Why? The Science of Athletics

332 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS light lunch. Logically, therefore, it would seem wise for him: to partake of a large meal. This is not so. We have only enough blood to look after one of two systems at a time, regarding in this connection the muscular system and the digestive apparatus as separate entities. When muscles are working at full pressure there is but little blood in the intestinal tract, and, vice versa, the blood is iN the intestinal tract and out of the muscles (broadly speaking) when the stomach is full of food and the athlete is properly rested. It is the vasomotor centre in the brain which controls the blood distribution, but the blood is not Fedistributed from the muscles to the digestive apparatus with the speed of magic, and a man quitting the stadium after a strenuous competition has still most of the blood in the muscular system and very little in the intestinal tract. If he then sits down to a heavy meal he is likely to feel anything but well upon the following morning. A light evening meal after a big competition is undoubtedly beneficial to the athlete, and if he still feels tired the next morning his diet should be light on that day as well. The moment, however, he begins to feel fit and refreshed he should be allowed to eat his ordinary training meals, with, perhaps, some table-luxury thrown in as a reward. Harvard System and American Experience At a conference of doctors held in New York some years ago there was a general consensus of opinion that training tables (i.e. dietary for athletes and others in training) were of doubtful value. This opinion was, however, entirely refuted by Dr. T. K. Richards, who is in charge of the medical organization at Harvard University and is a first-rate authority. Dr. Richards made his declaration and stated his point of view in a lec;ture delivered during the Wingate Memorial Lectures session I 930-3 I. He explained firstly that the feeling of himself and his colleagues at Harvard had more or less coincided, some years earlier, with that