Omaha daily bee., 1919-07-13
Physical Exercise and PhysiOlOgiC
Fitness

Physical Exercise and Physiologic
Fitness.
| (Journal Amer. Med. ASsoc.)
Enthusiasm for an end or object
that is unquestionably good some
| times defeats its own purpose by en-
couraging extremes of performance
which damage rather than improve.
/ This has doubtless often been true
of athletics. Pursued ostensibly to
! promote personal welfare. physical
exercise is not infrequently carried
to a point of overriding which re-
suits in ultimate injury rather than
| benefit.
At the present time the value Of
exercise in the development Of good
| physique is being menaced we fear
| by the extreme claims Of propagan-
dists whose chief aim is to exploit
| the physical unfitness of the average
American business man for their
own personal advantage. Widely
| advertised systems Of exercise, GYM
| nasiums for the busy man." ply
steal training institutes" and
work to- be fit wonders have become
part of an organized commercial eff
fort to "save"the lethargic Ameri-
can gentleman.
Possibly many Of these schemes
represent a wholesome beneficial in
fluence. A serious difficulty lies in
the lack of suitable criteria as to
the benefits deriver; or rather in the
failure to recognize where the limi-
tation Of muscular effort lie for the
unframed. Perhaps some index will
be found in the recent studies on
aviators. In an address before the
Harvey society, Henderson pointed
to the increasing frequency among
aviators of condition of "all-stale-
ness" This is described as the eff
feet Of repeated slight oxygen de-
f1ciency of a person who does not
become acclimatized. 1t is a condi-
ton, Henderson says, closely similar
to, perhaps identical with, "over-
training" or staleness. the physical
and nervous impairment of athletes.
The Manual of the Medical Re-
search Laboratory of the War de-
partments air service states that the
ability to endure comfortably and
we'll high attitudes is dependent on
the ease and quickness with which
the adaptive responses in the
breathing, the blood and the circu-
latlon take place. An explanation
of the difference in reaction OBJ
served among the members of a
group of men when at a high alti-
tude is to be found in the degree
of individual, physical fitness. In
persons damaged by disease. over
work, unhycienic living or weak
ened by inactivity and by loss of
sleep, the power of adjustment is
as rule below par The normal
equilibrium of the body is so nicely
adjusted that under usual conditions
the physiologic balance is largely
maintained by adjustments that are
made with little or no expenditure
OF energy There is a certain range
OF greater or less breadth through
which the external factors of the
environment may be varied and yet
be met by an automatic adjustment
of the physiologic processes in the
body which will preserve the vital
balance of the mechanism. But be-
yond a certain point, specific for
each organism, changes in the ex-
ternal conditions will necessitate
more radical alterations which will
tax the compensating mechanisms
to the utmost capacity in order to
prevent disaster. Theoretically the
organism which has been called on
repeatedly to make a certain kind
of >justment will be the one most
capable of responding when an ex-
trordinary demand is made.
Translating these observations
from the new physiology of aviation
to the physiology of training for
fitness in everyday life, we are prob
ably justified in concluding that the
test of exercise as a beneficent per-
torrance lies in the physiologic ad-
Justments that it induces. If the
heart reduces its rate of beating and
is less sensitive to moderate exer-
ton, the training is commendab1e.
Training should make the heart and
other muscles work better and en-
dure fatiguing exercises better than
the unframed heart does. Conse-
quently. If the heart reacts excess
slVely as a result of work; if there
is a rapid rise in pulse rate which
returned only after long interval
to its normal, the fundamental aim
OF exercise for health has not been
accomplished. The symptoms of an
oVertaXed mechanism are at hand.
however advantageous vigorous
training may be in the great major
ity of cases, failure to adjust to the
increased demands of work is al
ways a signal to desist and an in
dlcation that other modes of per-
tectlng the organism should be
sought.