July Challenge: 3 Presses, 3 Pulls

The July Challenge has been announced, and you can read about it HERE.

Post questions here. Post results on linked page.

Click here for teh awesome.

77 thoughts on “July Challenge: 3 Presses, 3 Pulls

  1. Gant: Just for clarification – the reps don’t have to be unbroken, correct? That is, if you make two presses and miss the third, you don’t have to repeat the entire set, but just wait until you can make the third rep, then move onto the pullups?

  2. Tsypkin, you are correct. Do not proceed until you have three made three successful lifts. Triple? Great. Three singles, that’s fine, too. Two and one. Also fine.

    The idea is to find a pace that works for you. Hopefully this will get the CrossFitters pressing and the SS guys pulling up on a bar.

  3. Got 30 pull ups (broken up) while breakfast was cooking this morning. The presses are going to get tough, even though I am 200#s.

    I am assuming that the last day to submit is the end of the month?


    Yes. Last day.

    -Gant

  4. This is going to suck for those of us whose pull up bar is directly above where we rack for presses. I guess it will be more impressive to clean every set of presses.

  5. May I suggest an 80% scaling option for the ladies? That takes the press to 50% of bodyweight.
    – not that I wouldn’t be pretty psyched to get a PR triple, but… I’d rather get more than one set in 20 mins :)

  6. @Rachel, good point. What’s fair, ladies? I’m looking for something a press triple that is rougly equivalent to a pullup triple. The workout should take a little planning and get tough by minute 10-15. Let me hear from you.

    @StillGrowing, it’s good you caught it before I did!

  7. I think 50% for girls is a good idea. At 145 lbs., 92 lbs. is currently my 1RM so I wouldn’t make it very far. 72.5 lbs would get tough as you said around the half way point, but it is doable. Looking forward to this!

  8. No, you cannot push press. Just do a standing press. If you hip it a couple times, it’s ok. No knee bend.

    You’re not dumb. It’s a common misunderstanding.

    Overhead press variations:

    Standing press (as taught by Rip): feet shoulder width, quads and core contracted, no excessive layback

    Olympic press: hands typically wider than standing press, lots of layback, no knee bend but there is a lot of torso whip to get the bar moving

    Military press: heels together (at attention), VERY strict upright press-no layback, no knee bend, no movement

  9. When will we be able to post in the linked thread? I just tried and there was no reply box. Today was press day for me so I sorta got started on this. It wasn’t exact as my workout called for sets of 5, but I added sets of pull-ups in between.

    And as Big Al said, it’s going to suck having to unrack every set to do the pull-ups, clean, press, repeat.

  10. So far I have two ideas that would work best, neither includes any un-racking. First, just clean and press every set near the rack and just put it on the ground. Second, rack the weight and press it, then drop it on the ground and do pull ups and proceed to re-rack. Do not put the bar back on the rack after any set unless you did not get all 3.

  11. Comments are enabled in the other post now.

    If you didn’t read my edit, check out the 50’s Big Greatness of Dough Hepburn Olympic Pressing 380.

  12. what’s up with 70sbig and the crossfit silliness lately?

    really? this site is about being awesome while being strong. crossfit is not awesome, and it doesn’t make any sense either.

  13. @DaveG

    I think it all depends on the programming. I agree there are some retarded CrossFit workouts out there like Gants “favorite” with 100+ good mornings in it for time and wod’s like the filthy fifty.

    On the other hand look at CrossFit Football, which is the program I am using which incorperates a pre strength workout based on SS. The workouts are short, heavy, and intense. The program is primarly based on strength but also works to increase power, spped and work capacity, but not at a loss of strength.

    There is NOTHING wrong with being able to throw around sick weight without having to hit up the oxygen bar afterwards….make sense now?

