In bicycling, the word “adjustment” means much, for the movable parts of the bicycle must be adjusted to suit the requirements of the individual bicyclist, and the mechanical parts of the bicycle’s construction adjusted so that they will work together properly.
In a machine properly adjusted, the chain and other gear should run smoothly, the chain be neither too tight nor too loose, and the sprocket-wheels exactly in line. The bicycle wheels should run true and be exactly in line with the frame, and the rear wheel follow the identical plane of the front wheel when in place. The frame should be true and square at all points, and should be examined and tested always after the machine has been travelling by rail or has had a fall. The bearings in all parts of the machine should have their cone-caps in place and so screwed and keyed that the balls run easily without perceptible play. Nuts and washers should all be in place and screwed home. The handle-bar should be tight and square with the front wheel, but only tight enough to turn the wheel on a good surface, not so tight as to prevent it from turning easily if thewheel is caught or held. The proper adjustment for position has to do with the frame, wheel-base, length of crank, height and position of saddle; the curve, width, height, and general adjustment of the handle-bar; the size and number of teeth on the sprocket-wheels, which determines the gear; and the weight, construction, and inflation of the tire.
The saddle is one of the most important, if not the most important, part of the bicycle to study, as it should provide the fulcrum to work from. Any saddle may be adjusted to be comfortable, but saddles seldom remain comfortable after being adjusted. The saddle should be hard enough to act as a fulcrum and should not give or spring under work, for power is lost on each stroke that presses down on a soft saddle; it should also permit of change of position without readjustment, unless it is intended for racing purposes, for the bicyclist should be able to speed, climb, or coast on a saddle properly constructed for general purposes. Each of these different kinds of bicycle work requires a different application of muscular power, and the saddle should permit of a readjustment of position that will at least accommodate the altered tendency caused by a shifted centre of gravity in grade work.
Every individual is differently proportioned, with differing lever lengths and lever power. If people differently proportioned find the same adjustment possible, it would be for the reason, not that their different requirements average the same, but that the average of their different requirements is the same. A higher gear means greater resistance; alengthened crank causes the foot to travel in a larger circle while gaining in increased leverage in the lengthened arm.
In determining the proper proportion of crank length and gear, it may be calculated that the same amount of resistance may be overcome by using a higher gear and longer crank as by using a lower gear and shorter crank, the difference being in the rapidity of the stroke necessary to cover a given distance in a certain length of time. This adjustment may be considered equivalent to length of pace and rapidity of pace in walking. It is well to have crank and gear selected by some one sufficiently experienced to make an intelligent choice.
In the lever action of the leg, working the bicycle crank, care should be taken to prevent waste of power in carrying the foot back and behind, rendering the lever movement useless behind the line where the power may be made to tell. This loss will occur when the saddle is placed too far forward. The foot in returning should supply the pull, and lift with a push-back. The power here gained cannot compensate for power lost on the forward and down thrust, and the saddle should be placed far enough back to permit of the full power of the forward push and downward thrust. The knee should never fully extend when the pedal is pushed to the point where it is furthest from you, for if it is, there is danger in hill-climbing of straining the knee as well as the tendons and muscles of the back of the leg.
The handle-bars should be adapted to the work to be done, whether racing, touring, or ordinary.They certainly should not be high enough to prevent them from taking part of the weight of the body, nor so low as to cramp any portion of the trunk.
Fatigue, with its various manifestations, cramp, stiffness, and numbness, comes from too long a period of work without change of position. For this reason different muscular combinations should be called to do the same work, or different work should be done with unused muscular combinations, permitting rest or partial rest to muscles that have been taxed.
A bicycle should be fitted with adjustable handle-bar and saddle-post, and in case of fatigue or cramp, a slight change in the adjustment will reduce the tendency at once. Travelling should be done with as little weight on the saddle as possible, working on the pedals and resting on the handles. But when it comes to climbing, the push must be located from a fulcrum, and that fulcrum must be the saddle. All weight must be removed from the handles, and the wheel ridden by balance.
A hill should be coasted with the weight all on the saddle, the feet supported, and the handles held firmly and lightly, a proper average position for continuous work being, however, maintained. To carry weight forward, the weight should be forward of the centre of gravity, and the hands dropped.
The question of handle-bars, with the reason of their many varying curves, may pertinently be discussed here. The bar is a pair of levers finding a common fulcrum in the head or centre bar, and the difference in curve has to do with the distribution ofweight and the touch best suited to control the bicycle according to position and individual balance and lever power. A distribution of weight and leverage may be made without altering the wheel base by the use of a different pattern of bar that seems to suit the individual touch.
To analyze the curves in a handle-bar, and their different lever values, would be difficult. Preference has much to do with it, and this may be accounted for by the different steering touch of the differently adjusted bars. The forward drop should never be so great that the face cannot be lifted easily and the eyes always able to see up and ahead.
In the tire we look for elasticity, and the amount of air it contains has much to do with the comfort of the rider and the speed of the wheel. Soft tires are adapted for a rough or stony road. The soft tire may wear out a little sooner, but the extra wear is fully compensated by the gain in lessened shock and apparent improvement of wheeling surface. A very hard tire is not necessarily made of rubber. The advantage of the rubber tire is its elasticity, which should come between the fulcrum and the power.
