Training, in theory and practice

Preface

Since the first publication of this treatise some important changes have taken place in Training : many of the points at that time recommended are being adopted, many of the customs then condemned are being abandoned, and altogether a more rational and common-sense view of the subject is being gradually entertained. The nature and the modus operandi of the several agents of health are now freely discussed ; the value of fresh air and the plentiful use of fresh water is on all hands admitted ; adequate ventilation in bed-rooms and sitting-rooms is, as a rule, provided ; and the morning ablution is as regular as the morning meal. The mischievous habit of amateur physicking is being abandoned, and the dangerous custom of forced perspirations, undertaken to exorcise the demons of ^internal fat^ and ‘loose flesh,’ may be said to be discarded. In diet also valuable improvements are being made ; the importance of vegetables as an ingredient in wholesome diet is acknowledged, and greater variety in animal food

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VI

PREFACE.

is allowed. Indeed tlie subject of diet might now, comparatively speaking, be considered satisfactory^ were it not for the fanciful importance with which certain articles of food are still invested, — the virtues which some are supposed to possess, and the evils which are supposed to lurk in others. Misconceptions on this, as on other subjects, have often an influence beyond that with which they are directly connected ; and so long as men believe that the qualities which they covet are to be obtained from mere dietary regulations, they will neglect the real agencies which can alone bestow them. This is emphatically the case in the present instance ; Exercise, the one agent which gives, which can give, these qualities, — both from its own nature and from the influence which it exerts upon all the other agents of health, — is in a great measure neglected, nay avoided, and to the imaginary virtues of Diet men look for the longed-for acquisitions. They have yet to learn, they have yet to know, and to themselves realise, that power of muscle in trunk and limb, that freedom and capacity of heart and lung, that energy, stamina, strength and endurance are not to be obtained from what they eat but from what they do.

That this point also will soon be understood and fully acted on I have neither doubt nor fear.

In the present edition I have added a Practical

PREFACE.

Vll

Course of Training for the several kinds of boat-races practised at the university, giving detailed directions for Exercise^ Diet, Bathing, &c., from day to dav for the whole course laid down ; and also some remarks on the disputed question of the dangers of boat-racing to University crews.

A valuable paper in the Appendix on the subject of the Sliding Seat, contributed by the Bev. T. H. T. Hopkins, M.A., Magdalen College, Oxford, will be read with interest by rowing men. The illustrations shewing the difference in action and position of the stroke in rowing with the fixed and sliding seats, are taken from photographs from the life, and drawn on wood by Mr. A. Macdonald of the University School of Art.

I have also to tender my sincere thanks to the Press for the invaluable assistance which it has given me in this work.

Aechibald Maclaren.

The Gymnasium, Oxfoed, Fd)ruary i, 1874.

LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS.

The University Eight, Oxford, 1866.

The Fixed Seat, beginning of stroke '

„ end of stroke

The Sliding Seat, beginning of stroke ^ „ end of stroke

The Sliding Seat, Details, full size „ Eight Oar

Muscular action

Respiratory action

Diagrams shewing the proportions of an Oxford Eight-Oared Racing Boat. f-

Diagrams shewing the proportions of an Oxford ScuUing Boat.

Frontispiece.

Page 249.

Page 250.

CONTENTS,

PABT I.

EXERCISE. Rowing the chief of our recreative exercises, page 2. The object and pui-pose of Training, p. 4. The several agents of health, p. 4. Definition of Exercise, p. 5. The Muscular System, p. 6. Its mode of action, ih. The Nutritive System, p. *j. Waste and renewal of tissue, p. 8. Physical results of Exercise, %b. Breathing, — Action of the heart and lungs, p. II. Circulation, p. 12. Distinction between muscular and respiratory power, p. 13. Bowing, — changes in rowing caused by improvements in racing-boats, p. 15. Parts of the body employed in Rowing, p. 17. ‘ Brute Force,’ p. 22. Respiratory power or ‘ wind,’ pp. 23, 26. ‘ Internal fat,’ p. 23. Action of breathing during the stroke in Rowing, p. 24. Rate of breathing in racing, p. 25. ‘Bad wind,’ p. 28. Mode of action of Training on the heart and lungs, p. 29. The exercises of Walking and Banning, p. 35. Parts of the body employed in these exercises, p. 35. Their value in Training, p. 36. Instruction for their practice, p. 37. The error of being afraid of abundant exercise in Training, p. 39. A day’s training on the present system, p. 41. Necessity for systematised exercises to develope the chest, p. 41.

