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Join us as we explore the 1903 staff exercises of Dr. Tell Berrgen, a disciple of Ling's Swedish method of gymnastics, who went on to become an instructor of physical culture at John Harvey Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanitarium. This video was made as part of the ongoing “Getting Back in Shape with 19th Century Historical Exercises“ series, all of which can be viewed here: Want to help support this channel? Visit our Patreon for added benefits: Check out my books on Amazon: Click the “subscribe“ button above. Thanks! DISCLAIMER: This series is for historical interest only. It is not intended to be instructional, and is not a replacement for a qualified instructor or therapist who can guide, observe and correct you in person. The original historical directions for these exercises, which are not fully quoted and explored in the video, are very precise—the positioning, alignment of the joints, feet, hands, etc.. And if you get that wrong, it’s definitely possible to injure yourself. This video is an EXPERIMENT, and many of these historical methods are as of yet untested in modern times. I don’t even know if I’m going to recommend them myself after practicing them for weeks or months. It is possible they could lead to injury. I have and will be using the actual antique apparatus intended for these methods. I can tell you that if you swap out the light wooden historical apparatus that you see me use in the videos with heavy modern mass-produced apparatus, such as modern clubs or dumbbells, it is definitely possible (if not probable) to injure yourself. For all of these reasons I caution you not to try to follow along and do these exercises at home, but to perform such exercises only under the supervision of a qualified and experienced instructor or master. For the benefit of viewers, I will be linking to such instructors and masters in some of these videos.
