PR Friday
Post your training updates and PR’s to the comments. This is a great way for you to interact with other 70’s Big readers. I think this community is very cool and I’ve met a lot of the guys that post here; they can provide friendship, a good laugh, or at least encouragement in your training. Only one or two are mouth breathing creeps.

Also, if you post regularly then I’m more inclined to go out of my way to help you. I’ll also be ‘rewarding’ a few of the regulars with training logs on the site soon. What I’m saying is that if you post on PR Friday, it will enhance your experience with this site and you’ll get more out of it. Let us know how your week of training went.

Weekly Recap
Monday I talked about boobs and other boob topics. Tuesday I showed you that Chris started as an average lifter and has worked his ass off to be as strong as he is today. Then my pal Brooks Conway wrote a good article on cutting weight before a lifting meet. Yesterday we admired the Russian ability to be stronger than a redneck’s heritage pride.

Weekly Reading List
[spoiler]I am finishing Joe Abercrombie’s “The Heroes” and highly recommend it, though I suggest reading the preceding four books to fully appreciate it (see my thoughts on the other books from last week). What books have you guys been reading?

“Lewis-McChord soldiers in Afghanistan see sudden action” — Lest any of you forget, there’s a war going on. And NATO/American troops are still dying (link has a NSFW picture of suicide bombing aftermath).

“On Profiling, And Google’s Big Double-Cross” — Google is building a profile on everyone. Great.

“Biologist E.O. Wilson on Why Humans, Like Ants, Need a Tribe”
[/spoiler]

CONTINUE READING THE Q&A Continue reading →

I think Brian checks his YouTube subscription for new weightlifting videos every six minutes because he dropped a video-link-deuce on the fan page this morning before I knew what was going on. Here are videos of various Russian weightlifters that are preparing for the 2012 London Olympic Games (27 July until 12 August). Here is the weightlifting schedule (we’ll worry more about this later), but note that Klokov is going to lift at 1700 local time on Monday, August 6th, which will be noon in the EST time zone.

Let’s kick it off with the whammy, a 9 minute video of Klokov preparing to lift interspersed with warming up and hitting some numbers. He misses a double at 200 on snatch, and then says “fuck iiiiiiiit” and throws 205 on. After hitting that, Chigishev gives him a golf clap and Klokov is all, “Hey brah, that’s only 5kg over the World Record, SO COOL YOUR JETS.” And Chigishev is like, “lol bro, you cray cray”. I also want to note that the building they walk into in the beginning is exactly what I pictured in the dream I had where I chatted with Klokov on a park bench (in front of the building) with KGB guards posted everywhere.


Now here is Klokov nonchalantly clean and jerking 232.5.


Here is Maxim Matveev, who is a younger Russian 105kg lifter, doing a push-press with 185kg. It may not be Klokov’s 225, but it’s still a whole lotta weight. But Matveev has jerked 250 out of the rack, and that’s admirable, no?


Then an easy front squat followed by a power jerk…with 210kg? Thank you sir, may I have another.


Russians are stronger than Mike Tyson’s lisp.

Today’s post is written by Quest Athletics lifter/coach Brooks Conway. He routinely cuts over six pounds of body weight for his meets and has developed a method based on wrestling experience, advice from fighters, and what he’s learned from a world-class coach. I’ve gotten weight-cutting advice from Brooks in the past for my lifters, and I thought you all would benefit from his advice.

Cutting Weight
by Brooks Conway

It’s not always necessary to cut weight. For example, if you’re doing your first meet, there’s absolutely no reason to cut weight. Go have fun; you don’t need to add any stress to the process. However, if you want to be competitive, it’s time to consider what weight class you’re going to be strongest. If you’re 170 pounds and beginning to post some pretty big numbers, it’s worth it to cut the 5 pounds rather than lift with the 181s and have mediocre results. The question always comes down to: do the benefits of cutting the weight (being the biggest in the weight class) outweight the costs (possible loss of strength and mental strain)? Consult a doctor before beginning any diet or a weight cutting program concocted by a math major.

