Dinosaur Training Mini Course

SPECIAL ADVICE FOR OLDER TRAINEES

DINOSAUR TRAINING MINI-COURSE NO. 1

BY BROOKS D. KUBIK 1

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DEDICATION To all who are seeking— or who have found— strength and health through sensible exercise, diet and nutrition. COPYRIGHT Copyright © 2015 by Brooks D. Kubik and Brooks Kubik Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. This book may not be copied, transmitted or reproduced in whole or in part without the express written consent of Brooks D. Kubik and Brooks Kubik Enterprises, Inc. DISCLAIMER This course is for educational purposes. The author is not a physician, and this book is not and should not be construed as medical advice or as a substitute for medical advice. Always consult your personal physician before implementing major dietary changes, or before beginning any type of exercise program, and always follow your physician’s advice. In no way should this book be used to replace the advice from your personal physician. The above comments apply to all persons. If you are over the age of 35, significantly overweight or have any medical condition or history of disease or illness, it is especially important for you to consult with your personal physician concerning any issues related to diet, nutrition, or exercise. Neither the author, publisher nor copyright holder will assume any responsibility for any accident, injury, illness, loss, damage or other adverse effect that may arise, directly or in directly, as a result of the information contained in this course. Brooks Kubik Enterprises, Inc. P.O. Box 4426 Louisville, Kentucky, 40204 USA

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Course No. 1

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HARD WORK - HEAVY IRON - SUPER STRENGTH www.brookskubik.com P.O. Box 4426 Louisville, Ky. 40204

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his is the first entry in a series of all-new Dinosaur Training courses. Each course will allow us to cover the subject matter in much greater than normal detail and we’re going to begin with a topic that directly affects a very high percentage of my readers: how to have fun, effective, and result-producing workouts when you are an older Dinosaur. By “older,” I mean a Dinosaur over the age of 35 or 40. That may not sound “old,” but age 35 is the first year that you would be eligible to compete in Master’s level competition in weightlifting. The International Weightlifting Federation chose age 35 because your body is much different at age 35 than age 25—and because it’s much more difficult (and for many of us, downright impossible) to train as hard and as long at age 35 as we were able to do when we were younger. Other major sports organizations have followed similar guidelines for Master’s level sport. That should tell us something about the special requirements of older trainees. Even the best athletes in the world grow older—and as they do, they need to make adjustments in how they train. Here’s something else that’s very important: In Master’s weightlifting (or in any other sport that includes Masters’ competitions), the athletes are divided into age categories separated by just five years. You

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begin with the age 35 to 39 group, and then you have the age 40 to 44 group, followed by the age 45 to 49 group, the age 50 to 54 group, the age 55 to 59 group, the age 60 to 64 group, the age 65 to 69 group, the age 70 to 74 group, and so on. This reflects a very important factor for older trainees: five years can make a very big difference in how your body responds to exercise. That means that what worked for you at age 40 may probably won’t work very well for you at age 60—or even at age 50. In fact, what works for you at age 55 (for example), may not work for you at age 60. All of this can be extremely frustrating for an older trainee. And with the rise of social media and the Internet, it may be more frustrating today than ever before. There is an endless amount of training information on the Internet, and we are exposed to endless videos of younger trainees doing incredible feats of weightlifting, Powerlifting, strongman training, gymnastics, bodyweight training or martial arts—and we see one remarkable physique after another—and we are bombarded with training advice. The problem is, there is virtually no advice for trainees in their 40’s, 50’s, 60’s or older. If there is, it’s usually not very good. Much of it is from younger trainees who don’t have personal experience with the challenges that we face as we grow older, and it often amounts to nothing more than useless advice to “toughen up.” That’s not very specific, and it’s not very helpful. It’s also usually more than a little condescending. Some of us were tossing heavy barbells around, cracking heads on the football field, twisting each other into pretzels on the wrestling mat, slamming one another in the dojo, whaling away on each other in the boxing ring, or wiggling through the mud on infantry patrol when some of the young guys who tell us to ‘toughen up” were wearing diapers—or before they were born. Course No. 1

