Hail to the Dinosaurs!
Today's the day to work like heck on proofing
and editing the first issue of the new quarterly
Dinosaur Files -- because we want to get the
little monster printed and out the door next
week.
We need to get the Dino Files printed and mailed
because we're going to be getting our copies of
Knife, Fork, Muscle VERY soon and we'll be busy
as heck for a few days getting them packed and
shipped to everyone who reserved a copy during
the pre-publication special.
So I'm going to be moving at double warp speed all
day long. In fact, I'll be moving at double warp
speed for the next week or two.
And that's funny, because the title of this message
is "Slow Cooking, Dino Style."
So let me talk about slow cooking and what it
means.
Back in the day, someone -- and I do not know
who -- came up with the idea of increasing your
military press by adding very small amounts of
weight to the bar every so often.
By small, I mean as little as 1/8 or 1/4 pound.
Lifters would go to the neighborhood hardware store
and buy a bunch of small washers -- and add these
to the bar to make those very small weight increases.
The idea was very simple. You added such a small
amount of weight that you never even noticed it --
and you didn't have to cheat or cut your reps short
to handle the heavier weight. You were able to
handle the *slightly* heavier weight in letter
perfect form.
Over time, the small weight increases added up to
another pound on the bar -- and then another two
pounds -- and so on. Eventually, you were hitting
a new PR with 10 pounds more than you handled
before.
And you avoided the dreaded bugabear of going
stale -- a/k/a hitting a brick wall and not being able
to add another pound to the bar no matter how hard
you try.
The brick wall thing is very common among the
folks who try to force progress by adding too much
weight to the bar. It works for a couple of workouts,
and then they do the crash and burn. Many trainees
repeat the cycle over and over -- good workout,
better workout, great workout, super workout,
best workout ever -- crash and burn -- lose
ground and go back -- and start all over again.
They never end up going anywhere.
As I said, I don't know who came up with the idea,
but whoever thought it up was a true genius.
It was a popular method of training in England before
and after World War II -- and then, as often happens
to good ideas, it fell out of favor and ended up lost
and forgotten.
Stuart McRobert resurrected the idea in Hardgainer
magazine back in the late 1980's and early 1990's.
If you remember Hardgainer from that era, you'll
recall the many references to "little gems" in Stuart's
articles, in my articles, and in Mike Thompson's
articles.
For more information, see my book, Strength, Muscle
and Power:
http://www.brookskubik.com/strength_muscle_power.html
You can buy small plates and give this method a
try -- or you can make them out of short lengths of
chain rolled into a donut to slip over your bar. Use
wire to hold them together. Very simple, but very
effective.
And yes, I know it's more fun to add 10 or 20 pounds
to the bar all the time. But that doesn't work forever.
And slow but steady progress beats no progress
every single time.
I'll be training today, and I'm going to go up in
weight -- using an old pair of "little gems" that I
got more than 25 years ago. They've seen a lot of
use over the years, and they've helped me build
plenty of strength, muscle and power.
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. Follow the links below to order Knife, Fork,
Muscle and the first issue of the new quarterly
Dinosaur Files:
http://brookskubik.com/dinosaur_nutrition.html
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaurfiles_quarterly.html
P.S. 2. My other books and courses -- and Dinosaur
Training shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies and DVD's --
are right here:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Make progress slowly,
but make progress." -- Brooks Kubik
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