Monday is 70’s Big Females day, presenting:
Growing Up Oly
by Cori Safe
Fortunately, I have had the opportunity to grow up in a strong, loving, and quintessential “70’s Big” community since birth. While we did not define it as 70’s Big, looking back I think we can name it as such. This is a story about growing up in the strength world.
One of my earliest memories from childhood is from my play pen. I remember sitting there watching my mom pound away at the stationary bicycle day in and day out. Obviously working on her six pack and getting ready for her next bodybuilding competition. I remember squats. Big squats. Powerlifting style with large men grunting, steel plates and bars banging against the floor and the racks. I remember my dad kicking a hole through the gym wall after a heavy squat. My brother and I would scoot our big wheels through our garage gym while friends of my parents would do endless pullups, deadlifts, and bicep curls. Yes, I grew up in a powerlifting and bodybuilding gym.
Luckily, my father Scott Safe (founder of Safe USA and coach of Team Cannon Weightlifting) learned from years of dealing with his own back pain and agony that competitive powerlifting was probably not the best way to train for sport or health. He had a different idea for his children. My brother and I were going to be Olympic lifters. And the plan was that we would be really, really freaking amazing at sports. Not to sound arrogant, but it worked.
As my father held an inventory for his weightlifting supply store, my brother and I would have free reign to the bars and plates in the shop after school. I remember playing with the “kid bar” around the age of 9 and thinking how empowering it was to power snatch. I absolutely loved how loud and annoying I could be. My father would say, “Okay that looks good, now try to take that snatch into the hole!” I would practice this afterschool until the age of ten when I decided that it was time for me to do my first weightlifting meet; The Minnesota LWC Open at a YWCA in Minneapolis. I was ready to show off my 20kg snatch with perfect technique, all the way into the hole. I stepped on the platform and completely forgot about the squat. My dad had told me prior to the meet that if I did not squat the weight, the judges would give me red lights. Of course, that is not correct, but he wanted me to lift correctly and I did not know any better. After my first snatch which I powered right up I said, “Hey dad, they gave it to me and I didn’t even have to squat!” He laughed and told me that I was correct and that he was just trying to get me to do it better than the other girls. Then, of course, I squat snatched from that moment on. Must be better than the other girls!
Speaking of, I remember showing up at meets and thinking that I needed to show these other girls who was the better lifter. I would take the bar during warm ups and be as loud as possible. When I would catch the bar, I would smack my feet down like it was serious business. (I realize that you should not be jumping and stomping, but you have to realize that my thinking as a teen was not about having perfect technique.) It always worked. Girls would stare at me, filled with fear and intimidation. Win!
Luckily, we always had a large competitive weightlifting team coached by my father. One of my biggest influences was my brother Nate and his circle of friends, all of which were excellent lifters. Not many girls wanted to lift with me, but the guys would always let me play. I would watch my brother finish his pull and explosively land the heaviest weights with ease. I would play copycat. I will credit having good technique to years of watching my brother and his friends and learning from them. It also proves how important it is to have good training partners and people to look up to.
At the 2004 Olympic Trials
After my brother graduated high school, he moved to Fargo to play football for North Dakota State University. He used his strength and power to become one of the best college left tackles in the nation. After he left, I struggled with my training. I didn’t want to lift and I did not feel that training was fun or inspiring anymore. I still ended up competing nationally and doing the Olympic trials for weightlifting in 2004, but I never felt the same about lifting. During the Olympic trials I acquired a bad case of Mono and was out for months.
I tried lifting again in college. We even started a team at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. There were a handful of us training together and we took a team to the Collegiate Nationals in Reno. I coached the team and lifted. Even still, my drive for weightlifting was dwindling. I was mentally burned out. So, I retired.
I took a few years off and I spent my weightlifting hiatus doing cardiotard classes like TurboKick, Zumba, and riding endless hours on the Elliptical machine trying to be skinny. Time to face the truth. My quads and shoulders are big. And strong. They are not meant to be compared to the twig fairy. They are 70’s Big. And beautiful.
