Another Awesome Day

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Happy PR Friday — post your training updates and PR’s to the comments. Also, if you participate in another sport besides lifting, I’m interested to hear about it.
Today’s post is written by my homie Jacob Cloud. Enjoy.

Another Awesome Day
By Jacob Cloud

You ever just have one of those fucking awesome days? I have them all the damn time. Sometimes I share them with Justin, and sometimes he decides to share them with you guys. Last summer, I had an epic day full of mustachiod awesomeness, and snapped some pics, and Justin put it up for all to see. Check it out HERE.

Not too long after, I was training at the best gym in Austin, Hyde Park Gym…wait, let me tell you a little something about Hyde Park Gym. Actually, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Yeah, it’s awesome. So anyway, a few days after the article above, I walk into the gym, and I’m warming up for squats, and the front desk kid comes up and kinda sheepishly asks, “Hey man…are you Jacob, from 70sbig?” I knew I was going to like this guy right off the bat. Nevermind the fact that he knew my name from the sign in sheet. His next line guaranteed a bromance rivalled only by that of Justin and AC, or me and Kittensmash. He proceeded to comment, “Dang, you look bigger in real life.” It’s official – I fell for the guy. His name is Rory.

Now, Rory is no small fella himself. He ended his linear progression at about 5-foot-nuthin and 235 pounds, a big slap in the face to all you sub 6-footers complaining about becoming adult males. He and his dad also run a food trailer featuring delicious pork, which helps. The local paper wrote it up here and even described Rory as “a student and champion powerlifter with an easy charm that makes him a better customer ambassador than his dad, whose gruff manner takes some getting used to.” Nice. They spoke highly of the pig meat, too. Go to 3 Little Pigs. It’s road-trip-worthy. Trust me.


This guy works his ass off in the gym (literally – behind the desk as well as in the squat rack), and is shooting to demolish some raw squat records in the USAPL this year and next. Here’s a vid of his latest 495lb single in the middle of a nasty Smolov training cycle – while cutting down to the 198 class.


Rory’s my spotter at the gym, my good luck charm when I need to hit a PR, and my counter during high rep deads. He recently started at UT’s school of Engineering, so he’s real, real good at counting. And more importantly, he can get me on campus, which is where this story gets awesome and back on track. When I found out about the museum of lifting that Jan and Terry Todd have created at UT’s Stark Center, he’s the first guy I schemed with. “Oh, WE’RE GOING!”

Jan and Terry Todd have been called “The strongest couple in the world.” Both champion powerlifters and educators, they’ve spent the last 50 years collecting the coolest lifting-related shit in the world, and recently, with the help of some guy named Weider, they opened up an exhibit that anyone can see. So I, Rory, and another of our lifting buddies, Marlon (whose lifting exploits are second only to his Brent Kim log-stalking), sauntered over to campus to check it out. Guess what? It was awesome.

Unfortunately, some girl working the front desk didn’t allow me to bring my camera into the exhibit, so you’ll have to check it out yourself, like people such as Mark Henry and Bill Kazmaier have recently done. But as a teaser, let me tell you that the first exhibit consists of photos from Pudgy Stockton’s personal collection. You remember Pudgy. Yup, awesome.

Another exhibit is full of photos of the old Arnie and Franco days. Lots of classic favorites and some that you’ve never seen before. A favorite of ours was of Jan Todd doing rack pulls…with over a thousand pounds. Without straps. Marlon pretty much quit his lifting career at that point and nearly killed himself on the spot when I asked “WWBKD?”

Did I mention there are tons of old strongman implements laying around? We managed to not get kicked out by lifting any, but I can’t guarantee you’ll have the same kind of will power. Check it out, soon.

Anyway, it was completely awesome, amazing, and awe-inspiring, and all that. But we were hungry. Three adult males cannot just walk around for a couple hours without working up an appetite. I snuck this picture of Rory and Marlon next to their newest man crush, and we left in search of calories.



Rory knew exactly where to go, luckily. Dude knows his food. He led us to a BBQ trailer called the “Suga Shack,” famous for it’s biggest sandwich…the F-Bomb. F-Yes. A pound of various BBQ’d meats piled on to a roll, covered in jalapenos, pickles, onions, and queso. A 1 on the TIOLI scale, for sure .


We demolished our delicious sandwiches, went home, watched every Ricky Bruch video we could find and threw around a bunch of weights and PRs that night at the gym.

An Awesome Day, indeed.

72 thoughts on “Another Awesome Day”

  3. Finally hit 315×5 for 3 sets on tuesday for low bar. Extremely excited about that. Decided to reset a bit because my form was getting shitty the past few workouts leading up to that. Did 275 today instead, and focused a lot more on form, and these felt farrr better than the last couple of weeks.

