Hail to the Dinosaurs!
Before we talk about sets and reps, I want
to thank everyone for all of the kind words
and emails about Marcel. Trudi and I
appreciate it enormously.
Carl Lanore let me dedicate yesterday's
episode of Physical Culture Radio to Marcel.
It turned out to be a great memorial for a
truly wonderful and amazing cat. If you
missed it, you can listen to it here:
http://superhumanradio.com/shr-1787-physical-culture-radio-living-life-like-marcel-almonds-10-grams-a-day-helps-keep-the-doctor-away.html
On the training front, let's talk a bit more
about Bradley J. Steiner's "Essential Exercises."
I covered this in an email on Monday.
If you missed it, go to the Dinosaur Training
Blog and read it there. By the way, I post all
of my emails on the Blog, so if you ever miss
an email, you can always find it at the Blog.
You can access the Blog from the drop down
bar at my website.
Anyhow, one of Steiner's essential exercises for
the back was the power clean.
I agree that the power clean belongs on the list,
but I'd go a bit further and add a number of
other weightlifting movements to the program.
Some people call these "All Out" exercises. That's
an excellent term for them.
And I'll tell you something else. I very much wish
that someone had taught me to focus on these
exercises when I was a kid. It would have been
the best thing ever for my wrestling. I was a
very good wrestler in high school -- I won a
state championship in Greco-Roman wrestling --
but I would have been twice as good if I had
trained with All Out exercises.
So here are some exercises that I consider to
be "Essential Exercises" for athletes -- and for
anyone who wants to increase their strength
and power enormously:
1. Power cleans
2. Clean grip high pulls
3. Power Snatches
4. Snatch grip high pulls
5. The power clean and press
6. The power clean and push press
7. The power clean and jerk
8. Push presses
9. Jerks
10. Snatch grip deadlifts
11. Clean grip deadlifts
12. Snatch grip or clean grip deadlifts
with a shrug at the top of the movement
All of the exercises listed above provide a triple
benefit. They simultaneously:
1. Build your strength and explosive power.
2. Improve your speed, balance, coordination,
timing and athleticism.
3. Train the heck out of your legs, back, hips
and shoulder girdle (which are the true keys
to Herculean super strength).
4. Build strong, thick bones.
5. Strengthen your nervous system, and help
maintain a strong mind-muscle link and
athletic movement patterns -- which makes
them very important for healthy aging.
For details on how to work these movements
into your training programs, see:
1. Chalk and Sweat (50 workouts from beginners
to advanced men, with many workouts featuring
weightlifting exercises):
http://www.brookskubik.com/chalk_and_sweat.html
2. Strength, Muscle and Power (29 chapters covering
a huge variety of topics, including how to add Olympic
lifting to your programs):
http://www.brookskubik.com/strength_muscle_power.html
3. Black Iron: The John Davis Story (reveals World
and Olympic champion John Davis' actual training
programs):
http://www.brookskubik.com/blackiron_johndavis.html
4. The Doug Hepburn Training Course (how the 1953
World Weightlifting champion trained):
http://www.brookskubik.com/doug_hepburn.html
5. Gray Hair and Black Iron (how older lifters can
train safely and effectively with Olympic lifting
movements):
http://www.brookskubik.com/grayhair_blackiron.html
6. Dinosaur Training Secrets, Vol. 1 (covers many
different training approaches for cellar dwellers and
garage gorillas, including ssome excellent weightlifting
workouts):
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets_01.html
If you need help on how to perform the movements,
see my Going Strong at 54 DVD:
http://brookskubik.com/goingstrong.html
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. Again, thanks for the kind words about Marcel.
Trudi and I miss him terribly, but we are hanging in
there. Our other cat, Louie, misses Marcel, too. He
sits on the back porch, waiting for his friend to
come home. So we're being extra good to Louie.
It's a tough time for him. He and Marcel have been
together ever since Marcel joined us 10 years ago.
P.S. 2. You'd be surprised how many Dinosaurs are
big animal lovers. It seems to be a part of our Dino
DNA.
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