To attain a proper position and its equivalent adjustment, first have the saddle as nearly right as possible so that you can work comfortably; then have the handles and the height of the bar tested, working on these until you can determine if the saddle is too far forward or too far back. Then change the height of the bars to suit the saddle.
Next attend to gear. Find if with comfort you could exert more pressure on the pedals. If so, havethe gear increased. If there is cramp in the foot, or the foot feels strained, have the length of crank changed. If the foot is long in proportion to the other lever lengths, lengthen the crank to permit of freer instep play; or have it shortened to relieve a strained feeling in the foot. The crank length may be changed to relieve either cramp or strain in the leg and thigh until the pressure and length are arranged to suit the natural step or pace.
While these adjustments are in progress—and it may take months to determine them—the shoe may cause discomfort. The slightest pressure, a shoe too tight or ill-fitting, would be responsible for much more discomfort than could possibly be caused by either crank or gear. Waist-bands, or any pressure on the trunk, will cause numbness of the foot; and a saddle of imperfect construction or wrong adjustment would be responsible for the same evils—unequal pressure and unequal strains and overcharged blood-vessels, with their accompanying discomforts of cramp, fatigue, numbness, and more permanent disorders.
How shall be determined the proper amount of exercise for any individual? The human body is constructed for use, and will suffer from want of use, rust out, as it were; and it will suffer from over-use if any one set of muscles or any one supply of nerve power is overtaxed.
Exercise, in some form, is necessary for every one; work is necessary; recreation is necessary. Rest is to recreate, to renew. The food that we eat is digested and made into blood; the blood flows through the system of tissues, depositing building material and taking up waste matter. The arterial system, physiologists tell us, supplies the new material; the venous system takes up the waste material, returning the blood to the heart, after which the fresh air comes in contact with the blood in the lungs, and is aerated and oxygenated, and waste material given off. The heart pumps the blood through the arterial and venous systems. When we move or work, more blood is needed, and the heart pumps harder. When little or no exercise is taken, the heart loses its vigor from want of use; and it may be strained if overtaxed.
Brain power and nerve power depend on the blood supply for renewal of their tissue. Any organ or any combination of organs and muscles, when exercised, give off their accumulated material, and then, after a limit of assimilation is reached, the products are reabsorbed. The materials properly accumulate only when needed.
These facts bring to our notice three conditions—a condition of atrophy, or too little use; a perfect condition of equilibrium of forces; and a condition of strain from over-work. In the condition of equilibrium or perfect health, the brain is active and the muscular tissue under perfect control. The mind can receive impressions, and can convey them at will; and the muscles obey without difficulty and without fatigue, because of the great existing power of resistance. On the power to resist fatigue depends the power of prolonging exertion.
In exercising we exert our powers, and if from lack of use or other cause our amount of stored energy is small, exercise for even a very short period will produce a condition which makes rest absolutely necessary. Muscles must be gradually accustomed to work; and if work is prolonged beyond the point where exercise is beneficial, a state of tension and exhaustion ensues which can be remedied only by rest prolonged enough to allow the system to recuperate. Where the tissues, from disuse, have come to have little resistance value, a very gradual and persistent course of exercise must be determined upon, for unaccustomed muscles are quickly fatigued, and the subsequent rest they require mayseem out of proportion to the work done. This condition of affairs is discouraging when not understood; yet there can be no different result except in degree; and in degree must the condition be changed and the tissues gradually renewed. If there is but little power stored, only little may be used until the power of assimilation is established.
The thin woman is benefited by bicycling; the liver works better, the food digests better. The stout woman is benefited, for the exercise hardens and condenses the flesh. The average healthy woman is kept in the best of health by the exercise and plenty of pure, fresh air. For the sedentary, the undeveloped, and the insufficiently nourished, the bicycle seems to work wonders. All the powers are accelerated and a general renewing of tissues takes place. The organs of digestion are stimulated and do better work, the appetite improves, the complexion brightens, and the mind responds readily. But people of either of these classes should be careful not to prolong exercise until loss of appetite is brought about; for the exercise should tend to increase, not to decrease, the desire for food and power of assimilation.
Baths should be taken in moderation, the skin being kept in free, healthy condition by dry rubs and tepid baths until the system is brought to the state where the cold bath can be used beneficially. The diet should be generous and wholesome, and care should be taken to avoid food that does not digest easily. Sufficient clothing should be worn but not too much, and all exercise should be avoided thatmight produce very copious perspiration. Only a healthy activity of the skin should be induced, and plenty of water drunk.
Do not work nervously. Go to work gently, and save your energies to make the wheels go around. A thin person can remain thin and a fat person remain fat while exercising assiduously if the exercise is not properly directed.
