Progression: 495 Deadlift 1 yr ago vs. 501 Deadlift today

[Cmanuel]

Thought this was interesting. Dug up an old video of me pulling 5 plates for the first time (495lbs) and compared it to my rocket ship 501 deadlift from today's meet. It's pretty clear that the bar speed indicates progress. Swweeettt!!

495 1-21-09 ~195 lbs
http://www.facebook.com/v/594786725598 (sorry can't embed it)

501 - 12-6-09 187 lbs

Video

[Cmanuel]

what, 71 views and noone likes my improvement?

[Sean S]

Certainly looks much, much easier now. In the earlier video 495 looked to be at or near your max, what is your max now? Obviously 501 doesn't look close to your max right now. Apparently whatever you are doing is working, so keep it up.

[Cmanuel]

Certainly looks much, much easier now. In the earlier video 495 looked to be at or near your max, what is your max now? Obviously 501 doesn't look close to your max right now. Apparently whatever you are doing is working, so keep it up.

Thanks for commenting. I tried 551 at the meet and smoked it but my grip failed and couldn't hold the lockout. Theres a vid in my journal somewhere. Going to address the grip issue with my next few cycles of 5-3-1.

Current max is 535 (see vid in my sig). Looking for 560-570 at my next meet in march.

[twm]

great improvement... did you focus on increasing strength? more leg drive? lockout? all the above?

[james_w8lifter]

Very nice. That weight flew up

[skinny99]

Nice 501! That looks like part of a workset not a meet lift! Keep goin bud! Do the work!

[Cmanuel]

TWM - I didn't focus on one thing specifically... I just chose a routine and stuck with it and put 110% effort into it (5-3-1). I think I'm now at a point where I can throw in specific accessory movements for my deadlift in order to reap the benefits (in this case grip strength)

As far as squats and bench are concerned, I'll keep working the full movements until I feel that a certain aspect of the lift is holding me back.

James and Skinny - Thanks for the props. Just thought I'd share what a good year of dedication and training can accomplish and hopefully inspire some people on here to do the same.