600lb Deadlift Possible for Everyone?

Could most people do a 600lb deadlift given time?

No, I donā€™t think most people could achieve this.

I believe most healthy, normal men have the physical potential to do this, but no amount of time going by will make any difference. If you want to deadlift 600 pounds, you have to do the things necessary to deadlift 600 pounds, and most people donā€™t want anything to do with that kind of bullshit.

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Given time and dedication And bodyweight being a factor. yes. But under about 170-180lbs Iā€™ll say not everyone could get it.

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Before doing AAS my highest pull was around 495 at 175 lb and that was with a belt and months of practice, a year after around 520-530 (190lb)on cycle and i was not deadlifting as frequent as i normally did. Personally I do not have the gift of having gifted strength i was just very dedicated and deadlifted twice a week for a whole year. I believe for a normal gym rat this is not accomplishable unless you really dedicate yourself to it and even incorporate some accessory workouts to help your main lift, the most problem I had with 400+ was lifting passed the knees but after doing some explosive speed work i was able to break that plateau. Even after pulling 520 lb i did not feel very good , im sure the health complications also start to take a toll, one of the main reasons I completely stopped deadlifting was because of abdominal cramps going over 400lb+ even with a belt if you do not breath correctly all that pressure can start causing some issues to your sub abdominal walls.

I donā€™t think so. Some people could if they wanted to gain a huge amount of body weight and get up to weighing 250-300+ lbs. Think of it like this: deadlifting 2x your bodyweight is doable for someone who trains and gets pretty strong (completely natural), but is nothing spectacular. Still, there are lots of guys who canā€™t DL 2X their BW. That would mean a lot of guys would need to get over 300 lbs to do that lift.

600lb deadlift is possible for any healthy adult male. Very few will do what is necessary to do it.

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No, i would say of adult male population very few are physically capable of pulling 600lbs.
I am guessing 10% even with gear, diet, and smart training.
Their are exceptions , i have been told by people ive met in strongman that amongst Longshoreman in scandanavia countries, it is very common for a guy to pull 500lbs the first time he trys.
You got to take in account most scandanavia men are over 6,3 with large frames, you add an extremely physical job,pulling on rope, manually lifting crates, good diet, fish.
Also from spending as much time in iron game, out of the guys who pull 600 most of them, are over 240 pounds have several years training, and are on steroids.
An example recently was Jon Jones who pulled 600 at around 230, this guy is a freak athlete, two brothers in NFL, etc.
Anyway he was quite proud to get that lift obviously with powerlifting specialization he would smash it.
When you bench 300 plus and pull 500lbs you are in the upper percentile.

Iā€™ve been wondering recently about something similar. The first time I ever deadlifted I pulled 405 weighing about 140. I did hardly any physical labor as a child, was not very active, and wasnā€™t incredibly strong or dominant in sports with my peers.
Iā€™ve never understood how an average male over 14 could have under a 225 deadlift max without some sort of major disability. But maybe my perspective is skewed. Maybe Iā€™m somewhat naturally gifted with deadlifting, but my technique is horrible.

Anyway, I think anyone could pull 600. The question is more whether they will put in the effort necessary.

There are a lot of factors here that makes me want to answer no.

  • Bodyweight, is it fair we are arbitrarily choosing 600lbs as the same goal for people under 180lbs and 200+?
  • Is this the weight training population or including every healthy male assuming they start training for years to get this goal? If they are not already the gym training type they may have a lot more setbacks such as injury.
  • I bet a lot who have done 600lb+ have taken AAS at some point, is the question assuming this is allowed or even encouraged if it helps reach the goal?

Also anyone who has DL over 315 the first time they tried or only took them a year to get to 495 or similar does have a skewed perspective. Unless they were training for several years and just neglected deadlifts or something.

If weā€™re simply talking about potential, I think it is much much higher than 10% of the adult male population. Maybe not in some Asian countries or someplace like Somalia, but developed western countries I think it is well over 50%.

As stated earlier, very few are interested in realizing that potential, whether it be through taking steroids, gaining body weight, doing the work or whatever combination of factors is necessary for the individual to achieve this.

