"What exactly is 70s Big?"

October 8, 2009 9:52 AM

"It's big, like people were back in the 70s... Big when you get that way because you're just real damn strong." Brought to you from the Wichita Falls Athletic Club, 70sbig.com will teach you how to eat, how to train, and how to style your moustache so that you can get 70s big. Not interested in becoming 70s big? Then stop by and observe the amazing feats of those who were, like weightlifter Anatoly Pisarenko, who cleaned and jerked 583 pounds, or powerlifter Doug Young, who deadlifted 711 pounds in competition despite three broken ribs. The site also feature a series of cheeky interviews with Mark Rippetoe, owner of WFAC and author of books like Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training and Practical Programming for Strength Training.
posted by ludwig_van (48 comments total)

I enjoyed it for a while but after a bit I started screaming '70s Big! Not 70s Big! NEVER 70's Big! at the screen.

You're truncating 1970s Big by removing the 19, which is then replaced with an apostrophe.

'70s Big.
posted by Shepherd at 9:57 AM on October 8, 2009 [4 favorites]

“For dinner you’re gonna order an extra-large pizza with everything on it. Literally everything. If you don’t like sardines, don’t put ’em on, but anything else that you like you have to load it on there. After you pay the delivery guy, I want you to take the pie to your coffee table, open that fucker up, and grab a bottle of oil. It can be olive oil, canola oil, whatever. Anything but motor oil. And I want you to pour that shit over the pie until half of the bottle is gone. Just soak the shit out of it.”

“Now before you lay into it, I want you to sit on your couch and just stare at that fucker. I want you to understand that that pizza right there is keeping you from your goals.”

This guy is in a zen-like state when he’s talking about this.

“Now you’re on the clock,” he continues. “After 20 minutes your brain is going to tell you you’re full. Don’t listen to that shit. You have to try and eat as much of the pizza as you can before that 20-minute mark. Double up pieces if you have to. I’m telling you now, you’re going to get three or four pieces in and you’re gonna want to quit. You fucking can’t quit. You have to sit on that couch until every piece is done.

And if you can’t finish it, don’t you ever come back to me and tell me you can’t gain weight. ’Cause I’m gonna tell you that you don’t give a fuck about getting bigger and you don’t care how much you lift!”

posted by jason's_planet at 10:01 AM on October 8, 2009 [5 favorites]

Contrast the gentlemen pictured from the '70s to the monsters adorning modern muscle mags covers in newsstands.
posted by fuq at 10:04 AM on October 8, 2009

This post has inspired me to eat my lunch like it's my job.
posted by ghharr at 10:05 AM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm a hetero guy, but damn, this is sexy.
posted by oddman at 10:14 AM on October 8, 2009

He's known more as a bodybuilder than as a strength athlete... but when you say "70s Big", I think of Franco Columbu.

A highlight of his appearance in Pumping Iron is when he visits his hometown in Italy and helps out a guy whose car is wedged in a tight parking space by lifting up the back of the car and dragging it over.
posted by Joe Beese at 10:15 AM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

If you don’t like sardines, don’t put ’em on, but anything else that you like you have to load it on there.

You mean anchovies, big boy.
posted by dirtdirt at 10:19 AM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

THIS IS FUCKING HOT.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 10:39 AM on October 8, 2009

I grew up in the '70s and I swear it wasn't like this. Yet the photos don't lie. Perhaps I was just trying to repress the memories.
posted by tommasz at 10:50 AM on October 8, 2009

I want to get 70's Big.
posted by useyourmachinegunarm at 10:59 AM on October 8, 2009

Drink your milk!
posted by ludwig_van at 11:00 AM on October 8, 2009

I, um, apparently am really into guys who look like this. I did not know until just now.
posted by padraigin at 11:14 AM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

I, um, apparently am really into guys who look like this. I did not know until just now.

Are you 5'6 and 150 pounds?

They just might be into you (video link).
posted by jason's_planet at 11:30 AM on October 8, 2009

I knew if I stuck around long enough I'd be in fashion.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 11:40 AM on October 8, 2009

Those Rippetoe videos really crack me up. I love the grizzled wisdom he exudes in the one that starts with him doing back extensions, and after he finishes his set, he hunkers down on a bench and says "So you want to know about Doug Young, huh? I'll tell you about Doug Young." Or the one where he's cleaning his revolver in the middle of the interview. I died laughing at the clip where he says "I like the word 'don.' I like how you say 'don,' like '...we now our gay apparel." Or when he says "I personally don't get excited by women that look like Doug Young. But Doug Young's wife was fine." What a guy.
posted by ludwig_van at 11:40 AM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

I don't believe that I will ever be 70's big.

