What Would You Do Differently?

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

In response to yesterday's email, I
received a detailed response from
Ruiseart Alcorn, one of our many
Scottish Dinosaurs.

Here's what he had to say:

Hey Brooks, good questions. Here
are my answers.

1. "What would you do differently?"

I would have stuck with the three day
a week, fully body routine that I started
with in my teens, for as long as it still
worked, instead of switching to a body-
building split routine.

I feel that I wasted about ten years
switching to the body-building style
split routines.

2. "What would you DO?"

I would ignore the muscle comics that
got me off track when I was younger.
I would keep on a three day, full-body,
abbreviated routine, using basic
compound exercises, until it started
to go stale.

At that point, I would change to a
divided three day routine and stick
with it, making slight changes to the
exercises every three months or so.

Eventually, maybe years later, I would
change to a twice weekly, divided and
abbreviated routine, which at 58 years
of age is what I'm doing now. (Note:
I occasionally change to a three day
ultra abbreviated routine for a few
weeks and then return to my two
day per week schedule). 

This is basically how I have been
training for the last twenty years
or so, but had I been wiser, I'd
have been doing it like this since
day one. It works!

3. "What would you not do?"

I would not do long and pointless,
unproductive routines. I would not
do high rep isolation exercises. (in
fact, I would avoid all isolation
exercises).

I would not use machines.

I would not go to loud, noisy
gyms, filled with  "experts"
who are terrified of training
hard on basics. 

4. "What have you learned over
the past 10 or more years?"

 

I have learned that less is more.

 

I have learned that short, HARD
workouts are FAR more productive
than million set, bodybuilding split

routines.

 

I have learned that simple basic
compound exercises work the
best because that is what our
bodies were designed to do.

 

I have learned that training for
practical, real world strength
makes sense. 

 

And, VERY important, I have
learned that a routine is only
as good as your ability to
recover from it.

 

I don't know about you, but I think
those are pretty good answers --
and some pretty good training advice!

 

How about YOU?

 

What would YOU do differently if
you were able to start your Iron
Game career all over again?

 

Shoot me an email and let me
know!

 

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. Chalk and Sweat has 50 terrific
workouts for real world, productive
and effective strength training and
muscle building:

 

http://www.brookskubik.com/chalk_and_sweat.html

 

P.S. 2. My other books and courses
are right here at Dino Headquarters:

 

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

 

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Don't
expect to do it right at the beginning.
We all make mistakes. But do your 
best to learn from them." -- Brooks
Kubik

 

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