How the Old-Timers Trained

Check out some of the great old-school equipment in Harry Shafran's gym - shown here in a great photo from John Wood's Oldtime Strongman site. For more great photos of old-time strongmen and equipment, visit: https://www.oldtimestrongman.com

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Two quick notes and then we'll talk iron.

1. John Grimek Shirts - and More!

John Wood's Magic Shirt Shop for Iron
Slingers (my name for it, not his) has
some great looking John Grimek shirts -
including the one shown above - and
lots of other fun swag for fans of
old-school strength training and
old-time strongmen.

Go here to check them out:

https://www.retrostrength.com/shop/

John also has a bunch of other great
shirts - and other fun stuff, including
hoodies, sweatshirts, coffee mugs and
posters. Sprint on over and take a
look.

2. Email Issues

Long story short, some tech company
mergers and related cyber stuff has
affected email deliverability.

So my daily emails may not always
get through to you.

For that reason - please do this as a
back-up.

Join the Strength Secrets Facebook
Group on Facebook - as well as the
Brooks Kubik - Dinosaur Training
Facebook Group:

Strength Secrets

https://www.facebook.com/groups/strengthsecrets/

Brooks Kubik - Dinosaur Training

https://www.facebook.com/groups/85968831897/

I post all of my daily emails at the
Dinosaur Training Blog - and then
link to them in posts in the Strength
Secrets Facebook Group and the
Dinosaur Training - Brooks Kubik
Facebook Group.

So this is a great way to stay up to
date with everything that's happening
at Dino Headquarters - and to make
sure you never miss a daily email
from me.

3. Training With Old Time Barbells

As I mentioned yesterday, old time barbells
were not mass produced.

They were one of a kind pieces made by
local foundries.

They came in all different shapes and
thicknesses.

Many of them were solid pieces of iron -
meaning that they were not adjustable.

So how do you train with that kind of
barbell?

I asked that question, and many of you
responded.

There were two primary suggestions.

A. Use chains to add weight.

That's a good idea, except the old time
barbells ended with a globe on each -
with no bar extending past the globe -
so there was no place to hang a chain
at each end.

So chains wouldn't have worked on
many older bells.

Plus, you couldn't use them for most
overhead lifts because the chains
would hit you in the face.

B. Increase Reps, Not Weight.

That's the obvious strategy - and it
works great if you have several fixed
weight barbells of reasonably close
weights.

And many old-timers did train this way -
by increasing reps gradually and slowly,
and tackling a heavier barbell after they
were handling the lighter one for 10, 20
or more reps.

But it doesn't work very well if you have
two or three barbells with big weight
jumps from one to the other.

If you have a 42 pound barbell, a 91
pound barbell and a 147 pound barbell,
it's going to be very tough to advance
from one to the other no matter how
many reps you do with the lighter
barbell. The jumps are just too big.

C. So what's the answer?

I think it's this:

You figure out everything you can do
with each different barbell or dumbbell
(or ring-weight or kettlebell or anything
else) that's available to you.

You include both two hand and single
hand exercises.

You do weightlifting movements with
one or two hands.

You use over grips, under grips and
reverse grips.

You do one legged and two legged
squats.

You do back squats, front squats,
overhead squats and hack squats.

You do flat-footed squats and squats
on your toes.

You do straddle lifts.

You do one arm overhead squats.

You do deadlifts and rowing.

You do presses, push presses and jerks.

You do curls and reverse curls.

And you also do leverage movements
such as the crucifix - the rectangular
fix - the barbell front raise - lateral
raises, and many more.

You do exercises where you carry the
weights - such as the farmer's walk.

You see how long you can hold the
weight in a given position.

You do exercises that allow you to use
two or more pieces of equipment at the
same time - such as a combination barbell
lift with one hand and dumbbell lift with
the other hand.

You supplement your barbell training
with bodyweight exercises, gymnastics,
handstands, handstand push-ups, chins,
pull-ups, dips, jumping and sprinting.

You use different rep counts for different
exercises - and do more reps for the easier
exercises and fewer reps for the harder
ones.

In other words, you become very, very
creative.

You learn many different lifts and many
different exercises.

You become good at heavy single rep
lifts - and you also become good at
doubles, triples, fives, sets of 10, and
sets of 20, 40 or 50 reps for leg work.

In short, you become a very well-rounded
strongman.

And frankly, that's a pretty good way to
train - and a pretty good result!

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. For more about old time strongmen
and how they trained, grab these books:

Dinosaur Dumbbell Training

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

Dinosaur Training: Lost Secrets of Strength and
Development

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

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

Hard-copy and PDF

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

Kindle

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

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day:

"Necessity is the mother of invention - and a
guide to many fun and effective exercises and
workouts."

