Deadlift Stuff

The deadlift is my favorite lift. I love squatting, but something about picking stuff up and grinding through a deadlift is rewarding as hell.

The odd thing about it is that I did not really deadlift before 1996 or so, a full 17 years after I began lifting. Why? Because we didn't do it in high school or college to get ready for football. It is as simple as that- we benched, squatted and did some curls. And neck also. I did end up doing a bunch of bent over rows later on because I LOVED the Barbarian Brothers and saw them do 495 lbs. for reps at a seminar that I attended.

So when I decided to deadlift, I taught myself, and promptly screwed my back up. Feet too wide, back rounded, bar way out in front. I guess that was when I ruptured a disk, way back then. I remember when it happened. I downed copious amounts of Jim Beam to dull the ache. This was when I was coaching high school football in Florida. My training partner at the time, Wildman Bill(pro wrestler), suggested that I try sumo deadlift. I took to that right away. My back felt so much better doing sumo's and my hamstrings grew a whole bunch also.

I ended up competing using that style, and pulled over 700 on a few occasions, topping out at 740 in a meet.

Fast forward , a bunch of years to 2009. My assistant at the time , Brett Crossland,(Collegiate National Champ in weightlifting), was pulling some conventional deads and I asked him some questions and got him to show me some stuff. He said in his west Texas twang, "You oughta try 'em!", and I did. Just 315 for a few sets. But lo and behold, actually performing the exercise correctly felt good. The movement felt natural as hell to me.  So I started alternating sumos with conventional. Interesting about the conventional- it packs a bunch of muscle on your lats. Pulling that weight hard into your body activates the hell out of the lats.

I still alternate them, but to be honest, I like conventional deadlifting better. No, not because it is a more "manly" lift. It is a more natural lift. Its a position that you actually get in in life when you pick stuff up.

  What should one think about when setting up for the conventional deadlift? I am real careful to crush the floor with my heels and flex the hell out of my hammies. I think about sitting back. I think about pulling back on the bar. And here is a huge key with the deadlift. Take the slack out of the bar! What does that mean? It means that if there is 700lbs on the bar, put 699 pounds of pressure on the bar before you begin the lift. No jerking of the bar. When you do not take out the tension, your ass flies up in the air and your low back takes on the brunt of the work. I also put the bar right over where I tie my shoes, I dont crowd the bar. Then, when I go down to the bar in that position, my shins come to the bar, without crowding the bar too much. What else? I think about ripping the skin off of my shins. You must keep the bar close during the lift. as the weight gets heavy, an inch or two out front can mean the difference between making or missing the lift.

Ok- here is my deadlift from today- Please excuse the language as I have a tendency to get in a little bit of a blind rage(as fred Hatfield calls it) when I deadlift. Its 530x8 reps.

What did I do right during this set? I took the slack out of the bar and I kept it close to my body. My shins were bleeding so I know I did that for sure. What could I work on? I got a little rounded. Now that will happen when fatigue sets in, but I could have controlled it better. Kept the ribcage a little higher. Today was dead stop deadlifts, where you set up each time and then pull. I also perform touch and go deadlifts on occasion which really helps the grip. Those are done by just "kissing " the ground lightly each rep.

I hope this stuff helps you guys in a quest for a bigger deadlift. Hit me up with questions anytime.

Thoughts and Stuff

True Love

I have yet to find anything that excites me more than hunting with my dog, Bas. I love it. Bas has been my buddy for almost 9 years now. And I am not gonna lie to anyone, we get shutout a lot, we come home with nothing. My father, the venerable Dr. Donald Steel, says that I should just go to the supermarket and buy some meat, that it would save me money on gas, ammo, etc. He is real funny.. But that is not why I do it. There is something magical about it. The stillness, the waiting, seeing Bas so excited, doing what he was born to do. I was thinking about it today, and I cant wait til next year to get out there again to my buddy Steve's farm.

My Best Friend

Volume and High Rep Dumbness

I am of the belief that VOLUME is one of the keys to getting stronger. So when I train folks, we will always do 12 sets of 3 versus 3 sets of 12. That is if we are working on getting stronger. Bodybuilding is a whole different ballgame, but for getting as strong as you can, as fast as you can, multiple sets of low reps in the 75% to 85% range are the fastest way in my opinion. Just setting up 12 times with a heavy weight makes a huge difference in confidence and efficiency. And in that percentage range, you learn things that you can not learn with light weight on your back. In addition,  if I was going to perform the higher rep ranges, you would start to lose your form and the chance of injury goes way up. But with sets of 3 you move the bar with speed and perfect form.

