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How I Improved My Deadlift in Fifteen Months

Last spring, I set out on a quest to do something that I had been putting of f f or yearsimproving my horrid deadlif t. Fif teen months later, my pull is up over 200 lbs and continues to improve in every cycle. How did I do this? First, some background inf ormation is in order. It all hit me one day last spring. I hadnt perf ormed the deadlif t in months and f elt that my training could use a change. As a f ootball player f or twelve years, I f ocused mostly on the Olympic lif ts. I had competed dozens of times over the years and had done quite well. My training was centered on the clean, jerk, snatch, f ront squat, and various other Olympic-style pulls. I perf ormed the bench, row, and several other assistance exercises, but the Olympic lif ts were my main f ocus. I rarely deadlif ted and had stopped f or a long time af ter injuring my back shoveling snow. I couldnt complain about my results until that f atef ul spring day. Considering that I regularly cleaned in the mid 300 lbs and did pulls nearing 400 lbs, I f igured that Id be putting at least f ive wheels on the bar per side. Well, as I worked up, something just wasnt right. I knocked of f 330 lbs, 350 lbs, 380 lbs, and then 400 lbs. To my dismay, 400 lbs f elt like pulling an X-wing out of a swamp on Degoba! Now, 400 lbs might not sound terrible, but I had been training f or almost f ourteen years. I weighed 252 lbs and benched (at the time) 475 lbs. Hell, I had f ront squatted 450 lbs f or reps. To make matters worse, I had pulled 500 lbs in high school! I was really f loored by this and set out to f ix the problem. I read a f ew of Daves articles, including one on the very basics of deadlif ting f orm. It was quite depressing. I f ound that one of my problems was that I was pulling like an Olympic lif tershoulders behind the bar, bar close to the shins, and slow of f the ground. T he f irst thing that I did was work on my f orm. I started using sumo style and didnt go over 315 lbs f or three weeks. T his helped, but I was still having trouble. I started reading every article that I could f ind on Westside-barbell.com and EliteFT S.com, and I watched the Westside Seminar DVDs (worth a million times what I paid f or them). It was a lot to digest, especially coming f rom the old, Western periodization/Olympic lif ting school. I know that many trainees in that situation would have suf f ered paralysis by analysis so I decided to take action. I needed a gateway into this world of conjugate periodization. All I can say is thank God f or Joe DeFranco. I read his Westside f or Skinny Bastards series, printed out the template, and headed straight f or the gym. Early on, my max ef f ort exercises included: snatch grip deadlif ts sumo deadlif ts f ront and back squat box squats trap bar deadlif ts conventional deadlif ts I typically worked up to singles or doubles. About three months in with all of my ME exercises moving up, I decided to retest. Using sumo style, I worked up to and blew past 400 lbs, ending the day with an easy 440 lbs. Af ter another three months, I tested again. T his time I hit a grinding 465 lbs. T hat wasnt too bad, but I

had to make some changes. Af ter taking a deload week and watching the Westside DVDs again, I mapped out the changes. I watched a video of myself pulling and noticed two things right away. My f orm was great until I got up to 95 percent or more, and I was slow of f of the f loor with weights above 90 percent. Whatever weight I got to my knees, I easily blew up. I knew that I had to step up the hamstring and low back training. I never did much low back specif ic training while Olympic lif ting. It just wasnt necessary. However, the lack of training was starting to cost me big time. I realized that I was terribly slow and weak of f of the f loor so I started rotating in the various deadlif ts while standing on three-inch blocks. I perf ormed a traditional speed or dynamic ef f ort day as a second lower body session. I also f ound that as my snatch deadlif ts went up, all of my other pulls did as well so I made that one of my indicator exercises. T he new plan looked something like this ME movements: snatch, sumo, conventional, trap bar deadlif ts standing on blocks above deadlif t variations of f of the f loor rack pulls Romanian deadlif ts iso-Romanian deadlif ts Again, I worked up to singles or doubles. Dynamic ef f ort moves: box f ront and back squats (sometimes with chains and/or bands) speed pulls pulls against light bands occasional box jumping workout Hamstring and lower back work: Romanian deadlif ts pull-thrus straight leg deadlif ts hyperextensions glute ham raises stone trainer deadlif ts tons of abdominal work occasional unilateral move like Bulgarian squats T hese were done in classic 34 sets of 48 reps (higher f or the extensions). Having a weak low back sucks because you f eel like a complete beginner when you start to work on your problems. I trained alone in my garage so I didnt have to worry about anyone seeing me struggle with glute ham raises, but it was depressing nonetheless. However, the concentrated lower back work paid of f quickly.

