TRAINING FOR ROWING, ETC.
The present work is not intended for the guidance of professional oarsmen, or those who may row for large stakes, and who, when matched, leave their usual occupations and devote their energies to the better observance of the stricter rules of training. Such men invariably have a mentor worthy of following, and whose knowledge of right and wrong will lead them to success or otherwise, as the fates may dispose. The amateur, however, must be treated more gently and with more attention than the sturdier and hardier professional, or those who may have made the river and adjuncts their capital in their struggle through the world for a subsistence. The amateur, when he has an engagement before him, should take into consideration the time he has allowed him to train, and the mode of proceeding will depend in a great measure on the condition and previous habits of the man engaged. If a man is fleshy and of a full habit of body, a dose or two of mild purgative medicine should be taken, and slow walking exercise only taken on the day the doses have been administered. After the medicine has done its duty, if the amateur is very fleshy, a Turkish bath or two may be taken with advantage, the usual precautions against cold being used. The subject, after one or two of these sweats, is prepared for more arduous work, which may be taken at a fair pace in the form of good sharp runs and fast walks, which, like all other trainings, will become easier of accomplishment at each repetition.
The above work, with rowing exercise, will infallibly bring the practitioner, if continued for any time, into a proper condition to contend with confidence and success in any rowing contest.
He must rise at five in the summer, and after his bath (cold), and having been well rubbed down, a good sharp walk of about a mile out and a rattling spin taken by running home, when another good rub will be rendered imperative Should the run not be taken, a row of a couple of miles at three parts speed must be accomplished. When thoroughly cooled down, breakfast should be taken, which should consist of good wholesome meat (either broiled mutton-chops or steak, with no seasoning), stale bread or toast, and tea. When dinner can be taken at mid-day, say about one P. M., it is better, and should consist, like the breakfast, of good wholesome roast meat, with no vegetable except a mealy potato, stale bread, and not more than a pint of really good sound ale (old, if palatable to the drinker, the best); some prefer sherry, but, although agreeing with a few, the ale, as a rule, is more strengthening and wholesome. The row should be taken before tea, which should then be of the same viands and liquids as the breakfast. The above rules, of course, are open to alteration, according to circumstances, and the diet varied successfully by the introduction of fowls, either roast or boiled—the latter preferred—and when there is any indication of training off, a small portion of green-meat, in the shape of sound cabbage or any fresh vegetable in season. The last food before retiring to rest should be either about half a-pint of thin gruel or a glass of ale with dry toast. The other portion of the day’s training must be left to circumstances; but it must never be lost sight of that sharp work, regularity and cleanliness are the chief if not the only rules to be followed to produce thorough good condition. The use of the bath should never by any chance be missed. Nothing is more injurious to the wind, etc., than hard rowing on a full stomach, the ill effects of which, although scarcely felt at the time, have at a more remote time, in many instances, proved to be the germ of serious disorders.
In rowing, the legs, loins, trunk, arms, hands, the digestive organs and the lungs are made to perform their regular and legitimate functions simultaneously, and the danger of building up one part of the system at the expense of another thereby avoided, and to the recognition of these facts is ascribed the popularity of aquatic sports here and abroad. But it is not always convenient for large numbers of our people to indulge in this healthful pastime; the expense of owning and keeping a boat, the difficulty of reaching an acceptable place for rowing, no less than the dangers incident to inexperienced oarsmen upon the water, are drawbacks which can only be met by the substitution of a machine giving all the advantages without the disagreeable accessories; to this end several machines have been introduced to public notice, but none have filled all the requirements until by careful observation of the defects of former attempts the Eureka Parlor Rowing Machine was introduced, which gives an exact and perfect imitation of rowing. It teaches to feather the oar correctly, it gives the dip of the oar, it has the sliding seat, it can be regulated for heavy or light, short or long stroke, and is manufactured for either open or cross-handed rowing, and the pressure can be changed to suit the weak or the strong.