To overcome fat, persistent, systematic, and regular exercise is needed, and attention to diet must be considered essential. For the food consumed produces certain results; and if the system selects and digests most readily the fat-producing elements, their amount should be curtailed, and a diet of good working quality chosen. Fat is burned in producing heat; but if the same amount of fat-producing elements are again taken into the system, the same amount of fat results. The fat-producing tendency must be overcome, and the fat already accumulated consumed, until a good healthy average of tissue is produced and maintained.
Tea and coffee are not foods; they retard the assimilation of tissue, and must be eliminated from the diet of the weight-reducer. Sugar and starch—the latter when eaten is converted into sugar—are heat-producing foods, first forming fats which are used as energy-producing material. Persons wishing to reduce weight, therefore, must manufacture, not so much fat, but bone and sinew. To produce these, nitrogenous foods must be eaten. Fat consists largely of water; and heavy work, like hill-climbing, which induces free perspiration, is desirable. Butany one wishing to seriously undertake weight-reduction should learn to enjoy bicycling for itself before attempting this application of the exercise.
Excess of fat produces physical laziness, which is hard to overcome; and stout persons, after exercise, crave fat-producing elements of food to reduce the tissue consumed. A taste seems to develop for sweet stuff and mild stimulants, and it is difficult to refrain from indulging it. Stout people are apt to believe, also, that they cannot endure exercise. They cannot comfortably, and must work with care until they are in a fair state of balance, where exercise ceases to fatigue, before attempting anything like scientific weight-reducing. Sufficient exercise regularly taken, proper diet persistently selected, will finally have the desired effect.
Exercise sufficiently to produce good, thorough perspiration; take a bath and rub down, and put on fresh clothing; avoid tea and coffee, sugar and ice cream, dessert and pastry.
For those in health and in the habit of exercising regularly, there are only the dangers of the sport to avoid while enjoying its pleasures and benefits.
If you intend a fifty-mile or a week’s trip awheel, it will be very necessary to accustom yourself to the work before attempting a distance you have not yet covered. Suppose, though your muscles are unaccustomed to long-continued exercise, that you know how to wheel a bicycle and are anxious to go with your friends. They perhaps wheel for an hour or two hours daily, or for several hours twice a week. They are afraid to take you with them; and you feel sure that you can go as far as they do, and at the same rate of speed.
You must make your opportunity and prove your ability. Suppose you can wheel for half an hour without fatigue. Wheel that half-hour every day the weather permits; know your distance and your road; and then practise increasing speed, that is, do your distance in less than the half-hour without hurry. Start slowly, and keep the pace until you get your breathing apparatus steady; then ride faster, and maintain that pace; and so on, in increasing ratio. If you have been in the habit of covering your distance in five minutes under the half-hour, next time add that distance to your spin, and do itin your limit time. When you easily do five miles in half an hour on the road, add a mile or more for the next two or three spins; then do not wheel for one day; the next day wheel twice the distance, wheel eight miles, and rest a day. Then double your distance again. If you cannot do this without feeling the effects seriously, go back to where you made your greatest distance with ease, and start from that point again.
Keep a careful record of your outings, dates, wind, sun, time of day, and humidity. The latter is very important, for on a hot, dry day, greater distance can be done with safety than when evaporation is slow. Consider all the conditions when you find that you are fatigued, and decide if the trouble is with yourself or with the weather. Do not start for at least an hour after eating, and always rest after exercise before taking a meal. Observing these directions, you will soon find that you are making very fair progress, that your confidence is assured, and that you have acquired a certain amount of endurance, and can attempt any reasonable distance.
Exercise transforms, making the inactive capable of performing work and of enjoying opportunities for using their newly discovered powers. The weak are strengthened; the strong retain and renew their stores of strength; the young are symmetrically developed, and the older remain supple and active. Exercise preserves and develops all parts of the organism that are capable of performing work. Exercise is work, muscular work; and in working the muscles, all the tissues become readjusted, and allmaterials and accumulations tending to hinder movement are diminished in quantity and equalized in distribution.
Ease of movement and a state of muscular inactivity are incompatible. To be active, one must work; and the whole organism will respond, and adjust itself to the conditions imposed by occupation and manner of living. The complicated mechanisms and intricate processes of the human body adapt themselves to required conditions; it is only necessary to determine what those conditions shall be to produce certain results.
It is difficult for some to overcome the tendency to a state of inactivity; and there are others to whom even the contemplation of repose is distasteful. The physiological effects produced by exercise differ in different individuals, active persons and those not in the habit of doing muscular work being very differently affected. For exercise, of whatever kind, is muscular work, and “muscular work tends to modify the nutrition of all motor organs and to give them a structure favorable for the performance of work.”
All muscular work is done through the contractile power of the muscles. By use the fibres become freed from fat and other accumulations, the muscles increase in size, the contractile power becomes greater, and the impedimenta of fat, etc., are removed by the processes that are accelerated by movement. “Repose causes atrophy of muscular tissue,” and the necessary discernment and powers of discrimination must be cultivated to avoid a tendency either in the direction of over-doing or of insufficient exercise.
“The effect of muscular exercise is to render vital combustion more active; it causes more active processes of assimilation.” “Muscular education leads to an economy of forces. Practice leads to a diminution of muscular expenditure”—more work done for power expended. For the power to perform work depends on knowing how to do it properly. Real strength lies, not so much in the mass of muscular tissue as in the ability to use it.
