10 Rounds For Time:
10 Deadlifts 135/95
200m Run
When deadlifting heavy weights, most us have some idea of how to take a deep breath in and “get tight” bracing our mid-lines for safety and increased force production. If you don’t know what I’m talkin bout, you better ax somebody. In order to remain safe during heavy or high rep deadlifting, it is necessary to stabilize the spine. When deadlifting in conditioning based workouts, where you are huffing and puffing but still need to get the bar moving, there are a couple things you want to think about. If you can figure out when to breathe and when to brace, you will be able to do more work more safely than the next athlete. If your breathing rythm is off, you are either going to be loose and at risk for injury, or you just won’t continue to work as you notice that you can’t stabilize your mid-section, or you will just keep going anyway and probably tell us how sore your back is. If you do the latter, shame on you, you’ve been taught better.
The first rep can be challenging as you run up to the bar and are already having trouble controlling your breath. What I like to do is continue to breathe as I bend down to grip the bar. Leave the hips high and the back slightly round which will help you take a bigger breath than if you go straight to your lifting position. As you get the grip you are after, take a big breath in, close it off and bear down as you pull your hips and back into a slightly arched position. At the instant you achieve the ideal lifting position pick the bar up and exhale as you pass your knees. If you do this right you get a big breath in, you get real tight and load your body like a spring to break the dead weight off the floor, and you only have to hold your breath for an instant. When you have the bar above knee level, the sheer forces on the spine are greatly reduced and with conditioning weights, you will be safe to breathe freely.
After standing tall to finish, take a deep breath in as you drive your hips back and lower the bar down the thighs. Just as the bar begins to pass your knees hold that breath and bear down. Let the bar hit the ground with a little speed creating a slight bounce that will help you get the momentum going up again. Just as you feel that bounce stand back up with the bar and exhale as you pass the knees.
Using the slight bounce on a deadlift, known as the tap and go, will help you do more reps faster. The key is to keep some tension on the bar and to stay rigid in your midsection. Never use your arms slam the bar into the ground on a deadlift. If your elbows are bending on the tap and go, you are cheating and doing something dangerous, double whammy!
The key to using the tap and go method is the breathing rhythm. Get that big breath in, hold it until you pass the knee, exhale up the thighs, stand tall then inhale down the thighs filling up and closing the breath off as you pass the knees. Let that bar hit the ground with a bit of speed and exhale as you pass the knees again. If you are trying to hold onto the bar to avoid breaking a set and having to lift the dead weight off the ground again, you can take a few extra breaths at the top of the deadlift.
Practice your breathing rythm before you get into the WOD. I have been watching you all for years now and I can tell you that you will never do things in a WOD that you didn’t practice before the WOD. Pretend to be out of breath as you set up and practice going from big conditioning breathing to one big breath in, set tight and lift. If you get it right, you can almost deadlift at your normal breathing rate and you can almost breath just as much as if you weren’t deadlifting. Keep in mind that tap and go deadlifts are a great way to increase output for conditioning based WODs, but for strength training, you should almost always be pulling every rep from a dead stop on the floor, hence the deadlift. Also on your heavy deadlifts, your best bet is to breathe in big and hold it the entire time.
Let us know if you need help fine tuning your breathing rhythm for deadlifts. If you get the hang of this its a major advantage.
