Barbell Shrugged - Deadlift - Show of Strength and Power of Will - The One Ton Challenge with Anders Varner, Doug Larson and Travis Mash — Barbell Shrugged #399

Episode Date: June 3, 2019

The deadlift is the simplest and strongest movement that will test your will and how badly you want to be in the One Ton Club. In the One Ton Challenge, if you are going to make it into the One Ton Club, you will need a big deadlift. In this episode of Barbell Shrugged, Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Coach Travis Mash outline the technique, mobility, and training to increase your deadlift and get in to the One Ton Club.   Minute Breakdown: 0-10 - How to Increase Your Deadlift 11-20 - Sumo or Conventional Deadlift? 21-30 - Is Neutral Spine Necessary? 31-40 - Partial Range of motion and Isometrics 41-50 - Finding inner aggression to lift maximal weights 51 -60 - Hypertrophy and volume for deadlifting   Join the One Ton Challenge Leaderboard, record your PR’s and track your progress.   “What is the One Ton Challenge”   “How Strong is Strong Enough”   “How do I Start the One Ton Challenge” Use code “SHRUGGED” to save 15% on the best recovery tracking tool in strength with Whoop.   Save $20 on your first 48 can of FITAID ZERO and FITAID RX ZERO www.lifeaidbevco.com/shrugged   ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Show notes at: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/bbs-onetonchallengedeadlift -----------------------------------------------------------------------   ► Subscribe to Barbell Shrugged's Channel Here ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

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Get over to whoop.com and use the coupon code SHRUG to save 15%. We're talking deadlifts today. We're talking about the willpower it takes to get into the one-ton club. Deadlifts are so simple. Until you want to do it for one RM and get you into the one-ton club, can't wait to hang out. Enjoy the show. Oh, right on. on welcome to barbell shrugged i'm andrews varner doug larson coach travis mash what up talking one ton challenge i can hear it's like the wolves calling through this podcast right the big boys oh they're coming out we're talking deadlifts today this is hands down the lift

that if you're gonna make a big impression on some people, if you're going to move up the scoreboard in one big lift, if you're going to take a big jump and you're going to turn on the anger, turn on the aggression, you're going to lift some big shit off the ground. The deadlift's the spot. Yeah, if you're going to make it into the one-ton club, you're going to hit the one-ton total, 2,000 pounds for guys, 1,200 pounds for ladies, you're going to have to deadlift at least 2x body weight maybe probably higher two and a half yeah three would be phenomenal but like you gotta at least be like in that 2x range yeah

yeah i don't think we're gonna see many people with a deadlift under four and a quarter for for guys you probably need to be at least in that 450 range. I feel like I'm not a great deadlifter. I'm much better at squatting, but 450 really is. You've got to be knocking off somewhere near a quarter of this effort. You can really knock some numbers down with a deadlift. I mean, for me, it's like my go-to. I'll do the most there yeah and

you know you gotta put it towards the end right yeah you don't want to start this thing off putting your body under that kind of volume just building to a 450 500 pound deadlift and then turning around it's like oh we got to do this really technical thing, the snatch. No. No way is that. You want to save that for the end. Because if you've got a big chunk left, and now all of a sudden it's like, hey, let's dig in. We've got to figure out a way to get 500 pounds off the ground to enter into the one-ton club. Well, 500 is doable. Yeah, man.

The deadlift is just aggression. It is the least technical of all the movements. And, like, I think back in the day some caveman looked at the other caveman and said i can lift that and then that was the first competition right there right that rock yeah i can pick it up can you you know and like that's this is the bottom line i think it's the true test of strength is like let's just pick it up yeah that's not because you're better than me or super technical or fast it's just like can you pick that up because i can yeah there's there's the least amount of fuckery involved too it's like with squatting it's like ah did you hit depth like i did hit that nah i don't know you might have been might have been shallow yeah you got you

got squat suits and knee wraps and and you got bench shirts and like uh and you could bounce it off your chest on the bench press like the deadlift it's just the bars on the ground and did you stand up or not and it's it's pretty obvious if you got it or not you can't really mess with it too much like there's there's not a whole lot of supportive equipment that's really gonna like slingshot your deadlift off the ground like you just you just gotta pull as hard as you can and hope it goes up yeah one of my favorite interviews actually i wanted to ask you travis if you know the guy cj murphy uh out of boston i do one of my one of my favorite interviews just sitting in his office talking about power lifting with him but he was like it's a deadlift you fucking pick it up yeah there's there's just stop thinking and just pick it up pick it up and i'm with you man people try to get this era you

know of the internet the one thing they've made things way more complicated yeah all these people not look before i say like i love like uh squat university aaron you know yeah all right yeah but like um too many pts getting too technical i'm like you you squat 300 pounds you deadlift 200 i got you yeah you know like let me talk about deadlift you correct backs. Just pick it up. Get in a good position. Set your back tight and then drive your feet through the floor

and stand up. There is some level like you were talking about and just for clarifying we're not doing the sumo. We want your hands to be outside your knees when you go to pick the bar up. We want to have a conventional stance. The sumo limits your – I mean, some people pull better, like you were saying, from conventional anyways.

I'm way better at conventional, so it's perfect for me. Me too. But, yeah, sumo, I haven't even been there. But there are some ways that we can kind of maximize the deadlift. Anger and aggression, heavy metal music, some loud rap. Right. But when we're thinking about that setup, there are some more advantageous places to pull from

than just kind of the grip and rip. What are you looking for in a setup for a big deadlift? You know, I wrote this book called Pulling Science. I did a squat one and a pulling one. And so, you know, wrote this book called squat um pulling science i did a squat one and a pulling one and so you know i started reading a lot on the internet i saw that a lot of people have their own opinions on the way the pull should be done i know i've always pulled the deadlift very similar to the way i pulled the clean you know as far as the setup goes you know you know once you start to pull the intent changes a little bit. So I did this huge, like, survey.

