How to Deadlift - Advice to Kanishk

Ok, so here are the guidelines. They will get you roundabout into the best position with a little wiggle required to hone it in to your comfort zone. I think first I will go over some mistakes that people make. Some of this I mentioned in the "hips to high" article.

One of the most important things in motor learning is your frame of reference. That is what you you as a benchmark from which your movement is relative.

Obviously that may change as a movement progresses but in general, as with anything, a STATIONARY benchmark is best to start with.

One of the most frequent cues you hear in deadlifting is "get your butt higher" or "get your butt lower". To me, one of the WORST ways to cue a deadlift. Let's assume for our purposes that "hips" and "butt" is the same thing, btw, for now.

When you tell someone just to move their butt up and down you are having them focus on a MOBILE benchmark and then telling them to move it around!

You'll have to have someone tell you where to put your hips about a thousand times before it finally sinks in.

So we want to start with something that is not moving and maintain our setup relative to THAT.

Another big miscue, in my opinion is focusing on the feet or the floor for closed chain movements like this.

What you hear is things like "drive your heels into the floor" and "try to push down on the floor". It seems like a good idea but the problem is that focusing on the feet and the floor makes your body want to move down. You are NOT pushing down the floor. You are pulling UP the bar.

Although it will require a lot of pushing into the floor, lol, the action that really results in the bar being pulled up is a very powerful hip extension.

Deadlifts are a "hip dominant" movement, not a "knee dominant" movement.

To illustrate this to yourself there is a very simple but very powerful test which is similar to doing a jump. Do this right now as your reading this.

1. Stand up and get yourself into a sort of deadlifting postion. Bring your hips back and place your weight onto your heels.

2. Now VERY SLIGHTLY "push" your heels into the floor. You weight should be on your heels and your hips should be flexed so that your torso is slightly inclined. Basically you should be able to jump forward from this position. So push your heels into the ground just enough so that you feel your glutes and hamstrings engage. You may actually feel as if you can "tense" these muscles a whole lot without actually extending your knees or hips at all.

3. NOW, do something different. Get into the same position as step two. Weight on the heels. But DON'T push your heels into the floor. Instead concentrate on driving your hips and butt forward very slightly and easily. In other words just try to slightly extend (straighten) your hips.

4. If you do this right you should notice a very marvelous thing. In step two, you will probably be able to generate a lot of muscular tension in your legs and really feel as if you are pushing that floor but without actually generating any movement. Yet, in step three you should find it pretty much impossible to try to extend the hips and not end up standing straight up! If your degree of effort is pretty much the same for both things that should tell you something about the relative efficiency of both movements!

The reality is..both efforts SHOULD result in the same thing. But the first method is able to generate a whole lot of muscle tension with no movement whereas the second method results in powerful and fluid movement without a lot of static muscle tension.

With that being said, there MAY be something to say for first driving the heels and then performing a violent hip extension…which is what most people do. Because you generate that tension in the extensors and then your "let it rip". I've never really found it to be more efficient, personally. Albeit with a heavy dead lift you generate a lot of muscular tension, lol, so what I mean is that I don't find it more efficient to use "high tension techniques". If I could guess as to why this is so I'd say that generating the excessive and unneeded tension limits efficient joint movement. In that vane you may notice that step two, if you allow movement, causes a more herky jerky movement, whereas step three, as I said before, causes a fluid movement, and what's more you can hardly avoid this movement occuring with only the slightest application of effort.

Ok, so the other mistake that people make is to take the word "pulling" to literally. This is another reason why focusing on hip drive is so important. What people do is they simply attempt to "pull" the bar off the floor with their shoulders. So it's sort of like they are dong the movement from the top down. Which results in the extreme cases in the "scared cat deadlift" that we see SO often. That's not the only thing that results in it but it's one action that can lead to it.

That's at least a few of the mistakes…

1. Stand with your shins about an inch from the bar with about a hip width stance or slightly wider depending on what works best for you.

2. Look down at the barbell and imagine that there is a vertical line coming up through it so that the line of the barbell is part of an imaginary plane. The barbell and this imaginary line is your reference point or benchmark. You will use this to orient your body to. Remember this if for visualization purposes only.

3. After you grab the bar you will bring your shoulders in front of the bar so that the imaginary line intersects you scapula. In other words, the bar is in line with your scapula. Keeping your shoulders forward of the bar in this postion bring your chest up and shoulders back and locked. Scapula retracted.

4. Hips/Butt: Now that your feet are in the right place and your shoulders are in the right place the trick is to get your hips as close to this imaginary LINE as possible while maintaining your shoulder position. You are NOT bring your hips down toward the bar..you are bringing them forward toward the line coming up through the bar. WITHOUT moving your shoulders back.

All the while the chest must stay OUT and the shoulders back. The lower back must remain in it's tightly set natural arch.

Really, once you hit step three and you are maintaining a good deadlifting position with your lumbar set..you are pretty much there. Step 4 is a very subtle adjustment. If you move your hips down..the shoulders drift behind the bar. If you move your hips too far up the shoulder sink. So "just right" is in between.

Correct, as has been said before, means your butt is below your shoulders but above your knees . That may seem really smart aleck but since you see people try to deadlift with their butt below their knees in the "deadlift as squat" position OR with their butt pretty much level with their shoulders…it needs to be said, apparently.

Quality Volume on Deadlifts

Ok, as for the quality volume you should check the ET blog of yours and search for the old explanations I gave you for that. But I'll give you a run-down.

1. Reps should be 1 to 3 but no more than three. My thinking on that is three is the most you can do, while lifting heavy and still call it QUALITY. By that same token 3 is getting up there so if most of your sets are singles or doubles that would be perfectly acceptable.

2. If I gave you a set of guidelines about how to go up or down then it would be "Eric's" quality volume any more.

3. You have to slowly build up to around 80 percent or so of max. You just did 415x5 so if you just call "max" 415 that will be a good place to start. So warm up and then acclimate to a double or triple of around 80% of that.

4. Take a little time between each rep and give yourself a chance to "decide" if you done with the set or not. SO this is very much a "percieved effort" thing. Assuming you hit your first triple at around 80% and that should be easy, right? So put on 5 OR 10 pounds depending on just how easy it is.

Then if you first rep flies up do another. If that one is easy do another. So you have three and you done. Decide, how much you want to put on the bar based on how hard THE WHOLE set was (so see..your looking at the effort of each rep individually to decide if there should be a next rep then your looking at the set as a whole to judge how much to put on the bar).

5. If a first rep is harder than you feel it should be then your done. Rest and go for another rep at that same weight and see if you do better and then follow the same procedure to go forward as above. If the first rep is fine but the second rep makes you feel like a third rep will be too tough to maintain good quality then your done at two reps.

