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| Staggered grip double rope pull-ups - one of my favorite upper body exercises in Dinosaur Bodyweight Training. |
Hail to the Dinosaurs!
Last week a reader asked me about bodyweight
training, and whether you could use it to build
strength and muscle mass.
My answer probably surprised him.
"Bodyweight training is amazingly effective for
building strength and muscle mass."
And yes, those were my exact words -- and I
don't use "amazingly" very often. When I do,
I mean it.
But -- and this is important -- it has to be the
right kind of bodyweight training.
Here's an example -- and it's something I found
in the yellowed pages of a very old magazine,
buried far at the back, where it was easy to
miss.
A reader asked John Grimek about handstand
pushups.
Grimek told him they were pretty good -- and
noted that at one period of his life, when he was
travelling and working as an artists's model, he
found it very difficult to do any weight training
for about two years.
What did he do instead?
Handstand pushups and tiger bends.
Freestanding. Not balanced with the feet against
the wall.
For many, many sets.
A total of 200 reps per day of each exercise.
Grimek didn't mention any pull-ups, but I bet
he was doing plenty of pull-ups at the same
time. Remember, this was the man with the
original baseball biceps.
And quite likely, he some deep knee bends to
work his legs. Grimek liked leg work, and it's
hard to imagine him not doing something to
work his lower body.
Grimek's experience is hardly unusual. Back in
the day, quite a few bodybuilding and lifting
champions got started with handbalancing,
gymnastics, and bodyweight training. And
many of them continued to include their
favorite bodyweight exercises -- such as
pushups, pull-ups, handstand pushups or
tiger bends -- for their entire career.
I've done it myself, and I know it works.
I had a stretch of about four years where I
did nothing but bodyweight training. Lots
of advanced pushup variations -- lots of
advanced pull-up variations -- and tons
of handstand pushups.
Plus various types of deep knee bends and
hyperextensions -- and bridging and gut
work.
How did it work?
Pretty darn well.
In my late 40's, I was bigger, thicker and more
muscular than I was when I was doing heavy
powerlifting in my 30's.
Of course, you don't have to use bodyweight
training exclusively. You can combine it with
barbell and dumbbell training, and have the
best of both worlds.
And it's easy to learn how to do it -- and how
to put it all together into effective, result-
producing workouts.
I offer a complete course in old-school body-
weight training -- along with 50 different
workouts -- in Dinosaur Bodyweight Training.
And I'll also include a special bulletin that
tells you how to combine bodyweight
training with barbell and dumbbell work.
It's good stuff.
In fact, it's amazingly good stuff.
And remember -- I don't use that word very
often.
Go here to grab a copy:
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_bodyweight.html
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. Here's the link again:
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_bodyweight.html
P.S. 2. My other books and courses -- including
links to my PDF courses and Kindle e-books --
are right here:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day:
"Simple and effective beats
complicated and useless."
-- Brooks Kubik
BEFORE YOU LEAVE . . .
We have more than 25 Dinosaur Training books and courses in the Kindle
bookstore - here are several of them - head on over and take a look at the others:
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