Author Archives: Justin

Equip for the Quest – Shoes Part 1

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“This stuff will make you a sexual tyrannosaurus!”

You gotta make sacrifices if you wanna get 70’s Big. This means training hard, eating hard, learning how to cook, weighing over 200 pounds, listening to Chicago, tossing small children, knowing your enemy, consuming American soil, and not shaving your chest (certainly don’t do this).

In order to begin or continue your quest to being 70’s Big, you will need to be properly equipped. In all of barbell lifting, your feet articulate with the ground. Weightlifting shoes will be necessary so that this articulation prepares you to move the weight as efficiently as possible.

In general, weightlifting shoes have a wide (read: stable) non-compressible sole that has a little bit of heel lift. This heel lift is a bit exaggerated in some brands of shoes because it is made for a pulling position where the shoulders are behind the bar (thus the bar is out in front of the middle of the foot near the ball of the foot or further). If you follow this site, then you know that the creators will place the bar over the middle of the foot in order to pull it off the ground, regardless if it is a deadlift, clean, or snatch. Shoes with a higher heel will not be as efficient to complete this task as intended.

This post does not aim to try to validate weightlifting shoes. Instead, I just wanted to talk about a new shoe that just came out at Rogue Fitness. If you have read Starting Strength, understand the importance of the pulling model, and need a pair of shoes, you may be interested in the shoes that Rogue is selling with a 1/2 inch heel.

We filmed a video talking about this shoes before it was released in December when Mike Hom and AC were in town. Since then, the shoe has been released and is selling quickly. Again, nobody asks me to endorse any products, I just like talking about good products. Gold star if you catch the Star Wars reference in this video.

Rogue Weightlifting Shoes from 70s Big on Vimeo.

Video Montage

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“Hey, is that where they filmed Terminator 2?”

AC made a pretty sweet video montage of footage from his trip out here in December. That trip also coincided with Mike Hom visiting Wichita Falls, so we were one big happy family. In this video you will see different types of lifters with different training goals.

Texas Pt. 2 from A.C. on Vimeo.

Edit: I guess I’m okay with me sitting on the toilet as the video’s preview image…
Stay warm and train hard — tomorrow is PR Friday.

———-

I’ve never met Sage Burgener, but we have some mutual friends. Apparently she’s a cool gal, a weightlifter, a coach, and has a funky little blog where she reveals tips that she has picked up from her pops, Mike Burgener. More importantly, she likes the 70’s Big t-shirt.

sage

Poop Poop Poop Poop

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“Merry Christmas! Shitter was full!

It’s time to talk about poopin’.

Everyone Poops. It’s a book I read years ago in a store, and I couldn’t stop laughing hysterically. I for one enjoy the act of pooping, and I know many of you do to (my friend Chris is a HUGE fan of poopin’). I get a lot of reading done while I’m on the commode. I routinely call my mom while poopin’, and I’m sure to let her know every single time. Gettin’ work done when I’m gettin’ work done, I always say.

But alas! Start drinking lots of milk and eating lots of meat and you may run into problems when trying to enjoy your poop. Lots of milk can give you the runs, and lots of meat can give you the stops. Poopity poop, what can ya do? My friends, this is when supplementing fiber becomes a necessity for your poopin’ satisfaction.

On a side note, when you are skinny little pain in the ass who is trying to gain weight, you do NOT have time for vegetables. Sure, you can have some peas or corn with your taters and chicken fried steak, but they should not be getting in the way of filling your irritating concave abs with calories. ESPECIALLY if it is an artichoke. What is this Californian obsession with artichokes? You scrape some sludge off of a leaf and then dip it into “special sauce” to tolerate it. I don’t understand. And don’t get me started on the sparkling water ordeal (tap water is fine for me, darling Tara).

Ahem. Fiber supplementation is something that I think should be a part of any quest for 70’s Big. Poopin’ shouldn’t be traumatizing, it should, fun, easy, and enjoyable. One night when Mike Hom was here, he was rambling to me about two different kinds of fiber; one that was a bit softer, and another that just knocked all the garbage off the intestinal walls. Ptsh, which one did you think I was already taking? Yeah, the one that would promote healthy poopin’.

Enter Equate’s Natural Psyllium Husk Fiber:
IMG00175-20100105-1021

You can get this at Wal-Mart relatively cheap. All you have to do is get a few ounces of water, stir in a spoonful of the orange powder, drink it fast enough so it doesn’t solidify in your mouth, and BAM! Poopin’ made easy. My pal Brent says it tastes like orange Hi-C. Well, I don’t know about that, but I’ve had worse things in my mouth (don’t ask).

I’m really not interested in explaining what kind of fiber this is, but it will help make poopin’ more regular. It will make the runny poop un-runny and it will make the stoppy poop un-stoppy. Your poop will be normalized. Trust me. Especially if you are eating lots of food. Since there isn’t time for vegetables, supplementing the missing fiber will not only improve your time on the commode, but it will help keep your gut healthy.

I shouldn’t have to say this, but I know you guys will get out of hand: we don’t need any gratuitous poop stories in the comments. I do not want to hear about your poopin’ ailments, nor do I want to hear about the consistency, color, shape, or size of your poop. I do not want any pictures of videos of you, your poop, or anybody else’s. And I CERTAINLY do not want AC to talk about playing poopy dollar at the mall. I will not tolerate this, and we need to have standards, damn it.

