Eye Opening

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Folks, we talk a lot about barbell training on this site, but we ignore too many other forms of training out there. For instance, look at the utility in this equipment:



First, they save you $125. What you are saving it on is immaterial. Instead, look at the set-up. Yes, the actor may be a bit smaller than us, but look at his attire. He looks great! And he’s so functional — the shaking he experiences on the ring push-ups means he’s building functionality that can’t be attained anywhere else.

As far as programs go, P90X is magnificent. If you go to 1:48 in this video and watch the progress pictures, you’ll notice how P90X magnificently removed body hair from this subject. Magnificent ;-)



Lastly, a lot of you have been thinking about trying out Olympic lifting. I advise you, good sirs, to obtain optimal form with PVC pipe before attempting it with a bar. If you can’t do it with PVC, how can you do it with a load?


I am so excited to announce that it is PR Friday! I caution you “heavy eaters” out there to not post today, let’s focus on healthy eating in this PR Friday. The only people that can post are lifters who eat less than 50 grams of carbohydrates a day and squat more than 500 pounds. Also, if you don’t do everything I say, you can’t post here either. Oh, and you have to call me High Chancellor when you do it. Or else.

62 thoughts on “Eye Opening”

  1. That girl is hot, so her form gets a pass.

    Btw I lost it at this part: “Yes, the actor may be a bit smaller than us, but look at his attire. He looks great!”

    As well as at 1:10 in the first video, when he’s doing something that I can only imagine is a practice in “core stabilization” for the obliques (or something else equally stupid).

  2. This ridiculousness of this post reminds me of tonight when a skinny guy that first asked me the weight of a smith machine bar and then proceeded to chastise me about equipment use.

    I explained how I never use a smith machine and then he made an excuse about not having a spotter for squats. I told him that I can squat over 400lbs and just to drop the weight in a power rack if you are by yourself. A power rack is built to do that. This skinny guy then asked if I cared about the equipment at all and proceeded to ask if I was in the Air Force (since it was the base gym). He said that he wasn’t in the Air Force and even he cared more about the equipment than me.

    Later in my workout, I went to the lifting platform and did some 220lbs+ clean and jerks to pretty much just spite him and then proceeded to drop the bumper plates on the ground from full height. My fiancée said that the skinny guy had a look of fear on his face.

  4. Man, such amazing functional strength and power in these videos, I’ve been doing it wrong. Also eating far too many carbs. High Chancellor Justin, is there any way you can forgive me for my ignorance and set me on the path of natural food, no carbs, and fantastic clothing?

    No, you must burn in ignorance.

    –Justin

  6. Good day, High Chancellor.
    PR:
    Front Squat 3x5x185lb
    Chins+5lb 3×5

    Likely injury free at this point and back to normal training this weekend.

    x156

  7. Got my PR deadlift of 402# at a meet last Saturday. Didn’t do so well on squat and BP. I’ll do better next time…

    M / 50 / 6’1″ / 211 lbs

  8. Forgive me High Chancellor, no PRs this week.

    Back up to previous strength levels after the flu and some distractions, hopefully have something to report next week (and every week there after).

    I’m pretty sure I brushed 50g of carbs out of my teeth this morning after breakfast.

    I lol’d at the last part.

    –Justin

  13. so just to be clear, doing p90x not only makes you burn muscle and shave your hair, but it also makes you doing clapping pushups?

    ordering mine today

  15. High Chancellor, I have PRs to report!

    360×3 squat (ties all time PR)
    140×5 Press
    235×1 Bench

    231 BW (highest BW since I first quite being overweight and started lifting)

    Also, PR for no soreness in adductors due to the acquisition of lifting shoes.

    @NolanPower- that’s an amazing flowchart dude, nice!

  17. The most tragic thing about this post is after i saw the first video my first thought was “i’ve seen worse”.

    food PR:
    3 sausages, 4 bacon rashers, 4 egg omelette with beans on the side

  18. The vids are blocked at work for me, but all these comments make me want to leave work early just to watch them.

    I’m helping a friend move today, looking forward to throwing around some furniture!