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Three days ago, I received the following e-mail from a 58-year old trainee. The email read as follows: “Brooks, what in your opinion is the main reason coaches and trainers think that what works for a 30 year old will work for a 59 year old? I seem to run into a lot of resistance over this. As always thank you and keep up the good work!” So, as you can see, I’m not the only one who’s noticed this phenomenon. It’s fairly common. And, as I noted, it’s very frustrating for older trainees—and it can also be dangerous. I say this because if you stubbornly try to pretend that you’re as young as ever, and that you can just roll up your sleeves, grit your teeth, and do what you did 40 years ago, then you’re inviting some serious over-training. You’re also running the risk of injury—and remember, it’s much harder to recover from an injury when you’re older. The last thing you want is an unnecessary injury that derails your training for a long time. And unfortunately, that can happen. So let me do what I can to even the score. Here’s some special advice for older trainees – and it’s coming to you from one of your own. I’m 58 now, and that qualifies me as an older trainee. I’ve been training for almost 50 years, and 23 of those years have been in the over-35 category. I understand from my personal experience how your body changes as you grow older. I know what works for an older trainee, and I know what doesn’t work. I also know from my own experience that you need to make adjustments in your training program as you grow older. And while I’m going to encourage you to train hard and heavy, and not to baby yourself, I’m also going to encourage you to train smart. You’re in it for the long haul. I want to see you training today, ten years from today, twenty years from today, and many years beyond.

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THE SPECIAL NEEDS OF OLDER TRAINEES So let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Pay close attention, because I’m going to share a BIG secret with you—older trainees need to train differently than younger trainees. They need to train in a way that’s challenging, demanding, progressive, enjoyable AND (most importantly) appropriate to their age. Older trainees need to train hard enough and heavy enough to make their workouts challenging—but they need to keep their exercise poundages, their training intensity and their overall training volume low enough to be able to recover from their workouts. In other words, older trainees need to train hard, but they need to follow training programs that let them recover from their workouts. That’s not rocket science, but it does require some planning, programming and careful attention to details. In training, as in everything else, the devil is in the details—and the little things you do (or don’t do) can have a huge impact on your ultimate degree of success. Let me give you some concrete examples of what works for older trainees, and how an older trainee might modify his workouts as he grows older. You’ll train three times per week: M/W/F or T/Th/Sat. You’ll focus on strength training, because strength training provides such enormous health benefits for older trainees. Endurance training, a/k/a aerobics or cardio training, has always been touted for its beneficial effects on health and longevity, but a recent study showed that men who maintain high levels of muscular strength as they age are 30 to 40 percent less likely to die of cancer than other men of the same age —which is a compelling example of the remarkable health benefits of lifelong strength training (and something the skinny guys in the lab coats probably never expected to see). Course No. 1

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John Grimek started training as a teenager and it became a life-long passion.

As an older trainee, your goal is to build and maintain strength, power and muscle mass, while keeping your gut under control and maintaining a minimal degree of body-fat. You want to stay lean and muscular without starving yourself to obtain the kind of “ripped to the bone” muscularity a bodybuilder would show when he’s in contest condition. And whatever you do, please don’t obsess over the photo-shopped ads for the bodybuilders or fitness models promoting silly super-supplements, on-line steroids or HRT. That’s Fantasy Land stuff. You live and train in the Real World. Your goal is to look like it—and that means you want to be strong, well developed, well proportioned and well conditioned, but not look like a freak. George Hackenschmidt, Lou Thesz, Bruno Sammartino, John Grimek, Steve Stanko, Louis Abele, Norb Schemansky, William Boone, Bob Peoples, and John Davis were all men who looked strong and were just as powerful as they looked —and any of them would have flattened one of the modern guys with the abs and a tan look. 7

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CARDIO TRAINING FOR OLDER DINOS Your primary focus will be on strength training, but a moderate amount of sensible cardio training is always a good idea, and it’s an even better idea for an older trainee. But you need to be smart about it. Other than walking (which we’ll discuss later), it’s better to do your cardio training after your strength training, because you may have difficulty recovering from your workouts if you try to do cardio on your “off ” days. And your cardio training does not have to be too long or too hard—leave the hill sprints and the “drive yourself to exhaustion” cardio stuff to the younger guys. You should always be able to talk without gasping for air when you’re doing cardio training as an older Dinosaur. I like two different kinds of cardio work. The first is the simplest, and perhaps the best. Just make it a habit to walk a couple of miles every day. And I’m not talking about power walking or race walking. Just walk two or three miles at a comfortable pace.

