Why? The Science of Athletics

50 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS starting out on the forehead to denote the increased blood pressure, the lips drawn back from the clenched teeth in a sort of dreadful snarl, and the straining muscles of the neck. All these characteristics are shown clearly in Fig. 3, Plate I. It is not suggested that such a mask is beautiful, but it portrays the expression the coach must watch for, if he wishes to assure himself that the athlete he is training is giving all that_there is in him to the effort he is making. Breathlessness is the first acute form of Breathlessness fatigue which ensues upon sustained violent effort. Violent effort interferes with res– piration, as we have already seen, and so the waste pro– ducts of exhaustion accumulate very rapidly in the lungs, which are unable to get rid of the load of waste matter as fast as it is created. This acute breathlessness causes perhaps as great a pain as a man can experience and he feels that he cannot possibly run another stride, and yet it often happens that there comes a queer relief when the breaking point seems to have been reached. What really happens is that the respiration and the heart contrive to respond to the demands made upon them and a new level is established to enable the lungs to get rid of some, at all events, of the waste products of exhaustion with which they are being encumbered. Of other poisons which are not eliminated I will speak later, when we come to consider fatigue. Meanwhile, what are the characteristic facial expres– sions which reveal to us the history of the bad time that the runner is enduring? No longer are the teeth clenched and the eyelids drawn down. This man's brow is wrinkled, his eyes are sometimes shut, more often they are open, as if he was staring in despair for someone to aid him, his eyebrows are drawn up and -in, his nostrils are set wide and his mouth is open. The lips are drawn back and the eyelids seem to be drooping under a weight of pain the runner _is finding almost insupportable. In truth, he is literally fighting for breath. He throws back his head