RussellPeele
Level 3 Valued Member
Note: this will be particularly useful for long torso, short legged lifters like myself. How to tell you are one of these--you have had an easy time with the squat from day one, but deadlift gives you grief.
Over the past year I got back to attacking my goal of a 500lb deadlift. As usual, I got to 450 with little trouble and stalled. My sticking point is on the floor. Not below the knee, but ON the floor. If I get the bar moving, I lock it out. I took the advice of many respected writers and worked on speed pulls and all manner of posterior chain exercises. nothing. zero improvement. Then I remembered something--back when i focused on the olympic lifts, my deadlifts felt easy. I didn't max on them then, but they felt very light. what was i doing at the time that i hadn't been as of late? plenty of ft squats. So i decided on some ft squat specialization because "can't hurt"! Also i was influenced by a Dave Tate article on powerlifting specific hypertrophy, but this post will go on forever if i get into that.
I increased my ft squat sort of max from 265 to 315 (i'd do a set of speed pulls after each ft squat 5x5 session). Yesterday I deadlifted heavy for the first time in a couple months. I stopped at 415x5 (dead starts w grip switch each rep) It was very, very easy. Bar seemed to jump off the floor. Rather than going heavier, I decided i should create a plan rather than just haphazardly seeing what I can do... So advice? Ramp to a heavy 5er, with a 10 lb increase once/week until it gets hard? move to triples at that point? Maintain my squat with one 5x5 session/week?
on a related note: i have a feeling that the incredible intra abdominal pressure from ft squats causes a carryover to many things...
on an unrelated note: i haven't been posting much lately due to a move and the start of school (i teach HS math, so it's been hectic as of late). However, a couple articles are coming along nicely and will be ready soon!
Over the past year I got back to attacking my goal of a 500lb deadlift. As usual, I got to 450 with little trouble and stalled. My sticking point is on the floor. Not below the knee, but ON the floor. If I get the bar moving, I lock it out. I took the advice of many respected writers and worked on speed pulls and all manner of posterior chain exercises. nothing. zero improvement. Then I remembered something--back when i focused on the olympic lifts, my deadlifts felt easy. I didn't max on them then, but they felt very light. what was i doing at the time that i hadn't been as of late? plenty of ft squats. So i decided on some ft squat specialization because "can't hurt"! Also i was influenced by a Dave Tate article on powerlifting specific hypertrophy, but this post will go on forever if i get into that.
I increased my ft squat sort of max from 265 to 315 (i'd do a set of speed pulls after each ft squat 5x5 session). Yesterday I deadlifted heavy for the first time in a couple months. I stopped at 415x5 (dead starts w grip switch each rep) It was very, very easy. Bar seemed to jump off the floor. Rather than going heavier, I decided i should create a plan rather than just haphazardly seeing what I can do... So advice? Ramp to a heavy 5er, with a 10 lb increase once/week until it gets hard? move to triples at that point? Maintain my squat with one 5x5 session/week?
on a related note: i have a feeling that the incredible intra abdominal pressure from ft squats causes a carryover to many things...
on an unrelated note: i haven't been posting much lately due to a move and the start of school (i teach HS math, so it's been hectic as of late). However, a couple articles are coming along nicely and will be ready soon!
