worked out at 10pm on friday because I was a day behind
365 x 3 @ 8-
405 x 3 @ 8+
435 x 3 @ 9+
455 x 2+ failed lockout
455 x 1 @ 10- loosened belt
455 x 1 @ 10 lockout difficulties (I'm not sure about the reps for the 455 sets. I reset a bunch of times and I think I may have hit another set of 2)
I did these instead of regular rack pulls, because after all, I pull sumo. I set these up in the lowest pin in the rack and stood on a 35 and 5 so my feet were on top of the side walls at the bottom of the rack. The bar started below my knees. I find these way more like the way I actually deadlift and also way harder, although that may be due to the added height of the plates on which I stood. I found that when I had my belt in hole 4, which is my squat hole, my belly felt like it was gonna explode and I didn't want to test my luck. When I loosened it one and kept tight I could actually lift the weight. Anyone who has done these before let me know your thoughts on them. I have been having trouble locking out my deadlifts recently, and these mimic the same difficulty I have with sumo, as opposed to conventional rack pulls where I can just hitch 500 easily.
Good Mornings/GMOPs
headache and dead tired at this point plus back wasn't feeling great
worked up to 225 x 5 high bar
225 x 5 low bar, felt weird switching, stopped before I hurt myself in my exhaustion
some hyper extensions and hamstring curls and abs. everything felt really hard at this point
I'm thinking I might be better at conventional since I can lock out a shit load more weight conventional. Should I switch?
4 comments:
Some thoughts Luke:
I also have had issues with my lockout as a sumo puller and used sumo rack pulls to try to remedy this. I think making sure the bar starts below your knees is definitely key, since pulling sumo already decreases your ROM from conventional. Ideally you should try and start from the point at which you stall out in a full ROM pull.
But be weary, hammering rack pulls might not help a bit in the end, as was the case for me. I hammered them and was able to rack pull 630 for a single, but my full ROM pull didn't improve at all.
The reason being that when I did rack pulls I was able to start the pull in the most advantageous leveraged position, but in a full ROM pull the position I am in when I get the bar to my knees is a bit different and makes the lockout nearly impossible.
So without having seen any recent videos of ME deadlifts from you, its hard to say if you are primarily failing on form or a lack of strength. So my advice is to keep hitting the rack pulls but make sure to think of your overall form and body position to get the most out of it - unlike I did.
In terms of sumo vs conventional for you - it really is up to you and how strong and comfortable you feel with them. Its as easy as switching to conventional for a few weeks and see how it feels to you. You are rather tall and lanky, meaning that you would prob have good leverage from a body mechanics standpoint for conventional. But in the end if its not a comfortable feeling it wont matter. So just test it out and see.
I am having similar DL issues at the moment and have just got a trainer at my gym to write me a training cycle. He is a very good powerlifter in his own right and writes a lot of programs for some very good powerlifters, so I am excited to see what he comes up with for me. And if anything clicks especially in my DL I will pass the info on to you Luke.
Sorry this has been a such a long winded post haha, but I will end on this note: GET INTO SOME FUCKING GEAR AND WIN COLLEGIATE NATIONALS DAMMIT!
Haha thanks Matt, I should be starting gear shortly. I get what you mean about starting in the most advantageous leveraged position. When I am pulling sumo off the ground, my legs are pretty much locked out by the time the bar is at my knees. Finishing the lift only requires a little bit of back and hips to lock it out. Also I have never failed a ME single at lockout, it only happens on a later rep. When I do the rack pull I only am able to move the bar with my back and hips. If I try to start the pull with my legs, it won't move.
What setup were you using that allowed you to hit 630, but ended up not really helping your full deadlift? I would like to try to avoid that.
I would appreciate any advice from you or passed on from your trainer. Good luck with your lifting. You should throw us an update on the blog every once in a while.
A couple of the OCSC guys said that if you're doing rack work, you should set the bar a few inches below where the bar stops, because that is where the bar is slowing down.
I would do heavy upper back work every week too. In a clean deadlift you should ideally push the hips through by squeezing the glutes at the top to lock out the weight, but for the purpose of an ugly max effort deadlift having a strong upper back definitely doesn't hurt.
I agree with Matt and Vit on their suggestions. I think Vit's suggestion of doing heavy upper back work might really help you, since that seems to a weak point now that I look back at your log.
I have the same issue with the rack pull and often I just skip rack pulls in favor of heavy band-lightened deadlifts. I set up the bands so that they give a massive boost off of the ground and then stop with the resistance right below where it gets difficult (you attach the bands to the pins in the squat rack, so you can lower them). It lets you stay in your natural form but makes that weak point much harder so you can attack it directly. I've been thinking of another variation on this that we can try when we get back to Wooden, which might help.
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