HOW TO BECOME A GYMNAST
Much benefit can be derived from gymnastic appliances if they are
used understandingly. No advantage is to be gained by exercise that
is carried on in a careless manner. Neither too much nor too violent
exercise is beneficial, though constant and regular work is necessary.
It is better to work for a certain length of time every other day than
to devote all of one week to exercise, and not go near the gymnasium
the next.
To use any apparatus carelessly is to use it dangerously. The writer
has had many of his worst falls in doing some of the simplest tricks,
because he was careless, and did not put his entire mind upon what he
was doing. There is something besides and beyond the mere pleasure of
being able to perform tricks in a gymnasium; there is a lasting benefit
to be obtained in careful gymnastic exercise.
In beginning your exercises there are two points that you must bear in
mind always. Stand erect, and before beginning any work draw a long
deep breath. Breathe from the abdomen, so that the lower parts of the
lungs are expanded. You will find by following this simple advice
that anything you attempt will be much easier for you than if you go
about your exercises in a careless or slouchy way. There should be no
round-shouldered gymnasts. There is no one who has achieved distinction
as a gymnast who is not as straight as an arrow, and across whose
shoulder-blades a yardstick could not be placed without touching his
back.
In your exercises avoid devoting too much time to one kind of work.
Do not spend all your time, for instance, on the horizontal bar, or
on the parallel bars. What all would-be gymnasts should strive for is
a symmetrical development of their muscles. You do not want to have
legs like a piano, hard and knotted with muscles, and arms like pipe
stems. Nor do you want to have the arms and chest of a blacksmith, and
legs like those of a crane. You want to have all your muscles developed
alike, not one at the expense of another. To avoid this lop-sided
kind of growth is the reason that gymnasiums have such a variety of
appliances.
Now for the apparatus, and how it should be used. What boy, especially
if he has lived in the country, has not tried to climb a rope, or go
up a ladder hand over hand, and then, for the first time in his life,
realised how heavy he is? Perhaps no form of exercise develops so
quickly the upper arm and the chest as work on the rope and ladder in a
gymnasium. In practising on the ladder, first try to pull yourself up
until your chin is even with the rung. Keep at this exercise until you
can repeat it three or four times without tiring yourself; then try to
reach the rung above. Do not go up too far at first, for you may find
yourself many feet from the floor without strength enough to come back
as you went up. That, it is almost needless for me to remind you, means
a fall--and a hard one too it may be. The same advice applies to the
rope.
Almost as quick results may be obtained by practice with the
dumb-bells, with which it is possible to exercise almost every muscle
in the body. The dumb-bells should be light. Too heavy dumb-bells are
apt to make a boy slow and sluggish in his movements. The proper weight
for a beginner is half a pound, and under no circumstances should a boy
use for regular exercise bells that weigh more than two pounds. Indian
clubs are valuable, chiefly in strengthening the muscles of the arms
and wrists.
Exercises on the rings are divided into two classes--stationary and
swinging. In the former the rings are not swung. In the latter the
tricks are performed while swinging. There are two ways of grasping the
rings with the hands. In "single grip," the rings are clasped as a boy
grips his base-ball bat when he is ready to strike. It is used chiefly
in swinging tricks. In the "double-grip," the thumbs are kept close to
the palms, and the hands rest on and over the rings.
The first trick on the rings, and the one that must be mastered before
anything else is attempted, is the "breast-up." This consists in taking
a double-grip, and raising the body so that the chin is even with the
hands. The hands and wrists should be over the rings, and the elbows
straight out from the shoulder. Now, by leaning forward you necessarily
bring your hands under your armpits, and you find yourself in such a
position that you can push down on the rings and raise your body erect
by simply straightening your arms. You must not expect to be able
to do this the first time. It will take many efforts before you can
accomplish it. The best way to learn it is to hold your weight with one
hand, after you have raised your chin even with the rings, while you
practise pulling the other in and under your armpit. When a boy can do
this trick easily he will find that he has strength and skill enough to
learn the other feats, of which this is the foundation.
