Thought some people might be interested in one of my goals - to pull 500 before may. The unusual thing about this attempt is that I will only be deadlifting once every 6 weeks (3 times total) until may. I also wont be using any of the typical westside variations to improve deadlift. Instead, I will be olympic lifting 3-4 times per week.

Over the 3 months from Thanksgiving until now I improved my deadlift from 425 to 465 with this style, and I will need to improve at approximately the same rate if I want to reach my goal.

I'm 19 5'10 and 174. Here's a picture of Saturday's deadlift. (I was angry because someone was curling in the squat rack.)

Any and all advice/comments/criticism are appreciated.

EDIT: Since so many people seem to be in the same boat - chasing that 500 deadlift - we could make this thread a mini journal for us. Post your age, weight, height, current best deadlift, favorite teletubby, and a picture if you like!

If you remember, this is .jacob
(college transformation)- http://www.T-Nation.com/...c.do?id=1380343

his eyes always burn red on frontsquats

dave tate would be proud

Nice work guys...although it looks like Jacob might be borrowing some of his technique from good ol' DeeseWeese. ;-)

I'm trying to get my dead up to 500 as well and I'm thinking of throwing in some more pulling variations to get there.

I'll race ya. :-)

-Matt

You're on! I've been including some pretty intense excercises in my routine lately though, so be warned.

I'd like to hit 500 or better very soon as well. I'd be interested to hear what lifts you are using to improve your dead.

A swiss ball!!! haha.

Good luck man. I am looking forward to hearing about your progress. What are your numbers in the Oly Lifts?

Ohhhh..... some competition. I'll be gunning for a little over 500 (227.5kg) on April 1st!

Count me in, ladies!

My deadlift is around 315, but I bet I can pull to 405 in the same time it takes to get you to 500.

Im in the race too. I am currently 445. I am hoping GHR and GM will help bring mine up to 500 by summer. Good luck

I just pulled 405 yesterday. I'm in. 500 by look like July 1st, if I counted the weeks right. I also did 315 on the bench and 360 in the squat.

Can I ask a couple stupid questions: 1.) why the hell do you have knee wraps on or did you wrap your knees in the first pic?

2.) Why is everybody so against deadlifting to increase their deadlift? If you do it, it actually works. I would save those techniques using olypmic lifts and other variations after you've reached 500. I deadlifted 540 at 198 in competition which is by no means any great feat, and have deadlifted 500 at 181 again this won't even get you on PL TOP 100.

By deadlifting twice a week a heavy day and and a lighter day, I went from 455 to 540 in approximately 8 months.

Stupid, yes.

1) knee SLEEVES. they keep your knees warm. many people like to wear them while deadlifting.

2) he is an olympic lifter. olympic lifters dont deadlift for the most part. but apparently he has chosen to care about his deadlift and its carryover from olympic lifting. deadlifting twice a week will ruin an olympic lifter. deadlifting heavy once a week will set back progress significantly.

... serious? because heavy deadlifting is much more taxing on the central nervous system and adding a second day in will take away from time spent on the classical lifts and squats. olympic lifters use a lot of volume once they are used to the lifts and slowly build up so they cant afford to interrupt it with a max effort deadlift day that ruins their central nervous system because they arnt used to pulling heavy. if they are pulling heavy all the time then they arnt spending enough time training the lifts.

I gotta disagree with you there. I know plenty of O lifters that use deads as an assistance exercise after they are done snatching and cleaning, etc.

So heavy squats, heavy cleans aren't taxing?

Good points. Also, the technique for pulling heavy PLer deadlifts is different from that for properly performing Oly lifts with max power, even conventional style. Not only will it ruin a volume progression in the classic lifts, but it will also ruin perfect clean/snatch technique if done constantly.