Why do you train? Do you want to get stronger? Faster? Fit or healthy? Do you aim to compete in a particular sport like powerlifting, weightlifting, or catfish noodling? Wanting to get jehcked is good. Striving to get better in a sport is good. But, I ask you…what is best in life?



So true. Let me ask you another question. When you step into the gym each training session, are you seething? Are you rabid? Are you shaking with hatred, wanting to kick the SHIT out of somebody or some…thing? No, you will never tap into your full power, young padawan. To develop your full destructive capabilities, you must know hate.

If your mom told you that you weren’t supposed to hate, it shouldn’t be hard to remember that your mom doesn’t deadlift 500 pounds. Your preacher can’t press 225 and your grandma can’t squat herself off the toilet. This isn’t a game. This is competition.

My friend Brent has used this mentality ever since I’ve known him. His unassuming method is to observe all kinds of lifters, coaches, and trainees on the internet. Inevitably there will be a good chunk of them who act like dickheads. They may even be stronger than him. And if they are, then beware. Brent’s hatred runs deep, right into the marrow of his bones. Instead of aiming vitriol at his targets, he files it in his brain’s Hate File. The Hate File is a rolodex of names, faces, videos, and…targets. I’ve learned that Brent will sit seemingly calm waiting for his next rep in training. But what’s going on is a whirlwind of accusations and speculation that results in a furious attempt.

So-and-so doesn’t think I’m an athlete.
Fuck-face is squatting more than this right now.
Piece-of-shit is totalling 90% of me…I need to do much more…to EMBARRASS HIM.

Brent not only wants to be better than those he hates, he wants to annihilate them. But he’s not in a hurry. He knows that for some of his tangos, it will take time. And that’s why he places their file gently in his mind, thumbing it every so often to give himself a paper cut that reminds himself why he trains his dick off every day.

This. This is only one way to create Antagonistic Motivation. Strife, anger, and — god forbid — challenge are avoided in today’s society. What enemy can you find or create to challenge you to be better? When I was in high school, my early methods of spiking adrenaline consisted of imagining that a fullback was coming to block me in an iso. An “iso” is a football term for when the full back runs directly at the linebacker (me) to block him with the running back directly behind him. It’s a play dependent on the guts of the fullback and linebacker; who will deliver the bigger hit? Who will blow the other person up to make a play. I would think about this direct challenge to my honor right before squatting. I would routinely squat 425 to 445 for sets of five…beltless and in running shoes.

Is there a specific person or competitor that you will face in the future? Is there a hypothetical fiend on the enemy team who is aiming to make you fail? There is a quote that has percolated around the Special Operations community that reminds trainees of their true threat:

Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn’t worry about what workout to do – his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about ‘how hard it is;’ he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn’t go home at 17:00, he is home.
He knows only The Cause.

Still want to quit?

If you can’t bring yourself to hate, then personify the reason you should be training. In this case, a failure to put full effort into training can result in death, dismemberment, or torture in not only one’s self, but friends. There is no higher antagonistic motivation than knowing that your success effects the lives of other people.

Observe these strategies of Antagonistic Motivation and force a bout of introspection to figure out what you can put yourself against. You’re a desk jockey with no real life threatening challenge? Put yourself in situations of challenge. Aim to medal in your weight class at your next meet. Every day when you walk in the gym, think about how the guys in your weight class are training just as hard, if not harder than you. While they may be at a higher or lower level than you, you ignore those excuses. Instead, focus on your opponent, your challenger…your enemy. Will you let him train harder than you today? Will you let him beat you? You better fucking not.

Here are a few push-up cues to use. Push-ups are important for females because they can significantly enhance the strength of the related musculature (anterior shoulder — delts/pecs — and triceps) which will augment the press and bench. They have more of an effect on girls within their first year or so of training, on taller or long-limbed girls, or girls with a weak upper body. Push-ups, of course, would be used in conjunction with strength training movements like the press, bench, and push-press (dips too, but if the push-ups aren’t great, chances are the dips aren’t possible).



