My Opinion on Pulling a Good Weight

More deadlifting. A post from AlbertaBeef;

My Opinion on Pulling a Good Weight

I just finished reading Carnal’s post on his methods on having a good pull. Back in February I pulled a pr of 680 at 230lbs bw. This was achieved by the following:

First off, pull often. There’s a lot of crap going around the ‘net saying that “the best way to deadlift is to not deadlift”. Sorry, for me this is bullshit, for others it may work but if you want to become a better skater are you going to do everything but? My point exactly. Pull often until your form is solid, not kind of good but rather 100%. Once your technique is perfected, then work on supplementary exercises that are going to contribute to you pulling a shitload.

Next, unlike Carnal, I believe speed kills. Meaning, I think it rules. More explosion, more weight moved, shifted, pulled, whatever. You should visualize from the very first plate that you put on that bar until the LAST plate, you will pull with equal speed. You have that mentality, you’ll see results.

Third, supplementary exercises, holy shit do you need to do a TON of hamstring work. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting nothing but romanians but do seated hamstring curls or something along the like a couple times/week. Next, is core work, this includes your erectors, obliques and lats. Hit one of these areas at least once a training session. I personally enjoy doing tons of wide grip chins for high reps or heavy db rows when it comes to developing my lats. Upper back work, I’d get it done by doing some sort of row. Choice is yours but go HEAVY!!!

Fourth, I probably over 200× from the floor last year and I did rack pulls a total of 2×. My opinion was if I was going to pull hard from the floor, do all these bloody heavy supplementary movements, then how in the fuck is my body going to endure heavy racks as well? I knew I couldn’t do it and it worked out fine for me. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy and encourage racks but I’ll explain that later.

Leg work, along with a RELATIVELY strong back this is where all your power will come from. I actually did a lot of research in this particular area. If you are like me and specifically want to solely bring up your dead then you’ll need to front squat heavy, I mean the only set that should be over 3 reps should be your first set of 10 with 60 kg or 1 plate/side. Everything following that should be triples or doubles. You should be fucked after these. These will probably be the absolute best exercise to drive up your pulling numbers.

Sled work (leg press) – I shied away from back squatting and it paid off big time. The sled enabled me to position my feet high enough on the platform that I could activate my hamstrings and hips throughout the movement, which in turn mimicked my pull, this ultimately contributed in getting a bigger pull. 5-6 sets. Last set should be the heaviest, along with the highest reps. In other words, save your energy until your final set and go like a madman.

Grip, train your grip. When I pulled my last pr, my grip was the only thing that kind of fucked me, while I was locking out, I torn the callus off my right hand. If that wouldn’t have happened I probably would’ve been able to do more. Get that grip strong, heavy timed holds, spend lots of time alone or whatever but train that grip!!!!

Stuff I didn’t do:

Shrugs, my traps got more than enough work from all of my pulls, never needed to do them and funny enough, they never got sore. If I’d have done them it would’ve been a waste of time that I could’ve spent on something that would’ve helped my pull more.

Back Squats: I would’ve had to squat super heavy (IMO) for it to really help my pull and I would’ve had the same results from the front squats and sled, HOWEVER, the potential for a strain or injury while having all that weight on my back was a risk I didn’t want to take. When I have a deadlift routine that I follow, I become so focussed and determined to make it through with a pr. I don’t want to develop an injury that isn’t even from the lift that I want to increase (if that makes sense?).

Good mornings, no need. Just pull man, just pull.

As I said earlier I’d touch on rack pulls, I think they are beneficial and I will try them over the next few months during my next dead routine. I think it’s smart to hit racks from different heights, some weeks over the knees, some weeks under the knees. Go heavy. Again, keep the reps low.

Final words:

For me, I know I’d never achieve a bigger pull if I did high rep shit. Maybe once every six weeks throw in a high rep set of SOMETHING but sure as hell, no high rep pulls.

I pull once every 30-40 days while I’m not on my deadlift routine and once every 10 days for 10 weeks when I am going for a pr.

In the last year I’ve added nearly 100lbs on my deadlift and I’m a lifetime natural lifter. For me, I just finally found that keeping it very simple is what will pay off best.

Keep it simple and pull heavy. You’ll get there.

I’ll see you soon at 750… hopefully before 250 lbs bw.