Heads Up

Thursday AC and I leave for California so that we can drop kick people at three different 70’s Big Workshops. Here is where we will be, starting this saturday:

10:00 AM, Saturday August 7th, 2010 in El Segundo, CA (near Los Angeles)
Click To Register
CrossFit Intrepid
616 E. Franklin Ave.
El Segundo, CA 90245
ruth@crossfitintrepid.com | 310.465.6565

9:00 AM, Sunday August 8th, 2010 in Sand City, CA (near Monterey, CA)
To register, send an e-mail to Jacob.
CrossFit Monterey
337 Olympia Avenue, Unit B
Sand City, CA 93955
CrossFitMonterey@gmail.com | 831-920-3522

10:00 AM, Saturday August 14th, 2010 in Sacramento, CA
To register, send Ian an e-mail.
CrossFit Centurion
11300 Sanders Drive #25
Rancho Cordova, Ca.
staff@crossfitcenturion.com | (916) 207-7600

Cliff notes: We’ll be around Los Angeles Saturday, around Monterey on Sunday, and then around Sacramento the following Saturday. We’ll also be doing some coaching throughout, so if you’re anywhere in between or around these areas and want/need some help, just shoot me an e-mail.
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Werner Günthör

Meet Werner Günthör, a powerful athlete from Switzerland. Günthör was an athletic shot putter who stood 6’6″ and weighed close to 300 pounds of pure 70’s Bigness (this website lists him at 130kg). His best put was 22.75 meters in 1988 in Bern — that’s about 74.5 feet. Günthör won a bronze medal in the 1988 Olympics as well as three world championships in the late 80s and early 90s. He also won an indoor world championship and European championship. You can find videos of Günthör training on YouTube. His training is pretty sweet, and here is my favorite video (the last sequence is the best):



How awesome was that? When I do conditioning work, it is going to be modeled after Günthör’s plyometric training, particularly sequences of jumping high and bounding. A quick note: if you play around with stuff like that, ease your way into it. Hardcore plyometrics are for more advanced trainees.

Here is another video of Günthör and who I assume is his training partner. The whole video is an impressive showing of athleticism and displays the old school mindset of including related physical conditioning to training.

Ladies will want to fast forward to 1:43.
More intense plyo training at 2:38.
3:33 is the start of a hilarious montage of Günthör doing all kinds of awesome things, including playing tennis. You can’t really get an idea of how massive this guy is until he wedges a racket in his fist. There’s another really funny part that I’ll let you see for yourself, so this would be the best part of the video if you were strapped for time.



Günthör is one of my favorite athletes because of his explosive training and awesome style.

23 thoughts on “Heads Up

  1. The box jumping on tjhe first vid is awesome.

    I first saw that on strength feats youtube video.

    What’s your opinion on plyomentrics for olympic lifting?

    There are a few notable cases where i see a bit of it:

    -watching the polish team train for beijing, a lot of them were doing high box jumps.

    -urik vardanian (a guy from the 70’s who’s total has still not been beaten despite the weight division being made higher)used to do plyo after his training session. When he made a good lift he used to jump OVER the chalk stand in celebration.

    -Naim suleymanoglu’s training log at the begining of his career consisted of 50 jumps at the end of his session.

    You think there is anything in it?

  2. how old is brent kim?

    how much did the Swiss Olympic team pay him for using his traps for plyos at 00:54 of the first video?

    i’ll stop if someone tells me that this shit is getting old.

    if anything the joke’s not being used enough

    – brent

  3. It’s hard to imagine a better life than that depicted in the second video. I could certainly handle hanging out at the beach and lifting weights. The problem of course is what you do when it all ends, but it seems from Wikipedia that Gunthor has done ok for himself.

  4. Any chance you rods of meat (what my loved ones call me) will ever make it to the east coast or D.C. metro area? DC is characterized by skinny effeminate dudes in tight shirts and pants who blast their bis and tris 24/7.
    Gunthor kicks ass

  5. Are you guys still going to make it out to the Kelowna, BC area for a workshop? If you guys are in BC, I will be there.

    As far as doing plyometrics for an O-lift program I think its definately worth wile. O-lifts are basically jumping with weights, so other jumps/explosive movements would only help.

  6. Awesome video. Very sad that I won’t be able to make it to that seminar in Sacramento.

    Here is the Facebook status of one of my friends, who is traveling the world: “Today, I saw bear on the menu, with the caption underneath ‘available upon successful hunt’. Really, Estonia?”

  7. I loved the previous vid of Werner Günthör you guys posted about 6 months ago, I just love that dude – I swear I would die a happy man if I get 1/2 as explosive and as strong as him

  8. I can’t get over how big he is….that lady rubbing down his quad looks like an infant compared to his sheer manhood. I also will no longer be growing a respectable moustache in October, I’m starting today.

  9. A new bar has been set for 70s Big shorts. Justin has already complied with his “Speedo in Flight” at the beach. Fellas? Feel free to attach photos or forward them to me :)

  10. Hey Brent,

    You thought of launcing your own clothing/fragrance line? Could call it “Asian Traps”, add a mullet and tache speedos, striding out of the sea………. Think old spice crossed with davidof cool water

    John

  11. “Asian Traps” by Brent Kim

    The new fragrance from ShrugScents is an uncompromising blend of chalk, ammonia caps and Mongolian BBQ and can be worn day or night by the modern 70s Big gentleman.
    Like the wily, belligerent Korean man/child it was designed by, this cologne takes no prisoners.

    You don’t wear Asian Traps. It wears you.

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