The Forgotten Deadlift

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

I had a moment of “clarity” yesterday. As I looked back over all of my past training, I remembered how when I started, I had initially been “good” in the deadlift. Not really good of course, but I could pull 385 almost from the start weighing only 153. Back then, I decided that I really wanted to learn how to squat (I could only get 255 down solid to parallel) and to build up my bench (a measly 170 at the time). Well, now I’m 215 and I did bring up those lifts to 465 and 365, but in those years I completely abandoned the deadlift. I had read the Westside articles and thought-oh well, my deadlift will just naturally go up if I work hard on my squat, goodmorning etc. It did-to a whopping 435 once, 410 being my next best.

I realized that my squat-bench combo had gone from 425 to 830 (not bad) that’s about 195% of where I started, but, if I had focused on the deadlift an brought it up that much, I’d be pulling about 750 right now. Granted that’s far fetched, but surely somewhere well above 500, and you know what, I bet I’d be a hell of a lot bigger and stronger.

Then my squat stalled because of lower back strength, and whatever you say about goodmornings, the deadlift was the perfect lift for me to build my back, and guts for that matter.

So now I am going to commit myself to deadlift 500 by the end of the calendar year no matter what it takes, and guess what, I plan to do this by DEADLIFTING!

In fact I am going to start with a program that has me focusing on just two lifts: the standard deadlift and a very slight decline no arch bench press. Some days will be light, some explosive, some for reps, some for max weights, but I’m going to just keep going no matter what. So my first (weak) workout today:

Superset

Deadlift (no belt) 235 x 8 x 6
Decline bench
135 plus doubled #3 bands x 8 x 3
done in 30 minutes

I vow to become one powerful deadlifting mofo!

2

Why not focus on things that build the deadlift instead of deadlifting? It seems to have worked for you so far. Concentrate on good mornings, stiff leg deads, rdl, ghr, ect. Your deadlift will go up.

3

Sound like you have a goal. Make sure you read and reread Cressy’s article deadlift diagnosis PRINT IT OUT.
And one more thing if you are training to do a 1rm of 500 lbs don’t you think singles are the way to go
15-25 single approx with 315lbs or so as you get up in weight the # of singles can drop . Could alternate cleans or clean pulls. What the hell is 235 going to do for you.

4

[quote]mattrose wrote:
Sound like you have a goal. Make sure you read and reread Cressy’s article deadlift diagnosis PRINT IT OUT.
And one more thing if you are training to do a 1rm of 500 lbs don’t you think singles are the way to go
15-25 single approx with 315lbs or so as you get up in weight the # of singles can drop . Could alternate cleans or clean pulls. What the hell is 235 going to do for you. [/quote]

Yea, I plan on getting heavy right away, but I really lack lower back endurance which ended up giving be pain. The higher reps have completely eliminated the back pain. I want to put in some reps to build muscle mass in the early stages. I also might do some very light work for blood flow, but it’s all to set me up to transfer it to the heavier stuff. Also I plan to train heavy and explosively with rubber bumper plates eccentric only a lot.

5

It sounds like your a pretty strong mofo now. If you plan on playin with the big dogs, just deadlifting by itself is only going to take you so far. You’re only as strong as your weakest link. Read the back strong and beltless articles and Ian King’ Limping series. I gurantee you’ll make some huge jumps not only in size but strength. He wasn’t bullshitting when he called it the limping series.

If you’re honest with yourself and perform it exactly as written, you will be limping! I haven’t done a work-out off of this website that gave me better size and strength gains and I’ve tried alot of them over the last three years. In fact I only perform the work-outs I’ve read here. I’ll get off my soap box now. Go through the archives, you won’t be sorry.

6

For most people the best way to make your deadlift go up is to not deadlift.

7

Keep Deadlifting, the WESTSIDE guys dont work the deadlift because GEAR doesnt help and if you ever tried a demin bench shirt or squat suit you’d know that its realatively easy to jump 50 lbs on bench, squat but not DL,and you know that the DL is the most painful and easiest avoided, but builds great thickness and strengthens your “pissed off” muscles that allow you to flip cars in the parking lot.

MAKE SURE that you incorporate SPEED days of light(30%max)weight, this is what allowed me to break through 500,(now mid 6’s) no ammount of slow heavy straining would help, but those fast days make it so when you grab the weight on heavy days, it just EXPLODES up, hope this helped.

