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| The old-timers had a very interesting program for increasing the military press - and of course, it works on any other exercise just as well. |
Hail to the Dinosaurs!
I'm working on about 70 bajillion new projects right
now - and I'm moving at triple warp speed to try
to keep up with all of them:
Finishing and releasing the Jan 2018 Dino Files.
Starting work on the Feb 2018 Dino Files.
Finishing vol. 2 of the Dinosaur Strength Training
Notebook.
Finishing some exciting new courses (we have
3 scheduled for release in the not too distant
future).
Finishing vol. 3 of my Old School Strength Q
and A.
Writing something up about my diet and nutrition
experiments over the past six months - and about
what I'm eating right now, as the experiment
continues.
Getting some new Dino t-shirts going - with some
fun new designs.
Creating some other great Dino swag for you.
Starting an eBay store to sell old books and
magazines.
Getting my new power rack set up.
Testing some new workouts and seeing how
well they work - and reporting on what I
learn.
Releasing some more books and courses on
Kindle.
And much more.
There's a lot to do.
So I'm going to be moving super fast for the next
couple of weeks - or perhaps for the next couple
of months - or maybe the rest of the year.
And that's funny, because right now I want to talk
to you about SLOW COOKING.
That's the name I have for a very effective old-
school progression method.
Here's how it works . . .
Back in the day, someone -- and I do not know
who -- came up with the idea of increasing your
military press by adding very small amounts of
weight to the bar every so often.
By small, I mean as little as 1/8 or 1/4 pound. Or
even one-sixteenth of a pound.
Lifters would go to the neighborhood hardware store
and buy a bunch of small washers -- and add these
to the bar to make those very small weight increases.
The idea was very simple. You added such a small
amount of weight that you never even noticed it --
and you didn't have to cheat or cut your reps short
to handle the heavier weight. You were able to
handle the *slightly* heavier weight in letter
perfect form.
Over time, the small weight increases added up to
another pound on the bar -- and then another two
pounds -- and so on. Eventually, you were hitting
a new PR with 10 pounds more than you handled
before.
And you avoided the dreaded bugaboo of going
stale -- a/k/a hitting a brick wall and not being able
to add another pound to the bar no matter how hard
you try.
The brick wall thing is very common among the
folks who try to force progress by adding too much
weight to the bar. It works for a couple of workouts,
and then they do the crash and burn. Many trainees
repeat the cycle over and over -- good workout,
better workout, great workout, super workout,
best workout ever -- crash and burn -- lose
ground and go back -- and start all over again.
They never end up going anywhere.
As I said, I don't know who came up with the idea,
but whoever thought it up was a true genius.
It was a popular method of training in England before
and after World War II -- and then, as often happens
to good ideas, it fell out of favor and ended up lost
and forgotten.
Stuart McRobert resurrected the idea in Hardgainer
magazine back in the late 1980's and early 1990's.
If you remember Hardgainer from that era, you'll
recall the many references to "little gems" in Stuart's
articles, in my articles, and in Mike Thompson's
articles.
For more information, see my book, Strength, Muscle
and Power:
http://www.brookskubik.com/strength_muscle_power.html
You can buy small plates and give this method a
try -- or you can make them out of short lengths of
chain rolled into a donut to slip over your bar. Use
wire to hold them together. Very simple, but very
effective.
And yes, I know it's more fun to add 10 or 20 pounds
to the bar all the time. But that doesn't work forever.
In fact, it rarely works for more than a workout or
two.
I also know that slow but steady progress beats no
progress every single time.
I'll be training today, and I'm going to go up in
weight -- using an old pair of "little gems" that I
got more than 25 years ago. They've seen a lot of
use over the years, and they've helped me build
plenty of strength, muscle and power.
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.We're down to the last boxes of Strength,
Muscle and Power, and I'm not going to reprint
the little monster for a long time, if ever - so if
you want a copy, grab it now. It's a terrific book
with tons of great training methods and workouts.
Here's the link again:
http://www.brookskubik.com/strength_muscle_power.html
P.S. 2. My other books and courses -
and links to all of my e-books on Kindle
- are right here at Dino Headquarters:
Hard-copy and PDF
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
Kindle
http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day:
"Over time, those small increases add up
to plenty of big plates on the bar."
-- 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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