The Deadlift: "The meet don't start 'til the bar gets on the floor." -The immortal words of Don Blue, world record... ...

Deadlifting is one of the oldest and hardest exercises around. It’s very simple—you just pick the bar up off the ground and stand up with it. Well…it’s not that easy for everyone. All lifts are lever situations. To put it differently, if you have long arms and a short torso, your deadlift is usually better than if you had the opposite, which would be my case. I suffer from alligator arms so my dea ...

Through out the years, the deadlift has been our ”national sport” here in Finland. World records has been broken since early 70´s. What makes Finns pull so much, what is their secret ?
I took a look and after collecting training information of many new and former greats, here is some background and information.

# 1 Genetics

To be able to lift a lot, you have to be talented athlete. Most of ...

The first time I qualified for the WPO and won best lifter was at the APF Florida State Meet on June 2, 2001, held at Kieran Kidder’s old Huge Iron Gym in Daytona Beach, Florida. I remember an amazing feeling of pride as I left the gym and headed for my truck in the parking lot. Just then a woman said; “Good job, but you don’t have far to pull the bar.” She was referring to my deadlift and the lim ...

The deadlift is the bastard child of powerlifting; it doesn’t get much love. Maybe it’s the fact that the deadlift is less impacted by equipment than are the squat and bench press, so it may require less practice. Or, it might just be vilified because lifts 7-9 of a powerlifting meet feel like cardio after a long day of lifting. Finally, it may be that many lifters and coaches hold that the deadli ...