- Brooks Kubik

Brooks Kubik's Kindle Books

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

We have over 25 books and courses in the Kindle store - including these:

 
For even more Kindle books by Brooks Kubik, visit:

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

What Can We Learn from Old-Time Barbells?

Here's a classic photo of World and Olympic Champion Charles Rigoulet with an old-school, globe barbell. The photo is from John Wood and you can see it - and many more - at https://www.oldtimestrongman.com/blog - be sure to check it out!

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Three quick notes and then we'll talk iron -
as in, what we can learn from old time
barbells.

Notice that I didn't say "old time strong-
men."

I said "old time barbells."

Yes, they can tell us things - sometimes,
very important things.

1. The Legacy of Iron Books 

Trudi and I are planning to move to the
Pacific Northwest in the fairly near future -
and I can't take tons of books and magazines
with me, so we're reducing our inventory.

That includes my Legacy of Iron books,
which cover weightlifting, weight training
and bodybuilding in the late 1930's and
1940's - giving you an up close and
personal look at the champions of the
era and how they trained.

There are five books in the series - and
you can grab all five for just 50 clams
plus shipping and handling. Shoot me
an email if you're interested. You can
reach me at: info@brookskubik.com -
or just PM me on FaceBook.

We don't have many left, so if you want
a set, grab them now.

2. Jowett's Progressive Barbell
Training

I still have a few copies of my modern
reprint edition of George F. Jowett's
very rare old-school training course,
Progressive Barbell Training. You
can grab one for 20 clams plus shipping
and handling. Shoot me an email if
you're interested.

3. Strength and Health

I have many issues of Strength and
Health from the 1940's for sale - if
you're interested, shoot me an email
for prices.

4. What Can We Learn from Old
Time Barbells?

Back in the old days - as in, 120 to 150
years ago, there were no mass-market
barbells.

If you wanted a barbell back then, you
had to have it made at a local foundry.

And the barbells they made were very
basic.

Instead of plates, they had globes at the
end.

Hence the term "globe barbells."

Sometimes the barbell and the globes were
one solid piece of iron.

Other times, the globes could be screwed
onto the bars. That gave you the ability to
adjust the weight on the bar by changing
from one globe to another.

Of course, you never had very many globes,
so you could only make a couple of weight
adjustments - with big jumps from one
weight to another.

The globes came in  different sizes. Most of
them were round spheres - but some were
egg-shapped.

Some were made of iron. Others were made
of other metals. Brass globes, for example.

And some globes were empty - so you could
add weight by filling them with sand or lead
shot.


But that was a time-consuming and cumber-
some process.

If you've ever tried to fill a beer keg or barrel
with sand or gravel, you know what it's like.

And getting the two globes to be the exact same
weight would have been very difficult, as well -
unless you fiddled around with them for a couple
of hours every time you loaded them up.

So the bottom line was this - your barbells
were pretty much fixed weight barbells.

If you had a couple of them, you might have,
for instance, a 60 pound barbell, a 100 pound
barbell, and a 150 pound barbell.

Or you might have a 100, 150 and 200 pound
barbell.

Or a 42 pound barbell, a 96 1/4 pound barbell,
and a 116 1/2 pound barbell.

Remember, these were essentially one of a
kind items - so there's no reason to believe
they weighed an exact amount.


And here's something else to consider.

There were no uniform specifications for the
size, thickness and length of a barbell.

So you might have barbells that were of
different lengths - and different thicknesses.

Your 80 pound barbell might be one inch
thick and four feet long.

But your 117 pound barbell might be 1 1/2
inches thick and six feet long.

In other words, every barbell was different
from every other barbell - sometimes MUCH
different.

The same was true of dumbbells.

And your dumbbells might or might not come
in pairs.

Ditto for kettlebells and ring-weights.

And if you DID have pairs, they might not
be an exact match.

In short, all your weights were more or less
unique.

And adding more weight was difficult or even
impossible.

If that were the case, what would you do with
them?

How would you train?

Think about it - and send me a short email if
you have any ideas about it.

I'll share your feedback tomorrow - and
also share what I think the answer is.

In fact, I'll share what the answer MUST
have been - and explain why it was a GOOD
thing to train with such challenging equipment.

As always, thanks for reading and have a
great day. If you train today, make it a good
one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

My new course on heavy partials is
selling like hotcakes - and readers are loving
it - and getting get results.

One Dino added 25 pounds to his bench
press after just two weeks on the
program.

Two weeks - 25 pounds - that's pretty
good.

Go here to grab a copy:

Dinosaur Strength and Power Course
No. 2 - Heavy Partials

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaurstrengthandpower-02.html

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

Hard-copy and PDF

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

Kindle

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

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day

"Study old time barbells and dumbbells
closely and carefully. They can teach you
a lot."

