Breaking News - Here's A Great Chance to Grab Some Old School Iron!

John Grimek admiring some very old and famous iron in the Weightlifting Museum in York, Pa.The equipment in the photo isn't available - but there are some other terrific pieces of old iron that could be yours - but only if you act fast! Read the post (below) for details.

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

One of our longtime Dinos passed away this
year - which hits me hard, because he bought
Dinosaur Training way back in 1996, and has
been one of the Dinosaur Elite ever since.

He had a terrific home gym with tons (literally)
of old iron.

Plenty of old York plates.

Billiard plates.

Weider plates.

Other assorted plates.

Note: I'm talking old iron plates sized to fit a
1 1/16 inch bar - NOT rubber bumper plates.

They range in size from 1 1/4 pounders to
100 pounders.

Barbells.

Dumbbells.

A pair of York iron boots.

Grippers.

Homemade bars and other homemade training
tools.

An old York curling stand.

Ankle weights.

Wrist rollers.

Old pipe, chain, and other items to use to make
your own personalized equipment if you're handy
with tools or have a friendly neighborhood welder
or machinist to help you.

And much more.

In other words, all kinds of great stuff.

Now, here's where it gets interesting - especially
for those of you anywhere close to Prince George's
County, Maryland.

You see, our Dino had a nephew named Greg.

He gave him a copy of Dinosaur Training many
years ago, and Greg's been training Dino-style
for a long time himself.

After his Uncle passed away, Greg grabbed all the
old equipment he could use - but he can't use all
of it - and he wants it to go to people who will use
and appreciate it.

So he asked me if I would spread the word to the
Dino Nation.

He's selling all of it - literally tons of wonderful
old iron - and all of the proceeds will go into the
estate.

All reasonable offers from people who will actually
use the equipment will be considered - but, of course,
it's on a first come, first served basis - and all offers
have to be reasonable offers.

Here's a Google Spreadsheet with the inventory:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HLS8OUfpUyl03R4iFiyMY75zEaZQOeBWWC5nclgToa4

Here are some pictures:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WMSjRYWJ6Cgk6SFe7

And here's how to reach Greg by email if you want to
buy some of the equipment:

weightsfordinos@gmail.com

If you want something, you need to contact Greg
by email asap - and arrange a time to meet him
and pick up the equipment - which is currently in
Prince George's Co., Maryland.

You'll need to be able to carry it out of the
basement, up the stairs, and into your vehicle.

Again, just to be clear:

1. This equipment is for sale - on a first come first
served basis - and Greg will consider all reasonable
offers for any available equipment.

2. Contact Greg to make an offer for anything
you see that interests you.

3. Don't contact me - I'm just putting out the
word.

I want to thank Greg for doing this - and for
giving some of you the opportunity to grab
some great old iron - and I know that Greg's
Uncle is looking down right now from that Big
Gym in the Sky - and that he, Grimek, Stanko,
Bob Hoffman and the rest of the York Gang
are pretty darn happy to see the old iron going
to good homes.

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

As always, thanks for reading - and have a great day!

What Can We Learn From Old Time Barbells?

 

A high-quality Olympic barbell is a gem of a tool. But what was it like to train with old time barbells and dumbbells?

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Two quick notes and then we'll talk iron -
as in, what we can learn from old time
barbells.

Notice that I didn't say "old time strong-
men."

I said "old time barbells."

Yes, they can tell us things - sometimes,
very important things.


1. Going Fast!

We're near the end of the run for Strength,
Muscle and Power - and I'm not going to
print any more for awhile - maybe not
ever - so now's the time to grab a copy:

http://www.brookskubik.com/strength_muscle_power.html

It's a great book, but we're planning to
move out West - as in, to the Pacific
Northwest, and I can't print another
couple of thousand copies and bring
them with us. So, I repeat - if you
want a copy, grab it now!

2. The January Dinosaur Files

Go here to grab the January issue of
The Dinosaur Files. You also can grab
the Oct, Nov and Dec issues:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_files.html

In the meantime, I'm pounding the key-
board to finish the Feb issue. So if you
have any comments or feedback - or an
update on your training - send it on it!

3. What We Can Learn from Old Time
Barbells

Back in the old days - as in, 120 to 150
years ago, there were no mass-market
barbells.

Back then, if you wanted a barbell, you
had to have it made at a local iron foundry.

And the barbells they made were very
basic.

Instead of plates, they had globes at the
end.

