Finnish Deadlift Secrets: Throughout the years, the deadlift has been our ”national sport” here in Finland, and world records have been broken since the early '70s. But what makes Finns pull so much? What is their secret ? I wanted to know the answer, and after collecting training information of many new and former greats, here is what I found.
1. Genetics
To be able to lift a lot, you have to be a talented athlete. Most of the guys had long arms and legs. You could see middleweights pulling over 200 kilos the first time they saw a power bar. But that's only a good start. The best deadlifters in the late '70s and early '80s had two things in common:
- Most of them had a background of hard labor—like lumberjacks, construction workers, farmers, or something similar. So they carried, lifted, and dragged for their living. That laid a perfect foundation for deadlift training and very often ensured a hard grip, too.
- They had an Olympic lifting background—they had pulled a lot before their powerlifting career. Raimo Välineva held Scandinavian records in Olympic lifting and was able to clean 330 pounds with straight legs. He had world records of 688 in 148s and 716 in 165s in early '80s. When weightlifting had the press, it was more of a pure strength sport as opposed to now when speed and technique more critical.
In turn, many of the new lifters have some type of athletic background from other sports. Ismo Lappi, a 338.5-kilo deadlifter in 165s, has thrown a javelin over 75 yards and ran 100 meters in under 11 seconds in his teens. He is fast and explosive enough to deadlift big
2. Squatting for the deadlift
All of the former record holders, as well as many of today's, squatted with a narrow stance. This had two advantages. First, it served as an excellent special exercise for deadlift. Many trained the squat three times a week—twice back squatting and once front squatting. The other back squat could be a high bar session. Other squat exercises were something like lunges, or step squats, using bar on back. These were sometimes done on a box under the front or back feet, varying how it would hit the glutes and hamstrings. An 8-12 inch box under the back feet hits the upper part of glutes quite hard. Many used different stances. While the narrow stance high bar was the most common, many, like Taito Haara, Reijo Kiviranta and Hannu Saarelainen, squatted with three to four stances. During the last few years, the box squat has become very popular in Finland. Janne Toivanen put it in practice by hauling up 804 in the `96 IPF World's in Austria. Many have followed. Ano Turtiainen started using the box and now pulls over 859 in every meet he enters. Ismo Lappi, the new WR holder in 165s in IPF, does box squats as assistance. Veli Kumpuniemi stated that if he would have known how to use a box in his prime, he would have lifted a lot more. How much more? He tore his hamstring while trying 804 in the 181s back in 1981. He hit 822 ( 373 kilos ) in a national before that weighing just under 190 pounds. All his hamstrings could handle he hauled up. He never really recovered, but he wanted to send his compliments to Louie for this excellent exercise.
3. Deadlift variety
Many still train the deadlift two times a week. In the early days, it was not rare to deadlift three times a week. Veli Kumpuniemi, the only man we call Mr. Deadlift in Finland, trained deadlift sometimes four times a week. Here's some pulls to use:
Deadlift standing on the block. Many used a two- to six-inch block and pulled standing on it. That has been a pull used very often. Many did these for three to five reps using conventional style, even if they pulled sumo in meets.
Straight leg deadlifts. These were done off the floor or using a block under the feet. There were two styles: Some pulled with a bent over style, rounding the lower back. On the other hand, some (like Janne Toivanen, Ismo Lappi, and Ano Turtiainen) pulled in a romanian style, with an arched back and pushing the glutes to rear. With a round back, most used only 40-50% for high reps (like 10). For the romanian style, some go quite heavy. Janne Toivanen hauled up 4x661 from a four-inch box, and Ano Turtiainen has done 5x727 off the floor.
Olympic pulls. These were done many times as a warm-up or as speed work before deadlifting. High pulls, raw cleans, and raw snatches were the most common. The old school lifters did some pulls with straight legs—like Russians.
Pulls with a snatch grip. This has two variations too: Some pulled the weight all the way up, and some just pulled it past knees. These developed technique by forcing you to keep your shoulders in line, and it´s a good one to correct technique.
Partials. Hannu Saarelainen did partials at knee level, just moving the bar from below to above the knee. The bar traveled 8-10 inches in the area where the leverages were the poorest. He did high reps with rather light weight, and he tried to get speed in order to overcome the sticking point as fast as possible. By concentrating on his weakness, Hannu was able to pull 765 in 242s with quite poor leverages for deadlift. Rack pulls and pulls where the bar is on blocks are common, although they do not benefit as many as you could imagine.
Hack deadlifts. Many long-armed lifters were able to pull with the bar behind their back. This form of deadlift developed the leg drive and helped to get the bar off the floor.
4. Technique
Veli Kumpuniemi stated that if his foot stance was half an inch off, the bar stayed on floor, and Veli was ranked as more of a power puller rather than a technique expert (which he was too). The conventional deadlift was always mostly back work. But the sumo pullers were sort of split into two categories.
People like Raimo Välineva and Hannu Malinen, the 1988 IPF World champion, used their hips a lot. Raimo Välineva was the developer of the style that maximized hip drive in the sumo deadlift. Lifters with extreme technique had quite a differing sumo and conventional deadlift. Ari Virtanen, the little brother of Jarmo, is one of the best technicians I have ever seen. Every weight he tried he got off the floor and finished. Ari´s best conventional was around 570 to 580, and he pulled 677 with sumo in the `91 World's. Pirjo Savola, the European Record holder in 123s with 446, said she has a best conventional within the 360 to 370 range.
Sumo lifters with a strong back, like Veli Kumpuniemi, Janne Toivanen, and Aarre Käpylä, locked out their legs way before extending their torso. Aarre Käpylä, who pulled 10x661 via conventional too, got the most out of his hips by keeping his legs almost straight. Jarmo Virtanen, an eight-time IPF World champ, used the technique. People used to think that Jarmo Virtanen was just very talented and had good leverages; however, they couldn't have been more wrong. He did many things to perfect the technique. Once, he demonstrated the difference between relaxed and flexed shoulders. By dropping shoulders and using sumo, the distance was 12 inches shorter than using conventional with a flexed upper body. He stressed the importance of being relaxed while deadlifting.
"You should climb the tree from bottom." To learn the deadlift, most advised to pull conventional first and then switch to sumo. Reijo Kiviranta, Kullervo Lampela, and other conventional style-greats stressed two key points:
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