I mean, I interviewed the most, I mean, Steffi Cohen, Hayden Bowe, like Ed Cohen. I took all the top lifters and coaches, you know, Louie Simmons, and got a conglomerate of what people thought about the deadlift, and here's what I found. Everyone is crying. No, there's no absolute. Yeah. So, like, wherever you can pull

the strongest from pull there like we set up the exact same way as as uh the clean i think it allows me to be in a little bit better position um we know we set with like i said the feet started about hip width because i can produce the most power from there then you're going to set your butt to where your elbow you know the knees are slightly in front of the elbows. So I can get into a good position where I can push first. Same thing. Like even in the deadlift, a lot of people switch and they'll start with a very high butt stance.

And that's fine. It turns into more of a hinge. And if you've got really strong hamstrings, that might be the very thing for you. But the problem with that is you end up trying to like really think about pulling and you get pulled forward backgrounds the bars in front of you and uh it's a in biomechanically not an advantageous position you know you still with the deadlift want to think about pushing the floor away from you pushing your body away from the floor excuse me while still keeping the bar in you don't want the bar to drift forward just like in the clean yeah now once you start to pull that's where things change

now you definitely want to get behind the bar as soon as you can yeah this is a better position you know like the the limiting factor for 99 of people will be the back because it's it's the you know it's the most forced to overcome you know it's the high. The spinal flexor moment is the hardest and biggest one to overcome when compared to the hip and to the knee and the deadlift. Because you're thinking about you're starting at a higher position than you ever end up in the squat. So the knees and hips, it's not as hard as with the back. It's going to be the limiting factor.

So when you start with your butt super high, you kind of lengthen that a little bit. So if you have a strong, strong back, then that might be all right. But for me, I'm pretty balanced. So starting with my butt, my shoulders higher than my hips is the better position. Yep. Also thinking about the back, there was a world record holder. I can't even remember his name, but he had the biggest deadlift for quite a while, I think.

And he would pull off the ground and have a very rounded thoracic spine that happens and uh i think that back position is a really important thing to talk about on the deadlift because we don't want lumbar uh we don't want your lumbar bending we don't want any rounding in there no and but if your your t-spine rounds a little bit a little bit of flexion in there, eh, not too big of a deal. It might make you stronger. I would say hold that position, though. So the rounds, as you start to begin the pull, hold it.

The thing is, like, you were talking about it. We were talking about squatting. You were talking about that changing. So the flexion, even if you're hyperextension, if you're hyperextended, if you're hyperextended, going into flexion to neutral is still the spine moving under load, and that's dangerous. So I would say whatever the position is, hold it. There's still a lot of people that would, you know, there's not a lot of good information that would say is that safe or is it not. Stuart McGill would still say you're probably better off to not do that. But, you know, until there's more information, there's not a lot I can tell you concretely.

I will say this. When you round a thoracic spine, it shortens the spine because the shoulders now are down and closer to the hips. So it makes it a little bit easier when it comes to that spinal flexor moment. It makes it definitely less to overcome as far as extension comes into play. Yeah, going into a more kyphotic structure with your thoracic spine, I think is okay and is relatively safe. Like no one ever slips a disc in their thoracic spine by deadlifting. Like if you're going to have a bulging disc and have back problems because of it,

then it's always L5, S1, L4, L5. It's at the very bottom of your spine is what that means. It's never in your upper back. Yeah, and it gets into understanding how to brace your core. Like nobody's pulling out their thoracic spine and bolting a disc out there because you've got your ribs to protect what's going on. So you need to understand there aren't any – I shouldn't say there aren't any – very few really, really, really strong people don't have a very thick belly,

like a strong trunk to stabilize their spine. And a lot of that really comes in from being able to create intra-abdominal pressure through breathing, pushing against the belt. Please use a belt. Don't get hung up on all that. If you're pulling a one-arm deadlift, learn how to use a belt and put it on. Go check my Twitter out. I'm talk about it

fighting people on the internet silly good guys always in twitter arguments that's what twitter was made for i'm doing twitter education the other piece of argument like i'm stating facts they all think they're educating too yeah they're wrong the difference is they're wrong but how i mean out we we work with lifters and the majority of the people that are going to be doing the one-ton training plan have already experienced some level of strength. No one's going – very few people are going to be going from zero to 2,000 pounds and interested in this journey. It's very much for the athlete that's already been in the gym been training a while looking for a very a goal to kind of define this life of strength and being a barbell athlete um and and entering into the one-ton club but um somebody that you know creating that intra-abdominal pressure the

breathing the bracing how do you coach that and and really maximizing that because anytime i've ever missed a deadlift it's not because i don't have the legs or the upper back it's always because my core breaks down and i can feel like oh if i keep going this is gonna get bad right and i'm you know then then it becomes this risk reward thing of i probably could make it but it'll really need to i tell you the master of teaching that is um there's two they're pretty good stuart mcgill is really good he can't we were blessed he came to our gym and like did i just went on this basically started a seminar with one of our classes and that the people loved it yeah he's cool you know i mean he's like the world's sexiest man basically that mustache he does have a good mustache and then um then Andy's very good. Even though Andy's a little scrawny professor, he is very good.

Ouch. You hear that, Calvin? You hear that, Calvin? I felt the knife entering his body being twisted. I wonder why we didn't pick you to be the one-ton challenge coach, skinny professor. He's very good at teaching bracing. You should FaceTime him right now. I know.