Mentally, I was ready to lift again. I was ready to embrace the fact that I was born to lift. I was living in Chicago and wanted to lift and try this thing called CrossFit. A good friend of mine, Casey Burgener, suggested I check out Windy City CrossFit because they have an “Oly” program. GREAT! I can try out CrossFit and if I fail….I can just go back to lifting! While I will admit that I will probably never win a CrossFit championship, it has been great to push myself in new ways that I probably wouldn’t have done on my own. It is also nice to learn about other lifts besides the snatch and clean and jerk. And this thing called the pull up – moving my body around a bar rather than moving the bar around my body! What a concept! Anyway, I am not poking fun at CrossFit, but it is nice to have a balance between CrossFit and Oly lifting. It has helped me define my weaknesses (arms/shoulders/”core”) and strengthening these can only help my Olympic lifting.
And here we are today. Ellee and I both lift in Chicago and we are proud of our 70’s Big Female Asses! I feel good knowing that strength is appreciated in these parts. Again, I will say that I am lucky to be in a community full of strong females (and males) who believe that strength is more important that being skinny. I am lucky to have been in these types of communities my entire life.
I hope you enjoyed some of my stories from growing up Oly. I would like to thank my parents, brother, and friends who have molded me into the person that I am today. Thank you. 70’s Big Females – thank YOU for being YOU! Now go lift some heavy weights!
Love,
Cori
Best picture ever on this site…
Like, i’m not really into the whole female lifting scene…but i have a few questions…
…In a powerlfiting meet, during a bench press, isn’t breast size a massive factor – A girl with massive implants has got to do a lot less work then a girl a flatter chest?
Also, in olympic weightlifting, a good vertical bar path will result in the bar touching your shirt on the way up. Don’t boobs get in the way?
Like, do you have to purposfully loop the bar a little to prevent a boob-smash?
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if female oly lifters had higher incidence of wrist sprains due to said loopy bar path.
Does this make sense?
I will let the girls answer this, but even the most well endowed female, whether home grown or not, will have on sports bras that will reduce said boobage. They aren’t training in a corset.
–Justin
@Randle McMurphy, if after that article, that’s honestly your question….I have bad news for you my friend.
Cori, thanks for your story. Rest assured there is nothing hotter than a girl that can outfit the weak dudes in the gym. I love it.
And Randie, I am just going to assume that you’re trolling. Mainly because I would hate to be so closed minded as to assume you are serious which, ipso facto, would mean that you are, possibly, severely stupid.
Cori, Ellee, and all those 70s Big females, keep it up, and as always, stay real classy!
Cori – what were your Oly competition PRs?
Am I the only one who wants to like read these articles out loud and high five someone?! Great stuff here.
@Randle–at the powerlifting meet I went to last week there were a few female bench pressers and my girlfriend instantly asked the same question because one woman had only about 6 inches of distance to move the bar down and up and another had more like 18 inches. We couldn’t figure out how that’s worked out for judging.
@Anyone. I heard a typical story on the radio this morning. The story was about how sitting at a desk all day is terrible for your body in like every way possible. Agreed. They interviewed a guy who has “tight hamstrings, hips quads and glutes” causing low back pain and stiffness. His PT prescribed 12 exercises to stretch and strengthen those muscles. They listed a few of them (leg raises,etc). All I could think was “I know of one single exercise that I do after sitting in a chair all day which will take care of all of that: the barbell squat!” But naturally that wasn’t mentioned, nor was any weight training. http://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135575490/sitting-all-day-worse-for-you-than-you-might-think
Well it was on NPR, so there ya go.
–Justin
Great story, Cori! Impressive that you were able to lift at the Oly trials! That is an honor.
I didn’t know that you and Ellee lifted at Windy City Crossfit. Have you ever made it to one of the oly meets at Gattone Sports Performance over in Buffalo Grove? If so, I may have seen you there!
Finally, I agree with ry-b. Best. Picture. Ever. ;)
@Maslow,
depending on how one squats, it could only make the problem(s) worse.
Taking myself as an example, sitting all day does nothing to help my already tight hip flexors. With the olympic lifts being quad dominant, they generally end up just being sore, and get more tight (or sitting all day does nothing for recovery from said workouts, either way…).
I’ve found that sets of RDL’s have done wonders for this though, and they don’t even have to be that heavy. I was doing a russian based program with RDL’s, 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps at 70-90% of Clean max. Low back tightness/soreness as well as slight lordosis is all but gone.
