I’ve been struggling for the past few months with my deadlifts. After, actually, I competed at Raw Nationals in August and hit a PR of 480.
Since then, my DLs have looked like this:
October - 465
November - 440
December - 425
January - 410
And today I hit a record low of 1x365.
In August, I squatted 380. In November, I squatted 405 and right now, though I haven’t tested it, I can assume I’m at 415 or 420 on squat.
My bench has also been increasing steadily.
I’ve also been gaining weight since the competition; a gain of 10lbs, actually. And it’s not a sticking point that I can think of. I just literally cannot move the bar from the floor.
Anyone have any ideas? how could my squat be going up so well and my deadlift be dropping like crazy?
Man, I wish I knew what to tell you. I’m in the same boat, but it’s my squat that’s the culprit. The only thing I know is that I can feel a difference in my form. When things were “on,” I knew what it felt like - where I felt it in my body.
I can tell that something is off. All I can hope to do is be patient and keep at it. My bench and dead are coming along fine, so I’ll just keep squatting and have faith that eventually I’ll rediscover the technique.
Some questions I’d ask myself: Have you changed anything for your setup at all? Using a different cue? Are you taking each weight seriously (not psychologically screwing yourself with overconfidence - I’ve done that and wasn’t nearly as tight or fast off the floor)? Are you still trying to move the bar fast?
Leading up to the meet, I was doing 5/3/1 for PL. After the meet, I took a couple weeks of deload and then started training DoggCrapp to get some size for a couple of months. Got bored with it and went back to 5/3/1.
I’ve had to recalculate my deadlift numbers twice for 5/3/1 to reset them significantly lower than what I did before, but it seems like every new cycle, I come in and can only do a single at the prescribed 3 reps+ weight or the single-plus weight. This time, I was on a 5 day and only managed a single at the third set of 5.
Note: Last week, I did successfully pull 3+ reps at 380lbs as prescribed.
Do you have any videos of your deadlifting? If you do I’d say compare an old video with your current one. I had the same problem months ago and I realized I had gradually began switching my technique from basically using mostly lower back, to mostly legs. Granted my technique improved but my legs were weaker than my back so my deadlift went down.
Another thing it could be is that it could be a mental thing. If I walk into deadlift with any less than a certainty that I’d dominate the weight, my performance would suffer.
Last thing I could think of is either being neurally drained or deactivated.
Not saying it’s any of these, but just a couple of ideas.
Mate its not uncommon, i would just keep training and keep a log to see where your at. If no improvement in a couple of months switch your training up some, but I bet you will back to normal in no time.
Sux mate, but the body is a weird fwaarkin thing sometimes.
Good luck
[quote]kjmont wrote:
Do you have any videos of your deadlifting? If you do I’d say compare an old video with your current one. I had the same problem months ago and I realized I had gradually began switching my technique from basically using mostly lower back, to mostly legs. Granted my technique improved but my legs were weaker than my back so my deadlift went down.
Another thing it could be is that it could be a mental thing. If I walk into deadlift with any less than a certainty that I’d dominate the weight, my performance would suffer.
Last thing I could think of is either being neurally drained or deactivated.
Not saying it’s any of these, but just a couple of ideas.[/quote]
This was great advice.
I think, from reviewing videos, that I’ve been setting my hips up higher than I did in the past, so I’m trying to pull with more back and less hips/glutes. I’ll have to try on Monday to see if it helps.
[quote]animus wrote:
I’ve been struggling for the past few months with my deadlifts. After, actually, I competed at Raw Nationals in August and hit a PR of 480.
Since then, my DLs have looked like this:
October - 465
November - 440
December - 425
January - 410
And today I hit a record low of 1x365.
In August, I squatted 380. In November, I squatted 405 and right now, though I haven’t tested it, I can assume I’m at 415 or 420 on squat.
My bench has also been increasing steadily.
I’ve also been gaining weight since the competition; a gain of 10lbs, actually. And it’s not a sticking point that I can think of. I just literally cannot move the bar from the floor.
Anyone have any ideas? how could my squat be going up so well and my deadlift be dropping like crazy?[/quote]
cns fatigue? its happened to me before but not for months…interesting
You got fat. Gaining weight (fat weight) seriously fucks up your pulling.[/quote]
STB why do you think this is? i agree with you for sure. It happened to me and made my pathetic deadlift even worse.