Monthly Archives: June 2012

Q&A – 32

Posted on by
71

PR Friday

The weekly tradition continues. Post your PR’s or training updates. I PR’d by completing every lift in the universe while loading a moving truck yesterday for 7 hours. Squats, presses, deadlifts, cleans, continental cleans, farmer’s, pinch grip, curls, rows, RDLs, good mornings, curls, curls, curls, curls, curls, curls, and curls.

Chris at the seminar in Tucson earlier this month

Weekly Challenge

Last week’s challenge asked you to “put 25 to 35 pounds in a pack, wear it on your back, and walk for 30 to 60 minutes non-stop on at least one day”. When I made this ‘challenge’, it was more so to give you an appreciation of the military. However, in light of my interests in hiking, survival, guns, and EDC, it’s an activity that would only help your ability to “go”. Under any worst case scenario — zombies, nuclear war, the apocalypse, alien invasion, etc. — you will need to have basic survival and movement capabilities, the kind that revolve around carrying your supplies and moving the fuck out. Did anyone complete the challenge? I would expect a report of sprouting more chin hairs, cause there’s something manly about carrying relatively heavy shit around.

Next Week’s Challenge:
Go out of your way to help a stranger by lifting something heavy. Do not accept a reward.
I know, I know, it almost sounds like we’re starting a fight club or something. My ‘job’ is centered around helping people, but I help people I don’t know all of the time. I’ve returned wallets full of money, helped push cars and trucks out of the road, picked things up and put them down, and laughed when a girl fell on the stairs. Last year while visiting in Texas, in a 12 hour period I helped push two vehicles to a gas station. Do it.

Weekly Recap

On Tuesday there was a quick post on obscene levels of motivation from Ben and CC as well as a post on using crappy equipment. The latter post’s comments were full of people erroneously equating a cheap econo bar with a Texas deadlifting bar. On Thursday I linked to a preview post for the lifting at the 2012 London Games that Peter Upham wrote. Thursday was a quick post on the new “70’s Big Insiders Newsletter” that will be sent out several times a month; read more here.

Q&A

Continue reading →

70’s Big Insiders

Posted on by
12

Today I’d like to announce a new feature on the site; a newsletter for “70’s Big Insiders”. This is an unpaid perk for 70’s Big readers; the site has always been a free source of help and information. This newsletter allows me to communicate with people who optionally sign up about various topics that include, but are not limited to:

– discounts to products (70’s Big or otherwise)
– dates and links to “insider only” chat rooms, video streams, Google hangouts, videos, and content
– excerpts from current and unreleased products
– links to helpful articles and resources
– seminar information
– training news about the folks who run this site
– or any topic pertaining to S&C news, training, coaching, programming, anatomy, physiology, recovery, and mobility that otherwise don’t make it on the site

Newsletters will be sent at least once a month, but not more than once a week. I’m sure that user involvement will shape and mold the newsletter content. Readers can, of course, unsubscribe at any time. The first newsletter will be sent in early July, so please sign up and join the party.


Subscribe to the 70’s Big Insiders Newsletter

This may or may not be insider content? Probably not.


Side note: I’m in the process of moving, so responses to comments, questions, or Facebook postings will be sparse. Twitter is probably the best way to interact throughout the weekend (otherwise I won’t see it). Tomorrow’s Q&A will be regular style, though.

2012 Olympics — Lifting Preview

Posted on by
16

My mate Peter Upham of Shire Speed and Strength wrote a pretty cool preview of the 2012 London Games Olympic Weightlifting. Check out the rest of the article that includes every weight class for both genders, but here’s the 105, 94, and 85kg men’s sections.

Men’s 105kg class. Records 200/238 Total 436kg

In 2008, Belarus’ Andrei Aramnau slammed the field with 200/236, 436 total to set all 3 world records. Since then he was kicked off the Belarusian team for drunk driving and did not lift in the 2011 World’s, but did lift in the Belarusian nationals last year and is coming back to form.

In his absence the Russians have been pushing each other hard. 2008 silver medallist Dmitry Klokov has a huge international following. His lifting attitude and athletic physique have built a fandom who are hungry to see him go one better in London. At the 2011 World’s he went toe to toe with countryman Khurtmani Akkaev who has moved up a weight class from the 94kg class and won Bronze and Silver in Athens and Beijing. Additionally, David Bejanyan at the President’s Cup set the World Record in the Clean and Jerk at 238kg earlier last year. Bejanyan’s problem is that his Snatch and total are not as competitive and he will likely miss out this time, but its an easy prediction to make that he will ascend the space that Klokov and Akkaev will leave after London.

TIP: If Aramnau is on form I predict one of the great all time three-way battles for the Gold. At the World’s, Akkaev rose to Klokov’s challenge and made the lifts necessary to get the victory; Klokov knows what his countryman can do and will leave it all out there. I hope he takes the final lift and gives it one of his trademark almighty Viking roars to win the Gold.

Continue reading →

Equipment Matters

Posted on by
26

Chris deadlifted heavy at the 70’s Big Seminar this past weekend at CrossFit Annandale. He’s about six weeks out from Nationals and is still coming back from an injury to his back. He was disappointed that he didn’t get the double, yet there are some factors that influenced it.



CrossFit Annandale has a pretty cool barbell club, some nice strongman equipment, and lots of accessory tools (fat grips, sleds, etc.). However, they don’t yet have a power bar (at least one will be purchased soon, so get off it). The bar Chris was using in the video and during his warm-ups is just a standard “econo bar” that most CrossFit facilities purchase. They are optimal for the lightly loaded conditioning workouts aside from being economical.

Different kinds of barbells have different levels of tensile and yield strengths. Power bars are going to be more stiff (with a 29mm circumference) and can handle a lot more weight while Oly bars are going to be more whippy (with a 28mm circumference). A good Oly bar will make the difference between a snappy or sloppy jerk. In slower powerlifting movements, having whip on the bar is terrible because it produces a constant vibration on the bar throughout the movement. While a power bar will stay solid and not have much, if any, oscillation, a cheaper bar will vibrate subtly. This makes the movement more difficult; the bar is essentially moving around in the lifter’s hands on a deadlift. To add more weirdness, Chris had to use 100 pound plates to get enough weight on the bar. Most CrossFit facilities don’t have any iron plates at all, but CF Annandale has a good stash, just not enough to have 7 on each side (to make 675 on the bar). 100 pound iron plates theoretically shouldn’t have an effect on a good bar, but they will make a cheap bar even more wobbly because of the uneven distribution of load. That and Chris put them on as the third plate instead of putting them on first (I think this would have an effect, but I don’t have personal experience with it).

The bar oscillation was easy to see when Chris warmed up with anything over 405. It’s analogous to lifting with chains hanging off the end of the bar; Chris has to use more force and energy to stabilize against the extraneous forces. I think that if he had better equipment that he would have had a shot at the second rep at 675. Yet he still got a 96% of 1RM rep in and accumulated the same tonnage as when he did 655×2 in January (his last warm-up of 635 added with 675 makes the same tonnage of 1310) — the tonnage doesn’t paint the whole picture, but my point is that it wasn’t a worthless session.

If you train at or own a CrossFit facility, or any strength training gym, take note of the how much a good bar can help your training. It will allow you to hit heavier loads with greater efficiency in training to result in better meet/competition performances.