Hey K.Bear,

I'm also 6'1", and very much and ectomorph body type. I'm not super lean though; normally carry about 15% BF. And as far as pulling 10s in the mid 400's, that was just me working on form. I pulled 550x10 a couple months after starting this thread as a max effort set of 10 reps.

It's hard to say what you're doing wrong if anything. The number one answer to every question about "what routine", "what best exercise", etc. is just to train hard. I'm not saying you don't, but sometimes a simple evaluation on your determination, time spent on the bar, dedication, etc. can be key to your success or lack thereof. If you're training hard, making sacrifices for gym time, not taking short cuts, etc. than it might just be a matter of patience and time. It took me just over 7 years of intense training to pull my first 700 in a suit natty. Then my first cycle to push the boundaries raw, and ultimately to do so on my second cycle - I believe I could have easily on my first cycle, I just didn't get around to it due to alternate event training.

That said, there is one thing I never do as an accessory to my full ROM deadlift and that's rack pulls. They're not all together pointless (they have their place), but on a personal level, have never seen any carry over to my full ROM pulls. On the other hand, I do see a lot of carry over from pulling from the floor to partial pulls. The form is so significantly different, that they're not the same lift. Sure, rack pulls will help strengthen the back, but with virtually no leg recruitment, and pulling from the floor should be done through the legs. To me it has never made any sense that I can, for instance, pull 900 from my sticking point 3"-4" (16" rack pull) below the knees, but get stuck with say 725. That doesn't jive.

So my prescription for top end overload, or to work through sticking points is to use some sort of accommodated resistance and pull full ROM. My personal favorite is the reverse band deadlift. Chains work well also, but get in the way too much. Pulling into bands is just hard on your joints, and it's easier to gauge band tension by hanging them (load the bar until both sides just touch the floor, and voila, you know how much weight they're pulling off the floor).

Here's a little bit of bro science for why reverse band deadlifts work so well. When you pull a weight from the floor, let's say 600, your muscles only need produce a enough force to overcome 600 lb at every position in the lift - you body will adjust somewhat to the different physiological leverages, but 600 lb of force is all it takes. What happens when you pull using accommodating resistance is because the weight is constantly increasing, your body must be constantly increasing the force needed to overcome the weight. In essence, you're training your body to increasingly output more energy as needed to overcome greater and greater forces. Now, when you stall out on a deadlift, it's because your body gets to a point where it can't overcome the force needed due to leverage or what not. If you teach your body to increase its output when needed, you should work right through those sticking points, and nail that PR. I have had a LOT of success with these.

Of course it's not that simple. You need to find out what works best for you. I do not do reverse band pulls every day and definitely not every week. As a matter of fact, when I'm in the strength phase of my training, I will either only pull every other week or pull two weeks in a row, and squat on the third. The most important thing is to never pull the same twice in a row; always rotate movements. For me it's generally one week of straight weight pulls, next week reverse band pulls, 3rd week 14" cambered bar box squats, all max effort for triples. I never do speed pulls, but 3 days later I will do ultra-wide DE box squats into bands, but that's about it. Speed on the deadlift should be worked every single pull you perform. Speed box squats will produce that extra bit of explosiveness.

And speaking of the 14" cambered squat bar; there isn't a better device for accessorizing the deadlift, while brutalizing your quads in the process

That's it in a nutshell. Maybe it'll work for you, maybe it won't. But take note that I do put considerable more emphasis on my deadlift than I do on my squat during competition season.

There's a dude on YouTube that does this. Wonder if it's you? You don't have to answer that, but if it is, that's pretty fucking bad-ass. Even if it's not you on there, 720 no belt at 225 is out of this world bro!

Damn, that's strong at that body weight man!

Don't get any ball sweat in your eye while swinging from his nuts.