My name is Andrew Watson, I’ve been a long time reader of the site ever since the short short article caught my interest, in the past 5 years there’s close to a 2:1 ratio of days I’ve squatted vs days I have not, so I feel that any shorts that fall past my mid-thigh is a crime to society since these thighs should be shown to the world as we are all better for seeing them.

But Back to Raw Nats, I currently hold the Open Squat/Dead/Total American Records for 67.5kg in the USAPL and go in very confident, although recently I have been training more for weightlifting, my meet pr total is about 10kgs above my biggest competitor Shawn Fasquillo(National Champ and World team member last year), and I’ve been doing nothing but squatting as and despite knowing my bench is down I still believe I can walk out with a win. I weigh in at 65.2 the next day and lifting begins shortly after.

Squats – I fucking love to squat, I squat every possible moment, so much so I’ve earned the nickname Squatson at my gym at home. I open with a moderate 200kilo, get it up easy(that’s what she said) , but I beat the rack command and get redlighted, rookie mistake, I have some jitters. Same Attempt for attempt two and smoked it, but did not feel as easy as I would of liked, me being light, still in the process of rehydrating and deciding to stay conservative I just do a 5kilo jump on my last lift, hit it easy, and come out of the squats in 1^st overall with 205kilos.

Bench – Bench is stupid and I don’t like it, I hit 127.5/281lbs. Fasquilo hits 150/330, and I go into a 12.5kilo hole.

Deadlifts – This is where it becomes interesting, I am down by 12.5kilos, needing to tie since I weighed in lighter, and will have the last dead of the meet. I know his results from worlds about 2 months earlier and he pulled 232.5kgs on his third attempt there he went 3/3 so I believe he is capable of more, he knows what I am capable of, we all have a general idea of what each other will put up so competition can get pretty intense. I open with 230kilos, Shawn 215, putting me in the lead by 2.5kilos, next attempt, Shawn hits 227.5 I hit 242.5, this lift breaks my own dead American Record and keeps me up by 2.5kilos. Now onto thirds originally Shawn has his attempt listed at 240, so I put down 252.5. My handlers(Mike Talyor and Arain Khamesi from FSU, also Kristi Polizanno another worldteam member comes back to help with changes on dead as I have barely done this before.) drop my attempt to 250kilos after he drops his to 237.5, per usapl rules you are allowed 2 changes to your last dead attempt, with this pull I will win nationals and I will be heading to worlds. I walk out to the platform to the biggest ovation I have ever had for a lift in my life, screams, and my teammates behind me cheering me on. Holly fuck I am pumped, I begin my pull and immediately knew something was up, my ass shot up and the bar got slightly infront of me, for what feels like 3 mins but in reality less than a second I struggle with the weight right by my knees and it comes crashing back down, it happened, I missed the last dead, on a weight I have hit before and that’s it for me, tough fight but I come up short.  For this meet I was a member of Team Unconquered, noteables on this team were Rob Trettin and Mike Hedlesky both members of Team USA for this past worlds. We placed third in team scoring.

242.5kg dead

250kg attempt

After crying hysterically all night I come back the next day and watch some lifting, I see Jen Thompson and Kim Walford lift, who are two of the strongest women in the world. Kim deads 507 at 140lbs which is insanely impressive for anyone at that weight male or female, which was the loudest I’ve ever seen a pl crowd. LS McLain and Dave Ricks have another awesome battle at 93kgs, and I watch via live stream Blaine Sumner vs. Williams. This was an insanely well run meet, Robert Keller the meet director deserves some props for this as this had to be very strenuous to put together.

For me I’m going to continue being an asshole and training both for wling and pling going up to 74/75kgs for pl and will make the cut to 69 for wl, hope that somehow I get a call from the usapl about being an alternate to worlds, and now I’m planning a local wl meet, the American open (Weightlifting), and the arnold for powerlifting in the future.

PR Friday comes again ladies and gents, hope you all had a good week. Here at 70’s Big, we spotlighted the women of USAW at the OTC on Monday. The Fellas checked in from Raw nationals with some hotel gym training sesh’s and Brent talked to us about finding your 10.  Justin started his series on efficient training with The Squat, and also started a Q&A for his book, Paleo for Lifters to answer any questions you might have.

Over on the facebook page, a bunch of people have shared photos with us lately. Here’s a few:

Jethro shared this gem

Ann Marie shows off her new shorts on a camping trip

Owen sent us this 70’s Big face from the hospital. Hope he’s alright?

New photo contest for this week, which came to us from our friend from Canada, Mark Marotta. Send in or post your pictures of Pressing Things That Aren’t Weights. suggestions include but are not limited to: animals, significant others, vehicles, the earth, etc. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with, we’ll post submissions next Friday.

Mark starts it off by pressing a drum set?

Originally I wanted to invite folks who purchased Paleo for Lifters to 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.

I’ll answer questions throughout the week.

Click here to buy the book.

Back in November of 2010 Brent Kim was in my living room, lying on the ground with a dumbbell held above his head (jealous yet?). When I asked him “what are you doing?” he responded with “what the f*** does it look like I’m doing? I’m sending my humerus to the posterior portion of the socket”. I said something to the effect, of “OK, c ya!”

chris helps brent mob (or milks him?)

Over the next six months, Brent would spend countless hours poring over Kelly Starrett’s MobilityWod.com, and using “informed free styling” to improve his mobility. Brent was pleased to report that his mobility (which he had previously described as horrendous), had improved dramatically. Brent would still refer to himself in a self-deprecating manner, but he told me his training was at least going better.

In mid-2011 I decided that maybe, for once, Brent was onto something. I would spend the next two years (and still do, to this day) trying to learn how to effectively mobilize for better performance in the gym. As we all know, how much you improve in training is directly related to what you do outside of the gym (nutrition/sleep/moping/etc.)

A few months back I finally received my pre-ordered copy of Dr. Kelly Starrett’s “Becoming a Supple Leopard”. I am pleased to report that after reading through it, and referring to it multiple times a week, it’s as indispensable as a belt (Brent), a lacrosse ball, and a PVC pipe (i.e. you should have them). If you’ve watched any of the videos on MobilityWod.com, you’re familiar with Starrett’s style. He uses terms like “bleeding force” and “dumping torque” routinely as a method for describing how your performance is limited in some capacity by a mobility restriction/incorrect movement pattern. This book is written much in the same manner as his videos, but in my opinion, far easier to understand.

In addition to describing his definition for mobilization, Starrett explores subjects such as midline stabilization, the one joint rule, laws of torque, and movement hierarchy. This information precedes describing how to correctly perform numerous exercises. Finally, if you’re having issues with a particular movement, he details how to isolate the issue, and how to fix it.

Starrett describes that pain is often a lagging indicator. It isn’t just that your knee hurts, there is an explanation for the pain in your knee that often begins with tightness upstream/ downstream of the pain, or an incorrect movement pattern. Starrett’s systematic approach to figuring out what’s wrong with you is also extremely flexible. You work on your hip mobility, and your knee pain still exists. Then, you move to your ankles, and discover that they’re incredibly tight because you wear combat boots all day (this is from personal experience).

Without spending anymore time telling you why you should read it, you need to either buy a copy, or borrow it from someone. There will be people out there that tell you what Starrett preaches has no real value. As far as I’m concerned, they’re the same people that tell you that you should stop squatting because there is a leg press in the corner and it’s “easier on the knees”. Still not a believer? Spend five minutes of your time with a lacrosse ball, curse me, then go to Amazon and make one of the best $35 investments you can make for your training.

Mike Battaglino is a 70’s Big member that regularly contributes to his blog at 70sbig.com/mike, and makes videos about chicken shakes/analyzing technique/other random training advice. When he isn’t training or making videos, he’s declining your offer for a spot. Spot?