Sig Klein is another fantastic example of an individual who trained for life-long strength and health.

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Try to walk outdoors if you can. It’s better and healthier to get outside in the fresh air. Walking is a terrific exercise, and many of the founding fathers of physical culture did plenty of walking. Bernarr MacFadden even wrote an entire book about the benefits of walking as a form of exercise. Try it and see for yourself just how effective it can be.

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The other kind of cardio that I like is a simple lugging and loading drill that I borrowed from Dr. Ken Leistner. I call it “Cardio Training for Iron Heads.” You make a pile of heavy stuff in one corner of the backyard. It can be a couple of big rocks, logs, sandbags, kegs, cinder blocks, dumbbells, kettlebells, and barbell plates. After your workout, go out and move the pile piece by piece from one side of the yard to the other side of the yard—then move it back again. After that, repeat the process one, two, three or more times. I should also mention that you don’t need to run or to move as fast as you can. It’s not a race or a strongman medley. The idea is simply to carry stuff back and forth for a period of between 20 to 40 minutes. In other words, 20 to 40 minutes of walking and carrying stuff (i.e. weight-bearing locomotive movement.) It sounds simple (and it is) but it works great—and because you are walking rather than running or jumping, you’re not giving your feet, ankles, knees, hips and lower back the kind of pounding that they get from most kinds of conventional cardio training. If you follow the training program outlined below and you end each workout with the lugging and loading drill, you’ll develop and maintain high levels of strength and conditioning without running the risk of over-training—and if you add a daily walk of two or three miles to the program, you’ll have something that’s very hard to beat. You’ll also have something that is a heck of a lot more FUN than conventional cardio training—and as an older trainee, your workout should always be fun. At your age, you deserve it.

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GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR YOUR TRAINING Use basic, compound exercises for the majority of your training. Focus on exercises like squats, front squats, bent-legged deadlifts with a straight bar or a Trap Bar, standing (military) presses, push presses, barbell or dumbbell bent-over rowing, pull-ups (or pull-downs), shrugs, barbell or dumbbell bench presses, barbell or dumbbell incline presses, push-ups, close grip bench presses, barbell or dumbbell curls, gut work, grip work and neck training. For those who can perform the movements safely and correctly, the list would include Olympic weightlifting movements: snatches, power snatches, the clean and jerk, power cleans, and push presses. But don’t try these unless you know how to do them correctly. (If you don’t know and you want to learn, get some expert instruction from a qualified weightlifting coach. In the USA, for example, find a coach who has been certified by the USA Weightlifting Association. See the link to local weightlifting clubs in each state at the following link: http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Weightlifting/Clubs-LWC/Find-a-club.

The great Lou Thesz always stayed in fantastic shape—he won his last world title at 62!

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Avoid high repetition movements. They are hard on the body and can lead to micro-trauma and over-use injuries. The same is true for plyometrics and other types of bouncy, ballistic movements. You don’t need to baby yourself when you train, but

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you need to remember that your body is more brittle than it was when you were in your teens or twenties. And one of the most important rules for an older trainees is “Do no harm!” Meaning, don’t hurt yourself. Train hard, but train smart. To the degree possible, use barbells or dumbbells rather than machines. The obvious exception is an older trainee who uses a machine because he suffers from an old injury or from age-related dings and dents. Any training is better than no training, and if there’s a particular movement that you just can’t do, replace it with a different movement. If you can’t do squats, do front squats or dumbbell squats—or use the Trap Bar deadlift as your primary leg and hip movement. If you can’t do those exercises, then do anything you can to train your legs. If that means leg extensions, leg curls and leg presses at age 70, then so be it. The important point is to find a way to train, and to keep on training. When I was a kid, I bought a terrific training course from one of the strongest and most powerful athletes in the entire world. His name was Bruno Sammartino. He was a former Powerlifting and weightlifting champion who set a World record of 565 pounds in the bench press. He later became a professional wrestler, and won the Heavyweight championship of the world—and held the title for most of the 1960’s. In his training course, Bruno recommended the squat for leg development, and that was certainly good advice. Today, at age 80, Bruno Sammartino is still training, and he still looks powerful and strong. But he’s had plenty of injuries over the years, and he trains his legs with leg extensions instead of squats. And that’s perfectly fine. In fact, it’s an example of smart training for an older lifter. That said, do squats, deadlifts and similar barbell movements if you can do them—and do them for as long as you can do them. One of their many benefits is that they strengthen the bones and connective 11

