Maybe I should do a 30-day series on Instagram and cover something cool?
30 Favorite Pictures of My Cat?
30 Days of Omelets?
No, no, no…30 Days of Jason Bourne Fight Scene Reenactments?[footnote]With shadow puppets.[/footnote]
As you can tell, I didn’t go with any of those choices. But if you want me to let me know.
I went with deadlifts.
And I took 30 – admittedly not in a row – days to cover everything from technique tips and troubleshooting ideas to program design and different deadlift variations I like.
It was a huge hit and people seemed to get a lot out of it. And it just so happens T-Nation reached out and asked if they could publish the series on their site.
Days 1-10 were posted today and they include all the videos I filmed in addition to some added (written) commentary.
I received an interesting question from a reader the other day on deadlifts, particularly 1RM (1 rep max) deadlifts. And since I get all giddy like a school girl at a One Direction concert whenever someone brings up the topic, I figured I’d share my answer here on my website since I’m sure it’s a question that others have wondered as well.
Q:My lifting consists mostly of deadlifts and chin-up/pull-ups with lots of auxiliary work. I also cycle a lot (100 miles per week in-season). But I am in the field for several months a year and it interrupts my lifting.
Last year I pulled 305 on my 60th birthday (at 182 pounds body weight). I got a late start this year and was not as systematic with the spin up. I did a 1RM test and only pulled 270 (at 190 pounds) on my 61st.
I plan to start with the Matt Kroc program that I read in your site as soon as I get back from a month in Alaska (field work on the glacier near Juneau; it’s a tough job, but…).
My question is: I would have liked to maintain a 300 pound 1RM but was not systematic enough through the year. What do I do between programs to maintain a higher 1RM? (And continue to cycle and miss the occasional month in the deep field for work?).
A: Who are you? John Wayne? I love this!
First off, as a quick side tangent, any guy who uses his age as an excuse to not train hard is lame. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t tweak some things here and thereif need be, but all told, like the late 90s R&B star, Aaliyah, used to say, “Age ain’t nuthin but a number.”
While I should get a pat on the back for referencing both John Wayne and Aaliyah within a single blog post – quite possibly the first time in human history that that’s ever happened – you, sir, should get a pat on the back for kicking ass and taking names.
You hang out on glaciers AND deadlift. By comparison I drive a Hyundai Elantra and own a cat.
Okay, lets get to the heart of the matter.
To start, lets put things into perspective. You pulled 305 lbs on your 6oth birthday, and a year later, after admittedly not being as diligent with your training leading up to your 61st, you were still able to pull 270 lbs, which is within striking distance of 90% of your 1RM.
You know what? That’s not too shabby considering. Compared to other lifts like the squat or bench press, that’s not a huge drop off at all.
Why is that?
As Tim Henriques notes in his book, All About Powerlifting, “the deadlift is the simplest of the big three exercises (squat, bench press, DL), meaning it requires the least amount of skill. The deadlift is the most natural of the three lifts. Essentially all people, regardless of age, will perform a deadlift during their day, every day.
Every time you bend down to pick something up off the ground, from your shoes to your laundry basket to a child to your dog to your couch, if you pick something up you are deadlifting it.
In addition your ability to deadlift remains for a relatively long time after you stop deadlifting. If you stop squatting, even after you have been squatting for a long time, your ability to squat very heavy or perform a max set decreases relatively quickly. You will notice a difference after just one or two weeks.
Your ability to bench press remains at a moderate level; if you stop benching it begins to go away but assuming you stay strong in other exercises you will still be able to bench a decent amount of weight for a while.
The deadlift ability remains the longest. If you stop deadlifting you can still come in a year later and deadlift a decent amount of weight. This is because the neuromuscular coordination required for the deadlift is the least specific of the three exercises and the basic motor control pattern remains the same even when you stop deadlifting.”
Of course, this isn’t to say that the deadlift is easy to learn or that there isn’t any skill involved – nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, entire books have been written on this one lift alone. One of may favs includes Off the Floor, by David Dellanave.
However, compared to the squat and bench press, which, from a motor pattern standpoint aren’t movements we perform on a daily basis, the deadlift tends to “stick” longer.
Along those same lines, compared to other “qualities” such as anaerobic endurance, strength endurance, or maximal speed, maximal strength tends to have a much longer staying power.
Meaning, regardless of secondary emphasis, you can leave alone and maintain certain qualities of “x” number of days without seeing much of a drop off in performance. This is something my good friend, Joe Dowdell, highlighted during his Peak Diet and Training seminar.
