[quote]brownab wrote:
To the OP, try madcow’s intermediate 5x5. It took my deadlift from 385x2 to 385x5.[/quote]
adding 3 reps to a not very large deadlift are not impressive results.
for me what really worked was heavy good mornings, sets of 8, Romain DL’s and working to heavy sets of 5 on DL.
[quote]w00tage wrote:
goochadamg wrote:
This is more of a philosophical response than anything, but …
Your question should not be “How to get to 405?” - it should be “How do I continually add weight to my deadlift?” Then 365 will fall, 405 will fall, 410, 415, 450, 500 … and so on. To put it bluntly: If you have no plan to get to 340, how the fuck will you ever get 405? The answer is to simply follow a well designed program which includes not only sets/reps and exercises, but progression. And eat. 
I’m not sure if any good programs were posted, but at your current strength level, madcow’s linear 5x5 (search the web for it) will I’m sure work wonders, especially if you eat appropriately & gain weight.
I disagree. I never once made an intermediate goal to get to, say 350, on the way to my current goal (500). Every week I have the attitude of “today I’m going to hit 500, I can’t leave until I do”. Well, I still haven’t, but I just keep ramping up (at least beyond my current PR) until I can’t do a rep.
Then I get pissed off and try again, if I haven’t increased my PR by much at all, then I will get really pissed off and keep trying. Eventually I’ll stop to focus on the rest of my back workout to hopefully increase my deadlift that way in preperation for next week, and my attitude at that point is “I fucked up today, but next week I’m going to hit 500.”
Aiming way higher than is realistic to achieve forces you to work harder if you have the mindset of “failure is not an option”. There is no “well I did good enough”, or “I was almost there”.
I agree with what you said, the most important thing is progression, I just didn’t agree with the intermediate goals thing, as I feel it’s better to set goals that are unrealistically high.
[/quote]
Wait. How are you going to get to an end point, without first knowing how to get half way there? That simply does not make sense.
I always just focus on the next 5 lbs; the next PR. I know if I do that, every number will eventually fall and I will NEVER lose sight of what matters: progression. It’s too easy to just keep missing the same weight over and over again, otherwise. Like you’re doing.
I didn’t literally mean, for example, “You must deadlift 490 before 500.” I probably won’t. I’ll deadlift 425 for reps (7? 8?) before I attempt 500. But I do mean that you must be able to deadlift 490 before 500. You must have a plan that takes you through the stages.
You’re not going to magically jump from 350 without continual progression. And for the record, I think that maxing every week on the same lift is a bad way to continually progress.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
brownab wrote:
To the OP, try madcow’s intermediate 5x5. It took my deadlift from 385x2 to 385x5.
adding 3 reps to a not very large deadlift are not impressive results.[/quote]
It was an increase of my 1 rep max by about 40lbs which is good progress for 8 weeks. I also went from a 300lbs squat(beltless) to a 385 pound squat(belted) during that time.
[quote]brownab wrote:
w00tage wrote:
goochadamg wrote:
This is more of a philosophical response than anything, but …
Your question should not be “How to get to 405?” - it should be “How do I continually add weight to my deadlift?” Then 365 will fall, 405 will fall, 410, 415, 450, 500 … and so on. To put it bluntly: If you have no plan to get to 340, how the fuck will you ever get 405? The answer is to simply follow a well designed program which includes not only sets/reps and exercises, but progression. And eat.
I’m not sure if any good programs were posted, but at your current strength level, madcow’s linear 5x5 (search the web for it) will I’m sure work wonders, especially if you eat appropriately & gain weight.
I disagree. I never once made an intermediate goal to get to, say 350, on the way to my current goal (500). Every week I have the attitude of “today I’m going to hit 500, I can’t leave until I do”. Well, I still haven’t, but I just keep ramping up (at least beyond my current PR) until I can’t do a rep.
Then I get pissed off and try again, if I haven’t increased my PR by much at all, then I will get really pissed off and keep trying. Eventually I’ll stop to focus on the rest of my back workout to hopefully increase my deadlift that way in preperation for next week, and my attitude at that point is “I fucked up today, but next week I’m going to hit 500.”
Aiming way higher than is realistic to achieve forces you to work harder if you have the mindset of “failure is not an option”. There is no “well I did good enough”, or “I was almost there”.
I agree with what you said, the most important thing is progression, I just didn’t agree with the intermediate goals thing, as I feel it’s better to set goals that are unrealistically high.
So basically your plan is to max out on deadlift every week for a PR single to raise your deadlift by 150+ pounds. I don’t see how that could possibly not work.
[/quote]
I was talking about the attitude towards it.
Last 3 weeks of deadlifting for me (all new PRs)
440lbs
420lbs
408lbs
I have seen increases like this for over a month, increasing every week by about 10lbs minimum, except one week where I fucked up. Not very long ago at all I was at where the OP is at.