We did that seminar together, and he was very good at teaching how to not only breathe in, which here's the way. Let's start it, and then I'll get back to why Andy was very good. You get in position, and you grab the bar, and you start to take the deep breath in, into your belly. That's the key, not your chest. A good way to know if you're doing that is put your hand on your chest, hand on your belly, and when you take a deep breath in, make sure that that's only your hand that's on your belly moving and so once you breathe

in all that air then you actually try to force it out but you don't let it out with your mouth that's the vassal maneuver you know and you press out against the belt against the belt not just in the stomach but the obliques and even the back that's what i'm getting my point of handy being very good at teaching how to like brace all around the belt when you can do that which a lot of power fighters get naturally like i just did it because i've been lifting so long your body adapts to what's ever the most stable but like teaching a new person to do it right away can help them you know forego all the injuries that we did to learn to do that so but like you take the deep breath in you take the bar and you start to pull a little slack out

of the bar some people say slack out of the body and you start to bend the bar that's where that's the part i learned from uh stewart mcgill he's like really starting to brace the shoulders together back and down and bending the bar creating as much stiffness starting in the thor together, back and down. And bending the bar, creating as much stiffness, starting in the thoracic spine and down. Because the part I would say, the only thing about the surrounding thoracic spine, is Stuart McGill has some pretty good evidence that once the thoracic spine starts to round, it creates stuff. Even though the lumbar spine doesn't move, it starts to create the multifidi, like ignite the minute your thoracic spine flexes. And then what happens, you know, you're on, it's basically like you have a capacity time.

And once they start to really engage, it's like pouring sand out of the hourglass. And then when the sand is gone, then you're at your back. So there is that part. But you're only deadlifting for a few seconds so you yeah it's probably fine so but if you can maintain you know extension i believe that to be a little bit more stable doug pulled 510 the other day on instagram and it was perfect so you don't there's there's no knee i mean it well that's a generous thing to say but actually uh to your point point, I did have a little bit of rounding. And it was – you can go look at my Instagram at the lift. Like, it wasn't like a bad lift.

It was just fine. And for a lifetime PR, I'll fucking totally take it. Absolutely. But in training, I would never – I never have and likely never will do a deadlift that looked like that 5'10 lifetime PR. Right. I felt myself going and starting to round, which I never do in training. have and likely never will do a deadlift that looked like that 510 lifetime pr right um i felt i felt myself going and starting to round which i'd never do in training but again i was trying to pull a lifetime pr so i was just like fuck it i'm not i'm not out of position so much that i

think i'm gonna get hurt i still feel like i was in control of the position understanding i'm gonna do it this time and then likely never again or maybe one or two or three or four times like yeah ever again in my life, only when I'm trying to hit a lifetime PR, you're not going to get injured by doing something one time. To Stuart McGill's point, yeah, the capacity is not getting poured out. Does that make sense? Like he did it once.

So you're not pouring too much sand out of the hourglass. The lumbar spine, the muscles around them that's protecting it is it's a capacity it's always you know how people will bend over and pick up a pencil and they're like i hurt my back picking the pencil up you didn't hurt your back picking the pencil up it's the all the mechanics the shit the poopoo mechanics that you used along the way yeah right so yeah it's an accumulation of many reps over a long period of time and then that's just the straw that broke the camel's back right when you are perfect your whole life and then you pull a lifetime PR, everything Doug does, his back is always neutral.

Does anybody move better than him? No. I've noticed him for years now. He's always neutral. Everything he does. His hinging is perfect. Yeah. And so when he does that lifetime PR and he does a little bit of flexion, he's safe.

Because his back has been stable. A lot of people say you should train flex to prepare for that, where Stuart McGill's got a lot of good evidence that says, if I train it neutral, when it does go flexed, I'm more protected. Does that make sense? Totally. So I think the way Doug trains is the way to go. I can't wait to dig into it and how you're training

and putting this into the one-turn training. In the past, when I've been training for the deadlift or training, like having that as a training block, I've gotten into 5-3-1. It's probably a program everybody should do at some point in there. Jim Will is the man. Yeah. It's a great program, especially for beginner lifters, like understanding. But I always started to get into a place where it was like that last set.

Like we got 85% max reps and, you know, that one turns into four. And it's like you can just feel all those things once you're getting tired. There is a little bit of benefit, you know, when you're hitting these big numbers to be able to slightly practice this stuff. But we want to make sure we're staying, like, especially in training reps. As neutral as possible. As neutral as possible. Don't sacrifice early what you can do on competition day. Like, train perfectly, and then on the day of the one-time weekend

or when you're testing at the end of the cycle or at the end of the training block, push it a little bit. The good thing about the deadlift is that we can really be training the deadlift throughout the entire year. And here's why. A lot of people would say that the best way to get better at the deadlift is not to deadlift. So even though we will be focusing on it for these two mesocycles and we're going to perfect the movement, throughout the rest of the year, we're going to be strengthening the body to where it's going to pertain to a bigger deadlift.

Every time you do a good morning, every time you do a hyperextension, every time you do a unilateral RDL, I tell you the best movement ever I did was unilateral, I mean, I'm sorry, was RDLs from a deficit with some slight band tension. So it had nothing to do with a deadlift. That training block, I did dynamic deadlifts, which you guys are going to do too, and paired with, on the other day, this RDL thing. And that's all I did.

I didn't even deadlift heavy ever once. I might have gone to 700. This is actually a great segue, Toby. Never once. A question. Maybe 700. Comparatively. And then I deadlifted 800 pounds that training cycle. This is actually a great segue, Toby. Never once. Maybe 700. Maybe 700. Comparatively.

