In order to perform endurance work the art of relaxation must be mastered. There must be no more tension than absolutely necessary in any part of the body, particularly in unused parts, and antagonism of the muscles should be absolutely absent. In the first place, in order to acquire relaxation one must perform movements slowly. If rapidity of motion is indulged in, it will be found impossible to relax, for the thought stimulus necessary for performing movements rapidly tends to keep certain muscles ever in a state of tension.
The human body can be somewhat likened to an engine. The engine keeps running so long as fuel is supplied; but the body differs in that, in spite of the most nourishing diet, muscular movement becomes impossible after a certain period of exercise, and the work is necessarily stopped. The human machine can work only intermittently. Relaxation is required, because of the need of repair by the living organism. The more a machine is used, the quicker it will wear out. The automobile, for example, can run only for a certain amount of miles before it becomes useless. A cannon is good only for a certain number of shots. But the human body is quite different; the more you give it, within reason, the better condition you place it in, and the stronger one becomes.
Rest is the essential condition for the elimination of waste products of work, for during rest the formation of these waste products is lessened and those that have been formed during activity are taken up from the cells and is charged from the body. Rest also is essential for the repair of the organism, because during rest the processes of assimilation, by which repair takes place, is not hindered by the processes of tearing down, which goes on so actively during exercising.
During sleep and relaxation the loss from the tissues in the performance of exercise is restored. The more strenuous the exercise, the greater the loss sustained and therefore, the more relaxation and rest will be required for repair to be completed. A person who does not receive his proper amount of rest is carried on by nervous energy, and he does not give his tissues a chance to recuperate as nature intended them to.
Relaxation, then, is necessary so that the organs may repair the losses they have suffered during the period of activity. If it were not for this period of relaxation the body would not undergo repair but quickly would be worn out from the work. Every time you exercise a muscle you will it swells up. That is because the blood rushes to the part used. Cells are destroyed. If you prolong an exercise and do not receive sufficient relaxation, the muscle will tear away instead of becoming stronger and larger.
Relaxation is just as important to the athlete as is exercise, though of course, relaxation without exercise will not make the athlete. Exercises that cause breathlessness rapidly naturally do not need the same length of relaxation afterwards as is required by movements which bring on breathlessness slowly, such as endurance work. Exercises of endurance cause fatigue less quickly than exercises of speed, but require longer periods of repose, because the fatigue is more general and results from a prolonged draft upon the nervous energy. An energetic man can walk five or six hours without relaxing, but he will find that when fatigue does come on slowly it also is slow to disappear. The same thing applies to the distance runner, swimmer, rower, or participant in any sport or pastime requiring a great number of repetitions of movement.
In your experience with exercising you undoubtedly have overworked sometime or other. If you recall the stiffness and lameness that you experienced for several days afterward, this will serve to indicate the length of time required for relaxation after a prolonged workout. It is impossible for one to go through the strenuous movements he went through the day previous after he has exercised sufficiently to produce stiffness and soreness. On the other hand, you many times have performed vigorous, heavy work until after only a few movements you were panting for breath, yet after a minute or two of rest you were able to proceed. This shows the difference between the different forms of work and indicates the length of the relaxation period required by each.
If the boxer did not have one-minute rests after each round he would not be able to continue with his endeavors during the next three-minute round. During the one minute of rest his breath and his muscles receive relaxation and he is appreciably restored. One minute of rest to three minutes of fighting is sufficient for the trained and younger man. But as one becomes older he does not recuperate so quickly, and naturally one-minute rests prove insufficient. I fully believe that the experienced boxer in the thirties could easily all the comers in their teens if his body could recuperate as quickly as theirs during the one-minute rest periods between rounds. It cannot and that is why youth must be served in the ring.
Relaxation may be secured in different forms or by different methods. It is not necessary for the runner to lie flat on his back in order to relax and recuperate from the exertions of a long run. When he walks he finds ample rest for the muscles, heart and lungs. A swimmer does not need to get out of the water after he has been forced to swim until tire. He is able to obtain relaxation by changing his stroke or speed or by floating on his back with but very slight movement of the fingers or feet. In many other activities it is possible to secure sufficient relaxation for rest of all muscles and organs by merely reducing the severity of the exercise or shifting the work to other muscles. However, when one is thoroughly fatigued or has any distress at all, a complete rest by reclining is safer.
So many times I have found myself with limited time to exercise. I usually allow one hour each day for my exercising period, which includes bathing and dressing; but many times I have had but thirty minutes for a workout, and on these occasions I was compelled to rush rapidly through the work. I did not feel like skipping certain exercises which I had been doing with a definite purpose in each morning’s drill. Therefore, I had to hasten from one exercise to the other, with practically no “breathing spell” between exercises. Of course, I did this from choice and not from necessity, for whether or not I had skipped a few of the movements would have made very little difference. But all of us have hobbies, and it is my hobby, when I select a certain routine to follow for a few months before changing it for another routine, to carry out my program in every detail as I have outlined it for myself. During these rush periods, as I call them, I est one set of muscles while I work others. For example, I find it does not affect my respiratory organs to exercise the muscles of my legs ( calves) or my neck. Therefore, after violent arm exertions or thigh exercises I find relaxation by performing neck work or calf work, and yet at the same time I am continually in motion.
The above suggestion might prove valuable to a busy man, but I give it only to show that relaxation can be had, though not complete, in other ways than lying down or sitting at repose. Sleep, of course, is complete repose, because in this condition all the muscles usually are relaxed and the organs work with less energy and that is why sleep and the proper amount of sleep are essential. A person’s sleeping hours should be regular, for sleep plays just as important a part toward the performance of endurance work as does wind, coordination, muscle, sense, and relaxation. To the one interested in endurance, there is nothing better as a means of storing up energy in order to perform or accomplish his purpose than a good night’s rest before a contest.
Have you ever seen a fat man on a hot day stretched out in an easy arm chair? He seems to be in a state of complete repose, and usually he is. But observe the thin individual. Instead of sitting comfortably in the chair, he seems to be always fidgeting about, turning or twisting occasionally, and keeping himself under some tension at all times.
Have you ever noticed the complete relaxation of a cat when sleeping? If you were suddenly to grab a slumbering cat you would find that no matter what part you touched, apparently without any force it would twist or bend from your hand or fingers because of its complete relaxation. Try this degree of relaxation yourself the next time you feel like flopping, so to speak, in a chair. Are your legs crossed or is you arm supporting some weight of your body? Or are you in a state of complete repose? Only in the latter can you rest and recuperate fully.
