Hail to the Dinosaurs!
He asked the question from right out
of the blue.
"So, tell me -- how are the weights
working for you now?"
I had no idea what he was talking about,
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, I'm 47 now, and it's getting harder
and harder to hit the weights. I'm always
sore and stiff. And some of the exercises
seem to hurt me."
"Like what?"
"Well, like bench presses -- and squats --
and deadlifts. Curls, too. Pretty much
everything, actually. I'm starting to think
I'm too old for lifting."
Now, to put this in perspective, you need
to understand that I was having lunch with
my YOUNGER brother. I'm seven years older.
When your YOUNGER brother starts to talk
like that, it can make you feel REALLY old.
"So what do YOU do?" he asked. "I mean, do
you take some sort of vitamins or something?"
"No, I just do the stuff I talk about in Gray
Hair and Black Iron."
He looked down at his plate for a second before
answering.
"I -- um -- haven't read it."
Well, that's par for the course. No one in a
writer's family ever reads his books.
"Well, you should read it," I said. "It talks
about everything you need to do now that you're
older. I mean, the whole reason I wrote it was
to help older guys keep on lifting. So there's
a lot in there about fighting soreness and
inflammation."
He nodded.
"I'll read it," he said.
"Well, do that. And when you do, focus on the
chapters dealing with workload, intensity cycling
and volume. Older lifters need to reduce their
workload. They tend to train too much. More than
their bodies can recover from. So they get sore
and stiff, and then it becomes chronic, and then
it's nothing but aches and pains all the time."
"You need to train hard and heavy enough to
stimulate muscular growth," I continued, "but not
so hard that you can't recover from your workouts.
It's a balancing act."
"It sure seems like it!" he said.
"Yeah, but you need to do it. It's the only way to
keep on training. Otherwise, you're gonna have to
quit lifting and start playing checkers for exercise."
He brightened.
"Checkers would be fun," he said.
I shook my head.
"Checkers are not an option," I told him.
And that's why my younger brother is hitting the iron
today, following one of the routines in Gray Hair and
Black Iron. And you know what? I think he'll do fine.
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. You can grab a copy of Gray Hair and Black Iron
right here at Dinosaur Headquarters:
http://www.brookskubik.com/grayhair_blackiron.html
For our other books and courses, go here:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