And then I deadlifted 800 pounds that training cycle. That was when I had the 70-pound track that we talked about earlier yesterday. By the way, I love accommodating resistance for RDLs and good mornings. Me, I love them, too. It's the greatest. Go ahead. I actually am really interested in your answer to this question, but I think Rudy Nielsen, maybe like a decade ago when he he was kind of coming

into the crossfit scene and making people really strong was talking about how their athletes didn't deadlift because they were doing clean so much doing clean poles and there is a little bit different setup to the clean pole um the first and second pole in the clean but adding this what you said right there more of the intent intent, more of the second pull. You're trying to stay over the bar in the clean, and on the deadlift you're trying to get behind it. Yeah, but when you add, if you were to just focus on the speed off the ground or the speed in the clean pull,

how much that translates into an actual 1RM in the deadlift. Right. I mean, maybe some, but the only thing is because the intent is different, you know, specificity-wise, I'd rather you just do dynamic deadlifts. Yeah. Perform it like you would a deadlift. If you do speed pulls on deadlifts,

a lot of times the speed on the bar is going to be much faster than if you're doing clean pulls. Yeah. One thing you could do is like a clean pull into a speed deadlift so you can kind of mix them together. Yeah.

But you need to do the movement correctly the way you're going to do it to get better at deadlifting it's just different and i'm talking about the movements really important because i do i when i was when i was interested in having a massive deadlift i found it those training blocks to be almost detrimental to the training of everything else i was doing because i was sacrificing form technique to have as much weight on the bar for a triple or a five or whatever, whatever numbers I'm trying to hit. And then it's like, you're in this sort of linear periodization. And we talked about undulating periodization in episode one,

if you want to go back and talk about where we're discussing the squat. Um, but being in like a more linear, it's like, okay, I got gotta put 10 pounds on next week and then you're like man but my form was broken my body's beat to shit i'm training for this specific goal and i'm in the middle of a deadlift block but it's it's crushing everything else in my game all right and now because i've backed it down a little bit i'm not trying to hit like a 3rm a 5rm max reps at 85 percent whatever it is deadlifts my favorite exercise right now yeah you see i think people go wrong so they do they do a 5rm deadlift and they just do it so you pick it up drop it pick it up drop it and you end up getting into bad technique i would prefer you do a 5rm where you're lowering it slowly yeah so

you're getting eccentrics yeah what're lowering it slowly yeah so you're getting eccentrics yeah what it does it forces you to stay in a good position because you know when you lower it like nobody wants to lower it with a rounded back you're gonna feel that right if you do that like you're you're probably going to drop it before you get hurt because it's going to hurt yeah and so like you're going to stay in a better position um greg knuckles wrote a really cool thing online and he he wrote the uh the deadlift i guess basically the deadlift bible it's all about the deadlift and he said that um when he was at gyms like mine or like when he was with um juggernaut like he didn't get as strong

in the deadlift as when he was in his college um weight room because they wouldn't let him drop the weight so it forced him to lower it slowly. He said his deadlift shot up more there than he did. I think he exaggerated a little bit because I know his all-time deadlift was performed when he was with me. I know that. So I think it was a slight exaggeration. You know what you guys share with Greg Nichols?

Your all-time best deadlift is going to be working with Travis Mash too. That's exactly right. But I do think there's a lot of um a lot of credit to be given to him and you know starting kind of a movement of i didn't do that you know i didn't lower the deadlift slowly i would pick it up and kind of just yeah down but just unload i think it definitely will help with hypertrophy like i don't think there's a whole lot of hypertrophy going on if you just pick it up and drop it i think that that's one thing i'm very excited about in the program people start doing is actually there's also like a a mental check-in because

you don't want if you lower the bar poorly and out of a bat and you put it in a bad you know bar path yeah you're gonna know right away because all of a sudden 400 pounds just turned into eight yes as soon as that bar gets away from you it's impossible to hold it on and you that you'll you'll know absolutely but having that time under tension and really having to like feel that rdl at the top right um like maintaining a good back angle put that hinge positions really difficult and having a three four five second eccentric is it's gonna beat people up and make you strong as do you ever combine deadlifts and rdls where you do deadlift from the floor to standing

and then RDL on the way down and then reset and go again? No, but that's a great idea. It's basically like heavy super maximal eccentric only RDLs in a way. I think that would be awesome. It would be a great way because you can lower a whole lot more.

You can do a whole lot more eccentrically than you can concentrically. You can deadlift it up and it pretty much evens that out i like that it's a great idea yeah do you have a lot of your athletes doing you know like banded hamstring curls or oh yeah yes because at west side they're doing i think we talked about last time like go do a set of 300 i think i think it's a great way to um keep your knee joints stable. You know, if you do a lot of weightlifters start to have knee pain and a quick fix is to add in banded leg curls, dumbbell leg curls, TRX. I like TRX leg curls the best because it's great for the entire posterior chain. But you know, when you add in some knee flexion, it will start to eliminate that knee pain that a lot of you

weightlifters will feel. What about glute ham raises? Oh, yeah. Those will be in the program. Yeah, I love glute ham raises. I love RDLs. I love unilateral RDLs. The leg curls you're going to do I don't think have anything to do with making you stronger, but I think they have a lot to do with keeping you healthy, which is important.

The person who can last and be healthy throughout this 52 weeks is going to be the one who ends up with the biggest total. Yeah, that's really important. The person who can last and be healthy throughout this 52 weeks is going to be the one who ends up with the biggest total. Yeah, that's really important. We keep feeling good, too. Plus, I'm assuming a lot of our athletes that are going to be on this program are going to be working adults, too. So I want them to be able to go to work and play with their kids and not be achy and hurt.

