Tribute to another of Bruce Lee’s strength feats. Impressive stuff.
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Every single guy who struts into the gym where I train people–most of them do strut, even though they would walk normally if they were outside the gym–wants bigger arms. When I ask them about their goals, here are the sorts of things they say:
- I want to be hardcore!!!!!!
- I want to test myself
- I want to gain weight
- I want to lose weight
- I want to look good naked
And when I’m talking to men, here is what I hear behind their questions:
- I want bigger arms
- I want my arms to be seriously hyooooooge!!!!!!!
- Endless riffs on the theme
I suspect that abs get just as much mental space as arms, but it doesn’t come up as much. Not once has someone asked me how to deadlift more, or how to make their bag really strong, or how long a good old farmer’s walk should last for.
Oh well. [click to continue…]
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I never get tired of watching this. This was my favorite part of the Olympic Games that year, I love just about everything to do with the Olympics.
Shortly after, he was holding his recently deceased wife’s photo with him on the podium. A lovely tribute and a freaking incredible lift.
K
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I fell in love with the deadlift about two, maybe three years ago. The first time I really started paying attention to it was when I was getting ready for my first Tactical Strength Challenge. The TSC has three events:
1. Deadlift for your max
2. Consecutive dead-hang pullups
3. kettlebell snatches with the 24 kilo bell in 5 minutes.
I had no idea what I could deadlift at the time. I went over to Gold’s Gym and practiced the form I had seen on Youtube. I got online and looked up programs. Of course the one I settled on was an Ed Coan template.
It called for lots of volume ramping up over about 10 weeks.
Initially I was terrified to deadlift. I found I could lift 315 without much trouble, but the sight of three plates on each side of the bar still kind of freaked me out. But I was knocking out sets of 5 without much trouble. I avoided the temptation to check my form in one of the zillion mirrors and I wondered if I was making progress.
The TSC
You get three tries. I opened with a thunderous 365. It was about 30 lbs more than I had ever tried before. It went up really, really easily. Then I jumped up to 375. I finished with a fairly easy 388 that I dive-bombed into and ripped off the ground. Later when I watched a video of it, I was concerned to see that I had nearly snapped in two during the lift, and my face had been purple.
“You totally had 400 in you” everyone said. I had no idea if it was true or not, but I was hooked. Suddenly all I wanted to do was deadlift.
The next year
I stuck with Coan’s template for a couple of cycles and then did a few months of Pavel’s Power To The People book. Of course I mixed in way too many other things with it and my progress was only so-so. My major finding was that although the deadlift was about the only thing I wanted to do, I was still a little nervous about it.
I see this same terror in the gym where I train people now. Grown men will glare down at 245 and stalk back and forth getting psyched up. If hats are worn, they are always on backwards for deadlifting. They stomp the ground and slap their own faces. They make those faces as angry as possible. Then they pull with all their might.
Not too long ago I watched a guy set up for a pull at 275. I had no idea he had started pulling until his face turned purple. He let go and stood up. There wasn’t even a sound because the bar never left the ground. “I’m so intimidated by this lift!” he told me when I quit laughing. (Note: I laughed because I had been there myself in the not-so-distant past).
By the end of my second year I was pulling 435 with a lot of effort.
The breakthrough
For reasons I’ve talked about here and here, I was trying to get away from using too much effort in the gym. I had agreed to an experiment where I would try to make everything look easy, including the deadlift.
I also started doing a lot of different deadlift variations. I would deadlift two kettlebells for high-rep sets of 20-50. I would deadlift 225 with one hand. I would do one-legged deadlifts. I would do sets of 60 with 135 on the barbell. Some days I pulled nothing but heavy singles.
I did whatever tested well and I always made it look easy. It should be mentioned that there is a huge distinction between making something look easy and something actually feeling easy. Deadlifts are hard, but for the purposes of the experiment, I kept my face calm, my jaw loose, and if I couldn’t smile during the pull, I didn’t lift it.
In January of 2010 I pulled a very easy 500 lbs. I had not touched anything heavier than 415 in months. In March I pulled 515 way easier than I had pulled 500. These days I am comfortable up around 540. I do not deadlift heavy frequently and I have yet to experience the horrendous effort of the “true max,” where form goes out the window and “no pain no gain” takes over.
I’ve never once gutted through a hard rep once I passed 435. So far nothing convinces me that I have to.
If you are interested in building lean muscle, feeling like an animal, and being the odd man (or woman) at your gym, start deadlifting. You’ll never regret it.
K
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Based on my own experience, the short answer is no, there is no secret. This is bad news for just about anyone selling supplements, programs, or other muscle-building products. I’m not going to get into the science of muscle-building. There’s plenty of information out there if you want the big words.
I’ll just tell my quick story. The story is good news for anyone who believes that they can’t gain weight no matter what they do. That was me.
But in the last quarter of 2009, I gained nearly 30 lbs of lean muscle mass. This was not for lack of searching for the magic formula. I had always considered myself a “hardgainer,” which is someone who can’t seem to gain weight or muscle no matter how hard they try. Obviously I was able to blow my own theory out of the water. Turns out it wasn’t much of a theory, just wishful thinking from someone who wanted to cut corners (me!).
So how did I do it?
Again, my short answer to building lean muscle is to eat more and lift heavier weights. No stunners there. If you’d like the longer answer, soldier on.
When I made my big push for mass, I had been using kettlebells almost exclusively for a year. I didn’t want to get away from that, but I did want to gain weight. Earlier that year, Pavel had put out a book with some routines for double kettlebell work.
I followed the routines to the letter for about a month. I made decent progress in strength, but didn’t gain any weight. Things really improved when I started introducing some slight variations to the program based on biofeedback testing. I also started lifting with a different mindset.
Rather than focusing on the amount of weight in my hands, I simply focused on the total amount of weight I lifted during a session. I do want to re-emphasize that I was now using two kettlebells instead of one.
In addition to that increase in weight, here were the keys:
- More food (usually between 4,000 and 6,000 calories per day, of which I drank about half
- The volume approach to lifting (versus simply following the program with reps and sets as the goals) There were times where I was using lighter weights but lifting three or four times as much total weight as the program dictated
- Making every rep look easy. Not feel easy–that came later–but look easy. That made it so I never got hurt
30 lbs in just over three months. I couldn’t believe it. Neither could my wife. Neither could the people I work with. Neither could the people who I train with, who were almost exactly at the same place they had been 90 days earlier.
I wanted so badly for there to be a magic pill, or strength training tool, or program. But there isn’t. Anyone who tells you that there is a best way to do it probably has some sort of emotional or financial stake in their advice.
I don’t have any allegiances. I have friends I love and personal preferences in the methods I train with, but ultimately I use what makes me better. I do not care about being superior to anyone but the person I was yesterday. When what I am doing no longer works–I doubt that will happen, but I’m always skeptical–I’ll find something better. Or I’ll invent something better.
The people I am training have experienced similar gains with their efforts to build muscle. It’s fun to see and it isn’t nearly as difficult as anyone thinks it is, including the old me.
If you think you are a hardgainer, here are my recommendations:
- Eat more
- Focus on the total weight lifted in a session, but don’t use that as an excuse to get away from heavy weights
- Test your movements and do what tests best (a la Gym Movement)
- Make the reps easy
I’ll be very surprised if you don’t have great results. If a twig like me can bulk up, anyone can.
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