Powerlifting and Crossfit: Best Lifts

[rr006rbc]

Originally Posted by gthal

I don't think I have ever seen someone have their bench weight higher than their squat weight and almost the same as their deadlift before

I've got this mental block when it comes to squats. Hurt my lower back when I used to lift incorrectly back in high school and just never got over it.

[The Chaddening]

Originally Posted by rr006rbc

I've got this mental block when it comes to squats. Hurt my lower back when I used to lift incorrectly back in high school and just never got over it.

If you can bench 275 at 165 you have some solid strength there. Just remember when squatting to drive your knees out and maintain a fairly upright torso. A stronger squat will translate to a stronger.....everything else.

[rr006rbc]

Originally Posted by GirthBrooks

If you can bench 275 at 165 you have some solid strength there. Just remember when squatting to drive your knees out and maintain a fairly upright torso. A stronger squat will translate to a stronger.....everything else.

I agree! I just need to build more confidence and learn to place the bar in a better spot on my shoulders.

[1MOREMOD]

Should be low on back rather than high on neck

[The Chaddening]

Originally Posted by rr006rbc

I agree! I just need to build more confidence and learn to place the bar in a better spot on my shoulders.

Originally Posted by 1MOREMOD

Should be low on back rather than high on neck

You have two options.

High Bar Backsquat: Bar is on traps, torso is maintained upright throughout the movement.

Low Bar Backsquat: Bar is placed lower on the shoulders towards the bottom of your shoulder blades. This is a powerlifting style squat. With low bar squatting your torso is shifted forward more instead of maintaining an upright torso like the high bar back squat. Typically people can do more weight with low bar squats because you utilize more posterior chain due to the forward lean. If you have ever watched Layne Norton lift he has a classic low bar squat that properly demonstrates the forward lean of the torso.

It is all dependent upon your goals. If you do crossfit then high bar backsquats(and more so front squats) will translate better to the movements that are prescribed in workouts. Low bar is great for lifting as heavy as possible. Really though everyone should try both squatting types, just understand the differences between them

[The Chaddening]

Other big things to improve squatting:

1. Before even touching the bar, inhale and maintain a rigid torso by tensing abdominals.
2. Keep your head up, dont look at the ground. Your spine should stay neutral throughout the movement(and your spine includes your neck). It can help to find something on the wall to focus on throughout the movement.
3. Drive feet slightly out(not duck feet though) about 15-20 degrees. Drive your knees toward your toes. If you come out of the squat and your knees are pushed together(look up genu valgus) you are asking for injury.
4. Squeeze your butt.
5. Complete the movement with speed. The longer you are under tension the more difficult it will be.
6. Once you reach the bottom of your squat, shoot out of the bottom.

[gthal]

Originally Posted by GirthBrooks

Other big things to improve squatting:

1. Before even touching the bar, inhale and maintain a rigid torso by tensing abdominals.
2. Keep your head up, dont look at the ground. Your spine should stay neutral throughout the movement(and your spine includes your neck). It can help to find something on the wall to focus on throughout the movement.
3. Drive feet slightly out(not duck feet though) about 15-20 degrees. Drive your knees toward your toes. If you come out of the squat and your knees are pushed together(look up genu valgus) you are asking for injury.
4. Squeeze your butt.
5. Complete the movement with speed. The longer you are under tension the more difficult it will be.
6. Once you reach the bottom of your squat, shoot out of the bottom.

Some great Layne Norton videos on YouTube on squat technique. Worth watching, IMO, even for those with experience just a a refresher.

[araaadi]

Lifts as of two months ago before hurting lower back at work.
435 squat
355 bench
495 dead (with belt, no straps, usually do it raw)
220 ohp
don't do any cross fit lifts
24years old, 5'9, 220lbs at the time.

[The Chaddening]

Originally Posted by araaadi

Lifts as of two months ago before hurting lower back at work.
435 squat
355 bench
495 dead (with belt, no straps, usually do it raw)
220 ohp
don't do any cross fit lifts
24years old, 5'9, 220lbs at the time.

Very good numbers. Yeah I feel like if you use straps for a deadlift on anything less than 600-700lb you are kind of a pussbag. 220 press! My max strict press is around 175. Had shoulder surgery a few years back and my pressing isnt great.

[araaadi]

Originally Posted by GirthBrooks

Very good numbers. Yeah I feel like if you use straps for a deadlift on anything less than 600-700lb you are kind of a pussbag. 220 press! My max strict press is around 175. Had shoulder surgery a few years back and my pressing isnt great.

