Good work, Steve!
I used to be very flexible when my bodyweight was 150lbs (until I was 25 years old) and this was a strange lift that I was way above average on the first time I tried it. I know I did over double bodyweight the first time I tried it, but I don't remember if I hit 315lbs or 325lbs at 150lbs bodyweight.
Never "trained" the lift, but I do recall doing it maybe a half dozen times from 1993 to 2001. I saw a guy in the rec center here in Lawrence (KS) doing it back in 1993. He was about 6' and probably close to 250lbs. Over 50 years old, but he never told me exactly how old he was. Very muscular guy. He called it a "prisoner lift" - which is what he said it was referred to as when he was serving a prison sentence in the 80s. The first time I saw him, he walked into the weight room in a pair of ladies running shorts - and without any type of warmup - straddled a barbell that another gym goer left loaded to 405lbs on the ground and started ripping out reps in the Jefferson Lift (straddle deadlift -
http://www.usawa.com/tag/jefferson-lift/). I didn't count the first few reps because they were so fast and because it seemed amazing at the time. I'd guess he did 15 reps on that as his "warmup" for what he did next. Which is the Zercher Deadlift. Or his nickname for it - the "prisoner lift."
I, along with everyone that was openly or surreptitiously watching him, was disappointed when I saw him strip off 90lbs and do a single Zercher Deadlift. But looking back on it now, of course, 315lbs for a single as a "warmup" lift in the Zercher Deadlift is remarkable. He moved the bar so fast with 315lbs on it that the bar jumped off his elbows at lockout. Given the ease of the lift, all of us in the weight room were surprised when he dumped the bar (no bumper plates) from above waist height. Then he loaded the 90lbs back on and left the weight room for so long that I thought he had gone home for the day. Everyone at that point was too leery of him coming back and being pissed about having to load the bar again, so the bar just sat there on the floor until about 30 minutes later he strolled back in (he addressed the room and said that he had "fallen asleep" in the locker room) and did an ugly Zercher Deadlift with 405lbs. It was an amazing lift. One I will never forget witnessing. I've never personally seen someone pull more than that. When I say "ugly" - I don't mean it was what looked like a limit lift. It was just ugly. Looked like his spine would surely snap. But he wasn't even wearing a belt. He actually loaded 50lbs more on the bar, but I didn't get to see if he made the lift because unlike him, I had a time limit on how much time I could actually spend at the gym during those days, haha.
Steve, sorry to kind of steal your thread man. I had never shared this Zercher Deadlift story on a forum and decided today was a good time to share it with some people who would at least appreciate it.