Prepping For Deadlift Only
Aidan Muir, or more commonly known as The Dietitian Goat, just competed in the annual CAPO Deadlift Only Competition last week. Prepping for a single lift event can look very different to what we could potentially consider a ‘standard’ 3 lift prep.
In this article I hope to highlight some key factors that we took into consideration when creating the plan for Aidan into his competition.
First and foremost Aidan’s goal for this prep was to PR his deadlift, previous best 225 kgs. He would have been happy with 227.5kgs. As you may be aware he ended up pulling 235 kgs at 74.5kgs BW a huge 3.15x BW. Second to that was to increase muscle hypertrophy throughout the process.
The second thing we had to take into account was Aidan’s unfortunate history with patellar tendinopathy that would flare up across both knees. Working with a couple of allied health professionals there was consistent tinkering to make sure we weren’t overloading the knees too much that would take away from his prep as he is traditionally a sumo deadlifter, which we know is more quad dominant.
We began the prep with a very simple and effective road map of a linear progression, four sessions per week 2 upper body hypertrophy/strength and 2 lower body strength/power.
A Sample week has been added here
Day 1
Exercise Sets x Reps
Back Squat 3-4 x 5-8
Deadlift Conventional Speed 6 x 2
SB Goodmorning 3 x 10
Double Pulse Goblets 3 x 10
Leg Extension 3 x 12
Day 2
Exercise Sets x Reps
DB Bench Press 3 x 10
Chest Press Machine 3 x 10
DB/Cable Fly 2 x 12
Push Ups + Bands 2 x MAX
Skull Crushers 3 x 10
Tricep Extensions 3 x 12
Day 3
Exercise Sets x Reps
Sumo Deadlifts 1 x 1
Back Off Sets 2 x 2
DB Goblet Heel Elevated 3 x 8
BB RDL 3 x 8
Standing Single Leg Curls 2 x 12
Chin Ups - Neutral Grip 2 x MAX
DB One Arm Row 2 x 10
Day 4
Exercise Sets x Reps
DB Seated Shoulder Press 3 x 10
DB Lateral Raise 3 x 12
DB Rear Delt Fly 3 x 12
Upright Row 3 x 10
DB Hammer Curls 3 x 12
Tricep Extensions 3 x 10
As you can see we started day 1 with Back Squat, a hybrid technique between low bar/high bar that allowed Aidan to squat comfortably without knee pain. The conventional speed deadlifts as B1 exercise aimed to increase Aidan’s ability to produce power from the floor whilst simultaneously building his posterior chain strength. Something I believe is often overlooked by sumo pullers.
We utilized a short rest period of 45 seconds to train Aidan’s ability to reproduce force and train the recruitment of HTMU (high threshold motor units). I believe this also complimented his plyometric work he was doing with the EP.
You can see overall Aidan’s program is heavily geared towards building strength through the post chain. As he was much lighter since our last prep together I knew we needed to build strength in the post chain and then develop that strength to produce greater power, to cater for what he wanted to achieve.
His upper body days, as especially as the prep went on to closer to comp, were very low skill level exercises that were designed to drive output with little CNS fatigue so we could focus on his competition deadlift.
Low Volume High Intensity from the get go. Aimed to develop the skill of the lift and leave the volume and output in other posterior dominant exercises.
By the end of the prep due to various load reasons, we dropped the squats out and all focus and execution went into the deadlift with minimal actual knee flexion work as Aidan was getting majority of that work with his EP.
To really summarise this, we effectively put more stock in developing power from the accumulative strength built as we were aiming to be a lighter BW in the past which ultimately affects leverages and positions of the pull. Focusing on the skill of the lift at higher intensities and drive output and strength development in other hinge variations.