In horizontal bar exercises the "breast-up" is executed in the same
way, but it is seldom used in getting up on the bar. A much prettier
way is the trick called the "circle." This is done by clasping the bar
with the double-grip--which, by-the-way, is the only one used on the
bar--and raising your body as high as you can. If you can raise your
chin above the bar, all the better. Now raise your legs in front of
you as high as possible, and lift them over the bar, letting your head
drop back. This will bring your legs and body down on the other side.
If a boy can do this with a fortnight's hard practice, he is doing
remarkably well. In learning this trick lower the bar to the height
of the shoulder and start the "circle" with a jump, which materially
assists your progress during the revolution.
All boys who practise on the horizontal bar probably have in mind the
"giant swing," the hardest and most daring feat on the bar; but that is
a long way in the future, and many other tricks must be mastered before
it should even be attempted. Perhaps the best of these intermediate
exercises is the "hook swing." This is a very neat trick. You sit on
the bar, apparently fall backward, catching the bar in the knee joints,
and swing around, until you come up in your original position without
touching your hands to the bar. It is not so hard as it looks if you
go about it in the right way, and this is the proper way:
First practise by hanging head downward from the bar by the knees.
Any boy can do this; but to learn the rest of the trick you need two
assistants, who take hold of your hands and swing you gently at first,
gradually increasing the swing as you gain confidence. When you can
swing easily and safely without losing your grip and falling to the
mattress as you swing backward, straighten your knees, and you will
leave the bar and alight upon your feet. Your assistants will save you
from falling on your head should you happen to let go with your knees
too soon, which you would certainly do more times than once should you
attempt the trick alone. Practise this until you can do it without help.
The next step is to sit on the bar, which should be lowered to within
four feet of the ground, and fall backward. When you come to the end of
the swing, let go with your knees and alight on your feet. At first you
will need help in this, as in the early part of the practice.
When this is learned you can go half-way around. The object now is to
come back to the position you originally had on the top of the bar. The
mistake that nine boys out of ten make at this point is in thinking
that all that is needed to complete the revolution is to give the body
a harder swing. When you dropped from the bar in the way I have just
described it was because you straightened your knees. If you bent your
knees more at this point in the swing, and at the same time threw your
head back, you would have found yourself on the bar instead of on the
mattress. To prevent accident at first, you should have an assistant
stand in front of you, so that in case you should pitch forward the
moment you reach the top of the bar, you will fall into his arms. In
case you should swing so hard that you cannot stop when your body
becomes erect, you will simply make another half-revolution backward,
when you can straighten your legs and come down on your feet in the way
described already.
The most important exercises on the parallel bars are called the "dip"
and the "grasshopper." To do a "dip," stand between the bars, placing
your hands upon them, and raise your body to arm's length. Then lower
the body and raise it again by bending and straightening the arms.
To do a "grasshopper," begin in the same manner, but as the arms are
almost straight make a little forward jump, lifting your hands from the
bars, and bringing them down a few inches in advance of their original
position. In this way you can travel from one end of the bar to the
other, as this trick can be done equally well forward and backward. The
jump may be combined with a swing in an exercise called the "pump."
These tricks are easily learned; they are very safe and make muscle
fast. The chief danger in their use lies in their over-indulgence. In
this, as in all other gymnastic exercises, enough is as good as a feast.
The flying trapeze is the most difficult of all the apparatus, and
feats on the double trapeze are dangerous even to the trained gymnast.
After you have mastered the exercises already described, it will be
time enough for you to think about the trapeze.
Do not practise just before your meal hour, nor directly after it. The
best time is from an hour and a half to two hours after eating. Do not
practise for over an hour a day at first; that is sufficient for any
boy provided he does not waste his time. It should be remembered that
gymnastic feats are not necessary for health. It is quite possible to
exercise all the muscles without an indulgence in dangerous displays;
but many boys have the courage, the desire, and the skill to pass from
exercises to gymnastics.
