Challenge Workout: The 16 Ton Beast

by Brian Pittman 

Alright BigFellas, we've got a challenge for you.  Protein and Carb up boys and girls, this one is rough!

This workout will totally blast your body for one week.  It's loosely based on a CrossFit challenge, so if it looks a bit familiar it may be.  The goal is simple:  lift 16 tons (or more) per workout, three workouts a week, focusing on the major powerlifting lifts of deadlift, bench, and squat with supporting muscle groups as well.

Day 1:  Deadlift and Traps

Sample Workout:  Deadlift  10 sets, 225x10 = 22500 lbs

                             Barbell Shrug  10 sets 225x5 = 11250 lbs

                             Total Weight 33750 lbs, 16.75 tons

Day 2:  Bench Press and Triceps

Sample workout:  Bench Press  10 sets, 225x10 = 22500 lbs

                            Tricep Cable Pushdown   10 sets, 100x10 = 10000 lbs

                            Total Weight  32500 lbs, 16.25 tons

Day 3:  Squat and Calves

Sample workout:  Squat:  10 sets, 225x10 = 22500 lbs

                            Seated Calf Raises  10 sets, 100x10 = 10000 lbs

                            Total Weight  32500 lbs, 16.25 tons

Oh yeah, and did I mention that this is a timed challenge?  Your goal is to complete this workout with two people in under 90 minutes!  Yes, that means that this will be a cardio push as well kiddies...

If you aren't able to complete the challenge with 225, don't worry: it's completely scalable!  Just track the math and make sure your total weight is over the 16 ton goal line.  It works whether you're lifting 135 or 405. Just keep in mind that safety is and will always be the most important goal - if you start to feel ill, take a break and get some air and water!

Remember this is a one week challenge, solely intended to give you a different take on your normal workout or a good gap workout to bridge the end of one routine and the start of another.  Enjoy!

Prejudgment

by Brian Pittman

Wassup BigFellas!  To begin, no, the title's not a typo.  Our contributing writer Brandon Stoops and I were actually preparing pieces on a somewhat similar topic this week.  After reading his piece I decided to just go ahead and publish mine as well since they cover just enough differing information that I thought maybe someone could get something out of both.

I wanted to talk to you all today about prejudgment.  Let me clarify what I mean by prejudgment, however.  I'm talking about making a decision on someone's ability to work / learn in the gym by an external factor, be in you know them from outside the gym, their reputation, or even how they look.  As we're looking to build our BigFellas powerlifting team, my Brandon and I are learning the hard way that we could be really missing some great people by prejudging a bit based on things other than watching iron move up and down.  To give you an example, we had a gentleman that I work with join us for a couple of nights this week to see if he liked training with us.  Now, to be honest, at work this man gets his job done but doesn't go out of his way to "knock it out" day in and day out.  There's nothing wrong with that, it's just not my personal philosophy.  Judging him by his work ability as I knew it to that point from lifting couches and the like, I didn't really expect this man to be able to move a lot when it came to the iron.  He surprised me greatly by putting in some quality work on both rack pulls and squats this week, knocking out three reps of 315 on the rack pulls at his heaviest and pushing through five sets of five at 185 on squats.  He's been sore as hell for the last few days but that's not a bad way at all to get back in the house of iron and pain.  I stand corrected sir, and welcome!

The other prejudgment I want to mention is prejudging someone on their size.  Every single BigFella out there has had someone develop a wrong opinion about them just because they are larger than average.  It's like a law of nature or something.  For some reason people are naturally judgmental toward those much larger than they are and the gym is no exception.  The sad thing is that in most cases, the larger guys are one of the best resources available to you as a novice lifter or an experienced lifter trying to learn more about his hobby.  In fact, that's how a lot of the bigger guys learned themselves.  Someone taught them.  Consider this: the silverback gorilla in the hoodie, cargo shorts, Chuck Taylor's, and weight belt that's over there grunting through his fifth set on the squat rack may not be the mindless gym monkey he looks like he may be.  He may have an English degree, author two blogs, and be in the middle of writing his third book.  He might also know exactly how much he owes to all those who pitched in and helped him as he was starting back down the iron road a little while back and is perfectly willing to help you out.  Just saying and all.

Have a good one all!  

Judgment

by Brandon Stoops

     Sometimes a BigFella has something on his mind that he just needs to say.  Here's mine for the week.  Everyone at some point in time thought twice about walking into a gym.  Particularly when you're new, you're probably a little bit paranoid about what other members that might look better, be stronger, or just have been there longer might think about them.  A lot of individuals that I have trained and trained with over the years have taught me over that it really just doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of you.  Why you might ask?  It's simple, we all started at the same place:  barely able to move the damn bar!