Yeah, right. I think a lot of people don't realize that about single-joint accessory work. They think it's in there. You're lifting weights. You're lifting weights to get stronger and build muscle mass. They think a lot of the single joint movements, even just basic, you know, bicep curls, tricep extensions, calf raises, hamstring curls, shrugs, whatever it is, is there to make you stronger and build muscle mass, which at some level it certainly is. But a lot of it is joint support, working out imbalances, just keeping you healthy. It's the dude who can work out the longest without getting injured is the one who ends up winning like i did not start out near as strong as ed cone started

out i mean if you've ever met him number one he's like 200 shorter than me he's got you know his arms hang down to his knees he's gonna deadlift that 900 pounds but like it took me a long time i had to like build slowly and not get hurt but i didn't get my first injury till well into my 30s like and i used to think when people would like chris would be working out with me my partner here and he'd be like i hurt my whatever and i would be like oh my god i thought it was faking honestly it was i didn't even understand injuries i know it sounds weird but i just thought people were being weak-minded until i got my first one in my 30s i'm like oh no that's real it's weird so but yeah being smart

like that staying stable what are your thoughts on on varying the range of motion for deadlifts you know doing deficit deadlifts rack pulls etc deficits are awesome you know for increasing the range of motion and uh getting stronger throughout that pull i think that um you know shortening the range of motion and doing partials like off blocks pins or whatever is another good one for max effort you know i'm definitely a huge believer in the max effort method, and Louis Simmons, but I guess the Bulgarians really started that. Bulgarians really brought it to the world because the Russians saw it

and they started using more of it. But, yeah, it's definitely a way to do it without having to necessarily max out the deadlift all the time. If you constantly do 1RM deadlifts from the floor week in and week out, then you're going to accommodate and like you're going to plateau. Like I, if I can get it off the ground, I can deadlift it. Right. Like if things just break the floor, just like just a hair,

it's going to go all the way up. No problem. It's just easier and easier and easier. Like there's got to be a 200 pound swing between the floor and, you know, above the knee for me, which there is like when I do, you know, my, do you know my best was 510 but i can i can do rack pulls with 600 pounds like for reps right it's just i just have way better leverage higher and higher but if i do deficits you know like my weakest spot is on the floor that's the weak link in the chain so if i do like deficit isometric pulls i set the pins really low and i just pull as hard as i can and the bars like just

above my ankle like really strengthening that bottom position that that always did more for me than doing 600 pound rack pulls absolutely yeah i just you just got to know who you are you know even doing like a potentiation type thing too works really well so do so if you want to do a heavy rack pull or off the block say the bars from the knee do that then go from the floor you know like alternate those two it's a beautiful way to get stronger too. But I think if you've got a specific joint angle that you're weak at, like off the floor or at the knee, like doing pulls against pins is a great thing to do.

Yeah, I think the research shows for isometrics, whatever joint angle you're at, 30 degrees above and below that joint angle will still get some carryover. Yeah. When you think about kind of the implements that we can use, I know when it comes to speed work, trap bar has a really good carryover to sprinting and stuff. Really good for sprinting.

When we think about the one-ton challenge specifically, though, the majority of – we're testing all of this on the standard barbell. Right. But in training, for training purposes, is there bringing in a trap bar, mixing it up a little bit? Is there a big carryover to those two? Well, talking to Doug and starting to understand the athletes that we're going to be working with, I pretty much limited everything to the barbell.

I didn't want you guys to have to go out. You're paying us for coaching. I didn't want you to have to go out and buy barbells to do. So we pretty much did everything did everything around assuming people would have a squat stand a place to bench and a barbell yeah so i didn't want to you know i don't you don't need it like most of my if you come watch us rarely will we use a different bar that is a person who's been doing it like 10 years we get these questions a lot on like which one's better well one which one do you have access

to yeah number two like we're testing on the barbell so do the barbell specificity always wins yeah and and be very comfortable like we we want to test barbell athletes in these lifts but i think it's it if if for some reason you have a a hex bar at your gym like it's not the worst thing to mix it up every once in a while and learn how to pull. Yeah, it won't hurt my feelings if you use one, but I just didn't want to force everyone to buy a trap bar. I wanted them to get better at the barbell, which is what they're going to be tested at. You can never go wrong.

The one thing I differ from Westside, this is where it really separates me from Louis Simmons, is I understand the need of specificity. You're going to have to do the movement you're about to perform. If you want to get better at squatting, you do need to squat, not with a box. If you're going to get tested in a full squat, no box there, then you're going to need to squat without a box if you want to get good. One thing about his athletes, which Chuck was my biggest competitor, he never looked smooth doing the movement.

He never looked comfortable doing the movement. He never looked comfortable in squatting. He looked like he was barely surviving of not falling. And so where I just was comfortable squatting. Because I squatted and he did mostly box squatting.

So he would always, it was a matter, could he keep his balance? If he could, I'm in trouble, he's going to not squat. Good chance he's going to fall or bomb out

or something crazy. There's a really Good chance he's going to fall or bomb out or something crazy. There's a really good chance he was going to bomb out. Specificity, there is a place and needs to be in the program. Getting into the one-ton weekend, we're talking about having the deadlift be either at the end, the very last lift, or maybe the second-to-last lift, leaving maybe a bench press to be last whatever however you go about adding these in but what kind of i mean the volume that your

body's about to go through over the six lifts and now all of a sudden you're staring down i gotta pull five bills to get off the to get into the one-ton club like what kind of jumps what kind of warm-ups like how are you getting how are you how do you try to build and save as much energy as possible because if you are somebody that has a 450 pound deadlift and you go you know 315 405 425 435 and you're trying to hit that 450 number like you got to keep the volume down the big jumps are going to be important in being able to manage that right well you know

I take a very different strategy personally I'm not telling our listeners to do that you know I'm talking about most people would do they warm up way less for deadlift number one it's not very technical so you don't really got to get the CNS ready. Just pick it up.