SO WHEN I SAY QUALITY I MEAN EVERY REP IS DAMN GOOD. YOU DO NOT NEED TO GET NEAR YOUR MAX LIFT. YOU ARE JUST TRYING TO GATHER LOTS OF GOOD QUALITY VOLUME AT AN INTENSITY THAT IS MOSTLY GREATER THAN 85 PERCENT.

6. Any trick you need to do to acclimate better as you go along is fine. Say you've built up doing singles, doubles, triples, whatever happens unitl you have 385 on the bar. You do one rep of 385 and it's WAY tough. You might put on 10 more pounds and grind out a rep. Then rest a lot and drop back down to 385. For that "quality" is not going to be as good but you will only do that once or twice if you need to so it's no big deal.

7. You just keep doing that set after set until you know that you cannot get any more weight on the bar without sacrificing quality. For a reference to what I mean about quality look at your last set of 415. The quality was REALLY good for a set of 415x5 but not quite good enough for this. I.E. on some of the reps you back was rounding just to the edge of "safe" and things like that. So this quality volume should not be that far to the edge of your ability.

If you take your time and do this right you can end up with some serious weight on the bar. There are no rules as to how heavy you can or should go. Let quality be your guide. The 80 percent thing was just to get you started. After that don't worry about percentage at ALL. At the same time PLEASE do not have some abitrary number in your head that you want to reach.

Continuation....

Sure that would be a good goal. There will come a time when dumbells just aren't going to be heavy enough. For right now they are heavy "enough". I would certainly consider taking them from 7 reps with crap reps to 7 or 8 good reps and then onward to a couple more sets "heavy" enough. This is rows we're talking about so I understand your question.

I DO think we can go truly heavy on rows rather than always keeping them to moderate volume sets like 5 and up like most people think is necessary. That doesn't mean that doing singles is really in the cards but heavy triples or even doubles are certainly doable. But heavy is not HEAVY with rows, necessarily. For dumbells do what you have to do to progress with the dumbells. When dumbells are not heavy enough anymore then they can become something you do for higher reps and volume.

That is fine for the cable rows if that is what you like. Three sets is fine.

I would do about two sets of face pulls.

One thing that is different between how you do things and how I do things is that you always want new cycles. That is fine but if you were always looking at each individual exercise in the back of your mind and trying to progress with it while keeping it in the context of everything else you were doing..these decisions would make themselves.

I mean, you ask how much to do with cable rows. Well how much have you done before and how can you improve on that within the context of this workout? OR, can you not improve on that within the context of this workout but can you change the parameters and establish a new bench mark that works in this context?

Say you had been dong cable rows with 5 reps and progressing by adding weight to that.

You might say to yourself, well, that isn't going to fly with the medley, and cable rows aren't my "heavy" row right now. So lets see what I can do with higher rep sets. So you estimate what you can hit for 8 reps and then play that set by feel and end up doing 9 good reps with some left in the tank. So then you might add some more weight…

But for that you have to be willing to let the first workout lose so that you can establish a place from which to progress.

On the other hand, if you plan on switching up the row the next workout you might just go all out with some high rep sets.

You want to know should you do 180 for the first set. Well what if you put on 170 and start pulling that thing so hard the cable gets slack in it as the stack comes up? So you do just a few reps and stop and say, that's shit light. So you put on that 180 or even more and rep that out. What is wrong with that? Why not do that? So what if for that first workout you end up doing a few extra sets just to see what it's like?

I've told you like a million times this right? But you STILL ask what should you do? How can I know until you do it?

Rows & Advice

Ok,

First the row medley's. I don't really like the circuit thing. You've kind of lost the point of it somewhere in there. Looking at this:

Medley Rounds #1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6:
Weighted Pull-ups = BW + 20 lbs x 3 reps
Barbell Rows = 165 lbs x 4 reps
Pull-ups = BW x 3 reps
Cable Rows = 150 lbs x 5 reps

Barbell Rows:
185 lbs x 4 reps
205 lbs x 2 reps
225 lbs x 3 reps

Pullups really don't need to be in there. Put em on a separate day so you can pull them heavy. You can always do back off sets with body-weight or light weight at the end..that's what I do. Joe has taken to doing that too. That way you don't lose your pullup endurance while doing low rep weighted sets all the time

I'd rather see more rowing variety with the pullups on another day. But remember, this is strength training. You want to still be able to lift as heavy as possible. A circuit of rows ain't heavy lifting!

I'd rather you do your rows in straight sets, one row complete then another. You can cut down the total number of sets on each row or it can depend on what sort of rows you do. The idea of the row medley is rowing at different angles and variety for you shoulder's sake. You actually haven't been doing that at all.

Something like this is what I like:

1. Cable Rows or Chest Supported Rows or Barbell Rows or Dumbell Rows HEAVY for three sets or more (or even quality volume or many low rep sets). If using a cable I might start with a straight bar handle and then switch to a v-handle (you can pull more this way)

2. High Low pulley rows Higher rep sets - 8 to 12 reps

3. Face Pulls - High rep sets

Usually I will pick one heavy row and work that for a few weeks. The other rows can be changed liberally. There is absolutely no need to "progress" one of these extra rows from workout to workout. You can do that some of course but usually just keep and idea of where you stand with any one row in your journal so you can get some kind of progression over time.

But the idea here is still to be able to do some heavy rowing when you are fresh..and then tack on the variety. Unless you have more than one row day (which I tend to because I row a lot). Then you can just have a lot of variety with higher reps for a medley one day and have one type of heavy row another. Higher volume will tend to come later in the week before a "weeked" just like anything else.

I see that you have "followed by some rowing" on press day so you could make that heavy row day, after pressing. BUT that doesn't give pullups the love they are due.

Maybe like this:

Thursday:

Deadlift

Friday:

Press
Row Medley (heavy row followed by other row varieties all angles)
Arms

Saturday:

NOTHING

Sunday:
OH squats
Squats

Monday:

Pistol Squats
Pullups
Back stuff (anything)

Core Training: put one static core thing in at the end of any of the workouts during the week. Liberal skip policy.

After Month 2 of Deadlifting 385 lbs...aka Mesocycle 13

1) You took singles and turned it into sets of 6 and 5. It's plenty. I don't see you adding weight and then just continuing to progress in the same fashion. I'd recommend turning to a "quality volume" kinda setup. Warmup to 385 and then do triples or doubles or singles adding weight when you feel like it. Try to keep fresh with plenty of rest so that you can get as many reps as you can with low rep sets and put on as much weight as you can. If you wanted you could even do waved sets if you felt more comfortable that.