We all should learn the art of relaxation, for it will prove a valuable asset during our endurance efforts, or at any other time, for that matter. Suppose you wanted to take a parir of five-pound dumb-bells and curl them alternately with each hand to your shoulder. If, for instance, you wanted to make four or five hundred repetitions you would not go at it vigorously, but you let the bell drop to your side after each flexion, and you naturally would perform the movements in the easiest way possible. Not that I advocate the use of light dumb-bells for four or five hundred counts, for I believe it to be a waste of time and energy to do so. But the method is similar to anything you may undertake in the form of endurance work, and which you should be able to perform in securing the preparedness for saving your own life or that of someone else. If you were rowing a boat and had to row for two or three more miles through heavy seas, I am sure you not go at it so vigorously that your arms and shoulders and back would become tired after a few hundred strokes with the oars. You would not even grip the oars tightly. Instead you row the easiest way possible and after each back stroke you would obtain as much rest and relaxation as the brief seconds allowed.
A man I know told me an interesting story of his experience during the late war. The ship of which he was one of the crew was torpedoed by a German submarine and all hands were thrown into the sea. Very few survived , but he was one of the fortunate ones in a rowboat containing three or four others. Although the sea was calm at the time and he was an experienced oarsman, still he and the other men were forced, when a breeze sprang up after a few hours, to keep the boat cutting through the waves for over thirty-six hours before they were picked up by a passing ship. Only his previous experience with rowing enabled him to perform this wonderful endurance feat, for his companions were almost useless to him so far as assistance was concerned. Two of the men were thrown overboard, having died from exposure during these two cold North days. ( They also were without food and water.) Although the shock caused a reaction on this man shortly afterwards, still today he is perfectly well, thanks to his endurance. His knowledge of rowing was no different from that of anyone else, but he knew how to relax between strokes; for if he had not relaxed, his body would have collapsed long before the boat was picked up by a passing ship.
Give the average physical culturist a shovel and direct him to dig a hole somewhere. In about fifteen minutes his hands will begin to show blisters. But a day laborer, who works from morning till night, does not hurt his hands by holding the space. The laborer most likely does not possess as much energy as the physical culturist possesses. He merely has a thicker skin, brought on by the constant friction and pressure incident to his occupation. This illustrates what changes my occur daily in the organism under the influence of work. Just as the skin of the hand undergoes changes from the continual gripping and handling of the spade, so every organ undergoes a material change from the indulgence in exercising.
Let us return to the ringside. How many times have you watched the boxers pummel each other with all their might.. You have seen them land terrific body blows, and yet after the resounding thud of the glove on the side or abdomen of the opponent, you seldom see a mark left by this impact. Oftentimes the boxer hurts his own hands in delivering the blow more than he hurts his adversary. If this same boxer landed these blows on a beginner, you would find the latter’s skin not only black and blue but abraded as well. The explanation is that he well-trained boxer no longer feels a blow of the fist, as his flesh has become so hardened that it is not injured by the impact.
Exercise does not merely harden the skin and the muscles; it consolidates or makes firm all the organs as well. I frequently have illustrated the difference between the race horse and the truck horse in referring to human beings. The race horse is always “on edge;” he performs light, speedy work and therefore, remains thin; whereas, the truck horse performs heavy slow work and, naturally, becomes “beefy.” Animals that do hard work acquire tough and solid muscles and tendons, and the same condition of these tissues develops in human beings who labor or exercise heavily. Perform slow movements and you will become heavier and more muscular; exercise in a nervous, light way and thinness will be the result. That is one reason why weight lifters always are “beefy” in appearance, as well as strong, while boxers, runners and track athletes, who do lighter work, usually are of the more slender wiry type.
To produce the same physiological effects upon the body, work done in an exercise of speed must be equivalent to that performed in an exercise of strength. One hundred repetitions with a three-pound dumb-bells, for example, may produce the same amount of breathlessness as ten repetitions of exertion spent in these two exercises balances, and equal breathlessness develops because equal energy has been expanded. A man who slowly goes upstairs carrying a heavy weight on his shoulder is doing a work of strength, while a man running as fast as he can along a level road is performing an exercise of speed. Both of them do a great quantity of work in a very short time, one by slow movements, each representing a great expenditure of force, and the other by often repeated, rapid movements, each of which represents a very much smaller quantity of work but which in total cause a considerable expenditure of force. Therefore, an exercise of speed can lead to an accumulation of work equal to that done in an exercise of strength.
In an exercise of speed, just as in an exercise of strength, there develops what is known as a thirst for air. This thirst for air is to the lungs what the appetite is to the digestive organs. The difference between exercises of strength and exercises of speed is that the former produce a condition of muscular fatigue before breathlessness, whereas, the latter produce breathlessness before muscular fatigue. Suppose you take hold of a one hundred-pound or one hundred and fifty-pound bar-bell – the weight depending, of course, upon your strength. You hold this bell in front of you , both arms relaxed, and then bring it to the chest in what is known as the two-arm curl. You can perform this movement, let us say, about ten to fifteen counts, when you find that the supinator muscles of your forearm and the biceps of your upper arm are beginning to ache. Upon lowering the bell to the floor you may take one or two deep inhalations, but after a few seconds rest you are able to perform another movement with the same bar-bell and tire some part of your body. Now, suppose you run at top speed for a fair distance, say one hundred or two hundred yards. You will find at the finish of this sprint that the muscles of your legs are just warmed up, and if called upon to perform additional movements they would be capable of doing so. But what about your wind? You are “puffing” considerably. The exercise is one of speed, and quickly produces breathlessness. An exercise of strength also can be made an exercise of speed, but this would be termed forced exercise and, most likely would prove quite harmful to the heart.
About a year or two ago I had the pleasure of meeting one of America’s foremost athletes, who came to visit me in my office. Being inquisitive by nature, I inquired into his methods of development and training – what routine he followed. He told me hat he worked as rapidly as he could with heavy weights, going from one exercise to the other without rest. He did not relax during the whole period of his drill, which consumed about twenty minutes of time. To my mind it was a truly remarkable case of forced exercise, for here he was performing strength work and at the same time speed work.
For experimental purposes, I tried it myself on the following day. I used the same amount of weights as he told me he was using; did the same number of repetitions and with the same speed; that is, I went through practically this young man’s entire drill in the same time that he did it. The reader must bear in mind that, though, I always keep myself in excellent condition, upon following this routine, I found that my respiratory organs were greatly bothered and my heart was pumping with unusual rapidity. Undoubtedly, this was caused by performing the exercises in a different way from which I had been accustomed to doing them. The difference in ages between this young man and myself should be taken into consideration. He was twenty-one while I was thirty-seven. Nevertheless, it proved to me that such forced exercise was apt to cause serious organic disturbances. I would not suggest that anyone attempt such experiments unless he is positive he can endure them; and when breathlessness overtakes one he should not force the exercises against his organic capacities. I am still convinced that relaxation and breathing periods between exercises are of the utmost benefit and necessity to the physical culturist who takes pride in his health, condition, and appearance.