Hence the term "globe barbells."

Sometimes the barbell and the globes were
one solid piece of iron.

Other times, the globes could be screwed
onto the bars. That gave you the ability to
adjust the weight on the bar by changing
from one globe to another.

Of course, you never had too many globes,
so you could only make a couple of weight
adjustments - with big jumps from one
weight to another.

The globes came in  different sizes. Most of
them were round spheres - but some were
egg-shaped.

Some were made of iron. Others were made
of other metals.

And some globes were empty - so you could
add weight by filling them with sand or lead
shot.

But that was a time-consuming and cumber-
some process.

So the bottom line was this - your barbells
were pretty much fixed weight barbells.

If you had a couple of them, you might have,
for instance, a 60 pound barbell, a 100 pound
barbell, and a 150 pound barbell.

Or you might have a 100, 150 and 200 pound
barbell.

Or a 42 pound barbell, a 96 1/4 pound barbell,
and a 116 1/2 pound barbell.

Remember, these were essentially one of a
kind items - so there's no reason to believe
they weighed an exact amount.

And here's something else to consider.

There were no uniform specifications for the
size, thickness and length of a barbell.

So you might have barbells that were of
different lengths - and different thicknesses.

Your 80 pound barbell might be one inch
thick and four feet long.

But your 117 pound barbell might be 1 1/2
inches thick and six feet long.

In other words, every barbell was different
from every other barbell.

And sometimes, they were VERY different.

The same was true of dumbbells.

And your dumbbells might or might not come
in pairs.

Ditto for kettlebells and ring-weights.

And if you DID have pairs, they might not
be an exact match.

In short, all your weights were more or less
unique.

And adding more weight was difficult or even
impossible.

If that were the case, what would you do with
them?

How would you train?

Think about it - and send me a short email if
you have any ideas about it.

I'll share your feedback tomorrow - and
also share what I think the answer is.

In fact, I'll share what the answer MUST have
been - and explain why it was a GOOD thing
to train with such challenging equipment.

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. Remember to grab a copy of Strength
Muscle and Power while the little monster
is still here:

http://www.brookskubik.com/strength_muscle_power.html

And remember to grab the Jan issue of
The Dinosaur Files:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_files.html

P.S. 2. My other books and courses --
including 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/oldschool_01-kindle.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day

"Study old time barbells and dumbbells
closely and carefully. They can teach you
a lot."

- 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:

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

An Old School Dumbbell Training Secret (Part 2)

John Grimek started out by training at home with his older brother's Milo barbell set - and made his own plate-loading dumbbells to go with it.

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Following up on yesterday's email
about Sig Klein's beautiful, hand-
crafted dumbbells that I saw and
lifted at the special strength clinic
for Iron League members in good
old Cincinnati . . .

As I mentioned, the dumbbells are
true works of art - but they don't
quite feel and balance the same.

So you have to concentrate and
focus when you use them - and
work a little harder to balance
them - and this activates your
muscles and nervous system,
and causes you to build more
strength and muscle than with
two identical dumbbells.

You'll probably never have a
chance to train with a pair of
old-school dumbbells like
these.

But that's okay.

There's an easy way to mimic
the training effect of the old
dumbbells.

Actually, several ways - all of
which let you use two dumbbells
of the same weight - but balanced
a little bit differently from each
other:

1. Make your own plate-loading
dumbbells and load them to the
same weight but use different
combinations of plates.

or

2. Use different brands of plates -
so that they are of different
sizes and different thicknesses.

or

3. Reverse the order of the
small plates (10, 5, 2 1/2 on
one dumbbell and 10, 2/12,
5 on the other.

or

4. Throw in a small washer before
the last small plate you put on the
bar for one of the dumbbells. This
will move the small plate further
out, which changes the feel and
the balance.

or

5. Position the inside collars a
little further out on one of the
dumbbells. Just a 1/4 to 1/2
inch further is all you need.

Remember, the idea is to use the
same weight - but with a very slight
difference in the way the dumbbells
balance.

It's a very subtle thing - but one that
can make your dumbbell work much
effective.

Oh, and of course - switch the bells
from hand to hand on each set. That
way, you force both arms and both
sides of your body to work against
the different dumbbells.

Give this a try - and let me know how
it works for you.