Whatever allows you to get a lot of work in.

Then, once you've done that look at where you are and the weight range you're at and try to condence the volume again.

This is all the same purpose and the same thing you been doing. If you can get a good quality volume workout or a waved set workout and then increase the density with a heaver weight for the next three weeks..then deload the volume for week you should be ready to try for some big new singles.

2) "I hate front squats" "do you want me to keep them in"

Probably if you hate them it's a good time to switch it up, lol.

Here's an idea for you which you will like (which is mostly the reason I'm suggesting it, lol)

Have you heard of the 1-6 principle? So called and popularized by Poliquan. Well you know how I feel about Poliquans ridiculous claims..but anyway you can use something like this for a few weeks.

Now..I don't know what the hell 6 reps have to do with it but since you were doing six reps or 5 reps with 385 you can use that.

Of course I've modified it to be a little bit more realistic since Poliquan thinks you should do a "max single" and then increase that in between doing sets of 6..good lord.

Simply do something like this:

Warm up to a single of about 395

Then do a set of 385 at 5 to 6 reps

So on and so forth so you have something like this:

395 x1
385 x 5-6
400 x 1
387.5 x 5-6
402.5 x 1
390 x 5-6

You do the microloading whatever way suits you. I just made up a suggestion. This has nothing to do with trying to get big singles. It just has to do with increasing your ability to do more work at the 5 to 6 rep range by gradually lifting bigger singles which gives you posttetanic potentiation. However the problem is most people make grand predictions and give grand plans about what you can do which is of course bullshit. You have to just play it by ear see what happens with it.

Then next week see if you can increase it.

You'd probably have a lot of fun with this but I don't want you going really heavy singles. Just add 5 or 10 pounds to the 385 as in how I did it above and then go slowly from there. It's possible to do more than 6 sets but that's three sets of 6 with 3 singles so it's a lot.

Who ever said that this mesocycle was ONLY sets of 385? If you can't add weight that is fine but you could if you wanted to.

I thought you told me you go micro plates.

No biggy but you really need to get that happening in some way or another. There are all sorts of options.

I doubt I will be able to do 395 for 5 or 6 reps but I think with 10-15 minutes rest I should be good to go. I really like how you have me doing only Deadlifts on Deadlift Day. It makes it really easy to focus on my workout. No need to rush against time or anything.

No room for doubt. And it really doesn't matter if you pick up the bar and do only three reps but the idea is to increase as much as you can.

What I get confused in is: what do you mean by " try to condence the volume again"? Is that the 1-6 principle?

That was before I thought of doing this. If you had done quality volume or waved sets (all low reps) then I would have wanted you do add "density" by by using the same rep range (the average range) and do higher rep sets. But you don't need to do that now because you already are doing higher rep sets. The whole thing you are doing in general is increasing your tolerance to work in this range between about 385 to 405.

I know….I decided to only use 385 to make it easy for me. And so far it has worked. Like a charm too.

Perfectly cool. If you wanted to just keep repping out at 385 for a while it would be a ok with me.

You're welcome of course.

Training Attitude and Approach

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anuj Deadlifts were ok. I don't regret not doing another set. At the time it didn't seem worthwhile to go completely balls to the wall. This was a reasonably ok workout.

Good lord you're tough to please. Let's see…at the beginning of this cycle you did that workload in TEN sets. Now after once simple cycle you do the same workload in TWO sets.

When you did the TEN sets you called it a "decent" workout. Now after this accomplishment it was a "reasonably ok" workout.

This is all mind games. And you know it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anuj You're very right, sir. I'm being stupid. I worry too much about jinxing my progress which is why I always downplay these good workouts…So you're right: it is a mental thing, sir.

Well you know that silly saying about it being 80 percent nutrition and 20 percent training? Yeah right. It's ONE HUNDRED percent mental with a smattering of other stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anuj Understood. Words of wisdom. I'm gonna write this down as a quote from you in my journal. From now on whenever I'm being an idiot in the gym and second guessing myself I'm gonna look at this and wisen up. How much energy we waste on this sort of sillyness. I've gotten better with time….I've stopped feeling angry at people simply because I won't allow them to have that control over me. After learning to do that (you taught me which is why I bring this up) I have learnt to control who can arise what emotion from me….Atleast most of the time I am like this. Every now and then I slip up. BUT….this mental shortcoming in the gym is something I'm going to start working on from now. Baby steps and this is the next step.

Well the truth is it's not about comparison. I mean, I just did that in order for you to put this last deadlift workout in perspective with the first one of this consolidation cycle. But really, I can imagine very easily all these conversations you are having with yourself while your working out and comparing it with all sorts of other things

1. what you've done in the past
2. what you expected to be able to do
3. what you expect it to "feel" like
4. how you expect to feel about it

etc. and so on.

All that stuff gets combined in a perception that centers on number 3 in the lift. So ask yourself..do you really want to "experience the feeling" of a great workout or do you want to "analyze the feeling of a great workout"?

You know in quantum physics…the uncertainty principle? You look at a particle and you can never get the complete picture of it. This is all about flow and as you know I'm still working on the "getting in the zone" posts but how it works with quantum physics it also works with your mind.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anuj When I am actually IN the gym, there is only ONE fear: What if I fail? And because this is my biggest fear - that I will fail to do that which is expected of me, because of this fear, I then start thinking about: 1. what I've done in the past 2. what I expected to be able to do 3. what I expect it to "feel" like 4. how I expect to feel about it etc. and so on. This is what runs through my mind, sir…..I can't fail. I just cannot bring myself to failing. Take Week 4 of my Deadlft workout. You had specifically asked me to do 5-7 triples. I did 5 triples. So I got my 15 reps. I had achieved the minimum reps I needed. BUT, I was not satisfied because I had not achieved that which I had set out to. I wanted 7 triples. 21 reps. So I did those last 2 doubles to squeeze in 18 total reps. I thought it was a crappy workout because I didn't do what you expected me to (from my perspective). The positive of this way of thinking is that it builds a desperate desire in me to achieve that which I set out to: which is why I got a total of 18 reps. If I did not have this hunger in me, I would've stopped at 14. So this is my problem: I am scared of failing. But we discussed this: how negative reinforcement to progress is NOT mentally healthy. Which is why what I now need to think or rather: what I have found successful over the last 4 weeks is psyching myself up by telling myself one simple thing: You've done this before and you can do it again. Thats it. I did this when I did those triples even though I had never done this much volume before. But that didn't matter. In my mind I had hypnotized or convinced or made myself believe that I have done this before so I do have the power to do it again. I don't think this is a permanent solution because this (to me) is like a shade less morose than doing it out of fear….but it's a step I feel. This is why I am so hell bent on reading those Zen books you mentioned, E. I want to stop thinking like this - and this only works for lifts in which I experience high levels of anxiety: deadlifts, pistol squats and abs. I think that my current approach of convincing myself of having done the lift before is better in giving me confidence when you compare it to approaching a lift out of fear of either getting weaker or fear of failing. But, I need to think with a different mindset. Approach this differently, I think.

