A.G. Spalding & Bros. Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

The Spalding Grip Machine

Posted on Saturday, May 14th, 2016 by John Wood

What is lost upon many people is that “machines” have as much of a history with strength training as barbells and dumbbells do. Shown here is an interesting piece, The Spalding Grip Machine, circa 1914. This looks like a very well designed machine, one that would be just as effective (and important) nearly a century later.

Save

Spalding Ebonite Indian Clubs

Posted on Friday, February 14th, 2014 by John Wood

“In introducing our new Trade-marked Indian Clubs, we should call special attention to the perfect shape, beautiful finish, and correct weight of each club. We select the very choicest timber for these clubs, turn them by hand, and work each club down to the exact troy weight, and this care in making, together with the beautiful ebony finish, highly polished, and banded in gold, with nickel-plated heads, makes them the most beautiful and desirable Indian Clubs ever placed upon the market, We purposely keep these clubs up to the very highest grade, and to protect ourselves and customers against cheap imitations, our trade mark will be stamped on each club, as represented in the above cut.”

Spalding produced a number of interesting Indian Clubs and here is a perfect example from way back in 1886. These clubs were made of ebony, a particularly sturdy dark wood which is also quite heavy. Given the look, style and makeup, these clubs must have been a lot of fun to train with. We hold ourselves to the same standards over a hundred and twenty years later.