70’s Big has the tradition of PR Friday, where readers are invited to talk about their weekly PR’s and training updates. Posting regularly expands the sense of community, and it also keeps other people updated on your progress. Many friendships have started because someone was brave enough to start posting on PR Friday.
I also used to do a Weekly Q&A where I took questions throughout the week and answered them in the PR Friday post. I don’t exactly have the time to prepare long, in depth responses, but we’ll start answering questions in the comments of PR Friday. You’ll have me, Mike, Chris, AC, and probably not Brent answering questions.
Once I got busy, these Friday posts dropped off, but they are back and will occur every week. I’m also aiming to put out a post every Monday, so you’ll get something twice a week.
A sweet pic from the 1977 World’s Strongest Man competition.
Without further adieu, post your PR’s, training updates, questions, and shenanigans to the comments. I leave you with this:
Chalk floats softly through the air. The thumping of your heart is all you hear, all you feel. You step to the bar and place your hands on it, feeling the cold knurling on callused hands. The whirling hurricane of emotion settles into the eye of the storm, the peaceful moment when you decide to begin.
I was fortunate enough this week to PR my bench and press this week in the same session. I got 260×3 and 160×2 respectively. I was so fired up that I did barbell curls till I couldn’t scratch my nose. I’ve been doing a template from Chris. I gotta highly recommend getting a consultation. It has been a big help for me programming wise as well as from an accountability standpoint.
Getting back into the S&C for Military Program this week after getting jerked around with when our physical fitness test was the past two weeks and having tapered off to be fresh for that. PR’d Bench at 185 lbs 3×5 and woke my legs up with a 3×3 at 275 lbs on squats.
What s&c are you using? Military wise.
It’s the program that Justing originally published as a basic strength and conditioning program and then published in FIT. Conditioning on Tuesday is 400m repeats (Max effort or Goal effort) to condition for the run portion. Lifting allows for standard linear progression, or you could apply a more advanced template.
http://70sbig.com/wp-content/uploads/files/Articles/Lascek_S&CP_v2.0.pdf
First off, thank you for the tremendous resource you guys have compiled here. Its amazing how much information there is here if you just do a little searching. Thank you.
I started a 3×5 LP earlier this year and made some significant gains with my back squat. About the 400# mark, I found that my upper thoracic would start to round on the last rep of the 3rd and sometimes 2nd set. Is there some specific accessory work you’d recommend or should I just squat more? Thanks again.
31yr male
210#
72″
We’re working on making all of the existing information a little easier to find as well as regularly adding new info, so thanks for the kind words.
I’m curious as to how well you’re setting up for each rep and whether or not you’re putting yourself in a position to keep the chest up efficiently. Basically two of my rules when moving a bar are, 1) hold a big breath and 2) “chest up into chin”. It could be that you are experiencing fatigue at the end of your sets, in which case upper back work will never hurt (barbell rows, pull-ups, chin-ups, etc.). Feel free to post a vid — it could be something else like you have larger faults where you lean forward, causing you to round your upper back.
I do seem to have a hard time pushing out against my belt the deeper I get into these sets, could that have something to do with it?
Press 5rm PR 160#
This is the second week using TM and the paleo for lifters diet template. I’m really liking the program so far. I’m around 13-15% body fat right now. I am trying to eat 2-1/2 to 3 lbs of meat a day but I’m not sure how many carbs and fat I should be eating. Does anyone have any advice? I’m 6’3 and 205. I don’t want to get to sloppy looking since we are into beach weather.
In the book I talk about eating x amount of potatoes a day. I’m not a weirdo who wants to count carbs meticulously, and I don’t want trainees to be weirdos either.
Remember that your activity level, including your conditioning, will also determine how many carbs you should eat. If you work with 2 to 3 potatoes a day divided up among your meals, that might be a good starting point. You can titrate to effect. If you are actually avoiding crappy carbs and sticking to potatoes and fruit (assuming you’re also having vegetables), then you probably won’t put on any fluff while approaching it this way.
And if you have the book, you could review the sections, because it’ll tell you what to start with (kind of like I explained above). If you (or others) don’t have the book, then this is how I approach it: hit specific food quantities (namely protein), then improve food quality without measuring every god damn thing.
Thanks for the reply! I will look back through those sections.
DL 530×3 third rep I locked it out, but hitched like a mofo lololol
any of you guys have experience with smoking greens and how it affects your lifting? if at all?
Haha, I personally have never smoked, so I don’t really know. Someone asked me about it recently, and I would have to assume it would have some sort of effect on, say, metabolism or recovery. I do not know what kind of effect it would have.
