The Other Unparalleled Exercise by Jan Dellinger | John Grimek | Steve Stanko

by Jan Dellinger

Gerard-Style Training

One deadlift specialist who employs and emphasizes all of the themes I.ve brought up here is Al Gerard, whose name was mentioned in Part II.

Al is a competitive powerlifter with an official deadlift of 625 lbs (done at a bodyweight of 205 lbs, and past age 40) to his credit in ADFPA competition. It.s probably safe to say that Al prepares for meets differently than most other lifters. When I last interviewed the "Father of the Trap Bar" in 1992, he mentioned in passing that when readying for a contest in the prior November, he did absolutely no back squats from January of 1991 to that August, engaging in the practice of this lift only once weekly for two months prior to the actual contest, where he managed 500 lbs to the judges. satisfaction.

Nevertheless, Al assured me that in the months (January to August) prior to his pre-contest squat binge, his legs and hips received plenty of heavy work via Trap Bar deadlifts and nothing more.

Experience has shown Al that the general strengthening effect from bent-legged deadlifts with this device carries over magnificently to the competitive squat and deadlift, with minimal focused peaking.

As you'll recall from Part II, Gerard's lower back has a history of breaking down from prolonged exposure to heavy squatting. Hence, relying on the Trap Bar deadlift to build functional lower-body strength throughout most of the year, permits Al to lessen his chances of injury while still whipping himself into shape for the competitive lifts.

Al Gerard

Plus, let's not forget that because the Trap Bar allows the trainee to keep the resistance much closer to the center line of gravity while deadlifting, his spine is saved even more stress throughout the preparatory phase. Note, too, that the parallel hand grips of the Trap Bar put the forearms in a more efficient lifting position, and dramatically lessen the chance of sustaining injuries to the tendons of the biceps.

Elaborating briefly on Al's general off-season training routine, which, at least in terms of exercises, could easily be adopted by the average trainee, he engages in three distinctly different deadlift cycles, each lasting approximately 7-8 weeks. First, it.s stiff-legged deadlifts while standing on the raised surface, with the intent being to bolster the lower back, glute and leg bicep areas fully. The next cycle focuses on bent-legged deadlifts while standing on the same block, which are aimed at promoting greater leg drive for bringing the bar off of the floor, as well as training the legs and back to work together in a coordinated fashion for the maximum force production.

In the final preparatory cycle, Al does the regular deadlift from the floor, utilizing the Trap Bar as in the two preceding cycles. The intent here is to consolidate the gains he.s made in the two prior cycles, and set himself up for a smooth transition to a few weeks of straight-bar deadlifts up to a meet. In case you were curious, the only other assistance work he includes with this trilogy of pulling exercises is the shrug done on a Trap Bar.

Al has noted some very favorable side benefits in himself and others who have undergone his combination-deadlift approach: One tends to deadlift with less of an acute round-back style. Also, there.s a tendency to assume a better starting position instinctively--back flatter, shoulders higher than hips, but with the hips still staying higher than knee level. And all of these good things occurring while achieving greater deadlift poundages in the end.

That's not all...

Al contends that one.s squat will show improvement from this deadlift system, due to the enhanced lower back/leg biceps strength imparted by the stiff-legged deadlifts, and the increased quadriceps strength garnered from the work on extended-range deadlifts.

Strength author Bill Starr always contended that the best way to train the deadlift was to refrain from the lift in the main, concentrating instead on Olympic-style pulls, shrugs and squats.

Gerard, however, is making the opposite case from Starr, that intelligent application of the deadlift and its variations can react favorably on the squat. Rather than looking at this as being confusing as to which lift is superior, maybe what.s demonstrated here is parity, commonality and a considerable degree of transference between them... On To Part IX >>

Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV - Part V - Part VI - Part VII - Part VIII - Part IX - Part X - Part XI - Part XII

The Original Gerard Trap Bar

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The Other Unparalleled Exercise (cont.)

by Jan Dellinger