https://www.instagram.com/p/BuZzknpFYFV

Today I worked with my trainer on what is probably my favorite lift, the deadlift.

When I think about the deadlift, I think back to something my previous coach, Andrew, said to me at the annual awards dinner. He said, to paraphrase, “there is nothing more awesome than the feeling of just picking something up super heavy.” It seems silly, but it really did inspire me.

From then, I set forth to pick up something super heavy. I worked my way up to a 405 pound deadlift (6 reps no less) at one point. After I hit that, a couple of weeks later I pulled my back, and I’ve never deadlifted that heavy again. I’ve worked my way back up to 375 or so, but never heavier than that.

Last week we were working on my Pull Day and doing a Dorian Yates Deadlift. He saw some issues with the overall deadlift he wanted to fix. As part of that, what he wanted to do was to switch my rack pulls on my second pull day to a conventional deadlift.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuP7b_DjSot[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPvDrlSXuP0&w=854&h=480]

Today was the day. We stayed light, and focused solely on form. The objective for today was to ensure I understood two things:

1. Creating a proper hip hinge and protecting myself from future injuries from a deadlift.

2. Perfect my form based on what my coach wants me to perform to maximize my results.

As we were going through the steps of the deadlift, I realized I was just muddling through and not doing the cues. As we walked through step by step, all the cues started flooding back to me. “Push through the floor,” Andrew would scream and I’d push the weight up. “Tuck your chin,” he would say. We realized early on that because of my hyper analyzing of every situation I was losing focus; we found if I focused on the point where the floor met the wall, it would work and keep me in the moment. Keeping connection with the bar, feeling the metal, and pushing through the floor to raise the weight.

The other thing I realized today is that I hadn’t changed my deadlift form substantially in 2 years. Set up, from beginning to end, as exactly what it was 2.5 years ago when I really started getting into straight bar deadlifting. So we took a step back, looked at my entire setup, and I discovered that my position should be altered.

My body has changed so much in the last 2.5 years, way more than I think I realize on a day to day basis. My shoulders and chest and back are all wider, my gut while still there is substantially smaller than it used to be. My legs are a different shape. My body simply moves differently today than it did in the Summer of 2016. I am definitely more mobile than I used to be.

So we worked on form, keeping my hips higher, my back flatter and more above the bar. We also discussed some accessory work to put in to ensure I am continuing to improve,

After we spent 40 minutes basically hammering at it, I think I’ve rebooted my deadlifting brain. The next step will be to do some deadlifts on my own. My objective is to record my entire deadlifting session the next time I do it and pick everything apart. I need to identify every weakness so I can tackle it and improve.

Ultimately, all of this is setting up for two core goals this will help. First is being more metabolic so that I can continue to lean down, and ultimately reach the body fat goal I set for myself when I began this fitness journey. The second is to pick up something insanely heavy.