Category Archives: Rant

70’s Big Attitude

Posted on by
45

Aaron is a PJ, or pararescue jumper, as well as a general badass. He’s already written a couple inspiring articles for us (Excuses? No. and Lessons From Lifting). In this one, perhaps his best yet, he has a call to arms. Are you ready to answer? Ladies and Not-so-Gentlemen, are you ready for some old-school 70sBig? – Cloud

Three years ago I was drawn to this site by the unapologetic, brash braggadocio only a true miscreant could love. Idolizing forgotten mastodons wearing short shorts and high socks. Celebrating facial hair and real meals, encouraging real men and women to be real men and women in a time of androgyny, man-scaping, skinny jeans, Twilight, and other things so horrible they shall go unmentioned. Like 50 Shades of Grey. Those things are not cool, bro, and like my personal heroes Michael Douglas, General Patton, Tyler Durden, Vlad the Impaler, the Techno Viking (that guy took ZERO shits), John W. Creasy, and Walter- this aggression will not stand, man.

In the movie “The Rock”, voted “the best movie of all time in the history of the world” by NATO and the Illuminati, it was said, “sometimes the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of patriots.” Well sometimes the tree of 70sBig must be replenished with the fuel of attitude, with the liquid reduction of our resolve. In the interest of re-focusing ourselves, I charge you to live your life a little more recklessly this next week. Just for a while, think to yourself, “What would Ricky Bruch do?” I assure you, that answer is almost always, “Get extra mayonnaise, lift some heavy shit like a damn boss, and proceed to not give a shit, two monkeys or a damn.” Would Ricky pass up an extra conditioning session? Absolutely not. Would Ricky pass up the 4th steak in 2 meals? Not up in here. Would Ricky wear long, pleated slacks and watch NASCAR drinking a light beer at a tofu tasting party, politely discussing HOA fees? I just got a phone call – the message was, “Ricky Bruch’s estate wants to kill your family for associating his name with that scenario.” It’s that serious.

“But Aaron! I am entrenched in the corporate world; I can’t go stomping around like a heathen, shirtless, scaring the villagers! Also, I don’t know any villagers and my shorts are of an acceptable length for ‘casual Friday’.” Well, first of all, that’s unacceptable. If you say “Casual Friday”, you better be ready for aviator shades and some damn boat shoes. If that’s not the case, it’s time to get your swole back. It’s time to remember who we all are, at our base. Boil us down to brass tacks, twisted steel and ball bearings, and we all realize several immutable, undeniable, irrefutable facts.

We are human. That makes us all physiologically the same, genetically capable of tasks very much the same. If you are reading this saying, “Well, X person is bigger, stronger, I don’t think that’s totally correct…” STOP IT. That’s half the problem. Who’s to say you can’t do anything you want? Me? You? Anyone? What if you just refused to believe impossible things, and simply did them? That wouldn’t make you a superhuman; it would simply mean you refuse to be limited. Do you really have limits? Do you think that’s air your breathing? That’s a Matrix reference. Keep up.

Slap anyone that uses the term “swag”, either ironically or seriously, right in the gob. They know better. Go to YouTube, and look up every video of Leonid Taranenko clean and jerking 266KG, then cook a damn steak and do some mobility. Disagree with someone. Seriously, get into an argument, and instead of worrying how their feelings will recover, wondering how you’ll be viewed, so on and so forth- just disagree. Tell someone they are wrong, and that you don’t agree with what they are saying, and that you won’t be wavering. If the term “agree to disagree” is uttered, wage total war and destroy the room. The world understands. That phrase is about 10% of the problem today. So help me Zeus, if anyone around you says “YOLO” and you do not immediately beat him or her to death, I will find your house and mail you a strongly worded letter.

Here is the hard truth- there are no trophies for 5th place, no consolation prize in real life. It does pay to be a winner, and too often in today’s environment it has become acceptable to trivialize a loss, to rationalize poor effort, to soften heartbreak. Well I am here to call bullshit. If you work hard, you get rewarded. If you don’t work hard, you lose, and you don’t get a prize for that. I don’t know when ‘Murica, – the home of first place, the inventor of competition for everything, the bastion of bacon-wrapped-filets and filet-wrapped-bacon-filled-deep-fried-chocolate-coated-turducken-sandwiches became OK with second place, but I am here to tell you it stops now, and it stops with each and every one of us. It starts with me, and it starts with you.

