DL cycle and meet prep

Steve Freides said:

Since we seem to be talking about everything except weights these
days around here, I thought I'd post about my most recent DL cycle,
which yielded me a small PR two days ago and I hope will get me an
even bigger one at the meet on Friday.

By way of background, in this article entitled "Deadlifting On The
Rise" which Louie Simmons wrote for DragonDoor

http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/263?kbid=1022

Louie says:

!!> Box deadlifting is a productive method. These are done by
!!> standing on a platform ranging in height from 1 to 4 inches.
!!> A conventional or sumo deadlifter can use four levels, up to
!!> 4 inches. Keep track of each box record for a single. To
!!> increase grip strength, do a triple, pausing each rep on the
!!> floor. Pulling off a platform will build the start or finish of the
!!> deadlift regardless which portion of your deadlift is lagging.
!!> This is done by increasing the range of motion 1-4 inches,
!!> depending on box height. A bonus is developing your grip
!!> by having to hold on to the bar longer than a regular deadlift.

I don't train Westside style but I did work the 1 to 4 inches
platform idea into a 4-week DL routine with a 2-week prep, DL'ing 3x
per week. The "reps" numbers are how many reps in each set, each
rep was single, long rests between sets (about 5-10 minutes), just a
breath or two between individual reps.

Week 1 - 654321 reps on 3" platform. Start ~70% 1RM, add 10-15
lbs. per set, add 5 lbs. per workout

I originally read this as 654,321 reps on a 3" platform at 70% of your
1RM. Even counting all of your reps for the week that would be a heck
of a lot of deadlifting.

Quoted message said:

Week 2 - 54321 reps on 2" platform. (Last single 95%)

Week 3 - 4321 reps on 1" platform. (Last single 101%)

Week 4 - a few days off, test new max off the floor (will be at meet
this time).

I'm 50 years old, I weigh about 153 lbs., and I lift with no
supportive gear (not even a belt). My current meet best is 347
lbs. (157.5 kg) and my old gym best was 350 lbs. I pulled 355 off
the 1" platform on Monday for that "slight PR"and am looking forward
to the meet on Friday. My attempts will 150 kg (330 lbs.), 160 kg
(353 lbs.) for a new meet PR, then probably 165 kg (364 lbs.) Every
time I've done this cycle so far, about 3 of them, I've gotten a
10-20 lb. PR on max test day.

That looks like a solid cycle. In the past when I wanted to work on
my deadlift I found that I burnt out really easily. How many days a
week did you work out, and how many of those days did you deadlift?

Quoted message said:

The two week prep was just working up to the first workout of the
main cycle.

I squatted once per week during this time, nothing heavy, just to
keep the groove a bit, because this is a DL-only meet for me. I did
kettlebell overhead presses and barbell overhead squats almost
everyday and always before the DL's on DL days, and I think this
cycle would work OK for someone doing both lifts at a push-pull
meet. If it was a 3-lift meet, I'd probably try squatting on the
above schedule and DL'ing once a week.

So your workouts consisted basically of squats, deadlifts, overhead
squats (love those), and overhead presses (I don't own a kettlebell).
That sounds like fun.

Quoted message said:

Miscellany: I used 3/4" plywood for my platform so they were
actually slightly shorter: 2-1/4", 1-1/2", and 3/4". It was a
pretty decent amount of heavy lifting for me and I slept more and
ate more to keep up with it.

Good luck at the meet. By the way, how do you find out about
powerlifting meets in your area? I'm interested in trying one. At
the very least it would give me something to train for 🙂.

Jason

"Jason Earl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Steve Freides" <[email hidden]> writes:

- lots of snippage of my original message -

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Week 1 - 654321 reps on 3" platform. Start ~70% 1RM, add 10-15
lbs. per set, add 5 lbs. per workout

I originally read this as 654,321 reps on a 3" platform at 70% of your
1RM. Even counting all of your reps for the week that would be a heck
of a lot of deadlifting.

🙂

Quoted message said:

That looks like a solid cycle. In the past when I wanted to work on
my deadlift I found that I burnt out really easily. How many days a
week did you work out, and how many of those days did you deadlift?

