This week I want to motivate you women who actually do train, whether you’re already strong or not. You may be the queen in your gym, but somewhere out there a stronger woman is training her heart out. It just so happens that there is a gym full of these gals at CrossFit Retribution in Westminster, MD. This facility is run by Beau Bryant (not to be confused with this guy) and he has developed a stable of good lifters and is even using The Texas Method (he bought the e-book a while back).

This is Beau’s wife Angie hitting a fucking solid set of 225×3 on squat. I’m impressed, because this is a beautiful low bar back squat and she crushes the first rep. The neat part about it is that Beau sent me a video of her after last week’s Intensity Day and she missed the third rep at 220.

I just watched it again — god damn it what a great set. She doesn’t have any chest dropping due to thoracic weakness or hamstring weakness. Just real fucking solid. Well done Beau and Angie, well done. Oh, and here is their new shirt.

I could end the post and be very happy, but THERE’S MOAR.

Here is Tiff — she had no barbell training experience prior to joining the gym. Here she is pulling 290×5 like she’s drying her hair.


Also, here’s a vid of her squatting 275×3.

Lastly, we have the 110 pound mother of two, Leah squatting 160×1 a couple months ago. The record in her weight class is 170, so they are trying to break that.


Well done ladies, and nice job to Beau for good coaching and programming. If you want to submit your female lifting videos, shoot them here.

Happy PR Friday
List your weekly personal bests for the week as well as training updates.
This week, post your lifetime PR for whatever goal you have, and how close you are to breaking it.

Mooy M. asks on the Facebook Fan Page

why should i take fish oil? and why the fuck am i eating like mad, training my ass off and still keep being skinny fat? is there a 70s big gen missing?

Dear Mooy,

Fish oil is a natural anti-inflammatory and contains EPA and DHA. For our purposes, it probably helps with systemic recovery and some people point out that it improves joint pain. It is also said to help with insulin sensitivity, but I admit I haven’t read about this in a while. I think the Wiki page did a good overview.

As for you “eating like mad” and still being skinny fat, I really can’t say. Eating copious amounts of food is not always the answer to improve muscularity, and it’s also very dependent on your program. Are you training your body as a system every day? This would include large lifts like the squat or deadlift in addition to other things like pressing, benching, RDLing, and rowing. Maybe you aren’t doing enough barbell curls, or maybe the right drugs are what is missing. I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy. You can find him in a back alley and he’s got some cheese burgers, man.

If you’re genetically predisposed to skinniness, or have only recently taken up training, then it will take diligent and chronic work over time to develop strength and muscularity. Reevaluate your program and don’t lose hope on the quest of 70’s Big.

Continue reading →

This podcast features a Q&A with American Olympic weightlifting coach Glenn Pendlay from California Strength. Questions were submitted by readers on the 70’s Big Facebook Fan Page. Also check out (and sign up for) the Muscle Driver Grand Prix Inaugural Meet. That’s a lot of links.

Podcast-9-Pendlay-Q&A
(left click for stream, right click and “save as” to download)
1 hour, 30 seconds long

There’s still trouble with the iTunes availability although it has been submitted. Probably has to do with the iTunes tags in the RSS feed (which I don’t know how to fix).

Some topics from the Q&A include:

Push-press utility
The question was specific to the carryover to the jerk (it helps for beginners), but Glenn touted this exercise as one of the best upper body exercises for a weightlifter saying (paraphrase), “If you’re strong in the push-press, you’re strong in everything else: press, bench, jerk, etc.”

This topic also led to a general discussion with strength and weightlifting and what kind of emphasis or frequency strength training would have in a weightlifting program as a trainee advances from beginner and beyond.

Pulling from blocks
The question was specific to when to do them in the program. Glenn addresses the utility in pulling from blocks and when they would be pertinent to a program. There are even times when a beginner would use them as well, but only in a specific situation.

Being an Olympic weightlifter without a coach
The question was specifically asking what would be good resources to use in order to learn or improve the lifts, and Glenn ticks off a few good products and videos. He also gives some advice about submitting videos to forumz on the interwebz for critiquez.

Conditioning in a strength or weightlifting program
General trainees or beginning weightlifters will benefit from conditioning work. Glenn is an advocate for a very simple method of conditioning that is touted by other popular coaches. He also discusses the utility in complexes for ancillary work at the end of a training session. The complexes or circuits aren’t specifically designed for a conditioning effect, but they let the trainee get some accumulated work with assistance exercises to improve their hips, posterior chain, abdominals, lumbars, shoulders, etc. It’s quick and easy, but I want to add here that assuming no other conditioning work in the program that this would act as conditioning since the relative intensity and pace are higher than a standard strength program. At the minimum, a lifter could create a short complex/circuit like Glenn describes to get a slight endurance effect — something that can help their “between set recovery” as well.

You know what? You guys don’t know shit. You don’t know what a hard day’s work is. You don’t know what it’s like to bleed and sweat. You don’t know how to dig DEEP, real DEEP, and get that last big of your SOUL and have it consume your nether region. You don’t know how to get a TASTE of the HARD work that is associated with being a champion. You don’t understand that to BE THE MAN, you have to BEAT THE MAN. This video teaches you a thing or two about training with a champion’s intensity. Take notes, you pile of shit.

Muscle Driver is hosting a series dubbed as The Muscle Driver Grand Prix Series. In a time where people complain about USAW and how the sport of Olympic weightlifting needs to grow, MD is making an effort to generalize Olympic weightlifting, make it accessible, and most importantly, make it fun.

Specifically this means MD is hosting meets around the country and awarding cash prizes for the top Sinclair formula finishers. The inaugural meet is on November 5th in Charllotte, NC.



So many people have given their two cents on how to build the sport of weightlifting, and this is the first major non-USAW event to do so. Next year MD wants to give away at least $50,000 in prize money! There are even negotiations to get the final event televised on ESPN. This would be a huge boost for the sport as it hasn’t a) been popularized in culture and b) hasn’t ever compensated athletes monetarily.

The whole series is extremely accessible, but especially this first meet; anyone at any age can enter. More so, many top tier American lifters won’t be competing at this event because they are prepping for the American Open or the Olympic trials early next year. This means that anyone can walk away with prize money, ranging from $400 to $2,000. This opens the door for new or inexperienced lifters to end up on the podium and awarded some cash. I can’t say this definitively, but there aren’t many Americans (if any) that can say they won some dough by doing well at a weightlifting meet.

I’ve seen some resonating skepticism on the internet about the meet being “too big for my first meet” or “too big of an event, I’m not good enough yet”. This is the same weak behavior that everyone shows when faced with the “daunting task” of actually competing. Look: my first meet was in a barn in Texas and was basically a structured practice session. I had a great time, but it would have been a lot of fun to go to a very nice venue with top of the line equipment in the warm-up room. Not to mention some of the top coaches in the US will be there to specifically help beginners. This is the perfect opportunity to receive help from experienced coaches. When I went to Nationals in 2010, Paul Doherty lent a helping hand despite the fact that I was competing with one of his lifters (Ben Claridad). There will be more of the same at this MD meet.

Lastly, I have it on good authority that Glenn Pendlay will be racing Brad Hess in a C2 rowing competition. I’m almost positive he’ll puke.

Bottom Line:
If you’re on the fence about doing your first meet, commit to this MD Inaugural meet and you’ll have a great time. It’s a nice venue with nice equipment and nice people. You’ll walk away a better lifter for sure.