Tag Archives: WFAC

Rockin’ Socks

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22

“It really tied the room together”

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Doug and Clay Patterson team deadlift 1,416 lbs...in socks

In order to be 70’s Big, you don’t need to be donning garb from the time period nor do you have to be actually from the era. You just need to be big and strong. You’d sure as hell look so much cooler if you were rockin’ seventies garb, though. Insert Skater Socks here. An excerpt:

Growing up in the 70’s rocking my tube socks skating around town was a part of my childhood dreams. I loved tube socks! I had most all colors they offered at the time for my simple pleasure of having a sweet collection of striped tube socks made me super duper happy as a child. My childhood dreams were so simple and pure.

And so are ours. This site has an insanely large collection tube socks in any length or color that you could ever want. Not only that, but they have pictures of chicks wearing knee-high socks, and we all like chicks, right?

Socks like these really tie the room together, especially if you’re goal is to don apparel from the seventies. I’d suggest getting some to complete your Halloween costume.

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To finish off this video trifecta of friends (Chris, AC, and I), here is a video of me squatting from early September. I’ve since done 500 for five singles and 495 for two doubles (one rep away from three doubles).



Got any videos of you or your trainees? We’d like to see them. Send submissions to media@70sbig.com.

Competition

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14

“A beautiful thing indeed”

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'The Pizz', a unique pencil drawing of Pisarenko at the WFAC



70sBig.com does not merely suggest that you only become strong. My friend Gant — a competition enthusiast and judo player — said to me recently, “What’s the point of being 70’s Big if you can’t throw anybody around?” He’s got a point.

Aiming to only get strong and big is a waste of hard work and developed talent. Anybody wanting to become 70’s Big would probably enjoy displaying their strength, and what better way to to do so than to compete? It isn’t a coincidence that our 70’s Big co-captains, Doug Young and Anatoly Pisarenko, were successful in the sport of powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting respectively.

Besides, aiming your goals at a specific sport will not only justify the purpose of training, but it will fuel your desire to improve. The official stance of this website is that its members should participate in sport in congruence with their strength training.

Sports that specialize in the development of strength and power would be excellent choices. Some options include, but are not limited to powerlifting, weightlifting, highland games, football, throwing implements (track and field style), throwing people (judo), wrestling, and strongman competitions. As this site grows, you’ll see that there are men who are 70’s Big in each of these sports.

Some of the aforementioned sports separate competitors by weight class. This seems to be a dichotomy to the idea of 70’s Big, but ease your troubled mind. There is a bodyweight at which a person will function optimally for a particular sport (typically dictated by height). Gant will eventually share his story of changing weight classes for judo, but he’d probably tell you he functions best in the 90 kilo class. This doesn’t make him 70’s Big, but the quest is never over, my friends. Athletes will function better in sport, especially in the sports listed here, when they are stronger. So you see, everyone is on a quest towards 70’s Big. And that is a beautiful thing indeed.

As scheduled, here is part 6 of the 70’s Big Interview with Rippetoe. This is one of my favorite parts of the interview, because it explains what a female would look like who would be fit for a 70’s Big guy.

70’s Big Presents: Mark Rippetoe Interview Pt. 6 from 70s Big on Vimeo.

Food Plan

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25

“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”.

Equal Opportunity

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9

See, women can do it too!

Women typically have a paranoid view of barbell training in that they think it will make them “bulky” or “big”. This is a typical misconception that forgets that women don’t produce the same levels of testosterone that men do. Furthermore, “bulky” is a meaningless subjective term that is relative to all of the underweight women scattered around television and magazines.

Women can and should barbell train. For the most part they adapt in the same way that males do, albeit slower. And to be honest, most girls, regardless of body composition, can stand to gain 10 to 20 pounds of muscle (the same way that most guys need to gain 30 to 50 pounds of muscle). It’s important to note that women will not achieve the status of 70’s Big (since that would be scary thing, indeed), but being stronger with more muscle mass improves the “toned” look that so many of them aim for.

In any case, even with all of these sterotypes and misconceptions, there are women who barbell train successfully. We have a few here at WFAC:

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Shelley has squatted 180x5x3, but needs to eat more



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Prior to breaking some ribs, Melissa deadlifted an easy 225x5


Follow the jump for more on Doug Young.

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Listen

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7

“All you got to do is listen”

Every Monday and Thursday we’ll post parts of the Mark Rippetoe interview. For those of you who don’t know, Rip is a barbell coach who originally learned under Bill Starr and has been coaching the lifts for about 30 years. Currently he writes as well as travels to coach at barbell seminars. You can learn about his work at The Aasgaard Company’s website.

Here is part two if the interview:

70’s Big Presents: Interview with Mark Rippetoe Pt. 2 from 70s Big on Vimeo.

We have quite a few people getting 70’s Big at the WFAC. Shelley and Melissa get stronger every week despite obscure injuries, Colton and Kyle are our young apprentices in strength, both of the Zachs are still trying to gain enough weight to be classified as adult males, Sammerr aims to be a decent Olympic lifter, Sam is always begged to eat more despite his strength to bodyweight ratio, and Kyle battles horrific anthropometry.

I work with a lot of people here, and they all aim to get stronger (and sometimes conditioned). What gym are you at? Who else do you know that is trying to get 70’s Big? We’d like to hear about it. Eventually we’ll make an archive of gyms that are conducive to being 70’s Big.

Edit: As of right now, you have to click the title of the post in order to comment. I”m currently working on this…