Checkley's natural method of physical training

Front matter

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Class - , ":>-■-.

Book. • > Copyright^? /\' "

Preface

PHYSICAL training is "in the air," but the observer of current events is able to discover in reports from the athletic world that there is something wrong about most modern methods of training. Muscle-molding schemes that make men die in middle life may be pictorially interesting and may sound heroic, but they are not for that wise average mortal who wishes simply to feel light and strong and, if need be, find himself ready to safely enter on any reasonable physical undertaking. The author of this book believes that there is more "straining" than "training" in a good many popular systems practiced in and out of the college gymnasium, and the method he himself advocates perhaps radically departs from familiar systems. Yet this method seems to the author so fully indorsed by nature and by results that he might, if not lor the appearance of egotism, have called this book " The Natural

4 PREFACE,

Method of Physical Training," instead of using the indefinite "-<4." In the pages that follow an effort has been made to outline a plan of conduct for bodily development that is not dependent on any appliances whatever, that will build up the frame of the slender and reduce the unwelcome proportions of the corpulent without the employment of machinery or harsh and weakening methods of dieting.

The author fears that he may not always have been able to connect in each chapter all that he had to say upon each point covered, and thus feels that those who wish to follow the system from these pages should carefully read the whole book, observing the emphasis upon seemingly minor matters. £. C

Contents

PAGE

II. How to Carry the Body 17

III. How to Breathe 31

I. The Bugbear Of Training

THERE are two points which writers and talkers about physical training are almost always ready to bring forward when discussion arises as to the present status of our race — they tell us to look at the ancient Greeks and at the animal kingdom. They tell us the ancient Greeks attained certain proficiencies in the field of athletics, and developed a remarkably perfect physique, which the artists delighted to reproduce. They show us the muscular perfection of brute creatures, their general health and comfortable relations with life.

These points are in the main well raised. The example of the Greeks was in all respects one toward which the attention of modern peo-

*

pies may always profitably be turned. The Panhellenic games were an inspiration to the rising generation. They made physical vigor fashionable. And they were not merely an isolated incident in the life of the Greeks. These Panhellenic games were simply the flowering of a superb system of training — superb so far as it related to the work to be done in those tremendous conflicts of the arena. Physicians and law makers alike realized the importance of athletic exercise. Lycurgus scattered free training schools, and his successors followed up, in one way or another, the example set by this remarkable governor. The people paid extraordinary honor to the athletic heroes. A man who won more than one prize at the same Olympiad was modeled in marble by the best sculptor of his state. We are reminded of our own times in the accounts which tell of the large fortunes made by those who achieved some especial glory at the games.

But the conditions of life among the ancient Greeks were wholly different from the conditions of life with which modern men and women are struggling. The athleticism of the old Grecian race was cultivated under very favorable circumstances. The Grecians not only led a more outdoor life than our northern races, but their mode of living, in respect to public and private festivals, entertaiments and social movements, made the development of the physical man much easier than it can ever be with us. These differences do not make it less proper for us to look to the Greeks, but we should remember the necessities arising out of these differences. It is for us to study out the compromise which must be made. Properly made, this compromise will represent a new and sufficient ideal.

It will pay to remember that there has been a good deal of exaggeration in stories of Greek prowess. Undoubtedly we are in possession of some fairly accurate figures concerning the feats of the old athletes, but there are many absurdly false estimates of the early running, jumping and throwing. The Panhellenic games brought forward men who had been in training for great periods for special feats. The honors awarded were so great that no amount of train* ing and exertion were considered too considerable. Given the same training our modern athletes would greatly surpass the Greek records. If the modern horse is quicker than the ancient, the modern man is quicker also. Our all-round athletes would, I am sure, have astonished an audience at an Olmypiad. And as for the matter of physique, there has been equally great exaggeration on that side. Plato tells us that the sculptors took considerable liberty in departing from the actual form of the model. Everything points to a relative inferiority in the ancient races ; yes, even in the worshiped Greeks. No one should doubt that the world is producing men of finer form than it has hitherto produced, and that it will continue to do so.

If we consider the other allusion to the brute creation we shall find many things to rebuke and instruct us, but many things also that indicate the possibility of exaggerating the relative physical superiority of the beasts. Man is physically the most magnificent of all animals. His muscular system excels in versatility that of any other creature. He can stand

THE BUGBEAR OF TRAINING. II

variations in temperature, in forms of covering, in kinds of occupation that are impossible to the lower animals. Considering the things he is in the habit of eating, and the other trials he places upon his system, we can only marvel at the splendid manner in which he is proving his physical superiority to all his other neighbors on this planet.