Part II

DIET. The Nutritive System, p. 44. The heat of the body supplied by food, p. 45. The organic compounds of food, p. 46. Both animal and vegetable food suitable to man, p. 49. (Quantity of food necessary, p. 51. Times of eating

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Contents

p. 52. Exercise immediately after meals to be avoided, P* 53* Quality of food, ih. Effects of Cooking on food, p, 54. Thirst, water the best general drink in Training, p. 55. Amount of water contained in different forms of so-called solid food, p. 55. Hygienic value of different kinds of fluids, p. 57. Evfl effects of sameness in diet, p. 59. Variety necessary to health, p. 60. Evils of eating too much in Training, p, 61. Three different kinds of thirst, p. 67. Evils of restrictions of fluid in Training, p. 65. Probable origin of errors in dietetics in Training, p. 74. Good results of Training, morally and physically, P* 75* Contradictions in dietetics in several systems of Training, p. 78. Objections to pastry, p. 80. The use of tobacco, p. 82. Egg in sherry, p. 86. Necessity for care in going out of Training, p, 87. The value of a rational or progressive system of Training, ih.

Part III

SLEEP. Sleep, p. 89. Amount of sleep required at different ages, p. 90. The value of pre-midnight sleep, p. 91. Evils of too much sleep in Training, p. 92. Hufeland’s theory, p. 91.

ATP, Importance of fresh air, p. 92. Ventilation of rooms, p, 92. Evils of close rooms, p. 93. Value of early rising in Training, p. 94.

BATHING. Importance of proper and regular ablution, p. 93. The two aspects of bathing, p. 96. Its cleansing and its tonic effects on the skin, p. 96. Construction and functions of the skin, p. 97. Danger of forced perspirations, p. 98. Their evils in Training, p. 99. Absurd length to which they were carried under old ‘ systems,’ p. loi. The mode of action and effects of cold water on the skin, p. 107. The best time for bathing, p. 109.

CLOTHING, &c. The heat-retaining properties of different materials and kinds of clothing, p. no. Medicines, — evils of the old system of ‘ physicking in Training, p. n i . Dangerous effects of colds and chills in Training, p. 114. Objections to Winter races, p. 115.

Co7itents.

xi

Part IV

A PRACTICAL COURSE OF TRAINING. Directions for exercise, diet, bathing &c., on the progressive system, for the different races, namely —

For the College Eights or Summer Races, p. 119.

For the Torpid or Winter Races, p. 141.

For the Inter-University Race, p. 148.

UNIVERSITY OARS, A review of Dr. Morgan’s work on the effects of Boat-racing on the Oxford and Cambridge Crews from 1829 to 1869, p. 161.

APPENDICES.

A, THE SLIDING SEAT. An enquiry into the principle of the moveable or sliding seat, and the probable effects of its general adoption on Rowing ; illustrated by diagrams and figures shewing the construction and mode of action of the seat, and positions of the rower. Contributed by the Rev, T. H. T. Hopkins, M. A,, Magdalen College, Oxford, p, 162.

B, PRACTICAL TEST to ascertain the actual force employed in the propulsion of an Eight-oar Boat in racing trim at racing speed. Contributed by the Rev. T. H. T. Hopkins, M. A. , Magdalen College, Oxford, p 210,

C. CALCULATIONS to demonstrate the force employed in the propulsion of an Eight-oar Boat in racing trim and at racing speed. Contributed by the Rev. Professor Houghton, of the University of Dublin, p. 213.

D. TABLE SHEWING RATES OF SPEED of the different

kinds of Racing Boats, being the averages of best speeds over the Henley Course from 1853 1865. Contributed by the

Rev.T.H.T. Hopkins M. A., Magdalen College, Oxford, p, 218.

