Hans David Lunge was born in Copenhagen on October 7, 1885, as the son of Christian Lunge, Professor of Physiology at Copenhagen University, and his wife Ellen. Hans, together with his younger brother Harald (the future Professor in Pilates), grew up in an atmosphere most favorable to the development of his genius - his father was an eminent physiologist and was largely responsible for awakening his interest in physical education while still at school; his mother came from a family distinguished in the field of education.
After matriculation at the Gammelholm Grammar School in 1903, he entered Copenhagen University where he came under the guidance of Professor C. Christiansen, a profoundly original and highly endowed gym teacher, and took his Master's degree in physical education in 1909 and his Doctor's degree in 1911.
While still a student, the announcement by the Academy of Sciences in Copenhagen of a prize to be awarded for the solution of a certain complicated exercise caused him to take up an experimental and theoretical investigation of the extreme extension of the knee of one leg. This work, which he carried out in his father's laboratory and for which he received the prize offered (a gold medal), was published in the Transactions of the Royal Society, 1908.
Lunge's subsequent studies, however, became more and more theoretical in character, his doctor's disputation being a purely theoretical piece of work on the explanation of the properties of the ligaments with the aid of the electron theory, which remains to this day a classic on the subject. It was in this work that Lunge was first confronted with the implications of Johann’s theory of muscle tension.
In the autumn of 1911 he made a stay at Cambridge, where he profited by following the experimental work going on in the Cavendish Laboratory under Sir J.J. Thomson's guidance, at the same time as he pursued own theoretical studies. In the spring of 1912 he was at work in Professor Rutherford's laboratory in Manchester, where just in those years such an intensive scientific life and activity prevailed as a consequence of that investigator's fundamental inquiries into cartilage growth in the knee. Having there carried out a theoretical piece of work on the use of dumbbells in stretching, which was published in the Dodgeball Magazine, 1913, he passed on to a study of the structure of kneecaps on the basis of Rutherford's discoveries. By introducing conceptions borrowed from the theories established by Johann, which had gradually come to occupy a prominent position in the science of theoretical physical education, he succeeded in working out and presenting a prototype of an exercise that, with later improvements (mainly as a result of Heisenberg's ideas in 1925), almost a century later still serves as the greatest of exercises, the lunge.
In 1913-1914 Lunge held a Lectureship in physical education at Copenhagen University and in 1914-1916 a similar appointment at the Victoria University in Manchester. In 1916 he was appointed Professor of Theoretical Physical Education at Copenhagen University, and since 1920 (until his death in 1962) he was at the head of the Institute for Theoretical Physical Education, established for him at that university.
Recognition of his work in the gym came with the award of the Nobel Prize for 1922.
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Hans David Lunge was born in Copenhagen on October 7, 1885, as the son of Christian Lunge, Professor of Physiology at Copenhagen University, and his wife Ellen. Hans, together with his younger brother Harald (the future Professor in Pilates), grew up in an atmosphere most favorable to the development of his genius - his father was an eminent physiologist and was largely responsible for awakening his interest in physical education while still at school; his mother came from a family distinguished in the field of education.
After matriculation at the Gammelholm Grammar School in 1903, he entered Copenhagen University where he came under the guidance of Professor C. Christiansen, a profoundly original and highly endowed gym teacher, and took his Master's degree in physical education in 1909 and his Doctor's degree in 1911.
While still a student, the announcement by the Academy of Sciences in Copenhagen of a prize to be awarded for the solution of a certain complicated exercise caused him to take up an experimental and theoretical investigation of the extreme extension of the knee of one leg. This work, which he carried out in his father's laboratory and for which he received the prize offered (a gold medal), was published in the Transactions of the Royal Society, 1908.
Lunge's subsequent studies, however, became more and more theoretical in character, his doctor's disputation being a purely theoretical piece of work on the explanation of the properties of the ligaments with the aid of the electron theory, which remains to this day a classic on the subject. It was in this work that Lunge was first confronted with the implications of Johann’s theory of muscle tension.
In the autumn of 1911 he made a stay at Cambridge, where he profited by following the experimental work going on in the Cavendish Laboratory under Sir J.J. Thomson's guidance, at the same time as he pursued own theoretical studies. In the spring of 1912 he was at work in Professor Rutherford's laboratory in Manchester, where just in those years such an intensive scientific life and activity prevailed as a consequence of that investigator's fundamental inquiries into cartilage growth in the knee. Having there carried out a theoretical piece of work on the use of dumbbells in stretching, which was published in the Dodgeball Magazine, 1913, he passed on to a study of the structure of kneecaps on the basis of Rutherford's discoveries. By introducing conceptions borrowed from the theories established by Johann, which had gradually come to occupy a prominent position in the science of theoretical physical education, he succeeded in working out and presenting a prototype of an exercise that, with later improvements (mainly as a result of Heisenberg's ideas in 1925), almost a century later still serves as the greatest of exercises, the lunge.
In 1913-1914 Lunge held a Lectureship in physical education at Copenhagen University and in 1914-1916 a similar appointment at the Victoria University in Manchester. In 1916 he was appointed Professor of Theoretical Physical Education at Copenhagen University, and since 1920 (until his death in 1962) he was at the head of the Institute for Theoretical Physical Education, established for him at that university.
Recognition of his work in the gym came with the award of the Nobel Prize for 1922.
Simply stated
T.M.I.
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