Deadlift start heights

[mewlingthunder]

Long-time lurker, picked up lots of valuable info here. My thanks to everybody.

I managed two PRs today, 1x5 at 294, and then 1x1 at 304, so woohoo for me. My question is this: I lift at home and only have the 25 pound plates, so the bar is I suppose 2 or more inches lower to start. Is that significantly harder than with the 45 plate diameter? In other words, would I have hit 300 sooner? I'm 6'-1" tall.

 

[TunnelRat]

<div>
(mewlingthunder @ Jan. 18 2009,2:04)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Long-time lurker, picked up lots of valuable info here. My thanks to everybody.

I managed two PRs today, 1x5 at 294, and then 1x1 at 304, so woohoo for me. My question is this: I lift at home and only have the 25 pound plates, so the bar is I suppose 2 or more inches lower to start. Is that significantly harder than with the 45 plate diameter? In other words, would I have hit 300 sooner? I'm 6'-1&quot; tall.</div>
I don't know whether you'd have hit your 300 &quot;sooner&quot;, but the low bar surely makes the lift more difficult.

Nice lifts. Keep at it.

 

[Lol]

You are fairly tall so having the bar set an inch or so lower than regular height would almost certainly impact on your max deadlift. Best way to find out would be to set your bar at a regular Oly bar height of ~24cm (top of bar to floor) and see how you get on (prop your weights on some strips of wood until the bar is at the desired height).

 

[mewlingthunder]

Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions. I have had to go out of town for a couple weeks, but will experiment with some sort of platform blocks when I get back. I've had concerns as the weight increased, about increased risk from the leverage on my back with the lower stance.

 

[ZKD]

Starting Strength says to start at the standard 45lb plate height. If you can deadlift 300lbs, it's probably time to invest in some big boy weights.

 

[mewlingthunder]

I had hoped to have a better comparison calibration to report, but here's what I have.  After a couple weeks away, (I was able to do some light lifting, not wanting an SD, and wanting to avoid DOMS on restarting), I built some lifting platforms putting the bar at 9&quot;, did a brief de-load and started working up again. I immediately felt a lot more comfortable with the change in posture and less freaked about my lower back. When I got back up to 304 I hit 1x5 with ease. At 314,  1x5 also with maybe one more rep 'in the tank'. Today at 324, 1x4, failed 5th rep, a minute or so rest, and 1 more rep. Not quite a legitimate 1x5. So, seat-of-the-pants 1x5 comparison is 20 lbs added to the 294, or a 7% boost from raising the bar height 3&quot;.

As for Big Boy weights, absolutely, and I wish. That's gonna have to wait for an improvement in economic conditions, specifically in my wallet. I have about 400 lbs in the 1-inch hole stuff, mostly used stuff accumulated/scrounged over time. It works for now. In the meantime, the raised blocks are great, the only real hassle is in plate-changing time.