It’s no secret that I am the world’s biggest advocate of the Jefferson Deadlift (or Jefferson Lift, or Straddle Deadlift, or Jefferson Squat). In 2012 I set the IAWA world record for the Jefferson at 605lbs. I have personally taught hundreds of people how to do this lift, and written several articles on the topic. I want you to at least try it, because it’s a fantastic lift.

My obsession with the Jefferson started a few years ago when Adam T. Glass suggested that I might have good natural leverage for it. We looked up the lift in the record books, and realized I could probably break the world record, which I later did in a training lift in 2011 and officially in a contest in 2012.

When I first met Jen Sinkler, she couldn’t conventional or sumo deadlift without pain. The Jefferson was one of the main lifts I prescribed for her to test out, and sure enough she was out of pain and back to traditional deadlifting for a PR in just a few months. Since then I have used this lift to help get countless people out of back pain. Plus, the total-body strength you develop with this lift is awesome.

Why?

Let’s get the reasoning for doing this awkward looking lift out of the way first. Here’s the short version: because you’re weak. Maybe that’s not entirely fair, but I’d be willing to bet it’s true that you are weak outside the ranges of motion that you’re accustomed to. For most people, these are very saggital-plane dominant squats and deadlifts. There’s no rotation, there’s no anti-rotation, and there’s no strength in asymmetry. Before you tell me how those are good things, let me warn you that I have a roster of people who can speak to how Jefferson lifts played a starring role in taking them out of back pain. Further, I’ve personally seen people tweak something conventional deadlifting, and I have never (knock on wood) witnessed anyone hurt anything doing a Jefferson.

The Basics

More Advanced Tweaks

One of the neat things about the Jefferson lift is that it’s already so weird and awkward, it’s impossible for anyone to pin down what “perfect form” is for it. As such, people default to finding what actually is the strongest leverage for their own body.

However, it’s worth discussing what features of alignment make for the strongest pull. In my experience, the more like a trap bar deadlift (with a rotation) you can make it, the stronger you’re going to be. Alignments that favor one leg significantly don’t work as well.

In this comparison photo, you can see in the second photo Abbie’s hips are starting much higher, her back is flatter towards the ground, and the angle between her back and legs is much greater. She is also leaned forward heavily over one leg. For her in particular, to correct this, I asked her to take a position with more external rotation of the feet as in a plié. Being a dancer, this is a position that is strong and comfortable for her.

This resulted in an immediately stronger pull that felt much better for her.

Here is a checklist to use to find better alignment:

1. Are your heels staying planted throughout the lift? If not, adjust so that they are.
2. Are your hip starting in a high position, that you could lower by adjusting your feet? (Hips high is relative, the question is, can I get lower?)
3. Are you fighting rotation on the way up? Could you start in such a way that the bar is already rotated to where it’s going to end?
4. Is the bar hitting the inside of a leg? Adjust your position, sometimes it helps to rotate a little more along the hip axis, so that the bar travels smoothly up in between your legs.
5. Are you mixing your grip on one of your hands? This typically helps, and most people are more comfortable in a mixed grip with the front hand turned palm facing out (supinated.)

 

Curious about how to integrate the Jefferson deadlift into your training to make your pulling strength downright impressive? This and dozens of other variations in my deadlift book, Off The Floor, will catapult your strength into another dimension. In addition you’ll learn to use biofeedback, giving you an unprecedented blueprint for success in your training. This is the exact template I used to skyrocket my deadlift from a measly 245 pounds to not one but three different 600+ pound deadlifts in 3 variations, including a world record.

There is a famous Jim Rohn saying that goes: “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Well, yes, probably. Maybe. Sort of. But, it’s misleading.

Certainly, the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of your friends (we’ll call the 5 people you spend the most time with friends) will affect you. If they are successful and driven people, you are probably going to have that in common with them and also be successful and driven. The opposite, of course, is also true. Whatever the profile of the individuals, what you really have are a set of behaviors. Indeed, we are little more than the sum of our behaviors.

Which begs the question, which comes first, the behaviors or the friends?

Let’s ignore for a moment that it seems nearly impossible to change your group of friends without changing what you DO on a daily basis. Changing your friends or peers might have some leverage over your habits and behaviors, but would it be enough to change a lazy sloth into a high-powered executive? I doubt it.

On the other hand, if you were to change the majority of your behaviors, do you think your friends group would change significantly? Absolutely.

So through the magic that is logic, we see that the greater lever that you can exert control over is that of your behaviors. Actually changing behavior is another topic, but first it helps to recognize what they actually are.

For now I just have questions for you:

1. Outside of working hours what are the top 10 things you’ve spent your time on in the past 5 days?
2. Are those things aligned with your wants and goals?
3. If you have a goal lift, how many times have you trained it (or a variation) in the past 5 training sessions?
4. How much TV have you watched in the past 5 days?
5. How many books have you read in the past 30 days?
6. How much time have you spent moving or exercising in the past 5 days?
7. What have you eaten the most of in the past 5 days?
8. If you’re an entrepreneur, or otherwise work for yourself, what have you spent most (top 3) of your “work” hours doing?
9. If you took an inventory of the things you did in the past 5 days, and you were told you’d have roughly the exact same 5 days six months from now, would you look forward to it?
10. Are the behaviors you do most often aligned with how you view yourself?

These are pretty broad questions, to get you started and get you thinking. Come up with your own, better, questions that are more narrow in focus and apply to you. The takeaway is this:

[Photo Cred: Aristotle quote on the wall at Cressey Performance]

In terms of things you need to survive, sleep is second only to air and water. You can comfortably go a couple minutes without air and a couple hours without water (survival time is about two days). Without sleep, normal function begins to degrade after just 18 hours.

Sleep is so necessary and so powerfully auto-regulated by the body that death by sleep deprivation is actually impossible. Under significant sleep deprivation, a person will begin to take forced microsleeps in which the brain will “shut down” for seconds or minutes.

I wrote about how to take short naps to recharge your battery during the day. While I think everyone can benefit from setting aside 30 minutes to chill, you are obviously going to get more out of a nap where you actually fall asleep. Being able to fall asleep instantly is especially handy here.

Falling asleep in general seems to be a big problem for many people I talk to. They’ll complain that they lie down to sleep, but they just can’t get there. Often times they’ll then get up to do something until they’re completely exhausted a few hours later. Ends up being 2am, amirite?

I think everyone can learn how to fall asleep fast. It just takes practice.

How to Fall Asleep Fast

• Start with good, basic sleep hygiene. Here are some creative sleep tactics. Remember, not everything works for everyone so don’t get hung up on supposedly proper sleep methods that don’t work for you.
• Go to bed earlier. A good rule of thumb is that every hour of sleep before midnight is worth two after.
• Once in bed, stay in bed. Don’t get up because you get frustrated that you can’t fall asleep. No matter how long it takes, stay in bed. [Yes, I know this runs counter to common advice. There may be exceptions, but in general you need to train that getting in bed means going to sleep.]
• This is the big one in my experience – treat sleep like meditation. You can’t fall asleep when your mind is racing thinking about a hundred things you have to do. Acknowledge anything that comes to mind, and then immediately dismiss it. At first this will be difficult, and you’ll probably wonder why it’s so hard to just think about nothing. With time, you’ll notice it becomes easier to dismiss a thought as soon as it comes into your head. Soon, you’ll be falling asleep the moment your head hits the pillow.

I truly believe that improving your sleep may be the highest-payoff investment you can make in your health and wellness. Literally everything improves when you get good sleep. Use this tip to learn how to fall asleep fast, become a ninja at falling asleep, and you’ll be one step closer to awesome, restorative sleep.