     My workout partner and I get a lot of the classic "back in high school" or "back in the day stories" from people that are always followed up with "well I can't do as much as you guys" when we invite them to partake in a little training time with us.  When I hear this the answer that comes out of my mouth is always the same:  "So what?" We all start at the same place and who are we to judge someone for where they are in their training.  I don't mind changing weights out all day long if someone is wanting to learn to lift.  I really don't and neither does my training partner.  It's all just part of the process of getting into anything dealing with strength sports: you're going to have to flip some plates back and forth.

     The only time I will ever rag on someone or just blow them out of the water on something is if they are just running off at the mouth and acting like a complete douche.  Act like that and I promise you that the moment you fuck up or even breathe wrong it's on.  I'm going to find every reason in the world to make you feel like you should never bother to touch a weight again if you're some cocky ass.  

     It's my opinion that lifters should be supportive of each other regardless of what your individual goals may be.  We all have this portion of our life in common.  We all have the same goal: to be the best we can at be at what we do, whether it's to be the strongest or the fittest or just to better ourselves individually.  I mention all this to get you to think a little more the next time you see someone training with weight that isn't quite what you work with.  Don't be rude if someone asks you training questions to better understand what you're doing.  We all need to help each other out.  No one should have to second guess themselves going into a gym. 

     Well I'll leave you with that little piece of my mind.  Until next time... stay healthy and keep lifting.

A Rough Night At the Gym

by Brian Pittman

Hello all my fellow BigFellas.  It's been a bit since I've been able to post due to my move to Morehead City from Raleigh.  Thankfully now the cable and Internet is hooked up, the basic necessities are in place (meaning my television is mounted on the wall, the XBox works, and there's room for my recliner among the boxes) and it's time to get back to writing!

It's currently 3:30 or so in the morning and there's something eating at me so badly that, aside from a little nap earlier, I can't sleep for crap this evening. Since I know a lot of you that read this blog can relate in one way or another, I thought I might share the name of my pain with you and hopefully get it out of my system enough to still try to manage a little shut eye when all's said and done.  So, with your indulgence, here goes:

I had a ROUGH night at the gym tonight.

Now before some of you get all stiff upper lip on me and tell me to shrug it off and just get the hell over it and move on, allow me to expound and elaborate a bit.  There's more to this story than just a simple case of butthurt over missing a weight.  You see, one of my major concerns about this move was the availability of a suitable gym to train in.  Over the last year or so I've started to fancy myself as an entry level power lifter.  Now, granted, that designation came from the fact that one of the experienced lifters and a generally overall beast of a human being at good ol' Clayton Fitness complemented me on a overhand grip 405lb deadlift and told me I was making good progress.  But, the way I figure it, when those already in the club take notice you've got your foot in the door so I'll take what I can get and run with it happily.  I knew when this move came about suddenly that the only way I'd be able to continue to train properly was with the right facility, which I was lucky enough to find in the Sports Center in Morehead City (huge plug by the way - if you're in the area run to the back end of 35th street and beg Cathy to let you sign a membership app right damn now - the rest of this will be here when you get back I promise).  SC has three monster free weight rooms that are damn near dungeon like, so my feeling was good things are bound to happen.

The truth of the matter is that since the move down here in mid-January, I have been admittedly off my game.  My diet has gone to crap, I was in and out of the gym due to auditioning different clubs and adjusting to the new work schedule and the like, and my daily cardio exited stage left due to nothing more than flat out laziness.  However there's a bit more to it than that going on.  I don't know if we just both miss Clayton Fitness that badly or aren't adjusting well to the move or what it is but my training partner and I have both noticed that we just can't seem to get settled into a routine in our new home.  It seems like lately every other workout is off, and that's averaging nearly two a week.

Now fast forward to last night, our weekly Monday night deadlift session.

Sports Center has a dedicated deadlift platform, which is awesome except it faces the good old fashioned mirror wall.  Needless to say watching yourself deadlift, sit around, or just generally fart off up close and personally when you're out of cardio shape and know you've gained 20lbs or so just sucks.  Anyway, my training partner and I started out as we usually do: a warmup set of 135 for 5 then moving on to sets of 3, adding a plate each set.  225 - great.  315 - no problem.  

Then 405 comes up.  

And I can't get the bastard past my shins.

Period.

