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Thread: 200/300/400/500

  1. #1
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    Default 200/300/400/500

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    I just recently hit a longtime goal of deadlifting 500lbs for a single. While there are a shit ton of people more knowledgeable than me and lifting much heavier, a few people suggested I write up some notes on how I got there. So I did. They're below.

    They differ than the official SS programming. Obviously, I'm not claiming they're better. They're not. They're just what worked for me.

    ************************************************** ***********

    Road Through Perdition, or, Notes from a Weak Man’s Journey to a 500lb Deadlift


    In case it can prove useful I’m typing up some notes on the path I took to a 500lb deadlift. Who are these notes most likely to help? I would guess someone with circumstances similar to my own. Lots of days I didn’t have time to do to the program as written. Often my priorities (family, work, school) displaced the time I would otherwise reserve for lifting. After I finished the linear progression I had to experiment and find intermediate programming that worked for me. (That was probably the greatest challenge, and was ultimately achieved through a combination of the all but the first tip provided below.) Hopefully these notes will help you mitigate these challenges in your own life allowing you to make the best of your circumstances.


    (1) Ride out Novice Gains as Long as You Can

    This can’t be overemphasized. You’ll never make gains again like you make with the novice SS programming. Add 5 lbs for as many weeks as you can. When you fail two workouts in a row, drop your work sets 10%, and start adding 5 lbs again. After you’ve done this two or 3 times in a row start using micro-weights. (If this is different than the official SS advice, then obviously do the official stuff. I haven’t done the novice programming in awhile so the exact details aren’t fresh.)
    Do not quit when this novice gains are hard. Grind them out as long as you can. Quit only when the novice gains are done.


    (2) Form

    Dial in your form. If your form is sub-optimal you won’t be able to ride out the novice progression, or advance in any program for that matter, as far as you otherwise would.
    I made the mistake of thinking I had beautiful form and could easily keep the bar a nanometer from my legs, not touching yet still exploiting an optimal bar path. This was stupid. At lighter weights this is kind of possible, but once you’re going heavy it’s not something you should be focusing on. (And, in retrospect, why would you? I did because that’s what a Crossfit instructor told me to a long time ago. I was a moron.) Instead, wear sweat pants, soccer socks, whatever, and drag the bar against your legs. In my experience this allowed for the optimal bar path.
    Don’t round your back. Your back will ultimately round when you’re pulling a true maximum lift. That’s fine. But you should be fighting to keep your back straight when you lift. Your back absolutely should not be rounding on sub-maximal lifts. (Obviously, in keeping with the article, I’m talking about generic deadlift training here. Strongmen and other athletes do rounded back training for their own purposes.)



    (3) Backoff Sets

    After you’ve resetted a few times on the novice progression try adding back off sets. If your work set of the deadlfit is 315 x 5, add two sets of 5 reps at 80% after. This would be 255lbs x 2 sets x 5 reps. You’ll be amazed how easy it is. It will only take a few minutes. The additional volume will allow you to get more of a strength adaptation with a very minimal investment of time and effort.
    But, again, don’t do this until you’ve had to reset a few times. If you start using back off sets too early you run the risk of overdoing the volume, not recovering properly, and failing your next workout because you were dumb and greedy. Backoff sets, and all the assistance exercises I’ll describe here for that matter, are like tobasco sauce. A little bit can be a huge improvement. Too much is too much.


    (4) Power Cleans:

    Do you do them? I didn’t for awhile because I was lazy. It was easier not to. I thought nothing would carry over to the deadlift better than the deadlift and so, with that flimsy logic, I avoided power cleans since my goal was a 500lb deadlift. Rather than do power cleans I just deadlifted more often.

    This was a mistake.

    Power cleans let you work out with an amount of power greater than deadlifts (at least greater than the grinders, which would have a low level of power since they move so slowly), while simultaneously allowing you to recover between deadlift workout days. The strength you’ll gain from power cleans transfers over. As well, the recovery between deadlift days is likely needed since at this point you’re pulling heavy weights. I’m still shitty at power cleans, but raising my power clean from a puny 160 to a puny 200 got my deadlfit moving again. (I’m an unathletic person. If you’re even slightly athletic, with more fast twitch muscles, you’ll probably have a much, much higher power clean by the time you hit your 500lb deadlift.)


    (5) Assistance Exercises:

    After you’ve burned out your linear progression, after you’ve been using the back off sets and have begun stalling, after you’ve implemented a day in your training where power cleans substitute for deadlifts, if your deadlift gains stop then throw in an assistance exercise. It may, initially, be too much work for you to do back off sets and an assistance exercise. It was for me in the beginning. Ultimately, I increased my work capacity and did both back off sets and an assistance exercise, but there were still days, especially if I had squatted heavy, where I didn’t have it in me to do more than one assistance exercise. As with everything, you’ve gotta feel it out for yourself. The assistance exercises I found useful are below.

    Ab Wheel: The first assistance exercise I would throw in is the ab wheel. It’s cheap, 11$ at Walmart. As well, in will only take 5 minutes to get all the reps you need. Oldster used to post about the huge value he got from it. Your abs will get much much stronger. Go for as many reps as you can in 5 minutes. 10 minutes after you’ve been at it for awhile. Don’t do it more than twice a week. Expect to be wrecked in the beginning. The first time I did the ab wheel I was able to get one set of 7 reps. Immediately after I felt fine. The next morning I could not sit up in bed. I had to roll over. I was wrecked for days.

