Awenzel

@coloradohaze: yah just distinguishing between power and strength, power is the rate of force change and strength is total max force, like training them both is very similar and increasing strength increases power if done right and increasing power production can help upper limit strength etc. Highly recommend coach Matt Wenning on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PJZEEy4Yis&t=94s

@betsie: well they should plank more then they'd deadlift even more, that doesn't mean that the goal is to be able to do a 30 min AB class. Goal is to be strong and powerful, and transfer that to being able to pump hard, handle compressions, handle crashes etc. Planking wont make your hamstring and glutes stronger, and despite everyone being impressed by ABs they aren't what make people elite athletes. If you are able to stabilize your core but have no glutes or hamstrings there won't be very much power to stabilize. No one in the 100m dash at the olympics is moving fast because their core is elite, its because their fast twitch fibers in their glutes and hamstrings combined with technique and limb lengths are elite.

@dgryazev: The average gym goer that goes in and is going to do 10-15 reps of deadlifting is a bad idea. Doing reps of 1-3 on deadlifts and higher set counts where can actually focus on technique, and deadlifts are bad exercise for hypertrophy anyways so doing them for power and strength in lower rep counts is much better. If someone needs posterior hypertrophy I think prescribing high rep deadlifts is silly.

I think the concep of doing HIGH VOLUME deadlifts has been debunked, Crossfit has popularized very effective exercises such as cleans and deadlifts, then bastardized them by doing them for time and rep schemes of 15+ which isn't what is the best use of high power explosive exercises. In same way doing a long jump or a standing broad jump is a good expression of power and explosiveness, no one does that for reps for a minute straight. CUE box jump fail videos.

@ohio: Yah I agree squats will probably have even more effect than deadlifts, I suppose one could argue that sense mountain bikers are such anterior focused (quads, from pedaling) that doing an anterior exercise (deadlifts hamstrings etc) would have more additivie benefit, but if squat right and do a good amount of hamstring and posterior work could increase deadlift without deadlifting.

I have a 565 LB deadlift and a 415 squat and a 265 bench all completed in a powerlifting meet, at 183 bodyweight. Thinking that having a big deadlift somehow hinders anyones ability to do anything is ridiculous. Why the deadlift is chastised as a dangerous and dumb exercise is because of a lack of education and poor programming and loading paramaters. Understandably most mountain bikers probably shouldn't go and unsupervised be doing high rep deadlifts with no coaching, and I wouldn't trust most of the current crop of mountain bike strength coaches to coach you to a big deadlift. Having said that, deadlifts have the greatest effect on stimulating change in your body than any other exercise, followed closely by squats, almost all mountain bikers are effectively beginners, novice or possibly intermediate lifters and focusing on functional or specific exercises or convaluting the program more all it really does is just makes you weaker, more frail, less dense bones, less mobile, less explosive, etc. Than otherwise would be if were able to progress your 185 deadlift to a 405 deadlift. If you actually want to have access to quality strength information you will have to step out of the mounain bike world. Just because PerformX trains Aaron Gwin and Richie Rude doesn't mean he inherently is the best solution, Joel Seedman Trains NFL players too.

haha "core" why do people use the word "core" so much. Anyone that HAS a big deadlift will have a strong CORE, its the foundation to any one of those movements.

I think focussing on the specific exercises that are like CURE ALLS is silly, any true Strength and Conditioning coach doesn't talk like that, however I do agree that most people can't deadlift correctly, RDLs are easier to perform and build that pattern, and also fit4racing+performx=trash. Only reason they are able to sell programs and be effective is because 99% of mountain bikers are basically untrained and can do any exercise program and will make progress with them.

Cleans are not safer than deadlifts, cue the crossfit videos.

Cashing in on newbie gains in the squat bench deadlift is the lowest hanging fruit people leave on the tree in terms of on bike performance.