[quote]goochadamg wrote:
w00tage wrote:
goochadamg wrote:
This is more of a philosophical response than anything, but …
Your question should not be “How to get to 405?” - it should be “How do I continually add weight to my deadlift?” Then 365 will fall, 405 will fall, 410, 415, 450, 500 … and so on. To put it bluntly: If you have no plan to get to 340, how the fuck will you ever get 405? The answer is to simply follow a well designed program which includes not only sets/reps and exercises, but progression. And eat.
I’m not sure if any good programs were posted, but at your current strength level, madcow’s linear 5x5 (search the web for it) will I’m sure work wonders, especially if you eat appropriately & gain weight.
I disagree. I never once made an intermediate goal to get to, say 350, on the way to my current goal (500). Every week I have the attitude of “today I’m going to hit 500, I can’t leave until I do”. Well, I still haven’t, but I just keep ramping up (at least beyond my current PR) until I can’t do a rep.
Then I get pissed off and try again, if I haven’t increased my PR by much at all, then I will get really pissed off and keep trying. Eventually I’ll stop to focus on the rest of my back workout to hopefully increase my deadlift that way in preperation for next week, and my attitude at that point is “I fucked up today, but next week I’m going to hit 500.”
Aiming way higher than is realistic to achieve forces you to work harder if you have the mindset of “failure is not an option”. There is no “well I did good enough”, or “I was almost there”.
I agree with what you said, the most important thing is progression, I just didn’t agree with the intermediate goals thing, as I feel it’s better to set goals that are unrealistically high.
Wait. How are you going to get to an end point, without first knowing how to get half way there? That simply does not make sense.
I always just focus on the next 5 lbs; the next PR. I know if I do that, every number will eventually fall and I will NEVER lose sight of what matters: progression. It’s too easy to just keep missing the same weight over and over again, otherwise. Like you’re doing.
I didn’t literally mean, for example, “You must deadlift 490 before 500.” I probably won’t. I’ll deadlift 425 for reps (7? 8?) before I attempt 500. But I do mean that you must be able to deadlift 490 before 500. You must have a plan that takes you through the stages.
You’re not going to magically jump from 350 without continual progression. And for the record, I think that maxing every week on the same lift is a bad way to continually progress.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint.[/quote]
I wrote that post veeerrrrry early in the morning, I don’t have time to re-read it right now because I’m heading to the gym, but maybe I said something retarded, so I will re-read later. Anyway…
Maxing every week may be a bad approach. I wasn’t necessarily talking about maxing though. If I was going for say 405 doing 5x5, I would aim to hit my current max for 5 reps every week, until I did it. Test a new max, then have that as my new goal, or set a reasonably high target - probably the sort of amount of weight I would need to do for 5x5 to get a 405 deadlift. I’ve tried 5x5 before like that, it didn’t really work out that great although I made continual progression, the thing I’m doing at the moment is working out a lot better.
I think you misunderstood. I’m not saying he wouldn’t be able to pull 350 as an intermediate step to reaching his goal of 405. I’m just saying (let’s say my current PR is 350) aiming for 355 isn’t exactly setting the bar high.
Did I not agree that continual progression is the most important thing (thus agreeing with you)? I can’t remember, but anyway, of course it is. I’m not disputing that. You sound like you think I expect him to go from his current PR → 405 in a day, and if he fails, just try again next week (having not progressed at all this week).
Oh btw, I don’t try for 500 every week. I meant I’ll go something like
135 x ~8
225 x ~8
315 x ~5
375 x ~5
405 x 1
440 x 1
and will just keep ramping like that until I know I’m done, and won’t be able to lift anymore etc. Then I’ll be pissed off I didn’t get up to 500 this week, and plan to do it next week. Understand?
Oh yeah, now I’m running late to the gym 
lol
What worked well for my deadlift once upon a time was rotating box squats and deadlifts on a weekly basis. The rep range was 5-8, I would move up to a weight that I could move 5 times and stay that weight for weeks until I could do 8 reps. Then move the weightup by 10 pounds and continue the “cycle”. Grip is crucial in the deadlift, straps can help if you need them.
Assitance work was either barbell rows, db rows, or chins but not on the same day unless it was a squat day. Each warm up set weather it was dl or squat was done as explosively as possible and a belt didn’t go on until about the fourth set. I ended my college career with 9 reps at 590lbs on the dl and 8 reps at 585lbs on the squat. This was after three years of training this way. I basically did not squat or deadlift much prior to the age of 20 so three years of hypertrophy reps worked.
Last year after a long layoff I started just deadlifting 3x a week until I hit 30 reps on a given weight, about 3 weeks, then I moved to once a week and immediately started singles. At times I pull the high reps not for endurance but to strengthen the pulling muscles so I stay stay tight when I go heavy. If I did not take long layoffs I would probably not pull real high reps much if ever. Pulling singles weekly will work for maybe two to three months before you need to change reps schemes or rotate a different lift into the mix. You could go back to 5-8 reps when you start to miss lift on your singles. I got up to 655lbs for a single before I damged my hand while deadlifting then I moved on to different lifts.
Eating food including carbs is important to strength gains. Sprinting is also beneficial to dl strength, at least from my experience. I was not the strongest human in the history of the earth but what I was doing for a workout was adding strength to my lifts very consistently. Hopefully something I mentioned was helpful.
