Not gonna lie, I was really starting to question if I would ever make any significant progress in my deadlift again.
This Sunday however, has left me optimistic for the first time in a long time.
The lift for the day was a block pull, off of 2 inch mats, which also happens to be the first deadlifting movement I did following my layoff from full lifting. Back then (about 4 months ago) I was able to manage 545, which I was really happy with at the time. A few weeks later, I was able to match this off the floor. Over the next few months however, my deadlift seemed to make zero progress, and just a few weeks ago, I was unable to get past that same 545, which would have been just an opener last year.
Here's how it went this time:
Did some general warm-up stuff, then took a few with 135.
225 x 1
315 x 1
405 x 1
495 x 1
550 x 1 (post layoff pr)
600 x 1
625 x 1
Here are the last 3
Needless to say, I was psyched, having progressed by 80lbs since the last time! And to top it off, I was having a good beard day!
No idea how this will translate to full range, but given the close correlation so far, I FINALLY have a good feeling about the deadlift. I think that part of the reason I did so well is that I scrapped my longtime deadlift shoes (chucks with the fronts slightly raised) in favor of the METAL powerlifting shoes, which slip less, and seem to allow me to start more upright, letting me use my hips more.
For assistance, I did 4 sets of 12 reverse hypers with a couple of plates per side, and some ab work on the crunch machine.