page_title: Pehr Henrik Ling
section_title: Teaching
hierarchical_section_title: Pehr Henrik Ling / Teaching
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: Linggymnastik på Gymnastiska centralinstitutet i Stockholm: Str nigsitt utg. Gamla GCI, Hamngatan 19, Övre västra salen. GCI-elever 1910-11 i sträck nigsittande. Widebeck. English: Swedish gymnastics at the Royal Gymnastics Central Institute in Stockholm, 1910
context_page_description: Pehr Henrik Ling pioneered the teaching of physical education in Sweden. Ling is credited as the father of Swedish massage.
context_section_description: He read Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths' book Gymnastics for the Youth, and participated in the gymnastic exercises of the originator of Danish gymnastics, Franz Nachtegall He returned to Sweden 1804 in order to establish a gymnastic institute.
  It is possible that Ling's gymnastics were inspired by Chinese body exercises. 
  Back in Sweden, Ling began a routine of daily exercise, including fencing, and in 1805 was appointed as a master of fencing at Lund University. Having discovered that his daily exercises had restored his health, Ling decided to apply this experience for the benefit of others. He saw the potential of adapting these techniques to promote better health in many situations and thus attended classes in anatomy and physiology, and went through the entire curriculum for the training of a medical doctor. He then outlined a system of gymnastics, exercises, and maneuvers divided into four branches: pedagogical, medical, military, and aesthetic, which carried out his theories and demonstrated the scientific rigor to be integrated or approved by established medical practitioners.
  Ling was the gymnastics instructor in the Military Academy at Carlsberg.
  After several attempts to interest the Swedish government, Ling at last obtained government cooperation in 1813, and founded the Royal Central Gymnastics Institute for the training of gymnastic instructors was opened in Stockholm, with Ling appointed as principal. Ling invented physical education apparatus including the box horse, wall bars, and beams. He is also credited with developing calisthenics and free calisthenics.  Orthodox medical practitioners were opposed to the claims made by Ling and his disciples. However, by 1831, Ling was elected a member of the Swedish General Medical Association (Svenska läkaresällskapet), which demonstrated that his methods were regarded as worthy of professional recognition. He was elected a member of the Swedish Academy in 1835  and became a titular professor the same year.
caption: Swedish gymnastics at the Royal Central Gymnastics Institute in Stockholm, c. 1900
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