I think I could probably pull off 70's lame, though.

Would that count?
posted by koeselitz at 11:42 AM on October 8, 2009

Yeah, Rippetoe's a fuckin' character. He's great.
posted by jason's_planet at 11:44 AM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

One of my friends is trying to get '70s big. His idols are dudes like Arthur Saxon and Dave Draper. He does a bunch of workouts inspired in equal parts by, like, old-time powerlifers and by the way that people exercise in prison--lots of pullups, dips, pushups with his kid standing on his back, burpees, farmer's carries, weird squats, deadlifts, etc.

Definitely not my thing, but I think it's pretty neat, and I don't think there's any doubt in anyone's mind that old-time strongman stuff is far healthier than modern bodybuilding.
posted by box at 11:47 AM on October 8, 2009

padraigin: I, um, apparently am really into guys who look like this. I did not know until just now.

Me too, to be honest.

jason's_planet: Are you 5'6 and 150 pounds? They just might be into you (video link).

Really? Cool! [*watches video*] Oh.

Goddamnit, jason's_planet. You might have mentioned the part of it where if you're around that build but happen to have a penis you're right out.
posted by koeselitz at 11:49 AM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

'70s Big.

Properly typeset, it's ’70s Big, with the curly right single quote....
posted by Jubal Kessler at 12:11 PM on October 8, 2009

Are you 5'6 and 150 pounds?

With a little training and the right shoes, and a lot more pizza, hell yeah I [could be].

It might be better just to gently nudge mr. padraigin into weight lifting and four breakfast sandwiches a day though, I'm pretty lazy. But I can't even get him to pick up his shoes.
posted by padraigin at 12:16 PM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

Huh, that's interesting. I've always jokingly called to this look and build "turn of the century circus strongman" or "'70s wrestler." Now I have to start using "'70s big" too. Don't ask why I'd need some kind of nomenclature for this particular physical aesthetic on a regular basis. Let's just say I make a lot of weird references in day-to-day conversations.
posted by kkokkodalk at 12:19 PM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

Maybe the OP should have waited until there was more content on the site.

As it is, the tabs Articles, Food, Hall of Fame, and Media all lead to a coming soon type statement.
posted by past at 12:23 PM on October 8, 2009

Mark Leyner once wrote a semi-serious article about getting '50s-big, which he described as something like, I've never set foot in a gym but I could throw a Cadillac across the parking lot.

It's a goal. '70s big is pretty rad too.
posted by Bookhouse at 12:38 PM on October 8, 2009

I'm pretty sure modern bodybuilders are really strong too -- like this guy.

Sure, 70s Big looks more rugged, but it's still a look -- it's an aesthetic difference. I don't think they're much more useful at chopping trees or dragging logs than Mr. Coleman.

I gotta say, though, I was disappointed with the latest Hulk movie because he looked too much like a modern body-builder. Hulk should always look 70s Big.
posted by creasy boy at 12:42 PM on October 8, 2009

Ricky Bruch lived 70s Big like no-one else.
posted by creasy boy at 12:52 PM on October 8, 2009

Love that Rippetoe's publishing company is Aasgaard Publishing, with a big ol' Thor hammer logo
posted by leotrotsky at 12:56 PM on October 8, 2009

Sure, 70s Big looks more rugged, but it's still a look -- it's an aesthetic difference. I don't think they're much more useful at chopping trees or dragging logs than Mr. Coleman.

Ron Coleman did some spoof TV commercial that's probably on youtube. He's so disproportionate that he can't run. If you look at him from the side, his stomach bulges out like a bowling ball because HGH has made all his internal organs immense.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 12:58 PM on October 8, 2009

Screw this- I want to be '80s Big. 1880s Big.

I'm gonna start wearing a suit with a strap over one shoulder, lifting triangular weights, and riding an old-tymey bike.

And borrowing jokes from Family Guy.
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:29 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

Also, are they implying 70s weightlifters didn't take 'roids? Because that seems, um, not so true, as far as I know.
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:30 PM on October 8, 2009

I want to get 70's Big.
I don't believe that I will ever be 70's big.
Sure, 70s Big looks more rugged
Hulk should always look 70s Big.
Also, are they implying 70s weightlifters

GOD DAMN IT PEOPLE
posted by Shepherd at 2:03 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

I don't believe that I will ever be 70's big.

