Destroy the Opposition: Programming for Powerlifting

by Jamie Lewis

  Ernie Frantz- the guy Ed Coan went to for advice. Dude squatted 516 at 172 when he was 76 years old. Recognize.

  Next, stop acting like the land whales you see waddling around the baked goods section of your local supermarket— if you want to be a great deadlifter, you cannot be lazy about it. According to Sakari Selkäinaho, all of the great Finnish deadlifters grew up doing manual labor, which inured their bodies and minds to hard work. Likewise, Bob Peoples was a farmer, Lamar Gant rode his bicycle for extremely long distances and worked as a janitor, Konstantin Konstantinovs grew up doing gymnastics and playing judo in a tiny town in Latvia (which means he's cut more firewood than you've likely ever seen in your life,) and currently works as a bodyguard. This means they were/are all highly conditioned athletes capable of mentally pushing themselves to extremes and possess the physical endurance to do so. Since World of Warcraft doesn't count as GPP, you might want to think about getting off your fat ass and doing some conditioning.

  Most, if not all of the best deadlifters have done or do extremely high volume pulling work. You'll see the occasional admonition against overtraining, but the elite conception of overtraining and your conception of overtraining are likely bears as much resemblance to one another as Steve Buscemi bears to a healthy human adult. For instance, Brent Howard's conception of "too much" work mirrors my own experience:

  "I used to do heavy DL, then heavy stiffs, heavy racks, then 15 sets of upper back almost every week. I kept this up until one day when I was lucky enough to have a conversation with Kaz on the subject. He related how he used to beat the heck out of himself with high bar squats of 615 x 25 reps followed by heavy DL’s and rack pulls. The bottom line was that was too much even for a superman like him" (Mason).

  That's insanely brutal, and likely more volume than you'd get out of three weeks of Starting Strength or two weeks of 5/3/1, in a single day. Chuck Vogelpohl, who pulled 793 at 242, trains ten to fourteen times a week, does abs in every workout, and trains lats in five of those workouts. Louie Simmons does the same thing. Thus, elite lifters know how much is too much because they've traveled a hell of a long ways over that line. Until you've shit upon that line with zero fucks given, then run as far past it as you can brandishing a Viking sword and a bottle of Jägermeister, slaying all weights in your path (until your damnable human vulnerability crushes you like a roach under a steamroller,) you've absolutely no clue what overtraining is. Thus, stop fearing it, since you never even caught a glimpse of the mythical monster you fear.

  Those statements made, let's get into some of the greats' deadlifting routines. As a preface I'll mention, anecdotally, that badass pullers have badass routines. Powerlifting legend Ernie Frantz did all three lifts on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, then some light squats and deads on Tuesday. On the heavy days, he hit a heavy single on each lift, in addition to something like walkouts, negatives, or partials thereafter. In the Saturday workout he would go all out (Stone). Finns, who are renowned for their pulling, deadlift two, three, or four times a week, and supplement their deadlifts with Olympic lifts, partials, deadlifts standing on a block, stiff-legged deadlifts of several varieties, and hack deads (Selkäinaho). Bob Peoples deadlifted to max every time he entered the gym. Thus, great powerlifters push the absolute limit and take a giant steaming shit on anyone who tells them otherwise.

  The Deadlift Programs of the Greats

  Lamar Gant

  Lamar Gant issued forth from his mother’s vagina with both middle fingers pointed at the sky, letting the gods know exactly what he thought about their Jackson Pollack-esque take on his spine. In spite of the fact that Gant’s scoliosis appears to have scoliosis and his spine is roughly shaped like a crazy straw, he is perhaps the closest thing we'll ever see to a real-life Spiderman, hitting a 4.95x bodyweight deadlift at two different weight classes. I suppose that was to be expected, given the fact that his weird-assed body shape and diminutive stature made him look like the main character in the movie Antz (the above pic seriously is not photoshopped— he's that weird looking). Gant eventually pulled 638 at 123, boasting 2% body fat, and 654 at 132 (Todd).

  His initial deadlift routine consisted of truly insane volume— 25 sets of 5, in what he called his "Monster Man" routine, after doing squat and bench (Todd). On top that, Gant bicycled 30 miles a day to and from work, and cycled for long distances on the weekend (Todd). Eventually, Gant abandoned the aforementioned program, which he'd lifted from professional strongman Harold Ansorge, and developed the program he provided to Powerlifting USA, which I've titled 8/5/3.

