Muscle Mass

leaders at first YMCA camp in U.S., 1887

There is such a thing as Muscular Christianity, and President Theodore Roosevelt was one of its most stalwart proponents. It was a movement spawned in the late 1800s, reportedly as a response, at least in part, to what was being seen as the Victorian-era feminization of church. An organization of the time, the Businessmen's Awakening, and the YMCA were started largely to bring more men into the fold. But while the emphasis on masculinity and manliness seems to have waned, the movement's influence continues to permeate our culture. In the introduction to his fascinating book Muscular Christianity: Manhood and Sports in Protestant America, 1880-1920, Clifford Putney writes, "Members of the Men and Religion Forward movement may no longer be around to preach the virtues of muscular Christianity, but their faith in the power of manly athletes to overcome society's ills lives on, as evidenced by the re-emergence of such neo-muscular Christian groups as the Promise Keepers and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes."
   It lives on, too, according to the author of this piece, in our violent sports, such as boxing and football. He quotes Roosevelt: "The sports especially dear to a vigorous and manly nation are always those in which there is a slight element of risk." The risks inherent in football have taken center stage of late. This happens, writes the author, "once every 30 or 40 years in America. It happened in 1905, when around 20 players (estimates vary on the exact figure) died in game action. It happened again in the 1930s, when so many players were getting hurt that the American Football Coaches Association felt it necessary to begin an annual survey of player injuries. It happened in 1968, when 66 players were either killed or paralyzed on the field, an epidemic that forced the creation of official equipment standards and led to the birth of the hard shell plastic helmet still in use today. And it has been happening once more over the past half-decade, as the damage hidden under those hard helmets has been revealed in the form of CTE diagnoses and other mental health issues now rampant among former NFL players": http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/may/08/muscular-christianity-and-american-sports-undying-love-of-violence?CMP=ema_565