40 to 60 deadlifts?

[R.M.M.]

Coach Rippetoe,

First, thank you for writing the book. Before I trained, I was 170 lbs at 6’4”. And now I’m a healthy 205, and gaining.

What prompted me to get into weightlifting was an injury I suffered while moving a large carpet shampooer into a van by myself, I didn’t keep my upper back in a good position, and “strained” (doctor’s term) my right rhomboid, which overtime shrank while the left one got bigger. This thing plagued me for a year. Oddly it hurt the most when I held something in my left hand. Holding something in both hands or just the right felt fine. And I’m not sure if this played a factor, but there’s a history of Maprhan Syndrome (a connective tissue disorder) in my family, and I exhibit a number of characteristics. I went to the physical therapist, and he said people with marphans shouldn’t lift, and he recommended pushups against the wall, which did little if anything.

Deadlifts fixed it. So fuck his advice about not lifting.

I did them twice a week until I went from 135 to 300 lbs.

I thought that had permanently fixed the issue, so I stopped doing them (this is before I found your book), and focused on other movements, and the issue returned. Putting deadlifts back into my training has me back to “normal.”

After visiting your website and finding Bill Starr’s article on deadlifts, I took this bit to heart: “Two or three sets of twenty plus, using enough weight so the final five reps make your eyes cross will help you avoid many of the nagging back problems that the majority of the over-forty population lives with.”

How would you program in this advice? I’ve just started the Texas Method and would like to have a session where I input 2 sets of twenty. It seems that it’s strenuous enough that it will affect the other lifts.

What are your thoughts on this?

Again, thank you for writing the book. I look forward to the third edition.

[Mark Rippetoe]

On the program we use, 20s are not a normal part of the approach to strength training. Are you planning on just doing the back rehab he recommends?

[cpbellavia]

Slightly related, but whenever anything is wrong with my shoulders or back or life in general, I find that deadlifts and the press always fix it.

[R.M.M.]

On the program we use, 20s are not a normal part of the approach to strength training. Are you planning on just doing the back rehab he recommends?

Yes, that is all that I was planning to incorporate into the Texas Method. I've experimented with rows, but chins, pull ups and deadlifts seem to hit all of that area.

I could be a little over cautious with this, as doing deadlifts once a week seems to be fine for now (although, when I approach failure, it's the upper right side of my back that starts talking to me). I've just seen enough of my relatives begin to hunch over time that I want to do this as a preventative measure.

[tertius]

Slightly related, but whenever anything is wrong with my shoulders or back or life in general, I find that deadlifts and the press always fix it.

In that order, and not just one or the other.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Yes, that is all that I was planning to incorporate into the Texas Method. I've experimented with rows, but chins, pull ups and deadlifts seem to hit all of that area.

I could be a little over cautious with this, as doing deadlifts once a week seems to be fine for now (although, when I approach failure, it's the upper right side of my back that starts talking to me). I've just seen enough of my relatives begin to hunch over time that I want to do this as a preventative measure.

The program uses sets of 5. Just do the program. You can't do 20s and do the program.

[R.M.M.]

The program uses sets of 5. Just do the program. You can't do 20s and do the program.

I'll stick to it, then. Thank you.