Cruel and Unusual - High Rep Deadlift Count-up Rest Ladder

When you perform this one, you'll very quickly find out the reason why I call it "Cruel and Unusual"...it's BRUTAL and extremely powerful for cranking up your metabolism.

 



 


 

This fat-loss workout is all about doing as much work as possible with as much weight as possible in a very short period of time.

 

The entire workout takes about 25 minutes to get through and you will be DONE.

It's very simple...you're going to do high-rep trap bar deadlifts for 6 sets done in a "count up" style for rest periods. This count-up style means you'll be taking longer and longer rest periods (counting up) as you do more sets.

You'll start with 1 minute rest, then 2 minutes, then 3 minutes, then 4, then finally 5.

This is what's called a "front loading" methodology, meaning you structure it so that you do more work up front....then you extend the rest periods as you go in order to maintain workload on successive sets (or, in this case, actually INCREASE it).

I used 315 pounds for this workout (which is about 65% of my current 1 RM). You want to use a weight you can get at least 20 reps with on the first set.

I also recommend using a trap bar deadlift instead of straight bar deadlift because the mechanics of the trap bar are much more conducive to higher-rep training than straight bar.

In addition, I recommend using straps or hooks for this. You don't want your grip strength to be your limiting factor here...you want your guts to keep going to be the limiting factor.

Cruel and Unusual - High Rep Deadlift Count-up Rest Ladder

Cruel and Unusual - High Rep Deadlift Count-up Rest Ladder

You'll notice when I'm doing these in the video that I do a "top down" type of movement, pausing at the top and very quickly tapping the floor and changing direction at the bottom (touch and go style).

I find this to be the best way to do high-rep trap bar deadlifts with moderate weight.

Resetting at the bottom takes too much time and when you're going for high reps, the clock is ticking...lactate will be creeping up on you the whole way through and the faster you can crank reps out (with decent form, of course), the more reps you'll get before it all catches up to you.

 

Here's what the rep breakdown looked like when I did it...(AMRAP means as many reps as possible).

 

Set 1 - AMRAP - 22 reps
1 minute rest

Set 2 - AMRAP - 12 reps
2 minutes rest

Set 3 - AMRAP - 13 reps
3 minutes rest

Set 4 - AMRAP - 15 reps
4 minutes rest

Set 5 - AMRAP - 16 reps
5 minutes rest

Set 6 - AMRAP +1 - 18 reps (yep, do as many as you can then do one more...the last set should push you to your limit)

Done.

That's the entire workout.

As you can see, very easy to set up...absolutely brutal in execution.

You'll get the most reps on the first set, the fewest reps on the second set (due to very limited recovery), then the reps will steadily come up from there.

I guess for me, this kind of workout is cruel and USUAL... but I still like the name.

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