[tatortodd]

OK, I'll admit it. I'm 30 and I haven't done deadlifts since highschool football. I'm wanting to add them back in, but I used to do them from a deadlift platform and had rubber weights. I doubt my current gym would like me deadlifting on plain mats w/ their thinly coated iron plates.

I've read about rack deadlifts and partial deadlifts, but after an hour of searching the internet I couldn't find any pics, movie clips, etc. Attached are pics of the three pieces of equipment available at my gym.

My questions are:[list=1][*]Which piece of equipment would be best? I'm thinking the power cage, but the training platform is working well for my stiff legged deadlifts.[*]Could somebody post a link to pics or movie clips of rack deadlifts?[/list=1]

~Todd

[Jcc]

Rack pulls are great. Set the pins so that the bar lies just below your knee. Get your legs up CLOSE to the bar, then grab the bar, keep your back straight with the proper arch, and pull.

Sorry, wish I had some clips to share, but I don't.

[Jergo]

Heh, don't feel bad tator, I'm not sure what they are either. I've always just done regular deadlifts. SL's tear my back up. So, I guess they're like SL's but just higher up so you won't have to go all the way down, right Jcc?

[msclbldrguy]

good luck bro...deadlifts rock!

[sage]

power rack is ideal. however all three seem like you can set the pins below the knee, and really thats all you need. Rack/Partial deads great for two things. First, it allows you to pull more weight. Second, when one really wants to hit the entire back with minimal leg support, partial deads take out most of leg's involvement during regular deadlift. Form is still at utmost importance...... im sure i got a pic here on my hard drive of partials....since its one of my favorite lifts.... lets see if i can dig em' out
Sage

[MrBean]

SET-UP
bend knees slightly
you can use an overhand grip with or without straps, or a mixed grip
position hands @ about shoulder-width
look straight ahead or slightly up
the bar should be close to your knees

GETTING IT UP
now with a flat back, grab the bar & do a shrug like movement pulling your shoulders back
then keeping that position, use your back to pull the barbell up
and finally use your legs to complete the last part of the movement

Don't lean back at the top of the movement, rather try to retract your shoulder blades whilst standing upright

GETTING IT DOWN
Bend from the hips and the back keeping the barbell close to your body and finally use a little leg flexion to place it down on the rack

It's very tempting when you first do these to use a heavy load
Don't jump into using heavy weights straight away, perfect form, then gradually build

[ManBeast]

Originally posted by MrBean
Don't jump into using heavy weights straight away, perfect form, then gradually build

So very important with ANY exercise, I try and stress this with newbies in my school gym so they don't end up like the restricted-range-of-motion-bench-press crowd that puts on 2-3 plates and has about a 2-4" ROM, unless they drop it on their chest and their buddy pulls it off.... : rolleyes: and lets not even get into the two clowns doing squats today (`cuz i don't want to hijack this thread, but i'll put it somewhere apropriate).

ManBeast

[tatortodd]

Sorry for taking so long to thank everybody for the responses. THANKS!!

I didn't get a chance to try the rack deadlifts yet because two days after posting, I had a shooting pain in my knee while doing a heavy 20 rep set of leg press (ironically, I was planning to replace leg press with rack deadlifts). No popping or tearing noises, but it was sore as all get out for a few days. I iced it ED for two weeks and I've been avoiding leg work for the last month. This tactic worked about six months ago when the same thing happened during a warm-up set of squats.

I'm probably going to test the knee next week with light leg work and see how it goes. If it goes well, I'll start alternating rack deadlifts with squats. If it goes bad, I'll be visiting the doc.

~Todd