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. For more old-school training tips,
check out these great books:

Dinosaur Dumbbell Training

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_dumbbelltraining.html

Dinosaur Training: Lost Secrets
of Strength and Development

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_training.html

Strength, Muscle and Power

http://www.brookskubik.com/strength_muscle_power.html

2.  My other books and courses 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:

"Think, focus and pay attention.
Be mindful. Live in the moment." 

-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:

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

A Treasure Hunt for Old Iron!

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

I bought my very first issue of Peary Rader's
IronMan magazine in early 1969. I still have
it.

The first 9 pages were ads for Body Culture
Equipment, which Peary Rader made and
sold. Squat stands, barbells, dumbbells,
plates, benches, chinning bars, lat machines,
leg press machines, grip blasters, the Magic
Circle for squats and Hise shrugs -- it was
like the Sears Roebuck Christmas catalog
for lifters.

On page 9, there's an ad for Iron Man barbell
plates. You could buy a 50 pound plate for 8
and a half bucks, plus freight charges.

The plates were advertised as Olympic type
plates. You could choose the size of the
center hole. It was your choice of 1 1/8 or
two inch holes. The former were for what
we called "exercise barbells" -- the latter
were for Olympic barbells.

If I had been smart, I would have bought
a bunch of those plates. But I was young,
and I didn't have any cash, so I didn't. But
I always looked at that ad (it was in every
issue of the magazine), and I always
thought they would be pretty good
plates.

Fast forward to 2015.

The phone rings.

It's my buddy, John Wood.

He just bought six 50-pound IronMan barbell
plates on eBay -- and the guy who sold them
lives in southern Indiana, just across the Ohio
River from Louisville.

Can I run over and pick them up and keep
them until John gets a chance to travel to
Louisville to pick up his plates?

Of course I can!

It's a treasure hunt -- a treasure hunt for
old iron.

One quick trip later, I have 300 pounds of
old IronMan plates out in the garage. That's
pretty cool. The plates are a direct link to the
past -- and to Peary Rader, the man they used
to call "Mr. Integrity." Heck, maybe Peary Rader
actually touched these plates. They may have
IronMan DNA.

The back story on the plates is this: they were
owned by an eye doctor who worked in a small
town in southern Indiana. He trained with them
well into his 70s (and perhaps longer). He
passed away in his 90s.

His home gym included dumbbells up to 75
pounds. They were made the old-fashioned
way, with small plates. The outer collars were
welded on. I used to lift plenty of barbells and
dumbbells like that when I was younger. It
was what you saw in most gyms back then.

He also had some Jackson Barbell Company
plates. A man in Missouri bought those, and
travelled all the way out here to pick them
up. The Jackson barbell Company was owned
by Andy Jackson, who lived in New Jersey, so
those plates have travelled quite a distance
over the years -- and they're still travelling.
Maybe they'll make it all the way to the
West Coast someday.

The man who owned the plates also had a
pretty good magazine collection. It sounds
like he was quite a lifter -- and quite a
lifting fan. I bet he had plenty of great
workouts over the years -- and I bet
those old plates had plenty of fun
hanging out with him. Plates enjoy
workouts just as much as lifters
do.

I've been doing all Olympic lifting for a long
time now, and I use an Olympic bar and
bumper plates so I don't destroy my lifting
platform. But those old IronMan plates
are awfully tempting.

They have  plenty of rust on them, but
maybe I need to clean it off and paint
them with brand new paint (using the
original IronMan blue), and give them
a workout or two while I have the
chance.

I think they'd like that. And I think it
would be the right thing to do.

After all, they're old iron. And old iron
deserves to be lifted once in awhile.
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. 2. Here's some terrific courses about old iron
and old school training. They're available in your
choice of hard copy or Kindle e-book:

Dinosaur Training Secrets, Vol. 1.
"Exercises, Workouts and Training
Programs"

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets_01.html

http://brookskubik.com/dinosaursecrets01_kindle.html

Dinosaur Training Secrets, Vol. 2,
"How Strong Are You?"

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets_02.html

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets2_kindle.html

Dinosaur Training Secrets, Vol. 3,
"How to Use Old-School Progression
Methods for Fast and Steady Gains in
Strength, Muscle and Power"

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets_03.html

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets3_kindle.html

NOTE: If you want to order all three courses
in hard copy editions, please shoot me an
email and ask for a shipping quote. We can
probably save you some clams, especially if
you live overseas.

P.S. 2.My other books and courses are right
here at Dino Headquarters:

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Old iron deserves to
be lifted." -- Brooks Kubik

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