The significant thing in connection with brute creatures is that they do not have athletics. The lion keeps his marvelous strength without extraordinary effort. And so with other beasts. Their natural habits keep them in condition, and sometimes their natural habits do not seem to fully explain why they are so strong and so healthy. As a matter of fact, beasts are not, of course, always so strong as they would be under training, but by not training they escape other difficulties, of which I will speak a little later on. If we are to take any special lesson from the lower animals, it must be that the best strength is that produced under natural habits.

This brings me to that bugbear of " training," To a certain number of people athletic or special physical training is agreeable. In fact, few who enter it find any kind of training without some exhilaration. But the proportion of people who do any training at all is very small, while the number who might, if the proposed training did not come in the guise of hardship, is unquestionably considerable. The course of exercises prescribed to many an ambitious victim of physical weakness is altogether too heroic, and even those who are fairly strong, and who would like to develop and maintain their strength, are frightened off by the systems put forward as necessary. Elaborate apparatus is one of the symptoms of an elaborate system. The little fellow who went a-fishing was certain he could catch bigger fish the further he went away from home, and the designers of health lifts and chest expanders, boxing machines and rowing appliances seem to feel that the glitter and elaboration of their machinery will tempt and benefit the purchaser in proportion to their size — and complexity.

It is undoubtedly a fact that certain artistic formulas for training have a fascination at the outset Their ingenuity seems to promise an opening of the mysterious roao to health. The novelty itself is something to count upon. And machinery has a certain charm while it is new. You pull this and push that so many times a day and you get to be a little amateur Samson. You already feel the muscles expanding. Those biceps especially draw attention, as if they were the synonym of health and strength. But the mystery vanishes after a while and something or other is always interfering with that half hour at the machine. It is put off for a day, for two days, for a week. Interest gradually evaporates and the biceps are allowed to go to the bad again. The illusion disappears and is gone.

And then the corpulent subject is attacked with that terrible legend — "Diet." Leave off eating so and so, is the order, and your paunch will gradually and beautifully disappear. The so and so, of course, is always exactly what the corpulent subject most enjoys. - But the worst of it all is that, in spite of obedience, after a terrible struggle, to the awful ordeal, after the discomfort and weakness of implicit reliance on a certain system of eating, there is only a loss of a few pounds out of many and no material change in the general form or condition. At the first halt in the rigid dietary discipline there is complete relapse in flesh.

These ordeals bring " training" into very bad repute. Sometimes they do actual injury. The youth who enters the gymnasium at college, starts out on a career of violent training — general as well as special — finds himself exhilarated for a time. His special strength increases, but his false start on the great material lines tells against him in after years, when a little weakness around the heart and a sudden lightness in the head tell a story of bad beginnings and false discipline.

There is something radically wrong in these harsh and extravagant methods of training. The average man does not care to be an athlete in the accepted sense. If he has means to squander in appliances he does not have the opportunity to use them as directed, and the most slavish adherence to the rules somehow does not have the expected effect. The lifting and striking power may be gradually increased and the chest expansion slightly improved, so far as measurement goes, but there is something wanting. Anything that interferes with the galley-slave labor at the apparatus sets back work. The strength of the man so " trained " has no reliance on itself. It is superficial — only skin deep, as it were. The training will not " stay put"

The truth is that there can be no proper training that does not educate the whole system of the man. The muscular system of a man is not made up of chest and biceps. It is a wonderful and complex organization in which one part is intimately related with the other, and if the system as a whole is not kept in mind the building up of the arms will not increase the permanent strength or permanent health. Men become proficient at punching a sand bag who do not know how to simply carry their own body. They have spent their time in training, as it were, from the outside. One of our modern philosophers has said that we invent fine railroads, but we are forgetting how to walk. This is very true. We are forgetting how to stand, and, above all — fatal error ! — we are forgetting how to breathe.

There are what are known as " conversational methods " of learning languages. I suppose these are very good methods. They are supposed to lead the student into a language without first learning the grammatical rule* In athletic training of the simplest kind there can be no profitable way of skulking around the first principles. We must breathe properly or forfeit all chance of ever becoming really strong, of having the kind of strength that wears well. We must stand properly if we wish to give the body and its muscles a chance to become what we wish them to become and what they must become to be at their best. The kind of training that starts in to load certain parts of the body with hard muscles, overlooking the simple elements of general strength, is an error that sometimes proves more than a harmless mistake.

