Welcome to Erin Mankie's Cabinet of Curiosity's, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm

and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

When an athlete injures a muscle or a tendon, they'll go through a variety of treatments

to mend the tissue.

They might soak their body in an ice bath to reduce inflammation or do certain stretches

to loosen things up again.

But one man is actually responsible for many of the machines and techniques used today,

and he brought them all the way from Sweden.

His name was Gustaf Zander, born in the 30s in Stockholm.

He was kind of obsessed with fitness from a young age, focusing much of his study on Swedish

medical gymnastics.

Otherwise, known as the Swedish Movement Cure, medical gymnastics were first introduced

by Pierre Heinrich Ling, a poet and theology student who was tired of seeing Sweden taking

a backseat to other stronger countries.

So he came up with training regimens, centered around physical education, fencing, massage,

and dance that were eventually adopted by the Swedish government.

And Zander mastered Ling's exercises, but he lamented the need for other people to provide

resistance so that the exercise could build muscle.

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