Hail to the Dinosaurs!
I trained last night, and the gym was hot
as heck.
Everything was hot as heck - because it
was almost 60 degrees outside. Crazy
weather for January!
I had planned to wear a long sleeve shirt
for my training, which is what I usually
wear in the winter - but I started melting
during my warmups, so switched to a
standard issue cotton t-shirt. Good thing
I had the extra shirt in my gym bag.
Compare that to last year. That was before
we sold the house, and I was training out
in the garage - aka The Dino Dungeon.
It was the middle of a cold spell, and the
place was an icebox. It was a real three-
layer workout - meaning, I wore three
layers of sweat clothes to stay warm.
I know many of you are dealing with
cold weather training - so let's talk
about it.
If it's cold where you are, do what I
did a year ago. Bundle up and stay
warm! Layers are your friend.
And that brings me to a cold weather
training tip.
I usually do the following exercises in
the following sequence:
1. Snatches or clean and jerks
2. High pulls
3. Squats or front squats
But when it's unusually cold, I often
reverse the order and start with squats.
Why?
Because it's hard to get warmed up for
snatches and cleans when it's really cold,
and doing the squats first helps assure
that my knees, hips and lower back are
warmed up and ready to go before I
do my snatches or cleans.
And if it's ice-box cold, I sometimes skip
the snatches and cleans entirely, and just
do squats, high pulls and push presses.
These movements don't require nearly
as much flexibility and mobility to
perform, so if it's hard to warm-up
and get loose, they work a lot better.
They're also easier to perform when
you're wearing extra layers to stay
warm. Snatches are hard to do when
it's a three layer workout.
I also don't try to handle maximum
weights when the weather is really
cold. It's much easier to pull a muscle
or tweak an old injury or sore spot
when it's cold, so why take chances?
You can apply a similar approach to
any type of training program, workouts
or equipment. The idea is to adjust what
you do (and perhaps change the order
of your exercises) based on how cold it
is and how difficult it is to get warmed
up.
For example, you might do something
as simple as including extra warm-up
sets when it's cold.
Or you might start things out with some
cardio training just to get warmed up.
Or you might do sets of five instead of
heavy singles.
Or skip the heavy stuff entirely and do
bodyweight training.
I could give many more examples, but
you get the idea.
Your training program has to be flexible.
Give yourself the freedom to make cold
weather adjustments. It can make all
the difference in the world.
Of course, if you train at a commercial
gym that's the same temperature all
year round, the outside temperature
doesn't matter as much.
But for garage gorillas, it makes a very
big difference. And that goes double for
older Dinos.
What about you?
Do you have any cold weather training
tips to share with your fellow Dinos?
If you do, shoot me an email and let me
know how you deal with three-layer
workouts.
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. Have you seen the Nov - Dec issue of
The Dinosaur Files strength training journal?
Go here to grab it in PDF format:
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaurfiles_novemberdecember2016.html
We also release the little monster in a
Kindle edition. We're working to get that
finished and released as soon as possible.
I'll send a link when it's ready.
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: "When it's
cold, bundle up and do squats!"
-- Brooks Kubik
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