CHAPTER II

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.

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.

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.

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."