So this week, get up early. Stop making excuses for yourself, and stop taking excuses from others. Get to work early. Put out as a friend, spouse, significant other, parent, older sibling, citizen, WHATEVER. Stop living your life only to keep breathing and start attacking it. Look for every excuse to get better, and get nasty about it. Are you a lady that wants to get “more toned” and look “better this summer?” Get your lady parts underneath a damn bar and do something about it right the hell now. The world is, quite frankly, not ready for that jelly, and I want more ladies bootyliscious when the sun shines bright and hot in 3 months. Are you a fella that can grow a sweet ass beard, or at least a somewhat child molestor-ish mustache, yet shave every day? By the light in Kate Upton’s eyes, grow that damn facial hair, and do it while you grill some meat and write out your week of programming. Is there a charity, a group, or an organization that is worthy of your time that you haven’t volunteered for? What are you, some sort of sissy? How about you do the right thing and donate some time to something bigger than yourself.

Look into her eyes!

If you haven’t torn up in the gym, so motivated that you wanted to literally explode into a ball of flame, or flipped a table in public only to be applauded for your gusto, or uppercut a punkass into a bowl of punch at a high school dance lately – well, dammit, now is the time (editor’s note, please avoid high school dances, thank you).

Now is the time we take back that attitude, and seize life by the horns/balls/ovaries. The part you grab isn’t important, the fact remains that we must grab that part by force. It’s time to get that 70s Big attitude back. And the time starts now.

 

Get Your Hands Out of Your Pockets

Posted on by
32

There are several different things that I’ve responded to this morning that result in today’s post. They all collide into a common theme: people who are unwilling to do what they need to do to be successful.

This is a timely post on 70′s Big. In December I made the point that waiting for the New Year to start a new habit was stupid; “If something is important to you, do it right. fucking. now.” Then I asked everyone to commit to a competition and explained what to do after committing. This is the time of year when gyms swell and nutrition challenges are everywhere.

Yet everyone looks for a short cut. And it drives me fucking insane.

I’m currently reading Arnold Schwarzenegger’s autobiography. I’ve read his previous biography and have always been a fan of his drive and determination. But reading this recent, more in depth life account shows two things: 1) Arnold always did everything he could to achieve his goals, and 2) None of us are anywhere near that level of commitment (including me). Even in the first decade of his acting career he was buying and selling real estate, running his mail order business, and traveled the world to promote every movie he made. He is the epitome of undying motivation.

While Arnold fights to succeed, all of us accept laziness and sloth. When Arnold heard businessmen talking about how hard they worked for 10 or 12 hours, he’d say (and this is a direct quote from the book), “What the fuck are you talking about, when they day has twenty-four hours? What else did you do?”

Right now there are paleo challengers who want to know if they can use artificial sweeteners, there are veteran lifters going to bed late, and there are sedentary people considering exercising but not actually doing it.

These are the same people — some of you, even — that look at someone successful and think, “They are a genetic freak,” or “I wish I could have as much money as them.” And that is such bullshit. I’ve gone on this rant before, but all my life I’ve been accused of using steroids or just having superior genetics, but I’m the one who has squatted every week with hardly any breaks for 12+ years. I’m the one who made the decision to stop drinking soda at 13 years old. I’m the one who felt like shit, but woke my ass up at 7 in the morning or walked into the garage at 10 at night to train. And I’m not even anywhere near Arnold’s motivation!

Write your goals down. What do you want to do? What do you want to be? What do you want to have or know? WHO do you want to be? Do you think squatting 405 is a big deal? Then do it — because I believe every man can squat 405. Do you want to drop your body fat below 15%? Then do it. Anyone can accomplish these basic training tasks. But they are harder than being a slack-jaw piece of shit, they are harder than deciding to eat the candy, and they’re harder than being content with a sub 350 squat.

In last weekend’s seminar I made a reoccurring joke about “the naysayers”, something Arnold has talked about in various speeches. These are the people that think your dreams aren’t possible, that they are too lofty. The naysayers aren’t always out there in the world talking you down. In reality, the naysayer is you.

For gods’ sake, when you have that moment of weakness in managing your time, going to bed, eating the junk food, or going easy in training, have the courage to tell the naysayer —  yourself — to go fuck himself. When you’re done telling yourself to go fuck yourself, stop whining, stand up, and start productively working towards your goals. I leave you with a quote from Arnold:

“When you’re out there partying, horsing around, someone out there at the same time is working hahd. Someone is getting smarter and someone is winning, just remember that.

“You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.”

– Arnold Schwarzenegger

 

 

New Year’s Resolution

Posted on by
28

November and December represent a time of year when people almost purposely eat unhealthy with the comforting idea that they will rectify all of their bad choices at the start of the new year.

