Zercher Deadlifts

[Jay76]

Anyone do any Zercher Deadlifts for round back lifting? How do you like them?

Jay 8)

[MMArtist84]

Hey Jay,
I've never really heard of them. For rounded back deadlifting I like to use a sandbag. The shifting weight makes for a tough but fun workout. Sorry, I know this is kinda random.

[uprise]

Hi Jay,

A while back I did a little experiment with zerchers, but with a slightly different form. I was doing them with my but almost on the ground to start, as opposed to the more widely used bending over method. I was doing sets of 5 at 1x bodyweight with the eventual goal of doing 10 sets with 30-45 seconds between sets. (The reason for all this was that I injured both wrists and zerchers were the only demanding, mulitjoint excercise I could do with the equipment I had.) To sum it up, I would say do no more than 2 sets of five if you are using a decent weight, as they are very demanding and keeping a tight midsection/butt is of utmost importance for back safety. I personally loved them. They were a lot of fun and extemely difficult and worked the legs through a great range of motion done this way.

[Charlie]

i originally got into these because of damaged fingers stopping me from deadlifting. i think they are a fantastic full-body minimal-equipment compound alternative. but i don't do them with a rounded-back -- i keep an arched back, and looking upwards, for better safety.

i've built two low saw-horses, and i leave my barbell resting on it (with ridges on top of horse make it impossible to roll off.) i've wrapped some foam around the middle of barbell to make it more comfortable when inside my elbows. then i fully squat down, 'ass to the grass', lift, and get maximum range-of-motion lifting from my legs.

that doesn't tire my grip out at all, so all the more muscle left for my Clubbell® swinging immediately afterwards. then i finish off with some weighted chinups. (btw. if your fingers are damaged, or grip is too tired after the CB's, you can still do chinups -- just curl hands over, and use the junction between wrist & palm)

[James Boelter]

Charlie, forgive my nosiness, but how are your fingers damaged? Are we talking actual bone and tissue damage or RIS/CTS/ nerve impingement symptoms? A good NMT style treatment can do marvels for enhanced recovery for the latter.

None of my business, of course, but having to deal with weakened ring and little fingers on my left hand, I am always on the alert for this kind of thing.

[Charlie]

Hi James, my fingers are actually doing pretty good at the moment. It was nothing too serious; just sprained knuckle ligaments was my GP's opinion.

Oddly enough, they're exactly the same ones you've hurt - the ring and pinkie fingers on my left hand. it was just a ridiculous accident, while practicing walking on my hands as part of Judo warmup. for some reason my attention wandered, and then by a strange mishap as i took a step, my hand curled over and my fingers got gibbled up, taking all my body weight badly on the 2nd knuckles.

for months they were quite sensitive, and if they got knocked it was very very painful, and my grip was really weak. breakfalls were torture! but now they are good, they serve me quite well in Judo again, CB swinging is fine and i could probably do deadlifts no problem. yet they are still a bit sensitive somehow ... i feel like the injury is still lurking, and could re-occur with some bad luck / impact.

but i didn't really do any therapy for them, just always taped them up, and tried to protect them from further harm. What is this 'RIS/CTS', and NMT treatment?