Deadlift Improvement?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
21

[quote]dankid wrote:
Once you start lifting heavier weights on deadlift, you have to cut back on volume or frequency big time.

If you really love deadlifting, then I assume you dont want to do it less often. So you’ll need to cut back on the volume then.

If you are going to train it two times a week, then have one “strength” session, and one “speed” session.

The strength session, cut back on the total number of reps:

General warmup
135x5
175x3
195x1
205x1
210xreps (3-5) This is your working set and from here is where you try to build and increase.

So you can do one main working set and try to increase that. I prefer to do many more working sets that dont push quite as hard, but thats personal preference.

On the speed day:

You’ll probably want to use about 65-75% of your max (lets say your max is 225 initially, since 25 was “scary”)

So about 170lbs. Do about 7-10 sets of ONE rep. The goal here is to work on your form and SPEED. Also, if you are weak off the floor this is a good day to do pulls from a deficit.

Other than all those basic training ideas, you can try to identify your weaknesses and work on those. (ie: whether your weak off the floor, aroundthe shin/knee, or at lockout)

Good luck, and keep your form from getting “scary”

[/quote]

That’s pretty good advice, but working up to a 210-pound 1 or 3 RM is more like this:

bar x 5
65 x 3
85 x 3
105 x 3
125 x 3
145 x 3
165 x 1
185 x 1
215 x 1

If your max is 215, then 135 is way to heavy to warm up with for ME work.

22

[quote]chimera182 wrote:
What I just started doing is trying to push out with the sides of my feet and pulling the slack out of the bar before I lift. Deadlift instantly goes up.[/quote]

That does work. So does turning your toes outward slightly in conventional and as much as possible in sumo - lessens the distance between your body and the bar.

23

I deadlift once a week… I would say the hardest part is getting it off the ground… I will reduce my reps on the lower weight bc it does beat the crap out of me by the time I get to my final sets…

24

[quote]Gmoore17 wrote:

[quote]ridethecliche wrote:

[quote]giterdone wrote:

[quote]ridethecliche wrote:
A lot of experienced lifters on here have commented that doing rack pulls has brought up their deadlift.

[/quote]

It depends on where your sticking point is in the lift. If you are weak off the floor then rack pulls aren’t necessarily going to fix that.[/quote]

Is there anything you can do to assist if you’re weak off the floor?

Is the answer simply to DL more with lighter weights to get better development for that? I.e. put the rack around your knees and lift onto that only to concentrate on the bottom of the stroke?[/quote]

I believe deficit deads are often used for this purpose.[/quote]
what are deficit deads?

25

You stand on a platform and do deadlifts from that. So basically you increase the travel distance, and it becomes easier to do them from the ‘regular’ height.

These things should be started from an inch or two, and you shouldn’t do them with 5-6 inches.
I’m sure someone here will clarify.

26

[quote]ktjfin wrote:
what are deficit deads?[/quote]

Or simply use 35’s or 25’s instead of 45’s

27

[quote]dankid wrote:
Once you start lifting heavier weights on deadlift, you have to cut back on volume or frequency big time.

If you really love deadlifting, then I assume you dont want to do it less often. So you’ll need to cut back on the volume then.

If you are going to train it two times a week, then have one “strength” session, and one “speed” session.

The strength session, cut back on the total number of reps:

General warmup
135x5
175x3
195x1
205x1
210xreps (3-5) This is your working set and from here is where you try to build and increase.

So you can do one main working set and try to increase that. I prefer to do many more working sets that dont push quite as hard, but thats personal preference.

On the speed day:

You’ll probably want to use about 65-75% of your max (lets say your max is 225 initially, since 25 was “scary”)

So about 170lbs. Do about 7-10 sets of ONE rep. The goal here is to work on your form and SPEED. Also, if you are weak off the floor this is a good day to do pulls from a deficit.

