Edit: There is a t-shirt poll on the left side bar.
The ten day California journey is over. We drove to Sacramento on Friday and met up with Ben Claridad, a strong and funny Olympic weightlifter (that means he gets along fine with us). Ben, AC, and I trained at Camilo Gutierrez’s Midtown Strength and Conditioning that evening. Camilo is a real nice guy and has a pretty sweet facility that is home to some strong geared powerlifters and other strength/power athletes. After training we ate some pizza and basically had a sleep over at Ben’s where I watched AC and Ben play some videogames.
The next morning Ian Carver of CF Centurion hosted the last 70’s Big Workshop of our Cali tour. Ian is a law enforcement officer and, according to his wife, is “old”. In any case, they have a beautiful family and we had a lot of fun at their facility. There were almost 25 people at the workshop including 7 or 8 women who could be our spokes model on why women who train are wonderfully in shape and attractive.
After the workshop, we had Chipotle burritos, beer, and did some coaching for some of the people that hung around till 8:00 PM or so. AC and I drove to the Sacramento airport, dropped the rental car off, got to our terminal, and boarded the red eye flight to Charlotte. I didn’t sleep at all on this flight and felt like I was in hell when I sat there with everyone asleep around me, had nothing to do, and couldn’t get in any kind of comfortable position. I slept on the hopper flight to Atlanta for about an hour.
When I finally got back to my mom’s house outside of Atlanta, I was smelly and exhausted and slept for a few hours, then fell asleep by 7:00 PM and didn’t wake up until this morning (hence the late post). In any case, it was a good cap to the excellent trip where we met and hung out with lots of great people, trained a bit, and hopefully gave everyone a good show. Here are some random pictures from my phone.
The exquisite Double Double from In-N-Out
My brother and his wife's cat. He looks like Snarf from Thundercats.
AC's first time in San Francisco. I was still thoroughly unimpressed.
AC tried on Ben's Captain America shield.
Ian snatches while Ben (behind Ian), AC, and I stand watching.
Did you wear your 70’s big t-shirt in san francisco?
Because…umm…a lot of the men in that area…umm…would have liked the pic of a big hairy male…and not associated it with strength from the 70’s, but associated it with this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_(gay_culture)
ya dig?
Actually i forgot to post my real question:
I notice ian is snatching with a harbinger nylon belt. I do this also.
Conventionally no belt is worn on the snatch becuase the bar hits the belt.
I haven’t ever hit the bar against my harbinger belt. I wear the buckle off to one side.
Am i not hitting the belt because;
a)bad bar path/lack of hard shrug?
b)long arms?
c)the belt is very thin and flat, and i don’t have a beer gut?
any ideas?
You’re putting too much thought into this. I’ve noticed you do this on occasion. Ian has a similar height to me, but he weighs around 190 (I think?). He is a lean muscular guy, but has less girth so this could be why he doesn’t wear the belt. I also wouldn’t say it’s conventional to hit the belt — it isn’t conventional to have a sexually vertical bar path like me.
–Justin
that double-double looks amazing.
In-N-Out is truly a terrific California institution.
Captain America shield for the win.
Justin and A.C. – Thanks so much for all of the information you provided at the workshop. You exceded my expectations and I am totally fired up to take my training to the next level.
Next time you’re back in Cali you’ve got to hit up the 4×4
http://www.in-n-out.com/secretmenu.asp
Kristi
Thanks Kristi, glad you enjoyed it. I’ve had something like the 4×4 before, and I just like the meat/cheese/veggie ratio of the Double Double. That’s why I ate three of them on Friday.
–Justin
There’s a t-shirt poll on the left side bar. If you like the shirt, it’ll be released soon. If the shirt isn’t liked, then you’ll have to wait.
Sounds like its time for a female to be inducted into the hall or fame.
…to be an ass
I was just in Cali (I live in MD) and my (newly adult male) friend and I slammed two 4×4’s in one sitting our first night there…just saying.
*two each
Where is a good website(s) for finding oly lifting comps? Thanks!
What did you guys do in SF? If I knew you were going there I could have recomended a few places to check out and eat.
AC should be playing Captain America in this new movie coming out next summer. That other guy can fuck off.
I fuckin know right? This is bullshit.
–A.C.
my parents found you guys delightful. Must be why they let us stay up past 10 and drink Mountain dew.
Still upset I didn’t stay in the helicopter.
@AC- “RACHAEL!”
@Buscotucky If you live on the west coast
http://www.lifttilyadie.com/PWA/10Schedule.htm
I enjoyed eating pizza an doing the dew at your parents house. Sorry I got us killed again. Those zombies had leverage over me.
–A.C.
I had Chipotle as well…I get basically everything in it except for sour cream (and guac since it costs extra). Shit’s beyond delicious.
By the way, you mentioned that you guys had beers…does that mean that AC is finally coming around?
@Buscotucky
go to http://weightlifting.teamusa.org/
you can click events or something and theres a listing of all upcoming comps, I think you can search by region or whatever as well.
