My Journey Continues - Setting a New PR After Taking a Break for Our New Baby

Here' an update on my previous article about my journey to a 500lbs deadlift. The night I hit my 500lbs deadlift my wife went into labor, and we now have a happy and healthy baby boy. Obviously, I took a break from lifting. Every new parent understands the sheer exhaustion associated with bringing home a newborn human baby.  I couldn't imagine sticking with a heavy lifting program and being a brand new parent at the same time. ​

After about ten days with no lifting at all, I decided to start back on my 531 program with a deload week before jumping into a full cycle. I also reset my all training maxes back a few cycles and reduced my Boring But Big percentage from 60% to 50%. I figured this would help keep my workouts a little shorter and less taxing as we worked to get back on a functional sleep schedule. On days when I was a little tired, I went down to my basement gym and just hit the numbers for that day. On days I felt pretty good, I pushed the final working sets for as many reps as possible. Surprisingly I was hitting some rep records. I got five reps with 185lbs (equal to body weight that week) on overhead press and did 335lbs for seven reps on squat. 

My favorite and strongest lift has always been the deadlift. Last week was the namesake 5/3/1 rep scheme week and on deadlift day I was feeling pretty good. I had plenty of sleep and woke up feeling pretty good. I immediately started mentally preparing for my deadlift session after work that day. I kept asking myself if the sets feel good, should I add joker sets and try 500 again or simply go for AMRAP on the last working set?

My deadlift program that day called for working sets of 365lbs for five reps, 415lbs for three reps, and 465lbs for one rep. Sets 1 and 2 felt real good, so I decided to hold back on set 3 and just hit 1 rep for 465lbs, then add more plates. I slapped on the tens and 485lbs was a grinder. I pull sumo, it was fast off the floor but slow to lock out. I considered just stopping there and dropping down the weight for my 5 Boring But Big sets of 10 reps with 50% of my training max. However, I didn't consider it for very long. I made a deal with myself, attempt a new PR and then hit the shower. Just one more rep for a lifetime deadlift PR and call it a day. I loaded 505 lbs and put on Eminem's "Lose Yourself" in my headphones, as I usually do for the heaviest set of the day. I set my feet, reached down and gripped the bar as hard as possible, sucked in as much air as my lungs could hold, braced against my belt, and drove my feet down through the floor. 505lbs went up and locked out seemingly easier than the previous 485lbs rep. Mental state can do wonderful things. Nine weeks after hitting 500lbs and having a baby, I was back to setting new PRs. ​​