- Brooks Kubik

Brooks Kubik's Kindle Books

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

We have over 25 books and courses in the Kindle store - including these:

 
For even more Kindle books by Brooks Kubik, visit:

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

Important Advice for Older Trainees

Today's post covers the true story of the old guy at the Muscle Beach Gym - sometime back in the 1940's. We don't have a photo of him - except maybe we do - he might be somewhere in the crowd, watching John Grimek at a lifting exhibition out in LA in 1940!

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Two quick notes and then we'll talk iron.

1. The Old-School Kettlebell Shirt

John Wood is having waaaay too much fun
designing shirts and hoodies. His latest is a
great looking shirt featuring an old-school
kettlebell lifter - from an old photo dating
all the way back to 1905.

Check it out:

https://www.oldtimestrongman.com/kettlebellshirt01.html

2. Strength and Health magazine

Because Trudi and I want to move to
the Pacific Northwest sometime in the
not too distant future, I'm selling all of
my duplicate books and magazines -
and that includes many issues of Bob
Hoffman's wonderful Strength and
Health magazine.

If you're interested in grabbing some,
shoot me an email, let me know where
we'll be sending them, and we'll let you
know what's available and what they
cost.

Also, let me know how you prefer to pay
for them.

Strength and Health was one of the best
ever strength training, weightlifting and
bodybuilding magazines - with tons of
awesome photos in every issue. And the
issues from the 1940's were just plain
wonderful.

I think you'll really like them.

So, as I said - if you're interested in buying
some of these timeless classics to add to
your Iron Game collection, shoot me an
email.

First come, first served - so don't sit on
the fence, think about it, scratch your
head, or kick the tires. Take immediate
action.

3. Important Advice for Older Trainees

Here's some important advice for older
trainees - courtesy of someone who, at
age 61, qualifies as an older trainee.

And don''t think, "Yeah, yeah, I've heard
this before."

The odds are good you haven't.

Today's advice isn't about exercises, sets
or reps.

It's not about workouts.

It's not about recovery and recuperation.

It's not about diet and nutrition.

Those are all very important, of course -
but this is something even more important.

It's about how the world looks at older
trainees - and about how you see yourself
as an older trainee.

When you're an older trainee, you tend to be
more or less invisible.

You fly under the radar screen.

No one notices you.

No one cares what you do at the gym - or
what you lift.

Instead, they focus on the current crop of
young champions, be they bodybuilders,
powerlifters, weightlifters, strongman
competitors, or whatever.

You often end up training alone - because
no one your own age is there, and the young-
sters never even think about working in with
"the old guy."

If you're not careful, that kind of thing can
start to wear on you.

It can start to make you feel "old."

But it doesn't have to be that way.

I often share the story of Bob Hoffman going
out to the West Coast on a business trip in
the 1940's, and seeing an old man training
by himself in the back corner of a huge gym
that Vic Tanny opened in an old airplace
hanger.

All of the young guys were hitting benches
and pull-downs together - and then there was
the old guy, all alone, training with just a barbell
and running through all four of the York courses
exercise by exercise.

In other words, training by himself - invisible
to everyone else - doing an "old-fashioned"
training program that no one else in the
place even remembered.

Hoffman noticed all that - but he also noticed
something else.

The old guy was in pretty good shape for
his age.

He was strong and well-coordinated. He
moved well. He was loose and limber. He
didn't handle huge weights, but he did
handle respectable weights - and he did
all of his exercises in perfect form.

He was having a very good workout - and
he worked up quite a good sweat doing it.

He also looked like he was having a pretty
good time.

In fact, as the end of his workout he had a
great big smile on his face.

It was very obvious that the old guy in the
back of the gym didn't think of himself as
old - and if he was invisible to the younger
guys, it didn't matter one bit.

He was there to train - and to have fun when
he did it - and to get a great workout that made
him feel like a million dollars. And that's exactly
what happened.

The moral to the story is pretty clear.

Be the guy at the back of the gym - and focus
on having fun - and getting a great workout
that makes you feel like a million dollars.

Do that every time you train - one workout
after another - and you'll find that your actual
age doesn't matter at all.

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. I have tons of advice for older trainees
in Gray Hair and Black Iron:

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

I also have a terrific mini-course for older
trainees. It's Mini-Course No. 1 - in the
special section for PDF courses on our
products page:

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

P.S. 2. My other books and courses --
including links to all of my e-books on
Kindle -- are right here at Dino
Headquarters:

Hard-copy and PDF

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

Kindle

http://www.brookskubik.com/oldschool_01-kindle.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day

"Regular training helps keep you young -
and if you do it with a smile, it works even
better."