I’d recommend foam rolling of the quads and Justin’s stretches he posted a while back as other helpful measures.
I’ll point out that two of the stretches (couch stretch and table stretch) are from Kelly Starrett. Definitely do both of those, especially the couch stretch (Maslow and bsmith9). Remember, I hurt myself squatting from sitting the previous day while traveling.
–Justin
@Justin,
I’ll have to look again as I forget what the “table stretch” was, but I was referring mostly to the “wall stretch” for the hip flexors.
He doesn’t call it the table stretch. It’s the second stretch in my vid. I’m doing it with my leg up on the couch — hip flexion and external rotation together. Sorta like yoga’s pigeon stretch. A variation is called the piriformis stretch by hippies.
–Justin
Great article, better picture.
Just my two cents on the whole sitting all day thing. I get really tight hip flexors also from working at a stupid computer all day. For the past several months I have been foam rolling and stretching everyday whether at work in my office or at the gym before/after I train. My soreness and tightness has gone down significantly. I also am going to construct a podium to place my keyboard and monitor on so I can stand while I am at work. I will attach a picture when its finished.
Sharing where you foam rolled or stretched may help the peanut gallery.
–Justin
[referenced video] http://youtu.be/y5EO8mPonO0
maybe the “table stretch” is the “wall stretch” I was referring to (the last one)
“Wall stretch” is “the couch stretch”. That’s what Kelly calls it. In Kelly’s videos he does the stretch I described in a comment above on a table, hence me calling it the table stretch.
–Justin
@Randle. Not sure about lifting with big boobs. Perhaps you should ask a women with big boobs and hopefully she doesn’t slap you across the face before you get your answer.
@Terrible – in competition my snatch PR is 75kg and CJ is 85kg
@Rygor – yes I have competed in Buffalo Grove! Great place, great people!
@Everyone Else – I hope your backs heal soon. Its not sexy to walk around like an old man. Man up!
Thanks for reading!
Cori
Really nice article, Cori!
Regarding the sitting all day thing…after a nasty bout of sciatica last November, I invested in one of these for my office. It allows me to work standing up or sitting down, without much futzing around. They’re not cheap, but worth it (for me). Also, I tested out the standing up workstation concept for a week by putting my machine up on a box first, to see how it would feel.
The Kangaroo – http://www.ergodesktop.com/products
USAPL Rule for bench press:
8. After receiving the signal, the lifter must lower the bar to the chest (the chest, for the purpose of the rule, finishes at the base of the sternum / breastbone), hold it motionless on the chest, after which the Chief referee will signal the audible command “Press”. The lifter must then return the bar to arms length with no excessive and immoderate uneven extension of the arms. When held motionless in this position the audible command “Rack” shall be given together with a backward motion of the arm.
From: http://www.usapowerlifting.com/aboutus/USAPLTechnicalRules20090800.pdf
It doesn’t say you have to come down to muscle or bone, so it sounds like having boobs (not even huge necessarily) would be a real advantage in the bench press. I’m definitely going to ask around about this. One woman I saw benching only had to come down like 1/4, which seemed pretty unfair since the other women had to go down closer to all the way.
@Maslow
I kind of see your point, but would you then argue that it’s unfair to have proportionately shorter arms for the bench press? Or proportionately longer arms for the deadlift? Hey, that guy only picked up the bar to his knees and I had to go all the way up to my crotch, not fair! The best guy bench pressers I’ve seen lower the bar about 4-6″ less than I do because of their massive chest development. Maybe it is a bit unfair, but it seems impossible to correct for all the small differences we see in the human body.
And chicks usually strap their boobage down with a sports bra, like I said earlier.
–Justin
@mike I agree with you. It’d be like saying a tall guy has an advantage in rebounding a baskteball. Some people have all the luck and are built more for one sport or another. However it’s not possible to make your legs grow longer through implants.
That’s an awsome environment you got to grow up in Cori. I’ve noticed that many girls who are weak have no problem with it what so ever. It’s like they think being weak is part of being a female, but as you and ellee have shown, women can be strong as well as smokin hot.
“In Kelly’s videos he does the stretch I described in a comment above on a table, hence me calling it the table stretch.”
I believe he refers to this in one of his early videos as ‘the ballerina stretch’
One thing that i think is funny is that you guys are always arguing how females should do less cardio stuff and more lifting stuff, which is fine.
