How to get strong and how to stay so / by William Blaikie.

  • William Blaikie
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: How to get strong and how to stay so / by William Blaikie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    champion long-distance walker^ Daniel O^Leary. Take him when in good condition^ and in one of his long tramps; on the first mile or the four hundredth, it is always the same : there he is, with head up, shoulders well back, and working busily, and—the most noticeable thing—the whole centre of the body, from the waist to the knees, thrown, if anything, actually forward of a vertical line, instead of as far, or often much farther, back of it; indeed, the point farthest forward is about two inches below his belt. A fair though not clear idea of what is meant can be had from the following sketch of him, taken at the time, on the latter part of his five-hundred-mile walk with Hughes, the Lep- per,^^ on the track in the Hippodrome, in New York city, during the first week of October, 1878. Hughes, while proving himself a very tough and determined man, showed, as is too often the case with professional athletes, great ignorance of many things which would have helped him much had he known and followed them, and none more, per-* haps, than this very matter of correct position. O’Leary^s freshness, no matter how many hun- dred miles he has just walked, is remarkable. This rational way of carrying the body during a diffi- cult feat, besides giving the heart and lungs full room for vigorous action, also gives the stomach and other vital organs ample play; for a glance at
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