Deadlift Training & 2015-02-11 WOD

Thought I’d share a few thoughts on training the deadlift. Many people I’ve seen over the years come in with “back trouble.” For the majority of these people the issue is their back is just weak and they’ve also been using poor lifting mechanics over the course of their lifetime. I love the conventional deadlift for teaching people the hip-hinge movement as well as building basic strength through the posterior chain.

Most people can and should build to a 2x bodyweight deadlift (maybe closer to 1.75x for women). In my experience with the general population, pushing beyond this has additional risks that may not be worth it to you depending on your goals. If you’re someone without a history of back tweaks then your ratio might be somewhat higher. If you’re wanting to be more competitive in the sport of fitness then you’ll probably need to push beyond that limit as well. However, for general health and fitness the risks vs rewards are probably not worth it.

Keep in mind that I’m assuming your technique is superb – the additional risks are much higher if that isn’t the case. So if you’re somebody that has built to that limit then you need to decide what you want to do. You can always train the trap bar deadlift which is slightly more lower back friendly or just begin to focus more on the olympic lifts. You can also begin to implement more core stability training to help mitigate any future risks of back pain. As always, if you have questions or want to discuss how this might apply to you, then just ask me in the gym…

Wed WOD
21-15-9
Ground to Overhead (40-50%)
Toes to Bar
Box Jump