Deadlift Max

Last week I put out a post with my client Joe being the showing point in the end. Well he's at it again everyone. Joe did a big test week before he leaves me for 3 weeks (or longer, hopefully not) and one was a max on his Trapbar Deadlift. I like the trapbar because it gives those that are new to deadlifting, which is most of my clientele to this point, an introduction and doesn't really expose them to injury as much as other variations. Joe did a deadlift for the first time about 2 months ago, and some rack pulls and modified hip presses later he pulled 335 lb. for 2 reps. Not bad considering he'd never really seen a deadlift before I met him. The video below is him doing 315 for 3 reps, the 335 one had an attitude with me so I had to put it down. Technique could be improved, but hey still pretty good, sorry Joe had to get one little criticism in there, can't let it go to your head.

Now then for those of you that did maximum lift testing in high school and only were told to do 1 rep, you are probably wondering why Joe did 2 and 3 reps. Well it's pretty simple, going for single rep maxes can really take a toll on your technique if you are inexperienced with the lift. You can see in the video a 3 rep percentage for Joe was hefty enough to let his technique slack just a bit. Imagine if I had given him a 100% max out. He easily could end up looking like all the other fools that come in here and think they can deadlift, but instead make me want to peel my eyeballs with a potato peeler when I watch them. 2 and 3 rep percentages are close enough to 100% that you will get a pretty darn good idea where you are at without making your vertebrae scream at you like you stole from your mom's pocket book. Please send me any questions, comments, concerns, hell even a joke if you got the time and feel like making me laugh, never know when it will come in handy. Hopefully next time some of you go for a 1 rep max and start to feel technique slipping you will go for a 2 or 3 rep percentage instead.