The readers take over
29 June 2005If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I was going to wait and post this later but I thought it so good I wanted to get it up asap a cautionary tale by a man who would not and will not be deniedcomments? KerPlunk will be posting periodically…
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Marty asked me to write something about my quest for the proper deadlift. I think this was a great idea; its a good angle for me, especially if I write anything else for the site (and Id like to). Im not an expert on any aspect of fitnessmy background so far in the health field is in policy and ethicsI like to read about it, though, and Im a naturally curious person. When I get a question stuck in my head itll nag at me until I go figure out an answer. Id like to look at fitness writing in that lightI just want to share with everyone the process of trying to learn more about all kinds of health related issues, from proper lifting technique to diet to anything else that my mind wont let go of after a day or two.
So, how did I come to want to learn how to deadlift? To start things off I got interested in lifting again almost exactly a year ago after about a ten-year break. I played football and wrestled in high school, and we were required to be in the weight room. We werent at all intense and just basically went through the motions, though. I graduated benching 205, squatting 450 and never having done deadlifts more than a few times.
My impetus for taking up exercise again was basically vanity (with a little bit of concern for my health thrown in). I had just gotten back from an internship at the Missouri Capitol. Every lobbyist in the state knows that a hungry politician isnt going to listen to a word they say (they usually dont listen sober, either), and I got to reap the benefit of piles upon piles of unhealthy food available at all times: the makings of a good-sized gut. I started to do some readingthis will be a trend, dont worryand all the magazines were saying how important putting on muscle was in reducing body fat. So I joined the Y the week I moved back home from Jefferson City with the mission of losing some fat and gaining some muscle mass. I bought a few books, started reading some muscle magazines and tried to set up a weightlifting routine.
Looking back on it now I know I did a lot of things wrong, but it was a learning experience and the first step of a process. The process part is important for me because thats definitely the way I look at fitness. I started to figure out what I was doing that worked, weed out the exercises that didnt and got some ideas about what to add. I figured out early on that I needed to be doing exercises with free weights and traded in the leg presses for squats. I had squatted a lot in high school for football and it didnt take too long to feel comfortable doing them again. I will say that Ive only recently cleaned up my squatting technique, but I wasnt ever hurting myself; as I added weight my squat depth just got higher as the weight got heavier. But every time I tried to deadlift I ended up hurting myself, so I backed off for a while. It didnt take too long for my motivation to shift from just trying to add muscle to getting stronger. The fat came off pretty quickly and while I enjoy looking fit, seeing my strength start to increase was really what kept me going back to the gym.
I did some more reading and changed up my workout again, shifting the focus from developing mass to gaining strength. This was also the time that I got really serious about wanting to deadlift again. All the fitness authors were teasing me with the benefits and it was more than I could take. The culminating moment came when I was reading the Fall/Winter 2004 edition of Mens Health Muscle. I read my first article by Marty Gallagher, who recommended building a whole day in your routine around the deadlift. The gears were turning. I was excited about lifting and couldnt imagine anything worse than leaving out something I really needed to be doing. Think about ityou work hard and put your time in only to realize that you should have been doing something completely different, and because of that you missed out on needed development? The worse thing I could do in my mind would be to limit myself just out of my own ignorance. I definitely didnt want that, so it was time to perfect the deadlift.
I immediately hurt my back again; bad enough that it kept me up at night, made it uncomfortable to drive and basically just constantly reminded me that I was doing something wrong. I re-read the deadlift explanation in my copy of The Book of Muscle. Martys article had a small description that I poured over. Probably the best description of the lift I found in Pavel Tsatsoulines Power to the People! It became clear that this wasnt something I could figure out just by reading about it, though. This was about the time I found Martys website and asked a question on the forums about deadlifting technique. I got the best tip possible, the name of a powerlifting coach in my area. I dedicated a Saturday afternoon to traveling out to West Plains Missouri for some hands-on advice from powerlifter Rodney Wood.
Weightlifting is much more complicated than people let on, at least for the beginner. Big, multi-joint compound exercises are even more so. All I needed to do was pull sumo and widen my stance a bit once I got there. I already knew to keep my back straight, tighten my muscles, etcI just had problems doing all that at the bottom of the lift when using a conventional style and paid the price. It only took Rodney about 10 minutes to figure out what I was doing wrong and fix it. The moral? If youre having a problem with technique ask someone who does it well. In retrospect this seems pretty straight forward, and should be true for any sport, from football, to weightlifting to karate. It hurts part of me to say this, but theres a reason we have coaches in sportsyou can only get so much out of a book.
Ive done deadlifts for three straight weeks without any pain. Sure, some of you out there can say youve been doing that for years, but Im relieved that I can finally concentrate on getting stronger and not be distracted with back pain. My deadlift form is far from perfect, but I do think the most important step in getting there is already behind me.
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