Deadlift Help

I need help w/ my deadlift.. i've been stuck at about 360 for maybe a month or so... i've added in pull throughs, gonna start w/ my make shift glute ham raise again...

any other ideas for breaking through my short standing DL plateau?

Well this may sound stupid, but take a couple weeks off of deadlifting. Your body may be too beat up to keep going. And if that's the case and you keep forcing yourself, you might hurt yourself.

If that's out of the question for you. Try progressive rack pulls. Set the pins about knee heighth, then work up to a maximum attempt. Then the next week do it again, but do 3 singles. Then the next time drop the pins one notch. Start out a little lighter, when you are using the same weight you pulled from the higher pin, drop the pins one more notch. Keep going like this and eventually you will get down to the ground. It may take a little time, but that's something you have plenty of!

Good luck.

big okie- i deadlift every other week, or every 3 weeks. Im just coming back from a week off.

I was thinking about progressive rack pulls, maybe start with 405 and lower it down.

I agree with bigokie. Take some time off regular deadlifting and perform other movements that will strengthen the weak links. Personally, I don't pull but once every two months at best. And that's only because PLJay and TeenMyth threaten me! I prefer Goodmornings of all variations, reverse hypers, glute/calf/ham raises and low box squats. This approach has greatly improved my deadlift.

jd

i'd like to do reverse hypers and stuff, but dont have the equipment... Im thinking that it may be since deadlifts arent really instinctive to me yet... i've only been doing them for not even a year, so i try to deadlift often to become accustomed to the movement. Maybe when im more advanced i'll go w/o deadlifting for months at a time, but at my young age, i dont think that would help much.

I'd be willing to bet that if you took a complete month off from regular deadlifting and did goodmornings, low box squats and your glute/calf/ham raises, you would see a nice improvement in your deadlift. If pulling every week or every other week is not working now, what makes you think it will work if you keep doing it? I know your younger than us but that doesn't mean you don't need rest and recuperation. Deadlifts are extremely taxing week after week. You asked the question and we responded. I wouldn't dismiss the answers we posted so quickly without at least trying it for a month or two. What do you have to lose?

When I am in need of help with my lifting, I go the source I trust most, Louie and Dave. Overcoming DL plateaus: http://www.deepsquatter.com/strength/archives/ls22.htm

Ermantroudt

thanks ermantroudt

Jimmy dean- im not dismissing the answers that you guys posted, i was just posting what i thought may be the problem(for me) and how i could fix it. Im skeptical about taking a month off , cause im afraid my DL will go down or something...and that would not be good. Im gonna add in the glute ham raises on the leg curl bench, try to create something i could do reverse hypers on. Im also gonna start doing pull thrus two or 3 times a week.

and when you say dont deadlift for a month, does that mean not even doing speed deadlifts or anything?

IF you need to practice you form (not all lifters do), do your dynamic DL's.

Rev. Hyper
How to make a Rev. Hyper:

http://www.fractionalplates.com/equ...quipment21.html

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/9278/rh.html

I also think a section of 1.5 inch pipe (it is strong and the same diameter the center hole on a plate) would work well in conjunction with the power rack model.

You would need:
A. 2 "T" Junction's
B. 4 8 inch nipples
C. A custom cut length of 1.5 inch pipe, for most folks it will be in the 25-35 inch length. This will be the swing arm.
D. A small piece of PVC pipe, big enough to fit over your catch pin on you power rack and small enough to fit thru the "T" Junction.

After building a Rev. Hyper "Deck" for your Power Rack (See attached links above) measure the distance from where the pin will be set during the preformance of Rev. Hypers to the floor, subtract the distance added by the T junctions and the amount of floor clearance needed for a 45lb plate, make sure there is enough room for you fee to clear the floor at the bottom of the movement too. This distance is the length of custom cut 1.5 inch pipe you will need. To assemble it all, place one of the T junctions on each end of the the custom cut swing arm. Put the nipples on the T jujnctions, in such a manner as to allow both nipples to be loaded during the movement at the bottm and both of the nipples to pass over the catch pin of the power rack. Put the pvc pipe over your catch pin and slip the whole contraption of 1.5 inch pipe onto the catch pin also, allowing it to rest on the PVC pipe in the center of the catch pin. The PVC pipe will prevent the T junction from wearing a groove in your catch pin. Get some Rev. Hyper straps from Dave at www.elitefts.com, add weight, and you have a Rev. Hyper machine.

Chad T has a good pic of a Rev. Hyper he had fabricated on his site too.