I lift almost every day - I take a day off when I feel I need it, but I
probably miss 2 or 3 days per month, I'd guess. I do take it easier on
non-DL days, basically do the same other stuff but skipping the DL and
the assistance.

Quoted message said:

So your workouts consisted basically of squats, deadlifts, overhead
squats (love those), and overhead presses (I don't own a kettlebell).
That sounds like fun.

For the last six weeks, it's been overhead press and windmill everyday,
OHS at least 3x/week, sometimes more, DL 3x/week, followed by kb swings
and maybe snatches, and ending with ab work. I also did one-legged,
two-kettlebell deadlifts as assistance for my regular DL, performed
right after the main DL, standing on a 2-inch plus platform, but I
didn't do them every day basically because I didn't always have the time
and they were sort of optional. My training log on DragonDoor has all
the details of each day's workout if you're interested:

http://tinyurl.com/aatb6

Quoted message said:

Good luck at the meet. By the way, how do you find out about
powerlifting meets in your area? I'm interested in trying one. At
the very least it would give me something to train for 🙂.

http://www.aausports.org

is where I keep track of things. Last year I asked here on mfw once I
found about the AAU World's and that there didn't even exist a DL record
in my category. Someone pointed me to a qualifier half way across the
country, but I did it and then I did the Laughlin meet. My performance
there automatically qualified me to go to this meet, so I'm going.
There's a 3-lift meet in the end of January in VA but I can't make it,
and I'm frankly happier with this meet because I wanted only to DL this
year and the push-pull format means I won't have to wait as long for the
deadlifts, I hope.

There are a number of PL federations - try Googling things like American
Powerlifting and you'll find all sorts of web site.

Thanks for your interest and for the good wishes.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

Steve Freides said:

"Jason Earl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Steve Freides" <[email hidden]> writes:

- lots of snippage of my original message -

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Week 1 - 654321 reps on 3" platform. Start ~70% 1RM, add 10-15
lbs. per set, add 5 lbs. per workout

I originally read this as 654,321 reps on a 3" platform at 70% of
your 1RM. Even counting all of your reps for the week that would
be a heck of a lot of deadlifting.

🙂

Quoted message said:

That looks like a solid cycle. In the past when I wanted to work
on my deadlift I found that I burnt out really easily. How many
days a week did you work out, and how many of those days did you
deadlift?

I lift almost every day - I take a day off when I feel I need it,
but I probably miss 2 or 3 days per month, I'd guess. I do take it
easier on non-DL days, basically do the same other stuff but
skipping the DL and the assistance.

Quoted message said:

So your workouts consisted basically of squats, deadlifts, overhead
squats (love those), and overhead presses (I don't own a
kettlebell). That sounds like fun.

For the last six weeks, it's been overhead press and windmill
everyday, OHS at least 3x/week, sometimes more, DL 3x/week, followed
by kb swings and maybe snatches, and ending with ab work. I also
did one-legged, two-kettlebell deadlifts as assistance for my
regular DL, performed right after the main DL, standing on a 2-inch
plus platform, but I didn't do them every day basically because I
didn't always have the time and they were sort of optional. My
training log on DragonDoor has all the details of each day's workout
if you're interested:

http://tinyurl.com/aatb6

I am interested. Although I am having a bit of trouble figuring out
what everything means. For example, on the 28th you have:

OHS: bar only, 2, pinkies x 2, 95 @pinkies x 1

I know what OHS means, but what do pinkies have to do with the
Overhead squat?

I did Dan John's OLAD all summer and liked it enough that I will
probably go back to it, but right now I am experimenting with all
sorts of different workouts. A deadlift centered workout sounded
cool, especially when the other lifts were ones that I favor as well
like the OHS or the military press. Heck, you even mention the evil
wheel.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Good luck at the meet. By the way, how do you find out about
powerlifting meets in your area? I'm interested in trying one. At
the very least it would give me something to train for 🙂.

http://www.aausports.org

is where I keep track of things. Last year I asked here on mfw once
I found about the AAU World's and that there didn't even exist a DL
record in my category. Someone pointed me to a qualifier half way
across the country, but I did it and then I did the Laughlin meet.
My performance there automatically qualified me to go to this meet,
so I'm going. There's a 3-lift meet in the end of January in VA but
I can't make it, and I'm frankly happier with this meet because I
wanted only to DL this year and the push-pull format means I won't
have to wait as long for the deadlifts, I hope.