So the way I would do it, and it was awesome because I used to really mess with my competitors. I would find my biggest competitor and I would be like, can I warm up with deadlift with you? Do you mind? That's my style. And of course they would be like, sure, knowing they didn't want me to. So they would probably start with 135 pounds. And they were like, do you want two? I'm like, I'll get it next.

And then they go to 225, and I wouldn't do it. Anyway, I would either not. Your first pull was 315? No, my first pull was 600 plus or not at all. And I would just say, you know what, I feel good. I'm not going to warm up. And I would open with seven something. It would just destroy their would just say you know what i feel good i'm not gonna warm up and i would open with seven something it would just destroy their internal being you know like i've actually always wondered what the strongest people in the world how they warm up and you just wrecked every belief

of that i had that they would go like 225 315 405 495 like i I assumed that it was just until we got to 6700, like, just a plate, plate, plate. And you're jumping right into 700 cold on a platform. I did do this once. Somebody was doing it. It was when I was power cleaning. At 315, I power cleaned it. And then. While they were warming up?

Yeah. Oh. And so, yeah, I know. I was vicious. So, don't be like me. But, yeah, I was. That's why the one, I know. I was vicious. So don't be like me. But, yeah, I was – That's why the one-ton challenge is done with friends. You don't have to go and play posture with your competitors.

Everyone's on the same team. Yeah, well, this is the time at World Championships I'm trying to win. But, yeah, don't do that. You mind if I power clean that real quick? I know it's a power lifting event. The good thing about deadlift is you – if you save it to the end, you can rest. It doesn't take as much warming up. know if you've saved it to the end you should be well warmed up you know do like you say that you're going to do four or five yeah do

135 for three or four but then you just need to hit 225 one three fifteen one yeah go the bigger the jump the better in a way if you can manage it yeah it's also something in training i think about all the time now of like where on my one rep max can i just walk up to the bar and pick it up i think it's a really important skill not that you have to have 700 cold but the ability to walk up and pull 315 first and do it for two or three reps is going to be a massive difference than if it's 135 for 5 225 for five and you have to like have all this additional volume that like full but you know a real barbell strength athlete should be able to walk up to 315 as your first set get into a good position you're already pretty warmed up you're fired up pull it two three times and it, okay, now let's get into 365, 385, whatever it is.

Maybe put 405 on there for the second set. But, you know, a 100-pound jump is very, very large at those percentages. But you don't need to be spending. Don't screw around with 135 and 225. Get to 315 as quick as possible. Keep the volume low. Keep the reps low. That way, when it comes time to get pissed off and start

lifting some weights you got enough in the tank after you've already done four or five other lifts now you can now you can really focus and dial in great um what is the what goes through your brain when you're about to pull a big ass deadlift i get i go to a terrible place yeah it's dark yeah that's the one you know i i'm very calm in every lift I do except deadlift, even squatting. Like, normally I'm trying to smile on my opener, on my squat, because I'm trying to, like, stay very calm. I'm thinking my way through it. I'm like, stay tight, sit down, you know, push into the bar, hips through.

I'm doing all that. Same with benching. I'm thinking, you know, squeeze the bar, you know, drive back, flare elbows, push away. But when it's deadlifting, I get i'm thinking you know squeeze the bar you know drive back flare elbows push away but when it's dead lifting i get crunk you know that's when i'm like listening to music thinking about every person's ever doubted me i'm thinking about everything terrible and then i top that out with everything i love and i just overcome with emotions and i can do stuff i'm not normally uh capable of i find that one the last part i find myself in the gym doing that a lot these days that's good it's crazy i

don't go into the angry place but the the gratefulness for barbells and stuff i actually find myself in that spot a lot i cap it off and it's kind of like is like the um you know when i so the exercise exorcist you know where he goes yeah exercise my demons with the love you know, the exercise, you know, what are you called? Yeah. Exercise my demons with the love, you know. So I get so mad about all the other stuff, and then I get overwhelmed with my wife, my kids, God. And then I'm just like, ah. And then I'm just in a good mood but enraged. Yeah.

Yeah. I think there's a real mental and emotional aspect to the one-time challenge that um we we have you know we're going to talk about in the coming weeks and months but it's um it's it's there is an emotional toll of like being able to control yourself through all that and building to like in everything there's always like this crescendo moment of whether it's getting into the one-ton club or like knowing you have 50 pounds that you need to hit to get from you know on your deadlift to get into the to break through the 2,000 pound barrier um like the ability to control yourself for four lifts be able to hit your numbers be able to hit those numbers without losing your mind because like what are you going to are you gonna just be an emotional wreck like amped up and just heavy metal for four straight hours no you can't do it you'll come to deadlift

and you'll be you'll be waxed you won't have the energy to pull anything my i used to have competitors that they would be getting i remember this young boy he was he was good too and like on 135 he's already going crazy he's shaking the bar and he's screaming he's banging his head in the bar and so i started encouraging him to do more and more of that i was like yeah man get fired up And on 135, he's already going crazy. He's shaking the bar, and he's screaming, and he's banging his head in the bar. And so I started encouraging him to do more and more of that. I was like, yeah, man, get fired up. And he was just getting crazy and literally bombed out in the deadlift. What's the story that Arnold used to do that to his competitors?

Like, you should scream as loud as you can on stage. Yeah, make it sound like a monkey when you do this. Yeah. I was – this poor boy, you could tell he had nothing left on his opening deadlift. He was just like, just drained, drained. I'm like a young rookie, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. I love, I think that deadlift just presents an awesome opportunity for, for people to really, uh, if they can control that throughout the save it. Yeah.

