Q&A – 49

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Justin

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PR Friday is a time to reflect on your training with people who actually understand you. Post your updates or PR’s to the comments.

Last Week’s Challenge was to do rows after every training session; post results to the comments.

Next Week’s Challenge: 1) Sign up for the Movember team, 2) post about it on your personal social media, and 3) donate one doll hair to the Movember team. This isn’t the first or last fundraising initiative 70’s Big will be a part of, so I’m not asking you to drop 10, 20, 50, or 100 doll hairs into the kitty. Just donate one doll hair. If everyone that looks at this site in the next month donated one doll hair, we’d raise a shit load of doll hairs and easily beat last year’s total. Remember: every doll hair counts. Also, instead of asking you or other people to donate a lot, I think that we can raise more by getting more people on the team overall. So join up, donate up, and let’s do this.

Week In Review: Monday’s female post asked hard training females to not only continue setting a good example, but to share how they got into lifting. Tuesday was a very important day — the 2012 Declaration of Movember. Join the team and help us raise money. Wednesday was a statement of unity through our uniqueness.

Image made by Alex B.

Q&A

Leeuwer on October 31, 2012 at 7:14 am said:

Dear Justin,

My girlfriend is highly interested in growing muscle, powerlifting and losing fat. This is fantastic.

I moved her from a typical diet to a paleo diet. Currently, she is used to sprinting 2-3 times a week.

I wrote down the following training routine for her:

Workout A:

Squat
Press
Chins (5 x 2, one leg on a bench behind her, cannot perform multiple reps unassisted yet)

Conditioning: 10 minutes Jump Rope

Workout B:

Squat
Bench Press
Deadlift

Conditioning: 10 minutes Jump Rope

These are alternated for three weight training days a week.

I suggested she limits the sprinting to twice a week and performs a calmer jog or walk on the third day (since she trains dogs and does her training with them). These are performed on the days in between weight training.

The questions:

1) Is the chin-up progression all right for her the progress to doing singles or doubles on chinups? Once I know that she can perform at least two chinups, I’ll move her up to doing 10 sets of singles, etc. Is this a good idea?

2) Is the sprinting/weight training too much? Having them both on one day would allow for more recovery, but that is unfortunately not possible.

3) Based on your article on females and higher reps, I wondered how I should best program her sets and reps. Better to have her perform 3 sets of 10 or 3 x 5? Or would you advise alternating? She wants to gain muscle and firm up, first and foremost.

Thanks for any advice.

Dear Leeuwer,

Good to hear that your girlfriend is interested in strength training and muscle building. Before I get to your question, I just have a few general notes to consider. This doesn’t mean you have to blindly follow them, but I think they are relevant.

– I’ve written about developing a chin or pull-up for females exhaustively. “Programming Pull-ups” and “Developing A Pull-up” will give you all you need to know. I also suggest “Experiment for da Ladies” in this case. This addressed your first question.

– I’m not a huge fan of just simply alternating A/B workouts in a linear progression unless the person is brand new to lifting. The A/B alternate will have a trainee deadlifting three times in two weeks, and this will become a problem very soon. If she’s brand new, then run with it, but after 6 to 8 weeks, just have her deadlift on Friday and do RDLs on Monday (or whatever corresponding days).

– What kind of sprints has she been doing? If they are legitimate 200 or 400 meter repeats, then jump roping won’t be terribly stressful to her. In fact, I would consider jump roping as less stressful than yogging for the same amount of time. If she’s been doing legitimate sprints, the jump rope won’t have the desired effect you’re after.

– I’m not a huge fan of training on off days, but if she’s relatively new to lifting (and hasn’t been consistent before), then it probably won’t be a big deal if she does a bit of conditioning on the off days. Just keep in mind that if her progress stalls in a few months (and her protein intake is close to 1g per pound of body weight), then the conditioning on off days should be the first to go. Your second question indicates that it’s not possible to do the sprints on the same days that she lifts, so your current plan is fine until you guys run into stalled progression — which should not happen for several months. And assuming she’s new to lifting, I don’t think it’d be a problem if she sprinted on a third non lifting day of the week (like on a Saturday). You know what to remove if she has recovery problems.