Here are some numbers to consider:
Aerobic Endurance = 30 +/- 5 days (meaning you can maintain training effect for 25-35 days with minimal exposure to that same stimulus). Maximum Strength = 30 +/- 5 days, Anaerobic Endurance = 18 +/- 4 days, Strength Endurance = 15 +/- 5 days, Maximum Speed = 5 +/- 3 days.
To maintain maximum strength all you’d have to do is try to elicit a maximum strength response once every 30 or so days.
I see this phenomenon all the time at Cressey Performance. Eric’s known to not touch a heavy deadlift for months on end, yet he can almost always approach a 600 lb pull when coaxed or challenged enough by us other coaches or athletes. While he’s not pulling 600 lbs on a regular basis, he is hovering in the 85-95% (of 1RM) range every so often which has a lot of staying power.
Likewise, with me, I tweaked my back last summer and wasn’t able to deadlift (heavy) consistently for a few months. Once I was back to normal – or close to it – I was still able to hit a clean 500×3 without much trouble.
Bringing the conversation to YOU (and everyone else reading), if you know you’re going to have a long hiatus from consistent training, with the deadlift, at least you have the odds in your favor.
1. You’re almost always going to be “deadlifting” to some capacity, even if it’s not a barbell, on a daily basis. To that end, the motor pattern won’t go away anytime soon. Even if you have to resort to kettlebell work only, you’d be surprised at how much “strength” you’ll be able to retain.
2. Along those same lines, one of the best strategies of used with myself and other clients is to place a premium on TECHNIQUE work. I like this term more than “speed” work.
Using a load that’s roughly 60-70% of one’s 1RM, I’ll have him or her perform anywhere from 8-20 SINGLES in a given workout. This won’t be at all taxing on the nervous system, but it will help “glue” solid technique and also help with bar speed (which is an important component of strength). It may look something like this:
Week 1: 14×1 @ 60% with 60s rest between each rep. Week 2: 12×1 @ 65% with 60s rest between each rep. Week 3: 10×1 @ 65% with 45s rest between each rep. Week 4: 8×1 @ 70% with 45s rest between each rep.
3. If you’re able, and can muster a way to hit a heavy pull every 4-5 weeks, that will go a LONG WAY in terms of any damage control and help to maintain strength levels.
Barring injury, an extinction level event (think: asteroid, volcanic eruption, Nicolas Cage movie), or jail time, it’s not as difficult as people think to maintain their strength in the deadlift.
Note: the following is an excerpt from my latest article on BodyBuilding.com (full article is linked to at the bottom).
I think it’s pretty awesome. And if you think it’s pretty awesome too, then please (pretty please) “Like” it on the BB.com website and share it on all of your social media. I’ll be your BFF forever!
If you don’t this it’s awesome – no hard feelings. I’ll just be over here crying myself to sleep.
If I had to make a list of things I like in no particular order, it would look something like this:
Turning right on red
Anything involving Jason Bourne, ninjas, or zombies
LOLCat videos
Getting people strong
Deadlifts
I’ll admit that as a strength coach, I’m biased when it comes to the last two. To me, nothing trumps strength. And nothing gets people stronger than good ol’ fashioned deadlifts.
Guys can brag about their squat numbers despite only hitting quarter reps, or even brag about a big bench press that’s more like an upright row for their spotter, but you can’t cheat a deadlift.
It’s you versus the barbell. You either rip that son of a bitch off the floor, lock it out, or not. The deadlift lends itself very well to gauge progress. It’s up to you, and brute strength, to break initial inertia off the ground. If you’re able to lift more weight over time without blowing your sphincter, you’re making progress!
Contrary to popular belief, there’s more to deadlifting than just bending over and hoisting a barbell off the ground. The following tips will undoubtedly clean up your technique and improve your deadlifting dominance.
1. Like many of you I’ve seen all the prerequisite blockbuster movies this summer – Iron Man 3 (awesome), Man of Steel (good, not great), Before Midnight* , and World War Z (eh).
And while it’s pretty much breaking man-code for not wanting to see Fast and Furious 6 – somewhere out there Kevin Larrabee just punched a wall – I do want to take a few moments to point all of you in the direction of a lesser known movie that Lisa and I saw yesterday which may very well trump all of the above:
The Way Way Back
I tend to gravitate towards the more artsy-fartsy, independent, Focus/Miramax/Sony Pictures Classics films. You know: The type of movies that actors and actresses do for the “street cred” and Oscar talk buzz more so than the paycheck.
I first heard about The Way Way Back when I was reading up on the reviews from the Sundance Film Festival (yes, I’m that much of a nerd), and as soon as I realized it was made by the same people who were responsible for Little Miss Sunshine and Juno, I knew I was going to be intrigued.
