5 Exercises to Build a 900lbs Deadlift | Cailer Woolam

Powerlifter Cailer Woolam recently broke his own deadlift world record by pulling 926 pounds. Discover his five favorite exercises for building deadlift strength!
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Mark Bell, professional powerlifter and owner of the Super Training Gym in West Sacramento, California, has seen some powerful people swagger through his facility. But when a guy from Lubbock, Texas, named Cailer Woolam strolled in and started doing 500-pound bent-over barbell rows, Bell was taken aback.
"OK, after a certain point it just gets to be flat-out stupid," he says. "There are people dying to deadlift that much, and he's rowing it like it's nothing."
Compared to Woolam's deadlift record, Bell was right: It really was nothing—at least not for Woolam, who works as an assistant grocery manager at a supermarket when he's not lifting ungodly amounts of weight in the gym. Competing in the 198-pound class, Woolam has officially deadlifted 900 pounds. In the 220-pound class, he's gotten up to 927 pounds, making him the current world record holder for that class. And that's not even the amazing part. There's the insane amount of weight he lifts—and then there's way he lifts it.
"Cailer is an exceptional and explosive lifter, probably the most explosive sumo deadlifter I've ever seen in my life," Bell says. "It's unbelievable how fast this guy is able to lift these enormous weights and maintain his form—and how he can hold onto that much weight with a hook grip."
Woolam encourages anyone interested in improving their deadlifts to work all five of these exercises into their weekly workout plans. Go light when you're hitting the same muscles with other exercises, but when you're not, go after these moves with a vengeance.
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Mark Bell from SuperTraining Gym, the strongest gym in the west, invited 2x World Record Deadlifter Cailer Woolam to show his 5 favorite accessory movements for building a massive deadlift.
| Bent-Over Barbell Row |
The unique aspect about Woolam's rows is the sheer amount of weight he lifts. He didn't start out that way. Back in December 2015, he was rowing 275 pounds, which is good but not eye-popping. Once he noticed the connection between rowing heavy weights and his deadlift, he doubled down on his rows. A year and a half later, he's rowing 500 pounds, sometimes more.
"As soon as I realized the rows were helping my deadlift, I made them a priority in my workouts," Woolam says. "When I made them a priority, my delts started blowing up. And the stronger my delts got, the more I could deadlift."
Woolam positions himself in front of the bar much like he would for a deadlift, but he moves his hands and feet a little wider. As he descends into position, he gets his back tight to prepare for the weight, and visualizes himself literally ripping the weight off the floor. The rest of the concentric portion follows normal form, except that he's rowing a hell of a lot of weight.
When his daily workout includes other heavy lifts, he'll row with low weight and higher reps. On days when he's doing the rows specifically to improve his deadlift, he'll warm up with those low weights, then go super heavy for very low reps.
| Weighted Pull-Ups |
When Woolam is going heavy on the rows, he'll go light on the pull-ups—light for him, anyway
"On those days, I'll just strap on a 45-pound plate and see how many reps I can do for 5 sets," he says.
When he goes heavy on the pull-ups, he'll add more plates and do sets of 5 reps.
| Shrug |
Woolam chooses not to use a rack or machine for shrugs. He'll start either off the floor or with no more than a 4-inch box.
"If you're doing a shrug out of a rack, you tend to do way too much weight," Woolam says. "As far as I'm concerned, if you can't deadlift it, you shouldn't shrug it. You're just going to hurt yourself."
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