“Exercise of strength demands the simultaneous action of a great number of muscles.” “Exercise of speed involves repetition of movement and the application of nervous energy.” “Exercises of endurance permit of economy of fatigue,” and are characterized by the necessity of perfect equilibrium between muscular effort and the powers of assimilation of the system.
In exercise of strength, every muscle should bring its whole force into play, and the bony structure is united by pressure to make a rigid whole. “Exercises of speed are accompanied by fatigue out of proportion to the mechanical work represented.” “Every movement needs the intervention of a great number of muscles; each muscle must contract with definite force in order that the whole work may lead to definite movement.”
Co-ordination is the operation of choosing the muscles which shall participate in a certain movement and of regulating the exact quantity of nervous energy necessary to produce the right amount of contraction. Automatism is acquired by practice; and the muscles must be exercised regularly to enablethem to respond intuitively. A complicated series of movement can only be acquired gradually, unless the mind has a large number of muscular combinations at command.
“Exhaustion will result from overwork even when well fed.” “Exercises of endurance do not disturb the working of the organs; while increasing their activity, it gives to the system the power to repair wasted tissue, even during work.” Carbonic acid is not formed in excess, and is eliminated without producing noticeable results.
The bicyclist, even though indulging moderately in the pastime, must consider these things, and determine the course to be pursued; otherwise the exercise will prove a bane instead of a blessing. There are principles capable of general or special application; and there are special laws that may be generalized; and all may be made to accord with the exercise of bicycling, but each individual must accept a certain responsibility in the matter. The bicycle having been accepted as a means, the end sought for can be attained only by its intelligent use and application.
One of the many advantages of cycling is that the exercise involved is not limited to the use of any one set of muscles. The legs propel the machine, the muscles of the trunk engage in balancing the body, and the arms are employed in steering and controlling the front wheel. All the larger joints are active, and are made supple as well as strengthened and developed. Muscles, unless directed by mental effort, are useless. The bones give stiffness, and act aslevers and fulcrums; the muscles are tools of the mind, levers wherewith to pull and push the bones into position.
Precision of movement means economy of expenditure of force, no more effort being expended than is necessary for the act of the moment. People who hunt for the pedal, and try for the saddle two or three times, and fall off because the bicycle fails to start, work hard enough to have mounted a number of times; that is, they have lifted or supported their own weight in different directions a number of times without attaining their object. They appear to be awkward; they are really unaccustomed to their work. Practice will accustom the muscles to the work they have to do.
Try to do one thing only at a time. If it is mounting, for instance, memorize each thing that must be done; how, when, and where to do it. Do not think, because the mind does not at once grasp all that is forced upon its attention, that your brain is of inferior quality; it may not be able to adapt itself to that particular mental process at that minute. But the effort made will result in added tissue, and next time there will be more hope of success. Increase by a little at a time the amount of exercise undertaken. You can gauge the practice you need only by the amount of attention you give to the subject. After muscles are once trained to an exercise, the mind will not readily lose power to reproduce the combination, and experience begins to help.
Endurance means well-directed strength as well as capacity of power stored in reserve; and the aim ofall athletic work is to give an increased store of strength, vitality, and power to draw upon, not merely to expend the stock already on hand.
The muscular development that comes with bicycle exercise will often cause surprise. In persons unaccustomed to active exercise, the increase is most noticeable on the chest and forearms, the chest development increasing two and three inches, the arm and forearm in proportion, and the whole muscular system gaining in firmness and tone. Persistent bicycling, prolonged exercise on the wheel, speed work on the track, develop disproportionately the muscle of the leg. The track-man, therefore, prepares for his season of work, not by exercising and developing his legs, but by general exercise and special work that will develop the arms and back and other sets of muscles not called upon for heavy work during the season when he is to do his best. Getting up speed, increasing speed, and hill-climbing all tend to develop the muscles of the leg, which in such exercise are called upon for the heavy work of push and thrust, using a concentrated power to propel. Light dumbbell work is recommended as a good alternate for bicycle work and a means of keeping the muscular system in balance.
Leisure and the weather limit bicycling; other causes are incidental. The weather, indeed, affects bicycling more than any other sport. One of the most imperative needs of bicycling is rapid evaporation, and conditions that do not permit of that are unfavorable. Observe atmospheric conditions, therefore, and avoid severe work when the dew point is approached.
All the hard work wanted can be accomplished in half an hour after the wheel has been taken out; or it may be used as a vehicle for travelling steadily hour after hour for days consecutively; or an invigorating spin of two or three hours may be taken, regulating the pace and the work. One of the things to know about a bicycle is that you can get almost any kind of work you want out of it. To realize that you are doing the work you have been accustomed to have a horse do for you, and in a similar way, and to know that many of a horseman’s rules for the care of their working animals may be equally well applied to human beings who do the same work, is apt, perhaps, to cause a sensation of unpleasant surprise. It is a fact, however, that there is much information about the care of horses that the cyclist may study and apply with advantage.