In the chapters which follow I shall try, without elaboration, to outline the general principles of the muscular machinery and my system of developing that machinery into comfortable and healthful perfection.

n.

HOW TO CARRY THE BODY.

^OES it, then, need to be told how the body *^ must be carried ? Most certainly. It might be asked, Does a person not naturally carry his body as comfortably as he can ? And the answer is that a person very seldom does. It may appear that this is being done, but the fact is not so. Some people naturally develop a habit of proper carriage, but they form a decided minority. Without guidance the chances are that a child will grow up into bad habits of holding himself together. His spine will be left to do things it was never intended to do. He will sit, stand and walk without proper reliance on muscles that were intended to make all his movements easier. He will collapse while sitting, rest on his heels, perhaps, while standing, and breathe so perversely that any unusual exertion reveals the fact that only a limited series of muscles are brought into play, while the lungs are but half developed.

It is of the utmost importance, then, at the very outset that a person should do those things properly which occupy so large a percentage of the habits of his life. If there is a reflex action from correct habits of sitting, standing and breathing, to say nothing of other actions, it is quite clear that the formation of a correct habit will bring a certain percentage of added strength and health with no conscious exertion. It is like having money out at interest. The income does not seem to be worked for.

In fact, it is stating a simple truth to say that a man or woman should get good health and sufficient strength and perfection of form in the ordinary activities of life, if those activities, however meagre, are carried on in obedience to right laws. This truth is one of farreaching yet unsuspected importance. There is a prevailing impression that this, that and the other mode of life prevent the development of a strong body, a superstition that one cannot be strong without athletics, and violent athletics at that. Men carelessly retard and injure their physical system during, say, fourteen and a half of their waking hours, and then hope to counteract all this by fifteen minutes' work on a few muscles of their body, and generally not on the muscles that are most injured by the carelessness of the day.

It is a fact not very often taken into account that clothes, m their modern form, have a serious tendency to interfere with the right development of the body, to hinder muscular action and to generally hamper the physical system. I do not speak now of such special features as the corset, but of clothing in general. Unless the tendency is specifically checked, most wearers of fashionable attire will find themselves yielding to the tailor's or dressmaker's measurements. The stiff high collar worn by so many men rather helps the general poise of the head but is a dangerous obstacle to the healthy development of the neck muscles. The shoulders are, perhaps, particularly influenced by modern clothes. A man with low, sloping shoulders holds himself in a position to keep his suspenders from slipping, and accommodates himself to the habit of his coat. Then the conventional "cut" of trousers interferes with easy sitting, walking and stooping. Men sit so as not to "bag" or wrinkle their trousers, just as women, during the reign of the bustle, sat in a lop-sided fashion to accommodate the mysterious and ugly appendage. In many other ways people of both sexes, and scarcely oftener in one sex than in the other, are allowing their physical stature and habits to be strongly influenced by clothes.

Instead of so doing it is a duty to carry the body correctly, to move and act in every particular with reference to the health and beauty of the body without thinking of its covering. If the covering interferes either ignore the interference or select the covering differently. Let the* clothes fit and protect the body, and not allow the body to seek the favor of the clothes. I have said nothing of shoes, whose wretched form so often weakens the body by discouraging exercise and by impairing the circulation. Small and ill-fitting shoes have done as much damage in the world as corsets.

They have made cheerful people peevish and strong people indolent, if not weak. Have shoes large enough to give your feet abundant freedom.

To get out of the ordinary activities of life all possible strength and health let us first learn to stand. A literal drawing of the actual standing position of twelve persons chosen at random would present a curious spectacle. The distended abdomen and more or less flattened chest would prevail in a majority of the dozen. It would be safe to say that in eleven out of the twelve the bone structure of the body and not the muscles would be found doing most of the work of keeping the body upright. The incorrect position, more or less - characteristic of a great many people, and not by any means representing an extreme case, is shown in the accompanying illustration. The abdomen is here pu ihed forward into disagreeable prominence, or rather the body is allowed to settle on the legs as it may, thus rounding the shoulders and protruding the abdominal region.

This attitude is just as common among women as aaiong men, and perhaps more com-

THE CHECKLEY SYSTEM.

FIG. i.

Incorrect standing position, very commonly observed among both men ana women.

mon. For one thing, corsets, while theoretically holding the body up, encourage lassitude of the waist region. And then women are liable to affect a " willowy " style of standing and moving. Many girls seem to think that there is a kind of feminine charm in a lackadaisical manner.

Now the fact is that the bone structure of the body should not be forced to perform the work thus thrust upon it The muscles should hold the body in position. Upon them devolves the task of holding the trunk erect, of keeping the proper relation between the spine and the pelvis (the bone structure from which the backbone springs) and the upper leg bones where they join the pelvis, forming what is called the hip joint. It is worth remembering that the height of a man may be materially affected by the manner in which he carries his body. If he uses the muscles of the hip and abdominal region and of the back instead of allowing his trunk to settle down, he may be certain of establishing a better height than if he did otherwise, and this height will be permanent.

The spine may be relied upon to give a certain support to the trunk. This may go without stating, but the multitude of muscles associated with the spine are intended to perform the greater part of the work in keeping the body in position. As the rudder guides a boat or reins lead a horse, so the muscles direct the posture of the body. They not only direct but largely support the body, and this should be remembered in standing and in every other position and action.

The correct position in standing is sometimes curiously exaggerated by the protrusion of the chest to a grotesque and unnatural degree. Figure 2 may be taken as an example of the position sometimes seriously recommended. There is no naturalness, force or beauty in such a position. The author's views of the correct position are indicated by Fig. 3. As will be seen by this illustration, the lips, chin, chest and toes should come upon one line, with the feet turned at an angle of sixty degrees. In such a position the body acquires its greatest ease, its greatest endurance and its greatest readiness. The chest, the wall covering the great boilers

HOW TO CARRY THE BODY.

FIG. *.

exaggerated standing position, distorting spine and chest*

THE CHECKLEY SYSTEM.

FIG. 3.

Correct standing position, showing: natural and forcible carriage of th» body.

HOW TO CARRY THE BODY. 2*J

of the body — the lungs — is given the greatest prominence, while the abdomen is carried more modestly than most people are inclined to carry it. The shoulder, hip and ankle joints are also kept upon one line. The neck is carried erect so as to bring the collar-bone into a horizontal position. Notice the difference in the carriage of the head between Figures i and 3.

The point of what I have urged is this : The muscles must be used in the support of the body — and all of the muscles that rightfully should. This does not imply greater labor, but less. What begins by a conscious effort will soon end in a habit — will become an exhilaration. What often passes for fatigue of the muscles is simply irritation arising from impeded circulation of the blood brought about not by the use but the cramping or non-use of muscles.

This numbness or irritation from impeded circulation is particularly liable to result from bad habits in sitting. In sitting, as in standing, the muscles must be brought into play, and precisely in proportion to the extent in which they are used will be the absence of fatigue in sitting. It is not to be maintained, of course, that a person should continually sit bolt upright. This would, for a person compelled to sit during a great many hours each day, entail great fatigue. Some of the muscles may be relaxed and the position modified for short periods, but the muscles should never be so relaxed as to drop the trunk upon the spine, leaving its own bone structure to hold it up. Those who have dropped into this roundbacked position will testify to a peculiar weariness in the lumbar region of the spine, what is called the "small of the back." To rise or sit upright and stretch the arms and body affords a great relief. This is not because the muscles have been tired, but because they have been benumbed by failure in the circulation. A proper maintenance of muscular action will keep up the healthy circulation and make it easier to sit for a considerable time without fatigue.

The cultivation of the muscles in the region of the abdomen and the lower part of the back will naturally have the effect of making it easier to sit, as every gain in the strength and extent of a system of muscles builds up a pow§r of involuntary action. In relaxing the trunk the well-drilled army of muscles will be found to have acquired a power to hold the body up with little perceptible effort.

In walking, keep face and chest well over the advanced foot, and preserve the habit of lifting the body with the muscles and by the inflation of the lungs. Of this I shall speak further in connection with the subject of breathing. Avoid a mincing step. Take a free, firm and easy stride, avoiding any hard jarring motions, keeping in mind during every movement or exertion the function of the muscles to support and move the body.

I say--' keeping in mind " because I believe that the mind should not be above co-operation with the body. In fact, unless it does co-operate with the body the body cannot be strong and healthy, and if the body is not strong and healthy what can the mind expect to be ? In recent years it has become something of a habit with a good many well-meaning people to say high sounding things about the superiority of the mind over the body, the essential insignificance of the body, etc. Is it not time to emphasize the influence of the body upon the mind ? Are we not constantly confronted by instances of the mind's dependence upon the body ?