Save the aggression for that moment. So you can get that 50, 60 pr yeah because you just get crazy and like yeah unleash on the barbell um but let's uh let's talk about the training program a little bit and how we're how we're building that in because as you mentioned like um kind of with the bench press um as long as well as the jerk um sometimes pulling a lot of heavy dads or being on a deadlifting training block like i mentioned earlier like we have to really control the volume we've got to control a lot of aspects because we're dealing with right big weights every day like you could squat but until you start squatting like heavy weights for high reps

it's a very low level of pain that you're going to be in. Right. But deadlift, you can pull a single, put you out for three, four days of training. And we won't be going as high volume in deadlift. You're not going to do tens on deadlift. I just think it's too much. The CNS, I don't even know the studies on this. I just know personally and with my athletes, if you do too much volume on deadlifts, it wrecks the whole ship. And so we're trying to do six different movements.

I'm not going to destroy you with one lift. The cool thing about deadlifting is there's lots of ways to get it strong. It was Jim Wendler told me once, he's like, Trav, you should think about deadlift like this. Like there's a rock quarry of, you know, there's thousands of rocks out there. Under one of those rocks is a million dollars. What would you do? Well, I'd keep turning those rocks over until I found it.

Deadlifts are like that. So you do all these different things, and you'll find certain movements apply very directly to the deadlift. So, like I found, good mornings work really well for deadlifting. The RDLs from a deficit with bands work really good for deadlifts. Lots of things that aren't deadlifting work really well for deadlifting. Yeah. Which, luckily, we'll be doing throughout the entire year. I'll be doing things like the good mornings are awesome,

RDLs are awesome, glute ham raises are awesome. My wife added glute ham raises. She started doing them three days a week, high volume, and her deadlift shot to the 400 pounds, and she's a little short, you know, 130-pound. Damn, get her in the club. She probably could do it. And so she's done both sports too.

But you would find that luckily we will have prepared you so well throughout the entire year that you will definitely PR your deadlift massively at the end. I think it's a really important reason why you need to be on the one-ton training plan as well because you could go find you know type in i need an eight-week jerk cycle and you go find that program well that program is really only balancing or working on your jerk for that specific amount of time they're not thinking about all six lifts why they do it and it's important to understand how each of these training blocks is going to flow into the next training block leading up to this big peak phase where you're kind of tapered at the beginning and then we get

into the one-time weekend where the goal is to hit you know six prs to be phenomenal consummation of a beautiful year yeah and and if you're just if you were to just go i'm going to do windler for the squat cycle and i'm going to go pull grab this deadlift program from Westside. None of those flow together, and they're not focused on total body strength. They're only focused on that specific lift. And that's where you start to really get screwy is piecing things together that don't piece together. The puzzle pieces just don't flow. But when we start to put this together, if you were on a purely deadlifting 8-week, 12-week training block, you would crush yourself just getting big on the deadlift.

You wouldn't be thinking, how does the deadlift also play into the clean, play into the jerk snatch? Because those setup positions are different. The musculature is different. The speed is different. The intent and speed are really different. And you have to be prepared for those things.

You can't just throw a olympic lifting cycle together and think that your deadlift is going to go through the roof we have to go through this month by month and really build to this the the final one ton weekend as as we start to is there anything on like the the mobility accessory side that really stands out to you when it comes to the deadlift? You know, really I love, you know, my favorite non-barbell movement is the gluteus ambraces as far as it applies to the deadlift. I love good mornings. You know, I love RDLs.

Those are my favorites. Yeah. Definitely like unilateral RDLs. That was the one that was really coming to my mind because we've talked about them a little bit. Hip health too because the hips are meant to move the right and left sides. They're meant to move a little bit separately of each other. So we do so many bilateral things as barbell athletes.

Sometimes you can get some really bad SI problems because you don't use the hip the way it's meant to be used. So we're going to. If you're a person that has trouble with lockouts specifically, do you think doing glute-specific terminal hip extension work is valuable? You know, if any of you guys have a belt squat, it's a beautiful thing. But, you know, like doing the hip thrusters, which we're going to do, you know, your boy Brett Contreras.

There he is, glute guy. So many power. Talk about staying in your lane. They're so great. I don't know why. I don't know why either. They just, you know, they just hate when someone foreign comes into the world. Dude, Mr. Windler got on Brett Contreras big time the other day.

Nuh-uh. Oh, yeah. What? What do you mean? What happened? It was like speaking at a conference. And, man, if I butcher the story, it's going to be terrible. But I guess he was speaking at a conference.

And someone was like, what do you think about the hip thruster or hip thrust? He was like, well, I thought that squat, dead, and bench were the only things that matter. And now all of a sudden, hip thrust is turning into this primary lift. And I have no idea what happened to people that just wanted to be strong. Now all of a sudden, we have to do the hip thruster. Something along those lines. But I saw a video from, Brett put one out that was like,

I love Wendler and he just destroyed me. This is why the hip thrust should be the main lift that everyone does to work on your posterior chain. If you're a person that's like, oh yeah, you should definitely do banded hamstring curls and then someone's like, well, how about you do hip thrust? They're like, no way.

You're like, wait, what? Why are banded hamstring curls okay but hip thrusts aren't? It's single joint isolation work for your hamstring versus single joint isolation work for your glutes. I have a feeling that no matter what it was, Wendler was in a group of gigantic meathead humans, very interested in the squat, deadlift, and bench,

and he was talking to his audience. And what he was saying was not wrong. However, if you take it out of context or whatever he was talking about, it's like – Well, I think he's correct in the sense that it shouldn't be like a primary lift. It's not like we do the – I don't think Brett's saying it is. Yeah, no, Brett doesn't say that at all.

