Category Archives: Inspiration

Ali McWeeny is stronger than that

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I shall tell you of Ali McWeeny. 

In 2009, Ali was a junior at Central Washington who won the school strong woman contest, held 22 Washington state powerlifting records, and was an accomplished thrower on the track and field team. Most importantly, she was working towards a degree in physical education, a career goal that would let her share her passion for sport and an active lifestyle with young students.

On July 4th, 2009, the boat Ali was riding in was capsized by a wave and she was thrown from the boat. The propeller did a toll on her left leg, and her left leg was amputated. How depressing of a scenario for a young woman who loves to be active, strong, and fit. Seemed like her powerlifting and teaching aspirations were over, right?

Ali McWeeny is stronger than that.

She sat in her hospital bed with morphine pumping through her body. And she trained. She lifted 8 pound dumbbells because what else is she going to do? Lay down and die? Ali McWeeny is stronger than that.

Three years later and Ali has graduated with her physical education degree with a coaching minor. She’s competed in powerlifting, the only woman in the world to do so on one leg without a prosthesis. In the 125 lbs class she has squatted 104, benched 172, and deadlifted 204 (see below).

 

But it’s not enough; Ali McWeeny is stronger than that.

She wants to deadlift 250 pounds (at this year’s Night of the Living Dead). She wants to play and compete in winter sports like snowboarding, alpine skiing, telemark skiing, cross country skiing, and snow skiing! She wants to do motor sports like motor cross, trail riding, and snow mobiling! She wants to water ski, wakeboard, wind surf, kite board, scuba dive, swim, and surf! She wants to experience the world and push her limits, and damned if she only has one leg! Oh yes, Ali Mcweeny is stronger than that.

But she needs our help. 

A new prosthetic that would make all of this possible — one that would make movement and rehab more efficient — costs right under $7,000. She’s raising money for this new prosthetic HERE. I’ll be damned if 70’s Big doesn’t help her raise this money. She’s already halfway there, so let’s bring her home. I’ve already donated, so drop a few bucks in the account and let’s give her our support. Try and watch this video and NOT pull for her.

Ali McSweeny shows us that no matter what the circumstance, no matter how bad things seem, you always have breath left in you. Each day is an opportunity to go out and attack life. Turn your back on the prospect of being a sniveling mess and stride forward, leg or no leg, to push your potential. Until that moment in which death has become you, never stop. For if you do, know that there’s a woman who is stronger than that who steps into the fray each day.

Once more into the fray…
Into the last good fight I’ll ever know.
Live and die on this day…
Live and die on this day…

Goal Setting

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In two “Letter of Intent” posts (first and second) we urged 70’s Big readers to go out and compete. The fear of taking a risk is what holds most people back from taking the first step to compete, and that is usually the fear of “not being good enough”. One important aspect of committing to a competition is that the athlete has to focus their training into a specific event. They require a plan, and that plan must culminate into a specific event. Programming exercises, sets, reps, and conditioning may be a part of that plan, but in order to be effective, the athlete must accomplish something throughout their training as well as at the competition itself. The athlete must set, work towards, and achieve their goals.

Goals can’t just be set in a shoot-from-the-hip style — properly setting goals is important to its effectiveness. Instead of subjectively thinking “I want to lift well at the meet”,  the thought should be, “I want to at least complete four of five lifts and total 250 kg”. This makes the goal objective, tangible, and can help unlock an athlete‘s potential.

All goals are not created equal. Outcome goals are based on the result of a competitive event. Performance goals revolve around hitting objectives within competition — such as going four for six at the meet. Process goals are the actions within the athlete’s performance that they must execute properly in order to achieve the performance goals. In lifting this might be bouncing out of the bottom of the squat, or having a sharp dip/drive on a jerk. In football this might mean the defensive end must maintain outside containment on the quarterback in specific plays. Each athlete will have different kinds of goals based on a variety of factors, such as skill level, importance of the competition, physical/mental state, and experience level. 



While goals are important overall in life, specifically applying these principles to training for a competitive event is the focus here. Having goals can induce effective behavior change, maintain persistence in preparation of competition, mobilize the athlete’s efforts, and create an environment for the athlete to develop effective strategies. Most of all, it helps the athlete stay focused on the task at hand. However, these benefits are dependent on the goals being set properly.