Well, like I told you The Way of Zen is the best strength training book I ever read. And pretty much anything by Alan Watts will help you in the gym. As long as you use it as a tool and not as a way to 'become like' someone else.

The problem I see with all these 'mental tricks' are that they are just that…tricks. And the nature of tricks is that they only work a few times.

Let me try to come at it from a different direction. Many people say that the difference between winners and losers is that winners have the 'desire' to win and they 'expect' to win. Like most aphorisms of that nature it's complete bullshit:

1. Nobody really knows what makes the winner…not even the winner himself.

2. To say that a winner 'desires' and 'expects' to win implies that they also think about the opposite and that they can conceive of losing. Further implying that there is a situation in which this person could expect to lose.

This is what I meant about 'outcome' oriented versus task oriented' individuals. You are stuck in an outcome oriented mindset. Our hypothetical winner does not analyze outcomes in his mind. He does not 'expect' anything he just DOES the thing. There is no concept of compromise. There is not concept of winning versus losing. There is no concept. There is just the thing. The task.

3. This all implies that the winner approaches the task with his conscious mind running through scenarios. The most sure fire way to screw up a scenario is to run through the scenarios. Because running through the scenarios tends to always involve analyzing WHAT CAN GO WRONG. And you know what that leads to? Doing those very things.

I think for you imagery and positive mental cues are the best way to go for now. For someone that can't do it naturally that is a great way of getting task focused and letting go of the outcome dwelling. This should involve having a mental "picture" of yourself doing it perfectly. And using some very simple words that act as triggers to keep you on task. These words should always be about what you WILL do not what NOT to do.

I know that this all sounds like a bunch of new age amateur psychology but there is only one reason to put labels like that on stuff, isn't there?

Watts can help you learn to let go of the judgment and just let your mind work naturally and be in the experience in a mindful but non judgemental way. If and when you can grasp it which takes a bit, lol. But it's not about mastering something it's about opening up to something. I cannot explain to you how this can help you just have to experience that for yourself. But I will say that it helps you be more in-tune to yourself in an effortless way, which, is really because you AREN'T MAKING an effort to do that. It's not easy to put into words. Heck, that is what most of "way of zen" is…Watts trying to put into words things which are not really about words…which he explains again and again.

And the other more 'self-help' oriented ones are gold-mines.

The SINGLE most important thing I have ever learnt from Eric

Well you know that silly saying about it being 80 percent nutrition and 20 percent training? Yeah right. It's ONE HUNDRED percent mental with a smattering of other stuff.

More Deadlift Advice

Actually, what you're doing here (what I think and you already mentioned consolidation) is what you had me do when I was lifting 255-285. You had me really get that down. After that phase, my Deadlift shot up to 315. So hopefully I'll be able to DL 455 sometime next semester :-)

That's it. That's exactly what it's about. Only this time there is a "method". Most people look at ONE number. And when they can't pass that they call it a "plateau". So everything focuses on breaking through a plateau. Problem is that being stuck on 405 and then finally getting 410 or even 412.5 doesn't mean a whole lot in the big scheme of things. It could be "a good day" in the gym. All the stuff about recovery, adaptation, etc, becomes a moot point when you think of it in terms of "ranges".

So right now you've lifted heaver but on any given day you can't walk into the gym and do it again. At the same time you are very consistent with the range of 385 to what? 415 or so….

What we are doing is taking that range and making owning it.

Most of the time when people break a number plateau it takes everything they got. And not only is the new number hard..the previous number is still hard as well! So the goal of this is that the weight range we are talking about becomes "easy" and consistent. So it's a maturity factor and for that it helps to get into more volume and density.

When I say volume it's relative of course which is why I use single, double, triple. High volume when you can lift 400 is different than when you can lift 500. At any one point you can focus on "extending the anaerobic threshold" but we are not doing strongman training so we are just doing it as a means to and end but not THE END.

As for the plan:

Week 1: 385 for 2 reps x 2 sets
Week 2: 395 for 2 reps x 2 sets (single progression)
Week 3: 405 for 2 reps x 3 sets (double progression)
Week 4: 415 for 3 reps x 3 sets (double progression)

Here's the thing..if all that is easy than fine. But IF it is easy then I'd end up wanting you to extend it with the goal of increasing density (more reps per set in the same weight range). Because if you really look at that plan and take away the "single and double" it's just a bunch of doubles and triples at higher and higher weights. If you can do that then you wouldn't have need the previous plan. I doubt very much that week 3 and 4 would be easy, though.

There is no way for me to give you a plan or approve of a plan based on a system that has not set plan as its plan! You see the quandary. If I'd wanted to write down a schedule I would have but this whole thing is designed on being open. If you follow that plan you've made and it is too agrressive you could end up doing more harm than good.

Truthfully I'd rather you be able to do MORE at 385 and 395 rather than worrying so much about getting up to 415.

I only say this because I know that I can 395 for 2x2 and 405 for 2x3 tomorrow if you want.

This is the kind of thing that you MUST stop thinking about if you really want to train this way. You are still engaging in this type of thinking in your journal at times as well. Stop thinking about what you "can" do and what you "can't" do. Go in and DO it and what you do is what you do.

It think you would be able to go in and do things the way I explained in the previous pm IF numbers weren't floating around in your head. You say you CAN'T do it. I think you WON'T do it because you CAN'T let go of the numbers.

My reply:

Ok I see where you're getting at. I am still approaching this wrong. Let me try again, please.

You want me to dig in and get settled in between the ranges of 385 and 415.

You want me to focus on single and double progression.

But the plan is not really a plan - it is mostly a set of guidelines.

So, what you DO expect me to do is to:

1.) Stop focusing on what I can and cannot do. That is completely irrelevant. All that matters is what I DO.

2.) Go in on Week 1 and do a bunch of sets with 385. I assume you want me to keep the reps the same throughout the workout otherwise Week 1 of that is damn similar to week 4 of this current mesocycle.

3.) Now, I am supposed to base Week 2 off Week 1's workout. So, I can either add weight, add reps or add sets OR reduce rest intervals.

4.) Week 3 will involve me increasing either one of the three factors (sets, reps or weight).

5.) Week 4 follows the same pattern of progression.

Am I correct?

