Wallen weighs 220 lbs and pulled this weight at age 60 at the Senior Games and he made it look somewhat easy! Old man tested, old man strong!

Hat tip: Ross Enamait

Much has been written about the deadlift and yet there are some lingering myths about it like how bad it is for your back. Doing nothing but sitting poorly is much worse for your back than correctly performing the lift.

That said, anytime you are lifting a weight you need to know what you are doing and do it correctly. Jim “Smitty” Smith of Diesel Crew shows and tells how to deadlift the proper way.

Smitty does a great job a describing how to set up the lift and really set up to successfully pull maximum weights safely. Once you learn this, go out and confidently perform the King of Lifts!

As an athlete, should you consider it an insult if someone says you are “quad-dominant”? Why? Because it implies the athletic muscles from your posterior side, the backside, are under-developed. Simplistically speaking, the front muscles; bi’s, tri’s, pecs & quads are known as “beach” muscles and while there is nothing wrong with developing them and looking good, the real athleticism comes from the developed posterior chain muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons of the hips, spinal erectors, glutes, hamstrings, calves and down to the ankles.

Since, as Dan John says, “the body is one piece”, you need to work the entire body and not give short shrift to those muscles, ligaments and tendons “hanging out” behind you. Developing these muscles make you more athletic, stronger, faster and a less likely chance of injury. You can’t get any more functional than that, can you? The beauty of human movement is the synchrony of the hips, glutes and hamstrings firing off at just the right time.

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"Chipmunk Cheeks" locks out an RDL

Good stuff happened this week and Tuesday was a high volume, CNS-blasting session, masterly programmed by the Brengel. The week finished with a deloading week, starting on Saturday, followed by an unexpected, surprise training session Sunday.

To the log:

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There is something about dramatic effect; the right music and slo-mo that really adds to the speed, strength and power exhibited by the athletes and measured by sport scientists and engineers in this video, Super Strength.

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A little over a month ago, in “Random and Structured Training” I wrote of the differences of each type of programming and said I trained sort of in between the both with my training approach.

I am in the midst of the third week of highly structured and programmed training after signing on with my friend, pro strongman Scott Brengel of EastWestStrength, (not sure if he is my “friend” anymore)!

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Keg Tossing

Monday, 7/13/09

Back Squats: 135×5/185×5/225×5/Doubles: 245/255/275/275/285/295/295/.

Push Press: 135×3/135×3/ Doubles: 145/155/165/185/200/.

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Monday, 6/29/09

Deadlifts: (from deficit) 135×10/225×5/225×5/.

275×3/315×2/. Singles: 365/405/415/415/425/425/425/405/405/. 415 and 425 were above 90% 1RM.

Good Mornings: 95×5/115×5/135×5/135×5/135×5/.

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Back in my high school daze, the benchmark of strength was the bench press. Of course the gymnasts had something to say about strength, but we didn’t pay much attention to them since we thought of them as more of a circus act.

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What happens when a tall, long-limbed,  young, cocky 20 year old challenges a shorter-levered, confident 32 year old to a weightlifting competition? I don’t know yet, but we’ll find out in about 8 weeks as these two claim they will train and then square off for a maximum three lift total contest.

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