Exercises of speed increase the activity of the respiratory organs with much less fatigue of the lungs and heart than is created by strength exercises, owing to the absence of forced muscular effort. Such effort occurs only accidentally in exercises of speed, but is compulsory in exercises of strength. But exercises of speed will not develop the bulk and strength of muscle as are developed by strength work, for there is a smaller supply of blood forced into the muscles during and after speed work; therefore, the nutrition of the muscle is less active during this kind of work. It is a physiological fact that the nutrition of any part of the body is in direct proportion to the quantity of blood with which it is supplied. But while exercises of speed fall short as developers of muscles, they are much better for the internal organs and they increase the size of the chest and lung capacity – effects of great health importance.
Speed work naturally requires more concentration and more power of will in the performance of the movements. There also is an increased expenditure of nervous energy in the performance of this work. Speed work produces greater “irritability” (responsiveness) in the muscles than any other forms of exercise. This irritability of muscle enables it to act quicker at the command of the will. If you go into a gymnasium and observe the different athletes exercising, you undoubtedly will notice the difference in irritability of the muscles in the various individuals. In some persons rapidity of movement seems to be natural, and you see how fast they move and how quickly they perform their various stunts. Then you will observe how slowly others go through their exercises. Their muscles seem to be very slow in obeying the orders of the will.
For example, boxers are all “keyed up,” Some of them have been spoken as possessing “educated hands.” The boxer proves that the hand is quicker than the eye. The fact that he is able to strike his opponent before his opponent is able to protect himself shows that at that instant his muscles possess greater irritability than do those of his adversary.
People who live in cold climates are much quicker in movement than those living in the tropics. I have found from my own experience that I possess more energy and more rapidity of motion when in the North than I do when in the South.
Interesting experiments may be had in gathering together a group of men of all types and classes. Have them stand in an exact line and just far enough away from a wall to enable them to reach it by simply extending the arm without moving the body. Have an electric current attached to each of them, worked by one switch, and then tell them to touch the wall as quickly as possible the instant they feel the current. You will find upon close observation that very few will touch the wall at the same time, and that the most responsive will touch it a second or more before the slowest or least responsive.
In our every-day walks of life we meet individuals who appear to us to be stupid; their actions are painfully slow. But in most cases the fault is not their own. They simply lack the irritability of muscle, and the quickness of nerve stimulus to the muscles from their brain which would enable them to produce rapid movements.
Although neither exercises of speed nor strength are necessary for the development of endurance, nevertheless they are essential for well-rounded fitness and physical preparedness; and experience in each will help greatly in anyone’s endurance tests. There are many forms of endurance work which combine speed as well as strength, and the man who possesses wonderful endurance qualities alone would be helpless in the case of an emergency that required muscular strength as well.
How many times have you read in the newspapers of someone jumping into the river to attempt to save the lives of one or more people who had overturned in a canoe some distance from the shore, only to lose his own life in his heroic endeavors? In nine cases out of ten the drowning person is so frightened that he wraps both arms and legs around his would-be rescuer in such grips that only a strong man can break them; and sometimes even a strong man cannot break them without the specific knowledge of how to break the holds of a panicky, drowning person. Therefore, I feel that a few words pertaining to strength work would prove just as interesting and just as valuable as anything I might write directly about endurance.
Whether the student indulges in weight lifting or in lifting the weight of his own body, it has the same effects upon his muscular system. I prefer the actual handling of my own body weight, for then not only is coordination of muscles exercised, but balance accomplishment and muscle sense, combined with the self-confidence obtained from the actual lifting of one’s own weight, are developed. Let it not be understood that I shall endeavor to discuss body building or how to acquire great strength or development. These I have covered in my other books. But for actual value in the performance of endurance duties I much prefer the handling of my own weight to that of artificial weights, and would impress upon you the value of such exercises. In other words, I would rather perform ring and parallel or horizontal bar work for obtaining body coordination and increasing my endurance than I would artificial weight lifting.
Of course, a knowledge of each is essential to obtaining strength. You can chin and dip so many times a day, do what stunts you to care to do on the horizontal or parallel bars or on rings, and although you would in time possess wonderful development, yet you would not be as strong or have as bulging muscles as would an experienced weight lifter. On the other hand, if you confine your physical activities exclusively to heavy bar-bells and dumb-bells, you will make a very poor showing in endurance work, for you will be trained for short but powerful efforts.
I do not believe in sticking exclusively to one form of training. The work should be varied. For example, a person should exercise for a few minutes with an exerciser, then change for a few minutes to heavy dumb-bells – providing, of course, his body has been thoroughly trained and is in condition to use them. After a while the work should be changed to other forms. In this way only is it possible to produce the best all-round development, strength and endurance.
If you stick exclusively to one form of exercise year in and year out you will be like the day laborer who digs in the streets, who, although he may excel in his labor and is much better than you or I in that one thing, is absolutely useless in any other physical encounter or exertion that can be performed by the physical culture enthusiast. The top-notch boxer always will indulge in a little wrestling, handball and other pastimes besides his boxing. Of course, he will not do as much wrestling, for example, as boxing; his wrestling program, likely, would be limited to about one-twentieth of his boxing program. George Hackenschmidt, while a world’s champion wrestler, also lifted weights, ran, jumped, tumbled, etc.
One form of exercise always helps one in doing another, and unless you intend to specialize in one certain sport, such as long distance running or swimming, I must heartily recommend exercise in all its varieties. Even though you care to specialize in just one thing, still it would do you no harm to have practical knowledge of all others, if they do not interfere with you specialization.
Gymnastic exercises, of course, rarely are feats of strength, and a well-accomplished gymnast oftentimes would make a poor showing in strength work. There are, however, movements performed with the aid of apparatus which at first seem to require an enormous expenditure of force, owing to the unfavorable positions in which the body levers act. But muscular effort in these movements is in direct ratio to the experience of the gymnast. By practice we become perfect, and on our road to perfection in our own line we make discoveries as we go along. Some seemingly difficult stunts easily could be performed by the average athlete if he knew how. Often a slight variation or the learning of the required specific “knack” totally changes the conditions of the work. Therefore, an exercise which in the beginning seems hard to do, after a little practice becomes quite easy.
