How Cycling Injures Health.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 477, 4 June 1890, Page 4

How Cycling Injures Health.

Dr. B. W. Richardson, in the ‘Asclepiad,’ points out that unless certain essential con ditions are observed cycling is inevitably injurious to health. Don’t Cycle till Twenty-One Years Old. He thinks that it is always best to delay the commencement of cycling until the body is closely approaching to ics maturity. Even adult cyclists who are too much in the saddle almost invariably acquire what may be called the cyclist’s figure, which is not graceful and is nob indicative of the full possession of perfectly - balanced bodily powers. Hence I should not recommend cycling as a pastime of the schools, and I should nob favour it as an exercise, even during holiday-times from school, except in the most moderate degree. The systematic pursuit of cycling should never be fully commenced until the rider has arrived at maturity—that is bo say until the age of bwenty-ono years has been attained. How Cycling Deforms the Body. The effect of cycling on the upper extremity of the arm and forearm is to slightly bend the limb, the deformity taking place in the arm-bone and in the lingers, and to bring about an unnatural curve of the shoulders. On the lower limbs cycling tells as markedly as it does on the spine ; and, as the lower limbs perform the greater part of the work, they usually feel the effects of it most distinctly. Riding brings out and exaggerates any deformity, however slight. The pelvis of the rider, now practically a part of the machine, is fixed to it, and is almost as rigid as itself. In this position of things the thighbone is placed under unusual strain. The large muscles in the fore part of the thigh are°employed in extending or lifting up the leg at great disadvantage of leverage. What the strain is on these muscles every young cyclist knows to his cost, and it is not until they get a kind of extra-natural power that riding is easy. The pressure upon the thigh-bone causes bow-legged-ncss. Wanted, a Reformed Cycle. We still maintain a basic error in the machine, by having it so constructed that the pelvis of the rider becomes a fixed part of the machine. Thi3 is well shown when the cyclist has to meet a hill. In climbing we push the machine, or drag it. . We want two entire changes in construction of the machine, one by which we can bring the whole weight of the body into the propulsion ; the other by which we can call forth all that muscular power which is used with such effect in walking and running, but is lost in cycling. If these two objects were attained, and there is nob the slightest reason why they should not be attained, climbing would be just as easy on the machine as it is off' it; while the degree of speed that would be rendered applicable would, at least, be doubled ; that is to say, if now in ordinary riding the four miles an hour of the pedestrian is changed into eight, it would then, with the same amount of exertion, be turned into sixteen ; whilst the twenty miles an hour of the fastest rider would be turned into forty, if that were a safe pace to travel. -