Primary passive/positional cues:
– First finger at 11 & 1
– Hands flat
– Chest up

Primary active cues:
– “Elbows over wrists”
or
– “Elbows to ribs”

I hope everyone had a good week. It’s PR Friday so share your training PR’s or updates. This weekend also includes two of the last three relevant football games of the football year, so feel free to discuss (Justin Smith ftw).

Operation Shankle
Don’t forget that Donny Shankle will be making a real shot at making the Olympic team. My friend Jacob Tsypikup had the following to say about Donny: “I can say that he is a tremendous person to be around: a former Marine and veteran of the Iraq war, a fierce competitor, and inspirational merely through presence.” Donny has made countless sacrifices in order to be a weightlifter in the past ten years, and recently he’s even moved in with his coach Glenn Pendlay to save even more money. If you have a few doll hairs to spare, donate them to Donny; I know he will appreciate the support very much and make us proud.
Donate to Shankle
Shankle’s Website (store with products included)

The Arnold Sport Festival
I think that ‘the Arnold’ will be a really cool experience since it’s a celebration of competitive events. This will be the first “70’s Big Meet Up” that isn’t a workshop, so I suggest you attend. Mike and Chris will be competing in the raw powerlifting event, I’ll be going, and Brent will be going. It’s also where this year’s senior nationals are for USA Weightlifting, and Donny Shankle will be trying to make the Olympics (which will be very fun to watch). There’s also all kinds of cool shit like strongman events and a pro deadlift challenge (which will also be neat as shit). Plus at least 20 other sporting events and that doesn’t even consider the expo itself (where tons of “fitness” or sport celebrities will be present) and the second biggest bodybuilding show of the year.

If you’re concerned about the cost of travel or hotels, then use the comments to see if anyone else near you is interested in going. We can help each other car pool or share hotel rooms and we can meet at certain events, restaurants, and bars. It will be tons of fun — I guarantee it. Because if it isn’t, I’ll make it fun by asking Derrick Poundstone what color his undies are.

Follow the jump for the Q&A. Continue reading →

Shawn had about a month off from training. You know what that asshole did on squats in his first session back? 135 for 5; 185 for 5; 225 for 5; 275 for 5; 315 for 3; 225 for 10; (next two sets are front squat) 135 for 10; 135 for 6 — that’s a shit-load of work. His normal work sets last year before the holiday were about 325 (he’s using 5/3/1; front squats are his assistance work). His structures weren’t adapted to doing any squats, and he subjected them to stress that was greater than what they could have handled before the layoff even occurred.

Sure, it was dumb. But calling Shawn an idiot relentlessly isn’t going to help his crippling soreness. He told me, “Dude, I am so fucking sore. I had to FALL onto the toilet seat to take a shit earlier.” Instead, I gave him advice on what to do in his next training session to alleviate that soreness. In the research this is called The Repeated Bout Effect and it’s used to reduce Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS).



DOMS occurs as a result of doing something that the structures aren’t adapted to. This could include a significant change in volume and intensity, or it could occur from performing a new movement using structures through a different range of motion (ROM). For example, a CrossFitter would experience higher levels of soreness if they started squatting 3×5 at heavier weights than they handle in their met-cons. Conversely, a lifter would experience high levels of soreness if they tried a high repetition CrossFit met-con after being adapted to low repetition lifting (even more so since CrossFit will typically include new or different movements from the lifter’s normal training repertoire). DOMS typically peaks 24 to 48 hours after a bout of exercise. My personal experience and opinion is that the more adapted you are, the shorter the process to achieve peak soreness and subsequent loss of soreness (1).

For me, I can feel the soreness within 12 to 18 hours, and peak soreness occurs 18 to 24 before decreasing. When I was younger and doing bodybuilding stuff, I would routinely hit a peak of soreness at 48 hours. This may be due to a lack of adaptation or strength, but it could also be due to the fact that I did a lot more isolation work for the “body parts” that I was working that day as opposed to the lesser amount of work places on the specific muscles nowadays when I train my whole body each session.

