largely individual. And yet in this country the annual Turnerfest brings 4,000 or
5,000 men from all parts of the Union, who sometimes all deploy and go through
some of the standard exercises together under one leader. Instead of training a
few athletes, the real problem now presented is how to raise the general level of
vitality so that children and youth may be fitted to stand the strain of modern
civilization, resist zymotic diseases, and overcome the deleterious influences of
city life. The almost immediate effects of systematic training are surprising and
would hardly be inferred from the annual increments tabled earlier in this
chapter. Sandow was a rather weakly boy and ascribes his development chiefly
to systematic training.
We have space but for two reports believed to be typical. Enebuske reports on
the effects of seven months' training on young women averaging 22.3 years. The
figures are based on the 50 percentile column.
————————+————+—————————————————+
———— | | Strength of | |Lung | | | |right |left |Total |capacity| legs |back
|chest|forearm|forearm|Strength ————————+————+———+——-+
——-+———-+———-+———— Before training | 2.65 | 93 |65.5 | 27 | 26 | 23
| 230 After six months| 2.87 | 120 |81.5 | 32 | 28 | 25 | 293 ————————+
————+———+——-+——-+———-+———-+————
By comparing records of what he deems standard normal growth with that of
188 naval cadets from sixteen to twenty-one, who had special and systematic
training, just after the period of most rapid growth in height, Beyer concluded
that the effect of four years of this added a little over an inch of stature, and that
this gain as greatest at the beginning. This increase was greatest for the youngest
cadets. He found also a marked increase in weight, nearly the same for each year
from seventeen to twenty one. This he thought more easily influenced by
exercise than height. A high vital index ratio of lung capacity to weight is a very
important attribute of good training. Beyer[1] found, however, that the addition
of lung area gained by exercise did not keep up with the increase thus caused in
muscular substance, and that the vital index always became smaller in those who
had gained weight and strength by special physical training. How much gain in
weight is desirable beyond the point where the lung capacity increases at an
equal rate is unknown. If such measurements were applied to the different
gymnastic systems, we might be able to compare their efficiency, which would
be a great desideratum in view of the unfortunate rivalry between them. Total
strength, too, can be greatly increased. Beyer thinks that from sixteen to twenty-