My Quest to Throw Some of the Rules Out the Window and go for a 600 pound dedlift

[DeanT]

May I ask how you count 100 reps? Do you include warmups? Warmups over what percentage? Just work sets? Please expound. I ask because I'm about your age (48) with a competition max of 375 and a training 5rm of 320 right now, so were about the same strength level.

Thanks

Clearly, what you are doing is working. Wow...well done! I say this not as advice or a recommendation. This is what has been working for me...I'm a bit of an odd case though as I'll explain.

I only count worksets. I have a standard warmup that I use for every lift and I never count it...for bench my full warmup is: 5-B, 5-135, 4-185, 2-225, 1-275, 1-295. I will only warmup to the working weight used that day though so if I'm doing 7 sets of 6 at 67%, I would only warm up to 2-225 and then do my sets of 6 at 245. I typically have moderately heavy Mondays with 2-4 rep ranges over 80%. Tuesdays are generally 7 sets of 6 at 67-70% (sometimes 7 sets of 5...sometimes sets of 7 and at times sets of 8) I'll throw an AMRAP in there on occasion for fun. Thursday is generally my heavy day with at least one heavy single followed by doubles or more singles. Friday is generally that catch all. I seem to like to do sets of 3, 4 or 5 at 75%ish until I get to a RPE of 9 (one rep left in the tank). For some reason, I can do sets of 4 at that percentage forever even with only 2 min rest (my standard rest period for all benching). I did 15 sets of 4 at 75% the other day...even that was a soft 9. I just got sick of benching. This is the odd thing because I'm fully recovered 2 days later. So, I really, really need lots and lots of reps to grow my bench.

I figured this out after trying about everything and beating my head against the wall for 2 years and multiple coaches.

[OZ-USF-UFGator]

Personally, I would rather have the 575x3 than 600x1. I’ve pulled 600x1, but my best rep PR is 505x7. 575x3 is fucking strong man. Relative intensity wise, you were well over 600!

Another lesson I learned "FOR ME" is that pendaly rows did more to train explosiveness off the floor than cleans do. I never cleaned greater than 185, but when the rows hit 225+, weight that used to be hard off the floor (365+) seemed to absolutely fly. In fact one time, I was doing 315 for a back off set and I actually had to look at the end of the set to be sure I didn't forget to load the third plate on each side. that said, once you get to limit sets of actual, each row off the floor pendaly rows, they are hard...really hard.

[danomite!]

2) A slippery bench sucks big time...wear a shirt with a big logo on the back or get really sweaty before benching.

I use an A7 Bar Grip shirt when benching. It locks in pretty solid. I also use it for back squat. The bars at my gym at work don't have the sharpest knurl. I have a TPB in my garage gym at home so no worries there. Barbell DNA Bar Grip Men's Shirt - A7

[OZ-USF-UFGator]

My first 405 X 10 video. Mentally, this was the most exciting milestone I've ever achieved in the gym. I used to literally dream of being able to do this!

[OZ-USF-UFGator]

T\If my form isn't the best and I look tired, its because this set was actually after 4 X 5 front squats (at 220) and 4 sets of 5 deadlifts @405, so this set was my 5th AMRAP deadlift set. If I did this fresh, I might have been able to hit another 10-15 pounds on this set.

Note, I don't use a belt or chalk, but I do use wrist straps and I deadlift in socks: again, tossing rules out the window.

[hector_garza]

Disclaimer : The most I ever deadlifted was 575 X 3. I hurt my knee sprinting right before my scheduled test day and I took 6 weeks off from physical activity to let it heal. (note to self, don’t ever challenge your 14 year old daughter to a 200 Meter sprint when she went to sectionals for that event). I am confident that I could have lifted 600 for a single, but the truth is that I didn’t. I don’t compete in strength sports so it was more important for me to heal.

In designing the program, I drew from 5 years of strength training and set realistic expectations:
1) The only exercises would be Pull from ground (dead, rows, SLDL), inclined bench (and dumbbell variant), Press (and dumbbell), curls. I switched to inclined because I didn’t want to be mentally bothered by pushing PR’s on flat bench and be frustrated if I couldn’t.
2) I will throw the book out of the window, risk overtraining and do a LOT of heavy ground pulling
3) Accept the suck: I only front squatted. My hips are fucked up and have been my whole life, so I started with the bar, literally and during this program. Once I hit 155 for sets of 5, I ran progression doing 8, 5, 3. Runing the program this way allowed me to focus on a squat variant that never bothered me and also reduced total systemic stress so my age limited recovery avilities could be focused on recovering from pulling from the floor.
4) I pulled from the floor 3X a week in H,L,M. Heavy day was deadlift, light was pendaly rows and medium was straight leg deads.
5) Deadlift was deloaded to a light weight and I did 4 sets of 5 and then 1 set to failure, all with the same weight
6) I did a 10% press deload and my press scheme was work up to 1 heavy set of 5, then 2 sets of 3 and then deload and do 1 set to failure.
7) I did a light opposite press day using 3 sets of 10 with dumbbells on the non-focused press day
8) I was willing to accept minimal gains in all areas as long as deadlift was progressing.
9) No weightlifting belt
10) Wrist straps will be used (I love the ones with the dowels)
11) Dead-mill pushed after 2 of the 3 weekly sessions (20 seconds push, 100 seconds off)

