Hail to the Dinosaurs!
(Note: If you missed last Friday's email,
we're following Bob Hoffman's struggle to
clean and jerk 300 pounds -- a challenge
he gave himself in June, 1933. You can
read about it right here at the Dinosaur
Training Blog -- in the entry right before
this one. And now, as they say -- let's get
back to the action.)
December, 1933 was an extra busy time
for Bob Hoffman -- and he stayed busy
right into the new year. He spent about
half his time on the road.
He traveled to weightlifting contests
in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and
Gardner, Massachusetts.
He attended conventions in New York,
Philadelphia, Boston and Detroit.
He spent 10 days at the New York
convention, 8 days in Philadelphia,
4 in Detroit and 5 in Boston.
When he was at home in York, he trained
in the York barbell Club gym -- and
that meant plenty of snatching, cleaning,
pressing and heavy jerks, along with
all of the barbell exercises in York
Courses 1, 2 and 3 -- presses, curls,
reverse curls, rowing, squats, deadlifts,
and repetition weightlifting exercises.
But when he traveled on extended
business trips, Hoffman's options were
much more limited.
He took a pair of dumbbells with him.
On some trips, a pair of 40-pounders.
On others, a pair of 45-pounders.
And in his hotel room, after a long
day of speeches, presentations,
committee meetings and business
conferences, Hoffman would grab
the dumbbells and get to it.
He did every exercise imaginable
with those dumbbells -- but he did
extra work on presses, alternate
dumbbell presses, the curl and press
exercise, and his favorite, two-
dumbbell upright rowing. Sometimes
he performed as many as 10 sets of
10 reps in the two-dumbbell upright
row.
But then, disaster struck.
In February, at an out of town
conference, Hoffman was doing one-
legged squats in his hotel room --
and he slipped and severely twisted
his knee.
Fore several weeks, he had to walk up
and down stairs sideways, because his
bad knee couldn't support his weight.
Not good if you're trying to lift 300
pounds over your head!
Back at the York Barbell Club gym,
the fellows were always making bets
with one another. Usually just a
nickel (which was actually real
money back then).
If someone had bet you a nickel that
Bob Hoffman would have made that 300
pound lift, bad knee and all -- would
you have taken the bet?
Admit it -- you probably would have bet
against him. And you would have thought
it was a pretty safe bet.
But Bob kept on training, no matter what.
Kept on lugging those dumbbells around
the country. Kept on pushing toward his
goal.
Because when you set a goal for yourself,
that's what you do. You keep on going no
matter what obstacles Life throws in your
path.
(To be continued . . .)
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. For the best in old-school dumbbell
training, grab Dinosaur Dumbbell Training:
http://brookskubik.com/dinosaur_dumbbelltraining.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: "A goal is a
promise you make to yourself." -- Brooks
Kubik
