For the second straight year, York 123pound wrestler Bill Billet won the National YMCA championship and was named the outstanding grappler in the 1955 tournament. Billet practices weight training for strength and also is a competent lifter. (Bob Motter photo)

(Above) One of the greatest middle distance runners of all time, Mal Whitfield was honored by receiving the 1954 James E. Sullivan award as America's outstanding athlete. Whitfield has been an enthusiastic weight trainer between track seasons throughout his career. (Below) The lifter at left is Frank Spellman, 1948 Olympic middleweight champion, while the powerful weight-trained athlete with him is Fortune Gordien, world record holder in the discus throw. Nearly every one of the world's great shot putters, discus and hammer throwers trains with weights to some extent. Gordien won the Pan American Games discus throw, placed second to barbell man Parry O'Brien in the shot put. (Photos by Cecil Charles)

WEIGHT TRAINING FOR

ATHLETES?

(Continued from page 8)

d t

is velocity, so P = F = FV, or force times velocity. The velocity is in part limited by heredity. Some individuals have muscles that "flow" like molasses, and these individuals are slow. Others have muscles that "flow," when contracting vigorously, like water-and these individuals are fast. (Note: some weight lifters or weight trainers are slow, for numerous hereditarily slow people take up weight training. Some are fast-for many fast persons also take up weight training. But it is not the weight training that makes the slow ones slow; they were slow to begin with.)

An analogy may help to clarify the role of force in athletics.

The writer will use the word "force" throughout this article, as he is having to write carefully and accurately to keep within the bounds of his mechanical formulae. Let the reader think of a shock absorber on his car. If the car runs over a small bump in the road, the shock absorber gives a little, and cushions the jar. But if the car runs over a big bump, the plunger in his shock absorber may be pushed clear down, and the, body of the car bumps against the springs. Similarly, if there is more force available to an athlete, he can force the "fluid" (sarcoplasm) of his muscles to contract faster, and he will produce more power, and so will move faster. Hence unless something abnormal happens, the development of more force will result in the individual's becoming faster, not slower.

"Muscle-bound?" Let the reader try asking half a dozen physiologists to define muscle-boundness and he is apt to be surprised at their (unintelligent) answers! (Most of them have never thought of the concept scientifically.) Even more unintelligent will be the answers of most of the coaches. The inquirer is apt to be told by the coaches that, for example, "swimming results in the development of long, smooth muscles, while weight training results in short, thick muscles." Nothing could be further from the facts. A muscle remains as long as it was

originally-long enough to reach

(One is here

between the attachments at the two ends of the muscle. reminded of Abraham Lincoln's answer to the individual who asked him how long a man's legs should be.

Lincoln answered that they should be long enough to reach the ground.) The muscle does become thicker when it becomes stronger, as it cannot become much stronger without becoming thicker (hypertrophy). If a muscle really becomes slightly shorter, it is not because the muscle tissue becomes shorter, it is because the fascia around the muscle shortens the (fascia is sheathing of white fibrous tissue surrounding the muscle and penebetween trating in the muscle bundles). This fascia is readily stretched, and the writer has noticed that most of the well known weight lifters have stretched their fasciae until they are much more flexible than the ordinary athlete. Likewise a hurdler, high jumper, or a chorus girl stretches the fascia of the muscles under the thighs to permit him or her to swing the straight leg vigorously upward without discomfort or marked limitation of movement. Hence if a weight trainer becomes "stiff and muscle-bound," it is because (1) he neglects to do the (Continued on page 39)

In one respect the answer to "weight training for athletes?" is a positive "yes," for weight lifters are athletes. To be a champion lifter requires all the qualities needed for outstanding success in other sports; speed, coordination, determination, but with a greater emphasis on strength. Only a great athlete could coordinate and allout upward pull and then change direction to land underneath the weight in a split second as Norbert Schemansky has with this record snatch of 334 pounds. Schemansky ranked high in the Sullivan award voting. (Photo by John Abney)

SNATER

SHEMANSKY

EUA

150 330

STRENGTH AND HEALTH JULY, 1955

York Health Shoe

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No single athletic event requires more speed, coordination and flexibility than the pole vault, in which weight-trained Bob Richards is the world's best performer. The "Vaulting Vicar" has used barbells since in. his teens, starred at football and basketball, and won decathlon championships.

(Above) Out-of-season weight training is one of the best conditioners for football. Dave Baillie, shown while a star tackle at Springfield College (where he set a school record for the shot put), has won the U. S. Jr. A.A.U. and Canadian heavyweight lifting championships. Baillie is one of the few men to total 1000 pounds. (Below) Walter "Piggy" Barnes won All-America football honors the same year this picture was taken of him pressing 275 pounds at the national championships. He went on to professional success as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles champion team.

STRENGTH AND HEALTH JULY, 1955

YORK CHAMPION PRODUCING METHODS

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