Hail to the Dinosaurs!
We had a barbell Christmas here
at Dino Headquarters.
My daughter - who's a heck of an
artist - gave me a drawing of Doug
Hepburn. It now hangs in the sun
room where I can see it every
morning when I eat breakfast.
Good inspiration for heavy
lifting.
Trudi gave me a couple of books
about training injuries, taping,
and trigger point therapy. Good
stuff to help keep an older Dino
in one piece.
She also gave me a book about the
evolution of the human body. It
should give some good insights
into optimum nutrition. And it
might help me understand how
Dinos - meaning you and me -
fit into the scheme of things.
I gave Trudi some new bumper plates
for her auxiliary gym in the
basement. She'll have lots of fun
with them.
One of the sons has set up a home
gym in his garage. We gave him and
his wife (who also trains) some
bumper plates and some rubber
matting. They'll put it to good
use.
But the best present of all was
an old - circa 1962 - kiddie barbell
and dumbbell set. It uses short
lengths of pipe for the bars, and
the plates are hollow plastic,
sized to be the same as old time
cast iron exercise plates. The
idea is to load them with water,
and later, with sand, as the kid
grows stronger. You can adjust them
from one pound to 22 pounds.
The barbell set went to the five year
old granddaughters, although we keep
it here so they can train in our
living room when they come to
see us.
And before anyone objects and says
that they're too young to lift weights,
please understand - they'll be using
nothing but the empty plates for a
long, long time. It's about the same
as lifting a large doll or a medium
sized teddy bear.
Now, here's the neat part.
I competed in a small, local weight-
lifting contest on December 15 - and
we brought the granddaughters and
let them watch the meet.
It was the first time they'd seen a
live contest. The only other lifting
they had seen was me in the garage
every once in awhile, and the U.S.
National Championships live-streamed
back in the summer.
They liked watching the Nationals -
especially when "the girls" (their term,
not mine) were lifting. They thought it
was cool to see the girls lift more
(as they saw it) than the boys. They
also liked the outfits and the shoes.
At the local contest, there were three
lifters in the women's division. The
granddaughters paid careful attention
to them.
So back to Christmas morning. The girls
tore into their presents, and jumped up
and down when they saw the barbell.
"Do you know what that is?" asked Trudi.
"A barbell!" they shouted.
"Go ahead and lift it," said Trudi.
So granddaughter no. 1 reaches down and
grabs the bar - wide grip - and power
snatches it - then does an overhead
squat - goes all the way down - goes
back up - holds it overhead - and then
drops it down and forward onto the
platform, a/k/a the living room rug.
Then her sister power cleans the bar
and presses it overhead - and then
drops it onto the platform.
I think that means they were paying
attention at the contest.
The next time they're over here, we'll
start teaching them how to squat snatch.
And then we'll teach them the clean and
jerk.
Again, with virtually no weight. Just to
practice the movement. Heck, they're
almost there already - and that's after
seeing one little lifting contest.
I'll keep you updated on what happens.
In the meantime, and as always, thanks
for reading and have a great day. If you
train today, make it a good one!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. John Davis got started in lifting at
age 15 - and two years later he won the
World championship. Read about his life
and his lifting in Black Iron, The John
Davis Story:
http://www.brookskubik.com/blackiron_johndavis.html
P.S. 2. My other books and courses are
right here:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Start them
young, and give them the gift of lifelong
strength and health." - Brooks Kubik
