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How He Deadlifts 3X His Bodyweight! (THE PLAN)

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Rating: 4.5; Vote: 2

Today, we are talking about Jesse and how he deadlifts 3x his bodyweight. In this video, Jesse and I explain exactly how he was able to progress his deadlift to elite level strength. The start of Jesse s deadlift journey began with fixing his foundation. What this means is working on his postural, mobility, and flexibility limitations, which he was suffering from excessively. Now, I always say that strength is the base of the pyramid, but the root system beneath is stability, mobility, and flexibility which, if compromised, may undermine the entirety of the pyramid. Spending time fixing Jesse s posture and other limitations came before even practicing the lift itself allowed him to build a strong foundation to work off of. I feel, as a strength coach and a physical therapist, that by addressing these issues first you will be able to progress through your lifts much quicker and safer. If you want a big deadlift, like Jesse; you need to incorporate accessory work to address your weak points. He made use of these exercises to strengthen the weakness he had in each component of the deadlift. The lifts that Jesse made use of included straight arm pushdowns, Romanian deadlifts, high pulls, hip thrusts, lat pulldowns, and power shrugs. These deadlift accessories helped Jesse to get stronger in order to use smaller muscles that were causing him to fail in the first place - especially at lockout. Each one of these exercises, added to his training program, helped Jesse to get a super strong deadlift. Jesse built a strong deadlift by also strengthening his grip. A weak grip can lead to the issue of not being able to hold onto weight that you may otherwise be able to lift without a problem. What he has done to help get a strong grip and a big deadlift was to perform weighted carries often in his training program. Not only that, but Jesse also incorporated dead arm hangs into his routine. Both of these exercises helped Jesse deadlift more than 3x his bodyweight. So, what was the programming that Jesse followed to get such a big deadlift? He actually followed one our ATHLEAN-X training programs called Old School Iron. With the first three phases of the program including dedicated strength work, he was able to progress his lifts quick and steady. The first phase of Old School Iron followed a 3x5 scheme 1-2x per week, depending on the schedule. Every time the deadlift appeared, Jesse added 5 lbs to his lift. Working on his basic strength foundation and progressing through it in a linear fashion allowed him to add weight to the bar each workout. He actually repeated this phase twice, performing it for a total of 3 times until he noticed his strength gains starting to slow. Moving onto the second phase, his workouts were based around contrast wave loading, with percentages of the lifts increasing each time they appear. The way this is structured is 5/1/5/1/5/1 - with sets of 5 using 80% of your 1 rep max and the sets of 1 increasing in percentages with each rep and each workout. With a new training stimulus; Jesse was able to experience getting a stronger deadlift as he moved through each workout. The third phase of Old School Iron that Jesse performed included a commonly performed scheme of 5x5, something that is often prescribed for getting stronger. While a similar stimulus to the 3x5 training in phase 1, the added volume allowed for increased strength with each workout. This was built into an educated bro split that also had a greater frequency on hypertrophy than the first two phases. Jesse s training plan was significant in building an elite level deadlift that weighs more than 3x his bodyweight and is available to everyone on the ATHLEAN-X website which I will link below! One of the most important aspects of Jesse s deadlift was the fact that he treated every rep that he performed like it was a one rep max. By utilizing power and explosiveness off the floor and through the deadlift s lockout, he was able to recruit muscle fibers that grew accustomed to the movement. This allowed for those muscle fibers to get used to the power in order to get stronger with each max lift that he performed. Jesse credits this approach to helping build such a strong deadlift. It is worth noting that Jesse was able to get stronger at both the squat and the bench press at the same time by following these points.
Date: 2022-08-08

