Well After months, and I mean months, of waiting, I’m fianlly in a postion to begin my bulk. I have everything ready, just waiting for my protein powder and dip-belt to arrive(I even have access to a rugby gym totally free), yet one thing is still puzzling me. 9Despite lifting and fitness in general being my main interest for the past 6-months)
I’m well aware of the big three bulking exercises, I’m just wondering which deadlift I should focus on. I’m very hazy in the whole deadlift area actually, and I don’t want to mess it up because it’s my back, which of course is just so vital to well… everything.
Stiff-legged dead lift? Romanian…?
It’s kinda confusing me and I’d really appreciate some help.
Which deadlift should I be doing, or should I be doing more than one…?
If you are doing a total body program where you hit every muscle group in one day I would use stiff-legged deadlifts or maybe not deadlift at all (letting squats and other back exercises take care of what deadlifts handle).
If you are doing more of a split though I would use the standard deadlift, either by itself, or on back day.
It really depends on what your program is as to how to incorporate it. I like the standard deadlift though, it is my favourite lift.
I personally do three variations: Romanian, conventional, and snatch grip.
With Romanians, I can load the bar more. Helps with my grip and back strength. Also has a little bit of a supramaxial hold effect.
I use snatch grip sometimes because I REALLY need to work on my legs. I’ll use these if my legs feel strong that day, or if I feel like I didn’t get a very good squat workout the day before. (my knee is still recovering from a motorcycle accident in Feb.)
I think it depends on your goals, from a strength perspective you should be doing them depending on what is weak on your pull from the floor whether it is sumo or conventional.
I like Romanian deadlifts as an accessory lift, it is not my main lift, i use RDL to especially target my glutes and hamstrings. For me these carry over amazingly into my deadlift and they don’t affect recovery as much.
I also do deficit deadlifts because i am weak off the ground, i dont know if its a mental thing, but if i max without doing a set of deficit pulls, I NEVER SEEM TO BE ABLE TO GET THE BAR OFF THE FLOOR. They carryover great to my normal deadlift.
Rackpulls are good to overload your back and stimulate your CNS, you get used to having a lot more weight on your hands.
Snatch grip deadlifts do not carry over to normal deadlifts for me at all, but they do feel like they hit my upper back alot. I
just rather do rack pulls i guess.
Conventional and Sumo deadlifts frequency will differ. People who pull a lot of weight may only be able to deadlift every other week. I’m guessing you are a beginner, so i think you can get away with puling every week. Make sure whether conventional or sumo work better for you. Either way i think you should switch them up if you can get carryover from one to another.
If safety is top concern, leave your ego at the door and practice your form with lighter weights, don’t expect to hit perfect form on a 1RM though.
My main goal is size. Plain and simple. I’m 6’'1 at 170lbs. The plan is to change that drastically. And for mass DL’s are essential…
I devised a split routine that has me working out 4 days a week.
Mon-Routine 1
Tues-Routine 2
Wed-Rest
Thurs-Routine 1
Fri-Routine 2
Sat-Rest
Sun-Rest
Is it OK to DL twice a week? Considering that I will be attempting to max out(safely, that is) at every exercise(in order to stimulate muscle growth). Seeing as I am just beginning DL’s, I realise I will be using very light weights so I’m not going to the gym to show off.
I would not reccomend maxing out every lift. And Even though your a beginner I would not reccomend hitting deadlifts any more than once every 6 days. Like, if you were to do deadlifts in Routine 1. I would say you definatley were not giving your body enough time to recover before you hit deadlifts again on Friday. If your doing squats, do Conventional deadlift, if you Use sumo-deadlifts, do front squats every other workout instead of squats. If you want to squat and do Sumos, only do sumos once every other (or every 2) back workouts. becuase sumos are a leg dominant move. If you do conventional deadlifts, i would reccomend intergrating Romanians into your workout somehow. Remember, your goal is growth. This is done be stimulating as many muscles at once to induce a flood of Growth hormone. Conventional Deadlifts are the single greatest movement for this, bar none. Remember stuff liek this
Allow proper recovery time
10 hours of sleep will do more than anything you can do in the gym, cuz when you dont recover, you overtrain, and thats a bitch.
[quote]Iron-Head10 wrote:
sumos are a leg dominant move
[/quote]
I feel sumos a lot more in my glutes than my hams or quads. I do need to put these back in my routine soon, though.
Which variations you use will ultimately be determined by your strengths and weaknesses, and your physiology, to some extent. Play around with them and find the ones you like. Change them up every now and then.
I do semi-sumos because I don’t have the flexibility to pull conventional without rounding my back. If you’re a beginner, I’d practice the form of a conventional deadlift with light weight and a mirror to be sure you can get all the way down without compromising form.
I lifted at university in a class with about 20 untrained guys last year, some of whom were pretty strong (we had a few 400+ deadlifts after a couple months of training). But not one person could do a deadlift or a squat without rounding the back. Maybe it was a screwed up sample of people, but it’s made me wonder how suited the average beginner is to start immediately deadlifting conventional. I guess they all could have been lazy, or maybe there’s no hip mobility in society any more.
While on the subject of deads, I am currently forced to use my appartment complex’s gym. Having to give up some things currently and the gym membership was one of them. This is an upscale apartment complex so it is nicer then most that I have seen but no olympic bar, just dumbbells…
so… how can you do deadlifts with dumbells? I have tried, but just seem to think it’s doing anything. Would I be better off doing other things?
size you say… i would think that snatch grip dl’s might give you that. You can still load the bar up pretty well, and the range of motion is huge. If your flexible enough you might even want to try it from a deficit. If you want quad and back develoment try duck stance snatch grip dl’s. For glute, hamstring, and back, normal stance is more suitable.
I started doing just stiff-legged deads. Now i do conventional because they work more muscles. I have a day dedicated to the conventional deadlift now just like I have one for the back squat. IMO focus on the regular ol’ bent-legged dead and when that stops going up, then try a variation.
If your a beginning doing splits; i’d say do deadlifts; they are amazing and will only help you get big and strong.
Form is key; so check your ego at the door. Once your form is 101% perfect with low weight (I started with 135lbs for about 6 training sessions for all my sets); you will have a great base to toss plate after plate on there!
I also like the single leg DB deadlifts; they are great for mobility and hamstring strength.
2x Recovery; that is key. No sleep, no growth. Less sleel, less growth.
Maxing out often will lead to bad things. If you want to max out the “big three”. I wouldn’t do that too often. I’d say 6-8wks between maxing; work in between to get the numbers up by doing variations of these lifts and hitting some heavy doubles and triples.