Athletic Sports (extract)

Physical Characteristicsof the Athlete familiar with. Each has played in the rush-line of a foot-ball team, and has been a member of a university boat-crew. Of all athletic sports,foot-ball is the bestgame to test a man physically. In the pushing and hauling, the jostling, trampling strug­ gle forsupremacy, few muscles ofthe body are inactive. The legs are almost con­ stantly in motion, andthe arms, chest, ab­ domen, and backget their shareof activity; the lameness andsoreness in these regions of the body after a fierce contest is due as often to great muscular effort as to collision with opposing rushers. In spite of the accidents attendingthis game, as at present played, no sport affords better opportunity for vigorous training. Though rowing contributes largely to the development of the back and legs, andslightly to the arms and chest, to the gymnasium andfoot-ball training we must attribute much of the superb muscular development of the men just considered. In rowing, the back takes the greatest portion of the strain, unless the friction of the seat is excessive, in which case a double duty is imposed upon the flexors of the legs. A long stroke being desirable, the advantage of a long body, if sufficiently broad and deep to furnish extensive attach- 87