I also played around with the concept of perf orming a Romanian deadlif t but pausing and holding the bar at mid-shin f or up to eight seconds in an isometric style. I did three paused reps and then a f ull one. I really f eel that this helped me break through my sticking point. While Romanian deadlif ts are an Olympic movement, I think they hold great potential f or powerlif ters and athletes! I f ound that my snatch deadlif ts, both of f of blocks and of f of the f loor, steadily moved up. My snatch deadlif t was almost the same as my sumo at this point so it was an excellent gauge of my progress. At about nine months in, I went into a training session with the goal of hitting a 480-lb snatch deadlif t. I was coming of f of a f ew days of f and f eeling good. T he session went something like this: bar X 5; 135, 225, 315 X 2; and 365, 405, 440, 480 X 1! A new PR, but it f lew up so I went f or the big 5-0-0. On the next set, I got 500 X 1! It was a grind, but I got it clean. Strangely, at this point, my sumo started to jump way ahead of everything else. My snatch deadlif t continued to improve but very slowly while my sumo made f airly large jumps. I started trying out sumo Romanian deadlif ts as a way of improving my hamstring strength specif ic to the sumo deadlif t. Again, it was tough at f irst because of the amount of weight that I had to take of f the bar, but eventually these started paying of f extremely well. T he last big evolution came shortly af ter my 480-lb snatch deadlif t. I f elt a bit stale and was f inding that now I was blowing weights of f of the f loor but stalling right around the knee. I read Marc Bartleys Converting to Sumo Deadlif ting article and started practicing the European style of over pulling. I bought a belt f rom EliteFT S (I had been training without one f or the most part and had worn a terrible bodybuilding-style belt when I did wear one). For those of you who are new to powerlif ting or are against using a powerlif ting-style belt, I can tell you with 100 percent conf idence that it will totally blow your mind f rom the f irst time you use one! I couldnt believe the dif f erence out of the bottom due to the increased stability in the mid-section. Finally, af ter reading an article on reverse band work, I decided to add these in, keeping most of the other movements the same. T he reverse band work did wonders f or me. First, it got me used to having a much heavier weight in my hand. I used dif f erent band strengths and dif f erent heights, but the main objective was to get accustomed to holding 600 lbs and more. Second, it helped me with the transition between that magical area an inch below the knee to the magical area an inch above it. Who knew so much strength could be leaked in that f our- or f ive-inch area? Af ter over a year of f ighting, struggling, sweating, and the occasional cursing, I arrived at the big day testing day f or my sumo deadlif t. I tried not to make it any more than a normal training day, but it suddenly began to f eel like a meet. I put on some Rage Against the Machine and got to work. Chalked up and wearing my designer sleeveless Not Shredded shirt, I did the f ollowing: bar, 135, 225, 315, 365 X 2 and 405, 455, 500, 550, 605 X 1! I set a new PR. Not bad f or a guy who almost blew a gasket pulling 400 lbs a little over a year earlier. Now, I know that these results arent typical. I had a great f oundation to build on and over f if teen years of experience. I f eel that much of the strength was in me lying dormant and was unleashed through a welldef ined, adaptable program based on everything that I had learned through Elite and Westside. T he gains are more typical at this point, and the road to 700 lbs will probably take longer, but thats f ine. It just shows you that you never know what kind of potential you have. Im entering a meet in January and will probably start experimenting with a deadlif t suit. I went f rom being disgusted with my terrible deadlif t to realizing that the sky is the limit as long as you work hard and f ollow the correct path.