Now that I have your attention, I wanted to shed some light on a little something I realized when I entered my first powerlifting meet.  Throughout my training I have been pretty much using the same bar.  I bought it pretty cheap, and it is super stiff.  I don’t think I’ve ever gotten it to bend with up to 500 lbs on it.  And in short, I think this is the reason why my competition deadlift attempts always feel light.  When I actually put all of my force into the lift, the bar flies off the ground.  So I took advantage of it, and kept on training with that power bar and I try to get everyone I know to try it.  I know now, from experience, that I can probably add about 40lbs to my best in-gym deadlift and expect that in competition, where they tend to use a whippy bar meant for deadlifting.  They’re fantastic to use, and fun at that.  I mean, they make the DL feel like a breeze for weights which were previously difficult.  Bars like the TX DL bar or the Okie Bar (not something I can ever use being a longhorn) are expensive and made with precision cnc machining tools.  I admire them.  I just save them for competition day.  And when I walk up to a weight that seems absurd to me and I pound it out I can walk away from the meet feeling good.  That’s always a plus.  So I guess the lesson here is just what I said, “Train with a stiffy”.  I’m going to make a T shirt out of that, just wait.

When I first started strength training I really loved the concept of the deadlift. I liked how cool it was and how when you stood up with heavy weight you felt like a badass as you look out onto your audience (even if that is a pile of 45lb plates). Some of my friends like to curse. Usually I do the same but at meets you can’t do that. Anyway, the deadlift is where the majority of normal dudes will move the most absolute poundage (or tonnage for you out of towners). It is where the majority of beginners derive their motivation because after a set of heavy DL’s you don’t feel so weak as a beginner. I must say that I was not like this. My best movement was the squat. Maybe it was because we moved so much as a kid I had to hoist things on my back and slide things down hallways with a modified leg press. It might be my genetically determined stature. I don’t know. And I don’t care. For the longest time I was squatting like a champion, and my DL lagged horribly behind. I thought about it all the time…”how can I do more?”, etc. Eventually I read an article that pretty much changed my deadlift in one day. For me it was always a question of technique, as I could squat 465 already. But for some reason my DL was sub 400. I was on a mission to fix that and I did, with help from one dude. I must say that I’ve talked much shit about this guy, the author. I don’t like his overall approach to strength training, and his philosophies including GPP bullshit. But Mr. Contreras here showed me one important thing:

http://bretcontreras.com/the-keys-to-stronger-deadlifts/

It would make sense that “The Glute Guy” would have some good insight on the Deadlift, a 100% posterior chain movement. I gleaned two very important cues that everyone that could pull worth a damn exhibited

1. Shins Vertical
2. Hips High

It was really that easy. Actually this was only one cue. No matter how I started my DL setup as long as I got my shins 100% vertical my hips would automatically be where they needed to be. This was the discovery I made. And it made sense to me. No wonder all these dudes that can’t squat shit can pull massive weight. The whole movement is literally a fraction of the ROM of the squat. ALL of the momentum comes from pushing against the ground with a flat foot, using your bent knee to drive into the ground. The weight then miraculously comes up. This whole time I was pulling with my back. I was yanking at the weight. I did so many things. But finally, these two cues above along with hamstring strength that was already there helped me take my DL well above 450. As of this writing I am hoping to break my 500lb barrier. More on that later. And good luck on those deadlifts. Just remember, push the Earth away.

Update 20150307:  I broke the 500lb deadlift barrier with a 227.5kg pull in competition.