Excerpt from 'Real-Life Movements?' 

by David Landau

Dr. Zander was born in Stockholm, Sweden (March 29, 1835). As a youth, Zander was exposed to gymnastics and exercise from day one. The young Zander was slight in build and was eager to find any way to make his body less sickly. When exposed to early schooling, Zander exhibited extreme intelligence and rose to the top of his class. University work seemed eminent, and upon his studies at Upsala, Zander graduated from medical school. He became a licensed practitioner by 1864.

However, it was in the 1850's that Zander, the gymnast, began to experiment with springs and weights attached to pulley systems. Zander was an expert gymnast, and found that the use of the Ling manual therapeutics lacked consistency and was very inefficient. His ideas were inspired by the many early attempts at physical mechanical apparatus. He noted that the apparatus used mirrored sports/ or recreational activities. It was time to devise a diametrical scheme, a mechanical strategy to apply to the muscle/joint function of the body.

Starting with iron springs, he observed and concluded that resistance when applied to the muscular structures, as at it's greatest when the muscle was at its weakest. He quickly rejected this, aware of the inconsistencies of loading that could result in injury. Pulley weights seemed to be the solution at first, but the constant resistance was not quite accurate enough. Continuing research, Zander found that the solutions were much easier than he first warranted.

The body is a system of levers in which the muscles act upon the bones based on physical law. Zander designed his approaches to match. He designed a lever system with wheels and weights at exacting locations to provide meaningful loading and falloff to the appropriate muscular structures. He utilized graduated levers with a sliding weight load that varied in accordance with individual weaknesses and strengths. Soon the world would be exposed to the first genuine variable resistance system ever.

Zander's plan of exposure started by putting his machines to work at a nearby school, to work with children. (Ironic similarities to Arthur Jones' early work with Deland High School in the early 1970's.) Marked improvements in the strength of many pupils, as well as attitude and appetite, inspired him to open his Medico-Mechanical Institute (circa 1865), which included 27 machines.

As Ling had experienced before him, Zander and his system was not exactly welcomed with open arms. The medical profession was extremely conservative towards what was deemed a stilted approach. At first glance it could be understood that Zander had his work cut out for him. He countered by simply proving them wrong by playing their game.

Regular employment of Zander apparati showed effectiveness at correcting scoliosis and relieving cardiac strain. It also created efficient and less problematic delivery in pregnant women. Many medical conditions that previously showed no improvement from conventional or manual treatments now exhibited marked improvement with regular Zander implementation.

The therapeutic efficacy of Zander Treatment found its way into the industrial labor front. Rehabilitation in its infancy was a major concern. Large corporations of the time were in need of a system to return the injured or disabled back to work. Zander Therapeutics proved to reduce medical treatment of twenty weeks or more from 50% without the use of mechanical, to a mere 2% within a five-year period. This effectiveness alone allowed for the Accidents Act of 1884 which stated that large corporations could make use of the Zander institutes.

This very measure allowed for a changing of the guard. The medical profession and experts of the Swedish manual system were impressed to the degree of becoming total converts. Books that were written on the sole context of the manual method were totally revised to include parallel descriptions of the corresponding Zander appliances. Within a few years, nearly all medical authorities agreed that Zander Apparatus was indeed the superior means of a cure.

On the European front, experts from Sweden, Germany, France, Italy and Austria summed up Zander Treatment in these very principles:

First: The Zander Apparati are constructed to be the medium where by passive and active exercise may be given to the patient in the most perfect manner and in accordance with anatomical and physiological laws.

Second: The resistance on the active apparatus is easily controlled, therefore easily increased in accordance with the improvement made by the patient. This increase or decrease can be graduated by means of a special set-screw whose needles points to a number which corresponds to the number on the patient's prescription. No guesswork is permitted; exactness and precision governs the treatment from start to finish.

Third: This particular resistance varies in accordance with the varying strength of the muscle.

Fourth: The work of each apparatus is strictly limited to a certain group of muscles, or to a certain joint.

Statements made to the effect by the turn of the century simply indicate that:

Zander apparatus treatment is of a scientific nature, and as such is endorsed by leading medical authorities.

Zander treatment is generally and successfully practiced at all prominent health resorts and most cities throughout Europe. The aliments which are benefited by Zander Apparati are very numerous.

A considerable number of these ailments cannot be successfully treated by any other method.

This valuable treatment can be carried on a large scale, yet be of a precise and scientific nature.

The Zander Apparatus are ingeniously constructed in accordance with physiological and anatomical laws; therefore they are safe and suitable to employ in the treatment of the sick.

Unfortunately, the fate of Zander's mechanical system was severely damaged as a result of two world wars, the death of Zander, the Great Depression, and the Great Influenza Epidemic. Ironically, the man who is known, in some part, as being the father of modern physical therapy, Thomas Delorme, MD, indirectly made us aware of Zander and his mechanical methods. However, in the absence of Zander Apparatus (which disappeared decades ago), physical therapy has evolved FROM the concept of functionality or exercise to exemplify real-life movements TO Zander's sophisticated exercise philosophy based on muscle/joint function and Arthur Jones' function dictates design, THEN retrogressed back to pre-Ling nonsense couched in the contemporary word of work-hardening.

Whether rehabilitation, muscle structural enhancement, or the maintenance of bodily health, this brief treatise on exercise history indicates that physical law simply does not change. We must credit Per Ling for paving the way to ultimately what was legitimate exercise. Ling's systematized progressive gymnastics opened the door for the mechanical genius Gustav Zander. Zander elaborated on Ling's technique by the addition of mechanical apparatus. Analyzing his rigid principles, Zander, it is noted, made no reference to athletics, prolonged physical exertion or indirect or direct concern of heart rate elevation. He evidently understood these notions were irrational and irrelevant. Zander's obvious objective was to address bodily debilities by the stimulation of muscular hypertrophy.

Today, concepts of aerobics and circuit training combined with Karvonen heart-rate protocol alludes to an impressive sounding premise, These errant philosophies dominate mainstream exercise physiology, physical therapy, and cardiac rehabilitation along with other nonsense such as plyometrics, explosive training, and isokinetics. Ideally and chronologically this whole mishmash of pseudoscience was evident in the form of recreation before Ling and others formed their own strategies. Further research may expose the fact that these or other similar philosophies did indeed exist before the turn of the 18th century, where they soon disappeared in favor of Ling/Zander protocols.

It takes the underlying intelligent objectives of the critical investigator to battle today's misplaced ideas on exercise. Sadly, the fads and follies of today's mainstream physical educators dominate today's unethical scene.