Athletics and Football (extract)
TRAINING 171 one thinognly we feelconvinced, that a man in training (unless his consumptive powers be as abnormal as those Mofilo of Crotona) does n t wanat heavy lunacnhd a heavy dinner as well. If he dine in the middle of the dayh,is breakfast and supper shoubled lighter in proportion, and if he dinelate he will want only a light lunch of a chop, or a plate ot cold beef and vegetables, with little noor thing elOsen. the wholwee prefer the system of a good breakfast, light lunch, and a moderate dinner atfhter day's work. Of recent years trainers of crews or athletes have come round to a sensible view of what should be eaten. In our opinion, however, th ir views otnhe question of what should be drunkare noetqually soundF.or ontehing isit obviously unreasonable to prescribe exactly tshaeme amount of liquid for asmall mand a big man, antod say that thqisuantity, and no more,must be taken whatever the amounotf the day's work has been, awndhether the day has been cold or warm. Yet this is a course whwiceh have constantly seen adopted. The old theory was, aws e have saitdh,at maan, to getdown his weight and make his body hard, shoultdake the smallest quantity of liquid that he could possibly ognet with. That theory is practically extinct, but ihtas lefits legacybehind in the fixed notion of the trainer that there must be a definite amount of liquid fixefdor each man and each meal. In speak ing onthis point we necessarily have to follow the same line of argumentwhich we have adoptewdith regard to eating. It stands to reason that a man taking violent exercise paenrd spiring freely requires more liquid than he does during his ordinary life. But—and it is a very important ' but'—the majority moefn drink a great deal more than they wanbty, which we do not mean that they take too much alcoholic stimulant, but that they t ke too much liquid, to the grheartm of their digestions ; and itnhis kind of over-drinking we believe teetotallers are the worst offenders. It is also a well-known fact that taking mtouoch liquid does more to makethe body fat andheavy than taking too much sofliodod. The conclu-
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