One Thing at a Time Strength Training

Like all great champions, Reg Park always trained with intense mental concentration and total, complete and unwavering focus.

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Two quick notes and then we'll talk iron -
as in, one thing at a time strength training.

1. The July-August Dinosaur Files

It's a great issue - and you can grab it
right here:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaurfiles-julyaugust2018.html

The 30 and 35 minute workouts for
those of you who are pressed for time
are well worth reading - and so is the
article about the old-school, "break all
the rules" training program that helped
one young lifter gain 35 pounds of
muscle - drug-free and supplement-
free.

By the way - if you missed the May-June
issue, you missed another good one -
but you can still grab it - right here:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaurfiles-mayjune2018.html

This one includes, among other things, Bob
Hoffman's favorite workout - which I think
you'll find very interesting. But be warned:

it's tougher than it looks!

2. Heavy Partials

My new course on heavy Partials is getting
great reviews from Dinos around the world.

Many have reported new PR's after being on
the program for a short period of time -
including one Dino who set a new PR in the
bench press in just two weeks!

Go here to grab the little monster:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaurstrengthandpower-02.html

3. The One Thing at a Time Workout

One of the keys to success in your training
is to focus on one thing at a time.

By that, I don't mean to do one-exercise
workouts, although those can be very
effective.

I'm talking about your mindset when you
train.

Serious strength training is a very unusual
and unique activity. It requires a special
mindset -- a mindset that is much different
than the mindset most people employ
throughout the day.

Most people go though the day in an endless
series of frantic multi-tasking, plate-spinning
and juggling.

They're doing one thing on one side of the
computer screen, another thing on the other
side, and third thing on their nearby laptop --
and they're answering email while they do it
all -- and they're on their I-phone -- and
they're having three different conversations
with three different people -- and they're
doing this all day long.

They never focus on one thing. They just
juggle and jiggle and jump from one thing
to another.

That's life in the modern world, but it's not
what you do when you train.

Training requires a much different approach.

When you train, you need to focus on one
thing at a time.

You begin by focusing on each rep.

You take your reps one by one.

You don't worry about the next rep -- or the
next set -- or the next exercise.

You turn your focus inward, and dive deep
into the rep.

You live the rep.

You become the rep.

And then you do the next rep.

When you finish your set, you take a rest and
focus on the next set -- and when you do the
next set, you do it rep by rep.

And that's how you do your entire workout:
rep by rep, and set by set, with total and
complete concentration.

In short, when you train, you focus on the
here and now.

And this is a very good thing for you -
not just for your training, but for YOU.

It's actually what our brains were wired to
do.

Not multi-tasking -- but rather, pinpoint
concentration.

It's good for them -- and it's important to use
them this way -- and that's actually one of the
most important benefits of serious strength
training. It helps wire your brain the way
it's supposed to be wired.

I trained last night, and for 63 minutes I was
deep in the zone. Total concentration. Maximum
focus. Pushing, pulling and squatting in the here
and now.

And it felt pretty darn good.

Give it a try and see for yourself.

As always, thanks for reading and have a
great day. If you train today, take it rep by
rep and set by set -- and make it a good
one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. 1. I teach you how to concentrate and
how to focus on your workouts in Dinosaur
Training and Dinosaur Bodyweight
Training:

Dinosaur Training: Lost Secrets of Strength

and Development

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

Dinosaur Bodyweight Training

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

P.S. 2. My other books and courses are
right here at Dino Headquarters - and the
list includes these great books and courses:

Brooks Kubik's Hard-Copy and PDF Books and Courses

Brooks Kubik's Hard-Copy and PDF books and courses

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

Brooks Kubik's Kindle Books

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

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

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: 

"When you ride on the back of a tiger,
focus on the tiger." 

-- Brooks Kubik

Sets and Reps - What Works Best?

John Grimek used many different set/rep combinations over the course of his long and successful career - as did every great champion - because there's no one set/rep system that's best for everyone and every exercise - and because what works best for anyone will change over time!

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Training questions are like bananas - they
come in bunches.

