Deadlift Frequency

Not a bad bump of a 3 year old thread.

What I’m finding myself is that my lower back can fatigue quickly with squats, if I’m not careful with my deadlifts. I deadlifted heavy twice in a row last week (first day was bad, so I made a second attempt)… and I really just couldn’t hold a stable enough back position for my squats. If I asked for anything requiring more time under the bar than doubles or singles my back would fatigue and lose the weight forward.

Not that any of those lifts are particularly heavy, but as the weights get heavier, it’s becoming more and more obvious how important proper programming is. I can’t get away with things I used to.

In my experience the deadlift, more so than any other lift, has to be auto-regulated. Some weeks I feel great and pull twice a week, some weeks I hit my 5/3/1+ set and that’s it, and the other weeks are somewhere in between.

I almost always take every fourth week off from deadlifting though, even if I feel good. I’ve found even 6 straight weeks of deadlifting with percentage at or over 70% of max or TM will have a detrimental impact on my recovery/lifting performance on other lifts.