Until I saw this video I had no idea who Richard Hawthorne was. Now I’m happy to know. Pound-for-pound he’s obviously one of the strongest men out there, deadlifting nearly 5x his bodyweight. 😯
Just awesome.
Here’s the video:
And yes, while it’s got “iPhone portrait” going on, I think that’s fine given the vertical nature of the subject matter.
What struck me the most from this? The lock out. That it’s not a hinge, it’s a thrust. That’s interesting. I stood up and tried it. Lacking a bar and weights I can’t get a full feel of it, but there’s certainly a big mechanical difference. I think I shall experiment with it.
Stuff From Hsoi 
This dude is really good! Mechanics is something I really like to focus on one of the first things I noticed is how tight he keeps the bar to his body through the entire movement. As you know that’s really important.
Indeed. I think to some extent he’s got a body built for deadlifting… look how little the bar travels. So perhaps he has some God-given advantage. But still, no one comes out of the womb able to deadlift 600 lbs…. that’s hard work and dedication. And it does seem that yes, it’s not just strength, but awesome technique. I watched the video over and over just to see how he did things. Much to learn in that little video clip.