For the record, I think most men can achieve this without taking steroids. Iā€™ve seen plenty of unremarkable people pulling in the 500ā€™s and 600ā€™s. The common denominator is always ball-busting work and refusal to give up.

Take our forum member @ActivitiesGuy. Heā€™s sub-200 lbs and doesnā€™t even really train for strength. He runs a lot and does kettlebell work and yoga. He pulled 500 within a few months of treating the deadlift as a little side-project of his. Could he pull 600 if he committed to it? I absolutely think he could. Maybe it would take him two years and maybe heā€™d need to put 20 pounds on, but I totally believe he could do it if he so wished.

I have no idea how to judge someoneā€™s genetics, but he seems like a pretty normal guy to me.

In my limited observations, Iā€™ve seen far more people who train hard and consistently, eat for strength and really apply themselves achieve strength feats like this than Iā€™ve seen people who do everything right and still end up weak. It is just so rare for someone to even attempt to get to this point, even among gym rats, that it is really hard to say what someoneā€™s potential really is. You just donā€™t know until you apply yourself and see where you end up.

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I meant without PEDS AAS growth hormone etc i.e. lifetime drugs free. Of course creatine and other legal supplements are allowed. There are ways such as the 80% test to assess genetic potential , standing broad jump and vertical etc. Reaction time drills.
But most people I am guessing wonā€™t perform terribly at the tests. Strong people tend to be interested in getting stronger.

The other question is 700lb-800 possible for most with drugs or a lot of drugs.

@sufiandy maybe we are taking the question a different way. I was implying that it would be literally possible, if certain parameters can be met by the individual.

If we start factoring in injuries, time restaraints, etc., those parameters wonā€™t be met. And almost always those ā€œimpossibleā€ commitments are imposed by the individual in question.

Without drugs it will be a little tougher I assume. I was literally built to sumo deadlift, drug free and looking to beak the 700 barrier shortly. Another 2 months or so. So I would think drugs could make up for my leverage. Though like someone stated above the key is to keep pushing for it. I will not stop pushing until I die.

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Yeah Iā€™d say its possible for most, especially considering all the cutting edge info out there now for free(like on this site) and the big advances in supplement over the last couple years.

For the sake of argument I could see a guy in his 20s get there in 2-3 years if they went to say a serious strongman gym, did everything they were instructed, trained damn hard, eat their face off, 8-10 hours sleep etc

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I fully agree with your post, although @ActivitiesGuy is a far cry from your average untrained individual. He must have had 12-15 years background of wrestling/football/fitness and he has been training with heavy kettlebells (88lbs is pretty serious) for several years. And with that background he still had to deadlift in an extremely focused manner for over a year to get 500lbs.

I imagine 600lbs is possible for most healthy men given time, effort and in many cases extreme single mindedness.

Well,surely not everyone,but I guess most people could.You never know until you try,and even if you fail youā€™ll probably end up with something pretty strong for your frame

The real question imo is ā€˜ā€˜should I aim for a 600 lbs deadliftā€™ā€™,to which I respond ā€˜ā€˜whatever helps ya outā€™ā€™.Iā€™ve met people that work better when they go set 20 pounds pr goals and huge goals mess with their head and others that are better shooting for the stars

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This. Any healthy male with the proper mental game + programming can do it. If thereā€™s no will, of course he canā€™t do it.

I have weak genetics. I was awfully weak growing up. All of my friends in sport were stronger than me at all ages. Every one. I worked hard too. Only caveat is I was a very late bloomer.

With all this said, I DLā€™ed 550 at 24 with 1.5 years of DLing experience.

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what do you think is necessary to do it? I didnā€™t start lifting weight until 25.

A flip to this would be ā€œIs a sub 3-hour marathon possible for everyone?ā€.

Probably for most, if they single mindedly trained, ate, and slept for it. In this case, it would require substantial weight reduction (for most), along with a structured regimen.

In both cases (the 600 lb DL or the sub 3-hr marathon), there are a lot of people who would love to accomplish these (I mean, one or the other). For me, I respect those dedicated to take on feats like these, but, alas, Iā€™m happy with a 400 lb DL and a 4 hour marathon.

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Sub max pulling 1-3 times per week, slow steady progression with quarterly peaking will take you there.

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