I completely agree on straps, I feel the same way about wrist wraps/belts/knee wraps. I much prefer to have proper form and good grip strength than just pushing huge numbers. I know my squat should easily be 455 and deads should be at 545 but had a similar back injury last year and haven't been the same since then. 220 ohp took so much fucking work, the last 5 pounds to 2 plates are killing me, I also believe it's more mental than physical tho. Been on vacation for the past three weeks with zero gym, gonna come back hard next week. Need to break some PR's.

[The Chaddening]

Originally Posted by araaadi

I completely agree on straps, I feel the same way about wrist wraps/belts/knee wraps. I much prefer to have proper form and good grip strength than just pushing huge numbers. I know my squat should easily be 455 and deads should be at 545 but had a similar back injury last year and haven't been the same since then. 220 ohp took so much fucking work, the last 5 pounds to 2 plates are killing me, I also believe it's more mental than physical tho. Been on vacation for the past three weeks with zero gym, gonna come back hard next week. Need to break some PR's.

I don't have any issues with people wearing belts but if you are belting up with anything under 75-80% of your max then its not necessary. Yeah I agree, way I see it one of the greatest benefits of deadlifting is improving grip strength. Do you pull conventional or sumo? Back injuries are no beuno, but I think it's smart not to push it.

[araaadi]

I switched to sumo about a year ago and haven't looked back since. I have a weird body frame and conventional never felt natural, I've lifted some pretty heavy weight with the conventional lift but never felt as natural as sumo. What about you?

[The Chaddening]

Originally Posted by araaadi

I switched to sumo about a year ago and haven't looked back since. I have a weird body frame and conventional never felt natural, I've lifted some pretty heavy weight with the conventional lift but never felt as natural as sumo. What about you?

I haven't done a lot of Sumo work. I do crossfit/olympic weightlifting now so sumo doesn't translate as well to the other lifts that we do. It seems you can for sure pull more weight with sumo since the pull is shorter. Seems like pretty much all the well known powerlifters out there pull Sumo so there is something to be said about it.

[MaynardZed]

I competed in strongman for 6 years which of course we would train a lot of powerlifting, but also a lot of functional strength stuff similar to crossfit (albeit our weight were heavier and time limit shorter). I retired 2 years ago, but here are some of my best lifts back then:

Deadlift: 700lbs (grip and rip, belt & chalk only)
Deadlift (18"): 750lbs
Bench Press: 440lbs
OH log press: 330lbs
Atlas stone to 52": 410lbs
Yoke Walk: 800lbs for 80'
Farmers Walk: 335lb per hand for 80' in 17secs

My favorite events were carry medleys with tire flips, sandbags etc. I would compete at a bodyweight between 315-335lbs depending on the events scheduled. I still train some of lifts, but can't put the time into training and eating that I used to. One of the guys I used to compete and train with got his pro card a few years back and just did a 1000lb deadlift at the Arnold recently!

Medley

410 stone load

Deadlift training, my partner Jay was a riot

[The Chaddening]

Originally Posted by MaynardZed

I competed in strongman for 6 years which of course we would train a lot of powerlifting, but also a lot of functional strength stuff similar to crossfit (albeit our weight were heavier and time limit shorter). I retired 2 years ago, but here are some of my best lifts back then:

Deadlift: 700lbs (grip and rip, belt & chalk only)
Deadlift (18"): 750lbs
Bench Press: 440lbs
OH log press: 330lbs
Atlas stone to 52": 410lbs
Yoke Walk: 800lbs for 80'
Farmers Walk: 335lb per hand for 80' in 17secs

My favorite events were carry medleys with tire flips, sandbags etc. I would compete at a bodyweight between 315-335lbs depending on the events scheduled. I still train some of lifts, but can't put the time into training and eating that I used to. One of the guys I used to compete and train with got his pro card a few years back and just did a 1000lb deadlift at the Arnold recently!

Medley

410 stone load

Deadlift training, my partner Jay was a riot

Wow! Insane man. What does your training look like nowadays? How have your joints held up after 6 years of strongman events? 700 lb deadlift is unreal. Who was your buddy at the Arnold?

[MaynardZed]

Thanks man, I do miss it, but nowadays my training is very light. Lucky to get to the gym twice a week. Injuries TNTC (probably more damage from football), but no one thing that is too problematic. Just want to stay in good enough shape to be able to club race / HPDE with my BMWs. I walk around at 290lbs now.

Jerry Pritchett is from here in Phoenix area. I was somewhat competitive with him in 2009-2010, but he took it to a whole new level.

