Progressive Pulls Redux: Power Clean to Deadlift

Progressive Pulls - Reviving and revamping a Golden Oldie

Progressive Pulls Redux is Marty Gallagher’s updated take on a brutal old-school resistance training sequence built around one loaded barbell, rising poundage, and three progressively shorter pulling movements: power cleans, high pulls, and deadlifts. For powerlifters, Olympic weightlifters, bodybuilders, athletes, first responders, and military lifters, the lesson is simple: when the back, traps, lats, erectors, glutes, and grip are attacked with serious free weights, recovery has to be respected as much as intensity.

Progressive Pulls: Reviving and Revamping a Golden Oldie

A decade ago, I wrote an article, Progressive Pulls, for my big book The Purposeful Primitive. I described a back-training routine I had used with great success for decades. The routine started off with a barbell on the floor loaded with 135-pounds. The poundage was incrementally increased as the lifter worked through three different back exercises that required pulling the barbell to three different heights. In the power clean, the Olympic bar is pulled to the shoulders. High pulls are pulled to the belly button while deadlifts are pulled to mid-thigh.

As the willpower Godfather once quipped, “That which does not kill me makes me stronger.” Progressive Pulls done right comes close. This is a brutal sequence. The hardcore love this routine because it is logical and exquisitely effective. I have learned quite a bit in the decade since the article was written. We have added some overt and subtle changes to the original version of Progressive Pulls. The power clean technique and the reps used in that exercise are now greatly altered.

Tommy Suggs, Strength & Health, and the Original Progressive Pulls

The Progressive Pulls genesis was a 1965 article in Strength & Health Magazine aptly called Progressive Pulls. The article was penned by one of my athlete/writer heroes, Tommy Suggs, a rugged Texan, a man that always placed high at the national Olympic weightlifting championships. Suggs officially pressed 330 weighing 198-pounds and was a writer with style, humor and flair. He passed along solid information that helped the reader improve their lifting.

Tommy specialized in training articles and lifter profiles. The original Progressive Pulls article had accompanying photos featuring national 148-pound Olympic weightlifting champion Homer Branum, another Texas boy. At the time Homer had his hair done in an Elvis-style pompadour, using lots of Brylcreem to hold it in place. His lifting suit was ill-fitting and for some inexplicable reason he wore street shoes, penny loafers, for the photo shoot. This has always puzzled me.

The original article laid out the classic Progressive Pulls regimen: power cleans were pulled to sternum height at which point the lifter jumped down, under, and forward to rack the bar on the shoulders. Start off with 135 for 5-rep sets and start adding weight in small jumps using precise technique. When the lifter can only power clean a triple, add weight and move onto 5-rep sets in the high pull.

Keep adding weight, when the lifter can only pull a triple to the belly button, add more weight and move onto 5-rep sets in the deadlift. Keep doing deadlift sets until you get knocked down to a triple. The workout is over. I made this tough routine even more so: once the Progressive Pulls workout is done, the lifter is left with a heavily loaded barbell sitting on the floor.

Classic Progressive Pulls Workout Template

My reasoning was, “Hey, since we have to unload the barbell anyway, why not make some bus stops on the way down, why not do some additional, different stuff, as we unload the deadlift weight?” This strategy is easier to understand when seen on paper. Here is how a classic Progressive Pull routine would look for an intermediate level trainee.

Note the evenness of the 30-pound jumps, other than between the last hi-pull set and the first deadlift set, a 50-pound jump, before resuming 30-pound bumps. The poundage jumps would be smaller for someone weaker.

Strip the Bar and Keep Training

So here we are at the end of a Progressive Pulls workout and we are left with a 455-pound barbell sitting on the floor. Why not proceed as follows?

• Start with a 455-pound barbell.
• Strip two 25-pound plates: 405-pounds, one set of 3-5 reps pulling off a weight plate or weightlifting platform.
• Strip two 45-pound plates: 315-pounds, one set of 3-5 reps in the Romanian deadlift.
• Strip two 45-pound plates: 225-pounds, one set of 5-8 reps in the barbell row.
• Strip two 45-pound plates: 135-pounds, one set to failure in the snatch-grip hi-pull.

On each of these four sets, the lifter reps until they cannot do another rep.

The Updated Power Clean Strategy

High rep power cleans are no longer advisable. In the old days we would muscle-up our power cleans. Most guys would do an upright row with some sort of a flip-over reverse curl at the top. Clumsy and awkward will get you hurt in the power clean. The new strategy is as follows.

• Power clean first: optimal performance requires a fresh central nervous system.
• 1-2 rep sets: super low reps stress explosiveness.
• Precision technique: consult expert visual power clean coaching and qualified coaching when needed.
• Small jumps: maintain explosiveness and crispness.
• Stop when technique breaks: when you can’t pull 1-2 reps explosively, you are done.