I’m pretty sure that list isn’t comprehensive. There might be a state website you can check for the smaller meets. I know that the Florida Weightlifting Federation site does so.
–Justin
I like the shirt idea, but would highly suggest going with a different shirt brand. The brown 70sbig shirt I have is made by Gildan (in Haiti), has a “box” fit, and has already torn a seam after just a couple weeks, which is a shame, because I enjoy the design. I prefer American Apparel for a mostly cotton type shirt – they fit better, last forever, and are made in ‘Merica. Or, for a mostly poly workout shirt that doesn’t let the bar slip on squats but still dries quickly for us sweaty bastards, the Anvil Dri-release shirt I got from Pendlay is fucking awesome (85 poly/15 cotton, made in Honduras). Any screen printer should be able to get blank American Apparel shirts for dirt cheap, too.
Sure, AA shirts are soft and stuff. But go look at the guys on the website…
The black shirts used to be Anvil. I’ve never had a problem with any of the shirts (I have several of both shirts we have out) and I’d like to think I wear them more than you (for training and otherwise). I’ve been thinking about having some shirts made with AA shirts, but I doubt they are very cheap (although it would make sense because they aren’t spending any money on food for their models).
–Justin
I went to the workshop that was some good stuff. a lot of great information delivered with a sense of humor. Thanks Justin, A.C. and Ben. Glad I met you guys.
PS we never went over the proper execution of 70’s Big face.
Bryan S
Oh man. I’m gonna have to make this an official part of the presentation.
–Justin
“You’re putting too much thought into this. I’ve noticed you do this on occasion. Ian has a similar height to me, but he weighs around 190 (I think?). He is a lean muscular guy, but has less girth so this could be why he doesn’t wear the belt. I also wouldn’t say it’s conventional to hit the belt — it isn’t conventional to have a sexually vertical bar path like me.
–Justin”
Yes i do it a lot. Unfortunately it is a side effect of being self-taught. I constantly question minor details since i have no real reference point to go by.
I noticed in a previous post you said the bar touched your belt due to vertical bar path, I just incorrectly assumed that everyone should have this and strive for it.
Thanks for the tips – i have used EVERY single piece during my lifts with great sucess
Good times at the seminar, I got a lot useful information that I plan on incorporating in my training to get ready for USAPL meet in the fall. It was great meeting AC and Justin, picking their brains while cracking some jokes.
Justin and A.C.
Loved the seminar. I took away so much useful information. Can’t wait to put it into practice. You’ve really inspired me to change up my programming. I hope to take you up on your offer to help with it. Thanks for the coaching at the end. Wish you lived in California, would love to have your expertise while training. Hopefully you’ll be back doing another seminar soon, I’d love to bring people to it for the entertainment value and to benefit from your knowledge. Thanks again.
Vicki
those double doubles look amazing. im from the southern california area, but living over in korea right now and the double double is without a doubt the most missed thing from home in terms of food.
i agree with u about the way the double double is set up vs other things like 4×4. i have regularly got two orders of fries and two double doubles.
I agree, the American Apparel models are…disturbing. I assume you haven’t actually been in one of their stores, because then you’d probably ban the words from the site. But, irregardlessly, they make damn fine shirts, and the L-XXL have a good athletic cut that accentuates 70sbigness.
My 70sbig shirt ripped on the underarm seam, and I’m sporting .22 cal guns at best, so I was surprised as well. Not like I care that much – I’ll still wear it until my gf gets a chance to fix it.
I’m sorry you didn’t like SF. We have had some exceptionally shitty, cold weather this summer while the rest of the country was burning up.
I didn’t dislike SF because of the weather. I just don’t care for the city, or any city for that matter.
–Justin
I’ve used AA shirts for printing off customink.com before and they’re not too bad on price–if I remember right we only made about 20-30 shirts and they came out around $18 apiece even though we used 4 or 5 colors on the front and 2 on the back. You might have to pay a little more to get them to print a custom logo but since you’d obviously be making more than 30 your per-shirt price would start to drop. I’m thinking the Doug Young design wouldn’t be too pricey because it was only two ink colors. Lots of other good options on customink…ringer tees, 3/4 sleeve baseball shirts, stuff like that.
$18/shirt is a fuck load.
–Justin
Thanks for the leads on competitions. Harder to find than the powerlifting ones!
Quesiton about 70s big shirts – how big must one be to own and wear one of these shirts? I am 6 ft tall and weigh 240 and I only squat 260. Also, I do not compete. I just don’t want to be one of those douches I see in the gym who wear those bodybuilding.com shirts.
Thanks!
We aren’t elitist here. If you’re trying to get stronger and not being a pain in the ass about it, then you’re one of us.
–Justin
^ Justin, as I said $18 was for a fairly small order of shirts with a lot of colors. Ordering more shirts or designs with fewer colors makes the price more reasonable.
I just checked one of the designs I did and it was $19 per for the 30 we ordered, but when you increase the order to 350 shirts (spread among L, XL, and XXL) it drops under $12 each. Using 2 colors as opposed to 4 would make it them a few dollars cheaper than that.