Limits of Physical Training

1916

The tendency toward physical training, as well as its specialized form, military training, does not aim so much at the increase of the actual physical power as at the increase of the reserve power. The former, no matter how small, is usually sufficient to maintain ordinary bodily needs.

But the ordinary muscular force is wholly inadequate to sustain any unusual demands of the body, whether from disease or otherwise, and against which the body must be prepared. The laity speaks of the increase of reserve force as a "hardening" process. Under this conception it is believed that any hardship or discomfort increases the body reserve, and that the more suffering and hardship the better.

The more comfort and ease under which one lives, the less reserve force there is developed — because not needed — and the "softer" they become. Hardening is exercise of the wholesome kind against resistance. It must, however, be done with an eye on the actual powers of the body, from the standpoint of endurance. The amount of fatigue must never rise beyond a point where the fatigue products can be easily absorbed and the body recuperate.

Otherwise, whatever increase of power there is will be actual and needed to drive a less easily running human engine. There may be increased muscular power, but it will be bound — "muscle bound" — to the actual needs of the body. — Medical Record.