To be clear, I’ve always been a proponent to enjoy your holidays. I hate when these OCD people with borderline food disorders go and tell everyone to maintain a strict diet on Thanksgiving or Christmas. I can’t think of worse advice since this will only develop the person to hate themselves if they do indulge in a Christmas cookie or pumpkin pie. My advice: enjoy the holiday, but keep it controlled acutely and don’t turn “holiday” into “two weeks”.

All of that being said, you might be a person that necessitates an adherence to good nutrition. If you are fat, unhealthy, or ill, then you should make it a point to eat clean, quality foods (i.e. no grains, primarily meat and vegetables, aim to improve insulin sensitivity, etc.). You do not get a reprieve just because it’s Christmas; your health is more important than anything else. It, at the very least, effects not only your enjoyment of daily activities, but your productiveness. If I’m your boss, I want you being alert, energetic, and effective instead of lethargic, ineffective, and in pain.

Nevertheless, everyone provides a mental comfort with the idea that they can dick around towards the end of the year because they’ll “get on the right track” in the beginning of the year. Bullshit. What’s so special about flipping a calendar? If something is important to you, do it right. fucking. now.

It’s one thing to reduce your training frequency on the account of spending time with family, stressing to buy presents, or prepare for a holiday tradition, but if you’re slacking on the account of laziness or the promise that you’ll do better in ten days, then sort your life out. Health should be important to you — and training probably is — so put the emphasis on those things.

I wish I would have written this a month ago, but don’t cripple yourself just because everyone else around you is weak minded. Whatever your “resolution” was going to be — reading more, starting a journal, mobbing more, eating healthier, establishing a training routine, being nicer, learning a new subject — just simply start doing it. If you have logistical limitations that’s fine, but don’t let your mind be the limitation.

Just Because You Can…

Posted on by
26

Ah the internet; it makes everyone an expert. It, for some reason, gives people the impression that other people give a shit about their opinion and reflects the growing individual narcissism in western culture.

Over the years I’ve noticed how an athlete will achieve some success in training or competition and have the narcissism to think that they need to start preaching to their fans. And I don’t mean, “Hard work pays off, ya’ll” (which would be equally annoying), but crappily coaching or teaching things that are largely based on their personal observation for what worked for them. While being a good competitor can be a segue into being a good coach, the former does not imply the latter.

Just because you can do it doesn’t mean you can teach or coach it. 

Performance and coaching are two very different things, but for some reason athletic success gives the athlete the impression that they are an expert. Coaching is an orgy of art, science, communication, personality, creativity, and tact. To do it well is a very rare thing.

Yet it happens: an athlete experiences a bit of success and are suddenly in the world giving advice, speaking definitively, and taking people’s money. Let me be clear that I don’t care that they are entering the “field” that I work in. What bothers me is that the advice or products they expunge are vapid and fair at best.

You may be reading this with a particular offending person in mind, but my observations aren’t directed at an individual. As a coach — and one who studies and practices the craft on multiple levels — it’s just silly to see an athlete suddenly decide that their success puts them on a pedestal. But this isn’t about me just being irritated, this is about you not being duped.

When you spend your money and time — the latter of which is arguably the most important — learning from someone, make sure it’s because they can provide you with effective knowledge that challenges you to get better. Don’t go to them just because they can bench press more or do conditioning workouts faster than you.

Does Eli Manning, Petyon Manning’s 2-time Super Bowl winning brother, look like a guy that can coach?

This poses another question: should the coaches you learn from be high performers? Not necessarily. I can end this discussion by saying that Greg Glassman is no bastion of fitness, yet tens of thousands of people have gone to him and CrossFit over the years for fitness knowledge. I always laugh at how Tommy Tough Guys will scoff that a coach can’t lift or perform at a given level. Well, I’ve got news for you: Peyton Manning’s coach can’t throw a football like him! Yet the coach provides the gameplan and guidance for Peyton Manning to utilize, develop, and execute successfully.

And that’s what a good coach does; he sets an athlete up to be successful. A coach doesn’t need to be able to do what his athlete can. Now, a fitness or lifting coach should still practice what he preaches on a fundamental level. A coach shouldn’t ask his trainees to do something that he would not be willing to do, relatively speaking. For example, it’s not really effective to be fat and preach about clean diet or tout strength training as important for longevity and then not train.

It’s important for coaches to practice what they preach, but being a good coach isn’t about athletic prowess. It’s about communicating and teaching the nuances of training to yield improvements in performance. No where in that description did it say, “They need to have accomplished x in the sport.” So the next time you see an athlete going out of their way to give advice — especially if they’ve recently experienced success — turn off your giddy hero worship and pay attention to the validity of what they are saying. Confusing sport success and coaching ability is like confusing a cooked sausage and a turd.

