Hail to the Dinosaurs!
We’re coming to the end of the year, and if you’re like me, it’s the time when you look back over your training logs and plan things out for the coming year.
Most people are busy making New Year’s resolutions right now. Dinosaurs are busy planning their workouts.
I don’t believe in resolutions. I do believe in workouts. And here’s why.
Resolutions are typically about losing weight, losing inches or breaking a bad habit. Their primary purpose is a way of ramping up your will power to help you stop eating the wrong kind of food, stop drinking too much, stop smoking, or whatever.
Workouts are different. They’re not about dropping something you want or cutting back on something you enjoy. They’re all about doing something FUN – hitting the iron!
And the great thing about workouts is this: if you train regularly and consistently, you make progress. It’s just that simple.
So if you want to make some resolutions for the coming year, that’s fine – but be sure to plan some workouts as well. Workouts make good things happen.
In my own case, I’m sitting here with paper and pen in hand, outlining what I’m going to be doing in January, February and March. Here’s some of what I’m looking at:
1. Plenty of power snatches, power cleans, snatch grip high pulls and clean grip high pulls. These work my back really hard, and allow me to train like an athlete – which is one of the keys to feeling young. The more of these I do, the better I feel.
1a. I’ll probably work in some lifts from boxes along with lifts from the platform. I’ve not done many of these, but I think they’d be fun – and FUN is the name of the game when it comes to productive and effective strength training.
2. Plenty of front squats – which are a terrific exercise for the legs and hips, and a tremendous all-around strength and power builder. I used to do tons and tons of back squats, but over the years I’ve switched to doing more and more front squats. I really like them.
3. Back squats with Dave Draper’s Top Squat bar. I recently purchased one of these little devices, and I’m eager to give it a good test. The Top Squat is designed for older lifters with tight shoulders (which is pretty much ALL older lifters). It allows you to do back squats without stressing your shoulders. I think it will work well alternated with those front squats.
4. Trap Bar deadlifts. Always a great movement. I can’t say enough about this exercise. Everyone should do them.
5. Push presses and jerks. Lots of fun, and super exercises for power. These are more of those athletic-style exercises that I enjoy so much.
5. Dumbbell presses, push presses and jerks, and dumbbell cleans. I haven’t done these for a while, and it’s going to be fun to get back to doing them. They’re very, very good movements – excellent strength and muscle builders, and fun to do. And dumbbells are much more forgiving on your joints, so they’re great for older lifters. John Grimek handled 100-pound dumbbells for alternate presses well into his 60’s – and perhaps into his 70’s!
6. Dumbbell bench presses and incline presses. Again, something I have not done for a long time, but something I want to work back into the program. And again, as I mentioned before, dumbbells are easier on the joints than barbell work – so they’re great for the older guys. And if you train at home, alone, they’re much safer than doing barbell bench presses. You can’t get stuck under the bar when you use dumbbells.
7. Pull-ups. Another fun exercise, and one that has many terrific benefits – you train your upper back, your biceps, your forearms and your grip all in one movement – you stretch your spine when you do them – and you help balance your shoulder girdle development. And it’s always good to be able to move your own bodyweight up and down fast and easily.
8. Gut work, grip work and neck work. This is a given for any Dinosaur.
9. Cardio training with weights. I outline this in detail in Gray Hair and Black Iron, and I’m actually going to go back and read through those chapters and pick out some things to work back in. And when the weather is a bit better, I’ll get going on some of my favorite lugging and loading drills.
10. Stretching and flexibility work. I’ve been doing plenty of this already, but I’ll be doing more and more. It helps keep you from getting stiff and having trouble in the low position of your squats, deadlifts and pulling movements.
Now you have a good picture of what’s going to be happening in my garage gym for the next 90 days or so. What’s going to be happening in YOUR training world? Think about it – and make plans for a truly terrific lifting year in 2011.
As always, thanks for reading, and if you train today, make it a good one!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. For tons of great ideas for the coming year, head on over to the Dinosaur training Book Store, and grab some reading material – we have the best there is!
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