Wrestlers more closely come under the classification of strength workers than do gymnasts. Although wrestling does not consist of lifting weights, as usually considered, still the body weight of the opponent plus the opponent’s resistance give the wrestler as much strength for his specific work as the weight lifter possesses for his. Undoubtedly, wrestling is the best all-round form of exercise in which one can indulge. There is hardly a part of the body that is not used, and, of course, certain parts receive more work than others. The neck, for example, obtains as much work that wrestlers as a rule possess necks that many are considered over-developed. I have seem lightweight wrestlers, whose body weight was not more than one hundred and thirty-five pounds or one hundred and forty pounds and who did not stand more than five feet three or four inches in height, with necks measuring seventeen inches. A man of that height with such a neck may well be considered to be out of proportion. If he were five feet eight inches or taller a seventeen-inch neck would be in proportion to the rest of his body.
Some of champion heavyweight wrestlers have necks twenty-one and twenty-two inches in circumference, and yet these are in proportion because of the enormous bulk of the giants of strength. However, no matter how powerful a wrestler may be, nor how proficient in he science of wrestling, he would make a poor showing in gymnastics and other forms of endurance work if he did not indulge in them from time to time.
Exercises of strength demand the simultaneous action of a great number of muscles. They demand,. Further, that every muscle in action should bring its whole force into play. For this it is essential that the muscles have a very firm attachment to their fixed points on the bones. In other words, the ligaments and tendons must be exceedingly strong.
It is possible for anyone to utilize his entire strength without producing a violent contraction of all the muscles of the trunk, the effect of which is to render the ribs motionless. That is why breathing must be suspended under a violent exertion. Next time you see anyone endeavoring to lift a very heavy object from the ground, observe the stiffening of the body from head to foot, and all the bones pressed together, so to speak, from the action of the muscles. Even the veins in the neck will stand out, and a redness will show in the face. He takes a deep breath and puts every muscle of his body, from his neck to his feet, into play. His entire body seems to go into rigid state; even the muscles of his face are violently contracted. In on other way can feats of strength be performed than by the coordination of the entire body. I once read of a strong man at a circus who could hold out heavy weights at arms length with a smile upon his lips. He did it all right, but the smile was merely a grin in which the eyebrows and eyelids took no part. When you indulge in any great effort it is bound to make its showing upon the face, as the face muscles reflect the condition of the general musculature.
Exercises of strength cause less disturbance in the nervous system than do exercises of speed, and they do not demand, as do exercises of skill, any great brain work. The energetic and sustained muscular contractions draw the blood to the muscles in great quantity and keep it there for some time after the contractions. The muscular fibers benefit from this and increase in size. The blood is enriched with great quantities of oxygen, for increased respiratory need is the first effect of a great expenditure of muscular force. The blood, therefore, freely and easily circulates and satisfies the body’s requirements in the period of repose which must follow each violent effort. The abdominal muscles contract during the deep breathing and produces a sort of massage upon the intestines. Nervous energy is held in reserve, and this is valuable for the repair of losses sustained in the work. The appetite is increased. It readily can be seen, therefore, that strength work, which is none other than muscle-building work, is of more benefit, physiologically and anatomically, than any other form of exercise. The heavy work tends to increase the weight of the individual, providing, of course, he does not carry around superfluous flesh at the start, in which case it would help to bring about reduction of weight.
It is possible for strength work to prove harmful to the beginner; and, having this in mind, I always have advocated that the student first of all build up his body with muscle-building exercise and strengthen his ligaments from this same work before attempting anything in the class of strength work. Rupture, dislocations, bursting of blood vessels , and even heart rupture are liable to occur during extra strains if the internal organs are not perfectly sound and strengthened by graduated exercise. Exhaustion, also, may result from work which exceeds one’s strength , even though you receive the proper nourishment throughout.
If you wish to get from your muscles a quantity of force out of proportion to their contractile power, you will be obliged to make an energetic effort of will, and you will need a great amount of nervous energy to excite more powerfully your muscle fibers. In this case you will be performing work beyond your muscular strength , and will be working on nervous energy, and in time you will experience decrease in the size of muscles, loss of general weight, and nervous exhaustion. Therefore, care should be taken in mapping out your strength-working program. You should not exercise beyond the point of fatigue in performing strength movements, and more than you should in performing speed movements or endurance work.
I believe everyone should devote at least five or ten minutes each day to lifting the weight of his body or else to the lifting of actual weights. Of course, when I say this I take it for granted that he has had enough preliminary training to put his muscles in condition to withstand this heavier exertion. It was only the other day that I jokingly asked a stout man how many times he could chin himself. He said about one-half a time, and to judge by the overweight he carried around with him, I think he was correct. Suppose this man were in a hotel fire, and he was forced by the smoke in his room to the window, from which he could see the lower part of the building in flames, and on the floor above a fireman was lowering a knotted rope which was tied securely in the room above. How do you suppose this fat man, to save his own life, could pull himself up hand over hand to the floor above when he id not have the ability to chin himself once, to say nothing of the twelve or fifteen times necessary to climb from one story to the next above?
Many times and in various ways the possession of strength may prove valuable in our lives. Ajax Whitman, a New York policeman who died recently, became famous years ago when he saved a little girl who was run over by a trolley car while playing in the street. Her body had become wedged between the wheels in such a way that it was impossible to get her out without moving the car. While waiting for the wrecking crew to make its appearance, this mighty policeman placed his back to the car, grasping a part securely with both hands behind his hips, bent his knees, and lifted the corner of the car high enough from the tracks for other rescuers to extricate the young one. Her life was saved.
The late Eugene Sandow, while out motoring not long ago, had an accident. The car was ditched and turned over. He escaped, but some of his friends were pinned underneath the car. This famous strong man lifted the automobile high enough that his friends could be released. It was this violent exertion from his fifty-seventh year that ruptured a blood vessel, from the effects of which he died late in 1925.
Though your strength may not play in some rescue of your own life from critical danger, it may in the life of others; and if you who read this ever should the opportunity of saving a life by your own physical endeavors, you will be amply repaid for all he efforts you have spent in the development of strength through the performance of strength work in addition to all the work you are doing strictly for the development of endurance.
One who, in order to adhere to the conventions of modern society, is afraid of obtaining calluses on the hands, or one who apparently is afraid of having his chest too deep or his shoulders too broad, will be just as helpless in a time of danger as was Yousef Mahmout, the giant Turkish wrestler of a generation ago, who sank with the ship while returning to his native land because he thought more of the gold in his belt, which he had around his waist and which made him sink, than he did of his own life. As this book is written for the purpose of teaching everyone to save his own life, it makes me reproachful of those who are afraid of a little additional muscular exertion; but the fact that you have read thus far shows that you are interested.
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The human body can be somewhat likened to an engine. The engine keeps running so long as fuel is supplied; but the body differs in that, in spite of the most nourishing diet, muscular movement becomes impossible after a certain period of exercise, and the work is necessarily stopped. The human machine can work only intermittently. Relaxation is required, because of the need of repair by the living organism. The more a machine is used, the quicker it will wear out. The automobile, for example, can run only for a certain amount of miles before it becomes useless. A cannon is good only for a certain number of shots. But the human body is quite different; the more you give it, within reason, the better condition you place it in, and the stronger one becomes.
Rest is the essential condition for the elimination of waste products of work, for during rest the formation of these waste products is lessened and those that have been formed during activity are taken up from the cells and is charged from the body. Rest also is essential for the repair of the organism, because during rest the processes of assimilation, by which repair takes place, is not hindered by the processes of tearing down, which goes on so actively during exercising.
During sleep and relaxation the loss from the tissues in the performance of exercise is restored. The more strenuous the exercise, the greater the loss sustained and therefore, the more relaxation and rest will be required for repair to be completed. A person who does not receive his proper amount of rest is carried on by nervous energy, and he does not give his tissues a chance to recuperate as nature intended them to.
Relaxation, then, is necessary so that the organs may repair the losses they have suffered during the period of activity. If it were not for this period of relaxation the body would not undergo repair but quickly would be worn out from the work. Every time you exercise a muscle you will it swells up. That is because the blood rushes to the part used. Cells are destroyed. If you prolong an exercise and do not receive sufficient relaxation, the muscle will tear away instead of becoming stronger and larger.
Relaxation is just as important to the athlete as is exercise, though of course, relaxation without exercise will not make the athlete. Exercises that cause breathlessness rapidly naturally do not need the same length of relaxation afterwards as is required by movements which bring on breathlessness slowly, such as endurance work. Exercises of endurance cause fatigue less quickly than exercises of speed, but require longer periods of repose, because the fatigue is more general and results from a prolonged draft upon the nervous energy. An energetic man can walk five or six hours without relaxing, but he will find that when fatigue does come on slowly it also is slow to disappear. The same thing applies to the distance runner, swimmer, rower, or participant in any sport or pastime requiring a great number of repetitions of movement.
In your experience with exercising you undoubtedly have overworked sometime or other. If you recall the stiffness and lameness that you experienced for several days afterward, this will serve to indicate the length of time required for relaxation after a prolonged workout. It is impossible for one to go through the strenuous movements he went through the day previous after he has exercised sufficiently to produce stiffness and soreness. On the other hand, you many times have performed vigorous, heavy work until after only a few movements you were panting for breath, yet after a minute or two of rest you were able to proceed. This shows the difference between the different forms of work and indicates the length of the relaxation period required by each.
If the boxer did not have one-minute rests after each round he would not be able to continue with his endeavors during the next three-minute round. During the one minute of rest his breath and his muscles receive relaxation and he is appreciably restored. One minute of rest to three minutes of fighting is sufficient for the trained and younger man. But as one becomes older he does not recuperate so quickly, and naturally one-minute rests prove insufficient. I fully believe that the experienced boxer in the thirties could easily all the comers in their teens if his body could recuperate as quickly as theirs during the one-minute rest periods between rounds. It cannot and that is why youth must be served in the ring.
Relaxation may be secured in different forms or by different methods. It is not necessary for the runner to lie flat on his back in order to relax and recuperate from the exertions of a long run. When he walks he finds ample rest for the muscles, heart and lungs. A swimmer does not need to get out of the water after he has been forced to swim until tire. He is able to obtain relaxation by changing his stroke or speed or by floating on his back with but very slight movement of the fingers or feet. In many other activities it is possible to secure sufficient relaxation for rest of all muscles and organs by merely reducing the severity of the exercise or shifting the work to other muscles. However, when one is thoroughly fatigued or has any distress at all, a complete rest by reclining is safer.
So many times I have found myself with limited time to exercise. I usually allow one hour each day for my exercising period, which includes bathing and dressing; but many times I have had but thirty minutes for a workout, and on these occasions I was compelled to rush rapidly through the work. I did not feel like skipping certain exercises which I had been doing with a definite purpose in each morning’s drill. Therefore, I had to hasten from one exercise to the other, with practically no “breathing spell” between exercises. Of course, I did this from choice and not from necessity, for whether or not I had skipped a few of the movements would have made very little difference. But all of us have hobbies, and it is my hobby, when I select a certain routine to follow for a few months before changing it for another routine, to carry out my program in every detail as I have outlined it for myself. During these rush periods, as I call them, I est one set of muscles while I work others. For example, I find it does not affect my respiratory organs to exercise the muscles of my legs ( calves) or my neck. Therefore, after violent arm exertions or thigh exercises I find relaxation by performing neck work or calf work, and yet at the same time I am continually in motion.
The above suggestion might prove valuable to a busy man, but I give it only to show that relaxation can be had, though not complete, in other ways than lying down or sitting at repose. Sleep, of course, is complete repose, because in this condition all the muscles usually are relaxed and the organs work with less energy and that is why sleep and the proper amount of sleep are essential. A person’s sleeping hours should be regular, for sleep plays just as important a part toward the performance of endurance work as does wind, coordination, muscle, sense, and relaxation. To the one interested in endurance, there is nothing better as a means of storing up energy in order to perform or accomplish his purpose than a good night’s rest before a contest.
Have you ever seen a fat man on a hot day stretched out in an easy arm chair? He seems to be in a state of complete repose, and usually he is. But observe the thin individual. Instead of sitting comfortably in the chair, he seems to be always fidgeting about, turning or twisting occasionally, and keeping himself under some tension at all times.
Have you ever noticed the complete relaxation of a cat when sleeping? If you were suddenly to grab a slumbering cat you would find that no matter what part you touched, apparently without any force it would twist or bend from your hand or fingers because of its complete relaxation. Try this degree of relaxation yourself the next time you feel like flopping, so to speak, in a chair. Are your legs crossed or is you arm supporting some weight of your body? Or are you in a state of complete repose? Only in the latter can you rest and recuperate fully.
