Barbell DL video - 345 lbs. x 2

[Steve Freides]

I was thinking about a third rep after the second one but decided to stand up and reset. I did then try a third rep but got a muscle cramp in my left pec, probably because I'd gone heavier in my bench press than I had in a while, so 2 reps it was.



-S-

 

[Chrisdavisjr]

@Steve Freides Superb lift! Having had my first proper go at deadlifting earlier this week, I have a new found appreciation for this lift and for the kind of weights the ladies and gentlemen on this forum are pulling. You make it look easy!

Slightly off-topic, how thick is the rubber mat you're lifting on?

 

[Steve Freides]

@Steve Freides Superb lift! ... How thick is the rubber mat you're lifting on?

Thank you, @Chrisdavisjr!

3/4" thick. Some of my mats were purchase from fitness stores and some from farm supply stores. We have a rather "rustic" tile floor on that part of our basement - large-ish, handmade tiles installed in a far-from-flat and far-from-uniform way, by the people who owned the house before us. I have, once or twice, looked underneath, and there has been no damage at all to any tile, so those mats are doing their job well.

To deadlift, a single 4' x 6' mat is sufficient if you're careful, but I put another half a mat next to it, and I have plenty of space.

-S-

 

[Marc]

@Steve Freides you totally owned those 2 reps!

 

[KIWI5]

Great effort! Question on your breathing technique- you breathe out as you lift and appear to inhale while you bring the weight down. Am I correct? I have been deadlifting for almost one year now and recently changed from only exhaling after the repetition to a partial exhale at the top, a large 'sniff' of air/brace and then descend.

 

[Steve Freides]

@KIWI5, I breathe differently depending on the kind of deadlifts I'm doing. For a reset at the bottom, I inhale just before I pull, I hiss out some air to maximize intra-abdominal pressure through the lift, I finish exhaling then inhale at the top, and I release my air as the bar hits the ground. If, OTOH, I'm doing touch and go reps, after I inhale at the top, I hold my breath or hiss out a little as I'm lowering the bar, then hiss out more as I pull again. The top is where I reset everything, including my breath for touch and go.

In neither case am I inhaling as I lower the weight - I inhale at the top and exhale at the bottom if I'm dropping the weight, so it's multiple breath cycles. If it's touch and go, it's inhale at the top on every rep after the first.

But that will change if it's a high-rep, heavy set, e.g., see the video here

Double bodyweight deadlift

and notice that the first 6 reps are what I said for touch and go, but you can hear my breathing change at the end of the 6th rep. I complete the 7th rep on a single breath, but the 8th and 9th reps find me doing what we call breathing behind the shield and taking more than one breath as I lower the weight.

Please also note a couple of things:

Many, and probably most people will do better inhaling at the top and getting tighter and tighter as they lower themselves to the bar and then pulling without another breath at the bottom, and what I just described is the way we teach it here. I have a history - a severe lower back injury - and it's more important to me to be sure I have everything aligned the way I know I need it to pull safely, and I can do that better by setting up at the bottom.

Related to my point immediately above, my back is stronger than my legs. I can pull a more "by the book" StrongFirst style of deadlift at a lower weight, and could even pull fairly heavy that way, but it's important to me to use the form I will use in competition, which relies on my back strength, in my training for pretty obvious reasons - I want to practice what I'll do in competition.

-S-

 

[Kyle Kowalczuk]

A good lift. Judging from the bar speed not slowing down, it looks as though you could go heavier. Any particular reason your pause-rest at the bottom is so long?

 

[Steve Freides]

A good lift. Judging from the bar speed not slowing down, it looks as though you could go heavier.

And that’s exactly what I hope to do a week from Saturday - USAPL state championship.

Any particular reason your pause-rest at the bottom is so long?

Heck, yes, just catching my breath - that’s heavy for me - and making sure the second rep would be as good as I could make it.

-S-

 

[Steve Freides]

Hey @Carl in Dover, are you going to the meet on the 23/24 of this month that I mentioned?

-S-

 

[Carl in Dover]

@Steve Freides , not competing there, I'm prepping for the USAPL Mid Atlantic Regionals. August 4-5.
Which day are you lifting?

Carl in Dover

 

[Steve Freides]

Saturday afternoon.

I'm going to take a break from PL meets for a while after this one, regardless of how it goes. Probably a year or two off to pursue other things in my training.

-S-