What do you guys think are the setbacks if one were to do partial deadlifts (starting from the knees up in conventional style) instead of full deadlifts.Thanks
You lose a lot of the stimulus to the legs when you only do partials. I usually will only do one during any part of my training. If it’s partials, they get thrown in with back. If it’s full range, they go on a leg day.
If you keep doing the full range deadlift, the only problem might be running out ouf weights from getting so strong. You’ll have to keep doing the full raange one though.
They are right! What are your goals?
I have recently dropped full range deadlifts in favor of deads from the mid-shin. I also do stiff-leg deads, good mornings, back extensions, hang snatches and barbell hack squats during the course of the week.
Since I no longer lift competitively, I find that this covers most of the bases I am interested in.
jerry: I agree with Jason on this one. The actual name of this exercise is “Rack Pulls”, and I really think of it more as a back exercise (or back exercise PLUS!). It has taken on the name “partial Deads” (which is cool), but too often it gets paired with Deads as some “lesser” Deadlift.
I sorta’ look at Rack Pulls as “Squats” or “Deads” for the back, in that you can really pile on the weights and pack on some back mass.
partial deadlifts are great for grip, traps, and lower back.
Howeever everything else suffers. I think doing few partials would be great to break through platues and to grow forearms, traps, lower back, and biceps.
But for bigger upper back and legs STICK TO FULL DEADS!!!
My goal is to develop a thicker upper and lower back and not so much targetting my legs from this exercise because my legs are pretty good already from all the heavy squats i do. So should i do partial deads on back day and full dead on legs day?
Do them both on back day. Partials first, full range second.
That’s how I would do it, Jerry…
Do them both on leg day. Full range first, go on and do some other compound leg exercise, then do the partials. This will ensure that your lower back is not overly fatigued when you go to do full range, which is a more effective exercise.
The best exercise I have found for low back, middle back and upper back have been weighted back extensions, high pulls, and hang snatchs. During a period of six months I gained ten pounds (diet of course), but focused on Olympic lifting and back extensions.
My back extension program was as follows: 20 reps@Bodyweight, 20x45lbs, 15x65lbs, 12x85lbs, 10x105lbs, 8x115lbs and 6x135lbs and this was done on my light (snatching) day. My heavy day consisted of High Pulls, Power Cleans and Squat Cleans.
This program really, really made my back thick and powerful.
Best O’Luck.
jerry: If it seems like we’re disagreeing, we really aren’t. It really has been a longstanding debate as to where you put “Deads” in our overall program, with supportive arguments from all angles. Add Rack Pulls to the mix, and it gets a little more confusing.
The only agreement I’ve ever seen is to NOT do Squats and Deads on the same day. (And I would be willing to bet that there is someone out there who disagrees with THAT!)
Life is so much easier when you work the body as a whole… you don’t need to worry about “leg day” and “back day” and where deadlifts fit in 
I really don’t think there should be any debate where full deadlifts should fit in the program.Look at the prime movers for the deadlift(done properly),they would be the quads,hamstrings,glutes,hips,and lower back.A lot of musculature,so I think that should settle that arguement.I think the partials should just compliment the dealift itself.I would start partials just below the knee,2 weeks,just above the knee,2 weeks,then mid thigh for 1 week,and shoot for a new full max on the 6th week.All done on leg day.I’m not saying you guys don’t bring up good arguments,I would just stick with keeping them on leg day.West Side Barbell use their rack pulls on squat day,not bench day.
I think it might depend on how you do your full range deadlifts. If you do them Ian King style with more leg action then maybe do them on leg day, but they still won’t be as good as squats. If you do them Dave Tate style they’d be better on back day. Partial dls I still think would be good on back day because your legs are so straight to start with there isn’t much leg action.