 

The Disorganization of USAW

Posted on by
47

For years people have lambasted USA Weightlifting for failing to grow the sport or perform well internationally. I’ve publicly defended USAW regarding the performance aspect and have also pointed out how they get a reprieve from growing the sport (CrossFit will take care of that). However, there’s still something that they should be on trial for: how awfully disorganized they are.

Some of us remember how a couple of years ago the online streaming feed did not work for nationals — a big hiccup. And people who were actually present at this year’s Arnold Sport Festival (AKA “The Arny”)[spoiler] Chris and Mike specifically refer to it as “The Arny”. If someone says “The Arnold”, they will ask them, “The what?” over and over until they say, “The Arny”. Then they’ll say, “Oh, the Arny?”[/spoiler] The schedule was changed on Thursday, the night before all of the lifting started. Whether or not they allowed lifters into the Senior National meet after the deadline or they allowed too many lifters is irrelevant, because the result was that several lifters were not privy to this schedule change and missed their weigh-in times and therefore were told that they could not lift. To make matters worse, the sessions did not start and end on time and the 94-A group ended after midnight. Then the 105-A session started at 8:00 AM the next morning. For people like me who wanted to watch both sessions, we barely got any sleep and it ruined our Saturday schedule at The Arny. To be clear: USAW ruined my Saturday at The Arny because of their disorganization.

I wasn’t present at the American Open this past weekend, yet I hear the venue was good and things were relatively organized. There were only a couple sessions that ran long and only a few weird things (like how there was only four lifters in the 94-A session). Yet, they had a scheduling problem again.

On Sunday morning I logged onto the official USAW American Open page to download the “tentative lifting schedule” and the “tentative start list”. The times on each list were available the day of the meet, yet they were different. This caused a friend of mine to miss his weigh-in and therefore not lift. He was told he should have checked the night before. Sorry USAW, the customer is always right. For a guy who works a full time job and is spending his hard earned money to attend your meet — that he’s giving you money to participate in — he shouldn’t have to double and triple check your mistakes. And even if he had seen the discrepancy in the ‘start list’ and ‘schedule’, he would have had to show up and say, “Okay, which one of these is correct?” (and some how find the time to do this since his flight got in late on the night he was supposed to check USAW’s accuracy).

In good, worthy companies the customer is always right. REI allows 100% refunds, no questions asked. Wal-Mart is a juggernaut and can afford to accept stupid refunds. Small business know that they need to treat their customers well in order to continue receiving business. Why should USAW be any different?

In the last year there have been more than one national meet that has had this scheduling issue. What the hell is the problem? Is the entry form deadline not adhered to? Are more lifters accepted than the venue can allow? Are more lifters accepted than the schedule can allow? Why can’t the schedule be set two weeks before the event? I realize that it’s in the ‘rules’ that the schedule can change the night before it starts, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay. Why? Because there are people paying hundreds dollars to travel to these national meets and they are told that they aren’t allowed to lift because USAW is incompetent. I’ll again point out that this has happened to more than one person this year — and it’s happening because USAW is disorganized.

If the lifters simply missed their weigh-in, then that’d be their fault. But the reason they are missing the times are because USAW is posting the wrong times, and even doing so on the day of the meet. This isn’t just bothering me because a friend of mine was screwed out of not lifting — and was denied lifting as an extra in another session — or because I had a crappy weekend at The Arny. It’s because 70′s Big receives over 100,000 unique readers a month. Through this website I’ve personally sent at least hundreds of people into USAW, and then USAW consistently shows disorganization in how they conduct their operations. Why would I want to send people to use an organization that consistently fails? And you know what? USA Powerlifting doesn’t have these problems!

In fact, at The Arny USAPL’s platforms and stage were set up and looking very professional the night before the meet began. Meanwhile USAW was scrounging around throwing their stage in place late into the night before The Arny kicked off. And don’t get me started on poor judging in the USAW. Not only was it abysmal at Nationals (to include a judge who was at least 130 years old), but I also heard it was poor this last weekend. But these are grumblings the regular USAW members deal with. They see it as normal and not something that will change.

Horse pucky. Just because an organization is consistently bad doesn’t mean we should be okay with it. I’ve seen fraternities with better organizational skills. USAW should, at the very least, refund the meet entry fee for people who miss weigh-ins on the account of USAW’s failings. In actuality, I think they should also refund travel expenses, but that won’t happen since they can’t even acknowledge that the fault is theirs (or return my call).

All I know is that I’ll be hesitant to recommend new lifters to join the USAW until I see that they show better organization.