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| 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 |
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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
Dinosaur Training: Lost Secrets of Strength and
Development
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
For even more Kindle books by Brooks Kubik, visit:
