Maurice Jones, Canadian Hercules - Walt Baptiste

Maurice Jones, Canadian Hercules
by Walt Baptiste (1941)


While touring England as a professional wrestler two years back, Maurice Jones was publicly proclaimed by the former Scotch Hercules, William Bankier, as being physically superior to both the immortal Eugen Sandow and the mighty George Hackenschmidt.

In my opinion there are only three others who have ever ranked in the same class as the Herculean Maurice Jones. These being John Grimek, a powerful and amazing specimen of physical perfection; Sam Loprinzi, who is strong and possesses a marvelously developed physique; the third, and only other, to rank in this class of superior supermen is the immortal Eugen Sandow who, though having left this world, continues to be the inspiration of millions throughout the world.

Any man who is classed as an equal to or better than Sandow is indeed in a class by himself and deserves praise. Thus Maurice Jones deserves the title “The Canadian Hercules” bestowed upon him. For outright Herculean proportions Maurice has no equal.

The author has seen Maurice take a 100 pound solid iron dumbbell with his left hand and with no apparent side bend press it ten times to arms’ length. He did it so easily there is no doubt that he could have done ten more.

Maurice Jones has never included weightlifting proper in his program but used barbells only as a means of body building and strength building as he firmly believed, as do all bodybuilding authorities, that weightlifting motions tend to take all beauty out of a physique.

There has never been anyone who ever developed an outstanding powerful body without doing plenty of squats and doing them heavy! In every case heavy squats are one of the main reasons for their super-physiques. Maurice Jones has done plenty of heavy squats. His brother Ken Jones, who has a terrific build himself, notified me that Maurice uses 415 pounds in his routine, doing it 15 times. He does two or three of these sets in each workout. One day after a heavy three-hour workout he took 450 and did it 10 times. This, after he had already performed three sets of 15 reps with 415 pounds!

Just to show you how really terrific the Canadian Hercules is let me give you an idea of some of the weights he uses in his exercises.
A stiff-legged dead lift standing on a bench using 425 pounds, 15 reps.
A two arm press using 215 pounds, 12 reps.
A regular curl, 135 pounds, 12 reps.
Reverse curl, 120 pounds, 12 reps.
These are just a few but you can get an idea of his power from the exercises mentioned.

Some of his records are as follows.
Military press – 260 pounds.
Regular curl – 175.
Reverse curl – 145.
Without any scientific ability or training he clean & jerked 325.
In all feats of strength he is incomparable. Maurice ranks with the world’s best for abdominal strength and does an abdominal rise with 125 pounds behind his head. He includes apparatus work and handbalancing in his bodybuilding routines, and for a man of his proportions he handles his body with grace and ease.

Maurice can vary his weight almost at will between 195 to 237 pounds. At his most shapely and best condition weighing 210 pounds his measurements are:
Neck – 18.
Chest – 49 ½.
Waist – 32.
Hips – 39 ½.
Thigh – 26 ½.
Calf – 17 ½.
Bicep – 17 ¾.
Forearm – 14 ½.
Wrist – 7 ½.
Ankle – 9 ½.

His largest and most spectacular measurements are at a bodyweight of 237 and are as follows:
Height – 5’ 8 ½”.
Neck – 18.
Normal Chest – 52.
Waist – 34 ½.
Thigh – 28.
Bicep – 18 ½.
Forearm – 14 ½.
Wrist – 7 ¾.
Calf – 18.
Ankle – 9 ½.

On one occasion Maurice trained down to 195 and his upper arm, beautifully shaped, measured cold on a proven tape, slightly over 18 inches. Imagine. An arm this size on a man weighing under 200 pounds with a wrist of only 7½”. Maurice Jones has certainly disproven the theory of wrist size controlling the upper arm measurement.

After his return from England he laid off training for one year. He resumed bodybuilding after this lay off period, and although his strength had ebbed somewhat his physical power recuperated with rapid acceleration. In less than six weeks he performed 3 reps with 245 in the military press, and his biceps once more stretched the tape to 18 inches. Thus proving that great strength and a shapely body once acquired the bar bell way will remain with you through the many years of a lifetime.