Lately a goal of my training has been to hit a 500 lb. deadlift. I’ve been confident for awhile that I could do it, but I wanted to be patient and gradually work up to it so that when I felt ready to attempt the big 5-0-0, I would nail it.

Well, after a recent deadlift workout, I finally felt that I was ready to give 500 a go during my next deadlifting session. I told my coworker and newly-forged brother in swole Chris Martin of my plans and he said that if I didn’t get it on video, he would take me out into the parking lot and suplex me off my Ford Explorer. He even texted me over the weekend to remind me of this. Not wanting to get on Chris’s bad side, I complied, and here was the result:

All in all, I felt it was a pretty good lift. I thought that I might have to grind it out a little more, but it felt good and I think I could’ve even gone a bit heavier. Despite that fact, I decided to call it there and move on to my assistance work.

While 500 is a nice milestone and I’m glad to have gotten it, I know that I still have a long way to go in terms of where I want to be with my strength levels. One of my next goals will be to pull 600. That will take some time, but with smart, focused, and diligent training, I know it is something I can achieve.

For right now, though, I’m going to ease up on the deadlifts since I’ve been training them pretty hard lately. I’ve been reading Dan John’s book, Mass Made Simple, which is a 6-week program incorporating some things that I’ve never really done in my training, such as barbell complexes and high-rep squats. I’m planning to try out that program, then get back to the heavy deadlifts to possibly prepare for my first powerlifting meet in mid-December.

Now go lift something heavy!