Page:How to Get Strong (1899).pdf/222

 brought up as fast as the former. Unless one's chest is unusually broad and strong; and often, even if it is; constant rowing warps his shoulders forward; and tends directly to make him a round-shouldered man; while the upper arm, or that part above the elbow, has had practically no development; the inner part of the triceps or back-arm alone being called to severe duty; but the bulk being almost idle. Courtney, the greatest sculler the United States has yet produced—a large man, standing six feet and half an inch in height, strongly made in most parts; and weighing ordinarily nearly a hundred and ninety—is a good instance of how rowing does little for the upper arm; for while his forearm is almost massive, measuring exactly thirteen inches in girth; the upper arm, doubled up, barely reaches fourteen. A well-proportioned arm; of which the forearm girths thirteen; should measure above all, fifteen and a half. Again, while Courtney's forearm feels sinewy and hard; the upper is not nearly so hard; and does not give the impression of having seen very stiff service. His chest, too, is not so large by over two inches as ought to go with a thirteen-inch forearm, nor does it looks so.

Besides these exercises with the dumb-bells, the exerciser, the weights, and the car; all the vocations which cause one to stoop over much and lift—such as most of those of the farmer, the laborer, and of the artisan in the heavier kinds of work—tell on these same muscles of the upper back and the inner side of the triceps; too often bringing, as already pointed out, a far better back than front, and so injuring the form and carriage. Lifting heavy weights where one stands nearly erect; as when practising on the lifting-machine; pulls very heavily on the extreme upper muscles of the back; those