70’s Big Attitude

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Cloud

Aaron is a PJ, or pararescue jumper, as well as a general badass. He’s already written a couple inspiring articles for us (Excuses? No. and Lessons From Lifting). In this one, perhaps his best yet, he has a call to arms. Are you ready to answer? Ladies and Not-so-Gentlemen, are you ready for some old-school 70sBig? – Cloud

Three years ago I was drawn to this site by the unapologetic, brash braggadocio only a true miscreant could love. Idolizing forgotten mastodons wearing short shorts and high socks. Celebrating facial hair and real meals, encouraging real men and women to be real men and women in a time of androgyny, man-scaping, skinny jeans, Twilight, and other things so horrible they shall go unmentioned. Like 50 Shades of Grey. Those things are not cool, bro, and like my personal heroes Michael Douglas, General Patton, Tyler Durden, Vlad the Impaler, the Techno Viking (that guy took ZERO shits), John W. Creasy, and Walter- this aggression will not stand, man.

In the movie “The Rock”, voted “the best movie of all time in the history of the world” by NATO and the Illuminati, it was said, “sometimes the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of patriots.” Well sometimes the tree of 70sBig must be replenished with the fuel of attitude, with the liquid reduction of our resolve. In the interest of re-focusing ourselves, I charge you to live your life a little more recklessly this next week. Just for a while, think to yourself, “What would Ricky Bruch do?” I assure you, that answer is almost always, “Get extra mayonnaise, lift some heavy shit like a damn boss, and proceed to not give a shit, two monkeys or a damn.” Would Ricky pass up an extra conditioning session? Absolutely not. Would Ricky pass up the 4th steak in 2 meals? Not up in here. Would Ricky wear long, pleated slacks and watch NASCAR drinking a light beer at a tofu tasting party, politely discussing HOA fees? I just got a phone call – the message was, “Ricky Bruch’s estate wants to kill your family for associating his name with that scenario.” It’s that serious.

“But Aaron! I am entrenched in the corporate world; I can’t go stomping around like a heathen, shirtless, scaring the villagers! Also, I don’t know any villagers and my shorts are of an acceptable length for ‘casual Friday’.” Well, first of all, that’s unacceptable. If you say “Casual Friday”, you better be ready for aviator shades and some damn boat shoes. If that’s not the case, it’s time to get your swole back. It’s time to remember who we all are, at our base. Boil us down to brass tacks, twisted steel and ball bearings, and we all realize several immutable, undeniable, irrefutable facts.

We are human. That makes us all physiologically the same, genetically capable of tasks very much the same. If you are reading this saying, “Well, X person is bigger, stronger, I don’t think that’s totally correct…” STOP IT. That’s half the problem. Who’s to say you can’t do anything you want? Me? You? Anyone? What if you just refused to believe impossible things, and simply did them? That wouldn’t make you a superhuman; it would simply mean you refuse to be limited. Do you really have limits? Do you think that’s air your breathing? That’s a Matrix reference. Keep up.

Slap anyone that uses the term “swag”, either ironically or seriously, right in the gob. They know better. Go to YouTube, and look up every video of Leonid Taranenko clean and jerking 266KG, then cook a damn steak and do some mobility. Disagree with someone. Seriously, get into an argument, and instead of worrying how their feelings will recover, wondering how you’ll be viewed, so on and so forth- just disagree. Tell someone they are wrong, and that you don’t agree with what they are saying, and that you won’t be wavering. If the term “agree to disagree” is uttered, wage total war and destroy the room. The world understands. That phrase is about 10% of the problem today. So help me Zeus, if anyone around you says “YOLO” and you do not immediately beat him or her to death, I will find your house and mail you a strongly worded letter.

Here is the hard truth- there are no trophies for 5th place, no consolation prize in real life. It does pay to be a winner, and too often in today’s environment it has become acceptable to trivialize a loss, to rationalize poor effort, to soften heartbreak. Well I am here to call bullshit. If you work hard, you get rewarded. If you don’t work hard, you lose, and you don’t get a prize for that. I don’t know when ‘Murica, – the home of first place, the inventor of competition for everything, the bastion of bacon-wrapped-filets and filet-wrapped-bacon-filled-deep-fried-chocolate-coated-turducken-sandwiches became OK with second place, but I am here to tell you it stops now, and it stops with each and every one of us. It starts with me, and it starts with you.