In a nutshell it’s about a kid – Duncan – who’s forced to go on a summer vacation to a beach town in the Hamptons with his mom and new doucher of a boyfriend (played, surprisingly, by Steve Carrell).
The rest of the storyline is fairly predictable: Duncan is an introvert, doesn’t make friends well, he hates the new boyfriend, there’s a crazy alcoholic neighbor thrown into the mix. a cute girl, so on and so forth.
No zombies. No explosions. And no gratuitous nude scenes. Basically, it’s the anti-man movie.
This isn’t to suggest that the movie was a bust – it wasn’t at all. Instead, it’s just to say that if you watched Little Miss Sunshine and/or Juno, you know there are going to be some oddball characters involved.
A perfect example would be the always underrated Sam Rockwell who plays a guy who runs a local water park, has his fair share of witty one-liners, befriends Duncan, and helps him come out of his shell.
I really, really enjoyed this film. It’s in limited release now, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be gaining momentum as the weeks pass. If you get the chance, definitely check it out!
2. Nick Tumminello sent me a copy of his new product Core Training: Facts, Fallacies & Top Techniques and I finally had the opportunity to give it a look, of all places, as I was sitting in the laundry mat yesterday morning.
Hey, if I’m going to sit there for an hour hating life I might as well get smarter right?
Nick never disappoints, and while I’m going to give full disclosure and say I haven’t yet watched the entire thing, I will tell you that from what I have seen……….it’s awesome!
I’m always amazed by Nick’s no BS attitude and I respect that he’s so willing to go against the grain on many things.
In any case, I was a little late in the game to say anything and as it happens, the sale he was running was supposed to end last night (Sunday, June 7th) at midnight. HOWEVER, Nick informed me that he’s willing to extend the pre-sale another day for all of my readers. Woot woot!
3. I also want to give a shout out to my good friends Dr. Jonathan Fass and Bret Contreras. As of two weeks ago I’ve been getting up earlier and going for some early morning strolls around my neighborhood. And with that I’ve also been crushing the Strength of Evidence Podcast which is hosted by both Jon and Bret.
I’ll be the first in line to say that I absolutely abhor reading research. You might as well hand me War and Peace translated into Elvish, because I’d rather read that than anything remotely attached to “clinical findings” or “p-ratios” or “statistical errors.”
It’s all Greek to me.
Which is why I really appreciate the depth and thoroughness that these guys include in each episode. They dig DEEP into a lot of hotly debated topics – CrossFit, should everyone squat deep?, the efficacy of neck packing, sprinting mechanics, to name a few – and they do so with just the right mix of geek and meathead.
So if you’re looking for a new fitness podcast to check out, look no further. You’re welcome.
4. I was asked recently how my quest for a 600 lb deadlift is coming along. More to the point: I was asked what my training has been consisting of lately – other than deadlifting mack trucks and arm wrestling tanks (<—just a slight exaggeration).
Well, truth be told, I’ve been including a lot more jump training into my weekly repertoire.
I’ve made no qualms at the fact that I’m slower than molasses off the floor when I pull, and much of that I attribute to my loss of athleticism throughout the years.
Now don’t get me wrong: I can still sprint without looking like the Tin Man. But at 36, as awesome as it may be, it’s not like I’m going out of my way to play pick-up games of Laser Tag or beach volleyball in my jeans Top Gun style.
Sorry ladies.
Needless to say I finally hit a tipping point and decided to nip things in the bud and work on getting more explosive. To that end, I’ve been including more things like deadstart box jumps prior to my squat and DL days.
Video courtesy of strength coach John Gaglione.
In addition Lisa and I have been reacquainting ourselves with stadium sprints at Harvard on Sunday mornings. Nothing too crazy or CrossFitish, but enough to make us realize how much they kick our ass.
And it seems to be working. I randomly walked up to a barbell loaded up with 500 lbs the other day in the middle of the afternoon and, without warming up, pulled it for an easy triple (with more in the tank).
I’ve also been toying around with more of a pseudo Sumo stance deadlift and love it.
I’m not sure when I’ll actually give 600 a go, but suffice is to say things are finally moving along at a nice pace. Stay tuned…….
* = LOL, just kidding. I didn’t go see this one. Nope. Not me. That would mean I would have had to have seen Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, too. That would just be ridiculous.
It’s no secret that I like to deadlift. Outside of sleep, going to a Sunday matinee, omeletes, Chipotle, and nunchucks, it’s probably my most favoritest thing in the world.
There’s certainly no shortage of quality articles out there breaking down the deadlift and offering suggestions on how to increase your overall sense of badassery.