    This extreme DOMS goes away. So does the weakness in your abs. And probably other muscles as well.

    Bent Over Rows: The next assistance exercise I would add in are bent over rows. These were hugely valuable to me, I’m guessing because I’m so bad at chins. Doing them allowed me to gain the upper back strength that I wasn’t obtaining from my limited sets of chins. If you are good at chins, then it’s probably because you only weigh 110 pounds, and so bent over rows likely still offer huge value since you can go heavy on them without inflaming your elbows the way weighted chins do. If you regularly go heavy on weighted chins then not only am I jealous, but maybe you can skip the bent over rows.

    Good Mornings: When your deadlift form breaks down it’s an opportunity to see your weak links. My weakest link (I think, they were all pretty weak) was my lower back. You can throw in good mornings at the end of your workout (nothing fancy, just 3 sets of 5 reps, add 5 lbs every workout or as you’re able).
    I kept my legs slightly bent and went down to a bit above parallel. Some people (Crossfit morons at my gym) claimed you were supposed to keep your legs straight and go down to parallel. Maybe they’re even right. I don’t know. Either way, fuck ‘em. It’s not a contested lift and I never saw anyone go heavy with this strict form. Slightly bent legs made me feel safer and allowed me to go heavier. And seeing as the Good Morning is not a contested lift, going heavy and being safe are more important than listening to form nazis.
    It may or may not be at all relevant to your training, but when I deadlifted 500 I was doing bent over rows with 275 lbs for 3 sets of 5 reps. I never went heavier than I felt comfortable. Remember, these are assistance exercises, they're not competed, there’s no reason to get hurt doing them.



    (6) Make The Best of Shitty Circumstances:

    There were a lot of days where I worked late, a family member was sick, I had to study, whatever. The result might be that I would only have 30 minutes in the gym. Rather than seeing this as a day to write off since you can’t get your whole workout, get yourself under the bar. Get your squats in. Do whatever else you can as well, but first, and definitely, get your squats in. Getting your 3 sets of 5 reps of back squats, even if you do nothing else, will move you toward a heavier deadlift. Writing off your workout, letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, will not.


    (7) Consistency

    Don’t skip workouts. Paraphrasing Rip, reasons to miss a training session are things like the kidnapping of a friend or the death of a good dog. If you feel lethargic, are depressed, you’re angry, you’re just not in the mood, then all the more reason to get your training in. It’s rare that you leave the gym feeling worse than when you entered. Reasons to miss your workout exist, but they’re not common. Get the training in.

    (8) Psychological

    You’re not curing someone from a disease. You’re not competing against a more skilled opponent. You’re not getting a handle on the past pluperfect subjunctive. Achieving a 500 lb deadlift is something that lots of dumber people, with less resources, have accomplished. You need to understand this. You need to know that if you put in the work, in an even half intelligent manner, that the goal will manifest.
    Buy the ticket. Take the ride.
    Last edited by hector_garza; 05-31-2015 at 11:09 PM.

  2. #2
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    Thanks for that, good reading.

    From day one to the 500lbs, how long did it take you, and about how many sessions in all?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kyle Schuant View Post
    Thanks for that, good reading.

    From day one to the 500lbs, how long did it take you, and about how many sessions in all?
    Background: In years past I'd worked up to a shitshow of a 480lb deadlift. Bent back, grip giving out, nigh injury, etc.

    I joined my gym end of December horribly deconditioned and able to pull about 365 for a single. Putting in crazy hours at a sedentary job and eating poorly had taken a lot from me.

    I pulled 500 this past weekend so that's 6 months of an average of 3.5 sessions per week, or 14 sessions a month, so about 84 sessions.

  4. #4
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    Hector, this is a great read. You seem to have a good handle on your training. Keep it up!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chebass88 View Post
    Hector, this is a great read. You seem to have a good handle on your training. Keep it up!
    Thank you! Will do!

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    As a frustrated youngun driving for the same goals you've hit, (I've hit 2 and 4, still gunning for the 3 and 500) this is a pretty useful piece of work. Thanks, and congratulations!

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    Quote Originally Posted by CJ Gotcher View Post
    As a frustrated youngun driving for the same goals you've hit, (I've hit 2 and 4, still gunning for the 3 and 500) this is a pretty useful piece of work. Thanks, and congratulations!
    Thank you!

    Congrats on hitting 2 and 4!!!

    I'm focusing on the 2 and 3 now and plan to get both before year's end.

  8. #8
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    Congratulations on achieving this goal, Hector! Great write up with a lot of outstanding advice.

  9. #9
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    Good write up. I also liked seeing mention of Oldster in there.

  10. #10
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    starting strength coach development program
    Thanks for the notes on your experiences hector.

    Quote Originally Posted by hector_garza View Post
    (6) Make The Best of Shitty Circumstances:

    There were a lot of days where I worked late, a family member was sick, I had to study, whatever. The result might be that I would only have 30 minutes in the gym. Rather than seeing this as a day to write off since you can’t get your whole workout, get yourself under the bar. Get your squats in. Do whatever else you can as well, but first, and definitely, get your squats in. Getting your 3 sets of 5 reps of back squats, even if you do nothing else, will move you toward a heavier deadlift. Writing off your workout, letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, will not.
    This really hits home. I've had time issues lately, where I only have about an hour. I've tried doing things like limiting my squats to 12-15 minutes and minimizing rest, and I can usually get about half of a volume day in. Certainly better than nothing. Even getting your top set in once seems to be miles better than nothing.

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