Tag Archives | Brother

Joe Nordquest

By on October 17, 2008 in Bridging, One Hand

Joe Nordquest was a classic strongman back in the early part of last century. He was the brother of ‘The Young Sandow’ Alfred Nordquest.

Walking and Jumping On Your HandsWalking and Jumping On Your Hands on Amazon

Joe Nordquest Hand Balancer

Here are some of his hand balancing exploits. From Klein’s Bell in November of 1931:

Joe Nordquest performed a one hand stand and with the free hand lifted a 100 pound dumb bell off the floor and held the balance. He also has on numerous occasions done 28-30 hand stand press ups in succession on the floor.

From David Willoughby’s The Super Athletes:

He later put on some weight moving up from 168 pounds to 190. Even at this size he was capable of jumping off a 30 inch table onto the floor while staying in a handstand.

Joe Nordquest Shoulder Bridge

Here he is pictured pressing 388 in the shoulder bridge. This was before the bench press ever came to be. You think his success and strength in hand balancing helped him get to this level?

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Robert Jones Celebrates His 50th Birthday

By on October 10, 2007 in One Hand

When I was visiting my brother down near Los Angeles last weekend I noticed one of the books he had on his bookshelf. The name Ripley’s Believe it or Not was displayed on the spine.

Tumbling Illustrated
Tumbling Illustrated on Amazon

Knowing that Bob Jones had been featured by Ripley‘s nine different times, I decided to see if one of his feats made the cut in this book.

I flipped to the index and found his name. He was on page 87. I turned expecting to see his most famous stunt the thumb stand on top of Indian clubs which you can see for yourself here.

I was surprised and elated to see a feat I had neither seen nor read about before.

Bob Jones holds a One Handed Handstand while cutting cake

For his 50th birthday Bob Jones cut his birthday cake while holding a one handed handstand.

Not only is it hard to hold a one hand handstand, but to do it for probably at least a minute while cutting a cake is something else.

It also listed one of his other feats (but had no picture), which was holding a handstand with 200 lbs. tied around his waist! How you even get into the handstand with that kind of weight is beyond me.

If anyone can duplicate these feats let me know.

Good Luck and Good Handbalancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. There was more than one hand balancer featured in this book. If you own a copy of The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing his name will be familiar to you. You’ll have to wait until next time to see and read about it.

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