The Repeated Bout Effect states that “subsequent bouts of the same exercise, repeated within several days to several months, do not produce as much damage as the first bout” (4). You can look at that from two perspectives. The first is that by doing very low intensity work (<50%) for a session, subsequent sessions will not produce as much DOMS (even up to 6 weeks after the initial bout of low-intensity work). The second is that if DOMS exists, then using some low-intensity work with the same muscles can help reduce their soreness. It's even shown that this adaptive effect is conferred to other muscles (3), but my assumption is that they are used in synergy with or stabilize the joints and structures of the movement performed (i.e. the external hip rotators may not apply hip extension in a movement, but their action will help stabilize the hip during the movement).
If we look at The Repeated Bout Effect as a preventative measure, then we would have begin our reintroduction to lifting after a layoff with a light day (something that I’ve suggested numerous times on this site). If we look at it as a treatment to crippling soreness — like Shawn’s situation above — then we can drop some light work into our next training session. Shawn will be training today — 48 hours after the squatting session. He’s scheduled to press with pressing assistance, yet I suggested that he squat the following: 135x5x2, 185×5 for one or two sets. This obviously doesn’t provide a stress to grow stronger, yet it provides a stress nonetheless via The Repeated Bout Effect. The research has observed the circumstances in which it can help alleviate soreness, yet the mechanism of how it occurs isn’t fully understood and it’s considered a phenomena. Some theories include neural, connective tissue or cellular adaptations as well as adaptation in excitation-contraction coupling or adaptation in the inflammatory response (2).

The trainee only needs to know how to prevent soreness since soreness can literally make it hard to take a shit, but it can also be debilitating to performance in the following training sessions. If you have extreme soreness due to a new movement or a change in work, then drop in some light exercises in a medium repetition scheme. Common soreness areas are the quads and groin from squats, proximal biceps tendon from dips, hamstrings from RDLs, or lumbar spine from deadlift (typically associated with severe rounding of the back). Muscles that are sore from squats or should just be worked with light squats, yet the other areas can be worked with related exercises. Light dumbbell flyes or push-ups could alleviate soreness in the upper body, and round back extensions (RBEs) or reverse hypers are best to use for the lumbar spine. Light good mornings, deadlifts, and RDLs could be used for hamstrings. Observant trainees will note that these exercises are often used in powerlifting programs as a preventative measure to alleviate soreness (especially in Russian programming — thanks Briskin).

Utilize these same methods if you have a training stoppage due to a meet, holidays, travelling, sickness, or injury, but use them in a light day and gradually increase the stress. I suggest taking a week and using Light-Medium-Moderate training days. Training isn’t a race; the more you can prevent injuries or overreaching, the more success you’ll have over a longer amount of time.

This is one of the few topics that actually has a great amount of quality research. Here are a few resources I used today.

1) Cleary, M.; Kimura, S.; Sitler, M.; Kendrick, Z. (2002). Temporal Pattern of the Repeated Bout Effect of Eccentric Exercise on Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness. J Athl Train. 2002 Jan-Mar; 37(1): 32–36.

2) Nosaka, K.; Sakamoto, K.; Newton, M.; Sacco, P. (2001). The repeated bout effect of reduced-load eccentric exercise on elbow flexor muscle damage. Eur J Appl Phsiol, 85: 34-40.

3) Nosaka, Ken (2008). Muscle Soreness and Damage and the Repeated-Bout Effect. Skeletal muscle damage and repair (pp. 59–76). Human Kinetics. ISBN 9780736058674.

4) McHugh, M.P.; Connolly, D.A.J.; Eston, R.G.; Gleim, G.W. (1999). Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage and Potential Mechanisms for the Repeated Bout Effect. Sports Medicine, Volume 27, Number 3, 1 March 1999, pp. 157-170 (14).

