Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.
Italics are represented thus _italic_, bold thus =bold=.
[Illustration: The Author, signed, Yours truly Eugen Sandow]
STRENGTH
AND
HOW TO OBTAIN IT,
BY
EUGEN SANDOW,
WITH
ANATOMICAL CHART,
ILLUSTRATING
EXERCISES FOR PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT.
REVISED EDITION.
ILLUSTRATED WITH FULL PAGE PORTRAITS OF THE AUTHOR
AND SOME OF HIS PUPILS.
_Reproduced from Photographs by Falk of New York, and
Warwick Brookes of Manchester._
London:
GALE & POLDEN, LTD.,
2, AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C., AND WELLINGTON WORKS,
ALDERSHOT.
TWO-AND-SIX NETT.
PRINTED BY GALE & POLDEN, LTD.,
WELLINGTON WORKS,
ALDERSHOT.
_Copyright--Gale & Polden, Ltd._
INTRODUCTION.
In writing this book I have taken it as a commonplace that
everyone--man, woman, and child--wants to be strong. Without
strength--and by strength I mean health, vitality, and a general sense
of physical well-being--life is but a gloomy business. Wealth, talent,
ambition, the love and affection of friends, the pleasure derived
from doing good to those about one, all these things may afford some
consolation for being deprived of life’s chief blessing, but they
can never make up for it. “But,” I am constantly being asked, “it is
all very well for you to say this, and everyone of sense agrees with
you; the point is, can we obtain this much-prized blessing?” In the
vast majority of cases I can say unhesitatingly “Yes.” You can all
be strong, all enjoy the heritage which was intended for you. Not
all to the same extent, perhaps. Those who are afflicted with some
hereditary disease, who may have unsound organs handed down to them,
cannot reasonably expect to get such results as their more fortunate
brethren. Still, even they need not despair; even if their condition
be such as to put out of the question any such thing as athletics,
they can, at all events, attain to such a condition as will permit of
their enjoying life, and render them fit to carry on their work without
difficulty. And after all, those who wish to be strong for this reason
are innumerable. It is only the young and vigorous who desire to excel
in athletic pastimes, but the middle-aged and elderly, the delicate
women and young children, who yearn for health are countless. I claim
that by carefully following out my system, as set out in the following
pages, and fully illustrated in the Anatomical Chart at the end of the
volume, these results may be attained.
NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
It is nearly two years since the first edition of “Strength and How
to Obtain it” was published, and its success has been very gratifying
to me. It plainly demonstrates that the people of my adopted country
are gradually beginning to understand and appreciate what is meant
by “physical culture,” and that my ideas are steadily taking root in
productive ground. I am, therefore, encouraged to bring out a new
edition of the book, which, I trust, will be an improvement upon its
predecessor. Several chapters have been added and a few inaccuracies
and ambiguities remedied, and I trust the book in its new form will
find favour with my readers. I wish to draw particular attention to
chapters V. and VIII., in which I refer to “My ‘Grip’ Dumb-bell” and
to “Physical Culture for Women.” There are various other additions to
which I need not refer here. Sufficient to say that during the past
eighteen months I have learned much, and that so far as lies in my
power I have endeavoured to give the benefit of such knowledge as I
have acquired to all who believe with me that the cultivation of the
body is a sacred and imperative duty.
EUGEN SANDOW.
PART I.
MY SYSTEM OF PHYSICAL CULTURE.
STRENGTH
AND
HOW TO OBTAIN IT.
CHAPTER I.
CONCERNING PHYSICAL CULTURE.
It is curious to me to look back a year or two and to reflect upon the
change in public opinion upon this subject which has taken place in
so short a time. When I first began to preach the “gospel of health
and strength” the general tendency was to make fun of me. Some people
called me a fool; others, a charlatan. Very few indeed took the
trouble to see whether there was anything in my theories, and to test
for themselves their truth or falsity. That was, so to speak, only
yesterday; what an alteration, and an alteration for the better, is to
be observed to-day. I shall not be accused of undue egotism if I say
that my ideas have “caught on.” All over the country, among the young,
“physical culture” is now the rage, and that it is no mere passing
fancy is proved by the fact that those who are no longer in their first
youth are its equally devoted, though possibly less feverish, disciples.
“And what is physical culture?” is naturally the question which arises
to the lips of those to whom the subject is still unfamiliar. Let me
begin by saying what it _is not_. To begin with, to suppose, as many
people do suppose, that athletics and physical culture are the same
thing is quite a mistaken notion. Then is physical culture opposed to
athletics? Certainly not. Cricket and football and rowing and swimming,
and, indeed, all forms of manly sport and exercise, are admirable
things in their way, but they are not physical culture. A part of it,
if you like; but physical culture is something far wider in its scope,
infinitely loftier in its ideals.
What was the ideal of the Greeks? They were ardent athletes, but their
pastimes were only regarded as a means to an end. The Greeks regarded
the culture of the body as a sacred duty; their aim was to bring it to
the highest possible state of power and beauty, and we know how they
succeeded. Surely what they succeeded in doing cannot be impossible for
us.
Does the reader now begin to get a clearer idea of what is meant
by physical culture? As I have previously said, it is to the body
what culture, in the accepted sense of the word, is to the mind. To
constantly and persistently cultivate the whole of the body so that at
last it shall be capable of anything that sound organs and perfectly
developed muscles can accomplish--that is physical culture. The
production, in short, of an absolutely perfect body--that is physical
culture. To undo the evil for which civilization, and all the drawbacks
it has brought in its train, have been responsible in making man regard
his body lightly--that is the aim of physical culture. I think I am
justified in saying that while it embraces every variety of athletics
it goes very much further.
