Nick symmonds maybe the first legit sub 5:00 mile with 500lb deadlift

otter wrote:

Just watched a few seconds of the video.

I did not do this on the same day. But I don’t think it would have been difficult.

I was 44 and worked construction at the time. I never lift outside of work. I was with my track guys and the throwers and one sprinter had what they called the 500 club. I did exactly 500 and no more which I’ll admit was hard but I didn’t feel any hard effects of it after.

I was coaching indoor track and jumped in a mini meet around the same time at BU and ran 4:55. The prior week I had run a 9:48 3000. Not bragging about my times, but I was working physically every day and 44 so I was happy with it.

Let me get this straight-

At age 44 you

1) Worked construction as a tradesman/ laborer

2) Never lifted in the gym

3) but did coach indoor track -assumedly college??

4) broke your "never" gym lifting routine to randomly deadlift 500 lbs while at the gym with sprinters and throwers you coached

5) then also randomly ran 4:55 at an indoor mile shortly therafter

What was your height and weight at the time?

Deadlifting 500 lbs is considered elite for anyone under 170 lbs and advanced for anyone up to 250 lbs.

I'm not saying your story is total bs but if its true you likely had the ability to be a successful DI decathlethe as a younger man.

greyhound bus wrote:

STEVE THE ADDICT^^^^^^""""-""""--'-"--^' wrote: But if you took the field at ncaa cross and told them they all had a year to do this, a bunch would be able to do it. But next to none could at the moment because they don't need to lift that heavy because they're focused on running.

most guys at ncaa cross couldn't deadlift 500 pounds if all they did was lift for 3 years.

but still, 500 and sub 5 is not impressive at all.

And most lifters who can deadlift over 500 couldn’t run sub 5 if that is all they did for 3 years.

Take an Icelandic strongman…have him train like a runner for 5 years, he won’t come close to sub 5.

Take a Kenyan runner…have him train like a power lifter for 5 years, he won’t come close to a 500 pound deadlift.

Our bodies are not Tabula Rasa…we have God given proclivities in our genetic code.

greyhound bus wrote:

STEVE THE ADDICT^^^^^^""""-""""--'-"--^' wrote: But if you took the field at ncaa cross and told them they all had a year to do this, a bunch would be able to do it. But next to none could at the moment because they don't need to lift that heavy because they're focused on running.

most guys at ncaa cross couldn't deadlift 500 pounds if all they did was lift for 3 years.

but still, 500 and sub 5 is not impressive at all.

Not rue, it is impressive, a rare feat that a tiny decimal of people can do. The thing is Nick Symmonds never presents these feats and records that nobody else could do, just that he did it, it was hard, and lets have fun with it and make some of the only running related content that isnt film of people running intervals with annoying house music in the background, or just interviews with athletes that are retired or injured. When Nick sets a record for running a 100 in ski boots, I dont believe he is thinking he has set a record nobody else could do. He is also one of the ONLY track celebrities doing anything remotely outreach in the community.

Y'all need a sense of humor and an appreciation for someone achieving something that you cant do while he is having fun with it. Please show me content where we can see elite MD runners at all? MD running is a pro sport with almost no profile at all. Tiny little snippet interviews, no live events hardly ever outside Oregon, Des Moines and NY. No outreach. Good on the folks that are making some content to connect with us fans.

Decent content of training and training theory, actually educational? = Sage Canaday, gets grilled constantly. (Honorable mention- Ryan hall)

Decent content of pop culture -MD track related? = Nick Symmonds, gets grilled constantly

Show some appreciation

Everything else is people running with a guy on a bike.

So what would you think he’d have to be able to run a mile in without the deadlift to be able to do this??

How much time in the end is the lift itself and the taxing his system from it is it costing?

Can anyone give reasonably accurate broad generalizations or anecdotes about dead lifting?

Would a 400lb deadlift + sub4 mile be a worthy challenge or is a 400lb deadlift so "easy" that most sub4 milers could reasonably do it?

How much could each of the following people probably dead lift:

Christian Cantwell?

Christian Coleman?

Ryan Crouser?

Ryan Hall in sub 60 shape?

Ryan Hall now?

Conner Mantz?

Conor McGregor in his welterweight prime?

This is Jim Kiler wrote:

Go to any level NCAA finals, and you could find 10 or so guys who could do this after six months or so...

I like this definition of "easy": take a large collection of already elite athletes, train them them in a discipline that's completely different from their current strengths for six months, and a few of them might be able to do it. Lots of things are easy as thought experiments (e.g. if you add one gram to your earrings every day, your earlobes will touch the ground after a decade or two), but still rare in real life.

did wrote:

Can anyone give reasonably accurate broad generalizations or anecdotes about dead lifting?

Would a 400lb deadlift + sub4 mile be a worthy challenge or is a 400lb deadlift so "easy" that most sub4 milers could reasonably do it?

How much could each of the following people probably dead lift:

Christian Cantwell?

Christian Coleman?

Ryan Crouser?