Contents

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XU

E. TRAINING TACTICS. Tables shewing in outline the principal features of several systems or modes of Training recommended for Rowing, namely' —

1. The Oxford System, p. 220.

2. The Cambridge System, p, 223.

4. C. Westhall’s System, p. 227.

5. Stonehenge’s System, p. 229.

6. The Author of Rowing and Steering’s System, p. 231.

Table shewing the chief points in the preceding systems,

P. TABLES SHEWING THE DIGESTIBILITY of certain articles of food, p. 234.

G. TABLES SHEWING THE AVERAGE AMOUNT of food taken under different conditions of activity, p. 238.

H. PER-CENTAGE TABLES, shewing the approximate composition of certain articles of food, p. 239.

I. DIET TABLES, shewing the essentials of a normal diet, whether the diet be complicated and expensive or simple and cheap, p. 243.

K. A SYSTEM OF MEASUREMENTS to determine the rate of growth and development, p. 244.

L. TABLES shewing the average state of Gkowth and Development at the age of 19 — the average age of men on arriving at this (Oxford) University, p. 248.

M. DIAGRAMS, (i) shewing Musculak Action,— the muscles relaxed and contracted : (2) shewing Respiratory Action, with the position of the diaphragm and expansion of the chest on expiration and inspiration, p. 249.

N. TABLES shewing the Breadth, Length, and Weight &c, of Racing Boats, with notes. Contributed by the Rev. T. H. T. Hopkins, M. A., Magdalen College, Oxford, p. 251.

O. DIAGRAMS i and 2 shewing the proportions of an Oxford Eight-oared Racing Boat.

P. DIAGRAMS i and 2 shewing the proportions of an Oxford

Sculling Boat.

TEAINING,

IN THEORY AND PRACTICE.

IN writing on the subject of Training, I propose to select one single exercise with which to connect my remarks, and to limit these in a great measure to the mode in which that exercise is practised at our Universities and Public Schools. I do so for two reasons : first, because it will enable me to keep together my observations upon each separate part of the subject ; and, secondly, because the principles of Training, as a system of bodily preparation for special exertion, are the same for all exercises, differing only in the mode of their application. Even this difference of application is virtually limited to the administration of but one of the agents of health — Exercise ; and this chiefly because it is capable of being locally as well as generally applied, all the other agents being addressed to the whole body, and with the view of promoting the strength of all the bodily powers.

For this purpose I select Rowing, as, in my

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Training.

opinion, the exercise most susceptible of being influenced by a judicious system of bodily preparation ; being at once an art of considerable intricacy, demanding long and assiduous practice ; and an exercise of considerable difficulty, involving tbe possession — although not in an equal degree — of both muscular and respiratory power, to promote which is the object of all training.

Part I

Rowing is the chief of all our Recreative Exercises ; no other can enter the lists against it ; in fact it has collected and concentrated in itself all the attractions and all the emulative distinctions of all others : just as the boat-race admits of more amicable rivalry and friendly competition than all our other national pastimes put together. The i^liysique of the men forming the crews j their enthusiasm, so generous and so contagious ; the crowds of spectators who go to witness the races with enthusiasm no less strong, and certainly no less demonstrative, than that of the rowers ; the flag distinctions, colours and costumes ; the barges, music, and the beautiful river itself, all tend to give an eclat, an importance, to this exercise, unapproached by any other, and to give to it the first place in the front rank of Recreative Exercises.

Exercise.

The numbers who come down to the river- side, to witness the sport in the summer evenings, testify to the extent to which the enjoyment is shared ; and there is not a man on river-bank or barge whose eye does not kindle, nor a lady whose cheek does not mantle up, when the hoarse continuous roar comes on and on, and the crowd sways to and fro, and the boats rush by.

