So I’ve been stuck at my max for my deadlift for a while now. I finally got to 4 plates (405) but haven’t budged a pound on it since. Some days I can’t even manage to pull it at all. What sort of drills would help me out with this? My problem is not locking it out, but getting the first movement. If I can get it off the ground, I can make the lift. It’s the first inch that I struggle on. If I rack pull an inch off the ground, I can make the lift every time.
I’ve incorporated 2 things in the past week or so: I’ve begun pulling from about a foot deficit, standing on a box; and I’ve begun to lift for speeds with bands. Will these help? Obviously I’m trying to train for speed on these lifts, I usually DL 135 from the deficit, and notice that after about 3-4 reps the bar starts slowing down, so obviously I wait and rest. With the bands I make a regular pull with 225 for about 5-6 reps, or until my lifts start to slow.
Are these drills going to help? Anyone else have any other ideas to help with the lift?
Speed pulls
Deficit speed pulls
goodmornings:
paused
low bar
high bar
saftey squat bar
cambered bar
Squats:
Wide
Close
High
box squats - low and high
Stiff leg deadlifts
romanian deadlifts
deadlifts with chains
deadlifts with bands
zercher squats
front squats
leg press
Kneeling squats
Rack pulls
barbell rows
dumbell rows
chinups
pullups
pulldown
dumbell shrugs
barbell shrugs
Pick a couple that you suck at and get good at them, figure out your weak link and beat on it.
Front Squats, Shrugs, Rows, and Rack Pulls help my deadlifts the most. Making tiny improvements in these exercises may not always help but if you can add 75 pounds to your Rack Deadlift and 50 pounds to your Front Squat then your deadlift should rise.
Start with Power cleans as heavy and explosive as you can(start light weight and focus on speed)
When you can’t perform a power clean
Move to high pulls from the floor as heavy and explosive as you can (move the weight up)
When you can’t perform a high pull
Start with the deadlifts and make sure to do a complete deload at the floor.
Do this progression 1 week and then the next week do regular deads off the floor or from a deficit. After 1 month do regular deads and you will see that they have become easier to lift. Don’t forget to deload.
You could try giving deadlifts a break. Powerlifters rarely train the deadlift, and it actually helps them recover since deadlifting is extremely taxing, even more taxing than oly lifts.
[quote]undeadlift wrote:
You could try giving deadlifts a break. Powerlifters rarely train the deadlift, and it actually helps them recover since deadlifting is extremely taxing, even more taxing than oly lifts.[/quote]
That’s what I was thinking. Do squats and some sort of hip extension (I like pull-throughs) as an assistance for a few weeks. Then try deadlifting again.
[quote]undeadlift wrote:
You could try giving deadlifts a break. Powerlifters rarely train the deadlift, and it actually helps them recover since deadlifting is extremely taxing, even more taxing than oly lifts.[/quote]
No, US multi ply lifters rarely train deadlifts.
Look at the rest of the world before you draw conclusions. Andy Bolton has the highest deadlift ever, and he trains them every week.
Benni… Konstantinov… The Russian IPF lifters… These are guys with GREAT deadlifts who are training them pretty frequently, and sometimes 2-3x a week (Tarasenko for example)
Training to a max every week is just plain stupid, and not what these guys are doing. For Bolton and Tarasenko they’re probably in the 60-85% and or 90% range off the floor. I know Bolton likes to pull heavy out of the rack or off blocks too.
To the OP, no offense, but you’re only pulling 405, it’s not gonna kill your CNS to build up to a top set of 5 or 6 over the course of 6 weeks using 3x6’s or 5x5’s. I train with several guys pulling mid 6’s at <220lb and they train their deadlift weekly. I’m not too far away from 6 myself and really just gritting my teeth and hitting 3x6’s with different variations has made a big difference.
Deadlifts are hard and they suck, don’t let people give you an excuse to wimp out of doing them.
Personally I reckon I can pull 85% of my max for 5-6 on deadlifts raw, so don’t be afraid to drop to something like 70-75% and gradually increase the weights over 5-6 weeks until you’re hitting 90% of your old deadlift max for 6. You can contiune the build up and drop to 3’s and work towards a new max, or you can drop back down and start it all over again.
[quote]Hanley wrote:
undeadlift wrote:
You could try giving deadlifts a break. Powerlifters rarely train the deadlift, and it actually helps them recover since deadlifting is extremely taxing, even more taxing than oly lifts.
No, US multi ply lifters rarely train deadlifts.
Look at the rest of the world before you draw conclusions. Andy Bolton has the highest deadlift ever, and he trains them every week.
Benni… Konstantinov… The Russian IPF lifters… These are guys with GREAT deadlifts who are training them pretty frequently, and sometimes 2-3x a week (Tarasenko for example)[/quote]
I know Andy trains the DL every week, but in the form of clean pulls and elevated pulls right? I don’t recall him frequently doing the actual deadlifts themselves in training.
Anyway, I based my original statement on the assumption that the OP maxes out on deadlifts pretty often. I guess we can agree that doing so would be counterproductive.
[quote]undeadlift wrote:
Hanley wrote:
undeadlift wrote:
You could try giving deadlifts a break. Powerlifters rarely train the deadlift, and it actually helps them recover since deadlifting is extremely taxing, even more taxing than oly lifts.
No, US multi ply lifters rarely train deadlifts.