Other than all those basic training ideas, you can try to identify your weaknesses and work on those. (ie: whether your weak off the floor, aroundthe shin/knee, or at lockout)

Good luck, and keep your form from getting “scary”

[/quote]

What does a speed day help with?

28

[quote]ridethecliche wrote:

What does a speed day help with?
[/quote]

Uh? Speed.

Well more specifically rate of force development, and speed. Probably not that important for deadlift, if you are weak at the bottom.

In that case, it would probably be better to not do the speed work for deadlifts and work on your sticking point with or weak muscles with more reps.

29

Right, so the goal is to train your nervous system to recruit more fibers for the effort?

30

[quote]ridethecliche wrote:
Right, so the goal is to train your nervous system to recruit more fibers for the effort?[/quote]

Read an article on the subject by Dave Tate or Jim Wendler.

31

Your warm ups are too much. Lower the volume. Do some back extensions as a moderate warm up…like a set of 10-15, and then do a set of 5 reps at 45% of your working sets, 3 reps at 65%, and then 1 rep at 85% and then move into your working sets.

32

Thank you very much everybody!!! Ill let you know when I get to 315 :stuck_out_tongue:

33

[quote]Bricknyce wrote:

[quote]ridethecliche wrote:
Right, so the goal is to train your nervous system to recruit more fibers for the effort?[/quote]

Read an article on the subject by Dave Tate or Jim Wendler. [/quote]

Yessir!

34

Very good.

[quote]chimera182 wrote:
What I just started doing is trying to push out with the sides of my feet and pulling the slack out of the bar before I lift. Deadlift instantly goes up.[/quote]

35

[quote]Bricknyce wrote:

[quote]chimera182 wrote:
What I just started doing is trying to push out with the sides of my feet and pulling the slack out of the bar before I lift. Deadlift instantly goes up.[/quote]

That does work. So does turning your toes outward slightly in conventional and as much as possible in sumo - lessens the distance between your body and the bar. [/quote]

I never consciously thought about that. I can’t wait to try it.

36

[quote]tribunaldude wrote:
Very good.

[quote]chimera182 wrote:
What I just started doing is trying to push out with the sides of my feet and pulling the slack out of the bar before I lift. Deadlift instantly goes up.[/quote]
[/quote]

Thanks.

37

I found heavy shrugs (well power shrugs, heavier than I was pulling) also moved my DL upward. In fact one lift hasn’t moved without the other moving too.

38

[quote]D Public wrote:
I train like this.

warm up with bar
135x5
155x5
185x3
205x3
205x3
215x1
225x1
225x1

if you felt like 225x1 was solid, then you would go 235x1.

I prefer training like this because I get a lot of practice on my form, and I can vary the weight and reps based on how strong I am on a particular day.
[/quote]

I second this method

39

[quote]chimera182 wrote:

[quote]Bricknyce wrote:

[quote]chimera182 wrote:
What I just started doing is trying to push out with the sides of my feet and pulling the slack out of the bar before I lift. Deadlift instantly goes up.[/quote]

That does work. So does turning your toes outward slightly in conventional and as much as possible in sumo - lessens the distance between your body and the bar. [/quote]

I never consciously thought about that. I can’t wait to try it.[/quote]

If you do it right, you’ll see the difference right away.

40

[quote]Brazil wrote:

[quote]D Public wrote:
I train like this.

warm up with bar
135x5
155x5
185x3
205x3
205x3
215x1
225x1
225x1

if you felt like 225x1 was solid, then you would go 235x1.

I prefer training like this because I get a lot of practice on my form, and I can vary the weight and reps based on how strong I am on a particular day.
[/quote]

I second this method
[/quote]

I don’t second that scheme. It’s supposed to look like this - NOT involving a NINETY-POUND jump from 45 to 135 pounds.

bar x 5
65 x 3
85 x 3
105 x 3
125 x 3
145 x 3
165 x 1
185 x 1
215 x 1