1) Cleary, M.; Kimura, S.; Sitler, M.; Kendrick, Z. (2002). Temporal Pattern of the Repeated Bout Effect of Eccentric Exercise on Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness. J Athl Train. 2002 Jan-Mar; 37(1): 32–36.

2) McHugh, M.P.; Connolly, D.A.J.; Eston, R.G.; Gleim, G.W. (1999). Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage and Potential Mechanisms for the Repeated Bout Effect. Sports Medicine, Volume 27, Number 3, 1 March 1999, pp. 157-170 (14).

3) Nosaka, Ken (2008). Muscle Soreness and Damage and the Repeated-Bout Effect. Skeletal muscle damage and repair (pp. 59–76). Human Kinetics. ISBN 9780736058674.

4)Nosaka, K.; Sakamoto, K.; Newton, M.; Sacco, P. (2001). The repeated bout effect of reduced-load eccentric exercise on elbow flexor muscle damage. Eur J Appl Phsiol, 85: 34-40.

The following was what loaded if you tried to access the site on January 18th, 2012. I saw some complainers whining that protesting was gay or that it didn’t accomplish anything. In this case, it did quite a lot. It raised awareness of a terrible bill that would have repercussions that the whiners would not enjoy if it passes. This isn’t to say that copyright protection isn’t important, because it is. There probably needs to be better legislation but SOPA was not it. In any case, if you joined the fight against SOPA, thank you; It’s rare that common folk will get together and rabble-rabble until they are heard.
EDIT: At least 18 senators now oppose the bill now since the protests.

If SOPA were to pass, you would load this website only to find out it was blocked. Please read why.

Today 70sBig.com is participating in the SOPA/PIPA boycott. The “Stop Online Piracy Act” and “PROTECT IP Act” are respectively House and Senate bills that falsely aim to reduce online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. In actuality this legislation invites Internet security risks, threatens online speech, hampers Internet innovation, bans or censors any website, and reduces our rights we have as internet users.

There’s a reason that other websites like Reddit and Wikipedia are participating in today’s boycott: the bills destroy every free right we have as internet users. Today 70’s Big wants to bring this to your attention so that you understand the implications of the bills and arm you with fire power in how we can help prevent them from passing. If we fail, this website (and many others) may be altered or banned from you.

First I want to share what a friend had to say about the bills. He works in and is knowledgeable about the information security field.

SOPA is the digital equivalent of politicians trying to slowly destroy the fundamental protections of our Bill of Rights through the guise of fear mongering that they’ve been doing with everything from organized crime to domestic terrorism. They market this supposed metastasis of problems with the internet such as digital crime and use it to say, “We need to control this and we’ll do it by basically taking your rights away, even if you don’t know it.” It’s humorous that they think they will solve problems because SOPA’s policies, when put into an actual technical implementation, will make it harder to distinguish the differences between their policy enforcement at network border gateways, real problems that service providers are having, or actual criminal attempts to subvert security and/or availability of network services. This is just one example of the bullshit SOPA presents and represents.

Philosophically, we’d be giving up our fundamental rights to do as we please on the internet. If I wanted someone telling me what I can or can’t do on the internet, I’d move to China, North Korea, or somewhere in the Middle East.

If this issue is confusing, maybe this video will clear things up for you:

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Here are some links to help you learn more:
SOPA For Dummies
WordPress’ thoughts
Reddit’s thoughts
Reddit’s FAQ (explains both sides)
Wikipedia’s thoughts

Here are some links where you can actually DO something to help prevent these bills from passing:
Sign an anti-SOPA petition with Google
Stop American Censorship
Stop The Internet Blacklist Legislation (with information on how to contact and politely inform them that you will boycott them because of their support of SOPA)
Useful information for contacting your local representative
List of companies that support SOPA

Summary, TL;DR
Politics are rarely discussed on 70’s Big, but this legislation would not only affect this website, but your personal experience on the internet. Please review the information above and help us make a stand. It’s up to us to hold onto our freedom.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
–Margaret Mead