Deadlift form

Progress Report: More plateaus, sort of

Here's an out of frame shot of me deadlifting 435 lbs. no belt with straps. I could've went up as you can see the bar speed from where I pulled it off the ground was fairly fast but the flooring was kind of soft and I could feel my spine flexing out of line so I quit to prevent any back injury. The reason it's not in frame is because there was a lot of foot traffic around me and I didn't feel like having my phone stepped on.

So here's what you call a plateau:

I got 225 lbs above me and I'm trying to deadpress it. As a matter of fact I tried to do it two times.

I was thinking that if I substituted my dumbbell chest flyes for some decline chest presses, I would see a gain. It was kind of a gain in that I tried to press it twice. I felt a little stronger than my previous deadpress attempts and the fact that I went for it twice kind of constitutes a gain for me, so I'm going to continue experimenting with the decline press by bottoming out the bar close to my neck to try and achieve a nice stretch along my front deltoids with a severe sharp angle bend in my elbows.

The reason I quit the chest flyes was this:

This was from a couple weeks ago. I was using chest flyes as an accessory movement to my deadpress. As you can see there's no progress that has been made between then until now other than the fact that for this week's training session I got the bar up twice and that was for the simple fact that I switched from chest flyes to decline presses as an accessory movement. 

As an aside, I used to do the leverage chest press machine but I stopped because it wasn't the actual weight I could bench press. I've tested and compared both and usually my bench press is 40-70 lbs weaker than my leverage machine chest press. So if I had to guesstimate from the fact I did a leverage machine chest press max of 275 lbs, my max barbell bench press was around 225 lbs. So I changed to the deadpress because usually my touch and go barbell chest press is 10-15 lbs stronger than my deadpress. 

That's why I like strength training. Everything is pretty much black and white meaning the act of getting strong is very training specific. You have to look at your lifts as the end result of doing specific accessory movements. If you do the right accessory movements, you make gains. If you don't, you plateau. That's why if an accessory movement is not helping you squash a sticking point in your lift, stop doing that accessory movement as soon as possible and switch to a different one. 

 Mostly all your plateaus are training related.  It's pretty hard to skimp out on the nutrition part of strength training. All you gotta do is eat a bunch of animal protein. The resting part is easy too. If you feel tired, go to sleep. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. 

Anyways here's my numbers.

Gym Monday 11 p.m. 7/21/14

Shoulder press life fitness machine 205-1

Life fitness seated leg press machine 405-1

Free motion bicep curl cable machine 150-1

Rack pull 505-1, 525-0, 525-0

Decline bench press 225-0

Tricep extension rope attachment cable machine 70-1,  85-1

One legged stiff legged deadlift 

Left 175-2, 195-1

Right 175-2, 195-1

Gym Friday 7/25/14 3 pm 

Dead chest press 225-1

Dead chest press legs in the air 175-1

Conventional deadlift with straps 435-4

Stiff legged deadlift on 45 lb plates 495-1

Life fitness seated lat row cable machine 260-2

Technogym one legged leg press machine wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 

Left 140-1, 160-0

Right 140-1, 160-0

The fundamental nature of lifts: How to beat the plateau

So here I am with 415 lbs. on a bar deadlifting it.  As you can see it's almost effortless and it was.  The reason for that is this:

Here I am with 545 lbs. on a bar stiff legged deadlifting it or at least attempting it.  That's the key.  The attempt.  Even though I didn't lift the weight even an inch off the ground, the attempt that action of me straining to pull it was enough to stimulate muscle growth in the involved body parts and enabled to hit that 415 lb. pull in the above video. 

I'm always getting slammed for posting videos of my misses and fails.  But the people talking bad about me are the same people who are afraid to post videos of their own lifts because they know they can't match up to my lifts.  But the miss or the fail is the only way you're going to beat plateaus. 

