666 



PHYSICAL TRAINING. 



months of severe work in the gymnasium. 

 The athlete's flesh was ruhbed and scrubbed 

 several times every day with the strigil, a sort 

 of curry-comb, after baths that were merely 

 douches of cold salt water thrown over the ath- 

 lete while he was standing naked after severe 

 exercise. His diet was restricted to nearly 

 raw meat and almost no vegetables, his exer- 

 cise was of the hardest and most laborious, 

 and consistsd of running in heavy clothing, 

 lifting heavy weights, severe bouts at boxing 

 and wrestling, horse-backriding, and vaulting, 

 much of the work being done with more or 

 less of the accoutrements of the ancient sol- 

 dier. This system tended to produce big, 

 showy muscles and soundness of wind and 

 limb, but it made a man simply large and 

 strong, not quick or graceful, or at all clever ; 

 it had much the same effect that the work of 

 a blacksmith at the present day has npon the 

 followers of that trade. 



In the ancient games a subdivision of labor, 

 such as is now in vogue at the games of our 

 modern athletic clubs, was not known. A 

 man had to be what is now known as an all- 

 round athlete or nothing, unless he competed 

 only at such military exercises as casting jave- 

 lins or weights, or shooting in the archery con- 

 tests, or was a slinger. There was no knowl- 

 edge of the advantages of developing one 

 man's legs for running and another man's 

 arms, shoulders, and back for weight-putting 

 or lifting. The old Greek and Roman systems 

 of physical training were in very many ways 

 radically different from the modern French 

 school of calisthenics, which, though they 

 place rather too much dependence on lightness 

 and quickness in all their exercises, are rapidly 

 finding favor with the best modern thinkers 

 on athletic subjects. 



About all we know of the old English sys- 

 tems of physical training is their method of 

 preparing prize-fighters and runners for their 

 contests. A great change has surely taken 

 place in the past thirty years. As the present 

 system has, we are quite sure, produced a 

 more rapid and effective class of fighters, and 

 has, we know, lowered even the sometimes 

 more than doubtful records of the old English 

 foot-runners and walkers, we must accept it 

 as being at least considerably nearer the mark. 

 Two hundred years ago in England the science 

 of boxing, as it got to be a century later, was 

 but little understood. Though the nobility 

 and even royalty patronized the ring, only 

 one or two men had a much better idea of 

 fighting scientifically, as it is now understood, 

 than to toe a scratch, round after round, and 

 see which could take the most punishment in 

 the shape of broken noses, jaws, and teeth, 

 and closed-up eyes. The idea of getting in, 

 administering punishment, and getting away 

 without a blow, was almost unknown. A hun- 

 dred years ago an English prize-fighter was 

 taken from his haunts for a match gotten up 

 for him by his backers members of the no- 



bility, very likely and put in training. The 

 old-time trainers must have thought a man in 

 anything like a natural state to be in a very 

 foul condition from the number of purges and 

 physics they prescribed for his stomach, the 

 first thing to be attended to. Black draughts 

 and other strong physics were given, and a 

 man would sometimes lose as much as thirty 

 pounds by physicking alone before he was al- 

 lowed to have any exercise. It sometimes re- 

 quired two weeks to get over the weakness 

 and sickness that this occasioned. The weak- 

 ness partially over, he was put upon a diet in 

 which the rarest of meats was the principal 

 part. "Wines and spirits were quite freely in- 

 dulged in, but vegetables were forbidden until 

 the battle was over. The exercise or work 

 given a man in training at this time was entire- 

 ly wrong, according to modern ideas. He was 

 required to be up, in summer, as early as four 

 o'clock, and exercise with clubs and dumb- 

 bells and take a long walk, all before break- 

 fast, a practice now universally acknowledged 

 to be wrong. Of several essays lately submit- 

 ted to a committee for a prize in a London 

 competition, only one advocated exercise of 

 any kind, save perhaps a few minutes' walk or 

 five minutes' work of the lightest description 

 with a three-pound pair of dumb-bells, before 

 breakfast. An hour after breakfast the man 

 in training was walked out to a track for a 

 morning sweat, and here, enveloped in heavy 

 flannels, he ran ten or twenty miles. Then he 

 punched a heavy sand-bag for an hour, and 

 put up heavy dumb-bells, and swung heavy 

 clubs, all this being done not only in heavy 

 flannels, but oftentimes in a suit of ordinary 

 or perhaps winter clothes as well, and broad- 

 soled shoes with lead in the bottoms. As he 

 walked or ran he either carried a pair of one- 

 pound dumb-bells or twirled a stout stick, to 

 strengthen the hands and forearms and keep 

 the small bones of both from being in as much 

 danger of breaking. After about three or four 

 hours of hard work he was stripped, sponged 

 off, and rubbed down, then wet down with 

 whisky, and, after dressing in a clean suit of 

 flannel underclothes, would stroll home for din- 

 ner. In the afternoon the work, but not quite 

 as much of it, was repeated. After supper 

 came a walk till bed-time. In most prize-fight- 

 ing matches in the olden time the men were 

 not allowed to exceed a stipulated weight, 

 which doubtless caused much of the severity 

 of the training. If a man, on the day of fight- 

 ing, was overweight, his hackers would lose 

 their money, just as if he lost by being de- 

 feated. Particular care was taken to harden 

 the skin of the hands, face, and feet, and for 

 this many decoctions were in use. About the 

 best and almost the only harmless things to 

 use are rock salt and water and a little lemon 

 and whisky. A pail of water with a large 

 lump of rock salt in the bottom should be used 

 to soak the feet in every morning and night 

 for a week or two before and during training. 



