Burly Decides to Pull Again...

[burlyman30]

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.

[burlyman30]

4-24-13

Bodyweight: approx 182.

Rather than my normal back and delt night, I decided to load up the bar a bit and tinker with the workout...

I loaded up 135 and did a set of 10, which felt good and I was trying to get my groove back after all this time. Surprisingly, it wasn't too hard to find.

I had no idea how any weight increases would feel, so I bumped it up to 185... set of 8. Felt good. Better than the previous set.

Upped it to 225 and pulled 5x. Again, it felt good. Actually better than I thought it would. However, I ripped open a small wound on my shin while bringing the bar upward. Though I could have done without that, it didn't surprise me. I have years of bloody shins behind me from my early days of pulling.



Again, I'm trying to test the waters as far as weight and also keep my form in good shape, so I upped it another 50 to 275. Another set of 5.

Next up was 315. I pulled it without issue. I have to say, I was a bit surprised I dropped to 3 reps on this set (purposely) to conserve energy.

I wasn't sure if 50 lbs would be too big of an increase, but I loaded it anyway, up to 365 lbs. Again, I pulled 1 rep, and again, it felt better than expected. It was starting to get heavy, but expected 315 to be my top weight for the night, so I was happy.

I debated with myself for about a minute on whether or not to go heavier. I just started deadlifts again, so I don't want to hurt myself right out of the gate. I also thought it wasn't so heavy that I couldn't increase the weight a bit and still get a better idea of my starting baseline.

The second thought won out for one more pull. I loaded it to 405. I really had no reference point to know how this would feel for my first night coming back. I figured I'd just give it a heave ho and see what happened. I'm glad I did. The 405 went up for a single just fine. I definitely felt the weight of the 405 on this pull. But it went up, and form stayed true.

After this, I went to do some bent over rows and put 225 on the bar. Well, the arms and delts were ready to go... the lower back told me it was very very tired, so I just did the one set of rows and shifted gears to pullups. I finished up the night with about 6-8 sets of pullups at 6-10 reps each. My body was pretty well burnt by then, so I abandoned delts until another day.

Grip was strong and didn't even cross my mind until later.

Until next time...

[Dcabedo]

Very nice Burly! Hope everything goes good with the addition of deadlifts to your routine!

[Coolazice]

2x body weight + an additional 40 pounds on your first DL workout??? Impressive!!! Why don't you remind everybody what your age is since there is bound to be a few folks around here that are unaware.

[h2s]

Hesitant first pull back in the gym....pulls more than most. Good work b.

[burlyman30]

2x body weight + an additional 40 pounds on your first DL workout??? Impressive!!! Why don't you remind everybody what your age is since there is bound to be a few folks around here that are unaware.

Haha... yep, I'm old. Turned 43 last week.

Thanks for working out the math for me, too... I don't keep up with stats of what a "good" number would be( i.e., 3x bodyweight?), so I guess I'll just have fun with it.

[burlyman30]

Hesitant first pull back in the gym....pulls more than most. Good work b.

Thanks bud. This old set of spinae erectus had more go juice than expected.

[JM1000]

Good job Burly, just got to 405 myself... After 7 months though:S

[DJM]

powerfull
ill be first to admit i dont pull more, impressed by the old guy, especially with the layoff

***liquid chalk is good stuff

[Coolazice]

Haha... yep, I'm old. Turned 43 last week.

Thanks for working out the math for me, too... I don't keep up with stats of what a "good" number would be( i.e., 3x bodyweight?), so I guess I'll just have fun with it.

I'm betting that the average 'Joe' can't DL much more than body-weight the first time he were to try it, so for you to still be able to do more than 2x BW straight out the gate after a 2 decade layoff definitely puts you in the impressive category in my book.