For any lift the most important part of it is the bottom.  Whether you squat or bench press or deadlift, most of your training should focus on the bottom of the lift or in the hole or the at rest or dead position. Any lift to be completed successfully has to generate a certain amount of force to break inertia and move the bar upwards to lockout. Most of the lockout depends on how much force you generated at the bottom and the resulting momentum from that force.  When you explode the bar from the dead positon the first two or three inches from the bottom is pure strength, and as the bar moves away from the bottom the amount of force you need to move the bar upwards decreases and momentum takes over and carries the bar upwards to lockout. 

So how do you apply this knowledge to your training? Miss.  There you go simple enough.  Start all your lifts from the dead position on the floor or on the crossbars of the power rack.  You have to concentrate on the bottom before you get to the top.  If you don't have a power rack when bench pressing, unrack the weight and let the bar rest on your chest for five seconds and breathe and then explode upwards with your arms.  The squat is impossible to start from a dead position because it's impossible to get in position underneath a bar even if it's supported by the crossbars in the power rack.  If you're at a gym, find a leg press machine that let's you bottom out with your butt almost touching touching the back of your heels and use that to develop your bottom position explosiveness.  If you don't have a leg press, do pause squats but remember you still have to hold your breath to support the weight on the back of your neck.  The deadlift plateau is only beaten by stiff legged deadlifts fails or one legged stiff legged deadlifts misses.  You have to constantly be trying to lift heavy weight off the ground for a couple inches if you're going to beat a deadlift  plateau.

Progress Report: I'm getting my strength back

415 lb conventional deadlift on 45 lb plates

It was a warm-up set so I didn't feel like finishing the lift. When I train who am I trying to impress? 

Anyways here's my numbers.


Friday 1 a.m. gym 7/18/14
Dead chest press 185-0, 185-1, 225-1,
Legs in the air dead chest press 175-1
Conventional deadlift 1"deficit on forty five lb plates 475-1
Stiff legged deadlift 1"  deficit on forty five lb plates 475-1, 485-1
One legged leg press machine life fitness
Left 90-1, 110-0
Right 90-1, 110-0
Lat row seated machine life fitness 260-1,
260-2


Gym Monday 3 pm 7/14/14
Shoulder press seated 275-0, 275-1, 285-0
Seated bicep curl cable machine free motion 150-1
Leg press machine wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves life fitness 405-0, 405-1
Rack pull 505-0
One legged stiff legged deadlift
Left 175-1
Right 175-1
Tricep extension straight bar attachment cable machine 100-1
Pec fly dumbbells pair of 60's-2

Progress report: Here's something embarassing

What happens when you take nearly two weeks off from lifting?

This is what happens:


225 deadpress missed attempt using 6" cambered bar with hands set approximately 2 inches below the horizontal plane of my chest

The thing I like about the deadpress compared to the benchpress is that the deadpress provides no wear and tear on the shoulders and elbows that the benchpress brings on.  Constantly unracking and racking the bar puts a great deal of stress on your shoulders, wrists and elbows which could result in small tears in the tendons and ligaments involved in the movement.  With the deadpress, all of your energy is spent on actually making the lift.  You just slide the bar over you provided you're using a power rack and then explode upwards with your arms.  The benchpress is essentially two exercises:  the lift off from the rack and then lowering it on your chest, and then there's the actual chest press.  The liftoff and the setup take up a lot of energy that is better used to beat your personal record. 

Another thing about the deadpress is that there's no cheating involved in it.  No arching of the lower spine to help decrease the range of motion that the bar has to travel down to your chest.  No rebound effect that you get when benchpressing off suspended above you bar holders and then essentially bouncing the bar off the chest.  Even if you pause at the bottom there still is stored elastic energy in your front deltoids and pecs that helps you explode the bar off the chest. 


Here's another thing that happens when you take too much rest:

425 lb deadlift attempt with straps

There you go another miss.  Over the nearly two weeks I took off, I of course could feel myself getting weaker and muscles getting smaller.   When I drive for example, I lean forward a little because of my overgrown lats resting on the back of the seat.  In under a week's worth of rest, I no longer had that leaning problem because my lats had considerably atrophied thus the above video happens.

