Happy Monday to you folks. Nice to see some quality PR’s from last week and over the weekend. I want to take today to get to know you, the reader, a little bit. This shouldn’t hurt, but you may feel a little pinch. Shall we begin?
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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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Leda belts up for some lifting
WFAC Virtual Tour from A.C. on Vimeo.
Over the past year I’ve had the pleasure of training at the Wichita Falls Athletic Club. As you can see in the video above, the gym is stocked full of squat racks, barbells, plates, and conditioning equipment — it’s a training paradise. I guess you could say that I’ve been spoiled and I’ve forgotten how bad it can be for some people. In reality, you can’t get effective training done in an ineffective facility. How many of you are stuck in a shitty training facility? What if there was a facility five miles away that you never knew about? What if you were that facility’s owner and you were missing out on some potential business and/or lifters?
Well, this is where we come in. We are now taking applications from gym owners to be included in our Gym Directory. In your application you will need to submit a list of your equipment, pictures of the equipment and facility, as well as contact information. As of now there is not an objective criteria to be included in this directory, but it should be considered an honor because only the finest training facilities will be accepted.
Some basic requirements (that are subject to change) will be decent bars, squat racks, benches, and plates. There is no square footage requirement, and ideally these facilities should be commercially available (in other words, you training alone in your garage doesn’t count). The credentials of the gym owner or coach should also be included so that folks browsing the directory will know what crowd the facility caters to (i.e. beginners, experienced lifters, or both) and what sports they can get involved with (Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, etc.). As we induct more gyms to our directory, I’m sure there will be some kind of form to fill out, but as for now, stick to the information above.
The goal here is to provide a very useful and comprehensive directory for gyms around the country so that people can find a proper gym to train properly in. Gym owners will get more exposure to their websites and facilities, readers of this site will be able to find gyms wherever they live or if they are on the road traveling, and we all help each other get stronger. Fuckin’ A.
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Update, as of 7:53 AM CST
Concise list of requirements and info to send in:
– Decent bars, plates, squat racks, and benches (bars and plates must be identified by brand and model)
– Commercially available facilities only
– Credentials of the gym owner or coach
– What kind of crowd does your facility cater to (beginners, experienced lifters, etc.)?
– What sports trainees can get involved with (Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, throwing, judo, etc.)?
– Open gym/personal training only/class only?
And be sure to include:
– pictures of your facility
– your website URL and public contact information
– list of equipment
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Charles Staley continues to bring useful information to the internet training community with this new audio interview. Charles, a funny guy, good coach, and new friend of mine, plays the part of moderator in a discussion about programming with a panel of the following top-notch coaches: Pavel Tsatsouline, John Godina, Mark Rippetoe, and Yosef Johnson. That’s a pretty stellar cast, and I’m sure it will be very interesting (I’m in the midst of listening). Click here to listen.
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).
USAPL Battle on the Border Recap
I was looking forward to this meet for a while since it is only the second USAPL meet I’ve been in. The week prior to the meet was my spring break, so my friends and I went to my Lakehouse, A.K.A. Dickhouse. It was dubbed “Dickhouse” due to the large amounts of sausage that were present the first few times. I spent the week maxin’, relaxin’, and tryin’ to eat as much as I could. On Friday my friend Dylan, who was also at the Dickhouse, and I started our drive up to Charlotte. 69 miles out Dylans car decides to break down around six o’clock. After this point everything that could gowrong WENT WRONG. The car broke down, then we had to get a tow truck to tow the car to a shop (which was closed), then we got a taxi to the closest rental car place — which happened to be the Greenville, SC airport, then we finished the drive up to Charlotte. In other words, it was the worst fucking day of my life. I fell asleep that night a little after midnight.
Second attempt squat
First bench attempt
Eight hours had gone by since my first squat attempt. I think everyone there was exhausted. I hit 562 pretty smoothly. I proceeded to go for 585 and failed it on two attempts. The third attempt actually came up higher than the first one. The meet was over. I didn’t do as well as I hoped with a total of 1,455, but I still won my division. I was so excited to show off my 70’s big shirt to the crowd to get in some free advertising, but instead in the locker room peeing into a cup while a grown man looked over my shoulder at my tiny dong. I was lucky enough to be drug tested. I came back up to find out that I had won first place. I gave a nice little cheer. I was happy. The end.
...nailed it