Anatoly Pisarenko Week

“This guy will either die in the gym, or break himself.”

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70’s Big


This week honors our second 70’s Big co-captain, Anatoly Pisarenko. To put it simply, Pisarenko is to Olympic lifting as Doug Young is to powerlifting. Unfortunately he lacks the fame of other successful weightlifters because he was unable to attend the 1980 and 1984 Olympics for different reasons. Despite this, his peers respected his work ethic — the above quote was from  Vasiliy Alekseyev.

Olympics or not, Pisarenko was god awful strong. His career bests were a 206 kg snatch in 1983 (Moscow) and a 265 kg clean and jerk in 1984 (Varna) — this ties him for second overall for the highest clean and jerk (the world records say otherwise since old records were dropped with the restructuring of the weight classes). To put this in perspective for those not familiar with kilograms, he snatched 454.15 lbs and clean and jerked 584.22 pounds!

It’s quite clear why “The Pizz” is one of our favorite lifters; he’s strong, he’s big, and for god’s sake, he’s got a mustache.

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Pisarenko jerks 260 in Allentown, 1983



Here is part 5 of the 70’s Big Interview with Rippetoe:

70’s Big Presents: Mark Rippetoe Interview Pt.5 from 70s Big on Vimeo.

Doug Young

“He was just an imposing physical presence”

Doug Young

doug-deadlift

Today wraps up our week-long dedication to 70’s Big co-captain Doug Young as well as the marker for his induction into the 70’s Big Hall of Fame. The behemoth that is Doug Young is one of the most impressive men I’ve ever seen in pictures. It’s a shame that he passed away a few years ago.

Our pal Mark Rippetoe saw Doug in person 29 years ago, and tells us the story in the following video:



Let us know what you think about Doug in the comments.

Food Plan

“What do I eat?”

I get a lot of questions about what kind of stuff someone should eat if they are trying to get 70’s Big. Well, recently I wrote out a food log for my pal Cliff. Remember, getting enough protein and calories is vital, especially when dealing with a guy that has been skinny his whole life. Cliff needed an extra boost to continue his novice linear progression, and here is what we did:

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Cliff’s food plan

Here are a few things to note:

  • I immensely underestimated the calories for some of the snacks, especially the ice cream and magic shell combo
  • The “10 oz” refers to sirloin steak
  • The “8 oz” refers to chicken breasts
  • Notice he eats two of each per day
  • Cliff drinks a gallon of whole milk a day
  • Cliff was only eating almonds for a snack at work, now it is calorie dense trail mix
  • Cliff found ice cream and nutella to be a nice little combo at night


The most important points are that Cliff has increased his bodyweight from 185 to 215, improved his squat from 145x5x3 to doing 305x5x3 last night, and launched his deadlift from 225×5 to 405×5. All this in 2.5 months.

No, he is not fat. When you are skinny your whole life, not only is it hard to gain fat, but you don’t get to have an opinion on what fat is.

And he’s not done yet.
Let us know about any cool meals or snacks that have helped you recover. Remember, you can e-mail videos or pictures to media@70sbig.com.

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As promised, here is the fourth part of the 70’s Big Interview with Rip:

70’s Big Presents: Mark Rippetoe Interview Pt. 4 from 70s Big on Vimeo.

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Tomorrow we will wrap up Doug Young week. A story will be told about how he was an imposing individual who was respected by the entire powerlifting community. This is why he is the co-captain of 70sBig.com, and why he is our first entry into the “70’s Big Hall of Fame”.

Doug Young Week

“I don’t lift cars, I’m not a clown”

70sBig.com has a couple of co-captains that exhibit the epitome of being 70’s Big. We will honor the first by having a week dedicated to Doug Young, a prolific powerlifter from the 1970’s. Each post this week will display stories and information that explain why Doug Young is one of the most respected powerlifters of his time.

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70’s Big co-captain Doug Young



Doug was a national and world champion multiple times throughout his career while competing in the 242 pound class. In the 1977 nationals, he posted a 2017 pound total (squatting 722, benching 556, and deadlifting 738). Doug was known for his benching ability, and is credited with bench of 612 pounds in 1978. These are incredible feats given his bodyweight, but even more so because he wasn’t wearing a bench shirt or squat suit (pieces of equipment that are more prevalent in powerlifting today).

Every Monday and Thursday the next part of the Mark Rippetoe 70’s Big interview will be posted.

70’s Big Presents: Mark Rippetoe Interview Pt. 3 from 70s Big on Vimeo.

I’m A Man

“But I never had no problems cause my body’s pretty strong”

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Chris deadlifts 625



We hope you enjoyed the first week of our website. 70’s Big is a lifestyle worth living. It requires a lot of hard work in training and eating, but the lessons learned from such hard work resonate in life.

Click “Read more” to see an article on this topic that was originally written for Melissa Byers’ blog “Byers Gets Diesel“.

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