Icelandic powerlifter Benedikt Magnússon (You’ve GOT to be strong with a name like that) recently recorded a world-record deadlift 1015 lbs!  He did this “raw,” meaning he wasn’t wearing a powerlifting suit. (In a nutshell, these suits are incredibly tight things that actually aid the effort of the lifter.  Lifting raw means someone is wearing something like a t-shirt and shorts.)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4jO21-a2W0

Okay, so I find this effort simply astonishing.  I love to deadlift so watching this is fun for me personally.  But what else do we see?  This large lad is graceful.  Elegant!  Look at the ease with which he performs the lift.  He makes it look easy.  He even gives a big grin to the crowd while he’s locked out at the top of the lift.  If you’re a Z-Health person, then this is exactly the sort of thing we want to strive for whether it’s during our joint mobility drills or our conventional “workout.”  Or for that matter, during your golf swing, tennis serve, swim stroke–whatever activity we’re doing.  To become excellent at something, we must establish precise command of all of our joints in every position at all speeds.

For further reading on creating excellent movement, I suggest you have a look at this article, Making the Hard Possible and the Easy Elegant from Todd Hargrove’s blog Better Movement.  He does a superb job at explaining concepts of movement, central nervous system function, proprioception and lots of other similar stuff.