I planned this as a 20 week program but it got drawn out as the realities of heavy deadlifting set in. It looked like this

Week 1
5sets: I alternated 1 set of front squats (95 pounds), one set of deadlifts 335. I got 10 reps on the last set of deadlifts
Overhead press work up to 5, 3,3 12
3 sets: Alternate 1 set of inclined dumbbell press with 1 set of curls
1 set of curls to failure


Weeks 2-11: increased deadlift by 15 pounds the first week, then 5 pounds thereafter, repeat above pattern, simply alternating press movements

Week 12
Deadlift 405 for 4 sets of 5 and 1 set of 10 (I actually got this set on video, as it was a goal I’ve had since I started strength training). I drpped sets and increased weekly poundage to 10

Week 14
Felt burned out, so I dropped the to 3 sets of deadlift: 440 X 5 reps

Week 12
450 for 3 sets of 5, decided to drop to 4 sets of 5 and increase weight bump

Week 14
490 for 3 X 3 (that was all I was capable of, so I continued this scheme)

Week 15…completely smashed…did all aspects of program but completely skipped deadlifting

Week 16
510 for 3X3

Week 17

525 for 2 sets of 3, 475 X 5 (not sure why, just went by feel)

Week 18

540 X 3

Week 19
550X 3

Week 20
560 for 2 X 2

Week 21, took off from lifting

Week 22
570 X 3

Where I ended up:
I gained minimal bodyweight (202 – 206 pounds)
Front squat: 275 for sets of 3
Inclined bench: 230 for sets of 3
Press: 180 X 3 (within statistical noise of when I started the program)
Pendaly Rows: 245 for sets of 3 (hard as fuck)
Curls: whatever, I THINK my arms look bigger, but my chin ups detrained

My thoughts: this was deff. worth it. I hit several milestones that I was beginning to think I may never hit (405 for 10, 500 X 3) and I am confident that without a belt (but with straps) I was capable of pulling 600 pounds, even though I didn’t. To be honest, this program kicked my ass: not only did I push too hard at the end by trying to sprint, but I also had a good case of tendonitis in my left forearm that was so bad, I had to use wrist straps on my rows above 155 pounds. I also developed some sort of ache in BOTH of my glute-ham tie in areas of my inner thigh. This was so bad that even after 5 weeks out of the gym and a severe deload, I still felt and thought I fucked myself for life from pulling from the ground. Lucky for me , a deload down to 225 and a few weeks of foam rolling made that go away. By the end of the program, I had to force myself to get used to the gut wrenching feeling of looking at the deadlift bar in-between sets and I got good at talking myself out of quitting.

I finished the program a few months ago and now have worked myself back up to a fairly easy set of 5 with 475 pounds and am just now getting the real fire back in my belly to go for a new goal: I have never been a great bench presser, so I am going for a 315 bench on my next program, which would be significantly higher than my all-time PR. I want to maintain at least a 500 deadlift, hit a 315 front squat and revisit a BW press and 12 strict chins at the same time.

And yes, I’m done with back squats, likely forever. For the first time in years, I don’t have mobility problems and inflamed hip sockets, even after nasty deadlift days. I know, I know….I am doomed to always be a frail, week, puny pipsqueak, not worthy of being a true strength trainer if I ditch back squats, but I’ve made my peace with that.

In summary, although I didn't use a prescribed program, I took what I learned over 5 years from this board, analyzed, processed the information with both my experiences and from the books and developed a program that allowed me to achieve milestones I used to think impossible. I also learned a lot about myself in the process. I stopped posting about lifting, stopped visiting forums, stopped talking smack and just settled down, drew up a program that I thought was the best I could do and executed it. thank you to everyone who helped me on this journey, even to those who I've passionately argued with along the way.

On to a 315 bench!

OzUSF, this was an outstanding write-up!!! Thank you!