Hail to the Dinosaurs!
Yesterday, I shared an email about
Olympic gold-medal winner Henry
Wittenberg.
Now I want to tell you a bit about
his training.
Henry Wittenberg was one of the first
amateur wrestlers in the United States
to do heavy weight training.
His coach didn't believe in weight training
or weightlifting. He thought it made you
slow and muscle-bound -- which is what
most coaches thought back in the thirties
and forties. Heck, many coaches still
worried about the muscle-bound myth
when I was in high school back in the
70's!
Henry Wittenberg reasoned that building
great strength would make him a better
wrestler -- and that he'd maintain his
speed and his timing if he kept on doing
his regular wrestling workouts.
It was good thinking. In fact, it was 100
percent correct.
But because his coach didn't believe in
weight training, he had to train in secret.
And because he spent so much time on the
mat, he had to keep his barbell and dumbbell
workouts short and sweet, with no wasted
effort and no wasted time.
So he trained on the basics -- the military
press with barbells, squats, barbell bent-
over rowing, dumbbell curls and dumbbell
presses.
And it worked pretty well. He got REALLY
strong.
He worked up to doing TEN consecutive
reps in the military press with 200 pounds --
and that was his bodyweight -- so it was
pretty darn good.
He could military press 250 pounds for
a single.
That's some serious pressing power.
Whittenberg was strong in other exercises,
as well.
He squatted with 400 pounds, and did 10
reps in the bent-over row with 180 pounds.
And he handled 60 pound dumbbells in his
curls.
Not bad for a man who was training for a
different sport -- and who had to do his
lifting in secret so his coach wouldn't find
out about it!
At the 1948 Olympic Games he trained with
the United States Olympic weightlifting team.
He was so strong that the lifters tried to get
him to change sports!
For extra conditioning, he did roadwork.
Good old-fashioned running.
That, and his wrestling workouts, were all he
did -- and all he needed to do.
Eventually, he made a confession to his
wrestling coach. Admitted that he'd been
lifting weights in secret. At that point, he
was the Olympic champion -- so the
coach let him keep on lifting!
You can do a lot of fancy, modern stuff if
you're a wrestler -- but you also can train
like Henry Wittenberg. You can keep it
hard, heavy and simple.
And if you do, you'll do pretty darn well.
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. If you want to build the kind of serious,
old-school pressing power and total body
strength that won Henry Wittenberg an
Olympic gold medal in wrestling, then
grab this little monster today:
Kindle e-book
http://www.brookskubik.com/militarypress_kindle.html
Hard-copy
http://www.brookskubik.com/militarypress_course.html
PDF with electronic delivery
See the section for the PDF courses at
our products page - and scroll down to
find the Military Press course.
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 2. My other books and courses -- and
links to my other Kindle e-books and PDF
training courses -- are right here:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "The answer to
most questions in life is good old fashioned
hard work." - Brooks Kubik
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