Among the Colored race, there are many splendid types of athletes. In
the old days, the Ethiopian was considered a masterpiece of physical
architecture. He entered any list where muscular power was to be
exhibited and carried off the victory. In great trials of strength and
wrestling he had no superior.
As the Ethiopian was in the past, his descendants in our Colored
Americans are today. In football, baseball, rowing and in wrestling, the
Colored American has no superior in skill or prowess.
Particularly is this the case in the college-trained athlete. His
prowess has brought him fame, his skill and courage have gained for him
the respect and admiration of thousands. Not only that, but it is easily
established from ocular evidence that nearly every college athlete of
prominence has worn his honors with modesty.
There is a native muscular development in the Colored American of
healthy and good habits, which, if directed in the right channels of
athletic activities would lower many a record.
Physical training including athletics is becoming a well outlined course
in every school for colored youth. When in the hands of experienced
teachers, and developed under the direction of a department of physical
education, it will lift our Colored Americans up a few notches higher in
the scale of manhood.
There can be no question about its value as a developer of manhood and a
health producer. But never as a prize-fighting school. This of itself is
debasing in the extreme. We are growing away from the mercenary
brutality of former years, and all classes are vying with one another to
engage in a contest of development that will make for manhood.
Our schools and colleges are aware of the difference between athletics
for health and manhood and the debasing school of the prizefighter. They
are introducing it in many instances, and the course offers an
opportunity not to be ignored or lost. Young man, your physical nature
is part and parcel of your intellectual condition.
Physical exercise is as essential to the growth of the human body as
drink and food is for nourishment.
The human body is developed by muscular exertion, and its good health
and perfect growth depend upon the regular practice of some form of
motion that will bring into use all the various parts of the system.
When we say “regular practice” we mean that if it is desired to maintain
the body in a good condition for the uses and occupations of life,
exercises must be practiced every day—not once in a while, or at random.
The man or woman whose muscles are trained in line with the occupation
pursued for a livelihood, is better fitted to become perfect in that
occupation than one who does not take exercise, or not enough to keep
his usable muscles well trained. Nobody can play the piano perfectly
unless the muscles of the fingers, hand, and wrist have undergone a
severe training. It is the same with driving a nail, digging a garden,
singing a song, or anything requiring muscular exertion, the muscles put
into use must be trained, or there is no perfection in the work.
The first and most important muscle training, in fact the very essence
of physical development, is in breathing. The lungs must have oxygen to
supply the blood, and the oxygen being in the air we breathe, the more
we can put into the lungs, the better for development.
In breathing, the muscles of the chest are expanded in proportion to the
length of the breath taken. The lungs should be filled to their full
capacity, and this can only be done by taking long, deep breaths, slowly
and evenly, swelling out the chest to its widest extent.
The inspiration of the breath should be commenced slowly and continued
evenly until no more air can be inhaled. Then the respiration, or
breathing out should be slow and continuous until you feel the necessity
of taking another breath.
To breathe properly, there must not be anything to restrict the swelling
of the muscles of the chest. Any posture that will give these muscles
free action is proper. Standing, lying, arms extended, held over the
head, head thrown back or forward, are all suitable positions for deep
breathing.
One point to be always borne in mind, is to breathe deep and full
whatever work you are engaged in. In running, the breath is apt to come
in short, snappy volumes, or panting. In hard muscular work with the
arms it is customary to measure the breaths by the exertion employed in
the work. All this is not conducive to deep breathing, and it may be
overcome by a little practice. Try running and at the same time breathe
slowly and deeply and you will run faster and tire out less quickly.
Always breathe through the nostrils and never through the mouth. If you
have to open your mouth to breathe, it is either habit or because the
nostrils are clogged. In the latter case they should be cleared out to
permit drawing in a deep inhalation of air through the channel nature
intended.
The exercises for breathing should be preliminary to any other exercise
of the muscles. The reason for this: Every exercise or movement of the
body either when at work or at play, consumes or burns up a certain
amount of the tissues of the body and these used up tissues must be
replaced, or nature will very soon call a halt and refuse to permit you
to do any work or play—the body becomes used up. The waste of the body
is replaced by the oxygen taken into the lungs through breathing, and a
person may eat all sorts of nourishing foods, and take all kinds of
remedies to restore his weariness and bring him up to his work, but none
of them will be of any avail without the air drawn into the lungs by the
breath. There is where the stomach, the blood, the liver, the heart,
etc., obtain the essential element of oxygen to stimulate them into
activity.
With our breathing regulated, the next step is to begin developing the
other muscles of the body. There is at this point a good rule to follow
which is: Train every muscle of the body uniformly to acquire a general
development along every organ and muscle. This general muscular training
should be begun with the child at an early age, and be conditioned upon
his strength for their quantity of exercise. So a weak person can not
stand as much or as strong exercise as a stronger person. Every one must
be his own judge in this matter. Many noted men have brought on a fatal
illness from over exertion or over exercise at a late age when their
system was not prepared to withstand violent methods. It is said that
James G. Blaine began a course of gymnastic exercises in the belief that
he would gain strength, but it killed him. The younger a beginning is
made at gymnastics, the better it will be in after life.
One point to be remembered is: Never overstrain or attempt to harden the
body. Every shock is dangerous, and the delicate mechanism of the human
body must be handled gently until it can bear greater strains. To plunge
into violent exercises without previous training is as bad as using a
delicate and costly watch as a base ball and expect it to keep good
time.
To train all the muscles of the body uniformly as a beginning of
muscular or physical development, prepares a foundation for any special
muscle training that may be desired, and guarantees success where
failure would most undoubtedly result from the special training first.
