This wasn’t a main goal of mine, but ever since I bought my 110 lb. plates I figured I was close enough to go after it. Amazingly I hit it even faster than was expected.
The rack pull or quarter deadlift is a great exercise. It is a partial movement in which you can handle lots of weight. It works the grip (even with weightlifting straps). The back and legs are put under tremendous strength. And the core must work to stabilize. Of course, its not just muscular, but this is a great lift for the tendons, ligaments and bones.
As you can see in the video below, I didn’t have enough weight plates to properly load my bar up to over 1000 lbs. I wasn’t about to go out and by more plates so I improvised. I hung kettlebells off of the plates using a couple of my belts from martial arts.
The total weight was 1025.
You might be wondering about what it feels like to handle that much weight. It’s intense. I felt the rush of blood pressure releasing after the exercise. I’d say that’s the largest amount of tension my body has ever created.
You can see I was and still am very happy about it. I make a comment about it being “legendary”. For me it certainly is.
My previous best was 815 which means this was roughly a 25% improvement. In my previous workout where I had trained the rack pull I managed 5 reps with this weight.
And this workout was actually three intensity PR’s along the way. I did 885, 955 and then this one here. (Putting all those kettlebells in place was tricky. Lots of un-tying and re-tying to get them to hang right. It took about 25 minutes to do 3 reps!) In my experience partials do lend themselves to bigger jumps than full range lifts, in what you can do, but that is still a very large jump.
This is a good exercise to get psyched for. Low technique, high arousal works here. The pre-workout herbs and nutrients I took with a special delivery system worked wonders. I felt jacked in a very good way. I was also “high” off of all the mental training work I’d been doing at NLPU. I really hadn’t focused on lifting there but I was feeling very resourceful and in an optimal state.
This is a perfect example of the Peak Performance Trinity in motion. As with just about everything I do it was a combination of the physical training, nutrition and the mental and energetic all together.
On that note I’m going to be putting out a survey about something radically different tomorrow that could radically change how I deliver ALL of my information to you. I would very much appreciate it if you would take the few minutes it takes to fill it out.
Comments
Wow… o.O
O 4 Awesome
That’s extremely impressive, sir. I am curious how there recent gains have affected your full deadlift, or what other carryover have you noticed?
Working on pushing my deadlift up more as a goal now, I think these have contributed to some degree. Lifting a heavy weight makes lighter ones feel easier. But, what stops me isn’t the lockout. Its off the floor or a little higher. Thus I need to work that range more. I think I’ll going to be doing more partials from larger heights from now on.
Massive congratulations my friend, advisor and coach. I was just today rolling this idea around in my head as something to try for myself and now I see that you are providing the motivation.
Just watched your 1025 pound partial rack pull… Freakin awesome man!
That’s just crazy!! Way to go!!! Awesome.
AWESOME CHRIS!!! BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU!!!! That is definitely a legendary milestone!!!
Tremendous exercise ! Nice work!