Hail to the Dinosaurs!
There's a lot of talk nowadays about
the 99% and the 1%.
But what about the 99.99% and the
.01%?
When I was a kid, Peary Rader wrote
an article in his wonderful magazine,
Iron Man, in which he stated that for
most people, two workouts a week was
the best program for building strength
and muscle.
Peary noted that he had tried 3x per
week workouts, and 2x per week workouts,
and he found -- much to his surprise --
that he actually did better on 2x per
week.
And these were NOT long, time-consuming
workouts. They were actually pretty short
programs. What I refer to in my books
and courses as "abbreviated training."
For example:
1. Bench press 3 x 10 -12
2. Barbell bent-over rowing 3 x 10 -12
3. Breathing squat 1 x 20
4. Very light breathing pullovers 1 x 20
Or this program:
1. Military press 3 x 10 - 12
2. Barbell curl 3 x 10 - 12
3. Breathing squat 1 x 20
4. Very light breathing pullover 1 x 20
Or this one:
1. Parallel dips or weighted pushups
3 x 10 - 12
2. Pull-ups 3 x 10 - 12
3. Squats, front squats or Trap Bar
deadlifts 5 x 5
The reaction was EXACTLY what you would expect.
Everyone thought that Peary was crazy -- and
99.99% of the guys who read the article shook
their heads, rolled their eyes and ignored it.
They stuck to their four day, five day and six
day per week split routines -- their two hour,
three hour and four hour workouts -- and their
endless sets of endless reps of every exercise
under the sun.
And most of them didn't gain much of anything
at all.
Then there was the .01% of readers who actually
gave Peary's advice a try. They put together a
limited exercise program (which is what Peary
called abbreviated training) - and they trained
2x a week (some of them only once a week) -- and
lo and behold, they grew like weeds and ended up
20, 30, 40 or even 50 pounds of muscle heavier,
and two, three or four times stronger than
ever before.
The funny thing is, it's more than 40 years later,
and we still see 99.99% of the folks who train
doing too many exercises, too many sets, too many
reps, training too often, and not getting very much
in the way of results.
But we also have that .01% that trains the RIGHT
way -- on brief, infrequent, abbreviated programs --
and they're doing great.
So take a second, look at your training program,
and look at your results. Are you in the 99.99% --
or in the .01%?
If you are NOT in the .01%, you CAN be -- all you
need to do is to start training short, hard, heavy
and serious. No, it's not easy -- but easy never
built an ounce of muscle.
As always, thanks for reading, and feel free to
share this message. If you train today, make it
a good one.
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. Here's something that combines serious arm
training with abbreviated strength training --
and will build arms bulging with strength and
power:
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_armtraining.html
P.S. 2. For more about abbreviated a strength training,
see Dinosaur Training, Chalk and Sweat, Gray Hair and
Black Iron and Strength, Muscle and Power. You can find
them here:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "You only have one chance
to make your next workout a great one. Make the most of
it." -- Brooks Kubik