Generally speaking, drugs need to be metabolized somewhere like the liver and possibly filtered by the kidneys. If you’re using a lot of them, then by default it will require resources from your system in order to do that metabolizing, so I would say it is interfering with recovery. Obviously we choose to consume things like alcohol knowing that it will do this, so consuming these potentially debilitating substances can be done in moderation to limit their impact on recovery.
Lou, how’s the hip? You seem to be fully recovered
Yeah man!! How are you doing!! You got your second one done recently right?? I get funny pains and stuff sometimes but I’m basically 100% I’m much stronger than I was pre-surgery. I have a meet on the 14th, I want to go 460-340-580 at 181.
Wow, great to hear! Yeah, I am one year post op on the right hip, and two years on the left. I have been doing a lot of single leg work to get my muscle imbalances evened out. I just started squatting and pulling again a few weeks ago. Humbled and sore! I’m like you, I get a few aches here and there, but gotta keep livin’ and liftin’ dude!
No recent PRs because I did a more relaxed program for a while (my knees were aching and I included more conditioning). I will probably switch to a 4-day TM again soon.
This week I squatted 169 kg (~373 lbs) for 5 sets of 5, benched 126 kg (~278 lbs) for 4 sets of 5 and deadlifted 202.5 kg (~446 lbs) x5. BW: 97 kg (~214 lbs).
Personally, when my knees are aching, doing some posterior chain work will help them feel better. I also take glucosamine chondroitin and magnesium sulfate (they are in the same product), but it can take a few months for that to actually have an effect. I do think that it helps me, but research shows there are non-responders, but it could be due to a variety of reasons for or against the supplement doing anything.
In any case, palliative treatment can always help. Compress the knees and elevate followed by icing, and you can do that in cycles. Stay away from ibuprofen.
I tried glucosamine/chondroitin a couple of years ago but didn’t notice any effects. Maybe I’ll give it another shot.
I have chondromalacia patellae in both knees and there are ups and downs regarding training and pain. Most of the time my knees feel okay as long as I keep training and loading them in a slow and controlled manner (squats and deadlifts are okay, power cleans not).
Oddly enough, fish oil seems to make a difference, although I only take 4 g everyday. I’m almost sure this has to be a placebo effect, but when I don’t take my fish oil caps for a while, my knee pain seems to get worse.
Hope all is well, Justin.
No PRs in a month and a half. The day after squatting 340# x 5 for a PR, I came down with the stomach flu, was unable to work out for an entire week, and lost some weight (in addition to the water weight that I lost). I decided to take it really easy and work back up over the course of a couple months, but it didn’t really help much. I squatted 325# x 5 yesterday and it felt harder than 335# x 5 a couple months ago. I just feel kind of tired and unmotivated, which is unusual for me. I’ve also been trying to get rid of this stupid golfer’s elbow that I’ve had for a while (I don’t golf, probably hurt it at work). At first, chin-ups were what irritated it the most, but now those are alright and squats bother it (I squat low-bar, but my shoulder mobility is pretty good). I’ve been lacrosse-balling and voodoo-flossing the shit out of it to no avail. Not really sure what to do now except maybe take a week completely off.
You’re not recovering enough. I’ve had the same issues for 6-7 months of progress, sick, repeat. Sleep, diet and stress are the culprits. I haven’t found off weeks to do much good. If you’re on TM then maybe adjust volume down a little and see how your IDs go. Elbow could be shoulder mobility or even just systemic under recovery. I had odd foot & ankle pain resembling gout that I can only chalk up to overreaching as it’s been gone since I stopped LP.
Finally got an olympic lifting coach (two since it’s a couple), certified with level 2 USAW, teaches the level 1 cert course, is a national ref and the woman has an RKC certification from pavel himself.
The progress I’ve already made is ridiculous. I don’t really know what my “true’ PR’s were with olympic lifts prior to this since my only experience was self teaching myself, and my residual strength from TM was more than my technique allowed me to use. The weight is getting easier and easier each day though, and I’ve got a competition at the end of August, so I’ll see how high I can get in the meantime.
Questions:
I work from 7-3:30 each day (waking up around 5:45) and I lift from 5:30 til 7:30-8, which is the quickest I can get to lift. Therefore I’m basically ready to pass out by the time I get home/shower, but I feel like I’m going to start undereating once the weights get heavier and heavier. So best tips to prevent this? I’m working in Seattle and have access to a good variety/quality of food, and I’m trying to experiment with the composition of what I eat for lunch, how much, how many hours prior to lifting etc. This is fairly new to me since I’ve been running IF the last 3 years, and my body tends to not like to lift when I have had food in the last few hours. But if I continue IF, there’s no way I’ll get enough calories post workout before I fall asleep to wake up at 5:45….Anyways I’m just rambling my thoughts now, so let me know what you think.