– Since she is still new to lifting, just use a 3×5 set/rep scheme. It provides a happy medium between strength training and hypertrophy, and she cannot build muscle without strength. She will develop muscle doing this stuff, and you can even turn her “conditioning” days into high intensity circuits to give her more reps of muscle contraction. I think you did a good job creating her plan and suggest that you stick with your plan until February and then worry about changes then. I realize she wants to “gain muscle” and “firm up” first, but muscle building is not a fast process, even for guys. Improving body composition will help the “firm/tone” goal.

There haven’t really been a lot of questions lately. Feel free to drop them in the comments or on social media.

Know Thyself

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Justin

There’s a reason we take time from our day to go to the gym. There’s a reason we pay close attention to our diet and spend evenings working on mobility. There’s a reason we read and talk about strength training every day online. Imagine:

Chalk floats softly through the air. The thumping of your heart is all you hear, all you feel. You step to the bar and place your hands on it, feeling the cold knurling on callused hands. The whirling hurricane of emotion settles into the eye of the storm, the peaceful moment when you have to make a decision to begin.

This introspection is the true reason we love training. That delicate, beautiful moment before starting a lift is the ultimate reflection of the soul. Is it angry, irritable, and ready to tear flesh with gnashing teeth? Or is it unsure, unsteady, and hesitant? As Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t — you’re right.”

There are moments where our bodies feel defeated, incapable. Whether the fire comes from within, a friend, or music, our minds can kick down the door of possibilities and force the body to destroy a set with frightening clarity. The ability was always there, yet we must learn how to awaken it every training session. The fire rises, brother.

Your co-workers have an idea of who you are, some kind of abstraction. But there’s more to you, something illusory that no one can understand. You can stand there smiling while shaking hands, feeling their flesh gripping yours. Your lifestyles may even be comparable, but the truth is that they know nothing of the internal struggles, battles, triumphs, and failures you regularly feel. They’ll never understand the significance of cold, rough steel. Instead of bothering with these true moments of clarity, you smile again and ask how their Tuesday evening was. It’s easier that way.

Movember 2012

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Justin

Listen up fuckers, it’s Movember. This isn’t a game.

Movember is an annual call to hairy arms to raise funds for men’s health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer. Last year we kicked cancer in the BALLS by collectively raising about 6,000 doll hairs. I think this year we can do better. This year’s goal is to raise ~~eleventy bazillion~~ 8,000 doll hairs.

If everyone who is reading this donated ONE doll hair — just a single doll hair — then we would easily hit our goal in a day or so. So please, join the cause so we can really GIVE IT to cancer.

JOIN THE TEAM OR DONATE HERE

Movember focuses on growing a mustache, but 70’s Big just asks you to grow facial hair in general. You can do “no shave November”, start a mustache from scratch, or continue whatever facial hair you’ve already been working on.

Here’s this year’s opening video:

Here are some of last year’s videos:
Movember, Mustaches, Bacon
Movember Mash-up
Just Hittin’ A Mob

Lastly, here is Parks and Recreation star Nick Offerman teaching you how to grow a mustache:

Pave The Way

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Justin

Mondays are dedicated to female topics.

I’ve spent so much time trying to help guys get their the women in their lives training that I’ve neglected the gals who actually DO train. You lovely ladies actually carry the torch — the one that sets fire to bullshit conventional cardio bunny stereotypes.

This girl expects to be sore from stretching.

In this video, Nick Offerman of Ron Swanson fame reads tweets by young female celebrities. Ashley Tisdale — who I honestly have never heard of before — said, “Cardio then yoga? I am gonna be sore!” This is a god damn joke. Aside from the fact that it’s one of those pointless-ass status updates that reflect the epitome of narcissism in American youth, the girl expects to be sore from repetitive movement on an elliptical, stretching, and posing. FUCKING POSING.

Ladies. This is what we’re up against.

Wait, this isn’t supposed to be about the enemy. Let’s try and ignore her internal rotation and thoracic flexion. Let’s try and ignore her complete lack of muscle mass. Let’s try and ignore the fact that if she were to be caught in a stiff breeze, she would fall apart.

No, this is about you ladies — you lifting, training ladies — carrying that torch, lighter fluid, and trebuchet to burn down the preconceived notion that being a useless human being WILL NOT STAND. I salute you, woman of barbell lifting.