I am puzzled when people(coaches? trainers?) prescribe high rep cleans and snatches.

Yes, a complex is fine with 45% of your bodyweight as a warmup or if a seasoned lifter wants to do something to challenge themselves once in a while.  And for beginners, to "grease the groove", a 3 position clean(one rep above the knee, one below the knee and one from the floor with the bar or slightly heavier) is a great way to perfect form, but a consistent menu of high rep cleans and snatches? Your form starts to degrade so damn fast that you are going to get hurt. Whats wrong with multiple singles in the clean at 90%? That's a better workout anyway. You are getting stronger that way. What are you training for with the high rep cleans and snatches? What is the objective? If you are designing a training program, that should be the first question that you ask yourself. I train people online who used to train that way and their low backs and shoulders are demolished. Be smart.

Book of the Week

I am way into the genre of noir fiction. This realist style is right up my alley. I am a late bloomer with all of this stuff. I used to only read biographical stuff and training books. Fiction? I could never relate to it. I used to be in the TAG program in school. Talented and Gifted. Got kicked out of that(and the safety patrols, but that's another story)because I was bored to tears. Some long winded stuff set in Victorian England or something. That stuff put me to sleep and fast. So I would settle in with my Inside Sports Magazine and Muscle and Fitness and the Dallas Cowboy Weekly. I always wondered if there was something I could relate to. So fast forward 30 years or so, and shazaam!, I have found it . I love this gritty stuff! Ellroy, I know is hugely popular, but doesn't do it for me. I search and search and I have been lucky enough to find a few books that"speak" to me.  I wrote about Pike a few weeks ago. Now, I just finished Hell on Church Street, by Jake Hinkson. Awesome read. There are a bunch of twists and turns in this one, and the main character has the type of personality that typifies this genre- he does what he wants and what he has to do to survive, and he has zero guilty feelings about any of the rotten things that he does.  Buy it!

From Amazon-
"A small Baptist church in Arkansas should be easy pickings for a natural born con man like Geoffrey Webb. But after talking himself into a cushy job as a youth minister, he becomes obsessed with the preacher's teenage daughter. When their relationship is discovered by a corrupt local sheriff named Doolittle Norris, Webb's easy life begins to fall apart. Backed by a family of psychotic hillbillies, Sheriff Norris forces Webb into a deadly scheme to embezzle money from the church. What the Norris clan doesn't understand is that Geoffrey Webb is more dangerous than he looks, and he has brutal plans of his own."

Use It

Survival of the fit?
Survival of the strong?
Reality of this thing.
Reality of the sentence.
Out of the inner strength comes this fortitude tempered and nurtured by the thoughts of a short future.
The being, the inside forces that reel in the day to make one understand.
The umbrella of the fates.
Death is coming
wrapped in a cloak of discontent or shining brightly
it still comes
You must decide.


Back of your brain, you just know.
Using  the days wisely.
Choosing the nights readings.
The debates to enhance the intellect, the footprint left that makes them remember.
Choosing the fights and the loves makes all the difference.
Balled up fists, furrowed brow,
defeat the small voice and rise above
Steeping the will that calls on you.
Get it all done.
Get it all done.
Never a sheep.
Get it all done
No satisfaction-
that would mean resting
There will be plenty of time for that.
Angry at waste.
Happy but for a split second.
Looking ahead but never too far.
A backward step is giving in

Thoughts and stuff

Work or Don't work

I have gone my whole life trying to figure this one out: why people show up to a training session when they dont feel like being there.  This is definitely one of my all time pet peeves/least favorite things in life(along with licking fingers, soft handshakes and rap music) Im talking about people who go to a training session and really half ass effort the damn thing. Dont ever do that, it stupid. Just leave. Or dont go.  JUST DONT GO. Why would you go to train and have give a half hearted effort? It would be like me going to, I dont know, a ballet class or something. I would never do it. Cant make myself try to do it, no matter what. I would barely get up on my toes and twirl around one time before I would hit the floor running.


Shut up and Listen

The problem with the strength field, or rather the Strength and Conditioning field is that everyone thinks that they know everything about it. A little knowledge, to be blunt, doesn't mean a damn thing. A lot of knowledge backed up with experience in the field and under the bar or on the platform means everything.  I use this example all of the time, but when Kirk Karwoski corrects me on the deadlift or squat, I shut up and listen. Why? Because he knows more than I do about squatting heavy weights, and just squatting in general. Ever heard him talk about lifting? A pure technician. Now, If you are 137 pounds and never squatted any significant weight and are wearing a visor and have a pencil behind your ear, I'm shutting you off.