To the spectators it is all enjoyment, while seen and when remembered, without alloy, drawback, or danger. Is it less so to the actors in the scene? There are a hundred and fifty oars flashing through the water, worked by as many pairs of hands, aye, and by as many pairs of lungs too, and by as many throbbing hearts ; and the excitement that stirs the crowd, and sends the blood tingling to the fingerends, is shared by the rowers as they sit straining at the oars. Is it all as well with the actors as with the spectators of the scene ? Has the work no drawback or alloy for them ^ ?

Ilowing-men have thoughtfully asked themselves the same question, and practically have answered it. They have seen the drawback, have in a great measure comprehended its nature ; and without laying claim to special scientific knowledge on the subject, and guided mainly by the observation of results, they have organized a protective code of rules and regulations, in spirit well planned to meet the ends

^ See Part IV, page 162.

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Training.

desired; and where failing, failing from the overzeal which has carried certain details to extremes. This code is embodied in the word Teaining.

To the question ‘ What is Training, and what is it meant to do?’ I would answer, ‘It is to put the body, with extreme and exceptional care, under the influence of all the agents which promote its health and strength, in order to enable it to meet extreme and exceptional demands upon its energies.’

The ordinary agents of health are Exercise, Diet, Sleep, Air, Bathing, and Clothing. I put them here in the order of their importance, as I conceive, to rowing men. I propose to examine each of these agents somewhat in detail, and from two different points of view. First, as to the manner in which it is, or should be, administered under ordinary circumstances ; and, secondly, in what manner and to what extent this mode of administration is, or should be, altered for purposes of training, according to the preceding definition of the term.

First, then, what is Exercise? We have some notion of what Food is, and of the manner in which it nourishes and sustains the body ; we see it, and taste it, and swallow it, and we feel even while doing so that it is essential to life and health and strength. We need no reminder of the necessity for Air, we experience this every moment of our lives, and our senses take note of its purity or impurity, delighting in the one and loathing the other ;

Exercise.

just as other senses delight in or reject articles of food : and, indeed, air is food in the highest sense of the word. Nightly we feel that Sleep is a necessity also to life and health ; and if the precise nature of its action and influence are unknown, the results are so evident that its value is never questioned; The same may be said of Bathing, as a cleanser and bracer of the skin^ stimulating it to functional vigour^ and relieving it of a burden which we feel creates discomfort. And we all know how Clothing afiects health by preventing the too rapid escape from the body, into the surrounding atmosphere, of the heat which it has generated ; or by excluding from it external heat when in excess of its requirements. But what does Exercise do towards the life^ health,, and strength of the body? How do lifting and carrying, pushing and pulling, running and jumping, do us good ? In fine, what is Exercise ? what does it do ? and how does it do it ?

Exercise may be defined as muscular movement ^ ; indeed, every motion of the living organism is produced by muscular contraction. This property of contractility, with which muscular fibre is endowed, and which, so far as we know, is shared by no other

’ Muscle is flesh; or what in animals is called meat. It may seem unnecessary to state this, but it is with me a matter of daily occurrence to hear men talking of such and such an one, who ‘ has not an ounce of flesh upon him — nothing but muscle or, ‘he must get rid of all his spare flesh ; ’ or, ‘ he must sweat down all his superfluous flesh ; ’ ‘ work off all his loose flesh,’ &c. — A. M.

Training.

constituent of the body, is to some extent described in the term, being the power of contracting or shortening the space between its two extremities

The entire muscular system has been primarily divided into voluntary and involuntary muscles. The first, comprising all those which are subject to the will, form the bulk of the muscular system. They are mainly distributed over the framework of the bones, their oflSce being to move the part or parts to which they are attached. The second comprise those over which the will has little or no control, but which are stimulated to action by some other agency, each muscle or class of muscles ha’sdng its proper stimulus ; these are placed chiefly within the cavities of the body, and are employed in the vital processes of respiration, digestion, circulation, &c. It is with the voluntary muscles that we have now particularly to deal.

Exercise I have defined as muscular movement, but it must be movement of force suflicient to engage the energetic contraction of the muscles employed. Here we are touching upon the most important principle in the entire subject under consideration, namely, the destruction and renovation of the tissues of the body, which it is the object of Exercise to accomplish.

Our material frame is composed of innumerable atoms, and each separate and individual atom has . ^ See Appendix M.

