Lifting weights and wearing tailored clothing?

[FlyingHorker]

With that technique, they were breaking WR's. I'm sure everyone else complained about it and the lifting federation or whatever it was that made up the rules figured it's easier to just drop that lift.

I couldn't imagine practicing that technique. How do you safely drop the bar if you fail on the lift?

With how quick the movement is, I'm guessing launching it backwards? Other than that, no idea.

This is still one of the most jaw dropping things I've seen.

 

[stuffedsuperdud]

One of the reasons I chose to do this was that I have friends and family who are lifters, and they spent lots of money on the clothing lines that are supposed to be cut for bodybuilders (think Barbell, Tailored Athlete, Father and Sons etc.) and while better than basic OTR, they clearly didn't have a great understanding of fit. It was clear that some guy who had trouble buying clothes decided to start a line and went to China or Morocco or something and said (give me your shirt but take another two inches out of the waist, without considering other things like balance and grading.

Yes! I've seen some of these before, but they all felt gimmicky and cartoonish. Maybe something a recently retired NFL athlete commenting on Sunday mornings might like but for me, it was easier to just take something reliable from Hickey Freeman or something and have my tailor play around with it. That's why I was/am pretty excited that an actual OTR expert like you would want to jump in.

I just started by gathering people who were clearly serious lifters and who had trouble buying clothes because of their proportions and measured them. I also gathered 3D scans of lifters to measure and use as fit models in 3D design software which is finally getting accurate enough to be useful for fit validation. I expected some huge variances but was really surprised by how consistent a lot of the proportions were. I won't give away any of my secrets, but we could easily cover a large portion of the market with two silhouettes, obviously sold as separates. The real freaks will be able to have things made custom by us, but the starting point will be much closer and so much easier to achieve. I had to come up with an entirely new way of grading the patterns and totally different ways of cutting and making.

This is pretty cool. You probably know this already, but just to be safe, I'd imagine the Arnold might make more sense? It's a much more diverse show with the full range of strength sports, while Mr. O is the pinnacle of the freak show side of physical culture. When will this be available for the rest of us? I can always use another suit and more importantly, I'd love to steer my meathead friends towards a proper bit of tailoring, because right now they are completely lost every time they have to wear anything other than Rogue-logo spandex.


@Nobilis Animus
Nice. Have you read Brooks Kubik's books? Dinosaur Training was the classic one but he has a few more. He's not the biggest guy himself but is really into doing whacky movements with whatever heavy implements he can find. I don't think he really trained specifically in any particular strength sport, but would show up to meets and lift and perform respectably.

With that technique, they were breaking WR's. I'm sure everyone else complained about it and the lifting federation or whatever it was that made up the rules figured it's easier to just drop that lift.

I couldn't imagine practicing that technique. How do you safely drop the bar if you fail on the lift?

The official story is that it was mired in Cold War politics. It became too hard to tell the difference between a good lift and a bad one, and judges from NATO countries would be hard on athletes from behind the Iron Curtain, and vice versa, so after 1972 it was dunzo. Unfortunate, because guys back then were jacked from having to brute force all this weight overhead, and it provided a path to victory for guys who were strong but maybe less graceful and flexible; they would pick up a big lead in clean and press, and then still win despite falling behind in the two explosive lifts. With only snatch and CJ in competition, training shifted towards faster movements, e.g. pulls instead of a hard grinding deadlift, and push press instead of military. This has been good from a technical standpoint, allowing guys to clean and jerk a bit more than before, and snatch way more: the guy in the video for example, @FlyingHorker, had a huge press but his snatch was relatively low by today's standards, and there are guys half his size now that can outdo him. Overall though, this change made the sport a bit less interesting as a result to me.

As far as training for it, no one does it like that anymore but I suppos jerk boxes would be the best way to go about it. Guys back then didn't seem all that creative about equipment though so maybe they just rubbed dirt on it and went drinking after being guillotined.