  14. @Derek

    no, it doesn’t make sense, and neither is crossfit football.
    today’s conditioning WOD is:

    Complete as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes:

    10 Supine Ring Pull Ups
    10 True Push Ups
    10 Box Jumps 20″

    doesn’t make any sense, doesn’t require the same energy systems as in football.

    crossfit football has you condition, run a lot and do a lot of unnecessary movement in January. this is fine if you’re 35 and playing at the club level, but if you’re playing college you want to be the best on the field. you don’t have to be in great shape at january, and it doesn’t take 6 months to get in shape. 6 weeks is enough, same with speed training.
    crossfit football also fails to realize that speed work is NOT done with a conditioning aspect, speed work is not the same for a wide reciever and for a guard, and speed work is not done that often.

    if you want to get strong, lift fucking barbells, this is where 70sbig comes in.

    if you want to be in good conditioning, start 6-8 weeks prior to the season and push the prowler/truck/tire and run hills, with 30-45 second rest.

    if you want to be fast, you start 6-8 weeks, run short sprints with FULL REST.

    if you want to be more agile have more skill, you start 6-8 weeks prior to the season, and work on it.

    again, it doesn’t take you 6 months to remember how to rush the quarterback or how to block.

    crossfit, as a principle and a method, is stupid for any individual that actually competes at a sport and want to be good at it.

  15. @ Dave G – so you are saying that more than 6-8 weeks worth of conditioning or agility training is inferior to more than 6-8 weeks of conditioning or agility training? you are say that there is a limit of 6-8 weeks as to the human bodys ability to manifest a progressive adaptive response to conditioning training?! WELL SHIT! SOME ONE TELL ALL THE PROS WHO TRAIN FOR MORE THAN 6-8 WEEKS TO KNOCK THAT SILLY SHIT OFF CAUSE ALL YOU NEED IS A BARBELL TO GET FUCKKING STRONG!

  16. i dont know who this Welbourn fool who obviously has no real life experience in the matter thinks he is but fuckin Dave G obviously has at LEAST 9 years of NFL playing experience so he knows what the fuck those guys need to play better! you tell em Dave!
    http://www.littlefishcreative.com/gallery/images/publications/pdfs/jan05-welbourn.pdf
    For the record, Welbourn lists his personal best
    performance on the bench as six reps of 465
    pounds. His PR in the squat is 610 pounds.
    Welbourn says he has done 505 pounds in the
    Olympic-style back squat and 405 for five reps on a
    front squat. He lists his clean and jerk best at 396
    pounds. All his lifts were performed raw (without
    the use of supportive equipment like knee wraps,
    bench shirt, and squat suits).

  17. Ok guys let’s not get our panties in a bunch. Gant likes to do some conditioning challenges. So what?

    Just because there is a challenge every month or so doesn’t mean this site hasn’t lost sight of the big picture.

    There is no need for some flame war on this site. If you guys wanna act like a bunch of keyboard warriors who suck Cox ‘N’ Dix then take it somewhere else.

    Please no more of this silly bullshit.

    I’m not reading this pissing match on Sunday night, but if you’re bitching about the challenges and how they some how aren’t strength based like you want them, then go do a power meet. Or weightlifting. Or highland games. This is a training challenge, not a competition. A good competition has judges, sanctioned rules on exactly what you’re doing before you do it, and a quantifiable way of winning.

    And whether he’s right or wrong, elijah can still chill the fuck out. I don’t like whiners.

    –Justin

  18. ok, because A.C asked not to argue i won’t.

    but i really do want to argue, not just throw out words but give you facts.

    He didn’t tell you not to argue. He basically told you both to stop being queens about it.

    –Justin


    Let me give you the facts, Dave. I’m tired of your trolling and trying to find a reason not to suspend your account. I know who you are, and I have watched several of your “form check” videos on your youtube channel. I appreciate your enthusiasm for 70sBig, but I’m going to suggest that you’re not yet the final authority on how to get big and strong.

    BTW, on your squats, your wide stance is cutting your depth off. It’s also forcing that second knee wobble to the outside. You can’t get good depth, bounce, or hip drive with that stance. Bring it in and concentrate on keeping your knees out.

    On DL, bring your stance in a touch and your grip in a lot. You’re too wide, and you’re losing the external rotation in the knee when you pull off the floor. That’s also why your knees are caving. Finish the pull and stand tall at the top.

    More lifting. Not more talking. Sounds like a deal.

    -Gant

  19. true. elijah should chill the fuck out. sorry DaveG that was poorly done and i DID sound like a queen my bad. i wouldnt talk to someone like that in real life and so should not on a message board. please excuse me.

