Powerlifting Articles

“Andy Bolton Deadlift Routine”

By Andy Bolton

This is the exact 8 week pre-competition mesocycle employed by Andy for the 1003lb pull. All deadlifts contained within this deadlift workout are pulled extremely explosively, this is the total focus of the movement. All weights are in Kilos.

Week 1. 70 x 5, 100 x 5, 140 x 5, 180 x 5, 200 x 5, 220 x 5, 180x3x3. No suit.

Week 2. 70 x 5, 120 x 5, 160 x 5, 200 x 5, 240 x 5, 190 x 3 x3. No suit.

Week 3. 70 x 5, 100,x 5, 140 x 5, 180 x 5, 220 x 5, 260 x 5, 200 x 3 x3. No suit.

Week 4. 70 x 5, 120 x 5, 160 x 5, 200 x 5, 240 x 3, 280 x 3, 210 x 3 x3. No suit.

Week 5. 70 x 5, 100 x 5, 140 x 5, 180 x 5, 220 x 5, 260 x 3, 300 x 3, 220 x 3 x 3. No suit.

Week 6. 70 x 5, 100 x 5, 140 x 5, 180 x 5, 220 x 3, 260 x 3, 290 x 3, 320 x 3. Suit down.

Week 7. 70 x 3, 120 x 3, 160 x 3, 200 x 3, 240 x 3, 270 x 3, 300 x 3, 340 x 3. Suit on, straps up.

Week 8. Competition. Bear in mind, Andy pulls on a Wednesday, but usually competes on a Saturday or Sunday. Thus, this equates to 10-11 days rest.

In his build up to this meet, he would follow up his squat/deadlift training with heavy leg presses (600kg x 10's) and leg curls.

His Friday upper back workout this time round comprised of the following:

Hammer Strength single arm rows, 5 sets, working up to 200kg each arm x 10. Low cable rows, 4-5 sets, 300lb x 10. Pulldowns, 4-5 sets of 10, 140kg (weight stack). Shrugs, 5-6 sets of 10, done very strict up to 380kg. Finally, ab work, including very heavy side bends, crunches and leg raises would be done.

In his preceding deadlift workout mesocycle, Andy worked up to 410kg x 3 and 362.5 x 8 in the partial deadlift (off a 4 inch block) with no straps.

Many will be surprised at the low percentages Andy actually works with in his deadlift workout, but he feels that this is central to his success. With optimum genetics for the lift, squatting over 900lbs in the same workout and working on explosiveness have kept him relatively injury free and still allowed room for progressive improvement. Talking about injuries, Andy suffered an IT band problem in this build up and had to hold right back on his squatting. He was understandably cautious here, he'd previously torn the quad during his strongman days. He feels that the lift would have been easier had this not been the case.