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The Gerard Trap Bar is a must have piece of equipment for older Dinos.

tissue—and as we grow older, strong bones, tendons and ligaments help to keep us standing, walking and moving. The training you do in your 40’s, 50’s and 60’s can mean the difference between independent living at age 70 or 80 and being confined to a bed or a chair in a nursing home. Perform all of your strength training exercises in perfect form. Leave the cheating for the younger guys who don’t know any better. Your goal is to focus the resistance exactly where it’s supposed to be. To do that, you perform perfect, precise reps. When you train, you are a craftsman. Use the same sort of precision that a master carpenter or woodworker would use. Strength training is an art, a skill, and a science, and you need to incorporate equal amounts of all three in every workout. A master craftsman takes pride in his work. Do the same with your training. Course No. 1

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I always encourage older trainees to do multiple sets of low to medium reps, and to begin with light weights on every exercise. Perform each warm-up set with deep concentration, and total and complete focus. Pay close attention to your body and how it feels. If your body is telling you to do extra warm-up sets, or not to go as heavy as you had planned to go, then listen to your body! It probably knows more about what you need on any given day than you do. Warm-up sets need to be perfect and precise to establish neurological and motor patterns for the heavy sets. In training, as in everything else, success breeds success. Avoid slow, grinding reps that are almost impossible to perform. You want your reps to be smooth and precise from start to finish—and that includes your heavy sets. One of the most important benefits of lifelong strength training is to strengthen and preserve your neurological system. Your mind sends commands to your muscles via the neurological system, and your muscles provide feedback in the same way. When you exercise, you not only strengthen your muscles, bones and tendons, you strengthen your neurological system. You enhance this training affect by performing ground-based exercises with barbells and dumbbells—meaning that most of your workout should involve basic, compound exercises where you stand on your feet and lift barbells or dumbbells. The neurological benefit of these exercises is enormous—particularly when it is combined with deep concentration and intense focus to perform your reps precisely and perfectly. As a related benefit, your strength training will help keep your mind young and alert. Recent studies have shown that two or three weekly 13

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workouts that focus on strength training will help us maintain healthy brain function as we age. Your training literally strengthens and builds your brain just as it strengthens and builds your muscles! Keep in mind, the studies that prove this were studies that involved very basic programs performed by older adults with no or very limited training experience. If sets of concentration curls and lateral raises with two pound dumbbells can have a positive effect on the brain of an older trainee, imagine the effect of a program that involves deep concentration and full focus on precise, perfect performance of heavy squats, deadlifts and standing presses! To again cement this point: the greater your concentration and focus, the greater the effect of your training on your neurological system and your brain. Many researchers have reported enormous benefits from the simple practice of daily meditation. Your strength training should be performed in a state of concentration that is closely akin to meditation. Your training should be a form of active meditation, you might even call it “Zen with a barbell in your hands.” When you train this way, with complete integration of the mind and the body, you simultaneously strengthen the mind and the body in a way that is virtually impossible to achieve through any other activity. Someday, science may catch up to us. The medical community may figure out that strength training is one of the very best things you can do to keep your body AND your mind functioning at a high level for your entire life. Instead of warning their patients to avoid strength training, or encouraging them to drop their weight training and stick to aerobics, physicians of the future may start writing “Train with weights 3x weekly” on their prescription pads. I’d love to see that day, and I’m sure you would, as well, but in the meantime, let’s show the rest of the world what strength training can do for an older Dinosaur!

