My Deadlifts are frustrating me!

[pwrlftr2]

I'm about your size and lift at 181, 198, and 220 depending on what my goals are. I have to admit I was a better deadlifter than you the first time I ever tried it. Not putting you down just saying I had a natural strength for it. I think the first time I ever pulled I did 460 or better. After a lifetime of training my bests are 650 at 181 and 703 at 198 (no drugs either and only a one ply metal deadlifting suit) which proves you can get good at anything if you train long enough.

This brings me to my point and to what I would offer for advice. The deadlift is often overtrained and poorly understood. I and the people I have trained over the years have used routines that never had you lifting more than once a week. You need very little to warm up and then go to low reps with heavy weight. I am going to give you a routine I have used for quite a few years now and I think it will work for you. If you are a sumo lifter do all your lifts standing on 35 lb. plates or about 2" plates of some kind. If you are conventional use a hundred lb plate to stand on. That's about 4". Figure out your one rep max off the floor. You should be able to do a 3-5 rep max with about 100 pounds less off the plate. For example in order to do 700 off the floor I know I have to pull at least 3 off the plate with 600. Figure out a realistic goal for a meet, back up 8 weeks and 80-100 pounds. Each week work up to a set of 3 and then add weight according to your strength level. In the example above I would start with approx. 500 and then add 10-20lbs a week until I could no longer get 3 reps. So lets say that three weeks out I had moved up to 3 with 590 but could only do 2 with 600 then I would repeat until I got the 3 or til it was time to deload for the meet. Yes it's simple but deadlifting is not rocket science. It is hard heavy lifting pushing yourself always for a new max just like the Westside boys do. Assistance work that can help is arch backed GMs, rack deadlifts from different pins in the power rack, and front or zercher squats. Don't worry about your grip. As your deadlift gets stronger so will your grip. If you are sumo and you are having problems because of grip then you might want to switch to conventional. In the off meet season train the opposite lift of what you use in a meet. Thus if you are conventional train sumo. Louie Simmons often says that no one routine works for everyone and no routine works forever. You have to constantly experiment and design a routine that works for you. On paper a lot of these fancy routines work but not in the real world. For me deadlifting is basically lifting as heavy as you can but only once a week and for a very short duration. And also like Louie says you have to get a little crazy. Anyway that's just my thoughts for what they are worth.

On the routine here is an example of a couple of weeks of training:

Wed. -Heavy day

Deadlifts off plates- 5X135, 5X225, 5X315, 3X405, 3X495
Zercher squats- 5X135,5X185, 5X225


Sunday: Deadlift Assist.

Front squats: 5 sets of 5 with increasing weight
Arched Back GMs: 5 sets of 3 with increasing weight
Deadlifts from pin 5 (bar just above knee) 1X 500, 1X600, 1X700

See heavy and simple. The pin presses might be too much so go easy with those.

[Doc.Sust]

great advice, well said

[akh 1985]

dont forget reverse hypers

[Doc.Sust]

or GHR and dimmel deads