The Mighty Longshoreman Karl Norberg

For more on physical culture read The Saga of the Tijuana Barbell Club: www.amazon.com...

[@olegariomartinez6807]

I met John Grimek in 1980 when I was competing at the Collegiate National Powerlifting Championships. I was 22 at the time and weighed 220 lbs. I had read of Grimek but never thought much of him till I met him. He was very thick and I was stunned at how much muscle he carried. I spoke to him for about an hour that day. The next time I saw him was in 1981 also at a National Powerlifting meet and when he saw me he smiled and put out his hand and greeted me by name. I was surprised that he had remembered my name. I spent a good amount of time talking to him and I had become a fan of his. It's a shame that such great old timers are gone. He was very knowledgeable and was always ready to share his knowledge.

[@jailhousestrong]

awesome stuff!

[@lorenzomagazzeni5425]

Great men are never snobs

[@paulyricca3881]

SO

[@paulyricca3881]

@@jailhousestrong SO

[@arthurblackhistoric]

I read about Karl in Iron Man in the 1970s. Almost unbelievable strength for an older man. We had an old guy living next door to us who survived World War One. A bomb thrown from a German biplane landed right beside his truck and didn't explode! He then looked at life as a gift from God and lived every day to the full. My old man wanted to dig out under our house for a garage, and Old Man Marx helped him without being asked and went shovel load for shovel load with my father who was in his late 40s. Mr Marx was 68. We in the modern era can't comprehend how hard people worked back in the days before robots and automation.

[@joelsaunders7304]

The more you do the longer you live.

[@joelsaunders7304]

Naturally of course.

[@howardmenkes2926]

Got that right!

[@donaldsavage3699]

this is my first time hearing about these great Legends! thanks for sharing this wonderful and most inspirational information about real strong man without the drugs!

[@billymacnamara8678]

the work volume of the older generation was unbelievable never to be seen again type of stuff great video thank you

[@jailhousestrong]

YES!

[@joelsaunders7304]

There are plenty of men that still work hard like that now in modern era.

[@FarmersAreCool]

Once the industrial collapse sets in we will remember. Or we will perish.

[@TheBuckStopsHere480]

I tend to agree Billy. Since you're interested in this I'd suggest that you read about Jack Lalanne's workouts and training volume. He was up at 5am EVERY day, lifting hard and fast for an hour then swimming for an hour. He said he hadn't missed a workout in over 70 years. He had a standing $10,000 reward to anyone who could keep up with him in one of his workouts. A young Arnold Schwarzenegger and a young Lou Ferrigno both took him up on it and neither of them earned it and Jack was well past 50 at the time. In fact NO one ever earned the reward. He was still doing miraculous feats of strength every year on his birthday well into his 90's.

[@mamster233]

billy macnamara that’s because high volume doesn’t work without AAS...

[@silatguy]

Love this stuff. Interesting to see how people in the youtube community are going back to the basics realizing that this is how you get rugged strong.......lift heavy and master the basics

[@jailhousestrong]

Thanks! Its not going back, its where we started. Appreciate the support

[@georgedobbs9216]

That picture at the start of your video is not John Grimek. Its George Eiferman.

[@BenchesAt-ce2vr]

George Dobbs grimek is in the thumbnail

[@spikehackett3290]

Norberg was a beast.

[@jailhousestrong]

YES!!

[@motherlovinsnuffstar]

I read about this man, indeed he is a legend.

[@stevenellam2347]

Loving these old school videos thanx for sharing

[@jailhousestrong]

Thanks!!

[@warwolf3185]

80 years old, 400 pound bench? Holy shit

[@jailhousestrong]

BOOM!

[@americahealth]

Amazing and inspiring story

[@jailhousestrong]

Thanks

[@bradreid6057]

Someone mentioned this down below in the comments . . . but didn't put a corrected name to it. That is actually George Eiferman at 32 seconds or so into your video, not John Grimek. Eiferman was the 1948 Mr. America winner. He competed against both Grimek (toward the end of Grimek's bodybuilding career) and sort of overlapped Steve Reeves early bodybuilding days. Brad

[@TruthTellert63]

Quite correct. He and Grimek were friends & training partners.

[@joelbennett1987]

I love these History Of Strength Videos

[@jailhousestrong]

Thanks Joe;l

[@philiplewis7252]

Great video,there's only one word for someone like this,LEGEND!!!

[@jailhousestrong]

YES thanks

[@SkorLord]

That military press! Gets me every time.

[@vukasinigic7949]

Love these old time legends series!