  20. I thnik all of us are missing the pint here,

    the guy in the p90x video is excused from all ridicule for the simple fact he used the theme song from Bloodsport for his video

  21. High Chancellor,
    I ate less than 50g carbs yesterday, as long as beer, taco shells and tortillas don’t count.

    I can also squat 600#… but it takes me 2 reps to do so.

    Bodyweight PR, 185#(6′,165# this time last year)… I guess I am a 43 yr old adolescent… for now! (still working on consistent calorie intake)

    This.

    –Justin

  24. Did a good 10×147,5kg DL-set (325lbs) I think. So that is probably a rep-pr or something.

    And I eat less than 30g of carbs a day on a regular basis :)

  25. PR: 25 Ultimate body presses.

    Seriously, though:
    Squat 400 x 1 x 5
    Bench 265 x 1 x 5
    Deadlift 450 x 1 x 5

    I would also like to say rest in peace to Fast Food Fridays. Aside from milk it’s one of the best bulking tools I’ve ever used.

  26. I have a question for the peanut gallery: I FINALLY started putting on weight. I burned off some fat and got stronger. It was slow at first. I went from 195 to 206 in a couple of months, but the last 5 pounds came on fast when I switched my diet to tubs of chicken thighs, tuna pasta salad, and half gallons of milk. My question is: does weight gain start off slow and then get progressively easier?

    PRs… in the last week, 240 pound Jerk from rack, 185 3RM thruster, Snatch 155, CJ 195, others as well based on perceived RMs. This diet and weight lifting shit works!

    Instead, I think that you slowly ramped the eating since gaining weight is a result of eating. It’s the dependent variable here.

    –Justin

  27. PRs:
    Squat: 365# 1×5
    Deadlift: 395# 1×3
    OHP: 150# 1×5
    Barbell Row: 205# 3×5
    Bodyweight: been 201# for two weeks

    Health: got blood tests and a physical. I’m perfectly normal, perfectly healthy. Cholesterol and all that stuff is in the exceedingly good range, certainly in some part due to training hard with barbells and eating plenty of good whole foods and 30 eggs/week. Oh, I mean I’m healthy except I’m too heavy and shouldn’t lift anything over 20# or 30#, and then only if I’m laying on something to support me and they are not free weights. Thanks doc.

    Training consistency and planning: I haven’t skipped a training session in over five months, even though I really wanted to ten or fifteen times. That’s the key to progress. I have two weeks until my first meet and have everything planned thanks to Justin’s advice.

    I’ve done the plyometrics P90X video. It’s actually a decent conditioning workout. Anyone who thinks they’ll get much stronger or truly fit jupming around and doing isometrics and the stuff in the other videos is in need of guidance.

  28. First post on 70’s Big. The GF and I both had some big PR’s this week. In my mind, her’s are much more impressive:

    Tiff – 5’2″, 125 lb
    Squat – 175lbx5x3
    Dead – 200lbx5, 235lbx1, 250lbx1 (all PR’s)

    Me – 5’6″, 160 lb (I know, I know…)
    Snatch – 185 lb
    C & J – 250 lb

  31. BAAAA The Rack video was priceless, thanks for that Melissa.

    PRs…

    Squats: 330×19
    -I havent gone higher than say… 10 in the last few years, but I have been doing the GSLP so on that last of 5+ I just pushed it… pretty happy about this

    Lacrosse: A bunch of the kids I coach were in awe last night when they saw me shooting on our goalie. They asked me how to get a faster shot, I told them they need to start squatting. I hope they take the bait!

  33. High Chancellor,

    I ate 10 lbs of tofu then overhead squatted a PVC pipe full of dark matter. Dark matter is infinitely dense, this means I over head squatted a PVC pipe with infinite weight. So, suck it.

    I sent it in the crossfit.com but they said they would only post it if I squatted a woman over my head with infinite weight. I said such a woman does not exist!

    So, I spent the rest of the week channeling my rage into writing techno beats on my mac while doing coffee enemas and learning French.

    Thank you Roseatta Stone and 70s BIG!!!!!!!!!!!

    This was good.

    –Justin

  35. @rpbrown
    yeah it felt pretty easy up to about rep 12 then I slowed down and had to take a breath b/w each rep… but the GSLP says to go for almost broke, so I did that and happened to get 19 b/c I knew 20 would burry me.