A good rule of thumb is to create “SMART” goals. These are goals that meet the criteria of being Specific, Measurable, Action oriented, Realistic and Timely. If the goal does not clearly state what it sets out to do, then it’s worthless. Do you want to “do well”, or do you want to break your personal record on the snatch? That specific goal needs to be measurable as well — if your PR is 120 kg, then 121 is the minimum if you are going to set a personal record. If your goal can’t be measured, then there is no sure fire way to know if you achieved it or not. Indicating a specific number means there is something that needs to get done. You have a task before you, and you will either succeed or fail. Making this goal realistic is important though. Has the lifter snatched more than 120kg in training? Or are they only successfully snatching 110kg? If the goal is unrealistic, then the lifter is only setting herself up for failure. Timely goals have a deadline. There shouldn’t be any leeway on accomplishing it because then there isn’t a sense of urgency to do so. If your goals meet each of these five criteria, then striving towards success will be easier.

Remember the different types of goals; outcome, performance, and process goals. Unless the athlete is an elite level competitor, performance goals will be the emphasis (trying to better a previous performance). In order to achieve performance goals, process goals will maintain priority — doing the little things correctly to execute the task at hand. For a new lifter, this might be listening to the judge’s commands and executing a single cue from their coach. If the process isn’t properly performed, then the lifter won’t be able to achieve their performance goals. This is where having a coach is a luxury in single competitor sports. The coach will dictate these details to the athlete so that the athlete it is not bothered by ancillary details and can remain focused.

If an athlete is new to goal setting, then a competition makes for a great opportunity to start. Set a performance based goal for the competition as well as a process goal for training (the SMART goal principles will help). Keep it simple in the beginning — an athlete shouldn’t be bogged down with superfluous amounts of goals early on. As the competition nears, an honest evaluation should take place to see if the goal(s) need any adjustment. Properly setting goals can help direct an athlete’s focus into successful training and competition efforts.

Source:
Gould and Weinberg (2007). Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology.Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Live To Fight Another Day

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We all remember that momentous moment in the movie Blood Sport where Chong Li sends Frank Dux’s friend, Ray Jackon, to the hospital on the second day of the highly secretive (and equally illegal) Kurmite:



As you can see, Dux has a front row seat to his friend Ray acting like a stupid American and trying to win the crowd only to find himself getting an Asian curb stomp from Chong Li moments later. On a similar note, Chong Li is probably one of the first Asians to ever have pecs, and he damn sure is the first one to discover how to use them.

Anyway, Dux’s friend, Kenneth Siu (on right) holds him back while Chong Li strips off the stereotypical Harley Davidson bandana and dangles it above Dux’s head. This isn’t in the official movie script, but I’m pretty sure Kenneth whispers ever so softly into Frank Dux’s ear, “No Frankie, you must live to fight another day…another day.”

And this was excellent advice. As you can see, Dux would end up fighting four times on the second day of the tournament. A non-sanctioned scuffle with Chong Li would have removed him from competition, and as my friend Brent always says, “This is competition!” (whatever that means).

You see, if Frank Dux had attacked Chong Li at this pivotal point, it not only would have ruined this classic 80’s fight movie, but it would have failed to teach the lesson of patience. There are times when the benefits do not outweigh the cost, and becoming aware of these moments is important for your short and long-term training career. If your body is in a weakened state, it is best not to train heavy and hard unnecessarily.

A few months ago, I did not heed the advice of Kenneth Siu. I traveled back into town on a Monday and attempted to go through my normal volume day on the Texas Method (5×5 squatting, and I think it was 430) on Tuesday. My back was very tired and weak from the constant sitting, and I pulled something at the bottom of a squat on the second set. I remember completing the rep, screaming through the excruciating pain (I wasn’t about to drop the 430 lbs on my spotters), and falling to a knee after racking it. I wasn’t able to squat for almost two months, and it put quite a damper in my training.

Now fast forward to last week. I went through a lengthy rehab process and am finally training without pain. The week before I squatted 495 for a triple, and 500 was on the agenda. However, my body didn’t feel up to snuff for Monday’s volume day. My immune system had some severe trouble with allergies (the crew at Amarillo may have noticed this at the first 70’s Big Workshop – I was being hit pretty hard that day but still tried to perform well enough), and my body didn’t feel recovered. I ended up taking the day off to prevent an injurous situation. I still wanted to get my intensity day in on Thursday for a few reasons, but mainly because it was the last day of the week my schedule would permit me to train. So on Tuesday I had a make shift volume day (ascending sets of five reps for four sets), and then came in on Thursday and completely annihilated 500 for a triple (I considered going for a fourth rep).

This story isn’t being told to tell you of my accomplishment, but instead about the mistake I made a few months ago. I hurt my back when I was in a vulnerable state. Having the “stick to the program or die” mentality can really hamper training, and it fucked mine up for a while. Life happens and you need to start learning how to adapt your program to these happenings so that you can continue getting stronger. You will have a much bigger payoff in the long run, just like Frank Dux.

Dux waited patiently for his chance. And he finally got it when he faced Chong Li in the final battle.