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THE BASIC WORKOUT FOR OLDER TRAINEES Here’s the basic template for your strength training workouts. It should work very well for trainees in the age 35 to 50 range. Later on, I’ll discuss how to modify the program to better fit the needs of trainees in their 50’s, 60’s and beyond. MONDAY 1. 10 to 20 minute general warm-up and loosening up. —Make your warm-up light and easy. It’s a warm-up, not a workout. Pay extra attention to any problem spots or tight areas, such as your shoulders, knees, ankles and lower back. I like to use Indian clubs as part of my warm-up. They’re very good for loosening up the shoulders and upper back. I also like to include very light movements that mimic the exercises I’ll be performing. For example, if I’m going to be doing snatches in a particular workout, my warm-up will include snatch drills and snatches with a broomstick or a length of PVC pipe. —Your warm-up should last 10 to 20 minutes. Older trainees need longer warm-ups than younger trainees. And don’t skip your warm-up or try to shorten it because you “don’t have time”. If you have time to train, you have time to do a proper warm-up. —It’s important to practice concentration, focus and visualization when you perform your warm-ups. The warm-up readies your body for the coming work, but it also readies your mind. To train with maximum effectiveness, you need to leave the everyday world and enter the Inner Universe 15

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of the Iron. That process begins during your warm-ups. 2. Squats 5 x 5 —Do four progressively heavier warm-up sets followed by one set of five reps with a weight that makes you work to get your reps—but not so heavy that it’s impossible or even doubtful. Remember what I said before about perfect, precise reps—and about performing smooth reps rather than slow, grinding reps where every inch is a struggle. —You can do back squats or front squats. If barbell squats are hard on your lower back, try dumbbell squats where you hold a dumbbell in each hand with your arms extended at your sides. You also can try Trap Bar deadlifts in lieu of squats. Some trainees perform these on a two-inch to four-inch platform (or use 25 pound iron plates rather than 45 pound plates) so they can go a bit lower. —I like to wear Olympic lifting shoes when I do squats. Lifting shoes give your feet plenty of support and help you maintain the most effective biomechanical positions for stand-on-your-feet, ground-based training. It’s virtually impossible to perform some exercises (such as full squats or front squats) in correct form without wearing lifting shoes. 3. Calf raises 3 x 10—12 —Use a calf machine or do one-legged calf raises while holding a dumbbell in one hand. Start light and add weight on each set. Don’t do a super-deep stretch at the bottom. Older trainees often have tight ankles, and you don’t

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want to irritate the problem by going into an extremely deep low position on your calf raises. Perform your calf raises with rubber-soled gym shoes or do them barefoot. 3. Grip work of your choice —Do two to five sets of any exercise you enjoy. Change the exercises up from time to time. There are plenty of good grip exercises. 4. Gut work of your choice – 2 or 3 sets of 10 to 20 reps —Training the midsection is important, but high rep gut work often irritates the lower back for many older trainees. Medium reps usually work much better. Remember, you’re doing the gut work to keep your midsection powerful and strong, not to develop six-pack abs. WEDNESDAY 1. Military Press 5 x 5 —Follow the same weight progression and same intensity that you used for the squats on Monday. —If military presses with a barbell are hard on your shoulders, use the two-dumbbell press. You can perform your presses in alternate arm style or simultaneous style. —Some older trainees prefer push presses. I’m one of them. They are easier on my shoulders than anything else. Sets of two or three reps (or singles) may work better for you in the push press.

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2. Pull-ups, pull-downs or one arm dumbbell rowing 5 x 5 —Follow the same approach as on the presses. Avoid an exaggerated stretch in the extended position of any lat exercise; it can irritate an older trainee’s shoulders. —Pull-ups are a better exercise than pull-downs, but if you can’t do pull-ups, then pull-downs will work fine. On either movement, use whatever grip is easiest on your arms and shoulders. For example, a parallel grip might be easier than a pronated grip; and a pronated grip might be easier than supinated grip (or vice-versa). —If you do dumbbell rowing, do it strict. Too many people do cheat reps with far more weight than they can handle in good form. Strict form is better, safer and more effective. 3. Grip work of your choice —Do two to five sets of any grip exercise that you enjoy. You can do the same exercise you used on Monday, or do a different exercise in this workout. 4. Gut work of your choice – 2 or 3 sets of 10 to 20 reps —Again, do medium reps, not high reps. See my earlier comments. You can use the same exercise you used on Monday, or use a different movement in this workout.