    Now to get that deadlift up to speed…

  7. Awesome days are truly magnificent. I am hoping to have another awesome Saturday at my friend’s gym tomorrow followed by bbq and bro time.
    PR’s- 250 lb clean 200 lb snatch

    Question for the fam: I have noticed that when I clean and snatch I tend to catch the bar in the bottom position on my toes rather than on my heels. Should I be pulling to my hips a little bit longer so that when I do my 2nd pull the bar is more upward moving rather than going forward or is there something else I should be taking note of?

  8. Got back home from being in Norway to find my lifting shoes had arrived (Addidas Power Lift Trainers).

    So after a 2 1/2 week layoff, I proceeded to jump right back into my squats. I ended up destroying my legs, and could barely walk, but I didn’t care because:
    a) I HAD to try my new shoes
    b) I had 2 weeks of lost progress to make up for

    No PRs (other than the shoes)

    Oh, and I don’t necessarilly agree with the comment that engineers can count good….thats what Excel is for. I haven’t counted anything in years, but I have a spreadsheet for EVERYTHING!

  10. That does sound like an awesome day Jacob! (Second link is broken btw) Zeus has some serious abz veins there. Must be at like 5% bodyfat broseph.

    No PRs but training is progressing very nicely, almost back to rep PR territory after an injury setback.

    Yesterday I squatted: 315 3×5. Didn’t really feel heavy. My prior volume record is 320 5×5. It was fun to put three plates on again.

    Benched 250 3×5. Not a record but it feels good to lift heavier again.

    Deadlifted 380×4. Also not a record (I’ve done 395×5) but I guess it’d count as some sort of Wilkes record since I’m 8 lbs less than I was when I previously did that much weight.

    Since you asked about other sports, this isn’t exactly a sport but it’s sporting and will hopefully result in some true deadlifting–bow hunting for deer again tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll get one this time!

    I’ve been progressing linearly to get back to my previous weight levels. I’m goign to run this little 3×5 LP until I start to stall. I think I can get another 15 or maybe more pounds on squat and maybe another 5 or 10 on bench. Then I’m going to start this slightly modified Hepburn program. It’s going to be a ball buster. My friend who trained with the Candian olympic team in the 90s, and who was friends with Doug Hepburn during that time, helped me develop this. I’d be interested in any feedback. This is slightly changed since I posted it last week. My aim is to improve my powerlifting total, especially my deadlift which lags a little behind my squat.

    Maslow’s “Hepburn” Program

    Monday: Deadlift (4×1 @80%1RM, 2×3 @80% of singles weight ), Bench (4×1
    @80%1RM, 2×3 @80% of singles weight ), Barbell Row (3×5)

    Tuesday: Squat (4×1 @80%1RM, 2×3 @80% of singles weight ), Overhead Press
    (4×1 @80%1RM, 2×3 @80% of singles weight ), either curls/snatch/pullups
    (3xFail etc.)

    Wednesday–Off

    Thursday: Squat (5×1 @80%1RM, 3×3 @80% of singles weight ), Bench (5×1
    @80%1RM, 3×3 @80% of singles weight ), Barbell Row (3×5)

    Friday: Off

    Saturday–Power Clean (4×1 @80%1RM, 2×3 @80% of singles weight), Overhead
    Press(5×1 @80%1RM, 3×3 @80% of singles weight), either curl/Pullup/Snatch
    (3xFail, etc.)

    Sunday–off

    For the single sets start with 4×1 and increase up to 10×1, then add 5 lbs and repeat; for the mass sets start with 2×3 increase up to 5×3, then add 5 lbs and repeat. If single attempts are missed, cut out the singles progress is achieved on the mass sets, then reincoroprate the singles.

  14. PR this week: c+j 120 lbs. Inching closer to bw and pretty excited about that.

    All other lifts have stalled, and I’m switching from GSLP to TM next week. Setting some good food PRs this week in preparation. SO MUCH BACON.

  15. Great article. Jacbo’s hair looks glorious.

    Still finishing up the 5×5 program.

    PR Today:
    Squat: 230lb 5×5
    Bench: 190lb 5×5
    Bent Over Rows: 165lb 5×5

    O and my new lifting belt comes in today.

  17. Good news:

    225 Lb C&J (PR)
    Front Squat 205 Lb 3×5 (PRish, just starting to push my FS)

    Bad news:

    tipped the scale at 198, making me only an adult male for part of the day…

  26. Oh, and since Justin asked: one of my lifting buddies has convinced me to start up with BJJ. It’s gonna be pretty sweet, but I’m a little worried about shitting all over my lifting. Thoughts, anyone?

  28. @Terrible: Awesome. Any general advice is welcome.

    I guess the most pressing question is how to structure my week so that I can be maximally awesome at both. I don’t want to compromise recovery after lifting days. What does your week look like?

    I’ve also heard some things about grappling being pretty tough on the hip flexors. Mine are pretty tight anyway, as I am also a desk warrior. I’ve been mobbing the shit out of them, but I’m worried about exacerbating the problem. Am I right to be worried about this?

    I’m sure I’ll have other (more specific) questions as I get into it.