The bicycle is not an iron horse; it is more like skates; is in some things like a boat; in some like a coasting sled; and in many ways is different from anything else. It seems alive at times, as does a boat; but it is the power propelling it that causes the delusion. The only thing alive about bicycles is the persons who propel them; and if they are only half alive before attempting to mount, they will become very alert and keenly appreciative of all that concerns them long before the sport has ceased to be a novelty.
“Exercise is important as a regulator of nutrition.” “The best athletic exercise for increasing the size of the chest is that which compels the deepestinspiration.” The lower limbs, with their masses of muscular tissue, are most capable of awakening the respiratory need which is proportioned to the expenditure of force. Exercise induces change of shape as well as change of size; and too much exercise of any one kind will produce a local effect.
Breathlessness is not the only form of fatigue, and fats are not the only reserve material. Nitrogenous products of combustion, which cannot be derived from fatty substances, are produced by work; and these are stored among the reserve material, and produce stiffness, as fat produces breathlessness.
In no other sport is the blood sent coursing through the veins in the same way as in bicycling; and as there is not a very great quantity of that wonderful fluid passing and repassing through the circulatory system, any obstruction or pressure is instantly felt and provided for. To avoid giving nature unnecessary trouble in providing for interrupted or unequal circulation, not even a glove that is the least tight should be worn; indeed, the covering of head, hands, and feet should be carefully selected. And the same precaution should be exercised with regard to all clothing. No tight underwear should be worn, and nothing like equestrian tights, which interfere with surface circulation. The waist and lower ribs must be kept free. You should never ride so hard as to allow the air to force the ribs out and in, so that you cannot control them. It is a good rule not to ride so hard that you cannot hold your breath at pleasure.
It is important always to remove perspiration before cooling; therefore, take a bath at once on coming in from a ride; if you cannot do that, rub off with a dry towel, or sponge with tepid water, and rub dry gently; then put on dry underclothing. The cold bath is most invigorating and refreshing, and never more refreshing than after bicycle exercise; but all cannot use it with good results. Provide for your change of underclothing before starting out, and if you do not intend to return, take it with you.
Remember always that it is essential to provide an entire covering for the body that will admit of free exhalations, and warm enough to prevent chilling under all circumstances. While riding, provided the condensing moisture is allowed to escape, it is quite possible to feel overheated, yet the skin must be protected from chill resulting from rapid motion through the air. Air pressure and evaporation nearly balance each other, and the extra heat caused by exertion is tempered by moisture and the constant fanning of rapid locomotion. These effects are most appreciably felt upon halting. If the covering is thin, of light weight, and of too hard a texture to admit of quick passage of air and steam, the garments at once become saturated with moisture, and a serious chilling follows. Even if the halt be but short, it will be found that an appreciable time passes after remounting before one becomes warm, and the distaste for work that follows is a sure indication that something is amiss. If energy were preserved, instead of wasted in warming up after halting, the benefit of the rest would be felt.
A proper porous material should be always worn. With a flannel shirt-waist and woollen sweater, even in quite warm weather, riding is not at all uncomfortable; but substitute a Holland linen coat for the sweater, and the rider will be first very warm, and then very damp indeed and most uncomfortable. Nature provides various means for keeping the body at an even temperature, and it is most essential not to disturb this balance. While working, heat is generated, the skin becomes moist, and a normal temperature is maintained by the rapid evaporation. Too little covering means too great evaporation and lowering of temperature; and even if no chill is experienced, the too rapid cooling prevents good working results, and stiffness is apt to set in with fatigue after the day’s work, and a languid, sleepy feeling on the day following.
Too much stress cannot be laid on the necessity of being able easily and expeditiously to adjust or redistribute the clothing. Flannel is a good non-conductor of heat, but the bicyclist must use discrimination in selection. Too heavy flannel will induce a copious and weakening perspiration; insufficient clothing will allow the body to be chilled by too rapid evaporation.
One of the greatest benefits to be derived from bicycle exercise is the free, healthy action of the skin that is induced. If this activity is retarded by pressure, much injury may be done by the holding and reabsorbing of waste matter. This reabsorbed matter, which is a direct poison and must be worked off again in the complexities of the system, causeslanguor and headache and a feeling that exercise is of no benefit, as indeed it is not if proper hygienic laws are not complied with.
While in the open air, there is little danger to be apprehended from damp clothing, as oxidation is going on freely. It is under shelter that danger lurks, where the air does not circulate freely. The underwear should be changed before eating, or the food will do little good. Where you can get shelter, you can usually find conveniences for making the change; otherwise, it is better to eat in the open air.
Digestion involves muscular action as well as chemical processes. Wherever in the system muscular work is being done, the blood is needed in large quantity to enable the muscular processes to continue. In the process of digestion important chemical work is accomplished by the action of certain juices or secretions of the stomach, and rhythmical muscular work in the walls and coatings of the stomach is required to regulate their supply. It may be easily understood, therefore, that digestion should be properly or rather uninterruptedly accomplished, and it cannot be thus properly accomplished if too much of the blood supply is called away in the earlier stages of assimilation.