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FRIDAY 1. Bent-legged deadlifts with a regular barbell or a Trap Bar 5x5 —Use the same weight progression and same intensity as squats on Monday. The Trap Bar is an excellent training tool for older trainees, and may be much easier on your back, hips and knees than the regular barbell. 2. Barbell or dumbbell curls 3 x 6—8 —Start light and add weight on each set. Note that dumbbell curls may be easier on your wrists and elbows than barbell curls. And an EZ curl bar is likely to be easier on your joints than a straight bar. 3. Close grip barbell presses (shoulder width grip) 3 x 6 – 8. —Start light and add weight on each set. Use a grip that is slightly less than shoulder width. An extremely close grip can hurt the wrists and elbows. 4. Neck extensions with a head-strap – 2 x 10 – 15 reps —Go light, but do these on a regular basis. They’re good for over-all health and vitality. Now, that doesn’t sound like very much training, and it’s not. Nor is it an extremely difficult or demanding workout. But it’s exactly the right amount—and the right intensity—of training for an older trainee.

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MODIFYING THE BASIC PROGRAM Trainees in their 50’s or 60’s (or beyond) may do better if they modify the basic program. That usually means reducing the number of exercises in each workout, reducing the number of sets, or following a cycling system where they alternate weeks of lighter training with weeks of heavier training. Ultimately, you may find that you do better by training around 80% of your maximum for most of your workouts, with occasional “heavy” workouts where you go up to 90%. That may not sound like much, but many top competitors in Masters Weightlifting or Powerlifting have followed this type of approach with very good results. In fact, some older lifters have won National, Pan-American or even World Master’s championships by training well within their limits for much of their training, and limiting the amount of truly heavy training that they do. Some older trainees do extremely well on one-exercise workouts – or on workouts that include one primary movement followed by a couple of sets of gut, grip or neck work. Again, I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it works—and in the final analysis, that’s all that counts. It’s not how many hours you log in the gym, it’s what the time you devote to training actually does for you that matters. Stop being quantity (volume) conscious. Focus on quality. There’s a very important lesson here. You see, older trainees may be enthusiastic as heck—but their enthusiasm all-too-often outruns their ability to recover from hard training. It’s not that they don’t want to hit it hard and heavy. It’s not that they’re lazy. They simply can’t train as long, as hard and as often as younger trainees.

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So their workouts need to be modified. They need to train hard enough to stimulate gains in strength and muscle mass – and hard enough to make things challenging (which is what makes training fun) – but not so hard that they can’t recover from their workouts. It’s a very fine line. But it’s easy to tell if you’ve struck the right balance. Just ask yourself the following questions: 1. Are you sore and stiff for several days after a workout? —If you are, then you’re training too heavy and too hard. 2. Do you have trouble sleeping? —Then you’re training too hard. 3. Do you look forward to your workouts? —That’s a good sign. It means you’re on the right path. 4. Do you add weight to the bar on a regular basis. (Not necessarily every workout, or even every week, but on a regular basis.) —If you do, that means things are going pretty good for you. 5. And most importantly, how does your training make you feel? —If it makes you feel YOUNG, you’re doing it right. If not, you need to make some changes. And most of the time, you need to reduce the amount of work you are doing. Less is better for an older trainee.

You also need to replace any exercise that causes undue pain with a movement that doesn’t hurt. That can be hard to do, especially if the

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movement that causes pain is a long-time favorite. But I guarantee this: it’s much better to find a way to keep on training than to give up in disgust because you can’t perform a particular movement any more. Remember Bruno Sammartino and the leg extensions! Or consider this. When John Grimek was in his prime, he probably had the best-developed arms of any man in the world. His arms were strong, too. When he was warming up at the 1948 Mr. Universe contest (which he won), he did strict barbell curls with 185 or 190 pounds — for five or six reps! You may have known that. It’s a famous story, and I’ve mentioned it several times in my books, courses and daily emails. But did you know that John Grimek injured one of his arms when he was in his 40’s, and it hurt so much that he eventually stopped doing barbell or dumbbell curls? It’s true. He wrote about it in Strength and Health. Did Grimek stop training and go sit in a corner and cry because he couldn’t do curls? Not on your life! He did close grip pulldowns to the chest to train his biceps—and he kept on training. In fact, he trained for pretty much his entire life. He was doing squats and dumbbell presses in his basement gym in his mid and late 70’s. Sammartino and Grimek are hardly unusual. Many Iron Game legends had to drop certain exercises and replace them with different movements as they grew older. But they were champions. They did what they needed to do, i.e. made adjustments and kept on training. That’s what YOU need to do as you grow older. You need to find ways to keep on training. Your training is one of the very best things you can do for yourself. Make it a lifetime gift to yourself. Start NOW and keep at it—and don’t let anything stop you!

