Dead lift blocks or bumpers

[Alan21]

Hey everyone. I have been using bumper plates at my gym. I have been saving up and building my home gym to drop my gym membership. When im at the gym I Dead lift using bumper plates. At home I don't have bumper plates but I have a rack. The issue I have is I hate pulling from the rack as it doesn't feel right. I was thinking of two options. One would be to make lift blocks for pulling off the floor and raising the weights to about bumper height or option two would be to buy a set of bumpers for each weight?

What is the best option? Never used blocks so unsure if that would help me any.

[murphyreedus]

Are you deadlifting less than 135? Decent iron 45s should be about the same diameter as bumpers.

[MGM711]

Hey everyone. I have been using bumper plates at my gym. I have been saving up and building my home gym to drop my gym membership. When im at the gym I Dead lift using bumper plates. At home I don't have bumper plates but I have a rack. The issue I have is I hate pulling from the rack as it doesn't feel right. I was thinking of two options. One would be to make lift blocks for pulling off the floor and raising the weights to about bumper height or option two would be to buy a set of bumpers for each weight?

What is the best option? Never used blocks so unsure if that would help me any.

I use 2ft x 2ft rubber floor tiles that are 3/4 inch tall and I have 12 (6 each side) tiles in total to get the desired block hight.

[tanksoldier]

Another option is step aerobics steps. Usually cheap on eBay or CL. Buy two sets one for each side. Now you can adjust for height.

Hopefully you won’t need them long. A 45 gives about the right bar height for most people.

[lsi1]

[QUOTE=Alan21;1547637281]Hey everyone. I have been using bumper plates at my gym. I have been saving up and building my home gym to drop my gym membership. When im at the gym I Dead lift using bumper plates. At home I don't have bumper plates but I have a rack. The issue I have is I hate pulling from the rack as it doesn't feel right. I was thinking of two options. One would be to make lift blocks for pulling off the floor and raising the weights to about bumper height or option two would be to buy a set of bumpers for each weight?

I built 2x2ft blocks 4 inches high that stack onto another set from 2x4s plywood and stall matt then built a 2 inch deficit platform so I can make adjustments anywhere from a -2 deficit to an 8 inch pair of blocks by 2 inch increments.

I used the plans from garagegym.com but modified them to be stackable rather than a standard higher set of blocks.

[Alan21]

Thanks guys it sounds like blocks are a good choice till I get bumpers. I do lift over 135 but to warm up properly it’s less and I wouldn’t think warming up with less than full range of motion would be a bad choice

[chadsalt]

Thanks guys it sounds like blocks are a good choice till I get bumpers. I do lift over 135 but to warm up properly it’s less and I wouldn’t think warming up with less than full range of motion would be a bad choice

??? If this is just to get warmed up to 135, you're way over thinking this. I've done bar, 95, then 135 for..... always. Drop down into starting position, bar or 25's don't have to be on floor, and go with it.

[Alan21]

I understand the bar doesn’t have to be on the floor but when I use the bottom rack of the squat rack it still feels unnatural to me and screws with my form

[Flex500]

i deadlift with normal plates quite heavy using horse stall mats. If you go to tractor supply or other farming type supply stores you can buy them insanely cheap. Literally 1/3 or less of the price of stores selling gym mats. They are also thick as hell. No problem dropping well over 500 pounds on them...I mean hell...horses beat them up and they survive that.

[Stasher1]

A third option would a pair of 10lb technique plates. They're the same diameter as bumpers, but are made of a hard plastic or wood. That way you can start with a lower weight (65lbs) but still be at the correct height.

https://www.lynxbarbell.com/collecti...lb-tech-plates

I bought a set of 5lb plastic technique plates for my wife along with a 7kg bar, so she could start her deads at ~25lbs and work her way up.

[Alan21]

I have mats down already so dropping the weight isn’t an issue. I was thinking of technique plates as I do start with a technique plate with iron plates added on until I move up to another plate which is ussally a 25 lbs plate

[lsi1]

I think that chad salt was saying that you do not have to put the bar down or set it on anything mid set/rep. Just the act of going through the aproximate range of motion of a deadlift should work as a warmup to 135 and then move on from there. I generally skip 95 as a warmup and just go from a few practice reps with an empty barbell straight to 135. There might even be some range of motion improvement from being able to get very low to start a deadlift like your working off a deficit platform. I know that heavy for me deficit deadlifts have improved my speed off the floor on regular deadlifts.

[Alan21]

I get what your saying almost like a straight leg deadlift instead of starting each rep or set off the ground. Question on the deficit deadlift how does one go about that?

[chadsalt]

I get what your saying almost like a straight leg deadlift instead of starting each rep or set off the ground. Question on the deficit deadlift how does one go about that?

Slow down buddy, your still working on the warm up

Deficit means the bar is in a lower start position. So you can either dig a hole at both ends for the plates to sit in, or you could stand on a platform. Most people stand on a platform.

[Jason2459]

I used to use 1/4" carpet squares I think were 20"x20" it 24" can't remember. I had a big stack of them I got from work. They can be bought cheap used or as left overs from projects.

Otherwise what I'm using now are 3/4" stall mats I sliced up into squares to use for block pulls or deficit pulls. Could be used for box squats too if you have enough. I got 2 mats that gave me plenty of cut up mats to use.

Very easy to slice. Don't need to press hard. Use a fresh blade and something underneath to help split it.

20180118_220341 by Jason, on Flickr

20180118_225150 by Jason, on Flickr

You can get 8x 18"×24" mats out of a single 4'x6' sheet. I wanted that 8" strip for something else so cut mine to 18"×20"
HorseStall_To_PullingMats by Jason, on Flickr