Exercise.

its birth j life, and death, and then its removal from ‘the place of the living.’ Thus there is going on a continuous process of decay and death among the individual atoms which make up each tissue. Each atom preserves its vitality for a limited space only, is then separated from the tissue of which it has formed a part, and is resolved into its inorganic elements, to be in due course eliminated from the body by the organs of excretion. These processes are greatly influenced by the activity of the bodily functions. Every operation of the muscles or nerves involves the disintegration and death of a certain part of their substance. We cannot lift a Anger, we cannot perform the slightest movement, without causing a change in certain of the atoms which compose the muscles executing the movement, in those of the nerves conveying the stimulus which directed them to contract, or in those composing the nerve centres in which the stimulus originates ; and this change involves their decay and death.

The loss then of the body, and of each part of the body, being in relation to its activity, a second process is necessary to replace the loss, otherwise it would rapidly diminish in size and strength, and life itself would shortly cease. This reparative process is performed by the Nutritive System, the organs of which convert our food into blood — liquid flesh {chair coulante) as it has been called — which in itself contains, and in its never-ending circulation bears to

Traming.

each tissue, the material for the replacement of all waste and for the building up of all additions. And as this material is borne along through channels permeating every part of the organism, each part, by a law incomprehensible but unerring, selects from it and appropriates that particular ])abulum which is fit for its special use, and that only. At every point of the human body is this law in unceasing operation — activity, a loss of vital power, disintegration, decay, and removal ; to be met by a replacement of substance, and a renewal of vital power. And as the disintegration of any part is hastened by its activity, so by an equally unerring law is the flow of blood, bearing the renewing material, increased in that part ; and again by a law equally unerring and ever operative, the worn-out particles are cast into this current in its backward course, and conveyed to organs whose function it is to eliminate them from the body. And during the period of growth, and within certain limits, until the full attainable physical capacity of the individual has been reached, the new will ever exceed the old, so that a gradual increase in bulk and power will be obtained. And the strength of the body as a whole, and of each part of the body individually, is in relation to the frequency with which these atoms are changed ; and the strength of the body as a whole, and of each part of the body individually, is thus ever in relation to its newness.

Exercise is then the chief agent in the destruction

Exercise.

of the tissues^ but it is also the chief agent in their renovation, inasmuch as it quickens the circulation of the blood from which the whole body derives its nourishment; the tide on which is brought up all fresh material, and on which is borne away all that is effete and useless ; brought up and borne away most rapidly in those parts which are being most energetically employed — where disintegration is most rapidly taking place.

I am here purposely narrowing my subject, and limiting my observations to the process of circulation only as it affects the nutrition of the muscles; but all the systems of the body, and every process connected Avith its growth and development, or influencing its health or strength, are also proportionately affected by the acceleration of the circulation of the blood by exercise.

But besides muscular movement, true exercise possesses another ingredient, which may be termed resistance. The voluntary muscles are made to do more than merely to move the parts to which they are attached. Man is placed on the earth to labour, to toil, to overcome and to remove material obstacles innumerable. Everything which floats upon the ocean or is built upon the land is the work of his hands — in simple fact, has been constructed by the contractions of his voluntary muscles ; these muscles were made therefore not merely to enable him to move^ but to do this and to carry his burden too.

Training.

They were made in their action to encounter and overcome resistance in every movement ; and being created for this, their health and strength will be develojied and sustained in proportion to the fidelity with which this their design is remembered and observed. Exercise,, which is voluntary labour, must resemble actual labour in all its physical essentials, if it be desired to obtain from it the physical advantages which actual labour bestows ; without resistance there can be no full demand for muscular contractioUj no full call therefore for material disintegration, no full requirement therefore for material renewal, involving proportionate increase of bulk and power ; for, as we have seen, the strength of the body, and of each part of the body, is in relation to its youth or newness^.

