Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1875 — Over-Exercise. [ARTICLE]

Over-Exercise.

Gymnastic training has received a temporary back-set by the death of young Cushing from injuries sustained in the gymnasium connected with the Boston Institute of Technology. Of course his case was somewhat exceptional and abuse furnishes no argument against use. But it seems to be a law of human development to push a particular tendency to an extreme, regardless of consequences, and then to push the opposite tendency to a similar extreme- A few years ago the Graham fever swept over the country and hundreds of people dropped the eating of flesh as poisonous, and starved themselves on hard bread and cold water, with a raw turnip now and then by way of variety. The good in the Graham system was turned into evil by abuse. Hydropathy was an invaluable discovery in itself, but no sooner was it found that a class of peculiar cases might be benefited by a treatment of cold water than the extremists set about soaking and bathing and showering and packing and douching everybody ibr all real and possible maladies, and doubtless hundreds of people had their vitality quenched and were washed into their graves by the unreasoning application of a method which is admirably suited to particular cases and constitutions. Half a century ago systematic physical exercise was hardly thought of. and students, clerks and people of sedentary habits and quiet pursuits suffered lor want of muscular development and activity. Physicians and health reformers preached exercise to people who could not afford horseback riding and had not time to walk enough to get" the exercise they required. The gymnasium grew but of a necessity. But like other needful and useful things it has been carried to an extreme, in many cases, which has proved injurious, if* not fatal. The notion has gained currency that exercise is a good thing in and of itself, and when a person has exhausted his vital forces by brain work it is t pnly necessary to exercise his muscles in a vigorous'way to regain his equilibrium. Expenditure of nerve power must be balanced by an equal expenditure in myseular activity,' and if the time is shortened the action must be correspondingly increased in violence. The folly of this notion is apparent when it is remembered that the system is.a unit, and the vital force expended in oneway cannot be recovered by another expenditure in a different way, any more than a man regains the money he expends out of one pocket by spending an equal amount from another. It is constantly forgotten that recuperation requires rest as well as exercise, and that gvery tension of the will should be followed by a passive condition. Modern life is an aggregation of activities. Everybody is on the jump. The faculties are strained to their utmost tension. Study and business and pleasure axe done on the high-pressure principle, and the same intensity of movement is carried over into recreation and appears in violent exercises in climbing, rowing, ball-playing, and the performances of the gymnasium. It should be borne in mind that the antithesis of action is not action in another way, but quiet and passive repose. The vegetative processes must be respected and the jaded faculties must be given time for recuperation. The thing wanted i$ not a crusade on calisthenics and the gymnasium, but a wise discretion in their use. We have learned how to make a perfect horse and ox and hound; we have not yet learned how to make a perfectman or woman. In this respect the wise old Greeks were far ahead of any modern people, and it would be well for our teachers to borrow a hint from their methods and experience.— N. Y. Graphic.