Fitting in Deadlifts...

I am having trouble planning out when I do deadlifts lately.

Right now i’m squatting every week, I planned to alternate between squat & deadlift, but my strength gains are soaring (partically my squat) so I’m hesistant to change what I’m doing.

I am worried that if I squat & deadlift in the same week (routinely) that either one will suffer. I noticed that when I did this a month ago, it was very hard to progress on them both.

Here’s my current training plan:

Monday: Arms
Tuesday: Legs (squat, leg press, leg ext, ghr, leg curl)
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: Chest
Friday: Back (Lat pulldown, barbell row, HS pulldown, cable row)
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: Shoulders

I also put the weights away at my gym two nights a week (i work there), which wears down my lower back quite a bit.

I thought that I could replace squats with deadlift every second or 3rd week. Or add them on back day every second or 3rd week.

Thoughts?

[quote]Goodfellow wrote:
Right now i’m squatting every week, I planned to alternate between squat & deadlift, but my strength gains are soaring (partically my squat) so I’m hesistant to change what I’m doing. [/quote]

My opinion is dont change anything at this point. By your own admission its workin great. Revisit this thought again when you are stalled. I do rack pulls instead of Deads less leg play with all the back work.

put it in on back day? or on shoulder day? I don’t see why you can’t deadlift and squat during the same week and not progress…whats the deal?

You could alternate front squats and RDLs on the one hand and deadlifts and something like split squats on the other as your first two exercises on leg day every two weeks as you suggested yourself, for example.

Also, you could deadlift as the first exercise on back day and switch the barbell rows to dumbbell or cable rows.

Furthermore, you could simply lump it together with shoulders as you’d still have two days to recover until doing squats.

As for the question if squatting and deadlifting in the same week is too much, why not give it a try? It will probably depend mostly on overall volume and the weights you’re using on the relevant exercises.

I would throw in some RDLs or sumos on your leg day after squats for some better ham work. If you are doing them correctly they shouldn’t add too much strain to your low back. You have to focus on your glutes.

It really all depends on what your goals are though. Based on your split, size seems to be your goal, so I wouldn’t worry about adding full deads right now. Although alternating them every 2nd or 3rd week isn’t a bad option.

[quote]Rico Suave wrote:
put it in on back day? or on shoulder day? I don’t see why you can’t deadlift and squat during the same week and not progress…whats the deal?[/quote]

personally, i only do 1 lowerback taxing exercise a week

i alternate through RDLs and Rackpulls currently not just because they both target the back but because they also can put a lot of stress of the lowerback.

Just like seabass said…

Just put in some RDL’s on leg days, they will improve your squat and deadlift as you move more and more weight. Great way to really finish off the glutes and hammies.

Also if what your doing is working and you are liking the progress, maybe you should not try and fix it. I think their is a saying about that…

[quote]seabass34 wrote:
I would throw in some RDLs or sumos on your leg day after squats for some better ham work. If you are doing them correctly they shouldn’t add too much strain to your low back. You have to focus on your glutes.

It really all depends on what your goals are though. Based on your split, size seems to be your goal, so I wouldn’t worry about adding full deads right now. Although alternating them every 2nd or 3rd week isn’t a bad option.[/quote]

Yeah I definitely could do with more hamstring work, and this could tie in with what michael said.

I think i’ll do something along the lines of this:

Weeks 1 & 2
Squat
RDL
Leg press
leg curl
leg extensions (maybe, to finish off)

Week 3
Deadlift
Leg press
leg curl
Lunges/split squat/or maybe uni-lateral leg press

I think to add in deadlifts every week i’d have to cut out a significant amount of other exercises so I can recover. Which will probably make me worse off in the long run.

Maybe move arms with shoulders, legs on monday and then deads on thursday.

What kind of weight are you moving? Because if you aren’t moving some pretty heavy shit around, you just need to eat more and you will recover just fine.

[quote]Gaius Octavius wrote:
What kind of weight are you moving? Because if you aren’t moving some pretty heavy shit around, you just need to eat more and you will recover just fine.[/quote]

But if I was moving ‘pretty heavy shit around’ then I would of course have a bigger/stronger body which is able to handle the demand.

A guy squatting 500lb’s can recover just as easily as a guy squatting 315lbs right? Because he’s built up his capacity to do so over the years…

I’m pretty sure a body’s ability to recover isn’t some single entity that stays the same.

Also if I was to eat anymore food it would be overkill.

Pretty sure that’s not how it works. But whatever man.

Without knowing how many sets you are doing – both for Tuesday and for the week as a whole – and the general way in which they’re done, it’s impossible to say.

But so far as the general matter goes:

It is possible to train squats and deadlifts (or deadlift-type exercises) in the same day, productively.

It is possible to do so twice a week, for that matter. Not just possible but a lot of powerlifting wins have been won in that manner.

On the other hand, if say you’re doing 20 sets (excluding warmups) already on Tuesday and don’t want to drop any of those exercises or reduce the sets on any of them, then no you would be unwise to add deadlifts to that day.

[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
Rico Suave wrote:
put it in on back day? or on shoulder day? I don’t see why you can’t deadlift and squat during the same week and not progress…whats the deal?

personally, i only do 1 lowerback taxing exercise a week

i alternate through RDLs and Rackpulls currently not just because they both target the back but because they also can put a lot of stress of the lowerback.[/quote]

ahh, i see. I dunno, maybe because I’m not at the higher weights yet I can deal with both of them. I separate legs from back by 2-3 days so I rest my lower back. I’m squatting 285 5x5 and DLing 335 5x5. My squats have been giving my back problems lately though and I don’t know why. Maybe I might even have to try to give more room between squats and deads. or fix my form :frowning:

[quote]Goodfellow wrote:
seabass34 wrote:
I would throw in some RDLs or sumos on your leg day after squats for some better ham work. If you are doing them correctly they shouldn’t add too much strain to your low back. You have to focus on your glutes.

It really all depends on what your goals are though. Based on your split, size seems to be your goal, so I wouldn’t worry about adding full deads right now. Although alternating them every 2nd or 3rd week isn’t a bad option.

Yeah I definitely could do with more hamstring work, and this could tie in with what michael said.

I think i’ll do something along the lines of this:

Weeks 1 & 2
Squat
RDL
Leg press
leg curl
leg extensions (maybe, to finish off)

Week 3
Deadlift
Leg press
leg curl
Lunges/split squat/or maybe uni-lateral leg press

I think to add in deadlifts every week i’d have to cut out a significant amount of other exercises so I can recover. Which will probably make me worse off in the long run.
[/quote]

This should work very well. I split squats/deads somewhat similarly (most of the time), except I alternate every lower body day.