 

[Texasmade]

Liu Xiojun at 81kg has some crazy snatch and C&J numbers. Like 177 and 205 kg’s are his best lifts. I’m basically the same height and weight as him and can’t even do that in lbs.

 

[Nobilis Animus]

@Nobilis Animus
Nice. Have you read Brooks Kubik's books? Dinosaur Training was the classic one but he has a few more. He's not the biggest guy himself but is really into doing whacky movements with whatever heavy implements he can find. I don't think he really trained specifically in any particular strength sport, but would show up to meets and lift and perform respectably.

I have, actually! That and this website: http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/ were some of my main sources for ideas. I basically trained in a way that closely followed the old school routines, because a lot of those lifters were also doing it for strength instead of size. Most of them had at least one other sport of involvement, too - football, swimming, gymnastics, etc.

 

[stuffedsuperdud]

I have, actually! That and this website: http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/ were some of my main sources for ideas. I basically trained in a way that closely followed the old school routines, because a lot of those lifters were also doing it for strength instead of size. Most of them had at least one other sport of involvement, too - football, swimming, gymnastics, etc.

The history lessons in that blog are super interesting, and it's kind of humbling how guys in the golden age of strength sports were able to get really big and strong without any of the knowledge we have today, and instead just went hard every session because that was their mindset. (Then Joe Weider appeared and ruined everything, but that's a separate complaint.) I've dabbled in these odd playing-around-with-iron exercises but was always kind of restricted by the Olympic weightlifting program I've always got running. The shutdowns though put a pretty hard stop to that, and in any case I've been burning out a little bit (been doing it on and off for 10 years, and at this point I'm probably not going to get much better than I currently am, and will just be picking up annoying little injuries for my efforts), so it might be a good time for a change of pace. Quitting and switching to golf and jogging isn't an option, for the most SF of reasons:

@FlyingHorker my problem is the opposite of yours in that all my tailored garments were acquired after I started lifting. I was about 180lbs and kind of skinnyfat when I started and wore a 42R with slim fit jeans, and about 220lbs after picking up my noob gainz, now at around a 44R/46S territory, with Alan Bee - approved trousers. I really like these clothes, not to mention the fact that they cost me a pretty penny, so I need to stay at my current pumped-up state until they wear out, which won't be for years from now. The gym is my prison...

 

[yanagi]

Liu Xiojun at 81kg has some crazy snatch and C&J numbers. Like 177 and 205 kg’s are his best lifts. I’m basically the same height and weight as him and can’t even do that in lbs.

You reminded me about the (then) 77kg weight class at Rio. Lu Xiaojun had finished his final C&J and looked like he would win gold for the 2nd time.

To take the lead, Nijat Rahimov had to C&J 214kg. And amazingly, he did. To put into context as to how insane that lift was at 77kg, there were some people in the 105kg+ (super heavyweight) class who C&J'd less than 214kg.

 

[Texasmade]

You reminded me about the (then) 77kg weight class at Rio. Lu Xiaojun had finished his final C&J and looked like he would win gold for the 2nd time.

To take the lead, Nijat Rahimov had to C&J 214kg. And amazingly, he did. To put into context as to how insane that lift was at 77kg, there were some people in the 105kg+ (super heavyweight) class who C&J'd less than 214kg.

I read somewhere that when Liu won his Olympic gold medal in his weight class, his lifts were so high that he would've medaled in the next 2 weight classes. Insane numbers.

 

[steveabdn]

I have been lifting for years and primarily do it for the enjoyment of the activity itself. Since lockdown came into effect here last year I've been training in the garage with a power rack, barbell, bench, curl bar and resistance bands.

My routine has been very simple for the last few years - push / pull / legs twice a week. Start out with compound movements with the heavy compound being the first exercise post warm up (Wenning warmup, if you haven't used them have a look on YouTube). Probably easiest to write down what they look like -

Monday - push 1 - warmup followed by heavy bench. Some weeks this will max out at 5 reps, other weeks will use waves up to a single and some weeks will stay at the 3 rep range. Seated overhead press for 3 sets at 10-12 reps. JM press or close grip bench press for 3 sets of 10-12 reps. After that it's all band work at the moment, banded pull aparts, banded fly, lateral raise, press ups and maybe the reverse grip on the curl bar overhead press to finish shoulders and then some volume tricep work with the curl bar or some banded pressdown, kickback etc. All of these are in the 10-15 rep range.

