Thanks for the details Stormthebeach, do you find switching the ME exercise works best as oppose to every three weeks?
Does this depend on your current level? (Novice/advanced etc)
I am currently doing something like this:
Week 1 ME Same Exercise & Assistance
Week 2 ME Same Exercise & Assistance
Week 3 ME Same Exercise & Assistance
Week 4 Deload/ME day assistance work only.
Week 5 Retest maxes
Switch it up more? should I bother with testing my maxes or just stick to a 4 week rotation? Thoughts?
[quote]Malaka79 wrote:
First of all this thread needs to stay on the first page, lots of good info in here.
Storm, could you go through your deadlift technique and setup thanks.[/quote]
Sure man, I’ll keep it as simple as I can because this is hard for some people to understand. I do a lot of things different than most lifters.
When I approach the bar, I line the last lace of my shoe (knuckle of my big toe) parallel with the bar. I then split my big toe between the smooth middle part of the bar and the rough knurling. This puts my feet about 10 inches apart and the bar is about 6-8 inches from my shins (I wear a size 15 shoe). While still standing, I take 3-5 double breaths. I judge how many I need by how tight my belt gets. This is the last time I will breath until the completion of the lift.
To get my hands set, I shoot down to the bar as fast as possible and measure a thumbs length out from the smooth part of the bar with my right hand (pronated grip) and a thumbs length out from the smooth ring with my left hand (supinated grip). Once these are set, usually takes less than a second, I squeeze as hard as I can and pull all the slack out of the bar. At the same time I pull all the wiggle out, I get my hips set. I judge where my hips need to be by how much tension I develop in my hamstrings to conteract the slack coming out of the bar. If you are pulling hard enough, it should feel like your hamstrings are compound ruptureing out of the back of your legs. Again, this whole process probably takes another second or so. Once I feel good to go, I explode my hips forward as hard as I possibly can while keeping all of the weight on my heels.
Keep in mind everything I said and watch this, its probably the best deadlift I have ever done. And it didn’t even fucking count:
I think that is about everything I go through before big pulls. Let me know if you have anymore questions![/quote]
Thanks, that was probably the best explanation I have read from a big puller.
And not to kiss your ass but that dead you did looked awesome, almost easy.
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
It’s important to know how to use your abs during the powerlifts. So, conventional ab work is out.[/quote]
This is so damn true. I used to do a lot of crunches and got pretty strong on them but I still sucked at using my abs for deadlifts. I still have trouble getting it right sometimes but it’s gotten much better since I started doing rollouts, planks etc.
I liked what you wrote on the blog about ab work. Never done blast strap fallouts but they seem nice, kinda like the wheel. I’m actually making a cheap “blast strap” so I can try them. I really think this type of movements is the best you can do for the abs as a lifter. The abs stabilize while the hip extends just like in a deadlift, I think that’s why the wheel was such a great help for me to learn how to use the abs properly.
[quote]Malaka79 wrote:
Alright I have another one for you if you don’t mind. What are your thoughts on scapular retraction during a deadlift? Thanks again.[/quote]
As long as your hips arent shooting up first, I dont think it matters too much. A major part of the lockout is the ability to get your shoulders back. That might be tough if you are retracted the entire time. Really though, as long as you are getting your lifts, it doesnt matter. Technique is whatever scores.
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
It’s important to know how to use your abs during the powerlifts. So, conventional ab work is out.[/quote]
This is so damn true. I used to do a lot of crunches and got pretty strong on them but I still sucked at using my abs for deadlifts. I still have trouble getting it right sometimes but it’s gotten much better since I started doing rollouts, planks etc.
I liked what you wrote on the blog about ab work. Never done blast strap fallouts but they seem nice, kinda like the wheel. I’m actually making a cheap “blast strap” so I can try them. I really think this type of movements is the best you can do for the abs as a lifter. The abs stabilize while the hip extends just like in a deadlift, I think that’s why the wheel was such a great help for me to learn how to use the abs properly.[/quote]
The blast strap fallouts are brutal. The front squat holds left me hurting for about a week. These exercises are great because crunches/sit-ups basically teach you to collapse your abs and extend your back. Try doing that next time you come out of the hole with a heavy squat and it will kill you. If you really want to get stronger you have to watch what exercises the average gym rat does and then never ever do them.
[quote]ajweins wrote:
That is unbelievable STB. He clearly brought his hand down. I just don’t understand.[/quote]
They couldn’t have thrown reds for beating the down signal – he clearly didn’t. Is that really why the lift didn’t count? There’s not a thing wrong with that pull…
From what I see there, it looks like the ref signaled the down before looking at the side refs and when he looked to his left he saw that ref had not dropped his arm yet so that resulted in the stutter.
Just my initial thoughts watching a video…
However, I am of the opinion that when that happens the benefit of the doubt goes to the lifter. Worst case scenario he generates one red from that side but it is still a good lift.
The ref caused the problem, imo. In that scenario, as a lifter, you tend to have tunnel vision and are focused on very little more than the ref’s voice and/or hand movement.
What happened on your third attempt, STB? Did you go up or repeat and miss? Either way, very frustrating.
