Gustave Zander's Medico-mechanical Gymnastics (1892)
"Safeguards against a sedentary life and the seclusion of the office."
Dr. Jonas Gustav Vilhelm Zander (29 March 1835 in Stockholm – 17 June 1920) was a Swedish physician, orthopedist and one of the originators of mechanotherapy. He is known for inventing a therapeutic method of exercise carried out by means of a special apparatus. He began his work in 1860s. He established the Zander Therapeutical Institute in Stockholm.
Zander marketed his machines as safeguards against “a sedentary life and the seclusion of the office”, promising “increased well-being and capacity for work”. In a sense, his machines offset injuries caused by other machines: advances in mechanization created new forms of labor divorced from physical exertion. One had to work out to remain physically capable of performing further work in the office.
The images come from a catalogue distributed by “Görransson’s mekaniska verkstad”, a gymnastics equipment company, and are reproduced in a book published by Dr. Alfred Levertin on Dr. G. Zander’s Medico-Mechanische Gymastik (1892)
~ For over 30 more images see: Public Domain Review / Gustave Zander and the 19th-Century Gym
Machines for the machine age, precursors of Nordic Track ( guess the Nordic has roots I didn't know about until your post.) Peleton. Machines for humans wired to digital machines who don't know how to or can't move naturally in daily life. Great post.