Hail to the Dinosaurs!
I received 271 emails last week from people who had diet or training questions.
They fell into the following broad categories:
1. "HELP! I can’t gain any size. What should I do?"
2. "Please HELP! I can’t get stronger. Give me a program."
3. "My diet is lousy. What should I do?"
4. "I can’t get motivated to train, Pleas help me."
5. "My coach tells me I should do such and so – what do you think?"
6. "Help! I don’t know what to do."
7. "I’m training to get bigger and stronger as fast as possible. I have a mixed martial arts match next week against an 800 pound gorilla. Yes, it’s a real gorilla. I am doing this to help the zoo raise money, so it’s a charity fight. Don’t worry, I love animals, and I won’t hurt the gorilla.
I am doing a powerlifting contest the next day and I want to set a world record. I also want to have a 28- inch waist, with 1 percent body-fat, although I would settle for 2 percent if I had to. However, I need 24-inch upper arms with double-peaked baseball biceps.
Plus, I am running a marathon next week and want to try to break into the top ten this year in world marathon races, although I have not done much running lately.
I also have sugar cravings, and was wondering if the chocolate milk diet would be good for me.
Can you give me a good program?
Also – what supplements do you recommend, and how often should I take them, and what is the best exercise for the upper inner head of the triceps, and how often should I train my legs if I want to win the Mr. Everything title this year, and what is the best color of sun-glasses to wear for building maximum muscle density, and is it better to eat when you are hungry or when you are not, and is water good for you, and what is the best way to train when the Sun is in Capricorn and the Moon is in Virgo, and what do you think about breathing?"
Actually, no. 7 was unique – it was the only one in the “I’m fighting a gorilla” category – but it had so many questions that it deserved a category of its own.
Anyhow, my answer to each of the questions was exactly the same:
“Send me your current workout, with all exercises, all sets, all reps and the weights you use in each set.”
That’s pretty much my answer to everything now.
I answer the question with a question of my own: "What does your training look like?"
"What are you doing? What exercises? What sets? What reps? What kind of weight are you using? How many days a week do you train?"
The solution to virtually every training question under the sun is to start training the RIGHT WAY. Not the way they teach you in the muscle comics – not the way they talk about in the internet forums – and not the way that everyone else trains – but the RIGHT WAY.
Once you sort out your training --- once you start doing it RIGHT – everything else is easy.
I’ll give you a very simple example:
Guy wants to know what kind of protein supplement to use. he's in agony about it, because there are so many different brands, and every time he makes up his mind he sees another product -- and the internet forums go back and forth on it -- and all of his lifting buddies and Facebook friends give him different advice -- and he's afraid that if he doesn't make the right decision RIGHT NOW he'll go into CATABOLIC SHOCK!
So you answer the question with a question.
"What does your workout look like?"
And you learn -- guess what -- that the guy doesn’t train his legs or back.
So the answer is simple. The guy needs to start doing squats and deadlifts and bent-over rowing and shrugs and power cleans.
When the guy starts to do squats and deadlifts and bent-over rowing and shrugs and power cleans, he'll get bigger and stronger very fast – and it doesn’t matter what kind of protein supplement he uses, or even whether he uses one.
Anyhow, I had 271 emails with training questions last week. And the answer to each one was the same.
The answer is always the same.
It’s all about how you train.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day – and if you train today – make it a good one.
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. If you can’t find the answer in one of these books, then you’re not even trying – because each and every one is a gold mine of real world, no-nonsense training advice:
1. Dinosaur Training: Lost Secrets of Strength and Development
2. Strength, Muscle and Power
3. Gray Hair and Black Iron
4. History’s Strongest Men and How They Trained: No.1 – Doug Hepburn
http://www.brookskubik.com/doug_hepburn.html
