This thread is directed towards those who can pull around 375lb-425lb.
At this stage of development,how often do you deadlift? Are you still able to add weight to the bar each time you pull i.e. you are still able to progress on a linear basis?
P.S:500lb,600lb,700lb,800lb pullers are welcome to chip in their experiences when they could only pull 400lb.
Pulled every single week. Still do.
Can make maybe 6-8 weeks of linear progress if I build it up slowly.
Dead’s around 535lb raw at the moment, and the above still applies.
I can pull around 450 - 470 lbs. At the minute I deadlift once a week on the pins in the power rack, and do romanian deadlifts on another day (its the program im following)
I usually stay around 427 as my heaviest set if im deadlifting. I like getting a couple of reps with it. I would love to add weight each time but those days are gone. I try to add a few lbs every couple of months but my max deadlift usually stays around the weights I mentioned above.
What im doing now is strengthening the weak points, lower back, traps, hamstrings.
another factor I have to consider is a previous Hernia I had. It causes no problems now but I have to be careful I can handle a weight before I try it. So that kind of makes me hold back a little
If you feel your peaking, eat more. You should pull at least once a week. 3 or more will usually be too much for deadlift.
Only beginners really progress every workout-by a good measure-, might take a few weeks but progress will come.
Ive pulled 500 and I deadlift pretty rarely.
This isnt because I dont like deadlifting or I think that I wont progress doing it, its because my leg strength is determining factor in my pull at the moment.
When I do deadlift I tend to start off rack pulling for a few weeks and then progress to the floor, usually for 3 weeks.
[quote]Dave284 wrote:
Ive pulled 500 and I deadlift pretty rarely.
This isnt because I dont like deadlifting or I think that I wont progress doing it, its because my leg strength is determining factor in my pull at the moment.
When I do deadlift I tend to start off rack pulling for a few weeks and then progress to the floor, usually for 3 weeks.[/quote]
Yeah I’m similar to you, I lay off deads for a while and focus heavily on my squats-front and back- and my deads still progress. I don’t do many rack pulls though since its slightly different movement then a normal deadlift. But its a great way to load a lot of weight and hit my grip and upper back a little more-when I do them I do slightly above knee-
I find they re good for deads if you do them from mid shin (so the plates are between 2-5 inches from the floor).
best i’ve tried is 440lb for a single, the other week i did 400 for a set of 5, i dead once a week, found front squats really help
I pull 396 (conventional). I only do singles on deadlifts on my worksets, and had much more progress when i started doing really heavy singles and wide wide-stance squats.
ME once a week with DL+SQ one week, DE once a week DL+SQ. The next week i add weight, do squats first, then deadlifts. Works very, very well for me.
180 kg are closer to 397 lbs, don’t cut yourself short 
My 1RM is 180 too, and I progressed like Dave284 and shizen, until I found out that grip is my limiting factor.
Before that squats had pretty good correlation with my DLs- if squats go up, DLs go up too.
I’m quite happy with my overall progress, but specifically for the deadlift, I’ve stagnated for 2-3 months now. The reason - I did Smolov and after it I was pretty drained to continue with heavy squatting or deadlifting, so I gave myself a break.
Even though my 1RM is not that bad, if bodyweight is taken into account, I feel that we are still in the territory when to deadlift more, we have to deadlift more.
So after I deal with some minor injuries I have accumulated recently, I’m thinking about deadlift cycle of some sort
Never done one, so should be real fun.
My suggestion would be something around those lines - don’t try to increase your deadlift by NOT doing it. If you feel you’re overtraining - cut some of the intensity and don’t forget to work the grip.
If you want to reach your full potential in the deadlift then I advice anyone to deadlift week in week out.
I reached 400lbs just doing BB style lifting, 500lbs deadlifting of the floor rarley, and 600lbs deadlifting full every week. For me the main thing is not to go full on every week.
I’ve deadlifted around 500 lbs (220 kg) when I was around 220 lbs (100 kg). Here’s how I did it:
I’ve deadlifted 190 kg after just lifting two weeks with 3x2 three times a week. Guess it was a good shock for my body.
I’ve deadlifted 205 kg after Poliquin’s 1/6 method (for back squats and snatch deadlifts).
I’ve deadlifted 220 kg after doing the smolov base meso for the full back squat. I warmed up each session with singles in the power clean or power snatch.
Each time my full squat goes up my deadlift goes up. If you want a big deadlift in a short time do the smolov junior. I’m a big believer in short period overreaching phases.
[quote]shizen wrote:
If you feel your peaking, eat more. You should pull at least once a week. 3 or more will usually be too much for deadlift.
Only beginners really progress every workout-by a good measure-, might take a few weeks but progress will come. [/quote]
Also, change up your intensity. 1 week do 4 sets of 5 then do 5 sets of 3 and then do dumbell or kettlebell swings for 2 sets of 15.
I got to 385 fairly quickly, but I can’t get 405 past my knee to save my life (or, I couldn’t 3 weeks ago, that is). Since then, I switched to rack pulls for six weeks, and last time I pulled 405 from just above the knee for a set of 7 and a set of 10, so if I can get the weight to my knee I know I can pull it.
when i was pulling around 400lbs i was doing full ROM deadlifts 1x per week, and lots of hamstring accessory work and of course heavy squats.
now, my best pull is 624 @ 198 and i still pull heavy every week, i just rotate the movements i do (I use sumos, rack pulls, pulls on a box). I pull conventional for a max. I really enjoy cycling the movements because i can PR almost every week.
A lot depends on age, training age, size, a background. I personally like to pull from the floor once a week, and on my other leg day the squat is my main lift but i do quite a bit of semi stiff leg deadlifts. back when i used to pull 400, i was barely pulling at all, ,ainly doing SLDL.
if strength is your thing then westside style traiing in unbeatable.
(ps I pull 3.5x bw in the juniors division)
“if strength is your thing then westside style traiing in unbeatable.”
Tell the guys in RPF that lol!
[quote]IainK wrote:
“if strength is your thing then westside style traiing in unbeatable.”
Tell the guys in RPF that lol!
[/quote]
Waheyyyy!!! Tell it to Hoop too… And Siders.
My deadlift was around 425 when I stopped doing normal deadlifts completely for about a year and worked hard on my squat (about 500 raw no belt now from 435 with belt), romanian deadlifts and good mornings.
When I got back into normal deads, I was pulling 495 for three reps with no problem and got up to 545 for a single with possible room for another 10-15 lbs.
I do 3 wks ME deadlift, 3 wks ME squat. While I’m not too strong yet (405 in april), I think the best advice I can give is to not chase numbers by constantly pulling singles. Really, sets of 5 and 3 have helped me the most.