Attention: Do not click refresh when ordering the tank-tops. It will send multiple orders.
Today is the first day of the rest of your tank top wearing life. If you read “Take Back the Tank Tops“, then you’re ready to express your masculinity. Behold! The 70’s Big Throwback tank top:
The throwback drawing is by Al Viquez, who runs Crossfit Inland Valley (you can also find the image on t-shirts at the 70’s Big Spreadshirt Store). Spreadshirt didn’t have any viable tank top options, so we’re doing it on our own. They are 100% cotton Canvas tank tops with a high quality print job. Tank tops will be shipped via flat rate USPS with a whole lotta love.
The cost per tank is $22 plus a flat rate shipping cost of $5.60 for up to six tank tops (7 to 12 goes to $11.20 for shipping). If you have any questions, contact AC@70sBig.com. Order directly below.
Glenn Pendlay recently posted an article on his blog explaining how he trains the Muscle Driver USA Olympic weightlifting team (article).
It’s your standard fare of doing the competitive lifts, doing power and other variants when necessary, and getting stronger with presses and squats. There are some peculiarities that help distribute the work load throughout the week, like making the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon workouts the heaviest days, doing doubles and power variants in the morning sessions, and always trying to improve the squat.
Glenn sits with his beard at the National University Championships
Pendlay also mentions using the Texas Method to push the squats. For those of you who never read my Texas Method e-books, the style of programming was coined when the Wichita Falls Weightlifting team fell into it with Pendlay as the head coach. It’s a good general approach that can push an Olympic weightlifter’s squat without interfering too much with the competitive lifts’ training. The way I program the Texas Method is more for general strength trainees and raw powerlifting, but a weightlifter will have success with the core program of using a volume day, light day, and intensity day.
Anyway, check out Glenn’s article; his system is a simple outline that he dials in for specific lifters depending on what they need, whether their weaknesses are in squatting, overhead strength, cleaning, snatching, or jerking.
Originally I wanted to invite folks who purchased Paleo for Liftersto a chat room Q&A, but it’s been hard to commit to a date and time. Instead, we’ll do the Q&A here in the comments and on the 70’s Big Facebook Fan Page.
For those who have purchased the book: ask any questions you thought of while reading it as well as questions that may be specific to your training situation.
For those who have not purchased the book: ask questions about the book or about general philosophy. Obviously there are over 26,000 words and 60 pages of information on the topic in the book, so if your question is covered there then I’ll answer quickly and default to the book.
My travels have led me to many gyms ranging from performance centers for special operations personnel to CrossFit gyms, from storage containers to globo gyms. There is a constant in all of these facilities: inefficiency.
Though I’ve rehashed topics like this ad nauseam in the past (see additional links at end), it’s always good to revisit them and put them back in the fore front of readers’ minds.
445 for 5×5
The squat is the most important exercise anyone can do for any goal.
Want to get stronger and/or bigger? You’ll need to squat since it strengthens the legs and hips through a full range of motion while the trunk isometrically maintains position; it’s a full body exercise. And since it’s training the majority of the musculature in the body, it garners a systemic (i.e. large scale hormonal) response in order to heal the damage done from an effective squat workout. This systemic response is what augments any other lifting you’ve done in the same training session and is the adaptive stress that spurns recovery and strength gain.
Want to lose body fat? The systemic stress response from squatting means hormones are working in overdrive to recover — a process that requires calories and stimulates muscle repair and growth. By using calories and growing new muscle — and doing this regularly with consistent training — the body is in a hormonal environment that facilitates body fat loss. To this day I’ve never had a female trainee not lose body fat on a strength training program.
Want to get faster? The squat takes the hips through a full range of motion and accentuates hip extension — the fundamental athletic movement. The squat also inherently involves a stretch reflex out of the bottom; the musculature about the hips and thighs moves into a position of tension and quickly shortens, or contracts, to explode out of the bottom. The squat perfectly prepares the related musculature for speed and power training as well as teaching the trunk how to stabilize the spine and hips to efficiently transmit force while moving (an important aspect of sprinting). The act of improving absolute strength will decrease the difficulty of repetitive movement, resulting in the capacity for higher or faster rates of work.
By regularly loading the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones with a full-body movement like the squat through a full range of motion, these structures adapt to be stronger, more dense, and ultimately less likely to be injured.
However, in order for all of this to be the case, the squat needs to be performed efficiently with adequate mobility. And the first god damn step is squatting all of the way down — a point in which the hip capsule (acetabulum) is below the top of the knee (or patella). If you’re reading 70’s Big, then you most likely squat to full depth on each rep, but statistically speaking there are a few of you who don’t.
As I’ve said before: Every time you don’t squat to depth, I pour a beer down the drain. And I HATE wasting beer.
For the sake of the gods, let’s make this simple: a cue to help reach depth on any squat type is “shove your knees out”. Sure, there is a lot of other things we could focus on like stance width, toe angle, torso alignment, breathing techniques, chest positioning, eye gaze, and so on, but anyone can squat to depth if they shove their knees out. The rest will figure itself out.
Dat depth.
Shoving the knees out externally rotates the hips to point the femur out away from the mid-line. It helps clear the femur from impinging on front of the hip capsule and surrounding tissue and allows for more hip flexion, AKA depth. It also helps create the “torque” at the hip that Kelly Starrett frequently talks about and results in distributing the force application across the hips and thighs efficiently (more on that here). It can help if the “knees out” cue is originating at the outside of the hips (imagine a twisting motion on the lateral hip that results in the knees out).