This pissed me off.  I haven't missed 405 since the week before the aforementioned overhanded lift, and that's been almost a year ago.  In fact, I'd just smoked 495 doing a rack pull a week ago.  I knew I had this with no problem. I decide I just whiffed it, backed up, filled my head with appropriate imagery of my proud Viking ancestors hoisting the carcass of some slain enemy (that just happened to weigh 405lbs) in the air, and grabbed the bar again. 

Four f'ing inches then nothing.

By this point I was rolling right past losing my temper and strolling right on up to that Grizzly Bear vs. Silverback Gorilla streetfight throwdown level of anger.  I grabbed hold of that bastard so hard my knuckles when white, dropped my ass like a good  little power lifter, and snatched that s.o.b. as hard as I could.

I think I hit the UnderArmour logo at the top of my socks, in other words mid-shin.

And yes, like a douche, I lost it and kicked the barbell.  

The fact is that I know what happened.  I know the myriad factors that contributed to that epic little piece of fail.  I won't waste your time and list them all but to paraphrase the all-mighty Tin Cup, my "lift" felt like an unfolding lawnchair.  And now for some reason that particular miss has rattled around in my head all night to the point that sleep is evading me like a big dog.  Am I being overcompetitive and WAY too hard on myself - of course I am.  Will I get over it?  Of course.  I'm just wallowing in being buttsore over it for a while.  

Simply put it's something that all of us as heavy lifters, competitive or otherwise, have happen to us on occasion.  Everyone has a shitty night once in a while.  I guess sometimes we all just need reminded of the fact that each and every one of us is just one rough night away from Less Than Mighty and Slightly Squishy.  So for those of you dealing with a shit night like I am, believe me I'm right there with you brother!  

Have a good one!

A BigFella Needs A Big Picture

by Brian Pittman

I hope everyone has had a great week so far.  I want to take a few minutes this morning to pass on a few things that I think may be relevant to us all.  I hope some of you can find a nugget or two in what I have to say useful and worthy of consideration.  For the rest, well, sometimes even us BigFellas are allowed to think a bit too much.

My grandfather passed away on December 19th of 2012.  One of the remarkable things I took from his funeral service was how full and complete his life seemed to have been; how somehow in the course of 86 years he had managed to tie up the loose ends of his existence and while he left a family behind it was not in a state of disarray or chaos.  Sadly, however, I am left this morning with a stark contrast to that with the news of the passing of one of my father's closest friends.  While this man didn't leave a house in disarray or a damaged family by any means, I find myself saddened by the things he left undone. This man left this world in the midst of unfulfilled plans for his family and community and while I'm sure his family will see what I'm sure will come to be his legacy to fruition, I find it a reason for pause.

BigFellas, we all lead hectic and crazy lives.  We tend to get caught up in our deadlines with work or worries over our kids or whatever generic tedium interrupts our daily focus.  Hey, it happens to the best of us.  If you'll indulge me just a moment I'd like to share something I learned over the past year of unemployment. When any one area of your life becomes dominant and all consuming, the rest of it is going to get neglected - period.  I was all about my job, no questions asked. Then one day it was gone. A couple of depressed weeks (okay months)  later I woke up and realized that I had an entire life to live as well.  It turns out that the old acorn about everything needing to have its place is really more like an oak tree in the long run.

So with all that being said, I encourage each of you today to take a moment and look at your own big picture.  Look at that overall life and see what's really going on with your time on this rock.  Are you paying attention to what is really the most important?  If you passed suddenly today, what would your legacy be?  I was doing a little reading the other day as research for a book and found out that one of the Norse traditions when it came to funerals is that very little was put on a headstone other than a name and maybe how old you were.  They believed that it wasn't necessary because a persons' deeds and reputation should outlive them.  If you weren't a remarkable person, why bother carving it in stone? That struck me as poignant before today's events and now even moreso.

The Big Picture.  What your life is really about.  The big ol' brass tacks.  

RIP Mr. Norman Simpson.

Email: Did You Hear That? A Visual Guide

by Brian Pittman

We have our first official email question sent in to The BigFella's Guide.

Gary writes:  "... I would really like someone to explain to me what's with all the screaming and yelling going on in the gym. It kind of freaks me out."

Gary, this is one of those really complicated simple answers.  Simply, all the noise you're hearing is most likely someone grunting, yelling, or the like with exertion.  Hey like it or not with enough weight on the bar EVERYBODY is gonna make some noise from time to time.  (It's probably worth noting that some of that grunting and yelling needs to have the words "in pain" tacked on to the end but let's just try not to focus on that, shall we?)

