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I AM SO HAPPY.

 

My first life goal, deadlifting 5 plates (220kg or 485lbs), was achieved. This took me 2 years since the first day I picked up a bar (around April 2014).

 

For a lot of you, especially those who have only just started your fitness journey, 220kg feels miles away – it felt like that for me too. 220kg felt impossible when I was struggling to deadlift 140kg…

 

 

Above is a graph of my deadlift and weight progression since Jan 2015. If you look you will see a clear correlation between weight and the amount I could deadlift. Honestly, I was shocked by just how clear this was; It seems that people tend to think that you can get really strong without necessarily getting bigger. However, getting bigger helps you get stronger.

 

How did you do it Mike?

 

I know you guys would absolutely love to hear an exact workout program which I performed with percentages and sets and reps… none of that happened.

 

In terms of my workouts, I was all over the place; sometimes I would deadlift every day, sometimes 3 days a week, sometimes once a week, sometimes with a belt, sometimes without… there was no real structure.

 

However, there were two things which I did do consistently:

 

I always lifted heavy

 

I never performed more than 3 reps (apart from warmups).

 

This was more just personal preference… I hate deadlifting for reps; it is tiring and it is just so much effort that I frankly despise it.

 

For the majority of the time with deadlifts, here is what I would do:

-10 or so bodyweight squats (depending how cold it was)

-10 reps with bar

-5 to 10 reps with 60kg

-3 reps with 100kg

-3 reps with 140kg

-1 rep with 160+

-1-3 reps at a final weight between 160kg and 220kg

 

That is typically what I would do. Sometimes I would lift less sometimes more. I would rest as much as I felt I needed. Sometimes this was a minute, sometimes even 5+ minutes.

 

As I said, I mainly deadlifted heavy because it is what I enjoy. I like lifting a lot and hated the feeling of deadlifting for reps. I also believe that if you are trying to deadlift as much as you can then the best way to do this is to deadlift heavy.

 

I went to the gym consistently

 

As I’ve mentioned probably a million times, CONSISTENCY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER.

 

Whenever you go to the gym and train you are improving yourself. Sometimes I would literally only work to a max set of deadlifts and that was it. Other times I would do a full hypertrophy back session – I just did something.

 

The other key thing I did was eat. Gaining weight helped me build muscle and let my body perform optimally, which aided in me increasing my lifts and put on some muscle too – best of both worlds eh?

 

That is it. There is no secret formula or magical thing I did to finally hit that 220kg deadlift; all I did was eat, lift heavy, and lift consistently.

 

-Mike

 

If you are cool you would join me here.