Thanks a lot man, I’m very happy with how my deadlifts went. I just really feel in a good groove with them right now. Yeah the presses were weird - the first rep was pretty slow, but the second was much faster. Haha I’ll work on my shuffle! I always knew I’d compare poorly with you guys in this challenge, but to be honest I’m pretty stoked with getting any reps haha.
Haha we use miles here too! We have the logical combination of measuring short distances in millimetres, centimetres and meters, long distances in miles and heights in feet and inches. Then we measure weight in either stones or kilograms.
Unlike Canada who uses kilometres but weigh in pounds, the U.S. who uses all imperial measurements and Australia/New Zealand and mainland Europe which I believe is all metric. Oh but of course the U.S. also measures engine displacement in litres, but fuel tanks in gallons. Haha what a complete mess!
But thank you very much for your kind words! In terms of the press I actually did use a thumbless grip, although it’s not clear in the video. I also find it helps with bar path, but it was very disconcerting for the clean! I look forward to seeing how many reps you beat me by!
Another failed rest day lol. This run was quite tough - a fair bit of elevation - but it felt good. My calves are really beginning to adapt now, they didn’t limit this run at all.
Oh nice I didn’t realise you were from the UK, I’m from England. For some strange reason your name made me think like Norway or something, no idea why.
Haha how strange, I do have a connection with Norway, but I don’t want to give too much away on here. I knew you were from England, but I’m not sure how I knew that.
Training: Very good! 2 gym sessions and 2 kettlebell/run sessions. Very happy with how the challenge went especially considering last week’s deadlifts, although I’m on course for last place!
Nutrition: Poor until Wednesday, been very good Thurs/Fri
I feel like I’ve turned a corner with my nutrition this week - I’ve been very good yesterday and today but more importantly I feel the momentum is going to stick. Training also went very well this week.
Just a very brief session today - I’m feeling pretty stiff from the walk yesterday and now we’re heading to a spa (lol) which should be great for recovery. I think I’ll rest tomorrow, then maybe deadlifts on Tuesday. I’m quite keen to try an AMRAP with 180kg for deadlifts.
Deadlift/Press Challenge Summary
Well this was an awesome challenge, I’m really happy with how it worked out and enjoyed training for it! I just thought I’d do a quick summary post for the results. Total reps were tied for first place, so I have declared @jblues85 the overall winner as his lifts were heavier - a victory for team USA.
Personally, my main goals for the summer are to hit a 585 deadlift, 405 back squat, and 315 front squat, so of course I would love to make whatever challenge we have fit in with training that works towards those goals.
furo, I know that your current training options are limited so no racks may make squats tough for you. Should we do another deadlift-based challenge? Power cleans? Something that brings a time component into the mix? Something I was considering as a recommendation to my gym’s owners as a fun contest for the summer would be a death-by-deadlift workout that would take one of the following forms:
EMOM single deadlifts with 1.5xBW, last man standing wins
Same as above but “every 30 seconds” instead of every minute
EMOM deadlift at 1.5xBW adding a rep each time: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc until you can no longer complete # reps within the minute
Not sure which I would like best. Votes from the peanut gallery? I kinda love the idea of #1. Loading up with a modest weight and seeing who has the focus to pull it every minute on the minute for a long while. We could do 1.75xBW instead of 1.5xBW, since I’m afraid that 1.5xBW might keep us all there for an hour…or we could go every 30 seconds, which might knock one of us out sooner!
Awesome suggestions! I love the idea of #1! But perhaps every 30 seconds would be better, it’s difficult to say. I think there was a Dan John article about a challenge like this, I’ll have a look.
Perhaps instead of using a percentage of bodyweight we could all use the same weight - say 315lbs (which is roughly 1.5x BW for all of us, but just evens things out a bit).