We all should learn the art of relaxation, for it will prove a valuable asset during our endurance efforts, or at any other time, for that matter. Suppose you wanted to take a parir of five-pound dumb-bells and curl them alternately with each hand to your shoulder. If, for instance, you wanted to make four or five hundred repetitions you would not go at it vigorously, but you let the bell drop to your side after each flexion, and you naturally would perform the movements in the easiest way possible. Not that I advocate the use of light dumb-bells for four or five hundred counts, for I believe it to be a waste of time and energy to do so. But the method is similar to anything you may undertake in the form of endurance work, and which you should be able to perform in securing the preparedness for saving your own life or that of someone else. If you were rowing a boat and had to row for two or three more miles through heavy seas, I am sure you not go at it so vigorously that your arms and shoulders and back would become tired after a few hundred strokes with the oars. You would not even grip the oars tightly. Instead you row the easiest way possible and after each back stroke you would obtain as much rest and relaxation as the brief seconds allowed.
A man I know told me an interesting story of his experience during the late war. The ship of which he was one of the crew was torpedoed by a German submarine and all hands were thrown into the sea. Very few survived , but he was one of the fortunate ones in a rowboat containing three or four others. Although the sea was calm at the time and he was an experienced oarsman, still he and the other men were forced, when a breeze sprang up after a few hours, to keep the boat cutting through the waves for over thirty-six hours before they were picked up by a passing ship. Only his previous experience with rowing enabled him to perform this wonderful endurance feat, for his companions were almost useless to him so far as assistance was concerned. Two of the men were thrown overboard, having died from exposure during these two cold North days. ( They also were without food and water.) Although the shock caused a reaction on this man shortly afterwards, still today he is perfectly well, thanks to his endurance. His knowledge of rowing was no different from that of anyone else, but he knew how to relax between strokes; for if he had not relaxed, his body would have collapsed long before the boat was picked up by a passing ship.
Give the average physical culturist a shovel and direct him to dig a hole somewhere. In about fifteen minutes his hands will begin to show blisters. But a day laborer, who works from morning till night, does not hurt his hands by holding the space. The laborer most likely does not possess as much energy as the physical culturist possesses. He merely has a thicker skin, brought on by the constant friction and pressure incident to his occupation. This illustrates what changes my occur daily in the organism under the influence of work. Just as the skin of the hand undergoes changes from the continual gripping and handling of the spade, so every organ undergoes a material change from the indulgence in exercising.
Let us return to the ringside. How many times have you watched the boxers pummel each other with all their might.. You have seen them land terrific body blows, and yet after the resounding thud of the glove on the side or abdomen of the opponent, you seldom see a mark left by this impact. Oftentimes the boxer hurts his own hands in delivering the blow more than he hurts his adversary. If this same boxer landed these blows on a beginner, you would find the latter’s skin not only black and blue but abraded as well. The explanation is that he well-trained boxer no longer feels a blow of the fist, as his flesh has become so hardened that it is not injured by the impact.
Exercise does not merely harden the skin and the muscles; it consolidates or makes firm all the organs as well. I frequently have illustrated the difference between the race horse and the truck horse in referring to human beings. The race horse is always “on edge;” he performs light, speedy work and therefore, remains thin; whereas, the truck horse performs heavy slow work and, naturally, becomes “beefy.” Animals that do hard work acquire tough and solid muscles and tendons, and the same condition of these tissues develops in human beings who labor or exercise heavily. Perform slow movements and you will become heavier and more muscular; exercise in a nervous, light way and thinness will be the result. That is one reason why weight lifters always are “beefy” in appearance, as well as strong, while boxers, runners and track athletes, who do lighter work, usually are of the more slender wiry type.
To produce the same physiological effects upon the body, work done in an exercise of speed must be equivalent to that performed in an exercise of strength. One hundred repetitions with a three-pound dumb-bells, for example, may produce the same amount of breathlessness as ten repetitions of exertion spent in these two exercises balances, and equal breathlessness develops because equal energy has been expanded. A man who slowly goes upstairs carrying a heavy weight on his shoulder is doing a work of strength, while a man running as fast as he can along a level road is performing an exercise of speed. Both of them do a great quantity of work in a very short time, one by slow movements, each representing a great expenditure of force, and the other by often repeated, rapid movements, each of which represents a very much smaller quantity of work but which in total cause a considerable expenditure of force. Therefore, an exercise of speed can lead to an accumulation of work equal to that done in an exercise of strength.
In an exercise of speed, just as in an exercise of strength, there develops what is known as a thirst for air. This thirst for air is to the lungs what the appetite is to the digestive organs. The difference between exercises of strength and exercises of speed is that the former produce a condition of muscular fatigue before breathlessness, whereas, the latter produce breathlessness before muscular fatigue. Suppose you take hold of a one hundred-pound or one hundred and fifty-pound bar-bell – the weight depending, of course, upon your strength. You hold this bell in front of you , both arms relaxed, and then bring it to the chest in what is known as the two-arm curl. You can perform this movement, let us say, about ten to fifteen counts, when you find that the supinator muscles of your forearm and the biceps of your upper arm are beginning to ache. Upon lowering the bell to the floor you may take one or two deep inhalations, but after a few seconds rest you are able to perform another movement with the same bar-bell and tire some part of your body. Now, suppose you run at top speed for a fair distance, say one hundred or two hundred yards. You will find at the finish of this sprint that the muscles of your legs are just warmed up, and if called upon to perform additional movements they would be capable of doing so. But what about your wind? You are “puffing” considerably. The exercise is one of speed, and quickly produces breathlessness. An exercise of strength also can be made an exercise of speed, but this would be termed forced exercise and, most likely would prove quite harmful to the heart.
About a year or two ago I had the pleasure of meeting one of America’s foremost athletes, who came to visit me in my office. Being inquisitive by nature, I inquired into his methods of development and training – what routine he followed. He told me hat he worked as rapidly as he could with heavy weights, going from one exercise to the other without rest. He did not relax during the whole period of his drill, which consumed about twenty minutes of time. To my mind it was a truly remarkable case of forced exercise, for here he was performing strength work and at the same time speed work.
For experimental purposes, I tried it myself on the following day. I used the same amount of weights as he told me he was using; did the same number of repetitions and with the same speed; that is, I went through practically this young man’s entire drill in the same time that he did it. The reader must bear in mind that, though, I always keep myself in excellent condition, upon following this routine, I found that my respiratory organs were greatly bothered and my heart was pumping with unusual rapidity. Undoubtedly, this was caused by performing the exercises in a different way from which I had been accustomed to doing them. The difference in ages between this young man and myself should be taken into consideration. He was twenty-one while I was thirty-seven. Nevertheless, it proved to me that such forced exercise was apt to cause serious organic disturbances. I would not suggest that anyone attempt such experiments unless he is positive he can endure them; and when breathlessness overtakes one he should not force the exercises against his organic capacities. I am still convinced that relaxation and breathing periods between exercises are of the utmost benefit and necessity to the physical culturist who takes pride in his health, condition, and appearance.