8

[quote]RJay Floyd wrote:
For most people the best way to make your deadlift go up is to not deadlift. [/quote]

I understand what you are saying with this, but I am pretty sure that he said that this has not been working all that well for him (not to dismiss your progress mertdawg…I would be happy with that jump).

I think that you have a great plan. Everyone responds in a slightly different manner to training as well as nutrition. If you attempt this and it does not provide the desired results…tough shit…you learned and now you can try something else.

Now go pick up 500 pounds.

Tucker

9

Some friends and I are using a Westside template that includes deadlifts. In fact, one guy is pulling 600 solidly right now, and should hit 650 by the end of the month. Mine is going up prety steady too.

Mert- Good luck on hitting your mark. Can’t wait to see you nail it. Let us know how you did it.

10

How much is on the bar in that pic? Those plates look wierd.

11

STAINLESS STEEL PLATES, they are about 3x as heavy as CAST that gyms have. The weight is in Kgs. not lbs. MOst powerlifting meets use these weights since they qualify for the world forum, since the US is the only place that cant figure out the METRIC system. I dont remember that weight but it looks in the high 5’s (old pic). Keep deadlifting, and the oldtimers say that the meet dont start til the bar hits the floor. ( the Dl is the last lift)

12

The Westside comment was stupid. You obviously know nothing about it. I actually do variations of the deadlift quite often. Speed pulls like you suggest and pulls off boxes, reverse band, pin pulls, etc. The key is to work the muscles that perform the deadlift without killing the nervous system. I can post pictures too if you want. I dont know if that will help him too much though.

13

Besides, deadlifting ist just fun.
i would not WANT to train without deadliftis.
I coould Deadlift 24/7

14

I’m prety familiar with standard to metric conversions. Also with standard olympic plates. I was asking because of the green spaces between the plates. I was trying to count them. I would have to check, but I’m prety sure that stainless steel is not 3 times heavier than cast iron, allthough they could be doing something with the shape of the plate.

Reason for my curiosity is that I’m thinking about competing and would like to know what weights people are moving. currently my stats are at
age: 33
weight: 160-165
squat:wavering 350-370
bench: 305 solid, failing at 315
dead: solid@350, anything above is a crap shoot.

15

Whats more fun? Being a strong deadlifter or deadlifting all the time?

16

In my Opinion Deadlifting all the Time.

I know there’s need for regerneration to become stronger, so i actually do not lift every day but at least once a week.

It may be cool to lift bigger weights but only lifting these weights once in several weeks really sucks.

And as a beginner i REALLY need to work on technique a lot.

17

Check out any of my posts by searching my member name find all posts-they are all deadlift related-about ten of them-I have done a 750 official and am looking for more this summer at the USPF Deadlift Nationals-I have tons of ideas for you-but it sounds as if you are on the right track now-remember everything works-but nothing works forever-so hit that 500 then drop me a line beacuse the fun begins after that.

18

[quote]meddl wrote:
In my Opinion Deadlifting all the Time.

I know there’s need for regerneration to become stronger, so i actually do not lift every day but at least once a week.

It may be cool to lift bigger weights but only lifting these weights once in several weeks really sucks.

And as a beginner i REALLY need to work on technique a lot.[/quote]

If you are training right you are lifting big weights every week, just not in the regular deadlift. Have it your way though.

19

Your deadlift is not abnormal compared to your squat. Are you comparing contest lifts? Are you wearing gear?

beef

20

[quote]RJay Floyd wrote:
Why not focus on things that build the deadlift instead of deadlifting? It seems to have worked for you so far. Concentrate on good mornings, stiff leg deads, rdl, ghr, ect. Your deadlift will go up. [/quote]

Just to clarify, I’m not dissing Westside because Westside to me means whatever the hell makes your lifts go up. I just became a total Bench and Squat-a-holic and I think some people may do better with more of a deadlift focus.

It’s wierd, but for me, I don’t need to squat that often. Last year squatted 450. I had ACL surgery (after a softball injury) and didn’t squat for 6 months, then in 5 weeks back I squatted 465 which was as much progress as I’d made in the last year before. My back just gets sore from all the super tight arch back squats. I think-for me-conventional deads are a more natural lower back developer.

Thanks for the advice, and I do plan to diversify, but I want to keep it simple for 3-4 weeks just playing around with different rep ranges and speeds for the two lifts I mentioned.

Also, I’m doing slight decline benches to reduce stress on the lower back-that way I keep the same basic groove without the arch.