So my 2 concerns are:

1.) Week 1 will involve me starting with 385. Am I supposed to just go in and do X number of sets for Y number of reps based on how I feel?

2.) What if in one of the weeks I cannot add weight without reducing reps. Or if I cannot add reps without reducing weight?

Actually, I think I know the answer to question #2. Just tell me if I'm right here:
- We can cross that bridge when we come to it
- There is no need to plan failure
- If something like that DOES happen, then I simply do a couple more sets of 1-2 reps and in the end I will still have more volume than the previous week overall.

Correct?

1.) Yes

2.) Not more than 3 sets. Don't worry about week 4 except for starting at 385

3). Don't bother with reducing rest intervals…just don't ADD lots of time between sets. When I speak of increasing density, although reducing rest intervals does that, I usually mean adding reps to existing sets because the extra couple of seconds that takes is irrelevant, so in effect you are increasing density because you are getting more work done in a space of time.

I'll give you an example of what I mean but none of this has ANYTHING TO DO with your current program..it's just a hypothetical example. If you think about taking 3 sets of 5 and adding 2 reps to each set over period of weeks:

A. Say it takes you 8 minutes to do the three sets of 5.

B. Week two = 3x7 Add about `12 seconds.

C. Week three = 3x9 add another 12 seconds

D. So you've added a total of 12 reps to the original 15 reps but it only took 24 seconds longer and that 24 seconds was divided into 2 second intervals. Stahley would probably still think that 24 secs was significant. Bullshit. Only if you took that all at once would it begin to be significant. If the extra time it takes to add reps doesn't affect recovery then in effect it is increasing density…since we are not machines. Hence why I pretty much consider adding reps to sets as increasing density and of course volume.

Another point is that you can't do that forever. If you could my analysis would be wrong.

1a) Not based on how you "feel" based on how you perform. Saying it's how you feel makes it seem like you are supposed to walk into the gym and no how many reps and sets you can do. Just warm up, take t he 385 and do some reps until you feel like you have maybe one rep left in you. Rest and repeat. Try to repeat the same reps. If you can't you're done. If you can but it takes every thing you've got, you're done. If you can but it's fairly easy, try for another set (you can go to failure on the last set).

2b) Exactly..there is no need to plan failure. Boy….I am glad you're getting the Alan Watts books, lol.

Regarding Supplements

For pre/during if you want protein + carbs all you really need is a good whey and a mix of carbs. All the complicated stuff we got into a few years back is not really such a big deal. If you can afford it you might like a nice whey isolate because that will taste good but a good concentrate or mix will be fine too. And for carbs you can throw in some malto, dex, regular sugar, any other type of carb thing they have out there these days, lol…

The trick is to make a nice big dilute shake. Don't worry too much with the amount. About 15 to 20 grams of proteins and twice the grams of carbs or so..you can lessen it if it's too much. Drink half the shake before and sip the rest during. The thing with a shake is to not wait more than 10 to 15 minutes after drinking half of it to begin as if you do you can end up crashing.

Drinking half first and sipping the rest during is the best way to go because it actually enhances gastric emptying..which I've tried to explain to people again and again and they won't listen. If you drink the whole shake before, as the stomach empties it empties at a slower and slower rate as it becomes MORE empty. So, a lot of the shake sits in your stomach for a long time as you workout.

But when you drink half, it starts to empy, and then you continually sip a bit more and you are in effect keeping the rate of emptying more steady. Combined with the exercise which supposedly enhances gastric emptying.

So all in all better absorpion and less stomach aches. Also slow delivery of carbs so less chance of crashing. Really chocalate milk or anything would be fine I've learned but I still don't see how the hell someone would want to drink milk before a vigorous weight workout. Ugghh…

Quite often my pre and during shake is nothing more than whey mixed with cool-aid.

You can put more in the shake if you want as long as it's somewhat dilute and you spread it out like you said. And on the 15 minutes you don't HAVE to wait 15 minutes. You can probably begin your warmup immediately. Just don't go MORE than 15 minutes. See, a lot of guys drink a big shake at home then drive to the gym and end up starting their workout a good 30 to 40 minutes later then have a big crash (or stomach ache). They think it's the carbs fault but it's really that they don't know how to use the shake properly.

All the stuff about nutrient timing that was so big a few years ago (even having whole books written) has died down for your general strength trainee or bodybuilder. Having something immedieately pre (and during) is still considered a good idea. But it's the kind of thing that for a natural trainee was way blown out of proportion. It's kind of like you do that for 20 years and it makes the difference of 1.5 pounds on your frame, lol. Maybe.

But how the timing IS important is to keep a huge dose of quickly absorbed carbs in your system that you don't do anything with. The exercise helps regulate you blood sugar levels so you don't get the sugar crash. And there is the fact that the whey can add to the sugar crash…

Last workout of Deadlift Cycle

Eric,

A few days ago I wrote you an email regarding my next training cycle. You haven't replied back to that as yet. Good.

Please discard that email.

I have thought of something and I wanna share.

Firstly, come next Wednesday I need a new plan. This last week ahead of me is the final week of this mesocycle. I have a question regarding Deadlifts. I am supposed to deadlift 385 for 3 sets. How many total reps would you want me to do? I need a goal…Please tell me what you'd prefer I do. This is important because Deadlift day is tomorrow.

Secondly, I have new plans for my next mesocycle.

I was looking over this mesocycle and my training has been stellar. Apart from this nagging shoulder pain and tricep soreness, everything has gone alone really well.

So, I need to ask you:
1.) Can I repeat this same Deadlift cycle with 405 lbs? Would you recommend I do that?
2.) Do you want me to add in a heavy squat day? It's been 3-4 months since I have done any substantial squatting. Your thoughts, sir?

Ok, I have 2 different outlines for my training. Option #1 is considering you want to stick with what I have been doing so far (because it's been working):

Deadlift Day
- Deadlifts using the same cycle as what you had me do this month but I take 405 lbs instead.
- Abs
- Grip Work

Bench Press Day
- Bench Press
- Different Rows
- Facepulls & Shrugs
- Abs

Squat Day
- Anderson Squats
- Supine GHRs
- Abs

Pistol Squat Day
- Pistol Squats
- Pull-ups
- Head Supported Rows
- Abs

That was option 1 assuming you want me to do heavy squats. Now, if you do not want me to do heavy squats, then I was thinking I just do what I have been doing this last month with some minor changes:
- Deadlift cycle with 405 lbs
- More Pull-ups
- More Back work in general

So what do you feel, sir? I dunno what you want me to do. I've been doing "Conditioning" work for 3 months straight now. I think a break is in order - even if its only for a month. At the same time I don't wanna drop Pistol Squats.