All the muscles of the body are interdependent. One of them cannot be
trained alone without affecting another one, or drawing upon it for
material to supply the waste already spoken of. But when all are
trained, then it is easy to pass to the training of any special muscle.
To begin a general training or muscular development of the body, it
should be borne in mind that it is the muscles that hold the body up and
not the bones. Both are essential to the human construction, but the
muscles play a more important part in the bodily movements than the
bones. Few people consider that to stand or sit properly the muscles of
the body must be trained. The poise of the head, the erect position of
the shoulders, the proper holding of the arms and hands, depend upon the
training and development of the arms and shoulders. Most persons are
negligent in this respect and allow the upper part of their bodies to
hang by their bones. This is noticeable in those who are “stoop
shouldered,” a habit which becomes fixed. The first thing a soldier is
trained to do is to stand erect and hold himself up by his muscles. No
person who can not control his upper muscles will acquire any grace or
beauty of movement. The use of Indian clubs, even an ordinary chair,
would be something to grasp and swing about to train the upper muscles,
all the time breathing slowly and as deep as possible. Grasp something
tight with the hands and swing it about the head or up in the air, or
round and round and keep it up a certain length of time every day.
Throwing a ball is good for the muscles of the arm, shoulders and back
particularly. Let the muscles have free play is the rule to follow in
every variety of exercise.
The muscles of the lower limbs come next in the order of development
systematically, although they should be exercised at the same time as
the muscles of the upper portion of the body. The object of this is to
prevent over-development of any series of muscles by training all
simultaneously.
The muscles of the lower limbs include those of the hips down to the
extremity of the toes. Persons in sedentary occupations MUST exercise
these muscles under penalty of having them become feeble, flabby and
unreliable. With such persons, as age creeps on, the steps become
uncertain and “wobbly,” presenting the appearance of extreme age even
before middle age has been reached.
Those who walk much should take systematic exercise for the benefit of
the lower muscles, because the occupation requiring the use of the lower
muscles fixes them in a groove or habit not conducive to control. That
is, the muscles become set in a certain direction, whereas, it is
essential to enable them to move freely and easily in any direction.
The best exercises for standing, sitting, and walking are those directed
by the will power or energy acting directly upon all the muscles and
maintaining an equilibrium so that gradual development of the entire
body will be reached.
This is accomplished by what is known as “flexible action,” in the lines
of changing curves which distinguishes the beauty and grace of motion
from mere strength.
There are three phases in this natural development: Angular, circular
and spiral. The human form poised squarely on both feet is the spiral,
the head a convexed curve, the body a concave curve, and the legs a
convexed curve, like a wave line. To preserve this spiral line of
changing curves, the weight is always thrown against the strong side so
as to develop the weak side and maintain an equilibrium. Standing should
be principally upon the balls of the feet, and the exercise should be to
incline the body to and from the opposite curves. There should be no
slouching at the hips. In walking, stand erect, feet together, abdomen
in, chest up, and shoulders firm. Then advance the thigh and let the leg
hang free from the knee down. Straighten the leg and plant the ball of
the foot in advance with the toes straight in front, and so on
alternately with each foot, carrying the head erect with the chin drawn
well in.
To sit down let the muscles come into play and not the bones, as it is
through the muscles only that gracefulness can be acquired. To rise from
a sitting to a standing position, all the muscles should work in unison
and the body arise at once to a standing position. To kneel the same
play of the general muscles should be applied. A cow or a camel is not
very graceful when performing the act of kneeling preparatory to lying
down, but that is because they are animals and not human. The mere act
of touching the hat in salutation is graceful or awkward as the muscles
are trained. A graceful sweeping curve of the arm, a gentle bend of the
muscles of the neck, inclining to a curved bow, and the salutation is
graceful. Otherwise the motion is raw and provocative of an idea of ill
breeding.
While exercising the muscles of the body simultaneously, we are not only
acquiring grace and suppleness, but we are strengthening the various
muscles and enabling them to develop along the lines of their natural
curves. By a systematic training, the surface of the body becomes filled
or rounded out, all angularity disappears, and the various muscles work
or slide smoothly over one another and each one fits into the proper
place without a jar or wrinkle. Even the face may be trained to the
avoidance of wrinkles and seams by a trifle of exercise applied to the
muscles. The main point being to prevent any muscular habit which means
a wrinkle or a seam. Massage alone may do some good in this respect, but
the muscles of the face should be worked through the will power.
In line with exterior physical development, the interior muscles should
not be forgotten. The proper play of the interior muscles, those
belonging to the heart, the lungs, the intestines, stomach, etc., are
all more or less affected by exterior exercises tending toward physical
development. Flabbiness of exterior begets flabbiness of the interior
muscles, and this means an imperfect action which ends in inability to
resist disease, or the encroachments of age and hardening of the walls
of the arteries.
Movement is the law of nature and whatever does not or can not move is
considered dead to the scientists, or on the way to death. Every atom of
the human body is in motion toward the maintenance of life in the
muscles of every kind. The blood circulates rapidly, so rapidly that any
perfumed substance injected into the blood at a finger point, is
immediately tasted by the mouth. So with the lymph channels which convey
nourishment to the blood for distribution to all the muscles to keep
them up to their work. The billions of atoms that constitute the flesh
of the muscles and of the nerves, are in constant motion, without which,
the body would lose all energy and become inert. By exercising the
muscles constantly and uniformly, we are giving the atoms of the human
system free and full play, and enabling them to perform their functions.
We may indeed say, that exercise and physical development mean LIFE.