Look at the rest of the world before you draw conclusions. Andy Bolton has the highest deadlift ever, and he trains them every week.
Benni… Konstantinov… The Russian IPF lifters… These are guys with GREAT deadlifts who are training them pretty frequently, and sometimes 2-3x a week (Tarasenko for example)
I know Andy trains the DL every week, but in the form of clean pulls and elevated pulls right? I don’t recall him frequently doing the actual deadlifts themselves in training.
Anyway, I based my original statement on the assumption that the OP maxes out on deadlifts pretty often. I guess we can agree that doing so would be counterproductive.[/quote]
Clean pulls and elevated pulls and the likes are trained consistently throughout the year tho, it’s a whole lot different than WSBB based systems where you might only pull a deadlift variation every 6 weeks. Andy’s pulling them every week.
Matt, I’ll try to post a video of the form - Hopefully I can get it up sometime next week when I train it again. And you’re right, the bar sits about an inch, if that, above my foot.
To those who suggested squats in my workout, I already do them once a week. My workouts usually look something like this:
Monday: Either ME DL or DE Squat
Wednesday: Either DE Bench or ME Bench
Friday: Either DE Dl or ME Squat
Saturday: Sport specific weight training.
If I do a DE in one of the lower body exercises I’ll do the ME version of the other lower body exercise the next training session, and vice versa. Normally I incorporate a lot more cleans into these workouts, but for the next week or so I’m going to be without an olympic lifting station (I’ve been without it for about the past 3 weeks) so this will change once I get back into the swing of things.
Hanley, No offense taken. I realize I’ve got a long ways to go - I’ve only been deadlifting for about 10 months now, so I’m more than happy with my results. I’ll definitely keep the weights a little bit lower, and go for the 5x5 program. I made great gains using that earlier in the year.
[quote]Hanley wrote:
undeadlift wrote:
You could try giving deadlifts a break. Powerlifters rarely train the deadlift, and it actually helps them recover since deadlifting is extremely taxing, even more taxing than oly lifts.
No, US multi ply lifters rarely train deadlifts.
[/quote]
Absolutely. With only a few exceptions, every great deadlifter I know trains pulls weekly.
[quote]Hanley wrote:
undeadlift wrote:
You could try giving deadlifts a break. Powerlifters rarely train the deadlift, and it actually helps them recover since deadlifting is extremely taxing, even more taxing than oly lifts.
No, US multi ply lifters rarely train deadlifts.
.[/quote]
yeah and thats why most multi-ply lifters in the USA suck at deadlifts compared to the rest of the world.
[quote]romanaz wrote:
Hanley wrote:
undeadlift wrote:
You could try giving deadlifts a break. Powerlifters rarely train the deadlift, and it actually helps them recover since deadlifting is extremely taxing, even more taxing than oly lifts.
No, US multi ply lifters rarely train deadlifts.
yeah and thats why most multi-ply lifters in the USA suck at deadlifts compared to the rest of the world.
we are ass fucking backwards.[/quote]
Well Westside is having success despite the fact they rarely DL. Perhaps there is hope.
[quote]romanaz wrote:
Hanley wrote:
undeadlift wrote:
You could try giving deadlifts a break. Powerlifters rarely train the deadlift, and it actually helps them recover since deadlifting is extremely taxing, even more taxing than oly lifts.
No, US multi ply lifters rarely train deadlifts.
.
yeah and thats why most multi-ply lifters in the USA suck at deadlifts compared to the rest of the world.
we are ass fucking backwards.
[/quote]
Or maybe lifters in multi-ply feds are more concerned with getting the highest total rather than highest deadlift.
The carryover from squatting in multiply gear is much more significant than with deadlifts from my understanding, so it makes sense to concentrate on squatting to improve the total than deadlifting.
Just look at the number of 1,000lbs squats versus 1,000lb deadlifts. If I were going for an elite total in a multiply fed, I bet I’d put a lot more focus on what will give me more “bang for my buck.”
Personally, I pull heavy from the floor every other week. This works out well because I only squat heavy every other week, so I basically alternate these lifts. I also know some guys who have great luck pulling heavy every 10 days. I also like to rotate my heavy pulls- pulls from a deficit, reverse band pulls, and rack pulls for sets of 3 or 5 are my faves.
Maybe. Take a good look at the bench results (both in full power and in bench only) from the WPC Worlds in Togliatti. What do you see? A lot of mid 400s to mid 500s, very few 600s. The biggest bench of the whole meet by far was a 705 by 38 year old Dmitry Shabalin in the SHW men’s open bench only division. You’ll see more big benches in a fair-sized APF state meet in the US. The last meet I did had 6 benches of 704 or greater. The biggest bench was a 742 put up in a full meet by a 220! Americans don’t pull so hot, but damned if we don’t bench!
To the OP, it sounds like you just need to get stronger. Speed pulls and deficits (though a foot is too much, try 3-6 inches) are fine. Just pulling heavy will help, and of course keep up with assistance work. Just keep on keepin’ on.
Also, heavy good mornings have helped me. Try concentric good mornings off pins or chains.
I saw the deadlift training dvd by Brad Gillingham last week, on of the better deadlifters in the world. He lays out his exact training plan for the entire year. Just a tip…
On a personal note, each time my full squat or front squat increased, my deadlift increased as well, I deadlift about 210-220 kg, not much, but not too shabby either.