The air was thicker than pea soup, the temperature was rising as quickly as a Brian Westbrook cutback move, and the Eagles had already endured seven consecutive days of banging one another around, yet Reid hadn't planned to let up on them.

But when he realized the troops were thinned out because he had only seven defensive linemen and the players 30 and older were given the morning off, the taskmaster lifted the yoke from the remaining guys and pronounced there would be no hitting. Helmets, shoulder pads and shorts only.

No wonder when the horn sounded to get practice going at 8:15, Omar Gaither broke into a loud rendition of the Rocky theme while some of his fellow linebackers chimed in.

"It really was about numbers," explained Reid, who said he had made the decision in the morning. "Between the 30-plus club and the defensive-end situation and tight-end situation, I had to pull back on them. We just didn't do the live periods we normally do in pads, but we still got all the work done that needed to be done."

Compared with the training camp Reid runs, most others around the NFL seem like days at the beach. Buffalo no longer has two-a-day practices. The Packers were off yesterday. The Cowboys have two-a-days every other day. Their first seven days of practice, the Jets had only four two-a-days.

"You talk to guys who come here from other teams, and to guys you know around the league, we do have a pretty hard camp," safety Quintin Mikell said.

Running back Lorenzo Booker, acquired from Miami on draft day, just rolled his eyes and nodded when asked if Camp Reid was tougher than the Dolphins'.

Said rookie DeSean Jackson, "I've heard from the veterans that this is one of the hardest camps in the NFL."

Around the league, trainers compare notes. When Eagles trainer Rick Burkholder was giving an update on the condition of defensive end Chris Clemons, who was treated for dehydration Tuesday at Lehigh Valley Hospital, he acknowledged the demands of Reid's camp.

"I think there's an adjustment period for new players in our system, whether they are rookies or whether they are veteran guys we got through free agency," Burkholder said. "It's a little different here, and in the end we all work toward making it a good environment for the player. I think this is a tough, tough thing that we do here."

Clemons, signed as a free agent out of Oakland, returned to practice yesterday. He said the Raiders held two-a-days, but the second practice was at night. "We had only one practice out in the sun," he said.

Attend an Eagles practice on a sweltering summer day at Lehigh University, and it's apparent that Burkholder has just about every instrument available to try to protect the players from dehydration. Before each practice, one of his staffers twirls a sling psychrometer in the air to gauge the humidity, which was 74 percent at 8:07 a.m.

Many teams train under intense heat and humidity. But it's the amount of contact, called live drills, that separates Reid's camp from most. Of course, players complain at their own risk. The coaches don't want to hear it, and the macho culture of the game stifles it. So they hit, and hit hard, and insist they enjoy it.

"You know, I'm a defensive player, so there's no such thing as too much hitting," Mikell said. "You don't want to hit your own guys all the time, but I don't think it's too much. I'm a safety. That's what I do.

"I mean, I don't want to cheap-shot a guy. Like if there's a guy with his hands up, I'm not going to try to decapitate him. But at the same time, that's how you get ready for the season, the hitting."

Cornerback Sheldon Brown shrugged when asked about all the hitting at camp.

"It really doesn't matter to me. I played for Lou Holtz in college" at South Carolina, he said, "and we hit everything."

Brown said he had talked to former Eagles.

"Some of my former teammates say they have better situations where they go," he said. "Of course, some of those guys are on teams that aren't very good. Look, when you get in the games and you're not used to somebody hitting you, more than likely you're going to fumble the football and stuff like that, so you might as well get used to it."