Let it go

Having a bad day training? Feel like scrapping the whole program because you just didn't HAVE it? Don't . I heard Rob Wagner say this one day, "A bad day is just that, a bad day."  Come back the next training session and attack the weights with a vengeance. But don't dwell on the last workout. It is over and done with and you can't go back.

Useless Worrying
Its like worrying. All that does is hurt you, and nobody else. I used to worry all the time, I thought that was a way of showing that I cared. And once I had a bunch of bad stuff happen to folks that I loved and worried myself to death over it, I just one day stopped. I just decided that if I was concerned with something, I would tell somebody what was bothering me, or write about it, and then let it go. Or I would do some type of action instead of sitting around with my thoughts going nuts. That works. People always ask me, "Aren't you worried about ..."whatever it is, and I say, no not at all. They think that I don't care, but that ain't it. I care, I just know that if I cant do a damn thing about it, why worry?

Get big
Its hard as hell to get big, Folks I train who bodybuild, especially women KILL themselves to gain muscle. Forced reps, high reps, lactic acid buildup, supersets, going to failure, multiple sets to get there.
And their nutrition is perfect. When I here somebody say, "Well, I don't want to get too big.", I say, "Oh, don't  you worry a bit about that!" Because 99.9% of the people in this world don't have the dedication or guts to get like "that". Now plenty of people can get fat and blame it on the weight room. But its impossible to gain fat in there. That is understood, correct?

Nothing Better

There is nothing better than seeing someone reach their goals or change themselves.. I love watching folks hit a new personal record in the deadlift, or lose weight and fit into a new pants size, or work their way out of a depression with exercise. I train a bunch of "older" ladies(they hate that term) who have made some crazy gains and changed their lives around. And its not because of me, its the lifestyle, and the confidence gained from getting stronger. Weight training is measurable right away. You have more weight on the bar than last session? You are improving. And then they start asking about diet, and then they use their new found strength in some way- it could be carrying something heavy that they used to need help with, or noticing their time g0t better in a jog around the lake. And then they are hooked, man. They start coming to every workout because they love the changes.They are born again, emboldened by the feelings of strength and being fit.

What is the Deal?

Sometimes I hate writing because I am not worth a shit at editing and caps and typing in general. and it takes me forever, but I figured I would just type and write and screw it. Just let it flow.

So I went to North Carolina a few weeks ago to visit my son, Donald. Of course, I was accompanied by my 6 year old James. We go everywhere together. Donald lives with my first wife in a small little country area in Shelby NC.

I visit there a few times a year. I went to school there. When I was there, from 1987 to 1994, the area was up and coming, the mills were going strong. Textiles and stuff. Folks had jobs.

They were good  people who lived there. Look you in the eye, nod at you when you walked by them, wave at you when you drove by them. People treated me well. I fished in their ponds, hunted on their land. I learned to love the area.

As I have made my semi yearly treks down there I have noticed that the place has fallen on some hard times. Shit, lets be blunt here. The people are broke. No mills are open,. The one I remember being there is now choked with weeds, and a huge wall surrounds it.

My sons and I always stay at the same place when we are there, the same hotel. It is really the cleanest in the area, but that is not saying much. Its still pretty nasty compared to big city standards. Hairs on the toilet seat, broken doors. The people are nice that work there, they know me, I know them. The side door was propped open, allowing anyone off of the street to come in.

Walmart is the place to go there to buy anything, and the people that frequent it  are a sight to behold. The people are rough looking, down on their luck. Huge ladies with 20 inch arms of fat  that jiggle as they ride in their motorized scooter.  Men with skinny legs and huge bellies and mullet hair cuts. Lots of camo, spandex pants. Too much makeup and lots of talk about God's will.

I counted 6 signs on one road pointing to different Baptist churches. Somehow folks need to make sense of what is happening to them, to the economy, to their jobs and dreams.

Trailers with broken swings in the yard. Pit bulls curled up, lying in red clay outside of an old clapboard doghouse.

A man in the Kmart parking lot with a makeshift kennel, selling puppies.

Lines around the block for cheap fast food.
 fast food is a booming business here.

People in the convenience store in their pajamas in curlers, yelling at their screaming kids as they buy a case of Natural Ice.

A used car lot that advertises  "no credit, no problem" has a sign advertising a dozen eggs for 1.99.


A spoke to a nurse who worked in the local hospital who said that the meth problem and the Oxy problem, the Morphine problem is out of control. People come in begging for pain meds and shots when there is nothing wrong with them

It depressed me, this visit. And I wondered out loud if the politicians of the world, knew about towns such as these, knew how people were struggling in our country, in small towns that make up America, in small towns that are America.

