If you are a fan of the 70’s Big Facebook Page, then you will have already seen this announcement. I’ve been working on a project with Dr. Lon Kilgore and Dr. Michael Hartman. It’s a general fitness book called “FIT” and is a guide to make you exactly that. The book dives into quality chapters on the quantified parameters of fitness: strength, endurance, and mobility. Here’s a teaser, and stay tuned for more as we near the August release date:

Click to enlarge

Edit: I just want to point out that even if you aren’t a “fitness trainee”, this book is chock full of quality information, even if you’re merely a strength trainee who wants to add in conditioning. The strength and endurance chapters alone are worth the money and could be books by themselves. Then we take the concepts of strength, endurance, and mobility and tie them all together and teach how they should be structured and programmed. Feel free to ask questions and stay tuned for excerpts and features.

This is a video of Glenn Pendlay cleaning 170 quite a few years ago. I think it’d be cool to see more of these converted home videos. I think this might be the old WFAC location?


This is a sweet video of Dmitry Klokov clean and jerking 242 in training. With a head band. And spandex. And a tank-top. And beast mode. As he walked away I’m pretty sure he said, “Bitches ain’t shit.”


May as well show you this other Klokov vid to keep this “sweet music” theme alive. He almost snatches 214kg off of blocks. Almost.


I’m off to write. Feel free to chat about these topics, or whatever in the comments. I’ll chime in periodically.

This past weekend I went to Toronto, Canada to do a Workshop Weekend that consists of a lifting workshop on Saturday and a programming workshop on Sunday. It was my first time in Canada since stepping over the line at Niagra Falls when I was ten (do they still let you do that? or do you need a passport?), and it was excellent. I was hosted by two stellar dudes, Chris and Paul — thanks again to both of you guys and I hope we get to hang soon without a workshop getting in the way. They live outside of Toronto in a small town area that reminds me of rural Pennsylvania. The weather was beautiful; around 80 degrees (F), no humidity, and a cool breeze.

The workshop itself was good fun, Canadians have a pleasant disposition. I even noticed that I started emulating their tone in talking, specifically the upward inflection at the end of sentences. Contrary to the American belief, Canadians don’t say, “Eh?” all the time, but they do defecate in inappropriate places when challenged.

I hope the attendees walked away from each day confident in what they need to do to lift or program well. Two attendees who were only signed up for the Saturday portion were allegedly impressed enough to sign up for Sunday’s as well. You guys can e-mail me any time with questions as well as videos of your technique (preferably from a front or rear 45 degree angle). Stay in touch either on the site, Facebook, or e-mail. Remember the one or two cues you have on each lift! Work those rehab exercises in, Sandy and Adam. Make sure your chest is up, Silen. Good luck at your meet, Rowan, and keep doing that anterior shoulder mobility. Kyle, make sure your knees are out in your deadlift set up. Blake, reinforce that leaning over to avoid being to upright in the squat, and don’t get in a hurry with your reps. Paul, stop being so handsome. Mike, be smooth of the floor in your pull (along with that other proper set up stuff). James, your squat/pull were much better when you corrected those fundamentals like stance and chest up. I could go on, but hopefully you guys wrote down what you need for each lift. Also keep in mind all of the tools you have to administer a proper dose of stress to get an appropriate adaptation based on your current adaptation.

I actually don’t have any pictures whatsoever of this weekend; I was just too busy. I also wanted to get some video of the lifting transformations, but I misplaced the SD card for my camera. It’s disappointing, because I wanted a pic with my Canadian homies Chris and Paul (their biceps and behavior when drinking exceeded expectations). Thanks again to both of you guys, especially Chris and Melissa for letting a filthy American rest at your domicile. Paul, tell Sharon that Melissa totally ran off with the cab driver after Chris passed out.

All in all, I was impressed with Canada. It was a sport.

Since I don’t have any pictures, here’s a place that I want to visit in Canada.

Lake Louise

I asked the 70’s Big Facebook Fan Page folks to ask some questions for a podcast (the thread started on June 2). This is a solo podcast I did answering both good and horrible questions. Enjoy.


LINK(right click and “save target as”)
46:16 long. iTunes feed is all ganked up, but I’m working on it.

Oh, and Happy PR Friday. Training updates, PR’s, whatever. I don’t really care. Oh, and this post needs a random picture:

The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezbo Ban is a fantastic website that is full of legendary stories and articles from over half a century ago. THIS article on Marvin Eder is very interesting several reasons.