Active muscular work should never be undertaken immediately after a full meal. The more food there is to be digested, the more work there is to be done, the less capable is the rest of the system for severe work. Such work, after eating heavily, would involve an interruption, almost a suspension, of digestive processes, and a consequent difficultyin the adjustment of the processes involved in muscular work. It would mean a much longer time to get the second wind, inability to do hard or heavy work, as well as inability to prolong the work without discomfort. Such a course of action must lead to serious complications and derangements of the digestive functions and eventually induce liability to disease.
It is very injurious, also, to attempt to perform heavy work fasting, or to prolong the period of exercise when food or rest is required. The human machine requires a certain amount of fuel, and the supply must be taken at regular intervals, or reserved material, which is too valuable to be recklessly expended, will be consumed.
A mixed diet, with plenty of variety, is the best to work on, everything to be thoroughly cooked. Three good meals a day, and no eating between meals; though, when tired, it is not well to work on an empty stomach, and if you are delayed it is better to eat something while waiting than to go too long without eating. Beef and mutton are always good food; and fresh vegetables, fruit, milk and eggs, and cereals either with cream and sugar or milk and sugar. Simple desserts are not harmful, neither are they necessary.
The so-called sustaining power of stimulants merely enables one to burn up reserve tissue, to use up more fuel, to produce more power. Work done under such conditions is forced work, like the forced draught of a steam-engine using power to force the air into the furnace. In both cases, intense heatand great power can be produced, and corresponding radiation and depression occur while the system is undergoing its processes of restoration. Tea, coffee, bouillon, are stimulating, and good as food accessories; but they are not good to work on.
Seated awheel, the bicyclist feels master of the situation. The bicycle obeys the slightest impulse, moving at will, almost without conscious effort, virtually as much a part of the rider, and as easily under control, as hand or foot. It is because weight is supported and friction overcome that the bicyclist loses consciousness of effort as he moves, with seemingly no limit to endurance.
A trouble often experienced is breathlessness. For this there are several causes. Sometimes the machine is started too hurriedly and before the processes of the body have had time to adjust themselves. To work easily, the muscles must be heated gradually, until they are brought to the proper point of tension. Again, the easy movement of the wheel often causes the cyclist to become oblivious of the fact that the muscles are working quickly while doing easy work, that the power applied is being converted into speed with little appreciable effort, until suddenly his breath becomes labored, and a halt must be made for rest. We need not attempt here to give the figures for power expended and work done, though both factors may be estimated.
Technically, effort is a physiological condition involving complicated chemical changes and concentration of power. The work of the lungs is done mechanically, automatically, is muscular work, involving chemical changes and giving chemical results. We breathe in air full of oxygen; we exhale air loaded with carbonic acid. Muscular effort produces carbonic acid through chemical changes in the tissues of the body. The oxygen of the air, taken into the lungs to purify the blood, is absorbed and stored. Easy muscular movements give off a limited quantity of carbonic acid and other products, but not more than can be eliminated without readjustment of processes. When a succession of efforts is made, involving the manufacture of larger quantities of carbonic acid, the eliminating capacity is correspondingly taxed.
In making an effort, the lungs become momentarily fixed, and their regular respiratory movement is suspended. Carbonic acid is held, not given off, and a feeling of suffocation is observed. Unless respiration is restored by a pause, poisoning by the waste products ensues, they being reabsorbed, and inducing discomfort and fatigue. Working with effort, the lungs should be free to expand and contract. To this end it is all-important to exhale, expelling the air from the lungs by compression of the chest after severe exertion. Air rushes naturally into the chest cavity; attention, therefore, should be directed, not to getting in air, but to expelling the air already in the lungs. This successfully done assists materially in bringingabout that desirable condition known as “second wind,” and gives control over the muscles of the chest, which enables waste products to be readily eliminated.
“The intensity of breathlessness during exercise is in direct proportion to the expenditure of force demanded by the exercise in a given time.” Breathlessness is due to power expended in a limited time. This, at least, is one of the inducing causes. On the bicycle, power is converted into speed. In hill-climbing, shortness of wind is due not so much to position on the wheel as to the amount of power expended in doing the work. If power is wasted, the work attempted is usually not accomplished; if intelligently expended, the work is done easily and well, leaving the bicyclist in condition to renew the effort when necessary.
Hill-climbing is like stair-climbing; power is expended in a succession of efforts made in raising the weight on an ascending plane. The weight must be lifted, either pushed up or pulled up, and the respiratory need is increased. The hill-climber must aim to mount with as little effort as possible and to make the ascent with the minimum expenditure of power.
Rapidly increased heart-beat is accompanied by deeply inflated lungs and a tendency the bicyclist should guard against to work open-mouthed. Here the question of tight clothing comes prominently forward. Sitting erect and holding by the handle-bars, the bicyclist’s upper chest muscles are held comparatively fixed or rigid; the arms, being usedfor support, act as levers holding down the upward expansion of the chest. The air, being compressed, is forced laterally and downward. The downward expansion of the chest is checked by the movement of pedaling, there being a constant upward pressure in the ascending stroke and an increased muscular compression in the descending stroke. With a tight belt, the breathing is chiefly upward, and downward when sitting or walking, the lateral expansion depending on the width and compression of the belt.