So this week, get up early. Stop making excuses for yourself, and stop taking excuses from others. Get to work early. Put out as a friend, spouse, significant other, parent, older sibling, citizen, WHATEVER. Stop living your life only to keep breathing and start attacking it. Look for every excuse to get better, and get nasty about it. Are you a lady that wants to get “more toned” and look “better this summer?” Get your lady parts underneath a damn bar and do something about it right the hell now. The world is, quite frankly, not ready for that jelly, and I want more ladies bootyliscious when the sun shines bright and hot in 3 months. Are you a fella that can grow a sweet ass beard, or at least a somewhat child molestor-ish mustache, yet shave every day? By the light in Kate Upton’s eyes, grow that damn facial hair, and do it while you grill some meat and write out your week of programming. Is there a charity, a group, or an organization that is worthy of your time that you haven’t volunteered for? What are you, some sort of sissy? How about you do the right thing and donate some time to something bigger than yourself.

Look into her eyes!

If you haven’t torn up in the gym, so motivated that you wanted to literally explode into a ball of flame, or flipped a table in public only to be applauded for your gusto, or uppercut a punkass into a bowl of punch at a high school dance lately – well, dammit, now is the time (editor’s note, please avoid high school dances, thank you).

Now is the time we take back that attitude, and seize life by the horns/balls/ovaries. The part you grab isn’t important, the fact remains that we must grab that part by force. It’s time to get that 70s Big attitude back. And the time starts now.

Excuses? No.

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Cloud

Aaron is a PJ, or pararescue jumper. He wrote an inspiring article last week introducing himself to us as a new contributor. In it, he taught us “You have to stand up, do the work, and grind out every day of your life. Some say, ‘Half of life is just showing up,’ but the other half is putting out, and getting the work done. 50% is a failing score in real life; just showing up isn’t enough.” Well here’s the proof. Here’s his story about how he broke his fucking back…and squatted 425 pounds 102 days later. Life is full of potential excuses. It’s up to you if you use them, or if you get up and do something. – Jacob

I had already surpassed my own expectations for the competition. I already knew what everyone else squatted, and I had 2^nd place locked down no matter what number I put up. After talking with Justin for about a week, going over training prep and weights for the meet, we had settled on a good 3 lift progression. Justin warned me a couple times, “This is pretty ambitious. Those are big jumps for a raw lifter.” He was right; we had planned on going 350, 380, and 405, and those were pretty large jumps. But, as sometimes things like this work, I got amped up and started feeding off the competition. I watched lifter after lifter fail at weights that weren’t anywhere near my totals. I turned to my friend Mike and said, “Hey man, this is crazy, but I am freaking amped. I want to jump to 405 for my second and 440 for my third.”

“Well,” he said, “do you think it’s safe? Do you think you have it in you? Why don’t you go 425 for your third?”

I immediately left him and went to the judges. I drove 405 out of the hole hard. The lift was never in question. So there I stood, ready for my third, staring down 425.

Let me back up. 102 days prior to this competition, I was lying in a hospital bed. I had taken a pretty nasty fall, and the doctors were concerned. A good doctor friend of mine was in charge of my overall care; she was not optimistic.

“Listen- you might never be allowed to fly again, let alone jump. I can’t even tell you if you’re going to be able to run, or walk up stairs without pain. What happened was very serious. We are going to do everything we can, but you have to be prepared for the worst possible scenario. This could be it.“

That’s what a broken back and a little crack looks like. The yellow tint is from jaundice related to all the broken tissue.