  20. Here’s the deal: I’m not forcing anybody to do this damn challenge. If I had that kind of power, I’d force DaveG to go to bed because he is a 17 year old kid with less than two years of barbell training under his belt. I’d also force Justin to find himself a pair of respectable short pants, but what the hell, I’ve lost touch the young generation.

    The point of having these training challenges every couple months is to liven things up. They have to be just a little stupid so you can remember why you don’t train that way every day.

    The reason that these aren’t limit strength challenges is, well, because we already have those. They’re called PL and OL meets. These are based on BW to give everyone a shot at this.

    If you guys want to challenge yourself and try something different, great. I’ll be joining you. If not, take your Strawberry Hill, your Fleshlight, and your Fundies over to troll another site.

  21. these challenges are great–i took a 2 day break from my training and hit the last 225 challenge, then had a rest week. i came back and all my lifts, particularly my squat progressed like crazy.

    where can i find a pair of short pants of the respectable variety? actually…what the hell are short pants?

  22. meh, i guess gant is right in the sense that we shouldn’t e-fight. and i guess people do need challenges and compete with each other… sometimes it might be more conditioning based and sometimes strength based…


    Good man. Real fighting is better. Look at the next two challenges, and you’ll see a trend. We’re getting heavy and going back for another TSC (which is a good test of functional fitness IMO (I hate that word).

    You accuse me of crossfittery. Realize that random training (them) is very different from random training challenges (me). Very different.

    The benching was woefully inadequate in May. Rather than program moderate bench for sets, which is dangerous, I opted for overhead. I picked a scheme that, if attempted two or three times, will net these guys some shoulder and arm hypertrophy which–you guessed it–will help their pressing.

    If you ever doubt where my heart is, you can check my log:
    http://www.cathletics.com/forum/showthread.php?p=78171#post78171

    You won’t see much conditioning until judo season.

    Make the changes I suggested to your squat and DL and send them to me. We’re here to help. Stop being an ass and start listening. We will get your stronger.

    -Gant

  23. August Olympic Power Challenge (courtesy of NolanPower)

    1RM, in 3 attempts, of:
    1) snatch
    2) clean and jerk
    3) squat
    4) bench press
    5) deadlift

    ***

    September Challenge: Tactical Strength Challenge

    * A three-attempt powerlifting deadlift
    * Pullups for max reps
    * Kettlebell snatches for max reps in a 5:00 time period

  24. Gant, i know you’ll get this question so can the snatch and clean & jerk be of the power variety or are we sticking to the classical lifts?


    I was hoping I wouldn’t, but you’re probably right.

    Folks, there is no requirement in a weightlifting comp to do the full squat version of each lift. The full versions are done because that is the most efficient way to pull yourself under the most weight. You can muscle snatch, squat snatch, split clean, power jerk, whatever. Just remember the snatch is ground to OH (in a locked out position) in one movement; CJ is ground to rack in one movement and jerked to lockout in one movement (no pressouts). That’s it.

    I do the power versions of both lifts.

    -Gant

    Most people pressout when they muscle snatch, so I’d say don’t even bother with the muscle snatch unless your name begins with “L” and ends with “itvinov”.

    –Justin

  25. You accuse me of crossfittery lol


    It’s like The Crucible in here. Anyone accused of Crossfittery may rebut this charge by bench pressing in a weight belt and eating a doughnut while wearing a shirt.

    -Gant

  26. hahahaha or all you have to do is show video proof that you A: train with your shirt on and B: are not COVERED in chalk by the end of your warm up. i enjoyed my crossfitting but there was some seriously silly stuff goin on haha

  27. gant, quite frequently i’m pissed as hell.

    today i was supposed to squat 285 3×5(LONG OVERDUE, I WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE 315 ON MY BACK ON MARCH), and failed on my 4th rep. why? why? why?
    i gained weight(galloning it) and i slept well. i’m coming out of my 5th frigging deload, and a week off. i really bombed that 5th deload because i went down all the way to 225 and worked up again. before that i got stuck at 280lbs. between these times i gained 18lbs. i didn’t gain much fat, so what did i gain?
    why am i not progressing? i can’t waste my time on deloads(again) and silly shit like this. my season starts on august 16th.

    what should i do?

  28. and to save you time, yes, i still progress very well on everything else.

    it’s kinda funny really because i’m a football player coming from a training background(i’m playing football only for a year and a half) but i’m picking up football so much easier and i’m doing really good, as opposed to the gym, the place that i spend so much time in and the nutrition and everything, and yet i still suck at it. my genetics aren’t bad at all either.

