[quote]shawnhavoc wrote:
How much do you deadlift? If you don’t feel it in your arms and upper body then you aren’t lifting anything close to enough weight. I don’t know how you could pick up anything heavy with your arms just hanging there like hooks. Your shoulders should be pulled back, traps and shoulders tight, arms straight down, chest up. You are pulling just as hard with you upper body as you are with your lower.
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You are probably right about the load thing…but right now I’m concentrating on form/technique and not going to “complete” muscle failure (not until I perfect it and get to really difficult loads). Im at 290lbs just now and am making very quick progress (around 10-20lbs extra per week!). Not bad to say I started deadlifting at 210lbs over 5 weeks ago. I’m hoping to get to 400lbs in the next few months.
[quote]Doug Adams wrote:
its_just_me wrote:
This is a pic of my back (sorry about the quality). As you can see, I’m on a bulking phase just now (so not as lean as my avator pic).
I’ve only started doing deadlifts the past 5 weeks or so…but the majority of my back size was gained from doing wide and narrow pullups. My traps were built from doing shrugs (in the 8-10 rep range).
its_just_me wrote:
I wonder how many guys in those pics are natural? hmmm…
[quote]its_just_me wrote:
shawnhavoc wrote:
How much do you deadlift? If you don’t feel it in your arms and upper body then you aren’t lifting anything close to enough weight. I don’t know how you could pick up anything heavy with your arms just hanging there like hooks. Your shoulders should be pulled back, traps and shoulders tight, arms straight down, chest up. You are pulling just as hard with you upper body as you are with your lower.
You are probably right about the load thing…but right now I’m concentrating on form/technique and not going to “complete” muscle failure (not until I perfect it and get to really difficult loads). Im at 290lbs just now and am making very quick progress (around 10-20lbs extra per week!). Not bad to say I started deadlifting at 210lbs over 5 weeks ago. I’m hoping to get to 400lbs in the next few months.
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Keep adding weight and start pulling heavy triples, doubles and singles and then check back in a year. I’d be willing to bet you will love deads as much as the rest of us. I guarantee that by the time you are pulling 4 plates, you will be noticeably thicker and denser.
It sounds like you are already ready to pull 3 plates, load it up today and pull it!!! Then do it again, and again and…you get the point. Then post tomorrow or Saturday and tell us how your traps and back feel.
[quote]its_just_me wrote:
I wonder how many guys in those pics are natural? hmmm…[/quote]
You’re missing the point.
How many pros in any strength sport do you think are natural? Yet doesn’t it seem like a logical conclusion that since the guys who have the best back development generally deadlift heavy(JJ, RC, Felix, etc…), deadlifts might just be a pretty damn effective back (especially trap) builder? Especially since you can pretty much rule out anabolics as being some sort of unfair advantage (since just about all of them are doing them).
[quote]its_just_me wrote:
This is a pic of my back (sorry about the quality). As you can see, I’m on a bulking phase just now (so not as lean as my avator pic).
I’ve only started doing deadlifts the past 5 weeks or so…but the majority of my back size was gained from doing wide and narrow pullups. My traps were built from doing shrugs (in the 8-10 rep range).[/quote]
Good job so far.
I’m also not arguing that lats can be built doing things like pull-ups/pull-downs. Nor am I saying that you can’t build traps using shrugs.
But tell me, how much do you usually use for shrugs in the 8-10 rep range? 315? Do you really think that your traps have to work harder to move 315 than they do to keep your shoulders from tearing out of their sockets pulling 600 for the same number of reps (talking about rack deads)?
Seriously…try some rack pulls man. I did them on my back day this Monday and O M G. The words used above describe it perfectly. “do you really think that your traps have to work harder to move 315 then they do to keep your shoulders from tearing out of their sockets pulling 600” I did a 1RM of 495 and I swear that describes exactly what I was feeling.
I have never felt my traps like that, ever. And I power shrug 405 for reps, doesn’t even come close to the feeling I got doing the heavy rack pulls.