[csu87]

just went through and went for new maxes last week. Been a little over 1.5yrs since shoulder surgery (labrum repair) and I still dont feel comfortable with a lot of the clean/snatch movements to put any kind of real weight on them. Im almost back to my before surgery Bench and Squats, but Deadlifts still lacking about 50-60lbs.

Deadlift: 465 lb
Back Squat: 405 lb (with knee supports, about 285 without them and a lot of crying)
Front Squat: 295 lb
Bench: 315 lb
Squat Clean: -
Power Clean: 225 lb
Clean and Jerk: -
Power Snatch: -
Snatch: -

Body Weight ~190s depending on how much i drink the night before.

[MaynardZed]

Originally Posted by csu87

just went through and went for new maxes last week. Been a little over 1.5yrs since shoulder surgery (labrum repair) and I still dont feel comfortable with a lot of the clean/snatch movements to put any kind of real weight on them. Im almost back to my before surgery Bench and Squats, but Deadlifts still lacking about 50-60lbs.

Deadlift: 465 lb
Back Squat: 405 lb (with knee supports, about 285 without them and a lot of crying)
Front Squat: 295 lb
Bench: 315 lb
Squat Clean: -
Power Clean: 225 lb
Clean and Jerk: -
Power Snatch: -
Snatch: -

Body Weight ~190s depending on how much i drink the night before.

500 lb deadlift very respectable for a man <200 lbs, good work. The squat number without wraps seems very low, I'd bet a lot of that is mental. Ever try Rehbands? Doesn't compress as much as wraps, but still might give you that mental edge to push through. They're expensive, but worth every penny.

[csu87]

Originally Posted by MaynardZed

500 lb deadlift very respectable for a man <200 lbs, good work. The squat number without wraps seems very low, I'd bet a lot of that is mental. Ever try Rehbands? Doesn't compress as much as wraps, but still might give you that mental edge to push through. They're expensive, but worth every penny.

havent tried them, ill have to look into it.

The reason for the low number is a) mental and b) physical. I tore my knee up about 7 years ago snowboarding and never got it properly fixed. I have done more without any kind of knee support in the past, but it rarely ends well so i dont push it

[The Chaddening]

Originally Posted by csu87

just went through and went for new maxes last week. Been a little over 1.5yrs since shoulder surgery (labrum repair) and I still dont feel comfortable with a lot of the clean/snatch movements to put any kind of real weight on them. Im almost back to my before surgery Bench and Squats, but Deadlifts still lacking about 50-60lbs.

Deadlift: 465 lb
Back Squat: 405 lb (with knee supports, about 285 without them and a lot of crying)
Front Squat: 295 lb
Bench: 315 lb
Squat Clean: -
Power Clean: 225 lb
Clean and Jerk: -
Power Snatch: -
Snatch: -

Body Weight ~190s depending on how much i drink the night before.

I had shoulder surgery before I started crossfit. Took me forever just to get the flexibility for jerks/snatches/overhead squats so I feel your pain. Thats crazy that knee wraps make such a big difference for your squat! I find that I feel more confident going for big numbers when I have them on but I don't think they assist me all that much. BTW jealous you live in Colorado. My gf and I are thinking of moving out there within the next couple years. How do you like living there?

[koreez88]

Bench - 260lbs tap-n-go
Squat - 375lbs high bar below parallel
Deadlift - 465lbs conventional
5'11", 27 years old, 180lbs

I believe my true max on squat is somewhere around 385 and 495 on deadlift since I hit 455x3 3 weeks ago. Will need to retest again soon.

Down to try new things in lifting, oly lifting is top of my list, strongman and crossfit next.
Need to work on my front squats, those choke me the fuck out.

[The Chaddening]

Originally Posted by koreez88

Bench - 260lbs tap-n-go
Squat - 375lbs high bar below parallel
Deadlift - 465lbs conventional
5'11", 27 years old, 180lbs

I believe my true max on squat is somewhere around 385 and 495 on deadlift since I hit 455x3 3 weeks ago. Will need to retest again soon.

Down to try new things in lifting, oly lifting is top of my list, strongman and crossfit next.
Need to work on my front squats, those choke me the fuck out.

Yeah if you can pull 455 for a triple I have no doubt you can hit 500 on a 1RM. Starting olympic lifting was one of best things I have ever done for fitness. I did bodybuilding/personal training for years out of high school but I wish I would have started oly lifting years ago. When you front squat do you do the bodybuilder type "arms crossed" style?