Key things to remember when lifting heavy – and UNWIELDY!
- Brooks, you'd be proud. Hehe.


Warning: Undefined array key "inject_bottom_color" in /home/0excusesfitness/public_html/wp-content/plugins/newsletter-leads/plugin.php on line 143

Warning: Undefined array key "inject_bottom_color" in /home/0excusesfitness/public_html/wp-content/plugins/newsletter-leads/plugin.php on line 159

Warning: Undefined array key "" in /home/0excusesfitness/public_html/wp-content/plugins/newsletter-leads/plugin.php on line 159

Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /home/0excusesfitness/public_html/wp-content/plugins/newsletter-leads/plugin.php on line 160

Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /home/0excusesfitness/public_html/wp-content/plugins/newsletter-leads/plugin.php on line 161

Brooks Kubik is a legend, period.

I dont care how much he’s sold, how much he is selling now, or even so much what he’s doing these days – hes a legend, bar none.

I still remember the comment he made about my workout routine in … 2004. Boy, time flies!

“And then he sits down to a good dinner. He’s earned it!”

He left out the pizza and beer part, of course. And thats fine!

That story is mentioned on the Advanced Hill Training page – it’s a pity I never did what I am in earnest now back then – I’d really have taken this to greater heights than right now, but thats fine. It happens when it does for a reason.

Back then I was in a cushy expat job and the even cushier arms of lots of Chinese women, hehe – and the SECOND business I work upon might never have happened if not for that.

It all happens for a reason!

Anyway … (plus, you only do when the mind and everything is TRULY in sync – something most people dont understand. Read Think And Grow Rich, and read the parts about sexual transmutation, the parts about why the age of 40 is NOT something to be feared – for men, at any rate – you might get SOME of the picture here).

Anyway.

Descending from esoterics to NOW (though what i said wasn’t really that esoteric) – ole man Brooks is still doing log carries – and letter perfect sets of pushups – perfect form – on the beach apparently!

I ain’t spoken to him in years – last was when we spoke in 2009 about the “waist whittling” and him telling me to “keep it up!”

Brooks is huge on core training.

So he should be.

From a man who wrote “If you’re fat, you’re fat. Im sorry, but if youve got a huge gut hanging over your waist, you simply wont look like an athlete” – and he’s right – in the classic book Dinosaur Bodyweight Training

.. I feel ya, Brooks – I always have.

I’ve no idea what John Wood is up to these days, but thats another dude – m an, serious grip strength!

Anyway, no. I get nothing for mentioning them here – specifically Brooks, he’s a legend, and I will continue to do so anyway, he deserves it.

Anyway – point of all this -back in the day, in … 2014, I think.

I was returning from an evening hill climb, stopped in front of the “Beijing Bar” right next to my apartment complex.

Several beefy bouncers were looking me up and down, my gaze though was more on the solid cement blocks outside the doors of the bar, ostensibly to avoid “car creep” i.e. cars parking right outside the doors (remember, its China).

These were MASSIVE.

And they had poles sticking out of them.

I’ve written about skinny Chinese dudes lugging up massive air conditioner units (and hearts pounding out of their chests as they did so, hehe) up five or more flights of stairs, this though is more about me trying to budge it post workout.

I couldnt.

I remember the dudes staring at me curiously (though to be honest to budge those suckers, youd need to have Gama like strength).

Think a “club” – or mace, perhaps – with a huge steel (thick bar) pole sticking out of it, and a massive cement block at the end.

No problem if you’re a grizzly.

But if not, well, you need some serious strength to budge that!

Yesterday, it was interesting how the daughter got the idea for me to budge a massive STONE – lots of those out there in the park.

Brooks uses his logs “where he can find ’em”.

I do the same with my stones. hehe. Kindred spirits always!

(us true warriors are that).

Yesterday, as you can tell, it was more of a contest to flip the damn thing over – much like tyre flips, which will be there in Lumberjack Lodestone Fitness.

I wish we had more time, I’d have filmed me finally flipping it over.

Maybe another time, definitely in the book (pics) and the videos for it.

But this sort of thing, my friend, requires some serious strength and conditioning.

It’s a tad different from LIFTING a massive stone – where you literally hug the sucker and lift with your whole body – here, it was sharp and jagged around the edges.

took me forever to find “j” for that. Before I did it on auto pilot!

But they are both solid conditioners and strength builders for the entire body – core, specifically, especially legs and hamstrings, so they should be.

When trying to lift – or move heavy items (this applies to lifting barbells of the ground as well) – that are shaped oddly and are unwieldy i.e. you can’t easily grip them –

Like a massive sofa like they had back in the day. (an ex had it).

These stones I be referring to here.

Or perhaps massive tyre flips repeatedly.

Or, lifting up a “gas cylinder” – a heavy ass one, lugging it up flights of stairs, or what I wrote about in 0 Excuses Fitness, I believe, and tons of times here – lugging up massive bottles of water up stairs – gripping – holding them by the neck alone.

That’s something that would kill most men these days, yet, these Chinese ladies continue to do it. Something to be learned from that, including the 500 or so fingertip pushups a lot of the “tiny” massueses are made to pound out before theyre “massage ready” if I might use the term.

It ain’t about size.

Its always, ultimately about the size of the fight in the dog – starting mentally, and going from there.

Anyway …

Key things to bear in mind when doing such things –

Lift with the entire body – NOT just the upper. Your LOWER body should do the “initial bit of lifting” which is often the toughest before your upper body comes into it.

Make damn sure you’ve got strong core and leg, hamstring muscles before doing anything of this nature, especially repeatedly.

Make sure you’re damn good at pushups – and pull-ups – and do plenty of them to build the ligaments and tendons up for this sort of activity.

Remember to “hug” the object if possible – and if it’s a big enough object to hug (like a massive stone).

Most of all, and again, it’s not an ego contest.

It’s great to be able to do it – budge huge items like that, but you can seriously injure yourself if you’re not ready, so do things slow, build up from where you can ..

And again – BRING THE WHOLE BODY INTO IT!

And that is the essence of it, more tips (on the lifting and carrying part specifically, different from the general tips I’ve mentioned here) mentioned in Lumberjack “Lodestone” Fitness, if you ain’t got your pre-order in, you’ll want to do so – NOW.

And thats that.

Back soon!

Best

Rahul Mookerjee

PS – Whether or not you wear “cool” sunglasses while doing all this (“green eyes”, eh Alan. Hehe) is entirely up to you … whether or not the BALD Spot on the top of your head, so artfully never and not visible is or not is up to you.

Hey.

Like they said in Rocky I, “I’ve never seen a fighter so concerned about his hair!

I’ve never been. Neither should you. Again, it ain’t an ego contest.

It’s not about looking pretty.

It’s about moving the damn thing, and doing so repeatedly, and feeling the SURGE OF POWER AND STRENGTH that COURSES through your entire body as you do so.

The feeling of being a raw, brutal GRIZZLY.

And thats that! (And again, these are all workouts the Great Gama, and tons of other folks regarded as legends rate very highly, and DID regularly).

Sign up for the 0 Excuses Fitness newsletter. 

Thanks for signing up. Remember to confirm your subscription via the link you get in your email.