The Five Deadlifts of the Apocolypse (Continued)

Alright friends, let’s talk about the rest of those deadlifts and how they might help you achieve your lifting and life goals.

3. The “Bosco” Deadlift or Rack Pulls… or Partial Deadlifts, whatever you want to call it. I called it the “Bosco Deadlift,” because Harry Paschall, (whose famous muscle character was named “Bosco”), along with Charles Smith were two of the first really influential muscle writers to rave about the partial deadlift and its developmental and strength building potential. They had different recommendations for this lift, but I think they all kick butt and take names. Here also is what I spoke about before in that the starting height of the deadlift when done off of the floor is purely arbitrary. It counts in powerlifting competition, but other than that it is no more or less “correct,” a lift than any other. These two esteemed gentlemen also believed that because you did not have to get into such a low position to start, you were able to assume a more biomechanically correct position and were therefore safer. Also because of the better starting position and increased poundage potential you had increased intensity for building muscle. They both wrote about how this could literally transform your physique on par with the back squat. One recommended pulling from below the knees and the other from just above the knees. One recommended low reps, one recommended high reps. Both are great, both work, both will make you a man of uncontainable power. I spoke with strongman Steve Weiner about this and he also found that doing a long partial like this is particularly good for the strongman in that it will allow you to continue to pull heavy while giving your back a break from the beating it sometimes takes from the very low position lifting necessary for stone lifting.

4. The hand and thigh or quarter deadlift. Now if you get down to real hair splitting technicality these are two different lifts, but for the average lifter I think it makes little difference in how you perform them. The hand and thigh lift is a lift done generally with a specialized piece of equipment, a chain bar and set up so that you only need to move the weights half and inch or so. It is an old time “poundage” lift. The quarter deadlift might move two to four inches and is done in a power rack. Or you could build a set up like Steve Justa out of a pair of barrels with a bar welded between them and just keep throwing junk steel in there for weight until the neighbors complain and you scare them off with your ferocious Llhasa Apso.

The point is this is the very top end overload, as much power as I can muster, and just break the bar off the pins thereby stimulating the whole body and overloading every tendon in my back type of exercise. I believe it radically adds to your body’s ability to synch itself for pulling. Is it going to transfer to a full range deadlift? Not unless you use some type of progressive distance training, but is it great for muscle development? Absolutely. It builds a type of body power almost forgotten among mainstream trainers. Plus anything that you can teach your body to lift heavy enough that you might actually need to buy bulk steel for weight is goooooood.

5. The One Leg Deadlift. This is an exercise that I had seen around, but not really paid attention to until I picked it up from Pavel Tsatsouline. It’s part of the exercise curriculum in his RKC course and they favor the bent leg style done with kettlebells and your non-working foot held off of the ground. It is exactly what it says. A deadlift performed while standing on only one leg. When you first think about it, it sounds a little too hoaky to really be a great exercise, but after you try it you’ll change your mind. It teaches you not only body control, but I believe is one of the greatest hamstring developers in all of training. I personally prefer to perform it using dumbbells and a stiff leg style while placing the toes of my non working leg on a low box. I use the low box because I’m working extremely heavy and believe that it allows you to concentrate on the weight more than the balance. It also tends to naturally set you r back into a good position for pulling and even though you would think it would be tenuous, it’s actually quite comfortable. I also like almost any exercise that allows you to work one limb at a time, because it teaches you to coordinate the rest of your body behind that one limb.

Pavel told me that track coaches have used this exercise and almost completely eliminated pulled hamstrings among their trainees and increase their speed. It’s also great for taking your kicking power up to the kicks-like-a-mule category.

Is that all the deadlifts I ever do? Nope. They’re just my favorites. Anyone of them worked hard will give you muscle and power gains that have to be seen to be believed. The important thing… pick the one that works best for you. Get good at it. Work hard on it, add weight, get better, add more weight. Build a back that is made of molten steel. One that is both resistant to injury, recovers faster if it does get dinged up, radically increases your internal energy via the massive nerve stimulation of back work and gives you that old time.. “WOW that guy is STRONG!” strength.