Exercises of speed increase the activity of the respiratory organs with much less fatigue of the lungs and heart than is created by strength exercises, owing to the absence of forced muscular effort. Such effort occurs only accidentally in exercises of speed, but is compulsory in exercises of strength. But exercises of speed will not develop the bulk and strength of muscle as are developed by strength work, for there is a smaller supply of blood forced into the muscles during and after speed work; therefore, the nutrition of the muscle is less active during this kind of work. It is a physiological fact that the nutrition of any part of the body is in direct proportion to the quantity of blood with which it is supplied. But while exercises of speed fall short as developers of muscles, they are much better for the internal organs and they increase the size of the chest and lung capacity – effects of great health importance.
Speed work naturally requires more concentration and more power of will in the performance of the movements. There also is an increased expenditure of nervous energy in the performance of this work. Speed work produces greater “irritability” (responsiveness) in the muscles than any other forms of exercise. This irritability of muscle enables it to act quicker at the command of the will. If you go into a gymnasium and observe the different athletes exercising, you undoubtedly will notice the difference in irritability of the muscles in the various individuals. In some persons rapidity of movement seems to be natural, and you see how fast they move and how quickly they perform their various stunts. Then you will observe how slowly others go through their exercises. Their muscles seem to be very slow in obeying the orders of the will.
For example, boxers are all “keyed up,” Some of them have been spoken as possessing “educated hands.” The boxer proves that the hand is quicker than the eye. The fact that he is able to strike his opponent before his opponent is able to protect himself shows that at that instant his muscles possess greater irritability than do those of his adversary.
People who live in cold climates are much quicker in movement than those living in the tropics. I have found from my own experience that I possess more energy and more rapidity of motion when in the North than I do when in the South.
Interesting experiments may be had in gathering together a group of men of all types and classes. Have them stand in an exact line and just far enough away from a wall to enable them to reach it by simply extending the arm without moving the body. Have an electric current attached to each of them, worked by one switch, and then tell them to touch the wall as quickly as possible the instant they feel the current. You will find upon close observation that very few will touch the wall at the same time, and that the most responsive will touch it a second or more before the slowest or least responsive.
In our every-day walks of life we meet individuals who appear to us to be stupid; their actions are painfully slow. But in most cases the fault is not their own. They simply lack the irritability of muscle, and the quickness of nerve stimulus to the muscles from their brain which would enable them to produce rapid movements.
Although neither exercises of speed nor strength are necessary for the development of endurance, nevertheless they are essential for well-rounded fitness and physical preparedness; and experience in each will help greatly in anyone’s endurance tests. There are many forms of endurance work which combine speed as well as strength, and the man who possesses wonderful endurance qualities alone would be helpless in the case of an emergency that required muscular strength as well.
How many times have you read in the newspapers of someone jumping into the river to attempt to save the lives of one or more people who had overturned in a canoe some distance from the shore, only to lose his own life in his heroic endeavors? In nine cases out of ten the drowning person is so frightened that he wraps both arms and legs around his would-be rescuer in such grips that only a strong man can break them; and sometimes even a strong man cannot break them without the specific knowledge of how to break the holds of a panicky, drowning person. Therefore, I feel that a few words pertaining to strength work would prove just as interesting and just as valuable as anything I might write directly about endurance.
Whether the student indulges in weight lifting or in lifting the weight of his own body, it has the same effects upon his muscular system. I prefer the actual handling of my own body weight, for then not only is coordination of muscles exercised, but balance accomplishment and muscle sense, combined with the self-confidence obtained from the actual lifting of one’s own weight, are developed. Let it not be understood that I shall endeavor to discuss body building or how to acquire great strength or development. These I have covered in my other books. But for actual value in the performance of endurance duties I much prefer the handling of my own weight to that of artificial weights, and would impress upon you the value of such exercises. In other words, I would rather perform ring and parallel or horizontal bar work for obtaining body coordination and increasing my endurance than I would artificial weight lifting.
Of course, a knowledge of each is essential to obtaining strength. You can chin and dip so many times a day, do what stunts you to care to do on the horizontal or parallel bars or on rings, and although you would in time possess wonderful development, yet you would not be as strong or have as bulging muscles as would an experienced weight lifter. On the other hand, if you confine your physical activities exclusively to heavy bar-bells and dumb-bells, you will make a very poor showing in endurance work, for you will be trained for short but powerful efforts.
I do not believe in sticking exclusively to one form of training. The work should be varied. For example, a person should exercise for a few minutes with an exerciser, then change for a few minutes to heavy dumb-bells – providing, of course, his body has been thoroughly trained and is in condition to use them. After a while the work should be changed to other forms. In this way only is it possible to produce the best all-round development, strength and endurance.
If you stick exclusively to one form of exercise year in and year out you will be like the day laborer who digs in the streets, who, although he may excel in his labor and is much better than you or I in that one thing, is absolutely useless in any other physical encounter or exertion that can be performed by the physical culture enthusiast. The top-notch boxer always will indulge in a little wrestling, handball and other pastimes besides his boxing. Of course, he will not do as much wrestling, for example, as boxing; his wrestling program, likely, would be limited to about one-twentieth of his boxing program. George Hackenschmidt, while a world’s champion wrestler, also lifted weights, ran, jumped, tumbled, etc.
One form of exercise always helps one in doing another, and unless you intend to specialize in one certain sport, such as long distance running or swimming, I must heartily recommend exercise in all its varieties. Even though you care to specialize in just one thing, still it would do you no harm to have practical knowledge of all others, if they do not interfere with you specialization.
Gymnastic exercises, of course, rarely are feats of strength, and a well-accomplished gymnast oftentimes would make a poor showing in strength work. There are, however, movements performed with the aid of apparatus which at first seem to require an enormous expenditure of force, owing to the unfavorable positions in which the body levers act. But muscular effort in these movements is in direct ratio to the experience of the gymnast. By practice we become perfect, and on our road to perfection in our own line we make discoveries as we go along. Some seemingly difficult stunts easily could be performed by the average athlete if he knew how. Often a slight variation or the learning of the required specific “knack” totally changes the conditions of the work. Therefore, an exercise which in the beginning seems hard to do, after a little practice becomes quite easy.