Why did I rest you ask? I was plateauing, basically.  I remember trying to do 545 lb. rack pull attempt about three weeks ago and I couldn't even lift it up a little.  I felt like my central nervous system was too fatigued to allow me to get strong.  So I decided to take a rest and do some yard work at my house and consequently I got weak.

But did I really get weak?  Sure my muscles wasted away but my bones, tendons and ligaments didn't.  So many people think that strength is just a function of the muscles when it's not.  When you lift heavy it's not only your muscles getting strong, it's your body as a whole getting strong.  Your skeleton, your tendons, your ligaments, your heart, your lungs are all strengthened when you train. After all these years of training my skeleton is thicker and denser. I use to be able to wrap my index finger and thumb around my wrist and touch them together before I started lifting heavy.  Now there's about an inch gap between my fingers.

You have to look at your muscles as your first layer of strength and your bone density, your cardio vascular endurance, and the tension strength of your ligaments and tendons as your second level of strength.  Ask yourself this why I was able to go from 85 lb. pause squat in January to a 335 lb. pause squat in June.  Previous to my 85 lb. pause squat in January, I hadn't done any exercise in about three months.  Do you think someone who is brand new to lifting would be able to accomplish the same feat?  Of course not is the answer.

Sure, when you quit lifting to rest or to fulfill life obligations your muscles will get weaker but that second level of strength, the bones and tendons and ligaments, take way longer to atrophy.  So even after you quit lifting for a length of time, you will be come back quickly to the level of strength you left off from.


So let's take a look at my numbers before and after my nearly two week hiatus: 

Here's what the numbers mean.

Gym Sunday 10 p.m. 6/22/14
Leverage chest press machine 370-0
One legged stiff legged deadlift
Left 175-1, 185-1
Right 175-1, 185-1
Rack pull 545-0
leg press free motion 390-1
Bench press legs in the air 205-0
Freemotion bicep curl cable machine 150-1
Tricep extension rope attachment cable machine 85-1

Home Thursday 1230 pm 6/26/14
Shoulder press seated 255-1
Stiff legged deadlift 545-0
Pec fly dumbbells pair of:
50's-2
Pendlay row 365-1
Pause squat wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 365-1

Gym Sunday 11 a.m. 6/29/14
Chest press leverage machine 370-0, 370-1
Freemotion bicep curl cable machine 150-1
Life fitness seated leg press machine wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 390-1, 405-1
Freemotion chest press cable machine 200-1
One legged stiff legged deadlift
Left 175-1, 185-1, 195-1
Right 175-2, 185-1, 195-1
Rack pull 555-0
Tricep extension rope cable machine 100-1

7/3/14 Home Thursday 2 pm
Yardwork

Yeah I'm counting yardwork as a workout.  You ever try mowing about 400 sq. ft of tall weeds with a 20 year old lawn mower while it's constantly sputtering out and then you have to pull the starter cord about 15 to 20 times to get it started again.  Each of those pulls was about if I had to guess at least 30 lbs. of tensile weight and my body was definitely raw and sore when I woke up the next day.


Home 7/10/14 1230 pm
Chest press cambered bar 225-1
Chest press cambered bar legs in the air 165-1, 165-2
Conventional deadlift 455-1
Stiff legged deadlift 385-1
Pendlay rows 315-1
Pause squat wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 315-2

Gym Monday 3 pm 7/14/14
Shoulder press seated 275-0, 275-1, 285-0
Seated bicep curl cable machine free motion 150-1
Leg press machine wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves life fitness 405-0, 405-1
Rack pull 505-0
One legged stiff legged deadlift
Left 175-1
Right 175-1
Tricep extension straight bar attachment cable machine 100-1
Pec fly dumbbells pair of 60's-2



So I took the break from lifting and got weak. No surprise.  But will I get back to my previous strength levels?  Yeah of course and I'll do it quickly.