What do you think I should do? I like the way I've laid out Option 1. It seems nice on paper. The problem is, do you think it's all fluff?

Thanks in advance, sir. I'm terribly confused on what to do…

Anuj

NO, NO. You do not HAVE to deadlift for three sets. This should completely up to how easy it is.

1. Do a set of 385 deadlifts to NEAR failure…that maybe about 2 good reps left, or one good rep left, or 1.5 good reps left..that depends on how it works for you. Doesn't matter how many reps. Even if it's only 3 that's fine. Or 4 or 5. Whatever happens happens.

2. After a GOOD rest..and I mean as long as you want or need up to 5 or 6 minutes, do another set, same as first. This time TRY to repeat the same number of reps because that will just make it easier to progress off…don't bother doing more reps than the first set unless it is just ridiculously easy..which is doubtful.

Take your time between reps so that you can be thinking whether this set will be it. The best way to no that is if this second set is more to failure than the last. In other words if the second set feels much like the first set then you can probably move on. If the last rep is the LAST rep, you're done. Hopefully you get that, lol.

3. Only after you gauge the toughness of the second set should you try to go on to a third. There is no need to push it. Two sets is fine. If you do go on to a third set don't worry about what happened on the first two. If you only have two reps in you then just do two. If all you have is one rep in you…then you probably shouldn't have bothered moving on to the third.

Anyway, if you do three sets, adding reps to the third set next time will be a logical way to progress. If you only do two sets you have the choice of adding reps to either or both sets, OR adding a third set…

So, after this next workout you just use single or double progression depending on what seems good. I think triple progression is probably out of the question.

DO NOT REPEAT THE SAME CYCLE YOU JUST DID WITH 405! ABSOLUTELY NOT. It's too much to repeat this cycle twice and you'd likely never get through it. AND all you'd end up doing is wasting the first cycle because you will not have cosolidated this range but instead pushed it too hard and possibly end up a step back.

During the next "cycle" you can add weight as part of single or double progression. Microloading would be entirely appropriate too. I envision this as you working off 385 and going from there up to the 405 range. But, even if you don't get near 405, 405 should be easy when you're done.

The workout plan looks fine. I don't know if you should do rows, facepulls, AND shrugs on the same day though.

New progression scheme for Deadlifts

Hey buddy rabbit, I was wondering where you were..figured it was a technical issue of some sort.

I'm really sorry I never did get to your plan…it's not that I'm too busy as much as I'm just getting too caught up in stuff here and elsewhere. I am also losing track of private messages…there are so many back and forth!

Actually that is not exactly what I wanted to do and I promised to lay it out and then didn't. Sorry, here is goes:

Ist workout…

Go for 8 to 10 singles at 90% (around 90% you don't have to be exact…88.6789 would be fine as well, lol)

I want you to find you relative max for that day…your best single (quality) you can do.

This will be one of the singles for the day..then do 7 to 10 more singles at about 90% (don't go much higher than 90 but a bit lower is ok).

So these singles will all be the same weight.

Thats it for day one.

2nd workout

Follow pretty much the same warmup as for the first day (depending on your needs of course) and repeat the same relative max you did on the first day….this can be a few pounds lighter if you want

The reason you are repeating the same max is basically for a staged effect…potentiation

Then…after the max warmup and max from day one take the same weight as you did the 7 to 10 singles with on day one and attempt 6 to 8 doubles.

So this is a pretty huge jump in workload but no jump in intensity.

That is it for day two.

3rd workout

Same procedures…same weights…

Except try for 5 to 7 triples

That's it for day 3

4th workout

Take the weight you used and do two or 3 sets for reps…near failure…you can go to failure on the last set….

That is the procedure…..

This is fairly balls to the wall and I wouldn't do it with deads unless you are just doing one long deadlift workout like you said before.

After you are done with that you take that baseline for reps you've established and play with it with triple progression for a while. Keep in mind that triple progression is probably not going to really happen with your deads at this point!

Are you getting this? I know the lack of numbers might confuse you…as the numbers confuse me, lol.

One more thing for the blogs:

For the "Continue Reading" part, where it has a linked title you can do this instead if you want:

[%%link%% custom title]

Where it says custom title you can replace that with any text you want…so it can just say, "read on…" and the read on will be linked to the blog post page.

Student - Teacher

I really like the concept of consolidating one's strengths before expanding - like instead of rapidly progressing and hitting a wall, I stay in a particular range till I have mastered it in such a way that I can do it any day of the week, like how I can Deadlifts 405 on any day of the week - it's no longer a 1RM on a GOOD day - it's a 1RM on ANY day. I know this was your plan and I am really appreciating it now. I remember all those times when I was in the 200's that I was complaining to myself and asking why am I not just going to 300 when I can - now all that makes much more sense to me.

Absolutely. I was kind of rambling with that last PM but you've seen exactly what I was getting at. The thing is if I hadn't had you progress like that you would be appreciating right now just how illusory preparedness can be.

But you also must realize that there will be a time when you get toward your upper most strength ceiling that "doing it any day of the week may be out". In other words if you hit 625 one day you can't really expect to be able to hit 625 consistently all the time any day of the week, etc..and so on. BUT when you are at a point where you HIT that you can do it without getting hurt and that is BECAUSE OF the fact of what you can do any day of the week right now and for the forseeable future. Being able to hit 495 and then later on beyond that consistently comes with a lot of injury buffering.

Actually, Kane and me were talking about a similar thing and this is the difference between going in the gym and "just getting it done" and paying your dues and getting it done, slowly, surely, and rightly. JUST GETTING IT done doesn't work in the long run.

Are you referring to my width being in my hips? hahaha….Is it really supposed to be easier? If this is easy I shudder to think whats difficult, sir. I was always under the impression that the skinnier you are the easier it is for you to deadlift. I consider myself a fatty so I presumed I have the odds stacked up against me.

I was referring to your skeletal frame, lol, not your fat layer. You have to just think logically about a "robust" skeletal frame as compared to a "slight" skeletal frame and ask yourself what those two different frames are good at. Anything "slight" is not going to be as good at absolute strength as something "robust" lol.

This particular exchange of pm's and your words of wisdom E have really made me all the more grateful for being taken under your wing: there are no words that will do justice to how thankful I am to have you guiding me.

I apprecitate that.

The thing is I want you and everybody else I help to far exceed anything I can do or will ever do. It's funny when you ask me about what I lift and all that because in my mind I don't think of you maybe lifting as much as me on deadlifts (for instance). I see you surpassing me like I have no business being in the gym. I feel, and I have always felt that the student SHOULD surpass the teacher and that that is the best testament to the teacher.

