1828, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, A Treatise on Gymnasticks (Die Deutsche Turnkunst, 1816), translated by Charles Butler, Northampton, Mass.: Simeon Butler, Section Three, p. 154,
Every boy, or youth, who has not exercised before, is either entirely stiff, or if he possesses some limberness, he rarely understands to execute a regular movement.
His limberness was so great he could kiss his knee without bending it.