20 Rep Squat Program

Starting Strength

Rippetoe's Forum

Never say never.

Goddamnit, jason's_planet. You might have mentioned the part of it where if you're around that build but happen to have a penis you're right out.

My apologies, koeselitz. But those are only one man's preferences in that video. I'm sure there's a '70s big fella out there for you.
posted by jason's_planet at 2:44 PM on October 8, 2009

And borrowing jokes from Family Guy

I'm just sayin', 70s boobs were different, you know?
posted by rxrfrx at 3:35 PM on October 8, 2009

This thread is not going the way I expected.
posted by cmoj at 4:16 PM on October 8, 2009

Holy shit. I live near Wichita Falls. It is the worst place I have ever been in the world.
posted by cmoj at 4:18 PM on October 8, 2009

He's gonna end up a fruit-pie salesman with a whoopee cushion in Wichita Falls.
posted by box at 4:43 PM on October 8, 2009

I wish I lived near Wichita Falls so I could train with Rippetoe and get '70s big. (Did I do it right this time Shepherd?)
posted by useyourmachinegunarm at 5:53 PM on October 8, 2009

Goddammit, figures; I'm 80s lean.
posted by davejay at 7:35 PM on October 8, 2009

weightlifter Anatoly Pisarenko, who cleaned and jerked 583 pounds

'70s spam!
Tired of jerkin the ounces? Get hung like a Brontosaurus. Just like it were 1972
posted by xorry at 9:28 PM on October 8, 2009

Sure, 70s Big looks more rugged, but it's still a look -- it's an aesthetic difference.

The difference is that the guys who are 70s big look that way because they're strong. Bodybuilders are (sometimes) strong because that's how they want to look. Also, a 70s big man wouldn't shave and tan his entire body in order to pose onstage in a thong with a bunch of other dudes.
posted by ludwig_van at 10:05 PM on October 8, 2009

Sure, bodybuilders have the goal of looking strong, and weightlifters then and now have the goal of being strong. But all of us here in the thread are talking about looking 70s Big, how sexy it looks, etc. And you could just as easily get 70s Big just for the sake of looking 70s Big rather than for the sake of actually being really strong. One is not inherently more functional or authentic than the other; no-one really needs to clean 600 pounds for any practical reason anyway. Sure, you would have to train in a way that also makes you genuinely strong, but so what? Bodybuilders get genuinely strong too.

Now, aesthetically, I agree with you. No-one should have 5% body fat, and especially no-one who's that big. If I can see the individual muscle fibers that's frankly just too much information. Greasing yourself up and posing around on stage in a thong is rather silly.
posted by creasy boy at 11:40 PM on October 8, 2009

"Love that Rippetoe's publishing company is Aasgaard Publishing"

Yeah, see, that was '70s big. Today, we just use one "a" at a time. Asgard. You dig? It's wimpy and metrosexual. It's just not the same.
posted by Naberius at 7:05 AM on October 9, 2009

I live near Wichita Falls. It is the worst place I have ever been in the world.

Never been to Corpus, huh?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:34 AM on October 9, 2009

But all of us here in the thread are talking about looking 70s Big, how sexy it looks, etc. And you could just as easily get 70s Big just for the sake of looking 70s Big rather than for the sake of actually being really strong.

Then you are using the term 70s big loosely. See the first sentence of the FPP, or their about page. The whole point is it's not just about a look. You can be large and have a moustache and wear kneesocks, but if you're not strong, you're not really 70s big.
posted by ludwig_van at 8:45 AM on October 9, 2009

Not a single John Holmes comment?
posted by DU at 8:49 AM on October 9, 2009

Also, are they implying 70s weightlifters didn't take 'roids? Because that seems, um, not so true, as far as I know.

Of course they did, but in the 70s it was horse stuff or raw HGH. They didn't have the cornucopia of designer 'roids and other hormones that modern bodybuilders stuff themselves with.

And they didn't wax themselves smooth as a baby's butt.
posted by kjs3 at 9:22 AM on October 9, 2009

Over-consumption nostalgia. Quaint.
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 12:36 PM on October 9, 2009

Oh man, those snatch videos from the 70s, with the half-shorts onesies and the rear views on the lifts?? Oh my. Nothing like the ass of a man that can move some iron.
posted by ch1x0r at 9:10 PM on October 9, 2009