The Five Deadlifts of the Apocolypse

Squats, presses, pulls. The basics movements of the human body, the basic movements of strength. Deadlifting or lifting something off of the ground has to be one of the most basic of all human movements, and one of the most result producing. Even though there’s a great deal of mainstream literature that says, “Never deadlift. It’ll kill your back,” there are at least as many or more people who have rehabbed or eliminated pain from their backs by doing deadlifts.

Herman Goerner, on of the monster old time deadlifters said that it was the basic test of human strength. Many people believe that it is the ultimate test of strength. I think that many people are either born with the leverage for great squats or great deadlifts, but few are born with leverages for both. But everybody will fall into one of the categories and if you want to explore your true potential for strength, you have to work both hard. You may or may not have the potential to be a world beater for one or the other, but they both add to each other so well and complete the full lifting potential of the body. Whatever your leverages are, accept nothing less than a good deadlift.

I also believe you should find the variation of any exercise that fits you. Be it physically the most comfortable or least pain or injury producing or most fun or mentally satisfying way of doing a particular exercise. In doing this you enable yourself to find the exercise that allows you to work the hardest and at the same time motivates you to work the hardest via enjoyment for the greatest gains possible.

Many people who come from a powerlifting purist background will tell you that nothing other than the regular powerlifting style deadlift is acceptable or maybe pulling while standing on a 4” block might be okay as well as long as you strictly duplicate the conventionally accepted form. The conventionally accepted form is knees bent, back arched, head up, pull dragging the bar up the legs starting from the shins. (An over simplification just to illustrate a point here). If however you look at some of the greatest deadlifters in history you will find significant variations from the form as well as training variations that have been productive for other lifters. Many of the great deadlifters pull in a semi-stiff legged-high hip style as it suits their physical structure. Bob Peoples, one of the greatest deadlifters in history pulled that way with a rounded back and the air let out of his lungs.

What’s the point here? Find the way that works for you. For many people this will actually be the conventional form and even if you use a non-conventional form you want to keep tight control over your movement and body mechanics. But think about this. Human’s have been lifting all kinds of objects from a standing position since the beginning of time. Starting at all different heights. The barbell that we use now and the height of the plates is purely arbitrary. Experiment and find the variation that works best for you.

Whatever that variation is, the combination of deadlifts and rows are the surest way to a big back and great torso development. You want big traps and lats, you ain’t gonna get ‘em shrugging little dumbbells or on machines. Heavy overloading deadlifts and pulls are what gives you big boy world class mass and strength in the back.

Here are my favorites:

1. The stiff legged deadlift. I’m not talking about that thing you’ve seen bodybuilders do where they stand on a flat bench and take that little tiny weight off the rack s and walk back and try to balance their way into thinking they’ve done some real deadlifts. I’m talking about heavy pulls done either off the floor or standing on a block with legs locked in an almost straight position. I find with a combination of the way that I squat and the loads that I squat with, this gives me the best muscular development as well as strength that carries over to regular deadlifts and squats while causing the least pain. I’m not necessarily and naturally built deadlifter, but for pure strength purposes this is the winner to me. It helps “keep everything together.” It’s my pick as the best deadlift for martial artists. It’s also the pick of many of the great lifters including Hugh Cassidy, Dr. Ken Leistner, and Greg Pickett to name just a few. It’s also probably the greatest deadlift for odd object lifting, especially if you do it with a thick bar. It’s definitely high on all the competitive strongman’s lists because of how much it helps in loading stones.

2. The Farmers Deadlift. Or maybe it could be the Strongman Deadlift, it doesn’t really matter. This is probably my personal favorite of all of them purely because it suits me and I enjoy it. This is done by deadlifting two farmers walk implements. Although alternatively you could deadlift two barbells. Similar would be two dumbbells or a trap bar. The farmers implements allow you to start a little higher than a regular barbell, placing the implements to the sides of the thighs which spreads the stress out more evenly through the whole body. The trap bar is wonderful, but for bigger guys sometimes it’s hard to get down and the set width of the bar may make the handles too close or wide depending on your personal structure. I also find that this deadlift when worked heavy provides lots of low back and hip work and is probably one of the greatest trap builders in existence. If you work this hard you will feel the stress all the way through the upper back. Allowing for both comfortable performance and tremendous development. Also makes for great shrugs as the implements hang directly down to the sides not impeded by the barbell dragging against the front of you thighs. I also find that if conventional deadlifts hurt your back these may work very well for you because the resistance comes directly into line with the center of your body instead of in the front which takes off some of the vertebral stress at lockout.

We’ll continue the rest of the “Five Deadlifts of the Apocalypse,” tomorrow as this email is already running a little long. By the way, if you want to learn about barbell training, our DVD on Barbell Training for strongman is a perfect place to start. Lots of basic exercises, demonstrated and explained as well as the exercises that will help you get the right kind of strength for strongman training. Find it here: http://strongerman.com/odd_objects/barbells.html

If you want to know how to work deadlifts into your training then definitely take a look at Twisted Conditioning I and II. They’re the ultimate resource for setting up unbelievably productive training.

http://strongerman.com/twisted.html
http://strongerman.com/twisted2.html

Till tomorrow…