others, simple, but impor-
tant, and, up to the present time, have
never been correctly explained. They have
to do with two of the seven exercises which
every athlete must take in trying for the
intercollegiate strength test record, the
straight lift and the push-up and pull-up
from the horizontal bars.
Heretofore in the lifting exercises the
dynamometer or machine which measures
the lift, has always been fastened to the
floor, SO that by a peculiar swaying back
ward of the body men of considerable
weight have been able to use that weight to
direct advantage The method has been to
get the handle of the chain attached to the
dynamometer over their knees and then,
by falling backward, to pry on it. In this
way man of weight had a distinct adj
vantage over a lighter man.
To obviate this difficulty DIR. Sargent re-
sorted to the simple device Of making the
athlete lift his own weight Instead of
fastening the dynamometer to the floor,
Dr. Sargent fastened it to small wooden
platform, standing on which IT was impos-
sible for the strong man to sway backward
without topping over, platform and all.
The pull, consequently, has to be direct,
straight lift, and all men, whether big or
little, heavy or light, are placed on an
equal footing.
The other change in the push-up and
pull-up exercises grew out of tendency TO
sway forward in taking this test, and thus
TO make the effort more OF swing than
straight lift. The movement was called
lettering" DIR. Sargent removed all pos
sibility of a questionable test by placing
just in front of the bars a screen, which,
under the new rules, the strength test can
didate cannot touch with his head. The
result has been to throw the strain of the
push-up and pull-up exercise more on the
arms, where it rightfully belongs.
The athletic appliances in the Hemen-
way Gymnasium include machines for de-
velOping the arms, wrists, neck, legs and
fingers, in fact, every conceivable muscle of
the body. OF these inventions DR.. Sargent
considers his inomOtOr the most important
This is a rowing machine on wheels, only
different from the ordinary rowing machine
in that, by combination Of balanced
parts, it enables the person working it TO
localiZe his power, and thus bring about
specialized development. The handles of
the inomotor, instead of reaching out like
oars, extend vertically into the air, and
are so adjusted that power can be applied
10 them either by pushing or pulling. On
allow the legs to be used in pulling, as
we'll as pushing, and, in fact, the whole
machine is splendidly adapted to physical
development.
Another important invention, and one
which has come into universal use, is the
pulley-weight machine. This, like the mo
motor, is splendid for specialized develop
ment, and although the walls of the
Hemenway Gymnasium at Harvard are
fairly lined with weights and pulleys, the
daily demand for them at the time when
the gymnasium work is at its height is so
great that many have to turn to some other
form Of exercise.
A Bowdoin graduate, Dr. Sargent has, in
with each OF the two great athletic rivals,
Harvard and Yale. His association with
athletics at New Haven grew out of the
fact Of his graduation from the Yale Medi-
cal School. In 1850. just at the time when
Harvard deserted the little Anticipated old
Rogers building for more spacious and
convenient quarters in the Hemenway
Gymnasium, Dr. Sargent received a call to
Cambridge. He was then conducting a
physical culture gymnasium in New York.
When he arrived in Cambridge DR.. Sar-
gent found the gymnasium is a sort of en-
bryonic state. 1t was good chance to put
some of his theories into practice, and he
accepted ii with a will The entire arrange
ment of the gymnasium as it is to-day is
due to his efforts. When it was necessary
to choose an athletic committee to decide
the question OF amateur dInleUc eligibility,
DR.. Sargent was made a member of it. 1t
is significant TO note that out of all the
rules which this original committee adopted
at that time, only one has never been put
into effect. This was the rule providing
for a shorter course for the big boat races.
In connection with DIR. Sargent's work, it
is interesting to know that the gymnasium
at the coming worlds exposition in ST
Louis is the immediate product of his sug-
gestion and experience. When the project
was first conceived the educational COM
mittee of the fair wrote to him for advice,
and the building was made in strict compli-
ance with the suggestions which he made.