Deadlifting 3x Your Bodyweight With No Assistance Lifts? It’s Possible.

My inner heretic has always been skeptical of assistance work.  If years of lifting have taught me anything, it’s that there are no absolutes in the world of iron.  What worked for someone else may work for you.  Or it might actually hurt your progress.

Granted, we all know someone that improved their deadlift with hamstring curls or good mornings. There’s also cases of someone using kettlebell swings to improve their deadlift, and seeing some great returns. It’s selfish, but I always found myself coming back to one key question: what about me!?

How do I know if assistance work is actually helping me? If specificity is king, don’t I need the exact biomechanics in my assistance lifts to build the neural and musculoskeletal connections that’ll help my deadlift? After all, looking the same is not being the same.

Conversely, how do I know that assistance work isn’t sapping my recovery and hindering my lifts? Would it make more sense to train and coach my deadlift hard, then maximize the amount of recovery?

Determined to prove myself either right or wrong, I decided my course of action: the only “assistance” work I’d do on my deadlift is cycling between conventional and sumo every few months. This cycling was done largely because I wasn’t sure what style suited me better (it ended up being sumo), and it would serve as a good mental and physical break every 3-6 months. But there would be no deficit deadlifts, rack pulls, good mornings, bent over rows, plyos, glute bridges, or any progressive resistance like bands or chains.  I’d deadlift only once a week and stay within 9-25 reps.

That was in 2013 and my deadlift at the time was 350 lbs – 1.8x my bodyweight.

Last month, I deadlifted 571 lbs – 3x my bodyweight.

So yeah, I think it went well. And as antithetical as this appears to traditional powerlifting programs, I attribute it to these three tips:

1. Recording. Every. Lift.

I’m under no illusion that a 571 deadlift is any sort of world record.  It’s not.  If I go on Instagram I’ll see plenty of people that have stronger pulls.

But I can’t help but wonder if everyone is taking full advantage of our current day technology. By properly recording your lifts, you can do much more than increase your follower count – you can improve your technique and gainz almost instantaneously.

For one, recording allows you to coach yourself and view your lifts from different angles.  Did your spine start to resemble a question mark as you broke the floor on your deadlift?  Did the bar slip away from your shins ever so slightly? Video gives you the benefit of slowing down your lifts – watching frame by frame – to pick up the tiniest of flaws. Sometimes these flaws are so small that an experienced coach and trained eye won’t be able to spot them in real time. This gives you a huge advantage we didn’t have only a few years ago.

Video also it gives you a (mostly) objective way to watch your lifts. On the days when even 75-80% was feeling heavy, I’d expect to see the bar slowly rising off the ground when I reviewed the video. However, I was usually surprised by how fast and easy they looked.  This gave me the confidence I needed for later sets – or the ability to quickly adjust my technique – which helped me pull heavier numbers later that same session.

On days where I didn’t look as explosive or strong, I allowed myself to back off. By having a library of my best lifts – besides seeming a wee-bit self important – it allowed me to objectively grade my performance that day.  On the days where I looked much slower or it looked like a grind, I didn’t push it.  It may not be as high tech as measuring bar speed through something like GymAware, but it’s a great tool to manage your effort and expectations.

2. Mental. Warfare. (With Yourself)

Of all the big lifts, I’d argue that the deadlift is the most psychological.  But that’s coming from a former back pain sufferer, who feared the day his discs would crumble into dust and I’d be in traction.  

And yes, I’m taking about myself.

Along with that fear, my progress was not linear. After a year into this experiment, I had seen some good progress but started to wonder if I’d ever reach my goal of deadlifting 500 pounds. There were days where 420 pounds was feeling like the weight of the world, and I would be anxious about the following week’s workout as soon as I finished that one.  Desperate for help, I turned to the book “Psych” by Judd Biasotto. I never looked back.

Using the helpful – albeit cheesy – tactics of positive self-talk and vivid visualization, I slowly started to turn the corner.  I also used Biasiotto’s muscle relaxing and meditation techniques and found them to work quite well.  Even though I only did 9-25 physical reps/week, I was completing many more in my mind.  When I was waking up in the morning, showering, or just had spare time, I’d visualize myself and rehearse the perfect rep.

When I finally deadlifted my personal bests of 500, 550, 571, I was never surprised. It was really just one more rep.

3. Keep Your Programming Simple and Start Lighter Than You Think.

It’s natural for us to think we’re more advanced than we really are.  I avoid the title of novice or beginner at all costs, as I’m sure many others do too.

But too often – and I’ve learned this the hard way – we get in our own way.  We think we’re more advanced than we are and/or fail to be patient enough to see the results we want. As Dan John once so eloquently put it: “Things are going so well, help me screw it up!”

My best progress on deadlifts came when I kept things as simple as possible.  The simpler your program, the easier you can determine if what you’re doing is working.  The more variables you have, the harder it gets to evaluate. I’ve used 5/3/1 for the past four years, and have no reason to use any other program.

The other “advanced” trap we tend to fall into is starting a program with too much weight on the bar. If you’re like me, I’m sure you’re thinking: Why wouldn’t I train as heavy and as hard as I can? How is going lighter going to help my 1 RM?  But most importantly, if I go lighter, what will happen to my gainz?

But there’s something to be said for never missing a rep.  It allows you to build each week, gain immense confidence when you step up to the bar, and “sneak up” on new PRs.  By starting lighter than you need, it ensures you won’t miss a rep and it’s where I saw the most success.  It allowed me to really “groove” my technique and mechanics at a lower percentage, while not sapping my nervous system for the following week’s lift. I vividly remember one sumo cycle where I never lifted above 445, and spent most of the time hovering around 400.  On the last day of the cycle, I pulled 500 – a PR at the time and the easiest it had ever felt.

I’m the first one to tell you that this approach will not work everyone.  Some people need to train their deadlift more often, others less.  Experiment and look at your progress.  Sometimes less is more, other times more is more.

But be pragmatic, rather than dogmatic.