    Also, i dont know how this hasnt made it on here yet but its pretty much perfect…

  36. Squatted 305×5, which ties a previous record. Trying hard to balance lifting with the beginning of track season…

    Joke answer: I hit 15 reps on the Shake Weight snatch, and I followed that up with some functional corework.

    Goddammit my muscles are confused!

  38. Forgive me High Chancellor Lascek because I have sinned. It all started with a 5 eggs and ½ pound of bacon for breakfast, after that came some pancakes, a milkshake and 1/1 chicken. It all ended with me shamefully PR’ing 342x5x3 in Squat, 232x5x4 in benchpress and 375×5 in deadlift. To put further shame on me I snacked 20 nuggets in between sets. It all ended with me measureing my frame… 210 pound on 5’11…

  40. No training PR’s this week. Took the week off as I’ve been doing some MMA Classes to help better prepare me for this summers tag team series I’m doing (Got about 15 tag matches to do that I’ve been told are going to need to go longer than 25 minutes).

    Did some digging around and discovered the CFWF Program Justin wrote up and have been looking into it more as my strength has shot up a lot over the past 9 months since I discovered barbell training but I’ve not done a lot for myself on nutrition or conditioning (Admittedly all my fault as well).

    At this point I’m just rambling. Had an offer for my day job (Selling gym memberships at Anytime Fitness) to pay for my personal trainer certification through ISSA as I live in Graham, TX where there are a grand total of 4 personal trainers… one is a 130 lb spin bike instructor (Guy), a crazy black woman, a 160 (On a good day) lb coke addict (Guy) and a girl who is pretty knowledgable but doesnt market her business. I feel like I can’t do to much damage to the market and its free education

  41. This is my first post on here.

    No real PRs, but I did get 10×3 on bench ending with 245.

    Also, while I was doing my squats, some short guy told me how I do to much leg work (I squat one day, oly lift the next). He also said I need a wider stance and a more vertical torso (i’m doing low bar squats).

    Then he went into how he always does reps at 20 or higher. He also said in his prime he squatted over 500 pounds 50 times. The best part was this guy has talked about it before, so I know he is not april fooling me. I think he might just be a year-round bullshitter.

  44. Long time lurker first time posting.

    I switched to a TM set up bout 5 weeks ago after doing SS linear progression. The problem I’m having is recovery of late as sleep is hard to come by at the fire station I work at.

    Anyways PR’s for the week:
    Deadlift 385×5 DOH
    Press 175×3
    power clean 240
    200# male

  45. Following Greyskull LP:

    Bench PR: 260 5×2+6
    Press PR: 165 5×2+6

    18 months ago my single rep Press PR was 145.

    Justin,
    I reset my squat per your suggestion and today was back to the weight, 285, I would have attempted at the time of the Atl seminar before I reset. Weight felt easy, got 7 reps on 3rd set could have done 8. Your form tip was perfect.

    I’ll be in Panama City next week with the family. Wouldn’t mind sneaking away for a workout if your around and up for it.

  47. I lifted at Masters Nationals in Savannah today. I was coached by the most awesome Caleb Ward who is currently my favorite person on the planet.

    I went in having no idea if I would even be able to jerk. I’ve only jerked twice in the last 6 weeks. On Tuesday, I was unable to lock out 73 lbs without pain, so I figured I might be fucked. But, on Wednesday, my PT told me to take some ibuprofen and stop being a pussy.

    I wanted at least a 102 total to qualify for Masters Worlds, so I planned to be very conservative on my snatch and open with 45.

    I ended up going 6 for 6.

    Snatch: 45-47-50
    C&J: 52-57-60

    110 total. No PRs but that wasn’t the plan. Really very super happy right now.

  50. Bench press 300×5 pr
    Squat 355×5 pr
    This is my second week on creatine and my 300×5 on bench felt a little easier than my 295×5 did last week.
    My 355×5 squat was damn hard though. But considering the fact my 1rm was 365 8 weeks ago I’ll take it. This Texas Method and eating whatever in the hell I want to has been fucking awesome.

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