Where it gets complicated is when you start to wonder if all the noise you hear is necessary or even warranted.  What I mean is that there are some times that someone is in the gym and making noise just to draw attention to themselves.  We have a name for those folks:

In some cases, the noise you are hearing is simply intensity and emotion.  Hey, sometimes the large folk just excited when they finally pick up the equivalent of half of their F150 without soiling themselves.  That might look something like this:

Unless you're part of the group they're lifting with, just ignore it and go on.  Or join Planet Fitness. You know, the Lunk Alarm folks.

Lastly you may occasionally hear the random bodily function go off, loudly.  Just try to ignore as best possible or just break down and laugh with the rest of us.  It's okay, we all do it sooner or later.

Hope that answers your question Gary!

Kind Words of Caution

by Brian Pittman

Brothers and Sisters, I come to you today with simple, humble words of caution brought on by a friend's comments on Facebook.  One of our gym friends made a comment a few days ago that has stuck in my widdle iddy biddy noggin for a few days now.  After contemplating his words, it occurs to me that they may be worth passing on to those of you who read the blog regularly.

Simply put, our friend wondered what the gym was going to be like over the next few weeks as all the New Years Knuckleheads come pouring through the front door, resolutions in hand, and do their best to permanently injure themselves.  

Now where our friend has the ability to be kindly generic on his comments, I on the other hand (to paraphrase Eric Roberts in the Expendables) am not burdened with that moral dilemma.  

Let's start with the more obvious:

Attention 30ish year old guy who was a star athlete 10+ years and 50+ lbs ago.  Welcome back to the house of iron and pain brother.  Take it from me, the guy who learned the same lesson a year ago:  those round black discs on the racks are made of iron and they have gotten a lot fucking heavier since you last met.     Please keep this in mind as you attempt to show off to your buddy that you dragged in from work with you.  Just because you could toss 405 up on a bench press like it was made of marshmallow fluff in college doesn't mean that whatever deity you now pray to after too much beer will save your ass from having it fall on your chest like a boulder.  A large, unforgiving, yet highly humorous to many of those around you boulder.  Particularly when you've spent 15 minutes beforehand telling everyone around what a bad-ass you used to be.  Please don't be that guy.

Attention attractive, 30ish mom who is upset with the fact that she's suddenly competing with her husband's 22 year old secretary for "quality time."  True you were a knockout in college.  True you've had three kids along the way and the unruly bastards did to your body what all unruly bastards do to their condos: they tore it up like the last suite Brett Michaels used to audition groupies in 1989.  We get it.  You don't like the way you look anymore and you're going to do something about it.  Awesome, just keep one thing in mind:  running on a treadmill until you fall the hell out when you haven't run across the yard in 10 years is not going to help anything.  Get a trainer, your husband can afford it.  Also, just a note, no matter what you do your husband will still be a two timing asshole.  Refocus your quest to regain hotness as a means to land his replacement.  (Also, just one other side note: you are probably still a hell of a lot hotter than you think you are... just sayin'...)

Dear Mr. I watched a couple of YouTube videos and now I'm an expert:  LISTEN CLOSELY.  Please kindly and directly shut the hell up before you get someone other than yourself hurt.  Also, those people you're trying to tell what they're doing wrong constantly don't want your input.  If they did they'd ask, believe me.  A good gym is kind of a unique place.  When you've earned the respect of those around you, it suddenly becomes okay to ask questions and have them asked of you.  Being a chock-full-of-bullshit, know-it-all assclown earns you nothing my friend.

Lastly, and this one is just a pet peeve of mine, please do not bag on anyone else and what they can and cannot do.  I've touched on this before but I really mean this with all of my heart.  The gym is not a place to show off or brag and it is an individual journey at its heart.  If you choose to bag on the guy who is proud of himself for finally being able to deadlift 225 after six months of hard work, please remember this: we all saw you drop 315 on the floor last night and whine like an angry baby.  Please don't be that jerk or the guys who laugh at the thought of using your workout weight as a first set warm up, you know those boys with 675 on the bar and hate in their eyes, will call you on it.  There is always a bigger beast out there my friend.  Always.

There is one more set of people heading into the gym this glorious New Years that I also want to touch on: those that are there for a reason.  You've decided to make a change in your life for whatever reason. You're tired of being fat.  You're tired of having no energy.  You want your old body back.  You want a new body period.  Hell, I don't care if you saw the Avengers movie and think you can be the next Hulk.  For whatever reason you're serious about being here and I have only one thing to say to you:  WELCOME AND GOOD LUCK!