[quote]Brett295 wrote:
Currently I can: (no belt, straps, gear, etc…)
Squat 300
Deadlift 335
Bench 225
Goals are to:
Squat 405
Deadlift 405
Bench: 275
Eventualy I’d like those lifts to be unbelted no straps etc but if I need to put a belt on to get to those numbers I will. [/quote]
Haha, I was just looking at those numbers like, “hmm, that’s familiar”, then I checked your profile. We’re just about identical, brother; maybe I’m a half inch shorter and bench a bit more, but my dead stalled out on 330 last time.
I had a 6 week layoff from lifting to travel, but now I’m training twice a day x 5 days a week til school starts. I’ve been just ramping up to one set of as many reps as I can, in certain ranges, with the same or more weight than the week before, trying to beat the books. I’ll check back here now and then, I’d like to see how your progress goes. Please keep us (me) updated!
do 5/3/1 and increase by 10 lbs per month. You will be there in 7-9 months.
IMO for most of you guys coan-phillipi seems to be the best course of action. Not to mention it will teach you to train intensely.
[quote]Mondy wrote:
jeremyjjbrown wrote:
Mondy,
Did you get my reply? The message I sent did not show in my sent messages list.
Jeremy
Nope, I did not get your reply. Odd.[/quote]
Hmmmm, I can’t get it to go through on three different computers. If your OK with it you can PM me an email address and I can send it there. I don’t know why sending a PM doesn’t work for me.
[quote]w00tage wrote:
Oh btw, I don’t try for 500 every week. I meant I’ll go something like
135 x ~8
225 x ~8
315 x ~5
375 x ~5
405 x 1
440 x 1
[/quote]
Ok, we agree. But you really don’t go “Today I’ll go for 440. If I get 440 this week, maybe next week I can get 450 or 460?” You don’t consider those intermediate goals? Oh well.
[quote]jasmincar wrote:
shoobey wrote:
Not to hijack this thread, but I have a slippery grip issue with deadlifts. I usually fail well before I am actually done because my palms get too sweaty and I can no longer grip the bar. I don’t like using gloves or straps because I want the most out of the lift I can get, but it’s frustrating that I’m limited by how long I can hold the bar before my hand gets too sweaty rather than what I can phsyically lift.
If you use strap your DL will skyrocket
I got from 315 to 405 in two months when I started using straps[/quote]
Or you were horindously undertrained.
If you can’t hold on to 405 without straps then you have some serious grip strength issues. in my superior humble opinion…Of course this whole conversation depends on your lean mass and body weight. If you are 105 lbs and pulling 405 then I have no advice for you. If you are 180 and pulling 405 with straps - well you shouldn’t need them.
What worked for me the fastest was greasing the groove. I added about 50 lbs to my dead lift in about 6 weeks.
1st week: deadlift about 264 lbs for 5 reps
2nd week: deadlift about 291 lbs for 5 reps
3rd week: deadlift about 320 lbs for 5 reps
4th week: deadlift about 352 lbs for 5 reps (I was doing 5 reps of my previous 1rm now.)
5th week: deadlift about 352 lbs for 3 reps (deload)
6th week: test 1rm and nailed the 405 lbs
I deadlifted 5 days a week, only 1 working set a day. Of course with proper warm up.
I weighed 160 lbs at the time.
[quote]rephore wrote:
What worked for me the fastest was greasing the groove. I added about 50 lbs to my dead lift in about 6 weeks.
1st week: deadlift about 264 lbs for 5 reps
2nd week: deadlift about 291 lbs for 5 reps
3rd week: deadlift about 320 lbs for 5 reps
4th week: deadlift about 352 lbs for 5 reps (I was doing 5 reps of my previous 1rm now.)
5th week: deadlift about 352 lbs for 3 reps (deload)
6th week: test 1rm and nailed the 405 lbs
I deadlifted 5 days a week, only 1 working set a day. Of course with proper warm up.
I weighed 160 lbs at the time.[/quote]
For the record, I would never do this.
how did you get to 335? Maybe that’s how you get to 405.
Hey guys a general question. Is the mixed grip a must when pulling in 450 range? I tried it, and it’s just uncomfortable, if you know what I mean…
[quote]matko5 wrote:
Hey guys a general question. Is the mixed grip a must when pulling in 450 range? I tried it, and it’s just uncomfortable, if you know what I mean…[/quote]
It is a must at 450 unless you have a very strong grip. Pretty much everyone I’ve heard of that can double-overhand that kind of weight can pull significantly more with a mixed grip.
Then learning mixed grip it is.
I’ve followed this post, and I’m in the same boat. I’m a newcomer to lifting and I’m trying to learn as I go. I have chalk that I use for DL’s and I’m currently at 340lbs. I’d love to increase that to get 410lbs. From what I can read, heavy lifting for both squats, Dl’s and my legs/back in general are the way to go. My question(s) is would switching to straps make a significant difference in the weight I can pull, and also are there any variations to the DL that would help along progression?