Halloween Delight

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Justin

Your Halloween present: 70’s Big t-shirts

I was in tenth grade the first time it happened. I un-racked the bar on my front deltoids with my elbows high. I stepped back a few feet, got my stance set, and squatted down. I heard a very peculiar ripping sound, and then a quasi-delightful breeze tickled my butt crack. It took a minute or two to realize that I had blown out the back of my boxers front squatting. That was the first time my ass became too big for the clothes I was wearing.

Fast forward until a few months ago. We were in Salt Lake City to work a barbell seminar and I squatted down to pet a sweet ol’ chocolate lab at the gym and…

Squatting + 70’s Big = Jean Rippage

Right when it happened I was shocked. The jeans made a cartoon-like ripping noise and I just looked up and said, “70’s Big”.

I tell ya, folks, nobody said 70’s Big was gonna be easy. I’ve ruined several pairs of boxer briefs — blowing out the butt crack just like tenth grade. I’ve ripped the seams on numerous spandex compression shorts. I’m outgrowing the athletic shorts that I bought for when I was outgrowing my old athletic shorts. I had to move up a t-shirt size. None of my pairs of non-ripped jeans really fit, specifically in the butt and crotch region (zing!). And I was already 195 when I fit into these clothes!

It’s a badge of honor to accidentally (key word here) rip through old clothing. How many seams have you busted today?

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Happy Halloween to all of you. I fully expect you to present me with awesome pictures of you in 70’s Big attire throughout the weekend. Keep in mind you can still wear it while you train on Friday or watch football on Saturday. My present to you? The first 70’s Big t-shirt. Without further ado…

Front image of t-shirt

Back image of t-shirt

The front of this shirt is emblazoned with the image of both 70’s Big co-captains, powerlifting Doug Young and weightlifting Anatoly Pisarenko. The back has the classic WFAC image of Pisarenko embedded in the website address. Men’s sizes will run Large, X-Large, XX-Large, and XXX-Large. Men: be sure to get a size bigger so you can force yourself to grow into it. Female sizes will run adult Small and Medium. Ladies: only wear this shirt if you’re serious about attracting a 70’s Big Man.

Here is the store link for Men’s Shirts and Women’s Shirts.

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Don’t forget that Rip will be doing an online radio interview with IronRadio.org. Here is the link to listen and submit questions to Rip, or any of the show’s hosts.

Halloween 70’s Big Challenge

Posted on October 29, 2009 by Justin

Formal request for chicks in 70’s garb begins now

I have a buddy named Cliff who weighed a ridiculous 180 pounds with a 6’2″ frame in July. Now he’s a 220 pound stallion (that’s right ladies). After training last night, Cliff, our friend Spence, and I were chatting in my office. Cliff was sitting on an old wooden chair. Little did we know that it began to buckle because of the sheer masculinity that was upon it. Cliff shifted his weight, broke the chair, and as he fell to the ground he yelled, “Hey-yo!”. Spence, who had just painfully PR’d on deadlift laughed and said, “Way to go fatass.”

Chasing 70’s Big may or may not make you accidentally break things.

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Ladies and gentledudes, this weekend marks the first 70’s Big Halloween Challenge. I hope you all take this beautiful opportunity to dress up in some killer 70’s Big garb. I realize we can’t all be Johnny Spuke, but you can still look awesome. Here are some keys to a solid 70’s Big outfit (it isn’t a costume if it’s your normal style):

short shorts
long socks
mustache or beard
long hair
small singlets
chops
weighing above 200 pounds

Stick to these simple guidelines, and you should be fine. Ladies, please get in on this too so my inbox isn’t flooded with a bunch of dudes in short shorts. Please?
For more costume ideas, see the following picture:

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The epitome of 70’s Big

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Chuck B sent me some pictures of his “Bacon Explosion”. Nice.

Sausage meat wrapped in bacon

Pre-bake. Notice the criss crossing complexity.

Ask Mark Rippetoe

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Justin

Rip has agreed to do an internet radio interview with IronRadio.org this Friday with a topic of “How To Get 70’s Big”. You can click the link below to submit a question to Iron Radio to ask Rip.

EVENT: Iron Radio With Mark Rippetoe

TOPIC: How to Get, 70’s Big

DATE & TIME: Friday, October 30th at 2:00pm Eastern

FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)

TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…

http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=9738822

As Well Visit http://IronRadio.org for past episodes and other great pod
casts.

It’s going to be a great show and remember we are all about audience participation. Go enter questions NOW!! at the link above then you can listen in real time, enter more, or come back and listen to the recording to see if your question was answered. Questions can be on anything for anyone, the guest or any of the hosts.

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Check out the hip drive on this 1,034 pound squat:

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Here is yet another video of my friend AC. The little bastard just keeps getting stronger. In this video you see his last set of benching 330 lbs for three sets of five, then you see him press 220 lbs for three sets of five, and deadlift 515 for a triple. The bench was done on a different day, and the press and deadlift were done after squatting one set of five at 465. Oh, and yesterday he pressed 225 for three sets of five.
Fuck you, AC.

AC Bench, Deadlift, Press from A.C. on Vimeo.

T-shirts are supposed to be finished printing soon.

Intervention

Posted on October 27, 2009 by Justin

Women heart guys that are 70’s Big

I’m not quite sure how I can top yesterday’s post. It was probably a bad idea to start the week off talking about sex. In any case, I need to be cavalier to get out of this self-emplaced rut.

Today I need to have a pep-talk with the guys in this open forum. Women are welcome, but this message isn’t really directed at you.

Due to the increasing popularity of this site, I get a lot of e-mails. So far, these e-mails don’t annoy me. I’m happy to help in whatever way I can. Eventually I’ll organize the popular themes of these e-mails and create some kind of a FAQ (you know, after I create the Hall of Fame page). One subject in particular requires attention.

