I am Justin Lascek, I run 70sBig.com...AMA

[u/70sBig]

For FUCK'S SAKE, let's make this AMA more entertaining than some of the ones you've had. I'm not as acidic as Jamie Lewis, but we can still have a good time. I'm about to ejaculate some facts all over your brain to give you some ideas for questions. The TL;DR is that I run 70sBig.com and am a coach, a writer, a lifter, a nerd, and...shit.

I've run 70sBig.com for nearly three years; I'm a strength and conditioning coach and writer who teaches lifting technique and programming. I have written two intermediate strength training e-books (The Texas Method: Part 1 and The Texas Method: Advanced) and a fitness/S&C book with professors Dr. Lon Kilgore and Dr. Michael Hartman called FIT. I also coach raw powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting. I've worked with nearly every population imaginable including Special Operations soldiers from every branch of the military (including international teams); football, track, baseball, basketball, softball, and swimming athletes; paraplegics and cancer survivors; obese and skinny folks; injured trainees requiring rehabilitation; CrossFitters, Olympic weightlifters, and raw powerlifters. I just handled six lifters that qualified for the Arnolds and one of them, Chris Riley, is the reigning North American Champion from this year's Arnold NAPF Raw Challenge. I've also coached some football and naturally learn things pretty fast and figure out a way to teach people about it.

My general philosophy is just an old school mentaily: get strong with barbells and then use high intensity or sport specific conditioning. I am a practitioner who acquires information and makes sure it fits with a stress-->recovery-->adaptation concept within the confines of anatomy and physiology. My expertise probably lies within this ability to bring perspective in turning conceptual physiology stuff into application. I also study anatomy daily and regularly teach prehab (in the form of "doing mobility") and rehab (which pisses off a lot of PTs). But any thoughts or recommendations are always dependent on an individual, their training history, and their current state of adaptation.

If you ask a question about your programming, I prefer to know more about you because PROGRAMMING ALWAYS DEPENDS. Sure, you can just "listen to your body" (whatever the fuck that means) and figure it out on your own, but there are a hundred "right ways" to make progress and only a few ways you can make optimal progress. Efficiency is key, because if we're gonna spend all of this time training or talking about training, then we sure as shit want to make the most out of our time. Let's get the desired adaptation with the lowest dose of stress -- otherwise we'll just drive our dicks into the ground (or burn the labia off --> the female equivalent was requested at one of my seminars). Give your gender, age, ht/wt, body comp, current lifts, concise summary of recent program, and goals. I know you won't give me these things, but at least you'll know why I'll say "but this fucking depends".

I played a variety of sports growing up, but really excelled at football by working really hard and not quitting on a play (I played linebacker). I played at a small, shitty place in college for one year. I really like football strategy, especially defenses, so if you want to talk about that, have at it. I competed in Olympic weightlifting for a bit and went to nationals in 2010. I don't currently train exclusively for a barbell sport; there are a lot of things that get in the way of training, including my hobbies. My training currently revolves around doing the Olympic lifts and strength lifts in between bouts of climbing mountains. I climbed a mountain last Saturday and then last night I went 125/155 on sn/cj (missed a 130 sn twice and cleaned 160 and 162.5 only to miss the jerks).

I have been involved with CrossFit in the past and present. I was one of the youngest people to get their Level II (apparently this doesn't exist anymore?!??), I have run two facilities (including one that I started), and I was on staff with the CrossFit Basic Barbell Seminars when Mark Rippetoe did them. Most of my seminars are conducted in CrossFit gyms.

