Kafka's Calisthenics

Take a sledgehammer and wrap an old sweater around it. This is your "shovelglove." Every week day morning, set a timer for 14 minutes. Use the shovelglove to perform shoveling, butter churning, and wood chopping motions until the timer goes off. Stop. Rest on weekends and holidays. Baffled? Intrigued? Charmed? Discuss here.
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Bookman Old Style
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Kafka's Calisthenics

Post by Bookman Old Style » Fri Jan 28, 2011 7:13 pm

Recently, on Slate:

Kafka's Calisthenics: Watch and learn the favorite exercise routine of early 20th century Europeans.
"Franz Kafka was a fanatical Müller follower. He would do the movements, fully naked, in his window, twice each day, whirling his arms and twisting this way and that, practicing the same hops and isolations advocated with similar vigor by my family."

http://www.slate.com/id/2281699/

Fascinating article and three-minute video on "The Muller System," the once-wildly-popular regimen advertised as "15 minutes' work a day for health's sake!"

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Over43
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Post by Over43 » Sat Jan 29, 2011 5:32 am

Now, if you exercised nude in your window, you'd be arrested and thrown in the slammer. I have done the Charles Atlas program on and off over the years. (I have finished the full 12 week program twice...) I would go outside at 6 AM (in the summer and spring) and there was really nothing more refreshing.

Thank you for posting this.
Bacon is the gateway meat. - Anthony Bourdain
You pale in comparison to Fox Mulder. - The Smoking Man

I made myself be hungry, then I would get hungrier. - Frank Zane Mr. Olympia '77, '78, '79

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Sun Jan 30, 2011 2:05 am

This is wonderful -- thank you for posting it!

I'm a huge Kafka fan, but I've never heard of this.

Maybe if he'd shaved that one extra minute off he wouldn't have had all those existential angsts...

As you may know, Kafka also had interesting ideas about diet:

http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/kafka/hungerartist.htm

Reinhard

filipe
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Post by filipe » Wed Feb 02, 2011 11:35 am

There's something good and bad about it...

The bad is, as society, we've spent the last 50 year's erasing ancient knowledge from our daily lives (like in the Chinese cultural revolution), embracing all the good thing's from the ALL superior emerging high-tech.

The good thing is to observe as virtually the same solution arise from the quest to solve the same problem, as it is with the similarity's between “My System†and Shovelglove (truly MY SYSTEM :) ).
Although this coincidence doesn't prove that these systems are the best solution, it's a strong evidence they can be or, at least, reach very near to it.

Personally I prefer Shovelglove (as personal option) because... well... there is something about the hammer, like it's a natural extension of the human body.
For some reason it's one of the oldest (maybe the first? :roll: ) human tools invented, and it still in use today, in EVERY where.

For those who have used any (valid) excuse to escape the 15 minutes routine because of the hammer weight (etc.), with â€My System†there's n o excuse left, so.... why are you still spending time reading this :shock: ? Hurry!

fwinter
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Post by fwinter » Wed Feb 23, 2011 12:08 pm

Thank you so much for posting this.

It got me reading up on the Muller System

http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition ... htm#system

which suits me far more than SG.

I love these old books, apart some obvious quackery, there are some fundamental principles that seem to have been lost by the wayside, as more commercial money-oriented systems gained ground.

Finnigan
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Post by Finnigan » Wed Jul 06, 2011 4:33 pm

My wife and I have begun doing this as a corridor back into SG. Has anyone else been Mullering? There isn't a heck of a lot of info available.

ghalehame
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Post by ghalehame » Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:30 am

I don't think so but maybe that would be possible !

stillbatt
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Post by stillbatt » Thu Feb 07, 2013 12:47 pm

Been thinking of sneaking an SG into the room whilst working away, but feel I might look like some kind of axe fiend - too weird.

Anyone get creative in the abscence of having an SG to hand?



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filipe
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Post by filipe » Fri Feb 08, 2013 8:42 am


friscobob
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I'm Back After A Long While

Post by friscobob » Thu May 07, 2015 12:33 am

I was very successful with the No S Diet, losing from 217 pounds down to 156 pounds and feeling like a million dollars. Due to a series of illnesses, along with double hip replacement and other factors, I have ballooned up to 193 pounds. Yesterday, I began the long road back, starting to strictly observe the No S Diet once again, and doing calisthenics and walking. What worked for me previously took me one hour per day, and I'm going to work up to that again. Basically, it is pretty simple, just doing sets of 30-40-30 of squats, pushups, and crunches in circuits, completing as many circuits as possible in 30 minutes. What I do is do 30 squats, then 30 pushups, then 30 crunches. Next I will do 40 reps of each, and then 30 reps of each, with no rest between exercises, or between circuits. Upon completion of my calisthenics, a brisk walk of 30 minutes is taken. This routine is done daily. In my previous experience, I lost about 10 pounds a month. This time my goal is to lose 6 pounds per month, and to keep it off once lost for life.
Health Is The Greatest Wealth!

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