PR Friday — Post your training updates, PR’s, and questions to the comments and the 70′s Big crew will respond.
Weekly Q&A gives you a chance to ask anyone from the 70′s Big Crew a question in the comments below, on Facebook, or Twitter. Follow 70’s Big on Instagram.
Recap: Monday was the 8th Chalk Talk episode about using speed deadlifts and RDLs in training, particularly during deployments, competitive seasons, or otherwise stressful training to still get decent posterior chain work in. Learning how to feast was the focal point of Wednesday, so don’t miss that article. I was away for a bit, so I couldn’t fix the broken podcast link from earlier in the month, but Episode 19 of 70’s Big Radio is now up. It features an interview with physical therapist Dr. Rob Andrade. Lastly, the throwback article of the week is from a year ago and explains why your post workout meal doesn’t really mean much.
The following video details an Olympic weightlifting battle. Weightlifting is a bit friendlier to spectators because opposing lifters are usually following each other’s attempts. In contrast, powerlifting has the entire flight lift one attempt before continuing onto the next. The structure of powerlifting means you have to already know what’s going on to see the battles. The same goes for weightlifting, but it happens at a faster pace. This video clues you into the battle through narration:
What is your favorite historic strength sport battle? If it’s on YouTube, go ahead and post a link.
HB Sqaut: 5×3 285 lbs
Press: 5×3 130lbs
Bench Press: 5×3 205 lbs
DL: 5×1 345 lbs
Finally gaining with the linear progression again. Most likely due to being able to stay consistent with training. Needless to say, the recent articles detailing training while under high workload outside the gym will probably be very useful to me in the near future.
As for watching any sort of weightlifting or powerlifting event, I am a complete novice. Have only really watched the most recent National competitions for USAWL and USAPL. Hope others have some good videos to post and check out.
Notable PR’s:
Front Squat: 465 lb x 1 (1RM)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJmjBl6KeeI
Overhead Press: 295 lb x 1 (1RM)
Favorite historic strength sport battle:
Gymnast vs Orangutan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbo3jjs4AW0
Jon Pall Sigmarsson vs. Bill Kazmaier 1988
This is so Fing awesome!
I love this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oopAtA_Q8R4&t=4m35s
Fuckin nice, dude.
You got me watching Bill Kazmaire videos all day. I just stumbled across this gem!
I think Bill should be considered for the 70s Big Hall of Fame. Maybe he’s not 70s enough, but he certainly embodies the rest of the criteria.
80s Big?
I think you’re right. We’ve talked about this before, too.
Damn man, your press keeps pushing on up.
You were kind of just singling up as a training modality for a while, right? Is that still going on?
No real PRs this week. Wednesday I had heavy trips on DL, decided not to try for a weight PR but a form PR. Working on not bouncing the weight. 375lb for 3, complete reset at the bottom without letting the bar go. First time in a long time I was able to accomplish that.
I deadlifted yesterday for the first time in two months. I laid off due to vacation and trying to let some tendonitis in my elbow get better. It was only mildly uncomfortable yesterday, so that’s a win. I’m doing an LP to get back to full strength and beyond.
I’ve tried many times to watch weight lifting but can never get into it. Part of it is that the coverage is usually poor (announcers are amateurs, bad camera angles, no scoreboard, etc.) and another part is that all the weights are listed in kg. The kg isn’t all that big of a deal, but I think it makes it less accessible to most Americans who have to constantly make a conversion to get an idea of how heavy/impressive something is. But I think this has much more to do with the poor coverage. I love watching World’s Strongest Man. They always list things like 100 KG (220 lb.).
BTW Youtube is blocking that video.
Was your elbow hurting when you gripped the bar? I thought abstaining from deads was odd (unless you meant all training).
It was hurting as soon as it was loaded after the bar came off the floor; I couldn’t do rows either. It’s feeling better now, but not nearly 100%. I took prescription NSAIDs for 14 days and then laid off for a while after that. If it doesn’t get better I’m going to see about getting a cortisone injection. I got injections for plantar fasciitis a couple years ago and haven’t had any symptoms in my heal since then.
FAVORITE STRENGTH BATTLE: Anything between Ed Coan and Travis Mash
PR: Hitting 3×5 at 100 kilos for the RDL today.
TRAINING QUESTION: In your RDL article (http://70sbig.com/blog/2011/06/the-rdl/), you say not to push it too heavy, especially if you’re not big (I weight 84 kilos dripping wet).
Going forward, should I just keep my RDL’s at that 3×5 at 100 kilos and try to make them prettier? How do I progress?
THANKS!
Answer: It depends on how “not pretty” the set was. The RDL, at least the way I have people use them to develop their hamstrings, is more technique oriented. 100k isn’t unreasonable for you, but if it was sloppy, I’d have you clean it up. Especially if you need hamstring development.
Now, if there was a dude who had excellent musculature balance and strength, then I’d push him up a bit, but I still wouldn’t want it to be a bastardized deadlift, because otherwise I’d just have him deadlift.
