Sweet potatoes cost as low as $.60/lb, and they have a little bit of sweet flavor. However, baked sweet potatoes get boring, so let’s get reckless. Here’s what you’re gonna need:

– 1 medium sized sweet potato (rhinoceros penis sizes are not necessary)
– 2 pieces of thick bacon
– 1 tbspon of butter
– cinnamon
– 1 handlebar mustache

Prep time is a couple of minutes. Make sure to use the healthiest cutting board to cook a nutritious meal. Cook time is a few minutes.

Cook the sweet potato. I prefer to use the microwave. Poke holes in the potato and cook it for four minutes. Two potatoes will cook in six minutes. While that’s cooking, fry the two pieces of bacon that you have already cut up into small pieces.

Once the sweet potato is done, cut it into small pieces. When the bacon is adequately cooked, but not burned or crispy, dump the sweet potatoes in and sauté the mixture.

Now plop a nice hunk of butter in. At least one tablespoon of butter. As it melts, give the whole mixture a good dusting of cinnamon. Then stir the mixture in with the melting butter thoroughly — this is where the magic happens.

Cooking things in butter makes them incredible, and sweet potato hash is no different. The butter allows the mixture to brown and infuses the cinnamon. This, of course, is just a garnish to whatever other egg/bacon meal you’re already having. I suggest fried eggs mixed into the sweet potato hash or scrambled eggs and bacon on the side. Enjoy.

We’ll have a regular recipe feature once the site changes themes, so get your pictures/videos ready.

People scour the internet searching for the majestic Press Booster that miraculously improves pressing ability. Unfortunately the Press Booster is merely a tall tale created by real life creatures known as “fuckers” in order to buffalo you. What fuckers don’t realize is that first comes mechanics, then comes consistency, and then comes belligerency in a baby carriage.

Mechanics
Too often I see pressing grips that are very wide — the forearms should be vertical in the starting or rack position, and they should also be vertical from the front and side view. The wrist should be in a close-compacted position that puts the bar in the heel of the palm. The bar should remain close to the face during the ascent and descent while the lifter gets their torso under the bar. Speaking of the torso, it shouldn’t bend much and the thoracic/lumbar junction should never be in hyper extension. The hips should also not be in anterior rotation at lockout. Lastly, assuming all of this other stuff is occurring correctly, the shoulders shouldn’t be internally rotating. Pretty simple, huh?

I’ll be very clear in admitting that this post cannot address the questions that the last paragraph presents because I could write a long post on each item. The point is that there is a lot going on and until the mechanics are addressed, the program itself is not to blame.

Consistency
Pressing will increase with diligency (not a word). Constantly chipping away at it over time will develop a good press. I have been pressing for at least once a week since July of 2010 and have averaged at least once a week since January of 2009 (the only reason I didn’t initially use Jan of 2009 is because when I was on the Texas Method I alternated bench/press weeks). The press benefits from an accumulated work load. Most linear progressions nowadays utilize a good amount of pressing, yet eventually there is a limit on how far three sets of five (3×5) can be progressed. There’s no point in beating a dead horse, so using some different rep ranges will help increase pressing strength. The first thing to play around with in programming is to use some heavier weight, but not to abandon old rep schemes. One example is that I have developed an ascending 3×3 and 3×5 rep scheme that alternates every week on the press and bench with great success. The key is not to use anything fancy but to keep utilizing the press.

Belligerency
Once some basic programmatic variables have been played with, you’ll have to take chances on your pressing days. You’ll have to try and push your last triple, last set of five, or your 3×5 sets across. You’ll have to learn how to grind through tough presses, and you do this by getting experience with hard reps. You will not press heavy weights if you push the bar forward so learn how to keep it close and get under it. Once you can grind though a ten second press, you will know how to fight through the hard reps.

Using other exercises to build the press isn’t necessary until mechanics, consistency, and belligerency are addressed. Then there are a few options for the seasoned presser. But whatever, this was all just an excuse to post my recent PR (this one is not in a speedo like last time).



You can see that I have a bit of stretch reflex to aid the start of the rep. In training, I don’t mind this assuming the fundamental mechanics are in place (referenced above). You’ll see that my torso, hips, and knees maintain rigidity, which are my requirements for a proper press. However, I would not allow this stretch reflex in competition as it is difficult to quantify and subsequently difficult to judge. I don’t have a problem in doing it, and I prefer to do it for the sake of handling more weight and reps (as long as it’s not excessive, and it’s not in either video).