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DIET AND NUTRITION FOR OLDER TRAINEES Training is a very important part of lifelong strength and health, but you need to combine smart training with a healthy diet. That means plenty of protein, and lots of fresh veggies. Salads are excellent. Prepare your own meals. Avoid processed or convenience foods. Drop the sweets, and get rid of the junk food. If you’re trying to reduce your weight, or trying to stay lean and muscular, increase your protein and reduce your carbs. See my book Knife, Fork, Muscle for more detail about the kind of diet that will build and maintain lifelong strength and health. Avoid any of the gimmicky modern supplements, especially if you have any medical condition or take any sort of prescription medicine. Many supplements contain ingredients that can cause severe reactions because of interactions with medications you may be taking. I’ve known of several Dinosaurs who have taken the modern super supplements and ended up in the ER. One of them was an older Dino who tried a pre-workout supplement. It turned out to be a pre-hospital supplement. Fish oil is a beneficial food supplement that helps many older trainees recover from workouts by reducing inflammation and soreness, and is one of the few supplements that I would ever recommend. I take fish oil capsules daily, along with a basic multi-vitamin and mineral tablet. Get plenty of fresh air, plenty of sleep, and do everything possible to reduce stress. Your workouts will help enormously in reducing stress. Modern research has confirmed that daily meditation helps to reduce stress, and remember what I said about exercise and meditation. The right kind of strength training is one of the best stress-relievers ever invented. 23

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BROOKS D. KUBIK

THE WRAP-UP Yes, you’re older now, and the rules of successful training are a bit different than when you were in your teens or twenties—or even your thirties. You’re older and grayer now—or perhaps you’re silver-white —or you don’t have much if any hair of any color. No, you may not win the Mr. Olympia at age 50 or 60, or the Olympic gold medal in your favorite sport—but that doesn’t matter. The fact is, you can build and maintain remarkable strength and fitness, and enjoy outstanding good health for your entire life—and that’s more than enough to make you a true strength training success. For that, and for your hard work, dedication and commitment, I salute you. You’re doing a great job. Now keep on doing it! Until next time, thanks for reading, and best of luck in your training! Brooks

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SPECIAL ADVICE FOR OLDER TRAINEES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Brooks Kubik is a five-time national bench press champion who is known to weight training and weightlifting enthusiasts around the world as the author of Dinosaur Training: Lost Secrets of Strength and Development, an international best seller that has been called "the bible of strength training." He also has authored Strength, Muscle and Power, a book that teaches how to develop exactly what it says in the title; Gray Hair and Black Iron, the world's first book about serious training for older lifters; Dinosaur Bodyweight Training, Dinosaur Dumbbell Training, and Chalk and Sweat: Dinosaur Training Workouts for Beginners, Intermediates, and Advanced Lifters. He also has written Knife, Fork, Muscle, a book that covers sensible diet and nutrition for life-long strength and health. In addition to writing books and training courses, Brooks also publishes The Dinosaur Files, a quarterly journal covering strength training, muscle building, weight training, physical culture, diet and nutrition, and Iron Game history. In addition to his "how to do it" books, Brooks has written a series of novels covering the legendary champions of the York Barbell Club, and weightlifting and bodybuilding in the United States in the 1930's and 1940's. To date, the series includes five novels: Legacy of Iron; Legacy of Iron 2: Clouds of War; Legacy of Iron 3: The 1,000 Pound Total; Legacy of Iron 4: York Goes to War!: and Legacy of Iron 5: Barbells in the Pacific. Brooks also has written Black Iron: The John Davis Story, a biography of weightlifting champion John Davis, a two-time Olympic gold medal winner and six-time World champion, who was quite literally the strongest man in the world during his championship years—and who today is almost forgotten, even by his countrymen. Brooks lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, Trudi. At close to 60-years old, he still trains hard and heavy on Olympic weightlifting in his garage gym. When he's not working on new Dinosaur Training projects, or hitting the iron out in the garage, he likes to squeeze in some work on his backyard vegetable garden. Be sure to visit Brooks' website at www.brookskubik.com and sign up for his daily email messages, training tips, and updates on new books and other projects.

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www.brookskubik.com

BROOKS D. KUBIK

WWW.BROOKSKUBIK.COM

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