Hail to the Dinosaurs!
When I was 11 years old, I joined
the Boy Scouts, and became a full-
fledged camping nut.
I used to get mail order catalogs
of camping gear -- such as the LL Bean
catalog, which was nothing but serious
camping, hiking, hunting, fishing
and outdoor gear back then -- and I
would go through them carefully and
make long lists of everything I wanted
to take on my next camping trip.
Pup tent, sleeping bag, ground cloth,
lantern, flashlight, survival kit with
waterproof matches, Hudson Bay style 3/4
axe, hatchet, pocket knife, hunting knife,
fishing knife, rope, fishing line, fish
hooks, mess kit, bow and arrows, targets,
canteen, folding wood saw, knapsack,
knapsack frame, tump-line, canoe paddles,
dehydrated rations, sterno, more matches,
beef jerky, pemmican, aluminum foil for
cooking, camp shovel, string -- it was a
pretty long list.
Of course, I could only afford a couple
of things, but I still jammed that knapsack
full of all kinds of important, necessary
and downright critical gear.
I put the thing on my back and almost fell
to the ground. It was HEAVY!
Needless to say, I only used about five
percent of the stuff I lugged around.
The Scoutmaster knew his stuff.
he didn't say anything to the new scouts,
but let us stagger off into the woods with
ten times more stuff than we needed.
Then he let us camp for the weekend, pack
up and stagger back home.
And then he told us the secret.
"When you get home, empty everything out of
your knapsack and make three piles," he said.
"The first pile is for the stuff you never
used at all. That will be the biggest pile."
We nodded. he was right.
"The second pile is for stuff you used once
during the entire weekend. That will be a
fairly big pile, as well."
Again, we nodded.
"The third pile is the stuff you used more
than once. It will be a pretty small pile."
Once again, he was right.
"The next time we go camping, just take the
stuff in pile no. 3. It's all you need."
So that's what we did -- and guess what? He
was right.
There's a parallel to strength training.
Like tenderfoot campers who always take too
much unnecessary gear and end up exhausting
themselves lugging it around, tenderfoot
exercisers always try to do too many
exercises and end up exhausting themselves.
If they're lucky, they finally learn the
secret:
1. You don't need very many different
exercises.
2. You don't need to perform endless sets
and reps.
3. You don't need to spend hours and hours
in the gym.
4. You don't need to train every day.
5. The important thing is QUALITY TRAINING --
which means working hard and heavy on the
important exercises and then stopping, going
home and getting rested for your next workout.
6. Less is more. Do less but do it better.
7. Use abbreviated training programs that allow
you to focus on QUALITY rather than QUANTITY.
So if you want to make 2012 the best year ever
for building strength and muscle, focus on the
important stuff -- the exercises that count.
Drop everything else, and devote yourself to
QUALITY TRAINING -- and you won't believe the
results!
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. There's still time to order my new Military
Press and Shoulder Power Course and get the special
pre-publication bonus. You can find it right here:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 2. Last week I mentioned that we have Dinosaur
Bodyweight Training DVD's. We don't have a sales
page for them yet -- but if you're interested,
shoot me an email and I'll tell you how to place
an order for them.
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Wherever you train,
and whatever equipment is available, make the most
of it!" -- Brooks Kubik
