SOME RESULTS OF MUSCULAR TRAINING.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1187, 25 October 1882, Page 2

SOME RESULTS OF MUSCULAR TRAINING.

« In an answer to several inquires as. to the value of rowing, riding, walking, tricyling, boxing, cricket, «fee, as healthful exercises, " Knowledge" says — It will probably sound pai*adosical, after the stress we have laid on the necessity for exercise, to say that we con sider each one of these exercises as pursued by specialists,undeniably bad for the development of a well proportioned and thoroughly healthy frame. Take, for instance, any first-class eleven at cricket ; select, if you please, an eleven such as the Australian, in which allround aptitude is a characteristic feature, and you will invariably find so large a portion of ill-shaped men as to show that thoroughly well-built cricketers owe their goodly proportions to exercise outside cricket. Despite the running involved in the game, four cricketers out of five have badly developed chests. One would say a good bat should have good shoulders, but that batting does not tend to improve the shoulders, is shown by two, at least, of the finest Australian bats. Take rowing again. Unless a rowing man does other work especially intended to correct the defect, he has invariably poor arms above the elbow, a marked inferiority in the development of the chest as compared with the back, and he generally has round shoulders and a forward hang of the head and neck. Rowing is better, but it cannot be pursued with advantage as the. chief exercise a man or boy takes, and it is entirely unsuited to girls and women.