Jack of all trades and Master of none

My squat isn't that impressive. You must realize that these are "moments in the sun" for me. I am not a guy who can consistently pull off shit and that is one reason why my philsophy towards strength training has changed. My problem has been that I seem to progress on the big three by a sort threshold adaptation. Basically it's as if I'm in a war zone and I get the job done and then I fall to pieces with injuries and take two steps back.

So what I've done is just focus on being really good at a lot of things but not being great at any one thing, lol. That is actually, in a way, a good approach to avoiding injuries. Having to do with the "law of repetitive motion" and all that, right? Not to exxagerate it, though.

But if you think about the old days when I and everyone else were always telling people to "milk it for everything it's worth". Well, that's how I make the best strides in the big three but ALSO how I get my ass in a sling, lol. So in the long run I became more concerned with being able to CONTINUE doing what I love. Funny thing is..I'm having so much more fun and I feel so much more free.

I don't know if you remember but my best benching "moment" was a few years back after milking the hell out of 5x5's for a while and then my shoulder just wen't completely to hell. Now that is a phenomenom that I hate. Bad training can be so stressful on the body that it's if you go into "survival mode". Your body makes accomodations just to get the job done. You think you're "progressing" because your loading the bar. But then as soon as you step out of that stressful environment and do other things with different ranges of motions, etc…those accomodations become injuries. So that is an example where lifting a heavier barbell is NOT always PROGRESS. In that you are not getting BETTER or more PREPARED you are just accomodating to an agressive loading situation.

For deadlifting I took a concerted effort to bring it past like the 480 range and it was a HELL of a ride. But every time I approach a milestone my back just crys out and it was very hit and miss. The good news for that kind of strength level is that you don't have to worry about trying to hit that all the time. If you can stay within 30 to 50 pounds of that and keep your endurance up…you will be able to work back up to it fairly easy. In fact..it's the work capacity that is most important to keep up. The weight…think about it..30 to 50 pounds, sort of moving up and down toward the max..and your never further than 10 percent off it….

That is something you need to keep in mind now that your strength levels have come this far. I've noticed you get paranoid about "losing strength" but you're talking about 5 pounds! You know what 5 pounds is when you lift 495 or so? It's ONE percent, lol.

Having that robustness in your hips and stuff will make it much easier for you. It IS much easier for you. I have an "athletic" frame.

For reading, you know, there is just no magic formula. You have got to seek information from as wide a net as possilbe. You are getting better at seperating out the muck. But every one source of information is going to have cons with the pros.

You look at Eric Cressey and compare him to Mike Robertson. Technically Eric Cressey had more knowledge. But Mike Robertson is more mature and is able to step outside his box a bit more. That's very important.

To give you a for instance, I've learned a lot of technical stuff from both Cressey and Robertson but Robertson has probably influenced my training more than Cressey because he deals in modes of thought more. You know that is something that I always harp on..that the way you THINK about your training is just as important as what you do.

Strength Training

That's pretty close if you're talking a "powerlifting" squat, i.e. a low bar wide stance one. I'd have to be one bad mofo to pull that off with my bread and butter LOW squat. You know, my frame is pretty damn small. Most of my width is in my upper body.

I can't really say for sure because I stopped really tracking it and haven't done a regular squat for months, to be honest. As for bench, my bench dropped off because of my shoulder/scapula problems and I haven't really been able to work it back up. It was always up and down but this time it's just DOWN, lol.

Deadlift is around 540 at my max but I haven't hit that in a little while.

Here's the thing..it become boring as hell laboring just to bring up a handful of "core" movements for years on end. All the people writing articles about that may love doing competitions and so love training for 3 movements. But if you don't care about competition after a while that obsession takes the joy out of strength trianing. There are all sorts of fun and interesting things to do in terms of strength but if you are always worried about losing strength on your "big three" (like you are) you will never really discover those things. I am probably having a lot more fun now than I did 3 years ago even though my total has gone down, lol. But you know my attitudes have changed drastically over the last three years.

Strength for me has become a completely different pursuit and exept for deadlifts I don't think about the numbers too much. I'd estimate around 1400 if I were to give it a good head start and go for maxes. But as of right now having two weeks detraining I don't think so, lol.

I doubt I will ever get a bigger total than that and I don't care. I'm old and I have been plagued with health problems for years and I still have managed to do what I've done so I don't feel I have anything to prove to myself anymore. I think most people I help will be able to exceed what I have done no problem. Between all the injury I did to myself before I ever got started with strength training and the Sarcoidosis I am glad I've gotten as far as I have.

I say maybe because my heyday was probably over a year ago now and the only thing I really care about number-wise is deadlifting. I've been concentrating more on things like heavy pistols and pullups.

I also really want to bring up my overhead squats which have not been going so great for me lately. Not nearly as good for me as for you, as a matter of fact because of my shoulders. Which may make it a pipe dream.

My weight has dropped off consderably the more I've really gotten away from the bodybuilding thing. I'm around 190 to 200 consistently and that is fine with me. Same thing with the scale..It gets pretty damn watching the scale when you are happy with your body in the first place. Actually you asking about my bodyweight sort of dredged up a lot of bad "bodybuilding" memories, lol. It almost surprises me that I was ever into that and at this point I couldn't tell you why I was.

Squats & Short Term Goals

Actually that rant sort of brings out a point that will help you.

You said "i don't know the point of small term goals".

Well small term goals are EVERYTHING.

Long term goals are nebulous and and somewhat abstract. It's hard to really imagine doing them and they tend to change as our training reveals things to us.

I've made this analogy before and it's the best one I have. If you were walking across a desert and all you ever thought about was reaching the end you'd never make it. But if you set small term goals..the next hill, the next plant..you'd slowly but surely get to the end.

But also think about how even small term goals should not be the end. Your goal may be that hill in the distance but then as you make your way toward it you realize that what seems like a straight shot is full of ups and down and detours.

So make daily goals as well but DON'T always think about numbers. Think about getting better. Think better first and then look at numbers.

When you think numbers first you look at what you did this time or time before last but when you think better first you are able to look back and see the upward trend.

You know good and well that strength gain is measured in months and years. 260 compared to 265 is insignificant in the scheme of things.

But really we're all subject to this same frustration. It's how you deal with it that matters. Does it shut you down or drive you forward…

Anyway..I hate squats too. But you know the difference is I've ALWAYS hated them. There was never a time when I was great at them and made great progress as compared to pulling. And yet I've steadily improved over the years. If I can stick at something that I consistently suck at then you can stick at something that you intermittently suck at :)

Quality Volume Work on High Incline Presses

Not exactly. There is no rule in terms of reps. It is much more a "reactive" based thing than a prescription of sets and reps.