[@jailhousestrong]

Thanks

[@rfjohns1715]

Longshoremen were very strong with all around strength that barbell men generally don't have. David Willowbey put out the book " The Super Athletes " 1969/70 detailing the history of strength. I don't think Norberg was strongest longshoreman ever but definitely up there. If you can get this book that was referenced many times by Old IronMan magazine you'll read feats of strength and endurance that you have never heard of before.

[@jailhousestrong]

Find us one stronger!

[@zumaanandrade3961]

know guys in the caribean who are not big but strong as hell... How come a guy can pick a donkey up over a turn stile. and he did it everyday. google turnstyle.

[@tonywhitfield5453]

Josh Bryant is crazy how strong some of this guys were back then and that's we without the equipment we have today

[@jailhousestrong]

AGREED!

[@williamholmstrom489]

He is from Bräcke in Sweden and he started working at the age of 12 to help his family. Please get your facts straight!

[@lievliberant6019]

I have a coworker who I'm convinced is the younger generation's Karl Norberg. I've witnessed a few feats around the shop but, I'd really like to get him into a proper weight room and put him to work.

[@bertilnorberg8795]

So great, thanks! Hope you don't mind if I rip this to show for extended family members who are a bit... web challenged. :) And for safekeeping in the family archives.

[@jailhousestrong]

AWESOME surE!

[@jailhousestrong]

How are yall related?

[@bertilnorberg8795]

Karl was my grandmother's uncle, but I had a lot of contact with him in spite of beeing a rather distant relative. The newspaper took pictures at his 80th birthday with me standing in his palm (his arm straight out). He is one of the legends in the family, obviously. There are some picture here, you already have most of them but check out his parents in the first one! :) www.brackeminnen.se/Norberg.asp

[@lazur1]

All due credit to a great Strongman, a source of hope to us senior citizens who thought that our strength progress was long over, but Norberg was "only" 48 v Grimek. I guess that's two years short of AARP:^), but it's a good age for strength!

[@jailhousestrong]

HAHA

[@johndonovan5521]

please keep these coming!!!!!

[@jailhousestrong]

THANKS! and we will

[@JohnCena-mp7ue]

A badass Viking berserker

[@jailhousestrong]

YES

[@howardnevin5580]

and btw...thank god for all the work rules and work conditions that changed from those early days....TY

[@joeyp.8501]

awesome video!

[@jailhousestrong]

Thanks!

[@AlexA-cj5my]

That man in 0:13 looks like Frank Zane and Arnold Schwarzenegger combined

[@spikehackett3290]

Hey Josh , do you know John Wood? He runs Old Time Strongman were I learned about many of these guys and use many of their technique, like bone and tendon training.

[@CreazilsDad45]

fuck yeah

[@jailhousestrong]

Thanks

[@RevoltingRudi]

manual labour got rare but those who dose it get a lot of functional strength. lifted a 90kg card box a few weeks ago. when i started i couldnt hand even 30kg and 50kg was impossible.

[@slorter10]

work volume over time very important!

[@Egoliftdaily]

good stuff.

[@jailhousestrong]

Thanks

[@DevonCats2]

That must have been before you had to win a lottery to get a casual job. Amazing!!!

[@howardnevin5580]

beginning photo is not john grimek....TY

[@TruthTellert63]

Correct -- it's George Eiferman (who was actually Grimek's friend & training partner).

[@carlc5131]

I did a 320-pound flat bench on my 70th Birthday last year that's better than most my age but sucks compared to the late great Karl Norberg.

[@freddiejames2083]

💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽

[@duke13cpte52]

THAT'S RIGHT LONGSHOREMAN LOCAL 13 SO CAL

[@MrMLD1972]

💖

[@lorenzomagazzeni5425]

Some people are BORN strong, sorry but that's life - like some people are born super smart. Franco Columbo, sure he worked hard, manual labour, in his youth but... he was born strong, period. Even if Franco didn't go the bodybuilding road, have you ever seen the hands of Franco ? Yes, the hands. Big fuckinmg octupuses

[@michaellopez2070]

Jesus christ. And pictures to back it all up.

[@stjarnan0103]

Sweden 💪

[@KafirGrace]

Samsung according to the Bible was and will always be the strongest man ever

[@cadenrobl473]

Yea they're pretty good phones

[@edmourgagnon1504]

Samsung?

[@edmourgagnon1504]

@@cadenrobl473 Wonder who is Samsung. :)

[@cadenrobl473]

@@edmourgagnon1504 he was that Korean guy in the bible that gave jesus cell service

[@edmourgagnon1504]

Samsón...