I hate deadlifts, I was supposed to be squats (my favourite ) tomorrow but the deadlifts yesterday means that I won’t be able to unless I make a miracle recovery.
I’m still confused about what kind of post-deadlifting feeling is acceptable, this week I did squats and obliques (this made me sore) monday, DL wedsnday and I can feel a kind of dull soreness inside my left glute and a similar feeling somewhere in my lower back.
Is there some way that I can check whether it’s just from working the muscle hard or if it’s some sort of minor injury from incorrect lifting?
Thanks, I’ll keep adding to the bar…can’t wait to start adding some serious weight!
If it’s everything people are making it out to be, I should have even bigger traps/back this time next year…if that fails, at least I’ll be able to lift a car LOL.
[quote]forlife wrote:
At this point, my chiroproacter doesn’t recommend them so I do alternate exercises. I’ve actually seen some of my best muscle growth in the past year that I’ve been doing different lifts.
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I’ve never met a doctor who likes deadlifts. After injuring myself doing stiff-leggeds in college the doctor who treated me told me that he doesn’t like deadlifts, period.
I’m glad I chose to heal myself and do it safer rather than listen to him. He certainly didn’t have a body anywhere close to Dr. Columbo’s.
[quote]BF Bullpup wrote:
forlife wrote:
At this point, my chiroproacter doesn’t recommend them so I do alternate exercises. I’ve actually seen some of my best muscle growth in the past year that I’ve been doing different lifts.
I’ve never met a doctor who likes deadlifts. After injuring myself doing stiff-leggeds in college the doctor who treated me told me that he doesn’t like deadlifts, period.
I’m glad I chose to heal myself and do it safer rather than listen to him. He certainly didn’t have a body anywhere close to Dr. Columbo’s.[/quote]
Chiropractors are that used to seeing injuries from lifting etc it makes them paranoid about any movement! But I bet there’s far more injuries from sedentary people with weak backs than there are from weight lifters.
I once injured my back (from leaning back during a standing overhead barbell press), it kept me out the gym for a week and didn’t seem to be getting any better. I went to the gym after about a week and a half despite still getting twinging pains (I know, crazy lol) and it cured it! Obviously I went light with the loads.
I know that the dead lift thing has been beaten to death, but I wanted to add that I was (and am) a skinny bastard who never did dead lifts (but always benched and did pull ups and squats). I started doing dead lifts and even though I have only progressed to 220 lbs for 5 reps, I believe that it is single handedly responsible for my body’s growth in the past few months. I have also started hitting greater weights in the squat and the pull up once I started dead lifting.
I love doing deadlifts and do a variation of them every week, but let’s get serious, you can build a respectable back without them. I think there’s a few big guys on here who don’t deadlift and have great backs and I also know lots of big guys at the gym who have massive backs but don’t deadlift (or do pull-ups).
I built my back on weighted pull-ups, rows, and deadlifts, but there’s more ways to do it than that.
If you don’t have any injury concerns, I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to include them. If you’re worried about not using your back enough during the movement, do your pull-ups and rows first (to pre-fatigue) and finish with deads.
[quote]BSrunner wrote:
I know that the dead lift thing has been beaten to death, but I wanted to add that I was (and am) a skinny bastard who never did dead lifts (but always benched and did pull ups and squats). I started doing dead lifts and even though I have only progressed to 220 lbs for 5 reps, I believe that it is single handedly responsible for my body’s growth in the past few months. I have also started hitting greater weights in the squat and the pull up once I started dead lifting. [/quote]
I agree, about 10 months ago I’d never done deadlifts heavier than 135 pounds, and my back was by farrrr the worst part of my body. 10 months later, pulled 475 and my back is one of my best parts. Weird! Definitely has made the biggest difference in my training over the past year.
) tomorrow but the deadlifts yesterday means that I won’t be able to unless I make a miracle recovery.