Hi everyone,
I’m curious how people manage the 3+ deadlift days. I recently had to do a set of 10 at 207kgs. That’s about 90% of my current max and it’s a taxing day at the office. Im wondering how people approach these high rep heavy sets. Each one of those lifts is manageable but to repeat them without pausing isn’t and as I get past the 5 mark I’m breathing heavy and needing to take 30-50 seconds between reps. It took me about 10 minutes to do it. I had a set of 15 to do at 200kgs on a previous cycle which took ages, maybe 15 minutes. This doesn’t necessarily bother me, Im 41 and its heavy, I’m not going to be touch and go ing with that kind of weight, Im just curious if anyone does what I do? Are you supposed to piss through them as quickly as possible ? If I did that approach I wouldn’t get it done, Id start failing and at that weight likely sacrifice form for speed. Surely that’s not the goal is it ? The way I do it I hit the reps , get the stimulus but it takes me longer… Is that ok ?
Which 5/3/1 program are you running that is requiring you to hit 10 and 15 rep deadlift sets?
Uh oh , don’t like the sound of this !! I’m going off the app 531pro , it doesn’t require you as such, just records what you’ve done and suggests targets to achieve new PRs. The next deadlift session for instance is 217.5kgs and it mentions 9 reps to beat PR / 6 Reps to beat cycle 1RM. So going into that session I will target 6 reps there. I thought the apps closely follow the training principle, am I wrong ?
Jim hasn’t authorized any app for his program, and it sounds like that app has really screwed it up. Have you read any of Jim’s books?
I find doing touch-and-go reps on higher rep, AMRAP sets to be much more sustainable and effective. If you’re going to pause, pause in the top, not the bottom. You’ll probably get fewer reps or have to reduce the load, but at least you’re maintaining some degree of tension for the entire set. What you’re doing now is essentially a maximal rest-pause set of deadlifts. Of course thats going to beat you up.
Edit: Also, buy the books written by the actual expert, not the app created by some random guy ripping the expert off.
I have yes, 531 second edition. He has a sample week in the book where he has the lifter deadlifting 280 lbs for 12 reps on the last set so I thought the app was accurate based off that?
Ive been lifting most of my life, I’m not new to this, I was surprised myself with the high rep heavy deadlifts. I’d always read and been counselled against heavy deadlifts for high reps. I did starting strength a long time ago and always remember from that to not go above 3 sets of 5.
Having said all that I’ve been surprised to see how quickly my body adapted to this heavy workload and figured this was part of the program to drive hormonal release…And I have gotten stronger, am I doing something wrong ?
There’s nothing wrong with deadlifting for high reps. I do that frequently. I pulled 401 reps this Thanksgiving
But the thing is: there’s never a required amount of reps you need to hit for the PR set. The app is leading you astray there. If you’re taking 15 minutes to get through a single set of deadlifts, I’d say that’s a sign that your TM is too heavy.
So do you sacrifice weight for time under tension ? The weights I mentioned are too heavy to touch and go, I might get 2 or 3 touch and go but that’s it. I don’t know many people who do high rep touch and go at 90% of their max ?
Yea like I mentioned above I have read his book, cover to cover, he says touch and go or dead stop which he defines as reset for each rep. There’s no mention of resting at all during the last set but Ive read on this forum him advising someone their heavy deadlift set shouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes to complete, so he allows 10 minutes.
Yes I agree with you on the 15 minutes and the TM being too high, I’ll look at adjusting it to bring the time needed down and still get the right stimulus. 401 reps 
Outstanding work there, I could see you slipping into a dark place there towards the final third of that video! Speaking of dark places, If my kids are badly behaved Im going to tell them this guy of the internet is going to come get them and make them do "Axle Grace into Fran into 5 minutes of 24kg ABCs into 95lb TABEARTA " 
That was a horrible workout to take on you have my every sympathy there !!
While I have you there , one quick question. I went for a new 1RM recently 235kg which slipped out of my hand on my dominant side on 2 attempts when the bar was getting near the top of my thigh. Very frustrating, I have it in the legs but can’t hold on. I would hook grip my deadlifts normally. I switched to a mixed grip hook grip and same thing happened so I used straps then and got it. My grip seems to be an issue therefore. I do a LOT of heavy (for me) dumbbell / trap bar farmer carries and suitcase carries and have done for years so I was bummed to see this happen, never been an issue before. Do you have any recommended direct grip work for deadlifting ? I feel like its not heavy enough yet to permanently have to start using straps at that weight, there’s boys I train with lifting much heavier than that with no straps , I feel like I should be able to hold onto 235 kgs, its not 300 !
No. No its not.
90% of your actual max is 3 reps. 4 if you got stronger in a process.
I appreciate the kind words dude.
If I had to do it all over again, I would use straps on day 1. Straps rock.
Sounds like you found your training max then
The ‘set’ took him 10 minutes so it might be 90% of his max.
His training max is far too high.