Hail to the Dinosaurs!
The July 1970 issue of Peary Rader's IronMan
magazine had a ton of great articles --
including "Exercises for Great Backs" by
Bradley J. Steiner.
It was part of Steiner's famous four-part
series on "The Essential Exercises" -- and
it was a real eye-opener for a 12-year old
kid named Brooks Kubik.
Steiner was 100% old-school in his exercise
choices -- and his recomendations were VERY
different than what most people were doing
or advocating.
But, of course, his ideas worked. In fact,
they worked GREAT!
I read that article over and over until I
almost memorized it. To this day, 45 years
later, I can still tell you every exercise that
Steiner suggested -- and I can tell you some
exercises that he decided were only second-
best -- and some of the exercises on the "do"
and "don't do" list will surprise you.
In addition, Steiner suggested one exercise
that just might save your life someday. It's
an exercise for the neck -- and back then,
very few Iron Game authors bothered to
mention neck training, much less teach
their readers how to do it safely and
effectively.
In fact, many authors of the day told
their readers NOT to train the neck --
because a small neck would make their
arms and shoulders look bigger!!!
I thought it over and decided that the
"small neck is good" argument was a
very large barrel of hog-wash. So I
ignored it.
I followed Steiner's advice, and I trained
my neck hard. And seven years later, I
was in a horrendous auto accident -- a
head on collision with me driving a
Pinto station wagon and the other guy
driving a Thunderbird.
For the record, a Pinto station wagon
was a very bad vehicle to be driving
if you get into a high speed head on
collision.
Especially if the other guy is driving one
of those old model T-birds. Those things
were built like tanks.
He fell asleep at the wheel right as we
both went into a curve on a country
road in southwestern Ohio late at
night.
I was going about 60 miles an hour. He
was probably doing the same.
He moved right into my lane at exactly
the moment that our cars were about
to pass each other -- and pieces of my
little Pinto ended up scattered through
the corn fields on both sides of the
road.
To say it was totalled would be an
understatement. It was hard to tell
it had been a car. It looked like a
tin can that had been smashed with
a heavy hammer a couple of times.
The steering wheel was bent to a
90 degree angle -- and one of the
tires ended up a couple of hundred
feet down the road.
But I lived through it. In fact, I walked
away from the accident.
All I had were cuts and scratches from
the broken glass.
No broken bones. No soft tissue injuries.
No whiplash. No concussion.
And that was due in part to reading
Steiner's article in that old issue of
IronMan -- and doing a lot of serious
neck training because Steiner said to
do it.
I was thinking about this today because
that old issue of IronMan is now available
at The Iron League member site.
And not just Steiner's article.
The whole issue.
Along with a a ton of other great old-time
books, courses and magazines.
And more is being added all the time.
Go ahead and scoot on over and take a
look at what's available. I guarantee you
will see things you've never seen before --
and things you're going to want to read:
http://www.ironleague.com/
One of our fellow Dinosaurs has called
The Iron League the "Library of Congress
of Strength." That's a good name for it.
And who knows -- some 12 year old kid
might join The Iron League and read that
old article by Brad Steiner -- and he might
start training his neck -- and it just might
save his life someday.
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