There are a number of PL federations - try Googling things like
American Powerlifting and you'll find all sorts of web site.

That's the problem. I found too much information. I knew that there
were quite a few powerlifting federations, but when I started looking
around I had a hard time wading through all of the [censored]. I appreciate
the link. There was even an AAU event in Utah this last year.

Quoted message said:

Thanks for your interest and for the good wishes.

Thank you for your time.

Jason

Steve Freides said:

Since we seem to be talking about everything except weights these days
around here, I thought I'd post about my most recent DL cycle, which
yielded me a small PR two days ago and I hope will get me an even bigger
one at the meet on Friday.
<snip>

Best of luck to you on Friday, Steve.

Quoted message said:

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

--
Curt
http://curtjames.com/

"Jason Earl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Steve Freides said:

"Jason Earl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Steve Freides" <[email hidden]> writes:

- lots of snippage of my original message -

Quoted message said:

> Week 1 - 654321 reps on 3" platform. Start ~70% 1RM, add 10-15
> lbs. per set, add 5 lbs. per workout

I originally read this as 654,321 reps on a 3" platform at 70% of
your 1RM. Even counting all of your reps for the week that would
be a heck of a lot of deadlifting.

🙂

Quoted message said:

That looks like a solid cycle. In the past when I wanted to work
on my deadlift I found that I burnt out really easily. How many
days a week did you work out, and how many of those days did you
deadlift?

I lift almost every day - I take a day off when I feel I need it,
but I probably miss 2 or 3 days per month, I'd guess. I do take it
easier on non-DL days, basically do the same other stuff but
skipping the DL and the assistance.

Quoted message said:

So your workouts consisted basically of squats, deadlifts, overhead
squats (love those), and overhead presses (I don't own a
kettlebell). That sounds like fun.

For the last six weeks, it's been overhead press and windmill
everyday, OHS at least 3x/week, sometimes more, DL 3x/week, followed
by kb swings and maybe snatches, and ending with ab work. I also
did one-legged, two-kettlebell deadlifts as assistance for my
regular DL, performed right after the main DL, standing on a 2-inch
plus platform, but I didn't do them every day basically because I
didn't always have the time and they were sort of optional. My
training log on DragonDoor has all the details of each day's workout
if you're interested:

http://tinyurl.com/aatb6

I am interested. Although I am having a bit of trouble figuring out
what everything means. For example, on the 28th you have:

OHS: bar only, 2, pinkies x 2, 95 @pinkies x 1

I know what OHS means, but what do pinkies have to do with the
Overhead squat?

I keep track of my grip width by which fingers are on the rings of the
bar. My goal is to keep using a narrower and narrower grip until my
arms are straight up and down - shoulder and upper back are the area in
which I want the most improvement in flexibility now. Right now I can't
sink the OHS to full depth with that narrow a grip and locked out
elbows. I vary both the grip width and the weight, and the goal is in
some ways more rehab/prehab than anything else.

Quoted message said:

I did Dan John's OLAD all summer and liked it enough that I will
probably go back to it, but right now I am experimenting with all
sorts of different workouts. A deadlift centered workout sounded
cool, especially when the other lifts were ones that I favor as well
like the OHS or the military press. Heck, you even mention the evil
wheel.

I'm a big fan of standing wheel rollouts - another move in which there's
no hiding. There's a video clip of me doing a few of them on my site.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Good luck at the meet. By the way, how do you find out about
powerlifting meets in your area? I'm interested in trying one. At
the very least it would give me something to train for 🙂.

http://www.aausports.org

is where I keep track of things. Last year I asked here on mfw once
I found about the AAU World's and that there didn't even exist a DL
record in my category. Someone pointed me to a qualifier half way
across the country, but I did it and then I did the Laughlin meet.
My performance there automatically qualified me to go to this meet,
so I'm going. There's a 3-lift meet in the end of January in VA but
I can't make it, and I'm frankly happier with this meet because I
wanted only to DL this year and the push-pull format means I won't
have to wait as long for the deadlifts, I hope.

There are a number of PL federations - try Googling things like
American Powerlifting and you'll find all sorts of web site.