  Lamar Gant's 8/5/3 Deadlift Program

  Week 1: 5 sets of 8 with 70% 1RM

  Week 2: 5 sets of 8 with 73% 1RM

  Week 3: 5 sets of 8 with 76% 1RM

  Week 4: 5 sets of 8 with 78% 1RM

  Week 5: 5 sets of 5 with 82% 1RM

  Week 6: 5 sets of 5 with 84% 1RM

  Week 7: 5 sets of 5 with 86% 1RM

  Week 8: 5 sets of 5 with 87% 1RM

  Week 9: 5 sets of 3 with 92% 1RM

  Week 10: 5 sets of 3 with 94% 1RM

  Week 11: 5 sets of 3 with 96% 1RM

  Week 12: 5 sets of 3 with 98% 1RM

  (Powerliftingwatch)

  Konstantin Konstantinovs

  This man needs little introduction. Until Stan Efferding recently topped his total, the twice-named KK reigned supreme at 275 like a modern-day Peter the Great, only without the awesome retinue of drunken bears, midgets, and strippers. He's recently moved to 308 to battle with Andy Bolton for the title of premier hippopotamus-sized deadlifter and has pulled 903 raw, in a tested meet. Unlike what you’d expect from a man who grew up singing the badass Soviet national anthem and likely dreamt of swimming the blood of capitalists every night while wearing hammer-and-sickle pajamas, his program is a bit less regimented than most, and is as follows:

  Workout 1

  Light squat for a warm up.

  Deadlift. Different variation at every session: rack pulls – 7, 11, 15, 20, 23 cm from the knees. Sets consist of either 3 reps or 8-10, depending on how he feels.

  Bench press. Bench is a rest between heavy exercises, and they’re either done touch and go with a medium grip or paused a close grip pausing at the bottom, and the reps vary on mood and feel. 4. 2nd deadlift. I pull either from a floor or from a deficit (about 9 cm). I do a single set of 2-3 reps pausing at the bottom. Then if I have enough energy, I might do another set of 6-8 reps.

  Box squat. Done in a similar fashion to the deadlift.

  Workout 2

  Medium heavy squat.

  Bench press. Work up to single heavy set of 1 x 3. Every two weeks he works up to 1 to 2 sets of single negatives, followed by 1 x 8-10 with either close or medium grip.

  Cardio. 15-20 min.

  Workout 3

  Light squat.

  Bench press. 1 x 6-8.

  Speed deadlift with bands. 8x1. Bands increase weight by 130 kg at the top.

  Pull ups with weight or bands. Sets/reps vary, but every rep is explosive to aid deadlift.

  GHR, hyperextensions, very heavy abs work. 6 sets of low reps.

  Workout 4

  Same as workout 2.

  KK takes one to two days off between workouts 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, which means he deadlifts between two and four times a week and squats four or five (KK and Carter). Like Andy Bolton, he focuses on explosiveness from the floor in training, but unlike Bolton appears to go fucking heavy. In one video posted online, for instance, he hits 380kg (836 lbs) for four reps.

  Bob Peoples

  To state that Bob Peoples appears to have been obsessed with the deadlift would be and understatement along the lines of stating that Jeffrey Dahmer somewhat enjoyed killing and eating young homosexual men. Peoples was a farmer, working 12 hours a day in backbreaking labor and then devoting multiple hours to honing his deadlifting technique and hammering the shit out of it four to five days a week. In stark contrast to the methods of Westside lifters and just about everyone else in history, Peoples actua
lly maxed out on the deadlift 4-5 times a week (Carson), when he was already light years ahead of the competition in that lift. Due to the fact that he broke his fucking ass at the deadlift and gave zero fucks about what other people were doing, People's pulled a world record 725 at 181 lbs.

  You’ll notice it doesn’t include the bench press, as the bench press was not yet part of all “odd lifts” competitions when Peoples competed.

