I was in the gym today doing some convention deadlifts when one of the 130lb personal trainers came over and told me that the place was a “family gym” and slamming the weight on the eccentric portion is dangerous and the sound bothers other patrons. I have been deadlifting for 6 months and have been injury free since I started and do not agree with this statement and would never take a 130lb personal trainer seriously.
However, this got me thinking, for a BODYBUILDER is performing the eccentric portion slowly optimal when doing convention/sumo deadlifts? If I were to perform the eccentric portion slowly I would definitely not be able to deadlift as much as I do now. How do you perform the eccentric portion specifically with regards to deadlifts?
Define slowly? 2 seconds? 5 seconds? 10?
The main thing IMO is performing the eccentric in a controlled manner. You don’t want to go from a locked out position at the top to dropping so fast that your form breaks down but you also don’t want to drop so slowly that the weight puts an unnecessary strain on your body.
As far as the noise goes the only thing I can think of is to put some stall matts under the plates. Maybe doubling up the matts will muffle some of the impact. But once you start deadlifting serious weight it’s going to make a lot of noise no matter what. Then it will be time to find a new gym.
Then again as far as bodybuilding goes, there’s always rack pulls…
I would think a slow eccentric would put more emphasis on your hamstrings. I guess if that is your goal then a slower eccentric can be of use. Personally though I don’t drop too fast, just enough where I am under control but not putting any extra strain on my body that will effect the concentric part of the lift.
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
Define slowly? 2 seconds? 5 seconds? 10?
The main thing IMO is performing the eccentric in a controlled manner. You don’t want to go from a locked out position at the top to dropping so fast that your form breaks down but you also don’t want to drop so slowly that the weight puts an unnecessary strain on your body.
As far as the noise goes the only thing I can think of is to put some stall matts under the plates. Maybe doubling up the matts will muffle some of the impact. But once you start deadlifting serious weight it’s going to make a lot of noise no matter what. Then it will be time to find a new gym.
Then again as far as bodybuilding goes, there’s always rack pulls…[/quote]
I definitely lower the weight in a second or less but do not lose form. I generally pause for half a second between reps at the bottom when the weight is on the ground reset my grip and then reinitiate the lift.
Though I guess I’ll try and slow it down and see how it goes.
As for rack pulls, is there any advantage of doing rack pulls over deadlifts? I thought they were more for people who lack flexibility/are very tall and find deadlifting from the floor uncomfortable.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
BONEZ217 wrote:
Define slowly? 2 seconds? 5 seconds? 10?
The main thing IMO is performing the eccentric in a controlled manner. You don’t want to go from a locked out position at the top to dropping so fast that your form breaks down but you also don’t want to drop so slowly that the weight puts an unnecessary strain on your body.
As far as the noise goes the only thing I can think of is to put some stall matts under the plates. Maybe doubling up the matts will muffle some of the impact. But once you start deadlifting serious weight it’s going to make a lot of noise no matter what. Then it will be time to find a new gym.
Then again as far as bodybuilding goes, there’s always rack pulls…
I definitely lower the weight in a second or less but do not lose form. I generally pause for half a second between reps at the bottom when the weight is on the ground reset my grip and then reinitiate the lift.
Though I guess I’ll try and slow it down and see how it goes.
As for rack pulls, is there any advantage of doing rack pulls over deadlifts? I thought they were more for people who lack flexibility/are very tall and find deadlifting from the floor uncomfortable. [/quote]
I rack pull because I don’t want my legs involved in the lift. No other reason really. I do them on my back day. I deadlifted for about 4 years got up to a respectable number then started rack pulling when I felt that my legs were getting too much work.
I perform the eccentric portion of the lift some what slowly and very controlled. This is mostly because I workout at home and the bar would go right through my wood floor if I didn’t.