It's been over 20 years since I really was training with any regularity in the deadlift. I'm phasing it back into my training for a while because I think it is one of the most transferable lifts in the "real world". In my line of work (construction), a strong and healthy back is important. Though we may not lift things in perfect deadlift fashion on the jobsite, just having the strength to heave objects upward is important. I have to lift a 150+ lb pressure washer (might be 200+, not sure, but it's awkward) into my truck with some regularity. Also, I load many other large, unbalanced, awkward and somewhat heavy items that weigh 75-150 lbs on a daily basis. Keeping my core in decent shape means I am less likely to strain myself.

So those are the present reasonings. And to be honest, a couple other factors were reading some of the powerlifting logs and reminiscing about my days of deadlifting.

Going back in time for a bit... (boys and girls, it's story time!)

I always liked the deadlift. When I first went into my highschool weightroom as a 95 lbs soaking wet freshman, one of the seniors took me under his wing. I was given 3 lifts. Bench, Deadlift, Powerclean. I was told to do 5 sets of 5. That's really all I knew. And I did pretty much just that for 2 years, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. My sophomore year, at a strapping 108 lbs (I wasn't trying to gain weight yet, just get stronger), I won the Oregon State Highschool Powerlifting Championship in my weight class. But believe me, my numbers weren't that impressive and I didn't have much competition in the human skeleton weight class.

It was about this time that I shifted to bodybuilding and only occasionally did deadlifting, preferring to do stiff-legged deads for my hamstrings. I did go pretty heavy with these, though, getting up to 405-425 for sets of 10-12 in my "prime" which was ages 19-21. I only sporadically did deads from that point on, because of a couple reasons. I was already working the bodyparts that the deadlift works. Also, the deadlift is exhausting and I would be sore in so many places from a good deadlift workout that I couldn't fit in many of my workouts around it.

That being said, I probably will not pull weekly. We will have to see how recovery goes. I'm sure pulling less that weekly isn't ideal for maximum gains in that lift, but I am not in a hurry and I have no plans to compete.

I have not been working out my lower body since I returned back to the gym 6 weeks ago. I had only been lightly working legs (and other bodyparts) for a couple months prior to the month break I had, all of which was preceeded by a 5 month break because of my very poor health (bronchitis/virus/general malaise/low test/etc). The last time I was training heavyish (not counting the past month) was July or August. Part of my hesitation on lowerbody workouts stems from knee issues, some stems from needing to stay limber to jump in and out of my truck (the tailgate is 36-40" high, which is high for a short guy like me), and some stems from laziness. I love lowerbody workouts, but they do beat me up. I wasn't sure if I would be able to handle that drain on my body and continue my breakneck work pace (worked 100 hours last week).

So, this isn't entirely lower body, it's "whole body", but it's a start into lower body workouts.