Deadlift singles

[Mark Fenner]

A couple of thoughts:

You can improve your deadlift with relatively few work reps at a time. Let your squat build your strength and "practice" the deadlift as a technique. A single work up once a week (or even twice every three weeks .... or once a month) is sensible if there is enough other work to drive up your raw strength (not your display strength). (One portion of the DL that might need more frequent work is your grip; pullups and judo/jiujitsu may suffice depending on your DL max.)

I'm partial of starting at 70kg and incrementing by 20k at a pop. With this, you'd be in the ballpark of 155, 200, 245, 290, 330, 370, etc. You can either do the first few with 5s, the next few with 3s, and then hit singles when you get higher up. Or, just single all the way up and when you start "grinding" a little bit, take smaller jumps: 10k is still 22lbs.

Another option, since you like singles, is to adopt a rest-pause method. For your sets of "5", approach the bar, setup, do a single, set the bar down, let go, stand up. Take 2-5 deep breaths. Reset and go. Repeat for five total times. Five singles ... but the point of the rest for you is to make them singles, not to increase your 5 rep weight. Focus on making every rep perfect.

One other thing I learned the hard way, recently, is that if you haven't deadlifted in several months (say for the summer) ... don't work up to a heavy single in anger. You'll lift the weight ... and your body will pay the price. If you want to take anger out on the deadlifting bar, make sure you've been working it recently. Otherwise, stick to the heavy bag.

Best,
Mark

[Brandon Enos]

Ugh, Dave. Sorry. Looking right at your name and can't get it right haha. I looked at the idea of doing one lift a day. Another problem is the fact that Mon-Fri, all of my workouts have to be after 4 PM. So if I was to do that, Id have a heavy lift competing with the HIIT and Jiu Jitsu in the same workout, I just dont feel that that would be smart.

My main focuses is my conditioning and jiu jitsu, those are my weak points, but I dont want to neglect my strength training since its a large part of the equation as well. Thats why I wanted to dedicate two days a week to it, plus the swimming afterward.

After reading the responses, and some consideration, I think that I would be good doing a modified starting strength. With the differences of doing front squats over back, pullups/chinups added in, and only twice a week over three times. I think that that plan will be more than enough to keep and even add to my strength while the jiu jitsu and complexes/HIIT style increase my conditioning and burn some of that fat (actually only about 30 pounds from my goal now).

[Brandon Enos]

I guess one more thing. Maybe Im just being paranoid about doing heavy singles and jiu jitsu or HIIT in the same day? Would it be as much of a problem as I'm thinking or am I blowing it out of proportion? If I did do them, I think I might use something similar to the idea Mark posted, I liked that one. And, if you did do the heavy singles everyday, how would you order them to best go with the jiu jitsu tues and thur and HIIT/complexes wed and sat? Lets say the exercises were front squats, deadlifts, pullups, bench press, power clean and press.

It would be best for my personal schedule to have pullups on fridays. I go out of town at least two weekends a month and that normally includes friday. I dont always have access to a good gym, but for pullups, all I need is a bar....or a tree branch, sturdy door, pipe, etc..if I did the two strength workouts a week, I was going to replace the workout with explosive bodyweight stuff when out of town and lifting furniture for deads. I guess I could replace the bench with explosive pushups or front squats with jump squats. But what I was thinking was, mon-bench, tue-dead, wed-HANG clean and press, thur-front squat, fri-pullup.

My first thought was that the hang clean and press could be bad if I was also doing a HIIT workout that same day..but I thought about it, my clean and press is pretty low, mainly due to the press, my power clean is good, but my press holds me back with my best ever being 120 and since my HIIT and complex work is all going to be really light, bodyweight, kettlebells, or at most, very lightly loaded barbell, I dont think the hang clean and press will be very bad since I wont be going for long, even if I started with an empty bar and added say ten pounds a single, Id only get 8 reps in and be at 115, so wont be lifting for long and will be stopping pretty light...

Any thoughts?

[Steven Low]

You're overthinking it.

Just pick one of the methods and do it and see how it works for a couple weeks. If performance gains are good then keep it. If you're recovery is suffering or you're not making good gains then modify it SLIGHTLY.

[jake oleander]

Originally Posted by Steven Low

You're overthinking it.

Just pick one of the methods and do it and see how it works for a couple weeks. If performance gains are good then keep it. If you're recovery is suffering or you're not making good gains then modify it SLIGHTLY.

this is the key.

i wouldnt be surprised if you could do heavy lifting and JJ on the same days, but you cant do it indefinitely, at some point you will overtrain with a schedule like that.