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Comments and reviews: 13

P. J
What you (Jeff) said here about having the right foundations, is exactly what I said about Crossfit 10+ years ago when people like me went into it with bad foundations and hurt myself good. I didn't have the flexibility, mobility and stability so start doing heavy stuff, but on top of that, Crossfit forces you to do power movement which in my case made me injured my back and my shoulders really badly. Only a few years after I've stopped doing it did I understand that, and also me being at the time over 40 didn't help either.
Crossfit for already established athletes is something else because they have mostly their foundations, but for normal Joe like me, it was a recipe for disaster.
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Nairamize
Does anyone know if there is a video regarding fixing the foundation? Mobility, Flexibility and stability? I remember videos about it but not if there was one or if Jeff talked about it in different ones.
Cause I came to the conclusion that I really should focus on that now before trying to progress further.
And if anyone has an advice to incorporate all the posture fixing into a workout program, it would be highly appreciated. I don't want to spend half a year on fixing my posture before I can start lifting again. I already work out 2 to 4 times a week and try to tackle my weak spots and stretch but the progress is not really there and it pisses me off. :D
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T4
Hi Jeff, I've started to seriously focus on building a connection with my Mid- and Rear- Delt training recently, and I've seen conflicting suggestions for how to disengage your Traps from exercises for both delt areas. Some videos recommend a head-bowed-forward approach to relax your neck and avoid shrugging, while others will explicitly state arching your back/neck will disengage them. Should the advice be different depending on the exercise (lying facedown, facedown on an incline, , lying back on incline, standing etc? Or is there a single answer for the best way to keep your traps out of the equation for Delt exercises?
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VmacSolutions
This is definitely something I've noticed with my body. I have arthritis in my hip, lower back and other joints. It causes me discomfort, when it do certain exercises and I haven't been going heavy the last several months.
I've been doing lighter weight and higher reps. I've been doing body weight squats and tip-toe body weight squats. What I've noticed, these exercises have improved the strength and comfort, when I did the leg press machine. Regular exercises for smaller muscle groups can definitely improve the larger and often heavier exercises.
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Hamza
Hi Jeff, big fan here. I have just started seriously working out. I am having issues with my bench press which is very weak for some reason. Its about 145 lb max. I am 5 feet 11 and weigh about 180 lbs at about 25% body fat percentage so i want to cut down on weight and body fat percentage while simultaneously increasing my bench press. Would you recommend dropping the bench press weight and doing as many reps as possible to increase my strength and then increasing the weight? Or should i do low reps while increasing weight? Thanks.
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grahamhsu
So true, and Jesse's progress has been amazing. Today I finally fixed some mobility issues I've had with my hip for years and realized now my squats completely changed. I saw the bar slightly sway as I came up and realized my leg strength was uneven and subsequently had to lower the weight and really paid attention to the bar travel. Planning on programming more single leg squats now to even them out but if I had just fixed the mobility issues in the beginning I wouldn't be walking backwards to go forwards.
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Eric
Congrats on 540 Jesse! When I get discouraged about my lifting progress, I keep in mind Jesse s transformation over the years and how much time it took him. It s not an exaggeration to say you re an inspiration to us skinny guys.
I would love to see a breakdown of the progress with dates of each lift. It would really help put into perspective the time invested and a realistic growth of a natural lifter.
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Adam
Dr Deadlift, In Just Jeff s program, he recommends wrist not going above elbows in the high pull exercise, but you show it going above your elbows. Can more insight be provided if what you show is the recommended way per Jeff s Max Size Inferno program or if it targets something else? In the program high pulls are used for the upper back portion day.
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martin
Awesome work Jesse. I'm finally after 48yrs of training, starting to deadlift. I used to squat 495 lbs back in the day at only 190lbs body weight but we never did dead lifts. I'm 64yrs old now and can only deadlift 295. prolly because I have this strange fear of deadlifts. It's weird. .I'll use some of your ideas going forward. thanks
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M.
Jeff has managed to train a guy from looking like a sack of spuds up to lifting to elite, competition level strength standards and people will still sit there on their asses and have the gall to criticise his knowledge and experience. Unreal. I can almost hear Greg Ducette's breath clattering his keyboard as he watches this video.
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Joe
Love the content. I was wondering if there is a video or if you could do a video on the top mobility and stability exercises everyone should do?
I feel like I m one of these people who skipped the foundations and went straight to lifting in my late teens. Now in my early 30 s I m looking for longevity above everything else.
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Alexandru
I canot agree more about the foundation. Talking as someone that's been lifting for about 5 years ( 3 heavy main compounds) with just the basic of foundation work and i still find myself with injuries and plateus that i shouldn't be had i added more accessory work. It's a truth that not all of us are ready to hear it.
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Jared
Love this! Jeff and Jesse just assertively stuck the haters feet right up their own asses. All pettiness aside, I don't know many at Jesse's bodyweight that can lift those totals. Jeff truly is at the top of the heap as a strength coach. He's not just a great physical therapist. Bravo to you both. Jesse you are a beast!
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