Big Deadlift---making it happen. OBB meet write up..

Im sitting down in a cheap hotel conference room chair, I cant hear anything because I have headphones blaring some loud classic rock (Van Halen, Scorpions, Bon Jovi, etc). Im not really listening to the music, more like using it to drown everybody out because I dont feel like hearing any chit chat, Im getting in the zone. The bottom half of my deadlift suit is digging into me and my stubbed toe hurts. I want to go now, I wanted to make this deadlift hours ago, yesterday, I just want to get it over with. Lindsey tells me I am three-out, I take the headphones off stand up and have Brian Carroll and Kieth Price help me pull my suit straps up. I chalk my hands, tighten my belt and then I hear "Bar's Loaded, 840 pounds!". I come storming out, square up to the bar, reach down and lock in my hook grip, then drop my hips a little and went for it. Pushed my feet down and tried to get as much speed coming up as I could. I felt it blow off the floor easy and I knew right then I had it, it slowed a bit as it neared my sticking point just below my knees. I shook a bit and lost a bit of momentum, but now I was in my lockout (strongest part of my deadlift) so I just held on and kept pulling, lockout was easy and got the down signal. At this point I proceeded to go apeshit and run around and yell a little bit, but give me a break, I was pretty excited.



840 pound deadlift on the books and much more to come, I feel like I'm just starting to figure like one or two little things about training...just enough to be dangerous. This was the completion of a short term goal and an indicator of a successful training cycle. Here is what my deadlift training looked like leading up to this meet.

Been following a 3-day a week split for a while now and I feel I am able to make great strength gains by allowing myself 4 rest days a week. Split before this meet was; Monday: press/upper body, Wednesday: deadlift/lower body, Friday night or Saturday morning: Squat/lower body.

On deadlift day I pick one primary deadlift movement (deficit pull, rack or block pull, band pull, reverse band pull). I warmup and work my way up to max effort for 1-2 reps with that deadlift movement, then go down and do a drop set of max reps at 60-80% but not to failure. Next I pick another lower body exercise (Heavy sled drag, front squat, leg press, high rep squat) and warmup and do a heavy 5x5 or sometimes 5x10. After this I do support work, which changes every 3-5 weeks but an example would be.

Supported or bent over row. warmup then 5x8-15

wide and narrow lat pulldown 4x10-20 each

dumbell row 4x10

dumbell curl 3x10-20 with 20lb dumbells, just to stretch and cool down my biceps from all the heavy rowing.

The primary deadlift is done 2-3 weeks on and 1 weeks off. Everything else is done every week.

I have not focused on my deadlift much over the past year or so because I felt that while my deadlift was strong I had many other weaknesses that I needed to prioritize working hard on first. Now that my press is coming up and my squat is coming along, I will be getting on the road to hitting some huge deadlifts in the next few years. The goal is to join the 900lb club (in a meet, no straps or hitch) and then beyond! Thanks again to everybody that has helped me and been supportive along the way!