Old Age, Gender and Physical Activity "Strength is Health”: George Barker Windship Health Through Sport How to Train the Body for Health and Poise Medicine, Science and Sport The Bicycle and Tricycle as Aids to Health and Recreation Passive Smoking What is Strength? Health Insurance Decisions What Makes Man a Sprinter? What to Fish for in February? Sport and its Economic and Social Importance Use of Weights for Health Does Ageing Drive Health Expenditures Medicare: Policy Issues Indoor Training for Outdoor Sport Starting and Starters Insured versus Not Insured Babylonian Astrology The Wrath of Heaven The Displaced Zodiac and the Beginnings of Astronomy The Duty of the Son of Heaven: Orientation Time Was Once Relative	What is Strength? To get muscle, and become strong, may be a very laudable desire; but it raises the question, what is strength, and what is the value of muscle, in its relation to health? Dr. Joseph Rhodes Buchanan states that muscular tissue is, in fact, nothing more than a depot in which is stored the nutrition needed to supply the organs adjacent to them; and I believe the statement to be true. And it should very readily be understood that the muscular condition of the body depends more upon air, food, the power of the nerves to stimulate the organs of the body, so as to enable them to perform their functions, than it does on exercise. It is well for young people to boast of their strength and plume themselves, upon their big biceps, but nevertheless the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The power to lift heavy weights is no real proof of strength, nor is the power to tear a pack of cards an indication of a powerful grip, any more than is the wonderful speed of the sprinter any positive proof that he possesses endurance; especially does such evidence as the above lose its value when furnished by the young and immature. The strength that is of practical value is something more than that developed by training. It is due more to condition than to a knowledge of the laws of leverage, as illustrated a few years ago by the so-called Electric Girl, or by the weight-lifters, whose power is due more to constant practise in one direction than to natural power or health. The only strength worth having is based upon health, combined with a well-developed power of co-ordination and intelligence, which may be natural or acquired; and that is all that is really necessary for the weak to develop. One must first be healthy to be strong, and strength, to be of any practical value, must be of that reliable kind which never fails one in emergency. This sort of strength makes one lose faith in the power of draughts, open windows, and pneumonia. It should be of the sort which can be used on all necessary occasions, without any sort of setting, either in the way of clothes or apparatus, to help it along. It should also be good for all practical purposes called for in the various occupations of every-day life. And it should enable a person of forty or fifty years of age to do a hard day’s work, as a roustabout, or go on a hard march without food, and without any feeling of distress. Muscle depends upon health; strength upon the power of the nerves to stimulate the millions of fibers that make up the sinews and ligaments. Health is the condition in which all kinds of food is acceptable when needed, and where the functions of the body perform their duty without artificial assistance. While strength is illustrated by the power of the nerves to flex or extend the limbs by contracting or stretching the ligaments and sinews attached to the bones, within and about whose finer fibers is found that material known as muscle. Taking up the relationship between health, muscle, and strength, it must be admitted that health is independent of muscle, and strength is independent of health, and also that strength is in fact more independent of muscle than muscle is of strength. As instances: I have seen a delicate and slightly built woman hang from a window sill for at least thirty minutes, by the finger tips to escape the flames, while ordinarily she could not have lifted fifty pounds, much less have borne her own weight. What force it is that enables an ordinarily weak person to perform such prodigious feats is a question—but it certainly is not muscle.