Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/139

114 palpitation of the heart, and irregularity of the bowels disappear under proper training," says an able physician and athlete; "but if they exist, the regimen should be entered upon with more than usual caution."

IV.

THE FOOD OF ATHLETES IN TRAINING.

" work trains," says an authority (Woodgate), "and diet keeps the frame up to its work." This has been the principle on which training, of beast and man alike, has been carried out since the benefits of "condition" were first appreciated.

Trainers usually begin with excessive emetics and aperients, "to clear the blood." There is no particular harm in this, if they do not make the man or crew work hard till "tone" is recovered. Then comes regular feeding, good in itself, but with the usual order—"the less drinking the better—liquids swell and soften the body." In defiance of the physiological fact that different individuals need different quantities of liquid as well as of solid food, this practice will be applied generally. Of course it brings about a rapid reduction of flesh; but it severely reduces strength, nervous and physical, at the same time.

The true rule for drinking while "in training'