She was right. The tally read like this- I had broken the transverse processes off of everything south of L1 in my spine. I compressed 3 vertebrae 18% each in my upper back in between my shoulder blades. I had fractures throughout my iliac crest on both sides of my pelvis. I had hit the ground with such force I had offset my pelvis in my sacroiliac joint, and had instability as a result. I broke 5 ribs, separated my left shoulder, and damaged so much tissue that rhabdomyolysis was a serious concern for 5 days after the injury.

I spent a week in the hospital and was released to my home to continue my recovery on the strict guidance I could do nothing – nothing at all – for a period of 6 weeks. Lay down, wear a special brace, no lifting anything-not even my kids- and nothing but slow, careful walking. “If you don’t do this exactly as we prescribe, you may never be the same,” my doctor told me as I was leaving the hospital. I had narrowly avoided surgery.

So I played by the rules. For 6 weeks, I wore that stupid brace and I took it easy. For 6 weeks, I got more and more angry. The first to go was the pain meds. They made me so sick it was not worth the vomit for the 4 hour relief in pain. For 6 weeks, I talked to friends who called just to tell me how lucky I was. For 6 weeks, doctor after doctor saw me, and told me how lucky I had been, and what a long road I had ahead of me. At the end of 6 weeks, I saw my doctor again. She asked, “What do you plan to do for rehab? How many days a week?”

“Seven days a week, Doc. I’ll do it on my own. I want to be back on team in 6 months. It’s April now – I want to take my PT test and start running on team by November 1.”

She was a mix of dumbfounded and extremely angry. “That is unrealistic. You are setting yourself up for failure! What is it you think you’re going to do?!?” I was going to do the same thing I did before the injury, the thing I think saved my life. I was going to get underneath a barbell and lift.

For the next 3 months I learned how to walk again. I had to take very short steps; any time I slipped or found myself off balance, the pain was excruciating. I couldn’t run, I had issues lifting my knees above my hips, and I got so sore from minor things some days I honestly thought it would be better if I just passed out and woke up a day later. I had nearly zero thoracic mobility. I couldn’t sleep well for weeks on account of the broken ribs. Nothing was easy, but I started squatting again. It was the most embarrassing day I have ever had in a gym, squatting just the bar. 45 lbs. That was my work set for the day – 45lbs for 10 reps for 5 sets.

I kept at it, doing 5/3/1. I made gains. I had setbacks. As the pain slowly got less, my lifting got better and better. I had to focus on perfect form; I couldn’t afford to tweak anything or hurt myself worse. I did mobility work before and after my workouts. I stretched all day long. I started to feel like myself again. For a while, I could only do the elliptical machine for cardio, but I graduated to the bike, then to the rower, then to very slow walking on the treadmill.

And that finds us back where I started this article. 102 days after the injury, 77 days after I was allowed to start working out, there was a squat competition on base. I had been having a bad couple of weeks, and I wanted to do something reckless to show all the doubters in my life – of which I had many – just how healthy and strong I was.

Justin and I had set a hard limit of 405, seeing as I hadn’t gone over 365 since I hurt myself. We decided 405 was a victory, and that’s what I needed to shoot for. When I drove that second attempt of 405 through the ceiling of the gym I was ecstatic. Motivated. Angry. I wanted to breath smoke.

So, as I prepared for the lift at 425, I knew I had already won, and things might just be ok after all. As you can see in the video, I look an inch high. I laugh when I see this video; I immediately start taking my belt off and shaking my head. The judges counted the lift, but I didn’t.

Two months after this lift I jumped out of a plane again with my team. I was cleared in mid December to start my normal duties with no restrictions. I went from a doctor telling me I might not walk correctly ever again to full “up” status in a period of 7 months. For the record, I credit the team of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals who helped me through this. It was a team effort, and every single person involved deserves credit.

At the present, I have pain every day. I have to do mobility work every day, and I need to focus on form and listen to my body. But what I learned from this event in my life I will never forget. I truly feel the strength I had, as a result of 3 solid years of linear progression barbell programs, saved my life. Many doctors were astonished I was able to take such a hit and somehow come out with the “few” injuries I had. Every time they asked me what I did for exercise, I would simply respond “I lift heavy weights. It makes me much harder to kill.” Some would chuckle; some would just shake their head.

