Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/191

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ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT.

Every morning, in the open air, fill the lungs twenty times slowly with fresh air (inhaling through the nostrils), and expire suddenly through the mouth. This will strengthen the lungs, renew the resident air, induce a habit of deep-breathing, and enlarge the chest.

The best of all exercises for physical development is all-round glove-boxing, practised with skill and temper; the next best is long swimming, with the over-hand stroke and an occasional change of hands; then follow these exercises

    movements of the muscles start the impurities to the surface, and the bath cleans the pores. The exercise ought to be light. I don't believe in exertion that taxes the muscular strength. Heenan and all those old-time athletes thought they must use hundred-pound dumb-bells and trot around with great lead soles on their shoes. That made them heavy and slow, and exhausted their strength needlessly. One-pound dumb-bells are heavy enough for anybody, and Indian clubs should not weigh more than four or five pounds at the outside. Gymnasts should not use heavy weights at all. What is needed to develope muscle is movement, action — not strain. You don't train a trotter by hitching him to a loaded coal-cart, and making him drag that around the track. Hanlan doesn't get into a whaleboat for a scull race. The lifting of heavy weights is bad for a man, and the men who trained themselves to lift a ton killed themselves. Over-training and over-exercising of any kind is injurious, and that is why college boat-racing is not always a good thing. The weakest man in the boat must work too hard. A man is only as strong as his weakest point, and you put too much strain on him and he will give away at that point. That is why I advocate light exercise for health. The exerciser should never get tired."