Bob Jones' Toughest Feat

Bob Jones

If you could travel back in time and ask Bob Jones what his toughest hand balancing feat was, he might tell you this one... but he did it! Most of the time hand balancers balance on a solid, stable surface such as a table, or parallettes. That's a decidely "unstable" base, a free-swinging length of pipe hung by a couple ropes.

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Sig Klein Demonstrates The One Arm Getup

Sig Klein Demonstrates The One Arm Getup
Sig Klein demonstrates one of most popular of the "oldtime" lifts: the one arm getup (also called the Turkish getup.)

This was a favorite lift of the vaudeville performers of yesteryear who performed it with live weight, dumbbell or kettlebell as shown here. The athlete begins with back flat on the floor and the weight pressed to arm's length. Then, through a series of movements, ends up with standing with the weight overhead.

Some performers did not consider the lift completed until the sequence was reversed. This lift requires great stamina and a good sense of balance.

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The Press-Up

The Press-Up
The Press-Up is an intermediate handbalancing movement that you must master of you want to move on to more advanced moves.

Be sure not to straighten your legs too quickly or it will cause you to lose your balance and fall foreward. Practice and master this move on parallettes before moving on to the bare floor. (You can find our more tips on this move on page 32 of Bill Hinbern's Handbalancing for Muscular Development.)

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