When working on a bicycle, with the hands fixed and holding hard, the upper chest is comparatively rigid, the muscles below the diaphragm hard at work; and muscles at work do not admit of compression, which prevents the diaphragm from moving downward. The diaphragm is a muscular wall, stretched across the trunk below the lung cavity and near the waist-line. If the lower muscles of the trunk are actively at work, the diaphragm can be distended but a little way in a downward direction by lung pressure. The air in the lungs, which are hard at work, and over-full, presses against the heart, and makes harder work for that organ. When the lungs are distended, any clothing that can be felt about the waist exerts more or less pressure. The lungs of a bicyclist at work are constantly distended, seldom deflated, and an equal pressure is exerted in all directions. The diaphragm is forced downward, pressure comes on the large blood-vessels, and the legs feel tired as one of the results of the constriction. Pressure on the heart and the large blood vessels of the lung cavity causes rush of blood to thehead and gives a heated look to the face and a feeling of faintness and headache.
The muscles of the waist are elastic, but lose their elasticity when not in use. Fat accumulates, and is pressed down, usually below the belt, causing the muscles of the figure to sag and the trunk to lose its proper lines. Compression of the waist while cycling is dangerous, and will cause enlargement of the hips and distort the lines of the figure below and above the waist. If tight clothing must be worn, do not wear it while exercising any more than while sleeping.
Bicycling is a great equalizer of tissue. The system, when this exercise is moderately indulged, is freshened as is a city by a heavy rain, all accumulations and deposits being swept away.
There is a difference, a very great difference, between muscular fatigue and breathlessness, and the two conditions should not be confused. Breathlessness is general fatigue; muscular fatigue is fatigue localized. When you are breathless, all your muscles are tired; they do not want to work and are indeed incapable of performing work. Work performed by the lower limbs causes breathlessness more quickly than any other kind of exertion, and the bicyclist must bear this fact in mind. The respiratory need is increased in proportion to the amount of carbonic acid in the blood. The lower limbs can perform a great deal of work in a few seconds, the large masses of muscle in the legs at work throwing large quantities of carbonic acid into the blood to be given off or eliminated by the lungs.
Each individual has his own limit or pace, at which he can do work most easily. If this pace is exceeded, effort follows and increased expenditure of power; a greater quantity of carbonic acid is produced to be given off; and fatigue is induced sooner than when working at the pace which can be kept without extraordinary exertion. Every bicyclist knows his own natural pace, and when departing from that must expect to be winded sooner or later.
Rapid work on the bicycle is similar, as muscular exertion, to running, racing, speeding, and sprinting. Here we have the time limit,—great speed produced in a short time; tissue consumed, and carbonic acid produced in large quantities to be quickly eliminated. Increased effort means more power expended. The fixed lung cavity means lessened capacity for increased air-consumption and greatly lessened means of inhaling and expelling air. One of the effects produced by carbonic acid in the blood is a stimulation to increased effort, which causes a desire to prolong work after reasonable limits have been exceeded, a feeling that more must be done, rather than a desire to stop and rest.
Second wind is the condition produced by the adjustment of the processes of the body to the new state of exertion, where the heart and lungs balance and work according to the demands of the new condition. A pendulum, slipped on its spindle and let go, swings irregularly until it finds its new rhythm. The rhythm that corresponds with its weight, momentum and length of spindle, leverage, is the rhythm of the work. All repeated work has arhythm, and the movement disturbed requires a little time for readjustment. The heart and lungs work automatically and rhythmically, and any new movement disturbs their rhythm, which must be adjusted for change of occupation or exercise until the balance of the working functions is established.
The second wind usually comes after the first fifteen minutes of work. Quickly acquired, it means rapid and easy adjustment of processes, a quick response to effort, and little power wasted. Though individuals differ in this respect, a difficulty in getting the second wind, when exercise has been suspended for a time, will sometimes be experienced, and care should be taken not to overwork when taking up an exercise that has been for some time discontinued.
When you have had exercise enough, stop and rest. Change of occupation, turning from active mental work to active muscular work, has been said to give rest to the mental faculties. Though they perhaps do, in a sense, experience rest, it might be unwise to assert that this rest is really recuperative. Repeated alternation from active mental exercise to active physical exercise would inevitably result in a state of exhaustion, in which the reserve fund of energy or strength would be completely consumed. It is a more accurate statement that a certain amount of muscular work, which will restore the balance of the system, is a good preparation for rest after active mental exertion.
During mental work of any kind, muscular work must be performed; for breathing, seeing, movingthe hands, require muscular movement. The question, therefore, resolves itself into one of degree of work done and equilibrium of forces to be maintained, rather than one of restoration of one set of faculties by the overtaxing of another set. Good muscular work cannot be accomplished without the exercise of brain and will; therefore, when the mind is actively employed, a certain amount of muscular tissue is consumed, though not enough to maintain the system in a state of bodily activity. For body and mind, to be in a state of perfect health or equilibrium, should be equally active.
