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| Bernie Baron shows terrific strength and muscular development in this photo from the early 1940's. But by the time I got into training - more than 30 years later - we had pretty much forgotten how men like Baron trained. |
Hail to the Dinosaurs!
Two quick notes, and then we'll talk
training.
1. The February Dinosaur Files
The February issue of The Dinosaur
Files strength training newsletter is
out and available - and it's a great
issue. Go here to grab it:
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur-files-february2018pdf.html
If you prefer a one-year, 12-issue
subscription, we can make that
happen - send me an email if you
are interested in this option.
2. The John Wood Report
Have you seen The John Wood Report?
It's pretty good - with some terrific
training tips - in a convenient, 12-page
PDF format.
Go here to grab it:
https://www.oldtimestrongman.com/johnwoodreport-01.html
This has been a big hit, and I'm sure
John is going to be doing more of these
bite-size reports. It will be fun to read
them during the coming year.
3. "I'm Not Doing This Any More!"
When I was a freshman in high school I
was on the freshman football team.
I knew that weight training was important,
but there was no time to do it after we
finished football practice.
And the coaches didn't run any sort of in-
season weight training program.
Still, I knew that it was important - and
I really wanted to do it.
So I talked Frank, my best friend, into going
to school early in the morning to get in our
weight training workouts.
He was on the football team, too, and he
also knew that weight training was important.
At the time, I was following Arthur Jones'
training ideas, so I talked Frank into doing
the Arthur Jones' leg training workout.
It used what Jones called "pre-exhaustion."
We started with a set of leg presses on the
Universal Gym leg press machine.
The idea was to do about 20 leg presses,
and keep going until you couldn't budge the
foot pads no matter how hard you pushed.
I went first.
I ground out one rep after another.
They started fast - and then they started to
slow down - and then they became slow and
grinding and painful.
By the end of the set, my thighs were quivering
like jello.
I pushed and pushed, but I couldn't do
another rep.
In fact. I couldn't budge the weight at all.
I was panting and gasping for air - my face
was bright red - and my thighs felt like they
were being stabbed with hot pokers.
But that was just the first exercise.
I stumbled to the leg extension unit, sat
down, and started to grind out the reps.
Once again, I kept on going until I couldn't
move the foot pads an inch no matter how
hard I tried.
The pain was incredible.
And I had to fight back the nausea.
Bu this was just the beginning. It was the
"pre-exhaustion" part of the program.
Now it was time for squats.
I rolled off the bench to walk to the squat
rack - and my legs almost went out on me.
I caught myself on the dipping bars, pulled
myself up, and stumbled to the squat rack.
I racked the bar and stepped back - started
to squat - and went down like a rock.
Good thing I was inside a power rack with
safety bars!
Frank helped me up, and we took some weight
off the bar and put it back into place.
I ground out five or six ragged reps - and then
we took some weight off the bar and I did some
more - and then we took more weight off the
bar and I did four or five slow, ugly, painful
reps to finish the set.
And then I spent a lot of time lying on the floor
and trying to recover.
After awhile, it was Frank's turn.
And it was just as tough for him as it was for
me.
After we were able to walk, we did some upper
body exercises - again, using the pre-exhaustion
principle, and taking every set to momentary
muscular failure.
When we finished, we were totally wiped out.
And yes, we both ended up losing our break-
fast.
That probably should have been a warning,
but if it was, we missed it.
We showered, changed, and went to our first
class.
As the day wore on, we started to get stiff and
sore - and we were barely able to stay awake.
And football practice was - well, let's just say
it was not one of our better practices.
The next morning, it was almost impossible to
get out of bed.
Amazingly, we kept it up for a week or two -
and got weaker, and stiffer and more sore every
day.
Finally, Frank said something that made perfect
sense.
In fact, it was the only sensible thing either of
us had said or done for the past two weeks.
"I'm not doing this any more!" he said.
And he quit.
I tried to keep going - did a few more of those
brutal workouts on my own - and then I quit,
too.
Tomorrow, I'll tell you what we SHOULD have
done. Be looking for it.
In the meantime, and 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. Be sure to grab the February issue of
The Dinosaur Files:
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur-files-february2018pdf.html
P.S. 2. My other books and courses are
right here at Dino Headquarters - including
links to my PDF courses and my Kindle
books:
Hard-copy and PDF
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
Kindle
http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html
P.S. 4. Thought for the Day:
"It takes just one minute to write up a
workout that will take one week or more
to recover from - or a workout that is
impossible to recover from."
- 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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