These are the chief essentials of Exercise when viewed in connection with the voluntary muscles ; but it is also an essential of true Exercise that the movements of these muscles shall be of speed or force

^ In a long pedestrian tour, extending over nearly four months, in which the average per day on foot exceeded nine hours, and usually with a knapsack averaging twelve pounds, I found this law of development being in relation to employment strongly demonstrated ; and I give the results here in prefei’ence to other instances which I could adduce, because they were the results of the mode of exercise most familiar to every one — walking. Thus the chest fell from 41 to 39^- inches, the upper arm from 14I to 13I inches; the lower arm remained unchanged at I2| inches : the lower limbs on the contrary were vastly increased, the calf of the leg passing from i6 to 17I- inches, and the tliigli from 23^ to 25 inches. — A. M.

Exercise.

II sufficient to quicken the breathing; in other words, to increase the action of the w^voluntaiy muscles engaged in the processes of respiration and circulation. During active exercise the act of breathing becomes greatly accelerated ; each inspiration is larger in volume, and each follows each in quicker succession than when the body is inactive. This is a most important feature of exercise, for with every breath a load of the wasted material of the body is given up by the blood, in the form of carbonic acid, &c., and its place supplied by life-giving oxygen from the surrounding atmosphere. To make this all-important process plainer, let us glance at the mechanical action of breathing.

On the requirement for air, the ‘ lesoin de res])ifer^ being experienced^ the inspiratory muscles contract and lift the osseous framework of the chesty thus increasing its diameter from side to side and from back to front; while at the same time the large arched muscle (the diaphragm) forming the convex floor of the cavity also contracts^ and in doing so its fibres are straightened, and its elevated surface is consequently depressed, increasing the diameter of the chest from above downwards. As this takes place the air rushes down the trachea, or windpipe, and passes at once into the lungs, which it fills out in every direction. But all muscular action is intermittent ; the contractile efibrt accomplished, the reaction begins ; the inspiratory muscles relax, and a

Training.

second set of muscles, tlie expiratory, antagonizing those which lifted the walls of the cavity, now contract, and the muscles of the abdomen, antagonizing the diaphragm, also contract, and the air is expelled by the aperture through which it entered^. This is, in outline, the process of ordinary effortless breathing ; but in the forced respiration of energetic exercise, and especially of exercise calling into action the muscles of the upper limbs and the upper region of the trunk, many of the voluntary muscles may also be employed in the process of respiration.

I have stated that the involuntary muscles are prompted to action each by its proper stimulus ; and the heart is stimulated by the presence and augmentation of blood within its cavities. Thus, the instant that any act of exercise, such as Bowing, begins, a considerable number of voluntary muscles are put into rapid employment ; the contractile action of these muscles impels the blood in their veins onwards towards the heart, venous blood being greatly dependent on muscular action for its circulation ; and the heart, stimulated by its presence, energetically contracts, ejecting its contents, and the blood is flushed along the pulmonary artery and distributed throughout its ramiflcations in the lungs. But the rowing is still going on, stroke following stroke ; so wave on wave comes up from the heart, each driving before it its predecessor, — out of the lungs, along the

^ See Appendix M.

Exercise.

pulmonary veins, back to tbe heart, where it is again rapidly admitted and as rapidly ejected ^ ; for the heart is a double organ, performing the double office of propelling the blood through two distinct channels of circulation ; through the one for its aeration in the lungs, through the other, when so aerated, for the nourishment of the whole body. Out of the heart then it is again ejected, out by the great trunk arteries, and along their innumerahle branches, to complete the round of the systemic circulation. But neither heart nor lungs, nor vein nor artery, throughout the double circulation, is a passive agent in its progress ; for though the heart is the great agent of propulsion, the whole circulatory channels possess a certain amount of contractile power, and are endowed with a degree of elasticity, and may in fact, in this respect, be regarded as hollow muscles actively engaged in regulating the moving current within them ; and their health and strength, and functional ability, are promoted by the same agencies, as they are subject to the same laws, as those which influence the condition of the rest of the body.

On these two powers, muscular and respiratory, depends the ability to perform all bodily exercise. The first involves the contractile force of the voluntary muscles employed ; the second is more compli-

^ The quantity of blood ejected from the heart of a healthy adult of middle stature, at each propulsion, is estimated at about two ounces.