Ross Enamait's 495 lb. Deadlift w/o Deadlift Training

[bango skank]

For those of you who don't know, Ross Enamait is a boxing instructor who trains primarily with bodyweight exercises and high intensity metabolic conditioning circuits. Here's an example of one of his workouts: http://www.rosstraining.com/sequenti...echallenge.pdf

He accomplished something that I can't really wrap my head around:

The Claim:

Bodyweight exercises are great to a point. It does not matter how many Handstand Pushups or One Arm Arm Chinups or One Legged Squats you can do, you won't be a strong as someone who can Deadlift 130kg (285 lbs.). To get stong, you must lift heavy.

The Counter-Claim:

I don't deadlift. I could count the number of times that I've deadlifted on my hands. I can definitely pick 400 pounds up from the floor however. No doubt about that. I don't know how much I could deadlift however in terms of max. I've never trained for it specifically. Maybe someday, we'll see.

Ross

The Challenge:

This whole debate is getting more interesting by the minute.

Ross, you say you can Deadlift 400 pounds. That is about 180kg.

You can Deadlift 180kg.

No disrespect but I will pay money to see video footage of this. You can bill my credit card. My offer is $100- American.

The Answer:



You'll find the original discussion here:
http://www.rosstraining.com/forum/vi...r=asc&start=90

Ross Enamait is a well known and extremely credible professional trainer, so let's just for the sake of argument assume that he legitimately deadlifted 495 (@ a bw of 170 lbs.) without ever deadlifting 400 lbs before and without ever training it specifically. That's almost 3x bodyweight! And by the looks of it he could have kept going. All this by just jumping rope and doing sprints and GHR's and pistols and burpees and such. How is that possible? What does it mean? And what can we learn from it?

(btw Dr. Boots never paid up.)

[aaaaa55555]

he also does db snatches and lots of sled dragging i believe


lots of strongman/conditioning stuff and olympic moves added with bw conditioning would be very good

hes obviously very strong and hes also in good shape

[statisticool]

hes obviously very strong and hes also in good shape

He also never needs a nametag at conventions.

[aaaaa55555]

He also never needs a nametag at conventions.

and how does that have anything to do with the topic at hand?

[IronAbrams]

Weights alone aren't the only form of resistance training. This is a bodybuilding site, we have some tunnel vision when it comes to this sort of thing.

I've heard of gymnasts pulling in excess of 4 plates on their first try before, so this really doesn't surprise me with all the oly lifts, kettlebell and sandbag work and other forms of training that Ross uses.

If you really wanted to be critical, his form was pretty subpar and he definitely has the potential to pull a lot more. His arms were bent on the initial pull and he was hyperextending his back at lockout.

It's an impressive lift though, very impressive. You can be damn sure that I wish I was pulling five plates lol.

[SFT]

First of all, it goes to show how many idiotic keyboard warriors there are. The mark set at 285 lbs. was so stupid to say too. I pulled 285lbs. as a 14 year old weighing all of 158lbs. so to suggest someone who is dedicated to their training cannot achieve that mark by doing exercises such as pistols, sled dragging, GHRs, sprints, etc is just completely stupid.

Your body does not care about the exercise, if it a great enough force, you are going to be gaining strength.

Overall, I don't think much was learned. You work hard for many years, you will be strong. I don't know much about Ross, but I mean sled dragging, pistols, GHRs are definitely means of getting stronger.

[Mr_Brightside]

Maybe he lied about never having done deadlifts/weight training before.

OMG No wai

[GoJu]

very impressive lift, as others have said he's developed the strength to do that doing other things besides deadlifting, his strongman/kettlebell work and sled dragging builds the posterior chain/grip strength well, hell all he needs is more leg drive and he'll be pulling close to 550+, things like this is why the specfic adaptation to imposed demands principle is NOT set in stone.

this reminds me of John Davis, the olympic lifter who didn't do any deadlifting training and got 704 at 223bw in the 50's (he did do 550 x 3 squat and 400+clean&jerk), deadlift espeically is one of those lifts that depending on leverages you don't need to train it to be good at it.

[bluedot]

I think a point that's being missed is a mantra that we all seem to live by until it comes to giving someone credit for an amazing lift: your body gets good at doing it was you train it to do.

You can develop lots of leg and back strength without deadlifting, but one would not expect someone to have an elite level deadlift without practicing that lift fairly seriously to get the motor pathway down and also to develop all the of elements of strength that go into it... grip, stabilizing muscles, etc.

This is a sick lift. It might not be unique -- other people have done other impressive lifts -- but that takes nothing away from this lift. And as bango says, there's definitely a lesson to be learned here.

[mydamnself]

Maybe he lied about never having done deadlifts/weight training before.

OMG No wai

No, Ross is legit. I've seen this from a few guys who do girevoy sport (kettlebell sport). He does solid functional training and there's a strong carryover.

[Ross_Enamait]

who trains primarily with bodyweight exercises and high intensity metabolic conditioning circuits.

Maybe he lied about never having done deadlifts/weight training before.