Countless doctors, friends, co workers and others hear this story and ask what I was feeling like, what was running through my head when this all went down. When I was lying in that hospital bed, what was I thinking? My only response, in fact the very first thing I said to my doctor when she asked me what my plan was, was “I am going to come back from this stronger, and you need to lift to be stronger. That’s what I am going to do.”

And that’s what I did.

– Aaron

Never Miss A Chance To Get Better

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Justin

70’s Big started as a joke six months before the site launched in September of 2009. After coining the phrase, our group of friends saw 70’s Big in everything we did. Eating a one pound burger was 70’s Big. Getting eight hours of sleep was 70’s Big. Air guitaring was 70’s Big. Anything that pushed us towards the goal of being stronger and bigger was 70’s Big.

The attitude of 70’s Big has been in my life for almost four years, but the mentality has been around longer. Shouting the phrase, “Never miss a chance to get better!” and following it with impromptu exercise was one of my favorite public jokes. See two chairs together? Get a few dips in. See a sidewalk? Get some walking lunges. Never miss a chance to get better.

I distinctly remember shouting the phrase outside a bar on Halloween in 2008 when AC and I dressed up as speed walkers. I drunkenly shouted the phrase, jumped on an awning, and started doing pull-ups. When I landed, I looked down to see blood seeping out of a gash on my hand. “Never missing a chance” has its consequences, but this didn’t stop me from speed walking up and down the bar or doing jumping jacks in the corner.

This pic was taken a few minutes after the hand gash incident (I hold a napkin to stop the bleeding). Friends Brock and Taylor (gorilla) pose with AC and I.

This “joke” is a derivative of a long-time belief I established at an early age: people should not only never plateau in life, but they should never be satisfied with plateauing. The very idea should make them vomit.

Some people hang their hat on past accomplishments as if it gives them the right to complacency. “Success” is not something that a person ever qualifies for, but a state of mind that results from honestly striving for it.

Personally, I don’t think anything I’ve done is impressive. Graduating college, coaching people, or establishing this website — to me these are byproducts of the work I’ve put in. I don’t ever focus on what I’ve achieved, but focus on what I could have done better. And there’s a lot that I could have done better. I don’t dwell or fester on the bad, but use it as a tool to improve. Just like in lifting, if something goes wrong, figure out why, and then work towards rectifying the problem. Everyone has good traits that clash with flaws, yet it’s overcoming the flaws that allow us to show our quality while working towards success.

My intention with this website has always been to educate and subsequently motivate. If that means I have to act like a fuck-head to get your attention, then that’s something I’m willing to do. If you get nothing else from 70’s Big, I hope it’s the motivation to bust your ass in training, but it’s my sincerest hope that this rubs off into the rest of your life. Attack your life goals with the same intensity you use during a 3RM squat attempt. Train your mind, speak foreign languages, study history, understand philosophy, play musical instruments — independently think and actively learn to better yourself. It’s no different than training your body and equally important.

Above all…never miss a chance to get better.

Get Your Hands Out of Your Pockets

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Justin

There are several different things that I’ve responded to this morning that result in today’s post. They all collide into a common theme: people who are unwilling to do what they need to do to be successful.

This is a timely post on 70’s Big. In December I made the point that waiting for the New Year to start a new habit was stupid; “If something is important to you, do it right. fucking. now.” Then I asked everyone to commit to a competition and explained what to do after committing. This is the time of year when gyms swell and nutrition challenges are everywhere.

Yet everyone looks for a short cut. And it drives me fucking insane.

I’m currently reading Arnold Schwarzenegger’s autobiography. I’ve read his previous biography and have always been a fan of his drive and determination. But reading this recent, more in depth life account shows two things: 1) Arnold always did everything he could to achieve his goals, and 2) None of us are anywhere near that level of commitment (including me). Even in the first decade of his acting career, he was diversifying his portfolio by investing such as investing in Indianapolis real estate, buying and selling properties, running his mail order business, and traveling the world to promote every movie he made. He is the epitome of undying motivation.

