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Everything you need to know about the deadlift

Fact. The deadlift should be done by every man who has a healthy back. It is the king of back exercises, working the entire backside from your glutes up to your neck. It is the surest route to overall back thickness. The lift also stresses the hips, abdominals and legs, as well as working the grip, forearms and biceps. Akin to the squat, the deadlift stimulates size and strength gains that carries over to a growth response in other areas too. Due to the heavy weight, and intense nature of the lift, testosterone and growth hormone is significantly elevated following training. The deadlift builds more useable strength and muscle than any other movement. It is an explosive fluid movement.
Two styles exist; conventional and sumo, which although similar, have different biomechanics.

CONVENTIONAL STANCE (set up)
Stand with feet shoulder width apart, or slightly narrower. The feet should be as far forward as possible, without the shoulders hanging over the bar. Keep the head elevated and look forward and slightly up wards. Keep the shoulders back, albeit slightly rounded (this decreases the distance that the bar needs to be pulled). The bar should be gripped tightly, with a suppinated grip (one hand under, one hand over)


SUMO STANCE (set up)
Stand with the feet placed much wider; up to twice shoulder width (an extreme).
Point the toe outwards up to a limit of 160º. Note – the bar travels 25-40% less than in conventional stance, as the hip angle is about 12º greater and the knee angle 13º. As the trunk is closer to vertical there is less stress on the spine. Some people find that they are stronger using this technique - Ed coan, the best pound for pound deadlifter uses this method
AMAZING FEAT:
Ed Coan sumo deadlifting 832lbs at a weight of 220lbs


OTHER DIFFERENCES: In the conventional deadlift, the lifter pushes straight down with the feet. In the sumo stance, the knees are pushed over the toes (avoids stress to the knee, and engages the larger muscles of the hips earlier)

PHASES OF LIFT:

SET UP (SEE ABOVE)

FILL ABDOMINAL CAVITY – Inhale and push the air down, so as not to fill the chest. This prevents the shoulders from elevating and increasing the distance the bar must travel

INITIATING THE LIFT – Extend the knees and hip joints together, with the knee extending, as a result of the contraction of the quadriceps, moving slightly back during extension. The hip joint extends after the contraction of the glutes and hamstrings. The entire hamstring is active during the lift, with semitendinosos and semimembranosus recruited to extend the hip PULL (past the knees) This portion sees the bar travel past the knees and up to the thighs.
The knees should remain firm when straightening and not rebend. Do not pull the torso back; just push the hips forward to complete the lift. This shifts some of the stress to the larger hip muscles and glutes. Pull the shoulders back at the top of the lift.

PULL (TO THE KNEES) The bar is simultaneously pulled into the body and upwards, preventing forward rotation and a fall. This creates a stable centre of gravity. Feet placement also affects the centre of gravity, too far forward and the shins are too close to the bar, causing the bar to be pulled around the knees not past them. – Arm lever distance and torque is reduced.
The upper back and shoulders undergo isometric contraction in this phase, in order to stabilize the position of the bar. The biceps and forearms contract isometrically so as to stabilize the elbow joint. The lower back contracts bringing the spine into an erect position. In the conventional stance, you must incline the torso much more than sumo stance in order to reduce stress on the lumbar vertebrae.


It is an explosive fluid movement, with two styles exist; conventional and sumo, which although similar, have different biomechanics.


CONVENTIONAL STANCE (set up)
Stand with feet shoulder width apart, or slightly narrower. The feet should be as far forward as possible, without the shoulders hanging over the bar. Keep the head elevated and look forward and slightly upwards. Keep the shoulders back, albeit slightly rounded (this decreases the distance that the bar needs to be pulled). The bar should be gripped tightly, with a suppinated grip (one hand under, one hand over)


INCREDIBLE FEAT

Ronnie Coleman deadlifted 805lbs (conventional stance), note Ronnie is a bodybuilder with awesome strength. He did 2 reps with this weight, and that was after 3 sets of bent over rows with 405 lbs and 3 sets of T-bar rows with 540lbs!! This is incredible, considering the record is 933lbs and that he does not train primarily for strength. Concievably, he could break the 1000lb mark, if he trained specifically for this lift.

"Aint' nothin' but a peanut, light weight baby!"
 
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Ronnie Coleman did have a strong deadlift, but please note it was mastered by using straps. In real competition straps cannot be used.
 
kansasfarmman said:
Ronnie Coleman did have a strong deadlift, but please note it was mastered by using straps. In real competition straps cannot be used.

Yeah sorry, meant 1000lb (now edited)

Yes that is true, he did use straps - sure he could build his grip, if he chose to specialise in that area though.
 
FYI - Coan at 220 totalled 2402 and has Deadlifted 901 at that weight.

Good info but as far as Coleman pulling 1000, even in his grandest dreams it would never happen (my opinion but I doubt I'm in a minority). Coan has doubled 900 in the gym where he doesn't perform max lifts and other lifters have put up some impressive feats but increases in the deadlift over 800 are really hard to come by and come in the smallest of % increments - and increases over 900 come at a crawl if at all . 1000 is massively different from 800. There are a number of 800 deadlifters and no one within striking range of 1000. I don't want to take anything away from Coleman but I doubt he'd be offended by my appraisal nor disagree with it.
 
Madcow2 said:
FYI - Coan at 220 totalled 2402 and has Deadlifted 901 at that weight.

Good info but as far as Coleman pulling 1000, even in his grandest dreams it would never happen (my opinion but I doubt I'm in a minority). Coan has doubled 900 in the gym where he doesn't perform max lifts and other lifters have put up some impressive feats but increases in the deadlift over 800 are really hard to come by and come in the smallest of % increments - and increases over 900 come at a crawl if at all . 1000 is massively different from 800. There are a number of 800 deadlifters and no one within striking range of 1000. I don't want to take anything away from Coleman but I doubt he'd be offended by my appraisal nor disagree with it.

Actually, I think you are right about the 220lb 901lb double - I remember reading an interview he gave. In retrospect, I think I got confused, he's gone up weight recently to about 242lbs? and his strength has gone down - he still holds the record for his current weight category, but it is lower than the record he set when he was lighter (can't understand that). I think the 832lb was actually his higher weight record.
 
Yeah, I believe Coan hurt himself and pulls conventional now. Not sure if he ever went back. He's also getting up there in age too. He's doing some great lifting but with time comes injuries in life. Extra bodyweight doesn't translate as well to the pull as it does to the squat and bench. I've seen guys add 20lbs of muscle and push their squat and bench way up while the DL remained nearly totally stagnant. Granted this doesn't always happen but once you are fairly advanced some extra muscle goes a lot further towards the bench and the squat than it does to the dead.
 
Madcow2 said:
Yeah, I believe Coan hurt himself and pulls conventional now. Not sure if he ever went back. He's also getting up there in age too. He's doing some great lifting but with time comes injuries in life. Extra bodyweight doesn't translate as well to the pull as it does to the squat and bench. I've seen guys add 20lbs of muscle and push their squat and bench way up while the DL remained nearly totally stagnant. Granted this doesn't always happen but once you are fairly advanced some extra muscle goes a lot further towards the bench and the squat than it does to the dead.


Yeah Ed tore one of his hamstrings at the distal insertion and can't pull sumo anymore. he also recently re-injured himself and hasn't lifted in quite some time. As for his strength going down only his deads did. His squat continued to climb as he got heavier as well as his bench.

As for Ronnie no to take anything away from his lift but he did use straps and bounced the bar for the second rep on 800. As for 1000lbs no way he could do it. The world record went from 925 to 935 in 20 years that's a half a pound a year while the squat and bench records have sky rocketed in the past few years. Why? Because deads have too many weak points like grip, then the lever arm action of your upper body, and also starting in a more akward position than squats.

Will anyone ever pull 1000lbs from the floor? I think so but not for a while yet.

Cheers,
Scotsman
 
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