Jonny’s Pre-Contest Back Workout With Insane 545lb Deadlift
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Hey everyone,
Jonny here again with my extra special guest… My girl, Sammy.
Today we’ll demonstrate one of our pre-contest workouts.. We’re both 3 weeks out.
For us, as bodybuilders, we have to get on a lower carb diet as we approach contest time.
Reason being is to deplete our body’s glycogen stores – because eventually, those can turn into body fat – which we want to lose. There ARE some outliers that can do a higher carb diet and still cut fat, but we personally need low carb.
We also want you to know how this type of diet can affect your workout.
Sammy: You might realize how your body starts feeling kind of in the dumps – a little more tired on low carb diets.
You will get used to this after a few weeks and some of the effects may subside as your body adapts but you’ll also notice a decrease in stamina.
Jonny: One misconception is that you should cut back the intensity of your workout while you’re on a low carb diet, and do higher reps with lower weight… but that’s FALSE. In order to get maximal muscle growth (rep range 6-12 reps) …. Don’t be afraid to keep using that heavier weight.
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Workout Breakdown:
Active Warm Up with Lat Pulldowns: Sit on the bench, lean back slightly, grab the handles wide, and fully contract your back to pull the weight down to your upper chest. Slow and controlled, return to the top. This will be priming your body for the workout you’re about to do, increase your neurological response to the muscles, and just get your body ready altogether. We usually don’t go heavy on these – just light weights to focus on the contraction. Make sure to also let your lats stretch on the eccentric portion of the exercise when your arms are going back up, and squeeze hard when you contract.
Deadlifts – For deadlifts, you step up to the bar with feet about hip/shoulder width apart, toes forward. Grab the bar on the outside of your legs. When you bend down to grab it, shins should be touching the bar, and armpits over the bar. Keep your shoulders back, back muscles contracted, and back flat/chest up as you stand up straight. Drive through the heels. You might see guys doing deadlifts on leg day, but I’m here to say that deadlifts aren’t a leg workout. Sure – they might get a hell of a good workout from deads, but the primary mover is the back.
Today I’m going to go heavy today so I’ll spare the weight early by doing 2 warm up sets, and then 3 heavy sets.
Sammy: I like to use straps when I’m doing these because my grip strength is a little less, and some people go raw. Both are correct.
Jonny: This is back day. We really want to target the back – not the forearms – but it varies from day to day how we perform them.
Don’t forget also that we’re both on low carb diets. You may have to gauge your intensity level as you go… Sometimes you might have a number of reps in your mind but you’re just feeling low from the lack of carbs… We both just adjust accordingly, and don’t let it get to us. Keep pushing – that’s what matters.
For myself today – I have a certain goal in mind that I’ve had for 3 months. I’m going for maximal weight here, so the rep range will be much lower than Sammy’s. I have the rest of my back workout later where I’ll be doing higher reps, but for deadlift, Im gonna try to hit a few max reps. For the first set, I’ll save some energy so I can take it up a notch for the second working set, where I’ll try to hit a new PR that I’ve been attempting for a while.
The other exercises we’ll be performing for this back workout (sorry, not filmed because it would take forever) are:
Dumbbell Pullovers
Underhand Barbell Rows (Yates rows)
High cable rows
Lat Pulldowns
Pull Ups
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2:45 – Active Warm Up Lat Pulldowns – 10-12 reps
5:58 – Second Warm Up Set – Slight weight increase, same rep range
9:00 – Deadlift Warm Up Sets – 10-12 reps
12:15 – Working Set – Sammy – 185lbs, 10 reps
13:08 – Working Set – Jonny – 405lbs, 3 reps
14:30 – Working Set – Sammy – 185 lbs, 10 reps
15:05 – Working Set – Jonny – 545 lbs !
16:10 – Working Set – Sammy – 225lbs – 6 reps
16:45 – Working Set – Jonny – 545, no straps
17:45 – Working Set – Sammy – 225, 8 reps
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So here you have it – that’s what we’re doing when we’re on a low carb diet, 2.5 weeks out from our next competition, the NPC Junior Nationals in Chicago. Sammy competes in figure, I’m in the new classic bodybuilding division. We’re glad to get to share this workout with you, and I hope you enjoyed it.
For more workouts, tips and tricks for fat loss and muscle building, check us out and join our team:
Peace,
Jonny
PS. Don’t forget to share this with your friends:
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