Hail to the Dinosaurs!
Like many of you, we've been baking
under a massive heat wave. We had some
relief last night when it rained for an
hour. But overall, it's been brutally
hot -- up to 104 degrees.
I train in the garage, and there's no
air conditioning, so it's like an oven
(no, make that -- "like a blast furnace")
by the time I train in the early evening.
So I've switched things up, and I'm doing
something I haven't done for a very long
time. I'm training in the morning.
It actually works pretty well. I set the
alarm for 6:30, roll out of bed, throw on
my lifting clothes, feed the cats, turn on
the coffee and head out to the garage.
The trick to early morning workouts is to
do plenty of warming up. I usually spend
10 or 15 minutes on warm-ups, loosening up
and general mobility work. Today, I did
20 minutes.
After the warm-ups, it was time for snatches.
I've been hitting split style snatches lately.
They're fast and fun, and in addition to
building strength and power, they're great
for speed, balance, coordination, timing and
athleticism.
I've been doing a lot of reading lately about
the mind-muscle link, and about using your
training to help keep your nervous system
working at peak levels as you grow older.
Exercises like snatches, cleans, the clean
and press, the clean and push press, and the
clean and jerk are good for that. (Pat O'Shea
covers this topic in Quantum Fitness II --
an excellent book.)
My next early morning workout will focus on
the clean and jerk -- and the one after that
will focus on front squats. Nothing exotic,
but it keeps me young. And for an older lifter
staying young (or at least, feeling young) is
pretty darn good.
After the workout, it was definitely time for
breakfast. Trudi made a big plate of chopped
greens from the garden -- about three cups of
chopped kale, lettuces, arugula, parsley,
basil, chard, Asian greens and mustard
greens -- and topped it off with four fried
eggs (free range eggs from one of the local
farmer's markets), and crumbled bacon
(grass fed pork from the same farmer's
market). The workout, the breakfast and a
cup of coffee got the day off to a great
start.
Anyhow, the heat is hitting us all, and we
all need to figure out ways to work around
it. Keep drinking lots of water, and stay
super hydrated. You may want to reduce your
intensity, your weights and your volume. A
short, lighter workout may work a lot better
when we're up over 100 degrees. And a lighter
workout is a heck of a lot better than no
workout at all.
And now it's time to get to work. I'm working
on a new book covering Dinosaur Dumbbell
Training, and it's looking pretty darn good.
Stay tuned for further developments on that
front!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. The summer is a great time to work in
some bodyweight training -- and Dinosaur
Bodyweight Training is the way to go. It's
not your ordinary bodyweight stuff -- it's
high impact, high intensity strength training
and muscle building with Dino-style bodyweight
exercises -- and it works great! You can grab
a copy right here:
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_bodyweight.html
P.S. 2. Older trainees should read Gray hair and
Black iron.It's the first book ever written about
serious strength training for older lifters. You can
find it right here at Dinosaur headquarters:
http://www.brookskubik.com/grayhair_blackiron.html
P.S. 3. My other books and courses are at the
usual place:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 4. Thought for the Day: "Drink water, train,
drink more water. The most important advice for
summer training is to drink lots of water." --
Brooks Kubik
