Pete Rubish is one of our favorite powerlifters to watch on YouTube and Instagram, and while he’s got impressive lifts across the board, he’s probably best known for his deadlifting prowess. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Rubish’s pulling strength — hovering somewhere north of 900 pounds at 242 pounds bodyweight — wasn’t created overnight. It’s taken years of consistent training and a focused mind to get to elite status, and a recent video on Rubish’s YouTube channel shows just how much progress he’s made — from pulling 550 in his laundry room to going over 800 in competition and 900+ in training.
Rubish has stated his ultimate deadlift goal at this bodyweight (or roughly around there) is 1000 lbs, with straps, strongman style (so some hitching would be allowed). He’s inching progressively closer, and his most recent max pull is 920 with those parameters.
If you need some training motivation, it’s worth watch the video below (at least the beginning and end). Training in a home laundry room isn’t glamorous, and it isn’t always the most fun, but Rubish stuck with it and took his pulling strength from pretty good to world-class over the last few years. And it all started with mismatched plates in front a drying machine.
We’ve broken down the lifts shown in sequence after the video, in case you want to skip through some parts.
550 at 193 bodyweight
600
620 (double)
630
650 (double)
680 (double)
710
775
785
800 (use of straps starts)
815 (double)
825 (double)
855
865
880
900
905
920
838 (meet pull)
At this rate, it seems like a matter of when — not if — Rubish hits his 1000lb deadlift goal.
