“If it’s a severed head I’m going to be very upset.”
PR Friday boys and girls. Post your weights lifted, competitions attended, pants splitted and victory dances performed to the comments. We certainly had lots of PR’s for emotional outbreaks in the comments this week.
The 2010 National Master’s Weightlifting Championships is this weekend in Rego Park, New York. I’d like to wish my friend, Dr. Lon Kilgore, a good luck. He has been competing in Olympic weightlifting since he was 11 years old will be competing this weekend in the 85 kg class at 52 years old. You can see the final schedule here as well as the start list (including names and info on the lifters) here (Kilgore is lifting in the 8th session). More Masters’ Weightlifting info can be found at their home page.
Also, I just realized that USAW recently released the 2010 National Championships Entry Form with the tentative schedule. Check it out if you want to see how a big meet with multiple sessions will be set up, along with all of the legal hoopla that goes into submitting an entry for one of these (who knew you weren’t allow to dope blood?).
The new t-shirts should be finishing up later today or on Monday, and I will give updates as I receive the information.
In the mean time, here is a pretty sweet weightlifting video that has the hair, the style, the drama, and some big lifts:
Dang, some of you are too gullible. In fact, did you know gullible is not even in the dictionary? Look it up if you don’t believe me.
In any case, it’s PR Friday. Post your weight lifted, consumed, or gained, and also post all of the temperamental moments you had when someone pulled an April Fool’s joke on you.
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My friend Spencer Hall from SB Nation is known as “The Amateur”, the guy who can’t do anything as good as those who can. Well, recently he shot up to Charlotte to witness his first powerlifting meet. This was the “Battle of the Border” meet that AC competed in a few weekends ago. Spencer wrote an article for the SB Nation readers who are more than likely not familiar with powerlifting. He highlights AC quite a bit, and there’s a pretty funny video at the end. Even if he didn’t talk about my pal Ace, I still would enjoy this article — Spencer had me laughing my ass off. For example:
Unfortunately…a mustache [that Spencer is wearing] brands you as:
a.) A gregarious pedophile
b.) A new expat from the Middle East
c.) A misplaced fisherman
d.) Nick Offerman, also known as Ron Swanson on NBC’s hit sitcom Parks and Recreation
And here is an exchange between Spencer and AC:
I ask him how much his hair is worth on a lift.
“The hair? Oh, that’s ten pounds, easy.”
“The beard is five, right?”
“Definitely. And you have to wear the singlet. This one is my dad’s. His balls were in this singlet.”
He wears a look of pride on his face as he says this.
“Singlets are cool. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
The article is very fucking funny, and Spencer has a nice little description of an outsider’s view of a powerlifting meet. We’ll probably hear from him again in the future.
“Today is Evaluation Day. The key word being value. Do you have any? Not yet you don’t”
Well, there are lots of things to announce on this fribbling Friday, so let’s get on with the bloody thing.
1. New T-shirt…BAM!
The image was dictated to my new pal Al Viquez, who until recently was a graphic designer in the videogame industry. He belted out a draft, and it was damn near perfect. A few adjustments later and we have this sweet, succulent image that bleeds 70’s Big. The t-shirt will be going to print in a day or so. There are also four other t-shirts that will be announced soon.
2. WFAC Training Camp
We still have some spots open for the group training package Josh Wells and I are hosting at the Wichita Falls Athletic Club (a shrine of sorts). Coached training sessions include all of the barbell lifts: squat, press, deadlift, bench press, power clean, power snatch, snatch, and clean and jerk (along with assistance exercises). For more information, go here or e-mail me.
3. PR Friday
Post your weights lifted, consumed, or gained to the comments. We also like silly stories about lifting spouses, tossing children, and ripping clothing.
4. Online Programming
70’s Big will now be offering online programming to monitor your training regime and gear it towards whatever your goals are. Do you train on your own and don’t know what to do when your deadlift peters out while your squat rages on? Are you trying to figure out a way to include some conditioning for your rugby season, judo match, mountain bike race, football season, deployment date, etc. into your strength program? Need the advice of experienced coaches? All of those shenanigans and more with a month-to-month subscription of help for under $100. Oh, and form checks are inherent to make sure you are doing the program properly.Shoot me an e-mail to learn more, and stay tuned for further information on the site.