For those of you who don’t want to watch drawn out affair of Van Damme yelling and flexing, Dux eventually forces Chong Li to say matté to win the tournament, even when blinded (and throwing “90 degree punches”, as Brent says – see 3:07). I have it on good authority that this is the Asian word for “uncle”.

Me: So, is matté the Asian word for uncle?

Brent: I think so.

Me: QED

In any case, Dux decided to be patient and begin the fight his own terms. If I know my 80’s movies, his emotions would have gotten the best of him had he attacked Chong Li immediately after Ray Jackson headbutted Li’s foot. Dux’s dilemma is analogous to being improperly prepared for training because you are weak and not feeling your best. Trust me, you don’t want to go through a two month recovery period. Just be smart and patient in order to stay injury free, and this will yield more efficient strength gains. Learn from my mistake instead of yours. Most of all, learn from Frank Dux.

Gary Gibson Update

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The following was written by Gary Gibson. Do a search if you’re interested in reading his past entries.

First Day at the Beach in a Long, Long Time

Some of you reading this have probably seen my very first post in these pages, which included a picture of me in my early teens (I appreciate the donations you then sent to my food fund). That picture was taken at New Smyrna Beach roughly 20 years ago. In fact it’s been damn near 20 years since I’d set a foot on the beach till yesterday. Got a little bit of sunburn (apparently my menalin levels only confer resistance–not invulnerability–to UV damage), but more germane to the readership of this site is that I was about 60 lbs heavier than the last time I bared my nearly nude body for such wide public viewing. Yesterday’s return to the beach also coincided with my crossing the 190-lb barrier on the scale for the first time.

Let me qualify this. All the many years I spent being disturbingly skinny, I was actually proud of my disturbing skinniness. I’d whooped with joy when I discovered “Muscle & Fitness” at the age of 15 because I’d found a magazine that celebrated the 90’s smallness into which I hoped to grow. I loved the fact that I had razor sharp abs, even if they came at the cost of emaciation. So even though I now care more performance than appearance, it was a little weird to have so many people see me with that much fat around my midsection. I’ve had time to get used to it when alone and nekkid, but that was the first time my powerlifter’s mono-ab and burgeoning love handles were on public display.

Very happy to report that I didn’t feel the urge to start a conditioning blitz to get “beach pretty”, that on balance I much preferred having the extra muscle and fat, and that I care far, far more about hitting a 500-lb squat at the Raw Nationals this summer than getting a narrower midsection.

Like I said, I just crossed that 190-lb barrier on the scale. I’m pretty confident I’ll cross the 200-lb threshold to male adulthood before the month is out. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ll have to cut a little bit to compete in the 90 kg class in July. The cut may result in a tighter midsection after I’ve put on another ten pounds of muscle and I may even go back to the beach. This time, I’ll wear sunblock.

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It is important to note that Gary is not a novice, yet he is growing like one. He places performance ahead of appearance right now, and this is what a real athlete will do. Now, just because Gary perceives himself as fat does not actually mean he is (I’d personally like to see a picture of this new bodyweight, no homo, because I don’t trust a guy’s opinion on how fat he is when he’s been skinny his whole life, even if it is Gary Gibson), nor does it mean he is stuck with it.

This is called growing into a weight class, and Gary will get to the point where he will fill out his frame near the top end of whatever his desired weight class is. He will continue getting more muscle as he continues to get stronger, and he eventually will have to cut to lift in this weight class. Age, genetics, and a bunch of other shit will decide how lean he will be at his “walking weight” (the weight he will walk around at before he cuts to meet weight requirements), but he will undoubtedly be more muscular with less fat than he is now. And perhaps it will let him prowl the beach with his chin a bit higher.

The questionable picture of Gary that he references


Lifting Music

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The server is still turning over. I work on a different computer at night, and for whatever reason when I work on that computer, it represents the database before it was pulled. That means that the post I typed and scheduled to post at midnight never seemed to exist. I’m not technical enough to explain it, but it’ll take a few days to finalize, so stay patient.
Edit: Re-typed the post below.
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No, that doesn’t say “uplifting music”, it says “lifting music”. We all know the benefit of listening to music as we train; it can help improve our mood, energize us, and sometimes induce an adrenaline response. At some powerlifting meets (I assume this is dependent on the federation? Somebody chime in here) there is even music allowed while lifting. In comparison, music is not present in weightlifting meets.

Nevertheless, there are lots of people interested in what you listen to when you train. It might be kinda cool if you explain a little bit about the song(s) that you list. I always liked to squat to things like “Achilles Last Stand” or “When the Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin, as well as “I’m A Man” by Chicago. Let us know what you like.

And here are some (in)famous videos that depict some music that may or may not be playing during training sessions in a certain group of friends (the first two are pretty old, the last is marvelous).