The tissues of the body are constantly renewed, and the amount of work, mental or muscular, that can be accomplished is determined by these constantly renewing processes. The amount of material taken up and stored for use depends upon the amount of material needed; and this is gauged by the amount of work already done, and restricted by the amount of work the material is capable of performing. The balance of work and rest, quantity and quality, varies with different temperaments.
Training means nothing more than preparation. For those engaged in active mental occupation it is well to consider if they are giving themselves the best preparation for resisting the fatigue consequent upon their occupation. Cycling is a pastime and sport, and may be a relaxation and the alternate of other athletic exercises. After the machine is under control, the muscular work becomes virtually automatic; and for this reason cycling, in its various forms, has proved so beneficial as a relaxation.
Overwork produces the effect of poisoning of the system, and reduces its power of resistance. This poisoning is produced by the waste products of the system, which accumulate during work, as the forces for eliminating them are overtaxed; and before work can be properly resumed, the poison must be eliminated from the system, and the power-producing materials again stored for use.
Stiffness is a form of fatigue due to an accumulation of deposits in the tissues, which are best removed by exercising after a period of rest. With their removal, stiffness disappears, to return with fresh deposits if exercise is again prolonged. The amount of material not taken up by the system lessens with regular exercise, and the tendency to stiffness gradually disappears. The only remedy for stiffness is work, then rest, then work again. Sleep does not always come to the over-tired, and we may therefore conclude that it is better to be rested before attempting to sleep.
A pause, to be recuperative, need not be prolonged; fifteen minutes’ rest after exertion should be sufficient; and during a day’s work, this fifteen minutes’ rest between changes of occupation, not including the quiet necessary for digestion, will keep one fresh. A pause longer than fifteen minutes prepares or readjusts the processes. Do no work, mental or muscular, for at least an hour after a meal; and sleep in a cool—not cold—well-ventilated room.
Low tension power usually accomplishes its object without waste. Work done at high pressure, that might be done at low pressure, indicates waste ofeffort under strain. The intense concentration of effort when the beginner is struggling with a bicycle is made at high pressure. The excitement of the unexpected probably has something to do with this, as well as the novelty of the situation. If all bicycle work required the same state of tension, however, it could not be long endured; the strain would be too great.
There is a certain amount you can do, or think you can do; this is one measure of your capacity. The work you do is done by stored energy. How may that energy be applied to give the best results? The intricate workings of the mind we may not attempt to analyze: what we do, we do because we wish to, or because we ought, or because we must. Concentrated effort, persistent effort, continuous effort, all consume force. When you dread anything you have undertaken as too difficult of accomplishment, just so much more force is required to overcome that idea. If, mounted on your bicycle, you wheel along in a state of apprehension, you induce a high nervous tension that requires a great reserve of power to resist and supply. Fear, or a sense of insecurity, or a lack of confidence, produces the same result. A bicycle is run by the direct application of power; and power diverted is power wasted.
In wheeling, after the invigorating freshness of the exercise has reached a certain point, the benefit derived lessens with the amount of power drawn from the reserve. Bicycle exercise, moreover, to be really beneficial, should be alternated with other exercise.The bicycle freshens and brings into good condition muscles already developed, but it is an exercise that must be taken with judgment. It is not a panacea for all human ills; it can be generally beneficial, or, immoderately indulged, may become most harmful.
Wheeling for long distances should not be undertaken without proper training. For the sedentary, and for all others tempted by the fascinations of the sport to over-exertion, caution is most necessary. Reaction from over-exertion will bring about a physical condition as detrimental as that caused by lack of exercise—general lassitude and unfitness for work, if nothing more serious.
Persons who are naturally timid cannot accomplish in the same time as much as the more courageous, for their powers are actively at work overcoming their dread of collision and fear of falling; and the distance covered, for power expended, must consequently be less than when no other exertion is required than is needed for propelling the bicycle.
Learn to work without strain or effort; practise where fear is not likely to be aroused, for fear induces a state of tension, and bicycling cannot be enjoyed or prolonged if this drain of the power-supply is allowed. Confidence will come with the knowledge that you are no longer at the mercy of the machine, that it is in your power.
No one make of bicycle is acknowledged the best, and no one is absolutely perfect. The selection of a bicycle, therefore, is a matter of knowledge and nice discrimination, and its use opens a wide field of opportunity before you—touring and cruising, andexpeditions of all kinds; travel and sight-seeing; means for study and investigation.
The possible cost of cycling may be quite appalling to consider; but in cycling, as in other things, you may choose between the demands of necessity and the suggestions of luxury. One—almost the chief—fascination of the sport is its simplicity as a mode of travel; the possibility of doing away with all impedimenta. The bicyclist soon learns to dispense with every accessory not positively necessary and to know every possible use of indispensable articles.
The bicycle bestows and restores health; it has its limit, though it does so much that more seems always possible. Take the bicycle as it is, use it intelligently, enjoy it, and become an enthusiast.