After burning out the CNS on power cleans, move onto high pulls. The high pull lies halfway between explosive and grind: Hugh Cassidy used to call high pulls “heaves,” aptly descriptive of the technique he taught wherein you would generate some momentum – but not nearly enough to clean a poundage. The CNS is shot from power cleans; heaves become dynamic deadlifts. 5-rep sets work fine on heaves. When you can only pull three hi-pull reps to the belly button, switch to deadlifts.

Start with 5-rep sets of deadlifts and keep adding poundage until you get knocked down to a triple. Finish the workout with an all-out triple. Feel free to wear weightlifting straps. Do you want to extend the torture and keep lifting as you strip the bar? I’d save that for a month or two down the road. Anyone new to this type and degree of work trying to do it all on day one will likely be calling in sick to work the next day.

Recovery, Food and Back Training Frequency

This is a hell of-a-lot of work. You shock-blast every muscle on the back from traps to tailbone: erectors, rhomboids, upper and lower lats, rear delts, glutes. This workout can only be done once a week. Place any leg training you do at the opposite end of the training week. This workout is going to take the best part of an hour and should be followed by a high protein/high carb replenishment shake or a protein-heavy food meal, or both.

The final element in the hypertrophy equation is rest, deep restorative sleep is the final piece to the muscle and strength puzzle. You will not survive training this hard and starving yourself: the body will not cope and recover. Blast the muscle, but feed and rest the muscle. The lifter needs to be totally recovered and ready to blast legs in 3-4 days. Those that over-train and under-eat break under the stress. Don’t let it kill you.

Equipment Pairings for Progressive Pulls

Progressive Pulls is a simple concept, but the setup matters. The lifter needs a barbell that can handle repeated pulling, dependable plates that can be loaded and stripped efficiently, a surface suitable for pulling from the floor, and straps when grip becomes the limiting factor rather than the back.

For a general Olympic weightlifting and resistance training setup, compare the Body-Solid Black Oxide Olympic Weightlifting Bar for all-purpose barbell work. Lifters who are emphasizing heavier powerlifting-style deadlift work may also compare the Iron Cowboy Powerlifting Bar. For loading, urethane Olympic plates with grips and American Barbell urethane Olympic grip plates can support repeatable progressive loading.

For the training surface, pulling repeatedly from the floor is different from casual lifting. Home gyms, school weight rooms, commercial facilities, first responder gyms, and military training rooms can compare rubber gym flooring, interlocking rubber gym tiles, Big Foot rubber gym flooring tiles, and Performance Rally Tile interlocking gym flooring when building an area for deadlifts, high pulls, and Olympic-style pulling.

For grip support, compare Pioneer leather weightlifting straps and Schiek 1000-BPS padded weightlifting straps. Straps are not a substitute for grip strength, but in a high-volume pulling sequence they can help keep the intended training stress on the back, traps, and posterior chain when grip starts to fade.

Progressive Pulls Training Note

This article is strength training commentary, not medical advice or a universal program. Power cleans, high pulls, deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, barbell rows, snatch-grip high pulls, weightlifting straps, and pulling from a platform or plate require technical control, appropriate loading, recovery, adequate training space, and coaching when needed. The useful lesson is not to do everything at once recklessly; the useful lesson is to respect exercise order, bar speed, technique, loading jumps, food, and rest.

Progressive Pulls FAQ

What is Progressive Pulls Redux?

Progressive Pulls Redux is Marty Gallagher’s updated version of a classic barbell pulling routine. The workout moves from power cleans to high pulls to deadlifts, adding weight as the pull height gets shorter and the movement shifts from explosive to heavy grind.

Which exercises are used in Progressive Pulls?

The core sequence uses power cleans, high pulls and deadlifts. Marty’s expanded version can also include pulling from a weight plate or platform, Romanian deadlifts, barbell rows, and snatch-grip high pulls while stripping weight from the bar.

Why should power cleans come first?

Power cleans come first because they require the freshest nervous system, crisp bar speed, and precise technique. Once explosiveness fades or technique breaks down, the lifter moves to high pulls and then deadlifts.

How often should Progressive Pulls be performed?

Marty writes that this workout can only be done once a week because it attacks the back from traps to tailbone. Leg training should be placed at the opposite end of the training week so recovery is not compromised.

Can beginners use Progressive Pulls?

Beginners should be cautious. The routine is demanding and includes technical movements such as power cleans and high pulls. New lifters should master technique, use smaller loading jumps and avoid the full extended strip-the-bar sequence until they have built capacity.

What equipment is useful for Progressive Pulls?

A practical setup includes an Olympic bar or power bar, reliable weight plates, a weightlifting platform or durable rubber gym flooring, and weightlifting straps when grip begins to limit the intended back-training effect.