  Bob Peoples' Full Body Routine (done 4-5 times per week)

  Deadlift- 1 x 15-20, 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1 x 6, 6 x 1 (10 sets total)

  Squat- 5 x 5

  Press- 5 x 5

  Benedikt Magnusson

  Bennie seems like the gentle giant of powerlifting— he's got a baby face, seems overly nice, and has described himself as the smallest and weakest man in his family, which is ridiculous given the fact that he's the size of a small bear (6 feet tall and 380 lbs). He's consistently one of the strongest guys on Earth, and currently holds the world record in the deadlift with a 1015 pull. Note that the workout below is not a static workout— Bennie's much more of the "make it up as you go along” school of programming. Last year, he had this to say about his routine:

  "Right now I have two days a week where I have a planned workout. I rarely miss these. I usually end up working out for most of the other 7 days of the week though, just doing recovery workouts and some bodybuilding stuff to keep the joints feeling healthy and my muscles full. I always try to include heavy behind the neck presses, squats and of course deadlifts in my routine. I feel that these are the exercises that have contributed the most to my progress. I don’t really bench though. Flat benching has never felt natural for me and has resulted in several pec tears. I just rely on behind the neck presses and bench warm ups for my bench strength" (Freyr).

  Bennie's deadlift workout, from what I found online, generally consists of the following:

  Week A

  Deadlift- warm up to about 80%; 8 x 2 with 80% 1RM

  Deficit deadlift (about 3-4 inch platform)- 4-6 x 4 with 40-70% 1RM, focusing on speed; 2 x 8 with 40-50% 1RM

  Week B

  Deadlift- Work up to 3rep max.

  Deficit deadlift (about 3-4 inch platform)- 4-6 x 3-5 with 50-75% 1RM, focusing on speed; 2 x 8 with 50% 1RM

  Week C

  Jeff Jet Method Deadlift- Jeff Jet Deadlifts consist of three steps.

  Step 1- Do a rack pull from the knees

  Step 2- Have your training partners remove the blocks/weight stops and do a reverse deadlift (descent followed by ascent), bouncing the weight off the ground.

  Step 3- Have your training partners replace the blocks/stops and rack the weight.

  Work up to a 1-3 rep max

  Deficit deadlift (about 3-4 inch platform)- 4-6 x 4 with 50-60% 1RM

  According to the man himself, Bennie and his partners “train deadlift every week. The last 3 or 4 workouts before a meet we just do regular deadlift off the floor and work in singles. We never go heavier than the starting weight at the meet though" (Magnusson).

  Rickey Dale Crain

  Quite frankly, I'd never heard of the guy, but between his name and the fact that he looks exactly the way his name would indicate, I had to include him. Crain was a bad motherfucker in powerlifting in the 1970s and 80s, and put up some beastly deadlift numbers in the 165 class. Like the rest of the behemoths I'm discussing, Crain was born to deadlift— as you can see from the above pic of his family, he'd likely have had to sleep out back of the double-wide with the dogs if he skipped a day in the gym. According to Clarence Bass, “After teething on a dumbbell-shaped rattle— his father Don was and is an avid lifter— Crain started lifting at age 2, was deadlifting triple bodyweight by the time he was 10, and soon after discovered he had "real" talent in the squat, doing 200 at 13 and 400 before he turned 17— as a 132-pounder. In 1976, at age 23, he became the first middleweight (165 lbs) in history to squat with 700" (Bass). Interestingly to note, Crain hates raw lifting with the burning passion of 1000 suns, and thusly sells a shitload of training gear. I’d post his incoherent rant about how raw lifting is nonsense, but it’s in all caps and lacks any semblance of logic, so just take my words for it.

  Given his penchant for posting in all caps, rocking an afro and a mustache, his hatred for logic, and his appearance in general, the extremity of his routine should not surprise you, and should serve to drive home the point that the deadlift is clearly not a cerebral lift. This program is designed to end with a 620 pull, according to his site (Crain).

  John Kuc

  John Kuc was also a hilariously mustachioed powerlifter of the 1970s and 80s and was apparently kind enough to step out of his rape van filled with lollipops to show people what's up on the deadlift. His record pull of 870 in the 242s stood for 18 years, until Ed Coan decided he'd go 2 Girls 1 Cup and took a giant steaming shit on it with an 887 pull. Kuc's program is a 16 week competition prep cycle split into two 8 week microcycles, the first consisting of two days a week of pulls and the second consisting of one a week.

