The Deadlift

That's Bob Peoples, look at the length of his arms, look where the bar sits in relation to his knees, the average guy pulls the bar another 20cm. So Bob Peoples' start position, with arms that long was also “better” than most, probably why he was a World Record holder. In the 1940’s, over 20 years before PED, he was deadlifting over 320kg at 82.5kg bodyweight. That is very impressive stuff.

I feel the deadlift is the most controversial lift from a coaching perspective and most misunderstood from an overall strength perspective. Last night I was reading an article written by one of Australia’s best deadlifters and a Strongman competitor. He explained in the article how amongst his fellow Strongman competitors they believed that the deadlift is the true test of one’s strength.

This won’t surprise readers who have followed my writing for a few years, but I disagree. I guess if I’m going to disagree with some very strong lifters, I best explain myself. I run a strength gym, PTC, so most of the stuff I talk about is founded from training many lifters. Here’s a little story.

In September I took a team of lifters to Slovakia for World's. One of the boy’s deadlifted 245kg, a good effort. In October I had a Novice comp at my gym, and a close friend did his first comp, although he has been training for a few years. He deadlifted 250kg, that’s a great number, and according to our strongman, this novice is stronger. He is around 15kg heavier than the other boy, but also 10” taller, so it balances out a bit.

Pointless arguing who is stronger based on this information, too close to call. What about their other lifts? Good question, the novice squatted 140kg, the Worlds lifter squatted 250kg. The bench press? Heavier novice benched 105kg, lighter Worlds lifter managed 155kg.

This example is simply to illustrate that the deadlift is not the true test of strength, because clearly the guy with the lower deadlift is much stronger. Now here is why I think the deadlift is so misjudged when referring to strength.

Lever’s play a massive role in how much you can deadlift. Have a look at Bob Peoples arms again, they are much longer than normal, so his massive deadlift isn’t just a result of his tremendous strength, his levers helped immensely. Now fixing levers isn’t that difficult, it simply requires buying a Delorean, a flux capacitor and having ample plutonium, go back to 10 months before your birthday, and choose better suited to deadlift parents.

The serious stuff
Back to serious stuff. I’m sure everyone reading this has been coached or has read on how to “set up” before you pull, tight lower back, bar touching the shins, mixed grip, pull.

Nothing at all wrong with that, I do the same with all my novice lifters, and we have had good success, since 2008 we have had over 200 client’s deadlift over 200kg, with 14 deadlifting between 250kg and 300kg. The best deadlifters at PTC though do something that some don’t agree with, they pull their shoulders down, not back, and keep their lats tight. This allows a much better position to pull from, in my opinion.

Our best deadlifter has pulled 272.5kg@81kg and only 19yo, a WR, he uses next to no leg drive at all. I have spoken to legends of the past, guys that pulled 350kg at less than 100kg of bodyweight, and they are emphatic that the deadlift is a back exercise, most focus way too much on getting leg drive while reducing the load on the back. That is a huge mistake in my opinion.

I recently spent time with an interstate lifter who was stuck on 190kg for far too long. He asked if I’d have a look at his deadlift. He was starting the lift in the full squat position. I guessed correctly that his squat and deadlift numbers were the same. I had him alter his start position by elevating the hips higher and using “more back”. He pulled 200kg easily. It really was as simple as that. Annoyingly, a PT that was watching claimed we were doing it all wrong, the lifter pulled 210kg a few weeks later, at a National Championship, we ignored the PT.

Now everyone has different levers, some may be better at sumo style, others at conventional, you need to try and work this out for yourself, there is no better way. Some claim that sumo is best because it really shortens the range of motion. The three biggest deadlifters in the world today, all deadlift conventional, Andy Bolton, Benni Magnusson and Konstaninos Konstantinov, all between 425kg and 460kg. They deadlift conventional because it suits them and allows them to lift the most weight.

You should do the same.

As far as assistance goes, we don’t do a lot, we have a few specific exercises aimed at whatever the lifters weakness is. We use shrugs, rows, chins, good mornings, still leg deadlifts and Ukrainian deadlifts. Now I’m sure you’ve all heard of all of them, except the UDL’s.

Ukrainian deadlifts
I honestly believe that one of the reasons we have had success at deadlifting is because of UDL’s. Here is how we do them. We get 2 x 30cm plyo boxes from Ironedge, we keep them wide enough to sit a KB in between, normally the 80kg one. One of our girls has done 15 reps with the 80kg KB at only 57kg. We need a 100kg KB now.

The KB handle will sit level with your shoes, and as I’ve mentioned in other articles, I love a long range of motion. Again, I’ve watched some do this from the full squat position, we do it with the hips high, and for high reps. We had one guy do 60 consecutive reps with the 64kg KB off 30cm blocks. Very impressive.

Once you have progressed to over 200kg for the deadlift, we stick to only a couple of movements for the main, deadlifting off blocks and deficit deadlifts. For deficit we stand on a block between 60mm and 90mm high, when elevating the bar to pull off blocks, we have the bar just under the knees. You will be surprised at the numbers you get from these movements.

Anyone would assume you pull more from a height than a deficit. Not true. Some guys pull less from a height because the lockout is there weakness, while some pull the same from a deficit as from the floor. Just work hard on both lifts and try and lift more each session.

I’ll leave you with the words of Don Blue, a two time IPF World Champion, who lifted out of prison, both times, and maybe invented deficit deadlifts.

“The comp doesn’t start till the bar hits the floor”

In case you didn’t work it out, Don was a sensational deadlifter, sometimes coming from 100lbs behind to win by 100lbs after the deadlift.

So, if I don’t think the deadlift is the best test of overall strength, what lift is?

My answer will surprise, stay tuned for the next article.

Markos Markopoulos