PRs from Sunday: Front Squat- 3x3x295lbs, followed by deadlift- 485lbs for a single, then 3x3x445lbs
Tuesday: Press- 185lbs
For the Q&A: Justin, any chance you could hook a brotha up with that trail mix recipe? Looked good as fuck.
I’ll let the wife know you’re interested.
Pin pressed on bench from the bottom up 210×8 (body weight 157). I believe that’s a PR.
8x200kg squat, followed by 8x2005kg squat pr’s. Unfortunately only got the first on video.
Other than that, 6x220kg deadlift this week, also pr.
Sick man, and thumbs up for Suspekt:D
Nice job and good control, man.
Squat 415×5
Weighted Dips +135 x5
I sprained my wrist about 5 weeks ago and it’s getting better, but I still can’t bench heavy and I can’t lift any weight with my injured wrist supinated (like in a curling positon) anyone got experience with wrist sprains?
It’s a tfcc sprain and hurts when I supinate my hand really hard. Also when I try to curl anything
I had something similar earlier this year. Couldn’t press or bench. It took a while to heal, but making sure the soft tissue quality was good between my wrist and my elbow helped a lot. If its really junky in your wrist extensors then that can contribute to it.
How did you hurt it?
Pulled some heavy deads this week. First time deadlifting at this weight since June. Hit 550 for 4 singles, which is technically a PR. What quick foods do you guys like to use to get in your Macros on the go? I have class all day tuesday and thursday and although I pack a big lunch and a couple protein shakes I need something that I can have in class. Ive been drinking some whole milk. Thoughts on that?
I eat all but supper while on the go each day. I pretty much repeat the same thing over and over for a while, with my main dietary variety coming from supper and weekends.
Breakfast:
Slices of pork loin with breakfast sausage seasoning sprinkled on them, pan fried. 2 toasted bagels with 1/2 block of cream cheese. Coffee. That meal is over 900 calories and I eat it in my truck.
Lunch:
Variety of pasta. Fresh fruit.
2nd lunch:
Pbj/tuna sandwich. 10oz cottage cheese with canned fruit.
All day: I bring 1/2 gallon of whole milk in a thermos and drink it between lunch and 4:00. I do manual labor and I drink it in the dead of sun. No problem. At supper I drink as much as I can of the remaining 1/2 gallon.
Every bit of that is highly portable, calorie dense, and loaded with gains.
I usually compliment supper with either monkey bread or pound cake for some delicious caloric addition.
6’1″ 198 and lean as a damn hyena. Not that I try to be, but I definitely have to out eat my blazing genetic BMR.
Other than packing regular food and meat, you can do nuts or trail mixes. Fruit. Protein bars. Can make a protein batter with nut butters (I’ll do a post on this).
Madcow going well. Only PR worth sharing is my BOBB Row 175#x3
my question for Q&A: if at some point I have other things going on in my life and I don’t have time to try to keep progressing every week, are there some “maintenance” programs out there to work off of? Something to keep my strength at approximately the same level so at some later point I can get back into it again without starting from 0?
my PR’s: no PR’s this week :( but I did manage to match my previous squat of 220 and deadlift of 275.
You can pretty much just work up to a few medium sets of five or triples. Just base it on how you feel that day and accept that you aren’t going to push the weight really hard. Sometimes strength training is all about accumulating the work over a long period of time (which will also help develop musculature).
Lifting medium or light is better than not lifting at all. And it still provides a stress, even if it’s short.
Squat PR 430 5×1
First time running singles.
Bench is at a horrendous stall. Had a minor pec strain a few weeks ago and I simply cannot get back to my pre-injury weight. Fail. Fail. Fail on intensity day. Volume day is still progressing well. I think I’ll reset intensity day. Again. So frustrated. It’s also my worst lift and least intuitive to program. I would love knowledgable input. Volume day is 235x5x5 this week. It usually goes up about 5 lbs per week and is about 90% of intensity day. Which was 260×5. Volume day keeps increasing. I keep failing to get 260×5 again. I think it’s wiser to reset and achieve a solid 5 before running it out.
Deadlift not a PR but pulled 505×2. Getting very close to PR territory.
The pec strain may be holding you back, but your benching mechanics may too.
That volume work is too high a percentage of the intensity day, and when I see that, I don’t expect the intensity day to be successful. Even without a recent injury history.
Gonna be no lifting PRs for a while.
Feast PR: made 3lbs of pork belly tonight. Never actually cooked it before. My wife is vegetarian so I guess it’s all mine.
No pr’s but it was time to max after 3 cycles of 5-3-1 with some crossfitty programming; not effective for my goals. It may be if you just care alot about conditioning performance…which i don’t so much.
Nonetheless: BW around 170
BS 345×1 (35 lb short of pr)
BP 245×1 (5 lb short of pr)
DL 455×1 (7 lb short of pr)
Press 165 (tied PR)
Back to Texas Method for a Dec 7 Meet.
hit a 400lb squat after finishing Smolov, not that good considering I hit 380 after the base cycle. But a PR’s a PR no matter how much it is, I’ll take it.