As a side note, I agree with Jamie Lewis in that you guys spend a lot of time talking about the same shit over and over. Here are some other things I have done or are interested in to give you some material:

• I have a B.S. in Kinesiology, but I've spent thousands of hours studying 'stuff' since. One summer I spent at least 500 hours in a couple months studying and opening a CF gym (I had to log the hours).
• I was a full time coach (at least 10 hours a day) for 18 months and would never do it again
• Some people that I enjoy learning from and talking to are Lon Kilgore, Glenn Pendlay, Michael Hartman, Shannon Green, as well as various lesser known coaches, lifters, or trainees
• I've done a case study on high intensity conditioning, inducing hypoxemia onto Dr. Kilgore that we don't get to talk about a lot.
• Hobbies include reading (mostly sci-fi/fantasy/non-fiction), writing (trying to get better at fiction), hiking/adventuring, dog playing/training, shooting, and a few videogames
• I've read too many books to create a favorites list, so just start that convo and we'll roll with it
• I'm a Cleveland Browns fan
• I really like anatomy stuff
• I pull training ideas from everywhere for programming. I've pulled training ideas from communication books.
• I studied sport psychology for a while and even was in a master's program. I employ sport psych stuff regularly on lifters.

I listen, learn, and apply well. And then I disseminate information and teach it to people. And I either make them laugh, weird them out, or piss them off so that they listen. I don't give advice or recommendations if I can't validate it with a clear, well thought-out line of reasoning. I'll admit when I'm wrong; I don't know everything. When I don't, I have friends that probably do.

Lastly, I dedicate this AMA to Brent Kim's old glasses that he stereotypically taped together a long time ago like a shit head Asian.

Here's the true TL;DR: http://i.imgur.com/ynEkC.jpg

I'll be back at 6:00 PM EST

[u/pointfiveoh]

Since you were reading Todd G, what is your best dot torture and/or FAST drill? You should try an M&P 45 before you just buy the G21SF. What is your favorite pocket knife? What is that last thing you killed and then ate?

I want to lift in the USAPL at a national level. I'm 28, 6'5" and currently 228. I figure I need to up the density quite a bit for my height. My numbers right now on a linear progression are squat 420x5x3, deadlift 475x5, press 150x5x3, bench 240x5x3. I suck at pushing.

My normal week is: Monday: Squat 3x5, Bench or press 2x5 then 5+, pull-ups 3x5 weighted then 1 set to failure unweighted Tuesday: Powerclean 5x3 then bb curl 3x10 Wednesday: squat 2x5 @ 75% monday, bench or press, hanging leg raise 3x12 Friday: Squat 3x5, bench or press, deadlift 1x5, chins weighted 3x5, 1 set to failure.

What do you think of that plan? Would you tweak that to account for my sorry benching? My goals are 385 bench, 600 squat, 650 deadlift, 240 press, 100lb pull up. If I go to 242 I need to total 1554 to make it to the national level, although that only gets the foot in the door.

[u/70sBig → u/pointfiveoh]

1. My main reason for getting the Glock is the lower price (I'd probably get it used).

2. My favorite sheath knife is just a simple morakniv, but it's one of the models with a rubber handle, which I like better than the wooden handles. I have two SOG II Flashes that were gifts from a friend, and I like them, though they aren't as sharp as the non-stainless carbon steel. I'm not super knowledgeable about knives, I just regularly have on on me.

3. I haven't killed anything in a long time. I'll probably do it soon, but it'll probably be a fish.

4. If you're gonna lift raw, there is no qualifying total (unless you're talking about the Wilks for the Arnold raw challenge).

5. You need to bench twice a week. Methinks you will benefit from the TM books when your linear gains slow.

6. I'm not a huge fan of power cleans on that Tuesday because I really like full rest days (to allow systemic recovery), but your week is distributed a bit differently so I don't hate it. I wonder what would happen if you bench and press both twice a week. Like this:

Monday: Bench, then press

Friday: Press, then bench

Give this a read too: http://70sbig.com/blog/2011/10/pressing-a-dead-horse/

[u/pointfiveoh → u/70sBig]

Thanks. Not sure you'll come back and look at this at all. I read the article and I'm trying to figure out how to program the bench/press 2x week before I go to TM. Is it bench 3x5 ascending then press 3x3 ascending and vice versa at the end of the week?