SteveR
Level 6 Valued Member
@SteveR, IMHO, if you can fit it into your training, my opinion is that there just isn't anything like the barbell deadlift to make everything else in your training life feel easier.
I'm about your age - turning 65 soon.
Currently doing mostly swings and presses, I still try to deadlift at least once a week, anywhere between 65 and 85% of 1RM for anywhere between singles and 5's, and using the guideline I first learned about in Easy Strength, 6 to 10 total lifts (e.g., 2 triples, 2 fives, 8 singles, etc.).
I'm doing a Rite of Passage press program, so I place my deadlift day between my two easiest pressing days. I stick to simple math, changing the weight in 10 kg increments, and using a 1RM from a meet three years ago.
Yesterday, for example, I did a 1-2-3 ladder with 74%, then a single with 80%, then another single with 86%. For anyone counting along, that's 120 kg (265 lb), 130 (285 lb), and 140 kg (305 lb), based on a 162.5 kg (355 lb) 1RM in the 66 kg (145 lb) weight class. No other lifting yesterday - it was a "variety" day for me. 8 total lifts, average was 76% of 1RM. Everything raw, no belt, no shoes, no straps, no problem.The rest of my day was my usual "ruck" of taking an empty backpack to the grocery store and walking home with some groceries in the back and rest in bags I carried. About a mile each way, and sometimes I bump that up via a longer route.
I subscribe to a theory about all this - when you can pick up 300 lbs off the ground, carrying an extra 30 lbs is something you hardly notice.
Even when it's not in my program, I continue to deadlift because contrary to what some people say about it taking more from you than it gives back, a deadlift session like yesterday's is, for me, the exact opposite - it makes my body whole, it raises my spirits, and when it's over, I feel like the proverbial million dollars - and today, the next day, I still feel fantastic.
Ode to a Deadlift.
Here's the single @ 140 kg:
-S-
Steve, thanks for your comments. That's motivating, you did that DL with authority!
It just occurred to me that an empty bar is the same weight as my upper ruck load goal. So even just working up to 1 to 1.5 BW Easy Strength style DL should have nice strength carryover to carrying a loaded rucksack.
The heavy swings really seem to be paying off but I like the idea of a once a week DL. There are a lot of rocks, roots and ruts from rain runoff where I hike so I have to think the some DL strength would payoff with balance and posture as my loads get a little heavier. Plus a controlled lowering, like you did, could help with the downhill eccentric quad motion after a long uphill.
Apparently nothing prepares for rucking like getting out there and rucking but a little DL variety seems like a nice fit.
