Burly Decides to Pull Again...

[burlyman30]

I have had good success this year dead lifting and I've found chasing weight evokes a variety of good habits: The lift requires highly executed form, and concentration with attention to details like feedback from your body.

I think it's the best bang for buck as far as lower body movements are concerned. I know it's sac religious but, I've found that the trap bar is a good way to add volume to a dead lift training day if for anything, it's a little safer plus it helps target the upper back nicely.

How dare you defile the altar of the deadlift with a trap bar. Sacrilegious indeed! Lol.

[O_RYAN_007]

I pull conventional. Sumo never felt comfortable to me. I've seen the Dave Tate video, and yes it has a lot of great points in it. If I remember correctly, it talks a lot about bar speed which is something I never really concentrated on in the past but I did play with it a little bit on my pulls last night. 545 is a great number. You should be proud of that!

It takes a toll on the hips after a while if going for a 1RM every week, so I try to max out once a month or so. Sometimes I go longer in between, but as Macdon said, listen to the body (which I'm sure you do). I've been maxing out for about 4 weeks straight on squats and its def taken a toll on my mind and body. Next week I'll take an entire week off from lifting. My body is telling me to back up.

[Rodja]

Funny you should bring up aesthetics. I am in the process of recomping (slowly) and I am curious as to the effects while in a non-bulk mode. Wondering about ab and oblique development, as well as glute/ham development. May also bring additional thickness to my mid/upper back.

As far as discussion on the lift, I'm glad we have Rodja and Sorrow here to add their 2 cents. And now Wesley, too.

I watched a Rippetoe vid on YouTube about the dead, and he stated some great info on the biomechanics of the lift. I'll have to look it up later. It confirmed everything I had always believed about back angle and overall body placement.

The conventional deadlift is an odd lift in that "proper" form is going to depend on the person and their frame. Unlike sumo, there isn't a one-size-fits-all technique for conventional. Some will have their hips higher than others and some like to round/relax their thoracic, but neither one is correct or incorrect; it all depends on the person. The main things to concentrate on while pulling, though, is bar speed, tightness, neutral lumbar, and a straight line from the shoulder joint to the bar.

[O_RYAN_007]

The conventional deadlift is an odd lift in that "proper" form is going to depend on the person and their frame. Unlike sumo, there isn't a one-size-fits-all technique for conventional. Some will have their hips higher than others and some like to round/relax their thoracic, but neither one is correct or incorrect; it all depends on the person. The main things to concentrate on while pulling, though, is bar speed, tightness, neutral lumbar, and a straight line from the shoulder joint to the bar.

Solid advice!

[Sorrow]

That was some great work! Regardless of age, stance, layoff.. hell anything. Great job! And welcome back to life with the deads!

Should be an interesting thread to follow along with. Thanks for starting it.

[burlyman30]

That was some great work! Regardless of age, stance, layoff.. hell anything. Great job! And welcome back to life with the deads!

Should be an interesting thread to follow along with. Thanks for starting it.

Thanks for your support! Really glad you found your way to this thread. I'm sure you'll have great input for me and others with your experience. Pretty sure I won't be pulling that 700 you mustered up, though. That is some serious poundage.

[burlyman30]

Here are some informative videos by Rippetoe:

Mark Rippetoe: Deadlift Anatomy - YouTube

Mark Rippetoe: Deadlift Starting Angles - YouTube

Mark Rippetoe: Deadlift Alignment Pt. 1 - YouTube

Mark Rippetoe: Deadlift Alignment Pt. 2 - YouTube

A combination of trial and error, watching others, and finding what was most effective for me and others led me to pretty much the same conclusions as Rippetoe regarding personal biomechanics integrated into the deadlift. I had been taught (in highschool, by another highschooler) to be as upright as possible, but biomechanically, I am very weak that way and my butt always wanted to pop up into a stronger mechanical position before the plates came off the platform. I finally figured out that if I start from the position where my body WANTS to be, then I am starting off in the strongest position possible and increasing the likelihood that the weight will come off the platform when loaded heavily.

[burlyman30]

So I hadn't really intended to pull this week...

I got to the gym after a long and stressful day and to be honest, I really didn't want to be there. I was out of sorts mentally from the day I had, I was hungry, having only had three 300-350 calorie snacks all day, and I was likely dehydrated as I was working in warm temperatures and sweating throughout the day. I was a little concerned about cramping from being dehydrated, and I expected 315 to be about my limit today because of the state I was in.

I got there and was planning to do back and delts... and just wanted something that would hold my interest since I was mentally "not there". So I said to myself "fine, let's pull again. It should be interesting after my lackluster state of being."

135 x 12 Felt light (obviously)
225 x 5 Easy enough
315 x 1 Felt good. Light.
405 x 1 Went up much easier than last week. Really no challenge, but I felt the weight of it.
455 x 1 Up it went. It was heavy, though, and definitely a max effort.

I didn't really like my form with the 455. Passable, yes, but not up to my standard. I think it was mostly a timing issue. My hips drove up fast and my back ended up having to catch up. It's possibly indicative of a weak link, but I still think mostly a timing issue.

I decided I wanted to work on my fundamentals a bit to make sure I would perform the lift correctly under a load, so I dropped the weight to 315 and did 3 sets of 5. These were by no means max efforts. But I wanted enough weight on the bar to force me to some level of exertion. Enough weight that would help me examine my form. All of those went well, so I think next time I pull, I should up the weight of the working sets to about 365 for sets of 5 and see if that brings up any form issues at all.

Grip was strong throughout the workout. No issues at all without having any chalk.

I actually had more energy after this workout than I did after the other DLing workout I described last week, so I did several sets of parallel grip pullups and then continued onto delts. However, delts had been pretty well tired out from the deads and pullups. I worked my way up slowly to the 80 lb dumbells for overhead presses, then worked my way back down the rack 10 lb increments at a time... all the way to the 10s.

Overall very satisfied with this workout and felt better after doing more than I did after the last DL workout where I did quite a bit less volume.

[weekend]

does it make my grip weaker to use chalk? i use chalk on almost every heavy lift, including bench, deads, rows, cleans and even squat. seems to help my stability

[burlyman30]

does it make my grip weaker to use chalk? i use chalk on almost every heavy lift, including bench, deads, rows, cleans and even squat. seems to help my stability

Chalk just keeps the palms dry, rather than sweaty and slippery. It can't weaken your grip. It just puts you at a stronger mechanical advantage (higher friction) when used for pulling exercises. No advantage would be gained in pushing exercises.