Hey guys, I have a couple questions for you regarding athletic training.
Due to shitty form and injured lower back i cannot deadlift. Squatting is fine. I am wondering how to set up an athletic based program around the squat and bench press? I was looking into 5/3/1 but it has deads in it. Ran WS4sb for a while but kinda stalled and DE lower days bore me. I will be playing my senior year of lacrosse in the spring and then off to Denison University for College lacrosse if that helps.
Give power cleans a go
Could cleans replace deadlifts in 5/3/1?
I wouldn’t say powercleans would be a good choice given their explosive nature and the very similar hip and lumbar positioning to deadlifts. Certainly I’ve had problems with deadlifts in the past and when experimenting I found powercleans to be problematic for me also. But you’d have to experiment with that.
I personally dont see an absence of deadlifts as being a serious detriment to a sports-supportive program if they’re problematic for you. Glute-Ham Raises, hyperextensions and weighted chin-ups can help fill the void, or variations of those. I’d assume you’d be sprinting and playing your actual sport too, which will help.
If you want to use 5/3/1 do it, it’s only one lift out of four that you cant do according to the program.
Rehab your injury and learn to do deadlifts correctly. I really cant imagine a hurt lower back that would keep you from deadlifting but allow you to squat. Sounds like you just dont know how to deadlift and are avoiding that problem which will lead to problems later down the road.
Do the shit you do not want to do, and do it first, and do it right.
Have you tried Trap-bar Deads? They seem to be much friendlier on most peoples backs (actually it was invented by a guy with back problems who wanted to dead).
And honestly, I think that for athletes who low bar squat and don’t compete in powerlifting, the trap bar dead is quite possible a more beneficial move than the conventional dead.
Thanks for the help guys! I will be focusing on rehabbing my back and doing 5/3/1 with trap bar deadlifts, bench, squat, and press’s.
While you rehab the back focus a lot on hip thrusts with heavy weight, followed by loooong step lunges or step-ups (strict. no back leg pushing you up to the box). Hip thrusts will help fill the void on glute involvement and heavy weight and lunges/step ups will help with leg development.
Upper back work volume will have to be increased to make up for the lack of deadlifting.