Book Of Programs Revisited

Bas' Barbell Club: Book of Programs!

I get questions everyday about programming and percentage training and what program is right for a certain lifestyle etc,.
And  some people are too busy to do  a 4 day program or a 3 day program, so what are the options? What about a programming option for conditioning and lifting? How about focusing on just the squat? Just the bench? It's all in the book.

 I wrote the Bas Barbell Book of Programs to answer those questions and to give everyone the options that they desire. I have listed the table of contents after the ordering info. It's 10 freakin' bucks.

The price is $10 payable through PayPal at nunzio7454@gmail.com Once payment is received, you will receive the e- book via email within 24 hours, most likely sooner.  If you're interested in a bound copy, send $16 through Paypal to nunzio7454@gmail.com. (bound copy for international please send $20.00) I'm pretty proud of this book, and I hope everyone enjoys it!

Table of Contents
I. Intro
II. Lifting Program Overview
III. Assistance Exercises
IV. Programs
a. 2-Day
i. Option 1—Weekend Only Workout (9 weeks)
ii. Option 2—Twice A Week/Any 2 Days (9 weeks)
b. 3-Day
i. Option 1—Beginner Program (6 weeks)
ii. Option 2—8 weeks
c. Bodybuilding Training
i. Body Part Split
ii. The “I have 20 minutes” Workout
d. 4-Day (8 weeks)
e. “Ultimate Survivor Program” (10 weeks)
f. Squat Everyday
g. A Program to Get Strong: Powerlifting Made Simple
h. Get a Big Bench
i. 6 Weeks to a New Power Clean Max
j. 6 Weeks to a Bigger Squat
k. Busy Lifestyle Training (5 part series of posts)
V. Some Tips and Reminders About Exercises
i. Squat
ii. Upping Your Bench Press
iii. Conventional Deadlift Tips and Reminders
VI. Motivation
VII. Conclusion: Just Say It
VIII. James Steel Biography

Book of the Week

I have been an avid reader for as long as I can remember.  My mother was an English teacher for many years, and I got this insatiable appetite for a good book from her. We haunted book stores together for many years. I will buy a book on Kindle, and then buy the hardback or paperback also. I have so many books at my house that I need a separate room for them. It is an obsession with me, and I spend way too much money on them. It is a sickness, or so my wife believes, but I can not help myself. I savor a good book, I don't want it to end. It puts me in a good mood, it makes me think, it makes my day.

I have been into hard boiled books lately, gritty urban or rural tales written by Donald Ray Pollock , Frank Bill, Scott C. Rogers, Larry Brown. Books that are about real folks, real men, struggling with drugs, relationships and usually a past that is unforgiving and is chasing them.  Many times there is a criminal element involved also.

I ran across this book the other day while searching in this genre, Pike by Benjamin Whitmer. What a book. It is so smartly written and makes me feel so much inside for the characters, that I find myself constantly rereading lines, saying to myself, that is a great line.  It is disturbing, haunting, and unrelenting.

Here is the summary on Amazon :

"Douglas Pike is no longer the murderous hustler he was in his youth, but reforming hasn't made him much kinder. He's just living out his life in his Appalachian hometown, working odd jobs with his partner, Rory, hemming in his demons the best he can. And his best seems just good enough until his estranged daughter overdoses, and he takes in his 12-year-old granddaughter, Wendy. Just as the two are beginning to forge a relationship, Derrick Kreiger, a dirty Cincinnati cop, starts to take an unhealthy interest in the girl. Pike and Rory head to Cincinnati to learn what they can about Derrick and the death of Pike’s daughter, and the three men circle, evenly matched predators in a human wilderness of junkie squats, roadhouse bars, and homeless Vietnam vet encampments."

 

And although that is a decent synopsis, it is the dialogue and the feelings of the characters that Whitmer brings to the reader that is the true essence of this book.  It is a wonderful read.

 

Buy it.

Show more

Show less

Show more

Show less

Squatting Tips

Randy White Interview

I had the chance to conduct an interview with my idol Randy White, Hall of Famer from the Dallas Cowboys, the other day.

We spoke for over an hour about his training methods both in college and the pro's.

He also spoke about his mental preparedness, intensity level , martial arts and playing with injuries.

Hell, we even talked about  Rottweiller guard dog training.

Some of his training stuff is inspiring as hell. He trained in barns and cornfields, and he started laying bricks at age 12. 

And he didn't do one ladder drill or go to a performance specialist.

Check it out on www.startingstrength.com