Also, where is that damn Thanksgiving contest shirt. I’ve missed out on so many lulz by not having AC’s face on my chest.
No PRs this week. After taking more than a couple of weeks off of the gym, with severely restricted calories and about 20 pounds weight loss, the girlfriend and I are back on a straightforward SS-style LP to reclaim our old maxes. Old maxes for me include 315×5 high bar squat (switching to low bar now), 415 x 5 DL, and a paltry 135/225×5 press/bench. I hope to hit them by mid-June.
Q: On a very basic SS-style LP (low bar 3x/week, press/bench 1.5x/week, etc.), I’m having trouble planning my weekly pulling schedule. I like to deadlift on Fridays. I also need time in the week for pullups/chinups, power cleans, and perhaps even RDLs. Does anyone have recommendations on where to put the rest of the pulls in a routine of this style?
I’m a big fan of Paleo for Lifters; I use it as the basis for my diet. I was just wondering if you considered stuff like sausage, pepperoni, salami, etc. as acceptable sources of protein?
Also, when I bench with anything other than a narrow/close grip, I get severe pain in my left shoulder. I’ve had it looked at, and have performed extensive mobility work on it, but it has always given me problems even outside of lifting. Was wondering if sticking with close grip is good enough? It always feels like my strongest/most stable position anyway.
Thanks for everything.
PR:
Squat 385 2×3
Bench 290 2×3
Dead 460 single
On my 8th week of the Texas Method following a linear progression.
Male, 25, 6ft, 235#
Between PPST and the TM ebooks I feel that I have been equipped with all of the information I need to find my way using this method. Thanks for writing them (gay?).
I had been struggling with my deadlift over the past several weeks and have found a lot of success lately after reassessing my bracing mechanics. 460 moved really fast.
I was thinking about submitting an article about how to maximize shopping at SAMs club for lifting. I practically live in that place. Any thoughts?
Anyone had much success with The Juggernaut Method? I know SS and TM are the dominant programs here, but anyway. I’ve run 5/3/1 for a while off and on. Just wondering if anyone experienced good strength and hypertrophy gains from TJM. Any comments on TJM in general (or 5/3/1) are welcome!
I didn’t use juggernaut method but I used brandon Lilly’s cube method and had some decent success. The workouts are long And the volume days are brutal but the program has just enough variation and pump city stuff to keep you interested for a while.
I just started running the Juggernaut Method this week. So far, it seems like a more organized version of 5/3/1 that takes you through a wide variety of rep ranges. Whether or not it has great utility for a PL’er, I’m unsure, but it definitely seems like a good program in writing. In practice, I’ll need more time to be certain.
I just finished the Juggernaut Method (I did the Inverted JM). I got stronger on all four lifts, but not by much. I gained 5 pounds so there were some hypertrophy benefits. One word of advice would be to limit your assistance work on deadlift day. Doing the Inverted JM with the prescribed rest periods was brutal. The heavy volume weeks for deadlift were the closest I have ever come to puking/passing out in the gym. Considering that the entire program only takes 4 months I would recommend it. The autoregulation plan between each month is better than 5/3/1, and actually could be used for that program as well.
Thanks for all the responses! I am not currently competing in PL, so I’m really just looking for a well-organized general strength and hypertrophy program. One of the reasons that I was drawn to JM was because of it’s better autoregulation and such. I also like starting with higher rep ranges like the 10s and 8s. Anyway, thanks for the advice.
225# Snatch. Finally.
My team and I total on Saturdays so any PR’s won’t be posted until Saturday or Sunday. Have had a pretty interesting training cycle since the Arnold. My coach has had me working on a lot more percentage work in the lifts for volume while totalling once every 4 weeks. Hit a snatch PR of 93kg and a C&J PR of 111kg last Saturday, at about 81kg BW.
One of the coaches and I reworked my diet because I was carrying too much body fat and wasn’t getting the most out of my calories. Since following the diet (~2 months) I have dropped 10ish lbs but continued to put on muscle and hit some PR’s. Raising my cals this week before the Ohio State Weightlifting Meet. Planning on more PR’s and possibly a medal.
I’ll follow up on next weeks post on how it went.
Also, any idea when you will be getting more tank tops in stock? Been waiting on a large for a while.
Thanks