Apparently I'm Freakishly Strong? Huh. page

[Mr. Anthony]

Today was deadlift day. I've never been a huge deadlift fan, but they're necessary and I admit they've grown on me over the years. Anyway, I've decided lately I want to up my deadlift weight a bit. No good reason why, just want to add maybe 50 pounds to it eventually.

I figured I needed to have someone watch my form before I start beefing up the weights, just to make sure I'm not going to kill myself, so I asked one of the trainers I know at the gym if he could watch me pull a couple and tell me if he saw anything bad. I'm pretty sure I have great form, but I've gotten way better about not taking risks with my body the last couple years.

The trainer walked over and watched me lift 275 a couple of times. This isn't a huge weight for me, but it's challenging enough that it would trigger a form break if I was going to have one (for reference, I'm 5'9", maybe 5'10", and somewhere between 150 and 155 right now. Very lean, not bulky, but good muscle).

He said my form looked great, and then said "Holy crap, that's a lot of weight for a guy your size!"

I was like..."Really? Because I feel like I should be able to deadlift substantially more than I can bench."

He said "Wait, you bench 275?"

"Yeah, I can put that up for a couple of sets of 4 or 5. I don't really like to try much heavier with my janky shoulder..."

At this point a huge dude near us jumped in with "I weigh 220 and no way I'd deadlift 275. That's heavy. You seriously bench that much, too? Holy balls."

I was seriously confused. I mean, 275 doesn't seem like a lot of weight for a deadlift, or bench, really. Am I wrong here? I dunno, maybe I'm freakishly strong. I can do 1-arm pullups, so I guess that's an indicator, but I think that's mainly because I'm also pretty light and grew up a gymnast.

Well...that's it. Cool story, bro.

[Owly]

Whoa, those guys haven't seen a lot of folks who lift seriously, have they?! I'm a woman of similar size and can deadlift 250 with a goal of 300 this year. I think of 275 as a decent deadlift, but not freakish for a guy.

A 275 bench is pretty sweet, though. And dude, one-arm pullups definitely mean you're freaky strong in my opinion. Just not necessarily a freakishly strong deadlifter.

edited to add: not necessarily a freakishly strong deadlifter *yet*.

[Knifegill]

Cool, man. I don't know what a deadlift is, but that's plenty of weight! I can only do one one-armed pull up per arm, still haven't gotten to two reps. I don't work on it enough.

EDIT: Just looked up deadlifts. Yeah, I can see at least 250 on that. It's just picking the thing up with good form.

[Mr. Anthony]

Cool, man. I don't know what a deadlift is, but that's plenty of weight! I can only do one one-armed pull up per arm, still haven't gotten to two reps. I don't work on it enough.

I never train one-armers. I do a bunch of weighted pullups, though. The other day I just wondered whether I could do any or not so I tried some. Did three per arm and called it good. I was pretty surprised, actually.

[Dirlot]

Weightlifting Performance Standards

[yodiewan]

Yeah, that is a pretty strong bench for a guy your size. Way better than me and I have a 10lb or so advantage. Then again I almost never bench. But I deadlift pretty often. 405x3 is my current record.

[mark h]

The gymnast training and conditioning stays with you for a while. Up until I was 48, it was no problem to lift like that. 5' 9 1/2" and was 166lbs at the time. If it were not for some none exercise injuries I believe I would still be able to do it.

[Annieh]

You have just been quietly working away doing great work. It's cool to get great feedback like that! Happy day.

[Iron Fireling]

Weightlifting Performance Standards

According to that... for me (at my current weight - too heavy lol) I should be able to deadlift 275 to be elite! And I'm like... 4'11" and female haha. As it is... I currently deadlift about 125 (but that's not 1 rep max... that's whatever we did at CrossFit... I have no idea what my 1 rep max is).

Anyway, it's sometimes funny to see how strong some people can be! They really surprise you!! I aim to one day be surprising . (Well I am to "normal" people... as in... I have surprised many people by how much I can lift... but I think I'm just generally underestimated because I'm so short, which isn't really fair).

[BONZ]

Dude, I'd like to think so too...... but, I'd consider myself "untrained", meaning I only recently started doing deadlifts, and I'm up to around 325 lbs. Looking at Dirlot's link I'm intermediate in most categories. I think it's more likely that we (flippers through this thread) are functional human beings of decent stregth and most of the people we see, even the ones by the power rack at the gym.... are very much not. Big ups on the one arm pull ups, tho.... I'm jelous as hell!

Very cool story, bro!