The word poop has been used 26 times in this post, including this one.

Demonic Drivel Dynamically Defies Dudes

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“He’s fading. He needs Elvish medicine.”

You’re training hard, right? You go in the gym or garage, do stuff that is hard, and you feel better about yourself. Some times, you may not feel a little tired, but you think, “Man, I don’t want Mark Rippetoe or any of my friends on 70’s Big to call me a pussy, so I’ll train (choo choo) anyway.” And that’s how it goes.

Well, proceed with caution, my friends. Eventually that tired feeling may be a bit more than the “I’m sleepy blues”. You may actually have HIV, or some derivative thereof. Okay, maybe a little less severe, but you may be legitimately sick, and training may even exacerbate your condition.

The other day I had a PR on a sloppy snatch day (that never gets old). I got 127.5, and proceeded to miss 130 three times even though I racked it overhead each time. Later, I was pinned by a 155 kilo clean and was baffled (I’ve done 165 and front squatted 170 for a few triples after training the week before Christmas). Well, turns out I was in the beginning stages of having what I am convinced is some horrific ancient ailment, one that only Elvish medicine can cure. Saturday evening I was on my deathbed for 18 hours with a fever from hell, chills, and had aches and pains that were analogous to getting my ass kicked by fourteen hoodlums that looked like Doug Young.

There were a few hours on Saturday where I felt like I could actually train, but I didn’t because I was busy coaching. Had I done so, it probably would have left me worse off than I eventually was on Saturday evening. Furthermore, I thought I was just having a shitty training session on Thursday, but it was actually the development of the devilish disease that dawned demonically with dastardly defiance.

You will learn through time what the difference is between a sniveling cold that you can train through and dark magic. Accept the fact that you may not know this difference right now, and take caution when you feel a bit under the weather. If you suspect that training will make your condition worse, you have my permission to take the day off. Be careful out there…the world can be a dangerous place.

———-

Do you guys remember that picture of Yosh, the dude who deadlifted 480 at a body weight of 165? Well he weighs 182 now. Partly because he ate 8 McDoubles at once. Jesus, I know. It was 3,120 calories and 176 grams of protein. Nice job, Yosh. You set the bar.

It would have been better if he wrote that in with a marker

8 McDoubles


2009 Recap

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“So what are you guys doin’ tonight?”
“Eh, just gettin’ 70’s Big.”

Edit: Damn it, it is PR Friday. Forgot to add it to the post. Body weight, weight lifted, clothes ripped, girls lifted over head, food eaten, etc. Post it all to comments.

70’s Big started this year on September 22nd and has grown from an inside joke to a thriving community of people focused on getting strong. One of our primary goals is to help change the mindset in people that skinny is not good, and being strong and useful is. I can’t think of any reason why being stronger would be a bad thing, and last time I checked, when a guy presses his girlfriend overhead, she giggles with glee.

I write the majority of the content for this site. While I’m not very good at it, I think I get the message across (even though some of you can’t understand when I say things tongue-in-cheek). My friend Gant always chimes in with insightful posts and interviews, my friends Chris and AC always give me sources of inspiration, and I just want to say Brent’s name so he doesn’t get upset again. Rip and co. have also been willing to help answer any questions that I have and make sure that my head is on straight.

My emphasis on this site always will be that getting stronger is going to help whatever it is you are trying to do (at the very least, living life). In order to get stronger, you must get bigger. This message has brought (at the time of me typing this) 417,620 total page views with the daily average now above 5,000 on a weekday and over 3,000 on both days in the weekend (Note: This is not the same as individual visitors, just individual page views). 70’s Big has been linked in Denmark, Germany, the UK, Australia, in the far reaches of North America, and probably some other European countries (I got an e-mail that was entirely in Czech the other day). A few days ago we were linked in the comments on the Huffington Post, which was amusing.

70sbig

Since this community continues to grow, I want to clarify that everybody is welcome on this website regardless of background. Lots of bodybuilding forums link to us, usually while shooting our philosophy down, but I still welcome that demographic if they aim to get stronger. Regardless of your goal or sport, if you are getting stronger, then you have come to the right place. This website will be most helpful if you are an obnoxiously skinny dude who weighs less than 200 pounds, but I assure you we will have more interesting stuff in the coming months.

I’d like to thank the readers/posters because you all have helped garner the idea that we are supportive of anyone trying to get strong. We are not a community that thinks we are better than others and we certainly are not locked into some ridiculous singular mindset (err…other than that stronger is better). Anyway, enough of this kiss-assery, I just hope you learn something beneath all of the eggnog and brisket.

With that being said, everyone is welcome to submit material to the website at any time. Videos and pictures are always welcome, but make them interesting enough to be posted. Content is always welcome from experienced lifters or competitors as they can give an insight into lots of things that us younger guys don’t understand yet. At the very least you will help me get through those slow days when it is 10:00 PM and I’m staring at the laptop screen irritated as hell. Fortunately I have an uncanny (or bullshit) ability to improvise.

Anyway, let’s get crackin’ on the new year. Whoever you are; right now, you are not strong enough. You are not big enough. You have work to do, especially if you are going to lift your girlfriend overhead.
Note: For the girls reading this, you’ll just be hotter when you’re stronger. If you are in a relationship where you can lift your boyfriend overhead, then you need to leave him and call me. Soon.

Oh, and this is your New Years present: