The Pizz

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Justin

“That’s the sign of a real champion”

The Pizz bench pulling what looks like 220

Pisarenko Week continues with a look at Pisarenko’s championships. The Pizz won multiple USSR Championships (1982 and 1984), European Championships (1981, 1982, 1983, and 1984), and World Championships (1981, 1982, and 1983). Pisarenko set 13 world records in his short career in the super heavyweight class.

Unfortunately, he was unable to participate in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics. He missed out on the 1980 Olympics because two of his veteran teammates were selected to lift for the USSR (even though he lifted more than both of them). In 1984, the USSR pulled out of the Olympics for a number of political reasons. By the 1988 Olympics, Pisarenko’s lifting career was over.

Check out this website for a detailed look at his championships and totals.

The following video is from the 1982 World Championships and outlines Pisarenko’s battle with Antonio Krastev (Bulgaria). It shows the top snatches in the super heavyweight weight class. This is a rare look at Pisarenko lifting in a meet and speaking with his coaches backstage. Tomorrow we will watch Krastev and Pisarenko battle in the clean and jerk finale. Enjoy watching this beast of a man.

Fun fact: Pisarenko was a former Greco-Roman wrestler. I can’t think of any males that would like to have his hands on them. Females, however, are a different story.

Anatoly Pisarenko Week

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Justin

“This guy will either die in the gym, or break himself.”

70’s Big

This week honors our second 70’s Big co-captain, Anatoly Pisarenko. To put it simply, Pisarenko is to Olympic lifting as Doug Young is to powerlifting. Unfortunately he lacks the fame of other successful weightlifters because he was unable to attend the 1980 and 1984 Olympics for different reasons. Despite this, his peers respected his work ethic — the above quote was from Vasiliy Alekseyev.

Olympics or not, Pisarenko was god awful strong. His career bests were a 206 kg snatch in 1983 (Moscow) and a 265 kg clean and jerk in 1984 (Varna) — this ties him for second overall for the highest clean and jerk (the world records say otherwise since old records were dropped with the restructuring of the weight classes). To put this in perspective for those not familiar with kilograms, he snatched 454.15 lbs and clean and jerked 584.22 pounds!

It’s quite clear why “The Pizz” is one of our favorite lifters; he’s strong, he’s big, and for god’s sake, he’s got a mustache.

Pisarenko jerks 260 in Allentown, 1983

Here is part 5 of the 70’s Big Interview with Rippetoe:

70’s Big Presents: Mark Rippetoe Interview Pt.5 from 70s Big on Vimeo.

Doug Young

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Justin

“He was just an imposing physical presence”

Today wraps up our week-long dedication to 70’s Big co-captain Doug Young as well as the marker for his induction into the 70’s Big Hall of Fame. The behemoth that is Doug Young is one of the most impressive men I’ve ever seen in pictures. It’s a shame that he passed away a few years ago.

Our pal Mark Rippetoe saw Doug in person 29 years ago, and tells us the story in the following video:

Let us know what you think about Doug in the comments.

Food Plan

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Justin

“What do I eat?”

I get a lot of questions about what kind of stuff someone should eat if they are trying to get 70’s Big. Well, recently I wrote out a food log for my pal Cliff. Remember, getting enough protein and calories is vital, especially when dealing with a guy that has been skinny his whole life. Cliff needed an extra boost to continue his novice linear progression, and here is what we did:

Cliff’s food plan

Here are a few things to note:

I immensely underestimated the calories for some of the snacks, especially the ice cream and magic shell combo
The “10 oz” refers to sirloin steak
The “8 oz” refers to chicken breasts
Notice he eats two of each per day
Cliff drinks a gallon of whole milk a day
Cliff was only eating almonds for a snack at work, now it is calorie dense trail mix
Cliff found ice cream and nutella to be a nice little combo at night

The most important points are that Cliff has increased his bodyweight from 185 to 215, improved his squat from 145x5x3 to doing 305x5x3 last night, and launched his deadlift from 225×5 to 405×5. All this in 2.5 months.

No, he is not fat. When you are skinny your whole life, not only is it hard to gain fat, but you don’t get to have an opinion on what fat is.

And he’s not done yet.
Let us know about any cool meals or snacks that have helped you recover. Remember, you can e-mail videos or pictures to media@70sbig.com.

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As promised, here is the fourth part of the 70’s Big Interview with Rip:

70’s Big Presents: Mark Rippetoe Interview Pt. 4 from 70s Big on Vimeo.

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Tomorrow we will wrap up Doug Young week. A story will be told about how he was an imposing individual who was respected by the entire powerlifting community. This is why he is the co-captain of 70sBig.com, and why he is our first entry into the “70’s Big Hall of Fame”.

Equal Opportunity

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Justin

See, women can do it too!

Women typically have a paranoid view of barbell training in that they think it will make them “bulky” or “big”. This is a typical misconception that forgets that women don’t produce the same levels of testosterone that men do. Furthermore, “bulky” is a meaningless subjective term that is relative to all of the underweight women scattered around television and magazines.

Women can and should barbell train. For the most part they adapt in the same way that males do, albeit slower. And to be honest, most girls, regardless of body composition, can stand to gain 10 to 20 pounds of muscle (the same way that most guys need to gain 30 to 50 pounds of muscle). It’s important to note that women will not achieve the status of 70’s Big (since that would be scary thing, indeed), but being stronger with more muscle mass improves the “toned” look that so many of them aim for.

In any case, even with all of these sterotypes and misconceptions, there are women who barbell train successfully. We have a few here at WFAC:

Shelley has squatted 180x5x3, but needs to eat more

Prior to breaking some ribs, Melissa deadlifted an easy 225x5

Follow the jump for more on Doug Young.

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