Athletics of To-Day 1929

---- Athletics of To-day thing to do with it, of course, but I fancy the warmth is far more important. Even cold-blooded creatures, like frogs and tortoises, move faster in hot tropical sunshine, while the latter move hardly at all in a European winter. It amounts to this– that everything in the human machine-like the motor engine– goes on more rapidly when that machine is warm. Most important of all, when the body temperature is raised the muscles send their tt news" more rapidly to the nervous system, and receive back their orders by "express" return. The nerve impulses in a man at 37 degrees Centigrade pass as quickly as 400 ft. per second. Obviously, therefore, the man who raises his body temperature by limbering up in warm clothing, such as Paavo Nurmi is wearing in Picture No. r, Plate rr, must be better able to respond quickly to the starter's gun signal or to his own orders to throw or jump, than is another man whose body is cold; for the latter has not the advantage of full oxidation of the lungs, heart, and muscles, nor is his personal " telephone exchange '' working at the highest attainable speed. Any coach will tell you that it is necessary to resume your sweater and track trousers between h ats of races, or while awaiting your next turn to throw or jump. The Finns go even further than this. Not only do they limber up before a contest in the sort of sweat suit that urmi wears and put it on again after each jump or throw, but I have remark dr peatedlythat, when a heat in a running cont st is over, th track suit i put on again, th man go s back to the dr s ing-room, gets on to the rubbing-table, and has his limbs ma sag d through his sweat suit. The reason for thi is that the 1 inns und r tand that the body had reached its highe t efficiency at the finishing tem– p rature in the h at just run and strive ther fore to have the subject's body as nearly a pos ible at th sam t mp rature when h go s out to run in the nsuing heat or final. If you ask a trainer why massage and warmth are so necessary he will t ll you it is to prev nt your muscl s from becoming chilled and stiff; but no sci ntist ha yet, to the b st of my knowledge, discovered what stiffness really is. We know that