You'll also notice between 7/10 and 7/14 I took a ninety nine hour rest between workouts.  I had to quit doing the late evening workouts.  It's hard to battle through mental fatigue and try to beat lifting records when you're working out at 1 or 2 a.m. in the morning.  There's just something about lifting after ten p.m. that really affects how I perform underneath a bar.  I don't know what it is.  Maybe it's my circadian rhythms and how they're shutting down my body to prepare for sleep.  I get kind of disoriented when I lift after 10 p.m.  I start forgetting what day it is sometimes and my mind wanders and I lose focus on the lift.  So I stopped lifting late night and just do it during the day from now on.  As long as I lift two times a week, I should do okay.

Protein intake guidelines

Since every Joe Blow out there has their bullsh*t protein intake guidelines floating around the internet, I want to put out my own recommendations for protein as somebody who actually puts himself under heavy iron who isn't on steroids.

The first 40-44 hours after working out and depending on how much whey protein you drink while working out, your focus should be on beef and egg protein preferably in the 1 to 1.5  gram range per pound of body weight.

The amount of whey protein you consume while working out is something you have to factor in when figuring out when to time your beef and egg protein intake.  Because I take in so much whey while I'm lifting, I'm finding that I have to wait sometimes four to eight hours after lifting to be able to start the process of protein synthesis and building up of the muscles.

In the meantime I'm eating high glycemic low fiber low fat carbohydrate foods. One hundred percent natural juices. Pastas with tomato sauce. White rice. Slightly over ripe bananas. Fruits and fruit juices work the best because Omar Isuf said fruits contain fructose a simple sugar that is quickly absorbed into the liver, and this will prevent hunger.

After about four to seven hours I'm eating a meal of steak and eggs.  Sometimes it doesn't digest right and I'll crap out half or all of it  in the morning when I wakeup or in the middle of my sleep.

The next day after I lift. I'm still gorging myself on meat, chicken and eggs. I prefer beef and egg protein over the chicken but I will do chicken if I get tired of eating beef and eggs. In the 24-48 range post workout all I'm focusing on is beef and eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also I'm taking in a lot of fruit and 100 percent low in fiber natural juices.

Why beef and eggs you ask? The beef has creatine and iron. Creatine supposedly increases muscle endurance and reduces fatigue while working out.  I prefer my steaks medium rare because I like the blood and I can really feel it absorbing into my muscles and repairing them quite nicely. The egg yolks have cholesterol which is necessary for testosterone production in the body.  Whatever  these foods have in them, I've eaten them hundreds of times after I lift and they are the only things that have gotten me strong.

So now that takes you into the 40-48 hour post workout phase. I stop eating beef, chicken and eggs and I go for the lower quality protein sources. Milk whole or low fat, deli meats, yogurt, gyro meat all basically have no more than ten or twelve grams of protein per serving but they occupy a good deal of volume and will help fill you up.  The basic idea here is to satisfy your cravings for animal protein but allow your body to recover from the harder to digest beef and eggs you took in from the previous day of eating. Your body is still working on them so give it a chance to fully absorb their nutrients. So for breakfast and lunch and any snack leading up to dinner you should focus on these lower quality proteins and fruits and juices like 100 percent natural orange juice.

Now for dinner,  you go  back to eating your beef and eggs. The idea here is that the whole day you've been teasing your muscles with the lower quality protein foods, so now your body should be begging for beef and eggs and will have no problems with digesting these protein  powerhouse foods.

Now for the next day you should be in the 72 hour post workout phase and you should be fully recovered and your muscles should be  repaired and ready to kick some ass in the gym.   Pre-workout I'm eating low quality protein sources and slightly over ripe bananas or cliff  oatmeal bars.

There you have it, full phase post workout eating guidelines.  Now go lift.