Likewise, there’s rarely (if ever) anything new to say – as it’s already been said in some fashion elsewhere in magazines, in books, in DVDs, and various blog posts.
Nevertheless, here are five quick and easy-to-implement tips that will definitely help improve your pulling prowess.
1. Save Your Hardest Workout for Early in the Week, But Not Too Early
It stands to reason that if you have a weak link or are trying to “bring up” one particular lift, you should reserve the hardest training session of the week for Monday when you’re the most fresh and and presumably, the most recovered.
Seemingly most people spend their weekends chillaxing watching sports, eating good food, having a few beers, taking power naps, throwing the frisbee around, playing with the dogs, or maybe, if your’re lucky, spending a few hours at the beach soaking up some vitamin D.
Come Monday you’re recharged and ready to tackle the upcoming week. It makes sense, then, to head to the gym on Monday and absolutely throw yourself to the wolves and make yourself hate life to the point where you can barely walk by the end and you can’t feel the left side of your face.
Mmmmmm, maybe not the best idea.
Raise your hand if Mondays are typically your best day at work? Hahahahaha, yeah that’s what I thought.
Nada.
We’ve all heard the lame statement “looks like (s0 and so) has the case of the Mondays,” and for good reason. Mondays suck! For a reference point, watch the movie Office Space (and thank me later).
After two days (or three, for the lucky few who get the extended weekend) of laying low and living the lazy life, effectively placing your body in an extended “hover” mode, you can’t expect it to rebound efficiently and go right into breaking PRs on Monday.
For some it will work, and they can bounce back and feel like a superhero. For many, however, it won’t be nearly as “superheroish,” and it won’t be a pretty site.
I’m a rare example and use Mondays as my main deadlift day, but that’s because I work at a gym and I’m able to use Saturday (and sometimes Sunday) as an actual training day, mostly as a GPP or movement based day, but training nonetheless. Most people don’t have this luxury and opt to forego the weights for pina coladas instead. And more power to them!
What I propose is to hold off, and save your main deadlift session for Tuesday or better yet, Wednesday.
Instead go to the gym on Monday and train, but don’t necessarily go balls to the wall. Most of you are going to go and blast your pecs anyways – Monday IS National Bench Press Day – so go right a head and do it. Or, just think of it as a “medium” intensity day
By the time Tuesday or Wednesday rolls around, your nervous system will be a little more “primed” and less lethargic and I’m willing to bet you’ll find your DL numbers improve.
2. Get More Lifts Above 90%
I’m a bit reticent to openly state that more people should add more lifts at or above 90% (as a percentage of their one rep max) into their repertoire because, well, you need to know what the heck you’re doing!
To that end, I have two prerequisites:
1. You MUST have technical proficiency in the lift. If my eyes will perpetually start bleeding from watching you lift a weight that’s only 50% of your 1RM, then I certainly don’t want to know what will happen if you go any heavier.
<—– Like this
2. You should already be able to lift at least 2x (I may even lower this to 1.5x) your bodyweight before utilizing 90% lifts. As an example, this would mean that a 175 lb person should be clearing a 350 lb pull. Not too shabby, but certainly not earth shattering.
I understand this is a a blanket statement, and there are plenty of people who incorporate heavier loads into the mix that aren’t that strong (and do so safely), but this is just for my own edification and peace of mind.
Rather than re-invent the wheel, I’m going to cut/paste a portion of an article I wrote for T-Nation a few years ago titled Limiting Factors:
When a more “advanced” trainee approaches me and mentions that he’s stuck on a certain weight with a particular lift, I can almost guarantee his limiting factor is that he hasn’t been incorporating more lifts above 90%.
(Side Note: For beginner trainees, I’d be more inclined to check their food intake and/or overall programming. Most just need to eat more and shy away from the bodybuilding/body-part split routines.)
To recap, lifts above 90%…
1. Increase total muscle fiber recruitment.
2. Increase recruitment of higher threshold motor units (which have a greater propensity for growth).
3. Increase rate coding (rate at which motor units fire).
4. Increase synchronization between muscles (improved inter and intra-muscular coordination).
5. Make girls want to hang out with you.
Maybe even girls who actually deadlift will want to hang out with you, too:
All of the above help to improve one’s neural efficiency. Getting stronger is all about making the central nervous system (CNS) more efficient at allowing the brain and spinal cord to better communicate with motor units/muscle fibers to get the job done. In short, improved neural efficiency allows you to lift more weight, which last time I checked, is a pretty cool thing.
For the advanced lifter, each session is an opportunity to maybe hit a new PR (personal record), but really it’s just about lifting heavy things off the ground.
