USAWA

Damn ET, I thought you were over your back issues. That sucks. But I have to admit, the heels together dl doesn’t feel quite right on my back either. I think I’ll keep it up until Al’s RB and make it an official record, though. Maybe without beer on the brain I’ll pull a bit more. We’ll see…

Chad, Al, seems to me that you guys had a lot more fun than me. Does USAWA give recognition to the lifters who take the longest for 9 attempts? LOL

And Thom…I’m locked and loaded…YOU’RE GOING DOWN!! Oh, wait, that’s right, I can hear it now…your dog chewed your tire, you didn’t have a spare, and thus you couldn’t make it to Dino’s…hic…hic…hic.

-d

[b]Quote from dinoman on December 30, 2013, 12:21[/b]
Dan –

By far the best accessory exercise to help your heels together deadlift is the stiff legged deadlift. Lots of carry over. Al

Dear Al,

Since we already established&#8212unequivocally&#8212that the stiff-legged dl is about the worst exercise a person can do for his back, and since I mentioned how the heels together dl doesn’t feel right on my back, your suggestion must be aimed at providing me with an injury that would prohibit me from attending the February festivities and thus provide THOM with an option to save face…since he’s going DOWN.

Sincerely,

Dr. Healthy Back AKA The Marine Grinder

Al, looks like this is taking a bit of a more serious turn. Probably the greatest heels together puller was Vince Anello with 800 @ 181. How’s that for a “little guy?” 🙂 What’s YOUR best heels together DL, Al…huh? huh?

But seriously, a person would make a very, very serious leap in logic to think that because athlete so-and-so “does this” with success and without experiencing injury, it can be generalized to others or oneself…especially if the approach lacks scientific support.

As to the injury aspect, allow me to digress slightly, I see that the vast majority of lifters end up with career ending injuries, or at least limp around or are unable to use all their joints through the full range of motion in older age. Most older lifters attribute this to older age, but higher chronological age doesn’t cause injury. Poor lifting mechanics for decades does, however, and that’s more than likely the reason for what we see. So just because you can execute a SL DL without sustaining immediate injury, that doesn’t mean you should do it because it’ll catch up with you without fail.

Now I’m not sure that I’d completely agree with your suggestion that I approve of the heels together dl. I think that the poor mechanics is precisely what I feel in my back and that’s likely what ET is feeling, too. And that’s the primary reason why I didn’t max out on the lift (I was just trying to be funny with my beer on the brain comment). I deadlifted over 700 pounds on several occasions in competition at 181 and ranked number one in that lift in the early 90’s. I have nothing to prove and won’t jeopardize my health for a silly record. With that said, I think that I’m minimizing the stresses on my lower back by keeping my hips low, weight on my heels, and by keeping a flat back throughout the lift. By not compromising this form by 1 mm, by not wearing a belt, and by not maxing out, I think that I can execute this lift with minimized injury risk.

Your thoughts?

-d

Well, Al, I’d argue that YOU are actually older than me. Why? Because you’ve had an injury (or injuries) that required surgery. Not me. HA! You sure you wanted a response from me on that one?

You know, Al, I bet that Vince could’ve DL’d a lot more had he used better technique. I suspect that he did the HT version of the DL because when he got started pulling, he didn’t know any better and because for some reason it just felt comfortable to him. In addition, he had gorilla arms, in which case his range of motion was shorter than what you and I would have, and that means less stress on the back but also more weight lifted. So, yeah, he pulled more than everybody else, but it was likely due to his long arms more so than the HT aspect. In addition, with a conventional style he probably could’ve pulled over 850 within a month or so.

So, proper biomechanics are proper biomechanics regardless of slight differences in anthropometrics we tend to see from person to person. And there’s no doubt in my mind that Vince could’ve pulled a lot more than he did if he had had access to exercise science the way we do today. Back then, this field was in its infancy and there was literally NO research on DL biomechanics. Today it’s quite different and there’s no reason why anybody should do a HT DL…unless, of course, it’s a contested lift in all-round. But armed with the scientific knowledge we have available today, the lifter can then make modifications aimed at ameliorating the known of this lift. And I do have to say, whenever I watch you do a HT DL, it’s rather obvious that you’ve practiced this lift a lot. If you HAVE to do it, THAT’S the way to do it.

-d

PS Al, I just did a search on Vince and there are several pictures of him deadlifting conventional style. In one early picture he seems to be pulling 765 plus change. So he wasn’t an exclusively HT DL’er.

Al, you’re hitting at the absolute heart of the matter. That proverbial bottom line. You see, I’ve had decades of experience counseling athletes and coaches at all levels of sport and one of the most challenging aspects is to get them to do what’s not only scientifically grounded but also the best thing—the ONLY thing—they have to do to improve their performance while maximally reducing the injury risk. But because so many are ignorant to the advancements in exercise science, and because more often than not research proves the most common ideas about training and competition to be absolutely false (the American College of Sports Medicine has published that most sports are performed with 30-year old knowledge—scary…but compare that to some lifters who hold on to training methods from the 80’s or 50’s or even the 19th century, or on the opposite end of the spectrum the latest and greatest in pure conjecture—REAL scary), they often have a hard time changing their ways. And THAT ends up being their limiting factor. But I also have to say that when it comes to top performers in whatever sport I’m counseling the person for, sometimes they only see that they’re performing rather well IN REGARD TO OTHER ATHLETES—and therefore are afraid to, or don’t really see the point, for changing their approach. The TRUE peak performer’s attitude must, however, reject rankings and records—and unfounded myths and conjecture—and MUST be aimed at optimizing personal performance.

Al, I’d say that you’re already on the right track because you’re able to admit that you haven’t always taken care of yourself in the weight room. So make some science-based changes and reap the benefits of enhanced performance and reduced injury risk…and then you’ll be able to realize that you’re actually not at the halfway mark yet…and that your 319 Bent over Row at the Gold Cup could be replaced at this year’s Gold Cup with 352+…YEAH!

-d