Athletic Training

158 ATHLETIC TRAINING dition when he reported to me, but so was every other organ in his body. What he needed was some exercise to tone him up. And this is about all the treatment a great many other persons need who imagine that any kind of athletic competition will be fatal to them. Several years before this I had another case. I was training a couple of men in whom a friend of mine was interested. This friend frequented the training-grounds a great deal and continually complained of a pain in his left side. He had been told that he had heart trouble and that, in consequence, he must not take any violent exercise. His father and brother had dropped dead from heart-disease, and he expected the same fate. I induced him to begin an easy course of ex– ercise. At first it was confined to short walks. Next I persuaded him to limit his smoking to two cigars a day and to live the simple life, eating only such food as could be had at our training-table. The change in his condition was remarkable. After a few weeks of this life he had no pain in his side, and he could walk as far as any of us without feeling any