  As his combover and moustache might already suggest, Kuc was a bit of a controversial character when he competed. From the anecdotes I’ve read, he was generally respected but apparently not terribly well-liked. He and Doug Young apparently had some beef, though I couldn’t find any specifics on why— I simply saw the word “overrated” bandied about quite a bit when Kuc was mentioned. Irrespective of his off-putting appearance, Kuc could rip a weight off the ground like few people have in history.

  Ed Coan

  By now, you should know who Ed Coan is. If you need a refresher, skip back to the benching section. In any event, his deadlift routine is one of the most jerked off to programs on the internet, and I'm endlessly amused by the dogmatism that surrounds it. If you are one of the people who worship the Coan-Phillippi routine and consider it sacrosanct, consider then this— that's not Ed Coan's year round routine. According to the much vaunted Coan-Philippi routine, you’ll do a single set of 2 and then some speed deads and good mornings. That is nothing whatsoever like what he actually did. From the lips of Ed Coan to your proverbial ears:

  "Friday is deadlifts and all back work. This Friday, since it's off season, with no belt or anything, I'm deadlifting off a 4-inch block. It actually teaches you to push more with your legs since you have to bend over so much farther. It's a lot fucking harder!

  Most powerlifters I know who no longer compete, they'll squat and bench, but won't deadlift! It's too difficult. Then I do stiff-legged deads off the blocks, then rows, regular pulldowns, then some type of Hammer pull-down machine, like high rows. Afterward, I'll do chins for reps, then bent-over laterals. I do my rear delts on back day."(Koenig)

  Coan's "2,500 Pounds and Beyond" Workout (Colescott)

  Monday

  Squats- 7-10 x 2-8

  Leg Extensions- 2 x 10-12

  Leg Curls- 2 x 10-12

  In the off-season, Coan added high bar squats to activate more of the quads and sometimes front squats after that for more quad work.

  Seated Calf Raises- 3 x 10-12

  Tuesday- Rest

  Wednesday

  Bench Press (regular grip)- 7-10 x 2-8

  Wide-Grip Bench- 3 x 8-10

  Incline Dumbell or Barbell Press- 2 x 2-8

  Dumbbell Flies- 2 x 10-15

  Tricep Extensions- 2 x 2-8

  Thursday- Rest

  Friday

  Regular Deadlifts or Stiff-Legged Deadlifts- 8 x 2-8

  Bent-Over Rows- 2 x 8-10 (Before you tell yourself you’re good at these or using plenty of weight, Coan did these with 485 lbs. for 8 strict reps)

  Pulley Rows- 2 x 8-10

  Pulldowns- 2 x 8-10

  Hammer Strength Back Machine- 2 x 8-10

  Rear Delt Raises- 2 x 10-12

  Saturday

  Close-Grip Bench- 3 x 8-10

  Shoulder Press- 5 x 2-8 (Choose between Behind-the-Neck Press, Front Military Press, or Seated Dumbbell Presses.)

  Side Laterals- 3 x 10-12

&nb
sp; Pushdowns- 3 x 8-10

  Light Barbell Curls- 1 x 20

  Sunday- Rest

  Julia Zaugolova

  It’s pretty rare that one runs across a female powerlifter who you could simultaneously describe as cute, jacked, and a beast. Julia Zaugolova, however, is one of the feew and the proud. In addition to being spectacularly good looking and ripped to the bone, the Russian broad with the unpronounceable name recently crushed the record at 148 for the raw deadlift, pulling an unreal 529 lbs. Though I could not find much in the way of a routine on her, I did discover two interesting thing— one, she deadlifts with high reps in training. In one video online, she pulled 330 for 20 (63% of her 1RM), and in another she pulled 352 for 10 (67% of her 1RM). There is nothing more horrible than high-rep deadlifting, in my mind. It’s an activity only for the type of extreme masochist that enjoys a good flogging with barbed wire and a subsequent salt rub, but it will certainly separate the men from the boys and the Russian female deadlifter from just about any man you find in America.

  The second interesting facet of her training is that Zaugolova appears to train with conventional form unless she’s going for a max single. In most of the training videos I saw, she pulled conventional, as for one in which she pulled 562 in training with sumo form. Frankly, I’d never considered attempting such a thing, but it is essentially the same as utilizing a close or reverse grip in bench training and then using a conventional grip for competition.