Strength Training - Learn How to Deadlift 780 Pounds

I first dabbled in weight training when I turned 21. I decided it would be a great idea to become a huge Motha #$##$... (Those were my own words at the time.) I bought a bench press and a friend who had just gotten married gave me his whole gym because he didn't have room anymore. I put it in the basement of the house I was renting.

At the time I was not a big fan of gyms. I don't know why but something just bothered me about them. Now I had no excuse I had a whole weight set right in my basement.

I read the Arnold Schwarzenegger Encyclopedia of Modern Body Building. If you get a chance, check this book out. It's pretty hilarious to hear what the now governor of California had to say about steroid use.

I decided I would train my muscles to failure to build up a ton of mass. Arnold recommends doing 5 sets.

Set 1 (Warm Up) - 15 Reps

Set 2 - 10 Reps

Set 3 - 8 Reps

Set 4 - 5 Reps

Set 5 - 5 Reps

You start at a low weight and up the weight every set, except for the last one. The idea is to train the muscle group to failure. By the end of the routine you really do feel "ripped" your muscles are torn, and you are sore for days. You do get a big endorphin rush similar to a runners high. You do this routine for a different group of muscles every day, so you are giving the muscles time to recover before training them again.

I have to hand it to Arnold, if you want to be a huge meat head this works great.

At the time I went from 180 pounds to 205 pounds. It was nuts. I also did almost zero cardiovascular training.

Right after this I sold all my belongings, stopped renting the house with the basement, quit my job, got rid of most of my belongings and took a 2 month trip through Thailand. Bye bye home gym. (The gym currently resides at my sisters house, She just ran a Triathlon!)

When I got back I had no where to put my gym. I ended up getting a corporate job and I stopped exercising regularly. I did get a gym membership, but for some reason I just didn't go enough. It wasn't as easy as having the home gym.

Here is the interesting thing about muscle: If you don't use it, you loose it. You don't loose the mass though, it just turns into fat. That's why there are those really horrible tabloid pictures of Arnold after he stopped working out. He had all this mass, but wasn't using it anymore.

Once all the muscle turned to fat I was pissed. Here I put on all this extra weight for what? It wasn't functional. Although it was fun being giant for a while. Arnold got up to 240? Could you imagine? 240 of all muscle.

It took me a couple of years to start exercising again.

Last year when I took up practicing Muay Thai regularly I started doing a ton of cardiovascular exercise, and some strength conditioning. The goal was never to build lots of mass. For the past year the majority of my work out have been primarily cardiovascular. When you do cardio, the weight just falls off, it's like the opposite of weight training. I dropped down to 170.

I am fortunate enough that my current Muay Thai Gym in Oakland has a full weight room. It's great to get back to pumping iron.

This time around, I'm taking a different approach. The goal isn't to be a huge meat head. The goal is to be strong. I don't care about being huge, just strong. I also wanted to find a balance between strength training and cardio.

I started a weight training program, specifically a strength training program last week. It's only week two but I feel like I've been making a ton of progress.

Here is the program I am following specifically. I found out about it through Tim Ferris' blog. A

The guy that invented this program could dead lift 780 lbs at 165 lbs body weight. Now we're talking! An insane amount of strength and you can still fit through the door.

If you are too lazy to read the post I'll break it down for you here. This routine is still five sets but it is not training muscles to failure. Unlike Arnold's work out, you keep the weight the same for each set and you do the same amount of reps. Always make sure you can complete the set.

Set 1 - 5 Reps

Set 2 - 5 Reps

Set 3 - 5 Reps

Set 4 - 5 Reps

Set 5 - 5 Reps

Here is the schedule I'm following:

Monday - Heavy Bench Press

Tuesday - Heavy Squat

Wednesday - Dead Lift

Thursday - Light Bench Press

Friday - Light Squat

The light days are 80% of the weight of the heavy days. Instead of 5 reps, you do 4 reps for each set.

There are also ways to do this, if you can only make it into the gym three or four days a week, they outline them in the post.

Here is the link to that post again. I recommend reading it if you are planning on doing some strength training and want to get into power lifting.

I also do an hour or so of Muay Thai right afterward. They don't recommend doing anything extra in the post but I would recommend getting in cardiovascular of some shape or form.

That is of course unless you want to be a huge motha #(@#(@*. Then you should just watch this movie. Ridiculous right? "Get to the chopppaaa."