T Nation

Hit My Bodyweight in Deadlift

Beginners
#1

I want to thank the members of T-Nation whose learned posts, combined with various enlightening articles, have helped me pull 1x bodyweight on my third real attempt at deadlifting.

This isn’t special, but it is significant. Why? Because since 2008 I’ve practically been unable to bend down due to the issues in my knees. I couldn’t jog, couldn’t pick stuff up and on most days could hardly get out of bed because of the pain. I spent over $1200 on physios, doctors etc but no joy.

When I came here, I was 138lb and now I’m 167lb. 99% of this has been on my upper body due to lower limb issues.

However, I made some kind of a miraculous breakthrough a few weeks back when I was - through circumstance - forced to live in a swimming pool for two weeks. In a way that no other exercise or movement could, the swimming took away 80% of the pain and most of the problems.

So I made the decision to push the legs a little. My deadlift went from 30kg to 50kg to 75kg. I can still squat no more than about 50kg without the knee hurting me, but fuck yeah, I’m excited to think of the gains I’ll be able to make now that my legs are coming back into action.

2 years of no legs and I’m 30lbs heavier. How much can I expect to gain now that the deadlift and squat are a realistic option?!

#2

Congratulations. Good luck with the rest of your training.

[quote]Magicpunch wrote:

2 years of no legs and I’m 30lbs heavier. How much can I expect to gain now that the deadlift and squat are a realistic option?![/quote]

Not important and difficult to say. Considering legs make up half your body, its possible you’ll gain a fair bit of weight relatively quickly. On the other hand, your newbie gains are probably coming to an end. Eat big, get stronger, stay consistent, and what you gain is what you gain. Good luck.

#3

I’ve been where you were at too. I can remember not being able to squat body weight (just my own bw, not bw on a bar) and I remember when I could finally start doing some work, Deadlifting 95 lbs and being wiped out.

Now I can DL 2xbw and getting stronger.

#4

Good for you dude. That’s awesome.

#5

ive had various pain problems that would persist for a while and i would try to coddle it, but i would ignore them and they all went away eventualy

#6

[quote]Magicpunch wrote:
2 years of no legs and I’m 30lbs heavier. How much can I expect to gain now that the deadlift and squat are a realistic option?![/quote]

2 years and 30lbs with no leg work is awesome; whatever you’re doing is obviously working well, keep that up with your whole body and you’ll do great.