History

The history of David dates back to early 1973 when Arno Parviainen, at the age of 17, visited Nautilus plants in DeLand, Florida, together with his friend. Inspired by the idea of device based training, the young Arno built three training devices at his school metal shop. Next summer Arno returned to Florida to propose cooperation with Nautilus. Arthur Jones, the legendary founder of Nautilus, was sympathetic to the young Finn but did not have time for any foreign deals. Instead he told Arno to come back a couple of years later, which he did, but still Arthur showed no interest. In this situation dedicated Arno decided to develop his own product line and went to the university to study economics in order to be prepared for the task. In 1981 he established a company for this purpose and in the spring of 1982 the first David devices where ready for production.

The development process provided a big surprise when it turned out that the cam principle in the new David machines was unique compared to anything on the market. This principle, first questioned by many, has since been scientifically proven and was the foundation of safe and efficient training for all kind of people, ranging from sports people to rehabilitation.

In the late 80’s David started to develop devices and methods for rehabilitation. The first such device was the combined leg extension and flexion with complete counter balancing of the lower limb. This solution with David’s unique cam design allowed dynamic strength training of the knee joint for people who could not do any other kind of exercise. Also an EMG –based testing system was introduced allowing completely new level of control in rehabilitation.

In early 90’ a new revolutionary back device was developed. Up to that point all back training had been mainly hip extension exercises but with the new hip-lock technology it was now possible to provide dynamic training for the spine with unique safety and accuracy. Gradually this one back extension unit expanded to a set of four devices, one for each spinal movement and in addition a neck device. With strength and mobility testing and standardized training protocol, this new concept turned out to be extremely successful, with hundreds of units established all around the world.

At the end of the 90’s Arno pulled out of the business to build a less hectic lifestyle in management consulting. David’s German distributor, Friedemann Uhl, took over the business and continued to develop especially the corporate and prevention market and back programs while the production still remained in Finland. This period lasted ten successful years until the situation was to change again: Arno’s son Lauri, a medical doctor by education, and daughter Elina with a master’s degree in economics, showed interest in getting involved in David and with this new generation of energy and talent behind him, Arno was ready to take up the challenge again.