This post was written by my pal AJ. I got to hang out with him a bit at USAPL Raw Nationals in Scranton earlier this year. His biceps are pretty decent. On a similar note, he coaches strength training and powerlifting in south Florida. This post is about one of his female lifters, (who he refers to as) “Big Cat”, who came to him with some hyper mobility issues yet has progressed very well in her 10 months of lifting.

Training the Big Cat
by AJ Loreto, The Lion Tamer

The Big Cat came into Just Lift to ‘tighten up’. Not in this kind of way, but in the ‘my joints are fucked up from BJJ and need to stop being so mobile’ kind of way. I’ve never really heard of this, but whatever we’re Just Lift Powerlifting Team so we’ll take in anyone who wants to be there. She wanted to lift, so I threw her at the weights and Starting Strength. By the way, I’m a “Starting Strength Coach”, the seminar was fucking great, and now I’m a good coach.

Big Cat already wanted to be in the gym, so there wasn’t much need for extra motivation. In her first round of programming she did the good old 3 sets of 5 reps, with little drama aside from some tricky shoulder joints requiring some extra warming up and an occasional rub to loosen up. She high bar squatted early on because of her shoulders and lack of traps and rear delts to hold the bar, but now she’s got a shelf that would make the Shrug Thug proud and no longer has issues holding the bar low.

We eventually got her to squat consistently without collapsing at the bottom. At first she would take some repetitions as “opportunities” to either go too deep or forget what she was doing and literally drop to the floor requiring some interesting spotting efforts and removing the bar from her back completely (we eventually got the hint and used side spotters). Her inability to recover from troublesome squat reps got better and now the Big Cat is capable of actually grinding reps out without going limp.

Big Cat Deadlifts 135kg June 18th 2011 USAPL local meet from Tony on Vimeo.

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Happy PR Friday ladies and gents. Post your training updates and PRs. If you have any good Halloween costumes, post them here and we can put them up on Monday. Oh, and speaking of Halloween…stay safe.

Shankle takes bronze, details below

theturgid asks

Hi Justin, quick TM question, do you have experience with someone doing back to back bench or press weeks (i.e. not alternating) for a few weeks while chasing a milestone PR? Is this alright, or not advisable due to recovery concerns? Thanks

Dear theturgid,

I always knew the term “turgid” had a negative connotation, but I didn’t realize it meant “swollen and distended or congested”. Sounds like what happens when you drink milk. Concerning the question, I’ve had lifters bench in consecutive weeks when getting ready for powerlifting meets. “Chasing a PR” would be a similar thing without the meet, so yes, that’s okay. I would still have you press on that Light Day — whenever I have strong guys decrease pressing frequency as they ready for a meet, their shoulders get sore (more on this in the Texas Method Part 2 e-book coming in a week or so).

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The 2011 Pan American Games are in full swing and 70’s Big has been covering some of the weightlifting sessions on the Facebook Fan Page. There’s usually some decent stuff going on at the fan page, but this is an instance where we were essentially posting results of the sessions as they were happening. If you can’t see Facebook, then you can always follow on Twitter too.

I didn’t know the exact times of the lifting because the Pan Am website makes it difficult to navigate to the next day’s scheduling. In any case, today is the last day of lifting, and the schedule is as follows:

– 1:00 PM – Men’s 105kg (featuring American Donnie Shankle)
– 3:00 PM – Women’s 75+ (featuring Americans Sarah Robles and Chioma Amaechi)
– 5:00 PM – Men’s 105+ (featuring American Pat Mendes)

Guadalajara is in the Central time zone, yet I think the’s times are in Eastern time. Be on the lookout for the sessions (if anyone can confirm the time zone, then let me know).

Two time Olympian Chad Vaughn finished with a 326kg total to take bronze in the 77kg class.
Video of his heaviest successful lifts

Yesterday Kendrick Farris had a decent day taking bronze in the 85kg category. There was some kind of issue either with the display of the meet clock on the back, or his coaches not keeping an eye on it. In any case, he had to run out for his third attempt snatch. Kendrick came out and missed the jerk on his opener at 190kg, then hit 191kg on the second attempt. It looks like he’s back to doing his hybrid split/squat hybrid jerk instead of the squat jerk. He came out for the third attempt when his name was on the monitor, and we saw the judge tell him the bar wasn’t ready and to go back in the warm-up room. It’s possible that another lifter’s coaches changed their weight at the last second to dick Kendrick over, but either way his coaching team should have had better situation awareness. There was less than ten seconds when he ran from the curtain and he ended up getting his hands on the bar with one second left, and only clean pulled a deadlift. Despite these goofs, he still made bronze.
Video of some of the 85kg lifters, second lift is Kendrick’s 191kg cj

Kendrick hits 191kg on his second attempt

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Sweet potatoes cost as low as $.60/lb, and they have a little bit of sweet flavor. However, baked sweet potatoes get boring, so let’s get reckless. Here’s what you’re gonna need:

– 1 medium sized sweet potato (rhinoceros penis sizes are not necessary)
– 2 pieces of thick bacon
– 1 tbspon of butter
– cinnamon
– 1 handlebar mustache

Prep time is a couple of minutes. Cook time is a few minutes.

Cook the sweet potato. I prefer to use the microwave. Poke holes in the potato and cook it for four minutes. Two potatoes will cook in six minutes. While that’s cooking, fry the two pieces of bacon that you have already cut up into small pieces.

Once the sweet potato is done, cut it into small pieces. When the bacon is adequately cooked, but not burned or crispy, dump the sweet potatoes in and sauté the mixture.

Now plop a nice hunk of butter in. At least one tablespoon of butter. As it melts, give the whole mixture a good dusting of cinnamon. Then stir the mixture in with the melting butter thoroughly — this is where the magic happens.

Cooking things in butter makes them incredible, and sweet potato hash is no different. The butter allows the mixture to brown and infuses the cinnamon. This, of course, is just a garnish to whatever other egg/bacon meal you’re already having. I suggest fried eggs mixed into the sweet potato hash or scrambled eggs and bacon on the side. Enjoy.



We’ll have a regular recipe feature once the site changes themes, so get your pictures/videos ready.

People scour the internet searching for the majestic Press Booster that miraculously improves pressing ability. Unfortunately the Press Booster is merely a tall tale created by real life creatures known as “fuckers” in order to buffalo you. What fuckers don’t realize is that first comes mechanics, then comes consistency, and then comes belligerency in a baby carriage.

Mechanics
Too often I see pressing grips that are very wide — the forearms should be vertical in the starting or rack position, and they should also be vertical from the front and side view. The wrist should be in a close-compacted position that puts the bar in the heel of the palm. The bar should remain close to the face during the ascent and descent while the lifter gets their torso under the bar. Speaking of the torso, it shouldn’t bend much and the thoracic/lumbar junction should never be in hyper extension. The hips should also not be in anterior rotation at lockout. Lastly, assuming all of this other stuff is occurring correctly, the shoulders shouldn’t be internally rotating. Pretty simple, huh?

I’ll be very clear in admitting that this post cannot address the questions that the last paragraph presents because I could write a long post on each item. The point is that there is a lot going on and until the mechanics are addressed, the program itself is not to blame.

Consistency
Pressing will increase with diligency (not a word). Constantly chipping away at it over time will develop a good press. I have been pressing for at least once a week since July of 2010 and have averaged at least once a week since January of 2009 (the only reason I didn’t initially use Jan of 2009 is because when I was on the Texas Method I alternated bench/press weeks). The press benefits from an accumulated work load. Most linear progressions nowadays utilize a good amount of pressing, yet eventually there is a limit on how far three sets of five (3×5) can be progressed. There’s no point in beating a dead horse, so using some different rep ranges will help increase pressing strength. The first thing to play around with in programming is to use some heavier weight, but not to abandon old rep schemes. One example is that I have developed an ascending 3×3 and 3×5 rep scheme that alternates every week on the press and bench with great success. The key is not to use anything fancy but to keep utilizing the press.

Belligerency
Once some basic programmatic variables have been played with, you’ll have to take chances on your pressing days. You’ll have to try and push your last triple, last set of five, or your 3×5 sets across. You’ll have to learn how to grind through tough presses, and you do this by getting experience with hard reps. You will not press heavy weights if you push the bar forward so learn how to keep it close and get under it. Once you can grind though a ten second press, you will know how to fight through the hard reps.

Using other exercises to build the press isn’t necessary until mechanics, consistency, and belligerency are addressed. Then there are a few options for the seasoned presser. But whatever, this was all just an excuse to post my recent PR (this one is not in a speedo like last time).



You can see that I have a bit of stretch reflex to aid the start of the rep. In training, I don’t mind this assuming the fundamental mechanics are in place (referenced above). You’ll see that my torso, hips, and knees maintain rigidity, which are my requirements for a proper press. However, I would not allow this stretch reflex in competition as it is difficult to quantify and subsequently difficult to judge. I don’t have a problem in doing it, and I prefer to do it for the sake of handling more weight and reps (as long as it’s not excessive, and it’s not in either video).