Hail to the Dinosaurs!
There's a story about a man going to see
Paul Anderson back in the late 1960's or
early 1970's. This was 10 or 15 years
after Anderson had won the Heavyweight
class in weightlifting at the 1956
Olympic Games.
The man drove up to the front door of the
Paul Anderson Boy's Home, got out, knocked,
and asked to see the big man.
"He's out back," they told him. "Playing
golf."
Yes, it turns out that Paul Anderson liked
to play golf -- not a game you normally
associate with a massive mountain of muscle
widely regarded as the strongest man in the
world.
So the visitor went out back and walked
over to the little golf course they had
built on the grounds of the Boy's Home.
He went quietly, so he wouldn't disturb
the champion.
And he was glad he did.
Anderson never saw him coming, so he got
to see how Paul Anderson played weight-
lifter style golf.
Anderson was standing by a heavily loaded
barbell positioned on an old set of single
stand squat racks.
The bar was loaded to something well over
400 pounds.
Anderson chalked his hands, walked over to
the bar, took it off the squat stands, and
pressed it overhead.
He put it back on the squat stands, walked
over to his golf bag, selected a club, teed
up, and knocked the ball a mile.
He put his club back in the bag, and walked
over to find his ball -- which happened to
land fairly close to a second set of squat
stands -- which happened to be loaded to
even more weight than the other bar.
Anderson push-pressed the barbell, lowered
it, selected a driver, teed up, and knocked
the gold ball back to the first set of squat
stands.
And there he was, casually knocking the ball
back and forth, and casually manhandling a
barbell loaded to a weight that exceeded the
world record in the press.
Now, I don't play golf, but I still think
that was a pretty interesting workout.
And it's the kind of thing you could do at
home.
Do whatever warm-ups you need, load up the
bar, do a heavy single, and then walk down
the street and back (or around the yard and
back -- or whatever) and then do another
single, and keep it up for awhile.
Maybe go for 5 singles and then switch to
another exercise and do the same thing.
Or maybe do 10 singles.
Or, if you prefer, use two barbells. Load one
up and do presses - and load the other one up
and do something else -- maybe squats or
deadlifts -- and work back and forth from
exercise to exercise.
Or do sets of 3 reps -- or sets of 5 reps.
If you just have one barbell, try alternating
a barbell exercise and a dumbbell exercise --
or a kettlebell exercise. See Dinosaur Dumbbell
Training for some great ideas on hard-hitting,
Dino-style dumbbell exercises.
Or try this -- press or push-press the bar for
a single -- and alternate that with sets of
5 reps in the squat or front squat.
Lots of options here.
It's High Impact, Low Stress Training -- meaning
that you hit your muscles hard and heavy, but
you don't stress about the details. You just go
out (or into your basement or garage gym), and
you just have fun.
Fun is good -- and yes, you can have fun, and
build strength and muscle at the same time.
One of your fellow Dinos has been following a
similar sort of program with great success.
I'll give you the details tomorrow. Be
watching for it.
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. Go here to grab a copy of Dinosaur
Dumbbell Training -- which will give you
plenty of ideas for High Impact, Low Stress
(and FUN) workouts:
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: "One of the
secrets of success is to work hard, but
have fun when you do it." -- Brooks Kubik