Ermantroudt

ermantroudt -do you ever stop being helpful?? lol

thanks

ERMANTROUDT dude I've been reading some of ur posts, well most of them on here and you ARE A BIG HELP to this board. GOOD TO HAVE U ROUND.

Deciever dude when JIMMY says take a month off of deads that means take a month off. I talked to this guy personally back in ST PETE and HE KNOWS his shit. I remember JAY telling me that if JIMMY says do it, it means do it.

I try and do DL's heavy once a month like 5X5 on ME days and then every 3 weeks on DE days I'll do 6X2 of box squats then 8 singles of deads. Try that see how it works for you. I myself am just trying it but I think it's been working. Don't you love being YOUNG and you can do trial and error stil make gains but some things just work BETTER.

im not doubting jimmy dean by any means. I guess i may try it, but im still going to do speed deads so my form doesnt go to shit (i dont think it can get much worse)

Dude i can tell you first hand that what jimmie said is the right thing. I will promise you bro that you will not only not be weaker but you will be stronger. I promise. I wouldnt say that if i didnt believe it. I let jimmie take my dead lift and actually he still has it, and i let him do with it as he wants. My deads are up. Keep in mind i didn tpull in th egym or in a meet for over a year. I came back and said i will do what you do fo rit. Which is heavy ass good AM's , all variations. Do stiff leg dead lifts off blocks. High box squats. Reverse hypers, rack pulls, ETC But no deadlifting. And dude my lift has greatly improved. You will not lose form in one month. But on your deadlift day those accesorrry and mE movements need to be very heavy and in good form. I like the suspended good Ams, awesome. Anyway try one month and then on the 5th week pull again and i bet you , and i mean it you will PR! Like Jimmie said what do you have to lose?

Cubanito was right when Jimme says do it , well... you just do it! I would not lift what i do with out him. He is truly the Louie Simmons of Florida!!! And he practices what he preaches. Behind every good lifetr there is an awesome knowledgable partner /mentor and he is mine. Not only that he has a mid 1900 total @250lbs so he is fuckin strong too!! Give it some thought lil bro!

i'll probably give it a try... right now im doing a really sketchy westside routine... so do you guys not squat very often and just GM all the time? or do you do both? and if you do both, how do you split them up?

We do our Good Am's and shit heavy on Tues. And Fri is speed box squats. No regular squats for me till about 4 weeks out from a meet to test and then back on box. You can do a heavy box squat on Tues for a ME movement. Like tonight i did speed then after went up to a single. Just wanted to do it since i skimped on Tues and did no ME work.

We only squat once every month or so if that and do GMs every day other than that on ME. Some type of pull is also used but only evey 4-5 weeks and if that. Deadlifting is not required to increase your dead and heavy box squatiing is only done every 3-5 weeks. Take some time off your deads and do GM's for heavy singles or triples for four weeks varying the stance , close, med, wide hit your glutes and hams hard with pullthroughs, ghr , and dimmel deads. onthe 5th try a new max. your deads not gong anywhere anyway so why not give it a try.

Deceiver, Believe me I know how you feel about taking time off and having a lift go backwards. The deadlift can be a strange animal. Sometimes the best way to kill it is to try a different approach and sneak up on it. I'm sure all of us have had the same experience with lifts hitting a plateau and what do we do? Train harder!!! Bro, I've learned the hard way. The best thing to do is take time off but don't stop training. Do movements that will strengthen the muscles that make the deadlift work. You can be skeptical all you want, but this is a whole page of lifters that think differently and it has worked for them.

Erm, nice job on the reverse hyper. We have a similar design to retrofit our power rack. Works great!

Thanks for all the credit guys but Louis Simmons and Westside deserve it. If it wasn't for them, I'd still be doing progressive overload. I just throw out a few ideas every now and then. You are the ones making it happen!!!

alright , everyone, thanks for your help... i guess you guys convinced me to take the next 4-5 weeks off deadlifting, and do GM's and shit.

hopefully i'll go forward instead of backward

Deceiver, do me a favor and keep us posted each week on what movements you choose, sets/reps and assistance. I'm interested in seeing how much you increase your deadlift. Give it an honest hard run and you'll be impressed with the results. You'll be pulling four bills before you know it.

LETS hope so

jimmy dean- im thinking about making a reverse hyper w/ my mini band out of either my ping pong table, or a foos ball table... both of them are about the right hight if i add a pillow. Do you think that would be somewhat effective?