Walker's manly exercises / Containing rowing, sailing, riding, driving, racing, hunting, shooting, and other manly sports

by Donald Walker

The Greeks put on their belts before they commenced wrestling; and many physicians, both ancient and modern, recommend the use of belts, as being to the whole of the body, and to the parts over which they are placed, what the exterior sheaths or aponeuroses are to the muscles—bands which embrace and keep firm the parts over which they are placed. The common belt has leathern straps, and buckles to fasten it, an iron ring and a pocket. A double cincture for wrestling forms a very strong girth, which is put on by pupils who are very strong, when they wrestle. These belts may be made of different sizes, for youths of different ages: of five or six inches for tall youths and men, and of eight or ten inches for wrestlers. Their length is in proportion to the size of the person who uses them. These belts are very useful in strengthening the abdominal region in running and leaping. Riders, also, should furnish themselves with belts before getting on horseback, to prevent too violent motion of the viscera of the abdomen, and the disorders which may result from it. The use, indeed, of belts will by degrees prove their utility, and they will probably be worn even externally, without reference to physical exercises. They deserve this the more, because they give an air of lightness and elegance to the shape, and develope the chest.

The most useful thing in existence is dangerous, if improperly applied. In very young persons, the chest and abdomen have been compressed by fastening the belt too tight, or making it too wide; and disorders of digestion and respiration have consequently been caused by pushing in the false ribs. This is an imprudence that should be avoided. If the belt be too low, it may press too much on the lower part of the belly; if too high, it may disorder the chest. It must therefore be placed on the loins, so as to pass over the navel; and, as said before, it must not be too tight. Having given these ideas of the utility of belts, and the manner of using them, it remains only to explain the triple use of those adopted for exercises: 1st, they fulfil, by their size and other circumstances, all the conditions which render them useful; 2nd, a pocket serves to inclose the articles that may be wanted, according to the class of exercises performing; 3rd, an iron ring is intended to suspend, by means of hooks, any thing we wish to carry, so as to leave the hands at liberty.

TRAINING.

This is important in relation to various exercises to be described. The art of training for athletic exercises, or laborious exertions, consists in purifying the body and strengthening its powers, by certain processes, which are now to be described. The advantages of it, however, are not confined to pedestrians, wrestlers, or pugilists; they extend to every one: for, were training generally introduced, instead of medicine, for the prevention and cure of diseases, its beneficial consequences would assuredly prolong life, and promote its happiness. Every physiologist knows that all the parts which compose the human body—solids as well as liquids—are successively absorbed and deposited. Hence ensues a perpetual renovation of them, regulated by the nature of our food and general habits. The health of all the parts, and the soundness of their structure, depend on this perpetual absorption and renovation. Now, nothing so effectually as exercise excites at once absorption and secretion. It accordingly promotes all the vital functions without hurrying them, renovates all the parts, and preserves them apt and fit for their offices.

It follows, then, that health, vigour, and activity, chiefly depend upon exercise and regimen; or, in other words, upon the observance of those rules which constitute the theory of training. The effect has accordingly corresponded with the cause assigned in this view of the subject, in every instance where it has been adopted; and, although not commonly resorted to as the means of restoring invalids to health, there is every reason to believe that it would prove effectual in curing many obstinate diseases, such as bilious complaints, obesity, gout, and rheumatism.

The Ancients entertained this opinion. They were, says a popular writer on medicine, by no means unacquainted with or inattentive to these instruments of medicine, although modern practitioners appear to have no idea of removing disease, or restoring health, but by pouring drugs into the stomach. Heroditus is said to have been the first who applied the exercises and regimen of the Gymnasium to the removal of disease, or the maintenance of health. Among the Romans, Asclepiades carried this so far, that he is said, by Celsus, almost to have banished the use of internal remedies from his practice. He was the inventor of various modes of exercise and gestation, in Rome. In his own person, he afforded an excellent example of the wisdom of his rules, and the propriety of his regimen. Pliny tells us that, in early life, he made a public profession, that he would agree to forfeit all pretensions to the name of a physician, should he ever suffer from sickness, or die but of old age; and, what is extraordinary, he fulfilled his promise, for he lived upwards of a century, and at last was killed by a fall down stairs.

As to the locomotive system, modern experience sufficiently proves that exercise is the most powerful strengthener of the muscles, and of every part on which activity depends. In its operation on the vital system, training always appears to benefit the state of the lungs. Indeed, one of its most striking effects is to improve the wind: that is, to enable a man to draw a larger inspiration, and to hold his breath longer. As to the intellectual system, Sir J. Sinclair observes, that, by training, the mental faculties are also improved; the attention being more ready, and the perception more acute, owing probably to the clearness of the stomach, and better digestion.

It must, therefore, be admitted, that the most beneficial consequences to general health arise from training. The simplicity of the rules for it is assuredly a great recommendation to a trial of the experiment. The whole process may be resolved into the following principles:—1st, the evacuating, which cleanses the stomach and intestines; 2nd, the sweating, which takes off the superfluities of fat and humours; 3rd, the daily course of exercise, which improves the wind and strengthens the muscles; and, lastly, the regimen, which nourishes and invigorates the body. To those who are to engage in corporeal exercises beyond their ordinary powers, it is indispensably necessary. Pedestrians, therefore, who are matched either against others or against time, and pugilists who engage to fight, must undergo the training process before they contend. The issue of the contest, if their powers be nearly equal, will, in a great measure, depend upon their relative condition, as effected by training, at the hour of trial.

Training was known to the ancients, who paid much attention to the means of augmenting corporeal vigour and activity. Accordingly, among the Greeks and Romans, certain rules of exercise and regimen were prescribed to the candidates for gymnastic celebrity. We are assured, that, among the Greeks, previously to the solemn contests at the public games, the strictest temperance, sobriety, and regularity in living, were indispensably requisite. The candidates were, at the same time, subjected to daily exercise in the Gymnasium, which continued during ten months, and which, with the prescribed regimen, constituted the preparatory training adopted by the athletæ of Greece. Among the Romans, the exercises of the palæstra degenerated from the rank of a liberal art, and became a profession, which was embraced only by the lowest of mankind; the exhibitions of the gladiators being bloody and ferocious spectacles, which evinced the barbarous taste of the people. The combatants, however, were regularly trained by proper exercise, and a strict observance of regimen. Pure and salubrious air was deemed a chief requisite. Accordingly, the principal schools of their athletæ were established at Capua and Ravenna, the most healthy places in Italy; and previous to entering on this regimen, the men were subjected to the evacuating process, by means of emetics, which they preferred to purgatives.

In the more early stages of training, their diet consisted of dried figs, new cheese, and boiled grain. Afterwards animal food was introduced as a part of the athletic regimen, and pork was preferred to any other. Galen, indeed, asserts, that pork contains more real nutriment than flesh of any other kind, which is used as food by man. This fact, he adds, is decidedly proved by the example of the athletæ, who, if they live but for one day on any other kind of food, find their vigour manifestly impaired the next. The preference given to pork by the ancients, however, does not correspond with the practice of modern trainers, who entirely reject it; but in the manner of preparing the food, they exactly agree—roasting or broiling being by both preferred to boiling, and bread unfermented to that prepared by leaven. A very small quantity of liquid was allowed to the athletæ, and this was principally water. They exercised in the open air, and became familiarized by habit to every change of the weather, the vicissitudes of which soon ceased to affect them.