Mike Rinaldi's Muscle Mobile

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Yesterday we talked about the
Food Mobile.

We also covered the Book Mobile.

Today, let's cover the Muscle
Mobile.

And pay attention -- because this
is a true story -- about one of
the original Dinosaurs.

There was a gray-haired, grizzled,
Olympic lifter named Mike Rinaldi.

He bought a copy of Dinosaur
Training way back in 1996, when
the little monster first hit an
unsuspecting world. I know, because
he sent me tons of letters and
emails telling me about his
training.

Mike was  a regular at the Go Heavy
Olympic Weightlifting Forum. He
posted under several names, one of
which was Mr. Snatchural.

It was a good name.

That was his favorite lift. The
squat snatch. And yes, he
enjoyed the work of Robert Crumb.
He even had a little cartoon
that showed Mr. Natural, barbell
in hand, performing as Mr.
Snatchural.

And don't think he was all goofs
and giggles. He took 4th place in
the American Masters Weightlifting
Championships on year. That was in
Vineland, New Jersey in 2000. He
snatched 70 kilos, clean and jerked
90 kilos, and totaled a very
respectable 160 pounds in the
94 kilo class -- at 53 years
of age. That's pretty good.
Many years, he would have won
with that total.

But here's the great part.

Mike used to throw his bar and
his bumper plates in to the back
of his truck -- and throw in a
sheet of 4 x 8 plywood -- and
drive into the bad part of town.

He'd park the truck, set the
plywood down on the sidewalk,
load up the bar and start doing
squat snatches.

You can just picture it.

Mike walks up to the bar, bends
over and BOOM -- hits a perfect
squat snatch.

Stands up, holds the weight over
his head, lowers it back to the
"platform" -- and does another
onew.

BOOM>

Bar is overhead.

He lowers the bar, gets set, and does
another one.

And of course, he draws a crowd. Crazy
people always do.

Crazy guy approaches the bar -- BOOM.

Does a perfect squat snatch.

It looks pretty cool.

And one of the kids says, "What you
doing?"

"Snatches."

That draws a big laugh and  a lot of
unprintable comments.

"How you do that?"

"Like this!"

BOOM!

"Show me!"

So he does.

The kid tries a snatch.

There's no BOOM.

There's only a lurch-slide-stagger-
sprawl-wiggle-wave-fall on  your face.

"No," says Mike. "Not like that. Like
this,."

BOOM.

Before you know it, he's teaching the
entire neighborhood how to do squat
snatches.

He gets home a couple of hours later.

Sore as hell.

Tired as hell.

But he's taught 20 or 30 kids how to
squat snatch.

Do it every weekend and it starts to
add up.

Heck, he might have started some kid
on the road to the Olympic Gold Medal.

And he might have started several
hundred of them on the road to life
long strength and health.

And that sure as heck ought to count
for something.

We lost Mike on June 22, 2008. He was
60 years old.

But when you do something like Mike's
Muscle Mobile, the years don't matter.
You end up living forever.

As always, thanks for reading -- and I
hope this one really resonates.

If you train today, make it a good one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. In 2009 I dedicated a new book to
Mike Rinaldi. That was my way of saying
GOOD JOB to Mr. Snatchural. You can
probably guess what it was:

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

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

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

P.S. 3. Thought for the day. "Live your
life as each every workout might be your
last one. Some day it will be."
-- Brooks Kubik

Gray Hair, Black Iron and Mike Rinaldi

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

If you’ve been thinking about ordering Gray Hair and Black iron, today’s a good day to do so.

And I’ll tell you why.

Today is November 1. A friend and fellow lifter named Mike Rinaldi was born on this day – back in 1947.

Mike was a lifelong weightlifter and lifting fan – and one of the original Dinosaurs. You may remember him from old posts on the training forum I had with my very first Dinosaur Training website (back in 1996) – and you may remember his articles and letters in the original Dinosaur Files newsletter which ran from August 1997 through August, 2002) – from his letters and articles in Milo magazine – and from his hilarious and often wonderfully wicked posts on the Go Heavy Olympic Weightlifting forum.

Like Harry Paschall before him, Mike Rinaldi was an aficionado of the Olympic lift we call the snatch – and this led him to adopt the internet moniker of Mr. Snatchural.

Mike was active in Masters weightlifting, and one of his dreams was to be a USA Master’s champion. He placed high on several occasions, but he never won that elusive national championship.

I never met Mike in person, but we corresponded by email for many years. We talked a lot about weightlifting and strength training for older lifters, since that describes both of us. And we talked a lot about how to keep training and how to stay at it as you move up in years.

And then, as they say, Life happened. I was terribly busy at work and had little time for anything – I was newly remarried and had suddenly acquired three stepchildren, two cats and a mother-in-law who lived with us – and I didn’t do as much as I should have done to stay in touch with Mike and other email buddies.

And then I started working on a book about strength training for older lifters—and it turned out to take a really long time to write. I started and stopped and struggled so many times. I would get 50 or 100 pages into the manuscript and then realize that it just wasn’t working – that somehow, it just wasn’t RIGHT. So I’d tear it up and start all over again.

I used the MIKE TEST.

Would Mike like it?

If the answer was NO – then I’d start all over again.

Several years passed, and I still was nowhere near finishing the book.

So one Holiday weekend, when Trudi and the kids were out of town and I had no work at the office e and perfect freedom to chain myself to the keyboard and write – I started all over, doing something new and different – and the words poured out, and everything flowed, and it all worked very well.

I kept at it, working nights and weekends and early in the morning – and after several months of hard work, I had a new manuscript.

I applied the MIKE TEST.

And passed with flying colors.

Yes, this was definitely a book that Mike Rinaldi would like.

There was only one problem.

Mike had passed away the previous summer. We lost him on June 22, 2008.

If you have a copy of Gray hair and Black Iron, turn to the dedication page at the front of the book.

You’ll see that it’s dedicated to Mike Rinaldi. And now, you know why.

I’ll always regret not having finished Gray Hair and Black Iron while Mike was still with us – because I know he would have enjoyed the little monster – and I really wanted to send it to him, and get a great big “WELL DONE!” email from my friend in New Jersey, the one and only – Mr. Snatchural.

As always, thanks for reading, have a great day – and if you train today, make it an extra good one in honor of our lifting buddy, Mike Rinaldi.

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik