The 400lb Deadlift

[Carman Bulldog]

AN INTRODUCTION

With the call out for dynasties, I thought I would join the fray as I've recently switched up workout routines. The title of the thread references my primary goal, which is to attain a single rep 400lb deadlift (and yes, I realize that's 495lbs in the picture).

In my youth and as a teen, I played many organized sports at various times, including hockey, soccer, baseball and basketball, while also taking part recreationally in other activities such as tennis, golf, touch football, ultimate frisbee, wiffleball, cross country skiing, canoeing, you name it. Most of the latter activities were of the unorganized variety, just pick up and play with friends in the evenings or on the weekend. While I never truly excelled at any one thing, I was more than capable and competitive at any activity I was doing, the so-called jack of all trades master of none, and would describe myself athletically as above average.

In high school, I never lifted weights and probably first started lifting any sort of weights in my late teens or early twenties. At that time, my workouts were shit and stayed that way for close to 10 years. They were also probably what 95% of people do when they go to the gym. I would do a split like chest/bicep, shoulder/leg and back/tricep days. I would pick out a couple exercises each and probably do 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps. While I got okay at what I did, I never saw the sort of progression I would like to see, and never actually got much stronger.

Despite this, my affair with this type of workout and various similar workouts such as the one's you would see on bodybuilding.com or in Men's Health continued on and off for close to a decade, following the same pattern. I would start off committed with things going well, but like the last workout routine before it, I would quickly plateau, seeing little progression and soon abandon the routine (and lifting altogether) for the next few months plus. I would eventually pick up a different yet similar routine and the cycle would continue.

A big part of the problem, as I later learned, was too much of a focus on the small muscle groups and a lack of focus on the larger muscle groups (and proper technique on the big lifts). That all changed around February of 2009.

Up next... Starting Strength

[sterlingice]

Would be dead if I tried to lift 400 lb

SI

[MacroGuru]

I was able to do it in high school and college with football...but I don't think I could do it right now...I would have to work up to it.

[GoldenEagle]

Cool idea. I am planning on starting the Starting Strength program as well. My PR on deadlift is 315. That was without any sort of progression or anything.

[Carman Bulldog]

STARTING STRENGTH

Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength is the holy grail of strength training and a must read for anyone who wants to get stronger. As referenced in the introduction, I stumbled across Starting Strength in February of 2009. I read it (and re-read it) and began the program in March of 2009. I can honestly say that I would not be where I am today in my lifts without it.

I'll summarize the program as follows:

Workout A
Squats 3x5
Press 3x5
Deadlift 1x5

Workout B
Squats 3x5
Bench Press 3x5
Power Clean 3x5

You alternate Workouts A&B on three non-consecutive days per week. You basically progress at 5 lbs per exercise per workout (and 10 lbs on the deadlift). The program is excellent for beginner strength gains as evidenced below in my lifts from the start of March to late April in 2009.



Unfortunately, my trend of starting and stopping continued, but at least this time it was with the same program and the overall development carried forward. Overall, my 2009 looked like this...



All of those drops are accountable to deloading phases, some of them purposeful, in the sense that I stalled out on a certain lift and decreased the weight to come back up again and others out of taking a break. The others came because of inactivity, where I was off for an extended length of time and had to start back at a lower weight then what I was at.

Despite the lack of consistency in my schedule, I still managed to see solid results that carried forward in 2010 and beyond.

Up next... 2010 until Today, including the Madcow routine

Still to come... The Lifts and Wendler's 5/3/1

[CrimsonFox]

Wow! That's impress if you could do that. I WAS going to joke asking if you were making this a dynasty. But wow you ARE!

*shakes your hand very gently*

[britrock88]

For reference, what's your height/weight/build?

[Carman Bulldog]

2010 - From Starting Strength to Madcow 5x5

As outlined previously, in March of 2009, I took up Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength program (for more on the program see here and here but ultimately buy the book).

My early beginner gains were solid but my biggest problem was consistency. Over a 36 week (8 month) period between early March of 2009 and early November 2009, I completed 63 workouts, well below the sought after 3 workouts per week and not even quite at 2 workouts per week. At my job at the time, I would usually alternate between working a week of days and a week of evenings. When I was off or working evenings, I rarely missed, but struggled to do the workouts on days.

At the start of 2010, impressed with my results from the Starting Strength program, I was motivated to make a (slightly) greater commitment to consistency in 2010. And to date, 2010 still stands as my all time best year for getting myself to the gym with 118 total lifting sessions as well as a balanced commitment throughout the year. In fact, apart from February (8), August (7) and December (6), every month had at least 9 workouts with most falling closer to 11. And the results showed in my workouts...



You'll note than a period of inactivity the last two months of 2010 led me to deload to start the year and about two more months before I got back to my prior totals. You'll also notice a big deload (intentional) in late September of 2010. At the time, I felt that after a (mostly) solid year and a half on the program, I felt that I had done what I could with Starting Strength and moved on to an intermediate program known as Madcow's 5x5.

When comparing the Starting Strength program to the Madcow program, the biggest difference in the rate at which you progress. Whereas Starting Strength sees you making gains from workout to workout, Madcow focuses on gains from week to week. You are also no longer squatting heavy 3x per week nor are you doing three sets across at your heaviest weight. Rather, you ramp up to a single heavy set.

Mondays
Squat 1x5
Bench Press 1x5
Barbell Row 1x5

Wednesday
Squat 2x5
Press 1x5
Deadlift 1x5

Friday
Squat 1x3
Bench Press 1x3
Barbell Row 1x3

On Wednesdays, your squat is at a much lighter weight than your Monday/Friday and is a recovery day. On Friday, following your set of 3, you follow up with a set of 8 at a lower weight. The general idea is that on Friday you hit a personal best for 3 reps and then follow that up by hitting the same weight for 5 reps the following Monday. Come Friday, you increase the weight by 5 lbs, wash, rinse and repeat.

As you can see, my progress continued at a fairly solid rate (can't complain about 15 lbs on your squat in three months).

Unfortunately, after the solid gains made in 2010, 2011 would be a down year.

Up next... The struggles of 2011.

Still to come... 2012, Wendler's 5/3/1, The Lifts, and More About Me (ie. Height/Weight, Nutrition, Equipment, Supplements, etc.)

For more on the Madcow 5x5, see here.

As an aside, if there are any terms that are not making sense or you want more details about such as beginner gains, sets across, deloading, stalling, etc. feel free to ask.

[Desnudo]

I just started the 5/3/1 program after doing a German/Russian volume hybrid for a while. Definitely an ass kicker if you include the rolling and jump rope + cardio. Currently at 198 (5 11) 1rep about DL 350 SQ 350 BP 250 SP 150

Will be interested to compare progress.

[Carman Bulldog]

I should really keep updating this. The problem was that when I did the data input for 2011 and 2012, I must have messed up and not saved things, putting a cramp in things. The workouts are still going well and am in Week 10 of 5/3/1 so I'll try and keep plugging away to get things updated to that point.



2011 - A Down Year (to say the least)

Heading into 2011, things were going pretty well. I had set personal bests in late November in the Squat (285 lbs x 5 reps), Bench (200 x 5) and Deadlift (307.5 x 5). While things dragged in December with the Holiday season, I was poised to pick up in January where I left off.

Things started out promising, using the month of January to get back to those totals but I was never able to push past them. Furthermore, I started developing a groin pain from squats. It really only affected me during lifts so I figured I would try and push through it. Unfortunately, a few weeks off of squatting in February failed to make things improve and throughout the first few months of 2011, I was up and down and never really able to push past those plateau's I reached in November of 2010.

By May, I decided the groin problems were too much to keep lifting through and that the only thing that would improve it was some rest. For the next month and a half, I kept up with the other lifts.

Once summer rolled around though, my lifting schedule went from inconsistent to non-existent. I was in the middle of an almost 400 mile work relocation, so between house renovations, searching for a new place to live, moving, getting settled into a new house, etc., my lifting went out the window.

This is what my 2011 chart looked like:



Needless to say, not very good at all. For the record, I did not work out from July 8, 2011 until November 7, 2011, almost a full four months off. When I returned, I started back at scratch. As you may recall, in 2010, I had moved to the Madcow 5x5 routine, but come November 2011, I reverted back to the Starting Strength program to maximize the early gains and progression. And as we headed into the new year, things started to slowly climb again. On the plus side, the time off from squatting (what amounted to six months) helped out quite a bit.

Up Next... 2012 - Continuing to Rebuild (I've got the data entered in, so this should come faster)