Thursday - push 2 - warmup followed by heavy standing OHP. Same format as the bench on push 1. Then volume work on the incline bench, dips for the heavy tricep work and then taper down into isolation exercises again.

I'm a naturally big guy so I have no idea how much size has been gained thanks to training and I have never optimised my diet to maximise gains or anything. Today, I'm 5'10-11", 52" chest, 40" waist and around the 265lbs mark.

My Instagram feed is a bizarre combination of Italian tailoring clad models and powerlifting guys! They are definitely not hobbies with a huge amount of overlap without throwing a fair bit of money into them. As others have said though, I tend to scratch my menswear itch through shoes, glasses (and sunglasses) along with bags.

 

[FlyingHorker]

The history lessons in that blog are super interesting, and it's kind of humbling how guys in the golden age of strength sports were able to get really big and strong without any of the knowledge we have today, and instead just went hard every session because that was their mindset. (Then Joe Weider appeared and ruined everything, but that's a separate complaint.) I've dabbled in these odd playing-around-with-iron exercises but was always kind of restricted by the Olympic weightlifting program I've always got running. The shutdowns though put a pretty hard stop to that, and in any case I've been burning out a little bit (been doing it on and off for 10 years, and at this point I'm probably not going to get much better than I currently am, and will just be picking up annoying little injuries for my efforts), so it might be a good time for a change of pace. Quitting and switching to golf and jogging isn't an option, for the most SF of reasons:

@FlyingHorker my problem is the opposite of yours in that all my tailored garments were acquired after I started lifting. I was about 180lbs and kind of skinnyfat when I started and wore a 42R with slim fit jeans, and about 220lbs after picking up my noob gainz, now at around a 44R/46S territory, with Alan Bee - approved trousers. I really like these clothes, not to mention the fact that they cost me a pretty penny, so I need to stay at my current pumped-up state until they wear out, which won't be for years from now. The gym is my prison...

I'd love to have that problem tbh.

Great motivation to stay swole.

 

[FlyingHorker]

@steveabdn

I initially started with PPL, which wasn't the greatest idea optimization wise for a noob, but it was really fun.

6 days a week got exhausting to adhere to, so I just do 4 days of lifting and 1 day of cardio.

 

[steveabdn]

My big problem has always been destroying the thighs of trousers, my legs rub them away to nothing in no time

 

[Joefitz]

At 5 11, 205, I have 17 inch arms. It was almost impossible to find an OTR suit that fit my arms.
I discovered Spier and Mackey contemporary cut suits. I am so thrilled, I bought 5 during their sale

 

[Zmitchem]

My big problem has always been destroying the thighs of trousers, my legs rub them away to nothing in no time

Have you tried Fran Denim? I did a video on them about a month ago. They are the only brand in my closet currently because I have the same issue. (6’0, 245lbs, 50” chest, 40” waist, 30” thighs, Squat=500, Deadlift=510). Let me know what you think. My channel really is for guy like everyone on this thread!

 

[ran23]

I lost 95 lbs in my early 60's, just fed up with the overweight (250 at 5-8 1/2). Dropped to a small top from large, 38-R jacket with lots of alterations. Tendinitis finally eased up and I started small hex-bells routines. I no time I hit a 39+ chest and 3 jackets had to be replaced.

 

[K. Nights]

I feel this. It's a struggle being into weightlifting but also clothes. I have sort of compromised and dropped super intense lower body stuff, because hardly any clothes are designed for big thighs. I also find that you can't really go above a 42 chest if you want to fit into cool stuff (this more applicable to SW&D where most niche brands don't go above a size 42/XL).

Keeping body fat low also helps. If you're 12 percent body fat you can be pretty strong but still not very big