Hmm. Most I ever did was 771lbs off 6" blocks. Rack pulls never did much for my deadlift, so I didn’t do them much.
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Both have merits, like you said with rack pulls there’s no slack you can pull out, it’s a dead start.
I use an already bent bar when I do them. I also do lots of block pulls.
Just another tool in the shed, but specific to @Andrewgen_Receptors question, rack pulls > block for back thickness development.
Specific to powerlifting I think it’s up for debate but Dave Tate has a great piece on EliteFTS about this. “Pin Pulls and Block Pulls are not the same”
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Step Function!
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I occasionally throw rack pulls into my routine. They don’t transfer much to my deadlift. That isn’t why I do them.
But I don’t accept that they are only an “ego lift” just because you can go heavy, because I try to hold them for three to five seconds. In addition to being an excellent grip strengthener if you do not use straps (much), I believe rack pull holds are also great at giving a novel stress to upper back muscles.
I’m just a simple caveman. I don’t compete, and have never used anything stronger than creatine. I’m not sure a “rack pull maximum” is a useful number. I’m quite happy with mine. But it isn’t even 20% of the weight of my pick-up truck. If I use straps, increase that by fifty pounds.
Not much.
I took a few days off after a knee issue. Going back to the gym today I wanted something that worked lots of muscles but with a quick recovery. I did rack pulls, eventually filling the bar to maximum, which I did three times for three second holds. I used wrist straps for the last few heavy weights.
Any advice for how to add more weight to the bar once the ones available at the gym are at capacity?
Hang some plates or dumbbells off the bar, inside the plates.
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That would work better at home than the commercial gym where I would be doing this training. But it is an idea. I do have chains with collar attachments. It would not look as snazzy as your photo, of course.
Maybe some kettlebells slipped over the barbell would be more discreet.
The most I ever did was 700 from above the knee was years ago I was following a powerlifting routine from Brad Gillingham that was based of 5x5 squats and rack pulls
My max full range was about 475 at that time and I was weakest at the bottom so I stopped doing these and focused more on deadlift from a deficit
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I have never found rack pulls helped my deadlift. But I do see them as an effective exercise if one can hold the weight in place at the peak. I’m hoping to work up to pulling a thousand if I can figure out how to add the extra weight.
How did the Gillingham routine work? Dude was a good deadlifter.
It’s cool that he liked the partial deads. That’s his dad in the picture working on the partial squat, way back when.
I like that heavy lock-out are the family secret.
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I think the first time I didn’t go all the way through… I switched routines (this was in 2006 I think)
I tried it again in 2010 and started with a squat of 492 and deadlift of 523 in December 2009 - but was way overweight and did a cut for about 8 weeks leading in before I started the routine - but since it starts off light I based training on my actual max numbers
I used it more as an “offseason” workout then did a few weeks of higher weights to peak and did 496 and missed 518 on squats
deadlift hit 540 pretty fast abut missed 562 at lockout.
I think if I hadn’t done the cut first I would have made both of those attempts since they were both pretty close. So that would have made a gain of about 25 or so on squats and close to 40 deadlift which I think is a pretty good increase.
I didn’t do rack pulls above the knee I think I substituted a different pin height below knee level. I recall hitting 600-even on the second lowest setting but would have to look up other specifics.
Brad was a great deadlifter and bencher which is a rare combination- I met him briefly at the Arnold classic in 2011. His brother Karl was almost as big as Brad and they had a booth where if you lifted a “rolling thunder” and a “blob” weight which was half of a 100-pound dumbbell you wont a free t-shirt. I almost had the rolling thunder thing moving but no dice. I tried the blob after but my hands were dead and it wouldn’t budge.
I wanted to ask Brad to take a photo but someone said Arnold Schwarzenegger was close so Brad ran off from the booth to try to get a photo with Arnold 
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Nice lifts!
It sounds like the Gillingham stuff works. 20/40 pounds in 8 weeks, in a cut, when you’re already pretty strong is good.
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Thank you!
To clarify though the 5x5 cycle is actually 16 weeks long the 8 weeks before that I was cutting I think I went from 270 to 245 during the 8 week cut (probably did that a bit too fast but my nickname at the gym was “The Michelin Man” lol) but ended up around 255 by the end of the 16 week 5x5 cycle
Brad sold a book and DVD that went over it in detail but I am sure you can find most of this information online now
A very good masters competitor I knew recommended trying it and he said he made good gains off of it
That’s kind of anecdotal but I remember reading Brad had a few other guys at his gym in MN that were national level competitors following the same program based around rack pulls and 5x5 squats