Lamar Gant
Pound for pound, the greatest deadlifter of all time may be Lamar Gant. He was a great deadlifter, but he was just flat out strong and tough in every single lift. Lamar was a small lifter at 123 pounds, but he put up huge numbers for his size. He managed a 638 deadlift at 123 pounds, and a 688 pound deadlift at 132. That’s over five times his body weight, which makes him ridiculously strong.
A 12 Week Cycle
Lamar believed that strength is developed from doing reps, not singles. He took his time to build up to heavy lifts. One of his deadlift routines consisted of a twelve week linear periodization cycle in which weights were increased on a weekly basis. He preferred doing five sets of deadlifts and began the twelve week cycle with a four week block in which 5 sets of 8 reps were used each week with an increase of weight every week. He would start the four week block with eight reps by using about 65% of his projected training max, and would finish with about 72 to 73% of his projected max. This was followed by 5 sets of 5 reps for the next four weeks with an increase in weight every week. The training block with five reps started with about 75% of his projected max and finished at about 82%. His final training block of four weeks consisted of 5 sets of 3 reps with weight increases every week. The training block with three reps started with about 86% of his projected single rep max and finished at about 92 to 93% of his projected max. You can read about his training and a sample routine by clicking here on this Link.
Lamar Gant Deadlifting 672 (He starts his lift at about 45 seconds into the video)
A Feel For How Hard to Train
I believe one of the keys to Lamar’s training was his feel for knowing how hard to work out in order to make consistent progress. Lamar says that, “People tend to over train or under train in the deadlift.” He goes on to say that even though the deadlift takes a lot of mental toughness, you have to pace yourself. According to him, this meant that, “When doing an eight rep work set, you should be using a weight that you are actually capable of doing eleven reps with.”
I don’t have any video footage of Lamar’s training sessions, but my guess is that he perfectly understood how to stay within the boundaries of strong reps and strong sets. This means to only do repeat reps of a set as long as a steady even rep pace can be maintained, and to only repeat sets as long as you are at full strength. Many of the best lifters seemed to have an instinctive feel for this, and it allowed them to make progress year after year.
Smart Training
Lamar Gant had great natural ability. People with natural ability are often able to make quick progress that puts them way ahead of the rest of the field. Lamar Gant did this. However, those who have natural ability don’t always get better year after year for decades, but Lamar broke records across an eighteen year time span. In other words, he didn’t just have natural ability, he also trained smart and was able to zero in on a personal training zone that was neither too hard, nor too easy, but precisely right. This was the key to effective training for Lamar Gant, and is the key to effective training for you, and for anyone who wants to get stronger over a long period of time. Best of training to you.