Possibly there are people who will refuse to admit that this aim is
in itself a desirable one. They may say that the sound body is only
valuable in so far as it enables the sound mind to perform its work.
This I regard as nonsensical cant. I absolutely and strenuously refuse
to allow for an instant that the cultivation of the body is, _per se_,
a comparatively valueless thing. On the contrary, I maintain that he
who neglects his body--and not to cultivate it _is_ to neglect it--is
guilty of the worst sin; for he sins against Nature. I take my stand
upon this then--that the care of the body is in itself an absolutely
good thing, and its neglect is no more to be excused than is the
neglect of the opportunities of mental advancement which have been
placed in a man’s way. I am quite aware that it takes a very long time
to thoroughly free ourselves from the trammels of old-established
prejudice. I am quite prepared to hear of some worthy folk gravely
shaking their heads and deprecating any great amount of attention being
paid to the body as likely to engender undue vanity and self-esteem. I
do not think that is likely to be so, but even if it should be the case
I do not hold it to be such a grievous matter. If a man has striven his
utmost to make the best of himself a certain amount of pride in the
fact may well be forgiven him. Or, at all events, we can look upon his
failing with the eye of charity.
———————————————
I do not think I can conclude this chapter better than by reprinting
some remarks on the subject which I wrote in the first number of
“Physical Culture,” my monthly magazine. The article was carefully
thought out, and I do not think there is any need for me to add to it.
“For after all, why should not a man feel some pride in a healthy and
well-cared-for body? Though I contend that it in itself is emphatically
a good thing, that is not to say the effects of physical culture are
confined to the body. In bringing the body to its highest pitch of
perfection, various moral qualities, the value of which it would be
difficult to over-estimate, must necessarily be brought into play. The
first essential to success is the power of concentrating the will upon
the work. Muscles are not developed by muscular action alone. Physical
exertion, however arduous and long continued, will not make a man
strong, or the day labourer and the blacksmith would be the strongest
of men. Mechanical and desultory exertion will never materially
increase a man’s strength. He must first learn the great secret, which
ought to be no secret at all. He must use his mind. He may not be able
to add a cubit to his stature, but by taking thought a man can most
assuredly increase the size of his muscles, strengthen all his organs,
and add to his general vitality. But he must put his mind, as well as
his muscles, into the work. And by exercise and practice the will-power
is greatly increased, until, in course of time, the whole organism
is so absolutely under its control that the muscles can be kept in
perfect condition even without what, in ordinary language, is called
“exercise.” That is to say, that without violent exertion, but merely
by the exertion of the will, the muscles can be exercised almost to
any extent. Can it for a moment be supposed that this cultivation of
the will-power is not of great value to an individual, no matter what
sort of task or work he may be engaged in? Is it not largely by the
exercise of will-power that most things are achieved? Take two men of
equal talents; give them equal opportunities; but let one’s will-power
and power of concentration be relatively much greater than his
fellow’s. Then set them to perform the same task. Which will succeed
best? No person endowed with ordinary intelligence can be in doubt for
a moment. Will-power is a mighty factor--perhaps the mightiest--in
all that goes to make up the sum of human success or failure. But the
strengthening of will--though perhaps the chief--is not by a long way
the only benefit which physical culture confers. The man who means to
make his body as nearly perfect as possible must perforce cultivate
habits of self-control and of temperance. Not the temperance which
consists of rigidly abstaining from all the ‘pleasant vices,’ but the
_real_ temperance which teaches a man to say ‘No,’ which teaches him to
indulge in all that is conducive to happiness without being in danger
of that overstepping of the boundary line which leads to misery. The
man who has cultivated his body has also cultivated self-respect. He
has learned the virtue and the happiness of rigid personal cleanliness;
his views of life are sane and wholesome. Respecting himself he learns
to respect others. He is gentle, and only uses his powers against his
fellowmen when called upon to do so in the defence of the oppressed
and helpless. It is your weakling who is generally a bully and a
tyrant. To take a few men who are exceptionally endowed by Nature, to
make them extraordinarily strong, and to then train them to perform
particular feats, is not a thing very difficult of accomplishment.
But that is not the aim of physical culture. Its ultimate object is
to raise the average standard of the race as a whole. That is, no
doubt, a stupendous task, and one which it may take many lifetimes to
accomplish. But everything must have its beginning, and unless we set
about improving the physique of the present generation, we cannot hope
to benefit those who come after us. Healthier and more perfect men and
women will beget children with better constitutions and more free from
hereditary taint. They in their turn, if the principles and the duty
of physical culture are early instilled into them, will grow up more
perfect types of men and women than were their mothers and fathers.
So the happy progression will go on, until, who knows, if in the days
to come there will not be a race of mortals walking this earth of
ours even surpassing those who, according to the old myth, were the
offspring of the union of the sons of the gods with the daughters of
men! That is, perhaps, an almost impossible ideal, but it is well to
set one’s ideals high. Surely what has been done for the horse and the
dog cannot be impossible of accomplishment in the case of man. At all
events, it is worth trying.”
To wind up this chapter with a word of encouragement to those who come
quite fresh to the subject; to those who in taking up Physical Culture
are venturing into what is to them unexplored territory--“Read, think,
and work. Do not be disheartened because your progress at first seems
slow; nothing worth having is to be won without labour. I can only
tell you what to do, only point out to you the right road. The rest
lies with yourself. I should be the sorriest humbug if I endeavoured
to make you believe otherwise, and you would be the simplest of fools
if you _did_ believe me. There is no royal road to success, and a very
bad thing would it be if there were. For your reward lies not so much
in the accomplishment as in the effort and struggle, and all the good
qualities which they bring out.”