Im working on deadlifts, and one of the techniques im thinking of using, is to use partial lifts to improve strength.
Rack pulls are the top half of the lift (i believe this is the second pull)
And.
Halting deadlifts are the bottom half of the lift (first pull?)
So what im wondering is this,
Is the first pull mainly knee extension,
and
the second pull mainly hip extension without knee ext.?
if you’re talking about doing partials where you come off the floor and stop at the knee, hold, and then drop back down then the answer to your first question is no. your knees should still be slightly bent at the point where you stop.
There is no first or second pull when you deadlift. Its all one big pull. You are confusing deadlifts with the OLY lifts. With deadlifts, you pull from the floor and continue pulling through until you lockout.
Rack deads and halting deadlifts only cut the range of motion down, sort of like a 3-board bench press. If you want to to work on your bottom end strength, you might be better off pulling from a deficit (standing on a box or some plates) rather than doing halting deadlifts. I dont know anyone with any experience doing these, but it seems like it would be a good way to learn improper technique and possibly injure yourself.
Deads from a deficit are what will help your starting strength for sure, I do Snatch grip DL’s on a 2 inch box for that, and also for a wicked overall body builder. Even conventional DL’s off a 2 inch box will work well. Halting DL’s sound like one of the dumbest things ever, very dangerous.
Also, to answer your other questions, ONE pull, not two parts (like already said), the knees should not be strait untill your are full upright, otherwise you are probably rounding your back and/or bascially doing a strait leg DL.
Deadlifting should be an explosive single movement. Don’t EVER stop on the way up or you’ll get hurt. And if you get stuck on the way up in training and you get the “quakes” just drop the weight…not worth the damage it can do.
I personally have never gotten much out of pulling to the knee- but your results may vary.
As for starting strength, I would recommend pulling from some kind of deficit- stand on a block, use smaller plates on the bar, etc. Also, light, explosive pulls will improve your ability to rip the weight off the floor. If you are a 500 puller, 315 or 365 should be about right. Pull singles and pull them as fast and hard as possible.
Rack pulls will make you strong and put some meat on your back. But, for various reasons, they may not improve your deadlift a lot. Honestly, I think they may have done more for my squat than my dead!
Kk thanks guys, i am aware of the value of deadlifts from a deficit and use them often to train my bottom end.
The halting deadlifts and rack pulls still seem intriguing to me though. I read about them in this article by Mark Rippetoe, and he seems to know his stuff.
I think the reason rack pulls dont significantly increase peoples dl’s, is because for a lot of people, their weak point is the floor or around mid shin. Pulling from a deficit and halting deadlifts seem to be a good method of improving this part of the ROM.
Also, by shortening the ROM (halting deadlifts) your able to handle more weight.
Usually someones top half is much stronger, and thus rack pulls with heavier weight would be beneficial in this case.
EX:
If you can only do the bottom of the movement with 300, but can do the top half with 400, then if your doing full dl’s then your really only using enough weight for the bottom half to benefit.
Sure in the long run, the bottom would become stronger, and you would be doing similar values in both areas. (maybe 400 through the entire ROM)
But if you do halting deadlifts (bottom) and rack pulls (top), your able to increase the strength in both areas, not just at the weaker part.
in the long run you may be (400 bottom and 450 top)
Also, theres probably a lot of carryover from using heavier rack pulls, like stabalizing muscles and grip, etc. that would actually help in the bottom of the movement.
(so it might end up being 425 bottom, and 450 top)
Im not too sure if this is the actual case or not though, but im just throwing out the idea. The author of that article seems pretty credible, and it seems like a feasable technique.
***Also think of this. If you had someone only do full olympic cleans, versus breaking down the movement into deadlifts and hang cleans, which method would produce better results? Im not really sure, but its something to think about.
Anyone’s deadlift is only as strong as their weakest link in the chain. Most people’s weakness is from the floor however I think that could be influenced by how they squat. Personally I have found rack pulls to be beneficial only in certain parts of my training cycle.
Once you know what your weakness is, work on that and continue to deadlift. As stated before I havent seen anyone raise their dead from rack holds. Glute and hamstring strength becomes just as important as low back strength IMO when you get real close to 90% just because that weakness can cause you to miss the lift.