We may supplement our remarks by adding some observations upon how he
became a gymnast by a writer who chooses to be known as "An Ex-Little
Fellow." He says: I have no doubt at least one of the readers of this
book is a little fellow. He has just as much pluck as his bigger
brother, his eye is as true and his mind as quick, but he does not
weigh enough to be a success at athletics. His arms are too weak to
knock out home-runs; his legs are not strong enough to carry a football
through a rush line; and as for his back, the muscles are not hard
enough, and the other fellow always turns him over when they are
wrestling on the grass.
This little fellow doubtless thinks he is made that way, and cannot
help himself. No matter how much he dislikes it, he feels that he will
have to go through life watching bigger and stronger fellows playing
all the games and having most of the fun. Now this is all a mistake,
that is, if the little fellow has as much pluck and perseverance as
little fellows generally have.
The writer of this sketch was a little fellow himself not many years
ago. He remembers how he used to look with complete and absolute
disgust on his bony little arms and thin pipe-stem legs. He used to
look at the big muscles of one or two companions with hopeless envy. In
fact, it got so bad that this particular little fellow determined to
get strong, if it took years to do it.
The first thing was to get a bar. I selected a nice spot in the garden,
planted deep in the ground two heavy timber uprights, and fastened
firmly across the top, with mortised ends, a long heavy pitchfork
handle, which was purchased at a village store, at a cost, I believe,
of tenpence. When the turning-pole was finished, the next thing was to
learn to do something. The first thing I learned was to hang on the
pole. This may not seem like a very exciting trick, but the fact is my
muscles were so weak that it took all my strength to hang there.
After hanging awhile I learned to swing a little back and forth,
working up higher and higher, and it was a proud day when I was able
to swing my body up over the bar, and rest my stomach on the top of
it. Then I had to learn to "chin myself." This came more slowly; but
daily practice at dumb-bells and constant tugging at the bar gradually
hardened the biceps and back, until on one happy day my arms bent to
the strain, my head went up, and my chin projected triumphantly over
the bar.
By this time the other boys became interested. They began to put bars
in their own yards, and the little fellow had to superintend the
operation and give instructions. The uprights should be about three by
three, and planted with side braces. The post-holes should be at least
three feet deep, and after the posts are set, filled in with stones
and earth firmly stamped down. The bar must be just a couple of inches
out of one's reach standing under it flat footed. Half a dozen private
bars resulted in a gymnasium in an empty stable loft, equipped with a
bar, a ladder, and two trapezes. The little fellow watched his arms and
legs with great concern, and could not for the life of him see that
they were getting any bigger.
[Illustration: "OTHER BOYS BECAME INTERESTED."]
It did not take many months for the breeze to blow over with the other
boys, but the little fellow kept on. When the weather got too cold
for the out-door bar, he read Blaikie's _How to get Strong_, and went
through the prescribed dumb-bell exercises every night before going
to bed. Then two pairs of cleats were put in the door-frame, as Mr
Blaikie directs, and a short bar cut to fit them. It did not improve
the looks of the bedroom door, but the little fellow was determined
to have muscle at any cost, and swung on the high bar, and pushed on
the low one every night for the whole winter. The next spring he was
happy. His chest was beginning to stand out in front of his shoulders,
and his biceps were swelling a little. He and his chum purchased a boat
that summer, and rowed on the river every day, until they were brown as
Indians, and could beat most of the light craft on the river.
The following year the little fellow went to the city, and joined a
Y.M.C.A. gymnasium. There was plenty of good apparatus here, and he
watched the other fellows and tried their tricks. A year or two in this
gymnasium, with daily rowing in the summer, began to tell. The little
fellow stripped at 123 pounds now; his arms were brown and sinewy; he
could hold a good steady stroke for ten or fifteen miles in a working
boat; could run several miles at a dog-trot; and had learned to "handle
his body" on the bar.
Then he went to college, and in the gymnasium his arms, brown to the
shoulders from rowing in the sun, won him among his classmates the
sobriquet of "Athlete." This was very agreeable to the little fellow.
