Progressive Range of Motion Programming

[Tim K]

Anyone ever experiment with this? I just saw a thing in a youtube video about Bob Peoples (first man to deadlift 700lbs, at like 180) who supposedly trained this way. He basically did rack pulls in excess of his deadlift 1RM and progressively lowered the starting position over time. This was in a video by Greg Nuckols who said that he tried this and ended up hitting an 85lb deadlift PR.

Curious if anyone here has tried training this way.

[Bryan Dobson]

Or you can train with underload, overload and competition range of motions all the time.

[Meshuggah]

I have the George Leeman PROM program, the main exercises are Rack Pulls, Deadlift Stance Box Squats, Deficit Deadlifts, and Overhand Yates Rows.
There are more exercises in the program, but just doing the main 4 worked well for me.
Here is George's 909 with a hook grip:

[hamburgerfan]

George Leeman is nothing more than another lifter looking for a shortcut. I prefer to use the methods of lifters who use nothing more than what GOD gave them.

[Tim K]

Or you can train with underload, overload and competition range of motions all the time.

Right, but that would be a different training protocol entirely than the one I'm curious about.

I have the George Leeman PROM program, the main exercises are Rack Pulls, Deadlift Stance Box Squats, Deficit Deadlifts, and Overhand Yates Rows.

Yeah, combining Rack Pulls with Deficit Deads and other stuff seems pretty common, but it's not what this post is about.


I'm mainly curious about this style of training because of the simplicity of it. Seems too good to be true, just load up a heavy weight and pull it from an inch lower each week until you can pull it from the floor. Also I don't think I'll be doing deficit deads any time soon because I have enough trouble getting into/maintaining a neutral lumbar position at the bottom of regular deadlifts as it is. If the bar was any lower I don't think I could lift it safely.

[Mugaaz]

Maybe it does work, but it doesn't make much sense to me. If it is progressive ROM from the easiest position, how is that going to carryover well into the weakest ROM?

[Chebass88]

You should search and read Paul Anderson's writings. He claimed a similar style with the squat.

[Meshuggah]

Yeah, combining Rack Pulls with Deficit Deads and other stuff seems pretty common, but it's not what this post is about.

That's funny, you asked about Progressive Range Of Motion training. That is exactly what Leeman's program is. (PROM)

[Nate7out]

Right, but that would be a different training protocol entirely than the one I'm curious about.



Yeah, combining Rack Pulls with Deficit Deads and other stuff seems pretty common, but it's not what this post is about.


I'm mainly curious about this style of training because of the simplicity of it. Seems too good to be true, just load up a heavy weight and pull it from an inch lower each week until you can pull it from the floor. Also I don't think I'll be doing deficit deads any time soon because I have enough trouble getting into/maintaining a neutral lumbar position at the bottom of regular deadlifts as it is. If the bar was any lower I don't think I could lift it safely.

There is a blog out there called Mythical Strength. It's an amateur strong man competitor and he champions this method for deadlifts. You will probably have to dig through a few dozen posts about how he hates SS to find out the info, but he does have a few good posts on the method.

First google hit:

Mythical Strength: RANGE OF MOTION (ROM) PROGRESSION

[George Christiansen]

It makes sense to me, but I wonder if it has any actual advantages, other than novelty, over cycling in sessions with very close to 1RM training.