Perhaps there is some confusion... I lift heavy weights regularly. Much of what we do is based around heavy odd objects (ex. sandbags, huge tires, kegs, etc.), heavy d-bells, bodyweight work, rings, etc. I train fighters however, so our focus isn?t pure strength work. Yes, we are big on conditioning, but strength is (and always will be) important for any fighter. We also do not have a ton of space at my gym. I prefer to keep the floor open for mitt work, partner drills, floor drills, etc. I keep some of the odd objects outside and we have the d-bells stacked along the perimeter of the gym. We have barbells, but I need the floor space for other things. I don?t train pure strength athletes, but we definitely do include strength work. That should be clear.

Ross

[Richoss]

Perhaps there is some confusion... I lift heavy weights regularly. Much of what we do is based around heavy odd objects (ex. sandbags, huge tires, kegs, etc.), heavy d-bells, bodyweight work, rings, etc. I train fighters however, so our focus isn?t pure strength work. Yes, we are big on conditioning, but strength is (and always will be) important for any fighter. We also do not have a ton of space at my gym. I prefer to keep the floor open for mitt work, partner drills, floor drills, etc. I keep some of the odd objects outside and we have the d-bells stacked along the perimeter of the gym. We have barbells, but I need the floor space for other things. I don?t train pure strength athletes, but we definitely do include strength work. That should be clear.

Ross

hey ross, first thing first, you completely owned that guy!! was good to see!

jokes aside, great lifts. really goes to show what strength can be achieved with using the Big 3 Lifts (Squat, Dead, Bench)... Btw, just a quick question, do you do barbell back squats and benchpresses regularly in your program?

[mmd]

Ross you have my respect.

This has actually shed light on other aspects of training rather than just barbell work. I might consider changing things up.

Nice lift by the way.

[Ross_Enamait]

jokes aside, great lifts. really goes to show what strength can be achieved with using the Big 3 Lifts (Squat, Dead, Bench)... Btw, just a quick question, do you do barbell back squats and benchpresses regularly in your program?

I've never been a big fan of assigning priority to any particular exercise. It all depends on the needs of the athlete. Some of the fighters that I work with already struggle making weight, so we need to pay very close attention to volume. In addition to that, we do loads of conditioning (ex. hill sprints), so this must be considered when constructing the overall program. I have however had some of the guys go very heavy with squats, deads, bench, etc. It all boils down to evaluating the individual, and then determining his specific needs.

With that said, we obviously have different goals from most pure strength athletes. If you want to get bigger and stronger, working with the big 3 (and variations of) usually makes sense.

Ross

[Charlac]

Ross,

What was your pre conditioning like prior to doing the deadlift?

[Ross_Enamait]

Ross,

What was your pre conditioning like prior to doing the deadlift?

What do you mean by that? What did we do that day? The video is from last October. It's been a while...

[mmd]

Ross could you outline your typical week, or just give a general idea. I'm quite interested to know.

[Richoss]

I've never been a big fan of assigning priority to any particular exercise. It all depends on the needs of the athlete. Some of the fighters that I work with already struggle making weight, so we need to pay very close attention to volume. In addition to that, we do loads of conditioning (ex. hill sprints), so this must be considered when constructing the overall program. I have however had some of the guys go very heavy with squats, deads, bench, etc. It all boils down to evaluating the individual, and then determining his specific needs.

With that said, we obviously have different goals from most pure strength athletes. If you want to get bigger and stronger, working with the big 3 (and variations of) usually makes sense.

Ross

ive seen your website, videos, forum, and ive emailed you a couple times, and ive gotten a feel that you dont like focusing on one exercise. it seems you tend to work the whole body in one whole exercise (well, try to).

when you did the mass gaining experiment, did you do the big 3? how often do you actually go heavy in the big 3? im not asking how often your athletes go, but how often you actually go. it would be interesting to know. seeing as you have trained all sorts of way.

[Charuto222]

Perhaps there is some confusion... I lift heavy weights regularly. Much of what we do is based around heavy odd objects (ex. sandbags, huge tires, kegs, etc.), heavy d-bells, bodyweight work, rings, etc. I train fighters however, so our focus isn?t pure strength work. Yes, we are big on conditioning, but strength is (and always will be) important for any fighter. We also do not have a ton of space at my gym. I prefer to keep the floor open for mitt work, partner drills, floor drills, etc. I keep some of the odd objects outside and we have the d-bells stacked along the perimeter of the gym. We have barbells, but I need the floor space for other things. I don?t train pure strength athletes, but we definitely do include strength work. That should be clear.

Ross

Does your strength work include oly style lifts? If so then it makes perfect sense that you can deadlift that much, my deadlift skyrocketed with a combination of power snatches, high pulls, and good mornings without me ever deadlifting or doing any deadlift variation. I think that there is a lot of confusion on how much carry over the oly lifts have to deadlifting and to an extent even squatting.

[Ross_Enamait]

Ross could you outline your typical week, or just give a general idea.

It varies depending on what I?m working on and/or testing. At the moment, I strength train approx. 3 days per week. I also mix in mini-workouts however (ex. isometrics). I also include at least 3 conditioning workouts a week. For example, I may take some of my guys running (so I run with them). It varies from week to week. Strength work consists of lots of d-bell work, heavy odd objects, ring training (Ex. muscle-ups, front lever, etc.), and bodyweight exercise (ex. handstands, rope climbing, bridging, etc.). We picked up a trap bar a few months back so I use that on occasion. I also use the barbells every so often. Ultimately, I focus on objectives rather than tools, but mix up the choice of tools to keep things interesting.

Anyways, if you guys ever have any other questions, just shoot me an email.

Ross