Using the DL as an example, lets assume one’s original PR is 400 pounds, the goal for this training session is to get FIVE lifts at 90% and above:
135×5
225×3
275×1
315×1
365×1
405×1 (PR!!! But it was a grinder and you’re pretty sure you blacked out for like three seconds and saw pink unicorns as you locked it out)
At this point the trainee has already gotten two lifts above 90% (365, 405), which would mean he needs to get three more lifts in to get to the goal of five. The objective now is to stay at or slightly above 90% (usually in the 90-92% range) and focus on bar speed and actually not miss any lifts.
360×1,1,1
From there, the trainee will continue on with his accessory work depending on his needs and goals.
3. Oh Yeah, Hammer Your Accessory Work
For me I like to use what I call “marker” exercises, which are those exercises I know have a a huge carry over to the deadlift, and also allow me to gauge progress. In short, I know that if I improve on a particular marker exercise, chances are my DL is going to improve as well.
One such example are goodmornings.
Everyone is different, and I’m not saying you should go start playing around with goodmornings today. But it stands to reason that if you want to improve your deadlift, you need to hammer your posterior chain and place a premium on those exercises which strengthen the glutes and hamstrings.
Another exercise to consider would be something like Deadstart/Andeson Squats.
What I love about these is that they emulate the exact hip/torso positioning I use when I setup to deadlift. I’m woefully slow off the floor when I pull (and I have weak quads), so this is an exercise I try to incorporate a lot when I’m trying to ramp up my deadlift numbers.
Again, that’s just me. What works for me may not work for you, but if I had to make a short list of exercises that people should focus on in terms of accessory work:
– RDLs
– Goodmornings
– Partial ROM squats
– Pull-Throughs
– GHR
– KB Swings
– Barbell Hip Thrusters
– Leg Press**
4. Focus on the 70-80% (But More Around 70%).
Admittedly this is something that I’ve pretty much ignored up until recently, and it wasn’t until diving into the phenomenal book Easy Strength by Dan John and Pavel (as well as taking the advice of other coaches like Bret Contreras and Todd Bumgardner) that I began to see the error of my ways.
This sorta flies in the face of what I was saying above with regards to utilizing lifts above 90%, but I really feel that this is a woefully under-utilized method of improving one’s deadlift.
I understand that many strength coaches are adamantly opposed to anything that isn’t either “speed” work (40-60%) or max effort work (90%+), and that anything in the middle is a complete waste of time.
But I feel there’s something to be said about honing technique, solidifying one’s exercise proficiency (and being able to repeat it), and seeing how that parlays into bigger pulling numbers.
In looking at my training past, whenever I’d make a run for 600 lbs, I’d inevitably approach the 550ish mark, attempt to get my 90% lifts in week in and week out, for weeks on end, and eventually my spine would be like “that’s it Gentilcore. I’m done!”
My back would end up feeling like shredded up salami, my CNS would be fried, and I’d have to take a hiatus from pulling heavy.
I think once you start approaching 2.75-3x bodyweight pulls, the body can only take so much on a repeated basis. Lately, I’ve been focusing more on getting fast, QUALITY reps at a lower percentage and I feel amazing.
I’m still doing my speed work on separate days, but instead of hitting multiple lifts at 90% or above, I’ve been taking it down a notch and performing repeated lifts at 70% (with limited rest) and then hitting a “sorta” max every other week.
So, for example:
6×2 @ 315 lbs (with 20-30s rest between sets)
Then I’ll work up to a 500+ pull. Last week I ended up working up to 520 lbs, and felt great.
You’re always going to have ebbs and flows with training, but I really feel that this approach is going keep me fresh longer and not beat me to a pulp.
5. Use Straps
No, seriously, I’m not kidding….use them!
Listen, most commercial gyms have really crappy bars with no knurling and you’re relegated to wearing a Scarlet letter if you have the audacity to bring chalk onto the gym floor.
It’s almost impossible to lift any appreciable weight when the bar keeps slipping out of your hands.
Back in the day I totally used wrist straps to help bring up my deadlift. Granted, I tried to sneak in chalk whenever I could (even going so far as to make sure I wiped down the bars when I was done), but I didn’t think any less of myself.
Grip strength is going to be a limiting factor for a lot of peeps, and I posit that so long as you go out of your way to NOT be the dork who uses straps for everything from seated lat pulldowns to bicep curls, your grip strength will automatically improve given you’re using various dumbbells and barbells in your training.
I won’t judge you for using straps. If it allows you to use more weight and overload the exercise, great! That’s the point. If you use gloves on the other hand………
Got any tips of your own to share? I’d love to hear them below
** Come on. You didn’t think I was serious did you?
