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Thread: Artificially Weak Deadlifts, Part 1: Perception vs Reality | Robert Santana

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by RichardUnderwood View Post
    I don’t think I’ll be much help in discussing how someone may look more aesthetic, in that opinions will differ between individuals on what looks best. In short, I think heavy deadlifts simply make you look like you lift heavy things or more powerful. For example, as far as natural athletes go, look at elite Olympic weight lifters or elite powerlifters who train for performance and compare them to your average gym bra looking for aesthetic gain. The gym bra sometimes does achieve the aesthetic goal, full muscles, especially the beach ones, (arms, shoulders, chest, lats). This may look great but may also not look strong which I’ll explain. Now your Olympic and power lifter will look totally different. Barring that they have a body fat percentage that allows you to see the physique they posses, and not necessarily as lean as the gym bra, things are distributed differently. There’s just a certain thickness that is developed only with heavy pulls from the floor. People who train this way, like us, can see this because we train this way ourselves. We can see the strength and power in other lifters and I think we can appreciate that more. What I’m trying to get at here is you end up looking like the mother fucker you don’t want to mess with versus the guy that just wants to get laid.
    check out Eric Cressey - 600 lb deadlifter that looks like a librarian.

    I think comparing elite anything to average anything is probably off the mark to....

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by RichardUnderwood View Post
    Can you contribute rather than looking to argue with someone?
    That's his role on this board. He's a volunteer, I promise.

  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by RichardUnderwood View Post
    Like I said, aesthetics would be opinions based. Of course genetics or going to play a factor and we still haven’t discussed why Santana made the deadlift/aesthetic connection. So thanks for your valuable input. Can you contribute rather than looking to argue with someone?
    Because when I had a 440 deadlift I got down to 11% body fat and i had more visible abs than visible traps, lats, and rhomboids. Pushing it up to 500 got all of that to show at 17% body fat, which means that the muscles grew large enough to spread out a larger mass of body fat (since I gained weight). In short, I didn't have to be so lean to show visible upper body musculature. The press is the next lift to contribute.

    Now before anyone points out the obvious n of 1, I will add that I have seen the same result in every single lifter that I've trained. At my first seminar Rip told me "you should not be squatting more than you deadlift unless you are squatting and deadlifting 600+." I explored this over the years and found this to be true if you train properly. The second part of this article will explore technical considerations. Happy to keep discussing, sorry I was late to this party.
    Last edited by Robert Santana; 09-12-2019 at 10:32 PM.

  4. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by RichardUnderwood View Post
    I don’t think I’ll be much help in discussing how someone may look more aesthetic, in that opinions will differ between individuals on what looks best. In short, I think heavy deadlifts simply make you look like you lift heavy things or more powerful. For example, as far as natural athletes go, look at elite Olympic weight lifters or elite powerlifters who train for performance and compare them to your average gym bra looking for aesthetic gain. The gym bra sometimes does achieve the aesthetic goal, full muscles, especially the beach ones, (arms, shoulders, chest, lats). This may look great but may also not look strong which I’ll explain. Now your Olympic and power lifter will look totally different. Barring that they have a body fat percentage that allows you to see the physique they posses, and not necessarily as lean as the gym bra, things are distributed differently. There’s just a certain thickness that is developed only with heavy pulls from the floor. People who train this way, like us, can see this because we train this way ourselves. We can see the strength and power in other lifters and I think we can appreciate that more. What I’m trying to get at here is you end up looking like the mother fucker you don’t want to mess with versus the guy that just wants to get laid.
    I think you nailed it right here. I just wanted you to say it because I was pretty sure what you were going to say.

  5. #15
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    Robert, if you encounter an early Intermediate lifter who's made this training mistake while in LP, do you attempt to program to get a more favorable ratio between the 2 lifts? Or at that point, if it's not an effort or technique issue, are you just looking for weekly progress in both lifts?

  6. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Justin Johnson View Post
    Robert, if you encounter an early Intermediate lifter who's made this training mistake while in LP, do you attempt to program to get a more favorable ratio between the 2 lifts? Or at that point, if it's not an effort or technique issue, are you just looking for weekly progress in both lifts?
    Depends on his goals. If his goals are to bring up the weak point then the squat work needs to be accounted for in the deadlift programming. What is your ratio?

  7. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Santana View Post
    Depends on his goals. If his goals are to bring up the weak point then the squat work needs to be accounted for in the deadlift programming. What is your ratio?
    Thank you Robert. I was mostly just wondering your preference in that situation.

    I kind of fit the description. I just recently switched to a 4 day split mostly for the sake of time. I was still making progress, but utilizing back off sets for squat and press. Squat and Deadlift are both 355x5.

  8. #18
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    You are welcome. I'd probably pull the squat work back to the low 200s/high 300s and give the low back a break to make headway on the deadlift. You aren't actually detraining from doing this since there is overlapping stress from both lifts and the squat has a way of getting back up there quick.

  9. #19
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    This is a great article. My deadlift is only around five pounds heavier than my squat (420 vs. 415), probably because I've always enjoyed squatting and haven't put as much work in on my pulls.

    It's always a let down to go to a meet and be doing decently in my class after squats, only to get blown away in the next two lifts. I'm looking forward to part 2 of this.

  10. #20
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    starting strength coach development program
    Get that up to 500. You'll fill out nicely as a result. Part 2 will focus more on technical aspects of the lift that cause the excessive repeating of loads on the LP

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