Hey, skinny guy. It’s time for an intervention.

You’ve been skinny your whole life. This isn’t much of an accomplishment in the same way that being fat your whole life isn’ much of an accomplishment. Fat guys aren’t weird about getting less fat. Skinny guys are definitely weird about getting less skinny. Damned weird. The cause for such a misconception probably includes Hollywood, advertising campaigns, expensive clothing stores, muscle magazines, Calvin Klein jeans, and fanatic fitness methodologies.

When training to get stronger, muscular body weight is gained. After the initial stages of this happening accidentally, a protein and caloric surplus will be required to continue making gains. In the presence of a surplus, it is likely (with regular genetics) to have an increase in body fat along with muscular body weight. To any sane person with eyeballs, muscular body weight is clearly increasing substantially with a little bit of fat. This is not only normal, but it’s going to be necessary if strength is going to be gained.

Even though this is a reality, guys freak out about losing their abs. Really. Usually these are guys that have been awfully skinny their whole lives, and they accidentally had abs that sat below emaciated bony protrusions called ribs. You skinny guys know who you are, especially those of you who are tall and skinny.

Here is my official statement to you: since you’ve been skinny your whole life, you don’t get to have an opinion on what “being fat” is.

There are only two things that I can think of that might be motivation for keeping a set of abs in light of what you’ve learned from 70’s Big: 1) you’re worried about impressing the opposite sex, and 2) there is a fitness methodology that exudes the idea that having a low body fat percentage is vital for elitism.

1) Do you really think that the girl you want to sleep with isn’t going to because you have a bit of body fat (or your interpretation of “a bit of body fat”)? Even if this was the limiting factor in you getting laid, and there is plenty of empirical evidence otherwise, this isn’t someone you’d be keeping around for longer than a half-hour anyway. I’ve recently been told by multiple females that not only do they prefer adult males (>200 pounds), but they spite guys who are 90’s Small. Besides, what woman wouldn’t want to be hauled to the bedroom over a beefy shoulder?

2) Just because a large collection of people, on the internet no less, think you need to be skinny to perform well doesn’t make it true. There aren’t many elite athletes at 5’10″, 165 pounds, and chiseled abs never accomplished anything useful. Sorry.

Depending on your height, you really shouldn’t be worried about being fat until you’re at least 225 anyway. Stop being so damn self-conscious about being fat, because being a self-conscious won’t bring in the ladies, and it sure as hell won’t make you 70’s Big. Grow up. And get strong while you’re at it.

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Mike from Charlottesville, VA is a graduate student at the University of Virginia. He’s 6’ tall, and weighs 200 pounds (as of last week). At one point, he weighed a silly 140 pounds. Mike sent me some pictures of smoking eight pounds of pork shoulder which apparently only lasted him for about 5 days.

8 pounds of pork

Homemade smoker

Q&A – #2

Posted on October 26, 2009 by Justin

70’s Big — making better lovers

My buddy Shawn and I were chatting via the interweb the other day. He has a valid concern regarding training.

Shawn: Hey, so I have a serious topic for this 70’s Big business — blowing a load before 70’s Big training…
Me: Elaborate.
Shawn: For instance, I had sex last night.
Shawn: And once today.
Shawn: What are the ramifications on my training?
Me: A valid question.
Shawn: Wow, really?
Me: Yeah. Bill Starr has talked about it before.
Shawn: I know Rocky was against having women during training…
Shawn: But Rocky was a joke, man.
Me: Yeah he was.
Me: Well, we’re gonna have to talk about this on the site, then.
Me: If your stupid-ass is asking, then other people are too.
Shawn: Yeah, I mean, I don’t want a BJ affecting my gains.
Shawn: Or do I…?

The real question is: will sex, or its derivatives (like hand shandies), disrupt recovery and adaptation for strength? Hardly.

In fact, a case could probably be made that the exclusion of sexual activities would actually interfere with getting stronger — it’s science. Besides, who am I to tell a strapping lad (or female) to lay off their sexual escapades? I couldn’t think of a better way to lose readers. If a bout of vigorous sex interferes with tomorrow’s training session…well, high fives all around, I say.

Competition is another matter entirely. I’ve heard of professional athletes, particularly football players, vehemently take a “no sex” stance the night before a game.

I guess the first question is, how important is the meet or game? If you have trained hard for it, then it should be pretty damn important. You wouldn’t want to ruin your moxie on the account of some rowdy hanky panky. I’ll refer to an expert on the matter. Here is an excerpt from Bill Starr’s Defying Gravity.

The bottom line on sexual activity before a contest comes down to being sensible, basic advice. During the last weeks and especially during the final days, you should continue to follow the sexual patterns to which you are accustomed. If you are in the habit of getting laid every night, keep doing it. Your body chemistry is definitely geared for this activity and abstaining will throw it off. If, on the other hand, you haven’t tapped the prostrate in a month or so, then you certainly don’t want to be looking up old girl friends or hanging out looking for loose leg the night before the contest. A rather famous quote from former New York Yankee manager Casey Stengle, exemplifies the point. “It isn’t sex that wrecks these guys, it’s staying up all night looking for it.” Good point. Quite often, the villain is not the sex but the loss of rest.
pg 26

This book was written by Starr to prepare an athlete for their next weightlifting or power meet. It’s chock full of useful information, hilarious stories from his era, and pictures of impressive lifters (you know, guys that are 70’s Big). Starr’s main concensus was keep doing what you are doing, at least physiologically speaking. The aim is to keep the body functioning normally in those final days before the competition — don’t start a new habit or stop on old one so that there is optimal physical and mental performance.

There’s plenty of time for “performing” after the meet. High five.