"Best" choice for more pulling volume in TM

[Adam Stevens]

I'm planning my second pass through TM (including both phase 1 "intensity day fives" and 2 "running out intensity day" from PPST). The first time through has taken me ~5 months due to a few disruptions (holiday travel, lots of form adjustments, etc). My deadlift (for anything above 1 rep) has stalled several times now around 330, with my only pulling work being Monday power cleans for 5 sets of 3 and Friday deadlift for 1 set of 5/3/1. I want to make the best choice for additional pulling volume on this next trip through TM.

I'm debating two different programs (below just including the pulling section from each, written as M|W|F work sets):
Option A (identical to first TM template in PPST)
Week 1: P. clean 3x5 | P. snatch 2x3-4 ~90% | dead 5/3/1x1
Week 2: P. snatch 2x6-8 | P. clean 3x3 ~90% | dead 5/3/1x1

Option B (from squat/press/pull template on p.124 of PPST)
Each week: SLDL 5x3 | P. clean 3x3 | dead 5/3/1x1

Considerations:
I enjoy the Olympic lifts and want to get better at them, but i) I'm not very explosive (155lb clean at 330lb dead) and ii) not very athletic (my form will sometimes fall apart and it takes a session or two to fix it). As a result both snatch and clean workouts will be at best ~50% of my deadlift for the clean, for the snatch much less than that (I'll be just starting my LP on it). In that case, would Option A provide enough stimulus to drive the deadlift? Or am I better off going with Option B and focusing on just one Oly lift with a deadlift variant to get effective pulling volume? I think the answer is probably "do Option B if you want to progress on DL (and therefore the Oly lifts too) the fastest". I guess I'm looking for a second opinion/confirmation. Any other ideas are also welcome.

Stats:
Male
28 y/o
6' 1"
BW: 217lb (currently trending up ~1lb/week)
Pre-lifting BW: 175lb
Pre-TM Phase 1+2 BW: ~200lb

Diet:
I track all my calories/macros
Daily averages for last 7 complete days:
Calories: 4100
Protein: 243g
Carbs: 445g
Fat: 155g
(standard deviation ~20g for each)

Other details:
Deadlift increments have been 5lb since early in LP (over a year ago)
Rest between deadlift sets is 5-7 minutes
Other activities: Archery/hunting has caused many of past disruptions, currently nothing outside lifting

Thanks,
Adam

[Michael Wolf]

I don't think your olympic lifting is going to provide much in the way of pulling volume that will contribute to your DL. I'd probably just add a second DL day, you can do a volume and intensity day for DL, too, just with lower volume. If you've only been doing 1 set of DL per week, add a set of 5 on the volume day. It could be something like 1x3 on intensity day and 1x5 at 80-85% of that triple on the volume day. After a few weeks, add a second set to volume day, with the first set being a little lighter (70-75% maybe) and over a few more weeks, up it till it's 2x5 @80-85%.

You can do the olympic lifts as DL warm-ups, or make time for them separately if you really like them. But the reality is they're not going to do much to make your DL go up.

[Adam Stevens]

Thanks.

Out of curiosity, what's the rationale behind using more deadlifts instead of a deadlift variant? Is it simply that deadlifts are the best for driving the deadlift, and my current volume is low enough that I can add volume with the same lift?

[Michael Wolf]

To oversimplify somewhat, the main reasons you'd do a variant are:

1. To mitigate the "repeated bout effect."
2. To work on a specific weak point the main lift doesn't address as well.
3. To keep it fresh and avoid boredom.

#3 does not apply, at all, to an early intermediate lifter. If it does, then you're not a lifter.

#1 and #2 are somewhat speculative at best. I'm pretty skeptical about #1 being an important thing to consider in programming at all, and while I'm less skeptical about #2, I still think it applies less early and maybe less often than many think. I don't know for sure and I could be wrong, but that's my opinion and I'm the one Rip has currently running this board, so you get my opinion.

IOW
A) At the very least, we should have a presumption of: There's no need to invoke complexity when simplicity will still work just fine. If your DL will still drive up your DL very well, why not just DL?
B) An early intermediate is still fairly new at this (LP lasts what, on average 3-6 months?) and more practice deadlifting is almost always quite useful at this stage. As opposed to a variation, where you don't get the practice - the precise and accurate expression of the same skills involved in deadlifting, due to whatever differences the variation has.

[Adam Stevens]

That makes sense. Thanks for the detailed response.