But here in uk, shit is a lot different.
You’ll be hard pressed to find a girl who goes to a gym regular basis or participates in any physical activity.
Most girls here rely on good clothes, make up, youth and alcohol.
So the whole girls lifting thing is totally lost on me.
Thanks cori for the reply.
I actually bring this up because a female powerlifter brought it up.
One of her friends had a shit bench press. She got some implants, and her bench press went up as a result of the lack of ROM. Apprantly the rules state that you have to wear a sports bra, but apparantly she wasn’t taking this rule too seriously.
Objectification of women with 70’s Big derrieres… I approve. Momentary lordosis for added effect.
Anyone else annoyed by couples in the gym? Yes, you want to show off your girlfriend’s ass while she does empty bar RDLs, and I can see why. Neither one lifts maximal weights when they go together, and she’ll just flee to the treadmills when they don’t. She doesn’t care to learn, and he doesn’t coach properly.
So I just read all the comments, and unless I missed it, Randle didn’t really get a distinct answer…I think that were totally legitimate questions, and have contemplated them before as well…
Even with sports bras, bigger boobs are going to protrude more than smaller boobs. So…
…….butt.
@Randle
Doesn’t seem to be a problem in the snatch. Most lifters have an ‘s’ curve in their bar path anyway
“Love, Cori”
Love you too…
Cori,
Not sure you remember me but I watched you lift a few times when you were younger. I have also known your dad for a long time and have a lot of respect for him. Your dad and I took a coaching course together (I think it was the senior course) back in the 90’s. I was surprised at seeing him there when he showed up as I had read about his big deadlifts in PL USA magazine and assumed me was only into powerlifting. I still remember getting into a one-handed plate flipping contest with him with a 25kg Eleiko plate, as i remember we both got around 10 or 12 reps before dropping the weight. He is a strong guy and a very good guy. I also remember watching your brother and commenting to your dad about how if he grew any taller he would end up in the NFL. My first ever pair of lifting shoes was a pair of Safe shoes, blue high tops! Still have those shoes in the garage actually. I am trying to remember the last time I saw you lift and it might have been at the trials in 2004. I had I believe 8 lifters there and as I remember 2-3 of them had a long conversation in the motel about you, lol. I do believe they had a high level of appreciation for your physical appearance, to put it politely. I believe I also saw you at one or two Junior Nationals, but cant remember which ones. For some reason I am thinking 2002 in LA but could be wrong, I do remember that you were wearing a red singlet, pretty sure about that. My own son is doing much like you, he basically grew up in the gym, was doing overhead squats while still in diapers, competed in his first meet at 4 years old (7kg snatch, 12kg clean and jerk)and at 9 years old loves beating the other guys his age, or even the 11 and 12 year olds. Anyway, nice to hear from you and learn that you are getting back into lifting. If you ever get out to California, you have an open invitation to come train with us.
All the boob questions are making me wonder if the majority of you guys have actually ever made it to second base.
(Natural) breasts are soft tissue. Not only does a sports bra provide a smooshage factor (technical term), all but the youngest/ most perky tend to have a spread factor. (I refuse to believe you haven’t watched enough porn to notice the shape change when a woman is vertical vs horizontal).
Both of these limit the vertical depth of boobage when lying on a bench. Yes, there is a slight advantage for bigger chested women and an even bigger advantage with implants which are obviously not soft tissue.
I generally lower the bar to just below my breasts, ie all the way to the sternum, to work through full range of motion. But I suppose some women could/do take advantage and avoid that.
As far as oly lifting goes, any woman with a large enough chest to have to move the bar out, would probably be wearing a bra with a serious smooshage factor. The jumping in oly lifts would otherwise result in a large amount of movement that is generally very uncomfortable (although I’ve noticed some women have a higher tolerance than others).
I think this may be one reason why women might be reluctant to lift, particularly oly lift. A good sports bra for a bigger chest is hard to find and its hard to concentrate on form when you think the entire room (generally filled with male people) is watching your chest.
Hey Cori,
I got into Olympic lifting when I was 30, and it took me a while to hit a 70 kg snatch as a 200lb male, so I don’t think you need to call your lifts terrible. Seeing a woman like yourself snatch around or over BW is great.
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