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Ben Nadel at RIA Unleashed (Nov. 2009) with: Tom Jordahl
Ben Nadel at RIA Unleashed (Nov. 2009) with: Tom Jordahl

Project HUGE: Barbell Deadlifts - 365x5 With A Concentration On Form

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Published in , Comments (9)

Yesterday was my cheat day as far as food goes; so, that meant I had a large General Tso's Chicken with broccoli and brown rice powering my lifts today. As such, I was feeling particularly randy and wanted to try and push my body out of its comfort zone. My first exercise of the day was Barbell Deadlifts. I worked up to two sets at 365 lbs for five reps. In the first work set, I just tried to power through it; in the second set, however, I tried to reset after each rep, getting back into position. Traditionally, I'm rather bent over in my deadlifts; but after my talk last week with amateur strong man, Troy Valberg, I'm really concentrating on getting my hips down and back and driving up through the lift.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

It looks like my hips are coming up first and my head is looking down. I also think I might be driving through the balls of my feet instead of my heels. This is probably a symptom of my hips not getting back. Form aside, the weight felt pretty good!

Reader Comments

1 Comments

Holy. Freaking. Crap. Dude, get your swole on! That looks like the type of move that, if done incorrectly, could land you in the hospital and then months of rehab. Very very impressive. =

15,919 Comments

@Jyoseph,

Yeah, you could definitely mess your back up if you round too much; but, as long as you keep your back stiff, your body should survive :)

11 Comments

Im a recent study of the RDL (Romanian Dead Lift) and thats the first thing I was looking at. Looks like you had a good arch in your back, mine still is sore the following day. Im hoping thats just from use not from misuse.

1 Comments

Pretty impressive...
Also, looks like you're lifting with your back, instead of driving your hips forward, thus straightening (i.e. lifting with) your legs before lifting with your back. Should feel a good burn in your hamstrings before your back.

15,919 Comments

@Drew,

RDLs are pretty cool too. I haven't done those in a while. It's probably a good thing I should throw into the mix.

@PG,

Yeah, exactly. In the second attempt, I tried to get my hips down and then drive through; but I can see they are popped up a bit to fast.

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Ben Nadel