  29. daveG, i was having issues with my squat earlier this year. do you have any minor low back pain or injuries which are nagging? after deloading once at low weight after a stupid injury, i ended up building back up with 5x5s to 250 ish, making jumps of only 5 lbs. i then took about 1-2 weeks of pure rest, still eating well.

    after that any nagging pain disappeared, my form improved, and my squat progressed like crazy. today i hit 333.5.

    for me, it was like my body needed to catch up with my training. i’m sure some weakness(es) strengthened during the rest period (not to mention i let my injury fully recover) and allowed me to push on with greater intensity. i feel like the increased volume at lower weight also helped me just concentrate on sticking my squat form.

  30. DaveG, if your football is going well, that’s the important thing. The best players usually aren’t the best guys in the weight room.

    IMO, based on watching your latest vid, you’re not progressing as quickly because you’re not engaging your hammies to the fullest extent. You have a wide stance, which makes it hard to hit depth (and potentially dangerous unless you wrap your knees). The knee wobble is caused by your abductors struggling to keep the knees externally rotated in this wide stance (which is difficult).

    Narrow your stance and point the toes out a little more. Do 3×5 one day and 1×5 (heavy set) another day. The best thing you can do in the next six weeks is work on grooving a good pattern in.

    You’re not getting fat (which would help) because you’re a teenager. You’re not skinny, you’re just a typical thin, active kid.

    If you want to play college ball, start running your 20s and 40s now. Work on your shuttle, and practice your vertical because you’ll be tested on those. Look at Joe DeFranco’s stuff on tricking up your vertical jump.

    Make a videotape of yourself doing these things. If you haven’t put highlights together, start doing it NOW. If you have highlights from your junior year, send them to colleges NOW so you can get on their recruitment radar.

    Pick the schools you want to go to and group them by safety schools (those you can easily play for), targets (those you would be competitive at getting into), and reaches (those that are probably beyond you).

    Be honest in your assessment. When I was your age, I had a D-1 Top 25 mindset. I ignored scholarship offers from good D-2 and D-3 schools and invites from small D-1s because I thought I was better than I was. Don’t let this happen to you.

    Couple things:

    1. There is ALWAYS a place where you can go play. I didn’t do any recruiting whatsoever (didn’t know if I wanted to play) and started looking in March of my senior year. The school was extremely shitty, but I went and played somewhere my freshman year. It wasn’t worth it at all, but you can play somewhere if that’s all you care about, but I wouldn’t recommend it. You can e-mail me for ideas.

    2. Consider yourself lucky that Gant is for some reason spending this much time on you. I would assume he thinks you are in a delicate age where you can be turned into a non-pain-in-the-ass, so just be thankful for the time he is spending. You’d be smart to heed his advice.

    –Justin

  31. a week or two ago i was talking with john sheaffer and here’s what he recommended to do:

    monday – barbells + agility(with a conditioning taste to it)
    tuesday – rest
    wednesday – barbells + conditioning(hills and tire pushes)
    thursday – rest
    friday – barbells
    saturday – linear speed(hills – 4×15, then regular 6×10, 5×15, 3×20, 3×30)
    sunday – off.

    do you think i should keep everything the same? and the barbell training session should alternate between 3×5 and 1×5 heavy for everything or just for squats?(everything is going well but squats) perhaps i should add jumps somewhere? they aren’t really all

    i fixed the width and depth.

    i already have my list of schools(lower end d1, d1-aa and d2). i’m not listing d3 not because of the level but because they don’t offer scholarships.
    as soon as i’m getting a recommendation letter from my coach, i’ll film my 40, shuttle and vertical and send emails.

    my school doesn’t test for anything so i’m not worried about my 40, vertical or shuttle, but with that being, filming myself doing them can get me some exposure because i didn’t play well my junior year and i’ll have to bomb it my senior year(i already know i’ll do good on it).

    sorry if there are any typos because i’m going to work now.

  32. @DaveG:

    “i’m not listing d3 not because of the level but because they don’t offer scholarships.”

    Yes, but they offer academic and merit scholarships. The better you play, the smarter they’ll consider you to be.

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