Four years of work and practice in a college gymnasium could have only
one result. At the end of that time the little fellow was no longer a
little fellow. He weighed in his clothes 150 pounds, and every muscle
in his body was hard and well trained. The friends who came down to
college to see him get his diploma were greatly surprised to see him
on the programme as Captain of the Gymnastic Team, and still more
astonished to see him no longer a little fellow, but a stout gymnast
circling the bar, swinging gaily on the trapezes, and building pyramids
with his nimble _confreres_. That is not very long ago, and now the
little fellow is surprised to find himself spoken of as about the best
gymnast in one of the largest amateur athletic clubs in the country.
So much for our "Ex-Little Fellow"; and now we may recount how Mr. E.
Lawrence Levy became the amateur champion weight lifter of the world.
Although when a boy at school he was proficient in nearly every branch
of athletics, and an adept at all games, it was not until later years
that he turned his attention to gymnastics. It came about in this way.
When twenty-five years old, Mr. Levy, having passed from school-boy
to tutor, started a school of his own, and with a genuine love of
athletics and a knowledge of the benefit which boys may gain from them
by following them within reason, he had fitted up in his school-room a
trapeze on which he was wont to practise with his pupils. Finding that
it was scarcely safe to do this without skilled tuition, he sent for
Professor Hubbard, the instructor of the Birmingham Athletic Club. The
result was that the trapeze was removed from the school-room to the
playground, where other appliances such as horizontal and parallel bars
were also fixed. Here Mr. Levy again joined his pupils, and then, after
three or four lessons, he, to the instructor's surprise, accomplished
several feats which are, as a rule, only achieved by practised
gymnasts. Finding that he was outstripping his boys, he determined to
join the Birmingham Athletic Club. Here he was able to measure himself
against men of his own age and strength.
It was at the club gymnasium that he one night saw the heavy dumb-bells
belonging to two professional "strong men." He tried to lift the bells,
but failed. This seems to have shaped his future course. Instead of
being discouraged by failure, he determined to overcome all obstacles
and go in for heavy dumb-bell exercise. He began with comparatively
light bells, and with these he practised in the solitude of his
school-room for hours at a time. Then he bought two new bells weighing
28 lbs. each, using them assiduously until he could do almost anything
with them--holding them out at arms' length, bringing them down to the
sides of his legs and up again.
When he had thoroughly mastered the "twenty-eights," he tried two
"fifty-sixes." These he retained for months, being determined not to
attempt the heavier bells until he was quite perfect with the lighter
ones. At length Mr. Levy was able to put up the 112 lb. dumb-bell.
This was more than any member of the Birmingham Gymnasium had ever
done, and it then became necessary to add two 84 lb. dumb-bells to the
collection. With these Mr. Levy began quietly practising, one at a
time. Then he took to using them together, and gradually overcoming the
difficulties of the harder work, succeeded one evening in putting them
up simultaneously.
From that point he never went back. Having done as much with the
dumb-bells as at the time seemed possible, he decided to add the
lifting of bar-bells to his exercises. He bought three, weighing 140
lbs., 165 lbs. and 180 lbs. He practised assiduously with these, but
all the time he was yearning to do still bigger feats with dumb-bells.
At last his opportunity came. One Friday evening, on visiting the
Gymnasium, he found a dumb-bell weighing 150 lbs. It had been sent
there for exhibition by some professionals who were visiting the city.
He tried to put it up, and failed; but the dogged perseverance which
marked his whole career came once again to his aid. Finding that the
huge plaything was to be left at the gymnasium till the following
Tuesday, he began practising indefatigably, and on the Tuesday evening,
in the presence of his club fellows, he achieved his self-imposed task.
