SPECIAL ADVICE FOR OLDER TRAINEES

DINOSAUR
TRAINING
MINI-COURSE NO. 1

BY BROOKS D. KUBIK

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 DEDICATION
To all who are seeking— or who have found— strength and health through sensi-
ble 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 ma-
jor 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 es-
pecially 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

www.brookskubik.com

Course No. 1 2
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HARD WORK - HEAVY IRON - SUPER STRENGTH
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SPECIAL ADVICE FOR OLDER TRAINEES

T 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 compe-
tition 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 orga-
nizations 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 ath-
letes 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 incred-
ible feats of weightlifting, Powerlifting, strongman training, gymnas-
tics, 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 noth-
ing 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 condescend-
ing. 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 dia-
pers—or before they were born.

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 SPECIAL ADVICE FOR OLDER TRAINEES

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 phenome-
non. 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 stub-
bornly 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 catego-
ry. 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 dif-
ferently than younger trainees.

They need to train in a way that’s challenging, demanding, progres-

sive, enjoyable AND (most importantly) appropriate to their age. Old-
er trainees need to train hard enough and heavy enough to make their
workouts challenging—but they need to keep their exercise pound-
ages, 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, program-
ming 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 train-
ees, 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).

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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 maintain-
ing 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-supple-
ments, 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.

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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 dif-
ficulty 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 pow-
er walking or race walking. Just walk
two or three miles at a comfortable
pace.

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 ben-
efits of walking as a form of exercise.
Sig Klein is another fantastic Try it and see for yourself just how
example of an individual who effective it can be.
trained for life-long strength and
health.

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 SPECIAL ADVICE FOR OLDER TRAINEES

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 main-
tain 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. Fo-
cus on exercises like squats, front squats, bent-legged deadlifts with
a straight bar or a Trap Bar, standing (military) presses, push press-
es, 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, pow-
er 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 quali-
fied weightlifting coach. In the USA, for example, find a coach who has
been certified by the USA Weightlift-
ing Association. See the link to local
weightlifting clubs in each state at the
following link:

http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Weight-
lifting/Clubs-LWC/Find-a-club.

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 plyo-
metrics and other types of bouncy,
The great Lou Thesz always stayed ballistic movements. You don’t need
in fantastic shape—he won his last to baby yourself when you train, but
world title at 62!

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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 your-
self. Train hard, but train smart.

To the degree possible, use barbells or dumbbells rather than ma-

chines. 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 weight-
lifting champion who set a World record of 565 pounds in the bench
press. He later became a professional wrestler, and won the Heavy-
weight 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

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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 nurs-
ing 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 sci-
ence, 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.

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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 bar-
bells or dumbbells. The neurological benefit of these exercises is enor-
mous—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

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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 concentra-
tion 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 medita-
tion. 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 simul-
taneously 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 fig-
ure 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 aero-
bics, 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 dis-
cuss 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 train-

ees 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 visu-

alization 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

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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, pre-
cise 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 extend-
ed 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 bot-
tom. Older trainees often have tight ankles, and you don’t

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 SPECIAL ADVICE FOR OLDER TRAINEES

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 shoul-

ders, 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 ex-
ercise; 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 ei-
ther 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 dumb-
bell 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 mod-
ify 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 Weightlift-
ing 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 train-
ing 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 (vol-
ume) 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 nec-

essarily 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 do-
ing 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 pull-
downs 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 leg-
ends 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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 SPECIAL ADVICE FOR OLDER TRAINEES

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. Pre-
pare 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 be-
cause 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 supple-
ment.

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.

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THE WRAP-UP

Yes, you’re older now, and the rules of successful training are a bit dif-
ferent 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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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 Dino-
saur 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 bodybuild-
ing 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 champi-
onship 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

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