The most important aspect of cutting weight is the smart manipulation of water. I put emphasis on the word smart because any idiot can wear a sauna suit, run around in circles for 3 hours, and sweat off 6 pounds. But the aforementioned idiot certainly won’t be able to lift to his full potential two hours later. I use a simple water loading/depleting template a buddy of mine who fights on the amateur level gave me. Six days out until three days out, drink 1.5 to 2 gallons of water. Two days out, drink 1 gallon. Day before, drink half a gallon (all of it before 4pm if you have a 7am weigh in, spread it out through the full day if you have a 2pm weigh in). One thing to consider when doing this is that drinking excessive amounts of water is liable to flush out a lot of important vitamins and minerals from your body. I typically have a Powerade Zero as 32oz of my daily water allowance to get some electrolytes in. I also take extra amounts of our Ultra MEGA-4 Mineral Complex because minerals are just as likely to get flushed out of your system as electrolytes. Water loading/depleting works because if your body isn’t receiving ample amounts of water, it holds on to every ounce you put in because it’s in survival mode and doesn’t know when the next time it will receive water. If your body is receiving plenty of water, it readily excretes it, knowing more is on the way. Your body doesn’t adjust very quickly though. For example, the first day of consuming 1.5-2 gallons of water you may not piss as much as you expect, but on day 6 (the day before the meet) you will continue to piss almost as much as you were the previous few days because your body thinks more water is on the way.
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I moved to Wichita Falls in January of 2009 and didn’t know anybody at all. I became friends with Brent when he would come into the gym and train by himself. Shortly after, I met Chris. I’ll keep the sappy stuff to a minimum, but since then he’s been one of my best friends and is a hard working, hilarious, and caring friend who has always been there for me. You guys see his videos these days and see a guy who is stronger than cat piss, but it wasn’t always so. I want to show you how far he’s come so that you understand that you’re fully capable of it too.

Chris deadlifts 705 at the Raw Challenge at the Arnold:


In early January 2009, Chris wrecked his shoulder doing a jerk in a weightlifting meet (he probably required surgery). A few weeks later he knew he wasn’t going to be able to do the Oly lifts any time soon and wanted to get as strong as possible. This is where our “training relationship” started; we became training partners and I started programming his training. If you’ve never had a true training partner, you’ll know that it’s an intimate relationship where you feed off of their energy when lifting. To this day, I still get exponentially more amped up when Chris is lifting than I ever have for my own lifting.
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Monday’s are devoted to female related topics to help females begin or continue to train. This particular post is borderline irrelevant.

It’s not that I’m above posting about boobs (I’m not), it’s just that I routinely get questions about them. I have a stinking suspicion that the questions are from male readers disguised as women, but, alas, I am a man of the people! The most common questions I get are:
How much do you love boobs?
What if my boobs are too big for cleaning and snatching (the Olympic lifts; stay focused)?
What should a big-boobed woman do about her big boobs when she benches?

Well, my good readers, to answer these questions we will need a lesson in anatomy. Boobs, uncommonly referred to as “breasts”, are a collection of adipose tissue that lay over the pectorals. They are held to the clavicle and pectoral fascia via suspensory ligaments that extend through the mass of the boob to help maintain structural integrity. I find suspensory ligaments interesting. Normal ligaments hold bones together to form joints; their strength is dependent on their cross-sectional area, and they respond to loading by becoming stronger and stiffer. A regular ligament’s strength decreases due to immobilization and lack of stress. This is why un-fit, sedentary, and old people will injure themselves easily (especially when attempting activity that they are not adapted to). Suspensory ligaments are a very different in that one end is anchored on a bone, and the other end attaches to organ tissues, namely boobs, penises, ovaries, eyes, intestines, and so on.

Click to enlarge

Suspensory ligaments of the boob are probably under stress when the boob is subjected to gravity. The modern woman often wears a bra, and this probably relieves the suspensory ligaments of tension and may help prevent the “sagging” appearance of boobs (that is, until “old age” has its effect). We can probably observe middle aged women from primitive or tribal cultures and see a distinction between their level of “boob sag”, yet I don’t think this hypothesis has been scientifically tested. I would also hypothesize that a woman who routinely exercises would maintain the integrity of their suspensory ligaments in a way that keeps them “stronger and stiffer” like their bony ligament cousins; consistent exercise probably staves off the “saggy boob effect” to some extent because of applying stress to the tissues (other than gravity).

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