- I either should not have had a poundage jump every deadlift workout late in
the cycle, or just made it kilo at a time.. To accommodate a slower poundage progression scheme I would have
needed to have increased the cycle beyond its actual eight months. Alterna-
tively, I could have broken the very long cycle into two shorter ones. I could
have peaked at about × in the first cycle, backed off for the start of
the second cycle, built back to , and then slowly worked up to the
target.. e deadlifting form I used during this cycle, especially in the late stage, had
my hips higher (and my back less upright) than a squatter’s deadlift style,
with my back not as flat. But I had a knee problem and weakened thighs to
contend with, so getting my legs out of the movement and taking more stress
on my back were the compensatory measures. I am not advising round-back,
bent-legged deadlifting. Such a style of lifting is potentially very dangerous
unless the subject has the necessary structure needed, as Bob Peoples had,
to break such a cardinal rule of heavy deadlifting without apparent harm.. I should have deadlifted on the Tuesday each week right from the start of
the cycle, and divided the two training days more evenly over the week.. Had I had no knee problems, and had I developed stronger thighs through
Trap Bar deadlifting, and had I used the Trap Bar exclusively (rather
than the straight bar I used, because there was no Trap Bar available), the
improved form the rhombus-shaped bar permits, together with greater
thigh strength and a slower poundage progression, would have produced
much better deadlifting form. It would probably also have produced better
overall gains (because the Trap Bar deadlift intensively involves more mus-
culature than the straight bar deadlift).. On the × day I broke one of the key rules for safe deadlifting—
“Keep the final do-or-die rep inside you.” I broke this rule at least five times
in a row, to get from rep to . Not only that, but I was not feeling
on that day due to the high temperature. I should have left the Herculean
effort for a day or two later when conditions would have been better.. Regularly during the cycle I should have had someone record my deadlifting
form on video tape. en I could have studied my form and corrected the
flaws in my technique.