Heavy Deadlifting

Today was I performed an in season workout for baseball. I have been crazy busy this semester but I am doing my best to get in the gym 2-3 days a week to maintain my current strength levels. Oddly enough, my max effort deadlifts have increased over the past couple weeks. For the past four weeks I’ve been using the straight bar. During this time I also broke a personal record. While I have hit 530lbs with a belt, this was the first time I pulled 500lbs raw. This was the first time I used the trap bar in over a month. Today I hit 455 for 5 reps and still had a couple reps in the tank. Since I was feeling good I decided to hit another set at 495. I was pumped up because the last time I maxed out on the trap bar deadlift I hit 495 for 1 rep and today I destroyed my personal record; I hit 495 for 3 reps (these lifts were performed with low handles on the trap bar, my pr with the high handles is 585lbs).
The take home message here is you need to continue to train in season. I don’t care if you can only get in the gym 1 or 2 days. That is more than enough to maintain strength. Don’t think you need to break records in season. The reason why I have been breaking records is because my technique improved drastically and I have been deadlifting more than usual. In the off season I primarily perform max effort squat variations but since my left knee has been bugging me lately, I have turned to the deadlift for my max effort work. This is not to say that all baseball players should deadlift in season. Instead, it means that you should listen to your body. This is the key to staying healthy and performing at your highest levels. Here is the workout I performed today. After soft tissue work and a complete dynamic warm up followed by rotator cuff work this is what I did:

1) Trap bar deadlift-Worked up to 495lbs for 3 reps

2A)Alternating dumbbell bench press- 4 X 8

2B)Double kettlebell row

3) Chin ups- 3 X Max reps




Joe Meglio
Performance Enhancement Coach