While Arnold fights to succeed, all of us accept laziness and sloth. When Arnold heard businessmen talking about how hard they worked for 10 or 12 hours, he’d say (and this is a direct quote from the book), “What the fuck are you talking about, when they day has twenty-four hours? What else did you do?”

Right now there are paleo challengers who want to know if they can use artificial sweeteners, there are veteran lifters going to bed late, and there are sedentary people considering exercising but not actually doing it.

These are the same people — some of you, even — that look at someone successful and think, “They are a genetic freak,” or “I wish I could have as much money as them.” And that is such bullshit. I’ve gone on this rant before, but all my life I’ve been accused of using steroids or just having superior genetics, but I’m the one who has squatted every week with hardly any breaks for 12+ years. I’m the one who made the decision to stop drinking soda at 13 years old. I’m the one who felt like shit, but woke my ass up at 7 in the morning or walked into the garage at 10 at night to train. And I’m not even anywhere near Arnold’s motivation!

Write your goals down. What do you want to do? What do you want to be? What do you want to have or know? WHO do you want to be? Do you think squatting 405 is a big deal? Then do it — because I believe every man can squat 405. Do you want to drop your body fat below 15%? Then do it. Anyone can accomplish these basic training tasks. But they are harder than being a slack-jaw piece of shit, they are harder than deciding to eat the candy, and they’re harder than being content with a sub 350 squat.

In last weekend’s seminar I made a reoccurring joke about “the naysayers”, something Arnold has talked about in various speeches. These are the people that think your dreams aren’t possible, that they are too lofty. The naysayers aren’t always out there in the world talking you down. In reality, the naysayer is you.

For gods’ sake, when you have that moment of weakness in managing your time, going to bed, eating the junk food, or going easy in training, have the courage to tell the naysayer — yourself — to go fuck himself. When you’re done telling yourself to go fuck yourself, stop whining, stand up, and start productively working towards your goals. I leave you with a quote from Arnold:

“When you’re out there partying, horsing around, someone out there at the same time is working hahd. Someone is getting smarter and someone is winning, just remember that.

“You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.”

— Arnold Schwarzenegger

Accountability Check

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Justin

I haven’t posted anything on protein, water, mobility, or nutrition in a while and I feel that doing so makes you consider your habits. Have the guys been eating one gram of protein per pound of body weight plus fifty (e.g. a 200 pound male would hit a minimum of 250g of protein)? Have the gals been aiming for almost 1g per pound of body weight? Are you drinking half your body weight in ounces of water (e.g. a 200 pound male would drink 100 oz of water)? Are you doing daily mobility to improve your movement limitations or painful areas? Are you returning to a clean diet after last week’s eating extravaganza?

These are the little things that make or break your training. Any child can go into the weight room and attack the barbell, but it takes a professional to pay attention to details outside of the gym. If you’re encountering recovery problems — and aren’t using stupid amounts of volume, intensity, or frequency — then look to how well you’re adhering to the above “outside of the gym” aspects of training. If you’ve read this site for a while, you should be thinking “duh”, but at the same time you may realize you haven’t been hitting your daily protein requirements.

Remember that recovery is not a glass of water that you can quickly fill or empty; it’s a continuum. Eating 300+ grams of protein, doing an entire hour of mobility, or over hydrating in one day might be impressive, but it amounts to precisely dick if you don’t do it regularly. You should be consistent enough so that you don’t require a cram session. It’s the same thing as lifting: if you haven’t lifted in a week, you can’t make up for lost time by squatting 20 sets of 5 in your next workout. The concept makes sense in the gym, so act the same outside of it.

If you’re sitting there wondering why you haven’t squatted 405 or pressed your body weight, it might be because you don’t take your training seriously…which is fine if you don’t want to hit your goals. Spending 5 to 10 hours of your week toiling with the iron is more than a fucking hobby; quit dicking around and get serious. Do you want to be an imposing physical specimen who lets children do chin-ups off of your biceps after pressing a car? Then realize that these “little things” are training and get to work.

Can’t believe I actually found an example.