Mark Eder and the Canadian Colossus Doug Hepburn were having a legit face off, a showing of strength on muscle beach. THIS WAS FOR ALL THE MARBLES

The action heated up when the bar reached 420. Juliano dropped out, but that was no disgrace for a 17-year old superman. Eder, not much older at 19, blasted out two reps with 420. Hepburn also rammed up the 420. Eder then did 430 pounds in strict style – thereby setting a new, albeit unofficial, world record. Hepburn lifted the same poundage and announced the fact that he was just warming up. he then benched 440, but his form was so rough Marvin said, “Nice lift, Doug. You must have lost two inches off your chest the way the bar bounced off your pecs.” Everybody in the large crowd surrounding the workout area laughed. Except Doug.

I bet Doug was pissed, but did he start a fight? Did he break a bottle over his head and try and stab Eder with the pieces?

Hepburn, who set a world record in the military press at the National Weightlifting Championships a few days later, went into his strongman prop bag and brought out a thick leather belt, with which he strapped two 45-pound plates together. He lifted the plates overhead with his left hand, then lowered them until his arm was parallel to the ground. It was known as the one-arm holdout. He held the weights in the muscled-out position for five seconds. The crowd gasped and applauded. They went wild when Eder duplicated the feat – and held the plates out for 10 seconds.

Ah, the strong men of lore. So impressive — yet Eder is obnoxiously impressive. Read the article, because I won’t be able to cover it all.

Muscle photographer Art Zeller remembered seeing Marvin Eder hold his arms out while a 150-pound hand-balancer named Maurice Maruitz put his hands on Eder’s wrists s though they were parallel bars, leapt up, and went into a handstand. “Eder just stood there like a rock, without quivering at all. He looked like he could have stood there all day,” Zeller said.

As for his top end strength:

Eder’s feats of strength include a 515-pound bench press, squatting 550-pounds for 10 deep reps, 12 one-arm chins and a 365-pound overhead press. At the 1951 Pan-American Games tryouts, he surpassed the world record in the press with 337 at a bodyweight of 192, but the AAU refused to let him compete.

And lastly, as a 67 year old (in 1999), Eder was still training and looking solid:

Today (1999), at age 67, Marvin can still do 100 dips anytime, and more amazing, 90 chinups. I saw him last year at the Oldetime Barbell & Strongmen’s annual dinner. H told me that his three-times-a-week workout consists of five sets of chins for 50 reps, five sets of dips for 50 reps and 550 alternate jumping lunge squats. He still weighs 197 pounds and looks sensational.

That’s so awesome. Eder is now one of my strength idols.

So it’s $10 for a BJ, $12 for an HJ, $15 for a ZJ…
What’s a ZJ?
If you have to ask, big man, you can’t afford it.

This concept popped into my head last night when I was brushing my teeth. Antigen and I were talking about a lifting contest we will host here on the site, and I thought about ego lifters.

Ego lifters are folks who a) are under the impression that everyone else in the gym gives a shit about what they are doing, b) think it’s a good idea to do one more set or make one more jump in weight, or c) unintelligibly make a huge jump in weight typically followed by a complete failure.

Coaching, by definition, shouldn’t be ego driven. Coaches want the most out of their lifters, especially in competition, but knowing when to challenge their lifter is important. For example, let’s say I have the squat attempts planned out for “Timmy” in his fourth power meet. I will usually have a “best case scenario” and “not as good case scenario” attempts written out. Let’s say Timmy hits his second squat at 502, and we wanted to go to 524. Well, if that 502 was harder than it should be (because he had to cut weight, because of a bad taper, because he didn’t sleep — any random reason), I might say, “All right, Timmy, do you want to go to 513 or 524?” knowing that I may choose 513 and not the original 524 since 502 was a grinder. If he hesitates in his answer, then I already know my answer: 513. If he says “524” right off the bat, then I know he has confidence that he can get it. In this case, confidence and adrenaline may summon the demons to hit that 524, but if Timmy isn’t confident in it when asked, then it most likely isn’t gonna happen.

If a lifter has to ask himself, “Can I make this jump?” or “Should I get one more set?”, then he probably can’t afford it. When training, I advise you to think about what the goal is for the day. Are you trying to get some accumulated volume? Then three sets of five is probably enough, especially if the third set was kinda tough. Are you trying to keep the volume down? Then don’t do another set if you’ve done a 3×5. If you were keeping the volume down and trying to get some intensity, it’s relative. If you hit your minimum goal of, say, 425 for a double after doing 405 and 415 for doubles, then a fourth double will be superfluous.

If you have to ask, big man, you can’t afford it.