Strongman Robert Oberst Says You Shouldn't Do Deadlifts

[FatButWeak]

Found this post he made on instagram from a few months ago: Robert Oberst on Instagram: “Figuring out this whole deadlift suit! Deadlift has been my weakness from day one in Strongman. I come from a football background and I was…”



Why, it's almost as if incompetent football coaches who didn't know how to coach the deadlift are the ones really to blame here. And, hey, it's almost as if we've said this before!

If you've got a guy who has the genetic capacity to deadlift 800+ within a few years of beginning training, I humbly submit you can have him do lots of silly BS in the gym that would still appear "to work." In this case, hang cleans aren't even silly BS - they're pretty far to the more useful side of the scale, all things fitness considered (think about what you see at your local globo gym). Doing heavy DLs and cleans from the floor would have been even better, but all things considered, you have a genetic freak doing reasonably useful things, of course it's going "to work."

But the root cause in this narrow case for his issue with deadlifts almost certainly still comes down to the classic football or S&C coach situation.

Broadly speaking regarding the issue as a whole, I stand by my earlier post.

great detective work here's our answer.

[David A. Rowe]

I think it IS important to point out that, while wrong, Mr. Oberst is not the enemy here. He is wrong according to our understanding, experience and model, and I'm sure everyone here would be more than happy to debate him on it OR just let him be wrong. I'm sure he would even raise points in the debate that we would agree with. The problem is the fact that "media" have picked this up and run it every way imaginable because it's another excuse for the timid, weak body and soul of the modern Westerner, bereft of the adversity their being actually requires to thrive, to continue doing nothing useful in lieu of doing things that make other people profit from their idiocy.

That... or they're selling pickle jar openers. Same difference.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Mr. Oberst is absolutely not the enemy. He has merely been taught the wrong things. If we can help him with this, we will gladly do so. But the chances are very high that he will make the same logic error we discussed previously.

[Corrie]

Found this post he made on instagram from a few months ago: Robert Oberst on Instagram: “Figuring out this whole deadlift suit! Deadlift has been my weakness from day one in Strongman. I come from a football background and I was…”



Why, it's almost as if incompetent football coaches who didn't know how to coach the deadlift are the ones really to blame here. And, hey, it's almost as if we've said this before!

If you've got a guy who has the genetic capacity to deadlift 800+ within a few years of beginning training, I humbly submit you can have him do lots of silly BS in the gym that would still appear "to work." In this case, hang cleans aren't even silly BS - they're pretty far to the more useful side of the scale, all things fitness considered (think about what you see at your local globo gym). Doing heavy DLs and cleans from the floor would have been even better, but all things considered, you have a genetic freak doing reasonably useful things, of course it's going "to work."

But the root cause in this narrow case for his issue with deadlifts almost certainly still comes down to the classic football or S&C coach situation.

Broadly speaking regarding the issue as a whole, I stand by my earlier post.

At one point in the podcast he tells a story of breaking the amateur log press record his first try ever, untrained.

So yeah...this guy is a genetic outlier and his experiences probably don't map well to us mortal beings. His logic seems circular, he's referring to the same people who messed up his training for a reference on how to train properly!

[Fulcrum]

You obviously don't work in this industry.

Yeah, but I'm careful observer.
And Oberst doesn't work in the "industry" either.

Many D1 Football teams and NFLers deadlift.
Sure not all, and not a majority.

And there has been more of a movement away from the powercleans/hang cleans the last 10 years or so.
(what he says "they are all doing" in lieu of the deadlift)

Oberst even admits he tried to make it in the NFL, but didn't.
And he played football for some shitty little college, Western something Oregon ... not a D1 school.
Played his first two years of college ball at a junior college for christ's sake.

What the hell does he know what's going on/in the NFL or D1 colleges?

It was just a talking point blurbbed out by some meathead on the Joe Rogan podcast.

[Mark Rippetoe]

You're missing my point. I know he doesn't work in the industry, and I know you don't either. If you did, you'd realize that the general public cannot be bothered to think through these things. They hear this shit in the media and believe it. They really do, even though you can't understand this.

[Yngvi]

Found this post he made on instagram from a few months ago: Robert Oberst on Instagram: “Figuring out this whole deadlift suit! Deadlift has been my weakness from day one in Strongman. I come from a football background and I was…”

Does this video of how he deadlifts remind anyone else of Mark's strong friend "Phil" at lockout from the blue book? Stand up, Robert!

Among athletes that perform the lifts incorrectly, hang cleans may cause fewer acute training injuries because it limits the amount of weight the athlete can attempt and it does not give them the opportunity to lose tension in the lower back off the floor. Conversely, it also limits the amount of strength an athlete can gain, especially in the lower back, which likely leads to more acute and chronic on field injuries being indirectly attributable to performing hang cleans instead of deadlifts.

[Erik Y]

I can tel you from my very limited experience with this kind of thing it is already clear that genpop people do not need another excuse to be scared of lifting heavy weight off the floor.

[Fulcrum]

You're missing my point. I know he doesn't work in the industry, and I know you don't either. If you did, you'd realize that the general public cannot be bothered to think through these things. They hear this shit in the media and believe it. They really do, even though you can't understand this.

I don't know man.
None of Oberst stuff is in "main stream media" that I see.
This crap only shows up in one's media-feeds if you watch, listen, click-on, read a lot of fitness or barbell sport content.

I've seen more "media" (media as it relates to me) refuting Oberst's opinion, rather than running with it.
Oberst apologists: "What he really means is..." and "his context" this and that.


I opened my wife's Lifetime Fitness magazine the other day (free sub.w/ your gym membership to that franchise).
Behold: "Do your squats and deadlifts" article page 6.

It seems to me, as someone "who is not in the industry", that the tide turned towards doing compound barbell exercises (inc.deadlifts) long ago and is not looking back.
#1- they work really well; the evidence will play this out.
#2- hate to say it, but: Crossfit^tm

[Mark Rippetoe]

Okay.