Hail to the Dinosaurs!
Three quick notes, and then we'll talk training.
1. Dinosaur Training Secrets, Vol. 3
Is available in your choice of hard-copy or
Kindle e-book -- and it's getting rave reviews:
Hard-copy:
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets_03.html
Kindle e-book:
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets3_kindle.html
The little monster raced up to the no. 1 spot
in the Amazon Top 10 list in its category within
24 hours after we released it, so I need to say
THANK YOU to everyone who stepped up, took
action and helped make it happen. We really
appreciate it.
2. We're on Twitter and Facebook now!
Follow us on Twitter and friend us on Facebook.
It's good to stay in touch.
3. The Iron League
John Wood's Iron League is rocking it! I did a
special bench press course that John has posted
on the Iron League. It's one of many Iron League
exclusives.
John also has negotiated the exclusive right to
publish back issues of Peary Rader's old Iron
Man magazine in the Iron League strength
archive. PLUS -- he has just received something
like a ton -- literally -- of "stuff" from Peary
Rader's office -- which I assume means old
articles, manuscripts, letters, photos, and
who knows what else. I can't wait to see
some of this stuff.
Go here to grab a membership in the Iron
League:
http://www.ironleague.com/
And now, let's talk training . . .
4. My First Home Gym
There's a small ranch house in Park Forest,
Illinois with a birch tree in the front yard,
hedges on the sides, a patio in the back,
and an old wooden fence circling the back
yard.
There are three small bedrooms. One of them
was my room when I was a kid. That's the site
of the original Dino Dungeon -- a/k/a my first
home gym.
I had two small barbells. One was a little thing
made out of pipe and plastic plates. The other
was a real barbell with iron plates that my dad
used.
I had 160 pounds of iron plates and about 40
to 60 pounds of plastic plates -- or more
accurately, concrete in plastic.
The concrete in plastic plates cracked years
ago and are long gone. We still have the iron
plates. My dad used them right up until his
passing in April of this year.
I had two dumbbell sets -- one for the iron
plates and one for the plastic plates. I didn't
use them much. They took forever to load.
I had some iron boots from Sears. They
didn't work very well. No matter how you
tried to tighten the ankle straps, they
always fell off. So I did squats to exercise
my legs, which was a good thing.
I had some chest expander sets -- the old
spring kind. My dad bought one from the
local sporting goods store. We found the
others at garage sales.
I had a rubber hand gripper and an old set
of Sandow spring-grip dumbbells. Those
came from a garage sale, as well. I still
have them. In fact, they're lying on my
desk as I type this email.
I had a headstrap for neck training. It was
from the local sports store, and it was too
flimsy and weak to hold much over 10
pounds. A lot of equipment was flimsy
and weak back then. The only thing that
lasted were the barbells and the plates --
as long as they were the iron kind.
I had a sandbag to practice wrestling throws
and isometric leg scissors. I made it from an
old duffel bag my dad used in the Navy. That
was the origin of the sandbag workouts I cover
in Dinosaur Training.
At first I did bench presses by lying on my
bed to press the barbell. But later, my parents
bought me an honest to goodness weight
bench. It had adjustable weight racks that
doubled as squat stands, and the bench
adjusted from flat to incline.
I'd been reading about the incline bench
and how to use it to build the all-important
pec-delt tie-in, so I was eager to do incline
bench presses and incline flies.
Of course, the first time I tried the incline
bench, the thing broke -- so I used it as a
flat bench only after that.
I saw a portable isometric exerciser advertised
In IronMan, and I bought that so I could do
isometrics and gain 2 percent in strength
every week in only six seconds a day. It
didn't work, but it was fun to use. I wish
I still had it.
One of my junior high school coaches let me
borrow an Exergenie device from the school
and use it over the summer. That didn't work,
either, but it was fun. I attached it to a discus
(also borrowed from the school) and practiced
a discus throwing motion against resistance.
I had a doorway chinning bar, and I rigged up
a lat machine with it. I used the sandbag for
weight for the lat machine.
The house was set on a concrete slab, and the
floors were covered with linoleum tiles. I never
thought about putting anything on the floor
when I trained, so there are some dings and
dents in the linoleum. There's even a big
chunk missing from when I dumped a 95
pound squat bar one day. Oops! Sorry, mom,
sorry, dad!
I haven't seen that house for more than 40
years, but I still remember it -- and I remember
my home gym most of all.
It didn't make me Mr. America -- but it made
me a Dinosaur, and that's what counts.
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. Dinosaur Dumbbell Training and Dinosaur
Bodyweight Training are great for home gym
training:
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_dumbbelltraining.html
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_bodyweight.html
P.S. 2. My other books and courses are right here --
including links to all of my Kindle e-books:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the day: "Old iron never
fades away. It stays with us forever." -- Brooks
Kubik
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