But, yeah, if we were doing the one-ton challenge, squat bench dead, snatch clean jerk, and hip thrust, it would be like, whoa, why is that in there? I love hip thrust, but it doesn't belong in the same category. But as a valuable movement, that could help people that need stronger glutes, especially in terminal hip extension. I think it's fine. Look, hypertrophy is really important. Absolutely.

You want glute hypertrophy. A set of 15 glute or hip thrusts, I've seen contrarians on Instagram. That shit helps build muscle. Obviously helps build glute. I can't stop looking at his Instagram. He put a good one up today, too. He's just got the research, man. I would even tell Jim, if you're having trouble locking

out the deadlift, try it. And then if it doesn't work, then do what you want. But don't just bash it. I love him. He's been on my show now two times, too. And he was my go-to. He was basically my coach when I was with Elite. Elite was my big sponsor. Elite FTS. He was my go-to. He was basically my coach. When I was with Elite, Elite was my big sponsor, Elite FTS. He was my go-to dude.

I literally talked to him almost every day. And I aggravated him because I was so obsessed. Fired up. I would just have to call him because I didn't know what else to do with my time. And so I just have to agree to disagree on that one. I use it. I always use it. All these things are always contextual.

It was just when you said his name, it popped up like, oh, that conference. I saw Brett's rebuttal. A lot of power just doing that. I just think they're all jumping on each other's wagon, and I'm like, nah, you guys are wrong on this one. It's good to be on the outside trying to teach people new things. That's why we're doing the One Ton Challenge, because we want Barbell athletes, we want them to be strong,

and you will have your chance. Get over to one ton challenge.com right now i want to know what your prs are because that's going to be the base of where we are today and in one year you're going to smash those numbers i want you climbing the leaderboard i want a hub of all the strong people in one in the world in one place so we created a website it's called the one ton challenge.com and you're going to get on the leaderboard. Find out where you rank right now, how close you are to getting into the One Ton Club, breaking through that 2,000-pound barrier. 1,200 for females. Get in there.

We need more ladies getting swole. Also, when you get registered at theonetonchallenge.com on the leaderboard, you're going to get the One Ton Challenge starter kit. And inside that, we're walking you through all the lifts, all the technique, everything you need to know, nutrition, recovery, sleep, mobility, all the pieces that go into creating the biggest, strongest, baddest self. Barbell athletes, and then the one-ton challenge training plan.

One year, we've got eight training blocks set up, or six training blocks set up. We've got a peak cycle at the end, which leads to the one ton weekend in which you're going to go pr all six lifts breaking through that 2 000 pounds getting into the one ton club the rare air i smell it right now that 2009 feels good mash is still looking down on me 27 36 doug and i are cool we're 2009 we're in the club we're basically as strong as you basically same club same club same club um but doug tell them about the launch and uh where they can uh get all the information getting on

the training plan and if you haven't noticed yet or you haven't heard me say this yet travis really is the best person in the world to write this training program like just phenomenally credible in in both powerlifting and weightlifting and just has like just the strongest athletes in america especially for weightlifting right now so if if you want a good training program to get strong, this is the program to follow because it's written by the best, most qualified coach in the world for getting you strong in the squat bench dead, snatch clean, and jerk. Registration

for the upcoming launch is the end of May and early June, so May 28th through June 6th is when registration is open. If you're on the VIP list, if you've gone to theonetownchallenge.com and put your lifts on the leaderboard, then you are automatically on the VIP list

and you will get early bird access to the program. So you'll get access to the launch a day before we announce it to everyone on social media and on our email list. Plus we'll throw some bonuses at you for being on the VIP list. So at the end of the month, the end of May, early June,

make sure that you keep an eye on your email and our social media account, and we'll be directing you to the registration page where you can look at all the details of the program for how it all works, who your coach is, all the commitment levels and pricing and bonuses and details on the programming. We'll have a video of the three of us talking through the details of the program so you don't have to just sit there and read the page. Just like watching a podcast, you to just sit there and read the page. Just like watching a podcast,

you can just sit there and hang out and cook some food and listen to us talk about the program. TheOneTonChallenge.com. You're going to be the strongest person you've ever been in your life. I can just guarantee it. That's why we brought Coach Travis Mash into the house to make you strong. I can't wait to

watch you rise on the leaderboard. It's going to be fun. We've got a year of training. One year. One ton. And Doug Larson. Yeah, and if you're at the CrossFit Games, Friday night lights at CrossFit Big Dane. We're doing the one-ton challenge with a hand-selected group of people,

Travis Mash being one of them. He's going to do it 15 minutes. Yep. Try to do six lifts in 15 minutes and hit that 2,000-pound mark. And then a bunch of other well-known athletes and whatnot will be there competing and hanging out. We'll be having drinks. We'll probably be a DJ. We'll turn it into a little lifting party on Friday night at the CrossFit Games.

So it'll be a good time. The One-Ton Challenge.com. We're going to teach you the snatch, clean jerk, squat that bench. We're going to make you so strong. Coach Travis Maddix, the best weightlifting coach in the country. Doug Larson and myself are going to be talking about clean. We've got the jerk left. And then we're going to talk about the barbell light.

One-Ton Travis Smash is a podcast. But the barbell light is all the necessary accessories. Nutrition, sleep, recovery, mobility, everything you need. We'll see you next week. We're going to make you so strong. John Cena. So if you miss this, squat, snatch. And the bench press.

Make sure you check out those episodes. Next week we're going to teach you so, so well. The One Ton Challenge.com forward slash join. We'll see you guys on Wednesday. Monday. Monday.