Since I’m preaching to the choir about squatting to depth, it’s up to all of you to help your friends do the same. If you frequent a gym and establish relationships, then it is your honor-bound duty as a lifter to help them. Don’t be a dick and just ask them if they mind if you say something about their squat — most people are very open to this because they secretly have no fucking idea what they are doing and ultimately have six pounds of anxiety building in their chest. Don’t over-complicate the matter — make simple and quick adjustments and give them a single cue before sending them back to the bar. For example: narrow up the stance, change the toe angle, then just have them think knees out — the first two are passive cues that they don’t have to think about and the last is the only active cue they worry about.
Whether you’re a half squat abuser or you are guilty by proxy, spread the word that the only way to squat is to full depth.
Take Back the Tank Tops – Part 3 of The Revolution for Masculinity
It’s July, you’re an adult, and therefore don’t need me to tell you, “Sun’s out, guns out”. It’s warm in the northern hemisphere, folks, and that means you should dress accordingly.
In The Revolutionary Guide to Manly Short Shorts I explained how the weak and pussified mainstream societal body image is trying to change the evolutionary notion that men are supposed to be, well, men. That article gave you a weapon against the masses: muscularity, burliness, and short god damn shorts.
The Revolution – Part 2 taught you how you can continue this mission in the winter months by not only wearing flannel, but taking back the flannel style from hipsters who would only wish to see us fail. The hipster is a pukish spawn of the urban middle class who hypocritically aims to “buck the system” by falling in line and dressing like everyone else in his chosen social class. Furthermore, the hipster tries to steal styles and claim them as their own; last I checked flannel and tough sports watches were associated with gritty men and calloused hands, not mid-town socialites searching for a life purpose.
Hipsters, like cockroaches, survive in warm weather and continue their thievery in the summer by wearing tank tops. THIS AGGRESSION WILL NOT STAND.
If we’re going to help change America’s perception on what is manly or even attractive, then we need to actively put it out there. Why cover up the musculature and chest hair established through squatting, pressing, and deadlifting? Why wear more clothes and sweat more in hot weather? This is straightforward logic, folks. Here is your guide to wearing tank tops in support of The Revolution of Masculinity.
1. Looking the part.
Hopefully you didn’t wake up today and realize it was summer; some pre-season preparation will help your tank-top-wearing-ability. My lawyer friend was at Wendy’s with his boss and ordered a grilled chicken sandwich and a baked potato. His boss said, “Oh no fries? Trying to slim down, huh?” To which my friend said, “It’s beach season, bro.” They laughed; friend wasn’t kidding.
It’s possible to be strong, perform well, and look jacked. Anyone who campaigns against aesthetic goals is probably portly and unhealthy anyway. But looking the part does take effort. If you’re not really in tank top shape, then you’re either fat or not big enough. If you’re fat, then improve your food quality and macronutrients (there’s a book somewhere that can help with that). If you’re not big enough, then continue squatting, pressing, benching, and deadlifting every week, but be sure to do weighted pull-ups and chin-ups, barbell rows, and thousands of hammer curls.
Years ago I was walking on a track shirtless when a brigand drove by — driving a Honda Civic with a giant spoiler to prevent his powerful machine from achieving flight — and yelled, “GET A TAN, BUDDY!”. I remembered this experience because a) the absurdity of the act of ordering someone to do something they were already doing and b) he was wearing a wife beater with a fake tan. Other than wanting to tell you an amusing story, it’s best to let the sun bathe your skin during the warm months. You’ll get some Vitamin D and can look like you belong in a tank top or have something going on.
The fake-man and style are all wrong; this is what we’re up against.
2. Choosing a tank top.
Tank tops have never really gone out of style, but the modern tank tops have gotten progressively irritating; wife beaters covered with gold chains or stains and exceptionally tight styles worn by foo-foo models. Don’t bother with this facade.
Avoid tank tops with spirally text or tribal designs. Realistically you should avoid any writing or image on the tank top at all unless it’s a gym logo or something awesome like a grizzly bear riding a shark while shooting a Tommy gun. New age tank tops typically have a lot of horizontal lines, which I don’t understand, but your physique should be able to overcome this distraction.
Keep in mind that sleeveless shirts are not a substitute for a tank top. Cutting the sleeves off of a shirt is very high schoolish and buying pre-made sleeveless shirts is even worse. We’re trying to run a god damn revolution, man! Not a camp for wannabe bodybuilders.
3. Playing the part.
Modern-day tank tops are stuffed with tiny fake-men, but worse is that these pseudo-men also act like weasels. They wander through life with a notion that the world owes them something. That their inferiority should be met with compensation — like a trophy for participating or a high-five for trying. These “men” don’t understand the concept that hard things must be done to get better — like stepping under a god damn barbell and squatting all the way down.
Understand that the Masculinity Revolution is not a show of posh muscularity, but a statement that says, “I not only recognize my weakness, but accept it and work to turn it into a strength.” By moving cold iron with calloused and chalked hands, you live a unique motto that creates a hurricane of personal responsibility and grit. When the winds die down after each training session, and the eye of the storm passes once again, you comprehend the very important lesson that things worth having require tedious and grotesquely hard work. Each repetition, set, and training session are proof that you dared to be different, that you took responsibility in life to build yourself to be something the world lacks — a god damn man.
Remember, we aren’t wearing tank tops to flaunt and elbow through a crowd of hipsters like a bunch of Tommy Tough Guys. While you may want to do that, your goal is to politely and respectfully out-alpha the little weirdos by using long-lost customs like firm hand shakes, eye contact, and chivalrous manners. You want someone to walk away and think, “My god, that was a man.”
A non-sober tank top pic from last year’s Tucson seminar.
Fight the Good Fight
Each morning you have a choice. You can wander through life as a weak representative of the male gender, or you can throw on a tank top and short shorts and unapologetically define what true machoism is. Train your dick off, accomplish lots, and ultimately dare to be different; dare to be a man.
