The 70’s Big Shake is no different than every caloric bomb that guys have been making since blenders were invented. The shake is a good weight gain tool, a good recovery drink, and a good “make up meal” in the event you haven’t eaten in a while. The only reason I actually included ingredient amounts is because A) I know some of you goobers are going to ask anyway, and B) I wanted to give some hard facts on calories and protein (I know one of you will post how many carbs and fat are in it too). Measuring your food is typically a waste of time, especially when you need to gain 50 pounds. So please, don’t waste your time with measuring any of this.
To prepare the 70’s Big Shake:
Pour a generous amount of milk into your blender. If you pour too much, you won’t have room for the other goodies, so be wary.
Scoop in a hearty amount of ice cream. If you have “reduced fat” ice cream, pleas click the x in the top right of your browser.
Take the spoon you used to scoop the ice cream, and dig the biggest wad (equivalent to WOD) you can out of your peanut butter jar. It is a sin to waste peanut butter.
Add two scoops of cheap whey protein powder
Hold your chocolate syrup bottle over the mixture and squeeze until satisfied. Then squeeze for another full second.
“Nobody should be training if they haven’t had any coffee.”
This was an important lesson I learned from Rip many months ago. A warm cup of joe can rejuvenate your mood, warm your loins, and give you a convenient caffeine energy boost.
In order to be useful, your coffee needs to be bold…like your attitude. And America. And my pal Spence, a fighter pilot who grows stronger to battle G-tolerance and enemies who defy him in the air.
A fighter pilot’s breakfast: coffee with a shot of jet fuel, napalm, and a side of death.
Coffee gives you an extra kick when your mind and body feel tired. In fact, sometimes it’s the only thing that can get you prepped for the stress you are about to impart on your body. You can’t get this done with Folgers; you need something dark enough to produce the kick. Caffeine pills can’t accomplish the same thing either; it must have something to do with the the powerful aroma and the boiling liquid coating your belly. Most problems that occur in training are usually correlated with a lack of coffee.
PR Friday, people! This is where you will post the week’s accomplishments in lifting, eating, or gaining body weight. If you lift over the weekend, write your PR’s here anyway (as opposed to Monday’s post).
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On the back-end of this website, I am able to go in and see who is linking to us. We’ve been linked to from a lot of places; from Washington state to Europe. 70’s Big makes an appearance on a lot of forums and it’s kinda funny to see the random criticism for the site, because usually it doesn’t make much sense.
The biggest misconception is that we are claiming that you eat an asinine amount of food for THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! ARRGGGHHHHH! Look, there is no 70’s Big diet. The main thing we are concerned about is that you are eating enough to sustain getting stronger and bigger for your training goals, and we hope that those goals include some kind of competition.
It just so happens to be that the majority of people who are reading this site need to gain around 50 pounds of body weight just to be useful. Guys and girls like this — yes, lots of girls are underweight, albeit not 50 pounds underweight — need to get lots of calories in along with the mandatory protein. Will they gain a little bit of bodyfat? Potentially, but usually it is insignificant if they are training hard.
I am going to say this really obnoxiously because everyone always misses this important fact:
NOBODY IS SUGGESTING THAT YOU EAT A BAG OF TRAIL MIX, ICE CREAM WITH MAGIC SHELL, AN EXTRA LARGE PIZZA TOPPED WITH OLIVE OIL, AND EGG NOG FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.
I AM suggesting that you do this if you need to gain muscular body weight, and I AM saying that you need to do this if you are skinny and want to get stronger. Once you achieve an appropriate weight, then you will eat to maintain that mass while fueling your recovery. Quit misconstruing what I say or what this site stands for. I just want you strong, and if you are small, you need to do things in order to get bigger and stronger.
Bigger guys (230+) can probably get away with a Paleo-type diet that includes milk and dairy. Bigger guys will require lots more food to meet protein and caloric requirements, and even more so when they are lifting lots of weight on a regular basis. You people that don’t strength train have to understand that the nutritional requirements change when you are placing a lot of stress on your body. Things don’t affect you in the same way that they do when you are an “exerciser” or a lazy person.
70’s Big is most inspiring to the skinny kid who needs a kick in the ass to eat like a 220 pound guy would instead of a 150 pound child. But this website also serves anybody who is wanting to get stronger. The fact is that everybody has a unique situation, but we are all the same in that we want to be stronger today than we were yesterday. There are no absolutes but getting stronger.
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Since we are talking about it, here is a food plan that I made for my buddy Cliff to help him push from 200 to 220. Cliff weighed around 175 when he started lifting here, and got up to 220 while working a full time job. He figures he will make a push to 240 after the city league basketball season. This picture appeared a few months ago, and I consider it a classic.
A food plan from a few months ago
Note: I made a mistake with what I refer to as the Facebook Fiasco. I stated that I wanted you guys to identify yourselves if you want friendship on Facebook, and then I got a stupid amount of friend requests. I’ve since decided that I won’t be accepting any of this fubar unless I actually know you. Sorry, but it makes things easier to manage, and it ensures that I won’t A) be murdered in the middle of the night or B) subject to awkward bromances. Females are still welcome.
“Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”
When I first moved to Wichita Falls, I weighed 195 pounds. I began the linear progression, and ate a lot of food. I ate six eggs every morning, beef quesadillas, a gallon of milk a day, and lots of other stuff. For two or three months I ate those six eggs. It started to get monotonous, so I started trying to put things on them to mask the taste. I tried at least five different kinds of salsa. All were good (I’m in Texas, after all), but each one would turn bland after the second bottle.
It wasn’t long before I started to loathe eggs. It became a struggle to wolf them down every morning. Soon, I hated them. Despised them. I couldn’t have them in my mouth because trying to swallow them nearly produced a gag reflex. That was the damndest thing ever; I had been eating at least three or four eggs every day for the past three years, and now they were suddenly becoming grotesque.
This has happened periodically with food throughout this year. It’s natural to start disliking something because it is repetitive and monotonous. In fact, my friends Chris and AC have both become jaded with eggs too. In my case, I had to start eating something else. For a while I just ate cheeseburger patties for breakfast (with barbecue sauce). I started eating eggs again a few months later, but always with bacon.
Weird set backs are going to happen when you are strength training. You might start hating food that you have always loved. Whatever. Just make a change and keep eating.
Josh refuses to get off the scale until it goes up. Randy didn’t have the heart to tell him he was already holding the bag.
Oh, and just so you guys know, my abs are still sore (on Sunday) from front squatting and rack pulls on Friday night. With my belt. Because it makes my abs go to sleep.
Thomasz (correct spelling) sent me a picture of his recent grocery rampage. We are going to get accused of leading and feeding a militia.
* – free range
1lb Strip Steak*
1lb Top Round
3lb Flank Steak*
1lb Beef Stew Cubes
2lb Sea Trout
1lb Salmon
3.5lb Ribeye Roast*
4.6lb Sirloin Roast*
9lb Chick Breast
1gal Whole Milk (I’m already 225 so I though I’d only do GOMAD on training days)
2lb Sardines
2lb Pork Loin
Assorted vegetables, and a total of 4lb of almonds, walnuts, and pecans.
Food.
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I was perusing through AC’s Facebook, and decided to show you guys some before and after pictures of his quest to 70’s Big. I did not ask for his permission.
AC (Freddie Mercury?) and Norman before.
Norman and AC after. Moot!
Milk is not just for babies. Or perverts.
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Anybody know a good place to get singlets? I would prefer a red, white, and blue one so I can rock my socks and headband. I may or may not drape an American flag over my shoulders only to have my assistant delicately take it off prior to chalking up.
