Trying to figure out deadlift weekly volume & frequency

[ruckin]

So i'm having a hard time deciding how to design my training program for my upcoming cycle with respect to my deadlift. I'm going to be doing full body every 2-3 days, and i'll be squatting at the beginning of every workout. I originally wrote down that i'd deadlift each workout also, and i know i'd have to keep volume low doing this. I just don't know how low that would have to be though. I've never deadlifted more than once per week before so this is a new and confusing thing to think about for me, since deads are so much harder to recover from than other lifts and need to be treated differently.

The other option i've been thinking about is to substitute deads with rack pulls every other workout, so i'd end up doing deads and racks each about 1.5 times per week.

I'm nervous about fucking this up an burying myself with too much deadlifting, but my goal is to bring up my dl as much as possible so that's why i'm thinking so much about it.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[ROB581211]

Have you considered doing the sheiko program that Doc and Brutus have been on? Not sure of it fits your needs or not. Just curious.

 

[ruckin]

Have you considered doing the sheiko program that Doc and Brutus have been on? Not sure of it fits your needs or not. Just curious.

Meh. I know it's a great program, but it's for powerlifters and i'm not a powerlifter. Squat bench and dl are important to me, but press and power clean are just as important if not more (except squat. Squats are king), and sheiko doesn't care about those. I'll also be doing sprints weekly which will cause fatigue the program wouldn't account for.

Not a bad idea to throw around brainstorming though.

 

[RodgerThat]

Do 4x3 one day and the next workout either speed work of 8x3 or pause pulls 3x5. Your squats will help up your deadlift too so you don't necessarily need huge volume just enough to keep the movement natural and giving a slight stress to your CNS. If this feels like to low of volume give it 2-3 weeks as there could be an accumulative fatigue. It if feels like too much you'll know by your 3rd workout as the 4x3 will feel impossible.

 

[ROB581211]

Meh. I know it's a great program, but it's for powerlifters and i'm not a powerlifter. Squat bench and dl are important to me, but press and power clean are just as important if not more (except squat. Squats are king), and sheiko doesn't care about those. I'll also be doing sprints weekly which will cause fatigue the program wouldn't account for.

Not a bad idea to throw around brainstorming though.

That's what I figured. One thing you could do it pull bits and pieces of it apart and it would give you good workouts for those lifts with appropriate weights to use for your strength. You don't necessarily have to follow it to the T but it could help generate ideas. I've been pulling the more difficult benching workouts for my press day and the same for DL and squats. I haven't actually started the program yet but I've been doing it to prepare myself as much as I can. Just an idea.

 

[ruckin]

Do 4x3 one day and the next workout either speed work of 8x3 or pause pulls 3x5. Your squats will help up your deadlift too so you don't necessarily need huge volume just enough to keep the movement natural and giving a slight stress to your CNS. If this feels like to low of volume give it 2-3 weeks as there could be an accumulative fatigue. It if feels like too much you'll know by your 3rd workout as the 4x3 will feel impossible.

When you say 4x3 are you saying 4 sets of 3 or 3 sets of 4? Cause when i write 10x3 for example i'm saying 10 reps for 3 sets.

I already do power cleans so that's always been my power/speed work. I feel like doing it again but with deads would be overkill on power work with not enough work on building mass. What do you think

 

[ruckin]

That's what I figured. One thing you could do it pull bits and pieces of it apart and it would give you good workouts for those lifts with appropriate weights to use for your strength. You don't necessarily have to follow it to the T but it could help generate ideas. I've been pulling the more difficult benching workouts for my press day and the same for DL and squats. I haven't actually started the program yet but I've been doing it to prepare myself as much as I can. Just an idea.

Interesting idea

 

[ROB581211]

Interesting idea

Hit me up if your interested

 

[turcao]

Since your already doing cleans, deads once a week should be enough

 

[RodgerThat]

Always setsXreps. Well I didn't know your program so I would do 4x3 2 times a week and pause pulls 3x5 1s a week. Pause pulls are great for really firing your hip drive and make your form solid I recommend 1 second pause (real one second not just a hitch in the movement)

 

[D-Ballin]

What's the actual sport specific goal for bringing the deadlift up? Slower movement power generation? Building mass? Or injury prevention/lower back development? Or is this a matter of personal achievement and growing your numbers in terms of self competition?

I'm no training guru. And others will probably be along to totally outstrip me for any recommendation I could make, lol. But knowing what you do, the power clean, squat, and sprints should definitely be the focal points. I don't see why once per week deads would be an issue, unless you feel the need to compete cross sport or for personal goals.

Good thread though!

 

[ruckin]

What's the actual sport specific goal for bringing the deadlift up? Slower movement power generation? Building mass? Or injury prevention/lower back development? Or is this a matter of personal achievement and growing your numbers in terms of self competition?

I'm no training guru. And others will probably be along to totally outstrip me for any recommendation I could make, lol. But knowing what you do, the power clean, squat, and sprints should definitely be the focal points. I don't see why once per week deads would be an issue, unless you feel the need to compete cross sport or for personal goals.

Good thread though!

I play rugby. Goal is to be the best player humanly possible. My specific position requires a tremendous amount of power and brute strength. There's no way any elite player at my position doesn't have a stupid strong deadlift, so getting it stronger is very importent for me. It's certainly not the #1 most important lift, squat probably is, clean is probably #2, but still very important anyway.

 

[turcao]

I've been reading rippetoe lately and he promotes alternating the power clean and deadlift for sports specific strength training. I think like @D-Ballin said, you'll get more benefit from squats and power cleans since your training as an athlete

 

[D-Ballin]

So which progression is going to be the most important to you at this instant (ie, next two months), to get you to your ultimate goal? And is your deadlift that far behind everything else that you need to prioritize it that heavily? Many powerlifting programs are quite low volume too. It's an exhausting movement for sure.

I'm not even sure I know where I'm going with this, though I think I might have an idea. So feel free to answer this later, haha.

But I value the perspective of a different athletic field. Strength is fascinating. And there's better here than me who can use those answers further.

 

[Docd187123]

If you're doing cleans regularly I wouldn't dedicate much training time to doing speed pulls. You'd be duplicating efforts basically and making your gym time less efficient. You could alternate the two if you want or add them in every other week bc the loading on speed pulls would probably be higher than what you clean ie 55-79% of your DL max but bottom line is there will still be some time spent doing something you're almost already doing.

If you'll be squatting 3x a week and doing cleans once or more a week I wouldn't deadlift 3x a week, especially if you're only used to pulling once a week now. There are so many variants you could use also: conventional deadlifts, RDL, SLDL, deficit deadlifts, paused deadlifts, dimel deadlifts, snatch grip deadlifts, snatch grip SLDL, etc etc.

Probably the easiest way to figure out what volume to use would be go over your log book for your last few workouts (maybe the last 2-4wks or so). Multiply reps x sets x load for each week. This is your current weekly volume. From there the possibilities are many:

-Split your weekly volume in two and add slightly more volume to each day
-do intensity pulling one day and volume pulling the other
-have one day your primary deadlift day and on the other use a variant but add in enough volume to equal the deadlift
-so many other options