The Dangers of Excessive Athletic Training

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 20, 1906

The Dangers of Excessive Athletic Training

SINCE the colleges and academies of the world are giving so much attention to athletics, and providing so elaborately for the muscular development of the students, and since in all the Y. M. C. A.'s of the country similar provision is made, it may be well to place before the readers of the REVIEW some plain, straightforward statements upon the subject by one who has had long experience with athletes, and has collected a large amount of statistics in reference to the health, manhood, and longevity of men of that class. Dr. Robert E. Coglin, of Brooklyn, N. Y., is the authority quoted below. He examined the contestants in amateur boxing matches, and the abnormal development of the best of them attracted his attention. Magnificently developed as to their muscles, they were far from being men of normal health and strength. Beyond a certain point the muscular training was at the expense of their vitality. It took away from the disease-resisting powers of both heart and lungs. There was scarcely an organ of the system not affected and made less efficient. The doctor says:—

It will be found that comparatively few athletes marry. Of those that do marry a small percentage have children. A large percentage are divorced by their wives. There is no evidence to prove that athletics and muscle building improve the constitution. Hypertrophied muscle has a tendency to degenerate. The heart, being a muscular organ, shares in this tendency. Severe athletic training and muscle building are at the expense of the nervous and glandular systems. When the muscular fatigue is carried to excess, the health nutrition of the other organs and tissues can no longer be maintained. This condition has a special effect on the nerve-centers. With his nerves on edge, his physical vitality impaired, his body seriously developed in one direction or another, there is little wonder that the athlete makes a poor husband and father.

The world has nervous wrecks a plenty. The nervous, strenuous life that is being led by so many to-day is taking the attention entirely away from the things of God. It is natural for a young man to desire strength; and given the encouragement of a college faculty, a very strong temptation is thrown in his way, and as he yields and becomes enamored of his growing physical powers, he almost invariably loses interest in his spiritual growth. A certain amount of physical exercise is good; but the business of muscle building can not be recommended either for health or for spiritual growth.