I’ve been moving, so there isn’t gonna be much of a post today. I’ve got lots of things planned for you guys including more TM-related posts, interviews, videos, and maybe even that podcast idea. Post your PR’s, training updates, questions, or musings to the comments and I’ll reply to them whenever I have internet this weekend. Have a good’un.
Walter is unimpressed
This is what Brent looked like when I met him:
Here are Brent’s squat attempts in a meet we did at WFAC in February of 2009. Brent hits 180kg for his last attempt. He has since hit around 210kg in a meet (sorry Brent, can’t remember).
Matt Truss has been telling us about his pulled pork recipe for a while. He finally organized the recipe and made some videos. He made a wonderfully organized word document, and if I try and post the pictures it won’t be as organized. I’ll just link it.
Note: If you are an SOF operator, I’m interested in having you join other operators in a group where we can talk about different aspects and issues regarding physical training and requirements to optimally perform (among other things). Together we can gain insight on proper physical preparation and potentially synthesize the material. If you’re interested in participating, e-mail me at Justin@70sBig.com or post in the comments.
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I get to meet a lot of people through this site, and one of them is The Scott (I don’t know how this name came to be). The Scott has e-mailed with AC and I over the past year, and he has had some great improvement in his strength. The Scott trains at Ian Carver’s CrossFit Centurion where we did a workshop in August. Scott is a stocky dude at 5’9″ and weighed 216 for this meet. If I remember correctly, he was informed of it just a couple weeks ago (meaning he didn’t have a significant taper).
I helped him out with choosing his attempts before the meet (actually it was when we did the 70’s Big Chat Room last week) and gave him some general advice. Well, The Scott went 8/9 and PR’d on squat and deadlift.
Squat 456.5lbs PR
Bench 325lbs
Deadlift 501.5lbs PR
Total 1283lbs
In his last e-mail he told me
In just over a year since following 70’s Big, my squat went from 320 to 456.5 (+ 136.5lbs), bench 315 to 365 (+ 50lbs), and deadlift 370 to 501.5 (+ 131.5lbs). Thanks again for all your help and correspondence. I’m looking forward to 2011.
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You may remember reader Matt Nolan’s (NolanPower) 325kg (716 lb) deadlift in the 100kg/220lb weight class at the New Jersey State powerlfting comp last year. Well, he’s still training hard and sent me this PR squat vid:
At the end of 2009 Gant had a solid idea to force some of you to commit to…something. He called it “Letter of Intent Day”, and it was supposed to incite some of you to figure out what your training goals were for the near future (first half of the year at least). A lot of you responded with quasi-vague goals that sorta pissed me off. Go to the bottom of this post and read Gant’s goals for 2010 (for good measure, read the second post too). His goals were specific to the point that there was no question whether or not he would accomplish them or not. He didn’t set a time line for his annual goals (the goals were varied to the point where they couldn’t all be done at once), but most of you should.
Also notice how the emphasis is on competition. Lifting in your local gym or your garage is okay, but it doesn’t place demands on you the way that competition does. It requires that you funnel your training into a single event that is judged by officials who have a standardized way of critiquing you. Even if you were to compete in mountain biking (one of Gant’s goals last year), you would still be put in a vulnerable position where you are competing against other people…for real. Right before the starting gun you will feel a surge of adrenaline and increased heart rate whether you are about to start pedaling, squatting, or running. Do yourself a favor and commit to some kind of competition related goal this year. How you place is irrelevant; it’s how you perform under duress and how you improve. Gym PR’s are not the same thing as meet PR’s. It’s time that you learned why.
Post your specific goals to the comments. I don’t care about hearing that you want to squat 400 or 500 pounds this year — tell me what you plan on doing in a meet. Training is irrelevant — by definition it implies it’s simply the process of working towards an end goal.
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…who strives…who spends himself…and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