The next week a dumb-bell of the same weight (150 lbs.) was added
to his private collection, and he used it regularly. This private
collection now consisted of two 28 lbs., two 56 lbs., two 84 lbs.,
two 100 lbs., one 112 lbs., and one 150 lbs. in dumb-bells, the three
bar-bells already mentioned, and two iron bars, one 70 lbs. and one
120 lbs.--all these, together with two ring weights of 56 lbs. each,
representing a total weight of nearly sixteen hundred pounds.
Mr. Levy appeared constantly in public. In 1891 he won the contest,
held then for the first time, for the amateur weight-lifting
championship, and afterwards he succeeded, at Northampton, in
establishing a new record by putting up above his head no fewer than
ten times a bar-bell weighing in all 170 lbs.
Of the recognised records for weight-lifting he held as many as nine;
but Mr. Levy did not confine himself to one branch of gymnastics, nor
made gymnastics his only athletic exercise. Each year at the grand
"display" of the Birmingham Athletic Club he figured as a leader in
exercises on the horizontal and parallel bars and on the rings. He
was also an enthusiastic and expert cyclist, and took an intelligent
interest in nearly every form of manly sport. He was, too, a busy brain
worker.
His height was 5 feet 3-1/2 inches; his chest measurement 41 inches; he
weighed 11 st. 4 lbs., and had biceps measuring 16 inches and a forearm
of 12-1/4 inches. At twenty-five years of age, before he took to
gymnastics, his chest measurement was 34 inches, and the circumference
of his biceps was twelve inches.
[Illustration: "ACHIEVED HIS SELF-IMPOSED TASK."]
To my readers I commend Mr. Levy as an example of what pluck and
perseverance will do when used to a rational end. For the benefit of
those who may wish to follow in his footsteps, I will quote some advice
from his own pen:--
"In gymnastics it is never too late to begin. There may be some who may
want, like I did, to emulate the deeds of the strong men whom every
age supplies; to them I would say, give yourself up to your favourite
exercise as you would to music if you would excel in it. Athleticism is
as jealous an accomplishment as any art you would acquire. Excel in it
and you will find your reward in that rough physical vigour which the
world has not ceased to admire. In order to gain it you will go through
a course of training which will lay the impress of health on all you
do. Instead of defying nature you will learn more readily to obey her,
and your obedience will be gratefully, cheerfully accorded, for you
will realise how magnificent it is to be strong yourself, and by your
example and your deeds inspire others to dignify their physical powers."
It would be difficult to say which ranks the higher in the estimation
of modern boys--brain or muscle. Certain it is that in these days boys
of "grit" feel a contemptuous pity for the youth who is "all head and
no muscle." Possibly most readers will admit that muscular and mental
development should go together, and that modern athletics are the
necessary adjunct of school life for the building up of a "sound mind
in a sound body" (_Mens sana in corpore sano_).
Of the ancients it may be said that their faith was in "muscle." Even
old Homer, philosopher and poet, goes so far as to say, "There is
no greater honour for a man during his life than that he should be
accomplished in the use of his hands and feet." It was the "man of
muscle" who in ancient Greece received the highest honours and rewards;
it was for him that breaches were made in the city walls that he might
pass through in his triumphal march. It was he who was relieved from
the payment of taxes, whose statue was erected at the public cost, and
whose praise was sung by the poets.
In ancient days leaders and rulers were selected simply on account of
their development of "muscle." Hence we read of Caius Maximinus, who
from the lowly position of herdsman, was raised to the dignity of a
Roman Emperor on account of his physical strength. This Maximinus, it
is said, could squeeze to powder the hardest stone with his fingers,
and history tells us that on one occasion he "knocked down six men
without drawing breath!" Those fingers of his must surely have been
moved by muscles of iron, and his "biceps" must have appeared a
veritable mountain! A consideration of the fact that Maximinus was
upwards of eight feet in height renders these feats less surprising,
but to most beef-eating British boys it will perhaps be a "staggerer"
to learn that the mighty deeds of Maximinus were performed on a
vegetable diet.
[Illustration: MILO OF CROTONA.]