That's the problem. I found too much information. I knew that there
were quite a few powerlifting federations, but when I started looking
around I had a hard time wading through all of the [censored]. I appreciate
the link. There was even an AAU event in Utah this last year.

You can solicit opinions here about different federations. I prefer to
lift raw and only wanted to be part of a federation that had a raw
division, so I chose the AAU. If you're using assistive gear, you have
a lot more options, but even raw there are several choices besides the
AAU. Limiting your search to raw PL will narrow the choices down
considerably if that will work for you.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Thanks for your interest and for the good wishes.

Thank you for your time.

No problem at all.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

Quoted message said:

Jason

"Curt James" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Steve Freides said:

Since we seem to be talking about everything except weights these days
around here, I thought I'd post about my most recent DL cycle, which
yielded me a small PR two days ago and I hope will get me an even
bigger
one at the meet on Friday.
<snip>

Best of luck to you on Friday, Steve.

Quoted message said:

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

--
Curt
http://curtjames.com/

Thanks - all in all I feel better prepared than last year. We'll see
how it goes...

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

My numbers are very similar to yours:
5 feet 9 inches
158 pounds
Sumo PR 354 pounds
Conventional PR also 354 pounds
No belt
Double overhand grip (to me this feels much more natural than an
alternating grip)

It is good to hear from another weight trainer who isn't a 300 pound
monster who can deadlift 800 plus 🙂

I have hit a plateau at the moment so will try the box deadlifts. I'm
already pulling with a slightly greater range of motion as I DL with a
regular barbell with 33 pounders. So the bar is a little closer to the
floor than an Olympic bar with 45 pounders would be. However the flip
side is that the regular barbell has a slightly thinner grip so is a
bit easier to hold onto.

Also do thick bar deads with a modified bar with 2.5 inch diameter
grip. PR with that is only around 200 pounds and unsurprisingly it is a
killer on the grip.

Quoted message said:

My numbers are very similar to yours:
5 feet 9 inches

Oh sure, but are you a "tiny ballerina" too?

Steve Freides said:

"Curt James" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Steve Freides said:

Since we seem to be talking about everything except weights these days
around here, I thought I'd post about my most recent DL cycle, which
yielded me a small PR two days ago and I hope will get me an even
bigger
one at the meet on Friday.
<snip>

Best of luck to you on Friday, Steve.

Quoted message said:

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

--
Curt
http://curtjames.com/

Thanks - all in all I feel better prepared than last year. We'll see
how it goes...

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

I'I'll add my best wishes Steve.

Steve Freides said:

"Curt James" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Steve Freides said:

Since we seem to be talking about everything except weights these days
around here, I thought I'd post about my most recent DL cycle, which
yielded me a small PR two days ago and I hope will get me an even
bigger
one at the meet on Friday.
<snip>

Best of luck to you on Friday, Steve.

Quoted message said:

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

--
Curt
http://curtjames.com/

Thanks - all in all I feel better prepared than last year. We'll see
how it goes...

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

I'I'll add my best wishes Steve.

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My numbers are very similar to yours:
5 feet 9 inches
158 pounds
Sumo PR 354 pounds
Conventional PR also 354 pounds
No belt
Double overhand grip (to me this feels much more natural than an
alternating grip)

It is good to hear from another weight trainer who isn't a 300 pound
monster who can deadlift 800 plus 🙂

I have hit a plateau at the moment so will try the box deadlifts. I'm
already pulling with a slightly greater range of motion as I DL with a
regular barbell with 33 pounders. So the bar is a little closer to the
floor than an Olympic bar with 45 pounders would be. However the flip
side is that the regular barbell has a slightly thinner grip so is a
bit easier to hold onto.

Also do thick bar deads with a modified bar with 2.5 inch diameter
grip. PR with that is only around 200 pounds and unsurprisingly it is a
killer on the grip.

An Olympic bar but loaded with nothing bigger than 35's or 25's will
preserve the thicker grip and give you more reach without needing a
platform. I prefer the platform because it's easier for me to keep track of
and I also never remove a pair of big wheels from the DL bar.

Yeah, there are a few of us out there who are on the small side. Glad to
know I have some company. See meet report in a new thread.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com