Help with Weakness

Training Powerlifting
1

Am looking for some help here.

My biggest weakness in strongman is my speed. I can walk with an 1100lb yoke for 20’, do 300fw 80 no problem. But, i will be the slowest guy around. Well…maybe not the slowest but too slow anyways.

Along with that…and maybe pointing to the problem, my deadlift sucks. I can pull 765-800ish from 18. But 525 from the floor is about my max right now. I get stuck right at the floor if i miss a deadlift. I don’t ever train at 18" but tried it the other day, and got 765, with maybe room to get 800 or so.

I can run fast, with out weights, don’t have any times or anything, but seldom do a lose a short distance running race. But, add weight and i slow down too much.

Any ideas on what to work on? Is this an overall leg strength problem?

Thanks for your time!

2

I had a very similar problem to you. We both have very strong upper backs, but lower back is lacking. There was a time where I could barely Deadlift 525 and was rack pulling 685 for sets of 10! max around high 700’s. I started really hitting my lower back/hamstrings hard with good mornings, and also I really worked on increasing overall leg strength more so than deadlifting specifically.

I actually went a period of about 3 weeks without deadlifting and then when I tested my max it was 605 (very sloppy, but there). My lower back and hamstring strength had significantly increased and I attribute my gain to that.

Hope that helps.