  29. I lift M/T/Th/F, with BJJ on W and (sometimes) Sat.

    Be prepared for your lifting to take a back seat for the first month or so you do BJJ. Improving your conditioning a bit will help you ease into it, but even running hill sprints for a while on 5/3/1, I was completely unprepared when I started BJJ.

    I’ve never had any problems with hip flexors. For me, the obliques (and other torso-twisting muscles) were absolutely hammered, a vigorous roll will have you straining, full force, in strange positions a lot.

    You’re going to have to really focus on stretching if you haven’t recently. Even getting in position for some joint locks takes a fair amount of mobility (I had to really focus on my inner thighs).

    Also, I am a big wuss and was able to adapt reasonably well after about a month of classes. Be patient, you’ll adapt quicker than you think.

  30. Also, being strong is awesome when you first start, as you’ll have a huge advantage until you roll with more experienced people.

    Session with a brown belt recently went like this:

    1) Grab gi, move around a bit
    2) ALL OF A SUDDEN EXCRUCIATING PAIN
    3) Repeat

  31. @Terrible, how long/ whatbelt/ weightclass?

    +1 to everything you said

    I have a purple belt in BJJ and competed at 120 lbs (gi and no gi) for a while (now I weigh 140). Me and 2 other people used to be the core of my university BJJ club.

  33. Just a blue belt in a straight up traditional gi gym (taught by a Brazilian guy that refuses to learn the American meanings of push and pull).

    I’m pretty lazy about belt tests in general as I have the powerlifting bug pretty bad. If I seriously committed to a 2 day a week schedule for another six months or so I would imagine I’d test for purple.

  34. What affiliation?

    also think I meant ftw^

    if I had my dream school we’d deadlift and clean religiously. So many traditional bjj people hate strength training, but even a bi-weekly squat/deadlift/clean day would do wonders for explosive power.

  36. Horrible week of training for me. Guess I’ll go kill myself. A guy at the gym thought I did crossfit because I was snatching. Then I saw a guy behind the neck jerk 275 then OHS it a few times. That made me feel pretty shitty about myself. Oh well guess I’ll go jump in front of a bus. Or maybe I’ll just start juicing. With the sketchy stuff from Mexico. Maybe all my hair will fall out. Idk why that would happen though. Sea food is good

  40. Creeping slowly but steadily back towards PRs. Should break my squat PR (which is Justin’s “I’m not squatting for realz, let me get a few joke sets in” weight) at the beginning of November, and set new bench and DL PRs around then too.

    Squat: 365×3, no sweat
    Bench: 200×3
    Deads: 425×2,1- grip gave out. I HATE not having chalk.

    Overall though, good week considering volume day got moved to tuesday.

  43. Another crappy weak, hurt my back Sunday and this concrete dust at work is fucking my sinuses.

    Here’s what I did half-assed okay:

    Standing one-armed dumbbell presses

    100×1
    110×1
    120×1
    110×1
    100×2

    That’s left arm and right arm.

  44. Thanks for giving Jacob a place to express his man love for me.

    No PRs this week since I’m in the “switching phase” of the Smolov program. Back to the brutality next week.

    @puke: yeah, we thinned out the meat a bit with the forks and then ate them with our hands. Jacob recommends beard trimming before consuming these.

  45. I started wrestling practice this week (high school team, i’m 15). real practice (for the season) doesn’t start for like another month though, and i’m not actually on the team yet. so far, this shit is fucking tough. the LSD running we always do at the beginning of our practices (yesterday we ran 2 miles) is the part that kills me the most. i’m fine with sprinting and everything else we do, but i’ve never actually ran more than 400m at the local track before so i’m not used to it at all.

  46. @ mattciupak – When I wrestled, we did pushups, situps, up downs, down ups, side straddle hops (jumping jacks for you sissies) and many other strength exercises with laps around the gym. Do a lap, do an exercise, repeat for 20 minutes (beginning of season) to 45 minutes (towards end of season) and at the end all conditioning was in round-robin format. Running isn’t enough. But in places like MI, you cannot even use the mats until a certain date. That might be the reason.

  47. No lifting PRs this week, but I finished this https://ultrahike.com/Home_Page.php last saturday. Boulder fields and mud trails with rain and cold make for a fun day, especially when free beer and pulled pork await at the finish.

    I also read and enjoyed Fit, and am now pumped to start up the SS program again, especially since the plan is to compete next April or so. PRs will hopefully recommence shortly.

  48. PR 225lbs 3 sets of 15 reps. Took me three weeks, squatting twice a week. My first attempt being 10,10,8 (i think).

    Still injured from futbal. Hopefully next week I can get back on track.

    After a month off, should I go back to a LP before starting back on 5-3-1?

  49. Squat PR 410lbs x 5. A grinder though.
    Deadlifted 395 x 5 for a PR, had planned to only do 385 but added the wrong plates.

    Question, I can’t remember the last time I went to the gym and just killed a workout. The last few weeks have been grinders even though I have done a couple of resets and dialed in other factors. I am thinking of just transitioning my presses to TM now even though they are not where I wanted to get them. Any advice?

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