For some reason, I've been getting lots of
questions about "the best" sets and reps
for building strength and muscle. So let's
take a closer look at the question.

I'll start by giving you the bottom line - and
pay close attention, because this is important.

It will save you lots of headaches and heart-
aches.

There is no BEST system of sets and reps
that works for everyone at every stage of
his or her training career.

There are various systems that are very
good and work well for most people - but
no one system is THE BEST for everyone.

For example, some people do very well on
20 rep squats.

Or 2 x 15.

Or 20/15/12/10/8/6.

Others do better on 5 x 5, 5 x 6 or 6 x 6.

And some like 10/8/6.

Or 10/8/6/4/2.

Or 2 x 10, 2 x 8, 2 x 6 - and possibly 2 x 4
and 2 x 2.

Or 5 x 3, 5 x 2 or a system of heavy singles.

And heavy singles might mean one top single
in each workout - or three - or five - or ten.

Or maybe even 20.

And then you have John Wood, making great
gains in bone mass and bone density with his
Bone Strength Project - which doesn't even
utilize sets and reps in the traditional sense.

And, of course, you have many Dinos who do
best with one set/rep system for ONE exercise -
and a DIFFERENT set/rep system for another
exercise - and so on. That's very common.

I made the best gains of my life doing heavy
singles in some exercises - and doing 5 x 5
in other exercises. So it's hard to say that
one was better than the other.

The key to making great gains is to learn
what sets and reps work best for YOU at
your current level of development - and
you need to make this determination in
every exercise you do.

In other words, it's going to require some
systematic, sensible experimentation - and
good record keeping - to answer the question.

Of course, that's part of the fun of strength
training.

There's always a lot to learn - and the way
to learn it is to think, train, review your
results, and then think a bit more - and
train some more.

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. Chalk and Sweat is a great training
resource for Dinos - and it covers a wide
variety of effective training methods, sets,
reps and workouts. Go here to grab a copy:

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

P.S. 2. My other books and courses are
right here at Dino Headquarters - and the
list includes these great books and courses:

Brooks Kubik's Hard-Copy and PDF Books and Courses

Brooks Kubik's Hard-Copy and PDF books and courses

 

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

Brooks Kubik's Kindle Books

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

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

Are You Strong - Or Super Strong?

World and Olympic champion John Davis hits a heavy split-style snatch. How do YOU compare to old-school champions like Davis, Grimek and Stanko?

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

How strong are you?

Are you STRONG - or SUPER STRONG?

How do you rank compared to the great
champions of the Golden Age of Muscle
and Might?

If you stepped into a Time Machine that
carried you back to Sig Klein's New York
City gym in the 1930s -- or to the world
famous York Barbell Club in the 1940s --
how would your best lifts compare to
everyone else in the gym?

What are realistic goals for a drug-free
trainee?

What should you be squatting -- pressing --
or deadlifting?

What should you be handling in other
important exercises?

How can you compare your best lifts to
trainees of other bodyweights?

How does your age affect your poundage
goals?

What lifts are good at age 40 -- or 50 --
or 60 -- or beyond?

Are you getting older -- or getting better?

I have a terrific training course that
answers all of these questions -- and
more!

It's called Dinosaur Training Secrets,
Vol. 2 - How Strong Are You?

And it's available in your choice of
hard copy, kindle, or PDF.

You can find it right here:

 
Hard Copy

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

Kindle

Follow this link for all of my Kindle
books - it's right there with the rest
of them:

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

PDF

Follow this link for all of my PDF books
and courses - you'll see it near the bottom
of the list:

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

You'll never have a chance to train with John
Grimek, Steve Stanko, John Davis or Doug
Hepburn. But this course is the next best
thing. It lets you compare your lifting to the
legendary Ironmen of the past -- exactly the
same as if these mighty men were your
actual training partners.

So step up, take action, and grab the course
right now -- and answer the question:

How strong are you - are you STRONG - or
SUPER STRONG?

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. 1. 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. 2. Thought for the Day:

"Set high goals for yourself - and work
tirelessly to achieve them."