- Brooks Kubik

Brooks Kubik's Kindle Books

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

We have over 25 books and courses in the Kindle store - including these:

 
For even more Kindle books by Brooks Kubik, visit:

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

10 Big Strength Training and Muscle Building Mistakes

Here's an exercise from Dinosaur Bodyweight Training - and it's a very good one. I wish I had done it when I was a kid! But, like all of us, I made  a lot of mistakes back then . . .

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

We all make mistakes, and in that regard,
I'm no different than anyone else.

I've made plenty of mistakes over the
years.

But there's a positive side to making
mistakes. Hopefully, they teach you
a better way of doing things.

And if you're lucky, you can learn
from other people's mistakes. That
saves time, effort, and can even help
you avoid unnecessary injuries.

So I thought I'd share The Top 10
Training Mistakes I Made When I
Was a Kid.

Hopefully, this will help you avoid making
some of the mistakes that I made.

Don't laugh too hard when you read
these. They were things I did in junior
high and high school -- a very long
time ago. And in my defense, we all
made these mistakes back then.

The Top 10 Training Mistakes I
Made When I Was a Kid

1.  I read the muscle magazines.

a. Worse, I believed them.

b. In fact, I did more than believe them.
I memorized them. I was brainwashed by
them.

2. I tried the Get Big Drink.

a. I did NOT get big. I got sick.

b. Very sick.

c. Sick for days.

3. I used soy-based protein powder.

a. We all did. And it was terrible for
us.

b. Soy powder is incredibly nasty. And
the stuff they sold back then was the
worst of the worst.

c. You do know that it was pig feed
before they figured out they could
sell it to aspiring bodybuilders and
weightlifters . . . . right?

4. I didn't do Olympic lifting.

a. For some reason. Olympic lifting
all but disappeared in the USA in the
60's and 70's.

b. I really wish our coaches had trained
us in Olympic lifting. What a difference
it would have made.

c. Even teaching us power cleans, high
pulls and push presses would have been
a huge improvement.

5. I used machines instead of free
weights.

a. Including the Universal Gym.

b. Of course, all the pro athletes did
the same thing.

c. Related point: I should have used
heavy awkward objects along with my
barbells and dumbbells.

d. I should have done old-school
dumbbell training (the kind I teach
in Dinosaur Dumbbell Training).

6. I did long, slow running instead of
sprints and other fast, short-burst cardio
work.

a. The long, slow stuff didn't have very
much carry-over to wrestling, which is
what I was training for in high school --
but it's what all of us did back then. We
thought it would help us.

7. I used high-volume bodybuilding
programs.

a. The magazines said that was the
way to be a champion.

b. It wasn't.

c. And besides, why train like a body-
builder if you were a wrestler?

8. I didn't do anywhere near enough leg
and back work.

a. None of us did.

9. I didn't do anywhere near enough grip
work.

a. I don't think my high school even had
anything for the grip -- other than a wrist
roller thingie on the Universal Gym.

b. I wish I had done the farmer's walk
back then.

c. Or used thick handled barbells and
dumbbells.

10. I didn't do enough bodyweight training --
which would have been an excellent program
for a high school wrestler.

a. The muscle magazines never said anything
about bodyweight training.

So there you have it: 10 big mistakes that I
made almost 50 years ago.

And here's the thing -- many people are still
making one or more of those mistakes -- or
very similar mistakes -- and some people are
making ALL of them.

That's a shame. There's a much better way
of doing things. I teach it in all of my books
and courses, including:

Dinosaur Training

The book they call "the Bible of strength
training." A must have for all serious
trainees - and a best-seller since 1996.

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

Gray Hair and Black Iron

The best and most detailed book ever written
about real world training for mature lifters
and Iron Slingers.

Includes 50 different workouts for older
Dinos.

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

Chalk and Sweat

50 different training programs - from beginner
to intermediate to advanced - along with special
programs for building maximum strength and
muscle mass.

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

Dinosaur Bodyweight Training

The best book ever written on old-school
bodyweight training - with tons of fun exercises
and over 50 different workouts.

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

Dinosaur Dumbbell Training

A complete guide to old-school dumbbell
training - with many forgotten exercises -
and over 50 different dumbbell workouts.

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

In other words, help is here - right at
your fingertips.

You don't have to make my mistakes. I
made them. You can learn from them.

Train the right way. Unlock your full potential.

Train with maximum effectiveness - and make
every rep of every workout really count!

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. My other books and courses --
including links to all of my e-books on
Kindle -- are right here at Dino
Headquarters:

Hard-copy and PDF

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

Kindle

http://www.brookskubik.com/oldschool_01-kindle.html

P.S. 2. 

Thought for the Day: 

"Those who ignore the lessons of history
are doomed to repeat them -- and that
includes the lessons of the Iron Game." 

-- Brooks Kubik

Brooks Kubik's Kindle Books

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

We have over 25 books and courses in the Kindle store - including these:

 
For even more Kindle books by Brooks Kubik, visit:

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