I’ve heard that being overweight, especially when you have a big gut, doesn’t help you deadlift more weight, if not makes it worse. However, the strongest dead lifters in the world happen to be heavily overweight.
Define overweight in context to elite level deadlifters.
Did you have a question? Right now, you have only presented two statements.
According to my BMI I am overweight.
I’m pretty sure elite powerlifters are obese according to those standards lol
They aren’t overweight, they just have huge trunks, but no guts. And even when they have a gut:
a) the guts are usually at a healthy level of fat
b) the guys with HUGE guts are rare
Anyway, it depends on your leverages. Usually the more you weigh the more you bench, I don’t know about deadlifting and squatting.
Squatting extra weight def helps me. Bench without a doubt. Deadliftong the bigger my middle gets even by a little drastically increases how tight I feel in the bottom of a pull. So with that being said in my opinion IF you can get in position with said increased tightness should result is some carry over to the dead lift off the floor. How ever usually if you get a gut like a honest fat guy big belly gut it usually causes getting into position to start the pull harder and essentially would cause a weaker starting position equaling weight being left on the platform.
I meant to ask a question on my original post for this thread; however, I didn’t have time to type it in because I was in a hurry to go to my gym. In any case, I brought up this thread, because my question is does gaining bodyweight helped a lot to increase your deadlift? My deadlift has been increasing at a steady rate, but I think that I can increase my deadlift at a higher rate if I put on more bulk.
I am 5’ 9" and right now I weigh 150 lbs. My deadlift PR for 5 reps is 340 (although a few days ago I almost got 5 reps with 345 lbs and got more than halfway through on the 5th rep, but I unfortunately ended up hitting failure right at that very moment).
I’d say that yes it will probably help your deadlift if you gain some weight, but that’s more because at 5’ 9" and 150lbs you are seriously light and could probably do with packing on some muscle. You probably don’t need to worry about putting on weight having the possibility of negatively affecting your leverages for deadlifting until you start getting ‘big’ (no offense meant by the way).
Having said that and since we’re in the powerlifting section, you should consider that staying light will keep you in a low weight class and that for your weight you have a pretty decent deadlift, so putting on weight may not help your relative strength. But I suppose it depends on whether you just want a big pull or a big relative pull.
Personally I haven’t found that putting weight on has helped my deadlift all that much, at least not compared to my bench, however I weigh a good 60lbs more than you so that’s not to say that it will be the same for you.
In general increasing your bodyweight will up your strength on everything. You’ll notice it less on deadlift than you will on squat and bench, but it applies across the board.
I’ve made better gains on DL while cutting than I have while bulking. Probably coincidence, but worth noting. I know in my case it has to do with feeling crowded at the bottom, but a lot of that has to do with my positioning in the lift. Hint: it’s bad.
At 5’'9 and 150, you should definitely focus on adding mass. If you were 250, well maybe thats a different story.
It might help or might not, usually it doesn’t but that really doesn’t fit all either, many PLs have lost weight and did dead more because of better leverages but lost some in the other two…depends on the person and what the outcome really is…that is the Total.
Why has no one pointed out the fact that the initial observation is false?
The only great deadlifters who are very much overweight at all are the ones who have no need to make a weight class. Every single other weight class is dominated by lean guys, when it comes to the deadlift. The best pound for pound deadlifter in the world weighs less than you do (Richard Hawthorne). Dan Green is lean. Rich Sadiv is lean. KK is lean. Jesse Norris is lean. I could go on, but I see no reason to. Yes, the absolute world records in deadlift are held by lifters who are overweight. That doesn’t mean that their fat mass is actually helping them deadlift.
When are you going to start making gains? You’ve been posting ridiculous threads for what… 3 years now? And you’ve made no progress? Worry about yourself, not world record holders. 340x5 is pitiful. I know guys who have been lifting less than a year with MUCH better numbers. I’m not exaggerating.
[quote]Reed wrote:
Squatting extra weight def helps me. Bench without a doubt. Deadliftong the bigger my middle gets even by a little drastically increases how tight I feel in the bottom of a pull. So with that being said in my opinion IF you can get in position with said increased tightness should result is some carry over to the dead lift off the floor. How ever usually if you get a gut like a honest fat guy big belly gut it usually causes getting into position to start the pull harder and essentially would cause a weaker starting position equaling weight being left on the platform.[/quote]
This is my exact experience. 36-38" gut helps a bit over 32-34" in absolute deadlift number, 40" I can’t get into proper position. Getting fatter always seems help my absolute squat and bench numbers.
- Note I said “absolute”; not strength-to-weight ratio or Wilkes-based numbers.
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
340x5 is pitiful. [/quote]
340x5 for a dude who’s 150lb is not pitiful. That’s ridiculous hyperbole.
I agree that bull_scientist basically just posts troll-worthy nonsense, but c’mon dude. Get real.
In fact what is your role on this site, anyway? Chief shit-starter? Half of your posts are made just to put other people down. No wonder you were an ardent defender of PX.
So with a theoretical 2.5xBw deadlift (375/150) he is pitiful ?
i am pretty sure a third of the people on this site would be happy with that kind of lift, provided it is natural.
Think about it for a minute. How many natural lifters are here that can do 3.0 or even 3.5x Bw in the traditional Dead?
There are very few Lamar Gant and Ed Coans out there …
Yeah 2.2xBW for reps is just god awful on the deadlift. Granted, it’s not as impressive for little guys, but still…calling it pitiful is absurd.
Side not, I haven’t hit 3x BW yet, but I’m sure I’ll hit it within a 6 months to a year. I don’t think it’s that amazing.
Alright, thnx guys. So I’ll gain more weight in order to continue to improve my strength on the bench, squat, and deadlift.
Also, I was about say what the last three posters just said. Why would being able to deadlift 2.25 times my own bodyweight for reps be considered pathetic? I don’t think that most grown men, whether or not they lift weights regularly, can lift that much weight, at least in proportion to there bodyweight.
Even if someone weighed 50 lbs, no one should care about a 340x5 deadlift. People need to stop using bodyweight as an excuse for being weak.
[quote]DaneMuscle wrote:
People need to stop using bodyweight as an excuse for being weak.[/quote]
Yeah. Ditch the weight classes in all sports. The scale is just an excuse for the weak.