The first time I tried these my traps were ridiculously sore and seemed to be popping out of my shoulders after a few workouts. Negative deadlifts are a bit of a secret. I believe I read about them years ago in an article on the famous deadlifter Bob Peoples. I do them off a squat rack like this one which allows me to load the weights on to the safety bar, walk back and lower the weight in a controlled manner.
Do a knee and thigh lift another old time strong man movement which is basically a high rack pull using the top of the thighs to get the bar up a few inches. Take a step back and slowly lower the bar a 3 second tempo to the floor. Take some plates off and deadlift the bar in regular fashion back on to the safety bars. Load up the bar once and again and repeat.
Remember, you must do at least sets of progressively heavier warm up sets before you do this as you are overloading your body. Heaving these odd objects around will force you to round your upper back, pull the object towards you with your biceps and generally struggle like hell.
I used to have a wall in the my garden about 5ft high and I would lift a heavy sandbag on to it for reps. I built some serious all round strength doing this for reps until I was dizzy. A couple of other good exercises are to shoulder a heavy bag for reps, shoulder it and walk for distance or bear hug the heavy and walk for as far as possible. TRY IT. In his own words from Breaking Muscle ….
I feel this is much safer than following the customary advice of the experts to take a deep breath and than dead lift. Breathing out you lessen the internal pressure and by lifting with a round back you lessen the leverage — all of which helps add many lbs. I realize this style may not work well with everyone but in my case it seems ideal. Bob peoples was not some genetic freak but a man with incredible persistance and determination who constantly experimented to improve his lifts. The king of deadlifting, Konstantine Konstantinovs always deadlifts with a round back and pulls ridiculous weights his max is lbs, kg!
You can see in the video below that he keeps his back very rounded when he deadlifts. My back has certainly become stronger and larger since I started lifting sandbags with a round back. You are pulling the weight towards you with your back muscles and biceps.
Isaac Smith at Athletic Lab explains why this is the case…. This definitely takes some practice to keep the lower back straight and round the upper back to decrease the range of motion. Film your self from a side angle with low weights to practice the technique.
Now, how are we going to put all this together so you can apply it to your training and pull ridiculous weights? Lets face it, we all want to turn some heads in the gym by throwing around some phenomenal weights. We also need to aim for progressive overload in our training. Progressive overload — Start the program with a weight you can comfortably perform the full number of sets and reps for each exercise. If you successfully complete the reps, add lbs to the bar in the next workout and so on.
If you feel you need an extra rest day in the first weeks then take it. Keep at it and watch the poundage rise from month to month. You will need to back off from high volume leg training and keep in mind the legs are stimulated from the workout above, obviously with the front squats but also with the pulling exercises from the floor. Give it a go guys, commit to it for 3 months and I can guarantee you that your deadlift will take off!
After this period you can use some of the training techniques I wrote about in this article. Anyway, I would really appreciate if you can take a look at my plan and let me know your thoughts?
Screen Shot at Also, what do you think a realistic time frame is for me to hit kg, I know it depends on a lot, but what would a normal lifter expect to add to a deadlift for example in six months or a year?
Sometime in if you train sensibly and avoid further injury. All the best with it. Because really, there are no rules. And the benefits of consistency trump everything. When Ian wants something, he gets after it, and when he gets after it, he gets it.
But over these fifteen weeks, he has hooked up with others on the program for training sessions. And guess what? His progress has stepped up yet another level. Ever struggled with a weight, only to have a spotter for the next rep, and make the weight with relative ease? The body will only allow you to push on if the mind feels you are safe to do so. Factor in the enjoyment and friendly competition that goes with training in a small group of focused people and the trash talking that inevitably follows , and somehow you find yourself having more of the super-productive sessions and fewer of the bad ones.
This is perhaps the biggest game changer. Ian has dialed in his eating with the help of a company called Gold Standard Nutrition. They have drawn him up a meal plan and provided the food to go with it.
The food is convenient, healthy, and quick to prepare, meaning there are no excuses. For me, the analysis stops here. These may or may not be concerns, but the simple fact that Ian has dropped 13kg in bodyweight puts him in a much healthier position than he was in before. His movement is better, he can go for longer, and his performance is through the roof. Those are some serious results and benefits.
Ian during one of his prehab sessions - what he calls the "secret weapon.
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