The history of another muscular leader, Milo of Crotona, may possibly
have some elements of truth in it, and we can quite imagine his
marching with his countrymen against an army of Sybarites, clothed in
a lion's skin and brandishing a tremendous club; but it will take more
than the proverbial "grain of salt" to enable us to swallow the story
of his running a mile with a four-year-old ox on his shoulders, killing
the animal, and _eating the carcase, every inch, in one day_!
It is not the way of modern athletes to show their strength by killing
four-year-old oxen, or knocking men down like ninepins. They let us see
their development of muscle at the wrestling match, at the oar and the
wicket, at swimming and cycling, at their walking, running, and leaping
performances, and one great advantage of this is that the ladies, who
were excluded from the ancient "gymnasia" on pain of death, can in
these days, by their presence, not only secure enjoyment to themselves,
but give pleasure and encouragement to many an aspirant for athletic
fame, who, if for no other reason, would endure the hardest training to
"win the plaudits of the fair."
In the matter of training and developing the muscles, the old Italian
proverb will, as in so many other cases, apply, "_Chi va piano va
sano e lontano_," or, as we should say, "He that goes gently and
steadily goes safely and far." There must be moderation in the
commencement, or there will be a "breakdown" in the end. No youth who
doubts the soundness of his heart and lungs should go in for muscular
training--for heavy work with the dumb-bells, for instance--without
medical advice. To weakly constitutions training may be injurious--even
fatal. In developing the voluntary muscles, as of the arm and leg, the
growth of which we can measure, we must be careful of the involuntary
muscles--those regulating the heart and lungs, and which are naturally
and unconsciously brought into use. Of course, those muscles most
brought into play by special exercise will be most developed--of the
legs and thighs, for instance, in _walking_, and those of the arms,
legs, and loins in _rowing_. For the general development of muscle,
it is, of course, well to "take on" those sets of muscles not used in
one's ordinary occupation. Thus a youth who is sitting the greater part
of his time at study or work should walk, swim, and row; one who has a
walking occupation would do well to take both to rowing and swimming;
whilst a "waterman" would do best to go in for hard walking.
Every one knows that diet has a great deal to do with the development
or deterioration of "muscle," and that meat, vegetables, and drink
should be very judiciously combined. Weston--whose great walk, in 1884,
of 5,000 miles in 100 days, was spoken of by Dr. Andrew Blyth as "the
greatest recorded labour, if its continuity be considered, that a human
being has ever taken without injury"--dieted himself as follows:--
BREAKFAST (6.30 a.m.).--Porridge, eggs or fish, bread and butter, toast
or mutton, and coffee.
LUNCH (11 a.m.).--Bread and butter, and coffee.
DINNER (2 p.m.).--Mutton broth, meat, potatoes, cabbage, bread pudding,
and soda water or ginger ale.
TEA (7 p.m.).--A little toast, and tea or coffee.
SUPPER (10.30 p.m.).--Toast, figs, sponge cake, pudding, and milk or
soda water.
It will be thus seen that alcohol formed no part of Weston's diet, and
that his principal drinks were _tea_, _coffee_, and _milk_.
This says much for the advantage of the practice of total abstinence,
especially in view of the fact of the _continuity_ of muscular
exertion. The number of steps taken in Weston's great walk has been
calculated at about 11,000,000, and the _daily_ work of the muscles
equivalent to that of raising 793 tons one foot.
Another testimony to the advantage of abstinence from stimulants in the
development of "muscle" is given by Louis Cyr, the Canadian athlete,
who secured the title of, "Strongest Man in the World" at a Paris
Exhibition. He weighed 315 lbs., and mentioned, among his feats, that
he could break with his bare fist a stone two inches thick, four inches
wide, and six inches long. He took his wife (who weighed 110 lbs.) and
balanced her on the top of a 12-ft. ladder, resting on his chin. Cyr
said that the great secret of his strength was his total abstinence
from all alcoholic drinks, and this bears out Dr. B. W. Richardson's
statement that "the idea of alcohol giving force and activity to the
muscles is entirely false."