What I would like to emphasize is that the mind and body are dependent upon each other. The mind cannot get out of the partnership, however much it may wish to do so. It must stay, and it must do its share or suffer, and generally suffer keenly. The further our civilization advances the more complete this interdependence becomes. Under our fashion of living the body seems to require greater and greater attention from the mind, and the increasing mental strain assumed under our restless, hurrying life makes a greater and greater demand upon the vitality of the body. It is quite clear, then, that we are not in a position to talk about breaking the partnership.

Of course this conscious use of the muscles will not continue to be as great as at the outset. In time the proper management of the body becomes largely unconscious and involuntary, but need never become wholly so.

III. How To Breathe

f\ T the time of this writing the newspapers / contain comments on the illness and death of certain prominent athletes. The winner of many prizes passes away at the age of twenty-four. Lung weakness seizes upon other seemingly stalwart types of " trained" men. These are startling facts. They form a significant comment on some modern methods of drilling the machinery of the human body. If men are to gain muscle at the expense of their life, it is plain that people will soon begin to look askance at training methods of every kind. What is the difficulty ? Why has training become dangerous? Why do lung and heart troubles assail in after years the enthusiastic followers of highly active sport ?

The answer seems to me to be this : That modern "training" has become a "straining" system that is frequently not only indiscreet but dangerous. It is dangerous not only because of its useless violence and hardship, but because of the pernicious theories upon which it is founded. It begins on the outside instead of the inside. Greater than all its other evils is its neglect of the lungs.

When we stop for a moment to consider the tremendous importance of the lungs it must become apparent that any neglect of these great central boilers of the body is the worst kind of neglect. The office of the lungs is of the very highest importance. This importance is incidentally acknowledged by many writers and teachers, but the development of the lungs is left to take care of itself, it being assumed as a general thing that all exercises tend sufficiently to expand the lungs. ) To be sure, great stress is occasionally laid upon the expansion of the chest, but the assumption too frequently appears to be that this expansion is a matter of external muscular development. The theory is on a par with the general superficiality of the average system of training. The strength of special parts in a steam engine, and even of bands on the boiler, will not prevent weakness and possibly an explosion if the material of the boiler itself is without strength. Hard layers . of muscles on the chest do not improve the permanent strength of the lungs.

It should be clear that the enlarging and strengthening of the lungs can be satisfactorily accomplished only by the exercise and special training of those organs themselves — in other words, beginning on the inside. This truth lies at the very bottom of natural physical training.

To learn to breathe is to learn the ABC of physical health, and it is of special importance that this education of the lungs should precede the education of the outer muscular system, for the natural increase of lung strength and chest room is retarded by methods that begin work on the outside first.

What I have to say on this point will become clearer by consultation of Fig. 4, which shows the manner in which the rib system incloses the chest. It will be seen that there is a joint in the ribs as they approach the centre of the

THE CHECKLEY SYSTEM.

chest. From this joint forward to the central strip of bone substance, called the sternum, the ribs are made of a flexible cartilage that is readily developed under exercise. Breathing distends the ribs and cartilage in the most effective way ; indeed, in the only effectual way. To distend the chest by hollowing the back

and throwing back the shoulders is merely a makeshift, while breathing creates a genuine tendency to expansion. The dot- * ted line will indicate the manner in which the rib-structure distends under the interior pressure from the full lungs.

The general position occupied by the lungs is shown very well in Fig. 5, where Showing area of aexibie cartilages, they are represented

Dotted line shows proper direction . , 111

•f expansion. by the shaded parts.

FIG.

The dotted lines on each side again illustrate the chest expansion under full breathing.

It will be noted in Fig. 5 that the lungs do not extend downward beyond the space between the fifth and sixth ribs. This may suggest the reason why the abdomen should not play so prominent a part in breathing as it so generally does. The diaphragm muscle, which separates the region of the lungs from the region of the stomach and liver, has the power to assist the lungs in receiving and expelling the air. But its power has been so greatly abused that the lungs and chest muscles have been left to do very little of the work that properly belongs to them. The unfortunate habit of abdominal breathing, as it is called, is particularly common among men. The use of the corset, and other reasons, have produced among women a habit of breathing with the upper part of the lungs, a habit that has been to that extent fortunate. Lung diseases are less frequent among women than among men. Women breathe less air than men, but they breathe it in a better way. Men generally exercise the lower parts of the lungs nearest the assisting diaphragm, leaving the upper parts, that tirst receive the air, in a state of relative weakness and susceptibility.