Wrestlers more closely come under the classification of strength workers than do gymnasts. Although wrestling does not consist of lifting weights, as usually considered, still the body weight of the opponent plus the opponent’s resistance give the wrestler as much strength for his specific work as the weight lifter possesses for his. Undoubtedly, wrestling is the best all-round form of exercise in which one can indulge. There is hardly a part of the body that is not used, and, of course, certain parts receive more work than others. The neck, for example, obtains as much work that wrestlers as a rule possess necks that many are considered over-developed. I have seem lightweight wrestlers, whose body weight was not more than one hundred and thirty-five pounds or one hundred and forty pounds and who did not stand more than five feet three or four inches in height, with necks measuring seventeen inches. A man of that height with such a neck may well be considered to be out of proportion. If he were five feet eight inches or taller a seventeen-inch neck would be in proportion to the rest of his body.
Some of champion heavyweight wrestlers have necks twenty-one and twenty-two inches in circumference, and yet these are in proportion because of the enormous bulk of the giants of strength. However, no matter how powerful a wrestler may be, nor how proficient in he science of wrestling, he would make a poor showing in gymnastics and other forms of endurance work if he did not indulge in them from time to time.
Exercises of strength demand the simultaneous action of a great number of muscles. They demand,. Further, that every muscle in action should bring its whole force into play. For this it is essential that the muscles have a very firm attachment to their fixed points on the bones. In other words, the ligaments and tendons must be exceedingly strong.
It is possible for anyone to utilize his entire strength without producing a violent contraction of all the muscles of the trunk, the effect of which is to render the ribs motionless. That is why breathing must be suspended under a violent exertion. Next time you see anyone endeavoring to lift a very heavy object from the ground, observe the stiffening of the body from head to foot, and all the bones pressed together, so to speak, from the action of the muscles. Even the veins in the neck will stand out, and a redness will show in the face. He takes a deep breath and puts every muscle of his body, from his neck to his feet, into play. His entire body seems to go into rigid state; even the muscles of his face are violently contracted. In on other way can feats of strength be performed than by the coordination of the entire body. I once read of a strong man at a circus who could hold out heavy weights at arms length with a smile upon his lips. He did it all right, but the smile was merely a grin in which the eyebrows and eyelids took no part. When you indulge in any great effort it is bound to make its showing upon the face, as the face muscles reflect the condition of the general musculature.
Exercises of strength cause less disturbance in the nervous system than do exercises of speed, and they do not demand, as do exercises of skill, any great brain work. The energetic and sustained muscular contractions draw the blood to the muscles in great quantity and keep it there for some time after the contractions. The muscular fibers benefit from this and increase in size. The blood is enriched with great quantities of oxygen, for increased respiratory need is the first effect of a great expenditure of muscular force. The blood, therefore, freely and easily circulates and satisfies the body’s requirements in the period of repose which must follow each violent effort. The abdominal muscles contract during the deep breathing and produces a sort of massage upon the intestines. Nervous energy is held in reserve, and this is valuable for the repair of losses sustained in the work. The appetite is increased. It readily can be seen, therefore, that strength work, which is none other than muscle-building work, is of more benefit, physiologically and anatomically, than any other form of exercise. The heavy work tends to increase the weight of the individual, providing, of course, he does not carry around superfluous flesh at the start, in which case it would help to bring about reduction of weight.
It is possible for strength work to prove harmful to the beginner; and, having this in mind, I always have advocated that the student first of all build up his body with muscle-building exercise and strengthen his ligaments from this same work before attempting anything in the class of strength work. Rupture, dislocations, bursting of blood vessels , and even heart rupture are liable to occur during extra strains if the internal organs are not perfectly sound and strengthened by graduated exercise. Exhaustion, also, may result from work which exceeds one’s strength , even though you receive the proper nourishment throughout.
If you wish to get from your muscles a quantity of force out of proportion to their contractile power, you will be obliged to make an energetic effort of will, and you will need a great amount of nervous energy to excite more powerfully your muscle fibers. In this case you will be performing work beyond your muscular strength , and will be working on nervous energy, and in time you will experience decrease in the size of muscles, loss of general weight, and nervous exhaustion. Therefore, care should be taken in mapping out your strength-working program. You should not exercise beyond the point of fatigue in performing strength movements, and more than you should in performing speed movements or endurance work.
I believe everyone should devote at least five or ten minutes each day to lifting the weight of his body or else to the lifting of actual weights. Of course, when I say this I take it for granted that he has had enough preliminary training to put his muscles in condition to withstand this heavier exertion. It was only the other day that I jokingly asked a stout man how many times he could chin himself. He said about one-half a time, and to judge by the overweight he carried around with him, I think he was correct. Suppose this man were in a hotel fire, and he was forced by the smoke in his room to the window, from which he could see the lower part of the building in flames, and on the floor above a fireman was lowering a knotted rope which was tied securely in the room above. How do you suppose this fat man, to save his own life, could pull himself up hand over hand to the floor above when he id not have the ability to chin himself once, to say nothing of the twelve or fifteen times necessary to climb from one story to the next above?
Many times and in various ways the possession of strength may prove valuable in our lives. Ajax Whitman, a New York policeman who died recently, became famous years ago when he saved a little girl who was run over by a trolley car while playing in the street. Her body had become wedged between the wheels in such a way that it was impossible to get her out without moving the car. While waiting for the wrecking crew to make its appearance, this mighty policeman placed his back to the car, grasping a part securely with both hands behind his hips, bent his knees, and lifted the corner of the car high enough from the tracks for other rescuers to extricate the young one. Her life was saved.
The late Eugene Sandow, while out motoring not long ago, had an accident. The car was ditched and turned over. He escaped, but some of his friends were pinned underneath the car. This famous strong man lifted the automobile high enough that his friends could be released. It was this violent exertion from his fifty-seventh year that ruptured a blood vessel, from the effects of which he died late in 1925.
Though your strength may not play in some rescue of your own life from critical danger, it may in the life of others; and if you who read this ever should the opportunity of saving a life by your own physical endeavors, you will be amply repaid for all he efforts you have spent in the development of strength through the performance of strength work in addition to all the work you are doing strictly for the development of endurance.
One who, in order to adhere to the conventions of modern society, is afraid of obtaining calluses on the hands, or one who apparently is afraid of having his chest too deep or his shoulders too broad, will be just as helpless in a time of danger as was Yousef Mahmout, the giant Turkish wrestler of a generation ago, who sank with the ship while returning to his native land because he thought more of the gold in his belt, which he had around his waist and which made him sink, than he did of his own life. As this book is written for the purpose of teaching everyone to save his own life, it makes me reproachful of those who are afraid of a little additional muscular exertion; but the fact that you have read thus far shows that you are interested.