This week I want to motivate you women who actually do train, whether you’re already strong or not. You may be the queen in your gym, but somewhere out there a stronger woman is training her heart out. It just so happens that there is a gym full of these gals at CrossFit Retribution in Westminster, MD. This facility is run by Beau Bryant (not to be confused with this guy) and he has developed a stable of good lifters and is even using The Texas Method (he bought the e-book a while back).

This is Beau’s wife Angie hitting a fucking solid set of 225×3 on squat. I’m impressed, because this is a beautiful low bar back squat and she crushes the first rep. The neat part about it is that Beau sent me a video of her after last week’s Intensity Day and she missed the third rep at 220.

I just watched it again — god damn it what a great set. She doesn’t have any chest dropping due to thoracic weakness or hamstring weakness. Just real fucking solid. Well done Beau and Angie, well done. Oh, and here is their new shirt.

I could end the post and be very happy, but THERE’S MOAR.

Here is Tiff — she had no barbell training experience prior to joining the gym. Here she is pulling 290×5 like she’s drying her hair.


Also, here’s a vid of her squatting 275×3.

Lastly, we have the 110 pound mother of two, Leah squatting 160×1 a couple months ago. The record in her weight class is 170, so they are trying to break that.


Well done ladies, and nice job to Beau for good coaching and programming. If you want to submit your female lifting videos, shoot them here.

Happy PR Friday
List your weekly personal bests for the week as well as training updates.
This week, post your lifetime PR for whatever goal you have, and how close you are to breaking it.

Mooy M. asks on the Facebook Fan Page

why should i take fish oil? and why the fuck am i eating like mad, training my ass off and still keep being skinny fat? is there a 70s big gen missing?

Dear Mooy,

Fish oil is a natural anti-inflammatory and contains EPA and DHA. For our purposes, it probably helps with systemic recovery and some people point out that it improves joint pain. It is also said to help with insulin sensitivity, but I admit I haven’t read about this in a while. I think the Wiki page did a good overview.

As for you “eating like mad” and still being skinny fat, I really can’t say. Eating copious amounts of food is not always the answer to improve muscularity, and it’s also very dependent on your program. Are you training your body as a system every day? This would include large lifts like the squat or deadlift in addition to other things like pressing, benching, RDLing, and rowing. Maybe you aren’t doing enough barbell curls, or maybe the right drugs are what is missing. I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy. You can find him in a back alley and he’s got some cheese burgers, man.

If you’re genetically predisposed to skinniness, or have only recently taken up training, then it will take diligent and chronic work over time to develop strength and muscularity. Reevaluate your program and don’t lose hope on the quest of 70’s Big.

Continue reading →

This podcast features a Q&A with American Olympic weightlifting coach Glenn Pendlay from California Strength. Questions were submitted by readers on the 70’s Big Facebook Fan Page. Also check out (and sign up for) the Muscle Driver Grand Prix Inaugural Meet. That’s a lot of links.

Podcast-9-Pendlay-Q&A
(left click for stream, right click and “save as” to download)
1 hour, 30 seconds long

There’s still trouble with the iTunes availability although it has been submitted. Probably has to do with the iTunes tags in the RSS feed (which I don’t know how to fix).

Some topics from the Q&A include:

Push-press utility
The question was specific to the carryover to the jerk (it helps for beginners), but Glenn touted this exercise as one of the best upper body exercises for a weightlifter saying (paraphrase), “If you’re strong in the push-press, you’re strong in everything else: press, bench, jerk, etc.”

This topic also led to a general discussion with strength and weightlifting and what kind of emphasis or frequency strength training would have in a weightlifting program as a trainee advances from beginner and beyond.

Pulling from blocks
The question was specific to when to do them in the program. Glenn addresses the utility in pulling from blocks and when they would be pertinent to a program. There are even times when a beginner would use them as well, but only in a specific situation.

Being an Olympic weightlifter without a coach
The question was specifically asking what would be good resources to use in order to learn or improve the lifts, and Glenn ticks off a few good products and videos. He also gives some advice about submitting videos to forumz on the interwebz for critiquez.

Conditioning in a strength or weightlifting program
General trainees or beginning weightlifters will benefit from conditioning work. Glenn is an advocate for a very simple method of conditioning that is touted by other popular coaches. He also discusses the utility in complexes for ancillary work at the end of a training session. The complexes or circuits aren’t specifically designed for a conditioning effect, but they let the trainee get some accumulated work with assistance exercises to improve their hips, posterior chain, abdominals, lumbars, shoulders, etc. It’s quick and easy, but I want to add here that assuming no other conditioning work in the program that this would act as conditioning since the relative intensity and pace are higher than a standard strength program. At the minimum, a lifter could create a short complex/circuit like Glenn describes to get a slight endurance effect — something that can help their “between set recovery” as well.