It's much like doing staged sets or something but taking the prearranged number of reps out of it. It may end up looking like that above but it doesn't have to.

Essentially it is a way of getting a whole lot of volume at a high percentage of max without sacrificing quality. So you wanna stick to trying 3 reps if you feel good about it but 2 reps or 1 reps are fair game. On paper it will end up "looking" like a great many things that it is not. Like clusters, or staged sets, or density training, etc..

Rest periods would be a short as possible while maintaining quality and as long as needed. So like you start with a goal of 3 reps and down to 1 as a possibility, you'd start with a shortish rest period of 2.5 to 3 minutes and up to 5 or more..

You are not watching the clock so much as being somewhat aware of it, lol.

This is not something that has been written out and analysed in great detail and that is the point. You wouldn't write anything down until you've done it.

I think if you look through the "records" Anuj, you may find my original descriptions? They go into a bunch of detail. It's very effective for sure.

Rather than something like that above you could very likely end up with something like:

155x3
155x1
165x3
175x2
177.5x3
185x3
185x1
190x3

etc..Microloading is encouraged. The reason you would choose to do 1 rep would be based on the quality and speed of that rep. Say you started with the 155 and it was a bit harder than you thought. Quality was good but questionable for that weight. So you have a long rest and try 155 again finding it a breeze. No use in wasting yourself for more reps.

So you put it down and take a good rest and load up again. You continue reacting in this basic way throught. So you find yourself acclimating or what have you..

Kane, I know you're familiar with the basic idea here. But in this case you are not looking at any sort of max or any sort of round about percentage. You take your sweet time and go as far as you can in whatever step-wise manner necessary as far as you can go.

So "quality" means here quality of movement and HEAVY. We're not looking for crowded sets. Just sheer numbers at as high an intensity as possible. The nature of it is going to keep the intensity maneagle of course..i.e. go for 3 reps and the open-ended nature of it is going to allow you to get as heavy ass possible instead of just counting reps and sets. What you get is a way to build up a surprisingly large amount of volume at a high percentage. Don't expect to set new pr's based on this. This is practice time. Being that I usually reserve this for something I haven't done in a while a lot of apparent strength will tend to be garnered.

In other words if I haven't done overhead press in a minute then I might feel I need some "quality time under the bar". So I'd use this "quality volume" method a couple times and when I went heavy after that I'll do much better from having that honeymoon period.

Doing Band Work

Advice regarding the following video:

Well, you hit 425 so I wouldn't complain too much.

First the vid.

Banded deads should be like speed work. I don't see you really trying to explode them off the floor. It almost looks as if you are easing them to your knees and then straining against them. RIP THE BAR OFF THE FLOOR as if the plates are glued down with superglue and then continue accelerating against the bands.

The weight was too heavy in general.

However, the purpose of doing the banded first was to take advantage of the short term gain in RFD, etc..if it's making it HARDER then re-examine doing the bandeds first. However you are making the banded a goal in itself. It sounds like you had trouble not only with the 225 but struggled with the 135 (to lock out) the whole time. Now you say you are going to shit bricks trying to perfect the 135 while complaining that it makes it hard to get the heavy deads going off the floor…which is certainly not a normal sticking point for you in any case.

You should be exploding off the floor and accelerating throught the sticking point as if the weight is floating. The fact that your back is like a spring rather than the bar being torn off the floor with the initial pull shows to me that you are struggling against the bands too much the whole time. Take it back a lot of notches to a weight you are good with. The build up and then stop while you are ahead.

Otherwise, don't do the bands before heavy deads.

You're right on the warmup. Going to 335 and then hitting bands is not necessary. And it's a mistake in general to have the majority of you "warm-up" for bands being without bands.

First a little on banded deads:

The banded deads underscore the importance of RFD and acceleration. It is not just a matter of how much weight the bands add at lockout. In general you will not be able to lockout any where near what you would normally do, i.e. if the weight at top "equals" your normal lifting weight. All these formulas concerning weight at top and and what percentage and all that suck compared to simple experimentation.

There is actually nothing wrong with starting out with a weight on bandeds you can't lockout in theory. I do it all the time ON PURPOSE. I will start with a weight that either I can't lockout or I can't even get past my knees. But I will try like a mother as if I'm going to actually lock it out.

Then I'll drop down a bunch to a weigth that is easier but I still can't quite lock.

I'll quickly drop down to a weight that is MUCH lower that I can handle with ease. That is not easy but a weight that I can lift quick and handle with good form. Then I'll slowy build up.

When done right I will end up locking out a weight that I could not lock out at the beginning and with explosiveness. But once I get up to the lowest weight that I could not lock out at the beginning I am on to heavy deads and at this point the heavies should be flying off the floor.

I don't always use this method but it is viable for me.

But regardless of how all that sounds my goal is NOT to lift the heaviest banded dead with the thickest band possible. My goal is to increase my conventional deads.

With this workout, instead of using the banded deads for a purpose you let them own you. Everything is still ok but I don't really want to hear it sucked off the floor.

All that being said…it's still a good workout

---x---

My response:

I understand what you're saying. I will do that next time then. I like the idea of doing the heavy weight that I can't get past my knees, trying like hard, then working down and then working back up. I really like the idea and I was going to do that yesterday but I was too busy trying to stick to "the plan" or 5 doubles. I should've adapted but I was not confident in that since I hadn't spoken to you about it.

Now that I know, I'll use this method of yours. Just so I know I have this down right, is this what I do (sort of step by step):

1.) Don't warm-up all the way to 335. It is pointless. I should warm-up using the bands at a lighter weight (I can use 10 lbs and 25 lbs bumper plates).

2.) Then, I take a weight I KNOW is too heavy to clear but I do it anyways and I struggle like hell at the knees (or wherever) to lock it out. I fail but I do this nonetheless.

3.) After that, I should reduce the weight and try again. Of course with this the sticking point will be a hit higher up.

4.) Then, I hit some doubles with an easy weight (lighter).

5.) Then I move up a bit in the weight.

6.) Bands come off, time to do Deadlifts.

Am I correct, sir?

---x----

Mr. Troy:

Yep that's pretty much the idea.

Even so, if you wanted to stick to the plan the plan would have been to do the doubles. Not to do the doubles at such and such a weigth, right?

I do want to be clear that the banded session itself is not the problem, at least in isolation. It's what happens afterwards that is.

But the first time I watched the vid I didn't have time to watch the regular heavy deads and I just realized that your setup was quite a bit off from normal. Looking at it I am fairly certain that is why it felt so heavy off the floor. You shoulders were way behind the bar at the start.