Hail to the Dinosaurs!
In response to last Friday's message,
"Was Grimek A Monster?" I received over
a dozen emails that said:
"Maybe he was, but I'd still like to look
like him!"
So let's talk a little about how John
Grimek trained. And see how much of this
sounds like Dinosaur Training.
1. Lots of squats!
Grimek was a huge believer in the heavy
back squat. No other bodybuilder of his
era did as much heavy squatting as did
John Grimek.
2. Barbells
Grimek was a child of the barbell era. He
used "free weights" for virtually all of
his training during his developmental and
contest-winning years.
3. Weightlifting
Grimek combined Olympic weightlifting (the
press, snatch and clean and jerk) with plenty
of hard work on basic, compound exercises.
The combination gave him an incomparable blend
of muscle mass, athleticism and rugged
development.
4. Dumbbells
Grimek was a huge fan of heavy dumbbell presses.
He probably did more work on dumbbell presses
and squats than any other exercise.
5. Heavy Support Lifts
As a young man, Grimek enjoyed performing heavy
partial movements with enormous weights in the
hip lift, hand and thigh lift, Jefferson lift,
and overhead lockout (i.e., the lockout position
of a military press or jerk). The heavy movements
helped build tremendous tendon and ligament
strength, and contributed enormously to the
massiveness of the Grimek physique.
6. Food
Grimek ate TONS of good, wholesome, healthy food.
He followed no special diet and subscribed to no
type of food fads. He predated supplements, protein
powders and the Get Big Drink. Note that the foods
available to him were largely natural and organic,
particularly when he lived in York, with its
surrounding farms throughout the Pennsylvania
Dutch countryside of the 1930's and 40's.
7. Grip Work
Grimek had a ferocious grip and enjoyed doing a
variety of stunts, such as tearing thick phone
books, bending spikes and metal bars, etc. One
of his sons used to make money by finding odd
pieces of metal and betting the other kids that
his dad could bend them.
8. Heavy Curls (Or Not)
When Grimek did curls, he did HEAVY curls. When he
was backstage at the Mr. Universe contest in London,
he warmed up by doing reps with 190 pounds!
But Grimek DIDN'T LIKE curls. In fact, he once told
Bill Hinbern that he "hated" the exercise.
9. To Bench of Not to Bench
Grimek could bench press over 400 pounds, but rarely
did the exercise. His favorite chest exercise was
the decline press with dumbbells.
10. Rib Cage Expansion
Grimek believed in training heavy, high rep squats
in combination with light breathing pullovers (with
dumbbells) to expand the rib cage. He believed that
building a huge rib cage was much more important than
building the pectoral muscles.
As I said at the beginning -- the same sort of training
that made John Grimek the Monarch of Muscledom sounds an
awful lot like Dinosaur Training!
As always, thanks for reading, and have a great day. If
you train today, train like John Grimek!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. For more about John Grimek's life and training, see
the Legacy of Iron books -- and for John Grimek's special
leg training program, see Chalk and Sweat. You can find
them right here at the Dinosaur Training store:
a. Legacy of Iron (the first book in the Legacy of Iron
series)
http://www.brookskubik.com/legacy_of_iron.html
b. Chalk and Sweat
http://www.brookskubik.com/chalk_and_sweat.html
