Alternative to rack pull / block pull

[Johnsonville]

Oops, typo above. I meant to say "started very conservatively" not "stated."

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Tonight's session was close to another 5RM PR. It's time for me to dial back on that though and get back into a more sustainable program. Reflecting on 2023's routine, the halting and block pull setup was brand new to me, and both movements presented a learning curve (the block pulls were tougher to learn). I likely needed more frequency of full ROM deadlifting to keep the movement sharp, but I don't know what a minimum effective dose would have been. Some lifters only pull full ROM at meets, which typically means a 12-week training cycle.

I'm going back to the drawing board on this one and am going to consider some other programming options that allow more frequent full ROM deadlifts, but something still appropriate for an intermediate that can't recover quickly enough for weekly NLP jumps. Having second thoughts on deadlifts with chains. Your ideas are welcome.

There’s a guy on here who pulls in the 500s just adding 5 lbs I think every 16 days or so. That’s my new plan for this upcoming year, do a reset and add 5lbs a week until I can’t then dl once every 2 weeks adding 5lbs as long as I can. All while doing cleans and snatches. This is probably not the most effective way to train, but it is simple and makes sense to me.

[Yngvi]

I stated very conservatively. Progress was mostly linear, except for a few off days and one significant block pull reset (I was doing a double knee bend and had to sort out my technique to perform these properly).

DLs progressed nicely, full ROM, since WFAC pretty much up until now. They're just a bit heavier than when I first decided to convert to haltings and block pulls. I'm hooking all reps right now, but close to needing straps on work set of block pulls.

I wonder if deadlifts with chains added might be an alternative to block pulls. They'd be lighter by default, but they'd also provide a little more work off the floor, which is where I need the most work, while still overloading the top a little bit. I guess another cycle of block pulls are possible - just not sure they helped much.

How the hell do you double knee bend a rack pull???
Usually when I see these aren't working well for people, it is due to technique error of some sort.

[Mark Rippetoe]

He means a "hitch."

[BareSteel]

Here's the form check thread I posted in July. It was a subtle form issue, but something I wanted to solve before it became egregious.

Knee position during block pulls

Johnsonville, good luck on your pulling program. I ran something similar a while back. On my deadlift my day, I would alternate between one medium set of 8 or one heavy set of 5. Basically a heavy deadlift every 14 days. Like many things, it worked for a while, but not indefinitely. At the end, the medium 8 started to creep into heavy 8 territory and also the 5s became unsustainable. But it was a good post-novice strategy for me, for a while and the medium pull kept the movement pattern fresh.

[Jason Donaldson]

To clarify further: You were alternating Rack Pulls/HDL week to week, and they were progressing linearly; you went to WFAC and felt rusty at DLs, then switched back to full ROM DLs to progress them linearly week to week. Correct?

When you say you didn't feel the rack pulls did much...based on what? It sounds like your big concern is moving the bar off the floor, right? If you're stronger at lockout, then sure, rack pulls will seem easier for you. That doesn't mean they don't have a place. The point of the rack pull/HDL approach is to spread out the stress for different (but slightly overlapping) ends of the ROM, once recovery from full ROM DLs are too much to recover from week to week. They still work together.

My experience: I personally like my block pulls way better than my HDLs, because I have t. rex arms and a high lockout, and HDLs just suck. (I also therefore have trouble right off the deck with my DLs.) But I do both and am progressing both, and I even do my HDLs at a 1.5" deficit, on the recommendation of Dr. Santana HERE. Sticking with this has been working, and it's definitely helped my full ROM DL. I'm pretty sure the DHDLs have been key to addressing my weakness at the bottom, but I'm also guessing that including the block pulls has kept me from developing a different problem at the top.

While you're able to progress the actual DL, great - do that. You don't need to split it up yet. If you stop progressing and need to switch over to the split, but you're worried about feeling rusty on the DL, that sounds like a practice issue, not a training one. A few ideas come to mind that might alleviate those concerns:

1) Alternate rack pulls/HDLs week to week, with every fifth week or so a full DL day.
2) Do some backed-off DLs after your squats on squat day to keep the movement practiced.
3) We've heard of doing power cleans to warm up for the deadlift...maybe do some DLs to warm up for rack pulls and HDLs? Not enough to ruin the whole idea of spreading out stress, but still getting the movement practiced...

[BareSteel]

To clarify further: You were alternating Rack Pulls/HDL week to week, and they were progressing linearly; you went to WFAC and felt rusty at DLs, then switched back to full ROM DLs to progress them linearly week to week. Correct?

When you say you didn't feel the rack pulls did much...based on what?

Yes. That's the timeline. After WFAC, it was a sizable reset in load, however. So it cumulated in only two PR's before things basically peaked last week; now it's time for a programming change.

My basis for questioning the usefulness of block pulls is that they never exceeded haltings by a large margin. Yes, there was overload, just not very much. Granted, lifters with different segment lengths will naturally display strength differently throughout the range of motion, like you suggested.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will mull your ideas over. Perhaps only small changes are needed to keep things moving.