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This is a re-post of something I wrote back in October. A lot of you noobs may not have seen it, so I wanted to bring it to light. I plan on updating this list next Friday. You may make suggestions, but do not assume your suggestion is 70’s Big creed. Oh, and it is PR Friday. Post weight lifted, gained, or eaten plus all the other notables like ripping clothes, pressing females, and tossing children. Girls, I want to hear more out of you this time. After all, you can toss children too.
The epitome of 70’s Big
When the website went live, one of the first things that my friend Chris did was compile a list of things that would or would not exhibit what 70’s Big is all about. I share his concern. You see, 70’s Big has been alive for the better part of 2009. You, the reader, are at a disadvantage. You may not intuitively know what is acceptable.
Hell, you may open your tub of soy protein after gelling your hair while listening to Nickelback and sipping a smoothie. For god’s sakes, this is for your own good! Okay? I can’t have you going around talking to your friends about 70’s Big when you’re convincing someone that your shirt is fucshia with a Bud Light in your hand. And I’m pretty sure Rip would find the athleticism to backflip kick you in the jaw if you were convinced Crown Royal was the best kind of whiskey. Look, it’s just bad for my reputation if you talk about 70’s Big after shaving your chest, doing a few sets of curls and push-ups, then hitting up the bar with your favorite “whore-stink” cologne on.
No, I can’t have that. There has to be some standards, dammit.
Well 70’s Big journeymen (journeywomen?), it is PR Friday. You should post your weight lifted, gained, and/or consumed, and you should also tell us about lifting your lady friends, dumping your skinny boyfriends, or splitting your trousers (I ripped another pair of jeans recently).
And for gods’ sakes, if you are a guy who is 5’7″ or taller and you aren’t 200 pounds, then you better have a compelling excuse as to why you aren’t. The only reasons I can think of are if you are 13 years old or you are a weight class competitor. For gods’ sakes.
——— Here is the WFAC post about the Bill Starr Memorial weightlifting meet from last Saturday. It has some pictures, and it has the overall results. Feel free to send in the meet results from any meets you are involved in.
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I have a very good friend named Matt that I met in college. Until recently he was getting paid to tramp through the wilderness (we went hiking near Salt Lake City last year when I was in town for a barbell seminar), and at the end of last year he stopped by Wichita Falls on his journey back to Georgia. Matt called me the other night with a story, as he is apt to do. When he finished, I told him that he needs to type it up for the site.
Well, I’ve read the hell out of Starting Strength and watched the video quite frequently to try and get my technique down, and it sparked quite a dream.
I have been to the Wichita Falls Athletic Club before when I visited Justin in order to start my Jedi training. In the dream, I walked into the gym, and it was just like I remember. It was extremely busy with people everywhere, and Justin greeted me and asked me to work behind a new counter they had built for the purpose of renting out lifting shoes. He was busy training the masses as I settled behind the counter. I hadn’t been standing there ten seconds when I was approached by a visitor, some 90’s small chump who was asking when the next Pilates class was. It is important to note that this guy was: A) not wearing a shirt, B) had the kind of pencil thin manicured beard that says I spend 30 minutes daily “man-scaping”, and C) was wearing sunglasses inside. Throughout the rest of my story I will refer to this man as Din Viesel, because he probably got his style from the “Fast and Furious” movies that he can probably recite.
Note by Justin: I find this humorous, because in order for Matt to dream about a Din Viesel-like character, he would have had to had the image in his brain prior to dreaming it, therefore he actually sat through some portion of that shitty movie.
I had no idea what to say and almost laughed in his face. Rip heard the question and took it upon himself to intervene. I can’t remember all of the conversation, but Mr. Viesel was a complete dick and he decided to buck (I recently learned this word from a 7th grader) at Rip after being informed that they most certainly don’t “do Pilates”. Rip asked Viesel to “Get out of my fucking gym,” in an enraged tone. The conflict now had the attention of everyone in the gym. Suddenly, Viesel tried to throw a haymaker, but Rip didn’t hesitate. He rushed Viesel, picked him up high above his head, then with his supreme power he slammed him into the ground. (Important: I went to High School in Macon Georgia… so I should know the name of this wrestling move, but I don’t). Right after the powerful slam, I immediately woke up, laughing my ass off.
I’ve attached a diagram to better understand the “slam.” This is not my best work, but it took only 5 minutes.