Ryan Hall in sub 60 shape?

Ryan Hall now?

Conner Mantz?

Conor McGregor in his welterweight prime?

Impossible to say what they lift or don't lift. It depends in they have long arms and short legs and stuff like that, if they get the technique etc. I would almost be inclined to say that it is easier to sustain some DL strength then train yourself to run a 5 min mile then to pick up deadlifting as a runner. (Or be a strong runer and completely turn over to be a powerlifter). I might actually give this a go myself, but I need some time. I got abt 460 pounds deadlift, and I guess I am a bit closer regarding the mile.

Agreed. I think this is the fundamental point that people are missing. We're not talking about doing both of these things on one's life, or even in the same month, we're talking about doing one immediately after the other (also, to add, doing the lift first and then the run would be infinitely harder for a running-based athlete than doing the run first and then the lift.) To be able to do this, the deadlift would have to be a reasonably controlled sub-maximal effort. So we're probably talking about somebody whose max deadlift is more like 550 or 600, not somebody maxing out at 500.

FWIW I suspect that the populations most likely to have a lot of guys that can do this feat (500 pound deadlift immediately followed by 5 minute mile) would be collegiate rowers and wrestlers. Good rowers and good wrestlers aren't going to be competitive with NCAA track athletes in running obviously, but enough of them will be able to run a mile much faster than 5 minutes and also deadlift crazy amounts of weight, such that 500 pounds and 5 minute mile would be nowhere near a max effort for either.

So silly how all of you are saying "give the cross country / NCAA distance guys 6 months and they'll do this"

No Way. I don't know what school ya'll go to but there is no way the skinny distance kids on my team could get up to a 500 lbs deadlift in a few months. Maybe 1 or 2 guys at most.

HOWEVER, I betcha almost all the Sprinters (100-400) and Decathletes could do this quite easily. (wouldn't be that tough for them to get to a 500 lbs deadlift and they could almost all run sub 5 mile right now)

Sprinters would have a chance. Anyone who says 500 pounds for a deadlift is easy should go ahead and upload videos of them doing it. I’ve been a weightlifter for about 14 years and can guarantee that it takes a long time and a lot of work to hit 500 pounds. Sure, some gym bros can do it but they dang sure ain’t running a 5 minute mile. Look at true natural (non-steroid) weightlifting competitions - 500 pounds goes a long way, and that’s for people who focus exclusively on lifting.

But yeah, sure, some scrawny XC runners could do it in 6 months.

When I was a 130 pound high school kid I lifted 330 pounds deadlift and ran under 4:30 for the mile. And that was lifting for 20 minutes a couple times a week. If an adult runner put some time towards it, I think a good amount of sub-elite runners could do it.

Thread full of liars. To deadlift 500lbs and run a 5:00 mile is an insanely hard feat, as training for one is contraproductive for the other. All these 44 year old working men and high school kids are freaking dreaming!

So true. Mat Fraser just hit a PR of 560 for the deadlift and he’s unquestionably the greatest male CrossFit athlete ever. He was also literally a world class Olympic weightlifter prior to doing CrossFit. Arguably one of the greatest male athletes in known human history isn’t necessarily a shoe-inn for being able to do a 500 and 5 min mile back to back.

Murdock wrote:

He was also literally a world class Olympic weightlifter prior to doing CrossFit.

I ain't disagreeing with the other stuff you said, but this isn't true. He was nowhere near world class, but bottom of the crop in junior division.

Is that thing really Nick Symmonds? What has he done to himself?

ok it's not him, what a relief

running_loco wrote:

When I was a 130 pound high school kid I lifted 330 pounds deadlift and ran under 4:30 for the mile. And that was lifting for 20 minutes a couple times a week. If an adult runner put some time towards it, I think a good amount of sub-elite runners could do it.

I.E you were not even close. the gap between 330 and 500 is a chasm. You might come close to 500 by gain 30lbs but the you are going to find the 5 min mile to be pretty tough.

Probably the closest we get to this with proAthletew is watching decatheles stagger through their 1500s.

So where is LRC crowd favortit Nick Bare in all this?

Murdock wrote:

Sprinters would have a chance. Anyone who says 500 pounds for a deadlift is easy should go ahead and upload videos of them doing it. I’ve been a weightlifter for about 14 years and can guarantee that it takes a long time and a lot of work to hit 500 pounds. Sure, some gym bros can do it but they dang sure ain’t running a 5 minute mile. Look at true natural (non-steroid) weightlifting competitions - 500 pounds goes a long way, and that’s for people who focus exclusively on lifting.

But yeah, sure, some scrawny XC runners could do it in 6 months.

Yeah, I've introduced lots of people to the deadlift. 500 is just enough to make this a very tough challenge. I've trained about a dozen people past 500, some well past, but none could have been even close on the run. I had one guy do 450 first day, but he weighed 240 and after 18 months of training he was only at 550. I had a teenager do 551 at 181, pretty fit but still no chance on the run.

I'll need to see a video for any of these claims.