Students Form Weightlifting Club, Exercise 'to Improve on Nature'

Potential Mr. Americas are a dime a dozen down at the Indoor Athletic Building and Dillon Field House these weekday afternoons. Ninety-eight Colleges students and 15 men from the Law School--members of the Harvard Weightlifting and Gymnastics Society--are taking exercise to develop their muscles.

The society recommends weightlifting both for recreational purposes and for athletic competition. It has even formulated a philosophy of exercise to attract intellectuals who might otherwise consider muscle-building beneath them: "It is possible to improve on nature but not remake it."

A little brochure put out by the society explains the procedure of weightlifting. The seven-page leaflet is the work of Milton H. Woolf, a part-time student at the University.

"Does weightlifting make you muscle bound? Does it develop short, bulging muscles instead of the long, smooth muscles formed by swimming?" The brochure says that there is no such thing as being musclebound. The muscles, bones, and ligaments naturally are loose, and weightlifting will not tighten them up.

Weightlifting, Woolf claims, is beneficial for anyone training for another sport. It is especially helpful for sports which stress personal contact and endurance such as crew, football, track, and wrestling. Several varsity members of these teams have worked out with weights this year.

They include wrestlers Chuck Chandler and Joe Hubbard, football players Jerry Blitz and Eli Manos, and harrier Al Wilson.