- 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

Stuff That Works

John Grimek performing one of his tried and true, favorite exercises - a good example of stuff that works.

 
Hail to the Dinosaurs!

We're back in the saddle again after a
long Memorial Day Weekend here in the
States.

So let's going with two quick updates -
and then talk about stuff that works.

The July-August Dinosaur Files
The July-August issue of The Dinosaur
Files has landed - and readers are
loving it. Go here to grab your copy:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaurfiles-julyaugust2018.html

It includes some great articles - but
my favorite is the one I wrote about
two lifters who took their barbell set
to a south Pacific island - way back in
the 1930's - and built a hut, planted
a garden, and lived on the island -
and trained hard and heavy - and
made some really incredible gains.

It's a true story, and it tells us quite
a lot about what really works when it
comes to building strength and muscle.

George F. Jowett's Progressive
Barbell Training Course

This little gem dates back to the 1920's
or 30's - but I've issued it again in a
modern reprint edition. We have a very
limited number of copies, so if you want
one, act fast.

We don't have a special sales page, so
we'll have to do a simple work-around.
To order the Jowett course:

Order a copy of my Dinosaur Training
book - but include a note (or send me
an email) saying that you actually want
the Jowett course.

Be sure to include the note or send
the email so we know what you
actually want!!!

Progressive Barbell Training is a
great old-school course - with plenty
of line drawings that show you how
to  how to perform all of the barbell
and dumbbell exercises in it.

Good stuff - stuff that works - and a
very nice link to the past.

Stuff that Works

Speaking of stuff that works . . . .

Here's a thought I had the other day:

If John Grimek were alive today, and he
was doing the very same workouts he did
back in 1939 and 1940 - right before he
won his first Mr. America title - when he
trained with Steve Stanko - and someone
filmed the workouts and posted them on
social media - no one would watch them.

Or perhaps they'd watch one or two and
then stop.

That's because Grimek and Stanko did
very basic workouts - using a very small
number of exercises - and doing pretty
much the same thing every time they
trained.

I mean, ask yourself this:

How many times can you watch someone
do squats, presses, cleans and snatches?

Even if it were Grimek and Stanko?

Even if they finished up with some dumb-
bell presses, it wouldn't be media-worthy
in the modern world - because it wouldn't
be new and different all the time - or novel
and exciting - or eye-catching and
attention-grabbing.

But it would be effective - and it WAS
effective.

It was stuff that worked.

Not stuff that gets likes and looks on
social media.

Of course, social media has it's place. I'm
on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and
YouTube - and I also run the Dinosaur
Training - Brooks Kubik Facebook Group -
and I'm an admin at John Wood's Strength
Secrets Facebook Group.

But I still have reservations about the
role of social media in strength training.

That's because the stuff that works just
isn't very exciting.

It's pretty much the same thing, week in
and week out, over and over - performed
with concentration, focus, and serious
intentions.

I don't know how you capture that for
Instagram.

Is there a filter to highlight the level of
concentration you bring to a workout?

Or a way to capture the consistency it
takes to build serious strength and
power?

The ability to stick to your program long
enough to make it work?.

And how do we show the other parts of
what it takes to get truly excellent results?

The healthy meals.

Avoiding junk food.

Getting enough rest and sleep.

Staying home and letting your body get
the rest it needs instead of going out and
partying until the wee hours of the
morning.

Maintaining a tranquil mind.

Cultivating a positive, optimistic, success-
oriented mindset.

Keeping a training journal.

Sticking to your program instead of always
trying something new and different.

As I said earlier - it's hard to capture
that in a video clip.

Anyhow, that's my thought on social media.
You may or may not agree - and you may
even disagree violently - and that's fine.

But it's food for thought - so I thought I
should share it with you.

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. For more about result-producing and effective
workouts, grab a copy of the book that started the
Dinosaur Revolution:

Dinosaur Training: Lost Secrets of Strength
and Development

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

P.S. 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:

"There's a big difference between getting
likes and looks and building serious
strength and power." 

- 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