Validity of Ergograph as Measurer of Work Capacity 39 



fallen out uniformly higher than morning records is pretty good 

 proof that there is none. We must therefore attribute the 

 increase to the general processes of upbuilding which take place 

 as the result of practice, and that we have here a demonstration 

 of the reasonableness of the phenomenon of overtraining which 

 has been so often observed empirically. Prize fighters allow two 

 or three days for "drying out" before a fight, during which train- 

 ing is suspended. The amount of practice which will yield the 

 greatest increase in power keeps the organism in a condition of 

 incipient exhaustion, so that the maximum performance for which 

 the training may have prepared the organism is most likely to be 

 attained only after a suspension of practice for a day or two, to 

 allow the organism to build itself up. Fatigue is, therefore, a 

 necessary condition of practice gain ; it is essential to growth in 

 general. 



Recuperation. — An observation, as has been stated above, con- 

 sisted of three fatigue curves, the first and second, and the second 

 and third being separated by minute pauses. The question of the 

 value of the pause immediately presents itself, and, furthermore, 

 that of the influence of practice upon the relative efficiency of the 

 pause at the beginning and end of the experiment. 



In the following table the average amounts of work for the 

 successive curves for all periods of work have been brought to- 

 gether, along with the total amounts of work for the three 

 curves. Percentages for the second and third curves are given, 

 the first curve being taken in every case as 100 per cent. 



117 