Tell us about yourself. How did you get into lifting and serious training? Why do you like it? What do you hope to get out of it? There is no wrong answer, I’m just curious as to what was the catalyst for setting yourself apart from the waif or fat girl modern society expected you to be.

Continue to pave the way for serious female trainees by setting a good example. If possible, help your friends — male and female — try it out. Find your niche, whether it’s just getting stronger, powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, or strongman, and stick with it. Train hard and have fun.

Q&A – 48

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Justin

PR Friday allows all lifters, great or small, to discuss their triumphs and failures with like-minded folks. Get involved in the comments.

Last Week’s Challenge asked you to eat as many animals as you can in a meal or day.

Next Week’s Challenge: Do rows at the end of each training day. See what happens. Read this post by Dr. Hartman for a refresher on why.

Week In Review: Monday’s female post focused on getting your lady friends into the gym any way you can because it provides a gateway to health or interest in lifting. Tuesday introduced the second mission of The Revolution; take flannel back from the hipsters. Yesterday I showed you how I have run into plenty of Brent look-a-likes, but be sure to check out Brent’s new shirts.

Q&A:

Joel, from this Q&A asks:

Quick question: I have been experiencing achy elbows lately, especially my right one. I’m not doing anything different that I am aware of, but mobbing and stretching them seems to do nothing. I’m guessing it is probably the beginnings of tendinitis and it may stem from grip width during low-bar squatting, but it never ever bothers me until I’m outside of the gym doing random stuff. The most painful thing is gripping a full glass with my (right) arm fully extended and the pain gets worse if I were to dump the glass out to the right. What would you recommend I do to diagnose/fix this issue and prevent it from happening in the future? I know a recent vid of my squat would probably help immensely, but I never film myself since I train foreveralone.jpg in a globo…so I will work on getting one asap.

I’ve also been hitting a wall with the Texas Method, which I’ve been running strictly for 4 months now after buying your book in June – No real PRs in, like, 3 weeks. I’ve been feeling good, mobbing, and eating like a horse (at least getting 1g protein/1lb BW) but just not feeling any stronger. Is it time to get advanced with my TM template (I’m hesitant to do this since I haven’t been on it that long), or just change up some of the set/rep schemes for now? Some numbers:

5’5” – 175lb – 33y.o.

VD SQ – 295x5x5
OHP – 120x5x5
BP – 185x5x5

ID SQ – 365×5
OHP – 140×5
BP – 205×5
DL – 395×3

I can’t say it enough, but thank you so much for all of your help thus far, Justin – You’re advice has proved invaluable and I can’t wait to see how much better and more useful in general you can make these aging and broken human beings – – Keep it up! (sorry for the novel, btw)

-Joel (aka. blister)

Dear Joel,

Good to hear that your wife is doing better (he explained this in the e-mail, but I omitted it for space). Once you guys get back from the vacation, get on a regular exercise regime — start with at least 2x/wk with other days for walking (have dogs?).

Regarding your elbow, I’d first assume that your squat grip is what is irritating it. This is actually quite common. You can see some discussion on this from Q&A – 27 and Q&A – 28 (just ctrl+F “grip”). Improve shoulder mobility and grip position on the squat and do some soft tissue massage up and down stream from the area of injury. The former will fix the underlying problem while the latter can help treat the issue itself.

Regarding your lack of progress on TM, your volume squat work is only about 80% of your intensity squat work, so you can actually stand to increase the volume a bit more. I’d say stick with the 5×5 and increase the weight a bit and see what happens on that particular lift. As for the other lifts, there isn’t a whole lot of info here to go on, but your bench volume is 90% of your intensity bench work, and that is a bit high. Either reduce it down to a 3×5 on the Volume Day or reduce the weight overall. Your presses are also a bit weak, and in this type of situation I usually like to recommend weighted pull-ups once or twice a week and later adding rows into the mix as well. Filling out the upper body strength and musculature helps drive the presses, but also be sure to check out this press video (the elbow positioning is important while benching too, these videos may help: one and two):

Lastly, you need to eat more protein than just 1g per pound of body weight. Check out this “PROTEIN” post, but I would add 50g on top of what you currently get. I suspect that you’ll start making progress after a week straight of the additional 50g (the new intake needs to be chronic, not a “sometimes” thing).