[quote]Malaka79 wrote:
Alright I have another one for you if you don’t mind. What are your thoughts on scapular retraction during a deadlift? Thanks again.[/quote]
As long as your hips arent shooting up first, I dont think it matters too much. A major part of the lockout is the ability to get your shoulders back. That might be tough if you are retracted the entire time. Really though, as long as you are getting your lifts, it doesnt matter. Technique is whatever scores.[/quote]
Funny I just messaged him on this exact thing.
I’ve always heard that you should try to relax the shoulder because if you’re tense (retracted) it’s going to make the distance of the pull longer. Recently someone told me to retract and I argued the point but I was wondering what some others thought of this?
[quote]apwsearch wrote:
From what I see there, it looks like the ref signaled the down before looking at the side refs and when he looked to his left he saw that ref had not dropped his arm yet so that resulted in the stutter.
Just my initial thoughts watching a video…
However, I am of the opinion that when that happens the benefit of the doubt goes to the lifter. Worst case scenario he generates one red from that side but it is still a good lift.
The ref caused the problem, imo. In that scenario, as a lifter, you tend to have tunnel vision and are focused on very little more than the ref’s voice and/or hand movement.
What happened on your third attempt, STB? Did you go up or repeat and miss? Either way, very frustrating.[/quote]
Went for 810 again. Set-up sucked just cause I was so pissed. Blew it up off the floor, said f-it and let it go. I was in terrible position anyway. I should have gone up.
Storm, just read your post over in the ‘westside speed benches’ thread, and it made me a little curious. A lot of guys now seem to be doing a lot less volume for speed work. Its common now to see 5x3 or 6x2 as opposed to 12x2, have you ever tried using fewer sets? What are your thoughts?
I’ve got a question for you if you dont mind. How do your organize your ME excersizes? do you cycle through them in a preticular order creating some sort of minicylces? or do you just choose which ever lift you feel like doing that day? For example for bench would you do something like
Also when choosing ME lower body lifts do you choose excersizes geared more to imporove your deadlift for a few weeks then choose excersizes that would better benefit your squat for a few weeks? Or do you just rotate through all the movements that best improve both lifts randomly? Hope that made some sort of sense. Thanks again for all the insight.
[quote]GhostOD wrote:
Storm, just read your post over in the ‘westside speed benches’ thread, and it made me a little curious. A lot of guys now seem to be doing a lot less volume for speed work. Its common now to see 5x3 or 6x2 as opposed to 12x2, have you ever tried using fewer sets? What are your thoughts? [/quote]
Everyone is different. I respond MUCH better to higher volumes. Hell, every once and awhile I’ll do 25 sets of 2 with 50-60% for speed squats. You’ve got to figure out what works. Common sense tells me though I better be using weights that I can to a ton of volume with without barspeed slowing down. If you can only get through 5 or 6 sets and are dead tired/slow as shit, the weights are probably too heavy. I started off doing the typical 6-9 sets of 1, 2, or 3 depending on the exercise and that worked fine for a while. I started keeping track of rest times, pushing the relative training volume up, and doing more sets. The added volume is making me noticably bigger and stronger.
Also, I’ve read that the more trained you become, the more amount of work that needs to be done to continue progress. More sets on speed work is an easy way to add in more work without lifting like a dumbass on max effort day.
[quote]clutz15 wrote:
I’ve got a question for you if you dont mind. How do your organize your ME excersizes? do you cycle through them in a preticular order creating some sort of minicylces? or do you just choose which ever lift you feel like doing that day? For example for bench would you do something like
Also when choosing ME lower body lifts do you choose excersizes geared more to imporove your deadlift for a few weeks then choose excersizes that would better benefit your squat for a few weeks? Or do you just rotate through all the movements that best improve both lifts randomly? Hope that made some sort of sense. Thanks again for all the insight.[/quote]
Yea it all makes sense.
For upper body, it is basically whatever I feel like on that day. I try not to think about lifting at all until I am actually doing it. The shit gets exhausting after a while. Unless I feel awesome, which never happens, I usually take a deload every 4th week.
[quote]clutz15 wrote:
I’ve got a question for you if you dont mind. How do your organize your ME excersizes? do you cycle through them in a preticular order creating some sort of minicylces? or do you just choose which ever lift you feel like doing that day? For example for bench would you do something like
Also when choosing ME lower body lifts do you choose excersizes geared more to imporove your deadlift for a few weeks then choose excersizes that would better benefit your squat for a few weeks? Or do you just rotate through all the movements that best improve both lifts randomly? Hope that made some sort of sense. Thanks again for all the insight.[/quote]
Yea it all makes sense.
For upper body, it is basically whatever I feel like on that day. I try not to think about lifting at all until I am actually doing it. The shit gets exhausting after a while. Unless I feel awesome, which never happens, I usually take a deload every 4th week.
I use a bunch of different squat and GM variaiton but for deadlifts, I only get more pounds out of reverse bands, sumo pulls, and block pulls.
Hope I answered everything, let me know if I didnt.[/quote]
Perfect thanks alot. Unfortunately the racks at the University aren’t set up to allow for reverse band deadlifts, which whould be awesome since I’m weak at lockout but I’m in the process of finding out what works best.
